Homebrew DesignRoll up your sleeves and get working: there's lots of homebrewin' to be done! Post your custom creation for critiques or review those of your peers.
[3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Ladies and gentlemen! Outsiders, of the fiendish and the rebelliously noble kinds! Eldritch Abominations! Fey lords!
(...but no children this time...)
Time for yet another installment of retoolings! This time, we are to present the Warlock, one of the first moments in which the devs of 3.5 started to deviate from the norm of Vancian spellcasting.
Warlock, while not a favorite class of mine, has a quite distinct flavor. The mechanics, though, are what I found the most interesting: basically, the character technically has something to do all the time. The way you could use a constant attack that scaled with level AND could be altered to do varied forms of damage and also cause status effects afterwards could be said as revolutionary. Technically, they are pretty similar to bards, except for the skills; they are a bit more rogue-like in their damage potential.
Still, they aren't as strong. Certainly, they're good, but they could use a few boosts. Their damage potential really doesn't reach that of a rogue, which with some effort could easily do several upwards of damage; its status variants tend to have poor save DCs. But that's not its main problem, because you can make it worthwhile.
The skill points? Nah, not enough.
The trouble with only one use of Eldritch Blast? Related to the trouble above, they can do some decent damage in certain ways (Hellfire, Eldritch Glaive), but if the only problem was merely damage via Eldritch Blast...
However, noticed just how few infusions they get? They need to share quite a bit of their limited infusions slots amongst their way to improve their Eldritch Blast and the base infusions. And, amongst them, those 24-hour invocations. This latter thing with invocations is a slight trifle I have, but this is no moment to explain. That'll be for later, once I properly introduce it.
The focus of the retooling, I intend, is to play their pact-related flavor, since their only flavor seems far too dark. The class won't be the only one; there will be a PrC for the good classes (though there WILL be a Eladrin pact), and I'll see if I can play with psionic invocations (or remake the Artificer into an infusion class?). There will also be new invocations to expand the flavor, adding some interesting offensive options that I feel the Warlock lacks.
So, without further ado, allow me to introduce to you...
"Having power is not enough. Knowing what to do with it is something given. Knowing how to get it is what's important, and how to get it without consequences is what truly matters. But, what would be the fun if you did it the safe way? Cast off that doubt, and I have a deal to make for you." - Firathia, half-elf warlock
MAKING A WARLOCK (and what has or hasn't changed)
Spoiler
Abilities: Charisma defines the Difficulty Class of the invocations, as well as a great deal of social skills. Dexterity is also important, as it serves as the main stat for a variety of things, including the attack bonus of your Eldritch Blast, your AC, and your Reflex saves. Races: Tieflings, because of their innate association with fiends, gravitate towards the warlock class, even if their Charisma takes a hit. Aasimar oddly work well, given their bonus to Charisma and perception skills; the idea of making a fiend-pact Aasimar certainly breaks the mold, although chaotic-aligned Aasimar tend to gravitate toward pacts with eladrin. Humans, of course, are strongly fit to become warlocks. The warlock's lack of reliance on weapons makes Halflings and Gnomes fair choices.
Amongst savage humanoids and other creatures, the Drow are fit to follow the Warlock path, and the odd goblin that wishes to take advantage of their size and cruelty make pacts with fiends, to better resemble the barghests. Alignment: Any except Lawful Good. An otherworldly patron favors a creature that has an alignment at least one step away from the norm. Archons tend to dislike the idea of giving power to creatures that cannot fit their distinctive vision of values, and other good outsiders tend to share their power rather than force a course of action. The reason why Eladrin agree to pacts with people isn't exactly to force them, but to allow their powers to fall unto people that consciously use their power for Good, even if it does not always work. Starting Gold: as Bard Starting Age: as Bard
Class Skills
The warlock’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4. Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Spoiler
Warlocks have an interesting set of abilities, as they get all the social skills (including Gather Information and Sense Motive), alongside magic skills. Use Magic Device fits Warlocks perfectly, even if they no longer are masters of deceiving items. Hide and Move Silently make them excellent at stealth...
Uh...stealth skills? Well, you see, Disguise and Hide make warlocks inconspicuous, fitting for that arcane rogue feel, and also improves their choice of skills to a degree that adding four points is more than reasonable. An increment to skill points definitely matters, and the more useful skills, the better.
One of the key differences between the typical warlock and the retooled version is that the amount of invocations has nearly doubled. That way, the warlock can modify its eldritch blasts without worrying about not choosing the right invocations.
The other thing is the "pact boons". Those are best explained later, but the idea is that some invocations are best left separate. Which ones? Well, let's just consider that the difference between the invocations I have issues with and the pact boons are basically their durability.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the warlock
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Warlocks are proficient with all simple weapons plus the flail, shortbow, shortsword and whip. They are proficient with light armor but not with shields.
Because the somatic components required for warlock invocations are simple, a warlock can cast warlock invocations while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However, like arcane spellcasters, a warlock wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the invocation in question has a somatic component (all invocations do, including eldritch blast; however, this last one is not affected by this restriction and may be used so as long as the warlock has one hand free). A multiclass warlock still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells or invocations received from other classes.
Spoiler
Well, they get a few new ones. The whip is just stylish: even if they don't really need it, it can be used to deliver a bit of non-lethal damage and serves with the odd trip build. Flails, though, are pretty weird for a choice, but the odd warlock with a fiendish pact will probably enjoy it. Shortswords and shortbows are fit for the roguish type, and while it'll be quite bizarre to use a shortbow with a class that has a free ranged option, sometimes it could compliment your shots.
Oh, that wee bit about Eldritch Blast? Really, why does the main combat method should have a chance (any chance) of arcane spell failure? It's like giving a miss chance to a melee user's weapon! Hence, while the other invocations do have arcane spell failure chances, Eldritch Blast doesn't.
Invocations (Sp): By virtue of the pact they have established with their otherworldly patron, a warlock does not prepare or cast spells as other wielders of arcane magic do. Instead, he possesses a repertoire of attacks, defenses, and abilities known as invocations that require him to focus the wild energy that suffuses his soul. A warlock can use any invocations he knows at-will (except for pact boons, which are always active), with the following qualifications:
A warlock’s invocations are spell-like abilities; thus, unless indicated in the description, using an invocation is a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity. An invocation can be disrupted, just as a spell can be ruined during casting, A warlock is entitled to a Concentration check to successfully use an invocation if he is hit by an attack while invoking, just as a spellcaster would be. A warlock can choose to use an invocation defensively, by making a successful Concentration check, to avoid provoking attacks of opportunity. A warlock’s invocations are subject to spell resistance unless an invocation’s description specifically states otherwise. A warlock’s caster level with his invocations is equal to his caster level.
The save DC for an invocation (if it allows a save) is equal to 10 + the equivalent spell level of the invocation (stated on its description) + the warlock’s Charisma modifier. Since spell-like abilities are not actually spells, a warlock cannot benefit from any metamagic feat or the Spell Focus feat; he can, however, benefit from the Ability Focus feat as well as feats that emulate metamagic effects for spell-like abilities.
The four grades of invocations, in order of their relative power, are least, lesser, greater and dark. A warlock begins play with knowledge of two least-grade invocations and one least-grade blast shape or eldritch essence invocation, as mentioned on the table above. As a warlock gains levels, he learns new invocations, as shown on the table above. At any level when a warlock learns a new invocation, he may also replace an invocation he already knows with another invocation of the same or a lower grade. At 6th level, a warlock gains access to lesser invocations; at 11th level, a warlock gains access to greater invocations and at 16th level the warlock gains access to dark invocations.
Finally, unlike other spell-like abilities, invocations are subject to arcane spell failure chance. Unlike other wielders of spell-like abilities, warlocks can qualify for some prestige classes usually intended for spellcasters; see Warlocks and Prestige Classes section below for descriptions.
Spoiler
Little need for a change in here. The two biggest ones really rely upon defining a way to get Ability Focus to affect a wider set of invocations rather than only one, and probably a better stacking method for the least essence invocations. Speaking of which...
Eldritch Blast (Sp): The first ability that a warlock learns is the eldritch blast. A warlock attacks his foes with raw arcane energy, causing damage and sometimes imparting other debilitating effects.
An eldritch blast is a ray with a range of 25 ft plus 5 ft. for every 2 caster levels. It is a ranged touch attack that affects a single target, and allows no saving throw (except on certain occasions; see Blast Shape and Essence Invocations below). An eldritch blast deals 1d6 points of damage at 1st level, and increases in power for every two class levels in warlock. This damage is raw arcane energy, and thus it is not subject to energy resistance or damage reduction (but see Blast Shape and Essence Invocations, below); however, it has the same chance of affecting incorporeal creatures as a normal spell. An eldritch blast, for purposes of feats and abilities that require a spell-like ability with an equivalent spell level, is treated as a 1st level spell (however, the effective spell level may increase; see Blast Shape and Essence Invocations below).
An eldritch blast is subject to spell resistance, although feats like Spell Penetration and effects that increase caster level for purposes of bypassing spell resistance apply to this ability. An eldritch blast deals half damage to objects and constructs. Metamagic feats cannot improve a warlock’s eldritch blast, but feats that affect spell-like abilities (such as Empower Spell-Like Ability and Ability Focus) also affect this ability. Unlike other invocations, a warlock may use eldritch blast even if wearing armor heavier than light or wielding a shield, but a warlock must always have a hand free to use this ability; thus, a warlock may not use eldritch blast if pinned, held or otherwise unable to use at least one hand, nor it may use an eldritch blast with a weapon in one hand and a shield on the other.
Spoiler
Yes, believe it or not, it uses the errata. That way, you can definitely take advantage of Eldritch Blast with the feats that modify spell-like abilities, but someone with spell resistance or being a construct will hurt its utility.
One little thing I added, though, was that Eldritch Blast is no longer limited by arcane spell failure as the other invocations. Thus, it acts a bit more like a weapon rather than a spell, making it slightly more unique.
Blast Shape and Essence Invocations: Some invocations do not cause direct effects, but rather serve to modify a warlock’s eldritch blast ability. Some, such as blast shape invocations, affect the range, target or area of effect of an eldritch blast; others, such as eldritch essence invocations, modify the damage or provide other effects aside from damage. Using a blast shape or essence invocation is part of the same action as using eldritch blast. A warlock may only apply one blast shape and one eldritch essence invocation as part of the same eldritch blast. When a warlock uses a blast shape or essence invocation, the effective spell level of the eldritch blast is equal to the effective spell level of the invocation; if using both, the effective spell level is the highest between the two invocations, plus 1 (thus, a warlock that uses a blast shape of effective spell level 4th and an essence invocation of effective spell level 3rd has an effective spell level for its eldritch blast of 5th level).
A warlock may choose a number of blast shape or eldritch essence invocations as mentioned on the table above. If he so decides, a warlock may choose one of his regular invocation slots to learn a blast shape or essence invocation if he so desires, but he may not choose a blast shape or essence invocation slot to learn a regular invocation. Thus, a warlock may begin play with one blast shape invocation (or one essence invocation) and two regular invocations, one invocation of each kind, two blast shape invocations and one essence invocation (or viceversa), but never three regular invocations. Blast shape invocations and eldritch essence invocations, much like regular invocations, have four grades of power; thus, if a warlock cannot choose a lesser-grade invocation, it may not choose any lesser-grade blast shape or eldritch essence invocation as well.
Blast Shape: These invocations affect the range, target or area of effect of eldritch blasts. Unless noted otherwise, an eldritch blast subject to a blast shape invocation deals damage normally (as well as applying the effect of an eldritch essence invocation or any other ability that modifies invocations).
Eldritch Essence: These invocations modify the damage dealt by an eldritch blast or cause a variety of effects. If the warlock targets a creature with an eldritch blast modified by an essence invocation to which it has immunity, the creature still takes effect from the attack normally (provided the creature isn’t immune to the eldritch blast itself). Most eldritch essences allow a saving throw; the saving throw DC for such abilities is the same as that for a regular invocation.
If a warlock gains the ability to make more than one eldritch blast (see split blast ability below), all eldritch blasts are modified by the same eldritch essence and the same blast shape invocations.
Spoiler
As you can see from the table, the amount of invocations learned has incremented, and there's a separate set of choices exclusively for blast shapes and essences. This is so that the choices don't compete with the invocations, while at the same time, the slots are open to customize yourself as a blast-focused warlock or a more balanced warlock (just not an invocation-focused warlock).
One nifty trick is that using a combination of blast shapes and essence invocations allow you to slightly improve your effective spell level by one, which while affecting negatively the use of the spell-like enhancers, it does make the powers harder to resist AND also able to bypass spells such as Globes of Invulnerability. This, combined with the increased options for blasting should make even the weaker of the essences work better for purposes of DC, which is one of the banes of those same essences.
Pact (Su): The core of a warlock’s power is the pact it has established with its otherworldly patron. A warlock is never forced to follow the wishes of its patron (once that pact is given, the patron has no control over the actions of the user; in fact, the term “warlock” loosely translates to “oath-breaker” because of the sheer number of people who don’t follow their pact), but they gain a series of boons and benefits as they progress.
At 1st level, a warlock must choose with which type of otherworldly patron it makes its pact. This pact may restrict the invocations a warlock may choose, as well as determines the boons and gifts it receives.
Aberration: while most aberrations are generally weak, those whom inhabit the Far Realm are powerful beyond the scope of man. Warlocks that make pacts with inhabitants of the Far Realm are generally twisted, and desire nothing else than to bring the full force of the Far Realm into the Material Plane. A warlock that makes an aberrant pact gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities of aberrations, as well as against powers and psi-like abilities (see Expanded Psionics Handbook for more information). A warlock must be non-good to make this pact (thus, no chaotic good creature may make a pact with them).
Demon: the warlock makes a pact with one of the inhabitants of the Abyss. While few demons make direct pacts with people, instead granting their power willingly, some intelligent fiends grant people a measure of their power to wreak havoc upon others. Generally, demons don’t expect warlocks to follow their oath, and generally choose those who think very similarly to them. A warlock that makes a demonic pact gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects that have a lawful alignment. A warlock must be non-lawful, non-good to make such pact (thus, it is generally limited to chaotic neutral, chaotic evil, neutral and neutral evil creatures).
Devil: the warlock makes a pact with one of the fiends of the Nine Hells. Making a pact with a devil is generally a losing act, because they are incredibly deceptive and generally demand that people follow their pact to the letter, but generally offer some leeway to how it may be done and at which moment. Warlocks who make pacts with devils are risk-takers, knowing they are attempting to cheat creatures that cheat as a way of life, but generally they are the ones deceived. A warlock that makes a diabolical pact gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects that have a chaotic alignment. A warlock must be non-chaotic, non-good to make such pact (thus, it is generally limited to neutral, neutral evil or lawful evil creatures).
Eladrin: although it is rare to see creatures of good offering such dark powers, eladrin are mavericks when ensuring the forces of good are victorious (unlike lawful good creatures whom chafe at the methods). Much like demons, eladrin don’t generally enforce creatures from following their pact, but are swift in their vengeance when they use these powers for evil. A warlock that makes an eladrin pact gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects that have an evil alignment. A warlock must be non-lawful, non-evil to make such pact (thus, it is generally limited to chaotic good, chaotic neutral and neutral creatures).
Fey: fickle and unpredictable creatures, fey are well-known for establishing mischievous (and sometimes nefarious) plans to their own benefit, generally providing limitless power and no restrictions to warlocks but sometimes altering the outcome of their lives as they become intertwined with the life of the mortal. A warlock that makes a fey pact gains the resist nature’s lure ability as if it were a druid. A warlock must be chaotic to make such a “pact”.
Yugoloth: mercenaries to the last, few yugoloths offer others their power, but some that find the worth of a mortal ally may offer their power to warlocks, for no other price than their service. A warlock that makes a fiendish pact gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects that have a good alignment. A warlock must be evil to make such pact.
Spoiler
I felt that the pacts were horribly downplayed. For all it really matters, the original warlock really cared for fiends, rather than the idea of differing pacts. Thus, while their main benefit at the level seems really weak, the choice of pact is extremely important.
For starters, it opens the class to lawful neutral or neutral good characters. This wasn't possible on the original, mostly because the pacts were limited. The second is that the options were expanded, allowing the rare aberrations to provide their power (even if they are basically psionic creatures).
This has its disadvantages, of course. The most crucial is that the choice of fluff also determines the choice of invocations, so you have to think a bit more what to choose. This also influences latter choices, such as the material that bypasses damage reduction, as well as energy resistance and the capstone.
Pact Boon (Su): Warlocks gains a special benefit from their otherworldly patron, as befitting the pact they have established. These boons behave in a great way as invocations, but with the benefit of being permanent and limited only to the warlock. A 2nd level warlock may choose one least pact boon from the list indicated below; as it gains more levels, the warlock gains access to more and improved pact boons, as shown on the table above. A warlock must choose from the boons allowed based on the pact established with their otherworldly patrons, and may not sacrifice eldritch essence, blast shape or regular invocation slots to gain more pact boons; however, the warlock may change one of his pact boons of the same grade or lower at 6th level, and every even level afterwards.
Spoiler
Let's explain the idea behind the pact boons with a bit of a story.
One of the appeals of warlocks is that they have powers they can use at will. Definitely that would be powerful, but there's just one thing that seems like a cheat; some of those invocations are used only once per day. If you're gonna have an ability used only once per day, why make it an invocation you can use at-will?
There would be a few things that could make those better, but unfortunately they are quite limited in spoke. Sure, they last for all day, but you can't share those buffs, and they have vulnerabilities to dispelling. However, since you could recharge them with little problem, that means they have basically permanent buffs that take the place of invocations. Really, if they didn't have that silly need for recharging the ability, and they had something else, they'd make better invocations.
So, what's the real problem here? These buffs are taking the place of more limited use invocations, blast shapes and essences. And the original warlock only has 12 invocations to choose from, of which the few good ones can be used once, breaking up the idea of "at-will" uses. Those 24-hour invocations really don't feel like invocations at all.
Thus, they were turned into pact boons. Basically, the warlock gets those former 24-hour invocations that can only be used on themselves become supernatural abilities (so they can't be dispelled, but they can be suppressed by antimagic fields), and they get their own slots. Of course, as with invocations, pact boons are determined by the pact you choose, so you can't really mix and match the best ones.
So, why "boons"? Well, consider that some of these abilities are granted to the creatures themselves, so basically they're slowly turning warlocks a bit into them.
Pact Resilience (Ex): At 4th level, the supernatural power flowing from the body of the warlock alters them, granting them unusual resistance to physical attacks except for specific objects and materials that generally affect their kind. A warlock gains damage reduction 1, bypassed only by a specific material or alignment as indicated on the following table:
Aberration: magic; gain twice the amount of the bonus (if using the EBERRON campaign setting, use byeshk instead, but up to the indicated amount). Demon: lawful Devil: chaotic Eladrin: evil Fey: cold iron Yugoloth: good
At 8th level, and every four levels afterwards, the amount of damage reduced by this ability increases by 1; thus, at 8th level, a warlock that has made a devil pact gains damage reduction 2/chaotic. A warlock that has made a pact with aberrations gains damage reduction 4/magic instead (or 2/byeshk).
Spoiler
The small damage reduction warlocks get is currently modified. Aside from aberrations, most of the types of damage reduction are hard to resist (and aberrations have byeshk as a replacement), so it's not THAT bad if they catch you in melee.
UPDATE: Since aberrations kinda get the shaft, they get twice the amount of damage reduction to compensate, even though magic is quite easy to bypass.
Pact Resistance (Ex): At 6th level, the supernatural power flowing from the body of the warlock alters them, granting unusual resistance to specific elements. A warlock gains energy resistance 5 against the energy type specified on the following table, based on the warlock’s pact:
Aberration: any two elements Demon: acid, cold, fire (choose one; also gain electricity resistance) Devil: acid, cold (choose one; also gain fire resistance) Eladrin: acid, cold, fire (choose one; also gain electricity resistance) Fey: any two elements except fire Yugoloth: cold, electricity, fire (choose one; also gain acid resistance)
At 12th level, the immunity to all chosen elements increases to 10; at 18th level, it increases to 20.
Split Blast (Sp): At 9th level, a warlock may concentrate a great deal of magical power upon its eldritch blast, split that power and use it against different enemies. As a full-round action, a warlock may choose to split his eldritch blast into two rays, but each ray deals one less die of damage, has a penalty of -1 to the ranged touch attack roll, and has a caster level reduction of -1. Splitting an eldritch blast does not count as a blast shape invocation and thus a warlock may imbue a split eldritch blast with the same blast shape (except for a few; see the blast shape invocations for details).
At 16th level, a warlock gains the ability to split his eldritch blast into three rays (or three different manifestations), but each ray deals 2 less dice of damage, has a -2 to their ranged touch attack roll, and has a caster level reduction of -2. A warlock may decide to divide the eldritch blast into two or three rays if it so decides.
Spoiler
One of the main issues with the Warlock has been that their main offensive ability eventually turned a bit too weak at 20th level, because it only reached up to 9d6 points of damage. One single spell could easily beat that, and reserve feats made having eldritch blast pretty pointless by that level.
One of the many recommendations was to increase the amount of eldritch blasts fired, but that has its own problem. Namely, that three rays dealing 27d6 points of damage that could be customized seems kinda iffy. And with stuff like hellfire, that damage could easily scale into uncontrollable amounts.
Thus, there's a compromise. As you can see, they are pretty close to when warlocks get their increases in BAB, but they're independent of the actual BAB (so that you don't exploit it). You also need a full-round action (as if a full attack), and you get penalties to it; a dice penalty, an attack roll penalty, and a CL penalty (in case of needing to bypass spell resistance). However, the extra blasts bleed into the blast shapes (most, not all of them), so choosing a blast shape won't affect the damage.
In order to explain this better: assume you're a 16th level warlock. If you shoot one blast, you deal 8d6 points of damage with one blast at "full power". If you choose to shoot two blasts, you deal 7d6 points with each (thus, you can deal up to 14d6 points of damage with two shots) at a -1 penalty to attack bonus and CL. With three blasts, you deal 6d6 per shot (for a maximum of 18d6) with a -2 penalty to attack bonus and CL. If you focus all shots you'll deal more damage than that of most spells, but if you split your shots you'll deal less damage and cover more space. Thus, while you lose a bit by increasing the amount of shots, if you focus your fire you'll deal increased damage overall.
Note this works with blast shape invocations. Three Eldritch Blasts at reduced power may not seem like much, but three Eldritch Dooms can be quite a menace, and three Eldritch Spears can mow down the worst dragon pretty seriously (with some effort, of course).
Deceive Item (Ex): At 10th level and higher, a warlock has the ability to more easily commandeer magic items made for the use of other characters. When making a Use Magic Device check, a warlock can take 10 even if distracted or threatened.
Spoiler
You get some and then you lose some. Deceive Item was a quite good ability, but Imbue Item is lost, mostly because the ability to craft magic items with little problem is not really a balanced ability, and warlocks are not really crafters per se. They can deceive and they're roguish in that regard, but they aren't crafters, unless they really decide to focus on crafting, and scrolls work fine for that.
Pact Culmination (Ex): At 20th level, the supernatural energies within the warlock’s body permanently alter him to resemble a creature of the same type as his otherworldly patron. This permanent change makes him akin to the patron it follows (or defies), forever cutting him from his former race and branding him and his progeny for the rest of time. A warlock is forever treated as a creature of the same kind as his otherworldly patron as well as a member of his own race for the purpose of magic items and magical effects that depend on alignment. As well, the warlock gains a special trait based on his new kind.
Aberration: the warlock turns into an aberration, and his internal organs shift to different areas. Any critical hit, sneak attack or similar ability has a 25% chance of failure. This fortification stacks with any other form of fortification, up to a maximum of 100% (thus becoming immune to critical hits or sneak attacks, unless an ability bypasses fortification or reduces it to below 100%)
Demon: the warlock turns into an outsider with the chaotic and evil subtypes (even if the creature is not chaotic or evil). Furthermore, the warlock gains immunity to electricity and poison.
Devil: the warlock turns into an outsider with the lawful and evil subtypes (even if the creature is not lawful or evil). Furthermore, the warlock gains darkvision up to 60 ft. and the ability to see in natural darkness; if the warlock already has a similar ability (such as by a pact boon), the range of its darkvision doubles.
Eladrin: the warlock turns into an outsider with the chaotic and good subtypes (even if the creature is not chaotic or good); he is also treated as an eladrin for the purpose of spells that may only be cast by such creatures. The warlock also gains the ability to speak and understand all languages as per the benefit of the tongues spell.
Fey: the warlock turns into a fey. The warlock also gains spell resistance equal to 10 + his character level. If he already has spell resistance (by means of a pact boon or racial feature), he uses the largest of the two and adds 5 points to that amount.
Yugoloth: the warlock turns into an outsider with the evil subtype (even if the creature is not evil). The warlock also gains telepathy up to 100 ft; if the warlock has a similar ability, it gains the ability to detect creatures within the area of effect of the telepathy (as per the Mindsight feat in Lords of Madness).
Spoiler
You have to admit, these are really not so bad capstones. Certainly treating you as an outsider, fey or aberration might not seem that hot, but when you add the secondary effects, some are quite surprising. Perhaps the biggest winner is the Yugoloth, as it gains telepathy (and even free Mindsight) as a capstone, so nothing can really escape it. Still, the other bonuses (immunities, fortification, tongues, spell resistance, darkvision+) aren't really so terrible (particularly the Eladrin final boon).
WARLOCK INVOCATIONS AND PACT BOONS
Invocations: A warlock chooses the invocations they will learn as they gain levels, much like bards or sorcerers choose which spells to learn. However, a warlock’s arcane repertoire is even more limited than that of a sorcerer, and his invocations are spell-like abilities, not spells. An invocation may be a blast shape invocation, an eldritch essence invocation or a regular invocation. The following is a list of invocations as appearing in the Complete Arcane supplement, plus new invocations.
Least—baleful utteranceDm, Dv, Y, breath of the night, change self*, darkness, earthen grasp, entropic wardingDm, El, F, faerie dust*El, F, magic insight**, miasmic cloud, summon swarm
Lesser—arcane shield*, charm, curse of despair, the dead walkDm, Dv, Y, flee the scene, hungry darkness, relive the nightmare*Ab, Dv, F, stony grasp, summon servant*, voracious dispelling, walk unseen, wall of gloom
Greater—chilling tentaclesAb, curse of the midget*, devour magic, enervating shadow, killing joke*El, F, scathing insult*, tenacious plague, wall of perilous flame, warlock’s call
Dark—dark discorporation, death sentence*, path of shadow, prophetic foresight, puppeteer’s strings*Ab, Dv, rainbow sphere*El, retributive invisibility, word of changing
*: new invocation
**: appears in Dragon Magic Ab: aberration; Dm: demon; Dv: devil; El: eladrin; F: fey; Y: yugoloth. An invocation with these descriptors may only be chosen by warlocks with pacts related to the descriptors.
Blast Shape Invocations: The following is a list of blast shape invocations as appearing in the Complete Arcane supplement, plus new blast shapes.
Eldritch Essence Invocations: The following is a list of eldritch essence invocations as appearing in the Complete Arcane supplement, plus new essences.
Pact Boon: At 2nd level, a warlock chooses pact boons much like if they were invocations, only able to choose boons of the same grade as the invocations it may choose. Although pact boons are constantly active, a warlock may deactivate and reactivate the effect of the boon as a swift action. The following is a list of pact boons taken from invocations in Complete Arcane, as well as added boons.
Least—beguiling influence, devil’s sightDv, leaps and bounds, see the unseen, spiderwalk, warlock’s luck
Lesser—blurry veil*, fortify flesh*, sustained flight, telepathy*Ab, Dm, Dv, Y, voidsense
Greater— hand of the archmage*, mirage*El, F, protective aura*El, unnatural resilienceAb, Dm, Dv, Y
Dark—of two worlds*, spell invulnerability*
*: new invocation Ab: aberration; Dm: demon; Dv: devil; El: eladrin; F: fey; Y: yugoloth. An invocation with these descriptors may only be chosen by warlocks with pacts related to the descriptors.
Invocations in other Dungeons & Dragons supplements: certain books such as Complete Mage, Dragon Magic and others contain further invocations which the warlock may use. This retooling removes some regular invocations from the list and turns them into pact boons; generally, an invocation is turned into a pact boon if the ability would otherwise last for 24 hours, only affects the warlock, and can only be removed through dispel magic or similar abilities. For example, the invocation beguiling influence grants a specific boon to various skills, but can only be used on the warlock and is not a benefit that can be transferred to an ally. Some abilities, such as walk unseen, may follow only a part of the rules; in the given case, any offensive action used by the warlock dispels the invocation, and thus it is not a constant benefit.
Of all draconic invocations (see Dragon Magic), only magic insight is added. The DM should be very careful to allow invocations of one class to apply to the other. Generally, draconic invocations are particular in that they closely resemble abilities normally used by dragons instead of aberrations, fiends or fey. If a warlock invocation has no ties to a path and may grant an ability that a dragon would otherwise use, then it may be also learned as a draconic invocation (as a rule of thumb, most illusion abilities are used by dragons as spell-like abilities, but are not common). Equally, a draconic invocation that has no strong ties to dragons may be learned as warlock invocations.
Spoiler
If you were a bit scared about the list of invocations, here they are. Just looking at the non-exclusive invocations, there are 7 least (1 new), 10 lesser (2 new), 7 greater (1 new) and 6 dark (1 new), so there are plenty to choose, and that's only from the Complete Arcane (and the new ones). That's about 30 non-exclusive choices, with 25 original choices, despite having some of the choices turned into pact boons or separated into blast shape/essence invocations. With the choice to turn the invocation slots into blast shape or essence slots, you can have choices that aren't so limited after all.
You may wonder about why Darkness and related invocations aren't tagged to specific pacts, considering Eladrin may be a bit more related to light than dark. Taking up a page from "Dark is not Evil", any kind of warlock can take advantage of staying in the dark and using dark to its advantage. With amped stealth skills, and with some of the darkness spells providing some key offensive, it makes a bit more sense. It makes sense that only those pacts with evil outsiders get the invocation to create undead followers, but not as much to deny the darkness invocations to a class that thrives on them.
You'll notice two of the class features of the warlock have been turned into invocations: Detect Magic (taking a cue from the dragonfire adept) and Fiendish Resilience (making it a pact boon). Detect Magic is a very useful ability, but it is hilariously easy to get (I mean, you can get it from a feat) so it's just a rather nice boon; claiming the invocation from the D.A. (which is frankly better, since it allows you to identify magic items) more than covers taking it out (and sorta unclogging) the features of the class. As for fiendish resilience, it definitely needed the boosting, because the original is truly bizarre: free access to decent fast healing, but once per day for a minute. As a pact boon (rather than an invocation), fiendish resilience needs some changes made; thus, it is permanent, but only to take you to half your maximum HP, so it makes you harder to kill.
WARLOCKS AND PRESTIGE CLASSES
With the retooling of the warlock, the abilities it may progress when taking a prestige class (see page 18 of Complete Arcane) expand:
Invocations and Eldritch Blast: a warlock progresses its eldritch blast as presented on the class table (1d6 + 1d6 per every two class levels). Only caster levels gained by means of class advancement increase eldritch blast damage; caster level advancement gained through feats (such as Practiced Spellcaster) or through other class features (such as the spell power ability) do not advance eldritch blast. Refer to the class table to determine the amount of eldritch essence, blast shape and regular invocations it gains per level, as well as the grades it has access to. As well, levels in a prestige class that advances arcane spellcasting allow the warlock to replace his invocations, as usual.
Pact Boons: a warlock treats a prestige class that advances arcane spellcasting as a class level to determine accessibility of pact boons, much as if they were invocations.
Other Class Features: a warlock does not advance any other class features, including pact resilience, pact resistance and split blast.
Spoiler
The way a warlock interacts with PrCs remains quite similar, but the changes interact in a different way. In a simpler version of above, basically anything that would count as an invocation (to the side of the Special column) improves (as well as accessibility to greater and dark invocations), but not other class features.
This, of course, includes split blast because that's the main benefit of staying in the class instead of dropping out early on. You'll need to stay at least until 9th level if you want to get the biggest change around.
Last edited by T.G. Oskar : 08-29-2011 at 10:55 AM.
Reason: Adding the invocation list and interaction with PrCs
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: new and revised Invocations
WARLOCK INVOCATIONS
The following list of invocations presented here are in addition to those presented in Complete Arcane and other supplements.
Note: these invocations are independent of the changes done to the warlock class, and may be used with the original version. In that case, ignore any reference to pacts done in the descriptions of the invocations; these may be chosen much like any other invocation. In the case of pact boons, treat as invocations that last for 24 hours, may only be used on the warlock, and that may not be removed by any other means other than dispel magic and similar abilities (in other words, it may not be discharged, but it may be dismissed).
LEAST INVOCATIONS Change Self: Use disguise self as the spell, except you undertake a minor physical alteration Enfeebling Blast: Target takes a penalty to Strength equal to number of eldritch blast damage dice +1 Faerie Dust: Use glitterdust as the spell, and area affected sheds light as a torch.
LESSER INVOCATIONS Arcane Shield: Use fire shield as the spell, except half the damage dealt is raw arcane energy damage. Blurry Veil: Pact Boon. Gain blur as the spell, bonus on Disguise checks, penalty on Hide checks. Eldritch Missile: Blast becomes a barrage of projectiles that automatically hit. Eldritch Snare: Create a trap that deals eldritch blast damage Fellshock Blast: Blast deals electricity damage, target must succeed on a saving throw or become dazed. Force Blast: Blast deals force damage Fortify Flesh:Pact Boon. Gain a +6 natural bonus to armor; become immune to attacks that cause bleeding. Relive the Nightmare: Use detect thoughts as the spell, create a figment related to surface thoughts that may frighten enemy. Summon Servant: Summon a creature as if using a summon monster spell from a specific list for extended time. Telepathy:Pact Boon. Gain telepathy up to 100 ft.
GREATER INVOCATIONS Curse of the Midget: Use reduce person as the spell, but effect is permanent. Eldritch Shield: Blast becomes a barrier that causes damage to attacking enemy. Hand of the Archmage: Pact Boon. Gain bonus on Use Magic Device checks, treat warlock caster level as levels in spellcasting class when using arcane items. Killing Joke: Creature explodes into uncontrollable laughter, may suffocate from lack of breathing. Mirage:Pact Boon. Gain displacement as the spell, gain benefit of mislead on a desert or waste. Protective Aura:Pact Boon. Gain magic circle of invulnerability and lesser globe of invulnerability as the spells. Scathing Insult: Target must make a Will save or take sonic damage and cause enmity towards the user. Shrieking Blast: Blast deals sonic damage, must make a Fortitude save or become deaf. Unnatural Resilience:Pact Boon. Gain fast healing equal to damage reduction when under half the normal amount of hit points.
DARK INVOCATIONS Death Sentence: Learn about target’s condition, target is cursed to die at the user’s command Eldritch Aura: Blast becomes an emanation Eldritch Explosion: Blast becomes a small burst that affects all creatures within 10 ft. Of Two Worlds:Pact Boon. Gain greater blink as the spell, plus other benefits Petrifying Blast: Target must succeed on a Fortitude save or become petrified. Puppeteer’s Strings: Use dominate monster as spell, use invocations through dominated creature. Rainbow Sphere: Temporarily transform into a globe of light; gain incorporeality, shoot rays of light, other effects. Spell Invulnerability:Pact Boon. Gain spell resistance and bonus on saving throws against spells.
INVOCATION DESCRIPTIONS
ARCANE SHIELD Lesser; 4th
You form a barrier of magical energy that harms creatures and protects you from certain energy attacks. This invocation functions exactly as the fire shield spell (including whether you may choose a warm shield or a cold shield), but half the damage dealt by the spell comes from raw arcane energy and may not be resisted by either fire (for warm shields) or cold (for cold shields) resistance.
BLURRY VEIL Lesser; 3rd (Pact Boon)
You gain the benefit of the blur spell, gaining a 20% miss chance against all attacks. As well, you gain a +6 bonus on Disguise checks, but the afterimage caused by the blurry effect causes a -4 penalty on all Hide checks. Note: if using as invocation, the effect lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable.
CHANGE SELF Least; 2nd
As a full-round action, you alter your appearance as though using a disguise self spell that affects your body but not your possessions. This ability is not an illusory effect, but a minor physical alteration of your facial features, skin color and texture, and size, within the limits described for the spell. You revert to your natural form when killed. A true seeing spell reveals your natural form. When using this ability to create a disguise, you receive a +10 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks.
CURSE OF THE MIDGET Lesser; 4th
You permanently reduce a creature’s size as if using the reduce person spell, except the effect works on any creature (not just a humanoid). The duration of this ability is permanent until dismissed by the caster, or until the creature receives the benefit of a remove curse or break enchantment spell (the latter only cast by a spellcaster of caster level 9th or higher). If a character has the shapechanger subtype, it may not transform back into its original size unless the curse is removed, but it may use its transformation abilities and still retain the benefits of the invocation. Any possessions held by the target are likewise reduced in size until they leave their wielder’s possession, in which they return to their original size; an item’s size is not reduced when touched by the victim.
DEATH SENTENCE Dark; 8th
By touching a creature and speaking its name aloud, you curse an enemy to die whenever you command it. Upon successfully casting the invocation, the caster is immediately aware of the condition of the afflicted target as if under the effect of a status spell, except the effect is permanent (until discharged) and crosses planar boundaries.
At any moment, as a standard action, the user merely wills its target to die. The target must succeed on a Fortitude save or die instantly; the saving throw is determined at the moment of casting the spell, and isn’t modified by later increases in the user’s Charisma or bonuses to the saving throw DC of spell-like abilities (but is likewise not reduced by a loss of Charisma or a penalty to saving throw DCs). The invocation and the status effect are discharged after using this ability, and the user knows if the effect was successful or not. If the target is immune to death effects, it is likewise immune to this ability; if the target is protected against instant death effects (such as with a death ward spell), it retains the status effect and the user is aware of such immunity.
The death curse and the status effect may be removed if the target gains the benefit of a break enchantment or remove curse spell cast by a spellcaster of caster level 15th or higher).
ELDRITCH AURA Dark; 8th (Blast Shape)
This blast shape invocation allows you to invoke your eldritch blast as a 20-ft. radius emanation, centered on yourself. This ability lasts for as long as you concentrate and for 1 round afterwards. All enemies that enter the area of the emanation take an amount of damage equal to twice the amount of eldritch blast damage dice (thus, a 17th level warlock using eldritch aura deals 18 points of damage per round, not 18d6). If the eldritch aura is also altered by an essence invocation, its effect activates on every turn (thus, a fellshock eldritch aura deals 18 points of electricity damage and forces a saving throw against daze every turn). Unlike other blast shape invocations, an eldritch blast modified by this ability does not benefit from the split blast ability or similar abilities (thus, you don’t benefit from three reduced-power auras, but only one).
ELDRITCH EXPLOSION Dark; 8th (Blast Shape)
This blast shape invocation allows you to turn your eldritch blast into a small explosion of arcane energy. The target of the eldritch blast, and all creatures within 10 ft. of the target take damage from the attack. You need not make an attack roll when using eldritch explosion, but all creatures within the area of effect may make a Reflex saving throw to take half damage. If the eldritch blast uses an essence invocation, all creatures are likewise affected by the effect.
ELDRITCH MISSILE Lesser; 3rd (Blast Shape)
This blast shape invocation allows you to invoke your eldritch blast as a barrage of small projectiles. You may create one projectile per eldritch blast damage dice, up to 10 projectiles. You may divide these projectiles upon multiple creatures or concentrate them on a single creature. These projectiles automatically strike the enemy (provided you have line of sight at the enemy) and deal 1d4+1 points of damage, as if they were magic missiles. If the target is immune to magic missile damage, it is also immune to eldritch missile. If the eldritch missile is also altered by an essence invocation, each missile benefits from the alteration, but any effect that forces a saving throw is done only once; a successful save negates the effect of the remaining eldritch missiles on the same target (but not on other targets).
Unlike other blast shape invocations, an eldritch blast modified by this ability does not benefit from the split blast ability or similar abilities (thus, your maximum limit of missiles is 10).
ELDRITCH SHIELD Greater; 5th
This blast shape invocation allows you to invoke your eldritch blast as a small barrier of raw arcane energy. You may use this eldritch shield as an immediate action in response to an enemy’s successful attack. Upon doing so, the energy barrier retorts back, causing three times the amount of eldritch blast damage dice in damage (but not actual dice; thus, if your eldritch blast deals 6 dice of damage, your eldritch shield deals 18 points of damage, not 18d6 points of damage). You may add the effect of an eldritch essence to eldritch shield.
Unlike other blast shape invocations, an eldritch blast modified by this ability does not benefit from the split blast ability or similar abilities (thus, you don’t benefit from three reduced-power shields, but only one).
ELDRITCH SNARE Lesser; 4th (Blast Shape)
This blast shape invocation allows you to set a spot where concentrated arcane energy lies, turning into a trap that deals eldritch blast damage. When using eldritch snare, choose a single square within eldritch blast firing range. A creature entering within 5 feet of the eldritch snare takes damage as if the warlock succeeded on an eldritch blast, except the creature may make a Reflex saving throw for half damage. Spell resistance also applies to the damage dealt. Once a creature is affected by an eldritch snare, the effect vanishes. Essence invocations used with an eldritch snare add their effect as well. An eldritch snare may not be placed on a square occupied by a creature or object; else, the creature (or object) takes damage as if attacked by an eldritch blast. Placing an eldritch snare takes a full-round action.
ENFEEBLING BLAST Least; 2nd (Eldritch Essence)
This eldritch essence allows you to change your eldritch blast to an enfeebling blast. An enfeebling blast deals no damage, but imposes a Strength penalty of 1, plus 1 for every damage dice of your eldritch blast. If the creature is already under a Strength penalty, only the highest penalty applies. This invocation may not reduce a creature’s Strength penalty to less than one. Creatures immune to ability damage or ability drain are immune to the effects of this enfeebling blast.
FAERIE DUST Least; 2nd
You unleash a magical dust created from fine particles of energy that collectively shed light. The area affected and the effects of the invocation are similar to that of glitterdust, but the area affected gives light equivalent to that of a torch, and does not affect creatures sensitive to bright light. Undead and aberrations affected by this ability take a -2 penalty on their Will save against blindness. If a creature affected by this ability escapes from the area, it is treated as if having a torch (and thus, gives 20 feet of clear illumination and 40 feet of shadowy illumination) for the duration of the invocation.
This invocation counters and dispels any darkness spell of 2nd level or lower.
Special: Only warlocks who have made a pact with eladrin or fey may choose this ability.
FELLSHOCK BLAST Lesser; 3rd (Eldritch Essence)
This eldritch essence allows you to change your eldritch blast into a fellshock blast. A fellshock blast deals electricity damage. Any creature struck by a fellshock blast must succeed on a Fortitude save or become dazed for 1 round.
FORCE BLAST Lesser; 4th (Eldritch Essence)
This eldritch essence allows you to change your eldritch blast into a force blast. A force blast allows you to deal full damage to incorporeal creatures and also allows damaging a wall of force and similar effects.
FORTIFY FLESH Lesser; 3rd (Pact Boon)
Your skin thickens, granting you natural armor equal to 1 point per every three caster levels (thus, if you have caster level 6th, your natural armor bonus increases by 2). Treat this as an enhancement bonus to natural armor if you already have a natural armor. As well, if any attack causes you to bleed, your body prevents the wound from bleeding, thus ignoring any further damage.
Note: if using as an invocation, the effect lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable.
HAND OF THE ARCHMAGE Greater; 5th (Pact Boon)
You can invoke this ability to better understand the nuances of deceiving magic items into activation. You gain a +6 bonus on Use Magic Device checks. Furthermore, your caster level for invocations is treated as if it were the caster level of an arcane spellcaster of equal level, allowing you to use spells on scrolls, staffs and wands without the need to make Use Magic Device checks. Only spells of the sorcerer/wizard spell list may be used in this way; spells of other arcane spellcasters that don’t appear in this list are not affected by this ability (but may be activated with Use Magic Device, as usual).
Note: if using as an invocation, it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable.
KILLING JOKE Greater; 6th
You make a joke to a single enemy, guided by the essence of comedy itself to make it irresistible. Treat as if affected by the hideous laughter spell, except the laughter is so intense the creature cannot stop to take a breath and risks suffocation. The creature must make a Constitution check each round (starting at DC 10, plus 1 point for every round it spends laughing); a failed check causes the creature to remain unconscious. If the duration of the effect has not expired after becoming unconscious, the creature is reduced to -1 hit point and dying on the next round, and suffocates on the subsequent round. Creatures with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower, mindless creatures and creatures immune to mind-affecting effects are not affected by this ability, while creatures that do not need to breathe are immune to the suffocation effect.
Special: Only warlocks who have made a pact with eladrin or fey may choose this ability.
MIRAGE Greater; 6th (Pact Boon)
Your image distorts, appearing at a different location and moving out of sync with your own movement. You are under the effect of a displacement spell, gaining a 50% miss chance but not preventing enemies from targeting you normally. If on a desert or similar place that might create a mirage (see Sandstorm, page 19 for more information), the effect instead is treated as if under a mislead spell, except your created image mimics your acts perfectly and is never destroyed (but creatures that are flying or otherwise on a higher altitude still pinpoint your location).
Note: if using this as an invocation, it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable. A warlock that uses this ability on a desert may elect to duplicate the effect of a displacement spell or a mislead spell.
Special: Only warlocks who have made a pact with eladrin or fey may choose this ability.
OF TWO WORLDS Dark; 9th (Pact Boon)
You shift between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane effortlessly, able to shift from one plane to another with a mere thought. You gain the benefit of a greater blink spell (see Spell Compendium, page 32), but you may determine on which plane you will spend most of your time as a full-round action:
If on the Material Plane, you gain the normal benefit of a greater blink spell, and you remain on the plane when dismissing the effect.
If on the Ethereal Plane, you are treated as if under the effect of an ethereal jaunt spell, except you may affect creatures on the Material Plane with your attacks or invocations as usual. You can ready an action to avoid any physical or magical attack (as per greater blink), but otherwise you are affected by magic weapons and magic spells while you spend your time on the Material Plane. You never risk materializing into solid objects when you phase through them, nor any of the possessions you hold on your hand (though they materialize and shun into the closest open space available once they leave your hand).
Regardless of which plane you “inhabit” at the moment, you are always treated as if existing on both planes at the same time, and thus you are treated as a native to both the Material and the Ethereal Plane. Spells such as banishment and dismissal only work if you are not in the Material Plane or the Ethereal Plane, but you are shunted to the plane you have chosen to “inhabit” at the moment. This ability does not work in places that have no connection to the Ethereal Plane (see Manual of the Planes and Planar Handbook for more information); if using a plane shift or similar ability to a place without a connection to the Ethereal Plane, the benefit of this pact boon automatically ends.
Note: if using this as an invocation, the effect lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable. If you dismiss the effect while “inhabiting” the Ethereal Plane, you may be dismissed or banished back to the Material Plane (or the plane you are a native of); if you are not a native of the Material Plane, you are likewise dismissed if not under the benefit of this ability.
PETRIFYING BLAST Dark; 8th
This eldritch essence allows you to transform your eldritch blast into a petrifying blast. Any creature struck by a petrifying blast must succeed on a Fortitude save or be turned into a statue of stone, as per the flesh to stone spell (except it affects creatures not made of flesh). If a creature is made of stone or metal, the effect reverts and the creature is treated as if under the effect of a stone to flesh spell on a failed save. Creatures immune to petrifaction or polymorphing are also immune to the petrifying blast; in the case of creatures made of stone or metal, only immunity to polymorphing applies.
PROTECTIVE AURA Greater; 5th (Pact Boon)
You generate a powerful protective aura that protects against evil and nullifies lower level spells. Treat as if under the effect of a magic circle against evil spell and a lesser globe of invulnerability spell. All allies within 10 ft. of this effect are also protected by both abilities. Invocations and spell-like abilities of an effective level of 3rd and lower (including eldritch blast) are likewise resisted.
Note: if using this as an invocation, it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable.
Special: Only warlocks who have made a pact with eladrin may choose this ability.
PUPPETEER’S STRINGS Dark; 8th
You control the actions of a creature as if controlling them through invisible strings, allowing a deeper connection between both. To use this ability, you must succeed on a ranged touch attack; if successful, the enemy must make a Will saving throw or become dominated, as if under the effect of a dominate monster spell. A dominated monster perfectly understands your commands (as if under the effect of a comprehend languages spell); if the caster and the target speak a different language, the creature gains a +4 bonus on its Will save unless the caster somehow learns to speak the language (or is under the effect of a tongues spell). Unlike dominate monster, if you spend a full-round action and then concentrate every level afterwards, you gain full control of the creature as if you possessed it (gaining full control of its senses and actions). Likewise, as a full-round action you may use any of your invocations (including eldritch blast, but not spells or spell-like abilities) through the dominated monster, except for spells that have a personal range. The caster and the dominated monster are connected to each other, and both are treated as if under the effect of a shield other and a status spell, always knowing the condition of each other and splitting the damage equally.
Manipulating the target with this invocation is a double-edged sword. If the creature is slain and the warlock still has hit points (or if it was slain by means such as with a finger of death or slay living spell), the warlock must make a Will save equal to the damage dealt or the save DC of the effect (whichever is higher) or die from the mental aftershock as well. Any effects that strike the mind of the dominated monster also affect the mind of the caster. Finally, if the caster or the dominated monster gains the benefit of a protection from evil spell or similar spell, the effect breaks.
This invocation does not work on creatures with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower, mindless creatures, or creatures immune to mind-affecting spells and effects. Treat as an enchantment spell for purposes of spells and abilities that grant protection against these kinds of spells, but not for purposes of Spell Focus and similar abilities.
Special: Only warlocks whom have made a pact with aberrations or devils may use this ability.
RAINBOW SPHERE Dark; 7th
By channeling the power of the eladrin, you learn to transform your body into a shimmering globe of multicolored light. The light created by this form automatically blinds any creature of 8 HD or lower for 2d4 rounds each time it looks at you.
While in globe form, you gain a flight speed of 90 ft. with perfect maneuverability, but cannot attack, use spells, spell-like abilities or invocations (except for eldritch blast, blast shape and essence invocations); the inability to cast spells may be ignored if you are capable of casting spells or use spell-like abilities without verbal, somatic or material components. You lose any armor or natural armor bonus to AC while in globe form (as well as any item-based bonus to AC) but gain a deflection bonus to AC equal to your Charisma modifier. As well, you are treated as a creature one size smaller for purposes of size modifiers. You are treated as having no Strength score while in globe form (thus, you are immune to Strength damage, Strength drain or penalties to Strength).
The globe form is incorporeal, and may only be harmed by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons (and creatures whose attacks bypass damage reduction as if wielding magic weapons), spells, spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities. Even when hit by spells or magic weapon, you have a 50% chance of ignoring any damage from a corporeal source (except for specific spells and effects; see below).
If a creature manages to bypass your incorporealness and damages you, the multicolored light retorts back, generating one of seven effects. Treat this as if the creature had been struck by a prismatic spray effect; roll 1d8 on the prismatic spray table to determine the color which affects him. If the creature is immune to the damage or effect of the color, the creature is not affected. Spell resistance applies to this effect as usual, but caster level checks must be done each time the effect is invoked.
Unlike other invocations, a rainbow sphere works differently against dispel magic and similar spells. Dispel magic and greater dispel magic are ineffective in dispelling rainbow sphere, but mage’s disjunction does. The effect of the invocation is automatically canceled if touched by a rod of cancellation. To dispel a rainbow sphere, the caster must cast a string of spells in succession, much as if were trying to dispel a prismatic wall. Each spell deals maximum damage (if it causes damage) and nulls one of the colors of the globe (thus, if the d8 roll ends in such a color, the attacker is not affected by that color or other colors until the next successful attack). Once all seven colors have been dispelled, the effect ends. You may not enter an antimagic field while under the effect of rainbow sphere, but the effect is not canceled in the case that happens.
While in globe form, you counter or dispel all darkness spells of 7th level or lower that are in effect when you use the invocation. However, if a spell with the darkness descriptor that causes damage targets you, you take 1.5 times the amount of damage it would otherwise deal.
You remain in globe form for a number of rounds equal to half your caster level. Once you resume normal form, you take a -2 penalty to Constitution; this penalty does not stack with other Constitution penalties, but it stacks with itself. This penalty to Constitution lasts for 24 hours and may not be removed by any means. If all colors are dispelled from your globe form or your hit points reach -1, the effect ends and you still take the Constitution penalty.
Special: Only warlocks whom have made a pact with eladrin may use this ability.
RELIVE THE NIGHTMARE Lesser; 4th
When you use this invocation, you automatically detect the presence or absence of thoughts as per the detect thoughts spell. By retaining concentration, you may determine the amount of thinking minds and able to detect their surface thoughts, as per the spell. If you retain concentration for a 4th round and succeeded on detecting the surface thoughts of someone, you may send a figment related to the thoughts, usually gone wrong. If you successfully read the thoughts of a creature and decide to use this ability, the benefit of detect thoughts ends but you remain in mental contact with the afflicted creature. So as long as you remain in contact with the target creature, you form a phantasm of those thoughts gone wrong, which automatically causes the enemy to become shaken. Each round, the creature must succeed on a Will saving throw or become frightened (frightened creatures become panicked); if successful, the creature is not affected in that turn but may be affected in subsequent turns. Once the enemy is panicked, it may not make any more Will saving throws against the effect.
The effect remains for as long as you concentrate and one round later. If the creature is alerted to the nature of the phantasm, it is allowed a Will saving throw to disbelieve; if successful, the mental contact ends and you take 1d10 points of damage from the mental backlash. Creatures with true seeing are not affected by the phantasm, and creatures benefitting from protection from evil or a similar spell are not affected by both effects.
The phantasm portion of this invocation is a fear effect, and the invocation is a mind-affecting effect.
Special: Only warlocks whom have made a pact with aberrations, devils or fey may use this ability.
SCATHING INSULT Greater; 5th
With your unnatural guile and wit, you unleash a taunt which attacks the enemy’s psyche in a very physical and emotional way. The target must succeed on a Will saving throw or take 5d6 points of sonic damage (from the amplified voice) and become compelled to attack you at the best of its ability. The target may attack you with a melee attack, ranged attack, a spell that targets you or that has you in the area (if the spell is a burst or spread, it must target you) for a number of rounds equal to your caster level. A successful save reduces the damage dealt by half and negates the compulsion. A deaf target cannot be affected by the spell. This invocation is a compulsion, mind-affecting ability.
SHRIEKING BLAST Greater; 5th (Eldritch Essence)
This eldritch essence invocation transforms your eldritch blast into a shrieking blast. A shrieking blast deals sonic damage, but all damage die are reduced to 1d4 (from 1d6). Any creature struck by a shrieking blast must succeed on a Fortitude saving throw or become deafened for 1 round. If the creature is already deafened, the sonic damage is halved. A shrieking blast does not work on a zone of silence.
SPELL INVULNERABILITY Dark; 7th (Pact Boon)
The arcane energies suffusing your body make you resilient to the effect of spells and spell-like abilities. You gain the benefit of both a spell resistance spell cast by a cleric of your caster level and protection from spells (except the bonus to saving throws is untyped).
Special: If using this as an invocation, it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissible.
SUMMON SERVANT Lesser; 4th
As a full-round action, you summon a specific type of creature as determined by your pact. Treat this as if using summon monster I, except the duration is increased to 10 minutes per caster level and you can only summon a specific creature. The creature you may summon is based on your pact:
Aberration: animal with the pseudonatural template Demon: quasit Devil: imp Eladrin: coure eladrin (see Book of Exalted Deeds; if not available, use a pixie with the celestial template but without special arrows or irresistible dance) Fey: pixie (with irresistible dance spell-like ability) Yugoloth: skeroloth (see Fiend Folio; if not available, use a derro with the fiendish template but without poison and equipment, and gains a pair of claws that deal 1d3 points of damage)
Note: If using this invocation with the original incarnation of the warlock class, you may summon one servant of your choice when you choose this invocation, and you may choose this invocation only once. You may not choose a creature two steps away from your alignment.
TELEPATHY Lesser; 3rd (Pact Boon)
You gain the ability to establish mental contact with any other creature within 100 ft., as if you had the telepathy ability. You may communicate with any number of creatures within the area, but you must still speak their language; this invocation does not grant you the ability to understand or speak any language, but you may benefit from spells that do so.
Special: Only warlocks which have made a pact with aberrations, demons, devils or yugoloth may use this ability.
Note: If using this as an invocation, it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissible.
If you have the book Lords of Madness, this invocation allows you to qualify for the Mindsight feat.
UNNATURAL RESILIENCE Greater; 5th (Pact Boon)
When your hit points are below 50% of their maximum amount, you gain the benefit of this ability. For as long as your hit points are below 50%, you gain fast healing equal to 1 point plus 1 per every five caster levels (up to fast healing 5 at 20th level). Once you reach half of your maximum hit point amount, this ability deactivates. If you reach -10 hit points or lower, you still die.
Special: Only warlocks which have made a pact with aberrations, demons, devils or yugoloth may use this ability.
Note: Unlike other pact boons, this ability may not be turned into an invocation (it is the fiendish resilience ability transformed into a pact boon). If you are using a reimagining of the warlock without the fiendish resilience ability, you may select this ability as an invocation, in which case it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissible.
Spoiler
Well, those are a lot of invocations in there! Had quite a lot of fun working with them, thank you very much!
The first thing I wish to ask is the following: even if you don't intend to use the retooled warlock, do attempt to use the invocations. They add a bit more spice to the warlock, giving it loads of damage over time, infiltration abilities and various needed enchantments. Eldritch Blast also got real good, covering defense and various methods of offense (electricity! sonic! force! magic missiles!)
There are a few invocations I wish to talk about, though. For starters; Eldritch Shield is an inspiration from a fellow 'brewer here on the Playground, but I worked it a bit differently. Eldritch Aura is also based off the idea of making defenses based on Eldritch Blast. These are strikingly different applications of Eldritch Blast, and with the ability to stack up Eldritch Essences on them, definitely they get dangerous (I mean, countering with an Enfeebling Blast or draining off one negative level per round on various enemies with Enervating Blast). Those combinations may be quite deadly, so be careful working with them; however, recall that one such ability is taken quite late, and the other one requires bypassing spell resistance. Though, to be fair, Enfeebling Blast might be a tad strong.
Killing Joke, Scathing Insult, Puppeteer's Strings and Relive the Nightmare are meant to cover enchantments the warlock lacks, and to provide examples of excellent multi-task invocations. Scathing Insult and Relive the Nightmare definitely are exemplars of that, as you can ignore some of the effects (goading, instant death) but still get something worthwhile (sonic damage, Detect Thoughts), so you'll definitely be using it more than once, and for various uses as well.
As you can see, there is ONE invocation that's just too powerful to keep it at 8th level. Of Two Worlds, even if it's basically a pact boon (or a 24-hour invocation), is based on various spells that are quite powerful (Ethereal Jaunt, Astral Projection of sorts), so the effect is not something reasonable to explain as a 8th level power...and besides, you'd want a higher level invocation for its save DC, mostly, so making it the only 9th level power won't really affect it that much. It *does* say "8th level or higher", though.
You may think Protective Aura as a greater invocation is just too much compared to Spell Immunity, whose abilities aren't barely compare. You'd be mostly right except for a few things: Protective Aura is limited to Eladrin-pacted warlocks, and they are based on 3rd-5th level spells; the latter are based on much higher spells (Spell Resistance and Protection from Spells, the latter an 8th level spell slot). Thus, while the ability to protect yourself from enchantments, lower level spells and evil creatures simply doesn't compare to the actual spells.
You'll also notice that, with Force Blast, Shrieking Blast and Fellshock Blast, the warlock finally can essentially cover all areas. With Hammer Blast, your Eldritch Blast can pretty much cover for anything.
Of course, ideas and comments for new invocations are always welcome, as well as any stuff you might consider a tad too powerful and how to lower it down a notch. It's really hard to cover up for new invocations with what they can do already.
EXISTING INVOCATIONS AND THE RETOOLED WARLOCK
As mentioned before, some invocations have changed during the retooling. The following indicates all changes done to the invocations in Complete Arcane and other supplements:
Blast Shape: you may choose any invocation with the “Blast Shape” descriptor as one of your blast shape invocations or as one of your regular invocations. All invocations except Eldritch Chain, Eldritch Claws (Dragon magazine) and Eldritch Glaive (Dragon Magic) are affected by the split blast ability. In the case of Hideous Blow, you may make two or three melee attacks as a full-round action instead of two or three rays, but with the same restrictions.
Eldritch Essence: you may choose any invocation with the “Eldritch Essence” descriptor as one of your essence invocations or as one of your regular invocations.
Baneful Blast: When making an eldritch blast with this essence invocation, you gain a +2 on the ranged touch attack roll against the specified creature type.
Binding Blast: This ability is not a mind-affecting effect.
Frightful Blast: Ignore the third sentence in the description; a frightful blast worsens the fear condition of a character, but not a character affected by a frightful blast.
Hammer Blast: This eldritch essence ignores spell resistance (thus, it may be used against creatures such as golems)
Penetrating Blast: The bonus on caster level checks to bypass spell resistance is equal to half your own caster level (thus, if you have CL 10th, your caster level check to bypass spell resistance has a +15 bonus). The reduction on spell resistance is equal to 1 for every two caster levels (instead of 5, maximum of 15) for 1 minute.
Invocations and Pact Boons: As mentioned, any invocation that lasts for 24 hours, only affects the warlock and can only be removed by dispel magic or a similar ability is treated as a pact boon. The idea is that such an invocation is effectively used once per day, and only needs to be used once per day or when dispelled, in which the warlock needs only to reactivate the ability again. Thus, these abilities are turned into supernatural abilities and removed from the invocation list.
Class Abilities: The following abilities are removed from the warlock list of abilities: detect magic, fiendish resilience, imbue item. Fiendish resilience is turned into a pact boon, while detect magic is transformed into an actual invocation by using the magic insight invocation from Dragon Magic.
Restricted invocations: Some invocations are restricted to specific pacts. The following is a list of invocations restricted by pact, based on each book.
Complete Mage:
Aberration—crawling eye, disembodied hand, mask of flesh, otherworldly whispers
Demon—soulreaving aura
Devil—hellspawned grace, otherworldly whispers, soulreaving aura
Eladrin—call of the beast, witchwood stepPB
Fey—call of the beast, mask of flesh, witchwood stepPB
Yugoloth—soulreaving aura
Drow of the Underdark: the invocation showed here may be chosen by any warlock that has made a pact with the following patrons, by an evil-aligned drow (regardless of pact) or an evil aligned worshipper of Lolth (regardless of pact)
Aberration, Fey (evil only)—sudden swarm
Demon, Devil, Yugoloth—spidershape, sudden swarm
To finish this up, here are the slight alterations you need to make up for the rest of the material. The really important things to point out are the invocations that don't mingle with split blast (the ones that could already affect several creatures), including Eldritch Chain. Hammer Blast was turned into a construct killer, for the original really sucks (and Penetrating Blast was turned into a spell resistance buster that scales with level, to make it more useful. Finally, Binding Blast and Frightening Blast got a bit more love, because they weren't really that powerful with all those restrictions.
So, as usual: questions? Comments? The one time I finally failed, or a solid hit as usual? Remember, even if you don't intend to use the warlock (because you already consider it solid, or because it's a bit too confusing), at least try the invocations, which can deliver a good bit of stopping power to the old warlock.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
T.G. Oskar profile by Specter.
Last edited by T.G. Oskar : 11-14-2011 at 03:05 PM.
Reason: Adding two decent blast shapes, particularly a proper area effect shape.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
First, it would seem that you forgot to write up how pact resistance advances at 12th and 18th levels.
Also, it would seem to me that the aberration pact looks pretty inferior unless using Eberron. DR/Magic is insanely easy to overcome, the single resistance gained seems kind of fickle (though the fey resistance is worse), and the capstone of lesser fortification is kind of... meh.
__________________ Working on finals, to be immediately followed by a trip abroad this summer. Will be back to posting on June 12th. Apologies for inconveniences in the meantime.
I'm try not to be too vain but this was too perfect not to sig.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Primal Fury
okay RoC, that is enough! the gitp boards can only take so much awsome, you might actually hurt somebody with this one!
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Huh.. I was waiting on him to post the invocations and whatnot before I posted, but seeing as how other people are posting might as well. I agree that Fey and Abbrations getting only a single resistance is kinda off putting.. And I feel the Devils got the biggest rip off for a capstone, which is worse when compared to what everyone is getting..
And this is just nitpicking but your second paragraph on Eldritch Blast has typos that glare at Me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by T.G. Oskar
An eldritch blast is subject to spell resistance, although feats like Spell Penetration and effects that increase caster level for purposes of bypassing spell resistance apply to this ability. An eldritch blast deals half damage to objects and constructs. Metamagic feats may cannot improve a warlock’s eldritch blast, but feats that affect spell-like abilities (such as Empower Spell-Like Ability and Ability Focus) also affect this ability. Unlike other invocations, a warlock may use eldritch blast even if wearing armor heavier than medium or wielding a shield, but a warlock must always have a hand free to use this ability; thus, a warlock may not use eldritch blast if pinned, held or otherwise unable to use at least one hand, nor it may use an eldritch blast with a weapon in one hand and a shield on the other.
The first bold part just reads oddly and I believe the second one should read light, not medium, though I could be wrong.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Realms of Chaos
First, it would seem that you forgot to write up how pact resistance advances at 12th and 18th levels.
Yeah, even I found that odd. The idea was that the resistance grew to 10 at 12th level, and then to 20 at 18th level. I found that the document was missing a few things, though, so it may be a pasting problem.
Quote:
Also, it would seem to me that the aberration pact looks pretty inferior unless using Eberron. DR/Magic is insanely easy to overcome, the single resistance gained seems kind of fickle (though the fey resistance is worse), and the capstone of lesser fortification is kind of... meh.
The reason why Aberrations and Fey get a single resistance is because they get sonic, which basically counts by 2 (because it's the least resisted one).
In the case of Aberrations, they do get shafted, but the idea was that the capstone delivered stacking fortification. You can see (as someone else mentions) that Devils get it worse (magical darkness when you already get a pact boon that delivers that much earlier?). Ideally, if you got the right boon, those abilities would stack, so it was a prize for choosing the right one (such as blindsight for devils with the Devil's Sight boon, or increased spell resistances for Fey-pact warlocks with Spell Immunity as a boon. Also, it's really hard to figure out what to do with aberrations that is unique to them (most are lawful, but fey cover that); thus, they get magic as it's one of the only few that fit. I can't decide for automatically making them immune to all but byeshk weapons because otherwise they'd be a bit overpowered (effectively DR X/-). Unless I make them vulnerable to crysteel, but that's also Eberron; crystal weapons, though, might just work. That or silver, but silver makes little sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcarter11
Huh.. I was waiting on him to post the invocations and whatnot before I posted, but seeing as how other people are posting might as well. I agree that Fey and Abbrations getting only a single resistance is kinda off putting.. And I feel the Devils got the biggest rip off for a capstone, which is worse when compared to what everyone is getting..
As I mentioned above, the idea is that they get a stacking benefit (essentially a free boon, but if they GET the boon, they get something much better). I was just conservative on that one. I do find they are pretty weak benefits, aside from Yugoloth-pact warlocks that get that sexy telepathy ability.
Quote:
And this is just nitpicking but your second paragraph on Eldritch Blast has typos that glare at Me.
The first bold part just reads oddly and I believe the second one should read light, not medium, though I could be wrong.
I blame that on copy-pasta issues. Oddly enough, the document is exactly like that, which must have really eluded my eye. I'll see when I can change it.
By the way, any question related to something on the books will have to wait for a while. You can post such questions or comments, but the answer might be late (away from most of my books right now).
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Interesting take, didn't notice anything that's really problematic so far. Hideous Blow is ... interesting with the split blast, particularly since it gives an viable melee option for Warlocks who happen to have good strength scores.
I'm not sure I like how the split blast mechanic is totally unrelated to BAB, though. For a Warlock it's not much of a problem since it corresponds to the BAB of the class and it prevents weird cheese, of course, but it doesn't seem very ... elegant. It also makes it less compatible with other homebrew stuff (say, TheDementedOne's Epic Hero prestige class), or Gestalt, than the regular Warlock is, since they won't benefit much from a higher BAB. Perhaps make it work off of BAB, similar to a Flurry, and give the option to split it a fourth time if the BAB reaches 16+?
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by VonDoom
I'm not sure I like how the split blast mechanic is totally unrelated to BAB, though. For a Warlock it's not much of a problem since it corresponds to the BAB of the class and it prevents weird cheese, of course, but it doesn't seem very ... elegant. It also makes it less compatible with other homebrew stuff (say, TheDementedOne's Epic Hero prestige class), or Gestalt, than the regular Warlock is, since they won't benefit much from a higher BAB. Perhaps make it work off of BAB, similar to a Flurry, and give the option to split it a fourth time if the BAB reaches 16+?
Thing is, if I were to make it based off BAB, it would make the Warlock insanely strong, especially if you add even more dice to the damage. Dexterity is as important, if not more, that Charisma, so there's a good chance they get a decent attack bonus, which combined with the attacks being ranged touch AND that they get good options to deny their enemies' Dex bonus to AC, you can easily outmatch the Rogue in raw damage alone, considering they essentially deal the same amount of damage as the Rogue's sneak attack, but with much more deviation. They get UMD, as well: even for one round, up to four ranged touch attacks dealing up to 10d6 damage, of nearly all elements, or with status effects, in an area...definitely not something elegant, but far too dangerous and too simple.
Basing the extra blasts on something else other than BAB restricts it a bit, so it IS elegant in that regard. As you can see, it follows a rare but reasonable mathematical pattern: the first split blast would be at 9th level, the second would be at 16th. If I were to add a third, it would be at 25th level and thence at epic levels because the progression goes "three squared", "four squared" and then "five squared". What basing blasts on BAB does is make it simple; you get a sure increase in blasts, but stuff that increases BAB will also increase it, and having four blasts at BAB 16 (which can be done temporarily through scrolls) can be frighteningly scary, even with reductions on the blast damage and the penalties on the shots.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Morph Bark
For Summon Servant, might be a good idea to specify WHICH pseudonatural template, as there are two.
Even if it's much weaker, I'd say the latest version (Complete Arcane/Lords of Madness). After all, I didn't exactly specify which animal.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Pact boons are a little underwhelming considering the rest of the class features, I don't suppose we'll see more in the future; perhaps similar to the binder's vestiges? Invocations seem appropriate for its tier, with the exception of the possibility of abusing Summon Servant, particularly the Exalted eladrin version, perhaps a lesser celestial would be more appropriate?
Nevermind I found some of the pact boons within #2; Also reviewed your amendments to Summon Servant, both seem mechanically sound.
Not including BaB to spellblasts might be counterintunitive to players, including, but not limited too, myself. Is there another scale, aside from the one already established, to base or build upon? In addition, could we have more Blast shapes?
I don't suppose there isn't a means to spontaneously devise invocations, like truename pronunciations? On an unrelated note do you plan to revise Truenaming as well?
Last edited by ocel : 08-27-2011 at 12:37 PM.
Reason: Finished Editing, please respond.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocel
Not including BaB to spellblasts might be counterintunitive to players, including, but not limited too, myself. Is there another scale, aside from the one already established, to base or build upon?
Thing is, there are two ways to base it that seem intuitive to players: either BAB, or caster level. Both progress at a steady rate and are affected by multiclassing. Basing it through BAB brings the problem of temporary increases to BAB affecting the shots (namely Divine Power, which they can replicate), with a warlock having 4 shots at 16th level. CL is even worse, since temporary increases to CL are actually a bit more abundant (Practiced Spellcaster alone allows you to get 4 shots if you keep Warlock CL at 16th).
Still, with what the Warlock offers as a class, you'd be tempted to PrC after 10th level because that's the last moment you get something new out of the Warlock; the rest can be reclaimed somewhat through the dual-class PrCs that apply to Warlocks (Eldritch Disciple and Eldritch Theurge) or bypassed altogether (since the energy resistance and DR are essentially minor boons). You already get the important parts (pact boons, invocations) by leveling, so you need a hook to keep them. That's why Split Blast is a class feature rather than something you can increase based on BAB or CL, as it keeps you hooked until 16th level where you get your second blast, and it keeps you at three blasts. Staying until 9th level doesn't really affect you that much, unless you intend to use one of the dual-class PrCs.
The only way I might consider such an increase would be if there's something to sacrifice, but the only thing that sounds reasonable would be to keep pact boons as a warlock class feature that does not progress. That would drop you out of some of the best boons, but there would be no reason to PrC since what you lose doesn't compare to what you gain, unlike with the original Warlock. It would be much harder, or rather less elegant, to provide the exceptions to the classes that get pact boons, as it would imply retooling those classes.
Quote:
In addition, could we have more Blast shapes?
Hard, but doable. Right now, a warlock could make its eldritch blast into a ray (vanilla EB), a series of melee attacks (Hideous Blow), a long range blast (Eldritch Spear), a blast that splits into lesser ones (Eldritch Chain), a cone (Eldritch Cone), a spread emanating from yourself (Eldritch Doom), a line (Eldritch Line from Dragon Magic), a reach weapon (Eldritch Glaive from Dragon Magic), natural weapons (Eldritch Claw from Dragon magazine), magic missiles (Eldritch Missiles), a immediate action counter (Eldritch Shield) and an emanation (Eldritch Aura). Little is missing, aside from a way to charge your Eldritch Blasts into ranged weapons (kind of an oxymoron but it allows increased damage) and probably a honest burst (sorta like Fireball), which could be dealt with, but I can't see what else to turn the blast into. Remember that there are a few shapes that are off-limits (such as making it a fog, as the main trait of a fog isn't the shape but the concealment, and the Warlock already has fog-based invocations), and some that might be a tad hard to play with (a cylinder-shaped burst, for example).
Quote:
I don't suppose there isn't a means to spontaneously devise invocations, like truename pronunciations? On an unrelated note do you plan to revise Truenaming as well?
That would be very difficult. Invocations, by nature, are essentially spells that are altered to work through a different lens, which make them extremely efficient but particularly tainted, and many such spells are off-limits. For example, only a few actual invocations (not eldritch essence or blast shape invocations) are offensive in nature, and most deal damage over time (DoT; think Caustic Mire, Chilling Tentacles or Hungry Darkness). Eldritch Essences and Blast Shapes are the closest thing to altering invocations, but invocations are pre-made alterations to the eldritch energy the warlock can manipulate.
As for dealing with utterances? Not sure, but the Truenamer needs some love. There's enough love already (Kellus', for example). I did something with Truenaming, though, in a homebrewing competition (IIRC the last homebrewed Prestige Class competition in this same forum that dealt with dual-class PrCs; check "Maestro of the World-Song" for more details), which deal with some of the ways I tried to deal with utterances. That would be a mighty fine work, though, and there's one PrC I really want to tackle using truenaming (Seeker of the Song, which has a very strong feel of "make your own music").
Quote:
Originally Posted by Morph Bark
Originally my post also asked for that. Epic Pseudonatural Battletitan at level 1 anyone?
But since you specified summon monster I, I figured only animals from that list.
I'd actually go with animals from the SM I, II and III lists. Most of the Summon Monster spells actually refer to the first, so an ability that refers to that has to make reference to the original, because otherwise you could summon 1d4 servants with the pseudonatural template, which would make it a bit too badass.
Also, Summon Servant is a lesser invocation, not a least invocation. So you would have had your Epic Pseudonatural Battletitan 6 levels later. That would have been hilarious, and one of the few reasons you'd take the Aberration Pact anyways (in fact, that would have made the Aberration pact far too powerful, as they're the only ones that can use the Chilling Tentacles power at will plus they get telepathy (and Mindsight) for free at 20th level.
--
Speaking of tweaks, I decided to double up the DR of the Aberration pact resilience, but only when dealing with DR X/- magic. It still has the same issues, but I really can't figure a good way to deal with their DR. Only two aberrations (that I recall; might be three) on the Monster Manual have DR, and one has DR/bludgeoning while the other has DR/magic. The one constant DR that aberrations get is byeshk, but I can't enforce byeshk if the material isn't present in the tables, so I need something to compensate, and the default is usually magic. I wouldn't have wanted to use DR X/magic because dragons already get DR X/magic (and thus, so do dragonfire adepts), but the only others are silver (which is mostly limited to lycanthropes, vampires and devils), slashing (mostly plant-based), bludgeoning (which, as mentioned, only one aberration has and that is the gibbering mouther which is actually closer to an ooze; otherwise, it's mostly the DR for oozes and bone-based creatures) and piercing (which fits with most creatures with very thick natural armor with chinks). The one true fit is really byeshk, so the best thing I can do is to provide them with double-strength magic, with the option for byeshk where available.
Also, didn't notice Eldritch Cone was repeated. Lowering Eldritch Cone to a lesser invocation and raising Eldritch Chain to a greater invocation (because there are more cones than chained spells), by the way.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Nicely done, Oskar. My only question is what the hell happened to Dark Foresight? I don't see any notes on it in either Boons or normal Invocations or changes, so I'm thinking it just got forgot but still...
Also, you bring up Eldritch Claws but Eldritch Grapple is another Shape, sort of. Also, with the current fix, Hideous Blow is like a maneuver now, since it's a standard action to get off. I'm actually okay with that with Split Blast. Just neat, I guess. Claws is still better for a Melee Warlock, though spending a feat on it should be worthwhile.
__________________
Rule of Cool Contributor and Goon
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcarter11
Wait.. Where are the claws?
There's a couple Warlock feats in Dragon 358, Eldritch Claws among them. They let you make a pair of claws that each deal Eldritch Blast damage. They're neat. :3
__________________
Rule of Cool Contributor and Goon
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcarter11
I knew about DragMag claws, but I thought that TG was saying he built the same feature in.
He mentioned it in respect to Split Blast only, since trying to give multiple claws just seems unmanagable. He also referenced back to the Dragon its from, so I don't think he recreated his own version here.
__________________
Rule of Cool Contributor and Goon
Re: [3.5] The Covenanter (plus more stuff for the Retooled Warlock)
Seems that I forgot a bit about this retooling, so let's rectify that, shall we?
For starters, stuff that I might have forgotten to work with:
@Cie: Dark Foresight is on the Dark Invocation list, but it's renamed "Prophetic Foresight". It's mostly the same thing with the Fell Flight/Sustained Flight switch.
Regarding Eldritch Claws: I thought it was an invocation and not a feat, but even as a feat, its interaction with Split Blast is mostly the same as with Eldritch Glaive (you don't use Split Blast with it, as it has its own method of multiple hits).
Having said that: the following PrC was one I intended to place on its own, but after some consideration (and noticing how threads with multiple content seem to usually attract more people), I decided for the opposite. The biggest reason is because the PrC exists to modify both the original AND the retooled Warlock in exclusion of any other invocation-using class. Unlike the Dragonfire Disciple and Dragonfire Theurge, which are mostly made for both Warlocks and Dragonfire Adepts, this one is made exclusively for Warlocks. You could say that it's to Warlocks what...the Blighter is for Druids. Except it's the opposite way.
Remember the Enlightened Spirit? Nice idea, badly executed: the fluff was rather poor (you found religion and you want to be the nice guy now, but you're the moody and brooding kind of nice guy) and the powers are...lacking, so to speak. Furthermore, it essentially ignored the fluff about Eladrin, whom are celestials willing to grant power to creatures outside their alignment in a bid to beat the forces of darkness. To work things out based on the retooled Warlock, whereas most creatures make pacts with mortals to grant them power for a favor in an undisclosed future, the agents of Good work with covenants; a mutual accord in which the mortal gives something in order to gain something, but also forms an alliance with said creature (unlike pacts, which are a bit more impersonal in that regard). In those two sentences there is more fluff than what you gained with the Enlightened Spirit; the trick is to give it good mechanics that work in tandem with the fluff.
Here, I expect, is the result.
COVENANTER "There is no safe power without unsafe consequences. There is more than one way to power, but only a few have true meaning. My power serves to protect those that choose power with lack of regard for consequences, and those beings that give it indiscriminately. And while my heart and soul remains firm in that duty, no other power will vanquish mine." - Lucien van der Bain, former cultist of Mephistopheles and follower of the Sentinel Covenant
Requirements
To qualify to become a covenanter, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. Alignment: any good Skills: Knowledge (the planes) 8 ranks Invocations: Able to use at least 4 invocations, including eldritch blast
Spoiler
Probably one of the simplest forms of entry into a class. A warlock should enter easily right from 6th level, where you're already supposed to get all 8 ranks of Knowledge (the planes), plus the required invocations.
The very specific requirement of Eldritch Blast was done so that non-Warlock characters couldn't enter UNLESS they took a level in Warlock, in any case. So that means no Dragonfire Adepts nor homebrewed infusion classes. This is a class meant to modify the Warlock, not other classes.
So why "Covenanter"? As I mentioned, a covenant is essentially a pact between two people, but while on a pact there is only an illusion of equal deal between both parts, in a covenant both people treat each other as equals. Thus, you'll know that you form something more than just a contract for power; you form an alliance, and you get a dependable ally. Of course, how that ally helps you depends on the DM, but you get the powers to work around, and also the plot hooks. Because, you know, a covenant requires both sides to reciprocate each other's favors...
Class Skills
The covenanter’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha) Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Spoiler
The class skills and skill point requirements are no different from the Warlock (the retooled one, that is). This is really more of an extension to the warlock, but it exists on its own right; you don't form the covenant right at the beginning, but "find the light" and seek to make a covenant to escape the fiendish pact.
Hit Die: d6
Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special
Invocations
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
Covenant, aura of the covenant, celestial invocations
+1 of existing invocation-using class
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Covenant resistance
+1 of existing invocation-using class
3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3
Eldritch smite
+1 of existing invocation-using class
4th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Covenant resilience, gift of tongues
+1 of existing invocation-using class
5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Patron's gift
+1 of existing invocation-using class
6th
+4
+2
+2
+5
Ward of the covenant
+1 of existing invocation-using class
7th
+5
+2
+2
+5
+1 of existing invocation-using class
8th
+6
+2
+2
+6
Share invocations
+1 of existing invocation-using class
9th
+6
+3
+3
+6
Ward of the covenant
+1 of existing invocation-using class
10th
+7
+3
+3
+7
Fulfillment of the covenant
+1 of existing invocation-using class
Spoiler
Yes, I am well aware that 7th level needs something, but due to how both the original AND the retooled Warlocks work, I need something that could apply easily to both.
Aside from that, you're pretty much delaying a bit your BAB, get less Fort and Ref but more Will saves. In exchange, you get some VERY nice stuff (I promise, Ward of the Covenant is really gonna surprise you).
Class Features
All of the following are features of the covenanter prestige class. Invocations: When a new covenanter level is gained, the character gains new invocations per day as if he had also gained a level in any one invocation-using class he belonged to previously (this includes eldritch blast). He does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of covenanter to the level of whatever other invocation-using class the character has, then determines new invocations, degree of invocations it can learn and caster level accordingly. If a character had more than one invocation-using class before he became a covenanter, he must decide to which class he adds each level of covenanter for the purpose of determining new invocations.
Spoiler
In case you're using the Retooled Warlock, that means you get invocations as indicated, and since by that moment you're supposed to take pact boons as well, you keep progressing them. Otherwise, you gain invocations as usual.
This involves a net gain, somehow, for the retooled Warlock because they get Fiendish Resilience as a pact boon (if you choose the right pact, tho), and thus can advance it. CArc Warlocks don't get that boon, though they progress pretty much everything else.
Covenant (Su): A covenanter foreswears his use of ill-gained arcane power, but the power deep inside of him cannot be fully denied. By establishing a covenant with the powers of Good, a covenanter seeks to purify the fiendish power he commands into the service of the forces of the Upper Planes. The servants and creatures of pure good welcome such determination to cleanse themselves, and imbue the covenanter with a great deal of their own power. In many ways, a covenant is much like the pact he or his forefathers established, but one that works at the service of others.
At 1st level, a covenanter may choose to establish a covenant with one of the four groups of good creatures: archons, angels, eladrin or guardinals. Each group offers a minor benefit which reflects their common traits:
Angel: a character that makes a covenant with angels tends to have a beautiful sheen on their skin, which at a glance adopts a different color. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Diplomacy checks and a +2 sacred bonus against the spells, spell-like abilities and other abilities of evil creatures.
Archon: a character that makes a covenant with archons develops an almost metallic gleam in their skin and a gaze that’s serene and fierce at the same time. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Intimidate checks; if attempting to demoralize an evil creature, the effect lasts for 1 more round.
Eladrin: a character that makes a covenant with eladrin is surrounded with a gleam of multiple colors, as if a rainbow was posing upon his persona. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Bluff and Gather Information checks; if trying to feint an evil creature, all allies treat the target as if denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class for their next attack (instead of only the covenanter).
Guardinal: a character that makes a covenant with guardinals develop subtle animal traits, but these animalistic traits are regal-looking; for example, a thick coat of bodily hair that looks clean and neat, or cat-like eyes of a beautiful color. A covenanter gains wild empathy (as the druid, except the bonus is equal to twice the covenanter's class level, and only applicable to animals); if the covenanter succeeds in taking the target animal to helpful, he is treated as if having the empathic link ability with the animal for one minute per class level of the covenanter.
Spoiler
You'll notice the abilities granted to the Covenanter are minor. These bonuses are thought for the original (the CArc) Warlock in mind, so they aren't as "strong" as your pacts.
However, if you're playing with the retooled Warlock, you gain a different set of abilities. Make sure you notice them below.
UPDATE: The Covenanter now gets a slightly boosted version of Wild Empathy, and empathic link if successful. This might make the Guardinal a bit more useful.
Aura of the Covenanter (Su): A covenanter’s deal with creatures of pure good reflects on magical sensors, much like a cleric’s faith or a paladin’s goodness does. Treat the covenanter as a cleric of an alignment equal whenever he is detected by spells such as detect good.
As well, creatures of good tend to become friendlier towards the covenanter. A covenanter gains a +2 bonus on all Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks when dealing with good outsiders; this bonus doubles if the outsider is of the same group with which he established the covenant with.
Spoiler
So yeah; basically you get Aura of Good plus a minor social buff with celestial creatures. The minor buff can be a big deal, since Warlocks tend to be party faces, and having good outsiders favoring you can be a really big deal. They tend to be some of the strongest monsters in the book most of the time (particularly Solars).
Celestial Invocations (Sp): A covenanter retains his progression of most invocations he learned while as a warlock, but some powers are too fell to develop. To counteract the loss of knowledge of various invocations, the covenanter gains a set of invocations unique and exclusive to him (and people like him), some related to the concept of good altogether and others unique to each specific group. See the section Covenanter and Celestial Invocations, below, for more details.
Spoiler
The celestial invocations presented below refer to various abilities you'd expect on celestial creatures. A great deal refer spells from the Book of Exalted Deeds, but are mostly paraphrased in case you need to use them and you lack the book.
Covenant Resistance (Su): At 2nd level, a covenanter is protected from specific types of magic, evoking the same type of resilience most celestials have. The covenanter gains resistance 10 to electricity and either acid or cold, chosen by him. If the covenanter already had energy resistance from warlock levels, the covenanter may decide to retain the chosen energy types to resist, and levels in this class stack with warlock levels to determine the energy resistance if he so chooses.
Spoiler
The original Warlock (to which this PrC should be compatible with) had energy resistance at a very late level (10th level), so in the rare case you entered as a 10th level warlock, you gained a delayed upgrade or replace that resistance with a different one. The retooled Warlock gets it earlier, but since pretty much ALL celestials gain resistance to electricity, acid and cold, they aren't subdivided as would happen with the other pacts.
Eldritch Smite (Sp): At 3rd level, a covenanter’s eldritch blast becomes better suited to facing evil creatures. If using an eldritch blast as a standard action against an evil creature, the covenanter adds his Charisma modifier to the attack roll and deals an extra amount of damage equal to twice his class level (this is in addition to the damage dealt by the eldritch blast itself). The extra damage is from a divine source, and thus may not be resisted (even if the covenanter uses an eldritch essence invocation to change the damage type of the eldritch blast).
Spoiler
This ability is perhaps a bit TOO strong. Unlike a paladin's smite ability, the Eldritch Smite has distance, superior damage potential AND rider effects, and can be used at-will every time you fire up an Eldritch Blast. Adding your Charisma to your Dexterity makes the Eldritch Blast hit with little problems. Making it limited doesn't really work as an option, and the only way it could work would be if you made it an eldritch essence invocation, but it would be an invocation most people would love to take. It IS, after all, a souped-up version of the special eldritch essence invocations Spirit Blast and Holy Blast (which exist in the renewed version as invocations on their own right). You're welcome to indicate if it should be nerfed a bit or remain as-is.
One point to consider is whether it applies to Split Blast. In this case, I must be afraid to say "no". You either use your Eldritch Blast as a standard action AND use Eldritch Smite, or use Split Blast and don't use Eldritch Smite (because Eldritch Smite requires a full-round action, after all).
Covenant Resilience (Su): At 4th level, a covenanter’s body starts to resemble that of the creatures with which he has made a covenant ever closer. The covenanter’s damage reduction increases as if his warlock levels were equal to the sum of his warlock and covenanter levels, but this reduction is instead bypassed by magic weapons of evil alignment (thus, a 5th level warlock/4th level covenanter has damage reduction 2/evil and magic).
Spoiler
Your basic damage reduction, but this time the reduction is a bit more specific (magic weapons of evil alignment, so while most demons and devils might happen to bypass it, not all evil creatures will). Both the original warlock and the retooled Warlock have increasing damage reduction, so it makes sense that it upgrades as well. This, oddly enough, was something the original Enlightened Soul didn't provide (unlike the energy resistance, which was far too limited to be of any use).
Gift of Tongues (Su): At 4th level, a covenanter gains the gift of speaking all languages all celestials have. He is treated as if under the effect of a tongues spell cast by a cleric of his character level.
Spoiler
On the other hand, this is an ability provided by the original Enlightened Soul, and actually on the right (sort of) level. This is phenomenal for face Warlocks, as they have their job made far, far easier (when you speak and understand all languages, Diplomacy flows freely).
Patron’s Gift (Su): At 5th level, a covenanter gains a unique ability based on a characteristic ability of the creatures with which he has enabled a covenant:
Angel: The covenanter may use scrolls, staffs and wands with divine spells as if he was a cleric of a caster level equal to half the sum of his warlock and covenanter levels (as if he had the Magic domain power, except only for divine spells).
Archon: The covenanter gains an aura of menace: any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of him must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. The save DC of this ability is equal to 10 + the covenanter’s class level + the covenanter’s Charisma modifier. Those who fail take a -2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the covenanter that generated the aura. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by the same archon’s aura for 24 hours.
Eladrin: The covenanter may use scrolls, staffs and wands with arcane spells as if he was a bard of a caster level equal to half the sum of his warlock and covenanter levels (as if he had the Magic domain power, except only for divine spells). As well, he adds his covenanter levels to levels in any class that grants bardic music (if he has such ability) to determine the access to bardic music songs; if the covenanter has no bardic music ability (or has an ability that may be part of bardic music but does not explicitly says it is bardic music), this secondary benefit has no effect.
Guardinal: The covenanter gains lay on hands, as a paladin of the same level as the sum of his warlock and covenanter levels.
Spoiler
Pretty nice gifts, no?
As you might recall, the original Enlightened Soul granted an Aura of Menace that applied to every ex-Warlock that entered. This aura didn't really fit some of the celestials, which had the ability to assume other forms or traits that differed. Particularly guardinals, which had the ability to use lay on hands, a rather odd trait which relied on their Wisdom; in this case, they keep using Charisma for it because that's their highest bonus.
Angels and Eladrin gain phenomenal benefits, on the other hand, with the ability to use magic items as if they were partly clerics or partly bards. While in the case of Eladrin covenants the spells don't amount to a lot (at 20th level you get to cast 4th level Bard spells), in the case of the cleric it amounts to quite a bit (5th level Cleric spells, and the progression is faster), so you can provide some serious buffing with a wand or scroll. This works masterfully if you use the original Warlock, since you could sacrifice the last two levels of Covenanter and keep the Imbue Item ability, which allows you to create magic items that you can easily use later, so it's like if you were a mini-Artificer! Eladrin Covenanters do get a saving grace if they're part-bards, as they advance their bardic music based on their bard and Covenanter levels (thus making a rare Bard/Warlock/Covenanter/Eldritch Theurge character).
Ward of the Covenant (Su): At 6th level, a covenanter shrugs off attacks that would harm his body with unusual ease. He gains a deflection bonus to AC equal to his Charisma modifier; this bonus applies to all attacks, not just those from evil creatures.
Spoiler
Keep those torches and pitchforks away from me!
As you may know, most of the celestial creatures (and some of the fiendish ones) add their Charisma as a deflection bonus to AC, so this is basically the same ability. Considering that warlocks are sure to have lots of Charisma, that means they get 5-7 points of the best form of AC around, which bypasses even touch attacks! Of course, it won't allow you to stack it with other stuff, but when you suddenly have your Ring of Protection grant less AC than your Charisma, things might get hectic. So that means you add your Charisma to AC, attack rolls with your Eldritch Blast, and fuels your infusions. This sounds quite suspicious to SADness...could it be drawing close to tier 2 as we speak? Certainly, it will reach a very high Tier 3 if we think about it. All you'd be missing is Divine Grace as a...oh, wait, a Paladin dip. Unless its a Project Heretica Divine Champion, of course, but then you can dip on Divine Mind and get the same benefit.
Share Invocations (Su): At 8th level, a covenanter learns the ability to share most invocations with willing allies. If an invocation has a range of personal, the covenanter may decide to provide the benefit to an ally he can touch instead of himself. To use this ability, the covenanter must not be taking benefit from the invocation at the moment; if the covenanter decides to share his invocation with an ally, he may not use this invocation until he dismisses the effect. The ally gains the benefit of this invocation for the allotted time, as if the warlock himself was using it.
Spoiler
THIS! Now THIS is a real ability.
One of the things that really irked me about Warlocks was the awesome stuff they got...for themselves only. That is what, in first instance, made me turn many warlock invocations into pact boons; if Fell Flight or Dark Discorporation were to be a party buff, then it would have had a huge lot of use.
This makes the original Warlock a sort of bizarre buff provider. You can't have the same buff at the same time, but that could allow you to, say, have everyone cross a chasm one by one, with you going last. However, it suddenly makes all of those abilities that are effectively used once per day (unless they're dispelled) actually worthwhile invocations once again (since you'll be using them more than once). This is, IMO, the true power of the Covenanter; growing from selfishness to become selfless (up to a point). And since many of the Warlock's invocations are particularly effective, that means you get one serious heck of a list of buffs you can share with your allies. The bard is a better face than you? Put Beguiling Influence on him, no questions asked. Or, you can just use Beguiling Influence on yourself, and if the Bluff (or Diplomacy) fails, you can then shift it to the Bard whom might be capable of getting a better chance.
However, this DOES mean this ability will change if you're using a Retooled Warlock. See below.
Word of the Covenant (Sp): At 9th level, a covenanter gains a very powerful tool against the forces of evil, by learning a phrase of the Words of Creation (see Book of Exalted Deeds, pages 31, 32 and 48). When using this ability (which is treated as an invocation), the covenanter duplicates the effect of a holy word spell as if used by a cleric of the covenanter’s caster level, with a few exceptions. After using this ability, the covenanter takes 7d4 points of non-lethal damage each time it uses this ability; if he decides to increase the amount of damage he takes, he is treated as if his caster level was one higher for each 1d4 points of non-lethal damage he decides to take.
Spoiler
Yep. As you heard.
Holy. Word. And you can increase its caster level by taking non-lethal damage.
Have I gone TOO far with this one? Considering that the warlocks get a d6 hit dice and probably have Constitution a bit low, that means you should be careful with your Holy Words, but if you manage to survive that, you can kill most enemies with no less and no more than an utterance; exactly at the same moment the Cleric gets to cast the spell (at 13th level at the very least). Taking 17d4 points of non-lethal damage to kill most evil creatures does seem a bit reasonable (at early levels it can take you unconscious in a heartbeat, whereas at 17th level and higher you may be capable of surviving average damage from it. As with Eldritch Smite, the fact that you have at-will invocations kinda makes restricted uses of abilities a bad imposition.
Then again, considering one of the Celestial Dark-equivalent invocations you get...
Fulfillment of the Covenant (Su): At 10th level, the covenanter is a creature reborn. All taint of evil is dispelled, and his innate arcane potential brims with the power of good. As the creatures of pure good uphold their covenant, so must the covenanter; as a proof that the forces of good will uphold it, they physically transform him into a creature similar in scope to themselves. The covenanter’s type changes to outsider with the good subtype; if the covenanter made a covenant with archons or eladrin, he also gains either the lawful or chaotic subtype, respectively. As well, he gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against poisons, darkvision up to 60 feet, and immunity to disease and petrifaction.
Spoiler
For one thing, this isn't your usual "change into something else" capstone, but one that's acquired early on. Certainly by 13th level diseases are a thing of the past, but having immunity to petrifaction right at the level it starts to become annoying can be a powerful boon. It is, certainly, one strong capstone, which becomes stronger considering that you can qualify for it before 20th level at the very best.
One thing I wanted to add, though, was the odd build that takes 10 levels of Covenanter and a few levels in Eldritch Theurge or Eldritch Disciple in order to take spellcasting. Some spells in the Book of Exalted Deeds have subtype descriptors, such as "Archon" or "Guardinal". As an added bonus, since you're turned into a reasonable facsimile of a celestial being, you should be capable of using these subtype-restricted spells if you manage to cast spells through these means. While that might be a slight problem with the very low level of spells you'd have access to, it certainly shouldn't be a problem for those odd Epic-level characters.
Multiclass Note: A covenanter that takes at least one level in the class may take further warlock levels if he so desires, even if he is no longer chaotic or evil. However, he may not choose most invocations and gains access to invocations unique to the covenants (see Covenanters and Celestial Invocations, below).
Spoiler
Oh yeah, this is important. Since the change from "any non-lawful OR any evil" to "any good" means you open Lawful Good and Neutral Good, if you wish to finish your levels in warlock you're open to do so. This is, after all, a modification for the Warlock, so if you wish to take those levels, go ahead and do so. You'll be affected by your choices; once you enter a Covenant, it'll be a hard road to become evil once again (especially knowing that you broke a pact TWICE, and you have people from both sides looking for your head), so make sure you make the right decision.
EX-COVENANTERS
A covenant that willingly commits an evil act may not progress further in this prestige class unless it gains the benefit of an atonement spell. An ex-covenanter loses access to any celestial invocations it gained and abilities related to the covenant (except covenant resilience damage reduction which reverts to cold iron and covenant resistance). An ex-covenanter may choose invocations from the warlock class and gain further levels in warlock, if he so desires (unless his alignment expressly forbids gaining any more warlock levels).
Spoiler
While some people might hate this kind of addendum, there IS something important to point out. You're not making a pact that people are expected to break, or a very lax pact; you're breaking a covenant, which is an order of magnitude higher. I don't want to enter into religion to see why breaking a covenant is a bad idea, but you might get the point. You're an agent of good, and you're a character that has abandoned its wicked ways for a chance to repent; that thing is not taken lightly.
That said, the restrictions are quite lax compared to, say, the Paladin's code of conduct. Talk to your DM in case he likes the sadistic option; the restriction is there for a reason, and if you choose to play the good Warlock you'll be attempting to do good. At least you're not forced to remain only lawful or only chaotic; you do understand that sometimes you might need to bluff your way to save the lives of others, and that's not the thing intended to be punished.
COVENANTERS AND CELESTIAL INVOCATIONS
Although some chaotic good warlocks exist and eladrin offer such powers to them, the typical warlock is possessed with powers that may be at times fiendish and at times simply unnerving. Most warlocks come from fiendish pacts, or descend from families whom had established fiendish pacts with fell creatures, so the taint of evil generally surrounds most of the powers of these unusual arcanists. The forces of good rarely (mostly with eladrins) would offer such power recklessly, but they are well aware that evil seduces with the lure of power, and they have thus refused to empower those who seek power without a strong oath that they will use this power for good. Knowing that power tempts and lures the hearts of mortals into evil, good has devised a method to reach those who fight for their own souls, by the establishment of covenants. Through the cleansing power of good, warlocks purge themselves from the taint of evil; however, this means some invocations are out of the reach of most warlocks because of the overwhelming link to fiendish forces. Largely an eladrin initiative but one that most other creatures of good have adopted, celestials that establish covenants with warlocks alter their arcane energies to grant them unique invocations fueled by the power of good.
The following invocations are restricted to covenanters. A covenanter may not use these invocations if he knows them, and he may not learn them if he ever gains more warlock levels or levels in a class that advances invocations. He may replace such invocations with celestial invocations as indicated on the warlock class features section:
Least—baleful utterance, devil’s sight, otherworldly whispers, soulreaving aura
Lesser—crawling eye, disembodied hand, spidershape, sudden swarm, the dead walk
Greater—chilling tentacles, hellspawned grace
Spoiler
As you can see, most of the removed invocations have to deal with, say, speaking words of the Dark Speech or invoking the undead. You'll notice that most of the removed invocations actually make sense.
A covenanter, on the other hand, gains a series of invocations unique to them and that no other warlocks can choose.
Least—asylum, divine equilibriumAn, equinal’s whinnyGu, pacifying touch, unveil the truthAr
Lesser—blood of the martyr, celestial flight* (replaces fell flight), fear auraGu, ghaele’s gazeEl, spirit blast*, transmute poison
Greater—holy blast*, sunlight, transform magic*, true heroism
Dark**--gaze of revelationAn, heaven’s trumpetAr, leonal’s roarGu
*: invocation that originally appeared in the Enlightened Spirit prestige class description. The covenanter is a retooled version of the enlightened spirit, hence all the unique invocations it could learn are transformed into celestial invocations. Celestial flight is a replacement to the fell flight invocation; if the covenanter already had such invocation, it is immediately replaced by this one.
**: indicates celestial invocations equivalent to dark invocations. Generally, covenanters refer to the highest tier of celestial invocations as “sacred” invocations, to distance further from other warlocks.
An: angel; Ar: archon; El: eladrin; Gu: guardinal. An invocation with these descriptors may only be chosen by covenanters with covenants related to the descriptors.
Spoiler
And here are the new invocations. As usual, I'll be placing them on a separate post for all to see. Most of the invocations are meant for good classes, so you'll quite probably need the covenanter to use them, but do consider them if you make a warlock pact with eladrin, for they CAN and probably WILL allow these abilities.
Also, if you were wondering what Dark Invocation I was speaking about that was just as good as Word of the Covenant? Leonal's Roar. You'll see.
COVENANTERS AND THE RETOOLED WARLOCK
The covenanter is made upon the premise of being backwards-compatible with the original warlock, allowing the prestige class to be used on any table with little trouble. The covenanter is a retool to the enlightened spirit presented on the Complete Mage supplement, but one that allows progression of invocations and eldritch blast instead of replacing invocation progression. However, the covenanter is also meant to be used with the retooled warlock, which has a different set of abilities and a different progression. As well, the retooled warlock defines mechanical benefits by making pacts with eladrin, and allows neutral creatures to partake on the class.
If using both the retooled warlock and the covenanter, some abilities are slightly altered:
Covenant (Su): A covenanter foreswears his use of ill-gained arcane power, but the power deep inside of him cannot be fully denied. By establishing a covenant with the powers of Good, a covenanter seeks to purify the fiendish power he commands into the service of the forces of the Upper Planes. The servants and creatures of pure good welcome such determination to cleanse themselves, and imbue the covenanter with a great deal of their own power. In many ways, a covenant is much like the pact he or his forefathers established, but one that works at the service of others.
At 1st level, a covenanter may choose to establish a covenant with one of the four groups of good creatures: archons, angels, eladrin or guardinals. This covenant replaces the pact bonuses provided by the pact (except if the covenanter made a pact with eladrin; in that case, the bonus remains the same). When making such a covenant, a covenanter is treated as if making a pact with eladrin, but also gains the following abilities:
Angel: a character that makes a covenant with angels tends to have a beautiful sheen on their skin, which at a glance adopts a different color. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Diplomacy checks; good outsiders treat him one step closer to friendly (up to friendly), while evil outsiders treat him one step closer to hostile.
Archon: a character that makes a covenant with archons develops an almost metallic gleam in their skin and a gaze that’s serene and fierce at the same time. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Intimidate checks; if attempting to demoralize an evil creature, the effect lasts for 1 more round.
Eladrin: a character that makes a covenant with eladrin is surrounded with a gleam of multiple colors, as if a rainbow was posing upon his persona. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Bluff and Gather Information checks; if trying to feint an evil creature, all allies treat the target as if denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class for their next attack (instead of only the covenanter). A warlock that has made a pact with eladrin usually automatically qualifies in making a covenant with eladrin.
Guardinal: a character that makes a covenant with guardinals develop subtle animal traits, but these animalistic traits are regal-looking; for example, a thick coat of bodily hair that looks clean and neat, or cat-like eyes of a beautiful color. A covenanter gains a +4 sacred bonus on all Handle Animal and Heal checks; upon a successful Handle Animal check to rear an animal, the covenanter is treated as if having the empathic link ability with the animal for one minute per class level of the covenanter.
Spoiler
Well...there's not much of a difference, sans that Angels get an expanded benefit and eladrin-pact warlocks get double the benefits. The fluff had to be rewritten a bit, tho.
Celestial Invocations: In the case of covenanters entering from the retooled warlock, some of the eladrin-only invocations may apply to all or some of the celestials. The same applies to fey-exclusive invocations, which may be chosen by guardinals as well.
The following is a list of the new invocations presented in the retooled warlock that may be chosen by covenanters, alongside which covenanters have access to them based on their covenants. If using the new invocations with the original warlock, the following also apply:
Angel: faerie dust
Archon: relive the nightmare, summon servant (summons a lantern archon)
Eladrin: all invocations allowed to eladrin pact
Guardinal: call of the beast, faerie dust, summon servant (summons a musteval guardinal; see Book of Exalted Deeds, page 174 for more information on the creature)
Furthermore, both celestial flight and fell flight are subsumed into sustained flight, so there is no need to replace them.
Spoiler
Very light changes, actually. Eladrin keep all their choices of invocations (which are very good ones) while also getting the celestial invocations, while the losses of warlocks that didn't enter through the eladrin pact are minimized. Summon Servant for the guardinals is also pretty potent, since the musteval has at-will Magic Missile as a 3rd level caster and a Spring Attack equivalent, plus burrowing, plus the guardinal benefits. They're phenomenal guardians, that's for sure. Archons, of course, get the flying laser turret lantern archon.
As well, the following pact boons may be chosen by covenanters:
Angel: protective aura
Archon: protective aura
Eladrin: all pact boons allowed to eladrin pact
Guardinal: unnatural resilience, witchwood step
Spoiler
The loss of pact boons is where the covenanter gets shafted a bit. Aside from Eladrin, most of the other celestial covenanters get only few of the pact boons, and they don't get the formidable Rainbow Sphere pact boon (that's a Eladrin exclusive). You may notice that's the reason why the Eladrin doesn't get its own "Sacred" invocation, as it already has one.
Share Boon (Su): At 8th level, a covenanter learns the ability to share the boons gained by means of its earlier pacts and his covenant with willing allies. As a standard action, a covenanter may touch an ally and transfer the benefit of a single pact boon; the covenanter ceases to benefit from the boon but the ally immediately gains the benefit as if it were the covenanter itself. A covenanter may reclaim the use of its boon as a free action, even outside its turn. A covenanter may share as many boons as he desires with the same ally or with different allies, but he must claim the shared boons before providing the benefit to others.
Spoiler
This is the change to Share Invocations I mentioned. Basically, instead of the invocations, you gain the benefit to share your boons. That means some invocations will no longer be transferable (such as Entropic Warding or Arcane Shield); however, you may consider keeping that part of the Share Invocation ability applicable.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
T.G. Oskar profile by Specter.
Last edited by T.G. Oskar : 11-14-2011 at 02:37 PM.
Reason: Modified the Covenant benefit for Guardinal Covenanters
CELESTIAL INVOCATIONS
The following list of invocations presented here are part of the celestial invocations gained through the covenanter prestige class. A warlock may not gain such invocations unless it has at least one level in the covenanter prestige class.
LEAST INVOCATIONS Asylum: Use sanctuary as the spell; if enemy succeeds on the Will save, take half the damage dealt. Divine Equilibrium:Pact Boon. As endure elements, plus protects against the traits of positive-dominant and negative-dominant planes. Equinal’s Whinny: All evil creatures in area are stunned or deafened. Pacifying Touch: As calm emotions, plus it dispels any spell that alters emotions. Unveil the Truth:Pact Boon. Gain a +6 bonus on all Gather Information and Sense Motive checks, reveals the truth behind a lie.
LESSER INVOCATIONS Blood of the Martyr: Use blood of the martyr, as the spell Fear Aura: Duplicate the effects of a fear spell in a 20 feet radius. Ghaele’s Gaze: Deadly gaze kills, panics or shakens nongood creatures. Spirit Blast: Deal extra damage to undead creatures, eldritch blast also affects incorporeal creatures. Transmute Poison: As neutralize poison on good creatures; evil creatures are affected by ravages instead.
GREATER INVOCATIONS Holy Blast: Deal extra damage to evil creatures, prevents interdimensional travel of such creatures. Sunlight: As daylight, except the light is treated as if actual sunlight; deal 6d6 fire damage. Transform Magic: Targeted greater dispel magic; heal self or ally within 30 ft. 5 points of damage per level of spell dispelled. True Heroism: As the heroism spell; gain the benefit of greater heroism on a failed save vs. fear effects.
DARK INVOCATIONS Gaze of Revelation:Pact Boon. Gain the benefits of detect evil, detect snares and pits, discern lies, see invisibility, true seeing. Heaven’s Trumpet: Use heaven’s trumpet, as the spell. Leonal’s Roar: As holy word plus deal 2d6 points of sonic damage.
Spoiler
Compared to the list of base invocations, this list is pretty small. It is meant to replace those powers the original Warlocks lose by entering into the PrC, while on the other hand giving them something useful.
As you can see, the main theme of the Warlock is preserved, granting them invocations that reinforce them. Most of these invocations are buffs you can use on allies, though, since Covenanters tend to share their abilities with others. You get some healing invocations (Blood of the Martyr, Transmute Poison, Pacifying Touch, Transform Magic which also couples as a debuff for enemies), some invocations that deal damage but at the same time have a strong effect (Sunlight, Leonal's Roar, the retributive effect of Asylum) and many debuffs lying around. The invocations from the Enlightened Soul are now selectable instead of automatically given, in order to give the Covenanter some real class features.
The concept behind celestial invocations was to duplicate some of the abilities of celestial creatures, spreading well between the original Warlock flavor and the Covenanter's abilities. All, I expect, should be very good choices, which should complement the new invocations presented earlier in the thread.
INVOCATION DESCRIPTIONS
ASYLUM Least; 2nd
You provide yourself with a ward against the attacks of other creatures, as if under the effect of a sanctuary spell. If the creature succeeds on the saving throw and deals melee damage to you, the effect is canceled but the opponent takes half the damage it deals. This damage comes from divine origin and cannot be reduced by damage reduction or energy resistance.
BLOOD OF THE MARTYR Lesser; 4th
You sacrifice part of your lifeforce to heal an ally. You use blood of the martyr, as the spell (see Book of Exalted Deeds, page 92 for more details). If not available, use as follows: you may transfer your own hit points directly to a target creature within Medium (100 ft. +10 ft per caster level) range. You must transfer at least 20 hit points. Transferred hit points are treated as damage to you. The creature takes your transferred hit points as if receiving a cure wounds spell and cannot gain more hit points than its maximum allows; any excess points are lost. This spell transfers only actual hit points, not temporary hit points. An unconscious target is considered a “willing creature” for purposes of this spell.
DIVINE EQUILIBRIUM Least; 1st (Pact Boon)
You gain the benefit of the endure elements spell. As well, if you are on a plane with the positive-dominant or negative-dominant trait (see Dungeon Master’s Guide for more details), you may ignore its effects as well. Special: only covenanters that have made a covenant with angels may learn this ability. Note: if using as invocation, the effect lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable.
EQUINAL’S WHINNY Least; 2nd
You emit a piercing shriek, as the sound a horse makes. Any evil creatures within a 20 ft. radius spread must succeed on a Fortitude save or become stunned (if having less than half your maximum Hit Dice) or deafened (if having more than half your maximum HD) for 1d6 rounds. This is a sonic effect. Special: only covenanters that have made a covenant with guardinals may learn this ability.
FEAR AURA Lesser; 4th
With a gesture and a sound (such as a shriek, a howl or a scream), you emit a sudden feeling of fear upon enemy creatures. All enemies within 20 feet of you are affected as if a fear spell had been cast upon them. Special: only covenanters that have made a covenant with guardinals may learn this ability.
GAZE OF REVELATION Dark; 9th (Pact Boon)
Your eyes and other senses magnify, revealing hidden things. You are always under the effect of a detect evil spell and a detect snares and pits spell; you may concentrate to gain more information, as per the spell, but the effect is not dismissed. As well, you are under a constant discern lies, see invisibility and true seeing effects. You may deactivate and reactivate each ability as a swift action. Note: if using as invocation, the effect lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable. You may decide to dismiss one of the five effects at any moment, but you may not reactivate the ability afterwards; a dispel nulls all effects, however.
GHAELE’S GAZE Lesser; 4th
By fixing your sight upon a specific creature, you may replicate the gaze of a ghaele (except the effect applies only to a 60 ft. cone and must be activated each time). Any evil creatures within the area of the cone must succeed on a Will save or die instantly (if having less than half your maximum Hit Dice), or become panicked (if having more than half your maximum HD) as if under the effect of a fear spell for 2d10 rounds. Special: only covenanters that have made a covenant with eladrin may learn this ability.
HEAVEN’S TRUMPET Dark; 7th
You duplicate the effects of a heaven’s trumpet spell (see Book of Exalted Deeds, page 101 for more details). If not available, use as follows: all foes within 120 feet of you must succeed on a Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds. Special: only covenanters that have made a covenant with archons may learn this ability.
HOLY BLAST Greater; 6th (Eldritch Essence)
This eldritch essence invocation transforms your eldritch blast into a holy blast. When attacking an evil outsider, the holy blast deals damage of one die size higher (thus, all damage dice are transformed into d8s). As well, evil outsiders successfully affected by a holy blast are treated as if also affected by a dimensional anchor spell, preventing any extradimensional travel.
LEONAL’S ROAR Dark; 8th
By unleashing a mighty roar, you duplicate the effects of a leonal’s roar, as the spell (see Book of Exalted Deeds, page 102 for more details). If not available, use as follows: this invocation has the effect of a holy word, and it additionally deals 2d6 points of sonic damage to any nongood creatures in the area. A successful Fortitude saving throw negates the sonic damage, but not the other effects of the spell. Special: only covenanters that have made a covenant with guardinals may learn this ability.
PACIFYING TOUCH Least; 2nd
Your touch calms hostile emotions in a creature, including magically altered emotions. A creature touched is affected as if under a calm emotions spell, except the creature is not allowed a saving throw or spell resistance, the effect is immediate and only hostile emotions are suppressed, not positive emotions (usually, only anger and hostility). If suppressing magically-infused emotions (such as the effect of a rage or scare spell), you must make a dispel check as if using dispel magic, except there is no maximum caster level. Spells that grant morale bonus such as good hope or heroism are not affected by this ability, but spells such as crushing despair do.
SPIRIT BLAST Lesser; 4th (Eldritch Essence)
This eldritch essence transforms your eldritch blast into a spirit blast. When attacking an undead creature, the spirit blast deals damage of one die size higher (thus, all damage dice are transformed into d8s). Incorporeal creatures are fully affected by the spirit blast without the miss chance for spells that affect them; if the spirit blast connects, they are forced to manifest for 1 round (up until the covenanter’s next turn), allowing creatures to ignore the miss chance for incorporeality.
SUNLIGHT Greater; 6th
You imbue any touched object with the ability to emanate very bright light, much like that of the sun itself. Upon casting the invocation, all enemy creatures within a 60 ft. radius of the object take 6d6 points of damage; if a creature is vulnerable to sunlight or bright light, the creature is affected as if under the presence of such light. Afterwards, the object is affected as if under a daylight spell, except it is treated as sunlight or bright light whenever a creature vulnerable to such light enters the radius. This invocation counters and dispels any darkness spell of 6th level or lower.
TRANSFORM MAGIC Greater; 6th
This invocation allows you to deliver a targeted greater dispel magic effect on a creature you touch. For every spell level dispelled by the effect, you or any ally within 30 ft. are healed 5 points of damage. You may not divide the total amount of healing between allies; only one ally may benefit from the healing. You may not dispel your own invocations.
TRANSMUTE POISON Lesser; 4th
You transform any poison or venom currently affecting a creature into a substance that affects only evil creatures. Treat as if affected by a neutralize poison spell, except only non-evil creatures benefit from the immunity to poisons. If a non-evil poisonous creature is touched while using this invocation, its poison is temporarily transmuted into a ravage (see Book of Exalted Deeds, page 34 for more information) that deals damage exactly as the poison would otherwise deal, for the duration of the invocation.
TRUE HEROISM Greater; 5th
By touching a creature with this invocation, you temporarily grant a morale bonus to attack rolls, saving throws and skill checks, as if affected by a heroism spell. If the affected creature fails a saving throw versus a fear effect (such as the fear spell or the frightful presence of a dragon), the creature is instead affected by a greater heroism spell, nullifying the fear effect and granting temporary hit points for the remainder of the spell.
UNVEIL THE TRUTH Least; 2nd (Pact Boon)
You can invoke this ability to aid on determining true information from false. You gain a +6 bonus on Gather Information and Sense Motive checks. Furthermore, if you succeed on a Sense Motive check against a creature, you are treated as if you were actively concentrating on a discern lies spell for as long as you have eye contact and for one minute thereafter. As well, by making a successful Diplomacy check against the creature’s Sense Motive check once a lie has been detected, you discover the truth hidden within the lie. This ability is not a mind-affecting ability but it doesn’t work on creatures with an Intelligence score of 8 or lower. Note: if using as an invocation, it lasts for 24 hours and is dismissable
Spoiler
Much smaller list than before, but that makes it easier to explain.
As you can see, it's pretty evident that the best covenant is done with a guardinal; they work with all creatures much like angels do, they get lay on hands and they get some of the best invocations around (Gaze of Revelation and Leonal's Roar, hands down), which is why they don't get Protective Aura (whereas Angels and Archons do). This isn't intentional (if it were intentional, Archons would be the best covenant), but rather a result of the powers of the individual creatures (particularly those on the Monster Manual). Guardinals are very diverse in terms of what unique powers they acquire, somewhat more than, say, archons (can you imagine an archon-exclusive eldritch armblade blast shape invocation?) or angels (the reason why Divine Equilibrium is exclusive to Angel Covenanters is because of the Movanic and Monadic Devas having similar properties and being treated as angels)
Sunlight and Leonal's Roar are abilities to consider. Sunlight represents all those good outsiders that have Daylight and need something worthwhile; thus, you'll notice Sunlight is a downgraded invocation version of Sunburst (the 6d6 fire damage should have been a given), which can be used in various ways (dealing damage, hold light-sensitive characters at bay and as a light source), thus making the invocation probably a must-have; as a Greater Invocation, it's right there with Killing Joke and Mirage for must-have invocations, making it a reasonable exchange. On the other hand, Leonal's Roar is perhaps a bit TOO much: it's a Holy Word used at will (much like the Covenanter's Word of the Covenant), except it ALSO deals sonic damage which can be resisted with a Fort save. Being an invocation, that means it can be Quickened, Heightened (through Ability Focus), and even Empowered (because of the sonic damage), making it a very useful opening salvo (and probably a spamfest). Part of why I decided to make Word of the Covenant available to everyone was to compensate, somewhat, for the lack of Leonal's Roar by the other covenants. Even as a Dark invocation (or well, a "Sacred" invocation), it IS quite probably one that won't be ignored. You might wonder whether having Leonal's Roar AND Word of the Covenant won't overlap, and that's pretty much correct, except for one reason; the latter IS an invocation and is modified as such, whereas the other is a separate ability. That, and Leonal's Roar deals some minor damage as well (and Word of the Covenant, as you may have noticed, has a lower saving throw compared to Leonal's Roar because of the lower spell level.
Celestial invocations make the Covenanter a more diverse character than the Warlock, mostly because they can provide healing, buffs (either through Share Invocation/Boons or the celestial invocations that work on allies) and a wide variety of debuffs (paralysis, fear). True Heroism comes to mind, since while Inspire Courage offers a better morale bonus, having Heroism (and eventually Greater Heroism, not to mention immunity to fear that activates if you FAIL a Will save) really isn't a bad idea, and makes the Covenanter an oddly solid buffer (attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws and skill checks; that's a very solid set of buffs to be given essentially at-will). This should make the Covenanter a solid team player, retaining some of the stealth and scoundrel feel of the Warlock but making it a more diverse character.
As usual: comments? Questions? Suggestions for either regular invocations OR celestial invocations are always welcome, and even better if you can pitch names or notice which invocations could use an improvement.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
T.G. Oskar profile by Specter.
Last edited by T.G. Oskar : 11-06-2011 at 05:30 AM.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Added the Celestial Invocations for your consideration.
Making invocations for the Warlock is hard, but actually fun. They work much like spells, but in the end they're also fundamentally different from spells in that you have to consider they're usable at all times and have some specific trends. Stuff such as Fireball or Acid Arrow can't be placed on a Warlock, but they can be placed by using Blast Shapes and Eldritch Essences. On the other hand, they have a huge list of debuffs, enchantments and illusions. It's a shame that the effort placed on Warlocks was too minimal, because it IS really a fun class to play (even if half of the abilities aren't really worthwhile).
So: is there any spell you might consider it works well as an invocation? Remember Warlocks get spells that cause damage, but only a moderate amount of damage per use, so they won't overwhelm Eldritch Blast. There might also be some blast shapes and essence invocations I might be missing, but those are harder to cover.
One thing I wish to work with is the Epic Warlock feats on the web. This is a fascinating way to add more powers and invocations, and reuniting some of the new invocations into new feats that grant even more powers. I could use some ideas for those as well.
Finally, I've always been intrigued by one piece of homebrew here on GitP, which was essentially a Psionic Warlock. I'd love to deal with "psionic" invokers, particularly focused on the theme of aberrations and the "big" aberrants, the Lords of Madness (aboleth, beholder, illithid, etc.), but I feel I must make a class of my own. You can tell me if this is a good idea, or if I should work with the presented Mindsunder (sp?) class.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by NineThePuma
How does the guardinal pact boon work? Rearing an animal takes weeks/months and they get a connection that lasts minutes... Seems... Odd.
Maybe it's because it'd be better to let them have Wild Empathy instead of Handle Animal. The idea is to have a temporary animal friend, where after the successful handling you'd be capable of having a helpful ally with which you could make a temporary link. Handle Animal was the first idea I had, but there's a big problem: covenanters (nor Warlocks) have Handle Animal.
I'll be changing it soon, but I'll make it as wild empathy, except that if you make the animal helpful, you gain empathic link for that same amount of minutes. It's still a minute to convince, but the end result should be that the amount of minutes you share that link will eventually be longer, and you might risk attempting a full-round action to get the animal friend faster.
That also reminds me: I should add up one or two more blast shapes. Particularly an honest-to-goodness burst effect.
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
The issue is more in the phrasing. "Rearing" an animal involves raising it from when it's young to adulthood in a manner that allows it to be trained further. Which is why I thought minutes was a bit short.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by NineThePuma
The issue is more in the phrasing. "Rearing" an animal involves raising it from when it's young to adulthood in a manner that allows it to be trained further. Which is why I thought minutes was a bit short.
Which wasn't the intention. It was mostly getting a friendly animal for a few minutes rather than getting a permanent partner that would fight for you. Hence, why I needed to make the change.
That said: I added two blast shapes to the general list. One, which was sorely needed, is a proper area of effect blast shape, which is smaller than eldritch doom but still useful. While it might deal as much damage as, say, the Fiery Burst reserve feat, the damage can be increased (Hellfire, Fell Chasuble, etc.) PLUS it can be shot up to three times as a full-round action through Split Blast. The area of effect is 10 ft., and it can affect allies so be careful.
The other one is Eldritch Snare, which is kinda odd because it's meant to be a way to set a temporary trap. The cool thing is that it closes up a 5 ft. radius from being crossed, because of its proximity trigger. Having, say, a way to set a Fellblast Eldritch Snare to deal negative energy damage just by walking around can be a nasty trick. Because of how the effective spell level applies, the saving throw won't be so bad either.
Again: any spells you might want to see as invocations, which might fit the list above (or celestial invocations, as well)?
__________________
Now with a shiny new Homebrewer's Sig. See the magic! Use the retools in your campaign...today!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Seerow
I'm not sure he's actually capable of making a post with fewer than 500 words. That's why we love him though.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
I will be honest and say I don't tend to play spell casters, so my knowledge of spells is limited. I also haven't gone through to look at every invocation you've done to see what holes there might be. Give me a day or two and I'll work on sifting through what you've presented.
I will say that, right off the bat, it'd be nice to have something similar to Entangling Exhalation; a mix of damage over time and debuff. You might have that already, but it was something I found frustrating as a Warlock to get outshone by the DFA that way.
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
some meta magic for invocations would be nice... make a system by which a warlock can get a meta magic feat, but has a number of times/day he can use it... like eldrich blast damage dice-spell level increase/day. then staples like maximize could be gained... but until rather high levels they could only be used infrequently...
__________________
avatar by Szilard, thank you sir for the fine work!
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobthe6th
some meta magic for invocations would be nice... make a system by which a warlock can get a meta magic feat, but has a number of times/day he can use it... like eldrich blast damage dice-spell level increase/day. then staples like maximize could be gained... but until rather high levels they could only be used infrequently...
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
yep, but with versitilaty. there are more meta feats than I can count, so a system by which they can be used in general seems like a good idea.
also, those really wouldn't work as they rely on the spell being lower level than the max they could cast. perhapce be able to sacrifise damage dice to lower the spell level?
__________________
avatar by Szilard, thank you sir for the fine work!
Re: [3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
Eldritch Snare: Does the trap last forever until triggered? Can you have an infinite number of traps waiting? Could a Rogue with Long Spoon Thieves Tools (don't remember where they're from, but it essentially gives you reach with Disable Device) disable it as a magic trap? Does Dispel Magic destroy such a trap?
__________________
Never can find my towel...
So it goes.
Healing is like accounting, but with life and death.
-Self
RSS Feeds: 
[3.5] The Retooled Warlock: a Pact you won't intend to break!
