Does the Rod of Reaving make a mockery of Minions

[TheNovaLord]

my LFR warlock has a rod of reaving

you place curse on minion as a free action it dies.

it means when he uses say, vampric embrace, it only does 2d8 rather than 2d8+d6 curse against a better foe

gaining lots temp hp from a 1hp minion is a bit awkward i guess

from my instant read i never saw reaving+corruptiuon as a 'combo' attack' because you dont place the curse

 

[MrMyth]

-Not really an issue at lower levels; killing a minion with a curse, as opposed to actually cursing a more dangerous target and damaging it, is an acceptable trade-off (especially since you also lose out on any benefit you might be getting from a different Rod.) Limitation of only being able to curse 1/round makes it also somewhat slow to get going.

-At Paragon Levels it gets more powerful, when you can curse two targets at once. Of course, by then you are also running into all sorts of abilities that can easily handle minions - this specific one really isn't any worse than the rest. And, again - requires a Rod of Reaving. Which, don't get me wrong, is a quality choice in general, but is a limitation - especially with AV, there are a lot of good choices for Rods and Wands for Warlocks.

 

[ElCucuy]

Remember the warlock is still restricted to cursing only the closest target - just keep a normal monster between the warlock and the minons and you are good.
Also if the warlock is using his curse to take out minons, he is not getting his extra damage on the normal monsters.

This right here is 100% accurate.

I'm the DM of a campaign that has a warlock with a Rod of Reaving. Near the end of the first adventure he acquired it in as treasure. In other words, I actually GAVE it to him. The group just hit 5th level last night, so I've had the chance to watch him play this warlock through about 3+ levels with his Rod of Reaving. And to add to that, this is our resident min-max'er of our group.

Two things several limit him:

1) He can only curse the closest target. He's one of those crazy teleporting fey warlocks though, so he's able to move around pretty well, especially after killing a minion and getting his pact boon. But still, since most warlock powers are single target (at wills anyway), he essentially ends up killing a minion with his minor action and damage someone else with his standard action. The death of one minion per round really isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of battle. When he plays that minion slaying role, he's really just clean up for so the other characters don't waste actions on the minions.

2) Every time he drops a minion, that's one real target he didn't get to curse and get the extra d6 of damage towards. I think he's starting to notice the detriment this has on his overall damage, because he appears to be trying to curse the bigger targets first and then do the minion clean up later on.

The other characters (especially AOE PCs like the Wizard) have much better ways of cleaning out minions than a warlock being able to auto-kill one each round. And the Wizard with an extremely high Int (like all wizards do) is coming awfully close to auto-hitting the minions anyway, since they tend to have much weaker defenses than their more robust counterparts.

So I say let it in play and don't worry about it. It really does balance itself.

But...I am not in the camp that thinks that awfully cheap Rod of Reaving/Rod of Corruption gimmick works. That one I would no way allow, nor do I believe the rules allow it either. But that's another whole series of posts...

El Cucuy

 

[Danceofmasks]

@MrMyth
At paragon tier, a 'lock isn't really gimped from having a rod of reaving .. 'cos they should be using 2 implements.
Reaving to curse with, another rod to attack with.
Heck, a +1 rod is good enough for the purpose.

@ElCucuy
Rod of corruption transfers your curse instead of collecting the benefit of a pact boon.
It is not placing a curse (as per the minor action) .. so the end result of having both rods and cursing a minion .. is one dead minion and lots of cursed foes.

 

[ElCucuy]

@ElCucuy
Rod of corruption transfers your curse instead of collecting the benefit of a pact boon.
It is not placing a curse (as per the minor action) .. so the end result of having both rods and cursing a minion .. is one dead minion and lots of cursed foes.

I agree 1000% percent. That's exactly my interpretation of it as well. Which I why I don't think the Rod of Reaving is very powerful, nor the Rod of Corruption, nor the two combined...at least if you take the more likely intent of the rules and not the munchkin-minded idea that you can kill an entire army of minions with one tossed curse.

Unfortunately there seems to be a large number of people who have seemed to take our beloved game and turn it into some sort of video game where some misguided concept of winning is tantamount to the group's fun and the story being told.

And they won't get off my lawn!

Sorry, /end old man rant...

El Cucuy

 

[AbyssKnight]

For everyone who is saying that rod of Reaving/Corruption doesn't work, sorry to say that is incorrect. Checking the FAQ on WotC's website shows that it does. Heck, a simple search of this board will turn up a couple threads where this was covered and WotC's response.

Now, if you feel it is broken, by all means house rule that it does not work. But please stop making disparaging comments about people who allow it to work the same way the RAW and designers say it does.

 

[MrMyth]

For everyone who is saying that rod of Reaving/Corruption doesn't work, sorry to say that is incorrect. Checking the FAQ on WotC's website shows that it does. Heck, a simple search of this board will turn up a couple threads where this was covered and WotC's response.

That isn't true at all. The FAQ on WotC's sight addresses the fact that you can make use of two implements at the same time. The argument against Rod of Reaving / Corruption working is due to the precise terminology of each: Rod of Reaving triggers when you "place" your Curse upon a target, while Rod of Corruption "transfers" your Curse - and, thus, if one interprets these as different things, the combo doesn't work.

Now, I'm not going to say that another DM can't interpret it otherwise, as this is very much not a clear-cut situation. I don't agree with those who might disparage you for claiming that it works the way you think it does - but I think you are equally in the wrong to claim that the RAW and the designers say it works (which they have never done), and that anyone who thinks otherwise is simply house-ruling it.

 

[Stalker0]

I think the biggest problem with the rod of reaving is that you don't need a higher level version of it to have your desired effect. I can pull it out when there are minions around, curse them to death, and use my "real" rod for the regular guys.

 

[MrMyth]

I think the biggest problem with the rod of reaving is that you don't need a higher level version of it to have your desired effect. I can pull it out when there are minions around, curse them to death, and use my "real" rod for the regular guys.

Yeah, this is definitely the issue. It crops up with a variety of items, though it seems to apply to Warlock items more than most. It is a shame, since they seem to have made a real effort to avoid this sort of problem, but a few items slipped through the cracks and are somewhat open to abuse.