FR Excerpt: Dark Warlock pact

[Vendark]

If your allies don't sacrifice, the powers are pretty weak compared to other things you do. If they all sacrifice, it becomes very powerful but harms the party. So either the players refuse to sacrifice, and the warlock feels he's wasted a power, or the players feel used that they "have" to sacrifice "their" hitpoints.

And balance aside, its an ego thing. Many players hate when other players can affect their character. Even things like bluffing or intimidating a fellow group member can ruffle feathers. Now before people start screaming that their group is wonderful and perfect and everyone loves each other, the reality is that does happen in many groups, and there's no reason to encourage it.

Would you be willing to have your character provoke an opportunity attack to set up flanking for the rogue? If you can imagine doing that, it shouldn't be so onerous to power up the dark pact warlock now and then.

If those powers were kept in, I would use healing surges as the sacrifice instead. That way, players at least are not getting hurt in combat, it just means they have to rest more frequently.

That's a higher cost. The damage done to each ally by the powers we've seen so far is on average much lower than what they'd get back from a healing surge.

 

[jsaving]

At first glance, this seems cool. Letting players arbitrarily suck out allies' hit points to advance the party's agenda makes warlocks seem like sinister puppetmasters, providing a flavorful new way for ancestrally evil/selfish races like the Drow to employ that aspect of themselves on behalf of their allies.

Unfortunately, after playtesting this power in a variety of contexts over the last few days, I have to say it isn't nearly as well-designed as it initially appears to be. If everyone around the table is a novice, allies are likely to be drained at the wrong time and be ill-prepared for it to happen, potentially sabotaging the entire adventure. If everyone around the table is experienced, on the other hand, the warlock PC will be hamstrung rather than liberated as he finds himself forced into a decision-by-committee process. This would indeed introduce a new type of flavor to the game, as the designers wish, but it would be one in which the warlock is more beggar than string-puller -- exactly the opposite of what was intended.

Other problems will result in mixed campaigns. If the warlock's player is less experienced than other people around the gaming table, he will likely be excluded from the party because more experienced players won't wish to carry someone who may turn out to be more liability than asset. If the warlock's player is more experienced than his compatriots, on the other hand, he'll likely be resented when he uses these kinds of powers even if he's objectively helping the party.

Ordinarily, a new idea that worsens the atmosphere around the gaming table while failing to provide its desired flavor would be considered bad design, no matter how "cool" or "Drow-ish" it might seem at first glance. And I think that's what we're looking at as far as the dark pact is concerned -- a good idea that was, unfortunately, poorly executed.

 

[Chauzu]

This looks like a really cool class to play, especially as an evil character!