Warlock healer questions

[Zellsantal]

The new game I am playing is a diablo base game with no class or race restrictions though we start at level 5. So there is a warblade, a sorcerer, Samurai and the last of my party unknown so far but he was going to do a rogue class. No one else seem to want to play the healer and we end up getting our selfs in tight spots way to often and I doubt our fith member would play a good healing class. I never done it before but remember about Eldritch Disciple and thought of doing a warlock healer, found this build which got me interested in giving it a try even more. However there is one flaw to it which I will see what my DM would say about it. It is about two of the prestiges, one is asking to worshop a god that is choas or evil and the other you have to warshop Pelor.Heres the link to the build itself below.

http://dungeons.wikia.com/wiki/Warlock/Healer_(3.5e_Optimized_Character_Build)


However here is my questions about the eldritch blast in this way.
1. Once you have healing blast does that men your eldritch blast can no longer do damage and it is nothing more then a healing ray or can you use switch from heal to doing damage any time you want?
2. With hellfire blat and Psionic shot (not sure if this feat is a real one or not being it's coming from wiki) would those also add healing damage or is it more for normal damage?
3. Is Psionic shot and greater pisonic shot illegel feats?

[Snowbluff]

When you activate healing blast, your eldritch will heal instead of doing damage. Things that would normally increase the damage will instead increase the damage.

Psionic shot is a legal feat as long as you have some power points, so you can psionically focus , but I wouldn't take it. Take the Eldritch Glaive Invocation instead, which will let you make extra attacks and give you the ability to power attack for more healing.

[Gruftzwerg]

Imho go for any non heal warlock build and just max UMD an use wands for healing.

You start at lvl 5 with enough WBL to buy some wands that should hold the first few adventures (and you can ask your teammates to share the costs). Warlock gets at lvl 4 already his take 10 on UMD ability, so you'll reach the savepoints to active items without failchance really quick.

Imho Eldritch Disciple & Healing Blast isn't worth the investment. Healing in-combat is already viewed as bad action management and investing into that ain't a good idea. A few healing wands (for after combat healing) and a good dmg build will help your team much more (and may even result in lesser dmg taken to heal due to faster kills!).

Go for Glaive-/Blastlock and just use wand and max UMD for the healing.

[Troacctid]

1. Healing Blast has to be activated as a swift action, and you expend a use of turn undead each time you use it. If you don't spend a swift action and a turning attempt, your blast will do damage as normal.
2. Yes, they add healing. The damage healed is equal to the damage that would normally be dealt.
3. No, they're legal feats. They can be found in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (same book as the Xeph) or in the SRD here (www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm).

Eldritch Disciple is a great class, but the build you're looking at seems sketchy. Generally you want to take Eldritch Disciple all the way to the end ASAP because dual progression is just so powerful. I am also not a fan of the Psionic Shot plan because it eats up all your feats. It's especially bad on an Eldritch Disciple because your blasts are going to be so far behind that it's not even remotely worth trying to use them as your primary combat ability. You should be attacking with your spells, not spending three feats just so you can deal ~14 damage with your full attack at level 6. That's just not efficient.

[skunk3]

I am currently playing an Eldritch Disciple. It's a blast - no pun intended.

I personally like the Healing Blast gift, especially in conjunction with shape essences. If you have Eldritch Cone, that's a 30' cone of healing. Fighting undead? With 1 turn undead attempt you can fire off a blast that hits everyone in the cone (from the ground or from above!), healing your party members while damaging undead. You can also do this with Eldritch Chain (hitting only who you want), etc. If you have Eldritch Spear, you can make really long distance heals. You also have your healing / spontaneous healing from being a Cleric too, PLUS UMD! You can easily be a healbot with Eldritch Disciple.

As far as whether or not Hellfire Warlock EB damage dice can be turned into healing, I don't know. The wording to me seems to indicate that the using Hellfire is basically the same as an Eldritch Essence, although I could be wrong... even if I am wrong, I think most DM's would be flexible enough to let you heal with it since it does CON damage to you, so it's not something you're going to be spamming a lot unless you are using some bind vestige cheese.

As people have already pointed out, healing blast doesn't permanently alter your blast. You can use it as many times per day as you have turn undead attempts.

As far as feats go, I think that Mortal Bane is a really good one. 5x/day you can increase your EB damage by 2d6 vs. mortal beings. (Doesn't work with healing blast though.) I am currently level 8, about to hit 9. My feats are: Mortal Bane, Precise Magic, Spell Penetration, Greater Spell Penetration. Next I will take Practiced Spellcaster (Divine), and for the rest of my feats through level 20 I'll be taking Extra Invocation just to have access to more invocations, because generally speaking, invocations are going to be way more useful than most feats, especially since they are at-will abilities you can use an unlimited times per day, or essentially all-day buffs.

An Eldritch Disciple can actually deal some decent damage too, even without going Clawlock. If you take Eldritch Glaive as an invocation (and you really should), you can make attacks of opportunity. Combat Expertise would be a decent feat down the line if you go into epic levels. The best part about Eldritch Glaive is that it is not a melee attack, so it really doesn't matter what your STR is. It's a touch attack, and most things have crappy touch AC. With a 1 level dip in the Enlightened Spirit prestige class, you get some nifty abilities and also can attack incorporeal creatures without the normal miss chance. Worth it for a one level dip if you ask me.

You basically won't need to spend any money on pimping out a weapon at all, because you won't need one. You could buy a Warlock's Scepter of course, but you don't need to spend a bunch of money upgrading it.

Here's what I recommend gear-wise:

Warlock's Scepter
A Mithral bucker (no ASF, inherently +1, doesn't occupy a hand, can be enchanted with lots of helpful stuff stuff)
Greater Chausuble of Fell Power (IMO a must-have for any Warlock)
The Mithralmist shirt from the MIC is a pretty good armor choice, but you could also go with heavy armor (since you're proficient) if you don't mind greater ASF chance. (Celestial Chainmail is tasty!)

Aside from that, it's all up to you. I am going with stuff to improve my saves, AC, and caster level.

I know you didn't ask for this long-winded reply, but I'm very enthusiastic about this character! :)

[Zellsantal]

Thanks guys for the input, with all that said I think I will leave out the Psionic stuff and the Pelor class and go with with the rest. The healing blast is the main thing want to know about. Because i would be facing undead so it would do well, on top of that I would be better then any healing wand as well. I was thinking useing eldritch cone just like Skunk3 pointed out it can heal the party and kill the undead at the same time.

That said it seems I be more likely get extra tunings in order to do enough heals, with that in mind I might go cloistered cleric so I can get mage hand and able to use touch spells from my cleric spell list. Also would it be a good idea to get an item familiar if I get the chance, after looking at some of that stuff sounds like I could do more then jsut one thing at a time.

Other then that I thank you all for your input.

[ATHATH]

If your DM will let you, you might be able to use Pelor the Burning Hate as your deity.

Also, you have a Warblade and a Samurai in the same party? Even if the Warblade takes Toughness for every feat slot, the Samurai's going to be completely out-classed (due to the Samurai class being terrible and Warblade having a high optimization floor).

[Zellsantal]

If your DM will let you, you might be able to use Pelor the Burning Hate as your deity.

Also, you have a Warblade and a Samurai in the same party? Even if the Warblade takes Toughness for every feat slot, the Samurai's going to be completely out-classed (due to the Samurai class being terrible and Warblade having a high optimization floor).

Ill think about the pelor but for now I'll make it simple myself for the time being. As for the play who is doing a samurai, yea I was thinking the same thing but the play wish to use it. I don't why but I guess he would have to learn the hard way.

[Troacctid]

For a non-Ur-Priest Eldritch Disciple, I generally recommend either 1 Cleric/4 Warlock or 4 Cleric/1 Warlock.

The former works more like a Warlock with Cleric casting on the side. You get Deceive Item and you have a proper Eldritch Blast that is worth using. You mainly use blasts and invocations, and your spell slots will mostly be spent for utility rather than raw power. You can also feel good about going into Hellfire Warlock later and advancing as a Warlock at the end of your build. However, you do have to spend feats on Heighten shenanigans to get in; Improved Sigil (Krau) is usually the preferred choice, so you're most likely locked into Illumian as your race. Your primary stat is probably Dex, with uur as your other sigil so you get bonus spells based on Dex.

The latter is essentially a Cleric with some Warlock on the side, and should play mostly like a primary spellcaster with a few choice invocations backing up the spells that serve as their main combat strategy. Feat slots are freed up a bit more, and you're likely to finish off the build with more Cleric casting. Your primary stat is Wisdom.

The 3/2 half-and-half split puts you three levels behind instead of only one or two. I'm not a fan of it.