Palladium Warlock

famouswolfe

So I was reading through my copy of Palladium Fantasy today (thinking about running a Palladium Fantasy RPG game via Roll20) and I had a crazy thought: what if I were to play a "Warlock" type mage in BG:EE? For the uninitiated, a Palladium Warlock is a unique take on spell casters. They have access to elemental magic (obviously), however unlike traditional Wizards a Warlock is granted spells by aligning oneself with one (or two) of the 4 elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air). You can sort of think of them almost as a Cleric or Druid in that they're granted their magic by an external source, however I found that in BG:EE the Cleric & Druid spells just didn't quite fit with the list of spells available to Warlocks in Palladium Fantasy. Warlocks in PF have access to only one or two types of elemental magic which includes a surprisingly well rounded mix of offensive, defensive, and utilitarian type spells. Another interesting ability is that Warlocks share a special kinship with Elementals to the point where a rampaging elemental will actually stop mid-slaughter to chat with a warlock! Even if an elemental is summoned by an enemy mage to specifically destroy a warlock, the elemental will first warn the warlock of its mission, advise the warlock to defend themselves, and then mercilessly attack. Warlocks can also summon elementals with low rates of success at low levels and better chances as they progress.

As for how this relates to BG:EE, this won't be a perfect emulation because there isn't any sort of Charm/Dominate Elemental spells (that I'm aware of), neither are there any abilities aside from higher level spells that summon elementals (I'm not building my own mod either as I don't know how). However, one could theoretically play a Sorcerer and limit the list of chosen spells to match "Warlock magic" per se. So basically just roll a Sorcerer and choose spells from the following list. That's what I'm doing right now, I just made it to Beregost and I'm having a blast. If you're interested, here's the entire list of Warlock spells along with the corresponding element it applies to:

Warlock Spells:

Lv. 1
Armor (Earth)
Shield (Earth)
Burning Hands (Fire)
Chill Touch (Water)
Blindness (Fire, Air, Water)
Grease (Earth)
Sleep (Air)
Infravision (Fire)
Shocking Grasp (Air)

Lv. 2
Blur (Earth)
Aganazzar’s Scorcher (Fire)
Deafness (Air)
Invisibility (Air)
Stinking Cloud (Water, Air)
Knock (Earth)
Detect Invisibility (Air)
Glitterdust (Air, Earth)
Vocalize (Air)
Web (Earth)
Melf’s Acid Arrow (Water)

Lv. 3
Fireball (Fire)
Flame Arrow (Fire)
Ghost Armor (Earth)
Invisibility 10’ radius (Air)
Lightning Bolt (Air)
Melf’s Minute Meteors (Fire)
Protection from Cold (Water)
Protection from Fire (Fire)
Protection from Normal Missiles (Air)

Lv. 4
Fire Shield Blue (Water)
Fire Shield Red (Fire)
Ice Storm (Water)
Improved Invisibility (Air)
Spirit Armor (Earth)
Stoneskin (Earth)
Dimension Door (Air)
Teleport Field (Air)

Lv. 5
Cloudkill (Water)
Cone of Cold (Water)
Conjure Lesser Elemental (Air, Earth, Fire)
Phantom Blade (Air)
Protection from Acid (Water)
Protection from Electricity (Air)
Shadow Door (Air)
Sunfire (Fire)

Lv. 6
Chain Lightning (Air)
Conjure Elemental (Air, Earth, Fire)
Death Fog (Water)
Disintegrate (Fire)
Flesh to Stone (Earth)
Invisible Stalker (Air)
Stone to Flesh (Earth)
True Sight (Air)

Lv. 7
Delayed Blast Fireball (Fire)
Mass Invisibility (Air)
Protection from Elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth)
Summon Djinni/Efreeti (Fire, Air)
Mantle (Earth)
Limited Wish (Fire, Air, Water, Earth)

Lv. 8
Horrid Wilting (Fire, Air)
Incendiary Cloud (Fire)
Protection from Energy (Fire, Air, Water, Earth)
Improved Mantle (Earth)

Lv. 9
Black Blade (Fire)
Meteor Swarm (Fire)
Shapechange (elementals only; Fire and Earth)
Wish (Fire, Air, Water, Earth)