4e's [W] damage discrepancy

[Lord Pendragon]

Im not sure a thief or a ranger can pull someone down from a 25' high roof/wall and smash their bodies down onto the floor, or drag a guard 25' away through a portcullis door

That's a fair point. The warlock's slides are ranged.

The Warlock in my group has 18 intelligence (tiefling) so when she uses shadow step she has a very good ac. She also gets a pretty constant HP buff from her infernal pact

I'm curious about this statement. Your group's warlock is infernal. Does she have an 18 in intelligence and constitution, or has she chosen to sacrifice con (the primary stat for an infernal-pact warlock) to boost her secondary stat?

This is my main problem with the "a warlock can choose which stat to attack!" argument. Doing so almost always means choosing a different stat to attack with as well. And using the PH point-buy system, those secondary stat attacks are going to once again balance that lower target defense with a lower attack bonus.

does sweet damage and can stay out of combat with ranged attacks or get up close and use hellish rebuke to really do some mean damage if she is damaged in any way.

How is she surviving in melee? Melee range means no concealment bonus to AC, which means a horrible defense against incoming attacks. Sure, you could do more damage....until you're dead, anyway.

Whatever the case may be I definitely wouldnt say the warlock is the weak link in my game.

I suggest you try playing with a rogue and melee ranger in your party.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Also, I just wanted to reiterate that the "others strikers have to attack AC" argument is false. Weapon Proficiency neatly nullifies any benefit a warlock gains from attacking a non-AC defense.

More false than people normally think!

I was just checking out Rogue powers, and looking at encounter/daily powers just up to 19th level, I found

7 that target Fort
4 that target Ref
5 that target Will
18 that target AC.

So rogues can pretty much target any defence they like (and they get proficiency bonus on top of that! and an extra +1 with daggers!)

Cheers

 

[jbear]

Hitting someone with hellish rebuke, especially if they are marked by the fighter and with a 5 point temp. hit point buff makes it a pretty gruesome prospect for an enemy to decide to take an opportunity attack where a failure suppose an axe chop in the guts from the fighter first and success means an axe chop in the guts and an extra 1d6+5 dmg and any damage they do is -5 from the temporary hp which if the combined extra damage is enough to drop the enemy will be replaced again.

There is a melee ranger in the group as I said above. She is a new player so maybe she doesnt use it as effectively as she could or she just has tough luck from the dice, but yes potentially a lot of damage if both her attacks hit... but she's pretty much hack n slash, no special cool effects on top of damage. And i certainly havent found it any harder to damage her than the warlock, although my monsters always have to take into account the extra pain that supposes, and so often I rule that the cowardly kobolds decide to go for some less painful target after being stung a few times.