advice for future warlock [Archive] - Wizards Community

advice for future warlock [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
mungojerrie
07-01-05, 10:11 PM Hi
I have never played a Warlock before and was wondering if anybody has any ideas.

I want him/her not to be evil but other than that.....
kliate
07-01-05, 10:32 PM First, Use Magic Device is a Warlock's best buddy. It may not be very reliable at low levels, but once you're into level 5+, you'll often find that being able to UMD things from a scroll of fireballs to a wand of cure light wounds pays off big time. As crazy as it may sound, this sort of character is well suited to taking Skill Focus: Use Magic Device, just so that you can unleash powerful scrolls and such as soon as you get your hands on them...and create them at higher levels.

While Charisma is certainly valuable for a Warlock, it isn't as important as it might be to a sorceror or favored soul. You can easily afford to push that higher stat into Dexterity or Constitution if you plan on seeing many battles.

Remember, you have limitless uses of your warlock invocations, so you never need to hold back on those eldritch blasts when swarms of weak minions start to show up.

You may want to consider taking Hideous blow or Eldritch spear as your first invokation. The Spear allows you to stay far away from combat and blast over huge distances, while the Hideous Blow makes you a dangerous opponent in melee.

As multiclass options go, several classes seem to go well with warlock (or rather, warlock goes well with them). Particulary, hexblade seems to combine quite well as it balances its highly limited ability usages with the warlocks unending invocations. Cursing an opponent before toasting them with eldritch blasts also seems quite cool.

For equipment, I would suggest playing with studded leather armor to begin, and work your way to a mithral breastplate. Spend resources heavily on almost anything that can be put in a wand once you get your Use Magic Device checks up to +10 or so, and even consider talking with your dm to see if you can get an item that provides a competence bonus to your use magic device checks. A light melee weapon may also save your hide if you ever find yourself caught in a grapple.

On top of all that, you may want to check out this web article:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20050630a
Mirikon
07-01-05, 11:29 PM Hi
I have never played a Warlock before and was wondering if anybody has any ideas.

I want him/her not to be evil but other than that.....

Put your high ability scores into DEX and CHA. INT if you can.

As soon as you can get it, Mithral Chain Shirt is a good thing.

Max out Use Magic Device, keep Bluff and/or Intimidate up to date. Everything else is secondary.

Be sure to ask if your DM uses the sensible interpretation of Hideous Blow by Richard Baker, the guy who wrote the class, or the craptacular one Skip Williams or whoever his name is did for the FAQ. If he uses Baker's version, then pick up Hideous Blow and either MWP (Scimitar) or EWP (whips or spiked chain) Scimitars have the nice crit range, and are more common. Spiked Chain can be nasty as hell, as is the whip-dagger from Arms and Equipment Guide.

Fell Flight and Flee the Scene are must-haves, as is Vitrolic Blast.

Grab either Chilling Tentacles or Wall of Perilous Flame, as this gives you good battlefield control capabilities.

If you have a low CHA, don't bother with the invocations with saves. If you have a high CHA, get the save invocations, because things like Baleful Polymorph every round is NICE.
SnowbearK
07-02-05, 12:22 AM I'd advise against the web article, personally. If you've read the class description, it's a bit redundant and may confuse the reader even more.

When creating any character, I almost always start with rolling stats, then what role does he/she fill, then how did they get where they are, then move on to the actual meat of the mechanics.

There are a few roles the Warlock is able to fill. First and foremost though, the Warlock is a multiple-specialist class. You don't have the skill points to be Mr. Jack-o-Trades, you don't have the "spell selection" to be a full-on Combat Caster or Buffer, nor do you have the necessary HP/AC for a Tank.

What you do have is tricks. As Ulysses said in the recent movie Troy, "You have your sword, I have my tricks."

The Warlock can be built to fill nearly any role adequately, given the right set of options.

Just a few roles in a given party, most can be filled in combination by a single character (Fighter = Tank+Melee+Ranged; Cleric=Buffer+Healer+Battlecaster; etc):

Tank
Melee Master
Ranged Master
Stealth
Battle Caster
Buffer
Healer
Jack-of-All-Trades
Trapfinder
Transporter

A Feral (template) Half-Orc warlock given Hideous Blow makes one of the nastier Melee Masters, with the ability to inflict horrendous damage with their claws.

A Halfling Warlock with Devil's Sight, Darkness, Fell Flight, and any of the various Invisibility invocations makes up quite nicely for the lack of a Ranged Stealth character.

The higher level ability of the Warlock to Imbue Item, coupled with their UMD class skill and ability to Deceive Item allows them to become the jack of all trades.

Taking Fell Flight, then opting for the Complete Adventurer Feat Improved Flight, gives you an incredible number of options for combat, travel, and stealth interactions. Eldritch Spear is almost a pre-requisite for this path.

With Flee The Scene, Eldritch Spear, and Repelling Blast, you become every Tower Guard's worst nightmare. Not only can you knock your foe off his tower, but when his buddies arrive at the place the blast came from, you're already gone.

Because you have a limited number of options, you have to get creative with them.

The Dead Walk is wonderful if you also have Darkness or Walk Unseen. As soon as an enemy falls, make him get back up again on your side -- the Zombie Apocalypse effect.

Charm is nifty, but requires reliance on NPC interpretation, which are almost always iffy.

Voracious Dispelling is fun as a pre-emptive strike tactic, I wouldn't try it in the middle of a fight unless you've discovered something that absolutely requires it.

That about covers mechanics and roles and all that good stuff, on to my favorite part, roleplaying.

Nearly all of my Warlocks are CG. They're also usually from the Fey heritage (and Irish, but that my own fetish, thank you very much :D), but there's nothing to stop a Warlock from having say, an Elemental heritage (after all, the primal building blocks exert their own supernatural forces) or a Divine heritage (I imagine a few Astral Devas are Chaotic enough). Many are Fiendish in nature, and that's perfectly fine as well.

The source of your character's power should be tied in some way to the powers he receives. It doesn't make much sense for a Djinni-descendant to be flinging around Earthen Grasp all willy-nilly, but Breath of Night, oh yes!

And remember, it really shouldn't be much to ask of the DM to change the invocations cosmetically -- such as Fell Flight, well, batwings might look great for the Caped Crusader, but Dragonfly or Butterfly wings would make much more sense for a Fey-powered Warlock. Mechanically the same, just a different look.

Unless the land is highly enlightened, or warlocks commonplace (as with fighters, wizards, and such), most folk aren't going to want to buy you an ale, to say the least. Odds are good that for the first several levels, you can avoid the worst treatment by simply not using any overt abilities in town or with witnesses, then omitting the specifics of how you did whatever you did. Later on, either your great deeds and associations will offset the worst treatment, or fear of your power will.

That's pretty much it for now.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
mungojerrie 07-01-05, 10:11 PM	Hi I have never played a Warlock before and was wondering if anybody has any ideas. I want him/her not to be evil but other than that.....
kliate 07-01-05, 10:32 PM	First, Use Magic Device is a Warlock's best buddy. It may not be very reliable at low levels, but once you're into level 5+, you'll often find that being able to UMD things from a scroll of fireballs to a wand of cure light wounds pays off big time. As crazy as it may sound, this sort of character is well suited to taking Skill Focus: Use Magic Device, just so that you can unleash powerful scrolls and such as soon as you get your hands on them...and create them at higher levels. While Charisma is certainly valuable for a Warlock, it isn't as important as it might be to a sorceror or favored soul. You can easily afford to push that higher stat into Dexterity or Constitution if you plan on seeing many battles. Remember, you have limitless uses of your warlock invocations, so you never need to hold back on those eldritch blasts when swarms of weak minions start to show up. You may want to consider taking Hideous blow or Eldritch spear as your first invokation. The Spear allows you to stay far away from combat and blast over huge distances, while the Hideous Blow makes you a dangerous opponent in melee. As multiclass options go, several classes seem to go well with warlock (or rather, warlock goes well with them). Particulary, hexblade seems to combine quite well as it balances its highly limited ability usages with the warlocks unending invocations. Cursing an opponent before toasting them with eldritch blasts also seems quite cool. For equipment, I would suggest playing with studded leather armor to begin, and work your way to a mithral breastplate. Spend resources heavily on almost anything that can be put in a wand once you get your Use Magic Device checks up to +10 or so, and even consider talking with your dm to see if you can get an item that provides a competence bonus to your use magic device checks. A light melee weapon may also save your hide if you ever find yourself caught in a grapple. On top of all that, you may want to check out this web article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20050630a
Mirikon 07-01-05, 11:29 PM	Hi I have never played a Warlock before and was wondering if anybody has any ideas. I want him/her not to be evil but other than that..... Put your high ability scores into DEX and CHA. INT if you can. As soon as you can get it, Mithral Chain Shirt is a good thing. Max out Use Magic Device, keep Bluff and/or Intimidate up to date. Everything else is secondary. Be sure to ask if your DM uses the sensible interpretation of Hideous Blow by Richard Baker, the guy who wrote the class, or the craptacular one Skip Williams or whoever his name is did for the FAQ. If he uses Baker's version, then pick up Hideous Blow and either MWP (Scimitar) or EWP (whips or spiked chain) Scimitars have the nice crit range, and are more common. Spiked Chain can be nasty as hell, as is the whip-dagger from Arms and Equipment Guide. Fell Flight and Flee the Scene are must-haves, as is Vitrolic Blast. Grab either Chilling Tentacles or Wall of Perilous Flame, as this gives you good battlefield control capabilities. If you have a low CHA, don't bother with the invocations with saves. If you have a high CHA, get the save invocations, because things like Baleful Polymorph every round is NICE.
SnowbearK 07-02-05, 12:22 AM	I'd advise against the web article, personally. If you've read the class description, it's a bit redundant and may confuse the reader even more. When creating any character, I almost always start with rolling stats, then what role does he/she fill, then how did they get where they are, then move on to the actual meat of the mechanics. There are a few roles the Warlock is able to fill. First and foremost though, the Warlock is a multiple-specialist class. You don't have the skill points to be Mr. Jack-o-Trades, you don't have the "spell selection" to be a full-on Combat Caster or Buffer, nor do you have the necessary HP/AC for a Tank. What you do have is tricks. As Ulysses said in the recent movie Troy, "You have your sword, I have my tricks." The Warlock can be built to fill nearly any role adequately, given the right set of options. Just a few roles in a given party, most can be filled in combination by a single character (Fighter = Tank+Melee+Ranged; Cleric=Buffer+Healer+Battlecaster; etc): Tank Melee Master Ranged Master Stealth Battle Caster Buffer Healer Jack-of-All-Trades Trapfinder Transporter A Feral (template) Half-Orc warlock given Hideous Blow makes one of the nastier Melee Masters, with the ability to inflict horrendous damage with their claws. A Halfling Warlock with Devil's Sight, Darkness, Fell Flight, and any of the various Invisibility invocations makes up quite nicely for the lack of a Ranged Stealth character. The higher level ability of the Warlock to Imbue Item, coupled with their UMD class skill and ability to Deceive Item allows them to become the jack of all trades. Taking Fell Flight, then opting for the Complete Adventurer Feat Improved Flight, gives you an incredible number of options for combat, travel, and stealth interactions. Eldritch Spear is almost a pre-requisite for this path. With Flee The Scene, Eldritch Spear, and Repelling Blast, you become every Tower Guard's worst nightmare. Not only can you knock your foe off his tower, but when his buddies arrive at the place the blast came from, you're already gone. Because you have a limited number of options, you have to get creative with them. The Dead Walk is wonderful if you also have Darkness or Walk Unseen. As soon as an enemy falls, make him get back up again on your side -- the Zombie Apocalypse effect. Charm is nifty, but requires reliance on NPC interpretation, which are almost always iffy. Voracious Dispelling is fun as a pre-emptive strike tactic, I wouldn't try it in the middle of a fight unless you've discovered something that absolutely requires it. That about covers mechanics and roles and all that good stuff, on to my favorite part, roleplaying. Nearly all of my Warlocks are CG. They're also usually from the Fey heritage (and Irish, but that my own fetish, thank you very much :D), but there's nothing to stop a Warlock from having say, an Elemental heritage (after all, the primal building blocks exert their own supernatural forces) or a Divine heritage (I imagine a few Astral Devas are Chaotic enough). Many are Fiendish in nature, and that's perfectly fine as well. The source of your character's power should be tied in some way to the powers he receives. It doesn't make much sense for a Djinni-descendant to be flinging around Earthen Grasp all willy-nilly, but Breath of Night, oh yes! And remember, it really shouldn't be much to ask of the DM to change the invocations cosmetically -- such as Fell Flight, well, batwings might look great for the Caped Crusader, but Dragonfly or Butterfly wings would make much more sense for a Fey-powered Warlock. Mechanically the same, just a different look. Unless the land is highly enlightened, or warlocks commonplace (as with fighters, wizards, and such), most folk aren't going to want to buy you an ale, to say the least. Odds are good that for the first several levels, you can avoid the worst treatment by simply not using any overt abilities in town or with witnesses, then omitting the specifics of how you did whatever you did. Later on, either your great deeds and associations will offset the worst treatment, or fear of your power will. That's pretty much it for now.