Invocations for a Far Realm-flavored Warlock

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Actually Noxious Blast lasts for one minute, which is 10 rounds.

I agree that Stunning is nasty, but the fact that it's lower level means lower save DC, and having the effect last only one round means the Warlock has to keep hitting the opponent to keep it out of the fight. And of course, if one opponent is being concentrated upon that way, then either the party was only facing one opponent (in which case it's pretty screwed whether nauseated or stunned) or there are numerous others to go after the Warlock while the victim recovers.

Perhaps it would be worth adding a line to Disorienting Blast along the lines of: "The victim is stunned, except that it does not drop held items"?

Make it dazed instead of stunned. That still takes the opponent out of combat, but it isn't as harsh as stun.

Decouple it from the Darkness effect and I'll agree. The Far Realm isn't about Darkness though; it's about light shining in places you really wish had stayed dark. This is one reason I removed the original Darkness invocation, and I figured since I got rid of that one, getting rid of the higher-level version just made sense.

Maybe you should make it a "Outer Light" effect - instead of causing darkness, it causes a blinding light that reveals all the terrible things that are really out there, or something like that.

And I would suggest keeping Spider Climb, too, unless there is a very specific need you want to reduce the number of invocations that a Warlock can learn.

 

[Asmor]

Make it dazed instead of stunned. That still takes the opponent out of combat, but it isn't as harsh as stun.


Maybe you should make it a "Outer Light" effect - instead of causing darkness, it causes a blinding light that reveals all the terrible things that are really out there, or something like that.

And I would suggest keeping Spider Climb, too, unless there is a very specific need you want to reduce the number of invocations that a Warlock can learn.

With spider climb, the warlock could grow some small tentacles on his back that let him "wall ride" Rather than actually walking on the wall/ceiling, he'd just put his back to it and scuttle around.

 

[paradox42]

Nyeshet: I always preferred the original version for the '92 campaign myself- "Why settle for the lesser evil?"

Soel: You're welcome, although there are plenty of good ideas here I can't take credit for. I must find a way to work that Flesh-Harrowing Blast into the list somehow. Now I need to get Complete Mage (dammit, and no money until next month to get it with)!

Asmor: Nice imagery, could definitely go with that- though there are others one could do. For example, how about sharp-toothed mouths opening up in the Warlock's palms and feet (a la Y'golonac) to slaver sticky mucous all over them, or perhaps stick to the wall with froglike sticky tongues?

 

[paradox42]

Make it dazed instead of stunned. That still takes the opponent out of combat, but it isn't as harsh as stun.

Yes, I suppose that works, though since the victim has no AC penalty that way I think it should be 1d4 rounds instead of just 1 round. But Dazed, as an effect, certainly does fit the idea of disorientation, so good call.

Maybe you should make it a "Outer Light" effect - instead of causing darkness, it causes a blinding light that reveals all the terrible things that are really out there, or something like that.

So are you suggesting something that creates (what amount to) illusions of Far Realm critters, like stuff revealed by the Ultra-Violet in Lovecraft's original story From Beyond? I suppose that's a decent way to have a swarm show up in the area suddenly- though this won't necessarily block vision the way Hungry Darkness does, so it should probably have another effect. Perhaps fear of some sort; certainly the narrator was frightened by the visions of the "creatures we think of as air" in the story.

And I would suggest keeping Spider Climb, too, unless there is a very specific need you want to reduce the number of invocations that a Warlock can learn.

Well, the specific need was that the number of invocations needed to be identical with the Fiendish version to be as sure as possible of class balance, though admittedly I did always intend to eventually make new Invocations for the Fiendsih one too. I just got sidetracked. You GMs know how it is. Anyway, there's Complete Mage now too, though what I've read of the new invocations in that book suggest that many (if not most) will go to both Fiendish and Alienoid. I mean, really, your eye grows tentacles, pops out of your socket, and starts scuttling around on its own? Eeewww!

 

[Asmor]

Asmor: Nice imagery, could definitely go with that- though there are others one could do. For example, how about sharp-toothed mouths opening up in the Warlock's palms and feet (a la Y'golonac) to slaver sticky mucous all over them, or perhaps stick to the wall with froglike sticky tongues?

Ooooh!!! How about this: the sides of your neck balloon outwards, growing into slimy green pustules. When they're about the size of a grapefruit, they stop growing and form shiny black eyes and a long, lip-less mouth. The two pseudo-frog-heads turn around to shoot their tongues at the wall, pulling you up along it.

You could even have them bicker and argue with the poor warlock...

 

[Angellis_ater]

This is some great stuff, consider it nicked!

 

[saucercrab]

This is an awesome thread!

If I ever get the chance to play a warlock, I'll ask my DM about this variant. In fact, this would make for an awesome Dragon article. Either as a straight Far Realm one, or as an Eberron one (using Xoriat).

Good job, paradox42. :thumbs up:

 

[paradox42]

Holy thread necromancy, Batman!

I'd mostly forgotten this was still floating around the net.ether. Thanks for the kind words, glad people like it.

I did finally get Complete Mage, so perhaps one day soon I'll be updating the list of Invocations with more. I have around 20 to go through and consider, it seems- though I'm reading the book all the way through to be sure I digest everything it contains, not just the Warlock stuff.

EDIT: Oh, and to let new readers of the thread know, on the suggestions and criticism of starwed and Mustrum_Ridcully I decided to change Disorienting Blast (in my version, and that allowed in my game, anyway) from causing the target to be Stunned for 1 round, to instead be Dazed for 1d4 rounds. I edited the Invocation listing in post #5 to reflect this, but the posts by them are referring to the original version. Hope this eliminates any confusion about the subject- though given the thread subject, maybe that's a bad thing!

 

[Nifft]

New ideas...

Lesser Invocations:

• Color of Outer Space - Hypnotic pattern, as the spell, at will.
• Light From Beyond - Daylight spell which deals 1 point of Electrical damage each round to all creatures (except you) in its area. Also, the light is a really gross yellow-green.

Greater Invocations:

• Entangling Octo-Phasm (Blast Shape) - Your eldrich blast becomes a many-armed mass of undulating tentacles, most of which are illusionary (composed of shadow-stuff). The target struck by your attack must make a Will save or be entangled for 5 rounds.
• Viscous Walls - You can create one of three wall effects, but you may only ever have one wall in existence at any time -- creating another ends the current one.
  - Electrical Membrane: a crackling sheet of electricity, which deals damage as a wall of fire, except the damage is electrical rather than fire.
  - Ephemeral Membrane: as illusory wall.
  - Esophagal Membrane: a thick viscous membrane which functions as a wall of ice, but the damage caused by hacking through the wall is acid rather than cold.

Outer Invocations:

• Far Layer - You can bring a thick, pseudo-liquid portion of the Far Realms in conjunction with your current location. This functions as the spell acid fog, except that each round in addition to the normal 2d6 acid damage, the fog-like pseudo-liquid deals 2d6 fire, cold or electrical damage (chosen when you use the invocation). Duration: concentration.

Cheers, -- N

 

[paradox42]

Lesser Invocations:

• Color of Outer Space - Hypnotic pattern, as the spell, at will.
• Light From Beyond - Daylight spell which deals 1 point of Electrical damage each round to all creatures (except you) in its area. Also, the light is a really gross yellow-green.

Color of Outer Space is not a name I would choose for that Invocation- I mean, space itself has no color (unless it's black), and if I were to base an Invocation on the HPL story "the Colour Out of Space" I'd make it more like your Light From Beyond. In other words, a light that's wholly otherworldly, and damages those that see it. I think a better name for the Hypnotic Pattern one would be Higher Geometry or something like that, the idea being that it creates an extradimensional pattern so complex that when a viewer's eye starts to follow it, they just can't stop- and thus stand there and do nothing while they take in the whole picture.

Light From Beyond is too cool to criticize though. Very flavorful and perfectly in line with Far Realm lore.

Greater Invocations:

• Entangling Octo-Phasm (Blast Shape) - Your eldrich blast becomes a many-armed mass of undulating tentacles, most of which are illusionary (composed of shadow-stuff). The target struck by your attack must make a Will save or be entangled for 5 rounds.
• Viscous Walls - You can create one of three wall effects, but you may only ever have one wall in existence at any time -- creating another ends the current one.
  - Electrical Membrane: a crackling sheet of electricity, which deals damage as a wall of fire, except the damage is electrical rather than fire.
  - Ephemeral Membrane: as illusory wall.
  - Esophagal Membrane: a thick viscous membrane which functions as a wall of ice, but the damage caused by hacking through the wall is acid rather than cold.

Entangling Octo-Phasm at first made me wonder whether you had noticed the Entangling Blast Invocation at the Least level, which causes targets to be Entangled for 1 minute if they fail the save. But then it occurred to me that your Invocation is listed as a Blast Shape specifically- so does that mean your intent was to turn the Eldritch Blast into a sort of Eldritch Tentacles effect? Like an Evard's Black Tentacles that somehow involves the Eldritch Blast? That's a very cool and unique idea- though a bit hard to wrap my mind around how it should work mechanically. Also- with this, Chilling Tentacles seems to become obsolete, so perhaps the Alienoid should just have this replace that.

Viscous Walls makes me a bit leery because it can produce multiple effects. No other Warlock "Wall" Invocation can do that.

Outer Invocations:

• Far Layer - You can bring a thick, pseudo-liquid portion of the Far Realms in conjunction with your current location. This functions as the spell acid fog, except that each round in addition to the normal 2d6 acid damage, the fog-like pseudo-liquid deals 2d6 fire, cold or electrical damage (chosen when you use the invocation). Duration: concentration.

Cheers, -- N

If this Invocation represents actually dragging the Far Realm into conjunction with the Material Plane, it should probably have some cool effects other than just damage- Insanity is obvious, but it's probably too obvious- and anyway has been done. Forcing creatures caught within to swim in order to make their way out might be a good start- perhaps this Far-Realmy fog does something strange to gravity within its area. Another possibility, given that the Far Realm usually represents a space beyond known dimensions, is that the Far Layer causes dimensional tears to form in its area- creatures inside it must save every round or be Dimension Doored, Teleported, or even Plane Shifted to random destinations. That could have most unpleasant consequences.