Design & Development: The Warlock

[Stone Dog]

Infernal is pretty specifically LE.

I am looking forward to playing a fire and brimstone LG warlock with infernal powers. Helping the innocent, defending the weak and punishing the wicked with a taste of the damnation that waits for them.

"Repent your wicked ways or the fires of hell await you!"
"I'll never repent! I'll destroy you all!" BAMFBAMF "OW OW OW OW!!!!"
"Told you!"

 

[Belen]

But when you make false or misleading claims ("warlocks are an evil-aligned class"), it's reasonable to expect to be called on it.

I read the article. I drew my own conclusions. I find it neither false nor misleading. If Wizards wanted to make it clear, then it would have been an easy fix. The article is dark. It focuses on what I consider to be dark and evil. Thus, I formed a conclusion. You may disagree with that conclusion; however, I would bet that the class says "any non-good."

I have never seen dark, emotionally scarred, angsty loner anti-hero done well. It is one of those "unfun" for the group styles of playing.

In any event, the fact that tieflings and warlocks are in the core PHB will keep my from upgrading.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

In any event, the fact that tieflings and warlocks are in the core PHB will keep my from upgrading.

... and since, therefore, you have no further interest in 4E, you'll be ... ?

 

[Paraxis]

Right! NO previous version of D&D had characters with pets! This is clearly STRAIGHT from videogames!

Sure they did, and before I continue I think literature and D&D has had much more impact on WOW and other games then those games have had on any version of D&D.

Ok,
Name Warlock=same as that of the class in WOW.
Targets a creature and if kills it then is rewarded with a Boon of Souls=killing a target and making a soul shard from WOW.

Those two things alone are not that bad, add in having a summonable pet (Imp, Succubus, ect...) is just so much like the WOW version of warlock to not be a complete and cheap copy.

I would figure that the design team had more creative talents then to just photocopy stuff from the video game they probably play all day at work when they should be coming up with better stuff then what I've seen so far with this current Warlock.

Umm. I'll bet you an imaginary cookie that different warlocks with different patrons have different powers.

I guess we will have to wait and see, but I doubt it. The whole Shadow and Feral stuff is just like the fluff text from the 3.5 Warlock where it can be from any Outsider....but all the powers and abilities had strong infernal influence.

Don't get me wrong as an NPC class or as a class from a splat book that doesn't take up space in the first PHB and limit the available stuff from the SRD the warlock is a fine addition to the game. But has a very dark feel to it, in a game where you are supposed to be part of the points of light in darkness, and a more traditional class like Druid or Bard would be better for the core PHB.

 

[Stone Dog]

... and since, therefore, you have no further interest in 4E, you'll be ... ?

Spending time talking about things unwanted and unlooked for apparently.

 

[hong]

I read the article. I drew my own conclusions. I find it neither false nor misleading.

This is fair enough. It's reasonable that you would not find your own conclusions false and misleading.

 

[Belen]

Psssst. They're generally in the 4e forum. As it's pretty much about 4e, which you don't want to upgrade to, a solution to your two problems seems to present itself.

You're right. Since I had been following the news about 4e and did not make the decision until this thread, then I obviously had no right to be paying attention to this forum. I forgot it was only for fanboys who consider 4e the second coming.

I will now remove myself from here and please feel free to come to Circvs Maximvs sometime where I can be quite candid when speaking to you.

 

[Grog]

It's probably worth pointing out that 1st edition had an evil-only class in the PHB (the Assassin). So the idea of an evil-only class has been done before, and in the core rules.

That said, I do hope the warlock isn't evil-only (or, if alignment is being drastically overhauled/done away with, that the flavor will allow for non evil-ish options).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

This is the most evil thing so far, sending someone to the lower planes doesn't sound like anything a non-evil being would do. Note it doesn't say send to Feywild or Shadowfell if you've made pacts with those forces, nope you send the to Hell.

It doesn't say that a Warlock with these patrons will have access to the same ability.

And actually, sending people to the lower planes is what you do all the time in D&D if you kill evil people. At least that's what some of the rulebooks and settings say - people that are evil go the planes devoted for their alignments.

And I don't really see burning someone through ashes with a fireball as being morally better than sending him to hell for a few seconds - but then, neither ever happened to me, so I might be totally wrong and the latter is worse.

 

[Lackhand]

I am looking forward to playing a fire and brimstone LG warlock with infernal powers. Helping the innocent, defending the weak and punishing the wicked with a taste of the damnation that waits for them.

"Repent your wicked ways or the fires of hell await you!"
"I'll never repent! I'll destroy you all!" BAMFBAMF "OW OW OW OW!!!!"
"Told you!"

Sorry, I meant the alignments of the bosses of each power source. It's the most natural alignment to have while using their powers.

But I, too, doubt it's a prerequisite and if I ever played a warlock, I'd probably play against type, also.