What would fix warlocks?

[Kzach]

There seems to be a common sentiment amongst players that the warlock's flavour and general powers are great but that it lacks punch. As a striker people seem to feel it's the weakest of the bunch.

So I was wondering what people thought about simply boosting their default curse damage?

If everything else about the warlock is fine and it simply lacks striker damage output, then upping it's curse damage to a d8 or maybe even adding a d6 (ala rogue progression) would do a lot to bring it up to par, right?

 

[Stalker0]

You could allow a feat to bump up their damage from a d6's to d8's, just like the ranger and rogue get. That would be a start.

Also I think the star warlock should get chain proficiency. Their AC's are some in the worst in the game because they tend to focus on con and cha....so they have no AC boosting stat.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A feat that changes the curse dice would clash with several magical items that manipulate the curse dice. Of course, it's trivially easy to just remove those items, but then you really have just changed your damage improvement option from item to feat.
More complicated would be revising the wording of these items to "stack" with the feat.

But maybe the simplest approach is to give a fixed damage bonus.
Dooming Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Warlock Curse
If you hit a cursed target with a Warlock attack power, you gain a +1 feat bonus to damage.
This bonus increases to +2 at 11th level and +3 at 21st level.

The bonus applies now almost every time the Warlock hits, not just when he uses his curse damage. But it's a feat bonus, so it is more limited and makes feats like Astral Fire irrelevant to the Warlock.


The armor proficiency is a considerable issue. It can be dealt with with the right stat selection. But it still costs you. But chainmal alone is probably also insufficient and most Star Pact Warlocks would want to jump to Scale or even Plate.
Maybe an even either approach would be to just allow the Star Pact Warlock to focus entirely on one ability score for attacks.

Star Channeler
Prerequiste: Warlock, Star Pact Warlock, Con15+
Benefit: When using a Warlock power that uses Charisma for attack and damage, you can use Constitution instead.

Hadars Armor
Prerequisite: Warlock, Star Pact Warlock, Con15+
You gain proficiency in Chainmail. When you gain the benefits of your Shadow Walk ability and wear heavy armor, an adjacent cursed enemy that hits you with a close or melee attack takes necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier.


It might also be nice to have some pact related abilities every time you curse a foe.

Infernal Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Infernal Pact
When you curse a foe, he takes a -2 penalty to melee and ranged attacks against you until the end of your next turn. This is a fear effect.

Radiating Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Star Pact
When you curse a foe, he loses all benefits from concealment and total concealment, and takes a -2 penalty to AC and Reflex defense until the end of your next turn.

Glamouring Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Star Pact
When you curse a foe, he takes a -2 penalty to all melee and ranged attacks against you until the end of your next turn. This is a charm effect.

Shrouding Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Dark Pact
When you curse your foe, all non-adjacent creatures gain concealment against him until the end of your next turn.

Ancient Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Vestige Pact
When you curse your foe and he makes an attack including you until the end of your next turn, he is weakened for that attack.

 

[CapnZapp]

The thing with Warlocks is that, unlike most other classes, they rely heavily on gear to come up to speed.

Other classes can choose whether to get nifty stuff through feats or weapons/implements; Warlocks don't have the feats, and so they have a much more pressing shopping/wish list of items.

Unless a Warlock gets its hands on a very specific sub-set of rods, yes, it's going to suck.

And no, I don't know why Wizards designed the class this way. (I would have thought relying on gear was the Artificer's schtick) And yes, it must be intentional, because Arcane Power didn't fix it much.

 

[CapnZapp]

Glamouring Curse
Prerequisite: Warlock, Star Pact

You mean Fey Pact.

 

[Kzach]

A feat that changes the curse dice would clash with several magical items that manipulate the curse dice.

How?

You're just increasing it to a d8 instead of d6. That's really not that big a deal. It's effectively just a +1 damage bonus.

 

[Mentat55]

I think what he is saying is that there exist items whose property increases the damage dice of your Warlock's Curse, such as the Vicious Rod:

Property: When you deal your Warlock’s Curse damage with this rod, you roll d8s instead of d6s.

So creating a feat that has the same wording would create conflicts, and thus perhaps an alternative wording or approach to increasing damage would be warranted.

 

[Kzach]

Ah.

Perhaps taking a book from the sorcerer and rogue is required then?

Add {ability} modifier damage to all targets affected by the warlock's curse. Making the ability the secondary ability for the build, ala brutal rogues and various flavours of sorcerer.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Also I think the star warlock should get chain proficiency. Their AC's are some in the worst in the game because they tend to focus on con and cha....so they have no AC boosting stat.

I've inverted the warlock's primary and secondary stats, making it an 'A' class instead of a 'V' (i.e. Int is the primary stat and Con and Cha are secondary).

Game effects:

• All warlocks have higher ACs since Int is now primary.
• Star pact warlocks are now much more viable since, as mentioned above, they have competitive ACs and are equally effective with Con- and Cha-based powers. The star pact warlock is now much more akin to the resourceful warlord in the way its stats contribute to the character (much more mechanically sound in my opinion).
• Different primary/secondary stats leads to a change to 'best skills'.
• Infernal warlocks and some star pact warlock builds now have slightly fewer hit points/healing surges due to Con now being secondary.

This is an extremely low maintenance change: updating the powers by making Con/Cha references Int while Int references become Con or Cha, depending on which primary stat that power formerly used.

 

[Minigiant]

Add their Int mod or Cha mod to damage rolls on cursed foes via feats. Warlocks af only behind by a little.

Mindfire
Warlock, Con 17
Add their Int mod to damage rolls on cursed enemies.

Piercing Personality
Warlock, Cha 17
Add their Cha mod to damage rolls on cursed enemies.