The warlock has been replaced by the feat Arcane Blast.
Eldritch blast is the least powerful and least useful part of the warlock's abilities, so putting it in as a feat (which, by the way, it's not based on the warlock at all; it's a replacement for the Archmage PRC ability) doesn't "replace" the warlock.
1/10. Needs much more effort.
I just rolled up my 1st Warlock, and was shocked to realize that over the course of 20 levels, they would get no more than 4 Invocations. I know EB is at-will, but mechanics wise it's so so, and flavor wise...can get boring doing nothing but that.
So. My 1st house rule for this class: for each of the 4 tiers--Least, Lesser, Greater & Dark--you get 3 Invocations to choose from; 1 blast shape, 1 eldritch essence, and 1 other.
As for the "other" grouping, some are useful (especially w/ 24 hour durations), while others are incredibly lame if I'm reading them correctly. Let's see, an invocation that acts like a spell and is quickly gone, or a useful ability I can use all day. Choices, choices...
I just rolled up my 1st Warlock, and was shocked to realize that over the course of 20 levels, they would get no more than 4 Invocations.
Err, what? You need to return your copy of Complete Arcane for a refund, then. Warlocks get 12 invocations known over the course of 20 levels.
I just rolled up my 1st Warlock, and was shocked to realize that over the course of 20 levels, they would get no more than 4 Invocations.Err, what? You need to return your copy of Complete Arcane for a refund, then. Warlocks get 12 invocations known over the course of 20 levels.
Thanks for posting this. I'm looking at Table 1-1 again, and see I was only looking under the "Special" column, which shows only 4. Now I see just to the right "Invocations Known"...which comes to 12.
Funny that I came up w/ the same # to give them, though! Again, thanks. The spread is better than my home rule (chucks it out the window).
Ah, yeah, WotC's poor charts strike again.
/begin rant
I mean come on whats overpowering about a class that can do up to 10d6 (12 if you have the item) damage on a touch attack to the first target and half that to the second (eldritch chain), or at a range of 250ft (eldritch spear)
Oh and make it all acid damage that is not subject to spell resistance.
Oh yeah and do all of that while under the effects of permanent fly, see invis, and detect magic at will (a big thing in 3.5 not so much pathfinder). And do a short distance dimension door leaving a copy of himself behind.
And wear light armor, d6 hit dice...
/end rant
Now I suppose just saying "I eldritch blast." every round would get boring.
Seriously though I had a warlock once in a 3.5 game I ran (and it has hence forth been banned...). While some of his power was due to my inexperience as a DM at the time and some due to his min/maxing. During combat after about level 5 no one could touch the warlock for raw damage. And with the perm fly, see invis, and dimension door defensive abilities he gets extremely hard to hurt after about level 10.
After combat though other than having a nice bluff skill he was pretty useless.
During combat after about level 5 no one could touch the warlock for raw damage.
Then your party fighter, barbarian, rogue, paladin, cleric, druid, and/or bard sucked total donkey butt. 9d6 (where eldritch blast caps out, not 10d6) damage once per round is so far below viable damage that it's not even laughable. It's just sad. Even adding half damage to a second target, for 13.5d6, still only gives us 47.25 average damage (and it's split to two targets, which is less than ideal). Your friendly party barbarian will be doing 60 points of damage just from his Power Attack, not counting strength bonuses, weapon damage dice, weapon enchantments, or anything other than Power Attack with a 2-handed weapon. And he can do that 5-6 times per round, not just once.
I think I have designed a warlock class for Pathfinder that solves most of these problems. If you want to take a look, feel free to do so here:
I would love to get your opinions and thoughts if you could be so kind.
Master Arminas