A friend of mine is gonna DM a very long campaign (we're probably talking about 300ish hours of play), which will probably not go past level 15 because we have to regroup to play together and we are literally at opposite ends of the country. The leveling pace of the campaign is gonna be VERY SLOW so I need a build that would be as powerful as possible during the early phase as well.
I have recently fallen for the Warlock class which i think does really have a lot of flavour. What I have quickly realized when looking through builds however, is that it is far from "optimized".
I have quite a few builds in my mind, but i don't really know which one is the best, or if i have overlooked some other possibilities.
What I'm looking for is a build that is as powerful as possible, and dealing large amounts of damage (im not looking for a debuffer/healer build here) while having good utility, and that is warlock based.
All books are allowed but with some restrictions for cheesiest choices (Mindsight isn't allowed for example). What's more, feat retraining and taking flaws isnt allowed, so my character will be very feat hungry.
For this reason and also because my DM is gonna respect the XP rules for multiclassing, all the builds i am gonna talk about are human based, but don't hesitate to suggest other races that are as legit as possible (no hengeyokai or other races like that).
Please also discuss feat choices for the builds...
My reasoning is the following : To increase warlock damage, the best way would be to use eldritch glaive. However, it is next to useless early game because i won't have a second attack before level 8 and i need something viable early game. Divine power would help with this but I won't be able to get it before level 9 either. I have thought about some familiar using Snake's Swiftness (to get one additionnal attack) but my DM rules that a raven isn't able to use a wand so unless i polymorph my famliar (using alter self maybe), waste 2 feats to get improved familiar or dip into wizard/sorcerer, that's out of the question.
I have no real answer to this, except perhaps using an eldritch theurge build to compensate for that lack of damage.
My stats have already been rolled, i was thinking of something in the lines of : cha : 16, wis 13 + 1 (level 4) +1 (level 8), int 14 (for skills prerequisites), dex 14, con 12, str 9. They can be swapped around of course.
Here is what I've been toying around with lately :
1) Warlock 4 / Mindbender 1 / Ur-priest 2 / Eldritch Disciple (the rest of the way)
Feats : 1 Spell focus (evil), Iron will (human) ==> (for urpriest), 3 Mortalbane (?), 6 Weapon finesse (? supposing i get to use eldritch glaive with reliable damage), 9-12 Extend spell/ Persistent spell 15 Divine metamagic (Persistent spell??) OR
Pros : Ur priest very fast divine spells evolution, good early game with full warlock damage + the mortalbane bonus.
Cons: Very feat hungry, not able to persist divine power before level 12, no familiar, no domains, Mindsight not allowed. General lack of versatility.
2) Cloistered Cleric of Geshtaï 3 / Warlock 1 / Eldritch Disciple (the rest of the way)
Domains : Travel, Plant, Knowledge (from cloistered cleric)
Feats : 1 Travel Devotion, Plant devotion, Knowledge devotion (from abandonning the domains), Extend spell, Persist spell
3 : Divine metamagic (persist) 6 : Weapon finesse 9 : Obtain familiar 12 : Improved familiar
Pros : A lot of versatility allowed with different domain builds, skill points go through the roof with three levels of cloistered cleric, a lot less feat starved than the previous build, Tankier with luminous armor level 3.
Cons : Lot less warlock damage early, I kinda feel its early game will be very boring, which is especially annoying since the DM is willing to extend the duration of early levels, no real damage before level 8, still no way to have double eldritch glaive damage.
3) Bard 1 / Warlock 8 / Eldritch Theurge 1 / Sublime Chord 1 / Eldritch Theurge (the rest of the way)
Feats : 1 Precocious Apprentice, Sanctum spell (to qualify for Sublime Chord), 3 : Mortalbane 6 Obtain familiar 9 Improved familiar
Pros : High level spells all around, high blasting damage, strong warlock early game.
Cons : Haven't looked through this build as throughly as I should have, not sure my DM would allow the precocious apprentice / sanctum spell cheese to qualify for sublime chord, skill starved, one level in bard slows down early progression, hard
4) Warlock 4 / Random dipping class (thinking of the UA variant of Druid, 1 level in Cloistered cleric for the domains, fighter for weapon finesse) / UR priest 2 / ED
Same build as 1), except that i would be looking for a one level dip that would allow to reduce my feat starving or maybe giving me a familiar for spamming snake's swiftness.
If you've read through all this, I thank you a lot for your dedication to helping me, don't hesitate to post anything that would be of help, not necessarily a full build, even one feat that I have overlooked and which would make my build better.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Faskill
Add in Bloodlines for extra cheese.
Of course, the Ur-Priest is powerful, one of the best PrCs in the game, but its usage is generally considered poor form outside of high-powered games simply because of how stupidly powerful it is.
Also, your Ur-Priest build doesn't work, as you're missing out on your fortitude save, and your SC build doesn't work because Precocious Apprentice doesn't work that way, and you're missing prereqs. Also, in either of those builds the Warlock will be a complete drag on the build.
My campaign won't be high powered, on the contrary.
The DM is planning to extend the duration of early levels, so my main goal is to find a build that is viable in the early state of the game as well as in the late states.
Mindbender gives +2 to fort at level 1 and warlock +1 at level 3 so unless I have overlooked something I do think I fullfill the fortitude requirements for the Ur priest class, but dont hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong
. I know the SC build is probably a no goner, maybe i can get away with bard 2 - warlock 5 - eldritch theurge 3 - SC 1 - ET X or something in those lines.If I sum up your answers, you both suggest me to go full warlock for 10 levels at least, but my problem is that I don't think I will be that viable after the Mortalabane damage compensation starts to become useless (probably at levels 6-7). What I'm really trying to find is an alternate that can be taken relatively early in the game (as warlock damage, even with eldritch glaive, will be very low before i can get quicken SLA / a second attack, that is before level 10 or so)
Or, you could basically become a proto-artificer by taking Warlock itself straight to 12. In this, blast is a decoy - however, building a warlock around Imbue Item when you start out far lower than 12th is a bit of a pain (it's great if you're starting at or above 12).
The artificer approach is much, MUCH stronger, but I don't think the power curve is quite so clean.
Incidentally, it's not the greatest race, but Hellbred (Fiendish Codex II) has +Cha and Telepathy (albeit at higher HD) as an LA+0 race. I would NOT suggest this for a glaivelock, since that comes at a Con penalty and a glaivelock wants to be on the front lines.
The binder build is interesting, the problem is that as I said before, I'm gonna start the campaign at level 1 and the early game will be very long.
What's more, retraining isn't allowed so I won't be able to get rid of the Focalor vestige later in the game, which is more or less a wasted feat late game.
The hellbred race is nice though, even if I'm not sure I can start with only 12 con, what's more, I'm not sure the +2 cha will make up for the loss of one feat and the inability to multiclass.
What I'm really looking for is a strong mid game alternative (levels 4-9) to pure warlock, that will have a smooth transition into a powerful late game build.
My problem with going pure warlock is the lack of damage (and of utility) before the levels 8 (two eldritch glaive attacks) and 10 (Quicken SLA)
Edit: This would help get you more uses of Eldritch Glaive per round and probably be a big help until you get your additional iterative attacks as you increase your BAB.
Since you've already come to the conclusion that Glaivelock is your best bet, you might want to consider the Combat Reflexes feat to maximize your chances for Attacks of Opportunity. If I recall correctly, Eldritch Glaive allows you to threaten AoO's for the rest of the round since it is a full-round attack action and it also has reach.
Edit: This would help get you more uses of Eldritch Glaive per round and probably be a big help until you get your additional iterative attacks as you increase your BAB.
There are two schools of thought about Eldritch Glaive (they aren't mutually exclusive but it's somewhat tricky to get both in the same build, largely because they favor different ability scores).
One is to max out your number of iterative attacks. This is facilitated with the same things that enable or enhance full attacks (example: Swift-action movement, Sublime Way boosts, Quicken SLA), and doesn't care quite as much about the rest of your invoking. Some builds go so far as to only have one warlock level when they do this, viewing the glaive as a way to deliver Power Attack as a touch attack. This has another advantage: Non-warlock levels tend to be tougher than regular warlocks when you're on the frontline (at least before Warlock 12). A pure warlock who focuses on Eldritch Glaive usually has to ask himself "why am I not further away with Eldritch Chain or similar?".
The other is to use Combat Reflexes to handle the number of attacks, and concentrate on blast prowess instead of base attack. This is facilitated with anything that improves your blast itself (including advanced Eldritch Essence invocations and the Hellfire Warlock + Legacy Trickster stunt for damage), as well as your usual laundry list of AoO / lockdown special effects (such as Improved Trip and Thicket of Blades). However, Stand Still is less useful here than usual.