FMArthur
2011-08-11, 12:02 PM
Design Purpose:
Hellfire Warlock is nearly a mandatory option for Warlocks. Getting into Hellfire Warlock, extending the class's length and mitigating its Con damage are all important parts of making any Warlock that isn't trying to theurge with something else. Hellfire Warlock is basically Warlock++. This bothers me and many others. But the thing is, it's not overpowered for the rest of the game if all Warlocks are Hellfire Warlocks. In fact it improves their otherwise sorry lot in the game's class hierarchy. So I thought, why not just make it part of the Warlock class to preclude the possibility of a player not knowing/wanting to be a HFW, and let it start making the Warlock actually good at blasting earlier?
Then I just went ahead and 'brewed it up for my games. It was pretty simple. But after reading a recent thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210901) about the wider variety Warlock power sources, I eventually decided to start a proper homebrew in earnest to make non-devil options for all sorts of Warlocks. Sure, I could've just genericized the Hellfire ability, but this is more fun. I polled the D&D 3.5 forum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210950) for ideas on where to go with it and they came up with some cool stuff. I ran with their ideas and came up with what you see in this thread. What I did not set out to do was balance this against the existing Warlock class or replace its existing features; this is a straight buff to the class to be more in line with Hellfire Warlocks.
Warlock Power Sources
Your Warlock power can come from a variety of different sources, from outside influence to inner power. This can be through a heritage with a trace of some magical being in your bloodline, a pact specifically sought by you through one such being, a magical influence arising from close contact with it, or even your own strength of spirit. You begin play with a connection to one of these power sources, but your powers can change and be altered by the influence of another of these options if you choose to allow it, removing the benefits of your previous source. If you do decide to change your power source, the change takes place one week after direct physical contact or being affected by the magic of the new power source. This kind of change can also happen unintentionally under great emotional turmoil.
Below is a list of potential power sources. None of these sources have restrictions or even influences on alignment despite apparent affiliations with the forces of good and evil. This list is not all-inclusive; powers related in some way to those below might bestow the same magical influence on Warlocks as they do, at the DM's discretion.
Celestial: Your power came from angels, archons, or some other outsider with the Good subtype.
Dragon: Your power came from a mighty dragon, the icon of magical danger and force.
Fey: Your power came from magical beings connected to nature or some other magic from nature.
Fiend: Your power came from demons, devils, or some other outsider with the Evil subtype.
Self (Ki): Your power came from within, sought through intense meditation or was innate and dormant until triggered through personal growth.
The Deep Ones: Your power came from the unknowable creatures of magic from the deep, dark waters, such as aboleths or naga, or the supernatural and spell-like abilities of a sea creature.
The Far Realm: Your power came from contact with the Far Realm or creatures under its bizarre and terrifying influence, or even from an aberration's supernatural or spell-like abilities.
Undeath: Your power came from influence by necromancy magic or the supernatural and spell-like abilities of an undead creature.
Benefits of Power Sources
Starting at second level, you gain one of the following special benefits depending on your Warlock power source. Unless otherwise noted, activation of these abilities takes place when you use your Eldritch Blast but before determining whether or not it hits.
Celestial
Radiant Blast (Sp): Your figure softly glows white, and (unusable) wings of white energy appear on your back. This can only be activated on your turn but requires no action. Until the start of your next turn, you automatically make a ranged touch attack that deals 1d6 damage per two Warlock levels against anyone within 15ft plus 5ft per warlock level who targets you with any attack, ability or other effect (or includes you in an area of effect when it is initially placed). This ability takes place before the completion of the action and does not distinguish between friend and foe or harm and aid. You can choose to use this ability on a touched person instead of yourself - they glow white but no "wings" appear. The origin and range of the automatic attacks come from the person glowing, but they still use your attack bonus and Warlock level.
This ability takes a great amount of energy to use. After it ends, you become fatigued (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#fatigued), exhausted (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#exhausted) if you are already fatigued, or unconscious if you are already exhausted. This drawback lasts for 1 minute, but temporarily loses its effect for the duration of any new Radiant Blast. The durations for each instance of this drawback are still separate, so if you are unconscious and one instance of this drawback expires, you awaken exhausted. You can use Radiant Blast without taking this drawback a number of times per day equal to your Charisma bonus (if any), but otherwise you cannot normally gain the benefit of Radiant Blast if this drawback would be prevented from taking effect. You can also expend one use of your 'free' Radiant Blasts to recover from one instance of the drawback at the end of any turn in which you do not use Radiant Blast, and can even do so while unconscious.
Dragon
Dragon Blast: Your eyes gleam with draconic power, and your speech is amplified as if coming from a much larger creature. Until the start of your next turn, when you deal damage with your Eldritch Blast you add 1d6 of energy damage for every two Warlock levels you have. The type of energy damage is one of acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic, depending on the type of dragon your Warlock abilities come from. Sonic damage is reduced to 1d4 per two Warlock levels. You cannot activate this ability again for 1d4 rounds.
Draconic Influence: You gain the Dragonblood subtype.
Fey
Glimmering Glamour: The air about you sparkles like twinkling stars, and your hair and clothes float in unseen wind. Before you make an attack using an eldritch essence, you can activate this ability and choose one of the following: attack rolls, armor class, saving throws, skill checks, one's own save DCs. If a foe fails a saving throw against one of your eldritch essences between now and the start of your next turn, it takes a penalty to the chosen statistic equal half your Warlock level. This effect is cumulative with itself and lasts for 1 minute. Durations of multiple stacks of this ability are not tracked separately; the entirety of its penalty lasts for 1 minute after the latest application.
At the start of your next turn, you take a penalty equal to half your Warlock level to the same statistic you chose for one round. You can avoid taking this penalty a number of times per day equal to your Charisma bonus (if any).
Unwavering Gaze: You may use 1 plus half your Warlock level as the spell level equivalent for any of your invocations if it would be advantageous to do so.
Fiend
Hellfire Blast: Your eyes turn black, and evil power surges through your veins, black lines visibly spreading beneath your skin like tendrils trying to take hold. You can sacrifice some of your essence to the fiends you are tied to, taking 1 Con damage to improve the damage of your Eldritch Blast until the start of your next turn. You only gain this ability's benefit if you take its Constitution damage. This makes your Eldritch Blast deal extra damage equal to half your Warlock level in d6s.
Recovery: A number of times per day equal to 1 + your Charisma bonus (if any), you can recover 1 point of lost Constitution due to Hellfire Blast at any time during your turn. You automatically heal the remainder of the Constitution damage from Hellfire Blast when you rest for 10 minutes.
Self (Ki)
Lifestrike: As you focus, you begin to 'feel' the lifeforce of your target, finding a way to attack it more directly with your own. Even soulless magical creatures have a core of magic that binds them, which you can search out and target. As a standard action, you can make a Concentration check against the Armor Class of one opponent you can see. If you succeed, your Eldritch Blasts against them gain a +1 bonus on the attack roll and +1d6 to the damage until the target leaves your sight or you use this ability again. The bonus on the attack and damage increases by +1 and +1d6 respectively for every three Warlock levels after 2nd. The activation of this ability bears no visible sign.
You can attempt to activate this ability as a swift action with a -5 penalty to the Concentration check, but it leaves you fatigued (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#fatigued), exhausted (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#exhausted) if you are already fatigued, or unconscious if you are already exhausted. This drawback lasts for 1 minute. The durations for each instance of this drawback are still separate, so if you are unconscious and one instance of this drawback expires, you awaken exhausted. You can only use this usage of Lifestrike if you are not immune to its drawback.
Wild Talent: You gain 2 psionic power points, and with them the ability to become psionically focused (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/concentration.htm#gainPsionicFocus) and take psionic feats (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/psionicFeats.htm).
The Deep Ones
Eldritch Torrent: The dark energy of your Eldritch Blast swirls and splashes around your body, moving like water. Until the start of your next turn, when you strike a creature with your Eldritch Blast, all creatures within 5ft of it (including itself) must make a Reflex save with a DC of 10 + Charisma + half your Warlock level. Creatures who fail the save are knocked prone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#prone) and take half the Eldritch Blast's damage unless they have already taken damage from it. Creatures who pass the save are moved to just outside its radius. The area of this effect extends another 5ft per four Warlock levels after 2nd, but you can always choose to reduce it. In the case of multi-hitting blast shapes, the size you choose for each hit can be chosen individually.
The use of Eldritch Torrent brings you closer to the alien mind of a creature of the deep, reducing your sense of self and empathy with others. When Eldritch Torrent's effect ends, you suffer 4 points of Charisma damage. You cannot use Eldritch Torrent if you do not take the Charisma damage. At the start of the next turn after that, you begin to heal this ability damage at a rate of 1 point per round. This healing is halted when Eldritch Torrent is used again. You can use Eldritch Torrent underwater without interference despite its liquid appearance.
The Far Realm
Maddening Blast: Faint, eerie darkness spirals around you as if caught in a whirlpool, and alien sounds and voices whisper through the air. You can choose to take 2 Wisdom damage to give your Eldritch Blast a terrifying aspect until the start of your next turn; you only gain this ability's benefit if you take its Wisdom damage. This allows you to make a free Intimidate check to Demoralize (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/intimidate.htm) every opponent you damage with your Eldritch Blast, and the demoralization lasts for 1 plus half your Warlock level in rounds. This happens after the effect of the Frightful Blast essence if you use both. Succeeding with this check advances fear stages as normal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#fear) (from normal to shaken (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#shaken), shaken to frightened (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#frightened) and frightened to panicked (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#panicked)), but can also advance panicked creatures to cowering (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#cowering). If a target is already cowering or is immune to this fear effect it takes 1 Wisdom damage plus another 1 for every three Warlock levels. This ability does not trigger against targets who successfully make the save for half damage when a blast shape offers one.
Recovery: A number of times per day equal to your Charisma bonus (if any) plus your Warlock level, you can recover 2 points of lost Wisdom due to Maddening Blast at the end of a turn in which you did not use it. You automatically heal the remainder of the Wisdom damage from Maddening Blast when you rest for 8 hours.
Undeath
Warlock Vampirism: Your skin is unusually pale, and any hair discoloration or wrinkles due to age gradually fade the more you use your Warlock Vampirism; this effect reverts after 24 hours without use. Whenever you strike a living creature with your Eldritch Blast, you gain something called a 'vampire stack'; you can accumulate up 1 plus half your Warlock level in vampire stacks, but they all expire when you go 1 minute without gaining any. You receive a bonus to your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores equal to the number of vampire stacks you possess. This ability does not trigger against targets who successfully make the save for half damage when a blast shape offers one.
You can also sink your teeth into a living creature while in a grapple to use Warlock Vampirism. While grappling the target, you can take a standard action to make a grapple check against it and deal 1 damage to it, or you can take a full-round action to make a grapple check against it for 1 damage plus another 1 for every iterative attack you would gain from your base attack bonus. This ignores damage reduction. You gain 2 vampire stacks for every point of damage your target takes from this. You can take this action on a willing target within 5 feet of you without already being in a grapple. Typically this form of attack would be used to power your Warlock Vampirism without major harm to the subject. Superstition surrounds and promotes fear of this action, but the subject takes no actual adverse effects beyond the damage (although it can activate the Undeath power source in a Warlock).
Sacrificial Blast: You can deliver a more powerful attack using the stolen essence of creatures attacked with your Warlock Vampirism. When you activate this ability, you can select any number of vampire stacks you have to improve your Eldritch Blast's damage by 1d6 per stack. This lasts until the start of your next turn, whereupon the stacks selected are lost. You do not gain vampire stacks on this attack.
Author's Note: Because this is intended to replace Hellfire Warlock in Warlock character builds, you are not permitted to take levels in Hellfire Warlock if you use any Warlock power source abilities, even the non-Hellfire ones.
Hellfire Warlock is nearly a mandatory option for Warlocks. Getting into Hellfire Warlock, extending the class's length and mitigating its Con damage are all important parts of making any Warlock that isn't trying to theurge with something else. Hellfire Warlock is basically Warlock++. This bothers me and many others. But the thing is, it's not overpowered for the rest of the game if all Warlocks are Hellfire Warlocks. In fact it improves their otherwise sorry lot in the game's class hierarchy. So I thought, why not just make it part of the Warlock class to preclude the possibility of a player not knowing/wanting to be a HFW, and let it start making the Warlock actually good at blasting earlier?
Then I just went ahead and 'brewed it up for my games. It was pretty simple. But after reading a recent thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210901) about the wider variety Warlock power sources, I eventually decided to start a proper homebrew in earnest to make non-devil options for all sorts of Warlocks. Sure, I could've just genericized the Hellfire ability, but this is more fun. I polled the D&D 3.5 forum (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210950) for ideas on where to go with it and they came up with some cool stuff. I ran with their ideas and came up with what you see in this thread. What I did not set out to do was balance this against the existing Warlock class or replace its existing features; this is a straight buff to the class to be more in line with Hellfire Warlocks.
Warlock Power Sources
Your Warlock power can come from a variety of different sources, from outside influence to inner power. This can be through a heritage with a trace of some magical being in your bloodline, a pact specifically sought by you through one such being, a magical influence arising from close contact with it, or even your own strength of spirit. You begin play with a connection to one of these power sources, but your powers can change and be altered by the influence of another of these options if you choose to allow it, removing the benefits of your previous source. If you do decide to change your power source, the change takes place one week after direct physical contact or being affected by the magic of the new power source. This kind of change can also happen unintentionally under great emotional turmoil.
Below is a list of potential power sources. None of these sources have restrictions or even influences on alignment despite apparent affiliations with the forces of good and evil. This list is not all-inclusive; powers related in some way to those below might bestow the same magical influence on Warlocks as they do, at the DM's discretion.
Celestial: Your power came from angels, archons, or some other outsider with the Good subtype.
Dragon: Your power came from a mighty dragon, the icon of magical danger and force.
Fey: Your power came from magical beings connected to nature or some other magic from nature.
Fiend: Your power came from demons, devils, or some other outsider with the Evil subtype.
Self (Ki): Your power came from within, sought through intense meditation or was innate and dormant until triggered through personal growth.
The Deep Ones: Your power came from the unknowable creatures of magic from the deep, dark waters, such as aboleths or naga, or the supernatural and spell-like abilities of a sea creature.
The Far Realm: Your power came from contact with the Far Realm or creatures under its bizarre and terrifying influence, or even from an aberration's supernatural or spell-like abilities.
Undeath: Your power came from influence by necromancy magic or the supernatural and spell-like abilities of an undead creature.
Benefits of Power Sources
Starting at second level, you gain one of the following special benefits depending on your Warlock power source. Unless otherwise noted, activation of these abilities takes place when you use your Eldritch Blast but before determining whether or not it hits.
Celestial
Radiant Blast (Sp): Your figure softly glows white, and (unusable) wings of white energy appear on your back. This can only be activated on your turn but requires no action. Until the start of your next turn, you automatically make a ranged touch attack that deals 1d6 damage per two Warlock levels against anyone within 15ft plus 5ft per warlock level who targets you with any attack, ability or other effect (or includes you in an area of effect when it is initially placed). This ability takes place before the completion of the action and does not distinguish between friend and foe or harm and aid. You can choose to use this ability on a touched person instead of yourself - they glow white but no "wings" appear. The origin and range of the automatic attacks come from the person glowing, but they still use your attack bonus and Warlock level.
This ability takes a great amount of energy to use. After it ends, you become fatigued (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#fatigued), exhausted (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#exhausted) if you are already fatigued, or unconscious if you are already exhausted. This drawback lasts for 1 minute, but temporarily loses its effect for the duration of any new Radiant Blast. The durations for each instance of this drawback are still separate, so if you are unconscious and one instance of this drawback expires, you awaken exhausted. You can use Radiant Blast without taking this drawback a number of times per day equal to your Charisma bonus (if any), but otherwise you cannot normally gain the benefit of Radiant Blast if this drawback would be prevented from taking effect. You can also expend one use of your 'free' Radiant Blasts to recover from one instance of the drawback at the end of any turn in which you do not use Radiant Blast, and can even do so while unconscious.
Dragon
Dragon Blast: Your eyes gleam with draconic power, and your speech is amplified as if coming from a much larger creature. Until the start of your next turn, when you deal damage with your Eldritch Blast you add 1d6 of energy damage for every two Warlock levels you have. The type of energy damage is one of acid, cold, electricity, fire or sonic, depending on the type of dragon your Warlock abilities come from. Sonic damage is reduced to 1d4 per two Warlock levels. You cannot activate this ability again for 1d4 rounds.
Draconic Influence: You gain the Dragonblood subtype.
Fey
Glimmering Glamour: The air about you sparkles like twinkling stars, and your hair and clothes float in unseen wind. Before you make an attack using an eldritch essence, you can activate this ability and choose one of the following: attack rolls, armor class, saving throws, skill checks, one's own save DCs. If a foe fails a saving throw against one of your eldritch essences between now and the start of your next turn, it takes a penalty to the chosen statistic equal half your Warlock level. This effect is cumulative with itself and lasts for 1 minute. Durations of multiple stacks of this ability are not tracked separately; the entirety of its penalty lasts for 1 minute after the latest application.
At the start of your next turn, you take a penalty equal to half your Warlock level to the same statistic you chose for one round. You can avoid taking this penalty a number of times per day equal to your Charisma bonus (if any).
Unwavering Gaze: You may use 1 plus half your Warlock level as the spell level equivalent for any of your invocations if it would be advantageous to do so.
Fiend
Hellfire Blast: Your eyes turn black, and evil power surges through your veins, black lines visibly spreading beneath your skin like tendrils trying to take hold. You can sacrifice some of your essence to the fiends you are tied to, taking 1 Con damage to improve the damage of your Eldritch Blast until the start of your next turn. You only gain this ability's benefit if you take its Constitution damage. This makes your Eldritch Blast deal extra damage equal to half your Warlock level in d6s.
Recovery: A number of times per day equal to 1 + your Charisma bonus (if any), you can recover 1 point of lost Constitution due to Hellfire Blast at any time during your turn. You automatically heal the remainder of the Constitution damage from Hellfire Blast when you rest for 10 minutes.
Self (Ki)
Lifestrike: As you focus, you begin to 'feel' the lifeforce of your target, finding a way to attack it more directly with your own. Even soulless magical creatures have a core of magic that binds them, which you can search out and target. As a standard action, you can make a Concentration check against the Armor Class of one opponent you can see. If you succeed, your Eldritch Blasts against them gain a +1 bonus on the attack roll and +1d6 to the damage until the target leaves your sight or you use this ability again. The bonus on the attack and damage increases by +1 and +1d6 respectively for every three Warlock levels after 2nd. The activation of this ability bears no visible sign.
You can attempt to activate this ability as a swift action with a -5 penalty to the Concentration check, but it leaves you fatigued (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#fatigued), exhausted (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#exhausted) if you are already fatigued, or unconscious if you are already exhausted. This drawback lasts for 1 minute. The durations for each instance of this drawback are still separate, so if you are unconscious and one instance of this drawback expires, you awaken exhausted. You can only use this usage of Lifestrike if you are not immune to its drawback.
Wild Talent: You gain 2 psionic power points, and with them the ability to become psionically focused (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/skills/concentration.htm#gainPsionicFocus) and take psionic feats (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/psionicFeats.htm).
The Deep Ones
Eldritch Torrent: The dark energy of your Eldritch Blast swirls and splashes around your body, moving like water. Until the start of your next turn, when you strike a creature with your Eldritch Blast, all creatures within 5ft of it (including itself) must make a Reflex save with a DC of 10 + Charisma + half your Warlock level. Creatures who fail the save are knocked prone (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#prone) and take half the Eldritch Blast's damage unless they have already taken damage from it. Creatures who pass the save are moved to just outside its radius. The area of this effect extends another 5ft per four Warlock levels after 2nd, but you can always choose to reduce it. In the case of multi-hitting blast shapes, the size you choose for each hit can be chosen individually.
The use of Eldritch Torrent brings you closer to the alien mind of a creature of the deep, reducing your sense of self and empathy with others. When Eldritch Torrent's effect ends, you suffer 4 points of Charisma damage. You cannot use Eldritch Torrent if you do not take the Charisma damage. At the start of the next turn after that, you begin to heal this ability damage at a rate of 1 point per round. This healing is halted when Eldritch Torrent is used again. You can use Eldritch Torrent underwater without interference despite its liquid appearance.
The Far Realm
Maddening Blast: Faint, eerie darkness spirals around you as if caught in a whirlpool, and alien sounds and voices whisper through the air. You can choose to take 2 Wisdom damage to give your Eldritch Blast a terrifying aspect until the start of your next turn; you only gain this ability's benefit if you take its Wisdom damage. This allows you to make a free Intimidate check to Demoralize (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/intimidate.htm) every opponent you damage with your Eldritch Blast, and the demoralization lasts for 1 plus half your Warlock level in rounds. This happens after the effect of the Frightful Blast essence if you use both. Succeeding with this check advances fear stages as normal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#fear) (from normal to shaken (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#shaken), shaken to frightened (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#frightened) and frightened to panicked (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#panicked)), but can also advance panicked creatures to cowering (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#cowering). If a target is already cowering or is immune to this fear effect it takes 1 Wisdom damage plus another 1 for every three Warlock levels. This ability does not trigger against targets who successfully make the save for half damage when a blast shape offers one.
Recovery: A number of times per day equal to your Charisma bonus (if any) plus your Warlock level, you can recover 2 points of lost Wisdom due to Maddening Blast at the end of a turn in which you did not use it. You automatically heal the remainder of the Wisdom damage from Maddening Blast when you rest for 8 hours.
Undeath
Warlock Vampirism: Your skin is unusually pale, and any hair discoloration or wrinkles due to age gradually fade the more you use your Warlock Vampirism; this effect reverts after 24 hours without use. Whenever you strike a living creature with your Eldritch Blast, you gain something called a 'vampire stack'; you can accumulate up 1 plus half your Warlock level in vampire stacks, but they all expire when you go 1 minute without gaining any. You receive a bonus to your Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores equal to the number of vampire stacks you possess. This ability does not trigger against targets who successfully make the save for half damage when a blast shape offers one.
You can also sink your teeth into a living creature while in a grapple to use Warlock Vampirism. While grappling the target, you can take a standard action to make a grapple check against it and deal 1 damage to it, or you can take a full-round action to make a grapple check against it for 1 damage plus another 1 for every iterative attack you would gain from your base attack bonus. This ignores damage reduction. You gain 2 vampire stacks for every point of damage your target takes from this. You can take this action on a willing target within 5 feet of you without already being in a grapple. Typically this form of attack would be used to power your Warlock Vampirism without major harm to the subject. Superstition surrounds and promotes fear of this action, but the subject takes no actual adverse effects beyond the damage (although it can activate the Undeath power source in a Warlock).
Sacrificial Blast: You can deliver a more powerful attack using the stolen essence of creatures attacked with your Warlock Vampirism. When you activate this ability, you can select any number of vampire stacks you have to improve your Eldritch Blast's damage by 1d6 per stack. This lasts until the start of your next turn, whereupon the stacks selected are lost. You do not gain vampire stacks on this attack.
Author's Note: Because this is intended to replace Hellfire Warlock in Warlock character builds, you are not permitted to take levels in Hellfire Warlock if you use any Warlock power source abilities, even the non-Hellfire ones.