Warlock Prestige Classes

[Gaelbert]

I have a warlock in one of my campaigns, and I'm wondering what prestige classes are either designed for the warlock or happen ro work out well for a warlock. If you could, please put the name of the book its in by the name of the prestige class and tell me if the prestige class sucks or is good. Thanks.

[Draz74]

Most the Warlock-focused PrCs are in the book Complete Mage. The main exception that comes to mind is the Hellfire Warlock from the Fiendish Codex II. It's 3 levels and it's supposed to be very good, as long as you can come up with a reliable way to heal the Constitution damage that you're going to inflict on yourself often.

[Leon]

Complete Mage is the only book i know of (there may be others) that has any Warlock PrCs, some of them are ok - Enlightened Spirit (a Good "lock") Eldritch Theurge & Eldritch Disciple (Lock + X PrC, where X is Cleric or Arcane Caster)

There is something called a Hellfire Warlock that i think is on the WotC site

[EagleWiz]

Hellfire Warlock is the prestege class in the Fiendish Codex2.

Its verry good. Extra hellfire (Unavoidable) damage (Up to 6d6) but you lose 1 con per time you use it.

[Starsinger]

don't warlocks benefit from classes that give +1 spellcasting level?

[The_Snark]

don't warlocks benefit from classes that give +1 spellcasting level?

Yes, but they have to qualify, which they can't do if the prestige class requires the ability to cast spells. If all it requires is a caster level, or if it grants spellcasting without requiring it, they can use it.

Hellfire Warlock is good, but you really do need a way to heal that Con damage. It builds up fast. It's in Fiendish Codex II, and on the excerpt from the Wizards site.

[Draz74]

Btw, if you have Tome of Magic, the easiest way to heal that Con damage is a dip in Binder (or even just Binder-imitating feats) and binding the vestige that gives you Fast Healing for ability damage, Naberius.

[MeklorIlavator]

Mindbender and Acolyte of the Skin are both in the Comp Arcane, but are usually used as dips, not that that should stop anyone.

[Umbral_Arcanist]

Btw, if you have Tome of Magic, the easiest way to heal that Con damage is a dip in Binder (or even just Binder-imitating feats) and binding the vestige that gives you Fast Healing for ability damage, Naberius.

I'm not sure but i believe that the feat options for binding the Naberius vistige don't grant the ability healing ability, i think you have to take a single level of binder (which from the crunch perspective is simply turning the hellfire PrC into a 4 level 3/4 spell progression PrC[ish])

[Douglas]

Alternatively, ISTR that Incarnum has a way to get essentially damage reduction for ability damage that can be acquired (at the minimal level of just one point) with just a feat, no class level investment. Since you only take one point of constitution damage each time you use Hellfire Blast, the one point of reduction is enough to negate it entirely.

[Ramza00]

HellfireWarlock is located free as an excerpt here

Hellfire Warlock can be easily adapted for any alignment or any institution. Hellfire is untyped damage effectively and is non resistible, thus change the name (you can even remove the connection with fire since it is non resistable). The draining of the con is due to the amount of physical effort you put into increasing the power of your eldritch blast. All you have to do now is modify the invocations you need as pre-reqs and change some names. Quite simple to do.

There is also incarnum blast in the incarnum book. Eldritch Essence that adds Amount of Essentia invested in it*d6 damage to your eldritch blast. Also has a save for daze or something.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I made one or two PrC's for warlocks, they being my favorite of base classes.

Necrolock (necromantic warlocks)
Eldritch Speaker (for warlock/truenamers)

There's likely a few more out somewhere on these boards, but I don't think I have links to any of them.

[Leon]

Necrolock (necromantic warlocks)

Im a big fan of that one

[Dausuul]

Alternatively, ISTR that Incarnum has a way to get essentially damage reduction for ability damage that can be acquired (at the minimal level of just one point) with just a feat, no class level investment. Since you only take one point of constitution damage each time you use Hellfire Blast, the one point of reduction is enough to negate it entirely.

Technically correct by RAW, but whether the DM allows it is another story. Anything that makes you immune to Con damage makes hellfire not happen; while "ability damage DR" is not actually immunity, the clear intent of the hellfire rule is that you can't weasel out of the Con damage and have your hellfire still work.

I might allow this trick, but only because warlocks are so underpowered already. If warlock were on par with other classes, I'd nix this, and so would most DMs I know.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Technically correct by RAW, but whether the DM allows it is another story. Anything that makes you immune to Con damage makes hellfire not happen; while "ability damage DR" is not actually immunity, the clear intent of the hellfire rule is that you can't weasel out of the Con damage and have your hellfire still work.

I might allow this trick, but only because warlocks are so underpowered already. If warlock were on par with other classes, I'd nix this, and so would most DMs I know.

I've asked my DM about this before, he told me it'd start doing 2 Wis damage instead... Wis was my lowest stat.

[Fixer]

Alternatively, ISTR that Incarnum has a way to get essentially damage reduction for ability damage that can be acquired (at the minimal level of just one point) with just a feat, no class level investment. Since you only take one point of constitution damage each time you use Hellfire Blast, the one point of reduction is enough to negate it entirely.

(I happen to have my Incarnum book handy today.)

Strongheart Vest is what you are talking about, but it won't work as you describe.

1) Strongheart Vest states it protects you from attacks that would reduce your ability scores. (Of course, the next sentence says, "Any time you would take ability damage..." so take that for what you will.)
2) The prestige class says NO! "Because the diabolical forces behind the power of hellfire demand part of your essence in exchange for this granted power, if you do not have a Constitution score or are somehow immune to Constitution damage, you cannot use this ability." This might not explicitly state it, but it seems fairly obvious that if you do not pay the cost, you do not get the benefit.
(Now, if you had a power that let you regenerate CON damage quickly, THAT wouldn't affect it at all.

[magicwalker]

I don't have my books with me at the moment, but I've seen in the Binder guides on the CharOp boards that binding Naberius should effectively negative the Con penalty the Hellfire Warlock incurs.. I don't have the exact wording with me of course, so take that as you will.

[Douglas]

This might not explicitly state it, but it seems fairly obvious that if you do not pay the cost, you do not get the benefit.

Yes, the spirit of the rule is obviously that you have to pay the cost to get the benefit. RAW, however, only immunity to all constitution damage prevents you from gaining the benefit, not immunity to con damage in 1 point units. I would expect a great many DMs to houserule very quickly that it doesn't work, but that doesn't change the RAW.

[cubecrazymonkey]

One interesting thing to do that won't radically alter the character's magic style but can still give you a boost is the Master of Masks in Complete Scoundrel. (The entry requirements I believe, are 8 ranks disguise, 8 ranks perform, and 4 languages, and successfully impersonating an individual to someone that knows that individual.)

Pick up the Archmage mask- it allows you to cast a couple spells once per day as a spell-like ability. You get better spells at higher levels, but they're still pretty limited. Instead, the big deal is that you get a +2 to your Arcane caster level for wearing the mask. The High Mage mask also grants a +2 to Divine caster levels. So if you just dip into this class for one level, you can essentially get a free caster level. There's a couple other masks that grant a variety of different spell types, which could be nice for versatility, but it's probably best just to exploit the boost to caster level then leave the rest alone.

[Fixer]

Yes, the spirit of the rule is obviously that you have to pay the cost to get the benefit. RAW, however, only immunity to all constitution damage prevents you from gaining the benefit, not immunity to con damage in 1 point units. I would expect a great many DMs to houserule very quickly that it doesn't work, but that doesn't change the RAW.

It doesn't address the fact that RAW states that the vest only protects versus attacks (then, admittedly, appears to contradict itself in the next sentence). This loss of Constitution is not an attack, it is a cost.

[Person_Man]

There are really very few options. Though I love the concept, its a sadly weak class, and its not core, so its not particularly popular. So like the Healer and the Samurai, WotC has published very little material to support it.

Hellfire is a very good idea. The ability to Empower magic items Cha mod times per day is huge considering a Warlocks UMD abilities.

Make sure that you have a party member that can heal ability damage. There are a variety of spells/feats/abilities/items that can do so relatively simply.

[Ramza00]

The strongheart vest protects you from attacks that would reduce your ability scores. Any time you would take ability damage, such as Constitution damage or Strength damage, the amount of the damage is reduced by 1 point, to a minimum of 0.

The strongheart vest works anytime you take ability damage, regardless if its an attack against your or if its willing due to invoking hellfire.