New Warlock Player help

[Amurion]

I have never played a warlock before and I thought that they looked interesting. However, I am currently lost as to what sort feats and Invocations to give him. So, if anyone can help me come up with a good halfling warlock build, I would appreciate it.

[monty]

What level are you starting at, and what sort of role are you trying to play with it?

Normally, I'd suggest the Chameleon item crafter build, but since you're playing a halfling, you can't do that (Chameleon is human, doppelganger, or changeling only). Might be something to consider if you play another one, though.

[Amurion]

I'm looking at a blaster type, someone who sits in the back flinging the artillery. But I am open to pretty much any warlock build. We are starting at first level.

[monty]

If you want to blast safely, I'd consider the Eldritch Spear shape to hit stuff from farther back. Later, pick up Fell Flight and/or Flee the Scene (both lesser invocations) for better mobility.

[The Glyphstone]

Assuming you're talking about 3.5, and not 4E:

You don't really have a whole lot of flexibility there, unfortunately. Make sure Eldritch Spear is one of your invocations to give you the range you need, then just start sniping. Warlocks don't make very good "artillery" because of their lack of significant AoE damage until very high levels. They do, however, make excellent single-target blasters, especially at the mid-levels when they can turn invisible and fly.

If you mean a 4E warlock - disregard this post, I know nothing useful to help you with.

[monty]

Oh yeah, didn't even consider that it might be 4e. If so, ignore what I said, as well - it's strictly 3.5.

[Amurion]

I'm playing 3.5E, 4E looks a bit confusing at this point.

[mabriss lethe]

I'd wait to pick up eldritch spear. very good essence, but there are more productive uses of invocations at first level. Baleful utterance and summon swarm tend to be the most often acquired invocations at first level. BU stays pretty darned useful (and fun) throughout a warlock's career. Summon Swarm is better than your EB at first, (autodamage and the chance to inflict poison or diseases with the attack.) and stays fairly useful for the first few levels, but very quickly becomes obsolete. Entropic Warding and Spiderwalk are both really good invocations for defense and movement respectively. Though it's best if you trade spiderwalk out for fell flight later on. Darkness can be a really fun one, especially if you have access to drow of the underdark. (you can burn your darkness invocations to create other really neat effects.) But it's best combined with things like Devil's sight, so it might not be worth grabbing at all, or waiting until a later level.

[Duke of URL]

Eldritch Spear is nice, but unlikely to be needed at 1st level -- you have a range of 60', and unless you're operating out in the wilderness where large ranges are common, I'd say hold off to 2nd or 4th level (or swap it in for a "useless" one at level 6 or get it with an extra invocation feat at 6th or higher).

Summon Swarm is awesome at low levels, though it requires getting closer than you otherwise might like, and makes a good candidate to swap out at 6th level for a long-term buff like See The Unseen or for Eldritch Spear. Otherwise, I'd get an Eldritch essence to make you blasts do double duty as crowd control.

Feats... [Greater] Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast) is nice if you plan on using essences a lot over your career. Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are very useful to avoid problems hitting when dealing with your melee companions. Later on, Extra Invocation can add to your flexibility, and Empower Spell-Like Ability and/or Quicken Spell-Like Ability for Eldritch Blast will improve your damage output.

[Chronos]

Summon Swarm is better than your EB at first, (autodamage and the chance to inflict poison or diseases with the attack.) and stays fairly useful for the first few levels, but very quickly becomes obsolete.

It also has an area of effect that can hit up to four squares at once, which can make you the star of the encounter versus groups of kobolds or the like. And becoming obsolete isn't too much of an issue, since you can swap out invocations later, so just make sure that's one of the ones you swap.

And I'll second the vote for Baleful Utterance.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'd say gradually gain the Half-Fey template, with those progressions you can choose when to spend a level on the next set of abilities from a template. See if at least one level of the template can be substituted for the feat Fey Heritage (CM) as a prerequisite for other feats. Take a flaw (UA), either Noncombatant or Weak-Willed, and get Point-Blank Shot and Precise Shot at level 1. If you can use Forgotten Realms material, go Gnome instead of Halfling and get 2 flaws to take Magic in the Blood, which will apply to your 1/day Half-Fey spell-like abilities.

Take Fey Power at level 3, and at Warlock 4/ Half-Fey 1 you can take Mindbender 1 due to the caster level boost from Fey Power. Get the second level of Half-Fey after that, and continue taking Warlock. Get Mindsight from Lords of Madness (p126). If you can use the LA Buyoff rules from UA, you could actually gain +1 LA from Half-Fey 1 at ECL 3, then gain two Warlock levels and Mindbender 1 and buy it off, then gain another +1 LA from Half-Fey 2, and after three more Warlock levels buy that off as well. Just keep in mind, there's absolutely no reason not to buy off a LA asap if you can.

If an invocation isn't in Complete Arcane, it can be found in Dragon Magic.

Level (ECL) Class, feat, invocation
1. Warlock 1, Noncombatant, Weak-Willed, Magic in the Blood, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Baleful Utterance
2. Warlock 2, See the Unseen
3. Half-Fey 1
4. Warlock 3, Fey Power
5. Warlock 4, Eldritch Spear
6. (5.) Mindbender 1, Telepathy 100' (buyoff +1 LA at a cost of 5000 XP)
7. (6.) Half-Fey 2
8. (7.) Warlock 5, Ability Focus: Eldritch Blast, Beshadowed Blast
9. (8.) Warlock 6
10. (8.) Warlock 7, Eldritch Chain (buyoff +1 LA at a cost of 8000 XP)
11. (9.) Warlock 8, Mindsight
12. (10.) Warlock 9, Flee the Scene
13. (11.) Warlock 10, Chilling Tentacles
14. (12.) Warlock 11, Fey Skin
15. (13.) Warlock 12, Vitriolic Blast
16. (14.) Warlock 13
17. (15.) Warlock 14, Improved Precise Shot, Eldritch Line (DM)
18. (16.) Warlock 15, Impenetrable Barrier (DM)
19. (17.) Warlock 16
20. (18.) Warlock 17, Quicken Spell-Like Ability: Hold Monster, Path of Shadow
21. (19.) Warlock 18
22. (20.) Warlock 19, Word of Changing

Get a Greater Chausible of Fell Power asap. A Ring of Invisibility would also be an excellent choice, as would a Pectoral of Maneuverability from the Draconomicon (takes a Vest spot). Other things to consider would be a Ring of Freedom of Movement, Cloak of Charisma, a Mithril Buckler with +1 Reflecting, and some decent magical light armor. A Gemstone of Heavy Fortification from the Draconomicon is a must-have for any character, it's more economical than getting fortification on your armor even considering the standard fee of 3410 gp to hire an NPC spellcaster to use Limited Wish to embed it for you. Max UMD and get Wands and Scrolls of a few choice spells to make up what you're lacking. Get a Healing Belt from the Magic Item Compendium.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Summon Swarm at 1, Eldritch Glaive, Eldritch Spear, go up to Quicken/Empower/Maximize SLA as soon as you can take them. Also see if you can get more invocations. 12 over 20 levels is nowhere near decent. Ask for 1 each level.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Summon Swarm has a duration of Concentration, I'd say just spam EB every round instead. Baleful Utterance can destroy an opponent's weapon or shield, or open locked doors and chests, or destroy whatever the opponents are standing on, or destroy the ceiling supports to make rocks fall, or destroy the enemy cleric's holy symbol to stop him from casting or bolstering undead.

Maximized, Empowered, and Quickened Eldritch Blasts aren't worth spending the feats on. Get Point-Blank and Precise Shot to consistently hit, then focus on boosting your save DCs. Don't worry about how much damage you're dealing, think about how much damage to your party you're preventing by spamming a Blinding Eldritch Chain every round. Blasting with spells will never deal as much damage or be as efficient as melee damage or even an archery build, but what those damage-dealing builds lack is versatility and ability to handle noncombat situations. Characters who can destroy a big opponent in only a few hits are fun, but characters who can get out of anything are fun too, and Warlock is much better suited to the latter.

[monty]

Baleful Utterance can destroy an opponent's weapon or shield, or open locked doors and chests, or destroy whatever the opponents are standing on, or destroy the ceiling supports to make rocks fall, or destroy the enemy cleric's holy symbol to stop him from casting or bolstering undead.

...or just destroy his belt buckle. Bonus points if it's a public place and he doesn't see you cast it.

[mabriss lethe]

As mentioned earlier, the fey heritage feats are a good candidate for a warlock, and they synch really well with the class.

The feats from ToM can add a whole slew of lower level utilities. Bind Vestige, Improved BV, and Practiced Binder give you access to 13 different vestiges, each with two associated powers that you can call up, pretty much on demand. I've used the combination before and it's wickedly good. Usually keep your vestige slot open until some unforseen need arises, then spend a minute (or rush the binding) to gain whatever power is appropriate. Doubly evil when combined with Chameleon, though that prc isn't open to your character. If you wind up taking hellfire warlock prc, then you can add a level of binder to the mix to negate the PrC's penalties, but I've never been a huge fan of Hellfire warlock.

[Chronos]

Baleful Utterance can destroy an opponent's weapon or shield, or open locked doors and chests, or destroy whatever the opponents are standing on, or destroy the ceiling supports to make rocks fall, or destroy the enemy cleric's holy symbol to stop him from casting or bolstering undead.

"Or" is the wrong word to use with Baleful Utterance targets. That's the great thing about at-will abilities: The correct answer is "All of the above".

Usually keep your vestige slot open until some unforseen need arises, then spend a minute (or rush the binding) to gain whatever power is appropriate.

...You know, that never even occurred to me. I've been thinking of vestiges as something that you do when you wake up in the morning to prepare for the day, like a wizard preparing spells, but it really is the sort of thing you can do to meet a circumstance as it arises, in a lot of cases.

[mabriss lethe]

...You know, that never even occurred to me. I've been thinking of vestiges as something that you do when you wake up in the morning to prepare for the day, like a wizard preparing spells, but it really is the sort of thing you can do to meet a circumstance as it arises, in a lot of cases.

It's only a really effective technique in certain situations.

1. if you're using the bind vestige feats in conjunction with another class. This is where the trick shines the most. You have a whole class full of abilities from which to draw. You don't need to have your vestige slot filled unless you're actively using it for something.

2. You've taken enough levels in a soul binding class to be able to bind multiple vestiges. Fill all but one and leave it for emergencies.

3. Gestalt *see 1 above.

*** Note that with things like a vestige phylactery and the expel vestige feat, the trick loses some, but not all of its utility for characters with actual levels in binder.

[Duke of URL]

Baleful Utterance can destroy an opponent's weapon or shield, or open locked doors and chests, or destroy whatever the opponents are standing on, or destroy the ceiling supports to make rocks fall, or destroy the enemy cleric's holy symbol to stop him from casting or bolstering undead.

Of course, it becomes useless the second any of those items are magical. Attended items also get to make a will save.

I'm not saying it isn't useful, I'm just saying that its usefulness shouldn't be overrated.

[SydneyLosstarot]

Of course, it becomes useless the second any of those items are magical. Attended items also get to make a will save.

there's the dispelling invocation coming around lvl 6 =)

[Tokiko Mima]

If your group starts at level 1, Summon Swarm is the greatest Warlock invocation ever. However it doesn't scale, so it's also the first Invocation you'll want to exchange (I usually trade it for Eldritch Glaive [DM], which is equally awesome, but only at level 7+) The reason is that Summon Swarm hits a 10'x10' area (shapable) does auto 1d6 damage, and forces two saves which are tough to make at low levels.

If you start at a higher level, seriously consider being a Pixie. I know this sounds wierd and in almost every other case monster races are bad because of LA, but hear me out. Pixies have huge bonuses to every ability Warlocks need (+8 Dex, and +6 Cha), they effectively start with slightly better versions of two higher level invocations (Flight and greater invis) have some of the best SR around (HD + 15), get the Weapon Finesse feat for free (great for Eldritch Glaive), a host of 1/day SLA's that are useful in almost any situation, and they're Small size so you don't have the Tiny size combat penalties you might otherwise expect them to get.

Oh, and Hideous Blow is bad. Really bad. Really really really bad. It may not look like it, but when you analyze it's benefits you find it it has almost none. If you want more information all you have to do is ask, just don't be tricked into selecting it.

And no Warlock info dump would be complete without a link to Thinblade's Warlock Information Compilation. Enjoy your warlock, because I love mine!

[Frosty]

I've never played a warlock and I need to build one as an NPC enemy. Bah...can someone help me build a level 13 Warlock who focuses on ranged and not melee?

[Hzurr]

...*snip* giant 22 level build + items & level buyoff & templates & at least 6 books *snip*...

You get posts like this, and you say that 4E looks complicated?? It's because of things like this that I'm playing 4E now.

On a side note, what people have been saying about Warlock 1 is pretty accurate. Once you're up to the low-middle levels, there are a few invocations in Complete Mage (I believe) that are pretty fun. The ones that let you take off your hand or your eye aren't the most powerful in the book, but they're a lot of fun, freaking creepy, and if you're a creative player, you can get more mileage out of these powers than you would believe.

[Duke of URL]

I've never played a warlock and I need to build one as an NPC enemy. Bah...can someone help me build a level 13 Warlock who focuses on ranged and not melee?

Do you want to annoy the party or actually pose a lethal threat to them? (Or both?)

[Frosty]

This Warlock is meant to work within a team. The Rainbow Rangers has 5 members in the squad, so the Warlock will be working in anywhere from a 2 to 5-man team. He doesn't have to be lethal I guess. Can Warlocks throw out some really good Status Effects or something?

[Chronos]

You get posts like this, and you say that 4E looks complicated?? It's because of things like this that I'm playing 4E now.

Of all the criticisms I've seen of 4e, this isn't one of them.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

This Warlock is meant to work within a team. The Rainbow Rangers has 5 members in the squad, so the Warlock will be working in anywhere from a 2 to 5-man team. He doesn't have to be lethal I guess. Can Warlocks throw out some really good Status Effects or something?

Warlocks are best as Skirmishers, really. Keeping a constant source of d6s on the party from 250 feet away. Toss in 3 Hellfire levels and a Cleric Ally, and have him essentially be Invisible, snipe for a bunch of damage, retreat, vanish, heal, come back, attack, his party attacks, when they retreat he flies 250' up and continues trading shots with the Wizard till his allies are healed again, then lets the allies attack while his Cleric heals him back yet again. You'll drive your party crazy, especially if he has Persisted Lesser Vigor and a Monk ally.

[Hzurr]

Of all the criticisms I've seen of 4e, this isn't one of them.

Wait...my brain just rolled a 1 on its sense motive. Were you agreeing with me, or saying that I was criticizing 4E? My point was that the OP mentioned that 4E was too complicated for him, but some of the build advice he's receiving is more complicated than anything 4E could throw. One of the reasons I switched to 4E was because it was more or less a "reset" button, so I didn't have to deal with overly complicated builds from 10 different books.

That being said, you might have been completely agreeing with me. I'm pretty sure I rolled a 1, so I'm really not sure what's going on. *wanders off, confused*

[monty]

The OP said that 4e was confusing, not complicated. And I don't think I've ever seen anybody criticize 4e for being too complicated.

[Duke of URL]

Okay... there are three basic archetypes for a Warlock: Melee, Archer/Blaster, and Control.

Melee Warlocks tend to be the least interesting, but they can be damned (pun intended) effective. Eldritch Glaive + damage-based essence + Hellfire Warlock = MANY, MANY d6's. They tend to be squishy, though, so you'd only want to go here with a tank or two in support.

Archer/Blaster is defined well by Sstoopidtallkid, above. This is basically MANY d6's as opposed to the MANY, MANY d6's from the melee variant, due to the lack of multiple attacks, but is much more durable. Still, a blaster Sorcerer is probably a better choice for a single-encounter villain, as he won't have a chance to run out of spell slots and he should do more damage each turn. (Not to mention more versatility in spell selection over a Warlock's thin invocation list.)

Controller, in my opinion, may be the best route to take for an enemy expected to work in a party. His job (from a DM's point of view) is to extend the battle by isolating or incapacitating PCs, and to make them use more of their resources. Here you want to jack up CHA as high as possible, and look for a variety of debuff invocations/essences to target all three save types and to bypass various immunities. Hit the Fighters with Will effects (Voice of Madness is a steal for a "least" invocation here!), the Wizards with Fort effects, and the Clerics with Reflex effects. Don't worry about damage, worry about taking opponents out of the fight or limiting their capabilities.

[MammonAzrael]

I'm going to add my votes to Summon Swarm and Baleful Utterance.

SS is insanely useful at low levels (especially level 1), and can be traded out later.

BU is always, always useful, in a million different ways.

Ability Focus on your EB is almost a must. You might want to consider Psionic Shot, Greater Psionic Shot, and Psionic Meditation if you want to really focus on blasting.

Oh, and if the campaign lasts long enough, you'll want to PrC into Hellfire Warlock with the Shape Souldmeld: Strongheart Vest feat earliest you can enter the PrC is lv 10 though).

Oh, and if you even get to Warlock 12, you can make your own wands of Hunter's Eye. ^_^