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KazilDarkeye
2008-05-03, 02:40 AM
I need help designing a character. He is a Human Warlock 6/Acolyte of the Skin 6/Hellfire Warlock 3.
The specific thing I need help with is the matter of Feats. As a Human he starts off with 2, and he is a 15th level character (another 5) for 7 Feats overall.

I already gave him Improved Initiative and Extra Invocation (Lesser). Any further ideas?

Tokiko Mima
2008-05-03, 04:40 AM
Shape Soulmeld (Strongheart Vest) comes to mind immediately. It will let you drop all the Hellfire you want. It's found in Magic of the Incarnum. This will be the most useful feat I could imagine you taking.

You can't go wrong with Quicken SLA (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsterFeats.htm#quickenSpellLikeAbility) (Eldritch Blast) for adding some extra punch. As a bonus, it's also great for compressing an Eldritch Glaive full attack down from a full-round action to a free action (not a swift action! You can still use your swift action for other stuff). Use this Feat when you want to go nova on something because you can only do this 3/day.

Extra Invocation can be selected as many times as you want, and it's never a bad deal as long as there's good Invocations you still don't have.

If your Charisma needs help, you can also try Ability Focus as well.

Nebo_
2008-05-03, 04:51 AM
I need help designing a character. He is a Human Warlock 6/Acolyte of the Skin 6/Hellfire Warlock 3.


Fix this before you think about feats. Acolyte of the skin is awful.



The specific thing I need help with is the matter of Feats. As a Human he starts off with 2, and he is a 15th level character (another 5) for 7 Feats overall.

I already gave him Improved Initiative and Extra Invocation (Lesser). Any further ideas?

Ability Focus is pretty good for a Warlocks, as is more Extra Invocations.

KazilDarkeye
2008-05-03, 05:10 AM
I'm sorry, but I make fun characters rather than optimised characters; I'm keeping Acolyte of the Skin.

Also Magic of Incarnum is off-limits, but the others seem like solid choices.

Nebo_
2008-05-03, 05:22 AM
I'm sorry, but I make fun characters rather than optimised characters; I'm keeping Acolyte of the Skin.
choices.

There's nothing Acolyte of the Skin gives you flavour wise that you can't get from warlock, and that way you don't have to take a class that's made of fail.

Kizara
2008-05-03, 05:38 AM
I'm sorry, but I make fun characters rather than optimised characters; I'm keeping Acolyte of the Skin.

Also Magic of Incarnum is off-limits, but the others seem like solid choices.

Fascinating, yet you post on the forums asking for optimization help?

Asking for help in character building and then promptly declaring elitistly that you don't care about character building is amusingly hypocritical.

Nebo_
2008-05-03, 05:48 AM
Fascinating, yet you post on the forums asking for optimization help?

Asking for help in character building and then promptly declaring elitistly that you care about character building is amusingly hypocritical.

Oh cool, we agree on something.

Amiria
2008-05-03, 06:01 AM
The OP asked for specifically for advice with feats, not with his class choice (as suboptimal as it may be). Can't see how his reaction to uncalled-for AotS-bashing is elitist and hypocritical ... :smallconfused:

Kizara
2008-05-03, 06:08 AM
The OP asked for specifically for advice with feats, not with his class choice (as suboptimal as it may be). Can't see how his reaction to uncalled-for AotS-bashing is elitist and hypocritical ... :smallconfused:

Point one:



I need help designing a character. He is a Human Warlock 6/Acolyte of the Skin 6/Hellfire Warlock 3.

Point two:


I'm sorry, but I make fun characters rather than optimised characters; I'm keeping Acolyte of the Skin.


See the first two lines of both quotes for why its hypocritical and the tone of the second for why its elitist.

IE: "I make characters for fun, I'M A ROLEPLAYER, NOT AN OPTIMIZER!" No, he didn't use those words, but that's the sentiment. I believe this to be an elitist sentiment.

The same way if I said "I drive real cars: Fords, unlike you Chevy people." it would be elitist. I'm sure you gather the point.

DementedFellow
2008-05-03, 06:29 AM
I guess I'm more apt to give the benefit of the doubt. I read his response as another way of saying, "I don't care how horrible the class is, I am not changing it."

That said I've only skimmed the part about that aforementioned PrC, so I don't know how horrible it is. I'll just assume it's the general consensus that is is sub-optimal.

Back at addressing the OP's question. With my limited knowledge of Warlocks, I know that at lower levels Point Blank Shot is nice for that extra bit of ranged touched attacks. It is probably a waste at your level though.

Burley
2008-05-03, 10:56 AM
If you have access to the Complete Mage, the Demonic Heritage feats could do you a world of good.
I applaud you on flavor over function. I prefer to make flavorful characters, and try to use their own flaws to my advantage. In fact, the only character I could not enjoy was a heavily optimized Transmutation specialist wizard.
Have your fun!

KazilDarkeye
2008-05-03, 11:23 AM
Thank you all and sorry about causing that argument. Yeah, I took Acolyte of the Skin for flavour purposes. As for the matter of optimisation, I just couldn't think of ANY feats that would mesh right. I guess you could say I'm trying to make it so I'm not getting any worse. (BTW, what exactly is bad about Acolyte of the Skin? Is it low saves? The fear affect? I just took it as constitution bonus to help with the penalty of using Hellfire, and the resistances just in case).

Also I wasn't aware Point Blank Shot worked on Eldritch Blast. I thought it only applied to ranged WEAPONS rather than ranged ATTACKS.

Valairn
2008-05-03, 11:30 AM
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#pointBlankShot

It does say weapons. Of course an eldritch blast can be considered a weapon-like SLA.

MorkaisChosen
2008-05-03, 11:38 AM
There's an implied precedent for PBS working on Eldritch Blast: Spellwarp Sniper gets it as a prereq and Precise Shot as a bonus feat, and the whole point of the class is to use ray spells (which are an even more specialised, exclusive version of ranged-touch spells).

Swooper
2008-05-03, 11:41 AM
Do you have Tome of Magic? If you have access to it, grab the Bind Vestige and Improved Binding feats. Bind Naberius to heal 1 ability damage per round to mitigate the down side of HFW.

Other than that, maybe Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. Don't get PBS if you don't take Precise Shot though, it's too minor to matter at your level. Extra Invocation for the slots you have left, it's never a bad choice :smalltongue:

Tobrecan
2008-05-03, 12:22 PM
Do you have Tome of Magic? If you have access to it, grab the Bind Vestige and Improved Binding feats. Bind Naberius to heal 1 ability damage per round to mitigate the down side of HFW.

Bind Vestige only gives you one of the Vestige's abilities as shown on the table, Practiced Binder gives you another but neither of the abilities for Naberius is the Faster Ability Healing one. You'd have to take a level in Binder to get that.

Human Paragon 3
2008-05-03, 01:50 PM
Penetrating Shot from (I believe) the Complete Warrior lets you attack everyone in a 60 foot line instead of just one person with a ranged attack. I see no reason it shouldn't be applied to an Eldritch Blast. It has a prereq of BaB+11 though, not sure what the Warlock's BaB is.

Ranged dissarm might be cool too, combined with quicken SLA. You could dissarm them with a quickened eldritch blast and then use your standard action for Baleful Utterance to destroy the weapon you dissarmed with no save allowed (since the item would be suddenly unattended). That might be utter crap, but I think it's cool.

Swooper
2008-05-03, 02:11 PM
Bind Vestige only gives you one of the Vestige's abilities as shown on the table, Practiced Binder gives you another but neither of the abilities for Naberius is the Faster Ability Healing one. You'd have to take a level in Binder to get that.
Ah well. A level in Binder isn't bad for his build, anyway.

Kurald Galain
2008-05-03, 02:16 PM
Penetrating Shot from (I believe) the Complete Warrior lets you attack everyone in a 60 foot line instead of just one person with a ranged attack. I see no reason it shouldn't be applied to an Eldritch Blast.
Technically that's not allowed - it works with "any projectile weapon", which eldritch blast isn't (Ranged Disarm has a different wording that does allow eldritch blasts). That said, since you have to be a 14th-level warlock to obtain it, I see no real problem with it.

D Knight
2008-05-03, 05:19 PM
do not forget about maxamize SLA. so no matter what you do max damage. its good for people who like to blow stuff up but if you are not going that way i can not say.

The_Snark
2008-05-03, 09:51 PM
BTW, what exactly is bad about Acolyte of the Skin? Is it low saves? The fear affect? I just took it as constitution bonus to help with the penalty of using Hellfire, and the resistances just in case.

It gives up spellcasting for a few mediocre-ish, limited abilities, basically. Fiendish Glare is a single-target, 1/day effect, which isn't all that valuable; Poison is a touch spell, and most warlocks want to stay away from melee (plus, this version's save DC doesn't scale like the spell's does). The energy resistances are fairly minor (and a standard warlock would get similar resistances eventually anyway). At higher levels, Glare of the Pit is nice when you first get it, but the damage doesn't scale, and again, it's only 1/day. The summoning ability is 1/day and never scales, and the summoned creature is CR 6. The inherent ability score bonuses, and the damage reduction at the top of the class, are good, but I don't know if I'd want to give up invocations for that (you'll never get dark invocations if you take the class to level 10). It's not a class I've ever really considered, simply because I find that invocations are fun enough that I'm loath to lose any. If you really want to take the class for some reason, you can stick with it, but warlock flavor is already very close to the acolyte of the skin if your power derived from a fiendish pact, so... *shrug*

If you do stick with Acolyte of the Skin, though, maybe consider Practiced Spellcaster, if your DM will let that apply to warlocks. (There's no reason it shouldn't, but it technically requires a spellcasting class.) It'll help offset the caster level loss.

Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot can indeed apply to ray spells and eldritch blasts; Complete Arcane has a list of feats that will do that, on page 73. Extra Invocation is always a solid choice if there are more particular invocations you want.

SCPRedMage
2008-05-03, 10:18 PM
There's an implied precedent for PBS working on Eldritch Blast: Spellwarp Sniper gets it as a prereq and Precise Shot as a bonus feat, and the whole point of the class is to use ray spells (which are an even more specialised, exclusive version of ranged-touch spells).
Complete Arcane makes it clear:


Point Blank Shot: You get a +1 bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls with ranged spells that deal hit point damage at ranges of up to 30 feet. Spells that deal only ability damage, bestow penalties on ability scores, or deal energy drain gain a +1 bonus on their attack rolls but get no bonus on damage.

Chronos
2008-05-03, 11:09 PM
Another one to consider is Obtain Familiar. The requirement is "caster level 3", not the ability to actually cast spells, so warlocks are eligible for it. Many folks will disparage them, but I've always found familiars to be both fun and useful.

Pironious
2008-05-03, 11:16 PM
I went Luck Feats (Complete Scoundrel) with my Warlock. I just wanted an excuse to try them out and lets face it, Warlocks can get by without picking feats that augment their class specifically, unlike so many others.

Not sure if it's a particularly good idea, mechanics wise, but it'll certainly be fun. "Yeah... that nat 1... that's a crit threat"

Leon
2008-05-04, 02:03 AM
Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Meta-Magic feat of choice and Meta-magic Spell trigger

Pironious
2008-05-04, 03:34 AM
Meta-Magic feat of choice and Meta-magic Spell trigger

NO! BAD! BAD MONKEY!

Metamagic feats are incompatible for warlocks, as warlocks use spell-like abilities.

Leon
2008-05-04, 06:39 AM
NO! BAD! BAD MONKEY!

Metamagic feats are incompatible for warlocks, as warlocks use spell-like abilities.

I wasn't aware that that to take a Meta-magic feat you had to cast spells, given that a non spellcaster wouldnt find much use in them

Here is a possibly useful link i found while digging about on Meta related items - http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=751117

in regard to new posts in relation to the above - i found them to and figured that they would be compatible, if not by RAW then possibly by House rule (what maketh the game fun worketh even if it not RAWeth)

Armads
2008-05-04, 06:56 AM
Metamagic Spell Trigger burns up money really quickly, though.

Kurald Galain
2008-05-04, 07:00 AM
NO! BAD! BAD MONKEY!

Metamagic feats are incompatible for warlocks, as warlocks use spell-like abilities.

Yeah, yeah, but as has been pointed out earlier in this thread, there exist also "meta-SLA" feats, which are essentially the same but for SLAs rather than spells. Meta-breath feats exist as well.