PRC 3.2 saw the debut of the invocation-using warlock.
As I have greatly enjoyed the warlock class as presented in NWN2, I was definitely looking forward to trying out the PRC's version of the class. To that end, I pulled out an old series of modules by Q: The Mines of Twin Summit (MTS) series. I used a character building mod to bring a fresh warlock up to 17th level (the recommended level for single players in MTS1), and just like that, I was on my way.
Overall, the NWN warlock is a joy to play. Chief among my reasons for enjoying the warlock is his access to invocations; while he does admittedly have fewer such powers available to him, compared to his other arcane (wizard, sorcerer, bard) and divine (cleric, druid) brothers, he does enjoy unlimited casting with the powers he does have at his disposal. As I've already noted in my
invocations thread, this results in his needing far fewer resting periods compared to other spellcasters. That can be a huge advantage in certain modules (including the MTS series, which features a rather expensive bedroll and rations system).
As I've already mused over my experiences with the invocations in the above referenced thread, I won't repeat my invocation choices here. I will say that between my various choices of eldritch blast shapes, eldritch essences, and regular invocations, I rarely encountered a situation in MTS that couldn't be handled by my various invocations and/or
eldritch blast. Yet I did run into more than one encounter for which my choices of invocations alone were not the best solution (e. g., many foes had a high AC which made it difficult to hit them- even as a touch attack- with
eldritch blasts, spears or
chains, and with Improved or regular Evasion would often avoid damage from
eldritch lines or
doom). At times like this, I found it was advisable- or, in somes cases, even mandatory- to take advantage of the warlock's more martial abilities.
I have always preferred beefing up my arcane characters (I primarily play wizards) with at least one level of a more martial class (typically fighter or ranger, though I'll try paladin as well- I went through SoU and HotU with a ranger/paladin/wizard). While this has always worked for me (granting him extra HP, access to all armor, simple and martial weapons and shields), I'll concede that doing so can curb the power of the wizard's spellcasting. (The warrior level doesn't really help the wizard's BAB that much, either.) By contrast, the warlock starts with higher hit dice (d6, to the wizard's d4), medium BAB, and access to simple weapons and light armor. Even better, the light armor worn by the warlock does not trigger arcane spell failure, so the warlock still has access to his invocations while wearing it. This makes gaining a level for my warlock in a martial class less necessary, in my mind (which is fortunate, as the warlock seems to work best taking only warlock levels); it also makes occasional hand-to-hand forays a plausible option for him. While it certainly wouldn't be the ideal solution in every combat, I like the fact that the warlock
can fall back on his more martial talents from time to time- and do so effectively.
Levelling up is fairly painless for warlocks, as I noted in the invocation thread. The conversations for gaining invocations (via level or the Extra Invocation feats) worked flawlessly. One thing I did notice, though, was that at every fourth level, when a stat increase was granted, the default stat for the warlock was strength, rather than the preferred charisma. (I don't know if this can be changed for custom base classes; if it can, though, I'd love to see it updated in a future fix for PRC 3.3, if it hasn't been already.)
Distributing skills points as a warlock is likewise a refreshing change for me. I'm pretty much used to the Concentration/Lore/Spellcraft combination for wizards, with other possibilities only available as cross-class skills. As a warlock, while I was certain to keep these three skills max out, I also found myself exposed to more intriguing possibilities. Warlocks have two of the three social skills as class skills (Bluff and Intimidate), making them fairly effective at any social interactions a module might require. (With the
beguiling influence invocation, he can even excel at the Persuade skill, assuming he spends a fair amount of skill points on Persuade and/or finds a magic item to boost that skill.) Unfortunately, the MTS series only uses one of the social skills in a couple of places, so the skill points I spent on the social skills were largely wasted. Warlocks
do, however, also gain access to Use Magic Device. This granted me access to a fair number of class- and alignment-restricted items that otherwise would have been of no use to me (except as a source of cash). UMD also casts my warlock as an enchanter extraordinare, courtesy of the Imbue Item class feat. (At least, it should have. More on that a bit later...)
Choosing feats in my early levels has always been something of a headache for me, with or without the PRC installed. It always takes me a while to wade through all the various feats, to determine which ones would be most useful to my character. As such, I really appreciate the relative ease I experienced in choosing feats for my warlock. I had the typical quandary with the feats from my first and third levels. (I finally opted for Toughness- a feat I almost always choose for my characters at some point; Combat Casting- getting off my
eldritch blasts and other invocations with enemies in my face was difficult enough without throwing in the -4 penalty to Concentration for not having this feat; and at third level, Weapon proficiency (scythe)- my favorite weapon, due to the potential for damage from criticals- though in retrospect I could have picked up something else, as I found I didn't use my scythes very often- and in any case, I found a way to get access to all exotic weapons later in the game.) Subsequent levels were much easier, as by then, I had access to a proper implementation of the Extra Invocation feat. (While NWN2 hackers have provided a version of the feat in which each possible invocation is tied to its own feat- myself included- I greatly enjoy seeing the PRC's version, which grants the new invocation after level-up, as it should be. Furthermore, it allows the various shape and essence invocations to be chosen here as well- something not possible in any of the NWN2 versions floating around, to the best of my knowledge.)
As warlocks are known as the ultimate enchanters- thanks to their Imbue Item ability- it was certainly tempting to sneak in some crafting feats during my non-epic levels to give the feat a try; as it happened, I proceeded with the feats noted above, delaying acquisition of crafting feats until my warlock reached epic levels. It's just as well that I handled things in this manner, as I discovered (to my great disappointment) that the Imbue Item feat did not appear to be working correctly. While its use did bring up a conversation to choose an arcane or divine spell, I would always receive a "UMD check failed" message, even though the actual check given in the conversation indicated differently. (I did get far enough to see that the Imbue Item system is tied to the sorcerer and favored soul spellbooks- an inspired idea, to be sure.) Fortunately, I see that the Imbue Item system has been fixed in PRC 3.3b.
In the meantime, I was able to simulate the Imbue Item feat as well as I could, using the PRC's impressive arbitrary crafting system. I ended up "majoring" in [Craft] Epic Wondrous Items- meaning the sky was the limit for such items [in particular, I ended up adding the various weapon group, armor and shield feats to a favorite bracer]- with a "minor" in Arms and Armor [used mainly to add reduced arcane spell failure and reduced weight to promising suits of armor]. While I would have preferred gaining access to such crafting via Imbue Item, arbitrary crafting proved a more than satisfactory venue for the expenditure of all the XP and gold one gains throughout the MTS series.
Meanwhile, my experience and interest in the warlock's pre-epic abilities are varied. Since I ensured that I would start MTS with a
regeneration item (forged in the character building module I use to build characters and provide them with level-appropriate cash and loot), I never used
fiendish resilience- though in a different module, I can see this getting a much greater workout. Similarly, I'm not aware of having used Deceive Item consciously (or unconsciously, for that matter). Probably the most interesting pre-epic ability for me was his resistance to two elements of his choosing. Admittedly, my resistances were pretty quickly eclipsed not too far into my MTS run (as I gained items providing complete immunity to certain energies); however, I believe I managed to get some use out of my chosen resistances early in MTS1 (my picks: fire and electricity), and I would consider them to be an invaluable ability in the right module. (Besides, they're part of the package...)
I found myself positively drooling, though, once my warlock hit epic levels; reaching 21st level potentially grants the warlock access to some of the best feats in the game for him. Even better, many of these feats have enforced invocation requirements, courtesy of the PRC's invocation system (which appears to be feat- rather than spell-based). I greatly appreciate the PnP authenticity of the feat requirements- something I have yet to see in any NWN2 hackpaks. By the same token, trying to organize your invocation picks to obtain as many of these invocation-required epic feats as possible can be more than a little maddening; it takes quite a bit of foresight (not the magical kind!) to ensure that you will be able to gain access to your favorite warlock epic feats when you want them.
I ended up taking four of the invocations-required feats, as well as Epic Extra Invocation several times and Epic Eldritch Blast once. Overall, I found that some of my epic feats were far more useful to me than some of my other choices. (In one case, I found my feat pick was actually far
more powerful than intended.) Furthermore, I've found myself reflecting on all of the epic feats keyed just to the warlock, and which ones seem to have greater benefits for him compared to its requirements. Here, I'll explore both the epic feats I chose (noted in
bold and
italics) and the ones I didn't take (in
italics only):
-
Eldritch sculptor[/i]: In my mind, there is absolutely no reason for a warlock not to take this feat as soon as he can. Gaining a second
eldritch blast every round is an absolute boon for him, as is the doubling of his range/AoE radius for his eldritch shapes. (I wouldn't have thought the +2 to ranged touch attacks would be that useful to him- but as I did run into some enemies who were impossible to hit even
with that bonus, I'll take all the help I can get...) Signing up for this feat shouldn't be a burden, either, as the resulting shape invocations you receive allow you to tailor attacks to a variety of situations:
hideous blow (combat face-to-face),
eldricth spear (combat at a distance),
eldritch chain (ranged combat against multiple easy targets),
eldritch line/cone (handy for dealing with non-Reflex save crowds),
eldritch doom (crowd control, up close and personal)- and the list goes on and on.
-
Lord of all essences[/i]: Because I greatly enjoy the various eldritch essences I chose, qualifying for this feat posed no problem whatsoever for me. As with
eldritch sculptor, it's one of the better feats available for the warlock. The ability to add two essences to each
eldritch blast is invaluable. (Stunning fire blast? Blinding acid? Sickening cold? The possibilities are endless.) While certain ultra-powerful enemies would often resist the secondary effects of some of my blasts- or were completely immune to them- I can nevertheless appreciate the DC bonus applied to my blasts received when you take this feat. (Again, all the help I can get...)
[Sometimes, I must admit, I found that the
lord of all essences feat, in combination with
eldritch sculptor, appeared to behave in ways I wasn't expecting- and in some respects proved to be more powerful than intended. I discovered that when an energy essence, i. e.,
hellrime blast (cold) was paired with a non-energy essence (such as
binding blast, which on its own does magical damage, as with the vanilla
eldritch blast), all damage from from the blast was of the energy type only (in my example, cold). Based on the description of the feat, I was expecting half of the damage to be magical. Is this correct? Further, when
vitriolic blast is used as the secondary essence for this feat and a different energy essence is placed first, damage is half of each energy type as normal; however, if the
vitriolic blast is in the primary slot, the damage delivered is entirely acid-based. Finally, I found that when an
eldritch chain delivered as part
vitriolic blast and part non-energy blast (i. e.,
binding blast)- or with
vitriolic blast as the primary essence paired with an energy blast (i. e.,
brimstone blast), if I have at least two targets, each target seems to be hit by far more than two
eldritch blasts per attempt. I hope to look closely at all of these items- and the ones noted elsewhere in this post- once I have the chance to install PRC 3.3b...]
-
Master of the elements[/i]: Probably the most useful of the epic feats not centered on the warlock's
eldritch blast. I didn't find meeting the prerequisites to be especially painful; while I personally didn't use
stony grasp very often, the other invocations required for this feat are quite useful, to varying degrees. The primary ability, though- to summon any one of four elemental champions- is an invaluable survival ability. (I didn't use this as much as I could have, since I was trying to maximize the XP my warlock gained; however, I did find myself using this in certain encounters where trying to muddle through on my own was not the best option.) I was less impressed with the
dominate elemental ability; I tried using this several times against various opponent elementals (including summoned ones), but quit using it since none of my attempts were ever successful. Finally, I enjoyed the increased resistance to the five main elements (fire, cold, electricity, acid and sonic) provided by this feat. Again, this gain was largely outshined later in my MTS run (with various items that provide greater resistance- or even complete immunity), but I appreciated the fact that I wasn't completely defenseless with respect to energy.
-
Shadowcaster[/i]: I found that while trying to qualify for three invocations-required feats isn't terribly difficult (thanks to the regular and epic Extra Invocation feats in concert with your own regular invocation picks), working on four or more such feats may really be pushing your limits (of sanity, if nothing else). As such, you really need to decide whether or not the benefits gained from a particular feat outweigh the invocation "gymnastics" you need to go through in obtaining it. While
Shadowcaster[/i] isn't that bad in some respects- I came to appreciate having access to
darkness and
beshadowing blast, and I
love dark discorporation[/i] now that I understand how it should work- I generally don't use
enervating shadow, providing sufficent reason to reconsider going after this feat. Once I had taken the feat, I did enjoy having access to unlimited, 24-hour
displacement (this being one of the few effects not readily available on an item in MTS). However, I found that if you already have
retributive invisibility, you really don't have much use for the
shadowcaster's displacement effect (since the end of the
retributive invisibility effect also cancels the
displacement effect as well- NWN not being able to distinguish between the two sources of displacement.) Finally, I must admit that I'm not sure how useful the
shades effect might have been to my warlock, since he can perform many of its effects equally- or better- with other powers (i. e.,
wall of perilous flame beats a
shades wall of fire). He might have had some use for the shades stoneskin, though. [As it happens, I was never able to determine this, as the option for shades effects did not appear anywhere on my radial.]
-Morpheme savant: While I could have pursued this feat late in my warlock's career, I opted not to do so. The prerequisites are only part of the problem; as I said in my invocations thread, I think word of changing would be a total gas to try out, and I did like using beguiling influence in the few places where such boosts were useful in MTS- but based on the description, I doubt I would ever use baleful utterance. More to the point, I find myself less impressed with the feat's primary ability (unlimited castings of power word stun and power word kill). Both powers require a maximum current hit point total, and most enemies in MTS would need to be "near death" to be anywhere near that total; I'm not inclined to pursue a feat ability that requires that much guesswork (especially when one of my eldritch essences- binding blast- duplicates one of these abilities without the HP requirement). Admittedly, the boost you gain to your beguiling influence invocation (adding double your Cha modifier to Bluff, Intimidate and Persuade checks if not less than +6) might be useful, in the right module. (Again, though, such checks were rarely used in MTS.)
-Paragon visionary: I was nowhere close to qualifying for this feat during my MTS run- and, truth be told, I can't really see myself going out of my way to try obtaining it. First, it seems to me that once you get all four invocations required for this feat, you effective have true seeing, the feat's primary ability. (Doesn't see the unseen plus voidsense pretty bring you up to that level of sensing?) Second, while I can appreciate the usefulness of some of the required invocations (especially see the unseen- great for pinning down arcane types- and dark foresight, essential in dealing with all those sneak attacking rogue-types), I'm less enthused by devil's sight (whose effects would seem to be eclipsed by voidsense). Finally- and most importantly- true seeing was a common item effect throughout the MTS series (and, I suspect, in many other adventures as well), which really negates the need to pursue the ability via this feat. Paragon visionary does offer an increase to Listen, Spot and Sense Motive checks based on your warlock's Wisdom score; however, it would really take some massive stat pumping (or magic item bonuses) in order to get any real benefit from this boost- and warlocks normally prefer to boost charisma, rather than wisdom. (Note that few modules will actually use the Sense Motive skill.)
-Epic extra invocation: Because having only three invocations of each grade is nowhere near enough for me, I greatly appreciate this feat. Even better, as long as your warlock has kept up his Spellcraft skill (and he should, since many of the epic feats require it), you can start picking up extra dark (or lower grade) invocations the minute you hit epic levels.
-Epic eldritch blast: Definitely worth investing in at least once. My warlock took this once; this brought his
eldritch blast damage dice up to 20d6 (the equivalent of many 9th level wizard's spells) upon reaching 40th level. While far less flashy than some of the other feats within his reach,
epic eldritch blast is no less useful because of that. Indeed, I can see an epic warlock investing
all of his epic feats here (perhaps stopping only for
eldritch sculptor- for double the [damage] fun!- and possibly
lord of all essences- double the essence fun). Doing so would turn his
eldritch blast into a true force to be reckoned with. (Unless, of course, you run into an enemy resistant to all of the energy essences at your command. Which
has happened to me. Good thing I had my god-killing katana on me, eh?)
The bottom line: A couple of things, actually. First, while I greatly enjoyed reliving the madness in the MTS series (even with the heartbreaking bugs I found in MTS3, which forced me to abandon some quests which weren't necessary- but would have made my life easier and, I suspect, the ending a bit more satisfying), I must admit that I think I missed part of the warlock experience by playing a module with such a high starting level. While I don't think I'll abandon the MTS series altogether (it's a wonderful place to test a character's mettle), I do think I'll try taking future characters through a lower-level campaign before subjecting him to this one.
As for warlocks: A total gas to play, even with some of the issues I faced. The warlock definitely joins the wizard, shifter (PnP or Bioware) and psion as one of my favorite NWN classes ever. I'm definitely looking forward to trying out a new warlock at some point in the future, to check out some of the features that have been fixed in PRC 3.3b- as well as some of the invocations I missed on my first time out. (Welcome to the club, guy, and pull up a devil's brew. Oh, sorry- that's probably a touchy subject, isn't it?)
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