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View Full Version : Finding low-level spells to use as Warlock invocations



Mr. Wensleydale
2008-03-25, 04:11 PM
Hello! To make a long story short, the character I'm playing in my current campaign is an air-manipulating Warlock whose invocations are drawn from the list of spells I can convince my DM an air-manipulating Warlock would have. To make a short story long, click the spoiler.

My character's upbringing took place on a faraway mountain that was so tall and the air so thin that, among other things, people could not breathe and sound waves could not propagate, so manipulation of the air became essential for everyday everysecond survival. Originally the idea was that such thin atmosphere would have required a massive Con to inhabit, and that as your prowess at manipulating air grew you would be able to climb ever higher, where ever more powerful techniques would be inscribed on the mountain the higher you climbed. This was my best attempt to convince my DM to accept a Con-based spellcaster; alas, to no avail. Still, I liked the concept and to allow for ceaseless windcasting he suggested I be a Warlock who could use any spell I could convince him I ought to have. In compensation, the other Warlock in our party gave up Eldritch Blast for double the number of invocations at each level. You'd think this would be massively unbalanced, except that our ceaseless founts of pure magical ability are utilized 5% towards cleansing the world of evil and 95% towards doing the sorts of cool miscellaneous things that ceaseless founts of pure magical ability enable you to do.

My dilemma is that I'm relatively new to D&D and this is my first spellcasting character, so I don't really know which spells would be suitable and I don't know in which of the fifty books that I don't own I should start my search. Can anyone out there suggest cool, flexible, or fun spells to take up these invocation slots that I can't seem to fill? There are only a few criteria:

1) They don't need to be air-based spells at all, as long as they could pass for being air-based spells (for instance, Blade Barrier could just as easily be Windy Threshold of Cutty, Slicy Wind and Mage Hand becomes Windy Wind Hand with sufficient imagination).

2) They need to be suitable for use by a 4th-level Warlock. "Suitable for use" is up for debate, and will likely depend on how many cool uses I can think up for the spell that don't break the world. For instance, my DM (a fairly lenient and very cool guy) is letting me use Gust of Wind as an Eldritch Essence invocation, which doesn't really break anything since we're usually fighting large or larger creatures anyway. If you'd like to suggest a spell you may optionally ignore this criterion entirely if the spell is cool enough. :smallwink:

Thank you!

Kurald Galain
2008-03-25, 04:56 PM
This sounds interesting. I like the creative approach here.

Suitable things for an air-based warlock would include, in my opinion, and sticking to core for convenience,
* Endure elements (as the spell, and it triples the amount of time you can hold your breath)
* Fog cloud (as the spell, with a duration of concentration + 2 rounds, and the mist deals 1 point of cold damage per round to everybody inside)
* Augury (as the spell, but it only works while the sky is visible, as you have to observe cloud patterns or bird flights)
* Hold person (works by thickening the air around him; with a duration of concentration + 1 round, but can affect any medium- or smaller creature regardless of type)
* Longstrider (you gain +10 to speed, and can walk on calm water as if it were solid ground AS LONG AS you keep moving)
* Telekinesis (as the spells Mage Hand, Floating Disc, and Unseen Servant, with a duration of concentration)
* Levitate (with a duration of concentration, and it can affect an unwilling target but it'll get a will save each round; and you gain Feather Fall at will)
* Baleful Utterance, refluffed as a shockwave
* Leaps and Bounds
* Entropic Ward
* Walk Unseen (at level 6)

Aquillion
2008-03-25, 08:38 PM
You could combine Ghost Sounds, Whispering Wind, and Ventriloquism to probably end up with something fairly useful. Perhaps allow the 'Whispering' Wind to be louder than usual -- it would be very effective if it could produce loud distractions at long range, although that might be overpowered. Certainly, though, the basic idea of long-distance wind communication fits your character well (you'd need it on a mountain.)

Beren One-Hand
2008-03-26, 08:08 PM
Looking over the invocations, there are quite a few that can easily be reflavored as air manipulation, especially at the lower levels.

Eldrich Blast becomes Air Blast: Hurl a solidified ball of air at your target, deals the same amount of damage.

Least Invocations:
Breath of Night - is basically Fog Cloud, call it something like Breath of the Valley or something like that.
Entropic Warding - 20% miss chance for ranged attacks, pass without trace, and can't be tracked by scent... all accomplished by a swirling wind surrounding you. Call it something like Wind Armor.
Leaps and Bounds - Enhancements to air enabled movements, no change necessary
See the Unseen - Using the vibrations of air you can see invisible objects and in the dark. No change necessary.
Baleful Utterence - As said above, can easily be a shockwave.
Miasmic Cloud - No change needed.
Beguiling Influence - Using subtle manipulations of the air around you, you can attract, distract, or repulse those you're dealing with.
Eldrich Spear - You can hit things farther away.
Hideous Blow - You can hit things harder when you push your weapon with air too.
Sickening Blast - You can suck part of the air away from the creature hit, sickening them temporarily.

Least Invocation
Beshadowed Blast - You solidify the air around their eyes, holding them shut temporarily.
The Dead Walk - You use the air to animate inanimate corpses.
Eldrich Chain - You hit multiple creatures with your air blast
Fell Flight - A no brainer
Flee the Scene - Slip through folds in the air to get to your destination, and leave an image of yourself behind.
Voidsense - Using the vibrations of air you can see things around you.
Walk Unseen - Alter the air around you to keep light from reflecting back, making you invisible.
Hellrime Blast - Channel the cold of high altitudes with your air blast
Brimstone Blast - Channel the heat of high pressure with your air blast

This should be more than enough until you're level 11 when you get your first Greater Invocation.