Zaruthustran said:
For Invocations, my wishlist is (LEAST) Beguiling Influence, Baleful Utterance, Dark Ones Own Luck, See the Unseen, (LESSER) Charm, Fell Flight, Flee the Scene, Voracious Dispelling, (GREATER) Wall of Perilous Flame.
Bear in mind that you can swap out lower-level invocations when you get new ones - so if you want some of that mobility early, take Spiderwalk until you can swap it out for Fell Flight later.
Baleful Utterance is incredibly useful, to the point where it's almost abusive. It's surprising just how many mundane items an adventurer comes across that would make his life easier if they were to conveniently fall apart.
Flee the Scene is great for both mobility and battlefield control - being able to run (or fly) in and pull your companion(s) out of harm's way, leaving behind an illusory target, is very handy.
Wall of Perilous Flame is good, but also consider Chilling Tentacles - it's devastating for battlefield control, and as a bonus it deals damage too.
Thing is, it's important to get those blast essences and shapes in order to power through Minor Globes and to be effective in combat. So I was thinking (LEAST) Frightful Blast, Eldritch Spear, (LESSER) Beshadowed Blast, Eldritch Chain, (GREATER) Repelling Blast, Vitriolic Blast, Eldritch Cone (DARK) Utterdark Blast.
Personally, I've never been attracted by most of the essence blasts. Their effects just aren't radical enough to make it worth spending the invocation - with the exception of Vitriolic Blasts, obviously, to get you past SR.
My first warlock took Eldritch Spear at 4th level, and got no use out of it at all for two levels. Granted, we were doing a lot of dungeoneering, but the fact is that even on open ground, it's not all that common to
know you're going to go ahead and fight someone before they get within shouting distance. If you're going to be a highly mobile, flying warlock, chances are you'll be able to get within normal blast range and still stay fairly safe.
Eldritch Chain and Eldritch Cone, however, are well worth it - the Chain because it's the closest you'll get to having iterative attacks, and the Cone for those occasions when the enemy thinks a tight formation is a good idea.
Way too many invocations to fit into one character. We're starting at level 5, so that's 3 Least invocations. Right now I'm thinking Baleful Utterance, Frightful Blast, and Beguiling Influence.
Reasonable choice, though I will point out that it's hard to go wrong with See the Unseen. Even for a character who already has darkvision, constant-effect See Invisibility is very useful. Entropic Ward is also nice.
For skills (28 point buy, Str 10 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 8 Cha 16 with level bump) I was thinking of maxing UMD, Intimidation, and Concentration, 5 ranks in Bluff, 7 in Spellcraft, and a smattering of all three Knowledges.
That's a well-balanced set of choices, and you've covered all the essentials.
For feats, well, that's the thing. I figure with Frightful Blast, Beguiling Influence, and maxed Intimidate I should take a feat that lets me add another Fear effect to those Shaken by the blast (forcing them to flee). Something like Kiai Shout or even Intimidating Strike (though I don't have the prereqs for that). Any ideas for more Fear-based feats?
Intimidating Strike would be a good feat for a melee-specialised member of your party to take - if they hit an opponent first to get them Shaken, you can follow up to Frighten them. Other than that, you could use wands of
cause fear as a follow-up to your blasts.
Other feat ideas: Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast)
Only worth it if you're going to specialise in eldritch essence invocations, and cause saving throws against most of your blasts.
If you're going to follow up with Precise Shot to let you fire into melee (and consider Improved Precise Shot at 15th level so that you can ignore cover and concealment), then Point Blank Shot is worth it. If not, a situational +1 to hit and damage is of debatable worth compared to other feat choices.
Definitely worth it, but only at later levels. I wouldn't spend a feat to gain anything lower than a Lesser invocation.
Most definitely worth it. You only get to maximise three blasts per day, but when you really want that extra damage, it's well worth it.
Looks like you've got a good character concept there.
