[3.5] Buyer's Remorse and Carving a Niche

[Dell_the_Engie]

So several months ago, I was asked to make a level-9 character for a campaign, and it was my first character ever. I decided to make a warlock, but I really had no idea what I was going to do with him at the time, and my knowledge was pretty limited, so I just gave him a bunch of "you can't hit me" invocations and whatever feats sounded good from PHB and Complete Arcane. This resulted in an essentially useless character. Our party was practically a small army at this point, and so there was little need of staying hidden and avoiding attacks, and my unmodified eldritch blasts were pretty meager helpings compared to the plates of whoopass our fighter was dishing. It was pretty clear I was just hopping in the back seat for a ride, and I would mostly have to watch everyone else clobber the hell out of things. Over time, however, with reading a lot more material from books and forums, and also developing my character through (slowly improving) roleplay and writing, I've come to see the niche that my character can fill, hopefully to great effect.

That finally leads me to my questions for you guys. My DM is letting me swap out Combat Casting for, well, whatever I want, really, so long as it isn't dangerously cheesy. I want to start working toward battlefield control and also social control. What feats would you recommend with this in mind? Homebrew feats are also welcomed.

Secondly, my DM is granting all characters a "boon" after recent events. She's letting me pick a boon as well, with the same stipulation as the replacement feat. I'm not really familiar with boons, since I guess they're a 4e variant rule or something. It seems to me, though, that they're meant to emulate spells or magic items. In any case, we're not going by those rules, so this boon can be pretty much anything! So, if you were a 10th-level warlock who wanted to dominate both the battlefield and the local debate circle, and could pick anything you wanted that wouldn't get you bludgeoned to death by a DM, what would you pick? Thanks.

[TheDarkDM]

To be brutally honest, a feat and a permanent magical effect are unlikely to get you exceptional battlefield control or social mastery. Posting your full build would help everyone here give you some specific advice, as well as informing us of your complete party composition. Then we can identify the niches that have yet to be filled and possibly help you fit into one or more of them.

Before that, though, you should specify the optimization level at your table. That this is your first character and that the fighter is the primary damage dealer suggests to me that your party is relatively low-OP (which is not in any way a judgement, just an observation). Regardless of whether that's true or not, narrowing down just how capable the other PC's are will help narrow down the options that will help you mesh rather than overwhelm.

All that said, Mortalbane is a fun Warlock feat. It lets you add an additional 2d6 of damage to an SLA five times per day. You can find it in Book of Vile Darkness. I also assume you've picked up a Greater Chasuble of Fell Power, but if you haven't it's a decent contender for a permanent magical effect. Those both get you damage rather than control or social ability, but to achieve those ends you're better of retraining your invocations (assuming your DM abides by those optional rules).

The best advice I can give is for you to look towards the future with a bit more system mastery. The bread and butter of Warlock optimization is taking a level of Binder so you can bind Naberius (which aids your social ambitions as well), then taking Hellfire Warlock. You'll find Binder in Tome of Magic and Hellfire Warlock in Fiendish Codex II, but I'll wait until you give us the rundown on the party before recommending this route - I'm not sure whether 6d6 extra eldritch blast damage over three levels would ping your DM's cheese sensor.

*edit*
Or you could opt for a permanent Glibness effect as your boon, but that will almost certainly get a DMG tossed at your head. :smalltongue:

[Telonius]

Without seeing anything else about the build, I'd suggest Extra Invocation. If the problem is poor Invocation choice, choose a better Invocation.

For the Boon ... if it's really that bad, and a "rebuild quest" isn't an option, a one-time Psychic Reformation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psychicReformation.htm) gives an in-game way of undoing bad choices.

If it has to be a spell, Wall of Stone or Wall of Thorns might be good options for Battlefield Control. (I'm assuming it's going to be something 5th-level or lower, given that you're level 10).

[infomatic]

Extra invocation isn't dynamite, but it might be the best short-term answer.

I also would like to see the entire build, as well as details on other party members and playstyle of group (including what sort of campaign it is and whether it's a table game or play-by-post).

If you could make one bigger change — check out using the 3.5 retraining rules to swap in a level of Binder for Warlock9/Binder 1 — that gets you Leraje now (for Ricocheting Eldritch Blasts and Precise Shot feat, useful for shooting into "small armies" of PCs) and Naberius later, when you can pair it with Hellfire Warlock.

In the meantime, pick up Bracers of Blast Barrier or Entangling Blast, which can give you some battlefield control on the cheap.

Edit: From this Warlock Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252715), I spied this, which could be another option for a boon (though Wall of Stone/Thorns would be better).


Codex Advocare (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft): 20.000 GP for a least invocation. Looks like a good deal, specially since it's the only way to get extra invocations

[Dell_the_Engie]

Hi everyone, thank you for your responses so far. So, more about my character, and also my party and campaign in general.

So, my warlock already has decent points in Bluff (12), Intimidate (10), and even Diplomacy (12), though these numbers could obviously be higher. His current invocations are Beguiling Influence, Eldritch Chain, Eldritch Spear, Entropic Warding, Flee the Scene, See the Unseen, and Walk Unseen. As a note, my DM will allow me to change one invocation every level, as opposed to every new "invocation level", so these can be flexible. My warlock's current feats are Combat Casting, Extra Invocation (Least), Improved Initiative, Maximize Spell-Like Ability (Eldritch Blast), and Necropolis Born. Lastly, my ability scores are 10 STR, 16 DEX, 10 CON, 16 INT, 10 WIS, and 18 CHA.

In terms of the party's optimization, it's minimal. The campaign (which is done online, through Roll20, Obsidian Portal, and a Mumble server) is primarily story-driven, so we're building our characters in a way that looks fun and interesting and makes sense for their history and personality, not for rolling big numbers. Gold runs very low, and even cheap magic items are a luxury, though our fighter gets a lot of help from magic items (In addition to already amazing ability scores, he has a Belt of Giant Strength +4, Amulet of Trapfinding, and a pretty mighty extend-o spear. Come to think of it, he's carrying more bling than the rest of the party combined!).

Many party members have been built for direct confrontation, and either stabbing, shooting, or fireballing their way through enemies. As such, it makes very little sense for me to try and compete with these characters in terms of damage. Sure, I could make a hellfire-glaivelock-wizard-eldritch-theurge-binder-kensai of death and blow everyone out of the water, but then all I'd be doing is competing with my party, not complementing it, and bringing a ton of cheese along the way. With all that said, a damage-optimized "why can't I hold all these d6" warlock is not a goal of mine.

The reason why I want to bring battlefield control to the party is because this is exactly what they need, but don't have, and I know my character can provide it. Greater invocations offer me Chilling Tentacles, Noxious Blast, and Nightmares Made Real, so I can effectively shut down the enemy while everyone else gets to do their own stabby-shooty-fiery thing. It's a win for everybody! For now, though, greater invocations are still one level away, but I do have the opportunity to pick a new feat and a "boon" to get me going, with hopefully some additional DM charity to help with magic items.

I've already liked some of the suggestions for possible boons, if they're tweaked a little bit for balance. Glibness is a 3rd-level Bard spell, so I see no reason why I can't use it as a spell-like ability 1-2/day. At my level, I would get at least a couple hours of use each day, which really should be more than enough. It also fits pretty well with warlocks in general. Wall of Thorns also offers some interesting opportunities and fits well thematically. I'd probably ask for 1-2/day.

I should add that our alchemist got Neutralize Poison as a boon, though he doesn't know the number of times per day he can cast it, and our fighter may be getting that extend-o spear upgraded to a legendary weapon.

[infomatic]

Other party classes? You can just include the link for the game, if you like.

Couple things I note:

• Play-by-post = Slow leveling. Build for now, not later
• Low con = stay away from melee
• Good CHA = You should be making more use of this, either offensively (through save-or-else invocations or feats like Dreadful Wrath, or defensively (Dark One's Own Luck)

Currently I'd dump Walk Unseen for Charm (I'm passing on The Dead Walk b/c your party's big enough).

If you're getting Glibness as a boon, why do you also need Beguiling Influence? The Diplomacy boost doesn't matter much b/c you don't have it as a class skill (How are your points that high?), and a +6 to Intimidate isn't worth an invocation. Take Baleful Utterance instead or, if you can pick up Dreadful Wrath as a feat, possibly Frightful Blast to quickly make targets Frightened (fear effects stack and can be potent).

Edit: If you take a wall-spell boon and/or you can pick up diplomacy as class skill (again, a level of binder + able learner would help, or even just Able Learner) then it can be worth it. However, I'd still suggest considering some fear-based effects, possibly in partnership with other party members, as it's a great means of battlefield control.

Combat Casting and Necropolis Born should both go, if possible. In that order.

You do have Use Magic Device maxxed out, right? At your level, That's auto-success on Wands and spell scrolls up to level 7 (so have the party wizard scribe any battlefield-control spell he/she knows, and you can use those scrolls in combat while they keep blasting.

Addendum: Entropic warding is OK, but at your level you could pick up a smoking weapon, or a mithrilmist shirt, to get much the same combat effect. This is another one that can go. (For either Frightful Blast, Dark One's Own Luck or something else)

What's the DM's attitude toward crafting stuff? Doesn't matter now too much but at level 12 (When you get Imbue Item and can pick Craft Wondrous Item) it will.

[Dell_the_Engie]

Our current party has a Druid, a Bard, a Gunslinger, a Warlock, a Fighter, and an Alchemist. I think the Alchemist and Gunslinger characters were originally from Pathfinder and brought into this campaign. Leveling actually isn't too slow; while games can often be weeks apart, in terms of in-game time, we're probably leveling at a reasonable pace. Also, my Diplomacy is so high because of +6 in skill synergies. That's from my Bluff, my Sense Motive, and the DM granting me 6 ranks of Knowledge (Nobility), due to my warlock's career. That was a nice gift. But hey, he's a pretty friendly warlock. Which reminds me, raising the dead is considered unambiguously evil by most people in this setting, which is why I didn't pick The Dead Walk. If I was an evil warlock, I'd have an undead posse at all times.

Dreadful Wrath is an interesting suggestion. I couldn't take this feat as-is, so it would need to be slightly rephrased to apply to spell-like abilities. Also, the 20-foot radius means it's only effective when I'm exactly where I don't want to be, which is almost in melee range. Optimally, I want to be at least 30 feet away from my targets. However, fighting in close quarters is not uncommon, and I do like the idea of using my Charisma in the DC, so it's something I should consider. Maybe there's some other tinkering I could do. I definitely like the idea of utilizing my Charisma modifier or Intimidate ranks for combat, or otherwise frightening enemies as method of control.

This led me to look into other feats that could be adapted, either as a replacement feat for Combat Casting, or worked into a boon. "Fell Frighten" looks like a big winner. It's a metamagic feat that allows any spell that deals damage to shaken a vulnerable enemy for 1 minute, no save. It can also elevate fear. The normal penalty is that it raises the spell level by 2. If I were to adapt this feat for myself, I'd probably do it like the other metamagic feats for spell-like abilities; apply to one ability, and limit it to three times per day. Sticking it on my Eldritch Blast, sure, I get limited uses, but it would still be a big improvement over Frightful Blast, and allow me to reliably shaken from a distance, while still applying essences and shapes. Perhaps as a boon, I could treat it more like the Bracers of Entangling Blast, and apply it to any of my spell-like abilities that deal damage, in exchange for halved damage. Frightening Chilling Tentacles? Now that would be real nasty.

Anyway, my DM is a-okay with item creation, though obviously our lack of gold means options are limited. She offered me a boon to synergize my Imbue Item ability with our alchemist, who already has item creation feats. I'm not sure how I feel about this boon, though. I mean, Imbue Item is still two levels away, so it's hard to say what the circumstances will be by then. For all I know, our alchemist might open up shop and have a perfectly capable staff to help her instead. And if I were going to do anything like this, I'd prefer that I be able to share any one of my warlock abilities with my party members, so that I could always make use of this boon in various situations.

[infomatic]

Fell Frighten actually seems to do almost the same thing as your Frightful Blast, only fewer times a day and with no save (also there's a slightly wonky thing about F.B. not scaring already shaken foes, meaning you have apply the blast first, then scare them more.) So it boils down to how often you'll think you'd use it.

The important thing with fear effects is getting 2+ of them somehow, because they stack. Shaken is OK as a debuff; Frightened (and beyond) is when you start getting room-clearing potential.

Take the Never Outnumbered Skill trick (Complete Scoundrel) to demoralize multiple opponents. Picking up Armor with the Fearsome (Drow of the Underdark version) gets you a move-action demoralize, with some other benefits. You'd have to threaten in melee to demoralize (get a longspear) but then things go bad and you're surrounded, 1) Fell Frighten/Frightful chained blast standard action, 2) Demoralize move action, 3) Enemies all run away.

Imperious Command feat is also hysterical, but again that's an up-close thing.

Summarizing quick fixes (1 invocation, 1 feat, 1 boon, some skill points):

• Replace walk unseen for Charm
• Replace Combat Casting with Fell Frighten/Extra Invoc. (Frightening Blast)
• Pick up Never Outnumbered Skill trick
• Maximize Use Magic Device
•*Glibness or Wall creation boon

Items to pursue

• Bracers of the entangling blast/blast barrier
• Fearsome Armor
• Warlock's Scepter
• Chasuble of Fell Power
• Smoking weapon/Mithrilmist shirt (for when you dump entropic warding)

Remaining area of concern:

• You want to be a party face but don't have diplomacy as a class skill. Your modifier is fine now but won't scale. Swapping out Necropolis Born for Able Learner will help, and/or picking up a Binder level (After you get Chilling Tentacles). Or just the bard be the diplomat and you do the lying and intimidating.

[Captnq]

A boon you say...

ANY-E-THING... you say... Figure out how much money you have to spend by WBL.

Go to my sig. Get the EVD.

Get yourself a crossbow. Get an underslung Bayonet sword.
Go to Extrapolated Weapon Special Abilities
Get Deathwand (max out UMD).
Get Sorcerer's Hand. (You can NOW fire your RAY attacks through your crossbow and the WSAs add to your ray.
Stack on major WSAs that increase damage: Splitting, Exit Wound. Assassination. A Oil Chamber with Quickloading so it holds 100 doses of the most awesome poison. Viscious.

Its also a melee weapon. Enhance the crap out of that Bayonet Sword. I suggest Smoking for the defensive bonuses. Basically, if it's Purple or Blue in the WSA file, take a look at it.

Now... go to augmentation.
Look at Just grafts
Look At grafts, Illithid.
Look at weapon graft.

Graft that m-f'er to your left hand.

Now it's an extraordinary ability.

Now it's a natural weapon.

Now you buy a necklace of natural weaponry.

Now your NoNW stacks with your crossbow.

Go back to just grafts
Go to Grafts, Maug
Get the stone spikes. They add to all natural attacks. Your RAY ATTACK is now a NATURAL ATTACK.

Now then... if you try ALL of this, your DM is likely to beat you with a book.

So, take the master plan to him and say, "okay... this is RAW. What will you let me get away with because I don't want to break your game of cause bad feelings. I'm trying to fix a crappy build and this Handbook writer on the board came up with something that is drool-tastic. Which parts will fly, because I got quite a bit of room to play with here."

See what he'll allow. But I still like the idea of your ray attacks being a natural attack. File search "natural" in the augmentation section. You'll see what I mean.

[Captnq]

Oh. Almost forgot.

I know it's gonna be grafted to your hand, but give it Flying. No. You won't be able to fly.

It will become an animated object capable of making attacks on it's own. Add quickloading to the crossbow so it can load itself and you get a free attack every round.

Plus it's animated. You can pretend it's intelligent. You can talk to it and it will click and clack back at you. Great RP fun.

EDIT: Well... technically it could drag your body a 5 foot step. So give it a standing order. If I am ever at 0 or below HP, drag me to the cleric.

[Particle_Man]

Our current party has a Druid, a Bard, a Gunslinger, a Warlock, a Fighter, and an Alchemist.

If the Druid is optimized, then the Warlock will not be able to keep up with the Druid. This is not necessarily a bad thing if the party is cool with mixing tiers. You can accept a role as an annoying distraction in combat if it draws monsters away from hurting others and after you for a while (after all the monsters don't know that the druid is automatically tougher than the warlock). You could also ask the DM and party for some spotlight time as a scout for the small army that is your party, assuming it is not all direct combat all the time (the druid makes a good scout too, mind you).

If you can wait until level 11, you can spam the battle field with chill tentacles, which is pretty hilarious. I agree with maxing out UMD and getting wands. That take 10 on UMD is gold.

If you are very patient and wait until level 12, you can become the party crafter. Suddenly you are the party's best bud outside of combat, and with the stuff you can make (depending on the crafting feat - craft staff and craft wondrous item are both great) not too shabby in combat.

[TheDarkDM]

Now it's an extraordinary ability.

Now it's a natural weapon.

Now you buy a necklace of natural weaponry.

Now your NoNW stacks with your crossbow.

Go back to just grafts
Go to Grafts, Maug
Get the stone spikes. They add to all natural attacks. Your RAY ATTACK is now a NATURAL ATTACK.

Now then... if you try ALL of this, your DM is likely to beat you with a book.

So, take the master plan to him and say, "okay... this is RAW. What will you let me get away with because I don't want to break your game of cause bad feelings. I'm trying to fix a crappy build and this Handbook writer on the board came up with something that is drool-tastic. Which parts will fly, because I got quite a bit of room to play with here."

See what he'll allow. But I still like the idea of your ray attacks being a natural attack. File search "natural" in the augmentation section. You'll see what I mean.

This is incorrect. Assuming the DM allows the cheese of pretending that a bayonet makes a crossbow a melee weapon, the graft explicitly states that the weapon's other properties are unchanged. The fact that your natural weapon might now serves as a focus for ray spells doesn't make your ray spells natural weapons.

This is, of course, ignoring the need for a DM ruling on whether the Sorcerer's Hand adds qualities other than straight enhancement bonus to ray spells. Considering the fact that Arms and Equipment is 3.0 and predates many of the current enhancement options, this seems unlikely.

The Necklace of Natural Weapons overlaps with the weapon enhancement bonus.

And if the party is so strapped for gold that three magic items is seen as exceptional at tenth level, I doubt they have the time or the scratch to craft this dubiously legal crossbow.

[Dell_the_Engie]

Thank you, Captnq, for the imaginative boon. Unfortunately, this idea has a lot of moving parts, which, not only makes this a tough one to pass by my DM, but frankly, doesn't sound too appealing to me for my character, either. Keep in mind that since a boon can be completely made up, throwing in a bunch of cheesy RAW to achieve an end isn't necessary. I should optimally ask for something that resembles a spell, an item, a feat, or a class ability, that's small, simple, and easy to comprehend.

I've definitely gotten some ideas from you guys, and having bounced some of those ideas with my DM, she's thinking of some things, as well. I'm interested to see what she comes up with.

Also, thankfully, the Druid in our party is least optimized of any of us. She's new to D&D and still familiarizing herself with all the mechanics, so it all evens out pretty well.

[Dell_the_Engie]

Well, aside from some pretty interesting boons, and some fear-related feats, what other feats are recommended for high-charisma characters? Force of Personality looks like a good one if I wanted to crank my Will Save even higher, but I would hope there could be other uses for charisma. Or perhaps more feats relating to spell-like abilities? I'll reiterate that homebrew feats and creations are welcomed.

[Socratov]

Well, judging from your build you have the social part covered. Now let's see if we can tweak the build a bit for you rnext level up before we go look at this boon of yours.

First let's trade Eldritch spear for Baleful Utterance. Why? Well, Eldritch spear works best when you are sniping form great distances. I guess you don't really want to fall behind and lose even more damage, besides, I saw little hiding capabilites in your build, so we'll opt for this absolute gem that shatters jsut about anything you can think of that is in fact pretty solid. (Who needs lockpicking if you can just shatter the lock into a million tiny pieces and open the door). And there is more you can use it for. Way more. You will also need flight becuase flight is just plain awesome and the warlock's version (though late on-line) is genius (24 hour buff? yes please). you will trade Walk unseen for this.

So with some utility under the belt, let's talk roles. You want to shine in combat wihtout puttin ghte fighter out of business? Make sure the fighter gets an easier job! How you ask? By debuffing. You have strong CHA, so you could stack save-or-suck effects with Eldritch Chain. Invest in +CHA items to increase the save even further. Now what are fun things to happen to your enemies? Let's explore ok? You have 1 lesser invocation left that could easily be traded while you now have methods to GTFO ASAP: Entropic warding. This least invocation we can trade for something debuffing. At the least level we have 2 choices: Stack Fear, or Stack sickness. Now Fear is always a mind affecting effect and thus easy to prepare against: immunites to mind affecting are spread far and wide and easily bought by enemies (mind blank and other options come to mind), so let's go with Sickening blast. The bonus is that you are targeting fort saves which are only easy for fighters, barbarians and animals. The rest relies on reflex and will saves to save them. So easiest save, least resisted effect. Now on to your feats.

Most of yoru feats are fine, but 2 of them strike me as not very effective.

Combat Casting: with Flee the Scene and Fell Flight you can pretty much stay out of the way indefinitely (remember, warlock combat is like real estate all about location, location and location). So let's not add defensive abilites, but use it to make yourself powerful: the best defense is killing the enemies right? Right! So let's take Ability Focus(Eldritch Blast) That's an easy +2 to the Save DC (to DC=10+equivalent spell level+cha+2, so for example your sickening blast DC=10+2+4+2=18, increase CHA as you want to make this stronger. If you chained it, the DC becomes DC=10+4+4+2=20. This means targeting a weak save is 25% chance of passing it, good save 50% chance of passing)

Necropolis Born: Interesting feat if you are a PF witch (who can break immunities to fear), but not on a warlock who has enough at will tools. So let's see if we can do something funny with this. Yes we can. I assume this feat was taken at first level and that you are a human So let's prepare for another party role you will be extremely good at. Take the feat Able learner. Now you can enter the Chameleon PRC, and invest into prerequisite skills cheaply.

Your nefarious plan will be: learn infernal, take all the prerequisite skills and feats onwards and at lvl 13 go into 2 levels of Chameleon. After you have had 2 levels of Chameleon you will have a floating feat to use with Imbue Item and crafting. If you are not crafting, pick Extra invocation (at that moment for a lovely lesser invocation like beshadowed blast or some other great save-or-suck). Then get 3 levels of Hellfire warlock. You will craft wands of restoration to counter the con dmg, and use the 2nd level ability to supercharge all your items, as well as empower your blast to a state where it can't be resisted (hellfire has no counter). Afterwards you continue in warlock like the boss you are.

By the way, you will be crafting wands that lock down enemies (entangle, grease, hold person, etc.) and using your nitro to heighten them so the DC becomes higher to resist.

Now for your boon there are a few options that would be funny to try. Taking 2 levels of Chameleon hurts your invocation progression, but the craft anything ability is freaking awesome. Hellfire hurts, unless you lose another invocation level to bind naberius to repair the damage. Preventign the damage is debatable so let's not go there. Getting invocations is awesome becuase it basically is your strongest shtick and the fact that you never run out makes wizards so jealous they start using demiplanes with time traits and timestops to load up so they won't run out as well. So let's go over some options to remedy your problems or strengthen your powers:


Get an extra invocation of the highest level you can currently cast (use this for some nice debuffing essence)
Ask for the ability to bind Naberius like a binder of your level and only Naberius for the full effects of binding Naberius as a binder. (this will help against the hellfire burn)
Ask for a floating feat like a chameleon, but without taking the levels of Chameleon *1
Ask to count as a warlock of 4 levels higher, up to max HD: so you woudl count as a lvl 14 warlock for all intents and purposes if you are in fact a warlock 12/chameleon 2 (a bit like how the Chaos Music feat from Dragon Magazine works for Bards)


*1: in this case pick Extra Invocation instead of Able Learner

You will notice that the boons I suggest aren't as powerful as some before me suggested. This is for a reason: if you ask for reasonable things from your DM, you have a higher chance of actually getting it. Just ask the DM whether he lieks any of the four options and explain to him that you think that one of these boons will enable you to improve the party instead of being a deadwieght or being counterproductive. Even better, talk all the changes over with your DM to see if you can speed up some of the changes saying you want to go for less damage (leaving that for the rest of the party) and more support and control to help your allies be awesome. I have yet to meet a DM who thinks a supportive role is badwrongfun.

If you can get this to work, you will be a very awesome warlock, and more importantly, a real teamplayer. Good luck!

tl;dr

combat castingAbility Focus(Eldritch Blast)
Necropolis bornAble learner (if at first) OR Extra invocation (if at latest)

Eldritch SpearBaleful utterance
Entropic WardingSickening Blast
Walk UnseenFell Flight

next on the list:
Hellrime Blast (both qualifier for Hellfire Warlock and good debuff
Noxious Blast (change Sickening Blast for Dark One's Own Luck)

Boon options:

Get an extra invocation of the highest level you can currently cast (use this for some nice debuffing essence)
Ask for the ability to bind Naberius like a binder of your level and only Naberius for the full effects of binding Naberius as a binder. (this will help against the hellfire burn)
Ask for a floating feat like a chameleon, but without taking the levels of Chameleon *1
Ask to count as a warlock of 4 levels higher, up to max HD: so you woudl count as a lvl 14 warlock for all intents and purposes if you are in fact a warlock 12/chameleon 2 (a bit like how the Chaos Music feat from Dragon Magazine works for Bards)


Hope this helps :smallsmile:

[Dell_the_Engie]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. In the end, my DM wanted to give me a Shadowcaster mystery, being that our party recently spent some time in a goddess's realm in the Plane of Shadow. My warlock can now cast Thoughts of Shadow (+4 to INT, WIS, or CHA for 1 min/caster lvl) as a supernatural ability 3/day.

Okay, while this isn't exactly like throwing up a wall of thorns, this is actually quite handy, especially since I replaced Combat Casting with Force of Personality. I made this decision after a recent encounter, in which a single bad Will save had my warlock running like a sissy and deserting the party for the rest of battle. It was hard to roleplay, and frustrating as hell as a player, especially since we were fighting something with almost no touch-AC (it should have been Eldritch Blast to the rescue!). And then I realized I'm only going to see more of this as we run into more high-level save-or-lose spells and abilities. So, I grabbed Force of Personality, and now my Will has gone from 7 to 11, and when I use Thoughts of Shadow for my Charisma, my Will save is 13. Hm, well, that's not bad...

But that's not all. I also took Dark One's Own Luck in place of Entropic Warding. Now, if I have Dark One's Own Luck applied to my Will save, I'm applying my Charisma bonus to my Will twice, for a total of 15. Then with Thoughts of Shadow boosting my Charisma also twice, for a limited time, my Will gets as high as 19. Additionally, Fortitude can get boosted as high as 9, and Reflex as high as 12. I can also use Thoughts of Shadow to boost my Intelligence or Wisdom if I so choose, though I think it's much better for boosting my Charisma-based skills, my invocation DCs, and stacking with Beguiling Influence and enhancing Dark One's Own Luck. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I'm pretty satisfied with the end result.

I also now have the option of taking the Shadowcaster class, which in this setting, is typically exclusive to a specific race. I'm not even sure if the class is worthwhile, though. The DM doesn't seem interested in taking Ari Marmell's fixes for Shadowcaster (for those who don't know, Ari Marmell was the creator of Shadowcaster, and has written several suggested fixes, since he himself considers the class to be poorly-tested). So, I'm not even sure.

EDIT: The DM will allow me to take Eldritch Theurge Warlock/Shadowcaster next level, but I will have to meet an Eldritch Theurge to train me. Would this be a good prestige class to take?