Trying to play a warlock...

[Shin Okada]

Once grappling enters the picture, it's best not to be a spellcaster at all. If you're not focusing on Strength and BAB, you stand no chance in grapple.
The -4 penalty at least ensures that you don't even dare to believe you could succeed here. You're only hope is to Dimension Door / Teleport away. (or the Rogue sneak attacking the grappler to death)

It is not just -4 penalty actually. It often happens that the difference in one size category changes if one is an eligible target of certain attack or not.

 

[Nifft]

if you think [...], you have never [...]

I think this sort of argument style should be confined to the 4e forum.

In my experience, the -5 is irrelevant.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Actually armor and weapons weigh half for small characters.
Most equipment weighs 1/4 (clothing, waterskin, backpack, rations etc).

So unless overburdened with loot the halfling warlock will be carrying more gear than the human warlock.

+2 AC helps against the attack to avoid being grapple for what is worth.
+1 to all saves is good too, +2 against saves versus fear, one of the more common effects in the game.

 

[roguerouge]

2. Weight of the most magic items do not change.

While the weight of small mithral shirt is 1/2 of it's medium-sized version, other items, especially magic items you found in adventures, do have the same weight. While wearable items automatically fit for characters of any size, DMG does not say the weight changes.

But the Gauntlet of Ogre Power weigh 4 pounds. So, only 0.5 pounds of light load increase for 4,000 gp

I generally prefer to pretend that magic items resize to the user rather than pretend that there's a halfling version of everything in the DMG, a gnome version, an elf version, etc. and that it's available for purchase. That's a taste issue, obviously.

Incidentally, I'd love citatations on the weight change to equipment, if it's in the SRD.

 

[brehobit]

Human (or strong heart halfling) with only fey feats is probably the best option. The DR gets silly and you can make a decent hand-to-hand character if you want. At higher levels I suspect this path looks less good (say 12+) as the fey feats run out and a warlock is generally not the best high-level caster class to begin with. But I've seen one played from 3rd to 8th this way and as a DM I found the warlock to be scary good. No "big blast" but lots of smaller ones.

Mark

 

[Kat']

First off, read this: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=751117

It's a real goldmine, though I don't agree with everything, so here my own opinion.

1) Despite the point blank shot, presice shot and extra invocation what other feats suit a warlock?

Ability Focus, Spell Penetration, Martial Study/Martial Stance (Child of Shadow... yeah, baby!).

2) What about a race good for warlocks? Raptoran? Human?

Warlocks need three stats, in this order of importance: Dex>Con>Cha. Why Cha less important? Because they have a good amount of invocations that do not allow a save. Second, while See the Unseen is a good invocation, you may want to have the slot for something else. You only get 12 invocations, after all. So Darkvision or otherwise good senses are good. So look out for races with low LA (+2 should be an absolute maximum, or check if your DM allows LA buyback) giving bonus to your main stats.

Good LA +0 races:
- Human is a no-brainer, but somewhat... flavorless.
- Dwarf gets penalty to Cha, but bonus to Con, and Darkvision. A not-that-suboptimal flavor choice.
- Gnome gets bonus to Con plus tons of goodies
- Halfling gets bonus to Dex plus tons of goodies
- Warforged is surprisingly good despite the -2 Cha. The racial armor feats are very nice (remember that Warlocks do not suffer from ASF in light armor) and being half-construct makes you immune to a whole lot of things.

Races with +1 LA:
- Hobgoblin gets +2 Dex and Con, Darkvision, and no drawbacks. Not bad at all.
- Water Mephling (Planar Handbook) is a Small race with no Str penalty and 30' base speed, plus Swim speed, and bonus to Con and Cha. Awesome, if you ask me.
- Catfolk gets +4 dex +2 cha, 40' base speed and natural armor.
- Aasimar gets Cha bonus, Energy resistances and Darkvision for +1 LA. Could be worse.

3) Any PRC??

Anything with full spellcasting progression.

4)Finaly do you have an idea about the apropriate equipment for a warlock?

Stat boosters, cloak of concealment, wands, and scrolls. You're awesome at UMD, count on it! You'll be making your own items from level 12 on anyway.

 

[Darklone]

Check out the dragonfire adept. Warlock with draconic flavor, d8 HD, area of effect blast.

Ah yes, and CON is the classes most important stat. So you're the everflying caster with more hitpoints than the barbarian.

 

[Rvdvelden]

If you don't mind a big LA (and consequently the lower damage output) try a pixie.
For a +4 LA you get +8 Dexterity and +6 Charisma (amongst others), which means you can get your dex through the roof (hello, eldritch blast aka ranged touch attack).

It also has a fly speed of 60 feet (good), which means your way faster than any other creature and you definitely qualify for fly-by attack (get in range, blast, get out of range).

The Special Qualities is where the real fun begins:
Damage reduction 10/cold iron if you do get targeted,
Greater invisibility (+2 on attacks, no dex bonus for defender, combined with the ranged touch and an insane dex this is the closest you can get to auto-hit)
Spell resistance equal to 15 + class levels for those nasty true seeing spellcasters.

I play one now and I love it. Sure, the +4 LA lowers the damage output, but the plusses make all up for that. The greater invisibility and fly speed free up two invocation slots, and the high dex makes up for point blank / precise shot.

 

[irdeggman]

I generally prefer to pretend that magic items resize to the user rather than pretend that there's a halfling version of everything in the DMG, a gnome version, an elf version, etc. and that it's available for purchase. That's a taste issue, obviously.

This will however totally mess up the "size" descriptors for weapons.

Something that you should keep track of since 3.5 made that a very detailed mechanic.

 

[NightCrawler]

Thx guys..

One more question is that i ve heard of a PRC named Hellfire Warlock... Do you know from what book is it? Is it good?