mabriss lethe
2007-03-23, 05:29 PM
Alright... My biggest beef with playing a warlock is that they're very, very narrowly focused. I know this was the intent when the class was created. It keeps everything balanced. Every time you choose a new invocation, it's like pulling teeth, though. Every one you pick means that there are so many great options you're casting aside. I'll still play them regardless, they're still loads of fun sans any modifications.
Expanding their options: What can you do about it? Give them access to more invocations? Not such a bright idea. It quickly leads to an unbalanced character. So... How can you give your warlock a wider range of abilities while maintaining game balance? It's a question that's nagged me for a while... until I reread the material on the spellthief class. Without getting too deep into restricted territory, they sacrifice a portion of their sneak damage to fuel their unique abilities. It sounded like a perfect beginning point for a new type of warlock invocation. I decided that focusing on expanding access to essence and shape invocations would keep things from getting too muddled
New Invocation: Dark Knowledge I.
type: least
effective spell level Level 2
At the expense of effective power, the Warlock dredges the depths of his talents and manages to cobble together a greater range of abilities than would otherwise be possible. The warlock may choose any two least essence or shape invocations to apply to his eldritch blast. In order to use these special variants, the warlock must sacrifice 1d6 damage per modification from the force of the blast. The warlock may apply no more than one essence and one shape to any blast, regardless of the source. In order for the blast, with any of its attendant modifications to function it must still deal a minimum of 1d6 damage. This invocation can be chosen more than once, but two new essences and/or shapes must be chosen. Alternately, the warlock may choose a total of 3 essences or shapes, but also applies a -2 penalty to the final save DC for each of these modifications in addition to sacrificing damage power. Note that this ability is available from the outset, but useless until the warlock is capable of dealing 2d6 or more points of damage from an eldritch blast
Dark Knowledge II and III also exist as lesser and greater invocations, requiring a sacrifice of 2d6 and 3d6 points of damage to gain access to lesser and greater modifications (all respectively) The effective spell levels are 4th for lesser and 6th for greater. The -2 penalty for choosing three modifications instead of two remains unchanged. Players wanting access to Dark essences and shapes in this manner are out of luck. Those have to be selected the good old fashioned way.
OK. The above option looks pretty solid to me, but I figured I'd bat some other ideas around and see what happens. I started thinking about where warlocks stand in the scheme of things in my game world. In my campaign, Warlocks were the first to delve into the secrets of arcane magic. Invocations represent the most primal form of magery. Sorcery and Wizardry are later developments with deep roots in the dark soil of eldritch magic. I started thinking that there would have to be a point of divergence. Some magical breakthrough that lead to later developments. Warlocks in that era of discovery suffered from the same limitations in the past that modern ones did, this is how they coped with it.
NOTE: I wouldn't recommend using the feat below in conjunction with the Dark Knowledge invocations. That might be stretching things a little too much.
New Feat:
Eldritch Wizardry [General]
Prerequisites: Ability to cast lesser invocations as a warlock, Knowledge: Arcana 5 ranks, Int 13+
Benefit: The warlock may prepare a small number of eldritch blasts in advance using shapes and essences that would not otherwise be readily available to the character. The warlock may prepare an eldritch blast in a manner similar to a wizard. He may select one essence or shape invocation to modify this blast, even if it is an essence or shape otherwise unknown to the warlock. These modifications must be chosen from among the list of essence and shape invocations one rank lower than the maximum power the warlock can currently cast. This requires no spell book, but does require a full 8 hours of rest and an hour of meditation to build the temporary structures the eldritch blast will flow through when released. The warlock may prepare no more blasts than 3 + his charisma modifier (a minimum of 1 if a charisma penalty would drop this number to 1 or lower) The casting time for these blasts is unchanged.
Normal: A warlock casts his eldritch blasts spontaneously, and can only modify them using essences and shapes from his list of known invocations.
Greater Eldritch Wizardry [General]
Prerequisites: Ability to cast Greater invocations as a Warlock, Knowledge Arcana 8 ranks, Int 13 +, Eldritch Wizardry
Benefit: When preparing an eldritch blast in advance using Eldritch Wizardry, the warlock can apply two modifications to the blast, one essence and one shape.
Normal: A warlock casts his eldritch blasts spontaneously, and can only modify them using essences and shapes from his list of known invocations. A warlock using Eldritch Wizardry can circumvent this to a small degree, preparing blasts in advance with either a single essence or shape modification from a list one level lower even if the character doesn't normally know the shape or essence invocation used.
I like the utility of the Dark Knowledge invocation much better than the Eldritch Wizardry feats. I like the flavor that the EW feats possess, though. They have a sense of antiquity to them that I'll probably wind up using in my game. I'm tinkering with some warlock specific items. I might post those later on if I get them worked out.
Expanding their options: What can you do about it? Give them access to more invocations? Not such a bright idea. It quickly leads to an unbalanced character. So... How can you give your warlock a wider range of abilities while maintaining game balance? It's a question that's nagged me for a while... until I reread the material on the spellthief class. Without getting too deep into restricted territory, they sacrifice a portion of their sneak damage to fuel their unique abilities. It sounded like a perfect beginning point for a new type of warlock invocation. I decided that focusing on expanding access to essence and shape invocations would keep things from getting too muddled
New Invocation: Dark Knowledge I.
type: least
effective spell level Level 2
At the expense of effective power, the Warlock dredges the depths of his talents and manages to cobble together a greater range of abilities than would otherwise be possible. The warlock may choose any two least essence or shape invocations to apply to his eldritch blast. In order to use these special variants, the warlock must sacrifice 1d6 damage per modification from the force of the blast. The warlock may apply no more than one essence and one shape to any blast, regardless of the source. In order for the blast, with any of its attendant modifications to function it must still deal a minimum of 1d6 damage. This invocation can be chosen more than once, but two new essences and/or shapes must be chosen. Alternately, the warlock may choose a total of 3 essences or shapes, but also applies a -2 penalty to the final save DC for each of these modifications in addition to sacrificing damage power. Note that this ability is available from the outset, but useless until the warlock is capable of dealing 2d6 or more points of damage from an eldritch blast
Dark Knowledge II and III also exist as lesser and greater invocations, requiring a sacrifice of 2d6 and 3d6 points of damage to gain access to lesser and greater modifications (all respectively) The effective spell levels are 4th for lesser and 6th for greater. The -2 penalty for choosing three modifications instead of two remains unchanged. Players wanting access to Dark essences and shapes in this manner are out of luck. Those have to be selected the good old fashioned way.
OK. The above option looks pretty solid to me, but I figured I'd bat some other ideas around and see what happens. I started thinking about where warlocks stand in the scheme of things in my game world. In my campaign, Warlocks were the first to delve into the secrets of arcane magic. Invocations represent the most primal form of magery. Sorcery and Wizardry are later developments with deep roots in the dark soil of eldritch magic. I started thinking that there would have to be a point of divergence. Some magical breakthrough that lead to later developments. Warlocks in that era of discovery suffered from the same limitations in the past that modern ones did, this is how they coped with it.
NOTE: I wouldn't recommend using the feat below in conjunction with the Dark Knowledge invocations. That might be stretching things a little too much.
New Feat:
Eldritch Wizardry [General]
Prerequisites: Ability to cast lesser invocations as a warlock, Knowledge: Arcana 5 ranks, Int 13+
Benefit: The warlock may prepare a small number of eldritch blasts in advance using shapes and essences that would not otherwise be readily available to the character. The warlock may prepare an eldritch blast in a manner similar to a wizard. He may select one essence or shape invocation to modify this blast, even if it is an essence or shape otherwise unknown to the warlock. These modifications must be chosen from among the list of essence and shape invocations one rank lower than the maximum power the warlock can currently cast. This requires no spell book, but does require a full 8 hours of rest and an hour of meditation to build the temporary structures the eldritch blast will flow through when released. The warlock may prepare no more blasts than 3 + his charisma modifier (a minimum of 1 if a charisma penalty would drop this number to 1 or lower) The casting time for these blasts is unchanged.
Normal: A warlock casts his eldritch blasts spontaneously, and can only modify them using essences and shapes from his list of known invocations.
Greater Eldritch Wizardry [General]
Prerequisites: Ability to cast Greater invocations as a Warlock, Knowledge Arcana 8 ranks, Int 13 +, Eldritch Wizardry
Benefit: When preparing an eldritch blast in advance using Eldritch Wizardry, the warlock can apply two modifications to the blast, one essence and one shape.
Normal: A warlock casts his eldritch blasts spontaneously, and can only modify them using essences and shapes from his list of known invocations. A warlock using Eldritch Wizardry can circumvent this to a small degree, preparing blasts in advance with either a single essence or shape modification from a list one level lower even if the character doesn't normally know the shape or essence invocation used.
I like the utility of the Dark Knowledge invocation much better than the Eldritch Wizardry feats. I like the flavor that the EW feats possess, though. They have a sense of antiquity to them that I'll probably wind up using in my game. I'm tinkering with some warlock specific items. I might post those later on if I get them worked out.