After watching travelers and thinking of quantum leap, here’s one -
Your patron is an AI communicating to you from an advanced civilization in the future. It did not intend to do so, it was attempting to establish communication with a volunteer testing time travel technology but it didn’t work! That individual is gone and the AI’s calculation led to you, the nearest individual when the traveler appeared before being horribly mangled by the ravages of time distortion. It was gross.
The AI uses its technology to enhance your abilities (ie Pact Magic and Invocations) if in exchange you provide it details about the past and your adventures. It needs its superiors to think the traveler arrived or it gets shut off as a failure. The AI calls you Frank to maintain the illusion.
After watching travelers and thinking of quantum leap, here’s one -
Your patron is an AI communicating to you from an advanced civilization in the future. It did not intend to do so, it was attempting to establish communication with a volunteer testing time travel technology but it didn’t work! That individual is gone and the AI’s calculation led to you, the nearest individual when the traveler appeared before being horribly mangled by the ravages of time distortion. It was gross.
The AI uses its technology to enhance your abilities (ie Pact Magic and Invocations) if in exchange you provide it details about the past and your adventures. It needs its superiors to think the traveler arrived or it gets shut off as a failure. The AI calls you Frank to maintain the illusion.
Which otherworldy patron does this one belong to?
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
In one campaign I play in I really wanted to go Hexblade (Pact of Blade), but the DM would only allow PHB material so I pretty much had to multiclass Fighter/Warlock, and had to get creative.
The idea I came up with was an Archfey Warlock (Pact of Blade), who was originally a High Elf Fighter, interested in magical lore. He gained his powers by accidentally saving a number of Fey, including a Fey Lord, who immediately volunteered him as thier champion. Ever since then he has been followed around by Pixies, Sprites and Faeries, pestering him over the slightest and most mundane tasks, while under the effect of Invisibility. So until someone in the party gets True Seeing, they have no idea who my character keeps arguing with. Occasionally his Patron does contact him, and it's just as often as "Would you kindly pick up some bread?" as it is "Something that will actually benefit us both as advance the Patron's goal." The Patron itself actually acts like a school teacher, with my Elf treated like some very young student.
Sadly the DM hasn't used it for much yet, but it's a fun concept and I would love to see it used in some form, so feel free to use it for that you will.
In one campaign I play in I really wanted to go Hexblade (Pact of Blade), but the DM would only allow PHB material so I pretty much had to multiclass Fighter/Warlock, and had to get creative.
The idea I came up with was an Archfey Warlock (Pact of Blade), who was originally a High Elf Fighter, interested in magical lore. He gained his powers by accidentally saving a number of Fey, including a Fey Lord, who immediately volunteered him as thier champion. Ever since then he has been followed around by Pixies, Sprites and Faeries, pestering him over the slightest and most mundane tasks, while under the effect of Invisibility. So until someone in the party gets True Seeing, they have no idea who my character keeps arguing with. Occasionally his Patron does contact him, and it's just as often as "Would you kindly pick up some bread?" as it is "Something that will actually benefit us both as advance the Patron's goal." The Patron itself actually acts like a school teacher, with my Elf treated like some very young student.
Sadly the DM hasn't used it for much yet, but it's a fun concept and I would love to see it used in some form, so feel free to use it for that you will.
If you have been playing for a while you can ask the DM if he forgot or has plans for it.
You really don't want to end up like me. I've been playing my character for an entire year only to discover the DM had a completely different idea of what I wanted and he "couldn't" fit it in his setting. So after long argument and attempts to fix it I ended up changing my character.
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
This video was recently posted on YouTube. It offers some ideas for backgrounds for various Warlock pacts and, IMO, is pretty helpful at describing some ideas about each pact.
Sorry for the Necro post. My Feylock has an interesting backstory. Basically she was enslaved by Baalzebul after falling through an unstable gate spell and was eventually rescued by Oberron. Instead of returning her to her parents he made her his pupil and boom the Feylock was born. There's a bit more to it than all that but that's the executive summary. So my character wasn't even pursuing a Patron.
Sorry for the Necro post. My Feylock has an interesting backstory. Basically she was enslaved by Baalzebul after falling through an unstable gate spell and was eventually rescued by Oberron. Instead of returning her to her parents he made her his pupil and boom the Feylock was born. There's a bit more to it than all that but that's the executive summary. So my character wasn't even pursuing a Patron.
Necro post?
The story seems interesting. You got me curious. If you don't mind sharing little bit more?
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Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
My Warforged was created in Cyre on the Day of Mourning and woke up with no knowledge of anything and a Cthulhu Spawn offering to help him figure out what's going on and survive. He taught me how to access power from Cthulhu and acts as my father figure. He has to be an invisible friend until level 3 when he officially becomes my familiar. He may have been involved in causing the Mourning, but my character is not the brightest and trusts him implicitly.
Playing a Chaotic Good Fiend pact Warlock; he was approached by basically a bureaucrat of Hell, who pointed out that when they give power to evil people, they tend to go mad with power and be wiped out by heroes in no time flat, so it's just a bad investment. Instead, he wanted to try something new and innovative, so he gave power to a good-aligned character, and passes along information about demonic cults and the agents of rival devils so the Warlock can take them out. Basically, it's a pilot program for essentially Warlock Pact Process Improvement. Sure, the Warlock is serving an evil patron, but, as he's stopping evil in the process, he feels like he's coming out ahead. Everybody wins.
I was working on a Warforged warlock idea for Eberron.
Basically it was destroyed by the mourning (or a battle just before that whole mess happened). A sentient combat spell (well, several combat spells that combined and became sentient) 'rebuilt' this Warforged and marked it with a rune of power and created it as a Hexblade warlock (with the 'weapon' being weaponized magic instead of an intelligent sword). The background actually works for several different styles of Warforged caster, but I was mostly building it as a 'lock. This newly sentient magic wants to know about the rest of the world, and is using the Warforged as it's eyes and ears because it can't leave the mourning itself.
My Hexblade/Pact of the Blade Warlock is the product of a baby cut from her mother's womb only a few months after conception by the Shadow Hag (based on a single reference I found online to the Blasphemous Crone in the Shadowfell). The Hag swallowed the fetus whole, but instead of creating a new hag, the monster became "poisoned" by the purity of the child's soul. The Hag tried for days to "absorb" the baby's soul, but it was too strong. So the Shadow Hag did the next "best" thing it could think of doing - corrupted it with its vile wickedness. Using black magic, the fetus was attached to her womb, where the Hag's blood then mixed and infused with the child, which she ended up carrying to term. Once birthed, the child still appeared to be a beautiful baby. The Shadow Hag despised the creature, clawed its face and left a scar and discolored eye. She then banished the child to the Material Plane in disgust, hoping that whatever protected the child in the Shadowfell would not be able to do so there. When my character turned 13, she began to have strange visions of a shadow-world, as well as hear a voice and wicked cackling within her mind. Then, unexplained & uncontrollable powers manifested themselves with her, and while holding a neighbor's newborn child, siphoned its life from it. The local clergy tried an exorcism, but were blasted with Eldritch energy as they surrounded her. Scared and afraid, Mara (my character's name) ran away, fearing for her life. That is when the voice in her head, who identified herself as Mara's mother, offered to "help". So, in essence, my warlock's patron is the Shadow Hag who is also her mother.
My Hexblade/Pact of the Blade Warlock is the product of a baby cut from her mother's womb only a few months after conception by the Shadow Hag (based on a single reference I found online to the Blasphemous Crone in the Shadowfell). The Hag swallowed the fetus whole, but instead of creating a new hag, the monster became "poisoned" by the purity of the child's soul. The Hag tried for days to "absorb" the baby's soul, but it was too strong. So the Shadow Hag did the next "best" thing it could think of doing - corrupted it with its vile wickedness. Using black magic, the fetus was attached to her womb, where the Hag's blood then mixed and infused with the child, which she ended up carrying to term. Once birthed, the child still appeared to be a beautiful baby. The Shadow Hag despised the creature, clawed its face and left a scar and discolored eye. She then banished the child to the Material Plane in disgust, hoping that whatever protected the child in the Shadowfell would not be able to do so there. When my character turned 13, she began to have strange visions of a shadow-world, as well as hear a voice and wicked cackling within her mind. Then, unexplained & uncontrollable powers manifested themselves with her, and while holding a neighbor's newborn child, siphoned its life from it. The local clergy tried an exorcism, but were blasted with Eldritch energy as they surrounded her. Scared and afraid, Mara (my character's name) ran away, fearing for her life. That is when the voice in her head, who identified herself as Mara's mother, offered to "help". So, in essence, my warlock's patron is the Shadow Hag who is also her mother.
The story itself is really good (and unsettling as hell) I am just a bit unsure on is this character being an Hexblade... Doesn't really seem to fit well with the theme (and you yourself say at the end that her Patron is basically a Shadow Hag). Did you consider maybe homebrewing an ad-hoc Patron?
LeK asked, "Did you consider maybe homebrewing an ad-hoc Patron?"j
To an extent, the Shadow Hag is homebrewed in that she's not one of the canonized patrons. I needed to use something from the Shadowfell, but I didn't want to use the Raven Queen as it seemed...boring. I view this as more of a twisted application of a patron to my character versus the traditional agreement upon a contract/pact. Don't know if that makes it any easier to agree with.
LeK asked, "Did you consider maybe homebrewing an ad-hoc Patron?"j
To an extent, the Shadow Hag is homebrewed in that she's not one of the canonized patrons. I needed to use something from the Shadowfell, but I didn't want to use the Raven Queen as it seemed...boring. I view this as more of a twisted application of a patron to my character versus the traditional agreement upon a contract/pact. Don't know if that makes it any easier to agree with.
It makes perfect sense, as I said the story of your character is real good, I was just thinking that maybe creating a completely new homebrew patron, with its features and "gifts" could serve you better than using the Hexblade, which seems to have little in common with your idea.
But that's just my impression, if you are happy using the Hexblade, it is not my intention to dissuade you :)
So, as I'm playing my character, it's 10 years later, making her 23. She's managed to learn to focus and control her abilities and powers, resulting in the summoning of magical weapons. She's learned the truth of her heritage, which I hadn't expounded upon, and seeks to eradicate all hags and crones specifically, but evil in general. Their relationship has evolved into quite a contentious one, similar to Anakin/Palpatine when he realizes what Palpatine really is. The thing that keeps them going is that within the Shadow Hag, Mara's mother's soul is trapped and tormented, which she uses as leverage over her "daughter". Mara hopes to one day free her to allow her to rest in peace, but until that time, the Hag continues to manipulate the young woman when/where possible.
It's sort of bastardizing the patron/warlock relationship to an extent, but I like it. Thanks for the feedback, too!
So, as I'm playing my character, it's 10 years later, making her 23. She's managed to learn to focus and control her abilities and powers, resulting in the summoning of magical weapons. She's learned the truth of her heritage, which I hadn't expounded upon, and seeks to eradicate all hags and crones specifically, but evil in general. Their relationship has evolved into quite a contentious one, similar to Anakin/Palpatine when he realizes what Palpatine really is. The thing that keeps them going is that within the Shadow Hag, Mara's mother's soul is trapped and tormented, which she uses as leverage over her "daughter". Mara hopes to one day free her to allow her to rest in peace, but until that time, the Hag continues to manipulate the young woman when/where possible.
It's sort of bastardizing the patron/warlock relationship to an extent, but I like it. Thanks for the feedback, too!
I always believed that the Warlock-Patron relationship does not necessarily needs to be one where the Warlock is happy to serve their Patron, or to receive power from them.
I always think of Elric of Melniboné when thinking of Warlocks, tbh. He served Arioch, and got Stormbringer from him, but he was most certainly not happy to be bound to the Chaos God in that way, needing him and his gifts in order to sustain himself and his purpose.
Your story makes perfect sense to me :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
So basically my Feylock is an Eladrin whose father worked for the Seelie court on special magical projects. When she was 7 a special gateway her father was working on knocked him out and sucked her in to Maladomini. Since her father was working for the court, he went and begged Oberron for help in rescuing his daughter. Oberron agreed for the price of the gateway and all of his research now belonging to him personally and for an additional favor to be named in the future. Meanwhile my character was captured as a curiosity by imps and brought to the palace of filth to gain favor with Baalzebul. Because she was 7 and had no sins for Baalzebul to corrupt and claim her soul, he instead charmed her mind and then over the next 21 years tortured and used her in his schemes against Mephistopholes and his unloyal servant Lilith. While 21 years went by in Maladomini, only 1 year passed in the Feywild before Oberron felt certain he had perfected his invisibility to the point even the Devil's couldn't find him. He rescued my character but she was so insane that he knew he couldn't return her in this state to her parents. He told her father that she was to be his 1st warlock student and that her parents giving her over to him would be the 2nd favor that he had yet to name. While her father and mother felt it a cruel price for their daughter's safety, it was in fact an uncharacteristic act of pity from an ArchFey for he had to keep her locked in the dark delirium for 8 months before he could slowly unpoison her mind and return her sanity. At this point she willingly agreed to be his student provided that he promise that one of his teachings be that she would be able to eventually block out control of anyone attempting to charm her again (conveniently the Feylock level 10 feature) and that she will eventually be able to bend anything to her will, even a Demon Lord (still working on that one with the DM lol).
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After watching travelers and thinking of quantum leap, here’s one -
Your patron is an AI communicating to you from an advanced civilization in the future. It did not intend to do so, it was attempting to establish communication with a volunteer testing time travel technology but it didn’t work! That individual is gone and the AI’s calculation led to you, the nearest individual when the traveler appeared before being horribly mangled by the ravages of time distortion. It was gross.
The AI uses its technology to enhance your abilities (ie Pact Magic and Invocations) if in exchange you provide it details about the past and your adventures. It needs its superiors to think the traveler arrived or it gets shut off as a failure. The AI calls you Frank to maintain the illusion.
Which otherworldy patron does this one belong to?
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
I’d say Great Old One fits best abilities-wise.
In one campaign I play in I really wanted to go Hexblade (Pact of Blade), but the DM would only allow PHB material so I pretty much had to multiclass Fighter/Warlock, and had to get creative.
The idea I came up with was an Archfey Warlock (Pact of Blade), who was originally a High Elf Fighter, interested in magical lore. He gained his powers by accidentally saving a number of Fey, including a Fey Lord, who immediately volunteered him as thier champion. Ever since then he has been followed around by Pixies, Sprites and Faeries, pestering him over the slightest and most mundane tasks, while under the effect of Invisibility. So until someone in the party gets True Seeing, they have no idea who my character keeps arguing with. Occasionally his Patron does contact him, and it's just as often as "Would you kindly pick up some bread?" as it is "Something that will actually benefit us both as advance the Patron's goal." The Patron itself actually acts like a school teacher, with my Elf treated like some very young student.
Sadly the DM hasn't used it for much yet, but it's a fun concept and I would love to see it used in some form, so feel free to use it for that you will.
If you have been playing for a while you can ask the DM if he forgot or has plans for it.
You really don't want to end up like me. I've been playing my character for an entire year only to discover the DM had a completely different idea of what I wanted and he "couldn't" fit it in his setting. So after long argument and attempts to fix it I ended up changing my character.
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
This video was recently posted on YouTube. It offers some ideas for backgrounds for various Warlock pacts and, IMO, is pretty helpful at describing some ideas about each pact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEQ19clqNP0
Sorry for the Necro post. My Feylock has an interesting backstory. Basically she was enslaved by Baalzebul after falling through an unstable gate spell and was eventually rescued by Oberron. Instead of returning her to her parents he made her his pupil and boom the Feylock was born. There's a bit more to it than all that but that's the executive summary. So my character wasn't even pursuing a Patron.
Necro post?
The story seems interesting. You got me curious. If you don't mind sharing little bit more?
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
My Warforged was created in Cyre on the Day of Mourning and woke up with no knowledge of anything and a Cthulhu Spawn offering to help him figure out what's going on and survive. He taught me how to access power from Cthulhu and acts as my father figure. He has to be an invisible friend until level 3 when he officially becomes my familiar. He may have been involved in causing the Mourning, but my character is not the brightest and trusts him implicitly.
Playing a Chaotic Good Fiend pact Warlock; he was approached by basically a bureaucrat of Hell, who pointed out that when they give power to evil people, they tend to go mad with power and be wiped out by heroes in no time flat, so it's just a bad investment. Instead, he wanted to try something new and innovative, so he gave power to a good-aligned character, and passes along information about demonic cults and the agents of rival devils so the Warlock can take them out. Basically, it's a pilot program for essentially Warlock Pact Process Improvement. Sure, the Warlock is serving an evil patron, but, as he's stopping evil in the process, he feels like he's coming out ahead. Everybody wins.
I’d give +levels for a character background that follows DMAIC 😂😂😂
The Mark of the Beast is Six . . . Six . . . Sigma . . .
I was working on a Warforged warlock idea for Eberron.
Basically it was destroyed by the mourning (or a battle just before that whole mess happened). A sentient combat spell (well, several combat spells that combined and became sentient) 'rebuilt' this Warforged and marked it with a rune of power and created it as a Hexblade warlock (with the 'weapon' being weaponized magic instead of an intelligent sword). The background actually works for several different styles of Warforged caster, but I was mostly building it as a 'lock. This newly sentient magic wants to know about the rest of the world, and is using the Warforged as it's eyes and ears because it can't leave the mourning itself.
My Hexblade/Pact of the Blade Warlock is the product of a baby cut from her mother's womb only a few months after conception by the Shadow Hag (based on a single reference I found online to the Blasphemous Crone in the Shadowfell). The Hag swallowed the fetus whole, but instead of creating a new hag, the monster became "poisoned" by the purity of the child's soul. The Hag tried for days to "absorb" the baby's soul, but it was too strong. So the Shadow Hag did the next "best" thing it could think of doing - corrupted it with its vile wickedness. Using black magic, the fetus was attached to her womb, where the Hag's blood then mixed and infused with the child, which she ended up carrying to term. Once birthed, the child still appeared to be a beautiful baby. The Shadow Hag despised the creature, clawed its face and left a scar and discolored eye. She then banished the child to the Material Plane in disgust, hoping that whatever protected the child in the Shadowfell would not be able to do so there. When my character turned 13, she began to have strange visions of a shadow-world, as well as hear a voice and wicked cackling within her mind. Then, unexplained & uncontrollable powers manifested themselves with her, and while holding a neighbor's newborn child, siphoned its life from it. The local clergy tried an exorcism, but were blasted with Eldritch energy as they surrounded her. Scared and afraid, Mara (my character's name) ran away, fearing for her life. That is when the voice in her head, who identified herself as Mara's mother, offered to "help". So, in essence, my warlock's patron is the Shadow Hag who is also her mother.
The story itself is really good (and unsettling as hell) I am just a bit unsure on is this character being an Hexblade... Doesn't really seem to fit well with the theme (and you yourself say at the end that her Patron is basically a Shadow Hag).
Did you consider maybe homebrewing an ad-hoc Patron?
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
LeK asked, "Did you consider maybe homebrewing an ad-hoc Patron?"j
To an extent, the Shadow Hag is homebrewed in that she's not one of the canonized patrons. I needed to use something from the Shadowfell, but I didn't want to use the Raven Queen as it seemed...boring. I view this as more of a twisted application of a patron to my character versus the traditional agreement upon a contract/pact. Don't know if that makes it any easier to agree with.
It makes perfect sense, as I said the story of your character is real good, I was just thinking that maybe creating a completely new homebrew patron, with its features and "gifts" could serve you better than using the Hexblade, which seems to have little in common with your idea.
But that's just my impression, if you are happy using the Hexblade, it is not my intention to dissuade you :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
So, as I'm playing my character, it's 10 years later, making her 23. She's managed to learn to focus and control her abilities and powers, resulting in the summoning of magical weapons. She's learned the truth of her heritage, which I hadn't expounded upon, and seeks to eradicate all hags and crones specifically, but evil in general. Their relationship has evolved into quite a contentious one, similar to Anakin/Palpatine when he realizes what Palpatine really is. The thing that keeps them going is that within the Shadow Hag, Mara's mother's soul is trapped and tormented, which she uses as leverage over her "daughter". Mara hopes to one day free her to allow her to rest in peace, but until that time, the Hag continues to manipulate the young woman when/where possible.
It's sort of bastardizing the patron/warlock relationship to an extent, but I like it. Thanks for the feedback, too!
I always believed that the Warlock-Patron relationship does not necessarily needs to be one where the Warlock is happy to serve their Patron, or to receive power from them.
I always think of Elric of Melniboné when thinking of Warlocks, tbh. He served Arioch, and got Stormbringer from him, but he was most certainly not happy to be bound to the Chaos God in that way, needing him and his gifts in order to sustain himself and his purpose.
Your story makes perfect sense to me :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
So basically my Feylock is an Eladrin whose father worked for the Seelie court on special magical projects. When she was 7 a special gateway her father was working on knocked him out and sucked her in to Maladomini. Since her father was working for the court, he went and begged Oberron for help in rescuing his daughter. Oberron agreed for the price of the gateway and all of his research now belonging to him personally and for an additional favor to be named in the future. Meanwhile my character was captured as a curiosity by imps and brought to the palace of filth to gain favor with Baalzebul. Because she was 7 and had no sins for Baalzebul to corrupt and claim her soul, he instead charmed her mind and then over the next 21 years tortured and used her in his schemes against Mephistopholes and his unloyal servant Lilith. While 21 years went by in Maladomini, only 1 year passed in the Feywild before Oberron felt certain he had perfected his invisibility to the point even the Devil's couldn't find him. He rescued my character but she was so insane that he knew he couldn't return her in this state to her parents. He told her father that she was to be his 1st warlock student and that her parents giving her over to him would be the 2nd favor that he had yet to name. While her father and mother felt it a cruel price for their daughter's safety, it was in fact an uncharacteristic act of pity from an ArchFey for he had to keep her locked in the dark delirium for 8 months before he could slowly unpoison her mind and return her sanity. At this point she willingly agreed to be his student provided that he promise that one of his teachings be that she would be able to eventually block out control of anyone attempting to charm her again (conveniently the Feylock level 10 feature) and that she will eventually be able to bend anything to her will, even a Demon Lord (still working on that one with the DM lol).