A world with only... warlocks?

[Empath Negative]

How would such a world differ if the only spellcasters were Warlocks and their variants?

No Clerics, Rangers, Wizards, Druids, Wagemages, Binders, Paladins, Sorcerers, Bards, Incarnates, Truenamers, Beguilers, etc etc...


Just Warlocks. Mind you not everyone is a Warlock, but the only people capable of using any form of magic are Warlocks.

Note: All variants from WOTC are permitted... so you could have a noncasting ranger or paladin.

 

[Dandu]

It would be like a magic girl anime show.

I would probably enjoy it for all the wrong reasons.

 

[James the Newbie]

The differences depend on if there are psionics or not. Since they could fill a similar niche in item creation.

Assuming psionics dont exist.

A lot more people would play monks and characters that dont rely do heavily on items
Vow of Poverty becomes a good choice
Skill monkeys become very useful

Mostly I think it just shifts to a low magic setting.

 

[Dandu]

A lot more people would play monks and characters that dont rely do heavily on items

A level 12 warlock get an Artificer like ability to craft magic items with UMD.

Also, monks are incredibly magic item depended to boost their stats, AC, damage, gain flight, and do other things.

 

[James the Newbie]

Ofcourse monks need magic items, but if there where no magic items (didnt know a warlock could craft) Then they could probably get by better than most.

 

[Dandu]

How do you figure?

 

[James the Newbie]

Well since there are no spells, and pretty much all magic items need the caster to know a specific spell, I figured there would be no magic items?

Edit: realising you could have meant the reliance on items

Monks are not meant to wear any armour or have anything but special monk weapons, so there class was just built to do without.

 

[Dandu]

Well since there are no spells, and pretty much all magic items need the caster to know a specific spell, I figured there would be no magic items?

Warlocks get a level 12 ability that makes them psudo-Artificers. Which means they can craft magic items. Which means there will be magic items crafted.

Edit: realising you could have meant the reliance on items

Monks are not meant to wear any armour or have anything but special monk weapons, so there class was just built to do without.

Conceptually yes, mechanically no... as far as I can tell. Monks get Wis to AC on top of Dex to AC, but if you're going to put points in Wis, you have to take it out of Strength or Con. A class that requires decent ability scores in 4 places can cause problems if you haven't rolled really well or are using high point buy.

 

[Sekhmet]

Well since there are no spells, and pretty much all magic items need the caster to know a specific spell, I figured there would be no magic items?

Imbue Item: A warlock of 12 level or higher can use his supernatural power to create magic items, even if he does not know the spells required to make an item. He can substitute a UMD check (DC15+spell level for Arcane, or DC25+spell level for Divine spells) in place of a required spell he doesn't know or cannot cast.

 

[Empirate]

Well since there are no spells, and pretty much all magic items need the caster to know a specific spell, I figured there would be no magic items?

Edit: realising you could have meant the reliance on items

Monks are not meant to wear any armour or have anything but special monk weapons, so there class was just built to do without.

There are no spells, but Warlocks can still create pretty much anything they have taken the crafting feats for. Once they reach 12th level, that is.

Monks are, btw, not built to function without magic items. No armor, OK, I'll give you that. But if you don't get other items to up their AC, it will still be terrible, Wis bonus or no. Same goes for attack bonus and damage. Or any real utility to be got out of the class.


I'd expect spell-less Wildshape Rangers/Masters of Many Forms to be the least item-dependent characters aside from Warlocks in this world.