How's this for a Warlock?

[Calantyr]

https://nwn2db.com/build/?342059

From what I gather, Warlocks can suffer from inferior DC's. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with doing any more minmaxing than I already have (a 3 level dip into Blackguard already sets my munchkin alarm ringing), so I'm not really sure what else I can do to improve the build.

Also, are Improved Aura of Despair and Widen Aura of Despair available on the server? Because those sound like a lot of fun. I think I could drop two Great Charisma's if they are available.

[YYA]

Also, are Improved Aura of Despair and Widen Aura of Despair available on the server?

I do not think so, at least, not mentioned in the wiki.

As for the build itself, unless you are planning on using the Word of Changing, in my opinion, you are not really going to need the +1 AB and the extended duration. Sure, bit of quality of life when you Haste your party with Flee the Scene, but you can free a feat by taking something else.

So my advice would be as follows: Ditch the Dark Transient, adjust your feats, and and take the third level of Blackguard at character level 18 to get Divine Shield instead. With a +4 Charisma item, you can get +10 Dodge ACc for one minute per use of Turn Undead.

And then, look at the Invocations, and choose carefully, as you only get three per invocation level. Your character has high Charisma, so pick some save or die blast shapes or essences. (You can combine the two with your Eldritch Blasts.)

[YYA]

Anyhow... If you want to drop the Blackguard levels, you actually could since you have not taken Divine Shield.

Thus, if you go for something like Rogue 4/Warlock 26, you do not have to get Power Attack and Cleave, which potentially frees up two feats. Northlander Hewing feat is nice with Hideous Blow, Flee the Scene, and Cornugon Shape from the Word of Changing. Moreover, even though the Blackguard gave that -2 to Aura, you will get +1 DC by having the Invoker level of 30, and you will get one extra Epic Feat to be spent on some Epic Spell if you so desire. You will loose potential double charisma modifier to your saves though.

Edit:
And anyhow, it is a Warlock, you will succeed with it even if you asked a DM to lower all your ability scores to 8.

[DiceyCZ]

There isn't really much that can be done forr charisma warlock in terms of feats, you got the ability focus, taking fey heritage feats would help a bit but not sure it would fit your flavor. You could splash with bard and get Stormsinger to progress warlock spellcasting and give you a couple of uses of high DC Storm of Vengance and other storm songs based on CHA if you can take the perform skill ranks, it's also great flavor for feylock. For evil, Blackguard is probably the logical thing that can dig into that CHA pool but without having divine shield it doesn't get that much use I suppose (divine shield is probably the main reason to dip into BG). Of course you could be Unseelie fey warlock keep the evil if you wanted to try the bard route, bard also gives access to tumble, with some careful planning I am usually able to get 30 tumble with 4 bard lvls, 5 at most which still gives you 29 CL for that +3 epic DC. Blind fight also helps to land your blasts if you can fit it in, especially with some epic bosses and monsters having natural miss chance on them and Blurr/greater invis being some of the most common player buffs.

For CHA warlock once you get the +DC feats you can, the best you can get is some defense and bit of Blast focus. But it all comes down to the spell choice I suppose. They are a lot of fun though, if not exactly powerbuilds. Controlled chaos

[Calantyr]

Thanks for the suggestions, people. I generally prefer 'passive' abilitites, so I completely forgot that Divine Shield was a thing.
Thanks for the reminder!

Since I plan to run around shapechanged all the time at higher level, melee punching monstrous fewls, is it worth picking up Hideous Blow/Epic Prowess/Expose Weakness?

[YYA]

Since I plan to run around shapechanged all the time at higher level, melee punching monstrous fewls, is it worth picking up Hideous Blow/Epic Prowess/Expose Weakness?

The Expose Weakness dexterity damage will be halved, so expect to deal something like 4 points of Bleeding Damage with Leaps and Bounds, or +3 Dexterity item. But you know, the AC reduction always helps, so if you got the feats to spare, feel free to go for it.

I do not know if Expose Weakness and Northlander Hewing can be active at the same time, but I would get Northlander Hewing just to overcome any DR you may encounter. The Cornugon and Gibbering Mouther forms have base 30 strength, so with that alone you would get +20 damage per hit, instead of the usual +10.

And don't forget Hideous Blow, because it lets you dish out your Eldritch Dice damage in melee.

But... You know, grains of salt, I have not gone around to test all these different custom combat modes, so I am not sure if they will all work together, if they do... A Gibbering Mouther with its Flurry of Blows, combined with Expose Weakness, Northlander Hewing, Hideous Blow... Well, it would be a lot of damage.

[Calantyr]

A further question. How exactly does the Warlock's Imbue Item feature work on this server? I'm debating getting an Item Creation feat if it works as the description states, but as far as I know item creation has never really been a thing here.

[Theodore01]

It does nothing, as there is no item crafting at all.

[Calantyr]

Well that's depressing. I'd love to get Scribe Scroll and become a spell-crafting machine.

[YYA]

Warlocks would be way more interesting to play if they could just scribe any spell at any caster level up to their invocation level, using those UMD skill rolls to do it. It would be a great gold sink too. You could actually be a proper 'secret' warlock by simply making use of the scrolls you have crafted.

[Calantyr]

Warlocks would be way more interesting to play if they could just scribe any spell at any caster level up to their invocation level, using those UMD skill rolls to do it. It would be a great gold sink too. You could actually be a proper 'secret' warlock by simply making use of the scrolls you have crafted.

That was my intention, making a 'secret' warlock that pretends to be a wizard. Oh well.

[Steve]

That was my intention, making a 'secret' warlock that pretends to be a wizard. Oh well.

If you maximized your builds UMD, since it a Class Skill from Warlock, and you play a CHA-high Warlock, you'll be able to use almost any scrolls without failure. Problem is, of course, the animation for reading a scroll is obviously different than simply casting as a mage or cleric. THAT you can't fake, unfortunately. I guess with Warlock having Bluff as a Class Skill as well, one could attempt to bluff their way through it: "Oh, this scroll here? Well...I just already cast off all my memorized spells earlier in the day...Yeah, that's what happened...dontcha believe me?!!?" lol.

But here is your bigger issue: Combat Log. You see, most players decide that what is in the Combat Log is FACT, and can but used as IC information. And, Invocations are immediately "known" as in show up on other Player's Combat Log window, and thus every PC seems to know you're a Warlock just by being within the OOC limits of distance that the Combat Log picks up.

I think it's bull shit, but hey, who cares what I think!!??!!

So really, though it should be absolutely possible that a Warlock could bluff and deceive their way to being seen as a "funny" or odd mage/caster, with the OOC Combat Log issue and how otheres players may or may not acquiesce to your RP goals, your RP could get ruined pretty quick.

And once labeled a Warlock, that rumor will spread faster than Covid among the population.

[DiceyCZ]

Just a personal opinion here: Quite frankly there was a good point made years back that warlocks are super rare and even though spellcraft identifies their spells as much as any other, their magic should be largely unknown and mysterious. That being said, there are so many warlocks around and out in the open that most characters have seen them use eldritch magic time and again and someone with spellcraft should definitely be able to recognize it with that much exprience. My mage character knows and fought beside many warlocks in the past.

What I am trying to say is, trying to play a secretive warlock in a setting of an online server is nigh impossible, even if spellcraft checks for invocations were a lot higher and even if people only recognized a spell if it pops in their combat log (which btw is valid mechanic with the implementation of spellcraft to recognize magic) everything that is supposed to be rare or mysterious is simply way too prolific, so it's perfectly IC knowledge knowing about warlocks and their magic. It's not like even in PnP different warlocks have that different spells from one another to justify each warlock's powers are unique to them.

[Steve]

Subject: Combat Log is IC or OOC Information?

"In the Realms, incantations for the same spell vary from caster to caster."
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2019/10/06/a- ... ane-words/

Which makes even the Spellcraft skill circumspect because though it may help a PC identify that magic is being performed—like say with a hand gesture being made or having been made, but no actual visual effect at play—it would not necessarily give the observer a "X casts Blindsight."

So even if Invocations are absolutely defined as equal to spells in regard to Spellcraft checks, that Spellcraft checks gives such 100% information in the Combat Log as a mechanical OOC return of information, devalues the individuality of spells and spellcasters!

And on top of it all, the mechanic is bugged, so that Invocations are identified with 0 Spellcraft point investment. And I though this Server had a thing about not supporting bugged mechanics, especially when they mess up Role-play.

Getting a bit off-topic, so I'll just leave this here as a final effort to explain my position. Cheers.