Warlock - Multiple Cursed targets and damage

[frankthedm]

Bumping to see if I can get an answer, if not, I'll just make a new thread tonight.

You get the damage once per round. There PHB update even called this out specifically for each striker class.

 

[Felon]

Normally, "ongoing" damage doesn't stack. So if you took 5 ongoing fire damage and another 5 ongoing fire damage you would only take 5 ongoing fire damage. Only the highest damage of the same type is applied.

I would think this would mean you would only be able to deal the extra damage to the target once.

Hellish rebuke doesn't deal ongoing damage. Not the same thing.

Zaruthustran: I don't agree, doing damage once is doing damage once, no matter how many attacks there are. I think Nifft's post and the update to this power make it pretty clear. edit (I should clarify) - If you were to do damage from the curse to two targets on one attack then you are dealing curse damage twice on your turn. I don't believe that this is the intention of the power, and is reinforced by the errata. The Ranger does not get to apply their hunter's quarry damage to two different targets in a round (for example, by using twin strike or some other dual strike power on two adjacent foes).

Twin strike is two separate damage sources. An AoE is a single source of damage applied to multiple targets. Not the same thing.

 

[Felon]

You get the damage once per round. There PHB update even called this out specifically for each striker class.

I don't think the scenario the OP's pointing out is that hard to understand. You make the AoE attack and then add the curse to it, and apply it to any cursed enemy that gets hit. Thus, extra damage applied once to one damage roll made that round.

 

[Henrix]

The first part of sentence #1 leads me to believe you can only hit oneof your quarries with the extra damage

Well, a ranger can only ever have one quarry at a time.

The hunter’s quarry effect remains active until the end of the encounter, until the quarry is defeated, or until you designate a different target as your quarry.

You can designate one enemy as your quarry at a time.

 

[King-Panda]

Well, a ranger can only ever have one quarry at a time.

You didn't fully read my post. I'm referring to one of the Ranger's paragon paths, Battlefield Archer. They have the following Paragon path feature, page 113 of the PH:

Battlefield Experience (11th level): You can designate more than one creature as your quarry at a time, up to a number equal to your Wisdom modifier. In addition, any attack made against a quarry receives a +1 bonus to attack rolls.

The "at a time" phrase is notable, because it infers you can mark multiple people as your quarry with a single minor action.

 

[Paul Strack]

If you hit a cursed enemy with an attack, you deal extra damage ... You can deal this extra damage once per round

That seems clear to me: curse damage on at most one target, once per round. It says "a cursed enemy", meaning the bonus applies to that enemy, not the attack.

I admit it is vague enough you could argue the other way, but compared to Hunter's Quarry and Sneak Attack, that is likely the intended effect.

 

[Nifft]

The "at a time" phrase is notable, because it infers you can mark multiple people as your quarry with a single minor action.

Right. But the restriction on applying damage once per round still holds.

Multi-Quarry is still useful, because it means you don't have to re-apply it as you kill targets, and it means you can Quarry a big (more dangerous) foe hiding behind a minion or two.

I admit it is vague enough you could argue the other way, but compared to Hunter's Quarry and Sneak Attack, that is likely the intended effect.

Given the errata update, I think we all now agree Curse damage happens at most once per round to exactly one target. It seems WotC agreed it was ambiguous enough to clarify.

The things that were tipping me toward allowing multi-curse damage for a Warlock were:
1/ Warlocks deal less damage per target than Rogue or Ranger.
2/ Wraithblade (new dagger property from Dragon): add Sneak Attack damage on every crit, even if you've already used it this round / encounter.
3/ Warlocks don't have a feat to increase Curse damage.

Cheers, -- N