1st level 'lock - Choice for Daily

[burntgerbil]

I will be playing a 1st level dwarven warlock in a party of : Rogue, Ranged Ranger, Paladin, Fighter and Wizard. I have a 20 Con and 14 int and I have gone the infernal route. I am looking for a little feedback from people who have experienced play with the first few levels of warlock.

Judging from the book, I have a choice of either a single-target high damage daily with Flames of Phlegethos or more general utility with Armor of Agathys. I notice that there isn't a daily that will come up again with equivalent damage until 9th level. Is it generally better advised to go all-out max damage of flames, or the protective, sure-thing-if-things-are-rough ability of armor of agathys ?


Do you think armor's element of crowd control is somewhat diminished by the future acquisitions of Fiery Bolt, Avernian Eruption and Howl of Doom ?

As a Dwarf, I have 32 Starting Hitpoints and plan on trying to keep combat as ranged as possible, but know that critters like to get close as often as possible.

Bear in mind that I will probably not retrain - retraining at will was one thing most of our group did not like, and more than likely not be using.


Any insight you guys might lend would be great.

 

[Maximillian]

I have to say that what I worry most about as a warlock is other artillery types making attacks from range. If you have a standard size party, there's probably at least two defender/leader types in between you and the melee monsters.

Armor of Agathys is great if you intend to enter into melee or close range, but because creatures have to *start* their turn next to you, it means that you have to intentionally not move on your turn after they've closed to melee range. (Or, I suppose, intentionally close to melee.) This seems like a sub-optimal tactic to me.

Go with the Flames.

 

[burntgerbil]

Armor of Agathys struck me less of a planned strategy kind of thing and more of a suprise tactic kind of thing. I didn't know if it's potential utility came into play often enough to be better than flames. The only other effect remotely like it is Minions of Malebolge, at lvl 19.

 

[Maximillian]

didn't know if it's potential utility came into play often enough to be better than flames.

If it was the sort of ability that dealt damage to creatures who moved into an adjacent square or started their turn there, I'd call it a lot more useful. Unfortunately, as written, your turn is always going to come and go between the time a monster moves into an adjacent square and the time it takes damage.

The only exception being when you intentionally move up next to a monster. I don't know why you'd be doing that when all of your other powers have a range of at least 5.

Now, using multiclass feats, this could be a great power for a defender type, but for the Warlock, I don't see it as being as useful as 3d10 damage.

 

[amusingsn]

I used Armor of Agathys on my infernal warlock tonight!

We were fighting a couple of swarms (among other enemies) and I didn't have any area of effect attacks to mess with them. All my ranged attacks would only do half damage. So I activated my armor of agathys and moved in and started cursing targets. I ground through a ton of temporary hp, but ended the combat without needing any external healing. I'm not sure how we would have handled drake swarms normally but between my high fortitude defense to resist being knocked over and my ability to do significant non-melee non-ranged damage to everything around me, things worked out pretty well. I needed less healing than the Fighter (the fighter got 2 inspiring words and 1 healing word, and still ended up going down) and I did a heck of a lot more damage.

Moreover, being in melee with your ranged attacks aren't that bad. If you're an infernal warlock, you've got Hellish Rebuke, so if you're fighting enemies who like taking their OAs on you, you can make them regret it (and up your damage). You've probably got a steady stream of temporary hp to soak up a chunk of whatever damage they send your way, as well as good hp and healing surges to start with (thanks to your ridiculous Con score). And you should probably have a defender or two in there marking up targets and making them pay even more for attacking you (and making their attacks miss more often). Go strikers!