So, from what he told me, the following restrictions are applied
1. Each character must be a drow elf. This could include lesser drow variant, or half drow (however half-drow is very unlikely to be an option). Races like drider and Draegloth are only accessible if we undergo expensive rituals after the campaign begins (in other words, the huge LA and numerous racial levels weren't enough of a cost).
2. We are starting at level 1. That means that if you take a variant like lesser drow or half drow, you'll have an ECL 2 instead of an ECL 3. What this means is that you'll have room for a +1 template, yay. RHD count as class levels in this sense, so if you were thinking of applying a template with no LA but RHD to try and reach ECL 3, you won't be getting those extra HP/skills that you would get from that third ECL.
3. Since drows are very Nazi in philosophy, we aren't allowed to take flaws, since any drow born with a flaw is generally sacrificed to Llolth, and any who survive with such flaws are fair game for predators. In other words, it'd be impossible for a drow to survive in Menzoberranzen without being perfect. I take this as a hint to build a good character.
4. We're restricted to non-good alignments. We'll inevetibly end up mostly evil aligned, but as a group we're trying to play it as it would exist in the books. (plot plot plot plot, murder. Not necessarily in that order.)
5. Books allowed - everything 3.5 except for dragon magazines as far as I can tell... There may be a few others I would have to drop, but they aren't relavent unless they somehow manage to slip into this thread.
6. LA Buy-off is. . . Unknown to the DM. I'll use it if he lets me.
SO, without further Adieu, I introdruce Laereth Negrana'Elra
Warlock 20
Race: Drow Elf (standard, no variants)
Gender: Male
Age: 46
Feats:
1: Point Blank Shot
3: Precise Shot
6: Ability Focus (E. Blast)
9: Scribe Scroll
12: Extra Invocation
15: Extra Invocation
18: Extra Invocation
Invocations (in the order I'll take them):
Least: Sickening Blast, Spider Climb, Baleful Utterance
Lesser: Eldritch Chain, Flee the Scene, Sudden Swarm (DoU), Relentless Dispelling (12th), -5 SR blast (15th)
Greater: Chilling Tentacles, Nauseating Blast (and replace sickening blast with see the unseen), Eldritch Cone, Devil's Whisper (18th)
Dark: Retributive Invisibility, Utterdark Blast (and replace Nauseating Blast with Vitriolic Blast), Impenetrible Barrier
History:
Laereth Negrana'Elra was the noble first son of House Negrana'Elra. He has 2 sisters born before him, neither of whom had been accepted into the clergy, mostly because of their mother, but also because they lacked the initiative. That didn't really help his sistuation, despite the pleasure he took in watching their failure. The milled around Negrana'Elra manor day by day, bullying the slaves and any male drow elves who they encountered. Laereth had no brothers.
Laereth would have simply left the manor on some errand each day if he had that option, but he was undertaking the long ritual which would grant him warlock powers. This ritual left him quite weak, mostly from long hours of study, and made him an easy target for his sister's whim, and a much easier target for any drow on the streets who may want his money or his life.
He spent most of his days studying under the house wizard's tutelage, which meant that he had to basically study on his own for hours upon hours of each day, wherever he wanted to. The size of Negrana'Elra manor didn't help. The house was designed as simply 2 long halways with doors on either side leading to several (being about 5) bigger chambers. This meant for him that his sisters would be able to find him quickly, which they did, as soon as he began studying, and seemingly every time he began studying. They would demand foot rubs from him, and always accused him of hiding from them, then they would beat him for hiding from them. He hated them so much bile would rise to his throat every time he heard their names.
Matron Negrana'Elra was almost never home. She would take long trips to the market each day, mostly to revel in the onlookers who were forced by city law to bow when female drows in carraiges passed by. Her house was not of a very high standing, of course, but she was reknowned even among drow for her bad temper, and even held a seat in the Clergy's court. Rumors were spreading that her daughters failure to get into the clergy were her own doing, a safeguard against their competition for her position, and she despised to have competition in her own family, especially against herself.
Laereth's father was completely unknown to him, because Matron Negrana'Elra had several suitors, and quite often sacrificed them to Llolth (being about 3 per year). Males however knew nothing of these sacrifices.
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That's all I have down, feel free to make any suggestions you may want. I'm planning on e-blasting for my primary damage, and using the buffs listed above for what utility I can get.
Race: If your DM will allow half drow - take it. LA sucks for warlocks. Otherwise, take the lesser drow. It's still better than full drow.
Feats: You definitely want ability focus (Eldritch blast) - this gives a +2 save to your blast essences (twice as good as spell focus!!!)
Scribe Scroll is also a fantastic ability beyond level 12 - as you can scribe any spell in the game with a UMD check.
Maximize and empower spell like ability - I say YAWN! Eldritch blast isn't about damage - it is a delivery system for debuffs with some damage added on for fun. In other words ESSENCE = PRIMARY ABILITY, BLAST DAMAGE = SECONDARY ABILITY.
Least essences: WHERE IS BALEFUL UTTERANCE??? One of the best abilities in the game as well as one of the primary reasons to play a warlock. A third level spell at will - but that wasn't good enough so they added daze for a round with no HD limit. This should always be one of your first two selections.
You also want either sickening blast or frightening blast by level 2. Using an eldritch blast to do 1d6 damage on a hit makes you a waste to yourself and your party. If you do a nice debuff giving the enemy -2's to pretty much everything, and then add on 1d6 damage just for kicks - then you are valuable.
Lesser: This looks pretty good. I assume that we are guessing that in the underdark Spider Walk will mean Fell Flight isn't necessary? However - you might wan't Eldritch chain as your first choice (so you are delivering essences to multiple enemies)
Greater: Vitrolic Blast - the most overrated essence on the list. Yes, it overcomes SR - but the cost is that you fail to debuff with your EB, meaning that if you've selected this as your attack, your enemy's SR has already served its purpose. Do yourself a favor and get a wand of assay resistance and skip this one.
Chilling Tentacles - No baleful utterance AND no chilling Tentacles? Yeah, you want chilling tentacles. You want chilling tentacles as your FIRST greater essence. Trust me - you will thank me later. Chilling Tentacles is a game winner, a one step battle ender. Wizard's brag about Evard's Black Tentacles all the time - it is considered a STELLAR wizard spell - and Warlocks can do it at will with some damage added on for fun.
Dark: UTTERDARK BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chain Utterdark Blast for the win. Again, this should be your FIRST dark selection!!!
9th level divine spells, Dark invocations.
Divine Power + Eldritch Glaive invocation is very nice for combat.
Feats:
1. Point Blank Shot
3. Iron Will
6. Spell Focus: Evil
9. Mindsight
12. Precise Shot
15. Dark Speech
18. Bind Vestige: Naberius
or
1. Iron Will
3. Spell Focus: Evil
6. Extend Spell
9. Mindsight
12. Persistent Spell
15. Divine Metamagic Persistent
18. Bind Vestige: Naberius
Race: If your DM will allow half drow - take it. LA sucks for warlocks. Otherwise, take the lesser drow. It's still better than full drow.
I think the DM is forcing us to all start at LA +2, that's what I was trying to get at in the original post. Everyone will have relatively low HP to start. I'll try to take lesser drow, though, because I can think of at least 2 +1 templates which I find better than the standard drow race anyway.
Feats: You definitely want ability focus (Eldritch blast) - this gives a +2 save to your blast essences (twice as good as spell focus!!!)
I purposefully didn't take any Eldritch essences that had a save. But you are right about one thing, that really is better than spell focus. Maybe I'll swap out dark whispers for the blinding blast or something.. I'll have to check up on that.
Scribe Scroll is also a fantastic ability beyond level 12 - as you can scribe any spell in the game with a UMD check.
I do like the lvl 12 warlock ability that allows use of any spell for the purposes of crafting. I'm not entirely crazy about spending my experience on magic items, especially scrolls, though.
Maximize and empower spell like ability - I say YAWN! Eldritch blast isn't about damage - it is a delivery system for debuffs with some damage added on for fun. In other words ESSENCE = PRIMARY ABILITY, BLAST DAMAGE = SECONDARY ABILITY.
You are, of course, right. Blast damage comes in small amounts over multiple levels. Debuffs, however, are awesome and don't change the blast damage. I'll see if I can change some stuff.
Least essences: WHERE IS BALEFUL UTTERANCE??? One of the best abilities in the game as well as one of the primary reasons to play a warlock. A third level spell at will - but that wasn't good enough so they added daze for a round with no HD limit. This should always be one of your first two selections.
I did ponder taking baleful utterance at least for low levels, but it doesn't do as much in higher levels, maybe something I'll switch to something on the original list will fix this.
You also want either sickening blast or frightening blast by level 2. Using an eldritch blast to do 1d6 damage on a hit makes you a waste to yourself and your party. If you do a nice debuff giving the enemy -2's to pretty much everything, and then add on 1d6 damage just for kicks - then you are valuable.
I think I will
.Lesser: This looks pretty good. I assume that we are guessing that in the underdark Spider Walk will mean Fell Flight isn't necessary? However - you might wan't Eldritch chain as your first choice (so you are delivering essences to multiple enemies)
And with debuffs E. Chain is even better! Now I see what you're saying. Spider walk is for flare (and mobility), and since I was assuming drow as a race fell flight (while ultimately better) is similar to the levitate ability all drow get.
Greater: Vitrolic Blast - the most overrated essence on the list. Yes, it overcomes SR - but the cost is that you fail to debuff with your EB, meaning that if you've selected this as your attack, your enemy's SR has already served its purpose. Do yourself a favor and get a wand of assay resistance and skip this one.
An assay resistance wand would really make life easier. I'm only worried because drow gain SR every HD and I plan to murder a few over the campaign.
Chilling Tentacles - No baleful utterance AND no chilling Tentacles? Yeah, you want chilling tentacles. You want chilling tentacles as your FIRST greater essence. Trust me - you will thank me later. Chilling Tentacles is a game winner, a one step battle ender. Wizard's brag about Evard's Black Tentacles all the time - it is considered a STELLAR wizard spell - and Warlocks can do it at will with some damage added on for fun.
I like chilling tentacles, I think it's one of the best invocations on the WL list. The only reason I didn't take it was because I played a warlock in one of my older campaigns (where I was DM'ing) and I used it pretty much exclusively. I like to mix it up a bit.
Dark: UTTERDARK BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chain Utterdark Blast for the win. Again, this should be your FIRST dark selection!!!
I skipped utterdark blast because I didn't want it to replace vitriolic as the essence of choice. Having options isn't bad, however.
Also, I'd like to continue my responses to comments:
Warlock 6/ Mindbender 1/ Ur-Priest 2/ Eldritch Disciple 8/ Hellfire Warlock 3
9th level divine spells, Dark invocations.
Divine Power + Eldritch Glaive invocation is very nice for combat.
I must admit I'm not sure what Ur-priest is, and I don't have access to books where I am, but I don't see that flying well in Llolth's favorite city. I do like the build though, so if I have another chance I'll totally take it.
I would also have to play a female to be a priest(ess) in this city, not a problem except its.. wierd.
Since you're a Drow, consider a dip into Demonbinder (Drow of the Underdark). You get all the useful abilities from one level (although you do lose one invocation level).
I'll have to look into that one. Our group has a copy, but I don't have a reference copy available to me right now. I like the sound of it though.
I've made changes based on Treantmonk's
I must admit I'm not sure what Ur-priest is, and I don't have access to books where I am, but I don't see that flying well in Llolth's favorite city. I do like the build though, so if I have another chance I'll totally take it.
Ur-Priest is from Complete Divine (Book of Vile Darkness as well, but use the Complete Divine one) basically gets you 9th level divine spells over 10 prestige class levels, and rebuke undead. Only two levels of it are necessary to meet the prereqs of Eldritch Disciple. The eldritch disciple will continue to advance the divine spellcasting from Ur-Priest (which coincidentally gives you access to all cleric spells) and advance your warlock eldritch blast and invocations. It also gives you some really interesting abilities as well. The trick with Ur-Priest is that you have to basically not believe in any deities, renounce deities, or possibly worship a dead deity (dm fiat).
On a side note you could play this as a male drow since it is a warlock based build however you might **** off some priestesses of lloth when you go ur-priest.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1149005
Basically, the idea would be to combine the hexblade's cursing and dark companion abilities, high Charisma and Intimidate, and feats like Dreadful Wrath/Netherese Battle Curse/Intimidating Strike/etc to lower the saves of whomever you're fighting before slamming them with either an essenced eldritch blast, or a melee weapon you've used eldritch spellweave on if you feel like mixing it up in melee.
There are some obvious problems with the build, namely that neither hexblade nor warlock are a drow's favoured class, so XP penalties would become a real pain. (If there a feat that changes favoured class?) I don't remember off-hand what a half-drow's favoured class is; is it like the PHB half-elf where it's any? Also, the easiest way to make it requires your DM to allow Practiced Spellcaster to advance eldritch blast damage. The developers do seem to feel that it's in the spirit of the feat, if not stricty by RAW.
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=405215 For reference to the Practiced Spellcaster question.
I think the DM is forcing us to all start at LA +2, that's what I was trying to get at in the original post.
In that case, drow is fine.
I do like the lvl 12 warlock ability that allows use of any spell for the purposes of crafting. I'm not entirely crazy about spending my experience on magic items, especially scrolls, though.
Admittedly, neither am I. However, as a Warlock, versatility can be a problem - the craft feats can improve that situation. I recommend scribe scroll because often one-shot is enough - however, many would recommend craft staff instead.
I did ponder taking baleful utterance at least for low levels, but it doesn't do as much in higher levels, maybe something I'll switch to something on the original list will fix this.
At high levels you can switch it out. However, I'm not sure it ever becomes useless. Even at high levels - shattering a wizards spell component pouch is lots of fun. Also - daze (the other effect of Baleful Utterance - perhaps just as good as the shatter) is something that isn't easily avoided.
It's relatively easy to get immunities to paralyzation, stunning, criticals, sneak attacks, disease, poison, exhaustion, fear...
but daze is something I've never found an immunity for - if anyone has - let me know! (My wizard was dazed by a Blasphemy spell last night - most annoying)
However, unlike Eldritch Essences - the DC save for Baleful Utterance doesn't increase with level - so yes, you may wan't to switch it out later...
And with debuffs E. Chain is even better!
Excellent! You just graduated Warlock optimization school. They will fear you...
An assay resistance wand would really make life easier. I'm only worried because drow gain SR every HD and I plan to murder a few over the campaign.
Yep, with Assay resistance you will be able to bypass SR of equivalent level drow automatically. Then you can add a more debilitating essence to the blast.
I skipped utterdark blast because I didn't want it to replace vitriolic as the essence of choice. Having options isn't bad, however.
Oh - you most definitely want it as your essence of choice. Think back to your graduating thesis on debuff+Eldritch chain.
Now make that debuff Utterdark blast.
Very, very, very nasty.
Eldritch spear (to get some long-range options)
Fell Flight (well... fly at will is never bad)
And take the feat Supernatural Transformation from Savage Species, which makes your Eldritch Blast into a Supernatural Ability, thus ignoring Spell resistance altogether (and you no longer provoke AoE, and the effects cannot be dispelled). It is absolutely perfect for Warlocks.
If you want damage you may considder the Hellfire Warlock, but do a search on it since it requires a trick to work decently.