(3.x) warlock/summoner hybrid

[flamewolf393]

I wanted a warlock that could also summon the minions of hell to do his bidding, so I took the warlock, got rid of all the tertiary class abilities and gave him the summoning progression of the summoner class. I would like to think it is still balanced as he is only getting one ability increase a level. Also thought I might limit the summons to fiendish/demons/devils only for the flavor of the class.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Abilities|Invocs known
1|0|0|0|2|EB1*|1 least
2|1|0|0|3|SM1**|2
3|2|1|1|3|EB2|2
4|3|1|1|4|SM2|3
5|3|1|1|4|EB3|3
6|4|2|2|5|SM3|4 lesser
7|5|2|2|5|EB4|4
8|6|2|2|6|SM4|5
9|6|3|3|6|EB5|5
10|7|3|3|7|SM5|6
11|8|3|3|7|EB6|7 greater
12|9|4|4|8|SM6|7
13|9|4|4|8||8
14|10|4|4|9|EB7, SM7|8
15|11 |5|5|9||9
16|12 |5|5|10|SM8|10 dark
17|12 |5|5|10|EB8|10
18|13 |6|6|11|SM9|11
19|14 |6|6|11||11
20|15 |6|6|12|EB9, gate|12[/table]

*EB = eldritch blast as per warlock class ability
**SM = summon monster as per summoner ability.

[prufock]

It doesn't seem unbalanced to me or anything, and it's certainly thematic. If opinions on the Zceryll vestige are an indication, this could bump the warlock up a tier or two.

What I wonder is: wouldn't it have been simpler to just create new invocations that mimic summon monster spells? Summon Swarm is already there, as well as Tenacious Plague and Steal Summoning. For example, you could have SM I (least), SM III (lesser), SM VI (greater), SM IX (dark).

[flamewolf393]

The problem with making them new invocations, is how few of them warlocks get. I would rather give up the class features than invocation slots.

[JennTora]

The problem with making them new invocations, is how few of them warlocks get. I would rather give up the class features than invocation slots.

There's a nice little warlock redo on here somewhere that splits the invocations and blast modifiers into separate progressions. Helps out immensely in that area. Just something to think about.

[prufock]

The problem with making them new invocations, is how few of them warlocks get. I would rather give up the class features than invocation slots.

I see your point. I guess another option would be to give them more invocations, which I think they should have anyway. Corin's suggestion seems interesting - split the essences and blast shapes from the other invocations.

Still, if you want to keep it simple... what you have here is not bad at all. If it's an invocation it's significantly more powerful since you could spam it all day long instead of limited times per day (I would probably suggest no more than one monster at a time as a limiter in that case, and might cap it at SM VIII instead of IX and Gate.

As is, I'd say it comes up to a pretty good tier 3.

[flamewolf393]

That was another reason not to do it as an invoc, the times per day factor. If it was an invoc, then I could let my current summon act, then use my summon skill for the turn and replace it with a fresh summon that can still act... and do this ad nauseum... this way it gets the summoners built in limit of 3+cha times per day. By summoner rules, it is also limited to one at a time.