Warlock basics

[Mr. Wilson]

Just about everything they do for Warlocks in Dragon is top notch, including this article.

Good advice (nice chart), 'locks getting their d8 feat, not overlooking the Tiefling mechanical problem, and some flavor feats.

I approve.

 

[Windjammer]

Wow. I had the impression very few people distrusted Dragon. it's pretty much written and vetted by the same guys that publish the books.

So .... you haven't heard about 'the incident'?

I highly suspect this will be in the Dragon Annual. I coulda sworn one of the Warlock articles from last year came out in that one.

It did. Starpact Warlock in Annual 2009.

 

[Phaezen]

Wow. I had the impression very few people distrusted Dragon. it's pretty much written and vetted by the same guys that publish the books.

So .... you haven't heard about 'the incident'?

I am more than happy to allow the Dragon material in my campaign, I have had more issues with powers and feats from some of the books to be honest (pre errata solar enemy I am looking at you).

WotC have been fairly quick with repealing and fixing mistakes that have crept through, such as the incident, and seem to be on track with errata for both the online content and the hard covers. They have also responded well to any issues pointed out in the forums and in most cases rules glitches are fixed by the time articles are compiled into the magazine at the end of the month.

 

[Rechan]

So .... you haven't heard about 'the incident'?

To which I reply 'Look how fast they fixed it!"

 

[JustKim]

This is going to redeem warlocks as strikers? I see a bunch of controller rider feats with highly specific, once-an-encounter conditions. I see one or two that add a small bit of damage under highly specific conditions. I see only one that increases damage on a reliable basis, and that's an average of +1 to curse damage.

If that 1 damage is all it takes to fix warlocks, I do not think they would be nearly as unpopular as they are.

 

[MrMyth]

This is going to redeem warlocks as strikers? I see a bunch of controller rider feats with highly specific, once-an-encounter conditions. I see one or two that add a small bit of damage under highly specific conditions. I see only one that increases damage on a reliable basis, and that's an average of +1 to curse damage.

If that 1 damage is all it takes to fix warlocks, I do not think they would be nearly as unpopular as they are.

Bumping the d6s to d8s is +1 damage per tier, giving them brutal one is +0.5 damage per tier, and the epic feat that gives +Int to damage is really hard to match. Adding Ongoing 5 or Daze (save ends) to all Daily powers at Paragon is pretty rad. The big remaining imbalance is that flat damage dice for spells can't compare to multiple[W] with superior weapons, and Superior Implements in PHB3 should hopefully help with that.

 

[Rechan]

and Superior Implements in PHB3 should hopefully help with that.

If the glimpse of sample Superior Implements is any indication, it won't necessarily.

The Superior Implements basically get keywords like brutal, high crit, accurate (+1 to attack), charmed (+1 to saving throws), and protective (+1 to NADs). I don't think those are going to do much for damage per se.

 

[Salamandyr]

I think, if anything, Dragon material often tends to be underpowered compared to the stuff in the books. Pretty much all the Velveeta builds are straight out of the books.

From what I've seen superior implements are going to be a huge disappointment. Apparently they revolve around a bonus based on using a power with the proper keyword...yet another move toward specialization, or scrambling around to find a way to add a keyword to a power. Great if your idea of a wizard is Iceman or the Human Torch, boring as dirt if it's Doctor Strange.

 

[MrMyth]

If the glimpse of sample Superior Implements is any indication, it won't necessarily.

The Superior Implements basically get keywords like brutal, high crit, accurate (+1 to attack), charmed (+1 to saving throws), and protective (+1 to NADs). I don't think those are going to do much for damage per se.

From the mention of them on rpg.net (by a poster who has PHB3), they actually look a bit better than that. The Dragontooth Wand, for example, is Deadly (+1 damager per tier) and Unerring (+1 bonus on attacks vs Reflex). For one feat, that's not a bad deal. The ability to instead get a few extra squares of range, or bigger damage bonuses with specific energy types, also seems reasonable. It doesn't scale quite as well as simply the bigger [W] you can get with Superior Weapons, but it definitely seems to go a good way towards evening the scales. (Assuming there are no difficulties acquiring them, and that the same sort of bonuses are available for all implements, etc.)

 

[Dannager]

This is going to redeem warlocks as strikers? I see a bunch of controller rider feats with highly specific, once-an-encounter conditions. I see one or two that add a small bit of damage under highly specific conditions. I see only one that increases damage on a reliable basis, and that's an average of +1 to curse damage.

If that 1 damage is all it takes to fix warlocks, I do not think they would be nearly as unpopular as they are.

Did you miss the feat that adds +Int to curse damage? That's about 7 extra damage at epic tier - equivalent to the extra 2d6 damage rogue sneak attack has over warlock's curse.

In other words, yes, these feats are a huge bump to warlock damage output, and yes, it does bring them roughly in-line with other strikers if they choose to go that route.