Complete Arcane: Warlocks and Eldritch Blast

[UltimaGabe]

For all of you out there who have already purchased Complete Arcane, I've got a question or two.

The Warlock class, from my opinion, looks awesome. It's the kind of class I've wanted to play for a long time (specifically, the Eldritch Blast is a great class feature). However, it's a bit ill-explained. Specifically, can the Eldritch Blast be used at will? They never state, in the entire description, how often it can be used. The Invocations, for example, can be used at will, but the Eldritch Blast isn't an invocation, and never do they state that it follows the same rules as invocations.

Also, has anyone out there tested the balance of this class? Mainly, I'm worried that it's too powerful. Specifically, the fact that all of its abilities (the invocations, and, I'm assuming, the Eldritch Blast) are usable at will, and although many of the invocations simply alter your Eldritch Blast, some of them do not. For example, if I'm reading the abilities correctly, a 1st-level Warlock could do 1d6 damage as a ranged touch attack with a range of 250 feet (if he chose the Eldritch Spear invocation at 1st-level) at will. That's not incredibly powerful, and true, that's all he can do, but it seems like after a while a Warlock will easily overshadow a Wizard or Sorcerer as the back-line damage dealer. It just seems a bit odd to me, that's all. Anyone got any opinions?

Also, has anyone noticed anything regarding a Warlock's interaction with the rest of a group? It seems to me like the entire concept of the Warlock discourages being a team player and encourages doing everything only for yourself- for example, a wizard gets some cool abilities, but most of their spells can be used to buff the rest of the party. A Warlock, however, can't buff anyone but himself, if I'm not mistaken. Also, the entire concept that they have to be chaotic and/or evil, and the whole feel of the entire class seems to promote a "leave me alone, let me do my thing" attitude, which, in my opinion, is one of the attitudes that hurts the game the most. (After all, I'm sure we've all been part of a group where one person cares only about himself, and the entire game falls apart because of it.)

Any thoughts?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Not unbalanced at all. A 20th-level warlock is only dealing 9d6 with his blast, compared to the 15-20d6 a sorcerer or wizard can dish out with higher level spells. And many of those spells are area effects; the eldritch blast only hits one target, unless the warlock has applied other, higher-level invocations to it. Sure, the sorcerer and wizard run out eventually, but it's not going to happen often.

Put another way--a frontline fighter with level-appropriate magic is going to dish out more damage in a round against a single foe than the warlock is. The warlock is less efficient at dishing it out than either the fighter or the sorcerer. He's got a fraction of the options available to the sorcerer or wizard. His only advantage is the fact that he can keep going longer than the other casters if/when necessary.

Oh, the elrditch blast is a standard action (as per normal spell-like abilities), usable at will.

 

[Kabol]

Would you consider thier blast an "attack"? I mean, since this is his one real attack could he get multiple attacks as a full action when his BAB gets to +6/+1 and so on?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Would you consider thier blast an "attack"? I mean, since this is his one real attack could he get multiple attacks as a full action when his BAB gets to +6/+1 and so on?

Nope. It's listed as a spell-like ability; those are standard actions unless stated otherwise. This doesn't state otherwise.

Besides, multiple eldritch blasts based on BAB would be unbalanced.

 

[dcollins]

However, it's a bit ill-explained. Specifically, can the Eldritch Blast be used at will? They never state, in the entire description, how often it can be used... I'm worried that it's too powerful. Specifically, the fact that all of its abilities (the invocations, and, I'm assuming, the Eldritch Blast) are usable at will...

Interview at Wizards.com with designer Rich Baker says the Eldritch Blast is usable at will, "Now, it's pretty useful to never run out of attack options, and the warlock can blast you over and over again with his eldritch blast."

The claim in the interview is that this is balanced, based on the assumption of a total 15-20 rounds of combat over a day (probably 4 combats x4-5 rounds each), so any uses of an ability over 20 are not really any additional help.

Personally, this class just smells way to video-gamey for me (like a lot of recent D&D design work post-3.0). It's basically the "Gauntlet" wizard here.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ps/20041105b

 

[Anabstercorian]

Because there certainly aren't any memorable characters in fantasy fiction and mythology who can use magic as often as they like, right?

 

[hobgoblin]

heh, most of the time they dont have a problem with that (maybe except for getting winded when they use magic).

 

[UltimaGabe]

Thanks for the replies- that was what I was figuring. I've never seen higher-level spellcasters run out of spells (unless they switched out their damage-dealers for other utility spells, which is a completely different ballgame), so I didn't think it would be a huge problem. On the other hand, though, it just seems kinda uber at first glance.

Anyway, once again, thanks for the info. But does anyone have any thoughts on the fact that the Warlock kinda encourages selfishness?

 

[DreamChaser]

Anyway, once again, thanks for the info. But does anyone have any thoughts on the fact that the Warlock kinda encourages selfishness?

I don't have CA yet but I can say that what ur talking about sounds similar to alot of the psionic powers. Nearly all of the buff/healing/etc powers can only be used on the manifestor. It could be that that incourages a lack of team play but the same could be said for the rogue or fighter who have no abilities they can use on someone else (except the enemy).

The abilities of a class might lend themselves to one style or the other but the player is the one who ultimately decides.

DC

 

[UltimaGabe]

I don't have CA yet but I can say that what ur talking about sounds similar to alot of the psionic powers. Nearly all of the buff/healing/etc powers can only be used on the manifestor. It could be that that incourages a lack of team play but the same could be said for the rogue or fighter who have no abilities they can use on someone else (except the enemy).

It's not just the abilities- it's the entire feel of the class. The idea is that the Warlock (or one of the Warlock's ancestors) made some sort of an evil pact with a demon/whatever in order to gain power. Thus, all Warlocks must (by the rules) be either any Chaotic or any Evil. That, alone, isn't the greatest idea- but all of the description portrays Warlocks as being loners, mostly, only adventuring with others because they need protection and healing.

In the hands of a good roleplayer, it can be a great idea- since conflicts within a party can often be some of the best roleplaying opportunities. However, in the hands of, say, just about every new player, it becomes "Alright! I don't need any of you, so I'm gonna be as uncooperative as I can!"

There are far too many players in the world (from my experience) that are not team players at all. In a roleplaying game like D&D, nothing is going to get done (aside from players getting pissed off) if not every works together for the common good, and so unless every player knows exactly what they're doing, an un-teamworkable attitude does nothing but hurt everyone.

Like I said, it has great potential for a great class, but the flavor of it too strongly encourages not being a team player.