Lethal in 12 AP Warlock

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Warlock, Lethal within 12 AP

This build is considered a solid starting point for any intended Warlock build, designed to make you extremely lethal for both attack and defense compared to what you'll be encountering by as early as level 3 by which point you will have earned at most 12 AP.

Stats

• STR: 10
• DEX: 12
• CON: 14
• WIS: 10
• INT: 16
• CHA: 18

On creation, just put enough points into STR and WIS to get you to a 0 modifier instead of the -1, nothing into DEX then the rest as shown (numbers may need checking).

Skills

• Use Magic Device

Spells

• Level 1: Expeditious Retreat
• Level 2: Feather Fall

Enhancements

Everything only in Tainted Scholar enhancements

• First Core Tainted Spellcasting
• Tier 1:
  • Feigned Health, 3 ranks
  • Strong Pact
• Tier 2:
  • Eldritch Blast Shape: Chain
  • Strong Pact
• Tier 3:
  • Strong Pact

Feats

• Force of Personality Level 1

Equipment tips

• For Weapons, since a Warlock can use their Eldritch Blast as a weapon the actual raw damage dice, type and even proficiency in the weapon are utterly irrelevant to a Warlock, a unique and rather liberating aspect. So focus entirely on the enchantments on the weapon, and getting access to as many as possible which is best done by a pair of 1-handed items
  • You want at least one of the items with a good Spellcasting Implement bonus for Universal Spell Power which affects everything you fire. Clubs, Light Maces and Orbs most frequently have such enhancements, but other weapons can too
  • For elemental damage types, focus on your two Blast damages: your core damage at this point is Force, and you have your Pact damage. You can get equipment that boosts the Spellpower of each of these, as well as relevant Lore enhancements which boost the Crit Chance of that element. Try to get boosts to all four aspects.
  • Note that enhancements granting bonus On Hit effects are if you use the weapon itself to strike an enemy and will NOT toggle on a Blast shot, so skip them. The Blast only toggles effects that are labelled as On Harmful Spell Cast.
• For other equipment try to get items with good stat boosts to Charisma, Constitution, Physical and Magical Resistance, Spell Resistance. And if you do intend to get 1 level in a class like Rogue or Artificer to allow you to deal with traps and locks, also try to get equipment with boosts to Search, Disable Device and Open Lock
• Remember to stick with Light Armor. It will give the best AC you can obtain by this level without a spell failure chance

Final Summary & Evaluation

At a mere 12 AP, which you can get by the end of Level 3, you have a character that can do the following:

• Has the regenerating HP shield of Feigned Health, plus easy spells to recharge it and a reasonable baseline HP to start with, and very powerful Will based save rolls. This paired with a few healing potions as an emergency backup REALLY cranks up your damage endurance compared to other classes at this mere level 3.
• Has enhanced in-mission movement speed via Expeditious Retreat, allowing for faster mission completion and avoidance of enemy attacks/kiting, and Feather Fall can let you harmlessly dead-drop from any height you please that could instantly kill someone else.
• An Eldritch Blast with 1d8 Force damage and 4d6 Pact damage, boosted by Spellpower (a LOT easier to upgrade vs Melee or Ranged power) and the Chain form which while losing 1d6 of Pact damage (dropping to 3d6 total) can bounce to two additional enemies a notable distance away from the first and the bounces NEVER EVER MISS. And you can always swap back to the initial Focused form to get back that 1d6 of damage plus increase the Spellpower multiplier by 25%. Compared to the weapons that other classes can access and use by a simple level 3, they can't even come close to this kind of damage output per attack nor the bouncing AoE ability, and only bows have a better range. As for spells that other level 3 classes have access to, while some single-target spells may be able to do more damage per shot they have cooldowns preventing their spamming, and constantly firing them will burn out the SP of the caster far too quickly compared to the endlessly firing free shots of the Eldritch Blast at 1.5 shots per second on average.

No matter what your eventual Warlock build ends up as, starting with the above setup will greatly help anyone at the beginning levels.