Are Warlocks fun?

[Lvl45DM!]

I'm playing an evil campaign level 9 and my rogue is...not optimized. I have no problem with her dying, especially since she has rigged all her alchemist fires and poisons and acids and thunderstones to blow if she does but what to do when she eventually dies? (No resurrection in this world).
I've been thinking about a Warlock.
The party has a warblade a melee heavy cleric a ranger/assassin a psion and a sorceror. And a Hexblade/Psion/Pyrokineticist.

Would a Warlock fit in in terms of roles with this party and are they fun to play? Im looking at basically being an archer, being far away and shooting people. But other roles could be fun too.
Plz Halp

[HunterOfJello]

People would be better able to answer this question if they new which edition of d&d you're playing. I'm guessing it's 3.5 due to the psychokineticit mention. If that's the case, it would be good to move this to the 3.5 subforum

[Flashy]

People would be better able to answer this question if they new which edition of d&d you're playing. I'm guessing it's 3.5 due to the psychokineticit mention. If that's the case, it would be good to move this to the 3.5 subforum

I was going to write a really sarcastic reply to the original post about spell slots that recharge on a short rest, but it's probably better to just agree with Jello's post and say you should redo this in the 3.5 forum because that seems to be the edition you're playing.

[gorfnab]

Warlocks can be fun to play. They're versatile and don't have as much paperwork as a full caster. I recomend reading through these two handbooks to give you some ideas of what can be done as far as building a warlock.
The Newest Warlock Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?265455-The-Newest-Warlock-Handbook-3-5)
The Warlock Information Compilation (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2997)

[Troacctid]

Warlocks are great fun. Not having to worry about resource management is so liberating. You get to do neat stuff and you never have to save anything for later just in case.

Well, okay, that's not entirely true, because in order to play a Warlock to its full potential, you can and should be making use of the Deceive Item ability, and that means using wands, and maybe scrolls too. But that's like the icing on the Warlock cake. Your core class abilities are still at-wills.

The biggest challenge in building a Warlock, in my experience, has been dealing with their skill point starvation. You need Concentration because you're a caster, you need Spellcraft for detecting magic, you need Use Magic Device for Deceive Item, and you'd like to have ranks in knowledges and social skills too, but you only have 2 + Int skill points per level, so you're really squeezed in that regard. All my Warlock builds inevitably end up investing in Int, being human, taking the Nymph's Kiss feat, and/or going into prestige classes like Urban Savant, just to get enough skill points to function.

[VariSami]

While I sort of enjoyed playing a Warlock and the concept remains cool, the experience can be a bit repetitive. But this applies to most martial classes as well. Basically, many of your abilities are effectively 24/7 boosts and thus quite passive. Then there are other abilities like Baleful Utterance which can and often should be spammed every round. And when you have nothing to shatter, you throw around one eldritch blast per round (likely while flying).

At least that is how a standard Warlock below level 10 or so seemed to work in practice. There are alternatives such as a Glaivelock, and multi-classing always felt like a nice alternative in comparison to a pure Warlock. Likely certain prestige classes also diversify the potential actions available to your character.

[Grod_The_Giant]

It partially depends on how optimized your group is. I had a player run a warlock in a group that trended more towards the powerful, and he got kind of frustrated with his 3-4d6 damage a round-- especially when that was a third of what the Warblade and Psion were throwing around. You almost always hit (touch attacks), you don't need to worry about positioning (ranged attacks), and you have a real limited set of options (because you have, say, four invocations at level 6, one of which is probably flight and another probably being some sort of modifier for your blast).

If you do run one, you'll probably want to look closely at things like Hellfire Warlock/Uncanny Trickster or Glaive/Clawlock builds to boost your damage to levels where you feel constructive again.

[Chronos]

Personally, I like them. Resource management is what I'm worst at: When I'm playing a spellcaster, I always end up thinking that I should save my best spells for when I'll need them later, and then when later comes, I think the same thing, and so on. And fighters are boring. This usually drives me towards rogue-types, but warlock is a fun twist on the same concept.

[True believer]

You can be invisible and flying around all day long ....in terms of fun It doesn't get better :P

[jedipilot24]

Warlock's are fun yes, especially Warlock's with the Fey Heritage (http://dndtools.pw/feats/complete-mage--58/fey-heritage--1110/)feats (http://web.archive.org/web/20140727133605/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070328). They give you neat spell-like abilities and boost the class's meager DR/Cold Iron into something much more respectable. And they fit thematically with the ever-popular Nymph's Kiss.

[j_spencer93]

Honestly I find them played a lot at my table so they can't be to boring.

[nyjastul69]

Honestly I find them played a lot at my table so they can't be to boring.

After many years of playing this edition I've seen exactly one. Warlocks are pretty much a one trick pony. If one enjoys the trick, have at it. If one doesn't like playing a one trick pony, seek a different class. My opinion is that one trick options are boring.

[Troacctid]

After many years of playing this edition I've seen exactly one. Warlocks are pretty much a one trick pony. If one enjoys the trick, have at it. If one doesn't like playing a one trick pony, seek a different class. My opinion is that one trick options are boring.

Hey, most Warlocks have at least three tricks by that level!

[JoranShadeslayr]

Yes, warlocks are fun. You won't be able to do tons of damage with a single attack, but you'll hit more often since your blast targets touch AC. Also you can use your essence invocations to deliver some decent debuffs in addition to doing damage. You'll want eldritch glaive for those times when you have to melee as it lets you make multiple attacks. Your invocations are at will so no worrying about running out.

[Extra Anchovies]

They also make for good stealth-types: who needs Hide and Move Silently when you're invisible and flying? Warlocks are really lacking for skill points but a lot of the utility Invocations really mitigate that.

[JoranShadeslayr]

After many years of playing this edition I've seen exactly one. Warlocks are pretty much a one trick pony. If one enjoys the trick, have at it. If one doesn't like playing a one trick pony, seek a different class. My opinion is that one trick options are boring.

Only if you play it like one. A warlock that is played well has a lot more than one trick, and can do those tricks all day long without having to stop and reload.

[nyjastul69]

Hey, most Warlocks have at least three tricks by that level!

The OP asked if they were fun, or not. I deem them no fun. I would play a single classed fighter before I'd play a warlock. It's just not an interesting class to me. YMMV.

[Bad Wolf]

The OP asked if they were fun, or not. I deem them no fun. I would play a single classed fighter before I'd play a warlock. It's just not an interesting class to me. YMMV.

Well, a fighter will be always beaten by a Warlock. Fell Flight and Eldritch Spear means you can kill him from 250 feet away. Also, look at the fluff.

Fighter: "I'm a fighter. I hit things with stuff. And I get bonus feats. Every fighting archetype has been covered by more interesting classes then me."

Warlock: "I made a deal with a being of pure evil for power beyond my wildest dreams, and I crave more power still."

Warlocks are fun to play, IMO.

[Chronos]

To be fair, playing a warlock effectively does mean an awful lot of figuring out how everything looks like a nail. Though, that can be fun in its own right.

[Marlowe]

The annoying thing about being a Warlock is that one matter what your backstory, no matter that you spent a done of feats (Nymph's Kiss, Fey heritage) on making it quite clear that something different happened, everyone, the DM, the other characters, and the NPCs seem to think they're entitled to assume that you sold your soul to fiends to get your powers. And insult you about it at will. Even though that's not even presented as a common Warlock backstory.

Another other one is the Invocations are a mixed bag. Some are really good and some just terrible, so you see the same ones come up over and over again. If you were to build an all-Warlock party (fleeing persecution from people that never actually read the text in Complete Arcane, say), you might see some more variation in roles, as the class has real flexibility even if individual builds don't, but if there's only one warlock in a party they tend to get stuck in the "airbourne sniper" role.

And yes, although there's no class in 3.5 that doesn't need more skill points, it's very marked with the Warlock (and Hexblade), as they have a good skill list and not much with which to fill it.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Yes, warlocks are fun. You won't be able to do tons of damage with a single attack, but you'll hit more often since your blast targets touch AC.
That's kind of the problem, though. Warlocks in combat-- at least without options like Glaivelock or Clawlock-- tend be low-risk, low-reward characters. You'll almost always hit for an low amount of damage.