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View Full Version : Hellfire Blast: Eldritch Essence?



Chaelos
2009-07-23, 08:35 PM
Asking because I haven't been able to find this anywhere:

As per Complete Arcane, the rules of what can and can't be applied to an Eldritch Blast are:

"A warlock can apply an eldritch essence invocation and a blast shape invocation to the same blast."

My question, then, is this: Does the Hellfire Blast count as an Eldritch Essence, for purposes of fulfilling this rule?

Example: Warlock Joe chooses to apply Eldritch Chain to his regular blast, along with a Hellfire Blast. Atop that, under the RAW, it seems to me that he'd be able to apply something along the lines of Vitriolic Blast to the base eldritch blast, as well--there's no description of Hellfire Blast as an "eldritch essence" invocation, after all.

But I may be missing something, which is why I leave it to your capable hands.

PId6
2009-07-23, 09:00 PM
The description for Hellfire Blast says "When you use your Eldritch Blast ability, you can change your Eldritch Blast into a Hellfire Blast." This doesn't mention Eldritch Essences at all. It actually changes the Eldritch Blast itself; it doesn't apply an essence to it. So you can still apply an Eldritch Essence to a Hellfire Blast by RAW.

AslanCross
2009-07-23, 09:02 PM
It's simply an alternate option for Eldritch Blast. As such, it is not an Essence.

Fostire
2009-07-23, 09:09 PM
You should be able to apply any essence or blast shape invocation to the hellfire blast.
The hellfire blast is an eldritch blast. It's not a blast essence, it's not a blast shape, it's a blast. As such it follows all the rules of a regular eldritch blast including applying essences and blast shape invocations.

If you see the example character in Fiendish Codex II, you'll see that the hellfire blast appears as a spell like ability together with the regular eldritch blast, separated from the invocations (including essences and shapes)

Chaelos
2009-07-23, 10:03 PM
That's more or less what I figured. Many thanks for the help in clearing it up.