Do Battleforged Armor & Cloak of the Walking Wounded stack?

[Rafe]

Perhaps you fight the dumbest monster of all time but most strikers I know, be they ranged or melee get hit, defenders can't take every single hit on the battlefield

It's not about dumb monsters, it's about playing wisely. A ranged striker who constantly needs to self heal and/or needs that much Con and other magic item "tanking" goodies is playing poorly. Yes, it's great to be able to take the hits, but not at the expense of the classes designed to do so being unable to because you have all the gear suited for their roles.

I'm not saying strikers don't or won't get hit - they will and that's a certainty - but you're talking about stacking Defender items on a Warlock. Personally, I think that's a waste of party resources. If the Warlock has all those magic items, what is the Paladin or Fighter left with?

Lastly, 4 items, 4 feats is not a huge expenditure.

That's the entire Paragon tier of feats used (or almost all of the Heroic tier). There are only 3 tiers. What would it take to be considered a "huge expenditure"? Both the Heroic AND Paragon tiers used up to turn a Warlock into a Defender?

I'm just saying such party resources are better used by those whose roles demand it. If your group has the resources to spare, go for it! I totally agree that it's better to be more self-sustaining than tax the powers of the Cleric, Paladin or Warlord but there's a limit to what they can expect others to cover.

Also... potions of healing aren't considered magic items and they're cheap. Each gives 10 hp and takes only two minor actions (retrieve it, drink it). They're always an option.

 

[Turtlejay]

If I got his tone right, I think that was more of an exercise of what he *could* do, not what he will do.

I am wondering why star pact, though. Infernal pact? Temp HP + all that heal-y goodness is near invincibility.

Jay

 

[Rafe]

If I got his tone right, I think that was more of an exercise of what he *could* do, not what he will do.

I am wondering why star pact, though. Infernal pact? Temp HP + all that heal-y goodness is near invincibility.

Jay

As a hypothetical, it'd be pretty amazing. I thought he was talking about doing so for a game he was in. "I'm going to..." were his words, so I may have misunderstood his intentions.

Yeah, with Infernal Pact... all that Con and the temp HP fun would make for a very powerful character with really high survivability, which I think he was going for.

 

[Ibixat]

Bleh I did mean infernal with lifestealer, not sure why I said star (if you look at life-stealer it requires infernal pact to begin with) I typed the wrong one for some reason.

30 Con on the warlock makes for potent offense and boosts the self healing a lot.

What do you mean by using up so many party resoures, 4 magic items at level 30? 4 (7 with the armors, which I'd probably take anyway) Feats of 18 at 30? I just don't see it. If anything this character would use less party resources being more healing self-sufficient.

Strikers, ranged or otherwise, get hit. There is a reason at 30 everyones Hit points are fairly tightly ranged. At level 30 a fighter with 26 con can expect around 230 hp if he has toughness

If you ignore your defenses as any class, you will be getting slammed by creatures quite often.

Healing potions, well yeah, a Potion of recovery, the level 25 healing potion costs 25,000 gold and gives you back 50 hp and costs a surge, the real benefit from it is the saves it grants you vs ongoing effects. But really chugging potions can help but is a costly solution.

I think I will make this character for RPGA play, no party resources to worry about there really but even in a normal party if a warlock having 4 magic items for defense is going to cause problems for the rest of the party then the magic item distribution to the party is far lower than is expected by the game design.

Lvl 30 +6 Battleforged Armor
Lvl 29 +6 Cloak of the walking wound
Lvl 24 Ring of Regeneration
Lvl 10 Belt of Blood

That falls well within the guidelines for even creating a higher level character on the spot from the DMG, use the Item of Level+1 for your weapon/implement etc, and those rules are conservative compared to the expected distribution from real gameplay.