Re: Warlock Curses. Are we doing this right?

[Rel]

Re: Warlock Curses. Are we doing this right?

I think we've been doing this correctly and it is a bit of a corner case so I'm not too concerned if we haven't been, but lend me your rules wisdom...

So a few rounds of the fight have gone by and the Warlock has Cursed three different targets. On his turn the Warlock uses an area effect attack and hits two of them. Then he uses an Action Point and makes a single-target attack against the third.

I've been thinking that the Warlock only applies the extra 1d6 bonus damage to one of these enemies. The rules say "Once per round". In the case of the area effect attack he still only gets to pick one of those two enemies to take the extra damage, right?

 

[Obryn]

That's how I understand it. The warlock gets to deal kicker damage 1/round.

-O

 

[Storminator]

That's right, tho there's a feat (Dooming Action in AP) that lets you do your curse damage again when you use an action point.

PS

 

[C_M2008]

Yes that's right, he can get pact boon benefits from all of them though(although multiple uses are useless in many instances).

 

[Rel]

Awesome. Thanks for the speedy responses.

 

[Nikosandros]

That's how I understand it. The warlock gets to deal kicker damage 1/round.

-O

I agree with this interpretation, but I find the rules somewhat ambiguous. Since for an area attack the damage is only rolled once, I've seen people argue that in that case you could deal the curse damage to multiple cursed targets at once. As I said, I disagree with this reading, but it does seem a possible interpretation.

 

[Rel]

I agree with this interpretation, but I find the rules somewhat ambiguous. Since for an area attack the damage is only rolled once, I've seen people argue that in that case you could deal the curse damage to multiple cursed targets at once. As I said, I disagree with this reading, but it does seem a possible interpretation.

Hmm. Well this is the way the player wants to interpret it for sure. Anything definitive from WotC?

 

[Klaus]

Hmm. Well this is the way the player wants to interpret it for sure. Anything definitive from WotC?

I can't say about WotC, but the text clearly indicates that only one target suffers the additional damage.

Sidenote: Arcane Power has a feat that lets a warlock deal Curse damage again on an action point-granted attack (like Predatory Action and Slaying Action).

 

[Nikosandros]

Hmm. Well this is the way the player wants to interpret it for sure.

Well, the warlock's player in my game actually agrees with me, but I've seen the other side argued on an Italian board.

 

[Jack99]

its probably those guys who write for mongoose. They are italian and do not seem to grasp the 4e rules very well