It's official...

[Klaus]

Weapon Proficiency: Spiked Shield
Magic Item: Pact Blade Spiked Shield (yes, it's a light blade)
Weapon Proficiency: Parrying Dagger

You get the shield bonus to AC and the Defensive bonus to AC, no?

 

[Mort_Q]

Weapon Proficiency: Spiked Shield
Magic Item: Pact Blade Spiked Shield (yes, it's a light blade)
Weapon Proficiency: Parrying Dagger

You get the shield bonus to AC and the Defensive bonus to AC, no?

Can't see why not, save the feat cost. In addition, since the spiked shield is enchanted as a weapon, you can still wear magic bracers.

 

[-Avalon-]

Weapon Proficiency: Spiked Shield
Magic Item: Pact Blade Spiked Shield (yes, it's a light blade)
Weapon Proficiency: Parrying Dagger

You get the shield bonus to AC and the Defensive bonus to AC, no?

Great concept there... very unique hehe... I could see a Dwarf Infernal Warlock, wearing a spiked pact blade shield and wielding a parrying dagger... could _easily_ see that!

 

[Shroomy]

Friday's new "Court of the Stars" article introduces a new feat, power, and paragon path for fey pact warlocks, not to mention a whole mess of suggestions on how to role-play your fey pact. Just sayin'.

 

[Valesin]

Further observations on how screwed the feylock is...

There is no new usable paragon path. I mean, seriously, do these guys even read what is out there when they design a paragon path? The one that should be cool for the feylock, the Entrancing Mystic, is ridiculous. It's coolest power is a -5 to enemy saves vs. charm effects. Except that there is exactly ONE warlock charm effect that has a "save ends" condition (PHB and AP powers). All of the rest end after one turn or require additional successful attacks to sustain. So thanks for the totally worthless feature guys.

The other paragon path for feylocks is the Storm Scourge. Wanna limit yourself to one type of damage? Didn't think so. Of course, the sorcerer also has a paragon path that focuses on just lightning damage. The difference is that the sorcerer paragon path gets to ignore all resistance to lightning and even ignore most immunity to lightning. Seriously, is you are IMMUNE to lightning a sorcerer can still hurt you with lightning but a comparable warlock is useless.

 

[Shroomy]

Further observations on how screwed the feylock is...

There is no new usable paragon path. I mean, seriously, do these guys even read what is out there when they design a paragon path? The one that should be cool for the feylock, the Entrancing Mystic, is ridiculous. It's coolest power is a -5 to enemy saves vs. charm effects. Except that there is exactly ONE warlock charm effect that has a "save ends" condition (PHB and AP powers). All of the rest end after one turn or require additional successful attacks to sustain. So thanks for the totally worthless feature guys.

I found three warlock powers in the Compendium with the Charm keyword and a save ends condition, though two of them require a Sustain Minor action to get to that point (Curse of the Dark Dream and Crown of Madness, the third, btw is Passionate Betrayal); also, the Entrancing Mystic's Ultimatum of the Third Order Level 20 Daily fits the criteria of the power. In any case, the -5 penalty applies to any enemy suffering from the effects of any Charm power, not just one cast by the warlock, and the -2 penalty to all other saves is pretty nifty kicker IMO

 

[Goumindong]

The feylock, as near as I can tell, is close to unkillable. Great defenses, almost impossible to pin down, the list goes on.

Our feylock plays by cursing people and running into melee reach, casting eyebite while flanking and provoking opportunity attacks from enemies who have been marked by our fighter.

The problem is that rogues are just as good or better at this.

For instance a Charisma rogue is going to have 16 base AC from leather and dex, then +4 AC against opportunity attacks that scales as the rogue gets better. Just as many powers that allow you to retreat in some way and with a superior crossbow you're going to be doing a lot higher damage.

 

[Ryujin]

Can anyone find any neat combos or tricks that may make a warlock viable in melee using the double-blade idea? It really has piqued my interest... was only saying it "on-the-fly" yesterday, but now actually has me thinking...

So does anyone else have any ideas that may go with it?

Don't forget that Pact Swords also exist; act as an implement and give a once per day teleport attack. It might be better to use a Pact Sword in main- and a Pact Parrying Dagger in the off-hand. Being Eladrin would give you longsword proficiency and INT bonus for AC, but sadly not a CHA bonus. There's a new Bloodline Feat called Astral Splendor that gives a defensive stance once per day (+2 to all defences until bloodied), that might fit well with a Feylock concept. Basically great grandpa was a Deva, so you get to glow in the dark once per day.