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Splendor
2009-10-18, 04:02 PM
Two more questions about Eldritch blast.

1) Does any book specifically describe the color or appearance of a Eldritch blast? Does anything state that each eldritch blast looks the same?
I know spells all look the same, unless you take spell thematics.

2) Does any of the books describe the location of where the Eldritch blast emanates from? Does it have to come from your hand, can I shoot it from my eyes? Can I change the location of emanation at will? Etc....

Yuki Akuma
2009-10-18, 04:03 PM
No.

It can look like however you want.

And so can spells. Spell Thematics is a stupid feat.

Tetsubo 57
2009-10-18, 04:05 PM
No.

It can look like however you want.

And so can spells. Spell Thematics is a stupid feat.

I concur. Feats are precious. Spending them on a simple descriptive bot of text seems absurd.

Kylarra
2009-10-18, 04:08 PM
Spell thematics is more than fluff though, you get +4 to the DC to identify your spells and a +1 cl to 1 spell/spell level.

hamishspence
2009-10-18, 04:08 PM
It is shown in the art as purple- and emanating from the hands.

However- it can be however the player wants.

The_Snark
2009-10-18, 04:20 PM
I know spells all look the same, unless you take spell thematics.

Um. Not really? See: DMG, page 34, "Describing Spell Effects", where it encourages players and DMs to come up with interesting descriptions for magic.

Glimbur
2009-10-18, 06:34 PM
Eldritch Blasts should be rainbow beams of justice fired from the fingertips of the noble souls brave enough to make eldritch pacts with the Fey in order to help all of humankind.

Or beams of utter darkness reflecting the hole which used to be the soul in the heart of those foul enough to consort with supernatural horrors from the deeps.

Or... beams of Freedom fired by those who pact with the slaad.

Or... etc.

Starbuck_II
2009-10-18, 07:02 PM
2) Does any of the books describe the location of where the Eldritch blast emanates from? Does it have to come from your hand, can I shoot it from my eyes? Can I change the location of emanation at will? Etc....

It originates from the rectum. You fart them. Silent but Deadly. :smallbiggrin:

Alavar
2009-10-18, 07:09 PM
So the simple Somatic component is pulling your pants down, eh? I like it! :smallbiggrin:

deuxhero
2009-10-18, 07:31 PM
Neverwinter Nights 2 has the blast as a whiteish blue beam from the middle of the casters palm.

Set
2009-10-18, 07:46 PM
As far as I know, Eldritch Blasts come from the hand, and, in Morthos' case, probably are reddish-black, to go with his color theme.

Having a Warlock who is Beholder-Pact or Dragon-Pact or Illithid-Pact, and produces an Eldritch Blast from their eye(s) or mouth or forehead could be pretty darn neat, 'though! (Although those sound more like variations on the base class, with the Eldritch Blast of a Dragon-Pact-Warlock being energy damage and the Eldritch Blast of a Mind-Flayer-Pact Warlock being psychic damage.)

Still, I altered the special effects of my Daelkyr Halfblood Warlocks invocations thusly; Piet's Warlock abilities are informed by his Daelkyr Halfblood heritage. His Eldritch Blasts appear as gouts of dark purple fluid, and his body shudders as he seems to vomit these energies deep from within himself. When his Eldritch Blast strikes another, the 'liquid' doesn't splash, it pour into the target creature, like water into a sponge, leaving behind a bruise that shines phosphorescent violet for the remainder of the round, with a visible sigil of some sort that twists and writhes, making it indecipherable. The affected area goes numb almost immediately, and the impact feels like the blow from a hammer.

When he modifies his Eldritch Blast into a Frightful Blast, it creates a wet ripping sound as it travels through the air, and lands with a meaty and painful sounding impact, feeling more like a stinging sword slash than a numbing hammer blow. The writhing sigil is more pronounced, and if the creature fails it's saving throw, it becomes obsessed with the marking, believing that Piet has somehow 'marked' them or 'branded' them, and that strange forces are now being drawn towards them, things that they couldn't see until just now. This bout of paranoia (or is it preternatural awareness?) fades within a minute, and the faintly luminescent sigil fades as well, leaving behind only a stinging sensation and a wound, as if from a piercing blow.

His Baleful Utterance is never truly 'heard' by any other, he whispers it, and all sounds seem to go still for a second, as if the world went deaf to avoid hearing the Dark Speech. A visible dark blur travels like a bolt from his lips to the target item, where it sinks into the item like oil and appears to burst it apart from within.

While Spiderwalking, he grows an additional finger on each hand, opposite the thumb, and his gangly tremulous hands appear even more like twitching spiders than normal.

When Piet uses his Summon Swarm invocation, he summons creatures that function statistically as bats, rats or spiders, but their appearance is alien and disturbing. His 'bats' appear as floating starfish, with tentacles like those of tiny displacer beasts, who spin lazily through the air like noisome snowflakes, slashing with their tooth-edged tentacles as they swarm around their targets. When he calls for 'spiders,' he gets tiny scuttling crab like creatures, who leap like locusts, stabbing with a single envenomed spine atop the center of their shells, throwing themselves like tiny darts at their prey. Instead of rats, Piet calls up creatures that look like hairless cats of kitten size, but with scales and patterns decorating their skin similar to that of a colorful venomous snake, including a flaring cobra-like hood around their throat, and a longer than normal tail.

His Fell Flight creates instead of a cloak of shadows, the appearance of silvery-white strands like spider silk bearing him aloft, as if he was a puppet on the strings of some monstrous unseen spider. These strands are not material and fade quickly from view, being only visible in his direct presence.

I'm fine with allowing a sorcerer or wizard to alter the special effects of their magic. The sorcerer can do it with every spell known, so long as the mechanical effects of the spell remain unchanged. The wizard can do it with the 2 spells / level he learns, and can take some time off and do a little research to customize the look of other spells he's acquired. Spells learned from a wizards spellbook or scroll initially have the special effects of the wizard that scribed them there (or the spell from which they were first copied, if their writer didn't bother to modify them himself), so that a wizard who cares nothing about such matters might have spells that use a motley collection of themes, reminiscent of the sources where he learned them, while one who takes pride in his personal reputation would tightly theme all of his common signature spells, and perhaps even strive to discourage lesser mages from mimicing his 'signature spells.'

Clerics and druids don't modify their spells. If they are modified at all, it is by the servants of their gods (or natural philosophies) that grant them. In the case of Clerics, particularly, it would be a sign of great hubris to attempt to modify the appearance of god-granted gifts for vanities sake.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-10-18, 07:55 PM
In the case of Clerics, particularly, it would be a sign of great hubris to attempt to modify the appearance of god-granted gifts for vanities sake.

Unless you're a cleric of the god of vanity. :D
Or the god of individuality, anarchy, et cetera; but those are less likely to have clerics per se.

One "warlock" I played used a string of holy symbols as a "focus" for his blasts and shot blasts of light from his holy symbols. Great fun.

The Glyphstone
2009-10-18, 07:56 PM
Make a pact with The King, and fire Eldritch Blasts via pelvic thrusts...

Milskidasith
2009-10-18, 08:05 PM
In the case of Clerics, particularly, it would be a sign of great hubris to attempt to modify the appearance of god-granted gifts for vanities sake.

But the Cleric of an Ideal can do whatever he wants... and even so, spells are very vague; a cone of cold an be anything from a blast of icy wind, to the entire area flash freezing instantly with no visual display, to everybody being stuck in a giant Ice Cream Cone. That's customization, to some degree, anyway.

sofawall
2009-10-18, 08:16 PM
Make a pact with The King, and fire Eldritch Blasts via pelvic thrusts...

It's just a jump to the left...

The Dark Fiddler
2009-10-18, 08:20 PM
It's just a jump to the left...

And then a step to the riiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiight.

Put your hands on your hips.

This needs to be a component for the confuse spell. OR some other spell... I dunno. Just SOME spell.

Milskidasith
2009-10-18, 08:23 PM
Time Stop. Or Time Hop, for Psions.

Worira
2009-10-19, 01:52 AM
Eldritch Blast does have a somatic component, so the default assumption, I would say, is that it comes from one or both hands. There's no reason not to refluff it, though, as long as you have a hand free.

AslanCross
2009-10-19, 03:33 AM
The half-fiend ogre mage warlock/crusader BBEG in my first campaign was a servant of Bane, the FR God of Tyranny, whose holy symbol was an armored fist squeezing beams of green light. The BBEG's eldritch blasts were virulent neon-green beams of fire that shot out of ghostly pentagrams that formed around his closed fist.

Something like this. 0:47 onwards, except green and not purplish black. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrdBaooZmZ0)

This would be a good example of what I think a Fey eldritch blast would look like. Or heck, Prismatic Spray. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K-ZpO609Fg)

Prak
2009-10-19, 03:53 AM
And then a step to the riiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiight.

Put your hands on your hips.

This needs to be a component for the confuse spell. OR some other spell... I dunno. Just SOME spell.

Otto's Irresistible Dance, of course.

There's an idea here (http://ps238principal.livejournal.com/96803.html)... but it's particularly childish. Though I suppose it'd also be particularly demeaning to one's foes...

Tyrmatt
2009-10-19, 04:51 AM
Time Stop. Or Time Hop, for Psions.

Let's do the Time Warp again!!

Personally I always consider the colour of "Eldritch" to be purple. Not sure why, but by default, one just assumes it's purple.
Firing it from the eyes suggests more of a ray mechanic so I don't recommend that, but I now have a liking for the idea of someone who vomits purple fire from the mouth. Puts me in the mind of Spring Heeled Jack, a campaign I am dying to run as soon as I create a properly steampunked Ghostbusters/Torchwood setting.

Dhavaer
2009-10-19, 04:53 AM
Make a pact with The King, and fire Eldritch Blasts via pelvic thrusts...

Aww, I wanted to do the pelvic thrust joke.

Yuki Akuma
2009-10-19, 06:01 AM
Let's do the Time Warp again!!

Personally I always consider the colour of "Eldritch" to be purple. Not sure why, but by default, one just assumes it's purple.
Firing it from the eyes suggests more of a ray mechanic so I don't recommend that, but I now have a liking for the idea of someone who vomits purple fire from the mouth. Puts me in the mind of Spring Heeled Jack, a campaign I am dying to run as soon as I create a properly steampunked Ghostbusters/Torchwood setting.

Eldrich blasts are already rays.

Also, eldrich means "oblong", obviously.

Freelance Henchman
2009-10-19, 06:04 AM
They really should be eye-beams.

Dhavaer
2009-10-19, 06:05 AM
They really should be eye-beams.

Nay, mouth beams. IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZOR.

PhoenixRivers
2009-10-19, 06:06 AM
Forehead. Then get polymorphed into a shark.

Reaper_Monkey
2009-10-19, 07:30 AM
The warlock in my group has orange and green fire for his eldritch blasts, much like burning copper (which he mostly fires from his hands). He keeps the same colour scheme for all the other invocations he does too, its quite distinguishing and identifying to his character. While in the same group there is a dragon shaman who's fire breath is flavoured as a burst of blinding white light emanating from her entire body (she also glows naturally) which burns things due to the strength of the light.

At the end of the day, the aesthetics of your spells and abilities really should always be customised because it allows you to portray more character and individualism for your heroes.