AmberVael
2013-06-09, 12:25 PM
Binding Pact
Some entities are not content to watch those they have bestowed power on from afar- and not all pacts with such beings are in the distant past, or were forged by ancestors. A few warlocks are far more strongly bound to the creatures their powers stem from, or servants of those beings. While they more overtly show the signs of their dark dealings, they can also directly manifest the powers of their allies.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 4th.
Replaces: You do not gain Deceive Item, nor do you gain Imbue Item.
Benefit: You gain a limited ability to forge pacts with outside forces. At 4th level, you may select a single first level vestige, and gain an effective binder level equal to your warlock level. You do not summon or make a binding check for this vestige; you are bound to it constantly, and express its sign and are under its influence. As a full-round action, you may suppress its sign and influence indefinitely, but you also lose access to the powers of the bound vestige until you take another full-round action to express its sign and influence again.
At 12th level, you may choose to either replace your previous vestige with any vestige of up to second level, or you may choose a second first level vestige. If you choose a second first level vestige you may only express the signs, influence, and powers of one vestige at a time, though whenever you use an action to suppress one, you may choose to express the other.
Any choices that would be made upon binding a vestige (such as skills chosen when binding Naberius) may be changed as a full-round action once every 24 hours.
Eldritch Focus
The warlock's natural attunement to magic does not always manifest in increased awareness of it. Instead, some find that directing magical energies is easier for them and that with focus, their eldritch blasts become more potent.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 2nd.
Replaces: You do not gain Detect Magic.
Benefit: At 2nd level, you add your Charisma modifier to your Eldritch Blast damage. You may also spend a full round action to activate your Eldritch Blast in order to increase this bonus to one and a half times your Charisma modifier. Lastly, you add the Magic Insight invocation to the list of invocations you may select.
Eldritch Scholar
The studious and intelligent sometimes pry too far, unearthing forbidden knowledge. Others turn to dangerous pacts and alliances to achieve the ends they seek, whether out of desperation or arrogance. These warlocks do not have the martial training of their peers, but have greater knowledge and investigative skill to rely upon in their adventures.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: The Eldritch Scholar uses a d4 for his Hit Die (and has hit points at 1st level equal to 4 + Con modifier) and has poor base attack bonus. In addition, they are not proficient with light armor, and suffer arcane spell failure in all armor.
Benefit: The Eldritch Scholar adds Decipher Script, Gather Information, all Knowledge skills, Search, and Speak Language to his class list. The Eldritch Scholar also gains skill points per level equal to 6 + Int modifier (and has this number x4 at 1st level). Lastly, the Eldritch Scholar gains the Lore (Ex) ability, which is identical to the bard's bardic knowledge class feature, using the Eldritch Scholar's class level in place of the bard level.
Invoker Savant
Not all supernatural entities possess increased resilience to harm- some are instead blessed with stronger and more varied magic. A warlock who is tied to such beings may find that the powers they gain reflect this, expressing a greater breadth of invocations at the expense of any supernatural protection.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 3rd.
Replaces: You do not gain Damage Reduction, nor do you gain Fiendish Resilience.
Benefit: At levels 3, 9, 14, and 19, you learn one additional invocation from the Warlock list of any grade that you have access to. You may also choose to select invocations from outside the Warlock list, but these invocations must be one grade lower than the highest grade you have access to.
For example, a level 9 Warlock with this alternate class feature could select a least or lesser invocation from the Warlock list, or a least invocation from any invocation list, while a level 3 warlock could only select a least invocation from the Warlock list.
Notes and Change Log
Invoker Savant
Notes: The unusual progression here is meant to place the extra invocations on levels where the warlock does not already gain an invocation rather than replacing missing features with the new one. It does leave a few levels empty, but I think this was the better choice.
This is basically meant to be the Educated Wilder variant for Warlock- it's possible that this is a strict upgrade, but Warlock really suffers from its low invocation numbers, so it is probably called for.
Eldritch Scholar
Notes: Trying to balance to little and too much here. 6 skill points and extra skills felt like a bit too little... lore may be a bit too much. It's tempting to add in poor attack bonus, but I think that might be too harmful, given the prominence of Eldritch Blast. Thoughts?
Changes 1.1
-Now also reduces attack bonus to poor.
Binding Pact
Notes: I think I've expressed what the effects are, but I'm sure there's better wording for it.
Changes 1.1
-Includes wording to allow for changing of variable vestige abilities once every 24 hours.
Changes 1.2
-On review of the vestiges and how binder level applied to them, I decided to increase effective binder level to full warlock level.
Some entities are not content to watch those they have bestowed power on from afar- and not all pacts with such beings are in the distant past, or were forged by ancestors. A few warlocks are far more strongly bound to the creatures their powers stem from, or servants of those beings. While they more overtly show the signs of their dark dealings, they can also directly manifest the powers of their allies.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 4th.
Replaces: You do not gain Deceive Item, nor do you gain Imbue Item.
Benefit: You gain a limited ability to forge pacts with outside forces. At 4th level, you may select a single first level vestige, and gain an effective binder level equal to your warlock level. You do not summon or make a binding check for this vestige; you are bound to it constantly, and express its sign and are under its influence. As a full-round action, you may suppress its sign and influence indefinitely, but you also lose access to the powers of the bound vestige until you take another full-round action to express its sign and influence again.
At 12th level, you may choose to either replace your previous vestige with any vestige of up to second level, or you may choose a second first level vestige. If you choose a second first level vestige you may only express the signs, influence, and powers of one vestige at a time, though whenever you use an action to suppress one, you may choose to express the other.
Any choices that would be made upon binding a vestige (such as skills chosen when binding Naberius) may be changed as a full-round action once every 24 hours.
Eldritch Focus
The warlock's natural attunement to magic does not always manifest in increased awareness of it. Instead, some find that directing magical energies is easier for them and that with focus, their eldritch blasts become more potent.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 2nd.
Replaces: You do not gain Detect Magic.
Benefit: At 2nd level, you add your Charisma modifier to your Eldritch Blast damage. You may also spend a full round action to activate your Eldritch Blast in order to increase this bonus to one and a half times your Charisma modifier. Lastly, you add the Magic Insight invocation to the list of invocations you may select.
Eldritch Scholar
The studious and intelligent sometimes pry too far, unearthing forbidden knowledge. Others turn to dangerous pacts and alliances to achieve the ends they seek, whether out of desperation or arrogance. These warlocks do not have the martial training of their peers, but have greater knowledge and investigative skill to rely upon in their adventures.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 1st.
Replaces: The Eldritch Scholar uses a d4 for his Hit Die (and has hit points at 1st level equal to 4 + Con modifier) and has poor base attack bonus. In addition, they are not proficient with light armor, and suffer arcane spell failure in all armor.
Benefit: The Eldritch Scholar adds Decipher Script, Gather Information, all Knowledge skills, Search, and Speak Language to his class list. The Eldritch Scholar also gains skill points per level equal to 6 + Int modifier (and has this number x4 at 1st level). Lastly, the Eldritch Scholar gains the Lore (Ex) ability, which is identical to the bard's bardic knowledge class feature, using the Eldritch Scholar's class level in place of the bard level.
Invoker Savant
Not all supernatural entities possess increased resilience to harm- some are instead blessed with stronger and more varied magic. A warlock who is tied to such beings may find that the powers they gain reflect this, expressing a greater breadth of invocations at the expense of any supernatural protection.
Class: Warlock.
Level: 3rd.
Replaces: You do not gain Damage Reduction, nor do you gain Fiendish Resilience.
Benefit: At levels 3, 9, 14, and 19, you learn one additional invocation from the Warlock list of any grade that you have access to. You may also choose to select invocations from outside the Warlock list, but these invocations must be one grade lower than the highest grade you have access to.
For example, a level 9 Warlock with this alternate class feature could select a least or lesser invocation from the Warlock list, or a least invocation from any invocation list, while a level 3 warlock could only select a least invocation from the Warlock list.
Notes and Change Log
Invoker Savant
Notes: The unusual progression here is meant to place the extra invocations on levels where the warlock does not already gain an invocation rather than replacing missing features with the new one. It does leave a few levels empty, but I think this was the better choice.
This is basically meant to be the Educated Wilder variant for Warlock- it's possible that this is a strict upgrade, but Warlock really suffers from its low invocation numbers, so it is probably called for.
Eldritch Scholar
Notes: Trying to balance to little and too much here. 6 skill points and extra skills felt like a bit too little... lore may be a bit too much. It's tempting to add in poor attack bonus, but I think that might be too harmful, given the prominence of Eldritch Blast. Thoughts?
Changes 1.1
-Now also reduces attack bonus to poor.
Binding Pact
Notes: I think I've expressed what the effects are, but I'm sure there's better wording for it.
Changes 1.1
-Includes wording to allow for changing of variable vestige abilities once every 24 hours.
Changes 1.2
-On review of the vestiges and how binder level applied to them, I decided to increase effective binder level to full warlock level.