Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

I want to build a dex/cha based warlock. Hoping can get both good (not necessary to be top-ranking) blast damage and spell save dc. And no HIPS available, maybe I need also some reasonable AC to survive. There are a lot of new invocations for pick. I'm really confused with the selection. Need some answers and suggestion.

Least:
1. Dark One's Own Luck: Must, I have good cha
2. All-Seeing Eyes: Obviously I have no spare feat to pick Blind-fight
3. Eldritch Spear
4. Darkness

Seems I'll have to give up 1 invocation among 2-4

Lesser:
1. Flee the Scene: Must
2. Eldritch Chain: Main AOE
3. Ignore the Pyre: Free energy buffer is good
4. Curse of Despair: -1 attack even passed save, means at least +1ac vs target
5. Tempest Blast: Another AOE, but seems can not be further modified (ie: turn to acid damage by eldrich essense: Vitriolic Blast)

Seems another 2 picked from 4 options


Greater:
1. Vitriolic Blast: Ignore SR is it a must if I have 30 or even more caster level?
2. Wall of Perilous Flame/Chilling Tentacles: Is an AOE with duration invocation needed?
3. Caustic Web: This is different from wiz spell web right? So I will still be affected by it if I have a gear which offers "immunity to web"?
4. Baleful Polymorph: Nice new invocation even it's only a lv5 spell and a warlock can not make the DC very high
5. Baleful Domination/Painful Slumber of Ages: Mind-affecting, less usage than 4 even DC is higher
6. Devour Magic

Dark:
1. Retributive Invisibility: Must
2. Dark Forsight: Must....?
3. Dark Promotion: Must....?
4. Dragon Scales: +1AC instead of 15/sliver DR？
5. Dredful Word: I assume it can bypass protection spells such like Mind Blank, but can not affect those which have immune to mind-affecting property on creature skin, such like undead?


I have only 3*4 selections but on each level there are more than 3 options which I'd like to choose. Can I have some suggestion?


And another question. I plan to become Feytouched. Thinking about the Witch Sight. Is it a spell-like ability as the same name invocation? And what the duration it has? I mean if it's using character HD as caster level, the duration will be 30mins, far more longer than its cool down time. So I can open "dismiss spell" window to cancel it before using Wild Embrace. The cooldown time has very limited affection.

And if I have 30 or even more spell save DC, can I say "give up the All-Seeing Eyes, it's useless for most none-boss creatures"?

When it comes to cha warlocks, its kind of an all or nothing thing. You need to max charisma and pump charisma with your epic feats. This goes against other (dex and con builds) that focus on upping your blast dice with your epic feats. That being said, if you are going DC focused, there are two main blasts you need to get.

1) Noxious Blast
2) Binding Blast

Also every warlock, no matter the DC or damage, needs to take repelling blast. It is better than all and any other blast combination. Take it. Vitriolic Blast is also usually a must have not just for SR but it lets you ignore spell mantels.

For a maxed DC build, my invocation recommendations would be.
1) Dark Ones Luck
2) Eldritch Spear
3) See the Unseen
(pick up blindfight. Warlocks get more feats than they do invocations. +4dex gloves exist, dont need leaps and bounds)

1) Eldritch Chain
2) Flee the Scene
3) Ignore the Pyre

1) Noxious Blast
2) Repelling Blast
3) Vitriolic Blast

1) Binding Blast
2) Retributive Invisibility
3) Dark Foresight

I recommend going full CON and dumping CHA completely, and getting 16 base DEX.

You only need 20 (buffed) DEX to get the most out of your AC with the very OP Bearskin Armor purchasable in the Gate's epic shop.

Most everything on the server is highly susceptible to ranged touch attacks (RTAs), and maximizing your RTA ab is not needed, for this reason I don't recommend following the standard blaster lock advice of maxing DEX.

Your high save is REF already, so By going CON in conjunction with Steadfast Determination gives you protection from auto-failure as well as increasing your WILL save. This setup gives you saves that rival a CHA lock's saves without needing Dark One's Luck invocation or any CHA investment.

Grabbing Shield Proficiency and Improved Expertise (ICE), gives you an enormous buff to AC, and you do not take a penalty from ICE on your RTA ab. Even if the shield has 5% asf, it doesn't really matter. The passive AC is great. Using these you can easily get 40+ ac on a level 12 warlock using nothing but +3 gear or in a frugal pinch the various AC potions from Sundries shop in BG.

With your high CON score, and stacking all the numerous bonus HP gear available (thank you House Darius and Thayan Shop), your HP at level 12 rivals that of a lot of build's HP at level 30. At level 16 I had over 240 hp.

Repelling Blast and Undead Bane Blast are extremely strong AOEs that are incredible for leveling, and far surpass chain in raw efficiency and have enormous blast radiuses. With your huge HP and AC you can survive easily while you gather huge groups of mobs and spam this AOE which speeds up your grinding significantly.

Lastly, adding four levels of anything that grants Evasion and Uncanny Dodge is a huge boon to the warlock increasing your survival by a lot. You'll be running through dungeons ignoring all the traps as they fizzle beneath you. Rogue is a very good choice here to add 4 levels, giving you access to Tumble as well for further AC gains.

I feel that the max CHA lock is more niche in focusing on DC disabling, but at the cost of much reduced survivability, and when faced with opponents immune to the disables it's strictly worse.

There are some inaccuracies in the post below that I want to clean up.

I want to point out that charisma warlock builds, and dex warlock builds (ie usually means HiPS and/or a finesse SA+hideos blow builds) are completely valid build choices with their own niches. Just because Conlock ends up being the more optimized choice in many situations doesnt mean the other two builds do not have value both solo and in a party. It would be absurd to tell someone who says they want to build a tanky defense fighter to go scythe 14fighter/7WM/5FB/4whirling dervish because it can oneshot half the monsters on the server.

Bearskin Armor and 16base dex works fine with Charisma build warlocks. That is not unique to a conlock build. But if you are going a HiPSter dex build the lighter armors will have skills you might want, like hide/ms.

Maxing AB for RTA is indeed not needed for 99% of the content on this server, but again usually if you are pumping dex its for HiPS builds and/or weapon finesse and hideous blows, not RTA advantage.

Warlock's high save is only Will. I do not know why someone who tell you otherwise. High Con + Steadfast does make you have pretty good fort and will, but a standard 23warlock/7dragonslayer conlock's greatest weakness is his low reflex save with no evasion. (there are of course other conlock builds that get you better reflex save, and high dex builds usually include classes with dex save, but its flat out wrong to state that the warlock class itself has good reflex save base. The classic 27warlock/3BG charisma lock will have better in all three saves than a conlock, though usually at that point the charisma warlock saves are well above what is ever necessary. There arent any monsters that do DC 50 death saves.)

Shield Proficiency and ICE are good on any warlock build. This again does not apply to just conlocks, though if you are doing something like warlock/rogue/daggerspell mage/SD ICE can hurt your AB a bit too much in some situations, and if you are going PTWF you wont use a shield.

Uncanny Dodge and Evasion are both good to have yes, but especially with some high Cha builds. If you go max'd charisma + a class that gives you Divine Shield Uncanny Dodge is a godsend, because the 10-12 AC you'll get each time you use Divine Shield (its dodge AC) will not be countered by HiPS, leaving you with a constant 60-70AC.

Well, this guy totally Soloed the White Dragon before it became mainstream, i think ewe knows what he is talking about.

Zkenic wrote: ↑Mon Feb 22, 2021 5:54 pm There are some inaccuracies in the post below that I want to clean up.

I want to point out that charisma warlock builds, and dex warlock builds (ie usually means HiPS and/or a finesse SA+hideos blow builds) are completely valid build choices with their own niches. Just because Conlock ends up being the more optimized choice in many situations doesnt mean the other two builds do not have value both solo and in a party. It would be absurd to tell someone who says they want to build a tanky defense fighter to go scythe 14fighter/7WM/5FB/4whirling dervish because it can oneshot half the monsters on the server.

Bearskin Armor and 16base dex works fine with Charisma build warlocks. That is not unique to a conlock build. But if you are going a HiPSter dex build the lighter armors will have skills you might want, like hide/ms.

Maxing AB for RTA is indeed not needed for 99% of the content on this server, but again usually if you are pumping dex its for HiPS builds and/or weapon finesse and hideous blows, not RTA advantage.

Warlock's high save is only Will. I do not know why someone who tell you otherwise. High Con + Steadfast does make you have pretty good fort and will, but a standard 23warlock/7dragonslayer conlock's greatest weakness is his low reflex save with no evasion. (there are of course other conlock builds that get you better reflex save, and high dex builds usually include classes with dex save, but its flat out wrong to state that the warlock class itself has good reflex save base. The classic 27warlock/3BG charisma lock will have better in all three saves than a conlock, though usually at that point the charisma warlock saves are well above what is ever necessary. There arent any monsters that do DC 50 death saves.)

Shield Proficiency and ICE are good on any warlock build. This again does not apply to just conlocks, though if you are doing something like warlock/rogue/daggerspell mage/SD ICE can hurt your AB a bit too much in some situations, and if you are going PTWF you wont use a shield.

Uncanny Dodge and Evasion are both good to have yes, but especially with some high Cha builds. If you go max'd charisma + a class that gives you Divine Shield Uncanny Dodge is a godsend, because the 10-12 AC you'll get each time you use Divine Shield (its dodge AC) will not be countered by HiPS, leaving you with a constant 60-70AC.

From much ealier testing with NWN1, the result is you'll always lose dodge AC such like DS even if you have Uncanny Dodge. It can only retain DEX bonus AC. Not know if it's the same in NWN2

Bgtscc has some sort of fix in place where uncanny works as expected.

Doom and Gloom wrote: ↑Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:07 pm When it comes to cha warlocks, its kind of an all or nothing thing. You need to max charisma and pump charisma with your epic feats. This goes against other (dex and con builds) that focus on upping your blast dice with your epic feats. That being said, if you are going DC focused, there are two main blasts you need to get.

1) Noxious Blast
2) Binding Blast

Also every warlock, no matter the DC or damage, needs to take repelling blast. It is better than all and any other blast combination. Take it. Vitriolic Blast is also usually a must have not just for SR but it lets you ignore spell mantels.

For a maxed DC build, my invocation recommendations would be.
1) Dark Ones Luck
2) Eldritch Spear
3) See the Unseen
(pick up blindfight. Warlocks get more feats than they do invocations. +4dex gloves exist, dont need leaps and bounds)

1) Eldritch Chain
2) Flee the Scene
3) Ignore the Pyre

1) Noxious Blast
2) Repelling Blast
3) Vitriolic Blast

1) Binding Blast
2) Retributive Invisibility
3) Dark Foresight

Yes I forgot Repelling Blast as a good AOE. But Binding Blast is still a mind-affecting effect. I don't think it's better than Noxious Blast just 1DC higher than it.

Since the options are too many so I'm considering Feytoughed class. If I'm not mistaken the class sacrifised 1DC from Spellcasting Prodigy (before opening Wild Embrace) but offered some AC and blast damage, and free 2 invocations. I wonder that if I have a good spell save DC over 30+, and with Witch Sight. Can I give up Blindfight?

The point of picking up Binding Blast and Noxious Blast is the former is a will save, the later is a fort save. You have two different ways to disable enemies, though binding blast will be used 80% of the time. There are a lot of big, dumb high fort low will monsters in BGTSCC endgame.

But it's a 4th lv invocation. There are already 3 good self protection invocations for choise. If I want to take Feytouched or DSM to retain some blast damage while maximizing DC, Warlock level must be very low. It's hard to give up Dark Promotion when I have only very low /cold iron DR. Is it possible to use lv2 or 3 invocations instead?

Not if you want that juicy will save blast. Binding Blast is usually the cornerstone of the DC warlock build. It is what you will use 90% of the time in the PvE (and even PvP I guess if you care about that).