We’re off to a good start with our OGL warlock for Starfinder, with the class table and proficiencies, spell access and spell slots, and the Fiendish patron. Now, let’s look at some patron gifts to go with our fienidsh warlocks.

Patron Gift: Unless otherwise specified, the save DC of your patron gifts is 10 +1/2 your warlock level +your key ability modifier.

A warlock with the fiendish patron can choose from any of the following patron gifts.

Balefire (Su): You call upon the searing fires of the lower planes to burn your foes. As a standard action, one target within 30 feet is wreathed in screaming flames and takes 1d6 points of fire damage per level. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. At 10th level, the fire’s howls cause any creatures damaged by it to be staggered for 1 round. At 15th level, creatures who fail their saves against the balefire are staggered for 1d4 rounds and stunned for 1 round. You can use this ability once per day plus one additional time per day at 10th level.

Dark One’s Own Luck (Su): You can call on your patron to alter fate in your favor. When you make an ability check or skill check, you can use this feature to add a +d6 insight bonus to your roll. You can do so after seeing the initial roll but before any of the roll’s effects occur. This increases to 1d8 at 8th level, and 1d10 at 16th level. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you recuperate*.

Demonhide (Su): You alter your flesh to be as tough as a demon’s hide, granting you energy resistance to acid, cold, electricity, and fire equal to 1/2 your warlock level.

Dread Resilience (Ex): You have been hardened by exposure to the otherworldly energies of the lower planes, and you just keep getting tougher. You gain the toughness feat as a bonus feat.

Fiendish Magic (Su): Your spells gain a +4 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome the spell resistance of chaotic, good, or lawful outsiders.

Fiendish Resilience (Su): Each time you recuperate*, you can choose one kinetic damage type. You gain DR/cold iron equal to 1/2 your warlock level against that damage type.

Planar Haze (Su): You can fill an area with the smoky miasma of the lower planes. Once per day when you cast a spell that has an area, as part of the same action you may also fill that area with a thick haze that acts a smoke grenade (with a save DC calculated as your patron gifts), except it originates at the center of your spell effect and cannot expand beyond the spell’s area. You may use this ability one additional time per day at 7th level, and one additional time per day at 14th level.

Planar Infusion (Su): As a standard action once per day, you can cause a 20-foot-spread to gain the mildly chaotic-aligned, mildly evil-aligned, or mildly-lawfully aligned planar trait for a number of rounds equal to your warlock level. Lawful creatures in a chaotic-aligned area take a –2 circumstance penalty on all Charisma-based checks, as do good creatures in an evil-aligned area and chaotic creatures in a lawful-aligned area. At 11th level, the infusion makes the area strongly aligned, which causes the –2 circumstance penalty to apply on all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by any creature that lacks the matching alignment component (these penalties stack with those from the lower-level effect).

Telepathy (Su): You can mentally communicate with any other creature within 100 feet that has a language, as per the telepathy power of demons. You must be at least 10th level before selecting this gift.

Unearthly Terrain (Su): You can twist the material world into the harsh, jagged edges and uneven angles of the outer planes. As a standard action, you can turn one 20-foot square into difficult terrain for 1 round per level. Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again until you recuperate*.

Wings of Terror (Su): You can manifest a pair of enormous, batlike demon wings that grant you a fly speed of 30 feet with average maneuverability. At 10th level, your speed increases to 60 feet and your maneuverability increases to good.

*Recuperate is my proposed game term to represent when a character spends 1 Resolve Point to regain Stamina Points following a 10-minute rest.

So, we have a patron and its gifts. What about incantations?!

Check in tomorrow to find out!

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So Monday we took a first look at adapting the 5e Warlock class for Starfinder (tackling proficiencies and the class table), and yesterday we outlined how we are going to handle spell access and spell slots.

It’s time to tackle a Patron.

Your patron is one of the crucial elements of the warlock. It represents the otherwordly force with which you have made a pact, and from which you gain your powers. The concept is vaguely similar to mystic connections, but warlocks interact with their patrons using different rites and rituals, and have access to their own list of possible patrons.

At 1st level each patron gives you an eldritch blast, a special way to boost the save DC of spells you cast, and access to a series of patron gifts you can choose from at higher levels.

While we’d likely to patrons for at least a half-dozen options in a full version of the class, for now let’s create the classic fiendish patron option.

Fiendish Patron
You are somehow bound to a fiend from the lower planes of existence, and in a different way it is bound to you. You might have sought out this pact using nearly-post ancient traditions of soul-beinding and true names, or it may have occurred without any desire for it on your part.

You might have stumbled across some unhold alien atifact and trigger it to make a pact with no understanding of what you were doing. You might have been born during a complex galactic conjunction that marked you forever before you could even talk. Your parents might have been experimented upon by unethical fiendomancers seeking a way to imbue future generations with infernal power.

However your patron came to fuel a pact with you, this is a being whose aims are evil, even if you strive against those aims. Such beings desire the corruption or destruction of all things, ultimately including you. Fiends powerful enough to forge a pact include demon lords, archdevils, pit fiends and balors that are especially mighty, and ultroloths and other lords of the yugoloths.

Eldritch Blast (Su)
You gain the power to channel a form of fiendish fire as an attack against your foes. Select a weapon you are proficient with from the flame category, which uses batteries or petrol and has a usage of 4 or less. It must have an item level no greater than your warlock level. Once this decision is made it cannot be changed until you gain another warlock level.

If you have at least one hand free, you can make eldritch blast attacks that act as if you were attacking with this weapon. It is treated as an integral weapons except as noted. You use your key ability modifier, rather than Strength or Dexterity, to add to your attack rolls with your eldritch blast. You may choose to make half your eldritch blast damage untyped planar hellfire. If you run out of petrol or battery charges, you can “reload” your eldritch blast as a standard action.

Your eldritch blast can benefit from effects that could augment the weapon it is emulating. You can place fusion seals on yourself to affect your eldritch blast as if you were the weapon it is emulating.

Dark One’s Power
Starting at 1st level, when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 or fewer hit points, you gain a Dark Point. When you cast a spell, you can expend a Dark Point to cause its save DC to be 10 +1/2 your warlock level +your key ability modifier. This is adjusted by any abilities or feats that adjust your spell’s save DCs. You lose all unused Dark Points when you recuperate.*

Fiendish Eldritch Master
At 20th level, you gain the ability to open rifts between planes. This allows you to use plane shift or summon monster VI as a spell-like ability once per day.

Additionally, you can select any one patron gift from any patron that does not list a level requirement, or any patron gift from your own patron.

*Recuperate is my proposed game term to represent when a character spends 1 Resolve Point to regain Stamina Points following a 10-minute rest.

So, what patron gifts will the Fiendish patron allow a star warlock to choose from? Check in tomorrow to find out!

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My class table and proficiencies for the Starfinder OGL warlock has an entry for “spell slots” rather than the normal “spells per day” for a starfinder spellcaster. This difference in terminology is intentional, and crucial to how I am designing the Starfinder warlock.

Rather than have a daily limit of spells, a warlock will gain spells that are restored each time they recuperate*. However, they will always be a full spell level behind a traditional caster — a warlock doesn’t gain 1st level spells until the “full” spellcasters (mystic, technomancer, and witchwarper) all have access to 2nd level spells, and so on. Because the overall power level of Starfinder spells does not rise nearly as sharply with caster level (compared to the original 3.5 game rules, of PF 1st edition), this means the warlock needs to have a large selection of spells known to make sure their dramatically less-powerful best spells are likely to include something appropriate to a given situation.

Thus a warlock has much less powerful spells, and can’t unleash nearly as many spells in a single encounter as a fresh “full” spellcaster, but can reliable restore their spell power numerous times per day, making them less likely to have to carefully conserve their spells.

With longarms and heavy armor options a warlock need not depend on spells for basic offense and defense, and each will receive an eldritch blast with their patron. They do have a potential issue with spell DCs being too low compared to “full” spellcasters, but we’ll address that in different ways in different places.

So, let’s look at the actual game rules for warlock cantrips and spell slots.

Cantrips

Warlocks cast spells drawn from the technomancer and witchwarper spell lists, though they cannot cast spells that require them to have class features they lack. They begin play knowing 4 cantrips. They gain bonus cantrips known equal to their key ability modifier, to a maximum of one bonus cantrip known per warlock class level.

Spell Slots

Warlocks cast spells drawn from the technomancer and witchwarper spell lists, though they cannot cast spells that require them to have class features they lack.

Each time a warlock gains access to a new level of spells, they begin play with six spells known of their choice, and gain one additional spell known of each lower level of spell or cantrip. For example, when a warlock reaches 7th level, they gain access to 2nd level spells, and begin play knowing six 2nd level spells of their choice. They also gain one additional 1-st level spell and 0-level cantrip known.

A warlock can cast any warlock spell they know by expending a spell slot of the same or higher spell level. A warlock regains all used spell slots when they recuperate*.

A warlock with a key ability bonus gains a single additional spell slot. This spell slot is of a spell level equal to the key ability bonus, to a maximum of 5th level.

*Recuperate is my proposed game term to represent when a character spends 1 Resolve Point to regain Stamina Points following a 10-minute rest.

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Having created a version of the OGL warlock for Pf1, I thought we’d try the same thing for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. I love the idea of exploring what scifi heroes who gain powers from pacts with otherworldly beings might bring to a setting. As with last time, let’s start with what the class table and proficiencies and such might look like.

Warlock

Hit Points: 6

Stamina Points: 6 + Constitution modifier

Key Ability Score: Different warlock patrons are compatible with different personalities and demand differing mental attributes of their bound agents. As a result a warlock may select Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as their key ability score at 1st level. Once made, this decision cannot be changed.

Class Skills: Bluff (Cha), Culture (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Life Science (Int), Medicine (Int), Mysticism (Wis), Perception (Wis), Physical Science (Int), Profession (Int, Wis, Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), and Survival (Wis)

Skill Ranks Per Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Proficiencies: Armor–light, heavy. Weapons–Basic and advanced melee weapons, small arms, longarms.

Table: The Warlock

So, what do all those class features mean? And why does the table list is spell slots, rather than spells per day like most spellcasters?

Tune in tomorrow to find out!

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