Warlock Eldritch Blast damage Q.

[TechnOkami]

So I know that the Rogue gets 10d6 worth of damage, and I know that the Dragonfire Adept gets 9d6 worth of damage.

Is the Warlock's Eldritch Blase 9d6 as well? And what are the details as to what type of damage it causes?: it is an Ex or Su ability, damage type, range, etc.

Thanks.

[DeltaEmil]

The Eldritch Blast is listed as a spell-like ability, as written on page 7 of Complete Arcane. Aside from this information, I don't think we are allowed to give you the full rules about Eldritch Blast, as it's not part of the SRD.

[TechnOkami]

The Eldritch Blast is listed as a spell-like ability, as written on page 7 of Complete Arcane. Aside from this information, I don't think we are allowed to give you the full rules about Eldritch Blast, as it's not part of the SRD.

K', but how much dice damage does it do?

[Dhavaer]

Depends on your warlock level.

[TechnOkami]

Depends on your warlock level.

Ok, what's the maximum amount of damage?

[Airanath]

9d6, as you said yourself.
Blasting all day has the cost of making you not blast hard.

[TechnOkami]

9d6, as you said yourself.
Blasting all day has the cost of making you not blast hard.

Thank you. And can you go deeper into what you mean by
"Blasting all day has the cost of making you not blast hard." please?

[DeltaEmil]

He means that by level 18+, it's pathetically weak-sauce to do 9d6 damage (even if it's at-will). Especially if you can only do it once (however, the Warlock has at least its incantations, which are a lot more useful than that).

That's how Wizards of the Coast thought it would be balanced. Make it really weak, but you can do it really lots of times. Like, until you sleep or you're dead.

[Gavinfoxx]

He's saying 9D6 isn't a lot of damage, considering... an average of 31 damage a round is really, really low for that level, seeing how that there are characters that can top that damage per round at level one.

[TechnOkami]

Ah. ...then what would be a good decent amount of damage to be doing consistently at that high a level? 50? 70? 100?

[DeltaEmil]

Theoretically, instant-death (like 1000 damage or so). However, this also makes for a stupid and boring game.

High-level D&D combat in 3.x has the unfortunate tendency to turn into what everybody calls the 'rocket-tag'.

[TroubleBrewing]

Uber-charger builds regularly reach into the thousands without too much trouble, and at the TRULY ludicrous end of the spectrum, there's the Warhulking Hurler, whose damage is expressed in scientific notation.

Most WHH builds are purely TO. No DM is ever going to let their player have a meteor made of iridium...

[Gavinfoxx]

Ah. ...then what would be a good decent amount of damage to be doing consistently at that high a level? 50? 70? 100?


....200 maybe? What's the average hit points of monsters of CR 18, 19, 20? Maybe half that?

Someone did a breakdown of averages and stuff with a big chart... I don't remember where it is though.

[awa]

keep in mind their are items and feats that can boost the damage so 9d6's just if you don't spend any resources improving it. and if you haven't spent any money or feats to boost it by level 20 you probably don't use it very often anyways.

also remember you can apply debuffs to your elderich blast so its not just the damage. And no non full caster can compete with the tier one full casters at level 20 so that no big deal.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

Ok, what's the maximum amount of damage?For Eldritch/Hellfire Blast? Do you really want to know the answer? Search BG if you d

[Etrivar]

keep in mind their are items and feats that can boost the damage so 9d6's just if you don't spend any resources improving it. and if you haven't spent any money or feats to boost it by level 20 you probably don't use it very often anyways.

What are the feats of which you speak? Are they homebrewed?

[MeeposFire]

What are the feats of which you speak? Are they homebrewed?

You could add things like psionic shot and greater psionic shot or mortal bane. These are in the expanded psionics handbook and book of vile darkness. You can also by an amulet that boosts EB damage (complete arcane I think) and add things like hellfire prc from the devil based prc from the fiendish codex (hellfire warlock).

[awa]

also their are gloves that boost Eldritch blast for feats remember empower spell like ability, maximize spell like ability and similar feats.

[Tael]

Average HP of stuff you should be fighting at that level is like 400. 32 is literally worthless.

You should be doing 100 damage per round MINIMUM. Consistently that is.

[MeeposFire]

Average HP of stuff you should be fighting at that level is like 400. 32 is literally worthless.

You should be doing 100 damage per round MINIMUM. Consistently that is.

That is about how fast a striker type character should do it in 4e so I would say that is about right even in 3e (in 4e it is though that you shoud be able to kill an enemy in about 4 attacks which is usually 4 rounds unless you action point or have strong multi attack powers).

[Etrivar]

OK, I thought that you meant there were feats that actually increase the number of dice dealt by your EB, nevermind :smallredface:

[Tvtyrant]

You can use Quicken SLA and Maximize SLA on a Warlocks blasts if I recall; that gets you 86 a turn for 3 turns a day. 1 maximized shot and 1 quickened shot per round for 3 rounds then you are out. It is pretty bad still, but combined with Hellfire it gets up to 140 a turn if you can heal yourself of the con damage.

[RaginChangeling]

I think if you pull off all the shenanigans you can get 36d6 blasts, which still isn't much to write home about. You add certain items and other things, you may max out at 40d6-ish which, even maximized, is only 240 damage. Or 1/4th of the Tarrasque's HP.

Blasting is not exactly a Warlock's strong suit.

[faceroll]

Picking up Quicken SLA, Chain Blast, and Craven, you're doing 18d6+40 damage to what, 4 or 5?, targets a few times a day. Not bad.

[MeeposFire]

I think if you pull off all the shenanigans you can get 36d6 blasts, which still isn't much to write home about. You add certain items and other things, you may max out at 40d6-ish which, even maximized, is only 240 damage. Or 1/4th of the Tarrasque's HP.

Blasting is not exactly a Warlock's strong suit.

If you are willing to be in melee range then you could a lot better using eldritch glaive. But then you are a melee build.

[RaginChangeling]

Picking up Quicken SLA, Chain Blast, and Craven, you're doing 18d6+40 damage to what, 4 or 5?, targets a few times a day. Not bad.

You only apply Craven to your sneak attack damage, so you'd have to be a multiclasses Warlock/Rogue and capable of making sneak attacks on multiple opponents per round to pull it off. And that still averages to about 80 damage, 3 times a day which is decidedly... underwhelming at best.

Even making Quicken and Maximize infinite use wouldn't really increase the power too much. People get blinded by the number of dice rolled and fail to see that its an absolutely pathetic amount of damage.

[faceroll]

You only apply Craven to your sneak attack damage, so you'd have to be a multiclasses Warlock/Rogue and capable of making sneak attacks on multiple opponents per round to pull it off. And that still averages to about 80 damage, 3 times a day which is decidedly... underwhelming at best.

Mmm, yeah. Wands of Vinestrike, Gravestrike, and whatever the construct one would be good to have. Can't quicken and use one of those in the same round.

Eldritch Chain gets you 3 additional targets, so that's 80+36d6 damage a round. Assuming you can make the trivial touch attacks and break SR.

Definitely not at the top of the heap, but really not that bad either.


I think if you pull off all the shenanigans you can get 36d6 blasts, which still isn't much to write home about. You add certain items and other things, you may max out at 40d6-ish which, even maximized, is only 240 damage. Or 1/4th of the Tarrasque's HP.

Blasting is not exactly a Warlock's strong suit.

I dunno, a minute of standard actions without using any resources to solo a CR20 seems like not a bad deal.

[RaginChangeling]

Mmm, yeah. Wands of Vinestrike, Gravestrike, and whatever the construct one would be good to have. Can't quicken and use one of those in the same round.

Eldritch Chain gets you 3 additional targets, so that's 80+36d6 damage a round. Assuming you can make the trivial touch attacks and break SR.

Definitely not at the top of the heap, but really not that bad either.

80+36d6 split against 4 targets is pretty terrible, unless you happen to be fighting things ten levels below you. That'll take half a dozen rounds to even begin to wear away at level appropriate threats, and you have to be within 60ft because you can't apply eldritch spear and eldritch chain at the same time. Not to mention you can only quicken 3 times a day, which means you won't be able to take a single monster down before you burn through all your daily uses of quicken.

Really, a Warlock shouldn't be blasting at level 20 unless it optimizes it or uses it to debuff and stack with other invocations. Utterdark blasting things or using Chilling Tentacles is a much better use of your time than doing tiny damage.



I dunno, a minute of standard actions without using any resources to solo a CR20 seems like not a bad deal.

You can do the same as a level 10 Wizard, and charge it to death in one round as a level 12 or 15 fighter. Even maximizing the warlock's damage through arcane tricks makes it barely competent.

[awa]

it depends on the level of optimisation your group uses not every fighter is an ubercharger and non casters really can compete with full casters at high level so i don't even bother comparing them. you should never underestimate the fact that the warlocks attack is a touch attack at higher levels its almost a guaranteed hit while a fighter power attacking has to either dump his attack or his ac(or invest in a very expensive weapon)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

If you're wanting damage output, as a warlock, I highly suggest you google Hellfire Warlock.

[Feytalist]

If you're wanting damage output, as a warlock, I highly suggest you google Hellfire Warlock.

Just get a wand of lesser restoration... or seven.

[true_shinken]

Just get a wand of lesser restoration... or seven.
You mean a rod of bodily restoration.

[Feytalist]

You mean a rod of bodily restoration.

Or that. But only 3 uses per day. Plus twice as expensive. But it's still valid.

[true_shinken]

Or that. But only 3 uses per day. Plus twice as expensive. But it's still valid.

Twice as expensive...?
Rod of Bodily Restoration = 3.1k
Wand of Lesser Restoration = 4.5k

[Feytalist]

The rod is 3100? Amg.

Okay, totally go for the rod then. Buy two.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Or Strongheart Vest/Naberious...

[MeeposFire]

And the vest was mentioned in conjunction with hellfire. Say goodbye to the thread folks:smallwink:.

[Airanath]

And the vest was mentioned in conjunction with hellfire. Say goodbye to the thread folks:smallwink:.

Time for heavy warlock optmization eh...
But yeah, you could go for hellfire, the scepter that boosts your blast dmg(and works as a mace to boot), and the strongehear/naberius to mitigate hellfire.
OR, you could play the batman, as a warlock, its even easier than as a wizard, since you can craft items from both arcane and divine origins (even if your DM considers them as not belonging to either category, to avoid archivist cheese), you can have heal wands of every size, staffs, rings, and whatever else you need, by crafting it using your Use Magic Device, in place of whatever requisite it would otherwise have(other than the feats). Sure, you'll pay for that in XP, but its one of the best ways to make a warlock climb from low tiers to be up to par with t2s.
Having the ability to craft and wield any item, in my opinion, is where the true warlock power is, Eldritch blast is just how you do small battlefield control while dealing measly dmg. (Blast + any status effect blast essences + eldirtch spear = win), and invocations, your at-will nasty powers, combine the ability to use them all day with all the battlefield control invocations, and you have a nice battlefield shaper, sadly, most warlocks don't even think about that because, the blast works all day, why care it deals less damage than a sneak attack, and is usable less times per round? At least, it doesn't have foes immune to it, right?

[MeeposFire]

That was not the gist of my joke. The joke is you can't have a conversation involving hellfire and the strongheart vest without it devolving into a nasty rules war.

[thompur]

One big advantage of Eldritch Blast is that it is untyped damage, so noone is immune to it.
And as for "only" doing 25% damage; if it's the only thing you're fighting and you're in a 4 character party, I'd say you've done your share of the work!:smalltongue:

[Hyfigh]

One big advantage of Eldritch Blast is that it is untyped damage, so noone is immune to it.
And as for "only" doing 25% damage; if it's the only thing you're fighting and you're in a 4 character party, I'd say you've done your share of the work!:smalltongue:

:smallconfused:? Magic immune critters are immune to EB. It's subject to SR... Vitriolic Blast fixes that.

I normally view EB as a waste of your precious actions. Glaive will improve the damage to a point where this may be worth the action; the same is said for Claws of the Beast, or whatever it's called. Schneeky just made a thread with all of the various things a Warlock can do, which are a much better use of those standard actions... I <3 Wall of Gloom personally.

[RaginChangeling]

One big advantage of Eldritch Blast is that it is untyped damage, so noone is immune to it.
And as for "only" doing 25% damage; if it's the only thing you're fighting and you're in a 4 character party, I'd say you've done your share of the work!:smalltongue:

25% damage if you abuse Legacy Champion to advance Hellfire blasting and a level of Binder for Naberius. And get a bunch of special items. And you can do it 3/day, normally you'll be doing about half that much damage.

[true_shinken]

Or Strongheart Vest/Naberious...
You just had to do this, Shneekey. You just had to do this. :smallamused:

[Tael]

One big advantage of Eldritch Blast is that it is untyped damage, so noone is immune to it.
And as for "only" doing 25% damage; if it's the only thing you're fighting and you're in a 4 character party, I'd say you've done your share of the work!:smalltongue:

No, normally you do 8% of a decent enemy at high levels. You need to apply a lot of extra stuff to get to 100 damage.