Cormyr and the Dalelands

So, it has been asked of me a time or six, if Warlock was possible to do on our server.  After some recent frustrations with my inability to make Tempest work in the manner in which I want it to, I decided to take a look at what I might be able to do to make Warlock a possibility.  After a bit of thought, I realized that I could in fact code most of their abilities, even allowing for some various blast shapes and essences without too much headache.  That being said, there are a few issues.

First.  I can not allow for spell selection, as I cannot give them a proper spell book.  What does this mean?  Well, it means that all Warlocks will more or less get the same list of available abilities.  This is similar to what I had to do with Swordmage.

Second:  Because all of these abilities are spell-like feats, which is the only way we have to do them within NWN, they are not subject to Arcane Spell Failure, or disruption via damage.  The former I will kludge with a check that simply disables the class abilities if they put on medium or heavy armor, or equip any shield.  I may allow them use of a small shield. (I'll just add a new feat that lets them equip those, not the large/tower shields.)  The latter is a bit more problematic, and I'm not sure there is anything I can do about it.  We are after all, constrained to the tools we have at hand.  You may notice I included a rank of Uncanny Dodge. As I have said when adding it to other classes recently via the /command, this is due to NWN's proclivity to flat-footing PCs at for what seems to be little to no reason due to combat shoving.

All that said, here is what I have worked out so far.  Do keep in mind this is still very much a work in progress, in fact I threw all of this together within the last 24 hours, much of it based off of the NWN2 implementation.  So much of this may see changes before it is live on the server. I may add more Invocations via feat selection, though I do not want to overload the class.


====================================
Warlock - NWN 3.5 Conversion for CD
====================================


HitDie: d6

Alignment Restriction:  Any Evil or Chaotic

BAB Progression: +3/4 (Medium)

Skill Points: 2 + Int Mod

Saves: Will

Proficiencies: Light Armor, Simple and Rogue Weapons (Possibly Small Shields)

Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Disguise, Heal, Intimidate, Lore, Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft, Taunt, Use Magic Device

Invocations:

A Warlock does not prepare or cast spells as other wielders of arcane magic do. Instead, he possesses a repertoire of attacks, defenses, and abilities known as invocations that require him to focus the wild energy that suffuses his soul. A Warlock can use any invocation he knows at will.

Invocations are Spell-like abilities that take a standard action to cast.
Invocations are subject to spell resitance unless otherwise noted.
A Warlock's caster level is equal to his class level
The DC for an invocation (if it allows a save) is 10 + equivalent spell level + Warlock's Charisma modifier.
Warlock invocations suffer armor related spell failure (from medium and heavier armor and shields) in the same way as arcane spells.  A Warlock can cast in light armor without a chance of arcane spell failure as long as they do not equip a shield.
(Due to the nature of how warlock abilities have to be implemented, ASF will be a kludge.  Equipping anything heavier than light armor, or a shield will simply disable a warlock's abilities.  I may allow them use of a small shield/buckler, we'll see.

============
Abilities:
============

Level:

1: Edritch Blast: 1d6, Warlock Pact, Entropic Warding
2: Devil's Sight
3: Edritch Blast: 2d6, Darkness
4: Deceive Item, Uncanny Dodge I, Walk Unseen, See the Unseen
5: Edritch Blast: 3d6, Draining Blast [Essence]
6: Brimstone Blast [Essence]
7: Edritch Blast: 4d6
8: Fiendish Resilience I, The Dead Walk
9: Edritch Blast: 5d6, Hellrime Blast [Essence]
10: Energy Resistance 5, Flee The Scene
11: Edritch Blast: 6d6, Vitriolic Blast [Essence]
12: Wall of Perilous Flame
13: Edritch Blast: 7d6, Fiendish Resilience II
14: Eldritch Cone [Shape]
15: Edritch Blast: 8d6, Devour Magic
16: Utterdark Blast [Essence]
17: Edritch Blast: 9d6
18: Fiendish Resilience III, Edritch Doom [Shape]
19: Edritch Blast: 10d6
20: Energy Resistance 10, Dark Foresight
21: Edritch Blast: 11d6
22: Bonus Feat
23: Edritch Blast: 13d6
24: Bonus Feat
25: Edritch Blast: 15d6, Energy Resistance 15

Warlock Feats:
Hideous Blow [Shape]
Eldritch Chain [Shape]
Epic Fiendish Resilience
Eldritch Master
Maximize Spell-like Ability (Eldritch Blast)
Quicken Spell-like Ability (Eldritch Blast)
Invocation Focus
Greater Invocation Focus
Epic Invocation Focus
Chilling Tentacles [Greater]


Eldritch Blast:
A Warlock attacks his foes with Eldritch power, using baleful magical energy to deal damage and sometimes impart other debilitating effects. An Eldritch blast deals 1d6 points of magical damage at 1st level and increases in power as the Warlock rises in level (up to 15d6 by level 25). There is no Saving Throw with this attack, but Spell Resistance can negate it. This power can be used at will.

-An Eldritch Blast is a ray with a range of 60ft.

-It is a ranged touch attack that affects a single target.

-It is a weapon-like spell. (Critical hit on a roll of 20, double damage.)

-One Eldritch Essence may be toggled on, which will apply the listed effects to your Eldritch Blast.

-A Blast Shape will channel your Eldritch Blast in the listed manner, along with the effects of the currently toggled Eldritch Essence.

Fiendish Resilience:
Once per day, for 20 rounds, the warlock gains fast healing. The value is 1 point from 8th level, 2 points from 13th level and 5 points from 18th level.

Energy Resistance:
The Warlock gains 5 points of damage resistance to two of the following elements: Fire, Cold, Acid, Electrical or Sonic. This bonus increases to 10 at level 20, and 15 at level 25.

Deceive Item:
Warlocks can take 10 on UMD checks.


=============
Blast Shapes:
=============

Hideous Blow: [Least]
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 2.
Channels the Warlock's Eldritch Blast damage through their melee weapon. This ability is self-only and will not stack with any other weapon damage enhancement.

Eldritch Chain: [Lesser]
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 6.
Eldritch Blast jumps to caster level/5 secondary targets. All secondary targets take half damage.

Eldritch Cone: [Greater]
Eldritch Blast takes the shape of a 30-foot cone. This is not a ray attack, so it requires no ranged touch attack. Any creature in the area of the cone can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.

Eldritch Doom: [Dark]
Eldritch Blast takes the shape of Eldritch Doom. This causes bolts of mystical power to lash out and savage all targets within a 20 foot area. This is not a ray attack, so it requires no ranged touch attack. Each target can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.

==================
Eldritch Essences:
==================

Draining Blast: [Least]
Target must make a will save or be slowed for 1 round.

Brimstone Blast: [Lesser]
Eldritch Blast damage changes to Fire Damage. Target takes 2d6 Fire damage/round until he succeeds at a Reflex save. Lasts 1 round/level.

Hellrime Blast: [Lesser]
Eldritch Blast damage changes to Cold Damage. Target must make a Fortitude save or take -2 to Dexterity for 3 rounds.

Vitriolic Blast: [Greater]
Eldritch Blast damage changes to Acid Damage. Target takes 2d6 Acid damage/round per 5 Warlock levels. Ignores Spell Resistance.

Utterdark Blast: [Dark]
Eldritch Blast damage changes to Negative Energy Damage. Target must make a Fortitude save or gain 2 negative levels. Will heal targeted undead.

==================
Other Invocations:
==================

Entropic Warding: [Least]
20% Ranged Concealment for 1 turn/level.  (May add some Armor AC to this, similar to Mage Armor.)

Devil's Sight: [Least]
Ultravision for 24hrs.

Darkness: [Least]
Darkness, as the spell.

Walk Unseen: [Lesser]
Invisibility, as the spell.

See the Unseen: [Lesser]
See Invisibility, as the spell.

The Dead Walk: [Lesser]
Similar to Animate Dead. Animates an undead servant to aid the Warlock. This servant will scale in power with the Warlock every few levels. (Probably every 4-5.)

Flee The Scene: [Lesser]
Self-Only Dimension Door effect that applies a 20% concealment for 3 rounds. (Supposed to be Major Image, but we can't seem to do that effectively.)

Wall of Perilous Flame: [Greater]
A Modified Wall of Flame that does 2d6 + Charisma Modifier fire damage/round for 3 rounds. Undead take double damage. Half the damage is magical.

Devour Magic: [Greater]
Touch Range Greater Dispel.

Dark Foresight: [Dark]
Damage Reduction. Probably scaled somewhere between G.Stoneskin and Premonition.


==============
Warlock Feats:
==============

Epic Fiendish Resilience:
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 16 & Epic Character.
Increases the Regeneration amount of Fiendish Resilience to 25.

Eldritch Master:
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 16.
Eldritch Blast damage increased by 50%.

Maximize Spell-like Ability (Eldritch Blast)
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 10.
Maximizes Eldritch Blast damage. This only maximizes Eldritch Blast and has no effect on Blow, Chain, Cone or Doom shapes.

Quicken Spell-like Ability (Eldritch Blast):
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 8.
Quickens Eldritch Blast. This only effects Eldritch Blast, not the various other shapes.

Invocation Focus:
Selectable Feat. Requires Warlock.
Increases Invocation DC by 2.

Greater Invocation Focus:
Selectable Feat. Requires Invocation Focus.
Increases Invocation DC by 4.

Epic Invocation Focus:
Selectable Feat. Requires Greater Invocation Focus, Warlock level 16 and Epic Character.
Increases Invocation DC by 6.

Chilling Tentacles: [Greater]
Selectable feat. Requires Warlock level 11.
Invocation, as Evard's Tentacles with additional 2d6 + Cha Mod Cold damage/round.


==============
Warlock Pacts:
==============

A Warlock must make a pact with some manner of outsider, fey or other power to gain their magical abilities.  The warlock will gain various abilities based upon the pact chosen at level 6, 11 and 16.  Pact selection cannot be changed.


Dark Pact: (Demons)
===========

Noxious Blast: [Essence] Eldritch Blast dazes on a failed fort save.

Wraithform: Gain concealment.

Darkwalker: Utterdark does increased damage and drains additional levels.


Infernal Pact: (Devils)
===============

Aura of Flame: Fire surrounds you, damaging foes that hit you in melee.

Hellfire: Brimstone now does additional Hellfire damage.

Word of Changing: Change into a Cornugon, gaining an extra attack, temporary hp and extra damage.


Fey Pact: (Fey)
==========

Bewitching Blast: [Essence] Eldritch Blast confuses on a failed will save.

Eyebite: Blinds targets on a failed fort save.

Will of the Feywild: Dominates the target.


Star Pact: (Old Ones / Far Plane)
===========

Frightful Blast: [Essence] Eldritch Blast fears on a failed will save.

Doomsayer:  Lowers AB and saves of target.

Starless Void: Cloak yourself in the void, gaining concealment and dealing cold damage to any who hit you in melee.

Any evil means LE as well, yes? Please? This looks great.

Pretty rad, Vincent.  I can't wait to give it a go.

Yup. Warlocks can be LE, NE, CE, CN, or CG.

Initial impression is that this is as close as we'll come in NWN1.  I really like the implementation of the different class abilities.

I assume we'll have to at least have 1 other class first, for character creation.

There are warlock feats that allow it to damage undead more, etc.  Also ones for allowing good-aligned warlocks.  Maybe we can open the alignment range a bit?

Well, any chaotic does allow for CG Warlocks.    NG, LG etc doesn't strike me as the type to really go for Warlock pacts.

More feat suggestions would be great. I haven't looked through the PnP  Warlock feat lists yet.

I know there's an invocation that basically casts Fly and a few others I could look up later.

NG and LG warlocks get it from celestial powers, with similarly-flavored invocations, in Complete Mage.  Though I think that required a PrC.

It did, yes.

There are a lot of invocations I left out, the Flight one being one of them, as they have mobility via Flee the Scene.  I can certainly make some available via selected feats, as I did with Chilling Tentacles, Hideous Blow and Eldritch Chain.

Uh, warlock feats, some made up and some from other sources, like this:

Concussive Blasts: A burst of wind buffets your foe to the ground. Blast deals half damage, reflex save vs knockdown.

Eldritch Empowerment: The warlock adds 1d6 to their blast damage, +1d6 per five levels.

Eldritch Soul: His warlock caster level and the caster level of any magical item he uses is considered to be 2 higher

Eldritch Heritage: A 3-4 feat chain that grants new warlock abilities based on their magical lineage.
Examples: Angelic- gives bonuses vs evil, undead, area healing.
Demonic- Bonuses to hideous blow and blast damage, retributive damage, etc
I can be more specific if it's wanted, but you get the idea.

Word Of Changing: Baleful Polymorph

Eldritch Penetration: +4 Bonus vs spell resistance

'Spell Focus' Invocation: +2 bonus to warlock dcs. Greater and epic versions.

Most of these would be limited or impossible due to the nature of NWN.

Concussive could probably be done by giving them Gust of Wind or Iron Horn or something.

We can't adjust the caster level on items on the fly so Eldritch Soul is unlikely to be used.

This look feasible but what I wonder is how many glitches it would do with standard spell systems and so on.  But we'll figure that out.  This looks fun Vincent.

I'm pretty sure we could adjust it on the fly, since we've already rethreaded all the scripts to use a custom caster level function.

Yeah, none of this would impact existing stuff in any manner aside from adding a check for the new class into the caster level function.

Oh, hella! Grabbing some more..

Leaps and Bounds: I forget if we have a jump skill. If yes, bonus to that and tumble, movement speed increase.

Imbue Item: Allows Warlock to use the crafting system.

Bane Blast: Pick one monster type. When using your Baneful Blast essence, you deal blast damage + (some bonus here) against that monster type.

Fey Heritage: Prereq- Non-lawful.
The warlock's fey heritage grants them a bonus vs enchantment, and the woodland stride ability.

Fey Presence: Prereq: Fey Heritage
You add Charm monster and Alter Self to your warlock powers. Gains the (optional) 'eyebite' essence, dropping eldritch blast to d4 dice to blind struck enemies for 1 round.

Fey Legacy: Prereq: Fey Heritage
Add Confusion and Entangle to your warlock powers.

Fey Skin: Prereq: Fey Heritage
Gain 1 DR/Cold Iron for each fey heritage feat you possess.

*drools*. I am excited by this.  I've always kinda liked the warlock class.  In fact,  The one thing I liked in 4e was how they handled the warlock.  I loved you could have pacts from different Powers i.e lower planar, upper planar, fey, far realm etc etc.  it would be nice to implement that in some way here, even if it was only in an rp fashion.  

It would almost have to be solely RP.  A lot of that sort of thing is just too difficult to do within the constraints of our server.

That'd be fine by me.  Looks fun

All of my yes.

I've played on a server with the PRC implementation of Warlock, so I have a few words of warning here...

1)  Vitriolic Eldritch Chain.  It's a point and shoot fire and forget ability that is better than every mage's damage spells.  Infinitely repeatable with no save and no spell resistance combined with a 3/4 AB that makes the touch attack unlikely to miss anything.  Everything is equally vulnerable, something mages don't have access to (since even IGMS allows SR).  Acid immunity?  Very little has that, or even resistance, and even then you can just change your damage type.  This alone make mages who focus on dealing damage totally inferior to a Warlock since Warlocks are doing just as much damage, to more targets, more reliably, and they never run out of spells.  Additionally, in the PRC implementation, the acid damage over time stacks.  Beware this combination if you want mages to be meaningful damage-dealers too.

2)  Chilling Tentacles.  Be careful how you code it!  The PRC implementation causes cutscene paralysis, which means it is unaffected by Freedom of Movement and does not allow for retaliatory action.  Combine with Vitriolic Eldritch Chain and you get a whole lot of tears.  Don't make that mistake.

3)  Energy Resistance.  Don't be surprised if everyone picks Cold as one of the types, since that makes them immune to the Frost Giant dungeon.

4)  Epic Invocation Focus.  Is there any reason it's 4 points more DC than a mage's Epic Spell Focus?

Looks like a custom version, not the PRC one?
Chilling tentacles would just be cold-damage black tentacles, at a guess.

This is entirely custom work, so little that is true of the PRC version will be true here.  But to address Trylo's points:

1: Eldritch Chain will require taking a feat if you want it. A ranged touch attack will be required for every target in the chain.

2: As stated, it will pretty much just be Evards with extra cold damage.  The implementation you listed is just sloppily done.  There is no reason to ever use Cutscene Paralysis against PCs unless you specifically want to ignore things that allow you immunity
to paralysis.  So that will not be happening here.

3: It allows them to resist the environmental damage. And Frost Giants isn't the only place with that at present.  It hardly makes them 'immune' to the dungeon.  They can still get their faces crit off by a greataxe.

4: Probably because I didn't look at existing feats when I wrote all this out.  As I stated up top, all this may change.

I am happy now.  Thank you for your prompt response.  Bring on the Warlocks!

Update:

Added Deceive item and Warlock Pact selection.

Pact selection will be the one way that one warlock will differ from another.  As stated above, these abilities may change and numbers are not yet worked out.

How would hideous blow work? Would it always be on or would you have to activate it for a single attack or would it work like Divine Might does?

Also like with the normal Warlock I am assuming these would be unlimited per day in use?

All Warlock abilities are at will, yes.

As for Hideous Blow, yeah it would add X damage for a short duration, probably not too different from Divine Might in that regard. Probably won't be the full amount of eldritch blast, as that gets to be a -lot- of damage.

Maybe more in line with Elemental Weapon, perhaps?

Would Divine Might stack with it?

Looking at the abilities I think it steers towards a Bard/Warlock/Blackguard build with at will invisibility you are essentially getting a poor man's HiPS at quite a low level. Then add in the Cha synergy the sneak attack from blackguard and the Bard being the base class for a few spells, Tumble and the like. Then with Div Shield you can put that Cha to work in defence and if Div Might stacks you're getting Cha to damage as well.

Would be potentially be on the power curve just under Bard and Paladin (which isn't a bad place to be). Seems like a lot of the abilities steer it towards being an archer-type character but I think it would very much shine as a melee warrior with the right multi-classing.

Also can you sneak attack with Eldrtich Blast? The first few levels seem like a really good idea for a Rogue. Infinite darkness and infinite Ultravision to set up those delicious sneak attacks? Yes please.

Also few thoughts now I have had a proper look over it -

1. I am not sure the animate dead spell should be included as one for all because a lot of your good aligned Warlocks will simply have a dead spell that they can't use. It makes more sense in classes like Blackguard or Palemaster due to the nature of the class being quite specific.

Warlock is a lot more open to interpretation.

I would replace it with a boost spell maybe a mass-clarity spell or emotion courage?


2. Is Eldrtich Blast a full round action? If that is the case then I am not sure it will be able to stand up as a damage dealer in the late game considering iterative attacks on melee warriors cause a lot of damage in comparison. Even with the damage boosters in place an Archer is going to be doing a lot more damage than a Warlock.  

Sneak attack is a melee thing, and does not apply to SLAs.

Hideous Blow will be a short duration weapon buff that does not stack with any other weapon buff.  The exact numbers and duration will be worked out when I get to testing.

Considering that's how it works in PnP, I see no reason it would hugely need to be changed. A minor damage buff over the default might not be bad, given how everything is ramped up in NWN. But Warlock isn't really supposed to be keeping up completely with the likes of full-attacking meleers or archers. Its main draw is being able to do magical damage an unlimited amount of times per day while aiming at Touch AC, and sacrifices the amount of damage it can do (compared to a blaster normal caster who is limited on spell slots per day, or a meleer swiping away with a weapon who can do only mostly physical damage and a little bit of elemental on the side and also has to aim for normal AC) for it.

I thought sneak attacks were also ranged at 30 feet in game? Though with other servers I've seen using warlock, since it's a custom use power, it doesn't apply.

Not 100%. But I do know that in normal NWN, sneaks do work on ranged attacks.

~BR

I think Vincent meant it's a physical thing, and won't work with magical attacks like SLAs.

From playing NWN2 for a long time, I want to stress this.  A lot of the warlock looks weaker if you compare raw numbers to other classes.  But you have to keep in mind that warlocks can do everything an unlimited amount of times per day.  In practice that makes them extremely good, especially in dungeons.  They never have to stop casting spells.

Pretty much, yes.

Note that a Warlock is going to be pumping out pretty consistent damage, too. They're DEX-based for their attacks, they have a very low chance of missing because they aim for Touch, and as they're likely going to be dealing Magical-type damage (unless specifically switching to an elemental Blast Essence for a certain purpose, like fighting trolls) they'll be bypassing DR and most creature's resistances or immunities. SR will slow them down, doubly so since I'm pretty sure Spell Penetration won't work for them, but no more or less than AC slows down a Fighter... except of course against Golems or other things that have unbeatable SR, and even then, Warlocks have at least one essence (Vitriolic Blast) that's basically a Conjuration spell and ignores SR. (Granted they're screwed if they fight a Golem that's immune to Acid... but then, well, that's what the rest of the party is for.)

So yes, while their flat on-paper damage is less, it's more consistent than a Fighter (Touch versus Normal AC and ignoring DR go a LONG way for that) and has just plain more endurance and staying power than a Mage who is restricted by a limited amount of slots.

Don't forget that they get extra hit points that a wizard or sorcerer typical doesn't as well as the ability to wear armor straight out of the gate (even if there's arcane spell failure).

Actually there is no failure for using Light Armor for a warlock, much like a Bard =)

Aaaah, I must have misread what Vincent had posted earlier in this thread.  I thought it said "all armor would have ASF."  My initial thought was "in pnp, they can wear light armor without penalties..."  Glad to see that I had misread!

My main concern and keep in mind this is theory rather than actually observing it in play is the advantages of Warlock are unlimited range attacks of magic and abilities. The disadvantages are that the damage isn't what a melee build can put out and the spells are not as potent as what a Wizard can put out.

The concern is that due to how the dungeons are built 'unlimited arcane power' isn't a massive selling point considering that the dungeons for the most part have rest points (sometimes multiple ones) and there are a lot (I mean an awful lot) of spell slot items available to Clerics, Wizards and (I think) Druids. I have literally never once run out of spells for Requiem in any Dungeon on this server (except ninth level ones - who hasn't?). Then add to this the mansion spell which while granted does not work in every dungeon but it works in quite a few and replenishes all those multiple spell slots just in case I start to go a bit trigger happy for the lulz.

The unlimited spells would be quite cool but the spell selection is  limited to the point where it would make for some very effective tactics concerning darkness spamming coupled with sneak attacks (Devil's sight, Darkness, Walk Unseen and See the Unseen) but very little else.

In fact the whole spell selection seems to make you a tougher melee combatant (for the aforementioned darkness spamming) with Dark Foresight, Word of Changing, Aura of Flame and Starless Void all giving you a damage shield or additional HP. While all of those except Dark Foresight are pact specific it means every choice gives you some form of increased melee ability. Indeed even the Greater Dispel (which is pretty cool) is touch range meaning you have to get in close.

The class has some nice battlefield control spells (which is my favourite type of spell) mostly linked to the Fey Pact and Star Pacts - Bewitching Blast, Eyebite, Will of the Feywild, Frightful Blast and Doomsayer being the pact specific ones with draining blast being the essence you can apply to your Eldritch Blast.

I have not mentioned Utterdark Blast in the above because negative levels on CD is a fairly useful ability for PvP but against normal monsters you're often just better off doing anything else because you have to usually target the monsters strongest save (fortitude) and the monsters tend not to last long enough for your spell to have done much good, as opposed to either incapacitating it or contributing damage of your own along with the fact a lot of the boss monsters are immune to negative levels.

However I think it shows really good design to have the fear, confusion and dominate as single target spells because it makes the unlimited ability useful without the mental broken of it being mass targeting it just seems a shame you need to pick either Fey or Lovecraft to do it.

The other thing this class doesn't seem to do well is play with others. It has no buffs (except Ultravision . . . woo) and I am not sure it would be out of place for it to have some party buffs like the mass-animal spells, death wards or emotion spells which gives them something to contribute as a little bit more unique. Dispels are much more common now and the party member that can help keep a party on their feet (with much needed buffs) would fit a more unique role. Some of its abilities are counter-intuitive to party play - Tentacles is an amazing spell but it rarely gets any use because it takes a lot of work and effort to make it work within a party dynamic and can often mess up your combat orientated friends. Likewise with the cone and radius versions of the blast these are going to be difficult to target in the hectic fast moving world of NWN without hitting your buddy in the face. If they're not already can they be made to only hurt enemies and not allies?

My other question is with Eldritch Blast do you have to constantly click and target it at your target (every round) or can you click and forget?

I certainly think the class is neat and the critique above is meant to just be constructive criticism I understand it is very easy to say from my sofa - code X, Y or Z and not understand the implications of it from a work/scripting perspective.

My other fear is that this class is a very, very nice dip class for rogue the first four levels are like a wet dream for them. Unlimited Darkness, Unlimited Ultravision, Auto-10 on UMD and a small defensive buff with entropic warding (which needs to be buffed as an aside). That is an amazing dip.

As a suggestion (rather than just point out things) could the spell selection scale after certain milestones of Warlock. So See the Unseen goes from basic See-Invisibility up to True Sight at high enough level. Darkness turns into 'Biting Darkness' that causes damage to anyone without Ultra-Vision/True Sight. Entropic Shield gets stronger as you level slowly adding AC, Deflection and Displacement. Flee the Scene turns from Dimension Door to the option to use it as a teleport to a mass teleport. Devour Magic adds AB/AC bonus depending on if the dispel was successful (no idea if this is actually possible to be scripted). Dark Foresight adds neg energy protection and boosts saves as your Warlock gains in levels.

Your concerns are valid,  but again: this class has existed already in NWN2 for the past eight years.  We've already seen, in practice, that it measures up very well and is quite popular.  Vincent's implimentation is close to identical to the NWN2 version and scales the same in numbers.

As for buffs, you're right, the Warlock lacks party buffs.  Eldrich magic is inherently destructive, not support-y.  It's the same in NWN2.

Pretty much what Kirin said. The class doesn't "help others" because that's not what it's designed to do. I'm sure Vincent will tweak some of its abilities, upping some powers and generally adjusting it to fit the server, and such adjusting will likely continue even after the class is in-game, but adding a bunch of homebrewed extras that even the PnP version of the class never gets is both unnecessary and excessive.

You're trying to think of Warlocks as just another Mage class, when they're very much not. They're more like Fighters who deal their damage with pseudo-magic instead of swords. And their class design and abilities reflect that. Fighters don't buff their allies either (barring multiclassing anyway), but that doesn't stop people from playing them.

I will warn that this class is pretty easy to break mechanically if the implementation is done in a certain fashion. For those that played Neverwinter Nights 2 when it was young you might remember that Chilling Tentacles was hilariously broken and could be stacked for something to the effect of reflex save vs. 200d6 damage. Add in a dash of really stupid AI that can't even pathfind tilesets and you win everything ever.

IMHO this class tends to polarize heavily: do it one way and it tends to be amazingly bad, do it another way and it tends to be horribly good. Things like unlimited spam of stuff like invisibility, darkness, etc. allow exploitation of the bad NWN AI to no ends, and stackable unlimited AoEs will always result in horrific exploitation of pathfinding.

Yeah that bug with the tentacles has already been mentioned, Vince covered it about a page back.

Complete Arcane page 75, NWN2, both feature Battle Caster, a feat for both warlocks and bards (implementation in CA is a little different), that allows the use of heavier armor without spell failure. In the CA version, any class with an ASF ignoring ability can advance the armor category they can wear one further, in the NWN2 version, it allows medium armor.

Perhaps this is something that could be considered for warlock, and bard, with this implementation?

After giving it some thought, I wanted to see if there were any chance of the creation of a few other pacts - the pacts we have now give a few choices, but feel as if they're kind of "standard" in the same way that the subraces available are parts of the same themes.

Perhaps we could do something like:

Place/"Ley Line" pact, "inheritance", object/"artifact" , a take on "ur-priest"/usurped?

Just to create a few more interpretations on pact options, and therefore, warlocks.

Thoughts, everyone?

Another thought came to me that some are forced to, or somehow given little choice in taking such pacts with infernal or abyssal powers using us pesky mortals, as pawns in their great power struggle.  In line with this objects could be cursed, more they are used, the more they corrupt or something along that line.  How many avenues do we have available here?  Is the Lower Planes the only option?

These come to mind, I'm sure there's more to consider.

In the pnp version, Warlocks are allowed to be CG, CN, and CE.  Pacts can be made with planar creatures of variety of natures, infernal/abyssal is only the most obvious.

Partially correct. Warlocks can be any Chaotic or any Evil. So in addition to those three alignments, they can also be NE and LE.

But yes, fiendish options are only some of the choices. As listed, we also have Fey and Far Plane pacts, and theoretically a Celestial (Eladrin) pact wouldn't be out of place.

Is it wrong that the class isn't even in yet and I've already created one in my head?

Nope, I've already done the same for both this and Swordmage. As soon as they're in I'm having two of my characters rebuilt =)

*laughs* getting ready to make my swordmage as well!

See?  That's what happens when I go with what I remember off the top of my head.  But yes to the other parts.

And if I still had my fiendish-type character around, yes.  A thousand times yes on Warlock.  I'll probably catch Vincent's altitis and make one anyway. (don't ban me!)

For that matter, a Slaad/Protean pact would make perfect sense as well, as would a Titan pact.

I've been playing a character as a Warlock on this server for 4 years, it'll be nice to have the mechanics finally represented rather than having to half-ass imitate the abilities with sorceror.