So, if you've accepted the Warlock's 9d6 Eldritch Blast; what if it healed?

[Rystil Arden]

This is also the same argument that is used to "prove" the Warlock is "overpowered" compared to a sorcerer, which is utter rubbish. But they can keep on blasting in the 39th fight of the day! Overpowered!

But they only do 9d6 1 time per round.

But they can keep on blasting in the 39th fight of the day!

You give up the great heal right now, for the ability to heal all day.

I am sorry, but I'll take the cleric that can bring me from 3 hp to 170 hp in a single "Heal" over the Healock with his 1 9d6 heal a round. There are high level enemies that will blow through 9d6 in one iterative attack. Color me unimpressed and unswayed by this argument as to the overpowered nature of a healock, or a warlock.

In some sense I definitely agree with you. The healock does not present an in-battle balance problem compared to the cleric because in battle every action comes at a premium. But out of combat, the ability becomes a problem because you have an effectively unlimited number of actions compared to how many you need. The warlock's Eldritch Blast isn't useful out of combat, so the fact that it is weaker and costs an action is perfectly balanced. So we aren't arguing that the healock destroys the usefulness of the cleric, but rather that it causes problems in the time dynamic of many adventures. Here's an example: An evil cult is summoning Orcus to destroy the country. We need to fight past the guards in order to stop them by sunset or all is lost. With a healock, this is trivial unless the guards are all large, near-death encounters, whereas before you could use attrition from multiple fights with lesser enemies to balance an encounter series. So its not that you can't make an adventure with a healock so much as that you have to use metagaming to change the dynamic, which means that you lose out on a good deal of campaign options.

 

[Koewn]

The real problem is at the lower levels when the cleric has just a few spells for curing. Even at 7th level the cleric has good healing for in combat but out of combat the Healock will still do much better.

Correct.

Since out-of-combat time is basically..over 14,350 rounds a day (assuming 50 rounds in combat a day, 6 second rounds), we've got a lot of healing that can get done. That's a big number, so time isn't a worry. Every other crazy power eventually gets broken down into gold pieces, (all the threads on Vow of Poverty come to mind) so let's do this one.

Assuming a Fighter (100hp), Rogue (60hp), Wizard(40hp), Healock(60hp), all need to be brought up from 0.

Wands of CLW are the cheapest to be had. $750 for 50, that's $15 a pop. We're healing 260 hp, at 10th level on the party.

At an average of 5 (1d8+1) on the wand, that's 52 charges for $780.

The 1st level party at 26 HP takes 6 charges, that's $90.

The 20th level party, at 520 HP, takes 104 charges at $1,560.

Anyway. That party costs $90 per level per encounter to heal from a CLW wand, assuming that out-of-combat is our major concern. How's that sound? For a high-level party that has to stop the evil cult in 24 hours; that's not a big cost.

Koewn

 

[Kopana]

I must applaud this. I stumbled upon this thread while searching for the Healing Warlock build I'd heard someone mentioned, as my players need some healing. I was surprised to stumble headlong into one of the best, most well-thought out Warlock variants ever. I'm considering implementing this to be honest, but I'm not sure how it would do with the balance of the game. Interestingly though, I seem to be in a situation where more than four encounters a day is entirely possible if the PCs aren't sneaky enough. Something on the order of dozens of little fights if they go walking down the streets of the demon-infested city they're trapped in.

If you had to pick something right now, that would be playable at level one, what would you suggest? I'm leaning towards 1d4 healing that converts half to nonlethal, increasing over time and then adding dice once it hits d8. With an Invocation that modifies the blast to reduce stun time by 1d4 rounds, which would be heavily useful in a campaign where ghouls walk the streets en masse. I actually have one player who would probably worship this DMPC, they have horrible luck with stunning. Always rolling the maximum time, and getting stunned in virtually every encounter where it's even remotely possible, regardless of who hosts.

 

[Derro]

I'm not totally clear if the OP is searching for an alt.warlock or a new chain of invokations. Personally I'd go for a few new invokations rather than altering the focus of the warlock. Healing on tap can be rationalized with all the number crunching you want but I still think it would make things a bit stale. I mean face it, healing is the cleric's job but hardly the high-lite of the class. I won't argue the point but I think on-tap damage is less likely to monkey-wrench the gears than on-tap healing.

If I may be so bold as to suggest some invokations.

Least

Invigorating Touch
2nd Level

The warlock may touch one individual to remove one of the following conditions: dazed, dying (becomes stable), exhausted (becomes fatigued), nauseated (becomes sickened), sickened, or stunned (becomes dazed). No character may benefit from this touch more than once per day even if attempting to remove different conditions.

Lesser

Healing Touch
?3rd Level?

The warlock chooses a target to receive the benefit of a healing ray. The ray heals one-half of the damage that would normally be dealt by the warlock's eldritch blast. No character may benefit from this warlock's healing touch more than once per day.

Greater

Greater Invigorating Touch
5th level

The warlock may touch one individual to remove one of the following conditions: blindness, deafness, or paralysis. Alternately the target receives the benefit of a remove curse, remove disease, neutralize poison, or restoration. No character may benefit from this touch more than once per day even if attempting to remove different conditions.

Dark (ironic)

True Healing
7th Level

The warlock may touch a single creature to provide the target with the benefit of a heal spell. The warlock's caster level for the purpose of restoring hit points is equal to the amount of dice he has available when making an eldritch blast. No character may benefit from this warlock's true healing more than once per day.

This is rough and I will admit a bit half-baked. a) I doubt my level equivalents are scaled properly and b) healing of this magnitude is really the province of divine magic (bard not withstanding). I think the last issue sort of went out the window with the conception of this thread though. And ultimately the warlock is a darkly themed character. I know they're not exclusively evil they are generally considered malign. I suppose there could be a "good witch" variant or theme though.

 

[Folly]

You should look at the PrC Eldritch Disciple from Complete Mage. It has a healing essence as an option.

 

[Asurya]

If I had to make such a thing, I would definitely go the [essence] invocation route too.

Considering that all the arguing about unlimited out-of-combat healing is kinda moot since the CC came out (with the healing [reserve] feat), I think it's safe to use.

 

[Nifft]

Considering that all the arguing about unlimited out-of-combat healing is kinda moot since the CC came out (with the healing [reserve] feat), I think it's safe to use.

Limiting the free healing to only healing people up to half would solve it, yes.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

We have a party that consists of a Warlock, a Dragon Shaman, a Paladin and a Druid.
The Druid is basically the only one who has to care about longer resource management, and the Dragon Shaman's healing aura ensures that we at least get our "healing to full" for half the price.

Such a group can face different challenges than a classic group with a stronger focus on daily resources.
Our advantage is that we don't suffer much from resource depletion. As long as we heal ourselves back, moderate encounters (around party level) don't put any strain on us. We can nearly go "forever" if put against such monsters.

What we lack is the ability to "spike" our damage. We have little resources that would allow us to really go "nova" and beat an encounter above our party level.

So, maybe a party with a "Heallock" might be assured of fighting forever - if only fighting equal level opponents - look at their ability to spike their damage and their healing.
Wands of Cure Light Wounds, a Dragon Shaman's Healing Aura, or a Heallock can be great after combat. But can they heal enough damage in combat? If your party's Fighters is at half hit points after the first full attack of your enemy, 4d6 points of healing might just not cut it. You need a Heal spell, or remove the monster.