Warlock Eldritch Blast Question

[Swedish Chef]

Greetings all. I'm playing in a campaign with a large party. We have the following, all around 4th level:

Sorcerer
Cleric
2x Barbarian
Thief
Warlock

The player for the warlock plays his eldritch blast in a way that seems to be against the RAW (in my opinion). The DM allows it, but it seems a bit unfair to me and the rest of the players.

Despite it being a Ranged Touch attack, the player insists that he can channel it down his weapon when striking, such as with a mace, basically ensuring two actions at once and two hits at once with only one attack role. His reasoning being that since it is an at will power, and he is essentially "touching" his opponent, it is an automatic hit.

My contention is that it is a spell like ability, and therefore subject to the same rules as other spell like abilities, in that they are a standard action, unless otherwise specified, and therefore count as his attack for that round.

Now, this is by no means a deal breaker for the campaign. I am having fun playing my Dwarf Barbarian with wis and int of 6. Several of us just don't think its fair to everyone that one particular character is able to effectively get two attacks a round, simultaneously, long before any character would be able to normally.

Thoughts? Opinions? Light-hearted flames?

 

[Steve Jung]

A melee attack is a standard action, Eldritch Blast is a Standard action. How can he justify taking two of those in one round without using an action point? Also it doesn't matter if the mace is already touching the target. The Blast isn't originating at the head of the mace. But the last word is the DM's.

 

[Runestar]

Ask him what the point of hideous blow would be then?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

There's an invocation to channel an eldritch blast into your melee attack. Does he have this? It's in all respects a poor invocation, because you have to attack normal AC to use it, and it's unlikely the weapon damage will add up to much more anyway. I think you're also limited to a single attack as a standard action, no way to full attack. I can't remember the name of it, it's too weak to bother.

There's another invocation called eldritch glaive that is somewhat better. Gives you a glaive-shaped eldritch blast that you can make melee attacks with, possibly melee touch (sorry, not being helpful), and basically the EB damage becomes the "weapon damage." You CAN full attack with this.

If the player has either of these, he's doing nothing wrong or is mis-interpretting how to use the invocation. If he doesn't, I don't know anything else that lets you do this.

EDIT:

Ask him what the point of hideous blow would be then?

That's the name of it!

 

[R1C0F3TT]

There's an invocation that does exactly what the player's doing thats called Hideous Blow. Does he have this invocation?

 

[Swedish Chef]

Turns out he is. When he first created the character, he was talking about the Eldritch Spear, and it was then assumed that he had taken that Invocation. Turns out the adage about assumptions played true yet again.

 

[irdeggman]

The problem with hideous blow is that it is a standard action to activate (the attack is considered part of the action) so it generates an AoO since it is a spell like ability and he can't make a full attack since he had to use his standard action to generate the ability. Also he can't hold it until discharged unlike touch spells.

 

[Starbuck_II]

The problem with hideous blow is that it is a standard action to activate (the attack is considered part of the action) so it generates an AoO since it is a spell like ability and he can't make a full attack since he had to use his standard action to generate the ability. Also he can't hold it until discharged unlike touch spells.

Still allowed to cast defensively.

 

[irdeggman]

Still allowed to cast defensively.

Yes you can.

Concentration and UMD are 2 skills any decent warlock should keep maximized.