Warlock Varient--the Invoker

[half-dragon dragon]

Hey all, just joined and thought I'd try posting a class idea I had. I already tried putting this up over on the Wizard's boards, but alas none of my creations ever seem to get much attention. Anyway, I thought I'd try my luck here and see if I could get some feedback to help smooth out the rough edges on this class.

Basically my idea was to take the idea of the warlock and make it into a more generic class whose source of power could be anything the player wanted rather than just having a fiendish source. In no way am I attempting to weaken or strengthen the warlock with this variant, I'm just looking to have this class critiqued and hopefully get some feedback to make it better. If you look at the invocation list, you will see that I mixed in some of the draconic invocations from the Dragonfire Adept, and possibly replaced some of the warlock's that were similar.

So, any and all comments or ideas you might have for tightening this class up are greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Invoker

Invokers are those that wield the power of their souls. They come from many walks of life, and claim many sources for their power. Despite such a variety of backgrounds, all invokers manifest their powers in a similar fashion. Invokers can call many source and inspirations as the reasons for their powers. Some bind themselves to extraplanar forces and fight on their behalf, or at least bargain for such power with their souls. Others wield the powers of dragons either through bloodline or pact, and still others see their source of power as their minds alone and claim psionic abilities. Invokers find their place and acceptance in the world largely dependant upon the source of their powers.

Game Rule Information
Invokers have the following game statistics.

Abilities - Charisma and Dexterity are both important for an Invoker as Charisma is needed to boost the DCs of their invocations, and Dexterity helps with defense and hitting with their Eldritch Blast
Alignment - Any.
Hit Die - D6

Class Skills
The Invoker's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Points at 1st Level - (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level - 4 + Int modifier

[U][B]
Lvl   BAB   F  R  W    Features                            Invocations Known[/B][/U]
1     0     0  0  2    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 1d6, invocation (least)    1      
2     1     0  0  3    -                                         2     
3     2     1  1  3    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 2d6, DR 1/magic            2      
4     3     1  1  4    Bonus Feat                                3   
5     3     1  1  4    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 3d6                        3     
6     4     2  2  5    invocation (lesser)                       4     
7     5     2  2  5    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 4d6, DR 2/magic            4      
8     6     2  2  6    Bonus Feat                                5      
9     6     3  3  6    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 5d6                        5      
10    7     3  3  7    -                                         6     
11    8     3  3  7    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 6d6, DR 3/magic            7    
                       invocation (greater)  
12    9     4  4  8    Bonus Feat                                7      
13    9     4  4  8    -                                         8      
14    10    4  4  9    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 7d6                        8    
15    11    5  5  9    DR 4/magic                                9    
16    12    5  5 10    invocation (dark), Bonus Feat             10   
17    12    5  5 10    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 8d6                        10      
18    13    6  6 11    -                                         11   
19    14    6  6 11    DR 5/magic                                11    
20    15    6  6 12    [I]Eldritch Blast[/I] 9d6, Bonus Feat            12

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Invoker.

Weapons and Armor Proficiencies
The Invoker is proficient with simple weapons and light armor, but not shields. The somatic components of the Invoker's Invocations are simple enough that they can wear light armor and not incur the normal Arcane Spell failure chances that armor normally incurs.

Invocations
Invokers draw upon the power infused in their souls and manifests these in various ways called invocations. The list of invocations available to Invokers appears below. Every time a Invoker learns a new invocation they may swap one other invocation they know for another of the same grade or lower. Otherwise, their invocations work just like a warlock's.

Eldritch Blast
One of the first things an Invoker learns about wielding the power of their soul is to project a raw burst of energy from it. The manifestation of an Invoker's eldritch blast may vary depending upon the source of their power, which can range from anything such as blast of energy from their hand, to a blast emitted from their mouth if they were to draw upon draconic influences, or even a blast straight from their mind if they claimed psionic powers. Despite any differences in manifestation, all Invoker's eldritch blasts still require a somatic component to complete. Thus ability as well follows the same rules as a warlock's eldritch blast.

Damage Reduction
Invokers even learn to shield their bodies from harm using the power of their spirits. As such it takes a magical blade to turn aside this spiritual fortification. An Invoker gains Damage Reduction 1/magic. This damage reduction increases by 1 at 7th level, and every four levels afterword.

Bonus Feat
Invokers continually train and push the limits of their soulbound powers and as such they gain a bonus feat every fourth level drawn from the following list: Ability Focus, Extra Invocation, Magical Aptitude, Negotiator, Persuasive, Any Metaspell-Like Ability Feat, and Any heritage feat they qualify for.

Invocation List
Least:
[SBLOCK]All-Seeing Eyes
Baleful Utterance
Beguiling Influence
Breath of the Night
Call of the Beast
Dark One's Own Luck
Darkness
Deafening Roar
Devil's Sight
Draconic Knowledge
Earthen Grasp
Eldritch Glaive
Eldritch Spear
Entropic Warding
Frightful Blast
Hammer Blow
Hideous Blow
Leaps and Bounds
Magic Insight
Miasmic Cloud
Scalding Gust
See the Unseen
Serpent's Tongue
Sickening Blast
Soulreaving Aura
Spiderwalk
Summon Swarm
Swimming the Styx[/SBLOCK]

Lesser:
[SBLOCK]Baneful Blast
Beshadowed Blast
Brimstone Blast
Charm
Cold Comfort
Crawling Eye
Curse of Despair
The Dead Walk
Deteriorating Blast
Disembodied Hand
Dread Seizure
Eldritch Chain
Enthralling Voice
Fell Flight
Flee the Seen
Frightful Presence
Hellrime Blast
Humanoid Shape
Hungry Darkness
Ignore the Pyre
Mask of Flesh
Relentless Dispelling
Stony Grasp
Voidsense
Voracious Dispelling
Walk Unseen
Wall of Gloom
Weighty Utterance
Witchwood Step[/SBLOCK]

Greater:
[SBLOCK]Aura of Flame
Baleful Geas
Bewitching Blast
Caustic Mire
Chilling Fog
Chilling Tentacles
Devour Magic
Draconic Toughness
Dragonward
Eldritch Cone
Eldritch Line
Enervating Shadow
Hellspawned Grace
Hindering Blast
Nightmares Made Real
Noxious Blast
Painful Slumber of Ages
Penetrating Blast
Repelling Blast
Tenacious Plague
Terrifying Roar
Vitriolic Blast
Wall of Perilous Flame
Warlock's Call[/SBLOCK]

Dark:
[SBLOCK]Binding Blast
Caster's Lament
Dark Discorporation
Dark Foresight
Eldritch Doom
Energy Immunity
Greater Draconic Flight
Impenetrable Barrier
Instill Vulnerability
Path of Shadow
Perilous Veil
Retributive Invisibility
Steal Summoning
Utterdark Blast
Word of Changing[/SBLOCK]

Note: Players and DMs are encouraged to work together upon the invoker's source of power and modify the fluff and possibly even the mechanics of certain invocations to better suit the character in question. DMs should also feel free to prohibit the taking of certain invocations if they seem to not fit the invoker at all, such as banning a celestially inspired invoker from taking the Dead Walk invocation.

 

[Melayl]

Ok, I'm not trying to be mean or anything here. Basically, this is just changing the alignment and heritage restrictions of the warlock and giving it a new name. I could, of course, be missing something new you've added to the original warlock class.

It does give a new, different, and rather nice flavor to the warlock, but it doesn't appear to really be a new class (to me, anyway).

I believe this is why you recieved so few responses at Wizards and here. Again, I'm not trying to be harsh, just stating what I see.

 

[half-dragon dragon]

No offense taken, and I do see your point. Though I will mention I kind of felt I never made any claims that this was a new class, but a variant...which I stated it was in the title of the thread. Anyway, maybe it will help if I list out the things I'd like people's opinions on.

-What do you think of the changes I made to the warlock?
-Should I have left the DR as x/cold iron?
-Is the bonus feat list too big, too small? Anything I should put in or take out?
-Is putting Extra Invocation into the bonus feat list a good idea, or is a little too powerful a feat to have in the list?
-Do you feel the changes I've made overall compensate for the power lost from abilities such as Deceive Item and Imbue Item? If not what could I add, or even take away?
-Looking at the Invocation list, is the mixing of the walrock and dragonfire adept lists too powerful, or are the changes made to the class enough to compensate?

I think that's about it, so if anyone has any insight to these question just let me know.

 

[Nifft]

Something good about the Warlock: it's got a class feature at almost every level. You grant strong features, no doubt, but leave a lot of levels blank.

For example, detect magic at will isn't exactly game-breaking, but it's nice to have, since it not good enough to be an Invocation all its own.

I'd have to see a few "sample builds" before deciding that this was balanced. First, can you replicate the regular Warlock with this? If not, what's better and what's worse (or missing)?

Thanks, -- N