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Submortimer
2015-06-26, 11:52 PM
Warlock Patron: The Enhanced

http://img08.deviantart.net/9159/i/2012/184/9/f/the_avengers___iron_man_by_thedurrrrian-d55tn2d.jpg

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."
- Opening Narration, The Six-Million-Dollar man

"Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of Scraps!"
"Well...I'm not Tony Stark"
- Obadiah Stane and Prof. Riva, Iron Man

"What are your Prime Directives?"
"Serve theP Public Trust, Protect the Innocent, Uphold the law."
- Bob Morton to Murphy, Robocop


The path to power often lies across a mire of hardship and strife. For many, that can mean years of hard study and practice; for some, it can mean deals with people or entities that man was not meant to deal with. For a small few, though, their power is thrust upon them, often against thier own wishes. It is from this small group of individuals that the Enhanced pull thair ranks.

The Enhanced are warlocks with a peculiar patron, that of one of the whirring, clicking entities of Mechanus. In most cases, an enhanced is a righteous, law-abiding individual who suffer's some form of ignominious or horrifc near death; the servants of Mechanus collect the poor soul, craft him a new, powerful body, and bestow upon him great power. Rarely, they will offer a sprig of divine inspiration to one who has lost all hope, and that inspiration allows the chosen one to craft the means to change his life.

Whatever the case may be, the Enhanced are uniformly Odd and alien when viewed by common folk, seeming to share much more in common with golems than man.

Enhanced Warlock Bonus Spell list



Warlock Level
Spells


1st
Shield, Magic Missile


3rd
Enhance Ability, Scorching Ray


5th
Haste, Lightning Bolt


7th
Fabricate, Locate Creature


9th
Destruction Wave, Wall of Force



Armor Plating
- at 1st level, you gain the ability to summon a suit of armor. As a Bonus action, this armor appears on your person, fitted and ready to go. You are proficient with this armor, it has no strength requirement, and you suffer no drawbacks from sleeping in this armor. It always appears as a full-body suit of heavy, fully-sealed plate armor made of some alien material, but it's ability to protect you grows as your warlock level grows.

- At 1st level, It has a 14 AC and a +2 maximum dex bonus, and counts as medium armor.
- At 5th level, It Grants either a 16 AC and counts as heavy armor, or grants a 15 AC and a +2 maximum dex bonus, and counts as medium armor
- at 9th level, it grants 18 AC and counts as heavy armor.

you may dismiss your armor as a bonus action. You may summon a lower version of your armor, should you so choose, whenever you summon your armor. Should you fobtain suit of magical armor, you may integrate it's abilities into your armor plating; doing so requires a ritual that requires 8 hours, after which your armor plating gains the magical enchantment. You may only integrate one magical suit of armor at a time, and you must still attune to it, if required.


Probability Matrix
- At 6th level, your mental capacity recives a profound upgrde. Following a short or long rest, select either Int or Wis skills: you add half your proficiency bonus to all skills of that type that you are not proficient in until you take a short or long rest.
- Additionally, you benefactors offer you the chance to augment your inteliigence at the cost of your emotions. Upon reaching 6th level, you may swap your INT score and your CHA score; this process takes 24 hours, and is permanent. should you choose this, your pact magic, invocations, and all other warlock features that utilize charisma now instead use intelligence. Your Racial stat bonuses do not change, and are unaffected by this swap.

Ablative Coating
- At 10th level, your armor begins to generate a field of ablative energy. Following a short or long rest, select two of Radiant, Lightning, or Force damage. While you are wearing your armor plating, your gain resistance to the chosen damage type until you use this ability again.

Omni-Cannon
- At 14th level, you unlock the full power of your enhanced frame. As an action, you may fire a huge blast of energy in a 10ft x 120ft line. All creatures in this line must make Dexterity saves: Failure means they take 5d10 Radiant and 5d10 force damage, while success means they take half that. After using this ability, you must take a short or long rest before you can do so again.


Pact Boon: Pact of the Arm
- You gain a special spell focus that fuses to your one of or both of your arms: A magical gauntlet, a pair of palm-mounted focusing crystals, an arm-mounted crossbow, whatever it may be. Whichever form it takes, it's function is to focus your spell attacks, granting them additional power. Any time you make a ranged spell attack, it gains a +2 to attack roll. Your Arm focus does not inhibit your normal use of that hand or arm, but that hand must be free in order to use your focus. Additionally, you gain one cantrip that uses a ranged spell attack from any class list.

New Invocations
Energetic Blast (level 7, Pact of the Arm)
- You may focus powerful elemental energies through your Arm Focus, charging your eldritch blast. When you cast eldritch blast, you may choose for it to deal Radiant, Lightning, Fire, or Force damage.

Focused Blast (Level 9, Pact of the Arm)
You can divert additional energy into your Arm when you focus your Eldritch Blast on a single opponent. When you cast Eldritch Blast, If all of your beams target a single opponent, you may use your bonus action to shoot one additional beam. You cannot move in the same turn you use this ability.

Spell Copy (level 12, Pact of the Arm)
- You may channel spell energy directly into your focus, giving you new weapons to bring against your foes. You may learn new spells af if you had a spellbook, with one requirement: the spell learned must either require a spell attack roll, or give you the ability to make spell attack rolls. (Flame blade or Melf's Minute Meteor's is an acceptable choice, Fireball is not).



So, it's fairly obvious where the inspiration for this comes from: Robocop, Mega Man, Iron Man...heck, Astro boy...any fiction that involves heroes using technology to bring someone back from the dead, Cover themselves in a suit of armor, and shoot lasers out of their hands...or at least two of the three. It requires some re-fluffing of the Warlock's spells and abilities, but playing them up as devices and cybernetic enhancements isn't exactly too hard (fly = rocket boots, Shocking grasp = taser, Dimension door = portal gun...you get the idea).

Of course, in the right setting, this lends itself to still being a purely magical class: a warforged would be a definite fit for both the theme as as a warlock in general. The pact Boon, while designed to mimic Mega Man's Mega Buster or Iron Man's Repulsor Gauntlets, can just as easily be a purely magical device: think Ezreal from League of Legends as an example.

I'm aware the 6th level ability is...problematic. There are class abilities that specifically change your stats outside of ASI's (i;m looking at you, Barbarian capstone), but nothing that does this. In practice, I don't see how, the way I've written it, it could be abused, but I'm sure I'm missing something. I really wanted to give this ability to this particular class, but to just give the "use Int instead of Cha for warlock stuff" at level 6 would be needlessly painful for any Enhanced pact warlock that built for that.

khadgar567
2015-06-27, 12:30 AM
Warlock Patron: The Enhanced

http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac71/Flame-G102/Stolen%20BLEEP%20images/attachment.jpg

"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."
- Opening Narration, The Six-Million-Dollar man

"Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of Scraps!"
"Well...I'm not Tony Stark"
- Obadiah Stane and Prof. Riva, Iron Man

"What are your Prime Directives?"
"Serve theP Public Trust, Protect the Innocent, Uphold the law."
- Bob Morton to Murphy, Robocop


The path to power often lies across a mire of hardship and strife. For many, that can mean years of hard study and practice; for some, it can mean deals with people or entities that man was not meant to deal with. For a small few, though, their power is thrust upon them, often against thier own wishes. It is from this small group of individuals that the Enhanced pull thair ranks.

The Enhanced are warlocks with a peculiar patron, that of one of the whirring, clicking entities of Mechanus. In most cases, an enhanced is a righteous, law-abiding individual who suffer's some form of ignominious or horrifc near death; the servants of Mechanus collect the poor soul, craft him a new, powerful body, and bestow upon him great power. Rarely, they will offer a sprig of divine inspiration to one who has lost all hope, and that inspiration allows the chosen one to craft the means to change his life.

Whatever the case may be, the Enhanced are uniformly Odd and alien when viewed by common folk, seeming to share much more in common with golems than man.

Enhanced Warlock Bonus Spell list



Warlock Level
Spells


1st
Shield, Magic Missile


3rd
Enhance Ability, Scorching Ray


5th
Haste, Lightning Bolt


7th
Fabricate, Locate Creature


9th
Destruction Wave, Wall of Force



Armor Plating
- at 1st level, you gain the ability to summon a suit of armor. As a Bonus action, this armor appears on your person, fitted and ready to go. You are proficient with this armor, it has no strength requirement, and you suffer no drawbacks from sleeping in this armor. It always appears as a full-body suit of heavy, fully-sealed plate armor made of some alien material, but it's ability to protect you grows as your warlock level grows.

- At 1st level, It has a 14 AC and a +2 maximum dex bonus, and counts as medium armor.
- At 5th level, It Grants either a 16 AC and counts as heavy armor, or grants a 15 AC and a +2 maximum dex bonus, and counts as medium armor
- at 9th level, it grants 18 AC and counts as heavy armor.

you may dismiss your armor as a bonus action. You may summon a lower version of your armor, should you so choose, whenever you summon your armor.


Probability Matrix
- At 6th level, your mental capacity recives a profound upgrde. Following a short or long rest, select either Int or Wis skills: you add half your proficiency bonus to all skills of that type that you are not proficient in until you take a short or long rest.
- Additionally, you benefactors offer you the chance to augment your inteliigence at the cost of your emotions. Upon reaching 6th level, you may swap your INT score and your CHA score; this process takes 24 hours, and is permanent. should you choose this, your pact magic, invocations, and all other warlock features that utilize charisma now instead use intelligence. Your Racial stat bonuses do not change, and are unaffected by this swap.

Ablative Coating
- At 10th level, your armor begins to generate a field of ablative energy. Following a short rest, select either Radiant or Force damage. While you are wearing your armor plating, your gain resistance to the chosen damage type until you take a long or short rest.

Omni-Cannon
- At 14th level, you unlock the full power of your enhanced frame. As an action, you may fire a huge blast of energy in a 10ft x 120ft line. All creatures in this line must make Dexterity saves: Failure means they take 5d10 Radiant and 5d10 force damage, while success means they take half that. After using this ability, you must take a long rest before you can do so again.


Pact Boon: Pact of the Arm
- You gain a special spell focus that fuses to your one of or both of your arms: A magical gauntlet, a pair of palm-mounted focusing crystals, an arm-mounted crossbow, whatever it may be. Whichever form it takes, it's function is to focus your spell attacks, granting them additional power. Any time you make a ranged spell attack, it gains a +2 to attack roll. Your Arm focus does not inhibit your normal use of that hand or arm, but that hand must be free in order to use your focus. Additionally, you gain one cantrip that uses a ranged spell attack from any class list.

New Invocations
Energetic Blast (level 7, Pact of the Arm required)
- You may focus powerful elemental energies through your Arm Focus, charging your eldritch blast. When you cast eldritch blast, you may choose for it to deal Radiant, Lightning, Fire, or Force damage.

Spell Copy (level 12, Pact of the Arm required)
- You may channel spell energy directly into your focus, giving you new weapons to bring against your foes. You may learn new spells af if you had a spellbook, with one requirement: the spell learned must either require a spell attack roll, or give you the ability to make spell attack rolls. (Flame blade or Melf's Minute Meteor's is an acceptable choice, Fireball is not).



So, it's fairly obvious where the inspiration for this comes from: Robocop, Mega Man, Iron Man...heck, Astro boy...any fiction that involves heroes using technology to bring someone back from the dead, Cover themselves in a suit of armor, and shoot lasers out of their hands...or at least two of the three. It requires some re-fluffing of the Warlock's spells and abilities, but playing them up as devices and cybernetic enhancements isn't exactly too hard (fly = rocket boots, Shocking grasp = taser, Dimension door = portal gun...you get the idea).

Of course, in the right setting, this lends itself to still being a purely magical class: a warforged would be a definite fit for both the theme as as a warlock in general. The pact Boon, while designed to mimic Mega Man's Mega Buster or Iron Man's Repulsor Gauntlets, can just as easily be a purely magical device: think Ezreal from League of Legends as an example.

I'm aware the 6th level ability is...problematic. There are class abilities that specifically change your stats outside of ASI's (i;m looking at you, Barbarian capstone), but nothing that does this. In practice, I don't see how, the way I've written it, it could be abused, but I'm sure I'm missing something. I really wanted to give this ability to this particular class, but to just give the "use Int instead of Cha for warlock stuff" at level 6 would be needlessly painful for any Enhanced pact warlock that built for that.
now I definitely get extra pack boon for my warlock

DracoKnight
2015-06-27, 02:20 AM
I would almost recommend Fly over Haste for their spell list. :)

Submortimer
2015-06-27, 02:31 AM
I would almost recommend Fly over Haste for their spell list. :)

Fly is already a Warlock spell.

khadgar567
2015-06-27, 02:50 AM
Fly is already a Warlock spell.
and you can get from apotheosis pact to so this might need more dakka instead of utility like spare fly spell maybe get ability to do iterative attacks with eldritch blast so we can deal more damage

DracoKnight
2015-06-27, 03:09 AM
Fly is already a Warlock spell.

Oh. I didn't realize that. It's been a while since I looked at their list/used anything but Eldritch Blast.

Submortimer
2015-06-27, 04:30 AM
Oh. I didn't realize that. It's been a while since I looked at their list/used anything but Eldritch Blast.

Hehe, no problem. How do you feel about it overall though? Too strong, too weak..?

DracoKnight
2015-06-27, 04:34 AM
Hehe, no problem. How do you feel about it overall though? Too strong, too weak..?

I like it. As far as both roleplay and combat goes. I don't like the second part of the 6th level feature. If you don't want to use it, then it's a waste of that feature. I don't have a recommendation for a replacement feature at the moment, but if I come up with one, I'll let you know :)

Submortimer
2015-06-27, 04:46 AM
I like it. As far as both roleplay and combat goes. I don't like the second part of the 6th level feature. If you don't want to use it, then it's a waste of that feature. I don't have a recommendation for a replacement feature at the moment, but if I come up with one, I'll let you know :)

That's kind of the intent. You already get a level 6 feature that's more than enough on it's own (bonuses to Wisdom or Intelligence based skills), this just gives you a one-time opportunitiy to turn into an Int-lock instead of a Cha-lock: you trade your force of personality for increased knowledge. Goes along with the whole "becoming a robot" theme.

Of course, Tony Stark has 20s in both by that point, so when he switches, nothing changes :smallsmile:

Amnoriath
2015-06-27, 01:31 PM
In terms of flavor it is really well done and your abilities do match well. The spells are a great and sensible list to have for this subclass. Honestly though it is really weak in comparison to others. While the 1st level ability is on par with others(maybe wave away the weight) your 6th level ability is weird in that it enables the use of a generally lesser ability score and is a minor version of Jack of All Trades. I get the flavor but if ability score focuses are going to happen they should as soon as possible because it either forces a lack luster character until then or it does nothing in which then you are left with a lesser Bard feature. While other Warlocks only have 1/short rest abilities here they at least have the pull and flare to make a real difference so may be think about it. Your 10th level ability though is explicitly weaker than the Fiendish Warlock's. The 14th level feature isn't going to be powerful as you think it to be. Remember your DC will cap at 19 those proficient in Dexterity saves have a 65% chance of success of halving maybe 60 damage. So, yes against a horde of mooks it is devastating but since it is a line it probably wouldn't end that encounter any way. Other 1/long rest abilities have the out right general potential to change the out come of most given encounters. This doesn't.

Submortimer
2015-06-27, 04:24 PM
In terms of flavor it is really well done and your abilities do match well. The spells are a great and sensible list to have for this subclass. Honestly though it is really weak in comparison to others. While the 1st level ability is on par with others(maybe wave away the weight) your 6th level ability is weird in that it enables the use of a generally lesser ability score and is a minor version of Jack of All Trades. I get the flavor but if ability score focuses are going to happen they should as soon as possible because it either forces a lack luster character until then or it does nothing in which then you are left with a lesser Bard feature. While other Warlocks only have 1/short rest abilities here they at least have the pull and flare to make a real difference so may be think about it. Your 10th level ability though is explicitly weaker than the Fiendish Warlock's. The 14th level feature isn't going to be powerful as you think it to be. Remember your DC will cap at 19 those proficient in Dexterity saves have a 65% chance of success of halving maybe 60 damage. So, yes against a horde of mooks it is devastating but since it is a line it probably wouldn't end that encounter any way. Other 1/long rest abilities have the out right general potential to change the out come of most given encounters. This doesn't.

You make some good points. Let me comment on a few things:

1. The 6th level ability is designed to keep you from being lackluster prior to that point. Pump charisma up to that point, hit level 6, swap your charisma and int, and continue in stride. You never lose anything.

2. The 10th level ability...I might just give flat out resistance to both types.

3. You make a good point with the 14th level power. I might turn that into a short rest ability.

Gr7mm Bobb
2015-06-30, 06:52 AM
This definitely makes me think of the characters already mentioned, but I also think of a character from LoL, Viktor. Which makes me think that this could be named 'The Glorious Evolution'. But a lot of time the characters mentioned aren't as reliant on their armor as they might be with other things. I like the base armor but feel that as 'upgrades' are acquired maybe they could invest in other inventions.

For the most part I like the idea and theme presented, just trying to make a friendly request for moar. Yes, tired + sick + forums = maybe bad times. No offenses meant mate, I like most of your stuff. hitting submit now

PotatoGolem
2015-06-30, 10:12 AM
Very cool. Seems about in line with Fiend, power-wise- maybe a little more defensive at low levels with your armor instead of Fiend's killing bonus. They seem like they'd make good gishes.

Gr7mm Bobb
2015-07-20, 12:53 PM
Alternate Ability:

Focused Blast
As a bonus action you focus your power into a single point. Your speed is reduced by 1/2 until the start of your next turn. Until the beginning of your next turn, whenever you cast the Eldritch Blast cantrip, you make one ranged spell attack roll. If this attack hits, this target takes damage as though they were hit by all beams produced from Eldritch Blast.

Math Time
Maybe someone who likes the idea can help reword it so it functions along intent without breaking the game.

So at 17th when you this feature and Blast some poor mook, your damage will look like this:
4d10

If you add anything to your blast damage then that will get multiplied as well (agonizing blast, magic items, other features. . .)
4d10 + 4(Cha)

This is suboptimal if you are using things like Hex or Bestow Curse to get your damage higher as both of those require multiple swings to get more damage out there. This does mean that when you hit some shmuck and have repelling blast, you can push him 40ft in that one go.

The idea was to mess with your odds, not your actual output (sorry hex). But I liked the imagery presented from turning your AK-47 into a Barret .50

Also I might be trying to work on a feat or feature that does what Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter can do with the -5 hit for +10 damage.

Thoughts, Concerns, Feelings?

Submortimer
2015-07-21, 12:24 AM
Not a bad idea. This would have been more useful in older editions, when DR was a thing: one big hit would always do more damage than a bunch of small hits. Now, It's just half damage off everything, which changes its effectiveness somewhat, especially considering the fact that only players are affected by things like massive damage.

I might add it into the Pact of the Arm Pact boon as a higher level Invocation, and do something like this:

Focused Blast (Level 9, Pact of the Arm)
You can divert additional energy into your Arm when you focus your Eldritch Blast on a single opponent. When you cast Eldritch Blast, If all of your beams target a single opponent, you may use your bonus action to shoot one additional beam. You cannot move in the same turn you use this ability.

Gr7mm Bobb
2015-07-21, 07:18 AM
The overall idea was for fluff not for moar damage. It would make sense getting an extra shot in there. I also set up a similar feature for weapon attacks, kind of a swinging for the fences or that well placed sniper shot. I like what you have though not a bad idea I still think that sucker should look/feel like a charged buster shot.

Also our dm-ing in our group rolls with the massive damage rule on things that would be expected to suffer from a large blow. Also all-in hits really help out with snapping concentrations'.