Warlock Revamp - Upcoming Changes

[GodBeastX]

Mechanical question related to all this:

Are warlocks going to be expected to worship a Demon/Devil in order to be a Warlock?

Because if so, that'll cause issues for any Warlock attempting to join the Black Hand - as the teleport amulets only work when you worship one of the Three.

Not at all. You might even hate who you have a pact with.

[wangxiuming]

^ I will attest to this. =X

[GodBeastX]

A few invocations I changed:

Hideous Blow

This has been revamped a bit. I changed it to a self cast spell. Casting it again with same essences will turn it off like a toggle. When an enemy is struck by a hideous blow it will automatically refresh itself next round until turned off with the same blast essence. Casting again with DIFFERENT essence will replace the current one.

Why the change?

Currently it takes 1 round to cast Hideous Blow and it makes you attack the creature you target with it. What this means is you are basically taking a round to cast (In melee), hitting the creature with the blast, and melee attack, then taking another round to cast again. So you are basically at half your blasts in melee than you'd have at range and a round of melee you do nothing. You also struggle to cast hideous blow before a round begins. THat's all a pain in the ass and makes the spell quite useless all around.

With this change hideous blow will now mean you can spend combat just attacking and your blow will reapply itself so there are no rounds missed, and you can recast on yourself.

This will make a melee warlock a viable option!

The Dead Walk

The Dead Walk was revamped to summon a skeletal warrior that scales 1 to 1 with your warlock levels. The Skeletal Warrior doesn't use undead class (Though it is undead race) and instead uses fighter class levels (Though no bonus feats and carefully selected feats). It's Damage and AC scale up with the warlock's caster levels.

Why the change?

The Dead Walk is literally animate dead in pen & paper. In pen & paper you can have 4 times the number of undead worth of hitdice as you have warlock levels. That means a level 20 warlock could walk around with an army of undead with this invocation having 80 hitdice of undead! In NWN2 this was only summoning a skeletal/zombie warrior with 4 hitdice. At level 20 that is UTTERLY USELESS!

Also due to the fact you don't have explicit command of summons like your player character as well as the limited number/hitdice we have a tendency to buff summons more than they would be in P&P to account for this limitation.

Vitriolic Blast

This has been redone to ignore spell resistences.

Why the Change?

Vitriolic Blast ignores spell resist in P&P as one of it's effects and I'm bringing this to NWN2 to make it an option for creatures with spell resistance effects. Although some instances ignored it in NWN2, they missed a key location in the code which allowed it to, which has been fixed.

Word of Changing

This has been changed into a polymorph which reduces the target into a chicken. There is a fortitude save to see if the spell succeeds, then a will save to see if the effect is permanent or 24 hours.

Why the change?

This follows the P&P use of the spell closer, which was a Baleful Polymorph. I am also implementing shape change as an option based on warlock pacts. This is a very useful crowd control spell for enemies and probably fun for RP. Why waste the opportunity?

Otherworldly Whispers

Knowledge Arcana, Religion and Planes has been added to this spell for bonuses.

Why the change?

Since they are implemented in Sundren, this spell can be used to buff them like they are in P&P. The Lore and Spellcraft have been left on the spell as well since Lore is a NWN2 only skill and it also gives the spell some mechanical value.

Wall of Perilous Flames

The damage has been changed to 2d6 + Caster Level and duration changed to Caster Level.

Why the change?

The spell in P&P did this much damage as opposed to 2d6+CHA modifier. This should enhance it's damage a great deal and make it more useful in combat. It also was meant to be 1 round / caster level. This should make it much more useful as well.

[Kitsunestume]

Looking great, GBX. Now EVERYONE is going to want a warlock. . .


As a side note: offering to summon outsiders for pacts, 5000 GP each, plus five percent of profits gained therefrom.

[wangxiuming]

Looking awesome!

[Laurk]

So a question about Word of Changing.

So a failed fort save, and you're a chicken. A failed will save and you're a perminent chicken. Unless im mistaken, they can cast this spell every 6 seconds without limit. Is there a risk here, that given infinite invisablity and infinite chickenability that given the proper length of time, every person on the entire server will eventually be a perminant chicken save for a single warlock?

At least balancing dungeons would be easier.

seriously though... does it really last 24 hours? Because I can just see drive by chickenings as warlocks streak through the second wind chickenizing people for fun. Id hate to be a chicken for 24 hours, let alone perminantly. It would be vastly harder to get donations, and I might wind up in the soup.

[Valhalla]

24-hour duration spells refer to 24 IG hours, not RL hours.

I imagine if you failed the permanent save, though, you'd need a cleric and a Resto/G. Resto.

In fact, Laurk, you should be leaping for joy at this. Abby's business is going to go through the roof.

[Kitsunestume]

24-hour duration spells refer to 24 IG hours, not RL hours.

I imagine if you failed the permanent save, though, you'd need a cleric and a Resto/G. Resto.

In fact, Laurk, you should be leaping for joy at this. Abby's business is going to go through the roof.

Or alternatively, a lot more donations of chickens for soup!
Would it count as a curse? for purposes of dispels and remove X spells?

[Laurk]

Either way is good for me! More healing, or more soup. Bravo GBX!

[Shadechild]

So the way Hideous Blow now works is...

Warlock has 3 Attacks per round, the first attack lets off the blast, while she continues to attack until her round is over. In which Hideous blow refreshes for the next round?

[Mournas]

Otherworldly Whispers

Knowledge Arcana, Religion and Planes has been added to this spell for bonuses.

Why the change?

Since they are implemented in Sundren, this spell can be used to buff them like they are in P&P. The Lore and Spellcraft have been left on the spell as well since Lore is a NWN2 only skill and it also gives the spell some mechanical value.

This is the one ability that makes me jealous of warlocks, and now you have made it better! The RP potential for this ability is just amazing. I would sell my soul for it.

[GodBeastX]

So the way Hideous Blow now works is...

Warlock has 3 Attacks per round, the first attack lets off the blast, while she continues to attack until her round is over. In which Hideous blow refreshes for the next round?

You got it.

[GodBeastX]

So a question about Word of Changing.

So a failed fort save, and you're a chicken. A failed will save and you're a perminent chicken. Unless im mistaken, they can cast this spell every 6 seconds without limit. Is there a risk here, that given infinite invisablity and infinite chickenability that given the proper length of time, every person on the entire server will eventually be a perminant chicken save for a single warlock?

At least balancing dungeons would be easier.

seriously though... does it really last 24 hours? Because I can just see drive by chickenings as warlocks streak through the second wind chickenizing people for fun. Id hate to be a chicken for 24 hours, let alone perminantly. It would be vastly harder to get donations, and I might wind up in the soup.

That's how it works in pen & paper, except I'm being kind making it a 24 hour chicken if you succeed will. How it works in P&P is you're that shape but you don't lose the IQ and stuff if you will save so you can try to cluck around and find someone to turn you back.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/balefulPolymorph.htm

Eventually you might BECOME a chicken in P&P!

[GodBeastX]

Does the half warlock level for spell resist affect eldritch blasts only or all warlock invocations?

[thaelis]

All sounds very nice! I've never had any interest in playing a warlock but i never realised their spells had been so watered down. Would be sweet if some nerfed Wiz spells could get their true durations restored too (I heard Polt was working on it but I presume it's hit a snag

I'm thinking along the lines of Charm, Feeblemind etc

Sorry, bit off topic. Anyway, great work!