Fixing Hideous Blow - Allow multiple attacks

[LentilNinja]

Everyone knows this invocation sucks, but would houseruling it to have multiple attacks due to BAB be fair?

Here's some reasons on why I think it would be a good idea, comparing it to the other meleelock options:
1. Still affected by Spell Resistance. Eldritch Claws for example are not.
2. Hits on regular AC as opposed to EB's (and the EGlaive's) Touch AC.
3. Is its own standard action [free action if using full-attack] (unlike EClaws being a free action), so it can't be used with any form of maneuver, feat, or special attack.

Opinions? Has anyone ever houseruled it like this before? I think this would be a nice and easier (but not better) way of having a character be a meleelock.

[Psyren]

Doesn't Hideous Blow provoke by RAW? More chances to provoke just seem to me like you'd get your face stomped in that much faster.

[Extra Anchovies]

Everyone knows this invocation sucks, but would houseruling it to have multiple attacks due to BAB be fair?

Here's some reasons on why I think it would be a good idea, comparing it to the other meleelock options:
1. Still affected by Spell Resistance. Eldritch Claws for example are not.
2. Hits on regular AC as opposed to EB's (and the EGlaive's) Touch AC.
3. Is its own standard action (unlike EClaws being a free action), so it can't be used with any form of maneuver, feat, or special attack.

Opinions? Has anyone ever houseruled it like this before? I think this would be a nice and easier (but not better) way of having a character be a meleelock.

Hm. Making it a full attack as a standard action would be the sort of thing that melees would dip for and Warlocks (who don't tend to pump their to-hit) would pass up in favor of Eldritch Glaive. Making Hideous Blow full-round if you want to full attack (or maybe making it swift action so you can do either single or full attacks) would make it worse than Eldritch Glaive. Also Eldritch Blast damage is balanced for touch attacks, so if you have to bypass normal AC it wouldn't necessarily be all that good.

If you want a melee-focused Warlock, it's probably best to use a standard glaivelock, or if you really want a weapon-wielding class with invocations, here are two suggestions:
this homebrew class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?387992-Martial-Warlock-(Variant)) of my own creation that gains invocations and applies Eldritch Essence invocations to normal melee attacks
this rework of the Hexblade (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2565.0) that grants invocations instead of spells, along with a few other changes

[LentilNinja]

Making it a full attack as a standard action would be the sort of thing that melees would dip for and Warlocks (who don't tend to pump their to-hit) would pass up in favor of Eldritch Glaive. Making Hideous Blow full-round if you want to full attack (or maybe making it swift action so you can do either single or full attacks) would make it worse than Eldritch Glaive.

But seems more logical, so I put that in.

[dextercorvia]

Doesn't Hideous Blow provoke by RAW? More chances to provoke just seem to me like you'd get your face stomped in that much faster.

Yeah, that is the first thing you want to fix. I'm playing around with it on an NPC antagonist at the moment. Using a reach weapon helps, tripping helps (so Guisarme or Spiked Chain if you have the feat). You get the fire damage on a successful touch attack, and then the followup attack from improved trip deals the weapon damage. You can combine it with a debuffing blast essence (like sickening) to make it harder to resist the trip check. Still, I wouldn't want to use it much past level 7 as is.

[Necroticplague]

Meh. Still not as good as the other meleelock options (claws can be pumped up more damagewise; Glaive is reach, already gets this benefit, hits touch). It might be kinda worth it if it let a full-attack as a standard action, or if it was a swift-action non-provoking buff to your next attack (so you could combined it with a maneuver).

[Extra Anchovies]

claws can be pumped up more damagewise

I'm curious - how? It doesn't seem to stack with existing natural attack damage, and only applies when you specifically use the Eldritch claws, not just any natural attack. Never gotten the appeal of that feat over Glaive.

[Necroticplague]

I'm curious - how? It doesn't seem to stack with existing natural attack damage, and only applies when you specifically use the Eldritch claws, not just any natural attack. Never gotten the appeal of that feat over Glaive.

-Beast Strike feat lets you add your claw damage to unarmed strikes. Since claw damage is UAS+EB, this turns unarmed strikes into UAS*2+EB.
-Rapidstrike line lets you get more attacks out of them.
-They deal damage based on both your EB damage and UAS damage, so you can beef up UAS through standard methods to get more oomf out of them.
-Several prestige classes would allow you to enhance your claws in a useful way (thayan gladiator, soul eater, just to think of two).
-side benefit: since it's not an invocation, unlike HB or EG, it doesn't provoke AoOs.
-Can combine with Beast Strike and Grappling Blast for considerable damage in a grapple.

[dextercorvia]

Meh. Still not as good as the other meleelock options (claws can be pumped up more damagewise; Glaive is reach, already gets this benefit, hits touch). It might be kinda worth it if it let a full-attack as a standard action, or if it was a swift-action non-provoking buff to your next attack (so you could combined it with a maneuver).

You can't trip with the Eldritch Glaive, nor does it deal weapon damage. Losing movement is painful when you are in the part of your build where you have no reason to use a full round action to attack. If you can find a way to deal with provoking, then Blow is better than Glaive before BAB+6 unless you are focusing purely on AoOs and have an easy source of free movement.

[Troacctid]

What if you let it make multiple attacks, but based on your caster level rather than BAB? At CL 6, you attack twice, and so on. And still as a standard action, of course.

It makes more sense than running off of BAB, since Warlocks don't have full BAB. It also solves the problem of being better for melee dorks dipping Warlock than for Warlocks going melee. And it still leaves room for Eldritch Glaive, which has the advantages of reach, touch, and threatened squares.

[Segev]

I think it'd be simpler just to make Hideous Blow a swift action to empower your melee weapon until your next turn, with it losing its charge if you let go of the weapon.

[Zordran]

My fix was that it took a move action to activate, and remained activated until you took another move action to deactivate, and you could not use EB normally while it was activated, making it into a sword-or-bow proposition.