SP: One of the revealed new base classes is the relatively unknown warlock from the Complete Arcane supplement. Can you tell us what has prompted the inclusion of the warlock, and what the players can expect from this class? How does it differ from the standard wizard and sorcerer classes?

Ferret Baudoin: When Obsidian Entertainment first landed the Neverwinter Nights 2 project there was much rejoicing – queue Sir Robin’s minstrels. After the minstrels fell into their drunken stupor, us designers got to decide what could we do that’s new and hasn’t been seen before in a Dungeons and Dragons computer game. One thing there’s never been in these games is a new base class – and that seemed like something really overdue especially in light of all of Wizard of the Coast’s new Complete series of books.

So why the Warlock, you ask? Because it’s a class that provides a completely new way to play a spellcaster - all in one sleek, malevolent package. Warlocks can cast their invocations at will which means that spell conservation and the whole spell level concept isn’t really relevant to them. Wizards and sorcerers always have a finite resource they’re trying to stretch out for their day. They have to juggle concepts like spells per day, spell levels, and memorization. A warlock is well suited to fighting dozens of battles in one fun-filled computer game session – and they’re easy for new people to “grok”. And they’re just plain fun. :)