Swashbuckling Warlock with trap skills - first draft

[redoubt]

New Build
15/3/2 Warlock/Bard/Rogue
Drow


Level Order

1. Rogue . . . . . 6. Warlock . . . .11. Rogue. . . . . 16. Warlock
2. Bard. . . . . . 7. Warlock . . . .12. Warlock . . . .17. Warlock
3. Bard. . . . . . 8. Warlock . . . .13. Warlock . . . .18. Warlock
4. Bard. . . . . . 9. Warlock . . . .14. Warlock . . . .19. Warlock
5. Warlock. . . . 10. Warlock. . . . 15. Warlock. . . . 20. Warlock


Stats
. . . . . . . .32pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ---- . . --------
Strength. . . . .8. . . .+6. . . .4: INT
Dexterity . . . 10. . . .+6. . . .8: INT
Constitution. . 14. . . .+6. . . 12: INT
Intelligence. . 20. . . .+6. . . 16: INT
Wisdom. . . . . .8. . . .+6. . . 20: INT
Charisma. . . . 16. . . .+6. . . 24: INT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: INT

Skills
. . . . . R .B. B .B. W. W. W. W. W. W. R .W .W .W .W .W .W .W .W .W
. . . . . 1 .2. 3 .4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Perform . 2 .1. 3 .1. . . . . .½ .½ .½ .2½ 1 .1 .1 .1 .1½ 1½ 1½ 1½ 2 .23
Spellcr . 2 .3. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Disable . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Search. . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Spot. . . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
UMD . . . 4 .1. 1 .1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Open Lo . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Balance . 4 . . . .3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Bluff . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Diplo . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Jump. . . 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Heal. . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Swim. . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Tumble. . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .52 11 11 12 .8 .8 .8 .9 .9 .9 15 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12


Feats

.1. . . . : Single Weapon Fighting
.3. . . . : Extend Spell
.5 Warlock: Pact: Fey
.6. . . . : Insightful Reflexes
.9. . . . : Empower Healing Spell
12. . . . : Improved Critical: Piercing
15. . . . : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
18. . . . : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
21 Epic . : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic . : Epic Eldritch Blast
26 Destiny: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
27 Epic . :
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting


Enhancements (80 AP)

Swashbuckler (8 AP)

• Confidence, Swashbuckling
  
  1. On Your Toes III, Blow By Blow: Melee III

Enlightened Spirit (39 AP)

• Eldritch Aura, Aura of Courage, Shape Vestments, Aura of Menace
  
  1. Resilience of Body III, Spiritual Defense III, Resilience of Soul III
  2. Spiritual Bastion III, Power of Enlightenment III, Defense Boost III
  3. Eldritch Burst III, Spiritual Ward III
  4. Spiritual Retribution III, Brilliance
  5. Spirit Blast III, Beacon, Shining Through

Tainted Scholar (8 AP)

• Tainted Spellcasting
  
  1. Feigned Health III, Strong Pact
  2. Utterdark Blast

Harper Agent (25 AP)

• Agent of Good I
  
  1. Traveler's Toughness III, Strategic Combat
  2. Versatile Adept III, Know the Angles III
  3. Highly Skilled III, Versatile Adept III, Strategic Combat
  4. Vigor of Life, Versatile Adept III

[unbongwah]

I've been trying to come up with a melee `lock / Swashie build myself; but I can't think of a build where I feel the melee DPS offsets the lost aura / EB DPS of a pure build enough to be worth it.

OTOH, if `locks are as OP as everyone complains, then even a "gimp" `lock build should be fine, so who cares?

I would definitely recommend spending at least 3 more APs in SB for either Dashing Scoundrel (+10% doublestrike), Skirmisher (+10% Dodge), or Arcane Marauder (allows orbs); probably another 2 APs for Elegant Footwork as well, since with Displacement and a Ghostly item you should see plenty of free knockdowns. Also while drow gets +2 INT & CHA, both of which are helpful, human is probably the better choice for Dmg Boost, extra feat, and heal amp. EDIT: this would let you add Power Atk or Precision.

EDIT: I'd probably also take Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast as one of your ED feats.

[redoubt]

I've been trying to come up with a melee `lock / Swashie build myself; but I can't think of a build where I feel the melee DPS offsets the lost aura / EB DPS of a pure build enough to be worth it.

OTOH, if `locks are as OP as everyone complains, then even a "gimp" `lock build should be fine, so who cares?

I would definitely recommend spending at least 3 more APs in SB for either Dashing Scoundrel (+10% doublestrike), Skirmisher (+10% Dodge), or Arcane Marauder (allows orbs); probably another 2 APs for Elegant Footwork as well, since with Displacement and a Ghostly item you should see plenty of free knockdowns. Also while drow gets +2 INT & CHA, both of which are helpful, human is probably the better choice for Dmg Boost, extra feat, and heal amp. EDIT: this would let you add Power Atk or Precision.

EDIT: I'd probably also take Epic Arcane Eldritch Blast as one of your ED feats.

Good points. I had built it up using the SB and warlock trees and then put the rest in harper, but a couple points could come out of harper and into SB to pick up those things pretty easy.

On the power level of warlocks, I just finished a life on a 16 lock / 2 paladin / 2 rogue that did really well. Fights against the 200k bosses got a little long though.

[DaggomaticDwarf]

So Int over Cha? does the damage from burst not come from Cha? If its only dependent on Spell Power then I see why Int over Cha.

Made a PDK 14Loc/3Ftr/3Brd, lvl 21 atm but Cha based.

Went fighter for a little my PPR/MMR wanted to go a little more into the SD tree but wearin light armor to the stances wont work.

[unbongwah]

So Int over Cha? does the damage from burst not come from Cha? If its only dependent on Spell Power then I see why Int over Cha.

Warlocks are CHA-based casters, but a significant portion of their DPS has no save: namely the base Eldritch Blast dmg and light dmg in Enlightened Spirit from Spiritual Retribution, Eldritch Burst, and Spirit Blast. Only the Pact dmg has a save; and two Pacts are based on Will & Fort saves, which means they will always do half-dmg even when mobs make their saves. [Fey Pact is a Reflex save, so mobs with Evasion might avoid that sonic dmg entirely.] Some of the other SLAs have no save, like Consume and Burning Blood; while some warlock abilities have a Spell Pen check but no DCs, like Otto's Irresistible Dance and Dark Feeding.

So this means a warlock could dump their DCs, invest in a stat other than CHA, and still do quite a bit of DPS from Eldritch Blast and other abilities. Which opens up some interesting alternate build possibilities. Not necessarily better ones, but interesting nonetheless.

[DaggomaticDwarf]

That explains why I've seen in the forum the Int based Locks and ofc dipping into the Harper tree make a lil more sense

[cru121]

If you're planning to use the burst and blast often, definitely try to fit in Maximize and ideally also Empower.