I'm attacking the darkness! [3.5 Warlock PrC]

[MammonAzrael]

Force Missile Warlock


Telim Foar, unleashing her powerful version of magic missile.

A Force Missile Warlock has devoted himself to the study of one of the most basic, yet most useful and reliable applications of offensive magic ever created, the Magic Missile. As his mastery with it grows, he learns how to manipulate the very essence of the force of magic, blasting all who stand in his way with pure arcane energy while using it to avoid or deflect incoming blows.

Entry Requirements:
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 4 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks
Invocations Known: Entropic Warding, Eldritch Blast

Skill points gained per Level: 2 + Int modifier
Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), 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).

Hit Die: d6

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special|Spells

1|

+0

|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|Invoking, magic blast|--

2|

+1

|

+0

|

+0

|

+3

|Force shield|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

3|

+2

|

+1

|

+1

|

+3

|Improved entropic warding|--

4|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Overpowering blast|+1 level of existing spellcasting class

5|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|

+4

|Eldritch Missile|--[/table]

Weapon and armor proficiencies
A force missile warlock gains no new weapon or armor proficiencies.

Invoking
Add your full force missile warlock level to your warlock level to determine the the grades of invocations you can learn.

Magic Blast (Sp)

This invocation (Lesser, 4th; Eldritch Essence) allows you to change you eldritch blast into a magic blast. Inanimate objects are not damaged by this blast. Magic blast replaces the d6's of damage with 1d4 + your Force Missile Warlock level force damage per die replaced. (For example, a Warlock 5/Force Missile Warlock 3 would deal 3d4 + 9 force damage)

Force Shield (Sp)

At 2nd level a Force Missile Warlock has learned how to channel his blast into a deflective shield to protect himself. He can cast Shield as a spell-like ability as an immediate action, except it only has a duration of 1 round. After using this ability he must wait 2d4 rounds before using it again. At 4th level he must wait only 1d4 rounds.

Improved Entropic Warding

At 3rd level a Force Missile Warlock can use his growing mastery of force to increase the protection offered by his Entropic Warding. The miss chance granted by his Entropic Warding is 10% per Force Missile Warlock level.

Overpowering Blast

At 4th level a force missile warlock has learned to empower his eldritch blast, enabling it to better affect creatures that would otherwise shrug off his magic. Whenever he applies magic blast or eldritch missile (see below) to his eldritch blast he gains a +4 bonus to his caster level for the purposes of overcoming spell resistance.

Eldritch Missile (Sp)

This invocation (Greater, 5th; Blast Shape) allows you to split your eldritch blast into multiple eldritch missiles. Each die of damage becomes a separate missile, and can be targeted separately. These missile strike unerringly, even if the target is in melee combat or has less than total cover or total concealment. Specific parts of a creature can’t be singled out. A single missile can strike only one creature. You must designate targets before you check for spell resistance or roll for damage. These missiles can be stopped by anything that stops the spell magic missile. Any effects that require a save (such as Utterdark Blast) only affect a creature once, regardless of how many missiles hits it. Any effects that add damage can be applied to each missile, but if a single creature is hit with more than one missile they only take the extra damage once, instead of for each missile that strikes them.

--------------------------------------------------

Inspired by the Force Missile Mage PrC, I thought Warlocks might like a little Magic Missile love too. What do you think?

[Draken]

Looks fun. But the "Invoking" and "Spells" part are a bit of a mimatch. Warlock PrCs tend to have the "Spellcasting" part of the table with "+1 previous invocation using class"

Right now it seens to mean that you get warlock invocations and if you also happen to be a wizard or a cleric or whatever you also get two levels there.

Other than that. Fun times. Can't say no to more damage can you?

[MammonAzrael]

Warlocks are interesting when it comes to PrCs. The +1 to existing spellcasting class can be applied to the Warlock, and it increases his caster level, EB damage, and Invocations known. But it doesn't increase the grade of invocation learnable, which I always thought was a bit stupid. And that's why that "Invoking" ability is there.

If you happen to be multiclasses into a casting class, you could indeed choose to apply the two +1 spellcasting levels to that class instead...though I should probably make that arcane only, huh? Fixing now.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Magic Blast seems a bit OP. It's auto-hit, averages out to MORE damage than the normal damage, and is a Force effect.

Eldrich Missile is also OP. Utterdark Blast, for example, can now hit a BUNCH of things, no chance of missing. That's a lot of negative levels you're tossing around there.

That said, I think a lock PrC NEEDS to be a bit OP, just to balance things out, so you've done well.

[MammonAzrael]

Actually, Magic blast does NOT auto-hit. Only Eldritch Missile is auto-hit. And the extra damage, while very good, will still be switched out for other essences as situation demands (like Vitriolic blast for getting around SR).

I knew Eldritch Missile strong, but you can still hit a bunch of creature with Utterdark using Eldritch Chain or Eldritch Cone or Eldritch Doom (the latter two are also an auto-hit).

To be honest, the one I was worried about the most was increasing Entropic Warding up to 50% miss chance at level 5.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Actually, Magic blast does NOT auto-hit. Only Eldritch Missile is auto-hit. And the extra damage, while very good, will still be switched out for other essences as situation demands (like Vitriolic blast for getting around SR).

I knew Eldritch Missile strong, but you can still hit a bunch of creature with Utterdark using Eldritch Chain or Eldritch Cone or Eldritch Doom (the latter two are also an auto-hit).

To be honest, the one I was worried about the most was increasing Entropic Warding up to 50% miss chance at level 5.

Nah, Entropic Warding only protects vs ranged attacks, so it's useless vs melee or magic that doesn't use Ranged Touch.

My bad on assuming Magic Blast was an auto-hit. Still strong, but not overwhelmingly so. About the only time I wouldn't use Magic Blast is for Vitriolic if something has an obnoxious SR I don't think I could punch through, or Utterdark for neg levels.

Eldritch Missile is better than Cone, because of a lack of Friendly Fire component (might hit friends, harder to target Cone), and can hit more targets than Chain can, plus auto-hit, whereas Chain has a save.

Again, I'm not saying it's too strong, since Warlock is a bit underpowered to begin with, but it is definitely the strongest blast shape invocation, with the possible exception of Eldritch Glaive.

[MammonAzrael]

I think I can live with that.

[MammonAzrael]

Someone decided to give this class a spin, and had some valid questions. So I've cleared up the issues, added a new ability to get rid of a nearly dead level (overpowering blast), and cleaned up the formatting.

[Re'ozul]

For some reason I never saw this until now. I like it a lot.
Though questions: If you go hellfire warlock in addition, are the additional d6 from that source modified with magic blast as well? (asking due to potential 14d6 at lvl20 normally becoming 14d4+70=105 average)

[MammonAzrael]

For some reason I never saw this until now. I like it a lot.
Though questions: If you go hellfire warlock in addition, are the additional d6 from that source modified with magic blast as well? (asking due to potential 14d6 at lvl20 normally becoming 14d4+70=105 average)

I'm guessing that because until today it's been buried in the past. Check the post date.

Hellfire Blast and Magic Blast are both eldritch essences. You can't apply more than one to your Eldritch Blast at once. So the question will never come up. (and even if your DM takes the ruling that it isn't because the texts doesn't specifically mention it as an essence, it does say it modifies an EB into a HFB. And since MB can only be applied to an EB, they are still not compatible)

[dhemon]

Hellfire Blast and Magic Blast are both eldritch essences. You can't apply more than one to your Eldritch Blast at once. So the question will never come up. (and even if your DM takes the ruling that it isn't because the texts doesn't specifically mention it as an essence, it does say it modifies an EB into a HFB. And since MB can only be applied to an EB, they are still not compatible)

Well, actually it could come up in epic levels, if you're using the Lord of All Essences feat from the warlock epic insights on the WotC website. Admittedly, it doesn't make it much clearer. What it does say is that if you multiple damaging essences, then it deals half the damage in the form of one essence and half the damage in the form of the other, ie half fire and half cold damage in the case of hellrime and brimstone blasts. How that applies in this case I'm not sure, since Magic Blast changes the size of the die and adds extra which deals force damage and Hellfire Blast deals Hellfire damage. In that case, it may convert half the damage to the damage to the form of Magic Blast - d4 + (# of die changed * FMW levels) - and half to Hellfire Blast damage - d6 that bypasses fire resistance and fire immunity.

Of course, it could also convert all to d4+(# of die * FMW levels), and have half of it be Hellfire and half of it to be Force. Nothing really says anything either way, so really I suppose you'd have to ask your DM and have a convincing argument either way.

[MammonAzrael]

Looking over the feat:

Benefit: When you use the eldritch blast ability, you can apply two eldritch essence invocations simultaneously. You could choose to fire an eldritch blast with both the repelling blast and noxious blast eldritch essences. This also allows you to apply the same effect twice, though this is not beneficial in the case of all eldritch essences. The effects of each essence are resolved separately. If you imbue your eldritch blast with two different types of damage, half of the damage (rounded down) is dealt by each source. You must choose which essences you will use in conjunction with your eldritch blast before you start your action. If you possess the Eldritch Sculptor feat, you can apply two eldritch essence invocations to both your eldritch blasts in a single round. Activating this ability is part of the action to use an eldritch blast.

For example, if Morthos is fighting an outsider he has never encountered, he can choose to imbue his eldritch blast with both hellrime blast and brimstone blast. He rolls 10d6 damage, dealing half fire and half cold damage. If the outsider happened to be immune to cold, but not fire, it would still take damage from the half that dealt fire damage.

In addition, the DC of all eldritch essence invocations you use increases by 2. This is an extraordinary ability.

From a read over I'd say that you've get half d6 hellfire damage, and half 1d4+X force damage. But you're a warlock in epic levels, so I see no problem in letting them stack in the most beneficial way possible.