Warlock Conversion and Update (Community Contributions Desired/Required/Admired)PEACH

[Relecs]

Warlock

Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d8
Class Skills:
The warlock’s class skills are Appraise (Int,) Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Warlock.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As Complete Arcane
Invocations: As Complete Arcane with the exceptions that the invocations will be drawn from the list compiled here rather than the one offered in Complete Arcane and that you may not trade in a pact invocation in order to gain a different invocation.
Pact: A warlock’s powers are drawn from a pact they or their ancestors made with a powerful being (malevolent, benevolent, or otherwise). Warlocks gain a bonus class skill, bonus invocations, a pact gift, and pact abilities from their chosen pact. However in return they must pay a pact price, the curse or code of conduct associated with their pact. There are a variety of pacts (see below) and a warlock must pick one upon taking her first level in the class.
Eldritch Blast (Sp): As Complete Arcane with the exception that the damage is 1d6 at first level and an additional 1d6 for every two levels thereafter (to a maximum of 10d6 at 19th level) rather than the progression suggested in Complete Arcane.
Detect Magic (Sp): As the spell of the same name, at will. (Moved to first level because in pathfinder this is a cantrip)
Deceive Item (Ex): As Complete Arcane
Imbue Item (Su): As Complete Arcane

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Invocations Known
1	+0	+0	+0	+2	Detect Magic, Eldritch Blast 1d6, Invocation (least), Pact Invocation	1+1
2	+1	+0	+0	+3	Pact Ability	2+1
3	+2	+1	+1	+3	Eldritch Blast 2d6,	2+1
4	+3	+1	+1	+4	Deceive Item	3+1
5	+3	+1	+1	+4	Eldritch Blast 3d6	3+1
6	+4	+2	+2	+5	Invocation (Lesser), Pact Invocation	4+2
7	+5	+2	+2	+5	Eldritch Blast 4d6,	4+2
8	+6/+1	+2	+2	+6	Pact Ability	5+2
9	+6/+1	+3	+3	+6	Eldritch Blast 5d6	5+2
10	+7/+2	+3	+3	+7		6+2
11	+8/+3	+3	+3	+7	Eldritch Blast 6d6, Invocation (Greater), Pact Invocation	7+3
12	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Imbue Item	7+3
13	+9/+4	+4	+4	+8	Eldritch Blast 7d6	8+3
14	+10/+5	+4	+4	+9	Pact Ability	9+3
15	+11/+6/+1	+5	+5	+9	Eldritch Blast 8d6	9+3
16	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10	Invocation (Dark), Pact Invocation	10+4
17	+12/+7/+2	+5	+5	+10	Eldritch Blast 9d6	10+4
18	+13/+8/+3	+6	+6	+11		11+4
19	+14/+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Eldritch Blast 10d6	11+4
20	+15/+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Pact Ability	12+4

PACTS

Example Pact
Here you would write out a description of the type of pact the warlock entered into in order to gain her abilities (ex. infernal, abyssal, fey, etc.)

Class Skill: One skill which it would make sense for a warlock of this pact to have (ex. knowledge (nature) for a fey pact warlock)

Bonus Invocations: A total of 4 bonus invocations one at each least, lesser, greater, and dark. Available at levels 1, 6, 11, and 16. They should fit within the theme of the pact. (ex. charm (6th) for a fey pact)

Pact Gift: This is an ability similar to the sorcerer’s bloodline arcana. It should be useful at all levels of a warlock’s progression but limited in scope, helping the warlock to specialize in an area appropriate to the pact. (ex. Whenever you cast an invocation with the [mind-effecting] descriptor increase the duration of the spell by 50% (minimum 1 round). for a fey pact warlock)

Pact Price: This is an ability similar to the oracle’s curse. It should represent the price which the warlock is required to pay in the deal she made to gain her powers. This effect should be a weakness but only a minor one, intended to add flavor to each of the pacts. The effect should be most debilitating at early levels and become less so as the warlock advances. This could also represent a code of conduct similar to a paladin or monks.

Pact Abilities: These are six five abilities similar to the sorcerer’s bloodline powers. Intended to diversify warlocks based upon her pact. In addition these also replace the abilities defensive abilities present in the original warlock class published in Dungeons and Dragons: Complete Arcane as such a majority of them should be defensive in nature. They are made available at 1st, 3rd, 8th, 13th, 18th, and 20th level. The abilities being replaced are energy resistance, damage reduction, and temporary fast healing. In addition to this the warlock has access to eldritch blast at will, as such, lesser damaging abilities will seem redundant and become useless quite readily whilst abilities which deal greater damage than an eldritch blast will likely be too powerful. Part of the flavor of the warlock is her lack of resource management and as such I would be hesitant to include any abilities which are used for a particular number of rounds (minutes/hours) per day. However, pathfinder has made these types of abilities far more commonplace and as such it may be necessary to include them in order to balance the warlock’s power and play style with that of the other classes.

EDIT The pact ability system has undergone a rigorous reworking from its original incarnation, see later posts for further information. While this new system does leave somewhat dead levels at 10th and 18th level, they aren't entirely boring for the Warlock as he will gain 1 new invocation at each of these levels.

1st: ability: should offer the warlock an interesting option to perform in combat, it should not replicate any available invocations as this would simply make it another bonus invocation.

3rd ability: This is the level at which the original warlock would have begun to gain a scaling damage reduction.
2nd ability

8th ability: This is the level at which the original warlock would have gained some minor and temporary fast healing.

13th ability: This is the level at which the original warlock would have improved her fast healing slightly, in addition at level 10 the warlock would have gained 5 energy resistance to two energy types of her choosing.
14th ability

18th ability: This is the level at which the original warlock’s fast healing would have capped, still remaining temporary, albeit, significantly more potent than the initial ability

20th ability: \Acts as the warlock’s capstone and as such should be appropriately powerful. It seems common practice with regards to the sorcerer’s bloodlines for this ability to supersede many of the bloodline abilities gained before by increasing the damage reduction, spell resistance, energy resistance, etc. In addition to offering its own potent effects. This may interact with the warlock’s eldritch blast, invocations or pact abilities, or it may simply stand on its own. As always it is imperative that this stays true to the flavor of the pact.

The range of possibilities for these powers are too broad for an example to suffice, as such I offer this directive in place of a specific example.

Design Directive
Considering the abilities given up by the warlock in addition to comparing this feature to the sorcer’s bloodline it would seem appropriate to grant the warlock some ability to resist magic (whether through spell resistance, energy resistance, or otherwise), to avoid damage (damage reduction, fortification, concealment etc.) and to recover from damage (fast healing, regeneration, etc.). Because the warlock is an arcane caster their ability to recover should be somewhat limited, either to rounds per day or by having some sort of associated cost. The damage and magic resistance however should likely be permanent effects.



INVOCATIONS
Here we need to determine which spells would make balanced, interesting, spell like abilities for the warlock. Invocations are sorted into four categories, least, lesser, greater, and dark. Some abilities are further refined by being classified as a blast shape or an eldritch essence. Generally speaking the primary focus of invocations should be utility, while they may do damage that should be secondary to their purpose. (ex. a greater invisibility which damages all nearby if dispelled). Least invocations should not exceed 2nd level spells in power, Lesser should not exceed 4th level spells, Greater should not exceed 6th level spells, and Dark should not exceed 8th level spells.



Okay Giants, so here's what I'm working on.

1. Compiling a list of invocations, either through updating the existing ones from Complete Arcane or developing new ones
2. Creating a list of unique pacts, each should offer a somewhat different flavour.
3. Refining the class in general to ensure that it is balanced with a majority of the classes in pathfinder.
4. In line with the above point: abilities for levels 2, 8, and 14 (or moving abilities from other levels to here) as part of the design philosophy behind Pathfinder is avoiding dead levels.

Help me playground, you're my only hope!

[Relecs]

Reserved for Invocations

Spoiler: From Cityscape (For Consideration and Revision)

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Spoiler: Least

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• Cocoon of Refuse

Spoiler: Lesser

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• Thieves Bane

Spoiler: Greater

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• Devil's Whisper

Spoiler: From Complete Arcane (For Consideration and Revision)

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Spoiler: Least

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• Baleful Utterance
• Beguiling Influence
• Breath of the Night
• Dark One's Own Luck
• Darkness
• Devil's Sight - Darkvision now allows you to see through Darkness this means that this ability is considerably weaker than the invocation See the Unseen
• Earthen Grasp - would require converting the spell of the same name to Pathfinder
• Entropic Warding
• Leaps and Bounds - replace balance, jump, and tumble with acrobatics, only effecting one skill may make this too weak
• Miasmic Cloud
• See the Unseen
• Spiderwalk
• Summon Swarm

Blast Shapes

• Eldritch Spear
• Hideous Blow

Eldritch Essences

• Sickening Blast
• Frightful Blast

Spoiler: Lesser

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• Charm
• Curse of Despair
• The Dead Walk - Consider removing all material cost, this has already been done with word of power (Ultimate Magic) so it is unlikely to be too unbalanced.
• Fell Flight
• Flee the Scene
• Hungry Darkness
• Stony Grasp - would require converting the spell of the same name to Pathfinder
• Voidsense
• Voracious Dispelling
• Walk Unseen
• Wall of Gloom - would require converting the spell of the same name to Pathfinder

Blast Shapes

• Eldritch Chain

Eldritch Essences

• Beshadowed Blast
• Brimstone Blast
• Hellrime Blast

Spoiler: Greater

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• Chilling Tentacles
• Devour Magic
• Enervating Shadow
• Tenacious Plague
• Wall of Perilous Flame
• Warlock's Call

Blast Shapes

• Eldritch Cone

Eldritch Essences

• Bewitching Blast
• Noxious Blast
• Repelling Blast
• Vitriolic Blast

Spoiler: Dark

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• Dark Discorporation
• Dark Foresight
• Path of Shadow
• Retributive Invisibility
• Word of Changing - As Pathfinder spell Baleful Polymorph

Blast Shapes

• Eldritch Doom

Eldritch Essences

• Utterdark Blast

Spoiler: From Complete Mage (For Consideration and Revision)

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Spoiler: Least

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• All-Seeing Eyes - change bonus to perception checks (perhaps visual perception check only)
• Call of the Beast
• Otherworldly Whispers - Perhaps edit the list of knowledges to reflect the Warlock's particular pact
• Serpent's Tongue
• Soulreaving Aura - would require converting the spell Reaving Aura (Complete Mage 114) to Pathfinder
• Swimming the Styx

Eldritch Essence

• Hammer Blast

Spoiler: Lesser

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• Cold Comfort
• Crawling Eye
• Disembodied Hand
• Mask of Flesh
• Relentless Dispelling
• Witchwood Step

Eldritch Essences

• Baneful Blast

Spoiler: Greater

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• Caustic Mire - would require converting the spell of the same name to Pathfinder (Complete Mage 98)
• Hellspawned Grace
• Nightmares Made Real - would require converting the spell Nightmare Terrain (Complete Mage 111) to Pathfinder
• Painful Slumber of Ages - would require converting the spell Endless Slumber (Complete Mage 103) to Pathfinder

Eldritch Essences

• Hindering Blast

Spoiler: Dark

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• Caster's Lament
• Steal Summoning - would require converting the spell of the same name to Pathfinder (Complete Mage 118)

Eldritch Essences

• Binding Blast

Spoiler: From Drow of the Underdark (For Consideration and Revision)

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Spoiler: Lesser

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• Spider Shape - would require converting the monstrous spider monster to Pathfinder
• Sudden Swarm

Now that I have compiled all of these here it seems like a lot I don't know if it would be appropriate to expand this list as part of the weakness of the Warlock is the limited scope of abilities they may use. That said, if anyone sees an area which invocations should cover but have not been covered by these abilities, please feel free to mention it.

[Relecs]

Reserved for Pacts

Pact Ideas

• Aberrant - A pact made with an ancient and powerful alien entity Ph'nglui Mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
• Abyssal - A pact made with a demon
• Celestial - A pact made with an angel or other good outsider (not sure if this one fits)
• Elysian - a pact made with a Azata
• Heavenly - a pact made with an Arcon
• Divine - A pact made with a god or demi-god (like Celestial this may not fit, especially given arcane instead of divine casting)
• Chains - a pact made with a kyton
• Daemonic - a pact made with a daemon (pathfinder bestiary 2)
• Qlippothian - a pact made with a Qlippoth (pathfinder bestiary 2)
• Draconic - A pact made with a powerful dragon
• Elemental - A pact made with a representative of one of the elemental planes (possibly divided amongst the elemental types)
• Fey - A pact made with an influential fey
• Infernal - A pact made with a devil
• Shadow - A pact made with a denizen of the shadow plane
• Aeons (pathfinder bestiary 2)
• Inevitables
• Any other outsiders I missed?

Spoiler: Pacts

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Spoiler: Daemon

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1: Pact Gift -

2: DR (1/2 Warlock Level) /Good or Silver, Resist Acid 5, +2 Saves vs. Death Effects, Disease, and Poison.

8: DR becomes /Good, Resist Acid 10, +4 saves vs. . Death Effects, Disease, and Poison, Resist Cold, Electric, and Fire 5.

14: DR becomes Good and Silver, Resist Acid 15, +6 saves vs. Death Effects, Disease, and Poison.

20:Immunity to Acid, Death Effects, Disease, and Poison, Resist Cold, Electric, and Fire 10.

Spoiler: Demon

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1: Pact Gift -

2: DR (1/2 Warlock level)/ Good or Cold Iron, Electric Resist 5, +2 on saves vs. poison

8: DR becomes /Good, Electric Resist 10, +4 saves vs. poison, Acid, Cold, and Fire Resist 5

14: DR become /Good and Cold Iron, Electric Resist 15, +6 saves vs. poison

20: Immunity to Electric, Immunity to Poison, Acid, Cold, and Fire Resist 10

Spoiler: Devil

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1: Pact Gift -

2:DR (1/2 Warlock Level) / Good or Silver, Fire Resist 5, +2 on saves vs. poison

8: DR becomes /Good, Fire Resist 10, +4 on saves vs. poison, Acid and Cold Resist 5

14: DR becomes / Good and Silver, Fire Resist 15, +6 on saves vs. Posion

20:Immunity Fire, Immunity to Poison, Acid and Cold Resist 10

Spoiler: Div

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1: Pact Gift -

2:DR (1/2 Warlock Level) / Good or Cold Iron, Fire Resist 5, +2 on saves vs. poison

8: DR becomes /Good, Fire Resist 10, +4 on saves vs. poison, Acid and Electric Resist 5

14: DR becomes / Good and Cold Iron, Fire Resist 15, +6 on saves vs. Posion

20: Immunity Fire, Immunity to Poison, Acid and Electric Resist 10

Spoiler: Qlippoth

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1: Pact Gift -

2:DR (1/2 Warlock Level) / Lawful or Cold Iron, Cold Resist 5, +2 on saves vs. Poison and Mind-effecting

8: DR becomes / Lawful, Cold Resist 10, +4 on saves vs. Poison and Mind-effecting, Acid, Electric, and Fire Resist 5

14: DR becomes / Lawful and Cold Iron, Cold Resist 15 +6 on saves vs. Poison and Mind-effecting

20: Immunity to Cold, Immunity to Poison, Immunity to Mind-Effecting, Acid, Electric, and Fire Resist 10

Spoiler: Demodand

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1: Pact Gift -

2:DR (1/2 Warlock Level) / Good or Magic, Acid Resist 5, +2 on saves vs Poison, +1 on saves vs Divine Spells

8: DR becomes / Good, Acid Resist 10, +4 on saves vs. Poison, +2 on saves vs. Divine Spells, Fire and Cold Resist 5

14: DR becomes / Good and Magic, Acid Resist 15, +6 on saves vs. Poison, +3 on saves vs. Divine Spells

20:Immunity: Immunity to Acid, Immunity to Poison, +4 on saves vs. Divine Spells, Fire and Cold Resist 10

Spoiler: Archetypes

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Spoiler: Tome Bound Warlock

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Ancient Grimoire: A warlock has access to all invocations she is capable of casting on the warlock list (all least at 1st, lesser at 6th, Greater at 11th, and Dark at 16th). A Tome Bound Warlock select a number of Invocations to memorize each day equal to the Invocations known shown on the chart above (1 at 1st, 2 at 2nd, 3 at 4th and so on, excluding Bonus Invocations). A tome bound warlock must choose which invocations to know by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his grimoire. Once memorized a warlock may use his invocations at will until the next day at which point he may choose to keep his memorized selection or spend another hour studying to select a different set of Invocations. This replaces the warlock Invocations and Invocations known class feature.

Rapid Memorization: The Warlock gains the ability to quickly flip through his Grimoire and rapidly memorize a new invocation. By choosing to lose the ability to use a previously memorized invocation a warlock may select a new invocation in its place. A tome bound warlock may do this once per day at 1st level, twice at 6th, three times at 11th, and 4 times at 16th. Doing this is a full round action which provokes attacks of opportunity. This replaces the bonus invocations granted by a warlock's pact class feature.

Quick Study: The Warlock becomes more and more familiar with her Grimoire and gains the ability to use her rapid memorization more quickly. at 2nd level the tome bound warlock may use her rapid memorization as a standard action, at 8th as a move action, at 14th as a swift action, and at 20 as a free action. At 14th level the rapid memorization ability no longer provokes attacks of opportunity. This replaces the pact abilities at 2nd 8th, 14th, and 20th level granted by the Warlock's pact class feature.

[Eldan]

If I may: I'd split Celestial up. Eladrin pacts would be very different from Archon pacts would be very different from divine pacts with the gods and angels. And I know they aren't much represented in third edition, but how about a Yugoloth pact? They would be up for that and they are awesome.

[Relecs]

Hey Eldan,

I've update my list trying to seperate some outsiders into a wider variety. Not sure but I think that in pathfinder Eladrin became Azata, and Yuggloth became Daemon's. I could be wrong on this though and would be happy to have even further possibilities.

Thanks,

Relecs

[Relecs]

Likely changing the Warlock pact to levels 1, 2, 8, 14, and 20.

Basic formula I've worked out which seems to fit more or less for 6 out of the 8 evil otusider types in pathfinder

1 Pact Gift (see 1st post)

2 DR = 1/2 Warlock level (overcome by Alignment or Material), Versus the abilities which they will eventually gain immunity to they gain either energy resistance 5 or a +2 to saves against the effect (in the case of disease, poison, death effect, paralysis, etc.)

8 DR upgrades to only being overcome by the appropriate alignment (in this case good). Energy resistance increases to a 10, save bonuses increase to a +4. They gain 5 resist versus the other energy types which they resist but do not become immune to.

14 DR upgrades to only being overcome by a combination of the correct alignment and material (/good and silver, etc.), Energy Resistances gained at level 2 increase to 15

20 They gain immunity in their areas. The resist 5 they gained at level 8 becomes resist 10.

As an example, a demonic pact might look like this (I am unsure about the pact gift just threw something together quickly for the purpose of this example)

1 Pact Gift - A Warlock with a Demonic Pact may apply poisons to his eldritch blast. This may be done by expending one dose of the poison upon casting the eldritch blast. Additionally the poison's save is equal to the save of the warlock's eldritch blast (10+ 1/2 warlock level + Cha modifier). A warlock never risks poisoning himself when using poisons in this way.

2 DR (1/2 Warlock level)/ Good or Cold Iron, Electric Resist 5, +2 on saves vs. poison

8 DR becomes /Good, Electric Resist 10, +4 saves vs. poison, Acid, Cold, and Fire Resist 5

14 DR become /Good and Cold Iron, Electric Resist 15, +6 saves vs. poison

20 Immunity to Electric, Immunity to Poison, Acid, Cold, and Fire Resist 10



So what do you think Playground?

[stack]

In case you want to pilfer ideas, here is the one I did. Posted in on DSP, didn't get much feedback. Should put it up here sometime.

[Relecs]

Cool, thanks.

I'm partial to the Tricks ability as with the way cantrips work now it might make sense to give a warlock access to them.

[Relecs]

Above I have posted the first 6 pacts (without pact gifts) as well as an archetype known as the Tome Bound Warlock. Any Playground feedback on either the pacts or the archetype would be greatly appreciated. I recognize the pacts may not be balanced as they are simply the output of the above posted formula. Hopefully through some tweaking along with the addition of their pact gifts they can gain some balance.

[Kane0]

Give me one sec and i can have a link to a couple warlock 'brews already done here if you're interested in looking over them for ideas or cotent. You have my permission to take and use anything of mine in advance

Edit: There we go

[PsyBomb]

Alignment pacts might be interesting as well. All four could be summarized similarly. I know I'm referencing a lot of 3.5 materials, but dndtools has a better filter for this kind of thing :)

Holy/Unholy/Anarchic/Axiomatic Pact:
Requires appropriate alignment

Skill: Know (Rel) (all four cases, since it is an Ideal)

will only write out for Holy Pact, assume alignment-appropriate version.

Pact Invocations
1- Beguiling Influence
6- Curse of Despair
11- Aura of Triumph (Bo9S, Good and Chaos versions work on Ranged instead of Melee, lasts 1 rnd/level)
16- Utterdark Blast (Evil creatures take a -2 on their save, Good get +2)

Pact Gift:

Pact Abilities:
1- Detect Evil at-will
3- Summon Monster 2 (Good monsters only, cannot be used again while summoned monsters are active)
8- Gain SR equal to Class Level +10, applies to spells cast by Evil creatures and/or with the Evil descriptor
13- Ability to use Holy Word 1/hour as an SLA
18- Summon Monster 8 (Good monsters only, cannot be used again while summoned monsters are active)
20- Become an Outsider (Native, Good). Constantly surrounded by a Magic Circle Against Evil, can be suppressed or resumed as a Move action.

This was just tossed off the top of my head, it's very rough.

[Relecs]

Hey Giants,

Sorry I haven't had much of a chance to get to this or respond to those who have contributed. With exams approaching and final papers looming my time is limited. I do however plan to return, so thank you for the contributions. I'll respond more fully when I'm not as tired as I am right now.