Your thoughts on warlocks

[RigaMortus]

The only 'problem' I've seen w/ Warlocks is that they do not suffer from any downtime. Normal casters can run out of spells, but Warlocks will always have SOMETHING meaningful to do should you continue to run into encounters.

 

[ARandomGod]

I think that most of their invocations have a lot of flavor but their eldritch blast is a horrible, horrible ability. 3/4 BAB + good dex + 2 feats means they will rarely miss a touch attack.

Yea, that's pretty big. The main issue I saw with the class when I saw it played is that he WILL hit with his EBlast and the combination with the ability to have the blast cast confusion or drain levels with every hit. Damage AND a spell, and a pretty good spell. That's also combinable with either the range of 250 ft or the hit three people variation of the blast... that's what makes it overpowered IMO. The blast alone is a bit much, but not horrific...

After reading this thread I'm wondering if it would qualify for PrC's like Arcane Trickster... Now THAT would be nasty.

 

[Felix]

Warlock 6 / Rogue 4... The best cat burgular there ever was or will be.

I'm a fan of the class, for flavor reasons as well as balance reasons. The EB's do an intermediate amount of damage compared to what other classes can inflict, but the warlock can keep it up and do it at a range. Haven't had the opportunity to really play one, though.

 

[ARandomGod]

The only 'problem' I've seen w/ Warlocks is that they do not suffer from any downtime. Normal casters can run out of spells, but Warlocks will always have SOMETHING meaningful to do should you continue to run into encounters.

Interestingly enough this was my biggest non-problem. I rather liked that they were 'magical fighters', that they could swing the EB all day. I just thought that combining their EB (touch attack) with medium BAB and the ability to throw spell riders on the blast so that every blast did damage/confusion or damage/drain was just really far over the top.

 

[ARandomGod]

Warlock 6 / Rogue 4... The best cat burgular there ever was or will be.

I'm a fan of the class, for flavor reasons as well as balance reasons. The EB's do an intermediate amount of damage compared to what other classes can inflict, but the warlock can keep it up and do it at a range. Haven't had the opportunity to really play one, though.

Rogue 4? No, rogue 3. You can even do it with ninja1/rogue1, but I like the evasion ability a lot, and giving up caster levels as a warlock doesn't mean as much.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

No and yes, in that order.
Activating an invocation is a standard action, which means you can only activate one per round. But you certainly can have more than one invocation running at a time; it's just like a wizard having one spell active when he casts another.

He could use his eldritch blast with an eldritch essence and a blast shape, couldn't he? (Is it either one or the other or is it one of each?)

 

[Ravenknight]

The only 'problem' I've seen w/ Warlocks is that they do not suffer from any downtime. Normal casters can run out of spells, but Warlocks will always have SOMETHING meaningful to do should you continue to run into encounters.

That is no problem. I love to have parties that can go on with on the adventure instead of sleeping since the wizard just used all the spells to fry a kobold commoner or something equally lame.

 

[AuraSeer]

He could use his eldritch blast with an eldritch essence and a blast shape, couldn't he? (Is it either one or the other or is it one of each?)

Oops, you're right, I forgot about those. Using a regular invocation is a standard action, but using a blast shape or an eldritch essence does not take an action at all. (Those are "not an action," since they happen as part of activating the eldritch blast.)

You can use both an eldritch essence and a blast shape on the same blast-- at most one of each.

 

[apesamongus]

I also have to question the notion that abilities which for the most part just mimic wizard spells can be considered non-traditional solutions.

The "non-traditional" part comes from having to figure out how to use that hammer as a wrench, because all you have is that hammer.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Oops, you're right, I forgot about those. Using a regular invocation is a standard action

In that, of course, you're correct: Only one "normal" invocation per action. But maybe he wanted to ask whether you can activate another invocation while the first is still active, which of course works: First round: fell flight, second round, invisibility. Now you fly and are invisible.