Mamma ama Warlock wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:15 am
Saveless inficast damage spell were too powerful. Ice storm, Withering ray. These 2 in particular just destroy packs of mobs.
That being said: Eldritch Chain or Doom still work very well (for now), and are perfectly viable. I understand that dualpact builds don't take them, but perhaps that might be a good idea to take Doom.
Ice Storm was the only saveless spell, which clocks in at 15d6, but has the problem of using perhaps the two most resisted damage types in the game. Withering Ray is great at 10 + 20d4, slightly out-pacing IS on a limited target set, but has a fort save for half. To be really good at using any of these requires some feat investment, to include at least one meta-magic spell and ideally two spell foci. Thus the caster-lock concept.
Neither of these, even as good as they were pre-nerf, could outshine an invested blaster. Trust me, I have an EM III + Precision + Agonizing blaster. For the record, that is a saveless 27d6 + 26 13-14 blast with a secondary debilitating effect. Now, you can't metamagic a blast beyond the shaping, which I have not mentioned, but is required for invested blasting. But, blasting works on pretty much everything, to include the magic immune things caster-locks could not touch. Moreover, blasting has the possibility of critting, and when an invested blaster crits, chunks rain down.
All of this to say, I'm again not sure the problem we are solving and whatever it is comes at the steep price of a build option and many people's character investment.
If there is still a problem, I personally would rather see some tweaks to damage numbers rather than timers. That would keep caster-lock alive.