User summary:
The Complete Warlock 'variant' D&D system, including alternative experience tables, new rules for the various races and a spell point system for magic.
The Complete Warlock presents a complete rules set. The game assumes players already are familiar with D&D, but access to D&D rules is not needed.
From the introduction:
When our group first started playing [D&D], our overall reaction was that it had great ideas, "but maybe we should change the combat system, clarify the magic, and re-do the monsters". Warlock is not intended to replace D&D, and, indeed, would not exist without that classic game. What we have tried to do is to present a way of expanding D&D without the contradictions and loopholes inherent in the original rules and the various supplements. By putting together one set of rule changes and interpretations and playing by them for three years, we have developed something that works pretty well. We spent a considerable amount of time working out a solid combat system, a coherent magic system, and a more flexible way of handling monsters as monsters, rather than as men dressed up in gorilla suits. We have been (rightly) accused of making D&D into a different game altogether, but we think it is an enjoyable one, and hope you do, as well.