Warlock



Born of a supernatural bloodline, a warlock seeks to master the perilous magic that suffuses his soul. Unlike sorcerers and wizards, who approach arcane magic through the medium of spells, a warlock invokes powerful magic through nothing more than an effort of will. The font of dark magic burning in their souls makes them resistant to many forms of attack and arms them with dangerous power. Warlocks 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. By harnessing his innate magical gift through fearsome determination and willpower, a warlock can perform feats of supernatural stealth, beguile the weak-minded, or scour his foes with blasts of eldritch power.

Alignment restrictions: Any evil or any chaotic

Armor restrictions
Because the somatic components required for warlock invocations are relatively simple, a warlock has Armored Caster and can use any of his invocations while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However, like arcane spellcasters, a warlock wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure (all invocations, including eldritch blast, have a somatic component) (but: see Arcane Spell Failure). A multiclass warlock still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from levels in other classes. Taking the Battle Caster feat removes the somatic spell failure chance for medium armor.

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 damage at 1st level and increases in power as the warlock rises in level (up to 14d6 by level 30). 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.
 * half damage to objects.
 * is a weapon-like spell (Critical hit on a roll of 20, double damage on a critical hit)
 * One each of an Eldritch Essence and Blast Shape invocations may be applied to an Eldritch Blast.
 * Applied invocations may cause additional effects and thus allow for a saving throw.

Eldritch Essence
Some of a warlock's invocations, such as Frightful Blast, modify the damage or other effects of the warlock's eldritch blast. Unless otherwise noted, the eldritch blast deals normal damage in addition to the effect of the essence. The warlock can apply only one essence to a blast at a time.

Blast Shape
These invocations modify the range, target(s), or area of a warlock's eldritch blast. Unless otherwise noted, the eldritch blast does normal damage.

Eldritch lore
At 2nd level the warlock gains a +2 bonus to lore and spellcraft skill checks.

Damage reduction
Fortified by the supernatural power flowing in his body, a warlock becomes resistant to physical attacks at 3rd level and above, gaining damage reduction 1/cold iron (damage from attacks are reduced by 1 point unless the damage comes from cold iron). At 7th level and every four levels thereafter, a warlock's damage reduction improves, up to 7/cold iron at level 27.

Deceive item
From level 4 onwards, a warlock gains a +4 bonus to use magic device skill checks.

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
At level 10 a warlock can choose two energy types from acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic. He gains 5 points damage resistance against those chosen damage types. At 20th level, a warlock gains resistance 10 to his chosen energy types. At 30th level, a warlock gains resistance 15 to his chosen energy types.

Imbue item
(Mask of the Betrayer only)

From level 12 onwards, a warlock can use his supernatural power to create magic items, even if he does not know the spells required to make the item (although he must know the appropriate item creation feat). He can substitute a use magic device check (DC 15 + spell level for arcane spells or 25 + spell level for divine spells) in place of a required spell he does not know or can't cast.

Spellcasting: Invocations

 * Invocation: Warlocks utilize invocations to channel eldritch power at their enemies.

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.
 * A warlock's invocations are spell-like abilities, therefore a standard action that provokes an attack of opportunity.
 * If a warlock is hit when invoking he must make a concentration check or the invocation is disrupted.
 * A warlock may choose to invoke defensively, by making a concentration check, to avoid provoking attacks of opportunities.
 * A warlock's invocations are subject to spell resistance unless an invocation's description specifically states otherwise. ** See Note Below**
 * A warlock's caster level with his invocations are equal to his class level. However, the spell level of the Eldritch Blast is always equal to one unless modified by shape/essence invocations. If both a blast shape and a blast essence are added to the Eldritch Blast, then the spell level of the blast is equal to the higher spell level of either the shape or essence.
 * 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 (but: see Arcane Spell Failure).

NOTE: In reference to beating Spell Resistance with an Invocation or an Eldritch Blast, there is a Bug that uses one-half the Warlock's actual Caster Level, including any Bonuses. A level 10 Warlock would have a Caster Level of 5 for beating Spell Resistance. The Spell Penetration feats have their bonuses cut in half as well; each adds only +1 to beat Spell Resistance instead of +2. This Bug become very significant when battling creatures with racial Spell Resistance such as Drow and Deep_gnome. However, unmodified Eldritch Blasts of +10d6 damage or more skip the Spell Resistance. In addition, the Vitriolic Blast Essence innately does not have a Spell Resistance check.

Grades
The four grades of invocation, in order of their relative power, are least, lesser, greater and dark.

Gaining invocations
A warlock begins with knowledge of one invocation, which must be of the lowest grade (least). Warlocks may swap invocations they already know for others of the same grade (least, lesser, etc.) every time they gain a level.

Enhancement feats
Invocations are not actually spells, they are spell-like abilities, so they are not compatible with spell focus feats and any spellcasting feats, save Spell Penetration. As noted above, there is a glitch that only applies one-half of the bonus of Spell Penetration feats towards Invocations/Blasts.

Equivalent spell level
Each invocation has an equivalent spell level (ESL) to determine the save DC (if it allows a save) and the required power to dispel it. If both a shape and an essence are applied to an Eldritch Blast, the ESL of the Eldritch Blast is the higher ESL of the eldritch blast, shape or essence. The ESL of an eldritch blast is x, where x is determined by the blast damage of the warlock (xd6).

The save DC of any invocation is 10 + equivalent spell level + Warlock's Charisma modifier. Caster level equals Warlock class level.

Arcane spell failure
The Warlock is documented as being subject to arcane spell failure (the chance of an invocation to fail when wearing too-heavy armor or wielding a shield). However, it appears that only some invocations are actually subject to arcane spell failure:


 * Charm
 * Curse of Despair
 * Devour Magic
 * Flee the Scene
 * The Dead Walk
 * Voracious Dispelling
 * Walk Unseen

On the other hand, these are not subject to arcane spell failure (because they have no verbal or somatic component--whether this is intentional, or a bug, is open to question):


 * Eldritch Blast (regardless of any shape or essence applied)
 * Beguiling Influence
 * Dark Foresight
 * Dark One's Own Luck
 * Darkness
 * Devil's Sight
 * Dread Seizure
 * Entropic Warding
 * Leaps and Bounds
 * Otherworldly Whispers
 * Retributive Invisibility
 * See the Unseen
 * Tenacious Plague
 * Wall of Perilous Flames
 * Word of Changing

Epic Spells
At epic levels, a Warlock can learn the following epic spells: Damnation, Entropic Husk, Epic Gate, Hellball, Vampiric Feast. All require a fairly high level of Spellcraft to learn.

NWN comparison

 * This class did not exist in NWN.
 * Changes in damage reduction mean that it is no longer only bypassed depending on the level of magical enchantment but by as wider range of values including materials and alignment.

DnD 3.5 comparison

 * The skills disguise, jump, and profession are not included in NWN2.
 * Lore was used in NWN as a collective version of knowledge and other information skills. NWN2 includes it for the same reasons.
 * The class feature Imbue item normally gained at 12th level was not included in base NWN2, but was later added in Mask of the Betrayer.
 * The class abilities detect magic (eldritch lore), deceive item and fiendish resilience are all implemented slightly differently in NWN2.
 * Quite a few of the invocations differ from the Warlock description in Complete Arcane:
 * Draining blast: New in NWN2
 * Leaps and bounds: Bonus to dexterity instead of jump and balance, +4 instead of +6
 * Flee the scene: Haste-effect instead of teleport self.
 * Dark foresight: "Sixth Sense" is implemented as Damage reduction
 * Word of changing: Polymorph self instead of polymorph other
 * Wall of perilous flame: Should be 2d6 + warlock caster level damage/round
 * Tenacious plague: Should summon swarms that do auto hit magic damage each round to all in AOE of each swarm
 * The following p&p invocations are not inluded in NWN2:
 * Least: Sickening blast, Baleful utterance, Breath of night, Earthen grasp, Miasmic cloud, Spiderwalk and Summon swarm
 * Lesser: Fell flight, Hungry darkness, Stony grasp, Voidsense and Wall of gloom
 * Greater: Enervating shadow, Repelling blast, Warlock call
 * Dark: Dark discorporation, Path of shadow
 * A Warlock can change his known invocations whenever he gains a level but he cannot trade an invocation for one of a lesser grade (e.g. trade a lesser invocation for a least one).