I know I’ve been a little slow to hop on the bandwagon of Baldur’s Gate 3. I’ve been stuck in this weird place where I’m really excited that it’s finally done, but I’m also a little bitter over the three years of beta access, so it had lost a lot of its lustre by launch and now I’ve just been giving it the passive-aggressive silent treatment.
Finally, though, after many glowing reviews from Shane and dozens of hours watching him play through classic D&D scenes, I’ve gotten back into it—and I think I may have a new favourite class.
Discovering the warlock
Ever since my first experience with a more occult caster, my first witch in Pathfinder, I’ve been a little wary of similar casting types in general. It’s nothing wrong with the classes themselves; I just have far, far too many memories of feeling absolutely useless until the DM let me meld together 52 Intelligence points’ worth of headbands.
Which, yes, is against the rules and shouldn’t have happened.
When we were playing through the beta, I tended to stick to the more classic roles like clerics and druids. Right near the end of our journey, just before we got tired of playing the same storyline and the same four levels over and over, I tested out the warlock simply because it was new.
All it took was one Eldritch Blast, and I knew I was going to like it. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too squishy.
Bringing back the Eldritch Blast
When Shane and I started playing together again, I decided I’d bring back the warlock and really put it to the test. I had no idea what really happened with the class, so it would be a total gamble.
I knew approximately how it was going to go when I hit level 2.
See, one of the things that I now know I like about warlocks is their eldritch invocations. Many of them, it seems, are designed entirely to make Eldritch Blast your go-to damage attack; from allowing you to apply your Charisma modifier to adding extra effects like blasting them away and who knows what else.
That in itself was fun because who doesn’t like a cantrip that becomes your big damage dealer?
But then I discovered Armour of Shadows.
I’m not sure if it works exactly like this in D&D, but for Baldur’s Gate 3, they wrote up Armour of Shadows as an eldritch invocation that pretty much gives you a free cast of Mage Armour that:
- Gives you a +3 AC bonus as long as you’re not wearing other armour
- Lasts until your next long rest, so basically all day
Suddenly, I had a way to thwart my concerns about being too squishy, because with the stats I chose, I managed to get myself up to a 16 AC, and I could still deal tons of damage. But that wasn’t all.
As it turns out, to meet the requirements of Armour of Shadows, you have to remove the armour you had on. And at level 2, when I got it, that was basically all the clothing I had on. Which left my tiefling warlock running around in her undies. And presumably you could remove that layer too, since I’ve heard tales of people stealing their companions’ underwear because why not.
Obviously, I didn’t go that far. But I did have quite a giggle fit when I realized I could basically run around as the iconic female in video games with next to nothing on and a higher AC than most of my party.
So now, my goal is to see how far I can get without needing to put on clothes. Aside from my lovely floppy hat and boots, of course.
YOUR TURN
