It's a 3.5 OA game, heavy on the wuxia, light on the magic. No Wizards (Wu Jen instead), no Shaman, Clerics, or Druids (Spirit Shaman and Shugenja instead). Taint is in play, as are Action points. Books allowed are Core minus Psionics, Oriental Adventures, XPH involving soulknives ONLY, Complete Series, MIC, Spell Compendium, PHB2, ToB, non-setting feats from Eberron core book, DMG2. We start at 10th.
I've decided to play a CG Warlock, of the Hengeyokai (Sparrow) race, as it's one of the few times I'd have the chance to play them. I know I'd like to go Warlock 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5, in order to fill the 'Sage' role while simultaneously being able to blast and heal. For feats I picked up Ability Focus, PB Shot, Fey Heritage and Fey Skin.
Where to go from here: that is the question. I would happily head from this point into Dread Witch, but the source material is denied. I made feat choices with the idea that I could, going forward, take Precise Shot and Knowledge Devotion (and Fey Power) for even better ability as a ranged combatant; would it, instead, be better to spend those two feat slots to take a second, capstone PrC?
Constructive input, as always, is appreciated.
I was going to suggest Urban Savant, or a variant on it that might fit better, but Cityscape isn't on your allowed list. That is a shame actually, because the knowledge based abilities that it gains would fit your "sage" theme well.
I tend to be of the opinion that Extra Invocation is almost always better than most other feats you could select as a Warlock-- particularly if you actually get to epic levels and can pick the epic warlock feats. (I'm playing an epic Warlock/Child of Night right now with the Shadowmaster feat and having a blast with it.)
I was going to suggest Urban Savant, or a variant on it that might fit better, but Cityscape isn't on your allowed list. That is a shame actually, because the knowledge based abilities that it gains would fit your "sage" theme well.
Urban Savant would be a decent fit, I agree - and I'm not ordinarily big fan of the PrC. I also thought about Loremaster, but I'd have to retcon at least one feat and have no room for Extra Invocation, which makes it sort of a non-starter.
Still digging, trying to find something more appealing than Warlock 15/Paragnostic Apostle 5.
Are you aiming for a warlock blaster or a glaivelock?
Too bad Cyran Avenger is out :/
Are you aiming for a warlock blaster or a glaivelock?
Blaster. Relatively low AC, relatively poor HP and armor options without feat investiture and lack of Dragon Magazine combined to make that the easy choice. Blaster/Sage/UMD-monkey/Debuffer (go go chain Deteriorating/Beshadowed Blast!).
Is it canon that the OA's Maho-tsukai PrC was replaced by the Tainted Scholar?Yes, technically :: whimper ::
[mr. burns]eeexcellent[/mr. burns]
Don't worry; it's not as if I'm contemplating doing this as a necropolitan or outsider....
(I'm playing an epic Warlock/Child of Night right now with the Shadowmaster feat and having a blast with it.)
Where can I find Child of Night? Is it a feat or a Prestige Class?
Where can I find Child of Night? Is it a feat or a Prestige Class?
Child of Night is in the Shadowcaster section of Tome of Magic, unless its name is duplicated elsewhere.
Child of Night is in the Shadowcaster section of Tome of Magic, unless its name is duplicated elsewhere.
That's the one I'm playing-- nothing incredibly powerful, though you do have a constant blur effect by the last level and you add your levels to your hide check, which is nice. It loses a caster level, so I don't know if I would have taken it during play, but I liked it as a full 10 levels for epic play.
you get:
Blasts Spontaneously
All cleric spells spontaneously
Paragnostic Apostle stuff...
Only thing I can't remember, which may stop you here, is that rainbow servant may be in a book that isn't on your list.
Warmage 5/rainbow servant 10/paragnostic apostle 5
you get:
Blasts Spontaneously
All cleric spells spontaneously
Paragnostic Apostle stuff...
Only thing I can't remember, which may stop you here, is that rainbow servant may be in a book that isn't on your list.
Um, yeah. Warlock, not Warmage.
Warlock.
Man, warlocks are hard.
I keep getting excited, then nothing.
These are my favorite Warlock feats/powers
Maximize/empower SLA for some beefy E-blast damage boosts. Take both of them, they're fun.
Spell Penetration - unless you spend an invocation slot for the blast essence that bypasses SR, then you'll need this and its brother (greater spell penetration) from the PHB.
Eldritch Glaive - least invocation from Dragon Magic (if it's allowed). You can make a full round action to attack a single target with a weaponlike eldritch blast with a range of 10 feet. You can then make AoO's with it like a spiked chain (I believe). When paired with darkness and devils sight, this is very potent (I'm in the darkness, I can see them, but they can't see me). Gets more rediculous when you multiclass for a higher BAB.
Extra Invocation - The guy who mentioned this was right, this feat is pure gold after level 6, granting you more invocations to allocate. I reccomend picking it up after 10 so you can get more lessers (and utilize more than just the invisibility/flight ones which are most awesome.)
So, your Warlock 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5 build would look like this:
Hengeyokei (sparrow) Warlock 10/Paragnostic Apostle 5:
Flaws: Pathetic (er, the -2 to all str based checks), and Weak Willed (-3 Will saves, easily covered by your class/prestige class)
Traits: Quick (-1 HP/level; +10 Move speed)
(note: if your DM doesn't allow flaws/traits, just ignore the flaws and traits and take your feats 2 levels later if you must)
Feats:
Lvl 1: Point Blank Shot
Flaw 1 (or level 3): Precise Shot
Flaw 2 (or level 6): Empower SLA
Lvl 3 (or level 9): Maximize SLA
Lvl 6 (or level 12): Spell Penetration (or with Vitriolic blast at lvl 10+, extra invocation (lesser) )
Lvl 9 (or level 15): Greater Spell Penetration (or with vitriolic blast at 10+, extra invocation (lesser) )
Lvl 12 (or 18): open feat
Level 15 (or 21): Open feat
Items (you didn't specify gold, so I'll keep them inexpensive)
Wand of Cure Moderate (4,500 GP)
Healing Belt (750 GP)
Warlock's Scepter (8,305 GP, MIC)
Lastly; you may want to check out surreal's handly links stickied at the top of the character optimization forum, run a search for warlock and see what pops up, warlocks are fun and very popular, I just prefer arcane spellcasters for versatility.
Good luck with your game and have fun.
The Fey _ line is admittedly not in the compilation, but Fey Power will be useful for the DCs, if I go for that option, (and it fits the flavor) while DR 4/cold iron is a reasonably useful investment of one feat at mid-levels.
Pixie will nab you
1 HD in fey
Improved invisilbity at will (duration, infinite)
Fly 60 (good), which you were going to take with WL anyway.
wicked dex and charisma bonuses (for blasting and invocation saves)
Dr 10/cold iron right away
SR!!
All of this, and more, at the cost of a +4 level adjustment, and it actually nabs you flight and invisibility before you'd be able to take it with warlock. Doesn't fit too well into oriental settings though.
Your 5th level could be an additional level of Warlock, the 5th level of shapeshifter for tiny forms other than a sparrow, or something like Master of Many Forms.
No pixies. Maho-tsukai looks like it's going to be the winner here. I'm not sure whether I can get the update (Tainted Scholar) allowed in or not because of the book limitation. I'll be marginally less effective as a debuffer than I'd like, due to the lack of Dragon Magic invocations, changing my initial blasts to Beshadowed and Hellrime, the latter via chasuble.