E6 - Warlock Scholar

[Cagemarrow]

Anyone have any better idea on how to create a full progression Warlock with a skill focus toward Knowledge's? I'm trying to make a Half-Fey 25 pointt buy "information broker" for our current game using the lower point buy for a +1 template rule. Thankfully my DM says that he's not requiring full Warlock for the the capstone Extra invocation feat.

This isn't really a high op game and I had even considered trying this with a Truenamer instead, but my DM is hesitant to open that can of worms. Can't say I blame him.


Human Half-Fey Warlock 4 / Urban Savant 2

Feats: 1st: Favored (prc organization), Educated, Primary Contact (prc org) retrain to Open Minded after 6th level, Flaw: Non Combatant, 3rd: Open Minded, 6th: Extra Invocation, 6th+: Capstone Extra invocations

Skills: Know: Local 9, Know: Nature 2 (*minimum probably more if I can afford it), Knowledge: Dungeoneer 2 (min*), Know: History 2 (min), Concentration 9, UMD 9, all remaining points into other knowledge skills.

Invocations: Least: Summon Swarm, See the Unseen, All Seeing Eyes, Shatter; lesser:  Invisibility or Fly, or dimension door (gah don't have my books right now can't remember their real names)


Any other ideas on how to create this character? I'm open to other classes as well but I want the theme to fit and I need to be able to be useful for many encounters per day. We've had marathon sessions happen where we've been faced with as many as 10+ encounters in an adventuring day.

[Ithamar]

Dragonfire Adepts get an invocation that lets them make knowledge checks untrained, and also gives them a +6 bonus to all knowledge checks.  Perhaps see if your DM will let you grab that as a warlock invocation?

[Unbeliever]

^ that's a really good suggestion.  Would it be silly just to use a wand of Divine Inspiration? 

[Cagemarrow]

I already asked about that, and unfortunately he want's to keep the invocations separate. Which also means I can't take Humanoid Form which would be perfect for this character's theme.

We rotate DMs and his PC is a Dragonfire adept and the role he fills in the party is pretty much the same. With him gone there has been a definite vacuum in the party to fill with no one having any idea of what's going on if there isn't a big scary monster to hit. Its a big group of pcs but all focused on damage. My character was a warforged artificer, macguyveresque build, but I've been asked to retire it now that we have more than 3 pcs in the group, went up to 6. The DM felt that he would make the party too powerful for what he was prepared to handle.

Party make up at the moment:

Dread necromancer - player has stated that she's a goth chick that dislikes people
Half Orc Shapeshift Variant Druid - quiet player, focusing on mauling things in medium sized bear form, using mostly self buff spells
Half Orc Barbarian - greatsword charge monster
Halfling Fighter - Warg Mounted Lance using charge monster
Dark (the template) Elf - Rogue Sniper

[Piper]

I love know-it-all characters, they're so fun to play 

I would suggest Collecter of Stories, a skill trick from Complete Scoundrel. It gives bonuses to identify big scary monsters for your party to hit.

(And there's always knowledge devotion, but based on what you said, you should probably leave it out of your game)

[Cagemarrow]

It's definitely easier to play what you know!

Anyone else have any other ideas, suggestions, am I crazy for even trying this?

Skill tricks are definitely on the list, but right now the skill points and feats are too precious.

[Unbeliever]

Full disclosure, I know like nothing about E6. 

If your DM isn't willing to work with you to expand the abilities of a Warlock in a thematically-appropriate way then I'd probably give it a pass and play something like a cloistered cleric, maybe with some spontaneous blasting abilities instead.  The Dragonfire Adept niche protection that you mentioned in an earlier post makes me really hinky.  It seems kind of territorial to me, especially given that he's not going to be playing but DMing when you're around (I assume). 

What about a bard?  Or, maybe even a Chameleon (prestige class)? 

[Ithamar]

Factotum then perhaps?  Still get some SLA'ish type powers, all Knowledge skills as class skills, and can be more or less SAD (especially if you'll be staying out of combat).

Isn't there a vestige that gives bonuses to knowledge checks?  Dantalion maybe...  Binders are cool. 

Edit:  But you're asking about warlocks!  And I provided none of that.  Sorry. 

[Cagemarrow]

I'm definately open to other options. Binders are one of my favorite classes but they are severly limited in e6 as they are limited to 1 level 4 or less vestige without gm approval for a capstone feat to add a second.

Factotum is a possibility but I'm expecting to have to fill a counter caster role in addition to the knowledge skills and I'm not sure they'd be able to cope well enough. Staying power throughout the day is a big concern.

Last big adventure we had was our group going up against a hag coven with no idea what we were getting into. We ended up taking out a green hag and an annis hag. The sea hag retreated and got away. Only reason the party survived was the dread necro stealing control of their ogre zombies.

[Cagemarrow]

Hmm, well rather than half-fey if I go with the Aasimar Savage progression Template I could do the following.

Warlock 2, Paragnostic Apostle 2, Urban Savant 2

The Daylight Spell like ability qualifies me for the casting requirement of PA, and I plan to have the knowledge skill ranks anyway and can qualify with the Warlocks skills so that frees up a feat from Educated. Which is good since I lose the Human Bonus feat. . . I'll need at least a 14 Int though to have enough Skill Points.

This would grant me full invocations and Eldritch Blast, more skill points than Warlock (4 and 6 compared to 2 per level), 2 Knowledge is Power choices, lore, Urban Savy (Strengths), and Urban Empathy. I'd have to give up Deceive Item and DR 1/Cold Iron though and will have two levels of d4 hd instead of d6.

[Cagemarrow]

Next question how can I boost the Lore check for this character further? So far I have the following.

4 (2x PA level) + 3 (Int) + 2 (Synergy from K: History) + 4 (Obscure Lore) + 4 (Sacred, Headband of the Binder) = 17

[Wiggins]

I think the Collector of Stories mentioned above is +5 once per encounter?

[Cagemarrow]

I'll have to take a look, I thought that was only on knowledge checks to identify creatures. It might apply to the urban savy check as well which would make it worth while.

[Felix Underwood]

I'll throw out some ideas to boost knowledge:

Maybe your DM would consider the feat at the bottom of this page:  Infernal Adept feat

Even a one level dip into Dragonfire Adept wouldn't be bad.  Grab the Entangling Exhalation feat as a debuff while you're at it.

There's a feat called Master of Knowledge, +1 to all knowledge checks, but if you are dragonblooded it ends up being more efficient to take the feat Draconic Knowledge (yes, there's a feat with the same name as the invocation) and stack on more "draconic" feats to gain higher bonus to all knowledge checks, along with other cool stuff.

If you a gnome, you can grab the Trivial Knowledge feat from Races of Stone so you can roll twice on all knowledge checks.

Complete Mage has the Otherworldly Whispers warlock invocation to get another +6 to knowledge (arcana, religion, and the planes).

Allies or level dips for skill check boosts (preferably allies):
Bard (inspire competence, + 2)
Marshal (motivate intelligence, + marshal's charisma modifier)
Dragon Shaman (or marshal) (insight aura, +X)

Since E6 caps out at 6th level, you can get your hands on up to 3rd level spells.  Check out the spells Wieldskill (+10), Guidance of the Avatar (+20), Divine Insight (+5, +caster level), Lore of the Gods (+5 or +10).

Magic items from the Magic Item Compendium worth checking out:  Tome of Worldly Memory (+5, three times per day), Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance (+5 all, with alignment restrictions), Tome of Ancient Lore (+5 arcana and spellcraft, also alignment restrictions).

Unearthed Arcana, spelltouched feats, page 92, "Breadth of Knowledge":  all knowledge checks you make are treates as trained checks, even if you don't have any ranks in the specific skill.  If you have at least one rank in the specific knowledge skill in question, you gain a +1 bonus on the check.

[muktidata]

DMM Cloistered Cleric with persisted Lore of the Gods. Marshal for motivate Int. Venerable Kobold for 3 more Int and Cha etc.

5 CC/1 Marshal