Warlock - how to make it better(ish) without massive Intrusions of Otherness

[GrayDeath]

So here`s the deal: once upon a time there was a good round of funny 3.P Gaming around here.
Then the DM had tos top due to jobcaused moving shennannigans.

Now he`s back and has stated he wants to pick up the Campaign, but with SOME allowed changes to the Characters (as none of us remember all of it anyway, sadly^^).

So while Base Class and Race remain the same (good for the Race at least^^), Leveladjustments are allowed.
Since my Chosen Class is the Warlock, and hence underpowered overall, I am allowed to add not broken homebrewstuff together with any and all nonbroken official Stuff.


So: The "must stay" are: 5 Levels Warlock.

We are considered level 9 and can expect to level quite quickly (or die as quickly)

My thought was to maybe go Noble Scion to mass the Face Aspect already present (Natural Charisma 22), and do lots of Raise Deady thingies, but am open to just about everything not too cheesy to "beef my Warlock up".

Info you might need: No Attribute except Wisdom below 16, best are Cha and Int (22 and 20).
I dont want to go retrain (and am pretty sure I wouldn`t be allowed to anyway) but everything else is open to Suggestions.

Go Wild!


PS: please describe the Options well and add Books they`re in, my D&D Fu is only at 23% ^^

[DrMartin]

You could try this post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?275054-A-LOT-of-minor-class-tweaks) for ideas, it proposes small adjustment for all classes.

The Warlock for instance gets:

• Upgrade his HD to a d8
• Add Hide and Move Silently to their list of class skills
• His number of invocations known equals his level (see Complete Mage for more choices)
• Eldrich Blast deals 1d6/2 levels damage, as a rogue's sneak attack. You may full attack with Eldrich Blast.
• Eldrich Essence invocations apply to all attacks in the full attack, but only once per target.
• Blast Shape invocations are standard actions, and thus not compatible with full attacking. Eldrich Spear and Hideous Blow are exceptions to this rule.

[GrayDeath]

Well well well, looks good for a general Beefup without stylechange (I always liked the Warlocks Style anyway).
Thank you!


Still more than open for other Ideas, keep em coming! :smallcool:

[Zancloufer]

How open are you to homebrew and retraining? A very high Intelligence or Charisma score woudl be great for the Tome of Radiance's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258654-Tome-of-Radiance-Mastering-the-Power-of-Love-and-Justice) Stargazer or Champion. While the fluff is different I would argue that the Stargazer is a straight upgrade from the Warlock, and the Champion is solid if you where going to be a Glaivelock. Not sure how well it would work for multi-classing but it's worth a gander.

Also the Warlock fix posted from Grod_the_Giant actually looks pretty good. Full attack with EB and almost doubling their invocations known goes a long way.

[GrayDeath]

As i rote, retraining is very likely out (except for the allowed retrain of 3 levels we get as reentry).
But Homebrew, if done well and not OP/strange, is in.

I`ll have a look, thanks.

[The Vagabond]

An alternative would be to simply make them a full sphere caster, if Spheres of Power is in.

[Denomar]

I think picking up a few levels of sorcerer and Eldritch Theurge is a completely decent thing to do. I realize that from the thread's title you don't Really want to multiclass a lot, but there are some upsides to this.

Go around eldritch blasting people and slapping them with Shivering Touch or Vampiric Touch. Shoot your friends to let them get overland flight.

Add wings of cover to your spell list and raise shields as you'd like.

You're already going to be a cause of lots of nausea and black tentacle shenanigans so taking spells to leverage.

Besides all that, you are still a warlock and still have that yummy infinite ability flavor going around!

Sources you're looking at are the Spell Compendium, Complete Mage, Frostburn, Complete Arcane, and the Players Handbook.

[GrayDeath]

An alternative would be to simply make them a full sphere caster, if Spheres of Power is in.

No Idea what Spheres of Power is, care to give me more info?

As for the Eldritch Theurge: That requires second Level spells iirc? So more of a long term thingie?

[Denomar]

As intended it requires three levels of warlock and three levels of sorcerer (or wizard).

A somewhat underhanded method would be using retraining to take 1 level of sorcerer, 3 of warlock and the feat Precocious Apprentice from complete arcane to satisfy the knowledge of a 2nd level spell.

Regardless if you're level 9 you can certainly qualify for the prestige class right now.

[GrayDeath]

"Right now" as in pre whatever suggestions, my Character is a Level 5 Warlock.
He cannot retrain (but did effectively retrain the 3 Levels I had before that, thanks to the GM`s "you may all modify your Characters).
So earliest I could get into Eldritch Theurge at Level 9, ergo level 1 ET at GameRestart, but would lose out some Sorcerer Levels which might hurt the overall appeal quite a bit (losing Spell levels and such), no?
As I have never actually played an ET, but lots of Sorcerers and 3 Warlocks, I am not too fixed on going into it as a weaker Combo.
Mind, I like both Classes (they are actually my favourite Caster and somewhat Caster) but I do not like Optimization attempts which start out subpar...that much.
How much do 2 Levels of Warlock "hurt too much"?

[Troacctid]

Here's my fix for the Warlock:

Warlocks gain 4 + Int skill points per level, and their hit die is increased to a d8. They gain an extra blast shape or eldritch essence invocation at 3rd, 7th, 12th, 14th, and 17th level, and Eldritch Blast deals 1d8 damage per 2 caster levels, rounded up.
There are a few issues with Warlocks. First off, their chassis is unnecessarily weak, and their skill points are inadequate. So I bump them up to a d8 and 4 + Int skill points to match the Dragonfire Adept. That's step one.

Second, they have too few invocations, and their blast shape and essence invocations are supposed to be core to the class but are hard to fit into a build because they compete with utility invocations. My solution for this is to give them an extra invocation of each grade (except for greater, where you get two extras) to spend on blast shapes or essences. Again, this is modeled on the DFA's separate progression for breath effects.

Third, Eldritch Blast deals very poor damage. This isn't huge issue if you don't think of Warlocks as primary damage dealers, but a lot of players really enjoy firing lasers at things, and since it's so near and dear to the class's core identity, I want to buff it. So I boost the damage dice up to d8s and fix the progression to deal 1d8/2 levels. (I've seen "Full attack with Eldritch Blast" floated around as a fix here, but I'm not a big fan of the full attack mechanic, and I'd rather keep Warlocks more distinct from traditional archers. I prefer keeping it as a single shot and increasing the base damage.)

Lastly, I like to support multiclassing and give players more options, so I changed the damage to be based on caster level rather than class level. This helps multiclass Warlocks by enabling Practiced Spellcaster to catch up their blast damage, and opens up new avenues of optimization for players who want to boost their damage, like Wild Mage and Fey Power, which were janky before but become legitimate options under these rules.

And that's my Warlock fix. Note that there's a couple additional fixes that are relevant to the Warlock but that I apply universally: in my games, everyone gets Able Learner and Precise Shot as bonus feats, even if they don't meet the prerequisites. Precise Shot cleans up a feat tax, which is helpful. And if I didn't give everyone Able Learner, then I would probably consider adding extra class skills to the Warlock.

[gadren]

Sorry, I'm a bit unclear. Are you looking for homebrew fixes for the Warlock class, or just want advice on optimizing a Warlock?

[GrayDeath]

Both, actually.

So if you have something for one of the options, feel free to share (in as much Detail as possible)!

[Grim Reader]

Both, actually.

So if you have something for one of the options, feel free to share (in as much Detail as possible)!

The Warlock, in my opinion, has slightly too few options to be fun. I second the notion of letting it have essences separate from the invocation progression, similar to the Dragonfire Adept. I've bolted on the Hexblade spell progression to expand its options slightly.

Might do with 1-2 bonus invocations as well.

[GrayDeath]

Hmmm, so in addition to his normal (but more numerous) Powers he gets a good Debuffer Spell List (not the Dark whatsitsname I assume as its not a Spell)?
Sounds really good to me. Me thinks I`m gonna keep that.
Saves the Hassle of too much Multiclassing as well.
THX

Still, what do you guys think of going Noble Scion long term?
my GM has agreed that its Levels will offer 1/3 Warlock Ability (Invocation and Blast only) progression, and its Dilettante Studies allow me to add 2 (counting Warlocks Abilities as Spells, cleared with DM) more, giving me 6 out of 10 as de facto Warlock levels.
In return for its massive Social Boost, which since I am rocking Charisma, and have 2 Custom Feats invested on Intimidate, would make me ... really good at making people do my bidding. ;)

[Tiri]

Well, if you don't want Eldritch Theurge, or even if you do, consider taking Hellfire Warlock, which is always good for boosting damage.

[GrayDeath]

Nah, tried it once, didn`t like it (damaging oneself is not my style, and the workarounds are cheesy).

[The Viscount]

If your race is up for refluffing and you don't plan on using Eldritch Glaive, many will suggest rolling Sparrow Hengeyokai(OA) for 2 major benefits: a big boost to attack with eldritch blast, and flight (which saves you an invocation).

[johnbragg]

S
Since my Chosen Class is the Warlock, and hence underpowered overall, I am allowed to add not broken homebrewstuff together with any and all nonbroken official Stuff.

I'm going to venture into that twlight area between official and splatbook, the UA SRD.

What would you and your DM thinking about 9 levels of gestalt Warlock//Adept?

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/npcClasses/adept.htm

There's probably a feat somewhere to let you switch Wisdom for Charisma as your casting stat. If not, let's homebrew a feat right now.

Feat: Swap Wisdom for Charisma as your divine casting stat.

[Bobby Baratheon]

There's probably a feat somewhere to let you switch Wisdom for Charisma as your casting stat. If not, let's homebrew a feat right now.

Feat: Swap Wisdom for Charisma as your divine casting stat.

There is, it's from the Dragonlance campaign setting. The feat is called Dynamic Priest. Notably, it switches everything except the DCs from Wisdom to Charisma. That can be planned around, though.

EDIT: As DM, I would just let you switch the whole thing over to Charisma. I always thought that restriction was kind of dumb.

[digiman619]

No Idea what Spheres of Power is, care to give me more info? It's an alternate magic system that replaces spells with a bunch of SLAs that can be done at will. Caster Level is now a measure of casting ability a la BAB. There's also a small pool of points that can be used to us more powerful ones or augment some of them. It's a far more balanced magic system that makes magic thematic and useful rather than "it's magic, I don't have to explain it!"

[ATHATH]

You could try this post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?275054-A-LOT-of-minor-class-tweaks) for ideas, it proposes small adjustment for all classes.

The Warlock for instance gets:

• Upgrade his HD to a d8
• Add Hide and Move Silently to their list of class skills
• His number of invocations known equals his level (see Complete Mage for more choices)
• Eldrich Blast deals 1d6/2 levels damage, as a rogue's sneak attack. You may full attack with Eldrich Blast.
• Eldrich Essence invocations apply to all attacks in the full attack, but only once per target.
• Blast Shape invocations are standard actions, and thus not compatible with full attacking. Eldrich Spear and Hideous Blow are exceptions to this rule.
Don't those changes make it better in pretty much every way (aside from skillpoints) than a sneak-attacking Rogue?

[gadren]

Both, actually.

So if you have something for one of the options, feel free to share (in as much Detail as possible)!

Alright, well, this is the warlock write-up I use in my campaign: https://sites.google.com/site/bardawilcampaignsite/core-classes/warlock

[Eldariel]

Don't those changes make it better in pretty much every way (aside from skillpoints) than a sneak-attacking Rogue?

Damage-wise? SA Rogue, with proper trigger, can get 6+ triggers per turn (he can TWF, get Haste from e.g. Boots of Speed and use Wand of Wraithstrike, he can use e.g. Blinking or Greater Invisibility complete with Darkstalker/Penetrating Strike to SA almost anything) or 4+ at range (Haste, Rapid Shot, iterative). Further, with Craven he can add his level to his Sneak Attack damage. Either of those far eclipses what a Warlock can do even with said changes.

Further, yeah, Rogue's shtick is in his skills and he still has twice more and a much larger set of class skills than a Warlock. So while Rogue itself is a class that could use some help, no, this wouldn't make Warlock a strictly better Rogue (but of course, Warlock has his own set of advantages over Rogue). And Eldritch Glaive Hellfire Warlock is no slouch damage-wise either.

[Bobby Baratheon]

Don't those changes make it better in pretty much every way (aside from skillpoints) than a sneak-attacking Rogue?

Why pick that as a baseline? That seems like a rather low bar to set, especially as rogues have no inherent magic beyond UMD, while warlocks have invocations.

[ayvango]

I will split answer into two parts: homebrew enhancement for the warlock class and suggested optimisation for build.

Homebrew warlock

I: Enhanced Progression
Warlock has normal HD, BAB and skill points. He is a caster after all. But he has enhanced invocation progression. He get new invocation each level and d6 eldritch blast damage each two levels.

comment: That sums to 20 invocations and 10d6 damage at 20 level against 12 invocations and 9d6 damage as in SRD. Not game breaker, since warlock always can learn additional invocations from feats.

II: Arcane Invocations ACF
Each time warlock get access to new warlock invocation he could instead get arcane invocation. Choose spell of up to half of the warlock level rounded down from any arcane spell list. You could cast it as spell-like ability once per encounter or once per 10 minutes out of encounter. If the spell requires expensive material components or XP cost it should be paid each time the warlock uses spell-like ability as normal. That substitution may also be used when the character get increase spell casting ability from a prestige class.

comment: This rule is inspired by ToB and D&Dv4 once per encounter abilities. It enriches warlock with great diversity and introduces two levels of power: at-will and once per encounter. And that made prestige class requirements like "cast spells-of-nth-level" gradually easier to satisfy.

III: Solid blast shape invocations
Special form of eldritch blast shape invocations. Warlock uses swift or standard action to draw off his eldritch power and mould it into semi-persistent shape. While solid blast is active the warlock could not use blast invocations. He can release solid shape as free action at any time and retrieve his ability to cast eldritch blast invocations including solid blast shape invocations. In AMF and dead magic zones solid shape blast is temporary suppressed. Solid shape blast could be dispelled, in that case it is released and eldritch invocations becomes available for the warlock at the same moment. Eldritch essence invocations could be used with blast shape invocation, they are selected at the moment solid blast is cast and could not be changed afterwards.

The main purpose for this invocations was to make melee warlock builds viable. But they gives some extra options for ranged warlocks too. Melee solid blast shape invocations require swift action to activate and does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and ranged require standard action and provokes attacks of opportunity.

Least solid blast shape invocations
Eldritch snake. (ranged)
You form ethereal snake and designate target within 60 feet of you. The snake begins moving towards the target through ethereal plane and comes up to the target at the beginning of your next turn. Then the snake bites the target with touch attack using caster's BAB. It deal blast damage and deliver essence effect on successful hit. In either case the snake dissipates after attack and eldritch blast power if released. The snake is visible at the moment of cast and attack. Anyone observing the cast discern it as hostile action. You can dismiss the snake as free action before it bites, preventing any damage to designated target (it has full round to convince you :) ). The snake fails to deliver bite and dissipates if something between you and the target impedes ethereal movement, if the target moves more than 120 feet before your next turn, or if the target moves through zone that impedes ethereal movement. Treat the snake movement as it moves directly to the place where the target was located and repeat every target movement after that. You need no line of effect to cast eldritch snake blast.

Eldritch fists. (melee)
You concentrate eldritch power on your fists (and other limbs). You are considered to be armed when unarmed. You unarmed strike becomes touch attacks and deals eldritch blast damage and eldritch essence effect in addition to normal damage. Note: magic damage is not amplified with critical hits. The solid blast dissipates at the end of you current turn.

comment: The eldritch spear invocation improves range and the eldritch snakes improves piercing. Also it brings little shenanigans with action economy: it delays the strikes allowing to made two strikes at the single turn. Eldritch fists is sane version of all other melee blast forms: it is touch, it allows multiple and single attacks. It does not extend to attacks of opportunity though, mere least invocation should not offer too much.

Lesser solid blast shape invocations
Eldritch shield. (ranged)
You become wreathed with eldritch power. It becomes visible as unobtrusive mist. The shield has duration of 1 round per caster level or until discharged. The solid blast begins with as much charges as you have dices of eldritch blast damage. Each time you are hit by melee attack with non-reach weapons including unarmed strike and natural attacks, eldritch shields retaliates with eldritch essence effect and deals d6 damage for each charge available. It loses single charge immediately after response. When all charges are spent, the shield dissipates. While shield is in effect in grants you DR equal to number of charges remaining against all magical attacks. Multiple eldritch shields does not stack.

Eldritch weapon. (melee)
You form solid eldritch as arbitrary melee weapon sized for you and place it in your empty hand. It appear semi-transparent with waves of eldritch power like running water caught in the form. The more eldritch damage dices you have the faster power flows hurtling violently. You gain no proficiency with selected weapon. You can use it all ways that normal weapon could be used. It mimics all special qualities like disarm and trap bonuses. All attacks made with that weapon is touch attacks. The weapon is considered magic for DR purposes. You could not be disarmed of the eldritch weapon. If the weapon leaves you hand, it immediately dissipates. The weapon lasts until the beginning of your next turn or until discharged. Solid eldritch weapon begins with as much charges as you have dices of eldritch blast damage. On each hit it deals d6 eldritch blast damage per remaining charges and deliver eldritch essence effect. The weapon loses single charge immediately after hit. When all charges are spent, the shields dissipates. Note, that only magic damage is delivered, solid eldritch weapon deals no physical damage, so two-handed sword and dagger would do the same damage. Also critical hit multiplier does not work on magic damage, so critical hits gives no additional damage to and eldritch weapon. Eldritch weapon could not be enchanted, spells that targets weapons like animate weapon or weapon of energy could not be used on it. Items that normally applies to physical weapons like poisons could not be applied to the eldritch weapon.

comment:. The charge system is used to limit power of low level invocations. It implies quadratic dependency, that is 55d6 for 20th level warlock and 18d6 for 10th level warlock, amplifying blast 3-5 times . It is on par with the eldritch cone invocation that is on greater level, but is much safer to use. Eldritch weapon lasts until your next turn and therefore allows to do attack of opportunity. Eldritch shield is modelled after the fire shield spell, but with warlock flavor.

Greater solid blast shape invocations
Eldritch whirlwind. (ranged)
You melt eldritch power into a small spindle shaped whirlwind, that is 5 feet wide and 10 feet tall. It should be placed on unoccupied place within 30 feet of your. It has 30 feet move speed. When eldritch whirlwind moves away more than 120 feet from you, it dissipates. It lasts for 1 round per caster level otherwise.

Any creature that tries to move through space occupied by the eldritch whirlwind should take eldritch blast damage, Ref halves, and suffer from the eldritch essence effect that may allow its own save. After that the creature should take bull rush check against 10 + 2 per eldritch blast dice bonus (e.g. +30 for typical 20th level warlock). If the creature loses the check it subtracts the difference (rounded up to 5 feet) from its moving distance. If it loses all remaining moving distance it is stopped in the adjacent square. If a creature begins its own turn inside the eldritch whirlwind, it takes eldritch blast damage, Ref halves and suffer from the eldritch essence effect that may allow its own save. If a creature begins its own turn adjacent to the whirlwind, it takes half of eldritch blast damage, Ref negates, and does not suffer from the eldritch essence effect.

You may use move action to command the eldritch whirlwind to move through any path. It moves up to moving speed. If it moves through space occupied by a creature, than the creature takes eldritch blast damage, Ref halves and suffer from the eldritch essence effect that may allow its own save. After that the whirlwind tries to overrun the creature. It has bonus +2 per eldritch blast dice, and creature may use its Dex or Str modifier whichever is better as normal for overrun checks. If the creature successfully made the Ref save above it could avoid the eldritch whirlwind. It may choose to block the whirlwind though. And if the creature failed the save it is forced to block. If the creature blocks and loses the check, then it is kicked prone. If the eldritch whirlwind loses the check, than it subtracts the difference (rounded up to 5 feet) from its moving distance. If it loses so much distance that it could not pass through the creature, then it is stopped in the adjacent square. The whirlwind can do as many overrun attempts as its moving speed allows. All creatures that the eldritch whirlwind passes near takes half of eldritch damage, Ref negates, and does not suffer from the eldritch essence effect.

You could choose to accelerate the whirlwind. You may convert any damage dice (and appropriate bull rush and overrun bonuses) to extra 10 feet of moving speed. For example, 20th level warlock has 10d6 dices of eldritch damage. He choose to allocate 6 of them to the acceleration feature. In that case the eldritch whirlwind would has 4d6 damage, 18 bull rush bonus, 8 overrun bonuses and 90 feet moving speed.

Greater eldritch weapon. (melee)
Improved version of eldritch weapon. There are two key differences.
1) Greater eldritch weapon solid blast shape invocation have no charge limit, it always strikes with full eldritch damage.
2) Greater eldritch weapon has no time expiration (lesser version expires at the start of next turn).

There is also additional option. Warlock could choose to fortify weapon. He could reallocate damage dices to fortification. With each dice spent for fortification the weapon becomes more dim and less transparent. Each point of fortification grant 1 point of physical damage that could be multiplied by a critical hit. It also adds +1 caster level for overcoming spell resist, +1 DC for dispel checks to dispel the weapon. For each fortification point you also has 5% additive chance to ignore AMF and dead magic zone effect and even the mordenkainen's disjunction spell. When the greater eldritch weapon should be suppressed or disjuncted, warlock could takes d100 check to avoid its effects and could keep using his weapon. For example, 20th level warlock could invest 5d6 dices into fortification. He get 25% chance to preserve weapon in an AMF. For each source of AMF roll once. Current weapon would work in the field on successful check. On failed check warlock could re-summon another weapon and try it.

comment: greater weapon is better in many aspects. It releases swift action and allows to do as many attacks as you could get. Whirlwind attacks with cleave, multiple full round attacks with TWF from belt of battle. Vast space for fancy optimisation. But that require access to greater invocations. So you should invest pretty much in warlock. Eldritch whirlwind is modelled after many wizard spells with name "*ing sphere". It allows to break action economy and hurt enemies in your move action as well as standard action (with non-blast invocations or event with ranged weapons). I noticed that many warlock invocation is built by mixing flavour spells with base spell effect. So I thought that warlock version of the defenestrating sphere spell would fit nicely.

Dark solid blast shape invocations
Eldritch embrace (ranged)
You designate any willing target within 60 feet (will negate) and endows it with eldritch power. It appears like living lighting that traverses from you to your target and vanishes inside its body. From now and for the invocation duration (1 minute per caster level) invisible thread connects you and your detached eldritch power through astral plane. The target may move any distance from you, the blast connection is not severed while you reside on the same plane. You could retrieve your power at any time with free action, as normal for solid blast shape invocations.

While the solid shape remains inside target creature it may use all your eldritch blast abilities as its own. He could use eldritch blast, its shapes, including solid shape and eldritch essences. But with the restriction: the target may use only blast shapes and essences of least, lesser and greater level. It could not use dark shapes and essences.

Eldritch wrath
You imbue up to two held melee weapons with eldritch power. Unarmed strikes may be imbued too and counts as single weapon. It lasts as long as you wish. Sparks and flames of eldritch wrath break away from imbued weapon spontaneously, so the eldritch wrath solid form effect becomes visible from time to time. When weapons leaves your hand, it loses connection with eldritch power and all additional features grant by this invocation. That benefits applies automatically to any weapons you took in hand instead of it. If no weapon is held, then all eldritch wrath power augments unarmed strikes. Note, you could not imbue natural attacks with eldritch wrath.

While the power is active the weapon retains all its mundane and magic qualities. Eldritch wrath does not convert the weapon attacks into touch attacks. You could not be disarmed of imbued weapons. The eldritch wrath grants untyped attack bonus to the weapon equal to number of eldritch blast damage dices. For each blast damage dice it allows to ignore 1 point of DR of any kind including DR/-. Also it improves weapon hardness by 2 per blast damage dice. On hit it deals blast damage and applies essence effect (save allowed as usual).

comments: dark invocations is as ultimate as the should be. Eldritch embrace allows you to fill support role and breaks action economy in more significant way than eldritch whirlwind. Eldritch wrath is the ultimate weapon augment invocation. It may be combined with existing weapon and its bonuses. Its +10 bonus to attack rolls compensate depriving of touch attacks. It could compensate armour bonus that is not ignored and gives ability to hit dodging targets. Well, there are still heavy armoured targets that has 8+5 armour bonus, 3+5 shield bonus and +5 natural armour bonus, that is greater then weapon +5 bonus plus eldritch wrath +10 bonus, so using greater eldritch weapon is still worth in some cases.

This three homebrew rule changes raises grade of warlock class but does not make him too powerful.

Optimising Warlock
You could always walk theurge way. Combine warlock and ur-priest to get 9th level divine spells. Or combine warlock with sublime chord to get 9th level arcane spells.

Other options is to take prestige classes that advance martial prowess together with arcane spell casting. Like jade phoenix mage from ToB or enlightened fist from CA. You may also take feat allows to use Cha instead of Wis for monk/swordsage dodge bonus.

There is also plain casting prestige options, like initiate of sevenfold veil or divine oracle for advanced defence options. You can also take shadowcraft mage path for greater diversity. Take single level dip into dragon slayer to get weapon proficiency.

All available options are similar to pure wizard options except that incantatrix and archmage have little sense to a warlock. And you should spend feat to obtain familiar, it is undoubtedly good deal. Familiar is the sole class feature of sorcerer and you can get it only for 1 feat price.

[ComaVision]

My homebrew change to Warlocks is just to let them change out their invocations at dusk.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Out of the box suggestion:

1) Get a flying carpet.
2) Convince the DM to allow you to treat this as a ship.
3) Affix 10' tassels to the carpet.
4) Convince your DM to allow you to take levels in Sea Mage, from Towers of High Sorcery, a Dragonlance book (the relevant casting requirement is 'must be able to cast third-level spells, including water breathing').
5) Use the Imbue Boat ability on your flying carpet.
6) Get Eldritch Glaive or a similar full-attack ability.
7) Make Eldritch Glaive attacks originating from any point on your ship, such as the tassels of your carpet.

This is clearly the superior way for a warlock to fight. That it takes so much houseruling is a testament to the terrible design of the game.

A far simpler idea is to take levels in Zhentarim Skymage, from Lords of Darkness, a Faerûn book. Again, it requires significant house-ruling to meet the casting requirements (must be able to cast invisibility, detect thoughts, suggestion and summon monster III), but they are not un-warlocklike in flavour - invisibility is already an invocation, for example.

The first-level Zhentarim skymage ability gives you a special flying mount, with 1 HD per class level, plus 1 HD per point of charisma modifier, plus 1. That is, with 22 charisma, a single-level dip will get you a griffon mount, and a warlock 5/zhentarim skymage 4 can get an 11 HD very young gold dragon, which is Large (so it can carry you) and has 104 hit points, generally being enough of a badass in combat, that you can go full utility yourself.

Note that the ability is ridiculously broad, and the only requirement - apart from the HD limit - is that the creature must be able to fly. All (flying) dragons are on the list, and creatures like pit fiends or undead rocs are mentioned as options.

[GrayDeath]

Some very whacky Ideas floating around here, thank you!


General: Race is fixed. No changes whatsoever (but since my cute little guy can fly and has very decent statbuffs...well^^).
Gestalting is also out, we may redo a bit but not much, as written above.

I think in general I will go with a decently houseruled Warlock atm.

Ur-Priest, while immensely cool, poses 3 Problems for my Character: 1: I am not Evil (not even evil) and 2: we are somewhere on a plane of rather crazy Chaos Cults using Chaositek. Hence no other Ur-Priest tor ain me.
And most importantly: my Wisdom is 9 ( we rolled, and applied racial Bonuses, but Wis and Dex were the only Stats where my Race had none...)
Sigh....


But I am still open for suggestions that do not require 3 jumps through 5 different hoops on 2 planes (fluffwise we are quite strict)!