4e warlock build

[evil is fun]

I'm kind of (well pretty much entirely) new to DnD and have been recently informed, much to my own surprise, that I would be joining a small group of people I don't really know every friday to game. naturally, due to my inexperience and lack of formal introduction to my fellow party members, or even a choice in the matter, I would be much obliged if I could get some basic advice on building and playing a character. I was thinking warlock, human unless there's a better fitting class that I missed because my lack of wisdom caused me to fail my spot check. thanks.:smallsmile:
Sabriel

[Artanis]

What's the character concept? What do you want the character to do mechanically? Do you have a specific power source (Arcane, Divine, etc.) in mind?

[Kylarra]

What kind of character do you want to play? Warlocks are kind of the "weakest" of the strikers in terms of DPR, so if damage is your shtick, you might want to reconsider.

[Swordgleam]

Here's the deal with 4e: to make a useless character, you have to actively try. So just pick powers you like, and you'll be fine.

If you want to be slightly more useful, figure out which stat is going to be your main one - for warlocks, that's either Cha or Con - and then pick mostly powers based on that, and mostly powers with the same keyword (eg charm, fire, ice, etc). Then take feats that boost powers with that keyword, and make sure that stat is your highest.

But you really don't need a whole lot of help or effort to make a character that's useful. So just go with what seems fun!

[Tehnar]

Con based warlocks make good secondary tanks (not defenders though), have control capacity and while damage is good, its not great. As human put 20 in CON and a 14 in INT. While your AC might be poor, the trick to defending yourself is to take bloodcut armor. A minor action and a healing surge nets you a high amount of DR which is very useful. And you will have more healing surges then a defender, so why not put them to a good use.

With DR, melee friendly options are available, so don't be shy to take Armor of Agathys and stand by your defender. If monsters try to hit you, you have DR and they will probably trigger the defenders mark. So its a lose lose situation for them.

Minions are your friends. Use them to fuel your pact boon.

[Swordgleam]

take bloodcut armor.

Is that a realistic option in most games you've played in? I'm just curious - in all the games I've played/run, you don't have direct control over what items your character gets. You can make a wishlist, but it's hardly enough of a guarantee to base a build around.

[Kylarra]

Is that a realistic option in most games you've played in? I'm just curious - in all the games I've played/run, you don't have direct control over what items your character gets. You can make a wishlist, but it's hardly enough of a guarantee to base a build around.It's a reasonable enough option, ime. Even without direct control, you can still craft your own.

[rayne_dragon]

My advice to anyone new is:

- avoid taking complicated powers unless you're willing to take the time to learn them before the game (this applies mainly to leaders and controllers, but warlocks can be controllery too)
- take at least 18 in your primary stat (the one the class uses for attack and damage rolls)
- while you can take any power you want, you may want to look at the character opt boards at the wizards of the coast website to see how useful that power is likely to be to you compared to others (don't let that deter you from taking a power because it sounds cool to you, though)
- if you have an attack that targets an area, bringing a number of differently coloured d20s can be helpful so you can roll all your attacks at once without slowing down combat
- you may want to find out what the other player's characters are so you can pick a role not covered by them, but it probably won't kill the party if you don't
- have fun!!! (this is the most important part)

[Kurald Galain]

I was thinking warlock, human unless there's a better fitting class that I missed because my lack of wisdom caused me to fail my spot check. thanks.:smallsmile:
Question is, what do you want out of your character, and does this match with a warlock? Because if you want to play a striker, you should realize that warlocks are pretty mediocre strikers. They can make great characters, but they usually don't do striker very well.

Humans are a decent pick for any class, but a great pick for no class. Every class has two or three races that go great with it, and human is not one of them. FYI.

The most important thing to realize about 4E is that "doing 20 damage now is more fun for the group than thinking for a minute and then doing 23 damage".

[Mando Knight]

Con based warlocks make good secondary tanks (not defenders though), have control capacity and while damage is good, its not great. As human put 20 in CON and a 14 in INT. While your AC might be poor, the trick to defending yourself is to take bloodcut armor. A minor action and a healing surge nets you a high amount of DR which is very useful. And you will have more healing surges then a defender, so why not put them to a good use.

If you want to be a DR-based secondary tank, go Swarm Druid instead and grab Hide Armor Expertise. High-Striker/Low-Defender level AC coupled with near-permanent Resist All to most attacks. BugDwarf the Swarm Druid is pretty much harder to kill in melee than many Defenders.

[Tehnar]

If you want to be a DR-based secondary tank, go Swarm Druid instead and grab Hide Armor Expertise. High-Striker/Low-Defender level AC coupled with near-permanent Resist All to most attacks. BugDwarf the Swarm Druid is pretty much harder to kill in melee than many Defenders.


I haven't seen the swarm druid in action, however if you can grab hide armor expertise as a warlock too, that would be great. What I've seen is very hard to kill. DR 10 in heroic is very very hard to kill + you have almost as a high hp pool as defenders.

When I played a fighter, the warlock in the party did what I described above. Standing in the melee range of a marked monster he would provoke AoO's, or use ranged attack powers (gaining prime shot). Combined with armor of agathys and rain of steel damage auras, mobs went down pretty fast.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

If racial options are also on the table, I have found myself obsessed with the Infernolock/Wizard Githyanki build. Flexible (i.e. reliable) dpr, access to great aoe/control/tanking powers, and the mobility/ranged combat options to stay relevant regardless of the fight details? Yes please. Just balance durability and damage in regards to feat selection and you'll have a low upkeep character that will always have something to contribute.

[Mando Knight]

I haven't seen the swarm druid in action, however if you can grab hide armor expertise as a warlock too, that would be great. What I've seen is very hard to kill. DR 10 in heroic is very very hard to kill + you have almost as a high hp pool as defenders.

It would cost you three feats as a Warlock (Primal multiclass, Hide proficiency, Hide Expertise), two of which would require 13s in something other than Con. The Swarm Druid also gets its Resist All as a passive ability, meaning that even though it's somewhat lower than Bloodcut's power, it costs less to use and will probably be more effective.