Warlocks!

[Vargouille]

We're happy to introduce Warlocks, coming soon to DDO! These eldritch casters form pacts with powerful beings, seeking out rare and often forbidden knowledge. They deal large amounts of damage with their Eldritch Blast, and back that damage up with a variety of buff, control, and utility abilities.

Warlock design draws from a variety of pen and paper editions, but primarily 3.5 and 5th edition. Unlike Sorcerers or Wizards, damage comes primarily through Eldritch Blast, rather than frequently casting damaging spells or SLAs. They choose a Pact at level 1 through a feat, which alters their Eldritch Blast and determines certain class feats that are granted as more Warlock levels are gained.

Reminder this is a fairly early preview and things are subject to change. Abilities may move between feats and enhancements, or alter to accommodate what's changed elsewhere, etc.

Class Features

• Hit die: d6
• Cast Warlock spells in Light Armor without Arcane Spell Failure (like Bards)
• Strong Will saves, weak Fortitude and Reflex saves
• 3/4 Base Attack Bonus progression with class levels (+15 with 20 Warlock levels)

• Any alignment
• General structure of spell progression and spell points is similar to Bards:
  
  • Level 6 is maximum spell level for Warlocks.
  • Spells are learned, known and swapped like Bards or Sorcerers.
  • Spell list is primarily drawn from existing DDO spells, though we hope to have time to add some more.

Eldritch Blast

• This is a toggle feat. When you toggle it on, your basic attack (regardless of weapons held) becomes a ranged magical attack that hits a single enemy.
• This initially deals 1d6 Force damage. There are ways to augment and alter this.
• This does not cost Spellpoints, nor Hitpoints, nor anything other than time, much like swinging a weapon.
• The default Eldritch Blast goes in a straight line. It doesn't home in. Enemies that move may avoid it.
• You move at full speed while casting Eldritch Blast, unlike most spell casting.
• Base Eldritch Blast damage increases with further Warlock levels, per the table listed below.
• Eldritch Blast damage scales with a percentage of Spellpower. Exact amount to be determined.
• Eldritch Blast criticals are based on magical stats: Critical Spell Chance and Critical Spell Damage.
• There are Eldritch Blast Shapes that alter how you attack enemies. Single Target attacks are generally going to do higher damage per creature than AoE, for instance. These Shapes toggles are available in the enhancement trees.
  
  • Single Target
  • Chain
  • Cone
  • Point-blank AoE (aura around Warlock)

Pacts

• You choose a Pact at Warlock level 1, such as Fiend, Fey, or Great Old One.
• Fey: Toggle: Your Eldritch Blasts now deal +1d4 extra Sonic damage per two Warlock levels. Adds Obscuring Mist to your Warlock spellbook.
• Fiend: Toggle: Your Eldritch Blasts now deal +1d4 extra Fire damage per two Warlock levels. Adds Command to your Warlock spellbook. (Tentatively, this requires that you not be Good. There's some technical investigation we need to look into here.)
• Great Old One: Toggle: Your Eldritch Blasts now deal +1d4 extra Acid damage two Warlock levels. Adds Entangle to your Warlock spellbook. (Tentatively, this requires that you not be Lawful. There's some technical investigation we need to look into here.)
• Every even Warlock class level grants +1 die for Eldritch Blast Pact Damage (1d4)
• Each Pact grants additional spells to your spellbook as you gain Warlock levels.

ENHANCEMENT TREES
Soul Eater
Your pact makes you an extension of your patron's hunger. You body and mind become more inhuman, and your ability to consume the souls and life force of your enemies also feeds your patron. Your attacks erode the life essence of your targets.

• Notable Enhancements:
  
  1. Eldritch Blast Shape: Chain Lighting
  2. Damage-over-time effects
  3. Debuff
  4. Death Effects

Tainted Scholar
No secret is barred from the Tainted Scholar's grasp, and if such forbidden knowledge comes at the cost of his soul, he's willing to pay that price.

• Notable Enhancements:
  
  1. Eldritch Blast Shape: Cone
  2. Eldritch Essences that alter how Eldritch Blast work
  3. Direct damage boosting of Eldritch Blast
  4. Crowd Control, including a new Confusion ability that causes enemies to attack player and monster characters indiscriminately.

Enlightened Spirit
Although the fiendish origins of some warlocks' powers can’t be denied, not all Warlocks embrace the darkness. Some turn toward the light. Such rare individuals are called Enlightened Spirits.

• Notable Enhancements:
  
  1. Eldritch Blast Shape: Point Blank Area of Effect: While toggled on, this deals damage around, scaling with your Eldritch Blast damage. This particular shape allows you to attack with melee or ranged weapons while damaging enemies around you.
  2. Aura abilities that primarily buff allies around you
  3. Mitigation
  4. Pet/Summon/Charm support
  
  
• We expect this tree to be popular with some cross-class melee builds.

Please see follow-up posts for additional details on the class. Full Enhancement tree proposals to come later.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, feelings, and feedback!

[Vargouille]

Some more gritty details about Warlocks!

Feat Progression

Level	Feat	Eldritch Blast	Fey	Fiend	Great Old One
1	Eldritch Blast Pact Choice	1d6 Force	Pact Spell	PactSpell	Pact Spell
2	Deceive Item (UMD+5)	1d4 Pact bonus damage	Sonic Damage on EB	Fire damage on EB	Acid damage on EB
3		2d6 base damage
4		+1d4 Pact	Beguiling Defenses (+1 Reflex Saves)	Fiendish Resilience (+1 Fort Saves)	Thought Shield (+1 Will Saves)
5		3d6 base damage	Pact Spell	Pact Spell	Pact Spell
6		+1d4 Pact	Dark Delirium (Daze monster, % chance damage breaks)	Dark One's Luck (+2 to each Saving Throw)	Entropic Ward (+5 MRR, 25 Fortification)
7		4d6 base damage
8		+1d4 Pact	Beguiling Defenses	Fiendish Resilience	Thought Shield
9		5d6	Pact Spell	Pact Spell	Pact Spell
10		+1d4 Pact	Energy Resist (5)	Energy Resist (5)	Energy Resist (5)
11		6d6 base damage
12	Paragon's Aegis (+5 MRR)	+1d4 Pact	Beguiling Defenses	Fiendish Resilience	Thought Shield
13	Deceive Item (UMD+5)
14	Paragon's Aegis	7d6 base damage +1d4 Pact	Pact Spell	Pact Spell	Pact Spell
15			Misty Escape (Ethereal Abundant-Step)	Hurl Through Hell (Single Target EiN)	Create Thrall (Charm Monster variant)
16	Paragon's Aegis	+1d4 Pact	Beguiling Defenses	Fiendish Resilience	Thought Shield
17		8d6 base damage	Pact Spell	Pact Spell	Pact Spell
18	Paragon's Aegis	+1d4 Pact
19			Pact Spell	Pact Spell	Pact Spell
20	Paragon's Aegis	9d6 base damage +1d4 Pact	Beguiling Defenses	Fiendish Resilience	Thought Shield

[Vargouille]

Skills
Warlocks receive skills points as follows:

• Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4.
• Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Warlock’s class skills include:

• Bluff (Cha)
• Concentration (Con)
• Intimidate (Cha)
• Jump (Str)
• Spellcraft (Int)
• Use Magic Device (Cha)

Paths
Warlocks will have one path available, likely based on the Fiend Pact. We'll welcome your ideas on details of this build.

Epic Destinies
Upon reaching level 20 for the first time with a character, Warlocks unlock Primal destinies. This is only relevant to new characters, not existing characters who have already unlocked any Destinies.

[Vargouille]

Spellcasting
We are planning for Warlocks to have spell points and cast spells from a spellbook, similar to Bards. Warlocks have very few spells slots, and won't have a full suite of damage spells - instead, we plan for their spellbook to lack damage spells entirely, with possible exceptions for "sort of" damage spells such as negative levels or ability score damage. We've explored many options, and discussed at length with the Player's Council, and feel supporting spell points in Warlock is the best method for DDO. Using spell points instead of some custom resource allows them to multiclass far better with other classes, as well as make better use of Epic Destinies. We feel that a small spell point pool and lack of damaging spells, including lack of damaging spell SLAs in Enhancement trees, is the best method for making Warlock gameplay feel distinctly different from existing classes and playstyles, yet still able to integrate with other classes and offer multiclass options. We also chose to have a relatively small amount of "known spells", similar to pen-and-paper Warlocks.

• 6 Spell Levels
• Spells Known works like Bards/Sorcs: You know some spells, can exchange the ones you know at a trainer.
• Most Warlock spells based on existing DDO spells.
• Some SLAs will be in enhancements.

	Spells Known:	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Level	Spell Points
1	50	1	-	-	-	-	-
2	75	2	-	-	-	-	-
3	100	2	-	-	-	-	-
4	125	2	1	-	-	-	-
5	150	2	1	-	-	-	-
6	175	2	1	-	-	-	-
7	200	2	1	1	-	-	-
8	225	2	2	1	-	-	-
9	250	2	2	1	-	-	-
10	275	2	2	1	1	-	-
11	300	2	2	2	1	-	-
12	325	2	2	2	1	-	-
13	350	2	2	2	1	1	-
14	375	2	2	2	2	1	-
15	400	2	2	2	2	1	-
16	425	2	2	2	2	1	1
17	450	2	2	2	2	2	1
18	475	2	2	2	2	2	1
19	500	2	2	2	2	2	2
20	525	2	2	2	2	2	2

[Vargouille]

Pact Spells

As mentioned in the feat table, Pacts provide spells as you level up. These are the spells that you can get from Pacts:

Spellbook Level	Fey	Fiend	Great Old One
1	"Obscuring Mist"	"Command"	"Entangle"
2	"Blindness"	"Rage"	"Knock"
3	"Slow"	"Fire Shield"	"Phantasmal Killer"
4	"Greater Dispel Magic"	"Binding Chain"	"Dominate Person"
5	"Otto's Sphere of Dancing"	"Power Word: Blind"	"Mass Suggestion"
6	"Otto's Irresistible Dance"	"Howl of Terror"	"Power Word: Kill"

You can also add some spells to your spellbook by taking Tainted Scholar Cores, which will be discussed at a future time.


Warlock Spells
This is the list of spells available to Warlocks as they level up. Reminder that you can gain at most two spells from each level!

Level 1
Bane
Cause Fear
Charm Person
Detect Secret Doors
Doom
Expeditious Retreat
False Life
Grease
Hypnotism
Jump
Master's Touch
Nightshield
Ooze Puppet
Otto's Resistible Dance
Ray of Enfeeblement
Resist Energy
See Invisibility
Shield
Sleep
Summon Monster I
Touch of Idiocy


Level 2
Blur
Command Undead
Dispel Magic
Fog Cloud
Ghoul Touch
Invisibility
Protection from Energy
Ray of Exhaustion
Scare
Sleet Storm
Suggestion
Summon Monster III
Water Breathing


Level 3
Banishment
Bestow Curse
Charm Monster
Contagion
Deep Slumber
Dimension Door
Displacement
Enervation
Fear
Haste
Solid Fog
Stoneskin
Summon Monster IV


Level 4
Dismissal
Flesh to Stone
Hold Monster
Lesser Globe of Invulnerability
Protection from Elements
Summon Monster VI
Symbol of Fear
Symbol of Persuasion
Teleport
True Seeing
Waves of Fatigue


Level 5
Circle of Death
Control Undead
Create Undead
Finger of Death
Globe of Invulnerability
Greater Teleport
Hold Person, Mass
Invisibility, Mass
Mind Fog
Protection from Elements, Mass
Shadow Walk
Summon Monster VIII
Symbol of Stunning
Tenser's Transformation
Undeath to Death
Waves of Exhaustion


Level 6
Mass Charm Monster
Dominate Monster
Hold Monster, Mass
Mordenkainen's Disjunction
Power Word: Stun
Summon Monster IX
Symbol of Death
Trap the Soul
Wail of the Banshee

[Vargouille]

This is of course subject to changes and balancing as we head towards Lamannia, or during Lamannia.

Thanks for reading, and we welcome your thoughts, feelings, and feedback!

[Cordovan]

Remember, please: Things can, may, and probably will change. We love being able to provide this level of detail prior to even debuting things on Lamannia, but with that comes the requirement that people not treat this as set-in-stone-better-not-change-it-or-I-will-accuse-you-of-lying-to-us-type information.

[UurlockYgmeov]

*drool*

Halfling Warlock here I come!

[1Soulless1]

TY for the preview, looks kinda interesting. What the passive and active PL feat's tho? or is that info coming soon™?

[Kwyjibo]

Looks Great!!! Looking forward to trying this out!!!

[DagazUlf]

ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

[Vargouille]

TY for the preview, looks kinda interesting. What the passive and active PL feat's tho? or is that info coming soon™?

Soon^(TM)

ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Agreed.

[Vargouille]

does the weapon have any effect on the blast?

Your weapon has no direct effect on Eldritch Blast, but you'll want Spell Power and Spell Criticals.

does force crit work for the blast?

Spell Critical stats do affect Eldritch Blast.

int or cha for sp?

Charisma is the casting stat for all the things.

[ToastyFred]

Your weapon has no direct effect on Eldritch Blast, but you'll want Spell Power and Spell Criticals.



Spell Critical stats do affect Eldritch Blast.



Charisma is the casting stat for all the things.

These are ALL turning out the way I expected. Thanks!

[TackW5]

I would hope there would be more than 3 pacts available. Ones that might interest me:

A pact that added healing spells to the list and allowed blast-based healing.

A pact that eschewed extra spells but instead improved blast damage more and/or improved base combat ability, such as allowing full BAB progression and better armor proficiency w/o ASF.

On a separate note, Fiend seems underpowered to me compared to to Fey and Oldie. Fire damage is the most commonly resisted and the top spells are notably weaker, at least in my mind.

[patang01]

This is of course subject to changes and balancing as we head towards Lamannia, or during Lamannia.

Thanks for reading, and we welcome your thoughts, feelings, and feedback!

What's the primary stat? Int or Char for DC?

[Jetrule]

The Great Old ones Is very Lovecraftian as noted above. What are our closest ingame examples? Xoriat lords? Lord of the eyes?

I know you don't want bard clones and Warlock is very bardlike already but I think feypact should have access to preform skill or their blast will suffer While the other pacts have spellcraft to help both components of its damage.

The pet? Please we need npc a.i. unbroken.. Or make it like a cosmetic pet that can do some minor damage like a shoulder lantern archeron. Or a cosmetic imp who cant be damaged and wont fight but you can order to search disable and open locks?

Will the faster attack rate of things like SWF or double strike all effect the rate of fire of eldrich blast? they could be real machine guns with a couple druid levels :}

[ToastyFred]

What's the primary stat? Int or Char for DC?

Asked and answered:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5611272

[Uska]

Ok I was right I hate it even more than I feared complete garbage. Why? The choice to make the foolish unrestricted alignment which is against the roots of the class except for the inferior editions of 4&5

Also they shouldn't use SP its a bad design on many levels

[patang01]

Asked and answered:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post5611272

I noticed but wasn't sure if that also meant DC (I assumed, just verifying). And with an okay past life I think it's time to TR my sorc again in that case.