Warlock, Darkness, & Annoyance

[McClintock]

I am in a group with a Human Warlock who has chosen two very annoying invocations. The one that allows sight in any kind of darkness and the one that allows for darkness. By themselves they are relatively benign, but together they are rather bothersome, at our present level (6). What has commenced is that he casts darkness on himself, begins flying and hides within it and blasts everything. The DM is becoming very annoyed and is looking for an in game way of dealing with him. (He also has the dim door ability) we need some way to defeat the darkness, without killing the other players. Any suggestions?

BTW we are running RHoD.

[Kurald Galain]

we need some way to defeat the darkness
Cast Magic Missile at it :smallbiggrin:

Failing that, any area effect blast spell should deal with him, as should darkvision and dispel magic.

[Gnaritas]

Darkness is shadowy illumination, which is like a 20% misschance or so. So archers can still attack him.
He can hide in the darkness, but once he attacks he gets a -20 penalty to hide again.
On the next statement i am not 100% sure, but i believe if he fails his hide check he is spotted and can no longer hide in the darkness unless he has Hide in Plain Sight.


Cast Magic Missile at it :smallbiggrin:

Failing that, any area effect blast spell should deal with him, as should darkvision and dispel magic.

Darkvision doesn't work in Darkness.
Dispel Magic works, but the Warlock can just cast it again.

[Vladislav]

I am in a group with a Human Warlock who has chosen two very annoying invocations. The one that allows sight in any kind of darkness and the one that allows for darkness. By themselves they are relatively benign, but together they are rather bothersome, at our present level (6).AFB right now, but I do believe darkvision doesn't penetrate magical darkness. He should be unseen, yes, but also effectively blind.

[Gnaritas]

AFB right now, but I do believe darkvision doesn't penetrate magical darkness. He should be unseen, yes, but also effectively blind.

Warlock had Devil's Sight, with which he can see in darkness, even magical darkness.

[Salbazier]

Pretty sure Darksight (or whatever the invocation's name) is specifically allow to see though magical darkness.

Swordsage'd

[Vortling]

If you want to be amusing, anything with a 1 level dip in warlock to pick up the Devil's Sight invocation themselves can bypass his darkness. Failing that, blindsense, blindfight, a good listen check, touchsight, mindsight are all good options for locating him for targeting.

[Gnaritas]

By the way, have you tried "Your playstyle is bothering the game, would you mind playing differently? i will allow you to pick different invocations.".

Also, are you a player? if so, why are you making plans with your DM to kill another player? that sounds like a bad thing to do.

[Greenish]

He can hide in the darkness, but once he attacks he gets a -20 penalty to hide again.Sniping is also a full-round action.

On the next statement i am not 100% sure, but i believe if he fails his hide check he is spotted and can no longer hide in the darkness unless he has Hide in Plain Sight.That is correct. Without HiPS, you can't Hide while being observed, even if you have concealment.


Now, I fail to see why this is a problem for the DM. He can deal an average of 10.5 damage each round, and is a bit difficult to harm. So what?

[Salbazier]

By the way, have you tried "Your playstyle is bothering the game, would you mind playing differently? i will allow you to pick different invocations.".

Also, are you a player? if so, why are you making plans with your DM to kill another player? that sounds like a bad thing to do.

+1

And i don't see how that is such a big deal as well. There are far more cheese out there than this. This is just a cool strategy that easily countered by anything with blindsense/blindsight, another Devil's Sight, spell Ebon Eyes, and a bunch of stuff you can dig from splats if the DM is truly intent to kill said player.

[Sir Swindle89]

Darkness is shadowy illumination, which is like a 20% misschance or so. So archers can still attack him.

Odds are this solves your problem. Apparently no one actually reads the darkness spell description.

A 20% miss chance is not game breaking. The flight is probably worse, but what does your wizard do?

So ya archers or caster minions or flying creatures can take him on.

[true_shinken]

Sniping is also a full-round action.
It's just a move action, actually.



Odds are this solves your problem. Apparently no one actually reads the darkness spell description.

A 20% miss chance is not game breaking. The flight is probably worse, but what does your wizard do?

So ya archers or caster minions or flying creatures can take him on.
I don't think you understood the situation. Darkness grants concealment, therefore he can hide. If he is hidden, he can't be targeted.

I just wonder how this character has both Flee the Scene and Fell Flight, since a level 6 Warlock only has a single lesser invocation.

Also, I have a few words on darkness in my melee warlock handbook. /shameless plug

[Greenish]

It's just a move action, actually.Right. Well, standard action to attack and move to hide, so the effect is the same.

I don't think you understood the situation. Darkness grants concealment, therefore he can hide. If he is hidden, he can't be targeted.And all the enemy has to do is to spot him when he shoots his lazers, with him having -20 to the Hide check. If all the mooks in the fight constantly fail at it, well yeah, then he's mostly safe.

[Sir Swindle89]

I don't think you understood the situation. Darkness grants concealment, therefore he can hide. If he is hidden, he can't be targeted.

I didn't assume he was actually hiding. rather just useing the darkness cloud to cover himself. They seemed fairly unoptimized(seeing as this was a problem) so i didn't take sniping and such into account.

[true_shinken]

Right. Well, standard action to attack and move to hide, so the effect is the same.
And all the enemy has to do is to spot him when he shoots his lazers, with him having -20 to the Hide check. If all the mooks in the fight constantly fail at it, well yeah, then he's mostly safe.

Well, he is flying 30ft above them, so they do take at least -3 to their Spot checks. If he has eldritch spear, than they have -25 to their Spot checks.

[Greenish]

Well, he is flying 30ft above them, so they do take at least -3 to their Spot checks. If he has eldritch spear, than they have -25 to their Spot checks.If he can keep the maximum distance, yeah. Even then, all the mooks get to roll every time he attacks, and if one of them succeeds he can't Hide again (without gaining complete cover or concealment).

At level 6, assuming he has pumped Hide CC, he has 4 ranks + dex + misc. Tag a -17 penalty on that and a blind orc has a fair chance of finding him. :smallamused:

[true_shinken]

If he can keep the maximum distance, yeah. Even then, all the mooks get to roll every time he attacks, and if one of them succeeds he can't Hide again (without gaining complete cover or concealment).

At level 6, assuming he has pumped Hide CC, he has 4 ranks + dex + misc. Tag a -17 penalty on that and a blind orc has a fair chance of finding him. :smallamused:

Oh, no doubt. I meant this only has some use if he actually had eldritch spear... meaning he spent all his invocations known on this combo.

[Sir Swindle89]

Oh, no doubt. I meant this only has some use if he actually had eldritch spear... meaning he spent all his invocations known on this combo.

But if thats the case then a low cieling and a few corners shuts down his combo. YET ANOTHER FOIL!

[darbythegambler]

can't a simple daylight spell completely negate the invocation that produces darkness? :smallconfused:

[Sir Swindle89]

can't a simple daylight spell completely negate the invocation that produces darkness? :smallconfused:

Or a regular light spell, yes

However he can cast it at will, so he and another caster tie each other up until the other caster runs out of slots, or more likely gets killed by the party.

[true_shinken]

can't a simple daylight spell completely negate the invocation that produces darkness? :smallconfused:

Invocations are at will, so that wouldn't be much of a problem.

[dsmiles]

By the way, have you tried "Your playstyle is bothering the game, would you mind playing differently? i will allow you to pick different invocations.".

Also, are you a player? if so, why are you making plans with your DM to kill another player? that sounds like a bad thing to do.

Another +1.

You're winning the battles, right? Why would you want to take out another PC that's contributing?

EDIT: If this tactic annoys you, wait 'till he gets the invisibility and improved invisibility look-alike invocations. A flying, invisible warlock!

[hangedman1984]

maybe its just me but this seems like a perfect valid and reasonable tactic, whats the issue? i would even argue the synergy between these two invocations is probably even intentional by the designers

[Telonius]

Dispel Magic, area dispel. Fell Flight is a higher effective level than Darkness, so it's affected first. Dispelled Fell Flight at 30 feet up = 3d6 damage.

Other than that, Glitterdust is your friend. Many people miss this line in it:

"Any creature covered by the dust takes a -40 penalty on Hide checks."

Nothing in this or the Darkness spell description suggests that the penalty goes away until the duration ends.

Combine that with any sort of sniping, and you're looking at a -60 to Hide. Beyond that, all you've got is a 20% miss chance. Annoying, but not catastrophic.

Depending on whether the DM considers it a "Light" spell, it could counter and dispel Darkness since it's also second level. If he casts it again, so what? He's spent a round doing nothing that helps his party kill the foes.

[Starbuck_II]

Dispel Magic, area dispel. Fell Flight is a higher effective level than Darkness, so it's affected first. Dispelled Fell Flight at 30 feet up = 3d6 damage.


Solved by just casting the invocation million times. Every casting overlaps so you have dispel each before he can't fly.

[Gnaritas]

Solved by just casting the invocation million times. Every casting overlaps so you have dispel each before he can't fly.

Which most DM's obviously will not allow.

[Kyouhen]

It really shouldn't be too hard to deal with this. If the enemies really want to get rid of him have a wizard following an attack group with an archer or two. The wizard has some spell resistance to protect him from being sniped by the warlock, and stocks up on Stinking Cloud. Toss a Stinking Cloud into the warlock's darkness and see how long before he rushes out of it, and have the archers ready an action to shoot him as soon as he steps out of concealment. Rinse, lather, repeat until the warlock's nauseated (and no longer able to cast Darkness) or the wizard runs out of clouds. Either way the warlock's just wasted a few turns running around in circles and now half the room's filled with a Stinking Cloud.

[Starbuck_II]

Which most DM's obviously will not allow.

Fine then they can houserule the stacking rules. But they better not make it class specfic or that seems as grudge.

Really, the whole point of invocations is the no limit to use/day.

[AmberVael]

Depending on whether the DM considers it a "Light" spell, it could counter and dispel Darkness since it's also second level. If he casts it again, so what? He's spent a round doing nothing that helps his party kill the foes.
Given that Glitterdust doesn't have the Light descriptor, it pretty obviously is not a Light spell.


Which most DM's obviously will not allow.

It's a very situational and not particularly game breaking tactic. You're going to have to place each effect one at a time, and it isn't like you're going to run around covered in darkness all day long (if you did, I think that'll cause more problems that it solves, really). You need time to use it, and thus knowledge that you're going to be in combat, and on top of that, it only helps if someone is attempting to counter or dispel your tactic. Against someone who just uses Blindsight or even Blind-Fight (or any other common tactic listed above), it is worthless.

[Sir Swindle89]

It really shouldn't be too hard to deal with this. If the enemies really want to get rid of him have a wizard following an attack group with an archer or two. The wizard has some spell resistance to protect him from being sniped by the warlock, and stocks up on Stinking Cloud. Toss a Stinking Cloud into the warlock's darkness and see how long before he rushes out of it, and have the archers ready an action to shoot him as soon as he steps out of concealment. Rinse, lather, repeat until the warlock's nauseated (and no longer able to cast Darkness) or the wizard runs out of clouds. Either way the warlock's just wasted a few turns running around in circles and now half the room's filled with a Stinking Cloud.

The Warlock will never leave his darkness zone because darkness is cast on his belt or some such so it travels with him. Still effective none the less

[Kyouhen]

The Warlock will never leave his darkness zone because darkness is cast on his belt or some such so it travels with him. Still effective none the less

Huh, hadn't thought of that. Then you nauseate him before stabbing him with a simple Light spell or Dispel Magic. Either way he isn't going to be doing any blasting for a few rounds.

[AmberVael]

Here's another option-

Realize that he's always in the center of the darkness, or at least within it.
Use area effects, because you still basically know where he is, and can just fireball him to death. He's just a warlock, after all- a couple of blasts should take him out, unless he has above average HP or a really good reflex save.

[Starbuck_II]

Really, just have splash weapons.
Alchemist fire, etc aren't that expensive so have some minion/goons with them. Even if miss chance, he will take splash damage likely.

[Darrin]

I was going to suggest Torch Bug Paste (25 GP, Complete Scoundrel), but after rereading it I discovered that faerie fire doesn't work against magical darkness spells (2nd level or higher).

Here's something from Secrets of Sarlona, though...

Darklight (500 GP, Secrets of Sarlona p. 140). Requires a psionic user or wild/hidden talent with at least 1 PP, but for 24 hours it has four brightness settings that override all magical light/darkness effects in an 80' radius. Nevermind, the item doesn't do what I thought it did.

A gaggle of low-level level kobold sorcerers with hail of stones (area effect, no save) or power word pain (more like power word homicide) could probably fix his wagon for a few rounds.


The Warlock is being played highly optimized (essentially Person_Man's Adept of Darkness (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57352)), so I can't say he's doing anything against the rules, but if he's grabbing the spotlight (or darklight) from the other players and they aren't enjoying the game... that's close enough to *wrong* to pull him aside and ask him to change tactics or rework the build.

Otherwise, the DM will eventually get annoyed enough to throw something at the party to challenge or take down the Warlock, and if the rest of the party isn't a flying globe of darkness-shrouded artillery platform, they'll most likely get slaughted as collateral damage.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The Warlock will never leave his darkness zone because darkness is cast on his belt or some such so it travels with him. Still effective none the less

anyone with a couple of ranks in spellcraft should be able to identify the darkness effect. Such a character would know, with certainty, that since the dark globe is moving, it must be centered on something the warlock is carrying. Therefore, the warlock is always at the center of the effect. Targeting his square each round means that even if he is successfully hiding you still have a 50% chance of hitting him. If you can see him because he's either not trying to hide in the darkness or because he's failing to do so, it's only a 20% miss chance.

[randomhero00]

OP:

Shrug, that's kind of the warlocks stchick. I wouldn't take it away too heavily. Other than that, AoEs....or dispells.

[SaintRidley]

Area dispells, monsters with some spell resistance (so he can't blast them so easily), AoE spells, Other things that can see in magic darkness, encounters that you just can't blast into submission...

How is the warlock doing well the one thing he can do an insurmountable problem?

[McClintock]

Ok... by way of player background. This PC is modeled almost exactly after a warlock played in our last campaign. The only differences are the sex and the alignment.

Our DM awards originality, so when a player plays the same character as someone else, the very next campaign, he gets perturbed. When said player uses the same tactic in every battle, he gets more perturbed. When said player doesn't get the hint from the rest of us, the DM takes matters into his own hands and looks for ways to pwn the player.

Yeah, we may end up taking some damage, but the person needing th eboot to the head will take more. We just hope he learns his lesson. (he won't, this is not the first "pseudo-identical" character)

Thank you all for the ideas, the DM wishes to express his gratitude and the lovely options he has been presented.

[Greenish]

Darklight (500 GP, Secrets of Sarlona p. 140). Requires a psionic user or wild/hidden talent with at least 1 PP, but for 24 hours it has four brightness settings that override all magical light/darkness effects in an 80' radius.Actually, it's the opposite. Darklight's effect is not magic or psionic, so it can be overcome by any magical effect.

Ok... by way of player background. This PC is modeled almost exactly after a warlock played in our last campaign. The only differences are the sex and the alignment.

Our DM awards originality, so when a player plays the same character as someone else, the very next campaign, he gets perturbed. When said player uses the same tactic in every battle, he gets more perturbed. When said player doesn't get the hint from the rest of us, the DM takes matters into his own hands and looks for ways to pwn the player.If he is on the habit of copying effective builds from other games, well, maybe he wants to focus on other aspects of the game. As for using the same tactics… it's not like he's brimming with options as is. Tossing something for him to UMD would give him other things to do, but really, if a tactic works, there's no reason from IC perspective to mess about.

[Kyouhen]

Ok... by way of player background. This PC is modeled almost exactly after a warlock played in our last campaign. The only differences are the sex and the alignment.

Our DM awards originality, so when a player plays the same character as someone else, the very next campaign, he gets perturbed. When said player uses the same tactic in every battle, he gets more perturbed. When said player doesn't get the hint from the rest of us, the DM takes matters into his own hands and looks for ways to pwn the player.

Yeah, we may end up taking some damage, but the person needing th eboot to the head will take more. We just hope he learns his lesson. (he won't, this is not the first "pseudo-identical" character)

Thank you all for the ideas, the DM wishes to express his gratitude and the lovely options he has been presented.

On second thought, the DM only wants to kill the warlock but wants him REALLY dead? Can anyone else fly?

Here's the scenario:
You have a hallway that leads into a circular room. The floor is 30 feet below and the ceiling is 30 feet above. At the bottom of the pit is lava/fire/really sharp spikes/a dozen wights/deathtrap of choice/bottomless pit. Make sure it's really obvious that going down there is 100% death. The room is 30-40 feet across, and at the opposite end is an alcove with a really shiny bauble in it. Doesn't really matter what it is, just make it really pretty so that the PCs will definitely want it. There is a rope ladder dangling from the alcove, someone obviously cut it from this side, and a lantern hangs from the ceiling in the middle of the room.

The warlock flies into the room and promptly dies. The lantern is enchanted with an anti-magic field, and being in the middle of the room he'll be 5-10 feet from the edge when he enters it. Maybe stick another anti-magic field in the middle of the floor to make sure he doesn't figure out there's an area that's safe from the field and fly out. Either way, as long as the warlock's the only character capable of flight/teleportation/etc he'll promptly die and that'll be the end of that.

[Sholos]

Ok... by way of player background. This PC is modeled almost exactly after a warlock played in our last campaign. The only differences are the sex and the alignment.

Our DM awards originality, so when a player plays the same character as someone else, the very next campaign, he gets perturbed. When said player uses the same tactic in every battle, he gets more perturbed. When said player doesn't get the hint from the rest of us, the DM takes matters into his own hands and looks for ways to pwn the player.

Yeah, we may end up taking some damage, but the person needing th eboot to the head will take more. We just hope he learns his lesson. (he won't, this is not the first "pseudo-identical" character)

Thank you all for the ideas, the DM wishes to express his gratitude and the lovely options he has been presented.

This playstyle really doesn't sound like it suits a Warlock. Warlock's are all about spamming the same few things a LOT. I can kind of understand wanting to see a different character, but punishing the warlock for being a warlock just seems harsh. They are, by design, one-or-two trick ponies. A better solution might be to give the warlock more invocations to choose from, or allow him to change out invocations on a daily basis or something. Or just forbid him from playing a warlock. But don't just whine about the class performing to design.

[Darrin]

Actually, it's the opposite. Darklight's effect is not magic or psionic, so it can be overcome by any magical effect.

Ugh. I completely misread that. Sorry... ignore the Darklight suggestion, then.

[Salbazier]

You know, there's a lot of difference between awarding originality and punishing people for their preference :smallannoyed:. So, you didn't like the way he plays. Then decide it was a good enough reason to screw with his character? It's like punching someone in the face for ordering the kind of pizza you hate every time, even though he is ordering for himself.

Some people love their character concepts alot, they recycle it every now and the. Or maybe he just too lazy too spend that much effort for a game. So? Why is that disturbing the rest of you that much? Did he prevent the rest of you from having fun somehow?

I don't see how killing his character will help. If he recycle copy characters because he loves the concept, he will pissed off. If he is just lazy, well, how can you expect someone to give more effort for a game where he is just screwed over? Lazy people need incentive to overcome it. If he is putting more effort for fear of your wrath, that just going to be half-assed effort that lead to no fun anyway, at the very least not for him.

So, he didn't take your hint? I blame you, not him. If he is not perceptive enough to take vague hints, talk bluntly. If he get you hints, but ignore it because he didn't like be told 'we hate your character, change it', talk it openly to find a solution. Either way you should talk problems clearly.*

IMHO whether he was being lazy, too fond of his character, or something else entirely, the proper solution here will be suggesting bulids/concepts that he may like orr anything that makes him thinks having more varying character/tactics is fun.

Learn his lesson? I'm seriously afraid he will learn his lesson, in all the wrong way.



*(ranting unrelated to the situation: What is with people and hints? I didn't like because I'm too stupid to see one, true. But, if one do not like to hear something, hinting at it or telling it bluntly would not change the result. It just lying to yourself that you are being nice/less rude. it's still rude if you are hurt someone's feeling in the end no matter what.*grumble*)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I fail to see how Darkness is in any way a meaningful problem to any opponent. It's just a 20% concealment modifier. That's it. People still have Line of Sight to him, can still target him, can still affect him. It's just that things that need an attack roll have a 20% chance of not failing.

Unless opponent has one of the following:

True Strike (for next attack)
Improved Precise Shot (negates modifiers less than total concealment)
Devil's Sight (one-level dip)

But the easiest way is to have a squad of archers target him. A dozen archers fire two rounds (rapid shot). Twenty four shots. Of which approximately 4-5 of them will miss due to concealment. So eat 20d8+modifiers on arrows.

Have a nice day.

Seriously, darkness is not as powerful as people think it is. You get a concealment modifier, so it lets you hide, but unless you have Hide in Plain Sight, you still cannot attempt it while any opponent has Line of Sight on you... which will be everyone, since he's bloody FLYING AROUND IN A DARK CLOUD. It's kinda hard to miss.

You have a 20% miss chance, which means you're immune to sneak attack, which is a bonus, if you are facing a stream of Rogues, but he's blown two of his three Least Invocations in order to pull this off, which is just plain crippling. And it's pathetically easy to bypass or simply deal with.

[umbrapolaris]

You know, there's a lot of difference between awarding originality and punishing people for their preference :smallannoyed:. So, you didn't like the way he plays. Then decide it was a good enough reason to screw with his character? It's like punching someone in the face for ordering the kind of pizza you hate every time, even though he is ordering for himself.

+1,

he choose the warlock for playing it in that style, he like it, it is fun for him, why deprive it of that? he doesn't play so differently than a wizard who spam his magic missile" or "fireball.; than a rogue who always sneak attacks, or the fighter who always bull rush.

if his tactic (which seems to be efficient after all) become annoying for you, so develop your own special combo (if in my party someone found a good trick we applaud him and try to find a better one; you talk like in the Chicago Bull's they kick Michael Jordan because he always success his 3 points shoots...it is nonsense).

if it annoy the DM, so your campaign has a big problem coz if he cant find a RP solution at that problem at low level, what he will do at high level when the wizard or fullcaster (if any) will access his full power...

[Dralnu]

If the warlock is hampering the party's ability to contribute to the battle (aka the fun), then it's a party issue. You could IC'ly argue battle tactics.

Is the DM running RHoD exactly like the module says to handle it? If so, I think the initial battles should work totally in favor of the warlock, no need to punish the dude for picking a good tactic. But when inevitably some baddies flee from failed battles and report back to base, that warlock's trick is DEFINITELY going to be a concern of higher authorities. The army would then be properly equipped to handle that situation. A couple mooks might have alchemist's fire for such an occasion. They're cheap and plentiful!

Also, make sure the enemy spellcasters have area effect spells to handle the darkness too. Fireball is an obvious one. I'm sure there's a spell that lets you see in magical darkness too.

Both of those options are very easy to do and require only a little tweaking on the DM's part. I'd say try that out and see how it goes.

[Shadowleaf]

The Warlock has four Invocations. That's a total of pretty much five tricks from his class. Three Least and one Lesser Invocation plus Eldritch Blast. And you are blaming him for using them all together?

How is this any different from a Wizard casting Armor, Shield, Invisibility and Magic Missile? The Warlock's combo just makes more sense mechanically.

It's not like the Warlock has a lot of viable alternatives in terms of combat/staying power. Look up the Warlock class, read the Invocations.. And then remember he has 3 Least and 1 Lesser, which he cannot change until he levels up. Now find a fun, exciting, changing and viable alternative to the one he has. It's pretty hard.

Edit: Also, it's a 20% miss chance. It's really nothing. Unless the Warlock is extremely min/maxed, a few archers will probably cause a major annoyance to him. If he flies away, they just need to ready actions to shoot when he returns. Heck, you could probably even do it with a few level 1-2 archers.

[Coidzor]

Ok... by way of player background. This PC is modeled almost exactly after a warlock played in our last campaign. The only differences are the sex and the alignment.

Our DM awards originality, so when a player plays the same character as someone else, the very next campaign, he gets perturbed. When said player uses the same tactic in every battle, he gets more perturbed. When said player doesn't get the hint from the rest of us, the DM takes matters into his own hands and looks for ways to pwn the player.

Yeah, we may end up taking some damage, but the person needing th eboot to the head will take more. We just hope he learns his lesson. (he won't, this is not the first "pseudo-identical" character)

Thank you all for the ideas, the DM wishes to express his gratitude and the lovely options he has been presented.

Well, that's passive aggressive of you all. :smallyuk: You know, you can speak to one another.

He doesn't need a boot to the head, you all need to quit dancing around the issue and address it directly, off of the battle grid.

Communication! Set up some ground rules up front before a game starts for character generation if you have issues with some practice or another. If someone is doing something you as a group don't like, talk to them rather than coming online and asking for how to kill their character.

[Salbazier]

Sorry, I misread. Okay he copy someone else character not recycling his previous character. Still, Not different that much from playing a Drizzt clone. Maybe he just want to be as awesome as previous warlock player. If you don't like copycat, well, I'll say it again, talk!

[Akal Saris]

If the OP thinks his DM has problems, he should see my PC

She independently discovered the Drow of the Underdark combo, so she's a Warlock 14 who can cast Deeper Darkness (including a free bat swarm inside it) at will, as an immediate action, which also gives her Hide in Plain Sight, and of course she flies, can see in the darkness, and has the Darkstalker feat. She also picked up a Ring of Blinking for more miss chances, and the invocation that gives a 3rd miss chance for ranged weapons.

She's mercilessly optimized the 'die in darkness with bats!' theme, which makes me very proud :smallbiggrin:

Some fights I've designed to challenge the party, her included:
1. In several fights I just let her have fun being unhittable. It's not a big deal as long as other party members are suffering horribly, and all PCs deserve to enjoy their gimmicks.
2. AOE damage has nearly killed her several times, like the golem that exploded with small teeth shards every time a PC hit it.
3. Dragons are almost a natural counter to this tactic - excellent senses and an AOE attack when they can't pinpoint the target. It's an upcoming encounter.
4. (Dread) Wraiths and Greater Shadows with the Lifesight feat nearly killed her quite effortlessly. I'll send a Banshee at the party later on with the same feat, and likely a Ghost as well sometime down the line (both are future plot-important adversaries)
5. Hellwasp Swarms have proven surprisingly effective as well
6. Devils can also see in magical darkness; that's one of the next encounters I have planned in the future.
7. Mid-level gishes have proven to be effective challenges. The PCs are fighting an elven nation, and Arcane Archers with True Strike, Seeker Arrow/Phase Arrow (both negate concealment for a known foe - who knew a crummy PrC could be so useful?) and arrows imbued with Glitterdust are another encounter that the PCs will face soon.
8. The Mindsight feat will be used soon enough - I'm thinking something less stereotypical than illithids though.
9. Sheer brute force has also been effective - two dozen boulders from a small army of giants means that even after attacking random squares usually 1-2 got through, and that's enough to seriously hurt a warlock.