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Favourite Warlock Pact
- Thread starter Wepwawet
- Start date
tylermalan
First Post
I don't know what Dark is.
Infernal is too cliche.
Fey doesn't make any sense to me.
Star is super awesome, but not necessarily mechanically, which is too bad.
Infernal is too cliche.
Fey doesn't make any sense to me.
Star is super awesome, but not necessarily mechanically, which is too bad.
From a flavor perspective, Fey and Star are my favorites. Dark has virtually no flavor at all (other than "it's something the Drow do"). Infernal has the classic Faustian feel, but I can never think up a convincing reason for an allegedly good-ish adventurer accepting such a pact. I'm always worried I'll end up fighting my patron at some point... and if I win, the DM'll go: "Congratulations. You lose all your Warlock powers, now that your patron is dead. You're now a level 1 Rogue, I guess."
Granted, I doubt any DM is truly that evil, but the fact of the matter is I just can't wrap my head around the Infernal pact, backstory-wise.
From a mechanics perspective, I suspect that the Dark Pact Warlock and the Cha-focused Starlock are the strongest, with the Infernal Warlock close behind. Dark Spiral Aura lets the striker be a striker all the more effectively. I'm sorry, but 1d6 necrotic/psychic immediate interrupt? At level 1? With the possibility of also -weakening- the target on a high damage roll? Pretty deadly.
The Starlock's boon is just as good, possibly better. We all know that bonuses to attack are hard to come by, and Starlocks can rack up some crazy bonuses... and use the to land their Dailies, of course. As for their powers, that Wish Upon a Star Dragon article recently showed them some love, so I think they're good to go there. Student of Caiphon and Doomsayer are both pretty solid prestige classes, too.
Now, the Infernal Warlock pact boon doesn't impress me much. Temporary HP is nice, of course, but only for the first time you get it. Unless you -try- to get hit in order to maximize your pact boon's returns, chances are you'll pact boon will often trigger and give you no actual benefit. The reason I rank Infenals higher than Fey is because they actually fill their roll. They slam their foes with fire and necrotic damage, with maybe a little ongoing thrown in for the heck of it. They're Warlocks that are actually strikers, instead of a single-target controllers, as I've heard them (rather accurately) described before.
Finally the Fey. Don't get me wrong, they're cool, but I feel they trade in damage for survivability. This is a pretty sweet trade-off on a personal level, but a bad one on the party level; they don't fulfill their role of 'striker' terribly well. An awful lot of their powers don't even deal damage, they just give you a sort of poor man's dominate. Their pact boon is cool, don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of teleportation, but the problem is you can't choose when to use it. It'll save your butt a few times, I'm sure, but other times you'll just be kind of like: "Alright, I teleport, uh, here I guess." Thank goodness their paragon path gives the pact boon a few extra bells and whistles...
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Point is, I like Starlocks from both a flavor and mechanics perspective, so they're my fave.
Granted, I doubt any DM is truly that evil, but the fact of the matter is I just can't wrap my head around the Infernal pact, backstory-wise.
From a mechanics perspective, I suspect that the Dark Pact Warlock and the Cha-focused Starlock are the strongest, with the Infernal Warlock close behind. Dark Spiral Aura lets the striker be a striker all the more effectively. I'm sorry, but 1d6 necrotic/psychic immediate interrupt? At level 1? With the possibility of also -weakening- the target on a high damage roll? Pretty deadly.
The Starlock's boon is just as good, possibly better. We all know that bonuses to attack are hard to come by, and Starlocks can rack up some crazy bonuses... and use the to land their Dailies, of course. As for their powers, that Wish Upon a Star Dragon article recently showed them some love, so I think they're good to go there. Student of Caiphon and Doomsayer are both pretty solid prestige classes, too.
Now, the Infernal Warlock pact boon doesn't impress me much. Temporary HP is nice, of course, but only for the first time you get it. Unless you -try- to get hit in order to maximize your pact boon's returns, chances are you'll pact boon will often trigger and give you no actual benefit. The reason I rank Infenals higher than Fey is because they actually fill their roll. They slam their foes with fire and necrotic damage, with maybe a little ongoing thrown in for the heck of it. They're Warlocks that are actually strikers, instead of a single-target controllers, as I've heard them (rather accurately) described before.
Finally the Fey. Don't get me wrong, they're cool, but I feel they trade in damage for survivability. This is a pretty sweet trade-off on a personal level, but a bad one on the party level; they don't fulfill their role of 'striker' terribly well. An awful lot of their powers don't even deal damage, they just give you a sort of poor man's dominate. Their pact boon is cool, don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of teleportation, but the problem is you can't choose when to use it. It'll save your butt a few times, I'm sure, but other times you'll just be kind of like: "Alright, I teleport, uh, here I guess." Thank goodness their paragon path gives the pact boon a few extra bells and whistles...
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Point is, I like Starlocks from both a flavor and mechanics perspective, so they're my fave.
Jack Colby
First Post
I like star pact better, and it has nothing to do with game mechanics. It's the closest thing D&D has, flavor-wise, to what I think magic in a fantasy world ought to be like. It's certainly not perfect, but I like the concept they loosely based the pact on.
Xris Robin
First Post
You can't actually do that, since it's a Interrupt, and you can't use those on your own turn. The new errata makes this even more clearly by removing the line about it being a free action.
Leatherhead
Possibly a Idiot.
Ours tells people what hot dogs are really made out of.
Fallen Seraph
First Post
Star Pact is also my favourite. I go with either a Lovecraftian feel, or a Fate feel. The amount of Powers and flavour oriented toward Fate, Time, etc. works really well with having a Pact with the Fates.
Fey Pact is my second favourite. Since well it is good, old-fashioned Feyfolk and all their fun tricks and conniving. It is very fitting with mythology.
Fey Pact is my second favourite. Since well it is good, old-fashioned Feyfolk and all their fun tricks and conniving. It is very fitting with mythology.
