Warlock and such.

[AnonymousOne]

Tome of Magic. You essentially make pacts with these otherworldly beings called vestiges that grant you powers. For the HfW, you bind Naberius, who, among other things, lets you heal one point of ability damage per round.

How tidy.

How ... applicable is the Hellfire Warlock for a CN character? And ... the Hellfire is in BoVD is that correct?
EDIT: Nevermind, my google fu was strong today, Fiendish Codex II.

 

[Shayuri]

I find warlocks are a blast to RP. One big trick, as noted by another poster, is to pick an invocation or two that isn't necessarily a combat booster or offensive/defensive ability. There's some good Least Invocations to fill that role, and you can even spend a feat to get an extra Invocation if you want. Another fun RP point about the warlock is that they, moreso even than the sorceror, are innately tied to a supernatural origin. The class description suggests fiendish, but that's just one possibility. I've had fey warlocks, even warlocks who were the result of mysterious magical experiments on people. A friend of mine has a warforged warlock that gets his powers from a sort of symbiosis with an otherworldly power that partially inhabited his body during the Mourning. The key is to choose some invocations that reflect your origin (and warlocks can get some good mileage out of Heritage feats too) and be creative. Does your character know his origin? Does he want to? How does he feel about it? Etc etc.

As far as good blasty mods...if I'm going to gunship, Eldritch Spear is nigh-essential. That with Fell Flight lets you snipe from so far above that only spells (and even then, only long-range spells) can hit you. Empower Eldritch Blast is one of the best fire-power enhancing feats for the money you can get...and remember the "Sudden (blank)" series works just fine on invocations. Invest early in a Chauseble of Fell Power to boost your per-blast firepower. The Chain Blast invocation is a nice way to get a limited "area" power from your blasts. Eldritch Cone is worth looking at if you've been cranking your Cha and save DC (Ability Focus: Eldritch Blast may be worth it if you're concentrating on blasts) for awhile. Also look at Invocations like Painful Sleep of the Ages, Word of Changing, and Chilling Tentacles. I also like Beshadowed Blast (blinds target for a round), Utterdark Blast (inflicts negative level per blast), and the ever-popular Vitriolic Blast (does continuing acid damage, bypasses SR).

Other fun things: Repelling Blast. Surprisingly useful for avoiding melee, knocking combatants around and off things. Dark One's Luck is a potentially very potent save booster, and one of the few defensive abilities that warlocks get. If you're up against a non-spellcaster, Dark Discorporation is an awesome defense AND offense. Just watch out for area attacks.

 

[irdeggman]

Warlocks are feat starved and have so many things they could be spending them on.

For a blaster, IMO, you need point blank shot (prerequisiste for precise shot) and precise shot (improved precise shot is handy later on too).

The heritige feats are a good chain too. I built an NPC with the fiendish ones.


Don't forget a warlock's affinity for UMD (it is overlooked far too often IMO).

 

[Hammerhead]

Warlocks are feat starved and have so many things they could be spending them on.

For a blaster, IMO, you need point blank shot (prerequisiste for precise shot) and precise shot (improved precise shot is handy later on too).

No, you don't, depending on your starting level. With one attack per round, point blank shot is a waste of a feat. If you can at all afford it, you're going to want a rod of magical precision from complete mage, which gives you the effects of Precise Shot.

 

[Shayuri]

Goggles of Foefinding work too, and in more situations.

They negate cover bonuses to AC...and the -4 penalty for firing into a melee is actually a "soft cover" bonus to the foe's AC.

 

[AnonymousOne]

*makes notes, Files them away for further use*

Much appreciated everyone!

 

[rgard]

Hi, we compiled a bunch of warlock stuff in this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=191211

 

[UltimaGabe]

They negate cover bonuses to AC...and the -4 penalty for firing into a melee is actually a "soft cover" bonus to the foe's AC.

Erm... no, it isn't. It's quite different, in fact. It's a -4 to your attack roll, not a cover bonus to AC. That's all.

 

[Diirk]

Erm... no, it isn't. It's quite different, in fact. It's a -4 to your attack roll, not a cover bonus to AC. That's all.

And in fact the -4 penalty for shooting into melee stacks with any +4 AC bonuses opponent's get due to soft cover.

 

[Stalker0]

The real key to the warlock class is use magic device. Use your invocations to bolster your main concept. Go stealth if you want stealth. Go the +6 to social skills if you want to be social, etc. Use magic device covers everything else.

We have a warlock in my group (6th level) who can use 7th level scrolls without failure. Acquire utility spells that don't rely on saves with scrolls and wands and you can add a bit of breadth to your repetiore.