Neverwinter Nights 2 - Warlock Guide v1.1 PrettyLumiere Lumiere-chan@hotmail.com All rights reserved. The contents of this guide may be reproduced on other works, provided proper acknowledgement is given. You may contact me on the e-mail account given above. Please keep your e-mails civil and clean. I do have a pretty high tolerance for abuse, but please don't test it.... Table of Contents ----------------- I. Introduction II. Caveats III. Which race? IV. Stats V. Feats to get VI. How do invocations work? VII. Invocations (blast shapes and essences) VIII. Invocations (non-blast shape modifier) IX. Skills to get X. Thoughts on multiclassing XI. Equipment XII. Final words I. Introduction ---------------- I'm going to start this by a big bashing of the warlock class, and it's not going to be pretty. The warlock class in Neverwinter Nights 2 is, in my opinion, a class they made for storyline purposes. It's not a particularly effective class in any way, shape, or form. If you want a good analogy with other classes, take the sorcerer, give him/her half the spells, but allow them to cast the spells as many times as they want. However, now make their spells deal less than half damage, and you have a warlock. A warlock is in no way more resilient than the sorcerer or the wizard, despite what the manual says (and let's not forget the rampant errors in the manual). In fact, in my experience, I've found that sorcerers and wizards are a lot more resilient, at least in the beginning of the game. Basically, don't use your warlock to fight Lorne in the OC. It simply does not work. Now, for the good news. If you're patient enough to get your warlock powerful enough to use the dark invocations, you now have a character that will literally stay alive a lot longer than any wizard or sorcerer out there, and allow you to do a lot more damage than most fighters out there. If you couple a warlock with a party full of melee units, you will literally sail through battles with taking very minimal damage. II. Caveats ------------ This guide assumes you are using version 1.04 or greater of the game. I also don't talk about multiplayer because I don't play this multiplayer. III. Which race? ----------------- Since the invocations are Charisma-based, you will need to have that as your primary stat. Basically, any race that is good as a sorcerer is good for a warlock. Also, like a monk, the true potential of a warlock is only realized when you get close to all 20 levels, so a race that has a hefty level adjustment is also not a good idea. Finally, any race that has serious hits in Intelligence, Dexterity, or Constitution is also not a good choice. a. Humans: They are a good choice as a warlock, and the extra feat, although not absolutely necessary, can be used for a crafting feat if you want. b. Planetouched: Both the aasimar and the tieflings make good warlocks. An aasimar warlock seems a bit out of character, but tiefling warlocks are quite in vogue (and in character). The +1 level adjustment is not exactly a show- stopper as you don't really need the last dark invocation. If you do play as a tiefling warlock, watch out for the -2 Charisma modifier, although the +2 Dexterity helps. c. Elves: These are kind of a mixed bag. Almost every elf sub-race is playing with fire (if you'll pardon the pun) with making a warlock, because you have to work around a -2 Constitution modifier. Remember that having more hit points is more important than how much dexterity you have The drow also has the +2 Charisma modifier, but the +2 level adjustment offsets any advantage. d. Dwarves: Shield dwarves have -2 Charisma, so they're out. Gold dwarves have a -2 Dexterity, but the +2 Constitution makes up for it, so it's a passable. As for the duergar, the -4 Charisma and the +2 level adjustment don't make for a good warlock (or at the least, a warlock that is unable to cast the needed dark invocations). e. Half-elves: Treat as a human without the extra feat, which makes them acceptable. f. Gnomes: Rock gnomes have +2 Constitution, but -2 Strength, plus the fact that they can't carry as much weight. If you do choose this subrace, buy lots of magic bags to hold stuff. Svirfneblins are not acceptable for the same reason as duergars are (-4 Charisma, +3 level adjustment). g. Halflings: Both halfling subclasses make acceptable warlocks like rock gnomes, but they do suffer from the same problem of not being able to carry lots of stuff. Again, buy lots of magic bags. h. Half-orcs: The Ð2 Charisma AND Intelligence hurts a lot. You need a lot of the skills that are available to a warlock, or else it's not going to be very fun. IV. Stats ---------- As I mentioned previously, Charisma is your main stat and most of your points should be there. Strength: This stat is not really important because you do not need a high attack bonus to hit an enemy with the eldritch blasts that are ranged touch attacks. However, it does get annoying when you pick up some nice armor and all of a sudden you can't run. I suggest keeping this stat at 10 or 11, and just leave it there. Dexterity: This is the second most important stat. Since you will be wearing light armor (NOT medium armor unless if you're multiclassing, which I will explain later why), having a high Dexterity score will boost your AC even higher. Having a high AC is good for a warlock as you will often be casting your invocations at pretty close range. I suggest keeping this stat at around 13-14. You should probably not add to this stat when you get the chance to during level up; you should instead find items that boost this. Constitution: Yes, you have a d6 hit point die. No, it does not make a whit of difference compared to a sorcerer or a wizard. This score, however, does make a difference. I suggest leaving this at 12 at character creation. If you leave it lower, be prepared to die a lot. (This also makes elves very unattractive warlocks.) Intelligence: Set this score to about 12 as well. Warlocks have a lot of nice skills that will need plenty of points. Wisdom: Set this stat to anywhere from 8-10. You don't need this stat for anything useful. Charisma: Get this as high as you can. I prefer starting out with about 18 Charisma base, and just keep adding to it during levelups when I can add them. V. Feats to get ---------------- As a warlock, there are not a lot of feats that you don't get by default that you can really use. The ones that are the most important that you must get are: a. Combat Casting Ð Remember that it is not practical to expect a warlock to always cast invocations far away from enemies. This helps considerably in not having your invocations being interrupted. b. Spell Penetration Ð Invocations are subject to spell resistance checks. You don't want your Wall of Perilous Flame to not work when you really need it, right? c. Greater Spell Penetration Ð I rather not gamble with my chances of invocations being resisted. d. Toughness Ð Extra hit points makes for a happy warlock. e. Skill Focus (Concentration) Ð Again, we are talking about practical issues here. Never expect to be uninterrupted while casting. This will help considerably. The ones you should NEVER get: a. Any spell focus feat. My main problem is that you cannot counterspell with warlocks, so those are only good if you want to see what spells other spell casters are casting. b. Battle Caster. Since you don't get Medium Armor Proficiency for free as a warlock, this feat is kind of useless. I rather spend my feats on things that help me in other ways or on crafting feats. There is one exception to this that will be mentioned later (in the multiclassing section). c. Medium Armor Proficiency. Don't get this unless if fall under the one exception for Battle Caster. d. Any weapon feat. You're not going to be using your weapons to kill things. You're going to be using your invocations to kill things. Besides from these, the remaining feat slots can be filled with what suits you the best. You could probably use one of the feat slots for the crafting feat of your choice. VI. How do invocations work? ----------------------------- Let's set aside the "lore" of how a warlock gets invocations and go down to the nitty-gritty on how an invocation works. An invocation has the following properties: 1. You may use them as many times as you want. 2. Invocations have either a somatic or verbal component, or both. Therefore, if you are silenced, certain invocations cannot be cast. 3. Invocations cannot be used with metamagic. 4. Certain invocations can be used alone, but others must be used in conjunction with an eldritch blast. The blast shape invocations and eldritch essence invocations must be used with an eldritch blast. The invocations that can be used alone are the low-damage, status-affecting buffs and dispels that you will typically use. For example, Retributive Invisibility, Beguiling Influence, and Wall of Perilous Flame are examples of this type of invocation. However, your main source of damage comes from eldritch blasts. By default, if you cast an eldritch essence invocation, you would cast an eldritch blast that is modified by the eldritch essence. The default eldritch blast hits one enemy only. You can modify the blast by adding a blast shape. A blast shape invocation is an eldritch blast that has a different shape/characteristic to it, which may allow you to hit more targets. Since the blast shape is an eldritch blast, you can modify blast shapes with eldritch essences. VII. Invocations (blast shapes and essences) --------------------------------------------- For discussion of invocations, I'm going to split them up between blast shape/eldritch essences (since they intrinsically go together), and invocations not involving blash shapes/essences. Least Invocations (Blast Shapes): One of them is worthless, and one of them is useful. Hideous Blow Ð this blast shape is worthless. If you didn't have to recast it every time you hit a melee attack, this one might actually be useful. The trouble you incur with this shape makes it not worth it for actual use. Eldritch Spear Ð I recommend getting this as one of the first invocations that you get. This extends the range of an eldritch blast (to 250 feet according to the description). It's not that impressive considering you really can't tell how far is 250 feet in game, but if you can nail someone from really far away several times before they get into range of the other blast shapes, you make your job a lot easier in the earlier stages of the OC. However, later on, this loses effectiveness as you get eldritch chain later on. Least Invocations (Essences): Another worthless one and another good one. Draining Blast Ð this is a good essence to use in the beginning and it's probably the second invocation that I get. What this does is if you hit, the monster must pass a Fortitude check. If the check fails, the monster is slowed. The slower the monster, the more blasts you can throw out and the faster you can get to a more defensible position. Frightful Blast Ð I don't like this essence because it isn't as useful. I rather not have to chase after monsters because they're afraid (and risk running into a trap). Lesser Invocations (Blast Shapes): The only new blast shape you get with this level of invocation is probably the one you'll use the most through the game. Eldritch Chain Ð This blast shape starts out rather modestly. It has the range of a regular eldritch blast, but after it hits your intended target, it will randomly blast a random being that is within 30 feet from you. It means that you have the potential of hitting two enemies. At warlock level 10, this is extended to three enemies, four enemies at level 15, and five enemies at level 20. If you miss any of the enemies, the chain stops. This isn't as much of a trouble as you may think because by the time you get to a higher level, you should rarely be missing with your ranged touch attacks. Get this as soon as you have access to the lesser invocations. Lesser Invocations (Essences): These aren't disappointments, but you won't be using one of them very long. Hellrime Blast(a.k.a. the ice blast) Ð This essence does two things. One, it modifies your eldritch blast to do cold damage. Two, it makes everyone you hit do a Fortitude check or take a -4 penalty to Dexterity. It's indispensable when you have to fight against a lot of rogues (basically when you get into Neverwinter in the OC), but after that, you'll rarely use it. Brimstone Blast(a.k.a. the fire blast) Ð Take your eldritch blast, make it do fire damage, AND make them burn with fire afterwards. This will be the primary essence you'll use until you get access to the greater invocations. Beshadowed Blast Ð This is a nice blast to have under certain circumstances. I don't use this blast because putting opponents in darkness is not the way I play, but there are potential uses for it. Greater Invocations (Blast Shapes): The only new blast shape you get with this level of invocation is useful... until you get access to the dark invocations. Eldritch Cone Ð This blast shape says what you think it says. Your blast is now in the shape of a cone. It's okay in certain situations, but it has been my experience that enemies don't like attacking you in a way that you will be using this very often. I would recommend getting this as soon as you have access to it, but dropping it once you get Eldritch Doom. Greater Invocations (Essences): Again, we have a nice set of essences; choose one depending on how you play. Vitrolic Blast(a.k.a. the acid blast) Ð Take the Brimstone Blast, but make it acid damage. In addition, make it impossible to counter with spell resistance. Once you get this, you will end up using this over the Brimstone Blast in most cases. Noxious Blast Ð Take your eldritch blast, make it daze people. I typically don't use this, but if you like being support, this is a great one to use. Dark Invocations (Blast Shapes): This is one good reason why you want to be a pure warlock (or as close to it as you can). Eldritch Doom Ð This blast shape is simple. Target where you want the blast to hit. Everything within a certain radius is hit. The radius isn't as big as a Fireball or a Chain Lightning spell, but it's more than adequate for your needs. Dark Invocations (Essences): This is a disappointment in the OC, maybe not for multiplayer purposes. Utterdark Blast Ð If you hit with this one, the target takes negative energy damage and drains levels. It sounds nice, but by the time you can get this in the OC, just about every enemy uses this to heal. It probably works a lot better in a multiplayer situation. VII. Invocations (non-blast shapes or essences) ------------------------------------------------ These function like your typical spell. As invocations, you may cast these as many times as you wish. Most of these are supporting spells that make your work a lot easier. Least Invocations: A really nice array of things to choose from. Some of them aren't very useful; others make your life so much easier. Beguiling Influence Ð Get this one if you have points in Intimidate (which is what I usually do). I like talking my way out of situations, so this is a nice thing to get. Even if you don't, this is useful for boosting Diplomacy (good) and Bluff (kind of worthless). Dark One's Own Luck Ð Useful in the beginning, not so useful in the end. I usually either get this or Beguiling Influence. Darkness Ð Uhh, no thanks. This tends to be a frame-rate killer. Devil's Sight Ð This has limited usefulness, but if you really wanted what this invocation gives you, play as an Elf, but that's really not a good idea, eh? Entropic Warding Ð I like this one. I usually replace Draining Blast with this invocation later in the game, and watch as the archers have trouble with you as you kill them with an eldritch chain. It doesn't last that long, but remember that you can recast it and it does last long enough for you to do your business. Leaps and Bounds Ð Don't get this even if you have put points in Tumble. It's not a high enough boost that would make it useful. Seen the Unseen Ð I don't recommend this as you'll get things in the OC that give True Seeing. Lesser Invocations: Not as good of a selection, but a couple of them are useful. Charm Ð No thanks, I'm not out to convert people. I rather summon my own skeletons. Curse of Despair Ð Hmm... do those score reductions really do THAT much over a battle? Skip this one. The Dead Walk Ð In the OC, just let Ammon Jerro use it. If you're not in the OC, this is an okay one to get; just drop Brimstone Blast or Voracious Dispelling for this. Voracious Dispelling Ð Get this one later on in the game. It's a good dispelling invocation; the times which you need to dispel things aren't that frequent, though. The damage you do on the dispelled creatures doesn't hurt, anyway. Walk Unseen Ð You're not a rogue. No thanks. Greater Invocations: Now we're coming to the really offensive invocations. You only need one of the offensive ones, though. Chilling Tentacles: Get either this one or Wall of Perilous Flame. I prefer Wall of Perilous Flame myself, but this is a good choice too. Devour Magic: This is an upgraded version of Voracious Dispelling. You can get this; just drop Eldritch Cone. I personally find Voracious Dispelling enough for my purposes, though. Tenacious Plague: This one tends to be a wildcard. Get it if you want; you'll probably find uses for it that I couldn't find. Wall of Perilous Flame: One of my very favorites; this is the 3rd greater invocation that I get. You can pretty much single-handedly do the last part of the Crossroad Keep siege with this and Eldritch Doom. What's even better, the magical damage this does (not the fire damage portion) cannot be resisted without spell resistance. Dark Invocations: When they said warlocks were more resilient than sorcerers or wizards, they must have been talking about one of the invocations here. Dark Foresight Ð Once you get access to dark invocations, GET THIS FIRST. NO EXCEPTIONS. Have this hotkeyed at all times. This gives 10/adamantine damage reduction (not 30/adamantine as in the manual) with a pool of 10 points per warlock level. This is basically the Stoneskin spell, but you can cast this as many times as you want, unlike sorcerers or wizards. This is what will allow you to cast your eldritch blasts with impunity. Retributive Invisibility Ð Don't get this for the retributive part. Get it for the invisibility (which isn't broken by invocations or attacking). It only lasts 3 rounds, which is a handicap, but you just need to recast this, anyway. Word of Changing Ð I got this, and it's almost totally worthless. Avoid this at all costs. IX. Skills to get ------------------ If you went with my suggestion of 12 INT, you should have 3 points to use per level. I used it on Concentration, Intimidate, and Lore, plus one point in Use Magic Device. Consider getting the following: Concentration Ð This is a no-brainer. Don't blame me if you fail to put points in it and have your invocations interrupted. Intimidate Ð I like talking my way out of battles. Diplomacy would have worked better for my style of playing, but it's a cross-class skill for warlocks, and this isn't. Lore Ð I don't like having to go to shop to identify stuff, and I rather not shuffle things around to someone who can identify stuff. Use Magic Device Ð Just get one point in this. This with Deceive Item will allow you to use most things out there for wizards and sorcerers. If you need more points in this, take them out of Lore or Intimidate. Tumble Ð If you don't get Intimidate, consider putting it into this cross-class skill. In that case, you'll end up getting the Leaps and Bounds invocation as well. Spellcraft - If you're taking the character to the expansion pack, Spellcraft is required. If not, you can leave this alone. If you do take this skill, raise your starting INT to 14 so you can take this. X. Thoughts on multiclassing ------------------------------ Let's talk about minor multiclassing. The warlock is almost worthless as a minor multiclass character because warlock levels don't count as arcane caster levels, and simply said, warlocks aren't very powerful in the beginning. Minor multiclasses that might work is Rogue 19/Warlock 1 or Ranger 19/Warlock 1 or Monk 19/Warlock 1 to get Leaps and Bounds (for the +4 DEX and +4 Tumble). As for major multiclasses with warlock as the dominant class, remember that the warlock's power and resilience comes by having access to the dark invocations. It's usually best to go pure warlock, but if you're willing to drop one dark invocation and the additional energy resistance, you can go Warlock 19/Fighter 1 or Warlock 19/Barbarian 1 to get medium armor proficiency and martial weapon proficiency for free. If you do this, be sure to get the Battle Caster feat. XI. Equipment -------------- There's a dearth of good warlock-only equipment in the OC. As NWN2 relies on crafting skills for good armor and equipment, I suggest focusing on your armor class when choosing equipment. What I did was take the leather armor that I got at the very beginning, and upgrading it to +5 enhancement, 30/- cold resistance, and 30/- fire resistance. As for weapons, use whatever weapon you feel is good for you. I ended up using one of those nice crossbows that gave +DEX (to boost my armor class). If you did the Warlock 19/Fighter 1 or Warlock 19/Barbarian 1 multiclass, your choice of armor and weapons becomes a lot better. However, warlocks aren't really designed for melee combat. XII. Final Words ----------------- The warlock class is a disappointment until you get to the later levels, when it becomes almost unstoppable. Despite all the flaws, it's become one of my favorite classes to play, and I hope it becomes one of your favorite classes too. ~ The End ~ PrettyLumiere March 7th, 2007