Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7516513">I'm with the OP.  Not necessarily on the solution, but on the "problem".First, any argument that states (in essence) "Well you don't have to optimize your character; you can always roleplay instead" is a weak argument.  While true at face value, it misses the point that good game design should minimize that tradeoff.  (It's the same problem with ASIs vs. weak but flavorful Feats.)  If the Warlock had been designed well you shouldn't have to sacrifice such an effective attack in order to...be different. ( And it's a testament to so many players I've met that they do make that sacrifice.)Second, I don't buy for a second that Eldritch Blast makes Warlocks unique and fun.  Other than doing lots of damage, the only difference between this and other cantrips is that you get to target multiple enemies and you almost never encounter damage resistance.  That's good and useful, and it's unique in the sense that it's markedly better than what any other caster gets, but it doesn't really mean that the class plays differently than other casters (at least when it comes to default attacks).  In other words, in the absence of EB the class would feel 99% as distinct from other casters as it currently does.I skipped most of 3e and all of 4e, so I didn't know what a D&D warlock was when I came back during Next.  I landed in a forum discussion at WotC where folks were saying that EB defines the Warlock; it wouldn't be a Warlock without EB, etc.  When I asked what this "Eldritch Blast" was, all I could gather was that it was just like a bunch of other spells, but did Force damage.Really?  THAT'S the class's signature spell?  It just does damage that is sort of like elemental damage but isn't an element?  I thought that was just ridiculously lame and weak.  And I still think so.Thirdly, from an RP/lore/storytelling perspective I find it improbable and problematic that every single entity in the multiverse that signs pacts with mortals shares the ability to grant this one exceptionally powerful 0-level spell, but otherwise the spell is (almost entirely) non-existent.  It just doesn't make any sense.  If this were true about a spell that somehow was related to the signing of pacts I would get it.  But it's just a very effective blast spell.So, yeah, I kind of hate EB....</blockquote>

Verification