Let's get demonic.

May 27, 2020 4:51 PM

I wish to roleplay a warlock (in a game).

Specifically the archetype of channeling demonic and corruptive forces - maybe even for good? Though not necessarily for good, as long as it's fun. When I play World of Warcraft my main character is a warlock, which allows you to have a demon pet, with the subclasses focusing on summoning more demons or on damage over time spells being my favorite. I can't think of any games I've played with this kind of class in it and so can't give any other solid examples. Maybe necromancers in Diablo? I've only just now found it, but Fictorum looks like a good model of what I would be looking for: third person, interesting spell system, bonus points for being able to blow things up.

posted by Evilspork to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: You can summon demons as a core play style lots of different ways in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Through worship of the demonic god, through summoning magic, and through items.

You can play as a demonspawn race and get demonic abilities that way too (including summons and damage over time). There’s also a corruptor god of the abyss, and lots of ways to specialize in damage over time. You can be good or evil or switch or be neither or chaotic.

It’s an amazing game and it can hit all your theme points in spades, but it’s a classic roguelike that takes a little while to get the hang of. It’s also free and open source and plays on any platform, including online in a browser or terminal, which is nice.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:45 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: The first two Dragon Age games (Origins* and II) allow you to learn blood magic, which isn’t demon-based but decidedly evil (and allows you to blow enemies up by exploding their blood from within). The third Dragon Age game (Inquisition) lets you be a necromancer, so again not demons, but the spirits of the dead causing havoc on your behalf. All three have good role playing and interesting spell systems.

* It’s easy to miss learning blood magic in Origins, if you decide to play PM me and I’ll give you a spoiler-free guide to getting it. Or look up a walkthrough.
posted by ejs at 5:46 PM on May 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: In Skyrim you can focus on the Conjuration skill tree and learn to summon zombies, familiars, elementals, and eventually demon lords. If you get the various DLCs you can learn to summon even more demonic beings, including an undead steed. You can even become a vampire lord and learn vampiric skills. And best of all, there are many questlines in the vanilla game where you do favors for horrible eldritch gods and they grant you gifts with hideous powers. But you can use them for good if you want. :)
posted by ejs at 6:00 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If you haven't played Dishonored and its sequel, these have a good dose of what you're talking about. It's like Thief if you had magical powers like teleportation, summoning rats, taking control of bodies etc. Definitely more focused on the sneaking and FPS type gameplay but definitely super good.

Noita is a great roguelike side-scrolling action platformer where you're constantly mixing spells a la Fictorum and the whole world is destructable. I've had tons of fun with it and they're still updating.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:46 PM on May 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If you haven't played Dishonored, holy cow definitely DO, because it's a GREAT game.

The protagonist Corvo isn't really a necro/warlock because the cosmology of the Dunwall universe doesn't seem to have that kind of mythos, but the actual supernatural being on hand -- who is the source of Corvo's powers -- is decidedly not a nice guy, and using those powers is seen in-game as evil or dangerous. It's one of those games with lots of internal choices that influence the gameplay and ending, so you can play dark or light.
posted by uberchet at 6:21 AM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Let me recommend the Overlord series of games -- or, at least the first few, I'm not sure if the later ones followed the same formula. They're a bit old (e.g.: PS3/Xbox360 era, though there may be PC versions) but hella fun. The main game mechanic is that you control a horde of minions and you can send them around to attack enemies and do tasks, like throwing switches or carrying a mcguffin. You definitely can attack on your own but sending a swarm of little goblin-y dudes to overwhelm your enemeis is super satisfying.

This Let's Play video has some decent examples of the minion horde mechanics.
posted by mhum at 10:57 AM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for all the suggestions! I definitely enjoyed the skeezix out of Overlord 1/2.
posted by Evilspork at 2:34 PM on May 28, 2020