Well I've reached 6th level on Sunday and so had the difficult choice of a new feat, and my first Lesser Invocation.

I use to have Beguiling Influence, See the Unseen and Sickening Blast.

For a while I considered Hungry Darkness, and switching See the Unseen to Devil's Sight.

This would mean I could throw down Darkness at will, and everything in this Darkness (except me) would be attacked by a swarm of bats. 1d6 automatic damage a round, plus bleeding and a Fortitude save or be nauseated. With Devil's Sight I would be able to see in this magical darkness, thus suffer no miss chance as I blasted them with Eldrich Blast.

Seemed like a great combination that was until you remember that Darkness in 3.5 isn't Darkness it's Shadowness. So they would still be able to pound on me (admittedly with a 20% miss chance), plus it only has the range touch so I'ld need to be clear of the rest of the party otherwise they might take offense to being in a swarm of bats. So scrap that idea.

Next obviously choice is Walk of the Dead, 24HD of Zombies to do you bidding, sweet. Oh hold on we have a Paladin in the party, I've not done anything to alert her to my LE alignment as yet but raising Zombies might upset her a little. Scrap that idea.

Fly hmm we are on an underwater adventure and could be for a few levels... not going to get much use out of that.

So in the end I went for Voracious Dispelling, Dispel magic at will, on it's own pretty useful, when you remember Warlock's can also Detect Magic at will it becomes even more useful. Looks like there is a magic trap in that corridor... not anymore.

I switched out Beguiling Influence for Baleful Utterance, being able to disarm (and perhaps daze) opponents with Shatter at will is pretty handy. We haven't actually been doing enough social interaction for Beguiling Influence to be worth it since we moved to the dungeon side of the campaign, I might switch back when Shatter becomes less effective.

Oh feat choice it was a toss up between Maximise Spell Like Ability, Ability Focus or Greater Resistance (+1 DR), I figured I wasn't getting hit enough to make the DR worth it, and damage wise I wasn't going to catch up on other spell casters or fighters, so I'ld try and make sure the secondary effects of my Blast worked more often, so I went for Ability Focus (Eldrich Blast).

Please feel free to tell me why my choices are sub-optimal.

I fail to see how Warlock's are boring, as some like to make out. Sure in combat you are doing Eldrich Blast most of the time, but then Fighters are alway hitting things with other things.

Well, how much combat do your characters see each day?  The less combat you have, the better Maximize is -- though I think it's a good choice at any time.  And if you fight boss monsters, it's even better -- especially since most D&D boss monsters tend to have high AC from armour, instead of Dex, so their touch ACs are nice and low.

If you're going from room to room, killing monster after monster, than enhancing all your blasts would get you more bang for your bang, though.

As for your power choice, I suppose you are in one of the few places where fly is NOT the obvious optimal choice.  You can always pick it up when you're done with the underwater area, anyway.

I think you did good, though I might have gone with Weapon Focus (Eldritch Blast) if you're wading through enemies.  Of course, that does depend on how often you hit now -- the extra +1 might not be necessary.

Quote from: CyberzombieI think you did good, though I might have gone with Weapon Focus (Eldritch Blast) if you're wading through enemies.

I have that already. As I was human I took Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot at 1st, then Weapon Focus at 3rd. To be honest, the +1 hasn't really come into that often, probably will be helpful in the long term however.

I actually warn against weapon focus for a Warlock. It's fine at low levels, but once you get past 7th or so, it's a waste, since it's a touch attack and those ACs are rarely high. Provided the Warlock has a decent Dex. If the dex suck, resulting in a back to hit bonus, then every little bit helps.

Yeah it feels like a wasted feat to me Point Blank and Precise Shot make sense since it gets rid of a whole -4 to hit that come up a lot. +1 to hit isn't that great. I might ask my GM if I can swap it out, since this is the first time anyone has played a Warlock.

This thread is very useful to me, as I've decided to go with a warlock as my next character. I had totally forgot about Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot...

GM's let me swap around the feats on my character.

So I've dropped Weapon Focus and made Ability Focus my 3rd level feat. I've then gone for Extra Inovocation (allows me another "Least") for my 6th level one. I've still not picked up Maximize Spell-like Ability, because I don't see my roll as a primary damage dealer.

I'm thinking about picking up Summon Swarm. I figure I'll use it when there are groups of enemies, since I've found Eldrich Blast is limited against groups (at least until I can get Cone or Chain). Although we've probably already reached the point where most enemies will pass the Fortitude (DC11/12) save to avoid nausiated. So I might go from Frightful Blast to use instead of Sickening Blast on creatures with a decent Fort save.

Still Summon Swarm would give me something to do other than Eldrich Blast all the time, and a bat swarm placed where I want each round would let me get everyone bleeding. The one round casting time leaves you a bit prone however.

The limited number of invocations makes your worry over each one you pick, since I won't be able to change any until 8th level, and then only one. Most of the Invocations look great until you realise they are centred on the Warlock, so unless you are away from the party it's going to effect them as much as the enemy, so they are great for solo villans but not much use for a team player.

It was funny last night as we were up against a Evil Cleric that was throwing Unholy Blight at us, and I was able to laugh it off, thankfully the Paladin also did (Mettle Feat - Like Evasion for Will saves), so again she doesn't have an IC reason to assume I'm evil.

I managed to sicken the Cleric which in turn ment it missed with it's touch attack spell on the Paladin. I was then able to try and dispel it next round (unfortunately I rolled rubbish, but the Paladin killed it so it anyway). Weird that the LG Paladin and the LE Warlock seem to be working together so well. :deviousgrin:

I'm starting to realise if I want to get the most out of my Warlock Feat selection is going to be important.

After 6th level you can take Extra Invocation, at 6th and 9th this gets you a Least one, 12th & 15th a lesser one and 18th a greater one. So any feat you take after 6th level needs to be more useful than a Lesser Invocation, any after 12th better than Lesser and so on.

Must haves for me with Ability Focus, Point Black Shot and Precise Shot, that's all the feats up to 3rd level selected (assuming your human). If I spend the rest on Extra Invocations then I'll have 5 least, 5 lesser 4 greater and 3 dark by 20th level.

So far I'm aiming towards...

Least Invocations
1) See the Unseen - See invisible and dark vision are always going to be handy.
2) Eldrich Spear - need range occasionally
3) Entropic Warding - Nice utility, especially combined with Invisibility.
4) Beguiling Influence - I just want to be charming.

Nothing that gives a save in the Lesser selection, as the saving throws will be too easy in the long run. That gives me a free 6th or 9th level feat.

Lesser Invocations
1) Fell Flight
2) Walk Unseen
3) Voracious Dispelling - Ranged dispel useful even if limited in power.
4) Charm

Another Feat slot free.

Greater
1) Vitriolic Blast - ignore SR is a must have.
2) Eldritch Cone
3) Noxious Blast
4) Tenacious Plague - Surely the duration needs an errata?

Dark
1) Eldritch Doom
2) Utterdark Blast
3) Word of Changing.

I'm thinking Heighten and Maximize Spell Like Ability for the feat choices.

Quote from: Dr_AvalancheThis thread is very useful to me, as I've decided to go with a warlock as my next character. I had totally forgot about Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot...

Yeah, they're pretty necessary. At least if you plan on using the blast much.

Unlike Bagpuss, I didn't go with Ability focus, since I didn't take many invocations that offered a saving throw. I went as more of a damage dealer. So I took Point Blank/Precise at 1st, then I think Empowered Spell-Like at third and Maximize at 6th. I don't remember my 9th-level feat, but it wasn't extra invocation. I might have taken Maximize at 9th and something else at 6th. Dang, I can't remember my other feat. Oh well.

But yeah, PB and Precise are good ones for 1st level.

As far as I'm aware there is no reason to take Empowered over Maximize, since they both have the same restriction 3 times a day and spell level = (caster level/2)-2. Empower does less average damage as well.

Quote from: BagpussAs far as I'm aware there is no reason to take Empowered over Maximize, since they both have the same restriction 3 times a day and spell level = (caster level/2)-2. Empower does less average damage as well.

True, but combining the two is nice.

I got to ask, where are metamagic feats for spell-like abilities described?

Ability Focus is in the Monster Manual.

Heighten, and Maximize are all in the Complete Arcane.

Edit: Quicken and Empower are in Monster Manual 2 (from memory).

Quicken unlike the others is only useable on (caster level/2) - 4 spell like abilities. So you can't use on a normal Eldritch Blast until 10th level. Still it doubles your potential damage that round so I might take that.


Renna - I'ld be interested in seeing your damage dealing Warlock for comparison, and feedback from anyone that has multiclassed a Warlock, particularly with Rogue (which I see suggested a lot) or a Prestige Class.

Quote from: Dr_AvalancheI got to ask, where are metamagic feats for spell-like abilities described?

Well, a couple of them are in the Monster Manual, and the rest are in Complete Arcane, with the Warlock.  I know Maximize is in CA; I don't remember about the rest.

This thread has me thinking about a warlock/rogue, now.  I think that could be a nicely evil combo.  :heh:

Bagpuss: have you thought about Improved Critical?  I'm not sure if it would be good or not.  Getting more criticals with eldritch blast would be fun, but it might take so long to get the +8 BAB that it wouldn't be worth it...

With feats it a question of do you want the feat or an extra invocation. If I was aiming for damage dealing then Improved Critical might be an idea but I was more going for versitility and debuffs.