I have become infamous among my co-authors for trying to force multiple classes into one. The warlock of legend was one such design to begin with; three classic legend archetypes with their own choices and own flavour spanning 3 pages. 

To my credit it possessed some unique ideas like shrinking and growing (ala enlarge reduce) when casting a spell. Imagine a trickster who can misty-step and instantly hide behind a jar (think jack and the beanstalk but jack is a fucking wizard) or a mage casting on a creature grappling them just to grow and break their grapple, mechanically situational but incredibly fun to my silly mind. 

**The warrior and the mage all filled with some fun abilities** and yet the primary piece of feedback I got whenever someone looked over the classes was that the 3 pages of warlock was overwhelming enough or that they were not interested (maybe it was the wrong crowd as I still yearn for the matryoshka doll of classes and choice).

But being forced to compress everything into a much more concise package has forced a simple epiphany, the way that legends are presented within DnD lore are through simple and maybe somewhat hated mechanics which a lot of third-party people have tinkered with: Legendary actions, resistances and lair actions. 

**With the revelation and subsequent creation of the abilities I felt that the clutches of wanting to represent the direct idea onto paper and mechanics creating limitations and case scenarios in my head let me go.** I feel like complexity is the natural want of any designer but when you scale it back the ideas of the intent need to still be present. Simple design can be beautiful in its many implications.