eDragon: Starlock feats and powers

[ObsidianCrane]

While I'm not sure about the powers yet, I have solved the problem for the end of my main campaign by reading this article.

"Ihbar: A dark nebula between stars, Ihbar is slowly expanding and eating the light of neighboring constellations."

What happens if the main protagonist behind your Hero and Paragon tier adventures, the one you kill as you start Epic is revealed to be corrupted by something beyound understanding that is slowly eating the sky. How do you stop your sky becoming dark as Ihbar consumes all the stars when you know it is an active force trying to consume the universe?

 

[tombowings]

Well, I'm just making the following changes and calling it good:

Sacrifice to Caiphon
Prerequisites: Con 13, Eldritch Pact
This way, you can't take this feat through multiclassing. I'm thinking about upping the Con requirement to 15.

Starfire Womb
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Eldritch Pact
Again with the Multiclassing. Also thinking about upping the Cha requirement to 15.

Shadow's Eclipse
Prerequisites: Int 13, Star Pact
For multiclassing and flavor reasons

Twofold Pact
Perquisites: 11th level, Eldritch Pact
Benefit: The at-will power gained through this feat replaces your Eldritch Blast.
No more race-class combo going on and it isn't so much a must-have anymore.

Bael Turath Born
Prerequisites: 11th level, tiefling
Benefit: 8 + one-half level (instead of full level)
I might make this one a heroic, feat with the nerf and all.

 

[Reaper Steve]

Well, I'm just making the following changes and calling it good:

Sacrifice to Caiphon
Prerequisites: Con 13, Eldritch Pact
This way, you can't take this feat through multiclassing. I'm thinking about upping the Con requirement to 15.

I think the real problem with the feat is that it can apply to ANY power. I'd rather leave the prereqs the same, but change the benefit to:
"When you attack with a warlock encounter power..."

Still useful for mutliclass, but limited.

I also think maybe the damage requirement should be 5 HP for a heroic power, 10 for paragon, and 20 for epic. (Or maybe 5/15/30.)

 

[zoroaster100]

Overall I really like the article. But I agree that feat is problematic. I don't like that it makes tieflings so much better at being warlocks than any other. But in any case it seems way overpowered for a feat. Just allowing a warlock to gain the benefits of another pact on all powers which provide such special pact benefits is alone worth a feat. Just providing the pact boon of another pact is worth a feat. The at-will bonus power is worth a feat by itself or may be even be too much for a feat by itself.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I'd agree - giving a new at will power seems far beyond what should be available through a feat. Throwing in a new pact bonus AND gaining pact benefits for powers as well just seems nuts.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I think the Sacrifice to Calphon power everyone's concerned about isn't a big deal.

The power says:
Benefit: When you attack with an encounter
power that has targets and you miss all targets, then
you can deal damage to yourself equal to the level
of the power. if you do, you immediately recover
the power.

Note the plural. If it said "a target or multiple targets" that would be different.

It is really good for Wizards dipping into Warlock, though.

 

[frankthedm]

But I am too drunk to evaluate if all the powers are balanced. My gut says no though , all bow to the inevitable power creep.

Well, I have not yet read the article either, but core star warlocks do feel like you are giving up some character potency just for the flavor.

 

[bganon]

Sacrifice to Caiphon: I'd be reluctant to hit this too hard with the nerf-bat, because even as-is it's really only good at low levels. Restrict it to only work with arcane or even just warlock powers and/or clarify that it's only with multi-target powers and I think it might be just fine.

Starfire Womb and Shadow's Eclipse I'm totally OK with. They're nice, but not so nice that they're gimmes - there are still other good feats I'd be tempted by.

Twofold Pact: yeah, probably way overpowered. I'm actually OK with the tiefling restriction, but there needs to be some way of limiting the multiclass abuse. But I don't think the warlock pact at-wills are so great that getting another is a huge deal, and you can still only use one boon at a time.

Bael Turath Born: I don't get why people think this is too powerful. It's basically a paragon racial feat that (nearly) doubles a Tiefling's fire resistance. Sure, it's a high enough resistance that it's close to immune, but pretty much every monster (above heroic) that deals fire damage has attacks or effects that don't rely on fire anyway. And it's not like resistances are really that hard to come by (from items or powers) at paragon/epic. A feat seems about right; if it were possible I'm not sure I'd take this feat over something like Feywild Protection or Dwarven Durability (which are pretty badass).

Student of the Athanaeum: If you restrict it to arcane or just warlock dailies, I think this is very balanced, maybe even underpowered. It may be balanced as-is. At Epic, many classes have ways to refresh dailies, so this is not a huge deal, and the prereqs are enough to discourage multiclassing just to get this feat. Compare this power with Arcane Mastery, which refreshes a wizard daily instantly, and can be used every encounter (as long as you have action points). Wizards have no reason to multiclass to get this, and Tactical Warlords might have the Int but otherwise don't have great synergy with warlocks. For any other class Int 15 is pretty much a waste.

 

[Stalker0]

Sacrifice to Caiphon: I'd be reluctant to hit this too hard with the nerf-bat, because even as-is it's really only good at low levels.

Then thing about the retraining rules is, when a feat is under or overpowered no longer matters. If a feat is too good at any point in a character career, its too good period, because the character can easily swap it out later on.

 

[AllisterH]

Then thing about the retraining rules is, when a feat is under or overpowered no longer matters. If a feat is too good at any point in a character career, its too good period, because the character can easily swap it out later on.

True

However, with this specific feat, I honestly think it explicitly means only spells that target multiple enemies.

IF this reading is correct, then the feat is balanced.

Personally, Im not even concerned with the two-pact feat. The one that does concern me is the fire resistance one.