New Warlock Pacts

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I think the biggest limitation on "Hey, new pact!" will be the fact that the Warlock is a striker. Re-theme it however you wish, the Warlock is about bringing a lot of hurt to one particular enemy. That's the narrow concept you have to work with.

For instance, I loved the Sha'ir, but his AD&D Al'Qadim incarnation seems more like a Controller to me. And historically he seems like a Leader / re-themed Bard.

No doubt that is the limitation, but I think my initial thinking was the relationship implies enough possibilities that you can work around the limitation.

The DnD Sha'ir for instance was such a horrible class mechanically that you could probably run it as a striker just as well as a controller.

The only really operative points in terms of that Sha'ir conception would be:

*The pact with the elemental courts
*The summoning
*Charismatic rather than intellectual or insightful caster.

And as of yet we know that Warlocks do summon where wizards and clerics do not, so this is the best available option for point two and a better option for point one then the original Sha'ir since its now an explicit mechanic. Point three we don't know about yet, but I think is probably accurate.

 

[Intrope]

I think the biggest limitation on "Hey, new pact!" will be the fact that the Warlock is a striker. Re-theme it however you wish, the Warlock is about bringing a lot of hurt to one particular enemy. That's the narrow concept you have to work with.

For instance, I loved the Sha'ir, but his AD&D Al'Qadim incarnation seems more like a Controller to me. And historically he seems like a Leader / re-themed Bard.

I think we're going to see classes that have "pacts" that are not Warlocks. At least, I sure hope so. I'd love to see an Elric-like class, which is clearly more Martial than the Warlock. Heh heh. Though perhaps Elric is just a Paladin of Chaos with a badass sword.

Actually, I suspect that their will be more Striker subtypes than any other role--so there's room for many different Warlock pacts, I think.

And given that Elric as a character revolves pretty strongly around his pacts with Arioch et al, I'm thinking Warlock with Fighter Training/multiclass/whatever you call it.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I'm gonna disagree with Intrope and Dr. Strangemonkey and stand by my statement. The Role of Striker is a real limitation. If you want a class that has a "pact" but isn't a "Striker", than you can't simply retheme the Warlock with a "101 Pacts" splatbook. Pacts with "dieties, dragons, celestials, elementals, Far Realms critters, totem animals, place spirits or vestiges" are all great choices thematically, but if you want (for instance) a pact with a healing spirit that revitalizes and gives courage - that's a Leader, not a Striker.

You're going to need a new class for that. A class that is a Leader, Defender or Controller.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'm gonna disagree with Intrope and Dr. Strangemonkey and stand by my statement. The Role of Striker is a real limitation. If you want a class that has a "pact" but isn't a "Striker", than you can't simply retheme the Warlock with a "101 Pacts" splatbook. Pacts with "dieties, dragons, celestials, elementals, Far Realms critters, totem animals, place spirits or vestiges" are all great choices thematically, but if you want (for instance) a pact with a healing spirit that revitalizes and gives courage - that's a Leader, not a Striker.

You're going to need a new class for that. A class that is a Leader, Defender or Controller.

A good point, but two things to consider:

First, DnD has always had this limitation, and it works both ways. The Sha'ir for instance didn't have pacts with gods and thus couldn't have much in the way of healing capability. Sometimes you have to make equivalencies and say a guy with a pact with a healing spirit is really going to be more cleric than warlock.

Second, there are cross role thematic traits. Paladins, for instance, are defenders but they have also been statted with healing skills and powers so that they can play the leader role in a pinch. Just so a warlock clearly has lots of powers that control the battlefield and that's probably a secondary specialty for them - they'd do better at battlefield control then rogues anyway. So a Warlock with a healing power-set probably isn't totally out of the control.

It's worth noting that the roles are more like degrees then straitjackets. Just because you got your BA in Striking doesn't mean you didn't minor in control or develop extracurricular leader capabilities. What it does mean is that the people who designed your degree had to make certain you were good at Striking regardless of how good you were at anything else.

 

[Fifth Element]

You're going to need a new class for that. A class that is a Leader, Defender or Controller.

I think you're assuming that the roles are very tightly defined, more a straightjacket than a guideline. We just don't know yet to what degree that is true, if at all.

 

[FireLance]

My understanding of roles is that it's the one thing that a character with that class will do well - its primary function, so to speak. So, if you're playing a striker, it's a good idea to focus your efforts on dealing large amounts of damage to single opponents. You may be able to do other things (and sometimes, it may be a good idea to do them), but you won't go far wrong if you play to your strengths.