Warlock Feat:2nd Pact. Does it work?

[Serpens]

It's reasonably well known that warlocks (among others) have little in the way of feat selection that's really exciting. Since at Paragon tier, wizards can get a second Implement mastery, it made me wonder if warlocks couldn't have something similar and have a feat to allow a second pact.

Your pact choice only effects your encounter powers, so I don't think it's really broken, but there might be some angle I'm missing and this doesn't work. Is it too good? Not good enough for a Paragon tier feat?

(My Tiefling Starlock wouldn't might picking up Infernal Pact as well)

 

[Hodag]

Maybe an Improved Pact Feat, giving a bonus on the appropriate Pacts abilities or maybe a reuse on an encounter or Daily Pact power?

 

[shinobi_guyver]

@Hodag: There's already Improved Pact feats, which increase the power of the Pact Ability. Improved Misty Step increases teleportation by 2 squares, Improved Fate of the Void gives a +1 bonus to the d20 roll, and Improved Dark One's Blessing gives an extra 3 temporary hit points.

@Serpens: It sounds like you want warlock users to gain the extra effects from powers that depend on a pact, so that even if you didn't choose that pact at 1st level, you can still get the extra effect/bonus.

If there was such a feat, Paragon Tier would probably be best for it, if not Epic, and might look something like this:

Second Pact (Paragon Tier)
Prerequisites: Warlock, Eldritch Pact class ability
Benefits: When you take this feat, choose one Pact you do not already have. When using powers, they function as if you had chosen that Pact at 1st level.
Special: You do not gain the regular Pact Boon for the chosen Pact.

 

[JasonZZ]

It's reasonably well known that warlocks (among others) have little in the way of feat selection that's really exciting. Since at Paragon tier, wizards can get a second Implement mastery, it made me wonder if warlocks couldn't have something similar and have a feat to allow a second pact.

Your pact choice only effects your encounter powers, so I don't think it's really broken, but there might be some angle I'm missing and this doesn't work. Is it too good? Not good enough for a Paragon tier feat?

(My Tiefling Starlock wouldn't might picking up Infernal Pact as well)

It might be OK mechanically to allow a warlock to pick from the slain foe pact boons on-the-fly (or to choose between full sets of benefits after an extended rest) but I personally would have an issue with a warlock serving two masters, since in my game warlocks actually do serve a master (however poorly, in the case of a good-aligned infernal warlock).

I do doubt that it would be balanced to gain the encounter power benefits on more than one type of pact, though. Remember that Wizard implement mastery is a minor encounter power, and not an all-the-time thing.

 

[Recidivism]

I would have actually preferred if the core Warlock feats were structured more like this:

[Something Other Than Improved] Misty Step
Prereqs: (Same -Pact)
Benefit: When a cursed enemy is slain you may choose to forego your pact boon to teleport two squares.
Special: If you have the Fey Pact you may teleport an additional two squares each time you utilize your pact boon.

As-written it's kind of disappointing to me that with a total of four Warlock specific feats in the book, since three of them are pact-exclusives, you really don't have any choice. Even if teleporting two squares or gaining three temporary HP isn't great, it'd offer a bit more versatility. The only one I would be concerned about is the Star Pact feat, since Fey and Infernal Warlocks would get more use out of Fate of the Void (even at +1) than Star Warlocks would get in return.

 

[Engilbrand]

There's a new Warlock article up that gives a bunch of information on Star Pact Warlocks. It also includes a feat for a second Pact.

 

[shinobi_guyver]

There's a new Warlock article up that gives a bunch of information on Star Pact Warlocks. It also includes a feat for a second Pact.

Sure does, and here you go. It's a Paragon Tier feat, so you know ahead of time.

Twofold Pact
Prerequisites: 11th level, tiefling, warlock
Benefit: You gain a second Eldritch Pact. You
gain the at-will spell and pact boon of both pacts.
You can use only one of your pact boon benefits at
a time, however.

After reading over it, though, I would assume that the last line (You can use only one of your pact boon benefits at a time) means per encounter. Or it could be in the same encounter and be like this: "If you gain the temporary hit points from Dark One's Blessing, you can't use Misty Step."

 

[Evilhalfling]

After reading over it, though, I would assume that the last line (You can use only one of your pact boon benefits at a time) means per encounter. Or it could be in the same encounter and be like this: "If you gain the temporary hit points from Dark One's Blessing, you can't use Misty Step."

Im sure "at a time" means that for each creature reduced to 0 hp you only gain the benefits of one boon.

It is a little unclear what happens if you kill two creatures with one attack.

 

[James McMurray]

Seems to me that "at a time" means "at the same time." If you kill several monsters simultaneously, you wouldn't be able to trigger multiple boons.