Since the core of a Warlock is why they made the choice to form a pact or like the motive of the pact I ask what are reasons you would make a pact or what you're trying to gain from it?
Greed is a common reason for a pact, but greed can refer to a lot of things. You might surrender yourself to a greater power for just survival, either having been critically injured, horribly sick, or perhaps your so economically poor you are simply starving to death. Another option I've always loved is the idea of having originally made a pact that became a monkey paw, maybe you wished to save another or reverse a terrible harvest, maybe you simply wanted the classic of asking for someone to fall in love with you. A fun thing to do with any character, even non warlocks, is to ask the question of, "What sort of things would make me want to make a pact with some higher being?"
I’m playing a Warlock right now who is lazy. He made the pact because he didn’t want to study to be a wizard, he wanted to weild arcane magic without working for it or waiting.
I’m playing a Warlock right now who is lazy. He made the pact because he didn’t want to study to be a wizard, he wanted to weird arcane magic without working for it or waiting.
I’m playing a Warlock right now who is lazy. He made the pact because he didn’t want to study to be a wizard, he wanted to weird arcane magic without working for it or waiting.
That's a creative one
Thank you. I had fun writing it. He's a Variant Human with Magic Initiate (Wizard) as his 1st level feat and he uses Deception constantly to pretend that he successfully finished his training as a Wizard instead of making a Pact with a Great Old One who extruded a part of itself as a book in the library where he was studying and contacted him through that book. The Wizard 1st level spell and Wizard only cantrip that he knows help a lot with pretending that he's a Wizard since anyone who makes an Arcana check knows that he casts spells that Warlocks don't know or have access to.
The rest of the players in my group know what he is but their characters don't know what he is.
Vengeance is a pretty common one, I imagine Desperation can be another one, even though probably a bit harder to make work Deception by the Patron in tricking the soon-to-be Warlock into the pact Love is another one: the mortal fell in love with their patron and decided to pledge eternal servitude
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Everyone has a boss and most bosses pay you a few coppers for some lousy job that barely covers the bar tab you run up trying to drink away the fact your life sucks.
Mine started as desperation - a fairly typical orphan criminal needed money, and decided to try killing instead of stealing. She was about to back out of the deal out of fear and nervousness, when her patron offered help.
She then grew to like killing - the feeling of power it gave her. If killing made both her and her patron happy - all the better...
I have a character who was homeless farmer, having gotten the pact by accident via The Old One patron that says might not be aware of you.
You could however be seeking power and your relation to evil is dependent on your goal for the power. If you want revenge your likely to be evil, if you want it to save your family/small farm town from a Tyrant lord or blackmailing thieves guild of which they can't escape how has threatened to kill them all if they don't pay a price they can't possibly pay by a stated deadline, or you be neutral having dreamed of being a hero but had not useful talent and so excepted a deal in the hopes your good deeds out way any evil your patron may call on you in return for this power.
… Of course not matter why you took it .. you can change your mind and defy your pact, for example you could make a deal with fiend for revenge at the destruction of your home town and the murder of your family... but when asked to wipe out a town and murder families in return for the power, you deny your patron and turn your warlock powers against them. Unlike a cleric, once your powers are given they are yours and don't continue to feed from your patron. HOWEVER, if you betray your pact … when you die their is a chance you become a Deathlock Wight from Dead in Thay , a Deathlock or a Deathlock Mastermind from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Now dead your pact can called due and even be used to undo the good you have done. Unless of course you are able to defeat or free yourself from your patron before your death or your patron is not evil like the Archfay or Celestial. The Great Old one might not as simply because your too insignificant to have ever drawn its attention and so it does bother with turning you into Deathlock as suck small tasks are beneath it.
So a Celestial patron might give some power to avenge their family for the sake of justice and destroying said evil. So really you can be kind of dark with a light patron and light with a dark patron. It only matters that your motivated to take the power and use it on something they have goal to get done. If their goal it to corrupt or control you as a minion that might be a point of contention you are willing to except at first. It also means warlocks are not evil by nature but its common for them to perceived as evil since the pact represents seeking power and a number of them are evil. This perception side steps the reality of the Spawn arc type (wanted to avenge his family, made a promise to a demon for the power to do so, regretted it later when the demon asked him to hurt innocent and turn against his patron using his power to try and stop this patrons goals) or the ghost rider arc type (Works for an evil demon patron to hunt evil demons and evil warlocks who have betrayed our patron, "Yes I am evil, but what If I can make you powerful let you be a good guy, hunt the evil in the world by destroying my underlings.. I will lose underlings and weaken my forces so your fighting me while doing as I ask...why would I do this? ...simple.. no one betrays me and lives and you can go where I can not …. those hiding places in the light where only a good man could hunt with out good forces standing in the way. Yes, yes, this makes my other minions obey and sure it might tighten my grip on them... but they already serve me. What do you say? Be my bounty hunter and I will make you a hero for the good guys! does it really matter where the power comes from? I need a hero of the light to go to places of the greatest good and destroy dark forces out of my reach so you never have to do anything dark or immoral as doing so would make you useless to me"
The lack of inflection in text means that a reader of any post adds their own inflection as they "verbalize" it in their head. I write long and repetitive in an effort to be clear and avoid my intent from being skewed or inverted. I am also bad at examples. It is common for people to skim my posts pull out the idea they think I mean or want to argue against or focus on my bad example instead of the point I am actually trying to make. I apologies for the confusion my failure to be clear and concise creates.
I like to think that the warlock is tricking the patron, since they’re getting more out of the deal with their invocations and boons. Another cool element you can add to your warlock role play is an open and shut pact, meaning after the deal the warlock doesn’t have to do anything else. However to achieve such deal the warlock will have to give something up that is so important, that their patron couldn’t say no. I’m playing a warlock that made himself blind for the power of the Great old One and uses his familiar to see.
Mine made his pact out of desperation. He was going to be executed for a murder he didn't commit, and his patron came to him and made an offer he took in order to survive and go on the run.
Mine was enslaved by a mercenary band that the patron sought vengeance against. In her act of revenge, the patron saved my character and found a dedicated follower who formed a pact out of gratitude. Pact of the Arch fey.
Aside from my not very nice Tiefling Hexblade, I wrote up a Protector Aasimar Celestial Warlock. She's wholly good - her patron saw that goodness and light in her as a young child, and gifted her a special sword to use in her patron's honor.
I have been playing with the idea of a reluctant warlock. He came across knowledge of a fountain of immense power, but it turned out to be a powerful evil fiend.
My warlock is a Half Elf with little regard for rules, but is inclined to do good deeds. His desire for power comes from the wish to do good. Knowing this, his evil manipulative patron occasionally forces him to burn and destroy in order to maintain the pact.
I think it is an interesting concept to play with. I came up with the idea while building a character for a "save the world" campaign involving the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and the Rise of Tiamat modules. Regrettably, I never got to play the campaign. I suppose it would be interesting to roleplay, but would require a good deal of communication with the DM and group interested in a dramatic game.
A kenku warlock who made the pact on the promise that they would learn to fly (eventually).
A halfling rogue/warlock with sticky fingers. He stole an enchanted bracer and put it on without knowing what it was. Now he can't remove it and is bonded to an entity he has little knowledge of.
I've got two active Warlocks right now. One was already in a bargain of another kind with an Archfey, and after his daughter was abducted the Fey offered him power to search for her. Another is a Warlock of the Raven Queen(from the UA), whose mother was taken by a necromancer as a sacrifice to ensure the demonic taint in his bloodline would not spawn any Tiefling children that would give away his family's secret ties to a demonic cult. Hearing his tortured prayers and entreats about the fairness of who lives and who dies, the Raven Queen offered him a measure of power over life and death, so he could try and do better. I also had one who was offered power by the Green Lord to make up for an injury he suffered while defending a forest the Lord was particularly fond of.
I'm currently playing a warlock with a wisdom score of 4. Up until the last session he didn't even realize he was a warlock, he thought he was a wizard. And he has no idea who this Tharizdun guy is. It's made for some pretty hilarious game play.
My GOO lock learned how to access the power from his future familiar. Mostly he didn't know what he was agreeing to or why, he just said the things his new friend told him to. Since you don't get a familiar until 3rd level he has an invisible friend (literally) who has no game effects until level 3.
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Since the core of a Warlock is why they made the choice to form a pact or like the motive of the pact I ask what are reasons you would make a pact or what you're trying to gain from it?
Greed is a common reason for a pact, but greed can refer to a lot of things. You might surrender yourself to a greater power for just survival, either having been critically injured, horribly sick, or perhaps your so economically poor you are simply starving to death. Another option I've always loved is the idea of having originally made a pact that became a monkey paw, maybe you wished to save another or reverse a terrible harvest, maybe you simply wanted the classic of asking for someone to fall in love with you. A fun thing to do with any character, even non warlocks, is to ask the question of, "What sort of things would make me want to make a pact with some higher being?"
I’m playing a Warlock right now who is lazy. He made the pact because he didn’t want to study to be a wizard, he wanted to weild arcane magic without working for it or waiting.
Professional computer geek
That's a creative one
Thank you. I had fun writing it. He's a Variant Human with Magic Initiate (Wizard) as his 1st level feat and he uses Deception constantly to pretend that he successfully finished his training as a Wizard instead of making a Pact with a Great Old One who extruded a part of itself as a book in the library where he was studying and contacted him through that book. The Wizard 1st level spell and Wizard only cantrip that he knows help a lot with pretending that he's a Wizard since anyone who makes an Arcana check knows that he casts spells that Warlocks don't know or have access to.
The rest of the players in my group know what he is but their characters don't know what he is.
Professional computer geek
Vengeance is a pretty common one, I imagine
Desperation can be another one, even though probably a bit harder to make work
Deception by the Patron in tricking the soon-to-be Warlock into the pact
Love is another one: the mortal fell in love with their patron and decided to pledge eternal servitude
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
Because being a Warlock is freaking cool.
Everyone has a boss and most bosses pay you a few coppers for some lousy job that barely covers the bar tab you run up trying to drink away the fact your life sucks.
Or...you can be a Warlock.
Abide.
Mine started as desperation - a fairly typical orphan criminal needed money, and decided to try killing instead of stealing. She was about to back out of the deal out of fear and nervousness, when her patron offered help.
She then grew to like killing - the feeling of power it gave her. If killing made both her and her patron happy - all the better...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gnk8X79HXE
You couldn't get into a wizard's school or an apprenticeship
You lack the innate spark required to be a sorcerer.
Religion of any sort just isn't your bag.
[CENTER][URL=http://www.nodiatis.com/personality.htm][IMG]http://www.nodiatis.com/pub/7.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
I have a character who was homeless farmer, having gotten the pact by accident via The Old One patron that says might not be aware of you.
You could however be seeking power and your relation to evil is dependent on your goal for the power. If you want revenge your likely to be evil, if you want it to save your family/small farm town from a Tyrant lord or blackmailing thieves guild of which they can't escape how has threatened to kill them all if they don't pay a price they can't possibly pay by a stated deadline, or you be neutral having dreamed of being a hero but had not useful talent and so excepted a deal in the hopes your good deeds out way any evil your patron may call on you in return for this power.
… Of course not matter why you took it .. you can change your mind and defy your pact, for example you could make a deal with fiend for revenge at the destruction of your home town and the murder of your family... but when asked to wipe out a town and murder families in return for the power, you deny your patron and turn your warlock powers against them. Unlike a cleric, once your powers are given they are yours and don't continue to feed from your patron. HOWEVER, if you betray your pact … when you die their is a chance you become a Deathlock Wight from Dead in Thay , a Deathlock or a Deathlock Mastermind from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Now dead your pact can called due and even be used to undo the good you have done. Unless of course you are able to defeat or free yourself from your patron before your death or your patron is not evil like the Archfay or Celestial. The Great Old one might not as simply because your too insignificant to have ever drawn its attention and so it does bother with turning you into Deathlock as suck small tasks are beneath it.
So a Celestial patron might give some power to avenge their family for the sake of justice and destroying said evil. So really you can be kind of dark with a light patron and light with a dark patron. It only matters that your motivated to take the power and use it on something they have goal to get done. If their goal it to corrupt or control you as a minion that might be a point of contention you are willing to except at first. It also means warlocks are not evil by nature but its common for them to perceived as evil since the pact represents seeking power and a number of them are evil. This perception side steps the reality of the Spawn arc type (wanted to avenge his family, made a promise to a demon for the power to do so, regretted it later when the demon asked him to hurt innocent and turn against his patron using his power to try and stop this patrons goals) or the ghost rider arc type (Works for an evil demon patron to hunt evil demons and evil warlocks who have betrayed our patron, "Yes I am evil, but what If I can make you powerful let you be a good guy, hunt the evil in the world by destroying my underlings.. I will lose underlings and weaken my forces so your fighting me while doing as I ask...why would I do this? ...simple.. no one betrays me and lives and you can go where I can not …. those hiding places in the light where only a good man could hunt with out good forces standing in the way. Yes, yes, this makes my other minions obey and sure it might tighten my grip on them... but they already serve me. What do you say? Be my bounty hunter and I will make you a hero for the good guys! does it really matter where the power comes from? I need a hero of the light to go to places of the greatest good and destroy dark forces out of my reach so you never have to do anything dark or immoral as doing so would make you useless to me"
The lack of inflection in text means that a reader of any post adds their own inflection as they "verbalize" it in their head. I write long and repetitive in an effort to be clear and avoid my intent from being skewed or inverted. I am also bad at examples. It is common for people to skim my posts pull out the idea they think I mean or want to argue against or focus on my bad example instead of the point I am actually trying to make. I apologies for the confusion my failure to be clear and concise creates.
I like to think that the warlock is tricking the patron, since they’re getting more out of the deal with their invocations and boons. Another cool element you can add to your warlock role play is an open and shut pact, meaning after the deal the warlock doesn’t have to do anything else. However to achieve such deal the warlock will have to give something up that is so important, that their patron couldn’t say no. I’m playing a warlock that made himself blind for the power of the Great old One and uses his familiar to see.
Mine made his pact out of desperation. He was going to be executed for a murder he didn't commit, and his patron came to him and made an offer he took in order to survive and go on the run.
Mine was enslaved by a mercenary band that the patron sought vengeance against. In her act of revenge, the patron saved my character and found a dedicated follower who formed a pact out of gratitude. Pact of the Arch fey.
Aside from my not very nice Tiefling Hexblade, I wrote up a Protector Aasimar Celestial Warlock. She's wholly good - her patron saw that goodness and light in her as a young child, and gifted her a special sword to use in her patron's honor.
Hi!
I have been playing with the idea of a reluctant warlock. He came across knowledge of a fountain of immense power, but it turned out to be a powerful evil fiend.
My warlock is a Half Elf with little regard for rules, but is inclined to do good deeds. His desire for power comes from the wish to do good. Knowing this, his evil manipulative patron occasionally forces him to burn and destroy in order to maintain the pact.
I think it is an interesting concept to play with. I came up with the idea while building a character for a "save the world" campaign involving the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and the Rise of Tiamat modules. Regrettably, I never got to play the campaign. I suppose it would be interesting to roleplay, but would require a good deal of communication with the DM and group interested in a dramatic game.
Burukena
New to D&D 5E & Online Roleplaying Games
There are two in my groups:
A kenku warlock who made the pact on the promise that they would learn to fly (eventually).
A halfling rogue/warlock with sticky fingers. He stole an enchanted bracer and put it on without knowing what it was. Now he can't remove it and is bonded to an entity he has little knowledge of.
I've got two active Warlocks right now. One was already in a bargain of another kind with an Archfey, and after his daughter was abducted the Fey offered him power to search for her. Another is a Warlock of the Raven Queen(from the UA), whose mother was taken by a necromancer as a sacrifice to ensure the demonic taint in his bloodline would not spawn any Tiefling children that would give away his family's secret ties to a demonic cult. Hearing his tortured prayers and entreats about the fairness of who lives and who dies, the Raven Queen offered him a measure of power over life and death, so he could try and do better. I also had one who was offered power by the Green Lord to make up for an injury he suffered while defending a forest the Lord was particularly fond of.
I'm currently playing a warlock with a wisdom score of 4. Up until the last session he didn't even realize he was a warlock, he thought he was a wizard. And he has no idea who this Tharizdun guy is. It's made for some pretty hilarious game play.
My GOO lock learned how to access the power from his future familiar. Mostly he didn't know what he was agreeing to or why, he just said the things his new friend told him to. Since you don't get a familiar until 3rd level he has an invisible friend (literally) who has no game effects until level 3.