How is the warlock not overpowered?

[Raspen]

balancing classes seems to be a hard thing for any games to do. if you take warloc and put it next to any other caster class you can do the math and see that if falls short of ability unless the game last a very long time without rest.

the damage on the blast is week compaired to the damage that can come from another caster.

take greater invis from a warloc he can do it as much as he wishes but at lvl 20 its one of 3 of hes most powerful invocations.

take greater invis from a sorcerer he can do is 36 times (without gear/or bonus spells form chr) at lvl 20 and its one of his lvl 4 spells hardly a powerful one at all.

lets take damage a warloc will do 11d6 (with gear) at lvl 20 once per round (not counting quickend or glaive).

lets take damage of a sorcerer we will use the spell disintegrate 40d6 (or 5d6) it can be cast 24 times without gear

and lets just look at say Wish that compairs to a warlocs ummm a warlocs..........

 

[pallandrome]

I found that certain feats made the class immensely more useful. I generally suggest taking all the fey touched feats you cen get. Among other things, you get a bit of healing (use the summon natures ally to get 1d3 unicorns) confusion, and iminsion door, as well as an extra DR 5/Cold Iron, which stacks with the warlock DR. Oh, and an all important increase in your invocation DCs.

 

[pawsplay]

Basically, it lets you play a bush league superhero alongside full-on epic heroes. You're the Scarlet Witch, they're Conan, Legolas, Merlin, the Grey Mouser, and St. George the Dragon Slayer. You can turn invisible, create clouds of nastiness, and go PEWPEWPEW all day, but you have no damage output, few utility abilities, weak defenses, some MAD problems, little to look forward to at mid to high levels, few offensive tactics that avoid SR, and are feat-starved in a way only a paladin can appreciate.

I hope and pray that every warlock PC realizes they need to max out UMD by level 5 or so.

 

[pallandrome]

Yet strangely, the moment you get that first epic feat, you should be balanced again!

(Shades at will, ftw!)

 

[brehobit]

I found that certain feats made the class immensely more useful. I generally suggest taking all the fey touched feats you cen get. Among other things, you get a bit of healing (use the summon natures ally to get 1d3 unicorns) confusion, and iminsion door, as well as an extra DR 5/Cold Iron, which stacks with the warlock DR. Oh, and an all important increase in your invocation DCs.

Not to mention actual spells. By 9th level a human warlock can have 6 spells/day. Makes the warlock quite competitive up to at least level 11. That a UMD make up nicely for the lack of general flexiblity. Heck, by summoning unicorns you can even heal people...

Mark

 

[Particle_Man]

Since I got quoted here, I should add:

The Warlock is not only a great class for newbie players, it is an awesome class for the DM that needs (a) quickly made and easy to run magic using villain(s). My DM basically does not use wizards or sorcerors anymore, just warlocks.

Fey-Touched feats are nice, but that is a 5 feat investment!

Damn, now I want to play one again!

 

[Felon]

Why is it that I am the only one who does not think this to be overpowered.

Why is it that you have concluded that you are the only one who thinks that? A lot of folks think it's a dandy, balanced class.

Throwing out the words "overpowered", "balanced", and "weak" as if they were the only meaningful labels that can be applied to a class is sort of a kneejerk reaction that leads to some miconceptions. In this case, if we conclude that the warlock is not "overpowered", does that automatically clear it for gameplay? If you're not "overpowered", are you therefore "balanced"?

My own experiences with the class show that it has a very high potential for abuse relative to other classes due to its ability to spam its invocations. Not so much that I'd ban it outright, but I would express my concerns to that player. I don't want the warlock going around using dark speech to spam shatter at every object that doesn't please his eye. I don't want him spamming charm on every NPC he encounters. I don't want every battlefield to become a morass of spammed chilling tentacles. I don't want him dimension-dooring around every obstacle. Any of that would get old real quick.

Now, another arcanist could conceivably try to do this sort of stuff (i.e. by going out and getting a wand of shatter), but in practice they are a lot less likely to do so than a warlock. The reason is simple: other casters have better things to do with their resources, while the warlock is constrained to repeating the same handful of tricks. Whereas other arcanists rely on a powerful arsenal, the warlock relies on infinite spammability. I'm not sure that's a great trade-off.

 

[Satori]

"If you think like a hammer, then everything starts to look like a nail."
-Abraham Lincoln

Warlocks are the quintessential "Hammer".

They are, in most primal form, the worst type of "One Trick Pony".

Imagine playing a wizard, then being told that the only spells you can cast are Magic Missle, Detect Magic, and Levitate. You can cast these at will, and your powers scale based on your level...but the bottom line is that you will be forced to cast these spells every round.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Warlock. In fact, I'm always about two heartbeats away from playing one every time a game comes around.

However, the class is AT BEST a moderately effective "Magical Archer", and should be compared to THAT, and not a primary caster.

When you look at it this way, it makes more sense.

 

[Darklone]

I like to play games where the wizards get ranged combat feats for their crossbow because they are used to use all their spells. And wands. And scrolls.

And still the warlocks aren't overpowered. Nice, useful, reliable, but not overpowered.

 

[Bad Paper]

Warlocks are boxers who can only jab.