Warlock Eldritch Blast Flavor

[Maeglin_Dubh]

How do you envision an Eldritch Blast?

I don't really like the purple beam shown in most official books... are there any fictional characters you can think of that would provide a good example?

[MeeposFire]

Darkseid from DC comics could be a good inspiration. Touch AC is a good way to show energy beams that cannot be dodged easily.

[MammonAzrael]

It can vary from character character, but usually some type of dark-colored energy bolt. I don't really picture it as a "ray," but more like an arrow. I usually see it colored by whatever eldritch essence is applied to it. For instance and Brimstone Blast is a small ball of dirty flames and soot, scorching the target.

[Zaq]

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101015150626/annex/images/6/6d/Morelazer.jpg

[Scarlet-Devil]

I like to think that it works a little like in Goblins, where each person has their own magical "theme", or at least where the caster has some liberty in determining what their spell looks like; the DMG has an inspiring little paragraph about how the appearance of magic isn't set in stone, and gives as examples of what a fireball might look like an explosion of green flame with orange sparkles, or an image of a dragon's head appearing and scorching the area with its breath.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Does it have to come from your hand?

I know I dipped Warlock in a joke build to get Dinobot's eye beams, but I don't know if that's legal.

Just wondering, since it would allow me to use a longspear or some other two-handed weapon.

[Halae]

Technically, it never states what part of your body an eldritch blast is fired from, or what the somatic component is. A friend of mine in a joke campaign we were both playing in made a character he called "The Love Burst" who fired waves of eldritch power by hip thrusting

Most of the time, my warlocks instead toss balls of energy at their opponents, which look slightly different depending on the eldritch essence used.

[Daftendirekt]

I know I dipped Warlock in a joke build to get Dinobot's eye beams, but I don't know if that's legal.

WIN.

Also, this:

http://howtojaponese.com/wp-admin/images/hadoken.gif

[MeeposFire]

Nothing says it has to come from your hands. Hence why I mention Darkseid as an option. You do need a somatic component but that is left nebulous in this case.

[Cerlis]

well i'd think not being able to do both at the same time would only apply if you made both attacks happen at the same time. You can hold most two handed weapons in one hand, its just awkward to attack with em. so just replace wizard staff with spear and you got the image of your warlock with a spear.

----------------

and i prefer to imagine any form of energy blast from a myriad of Superheros, or whatnot

[Serpentine]

Technically, it never states what part of your body an eldritch blast is fired from, or what the somatic component is. A friend of mine in a joke campaign we were both playing in made a character he called "The Love Burst" who fired waves of eldritch power by hip thrustingOh man. Remind me to NOT mention this to the Warlock player in my game. There is no way he would not do it.
I think he's pretty much got the generic two-handed dark blast thing going on. But I'm always more than happy for people to refluff their spells as they see fit (the party's gnome fires bright blue shards for her Magic Missile).

[Maeglin_Dubh]

I'm thinking of dipping something at some point so I can have useful weapons. Yes, Eldritch Blast is fun, but having just a dagger besides is sad.

Also, what feats are good for a Warlock?

[Andraste]

Touch AC is a good way to show energy beams that cannot be dodged easily.

Touch attacks can be dodged just as easily as anything else, it's armor that they bipass.


Just wondering, since it would allow me to use a longspear or some other two-handed weapon.

I think that you can let go with one hand to cast a spell.

[ThirdEmperor]

My warlock's Eldritch blast looked like a kamehameha. Largely cause the DM got ticked off if I got creative with my descriptions. To this day, I see nothing wrong with vomiting spiders, geysers of acidic blood, or exhaling shadows. Then again, that particular DM considered "creativity" a swear word.

[MeeposFire]

Touch attacks can be dodged just as easily as anything else, it's armor that they bipass.



I think that you can let go with one hand to cast a spell.

Be literal if you want the point was that the omega beams almost always hit and touch attack almost always hit since it is normally much lower than normal AC.

[Daftendirekt]

Be literal if you want the point was that the omega beams almost always hit and touch attack almost always hit since it is normally much lower than normal AC.

I dunno, dragons have pretty epic touch AC.

[MeeposFire]

I dunno, dragons have pretty epic touch AC.

I assume you are talking about using a spell since dragon touch AC is normally horrible.

Dragons would be the sort of epic confrontation that should be able to stand up to the omega beams such as fighting superman.

[Serpentine]

My warlock's Eldritch blast looked like a kamehameha. Largely cause the DM got ticked off if I got creative with my descriptions. To this day, I see nothing wrong with vomiting spiders, geysers of acidic blood, or exhaling shadows. Then again, that particular DM considered "creativity" a swear word.Well that's dumb. Come play in my games, instead :smallwink:

[Zaydos]

Mine tend to be single-finger green energy bolts with slightly different appearance based on essence and shape. For example eldritch spear might make it end in an arrow head, beshadowed blast mixes the green with black and midnight blue and those were the only ones my last warlock had.

I also tend to play fey-themed warlocks.

[RaggedAngel]

Here's a little piece I wrote a while back to describe a Warlock:

The cornered halfling crouches, his eyes calm, peering up at his aggressors from the shadowed end of the alley. He smiles; it is mirthless and grim. He waves his hands in a smooth, flowing motion, ending with his right fist clenched in front of him. His face hardens for a moment as slight wisps of baleful power rise from his hand; suddenly, the alley is filled with a faint lurid light as a chaotic nimbus of dark red and black lines emanates from his fist. He raises his fist above him and the growing power reaches an apex, blazing back as if blown by a powerful wind. He snaps his hand forward, and the bolt of dire swirling power hurtles forward in an incoherent ball. There is a sickening sound as the blast strikes the foremost assailant; the sound of flames and breaking bones, screeching nails and tearing flesh. The human collapses to the ground, his form broken and twisted. His companions take pause for but a moment before they run. None of them leave the alleyway alive.

[golentan]

Posting this in the demotivator thread in a moment, but just figured I'd drop it here.http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/051/1/a/eldritch_blast_by_golentan-d3a1bxd.jpg

[DaragosKitsune]

Posting this in the demotivator thread in a moment, but just figured I'd drop it here.http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/051/1/a/eldritch_blast_by_golentan-d3a1bxd.jpg

Fun Fact: The Warlock actually comes with everything needed to make Dragon Ball characters. They fire energy beams, run on walls, fly, etc. at will. They resist damage. They are oddly good at working with artifacts.

[Set]

My Daelkyr Halfblood's eldritch blast and low-level Invocations;


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 simply seeps 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 weapon.

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 seems to burst it apart from within.

While Spiderwalking, he grows an additional finger on each hand, opposite the thumb, and his 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 dozens of silvery-white finger-thick strands like spider silk bearing him aloft, as if he was a puppet on the strings of some monstrous unseen spider. These strands whip around behind him as he moves, like ropelike albino tadpole tails, but are not material and fade quickly from view, being only visible in his direct presence.

[balistafreak]

They are oddly good at working with artifacts.

Not any type of scanner, though...

[MeeposFire]

Not any type of scanner, though...

Well you could concentrate on detect magic to find magical auras. Otherwise you could make an item to be like a scanner and warlocks could use it.

[Daftendirekt]

I assume you are talking about using a spell since dragon touch AC is normally horrible.

Dragons would be the sort of epic confrontation that should be able to stand up to the omega beams such as fighting superman.

'Twas sarcasm, my good sir. Touch AC is their biggest weakness. 10 Dex across the board, and size modifiers making it worse as they get older.

[balistafreak]

Well you could concentrate on detect magic to find magical auras. Otherwise you could make an item to be like a scanner and warlocks could use it.

:smallsigh: I know Warlocks have detect magic at will. You're missing the joke.

I won't explain for now...

[MeeposFire]

'Twas sarcasm, my good sir. Touch AC is their biggest weakness. 10 Dex across the board, and size modifiers making it worse as they get older.

Well I think there is a spell that boosts dragon's touch AC in the Draconomicon but I could be wrong.

You do know you could use smiley for my obviously too literal self:smalltongue:.

[Deity]

At will flight, lasers, and strange powers? I've been tempted to build a warlock flavored like this for a while:
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/Sara_Shadow/Teen%20Titans/Starfire-angrybolts.jpg

[Zaydos]

Well I think there is a spell that boosts dragon's touch AC in the Draconomicon but I could be wrong.

You do know you could use smiley for my obviously too literal self:smalltongue:.

Scintillating Scales; don't remember the original source but it's in Spell Comp. Changes natural armor to deflection. So your flat-footed touch AC now = your normal AC.

[Ravens_cry]

At will flight, lasers, and strange powers? I've been tempted to build a warlock flavored like this for a while:
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt7/Sara_Shadow/Teen%20Titans/Starfire-angrybolts.jpg
That would be the awesome. You like the Teen Titans, yes?

[MeeposFire]

Works well for Raven too.

[Ravens_cry]

Works well for Raven too.
Yeah, though her powers seemed to revolve largely around some form of telekinesis, if I remember correctly.

[MeeposFire]

Yeah, though her powers seemed to revolve largely around some form of telekinesis, if I remember correctly.

She has powers that do anything really. Sometimes she blasts, she flies, she will teleport away, and the list goes on. Telekinesis is something I cannot fully duplicate (though repelling blast helps a little) though you could create a telekinesis invocation which could a greater or dark invocation. Besides classes rarely perfectly match TV/comic/book characters anyway though the warlock does a fairly good job of doing the superhero thing.