Warlock
Born of a supernatural bloodline or created through a pact with a fiend, a warlock seeks to master the perilous magic that suffuses his soul. Unlike sorcerers or wizards, who approach arcane magic through the medium of spells, a warlock invokes powerful magic through nothing more than an effort of will. By harnessing his innate magical gift through fearsome determination and force of will, a warlock can perform feats of supernatural stealth, beguile the weak-minded, or scour his foes with blasts of eldritch power. Many warlocks are champions of dark and chaotic powers. Long ago, they (or in some cases, their ancestors) forged grim pacts with dangerous extraplanar powers, trading portions of their souls in exchange for supernatural power. While some warlocks have turned away from evil, seeking to undo the wrongs of their former colleagues, they are still chained by the old pacts through which they acquired their powers. The demand to further the designs of their dark patrons, or to resist them, drives most warlocks to seek the opportunities for power, wealth, and great deeds (for good or ill) offered by adventuring.
Warlocks harbor great reserves of mystical energy. The font of dark magic burning in their souls makes them resistant to many forms of attack and arms them with dangerous power. Warlocks do not wield spells, but they do learn to harness their power to perform a small number of specific attacks and tricks called invocations. Warlocks make up for their lack of versatility by being tougher and more resilient than sorcerers or wizards. Warlocks are always an evil alignment; to make a pact themselves or seek power through an ancient one is always an evil act. The powers they serve can be cruel, capricious, and wild, unbound by conventional views of right and wrong. Warlocks know firsthand the power of supernatural beings, so they do not scorn religion. The mark that the supernatural powers leave on their servants is often a mark in the soul, not the flesh. Ambitious and often unprincipled, humans are the most likely to seek out the dangerous shortcuts to power that lead to life as warlocks. Half-orcs are common as warlocks as well, since they often find that the powers that create warlocks do not discriminate against individuals of mixed heritage. Warlocks of other races are rare at best.
The warlock views sorcerers and wizards as bitter rivals. He values the strength and cleverness of resourceful fighters and rogues but rarely gets along with clerics or paladins. Of course, most warlocks understand that it's a bad idea to antagonize their comrades (especially those who hold the key to healing magic), and so they work out an uneasy truce with characters who otherwise might ostracize them. A warlock serves much the same role in an adventuring party as a sorcerer or wizard would. He is much more limited in his abilities compared to the spell selection of spellcasters, and he must rely on his eldritch blast in place of the spell power of an arcane caster. Like a bard, he often fits best in a party that already has another spellcaster or two, since his unique abilities provide him with little magic to use for his companions' benefit.
Hit Die: d6
Base Attack Bonus: 3/4
Proficiencies: Armor (Robes), Weapons (Simple)
Skill Points: 2 + INT
Class Skills: Appraise, Bluff, Concentraton, Craft (all), Decipher Script, Disguise, Forgery, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (all), Lore, Persuade, Profession (all), Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device
Spellcasting: Warlocks are not an arcane casting class, although they can manifest arcane spell-like abilities.
Alignment Restrictions: Any evil.
DM Unlock Required (Conversation with a DM)
Level progression
| Lvl | BAB | Saves | Feats | HP range | Invocations Known | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort | Ref | Will | Least | Lesser | Greater | Dark | |||||
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +0 | +2 | Eldritch Blast | 6 | - | - | - | - | |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +0 | +3 | 12 | 1 | - | - | - | ||
| 3rd | +2 | +1 | +1 | +3 | Damage Reduction 1/ | 18 | 2 | - | - | - | |
| 4th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Resist Fire(5), Skill Focus: Use Magic Device | 24 | 2 | - | - | - | |
| 5th | +3 | +1 | +1 | +4 | Eldritch Chain | 30 | 3 | - | - | - | |
| 6th | +4 | +2 | +2 | +5 | 36 | 3 | 1 | - | - | ||
| 7th | +5 | +2 | +2 | +5 | Damage Reduction 2- | 42 | 3 | 1 | - | - | |
| 8th | +6/+1 | +2 | +2 | +6 | Fiendish Resilience I, Resist Cold(5) | 48 | 3 | 2 | - | - | |
| 9th | +6/+1 | +3 | +3 | +6 | 54 | 3 | 2 | - | - | ||
| 10th | +7/+2 | +3 | +3 | +7 | Eldritch Cone | 60 | 3 | 3 | - | - | |
| 11th | +8/+3 | +3 | +3 | +7 | Damage Reduction 3/- | 66 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | |
| 12th | +9/+4 | +4 | +4 | +8 | Craft Wand, Resist Acid(5) | 72 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | |
| 13th | +9/+4 | +4 | +4 | +8 | Fiendish Resilience II | 78 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | |
| 14th | +10/+5 | +4 | +4 | +9 | 84 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | ||
| 15th | +11/+6/+1 | +5 | +5 | +9 | Damage Reduction 4/-, Eldritch Doom | 90 | 3 | 3 | 3 | - | |
| 16th | +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +10 | Resist Electricity(5) | 96 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| 17th | +12/+7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +10 | 102 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 18th | +13/+8/+3 | +6 | +6 | +11 | Fiendish Resilience III | 108 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| 19th | +14/+9/+4 | +6 | +6 | +11 | Damage Reduction 5/- | 114 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| 20th | +15/+10/+5 | +6 | +6 | +12 | Resist Sonic(5) | 120 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
Major Mechanics
Eldritch Blast
The warlock's main damaging ability. A single-target ranged attack that deals 1d6 Eldritch damage / 2 warlock levels + Charisma Modifier. To hit, you must both succeed on a ranged touch attack and beat the target's spell resistance check. Eldritch Blast can be modified in two ways: Blast Shapes and Essences.
Blast Shapes are unlocked at Warlock levels 5, 10, and 15; Eldritch Chain, Eldritch Cone, and Eldritch Doom.
- Eldritch Chain functions like chain lightning and will jump to one extra target for every four warlock levels. The chain will stop when you miss a touch attack in the chain.
- Eldritch Cone forgoes a touch attack and hits all enemies in a 30' cone in front of the caster. Successful reflex saves reduce the damage by half.
- Eldritch Doom forgoes the touch attack and instead damages all enemies within a 10' radius of target point. Successful reflex saves reduce the damage by half.
Essences are listed below and must be selected as an invocation choice. While you can learn multiple essences, you can only have one active at a time. They are toggled on or off (like the Power Attack feat) and can be switched at will. They modify the function of your blast by adding effects, adding or modify a save, and/or damage types. For example, and Eldritch Cone cast while focusing on the Beshadowed Blast essence will force all targets affected by it to attempt a fortitude save or become blinded. The save for half damage is also replaced by the same fortitude same.
A Beshadowed Eldritch Cone causes anyone hit to have to roll a Fortitude save against blindness. A passed save will ignore the blind effect and reduce the damage by half.
Warlock Save DC
The DC (Difficulty Class) of all Warlock saves is 10 + Charisma Modifier + (The highest of: blast level, essence level, shape level OR invocation level in the case of warlock invocations)
When rolling to overcome Spell Resistance, the Warlock is given a +4 level bonus to overcome the target's resistance.
Melee/Ranged Touch Attack Formula
Melee and Ranged Touch Attacks function differently to normal attack calculations. Additionally, they ignore Armor AC, Shield AC and Natural AC.
Melee:
BAB + Strength modifier (only if positive) + Nature Sense + Epic Prowess (unless a ranged weapon is equipped) + Unarmed Weapon Focus feats (if unarmed or using a creature weapon) + AB increasing effects
Ranged:
BAB + Dexterity Modifier + Weapon Attack Bonus + AB increasing effects
No other modifiers ever apply to these rolls, nor are the ability modifiers changed due to Weapon Finesse or Zen Archery. Eldritch Blast is incapable of critical hits, but will always hit on a 20.
Minor Mechanics
As they level up, warlocks gain resistance to all elemental damage. This stacks with other forms of elemental resistance.
They also gain damage reduction equivalent to a Barbarian. This does not stack with Barbarian damage reduction, but does stack with Stalwart Defender and Epic Damage Reduction.
Finally, warlocks gain the Fiendish Resilience perk. This allows the warlock to cast the regenerate spell on themselves as an instant action 1/3/5 times per day. The Regenerate spell lasts a number of rounds equal to your Warlock level, stacks with itself and all other forms of regeneration.
Invocations
Invocations are gained by warlocks nearly every level. Invocations can only be cast on yourself but unlike spells, they can be used an unlimited number of times (unless otherwise noted). Many of the abilities have a short cooldown (between 6 and 60 seconds). All offensive abilities cause a Warlock Save DC check (see above). Non-supernatural Invocations (most of the shorter duration ones) have a caster level of 10 making them exceptionally vulnerable to dispels.
Least
Frightful Blast - Enhanced blast. Target must make a Will save or become shaken.
Sickening Blast - Enhanced blast. Target must make a Fortitude save or become shaken.
Eldritch Glaive - Turns your eldritch blast into a melee touch attack. This action takes your full round, and only your base attack bonus and haste will count towards the number of attacks made. Any other source (such as the chaos monk's flailing strikes) are discarded. This is a blast shape and can be affected by essences.
Beguiling Influence - You gain a +6 bonus on Bluff, Persuade, and Intimidate for 24 hours.
Darkness - You can use the Darkness spell.
Dark One's Own Luck - Gain 1/2 of your charisma modifier (rounded down) as bonuses to saves.
Devil's Sight - See normally in darkness and magical darkness for 24 hours.
See the Unseen - Gain see invisibility for 24 hours.
Entropic Warding - Gain a chance to avoid arrows for 24 hours.
Summon the Swarm - Summon a swarm of beetles at your location.
Leaps and Bounds - Gain a +10 tumble bonus and movement speed for 24 hours.
Otherworld Whispers - Gain +6 to knowledge skills and lore for 24 hours.
Serpent Tongue - Gain +5 saves against poison and disease and a 20/- acid resistance for 24 hours.
Swimming the Styx - Gain underwater breathing for 24 hours.
All-Seeing Eyes - Gain +6 bonus on search and spot checks along with comprehend languages for 24 hours.
Fel Flight - Gain the ability to fly.
Lesser
Beshadowed Blast - Enhanced Blast. Target must make a fortitude save or be blinded.
Brimstone Blast - Enhanced Blast. Changes damage type to fire. Target must pass a reflex save or take massive fire damage every round for several rounds or no damage on a successful save.
Hellrime Blast - Enhanced Blast. Target must pass a fortitude save or suffer -4 dexterity for 10 minutes.
Charm - Gain Charm as the spell.
Walk Unseen - Gain invisibility as the spell with a duration of 24 hours.
Curse of Despair - Bestow a curse on an enemy that reduces their abilities by -3.
The Dead Walk - Gain Create Undead as the spell.
Flee the Scene - Gain a personal dimension door.
Voracious Dispelling - Gain dispel magic as the spell.
Cold Comfort - Endure elements as the spell, except the absorption increases with warlock levels.
Dread Seizure - Inflict a creature with a wracking pain that reduces their AB by -5 for 5 rounds.
Ignore the Pyre - Gain resistance equal to your warlock level to any one energy type for 24 hours.
Greater
Bewitching Blast - Enhanced Blast. Target must pass a will save or become confused.
Noxious Blast - Enhanced Blast. Target must pass a fortitude save or become dazed.
Penetrating Blast - Enhanced Blast. Your blast gains +4 spell penetration and any targets hit by it will suffer -5 spell resistance for 1 turn.
Repelling Blast - Enhanced Blast. A medium or smaller creature must pass a reflex save or be knocked down.
Vitriolic Blast - Enhanced Blast. Summons a globule of acid which ignores spell resistance. Changes damage type to acid. Deals 1d6 acid damage for every 5 warlock levels on a failed reflex save. Damage persists for several rounds.
Chilling Tentacles - Conjure black tentacles that attempt to paralyze and strike enemies moving through them for frost damage.
Wall of Perilous Flame - You conjure a wall of fire that deals half fire and half divine damage.
Caustic Mire - Summon a poisoned bog at the location, slowing movement of those in it and dealing acid damage every round.
Nightmares Made Real - Conjure a phantasm who blasts all enemies in an area for magical damage until destroyed.
Dark
Utterdark Blast - Enhanced Blast. Target must pass a fortitude save or gain 2 negative levels. Changes damage type to negative and heals undead.
Binding Blast - Enhanced Blast. Target must pass a will save or be stunned for 1 round.
Word of Changing - You gain baleful polymorph as the spell.
Path of Shadow - Greater Teleport with the chance for shenanigans.
Shroud of Darkness - Greater invisibility as the spell, but only functions for a short time.