Warlock PrC: Eldritch Warrior (PEACH)

[Seraph]

The Eldritch Warrior

Many warlocks choose to forgo direct confrontation, preferring to strike from a distance. Some, however, prefer to get personal, striking down enemies in melee and seeing them die. The Eldritch Warrior is the Result, a Warlock whom has sacrificed some of his invocations in exchange for being able to create a sword of raw Eldritch Power.





Prerequisites:

Eldritch Blast Class Feature
Hideous Blow Invocation
Weapon Focus: Eldritch Blast
BAB of +7
Use Magic Device: 10 Ranks
Must be Chaotic or Evil

Class Features:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Eldritch Warriors gain no proficiency in weapons or armor.

Hit Die: d8

Skill Points per Level: 2+ Int modifier

Class Skills:

Str: Jump, Climb, Swim
Dex: Ride
Con: Concentration
Int: Craft, Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft
Cha: Intimidate, Bluff, Use Magic Device




Eldritch Blade (Su): the trademark of the Eldritch Warrior, the Eldritch Blade is a sword of Eldritch Energy that sprouts from the palm of their hand. At base statistics, the Eldritch Blade is treated as a +1 Longsword. the Eldritch Warrior adds his CHA bonus to Damage rolls in place of STR, but rolls for attack normally. The Blade is treated as Magical for overcoming DR, and The Blade can be summoned or dismissed as a free action an unlimited number of times per day. as the Eldritch Blade is a part of the Eldritch Warrior, it is treated as a natural weapon and is therefore finessable. Focus and Specialization feats for Eldritch Blast also apply to the Eldritch Blade.

Horrifying Blow (Su): an advanced form of Hideous Blow specialized specifically for the Eldritch Blade. for a number of rounds per day equal to (Warlock level + Ewar level + CHA mod)/2, every attack made by the Eldritch Warrior adds Eldritch Blast damage without having to prepare Hideous Blow. Every round that an Eldritch Warrior wants Horrifying blow to be in effect, he activates it with a swift action.

Atrophied Invocations (Ex): as an Eldritch Warrior has focused more on Melee Mastery as opposed to Invocations, certain class features atrophy.

Eldritch Blast, Fiendish Resilience, and Damage Reduction progress as normal.

Invocations progress at only half pace. all other class features do not progress.


Blade Essence (Sp): at 2nd level, and all even levels thereafter, an Eldritch Warrior gains one Essence point for their Eldritch Blade. Essence Points are, effectively, a pool of Enhancement bonuses that may be used to add magical effects to their Eldritch Blade. initially assigning an essence point is instantaneous, but if an Eldritch Blade wishes to reassign Essence Points for different magical effects (such as switching out flaming and ghost touch enhancements to include a Flaming Burst enhancement), they must spent 8 hours in concentration.

Blade Power (Su): Blade Power is the Enhancement bonus of the Eldritch Blade. it increases by one every odd level, totaling as 5 at 9th.

Blade Shape (Su): at 5th level, an Eldritch Warrior may transform their blade into the form of a different weapon. once per day, the Eldritch Warrior may transform the Eldritch Blade into any weapon they have proficiency in. if the Eldritch Blade chooses to turn the Eldritch Blade into a two-handed weapon, they still lose the use of their off-hand. furthermore, they may split the blade into a pair of light weapons or a one-handed and one light weapon, with a total +2 Blade Power and +2 Blade Essence for each. however, doing so still incurs the normal pentalties for two weapon fighting.

[The Glyphstone]

You absolutely MUST give it an ability that removes the AoO for invoking Hideous Blow - otherwise, 90% of people are going to say it's worthless. And for the Horrifying Blow, at least, they'd be right.

Overall, it sounds like the illegitimate love child of a Warlock and a Soulknife. ;D

[Seraph]

You absolutely MUST give it an ability that removes the AoO for invoking Hideous Blow - otherwise, 90% of people are going to say it's worthless. And for the Horrifying Blow, at least, they'd be right.

Overall, it sounds like the illegitimate love child of a Warlock and a Soulknife. ;D

right, forgot about the AoO. also, added a rather . . . fitting image.

[Don Beegles]

I don't know about anyone else, but it certainly seems rather unbalanced to me.

1)It can, IIRC, be reached at level 4 with a 1 Warlock/3 Fighter. This is a general no-no with PrCs. Change the requirements or something to prevent this.

2)With Cha to attack and damage, it lets a class that only needs Cha for its abilities to focus even more on that, even neglecting strength when meleeing.

3)Eldritch Blast with every attack is way to much. I don't have my complete arcane with me, so correct me it I'm wrong, but at level 20 he could have 19 Bab and so at least 3 attacks, at 1d8+1+Cha+8d6 each attack for 27d6+3+3Cha, plus any bonuses which seems to be a bit much. I think making it 1/day or so could balance it.

4)They get all other warlock abilities? You give a primarily melee build DR and Fast Healing, plus all of the other benefits, for teh price of invocations. That's too little. This ability needs to go, IMHO.

5)Blade Essence and Blade power are too good because they completely kill WBL guidelines. You're giving him a free +10 total longsword at level 14? If I were him I would spend the remainder on Cha boosts and just pwn with melee damage. I would suggest either allowing him to buy enchantments for it, or cut back the bonus to a total of +6 or so.

I reall ylike the concept; Hideuos Blow has always seemed a bit weak, but the execution was poor.

[Rei_Jin]

I too like this class, but I suggest doing the following.

Extra entry requirements:

Weapon Specialisation: Longsword
Concentration 13 Ranks
Use Magic Device 13 Ranks

This means that he drops at least 4 levels into Fighter, delaying his Eldritch Blast advancement slightly. It also works with the melee flavor of this class, and makes the weapon work with the WBL guidelines, as he can't get into this class until level 10.

[Overlord]

I too like this class, but I suggest doing the following.

Extra entry requirements:

Weapon Specialisation: Longsword
Concentration 13 Ranks
Use Magic Device 13 Ranks

This means that he drops at least 4 levels into Fighter, delaying his Eldritch Blast advancement slightly. It also works with the melee flavor of this class, and makes the weapon work with the WBL guidelines, as he can't get into this class until level 10.

Definitely. As it is, the class can be enter to quickly. Also, I think that the class should not give medium armor proficiency and the equivalent of Armored Mage for free. I'd remove that altogether. Horrifying blow is too strong. It gives eldritch blast damage on AoOs. This should be limited to attacks on the eldrtich warrior's turn only, and to a certain number of rounds per day. Atrophied invocations needs to specify exactly which features it gives. It shouldn't give things like Imbue Item, only abilities like damage reduction. Perhaps this should reduce eldritch blast damage progression to 1/2 as well. Full blast progression, a d8 hit die, and a full base attack bonus seem too powerful.

I like the idea, but the class is too strong, IMO.

[Jibar]

You just reminded me, I need to work on my Soul Reaver prestige class...
Meh, I'll do it later.
And, though my idea of balancing is "if I can't kill it in 1 hit, it don't work", looks pretty good.

[Seraph]

hm. I'll up the minimum BAB to 7, so a pure Warlock can't get in before 10th level and someone dipping into fighter has to wait at least till 7th, which solves the WBL problem. mainly I don't want to make focus/specialization required as I personally find singleclassing preferable, and don't want to force someone into taking 4 levels of a separate class just to get a feat.

also, I'll specify which class features progress and which don't.

[Hypertext]

I love the class. Hopefully i can sneak this past my DM next time we make characters... but in my opinion the balance on damage does seem to be an issue.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I like it. Mostly because I don't think I've ever seen a Melock played.

Here's my two coppers on the Horrifying blow: Make it so that it's an X/day ability that allows the EW to apply Hideous Blow damage to every attack of a full attack. Heck, possibly even just one attack of a full attack. The big annoyance of EB in melee is not that it doesn't apply to every attack, but that it prevents full attacks. Anyway, start at 1/day and increment it every third level or so.

[Rei_Jin]

What about making it usable (half class levels, minimum 1) + (Wisdom modifier) times per day? That way it ramps up slowly, and rewards the player for not ignoring that particular stat.

[Seraph]

What about making it usable (half class levels, minimum 1) + (Wisdom modifier) times per day? That way it ramps up slowly, and rewards the player for not ignoring that particular stat.

but that's arbitrarily foisting the need of another high stat on someone just to make the class less poweful. that's the reason I don't like paladins all that much, to fully use the class abilities you have to have 4 high stats - two should be enough for a class, otherwise is just forcing min/maxery.

how about the ability can be on for a number of rounds equal to (Level + CHA mod)/2 per day, and the rounds can be broken up however the player wants it?

also, made the Eldritch Blade count as a natural wepon, half because it makes sense as the blade is a part of the Eldritch Warrior, and half because DEX combatants shouldn't get shafted by not being able to use this class's trademark.

[I_Got_This_Name]

Class skills?

Also, I'd probably cut down on the Blade Essence. Being able to get a +10 equivalent weapon as a class feature is one thing. Being able to get a +10 equivalent weapon that has different powers every day is quite another. I'm not even too sure it needs the Blade Essence.

Perhaps you could, instead, make it so that you can add Eldritch Essence to your attacks when using Horrifying Blow? Possibly start on your first attack, expand to second, then to all.

Also, I'd probably make dismissing your blade a free, not swift, action, and make it so that Horrifying Blow has to be re-activated every round.

[Seraph]

Class skills?

Also, I'd probably cut down on the Blade Essence. Being able to get a +10 equivalent weapon as a class feature is one thing. Being able to get a +10 equivalent weapon that has different powers every day is quite another. I'm not even too sure it needs the Blade Essence.

Perhaps you could, instead, make it so that you can add Eldritch Essence to your attacks when using Horrifying Blow? Possibly start on your first attack, expand to second, then to all.

Also, I'd probably make dismissing your blade a free, not swift, action, and make it so that Horrifying Blow has to be re-activated every round.

gah! I cant believe I forgot skills. will fix that quickly.

as for what you said:

how about making it a 1/week change instead of 1/day? the changing is meant to allow flexibility, which is why I didn't make it permanent.

as for having to reactivate horrifying blow, that would be nerfing it rather too much. it's supposed to be an enhancement upon Hideous blow, not just the same thing with a time limit and a different name.

[I_Got_This_Name]

It's not really a nerf; it just means that it takes your swift action in every round you want to use it in (and, let's face it, you weren't using it for that much anyway unless you have Quicken SLA on an invocation), but no action to turn it off, instead of a swift action to turn it off. The ninja invisibilities work the same way; swift action to turn invisible for one round, repeat next round for longer invisibility. This would be a swift action to add Eldritch Blast damage to all of your attacks for one round. This makes it be fewer actions if your just using it for one round (swift to turn it on for one round, vs swift on, swift off).

Once per week is a little better. I don't really like the ability overall, though. I think it'd be much cooler to be able to stick Eldritch Essences on attacks than to make your blade just a few bonus dice of damage.

[Seraph]

It's not really a nerf; it just means that it takes your swift action in every round you want to use it in (and, let's face it, you weren't using it for that much anyway unless you have Quicken SLA on an invocation), but no action to turn it off, instead of a swift action to turn it off. The ninja invisibilities work the same way; swift action to turn invisible for one round, repeat next round for longer invisibility. This would be a swift action to add Eldritch Blast damage to all of your attacks for one round. This makes it be fewer actions if your just using it for one round (swift to turn it on for one round, vs swift on, swift off).

Once per week is a little better. I don't really like the ability overall, though. I think it'd be much cooler to be able to stick Eldritch Essences on attacks than to make your blade just a few bonus dice of damage.

right then, I'll make it an "activate each round" thing. as for blade Essence, I'll just do the same as the Soulknife (concentrate for 8 hours)

[Seraph]

I'm trying to decide whether to add a class ability that lets the Eldritch Warrior turn his Eldritch blade into any weapon he has proficiency in. on one hand, it would allow rather more versatility, but on the other hand, Longsword Focus is a prerequisite and changing it to anything else would end up making the character have a worthless feat.

[Squangos]

If you have access to Races of Destiny (which I don't), I remember this prestige class in there that could change its special weapon into any other slashing weapon. Though I can't recall any specifics…

[The Glyphstone]

Why not make it Weapon Focus (Eldritch Blast) instead? I'm pretty sure that's legal, and then you can change your blade shape whenever you want - plus sling stuff at range if need be.

[Eldmor]

Why not make it Weapon Focus (Eldritch Blast) instead? I'm pretty sure that's legal, and then you can change your blade shape whenever you want - plus sling stuff at range if need be.

You can have Weapon Focus (Ray) so Weapon Focus (Eldritch Blast) should be a green light. Why would someone bar something that is making the ability more specific and nerfing yourself? :P

[Seraph]

there we go, put it in.

[Lord_Arkaine]

Add Weapon Specialization: Eldritch Blast to force a fighter route. This will also give them feats from the fighter class for melee specializing.

However, I don't think the whole sword thing is needed at all. Eldritch Blast by itself does a lot of damage. Since the blade is nothing but an eldritch blast materialized, it doesn't need any actual sword powers or even bonuses.

How I'd fix that is this way. It's an energy weapon, so it should use a touch attack rather than worrying about armor. NO sword bonuses or enhancements. Instead, the blade does the damage of an eldritch blast. Including on AoO or multiple attacks per round.

Invocations should not progress. Any ones you get before taking the class still apply, but that's it.

Instead of all those blade enhancements you have listed, relist the warlock powers in the form sneak attacks work, namely adding +1d6 every so many levels. Fast Healing and Damage Reduction should not exist or be ramped up. If the player wants those powers, he should take more levels of Warlock, not be given them free. Same with Invocations. No progress for the Warrior. If you want more, take more Warlock levels.

So essentially, the chart should be blank aside from the saves, BAB, and the normal progression for eldritch blast. Everything else is taken care by the fact that further progress stops if you aren't continuing on the Warlock class.

[Lord_Arkaine]

To better illustrate...

(took out the Use magic device and alignment restrictions as neither are required; the blade is not in fact a magic item and there is no alignment-based reason for why any warlock would choose this path)

Prerequisites:

Eldritch Blast Class Feature
Hideous Blow Invocation
Weapon Focus: Eldritch Blast
Weapon Specialization: Eldritch Blast
BAB of +7 <-- Not exactly needed with the previous two

Class Features:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Eldritch Warriors gain no proficiency in weapons or armor.

Hit Die: d8

Skill Points per Level: 2+ Int modifier

Class Skills:

Str: Jump, Climb, Swim
Dex: Ride
Con: Concentration
Int: Craft, Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft
Cha: Intimidate, Bluff, Use Magic Device

Eldritch Blade (Su): The trademark of the Eldritch Warrior, the Eldritch Blade is a sword of Eldritch Energy that sprouts from the palm of their hand. The Eldritch blade is treated as a magical weapon for overcoming DR, and can be summoned or dismissed as a free action. As the Eldritch Blade is a part of the Eldritch Warrior, it is treated as a natural weapon and is therefore finessable. Focus and Specialization feats for Eldritch Blast also apply to the Eldritch Blade. Attacks made with the Eldritch blade are treated as touch attacks, bypassing most armors with ease.

Blade Intensity (Su): The blast damage for the Eldritch blade increases by +1d6 per two levels.

[martyboy74]

Why exactly do we want to force them to take fighter levels?

[Lord_Arkaine]

Why exactly do we want to force them to take fighter levels?

The intent is not to force fighter levels, but to require Weapon Specialization: Eldritch Blast. Which, consequently, only fighters may take. So it forces fighter levels.