Warlock Revamp - Upcoming Changes

[GodBeastX]

DMs (And some players) have expressed a feeling that warlocks need some work done to them. Currently, in part due to implementation of some invocations, warlocks tend to be cookie cutter in their design and some features downright useless (Any warlocks out there actually have hideous blow?). Also with a lot of pathfinder changes to some classes to make them better, why not take the time to make warlocks better? The goal isn't to make warlocks more POWERFUL, though there might be minor power increases, but to make them more diversified and useful.

I wanted to give people an idea of what was coming down the pipe and some of the ideas that are flowing for the revamp. Feel free to comment on your own ideas.

Hellfire Warlock

It's been decided that this PrC is relatively useless and forcing players to pick 3 levels of it when pure warlock is better has been a thorn. So some of this classes concept will be injected into the base class.

Deities

Due to the nature of warlocks, many tend to revere entities that have god powers but aren't precisely gods. D&D and Forgotten Realms have always allowed worship of these entities so they are going to be showing up in the deity lists for Sundren.

All of these deities will be Divine Rank 1 in power, and are generally worshiped by cultists. Clerics will likely find it better to worship a usual god for domain selections.

Demon Lords

Baphomet - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of Beasts
Dagon - CE - Obyrith - Prince of the Depths
Demogorgon - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of Demons
Fraz-Urb'luu - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of Deception
Graz'zt - CE - Tanar'ri - The Dark Prince
Jubilex - CE - Tanar'ri - The Faceless Lord
Kostchtchie - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of Wrath
Malcanthet - CE - Tanar'ri - Queen of the Succubi
Obox-ob - CE - Obyrith - Prince of Vermin
Orcus - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of the Undead
Pale Night - CE - Obyrith - The Mother of Demons
Pazazu - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms
Yeenoghu - CE - Tanar'ri - Prince of Gnolls (Also worshipped by them)
Zuggtmoy - CE - Tanar'ri - Lady of Fungi

Devil Lords

Bel - LE - Lord of the First
Dispater - LE - Lord of the Second
Mammon - LE - Lord of the Third
Belial and Fierna - LE - Lords of the Fourth
Levistus - LE - Lord of the Fifth
Glasya - LE - Lord of the Sixth
Baalzebul - LE - Lord of the Seventh
Mephistopheles - LE - Lord of the Eigth (Also Creator of Hellfire Warlocks)
Asmodeus - LE - Lord of the Ninth (Ruler of Hell)


Invocations

Some old worthless invocations will be redone and fixed to be more useful so that warlocks actually have to choose between them! Certain ones have always been no-brainers for warlock selection and that shouldn't be the case. So they will be reevaluated and modified as needed, with some new ones likely being added since we have more ways of implementing things Obsidian didn't.

Also, the Verbal component for warlock invocations that don't require them will be removed.

Pacts & Bonus Feats

Beginning at level 1 a warlock will select their pact which will be chosen between Infernal and Abyssal at the moment. We're talking about allowing other pacts (Lore support Fey and others) but we have had a policy in the past against having masses of Fey warlocks running around, so that is up in the air at the moment.

As a warlock levels they are given feat selections to help color them even more with feat options based upon the pact chosen.

Examples might be those with Infernal pact being able to pick Hellfire options and Devilish concepts. Abyssal options will follow demonic traits and abilities.

The damage resistance will get a small buff to make it more in line with pathfinderizing we've done across the board. It'll also change based on the pact you choose. Those with Infernal pacts will end up with Silver DR, those with Abyssal pacts will end up with Cold Iron DR.

The changing into the form of a fiend will become a bonus feat, not an invocation. Word of Change was meant to polymorph enemies into chickens and the like as a baleful spell. I see no reason not to leave it that way.

Epic Levels

Kaeldorn had previously nerfed a great deal of the epic goodies classes get, and warlocks were one of the classes who got slapped in the face. Having toned epic blast down from 50% damage increase to 10% damage increase (Mathematically ends up 2 to 4 damage bonus a round... instead of 13 to 23 damage a round) we'll be undoing that. We'll probably evaluate other epic possibilities but epic isn't as priority considering how few epic warlocks we have.

Warlock Faction

We have no intention of creating a faction specific to warlocks due to the fact we don't have hundreds of active players to further divide among factions. New factions means dividing DM attention as well, and we'd encourage warlocks to get involved with current factions in some way or the other.

That said, this doesn't mean we won't be supporting warlocks for items meant specifically for the class. We'll be re-evaluating the current items out there for warlocks in the current store and how players gain access to that store as warlocks (I'll not spoiler where it is but I'm sure people with Knowledge Religion or Knowledge Planes has found it).


Conclusion

We'll probably end up using our creativity to bring these changes light, so this is room for players to weigh in and think of features they'd like to see in warlocks. Invocation ideas, bonus feat ideas, etc. This is new territory for 3E.

I'll also see about fixing the spell resistance bugs that have been a thorn in warlocks since day 1.

[Valhalla]

Oh man, these are awesome changes.

The only thing I'd note is that Dark Foresight gives Alchemical Silver DR. I'm not sure if that would stack or simply overwrite the devil pact DR, but stacking is pretty nuts and overwriting is a bit

[Shadechild]

<3 Loving it.

[Kitsunestume]

Sounds great! Not that I play warlocks myself, but I look forwards to being blasted by upgraded Bloodmaim and Arcane Manifestations \(^_^)/
Also, I'm guessing the warlock players might be happy too.

Beginning at level 1 a warlock will select their pact which will be chosen between Infernal and Abyssal at the moment. We're talking about allowing other pacts (Lore support Fey and others) but we have had a policy in the past against having masses of Fey warlocks running around, so that is up in the air at the moment.

I wish to suggest "Tentacled-Horror-From-Beyond-the-Sea-of-Night pact", and 'noodle-pact'*.
Would the Arcane Manifestations be 'Sundrite-pact'? (Yes, I know Sundrite is inanimate, and cannot make pacts)

*-Yes, this is a joke, but it' would still be funny. The aberration-pact was a legitimate suggestion: because elder-brains/things are weirdly powerful. No, I'm not really expecting them to be options.

[wangxiuming]

Sounds fantastic! I am excited

[Jai_V]

It looks amazing. But just so I can say I asked: No Arch-Fey worship options?
(Because I love all things fey.)

[Edit] Somehow, against all reason, my reading comprehension missed that part about the fey pacts. My apologies.

[kuscotopia]

It looks amazing. But just so I can say I asked: No Arch-Fey worship options?
(Because I love all things fey.)

Right there with ya. I say bring on the fey!

[Vaelek]

We're talking about allowing other pacts (Lore support Fey and others) but we have had a policy in the past against having masses of Fey warlocks running around, so that is up in the air at the moment.

Why would Arch-Fey be an option for worship if the staff is already on the fence about allowing a pact with them?

[Kitsunestume]

It looks amazing. But just so I can say I asked: No Arch-Fey worship options?
(Because I love all things fey.)

I've heard Auril is already a selectable deity.
You can even find the temple if you go looking, Worship Away!

Getting a contract of power from the self-interested, mischievous tricksters on the other-hand is probably a bit iffy.

[Atmosphere]

I've heard Auril is already a selectable deity.

Lol. That was my second thought on that. My first one being, we discussed this?

[wangxiuming]

I know six years ago, many people despised - for one reason or another - fey pact warlocks. It was a factor when I was brainstorming Alyrian's backstory. Not sure if this is still the case though.

[Doubtful]

There's a fairly staggering amount of work in bringing the expanded lower planes warlocks into being. If (and its a big if) cuddlylocks and warsnuggles were introduced they'd require another hefty chunk of work for their pinkie-pacts and rainbow blasts.

Let's get the lower planes stuff in first.

[wangxiuming]

I did not explicitly say it before, so ...

Thank you GBX, Doubt, and Sundren staff!

[GodBeastX]

I'm wondering if people would complain if it says an attempted spell resist succeeds that doesn't. The Spell Resist function handles more than SR, and from what I understand it's hardcoded to take the caster level in half for the engine (Intentionally no less).

I put a fix in which works with SR, but spell mantle and immunities would need to be handled as well and it's an all or nothing deal with that function which puts out text in combat log which won't be what happens.

[Doubtful]

I did not explicitly say it before, so ...

Thank you GBX, Doubt, and Sundren staff!

Don't thank me, this is pure GBX awesomeness!