-Reduce the eldrich blast damage to 1d3/lvl
-Add a timer onto the summons which scales with the level of the summon. Perhaps 20 seconds per monster level? That's up to you.
-Add an easily consumable craftable item (a "sacrifice" to the warlock's sponcer) which is required to cast any warlock spell greater than lvl 0. This is to add a limiting factor to the warlock's arsenal, but should not be as difficult to craft as spell components.
Thread tl;dr/reasoning:
Dalenger wrote:My two cents on warlocks, after having played them nearly exclusively for almost a year: yes, some builds have better dpr than them. Yes, their summons can be countered. Yes, they are mortal... however, the thing is that they are above average in almost all these respects, and lack a true weak spot.
Examples:
Fighting someone with absurdly high dodge DC (flames example)? Haste yourself and grease them, pick them off slowly or let your summon do it, or spam hold moster/fear.
Fighting someone with mind protection? 200dpr will deal with that quickly.
Fighting a 600dpr KD melee moster? Haste, grease, invis, mind spells, 200 RANGED dpr. Use as many heal kits as you want, eventually ill kill you faster than you can heal or youll fail your save. No problem.
They also contain the ability to escape almost any fight they disagree with.
Casters are supposed to be glass cannons: able to pack a hell of a punch when they want to, but having to ration their spells and know when to retreat. Warlocks break this rule.
I think the summon nerf is a step in the right direction (did it only buff banishment/dismissal, or did it also add a summon timer? If not, both should be applied.)
Reduce blast to 1d3/level. That's still 150 ranged almost unmissable dpr(plus sweets), which is still a lot.
Something has to be done about spamming will saves. You don't want to nerf the spells themselves, so as to avoid hurting other casters. This may be a bit of a streatch, but I would suggest adding an easily crafted consumable (some sort of sacrifice to the warlocks sponcer) as "permission" to cast spells above lvl 0. This way warlocks can still trounce, but it adds a limiting factor to the warlocks spells.