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trehek
2010-08-09, 01:21 PM
General Notes:

This characters main function is to deal heavy fire damage along with ongoing fire damage, with emphasis on area spells when possible. Ongoing damages also come with a heavy backlash when saved off, dealing extra fire and cold damage. The backlash damage totals at 25 points at level 30, which makes succesful saves quite unpleasant. Along the heroic tier the build picks up attack bonuses, attacks with ongoing damage and the ongoing backlash effects. Diabolic Soul also offers a "battle stance" in the form of a fiendish shape change, featuring bonuses to fire resistance, hit and damage, as well as regeneration. A slight emphasis is also placed on dealing cold damage for occasions where fire is heavily resisted.

The paragon tier of this build features resistance piercing as well as new sources of and increases to ongoing fire effects. Defensively, the character gains cold resistance for climate survivability and attack survivability as well as huge bonuses on saves against Dazing, Stunning and Domination. The build also gains its second shape change, featuring fire damage bonuses, fiery counter damage against melee attackers, fire immunity and insubstantiality.

The epic tier offers some extra benefits such as darkvision, the immortal origin, a teleport speed and a short immunity to being attacked. The character also learns to summon a pack of devil legionnaires that explode when killed. The tier focuses on strengthening gained properties of the build both defensively and offensively. At level 29 the build gains the spell Doom of Delban which is made into a encounter-winner. See the power notes below for more details.

Tactically the build is quite offensive. It's AC is very low, making it weak against weapon attacks. For this reason it likes having a protective character in the party. In contrast it's other defenses are excellent. With sample gear its effective defenses against attacks at all times are at least: AC 38, Fort 50, Ref 48, Will 46. After gaining a milestone these defenses can increase for a single encounter by a further 3. There are no powers to increase mobility, and the character prefers staying in place at range, unlike regular warlocks. Hit points are fairly high, even without Toughness. The character's main method of survival is through damage mitigation using temporary hit points and insubstantiality, as well as regeneration and some damage resistance. Self-healability has a high gear emphasis.

Many of the choices made with this build are from Arcane Power, Player's handbook 3, PHB Races: Tiefling and from Dragon magazine issues. Accessing the DnDI Compendium and/or the DnD Character Builder can be useful.


Build Summary:

Race - Tiefling
Class - Hybrid Warlock(Infernal)/Wizard
Paragon Path - Master of Flame
Epic Destiny - Prince of Hell
Point Buy Ability Scores - Str 8, Con 18, Dex 12, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 12

Feat Choices:
1: Hellfire Blood
2: Hybrid Talent (Pact Boon)*
4: Hellfire Master
6: Icy Clutch of Stygia
8: Diabolic Soul
10: Superior Implement Training (Accurate Rod)
11: Hellfire of Mephistopheles
12: Dispater's Iron Discipline
14: Hellfire Hex
16: Hellfire Arcanist*
18: Dooming Action
20: Dual Implement Spellcaster
21: Student of the Athaeneum
22: Rapid Regeneration*
24: Cursed Spells
26: Vengeful Summoner*
28: Robust Defenses
30: Quickened Spellcasting (Scorching Burst)


Power Choices:
1: Hellish Rebuke
1: Scorching Burst
1: Vampiric Embrace
1: Flames of Phlegethos (retrained into Flaming Sphere at level 5)
2: Shield
3: Fire Shroud
5: Avernian Eruption
6: Life Siphon
7: Howl of Doom
9: Ice Storm
10: Mass Resistance
11: Fanning the Flames (automatic from path)
12: Burning Transformation (automatic from path)
13: Frostburn (lose Vampiric Embrace)
15: Tendrils of Thuban (lose Ice Storm)
16: Stoneskin
17: Sea Tyrant's Fury (lose Howl of Doom)
19: Vestige of Kronata (lose Tendrils of Thuban)
20: Furious Immolation (automatic from path)
22: Walk of the Kantakaran
23: Spiteful Darts (lose Sea Tyrant's Fury)
25: Cinder Storm (lose Flaming Sphere)
27: Chain Lightning (lose Frostburn)
29: Doom of Delban (lose Avernian Eruption)


Retrains:
5: Flames of Phlegethos -> Flaming Sphere
24: Hellfire of Mephistopheles -> Arcane Admixture(Spiteful Darts, Fire)
29: Arcane Admixture -> Arcane Admixture(Doom of Delban, Fire)
+Defense feat retrains at own discretion (* -> Epic Fort, Ref & Will)

Sample Final Gear:
Ghostphase Mindpatterned Armor +6
Accurate rod of the Star Spawn +6
Lifesapper Rod +6
Time-Jumping Boots / Zephyr Boots
Circlet of Arkhosia
Scarab of Invulnerability
Bloodhound Bracers
Hands of Hadar
Nullifying Ring
Shadow Band
Diamond Cincture
Eager Hero's Tattoo


Ability Score Notes:
Primary attack abilities are Con and Int, with Int and Cha being secondary abilities. While having a score of 18 in the spread isn't optimal, it's quite necessary here since no points to Con are gained from race or epic destiny. Here I need to add that I find this fact most annoying in 4e! Infernal races and builds use a different ability than the primary infernal warlock build? What's up with that?! Seriously, if your DM agrees with this, try to get those bonuses changed from Cha to Con. You can then change the spread to something more balanced. Anyway, even with a starting score of 12 in Int, with bonuses from the build the attack modifier for Int based attacks still becomes fairly decent.


Feat Notes:
The marked feats are the highest candidates to switch or retrain into fort,ref and will increasing feats. The feats were still left in the list to show viable alternatives, since some players may decide not to emphasize on the defenses, or may be in a group where the defense feats are houseruled (like in our group, where the DM thinks everyone will automatically take the feats and so they shouldn't have to cost a feat slot. Freedom of choice FTW). The transformation from Diabolic Soul is best used in an encounter where an enemy decides to make the character its target. A good tactic for the character is to focus on taking that enemy down fast, and Black Wrath of Hell along with the regeneration helps to get through the fight alive. At epic levels the regeneration can get as high as 15, which can be of essential help in powering Doom of Delban through an encounter if Burning Transformation is not available. Student of the Athaeneum should almost always be used to regain one of the transformations except at levels 29-30 it should be used on Doom of Delban. Vengeful Summoner is the only thing that makes the epic destiny's utility power really useful. With 4 summons from the spell, the feat adds considerable damage. If Vengeful Summoner is not taken the level 21 minions are almost useless since they can't hit too well and die if looked at.


Power Notes:
Hellish Rebuke is required for the hybrid talent at level 2. Scorching burst is great damage for an at-will power, since it's an area. Ongoing damage is taken at level 1 with Flames of Phlegethos, but it must be retrained at level 5 to fulfill hybrid build rules. Flames of Phlegethos and Avernian Eruption are very useful with their Effect ongoing damages. Fire Shroud at level 3 is just about the only encounter power available with ongoing fire damage and is a very important reason to be hybrid. Going for the ongoing damages is important because the backlashes from the feats at level 4 and 6 are considerable, surpassing having some extra damage dice. Fire Shroud will last all the way till level 30. It also has a very useful area of Close Burst 3 (increases to 4 at level 16) targeting enemies only. Mass Resistance at level 10 is a great full party buff and greatly reduces the need for resistance gear. Nothing too spectacular to pick at levels 13 & 15. Choices made because of good damage with nice area. The power chain at levels 7-17-23 is meant to leave some control for getting out of melee. The blast areas are also good for damage. Admixture at level 24 also improves Spiteful Darts until level 29. Chain Lightning at level 27 is a really nice spell because of it's secondary and tertiary attacks made as Effects. The spell targets every enemy within 20 squares of the caster making it a great clean-up spell.
Doom of Delban at 29 is the big whopper. Single target at a time only, but half damage on a miss and sustainable with cumulatively increasing damage. An important thing to note here is that Hellfire Hex triggers when you deal curse damage, and since a miss also causes half of curse damage, the target takes the ongoing effect with full backlash even on a miss if it was under your Warlock's Curse. High main damage from the power + good fire spell damage bonuses + ongoing damage + backlash = Ouchie! Crits from this thing put a smile on your face every time. It's also pretty usable against targets you don't see as long as you know which square to target. The bad news is that the fire admixture also changes the backlash damage type to non-resistable fire, and because all implement and fire damage bonuses also apply to the power's backlash damage, the 2d10 becomes a LOT more. 30+ damage in the head each turn hurts. Fire immunity from Burning Transformation is the preferred method to deal with this. Plan B (which must be used after regaining Doom with Student of the Athaeneum) is having high regeneration from Diabolic Transformation, trying to stay insubstantial through as many Doom-blasts as possible and getting healed a lot. Gear helps a lot (Diamond Cincture, Rod of the Star Spawn and/or Solitaire Citrine).


Gear Notes:
Item daily powers should be used as extra sources for ongoing damage and for defense, most notably insubstantiality. The main hand rod with properties (Star Spawn) is a good choice because it removes the need for a crit range feat. Feat slots are badly needed. Healing on a crit is also extremely useful. The off-hand rod here is used to deliver curses. Note that the rod's daily power does not trigger a fire backlash, only the cold one. However, the power combos nicely with the Bloodhound Bracers and the Hands of Hadar. A big enhancement bonus is good for Dual Implement Spellcaster. The off-hand rod, gloves and bracers are a combo. You can inflict ongoing damage when you curse someone and anyone under ongoing damage grants you bonuses to hit (combat advantage) and damage (extra curse dice). The Circlet of Arkhosia and Nullifying ring are a powerful combo for saving throws along with the Dispater's Iron Discipline feat. All saves are made at +3, except Stuns, Dazes and Dominates are saved at +10 (level 30) and a save against those effects may be made at the start of your turn. The shadow band offers the Concealment that this build lacks as a property, and after a milestone it can grant full concealment for one encounter. The Time-Jumping Boots are used as a healing measure. The extra actions granted are perfect for using Second Wind and activating the Diamond Cincture twice, healing 3 surges. It leaves you dazed but that is still enough to keep up a Doom of Delban charge-up. The tattoo is also very useful with this build to basically increase it's hit point total. In open-area encounters with long range flyers you can switch to using Zephyr Boots (or Propellant Boots).


Variations:
The feats marked with an asterisk can be substituted with defence increasing feats as well as Implement Expertise (Rod). The rod expertise feat is in fact one of the most powerful feats ever. An alternate paragon path to use is Hellbringer, which offers full fire resistance piercing at level 16 and a great level 20 daily, which is a Close Burst 10 targetting enemies. The level 12 utility power can also offer good mobility if used cleverly. Wizard's Wrath is a feat option, but it's power replacement for Infernal Wrath cannot be used if you've also taken Diabolic Soul. It is possible to take Wizard's Wrath for the property only. Resistance and immunity piercing against bloodied enemies is nice. Ritual Caster is also an option at the expense of one of the marked feats. A ritualist version of this build may find it attractive to keep a few of its many healing surges permanently spent on powering up teleportation circles etc. The spent surges will power up the Eager Hero's Tattoo granting more temporary hit points for each encounter.


Have fun and feel free to comment!