D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Warlock Concept Build

[Ookinaushi]

But when you use invocations, it counts the caster level as the invo you're using.

And is there any items to use to help with that? XD

 

[Dandu]

But when you use invocations, it counts the caster level as the invo you're using.

Would you care to rephrase that statement?

 

[Ookinaushi]

Sorry about that.

When you add a blast shape or essence invocation to your EB, the caster level counts as the highest CL of the invocation you're using.

 

[Kyros Pyralis]

Just lending a bit of experience in playing Wrlock to this discussion: I've been trying to build a good/interesting warlock (I've started a few threads about it) and as far as I can tell the infinite spells are not incredibly useful except at very early levels. It's almost better to play a Duskblade and spam Kelgore's Firebolt or a Sorcerer and do the same with Scorcing Ray/Lightning Bolt/any of the other obnoxious invocation spells.

A note on invocations: With the exception of blast shape invocations, the best ones are those that allow at will invisibility and flying, this is totally eclipsed by being a pixie.

Additionally, if you want to multiclass into rogue, you can the very easily go into Arcane Trickster after only a few levels and increase spell progression in unison with sneak attack.

I'm sorry this doesn't quite answer the question of how to make a Warlock work, but I still hope it will aid you a bit.

EDIT: Also, upon further inspection of Pixie, I notice that favored class is Sorcerer, this means that you won't take any experience penalties when multiclassing.

 

[Persiflage]

Personally I'd be headed for Hellfire Warlock. A Pixie Rogue rocks. A Pixie Warlock can rock with some effort. A Pixie Rogue/Warlock is going to suffer really badly from being 4 levels behind the rest of the party and sacrificing both caster level and sneak progression. Sure, you're going to be very hard to kill, but you're not going to be doing damage anybody cares about without a major sprinkling of cheese.

I guess it all depends on the power level of the campaign you're in, but around my usual gaming table a Warlock would find it hard to matter; at least insofar as doing damage with his Eldritch Blast is concerned. At 20th level, doing 9d6 damage every round to a single opponent (or multiple opponents with saves) is trifling: even the melee types are doing more damage than that per blow. A Pixie is only doing 7d6 damage and his CL is four levels lower than it should be.

Unless you've got a really specific reason, I'd go with Dandu's suggestion and steer clear of multiclassing.

 

[Kyros Pyralis]

Personally I'd be headed for Hellfire Warlock. A Pixie Rogue rocks. A Pixie Warlock can rock with some effort. A Pixie Rogue/Warlock is going to suffer really badly from being 4 levels behind the rest of the party and sacrificing both caster level and sneak progression. Sure, you're going to be very hard to kill, but you're not going to be doing damage anybody cares about without a major sprinkling of cheese.

There's the Practiced Caster feat from Complete Arcane/Divine that increases caster level for one class by 4, up to your max hit dice. This is designed so that multiclassing doesn't screw over mages too much.

 

[Persiflage]

Practised Spellcaster won't help your Eldritch Blast damage because it's not a function of caster level. Oh, sure, you can take the feat to improve caster level vs. spell resistance but you're already down by four levels just for being a Pixie without multiclassing with Rogue as well, which was the point of the post.

 

[irdeggman]

Practised Spellcaster won't help your Eldritch Blast damage because it's not a function of caster level. Oh, sure, you can take the feat to improve caster level vs. spell resistance but you're already down by four levels just for being a Pixie without multiclassing with Rogue as well, which was the point of the post.

and it is a LA not racial hit dice so no practiced XXXX feat is going to overcome that.

 

[irdeggman]

Sorry about that.

When you add a blast shape or essence invocation to your EB, the caster level counts as the highest CL of the invocation you're using.

You are confusing spell level and caster level.

The spell level of the invocation is the highest of any of the shape, essence or EB (1st level always). This matters for things like saving throws.


Check errata for some help in clarifying spell level for invocations

Page 7: Eldritch Blast
Second paragraph of the Eldritch Blast ability
description:
Change “An eldritch blast is the equivalent of a spell
whose level is equal to one-half the warlock’s class
level (round down), with a minimum spell level of 1st
and a maximum of 9th when the warlock reaches 18th
level or higher” to “An eldritch blast is the equivalent
of a 1st-level spell. If you apply a blast shape or eldritch
essence invocation to your eldritch blast (see page 130),
your eldritch blast uses the level equivalent of the shape
or essence.”
Any other references to eldritch blast being something
other than the equivalent of a 1st-level spell should be
disregarded.
Any other references claiming that eldritch blast is not
an invocation should be disregarded.
A warlock can use eldritch blast at will

The warlock's caster level is his class level (same as for other SLA using creatures - although some of them use hit dice instead)

 

[irdeggman]

Listen to Dandu and don't add multiclassing to the mix.

You suffer enough by losing levels due to the LA.

The big thing this hits you with is the number of invocations you can know and the EB damage - both based on class levels - even practiced XXX feat won't add to those, only your CL (which helps overcome SR and some level based effects).

The extra invocation feat allows you to pick up an invocation of 1 grade lower than the highest one you can normally gain.

For instance at 6th level a warlock can learn a least invocation (so at that point or any time later the extra invocation feat will allow him to gain an extra least invocation).

At 11th level normally gain a greater invocation so can pick up a least or lesser one by gaining the feat and so on.