Warlock/essences/shapes question

[meckling85]

So I'm completely new to playing Warlocks and myself and my DM (who's also new to locks) are completely confused by how essences and shapes work.
As I'm only level 1, I only have one invocation which is at the moment Sickening Blast. Do I have to first cast that to apply that essence to EB, and then fire EB in my next turn? And the same question applies for shapes. Like, if I go for Eldritch Spear, would I have to cast that before firing the blast? Or are the shapes/essences always applied? It's very very vague in the handbooks. If they are always applied (like a modification to a weapon), then is it possible to have both an essence and a shape applied? For instance, could I fire a 250 ft Blast (with the sniper shape) that also potentially causes sicken (with the sickening essence?

[ColorBlindNinja]

It takes no extra time to use a shape essence.

[Troacctid]

Using essences and blast shapes is part of casting eldritch blast. They actually cannot be used on their own at all.

[BowStreetRunner]

Try thinking of it this way if it helps. Essences and Blast Shapes are to Eldritch Blast what Metamagic is to Spells.

[Particle_Man]

The only restriction is no more than one essence and no more than one shape per blast. But if you know more than o e essence you can change the essence from round to round (well blast to blast). Same with shapes.

[meckling85]

So is it possible to use an essence and a shape within the same blast? For instance, can I fire an Eldritch Spear shape that has the Sickness Blast essence applied?

[Crake]

So is it possible to use an essence and a shape within the same blast? For instance, can I fire an Eldritch Spear shape that has the Sickness Blast essence applied?

Do you have complete arcane? Or are you using some third party to access the information? Because the way essences and shapes work is quite clearly described directly after the warlock class description in complete arcane (page 8-9), but is generally omitted by third party sites, because it's not technically part of the class description.

If you don't have complete arcane, I suggest you go buy a copy of the pdf.

[Particle_Man]

So is it possible to use an essence and a shape within the same blast? For instance, can I fire an Eldritch Spear shape that has the Sickness Blast essence applied?

Yep, you would have a Sickening Spear. Assuming, of course, that you get the Eldritch Spear invocation, perhaps at level 3.

In fact, that is a good way to think of it, as the essence word can replace "eldritch" and the shape word can replace "blast". But you can only replace "eldritch" once and you can only replace "blast" once. So you can never get, for example, a Sickening, Vitriolic Doom Spear, as that would require more replacements than you are allowed.

Ok, Hideous Blow doesn't fit with the above but don't ever take Hideous Blow, it is awful. :smallsmile:

[Falontani]

Ok, Hideous Blow doesn't fit with the above but don't ever take Hideous Blow, it is awful. :smallsmile:

Just say Noxious Blow

[Mordaedil]

If you want an idea how it works, I can recommend trying to play a warlock in Neverwinter Nights 2.

Albeit I don't really like the game as a whole anymore, it was my introduction to the warlock class and where I fell in love with it.