Is it worth taking the feat Eldritch Claws from Dragon 358, or would I better off taking something else?
Oh can someone explain when I can take higher level invocations. What I'm thinking is as long as you have one from the tier below it you can take an upper invocations, but that seems alittle to good. It would mean at 6th lv I could get Dark level invocations. I guess I just don't get it.
Fizz
The invocation grade you can take is noted in the class abilities progression chart. At 6th Warlock, you can take both least and lesser innvocation. At 11th Warlock, you can take either least, lesser, or greater. At 16th Warlock you gain access to Dark grade and can choose any of the prior grades too.
I think it's absolutely worthwhile to take the Eldritch Claws feat. It's a superior means of melee attack to hideous blow and gives the Warlock something to do other than avoid melee and dink away at enemies from a distance.
Upsides:
* You get your unarmed damage, strength bonus, AND your eldritch blast damage.
* Automatically proficient with your claws.
* It's a free action to form them, so you can still use a swift or immediate action (like to cast a quickened invocation).
There are some downsides:
* It's a normal attack roll, so no touch AC for you.
And some small lack of clarity, in that:
* There's no mention whether SR applies, or whether blast essence invocations can be applied. All it says is that "You cannot use your normal eldritch blast ability while your eldritch claws exist".
I'd handle it one of two ways: Either SR doesn't apply and you can't use blast essence invocations, or SR does apply but you can apply blast essences.
Without pulling that issue and reading it thru, I'd go for option #2 - basically treat it as any other use of an Eldritch Blast.