Preview: The Vestige Pact
The latest preview for Arcane Power is up, giving us a sneak peak at the new warlock pact that will debut in the book, the vestige pact.
Vestiges were originally introduced in Tome of Magic (3E), where they were associated with the binder class. Binders were one of three new spellcasting classes that Wizards created to try out different spellcasting mechanics. Binders selected vestiges that they could make deals with and bind to themselves in exchange for power. This gave them quite a bit of flexibility, but most of their powers were under par. On the other hand, many of the abilities granted by vestiges refreshed every 3-5 rounds, so they saw more use.
The vestige pact draws on the same theme as the binder did, having the warlock make a bargain with similarly displaced entities and what-have-you. What sets the vestige pact apart from other pacts is complexity: your vestige pact power is eyes of the vestige, and it gets augmented depending on which vestige you have active. Also, your pact boon can get switched about depending on your active vestige.
For example, if you make Ugar the Unforviging active, eyes of the vestige deals fire damage, disables concealment on the target, and lets you move the vestige of Ugar zone effect 3 squares whenever you drop a cursed target.
Is this bad? Perhaps. If you have players that have a hard time tracking their at-wills, this is certainly a road to madness. However with a normal amount of prep time I dont think it will overwhelm them despite augmentations. The vestige pact looks interesting, and I'm looking forward to using it when the book comes out next month.
Vestiges were originally introduced in Tome of Magic (3E), where they were associated with the binder class. Binders were one of three new spellcasting classes that Wizards created to try out different spellcasting mechanics. Binders selected vestiges that they could make deals with and bind to themselves in exchange for power. This gave them quite a bit of flexibility, but most of their powers were under par. On the other hand, many of the abilities granted by vestiges refreshed every 3-5 rounds, so they saw more use.
The vestige pact draws on the same theme as the binder did, having the warlock make a bargain with similarly displaced entities and what-have-you. What sets the vestige pact apart from other pacts is complexity: your vestige pact power is eyes of the vestige, and it gets augmented depending on which vestige you have active. Also, your pact boon can get switched about depending on your active vestige.
For example, if you make Ugar the Unforviging active, eyes of the vestige deals fire damage, disables concealment on the target, and lets you move the vestige of Ugar zone effect 3 squares whenever you drop a cursed target.
Is this bad? Perhaps. If you have players that have a hard time tracking their at-wills, this is certainly a road to madness. However with a normal amount of prep time I dont think it will overwhelm them despite augmentations. The vestige pact looks interesting, and I'm looking forward to using it when the book comes out next month.
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