Warlock advice

[GuJiaXian]

I need a little help conceptualizing a character. I'm looking at making a star-pact warlock, most likely of the dragonborn persuasion. That part is easy; it's the ability scores that have me worried.

Warlock powers use charisma and constitution as their primary attack stats, with a smattering of intelligence used as "bonus damage" on some powers. Fey-pact powers seem to be almost entirely charisma-based, while infernal-pact powers are constitution-based. Star, however, is a hybrid of sorts, and its associated powers seem to be split down the middle.

Now, that's fine. No one's forcing me to take only the star-pact powers. Then again, I'd really like to roleplay the heck out of this character, and I love the fluff of the star pact. So, I'm left with a class that suddenly requires high scores in three different abilities. That's tough enough when rolling for stats; with a point-buy system, it's virtually impossible (I've played enough 3rd-edition monks to know the pains of multiple primary stats).

Dragonborn give a +2 to charisma, which helps. Half-elves (which, thematically, don't interest me at all) give a +2 to both constitution and charisma, but they just don't seem fun to me. So here's the dilemma: do I create a character that's more fun to roleplay but mechanically less effective (due to dilution with regards to ability scores), or should I play a slightly less fun-to-roleplay character that mechanically hits more often and deals more damage? Or is there a third option I'm just blanking on?

 

[fba827]

use the dragborn star-pact warlock, with starpact powers all the way, since it's what you want to play.

You'll miss out out on all of +1 (or at worst a +2) here or there. Sure, it adds up over time, but, really, you may never even notice if you're doing 1d20+6 vs 1d20+7 so it's not the end of the world.

 

[Larrin]

if you're using stat arrays i'd suggest: 16, 14 14 12 11 8

16 in con, 14 in cha (getting it up to 16 with racials) 14 in int, 12 in str (up to 14 with racials), 11 dex 8 wis.

as a star-pact your boon will give you bonuses every now and then to hit, this will help with your slightly lower stats, but for most characters a 16 in the main stat(s) isn't death, plus you've got a good amount of flexibility in defenses, bonus to healing surges, breathweapon etc.

(alternatively you could do a 17 15 etc stat array and hit 18 in each prime stat by level 4, but have low int)

 

[Mengu]

Intelligence is not *that* important. A +1 will suffice, and you can increase it at first opportunity. You can start out with something like:

Str 13, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 18

For Eldritch Blast you would choose your Charisma. This way Eldritch Blast, Dreadful Word, and Dread Star will all be based off your higher stat. Intelligence being only +1 doesn't hurt you much since the Star Pact bonus to Dreadful Word hardly ever comes into play anyway.

At 3rd level, you can try and save the use of Frigid Darkness until you are bloodied in an encounter, and at least get the Dragonborn Fury bonus. Stack some pact boon bonus on top of that, and you should be hitting with decent reliability.

At 4th level you would increase your Con and Int. This immediately makes Frigid Darkness a bit more useful.

At 5th level, Hunger of Hadar does some auto damage anyway, so the little bit of Con bonus you don't have won't have as big an impact.

At 7th level, Sign of Ill Omen uses Charisma anyway, so you're in good shape there.

At 8th level, bump your Con and Cha, so you are about even until level 11, at which point your charisma will jump to 20.

Your progression will be slightly slower than others in the party who may be a bit more focused, since you are spreading your stat increases among 3 stats, but it really won't be that big of an impact. Just try to capitalize on your boon bonus for more accurate hitting.

 

[Kaelkatar]

In my opinion intelligence is important, it has an effect on every encounter power that you use.

For daily powers, there is no benefit to using the star one, so if the star one is cha, and you build con, you can take the infernal daily. Dire radiance is con, and is a pretty decent ability, so thats one reason to build con. The two PP attacks from doomsayer use cha, so thats a good reason to build cha. The most important part is encounter powers, lets look at what ability they tend to use.

4 use Cha, 3 use Con. Pretty even split alternating at the most part. This will also likely change as this month a star-pact warlock DDI article is coming out, and will likely have at least a small handful of encounter powers.

So the two build options that I would suggest if you want to look away from dealing with 3 stats is a CHA - INT warlock that grabs as many cha star power encounters as possible, trades away con based star powers for wizard powers, and anything left over grabs the fey power. This build would be fine to go doomsayer and would use eld blast to exclusion as an at will. The alternative does the same with Con - INT, subs out CHA spells for wizard spells, and taking infernal dailys. They also take bloodmage as their PP, as they have access to it, and it works well with high CON.

You can always go the CON - CHA playstyle with low int, but your encounters start to suffer in power as you reach the epic tier and your int is 4-8 points lower than your CON/CHA. Also if you do decide to go Con - INT you might want to look into another class, if you are 100% on being dragonborn, stick with the CHA - INT build.

Just my thoughts.

Ps. If you stick with dragonborn, you can utilize that bonus STR you get by taking the hide armor and light shield feats.

 

[Ganadai]

Improved Fate of the Void + Rod of Corruption

 

[the_redbeard]

if you're using stat arrays i'd suggest: 16, 14 14 12 11 8

16 in con, 14 in cha (getting it up to 16 with racials) 14 in int, 12 in str (up to 14 with racials), 11 dex 8 wis.

Almost all warlock powers are ranged. Why would this character need strength?

 

[Minigiant]

I find that the bonuses that a Star pact Warlock gets from Int... suck. Look at the first enc powers. Int boost the slide length and temp HP for Infernals, and the attack penalty for Fey. It boosts the penalty to will for Star. Will is already one of the easiest defenses to hit so increasing th penalty is not worth it.

Lvl 3: Fey's AOE damage or teleport length vs Infenal's AOE damage vs Star's AC penalty.

Lvel: 7: Fey's stealth bonus vs Infernal damage or push length vs Star's attack penalty.

The int bonuses Star gets stink.

 

[Tikigod]

Int gives more AC.

 

[Mengu]

Int gives more AC.

True, but the difference between having a +1 vs +2, is the difference between having AC 13, and AC14, so your AC will be bad, or bad. Thankfully, you have decent HP's and healing surges, and Shadow Walk helps your AC a bit against ranged attacks.

It is challenging, building a Star pact Warlock. The powers don't work too well together. Getting an infernal power here and there may help but for someone who wants to stay with the flavor of the starlock, it's rather difficult.

If only Dire Radiance was vs Will rather than vs Fort, things would make a lot more sense. A starlock almost has to be Human so they can get Eyebite to benefit from the Will penalty of their Encounter and Daily powers.