Building a warlock NPC bad guy - need some help

[NewJeffCT]

I've never used one before and, to be honest, don't know a ton about them... however, I want to put a little flavor into some of my bad guys and wanted to get an idea of some good invocations (Least/Lesser)to use for a Level 6/7 Warlock. Any good minor magic items?

Most likely human, Chaotic Evil in alignment. However, I'm open to other races, as long as their CR rating is not too high (so, no fire giant warlocks) - so, any PHB race, plus a few others. I'd prefer not to have any that have a negative CHA modifier (i.e., half-orc, orc, etc)

Thanks for any help!

 

[blargney the second]

Glaivelocks are apparently a fair amount of fun. They use the eldritch glaive power and Combat Reflexes to pound the fluids out of things.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

For off-beat races, Pixies make disgustingly effective Warlocks. They can't take a hit, but then again they probably won't get hit anyway.

Some fun Warlock invocations?
Flee the Scene is good for escaping grapples and battlefield control spells, and is villainously awesome (leaving a duplicate image behind).
The least invocation for Summon swarm is quite good, if you can have it summoned by the Warlock as he hides from the group. The nice thing about it over the spell is that it's concentration, not concentration +2 rounds, just in case the swarm should end up near him...
The one that gives flight is pretty much a given if you want to make the fight last long. Otherwise, the boss will just get cut in half by power attack with his d6 HD... If not, Spiderwalk is a least invocation, and is often good enough to be flight.
Eldritch Spear for a 250 ft range, if you want to annoy and harry the party from afar.
Frightful blast is my favorite low level essence invocation, especially if you have some other fear effect to stack with it.
Devil's Sight + the invocation for magical darkness, both least, if you want to play dirty.
Walk Unseen can be very good, but if the party has means to see past invisibility, may as well skip it on an NPC. Conversely, See the Unseen is VERY useful in general, but especially if the party likes to use invisibility and such themselves.
Eldritch Glaive turns the blast into a spear weapon, letting you full attack with it in melee, doing (EB dice) damage, and adding str bonus, as normal. Possibly a bad idea for a straight Warlock, but one with mixed Fighter-type levels can make for a cool fight with that, or if you cared to, a Gestalt Warlock // Full BAB class.

 

[aboyd]

The least invocation for Summon swarm is quite good, if you can have it summoned by the Warlock as he hides from the group. The nice thing about it over the spell is that it's concentration, not concentration +2 rounds, just in case the swarm should end up near him...

Is it ever a problem for any spellcaster when a swarm gets near them? I always assumed that caster's could dispell their own spells as a free or possibly even immediate action.

Of course, I guess if there are summoned creatures from other planes that can turn against the spell caster, then it makes sense that spells cannot be immediately dispelled. Otherwise, a creature that turns against you is mostly irrelevant. Hmm.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Is it ever a problem for any spellcaster when a swarm gets near them? I always assumed that caster's could dispell their own spells as a free or possibly even immediate action.

Of course, I guess if there are summoned creatures from other planes that can turn against the spell caster, then it makes sense that spells cannot be immediately dispelled. Otherwise, a creature that turns against you is mostly irrelevant. Hmm.

Most spells can be dismissed as a standard action, denoted with "(D)" next to duration. Summon Swarm is Duration: Concentration +2 rounds. Note most concentration spells have no added time, and simply stop when you cease concentrating. Summon Swarm is not so, probably on purpose to make it potentially dangerous. You have no control over the swarm, just the ability to place it near the enemy, which means the swarm will likely attack them. if it ends up attacking you or an ally, you have to wait 2 rounds after ending the spell for it to stop. So, again. While the shorter duration may be seen as a negative, I actually think it helps the Warlock.

 

[Shin Okada]

Several suggestions.

Let the warlock use some wands. By level 6-7, he should have enough UMD to use any spell-trigger items. Thanks to deceive item ability, skill rank + CHA mod of 10 is enough.

One of the biggest weak-point of Warlock class is that all the invocations have somatic component. As they are spell-like abilities and not spells, they cannot be stilled. That means, if grappled, a warlock is almost helpless. So give him some way to escape from grapple or similar effects. I found Vampire is great as a warlock, as they can just escape by taking gaseous form. Incorporeal Undead will be even better. And teleportation-related items will help, too.

On the other hand, no invocations have verbal component. That means, silence never bothers them. So he can use a Wand of Silence (or Scroll of Silence, if his UMD is high enough) for his advantage.

Edit: But remember he cannot use scrolls, wands, and command word items in an area of silence.

Let him fly, either by using Fell Flight or racial fly speed. Warlock is for ranged combat, not for melee.

 

[irdeggman]

Add in the fiendish heritage chain of feats for some added in fun.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Several suggestions.

Let the warlock use some wands. By level 6-7, he should have enough UMD to use any spell-trigger items. Thanks to deceive item ability, skill rank + CHA mod of 10 is enough.

One of the biggest weak-point of Warlock class is that all the invocations have somatic component. As they are spell-like abilities and not spells, they cannot be stilled. That means, if grappled, a warlock is almost helpless. So give him some way to escape from grapple or similar effects. I found Vampire is great as a warlock, as they can just escape by taking gaseous form. Incorporeal Undead will be even better. And teleportation-related items will help, too.

On the other hand, no invocations have verbal component. That means, silence never bothers them. So he can use a Wand of Silence (or Scroll of Silence, if his UMD is high enough) for his advantage.

Edit: But remember he cannot use scrolls, wands, and command word items in an area of silence.

Let him fly, either by using Fell Flight or racial fly speed. Warlock is for ranged combat, not for melee.

Thanks - some good ideas here.

 

[NewJeffCT]

For off-beat races, Pixies make disgustingly effective Warlocks. They can't take a hit, but then again they probably won't get hit anyway.

Some fun Warlock invocations?
Flee the Scene is good for escaping grapples and battlefield control spells, and is villainously awesome (leaving a duplicate image behind).

How exactly does that work? the dimension door appears, the NPC steps through, and the image stays behind? Sort of like a mirror image, only with one image staying behind?

Wouldn't the PCs know the image is fake because they just saw the warlock create the dimension door & step through it?

 

[Shin Okada]

Flee the Scene is for escaping from the battle. As the opponents (PCs) tend not to notice that the warlock escaped until they attack him at least once, he may have a chance to spend a turn for using more dynamic escaping measure (say, scroll of Teleport) or to use a healing item and then come back.

But Flee the Scene cannot be used for escaping from grapple. It has, like all the other invocations, somatic component.