Maina's Absurdly Over-Ambitious Warlock Full Class Suggestion

[Maina]

First, a lengthy preamble:

Rias often says he likes getting suggestions for things. All classes are also very work-in-progress. So I thought I'd start putting together theoretical designs for what a finished class could look like. Obviously, these are going to be pretty rough; the game is very much in progress still. But it seemed like a fun exercise. The hope is more that it inspires Rias and maybe inspires other people to offer up suggestions, too. I don't really expect this to be a blueprint or for any of it to actually see implementation (though obviously it would be nice if some of this is useful enough that it gets implemented!)

Presently, there are thirty ability points when a character hits max level. Some of these will be spent, eventually, on 'general' abilities available to everyone. I believe Rias has mentioned that he wants different 'specializations' available so that players may build their character to focus on what interests them. Presumably, there will also be abilities for each class that are useful regardless of specialization. I will call these 'class' abilities. There are also 'guild' abilities that are useful to an entire guild. I may use 'general abilities' as a name for all three types going forward, but generally I will mean 'class' abilities, as this post is for a specific class. I've written a list of 'guild' abilities for Scholars already.

With all this in mind, each class I do, I'll probably be aiming for ~10 general abilities and then ~10 abilities for each branch, if I can swing it. Inspiration might fail me sooner. The idea is that people really have to sacrifice a lot if they want to master all three. Most will probably do one and a half branches, I expect, or dabble in all three. It's worth noting that 'specializations' are not meant to be something you actively select or are locked into, but more vague categories supporting specific play styles. If you want to take like two abilities from each specialization and then the rest from general abilities, that's fine. They aren't meant to be restrictive, just broad-strokes themes to support a concept and style.

Please also note that I am much better at flavor and theme than I am at balance and mechanics. Again, just a rough draft to give ideas.

On to the actual thing:

This is a write-up for how the Warlock class could look when it's 'finished'. I'm going into this with the general goal of supporting three main play styles I see Warlocks try to fill and three main areas of study that I see as thematic and have seen other long-time sorcerous characters pursue. I will be including existing abilities in this to show where they fit in the progression and suggesting adjustments to bring them in line with the concept of specializing, which will be more relevant as more abilities are added.

The specializations are as follows:

Animates - Everyone loves a pet class. This field is for players who want to summon creatures to support them and might be the closest to a 'solo' play style Warlocks can get. It's also for characters who want to research nethrim. So far, the only ability that fits this specialization is Shadow Familiar.

Raw Nether - Some people really, really like trying to use nether as their swiss-army knife. They want to blast stuff to death with nether and nothing but nether and eschew all other weapons. This is for the glass cannon type that just wants to blast stuff with magic. It also dabbles a little in spells that add a bit of utility. It's for characters who want to study the nether in its purest form and the different states it can achieve. Binding Tendril, Shadow Cloak, and Shadow Orb are what I would consider Raw Nether abilities.

Soul - This is for players who love buffs and debuffs and utility, even if it means mostly being treated as a squishy non-combatant. It's also for characters who wish to study the soul and how the nether can and does interact with it. Most Warlock abilities, at this point in time, are what I would consider Soul abilities. Blood Signature, Soul Harvest, Soul Detection, Essence Leech, and Essence Transfer are the existing abilities I see as Soul abilities.

Again, these are not restrictive and can be freely mixed-and-matched, though prerequisites will reward focusing in one or two.

Without further adieu, let us get into the meat of things:

[Maina]

General Abilities

First, we will cover some abilities that should be useful to any Warlock, regardless of specialization. Again, Warlocks will not be forced to take these, nor will they be required to function- for the most part, anyway. Sorcerous Channeling fits into this category, so your mileage may vary on how necessary some of these are. Note that the Arcane abilities are considered guild abilities, so they will not be included here.

Sorcerous Channeling
Prerequisites: None
Description: Allows one to channel sorcery.
Design Notes: This one, I'm afraid, is an absolute necessity. Sorcery is what makes a Warlock a Warlock. There is no room for a Warlock who cannot or will not utilize it. As such, it will be one of the few without a prerequisite.

Sorcerous Adept
Prerequisites: 400 Sorcery
Description: A sorcerous adept has exceptional skill in the manipulation and use of nether. This provides a reroll on any roll involving the nether. Keeping control in nether wells, spells, attacks, etc.
Design Notes: Playing a Warlock can feel incredibly swingy and unreliable. Getting rerolls is difficult. At 400 sorcery, a Warlock has doubled the skill cap that Nightblades get and has shown a strong dedication to the concept of being a sorcerer, so their rolls with sorcery should be at least a little more reliable. Perhaps this could even adjust the output when they open a channel to indicate greater skill?

Master Sorcerer
Prerequisites: 700 Sorcery
Description: A master sorcerer wields remarkable power with unprecedented skill. This grants another reroll on sorcery-related rolls while slightly reducing the energy cost of doing so.
Design Notes: There is very little reason to cap out sorcery except for the pride in doing so. There are greatly diminishing returns in increasing any skill this high. This ability is a reward for those who really want to hyper-specialize as a warlock with very little else to do. The reduction in energy cost could be accomplished by applying a reroll to the roll for deciding whether additional channels cost energy, if a flat reduction seems excessive. This could also maybe get an adjusted channel line to indicate the skill.

Horror Student
Prerequisites: 200 Sorcery, 200 Meditation
Description: A Warlock engages in acts troubling to the general populace, and it takes a great deal to frighten or disgust one. Provides a reroll to resist fear and a slight reduction in sanity loss from sorcery-related effects.
Design Notes: Warlocks deal with corpses and melting faces and eldritch horrors. They should probably be a bit harder to phase than the average PC, even with the same Meditation. I do think there could also be a Scholar guild ability to reduce sanity gain. Primalists certainly need it a lot more than Warlocks do, but it's thematic for Warlocks nontheless. Also the name is a play on 'Honor Student.'

Sorcery Quickchannel
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling, 150 Sorcery
Description: Allows one to channel sorcery faster.
Design Notes: Pretty solid as it is. Just putting it here to show it counts as a general ability.

Lingering Nether
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Adept
Description: A skilled sorcerer can ensure that their nether does not dissipate quite so quickly, imbuing it with a portion of their own life energy to ensure it lingers.
Design Notes: This is mostly here as a thematic foundation for later abilities, but I could see it maybe doubling spell/buff/debuff duration and having the lingering damage-over-time effect that The Other Game had for Advanced Nether Manipulation.

Imbue Focus
Prerequisites: Lingering Nether
Description: An adept has mastered the nether enough to begin to imbue it into items. The simplest way to utilize this skill is in the creation of a nether focus. The sorcerer may imbue a bone item if channelling nether or, at much greater risk and cost, using a nether well.
Design Notes: Nether wants to be used, so creation of focuses should be something any skilled sorcerer can do. This would also allow sorcerers to buy or make carved bone items to have their own, customized focuses without requiring GM customization. The nether well option means sorcerers can produce their own if they lose their focus, though it should deadly injury and massive sanity loss.

Imbue Nethrium
Prerequisites: Master Sorcerer, Imbue Focus
Description: An incredibly rare and difficult procedure, a Master Sorcerer can imbue bloodglass with nether, creating a new material. Sharp as bloodglass but far more durable, the infusion of nether burns those who are untainted.
Design Notes: A call-back to The Other Game. Ultimately, the specifics of the material are up to Rias if he wants it back, but I'd like to avoid requiring Soul Shreds for it this time. I'll get more into why in the Soul post.

Imbue Body
Prerequisites: Master Sorcerer, Horror Student, Imbue Focus, 400 Medicine
Description: In a difficult, dangerous, and lengthy procedure, a master sorcerer imbues a willing target with nether, afflicting them with the nether's taint.
Design Notes: I'm sure staff would rather keep this tightly under wraps, but I also think it could be an interesting RP avenue for people who really go all-in on the concept. The ability and skill prerequisites should make this out of reach for the majority of Warlocks. It would require a nether well and a willing target, prompting an 'accept treatment' message while they lie down. It would probably take a two minute RT while channeling nether, and each failure to control the nether when the nether well interferes would create a major would to a random location (probably should not trigger bleeding, just so it's at least slightly possible to survive). It would then inflict the lowest level of nether taint upon the target, likely to fade away unless they actively work at making it more severe.

Gather Nether
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Adept
Description: A skilled sorcerer can pull nether from the control of others to themselves or to the area around them. Allows them to dispel sorcerous effects in the room or on other characters while channeling nether. Also allows them to create a temporary nether well in areas with lots of ambient nether.
Design Notes: The dispel should be contested, with more channels providing a bonus to whichever side has them. Could be an alternate way to damage nethrim without essence leech, flat damaging them rather than dispelling them outright. The nether well would require a zone with high nether concentration. Most such places spawn nethrim, but not all of them do.

Nether Sense
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Some warlocks train themselves to sense the nether innately, without need to actively draw upon it. Allows sensing nether wells without channeling nether and identifying individuals wearing nether focuses on sight. Also reveals ambient nether in an area.
Design Notes: I felt a little bad that almost everything I wrote here required other abilities as prerequisites, leaving not a lot for people who don't deep-dive into Sorcery. So this is something that any warlock can dip into, even if they don't go deep into the general tree. The 'ambient nether' can be a tag on room titles that indicates the room can be used for abilities like Gather Nether.

Fetch Spirit
Prerequisites: Horror Student, Sorcerous Adept, Shadow Familiar, Blood Signature, 100 Medicine
Description: One of the most difficult arts a Warlock may ever learn. One sends a fragment of their own soul - in the form of a Shadow Familiar - into the afterlife. Using a blood link, the familiar seeks out the linked soul and latches on, dragging them forcefully back into the realm of the living to be placed back into its body. Such a harrowing journey requires a strong hold on one's own mind and soul to survive.
Design Notes: Here it is, my take on the Warlock resurrection spell. I think this might work better with Indomitable Spirit (see the Soul section) as the prerequisite for Shadow Familiar, as a strong hold of one's own soul is thematically resonant. It, notably, requires a little bit of several specialties to perform. With Thaumaturgy gone, perhaps Primalists could get something similar, sending a primal spirit in place of the Shadow Familiar?

[Maina]

Animates

Here, we'll cover abilities related to summoning, creating or controlling nethrim. These abilities should provide some self-sufficiency to Warlocks, much like Shadow Familiar gives them the ability to mildly defend themselves despite being unable to wear much in the way of armor. The main cost will be preparation time and being largely crippled if their creations are destroyed or disabled. You can't conjure a new Shadow Familiar in-battle: you have to flee and perform the ritual again. Such it will be with most of these abilities.

I foresee three sub-specialties here: spirits, undead, and constructs.

Shadow Familiar
Prerequisites: Indomitable Soul
Description: Creates a familiar out of a piece of your own soul, using it for defense.
Design Notes: I don't really like that Soul Harvesting is required for this, but that's mostly because it's making a single ability pretty required for multiple specialties. Changing the prerequisite here to use a new Soul ability I designed. The ability tax is kind of immense for this, and many of the abilities aren't super helpful for people interested mostly in creating a bunch of minions. Indomitable Soul should be more useful to players who don't want to deep dive into that play style.

Spectral Empowerment
Prerequisites: Shadow Familiar
Description: By imbuing one's familiar with ambient nether and the lingering emotions within a place, its size and aggression can be increased, trading a guardian for a soldier.
Design Notes: Requires a location with strong ambient nether and turns the shadow familiar from a defender to an attacker. It remains incorporeal, and its damage is roughly equivalent to other low-level ghosts. Energy drain included. Not terribly strong on its own, but it does provide a new tool in an Animate-Warlock's toolbox.

Daemonic Summoning
Prerequisites: Spectral Empowerment, Gather Nether
Description: By drawing on the dangerous power of a nether well, a Warlock may form their familiar into a daemon: a type of nethrim formed of pure nether, condensed to the degree that it has become corporeal. Such immense power requires constant effort to maintain control.
Design Notes: A daemon is capable of both offense and defense. In defense, it defends with guarding like a player does. It should cost energy regen (but not drain actual energy), and if their creator goes below 100 energy (where you can't channel anymore) it should break free and behave like normal nethrim until defeated or the duration expires. It should return to being a peaceful familiar again at that point. It could probably use Guardian class abilities, though its lack of armor will limit its options in that respect. This limit is intended; it shouldn't be as good as an actual player, even with the costs.

Minor Animation
Prerequisites: Shadow Familiar
Description: A shadow familiar is a piece of their master's soul, and so they are familiar with the human body. It can be sent into a humanoid corpse to control it, for a time.
Design Notes: Mostly the same as it was on the other game, though I would suggest it last until dispelled or the nethrim is killed. I would not have them fixable, unlike the other game, so that they simply last until they degrade too much to be useful, rather than being a permanent companion. As such, their skills should be fixed to the creature they came from or the caster's Sorcery skill, whichever is lower.

Major Animation
Prerequisites: Minor Animation, Imbue Focus
Description: When animating things that were never human, a Warlock must look beyond their own soul for inspiration. With enough nether imbued into the very bones of a corpse, inhuman corpses may be animated.
Design Notes: Take a corpse in a nether-infused area and resurrect it as inhuman nethrim. Without the shadow familiar acting as a power source, this should act as a daemon does: reducing energy regeneration and going wild if the caster's energy gets too low. On the plus side, since it doesn't require your shadow familiar, you can still use it for something else in addition to the major animation.

Rudimentary Restoration
Prerequisites: Major Animation, 200 Medicine
Description: Crude and costly, a Warlock can replace damaged pieces of their creations with something fresh. Such things require nether as a medium, however, and is eventually melted away and rejected over time.
Design Notes: While I said fleshy animations shouldn't be fixable, I do think there's some value in letting Warlocks patch up their creatures while in a combat zone. This would let you fully restore an injury on your animate at the cost of a corpse of the same species. The trick, however, is it acts like reverse healing: it puts the injury back to full, but it slowly degrades over time back to the original injury level. Thus, it can give you a little more life in your animate while in a combat zone, but it does nothing to truly increase its longevity.

Control Nethrim
Prerequisites: Gather Nether
Description: A Warlock skilled in taking command of the nether from others can do so even with wild, naturally-occurring nethrim. At least, for a time.
Design Notes: As per the old ways, takes temporary control of a targetted nethrim. Does not require shadow familiar, so it should be a pretty prime option for people who only want to dabble in nethrim rather than focus on them.

Minor Construct
Prerequisites: Imbue Focus, 100 Metalworking
Description: A skilled Warlock can imbue their shadow familiar into a suit of armor, increasing its ability to protect.
Design Notes: Lets your familiar defend like a player does, but it cannot attack. Requires a full set of armor in the room. Perhaps the armor could be 'attached' together to form a single 'suit of armor' object for use with the ritual?

Major Construct
Prerequisites: Minor Construct, Gather Nether, 100 Woodworking
Description: While the mighty oakheart is a specialty of the Dominion, some Warlocks have found nature to be an unlikely ally in their work. Plants can be imbued with nether much like corpses can, with a bit of extra effort. A nether well is required to properly saturate the plants. Without an animating Familiar, this construct requires regular infusions of energy to function.
Design Notes: Construct an effigy and take it to a netherwell to create a new type of construct. Perhaps multiple materials are available? Wood, wicker, straw? Functions much like a daemon, but it can be equipped with weapons and armor (and is fairly frail and weak without them) and uses Marauder class abilities instead of Guardian. Even maybe re-fluffing them as vines tripping you up and such. Energy can be infused by a new command granted by this ability called 'aid,' to be used while channeling nether, or with Essence Transfer, or by giving it a talisman to wear that it can consume soul shreds from. Alternately, you can command your familiar to merge with it, and this will power it at the cost of losing access to the familiar.

Warded Animation
Prerequisites: Minor Construct, Minor Animation, 100 Medicine
Description: A Warlock who has studied how to animate both flesh and metal can bond one to the other, creating an unholy amalgamation that is greater than its parts.
Design Notes: Basically bolting metal plates onto a corporeal nethrim to increase its armor. Should probably come with something a little extra, like draining the sanity of whoever it's fighting or doing extra damage to weapons or fists that strike it as the metal is infused with nether rather than simply being worn.

Bind Blotling
Prerequisites: Shadow Familiar, Blood Signature
Description: While generally considered simply a novelty, a suitably trained Warlock can create a sort of minor familiar, bound to the soul of anyone whose blood they possess. The bonded individual then assumes ownership of the minor nethrim- it will follow them, and they can dispel it, and little else. Such things are little more than a curio and status symbol among those cultured enough to not fear them.
Design Notes: Just a fun thing from The Other Game that I thought might be fun to put in player hands. Can allow multiple styles, or maybe even something like a druid avatar so that each Warlock has their own signature Blotling they can give to others.

Possession
Prerequisites: Master Sorcerer, Control Nethrim, Horror Student
Description: Warlocks who have mastered the manipulation of the soul, nethrim, and nether itself are capable of putting their entire spirit within a nethrim under their control, puppeting it directly.
Design Notes: Another classic, needing a little bit of everything as prerequisites due to its ability to completely remove risk from combat. I would also suggest an inability to gain XP, or at least vastly reduce it, while possessing a body. After all, you can't learn as much when you aren't using your own body and developing your own muscle memory. If they are possessing a nethrim that they are merely controlling rather than created, there should probably be some kind of danger and scary messages if the duration runs out while you are possessing it.

[Maina]

Raw Nether

These abilities are for people who want to be glass cannons, focused on absolutely obliterating things with nether and only nether. Thematically, it is the specialization of nether manipulation, studying nether and its various forms directly rather than using nether as a medium to affect other things. This means it will also cover other abilities that utilize pure nether manipulation, most commonly stealth abilities. Fine manipulation, changing the state of nether, and raw output will be the main techniques here.

Binding Tendril
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Wraps a tendril of nether around a foe for various effects.
Design Notes: The textbook 'fine manipulation' ability for beginners. Great as it is.

Shadow Cloak
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Hides the Warlock in a cloak of nether.
Design Notes: Another 'fine manipulation' ability, this time focused on the self, while also focusing on volume. I kind of think this could use a toggle rather than a duration. I would also be okay with it taking another prerequisite, maybe Shadow Orb? But neither of these things are hills I'd die on.

Shadow Orb
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Darken a room with an orb of nether.
Design Notes: A hallmark for abilities that deal with large volumes of nether. Pretty good as it is, though extremely situational. I feel it could use a minor added effect, but I'm not sure what.

Sorcerous Agitation
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Agitated nether will often ball up and solidify, at least to a degree. Such a state, when deliberately applied, can be used to more effectively damage foes resistant to the more common occult properties of nether.
Design Notes: This would change the nether damage of raw casts to bludgeon or maybe crush and the cold damage to nether, perhaps reducing both by half as well. It should be a toggle, much like compression patterns on The Other Game, which are the primary inspiration. Another inspiration is Flannigan's nether vial toy. Some people just want to kill everything with nether, and some things nether can't kill very well at present. This will serve as an introduction to the field of changing the states of nether.

Nether Flood
Prerequisites: Shadow Orb
Description: Nether may take liquid form, at times, and refrain from its typical acidic nature. A skilled Warlock can draw massive quantities of nether in this state and send it to wash over foes while avoiding allies.
Design Notes: Inspired by both Flannigan's vial and familiar merge, the idea here is to basically drown the enemy in a wave of nether that tries to crawl in their mouths and eyes. An area of effect spell that should probably require three channels to cast and inflict a short stun. Maybe one or two seconds. It should also mimic the Binding Tendril's choke mechanic for a few seconds longer, draining energy. The fluff reason why it must be in liquid for could be so that it doesn't accidentally injure the Warlock and their allies, much like a merging familiar doesn't burn their creator.

Skittering Sorceries
Prerequisites: Shadow Cloak, Gather Nether
Description: A particularly skilled Warlock can manipulate the Nether in multiple ways and places at once, creating shadowy phantoms without will or motive to frighten and distract.
Design Notes: Inspired by a sneaky sorcerer crypt ambiance message as well as a certain web novel and also a certain Primalist ability, this would provide a Shadow Familiar-style defense for those who would rather not cut off a chunk of their soul to summon a nethrim for protection. It has a much higher prerequisite cost, though, so I think it should defend with a short duration fear effect in addition to blocking the attack. This fear should probably not cause fleeing, though. It's just a brief spook. It should require shadow cloak to be active to help disguise the caster amongst the 'phantoms' as well as an open channel.

Shadow Hunger
Prerequisites: Lingering Nether, Binding Tendril
Description: Though rarely practiced, certain callous Warlocks have developed techniques to amplify the pain of their sorcery, focusing on spreading it and amplifying the acidic burn.
Design Notes: An upgrade to the damage over time of lingering nether, doubling both it and the durability damage it does at the cost of halving the initial damage. Has a small chance to apply the damage over time affect to a second location (ideally adjacent, if that can be coded) without applying a second full hit. This can be either a toggle or just permanent once you have the ability.

Shadow Mark
Prerequisites: Binding Tendril, Master Sorcerer, 200 Arcana
Description: The level of control required is near mythic, but a Master Warlock can imbue the nether with their knowledge of various glyphs, willing it to take the proper form.
Design Notes: The level of precision required is the main reason for the massive prerequisites more than any actual perceived power in the ability. The core here is being able to draw glyphs without chalk while channeling nether. Since the glyph is made of nether, perhaps the effect can last as long as the Warlock is channeling and fade immediately once the channels are dropped. Amusingly, this could mimic the 'see in the dark while channeling' ability we got rid of from The Other Game by using nether to draw Distyr and maintain it as long as one channels.

Gluttonous Evocation
Prerequisites: Nether Flood, Sorcerous Agitation
Description: Sometimes, less is more. Precision and subtlety are the marks of a true Warlock. But some, such as those who utilize this working, believe that sometimes what you really need is a siege weapon in Warlock form. So named for the sheer volume of nether that must be conjured and gathered for its use.
Design Notes: Double roundtime, pierces armor and passive defenses by just blowing through them. Pretty simple. Mostly useful in tandem with the stealth playstyle favored by this specialty, doing alpha strikes from the shadows. Another 'pattern' style ability, but could also be a spell instead.

Nether Web
Prerequisites: Binding Tendril
Description: Credited to certain dark cults to soul-craving dark immortals, in truth this spell was designed by a Warlock who sought to defend themselves without necessary violence. They've since seen the wrong end of an angry mob, but their knowledge lives on.
Design Notes: Binds both arms and legs. Instead of knocking down, it prevents dodging.

[Maina]

Soul

Soul abilities are going to be some of the most esoteric abilities afforded to Warlocks. Mostly, they should be less obvious and direct, favoring utility, buffs, and debuffs. Characters who favor the unseen and studying the nature of the soul should enjoy this specialty. Players who like playing a support character in a group should also enjoy it. Soul abilities can be a little squicky for some, so part of my design goal here is to make it less absolutely necessary to dip into for those who would rather focus on other things.

Blood Signature / Echoing Whisper
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Create blood links, draw blood, use it to communicate long-distance.
Design Notes: One of the foundational abilities for the Soul specialty. The first taste of touching a soul, yours or another's. I kind of think it may be worth splitting out these two, once there are more abilities that use the blood link.

Essence Transfer
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Transfer life energy to a target.
Design Notes: A more direct manipulation of spirit and another foundational ability.

Essence Leech
Prerequisites: Essence Transfer
Description: Take life energy from a target.
Design Notes: The reverse of Essence Transfer. It doesn't really need the Sorcerous Channeling prerequisite it currently has, since it already has Essence Transfer as one.

Indomitable Soul
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: For a Warlock to safely weather the studies before him, it is wise to first master one's own soul.
Design Notes: Provides resistance to soul-affecting abilities like Essence Leech or energy drain from phantoms. Increases the effect of spells that utilize the Warlock's soul, like Essence Leech and Essence Transfer. This ability can replace Essence Leech as the prerequisite for Shadow Familiar, lessening the ability tax for that ability a little and not forcing Animate-focused Warlocks to take multiple Soul abilities if they don't want to. This one, at least, is still useful if it interacts with Animate abilities like Construct recharging or Possession.

Soul Harvest
Prerequisites: Essence Leech
Description: Take the lingering remainders of a body's spirit and store them for later.
Design Notes: Great ability on its own. I think it was a little overly relied on for prerequisites in past incarnations and would rather it not be so necessary this time around. It shouldn't really be necessary for every Warlock to eat souls if they don't want to.

Soul Detection
Prerequisites: Sorcerous Channeling
Description: Detect the number of notable souls in an area.
Design Notes: Pretty good. A bit situational, but a good starting point for this branch.

Soul Scry
Prerequisites: Blood Signature / Echoing Whisper, Soul Detection
Description: Once the blood connection has been forged, a skilled Warlock may detect the presence of the soul on the other side, divining their location.
Design Notes: Could either give the area name or do like Commune and reveal the full room. For privacy concerns, I'd probably do somewhere in the middle: Area and room name, but not a full room look.

Lesser Haunting
Prerequisites: Soul Harvest
Description: By scattering soul shreds into ambient nether and mixing in a little of the Warlock's own spirit to control them, a Warlock can haunt an area with flickers of life, raging against all but those the Warlock protects.
Design Notes: Affects a room for a duration, maintained by the shreds rather than a channel. Do random effects on those within who aren't grouped with the caster. Fear, minor damage, lots of sanity loss.

Major Haunting
Prerequisites: Lesser Haunting, Blood Signature
Description: With a blood link empowered with the life force of the fallen, a Warlock can levy a dire curse against their enemies.
Design Notes: Long-range curse. Perhaps applying the effects of Lesser Haunting to a singular target and having it follow them for the full duration. Given the necessity of gathering blood samples of the target, this shouldn't be possible to really abuse. If we do add gathering blood from corpses (I hope we do! unless we already have?), then we should probably ensure that you can only gather blood from a corpse once to prevent trolling with this.

Phantasmal Release
Prerequisites: Indomitable Soul, Master Sorcerer, Essence Transfer
Description: The true master of the soul needs nothing else. A Warlock so studied can release themselves from the mortal coil and yet linger.
Design Notes: Become a phantom, power based on the character's Sorcery skill. Maintain access to all Warlock abilities and gain bonuses as if Nethertouched even if they aren't. Leaves your body behind, vulnerable to injury and death, though your body dying leaves you as a weakened phantom rather than sending you to the dead zone.

[Maina]

And there you have it. I don't expect anyone will actually read the whole thing. But if you do, please remember this is all very rough, and I don't expect any of it to enter the game as-is. But, maybe, if you find something you like, we can all work on it and make it better and maybe it will end up considered?

But really, it's just an experiment for looking at classes from a big-picture perspective. The fiddly details were never the point.

[Alicron]

To throw in my two cents here: Warlocks as they currently are do feel a bit underdeveloped and could use some love such as the ideas above. I am not sure what the original vision for them was in this game but right now they are a bit under-powered when it comes to combat. In a previous game they were one of the best, if not thee best solo class.

As they currently stand, they are a light support class that can use binding tendrils and energy transfer to aid a group. Also looking at the recent dev log I can see that their 2nd and 3rd level nether casts got a much needed boost, which is much appreciated.

If they are are meant to keep the role of a light support caster. Then could I recommend some sort of out of combat abilities. Much like thieves who can use locking picking to gain funds and stealth to explore. Warlocks could potentially use abilities to read and decipher tomes which could then be sold for riln or some other useful stuff that doesn't necessarily involve combat.

[Lexx416]

If they are are meant to keep the role of a light support caster. Then could I recommend some sort of out of combat abilities. Much like thieves who can use locking picking to gain funds and stealth to explore. Warlocks could potentially use abilities to read and decipher tomes which could then be sold for riln or some other useful stuff that doesn't necessarily involve combat.

This sort of thing is planned for Scholars in general, for what it's worth - which I imagine includes Warlocks. They do already have the copy and book shelving tasks, but he wants more non-combat options for the non-combat folks, it's just a matter of thinking it out and getting it coded up (and it's generally easier to think of combat content, from my understanding, which is why we have so much of it compared to non-combat non-crafting activities).

[Karjus]

To throw in my two cents here: Warlocks as they currently are do feel a bit underdeveloped and could use some love such as the ideas above. I am not sure what the original vision for them was in this game but right now they are a bit under-powered when it comes to combat. In a previous game they were one of the best, if not thee best solo class.

As they currently stand, they are a light support class that can use binding tendrils and energy transfer to aid a group. Also looking at the recent dev log I can see that their 2nd and 3rd level nether casts got a much needed boost, which is much appreciated.

Just to lean in regarding this, in general Rias has said if you want to be focused on combat then roll a Warrior. Others might be more niche/support to varying degrees.

Scholars do definitely need more non-combat cycles that contribute to their grind and are fun.

[jerc]

Overall: Love it! You've got a lot of background in the Other Game that I lack that provides a much better overall vision of "what could be."

Random thoughts:

Adept/Master: Holy moly, these would make me feel like a god. btend with 4 rerolls into either eleech with 5 rerolls or raw cast with 2, while the enemy is down 4 (or whatever it is while bound)? Stuff will absolutely melt.

Imbue Focus/Netherium: Would give a lot of synergy with craft skills, especially if there were more material options for netherium. And I love the idea of warlocks being able to craft their own focus or talismans, which would make them feel a lot more personal.

Toggleable/maintained things like daemonic summoning, animations, scloak, shadow mark: I feel like there's some overlap here with my Enhancing sorcery channels post from a while back. In general, I really like the idea that a sorcerer has some capacity to do multiple things at a time with nether (represented by the number of channels you can have open at once), and you can pick and choose what you do with them. If you have three channels available, you might dedicate one to combat, one to your animate, and one to your shadow cloak. More skilled sorcerers may have more total channels available, and could therefore maintain more effects at once.

Bind Blotling: You're saying I could ambush someone from the shadows, eleech their extremities, bleed them to unconsciousness, take a forcible blood sample, and then bandage their wounds and etransfer them awake, leaving them confused with a new bloody ghost friend? Sign me up!

I've probably got more thoughts, but that's all I've got time for right now!