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Mod version used for review: 2.43.

In my years playing the Infinity Engine games, I’d never dabbled with class and kit (subclass) mods until I had began this project. I had a preconceived notion that such mods were overdesigned and overpowered — to my credit, a few of them are.

However, once I dove into the unfamiliar territory and really tried to understand and enjoy some of these mods, I surprised myself with just how much I enjoyed them.

The Warlock is one such class, which is treated as a Bard kit in character creation and a Mage class for purposes of identification e.g. strongholds in BG2 and dialogue, so the Warlock will gain the Planar Sphere as a stronghold. It is based on the D&D 3.5e version of the class, and it goes all in. This is an entirely new class, and while it does require a different playstyle to other classes, it shouldn’t feel wholly unfamiliar to those accustomed to the vanilla classes.

This is going to be a long one, so if you want, just skip to when I stop talking about the High Level Abilities. I likely won’t write a kit review that’s this long again, for my own sanity. Enjoy!

Now, just based on the description, this Warlock differs from what you might traditionally expect from later D&D editions. Instead of gaining power from a pact, this Warlock is born from a ‘supernatural’ bloodline, much like a sorcerer. I think that this fits the story of Baldur’s Gate much better than the traditional Warlock — just look at the Blackguard. I can’t really envision Gorion’s Ward making a deal with some sort of infernal being for power. You live in a library, dude. Just do your chores.

The class features are somewhat akin to a Bard, which just so happens to be my favourite class. The Warlock can only wear armour up to chain mail, which I think is excellent. As it stands, there are zero classes that benefit from wearing chain mail (other than Elven Chain Mail) so it’s nice to have a reason to care about this underutilised piece of equipment.

They also can’t use shields larger than bucklers, which is also nice. I am personally an avid buckler enjoyer, though I wish that the base game included bucklers worth using over a weapon that grants extra APR or resistance. Considering that chain mail doesn’t offer the best defense, grabbing a bucker to increase your Armour Class by a few points is a nice addition.

The Warlock can use any weapon but can’t put more than one pip in any, which is a shame, but it’s certainly not the end of the world. Considering that they can also put one pip into weapon styles, it might be worth considering using single weapon style for the extra AC in place of a buckler and gaining a handy bonus to critical hits.

They can also pick pockets and gain at least 10 lore per level, like a bard. I like this, since it gains a little bit more versatility than your typical caster class. We’ll get into Invocations later. For now, let’s look at the bonuses the Warlock will get as it levels up.

At 5th level, they will gain 10% resistance to all physical damage, which is very, very handy. Having 10% of most of the damage you’ll take being mitigated is always a good thing, and it improves by 5% every 10 levels, meaning that by level 35 the Warlock will have a base 25% damage reduction. Add the Defender of Easthaven on top of this and you’ll have a massive 45% reduction. This may seem like an overpowered feature, but the fact that it incrementally increases every 10 levels is a nice balancing factor.

At level 8, the Warlock will regenerate one hit point every three rounds. This is great, and stacks well with weapons like the Axe of the Unyielding, Blackrazor, and the Ring of Regeneration. This effect will be upgraded to one hit point every two rounds at level 16, and every round at 24th level.

At level 10, the Warlock gains 10% elemental resistance and magic damage resistance (NOT magic resistance — magic damage is what Magic Missile and Horrid Wilting deals), which increases by 10% every 10 levels, leaving a level 40 Warlock with 40% resistance, or 60% if you have the bonus from the Hell Trials (which you should absolutely pick — the evil path in the Test of Pride is awful). Elemental resistance is easy to boost with items and spells, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get it closer to 100%, which will result in a very powerful endgame Warlock. Same deal with the physical resistance in terms of balance.

Level 12 will bring you the ability to use Mage scrolls, allowing the Warlock to stop time and do whatever else a mage can, depending on the size of your gold pouch. Level 22 will make you immune to non-magical weapons, which may be somewhat useful if you’re still in Shadows of Amn by the time you reach that point. By level 22, though, you probably won’t be fighting many enemies with non-magical weapons. That being said, if you like the feature, it gives you half a reason to choose the Evil path in the Hell Trial test of Fear.

And finally, you’re restricted to a few alignments and have a Hit Die of d6, equaling the Bard and Thief. Considering that the Warlock is mainly a caster class, it’s a nice bonus to have the extra hit points along with all the resistances.

Now, let’s talk about the most unique aspect of the Warlock — Invocations and Eldritch Blast.

When you make your Warlock, you’ll be greeted by an empty spell selection screen. Choosing spells is not done in this menu, but this class pushes the Infinity Engine past its limits in some aspects, so you’ll have to select several blank spell slots. This doesn’t matter at all, and the sooner you forget about it the better.

Opening the spellcasting menu when playing the game greets you with Invocations and Eldritch Blast. These are menus from which you can pick spells or blasts of different shapes, respectively. The Eldritch Blast, by default, deals 1d6 damage that increases by 1d6 every 3 levels. By summoning your Eldritch Blast, it will become usable ala Melf’s Minute Meteors, and doesn’t run out until you unsummon it. Unless hasted, you’ll only be able to fling one blast per round. It deals magic damage and has a +4 to hit, and can critically hit.

As the Warlock levels up, they gain additional blast variations that offer unique effects, but often at the cost of reduced damage. My personal favourite is Eldritch Chain, which chains to an extra enemy per 3 levels of the caster, though with gradually less damage for each enemy that it hits. There are some really fun options with the variations that you won’t be disappointed by.

Having Eldritch Blast summoned will also create a very cool graphic of purple swirling shadows around your character. It’s subtle, but it’s something that I really appreciated.

Selecting spells — or invocations, as they are named — is done through a dialogue menu when levelling up. I anticipated disliking this system, but I found that it was a pretty smooth experience. To view what invocations do, simply select one, and if it’s to your liking, confirm it. It’s framed as though you’re reaching into yourself to pull power to the surface, so the fact that it’s done within dialogue with yourself is actually kind of neat.

Invocations are sorted into several categories: Least, Lesser, Greater, and Dark. To view what each of them does, I recommend looking at The Artisan’s website, where each one is outlined in a very concise and orderly fashion. It’s a mite bit better than reading them in the dialogue menu, and you can plan which invocations you wish to take in advance. Once per level, separate from your newly gained invocation, you can also swap an invocation you’ve learned for another one of the same tier.

Invocations can take the form of 24 hour or combat buffs that can be cast an unlimited number of times per day, as well as unique castable blasts. Each invocation is extremely well translated into the Infinity Engine, and they make the Warlock and exceptionally fun and novel class to play. Of course, some of them are more powerful than others, so let’s discuss a few of them.

From the ‘Least’ Invocations, we’ll look at Beguiling Influence, Dark One’s Own Luck, and Call of the Beast.

Beguiling Influence lasts 24 hours and grants the Warlock +2 points of Charisma, which increases to +4 at 8th level, and +6 at 16th level. This is especially noteworthy not only because it will greatly assist with store prices, but also because many Warlock spells gain bonuses based on Charisma. Because invocations can be cast an unlimited number of times per day, there’s no reason not to have this active all the time — simply throw it up whenever it runs out and you’ll gain additional bonuses to bypass enemy saving throws with your spells and blasts.

Dark One’s Own Luck lasts 24 hours and is a spell that the Advanced AI really likes to cast on itself at the start of each day. It grants the Warlock +2 to Luck and all saving throws, and an additional +1 bonus to each is gained for every two points of Charisma above 16. This means that a Warlock with 18 Charisma, boosted to 22 at level 8 by Beguiling Influence, will gain +5 to Luck and saving throws. This is really, exceptionally powerful. This means that the Warlock will have a +5 bonus to attack rolls and damage.

Call of the Beast basically charms an animal or plant for 10 turns (!) at a significant advantage on bypassing save vs. spell. At level 10, you can charm monsters such as wyverns, and from level 25 onwards the creature’s Strength and Dexterity increase to 25. This is quite situationally strong, especially in Baldur’s Gate 1 where wildlife run rampant. Being able to charm as many bears as you can find for ten minutes is very handy, but you might find that its use case is limited to when enemy spellcasters use the Summon Animals spell, which may happen more if you’re using SCS.

Curse of Despair (‘Lesser’) will instantly and permanently reduce all ability scores of a target by 3 upon a failed Save vs. Spell (with a bonus to bypass per 2 points of Charisma past 17). This is a touch ability and it has a casting time of 4, so you’ll have to be able to pull it off without being interrupted, but it can be very useful depending on the situation. If the target fails the saving throw, they take a -1 penalty to attack rolls, so this spell will always do something.

Electrifying Blast (‘Greater’) is one of the many invocational blasts that you can take. Electrifying Blast will deal lightning damage instead of magic damage, and each creature struck with the attack must make a Save vs. Breath with a -2 penalty (with an additional -1 per 2 points of Charisma past 17) or be paralyzed. Obviously this won’t effect creatures immune to electrical damage like Abazigal, but for the most part the enemies that you face are going to have really bad Save vs. Breath, which is further enhanced by the additional benefits from Charisma.

The Dark invocations are all exceptionally powerful, but they speak for themselves.

One thing that I would like to highlight is that every single new spell and ability that this mod introduces has a unique icon and often unique or repurposed effects to go along with them. It really feels like you’re playing some sort of forgotten piece of cut content that’s been restored in all its glory.

Needless to say, the Warlock is an exceptionally powerful class. Is it more powerful than most of the other classes? Yes. Is it more powerful than any mage? I would argue not, simply because arcane magic is just so good in Baldur’s Gate 2. In the first game, however, there is certainly merit to saying that it’s the strongest class.

However, I have to ask if there’s anything necessarily wrong with that. The sorcerer is an exceptionally powerful class, as is the berserker, and wild mage. Although the Warlock gains many powerful abilities, it also misses out on most other class features. It won’t benefit that much from powerful weapons, can’t cast arcane or divine spells, and doesn’t have thieving abilities (apart from pickpocket) or bard song. The Warlock is in its own unique little corner, in a way that I can compare to Beamdog’s Shaman class. The only difference is that the Warlock is exciting and fun to play, whereas the Shaman is exceptionally boring if you use its main feature.

The main area in which a Warlock actually becomes overpowered is the same area that all other classes do — when fighters gain Hardiness and Critical Strike, when Mages gain Alacrity, and Druids gain Elemental Transformation.

The Warlock’s high level abilities not only greatly affect gameplay, but you can also have a bit of roleplay fun with it. All Warlocks gain the abilities Call Field (automatically friendly nabassu, glabrezu, or pit fiend), Use Any Item, Alchemy, and Scribe Scrolls. Good-aligned Warlocks gain the Eldritch path of abilities, and Evil-aligned Warlocks gain the Hellfire path. Neutral-aligned Warlocks can choose from either.

The Eldritch path consists of:

Eldritch Pact, which grants a permanent +20% Magic Resistance, a +1 bonus to casting time, and +50% duration to all invocations. This is exceptionally powerful, as it finally grants you the missing form of resistance from the trifecta of Officially Overpowered Characters. Having Magic, Elemental, and Physical resistance will make the Warlock into an absolute monster on the battlefield, and you’ll be able to step into combat with your Eldritch Glaive and not have to worry about taking too much damage. Most invocations have a ridiculously long duration time anyway, so the +50% is just the cherry on top. Now Call of the Beast will last 15 minutes! That’s five extra minutes to go and find more bear friends.

Eldritch Focus becomes available after the Pact, which is an ability that causes the Warlock to be unable to move, but gains 50% resistance to all damage, doubled visual range, and aura cleansing. Aura cleansing is when the spellcasting timer is reset, so you can cast spells immediately after one another — essentially, Improved Alacrity. Combine this with the insane bonus that Eldritch Focus also reduces ALL your spellcasting times to zero, and you have yourself an absolute powerhouse of spellcasting… that drains health rapidly. For every Eldritch Blast or invocation cast, the Warlock will lose 25% of their CURRENT hit points, and is immune to healing. Eldritch Focus is toggleable at will, but can’t use any Warlock abilities for three rounds after deactivating.

This is a very unique ability, and I’m not sure if I’m a fan of it. I dislike purposely gimping my character for a large bonus in other areas of combat — a feature seen quite often in the Artisan’s class mods. However, the fact that casting invocations only takes from current hit points opposed to total hit points makes this ability a lot more useable in my eyes. For every action you take, the amount of hit points drained is lessened, so as long as you position yourself well, you should find some significant usage from this ability.

The last ability in the Eldritch path is Eldritch Paragon, which grants a permanent +50% resistance to magical damage (again, that’s Magic Missile and Horrid Wilting), +5 to all saving throws, and +20% damage dealt by magic damage. Remember, your Eldritch Blast does magic damage by default, and at level 40 it’ll be doing an average of 49 damage per hit. Paragon will change the average to 59 damage, and the maximum to 101 damage. A critical hit could do over 200 damage — more than Sarevok’s Deathbringer Assault.

Going down the Hellfire path will grant you the Hellfire pact, a boon from Mephistopheles, granting a permanent +50% to Fire and Cold resistance and a +20% bonus to elemental damage dealt by the Warlock. This will likely bring you up to 100% elemental resistance if you have the right items, and it makes your elemental shaped blasts even more powerful.

Hellfire Shield is a type of Fire Shield that grants 125% Fire Resistance, +50% to all fire damage dealt by the Warlock, a +4 bonus to AC, and immunity to weapons below +3. Any enemy who makes an attack to the Warlock within a 5 foot radius takes 2d10+2 fire damage. Using this ability will drain one Constitution point for 8 hours, and it only lasts one turn, so consider its timing well.

Hellfire Blast is the last ability to look at for this class, and it’s a doozy. This gives you a new spellcasting menu, from which you may use the Hellfire versions of the Eldritch Blast abilities you’ve come to know. The Hellfire Blasts use a d10 instead of a d6, and using it in conjunction with Hellfire Shield’s +50% damage, you’re looking at well over 100 damage per hit. Not to mention that this blast bypasses fire resistance, so it’ll be effective on pretty much every enemy you come across, including the final boss.

The counter to this is that every single time you make an attack roll with the Hellfire Blast and its variations, you lose one point of Constitution for 8 hours. This can be cured with greater restoration, so make sure you have a cleric on hand to be your Warlock’s person butler.

My personal favourite usage of the Hellfire Blast is using Hellfire Chain. It will obliterate almost anything and everything in its path, and it’s incredibly gratifying to use.

Now, with all the high-level abilities considered, we can say that Warlock is definitely the most powerful class compared to… pretty much everything else. But I ask you again, is there anything wrong with that?

It’s fun! It’s really, really fun! You can balance a game as much as you want, but if you balance the fun out of it, you end up with a class like the Shaman, whose spirits are free, infinite, and eventually spawn as soon as the previous one died. You can balance that by making the ability only usable when standing still, doing nothing, or… you could let the player enjoy themselves. Rewarding (or punishing) the player for their choices is what CRPGs are all about, and that should extend to the mechanical aspects as well as the narrative.

If anything, the power creep all the way from level 1 to level 40 as a Warlock actually strengthens the already seamless gameplay and narrative transition all the way from your humble beginnings to ascending to godhood. Playing a Warlock all the way through Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 actually made my character feel like a Bhaalspawn, and the only other class to do that is the Sorcerer. A custom made conjurer will never be better than Edwin, a Blade never better than Haer’Dalis, and a monk never better than Rasaad.

Just kidding. Kinda. I love Mark Meer.

Still, though. If you will indulge me for but a moment, then have a look at Caelar Argent. She’s an Aasimar — debatably on par with a Bhaalspawn — and she has Cure Critical Wounds, Bless, and Shining Bolt (5d6 magic damage) as innate abilities, as well as natural resistances to elements and magic. The player character doesn’t get anything like that.

I’m not blaming the game designers for this. Far from it, in fact. I just want my main character, after so many years of playing and replaying these games, to feel more unique compared to all the other companions. The Warlock is practically my dream come true, in that regard. The fantasy of pulling power from within yourself makes perfect sense for a Bhaalspawn, and all the natural benefits that you gain (and I can’t believe I’m about to say this) make you really FEEL like a Bhaalspawn.

It may make you feel a little too powerful, since Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 are something of an underdog story, but if you’re going to go all in on the Warlock, I’d recommend at least dabbling in Sword Coast Stratagems to organically balance the game out a little bit.

If you’re playing this mod in Icewind Dale, then of course, all of that is irrelevant. I feel like it matches the energy of IWD well.

Speaking of Icewind Dale, there are several Warlock-exclusive items that this mods introduces into both Baldur’s Gate 1 and Icewind Dale. As far as I’m aware, all the BG1 items get exported into BG2. Icewind Dale grants you a powerful piece of armour and a very handy ring. Baldur’s Gate 1 grants you a late-game bastard sword, a pair of gauntlets, and a cursed ring.

Recently added in a new update of the mod for BG2 is a new set of armour and gauntlets. You won’t be starved of unique items regardless of the game you play.

If you haven’t tried this mod before, you may be somewhat overwhelmed with all of this. Trust me when I say that playing the Warlock from level 1 and utilising the Artisan’s Invocation list when you level up will make things a lot simpler to understand. Swapping between the game and the list almost gave me the nostalgic feeling of flipping through the physical manual back when I played these games for the first time.

To give you a little head start, though, I’m going to give you some tips to building a Warlock at level 1.

Firstly, a Warlock is restricted to humans and half-elves, because its technically a bard subclass. Picking half-elf will give you a bonus to pick pockets, but it doesn’t really matter. Choosing Chaotic Neutral will grant you the most variety in how you build your Warlock, but if you’re dead set on either the Eldritch Path or the Hellfire Path, feel free to pick either. If it’s your first time playing the Warlock, I’d recommend Neutral. Charisma, Constitution, and Dexterity are your most important stats, since so many spells receive bonuses from high Charisma and many high level spells burn through Constitution like fuel. Dexterity is important for AC, of course. I’d recommend 18 in each, and putting whatever’s left into Strength. You’ll definitely want to increase these stats permanently with whatever means available.

Choose whatever weapon you like, but Warlocks get a unique upgradeable bastard sword from Durlag’s Tower.

For your first Invocation, choose Dark One’s Own Luck. If your Charisma is 18, you’ll have an immediate +3 to THAC0 and damage. And with that, you’ll have a good time not dying to Shank in Candlekeep.

You may have gotten the impression that I like the Warlock, and you would be correct in that assumption. I don’t think it’s that well balanced in the later levels, but a large number of players think that level 18+ combat is boring anyway, so having new and exciting tools at your disposal to shred enemies might just be the revitalising factor which is needed. No Time Stop, no Hardiness or Critical Strike. Just Eldritch Blast, baby. Some things never change.

I would thoroughly recommend the Warlock mod to anyone who’s grown weary of Infinity Engine combat as well as those looking for something new, high quality, and diverse. There are so many different things that you can do with this class that I can easily see myself building completely different versions of the Warlock. I can’t say that for any other class.

For this reason, the Warlock gets my hearty recommendation.

Thanks for reading.

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