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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Warlocks and Wyrms [Invocations]



AmberVael
2016-05-21, 06:26 PM
The pieces of the great game are countless, and the endless machinations of the players span nations and generations. Even for the most cunning of wyrms the complexities are demanding, and the strategies that must be simultaneously maintained require a dragon to make allies. A promising or loyal agent is of great value, and earning a dragon's favor has its rewards - the investiture of power they can offer is a force to be reckoned with.

This a set of invocations requested by Cardea, aimed at the warlock class (though other invoking classes may access them as appropriate, with the dragonfire adept in particular being well suited to them). While primarily themed after dragons, most should be adaptable to a number of different fluff explanations.


Bronze Blast
Lesser; 4th; Eldritch Essence
This eldritch essence invocation allows you to change your eldritch blast into a bronze blast. A bronze blast deals electric damage, and any creature struck by the blast must make a Reflex save or be pushed 5 feet per 2 caster levels directly away from you. If the creature strikes a solid object, it stops prematurely but does not take damage from the impact.

Dragonfire Blast
Dark; 8th; Eldritch Essence
This eldritch essence invocation allows you to change your eldritch blast into a dragonfire blast. A dragonfire blast deals fire damage that ignores resistance to fire and still deals half damage to creatures with immunity to fire.
In addition, a dragonfire blast deals double damage to inanimate objects rather than the normal half for eldritch blast and energy attacks, and any creature or object reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by a dragonfire blast is entirely incinerated, leaving behind only a trace of soot, though a creature’s equipment is unaffected. Objects constructed entirely of force, such as a wall of force, are destroyed as if struck by a disintegrate spell.
Lastly, a dragonfire blast is treated as a supernatural ability when it would be beneficial. As such, it ignores spell resistance, is not subject to counterspelling, and does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Eldritch Lash
Least; 2nd; Blast Shape
You may shape your eldritch blast into a scaled dragon tail as a free action, even as part of a full attack action. You gain a tail slap attack that deals 1d6 points of damage. You can either use this attack as a primary attack (in which case it adds your Strength bonus to damage rolls) or as a secondary attack (in which case it adds half your Strength bonus to damage rolls). A target struck with this natural attack is also affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any essence applied to the blast). The natural weapon granted by this invocation lasts until you make an attack with it or until you use your eldritch blast again.

Eldritch Wings
Lesser; 3rd; Blast Shape
This blast shape changes your eldritch blast into a vast pair of wings that strike down your enemies. As a standard action, you may make a single melee attack roll against all targets within two separately placed 15-foot cones. Targets hit by this attack are affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any essence applied to the blast). Creatures in overlapping areas are only affected once.

Hoard Sense
Lesser; 4th
You are more aware than most of the items that pass through your hands. You gain a +6 bonus on Appraise checks and such checks are treated as trained even if you have no ranks in the skill. After an item has remained in your possession for one minute, you become aware of all its magical properties as the identify spell (but with no components required). After an item has been in your possession for one hour you are aware of its name or reputation if it has one, and learn a vague summary of its nature or history (this summary reveals no specific details such as names or dates, but might indicate it was used in a great war or was a cherished heirloom).
After an item has been in your possession for a full day, you become aware of its location. You know the precise distance and direction to any such item until it has been out of your possession for a full day.
The effects of this invocation last indefinitely, or until dismissed.

Layered Scales
Greater; 6th
You form your magic into protective layers that mimic dragonscales. When you use this invocation, you gain one of the following benefits:

A +1 enhancement bonus to natural armor, which increases by 1 for every three caster levels.
Spell resistance equal to 11 + your caster level.
Resistance to any one energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic) equal to your caster level.

If you use this invocation again while its effects are active, you may either replace your current benefit with a different one, or you may choose to gain another benefit in addition to the first, though you may not select the same benefit multiple times. However, if you gain two benefits from this invocation, you suffer effects as if you were carrying a medium load, affecting your maximum Dexterity to AC, incurring a check penalty, and reducing your speed. If you gain three benefits from this invocation, the effects are equivalent to carrying a heavy load. If you are also wearing armor or encumbered by weight, use the worse figure for each category, and do not stack the penalties.
The effects of this invocation last indefinitely, or until dismissed.

Metabolic Fire
Least; 2nd
You can consume practically anything, even if it would normally be indigestible to you. This allows you to even eat and derive sustenance from inorganic materials such as dirt and stone, though anything with hardness 10 or greater passes through your body unharmed. You are immune to ingested poisons and suffer no harm from spoiled or otherwise unsuitable food, and are even considered to have resistance 10 to all energy damage for items you consume, allowing you to safely drink volatile substances such as alchemist’s fire.
In addition, by spending at least ten minutes eating a full sized meal, you can eliminate fatigue as if you had spent eight hours resting.
The effects of this invocation last indefinitely, or until dismissed.

Pawns of Xorvintaal
Dark; 7th
You draw on the magic of the great game and weave its patterns to contain new pawns. As a full-round action, you can touch a willing creature and cause it to become one of your pawns.
You and your pawns may communicate telepathically at a range of 100 miles. In addition, you can perform any of the following gambits with a willing pawn as a standard action:

Castle: You exchange positions with a pawn within 200 feet via teleportation.
Promote: You may grant one of your pawns a +2 insight bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and armor class with a touch. Only one pawn can benefit from this at a time.
Read: As long as you concentrate, you can sense everything one pawn senses if they are within 100 miles.

You may only have a number of pawns at one time equal to your invoker modifier, and may dismiss a pawn from your service as a full-round action. The effects of this invocation last indefinitely.

Roaring Blast
Greater; 6th; Eldritch Essence
This eldritch essence invocation allows you to change your eldritch blast into a roaring blast. A roaring blast deals sonic damage, and any creature struck by the blast must make a Reflex save or be reduced to a single move action or standard action on their next turn.
In addition, a creature struck by roaring blast must make a Will save or be affected as if by the command spell.

Wyrmling Wings
Least; 2nd
You gain the ability to glide, negating fall damage and allowing 20 feet of forward travel for every 5 feet of descent. You glide at a speed of 30 feet with poor maneuverability. You cannot glide while carrying a medium or heavy load.
At 6th caster level, you gain a fly speed of 30 feet with poor maneuverability, and can fly for a number of consecutive rounds equal to your invoker modifier. Time spent gliding does not count against the number of rounds you may spend flying.
For each 6 caster levels beyond 6th, your fly and glide speeds increase by 10 feet.
The effects of this invocation last indefinitely, or until dismissed.

Randomguy
2016-05-21, 10:27 PM
My two favourites here are Wyrmling Wings, because I love the idea of an invocation that actually scales with level, and Layered Scales, which is a nice contrast to the "you can only have one instance of this invocation active at a time" thing that most invocations get.


I also really like the idea of Pawns of Xorvintaal, but it seems pretty weak for a Dark invocation to me. Let's take a look at what it gives:
Castle is a strictly nerfed version of Benign Transposition, since it has a lower range (at this caster level, anyway) and you are limited to which of your willing allies you can swap.
Promote is a nerfed version of Good Hope, since you can only target one creature instead of one creature per level. (unlimited duration is a plus though).
Read is sort of like Scrying on a willing target, but with a duration of concentration and limited range.
And the telepathic communication part is essentially the same as Telepathic Bond, but again the telepathy only works at a limited range.

So you get a nerfed level 1 spell, a nerfed level 3 spell, the approximate equivalent to a level 4 spell, and a nerfed level 5 spell. That just doesn't seem worth it for a dark invocation.

AmberVael
2016-05-24, 10:14 PM
Hey, thanks for the comments. I'm inclined to agree that Pawns of Xorvintaal is a bit below the level of balance I've set with my other invocations, and had it flagged in my mind as maybe needing work - though I will note that compared to canon dark invocations...

Well, one wall of force at a time is a bit underwhelming.

I'm more likely to try and buff the existing applications of Pawns than add new ones, I think, probably starting with widening the range on its telepathy and Read. I'll have a think about it.

Fizban
2016-06-05, 04:48 AM
Hey, more Vaelock brew, glad I checked :smallbiggrin:

Bronze Breath: I'm always leery of pushing people around but I think this is par for what most allow. The lack of knockdown and bonus damage is nice. Amusing to note that the actual dragon's "repulsion" breath doesn't work like that at all, but as a warlock invocation doing what the legends say and pulling it off better it's perfect.

Dragonfire Blast: solid alternative to other means of bypassing SR/immunities. Same as before, dragonfire has no special properties in DnD but the legends would say it does and the warlock invokes the legend.

Eldritch Lash: while adding full blast damage to normal attacks seems to be quite common (you had another in your magical girl set), I don't really agree with it. If gish PrCs actually worked for warlocks it would be easy to just have gobs of extra damage all the time, and that's before the essence riders. You've also kept your Dark tier damage shapes to just double or so, so I'd guess that you're counting on the lack of BAB or gish-psynergy to keep number of attacks down, but this tail goes against that. I'd prefer to not open the can of worms and keep the option of warlock gishes open, especially when there's plenty of homebrew for them already. Actually I had one of my own now that I think about it (a class combo feat for warlock/hexblade which progressed blast/curse). Obviously I can just disallow weapon+blast shapes that allow full attacks, but I thought I'd raise the point. (I'd also have just gone with Eldritch Tail, Lash makes me think whips).

Eldritch Wings: I don't see why this needs a normal attack roll, but then I don't see the need to make Cones and Lines Greater tier shapes either.

Hoard Sense: awesome.

Layered Scales: I assume "cannot select the same benefit multiple times" refers to only having one energy resistance at a time, it'd be easier to say it that way. I would expect language of "all three" benefits later, but you may have had more options so it didn't used to be all of them at three. Pretty good upgrade to Ignore the Pyre, get more options without losing energy resistance and pick something else for the old slot.

Metabolic Fire: fitting for flavor. Fatigue removal might be useful for some multiclass builds but on a warlock warlock I just don't see a use for it, and I just can't spend an invocation slot on food. Maybe if it had some ability to eat expensive stuff to gain benefits, healing would be obvious or maybe some defenses like the Favorable Sacrifice spell.

Pawns of Xorvintaal: the long range telepathy is seriously valuable for getting news out of your informants as soon as it happens, DnD is sorely lacking in cheap methods of doing so. But with so few pawns and at such a late stage it's more of a world building tool than a player building their network and matching the bad guys at the game tool.

Roaring Blast: this seems a little extreme to me. I feel like a lot of essences get a free pass thanks to Noxious Blast being ridiculously strong compared to all the rest. At Greater I'd expect losing one action, or being debilitated (like blinded or exhausted) for multiple rounds. Roaring Blast has an action and a half's worth or loss in it as well as whatever badness happens from them following your command if they fail that particular save. I like the command effect but I'd remove the slowing.

Wyrmling Wings: nice to have another mobility function at Least and the penalties definitely keep it down. Should state weather it gives you actual wings or not: both the other flight invocations are more specific, it matters for some combo effects, and the indefinite duration muddies the water a bit since it could be taken to have extra meaning.

Just to Browse
2016-06-14, 02:27 PM
These are some very interesting invocations. I especially like the wing attack and tail lash. It does seem strange that they are worse on a DFA than a warlock most of the time.