Shadow Pact Warlock (3.5e Class)

Shadow Pact Warlock

 * Any reference to the original Warlock class will be called CA Warlock, for Complete Arcane.''

Shadow Pact Warlocks gain their powers from pacts with powerful creatures of the shadow plane. What creatures these might be is currently undefined, since the encounter tables only list powerful undead, and this class doesn't use negative energy. Perhaps creatures from The Shining Citadel gave these powers.

Making a Warlock
Like other maneuver-using classes, and much like the CA warlock itself, a warlock can fight all day. Unlike the CA warlock, a warlock isn't stuck spamming the same abilities all day long. Powers are set around controlling the battlefield, shutting down enemies or otherwise weakening them. Damage is not your main concern, even if your signature ability deals it.

Abilities: Charisma determines saving throws of maneuvers and also the damage of your shadow bolt. Dexterity determines your attack roll bonuses as well as giving some much needed defense. With your average hit die, you are somewhat a glass cannon (though your damage is debuffs), which extra constitution can mitigate.

Races: Humans, drow, gnomes, tieflings, and aasimars are the the most likely to become warlocks. Feytouched also have a tendency to make the required pacts with the plane of shadow. Eiji-kun's kitsunes probably has a good number of warlocks. Furthermore, any race that favors enchanters or beguilers will not be short on Shadow Pact Warlocks.

Alignment: Any. Unlike the CA warlock, a shadow pact warlock can be of any alignment. Abilities come from pacts with the plane of shadow, an alignment neutral plane, instead of fey, demons, and devils. Even so, lawful good warlocks are a rare find, with most creatures associating darkness with evil or chaos.

Starting Gold: 4d4&times;10 gp (75 gp).

Starting Age: Simple (As rogue)

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Shadow Pact Warlock.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Simple weapons and light armor.

Maneuvers: At each level, you gain a new maneuver known from the Obscured Existence discipline. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it. You add your full Warlock levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known. At every odd level, you gain an additional maneuver readied per day.

Unlike with martial disciplines, warlocks incur the arcane spell failure chance from medium and heavy armor when initiating maneuvers from the Obscured Existence discipline. Furthermore, certain maneuvers provoke attacks of opportunity as if they were spells. A Concentration check must be made from these attacks of opportunities, or the maneuver is expended.

A warlock may refresh all of his maneuvers at once by spending a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity chanting whispers that cause darkness to foam from his mouth. He is considered to be fighting defensively for this round.

Stances Known: At 1st level and every four levels afterwards, you learn a new martial stance from Obscured Existence. You must meet a stance’s prerequisite to learn it.

 : The signature feature of warlocks is shadow bolt, their initial feature. You may choose its display, though a shadow bolt behaves as follows.

The shadow bolt is a ranged attack option with a maximum range of 30 feet and one range increment. The ability may also be used in a melee attack. In both cases, it deals 1d6 + your Charisma modifier piercing damage. Unlike most supernatural abilities, an shadow bolt does not bypass damage reduction nor count as magical for the purpose of incorporealness for being supernatural. Furthermore, this is not a touch attack. Instead, you may multiple attacks with shadow bolt using a full-round attack and threaten s with it.

When you use maneuvers in Obscured Existence, you may use the ranged version of the shadow bolt even if the range of the maneuver is Melee attack.

At 2nd level, and every four levels afterwards, you gain a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls using shadow bolt. At 3rd level, shadow bolt is considered a magical weapon. At 5th level, you may treat you shadow bolt as silver or cold iron. At 9th level, you may also treat it as adamantine. At 13th level, you may consider your shadow bolt as aligned, and at 17th level, you overcome typeless damage reduction.

At 4th level, and every four levels thereafter, you gain a point which can be spent on adding ranged weapon special abilities. Each point is traded for a +1 ability. For example, to add the Unholy quality to your shadow bolt, you would spend 2 points. It takes a ritual of 1 hour to change which special abilities your shadow bolt has.

 : You may detect magic as the spell. Requires concentration to use. At 5th level, this improves toarcane sight.

 : You live in darkness constantly. At 2nd level, you gain darkvision to 60 ft.

 : Starting at 3rd level, on planes not coexistent with the shadow plane, you venerate a coexistent shadow plane out to 5 feet per character level. This allows you to use your abilities on planes that do not normally have a shadow plane. As you move, the shadow plane moves with you. If your motion causes a creature in the insinuated plane to be outside of it, that creature is shunted back into the plane you are in. If you enter your insinuated shadow plane, it stays stable and does not move until you leave it.

 : Your body becomes a receptacle for the plane of shadow, making parts of your body are illusory. At 4th level, you gain DR 1/—, increasing by 1 every four levels thereafter.

 : At 7th level, once per day, you may travel through the shadow plane to make use of its shifting nature to bypass obstacles. As a one-round action (it takes effect at the beginning of your next turn) that provokes an, you open a temporary portal of darkness that instantly takes you to another temporary portal of darkness within 100 feet. The portal lasts for one round.

 : At 9th level, you gain a fly speed of 30 feet with average maneuverability. The plane of shadow is always shifting, and you are, in effect, standing on the plane of shadow as you fly.

 : At 10th level, your darkvision extends out infinitely. No amount of darkness will see you from seeing. This black and white vision gives you a +4 on saving throws against prismatic effects (such as prismatic spray and prismatic wall) and patterns.

Human Warlock Starting Package
Weapons: Dagger.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Feat: Point Blank Shot.

Bonus Feats: Precise Shot.

Maneuver: Fear of The Other

Stance: Darkball

Gear: Backpack with waterskin, 1 day's trail rations, bedroll, sack, flint and steel.

Gold: 2d4.

Playing a Warlock
Religion: Warlocks typically worship deities of darkness, whether the misunderstood Good deities or one of the truly evil deities trying to blanket the material in void.

It is rare, but not unheard of, to have a warlock worship a deity of the sun, such as Pelor or Lathander, for without light, there is no shadow. Most warlocks consider this fact, and move on, thinking the deities of the sun would scorn them.

Other Classes: Warlocks cannot coexist with CA Warlocks in the same setting. They fill the same flavor niche.

Paladins and other classes of light will be uncomfortable around warlocks, though warlocks will be unphased by their existence. Since many can remove wounds, many warlocks travel with classes of light to see what it is about light that makes it so potent, trying to learn how to get the healing effects themselves. Classes that combine light and darkness, such as the illuminamancer do not receive the same treatment, especially if they shoot rays of energy.

They usually have a neutral disposition towards elementalists, such as fire mages or elemental blades. They see them much as they see themselves: dabblers in a grand force of nature. But that doesn't stop the many arguments over which element is most important.

While using the initiator chassis, warlocks are not sublime. This does not stop them from treating them as trusted allies. Warlocks are especially likely to become friends with initiators that use mostly extraordinary maneuvers.

Those who toy with darkness are often jealous of those who toy with existence. Pseudonaughts are downright disliked for their power. Summoners and Necromancers are also looked upon with jealousy and disgust, and over a majority have qualms with raising the undead from their eternal darkness. Summoners are especially hated, since they call creatures from the shadow plane.

Combat: The damage of a warlock is not high, but his ability to control the battlefield is a counterpoint to the bard. Where the bard assists his teammates, a warlock debuffs or makes favorable actions not-so-favorable for enemies. Your maneuvers give you choice in which debuffs you will inflict.

Advancement: Warlocks often go through this entire class entirely. There will be prestige classes for turning a warlock into a striker. Probably a Shadowfire Incarnate. And a prestige class for studiers of the plane of shadow. It's nonexistent truths may be hard to fathom.

Warlocks in the World
"There's a psuedoexistence between here and nullity. Why not join me and exploit it?"

No warlock lives a normal life. Attempts to live a normal life just seem to get thwarted by destiny. Getting kicked out of town for being too dark; having false accusations against them; drawing the wrong type of attention&mdash;never getting a moment's peace. As such, most warlocks are adventurers or field researchers.

Daily Life: The inability to live a normal life causes most warlocks live an active life, often with many enemies and few friends. This leads to most warlocks feeling bitter about the average person, but their trust in their friends matches that of paladins. Still, many warlocks enter this pact knowing full-well what they are getting into.

Notables: Kornari Sjach (happy-go-lucky mistress of darkness). Errion Lojak (researcher of nullity and the plane of shadow).

Organizations: Shadowside University, with the Dean Errion Lojak.

NPC Reactions: Most humanoids of the civilized species don't understand darkness as a neutral element, and are scared of it. As such, most people treat warlocks with disdain. Animals are likely to be unfavorable if not hostile. Savage species will react based on their mythos. But any warlock who tries to make permanent residence may find the people distrusting them more, unless he works to go against the tide.

Despite this general distrust, warlocks often are wonderful at beguiling and getting his points across. Those that listen to a warlock speak forget their worry, at least for a little while.

Shadow Pact Warlock Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (the planes) can research Shadow Pact Warlocks to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Shadow Pact Warlocks in the Game
Other Shadow Warlocks: If you want a shadow-flavored invocation using warlock, the Shadow Adept prestige class exists, also by this author.

For example, if you have seen Full Metal Alchemist, it is possible to reflavor the blast as Lust's long sharp nails (also called an Ultimate Spear) or Pride's darkness. An actual bolt of darkness is the simplest method, and the default representation.

The shadow bolt does not necessarily have to be dark. The class could be reflavored to some other element. For example, the shadow bolt could become a ray of light emanating out of darkness, dealing damage with its stark contrast to the rest of the warlocks abilities. Or if you want to go the natural route, such as a druid,shadow the shadow bolt could shoot out razer sharp plant material, though reflavoring maneuvers becomes difficult. Of course, this attack could be as the CA Warlock, and just be a purple ray of energy.

Changes: Eldritch blast was changed to shadow bolt for thematic purposes. It's otherwise damage overhaul was to make it more in line with other weapons and avoid the relative unpredictableness of rolling xd6 without a static bonus. Because you can make a full-round attack with shadow bolt, I removed the touch attack quality of it. I did not touch the BAB of the class, and some actual playtesting would be useful on whether or not they can hit. The fact that your

The invocations have been changed so that they make sense as maneuvers, and where possible, they have an additional small effect or a rename. Darkness being changed to Darkball for example. This is done because invocations are difficult to balance for during an encounter. A shadow pact warlock has abilities that are good to use multiple times. If invocations were used, these would not be used. Furthermore, certain invocations will always feel like an invocation, such as Flight or Invisibility. It is much easier to use stances for these types of invocations.

Flight is just given to you at ninth level. It really wasn't economical to spend an invocation slot on it in the first place. You can get a better unlimited duration flight for 20,000 gp in the SRD with a 5ft by 5ft Carpet of Flying. If you want practically unlimited, a wand of flight is 11,250 gp. Since a CA warlock did not need to buy a weapon, one of these can replace them.