Help with Warlock

[Snikies]

I like the Warlock, it has alot of nice abilities. Unlimited casting is great, but it sort of lacks options, especially with so low hp and slow attack progression. Any ideas on how to make a Warlock a stronger asset to the party? I had an idea for a monk style fighting warlock, but i couldn't make it work well, but i still want to play one. I just dont want to leave my party wishing they hired the halfling bard instead of the warlock. :P

[Corbeau]

First off, which edition? I presume 3.x and will answer thusly.

Second, how much warlock would you like? Warlocks can be focused into different aspects, but most require multi-classing.

If you're in love with melee combat I'd suggest search for a glaivelock build.
One of my favorites is the Ur-lock build which uses both the Ur-Priest (CD) and Eldritch Disciple (CC) PrCs. This'll net you lots of warlock casting and 9th level cleric spells.

So, in short, what do you want to do? Because if it can be done, chances are it already has been and can be easily researched. ;-)

[Zore]

You can really get up your blasting with a small dip into Binder and taking the Hellfire Warlock prestige class. Bind Naberius to offset the con drain from using hellfire. There are some other prestige classes that can further help this but their legality is...dubious to say the least.

Or just pump UMD and grab a ton of wands.

[Optimystik]

I don't think there's an up-to-date Warlock Handbook out anywhere (for 3.5 anyway). I hope I'm wrong, but I haven't found one.

[Zore]

I think the latest is like five years old and recommends mainly PHB stuff.

[Tokiko Mima]

I like the Warlock, it has alot of nice abilities. Unlimited casting is great, but it sort of lacks options, especially with so low hp and slow attack progression. Any ideas on how to make a Warlock a stronger asset to the party? I had an idea for a monk style fighting warlock, but i couldn't make it work well, but i still want to play one. I just dont want to leave my party wishing they hired the halfling bard instead of the warlock. :P

If you want what I think would make a fun an unusual monk based warlock, you could try a Human Monk 2/Warlock 5/Apostle of Peace 2/Eldritch Disciple 8/Hellfire Warlock 3 I suggested on another thread, but keep in mind that you'd be using Vow of Poverty, Vow of Peace and Vow of Nonviolence.

This means that excepting undead, constructs and other non-"living" creatures you cannot deal lethal damage. You can't keep treasure, magic items or most equipment, except to donate it to charity at a later time. And you can't allow your party to kill it's prisoners, except in certain cases of repeat offenders who break their oaths. You want to clear this not only with the DM, but also your gaming group, as your oaths will effect their characters for better or worse.

It sort of a lower power utility warlock with the ability to cast certain higher level cleric healing/buffing spells and a ton of Exalted Feats. You'd be unarmed melee and doing nonlethal damage to most living monsters, with the option to attack with full power when you meet one of the really nasty varieties of evil/strong creatures.

In general, warlocks get almost more attack bonus progression than they need, really. Touch attacks become easier to make as monsters grow larger, because most monsters get their armor at higher levels from natural armor bonus, which touch attacks ignore. Their HP is not really as low as you might think, given the fact that they have little in the way of ability dependence on ability scores, and thus like wizards generally are built with reasonably high Constitutions.

[Blas_de_Lezo]

I suppose you're talking about 3rd Ed, because of the attack progression.

It depends of the kind of warlock you want, but here's some tips for a balanced warlock:

STATS: you don't really need a high stat in anyone, but try to have at least a DEX 16, CON 14, INT 12, CHA 14
Human- One of the best races. Gives you an extra feat/skill, both highly needed of a warlock.
SKILLS- Concentration, Bluff / Intimidate and UMD are mandatory. If you have more skill points (you should), grab also Insight, Knowledge (Planes).
FEATS- as I suppose you're 1st level, you cant go wrong with PBS and Precise Shot.
INVOCATIONS- for 1st level either Shatter, Summon Swarm, Enthropic Shield, or Spiderclimb are great.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

I think the latest is like five years old and recommends mainly PHB stuff.

You absolutely must drop by BG sometime and check out the warlock information compilation (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2915.0).

[taltamir]

I like the Warlock, it has alot of nice abilities. Unlimited casting is great, but it sort of lacks options, especially with so low hp and slow attack progression. Any ideas on how to make a Warlock a stronger asset to the party? I had an idea for a monk style fighting warlock, but i couldn't make it work well, but i still want to play one. I just dont want to leave my party wishing they hired the halfling bard instead of the warlock. :P

1. low HP and low armor means you don't fight in melee... your primary attack is a ranged attack after all. (Don't take hideous blow, it sucks). That being said, you can make a melee warlock by focusing on the eldritch Glaive, which make you very very deadly in close combat.
2. Use Magic Device is a class skill... get some utility wands. (lesser vigor, enlarge person, etc)
3. Lack of options is not because of low HP or slow attack, it is because you know so few invocations. and so few were printed in splatbooks
4. A lot of invocations downright suck, hard. But some are awesome. The best ones are the fly at will, teleport at will, shatter at will, solid fog at will, entropic shield at will... you are an endless font of specific utility... Make sure you only shatter cheap items (magic items are immune, but only shatter cheap armor or weapons... make a chart of item costs).
5. Vitriolic blast - makes you ignore spell resistance... This is very very useful at some situations.
6. A warlocks BAB doesn't matter that much, first, all his attacks are touch attacks, they ignore armor completely. Secondly, he doesn't get extra attacks because his main attack is a spell like ability.
7. warlock blast qualifies for feats that improve attacks, like the feat improved critical.
8. You can crit for 2x damage on a nat 20 with a warlock blast as it is a "weapon-like-spell-like-ability".
9. If you wanna be a "monk style", then play an unarmed sword sage, which is like a monk, only not terrible... (monks are among the weakest classes in the game). I am not saying you can't play an unarmed fighter... but a fighter or barbarian with the unarmed strike feat makes a better unarmed fighter then a monk, and an unarmed swordsage is actually a specialized unarmed fighting class that is much much better then a monk.
10. There are feats, empower / maximize / quicken spell like ability... they let you empower / maximize / quicken your blast X times a day. You can stack them... so you can shot off a maximized empowered quickened vitriolic chain blast (say you are level 11 and your blast it 6d6... this makes it 36 + 6d6/2 to first target, half that to all subsequent targets... ignores SR, has no save, and just requires a touch attack to pull off)
11. If going for ur priest, consider zen archery (use wisdom to ranged attacks).