Dragon 406Secrets of the Fey: A New Pact for the Binder Warlock
By Rodney Thompson
Fey pact binders are a means by which these dark fey extend their grasp outside of the Feywild. Binders that form pacts with these powerful Unseelie wield shadow-tainted arcane magic, reflecting the dark, corrupted natures of the fey creatures they serve.
Talk about this article here.
Just wanted to confirm though... The extra abilities of the powers are just for fey pact binders right? Fey pact warlocks who pick these powers do not get the extra abilities, correct?
Thanks for the help
- Cloud sight: the fluff of the power states that you confuse an enemy's perceptions. Why would that cause their area and close powers to have difficulty hitting you? This power really should grant you total concealment from the target (thus only affecting melee and ranged powers), instead of the enemy gaining a -5 penalty to attack rolls against you. This is especially true considering an 11th level Master Binder feature grants your allies partial concealment from the target of this power.
- Fascinating shadows: the damage should improve to 2d8 at 21st level.
- Unseelie sprites: the fluff above the power mentions that the sprites attack with teeth, claws, and poisoned-tipped weapons, but this contradicts the fluff contained within the power, which simply states they attack with poisoned spears. Going by the latter, all the damage dealt by the power should be poison damage, not just the extra damage granted if you're a fey binder. On a balancing note, 1d6 + Charisma modifier + Intelligence modifier damage seems a tad weak for an encounter power, even if it is a close burst 2. I would suggest either 1d8 or 2d4.
- Nightmare vines: this power should be a Master Binder Attack 11, not a Warlock Attack 11.
Not a bad thing, just that I'd probably expect a Satyr (Cha-Dex) to be more likely to deal with Unseelie Fey than an Eladrin (Cha-Int).
On a balancing note, 1d6 + Charisma modifier + Intelligence modifier damage seems a tad weak for an encounter power, even if it is a close burst 2. I would suggest either 1d8 or 2d4.
Without the rider, Unseelie Sprites is literally the worst power of its kind in 4E, at least as far as my Compendium searches carry me. With the rider, it moves into the middle of the pack damage-wise, but is still noticeably worse than comparable powers like Burning Hands, Astral Terror, Whispers of Defeat, and arguably Arms of Hadar (which is less damaging, but at least makes an effort at being a Controller power... despite technically being a Striker power).
At-Will
Free Action Personal
Trigger: You reduce a creature to 0 hit points, or an
enemy adjacent to you drops to 0 hit points.
Effect: You teleport 3 squares and are invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack.
Special: You can use this power only once per round.
Additionally, it would be nice if the Fey pact binder could take Eyebite in lieu of Shadow Claws.
It would have been interesting if the at-will attack power had musical trappings such as a pipes of panic or luring lute power that would sow chaos among the targets such as by sliding them out of position and slowing them.
Without the rider, Unseelie Sprites is literally the worst power of its kind in 4E, at least as far as my Compendium searches carry me. With the rider, it moves into the middle of the pack damage-wise, but is still noticeably worse than comparable powers like Burning Hands, Astral Terror, Whispers of Defeat, and arguably Arms of Hadar (which is less damaging, but at least makes an effort at being a Controller power... despite technically being a Striker power).
Well, attack powers of controller classes are suppossed to be stronger than those of non-controllers, and without the rider Unseelie Sprites is a power that non-controller warlocks take, so it wouldn't be unreasonable if it were worse off. I don't think it compares poorly at all with other area damage options available for the warlock. With the rider, I see it as worse than Astral Terror (which gains push and a greater area in exchange for a bit of damage), but comparable to burning hands (which gains damage on a miss in exchange for hitting allies), and Arms of Hadar (which pushes but loses damage and also hits allies). As for whispers of defeat, it has a huge area and a minor control effect, but its damage is very conditional and much less than that of the other powers - I'd call that one as the worst of the lot.
Cloud Sight is worse than Hidden Lore in every way.
While I agree that Hidden Lore is the better power, Cloud Sight has a few significant advantages that should not be overlooked. To begin with, it stacks with regular concealment, which a Binder should have more often than not. Also, unlike invisibility, it protects you from area powers. I think it would be a fine feature if it didn't share the hideous triggering condition of all binder boons...