Why is it that if you stick within your pact powers, a Fey Warlock gets powers that all derive their attack from Charisma, while an Infernal Warlock has gets powers that all derive from their Constitution, but a Star Pact Warlock has to keep up both Charisma and Constitution to get by if they stay within their pact's powers? Do they really think that the pact boon makes that much of a difference?
While making a Star Pact Warlock for someone and seeing they should ideally have high CHA and CON if they want all their powers from their pact, then I looked at the Fey powers and saw: Charisma, Charisma, Charisma... Charisma, all the way through. I then looked Infernal and saw: Constitution, Constitution, Constitution... Constitution all the way through. Star Pact is about 50-50, it seems.
Sure, with the pact boon you can apply +1 to your attack bonuses IF you've spent a minor action to curse the target first and IF you hit the target, WHEN you kill it, PROVIDED you spend that +1 in your very next turn, AND spend the bonus on an attack roll.
Yes, it goes up to +2 if you spend feat to improve the pact boon.
Yes, you could take two minor cursing actions, then spend your action point to attack twice. But then you're spending your action point - you should be doing that for a tactical benefit. And you're only doing that once. For a +2 bonus that you might use on your next attack roll. This assumes you hit both times, and kill both times.
And yes, you could spend minor action after minor action cursing things and then (if I'm reading this right) get someone else, say a wizard, to lay down an AoE that kills them all at once, so you get a +1 (or +2 with the feat) for each cursed target killed, but none of this seems so unbalancing that Star Pact Warlocks should have to divide their stats, whereas other warlocks don't really have to.
Consider that you're not getting the bonus on your first attack; you're only getting the bonus if you can manage to do four things: curse, attack (and hit), kill, and then get to attack next turn; or if you're going for a big bonus via a coordinated mass killing in one round, you're not contributing anything to the group, just walking around cursing things. Also consider that you may not necessarily be putting that bonus into an attack roll, as it can apply to any roll you need to make on your next turn. So if you really need to make a saving throw, or a skill check (as with warlocks with thievery in a combined trap / combat encounter), or ability check, then you've still got a lower attack bonus on average than other warlocks that can focus on a single stat.
Compared to teleporting every time you make a kill (which is a great defensive option along with the warlock's ranged attacks) or gaining temporary hit points equal to your level (probably the lamest option as I didn't think temp. hit points stacked), yeah, the Star Pact boon is good, but I wouldn't say it's so good that it's reasonable that the character only has high Charisma and Constitution, with no other decent stats (and the feat or character building options that come with them), or a lower attack bonus on at least half of your pact's attacks.
To make Star Pact pay off from 1st level, I feel like I'm either looking at Half-Elf for both the Con and Cha bonuses (and still pretty much only having high con and cha on a 22 point buy), being forced to choose the Improved pact feat at 1st level, or both. Before I got the books, this was looking to be one of my favorite classes / pacts based on flavor. But it seems extremely limiting if you want it to work halfway decent from 1st level.
(Edit: And if you take Half-Elf for both CON and CHA to be a Star Pact warlock, whatever you choose for your racial power is going to have a very low attack bonus, wasting the racial power.)
It just seems like it's one of the most limiting class options. I've been making pre-gens for one of my groups, and so far I've been able to get both the mechanical and the flavor of all the character concepts requested or conceived pretty well. I'm liking the new system, but I think they went overboard in handicapping this one pact.
Is it just me? I guess I just don't agree that the required split ability focus is an appropriate trade-off for the pact's boon.
While making a Star Pact Warlock for someone and seeing they should ideally have high CHA and CON if they want all their powers from their pact, then I looked at the Fey powers and saw: Charisma, Charisma, Charisma... Charisma, all the way through. I then looked Infernal and saw: Constitution, Constitution, Constitution... Constitution all the way through. Star Pact is about 50-50, it seems.
Sure, with the pact boon you can apply +1 to your attack bonuses IF you've spent a minor action to curse the target first and IF you hit the target, WHEN you kill it, PROVIDED you spend that +1 in your very next turn, AND spend the bonus on an attack roll.
Yes, it goes up to +2 if you spend feat to improve the pact boon.
Yes, you could take two minor cursing actions, then spend your action point to attack twice. But then you're spending your action point - you should be doing that for a tactical benefit. And you're only doing that once. For a +2 bonus that you might use on your next attack roll. This assumes you hit both times, and kill both times.
And yes, you could spend minor action after minor action cursing things and then (if I'm reading this right) get someone else, say a wizard, to lay down an AoE that kills them all at once, so you get a +1 (or +2 with the feat) for each cursed target killed, but none of this seems so unbalancing that Star Pact Warlocks should have to divide their stats, whereas other warlocks don't really have to.
Consider that you're not getting the bonus on your first attack; you're only getting the bonus if you can manage to do four things: curse, attack (and hit), kill, and then get to attack next turn; or if you're going for a big bonus via a coordinated mass killing in one round, you're not contributing anything to the group, just walking around cursing things. Also consider that you may not necessarily be putting that bonus into an attack roll, as it can apply to any roll you need to make on your next turn. So if you really need to make a saving throw, or a skill check (as with warlocks with thievery in a combined trap / combat encounter), or ability check, then you've still got a lower attack bonus on average than other warlocks that can focus on a single stat.
Compared to teleporting every time you make a kill (which is a great defensive option along with the warlock's ranged attacks) or gaining temporary hit points equal to your level (probably the lamest option as I didn't think temp. hit points stacked), yeah, the Star Pact boon is good, but I wouldn't say it's so good that it's reasonable that the character only has high Charisma and Constitution, with no other decent stats (and the feat or character building options that come with them), or a lower attack bonus on at least half of your pact's attacks.
To make Star Pact pay off from 1st level, I feel like I'm either looking at Half-Elf for both the Con and Cha bonuses (and still pretty much only having high con and cha on a 22 point buy), being forced to choose the Improved pact feat at 1st level, or both. Before I got the books, this was looking to be one of my favorite classes / pacts based on flavor. But it seems extremely limiting if you want it to work halfway decent from 1st level.
(Edit: And if you take Half-Elf for both CON and CHA to be a Star Pact warlock, whatever you choose for your racial power is going to have a very low attack bonus, wasting the racial power.)
It just seems like it's one of the most limiting class options. I've been making pre-gens for one of my groups, and so far I've been able to get both the mechanical and the flavor of all the character concepts requested or conceived pretty well. I'm liking the new system, but I think they went overboard in handicapping this one pact.
Is it just me? I guess I just don't agree that the required split ability focus is an appropriate trade-off for the pact's boon.
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