Warlock's Curse multipliers

[CapnZapp]

The rod called Rod of Corruption (PHB239) spreads your Curse whenever a cursed enemy dies (or any other way your Pact Boon is triggered) in a Burst 5 centered on that enemy.

Two questions:
1) Have you seen any other magic item with curse-spreading abilities? It doesn't need to be a rod, and it doesn't need to work the same. I'm asking if there's more items that can help the warlock curse people without having to spend a minor action on each.

2) Isn't this rod a must-have item? Let me rephrase this question: if you play a Warlock, does your character have a Rod of Corruption? If not, why not?

Thanks

 

[Blizzardb]

Don't forget that the Rod of corruption spreads the curse INSTEAD of taking the normal benefit from your pact boon... So it is kind of a tradeoff.

 

[Oni]

I think you'd be hard pressed to find an optimized warlock build that wasn't running around with a +1 rod of corruption in their offhand.

IMHO it's a little too good for a level 3 item.

There's the quickcurse rod that lets you as an encounter free action put a curse on any target in sight.

 

[Stalker0]

In my game I've houseruled the item to burst 2 as opposed to burst 5, we will see how it goes. I consider it way too good as it right now.

You could also consider making it Burst X, where X is the enhancement bonus of the item. That way you actually have to get a really powerful version of it to get the big combos.

 

[DracoSuave]

It all depends on what said Warlock is doing with their minor actions and how fast the enemies are dying. If they don't have sustain minor abilities, and they don't fight tons of minions, you'll find the rod doesn't have as awesome an effect as it looks on paper.

 

[Paultimatum]

I'm not entirely clear on why this item is so good. Since you can only apply curse damage once a round, and it's instead of your pact boon, it seems to be useful but not amazing. It does provide opportunities for many pact boon effects to happen, and with a rod that does one damage on a curse in the other hand, it's an amazing minion killer, but i don't see what makes it a must have item. I have it with my level 1 dark warlock, because of the opportunities for cursebite, but am I missing something?

Also, something just occurred to me. Could you carry around many quickcurse rods in your belt, and use them all in sequence to curse every enemy in sight? With quickdraw you can draw an item in the same action you use it in. If you use it in a free action, it seems you'd be able to draw them also as a free action. Then you could drop (possibly into a bag in front of you so that you'd only need a minor action to pick it up) the rods as a free action and repeat.

 

[Nail]

I - too -am interested in what the community has seen about this rod in play. It's clear that "on paper" it looks pretty good...but is it that good "in play, with a real DM at th' helm"?

 

[Nifft]

There are several limitations on the spread of a Warlock's curse.

One is targeting: you can (normally) only curse the closest enemy. The Rod of Corruption overcomes this constraint, allowing you to curse enemies behind their screen of minions.

Another is speed of saturation: you can (normally) only curse one enemy per round. The Rod of Corruption overcomes this limitation, allowing you to curse all within an area.

Basically, it gives you back your Minor action, AND lets you lay the hurt on the boss-monster who is hiding behind a row of minions specifically to avoid your extra damage dongle (and the Ranger's extra damage dongle, too).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Danceofmasks]

Feylock + Armor of Agathys + Memorise mobs' initiative order = Warlock pinball.

By and large, though .. it isn't that impressive.
Would rather team with a rogue, if I had a choice.

 

[On Puget Sound]

My wife's starlock used this rod to great effect in my game. It was especially effective in any encounter containing minions and a boss. On round 1 curse a minion, cast Armor of Agathys, and stand next to the minion. When it dies on its turn, shout "Cursplosion!" and put little curse chits under all the enemy figures. From then on she could blast the boss every turn with at least +1 and sometimes +3 or +4 to hit, then go stand next to more minions. I like the idea of "burst X" instead of burst 5.