Cultist Mooks: Warlocks? [3.5]

[Human Paragon 3]

Gentlemen.

I am in need of cultists, but I am afraid of falling into that old trap. I think most DMs have experienced this: your PCs bust into the antechamber, there are cultists all around, priests of a dark god who wield His devilish might... they grab their holy symbols and... cast Bless and Cure Light Wounds.

You have a crowd of low level spellcaster, and you had to take time to pick out all their spells, and you have to track which spells each one has cast. Did this guy use his Contagion yet? How many Inflict Moderate Wounds has this guy used? Ah f--k it, he attacks with his morning star.

I was thinking I could dodge this bullet by making my cultists warlocks. I only have to pick out a few invocations, and I know they can just use them all day long with nothing to track. Massed Eltritch Blasts should be a credible threat on my party (especially if they focus fire) without being overkill.

Is this premise good?

What invocations should I put on my Foot Soldiers of Asmodeus? What feats should I give them?

I'm thinking they should come in 3 flavors: Initiates (mooks) (level 2 Warlocks), Acolytes (Level 4 warlocks) and Priests (Level 6 warlocks). Maybe I could have a higher level high priest. My party is currently level 5, but I don't want to have to scale up the bad guys every time they level, just change my mix of cogs.

[Prodan]

See the Unseen, Spiderwalk, and Summon Swarm at low levels.

[Furnok]

You can make them the foot soldiers of Mephistopheles and link them to a Hellfire Warlock leader who isn’t there so you could make him a recurring bad guy.

[Xefas]

I've actually done this heavily before. With a little reflavoring and some diversification (and even some homebrew Warlock invocations from this very forum) you can have a huge variation on the Cultist Mook theme.

Low level Warlocks only have one or two tricks, and because they're mooks, they really only need that many.

I try to mix in some Warlocks with the Eldritch Essence invocations that Shaken or Sicken with some Warlocks that target saving throws, since being Shaken or Sickened gives you a -2 penalty to saves.

I've often re-flavored Summon Swarm as a whirlwind that rends flesh on contact, or a moving zone of disease, etc, if the specific "Bat, Rat, Spider" motif doesn't fit.

Cultists of Asmodeus should probably start off trying to socialize first. The +6 Diplomacy/Bluff/Intimidate Invocation is good for this, and very Asmodeus-y. They'll try to win the party over; promise them things, etc. Keep in mind there are also some invocations in...Dragon Magic? Dungeonscape? Complete Mage? I think...not sure.

[EdroGrimshell]

I'm thinking they should come in 3 flavors: Initiates (mooks) (level 2 Warlocks), Acolytes (Level 4 warlocks) and Priests (Level 6 warlocks). Maybe I could have a higher level high priest. My party is currently level 5, but I don't want to have to scale up the bad guys every time they level, just change my mix of cogs.

Well, maybe throw a few levels of cleric for the higher level ones (maybe one level for acolytes and two or three for a priest).

This would allow you to use eldritch disciple from Complete Mage while keeping the demonic theme. If they're servnts of asmodeus, give them the Baator Domain from Spell Compendium and trade spontaneous inflict/cure for spontaneous domain spells, or just use the UA variant for spontaneous divine casters.

[LibraryOgre]

Sounds like a great idea to me. They'll be able to do respectable damage (not great, but not so much your players ignore it), and have some neat abilities, without being overpowering.

[Human Paragon 3]

Thanks!

I like that they have unlimited touch attacks, so I won't be whiffing all the time in combat with my mooks, too!

[Toliudar]

If you don't mind, I'm going to promptly steal this idea for another campaign. Warlocks do indeed seem like terrific mooks - pinging reliably for a small amount of damage, a few tricks up their sleeve, and still relatively squishy so that they make a satisfying splat when the barbarian actually reaches them.

[Human Paragon 3]

By all means.

I think some of the later wotc stuff meant to give players more options secretly also fixes a lot of DM problems. This for example.

I added a few martial study feats to a team of knights a while back and it made a world of difference.

[Zeofar]

Slightly off topic, but if you don't want to deal with keeping track of prepared spells, you could try using Favored Souls from Complete Divine.

[Human Paragon 3]

That's true. There's also the spontaneous divine caster variant from unearthed arcana. They can still run out of spells of any given spell level, though, so you have to track how many they've used.

[Human Paragon 3]

Hm, what if I added a couple martial study feats to the higher level ones? Which maneuvers do you think complement warlock?

Could a glavelock use the diamond mind maneuver that makes them flat footed if you pass a concentration check? Ruby something something I think it's called. Then they could attack vs. AC 10. Is there a reason a warlock might really want a single attack to hit?

[babson99]

Flee the Scene is a good one. Your barbarian will say things like "I got him!...damn. I got him!...damn."

Spiderwalk is especially good if it's a large room/cavern and some party members can't fly.

There are some warlocks in the 3.5 Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. For weeks afterwards, my players grumbled about "those guys with the Silly String" (i.e., eldritch blasts).

[CubeB]

Hm, what if I added a couple martial study feats to the higher level ones? Which maneuvers do you think complement warlock?

Could a glavelock use the diamond mind maneuver that makes them flat footed if you pass a concentration check? Ruby something something I think it's called. Then they could attack vs. AC 10. Is there a reason a warlock might really want a single attack to hit?

If they've stacked Meta-SLAs and Essences on their Glaive, sure. But for anything more complex than a Swift Action, you'd need to quicken it. (There's a no-preq version of the feat in the Book of Vile Darkness)

One of my favorite tricks is to toss a Piercer Cloak (Magic Item Compendium) on my warlock. Give them Spiderwalk (Or Fell flight), Eldritch Glaive, and Leaps and Bounds. Have them spend a move action to climb (or fly) above their target. Use a free action to drop glaive first on their head, and use Leaps and Bounds to tumble to safety.

An Empowered Maximized Mortalbane Piercer Cloak Boosted Eldritch Glaive requires a turn to setup (Without Quicken), but it can be an unorthodox way of making a seemingly innocuous warlock a lot more dangerous.