Warlock?

[shadow]

It seems pretty certain now that the Warlock class will be in the PHB. This has the opportunity to be pretty interesting IMHO. The dark wizard is one of the classic archetypes of fantasy. To me, warlock seems to exemplify the corrupt wizard archetype. The etymology of the word even shows this:

[Origin: bef. 900; ME warloghe, -lach, OE wǣrloga oathbreaker, devil, equiv. to wǣr covenant + -loga betrayer (deriv. of léogan to lie)]

from dictionary.com

Done properly, the warlock could be the perfect class for corrupt villains and even dark anti-heroes. However, I'm concerned that the warlock class will be too much like the one presented in the Complete Arcane. The CA warlock seemed to consist mainly of the ability to shoot "arcane blasts". The whole arcane blast concept never sat well with me. Besides making the warlock a one trick pony, the ability seemed like something that belonged more to a superhero comic book than a dark, fiendish wizard. How does the concept of shooting arcane energy fit with a dark wizard who makes fiendish pacts?

Will the 4e warlock be a dark wizard or will he be an arcane blaster?

 

[Rechan]

I Can see a PC who is basically "Playing with Fire". Likely to fight for a good cause. "The man who killed my parents must be taken down right now. Sure, I'll make this deal, gimmie power." Or the "Ghost Rider" route; making a mistake and being saddled with Power with a Price. Or an order that keep a bound fiend weak by sapping its power and using it for good.

However, we don't know the flavor of the Warlock class. They could potentially tap into any supernatural force, from Elemental forces to Fey/Dragon/Fiend heritage, to being exposed to magical artifacts/explosions.

I suspect that the Warlock is going to be tied to the Tiefling race, as their heritage, similar to how the barbarian is tied to the half-orc.

 

[SPECTRE666]

4E WarlockBy Richard Baker.Check out the second paragraph, this may help.

 

[Lackhand]

If either! My current money is lying on Divine Controller, from much the same etymology.

Consider:

Ranger (?? the Grid says arcane striker, but that seems silly; elf)
Paladin (divine defender; dwarf? Half-orc?)
Warlock (divine controller; tiefling) *
Warlord (arcane leader; half-elf)
Fighter (martial defender; dwarf? Half-orc?)
Wizard (arcane controller; eladrin)
Cleric (divine leader; the Grid says human)
Rogue (martial striker; halfling)

The races are my best guesses for what the classes' affinities are, though the specific favored class mechanism is, of course, gone.

The Ranger doesn't really fit there, but if I'm right, we've got 2 classes for each role, and we have three divine, three martial, and two arcane classes. Yay!

What makes the ranger arcane? About as much as makes it martial. It's more likely that it's gonna be a martial striker, but then it trods on the rogue; divine, and we're forcing ourselves to make druids divine, and denying ourselves a (pretty awesome) Nature power source.

What makes the warlock a divine controller? If they have wizard-like controlling spells, a dark, demonic-pact (or diabolic pact!) flavored ability list, and use heretical powers provided to them based on acts denying/disobeying the gods...

Then we have a divine power. Yay!

 

[Imp]

I've said it elsewhere, I'll say it here, they need to change the name of either the Warlock or the Warlord, because it's just going to lead to unnecessary confusion when skimming through stat blocks, etc., etc. I'm serious. It's going to be a headache.

 

[SPECTRE666]

I've said it elsewhere, I'll say it here, they need to change the name of either the Warlock or the Warlord, because it's just going to lead to unnecessary confusion when skimming through stat blocks, etc., etc. I'm serious. It's going to be a headache. But it will be a fun and exciting headache. Now thats more like it.

 

[Gloombunny]

Will the 4e warlock be a dark wizard or will he be an arcane blaster?

The Baker-blog that Spectre linked indicates he'll definitely be pretty dark. As far as blasting, I think the one-trick-pony nature of the 3e warlock was pretty much a result of it being an early experiment in no-per-day-limits mechanics. In 4e, with every class having at-will, per-encounter, and per-day resources, they're going to have do some much more interesting things with the warlock to make it any different from the wizard.

Also, we've seen one in a playtest report conjure up an acidic bog, so there's at least one cool thing they can do besides blast. ^_^

I'm excited about the 4e warlock, I'll admit. I am coming to really like the idea of having three spellcaster classes in the core, more or less representing religious magic, scholarly magic, and dark magic. That sort of division has a long history in real-world views on magic, and frankly I think it's really cool. (Of course those won't be the only categories of magic available once 4e gets going, but they make a nice core trio.)

 

[Pygon]

I'll be interested in dinking around with the warlock class, since I never picked up the sourcebook for it.

I pictured them as a lesser wizard that never runs out of spells. I haven't had a chance to find out how they compare. My only experience with them was in Neverwinter Nights 2.

 

[grimslade]

Baker mentions a Doctor Strange vibe going with the incantation names, Mires of Minauros, Armor of Agathys. If they go for a more Doctor Strange/Merlin theme, I will be stoked. They can leave off of the dark and sinister. It is fine as an option but not every PC needs to be Mr. or Mrs. Dark and Brooding. I would love a continuation of the more fey inspired warlock.
Pacts with more powerful outsiders to grant power. Even Elemental based 'locks would be neat.

 

[Gloombunny]

I pictured them as a lesser wizard that never runs out of spells.

The 3e warlock is more like an archer with a few spell-like abilities. A warlock's repertoire of effects is very limited even compared to a sorcerer; they really can't fill the wizard's role effectively.

Hm, when I put it that way, it sounds like exactly the sort of thing Wyatt said they're fixing in 4e. ^_^