Building a lvl 20 Githyanki Warlock...

[RedWarlock]

We're starting a high-epic campaign in.. 15 hours, and I probably should've thought to post this before now. (We'll probably just be securing backstories and world-building, for the most part, but who knows?)

We start at level 20 with a fairly detailed backstory. Our DM is giving us each one artifact-level gimme.

I decided I'm making a Githyanki Warlock. I'm going to use the Sorcerer King pact to represent arcane power granted to me for illithid-slaying by Vlakiith herself, though I've since gone renegade. My pact is being worded to the effect of hunting down mind flayers in defense of the Githyanki people, so I've never broken my pact. My gimme is that I have a Pact Dragon mount (from Draconomicon 1), who's bonded to me, scaling to my level. (I'm still futzing with details, but I might borrow/reflavor the Vadalis Griffonmaster PP to represent the direct control and bond, and the numeric structure for the scaling.)

I'm thinking I might blow a couple feats on some slightly better armor/weapon proficiencies; though I was tempted to go full Hexblade, the HB-available pacts didn't really match my flavor.

I'm doing all my character-building from books, on paper(-ish), no database/character-builder access. I'm on a Mac anyway, so the PC offline builder is no-go, and I want to understand all my bits and pieces anyhow. (Too easy to miss details with generated characters.)

Any good recommendations for powers, feats, equipment, rituals, etc? I'm reasonably sure I own every physical book, though I might have missed something.. If anybody has good online content they can share/recommend, let me know.

[Anxe]

Have you considered homebrewing a Hexblade version of the Sorcerer King pact?

[masteraleph]

Is your goal more control or striker? SK has some interesting tricks with control, albeit costing some feats.

[Anxe]

I did a bit of googling. Here's a well organized handbook for 4e warlocks with some advice for each of the pacts. http://www.dyasdesigns.com/dragon_ph...0Community.htm

And here's some other homebrew classes to consider that are kind of like what you seem to be after.

Necromancer, another Warlock pact that focuses on a Pact Blade and having a some undead minions. Very similar to the Hexblade/Sorcerer King you're after I think.

Elemental Swordsman, a gish style fighter. Seems similar to Swordmage in flavor, but with Striker stuff.

[masteraleph]

Items:
Armor of Dark Majesty (Dragon 386)- the classic Warlock armor

Rod of Corruption (PHB)- an awesome offhand item- you only want the effect, and you don't have to attack with it, so you can go with the +1 version. And it's COMMON, so you should be able to just buy the darned thing. Combine with Bloodied Boon (feat- Dragon 384) to quickly curse the whole field. The possibility of having everyone curse on Turn 1, or 2 at the latest, is really nice. If you don't take this, probably Twofold Curse from PHB.

Feats:
As noted- Bloodied Boon can be very useful

Mindbite Scorn (DSCS)- add a bit of damage to your curse, but importantly it's psychic. That makes the power's damage psychic, which gives it the psychic keyword, which works very nicely for Psychic Lock (PHB)- and with area powers, do it to multiple enemies.

Sorcerer King feats (Dragon 390)- You have to pick one set. But some are very good with particular powers- make sure to look at the selection of powers ahead of time to decide which Templar group you'd be going with.

Warding Curse (Epic tier- Arcane Power)- Nice bonus to defense vs. cursed

Protective Hex (Dragon 384)- Protect your friends. Works nicely with Warding Curse once you can get it

Arcane Familiar (Arcane Power)- use with Rakshasa Claw (Dragon 374) for free action item swapping. Check with your DM if they'll cap the frequency.

Also, this partial guide, which is can be used as a supplement, with somewhat more creative ways to be optimized, than what Anxe suggested: Unlocking the Warlock. It does presume that you have an idea of your at wills, feats, etc., but it gives a different take on which powers are good.

EDIT: Actually, I didn't check the guide posted above at all. Don't use it. It was updated as Walk With Me Through Hell (and the one I posted above is an alternative set of ratings to that).

All of the major charop handbooks were preserved at ENWorld, with the exception of Avenger, which was mostly in a Wiki and was borked well before the WotC forums were taken offline. Unlocking the Warlock was an effort at a new rating set for Warlock, since many of the powers hadn't been evaluated for a while.

[RedWarlock]

Unless you can provide a source on Dragon content, I'm entirely blocked there. I don't have DDI access. (Which sucks, those Sorcerer King feats sound like they'd be decent.)

[masteraleph]

Pay for Insider for one month, download all the issues, and then cancel? (There are also less legitimate sources too if you want a pm).

[RedWarlock]

I would happily resub to Insider if I could, but the pages are busted.

[masteraleph]

Insider subscription

[RedWarlock]

Good to know, thanks! I brought it up to the group, might be a decent investment for a shared-access account...

[ScrivenerofDoom]

Good to know, thanks! I brought it up to the group, might be a decent investment for a shared-access account...

There is also another thread on these forums telling you how to get access to the offline versions of all the tools.

Hint. Hint.

[RedWarlock]

There is also another thread on these forums telling you how to get access to the offline versions of all the tools.

Hint. Hint.

Mac user here.

[ve4grm]

Mac user here.

You can run it through a Virtual Machine, for sure. Virtualbox is free.