Excerpt: Warlock (Dark Pact)

[The Grackle]

New at wizards:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080812a

"All Must Sacrifice" What is that? Up to 2d8+48d10 damage. Nice.

 

[Mengu]

New at wizards:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080812a

"All Must Sacrifice" What is that? Up to 2d8+48d10 damage. Nice.

Try thinking 3 dimensionally

 

[Branduil]

Good luck getting 48 allies willing to cut themselves for you.

 

[rkanodia]

The pact at-will is lame - the 'high' damage is barely better than Eldritch Blast, and it lacks the interesting rider effects of any of the other pact at-wills.

The pact boon is pretty cool, though. Seems like it could either be used rapid-fire, eliminating minions in droves, or saved up to lay the smackdown on (and prevent a healthy chunk of damage from!) an Elite.

 

[Cor Azer]

New at wizards:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080812a

"All Must Sacrifice" What is that? Up to 2d8+48d10 damage. Nice.

As was mentioned after the Dark Pact 29 Attack power was spoiled, there is wording in the Player's Handbook that limits "all allies" to be roughly squad/party sized - so no party of 48 emo NPCs willing to cut themselves for you.

 

[Saeviomagy]

As was mentioned after the Dark Pact 29 Attack power was spoiled, there is wording in the Player's Handbook that limits "all allies" to be roughly squad/party sized - so no party of 48 emo NPCs willing to cut themselves for you.

I think you'll find that the wording is in the DMG, and is expected to be used by the DM to prevent abuses, and furthermore it's worded such that he can easily choose not to apply it.

Which probably means that the ludicrous damage will never be caused to any NPC. I fully expect that plenty of DMs will have it caused by an NPC.

 

[TK Lafours]

The pact at-will is lame - the 'high' damage is barely better than Eldritch Blast, and it lacks the interesting rider effects of any of the other pact at-wills.

This kind of sentiment is what causes power creep to occur. There are always those who think that every new feature has to be a little bit better than the existing ones or they're lame. So publishers make the new stuff more powerful in order to ensure that players buy it.

If you seriously compare Spiteful Glamor to the other at-wills it compares pretty evenly. Dire Radiance and Hellish Rebuke inflict 2 1d6+con attacks at best and eyebite does less damage with the added benefit of being 'invisible' to the target. Having a better initial damage 1d8 and the chance at 1d12+Cha isn't bad at all. I would use this over Eldritch Blast quite a bit due to the fact that it attacks Will rather than Reflex.

 

[mneme]

Speaking of power creep, I -sicerely- hope they fix the Dark Pact before press.

The problem is, not only is their bonus overpowered (damage = D6 x pact boons, holdable for an arbitraraly long time (keeping in mind that you never -have- to take a long or short rest), automatic hit, Immediate Interrupt? Excuse me? Compared to Fey Step, +LVL Temp HP, and (closest, but...not so much), +1 to hit per boon, only usable this or next -turn-), it also encourages a really bad style of play -- where you fight every combat you can, seeking out below-level encounters if the GM lets you get away with it, until your Dark Warlock is charged up with, say, 40 boons or so. Then send Mr. Warlock out to solo the Big Bad--unless BB can kill him with area and Close attacks, or is immune to both Psychic -and- Necrotic damage, he's toast, as his first targetted attack on the warlock gets interupted with a giant sized Blast of Doom, which not only halves his damage, but assuming you've done your planning right, probably kills him.

At the very least, Darkspiral Auras -must- reset to 0 every 5 minutes; letting you power up on the bb's crunchy minions before bluffing him into attacking you and getting do some free damage is cool. Bringing in a herd of sheep into the dungeon with you so you can curse them in turn before your big fights and bring a Death Sheep-powered can of whupass into a laser-fight? Not so much.

I'm not sure who to email this to in Wizards, but it should certainly get complained about before FR goes to print -- we really don't need a Warlock who's not only better than any other Pact, but needs to heavy hand of the GM to keep in line.

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

Dark Mirror has some pretty nice flavor, but it just seems... pathetic for a 10th level utility power, even if it is per-encounter. Making all other creatures invisible to you just seems like too much of a drawback for most situations.

Sure, you could leave the invisible foes for last... but those are typically the creatures you don't want to save for last... otherwise they'll probably get away or wreck havoc with your controllers/back line.

I'm not sure I like the whole "dark beings lurking in the drow civilization thing" either. Seems like creatures from the Shadowfell would have been better, as that's currently the only place that doesn't have a "pact" of a sort associated with it (astral plane being Divine characters). I know, I know... "needless symmetry". But sometimes, symmetry works, and I think potential pacts is one of those situations.

 

[t3nk3n]

Speaking of power creep, I -sicerely- hope they fix the Dark Pact before press.

The problem is, not only is their bonus overpowered (damage = D6 x pact boons, holdable for an arbitraraly long time (keeping in mind that you never -have- to take a long or short rest), automatic hit, Immediate Interrupt? Excuse me? Compared to Fey Step, +LVL Temp HP, and (closest, but...not so much), +1 to hit per boon, only usable this or next -turn-), it also encourages a really bad style of play -- where you fight every combat you can, seeking out below-level encounters if the GM lets you get away with it, until your Dark Warlock is charged up with, say, 40 boons or so. Then send Mr. Warlock out to solo the Big Bad--unless BB can kill him with area and Close attacks, or is immune to both Psychic -and- Necrotic damage, he's toast, as his first targetted attack on the warlock gets interupted with a giant sized Blast of Doom, which not only halves his damage, but assuming you've done your planning right, probably kills him.

At the very least, Darkspiral Auras -must- reset to 0 every 5 minutes; letting you power up on the bb's crunchy minions before bluffing him into attacking you and getting do some free damage is cool. Bringing in a herd of sheep into the dungeon with you so you can curse them in turn before your big fights and bring a Death Sheep-powered can of whupass into a laser-fight? Not so much.

I'm not sure who to email this to in Wizards, but it should certainly get complained about before FR goes to print -- we really don't need a Warlock who's not only better than any other Pact, but needs to heavy hand of the GM to keep in line.

There is so much wrong here, I don't even know where to start. Yeah, Darkspire Aura is good, it's probably the best pact boon out there, but it's not THAT good. You can't bring a herd of sheep into the dungeon because sheep are not a credible threat. Thus, you don't get any benefits from killing them, the same restriction would apply to all the innocent peons one would encounter going through a dungeon. Furthermore, I suppose one could simply try and store up aura points, but you would have to do it all without any form of healing beyond potions, and without encounter powers. Remember, it is the presence of a short rest that seperates encounters for these purposes and the way that parties recieve the majority of their healing. So I suppose one could theoretically attempt to stack up aura points but doing so puts your party in such an extreme amount of danger that it's probably not worth it. To say nothing of needing your DM to go along with it, as they are the ones that design the dungeons and the encounters, not the players.