Warlock eldritch blast DC

[the_flame_of_anor]

Does DC bonuss from epic character levels apply to warlock invocations as well as eldritch blasts?

[Steve]

Eldritch Blasts need to beat Spell Resistance, so yes, Caster Level of the Warlock is important...unless one uses Vitrolic Blast, which bypasses SR.

Note, the Spell Penetration feat line also helps to win over SR.

[the_flame_of_anor]

Eldritch Blasts need to beat Spell Resistance, so yes, Caster Level of the Warlock is important...unless one uses Vitrolic Blast, which bypasses SR.

Note, the Spell Penetration feat line also helps to win over SR.

I was actually asking about the DCs, the +1 to DC every 3 caster levels above 20.

Do these DC bonuses from epic caster levels apply to invocations (eg Baleful Polymorph) and eldritch bast with a DC-based essence applied (eg Binding Blast)?

[Steve]

Yes, for essences, ie Noxious Blast.

[the_flame_of_anor]

Yes, for essences, ie Noxious Blast.

Great! That makes Charisma-locks still viable. Thanks

[Mirage]

Don't waste your time leveling up a DC lock mate. IF you put all of your epic feats in Great Charisma and boost your DCs with every possible thing on this server (feats, epic CL, classes and the like), even as a straight up 30 warlock, your DCs will be too low to reliably land your DC spells on anything that matters. At best you'll be able to (if targeting a mob's low save) dissable a mob 1 out of 3 blasts on average. Depending on the blast, that can be a few rounds or 10. But on the other hand if you just focused on blast damage, that same mob'd be dead in 1-2 blasts. AND as an added bonus, your damage won't be stellar on bosses (who have a whole lot of silly resistances), but it'll be -something-. As opposed to a DC warlock where your DCs never land (not even 1 in 20 as bosses all have epic resillience and -all- the immunities), and yet your damage blasts still do about as much damage as gently tossing a boiled potatoe at them.
AND, focusing charisma means you've no points leftover for decent DEX and CON scores so you'll heel over when as much as a gentle breeze reaches you. Well, alright, you can still pack a mithral plate, but you won't be anywhere close to as durable as a blaster lock would be.

...you're welcome for a block of text noone asked for!


EDIT:
OH! And last I checked, the DC calculation for the warlocks is still a few points off, so you won't even be reaching what you should be as far as I recall.

[the_flame_of_anor]

Don't waste your time leveling up a DC lock mate. IF you put all of your epic feats in Great Charisma and boost your DCs with every possible thing on this server (feats, epic CL, classes and the like), even as a straight up 30 warlock, your DCs will be too low to reliably land your DC spells on anything that matters. At best you'll be able to (if targeting a mob's low save) dissable a mob 1 out of 3 blasts on average. Depending on the blast, that can be a few rounds or 10. But on the other hand if you just focused on blast damage, that same mob'd be dead in 1-2 blasts. AND as an added bonus, your damage won't be stellar on bosses (who have a whole lot of silly resistances), but it'll be -something-. As opposed to a DC warlock where your DCs never land (not even 1 in 20 as bosses all have epic resillience and -all- the immunities), and yet your damage blasts still do about as much damage as gently tossing a boiled potatoe at them.
AND, focusing charisma means you've no points leftover for decent DEX and CON scores so you'll heel over when as much as a gentle breeze reaches you. Well, alright, you can still pack a mithral plate, but you won't be anywhere close to as durable as a blaster lock would be.

...you're welcome for a block of text noone asked for!


EDIT:
OH! And last I checked, the DC calculation for the warlocks is still a few points off, so you won't even be reaching what you should be as far as I recall.

"EDIT:
OH! And last I checked, the DC calculation for the warlocks is still a few points off, so you won't even be reaching what you should be as far as I recall."
Meaning? The DC calculation is buggy? That would add insult to injury!

Am aware of the downsides you painted though the DCs are more for mobs (which I think is still ok provided the DCs are properly calculated), but yeah DCs are not really for bosses. The latter is often true for DC wizards as well!

Upsides of charisma-locks are great saves and great AC though, the latter with a divine shield dip.

[Zkenic]

It is a pet peeve of mine that just because Conlocks break the PvE of the server over their knee that everyone then assumes Charisma locks are garbage. They are not. Charisma warlocks work just fine. Going charisma lets you get infinite spammable DC 34 fort or will save disable AoE blasts that are more than enough to handle the PvE of this server. DC warlocks can also get things like divine shield, double charisma to DCs, and/or any of the goodies that domains can grant you. It took me 2 minutes to throw together this build, so let it be a floor not a ceiling.

https://nwn2db.com/build/?339272

[Steve]

Zkenic's build is a great example. But there is even more...Warlock 26 / Blackguard 4, Warlock 20 / Dragonslayer 10, Warlock 20 / Blackguard 3 / Dragonslayer 7.

Do not discount DC-based essences on Hideous Blow melee locks. You can both Dominate epic area mobs and then with companion in tow, just murderate content. I played a Warlock DC based melee toon for over a year and I could solo 95% of the Server with the build, just wrecking it in PvE. Dominating + stunning + Blast damage each round PLUS regular dmg AND PLUS PLUS Word of Chaning...it just gets downright stupid how powerful a Warlock can be.

Now...you're wee Warlock will get absolutely wrecked by a good HiPSter build in PvP, but hey...what is all that CHA for IF NOT FOR RPing your Toon's way out of getting sneak attack whacked!

[Blaze]

Conlocks are the funniest, not the strongest.

Daggerlocks are versatile and fun too, I would dare to say like conlocks or even more.

Shadowdancer / warlock
They are the best, high AC, evasion, uncanny dodge, damage, versatility, HIPS!

Warlock / Blackguard
They have monstrous saving throws, doubling their charisma, high DC, high AC thanks to divine shield, less damage than previous warlocks but still the most resistant in PvE.

Hellfire warlock
Their damage can literally destroy the current content, especially if they are using a CON build and 2 or 3 wands of lesser restoration. 20d6 (30d6 with eldritch master) + hellfire blast (3d6?).

[Terankar]

Hellfire warlock
Their damage can literally destroy the current content, especially if they are using a CON build and 2 or 3 wands of lesser restoration. 20d6 (30d6 with eldritch master) + hellfire blast (6d6!).

[Deathgrowl]

For charisma ones, you get to be a quite good controller, especially with chained noxious blast. The point here is that where the wizard or sorcerer controller has higher DCs, their spells have to work on the first cast to really be useful. If you have to keep recasting the control spell as a mage, you run out of spells really fast. But as a warlock, you can just spam that thing. And with a DC of around 30-32 (which is easy enough to get to), you will be doing decent damage, but also fairly reliably controlling mobs.
Charisma based warlocks also work good with blackguard, for the added charisma-to-saves and potential access to divine shield for more AC.
Example:
https://nwn2db.com/build/?251277
In this example, I have gone for charisma as a focus, but you can get away with just going blast dice and pumping charisma with level-ups only. DC will suffer a bit from it, but your damage would be higher. As you can see, I do still pick up eldrich master and one blast dice (because even charisma). Eldrich master is just too powerful to pass up on.

[Blaze]

In this example, I have gone for charisma as a focus, but you can get away with just going blast dice and pumping charisma with level-ups only. DC will suffer a bit from it, but your damage would be higher. As you can see, I do still pick up eldrich master and one blast dice (because even charisma). Eldrich master is just too powerful to pass up on.

Stats: 13 str, 14 dex (18 leaps and bounds, +1 AC +1 RTA ab), 13 con, 14 int, 8 wis, 16 charisma

Level 1: drop Fiendish Heritage / take spellcasting prodigy (+1 dc to your invocations/essences without spending two feats)

Hidden: show

https://wiki.bgtscc.net/index.php?title ... ng_Prodigy

Level 12: no fiendish power / yes CE

Level 15:
no battle caster (it's not needed, mithral breastplate and you have 5/4 +3 CE or +6 ICE AC instead of 8/3 and -1 RTA ab)
yes ICE (ICE doesn't affect your RTA and you need AC to survive attack of opportunity and normal attacks)

Level 29: no epic eldrich blast / yes cha+6 (+3 cha items are common compared to +4)


I believe it is the most optimized build for a DClock

[Deathgrowl]

Yeah, I know what spellcasting prodigy is!
I'll be honest, I don't know why I built it with fiendish feats back in 2016. Probably some RP reason.

And that's a no on that 14 dex. This thing uses a mithral full plate (8/3) for more armour. No point in going light armour (mithral chain mail) when you don't have evasion anyways. RTA is fine anyways.

Battlecaster necessary for mithral full plate.

+4 Charisma item is buyable from the Darius vendor in the Wide.

I actually played this, by the way. Briefly anyways. I ended up not enjoying the RP of warlocks.

[Blaze]

When it comes to optimization.

Mithril fullplate 8/3 + Battlecaster + CE = 14 AC
Mithril Breastplate 5/5 (18 dex total = 5/4) + CE + ICE = 15


I prefer to rely as little as possible on +4 stat items, because they only have that bonus and nothing else, while there are various +3 items that have other useful bonuses and are much more common than +4 stats.
14 dex + leaps or 14 dex +4 dex item, I put leaps and bounds just because it gives you the ability to free a slot nd use it for something useful.
In summary, the only stat you need is +4 dex and you can very well use leaps and bounds, while for the others a +3 str, cha, con items (belt of growth +3 str +3 con is mandatory)