Cheese Challenge:Warlock

[VirOath]

I present a challenge to you. Progression from level 1 to 16, as overpowered as you can make it, without items (Though, PrCs that need an item or ritual can be assumed to have it.)

Rolled Stats are 17,17,16,14,10,8, arrange as you please.

Please provide all sources for ease of reading. Any and all books. And please do state focus.

[The Glyphstone]

Warlock 1 to 12 solid.
1 level of Binder. (tome of Magic)
3 levels of Hellfire Warlock. (Fiendish Codex 1 or 2, dont remember)

Flavor to taste, but that's about as cheesy as a warlock gets. Loads and loads of damage output with no real drawback.

[Random NPC]

Warlock 1 to 12 solid.
1 level of Binder. (tome of Magic)
3 levels of Hellfire Warlock. (Fiendish Codex 1 or 2, dont remember)

Flavor to taste, but that's about as cheesy as a warlock gets. Loads and loads of damage output with no real drawback.

That's pretty much it. And it's Fiendish Codex II.

As a Hellfire Warlock you take con damage to increase your Eldritch Blast. With the level Binder and the vestige of Naberius you heal that con damage every round.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Three levels of Legacy Champion to top it off.

You don't need to dip binder, you just need the feat Bind Vestige.

Or you could go Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest to gain what is effectively DR1 to ability damage. This one may not work though.

[Arakune]

There's a meele warlock who abuses the Eldritch glaive invocation.

[Innis Cabal]

Three levels of Legacy Champion to top it off.

You don't need to dip binder, you just need the feat Bind Vestige.

Or you could go Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest to gain what is effectively DR1 to ability damage. This one may not work though.

If I remember right you ave to actually lose the con for it to work

[Pharaoh's Fist]

If I remember right you ave to actually lose the con for it to work

Immunity to ability damage prevents the thing from working.

The question is if having DR1 to damage counts as being immune to damage.

[Eldariel]

Wouldn't the Binding-feats be sufficient for the preventation effect? Also, I have the feeling Eldritch Disciple [CM] could perform better here. Divine Powered Hellfire Eldritch Glaive [Dragon Magic]? Sounds pretty good. You could also prepare a crapton of Lesser Restorations if your DM nukes the reduction to Con-damage as preventation preventing the use of Naberius (basically, Hellfire Warlock deals extra damage with Eldritch Blast, but takes 1 point of Con damage for it, and can't use this ability if he's immune to Con-damage; however, you can use Binding to reduce all ability damage taken by 1, not being immune but still taking 0 damage each time. Some DMs may nuke this as preventation preventing the use of the ability, others may not.

Warlock 1/Cleric 4/Eldritch Disciple 8/Hellfire Warlock 3 seems solid: Eldritch Blast at 6d6 and Invocations of a level 12 Warlock, Hellfire 6d6 for a total of 12d6 Eldritch Blast along with the spellcasting of a Cleric 11. You lose out on Deceive Item and Imbue Item, but as you stated "no items", that wouldn't be a big part of your game plan anyways, especially with Cleric-levels to enable the use of a large number of items to start with.

Edit: Stats:
17 Cha
17 Wis
14 Con
16 Dex
10 Int
8 Str (just use Weapon Finesse or something) Alternatively, switch 8 to Int, 16 to Str and 10 to Dex and wear a bit heavier armor (Battle Caster allows you to wear a medium armor without ACF giving you Mithril Full-Plate)


Condensed Sources:
Warlock [Complete Arcane]
Cleric [Player's Handbook]
Divine Power [Player's Handbook]
Hellfire Warlock [Fiendish Codex II; Online on WoTC site]
Eldritch Disciple [Complete Mage]
"Eldritch Glaive"-Invocation [Dragon Magic]
"Strongheart Vest"-Soulmeld [Magic of Incarnum]
Shape Soulmeld [Magic of Incarnum]
"Naberius"-Vestige [Tome of Magic]
Bind Vestige [Tome of Magic]
Battle Caster [Complete Arcane]

[Hat-Trick]

Hellfire warlock can't be used if you're immune to the ability damage. There's controversy over whether ignoring one point of CON damage per hit constitutes immunity due to the ability damage only being one at a time.

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

Gnome race, Warlock X, Hellfire Warlock 3, Evil version of Enlightened Spirit X ; Sprinkle in 3 levels of Devil Bloodline (from Unearthed Arcana), and you have yourself a Warlock

[Sinfire Titan]

Three levels of Legacy Champion to top it off.

You don't need to dip binder, you just need the feat Bind Vestige.

Or you could go Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest to gain what is effectively DR1 to ability damage. This one may not work though.

Improved Binding doesn't grant Faster Ability Healing. It grants only the skills that particular vestige offers. Even the improved version doesn't work. You have to use the level of Binder.


Full cheese version: Binder 1/Warlock 10/Hellfire Warlock 2/Legacy Champion 2/Uncanny Trickster 2/Major Bloodline (any) 3

Apply Legacy Champion and Uncanny Trickster to Hellfire Warlock, then the Bloodlines up the benefits of Hellfire Blast from the normal 8d6 (from 4 effective levels in Hellfire Warlock) to 30d6.

That's the cheesiest interpretation to Min/Max a Warlock.

[The Glyphstone]

yeah, the Strongheart Vest trick is potentially DM-iffy. Naberius is perfectly AOK though, because it doesn't prevent the damage in any way, it just gives you Fast Healing 1 for Ability Damage, thus effectively repairing any damage you take from the ability.

[Eldariel]

Now that I think about it, Ur-Priest is probably the better companion for Eldritch Disciple anyways since you end up with level 9 spells that way. So I'd suggest something like:
Warlock 5/Mindbender 1/Ur-Priest 2/Hellfire Warlock 3/Eldritch Disciple X

Of course, for pure damage, the ability continuation classes (Legacy Champion, Uncanny Trickster, etc.) on Hellfire Warlock take it home. And dipping one level of Binder (instead of Mindbender, perfectly doable) would get you Naberius if that's the way you wanna go (whee, some more dabbling with arcane evil!). I personally prefer having the Ur-Priest casting along with the Eldritch Disciple toys since Divine casting kicks so much ass, but YMMV.

Bloodlines probably give you a bit more of both with less Eldritch Disciple-levels to also advance Hellfire Warlock.

[Innis Cabal]

Immunity to ability damage prevents the thing from working.

The question is if having DR1 to damage counts as being immune to damage.

Not...specifically? I'd rule it as such but its not outright ability damage immunity like some monsters have

[Tokiko Mima]

Mine is a gestalt focused on instant annihilation of any foe possible.

Name: "100% Natural Lazer Beams"

Spoiler

Show

Build: Pixie Artificer 10/Incarnate 2 // Warlock 11/Hellfire Warlock 3/Uncanny Trickster 3
Starting Ability Scores: STR 8-4 (4), DEX 17+8+3 (28), CON 14 (14), INT 16+6 (22), WIS 10 (10), CHA 17+6+1 (24)
Alignment: Must be Chaotic Neutral or Neutral Evil
Minimum Playable Level: ECL 5
Power Break: ECL 10

{table=head]ECL | Left Class | Right Class | Feats | Invocations
1 | LA | Warlock | Supernatural Transformation (Eldritch Blast)[Savage Species], Weapon Finesse[RBF], Dodge[RBF] | Baleful Utterance
2 | LA | Warlock | | See the Unseen
3 | LA | Warlock | Fly-By Attack |
4 | Incarnate | Warlock | | Eldritch Glaive [Dragon Magic]
5 | Incarnate | Warlock | |
6 | Artificer | Warlock | Empower SLA (Eldritch Blast) | Brimstone Blast
7 | Artificer | Warlock | |
8 | Artificer | Warlock | | Flee the Scene
9 | Artificer | Warlock | Maximize SLA (Eldritch Blast)[CompArc] |
10 | Artificer | Hellfire Warlock | | Eldritch Chain
11 | Artificer | Hellfire Warlock | | Repelling Blast
12 | Artificer | Hellfire Warlock | Quicken SLA (Eldritch Blast) |
13 | Warlock | Uncanny Trickster | | Voracious Dispelling
14 | Artificer | Uncanny Trickster | |
15 | Artificer | Uncanny Trickster | Quicken SLA (Flee the Scene) | Wall of Perilous Flame
16 | Artificer | Warlock | | Dark Foresight
[/table]

Offense: Eldritch Blast +7d6 from levels, and +10d6 Hellfire Blast. Metamagic SLA's combine with a few typical Warlock items from MIC like a Greater Chausible of Fell Power and a Wand of Divine Power and this Pixie hits for 8 rounds (4 Quickened) of Empowered(Maximized(19d6)) damage (approximately 1178 Force damage.) It's possible to do more total damage with Eldritch Chain, but requires spells/items to increase caster level and the damage is spread out a great deal more.

Defense: Reasonable high Spell Resistance 31, Greater Invisibility at will, Super high Dexterity, Cannot be suprised or flatfooted, able to use Dispel Magic at will, dimension door at will and as a Swift action (3/day), Pixie SLA's 1/day, Resists low amounts of ability damage.

Weaknesses: Not immune to anything just very resistant, needs protection from Negative levels.

Thanks for help formatting this Fax_Celestis!

[Emong]

Mine is a gestalt focused on instant annihilation of any foe possible.

Name: "100% Natural Lazer Beams"

Isn't Pixie LA +4?

[Tokiko Mima]

Yes, but at ECL 16, you can buy off your first level of Pixie LA.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Name: "100% Natural Lazer Beams"

Look like implants to me.

[Emong]

Yes, but at ECL 16, you can buy off your first level of Pixie LA.

Ah, that makes sense then.

[LibraryOgre]

I've always liked the Warlock/Chameleon combination. May not be powerful, but it is versatile.

[Darrin]

Start with Hengeyokai (OA race, LA +0 per 3.5 errata). Turn into a Sparrow (fine size, Dex 23, AC 24, Fly 50'). At level 1, you have a +14 bonus on your ranged touch attacks (+8 size modifier, +6 Dex modifier). From there, Hellfire Warlock + Strongheart Vest or Binder 1 as your DM allows. Also another possible dip: Warblade 1 to pick up Iron Heart Surge (or at least the prereq for it).

If you want more than one attack per round, Eldritch Glaive + Shorten Grip + Confound the Big Folk. Dip into Assassin/Avenger for sneak attack and a couple divination spells, and you can finish off with Unseen Seer, adding sneak attack damage to your eldritch hellfire blasts.

But if you want just a straight-up Hellfire Sparrow:

Warlock 9/Hellfire Warlock 3
Feats:
1) Blend into Shadows (Drow of the Underdark)
3) Blindfight
6) Mage Slayer (CompArc)
9) Pierce Magical Concealment (CompArc)
12) Shape Soulmeld: Strongheart Vest (MoI)

Focus: Eensy-Weensy Flying Bazooka.

At ECL 1, without any skill ranks or item bonuses, a fine-sized sparrow has a +2 bonus on Hide checks when Sniping (that's with the -20 penalty). Even without Blend into Shadows, hiding is easy: just fly behind one of the other PCs, popping up to snipe at whatever you want to fry to a crisp. Add in darkness at will and Pierce Magical Concealment, and anything that can actually hit you still has a 20% miss chance.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

At ECL 1, without any skill ranks or item bonuses, a fine-sized sparrow has a +2 bonus on Hide checks when Sniping (that's with the -20 penalty). Even without Blend into Shadows, hiding is easy: just fly behind one of the other PCs, popping up to snipe at whatever you want to fry to a crisp. Add in darkness at will and Pierce Magical Concealment, and anything that can actually hit you still has a 20% miss chance.

Soft Cover
Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks, giving you a +4 bonus to AC. However, such soft cover provides no bonus on Reflex saves, nor does soft cover allow you to make a Hide check.

HIDING DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY

[Draz74]

Of course, for pure damage, the ability continuation classes (Legacy Champion, Uncanny Trickster, etc.) on Hellfire Warlock take it home. [snip]

Bloodlines probably give you a bit more of both with less Eldritch Disciple-levels to also advance Hellfire Warlock.

This. If you're wondering what the ultimate Warlock-specific cheese in the game is, classes/options that "advance" Hellfire Warlock beyond 3 levels definitely get my vote.

[Alleine]

@Sinfire Titan

You build seemed really strange and involved unnecessary classes. Then I re-read the description of what bloodlines do for the purposes of level based abilities.

[namo]

The other benefit of Naberius is to make you a Diplomancer at early levels (pick up Beguiling Influence).

On the other hand, it's controversial whether Legacy Champion or Uncanny Trickster can progress a PrC beyond its limit...
(I say no.)

[Sinfire Titan]

@Sinfire Titan

You build seemed really strange and involved unnecessary classes. Then I re-read the description of what bloodlines do for the purposes of level based abilities.

You can thank TO for that build.

[woodenbandman]

30d6 isn't really even that much damage. That averages to ~150 per round. A lot of competent melees/ranged damage dealers do more than that.

[Sinfire Titan]

30d6 isn't really even that much damage. That averages to ~150 per round. A lot of competent melees/ranged damage dealers do more than that.

But 39d6 per attack with Glaive is somewhat decent. It's at least better than normal EG without Hellfire Warlock.

[JeenLeen]

What book is Legacy Champion from?

[Sinfire Titan]

What book is Legacy Champion from?

Weapons of Legacy. Go figure, eh?