D&D 3E/3.5 3.5: newb needs a little help with Hellfire Warlock build

Hi everyone, I'm new to the boards so if what I'm asking has already been well-covered (at least I didnt find it), please feel free to just point me in the right direction

I'm still pretty new to D&D 3.5 and pen&paper roleplaying in general (the game I'm currently in is my first one except a try some time back that only lasted like 2 sessions). Of course that also means I might be asking for something well known that I just didnt stumble across yet so dont kill me in that case

On to my question:
I'm building a pretty straight up Warlock + Hellfire Warlock char.
Can you suggest any good ways to keep the constitution damage from hellfire use under control?

We are only using core books + the completes. As far as I gathered, that doesnt allow me to use the class combinations that are sometimes used to overcome the problem in question and I also dont want to build a cross-5-class-powergaming-pissing-my-GM-off character anyways. Its not a powergaming group, half of our party would probably be totally lost in something like that anyways since 2 more of us are basically newbies, too (+ 3 experienced players).
Some might ask how I get to use the Hellfire Warlock PrC in the first place cause its not in any of those books. My GMlet me use it because the class can be found online and its kind of the thing I have in mind for this char.

so... what are your suggestions as to how to keep CON damage at bay a bit with a char like that?

Thank you!

Hi one of the players in my campaign is also currently playing a hellfire warlock so i might have a little insight for you.

put max ranks in UMD and carry some wands of lesser restoration. (that is what he is currently doing)

some other ideas are (i know you cant use this book but...)

take one level of Binder (tome of magic) and pick the vestige Naberius (i think) you heal stat damage every round.

you may also want to invest in a +X con item to give you more to work with.

maybe an eternal wand of lesser restor? idk

-Aplixis

Open Magic of Incarnum and check out the feat Shape Soulmeld. Pick the Strongheart Vest, which reduces all incoming ability damage by one.

Unfortunately I don't know much about warlocks - but reading your post I'm reading that using hellfire hurts your Con?

If so I'd like to caution you on that. My character right now is crafting poisons and let me warn you there are some nasty Con damaging poisons out there - if you inflict too much Con damage on yourself and then were hit with some of these poisons (one I just made does 3d6 Con for both initial and secondary damage!) you could be in real trouble! ...unless of course you're immune to poison =) then game on! Just a thought though.

First off: Thanks a lot guys!

Aplixis: Right, the wand of lesser restoration is basically what the class description suggests for a hellfire warlock to carry. I guess I'll have to talk to my GM about how costly that will be and if I can get some other item that does this trick (I somehow dont really like wands in general, this is not some harry-potter-style wizard after all )
I'd have taken the dip into the Binder class as you suggested as I think it would also be a very nice addition to the char in terms of RP/flavor (I'm more going for that than purely optimized, I just want the char to pack the punch that flavor suggests though)

Dandu: Magic of Incarnum is not used here and also, after reading about it, I dont really think this way around the damage is actually 100% legal nor do I think my GM would think it is.

LiL KiNG: Thanks for that bit of info! We didnt really run into any poisons so far but of course that doesnt mean it will never happen.
Using the additional damaging power from hellfire causes 1 point of CON damage each time, yes, thats the deal. And it also says that you HAVE TO pay that one point for it or the hellfire wont have any effect. Off the 3 class feaatures it gives you, only "hellfire infusion" (add empower, enlarge, widen, or energy substitution to a magic items effect on next use) doesnt do that.

A high CON score indeed seems like a good idea for a char like this so I already pumped it up to 19 (char is lvl12, giving 3 additional points so far which I all put into CON). On my current level that will even allow me to take one point of CON damage without loosing a point of CON-bonus.


so... so far it seems always having a CON-healing item at hand is the way to go for me, right? There doesnt happen to be any way for me to get an abillity or something that will let me heal CON-points?
I actually considered taking cleric classes for that as I could have put that to some good use with the chars background story, too but I figured I'd have to take cleric to lvl3 to be able to heal CON and thats too much. He's supposed to be a pretty much full out warlock and I'm already "losing" 3 levels for hellfire (but thats ok), so...

ALSO I still have 4 feats to spend (already got point blank shot and precise shot) and was thinking about quickening a spelllike ability or two. maybe "Flee the Scene" since I could think off quite a few good uses for doing that combined with another standard-action. I will have to check how many of them are actually allowed by rules though (the problems of a newbie )
Any thoughts?


Whoa, sorry for the lengthy post!

Well, the Con damage from Hellfire IS considered damage, not a penalty or price of any kind. End of story.
"Each time you use this ability, you take 1 point of Constitution damage."
The Soulmeld prevents ability damage. End of story.
If you can find something similar, that prevents ability damage in your books, then there should be no reason for the GM not to allow it. Even if its something with only a set amount of damage prevention, it is much better in combat then something that heals con damage (as you might get shwoop da whooped before you can heal). If you can do a good job of making the item, the GM might add it into the campaign as homebrew.
Some kind of cloak or ring that automatically prevents 1 point of ability damage per round, up to a max of 5/10/15 points before turning to ash?

Also, for feats: Abyssal Heritor Feats from Fiendish Codex I are a good option if you can convince your DM that you qualify (It says you need to have interaction with fiends in your ancestry, which is pretty much what a Warlock is). They have amazing synergy, all the bonus' increasing with the number of abyssal heritor feats you have.

Hexer said:

... was thinking about quickening a spelllike ability or two. maybe "Flee the Scene" ...

Click to expand...

Ok, scrap that. I just found out I'd need to be lvl 16 to quicken that specific ability since its level 4 and quicken spelllike ability works only on abilities that are caster level /2 -4 (in my case 12/2 -4 = 2)

Don't bother with point blank Shot or PRecise Shot - not as much payoff for someone who is making "touch" attacks.

Instead go to Complete Mage and loock at the Heritage feat chains.

Fey if PC is Chaotic and Fiendish if Evil.

The 2nd feat(s) in the chain - Fey/Fiendish Power grant some great benefits.

CL and save DCs for Enchantment/Evil spells and invocations are increased by 1.

The higher level feats grant some pretty good spell like abilities.

Fey skin - grants DR increase

Fiendish resistance grants resistance to acid and fire

Both of these stack with any other sources.

irdeggman said:

Don't bother with point blank Shot or PRecise Shot - not as much payoff for someone who is making "touch" attacks.

Instead go to Complete Mage and loock at the Heritage feat chains.

Fey if PC is Chaotic and Fiendish if Evil.

The 2nd feat(s) in the chain - Fey/Fiendish Power grant some great benefits.

CL and save DCs for Enchantment/Evil spells and invocations are increased by 1.

The higher level feats grant some pretty good spell like abilities.

Fey skin - grants DR increase

Fiendish resistance grants resistance to acid and fire

Both of these stack with any other sources.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm I may have to look into those heritages more closely. Just from what you've written I gotta say though: I dont really use invocations that allow a save so at first glance it looks like I wouldnt benefit much from it... You may be right about point blank shot and precise shot of course. Gotta look into that more, too

Ran into another question: if I wanted to use strengthen spelllike ability (I hope thats what its called in english, the one that lets you multiply any variable numbers of the ability by 1.5) on my hellfire blast, what level would I have to be.
Or in other words: Eldritch Blast is level 1 if I got it right (always, no matter my char level, right?), but what level is hellfire blast?

and IF I can strengthen HB, then does the x1.5 apply to the +6d6 (from hellfire) only or does it apply to the whole blasts damage (eldritch blast damage AND hellfire 6d6)?



EDIT: just looked it up and in Complete Arcane there is ONLY Dragon Heritage which also would require the char to be a lvl1 sorcerer. Are the fiendish/fey heritages from some other book maybe?

EDIT2: DAMNIT, I misread Complete Mage for Complete Arcane, sorry!

If you don't want the DC boost, go for the feats that give SLAs.