Spore
2015-03-22, 12:20 AM
Greetings playground,
recreating famous fantasy spellcasters and abilities has always been a pet peeve for me. But...recreating the various abilities of Warlocks from the Warcraft Universe (I take the World of Warcraft class as just another strong source) is always very disappointing - because of not coming even close to giving enough abilities - to do in my preferred system, Pathfinder.
But first a tad bit of lore and what a "warlock" contains in this context:
Azeroth's studied magic users (for some reason there are almost not spontaneous casters) are ruled by the Kirin Tor, an elite wizard caste, that has categorized the spells in "harmful" and study material. Harmful "dark arts" contain classics such as necromancy, demonology (demons, devils and so on are all the same and reside in the Nether, some corrupted form of Astral Realm) but also fire magic. Normal fire magic is frowned upon but accepted.
Fire, Cold and Arcane/Energy spells are merely reformed energy from the Ley Lines channeled into "safe" forms of magic. (Electricity/Acid/Ground magic is considered shamanistic.) But you can also rip energy directly from the Nether to form more powerful but corrupting fire magic, shadow magic (negative energy blasts) and pull demons out of there.
While the explanation is not sufficient, the main point I want to bring across is: Warlocks can summon demons, cast corrupting fire magic (Hellfire Ray would be a perfect example for a Warlock spell) but also curse their opponents.
So what do warlocks do exactly? Well, they're possibly just wizards with a more sinister spell array. However this doesn't reflect many things.
1) Warlocks delving deep into demonology sooner or later become demonic vessels on their own. While the Half Fiend Template is appropriate, this demonic form is often able to "be switched off". An Abyssal Arcanist or even a Sorcerer would also be fine but they really lack the variety of spells. Also demonologists almost always have one or several permanent demonic servants pointing towards Summoner. Then the spells really don't match.
2) The curses warlocks are able to cast are more in line with the witch class and their hexes. The lack of attack spells and summoning however is destroying fluff left and right.
3) The corrupting fire magics the Warlocks cast can be easily reproducted with a Fire/Elemental sorcerer. They can even have an improved familiar (see 1).
But one can't have everything. Wizard lacks the permanent companion. Summoner lacks a wide array of spells. Sorcerer lacks spell variety. Witch has awesome curses but fitting attack spells nor demonic servants. Any ideas?
Preferrably I would have some attack options via (fire/channel negative energy) spells, a permanent demonic servant for free and some curses (or even just the curse/major curse spell). Everything else (demon form, spell variety, hexes) is just gravy.
recreating famous fantasy spellcasters and abilities has always been a pet peeve for me. But...recreating the various abilities of Warlocks from the Warcraft Universe (I take the World of Warcraft class as just another strong source) is always very disappointing - because of not coming even close to giving enough abilities - to do in my preferred system, Pathfinder.
But first a tad bit of lore and what a "warlock" contains in this context:
Azeroth's studied magic users (for some reason there are almost not spontaneous casters) are ruled by the Kirin Tor, an elite wizard caste, that has categorized the spells in "harmful" and study material. Harmful "dark arts" contain classics such as necromancy, demonology (demons, devils and so on are all the same and reside in the Nether, some corrupted form of Astral Realm) but also fire magic. Normal fire magic is frowned upon but accepted.
Fire, Cold and Arcane/Energy spells are merely reformed energy from the Ley Lines channeled into "safe" forms of magic. (Electricity/Acid/Ground magic is considered shamanistic.) But you can also rip energy directly from the Nether to form more powerful but corrupting fire magic, shadow magic (negative energy blasts) and pull demons out of there.
While the explanation is not sufficient, the main point I want to bring across is: Warlocks can summon demons, cast corrupting fire magic (Hellfire Ray would be a perfect example for a Warlock spell) but also curse their opponents.
So what do warlocks do exactly? Well, they're possibly just wizards with a more sinister spell array. However this doesn't reflect many things.
1) Warlocks delving deep into demonology sooner or later become demonic vessels on their own. While the Half Fiend Template is appropriate, this demonic form is often able to "be switched off". An Abyssal Arcanist or even a Sorcerer would also be fine but they really lack the variety of spells. Also demonologists almost always have one or several permanent demonic servants pointing towards Summoner. Then the spells really don't match.
2) The curses warlocks are able to cast are more in line with the witch class and their hexes. The lack of attack spells and summoning however is destroying fluff left and right.
3) The corrupting fire magics the Warlocks cast can be easily reproducted with a Fire/Elemental sorcerer. They can even have an improved familiar (see 1).
But one can't have everything. Wizard lacks the permanent companion. Summoner lacks a wide array of spells. Sorcerer lacks spell variety. Witch has awesome curses but fitting attack spells nor demonic servants. Any ideas?
Preferrably I would have some attack options via (fire/channel negative energy) spells, a permanent demonic servant for free and some curses (or even just the curse/major curse spell). Everything else (demon form, spell variety, hexes) is just gravy.