Voracious Dispelling: OP?

[Scarey Nerd]

Right. Is it just me, or is Voracious Dispelling ridiculously overpowered? As far as I can see, as a level 10 Warlock I have an 85% chance of countering a lightning bolt, at will, as many times as I want, dealing 3 damage to the opponent every time I do it, which seems... Incredible? Have I misread something?

[Zaq]

I . . . can't tell if you're being serious.

[Scarey Nerd]

I . . . can't tell if you're being serious.

I'm totally serious. I never play casters so I don't know much about spells, but I've seen a sorcerer doing 10d6 damage a turn with a spell like that and it looks like I can counter it incredibly easily, comparitively. What have I misread or misunderstood?

[jindra34]

I'm totally serious. I never play casters so I don't know much about spells, but I've seen a sorcerer doing 10d6 damage a turn with a spell like that and it looks like I can counter it incredibly easily, comparitively. What have I misread or misunderstood?

Damage only being dealt if the spell being dispelled is actively on someone, d20+10 vs 11+CL (10 for the 10d6 lightning bolt), and doing literally single digit damage?

[Scarey Nerd]

Damage only being dealt if the spell being dispelled is actively on someone, d20+10 vs 11+CL (10 for the 10d6 lightning bolt), and doing literally single digit damage?

Ohh, OK, I thought it said spell level rather than caster level. The damage is very minor, it was the fact that I can cast dispel magic as much as I want.

[Zaq]

Action cost. Warlocks don't get any of the good ways to counter spells without readying an action (read: spending a standard action) to do so. This is . . . pretty major. Pretty major indeed. 3 damage is basically a rounding error at level 10 (there's a reason Toughness is considered horrifically weak), and there's no guarantee that the Warlock will even succeed. You'd be better off readying an action to fire a lazor pew pew Eldritch Blast at the target if he starts casting a spell, forcing a Concentration check.

Also, an 85% chance to dispel assumes that the Warlock's caster level is way above the Sorc's caster level, and that's a bet I'm not willing to take.

I don't have my book on me, but is Voracious Dispel based on Dispel or Greater Dispel? If it's Dispel, then once you hit that +10 bonus, you're pretty much stuck . . . but your enemies will have caster levels that keep climbing. Eventually, you won't be able to affect anything.

I'm a huge fan of dispelling and counterspelling, but this isn't a good way to do it, and it's not even close to OP.

[jindra34]

Ohh, OK, I thought it said spell level rather than caster level. The damage is very minor, it was the fact that I can cast dispel magic as much as I want.

It is useful for just dispelling everything, but the odds of successfully doing doing so drop quickly.

[Scarey Nerd]

It is useful for just dispelling everything, but the odds of successfully doing doing so drop quickly.

OK, it's not as good as I thought then. That's a shame, I thought I'd found a way to annihilate my fellow player in the final battle. Never mind, I'll get the +caster level energy resistance instead. +15 resistance to lightning makes Scarey Nerd happy when his opponent is lightning themed.

[jindra34]

OK, it's not as good as I thought then. That's a shame, I thought I'd found a way to annihilate my fellow player in the final battle. Never mind, I'll get the +caster level energy resistance instead. +15 resistance to lightning makes Scarey Nerd happy when his opponent is lightning themed.
So instead of the slightly better dispel magic you get the worse form of resist energy?

[Scarey Nerd]

So instead of the slightly better dispel magic you get the worse form of resist energy?

I don't need useful stuff, all I need is things that will kill a sorcerer of my level that uses lightning spells almost exclusively. All other concerns are secondary, really.

[Tyndmyr]

So instead of the slightly better dispel magic you get the worse form of resist energy?

For a duel? Yes. It's much more practical. Winning a duel against a sorc by readying counterspells with your actions is...pretty difficult. Even 15% of his spells getting through will likely kill you before he runs dry.

[Scarey Nerd]

The final battle is going to be about 50 mages on his side versus a massive army on mine, with the two of us dueling on a floating island above the battlefield. We've accidentally made ourselves into a "300" moment, though I doubt I'll have 250,000 men and he won't have 300 mages. I'm tailoring myself for that moment, because I must be better prepared than him if I want to survive.

[Vladislav]

If it's a specific build for a specific duel, get the whole package of Quicken Spell Like Ability, Voracious Dispelling and electricity resistance. Now you can ready counterspells, take only minimal damage from the spells you don't manage to counter, and meanwhile nip at his life total with Quickened blasts. About three-four hits should do it. Make sure you can see invisibility and fly, there are invocations for that too.

[Scarey Nerd]

My current invocations are Baleful Utterance, All-Seeing Eyes, Otherworldly Whispers, Eldritch Spear, Beguiling Influence, Fell Flight and Brimstone Blast. My feats are Martial Weapon Proficiency (Falchion), Iron Will, Daunting Presence (Libris Mortis), Extra Invocation (Baleful Utterance) and Extra Invocation (All-Seeing Eyes).

I got the extra invocations because I don't like being constricted by per day limits, which is why I never played a caster before I found Warlocks.

[ryzouken]

Pray he doesn't have Ray Deflection, else your primary attack form is unlikely to do much (unless you've grabbed a blast effect that makes it no longer a ranged touch attack, then you might have a shot.)

[Scarey Nerd]

Pray he doesn't have Ray Deflection, else your primary attack form is unlikely to do much (unless you've grabbed a blast effect that makes it no longer a ranged touch attack, then you might have a shot.)

He uses the PHB only, he doesn't have anything outside of core. I know his entire spell list (Not off the top of my head, but). At level 13 I'm getting Eldritch Line, and at 15 I'm getting Eldritch Cone. As far as I can tell, he's not giving any thought to the duel, he's just living in the moment, though outside of the game we both know it's going to end up with the two of us dueling, the winner taking ownership of the planet.

[Xefas]

My current invocations are Baleful Utterance...

Don't forget to sunder his spell component pouch.

[Scarey Nerd]

Don't forget to sunder his spell component pouch.

I love you, and I want to have your babies. I hadn't thought of that!

[Andreaz]

I'm totally serious. I never play casters so I don't know much about spells, but I've seen a sorcerer doing 10d6 damage a turn with a spell like that and it looks like I can counter it incredibly easily, comparitively. What have I misread or misunderstood?

well, that depends.
First, Warlocks have little way of counterspelling other than sitting there doing nothing until the spell is cast, which is really expensive.
Second, damage, while viable, is not the most effective+efficient way to play an arcanist, but I digress. It suffices to say that a single summoning can do much more damage to the enemy while it runs its course than fireballing away as many rounds.

[Randomguy]

Make sure you get SOME way to dispel magic. He's bound to have some buffs.

[Scarey Nerd]

Make sure you get SOME way to dispel magic. He's bound to have some buffs.

Well, my choices are a magic item to do it like a wand, Voracious Dispelling or Devour Magic, the latter is only with a touch attack and would be using up a Greater invocation. If I can get my hands on a few wands of dispel magic, that'd be better than investing in an invocation I think.

On a seperate note, if I use disguise self to look like He Who Must Not Be Named, and someone uses disguise self to look like Harry Potter, then we both use wands of lightning bolt, are we legitimately reenacting pretty much every battle scene from those movies?

[nedz]

Relentless Dispelling [CMage] is much better than Voracious Dispelling [CArc].
Basically instead of doing a little bit of damage (Irrelevant) you get two roles on succesive rounds. Best used at mid levels against characters who have buffed.
You can wand Dispel Magic, but since caster level (well CL:10) is all important it is expensive or pointless.
One of the [many] weaknesses of Warlocks is that their Greater Dispel (Devour Magic) is range touch - presumably to facilitate the temp HP. Finding a way of doing this at range would be golden, even without the HP.
You cannot wand Greater Dispel - though you should be able to make a few scrolls using Imbue Item. Alternatively just buy some - though again CL is important.

[Scarey Nerd]

Relentless Dispelling [CMage] is much better than Voracious Dispelling [CArc].
Basically instead of doing a little bit of damage (Irrelevant) you get two roles on succesive rounds. Best used at mid levels against characters who have buffed.
You can wand Dispel Magic, but since caster level (well CL:10) is all important it is expensive or pointless.
One of the [many] weaknesses of Warlocks is that their Greater Dispel (Devour Magic) is range touch - presumably to facilitate the temp HP. Finding a way of doing this at range would be golden, even without the HP.
You cannot wand Greater Dispel - though you should be able to make a few scrolls using Imbue Item. Alternatively just buy some - though again CL is important.

However, reletnless dispelling only works as the targeted version of dispel magic, which is a drawback.

[sreservoir]

dispel magic probably won't help much. use greater, at least. LEoF has scepters, which go up to 7th spells, and are pretty much better than wands in every way that I can see, with a negligible bump in caster level requirement (warlocks can't really craft well until 12 anyway, and you don't actually get a feat between 7 and 9, so) and a significant, but really quite small cost in skill points.