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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 4064491" data-attributes="member: 41584">The Invocations I've found most useful at lower level are Baleful Utterance, Summon Swarm and the one that allows you to Spider Climb (replaced asap with the one that allows Fell Flight).For the visuals;I'd have his Eldritch Blast appear as a spirit that seems to flow out of the Warlock (his body might shudder dramatically as if the spirit is channeled up into him from the earth, or pours down into him from above, and then rips out of him to attack his foe, sinking into said foe like water into a vase, damaging him from within).Baleful Utterance would be a word that causes a thrumming physical sensation (like standing too close to the speaker stacks at a concert), but is inaudible to the living, seeming to pass right through them to target the item, and spirits can be dimly seen drawn to the object and tearing at it with spectral claws.Summon Swarm could appear as some sort of carrion-animals or animals associated with graveyards, rats or flesh-stripping beetles or ravens or vultures.  Alternately, as wailing spirits that tear at the flesh of the living in the area (mechanically identical, but seeming ghostly).Spider Climb doesn't feel terribly thematic (it was my defensive preference, to hang out of reach and blast away), so you might want to ponder that one, or go with the one that gives a miss chance for ranged attacks (chaotic aura?  Er, no idea what it's called) and makes one hard to track, defining it as a shield of spirits swirling around the Warlock, attempting to turn aside incoming ranged attacks with their semi-intangible bodies.Given his nature, I'd probably want to pick up a few skills relevant to his 'profession.'  Some of it could be handled by Bluff or Sense Motive (to tell people what they want to hear, when they come asking for guidance from their ancestors).  Knowledge (religion) and / or (the planes) seems like a fairly necessary skill as well.  Perform (oratory) could be useful here as well.  Or perhaps just a Profession skill in funerary arrangements or embalming or something.Any Knowledge or Gather Information-type skills he could use the same, mechanically, but explain to others as coming from his ability to attune to the secrets of the spirit world, which give him uncanny insights.  He could also use this to explain any information he gets from his Detect Magic at will ability, or even from a successful Search, Spot or Listen check, attributing his own successes to warnings and advice from the spirit world.  As he gains Damage Reduction, he could grow paler and greyer of skin, as well as somewhat colder to the touch, proclaiming that his closeness to the dead is making him somewhat leathery and more durable, perhaps even with a drawn and gaunt look that exaggerates his skull-like features.Once he can take Fell Flight, translucent barely-visible spirits appear to rise up from the ground (or down from the skies, depending on his worldviews idea of where spirits dwell) and grab his arms and cloak and bear him up into the sky.For the Wizard side, Animate Rope (using spirits to possess the inanimate), Sleep (of the dead, mwa-ha-ha) or even Color Spray (visually described as a pale grey and white and black burst that leaves it's stunned targets grey like corpses, their eyes coated in darkness, to the same mechanical effect, but less 'colorful').  Magic Missiles could appear as screaming spirits, perhaps skulls floating at the end of 'tails' of smoke and bone, as if some elongated 'spine' momentarily connects the spellcaster and target while the skull bites at him.  Buff spells like Bull's Strength or Bear's Endurance or Cat's Grace could have the caster naming specific individuals reknowned for their great strength, stamina, etc. and temporarily 'possess' the recipient with the spirit named, allowing them to channel and share the great attribute of that legendary figure.  Web could appear as a shadowy morass of wailing clutching spirits that attempt to grapple all within (as usual, same mechanical effects, including the spirits being 'afraid of fire' and 'explosively vanishing at the touch of fire,' just a different 'graphic') and hold them fast.  Ray of Enfeeblement or Slow could make the target(s) appear momentarily frail and aged, or even grey and corpselike, or involve spirits flying into (or through) the target(s) appearing to 'tear free' some of their strength or vitality.</blockquote>

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