Onerai
2014-02-17, 01:49 PM
Hi all! I'm looking for some ideas about good uses for arcane casting prestige classes when used to advance the magic of the Warlock class, as presented in Complete Arcane. I know about the classes designed for Warlocks specifically, such as the Hellfire Warlock, and am quite familiar with Thiago's Warlock Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13730871&postcount=5) but this doesn't quite have what I'm after.
To explain the problem: the Warlock is not a spellcaster in the strictest sense, but by RAW in Comp Arc, they count as arcane and any PrC which advances arcane spellcasting can instead advance their abilities - specifically invocations known, highest grade of invocation (least/lesser/greater/dark), and the damage dealt by "eldritch blast". The tricky bit is qualifying for these classes, as those same rules state that while Warlocks have an arcane caster level, their invocations are not spells and do not count for "cast spells of Xth level" requirements. I have, through some digging, come across a couple of tricks not generally listed in the Warlock handbook (above) to get around this...
Method 1 - Nosomatic Chirurgeon
If playing in Eberron, be a Halfling with the Dragonmark of Healing and sneak your way into a 1-level Nosomatic Chirurgeon PrC dip. Its 1st-level ability is "Pestilential Touch" which allows you to trade away a use of any spell, spell slot, or spell-like ability (invocations count as this) to spontaneously cast an "inflict" spell of equal or lower equivalent spell level. Since this is specifically casting a spell and Warlocks count as arcane, this qualifies us as casting spells of a level equal to the highest effective spell level invocation available.
Method 2 - Feat Cheese
If playing in Faerun, play as a human (or if flaws are allowed elf or half-elf) and take the "Magical Training" background feat, along with "Precocious apprentice" from Complete Arcane, at first level. Congrats - you can now cast a single 2nd level arcane spell once per day by making a spellcraft check, and it cost you two feats... but you didn't have to sink any levels into casting classes.
... And we're in!
So we've got access to prestige classes normally used only by true casters. Not all are as useful to us as they would be to other classes, since things like expanded spell lists don't really help a warlock unless they bolt separate casting progressions on the side. What I want to know is which ones are interesting, effective, expand options and - most importantly - function in an entirely RAW-legal fashion assuming the entry cheese supplied above.
To explain the problem: the Warlock is not a spellcaster in the strictest sense, but by RAW in Comp Arc, they count as arcane and any PrC which advances arcane spellcasting can instead advance their abilities - specifically invocations known, highest grade of invocation (least/lesser/greater/dark), and the damage dealt by "eldritch blast". The tricky bit is qualifying for these classes, as those same rules state that while Warlocks have an arcane caster level, their invocations are not spells and do not count for "cast spells of Xth level" requirements. I have, through some digging, come across a couple of tricks not generally listed in the Warlock handbook (above) to get around this...
Method 1 - Nosomatic Chirurgeon
If playing in Eberron, be a Halfling with the Dragonmark of Healing and sneak your way into a 1-level Nosomatic Chirurgeon PrC dip. Its 1st-level ability is "Pestilential Touch" which allows you to trade away a use of any spell, spell slot, or spell-like ability (invocations count as this) to spontaneously cast an "inflict" spell of equal or lower equivalent spell level. Since this is specifically casting a spell and Warlocks count as arcane, this qualifies us as casting spells of a level equal to the highest effective spell level invocation available.
Method 2 - Feat Cheese
If playing in Faerun, play as a human (or if flaws are allowed elf or half-elf) and take the "Magical Training" background feat, along with "Precocious apprentice" from Complete Arcane, at first level. Congrats - you can now cast a single 2nd level arcane spell once per day by making a spellcraft check, and it cost you two feats... but you didn't have to sink any levels into casting classes.
... And we're in!
So we've got access to prestige classes normally used only by true casters. Not all are as useful to us as they would be to other classes, since things like expanded spell lists don't really help a warlock unless they bolt separate casting progressions on the side. What I want to know is which ones are interesting, effective, expand options and - most importantly - function in an entirely RAW-legal fashion assuming the entry cheese supplied above.