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The Thinktank => Min/Max It! => Handbooks => : Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:11:31 PM

: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:11:31 PM
Warlock Information Compilation by Thinblade

I’m a big fan of the warlock, but lately I’ve been growing more and more frustrated with how scattered optimization information is for it across the CO Board. A lot of good things have been posted, and many have either vanished or are buried in the very large Warlock Handbook thread. I’ve been especially annoyed that there isn’t a single list with all published invocations and their commentaries.

Now, I’m not the best optimizer, but I can collate with the best of them. And I happen to be working on a large research paper, from which I need to take breaks. So I’ve decided to put together a single document, built around Tealgorthian’s original Warlock Handbook, that distills our commentaries on everything that’s been published since Complete Arcane.

Much of what follows is not my work. Every comment and build is taken verbatim (though occasionally I’ve done a little copy editing) and is attributed to the original poster. The sole exception is the Invocation Critiques section, where posters are attributed at the top and the invocations are grouped by strength and type (essence, shape, or normal).

Finally, I want to include a link here to JanusJones’s wonderful Glaivelock Mini-Guide. Much too complete for me to compete with, and much too large for me to out-right steal, it’s a wonderful guide for those wanting to focus on eldritch glaive. Be aware, however, that he uses warlock as a dip class, whereas this thread explores it as the primary class.

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=820872

 Table of Contents:
Post 1: Thinblade’s Compilation Introduction, Table of Contents, Warlock Handbook Introduction by Tealgorthian, The Two Most Important Questions by Thinblade
Post 2: Races
Post 3: Prestige Classes
Post 4: Invocation Guide
Post 5: Miscellany
Post 6: Warlock Feats
Post 7: Epic Warlock Feats and Invocations
Post 8: Basic Builds
Post 9: Advanced Builds
Last Updated: 12/6/08

Warlock Handbook Introduction by Tealgorthian

There's been a rash in Warlock threads here recently. So, for a class picking up in popularity I thought I’d start this thread. Warlock is my favorite class, ever.

 Currently, search is down. I know a lot of good Warlock builds have been posted, so if you posted one and you want it here, please show it.

 Warlock Pros.
   •    A good skill list. It's a Cha based class with good Cha based skills, and it gets the eternally powerful Use Magic Device. Three good solid Knowledge skills (Arcana, Planes, and Religion - almost the Big Four, if only it had Nature).
   •    All their Invocations can be used in Light armor, with no ASF.
   •    Unlimited uses of their Invocations, and Eldritch Blast
   •    Detect Magic at Will, with Caster Level equal to class level.
   •    The ability to take 10 on all UMD checks, even when distracted or threatened. At 4th level (!)
   •    Damage reduction/Cold Iron.
   •    Energy Resistance against two elements
   •    Artificer like ability to craft magic items with UMD.

 Warlock Cons
   •    Alignment Restrictions (Chaotic or Evil only)
   •    Low skill points per level
   •    d6 hit die
   •    Very feat dependent for most Warlock Builds.
   •    Only 1 good save.
   •    Only gain a total of 12 Invocations

 Dipping into the Warlock:
 The basic reason to dip into the Warlock is for a 24 hour self-buff. 1 Level will get you 1 Invocation, and a 1d6 Eldritch Blast (Not all that useful). Good Invocations for this are: Beguiling Influence, Leaps and Bounds, Entropic Warding, See and Unseen, and Spiderwalk, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. A social Rogue, for example, could pick up a +6 unnamed bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate. A warrior could dip in for 1 level to get See the Unseen, which would grant Darkvision and See Invisibility.

 Dipping for a second level gets you Detect Magic at will, and a second Invocation.

The max I would go for a dip into Warlock is 4, which nets you 3 Least Invocations, Detect Magic at will, Eldritch Blast 2d6 (Meh) Damage Reduction 1/Cold Iron, and Imbue Item, which gives you the awesome ability to take 10 on UMB checks, something shared only by the Artificer.

The Two Most Important Questions When Building Warlocks: by Thinblade

Introduction

Lately, I’ve found myself typing more or less the same thing over and over again for beginners wanting to know how to build a warlock. Since it’s a popular topic, I decided to write down my thoughts in a more coherent manner, the better to help those in need.

At the heart of any warlock build are two questions: melee or ranged, and Charisma or no Charisma.

Melee vs. Ranged

Most warlocks want to be in melee combat about as much as your average wizard does: namely, they don’t want it the least little bit. While your slightly better hitpoints (d6), and the ability to wear light armor help, no one would ever confuse a warlock with a fighter. Coupled with a lack of martial weapon proficiency and good combat-boosting buffs (magic weapon, divine power, et. al), one would think no warlock in their right mind would want to get into melee.

Prior to the release of Dragon Magic, you would be correct. Hideous blow, previously the only melee invocation, is indeed hideous. It requires a normal melee attack to hit, can be disrupted like any other invocation, and only gives one attack. No one in their right might took it. However, with Complete Mage came Eldritch Glaive, and a whole new world opened.

Eldritch Glaive is everything Hideous Blow should have been. It’s a touch attack, gives reach, and allows you to make iterative attacks. It has downsides as well (namely you can’t move while you do it and you can’t get extra attacks from things like haste), but it finally made warlocks viable in melee combat.

One of the first two choices you have to make is whether you want to aim at becoming what JanusJones calls a “glaivelock,” or whether you want to focus on ranged combat only. Note that while a glaivelock does not have to glaive all the time, many of your feats, invocations, and likely also levels in other classes will focus on one area, and not the other. Your stats will likely follow suit as you try to get prereqs for combat feats and make sure you can be effective in close combat. This is why you’ll want to make this choice at character creation, even though a pure (or mostly pure) warlock probably won’t be getting eldritch glaive until you swap another invocation for it a level 6.

Either kind of character is completely viable, so make your choice based on what you want to play, and what other characters are in your group. If you’re interested in glaivelocks, I cannot recommend enough JanusJones’s guide. You’ll find a link at the top of the page.

Charisma vs. No Charisma

A lot of people new to the warlock are under the impression that, just because the class description says that a high charisma is important to warlocks, that they need a high charisma. The truth is more complex: there are actually two kinds of warlock invocations: those that need charisma, and those that don’t. It is entirely possible to make a viable warlock and dump charisma, you just need to decide what you want your character to focus on.

Have a high charisma if you:
• want to use a lot of eldritch essences (Noxious Blast, Repelling Blast, Utterdark Blast)
• want to use invocations that require a save (Tenacious Plague, Word of Changing, Nightmares Made Real)
• want to get a saving throw bonus through Dark One’s Own Luck
• want to be a party face using beguiling influence, and need all the help you can get

Dump charisma if you:
• are focusing on 24 hour buffs (Fell Flight, all the +6 to skills invocations, Dark Foresight, Walk Unseen, Entropic Warding)
• are using invocations that do not require a save (Chilling Tentacles, Path of Shadows, Flee the Scene, Hellspawned Grace)

As you can see, a lot of the best invocations (Fell Flight, Flee the Scene, Chilling Tentacles, Walk Unseen) do not require charisma to be effective. Equally, a lot of the invocations that require saves are less than useful (Stony Grasp, Bewitching Blast, and Frightful Blast are all low-lights) The best save-requiring invocation is, far and away, Utterdark Blast. If you’re making it that far, UB by itself makes having a high charisma worth it. At lower levels, the choice is less clear-cut. Also, if you’re playing a good warlock, you might have some qualms throwing around negative energy at will.

Conclusion

I hope this discussion has cleared up what in my mind are the two primary questions a player must answer when designing a warlock. Everything else flows from the answer to melee vs ranged and charisma vs no charisma. Once you’ve decided, your statistics, your feats, your invocations, and everything else begins to become clear.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:12:03 PM
Races

Player’s Handbook Races

Halfling by Oogar
 I am starting to see Halfling as a nice choice for Warlock race. Small size and a +2 dex basically adds a net of +2 to hit with the Eldritch Blasts and +2 AC. The Save bonus is nice and if you are in Forgotten Realms you can snag the extra feat with the one subrace (If you need the feat).

 While you end up low in skill points, I expect that if you spend much time on this board, you will likely be spending your skill points in very specific ways anyhow. The loss of strength and weapon size do not really hinder too greatly, and use of Fell Flight or Flee the Scene can assist in the loss of movement speed.

 For flavor it is rather easy for me to see a halfling that had an ancestor that tried to pull a fast one on an arch devil, or some big mucky muck from the abyss, and ended up passing along this little legacy to our little hero (anti-hero).

Human by Thinblade
Humans are always a viable option. Many warlock builds are feat starved, and, while they have a good list of skills, they lack skill points. Human helps with both of these. Human is also the only race (besides doppelganger) that can get Able Learner and become a Chameleon.

Other Races

Hellbred (Fiendish Codex II) by DastardlyDan:
+2 racial bonus to Intimidate
Evil Exception: Good-aligned Hellbred can use Evil-aligned items without penalty.
Devil's Favor: Bonus feat (+2 bonus on any roll 1/day)
Automatic Language: Infernal (Qualifier for Hellfire Warlock PrC)

Infernal Aspect: Choose Body or Spirit
Body:
Spirit:

Hengeyokai – Crane, Sparrow (Oriental Adventures) by Thinblade:
The chaotic good animal shapechangers from Oriental Adventures make good fey-themed warlocks. In their hybrid form they gain a +2 Dex as well as a fly speed, freeing up one of the valuable lesser invocation spots for something other than Fell Flight. You can also use your invocations while in your animal form. (How do you know which of those flocking sparrows is the warlock? It’s the one throwing eldritch blasts at you.)

Note that the 3.5 update in Dragon 318 removed their +1 LA by making them Humanoid (shapechangers). This makes them much more attractive.

Jaebrin (Monster Manual 5) by Richmud and HelloRaptor
[by Richmud]
I've been looking at the Jaebrins from MM5 which have several interesting features that may prove useful for a warlock

 The get a charisma bonus, a bonus to bluff and diplomacy both handy for a warlock, a luck bonus to AC, immunity to enchantments and the ability to fake being enchanted which are just all around handy. Most interestingly they have a bite attack that can lower will saves. I can see it being quite good for a warlock as they can be capable enough in combat to bite a foe before unleashing something that requires a will save (charm always being a good option)

[by HelloRaptor]
Stats: -2 Str, +2 Cha (add the Magic Blooded template for a nice -2 Str, -2 Wis, +2 Cha)
Misc Bonuses: +1 Luck to AC, Enchantment spells cast at +1 DC, +2 on Appraise, Bluff, Perform and Diplomacy checks.
Natural Attack: Bite. Also acts as a special attack 'Will Sapper', any creature struck by it must make a DC (10+ConModifier+1/2 Class Levels) Will Save or suffer a -4 to Will saves for the next 10 rounds.
Absorb Enchantment: Not only are Jaebrin immune to Enchantment spells and effects, they automatically know when they're Enchanted and what the intended effect is, and can feign being under its effect. Others have to beat them with Sense Motive vs a Bluff check to know they're faking.

 All they have going against them is a Level Adjustment of +1. If you play in a game with LA buyoff (I do), buying this off is trivial.

Karsite (Tome of Magic) by kadeity
 Um, Karsite, the +2LA race from Tome of Magic, makes an amazing warlock.

 They get +2con & +2cha as well as spell resistance 10+class levels, and heal 2hp for every spell level of a spell that fails against their SR. Sure they cant be spellcasters, but they can use Spell like abilities normally. And a side note, they can be psions, not that it matters. they have another cool ability that makes a magic item inactive for a round. All this in addition to the human feat and skill points. I think the 2LA is worth it.

Anyway I'm saying this because i recall someone saying they couldn't find a good warlock race.

Petal (Monster Manual 3) by NatchFeral
Petal [Tiny Fey] +2 LA, gives -8 Str +10 Dex +4 Con +4 Int +8 Cha

 With an elite array for ability scores (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 ) this could give you:
 Str 4 Dex 24 Con 17 Int 14 Wis 8 Cha 23. Seems ideal for a warlock.

Pixie (Monster Manual 1) by mjung
I personally like the pixie warlock. Sure, you pay 4 LA, but you more than make up with it with versatility and utter ridiculousness.

 Pixie gives you:
 - +8 dex and +6 cha (amongst other stat adjustments)
 - Small size. Harder to hit and easier to hit others
 - 60 foot (good) fly speed
 - Dodge as a bonus feat
 - +1 natural armor
 - DR 10/cold iron, Spell resistance 15+levels and persistent (suppressible) greater invisibility.
 - Some nice SLAs.

 This race was made for warlocks. You can fly around, invisible and hurl little eldritch blasts at your enemies. Best thing is, you are virtually guaranteed damage and you are virtually untouchable.

 - Because Eldritch Blast is a ranged touch attack, your target gets no armor or natural armor bonuses to their AC.
 - Unless your target can see invis, they further get no dex or dodge bonus to AC and you get a +2 on your attacks against sighted targets.

 So let's see...they don't get dodge, dex, armor or natural armor bonuses...they still get um...size...and um...deflection. With +8 to your dex, some BAB, +2 for being invis and +1 for being small, you can virtually guarantee a hit EVERY TIME.

 So what about when they strike back? Oh well, first they have to find you (invisible). Then they have to reach you somehow (flying). Then they have to hit you (small size and high dex). Then they have to overcome either your spell resistance or your damage reduction. Not very likely they'll be hitting you much.

 You can see where all this is going. Sure, a fighter could dish out more damage in one round. But your steady once per round 7d6 and nigh untouchability will certainly make you a force to be reckoned with. With the right feat selection and items, I truly believe this character would be just about invincible unless the DM specifically is trying to take you down. You can outlast just about anything in the game.

Primordial Giant Template (Secrets of Xen’drik) by tacoronte
In the most recent Eberron Setting book, Secrets of Xen’drik, there is a new template for Giants "Primordial Giant" that makes Warlock a favored class for the character, enhances mental stats (with penalty on physical), adds a Spell-like ability and gives a +1 bonus on caster level for Spell-like Abilities.

 Best of all, it doesn't increase Level Adjustment; making something like an Ogre/Troll/Half-Giant more playable as a Warlock.

 For instance a Primordial Giant Ogre (LA +2) would have stat adjustments of +6 STR, -2 DEX, +2 CON, no mental penalties, and if you throw in Practiced Spellcaster, you are just 1 caster level behind a typical Warlock.
 That is a fair trade-off for a melee/hideous blow oriented Warlock.

Whisper Gnome (Races of Stone) by Eytan
Whisper Gnomes make great Warlock/Arcane Tricksters. They have a more serious demeanor - perfect for warlocks, huge bonuses on stealth total +4 Move Silently + 8 hide, and they have mage hand as a spell like ability. Also, the +2 to dex and con is very nice. The -2 to charisma is a little tough, but this warlock build really doesn't rely too much on eldritch essence invocations, though they don't hurt. The invocations they really want are:

 Entropic Warding - good protection from ranged attacks which is really what they need because they don't want to be in melee. It also adds to their stealthiness by making it impossible to track them, even using scent.
 Invisibility (or Improved Invisibility)
 Beguiling Influence - +6 diplomacy, bluff, intimidate
 Spider Climb
 Flee the Scene - Short range dimension door + brief major image
 Flight
 Dark Discorporation
 Shadow Walk

 I like these because they really compliment rogue (adding a lot of maneuverability, which in term increases defense). Also, they fit the shadowy sneakiness of rogues. You also have a crazy magical sneak attack.

Xeph (Expanded Psionics Handbook) by Thinblade
Xephs deserve a special mention since they are innately psionic. This opens the door to taking Psionic Shot, Greater Psionic Shot, and Psionic Meditation without having to spend a feat on Wild Talent or lose caster levels dipping into Psion or Psychic Warrior. Their +2 Dex is also nice for hitting with your eldritch blast.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:12:55 PM
Prestige Classes

Core and Complete Books

Arcane Trickster (DMG) by Thinblade: A way to advance invocations and sneak attack. Requires the feat spell hand (Complete Arcane) and a lesser invocation, plus 2d6 sneak attack. This is one of the few classes with the requirement “one spell of X level,” which let warlocks enter, as opposed to “spells of X level,” which don’t. A neat trick, if you don’t want to give up three levels to thief, is to instead use the feats Martial Study and Martial Stance to get Assassin’s Stance. Since you can be in a stance indefinately and can’t be knocked out of it, you can use it to qualify for any PrC that requires sneak attack dice. It doesn’t help with the ranks in thief skills, though (7 ranks in Disable Device, Decipher Script, and Escape Artist). Apprentice won’t help here, which means you’ll need to be human or have a high Int, and be at least level 11.


Blood Magus (Complete Arcane) h/t DastardlyDan
Another of the rare PrC’s requiring “caster level,” Blood Magus is most likely a 4 level PrC, and a sub-par one at that. It’s 8/10 casting, losing levels at 5 and 10, which is bad enough, but it  requires two dud feats for entry. One of them is Toughness, arguably the worst feat ever printed, certainly the worst in Core. and the fact that many of the abilities, like blood component and several abilities after you lose a caster level at 5, don’t work with invocations. If you really want to take this PrC, talk to your DM about allowing you take Improved Toughness from Complete Warrior instead. It also requires that you have died and been brought back, which is problematical at low levels of play (though, arguably, the Hellbred race gets this by default). Probably best taken with crafter warlocks to get the free brew potion and scribe scroll feats, but since you give up two feats to get in, and both feats are limited by your body, I’d rather just take the feats and leave the PrC alone.

Daggerspell Mage (Complete Adventurer) by Thinblade: Another way to get sneak attack, this is the easiest PrC to get into, requiring two useless feats (weapon focus: dagger and two weapon fighting) and one level of thief (or Assassin’s Stance). Unfortunately, none of the class features work with invocations, so you pretty much just get sneak attack. Personally, I’d go with Arcane Trickster.

Divine Oracle (Complete Divine) by Thinblade: A warlock can get into this class with two divination invocations by 5th level. Unfortunately, there are only two divination invocations in Complete Arcane, see the unseen and dark foresight, and dark foresight is Dark, so of limited use. Things like Devil’s Sight don’t help, since they don’t copy divination spells. If you have Complete Mage, however, there is one more divination: all-seeing eyes, which isn’t all that bad and allows you to qualify with two least invocations.

The class itself is 10/10 spellcasting and gives trap sense, a better form of evasion, and improved uncanny dodge. Unfortunately, most of the other abilities don’t work with warlock invocations.

Eldritch Disciple (Complete Mage) by Thinblade: This class is perhaps unique in that it is a dual-progression PrC that doesn’t require you to be third level in both classes before entering. Definitely cleric-centered, since you need 2nd level divine spells but only least invocations. You lose a divine caster level at level one as well, but for two levels of cleric casting you get eleven on warlock, plus yet more options for things to do with turn undead attempts instead of, oh, turning undead.

Eldritch Theurge (Complete Mage) by Thinblade: A more standard double progression PrC, which requires 2nd level arcane spells and 2d6 blast, the Theurge has some nice synergy between the two sides of the class. Characters in the class are probably going to be blasters (whether wizard blasters or warlock blasters) so make sure that’s the role you want to play. Also, decide whether you want to use Spellweave, because if you do you’ll want to pick up some eldritch essences to apply to your spells.

Enlightened Spirit (Complete Mage) by Thinblade: Good in concept, horrible in execution. Enlighened Spirit is an attempt to make a PrC for a “redeemed” warlock. Unfortunatetly, it doesn’t advance invocations at all. Instead you get a few specific invocations (a fell flight duplicate, tongues, any blast shape that’s not Dark, and a couple of anti-fiend and undead blasts). The only good thing about it is that it increases blast damage 1d6/2 levels, but really, with Hellfire Warlock, why would you bother? Maybe worth it for a 1 level dip if you’re constantly fighting incorporeal stuff and the miss chance is messing with you, otherwise, stay away.

Fortune’s Friend (Complete Scoundrel) by Thinblade: The lucky warlock. I’m including this one for completeness. Its abilities are neat and it’s really easy to enter, but it’s only 2/5 spellcasting. For my money, you give up too much just to be lucky.

Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil by Thinblade:
Oddly enough, the warlock can get into one of the more powerful wizard PrC’s, due to IotSV’s entry requirement of “5 abjuration spells, 2 of which must be 4th level or higher.” Just take entropic shield (least), cold comfort (lesser), voracious dispelling (lesser, 4th), relentless dispelling (lesser, 4th), and devour magic (greater, 6th). Of course, that means you have to spend three of your seven total invocations on different ways of doing the exact same thing: dispel.

You can, of course, dip a level in another spellcasting class to pick up some abjuration spells. The obvious one is wizard, for Warlock 12/Wizard 1/IotSV 7. You’ll still need to keep devour magic and one of the other two dispel magic invocations, but you could free up to three other invocations. To avoid multiclassing penalties, you could also take a level in a separate spellcasting PrC, like Nentyar Hunter (Unapproachable East), Prime Underdark Guide (Underdark), or Ur-Priest. The easiest I’ve found to enter so far is Holy Liberator. Any of these options loses you a dark invocation, but gets you back up to three least and lesser invocations. If you go this path, you should probably also pick up Caster's Lament (and swap devour magic out for something else) so you can put all your bonuses to work counterspelling.

Invisible Blade (Complete Warrior) by Thinblade: Yet another way to get sneak attack for your warlock, this time without multiclassing into thief. However, sneak attack is the only thing this PrC has going for it: it doesn’t increase invocations or your blast, and requires two useless feats - far shot and weapon focus: dagger. Arcane trickster will end up giving you more sneak attack dice and cost you two fewer levels of invocations, which gives you the Dark invocations you miss this way.

Mindbender (Complete Arcane) by Thinblade: Generally considered a one level only PrC, Mindbender works as well for a warlock as a wizard, though you must take the Charm invocation and therefore be at least level 6. If you take this, also take the Mindsight feat from Lords of Madness.

Mythic Exemplar (Complete Champion) by Thinblade: This class is easy to get into (BAB +5), but doesn’t offer a tremendous amount back. You lose a caster level at Level 1, and the gained abilties are more geared towards wizards and based off of Intelligence. Not useless, but not great either. Also, don’t take the last level. You lose another caster level, and you don’t have any arcane spells to convert to divinations.

Paragnostic Apostle (Complete Champion) by Thinblade: Another easy class to get into (three Rank 5 Knowledge skills), and depending on the campaign, could be valuable. It’s 5/5 spellcasting, and offers a range of abilities based off of Knowledge. A few of the better ones: +1 to hit anything with natural armor, +1 to DC of any secondary blast effect with a saving throw (and maybe also things like chilling tentacles), and a favored enemy look-alike. If you’re already going the sage route, have skill points to burn, or are looking for any way to increase blast DC’s, look into this one.

Uncanny Trickster (Complete Scoundrel) by Thinblade: If you’re using skill tricks, this isn’t necessarily a bad class. It’s three levels long, only requires skills and skill tricks to enter, and is 2/3 advancing of previous class abilities (just like Legacy Chamion). This can be used to get another +4d6 hellfire, if you’ve already taken Hellfire Warlock.

Unseen Seer (Complete Mage) by Thinblade: Warning! This class needs some finagling to enter. Check with your DM. A better way of getting sneak attack than something like Daggerspell Mage, this class will require a one level dip into another arcane spellcasting class and a bunch of sneaky cross-class skills to enter (beguiler is recommended, since one level gets you both). Once in, apply your +1 to caster level to warlock, not whatever you used to get in. Many of the bonus features don’t work with invocations, but you do get permanent non-detection, sneak attack, and a bunch of low-level divination spells (like true strike).


Virtuoso (Complete Adventurer) by Vainglory: Virtuoso looks like a decent warlock prestige class, and the flavor fits great with a fey oriented warlock. Drawbacks are no spell progression first level, and getting 10 perform. To reach the 10 perform required you could take level 1 as human paragon, or be a rogue with able learner. The Apprentice: Entertainer feat (DMG II) could also help the pain.

Warshaper (Complete Warrior) by Thinblade: Simple to enter if your DM allows you to take the Dragonfire Adept invocation Humanoid Shape (and if you can, you should). It doesn’t advance warlock casting, but does give a number of nice benefits: immunity to critical hits, an essentially-permanent +4 Str/Con, +5 feet of reach, and eventually permanent fast healing. I generally wouldn’t go more than two or three levels, unless you’re aiming for a bladelock. In any event, don’t take it all the way, since the level 5 ability may or may not work. It allows you to change shape as a move action, but Humanoid Shape is an invocation. Check with your DM about how it interacts.

Wild Mage (Complete Arcane) by Thinblade: The crazy warlock. This one requires talking to your DM. First see if you can substitute a meta-SLA feat for the required metamagic feat, otherwise you’ll be stuck with Sudden Quicken. Second, ask whether the Wild Mage ability applies to your eldritch blast, as well as your invocations. Then think hard about whether you want to introduce that much chaos into your gaming group. Most players try to minimize chaos.

If you do decide to go for it, the class is 10/10 spellcasting, requires the aforementioned metamagic feat, a dud feat (Magical Aptitude), and some skills that you were probably getting anyway. And at level 10 it offers a nice way of making an enemy mage have a very bad day.

Races Books

Chameleon (Races of Destiny) by Thinblade: Primarily used as a 2 level dip to get the floating feat, which can be used to get almost any invocation (through extra invocation), or almost any item creation feat, if you’re focusing on crafting. Note, however, that you cannot use the arcane or divine focus to get into otherwise barred PrC’s.

Ruathar (Races of the Wild) by Tealgorthian: Really easy requirements. Easier than most any PrC in print, I think. It also has 3/3 +1 spellcasting levels, and some minor benefits. The most useful of which are the minor magic item you are given, and the extended lifespan. Also, it expands your skill list a bit.


Scar Enforcer (Races of Destiny) by surreal: Scar enforcer is a rather underwhelming PrC, but in this case it's very good for a multiclass warlock with rogue or ranger levels who wants to focus on being social and stealthy. Invocations like entropic Shield hides your movement, big boosts to your skills with Leaps and Bounds and Beguiling Influence, the various movement granters, etc


Shadowcraft Mage (Races of Stone) by Thinblade: With the release of Complete Mage, the warlock gained the ability to enter the Shadowcraft Mage prestige class by using Walk Unseen, Wall of Gloom, and Nightmares Made Real (one good, one bad, and one iffy invocation). However, since no invocation duplicates figment or shade illusions, the best parts of the class are unavailable. The only class feature that actually works is cloak of shadow. Still, if an invocation ever gets published that mimics, say, Major Image, this would suddenly become an amazing class for warlocks.

General D&D Books

Ardent Dilettante (Planar Handbook) by Thinblade: This one’s so weird I just have to go try to make one. 9/10 spellcasting, but requiring increasingly difficult requirements to advance. By the end, you have to have skills all over the place, be able to cast both arcane and divine 1st level spells, proficiency with martial and exotic weapons, and have died (that one won’t be a problem). I have no idea whether or not you could optimize an ardent dilettante, but it sure would be different! Since all skills are class skills, you can take a few levels to satisfy another PrC’s skill req’s (arcane trickster, I’m looking at you), though you lose a caster level.

Child of Night (Tome of Magic) by Thinblade: If it weren’t for its being 9/10 casting and requiring one of the worst invocations to enter (darkness), this would be a great PrC. As it is, it’s still good, and is one of the better fits thematically. Want a dark, spooky, more-than-human warlock? Look no further. Not all of the shadowy invocations are great, but there’s enough of them for you to fill your roster and still be useful. And never needing to eat or breathe is also nice. Since you’re stuck with darnkess, you can also look into the various darkness feats in Drow of the Underdark.

Demonbinder (Drow of the Underdark) by Thinblade: Must be a drow warlock. Gain a variety of abilities by binding demons to yourself, each demon giving a different set of abilities that can be easily changed between battles. Make sure you can buy off the LA before thinking about this one, though, since warlocks deal with caster level loss even worse than most casters.

Disciple of Asmodeus (Book of Vile Darkness) by Thinblade: As scrollreader says: “The eeeeeeevil warlock.” Fits thematically, is easy to enter (just two class skills, one cross-class skill, and a couple of feats), and gives 6/10 spellcasting, which means one dark invocation at level 20. Also gives the ability to cast charm person, which allows you to dip into Mindbender without wasting an invocation on Charm. See the builds section for an example.

Fleshwarper (Lords of Madness) by Chemus: Requires the feats Find Familiar (Complete Arcane) and Graft Flesh, plus points in a cross-craft skill (Heal), but grants 9/10 spellcasting and turns you into an aberration at 10th level.

Hellfire Warlock (Fiendish Codex II) by Thinblade: The ultimate in warlock blasting. A nifty little 3 level PrC that gives +6d6 blast and 3/3 invocations, and all it wants is a mediocre blast essence in return. If you’re ok with the flavor, there’s very little reason not to take this class. See also: Legacy Champion PrC, Strategies Section.


Keeper of the Cerulean Sign (Lords of Madness) by Chemus: Requires the feat Aberration Banemagic, which has no prereqs but may or may not work with invocations (talk to your DM). The class itself is still open, even if you can’t get the +2d6 to aberrations, though, and is 10/10 spellcasting. Requires two cross-craft skills, as well (Gather Information 5 and Knowledge – Dungeoneering 8 )


Legacy Champion (Weapons of Legacy) by Thinblade: Legacy Champion is an odd duck. It’s a PrC that offers 8/10 advancement of your original class abilities. This is the only way to continue to advance things like your DR, fiendish resilience, or energy resistance as well as your invocations and blast. For pure blaster warlocks willing be a little cheesy (though completely RAW-legal), use Legacy Champion to advance Hellfire Warlock for truly awe-inspiring eldritch blasts (and 2 dark invocations). And this is in addition to all of the abilities tied to legacy items. Restriction: you must have a legacy item, so if they aren’t in your game, you’re out of luck.

Platinum Knight (Draconomicon) by Thinblade: One of the old-style gish PrC’s, Platinum Knight gives BAB +10 and 5/10 spellcasing. Of note is the 5th level ability which adds Cha bonus to saves (stacks with divine grace). It requires +5 BAB to enter, so a pure warlock would need to be level 7 to enter.

Sand Shaper (Sandstorm) by Tealgorthian: To me, the jury is still out on this one. It's 8/10 +1 spellcasting, but you don’t get many of the major class features of the PrC. Really, the only things you do get are Sandform, Sandstride (Improved) Sand Shape, Desert Slumber and Desert Shroud. The PrC is cool, and flavorful, but you want to get the best out of it, play a Sorcerer or Warmage.

Sentinel of Bharri (Book of Exalted Deeds) by Thinblade: Rangers, eat your heart out. The sentinel is a full casting PrC that gives a host of wilderness abilities (including Track, bonuses to Hide, and bear shape and summoning) and four energy resistances. The only problem is that you need Knowledge (nature) 8 and a couple of exalted feats. You can get around the skill problem with the feat Educated (FRCS/EbCS), but it doesn’t really fit thematically, and it means your early levels are feat-strapped. Still, it’s one of only two primary caster exalted PrC’s, and the easier to get into. See the builds section for an example.


Swanmay (Book of Exalted Deeds) by Thinblade: I knew if I looked hard enough I could find a use for Call of the Wild (CM), the invocation that grants wild empathy and speak with animals, and I finally have. The swanmay, a 9/10 spellcasting class that requires both. Unfortunately, it also requires two woodsy skills that the warlock doesn’t get, and one of them’s Survival, which means Education won’t help. A pure warlock won’t get in until level 14.


Talon of Tiamat (Draconomicon) by Thinblade: Talon of Tiamat is another 5/10 spellcasting PrC that’s easier to enter than Platinum Knight (any evil, +4 BAB, a feat, and ranks in three class skills), but it only gives medium BAB instead of PK’s good. In return, you get an increasingly powerful breath weapon, immunity to one energy type, frightful presence, and possibly your very own dragon (via dominate dragon). You also get a bonus to Bluff and Intimidate, which, combined with Beguiling Influence can lead to some really high scores. Not a bad bunch of abilities, if you don’t mind losing dark invocations.

Topaz Guardian (Lords of Madness) by Chemus: You have to be Chaotic Good, and it can’t be entered until 8th level (need BAB +5). It’s 3/5 spell progression, but +5 BAB (Warlock 15/TG 5 = BAB +16) with protecting aspects from the Topaz Diadem, so it might be useful for melee warlocks, especially glaivelocks.

Urban Savant (Cityscape, p. 100) by Thinblade, h/t Surreal
A 9/10 casting PrC that doesn’t lose a level until 10 (in exchange for an ability duplicated by a first level spell… ugh), you’re going to have to do some tap dancing to get in, as none of the four knowledge skills required are gained by the warlock. You’re going to want some combination of the following: able learner feat, educated feat, or the Paragnostic Apostle or Ruathar PrC’s. In return, you get a larger number of skill points and some archivist-like abilities to identify enemy weaknesses. Plus, you’re a walking library. Warlock 6/Paragnostic Apostle 5/Urban Savant 9 will have of ranks in seven different knowledge skills (Arcana, Religion, and Planes for PA, then Dungeoneering, Local, Nature, and History for UA).

Visionary Seeker (Planar Handbook) by Thinblade: Sure, a warlock can easily enter this class (all you need is Knowledge (any) 8 ), but why would you want to? It’s 5/10 spellcasting and you can’t make use of the divination boost. Spell mimic could be really cool (cast any spell you’ve seen in the past 24 hours, of a level up to your VS level), but you can’t use it very often.

Forgotten Realms Books

Crinti Shadow Marauder (Shining South) by Thinblade: One of the few PrC’s to give Shadow Pouncing (the ability to make a full attack after teleporting). See numerous shadow pounce builds scattered throughout the board for how deadly this can be. Doesn’t get the ability until the end of this 5 level class, and you need the feats Mounted Combat and Stealthy, and a whole host of cross-class skills. Oh, and by the way, you have to be half-drow (Crinti). You only need flee the scene if you want to shadow pounce off your horse.

Telflammar Shadowlord (Unapproachable East) by Thinblade: The other primary shadow pouncing PrC. Gets the ability at level 4, but requires Flee the Scene, multiclassing, and a bunch of feats. Shadow pounce just isn’t easy to get. See my treatise on building Nightcrawler in the Miscellany section for an example of shadow pouncing.

Eberron Books

Cyran Avenger (5 Nations) by Thinblade: A 4/5 spellcasting, +5 BAB class that gives some interesting options for a warlock. Avenging strike adds Cha to attack and 1d6 damage/Avenger level to anyone who’s attacked any member of your party (much like a paladin’s smite). At 3rd level you can apply it to your eldritch blast and go to town. This class gives you a reason to have a high Charisma, so also pick up invocations that have save DC’s as well. Probably requires multiclassing into ranger to pick up required BAB, Survival, and Track.


Escalation Mage (Faiths of Eberron) by widow: Two easy skill req's, one metamagic feat, caster level 5th, and you must worship the shadow (Eberron specific). It is 6 levels long and nets you a number of extend, empower, widen, quicken, and heighten spells or spell-like abilities a day. Also gives full caster progression.

Primal Scholar (Eberron: SoX) by Part-Human2 5 lvl PrC - full caster progression but requires Mysterious Magic feat, a Metamagic feat and 10 ranks in Knowledge (history) which are a waste to get.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:13:58 PM
Invocation Guide

Thinblade’s note: Invocations from Complete Arcane were written by Tealgorthian and are unmarked. Dragon Magic warlock (DM) and dragonfire adept (DA) invocations were written by cheezgrater. Complete Mage (CM) and Cityscape invocations were written by Richmud. Magic of Incarnum invocations written by FromTheShadows. Drow of the Underdark (DotU) invocations written by Lone Wolf.

cheezgrater’s note about Dragonfire Adept invocations: These invocations are originally intended for the Dragonfire Adept (which functions like a warlock with breath weapons instead of eldritch blast). Use of these would require DM permission. However, since a lot of draconic invocations duplicate or are comparable to warlock invocations, it should be fairly easy to convince your DM to allow some of these. I have only selected the extremely useful invocations that can be justified for flavor with the Warlock. (Terrifying Roar and Frightful Presence just don't work for flavor).

Eldritch Essences

Eldritch Essences, Least

 Frightful Blast: Handy for a low level VS will save, but the fact it doesn’t stack reduces it's viability quite a bit. If you take it at low levels, I'd suggest replacing it with something stronger ASAP.

 Hammer Blast (CM): You deal full damage to objects. Doesn't strike me as that necessary.

 Sickening Blast: I prefer this to Frightful Blast, but most monsters tend to have a better Fort save than Will, which, again, limits it's uses. Another one that needs to be replaced ASAP.

Eldritch Essences, Lesser

 Baneful Blast (CM): 2d6 extra vs. selected type. Unless you are in a campaign fighting a lot of SR free creatures of the same type, it’s not going to help you.

 Beshadowed Blast: Another Fort save Essences, and somewhat better than Sickening Blast. Blinding your enemy can be just as effective as Invisibility sometimes. A good low level power, but should be replaced.

 Brimstone Blast: Your first Ref save blast, and it's pretty crappy. It can be easily simulated with something like Alchemist's Fire. I'd only take this if you seem to be facing an abnormal amount of creatures that need fire.

 Deteriorating Blast (DM): Extremely useful against foes with DR. The ability to drop DR by 5 points can greatly shorten encounters.

 Hellrime Blast: The only stat affecting Essence, and it turns out to be a penalty instead of damage. Mediocre at best. I'd take Beshadowed Blast over this, they are both Fort targeting.

Eldritch Essences, Greater

 Bewitching Blast: Meh. I've never even considered taking this power. The duration is too short for me to consider. There are MUCH better Essences at this level you can take.

 Hindering Blast (CM): Save vs. slow, could be useful.

Incarnum Blast (Incarnum): The usefulness of this depends on how far your alignment varies from that of your enemies. If it doesn't, this invocation is useless. If it does, you have a source of dazing and possible bonus damage. Not exceptional, but not horrible.

 Noxious Blast: If you still have Sickening Blast, you should definitely dump it now, and take this power in it's place. This Invocation can take a monster out of the fight for 1 min. Awesome.

 Penetrating Blast (DM): A blaster's best friend +4 bonus on checks to beat SR, plus a hit drops the target's SR by 5. This makes high SR enemies much more manageable.

 Repelling Blast: A kind of middle of the road blast. I use it with things like Chilling Tentacles and Wall of Perilous Flame. If you want a straight blaster, look else where. If you are going for battlefeild control, this is the blast for you!

 Vitriolic Blast: The king of the Greater Essences, this is the -only- Essence that allows you to ignore SR, and is therefore a must have in my book. It makes you viable in combat against high SR monsters, and the ban of all casters, Golems.

Eldritch Essence, Dark

 Bind Blast (CM): Save vs. stun for 1 round. It seems too short to waste a dark invocation on.

 Utterdark Blast: My personal favorite blast, it's the only way a Warlock can deal negative levels. Given time, he can reduce even the most powerful enemy to almost nil. Seems to be the most effective when used with any of the AoE Shapes (Cone, Doom, and Chain)

Blast Shapes

Blast Shapes, Least

 Eldritch Glaive (DM): A must-have for any warlock that ever finds himself in melee; reach, iterative attacks, and attacks of opportunity with your eldritch blast make this invocation a no-brainer

 Eldritch Spear: The usefulness of this invocation varies greatly depending on the style of Warlock you wish to play. A long range sniper will get the most use, but remember that using this Shape denies you the use of higher level shapes. I have yet to take this ability.

 Hideous Blow: The primary shape of all Melee Warlocks [pre Dragon Magic], it can give the Warlock an almost-like Sneak Attack ability. Again, use varies on play style.

Blast Shapes, Lesser

 Eldritch Chain: Less useful than some other shapes, it can be used to Repel multiple targets, or issue multi-target debuffs, till you run out of Blast damage. My favorite combination is Chain + Utterdark Blast.

Blast Shapes, Greater

 Eldritch Cone: I find this to be the least useful of the AoE Shapes, but many, many others disagree with me. It offers one of the largest AoE effects, and doesn’t require the Ranged Touch attack. It does offer a Ref save for half damage. Could be useful with Fell Flight and fired from straight above.

 Eldritch Line (DM): Meh. Eldritch Blast as a line attack. In most situations Cone or Chain are going to be better.

Blast Shapes, Dark

 Eldritch Doom: This Shape puts the Warlock were he doesn’t really wanna be: in the middle of all the fighting. That's the only way it is effective. Melee Warlocks can find this power useful if they are surrounded. Combined with Repelling Blast, it can even the odds fairly quickly.

Least Invocations

All Seeing Eyes (CM): Search and spot bonus and comprehend language for written things. Not bad for a scouting/spying oriented warlock

Baleful Utterance: Unlimited Shatters as the spell. very very very useful.

Beguiling Influence: Will see the most use in Warlocks that want to make good negotiator. The use is limited because Diplomacy is not a class skill for Warlocks, sadly. If you add levels of a social class (Rogue, Bard) the usefulness of this Invocation increases.

Breath of the Night: I've not found a use for this Invocation yet. Fog Cloud can be a handy spell, but one that can be more easily duplicated with a magic item.

Call of the Beast (CM): Wild empathy and speak with animals, very nice for RP if you going for a fey flavored warlock. (See also note in Miscellany.)

Cocoon of refuse (Cityscape): Entangle a target while in a city, lasts 1 round/level or until they escape. Not a bad least if you remain in cities.

Dark One's Own Luck: A luck bonus to your saves based on your Charisma for 24 hours, but limited by your class level. It cant be used on more than 1 save at a time. That makes me less than excited about it.

Darkness: The 3.5 version of Darkness is pretty crappy. If you used the 3.0 version.. yeah, go for it.

Devil's Sight: When the Warlock was first introduced, there was a lot of excitement about this combined with Darkness, but it turns out that it isn’t all it's cracked up to be. There are better things to use your Invocation slots on.

Drain Incarnum (Incarnum) - Crap. Wow, you can do a single point of Wisdom or essentia damage and they get a save? Not worth it, even at lower levels. Easily one of the worst invocations published.

Earthen Grasp: Since the spell sucks, I think this invocation sucks too.

Endure Exposure (DA): Endure Elements could be very useful during planar travel or in harsh environments. One of the few buffs you could share with your party. (Ignore line regarding granting immunity to your breath weapon).

Entropic Warding: This Invocation is so good, I don’t know what else to say. 20% miss chance from ranged attacks, leaving no trail, cant be tracked by scent? Wow.

Leaps and Bounds: Might be good for multi-class Warlocks that get those skills on their list. Rogue and Monks come to mind immediately.

Miasmic Cloud: Easy to catch your allies inside, easily dispersed. Might make a good low level Invocation to swap out later

Otherworldly Whispers (CM): Bonuses on 3 kinds of knowledge checks(predetermined) Useful if you are expected to be the one making those knowledge checks.

See the Unseen: One of the best of the Least Invocations. 24 hour See Invisibility -and- Darkvision. I'll take two, and an order of fries.

Serpents Tongue (CM): You get scent and a bonus vs. poison, scent is useful to make this worthwhile

Soulreaving Aura (CM): You damage creatures that are at or below 0hp, the temp hp it provides when something dies only last for a round and that’s not enough to make it worthwhile.

Spiderwalk: A great power for those Warlocks seeking to enhance their mobility options, esp. in caves, buildings, and cities.

Summon Swarm: A decent low level power, the duration prevents you from summoning 400 Swarms.

Swimming the Styx (CM): You get a swim speed equal to land speed and can breath water. Useful in a campaign with a lot of water.

Lesser Invocations

Charm: Another solid invocation, this one can give you a temporary cohort. Can also be used to qualify for the Mindbender PrC

Cold Comfort (CM): Endure elements for you and everyone in 30ft, unusual for effecting allies. Good if the game is set in a harsh environment otherwise probably not a common enough need.

Crawling Eye (CM): You detach your eye and send it out to spy. It’s good for scouting and spying. It’s also creepy.

Curse of Despair: Not all that useful, since you need to be close enough to touch the target, but given that Bestow Curse can be a powerful ability, I say it depends on your Warlock-style.

The Dead Walk: If you use the black onyx you can create an undead army in a day. Even without the onyx, it is a good ability to make a quick zombie in the middle of combat. If you take Utterdark Blast, you can heal your undead minions. With Eldritch Chain you can heal multiple targets. With Eldritch Cone you can heal your undead while affecting your enemies.

Disembodied Hand (CM): You detach your hand and let it fly around. It can wield a weapon and get up into combat without endangering you as much, also good for delivering a touch spell. It’s more creepy then effective though.

Dread Seizure (DM): Hrmm...this invocation isn't bad, but there are several that are better. Half movement and reduced reach attacks are nice, but the duration is too short and you are too limited in invocation selection to waste time with this.

Enthralling Voice (DA): The ability to fascinate listeners can potentially be useful for a skill/talk oriented warlock. Not very useful in combat (at least, not very often).

Fell Flight: The crown jewel of Warlock mobility, the spell can give you flight you can turn on and off all day long. Awesome invocation

Flee the Scene: Another awesome mobility invocation. A good way to create confusion among your enemies. Too bad the range was shortened so much.

Humanoid Shape (DA) (TB): Humanoid shape, if allowed (it’s technically a Dragonfire Adept invocation), is easily one of the best lesser invocations ever printed. Assume the form of any humanoid creature. Become an avariel and fly faster than Fell Flight (though with average, not good, maneuverability). Use to get a large bonus on disguise checks anywhere. And it can also be used to enter the Warshaper prestige class.

Hungry Darkness: I'm not sure what the use of this Invocation is. It only lasts if you concentrate, and it's only Darkness with a bat swarm. Seems useless.

Ignore the Pyre (DM): Energy resistance equal to your caster level? Very useful (you can have resistance to three types between this invocation and your class features).

Mask of Flesh (CM): You take on the appearance of someone you touch, and can also give them a cha penalty. It’s interesting though quite limited.

Relentless Dispelling (CM): Targeted dispel two rounds in a row for just one standard action sounds like a deal.

Spider-shape (DotU): Lets you transform yourself into a fiendish spider of Small or Medium size. This is a polymorph effect, and the invocation scales as you gain levels, increasing the range of sizes you can assume. At 8th level, you add Large to list of possible sizes; at 11th, you add Tiny; at 15th, Huge; and at 20th level, Gargantuan. Lasts a number of hours equal to your caster level or until you choose to end it.

Steal Incarnum (Incarnum): Nothing fantastic, even if you're playing in an Incarnum-heavy game. If you aren't, avoid this invocation like the plague.

Stony Grasp: Just as useless as Earthen Grasp.

Sudden Swarm (DotU): Lasts 24 hours or until its effect is triggered. When you kill a creature with one of your invocations (including eldritch blast), a swarm of spiders bursts from the corpse. Has the statistics of a normal spider swarm, except it adds your warlock level to its hit points and the save DC for its poison. The swarm is under your mental control and fights as you direct it; commanding it is a free action. It lasts a number of rounds equal to your caster level or until it's destroyed. It can only take a standard action in the round it emerges, and you can only have one swarm in existence at a time; if you would create a second swarm, you can either choose to create the second one (the first disappears) or keep the first swarm and not create a second one.

Thief's bane (Cityscape): It’s hold portal, and if they manage to bypass it through knock or dispel magic the door explodes, probably not worth a lesser invocation.

Void Sense: Blindsense is a good ability, but I am not sure I would use an Invocation slot on it. Good candidate for the Extra Invocation feat.

Voracious Dispelling: Good Invocation. with a high spell craft, and a readied action, this Invocation could make a Warlock a good counterspeller. Note that the effectiveness decreases as your increase with level, much like the effectiveness of Dispel Magic diminishes.

Walk Unseen: I love this Invocation, but I never seen to have enough slots to take it. Who doesn’t want Invisibility at will?

Wall of Gloom: Not a very useful Wall Invocation, and there are much much better ones at this level you can take.

Weighty Utterance (DM): Flying foes can find their styles seriously hampered by this invocation. You can only drop foes a maximum of 40 feet (at level 20), and it can only prevent flight for a maximum of 1 round when you force an enemy to the ground, meaning that the utility of this invocation is nowhere near what it could be. Possibly consider other options.

Witchwood Step (CM): You get waterwalk and the ability to ignore undergrowth and rubble. Not bad, but not always worth the invocation slot.

Greater Invocations

Caustic Mire (CM): You make an area deal acid damage and increase fire damage. Could be good in combo with brimstone blast and chilling tentacles to keep people in the mire.

Chilling Tentacles: Awesome, awesome Invocation! This is one of the reasons Warlocks make such good battlefield controllers! Even if someone isn’t grappled, they still take cold damage.

Devil's whispers (Cityscape): Suggestion, after they perform the suggested action they must make another will save of believe it was their idea. Sounds like insidious fun to me.

Devour Magic: I actually find this Invocation less useful than it's lower counterpart, since it can only be used as a targeted dispel, and as a touch spell. Flexibility is just something a Warlock can’t give up.

Dragonward (DM): Great if there are a lot of dragon or dragonblood creatures in your campaign. Worse than useless otherwise.

Enervating Shadow: A decent Invocation, but one that requires close proximity again. The Str penalty is nice, but there are better places to spend a Greater Invocation.

Hellspawned Grace (CM): You turn into a hellcat but lose all your normal abilities. It lasts just long enough for one battle, so it could be useful.

Nightmares Made Real (CM): You create an area that grants concealment and damages people who don't make the save to disbelieve, but most interestingly you can hide in plain site within the area.

Painful Slumber of the Ages (CM): You put someone to sleep until they make a save or are disturbed. If disturbed they take damage. The damage is too low to really be useful but at least it makes them a little weaker if you have to wake them yourself.

Tenacious Plague: A good swarm summoning spell, if that is your thing. The DC boost, and ability to treat the swarm as magical weapons for overcoming DR is pretty good. The number of swarms you summon can be pretty sick too.

Wall of Perilous Flame: Another good battlefield control spell, made even better since half of the damage is not fire damage anymore.

Warlock's call: Uh. Sending isn’t that useful anyway, plus it can damage you. Sheer crap.

Dark Invocations

Caster's Lament (CM): You can counter spells of 7th or lower, you can also use break enchantment. Countering has potential but it gets stopped by the really powerful stuff.

Dark Discorporation: Why, oh why, would you take this? You can only take move actions! Blah! It basically negates your abilities to use Invocations at all. I'd rather not. I've been informed some people prefer this Invocation. Just goes to show you cant take -1- persons opinion as fact. There are instances where Swarm Traits and Immunities will be very useful, and the damage isn’t half bad. I prefer to have access to my Invocations and Eldritch Blast.

Dark Foresight: Eh, I wouldn’t take it. I've never found Foresight to be all that useful. The Telepathy picks up some of the slack, and is very useful for with the Charm use.

Energy Immunity (DA): Complete Immunity to an element is nothing to snarl at. Potentially very useful.

Fell (Draconic) Flight, Greater (DA): 30 foot faster fly speed than afforded by the lesser invocation version plus perfect maneuverability. Potentially useful if you find yourself wanting more airspeed.

Impenetrable Barrier (DM): Opaque walls of force. Great for battlefield control. Dangerous if it gets dispelled, though.

Incarnum Shroud (Incarnum): Not bad, but doesn't seem to be up to the standard of other Dark Invocations. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised to see this as a Lesser (or maybe Greater, but that's pushing it) Invocation due to the fact that this seems to be an only slightly improved version of Entropic Warding.

Instill Vulnerability (DA): Force energy vulnerability (150% Damage) on a foe (doesn't work on foes that are immune to that energy type). This can be very useful when coupled with an eldritch essence to deal energy damage. (Instill Vulnerability: Fire / Brimstone Blast)

Path of Shadow: The only long range teleportation spell a Warlock gets, and it appears you can take your party along with you. Nice ability.

Retributive Invisibility: Greater Invisibility at will, and it can damage everything around you if it is dispelled. Pretty good

Steal Summoning (CM): You take control of a summoned creature but in addition to being narrow it requires concentration and is probably not worth it as a dark.

Word of Changing: Probably the most hilarious ability the Warlock gets, the ability to permanently Baleful Polymorph an enemy is usually too much for me to pass up.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:14:36 PM
Epic Feats and Invocations by jameswilliamogle

 NOTE: Epic feats are only rated with * relative to each other; obviously, any of these would be better than the non-epic feats above.

Dark Transient: Teleportation and Plane Shift, improved. Not a bad feat, but there are better for an epic feat, and Shadow Walk can imitate what this feat provides, somewhat. The invocation prereq's are not unreasonable to obtain, but can almost do what the feat allows. Dedicated Arcane Spellcasters are how you travel, not the Warlock. **

Eldritch Sculptor: Use two eldritch blasts at double range with a +2 to hit still as a standard action, and can be combined w/ Master of Elements below. A great epic feat. Very reasonable prereq's, too. ****

Epic Eldritch Blast: Extra d6 damage with your blast. As everyone knows, HP expand much faster than CR. This is a feat to be taken only when you have a few of the others. *

Epic Extra Invocation: An extra Dark Invocation is great, but at Epic levels, you should have a fairly well defined invocation list. More useful to meet the prereq's for other Epic feats. ***

Epic Fiendish Resilience: An extra fast healing 5 each time you take the feat is ok, but you still can only use it once per day. I would take this feat over Epic Eldritch Blast, but not over many of the other Epic feats. It could be useful for Melee Warlocks, if you are doing that. *+1/2

Lord of All Essences: Double essences on your blasts. Another awesome feat, particularly if you built your Warlock to really focus on essences up to that point. Eldritch Sculptor is still better, but in certain builds this could be just as good. Easy Prereq's. ***+1/2

 Master of the Elements: Summoning is cool, and dominating elementals is cool, and extra energy resistance is cool, but I just don't think its as good as a few of the other feats. It makes for a nice filler feat, but I wouldn't take it unless you already had the 2 cruddy invocation prereq's. **

 Morpheme Savant: You get Tongues, a monster bonus from Beguiling Influence, and can use a Suggestion if you know the creature you are suggesting, and over any plane, with no limit on the amount of times you can use it (as normal) with reduced activation time. Think about it: every non-deific creature will roll a 1 eventually. Keep suggesting to that Efreeti the Wizard just gated that it grants you 3 wishes until it does. The last ability is worth it. You really only have to take 1 crappy invocation to get this. ****

Paragon Visionary: Its like permanent True Sight, but better. The invocations required aren't horrid, but the overall package is a little weak for Epic. ***

Shadowmaster: This is the OMG feat in epic. Its like gaining every 8th level and lower Conjuration spell as its own invocation. All the required Invocations are weak, but this feat makes up for it completely. *****+

 Souleater Incarnate: Combine with a bag of rats, and then animate them, and you can get ridiculous +X to saves and attacks. Since it seems the Incarnum invocations aren't that good, however, I'd say pass on this one except for in a few builds that actually are focused on Incarnum. Melee Warlocks may be able to get some really nice advantages out of this one, though. **

 Verminlord: You take Darkspeech (Hordes of the Abyss) and then focus on getting this feat. Dominate Monster (Vermin), makes your swarms pass up a little more DR (but not Epic DR), and increases the poison save for centipedes (which normal Warlocks can't usually get). Reasonable prereq invocations, too. Definitely not as powerful as Shadowmaster, All Essences, Morpheme, or Sculptor. ***

CONCLUSIONS: Get Shadowmaster, Morpheme Savant, Eldritch Sculptor, and Lord of All Essences, in that order of importance. Avoid Epic Fiendish Resilience and Epic Eldritch Blast. Take Epic Extra Invocation to meet the prereq's you don't have for Shadowmaster or Morpheme.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:15:42 PM
Miscellany

Warlock Level 1 by Lilt

I keep saying this on all warlock threads i see, and that's not just because I like to say it, but a level 1 warlock with the Summon Swarm power is GODLIKE compared to many other 1st level characters.

 Let's see:
 Spell-like ability, Standard action to cast unless stated otherwise
 1d6 base damage, not much to write home about
 No attack roll, Awesome when even your warrior hits less than half the time
 Area effect, Hit up-to 4 targets at once, more if they're small creatures
 Shapeable area, form it so that it doesn't hit you or your allies meat-shields
 Shortened duration, may seem a pain, but it prevents damage to allies meat-shields
 Distraction (DC 11-12 fort save or reduced to a move action) Awesome, even fighters have a good chance to fail
One of the following based on swarm:
 1 damage a round from bleeding (Always useful, hit them with it first)
 Poison DC11 or Str Damage (Hit them with it once they're bleeding)
Disease DC12 or Dex & Con Damage (Fun as a GM versus PCs!)

 Tactics:
 Round One: Hit them with a swarm of bats. All the ones you hit are now dead, they just don't know it yet.
 Round two: Dismiss the swarm, your meat shields can probably keep them from healing themselves, or just hit the BBEG with some spiders.

 OK, so you'll want to swap it out once you hit 6th level as it becomes less useful, but it is an AWESOME invocation for the first 2-4 levels as it usually out-damages your Eldritch Blast, is your only area effect ability, and has other effects.

Optimizing a warlock for damage by cheezegrater

 If you are going for a pure damage build, the best place to drop warlock appears to be after level 11. Before level 11, eldritch blast increases by 1d6 every other level. Past 11, it only increases every third level.

 Rogue gains 1d6 sneak attack every other level (Why couldn't they have done this for warlocks?)

 Warlock 11 / Rogue 9
 6d6 Eldritch Blast + 5d6 Sneak Attack = 11d6 damage
Add in 2d6 from Greater Chasuble = 13d6 damage

 Using the Eldritch Glaive blast shape from Dragon Magic
 3 attacks at 13d6 = 39d6 damage (Avg. 136.5) damage per round.

 Not too shabby, especially when you consider that he gets a greater essence, the ability to take 10 on UMD checks, some of the better rogue class features (evasion anyone?) and a goodly number of skill points.

 I'm sure we could figure out how to pump the damage beyond this point, but for a simple and effective build, this makes a good starting point.

Dipping into Incarnate for Hellfire Warlock builds by Grave

 For 2 levels of Incarnate you can:

 Shape 3 soulmelds (and get 2 essentia) and bind one to the crown. Strongheart Vest is superior to Naberious (sp?) bind in that it reduces any ability damage by 1 (or more depending on invested essentia) when it occurs. Among other things, this allows you to make use of Hellfire more than once per round without worrying about accumulation of Con damage as the bind only heals 1 pt. per round irregardless of the damage taken. This is important for those builds throwing out Quickened EB's and those that want to make use of the Hellfire Shield.

 This still leaves you two slots of shaping and incarnates do have a very useful list of soulmelds to choose from. For example, Planar Ward makes you immune to possession, Enchantment (charm), and Enchantment (compulsion). Personally, I think that alone is worth it.

 Crystal Helm gives you +2 Will v. mind-affecting (not too important), and gives a deflection bonus equal to essentia invested (remember those 2 points you get automatically). This is very nice at the lower levels when Rings of Protection are so pricey. When you bind Crystal Helm to your Crown Chakra, all your melee attacks have the force descriptor for damage. This nice against incorporeal foes with Eldritch Glaive, but the real kicker is that Crystal Helm + Eldritch Glaive + Vitriolic Blast = attack that bypasses SR and is force, so nothing has either resistance or immunity to it (in your face Flesh Golem).

 Impulse Boots are great to have as they give you Uncanny Dodge.

 Pauldrons of Health can be useful in certain campaigns as they make a character immune to all disease and being nauseated or sickened. In addition, it offers an enhancement bonus to Fort. equal to essentia invested.

 And the list goes on.

 The best part is that you can choose which soulmelds are shaped at the start of every day and they last for as long you have them shaped which translates to a much needed increase in versatility that any Warlock build could use.

 2 levels only lose you 1 point of BAB and net a +3 to Fort and Will, and while 2 + Int skills is paltry (you're a Warlock, you should be used to it), it does have Concentration, all the useful knowledge skills (such as arcana), and Spellcraft which tend to be prereq's for many Warlock available PrC's on its class list.

 Quite frankly, I think that's a lot for just two levels. Granted, Binders are also very versatile, but as a class to dip for Hellfire Builds, I think Incarnate is superior as it still retains its versatility without having to worry about losing the one reason you took it: the ability to negate the Con damage. For a binder, they have to stick the Naberious bind or lose their Ability Point regeneration.

 -Grave & Co.

Using Bloodlines/Legacy Champion/Uncanny Trickster to Increase Eldritch Blast Damage by Thinblade

This somewhat controversial trick doesn't work with a normal warlock, it's used in concert with Hellfire Warlock's Hellfire Blast.

 Hellfire Warlock gains +2d6 hellfire blast every level, over the course of three levels. Bloodline levels count as a level for any level-dependent class abilities (like monk stunning fist). It has therefore been argued that 3 bloodline levels would give Hellfire Warlock a "virtual" boost of three levels. You wouldn't gain any other kind of ability (since Hellfire Warlockdoesn't have any past level 3), but you would continue to gain +2d6 hellfire blast for each level above 3.

 The other way to boost hellfire blast is through the PrC's Uncanny Trickster and Legendary Champion. Both classes advance another class's abilities, instead of just advancing spellcasting. Again, it has been argued that you could use either to boost hellfire blast "through the roof" by applying those virtual levels to hellfire warlock, instead of normal warlock. The advantage of this over bloodlines is that you still gain all the niceties of actual class levels (like hit points, skills, and invocations) in addition to your blast.

 CustServ, it should be noted, has ruled in both directions multiple times, which really means it's down to your DM. Come up with a compelling argument and go for it. Both ways have disadvantages (losing three levels of hit points and invocations for bloodlines, and losing casting levels with the PrC's), so it's not entirely in one way.

 Making Nightcrawler by Thinblade

A common request on the CO boards is help in creating a D&D equivalent of a character from some other area of fiction. We’ve seen Final Fantasy Dragoons, Sonic the Hedgehog, a rather scary Jean Grey telekineticist, and plenty of others. Recently, I gave a lot of thought to creating a version of Nightcrawler using warlock in response to just such a request, and I figured I’d share.

Warlock is actually a good choice to base a Nightcrawler build upon, since you can get unlimited dimension doors a day, allowing you to bamf around the battlefield at will, and the class’s flavor has the same dark feel as the inhuman-looking mutant. However, since invocations are standard actions, you’re forced to bamf, then wait until next turn to attack. Not very cool.

Enter the Forgotten Realms (for its last few months of existence) and the PrC ability shadow pounce: the ability to make a full attack after the conclusion of any teleportation. Now we’re talking. Alternately, you can take one level of monk and the Sun School tactical feat in Complete Warrior, but that only gives one attack after teleporting, and therefore isn’t as cool. On to shadow pouncing.

Of the two PrC’s that offer shadow pouncing (Crinti Shadow Marauder [Shining South] and Telflammar Shadowlord [Unapproachable East]), the Shadowlord gives it a level earlier, at 4th. Unfortunately, the entry requirements are brutal:


Ouch. Obviously, we’re going to need to multiclass, and there are two main options: thief or ninja 3 or swordsage 2. Thief gets you evasion, ninja gets you poison use and limited invisibilty, but requires a higher Wisdon. Scout, unfortunately, doesn’t get +2d6 skirmish until later.

Swordsage gets sneak attack through the shadow hand stance Assassin’s Stance (so make sure you’re DM’s okay with that way of qualifying). If you split the levels of swordsage around those of warlock, you can end up getting in with just Swordsage 2.

Finally, if you want to get in by level 8-9, you need to play a race with a bonus feat: human, strongheart halfling, azurin, etc. Almost all of your feats will be used for Shadowlord entry requirements, and the one you have free should be Quicken SLA: Flee the Scene to get two full attacks in a turn. If you want others (two recommended are able learning and the eldritch claw feat from Dragon Magic), you’ll need to pick up some flaws from Unearthed Arcana.

So your two basic Nightcrawler bases look like this:
or

X can be a lot of things. For this guide I’m going to assume you want to continue to advance warlock invocations. If you’re not, find some +1 BAB prestige class that looks interesting. If you are, a couple of PrC’s are interesting. Divine Oracle doesn’t give much in the way of BAB, but does have some nice defensive class features. Since you have SA dice (one way or another) and limited spellcasting from SL, you can also go into Unseen Seer, though you’ll have to use two of your three least invocations for the required divinations. The Child of Night PrC from Tome of Magic is a great atmospheric choice, advancing the shadowy nature of the character already established by the Shadowlord.

If you got into TS through swordsage, you’re in the rare position of being a warlock that can enter Jade Phoenix Mage. Use your limited list of second level spells to enter, and apply the JPM advances to warlock, and bask in the fact that it’s a +1 BAB class. JPM opens up several really nice higher-level maneuvers, including a counter that teleports you when attacked (setting off shadow pouncing again), and two boosts that add fire damage to your attacks.

Finally, if you have Tome of Battle, you should (regardless of path) pick up the maneuver shadow stride through the Martial Study feat. This allows you to shadow pounce twice in a round (three times if you quicken FtS as well). Get it at level 15 with JPM, level 18 without.

Here are two versions of Nightcrawler, one using ToB, the other not. Both are assumed to be humans, without flaws.

“Nightcrawler”
[spoiler] Human Rogue 3/Warlock 6/Telflammar Shadowlord 4/Child of Night 7

Rogue 1: Trapfinding, SA +1d6, Dodge, Mobility
Rogue 2: Evasion
Warlock 1: Least invocation, Blind fight
Warlock 2: Least invocation, Detect Magic
Warlock 3: DR 1/cold iron
Warlock 4: Darkness, Decieve Item, Spring Attack
Warlock 5:
Warlock 6: Flee the Scene
Rogue 3: SA +2d6, Trapsense +1, Quicken: Flee the Scene
Telflammar Shadowlord 1: Shadowsight, shadow jump
Telflammar Shadowlord 2: Shadow blur
Telflammar Shadowlord 3: Shadow walk, Feat
Telflammar Shadowlord 4: Shadow pounce
Child of Night 1: Cloak of Shadows, cold resistance 5
Child of Night 2: Sustaining shadow (eat 1 meal/week), Feat
Child of Night 3: Dancing shadows 1/day
Child of Night 4: Cloak of shadows (blur 1/day) sustaining shadow (sleep 1 hour/day)
Child of Night 5: Cold resistance 10, Feat
Child of Night 6: Cloak of shadows (blur 3/day), sustaining shadow (immune to poison/disease)
Child of Night 7: Dancing shadows 2/day

BAB 13; F/R/W: 6/11/12; Casts as Warlock 12 (6d6 blast, 1 Greater invocation)[/spoiler]
“Phoenix Nightcrawler” (ToB)
[spoiler]Human Swordsage 1/ Warlock 6/SS +1/Telflammar Shadowlord 4/JPM 8

Swordsage 1: Quick to Act +1, discipline focus (weapon focus), Cloak of Deception, 5 others, Dodge, Mobility
Warlock 1: Least invocation,
Warlock 2: Least invocation, Detect Magic, Blind fight
Warlock 3: DR 1/cold iron
Warlock 4: Least Invocation, Decieve Item
Warlock 5: Spring Attack
Warlock 6: Flee the Scene
Swordsage 2: AC bonus, Assassin’s Stance, 1 maneuver (3rd)
Telflammar Shadowlord 1: Shadowsight, shadow jump, Quicken: Flee the Scene
Telflammar Shadowlord 2: Shadow blur
Telflammar Shadowlord 3: Shadow walk
Telflammar Shadowlord 4: Shadow pounce, Adaptive Style
JPM 1: +1 Man. known (4th) (Searing Blade), arcane wrath, rite of waking
JPM 2: Mystic phoenix stance
JPM 3: +1 Man. known (5th) (Leaping Flame), +1 Man. readied, Shadow Stride
JPM 4: Empowering strike
JPM 5: +1 Man. known (6th) (Rallying Strike), +1 stance
JPM 6: +1 Man. readied, Firebird stance, Jade Phoenix master, Feat
JPM 7: +1 Man. known (7th) (Inferno Blade)
JPM 8: Quickening strike

BAB 16; F/R/W: 9/11/11; Casts as Warlock 12 (6d6 blast, 1 Greater invocation)[/spoiler]
Thoughts on Tome of Battle’s influence on warlocks by Lilt

Good question, although aside from using generally overpowered abilities or counters to boost defense then I think that the answer is "probably not".

 Warlocks don't get the requirements for the only arcane casting PrC of the book, Jade Phoenix Mage, meaning that although the requirements could be grabbed with a dip into another class, it's probably not worth it. Combine this with the fact that they don't get to use the auto-quicken ability (it only works on a spell, not a spell-like), I don't think it's worth it.

 Maneuvers generally aren't compatible with the warlock's main source of damage, eldritch blast.

 Some of the counters and boosts could be very useful combined with the warlock's abilities, but as most of the useful counters and boosts are higher level you're stuck with having to know useless strikes in-order to get them. Still, anyone can benefit from white raven tactics.

 Stances can be useful for anyone, and the +2d6 sneak attack of Assassin’s Stance could be very useful for a warlock who's able to stay invisible all the time. Available through 2 feats by level 12 or a 1-level dip into swordsage at level 9.

 Generally, although it adds more options for feats, I don't think there's that much opportunity for synergy.

The value of becoming an apprentice: by Thinblade

Ok, let’s admit it: the d20 system forces us to plan our entire character path at the very beginning. If it didn’t, the CharOp boards wouldn’t exist (or, at least, would be very different). And one of the problems with this is you too-often run into problems getting into the prestige classes you want.

Enter Apprentice, a wonderful feat from the Dungeon Master’s Guide II. It’s first-level only, but adds two skills to your class list permanently, and gives you two skill points to spend on them (check with your DM to see if you continue to gain those skill points past level 1), as well as a bonus associated with the skill.

This suddenly makes formerly hard-to-enter PrC’s much easier. Examples of mentors and the PrC’s they help with are: Entertainer (Virtuoso), Philosopher or Spellcaster (Keeper of the Cerulean Sign), and Woodsman (Cyran Avenger, Sentinal of Bharri, Swanmay).

The drawback is that you need to spend 8 hours each week with your mentor, which can make adventuring hard, and you need to tithe 100 gp to him/her each level.

Once you reach level 5, though, things become more interesting. You graduate, don’t need to tithe or work with your mentor, and can turn your Apprentice feat into the Mentor feat, which gets you a 1st level apprentice you design. Your apprentice needs 8 hours of training a week, doesn’t adventure, and gains a level each time you do. When they get to level 5 (your level 10), they graduate and become a cohort. So you essentially get the Leadership feat for a 1st level feat, provided you’re willing to put in the work (pun intended) over ten levels.

Itemization for a Warlock... by cheezgrater

 If I don't list a sourcebook, then it is straight out of the 3.5DMG

 Chasuble of Fell Power - boosts damage from your eldritch blast. Buy this. (Complete Arcane)

 Warlock's Sceptre - Gives you +2 to hit with ranged touch attacks, and by spending charges you can boost your eldritch blast damage. (Complete Arcane)

 Cloak of Charisma - Useful instant boost to your save DCs if you use a lot of save-based invocations

 Gloves of Dexterity - Useful for blaster locks and meleelocks that rely on weapon finesse.

 Boots of Elvenkind - Warlocks get invisibility invocations. Move silently bonuses can't hurt for those times when sneakiness is the order of the day.

 Mithral Full-Plate - with the Battlecaster and Medium Armor Proficiency feats, you can get a really nice AC for your warlock, with no spell failure chance. Enchant this for even better armor.

 Belt of Magnificence - Expensive as all get-out, but boosts all 6 stats while taking up only one slot. IIRC, it's 200,000gp for the +6 version, but +6 to every stat is really nice. (Miniatures handbook)

 Cloak of Displacement, Minor - all attacks against you have a 20% miss chance. Pretty nice, especially for those warlocks that like to get into melee. This can serve as a replacement for the Entropic Warding invocation (and the item is better since it also works on melee attacks), except that it doesn't make you untrackable

 Pale Green Ioun Stone - +1 on attack rolls, saves, skill checks, and ability checks that doesn't require an item slot? Yes, Please!

 Orange Ioun Stone - +1 caster level, slotless. Won't give you extra invocations or boost Eldritch Blast damage, but can be useful if you see many enemies with spell resistance.

 Manuals and Tomes - +5 inherent bonuses to Dex and Charisma are really nice for a blaster. Con is also nice for a melee lock What more needs to be said? You may also want to consider other books if you have money to burn. Beefing up stats is rarely a bad thing.

 Horizon Goggles by FromTheShadows - I'm surprised nobody really noticed the Horizon Goggles in Complete Mage. For a mere 8,000 gp, you get extra range on your blast or invocations as long as they happen to be in a form that uses a ranged attack roll.

 Codex Advocare by Tweedledope - Ya'll don't forget the Codex Advocare from the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. It might seem minor but, for 20k it gives you an extra Least invocation known. Sure beats wastin' a feat.

Thoughts on Call of the Beast by Thinblade

This invocation gives wild empathy, the druid/ranger class feature, and the spell speak with animals. It’s notable because it gives a class feature and not just a spell or ability, and can therefore be used to get into PrC’s that would otherwise be unavailable. So far, the only such class in Swanmay, from the Book of Exalted Deeds.

Alternate Class Features
Fiendish Flamewreath (PHB II) by Lone Wolf: A replacement for fiendish resilience. Starting at 8th level, 1/day you can immolate yourself in wispy flames that don't hurt you or your gear, but deal 1d6 points of fire damage to any creature that strikes you with its body (I assume this means a natural weapon) or a hand-held weapon. Creatures using reach weapons are not subject to this damage if they attack you. Using the ability is a free action, and it lasts 2 minutes or until you take another free action to end it. The flames provide light equivalent to a torch, but can't be extinguished except by you. This is a supernatural ability. At level 13, the damage done increases to 2d6 points of fire damage. At level 18, it increases to 5d6.

Venomous Blood (Drow of the Underdark) by Lone Wolf: This replaces your Fiendish Resilience at 8th level, and offers a +5 bonus on saves vs. poison; at 13th level, it turns your blood into a poison that affects any creature that bites you or swallows you whole (contact; Fort save DC 10 + 1/2 your warlock level + Cha modifier; 1d3 Str/1d3 Str); and finally at 18th level, allows you to envenom a weapon or your eldritch blast 3/day, with the poison dealing 1d6 Str instead of 1d3. The poison lasts until you make an attack with the weapon or eldritch blast or until the start of your next turn. Does not prevent you from applying blast shape or eldritch essence invocations to your eldritch blast.

Simple Warlock Trick - Wall of Gloom, by Tleilaxu_Ghola:
"LoSing" Enemies from Allies: Our DM made some wicked charge monsters. Nothing put the kibosh on a charging monster more than this stupid spell. Simply drop the wall in between your party member and the charging monster. The monster will be unable to target your friend, making it impossible for them to charge. To wit:

If you don't have line of sight to the opponent at the start of your turn, you can't charge that opponent.

If you cannot see the target (for instance, if you're blind or the target is invisible), you can't have line of sight to it even if you could draw an unblocked line between your space and the target's.

It's also a great way to prevent casters from nuking your allies without wasting a move action. Simply sit back, and ready actions to cast another wall of gloom when they finish their move, but before they cast. Even if they move through the wall, you can set up another one in between them and they'll lose LoS, provided they don't appear adjacent to their target (most casters want a bit of space while casting to avoid AoOs).
[/list]
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:16:16 PM
Warlock Feats

Many, many thanks to jameswilliamogle for writing this section. Additions were made by Agent Rasp, and are marked with [AR]. I've added a few feats as well, and those are marked by [TB].

Books not in this list: Dragon Magic, Races of the Dragon, Magic of Incarnum, Sandstorm, Frostburn, Complete Psionic, Heroes of Battle, and possibly a few others (so others can jump in and continue).

 Core Feats:

Ability Focus: Eldritch Blast: This is a great filler feat for later levels, when the Warlock gets access to Utterdark Blast in particular. Its worth taking earlier if you focus all your invocations as essences. ***

Apprentice [TB] (DMG II): A great feat to get into PrC’s with difficult skill requirements, Apprentice is a first-level-only feat can eventually morph into Leadership, but it requires the DM’s blessing and a lot of work (pun intended). Grants extra skill points, makes cross-class skills class skills, and grants a variety of special bonuses depending on the mentor. I’ve included a larger write-up in the Miscellany section. **/*****

Combat Casting [AR]: Some help when casting defensively, but invocations have somatic components and thus can't be attempted in a grapple anyway. High Constitution gives you at least this good a bonus, plus a nice crop of hit points and improved Fortitude, freeing up another feat in the process. Keep up your ranks in Concentration and you'll be fine. *

Combat Expertise [AR]: Only really useful for melee-locks, and then only at higher levels or when multiclassed for better BAB. The Int requirement may be a slight problem, depending on how you roll or buy; personally, I'm too much of a skill freak to ever play a 2 + Int class without taking Int 14 (and usually human, too). * / *** (melee-locks)

Combat Reflexes [AR]: The advent of eldritch glaive may give some potential to this feat, especially for a melee-lock with good Dexterity; I've got a mental image of Morthos facing a line of armored bruisers and going all Tao Ren as they move in, using a repelling glaive to knock 'em flying and avoid being ground to manburgers next round. However, without Dragon Magic, I'm unclear on the mechanics of the invocation. For warlocks without glaive, the feat isn't worth it. * / ?

Empower Spell-Like Ability: I'd only take this if there was absolutely no time for crafting, as the Warlock is very tight on feats. It still can add some ok damage, though. **

Flyby Attack: Your invocations and blast takes a standard action to activate, and thus Spring Attack, Shot on the Run, and Ride by Attack won't work with them. Flyby Attack allows you to make a standard action as part of a flying move action, allowing every invocation, blast, and any other standard action, and has no other feat prerequisites. You need to pick up the Fell Flight invocation, or have a flight speed by virtue of race or template (Avorial, Dragonborn, etc).
 NOTE: Some DM's won't allow you to take this feat because it isn't in the Player's Hanbook, but the Monster Manual is a core book: ask the DM if they'd allow a high level Wizard to take Craft Construct in return. They'll then counter with "you don't have a fly speed all the time" to which you reply "its 24/7!!" and then throw some Cheetos and cans of soda at him. Then find another group. I'd rate this feat higher than Precise Shot even, it's the best you can get. *****+

Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes [AR]: Somewhat useful at low levels to bolster your poor Fort and Ref saves, but your Con and Dex should be above-average to high anyway, and items outstrip the feats. Dark one's own luck is a better long-term investment. *

Improved Critical (eldritch blast) [AR]: Blast-oriented 'locks should take this feat ASAP (you qualify at 11th level), and others should strongly consider it. It doubles your chances to crit, it applies to all flavors and most forms of eldritch blast (except for cone, doom, and likely line), and you can use it from sunrise to sunset. ****

Improved Feint [AR]: With high Charisma, Bluff as a class skill, and the possibility of a bonus from beguiling influence, melee-locks trying to land a hideous blow can get some use out of this feat when facing high-Dexterity opponents. It might also be useful combined with eldritch glaive, which I gather is a melee touch attack, but touch ACs aren't usually very high to begin with, and a warlock already stands a good chance of hitting even if not optimized. Doesn't really seem worth the trouble. **

Improved Initiative: This is good on every character, but unless you plan on multiclassing with Rogue or a Rogue-like class, I wouldn't waste the feat slot on it. ***

Improved Precise Shot:   By the time you can take this, you could choose other feats, and your blasts are starting to lose some effectiveness. The concealment reroll ability is nicer than the cover. **

Improved Sunder: Melee Warlocks could take this along with the Hammer Blast Invocation. You can do some serious sundering when you need to. The feat itself is more useful as a prelude to Combat Brute. **

Leadership:   It’s the most overpowered feat in the game, but even then, you might not want to take it, simply b/c it adds more complexity than you want (one optimized character is enough to handle, for me). An artificer buddy is my favorite cohort (and that’s for every non-artificer character I take). * to ******, depending on how you design the cohort.

Point Blank Shot: Mainly useful as a prerequisite for Precise Shot, it gives a +1 to hit and damage when within 30' (Complete Arcane is the source for using feats for Weapon-like effects). Without an item to increase your range, every Blast will have the added damage. ****

Power Attack: You can apply the damage from Power Attack to Eldritch Glaive. That includes damage from Leap Attack, too. This is a must have for any Melee Warlock, along with Quicken SLA: Eldritch Glaive (which you use at the end of your charge). The feat is also useful as a prelude to Shocktrooper (although the feat isn’t as necessary with touch attack rolls only). ****

Precise Shot: Every time you use Eldritch Blast on an enemy that doesn't die right away you'll have to fire into combat. *****

Quicken Spell-Like Ability: Can be used w/ Flee the Scene to great effect as an exit strategy, but also works well as the Teflammar Shadowlord Prestige Class Prerequisite. Also great to use with Eldritch Glaive, as it grants 2 full attacks using that invocation in a single round. Other than these specific invocations, the utility isn't quite as good. ****

Skill Focus: UMD: Don't take it on a Warlock; by the time you can create items, your UMD check should be high enough, and the ability to take 10 mitigates low rolls. 0

Spell Penetration [AR]: A build with uninterrupted caster level progression can get by (especially if you take penetrating blast), but if you've taken levels in non-caster classes, consider this feat to make up some of the difference against spell resistant foes. Greater Spell Penetration might be a bit much, unless you took a big hit on caster levels or the DM favors massive SR monsters. ***

Weapon Focus: Ray: Generally not worth the spent feat, this might be useful as a prerequisite for other feat or Prestige Classes. *

Psionic Feats:

Psionic Shot:   The basis for most blast-based builds. This is the crown jewel that's used over and over in many builds. It expends your psionic focus, so you'll need to take Psionic Meditation below to be able to use it every round. ****

Greater Psionic Shot: Adds more damage to Psionic Shot, but since it takes up another feat slot, not quite as good. ***

Psionic Meditation:   Needed by most characters taking Psionic Shot to refocus as a move action. Useful only to these characters. ****

Wild Talent:   Necessary in many builds to generate the prereq for Psionic Shot, but also can meet the prereq for Thrallherd if you want to use the sacrificial rules from BoVD to make items. Its useless to anyone else that doesn't use either of these. **

Mind Over Body: Only useful for Warlocks that want to take Darkspeech for turning their Summoned Swarms into Hive Minds, and only mildly useful for that (a level of Binder or becoming Undead works much better). *

Psionic Weapon, Greater Psionic Weapon:   Similar to Psionic Shot, but is only remotely useful to melee-Warlock builds. Since you have to expend your focus every time you use it, you'll never get a full round of attacks out of it (past 5th level, of course). Not worth the feat slots. *

Item Creation:

The Warlock gets the ability to create any item that they have the item creation feat with a UMD check. If you plan on making any items when you get the ability, its always better to take Able Learner at 1st level and dip 2 levels of Chameleon, as the 2nd level ability grants any feat you meet the prereq's for 24 hours. If you can't take Chameleon due to the campaign, then here's a quick ranking of the PHB item creation feats:

Brew Potion:   Buy them, don't make them. 1/2*

Craft Magic Arms And Armor:   You can wear light armor, after all, and the tank will love you, but generally not as synergistic as the other crafting feats. **

  Craft Rod:   Not good enough for a feat, but worth it if you burn through Warlock's Scepters often. *+1/2

  Craft Staff:   They need to hold at least 2 spells, and many DMs don't allow custom staffs. Even then the fire staff is still cheap for what it does. Add a few 0 level spells along with the real spell you want to keep the cost low for custom staffs. Staffs in general are better than Wands as you can use your Cha to boost the DC. *** without custom staffs, **** with custom staffs

  Craft Wand:   By the time you can make them, they're losing utility. Slightly better than Craft Staff if custom staffs aren't allowed. Don't make wands for blasting for yourself: you've got Eldritch Blast. Instead, make useful utility wands. ***+1/2

  Craft Wondrous Item:   Always decent, but many items are cheap enough to buy. ***+1/2

  Forge Ring:   Better if you can make custom rings, but usually still sucks. * with custom rings, otherwise 1/2*

Scribe Scroll:   A good feat to have, even with Chameleon, as it allows you to scribe any spell in the game in an emergency. ****+1/2

Craft Construct:   A Warlock with a bunch of crafting Homonculi and Golems would make for an interesting character, but its just not worth the feat prerequisites to get this. *

Craft Contingent Spell (CArc):   Its good on normal casters, so why wouldn’t it work here? There’s nothing like having a Divine Power saved for the first time you enter combat to really kick arse. ***

Craft Rune Circle:   I find the Rune Circles a little expensive to make. Still, there’s some abuses for it. I rate this about equal with Craft Arms and Armor. **

Dual Wand Wielder (CArc):   It’s got a bad prereq for Warlocks, although they usually can meet it. You don’t want to rely this heavily on Wands. *

Reckless Wand Wielder (CArc), Wand Mastery (Eb):   You don’t want to rely this much on wands. Just wait until you can make staffs instead. *

Magical Artisan, Legendary Artisan, Extraordinary Artisan:   These feats are just nominally approved on Artificers, so why would you take them? **

Feats from Lords of Madness:

Aberration Banemagic [TB]: Highly campaign specific and requires DM permission since it doesn’t mention invocations, this can be an AWESOME feat if you’re fighting aberrations with anything like regularity. +2d6 damage and +2 DC with ALL invocations whenever used against aberrations. Stacks with anything else that increases damage or DC, like Vitriolic Blast (though obviously not Moralbane). Especially useful with area effects, like Chilling Tentacles. ** / ***** (depending on how often you fight aberrations)

Aberration Blood [Aberrant]* [AR]: The "gateway" Aberrant feat. On its own, it's Skill Focus with an associated deformity, and not really much use to a warlock. Skip it unless you intend to take more Aberrant feats. *

Bestial Hide [Aberrant] [AR]: The fact that the natural armor bonus increases as you take more Aberrant feats is nice, but it costs too much for a warlock to find useful. *

Deepspawn [Aberrant] [AR]: Yay, tentacles! But seriously, three feats for two low-damage tentacle attacks and a small grapple bonus is so-so at best; you're better off with chilling tentacles. ** / **** (if you like tentacles)

Durable Form [Aberrant] [AR]: Gaining extra hit points as you take more Aberrant feats isn't a bad deal, but Improved Toughness is worth more in the long run. **

Inhuman Reach [Aberrant] [AR]: Eldritch blast and eldritch glaive are vastly better ways to reach out and touch somebody. 0

Inhuman Vision [Aberrant] [AR]: All-seeing eyes beats the heck out of the Spot bonus; ditto for devil's sight or see the unseen and the short-range darkvision. 0

Parrying Shield [AR]: No help for warlocks unless they've gained shield proficiency, but VERY useful for characters with a good shield bonus and poor touch AC. 0 for normal warlock / **** if you can use a shield

Quick Recovery [AR]: The ability to throw off stunning and dazing effects is very nice, especially since you can try to shake off effects that didn't allow a save when they occurred. ****

Scavenging Gullet [Aberrant] [AR]: The bonus vs ingested poisons and diseases is appropriate for the (ahem) flavor of the feat, but I've never been in a situation where it would have helped. *

Starspawn [Aberrant] [AR]: Limited flight, minor cold resistance, and immunity to some conditions caused by high altitude is a so-so bonus for having to give up three feats. Fell flight is better. *

Warped Mind [Aberrant] [AR]: The Force of Personality feat from Complete Adventurer gives you the same sort of bonus on Will saves, but more of it, and all up-front. Extra psionic power points are pointless for a warlock. 0

Waterspawn [Aberrant] [AR]: Swimming the Styx will give you all the benefits of this feat except for the slight cold resistance. 0

 * The Aberrant feats work best if you take them for thematic reasons rather than mechanical ones. Although intended to reflect a character's (distant) aberration ancestry, they could be used to show a fiendish origin instead.

Feats from Heroes of Horror

Blood Calls to Blood [AR]: This fiend-focused feat is right up the warlock's alley in terms of flavor and function; the only catch is deciding whether or not warlocks qualify as spontaneous arcane spellcasters. If you're in a fiend-heavy campaign, see if you can get the DM to fudge the prereqs a bit. ****

Debilitating Strike [Tainted]* [AR]: This one could be useful for a melee-lock who wants to maul good outsiders and other DR/evil opponents. The ability to damage Constitution and/or Wisdom is nice, too, but the limited uses per day could be a serious hindrance, if they apply to the entire feat and not just the ability damage. ***

Disease Immunity [AR]: If your DM likes biowarfare and cure disease is scarce, this feat can help you and your entire party. Taking it more than once would be overdoing it, though. **

Dreamtelling [AR]: This feat is useless unless the DM has introduced a "dream world" into the campaign. If that's the case, it's handy for dealing with the related weirdness, especially since Knowledge (the planes) is a class skill for warlocks. Not the greatest warlock feat overall, however. 0 or ***

Font of Life [AR]: If energy-draining enemies are anything like common in your campaign world, take this feat. The ability to shrug off a negative level the moment you get it is godly. *****

Lunatic Insight [Tainted]* [AR]: Use all Knowledge skills untrained, plus get a modest initiative bonus and a save bonus vs mind-affecting effects. Not bad. ***

Master of Knowledge [AR]: A flat bonus to all Knowledge checks. Not really that good unless you can use all the Knowledge skills. **

Pure Soul* [AR]: A nice way to avoid physical degeneration and insanity without paying for magical treatment. True, a warlock in a horror campaign should be the one most susceptible to the effects of taint, but the idea of the opposite being true -that the cleric and paladin fall prey to ever-increasing corruption and depravity while the warlock remains unaffected- is darkly amusing. *****

Spirit Sense [AR]: You see dead people. Cheap movie references aside, the bonus to Spot incorporeal creatures is somewhat useful; last I checked, however, such beasties were silent unless they wanted to be heard, making Listen checks (and bonuses thereof) rather irrelevant. The short time-frame for seeing recently dead spirits seems kind of useless too. **

Surge of Malevolence [Tainted]* [AR]: This is like a variant of action points, and it only gets more effective as you turn more corrupt or depraved. Too bad it's only once per day. **

Tainted Fury [Tainted]* [AR]: Gain extra hit points, make a smite attack, and risk Con damage at the end of the rage-like period. A warlock can find use for this feat whether he favors melee or has been dragged into it against his will, but the post-fury hp loss and Con damage is something to watch out for. ****

Unnatural Will [AR]: Charisma modifier + Wisdom modifier on Will saves vs fear? Interesting thought, but I'd rather just take Force of Personality (again), and free up the feat that would have gone to Iron Will. *

 * Pure Soul and the Tainted feats are useless if the rules for taint aren't in effect.

Feats from Complete Mage

Battlecaster Defense [Tactical] [AR]: This feat specifies the casting of spells, but could be converted for a warlock's use with no pain at all, beyond the Combat Casting requirement. ***

Battlecaster Offense [Tactical] [AR]: The flip side of the previous feat, just not as useful. Same caveats. **

Delay Potion [AR]: The only reason I'd take this feat would be so I could walk around with a cure spell in reserve. Since warlocks can manage just as well with UMD, why bother? *

Favored Magic Foe [AR]: A little narrow, but not entirely poor. Your class skill list allows you to meet the requirements for several common enemy types. ***

Magic Device Attunement [AR]: Being able to activate one magical item without further UMD checks sounds nice in theory (especially since you can switch your attunement to a different item), but in practice, no warlock should be worried about failing UMD checks. **

Master of Undeath [AR]: This is a great feat for a warlock with the dead walk, provided that you can find sufficiently big, powerful, and dead creatures to reanimate. Or you can animate one big bruiser and a lot of lesser troops; either way is good, and if you do things right, it's unlikely that the big guy will survive long enough to break free and eat your brains. Mmmm. Brains. 0 without the dead walk / **** with

Feats Tome of Magic

Bind Vestige [AR]: Bind one of five vestiges and gain a minor supernatural power for up to 24 hours. Sort of like Extra Invocation, except that the powers are only interrupted by antimagic, and you can bind a different vestige each day. The powers themselves aren't much to speak of except at low levels; thematically, though, this is the sort of ability a warlock would be expected to have. ***

Defense Against the Supernatural [AR]: An insight bonus on saves vs supernatural special attacks. If you run into such things often, it'll help; if not, skip it. **

Empower, Enlarge, Extend, and Quicken Utterance [AR]: Unless you multiclass as a truenamer, you burn far too many feats just qualifying for these. 0

Empower, Enlarge, Extend, and Widen Supernatural Ability [AR]: None of these are helpful to a warlock, even if he has Bind Vestige. A binder/warlock might find them useful. 0

Focused Lexicon [AR]: Too narrowly focused to be useful to anyone without binder levels. 0

Improved Bind Vestige [AR]: Opens up eight new supernatural powers you can gain by binding a vestige. They're a bit better than the previous ones. ***

Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind [AR]: Choose one of four 1st-level utterances, each of which is equivalent to two spells. You have to spend 12 skill points or 6 points and a feat to get this, but some of the utterances are pretty useful. ***

Obscure Personal Truename [AR]: A minor benefit, useful vs enemy truenamers. The notion that your truename is somehow protected (perhaps by the pact that gives you eldritch power) is thematically appealing. Having to spend 12 skill points or 6 skill points and another feat is too rich for this, though. **

Personal Truename Backlash [AR]: The effect is interesting, but minor for something you can only gain at 15th level or higher. By this point, you have better things to spend feats on. *

Practiced Binder [AR]: You gain two abilities for binding a vestige. Combine with Improved Bind Vestige and you can obtain some useful abilities, but really not enough for burning three feats. **

Sudden Ability Focus [AR]: Once per day, you add the benefit of Ability Focus to any one special attack you have. It stacks with regular Ability Focus, and you can take it multiple times for extra uses. Nifty. ***

Supernatural Crusader [AR]: The offensive version of Defense Against the Supernatural. About as useful. **

Supernatural Opportunist [AR]: Gain a sneak attack against threatened enemies that use a supernatural ability. You need Supernatural Crusader as a prereq. Not that helpful for a warlock. *

Truename Research [AR]: The effect of this feat is too specialized to be useful for any warlock who doesn't have ranks of truenamer. 0

Truename Training [AR]: Truespeak becomes a class skill. Doesn't help warlocks at all, except to make feats with Truespeak rank prereqs easier to afford. *

Utterance of the Crafted Tool, the Evolving Mind, and the Perfected Map [AR]: The utterances you can pick up from these feats are handy, but the prereqs are just too costly for a warlock. *

Other Feats

Able Learner (RoD): Mainly useful as a prerequisite for Chameleon, which will give some great diversity to the Warlock. If you plan on multi-classing a lot, it’s a great feat, but otherwise just meh. I don’t consider it worth taking if you don’t plan on getting into Chameleon. **

Battlecaster (CA):   Most useful to Melee Warlocks, who can use it to wear Mithril Fullplate. Usually they don’t have as many free feats for it, though. ***

Combat Brute (CWar):   As Shocktrooper; generally Shocktrooper is taken before this feat. ***

Dark Speech (Hordes of the Abyss):   This feat breaks the game (Elephant Jack made this discovery). You can use it with Summon Swarm to generate a Sorcerer that can cast 6th level spells immediately, that can summon more powerful swarms to generate a chain of more and more powerful casters, all under your control (if you do it right). Expect to get chips and soda in your hair after you come to the table with this. *****+++ (broke, as in beyond Druid broke)

Defensive Archery (RotW):   A feat to give +4 AC when provoking with a ranged attack? It might be useful for a few levels when your damage is actually worth a damn, but not worth the slot in the long run. *

Diving Charge (RotW):   +2d6 damage when charging from flying. Neat for Melee Warlocks, it still would be a tight fit to put this in a standard build. **

Extraordinary Spell Aim (CAdv):   Many DM’s won’t allow you to use this, as your Invocations aren’t spells. It’s a nice feat if they do allow it, as it allows you to nicely manipulate your Chilling Touch effects. **

Extra Invocation (CA):   A great feat if you have room for it. Generally better to take after you have access to Greater and Dark Invocations. ****

Frightful Presence (Draconomicon):   A nice Cha-synergy effect for Melee Warlocks. Only works on charges, but the DC is cha based. I’d add it after a few other charging feats. ***

Leap Attack (CAdv):   See Power Attack above. Very useful to Melee Warlocks. ***+1/2

Maximize Spell-like Ability (CA):   The main advantage of this feat is that it makes your Eldritch Blast easier to use in combat at higher level (you don’t have to count as many die). Not really worth the feat slot. ***

Mobile Spellcasting (CAdv):   Don’t take this if you have access to Flyby Attack. It also specifies spells, not SLAs so you need DM fiat to make it work. You do get more movement out of this than Flyby Attack, normally, though. ***

Mortalbane (BoVD):   An extra 2d6 damage to anything not a Construct or Undead or Outsider, and 1/2 to them. If allowed (it’s 3.0), better than Psionic Shot simply because it doesn’t require a power point reserve, psionic focus, or a prereq feat. *****

Neraph Charge (PlH):   This is a very useful feat for Rogue / Warlocks that want to melee. Its not horrid on Melee Warlocks, as it renders the opponents you charge flat-footed. Theres worse ways to spend a feat. *+1/2

Plunging Shot (RotW):   Another +d6 damage feat if you fly. I have nothing else to say about it. **

Shocktrooper (CWar):   Melee Warlocks will find it useful, for obvious reasons, but not surprisingly, its not as useful as in normal melee builds since you only have to roll touch attacks. The prereq feat, Imp Bull Rush, isn’t quite that useful. ***

Tomb-tainted Soul (LM):   You can heal with an Utterdark Blast, but by the time you get that, its not worth taking. Just become a Necropolitan instead for the same effect. *

Undead Leadership (LM):   See Leadership above. * to *****
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:16:45 PM
Basic Builds:

 Basic Human Warlock 20 (EB Focused) by Tealgorthian

[spoiler]
Warlock 1: Point Blank Shot, (Precise Shot)
Warlock 3: Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast)
Warlock 6: Spell Penetration
Warlock 9: Maximize Spell-like Ability (Eldritch Blast)
Warlock12: Sudden Still
Warlock15: Greater Spell Penetration
Warlock18: Extra Invocation

Least Invocations ( ---> denotes a switch in Invocations, if there is no note for when, assume ASAP)

 Spiderwalk ---> See the Unseen (When you get Fell Flight)
 Sickening Blast ---> Beguiling Influance
 Entropic Warding

 Lesser Invocations

 Eldritch Chain
 Beshadowed Blast ---> Voracious Dispelling
 Fell Flight

 Greater Invocations

 Vitriolic Blast
 Noxious Blast
 Chilling Tentacles
 Eldritch Cone (Through Extra Invocation)

 Dark Invocations

 Utterdark Blast
 Eldritch Doom
 Path of Shadows
[/spoiler]

Versatile Warlock - Invocations yet to be decided. By Tealgorthian

 Human Warlock18/Cham2

[spoiler]
1 Warlock 1: Able Learner, Point Blank Shot
2 Warlock 2:
3 Warlock 3: Precise Shot
4 Warlock 4:
5 Warlock 5:
6 Warlock 5/Cham1: Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast)
7 Warlock 5/Cham2:
8 Warlock 6/Cham2:
9 Warlock 7/Cham2: Spell Penetration
10 Warlock 8/Cham2:
11 Warlock 9/Cham2:
12 Warlock10/Cham2: Maximize Spell-Like Ability (Eldritch Blast)*
13 Warlock11/Cham2:
14 Warlock12/Cham2:
15 Warlock13/Cham2: Greater Spell Penetration
16 Warlock14/Cham2:
17 Warlock15/Cham2:
18 Warlock16/Cham2: Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Flee the Scene)
19 Warlock17/Cham2:
20 Warlock18/Cham2:
[/spoiler]

 Exalted Warlock – Human by Tealgorthian

[spoiler]
1 Warlock 1 Sacred Vow, Education
 2 Warlock 2
 3 Warlock 3 Vow of Poverty
 4 Warlock 4 Nymph's Kiss
 5 Warlock 5
 6 Warlock 6 Point Blank Shot, Vow of Obedience
 7 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 1
 8 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 2 Consecrate Spell-like Ability
 9 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 3 Precise Shot
10 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 4 Purify Spell-like Ability
11 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 5
12 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 6 Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast), (Free Exalted Feat)
13 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 7
14 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 8 (Free Exalted Feat)
15 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri 9 Quicken Spell-like Ability (Eldritch Blast)
16 Warlock 6/Sentinal of Bharri10 (Free Exalted Feat)
17 Warlock 7/Sentinal of Bharri10
18 Warlock 8/Sentinal of Bharri10 (Free Exalted Feat) Maximize Spell-Like ability (Eldritch Blast)
19 Warlock 9/Sentinal of Bharri10
20 Warlock10/Sentinal of Bharri10 (Free Exalted Feat)

Benifits: Spells dont damage trees, Tracks, 4 forms of Energy Resistance 10, Hide in Plain Sight in woods, with a +10 bonus, Bear Shapes, Healing ability, summon dire bears 1/week, quickened call lightning as spell-like ability, quickened lightning storm as a spell like ability.
 Cons: Lose of half your Warlock abilities, reduction in BAB, Fort and Ref saves, feat issues.
[/spoiler]

Warlock/Teflammar Shadowlord Build by Eytan
Note: build requires the Spell Hand Feat(CA).

For the biggest bang for your buck in the shadowlord combo is:

 Warlock 6/Rogue 1/Spellthief 1/TShL 5/Arcane Trickster 7

[spoiler]
 That gives 7d6 Eldritch blast (9d6 with greater chausuble), 6d6 Sneak attack, 3 least/3 lesser/2 greater invocations, shadow pounce, 3rd level spells, shadowlord discorporation, and some other neat abilities. Some people go for rogue 3 for evasion and more skills and also take the 6th level in shadowlord for the death attack, but I think this build is more exact.

 The invocations I would take are:

 Least: Hideous Blow, See the Unseen, Baleful Utterance
 Lesser: Flee the Scene, Walk Unseen, Fell Flight
 Greater: Devour Magic, Vitriolic Blast

 I am avoiding blast shapes mostly because this is a melee build. I've actually considered enervating shadow, but I just don't think it's worth if, even for a melee build that moves around constantly.
[/spoiler]

Various Builds from Mommy was an Orc

I like the following Warlock builds:
 Rogue 1/Warlock 12/Daggerspell Mage 7 - +3d6 Sneak, 18th level Warlock, still gets Imbue Item. Very effective with Chain and retributive invis. With Able Learner, can be a solid party Rogue, too.

 Rogue 2/Fighter 2/Warlock 4/Daggerspell Mage 8/Nightsong Enforcer 4 - +5d6 Sneak, +16 BAB, 11th level Warlock.

 Hexblade 2/Warlock 18 - +11 to all saves vs spells at high level.

 Warlock 16/Green Star Adept - basically gets 4 DR/--

Warlock Theme Builds by Scrollreader

I've been playing around with the Warlock, and found (I think) some very nice and interesting PrCs for them, and some nifty combinations. Each of theme is themed for a certain role, and is, IMO, decently, if not expertly optimized. Lemme know what you think, especially ways to tweak them further. Thanks.

 --------------------------------------

 The Apt Pupil.
 Human Warlock 10/Disciple of Asmodeus 10

[spoiler]
 1st Able Learner, Disciple of Darkness
 3rd Evil Brand
 6th Leadership
 9th Mortalbane
 12th Live My Nightmare
 15th Extra Invocation
 18th Extra Invocation

 /16/th level Warlock Casting (Dark Invocation! and 7d6 blast damage)
 BAB +14(but see Dread Might), Saves +6/+6/+14
 Learn Secret 1/day, Charm, Command, Greater Command, Greater Planar Ally, Summon Hellcats (1d4), and Evil Authority (Sanctuary + mass Suggestion, Evil creatures only.) Dread Might. Energy Resistance 5, Fiendish Resiliance 1, DR 2/cold iron. Phantasmal Killer as a virtual invocation.

 Flavorful and Fun! The Eeeeeeevil Warlock. Tons of nifty spell like abilities that add some flexibility to the Warlock invocations. Nice social skills. Dread Might is just icing on the cake.
[/spoiler]

The Dragon's Doom
 Human Warlock 10/Dragonslayer 10

[spoiler]
 1st Dodge, Iron Will
 3rd Power Attack
 6th Battlecaster
 9th Practiced Caster
 12th Mobility
 15th Flyby Attack
 18th Arcane Mastery

 BAB +17 Saves +10/+6/+14
 Can penetrate SR of 29 without a roll. 39 versus Dragons.
 Does +10 damage on all attacks versus dragons. 15th level invocations and 7d6 eldritch blast.

Nice little Gish. Very good against dragons (duh) but not bad against anyone else.
[/spoiler]

The MasterBlaster.
 Xeph Warlock 20

[spoiler]
 1st Point Blank Shot
 3rd Psionic Shot
 6th Psychic Meditation
 9th Greater Psionic Shot
 12th Mortalbane
 15th Violate Spell-like ability
 18th Mortalbane

 Owns: Greater Chasuble of Fell Power, Warlocks Scepter (multiple)

 Capable of Tossing out a 15d6 blast all day long, he can make it 17d6 10 times a day, and can use one his Warlock's Scepters for up to 21d6. Half of which is Vile. Ow.
 Oh. And he gets some invocations, too.  Also worth noting that he can really make the most out of fell flight, when he needs to.
[/spoiler]

True Necromancer by Xaktsaroth
 Spellstiched Necropolitan (Human)

 Warlock 1/Cleric 5/True Necromancer 14
[spoiler]
 1st Spell Focus: Necromancy, Practiced Caster: Cleric
 3rd Corpsecrafter
 6th Necromantic Presence
 9th Destruction Retribution
 12th Hardened Flesh
 15th Nimble Bones
 18th Necromantic Might

 17th level (20th level) Cleric Casting. 6d6 Eldritch Blast.

 Use The Dead Walk for suprisingly effective and buffed emergency support, or fodder. Alternatively, use the dead walk and then eldritch blast skeletons to death to heal yourself. It's not like it costs anything. Also gets a nice suite of necrothemed things from True Necromancer, and rebukes undead. Bolster yourself!
[/spoiler]

Attempt at a melee/battlefield control warlock: by HoshiAdam

 Fighter2 /Warlock18

[spoiler]
 Human
 Level by level:
 1: Fighter 1: EWP: Spiked Chain, Weapon Finesse, Combat Reflexes
 2: Warlock 1:
 3: Warlock 2: Combat Expertise
 4: Fighter 2: Improved Trip
 5: Warlock 3
 6: Warlock 4: Ability Focus: Eldritch Blast
 7: Warlock 5
 8: Warlock 6
 9: Warlock 7: Flyby Attack
 10: Warlock 8
 11: Warlock 9
 12: Warlock 10: Improved Toughness
 13: Warlock 11
 14: Warlock 12
 15: Warlock 13: Quicken SLA
 16: Warlock 14
 17: Warlock 15
 18: Warlock 16: Extra Invocation
 19: Warlock 17
 20: Warlock 18

 Invocations (3/3/4/2)
 *Least:
 Hideous Blow
 Entropic Warding
 See the Unseen
 *Lesser:
 Fell Flight
 Beshadowed Blast
 Flee the Scene
 *Greater:
 Chilling Tentacles
 Wall of Perilous Flame
Repelling Blast
 Noxious Blast
 *Dark:
 Eldritch Doom
 Retributive Invisibility
[/spoiler]

Warlock Warmind by Lilt

My attempt at it might go something like as follows: Warlock 13/Psiwar 2/Warmind 5
 That's not the order I'd take it in which woudl be something like

[spoiler]
 1 Warlock 1 Wandstrike, Supernatural Transformation (EB)
 2 Warlock 2
 3 Psiwar 1 Psionic Weapon, Psionic Meditation
 4 Warlock 3
 5 Warlock 4
 6 Warmind 1 Psicrystal Affinity
 7 Psiwar 2 Greater Psionic Weapon
 8 Warmind 2
 9 Warmind 3 Psicrystal Containment
 10 Warmind 4
 11 Warmind 5
 12-20 Warlock 5-13 *free feats*
[/spoiler]

Warlock Ur-priest by Surreal

Hmm, random thought (which has probably been done before): Illumian w/White Dragonspawn template (bought off) with the improved Krau sigil
 - Warlock 9/Ur-priest 2/Mystic Theurge 9: gets you 2 dark invocations and 9th level divine spells, plus all the other brokenness from the dragonspawn template


Crafterlock by Nezkrul

 Human Artificer 5 / Warlock 15

[spoiler]
 32 point buy, 2 flaws at first level, at each artificer level from 1 to 4, crafted some magic items to "hold" the craft reserve for later. Starting wealth would obviously be deducted to do this.

 Stats are optimized for Intellectual experimentation and usage of crafted items.

Base + level up points:
 Str 10
 Dex 14
 Con 12
 Int 18
 Wis 9
 Cha 16

 1-Artificer Able Learner, Scribe Scroll, Exceptional Artisan, Legendary Artisan, Extraordinary Artisan
 2-Artificer Brew Potion
 3-Artificer Craft Wondrous Item, Magical Artisan (Craft Wondrous Item)
 4-Warlock (Frightful Blast)
 5-Warlock (See the Unseen)
 6-Warlock Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast)
 7-Warlock (Entropic Warding)
 8-Warlock
 9-Warlock Practiced Spellcaster (Warlock), (Frightful Blast -> Baleful Utterance), (Fell Flight)
 10-Artificer Craft Homonculus, Extend Spell
 11-Artificer Craft Magic Arms and Armor
 12-Warlock Magical Artisan (Craft Magic Arms and Armor)
 13-Warlock (Flee the Scene)
 14-Warlock
 15-Warlock Quicken SLA (Eldritch Blast), (Eldritch Chain)
 16-Warlock (Chilling Tentacles)
 17-Warlock
 18-Warlock Craft Staff, (Vitriolic Blast)
 19-Warlock
 20-Warlock (Wall of Perilous Flame)

 When you can, make yourself a couple of homonculi so you can keep adventuring while they make your magic items for you.
[/spoiler]

Core + Completes by jameswilliamogle

A lot of campaigns only allow Core+Completes and don't allow psionics, so I'm presenting this build as the best one can do in this environment as a crafter (no Chameleon, no Psionic Shot)

 Non-Psionic, Core+Completes, Crafting Warlock, keeping flexible as necessary
 Human Warlock 1-20
 Str 8, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 14, Wix 8, Cha 16

[spoiler]
 1,H: PBS, Precise Shot ('cause ya gotta)
 3 Scribe Scroll ('cause it's better to have as soon as you can craft)
 6 Flyby Attack (w/ Fell Flight: it's better than having SprAttack, Mobile Spellcasting, and Shot on the Run!)
 9 Craft Wonderous Item ('cause it fits here well)
 12 Craft Staff ('cause your DC's are better than a Wand's)
 15 Extraordinary Spell Aim (for keeping those Tentacles from groping that hot elven sorceress you run with)
 18 Quicken SLA: (pick your favorite invocation)
[/spoiler]

The Standard Eldritch Disciple by LogicNinja and NatchFeral
LogicNinja posted a build for the Eldritch Disciple that I thought could be expanded on here, and certainly deserved to be a part of this thread.

 Cloistered Cleric (Knowledge & Trickery only)* 4
 Warlock 1
 Eldritch Disciple 10
 Mystic Theurge 5

[spoiler]
 * With Divine Magician (CM) and Spontaneous Domain (PHII) alternate class features. Gets the Knowledge domain, plus one other of your choise. I recommend Trickery, so you can Polymorph Any Object at into an outsider.

 BAB +11
 Saves +12/+5/+18
 Invocations as Warlock 16 (1 Dark, 3 each of Greater, Lesser, Least)
 Spells as Cleric 18
 Choice of Abjuration, Divination, and Necromancy spells from Sor/Wiz list, one for each spell level added to cleric spell list.

 Recommended Feats:
 Human: Zen Archery or Mortalbane (depending on your Dex)
 Level 1: Ability Focus (eldritch blast)
 Level 3: Extend Spell
 Level 6: Craft Wondrous Item (the best item creation feat for warlocks)
 Level 9: Quicken Spell
 Level 12: Persistent Spell
 Level 15: Divine Metamagic Persistent Spell
 Level 18: Extra Invocation (lesser)

Recommended Sor/Wiz Spells from Divine Magician, by level:
 1. Shield
 2. Protection From Arrows
 3. Ray of Exaustion/Undead Lieutenant
 4. Ray of Deanimation
 5. Magic Jar/Duelward
 6. Globe of Invulnerability/Fleshshiver
 7. Spell Turning/Anitmagic Ray/Avasculate
 8. Mind Blank/Avascular Mass/Bestow Greater Currse/Blackfire
 9. Prismatic Sphere/Maw of Chaos/Reaving Dispel/ Mord's Disjunction/Eye of Power
[/spoiler]

Eldritch Disciple/Enlightened Soul by Timespike

I know much has been made of the warlock class, but I haven't seen a whole lot of use being gotten out of the new PrCs, so here's my attempt at a good-aligned cleric warlock. I've stirred in a bit of incarnum, but I'm sure you could do just as well without it.

 Some notes: The clerical casting is most assuredly the sideline for this character; this is a warlock first and a cleric second.

[spoiler]
 Level 1 Warlock 1 {Eldritch Spear} [Point Blank Shot, Far Shot]
 Level 2 Cleric 1
 Level 3 Warlock 2 {Miasmic Cloud} [Precise Shot]
 Level 4 Cleric 2
 Level 5 Warlock 3
 Level 6 Cleric 3 [Incarnum Spellshaping]
 Level 7 Eldritch Disciple 1 {Devil's Sight} (Healing Blast)
 Level 8 Eldritch Disciple 2
 Level 9 Enlightened Soul 1 [Healing Soul]
 Level 10 Eldritch Disciple 3 {Witchwood Step}
 Level 11 Eldritch Disciple 4
 Level 12 Eldritch Disciple 5 {Voracious Dispelling} (Wild Frenzy) [Divine Soultouch]
 Level 13 Enlightened Soul 2
 Level 14 Enlightened Soul 3 {Celestial Flight}
 Level 15 Enlightened Soul 4 [Extra Turning]
 Level 16 Enlightened Soul 5 {Eldritch Glaive}
 Level 17 Enlightened Soul 6
 Level 18 Enlightened Soul 7 {Holy Blast} [Divine Justice]
 Level 19 Eldritch Disciple 6
 Level 20 Eldritch Disciple 7 {Crawling Eye} (Fearful Glare)

 Pros: cleric spells, nice abilities from PrCs (aura of courage, aura of menace, holy blast, healing blast) BAB of 14, Saves are quite solid for will (+16) and Fortitude (+11), Eldritch Blast of 8d6 (only 1d6 less than a warlock 20)

 Cons: Stunted access to invocations (least and lesser only), bad reflex save (+4), no decieve item feature.

 Further notes: My kingdom for just ONE greater invocation! Getting Incarnum Blast in there would be fantastic for this build.
[/spoiler]

Scar Enforcer Builds by surreal

Half-Elf ranger 1/warlock6/scar enforcer 10/Eldeen Ranger 4(Greensinger)
 - would like to fit in half-elf bard sub 1 somewhere
 - get cha to saves, 1 greater invocation, sneaky ranger-ish, smites, sneak attack, hide in plain sight, disguise self

 half-elf ranger 1/warlock 4/scar enforcer 8/master of the yuirwood 4/corrupt avenger 3
 - get BAB 16, saves 12/7/12 + cha, 1 greater invocation, smite 3/day and tainted strike 1/day, sneak 2d6, disguise self, HiPS,
 - favoured enemy (human & elf) and sworn foe, good skills (102 + 23*Int), uncanny dodge, pass without trace, 2nd level arcane spells
 - play style is fairly open... probably more suited to the social role

 half-elf ranger 1/warlock 2/swordsage 2*/scar enforcer 8/shadow sun ninja 4/xyz 3
 *unarmed strike variant
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:19:09 PM
Advanced Builds:

The Doom Machine by Aurelius

 Warforged Warlock 1/Fighter 2/Warlock 2-4/Dragonslayer 3/Doomlord 10/Occult Slayer 1

 BAB 19, Saves 11/5/12+2 (+1 against spells and spell-like abilities). Warlock caster level 11. Average d10 hit die. Mithral Body.

[spoiler]
 A lot of your feats are tied up here, and you get only 1 greater invocation, but there are hidden perks. If you have a use magic device score of 10 (which you should be able to get, you can automatically succeed in activating wands. Warforged don't need free hands to activate wands thanks to the Wand Sheath component (EbCS). Now get a Wand of Wraithstrike and and power attack away with your big sword. You also get 3 +20 damage smites per day. A Wand of Repair damage is also recommended. If you take the acid blast essence thing for your greater invocation, you don't need to worry about SR, and it fits the theme like a glove. You can replace the Occult Slayer level with something else if you like.
[/spoiler]

Warlock Avenger by TacticsPlanner

I like the idea of a Human Psychic Warrior 1/Warlock 12/ Chameleon 2/Cyran Avenger 5 with the typical blasting feats using the Chameleon feat for item creation and adapting to the adventure using things like Extra Invocation and the myriad of feats too specific to take normally.

 The 5d6 Avenging Strike to ranged attacks (yay for weapon-like spell-like abilities!) Cha Mod times/day is awesome. All you need to do is wait for someone in your party to get hp damaged to use it.

 You could also swap out the Psychic Warrior level for Fighter (16 bab), Rogue, Changeling Rogue, Mindbender, or anything else your party needs to help this fit in.

The Eldritch TheUr-Lock by NatchFeral

Warlock 9/Ur-Priest 2/Eldritch Disciple 9
 Abilities:
 Invocations as Warlock 18 (2 Dark Invocations)
 Cleric Spells as Ur-Priest 10 (9th level cleric spells)
 Rebuke Undead
 BAB +13
 Saves: +6/+6/+15

Variant: Warlock 8/Ur-Priest 2/Eldritch Disciple 8/Chameleon 2
 Abilities:
 Invocations as Warlock 16 (1 Dark Invocation)
 Cleric Spells as Ur-Priest 10 (9th level cleric spells)
 Rebuke Undead
 BAB +14

[spoiler]
Mystic Wanderer (MoF) is a nice 2 level dip, as well. Cha as a sacred/profane bonus to AC, plus a familiar.

 Tricks:
 - Use Miracle to dupe Body Outside Body, Use Divine Metamagic Persistant Spell and a rod of Extend Spell to make it last 48 hours. Boosting caster level will get you 4-5 clones. All can use the Warlock Invocations. Multiple uses of Miracle can get you up to 30 clones. The Chameleon floating feat can allow the clones to customize themselves with Extra Invocation. Astral Projection can net lots of duplicate equipment for your clones to use.
 -Make any magic item in the game aside from golems (Variant Build)
[/spoiler]

Tricklock by leif008

I figured out one easy way for a Rogue/Warlock to meet the requirements for the Arcane Trickster Prc since it only requires the ability to cast 2 spells which can be met by spell-like abilities (pg 72 Carc). Mage hand is gained from the Spell hand feat, and the ability to cast Daylight gained from the Aasimar race which is a 3rd level arcane spell.

Aasimar +2 Cha, +2 Wis

[spoiler]
 The build is a ranged Aasimar warlock using sneak attack. I've listed the build with the +1 ECL paid off. The way to ultimately munchkin out the character is to add the Dark Creature Template, so he gains +10 movement speed, 10 cold resistance, and the coveted Hide in Plain Sight ability. Surprise round Sneak Attack Eldritch Blast, next turn: Move + hide in plain sight, fire off a Sneak Attack Eldritch Blast, etc. If you wind up using the Dark Creature Template switch out Walk Unseen, Miasmic Cloud, Retributive Invisibility, and Nightmares Made Real for invocations that aren't redundant in purpose.

 My group always plays with bonus feats gained every odd level but we don't play with flaws. So if you play with the standard feat progression remove some extra invocations.

 [01] Rogue 1 [Craven] - Sneak Attack 1d6, Trapfinding
 [02] Warlock 1 - Eldritch Blast 1d6, Least: Miasmic Cloud
 [03] Warlock 2 [Precise Shot] - Detect Magic, Least: Dark One's Luck
 [04] Rogue 2 - Evasion
 [05] Warlock 3 [Practiced Spellcaster] - Eldritch Blast 2d6, DR 1/Cold Iron
 [06] Rogue 3 - Sneak Attack 2d6, Trap Sense +1
 [07] Arcane Trickster 1 [Spell Hand] - Ranged Legerdemain 1/day, Least: Eldritch Spear
 [08] Arcane Trickster 2 - Sneak Attack 3d6, Eldritch Blast 3d6
 [09] Arcane Trickster 3 [Maximize SLA] - Impromptu Sneak Attack 1/day, Lesser: Fell Flight
 [10] Arcane Trickster 4 - Sneak Attack 4d6, Eldritch Blast 4d6
 [11] Arcane Trickster 5 [Empower SLA] - Lesser: Walk Unseen, switch Miasmic Cloud to Baleful Utterance, Ranged Legerdemain 2/day
 [12] Arcane Trickster 6 - Sneak Attack 5d6, Eldritch Blast 5d6
 [13] Arcane Trickster 7 [Quicken SLA] - Impromptu Sneak Attack 2/day, Lesser: Eldritch Chain
 [14] Arcane Trickster 8 - Sneak Attack 6d6, Eldritch Blast 6d6, Greater: Nightmares Made Real, Switch out Walk Unseen for Flee the Scene
 [15] Arcane Trickster 9 [Extra Invocation: Least or Lesser] - Ranged Legerdemain 3/day
 [16] Arcane Trickster 10 - Sneak Attack 7d6, Greater: Vitriolic Blast
 [17] Warlock 4 [Extra Invocation: Least or Lesser] - Deceive Item, Eldritch Blast 7d6, Greater: Vitriolic Blast
 [18] Rogue 4 - Uncanny Dodge
 [19] Warlock 5 [Extra Invocation: Least or Lesser] - Greater: Eldritch Cone
 [20] Warlock 6 - Dark: Retributive Invisibility
[/spoiler]

Oz the Singing Warlock by NatchFeral

 Okay, here is an Eldritch Theurge build, since I've had so much fun with the Eldritch Disciple...

Build
Bard 1 (Precocious Apprentice, Sanctum Spell)
Warlock 8
Eldritch Theurge 1
Sublime Chord 1
Eldritch Theurge 2-10

[spoiler]
Benefits:
 9th level sublime chord spells
 Invocations as Warlock 18
 Able to cast all spells in light armor.
 DR 4/cold iron
 Fiendish Resiliance 2
 Spellblast
 Greatreach Blast

Variations:
 Warlock levels 5-8 could be any prestige class that advances warlock casting, so Mindbender, Blood Magus, etc. could be added. Chameleon 2 would still allow for a single Dark Invocation. Binder 1 could substitute for a Warlock level, then Anima Mage at level 3, provided Improved Binding is taken as the level 3 feat. Use Anima Mage 6 to replace the remaining Warlock levels, advancing both Warlock Invocations and Binding. That gives access to 4th level vestiges.

 Tricks:
 Nothing special, aside from the easy entry into Sublime Chord. All of the other Warlock tricks still apply to this build, especially if Extra Spell can nab Body out of Body.
[/spoiler]

The No Save One Hit Wonder Warlock: by HoshiAdam

 Warlock3 /Wizard3 /Eldritch Theurge10 /Spellsword 4

 13th level Warlock invocations
 15th level Wizard spellcasting
 Channel spell 3/day

[spoiler]
 Invocations of note:
 Hideous Blow
 Greater Spellreach (from Eldritch Theurge)

 Feats of note:
 Practiced Spellcaster (Wizard)
 Practiced Spellcaster (Warlock, to boost versus SR)
 Anything to increase Evocation or Cold caster level by 1
 Wild Talent
 Psionic Weapon
 Greater Psionic Weapon

 Equipment of note:
 Spellstoring weapon of some kind
 Greater Chaucible of Fell Power - +2d6 Eldritch Blast

 Cast a Scorching Ray into the weapon (12d6)
 Channel a Polar Ray into the weapon (20d6 if there is a boost to cold or evocation)

 In combat, cast a True Strike, then move to within 10' of an opponent. Next round, 5' step into them, and use a Hideous Blow shape /Greater Spellreach essence Eldritch Blast, doing:
 8d6 Eldritch Blast
 4d6 Psionic Weapon
 12d6 Scorching Ray (stored)
 20d6 Polar Ray (channeled)
 20d6 Polar Ray (Greater Spellreach)
 Weapon damage

 Or, 64d6 + weapon damage. All but 12d6 is subject to SR, sadly. However, this is only a first swing at the idea. Other spells could work also.
[/spoiler]

Abjurant Champion build by PonTelon
Dunno if this has been pointed out yet, but for a level 15 game I'm going to run:

 Battle Sorc 1/ Warlock 6/Abjurant Champion 5/ Dragonslayer 3
 BAB: 13
 Warlock: 14
 Sorc: 1(CL=BAB)

[spoiler]
 Basically the Sorc is there to qualify and provide Mage Armor/Shield to beef up AC. This is going melee focused taking the Lesser Invocation: Eldritch Glaive from Dragon Magic. Invocations I'm looking at are:
 Eldritch Blast: 7d6
 Invocations:
 Least: 3
 - Eldritch Glaive (DM)melee touch, can get full attack.
 - See the Unseen(CA)
 - Baleful Utterance(CA)
 Lesser: 3
 - Deteriorating Blast(level 4)(DM)- Fort or -5 DR 1 min
 - Relentless Dispelling(4)(DM)- Dispell magic 2r
 - Flee the Scene (CA)
 *Fell Flight(CA)
 Greater: 2
 - Hellspawned Grace(CM)
 - Wall of Perilous Flame(CA)

 So I have:
 13/8/3 Eldritch Glaive(7d6) without stats or anything else added in.

 No idea what you should take for the last few levels..perhaps finishing out Dragonslayer for the BAB and +arcane (applied to warlock of course)
[/spoiler]

The Warlock Daggerspell Mage Build by Mommy was an Orc

Human Rogue 2/Fighter 1/Warlock 4/Daggerspell Mage 8/Nightsong Enforcer 4/Master Thrower 1
 28 point buy: Str 10, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 8
 +16 BAB, +5d6 Sneak
 Saves of 6/16/11

[spoiler]
 1: Rogue 1: Able Learner, TWF, +1d6 Sneak
 2: Warlock 1: Eldritch Blast 1d6, Invocation: Sickening Blast
 3: Fighter 1: Practiced Spellcaster, Point Blank Shot
 4: Warlock 2: Dex 17: Invocation: See the Unseen
 5: Warlock 3: Eldritch Blast 2d6
 6: Warlock 4: WF: Dagger, Invocation: Beguiling Influence
 7: Daggerspell Mage 1
 8: Daggerspell Mage 2: Dex 18: Eldritch Blast 3d6
 9: Daggerspell Mage 3: Precise Shot, +2d6 Sneak: Invocation: Eldritch Chain
 10: Daggerspell Mage 4: Eldritch Blast 4d6
 11: Daggerspell Mage 5: Invocation: Walk Unseen
 12: Daggerspell Mage 6: Improved Initiative, +3d6 Sneak: Dex 19: Eldritch Blast 5d6
 13: Daggerspell Mage 7: Invocation: Fell Flight
 14: Daggerspell Mage 8: Invocation: Vitriolic Blast - Sickening Blast -> Entropic Warding: Eldritch Blast 6d6
 15: Rogue 2: Extra Invocation: Lesser: Flee the Scene
 16: Nightsong Enforcer 1: +4d6 Sneak: Dex 20
 17: Master Thrower 1: Quick Draw, Trip Shot
 18: Nightsong Enforcer 2: Extra Invocation: Lesser: Void Sense
 19: Fighter 2: Improved Precise Shot
 20: Rogue 3: +5d6 Sneak: Dex 21

 Notes:
 8 Charisma - except for the Sickening Blast, there's really nothing which relies on DC at all.

 At 20th level, does a 6d6 Eldritch Blast - by being in a Sneak Attack situation, does 15d6+1(6d6+4d6 extra+5d6 Sneak+1) with the primary target. 10d6+1(3d6+2d6 extra+5d6 Sneak+1) damage to the secondary ones.

 In situations where there's 1 target, uses thrown daggers or a bow to generate lots of sneak attacks as a +16 BAB, 5d6 Sneak character with a very high dexterity.

 it is possible to replace the 1 Fighter level and Master Thrower 1 with 2 levels of Rogue - the problem for me in doing that is significantly delaying Precise Shot.

 Has 120 Skill Points as a base, 189 once you include human+14 Int. Enough to max out 8 skills.
[/spoiler]

Eldritch Disciple by NatchFeral

BoED/Vow of Poverty will get you treat your Eldritch Blast as a +5/good-aligned weapon. I don't think that works well with the warlock, who relies on magic items for her abilities. I don't think Enlightened Soul is worth it, either.

 Why not try:
 CG Human

 Cleric (trickery, travel) 4
 Warlock 4
 Eldritch Disciple 10
 Mystic Wanderer 2

[spoiler]
 Invocations as Warlock 14 (3 Least, 3 Lesser, 2 Greater)
 Spells as Cleric 15 (8th level spells)
 Cha as Sacred Bonus to AC
 Familiar (improve this by taking Celestial Familiar (coure eladrin)) who can also UMD.
 Access to Deceive Item
 Better saves
 Access to Open and Bound Chakras using cleric spells from Magic of Incarnum. No need to waste feats here.

 BAB +14
 SAVES +12/+8/+18

 Your familiar has Magic Circle Against Evil to protect you.
 Get a Starmantle Cloak, since you are a good guy, and a ring of Evasion. Ignore weapon damage.
 Use the spell Stone Body (SpC) to ignore crits, sneak attacks, ability score damage, poison, drowning, etc.
 Use Divine Power and Poly Any Obj to turn your familiar into a tough outsider.
[/spoiler]

Chargelock by cheezgrater

 (Melee Build)
 Credit must be given to Tempest Stormwind and his UbERcharger for inspiring this build

 Race: Human
 Class Fighter 4 / Warlock 16 (You get one Dark Invocation, Baby!)

[spoiler]
 BAB: +16 (4 Attacks! W00t!!)
 Saves: +9 / +6 / +11

 Skills: Max out JUMP!!

 Feats:
 Battle Jump
 Battlecaster
 Headlong Rush
 Improved Bull Rush
 Improved Critical (Scythe)
 Leap Attack
 Monkey Grip
 Power Attack
 Power Lunge
 Run
 Shock Trooper

 Weapon: +5 Valorous Large Scythe

 Equipment: Greater Chausuble, Manual of Gainful Exercise +5, Belt of Giant Strength +6

 Assuming you started with an 18 strength, this gives you a total strength of 34 (+12).

 Make an UbERleapingcharge of doom with Hideous Blow.
 Damage:
 4x (2d6 + 5 + (Str x 2) + (PowerAttack x 3) +Eldritch Blast + Chausuble)
 Crit on 19-20
 7x (2d6 + 5 + (Str x 2) + (PowerAttack x 3) +Eldritch Blast + Chausuble)

Now, using the 34 strength score, 9d6 eldritch blast for a lvl 16 warlock with a greater chausuble, and assuming a 10 point power attack (you can use heedless charge to put part of the penalty to AC instead of attack roll if you need to).
 Average Damage = 390
 Average Crit = 682.5

 Note that this build can also wear (mitrhal)full-plate with no spell failure.
 I also did not calculate any buffs or extra weapon enhancements, which could potentially massively boost damage from this.

 As a level 16 warlock, he can take 10 on UMD checks, and he has 10 invocations including 1 dark invocation.

 I suggest grabbing the Leaps and Bounds invocation since this build uses lots of Jump checks.

 If you wanted to trade off the dark invocation for a couple more fighter levels, the extra feats would let you get Quicken Spell Like Ability (Flee the Scene). This would be a nasty combo even though damage was reduced. Charge w/massive damage, and then dimension-door out of the range in the same round).

 If you pump up your Charisma as well as Strength, Repelling Blast could make this even nastier (Charge with damage, Reflex save or victim is blown backwards and knocked prone).

 So when you start grabbing buffs, you could dish out some severe damage with a meleelock!
[/spoiler]

Warlock/Wizard/Cleric by LiamDeclan

(End result is a cleric of 7/ Wizard of 11/ Warlock of 18)

[spoiler]
To get the most out of what you want you can try this little trick.

 Take the Illumian race from Races of Destiny, choose the krau sigil as one of your racial abilities.

 Start off with this Cleric 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1
 now for feats at first level take the Improved Power Sigil Krau feat (also in Races of Destiny) this feat allows you to choose any 2 spells and from that point on they are cast at 1 spell level higher than their actual level. You can change the spells selected at anytime you gain new spells. So when you gain that wizard level choose 1 of the arcane spells along with 1 of your divine spells. Now you can cast 2nd level arcane and divine spells.

 Okay now we have 3 character levels and the ability to cast 2nd level arcane/divine spells getting you into Mystic Theurge.
 Further your character progression by doing this:
 Cleric 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1/Mystic Theurge 2
 Use the mystic to up your Cleric and Warlock levels.
 Now you further the progression by going into Eldritch Theurge and Eldritch Disciple
 Cleric 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1/Mystic 2/Eldritch Theurge 10/Eldritch Disciple 5

 So end result is a cleric of 7/ Wizard of 11/ Warlock of 18

 You can do the same with Sorcerer and you would have a Sorcerer of 10 losing that 6th level spell that a Wizard would have had.
[/spoiler]

Vituoso by Vainglory

 Human Paragon 3/Warlock 7/Virtoso 10

[spoiler]
Gives 2 dark invocations, 8d6 blast, +2 Charisma and lots of bard song goodies. The bonus feat is a godsend as well.


 The fey heritage feats from Complete Mage may not be a power gamers delight but they aren't awful if you get stuck playing a lot of low character level games they can be quite nice.

Fey Heritage, nothing special, prereq for others

Fey Legacy, 9th level, confusion, summon nature ally V, dimension door once a day. Full range dimension door, and you may not have flee the scene at this point. Summon Nature Ally V is useful at any level, and it's not like you can't find a use of confusion 1/day.

Fey Power, Plus on DC to warlock invocations, doesn't affect blast but still very nice.

Fey Presence, 6th, Charm Monster, Deep Slumber, Disguise self...An extra charm when it works, can always use charm monster on your friendly creature then run around casting the invocation on new mobs. Deep Slumber and Disguise have a lot of uses.

Fey Skin, basically 1/cold iron DR per feat here that explicitily stacks with the warlock ability. 4 of these feats by level 7 would give you 6/cold iron DR...not bad for the level.
[/spoiler]

The Hellfire Champion by Grave

 Warlock 6/Anarch 2 (variant Paladin)/Mindbender 1/Hellfire Warlock 3/Legacy Champion 8

 Warlock lvl: 16
 +7d6 Eldritch Damage
 +18d6 Hellfire.

[spoiler]
 As has been pointed out, using Shape Soulmeld (strongheart vest) negates the one downside to Hellfire use (aside from those that arise from rp -- pitch wielding mobs--ahem). Another 2 feats to pick up are Mindsight (gotta love Telepathy) and Mortalbane (this one actually fits flavor-wise). The inclusion of Anarch was mainly for Cha to saves (and as an upside, I think can be easily made to fit flavor-wise). Granted, this build hinges on allowing Legacy Champion to further progress Hellfire Warlock, which I think it would as it only increase class features and effective level (but not actual level so epic need not apply). Sure, the Legacy Champion is rather subpar, but in this instance, even with all its useless legacy abilities the fact that it provides a net damage increase of +18d6 untyped and furthers Warlock invocations and EB makes it worth it.

 When I get some time, I'll post a full build, and also report on it's playability (new 12th campaign starting soon).

 -Grave & Co.

Grave note: Anarch is from Dragon #310. It's full of variant paladin classes for every alignment type. My Dm generally allows them all as it does make sense that the other alignments would have some form of champion. If that doesn't fly, you could always drop the Mindbender level and use the Paladin of Freedom variant for Divine Grace. Course, this assumes you want to be good.

 As for Legacy Champion, if you don't want to eat the usually high penalties associated with your legacy item, you can always just ignore it and not unlock squat.

[/spoiler]

Paragnostic Eldritch Disciple by carnivore

Gray Elf ....Chaotic Good
 Patron: Ehlonna

Warlock 2/ Cloistered Cleric(spontaneous Domain caster variant: Healing) 3/ Eldritch Disciple 10/ Paragnostic Apostle 4/ Contemplative 1
[spoiler]
Domains:
 Healing.....cast any Healing Domain spell Spontaneously
 Celerity ..... gives Time Stop, Greater Blink, Haste
 Animal ...... gives Shapechange
 Knowledge .. lots of info gathering power


Spell Casting:
 Caster level 17th(20th with Practiced Caster)
 9th level Divine Spells

Turn Undead:
 Base Turn Undead(without items):
 as 17th lvl Cleric +2(paragnostic apostle:See thru the Veil)= 19th lvl Cleric


12th lvl Warlock:

Invocations:
Least:
 Eldritch Spear.........250' range EB
 Beguiling Influence....+6 Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate
 All Seeing Eyes.........+6 Search, Spot, and Continuous Comprehend Languages

Lesser:
 Eldritch Chain.........3 targets
 Voracious Dispelling..Dispel Magic and Damage target
 Fell Flight................24 hour Flight

Greater:
 Chilling Tentacles.......Evards Tentacles with Cold damage

what makes this fun and Powerful......the Class Ability: Gift of the Divine.....he must use a Turn Undead Attempt to power it......but if he picks Healing Blast...he can Heal with his EB....and can do it at great Range with Eldritch Spear, or heal multiple targets with Eldritch Chain

 also he can Buff himself with buffs that make the most of the important Attributes(Wis(spells,save,skills(Spot,L isten)& Cha(Turning,Diplomacy,Bluff))

 he has continuous at will abilities that do not expend any spells....but he can also use DMM(Persistant) for more fun(Shapechange,Improved Blink)

 Also his Bardic Knowledge from Cloistered Cleric and Paragnostic Apostle Stack:
 +7 to knowledge checks....... helps with Knowledge Devotion to gain bonuses for combat

 1 Warlock 1: extend spell
 2 Warlock 2
 3 Cloisterd Cleric 1: Persistant Spell
 4 Cloisterd Cleric 2:
 5 Cloisterd Cleric 3:
 6 Eldritch Disciple 1: Divine Metamagic Persistant
 7 Eldritch Disciple 2:
 8 Eldritch Disciple 3:
 9 Eldritch Disciple 4: Knowledge Devotion......gain Insight bonuses to Hit and Damage
 10 Eldritch Disciple 5:
 11 Eldritch Disciple 6:
 12 Eldritch Disciple 7:Summon Elemental(reserve).....unlimited supply of cannon fodder
 13 Eldritch Disciple 8:
 14 Eldritch Disciple 9:
 15 Eldritch Disciple10: Practiced Caster(Cleric)
 16 Contemplative 1
 17 Paragnostic Apostle 1
 18 Paragnostic Apostle 2..Dimensional Reach(reserve).... unlimited Retrieve
 19 Paragnostic Apostle 3
 20 Paragnostic Apostle 4


Paragnostic Apostle abilities apply to Warlock abilities also:
Knowledge is Power: Manifest Ethos(Good)
Knowledge is Power: Accurate Retort
Knowledge is Power: Penetrating Insight
Knowledge is Power:See through the Veil
[/spoiler]

Warlock/Wizard gestalt build by fil kearney:
 warlock6/wizard1/warlock+2/wizard+1/warlock+2/wizard+1/warlock+2/wizard+1/warlock+4/
/artificer5/trapsmith1/swiftblade10/abchamp4
[spoiler]
 I only play gestalt, so I always think gestalt.
 BAB 18
 16th level warlock dark invocation and 7d6 blasts
 14th level wizard casting (because I spaced out the wizard levels just right amidst the switblade)
 pure artificer cheeze with warlock UMD kicker for anything you want to build
 full swiftblade build with 7th level wizard spells for 2 round timestop
 I couldn't quite get abchamp 5 for the bab= 19th level casting.


 I allow two PrC's at a time in my gestalt game, but I wanted to keep this one "street legal" for the kids at home.
 considering the extra actions fromt he swkiftblade, I'd probably go ranged blaster/buffer/controller.... but I suppose hideous blow twice a round with the haste buffs would make a fantastic skirmisher as wll. fell flight and flyby attack-- blast and fly by hideous blow,or vice versa. Lotta options here.
[/spoiler]

Super Holy Warrior by Carnivore

Illumian(CG)
 sigils:
 Krau(+1/ sigil to Caster lvl)
 Naen(+1/ sigil to Int skills and Int checks)


Patron:
Lirr(CD) Chaos, Good, Knowledge, Magic, Travel

Domains: Knowledge,Travel Sun

Warlock 1/ Cleric 4/ Eldritch Disciple 8/ Knight of the Raven 7 (Ravenloft)
[spoiler]
BAB +16
 17th lvl Cleric(20th lvl Divine Caster... without items)
 9th lvl Spells
 17th lvl Cleric Turning

9th lvl Warlock powers( 3 least, 2 lesser, 5d6 EB)
 least:
 Eldritch Glaive .........5d6 Melee touch attacks
 Beguiling Influence....+6 Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate
 All Seeing Eyes.........+6 Search, Spot, and Continuous Comprehend Languages

 Lesser:
 Flee the Scene ........ Dimension Door and Invisible
 Fell Flight................ 24 hour Flight

Eldritch Disciple:
 Gift of the Divine: Healing Blast...heal @ range with EB
 Gift of the Divine: Protective Aura .. Magic Circle
 Gift of the Divine: Wild Frenzy .... +2 Attack and Damage with Weapons or EB

Feats:....could be any

 Enhanced Power Sigil........ need for skill and CL boost
 Combat Reflexes
 Summon Elemental(reserve) ...... want this one
 Knowledge Devotion(domain) ..... want this one
 Practiced Caster(cleric) ............ Need this one
 Touch of Healing(reserve)
 Robilars Gambit

or could do DMM(Persistant) ... like this:

 Enhanced Power Sigil
 Extend Spell
 Persistant Spell
 Divine Metamagic(Persistant)
 Summon Elemental(reserve)
 Knowledge Devotion(domain)
 Practiced Caster(Cleric)


 other Patrons that can work with this:

 Syret(CG)(Illumian) Chaos,Sun,Travel (Mace)
Haku(CG)(Sandstorm)Air,Chaos,Good,Protection,Travel(Scimitat)
Zoser(CN)(Sandstorm)Air,Chaos,Destruction,Sand,Summer (Spiked Chain)
Bast(CG)(Egyptian)Chaos,Destruction,Protection,Strength,War(Spiked Gauntlet)
 Nephthys(CG)(Egyptian)Chaos,Good,Protect ion,Repose(Mace)
 Nanna-Sin(CG)(Babylonian)Chaos,Luck,Good(Battl e Axe)
 Utu(CG)Babylonian)Chaos,Fire,Good,Sun(Sc imitar)
 Lirr(CG)(Complete Divine Core)Chaos,Good,Knowledge,Magic,Travel(R apier)
 Tritherion(CG)(Complete Divine-Core)Chaos,Good,Liberation,Summoner(Spea r)
 Kord(CG)(Core)Chaos,Good,Luck,Strength(G reat Sword)

what makes this great:

 1)BAB+16.... 4 itterative attacks without Divine Power, and all are Melee Touch Attacks with Eldritch Glaive(5d6 damage each)

 2)17th lvl Cleric(in all respects), 9th lvl Spells.... 20th lvl Caster level without anything else yet

 3)9th lvl Warlock abilities

 4)Retributive Attacker = lots of Attacks.... if you even swing at him he gets to immediately hit back, and gets a boost from Knowledge checks to Attack and Damage... with a good roll and Wild Frenzy .... additional +7 Attack and Damage with Touch Attacks

 5)Great Endurance .... all day power from Warlock and Reserve Feats

 6)handles anything thrown at it
[/spoiler]

Hellbred Eldritch Disciple by ksbsnowowl
Hellbred (Spirit Aspect) Cleric 3/Warlock 2/Eldritch Disciple 4/Hellfire Warlock 3/Eldritch Disciple 5-10
[spoiler]
 ..1. Cleric 1 - Extra Turning
 ..2. Warlock 1
 ..3. Cleric 2 - Battle Caster
 ..4. Warlock 2
 ..5. Cleric 3
 ..6. Eldritch Disciple 1 - Touch of Healing [Reserve]
 ..7. Eldritch Disciple 2
 ..8. Eldritch Disciple 3
 ..9. Eldritch Disciple 4 - Mitigate Suffering [Reserve]
 10. Hellfire Warlock 1
 11. Hellfire Warlock 2
 12. Hellfire Warlock 3 - Craft Wand
 13. Eldritch Disciple 5
 14. Eldritch Disciple 6
 15. Eldritch Disciple 7 - ?
 16. Eldritch Disciple 8
 17. Eldritch Disciple 9
 18. Eldritch Disciple 10 - ?

 With a 28 point buy I’d assign stats as Str 10 (2), Dex 14 (6), Con 13 (8 for a 15, -2 racial), Int 10 (2), Wis 12 (4), Cha 16 (6 for a 14, +2 racial). He does have MAD, needing a decent Wisdom and good Charisma. How would you do it differently?

With a 36 point buy I'd assign stats as Str 10 (2), Dex 14 (6), Con 14 (10 for a 16, -2 racial), Int 12 (4), Wis 14 (6), Cha 17 (8 for a 15, +2 racial).

 At 18th level he has a Cleric caster level of 12, and an Invoking level of 15 (Eldritch Blast 7d6). When boosting a Healing Blast with Hellfire, he can heal 13d6 damage to one or several allies (via the Eldritch Cone blastshape invocation) for a mere Turning Attempt. With an average Charisma (15 +4 levels = 19) he can do so 11 times a day, in addition to the free healing he’ll get from the healing reserve feat he has.
[/spoiler]
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 06, 2008, 01:25:08 PM
Hi all. Sorry it's taken so long to get this up, the 4e transition was so awful it sapped me of all will to do D&D work. But it's here now, ready to help any who need it.

If you take a look, it's obvious that I've got some formatting issues to deal with. Bear with me, what just got posted is what I posted to the WotC boards, with their formatting. Obviously, some things are different here. I'll try to get it cleaned up today and tomorrow.

Also, there are a couple of things I've wanted to add, so some new stuff might pop up sooner or later.

Edit: Well, I've fixed most of the formatting problems, with the exception of indenting. Anyone know how to indent things without using the List button (and its attendant bullets)?

Also, I added T_G's tips on using Wall of Gloom, which is something I've been meaning to do for months.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: anomalousman December 06, 2008, 04:40:08 PM
: Thinblade  December 06, 2008, 01:11:31 PM
The best save-requiring invocation is, far and away, UtterdarkNoxious Blast.

Fixed it for you. 

I've never understood the attraction of utterdark blast over noxious blast.  Negative levels are a good debuff, and after couple dozen hits where they fail a save, you can kill your opponent.  On the other hand, taking an opponent out for a minute is pretty much a one-hit save-or-die, and it comes much earlier.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal December 20, 2008, 02:45:39 AM
Has anyone ever come up with a good use for Hellspawned Grace? By the time you get it, it's not really that suitable as a combat form unless you have some sort of arcane/sneak attack build to take advantage of the invisibility. I guess it's not too bad as a utility form, especially for stealth, and it sort of lumps in darkvision/invisibility/scent if you didn't grab any of those earlier (plus telepathy).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 20, 2008, 12:35:45 PM
I haven't seen any, no. HG is at best mediocre at its power level, but probably too powerful as a lesser invocation. There are just too many good greater invocations for someone to want to take this.

Still... it is a polymorph effect. Does that help get into any extra PrC's? Nothing's coming to mind, but it's possible.

On a tangent, I'm seriously considering doubling the number of allowed invocations the next time I DM a warlock. There are just so many cool invocations that never get used because there are several really, really good ones. So, maybe with extra invocations some things like HG will actually see play.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: carnivore December 20, 2008, 03:13:48 PM
: Thinblade  December 20, 2008, 12:35:45 PM
On a tangent, I'm seriously considering doubling the number of allowed invocations the next time I DM a warlock. There are just so many cool invocations that never get used because there are several really, really good ones. So, maybe with extra invocations some things like HG will actually see play.
a possible option:

allow the player to exchange one higher lvl Invocation for 2 lower level ones from next level Lower, or 4 from 2 levels lower, or some combination of this, 1 next lvl lower and 2 from 2 lvls lower, etc....

 :D
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal December 20, 2008, 03:44:51 PM
Now if Hellspawned Grace let you keep your class features, that would be awesome. Either that or give a choice between several forms (but not both, that might be a little too strong). Now if only there were some equivalent wildshaping class for warlocks, that would be fun.
: Thinblade  December 20, 2008, 12:35:45 PM
On a tangent, I'm seriously considering doubling the number of allowed invocations the next time I DM a warlock. There are just so many cool invocations that never get used because there are several really, really good ones. So, maybe with extra invocations some things like HG will actually see play.
I think the simplest would be to start with 2 and gain 1 invocation per level. Hmm, or leave the table as is, but instead treat it like the spirit shaman, so the warlock chooses which invocations he can use each day.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus December 21, 2008, 01:35:29 AM
Rather than double the number of invocations (which is NOT a bad idea, mind you) why not allow the Extra Invocation feat to an invocation up to the level of invocation you can know at the time (this would probably not be a good idea if retraining were allowed, but it is mimicked by it)?

Also the Humanoid Shape invocation looks to me like it should allow for entry into Warshaper (you have the change shape ability), but it's not airtight. Plus it's only a DFA invocation (though that shouldn't stop you either...;))
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 22, 2008, 02:43:10 AM
I've always thought that if someone as feat-starved as a warlock wanted to spend a feat on Extra Invocation, they should get one up to their current max. That seems a fair trade, to me, especially when compared to, say, Quicken SLA.

And Chemus, good catch on Humanoid Shape. I didn't write most of the invocation summaries, so its exclusion was not intentional. Looking at it now, I don't see why it wouldn't be something a warlock could take, especially since it fits an "infiltrator type" that includes things like beguiling influence.

Looking at Warshaper, I agree that it's now completely open to warlocks using that invocation. The best part is that it's essentially free, just requiring one really good invocation and +4 BAB. I probably wouldn't go more than 2 levels, but that gets you an essentially-permanent +4 Str/Con, in addition to immunity to stunning and morphic weapons. Maybe add it to a Shadowpounce build to really make Nightcrawler? Though those builds are crazy enough as it is, and take a large enough hit to warlock casting.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal December 22, 2008, 03:52:23 AM
Going up to Warshaper 4 isn't a bad option either, especially if you're doing a Glaivelock. The extra reach especially, although fast healing is always nice.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: sombrastewart December 24, 2008, 04:06:27 AM
I wish I could tell you which book this feat is out of, but Supernatural Transformation will change your Eldritch Blast from a spell-like ability to a supernatural ability, meaning it would be unaffected by SR.  While maybe not the greatest use of a feat, I don't think it's not worth it, either.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus December 24, 2008, 04:38:22 AM
: sombrastewart  December 24, 2008, 04:06:27 AM
I wish I could tell you which book this feat is out of, but Supernatural Transformation will change your Eldritch Blast from a spell-like ability to a supernatural ability, meaning it would be unaffected by SR.  While maybe not the greatest use of a feat, I don't think it's not worth it, either.

Supernatural Transformation is from a 3.0 book: Savage Species. My understanding is that it only works on innate SLA's, and has been ruled ineffective vs. invocations.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Celsius December 24, 2008, 05:05:16 AM
Actually I think it's rather overrated. Besides, if you turn your eldritch blast into a supernatural ability, you would have to use the inferior ToM supernatural feats in order to metamagick it, which gives less uses per day. I guess it's usage is conditional, and the drawbacks are just too great for my liking..
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade December 26, 2008, 01:57:45 AM
It generally has been considered to not work with invocations and eldritch blast, which is why it's not in the guide. That was actually one of the early debates about the warlock, and it got resolved much better than later debates like whether or not you can use Strongheart Vest to offset hellfire blast.

But thanks for posting, that's how the guide grows.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: sombrastewart December 26, 2008, 06:07:33 PM
Fair enough.  I didn't know that had been shot down.  I used it in a build for my brother's level 18 warlock.  He had all of one metamagic feat (Sudden Still for Flee the Scene) because he was new to 3.5 at the time.  It came in quite handy for him, still hitting enemies that were supposed to thwart the casters.

This was the same guy that transformed a Giant Spider into a duck, but it made the save to keep its abilities, so it was dripping poison from its bill.  Honestly, that's one of the better results I've ever seen from a polymorph.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal January 12, 2009, 03:08:05 AM
No mention of Urban Savant from Cityscape? Relatively easy prereqs and advances casting 9/10. Quite good for a city based campaign and grants some archivist like abilities in terms of identifying enemy weakness, etc.

Also, prestige bard is an option for Warlocks if they have the correct invocations (something like walk unseen, charm, and see the unseen)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade January 28, 2009, 12:55:29 AM
Cityscape is a book that I own, but I think I've read it maybe twice since buying it, and I completely missed Urban Savant. However, I disagree that it's especially easy entry. It's got the nice bit of not losing the caster level until level 10, but warlocks don't get any of the three required knowledge skills, nor do they get bardic music. Educated would probably be required to make it work, which requires either FR or EB material. Still, it's a good class despite those caveats, so I'll write it up.

I hadn't thought of prestige bard, and there I have less excuse since I do use UA. But the Perform 8 req is going to throw a wrench in any plans. It's late and my brain isn't working, anyone have a better way of getting Perform as a class skill besides the Apprentice feat?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Nanshork January 28, 2009, 01:07:21 AM
Aereni Focus from Player's Guide to Eberron, requires being an elf though.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: TheChrisWaits January 28, 2009, 01:12:32 AM
If the DM allows Dragon, there's a feat called Flexible Mind in issue 326. You'd have to spend a couple points on a cross-class rank, but you get a +1 bonus for your trouble.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade February 01, 2009, 12:43:12 AM
A whole bunch of updates today, pulling from a variety of sources. I've added two races (hengeyokai and hellbred), a couple of PrC's (blood magus, urban savant, warshaper), and an invocation (humanoid form). I also finally finished the formatting. It turns out that the "list" tag can be used in the same was as the "indent" tag over on 339. If you don't add the "li" tag, the objects don't get the bullets that had been annoying me.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus February 01, 2009, 07:01:16 AM
I don't see the Humanoid Shape review you mention...

It's one of my favorites; so if you want a writeup, I can make one at the drop of a hat of disguise.

The only thing I need now is an invocation that allows detect thoughts and I'm a doppelganger.  :flutter
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade February 01, 2009, 11:47:38 AM
Argh. You're right, I missed it. I was updating 339 and here and the two Word docs that contain the entire formatted handbook, and somehow it didn't get added to one of those four. AND I had several formatting errors. Not my best night.

It's in now, in the invocation section. However, if you want to do a larger write-up of good forms or other tricks, I'd be happy to post it in the Miscellany section. To be honest, I wish I had more "neat stuff you can do with X invocation" than just "Warlock level 1" and "Wall of Gloom."
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus February 01, 2009, 05:05:44 PM
Well, any race with a swim speed helps immensely in an aquatic setting, and the mountain spirit folk have a climb speed (Spider Walk Invocation can be retrained, except for the web crawling bit). Asabi have a burrow speed, a poison sting on their prehensile tail, and are listed as humanoid in MoF, but apparently have been updated into the monstrous humanoid category in 3.5...*sigh*

I'm trying to find humanoids with an extraordinary special attack so that it can be gained via the Change Shape special ability... Having a little difficulty. (Obviously, I'm looking for something juicy/abusable)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita February 01, 2009, 05:33:46 PM
The naga in Oriental Adventures, including the Huge(!) Constrictor Naga, are Humanoids. There's a 3.5 update for OA where they're Monstrous Humanoids, but that's in Dragon IIRC, so this might actually fly.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus February 01, 2009, 08:33:01 PM
Heh. Yeah, but if the compilation is assuming that hengoyokai are updated via Dragon, probably have to assume that Naga are updated via Dragon too...

So far I've only found the forestkith goblins (MMIII) that gets you a puny (ex) attack; Discordant Frenzy. Only works vs. 2HD or less. Save is Cha based though.

edit 1: Mephlings (PH) are Humanoid (extraplanar) creatures that grant small size and some interesting abilities, mostly tied to movement: Air gives 10' fly (perf), Earth gives a 10' burrow speed, and Water grants 30' swim. All 4 types have 30' land move. Too bad breath weapons are (Su) by default.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: jha85 February 27, 2009, 04:16:07 PM
I'm currently in a part that don't have any character with trapfinding. I found the invocation "All Seeing Eyes" from complete mage and was wondering if it would be to much/overpowered to alter it slightly to grant Trapfinding and +6 on search, removing the 'Comprehend Languages' and +6 on spot..

Too much for a least Invocation?

If it is,
Lesser:
Trapfinding
+6 Search
+6 Spot
(+6 Listen?)

Don't really wanna use a Lesser invocation :pout
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade February 27, 2009, 08:42:19 PM
I think Trapfinding and +6 on search is fine for a least. After all, an incarnate can have trapfinding at level 4 through a hands chakra bind, and you could get it through a one level dip in thief. There's also Call of the Beast for an example of a least giving a low-level class ability. My opinion is go for it.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Corania August 31, 2009, 09:48:43 PM
I just ran across a magic item in Dragon that might be very useful to you warlock types and thought I would drop you a line on it:

Dragon Magazine 356, page 70
Might Stone
+2 luck bonus on saves against spells and spell-like abilities
Allows you to give a spell known, power known or invocation to it to gain various bonuses on other spells, powers or invocations used... including some nice ones for the warlock

Corania
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Sommunist September 02, 2009, 03:35:32 AM
I'm sure someone else has pointed this out by now, but if not here it is:

Cheesegrater's chargelock build isn't legal - it's human and has Headlong Rush, which is only available to orcs and half-orcs.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: InnaBinder September 10, 2009, 01:21:59 PM
Multiple choice question!  Hindering Blast (CM p.124) is:
d) On the list, Binder.  Put some frelling ranks in Spot, for Pun-Pun's sake.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Korimyr the Rat September 16, 2009, 11:02:05 PM
Probably right about darkness being mostly useless for a pure Warlock, but combined with devil's sight it makes Warlock 3 a good dip for a Rogue. 2d6 on a touch attack is better than anything else they'll be able to make a ranged sneak attack with on a surprise round, and the darkness means they'll pretty much always be able to sneak attack anything that's susceptible.

Good for reaching the vitals of things too big to skewer with your dagger, too.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Bauglir September 17, 2009, 01:00:07 AM
Combine Darkness invocation with the feats in Drow of the Underdark that require a Darkness spell-like ability for good times.

I mean, if nobody'd noticed that before. Can't see it in the handbook, though.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 September 17, 2009, 01:17:45 AM
Notes on The Dead Walk:

The real use of this invocation is to be a sort of toolbox necromancer.  You don't create hoardes of undead.  You collect corpses, throwing them in Bags of Holding or Portable Holes until you need a specific zombie or skeleton (or are in a situation where a particular one would be useful).  Then, pull out the suitable corpse, animate it, and stuff the corpse back in when the duration expires (possibly before).

It also lets you create allies in the middle of a battle with multiple enemies.  They can be rather helpful, though not necessarily fighting directly.

If you really feel that a particular skeleton or zombie would be useful on a more permanant basis (such as a centaur zombie for a very good packhorse), then Dead Walk gives you the option (although I would personally just recast the invocation).  Use of this feature is animating a minion to stand gaurd somewhere or to stay with someone that you won't be with all the time.

The invocation isn't that powerful, but it can be dead useful and a worthwhile choice if used correctly.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: gorfnad September 28, 2009, 08:35:25 PM
I'm kinda partial to the following build for Warlocks
Warlock 4/ Binder 1/ Ur-Priest 2/ Eldritch Disciple 10/ Hellfire Warlock 3
9th level spells, 1 dark invocation, 8d6 Eldritch Blast with 6d6 Hellfire. Binding Naberius "offsets" the damage from the Hellfire. Divine Power + Eldritch Glaive (with the possibility of Fell Flight + Flyby Attack) is definitely the melee option for this build.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: KellKheraptis September 28, 2009, 09:31:52 PM
: gorfnad  September 28, 2009, 08:35:25 PM
I'm kinda partial to the following build for Warlocks
Warlock 4/ Binder 1/ Ur-Priest 2/ Eldritch Disciple 10/ Hellfire Warlock 3
9th level spells, 1 dark invocation, 8d6 Eldritch Blast with 6d6 Hellfire. Binding Naberius "offsets" the damage from the Hellfire. Divine Power + Eldritch Glaive (with the possibility of Fell Flight + Flyby Attack) is definitely the melee option for this build.

Subtract one from ED, and add it to warlock, on a hellbred, and that is my exact build on WotW.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: deuxhero October 18, 2009, 11:31:51 PM
It is stated DFA invocations would require DM intervention. Not true, one feat published on a web article is basically extra evocation and lets you take another classes evocations. A DFA handbook I saw recommended warlocks take the the infinite identify one. The handbook links to it, so it be findable if the thread survived The Conception the upgrade.

How would some of the variant invocations used in Neverwinter Nights 2 rank if allowed? Some of the intresting ones include +4 dex and tumble as a least (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Leaps_and_Bounds), polymorph self into a horned devil as dark (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Word_of_Changing) (no equipment, but NWN2 broken polymorph code can be blamed), haste as lesser (http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Flee_the_Scene), and Dark Ones Own luck effects all 3 saves.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: gorfnad November 10, 2009, 03:14:53 AM
Another race to consider for Warlocks is Beguiler from Shining South. +6 Dex, +2 Int, small size, natural attacks, climb speed, hide bonus, and True Sight are really quite snazzy (roll an 18 for a stat, place it Dex, and you're looking at a +8 to hit with your Eldritch Blast at 1st level). The -4str hurts but is really not necessary anyways for a warlock. With Invocations and a high Bluff check you can pretend to be another party member's very powerful familiar.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: DavidWL November 29, 2009, 02:17:11 AM
I don't know much about the warlock, but for a sniper version, it seems like woodland archer might be nice ...

woodland archer +
darkstalker +
Nightmare's made real

At higher levels there is the invocation which gives greater invisibility, but at higher levels this can often be seen through ...

Thoughts?

Best,
David
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: DavidWL November 29, 2009, 02:24:56 AM
Oh, also:

Primordial Half Giant:

Medium
-2 Str
-2 Dex
+4 Int
+4 Cha

Invisibility at will
+1 CL
+2 Spellcraft and UMD
+2 power points
low light vision
powerful build

Not bad for +1 LA

Best,
David

EDIT - just saw it was in the guide.  Oops.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo December 28, 2009, 02:22:55 PM
I know this isn't great, but I was reading the Song of the Sorcelator and got to thinking... and then hilarity ensued... with predictable results.
 
The Witchalock!

Binder1/Warlock5/Ur Priest2/Eldritch Disciple8/Hellfire Warlock3 who dual wields wands. Because everyone knows that is totally pimp.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: ninjarabbit December 29, 2009, 12:43:25 PM
Here's a fairly simple monk-lock build:

monk2/warlock4/enlightenedfist10/x4

x could be 4 more warlock levels and/or PrC levels

Monk abilities as a 12th level monk, up to 16th level warlock innovation progression, granted most of the EF's abilities don't work with the warlock but it gives you another angle to consider.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo December 29, 2009, 01:04:27 PM
Does a warlock qualify for EF? I thought it didn't meet the prerequisites of "casts spells of 2nd level or higher"
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: ninjarabbit December 29, 2009, 02:48:44 PM
: Solo  December 29, 2009, 01:04:27 PM
Does a warlock qualify for EF? I thought it didn't meet the prerequisites of "casts spells of 2nd level or higher"

EF only requires a CL of 3
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo December 30, 2009, 07:39:41 AM
Fascinating.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Viletta Vadim December 30, 2009, 02:53:56 PM
I've always wondered where the alignment restriction comes from.  Looking at the Warlock's alignment section, it says they're often chaotic and often evil, but it doesn't seem to say that's a requirement in any way.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus December 30, 2009, 03:02:03 PM
As long as you want to continue taking levels in warlock, you must be any chaotic or evil. You lose no abilities if you don't meet these requirements, but you can't take more levels.

This is an instance of fluff being worded softer than rules text. Hell, you can become L/N and still take hellfire warlock, but not warlock. It's goofy, but RAW.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: PhaedrusXY December 30, 2009, 04:15:11 PM
: Chemus  December 30, 2009, 03:02:03 PM
As long as you want to continue taking levels in warlock, you must be any chaotic or evil. You lose no abilities if you don't meet these requirements, but you can't take more levels.

This is an instance of fluff being worded softer than rules text. Hell, you can become L/N and still take hellfire warlock, but not warlock. It's goofy, but RAW.
Really goofy. So there are no infernal warlocks? Unless they "change sides" and become a Hellfire Warlock? I guess the authors of the original Warlock class never heard of The Nine Hells of Perdition, and Devils that like to give mortals power in exchange for their souls.  :banghead This restriction makes even less sense than the monk one.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus December 30, 2009, 05:49:40 PM
No, you can be a N/E or L/E warlock, but not N/G, L/G, or L/N. It's like the druid's, bards and barbarian's restrictions. The fluff doesn't support it well, and I hate the flavor myself (Love tha abilities though).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Viletta Vadim December 30, 2009, 06:11:33 PM
: Chemus  December 30, 2009, 03:02:03 PM
As long as you want to continue taking levels in warlock, you must be any chaotic or evil. You lose no abilities if you don't meet these requirements, but you can't take more levels.

This is an instance of fluff being worded softer than rules text. Hell, you can become L/N and still take hellfire warlock, but not warlock. It's goofy, but RAW.
*Checks.*  You're right.  That's really dumb.  That's really, really dumb.  Particularly since all you have to do to become a Warlock with regards to fluff is be born to some lineage that has something to do with some moderately dark cosmic overpower.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: KellKheraptis December 30, 2009, 06:24:55 PM
: Viletta Vadim  December 30, 2009, 06:11:33 PM
: Chemus  December 30, 2009, 03:02:03 PM
As long as you want to continue taking levels in warlock, you must be any chaotic or evil. You lose no abilities if you don't meet these requirements, but you can't take more levels.

This is an instance of fluff being worded softer than rules text. Hell, you can become L/N and still take hellfire warlock, but not warlock. It's goofy, but RAW.
*Checks.*  You're right.  That's really dumb.  That's really, really dumb.  Particularly since all you have to do to become a Warlock with regards to fluff is be born to some lineage that has something to do with some moderately dark cosmic overpower.

Moderately dark or fey :)  Love my unseelie warlocks.  My Eldritch Theurge with that template ended up with like DR 15/Cold Iron or something...not quite a DK, but not too shabby.

EDIT : And this means among other things that you can wade right through the average army with impunity, which is very warlock-y IMO :P  Roll in an item giving Cleave and Great Cleave, and start chopping down the mortals with EG :D
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Viletta Vadim December 30, 2009, 07:36:59 PM
Oh, unseelie are dark.  Unseelie are really dark.  In fact, the fey courts as a whole are pretty damn vicious.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: KellKheraptis December 30, 2009, 07:54:22 PM
: Viletta Vadim  December 30, 2009, 07:36:59 PM
Oh, unseelie are dark.  Unseelie are really dark.  In fact, the fey courts as a whole are pretty damn vicious.

Not all fey are unseelie though.  I will admit the fun ones are, and the unseelie are dark as hell...but then again I've never been one to shy away from that :P  Hellfire is like Rabies in D2...everything tastes better with Rabies!
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Viletta Vadim December 30, 2009, 09:20:54 PM
I'd still classify any fey that make Warlocks as at least moderately dark.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: KellKheraptis December 30, 2009, 09:42:18 PM
: Viletta Vadim  December 30, 2009, 09:20:54 PM
I'd still classify any fey that make Warlocks as at least moderately dark.

That's a psychological bias.  Gifting someone's family with power isn't remotely evil, dark, or otherwise bad.  Intent matters, after all, though attempting to quantify something as evil simply for its thought process is about as fishy (read : inherently wrong and a mind crime) as attempting to mark "conspiracy" to do anything as a crime.  Personal bias there, and in a sense a minirant on the justice system here, but the principle still applies.  There isn't anything inherently evil with throwing a little extra into the mix.  Inherently chaotic (read : unethical) I'll definitely give you though, as that'd have to violate every law of every land, everywhere :P
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Viletta Vadim December 30, 2009, 11:29:49 PM
'Dark' and 'evil' are two different thing.  You can have a sweet, innocent being with nothing but the purest of intentions who grants five-year-old girls the power to blow peoples' heads up for all the best reasons.  It's still dark.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus December 30, 2009, 11:40:22 PM
That's it. I must now play a halfling little girl with warlock powers.

The 'chaotic or evil' segment was possibly intended as a sort of balancing against monk or paladin multiclassing in goodly parties. I dunno. I dislike the flavor of the 'evil-darkness' warlock. I really like the class's mechanic, and would like to see more abilities. I see the warlock as the real vehicle to making demons/dragons/medusae et. al., available as PC's. LA be damned!
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita December 30, 2009, 11:51:18 PM
: Chemus  December 30, 2009, 11:40:22 PM
That's it. I must now play a halfling little girl with warlock powers.
Check out our local game Death of an Artist. That's exactly what I'm playing. :D
Okay, so the little girl is batshit insane.
: Playing a Warlock
: snakeman830 January 26, 2010, 04:00:43 PM
Warlocks play very differently from traditional casters.  They’re far more limited in capabilities than even battle sorcerers, but they are also among the most reliable classes out there.  Your party can expect you to do certain things at any time and any number of times and you will not disappoint.  Spamming is the name of the game with Warlocks, so have at it.  Remember: if your invocations are dispelled, you can always replace them.

One other thing that’s different about Warlocks is that their role changes as they advance in levels.  Most casters improve on what they can do from level one, doing the same objectives in new or better ways.  Warlocks gain access to whole new functions as they advance.  This is what I will largely be addressing.

Level 1:
Your first invocation is important.  If you take an Eldritch Essence or Shape invocation, then you’re focused on blasting for now, no way around it.  Sickening Blast acts as a small debuff, but you’re still blasting.  This is fine.  Unlike a wizard or a sorcerer, you can do this at low levels because you’re never going to run out of ammo.  You’re doing less damage than the Fighter, but again, that’s fine.  It’s his job to provide the big damage.  Your job is to bring reliable damage (even at low levels, touch attacks are noticeably easier to make).  This is true of all Warlocks at level 1, no matter what invocation they chose.  I personally would choose another invocation at 1st level from a blast-modifying one just so you have a little in the way of options.

Level 2:
You get your second invocation.  Again, I would personally choose one that’s not blast-modifying (I’ll explain later why), but it’s your choice.  Use your invocations as you will.  On the blasting front, nothing has changed.

However, you just gained another new ability that is possibly more important.  Detect Magic is a fantastic ability to have at-will.  Outside of combat (and occasionally in), spam it.  The applications are great.  Scan all of the treasure you get.  You know exactly what is magical and what isn’t, which can help you out greatly, even if it’s just saving the party wizard time and money when he casts Identify (note: grabbing an Artificier’s Monocle from MIC can let you do all of the identification yourself).  Scan doors that you come across for magical locks or traps.  This can save some effort on the Rogue’s part as now he just has to disable them.  In combat, this can act as a poor-man’s see invisibility (although you may have picked up the real thing by now), but is more important in determining if your foe is buffed at all (no time for the concentration unless you’re undetected).  Even in the high levels, this is an astoundingly useful ability.

Level 3:
Well, now you don’t have to worry quite as much about being attacked.  Cold Iron is rare, but I still wouldn’t go putting myself in harm’s way.  Other than this, your Eldritch Blast damage has increased and that’s it.

Level 4:
 You get another invocation (if you chose Summon Swarm before, this is a good time to swap it for a different one), but you had better have been investing skill points into Use Magic Device.  Now you are more reliable than ever with this.  Expect to be handed any wands or scrolls from obscure spell lists as well as any items with special requirements that nobody fulfills.  You don’t really get new capabilities, but now you are the official toolbox for the party.

Level 5:
Your Eldritch Blast damage increases again, but otherwise, nothing new.

Level 6:
Your invocation options have just changed drastically.  If you choose, you can dispel magic in a couple of different ways.  Combined with your Detect Magic ability, you can take care of some magical traps from a safe distance (very few have 30ft range) or you can debuff foes.  Charm and The Dead Walk can create allies from foes (one for living, the other for dead).  Fell Flight and Flee the Scene both add quite a bit of maneuverability to you while Walk Unseen is unmatched in duration for invisibility (at least until Superior Invisibility comes on the scene).  Wall of Gloom is the first battlefield control invocation available, but it takes a bit more effort to use effectively.  Eldritch Chain can be handy later, and this is possibly the only blast shape invocation I would actually pick up as an invocation known.  Also of note is that you can now select the Extra Invocation feat to gain a new Least Invocation.

Level 7:
Your damage reduction increases a little and your eldritch blast damage does as well.  Other than that, you’re playing the same game as before.  It’s probably a good time to lay off the blasting unless you have nothing better to do, since your damage is fading in effectiveness quickly.  Your damage is still incredibly reliable, though.

Level8:
Another invocation to expand on your abilities, but you also gain Fiendish Resilience.  How you use it is up to you, but a free 20 points of healing each day isn’t bad.  Also, if you decided to go the Glaivelock route, you can now make a second attack, which is handy.

Level 9:
More EB damage and otherwise nothing of note

Level 10:
You gain energy resistance to two types of your choice.  This is a nice little feature, although not necessarily a strong one.  You’re a little more resilient is all.  Far more important is the additional invocation.

Level 11:
Now things are getting more interesting.  You gain some options in what you can do but the biggie is Battlefield Control.  All but one of the battlefield control invocations is Greater grade and now you have access to them.  Now you can do it almost as well as the Big 5 and are probably better at it for large-scale battles due to your ability to spam.  The only battlefield control Eldritch Essence is now available (Repelling Blast) and is well-combined with Eldritch Chain (by now, you know my personal stance on these).  You have a couple of other options, but those are mostly just slightly better versions of earlier invocations.  The exception is Vitrolic Blast which once again makes blasting attractive (with it ignoring spell resistance and doing ongoing damage).  Now you can use the Extra Invocation feat to grab Lesser Invocations as well.  Finally, your Eldritch Blast damage and DR both increase.

Level 12:
If you were taking item creation feats, now you get a nice, juicy bonus.  You can create magic items like the Artificier, so be prepared to fill special orders if you did.  If you didn’t take any item creation feats, now might be a time to pick up one or two (Scribe Scroll is always handy)

Level 13:
A new invocation, but your fiendish resilience doubles in effectiveness.  Now you heal 40 points of damage for free each day (although it’s all in one go).

Level 14:
Another die of EB damage and nothing more

Level 15:
Yet another point of DR.  Nice, but it hardly matters at this point.  Again, the new invocation is far, far more important.  Glaivelocks can make their third attack now.

Level16:
Welcome to the scene Dark invocations.  Warlocks actually get access to their strongest invocations before Wizards get access to their strongest spells.  My personal favorite of the new options is Word of Changing, but arguments can be made for Utterdark Blast (making blasting worthwhile again) and Retributive Invisibility (if you’re blasting at this point, might as well go after their lowest possible AC).  Probably the single biggest new option for you is Path of Shadow.  Long-range movement is something that most other casters had to hold over your head, knowing you couldn’t do something similar without resorting to items.  Now you can take the whole party along at-will for some quick travelling.  Oh, and the Extra Invocation feat can now net you those Greater invocations.

Level17:
An extra die of EB damage and nothing else.

Level 18:
Another invocation and Fiendish Resiliance now heals you of 100 points per day.  Not bad.

Level19:
Another point of DR and that’s it.

Level 20:
You get another invocation, an extra die of EB damage, and now your resistances double…to 10.

So, after level 12, I would personally look for a full casting PrC that you qualify for.  Unfortunately, there aren’t many out there.

Now, I kept saying that I wouldn’t pick up Eldritch Essence or Blast Shape invocations.  The reason why is in Complete Mage.  Rods of Eldritch Power let you use a blast shape or essence invocation 5/day, although it takes a swift action to activate.  This means that you can pay gold for invocations and frankly, most of the blast-enhancing invocations are very situational on when they’re effective.  The only invocations that you can buy and I would actually select to know are Eldritch Chain, Vitrolic Blast, and Utterdark Blast because they are so useful in so many situations.

Note: the above is my personal view on the subject and is meant to be a general guide on the matter, not optimization advice.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 March 10, 2010, 05:00:41 PM
: Thinblade  December 06, 2008, 01:14:36 PM
Epic Fiendish Resilience: An extra fast healing 5 each time you take the feat is ok, but you still can only use it once per day. I would take this feat over Epic Eldritch Blast, but not over many of the other Epic feats. It could be useful for Melee Warlocks, if you are doing that. *+1/2

This is incorrect.  The first time you take the feat, it increases the fast healing to 25 for 5 minutes (instead of the usual 2).  Every additional time you take the feat, it increases the Fast Healing by another 5 and gives you an additional use per day.  May want to re-rate it with the correct information.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo March 24, 2010, 04:15:20 AM
Any thoughts on combining a Charisma Warlock and Marshal?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: bearsarebrown March 24, 2010, 09:54:25 PM
: Solo  March 24, 2010, 04:15:20 AM
Any thoughts on combining a Charisma Warlock and Marshal?
Dip Binder for super diplomacy?

Marshal doesn't have much to offer out of a one level dip to be honest.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo March 24, 2010, 10:13:34 PM
Cha to Knowledges combined with Otherwordly Whispers and Knowledge Devotion could be interesting.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita March 25, 2010, 02:52:51 PM
: Solo  March 24, 2010, 10:13:34 PM
Cha to Knowledges combined with Otherwordly Whispers and Knowledge Devotion could be interesting.
Well, after a certain point KD stops scaling, so there's not much point in pumping your Knowledges past +30 or so just for that (they may still be useful for info, of course).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo April 02, 2010, 01:18:51 AM
I must ask a few questions.

1. Can a Marshal/Binder/Warlock control a hivemind via Diplomacy?

2. 50 castings of Retributive Invisibility and a dose of self-dispelling via Relentless Dispelling. Will this produce a lot of damage on people around you?

3. Does Hellspawned Grace qualify a Warlock for Warshaper?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Akkristor April 02, 2010, 04:57:12 AM
I was reading through an older Dragon Magazine, and I found an interesting feat.

Dragon 358

Eldritch Claws
Requires 2d6 Eldritch Blast

As a free action, form your EB into two claws.  You can use them to make up to two claw attacks as natural weapons, and proficient, and add your unarmed strike damage too.
They stay until just before your next turn, so you also get AoOs.


It's not Eldritch Glaive, but it's better than Hideous Blow.  Since it's a feat, it's a SU ability, so it doesnt provoke AoOs to activate.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo April 02, 2010, 05:00:46 AM
Fascinating support for a Monk/Warlock.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 April 02, 2010, 11:49:13 AM
: Solo  April 02, 2010, 01:18:51 AM
3. Does Hellspawned Grace qualify a Warlock for Warshaper?
Yup!  At least it's an option.  I'm not sure how useful it actually is for you.  5th level Warshaper ability reduces Hellspawned Grace's casting time, though.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: deuxhero April 02, 2010, 12:04:39 PM
: Akkristor  April 02, 2010, 04:57:12 AM
I was reading through an older Dragon Magazine, and I found an interesting feat.

Dragon 358

Eldritch Claws
Requires 2d6 Eldritch Blast

As a free action, form your EB into two claws.  You can use them to make up to two claw attacks as natural weapons, and proficient, and add your unarmed strike damage too.
They stay until just before your next turn, so you also get AoOs.


It's not Eldritch Glaive, but it's better than Hideous Blow.  Since it's a feat, it's a SU ability, so it doesnt provoke AoOs to activate.

MonkUnarmed Swordsagelock?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal April 02, 2010, 03:34:38 PM
: Solo  April 02, 2010, 01:18:51 AM
2. 50 castings of Retributive Invisibility and a dose of self-dispelling via Relentless Dispelling. Will this produce a lot of damage on people around you?

Since you're targeting yourself with each casting, each subsequent casting will cancel the previous.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo April 02, 2010, 03:46:33 PM
Ah. Where are the stacking rules for this case?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal April 02, 2010, 04:08:47 PM
I'm sure the general spell stacking rules apply. Same/similar effects typically do not stack, or you take the best or newest casting.

There's this: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm#combiningMagicalEffects
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Prime32 April 03, 2010, 12:16:06 AM
: Akkristor  April 02, 2010, 04:57:12 AM
I was reading through an older Dragon Magazine, and I found an interesting feat.

Dragon 358

Eldritch Claws
Requires 2d6 Eldritch Blast

As a free action, form your EB into two claws.  You can use them to make up to two claw attacks as natural weapons, and proficient, and add your unarmed strike damage too.
They stay until just before your next turn, so you also get AoOs.


It's not Eldritch Glaive, but it's better than Hideous Blow.  Since it's a feat, it's a SU ability, so it doesnt provoke AoOs to activate.
I remember that feat. Rapidstrike + Tiger Claw boosts + mighty wallop anyone?

IIRC there was also an "eldritch grapple". Or maybe it was "grappling blast".
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: bearsarebrown April 03, 2010, 12:32:07 AM
Eldrich Grapple(or whatever) is awesome! I want to make a Gestalt Warlock/Black Blood Cultist(CoR). Full attack natural attacks + Eldirch blast damage on each grapple check is silly.  :lmao
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Prime32 April 04, 2010, 07:54:29 PM
: bearsarebrown  April 03, 2010, 12:32:07 AM
Eldrich Grapple(or whatever) is awesome! I want to make a Gestalt Warlock/Black Blood Cultist(CoR). Full attack natural attacks + Eldirch blast damage on each grapple check is silly.  :lmao
I always pictured it as Ganondorf's Up+B move from Super Smash Bros.

Grappling Blast [General]
While grappling a foe, you can discharge your eldritch blast.
Prerequisite: Improved Grapple, eldritch blast 3d6.
Benefit: Whenever you make a successful grapple check to deal damage, you may also discharge your eldritch blast against the foe you're grappling. You also gain a circumstance bonus on your next grapple check made within the next round equal to half the damage you deal with your eldritch blast. You may not add any blast shape invocations to your eldritch blast when using it in this manner.
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Grappling_Blast

EDIT: Huh. Combining that with Utterdark Blast could get you a pseudo-succubus. And now I remember where I wanted to use that feat - an FoP or symbiotic build.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal April 04, 2010, 08:19:49 PM
Wow, that's insane.

Warlock/Sentinel of Bharrai: You're a bear who mauls people and makes them explode... and then gets +20 to his next mauling. Repeat.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Optimator April 07, 2010, 08:59:22 PM
: Surreal  April 04, 2010, 08:19:49 PM
Wow, that's insane.

Warlock/Sentinel of Bharrai: You're a bear who mauls people and makes them explode... and then gets +20 to his next mauling. Repeat.

That's really cool.  I need to remember that.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Daedalus April 14, 2010, 12:22:32 PM
Complete Mage;

Fey Heritage & Fey Legacy give you Dimension Door, Confusion and Summon Nature's Ally V usable once every day each.  Which means that you can summon 1D3 Unicorns which can cast 3 CLW, 1 CMW & 1 Neutralize Poison each day to assist in healing if needed and still allows you to use the other 2 spells.  Seems useful?

The Fey Skin feat allows stacking with your innate DR.

Fiendish Heritage isn't much to write home about.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 April 14, 2010, 12:25:51 PM
Fey power gives +1 caster level and save DC's for Warlock invocations & enchantment spells (including the granted spell-like abilities from the other feats in the chain).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist April 14, 2010, 12:26:13 PM
The fey feats are generally overpriced.


Anyway, perhaps some advice for combining warlocks with psionic abilities would be a good idea.  Given that powers are apparently all SLAs, and all, it seems like there'd be a not-insignificant overlap between feats.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Prime32 April 27, 2010, 10:53:33 AM
I have found the solution to the problems with Eldritch Claws (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Eldritch_Claws). It's called Beast Strike (http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Beast_Strike).

Basically, if you keep your eldritch blast "turned off" your unarmed strikes deal double damage plus your eldritch blast damage. And you can still make secondary attacks with Eldritch Claws.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: deuxhero April 27, 2010, 08:50:24 PM
: Prime32  April 04, 2010, 07:54:29 PM
: bearsarebrown  April 03, 2010, 12:32:07 AM
Eldrich Grapple(or whatever) is awesome! I want to make a Gestalt Warlock/Black Blood Cultist(CoR). Full attack natural attacks + Eldirch blast damage on each grapple check is silly.  :lmao
I always pictured it as Ganondorf's Up+B move from Super Smash Bros.


Someone on Gleemax (pre-conception, wonder if the thread still exists) did stat him out as a Warlock.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Havok4 April 27, 2010, 09:22:16 PM
: deuxhero  April 27, 2010, 08:50:24 PM
: Prime32  April 04, 2010, 07:54:29 PM
: bearsarebrown  April 03, 2010, 12:32:07 AM
Eldrich Grapple(or whatever) is awesome! I want to make a Gestalt Warlock/Black Blood Cultist(CoR). Full attack natural attacks + Eldirch blast damage on each grapple check is silly.  :lmao
I always pictured it as Ganondorf's Up+B move from Super Smash Bros.


Someone on Gleemax (pre-conception, wonder if the thread still exists) did stat him out as a Warlock.
I remember that, also he made nice, flavorful, and non-broken use of craft contingent spell, which is fun to see.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Prime32 April 27, 2010, 09:23:52 PM
I was able to read that post a little while ago; I'll see if I can dig it up.

EDIT: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872510/Hmm,_kind_of_a_humourous_challenge._:P?post_id=338456954#338456954

That covers his OOT incarnation at least. For something more comprehensive you'd want to gestalt him with Warblade and/or Tome fighter (typically he can jump very high and has an unblockable kick).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: deuxhero April 27, 2010, 10:22:38 PM
: Prime32  April 27, 2010, 09:23:52 PM
I was able to read that post a little while ago; I'll see if I can dig it up.

EDIT: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872510/Hmm,_kind_of_a_humourous_challenge._:P?post_id=338456954#338456954

That covers his OOT incarnation at least. For something more comprehensive you'd want to gestalt him with Warblade and/or Tome fighter (typically he can jump very high and has an unblockable kick).

So it does still exist! Thanks.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Ferret May 28, 2010, 02:43:59 PM
Any thoughts on how one might write up/balance Ethereal Jaunt as a Greater Invocation?

Also Greater Mage Armor or Greater Luminous Armor?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo May 28, 2010, 02:50:28 PM
Give Etheral Jaunt a short duration and require concentration?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Havok4 May 28, 2010, 03:37:30 PM
Do it like they did in the Binder with the actions while ethereal being restricted. As it would be available at a higher level you might want to make it so standard actions are not allowed by the whole concentration thing. And mage armor would be a fine least invocation as a magic user can have it up all day anyway and it would only be of marginal utility as the warlock can wear a chain shirt.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: CantripN May 28, 2010, 03:45:59 PM
: Havok4  May 28, 2010, 03:37:30 PM
Do it like they did in the Binder with the actions while ethereal being restricted. As it would be available at a higher level you might want to make it so standard actions are not allowed by the whole concentration thing. And mage armor would be a fine least invocation as a magic user can have it up all day anyway and it would only be of marginal utility as the warlock can wear a chain shirt.

Seeing as you have a party, granting a Warlock an ability that an ally can just cast at him and have last all day is pointless. Either give him stuff you'll always want and need to cast repeatedly (Haste) or Personal/Rare Spells (Snowsong / Armor of Darkness).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Ferret May 28, 2010, 04:32:41 PM
: CantripN  May 28, 2010, 03:45:59 PM
: Havok4  May 28, 2010, 03:37:30 PM
Do it like they did in the Binder with the actions while ethereal being restricted. As it would be available at a higher level you might want to make it so standard actions are not allowed by the whole concentration thing. And mage armor would be a fine least invocation as a magic user can have it up all day anyway and it would only be of marginal utility as the warlock can wear a chain shirt.

Seeing as you have a party, granting a Warlock an ability that an ally can just cast at him and have last all day is pointless. Either give him stuff you'll always want and need to cast repeatedly (Haste) or Personal/Rare Spells (Snowsong / Armor of Darkness).

Well isn't Armor of Darkness a spiffy little spell. Noted for adaption.

Ethereal Jaunt is already pretty limited - I don't believe you can even cast spells/invoke from across the planar boundary, so you're basically just mobile/stealthy.  Giving an Invocations a short duration is kind of wonky, but making it rounds/lvl would keep it from being very useful in combat; perhaps restricting actions to 1 standard action OR 1 move action per round...?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: veovius June 01, 2010, 05:18:20 AM
First post! (I think....)

I'm in the middle of statting up a warlock, with some help from the people here and at GITP....I think he's going to end up like this :

Warlock 8 / Cloistered Cleric 1 / Hellfire Warlock 3 / Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7

And insert random other stuff afterwards.  For example, I suppose I could go into Eldritch Theurge, or maybe somehow cheese myself into Eldritch Disciple, but honestly, I don't think I'll live that long :p  That's for someone else to figure out.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: urarenge June 01, 2010, 05:52:37 AM
Incarnate? For strongheart fun  ;) It´s pretty necessary with hellfire warlock
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: veovius June 01, 2010, 09:33:15 AM
Oops, forgot to mention that.  Taking the incarnum feat to get the Strongheart Vest.  DM cleared :)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: carnivore June 01, 2010, 11:02:18 PM
: veovius  June 01, 2010, 05:18:20 AM
First post! (I think....)

I'm in the middle of statting up a warlock, with some help from the people here and at GITP....I think he's going to end up like this :

Warlock 8 / Cloistered Cleric 1 / Hellfire Warlock 3 / Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 7

And insert random other stuff afterwards.  For example, I suppose I could go into Eldritch Theurge, or maybe somehow cheese myself into Eldritch Disciple, but honestly, I don't think I'll live that long :p  That's for someone else to figure out.

i would do this instead:

Warlock 2/ Cloistered Cleric 3/ Eldritch theurge 10/ ........ then pick what you want this way you get more from both classes

: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: urarenge June 01, 2010, 11:52:00 PM
another warlock level, maybe? +1d6 eldritch blast, +1 fort and reflex saves and a dark invocation, for filler
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: gorfnad June 02, 2010, 07:16:52 AM
: urarenge  June 01, 2010, 05:52:37 AM
Incarnate? For strongheart fun  ;) It´s pretty necessary with hellfire warlock
Only if your DM allows it
     Note: There are huge, vicious thread wars being fought over the legality and practicality of the two prime ways to heal/negate the Con damage: the incarnum soulmeld Strongheart Vest and the vestige Naberius. Everyone agrees that simply getting Naberius through a feat doesn’t work (you can’t bind him and get the ability healing). Everyone also agrees that taking one level of Binder and then binding Naberius works. But that loses you a level of warlock, which is the same that happens if you take a level of incarnate.

      The wars are over whether the vest, taken through a feat (which means it always reduces ability damage by 1) violates the class ability, which says “(if) you are somehow immune to Constitution damage you cannot use this ability.” One side says that since hellfire ever only deals one point of damage, the vest makes you immune to the hellfire damage, and therefore you can’t use it. The other side counters that DR 1/- doesn’t mean you’re immune to physical damage, and neither does this, and besides, flavor-wise, what you’re doing is siphoning off energy from the souls of the multiverse to your selfish ends, which fits the theme of the Nine Hells to a tee. We’ve been arguing since the class first appeared, and no consensus has been reached, nor does it look like it ever will. End result: check with your DM.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: veovius June 02, 2010, 07:31:16 AM
Well the only reason I'm dipping cleric is to get the abjuration spells to get IotSV.  I would have preferred to keep the character pure warlock (up to IotSV), but the other way of getting spells (Magical Training / Precocious Apprentice) would require flaws.  Besides, this way I get few neat devotion powers, so I'm actually up....4 feats.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 09, 2010, 09:39:57 AM
Hi, people, I'm new here  :lmao, and I'm a bit lost, first, why can't I post a new thread? Do I have to have X number of posts before I can make new threads?  ??? xD

Well, ignoring that, (And sorry if my english is... well... bad.), I'm starting a game with a warlock (My first one) edition is D&D3.5, and I've been reading this post on how to minmax it, and now my mind if full of knowledge xDD

But I have some questions, the intention is to be a Ranged DPS in fights, but be also useful when roleplaying, so I don't want the Glaive, and I'm in favor of Charisma, specially because of a homemade rule it has the normal amount of invocations PLUS the Charisma modifier.

About the game, I can use any "official" handbook (non-moongose) from editions 3.0 or 3.5. I'm level 2 now, and my stats are: Str10, Dex17, Con15, Int15, Sab14 and Cha 20, (that means 2 invocations from level 2 plus 5 because of charisma, total, 7  :o)

Don't worry about the race, is a DM-Made one, and even I don't know all the bonuses it has...
Align = Chaotic Good (I don't really see where this could make the difference...)

We started with 0 items, just peaseant clothes... here's my first question, what things would be the first I need to buy? Having in mind that the leveling will be a bit faster than normal and I'm not planing on multi-class btm, and what I said before, Ranged-oriented combat.

The next question would be to select the invocations (7 least) what's a big difference from the usual xD, I was thinking in:
• Essences:
- Frightful
- Sickening
• Shape:
- Spear (Maybe  ???, I don't know if it's worth it or if I'm going to give it use...)
• Invocations:
- Summon Swarm (I've read about it's godlike in low levels  :lol)
- Baleful Utterance
- See the Unseen/ Devil's Sight/ All seeing eyes (I don't know what one to take or if take all of them >.<)
I've also though about Entropic Warding and Darkness, but same that before, I'm not sure at all...

You can add any other invocations that you think more useful, but have in mind that I don't want a full DPS, I also like campaign role-playing, but with an extra 5 invocations should'nt be any problem... You can also tell me any other advice or ask about any other thing about the game that you would like to know.

PD: Prestige classes are forbidden btm also...

I would really apreciatte you can help me here, again, sorry about my english >.< (I'm spanish)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 August 09, 2010, 11:38:30 AM
Forget Frightful and Sickening Blast.  They don't scale and enemies are far too likely to make the save to negate them.  Go with Entropic Warding (it's awesome, but you will need to decide what the duration is with the DM.  The two spells it mimics have different durations).

Hammer Blast (Complete Mage) has its applications, but generally Baleful Utterance is better.  If you want to be the face of the party, I must reccommend Beguiling Influence and Call of the Beast.  These two can get you tons of information that would otherwise be far more difficult.

So, for my seven invocations, I would choose:

Baleful Utterance
Spiderwalk (godlike manuverability at low levels, remains handy at higher even though it's generally replaced in functionality by Fell Flight later)
See the Unseen (better than Devil's Sight, no question).
Beguiling Influence (since you want to be the party face)
Call of the Beast (ditto, the more sources you can get, the better)
Entropic Warding
Campaign dependant:

By this last one, I mean it makes a difference on the campaign.  If you'll be around a lot of water, Swimming the Styx is worth it.  If you won't pass low levels, then Summon Swarm is excellent (remember, you have no way of swapping invocations!)  If you do a lot of spying, then All-Seeing Eyes would be a great choice.  If you plan on doing a lot of tracking or being amubshed, I cannot reccommend Sperent's Tongue enough for Scent (also not a bad choice if you find yourself having poison problems)  If you think enough fights will start at long range, then Eldritch Spear is worthwhile.

If you honestly have no idea, then I would reccommend either Eldritch Spear or Dark One's Own Luck.  Extra range or saving throw bonuses never go amiss.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 09, 2010, 12:59:40 PM
Ok, btm I'm totally sure with this ones:

Baleful Utterance
Spidderwalk
See the Unseen
Entropic Warding

Then I'm questioning this (I need 3 of them):

Call of the Beast (Not Beguiling Influence, I already have ranks there)
Summon Swarm
All-Seeing Eyes
Frightful Blast
Sickening Blast

If I don't take Summon Swarm or Fright/Sick Blast, the only thing I'll can do in a fight is 1d6 damage per turn with Eldrich Blast, or make the weapons explode with Beleful Utterance (Which also makes 1d6, but with Will ST)... ¿?

Then, about the itemization... ¿?  (atm I have just 108 gold, and 0 items) xD

Then, about feats, cause of our "special" race we lost our level 1 feat, so I have none until level 3, and I was thinking about taking the Mortalbane from BoVD... Any special recomendation ¿? (no feats that give plus to the hit throw)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra August 09, 2010, 01:06:56 PM
I've always been partial to Violate Spell-like Ability, but that's more of a villain feat, because you aren't going to see that enemy again.


But may I suggest Empower Spell-Like Ability? 3/day it multiplies the damage dealt by your Eldritch Blast by 1.5.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 09, 2010, 01:27:06 PM
: Amechra  August 09, 2010, 01:06:56 PM
But may I suggest Empower Spell-Like Ability? 3/day it multiplies the damage dealt by your Eldritch Blast by 1.5.

That would be a posible choice for the lvl 6 feat (Requires caster lvl 6), but actually I'm selecting the lvl 3 one...
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 August 09, 2010, 01:35:59 PM
If you must go with an eldritch esscence (I would forget the 1st levels exist entirely because they really suck), go with Sickening Blast.  More penalties and fewer foes are immune.  I cannot stress the suckitude of Frightful Blast enough.

Summon Swarm is an excellent invocation, so long as you stay at lower levels.  If you advance, see if your DM allows retraining before you take it as an invocation.

Most good items for Warlocks are too expensive for you, but I'd pick up a morningstar or a spear.  They're good weapons that you can use when in melee range without risking AoO's.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra August 09, 2010, 02:10:58 PM
: Cazador75  August 09, 2010, 01:27:06 PM
: Amechra  August 09, 2010, 01:06:56 PM
But may I suggest Empower Spell-Like Ability? 3/day it multiplies the damage dealt by your Eldritch Blast by 1.5.

That would be a posible choice for the lvl 6 feat (Requires caster lvl 6), but actually I'm selecting the lvl 3 one...

Whoops, I thought you said 6th.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 09, 2010, 02:16:37 PM
Ok, it's true that fewer foes are immune to Sickening Blast, but most foes have better Fort ST (in low levels, most foes are melee, so Fort TS are Higher), then Sickening Blast only will be better if your rival is immune to the Frightful one. So the question is more like, harder ST but possible immunity or easier ST but no common immunities... I'm not fully sure about the best choice but I'm going to trust you, after all, is my first Warlock :p

Then it would finish in something like this:

Sickening Blast
Summon Swarm
Baleful Utterance
Spidderwalk
Entropic Warding
See the Unseen
Call of the Beast

And in higher levels I'll replace ("at least") Sickening Blast and Summon Swarm for something better...

Then my last doubt is about the level 3 feat, considering all what you already know about the character, and that I don't have any feat yet, what ones will be the best choices? I just realiced that in level 3 I'm going to be level 6 Warlock (Actually I'm Level 1, Warlock 2, we advance 2 class levels per experience level in this game), and the empower, maximize, etc... feats become possible, so there are more possible options...

Sorry Amechra I didn't realized that before xD, then what you said is possible too.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 August 09, 2010, 02:19:02 PM
Sickened also applies a -2 penalty to weapon damage rolls, while Shaken doesn't.  Otherwise, the penalties they inflict are identical.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: skydragonknight August 09, 2010, 02:25:02 PM
Shaken, not stirred Sickened.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita August 09, 2010, 04:48:19 PM
: skydragonknight  August 09, 2010, 02:25:02 PM
Shaken, not stirred Sickened.
And the name's Lock. War Lock.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Prime32 August 09, 2010, 05:11:58 PM
: Agita  August 09, 2010, 04:48:19 PM
: skydragonknight  August 09, 2010, 02:25:02 PM
Shaken, not stirred Sickened.
And the name's Lock. War Lock.
I have in fact read an unofficial James Bond novel with a villain called the Warlock. Who used "War" and "Lock" as code words.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 09, 2010, 10:26:15 PM
Ok, all ready  :lmao, thank you all a lot  :P

And about the feat?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita August 10, 2010, 05:22:05 AM
: Cazador75  August 09, 2010, 10:26:15 PM
Ok, all ready  :lmao, thank you all a lot  :P

And about the feat?
I like Mortalbane a lot, but depending on what other feats you've chosen (and how much free room you have) Point-Blank Shot->Precise Shot is always a good choice if you have at least one meleer in the party.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 10, 2010, 08:18:40 AM
: Agita  August 10, 2010, 05:22:05 AM
I like Mortalbane a lot, but depending on what other feats you've chosen (and how much free room you have) Point-Blank Shot->Precise Shot is always a good choice if you have at least one meleer in the party.

I have no other feats, the level 3 feat will be my first one, and actually I'm only working with a paladin, that, yes, could be considered a melee... xD
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita August 10, 2010, 08:33:02 AM
: Cazador75  August 10, 2010, 08:18:40 AM
: Agita  August 10, 2010, 05:22:05 AM
I like Mortalbane a lot, but depending on what other feats you've chosen (and how much free room you have) Point-Blank Shot->Precise Shot is always a good choice if you have at least one meleer in the party.

I have no other feats, the level 3 feat will be my first one, and actually I'm only working with a paladin, that, yes, could be considered a melee... xD
Well, have you planned out your feat progression? That's what I meant by free room. If you're just picking up feats on the fly, Point-Blank Shot into Precise Shot is a good pick so you won't take an attack penalty when trying to kill people your buddy is also trying to kill.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist August 11, 2010, 12:04:18 AM
What, no bloodlines?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 August 11, 2010, 01:29:45 AM
Just noticed a rather important mistake on the Epic Fiendish Resiliance feat.  The first time you take it, it raises the Fast healing rate to 25.  Each additional time you take it, it increases the Fast Healing by 5 and gives you an additional use per day.  This actually makes it a rather decent feat in higher epic.  Fast Healing 40 for each encounter (assuming you have 4 per day) for 5 minutes at a time is nothing to sneeze at, even in Epic.  You don't even have the 2000hp that it heals with each activation (50 round duration), so each time it's garunteed to heal you fully.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 August 11, 2010, 01:19:48 PM
A few handy items for Warlocks:

1. Bracers of Blast Barrier: 3,200gp price tag makes these available around level 5.  Turn your Eldritch Blast (or any other damaging invocation) into a 10*10 wall 3/day with a duration based on spell level (if using your Blast for this, apply an Esccences).  Not bad as it offers some battlefield control long before you gain access to any of those invocations (not counting Wall of Gloom).

2. Bracers of Entangling Blast: Less expensive at 2,000gp and more useful to boot.  3/day, you can alter any invocation to deal half damage, but entangles anyone damaged by it for 1d3 rounds (no save)  During each round, they take 1 damage per spell level.  This is best used when combined with a damage over time invocation (Wall of Perilous Flame actually ends up dealing more damage this way) as the entangling will re-trigger each time they take damage.  In the meantime, you just gave them a -4 penalty to Dexterity, -2 penalty on attack rolls (total of -4 for Dex-based attacks), and halved their movement speed.  Not bad, and the price is right, making this item available early on.

3. Gloves of Eldritch Adimixture: 2,500 gp to add fire, cold, or acid damage to your Eldritch Blast up to 3/day, depending on how you spend the charges.  It's bonus damage, which can be handy.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 20, 2010, 09:49:49 AM
Hi folks, I've a little question.

Why is the feat Flyby Attack so cool? You can move, attack, and move again without exceeding in total your movement speed (50'), I really don't see it so useful...

And other thing, if I use invisibility, and disembodied hand, if the hand attacks some one, will I become visible or only the hand will?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita August 20, 2010, 10:16:31 AM
: Cazador75  August 20, 2010, 09:49:49 AM
Hi folks, I've a little question.

Why is the feat Flyby Attack so cool? You can move, attack, and move again without exceeding in total your movement speed (50'), I really don't see it so useful...

And other thing, if I use invisibility, and disembodied hand, if the hand attacks some one, will I become visible or only the hand will?
For one, it's great mobility - you can, say, fly into range, fire, and fly back out of range. For two, it has no feat prerequisites, so it literally only costs you a feat. For three, note that it lets you take any Standard action, not just an attack. So you could also fly into range, fire off an invocation, and fly away.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: InnaBinder August 20, 2010, 10:36:49 AM
For two, it has no feat prerequisites, so it literally only costs you a feat
This.  It lets fliers do what it takes two (for Ride-by Attack) or three (Spring Attack) feats to do when stuck on the ground.  One of the big advantages to flight in the game is the benefit of three dimensional mobility; Fly-by Attack highlights this benefit at the relatively low cost of one feat, whereas movement forms with less inherent benefit to mobility are forced to spend multiple feats for the same effect.  There are, of course, ways to get Fly-by Attack and its equivalents without paying for the feat(s) entirely, but Fly-by Attack is still cheapest and most often useful unless your group is always spelunking.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita August 20, 2010, 10:43:33 AM
: InnaBinder  August 20, 2010, 10:36:49 AM
There are, of course, ways to get Fly-by Attack and its equivalents without paying for the feat(s) entirely, but Fly-by Attack is still cheapest and most often useful unless your group is always spelunking.
And even then, unless your maneuverability is bad, it's still at least as useful as either of the other X-By-Attacks (which is to say, admittedly, not very, as you don't have much room to fly by, but still.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 20, 2010, 11:14:05 AM
Hmm, ok, I admit that it could be very useful in a fight.

About the other question? If I use Disembodied Hand and Walk Unseen at the same time, if the hand attacks someone, do I become visible or only the hand does?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Ivory Knight August 20, 2010, 12:11:31 PM
You become visible too, I'd say.
The Hand may be not attatched to you, but it is no summoned monster(only exception I know off, where ysou stay invisible while your spells do damage).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 20, 2010, 12:31:00 PM
But the hand has a separate HP and AC, doesn't that mean that it acts like other creature? Like when you summon something and control it...
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Ivory Knight August 20, 2010, 12:36:50 PM
Would you become visible, if your Spectral Hand delivers Vampiric Touch?
The Spell is pretty similar to the Invocation, since it also has 1d4 of your Hp & it's own AC.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 20, 2010, 12:46:20 PM
Yeah, It's the same question...
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Ivory Knight August 20, 2010, 01:00:34 PM
The Spell reads like this in the SRD:
A ghostly, glowing hand shaped from your life force materializes and moves as you desire, allowing you to deliver low-level, touch range spells at a distance. On casting the spell, you lose 1d4 hit points that return when the spell ends (even if it is dispelled), but not if the hand is destroyed. (The hit points can be healed as normal.) For as long as the spell lasts, any touch range spell of 4th level or lower that you cast can be delivered by the spectral hand. The spell gives you a +2 bonus on your melee touch attack roll, and attacking with the hand counts normally as an attack. The hand always strikes from your direction. The hand cannot flank targets like a creature can. After it delivers a spell, or if the hand goes beyond the spell range, goes out of your sight, the hand returns to you and hovers.
Important part in bold, chances are your Invocation has the same bit of text somewhere in it's descirption(can't look it up right now, away from books).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cazador75 August 20, 2010, 07:02:29 PM
DISEMBODIED HAND
Lesser; 4th
One of your hands drops off at the wrist and floats in the air. You can use the hand in all ways as if it were still attached—manipulating items, delivering attacks with a light or one-handed weapon, or even delivering a touch attack with a spell or invocation that you cast before it detaches. However, it requires you to expend the same action that would have been required—picking up an item takes a move action, making an attack takes a standard action, and so forth.
The hand flies rather than crawls, but it can't move on its own. You can move the hand up to 30 feet through the air as a move action. You can direct a disembodied hand in your space to reattach to your arm as a move action.
When you use this invocation, your current and full normal hit point totals are reduced by 5 for as long as the hand is detached. The hand is considered a Diminutive creature with AC 20 and 5 hit points. Its Hide and Move Silently modifiers are equal to your warlock level. For all other purposes, its statistics are equal to yours.
If your disembodied hand is destroyed, it regrows in 1d4 hours. At the end of this period, you regain the 5 lost hit points. Only one of your hands can be used for disembodied hand at any time; if your disembodied hand is destroyed, you can't use this invocation again until your hand regrows.

Nowhere does it say "attacking with the hand counts normally as an attack", it only says that you have to normally expend your time on your actions while directing it.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra September 16, 2010, 06:44:27 PM
Another way to get into Demonbinder is to be a Changeling with that racial emulation feat...

In all seriousness, while binding a Marilith, could you, let's say, create 2 Eldritch Glaives? Or would you be limited to 1 only?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist September 16, 2010, 07:38:38 PM
Hmmm... racial emulation lets you copy subtypes... is there any way to use that to enter Fiend of possession?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 September 17, 2010, 01:16:34 AM
: The_Mad_Linguist  September 16, 2010, 07:38:38 PM
Hmmm... racial emulation lets you copy subtypes... is there any way to use that to enter Fiend of possession?
Only if you can find a Humanoid with an alignment subtype.  Changelings can only mimic those of the Humanoid type.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist September 17, 2010, 01:20:36 AM
Incarnate construct + dustform + imp I think works.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: vrischika111 September 17, 2010, 05:29:25 AM
: Cazador75  August 20, 2010, 07:02:29 PM
DISEMBODIED HAND
Lesser; 4th
... The hand is considered a Diminutive creature ...

Nowhere does it say "attacking with the hand counts normally as an attack", it only says that you have to normally expend your time on your actions while directing it.

if it's considered a creature, then it becomes visible on its own (and only the hand)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cagemarrow November 10, 2010, 07:27:16 PM
I asked this in another warlock thread but maybe it would be better served here. Anyone know if Eldritch Theurge can be used to progress the arcane casting granted by Chameleon?

Was thinking something along the lines of Warlock 5/Chameleon 2/Eldritch Theurge 2 for a 9th level character. Would count as a 7th level warlock for invocations and a 4th level Chameleon (CL 8) for Arcane casting if I'm working it out right? You'd always have to use the arcane focus.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo November 10, 2010, 07:31:07 PM
I don't believe you can progress Chameleon casting with prestige classes. Remember, it doesn't count as far as prerequisites go.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: bearsarebrown November 10, 2010, 07:32:58 PM
: Solo  November 10, 2010, 07:31:07 PM
I don't believe you can progress Chameleon casting with prestige classes. Remember, it doesn't count as far as prerequisites go.
Why shouldn't you be able to progress it? You can qualify with other spellcasting classes. PrCs which advance spellcasting do not specify that you must advance in the class which is used to qualify.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: InnaBinder November 10, 2010, 07:36:53 PM
: bearsarebrown  November 10, 2010, 07:32:58 PM
: Solo  November 10, 2010, 07:31:07 PM
I don't believe you can progress Chameleon casting with prestige classes. Remember, it doesn't count as far as prerequisites go.
Why shouldn't you be able to progress it? You can qualify with other spellcasting classes. PrCs which advance spellcasting do not specify that you must advance in the class which is used to qualify.
Because of this clause:

You can’t use any abilities gained from your aptitude focus, ability boon, or mimic class feature abilities to qualify for a feat, prestige class, or other option.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Nanshork November 10, 2010, 07:39:45 PM
: InnaBinder  November 10, 2010, 07:36:53 PM
: bearsarebrown  November 10, 2010, 07:32:58 PM
: Solo  November 10, 2010, 07:31:07 PM
I don't believe you can progress Chameleon casting with prestige classes. Remember, it doesn't count as far as prerequisites go.
Why shouldn't you be able to progress it? You can qualify with other spellcasting classes. PrCs which advance spellcasting do not specify that you must advance in the class which is used to qualify.
Because of this clause:

You can’t use any abilities gained from your aptitude focus, ability boon, or mimic class feature abilities to qualify for a feat, prestige class, or other option.

Your quote has nothing to do with his argument.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: KellKheraptis November 10, 2010, 07:41:07 PM
: InnaBinder  November 10, 2010, 07:36:53 PM
: bearsarebrown  November 10, 2010, 07:32:58 PM
: Solo  November 10, 2010, 07:31:07 PM
I don't believe you can progress Chameleon casting with prestige classes. Remember, it doesn't count as far as prerequisites go.
Why shouldn't you be able to progress it? You can qualify with other spellcasting classes. PrCs which advance spellcasting do not specify that you must advance in the class which is used to qualify.
Because of this clause:

You can’t use any abilities gained from your aptitude focus, ability boon, or mimic class feature abilities to qualify for a feat, prestige class, or other option.

That didn't disprove any of bearsarebrown's post.  You don't use Chameleon to qualify, you use something else, and advance Chameleon because it's a spellcasting class.

EDIT : Ninja'd by Nanshork :ninja
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist November 10, 2010, 07:42:21 PM
"other option"

Thus, it does not qualify as a spellcasting class.  Thus, when PrCs say they can progress a spellcasting class, it is not on the list of things they can progress.  Thus, you cannot progress chameleon spellcasting, unless the class also progresses spellcasting of classes that don't have spellcasting, or progresses based on a different basis (this class progresses the spellcasting of any class that begins with 'c', for example).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Cagemarrow November 10, 2010, 07:53:23 PM
Well that's disappointing, didn't see that part as it wasn't listed under the aptitude focus section. I've got a couple of levels to play with though so could maybe use a different class to thuerge with.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: InnaBinder November 10, 2010, 08:24:35 PM
: The_Mad_Linguist  November 10, 2010, 07:42:21 PM
"other option"

Thus, it does not qualify as a spellcasting class.  Thus, when PrCs say they can progress a spellcasting class, it is not on the list of things they can progress.  Thus, you cannot progress chameleon spellcasting, unless the class also progresses spellcasting of classes that don't have spellcasting, or progresses based on a different basis (this class progresses the spellcasting of any class that begins with 'c', for example).
DING!
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Ivory Knight November 11, 2010, 07:19:58 AM
Just curious: Would Uncanny Trickster or Legacy Champion work with Chameleon?
Both progress "+1 level of existing class features", IIRC 2/3 and 7-8/10?

Warlock-specific: Both PrC's would work with the doubleprogressions(here: Eldritch Disciple or Eldritch Theurg)?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Havok4 November 11, 2010, 11:48:16 AM
: Ivory Knight  November 11, 2010, 07:19:58 AM
Just curious: Would Uncanny Trickster or Legacy Champion work with Chameleon?
Both progress "+1 level of existing class features", IIRC 2/3 and 7-8/10?

Warlock-specific: Both PrC's would work with the doubleprogressions(here: Eldritch Disciple or Eldritch Theurg)?
I see no reason why it would not work.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: bearsarebrown November 11, 2010, 12:08:54 PM
It doesn't qualify as having class features to advance. According to TML's reading.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Havok4 November 11, 2010, 01:11:34 PM
: bearsarebrown  November 11, 2010, 12:08:54 PM
It doesn't qualify as having class features to advance. According to TML's reading.

But the class feature progression does not check anything, it only checks to see if you are progressing a class, which chameleon does qualify for.  The abilities like spell casting gained from chameleon do not qualify as class features, but the aptitude focus ability itself does qualify so legacy champion would progress it. In fact xyz8/chameleon 2/legacy champion 10 loses nothing from chameleon and gains a good will save and the legacy champion abilities.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: wotmaniac November 11, 2010, 02:24:31 PM
: Havok4  November 11, 2010, 01:11:34 PM
The abilities like spell casting gained from chameleon do not qualify as class features, but the aptitude focus ability itself does qualify so legacy champion would progress it.
and since chameleon spellcasting is a function of aptitude focus .....  :clap
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: bearsarebrown November 11, 2010, 02:49:54 PM
: Havok4  November 11, 2010, 01:11:34 PM
: bearsarebrown  November 11, 2010, 12:08:54 PM
It doesn't qualify as having class features to advance. According to TML's reading.

But the class feature progression does not check anything, it only checks to see if you are progressing a class, which chameleon does qualify for.  The abilities like spell casting gained from chameleon do not qualify as class features, but the aptitude focus ability itself does qualify so legacy champion would progress it. In fact xyz8/chameleon 2/legacy champion 10 loses nothing from chameleon and gains a good will save and the legacy champion abilities.
Oh okay. I get it now. Strange how it works like that. Can't progress parts of the whole, only the whole.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus December 04, 2010, 01:56:40 PM
Sorry if this has been covered before but I have a Hideous Blow question.

Some assert that HB stinks because you have to cast EB in 1 round, strike in the next, cast again in the next, strike in the next, etc.  But reading the description says no such thing.  "If you hit, the target is affected as if struck by your eldritch blast" (emphasis mine).  That says to me that attack and EB damage both happen at the same time, with no need to waste rounds.

This also makes sense with Eldritch Glaive.  You get a lot more flexibility with EG but lose the weapon damage.

Am I missing something?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 December 04, 2010, 02:01:42 PM
No, you're not.  Still no reason whatsoever to use Hideous Blow, however.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Garryl December 04, 2010, 02:02:41 PM
Yup, you've got that right, Tenebrus. Hideous Blow is a single action that deals weapon damage plus EB damage/effects.

Similarly, eldritch glaive is a single action to form your "glaive" and make a full attack with it. While you don't get the base weapon damage that HB grants, EG lets you make your attacks as touch attacks and allows you to make a full attack (instead of being limited to a single attack). That usually makes it pull ahead in most respects.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus December 04, 2010, 03:12:44 PM
: snakeman830  December 04, 2010, 02:01:42 PM
No, you're not.  Still no reason whatsoever to use Hideous Blow, however.

How about for a Fighter-3/Warlock 1 armed with a (real) glaive?  1d10+1d6+Strength+2x power attack isn't so shabby.  S/he becomes a Fighter-4/Warlock-3 doing 1d10+2d6+2+strength+2x power attack and still qualifies for Improved Critical at 9th.

Note that this is for a non-ToB campaign.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: CantripN December 04, 2010, 03:14:51 PM
Hideous Blow is also a Standard Action and just 1 attack. Even of the damage may be higher at low levels, it's also less likely to land.

That Fighter 4 / Warlock 3 could instead make 2 attacks with his Eldritch Glaive.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 December 05, 2010, 02:05:52 PM
What would be a recommended Gestalt combo for a Warlock?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Havok4 December 05, 2010, 02:20:55 PM
: snakeman830  December 05, 2010, 02:05:52 PM
What would be a recommended Gestalt combo for a Warlock?
Binder is neat and fits thematically very nicely. Factotum is also a good choice.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus December 05, 2010, 02:26:12 PM
: CantripN  December 04, 2010, 03:14:51 PM
Hideous Blow is also a Standard Action and just 1 attack. Even of the damage may be higher at low levels, it's also less likely to land.

That Fighter 4 / Warlock 3 could instead make 2 attacks with his Eldritch Glaive.

Losing the d10 is pretty severe at lower levels.  The touch attack with EG is very nifty, however, and a fighter BAB makes those touch attacks pretty easy.  Perhaps we start with HB, then take EG when we get to iterative attacks?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: CantripN December 05, 2010, 02:34:18 PM
If what you want is dealing damage in melee like that, you're much better off using Maneuvers. They do it far better. Warlocks are all about the trickery and ranged attacks, not plain brawling. Touch attacks are also good.

The only way to make even EG useful is to get plenty of attacks and a REALLY high EB damage base. Hideous Blow, while not bad at really low levels, is just plain inferior to even a Fighter using that Glaive, and that's just sad.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus December 05, 2010, 02:57:11 PM
Remember, no ToB, so no maneuvers.  This is a search for bonus damage through the core and Complete books only.

I'm not keen on a melee combatant built on the warlock's d6, so fighter has to be the majority of the classes, which means about Warlock-3 for 2d6 plus Practiced Spellcaster for another 2d6 when you can get to it.  There's only so many stat points, so no use building up charisma and thus no use for Sicken et al.  I see your point about EG when you get 2+ attacks, but there's 7 levels to wait for that with the warlock mixed in, and that's half the level life of most characters for me (we have never gone higher than 18th, and rarely above 12th).

It still seems more broadly applicable than sneak attack damage, which takes forever to build up through the feinting feats.  What am I missing?  Thanks.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: CantripN December 05, 2010, 03:05:06 PM
Do you have the option of using Penetrating Strike? It's an Alternate Class Feature for Rogues. I'd make a Daring Outlaw => Swashbickler 16 / Rogue 4.

Warlocks aren't that good for damage unless you optimize heavily, generally speaking.

Failing the above, just make a Barbarian. Those do more than decent damage.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Bozwevial December 05, 2010, 04:13:36 PM
I generally steer clear of Hideous Blow anyway because it provokes an attack of opportunity.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus December 05, 2010, 11:09:40 PM
: Bozwevial  December 05, 2010, 04:13:36 PM
I generally steer clear of Hideous Blow anyway because it provokes an attack of opportunity.

How so?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Bozwevial December 05, 2010, 11:15:36 PM
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20061027a

If you are using the hideous blow invocation, you no longer suffer attacks of opportunity for invoking this power in melee and all attacks of opportunity you make can include hideous blow.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra December 05, 2010, 11:39:43 PM
Question about the epic feats:

If you the feat that lets you use two eldritch blasts/round, could you use it to combine Hideous Blow and Eldritch Glave?

For double the Eldritch Blast damage for one attack?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 December 05, 2010, 11:50:13 PM
Looks like.  Not sure why you'd want to, though, unless you were using Utterdark Blast as your essecne.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra December 05, 2010, 11:52:09 PM
I'm kind of thinking of if you have a couple levels of Eldritch Theurge, for the "putting touch spells on your eldritch blasts" goodness.

If you can dig it.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus December 06, 2010, 03:22:18 AM
: Bozwevial  December 05, 2010, 11:15:36 PM
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20061027a

If you are using the hideous blow invocation, you no longer suffer attacks of opportunity for invoking this power in melee and all attacks of opportunity you make can include hideous blow.


Wow.  A melee power that causes you to be attacked for using it.  Way to playtest, WotC!

Com.  Plete.  Ly.  Worth.  Less.  (barring an overturn from my reasonable DM) Thanks!
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Incendax December 06, 2010, 04:15:52 AM
I'm interested in getting Hide and Move Silently as class skills without losing caster progression. The only absolutely official way I have found is Ruathar but you cannot get into that until level 7. Skill Knowledge and a custom mentor for Apprentice might be viable, but is there an absolutely official way to get both skills earlier than Ruathar?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Bozwevial December 06, 2010, 04:17:52 AM
: Incendax  December 06, 2010, 04:15:52 AM
I'm interested in getting Hide and Move Silently as class skills without losing caster progression. The only absolutely official way I have found is Ruathar but you cannot get into that until level 7. Skill Knowledge and a custom mentor for Apprentice might be viable, but is there an absolutely official way to get both skills earlier than Ruathar?
Able Learner?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist December 06, 2010, 04:18:02 AM
: Incendax  December 06, 2010, 04:15:52 AM
I'm interested in getting Hide and Move Silently as class skills without losing caster progression. The only absolutely official way I have found is Ruathar but you cannot get into that until level 7. Skill Knowledge and a custom mentor for Apprentice might be viable, but is there an absolutely official way to get both skills earlier than Ruathar?
If you allow Kingdoms Of Kalamar material, you can spend a feat on Skill Prodigy for (int bonus) more class skills.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 December 06, 2010, 10:05:17 AM
Hide can also be nabbed by Martial Study (any Shadow Hand manuver).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra December 10, 2010, 09:13:54 PM
: Tenebrus  December 06, 2010, 03:22:18 AM
: Bozwevial  December 05, 2010, 11:15:36 PM
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ei/20061027a

If you are using the hideous blow invocation, you no longer suffer attacks of opportunity for invoking this power in melee and all attacks of opportunity you make can include hideous blow.


Wow.  A melee power that causes you to be attacked for using it.  Way to playtest, WotC!

Com.  Plete.  Ly.  Worth.  Less.  (barring an overturn from my reasonable DM) Thanks!

Might want to nab Karmic Retribution if you have it...
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 December 11, 2010, 02:20:46 AM
That said, it's actually a nice invocation once you have that feat, since it allows you to add eldritch essences to all of your AoO's.  Yes, I would love to force Fort saves vs. negative levels on all my AoO's.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Spiraldrive January 01, 2011, 04:49:52 PM
I'm looking over the build for the Nightcrawler warlock, and while it looks pretty cool and interesting, I'm curious about something.  I assume the line "Quicken: Flee the Scene" at level 9 for both builds refers to taking the Quicken Spell-Like Ability feat for that particular invocation?  Because looking at the Quicken Spell-Like Ability in the SRD, I see that it has a requirement of a spell-like ability at CL 10 or higher to qualify for taking the feat, which I don't think you'd have yet at level 9.  Moreover, it also specifies that it can only affect a spell-like ability with a level equal to half it's caster level minus four.  Flee The Scene's psuedo-spell level thing is 4, which would require a CL of 16 to quicken using it if I'm grasping this correctly.  Neither of those stated builds reach CL 16.  So... am I missing something?  Is there a version of Quicken Spell-Like Ability that doesn't have such a severe CL requirement, or are you using some other feat to accomplish the quickening?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: stranglebat January 03, 2011, 02:18:20 AM
There is quicken SLA feats in Monster Manual 1-5 and BoVD and from memory its either MM3 or BoVD that relaxes the CL req and changes it to quicken a specific ability 3x a day rather than all of them 1 a day

BoVD: No CL req and 1/day all SLAs Quickened
MM:3 CL 10 req 3/day of 1 SLA Quickened
MM:2 Same as BoVD
MM:1 Same as MM3
MM:4 Same as MM3
MM:5 Same as MM3

forgot Savage species has one too that says Minimum CL 8 to get it (though its for 0th lvl SLAs)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: GrokThis January 05, 2011, 04:19:44 PM
Hi all, new to the forum boards. Have recently discovered the warlock, and I think I really like the class. I've made a melee gestalt combo I think is pretty sweet, and we've house ruled that PrCs can be used on both sides of the combo, so here goes:

On one side, Warlock 16/Binder 1/Hellfire Warlock3
On the other Chaos Monk 2/Battle Dancer 8/Panther Shen 10
Monk Feats: Imp. Grapple, Imp. Initiative
Other feats, in no particular order: Spell Penetration, Imp. Natural Attack, Superior Unarmed Strike, Elditch Claws (Dragon # 358), Beast Claws (Dragon #355), Grappling Blast (Dragon #358), Scribe Scroll
HellFire Warlock, or course, gives you the Hellfire Shield whenever you get hit, and Panther Shen lets you make an AoO WHENEVER someone attacks and misses if they threaten you. At epic levels (if you took Hideous Blow and the epic feat Eldritch Sculptor) you're pumping out some hefty damage every round. Add a pair of Slippers of Battledancing (gives Cha to attack and damage instead of Str or Dex - DMG2) and maybe a Monk's Belt, and you really only need to worry about your Cha and Con scores. (Battledancer [Dragon Compendium] gives you Cha to AC like the monk's Wis to AC.)

Our DM also ruled that since Hideous Blow IS essentially an attack action, it does not provoke AoO. (Knowing my predilection for unarmed combat.) He figured it was only fair since the rogue gets weapon damage and sneak attack damage, and spellcasters are just crazy powerful. With his campaigns, no one gets what they want to do all the time, so I would be using ranged combat quite a lot as well, giving everyone a chance to be badass.

With epic levels, taking Eldritch Sculptor and Lord of all Essences will truly make Hideous Blow worthwhile for melee warlocks.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: GrokThis January 05, 2011, 04:31:17 PM
: GrokThis  January 05, 2011, 04:19:44 PM


Our DM also ruled that since Hideous Blow IS essentially an attack action


That should reed melee action, sorry.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: wotmaniac January 05, 2011, 05:02:10 PM
I likes me some sneak attack on the other side of that warlock ... but that's just me.

also, you missed a step (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?board=134.0)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: GrokThis January 05, 2011, 07:49:34 PM
: wotmaniac  January 05, 2011, 05:02:10 PM

also, you missed a step (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?board=134.0)

Ah! Thanks, taken care of now. :P
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Pimpforged January 19, 2011, 06:15:41 PM
Don't know what Battle Dancer and Panther Shen do, and I don't have my books on me, but I would see if the DM will allow you to use Enlightened Fist stuff with Elderitch Blast. Flurry with EB damage to each attack, uses up a stunning attempt or two, can't remember.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Omen of Peace January 27, 2011, 12:55:03 PM
FYI: I rated the Warlock invocations (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871406/Warlock_Information_Compilation&post_num=476#338398262) a looong time ago, though unfortunately Thinblade never integrated that into his guide.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 January 27, 2011, 03:18:57 PM
: Omen of Peace  January 27, 2011, 12:55:03 PM
FYI: I rated the Warlock invocations (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871406/Warlock_Information_Compilation&post_num=476#338398262) a looong time ago, though unfortunately Thinblade never integrated that into his guide.
I see no information there that isn't here.  More importantly, even your post has Thinblade's comments and such.  All that's lacking here is color-coding which isn't exactly necessary.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Omen of Peace January 27, 2011, 06:41:13 PM
*sigh*
I see BG hasn't changed.

Some people find the color-coding helpful ; there are a few added comments as well (of course Thinblade's comments are there, it's from his original thread on the WotC boards).
More importantly, I never pretended this would cause a revolution. ^^
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: snakeman830 January 28, 2011, 12:54:06 AM
Sorry if I came off as accusing, I just didn't see any comments that aren't here already.  What were some of them?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Thinblade January 30, 2011, 10:40:09 PM
You're right, I didn't incorporate them. I thought about it, but in the end decided that the color coding doesn't really add anything to the guide. Sorry I didn't tell you to your (digital) face; I've sort of let this guide slide since the end of 3e and my entry into the workforce. That's no excuse, though. My apologies.

That said, I've recently started playing a warlock again, low level, and I've been reminded of just how hideously strong Summon Swarm is in the early levels. I've got the DM cursing me at nearly every encounter. It's great.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo January 30, 2011, 10:45:30 PM
Wait until he hears what the Dark Speech feat can do.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist January 30, 2011, 11:52:05 PM
: Solo  January 30, 2011, 10:45:30 PM
Wait until he hears what the Dark Speech feat can do.

Give it the hivemind special quality from 3.5 LM.  That results in giving it an int score, and susceptibility to mind-affecting spells and abilities.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: CantripN January 31, 2011, 01:21:47 PM
...and Sorcerer Spellcasting.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita January 31, 2011, 01:30:44 PM
: CantripN  January 31, 2011, 01:21:47 PM
...and Sorcerer Spellcasting.
That's the BoVD version. I'm pretty sure it doesn't do that in 3.5.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist January 31, 2011, 03:04:52 PM
: CantripN  January 31, 2011, 01:21:47 PM
...and Sorcerer Spellcasting.
Not anymore.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Solo January 31, 2011, 03:25:37 PM
I can't find where they put the hivemind rules in LM.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: The_Mad_Linguist January 31, 2011, 04:08:02 PM
Expanded swarm subtype and swarmshifter.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal February 01, 2011, 03:20:07 PM
The most recent Dark Speech is in Fiendish Codex (I or II, I don't remember), and I believe there are expanded Hive Mind rules in BoVD.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Agita February 01, 2011, 03:37:14 PM
: Surreal  February 01, 2011, 03:20:07 PM
The most recent Dark Speech is in Fiendish Codex (I or II, I don't remember), and I believe there are expanded Hive Mind rules in BoVD.
The most recent Dark Speech is in Elder Evils, the last 3.5 supplement to be released, and BoVD is 3.0.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Surreal February 01, 2011, 05:54:29 PM
Oh yeah, I forgot about Elder Evils. Bah, can't keep track of all these versions... nearly as bad as the grafting rules... *grumble*

Is hive mind detailed anywhere else?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Lobo6717 February 15, 2011, 03:50:20 PM
: Tenebrus  December 05, 2010, 02:57:11 PM
I'm not keen on a melee combatant built on the warlock's d6, so fighter has to be the majority of the classes, which means about Warlock-3 for 2d6 plus Practiced Spellcaster for another 2d6 when you can get to it. 

Does Practiced Spellcaster increase your level for purposes of determining how much damage your EB does??
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: CantripN February 15, 2011, 04:17:47 PM
: Lobo6717  February 15, 2011, 03:50:20 PM
: Tenebrus  December 05, 2010, 02:57:11 PM
I'm not keen on a melee combatant built on the warlock's d6, so fighter has to be the majority of the classes, which means about Warlock-3 for 2d6 plus Practiced Spellcaster for another 2d6 when you can get to it. 

Does Practiced Spellcaster increase your level for purposes of determining how much damage your EB does??

RAW, no. Quite a few DMs allow it, however.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Tenebrus February 15, 2011, 04:45:57 PM
My understanding is that the creator of the class approves of that use for Practiced Spellcaster, if that helps any argument with the DM.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Lobo6717 February 16, 2011, 04:14:02 PM
Yeah.. my DM is a bit hard-headed..  Oh.. guess that's stating the obvious.

Do you happen to know where that was mentioned?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: wotmaniac February 16, 2011, 05:09:19 PM
: Lobo6717  February 16, 2011, 04:14:02 PM
Yeah.. my DM is a bit hard-headed..  Oh.. guess that's stating the obvious.

Do you happen to know where that was mentioned?
Here (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19520666/Warlock_Faq_by_Rich_Baker) you go.  it's the 4th question down.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: oni5115 March 06, 2011, 04:37:22 PM
The Eldritch TheUr-Lock by NatchFeral

...

Variant: Warlock 8/Ur-Priest 2/Eldritch Disciple 8/Chameleon 2
 Abilities:
 Invocations as Warlock 16 (1 Dark Invocation)
 Cleric Spells as Ur-Priest 10 (9th level cleric spells)
 Rebuke Undead
 BAB +14

Shouldn't that be Cleric Spells as Ur-Priest 9 (8th level spells; 9th if you have 28+ wisdom); Since ED loses 1 cleric CL at level 1 to make it 2 +7 = 9.  Or am I missing something?

: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: stranglebat March 07, 2011, 10:20:29 PM
Your right
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Widow March 20, 2011, 01:04:20 PM
In dragon magazine 353 there is the PrC Thrall of Malcanthet.  It has no spell casting requirements but progresses spell casting 7/10.  Still a little pricy for entry with diplomacy 9, bluff 9, two perform skills 5 and three feats, but a very interesting class.

It grants:
Charm Monster 1/day
Dominate 1/day
Bonus to social checks
Telepathy through sight
3d6 sneak attack
1 hour per day you get all the stat mods (on top of what you already have) of a succubus and most of their powers
+4 unlisted bonus to Cha (in addition to succubus transformation)

Something like Bard 1/Warlock 5/Thrall 10

On a side note, I know this thread is old and it has probably been mentioned but Versatille spellcaster is also a trick to get higher level spells (in addition to sanctum spell and Precocious Apprentice tricks listed).
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: oni5115 May 15, 2011, 09:53:04 AM
I'm playing a build similar to the The Eldritch TheUr-Lock; Though I will end up with with some Hellfire Warlock levels and Binder thrown in (Warlock 5 / Binder 1 / Ur-Priest 2 / Eldritch Disciple 9 / Hellfire Warlock 3).  Does the Warlock, Hellfire Warlock, and/or Binder level count towards the Ur-Priest's CL?

To determine the caster level of an ur-priest, add the character’s ur-priest levels to one-half of her levels in other spellcasting classes. (Any levels gained in the cleric class by an ex-cleric don’t count.)
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Amechra May 19, 2011, 01:24:16 AM
An interesting question to mull over; do warlocks qualify for Vecna-Blooded?
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: Chemus May 28, 2011, 06:53:46 PM
: oni5115  May 15, 2011, 09:53:04 AM
I'm playing a build similar to the The Eldritch TheUr-Lock; Though I will end up with with some Hellfire Warlock levels and Binder thrown in (Warlock 5 / Binder 1 / Ur-Priest 2 / Eldritch Disciple 9 / Hellfire Warlock 3).  Does the Warlock, Hellfire Warlock, and/or Binder level count towards the Ur-Priest's CL?

To determine the caster level of an ur-priest, add the character’s ur-priest levels to one-half of her levels in other spellcasting classes. (Any levels gained in the cleric class by an ex-cleric don’t count.)

Since the warlock counts as an Arcane Spellcasting class (CArc, pg. Iforget...70?) it would follow that its caster level stacks. And since the HFW's levels add actual caster level, then it would too.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: PlzBreakMyCampaign October 15, 2011, 02:58:11 PM
This is missing the Voice of Madness least invocation (DragMag332 44). It's not that great but is very funny.
: Re: Warlock Information Compilation
: sirpercival October 23, 2011, 12:04:07 AM
I'm about to start an ECL 15 evil campaign, which will be going to epic levels, and I'm considering a build like the one a couple posts back:

Warlock 4/Binder 1/Ur-Priest 2/Eldritch Disciple 8 (-->ED +1/Hellfire Warlock 3/Mindbender 1)

Hopefully dedicating myself to Zargon will qualify me for both Ur-Priest and ED.

I have a few questions:
1) Is the mindbender dip worth it (for mindsight of course), or should I just grab another level of warlock?
2) If the mindbender dip is worth it, should it go at level 5 and push binder back to level 17 (since I don't need Naberius until I get HW)?
3) It seems like bloodline levels are to be just a straight level adjustment, with no buyoff.  Would it be worth it to delay my progression enough to get a bloodline for amping HW?  Note that I'll be able to perform the DCFS on myself to swap crappy bloodline feats for good feats.
4) Where do I go with this in epic levels??  Nar demonbinder and eldritch theurge?

EDIT: Also, I was thinking 8/10/14/10/18/14 for 32pb.  Thoughts?