Another Warlock Discussion

[Chris]

[1] Is the pact system closed for Warlocks? If not

Elemental Pact
===========
Pact Monsters: E, v, any elemental hound, any elemental dragon.
Pact Uniques: Tulscha, Cthugha, Ariel, Loge, Quaker. I probably
missed some ...
Strategy: All things elemental.

Abilities:
Born with Harden to Elements
Gain Elements Resistances a la Draconian
Steals Prismatic Blast from the Dragon Pact. Dragon gets "Balance"
instead, which fires 1/4 damage balls of Sound, Shards, Chaos, and
Disenchantment (expect normal blast damage, but good Sound and Chaos
effects).

Still need:
Stat
Skills
Abilities

[2] Warlocks sense pact monsters.

[3] Pact monsters are friendly occasionally.

[Chris]

Capstone ability: Temporary Elemental Branding at CL50 (same as
Craft's Mana Branding).

[Dave Zhang]

I'm generally open to new pacts, but feel there aren't enough elementals in the game to make the Elemental pact challenging.  Ariel, Loge, Quaker are all pushovers, as are elemental hounds once you get their resists.  Sure, Caaws and Shamblers are strong, but I've often gone entire games without seeing either (other than the Shamber in the Arena).

Re: Dragon pact lvl 40 ability.  I actually like Prismatic Blast here.  Balance would feel a bit redundant with Confusing and Stunning Blast, and personally I've always hated the polymorphing/teleporting effects of Chaos. 

[2] Warlocks sense pact monsters.

That sounds like a fine lvl 25 ability, which we're currently missing for all pacts.
 

[3] Pact monsters are friendly occasionally.

A while back, I suggested giving a Charm Pact Monsters ability that would turn the pact monsters friendly, with the rule that if you attack a pact monster, all friendly pact monsters turn hostile.  It should also work for monsters that start friendly.  A Nazgul probably won't sit idly by if you start blasting his buddy!

I'm generally feeling like I screwed up with the Aberration abilities.  The attack mutations are useless due to the Aberration pact's lack of combat bonuses, and Aberration's actually a rather tough pact, as you've seen.  So I will propose to revamp the early abilities of the Aberration pact:

Skill bonus:  Bows (instead of Perception, Search, and Disarm)
Extra bonus:  +0.02*clvl shots per round.

Lv 1: Consume Rock
Lv 15: Free Action

Cheers,

Dave

--
---

                   David Yu Zhang, Ph.D.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation
Wyss Institute, Harvard University

[Chris Kousky]

> I will propose to revamp the early abilities of the Aberration pact:
>
> Skill bonus:  Bows (instead of Perception, Search, and Disarm)
> Extra bonus:  +0.02*clvl shots per round.

I'm not sure about this one ... Warlocks already "shoot" wonderfully
with their Eldritch Blasts. I can't ever imagine wanting to shoot an
arrow or a bolt instead, especially as there is no casting cost with
the blasts. Nobody resists the blasts and I think the damage will
generally be greater than with a missile.

For me, I would just ignore this ability altogether ... Am I missing something?

I agree with your other points, though.

[Dave Zhang]

I was thinking this would be useful for the end-game.

Belthronding + that ability would be 3 shots per round.  Max STR for 3.6x multiplier.  Seeker Arrow (+10,+10) would do:

3*3.6*(21+15+10) = 497 damage per round, significantly more than the 273 damage eldritch blast, or even empowered at 409.5!  With Slay Evil arrows, this becomes even better, of course.

Without the extra shot, you're at 331 damage, but you have miss chance, you need unblocked LoS, and you consume arrows, so it's probably not worthwhile.

Dave

[Dave Zhang]

Hi Chris,

I'm re-realizing just how late clvl 45 is.  The Dragon Pact probably should pick up Harden to Elements at clvl 30 (in addition to SusCON).  That way, they actually get to use it in the tough 30's levels.  We could give Berserk Self as an activatable mutation for clvl 45.

Also, is it just me, or is the Angel pact still too easy?  I *still* haven't seen any monsters that register as good.  Sure, there are things like HE Rangers and Kirin, but these really still don't affect gameplay.  Maybe we need to extend the Angel pact to also include Natural/neutral creatures?

Dave

[Chris Kousky]

I'd still like to give the combat mutations a go before we change
those. I simply have a preference some times for playing a pure spell
caster, and was doing that with my Aberration character. I might go
with a Combat Android or something, and then those extra 3 attacks
would be better than FA. I never use Consume Rock since it quickly
gorges one. Sort of like a very long charging -StoneToMud, although
if used for food, then it is OK. Sort of like Satisfy Hunger. Both
effects are weak.

Shooting? OK. We can do that. For big foes, you could use
Empowered, and then Shoot in your time off.