Warlock Enhancements: Tainted Scholar

[Seikojin]

Isnt stanch a bit to strong?
Temp hit points based on current max?
Taken into account that its lv 6 core this can be easily abused.
To be honest, you shoul go with depravity mechanism and free slas based on depravity counter and unique spells with every warlock tree.
This one impressed me the most and seems okish even.

What is cd of stuning blast? And the dc of confusion?
How will confusion work with those spells?
Also, why command? Can you replace it by something more relevant?
Depravity system is great, just try to make better spells to use it

Do spell critical damage cores stack? I assume yes

Stanch can be strong if you give yourself 10000 help hp, then use it. I do think it should be max hp before buffs. Or give 100 hp per class level.


The speed bonus to blast, does this affect melee or ranged attack speed, or just blast triggers?

[Vargouille]

Here is the first and only Depravity Fueled SLA. Could we add one more? Oh I just found Stunning Blast, so I am now happy on that point.

There is some discussion about the costs for Confusion, Mass Confusion, and Eldritch Ball (name subject to possible revision.) These could cost Depravity or possibly SP.

I assume Eldritch Blast Essence Stances can be toggled on and off?

You can have one Eldritch Essence toggled on at a time, yes.

Confused about Confusion -- is this an SLA?

This is essentially an SLA, yes.

I am confused by Enervating Shadows. If I read it right, this is similiar to the Fvs shoulder archon?

To clarify: The Eldritch Blast Shapes (which include Eldritch Chain, Enervating Shadows, and the Cone in the yet-to-be-seen Soul Eater). Toggling a Shape on means that's your basic attack, so using this means you aren't using the normal Eldritch Blast or the Chain, etc. (Unlike the Eldritch Essences, which are separate and affect whatever Eldritch Shape you are using.)

So you're saying that they have a 60% spell crit chance without any items equipped?

As others have noted, this is damage, not chance.

Is this some kind of 'homing' attack, that unlike the normal eldritch blast, can't miss the target?

Essentially, yes.

Stanch can be strong if you give yourself 10000 help hp, then use it. I do think it should be max hp before buffs. Or give 100 hp per class level.

There's a variety of other ways to balance this, yes. All subject to review, playtest, and your feedback!

The speed bonus to blast, does this affect melee or ranged attack speed, or just blast triggers?

This affects the speed of attack while using Eldritch Blast, which is its own kind of attack type. This isn't really melee nor ranged attack speed, it's "Eldritch Blast" speed. (It doesn't affect how fast projectiles move, if that's helps.)

[HastyPudding]

YAY! I love this tree! This will most likely be the first type of warlock I make.

Comments, suggestions, and questions:
---Core Abilities---
- Depravity seems like a good idea, as it limits how much you can do, but gives you an additional resource other than spell points, both differentiating and being the same as PnP warlocks.

- Web, crushing despair, death ward, and energy drain all fit perfectly with what a warlock is about. Greater Heroism seems out of place, to me, however. Perhaps changing it to symbol of fear, symbol of persuasion, true seeing, or shadow walk would make it more thematic.

- Stanch needs to be nerfed before you even continue with anything else. It's too low in the cores and can be severely abused and it gives way too much HP for the penalty. I can see it as an 'oh sh*t' button, though. My suggestion: put this in the 12, 18, or 20 cores (or even in the tier 5), take away the penalty and make it last only 20 seconds, but give it a 3 minute cooldown. I'm all for giving warlock some false life/HP theft abilities, but this is pushing it.

- I'm to understand the spell critical damage stacks? Meaning spell/blast critical hits deal an additional 60% damage on top of what they already deal (so +160% damage)? That seems a bit excessive. I'd like to see warlock have some damage, but not at the cost of stepping on the sorcerer's toes; a warlock should be sustained damage compared to the burst damage of sorcerers.

---Tier 1---
- Feigned Health seems rather nice. No more lying about how much of your caster stat you have. With a nerfed/balanced Stanch clicky, this won't seem so overpowered.

- Command SLA...meh. This could be replaced with something else, but it's okay where it is. The tree seems very enchantment-heavy, though.

- Add +2 universal spellpower to each of the Strong Pact tiers. 2 AP for only 1d4 extra damage per tier is a bit expensive. That will give some eldritch blast damage and +10 total universal spellpower.

---Tier 2---
- Just being nitpicky, but rename Unholy Blast to Utterdark Blast.

- We're allowed to have one blast shape and one blast essence active at one time, like in PnP? Will eldritch essences be able to be used with, say, souleater's cone blast or enlightened spirit's aura blast?

- How is the stunning blast DC to be calculated?

---Tier 3---
- Efficient Heighten would be useful to have. Perhaps Efficient Quicken, as well, somewhere in the tree.

- Faltering Blast might as well be a fluff enhancement, because the tier 4 penetrating blast is going to be used 10 out of 10 times on anyone serious about blast damage.

- This would be a good tier to add +3 spell penetration for warlock spells.

---Tier 4---
- Penetrating Blast and Enervating Shadow will be completely awesome.

- Is Bewitching Blast a straight up proc or a shape/essence?

---Tier 5---
- Nothing to say, here, looks good. Perhaps you can change Planar Focus to multi-selector, giving +1 to all DC's or +2 to a select type of DC's (necromancy, enchantment, etc). This would help generalists and specialists pick what they wish to do.

[J2345678]

Enervating Shadow...Is this some kind of 'homing' attack, that unlike the normal eldritch blast, can't miss the target?

(T4) Enervating Shadow:
Eldritch Blast Shape Stance: This Eldritch Blast auto-attack seeks out enemies, and inflicts a negative level 10% of the time.

...it's basically going to home in more or less like Magic Missile.

...like playing an archer, except instead of arrows or bolts you are hurling blasts.

It's similar in most ways to arrows.

This is basically Precise Shot for Eldritch Blast.

[Gralhota]

I liked this eldritch (warlock), with the trees offered a range of possibilities is considerable.

Why eldritch Knight (wizard) is so weak , in fact comparing the two eldritchs the EK sucks.

[Vargouille]

- I'm to understand the spell critical damage stacks? Meaning spell/blast critical hits deal an additional 60% damage on top of what they already deal (so +160% damage)? That seems a bit excessive. I'd like to see warlock have some damage, but not at the cost of stepping on the sorcerer's toes; a warlock should be sustained damage compared to the burst damage of sorcerers.

This might need to be adjusted based on testing. You get half of this critical damage from the capstone, which we do want to be attractive. Warlocks are just as likely to want to splash a couple monk or rogue levels as other light armor users, so as we are often reminded, it's competing with Evasion (and maybe two monk feats, etc.)

- Feigned Health seems rather nice. No more lying about how much of your caster stat you have.

Congratulations, you are the first player to mention this, if I'm recalling correctly.

- Add +2 universal spellpower to each of the Strong Pact tiers. 2 AP for only 1d4 extra damage per tier is a bit expensive. That will give some eldritch blast damage and +10 total universal spellpower.

We'll think about it, but Strong Pact corresponds to things like +1 weapon damage in some other trees. 1d4 is pretty good, and scales with spellpower. (It doesn't scale with melee/ranged critical hits, of course, which are probably still going to be bigger than spell criticals.)

- Just being nitpicky, but rename Unholy Blast to Utterdark Blast.

OK.

- We're allowed to have one blast shape and one blast essence active at one time, like in PnP? Will eldritch essences be able to be used with, say, souleater's cone blast or enlightened spirit's aura blast?

Yes. Yes.

There's a very few things that won't interact with the Aura, which is the weirdest of them all, such as the speed bonus in Blood Component -- Enlightened Spirit Cores already increase the speed of the aura. (That might be the only thing. TBD!)

How is the stunning blast DC to be calculated?

Tentatively something like ~11 + Charisma Mod + Enchantment bonuses. If we have time we may promote to full SLA-ness so it can be affected by Heighten (Quicken, etc.)

- Is Bewitching Blast a straight up proc or a shape/essence?

Tentatively it's not an Essence, so you can use with other Essences).

[DemonMage]

This affects the speed of attack while using Eldritch Blast, which is its own kind of attack type. This isn't really melee nor ranged attack speed, it's "Eldritch Blast" speed. (It doesn't affect how fast projectiles move, if that's helps.)

So Haste and Speed items aren't going to help Blast then?

I'd also really like to see some sort of burst ability like Haste(/Crit Chance?) Boost/Many Shot/Endless Fusilade. It's super fun to hit a button and be doing a ton of extra shots or damage for a short time.

[Blackheartox]

After rereading again il say that warlocks wont have issues with dcs.
I am comparing it to my sorc life as human where i pushed toward maximimum char and went enchant focus and played around with necro focus.

Inability to heighten will put warlock behind sorc by 3 dc, but since cores give 2 dc and capstone is 4 charisma instead of 2 that will even it out for necro/enchant schools.
With addition of depravity clickie they will gain 2 dc bursted every 60 seconds that make them superior to sorc by 2 dc. (3 if t 5 is taken here)
As sorc player i managed when focused on enchant/necro to land all spells reliably, so warlock imo should be ok dc wise esp with synergy that the light damage blast has with exalted.
You lose 1 dc from t5 from scholar but pick the light damage energy burst.


Only issue i see is that i am not really checking any real spell critical chance increases in most warlock trees.
What will be spell element focus (if any) for warlocks?

And 2nd question, will eldritch blasts be able to proc empyrian magic when we temper with them to do light damage?

[Silverleafeon]

Perhaps. It's something that we can alter a % easily enough; should it be 50% of max? How much?

I would change it to this:

Activate for 1 Depravity: Gains temporary hitpoints equal to 25% your maximum hitpoints. These last for 1 minute. You have -1% maximum hitpoints until you rest, which stacks up to 99 times.

This would allow other uses of Depravity such as for:
Confusion 1 Depravity Cooldown 8 seconds
Mass Confusion 2 Depravity Cooldown 10 seconds
Eldritch Ball 3 Depravity Cooldown 10 seconds

30 AP, class level 18: Blood Component:

Your Eldritch Blast attacks 10% faster.
+10 maximum Depravity.
-25 Maximum HP
Greater Heroism is added to your known Warlock Spells at level 5.

Also concerning Greater Heroism, let us change that to:

Creeping Doom (Druid 7) is added to your known Warlock Spells at level 5.

Creeping Doom Conjuration Summons a cloud of voracious insects and unleashes them on your enemies. The insect cloud will slowly home on the target, and when it strikes insects will burst outward, affecting every enemy within the area of effect. Enemies hit by the insects take 2 to 20 poison damage, plus 1 to 10 per 3 caster levels, every 2 seconds for 16 seconds. A successful reflex save halves the damage.
Its very Warlock Invocation like several of their invocations are similar.
I know its damage, but honestly its rarely used by Druids.

[HatsuharuZ]

I like most of what I see. Good job! There are a few issues that worry me though:

1) Warlocks gain .75 spellpower per point spent in the tree. I'm worried that this won't be enough since Warlocks are a charisma-based class (as opposed to INT) and Eldritch Blast and it's derivatives may not get full benefit from spellpower.

2) I feel that Enervating Shadow's chance of dealing a negative level should increase somehow, or that the chance of a neg level should scale with Warlock level. One negative level does not do well in epics when Epic Ward is active.

[Angelic-council]

After rereading again il say that warlocks wont have issues with dcs.
I am comparing it to my sorc life as human where i pushed toward maximimum char and went enchant focus and played around with necro focus.

Inability to heighten will put warlock behind sorc by 3 dc, but since cores give 2 dc and capstone is 4 charisma instead of 2 that will even it out for necro/enchant schools.
With addition of depravity clickie they will gain 2 dc bursted every 60 seconds that make them superior to sorc by 2 dc. (3 if t 5 is taken here)
As sorc player i managed when focused on enchant/necro to land all spells reliably, so warlock imo should be ok dc wise esp with synergy that the light damage blast has with exalted.
You lose 1 dc from t5 from scholar but pick the light damage energy burst.


Only issue i see is that i am not really checking any real spell critical chance increases in most warlock trees.
What will be spell element focus (if any) for warlocks?

And 2nd question, will eldritch blasts be able to proc empyrian magic when we temper with them to do light damage?

Yes, exactly.

And about the spell critical chance. Pure warlocks would have high critical damage, but 8% lower critical chance. Is this the price they going to pay? If we think about it, warlocks don't really have any damaging spells, but eldritch and SLAs. I can see the balace there, but I'm not too sure.

[Blackheartox]

I know its damage, but honestly its rarely used by Druids.

And what makes you think it will be used from warlocks?
There is a reason its not used by druids

[Artagon]

And what makes you think it will be used from warlocks?
There is a reason its not used by druids

Just because it isn't used much doesn't mean it shouldn't be included for thematic reasons,

[Delacroix21]

Varg, two questions=

1. I dont see any +spell crit chance like all the other caster trees, can 2% force spell crit per tier be added?


2. Will eldritch blast always go off force spell crit? Or will you have to equip a negative energy lore item when using unholy blast etc.?

[Angelic-council]

As a designer myself, I have a quick question.

Tainted scholar uses forbidden knowledge, he is willing to pay his life to gain the power. Why there is nothing like: You lose 25 - 50 maximum HP until the effect ends: For the next 20 seconds, you gain 20 - 30% Attack boost with eldritch blast etc..

I think as a tainted scholar, those who learn forbidden knowledge - there should be more ways to "sacrifice and gain" abilities.

[Blackheartox]

Just because it isn't used much doesn't mean it shouldn't be included for thematic reasons,

Honestly no disrespect here, but why would you want a thematical spell that has no uses in the game.
Example poison damage is being resisted by most enemies, or in the worst case they are straight out immune to it.

Now if you added some kind spell that does the same but is bane damage and scaled properly, then ok sure.
But this way its just flavor and im pretty sure that at least i want warlock to be a actual playable class

[Vargouille]

1. I dont see any +spell crit chance like all the other caster trees, can 2% force spell crit per tier be added?

It's something we might add during balancing.

Will eldritch blast always go off force spell crit? Or will you have to equip a negative energy lore item when using unholy blast etc.?

Our expectation is that each damage type will go off the appropriate statistics.

As a designer myself, I have a quick question.

Tainted scholar uses forbidden knowledge, he is willing to pay his life to gain the power. Why there is nothing like: You lose 25 - 50 maximum HP until the effect ends: For the next 20 seconds, you gain 20 - 30% Attack boost with eldritch blast etc..

I think as a tainted scholar, those who learn forbidden knowledge - there should be more ways to "sacrifice and gain" abilities.

There are a couple of places where hit points are affected. We've also considered having some things cost hitpoints to activate, though right now we're leaning away from that for Depravity, SP, cooldowns, or weirder stuff.

All that said, "sacrifice" abilities can be hard to make. Most players have an aversion to obvious "downsides", and an appropriately balanced ability that's otherwise similar but has no downside is generally much, much more well received, so if it could go either way we'll tend to lean towards "no downside". (There are always other considerations, of course, and flavor in this tree can be one of them.)

There's a very "game designer" answer for you!

[HatsuharuZ]

There are a couple of places where hit points are affected. We've also considered having some things cost hitpoints to activate, though right now we're leaning away from that for Depravity, SP, cooldowns, or weirder stuff.

All that said, "sacrifice" abilities can be hard to make. Most players have an aversion to obvious "downsides", and an appropriately balanced ability that's otherwise similar but has no downside is generally much, much more well received, so if it could go either way we'll tend to lean towards "no downside". (There are always other considerations, of course, and flavor in this tree can be one of them.)

There's a very "game designer" answer for you!

I'd like to see a temporary spellpower boost (similar to an action boost) that costs a small amount of HP. However, that's in part because I like the Frenzied Berserker cores that give me extra strength and damage in return for HP.

[HastyPudding]

Varg, two questions=

1. I dont see any +spell crit chance like all the other caster trees, can 2% force spell crit per tier be added?


2. Will eldritch blast always go off force spell crit? Or will you have to equip a negative energy lore item when using unholy blast etc.?

Adding 1% crit chance to all damage types (fire, cold, electricity, acid, sonic, light, negative) could be added to the 1d4 'Strong Pact' enhancements. That would balance out the 2 AP cost and also be balanced in a sense as to not add a ton of critical chance (given they have high critical damage, already). +5% for all spells to crit and 5d4 pact damage, that seems reasonable.

[gwonbush]

Eldritch Power could also use a bit of a bump, since this T5 enhancement is less impressive than the T4 one immediately below it. For the same price, Penetrating Blast makes your Eldritch Blast untyped in addition to adding 1d6 base damage, while the T5 Eldritch Power just gives 1d6 base damage.