Warlock-esque cleric

What I love about the Warlock class is that it is incredibly simple. The lack of spells/day reduces the complexity by a really amazing amount, especially as -- all of a sudden -- the spell casting stat doesn't matter and certainly doesn't give additional spells per day.

By the flavor text, the Warlock is given powers by a demon. My conception is that this is an evil agent that is somewhere between moral realm and the truly horrific -- not an evil god, but certainly evil.

Here's what I'm thinking... for one, all the spells will be usable at will, just like the warlock.
HD: d6 or d8.
BAB: cleric equivalent. Possibly just wizard.
Level and capabilities:
1: All the zeroeth level cleric spells, and potentially turn undead
2 to 5: At each level learn a 1st level spell. This makes 4 first level spells.
6 to 9: Learn a new 2nd level spell. At sixth level, exchange one first level spell for another.
10 to 13: At each level, learn a third level spell. At 10th, exchange one second or first level spell for another.
14 to 17: Fourth level spell each level. At 14th, exchange one lower level spell for another.
18 to 20: Pick up a fifth level spell. Of course, at 18th, exchange one lower level spell for another.

There it is. Simple, easy, and I'm sure it is has been done before.

I'd be interested to know what everyone thinks. I realize that this gives unlimited healing, but I'm not entirely certain why that is bad. Certainly a party of one of these, a warlock, a thief and a fighter could actually go all day long -- but is that such a bad thing?

Note: When learning a spell of level N, you can learn instead a psell of lower level.

I honestly don't think it's a great idea to give access to all the cleric spells as invocations... I'm not the best min-maxer, but I'm sure someone could find something in there easily abusable.

At the very least, being able to cast infinite CLW at level 2 seems... powerful.

I actually made an invocation-based healer of sorts a while back called the Absolver. The catch is they don't actually heal, they convert lethal damage to nonlethal and increase how much nonlethal someone can take before they fall over unconscious. You can see it at http://asmor.com/misc/D&D/classes/js/absolver.html

Problems:

1/ Some spells are actually balanced by the inability to cast them at will. Basically, the ones that aren't direct damage.

2/ Your healing might be spot-on (if you intend to allow infinite cure light wounds), but your condition removal will lag significantly. No heal or restoration until 18th level? Ouch!

3/ Most "hidden class feature" spells (like atonement, remove curse and break enchantment) are occasionally (but infrequently) vital, and thus the PCs will either be stuck with infrequently useful powers, or bereft of vital powers. Sucky either way.


Suggestions:

1/ Instead of allowing any spell, write (or steal) a set of Invocations. Some can be identical to Cleric spells; others can be different (boosted or nerfed).

2/ Allow free healing up to 50% of normal hit points, in small increments. This mechanic becoming more frequent (from Dragon Shaman to the new [Reserve] feat).

3/ Also grant Lay On Hands like a Paladin, but also with the condition removal of a Dragon Shaman. This takes care of most of the "hidden class features", freeing your Invocation selection up for stuff you actually want.


More Concrete:

Mystic

Benefits:
HD: d8
BAB: 3/4 (as Cleric)
Good Saves: Fortitude, Will
Skills: 4 + Int -- Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana, history, religion, the planes) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Proficiencies: Simple weapons; Light armor and Shields (but not tower shields).

Abilities by Level:
1/ Healing Touch 1, Least Invocations, New Invocation
2/ Lay On Hands
3/ Domain, New Invocation
4/ Healing Touch 2, Impel Item
5/ New Invocation
6/ Healing Touch 3, Lesser Invocations
7/ New Invocation
8/ Healing Touch 4
9/ New Invocation
10/ Healing Touch 6
11/ Greater Invocations, New Invocation
12/ Healing Touch 8, Expanded Domain
13/ New Invocation
14/ Healing Touch 10
15/ New Invocation
16/ Healing Touch 15, Divine Invocations
17/ New Invocation
18/ Healing Touch 20
19/ New Invocation
20/ Healing Touch 30, New Invocation, Ascendancy

Lay On Hands: Like a Paladin, but you may also remove conditions by expending a certain number of hit points:
- 5 hp: sickened, fatigued, 1 point of ability damage
- 10 hp: nauseated, exhausted
- 15 hp: blinded, deafened
- 20 hp: 1 point of ability drain
- 50 hp: as resurrection

A single touch can cure hit points and ability damage and remove conditions (so long as you have sufficient remaining points).

Domain: Choose one domain granted by your deity. You gain a special power based on that domain.
- Air / Earth / Fire / Water: You may summon a small elemental of the appropriate type to serve you. If you dismiss it or it dies, you may summon another as a full-round action. Starting at 12th level, you may instead summon a medium or large elemental to serve you (at your option).
- Animal: You gain an animal companion (like a Druid).
- Good / Evil / Law / Chaos: You may Smite the opposite alignment 1/day, +1/6 levels.
- Knowledge: You gain Lore (as a Bard). At 12th level, you may cast either divination or commune as a spell-like ability once per week (with no XP cost). Using either spell counts as your weekly use of this ability.
- Magic: You may use identify as a spell-like ability. It still takes an hour to cast, but you don't need to use a material component. At 12th level, your Impel Item ability applies to all spell-trigger and spell-completion items.
- Sun: You may Turn Undead by expending 10 hit points worth of Lay On Hands. At 12th level, you may expend 20 points worth of Lay On Hands to invoke a Greater Turning (to destroy undead instead of merely turning them).
- Trickery: Add Hide and Disguise to your class skill list; also, add some stealthy Warlock Invocations to your list of Invocation choices.
- Travel: Add Survival and Knowledge (nature) to your class skill list; also, add some teleportation Invocations to your list of Invocation choices.
- War: You gain Weapon Focus (and proficiency if necessary) with your deity's favored weapon. At 12th level, you gain a bonus Fighter feat.

Impel Item: You may take 10 on Use Magic Device checks to use any spell-trigger or spell-completion item which invokes a spell on the Cleric list (or on your Domain list).

Least Invocations:

• Aura Sight - as detect magic, detect good/evil/law/chaso, or detect undead (caster's choice)
• Doom - as the spell, except casting dismisses previous target.
• Inspire - as remove fear or bless (caster's choice), except duration is 1 minute.

(etc.)

Cheers, -- N

Yes, it has already been done before, and lo, it was named the Dragon Shaman.

Though I think their Touch of Healing has some kind of uses/day limit, but I don't recall off the top of my head; the rest of their abilities were at-will (though the breath weapon required a few rounds of cool down between uses, as with that of any other critter with a breath weapon). And they could only heal folks to half maximum HP, but they could do it ad infinitum, ad nauseum.


Anyway, I figure Asmor and Nifft covered your idea's merits and flaws well enough.

Edit: Err, to clarify... Dragon shamans have a fast healing Aura that can only heal people up to 50% of their maximum HP (technically, 50% + 1 hp, since it stops working once the individual's HP goes above 50%). They also have a separate ability, at 7th-level or so, that improves with further levels and is called Touch of Healing. This is more like Lay on Hands, but with additional functions, and IIRC it lacks the limitation of the Aura but instead has a limit to how many times it can be used each day or a limit to how much total HP/afflictions it can heal each day.

... but mine's so much simpler. ;-)

That doesn't stop an important point from being true, though: Break Enchantment, Remove Curse, etc are occasionally indispensable.

Eolin said:

... but mine's so much simpler. ;-)

Click to expand...

"For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple -- and wrong."
-- H.L. Mencken (misquote)

Cheers, -- N

EDIT: Actual quote was, "There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat,
plausible, and wrong."

here's a potential way to fix the lack of "class features" without giving additional combat spells:

a member of this class may use a cleric spell that he does not know one time per day. This can be a spell up to the level that a cleric of his level can cast. The casting time is increased to 10 minutes, if not that large already. The character must pay any XP or provide material components, as per usual.

There, access to the class feature spells.