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Strange lights in the wilderness, abductions, strange motives we cannot understand. Sound familiar?
Just take all the creepy stuff from the ufo/scifi genre and apply it to the fey and the feywild and that is how creepy the fey are meant to be.
Aliens are just a replacement for the fairies. Fairies were once not seperate from demons. If it was weird and scary - catagorization didn't come in to it.
Use Ethereal Stride and you gain an effective 4 points of AC (power bonus to all defences of +2 from the power and a move of 3 squares, which gives you concealment). At level 9 I'm in the high 20s, when I really need to be.
Granted, I only played in the Heroic Tier, but this tactic would appear to be only usable for one round, while closing. After that, you're looking at generating OA's if you constantly move within melee range, and if you don't, you're back to your unvarnished AC. Even if you can move within melee range without provoking an OA, you can only use Ethereal Stride once.
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Well you can, but it takes some work. Take one of the melee basic attack stat swap feats (probably Melee Training - CHA) and make sure that you curse your enemy before hitting him. Suddenly your dagger is doing d4+d6+CHA Bonus. An Elardin Warlock could be swinging a longsword rather than a dagger, for the same hit bonuses.
Interesting. I am still not pleased that the warlock has to spend a feat to do what the overview suggests is part of the core package, but it's nice to see it's at least doable in some way.
__________________ signed Jere, Lord of Pendragon
"Raven dark but beautiful, in a malevolent sort of way;
With eyes that speak of wonders on the other side of Day.
She dances in the shadows where others fear to tread;
But though her touch may kill you, it's her love that you should dread."
Granted, I only played in the Heroic Tier, but this tactic would appear to be only usable for one round, while closing. After that, you're looking at generating OA's if you constantly move within melee range, and if you don't, you're back to your unvarnished AC. Even if you can move within melee range without provoking an OA, you can only use Ethereal Stride once.Interesting. I am still not pleased that the warlock has to spend a feat to do what the overview suggests is part of the core package, but it's nice to see it's at least doable in some way.
As Bleoberis De Ganis indicated, there are other ways to obtain protection from opportunity attacks (feats, equipment, etc.). If you build your character specifically to taunt the enemy into getting whacked upside the head by your defenders, then it's a doable proposition.
Multiclassing can also help. I took a Swordmage multi to get Warding once per day. Using a Pact Blade or Pact Sword only in one hand, that's +3 to AC for an encounter.
I am still not pleased that the warlock has to spend a feat to do what the overview suggests is part of the core package, but it's nice to see it's at least doable in some way.
There's an at will power, Eldritch Strike, that lets you make a melee attack using either charisma or constitution. If you hit, you do weapon damage + stat as per normal, and slide the target one space.
Its not in the core book, but its available.
I think that WotC overestimated people's willingness to make attacks with stats other than their primary one in a game where at will powers that DO use your primary stat are available. I think they're backpedaling a little bit on this particular piece of player-psychology, and that's part of what drives the differences between the split stats and other machinations of the original 8 classes, and the current design philosophies.
As Bleoberis De Ganis indicated, there are other ways to obtain protection from opportunity attacks (feats, equipment, etc.). If you build your character specifically to taunt the enemy into getting whacked upside the head by your defenders, then it's a doable proposition.
Multiclassing can also help. I took a Swordmage multi to get Warding once per day. Using a Pact Blade or Pact Sword only in one hand, that's +3 to AC for an encounter.
Oooooo.... since pact blade only goes on Light Blades... and a double sword has a hvy and a lt blade... you can only enchant one side of it...
a Pact Double Sword... get the +1 defense bonus of the weapon, and a +1 from 2-W Defense... hmmm
Pact Parrying Dagger + Swordmage Multiclass = +4 AC for 1 encounter. And if you're hit, you damage them. So win-win.
How is it convoluted? You spend 2 feats: One for dagger, and one for swordmage (no books, so trying to remember... Parrying dagger is a superior weapon I believe)
You gain a solid +1 AC, and a possibility of bumping to +4 once per day, right?
With my method, you can forego the multiclass feat (saving it for something else), spend 3 feats, and have a solid +2 AC. If you do the Half-Elf thing and get twin strike, you then have a double weapon, get curse damage on one of the attacks, have the +2 AC, and can still pick a multiclass feat for whatever you want...
I think my way opens up a tremendous amount of options and paths for the character and makes it a more solid choice, instead of a "once per day" character.
But, your choice is still a very viable and good setup for certain things.
Quick note - the defensive keyword on parrying dagger only kicks in if you're also wielding a weapon in your other hand as well. So it's the exact opposite of swordmage warding; you're never going to get those to stack.
Quick note - the defensive keyword on parrying dagger only kicks in if you're also wielding a weapon in your other hand as well. So it's the exact opposite of swordmage warding; you're never going to get those to stack.
Can anyone find any neat combos or tricks that may make a warlock viable in melee using the double-blade idea? It really has piqued my interest... was only saying it "on-the-fly" yesterday, but now actually has me thinking...
So does anyone else have any ideas that may go with it?
You get the shield bonus to AC and the Defensive bonus to AC, no?
Great concept there... very unique hehe... I could see a Dwarf Infernal Warlock, wearing a spiked pact blade shield and wielding a parrying dagger... could _easily_ see that!
Friday's new "Court of the Stars" article introduces a new feat, power, and paragon path for fey pact warlocks, not to mention a whole mess of suggestions on how to role-play your fey pact. Just sayin'.
__________________ Veronica: Where's your brother?
Dick: I think he took Ghost World up to his room. They're probably up there making love. Or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Or both, at the same time. They're both, like, 12th-level dorks. I'm just sayin'
Further observations on how screwed the feylock is...
There is no new usable paragon path. I mean, seriously, do these guys even read what is out there when they design a paragon path? The one that should be cool for the feylock, the Entrancing Mystic, is ridiculous. It's coolest power is a -5 to enemy saves vs. charm effects. Except that there is exactly ONE warlock charm effect that has a "save ends" condition (PHB and AP powers). All of the rest end after one turn or require additional successful attacks to sustain. So thanks for the totally worthless feature guys.
The other paragon path for feylocks is the Storm Scourge. Wanna limit yourself to one type of damage? Didn't think so. Of course, the sorcerer also has a paragon path that focuses on just lightning damage. The difference is that the sorcerer paragon path gets to ignore all resistance to lightning and even ignore most immunity to lightning. Seriously, is you are IMMUNE to lightning a sorcerer can still hurt you with lightning but a comparable warlock is useless.
__________________ "Players may blunder through dialog with shocking ineptitude, forget the name of the country they are in, or get confused about which side they are on, but once it comes time to roll for initiative they all turn into Sun Tzu." Shamus Young, DM of the Rings.
Further observations on how screwed the feylock is...
There is no new usable paragon path. I mean, seriously, do these guys even read what is out there when they design a paragon path? The one that should be cool for the feylock, the Entrancing Mystic, is ridiculous. It's coolest power is a -5 to enemy saves vs. charm effects. Except that there is exactly ONE warlock charm effect that has a "save ends" condition (PHB and AP powers). All of the rest end after one turn or require additional successful attacks to sustain. So thanks for the totally worthless feature guys.
I found three warlock powers in the Compendium with the Charm keyword and a save ends condition, though two of them require a Sustain Minor action to get to that point (Curse of the Dark Dream and Crown of Madness, the third, btw is Passionate Betrayal); also, the Entrancing Mystic's Ultimatum of the Third Order Level 20 Daily fits the criteria of the power. In any case, the -5 penalty applies to any enemy suffering from the effects of any Charm power, not just one cast by the warlock, and the -2 penalty to all other saves is pretty nifty kicker IMO
__________________ Veronica: Where's your brother?
Dick: I think he took Ghost World up to his room. They're probably up there making love. Or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Or both, at the same time. They're both, like, 12th-level dorks. I'm just sayin'
The feylock, as near as I can tell, is close to unkillable. Great defenses, almost impossible to pin down, the list goes on.
Our feylock plays by cursing people and running into melee reach, casting eyebite while flanking and provoking opportunity attacks from enemies who have been marked by our fighter.
The problem is that rogues are just as good or better at this.
For instance a Charisma rogue is going to have 16 base AC from leather and dex, then +4 AC against opportunity attacks that scales as the rogue gets better. Just as many powers that allow you to retreat in some way and with a superior crossbow you're going to be doing a lot higher damage.
Can anyone find any neat combos or tricks that may make a warlock viable in melee using the double-blade idea? It really has piqued my interest... was only saying it "on-the-fly" yesterday, but now actually has me thinking...
So does anyone else have any ideas that may go with it?
Don't forget that Pact Swords also exist; act as an implement and give a once per day teleport attack. It might be better to use a Pact Sword in main- and a Pact Parrying Dagger in the off-hand. Being Eladrin would give you longsword proficiency and INT bonus for AC, but sadly not a CHA bonus. There's a new Bloodline Feat called Astral Splendor that gives a defensive stance once per day (+2 to all defences until bloodied), that might fit well with a Feylock concept. Basically great grandpa was a Deva, so you get to glow in the dark once per day.
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