The Warlock - How has it played?

[ThirdWizard]

That's odd. I give at will abilities out all the time to PCs.

Warlocks are fine, in my book. I've never been one to ban teleports, flying, or the like because they got in the way. I like PCs having their cool abilities, and the game is more than capable of handling it. Just like when the PCs get to a certain level you can't challenge them with certain things anymore, when the PCs can do something at will you can't challenge them with certain other things either. The warlock isn't deep enough for any real problems to occur IMC. If anything, I think they're underpowered.

 

[satori01]

Not quite. The obstacle isn't there to bring the adventure to a screeching halt. It's more or less meant to be bypassed by players that expend a certain amount of effort. The issue with the warlock is that nothing's expended.



Sure he could--but would he? Each 4th-level spell he casts is one he won't cast later. That resource has to be managed.

Right the Warlock player won the lottery in this case and one of his small grouping of powers is useful here.

I understand that the at will nature of the Warlock is immicable to some people, frankly I do like the resource management aspect of D&D as well.

But lets face it all too often DMs (and I include myself here), have obstacles that are easily bypassed by a single spell. Stone wall blocks the way, whip out the Stone Shape spell, Druid didnt memorize Stone Shape, ok the party better rest for one day to memorize the spell, roll for wandering monster, and attack in the night.......opps the attack came when the druid was memorizing need to spend another night memorizing, ad infinitum ad nauseum.

Having a character like a Warlock be able to blow through things like this is not a bad thing, imho, and frankly is not that different then a savy player obsessed with making scrolls.

Again I can understand where people are comming from with their dislike of the Warlock, and by all means if one is running an extremely low magic game, a Warlock could give the GM a heart attack.

 

[FireLance]

Not quite. The obstacle isn't there to bring the adventure to a screeching halt. It's more or less meant to be bypassed by players that expend a certain amount of effort. The issue with the warlock is that nothing's expended.

Actually, there is a resource expended - the warlock's choice of invocations. It's just that the resource expenditure takes place at character creation and advancement, rather than during game play. Much like a fighter choosing feats, the opportunity cost of a particular invocation is another invocation. A 6th-level warlock might be able to dimension door at will, but but he can't fly, or turn invisble.

If you want to force resource management during game play, the problem is at-will abilities, and not just the warlock, although the warlock is the biggest offender since it is a class built around the idea of at-will abilities. I suspect that a paladin's detect evil or a fighter's Whirlwind Attack, or a bard's high Diplomacy modifier, or a flanking rogue's sneak attack, or a Druid or Ranger's wild empathy will also cause problems in-game. Unless, of course, the DM takes steps to reduce the effectiveness of such at-will abilities by tailoring the challenges so that the at-will abilities are not applicable or relevant all the time.

EDIT: Would it be a little below-the-belt to point out that the Scout's skirmish is another at-will ability?

 

[Particle_Man]

If only all spam worked that way.....

Maybe it can...

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/07/26/spannerkilled0726.html

 

[Felon]

EDIT: Would it be a little below-the-belt to point out that the Scout's skirmish is another at-will ability?

As has been discussed already, most of the warlock's abuse potential takes place out-of-combat. In combat, you hit the bad guys, they hit you back. Eventually, somebody falls down. If you don't expend resources hurting them, you expend resources dealing with them hurting you. Of course, if you had an at-will ability that allowed you to wade through one fight after another in "god mode", then I suspect a lot of DM's would object.

Guess I should point out that the warlock is on my list of allowed base classes. If somebody wanted to play one, I'd make my reservations known and see how it worked out. Personally, I think it's boring in terms of tactical options, bound to degenerate into repetitive tactics. But hell, it can't be worse than having another druid in the party...