Warlock and such.

[AnonymousOne]

Right, so I've been informed by my DM that the lethality in our campaign will be far more real than last year. (New DM, new style of DMing) As such I want a back up character ready in case a resurrection is not an option.

Well I hate having to keep track of spells cast, how many spell slots I have remaining and all of that wonderful bookkeeping. This has lead me to shy away from the Spelltossing classes and concentrate most of my efforts into the martial classes, especially sneaky ones.

However, the Warlock intrigues me and I'm looking for some advice on a Warlock build to be an effective blaster for party support. I've been looking at the class and seem to think that the Eldritch Blast is certainly potent enough to dish out plenty of damage, especially when combined with invocations like Eldritch Spear and Vitriolic Blast.

I'm just looking for some pointers on how to build and play a Warlock.

For flavor reasons a sneaky kind of Warlock would be nice, but is certainly not necessary.

So please great minds of ENworld, conspire with me.

 

[Darklone]

Depending on the campaign style a dragonfire adept might be more fun... with it´s area of effect damage and the draconic style thing.

Biggest advantage: You have a blaster with Con as main attribute.

 

[AnonymousOne]

Hmmm, now if only I had a copy of Dragon Magic... *sigh*

 

[Shayuri]

A lot depends on your level with warlocks. Until you get Lesser invocations, it's hard to make a warlock sneaky. You can buy crossclass stealth skills, but you're not likely to be much GOOD at them, and skills aren't a warlock's strong suit anyway.

We suggest planning ahead a bit. Buy Move Silently as a cross class skill right out of the gate. If there are feats available to make new skills into class skills (I recall FR and Eberron did...I forget the details though) then make sure Move Silently is done so. Hide is okay, but less important, because when you get to choose your first Lesser Invocation, you'll be choosing Walk Unseen. It's basically Invisibility at will, and it lasts up to 24 hours as long as you don't break it.

It's like a Ring of Invisibility for free, basically.

Well, not FREE. You passed on some great stuff to get it. But you know what I mean.

Assuming you have decent Dex (which is arguably more important even than Cha for a warlock) and have maxed your crossclass Move Silent ranks, you should now be passably stealthy, with Invisibility subbing for Hide. Later on you can take Fell Flight (nice for "gunshipping") or that short range teleport power (which can work amusingly well with invis, since it leaves a 1 round image of you behind...so the round you teleport there's two of you, then next round you go invis...so both images vanish at the same time). Later on you'll want to put a Quicken Spell Like on your Invis (and/or the teleport), but that's just frosting.

It's -extremely- important to know what kind of warlock you want early on. Picking invocations at random will get you into trouble, and you'll spend long, frustrating levels trying to straighten them out. If you want to be a gunship, make sure you have some nice blast modifiers, and feats that enhance your ranged combat. Scouts and stealthy sorts are usually better off with teleporting than flying, since it can get them through barriers easily and synergizes well with invisibility. If you're not worried about damage output, you can choose blast mods that incur conditions or incapacitate briefly, or more subtle invocations like Charm, any of the Dispel powers, and/or skill boosting invocations. Feat choices are more flexible, but a stealth boosting feat might not come amiss.

Check out some of the spell like ability feats too, to help round out your magic abilities. Warlocks never get a decent TK-like power, for example. Selecting the feat that gives you Mage Hand (and some others) isn't bad, even if it IS 1/day. If you have Complete Mage, there are more invocation options, like Disembodied Hand which gives the warlock an ability to manipulate things at range, or even deliver touches...and Mask of Flesh, which can let you disguise yourself easily (great for stealthy types).

Anyway, just some thoughts. Have fun!

 

[AnonymousOne]

Lot to chew on....

Invis was very much in the forefront of sneakiness. And a quickened Teleport, complimented with blasting was very much what I had in mind. Invis in, Blast away, Quickened Teleport leaving the dummy image and blast away again.

I am curious though, how do players reconcile the "I'm just here to blow things up" nature of the warlock with the rest of the game. Forgive me, I've never played one, but it LOOKS like the Warlock gets shoehorned into a similar position as the Martial Adepts: Quite good when the minis come out and initiative gets rolled, but rather slim in the RP and social spheres.

Another question, if I want to drop the sneakiness, what are the more effective blasting techniques?

 

[Darklone]

Start with a level of scout. Skills, sneaky and the skirmish damage will help with almost any shot the warlock dishs out.

 

[Hammerhead]

Well, my Warlock was THE social guy in the group...a real manipulative SOB with an unbeatable Bluff who managed to reign in the sociopathic members of the party.

The best way to get somewhere close to effective in the damage department is to go Hellfire Warlock with a level of Binder (to pick up Naberius to heal ability damage) and add a cool 6d6 to each blast. Without that trick, give up on trying to do real damage, but Noxious Blast is great for taking enemies out of the fight.

 

[Nifft]

I am curious though, how do players reconcile the "I'm just here to blow things up" nature of the warlock with the rest of the game.

I dunno, same way you reconcile the "I"m just here to sunder stuff" nature of the Barbarian?

There are some Invocations to boost your social skills quite effectively. Look through the Invocation list carefully. Most things you'll want to do can be found there.

Also, max out Use Magic Device. That skill is a serious strength to the class.

Cheers, -- N

 

[AnonymousOne]

...snip...

Where is this Binder Class?

 

[Hammerhead]

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.