Tiefling- Hellfire Warlock

[TheLier]

So, for quite some time, I wanted to make a tiefling warlock with a proper infernal pact and all that. I do intend to be a follower of good old Meph, so hellfire warlock would be appropiate.

There is only one problem tho, I have no idea what invocations to pick, what gear I should get, etc.

I also want to keep myself "purely" to warlock, and not a summoner type, hips or some gish build really. Which leaves me with blaster or DC warlock as far as I know.

Could someone offer advice for build and gear? I will probably RcR a low epics toon for the char, as I really don't like low level leveling.

[aaron22]

ok pure blaster HFW is best for your tie. Lock27/HFW3. easy peazy and done.

and you will make use of MBP which is pretty easy to come by. max bonus with LoB invo.

so starting dex is 16 and starting con at 18. wis is dump stat and str and int can be whatever you want(14-12-10-8). more skill or more carry. cha at 10 or 11 depending on cha stat item you think you can get +2 or +3. your save or x is not gonna be great with this build anyway. you blast blast and blast. you will pump con and call that your primary stat. feats will be mostly luxury. not many feats "needed" for you. dark trans, WF RTA, shield prof?(0 ASF one please) i like having a shield JIC. you dont really need prod as i said you will not be a DC lock. can get LOH.

epics will be e master then blast dice. can throw in an epic spell or two if you want. dice is better mechanically.

least: LoB, spear, see
lesser: brimstone (HFW), walk, flee. i take walk over chain because offense will be fine and defense will be hard at first. can swap walk for chain later.
greater: vit, nox, chill
dark: foresight, invis, premonition

you are all set.

[chad878262]

Might also consider going Lock 24/DS3/HFW3. DragonSlayer gets you all shield proficiencies and Tumble at cost of taking Dodge, Iron Will and Practiced Caster (or losing one CL), you also get 1/day Truestrike if you really want to hit with a blast.

[Kanada]

Might also consider going Lock 24/DS3/HFW3. DragonSlayer gets you all shield proficiencies and Tumble at cost of taking Dodge, Iron Will and Practiced Caster (or losing one CL), you also get 1/day Truestrike if you really want to hit with a blast.

Dragonslayer is still a bad choice for a warlock due to the fact that the issue with Dragonslayer DR overriding dark invocation DR. This has been happening for a long time. Dark Premonition is one of the best dark invocations, especially for someone like this who is going to have much less defensive options than a HIPs or Gish build.

[TheLier]

ok pure blaster HFW is best for your tie. Lock27/HFW3. easy peazy and done.

and you will make use of MBP which is pretty easy to come by. max bonus with LoB invo.

so starting dex is 16 and starting con at 18. wis is dump stat and str and int can be whatever you want(14-12-10-8). more skill or more carry. cha at 10 or 11 depending on cha stat item you think you can get +2 or +3. your save or x is not gonna be great with this build anyway. you blast blast and blast. you will pump con and call that your primary stat. feats will be mostly luxury. not many feats "needed" for you. dark trans, WF RTA, shield prof?(0 ASF one please) i like having a shield JIC. you dont really need prod as i said you will not be a DC lock. can get LOH.

epics will be e master then blast dice. can throw in an epic spell or two if you want. dice is better mechanically.

least: LoB, spear, see
lesser: brimstone (HFW), walk, flee. i take walk over chain because offense will be fine and defense will be hard at first. can swap walk for chain later.
greater: vit, nox, chill
dark: foresight, invis, premonition

you are all set.

Thank you very much. Can you maybe clarify one some of the shortened names, so I'm sure that I won't take the wrong ones? What means LoB for example?

And I must say, I'm not really caught up with how much currently items like MBP cost. Other then that, you just go with deflection ring, some cha, dodge boots, + whatever else you want? Also, what kind of shield do you recommend? Is there an "ideal" order to the take the feats or is the pre-epic ones just in any order?

[chad878262]

Leaps and Bounds, Eldritch Spear, See the Unseen
Brimstone Blast, Walk Unseen, Flee the Scene - he then states why he takes walk unseen over eldritch chain. Later you could pick up Retributive Invisibility and swap out walk unseen for eldritch chain.
Vitriolic Blast, Noxious Blast, Chilling Tentacles
Dark Foresight, Retributive Invisibility and Dark Premonition

[aaron22]

meant to be LaB for leaps and bounds. my phone auto fixed that and i did not notice. sorry.

order doesnt matter get warlock feats as soon as you can. and then your lux feats after that. toughness/Steadfast might be a nice lux combo. see what your saves look like to see if it would even help. i dont know off hand what the saves are for lock. high 20's will/fort and i would get steadfast. under 25 and i would think twice about it.

can find auction MBPs around 20-30k. thats super reasonable. hell store has a +4MBP for i think <200k so that is nice too. could consider in your build maxing UMD to make use of scrolls like a champ. it is also helpful so that you can use sorc/mage/rogue gear pretty early. opens life up for you.

a lot of feat choice freedom with the lock/HFW blaster combo until epics. then its master dice dice dice dice dice.

[chad878262]

Steadfast is a great feat for CON-Lock... Your CON ends up at about +9 (with a +3 item) whereas WIS is -1 so it's an effective +10 bonus to will saves in addition to not auto-failing saves on a 1. That in addition to +30 HP is a fantastic spend of 2 feats.

[aaron22]

yea.. you will be a almost 500 HP long range blaster with DR. sick-nasty. and yea. steadfast is a go and get. chads numbers are yes . and get the dark transient as soon after flee as you can fit. walk unseen early will be your saving grace. so dont sleep on that while your learning your new concept.

[TheLier]

Thank you very much for your advice!

[electric mayhem]

Thats great feedback on the build people! Thanks for sharing

[ValerieJean]

Eyes go wide at the Dragon Slayer info news then reads chambo's sighing thankfully.


Thank you Vale and anyone else involved lol!

[Calen]

What would be a good non epic feats?
For the 27-3 build.

Luck of heroes
Expertise + improved expertise
Toughness+ steadfast determination
Dark transient
Shield proficiency

Not sure if it is worth picking up spell caster prodigy and ability focus since it isn't DC focused.

With dragon slayer I am not sure what to sacrifice as feats, would go expertise/improved expertise.

[Sun Wukong]

Dragon Slayer drops the need to get Shield Proficiency, and the Flee the Scene invocation lasts '1 round*caster level/2' by default. As a level 10 warlock it will last 5 rounds, and as a level 30 warlock it will last 15 rounds. If you take the Dark Transient feat, it will be 10 rounds and 30 rounds. At lower levels, the Dark Transient feat will have a notable effect, but you could just keep recasting it as a warlock and spent that feat for something else. Dark Transient is mostly just a convenience feat in my opinion.

Now, -5% Arcane Spell Failure Light Shields seem to be common enough, and if you are lucky enough you can get your hands on a Mithral Heavy Shield to get +2 AC with 0% Arcane Spell Failure.


As for a road less travelled, this server does have an armor called 'Spellchain' that is an iron chain mail. By default it comes with +2 AC and -20% Arcane Spell Failure chance, it has base 6 AC and maximum dexterity bonus of 2 on this server. Thus if you get the 'Battle Caster' feat you can wear that medium armor and use its -20% Arcane Spell Failure chance to negate the arcane spell failure from any heavy shield. Not to mention that you could leave your dexterity at 13 or 14 and not need to take Leaps and Bounds. It doesn't really net you super

Thus if you drop Luck of Heroes in favor of Battle Caster, on that Warlock 24/Dragon Slayer 3/Hellfire Warlock 3 you could get following AC:
10 (Base)
+ 8 (Iron Chain Mail)
+ 4 (+4 AC Bracers from Blushing Mermaid)
+ 6 (+4 Heavy Shield from Blushing Mermaid)
+ 6 (Improved Combat Expertise)
+ 3 (Natural Armor Amulet)
+ 3 (Dodge Boots)
+ 3 (Deflection item)
+ 3 (Tumble)
= 46

As for the AC that you could get with your Warlock 27/Hellfire 3 build plan that uses the Mithral Breast Plate/Scale Mail:
10 (Base)
+ 10 (Mithral Breast Plate/Scale Mail)
+ 4 (+4 AC Bracers from Blushing Mermaid)
+ 1 (-5% Light Shield from RIG)
+ 6 (Improved Combat Expertise)
+ 3 (Natural Armor Amulet)
+ 3 (Dodge Boots)
+ 3 (Deflection item)
+ 1 (Tumble)
+ 1 (Luck of Heroes)
= 42 (You can use a Shield wand to get to 46 AC)


So over all, I guess the big question here is what items you have access to. (Dragonslayer gets Tumble as class skill and if you save up skill points you can avoid the need to go for Able Learner to some extent.) But anyhow, Dragonslayer with MBP does give the highest AC though.