The Pact Warlock[PEACH, WIP]

[Hijax]

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with pact magic(binder). The inspiration was from there, but the system is fundamentally different.

The Pact Warlock
Where normal warlocks channel their fiendish heritage, pact warlocks obtain their power trough pacts with fiendish patrons.
Alignment: Any nongood.

HD: D4

Level BaB Fort Ref Will Special                   Pacts
1    +0   +0  +0    +2  dark pact, infernal favor 1
2    +1   +0  +0    +3  -                         1     
3    +1   +1  +1    +3  watched by fiends              
4    +2   +1  +1    +4  -                         2     
5    +2   +1  +1    +4  sell one's soul           3                    
6    +3   +2  +2    +5  -                         3     
7    +3   +2  +2    +5  -                         4     
8    +4   +2  +2    +6  traits of the master      4     
9    +4   +3  +3    +6  -                         5          
10   +5   +3  +3    +7  Reap master's foes        5         
11   +5   +3  +3    +7  -                         6     
12   +6   +4  +4    +8  Face of the master        6     
13   +6   +4  +4    +8  -                         7     
14   +7   +4  +4    +9  -                         7 
15   +7   +5  +5    +9  protect the servant       8                     
16   +8   +5  +5    +10 -                         8                     
17   +8   +5  +5    +10 -                         9                     
18   +9   +6  +6    +11 Soul of the master        9                     
19   +9   +6  +6    +11 -                         10                   
20   +10  +6  +6    +12  One with the master      10                  

Skills: 4+int mod per level, x4 at first level
Class skills: [to do]

Dark Pact(su): The pact warlock gains the ability to enter a pact with a fiendish patron. A pact is a deal with an evil extraplanar force, where the Warlock trades a  small bit of his essence, or simply his servitude, for power. Entering a Dark Pact takes 1 hour, and it lasts until replaced. The maximum number of pacts he can have at a time is shown in the Pacts column.

Infernal Favor(su):The Pact Warlock is owed favors by extraplanar entities. He may call on these favors to do one of these:

• The pact warlock might use his infernal favor to summon any outsider with the evil subtype, with a number of HD equal to or less than his class level. The outsider serves for a number of rounds equal to his class level. If it has less than half his level in HD, it serves for one minute per level.
  
• The pact warlock might use his infernal favor to render any indifferent or unfriendly evil outsider helpful for 30 seconds per class level. If the Outsider is doing something for the Pact Warlock when this duration ends, it will finish it. When the duration expires, the outsider becomes Indifferent to the Pact Warlock.
• The Pact Warlock might use his infernal favor to cure all his ability damage.
  

The Pact Warlock might call on an infernal favor once per day.

Watched By Fiends(su): From level 3, the Pact Warlock is protected by his extraplanar superiors. Once per day, as a free action, he might remove any effects affecting him, by succeeding on a dispel check against the effect's caster level. The Pact Warlock uses his class level*1,5 as his caster level for this check. He rolls once and uses the result for all the effects.

Sell One's Soul(su): From level 5 on, the Pact Warlock might sacrifice a tiny portion of his soul to his patrons. By suffering one point of constitution drain, he might gain another Infernal Favor for this day.

Traits of the Master: At level 8, the Pact Warlock gains some of the traits of his Master. He must choose the fiendish heritage of his master, and gains benefits depending on this:

• Tana'ri: Resistance to electricity and poison 10, acid, cold and and fire 5
• Baatezu: Resistance to fire 10, resistance to acid and cold 5, +5 bonus on fort saves against poison
• Yugoloth: Resistance to acid 10, resistance to fire, electricity and cold 5, +5 bonus on fort saves against poison

In addition, he gains 1 +2 bonus to two ability scores selected when he acquires this class feature. These cannot be changed.

Reap Master's Foes(su): At level 10, whenever the Pact Warlock kills a good-aligned creature with 10 or more HD, and whose other alignment component are opposite the Pact Warlock's Master's Alignment(lawful good for Tana'ri, Chaotic Good for Baatezu, Neutral good for Yugoloth), using an ability gained from one of his pacts, he gains one additional Infernal Favor for that day.

Face of the Master: At level 12, the Pact Warlock's shape changes to resemble that of his master. All his resistances from the Traits of the master Class Feature improves by 5(and so does his bonus to poison saves if he has it) He gets a +2 bonus to one physical ability score and +2 to charisma. Lastly, He gets DR 10/good.

Protect The Servant(su): At level 15, the Pact Warlock might use an Infernal favor as an immediate action, to become immune to all effects until his next turn. He can take no actions on his next turn.

Soul of the Master: At level 18, the Pact Warlock is imbued with a tiny portion of his master's essence. He becomes an outsider(native, augmented humanoid), and whenever he has at least one point of Constitution damage or drain, all his ability scores are increased by 2.

One with the Master: At level 20, the Pact Warlock loses the Native subtype, and becomes an extraplanar creature with the same home plane as his master. He also gains the subtype of his master(Tana'ri, Baatezu or Yugoloth) and the associated benefits replace his resistances from the Traits/Face of the Master class features. He may use plane shift at will as a spell-like ability to take himself and any willing allies to his home plane.

[Hijax]

Pacts
How To read the entries:
Its starts with the name
Penalty: This penalty applies as long as you are bound by the pact
Benefit: The pact grants this benefit

The Pacts

Pact of Infernal Power
Penalty: you suffer two points of constitution drain as long of this Pact is in effect.
Benefit: You gain the ability to cast arcane spells. You may cast a number of spell levels per day equal to twice your pact warlock level plus twice your char mod(infinite cantrips). the highest level spell you can cast is half your warlock level(rounding down), minimum 1. when you enter this pact, you must choose one spell per available spell level, from any spell list. This is your known spells. You must rest for 8 hours to regain spells.

The Trade of Shapes
Penalty: as long as you are affected by this pact, you cannot assume your own form
Benefit: You may cast polymorph on yourself as a swift action once per round. The caster level for this effect is equal to your Pact Warlock level. You are not healed by this ability.

Dominion over the Dead
Penalty: as long as this pact is in effect, you are damaged by both negative and positive energy. You also suffer one point of constitution drain.
Benefit: You may cast animate dead as a spell-like ability at will. You undead control pool is equal to twice your Pact Warlock level plus four times your charisma modifier. If you do not supply the normal material component for animate dead, the undead created lasts only one hour.

Cheat the Light
Penalty: as long as this pact is in effect, the pact warlock suffers two points of strength drain
Benefit: As long as the pact is in effect, the warlock is affected by a Greater Invisibility, as the spell. This effect may be dismissed or resumed as a full-round action. If this effect is dispelled, he can spend a full-round action to resume it.

Dominion over the Skies
Penalty: as long as this pact is in effect, the pact warlock may not touch the ground
Benefit: The Pact Warlock gains a fly speed equal to his base land speed, with a maneuverability of good. He may also use Summon Swarm as a spell-like ability at will, though he cannot control more than one swarm at once, and he can only summon bats. If the warlock ever touches the ground, the pact is broken.

Fiendish Servant
Penalty: as long as this pact is in effect, the Pact Warlock suffers two points of drain to all his ability scores.
Benefit: a fiendish servant accompanies the Pact Warlock. The Fiendish Servant is an evil outsider with Hit Dice equal to the Pact Warlock's level, who is completely subservient to the Pact Warlock, and shares a mental link with him. If the fiendish servant dies, the pact is gone, and the warlock will have to reenter the pact to obtain a new servant.

Pact of Fiendish Strength
Penalty: as long as this pact is in effect, you suffer from two points of drain to all your mental ability scores.
Benefit: Your physical ability scores are increased by two, and your base attack bonus becomes equal to your character level. You gain a single bonus feat from the fighter list, plus one more per 4 pact warlock levels, for the duration of the pact. You must meet the prerequisites of these feats.

The Hunger Bestowed
Penalty: as long as this pact is in effect, you suffer from 10 points of constitution drain
Benefit: You gain a bite attack that deals 1d6 damage(for medium, adjust if size is different), and bestows one point of constitution drain. For each successful hit, you gain a +1 bonus to constitution that lasts for the duration of the pact. These bonuses are cumulative. You gain your Pact Warlock level as a bonus on damage and attack rolls for this specific bite attack. The maximum amount of constitution bonus that can be gained from this pact is 10 plus your pact warlock level.

Power over Death
Penalty: all uncontrolled undead creatures will attack you at sight, and focus on you over all other targets
Benefit: you gain the ability to Turn and rebuke undead as a cleric of your Pact Warlock level. You do not have to choose whether to turn or rebuke undead at one time, but can make the decision individually at the time of each attempt. you gain this ability regardless of your alignment.
You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 plus your charisma modifier.

Pact of mutual Pain
Penalty: whenever you cause damage, you must succeed on a fortitude save equal to a quarter of the damage dealt or be stunned and nauseated.
Benefit: As a standard action, you may fire a ray of pain. The ray requires a ranged touch attack to hit, and deals 1d6 damage per Pact Warlock level. this damage is typeless, and bypasses all DR except DR/-. In addition, whenever someone deals damage to you, they must succeed on a fortitude save equal to the damage dealt or be stunned and nauseated.

[Hijax]

Reserved for Prestige Classes

[Hijax]

Reserved for monsters

[Hijax]

reserved to be sure

You can post now

[Agita]

Does this have anything to do with 4e Warlocks?
If not, you might want to look there for flavor ideas and stuff. I see at least the picture is from a Dragon article on warlock patrons.

[Hijax]

Does this have anything to do with 4e Warlocks?
If not, you might want to look there for flavor ideas and stuff. I see at least the picture is from a Dragon article on warlock patrons.

nope.

I might look there, if i can get my hands on a 4e book for free. damned if i'm gonna pay for that.

[Havok4]

You might want to change the terminology to help minimize confusion with existing systems in the game. Although it is an interesting idea. You might want to remove the per level of the class aspect of the favors and replace it with a per week limiter and reduce the number of uses for each week. This will help keep the balance given the variable leveling rates that are seen between different games.
Also some cool pact powers ideas. Your spell casting pact reminds me of the factotum's spell casting.
Shapeshifting
Flight and a bat swarm to control
Undead Armies
Mind control
Poison based pacts
Invisibility and sneak attack
Vampire like traits.
A personal fiendish bodyguard.

[Hijax]

Some of those i were thinking of, already, but thanks!

you're right, maybe i should change the Favor/level mechanic. since they scale, how about once per week, no matter the level?
EDIT: made it level/3(round up) times per week, since that ability is a joke once per week at high levels. 7 times a week(or once a day) seems ok for higher levels.

[Bauglir]

I'd recommend against /week limiters. In fact, I'd recommend against anything above /day, just because it makes things too dependent on the game's pace of combat or other encounters, and tends to lead to a very heavy fluctuation in a character's power. It's ok for a random almost-fluff ability, but it looks like it's supposed to be a reasonably significant part of the class.

Also, you should PROBABLY cap The Hunger Bestowed or something, because it just begs for a Bag O' Rats approach.

[Hijax]

I think you're right about the /week thing. i'll just make it once per day.

i'll cap the hunger bestowed at 10+level

[Havok4]

True, per week limiters are generally bad for the game balance, I just mentioned it because it is closer to the per level limit. Make sure you get rid of the healing from polymorph for the trade of shapes pact as it would provide more or less unlimited and actionless healing. You should also not use odd numbers of stat penalties as it can either be just as bad as an even point penalty or have no drawbacks at all. Also you should make it so the bat swarm is under the warlocks control rather than the usual uncontrollable swarm, maybe give it a weak hivemind effect. The pact of mutual pain drawback seems much to severe, especially given the benefit of  the pact in question.

[Hijax]

Edited some of the pacts. I think i'll keep the swarm uncontrollable for now, because its simpler, makes elaborate shenanigans harder, and what commands could you possibly want to give your bats other than "Attack enemies"?

[Havok4]

I think i'll keep the swarm uncontrollable for now, because its simpler, makes elaborate shenanigans harder, and what commands could you possibly want to give your bats other than "Attack enemies"?

You would want to tell them which enemies to attack and tell them not to attack you so you could fly with the swarm surrounding you. Also the pact of mutual pain is still useless due to the drawback being far too bad. Really you would only be able to act every other round to be able to use that pacts ability. It might be worthwhile if you added something to it like make it so anyone who damages the warlock suffers the same drawback. That would actually make it worthwhile and would be good for a summon focused warlock. As it is all you get is the ability to do damage and if you do that you will be stunned.

[Agita]

So far I like what I'm seeing, though the wording could definitely use some polishing. The Ability Drain drawbacks could use some note on whether the drain can be healed while the pact is in effect (because drain can be healed with the right spells) and whether it goes away after the pact is cancelled or stays. A few clarifications, even if they're redundant, would also be nice just to prevent RAW lawyering. For instance, how often can you turn/rebuke with Power over Death? As written, I could see potential arguments for either 3+Cha mod, as a Cleric, or at will. And looking at other pacts, I'm actually not sure at all what the RAI is. The Hunger Bestowed needs a 'cumulative' somewhere in there, since RAW bonuses from the same source don't stack. You also might want to prevent Bag of Rats shenantics somehow to prevent the whole thing from reading "You gain a Bite attack blah blah and a bonus to Constitution equal to your Pact Warlock level". This is probably not 100% necessary, though, and other than that, I don't really see myself mixing it up in melee with d4 hit dice and my Con at -10.

This isn't necessary either, but a nongood alignment req might be warranted on the class. For one, you're, well, making pacts with the Card Carrying Villains of the multiverse; and you actually get an ability that rewards you for killing Good creatures.

[Havok4]

This isn't necessary either, but a nongood alignment req might be warranted on the class. For one, you're, well, making pacts with the Card Carrying Villains of the multiverse; and you actually get an ability that rewards you for killing Good creatures.

It would be cool to see the inverse of the class with a good alignment that makes divine sacrifices to gain abilities.

[Agita]

This isn't necessary either, but a nongood alignment req might be warranted on the class. For one, you're, well, making pacts with the Card Carrying Villains of the multiverse; and you actually get an ability that rewards you for killing Good creatures.

It would be cool to see the inverse of the class with a good alignment that makes divine sacrifices to gain abilities.

And then you'd gestalt both classes and roleplay the juggling of allegiances to both celestials and fiends like a poor chap having two girlfriends.

[Surreal]

As someone suggested earlier, I would consider changing the words "warlock" and "pact" to something else, just to avoid confusion. Even just mushing words together like "fiendpact" would be ok.

The basic class abilities look ok. Nothing stands out to my eye at the moment. I feel that 10 pacts active at once is perhaps too much... but it's hard to gauge that.

You might want to put minimum level requirements on some of those pacts. Also, what happens to the pacts in an AMF?

Pact of Infernal Power - You need to place some sort of limiter on this in terms of how you regain spell levels. Do you need 8 hours or rest to recharge? Do they automatically replenish in a day? Or can I just redo the pact and have all my spell levels back after a 1 hour ritual?

Trade of Shapes - make it a swift or standard, not as a free action

Dominion over the Dead - does this have the limitation like the warlock invocation, or are you bypassing the material component entirely? I think it's a bit strong without the limiter at early levels

Cheat the Light - what happens when the effect is dispelled/suppressed? Does it resume naturally or do you need to spend an action to bring it back?

Dominion over the Skies - what exactly happens if you do touch the ground?

Fiendish Servant - is the fiend entirely subservient, or merely friendly/helpful? Replacing as a full rount action is too fast; make it at least a minute or 10. If the fiend is totally loyal, I think if the fiend dies then the pact is basically gone and you have to spend another hour reestablishing a new pact.

Pact of Fiendish Strength - Just say your BAB equals character level; it's cleaner that way. You could probably give one fighter bonus feat for every 4 or 5 levels without imbalancing it. Add note that prerequisites for the feats must still be met.

The Hunger Bestowed - You need a limiter to prevent the bag of rats exploit. Maybe they have to bite a target with HD at least 1/2 your HD, or maybe your HD - 5, or something like that. Gaining +20 attack/damage by the end feels a little off, though I suppose it's not too crazy all things considered. Might also want to add a note that you only gain the bonus for that specific bite, to prevent polymorphed hydra abuse

Power over Death - number of uses? unlimited? once per round? can it fuel divine/similar feats?

Pact of Mutual Pain - what type of damage is the ray? duration of penalty? the Fort save also scales too quickly and becomes impossible