[3.5] Warlock Lich

[Thurbane]

Hi all,

Need some help statting out a figure for my campaign - a Human Lich Warlock 20.

Ricardus Bikari ("The First Warlock") - briefly mentioned in EtCR.

How would you optimize a Warlock 20 Lich to be a credible threat for it's CR? (My player's won't be facing off against for for at least another 12 levels).

I'd rather stick with straight Warlock 20 than PrC into Hellfire Warlock etc.

Elite array: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 - you can use CON as a dump stat.

What feats and invocations would you chose for him?

Bonus points if he looks like this :smalltongue:

http://vinylphoto.ru/index.php/W/Warlock_1987_Triumph-and-agony_3
http://home.arcor.de/chickenmail/_warlock/warlock_-_triumph_and_agony_a.jpg

Cheers - T

[FocusWolf413]

Off the top of my head, focus on UMD, get tomb tainted soul and that blast that does negative energy, grab quicken, maximizen and empower SLA. Getting the magic domain power would be a nifty trick, but idk how to do that. Try to play it like a lesser artificer with cool SLAs.

[DrMotives]

Tomb-tainted soul is a waste on a lich. That's to get the living some of the perks of the undead.

[FocusWolf413]

Tomb-tainted soul is a waste on a lich. That's to get the living some of the perks of the undead.

I completely forgot the lich part.
Derp.

[Malroth]

Vecna Blooded Strongheart Halfling Lich Warlock
Bonus feat for strongheart halfling 2 bonus feats for worshiping an elder evil

Mortalbane, Quicken Spell Like abilty (eldritch blast), Scribe Scroll, Craft Staff, Blend Into Darkness, Darkstalker, Instinctive Darkness, Obtain Familiar, Improved Familiar.


Abuse the action economy for all it's worth, You've had decades of downtime Craft some scrolls of planar ally to get yourself enough efreeti wishes for +6 inherents to everything, then bind several fiends of your own alignement to serve as bodyguards for the big fight. In combat share a haste from a staff with your familiar which should have some sort of nasty rider effect on its base attacks, use an invocation with a save or suck, get a free parylisis attack, have your familiar UMD a no save just suck battlefield control scroll also getting a free attack if possible, Move away, and dissapear into magical darkness so you aren't visible to anything when it's not your turn. Belt of battle To get extra actions, Mortal bane on long lasting damaging invocations.

[FocusWolf413]

Most of that is good, but he specifically said human.

[5ColouredWalker]

Are you getting the look by spamming that spell that prevents the decay of corpses [In which case, you have a Eternal Wand of it.], or by illusions? This matters for what I suggest.

Also, it's CR is 22. Are your players going to have epic spellcasting? Because if yes then he needs at least 1 more level.

[FocusWolf413]

I'd say the lich warlock should face a party at like 16th level. Honestly, warlocks aren't very good at high levels.

[Malroth]

They're not good for a PC class due to lack of versitility but using off screen Dark crafting ritual sacrifice and Wish abuse to simulate T2 for a limited amount of gain can make a Fairly decent NPC Boss battle with a couple 13 D6 blasts per turn and enough crowd control to make that seem relevant.

[Mr Adventurer]

I think it would be good to play up the pact-making aspect, and have lots of Outsider allies. A cool thing to do would be to have Outsiders take action contingent on things, as a result of previous pacts. Like, when he drops to half hit points a Marilith appears, or the first time he fails a save a swarm of abishai appear. Make it a bit more dynamic.

Also, what races, classes, and levels are your player characters?

[Thurbane]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

PCs are Illumian Duskblade 8, Aasimar Warblade 8, Human Warlock 8, Human Bard 8, and Catfolk Swashbuckler 4/Rogue 4 (Daring Outlaw/Penetrating Strike). Level adjustments already bought off. As you can see, a fairly mid-low power group.

This NPC would be more of a background character, and not necessarily someone that the party would be in direct conflict with - but I still wanted a fairly optimized build anyway.

[Mr Adventurer]

Who is his pact with?

[Soranar]

1rst of all, don't even consider hellfire warlock, you can't use hellfire it you're immune to CON damage (which undead are)

High level warlock have a few tricks up their sleeve, it really depends how crazy you're willing to go

First, I would suggest going warlock 12\arcane trickster 8

to qualify all you need is these feats

level 1, mage hand
level 9 martial study (any shadow hand maneuver you qualify for)
level 12 assassin's stance (at which level you get the warlock's capstone ability imo, imbue item)

Worshipping an elder evil is not a bad deal either, considering you get 5 free feats (in this order)

willing deformity, deformity (tall), deformity (gaunt), deformity (tongue), evil's blessing

you get reach +5 (useful with eldritch glaive), +2 DEX (no downside since you dump CON, blindsense, huge bonus to saves for 5 rounds at almost no cost, a bargain

now for the rest I suggest item creation, you still have a free feat at level 1, 3, 6, 15 and 18
level 1 , scribe scroll
level 15 , craft ring
level 18 , craft contingent spell

you could take craft wand but you have to remember that whatever item you create will end up in your PCs' hands after they win the fight so, to alleviate that

craft evil items (boosts your caster level and makes the items evil only)

items I would make and buy

make a ring of continuous hunter's eye (assuming a caster level of 21, that's +7d6 sneak attack damage)
make a scroll of desecrate to boost the undead you created

craft a contingent spell of divine power (either triggered by starting a fight or just saying something)

buy a rogue's vest (1d6 sneak attack)
buy a greater chasuble of power (+2d6 EB)
buy a mantle of the predator (another +1d6 SA)
buy bracers of ther hunter (another +1d6 SA , deathstrike bracers also let you sneak attack anything but you're fighting humanoids so it should be fine)

So your EB damage is 11d6
your SA damage is 16d6
27d6 damage per attack at full BAB with 4 iteratives due to divine power

add in quicken spell like ability (flee the scene), in case of emergencies
corpse crafter + explosive retribution (for the undead army you should have with you) and you're set

If you're really mean, your undead should be really tough (hydras, giants, the works) with a few necrotic carnexes to keep them (and you) healed

if they die, they explode and heal you while damaging them

and that's about all you need to be challenging.

With +5 reach, you have that doubled with eldritch glaive so 20ft reach is pretty mean, there's a magic item that grants combat reflexes and you have a high DEX