Warlock question!

[Keoki]

There seems to be little point spending a round to get an extra 3d6 damage when you could instead spend that round on another 4d6 blast...

You don't have to spend a round if your enemies are in magical darkness that you can see through. That's potentially 7d6 damage, every round, from 30 feet away.

 

[Caliban]

You don't have to spend a round if your enemies are in magical darkness that you can see through. That's potentially 7d6 damage, every round, from 30 feet away.

Magical darkness doesn't cause people to lose their Dexterity in 3.5. It's a "shadowy illumination", not true darkness. It just gives a 20% miss chance.

Now if your rogue/warlock had Improved Feint, they could bluff every round and attack with the eldritch blast. One ranged touch attack as a sneak attack every round. Might be worth it for a rogue to take a single level of warlock just for the 1d6 eldritch blast and the invocation that gives you a +6 on Bluff, Intimidate, and Diplomacy for 24 hours.

 

[Keoki]

Magical darkness doesn't cause people to lose their Dexterity in 3.5. It's a "shadowy illumination", not true darkness. It just gives a 20% miss chance.

Dagnabbit! Did I get it confused with 3.0?

Now if your rogue/warlock had Improved Feint, they could bluff every round and attack with the eldritch blast. One ranged touch attack as a sneak attack every round. Might be worth it for a rogue to take a single level of warlock just for the 1d6 eldritch blast and the invocation that gives you a +6 on Bluff, Intimidate, and Diplomacy for 24 hours.

I notice the two classes share several skills, too.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Doesn't sound like your DM was particularly creative or challenging.

I can't remember (m)any occasions where my characters lost their weapon, either, and my DM's far from being uncreative.

You can be creative and challenging without taking items from people, you know.

 

[Particle_Man]

Doesn't sound like your DM was particularly creative or challenging.

For a refutation of this, please see my post earlier in this very thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1987769&postcount=28

For the record, my DM was and is creative and challenging. I know him, you don't, so you will have to trust me on this. One thing I like about the DM is that he didn't create pet NPC's whose sole reason to exist was to nerf my pc. Thus, he didn't create an uber-disarmer (and it would have to be an uber-disarmer) simply to disarm (or sunder, etc.) my nine weapons plus my spiked guantlet so that I would rely upon my fists to beat it to death. (Oh, he didn't like psionics rules, so the psionic sunderer was simply not an option).

That is not to say my character walked over his campaign. For alas, with int and chr of 4, where the campaign has a lot of intrigue, there were...limitations to my character's abilities, to say the least (which I just went with and played up for comic effect).

Whereas with warlocks you don't need to create an uber-grapplers. Anything big can grapple, and anything with tentacles can grapple too. In fact, it is hard to find something in the MM that is NOT a good grappler (except the less-than-large size humanoids). Are you saying that your DM never has creatures that use grapple? In that case there is a comment I could make about pots and kettles. And glass houses and stones.

And in an underground cave/dungeon, the warlock cannot always be 250' away. And in a room in that cave/dungeon, the warlock can get cornered. Hiding behind the fighter is nice, but not easy. For the record, it was 3 Otyughs, one of which grappled me. They got surprise and had a high initiative roll. We were in a large cave being used as a garbage pit, and were walking on a thick layer of garbage. I was "rescued" by my teammate's lightning bolt, which got me too. This convinced me of the usefulness of the Sudden Still feat, which in a fit of stupidity I had not taken for my character. That will be rectified at 9th level, if I make it that far. And my first action, when it is my turn, is always "Flee the Scene" backwards. My party thinks I am a coward, but you know what, I don't care.

 

[Particle_Man]

I could have sworn that if you roll a nat 1, you have to roll a dex check (DC 10) to see if you drop your weapon. I am sure I read that in the DMG. And last I checked, the DMG is CORE, so it isn't like this is some unofficial house rule my group came up with.

So yes, using the CORE rules, a Fighter can fumble his weapon once in awhile.

It is not the official rule. You are thinking of either an optional rule in the DMG, or the rule printed on the Kingdoms of Kalamar DM screen.

That said, my DM uses fumble rules, but they also apply to my Eldritch Blast. Friendly Fire is a bad thing. I haven't asked what happens if I roll two natural 1's in a row, as that would be too horrible to contemplate. Maybe I blow up!

 

[Darmanicus]

You're judging the characters based only on the damage they do. With the fighter, it's basically all he's capable of, while the rogue/warlock can do so much more. Balance means these characters should not even be close to doing the same amount of damage per round, not to mention that the fighter has to subject himself to melee attacks in order to do it, while the rogue/warlock doesn't. Also, your analysis is skewed by giving the fighter a magic item, while the rogue/warlock has none. Even this out by giving him a warlock's scepter, and he's doing even more damage with his eldritch blasts, though the charges are limited.

The fighter does not have to subject himself to any melee attacks upon switching to his masterwork composite longbow, modified to take into account his Str bonus, (which in reality is not that skewed an analysis at 7th level).

 

[Keoki]

You can be creative and challenging without taking items from people, you know.

Certainly. But taking away a warrior's weapons is one of the easiest ways to challenge him, so it's hard to imagine a DM that can't even figure that out coming up with anything more interesting. It's like assuming someone that doesn't know the letter "b" can't read. Sure you can read some things without it, but it's a logical assumption.

 

[Keoki]

The fighter does not have to subject himself to any melee attacks upon switching to his masterwork composite longbow, modified to take into account his Str bonus, (which in reality is not that skewed an analysis at 7th level).

That'd have to be a pretty expensive bow to come even close to the same damage.

 

[Keoki]

Anything big can grapple, and anything with tentacles can grapple too. In fact, it is hard to find something in the MM that is NOT a good grappler (except the less-than-large size humanoids). Are you saying that your DM never has creatures that use grapple? In that case there is a comment I could make about pots and kettles. And glass houses and stones.

Um... no, I didn't say anything about any lack of grapplers. That would be something you just pulled out of your ass. Didn't smell too good, either.