Eric Finley
First Post
Hah. This appears to be airtight. Here's a fun trick for your party rogue to save for a rainy day (and a spare pair of feats)...
Prerequisite: You're a rogue. Your party includes a warlock (who isn't you).
Get yourself:
1) Feat: Student of Malediction - MC Warlock (AP). Lets you place a curse once per encounter, and inflict curse damage once per encounter. Dealing the curse damage ends your curse.
2) Feat: Accursed Coordination (AP). Lets you place a curse on a target already cursed by another warlock. Against such a doubly cursed target you gain combat advantage.
For bonus points, pick up:
3) Feat: Quickdraw. Or a free hand and a rogue build which usually ends up with plenty of unused minor actions.
4) Quickcurse Rod +1 (lvl2 item). CSR confirms that this can be used, and does not use up your "once per encounter place a curse" from SoM. Your warlock buddy may want one for himself, too, if he's not already using one.
5) Mercurial Rod +2 (lvl6 item).
6) Feat: Accursed Accuracy. You don't take penalties to attack from concealment or total concealment if you have cursed your target. (As an added bonus, if you've managed your Perception check against an invisible target, all it's got left is Total Concealment, which you can now ignore.)
This is a grudge-match trick for low- to mid-levels, for use in killing one or two BBEGs, presumably elites or solos. But even at Epic, we're looking at some pretty serious awesome.
Your buddy places his curse on a target, then you place yours. If you're both using Quickcurse Rods then you can do this as soon as you like during combat, even during an enemy's turn, and on any enemy you both can see. Swap your Quickcurse Rod away or even drop it, it won't do you a lick of good beyond that first free action.
Now you have combat advantage against the target. Period. No need for flanking, stealth, Distant Advantage, or any of that jazz. Until (a) the end of the encounter, (b) it dies, or (c) you use your SoM curse damage, you have permanent CA against it. If you took Accursed Accuracy then you also ignore all concealment or total concealment it may have, up to and including invisibility provided you have figured out which square it's in.
Lacerate, rinse, repeat.
Then, when you decide that the bonus damage is worth more to you than combat advantage in later rounds, you actually use the curse on it, having drawn your Mercurial Rod first. Boosted curse inflicts 3d6 at Heroic, 4d6 at Paragon or 5d6 at Epic. Mercurial Rod and effect of SoM both uncurse the target as you do so, but at this point who cares - you've just done sneak attack plus at least 3d6 on top of whatever concealment-ignoring auto-CA attack you just hit with (and if you didn't hit, you didn't use this option up anyway).
To get more than one prime target this way: Using your minor action curse plus a Quickcurse Rod, you can have two such targets at a time. (CSR confirms. And dealing curse damage to one leaves the other one cursed by you, even if this can no longer deal curse damage anymore.) Personally as the DM I wouldn't let you use more than one Quickcurse Rod per encounter, but YMMV. And/or, take Pact Initiate (Vestige Pact) and you can use Eyes of the Vestige to place your curse yet another time. And/or, at Paragon you can take Twofold Curse to add twice as many victims to your roster. Note that in all these cases, you'll only be able to use the "end the curse to do bonus damage" once per encounter. For the rest of them you're stuck with auto-CA and ignore-all-concealment. Cope.
Extra goodnesses: Pact Blades give you auto-damage against your target when it melee attacks you (much more useful to you than to a warlock, and works fine in your off-hand, or would even stack with two). Pact Sword for Eladrin. Warlock's Bracers give you +1 to all defenses against those you've cursed. The Reckless Curse feat (humans, heroic, AP) gives you +1 to hit, but +1 to be hit by, your targets. The Warding Curse feat (epic, AP) gives you +2 to all defenses against creatures under your curse. Curse of Doom Ensured (epic, AP) lets you pass CA to the next party member, too, for if you're not the only rogue on the team.
And, you get access to Sacrifice to Caiphon (Dragon #366). 'Nuff said.
Not useful here: Rod of Corruption triggers off of a pact boon activating, not off of a cursed enemy reaching 0HP, and thus you can't use that method to spread it around. Use Twofold Curse, Eyes of the Vestige, and Quickcurse Rod. (Other possibles arise if you go Doomspeaker or Feytouched PP, but I don't expect you will want to.)
Probably not useful: Vicious Rod (curse dice d8s). The bonus from a Mercurial Rod is simply better, and presumably for the killing strike you're holding a weapon in one hand, so one rod is all you get. But if you can do the final hit with rods in both hands, due to multiclassing, Dragon's Breath, sustained powers, or simply the choice to ignore base weapon damage and kick them to death, then you could stack both if you like. IMO not remotely worth it.
Very worthwhile power-swap feat: Transcendent Dance (Warlock Utility 10) - as a daily, add your Dex modifier to speed and saves until the end of the encounter. Warlocks are, like, "So what? Why the hell is this here?" You, not so much. This is gold.
Prerequisite: You're a rogue. Your party includes a warlock (who isn't you).
Get yourself:
1) Feat: Student of Malediction - MC Warlock (AP). Lets you place a curse once per encounter, and inflict curse damage once per encounter. Dealing the curse damage ends your curse.
2) Feat: Accursed Coordination (AP). Lets you place a curse on a target already cursed by another warlock. Against such a doubly cursed target you gain combat advantage.
For bonus points, pick up:
3) Feat: Quickdraw. Or a free hand and a rogue build which usually ends up with plenty of unused minor actions.
4) Quickcurse Rod +1 (lvl2 item). CSR confirms that this can be used, and does not use up your "once per encounter place a curse" from SoM. Your warlock buddy may want one for himself, too, if he's not already using one.
5) Mercurial Rod +2 (lvl6 item).
6) Feat: Accursed Accuracy. You don't take penalties to attack from concealment or total concealment if you have cursed your target. (As an added bonus, if you've managed your Perception check against an invisible target, all it's got left is Total Concealment, which you can now ignore.)
This is a grudge-match trick for low- to mid-levels, for use in killing one or two BBEGs, presumably elites or solos. But even at Epic, we're looking at some pretty serious awesome.
Your buddy places his curse on a target, then you place yours. If you're both using Quickcurse Rods then you can do this as soon as you like during combat, even during an enemy's turn, and on any enemy you both can see. Swap your Quickcurse Rod away or even drop it, it won't do you a lick of good beyond that first free action.
Now you have combat advantage against the target. Period. No need for flanking, stealth, Distant Advantage, or any of that jazz. Until (a) the end of the encounter, (b) it dies, or (c) you use your SoM curse damage, you have permanent CA against it. If you took Accursed Accuracy then you also ignore all concealment or total concealment it may have, up to and including invisibility provided you have figured out which square it's in.
Lacerate, rinse, repeat.
Then, when you decide that the bonus damage is worth more to you than combat advantage in later rounds, you actually use the curse on it, having drawn your Mercurial Rod first. Boosted curse inflicts 3d6 at Heroic, 4d6 at Paragon or 5d6 at Epic. Mercurial Rod and effect of SoM both uncurse the target as you do so, but at this point who cares - you've just done sneak attack plus at least 3d6 on top of whatever concealment-ignoring auto-CA attack you just hit with (and if you didn't hit, you didn't use this option up anyway).
To get more than one prime target this way: Using your minor action curse plus a Quickcurse Rod, you can have two such targets at a time. (CSR confirms. And dealing curse damage to one leaves the other one cursed by you, even if this can no longer deal curse damage anymore.) Personally as the DM I wouldn't let you use more than one Quickcurse Rod per encounter, but YMMV. And/or, take Pact Initiate (Vestige Pact) and you can use Eyes of the Vestige to place your curse yet another time. And/or, at Paragon you can take Twofold Curse to add twice as many victims to your roster. Note that in all these cases, you'll only be able to use the "end the curse to do bonus damage" once per encounter. For the rest of them you're stuck with auto-CA and ignore-all-concealment. Cope.
Extra goodnesses: Pact Blades give you auto-damage against your target when it melee attacks you (much more useful to you than to a warlock, and works fine in your off-hand, or would even stack with two). Pact Sword for Eladrin. Warlock's Bracers give you +1 to all defenses against those you've cursed. The Reckless Curse feat (humans, heroic, AP) gives you +1 to hit, but +1 to be hit by, your targets. The Warding Curse feat (epic, AP) gives you +2 to all defenses against creatures under your curse. Curse of Doom Ensured (epic, AP) lets you pass CA to the next party member, too, for if you're not the only rogue on the team.
And, you get access to Sacrifice to Caiphon (Dragon #366). 'Nuff said.
Not useful here: Rod of Corruption triggers off of a pact boon activating, not off of a cursed enemy reaching 0HP, and thus you can't use that method to spread it around. Use Twofold Curse, Eyes of the Vestige, and Quickcurse Rod. (Other possibles arise if you go Doomspeaker or Feytouched PP, but I don't expect you will want to.)
Probably not useful: Vicious Rod (curse dice d8s). The bonus from a Mercurial Rod is simply better, and presumably for the killing strike you're holding a weapon in one hand, so one rod is all you get. But if you can do the final hit with rods in both hands, due to multiclassing, Dragon's Breath, sustained powers, or simply the choice to ignore base weapon damage and kick them to death, then you could stack both if you like. IMO not remotely worth it.
Very worthwhile power-swap feat: Transcendent Dance (Warlock Utility 10) - as a daily, add your Dex modifier to speed and saves until the end of the encounter. Warlocks are, like, "So what? Why the hell is this here?" You, not so much. This is gold.
