PEACH: Warlock Rewrite: Battle Warlock

[Deadlykire]

Battle Warlock
"What do you mean there are too many of them?" -Unknown battle warlock just before his death

Background: Battle Warlocks aren't afraid of combat like other warlocks. They often charge in headlong ignoring dangers that make other warlocks shy away.

Races: Most Battle Warlocks are fey and devils. They can be found anywhere warlocks are found, but other races have been known to seek out the dark powers.

Other Classes: Battle Warlocks can be found with other warlocks, however they often find their counterparts to be more skidish than they like. Battle Warlocks admire any other caster willing to dive into battle and will gladly fight along side them as long as their viewpoints are similar.

Role: Battle Warlocks are light duty arcane casters that aren't afraid to commit to a fight they started.

Inspiration: Warlocks aren't charisma dependent like their description indicates. Tried to add a few abilities to increase their effectiveness and grant more invocations.

Basics:

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Alignment:Any although most Battle Warlocks tend to be chaotic
Hit Die:d8
Starting Gold: As Cleric
Starting Age: As Cleric
Class Skills:
The Battle Warlock’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill)
are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise
(Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana)
(Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion)
(Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int),
and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Skill Points at the 1st level: (4+Int Modifier)x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4+Int Modifier

Battle Warlock

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{table]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort|Ref|Will|Special| Invocations Known
1|0|0|0|2|Eldritch Blast 1d6, Invocation (Least)|1
2|1|0|0|3|Detect Magic|2
3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Damage Reduction 1/Cold Iron Eldritch Blast 2d6 | 2
4 | 3 | 1 |1| 4 | Deceive Item |3
5| 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 |Energy Resistance (1st type), Eldritch Blast 3d6 | 3
6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | New Invocation (Least, Lesser) | 4
7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | Damage Reduction 2/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 4d6 | 4
8 | 6/1 |2 | 2 | 6 | Dexterous Combat, Fiendish Resilience 1 | 5
9 | 6/1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | Eldritch Blast 5d6 | 5
10 | 7/2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | Energy Resistance (2nd Type) | 6
11 | 8/3 | 3 | 3 | 7 | Damage Reduction 3/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 6d6, New Invocation (Least, Lesser or Greater) | 7
12 | 9/4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | Imbue Item | 7
13 | 9/4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | Eldritch Blast 7d6, Fiendish Resilience 2| 8
14| 10/5 | 4 | 4 | 9 | Masterful Blaster | 8
15 | 11/6/1 | 5 | 5 | 9 | Energy Resistance (3rd Type), Damage Reduction 4/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 8d6| 9
16 | 12/7/2 | 5 | 5 | 10 | New Invocation (Least, Lesser, Greater or Dark) | 10
17 | 12/7/2 | 5 | 5 | 10 | Wings, Eldritch Blast 9d6 | 10
18 | 13/8/3 | 6 | 6 | 11 | Fiendish Resilience 5 | 11
19 | 14/9/4 | 6 | 6 | 11 | Damage Reduction 5/Cold Iron, Eldritch Blast 10d6 | 11
20 | 15/10/5 | 6 | 6 |12 | Eldritch Blast 11d6, Intuitive Blast | 12
[/table]

Bonus Invocations:

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Battle Warlocks are granted bonus invocations known by their charisma score. See invocations for a further explanation.
{table] Score | Bonus Invocations | | |
| Least | Lesser | Greater | Dark
1-13 | - | - | - | -
14-15 | 1 | - | - | -
16-17 | 1 | - | - | -
18-19 | 1 | 1| - | -
20-21 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -
22-23 | 2 | 1 | 1 | -
24-25 | 2 | 1 | 1 | -
26-27 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -
28-29 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1
30-31 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1
32-33 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1
34-35 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1
36-37 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2
38-39| 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
40-41 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2
42-43 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2
44-45 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3
[/table]

Abilities:

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Abilities: Charisma is most important for a battle warlock. Battle warlock's invocation saves are based on charisma as well as bonus invocations known. Dexterity is the 2nd most important stat as it allows for the lightly armored battle warlock to gain more Armor Class and hit its opponent at a range. Strength lets a battle warlock hit his opponents at a close range and constitution may be useful for more hit points at each level since battle warlocks tend to wade into battle weapons swinging.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Battle warlocks are proficient with all simple weapons, longsword, longbow, light and medium armor but not shields. A battle warlock can use medium armor but many of its key abilities are only usable in light. Light armor does not interfere with a battle warlock's ability to cast so they suffer no arcane penalty while wearing it, while in medium armor the penalty is halved. This does not apply to any other arcane spells from taking another class.

Invocations: A battle warlock possesses invocations like that of a warlock and selects invocations available to warlocks. A battle warlock follows all the same rules for invocations unless otherwise noted. Additionally a battle warlock gains extra invocations based on the table below. Since a battle warlock gains bonus invocations for a high charisma score they do not have the ability to replace an invocation at each level how a warlock does. Bonus invocations are granted like bonus spells and are based off a character's base statistics. If a score increase grants additional invocations a battle warlock may retroactively learn any bonus invocations. Bonus invocations are not lost due to temporary score damage, however permanent score damage resulting in a loss of bonus invocations does remove them (this is done randomly unless the DM states otherwise).

Eldritch Blast (Sp): Same as warlocks unless otherwise noted. This ability cannot do more than 1d6 of damage if the battle warlock is wearing armor heavier than medium. It still incurs the arcane failure chance of any armor heavier than light.

Detect Magic (Sp): Beginning at the 2nd level a battle warlock can use detect magic as the spell at will. His caster level equals his class level

Damage Reduction (Su): Fortified by the supernatural power flowing through the body, a battle warlock becomes resistant to physical attacks at the 3rd level and above, gaining damage reduction 1/cold iron. At the 7th level and every four levels thereafter, a battle warlock's damage reduction improves as shown on the class table.

Deceive Item (Ex): At the 4th level and higher, a battle warlock has the ability to more easily commandeer magic items made for the use of others. When making a Use Magic Device check, one can take 10 even if distracted or threatened.

Energy Resistance (Su): At the 5th level, a battle warlock chooses an energy type and gains resistance 10 against that type. At 10th level and 15th level, the character gains resistance 10 against another energy type of its choosing.

Dexterous Combat (Su): At the 8th level a battle warlock hones his reflexes to the point he can now flow through even melee combat. The battle warlock can use either Strength or Dexterity for melee combat, whichever is higher. This applies to attack and damage.

Fiendish Resilience (Su): Beginning at the 8th level, a battle warlock knows the trick of fiendish resilience. Once per day, as a free action, he can enter a state that lasts for 2+charisma modifier minutes. While in this state the battle warlock gains fast healing 1.
At the 13th level, a battle warlock's fiendish resilience improves. When in his fiendish resilience state, he gains fast healing 2 instead. At the 18th level, a battle warlock's fiendish resilience improves to fast healing 5. This ability can not be used in armor heavier than medium, and while wearing medium armor its duration is 2+1/2 charisma modifier.

Imbue Item (Su): As the Imbue Item ability of the warlock.

Masterful Blaster (Su): At the 14th level a battle warlock becomes so used to using his eldritch blast it is able to apply 2 essence invocations at once. The combined spell level of the invocations cannot exceed the maximum spell level a battle warlock can cast (Eg. at level 14 the combined spell level cannot be greater than 6, at the 16th that limit is raised to 9). This ability cannot be used in any armor heavier than light.

Wings (Ex): At the 17th level, a battle warlock gains wings and can fly at a speed of 60 feet (good maneuverability). A good-aligned battle warlock grows feathered wings, and an evil-aligned favored soul gains bat wings. A battle warlock who is neither may choose either type of wings. If the battle warlock already has wings it moves up one step on the maneuverability scale.

Intuitive Blast (Su): A battle warlock becomes so adept at using eldritch blast it is able to overcome some spell resistance. A battle warlock now does half damage if it fails to bypass the target's spell resistance and deals double if it overcomes it. A target with no spell resistance only takes normal damage. This ability does not work if the caster wears armor heavier than light armor.

Homemade Invocations:

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Eldritch Assault:
Least; 1nd; Blast Shape
Your Eldritch Blast takes on physical substance, appearing similar to a longbow. As a full-round action, you can make a single ranged touch attack as if wielding a bow. If you hit, your target is affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any eldritch essence applied to the blast). Unlike hideous blow, you cannot combine your Eldritch Assualt with damage from a held weapon.
If your base attack bonus is +6 or higher, you can (as part of the full-round action) make as many attacks with your eldritch assualt as your base attack bonuse allows. For example, a 12th-level warlock could attack twice, once with a base attack bonus of +6, and again with a base attack bonus of +1.

Diminishing Blast
Lesser;4th; Essence
Your eldritch blast is infused with demonic power. This power has a lasting affect on the target and if struck it applies a damage over time effect. This effect does your blast damage minus a die of damage for every round it ticks. This means it does full damage when applied then one less die the next round, two less the second round, etc until no die are left. If the warlock hits the target with another blast before the effect is up the effect is canceled.

Other Stuff:

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This contains nothing of use for the class.
Warlocks seemed weak so I tried to add some more power but keep it balanced.
I combined the Favored Soul and Warlock templates for most of it.

I took away the warlock's energy resistance to 2 types of 10 in favor of the soul's resistance 5 to 3 things.

Increased the reliance/benefit of charisma greatly.

Kept invocations, removed Soul's spells. Kept standard progression for invocations, added a bonus invocations known off of charisma.
Worried about:
Intuitive Blast, its a capstone but might be a bit over the top.

Different ideas I didn't use:
Capstone ability allows 2 essence invocations to be applied instead of just 1.
Allow 2 essence invocations as a non-capstone ability around level 16.

[Deadlykire]

Reserved for tracking changes. I think all the information is present above, would love some tips/suggestions/critique as it is my first homebrew class.

*Change 1*
Removed the 2 abilities that focused combat onto 1 stat. Forces some choice in creation rather than just stacking charisma. Also made minor cosmetic changes the table/post.
*Change 2*
Added dexterous combat. Felt this would give a normally ranged warlock the ability to move into melee without compromising his ability to attack opponents.
*Change 3*
Lowered hd to d6 (WotC original hd); Reduced Fort Save; Reduced Ref Save; Fixed bonus invocation table.
*Change 4*
Upped Eldritch Blast damage as I suggested later in the thread.
*Change 5*
Put Fiendish Resilience back in, also returned Imbue Item. Fixed some format/grammar/spelling mistakes. Added in Masterful Blaster.
*Change 6*
Added a Homemade invocations section. This should be treated as another item, not part of the class.

[MammonAzrael]

Is this supposed to be a variant or a re-write? Because it is way too powerful for a variant.

As a re-write it seems decent, as the Warlock isn't terribly powerful.

Having three good saves seems odd, as does the d8 hit die, since he is still a primarily ranged character.

I think you're pushing the Charisma angle a little too much, the extra invocations should be enough, especially since their save DCs are all based off it.

[Aran Banks]

Mmm... well, if you're planning on making this a warlock that wades into battle, it doesn't really work.

If you're planning on making it a guy who slings around eldritch blasts and explodes things, it doesn't really work either.

So first, what's the design goal?

[Deadlykire]

The goal after some thought is:
Give the warlock class the option to use some of its abilities in melee range without forcing them to do so.

After reading the 2 comments I'm thinking:
Up BAB to good from average.
Drop reflex from a good save to average.
Remove the two charisma focusing abilities.

I'd make the changes to:
encourage warlocks to consider using eldritch glaive and attack in melee (or EB, but why a warlock would choose it is beyond me). This would *hopefully* occur because the warlock using only Invoked EBs to attack loses 1 attack at level 6, 2 attacks at 11 and 3 attacks by 16. Normaly it is 1 attack at 8 and 2 attacks at 15.

A warlock could still focus on ranged attacking, but eldritch glaive with a higher BAB allows more invoked attacks in melee versus just weapon damage at range. 2x3d6 is better damage then most ranged weapons can pull off. The warlock would also get to add essence damage.

The saves are to compensate a bit more, 3 good saves is a bit much, however the favored soul also has 3 good saves and spells.

Considering applying something like Dexterous Combat in there the ability either: Lets dex be used for melee to hit
or lets dex to be used in place of str for melee (to hit and damage).

[Pechvarry]

Your "bonus invocations" table has "least" and "lesser" swapped.

I kinda have an issue with getting Dex to attack and damage in place of STR when even Rogues don't get that, but I can't quite justify this complaint.

I also think it's worth noting that Warlocks can get Dark One's Own Luck with a Least invocation to add Cha to a single save. Not sure it really changes anything except to say: remember that warlocks who want a good save can make one. The Cha-reliance you're enforcing makes the invocation that much better (and the extra invocations make it easier to afford).

Anyway, I like this approach. I agree that their cha reliance was not as strong as advertised. Keep it up, etc.

[Aran Banks]

I'd like to see an ability from the class of "add eldritch blast damage to a melee attack" and later "combine this ability with eldritch glaive for eldritch nova damage."

Or something...

[Deadlykire]

Right so I was about to scrap this.. I'm going to call it refocusing now instead.
I'm going to call it a warlock rewrite.
I'm putting the saves back to the same as warlock (since they can fix saves with their bonus invocations).
Rolling back the HD to a d6. Might create an invocation that allows you to gain hit points like a feat.

I think rogues SHOULD get the feature... so if I'm going through the effort of rewriting a class the way I think it should be... I'm giving it that ability.

I'll fix the order of the table as well... whoops lol.

HB is adding it to a melee attack. EG is EB in melee just without weapon damage. I'm kind of confused on what you are looking for. Unless you mean a full attack... which EG allows. For ranged see below.

Thoughts on a new ability:
Masterful Invoker:
A warlock can apply two essence invocations to their Eldritch Blast. The cumulative spell level of these invocations cannot exceed 9.

New Invocation:
Eldritch Assault:
Least; 1nd; Blast Shape
Your Eldritch Blast takes on physical substance, appearing similar to a longbow. As a full-round action, you can make a single ranged touch attack as if wielding a bow. If you hit, your target is affected as if struck by your eldritch blast (including any eldritch essence applied to the blast). Unlike hideous blow, you cannot combine your Eldritch Assualt with damage from a held weapon.
If your base attack bonus is +6 or higher, you can (as part of the full-round action) make as many attacks with your eldritch assualt as your base attack bonuse allows. For example, a 12th-level warlock could attack twice, once with a base attack bonus of +6, and again with a base attack bonus of +1.

[Deadlykire]

Since warlocks aren't considered all that strong thinking about upping the power of EB.

Progression:
1:1d6//3:2d6//5:3d6//7:4d6//9:5d6//11:6d6//13:7d6//15:8d6//17:9d6//19:10d6//20:11d6
It adds 2d6 overall damage by level 20. The effect starts at lvl 13 where it adds 1d6 from normal progression. Doesn't seem overly strong.

[Pechvarry]

I would agree with that change.

[Lix Lorn]

I think Warlocks are generally considered weak, so adding more damage might be a good idea. I'm also not sure about the lessened hit die-a druid is better at fighting stuff than a warlock? Doesn't seem right.

[Aran Banks]

well, Druids don't care about their HP much, since they turn into bears when its time to fight.

Also, Warlock is weak, but bumping EB up by 1d6 50% of the time isn't going to help much. It'd be nice to have 1d6 damage at level 1, and 2d6 is good at level 3... but a level 17 warlock SHOULD be slinging around 16-18 d6 worth of typeless damage as an RTA.

You could totally do this with Blast Essence Invocations. When you level up to 8, you can either take Awesomeshot for +1d6/4 levels damage, or walk unseen or whatever (I don't know Invocation levels, so that was a total shot in the dark).

That ties in to the other Warlock problem of Invocations sucking. Some are quite good, but most are pitiful. Warlock invocations should be reworked so that they're actually useful.

[Deadlykire]

Granted it takes a prestige class, but a hellfire warlock 3/Battle Warlock 14 could throw 18d8 or so a round as a RTA. That being said my main focus was looking to improve the warlock. I suggested a new invocation or 2, but this post was more for a base class.

This didn't get a lot of attention so guessing it is still pretty meh. Still working on how to make it better, but short on ideas still. I like the HD where they are, a d8 is a bit much for a ranged primary character. A d6 lets you consider melee.

I'd like to up the damage but I feel most warlock's get a damage advantage over regular casters given they only go touch ac. Warlock's also aren't limited by spells per day like other casters. So they get more uses of invocations/EB than other casters. The balance there of course is less damage per round.

[Etrivar]

I agree that the EB damage dice progression aught to be accelerated a bit, but I'm wondering why you scrapped Fiendish Resiliance. Sure, it doesn't make much of a difference, but it does give him an inate healing ability, which can be very useful when say, seperated from the party cleric, or when said cleric is out of spells. It doesn't do much, but for a character that's supposed to be in combat as much as this warlock is, it seems to me to make more sense to leave him with the FR.

[Deadlykire]

Put FR back in, added in an extension based on charisma as well. Added in the Masterful Blaster ability. That ability should help give another bump to damage since you can apply 2 essences to EB now. Going to edit it tomorrow to read it is unusable in any armor heavier than light.

[Etrivar]

I like the extension on its' duration using the Cha Mod, that was an Awesome Idea. Also, good work on the bonus invocations based on charisma; that is an absolutely spectacular idea. Me likey

Thank you for your work on this; its great, and I'm planning on trying it out soon!

[Aran Banks]

DUDE!!!

Awesome idea. Eldritch DOTs. Like, the first turn it deals your EB-1d6, then EB-2d6, then EB-4d6, etc. until the damage all disappears. That would be awesome.

[Deadlykire]

I added a section for homemade invocations. I don't have enough, nor want to make enough to post an entire new thread of them. The invocation I already presented is in the spoiler along with a new DoT blast invocation. This obviously has a huge potential for being overpowered given the rewrites new abilities (or even a regular warlock for that matter), so I hope I balanced it.

I added the removal clause to keep a warlock from firing an EB with the essence applied every round. Without the reapplication penalty a battle warlock would be able to apply 210d6 damage in one round, if it hit 20 rounds straight. I understand this is a *extremely* unlikely, but has to be accounted for anyhow. A regular warlock could do 171d6 if they hit with it every round for 17 rounds. (actually with a few items those numbers could go up even more...) Granted it'd be a lvl 20 character, but that is still a knockout punch if it ever happened.

[Aran Banks]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!!

171d6 over 17 rounds at level 20? That's so weak...

I'm not even kidding. At level 20, 171d6 in four rounds is good. 171d6 in eight rounds is poor. Anything beyond that 8 rounds isn't even worth looking into.

[Deadlykire]

That is in 1 round.... it assumes a near impossible situation of the creature having a ton or more(and I do mean 2k+) of hp and you having the time to build it up. It'd take 17 rounds to accomplish it, but you'd have been doing a compounding number of hits up until that point. And after doing the math not dead tired it'd actually be 153d6 in the 17th round(as a one shot damage, plus the past 16 rounds of attacks).

If you assumed a more reasonable situation of 5 rounds of hitting constantly you'd do:
Round 1:17d6
Round 2:33d6
Round 3:48d6
Round 4:62d6
Round 5:75d6
Giving you:235d6 of damage over the 5 rounds.