Do reserve feats make the Warlock redundant?

[Remathilis]

the warlock is still a better blaster, but a wizard with reserve feats has a few similar abilities. The warlock still has lots of other tricks (hp, ac, dr) wheras the wizard still has his spell-buffs.

I'd call it a wash, but reserve feats do make wizard a tempting alternative...

 

[Felon]

Well, the warlock still gets better hit dice, BAB, energy resistance, DR, use magic device talent, and some other junk. It was always a class that "looks good, plays bad" IME though, so I wouldn't miss it.

I think reserve feats provide a great alternative to how wands currently work. Rather than provide 50 charges of some caster-independent spell, they could effectively provide small consistent benefits. An attack wand would be the equivalent of a wizard's sword or bow.

 

[Qualidar]

Reserve feats require prepping one of a given set of spells or saving a spell slot and not using it, in order to gain some cool abilities, like a su ability to throw up to 9d6 lightning damage at an opponent every round.

Although true, I think that's a bit misleading: it's actually 1d6/spell level, so you'd be sacrificing a 9th level spell slot for that. And, you'd have to be high enough to cast 9th level spells to begin with, which mean you can be doing a whole lot more to begin with. I also think that the fact that it's a 20' line helps keep the balance.

In regards to the discussionat hand, what kind of damage is a Warlock throwing out at 17th level? Probably better than a 20' line of electricity.

JMO YMMV
~Qualidar~

 

[Mercule]

It was always a class that "looks good, plays bad" IME though, so I wouldn't miss it.

I've never understood that claim. The warlock IMC is considered one of the most useful PCs. Of course, the Swashbuckler is the other high-profile character, so my campaign may not be normal.

 

[radferth]

The warlock was always redundant, but still fun to play. I have to say the one niche that the warlock fill that no one had mentioned is that you can play one with atrocious ability scores and it doesn't lose much. The one I play was made with a point build, with lots in charisma, and I now realize all that does is increase the save DC on incantations I can cast round after round until they work.

 

[Felon]

In regards to the discussionat hand, what kind of damage is a Warlock throwing out at 17th level? Probably better than a 20' line of electricity.

Well, the warlock isn't a class with a heavy payload (which is OK, IMO not every class has to have high damage output). The eldritch blast will inflict 9d6 damage, and blast shap invocations can be applied to make it a 30 foot cone or a 20 foot radius blast centered on the warlock.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Not just more invocations known, but more invocations to choose from. Even after Dragon Magic and Complete Mage, there still isn't enough variety in the invocations. Too much focus on improving/altering the eldritch blast.

And the ability to change them up.

 

[Felon]

I've never understood that claim. The warlock IMC is considered one of the most useful PCs. Of course, the Swashbuckler is the other high-profile character, so my campaign may not be normal.

It boils down to this: the warlock only does a few things, but does them ad infinitum. If the warlock picks invocations that turn out to be weak, then he'll always be doing something weak. If he picks something that's easy to exploit, then he'll be exploiting the heck out of it. "All things in moderation" is one of the better homilies out there for a reason, folks.

Sure, it's pretty handy for the party to have a warlock that walks around using dark speech to shatter everything--and I do mean everything--but it's also a pain in the neck for the guy running the campaign. Likewise, it's annoying to have a class that makes invisibile creatures pointless, or who you can count on to fill up every battlefield with masses of chilling tentacles, or who tries to charm every NPC and monster encountered. Now, please, nobody try to regale me with all the various ways these specific abilities I mentioned can be mitigated; not only are you unlikely to think of anything I haven't thought of, but you'd be kind of missing the point. Invocations will be in non-stop use, so any countermeasures have to be nigh-constant as well.

Worst of all, the player in question has every reason to think he should be allowed to use his invocations at every opportunity. It's what the class does (and the character being evil or chaotic doesn't help in the self-policing department either).

Looks good, plays bad.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Sure, it's pretty handy for the party to have a warlock that walks around using dark speech to shatter everything--and I do mean everything

Has that power ever been clarified? IIRC, Dark Speech had a cha drain from BoVD, and also required you have the feat in order to avoid instant no save death if you uttered a word, which as a vile feat kind of planted it in NPC realm in many campaigns.

 

[Drowbane]

Huge difference between Rules and SFX.

Has that power ever been clarified? IIRC, Dark Speech had a cha drain from BoVD, and also required you have the feat in order to avoid instant no save death if you uttered a word, which as a vile feat kind of planted it in NPC realm in many campaigns.

Baleful utterance is merely based on Dark Speech from BoVD. Its just flavor. If/when my warlock picks up BU, it will manifest with some sort of fire/heat SFX.