The Newest Warlock Handbook [3.5]

[Segev]

In case some of you don't check out the homebrew side. I took on a project to convert the 3.5 warlock to PF and tried to upgrade it some to fit with the PF classes. I built it under the assumption that few feats would be ported from 3.5 as my group doesn't allow most of it to convert. feel free to look at it and gimme your input. I plan to play this class in an upcoming adventure with my group so am hoping its on par with other classes.

I'd contemplated this at one point, myself, but I think the witch is - perhaps intentionally, perhaps not - actually pretty close. Hexes instead of invocations, and no real "blast," but it seems to fill the same thematic and even mechanical niche, to a degree.

[Snowbluff]

I'd contemplated this at one point, myself, but I think the witch is - perhaps intentionally, perhaps not - actually pretty close. Hexes instead of invocations, and no real "blast," but it seems to fill the same thematic and even mechanical niche, to a degree.

Which is awful. It completely defeats the purpose of the Warlock in the first place, and the Witch was already redundant, since Wizards have class features now.

[arkangel111]

Added some flare to the [PF] Warlock remake. Still have lots to do but I figured this thread also needed a good bump...

[Snowbluff]

Added some flare to the [PF] Warlock remake. Still have lots to do but I figured this thread also needed a good bump...

It's a handbook, so no one is really worried about it going away. The Mods usually don't enforce necromancy rules for handbooks, and I keep this thread subbed.

[Phelix-Mu]

Call me 100% ignorant, but I have looked, and can't find where the eldritch doom invocation is centered on the warlock. It seems to me that, barring some other statement, it follows the same default range as the normal eldritch blast, 60'. I wrestled with this ages ago for a long-lasting campaign, and generally concluded as I just noted, but would be interested if you, Snowbluff, or the community have tracked down where it specifies otherwise.

Thanks, and excellent handbook, btw.

[Snowbluff]

Call me 100% ignorant, but I have looked, and can't find where the eldritch doom invocation is centered on the warlock. It seems to me that, barring some other statement, it follows the same default range as the normal eldritch blast, 60'. I wrestled with this ages ago for a long-lasting campaign, and generally concluded as I just noted, but would be interested if you, Snowbluff, or the community have tracked down where it specifies otherwise.

I'll reread it. Off the top of my head, if it isn't centered on the caster, and it doesn't have a range, so it might be a little dysfunctional.

EDIT: It's within 20 ft of your.

Thanks, and excellent handbook, btw.

Please, I'm just a curator.

[Phelix-Mu]

I'll reread it. Off the top of my head, if it isn't centered on the caster, and it doesn't have a range, so it might be a little dysfunctional.

EDIT: It's within 20 ft of your.


Please, I'm just a curator.

Hey, hey. The wonders of human genius and creativity through the ages would be lost to the world if not for the stewards that safeguard and keep them relevant in our oft-changing present. Credit where credit is due, of course, but curating is more than just babysitting.

[nerghull]

Hey ! Playing a fey-themed warlock, and like anyone one else befor me, I'm interested in the Hellfire. I will refluff this here and there, but the main point is avoyding the constitution damage.
Since Soulmeld and Binder aren't allowed and I don't have a familiar (personal choice), I searched something to heal myself up without loosing action. And I think I found something that might be useful, in the MIC, the Caduceus bracers (p.84) allow you to trade daily healing ability to heal attribute damage, first I read it as a stuff for monk and paladin, but I remember that the warlock has some kind of daily healing ability, as the easily-forgettable Fiendish Resilience.
So my question is, does Caduceus bracers function with Fiendish Resilience ? If it does, who exactly, do you just loose rounds of fast healing or do you have to wait five round to heal a point of Constitution damage ?
I couldn't find any erratum or what explaining wich abilities actually function with caduceus bracers, so if someone have something like that, that'll do ^^

Also, I don't think there's mentionned here or in the previous handbook, but legacy feats from Complete Mage are pretty cool for the fluff and, if the fiendish legacy feat chain is not really worth it, for a non-melee warlock, the fey legacy feat chain is really worth mentionning, especially Fey Skin and Fey Power.

Again, thank you for updating/keeping this handbook.

PS : This is my first post here so I don't know if there is something like a presentation needed.
PSS : English not my first language, pardon me if I made mistakes and so on...

[AmberVael]

Hey ! Playing a fey-themed warlock, and like anyone one else befor me, I'm interested in the Hellfire. I will refluff this here and there, but the main point is avoyding the constitution damage.
Since Soulmeld and Binder aren't allowed and I don't have a familiar (personal choice), I searched something to heal myself up without loosing action. And I think I found something that might be useful, in the MIC, the Caduceus bracers (p.84) allow you to trade daily healing ability to heal attribute damage, first I read it as a stuff for monk and paladin, but I remember that the warlock has some kind of daily healing ability, as the easily-forgettable Fiendish Resilience.
So my question is, does Caduceus bracers function with Fiendish Resilience ? If it does, who exactly, do you just loose rounds of fast healing or do you have to wait five round to heal a point of Constitution damage ?
I couldn't find any erratum or what explaining wich abilities actually function with caduceus bracers, so if someone have something like that, that'll do ^^

Also, I don't think there's mentionned here or in the previous handbook, but legacy feats from Complete Mage are pretty cool for the fluff and, if the fiendish legacy feat chain is not really worth it, for a non-melee warlock, the fey legacy feat chain is really worth mentionning, especially Fey Skin and Fey Power.

Again, thank you for updating/keeping this handbook.

PS : This is my first post here so I don't know if there is something like a presentation needed.
PSS : English not my first language, pardon me if I made mistakes and so on...

Thank you so very much for citing those bracers. It's nice not to have to track things down myself.

Unfortunately, the Caduceus Bracers do not function with Fiendish Resilience. To activate them you specifically need an ability that provides a set pool of healing points per day. Fiendish Resilience not only isn't a pool of points, but technically doesn't even provide healing in the first place- that is to say, using Fiendish Resilience doesn't provide healing, it provides the ability Fast Healing 1, which is what proceeds to heal you (if that distinction makes sense).

Other than Lay on Hands and Wholeness of Body, the only other abilities I can think of that might trigger Caduceus Bracers are Touch of Vitality (from Dragon Shaman in the PHB II at level 6, who eventually gets an ability that would make the bracers redundant) and Pool of Healing (a variant Cleric ability found in Complete Champion)


If all you're really looking for is the ability to recover from using Hellfire, however, might I suggest the Rod of Bodily restoration (Magic Item Compendium page 173)? Quite inexpensive and can provide up to 12 points of constitution damage every day, and can be used to heal damage in other ability scores too.

[nerghull]

I saw the Rod of bodily restoration too, but it's a Standard action so, I have better time using wands of lesser restoration, if I am to loose my actions, since the rod function only three time a day.

Anyway, thanks for the quick answer, not sure if I understand it all, but I'm sure my DM will.

[Troacctid]

Is there a reason why Darkness is red while Entropic Shielding is blue? Darkness gives the same 20% miss chance, except it applies against melee and ranged attacks, it can be used on other people, its duration is 10x longer, and you can use it to make hide checks. Okay, True Seeing gets around it, but that doesn't become common until pretty high levels, and being able to protect your whole party instead of just yourself has to be worth something.

[Snowbluff]

I'll consider an alteration. As the devil's advocate, I'll point out that darkness obscures your foes as well, and you'll be avoiding be directly in melee combat in general.

Personally, I am quite fond of the Darkness Invocation. Since it is available as a Drow SLA, it was given considerable support.

[Troacctid]

Well, the effect toggles on and off if you cover up the object it was cast on, so all you need is a way to cover and uncover it quickly. Maybe cast it on a button sewn into the palm of your glove--opening/closing your fist is a free action, right?

[deuxhero]

Description for the Infernal Adept feat mentions it will cover the uses for it latter, but I can't find them.

[Thanatosia]

There any way to let you use Invocations when Grappled? There is no Still Spell Like Ability feat that I can find, and I don't think Still spell, Still metamagic Rods, or Sudden Still work with SLAs. I found something on a Grappling Blast feat - but it only works for your Eldritch Blast, and it's Dragon Magazine content which I'm not sure I can use in my campaign. The campaign i'm in has a lot of grappling, and I'm leery of rolling Warlock if I can't find some way to use my invocations when faced with a grapple.

[Troacctid]

Anklet of Translocation is only 1400 gp and lets you teleport out of a grapple as a swift action. Does that work?

[nerghull]

Suden still totally works with invocation. (Source : CArc in France, don't know if it is the same everywhere)

[Segev]

I'll consider an alteration. As the devil's advocate, I'll point out that darkness obscures your foes as well, and you'll be avoiding be directly in melee combat in general.

Personally, I am quite fond of the Darkness Invocation. Since it is available as a Drow SLA, it was given considerable support.

Devil's Sight, another warlock invocation, explicitly works in magical darkness, IIRC. And in color.

If not, then acquire Darkvision and enchant some goggles with Ebon Eyes. That spell is in the Spell Compendium. It's worded really poorly, but its net effect is to allow darkvision to work in magical darkness as well as it does in non-.

Now you can drop Darkness around yourself and not have your vision impaired.

[Troacctid]

Urban Savant also seems like an awesome prestige class for a Warlock, provided you can get one of the prerequisite skills as a class skill (easy enough with Knowledge Devotion or City Slicker) and your DM goes along with the "Replace Bardic Knowledge requirement with 2 ranks in Knowledge (History)" thing. Much like Prestige Bard, it gives you 6 + Int skill points off a pretty decent list, and good Reflex saves. It offers full casting progression (with the only lost caster level being at level 10, which you can just not take) and some tasty knowledge-based class features, including the ability to basically learn a monster's whole statblock and grant you and your team extra damage dice against them.

[Hazrond]

Lovin the handbook so far, warlocks are one of my favorite classes

[DurionArcanis]

I have not read the entirety of this thread as of yet, so I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before yet.

How does the Arcane Swordsage variant change things? Essentially it swaps stances/maneuvers for arcane spells gained and used the same way, and keeps everything else. It wasn't fully detailed, but it is mentioned under the adaptation section of Swordsages in the ToB.

As it stands, I'm looking to make a VDK Warlock/Arcane Swordsage/Eldritch Theurge. A buddy of mine suggested this handbook so I'm currently reading over things.

[Qwertystop]

I have not read the entirety of this thread as of yet, so I don't know if anyone has mentioned this before yet.

How does the Arcane Swordsage variant change things? Essentially it swaps stances/maneuvers for arcane spells gained and used the same way, and keeps everything else. It wasn't fully detailed, but it is mentioned under the adaptation section of Swordsages in the ToB.

As it stands, I'm looking to make a VDK Warlock/Arcane Swordsage/Eldritch Theurge. A buddy of mine suggested this handbook so I'm currently reading over things.

Arcane Swordsage is kind of crazy-broken, because it's basically "here, have a spellcaster with infinite spells per day as long as they take a full-round action to refresh them."

[Snowbluff]

Infinite would be the wrong word to describe it in a vast majority of cases, but yes.

[Troacctid]

Arcane Swordsage already has effectively unlimited uses of its spells, which makes the addition of Warlock somewhat redundant, I'd think.

Besides, you probably don't qualify for spellcasting prestige classes anyway as an Arcane Swordsage, since you don't cast spells as spells, you "cast" them as martial maneuvers. Whatever that means.

[DurionArcanis]

Arcane Swordsage already has effectively unlimited uses of its spells, which makes the addition of Warlock somewhat redundant, I'd think.

Besides, you probably don't qualify for spellcasting prestige classes anyway as an Arcane Swordsage, since you don't cast spells as spells, you "cast" them as martial maneuvers. Whatever that means.

You still "cast" arcane spells. Also, your chosen spells are rather limited. Yes it can be very broken, and incredibly silly (polymorph anyone?) but as RAW it's technically legal. The DM would of course be able to make their own decisions on what to limit it to, though any player wanting to play the class sensibly could do so as long as they don't make it completely silly.

I'm approaching this by way of an old and wise dragonwrought kobold who had odd powers (eldritch) since he was young, and has spent much of his life meditating. His young life was alot of acting as a figurehead for his tribe, because he's Dragonwrought, and he has these weird powers! He's awesome, we're badass cuz he's with us! That kinda thing. Never really got into much fighting. Later he became the tribe's elder/adviser of sorts, meditating alot and speaking with dragons. He became more and more in touch with the arcane power surging through his draconic blood, and mixed with the years of meditation he began to learn how to channel the spells as a form of combat.

Yadda yadda yadda, long story short, I like the flavor it holds and I don't plan to be taking spells in a way that the DM will have to drop the hammer. Though I am likely to make a Glaivelock, and make full use of Dispel (and Greater) when needed, because **** enemy spellcasters.

As for combining with Warlock. Well, Eldritch Theurge. That's why. Stacking spellcasting onto your Eldritch Blasts.

[Troacctid]

I found more reasons why Darkness is good! There are special Darkness feats in Drow of the Underdark that require Darkness as a spell-like ability. Most notably Blend Into Darkness, which requires you to have Darkness as a spell-like ability, but lets you hide in plain sight as long as you're within 10 feet of magical darkness! Also, there's At Home in the Deep, which lets you see normally in magical darkness as if it weren't there, but that's basically the same as Extra Invocation (Devil's Sight) so meh (although I guess you can take it at 1st level).

[Phelix-Mu]

I found more reasons why Darkness is good! There are special Darkness feats in Drow of the Underdark that require Darkness as a spell-like ability. Most notably Blend Into Darkness, which requires you to have Darkness as a spell-like ability, but lets you hide in plain sight as long as you're within 10 feet of magical darkness! Also, there's At Home in the Deep, which lets you see normally in magical darkness as if it weren't there, but that's basically the same as Extra Invocation (Devil's Sight) so meh (although I guess you can take it at 1st level).

I made a whisper gnome warlock/rogue that was based around sight and hearing debuffs, using Silencing Strike and the darkness invocation to good effect. Not the most effective build but it was a fun theme to play around with.

[Snowbluff]

Wasn't this already in the handbook? It's fairly standard advice... I may have to make an entry.

EDIT: The DoTU feats are already mentioned in the invocation description.

[VoltaicVitriol]

I would like to point out something that I don't think has been properly addressed in either this handbook or its predecessor.

Everyone is very quick to dump on Hideous Blow as a terrible invocation, and by most accounts it is. But it DOES have a single redeeming grace that makes it equal to or superior to Eldritch Glaive. Eldritch Glaive, in its description, specifically states that it is a Full Round Action to use. You get the benefits of reach and attacks of opportunity, but you're completely stationary while you do so.

Hideous Blow is a STANDARD ACTION to use. So while it is a single regular attack (not touch), it can be done after taking a move action. This opens up a great deal of synergy with the Scout class (bonus damage after moving), Rogues and Spellthieves (extra damage after attacking unexpectedly, which is easy to set up with Move Unseen or Darkness), Swordsage (shadow-hand and Desert Wind maneuvers) and reach weapons, especially spiked chains and whips.

I'm not saying this situational usefulness merits the invocation getting elevated in status, but it IS something to be aware of.

[Snowbluff]

It's still better to shoot as a standard... it's a touch attack that way.