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Kai-Palin
2008-03-18, 09:05 PM
In the spirit of traditional faerie folklore, I present some invocations. I'd really like an opinion on the balancing.

Entreat the Hunt
Lesser; 4th
You open a gateway to the realms of Faerie and draw forth a member of the Wild Hunt to aid you in your own hunt.You may summon a Blink Dog with maximum health per Hit Die, in which case it serves you loyally, obeying you explicitly and never attacking you, even if someone else manages to gain control over it. If the blink dog dies, it may not be resummoned until the full duration of the invocation has expired. When used in this manner, the invocation lasts for twenty-four hours.
On the other hand, you may summon some of the lesser creatures of the hunt, bringing forth 2d4+1/5 warlock level Elven Hounds (RotW p.189) with maximum health per hit die. These hounds obey you explicitly and never attack you, even if someone else manages to gain control of them. You may dismiss them singly or in groups at any time. If any of the hounds die, subtract that number when resummoning the hounds during the next twenty-four hours. When used in this manner, the invocation lasts for twenty-four hours.

Command the Wild Hunt
Grand (or Dark), 8th
You open a gateway to Faerie, and the hounds of the hunt pour through to answer your call.
All creatures summoned have maximum health per hit die, and obey you explicitly and never attack you, even if someone else manages to gain control of them. You may dismiss them singly or in groups at any time.
You summon a Moon Dog and 1+1/4 warlock levels Blink Dogs, and ten minutes later 2d6+1/2 warlock levels Elven Hounds appear in spaces within 30 feet of the warlock. If any of the summoned creatures die, subtract that number when resummoning the hounds during the next twenty-four hours. When used in this manner, the invocation lasts for four hours.

Stycotl
2008-03-19, 12:21 AM
interesting. the mechanics feels strange to me, but not too bad. i like the wild hunt idea. adds some cool stuff to a fae-derived warlock, of which i am building 4 or 5 as npc's. i'll have to consider these...

sonofzeal
2008-03-19, 12:31 AM
Two minor issues with the first one - I'd make the Elven Hounds last up to 24 hours, since the Warlock can bring them back as a standard action anyway. No point in having them disappear randomly every two hours only to pop back in six seconds later; if he doesn't need them he can dismiss them.

The other issue is that, as written, it sounds like you can summon as many Blink Dogs as you want as long as none of them die first. This is obviously not the intent, and should be fairly easy to re-write.

Fizban
2008-03-19, 12:41 AM
I like, but I wonder. First at the reasoning behind the durations, and second at how useful they will be.

On the durations, if you essentially get a set number of hounds per day, and can't dismiss them (so as to re-summon them with full hp), why even have a duration (unless it is to allow said resummoning)? The only thing I can think of is to put a limit on how long they could chase a target, which I admit does have a pretty cool feel to it: "The demonspawn set his hounds upon you, but deems you below his personal attention; If you can avoid the hound for 4 hours, they will give up the chase."

The second is their usefulness at higher levels (I'm assuming you've got them right for when you first get them). While the swarm attacks keep at least some power, in hard to avoid damage and a chance to lose actions, if you only had say 1 swarm per day, they'd be a lot less usefull. At high levels even something like just a few dogs can slow down the enemy and force them to waste time either killing or going around them, but if you've only got a set number per day, it might as well not even be an invocation (though it would make a cool class ability...). The moon dog is the only one with expendable abilities as far as I know, and the blink dog's abilities are all defensive in nature, so they're not going to be much more than a distraction, and expendable mooks aren't too good when you can't replace them.

Again, great idea. When I look at the children of the night ability that vampires get, I wonder where all the huntsmen style ablities went, aside from the few over specified embodiments of them. We've got warlock abilities for personal demon forms, a couple limited but infinite mook summons, and now we've got a wild hunt.

asphen fox
2008-03-19, 06:15 AM
This is interesting... Since you can summon them again and again :smallbiggrin: You wont need a rogue to check for traps anymore :haley:

Kai-Palin
2008-03-19, 10:53 PM
Thanks for the responses. I used most of the rules-based text from the "Heavenly Host" spells and such.

The original reasoning behind the shorter amount of time for the Elven Hounds was... now that I come to think of it, there wasn't much reasoning. But it always seemed to me that invocations that last for twenty-four hours kind of renders moot the point that they can be cast an infinite number of times per day. It seems to steal the thunder out of the main benefit of invocations.

I also had in my head that a twenty-four hour invocation couldn't be recast while the original one was still going. I'll edit that in so that the warlock can only have one (maybe two?) blink dogs at any given point in time.

I'd like to keep the duration of Command the Wild Hunt for exactly Fizban's reason, but, with the exception of the blink dog for Entreat the Hunt, all the hounds may be dismissed. The idea was to allow the warlock to have relatively fresh hounds at any given point, but if he lets them all die, then he can't just get more of them.

As for usability at higher levels, one of the main weaknesses of warlocks (with the exception of eldritch doom) is that their main combat abilities affect only a few targets at a time. If nothing else, the elven hounds can run interference. I always had the idea that most invocations aren't really meant to deal high damage in the first place, so the fact that these creatures aren't particularly effective at killing things isn't so much of a problem. Not to mention that Moondogs can be quite powerful if you command them correctly.

Stycotl
2008-03-19, 11:25 PM
maybe in order to prevent the problem of them losing effectiveness at higher levels, you could give them a few abilities that progress with invoker level. hit dice, natural armor, and bab for starters. i suppose that would just be normal creature advancement. anyway, that, or something cool like shadow or fae-based abilities or something.