I intend this thread to refute the notion that the 4E multiclassing system does not work and that you cannot use it to make an effective Gish. Also I intend this thread as an exploration of what the new multiclassing system is capable of and how we can effectively use it as a community, thus I encourage any and all feedback provided it is constructive and ultimately useful to the community. To that end, I present to you The Witch Knight. It is a Warlock multiclassed into Paladin, a combination I feel offers excellent synergy as they both rely heavily on charisma for their powers and the constitution used in many Warlock spells makes for a very tough character that is capable of surviving in the hybrid Defender/Striker role this type of character is designed to fill. It is a casting Striker first and foremost, but also a Gish, utilizing heavy armor and magically enhanced melee attacks to augment it’s arcane abilities. I feel Warlock is especially well suited to utilize (abuse?) the Paladin’s Divine Challenge due to it’s high mobility and numerous movement impairing abilities in conjunction with it’s ranged offensive power. Ironically, Paladin and Warlock powers seem to work unusually well in supporting each other.
I do suggest renaming Divine Challenge to Eldritch Challenge or some such and reflavoring the Paladin abilities to something more arcany and witchy. No mechanical change is necessary, Radiant and Fire damage is completely appropriate for a Warlock.
The Witch-Knight
Class: Warlock Race: Human
While other races would certainly work, I feel human is an ideal choice for a number of reasons. First of all, the extra feat helps a lot in the beginning as we are spending 4 feats by 10th level on multiclassing. Humans also receive a +1 bonuses to fort, ref, and will, which combined with our armor the fact that our primary and secondary stats boost will and fortitude defenses make for a character with excellent defense. The various +2 to defense feats would likely be a good idea as well. The Warlock is potentially more durable than many Defenders as he can focus more heavily on Con and gains concealment when he moves. Finally, Warlock is restricted by pact choice in what at-will powers one receives. The best choice for encounter/daily powers may be different than for at-will powers. A human's extra at-will power allows you to select a third power of your choosing. As all Warlock at-will powers are highly useful to this character, this is advantageous
Place +2 racial bonus in Charisma, and your level based Ability Score increases into Constitution and Charisma. At 11th and 21st level all of your ability scores increase by 1.
Your Warlock powers are either Constitution or Charisma based, with your Intelligence bonus adding secondary effects for Pact powers. The damage of your Mark is based on Charisma, and many of your Paladin powers are Charisma based as well, with Wisdom adding secondary effects.
Feats
Clearly you will want Soldier of Faith (Paladin Multiclass) to pick up Divine Challenge 1/encounter. You also get to pick up training in any of the Paladin’s class skills, neat! You’ll also want to pick up all three power swapping feats to gain an Encounter, Utility, and Daily power from the Paladin list.
Beyond that I suggest picking up both Armor Proficiency and Shield Proficiency. Your dex is a dump stat and Int is only tertiary, thus getting to add either to your AC is not terribly appealing. You can skip Hide armor and jump straight to Chainmail and possibly Scale Armor. This investment will give you solid AC right from the beginning, but really pay off when you gain access to masterwork quality heavy armor. Shield proficiency is also a natural choice as it helps your relatively low reflex defense and you’re not really doing anything with your offhand anyway.
You can use any light blade as your Warlock implement due to the excellent Pact Blade weapon quality (a 4th level enchantment, potentially available at 1st or 2nd level), thus you may find Weapon Proficiency (Rapier) useful for a +3 proficiency 1d8 high critical weapon, especially if you plan on using strength based Paladin powers or simply find yourself caught in melee frequently where your ranged attacks would provoke. It is also notable that many Paladin powers that utilize charisma as their primary stat actually use your weapon to determine damage dice. The difference between 5d4+cha and 5d8+cha is considerable.
Eldritch Pact
Any of the Warlocks pacts are a viable choice for this character, though I strongly suggest Star as it has numerous Radiant damage attacks that are especially potent in combination with your Paladin abilities, as well as many Fear attacks that I find particularly flavorful for the Witch-Knight. The Star Pact’s boon is a nice offensive boost.
The Fey Pact’s focus on mobility through teleportation is helpful in assuring your target suffers the negative effects of your Divine Challenge regularly, and also helps to counteract the speed reduction from wearing heavy armor. Ultimately though, it is not necessary as you will have many immobilizing and sliding abilities at your disposal, and Star powers contain teleports as well.
Infernal is another excellent choice and is my suggestion if Star does not appeal to you. It is full of highly damaging Fire elemental attacks, many of which include ongoing damage. Additionally, your pact boon as well as many of your Infernal powers grant temporary hit points, which will help you survive the increased aggression your Challenge will likely draw. If you choose this Pact, you may want to switch your racial ability score bonus to Constitution, as a majority of your attacks utilize it, though Charisma remains a solid choice due to synergy with Paladin.
At-Will Powers
All Warlocks gain Eldritch Blast, a solid attack due to its high damage and status as a ranged basic attack. For the most part, though, you will want to use powers with more utility. Your other at-will power is determined by your Pact, though being a human you can pick up a third power from either of the remaining pacts of your choice. Thus, your Pact has little effect on your at-will power selection.
Dire Radiance (Star) is an excellent choice for this character as it deals Radiant damage and damages the enemy again if they approach you. This creates a lose-lose situation for melee enemies as failure to approach you will result in punishment from your Divine Challenge. The downside is that this attack is Constitution based and targets fortitude defense, likely the second highest defense of many of the targets you’ll want to use it against, great for dealing with melee strikers though.
Hellish Rebuke (Infernal) is similar to Dire Radiance only it does Fire damage, targets reflex, and damages the enemy again if you take damage from any source before the end of your next turn rather than triggering when that enemy approaches you. In many situations (such as against ranged attackers) you’ll find this power more reliably applies it’s secondary damage.
Eyebite (fey) is a primarily defensive power with great potential for offensive use. It is charisma based, deals Psychic damage, and targets will defense. It’s damage output is only half that of Dire Radiance and Hellish Rebuke, yet the ability to become invisible to the target has obvious defensive value, and can be used to trigger your Divine Challenge.
Warlock Encounter Powers
The Warlock encounter powers you choose will largely depend on which Pact you decided on, as their potent secondary effects are only gained if you possess the appropriate Pact.
Dreadfull Word, for instance, is a Charisma vs Will attack that with the Fear and Psychic properties that reduces the targets Will defense by an amount equal to 1+Int if you have the Star Pact. An excellent power for setting up combos with anything that targets will, such as Eyebite and several key Paladin powers.
Diabolic Grasp is a good example of the kind of power you’ll probably want to take with or without the appropriate pact. It is an Infernal Constitution vs Fort attack that allows you to slide the target 2 squares. With the Infernal Pact you could slide them 1+Int squares, but you won’t even see any benefit from that until 11th level, and even then you only gain 1 extra square. Aside from it’s other tactical uses, slide is especially useful for you as keeping enemies away can mean punishment from Divine Challenge and potential escape from those nasty, nasty Defenders.
You will generally want to focus on powers that move you or your target in some way, debuff the target, and/or deal Radiant damage.
Warlock Daily Powers
The same general guidelines for encounter powers carry over into the daily category.
Keep in mind that powers such as Dread Star (star) are especially valuable to you as it immobilizes the target allowing your Challenge to leisurely incinerate them.
Paladin Encounter Powers
A great many Paladin powers are charisma based, which synergizes perfectly with your Warlock abilities. This is where spending that feat on Superior Weapon Proficiency (Rapier) can really pay off, as many of this charisma based attacks are also melee weapon attacks.
Some Paladin attacks use strength, yet are so useful you may want to take them anyway. Even though your strength won’t be nearly as high as charisma, the difference will not be that great initially and given your implement is also a weapon, you get to add it’s enhancement bonus to attack rolls as well. All in all, your accuracy will still be rather decent with strength based attacks, especially if you wait until you gain added accuracy from something like combat advantage.
A good example of such a power is the 1st level strength vs reflex attack Piercing Smite which marks the target and a number of additional targets adjacent to you equal to your wisdom modifier. This is arguably more useful to you than it is to a Paladin as you cannot simply mark again as minor action considering your Divine Challenge is 1/encounter. You aren’t entirely lacking in multi-target attacks, and these can be used to maintain the mark for multiple rounds.
Later on you will gain access to powers such as Hand of the Gods that allow you to mark targets in a burst and are charisma based.
Other attacks have strength as their primary attribute, and charisma as their secondary. An example of this is Terrifying Smite which pushes them a number of squares equal to your charisma bonus and prevents all movement towards you. For a Warlock, that is a looong slide, potentially into something really nasty.
Paladin contains many support powers that can expand your versatility greatly as Warlock is highly lacking in these. For example, Righteous Smite is a charisma vs AC weapon attack that grants 5+Wis temporary HP to you and all allies within 5 squares.
Invigorating Smite is identical to Righteous Smite only it targets Will, heals (thus it can revive dying allies) and only works on Bloodied allies.
Entangling Smite is a charisma vs will weapon attack that immobilizes the target until the end of your next turn. This can be used to lock an enemy in place and then shift out of reach, both preventing them from effectively attacking you and potentially activating your Challenge.
Paladin Daily Powers
Sign of Vulnerability is a fantastic power, not just for you, but potentially for many of your allies. It’s a charisma vs fort ranged attack that gives the target vulnerability 5 to radiant damage. Dire Radiance will now do 5 more damage when you hit them, and 5 more damage if they take a step towards you. And what else does radiant damage? Why, your Divine Challenge of course! This power alone is an excellent reason to pick up Radiant attacks.
Radiant Pulse is another charisma vs fortitude Radiant ranged attack. This one hits a primary target and allows secondary attacks against everything adjacent to it. Here’s the kicker though, it pushes enemies 3 squares, and you can sustain it with a minor action to repeat the secondary attack over and over and over and over presumably until the primary target dies. True Nemesis is a delightful charisma vs will ranged attack with a delightful effect. Until the end of the encounter, when the target is within 5 squares of you and attacks anything you get to smack it with a nasty charisma vs will secondary attack. The only thing that could make this power better is if it dealt Radiant damage. On the higher end of the level scale we have things like To the Nine Hells with You, a charisma vs will attack that deals fire damage to everything within 5 squares of you, ongoing 10 fire damage, and marks them all to boot.
Paragon Path
Any of the Warlock paragon paths will serve the Witch-Knight well.
Your multiclass feats give you access to Paladin paths as well, all but one of which aren’t terrible useful to you. That one is the Justicar, which is actually pretty awesome. It’s filled with charisma attacks and will give you a very knightly, defenderish feel. Of particular note is a charisma vs will attack that marks everything in it’s radius whether you hit or miss and has an absolutely enormous area of effect (10 squares). You really can’t go wrong with this Paragon Path.
Alternately, you may choose to forego a Paragon Path entirely in exchange for several more Paladin powers. This option is best if you have a specific strategy in mind that requires specific Paladin powers that you would not otherwise be able to acquire.
Whether you choose a Paladin path or the deep multiclassing path, you’ll end up as a thoroughly multiclassed character with nearly half of your powers coming from your second class.
Equipment
With a few feats you can wear heavy armor and a shield, significantly increasing your AC and Reflex defenses and enhancing your image as a totally badass arcane knight (most important). You’re going to want a Light Blade for your weapon, what kind you choose will likely depend on how many X[w] Paladin powers you have. Warlocks only have simple melee proficiency, limiting you to the rather wimpy +2 1d6 sickle and +3 1d4 dagger. A single feat gives you rapier proficiency, which I would suggest using at some point. The rapier is a solid weapon at +3 1d8.
Feats: Soldier of the faith, Novice power, Acolyte power, Adept power, Shield proficiency (light), Armor proficiency (chain mail), Armor proficiency (Scale) Weapon proficiency (Rapier), Lightning Reflexes, Improved Fate of the Void.
At-Will Powers
Enfeebling Strike At-Will ✦ Divine, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Target: One creature Attack: +18 vs AC Hit: 1d8+8 damage. If you marked the target, it takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of your next turn
Dire Radiance At-Will * Arcane, Fear, Implement, Radiant Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One creature Attack: +14 vs Fortitude Hit: 1d6+7 radiant damage. If the target moves nearer to you on its next turn, it takes an extra 1d6+7 damage
Hellish Rebuke At-Will * Arcane, Fire, Implement Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One creature Attack: +14 vs Reflex Hit: 1d6+7 fire damage. If you take damage before the end of your next turn, the target takes an extra 1d6+7 fire damage.
Encounter Powers
Otherworld Stride Encounter * Arcane, Implement, Teleportation Standard Action Close burst 1 Target: Each creature in burst Attack: +15 vs Fortitude Hit: 1d8+8 damage and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn Effect: You teleport 5 squares
Divine Reverence Encounter * Divine, Implement, Radiant Standard Action Close burst 1 Target: Each enemy in burst Attack: +15 vs Will Hit: 1d8+8 radiant damage, and the target is dazed until the end of your next turn
Benign Transposition Encounter * Divine, Teleportation, Weapon Standard Action Melee weapon Primary Target: One ally within 2 squares Effect: You and the target swap places. If an enemy is now within your melee reach, you can make a secondary attack against it. Secondary Target: One enemy Secondary Attack: +18 vs AC Hit: 2d8+8 damage
Soul Flaying Encounter * Arcane, Implement, Necrotic Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One creature Attack: +14 vs Will Hit: 2d8+7 necrotic damage, and the target is weakened until the end of your next turn
Daily Powers
Sign of Vulnerability Daily * Divine, Implement, Radiant Standard Action Ranged 5 Target: One creature Attack: +15 vs Fortitude Hit: 3d8+8 radiant damage and the target gains vulnerability 5 to radiant damaeg until the end of the encounter Miss: Half damage, and the target gains no vulnerability
Thief of the Five Fates Daily * Arcane, Implement Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One creature Attack: +15 vs Will Hit: Until the end of your next turn, whenever the target makes a saving throw or an attack roll, you roll a d20 without modifiers. If your result is higher than the target’s unmodified die roll, the target’s attack misses or the target’s saving throw fails. Sustain Minor: Make a +15 attack vs Will against the target. On a hit, the effect continues. On a miss, the effect ends.
Thirsting Maw Daily * Arcane, Implement Standard Action Ranged 5 Target: One creature Attack: +14 vs Fortitude Hit: 4d8+7 damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of damage dealt Sustain Minor: The target takes 2d8 damage (save ends). Each time the target takes this damage, you regain hit points equal to half the damage
Utility Powers
Ethereal Stride Encounter * Arcane, Teleportation Move Action Personal Effect: You can teleport 3 squares, and you gain a +2 power bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
Wrath of the Gods Daily * Divine Minor Action Close burst 1 Targets: You and each ally in burst Effect: The targets add your Charisma modifier to damage rolls until the end of the encounter
Cleansing Spirit Encounter * Divine Minor Action Ranged 5 Target: You or one ally Effect: The target makes a saving throw with a +2 bonus
Shielding Shades Daily * Arcane Immediate Reaction Personal Trigger: You are hit by an attack Effect: Reduce the attack’s damage to 0. If the attack targets other creatures, they take damage as normal Equipment: +4 Amulet of Protection, +3 Symbol of Battle, +3 Hydra Scale Armor, +3 Pact Bladed Rapier
Your long post contained nothing but truth and badassary. Pure awesome.
The Paladin side of the character could worship The Raven Queen, which would definitly give the character a macabre feeling. This could be worked into the Star Pact Warlock by saying the character reads the obscure signs and messages The Raven Queen leaves for him in the stars.
Great job, but I think you're dismissing other possible races too early. First, I'd use a stat array of:
16 14 14 12 11 8
for any of these choices. I actually think Half-Elves are amazing for this build. I'd suggest Sacred Flame from Cleric as your free Encounter Power, as it's a good fit thematically and mechanically. You'd end up with a 16 in Con/Int/Cha at level 1, and could make a really cool leader character for a party (party role, not combat archetype :P ).
From the monster racial options, Gnomes and Githyanki have great stat bonuses to compliment you, and their powers are both very useful to this type of character (Gnome's in particular could be really nasty :D ). If you went the whole Raven-Queen route with the character, playing a Shadar-kai would be a natural choice all around, even if the bonus to Dex isn't extremely useful in this case. With any of these builds having a 16 int score, you could open up some feat slots instead of going for the extremely heavy stuff, making the loss of a human bonus feat not so tough to swallow, and I personally don't think walking around as a giant tin can is required for that knightly image, but that may just be me.
Yay, the kind of optimization I can really sink my teeth into. Love it, great for keeping those annoying enemies off your allies and laying down the smackdown at the same time. You'll be the Key Defender's best friend.
I like the concept a lot, and it is probably one of the better multiclass combos available. My only question is how is this a good example of a 4e gish? Youve created a warlock who also has a few paladin powers (most of which are ranged attacks even). You will be standing back blasting with your warlock powers 90% of the time. Then if you get bored you can run in and use your one melee power. Sorry, not a gish.
Glad to hear people find it inspiring :D I've added a 15th level snapshot of the character that should hopefully illustrate how he can actually work a bit better.
To IIRaTe: Yes, I can see Half-Elf working nicely as well, and Sacred Flame would be useful for granting saving throws, though the temp HP is not terribly high. The nice thing about Human is that I can still retain two At-Will powers from Warlock while trading Eldritch Blast for a Paladin at-will as I don't intend to really use EB that much.
As for the light/heavy armor choice, consider this: With 18 Int the best leather armor in the game grants +8 AC. With just 14 Int and the equivalent Scale amor you get +13 AC. You trade a little mobility, a little Ref defense, and 2 feats for 5 AC. This character doesn't use Int as much as other Warlocks for powers, thus freeing up a lot of ability points for other things, such as better Wisdom. I'm not saying it's necessarily better, but it's at least an even trade and as a front-line combatant you're going to need all the AC you can get. You would need 26 Int and Hide armor proficiency to equal the AC of Scale armor.
You know what would be pure evil? Marking someone with Divine Challenge, and then getting him to attack one of his buddies using a Fey Pact warlock power. Now that's what you call synergy.
I like the concept a lot, and it is probably one of the better multiclass combos available. My only question is how is this a good example of a 4e gish? Youve created a warlock who also has a few paladin powers (most of which are ranged attacks even). You will be standing back blasting with your warlock powers 90% of the time. Then if you get bored you can run in and use your one melee power. Sorry, not a gish.
Take a closer look, he's more of a Gish than you think, and makes great use of melee attacks. I believe the example character demonstrates this well.
First of all, he has an at-will melee attack with +4 higher attack than either of his at-will spells, a considerable increase in accuracy. Were he flanking, attacking a prone enemy, or simply attacking an enemy who's AC is lower than it's reflex and fortitude defenses the difference in accuracy will become even greater. Against a marked target you also impose a nifty -2 on their attack rolls, further increasing your already formidable defense. In such a situation it is highly advantageous to remain in melee and continue using Enfeebling Strike. Also keep in mind that it's damage is technically higher than either of his ranged At-Will spells so long as their secondary effects do not trigger. Don't forget Prime Shot, it rewards you for closer than your allies to your target, and that often means melee range.
Enfeebling Strike is actually quite competitive with a damage-focused Fighters melee attacks. 1d8+8+2d6=19.5 damage, slightly higher than a Fighter with a two-handed 2d6 Maul, and your accuracy is better! Of course, the Fighter is much better at opportunity attacks, but that is not your job. You're a hybrid, a very distracting Striker, but a Striker still.
Benign Transposition, or either of the Healing/Temp HP strikes it could be swapped for is also a weapon attack. All of them are quite useful, and will likely be used every encounter.
He is not a Gish in the 3.5 sense in that he does not use his spells to buff himself for melee combat. He's more of a 2E gish, in that most of his firepower comes in the form of ranged magical attacks that are somewhat limited in quantity. When he's used all encounter powers and does not want to spend/does not have any daily powers left, those melee attacks are going to be used quite frequently.
Skirmishing with ranged attacks is one strategy that he can be quite successful with, but there are many more he is capable of. The whole point of this type of character is versatility. His ability to fight effectively in melee is one facet of that versatility that pure Warlocks do not possess, and it can come in quite handy in a number of situations. 4E is an extremely reactive game. The more versatility you have, the better you are able to adapt to what a situation calls for, and that is often more potent than raw power.
I'm going to be playing one of these in an upcoming game, I'll tell you how it goes. I greatly doubht I'll be using ranged attacks 90% of the time.
You know what would be pure evil? Marking someone with Divine Challenge, and then getting him to attack one of his buddies using a Fey Pact warlock power. Now that's what you call synergy.
Hah! I hadn't thought of that. Crown of Madness would work pretty well for that, as you can force them to continue attacking allies until they save.
Bewitching Whispers is nice as it's an encounter power. If your Divine Challenge didn't activate only on the first time they attack someone other than you it'd be absolutely devastating. Man, imagine casting this on the Leader as all his soldier and brute friends rush past him, he'd disintegrate himself within the space of a turn! Too bad it doesn't work that way =(
What other mind control powers can we use for this?
