Playing a warlock ... as I see it

[Zelknolf]

As long as there isn't some devil of undreamt power manifesting to provide assistance beyond the class powers, I can't imagine there'd be objections based on narrative details?

[t-ice]

There's one point about finding out warlocks that I never saw satisfactorily answered: Detect Magic. Other magic users can use spellcraft to detect warlock powers if these are cast nearby, and there are rules for that. But many invocations are 24hour duration, so really the warlock should never need cast them in sight. (Even in a long campaign with a close-knit party you could cast the 24hour durations while going off to take a (unholy) crap.)

An active invocation, by the usual rules, should have a magic aura, though. And we do have detect magic. Detect magic can detect the schools of magic of auras. (abjuration, conjuration, etc) Complete Arcane does not list any school for invocations (though they do have equivalent spell levels). But they're the only magical auras without schools. Thus if detect magic detects a "not of any school" aura -> aha! warlock! So detect magic can immediately detect a warlock if any invocation is active? But that's just ... more than a bit silly.

[kid]

Doesnt seem silly to me.
Also... it just means you dont know the sourse of the Aura.
doeant mean it has to be a warlock.
OOCly we know it 99% does, but ICly it could be a nubmer of odd things...
My toon for one... im not sure knows there is such a thing as a warlock.
So learning about an aura like that would defently cuase alram
and will draw his curiousty... but he wont go "warlock! kills him!"

[Brokenbone]

Playing someone who hears voices isn't forbidden but it also isn't required. No player I can think of would reject constant 1 on 1 DM attention

That said, a bio that was like, describing an NPC tormentor/mentor wouldn't necessarily have to be honored by DMs either. You get to play one character, yeah a little leeway for say also playing your familiar it animal companion, but you're not also playing your family, boss, some local fey or fiend who considers you their pet etc. Again, unless a DM says "sure I can support that" which may be quite a project!

[johnlewismcleod]

I for one would prefer Warlocks require exceptional character approval.

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[kid]

I for one would prefer Warlocks require exceptional character approval.

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And yeah. i'd say that's a given. Even if we do manage to fix all the bugs
I'd like to see warlocks needing exectional character approval.
just cause of the fact that they requier some thought out of the player
and the fact that they should be rare.

However you it has nothing to do with the fact that at the moment
they seem to be too buggy to play as they should be played.

[Zelknolf]

But they're the only magical auras without schools.

But that's not actually true.

[t-ice]

But that's not actually true.

Yes, universal spells exist (and more sources than the SRD likely has a few more of them). But they are very rare, and even rarer to leave an aura on a person like beguiling influence or leaps and bounds. (In fact I don't see how one could create such a buff with any of those, with the possible exception of arcane marking someone, which is rather stretching it) So yeah universal auras might be 99.5% warlock as opposed to 100%, but that hardly removes the issue of how do invocations behave vs detect magic.

[Zelknolf]

Well, I don't pretend that it's a perfect translation, and I did cite that Warlock invocations really should have something to resolve spell school for a whole pile of purposes (Is Frightful Blast an enchantment tweaking emotions, like Crushing Despair, necromancy spewing a fear aura, like Fear, or a specialized illusion violating the target's repressed memories and traumas, like Phantasmal Killer? We don't say, so we don't know if or how it's resisted), though it's not as though we'd find a no-school aura to be an inexcusable thing to detect. All of the narratives about wizards say that they arcane mark pretty much everything, including people. I imagine that your average wizard could plausibly just chuckle and think some thing or another about naughty wizards marking their territory to get by the low-level invocations.

[NESchampion]

To focus down a bit on some details:

Complete Arcana states that "warlock invocations are spell-like abilities" with only a few exceptions for arcane spell failure and prestige class qualification.

Most spell-like abilities duplicate existing spell effects and thus their school can be taken from those. Some do not however: the Paladin's Mount at level 5 is a spell-like ability that doesn't truly duplicate a spell like Mount, or a succubus' spell-like ability to summon demons.

I feel like most invocations (like say beguiling influence) wouldn't reveal a spell school just like an arcane mark wouldn't. However it is important to note that the item or creature bearing the aura has to be within line-of-sight to determine the school via a Spellcraft check. In this regard it would be possible to pass off an invocation like beguiling influence as an arcane mark only if it's on the characters skin, albeit odd.

Now, if something like Arcane Sight were used, then a lot more precise information is available:

You know the location and power of all magical auras within your sight. An aura’s power depends on a spell’s functioning level or an item’s caster level, as noted in the description of the detect magic spell. If the items or creatures bearing the auras are in line of sight, you can make Spellcraft skill checks to determine the school of magic involved in each. (Make one check per aura; DC 15 + spell level, or 15 + one-half caster level for a nonspell effect.)

If you concentrate on a specific creature within 120 feet of you as a standard action, you can determine whether it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities, whether these are arcane or divine (spell-like abilities register as arcane), and the strength of the most powerful spell or spell-like ability the creature currently has available for use.

Not in-game yet but one of the RP placeholder spells to be worked into ALFA from NWN1.

[t-ice]

If there's no school, perhaps to detecter it would be like failing the Spellcraft check. But if the aura is faint, a character with good Spellcraft being unable to detect the school of the aura would surely be at least intrigued or suspicious. Reasoning along the lines of "it's the only spell effect in the rules that gives this kind of negative result, so I can deduce it indirectly" is inherently at least borderline meta: The character wouldn't know all possible magic effects to deduce by elimination. Regardless, an oddity like a magical aura that just doesn't figure, should at the very least raise eyebrows and suspicions ICly.

Yeah, Arcane Sight is something else. Basically it busts open any caster trying to hide it, but then again, similar level characters inclined to remain clandestine should have access to magic (items) that do just that. Undectable Alignment is in the SRD (and it holds no saves or opposed rolls):
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/undete ... gnment.htm
Presumably similar effects hiding magical auras instead of alignment should exist. And more importantly should be added in if we're adding corresponding detecting abilities.

[kid]

Presumably similar effects hiding magical auras instead of alignment should exist. And more importantly should be added in if we're adding corresponding detecting abilities.

why are we presuming this?
I'd say magic that hides magic doesnt nesseraly must exist...

[johnlewismcleod]

Agree with Kid. Since warlocks are so rare, I don't see why we should assume magic has been developed to hide their aura's as it has been for disguising alignments.

I'm not against warlock PC's by any means. I just have a problem with the numbers we are seeing and the (sometimes) cavalier attitude about their magic source. Players deploying warlocks should go in knowing the class and the probable (or inevitable) reaction of the Faerun populace to them when and if they are found out.

They should be vetted by staff to make certain they understand the implications of taking up the difficult task of playing a warlock and be prepared to handle the adversity before them with grace and magnanimity.

[Zelknolf]

Magic can hide magic: the OGL spell is Magic Aura. However, that one's specifically magic things, not magic people (i.e. make this cursed longsword appear to me just a masterwork longsword under detection). I'm tempted to say that the Spell Compendium (which our core content takes from heavily) has something for disguising buffs, but I can't find it now that I'm looking for it.

// edit-- Also, NES!
Paladin mount identifies itself as a Conjuration (Calling) effect. Le link.

[NESchampion]

Misdirection would do the trick as well. Look ma, I'ma tree!