Make a warlock interesting

[Galdor Miriel]

Hi playgrounders

I have a level 3 warlock, soon to level up to 4th level.

str 10, Dex 16, con 7, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 14 (All rolled and cannot be changed)

I came up with a Tibbit warlock to start, and his cat persona has been most amusing, he is called Izquat and obsessed with girls and setting things on fire.

From a flavour point of view I am very happy, well developed back story, an accent, and a chaotic neutral approach to life. Mechanically though a warlock is pretty dull.

The only thing I have at the moment is to take some levels in sorcerer and go into eldritch theurge.

I am curious though if anyone has any suggestions for mechanically intersesting routes to take. Not necessarily the most powerful, because, you know, given the randomness in most games, I do not buy into the tier system of power in actual games. As long as your character has something to do that moves the plot along you feel fulfilled.

So, I know about precocious apprentice (did not qualify), I know about chameleon (but I am a Tibbit), I know about hellfire warlock or whatever it is, but frankly scared of that with my con.....

What I am really after is a few more options, in and out of combat. If there was a way to synergise rogue and warlock that would be awesome, but I have never seen one.

Any help or comments appreciated.

[Grod_The_Giant]

A 1-level Binder dip lets you bind Naberius and get what is basically fast healing for ability damage, along with another few neat social abilities. (Or a couple other decent options, especially if you take Improved Binding). Thus, you can pretty much ignore the Con penalties from Hellfire Warlock. Later, if you beg your DM, you might qualify for Anima Mage and get full advancement of both your invocations and binding.

Rogue isn't too bad, actually-- take one level and the Craven feat and get 1d6+character level sneak attack damage, plus a whole boatload of skill points. Easy to trigger, too, thanks to Walk Unseen. Again, you might ask your DM about using Warlock to qualify for PrCs requiring arcane spells, using invocations' effective spell level. (You do qualify for things requiring an arcane caster level, if I remember correctly.)

[Galdor Miriel]

I like the walk unseen rogue option to get some skills. We are actually using the pathfinder skill system so that works pretty well. I just wish there was a prestige class to combine rogue and warlock. Like arcane trickster.

Thanks dude.

[Cog]

I just wish there was a prestige class to combine rogue and warlock. Like arcane trickster.
If Arcane Trickster is sufficiently like Arcane Trickster for you, then the feat Spell Hand will meet the entry requirement for you.

[Galdor Miriel]

Cool

take how ever many levels in rogue I need, get the skill ranks I need, the one feat and hey presto, arcane trickster. I like it!

[Galdor Miriel]

The only thing I need now is something to help me to talk in cat form!

[Grod_The_Giant]

Try a Pearl of Speech from... MIC, I think?

[Epsilon Rose]

If you're still looking for things, Telflammar Shadowlord (http://dndtools.eu/classes/telflammar-shadowlord/) might also be an interesting prc. It's big draw is that it lets you make full attacks coming out of a teleport, but it also has a number of other fun bonuses that trigger when you're in shadowy illumination. As happenstance would have it, warlocks can get at will teleports and darkness and, if the feat is allowed, full attacks with eldritch claws. The only big downside to Shadow Lord is that it has it's own spell casting, rather than just advancing invocation (maybe talk to your dm about trying to change that?).

[Snowbluff]

Thus, you can pretty much ignore the Con penalties from Hellfire Warlock. Later, if you beg your DM, you might qualify for Anima Mage and get full advancement of both your invocations and binding.
Warlocks can enter Anima Mage at level 2 with flaws. :smallsmile:

[Galdor Miriel]

Interesting, if not for my limited wits (int of 10) it could have been interesting.

GM

[nedz]

Eldritch Disciple might work, but it does require some Wisdom.

[Elderand]

Warlocks can enter Anima Mage at level 2 with flaws. :smallsmile:

Not whitout DM fiat they don't, at least not as far as I'm aware.
Anima mage requirement is the ability to cast 2nd level arcane spell. Warlock can't qualify for those. Warlock can qualify for classes that demand a caster level.

[Snowbluff]

Not whitout DM fiat they don't, at least not as far as I'm aware.
Anima mage requirement is the ability to cast 2nd level arcane spell. Warlock can't qualify for those. Warlock can qualify for classes that demand a caster level.

Bind Vestige
Improved Bind Vestige
Precocious Apprentice
MM.

Level 3 if your DM says precocious apprentice doesn't work with warlock. IN that case, you pick up Magical Training.

[Galdor Miriel]

Precocious apprentice is a feat you can only take at level 1, and I did not meet the prereqs. I see how I could get into Anima Mage, but why does it synergise with Warlock? The class abilities do not seem to do anything for warlock, though having binding and warlock is cool....

[Snowbluff]

Precocious apprentice is a feat you can only take at level 1, and I did not meet the prereqs. Curses! You can Dark Shuffle or Reformation to fix that, I think. It's not cheese if you are correcting a mistake.


I see how I could get into Anima Mage, but why does it synergise with Warlock? The class abilities do not seem to do anything for warlock, though having binding and warlock is cool....

I use the Warlock abilities as fill while the Supernatural Abilities from Vestiges are on cooldown. They synergize pretty handily. For example, you can use Andromalius to get SA, and then use it with Eldritch Blast.

[Elderand]

Level 3 if your DM says precocious apprentice doesn't work with warlock. IN that case, you pick up Magical Training.

Neither precocious apprentice nor magical training work

Precocious apprentice improve your existing casting ability and even mention that it require you to chose a 2nd level spell from a school of magic you know. The warlock doesn't know any school of magic.

Magical training doesn't work because it only give you access to cantrips.

Both together might work.

And even if it does, anima mage is worthless in that build. All it would do is improve your eldritch blast and your invocation known nothing else.

It does not improve your binding in any way shape or form because what anima mage improve on the binding side is your soul binding ability, which you don't have by RAW.

End result is you pay a whole lot of feats for the privilege of losing all the side benefits of warlock levels, a worse hit die and a worse attack bonus.

[Galdor Miriel]

I see, you are saying binder is cool, and you throw warlock into the mix.....

Hmmm

No way I can get PA but still could be fun.

Two cool options:

3 levels of rogue into arcane trickster
3 levels of binder into anima mage, plus possible hellfire warlock
4 levels of sorcerer into eldritch theurge
3 levels of cleric into eldritch disciple

If I can get another sneak attack dice from somewhere I might be able to get into arcane trickster without losing as many warlock levels.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Improved Binding says "I only need one Binder level." No cheese, no nothing-- you can just bind vestiges as if you had another 2 binder levels. But yeah, the two have really complementary fluffs.

[nedz]

Rogue 1 / Spellthief 1 into Arcane Trickster ?

[Snowbluff]

Neither precocious apprentice nor magical training work

Precocious apprentice improve your existing casting ability and even mention that it require you to chose a 2nd level spell from a school of magic you know. The warlock doesn't know any school of magic.

Magical training doesn't work because it only give you access to cantrips.

Both together might work.Apprentice alone is arguable, which is why I offered taking both.


It does not improve your binding in any way shape or form because what anima mage improve on the binding side is your soul binding ability, which you don't have by RAW.
It treats you as if you had gained level in Binder. This is a well documented exploit. :smalltongue:

[Galdor Miriel]

The spell thief idea is really cool. I would be close to max for warlock abilities, I would have sneak attack to add to the eldritch blast and get all the extra goodies from arcane trickster, but with the master spellthief feat I would be able to steal spells from creatures I hit with a sneak attack!

That is totally fun, making the arcane trickster optioneven more entertaining.

I think what I need to do now is figure out all our skill requirements for the arcane trickster option, we are using the pathfinder skill system, so things might be a wee bit different.