How do you build a Daggerspell / Warlock?

[chad878262]

So I've been messing around with Warlock and was interested in a stealth based. Started playing and came up with two builds... One is a Lock 13/Sin 8/DSM 9, which is fine since you can't get DSM 10 early enough to make improved TWF worth anything anyway. My biggest issue is it gets HiPS late and just generally feels like it is always behind, but maybe I'm missing something?

The other build is Lock 14/R 3/SD 3/DSM 10 and I think I like it slightly better because it has more skills and a better overall 'feel' to the leveling (as opposed to taking 13 levels of warlock before you can really start 'being' a stealth build you can pretty much start playing as roguish warlock from the get-go)... In addition, it get's HiPS much earlier and still ends up with 4d6 SA dice and 18d6 Eldritch Blast vs. the Assassin which gets 18d6 blast and 7d6 SA. However, with this build I cannot fit practiced invoker in, unless I go human (I don't like playing halflings) which means the CL is only 23 vs the assassin build which gets 25 CL. In any case I feel like I must be missing something important as neither of these builds really strike me as being all that fantastic. The eldritch blast only works on the first hit unless I misunderstood how Hideous Blow works (possible I guess) and it just seems to be very feat starved.

I'm hoping someone well versed in the class can give me some details about play style, tactics/strategy that makes the class fun/viable and take a look at these two builds and tell me if I am missing something important or otherwise have made any catastrophic errors. Cheers and thanks!

Assassin Lock:

http://nwn2db.com/build/?251411

R/SD Lock:

http://nwn2db.com/build/?251414

[Steve]

This build slays:

http://nwn2db.com/build/?120159

Problem with it RP wise is being a Chaotic Good Warlock. You can nerf the build by choosing Fey Heritage and be a Feylock.

[Eclypticon]

I'v played the assassin build and the SD build. They are both nice. Another one that matures late is the W/IB/DsM/SD. They are all doable, and are viable when dispelled unlike any other caster gish. Halflings seem to make the best DsM builds in my opinion. Drow is another top one.

[chad878262]

Problem with it RP wise is being a Chaotic Good Warlock

Yeah, no bueno...I'm strictly a proponent of the evil / CN route for warlocks... Frankly I don't understand exactly why a DSM can't be evil, but so be it...

W/IB/DsM/SD.

Funny you mentioned this as I was also thinking you could use IB to qualify for DSM, though I was more thinking about it from the perspective of not using hips and instead being a feinter, though again, seems exceedingly feat starved. Might give it a go and see what I come up with later. Am I correct that Hideous Blow only lands on the first hit each round, so it is weaker than say a 14d6 SA build damage wise since that 14d6 will land 3-4 times vs. landing 18d6 once (though yes, the warlock has all those juicy buffs and other helpful things through invocations...)

[chad878262]

I'm not very into warlocks and I've never played one, you could say it's the class I know the least about, but someone was saying earlier that there's an invocation that has a blind effect which you can use with hideous blow. Might be worth taking a look at for landing sneak attacks.

Beshadowed Blast, I did look at it, but it has a 1 round duration and a fortitude save... A warlock focusing on DEX is not going to have a very high DC and Fortitude is pretty common to have a high save. My guess is you'd have better luck building an Assassin since at least Death Attack would require multiple saves per round.

I'm really taking my first foray into Warlocks with my current Half-orc blaster, but have found myself more interested in them since then so I am trying to look in to the various styles. They seem very versatile as I have seen Melee warlocks, blasters, controllers, and then there is the build as Steve posted which seems to be a stealth blaster and then as Eclypticon talked about there is the stealth PTWF w/ SA and hideous blow, which I posted my builds for, but am somewhat less than enamored with.

[Wyatt]

One thing to remember about hideous blow is that it only triggers once per round, not off of each attack. For melee warlocks I prefer strength builds but everyone has their preference. I'm trying a strength warlock for my new orc character.

[chad878262]

would that have been the scimitar wielding tiefling I ran in to yesterday by any chance?

[Wyatt]

If you are talking to me the character is an orc, not a tiefling. Its for the orc group.

[Eclypticon]

Do not bother using feint unless you invest heavy into bluff. You will want to use all the spells and feats you can get plus CHA items for it to it to truly be useful. A warlock can just cast walk unseen and then hit with their sneaks and HB. HiPS is better still.

[chad878262]

If you are talking to me the character is an orc, not a tiefling. Its for the orc group.

Ah, must've been someone else, obviously...

[Akroma666]

Question about Warlocks in general: Do you need Charisma if you are going to be a blaster warlock? Plan on using Brimstone Blast.

[Wyatt]

You don't need charisma to be a blaster. You can choose to be a blaster and use charisma with a blackguard dip to gain double charisma bonuses to your saves if you want, as well as getting divine shield. There are some fun blasts that are DC focused but I have not extensively played a charisma warlock so I cannot speak as to how effective they are and what sort of charisma you need. Many blaster locks go dex and dip shadowdancer for hips though really its not strictly necessary for survival. You can also go the CON lock route and use the hellfire warlock PRC to make a good blaster. It really all depends on how you like to play your lock.