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ShneekeyTheLost
2008-05-10, 09:07 AM
Warlocks are a touchy breed, but the Eldrich Masters are even more touchy. Many call them fools, many are also very dead. Do not underestimate them, it may well be the last mistake you ever make

Okay, this is pretty much a Spellwarp Sniper for Invokers. It's designed to make your Eldrich Blast actually useful.

Prerequsites:

Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Other: Any three Eldrich Essence Invocations, one of which must be at least Greater AND any two Blast Shape invocations, one which must be Lesser.


HD d6
{table=head]Lvl | BAB | Fort | Ref | Wil | Special | CL
1 | +1 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Bonus Essence; +1d6 EB | +1
2 | +2 | +0 | +0 | +3 | Bonus Shape | +1
3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Force Essence +1d6 EB | +1
4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Mastery of Elements | +1
5 | +5 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Eldrich Mastery, +1d6 EB | +1[/table]
Skills: 2+Int Mod, same list as Warlock

Casting An Eldrich Master gains full spellcasing progression, but only in regards to Invocations.

Bonus Essence - At 1st level, an Eldrich Master gains a bonus Eldrich Essence Invocation
Eldrich Blast Not only does an Eldrich Master gain bonuses from Eldrich Blast, but as this is his focus he gains even more power, gaining an additional +1d6 to Eldrich Blast at 1st, 3rd, and 5th levels
Bonus Shape - At 2nd level, an Eldrich Master gains a bonus Eldrich Shape Invocation
Force Essence - At 3rd level, an Eldrich Master gain an extra Eldrich Essence Invocation, which turns his Eldrich Blast into a Force effect.
Mastery of Elements - At 4th level, an Eldrich Master may alter the elemental flavor of his blast, while keeping the other qualities of the blast, to either Fire, Cold, Lightning, or Acid. This may be applied to an Eldrich Blast which has been altered by an Eldrich Essence Invocation, as it is not exactly an invocation.
Eldrich Mastery - At 5th level, the Eldrich Master gains the highest pinnacle of mastery, letting him consider an Eldrich Blast as a ranged weapon. This lets him apply the effects of certain feats (rapid shot) and lets him make an eldrich blast for every attack in a full attack option. It is still a SLA, however, which means it is still a touch attack, and SR may still apply (unless a method of bypassing or negating SR presents itself).

weishan
2008-05-11, 07:44 PM
Eldritch mastery is too good. I'd sugest a new capstone. If we assume a 15th level warlock 5th level eldritch master, you're dealing with 40d6 damage per round with no save split up in 10d6 increments if you want. That's a 20th level disintregrate every full round at least(assuming no blast shape or essence invoctions at will as a full round action).

Stycotl
2008-05-11, 10:37 PM
i would agree that the capstone is too powerful as is, but i think it would be fine if you simply up the prereq so that it is impossible to take until say, 16th level or so. make it an 11th level invoker prereq or something, and then you're golden.

force essence: isn't there aleady an ee that makes it a force effect?

eldritch blast: are you saying that on top of the increased damage solely for advancing in invoker level, at every odd level he gains an extra d6 on top of that? if so, i think that it is too much. that would be 12d6 at 20th level if i remember the progression. not game-breaking, but i don't see much precedent. maybe give it a limited use per day, or give it some kind of hellfire warlock-esque mechanic that makes it a tactical decision rather than just a permanent nova.

and i don't like the name. eldritch master made me expect some kind of arch-warlock or something, when really this is a gun-slinging blaster.

i also think that this should have a bab prerequisite, but that is just me and i understand that i might be all by my lonesome there.

another thing, owing to the fluff that i am guessing at (since there is little there), give it some kind of hideous blow shape that works through ranged weapons. if there is already an essence out there like that, someone point me to it. i'd like to see it.

other than that, i really like the direction and the idea behind this. good job.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2008-05-11, 10:46 PM
A well-balanced PrC should force the player to make a trade of some sort. What does a Warlock lose by taking this class? Let's take a look.

HD? d8 is better than d6.

BaB? Full beats 3/4

Invocations? A full progression plus extra invocations beats a full progression.

Eldritch Blast? Well, it's the normal progression, plus additional damage. Need I say more?

So, in short, this class beats the warlock at EVERYTHING THE WARLOCK DOES. Just something to consider.

-The Djinn

Fostire
2008-05-11, 11:54 PM
What does a Warlock lose by taking this class?
Well. They lose: fast healing 5, DR 5/cold iron and energy resistance 10. They still get these but with lower numbers (Fast healing 2, DR 4, ER 5).

Also, EB is untyped damaged. Right? Isn't untyped better than elemental damage? If so, Force Essence, and Mastery of Elements are quite pointless.

ShneekeyTheLost
2008-05-12, 07:33 PM
To address points:


Any three Eldrich Essence Invocations, one of which must be at least Greater AND any two Blast Shape invocations, one which must be Lesser.

Emphasis mine. You need to be at LEAST level 11 to get a greater invocation.

Furthermore, what are you trading off? Five invocations, which largely become redundant with class abilities. That's almost HALF your total number of invocations known, and almost ALL the invocations you know at level 11, if you specialized to get into it as early as possible. And as PrC prerequsite rules go, you can't get rid of them or you loose any and all benefit of the PrC itself.

EB is untyped, but it is NOT a force effect, which means it isn't effective against certain targets (ethereal and incorporeal, for instance). It has the same 50% miss chance against these targets. With See the Unseen and Force Blast, an Eldrich Master can hit someone Blinking without a miss chance, which is pretty huge.

Elemental Mastery is in there to capitalize on a target's weakness. Say you're running into a White Dragon. Use Elemental Mastery to toss out a Fire Utterdark Blast, and make him eat double damage. Is it particularly powerful? Not really, unless you run into a lot of critters with situational weaknesses, in which case, you are in a perfect position to capitalize on it.

As far as the capstone ability, yes, it's pretty strong. But consider: damage output is generally considered sub-optimal, and Warlocks are also considered pretty sub-optimal too. What you're getting is the ability to Glaive at range, and considering you need to be at LEAST level 16 before you can do it, this isn't out of the question for a Dark invocation. So, since this warlock has blown almost half his invocations on blasting, he might as well get a bone thrown his way. And he's still not dealing as much as a FB barbarian charge build.

The HD was a typo, it should remain a D6, like a normal Warlock. This is being fixed now.

Fostire
2008-05-12, 08:18 PM
Casting An Eldrich Master gains full spellcasing progression, but only in regards to Invocations.
Doesnt that mean that you dont lose invocations, giving you a full progression?

ShneekeyTheLost
2008-05-12, 11:00 PM
Doesnt that mean that you dont lose invocations, giving you a full progression?

Sure, but under PREREQUSITES, you have to grab a bunch of mostly worthless invocations, forcing you to blow almost half of the total number of invocations you ever get, even if you do have full progression. Most of the good invocations are the spell-like ones, rather than the EB invocations, and you're required to get THREE Eldrich Essence invocations, ONE of which MUST be Greater. Since you can only use ONE at a time, this is a severely hampering, if not crippling, waste of invocation choices.

Stycotl
2008-05-15, 03:30 PM
until you reach epic levels, snag that feat that lets you splice two essences together, and then your possibilities are broadened a little.

also, homebrew essences are a route to make them more viable. demented one has some good homebrew essences somewhere...