Warlock build help asked

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Ok i have finished NWN2 with a Arcane Archer and a char build i hat found on the NWN2 Vault namely The Crusader. Although with that build i switched out the cleric levels for two more levels of FB.

Now i want to play a pure Warlock with the Battle kit, at least i think that is the best choice out of the 3. Now for lets say 98% of the time clicking the recommend button is not a good idea, so i want a custom build Warlock.

*Also keep in mind that i do not have any of the expansion packs, just the original NWN2 OC.

Now this is what i came up with so far:

Class: Warlock (Battle kit)
Race: Drow (although the slower XP and light penalties worry me a bit, they level even slower then Aasimar and Tieflings?)
Alignment: Chaotic good
Deity: Either Red Knight or Oghma?
Background: None

Abilities:

Str: 14
Dex: 14
Con: 10
Int: 14
Wis: 12
Cha: 18

*I want to put all new ability points in Charisma.

*But i have no idea which Skills i should pick for a custom build Warlock Battle Kit?

*Also...should i pick a special feat at char creation, like able learner or something?

*And which Invocations have proven to be very useful throughout the game and which where not?



Now i realize that the last 3 points are actually a personal preference but i still would like the advice on all of this.

 

I played with a Warlock (only through MotB) not long ago, so here's my thoughts on the class.

First, why the low CON? I'd take points out of WIS and put them in CON. One of the level 1 invocations gives you a good bonus to all saving throws, so no need to raise WIS.

I'm not so sure about Drow either. Picking a class that gets bonuses to CHA is preferable. I took an Aasimar and that worked great, you could have a look at the Yuan-ti (if you have SOZ installed), but Drow wouldn't be my pick.

Now on the more specific points:

1. All points go into CHA, no exceptions.

2. Skills:
- Definitely, absolutely, NO ESCAPE from Concentration.
- If you're taking this character, throw points into Spellcraft, at least until 24 (level 20). This unlock a VERY nice epic feat that boosts damange from your eldritch blasts by 50%. It's a HUGE increase. If you're not taking him out of the OC, you don't need Spellcraft.
- Take one talking skill. I think Warlock's class skill is Bluff? Whichever it is, take it and boost it.
- Lore. Not just to identify items (which other characters could do for you), but because it adds quite a few conversation options, some of them interesting. Even more so in MotB.
I think those were the skills I took. You could take some crafting skills, but I rarely use crafting.

3. Luck Of Heroes is nice for the save boost. Able Learner is only useful if you plan on taking lots of cross-class skills, which you shouldn't be doing with a Warlock. Otherwise, concentrate on taking all Spell Penetration feats. Other feats are up to you. Crafting ones if you raised crafting skills obviously. Toughness is always useful.

4. I'm assuming you know how shapes and essences work and how to combine them. I'll do this by invocation level:
Level 1: early on you want to pick Eldritch Spear and Draining Blast for better offense. One gives you greater range, the other slows down your enemies, combine them together for some great long-distance damage. Once you get better shapes and essences you'll probably want to settle for Dark One's Own Luck, Leaps and Bounds and Beguiling Influence.
Level 2: Eldritch Chain and either Hellrime or Brimstone Blast. The Dead Walk is a good summoning invocation too. Voracious Dispelling is interesting but there's an upgrade at level 3.
Level 3: Vitrolic Blast is awesome and my favourite essence. It deals acid damage and then more acid damange the next round. If you cast it again the next round, you will deal both the new and old damage. Devour Magic is a an upgrade of Voracious Dispelling. You could take the Blast Cone, I eventually end up with Chilling Tentacles even though I don't use it much.
Level 4: The really good stuff! First one you get, no questions asked, is Eldritch Doom. Utterdark Blast is awesome, but by the time you get it every enemy will be undead so this will HEAL them. Dark Foresight is a short-duration infinitely recastable Stoneskin so there's no reason not to get it. If you decide to stick with Vitriolic instead of Utterdark then you could try Retributive Invisibility, again short-term but the invisibility isn't broken by casting invocations and you can recast it as much as you wish.

Hope this helps!

 

I see, so with that in mind then i could for instance lower WIS to 8 and then put those 4 points in CON. Good point, thanks for pointing that out.

Sadly i do not have SOZ or any other expansion packs. And Aasimar are great, when i played the Dragon Knight build i used a Aasimar to.

-Concentration is on the list then.
-So is Spellcraft not needed for any magic character if you only have the OC? Still...noted.
-A talking skill, have to see which one they like but a good point. Always handy to have. With the Dragon Knight i used Diplomacy and i wiped the floor with Torro and many others.
-And lore also adds conversation options? Hmm comes to mind that it would be usefull in the archives then, thanks.

-Save boots are always welcome, so i will take a look at Luck of Heroes.
-Spell penetration skills are noted.
-Toughness is noted.
-As for the crafting skills, i never used it with my previous 2 chars.

Actually i do not know. Does it work the same as with Dual wielding, dropping the essences on the shapes?

Hmm this is starting to look really interesting, thank you for all the tips and advice Ziad.

 

I didn't play this game much, since it kept all-but-freezing on me, but the one character I played at all seriously was a Warlock. I loved him, but he took a lot of micromanaging. I expected I'd be able to drag that Eldrich Draining Spear into my weapon slot and set it as the regular attack. I couldn't. Which meant I had to tell him every individual attack or he'd fall back on his rapier (melee!). On top of that, while you're supposed to be able to un-take any evocation and replace it with one of the same or lesser level each time you level up, I couldn't do it. If you can find any mods that can fix either of these, take them.

That being said, I still had tons of fun with it. And I would suggest getting Chilling Tentacles. It's you're only durrational AoE and, if I recall correctly, it's party friendly. It's not terribly large, but still very good for any closed formations.

 

It's a little more useful for arcane casters because they can counterspell, which is great fun if you can use it properly. But since the Warlock has no counterspell Spellcraft is useless UNLESS you go above level 20. Keep that in mind: if you plan on taking this Warlock into MotB at some point then you really HAVE to have points in Spellcraft. The epic Eldritch feat is too good to pass.

Not quite. It works similar to metamagic feats actually. Remember those little icons when you open up the spellcasting menu (the one that appears on the left)? Just like metamagic feats, each essence and shape can be "applied" to other invocations, so you click on the essence's tab at the top of the window and that'll list all the shapes as affected by the essence. The same can be done with each shape tab, which will then list all essences affected by the shape. To make things easier you can then drag your most used shape/essence combinations into the quick bar. I recommend you keep a regular Eldritch Blast on your quickbar as the non-modified blasts bypass MR and have no save, while most shapes and essences add MR and usually a save too.

You're welcome

Seems to work fine with patch 1.23. I could replace on invocation at each and every level, over level 20 too IIRC.

 

Doh...why did i not think of that, thanks for explaining Ziad.

 

One more thing about feats which I just remembered. Warlocks are the only spellcasters other than Bards who can get the Armoured Caster feat (or whatever it was called) and cast spells with no failure while wearing Medium Armour. However, unlike Bards, you have to get 2 feats (Medium Armour Proficiency and Armoured Caster) before you can do that. Whether you want to is up to you. Warlocks can get a really good DEX bonus with Leaps and Bounds, so Light Armour might be better. However if you start with lower DEX (12 max) then Medium Armour becomes a good option.

 

I craft my own mythril full plate armor (craft armor is a class ability, should you need to do it yourself). Mythril has the effect of degrading the the weight class of an armor. Mythril full plate thus is medium armor and wearable by a warlock with the appropriate feats. Mythril also allows for the biggest dexterity bonus on a full plate, while leaving all slots open for enchanting. It's the best armor a warlock can get.

 

If you are going to play warlock I would absolutely recommend using mods.

Warlock was (is) the most bugged class in nwn 2... with all blasts (except vitrolic) not getting blocked by the lowliest magic resistances (and the spell penetration feats not working). (and it has (imho) only one (powerful) direction of development)

I remember a really awesome warlock mod, which added an epic feat that doubled the area of your invocations among other kinky stuff.