Sacrifice to Caiphon - Overpowered?

[Evilhalfling]

On the plus side, warlocks seemed to be the most underpowered striker - unless/until they start using the kill 2 minions per round as minor action combo.

I changed the feat to 3+lvl damage. - Warlock is the preferred next character of the current leader, but the party is him and 2 strikers, so it may be a while before there is one played in my game.

 

[Shroomy]

Our star pact warlock sometimes has problems hitting anything (to put it mildly). I want him to take this feat. Hell, sometimes I think we need him to take this feat. I'm pretty sure he will at 6th level.

 

[Bayuer]

I was playing warlock and I didn't take this feat couse I was think it's useful only with multi targeting powers. Almost all my attack was vs. Fortitude. The hardest defense of almost all monsters. I realy say. This feat isn't overpowered. It's good.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

The problem is the cost. It's far more powerful with low level powers than the high levels. The cost doesn't scale with the utility at all.

It's the reverse of the Infernal Pact boon, which is almost meaningless at level 1 and very strong at level 30.

i.e. Warlock with con 14 at level 1= 26 hp, pays 1 hp to re-use a level 1 encounter. That's 3.85% percent of his HP to regain his only encounter power. A laughable choice, a complete no-brainer.

i.e. Same Warlock, level 11= 76 hp. Pays 1 hp, to recuperate his level 1 encounter power. That's 1,32% of his HP. A joke. But if he wants to recuperate his paragon path encounter, that's 11 hp. 14,47%. That's more of a choice. Especially since as good as the paragon path power can be, there is no way it is 1100% more powerful than the level 1 encounter power...

That's just bad. Many feat introduce a new tactical considerations, but I can't think of any that brings such absurd choices to the table.

To bring it in line, it should be proportional. i.e. Spend a healing surge and get back 1 encounter power (1/encounter max). The current write-up is absurd and isn't getting in any of my games.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, for an infernal 'lock, one dose of ablative temp hp will soak up all the damage from the feat .. regardless of what level power .. it's not that bad a deal.

Personally, I have more issues with the fact that:
It does not specify that the power has to be a warlock power.
So what level is ... say ... Dragon Breath?

 

[Incendax]

This feat is not broken because it allows you to regain encounter powers.
This feat is broken because it allows you to turn Encounters with Miss effects into At-Wills.

Hello, I'm a Multiclass Warlock/Cleric with the minimum wisdom necessary. Hell, I don't even have the right implement. I think I'll use Mantle of Glory! I can only hit on a 20? Aww shucks, I missed. I guess everyone gets to use a healing surge! [*sounds of party cheering*]

Otherwind Stride, Healing Torch, and Hand of the God all spring to mind. That's not even picking through the PHB for anything else more abusable.

 

[IanArgent]

This feat is not broken because it allows you to regain encounter powers.
This feat is broken because it allows you to turn Encounters with Miss effects into At-Wills.

Hello, I'm a Multiclass Warlock/Cleric with the minimum wisdom necessary. Hell, I don't even have the right implement. I think I'll use Mantle of Glory! I can only hit on a 20? Aww shucks, I missed. I guess everyone gets to use a healing surge! [*sounds of party cheering*]

Otherwind Stride, Healing Torch, and Hand of the God all spring to mind. That's not even picking through the PHB for anything else more abusable.

And the first example blew 2 feats to get it, and an encounter power where he is using an out-of-build stat. Enh.

It's a tad broken with Otherwind Stride. I would limit the feat to requiring an attack roll actually occur (as I would with any other power with a separate attack and effect), so no recharge of Otherwind Stride if nobody (or even no enemy) is next to the warlock when he uses the power.

That having been said, I think they should have run it off daily resources, either AP or healing surges (as my proposed Divine Recuperation feat above does). At the very least, put in a requirement to use actual HP, not Temp HP, given the infernal pact boon.

In the end, though, that makes it only a little overpowered, not ZOMG good. Any non-warlock who wants to take the feat has to court MAD and take 2 feats. The warlock who takes it still has to deal with having striker-level hit points.

For those of you looking to limit it - change the HP cost to the level of the character, not the power. That makes it a rough-and-ready scaling. (Or, as I believe someone mentioned, 5 for a heroic-tier power, 10 for a paragon-tier, and 15 for an epic-tier).

As a DM, though, I have already noticed that Encounter powers are the disappointing ones for my characters. At-wills you try again, Dailies almost always have some kind of effect on miss. Given the way the math works, encounters miss noticeably often. Now, both the campaign I'm running and the one I'm playing in are heroic-tier, so I don't know if this will get worse in the higher tiers (it might, given the lack of scaling).

 

[DracoSuave]

It's a tad broken with Otherwind Stride. I would limit the feat to requiring an attack roll actually occur (as I would with any other power with a separate attack and effect), so no recharge of Otherwind Stride if nobody (or even no enemy) is next to the warlock when he uses the power.

This is covered by two factors:

1) You actually have to miss with the power, so if there's no attack roll there's no miss.
2) The Bag-of-Rats rule.

In fact, it's the same with the Warlock/Cleric build mentioned before. It's -obviously- attempting to use the feat in a Bag-of-Rats-y way, and therefore can be veto'd using the Bag-of-Rats rule.

 

[Incendax]

In fact, it's the same with the Warlock/Cleric build mentioned before. It's -obviously- attempting to use the feat in a Bag-of-Rats-y way, and therefore can be veto'd using the Bag-of-Rats rule.

One could argue that the attack is being attempted against perfectly meaningful targets (such as in the case of Mantle of Glory), but it is only the attack itself that is not meaningful. Ergo, you avoid the Bag-of-Rats rule.

Regardless, I am opposed to this kind of abuse in general so it is a moot point. I am content with the fact that Dragon Magazine will never be allowed at my table. I have no faith in the level of playtesting that goes into their mechanics, despite how creative their non-mechanic ideas may be.

 

[IanArgent]

This is covered by two factors:

1) You actually have to miss with the power, so if there's no attack roll there's no miss.
2) The Bag-of-Rats rule.

In fact, it's the same with the Warlock/Cleric build mentioned before. It's -obviously- attempting to use the feat in a Bag-of-Rats-y way, and therefore can be veto'd using the Bag-of-Rats rule.

The bag-of-rats rule is thankfully not needed to be spelled out in my campaign so far. (admittedly, most are veterans of my SR game, in which I made it quite clear I could drop a PC within the rules any time I wanted, so don't push it, eh?)