Optimize my Dead Warlock!

[SongDragon]

Due to some unfortunate circumstances involving 13 orc shamans, a sacrificial ritual, and a demon, my 3rd level elven warlock find himself possessing the body of an elven wizard.

Dantes held his ground against an overwhelming force of orc shamans and barbarians, buying precious time for his friends and allies to escape. He watched his sister die, sacrificed to a dark god of strength, before being sacrificed himself.

His heroism came at a great price, but it granted a temporary reprieve from the demon with whom he had made a Dark Pact. You see, the soul of a martyr is worthless to this demon. So, he cast Dantes from the Abyss to inhabit the nearest body with a pulse: Elberon, an elven wizard.

So, what do I do? The DM says that I have 3 levels to work with. Here's what I have:

Dantes (after level loss):

CG Elf Warlock 3
STR 16
DEX 18 (w/ +2 racial)
CON 13 (w/ -2 racial)
INT 16
WIS 13
CHA 15

Feats:
1st: ? (never chosen. suggestions?)
3rd: Combat Reflexes
6th: ? (suggestions?)

Invocations: (can be retrained if necessary)
Devil's Sight
Darkness


Equipment: "standard for 6th level." Don't go too crazy here, or the DM will reject it. (He used to have a wicked +1 longspear and wear a finely crafted +1 chain shirt. They're gone now.)

Available books: any non-setting is fine. Otherwise, it will require DM approval (from a very strict DM). Also, no Precocious Apprentice.

Strategy/Tactics: Dantes used to spend a lot of time using Darkness/Devil's Sight/Hideous Blow with his longspear to confuse his foes (1d8+5+2d6). Additional AoOs granted by foes moving in the darkness were also potent (1d8+5). The plan was to eventually trade Hideous Blow for Eldritch Glaive, when the damage outpaced the weapon damage (or the to-hit became too weak). These tactics proved to be useful -- until shamans started casting daylight. Now he is uncertain about pursuing that path further. Also, after losing a level, he lost access to one invocation. I could scrap this plan entirely, though.

Level Advancement: I was thinking about war3/wiz3/eldritch theurge... but I am open to suggestions. Perhaps Elberon was actually a Beguiler. A shadowcaster. A warmage. Heck, maybe even something from Ghostwalk. Anything.

Style: He's died. He's watched his sister die. He's destined to serve eternity as a slave to a demon. He's not very happy these days. I think ice, cold, shadow, illusion and perhaps even death magic is better suited to his personality than evocation.

Misc. Notes: He has Drow blood in his veins. I originally considered going straight Drow, but it seemed too debilitating at the time. I am open to suggestions about lesser Drow or Drow Heritage feats, but they will require DM approval. The Drow darkness feats also look good.

So... suggestions?

[Backpack]

Maybe I'm mistaken, but don't Warlocks have demon/devil bloodlines somewhere in their ancestry? Perhaps you went a different route by an pact with a demon (if that's the case, cudos for creativity).

I did notice that he is in fact good aligned. Since you only inhabited the body, if you didn't want to, couldn't you just go with straight warlock levels? Or maybe you want some wizard levels. Balancing that out would be strictly your call, although I think I would go straight warlock.

As far as eqipment goes, I'm assuming you mean enchanted equipment. Depending on what your DM will allow, and the monetary value limitations he may have placed, I've found that you can get a lot of mileage out of many "little" items, vice a few "bigger" ones. If you are looking for specifics I'd be happy to elaborate, just let me know.

With strategy/tactics, I always like to have multiple strategies so that I don't find myself "hog-tied" should the shamans start casting Daylight (and I like to try and keep the DM on his toes). Look for powers that have a variety of uses, or more accurately, that you can use in a variety of ways.

Style is one of my favorites, because that is where the majority of your RP potential and enjoyment come from. Maybe he wants to become uber powerful and kill the demon he made a deal with, foiling the demons plans for personal domination along the way (hence the alignment-also good for potential plot hooks when things are slow). Maybe he could look at finding the source of his supernatural bloodline and enlisting their aid to eliminate the debt (double crossing demons isn't particularly wise, but you are a hero after all, and the game is designed to be fun, unwise decisions can be fun as long as no one goes overboard with them.

I think the feats would all be based on what kind of weapons he would carry now, what route you want him to go, and what kind of specialties you would want for him.

I gotta tell you though, I've never really looked at the warlock class, but I perused the write-up for this. I really dig the concept and think I'll put one together for my next game! Have fun with it!

[Leon]

They started out with a nice broad overview of the supernatural soruces that a Warlock could draw power from, then went wholeus bolus into the "all Dark Power" mentaility

[SongDragon]

The Warlock description in Complete Arcane was open to a variety of "eldritch" sources from whom you could receive your powers. Dantes, a young elf in a turbulent world, needed access to a lot of power in a hurry, if he had any hope of saving his family. So, he made a costly pact with a Demon to gain magical powers. It's not working out so well, unfortunately!

[SongDragon]

I like the versatility of a few levels of wizard followed by the Prestige Class Eldritch Theurge (from Complete Mage, hybrid warlock/arcane theurge), since it grants me access to a ton of spells for a relatively minor cost of 3 wizard levels.

That would be

War 1
War 2
War 3
Wiz 1
Wiz 2
Wiz 3 or Mindbender 1 (if DM waves alignment restriction)

For specialist wizard, I like Conjurer with the alternate class feature from PHB2. The ability to take a 10-foot teleport INT/day is critical to avoiding getting smashed by a full attack.

For feats, I like:

Combat Reflexes (SRD)
dex 18 and a reach weapon means lots of AoOs
Stand Still (SRD - Psionic General)
give up AoO to stop opponent (reflex dc 10 + damage dealt)
Obtain Familiar (CArc)
get back the familiar I lost by taking the alternate class feature
Drow Heritage (Drow of the Underdark)
looks fun/flavorful
Misc. Drow Feats (Drow of the Underdark)
lots of stuff here to supplement the darkness ability; one of them lets me

I have to pick 3.


For invocations, I like darkness/devil's sight. Obviously a feat from the Drow book could supplement/replace those.

[SongDragon]

I believe standard gear for a 6th level character is valued at 13,000 gp.

Out of that, I have to pay for spells for my spellbook (if any), armor, weapons, equipment, scrolls, potions, and other miscellaneous expenses.

[Aquillion]

Some people would say that killing a warlock already goes a long way towards 'optimizing' it.

Seriously, though, if you really care about optimization I'd advise against eldritch theurge. It's even worse than most dual-progression classes, since Warlock / Wizard abilities are pretty redundant with each other in the first place... you'll get two ways to do a bunch of relatively weak, low-level stuff. Certainly not worth being three levels behind on a wizard's progression, and not really good for your warlock's progression, either. (Snce warlocks are less optimal in the first place, it might not hurt them so much, I guess... but you're still basically giving up your highest-level effects.)

I'm confused about just what's going on here, though... are you inhereting the wizard's levels? Why? You usually wouldn't, with body-swapping type effects... you'd get the body's physical stats and some abilities (depending on the method used to swap), but keep all your mental stats and levels (minus whatever you lost coming back from the dead). All the wizard's knowledge of how to do wizard stuff is in their memories, which went away when you inhabited the body. Still, that's your DM's call, I guess...

If you want to justify it character-wise, you could say that both souls are inhabiting the same body. That'd be a good plot-reason for going down the Eldritch Theurge route, although it still wouldn't be optimal. Your original soul takes control to do warlock stuff, the wizard's soul takes control to do wizard stuff... or something. Of course you play both souls.

[Alleine]

Rename yourself Richard.