Warlocks...how do they play?

[frankthedm]

frankthedm -> eldritch blasting an innocent child to remain a CG warlock seems a bit odd, eh?

If the party puts up with chaos tainted characters, then being a warlock is easier.

 

[Nightfall]

Frank,

Chaos tainted or not, CG is still GOOD. Otherwise we'd have a huge sub species of Celestials going to war with the others along with fighting demons, devils and such.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If they are the penultimate UMD class, what do you regard as the ultimate? Rogues? Bards?

Artificers.

Connecting with a ranged touch attack isn't always as easy as it seems. And if you want to help your teammates out in a fight, your first two feats are basically gonna have to be Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. No biggie so far, especially since you'll be getting so much mileage out of your eldritch blast anyway, right? But that eldritch blast isn't all that great a thing even at higher levels. The ability to (usually) only hit one target with it per round is a pretty big mitigating factor as comapred to, say, dropping an empowered fireball or a wall of ice. If I was to seriously consider playing a mid-level warlock, I'd be dropping a big chunk of my cash on wands and maybe a staff just to get more options.

The classic mistake is to focus too much on the eldritch blast. It's eye-catching, but when I play the Warlock, I focus on making interesting use of the invocations.

For instance, from Level 1, I can consistantly surround myself in an aura of swarming buggly things that can damage anything in their space and can flow in and out of anyplace that a fine vermin can fit into. It's GREAT villager-terrifying-skill, because your minions cannot be escaped! There's also the more general "face" invocations that give you skill buffs, entropic warding which makes you nigh-impossible to follow, or the Dark One's Own Luck, which is almost as good as a cloak of resistance.

The ability to have these abilities effectively always-on, to always walk around in a fog cloud or with a swarm of bugs at your feet, makes the Warlock stand out well in "social" situations where combat isn't the big focus, but dealing with NPC's is.

 

[irdeggman]

If the party puts up with chaos tainted characters, then being a warlock is easier.

My warlock is chaotic good ranger/warlock with favored enemy Outsiders (Evil) - does this constitute an bad character to have in a "good" party? Or even one that would have difficulties with a paladin (any more so then say a cg ranger would)?

 

[Justin Cray]

Warlocks dualclass really well with rogue (Sneak Atttacks with Eldritch Blast means you don't lose that much ranged power), and they are fantastic for monsters with Classlevels (Succubus with Beguiling Charm and Dark Owns Luck ).

 

[airwalkrr]

My personal opinion is that nobody really understands the warlock. I base this on the fact that most people tend to claim the warlock is weak when this is far from true. A warlock has a host of interesting skills and class abilities that are worth considering but are often ignored by what I call the OMFG ELDRITCH BLAST IS UNLIMITED factor. Lots of people seem to think the crux of the class is the eldritch blast, but I beg to differ. The eldritch blast is no more the crux of the warlock than a weapon is the crux of a rogue. Sure, a rogue needs a weapon to deal sneak attack damage (which is commensurate in power to the eldritch blast), but would anyone think a rogue has absolutely nothing to do without sneak attack? Hardly. And the same is true of the warlock. Many useful abilities including:

-a skill list with numerous social and infiltration skills, not least of which is UMD
-detect magic at will
-enormous crafting potential upon reaching 12th level
-the ability to avoid all kinds of damage
-12 invocations with unlimited use by 20th level, many of which have numerous utilitarian uses

Warlocks are a force to be reckoned with in any party. They are actually surprisingly versatile considering their ability to use scrolls, wands, and staves. They are effective at drawing attacks of opportunity due to their ability to shrug off damage practically as well as a barbarian does. They can serve as the face or a spy for the party. Their invocations give them the ability to participate in roles such as scouting, troubleshooting, dominating other creatures, creating armies (of undead), being alert against attack, removing enemies' magical protections, and these are just a few of the roles a warlock can choose to take on. Plus, there are more invocations to choose from in other supplements like PH2 and Complete Mage.

 

[frankthedm]

Sure, a rogue needs a weapon to deal sneak attack damage (which is commensurate in power to the eldritch blast), but would anyone think a rogue has absolutely nothing to do without sneak attack? Hardly.

You'd be surprised. Whenever it gets shown how hiding actually works, a fair amount of folks come crawling out of the woodwork that seem to think a rogue has absolutely nothing to do without sneak attack.

 

[Stalker0]

Let us also not forget that they are far more resilent than a wizard or sorc, better HD, light armor, DR, and fast healing.

 

[airwalkrr]

You'd be surprised. Whenever it gets shown how hiding actually works, a fair amount of folks come crawling out of the woodwork that seem to think a rogue has absolutely nothing to do without sneak attack.

Getting a good hide check is not hard. And it isn't like stealth is the only trick in a rogue's book either. Besides that, the rogue has so many skills that the player should design the character to have skills that will be helpful to the campaign. If my DM is running a dungeon campaign, I will skip things like Diplomacy, Gather Information and Sense Motive. If we are doing a wilderness adventure, I'd be a fool not to invest in things like scouting and sneaking. In a dungeon, I would be well-advised to be able to deal with traps and locked doors.

 

[shilsen]

Artificers.

Ah - I forgot about those guys. Definitely true.