I wouldn't be surprised if I made a pact to prevent me from getting sick. XD
If you can pull it off in an interesting way, go for it. :-)
Maybe there is a terrible illness spreading around a town. The patron offers the character the opportunity of being spared from this illness if bonded. Perhaps a good patron that is not powerful enough to heal everyone and supports the character in this way so that the character could heal the town. Or maybe an evil patron with other, much darker motives...
A character that is already sick and dying could enter into a bond if offered "a cure". This could weave into an interesting narrative where the warlock is forced to do the patron's bidding by threat of returning the sickness to him.
So many possibilities! Warlocks are one of my favorite classes because the bond mechanic allows for very interesting backstories.
I've played two warlocks so far. The first one was a demonic cultist who was a part of a ritual to summon a demon but they accidentally summoned an elder evil. The cultists mistook it for a devil when the wards failed and the being took that as a double insult. As punishment, he broke the cultist and turned him into his slave. In essence I've been running the imp as the PC, and the Warlock is now named Meat Puppet. It's goal is to cripple both forces purely out of spite/boredom.
The other is actually a multiclass sorcerer Warlock, that sold his soul to hell when he found out Dragonborn are a thing, thus making his own draconic heritage much less impressive. (In his eyes anyway) So now he gets to claim ties to not just dragons, but Baator as well. He's essentially a fame hungry d-bag that doesn't care about the ramifications of his actions.
I have done several warlock backstories, and I have for whatever reason, trended to "I didn't make this deal" style pacts.
In one case, it was a sage background, with a pact of the Great Old One. This was an academic who during research, found out about an ancient dying god and siphoned away power. Was the god aware? Would there be consequences?
My other case was stumbling into power; a crisis along the "Take my hand, I'll give you power to survive right now!" It's not even close to a balanced bargain, and puts the control in the DM's hands (which was as intended).
But my favorite Warlock; doesn't recognize she's a warlock. In fact the concept of being a warlock, or a pact of any sort isn't the story. It's just the rules used to play the game, and the whole story is about growing into magical power with an unclear source. The story was then understanding what kind of being they would become. Think of it as a caterpillar becoming a butterfly moment; adding the either one has no idea where this eldritch blast comes from, nor why they can see in the dark when they couldn't before. I adopted this approach after reading this from Keith Baker's site: http://keith-baker.com/sorcerers/
The first issue here is how you view classes. Are classes a construct that exists in the world exactly as they exist in the rules? Does every member of a class have access to all the choices within that class? Or are they simply mechanical tools that allow us as GMs and players to model the characters we want to play? Does every sorcerer in the world recognize “I am a sorcerer?” Or is that a term we use to identify anyone using this rule set, but not something they would recognize?
I so like this approach; You have a character, not a class. Perhaps the story is exactly as described, and sometimes its elsewhere, but you need a framework to play the game.
One is a Tiefling Warlock, her Patron is actually her Ancestor.
Another one made the pact out of mutual benefit, he needed the powers and it needed someone to gather magical item to deed it.
Yet another was tricked. He thought he was training to be a Wizard, but the mentor was actually collecting new recruits for their Patron. He didn't realize what the ritual being preformed was until it was too late. His over-arching goal now is to find a way to undo/break the pact.
I'm working on a Warlock Bard that had no natural talent but made the pact to become a performer.
heard a lot of good reasons for the pact what I did was have it so my character was raised in a village where every few generations a person was chosen to be the warlock for the celestials and it was considered a great honor and tradition demanded that my character become a warlock so thats why my guys a warlock
I actually finished writing a whole backstory for why and how my character made a pact with a shadowy monster.
She was raised in a middle-income based family with two older brothers. Her father taught her brothers how to fight, but she was taught to be submissive and basically respectful to authority. She watched as her two brothers (Jackson and Dakota) grew stronger every day, Jackson became strong so quickly where Dakota became fond of ranged weapons.
Jackson saw her envy for their training and would spend sleepless nights training her. She started to realize her brother was much stronger than her dad but was letting him win for his own pride. When Jackson turned 18 he was off to join the military and wasn't really around anymore. Dakota didn't want to train her, so she would sneak off to train by herself, but trees standing still didn't impose much of a threat.
One night when training, a shadowy being presented itself to her and explained that she had unseen potential much like her older brother Jackson. The being told her he wanted to help her unlock her power so she wouldn't be a common housewife but the master of combat she wanted to be. During their exchange, she found out her brother accepted a similar pact.
Some time passes from here when Jackson returns to recruit Dakota who just turned 18 for the military. At this time Jackson tells her that she is coming with him too, a mutual friend said she had much more to learn and she wasn't going to do it pretending to be a housewife.
In short, she accepted a pact because she wanted not only power but freedom to make her own way in the world.
EDIT: Also this pact is also a little odd because it seems like the figure has an obsession with the character because he isn't evil per se. He wants her to grow strong so he can stand beside her as those who oppose her fall before them. The character herself is actually rather good and uses her power to protect people and stop enemy forces from taking over their villages.
Mine (fallen aasimar, GOO, pact of the tome) was barely able to speak, so he made his pact in order to be able to be a spell caster at all. He was given just enough voice to be able to cast, but relies on Awakened Mind to communicate effectively.
I have two warlocks at the moment. One was a sailor who when attacked by pirates was stuck in the rigging of a sinking ship and begged for help when he was about to drown. He was answered by a GOO and offered his service in order to survive and gain the ability to seek vengeance on the pirates who killed his family/crew. He was saved and gained the power to deal many harmful spells as a result.
The other was an urchin who wants to help the poor kids of Neverwinter. Having given money to various organizations who help the poor and suffering lots of harm in a dungeon she was approached by an aspect of Ilmater who offered his healing power to assist her in helping the downtrodden. In the pact it is strongly suggested to use healing on others and to endure the harm on herself for as long as possible.
Lots of easy back stories can be made as for why someone would make a deal with an otherworldly being for immense power and lots of interesting character hooks can be built into a campaign with them. Depending on how you want (or how you roll it based on your preference in character creation) the bond between patron and servant can be strict or very hands off. My sailor doesn't know what exactly the GOO wants from him while my urchin has been given more clear guidance from her celestial.
Like personally? Assuming we're in the real world? Because having magic powers is OP if no one else has them.
Personally, but assuming we were in Faerun or similar? Probably as a last resort assuming I wasn't able to make it as a Wizard and wasn't lucky enough to be a Sorcerer. Casting magic is still OP if other people have magic powers.
In character? Well a lot of my characters are forced into it. Maryas had to in order to save her father (also because she was lied to and tricked kinda), Aliroth gave in to the Raven Queen in his moment of weakness and because the fire inside him burned etc etc etc and other's have chosen to because they were jealous of others or scared or whatever. I guess I don't have a super large amount of positive reasons to choose a pact.
The concept of the pact is the reason why the warlock is my favorite spellcasting class. It adds so much role-playing flavor and developing a patron/warlock relationship dynamic is always a fun way to personally involve a PC playing a warlock.
My favorite character I've developed is a half-elf warlock whose father was killed by a powerful necromancer. Because of my character's strong desire for vengeance and retribution, he began studying the arcane arts, with the intention of become a wizard powerful enough to slay this necromancer. Over the course of his studies, he stumbled upon an ancient tome written in the celestial language, which he eventually translated. He read about a powerful Celestial known as Andromeda who once had a group of worshipers dedicated to the destruction of the Undead. He contacted her and agreed to hunt down a powerful cult of necromancers as price for the power she would grant him.
A good recipe for developing a motive for entering into a pact is to either create a backstory in which a character desperately needed assistance from a powerful being and was willing to enter a binding contract to gain this power or a character who is ambitious and powerhungry, but likes to cut corners or is not particularly studious/wise.
Not every pact is made voluntarily, or in full recognition of the impact the decision will have.
I have yet to play a warlock, but I've been developing the backstory for one that I hope to play in our next campaign. He's a dwarven delver. You see, dwarves dig mines. Sometimes those mining tunnels encounter and intersect other tunnels deep under ground. Someone has to go check out those other tunnels to make sure they're safe before the mining can continue. That's what a delver does. He delves. So my clan's dig crew struck a cross-tunnel and I was sent in to investigate. The tunnel was narrow and very twisty, and seemed to go on forever. Hours... days... weeks... I couldn't tell anymore. There were other small tunnels crisscrossing this one, like an aggravating maze. Something about the place gave me the heebiest of jeebies, but I felt drawn to find where the tunnel led to. Finally, after what felt like an eon in a whirlydirly, the tunnel opened into a massive underground cavern. An eerie slimy moss on the walls gave off a dim greenish light. I noticed a dozen other small tunnel openings leading in from other parts of the cavern as well. The air was thick with the stench of death. In the center of the cavern a massive pillar of stone rose from floor to ceiling. Piles of bones surrounded the base of the pillar, and abyssal runes were inscribed around the pillar in a spiral fashion. Against my better judgment, I tried to read the runes. A barrage of horrific images and screams immediately assaulted my mind and I bolted from the cavern! Despite my confusion of how I got here, I somehow instantly knew exactly which of the dozen tunnels would lead back to my clan by the shortest route. I instinctively knew every twist, every turn, every stone along the way.
When I arrived back at our dig site I informed the foreman that danger lie beneath. He sealed that shaft and the dig crew started working in a different direction. That night I suffered horrible nightmares. Blurred images of pain and death. Chaos and misery. A deep voice calling.
Accidents began happening around the mining crews. Tools went missing. Bracing beams were burned. Workers were occasionally found dead. No one knew what evil force was causing this trouble... but I noticed that these tragedies often matched the nightmares I was having each night.
Was it me? Had something in that cavern connected with me? Was it controlling me, making me commit these terrible crimes without my awareness? For the safety of the clan, I left. An axe, a pack of rations, and a handful of coins were all I brought with me. I could not in good conscience risk the safety of my clan by staying one more night.
So I'm now in search of someone who can help me break this curse.
...
That's as far as I've gotten. I just like the idea of an unwilling warlock. He doesn't want his patron. He doesn't want his powers. But he'll use the powers he has tapped into to try to find a "cure". But along the way his patron (Baphomet) keeps calling to him, sometimes making him do terrible things which he may or may not even remember.
Sometimes the pact is a two way street. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
If you can't think of a good reason, play a GOO warlock. The pact just happens as the result of a triggering event that your warlock didn't have to intentionally initiate..like accidentally opening up a the wrong book.
My warlock woke up in a pact that her parent's kind of made on her behalf. An accident in an arcane lab sent her to the nine hells at the age of 7 and she was captured by Baalzebul in the realm of Maladomini. Her parent's made a deal with Oberron to rescue her, but since time works differently across the planes, by the time he was able to get to her, 21 years had passed so she was totally insane as a thrall to the Slug Lord. So because Oberron had to slowly bring her back to sanity, he decided to take her on as a student and boom- my pact of the Archfey Eladrin had a back story.
My warlock, honestly doesn't care about a pact. My warlock became a lover to a powerful fey who made a pact with him to help him survive. In return my character is trying to become worthy of his patron's love
I took another tack with the one I did ... he didn't make the pact, his parents did. PC was born sickly and frail, not likely to survive childbirth much less childhood, thus the Celestial Warlock pact was struck; save the kid, get a 'servant', sign on the dotted line.
If nothing else, you can reflavor the class in a variety of ways, really, since the patron/deal thing is 99% flavor text.
My Hexblade/Raven Queen patron Warlock has twice had her pact blade grow cold - a signal from her patron that she wants my character to "send her a soul." She has to work with the information she has - what's she's seen and heard so far - to inform her of who to kill. Of course, it's always when there's multiple foes.
But that can bring a level of DM influence to the table, and I just have to hope I get it right. Yes, it can be strictly for flavor, but it can influence the game. It so far has led her to do rash things, like once blindly leap into a pit, and another time, surprise attack the leader of a group of people we were talking to, with no outward sign of aggression. And, now my DM knows I'm instantly triggered...
I've had a warlock who just happened to be at the wrong place in the wrong time and became part/victim of a ritual.
Without really knowing it he is tied to a Great Old One and receives visions from this being. The visions manifest as his spells. If he gets a vision of eternal darkness swallowing the land, he casts darkness, visions of fire and flame are used for hellish rebukes, Voices and pure fear manifest as dissonant whispers.
He regains more and more control over it as the he progresses, but still.
Holy crap. that sound like you don't have much control in combat... or any time. what part does he play in the group when he is not casting spells? why is he adventuring?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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I wouldn't be surprised if I made a pact to prevent me from getting sick. XD
If you can pull it off in an interesting way, go for it. :-)
Maybe there is a terrible illness spreading around a town. The patron offers the character the opportunity of being spared from this illness if bonded. Perhaps a good patron that is not powerful enough to heal everyone and supports the character in this way so that the character could heal the town. Or maybe an evil patron with other, much darker motives...
A character that is already sick and dying could enter into a bond if offered "a cure". This could weave into an interesting narrative where the warlock is forced to do the patron's bidding by threat of returning the sickness to him.
So many possibilities! Warlocks are one of my favorite classes because the bond mechanic allows for very interesting backstories.
Burukena
New to D&D 5E & Online Roleplaying Games
Daddy issues?
Abide.
I've played two warlocks so far. The first one was a demonic cultist who was a part of a ritual to summon a demon but they accidentally summoned an elder evil. The cultists mistook it for a devil when the wards failed and the being took that as a double insult. As punishment, he broke the cultist and turned him into his slave. In essence I've been running the imp as the PC, and the Warlock is now named Meat Puppet. It's goal is to cripple both forces purely out of spite/boredom.
The other is actually a multiclass sorcerer Warlock, that sold his soul to hell when he found out Dragonborn are a thing, thus making his own draconic heritage much less impressive. (In his eyes anyway) So now he gets to claim ties to not just dragons, but Baator as well. He's essentially a fame hungry d-bag that doesn't care about the ramifications of his actions.
I have done several warlock backstories, and I have for whatever reason, trended to "I didn't make this deal" style pacts.
In one case, it was a sage background, with a pact of the Great Old One. This was an academic who during research, found out about an ancient dying god and siphoned away power. Was the god aware? Would there be consequences?
My other case was stumbling into power; a crisis along the "Take my hand, I'll give you power to survive right now!" It's not even close to a balanced bargain, and puts the control in the DM's hands (which was as intended).
But my favorite Warlock; doesn't recognize she's a warlock. In fact the concept of being a warlock, or a pact of any sort isn't the story. It's just the rules used to play the game, and the whole story is about growing into magical power with an unclear source. The story was then understanding what kind of being they would become. Think of it as a caterpillar becoming a butterfly moment; adding the either one has no idea where this eldritch blast comes from, nor why they can see in the dark when they couldn't before. I adopted this approach after reading this from Keith Baker's site: http://keith-baker.com/sorcerers/
I so like this approach; You have a character, not a class. Perhaps the story is exactly as described, and sometimes its elsewhere, but you need a framework to play the game.
I've played several Warlocks:
One is a Tiefling Warlock, her Patron is actually her Ancestor.
Another one made the pact out of mutual benefit, he needed the powers and it needed someone to gather magical item to deed it.
Yet another was tricked. He thought he was training to be a Wizard, but the mentor was actually collecting new recruits for their Patron. He didn't realize what the ritual being preformed was until it was too late. His over-arching goal now is to find a way to undo/break the pact.
I'm working on a Warlock Bard that had no natural talent but made the pact to become a performer.
heard a lot of good reasons for the pact what I did was have it so my character was raised in a village where every few generations a person was chosen to be the warlock for the celestials and it was considered a great honor and tradition demanded that my character become a warlock so thats why my guys a warlock
I actually finished writing a whole backstory for why and how my character made a pact with a shadowy monster.
She was raised in a middle-income based family with two older brothers. Her father taught her brothers how to fight, but she was taught to be submissive and basically respectful to authority. She watched as her two brothers (Jackson and Dakota) grew stronger every day, Jackson became strong so quickly where Dakota became fond of ranged weapons.
Jackson saw her envy for their training and would spend sleepless nights training her. She started to realize her brother was much stronger than her dad but was letting him win for his own pride. When Jackson turned 18 he was off to join the military and wasn't really around anymore. Dakota didn't want to train her, so she would sneak off to train by herself, but trees standing still didn't impose much of a threat.
One night when training, a shadowy being presented itself to her and explained that she had unseen potential much like her older brother Jackson. The being told her he wanted to help her unlock her power so she wouldn't be a common housewife but the master of combat she wanted to be. During their exchange, she found out her brother accepted a similar pact.
Some time passes from here when Jackson returns to recruit Dakota who just turned 18 for the military. At this time Jackson tells her that she is coming with him too, a mutual friend said she had much more to learn and she wasn't going to do it pretending to be a housewife.
In short, she accepted a pact because she wanted not only power but freedom to make her own way in the world.
EDIT: Also this pact is also a little odd because it seems like the figure has an obsession with the character because he isn't evil per se. He wants her to grow strong so he can stand beside her as those who oppose her fall before them. The character herself is actually rather good and uses her power to protect people and stop enemy forces from taking over their villages.
Mine (fallen aasimar, GOO, pact of the tome) was barely able to speak, so he made his pact in order to be able to be a spell caster at all. He was given just enough voice to be able to cast, but relies on Awakened Mind to communicate effectively.
I have two warlocks at the moment.
One was a sailor who when attacked by pirates was stuck in the rigging of a sinking ship and begged for help when he was about to drown. He was answered by a GOO and offered his service in order to survive and gain the ability to seek vengeance on the pirates who killed his family/crew. He was saved and gained the power to deal many harmful spells as a result.
The other was an urchin who wants to help the poor kids of Neverwinter. Having given money to various organizations who help the poor and suffering lots of harm in a dungeon she was approached by an aspect of Ilmater who offered his healing power to assist her in helping the downtrodden. In the pact it is strongly suggested to use healing on others and to endure the harm on herself for as long as possible.
Lots of easy back stories can be made as for why someone would make a deal with an otherworldly being for immense power and lots of interesting character hooks can be built into a campaign with them. Depending on how you want (or how you roll it based on your preference in character creation) the bond between patron and servant can be strict or very hands off. My sailor doesn't know what exactly the GOO wants from him while my urchin has been given more clear guidance from her celestial.
Like personally? Assuming we're in the real world? Because having magic powers is OP if no one else has them.
Personally, but assuming we were in Faerun or similar? Probably as a last resort assuming I wasn't able to make it as a Wizard and wasn't lucky enough to be a Sorcerer. Casting magic is still OP if other people have magic powers.
In character? Well a lot of my characters are forced into it. Maryas had to in order to save her father (also because she was lied to and tricked kinda), Aliroth gave in to the Raven Queen in his moment of weakness and because the fire inside him burned etc etc etc and other's have chosen to because they were jealous of others or scared or whatever. I guess I don't have a super large amount of positive reasons to choose a pact.
The concept of the pact is the reason why the warlock is my favorite spellcasting class. It adds so much role-playing flavor and developing a patron/warlock relationship dynamic is always a fun way to personally involve a PC playing a warlock.
My favorite character I've developed is a half-elf warlock whose father was killed by a powerful necromancer. Because of my character's strong desire for vengeance and retribution, he began studying the arcane arts, with the intention of become a wizard powerful enough to slay this necromancer. Over the course of his studies, he stumbled upon an ancient tome written in the celestial language, which he eventually translated. He read about a powerful Celestial known as Andromeda who once had a group of worshipers dedicated to the destruction of the Undead. He contacted her and agreed to hunt down a powerful cult of necromancers as price for the power she would grant him.
A good recipe for developing a motive for entering into a pact is to either create a backstory in which a character desperately needed assistance from a powerful being and was willing to enter a binding contract to gain this power or a character who is ambitious and powerhungry, but likes to cut corners or is not particularly studious/wise.
Not every pact is made voluntarily, or in full recognition of the impact the decision will have.
I have yet to play a warlock, but I've been developing the backstory for one that I hope to play in our next campaign. He's a dwarven delver. You see, dwarves dig mines. Sometimes those mining tunnels encounter and intersect other tunnels deep under ground. Someone has to go check out those other tunnels to make sure they're safe before the mining can continue. That's what a delver does. He delves. So my clan's dig crew struck a cross-tunnel and I was sent in to investigate. The tunnel was narrow and very twisty, and seemed to go on forever. Hours... days... weeks... I couldn't tell anymore. There were other small tunnels crisscrossing this one, like an aggravating maze. Something about the place gave me the heebiest of jeebies, but I felt drawn to find where the tunnel led to. Finally, after what felt like an eon in a whirlydirly, the tunnel opened into a massive underground cavern. An eerie slimy moss on the walls gave off a dim greenish light. I noticed a dozen other small tunnel openings leading in from other parts of the cavern as well. The air was thick with the stench of death. In the center of the cavern a massive pillar of stone rose from floor to ceiling. Piles of bones surrounded the base of the pillar, and abyssal runes were inscribed around the pillar in a spiral fashion. Against my better judgment, I tried to read the runes. A barrage of horrific images and screams immediately assaulted my mind and I bolted from the cavern! Despite my confusion of how I got here, I somehow instantly knew exactly which of the dozen tunnels would lead back to my clan by the shortest route. I instinctively knew every twist, every turn, every stone along the way.
When I arrived back at our dig site I informed the foreman that danger lie beneath. He sealed that shaft and the dig crew started working in a different direction. That night I suffered horrible nightmares. Blurred images of pain and death. Chaos and misery. A deep voice calling.
Accidents began happening around the mining crews. Tools went missing. Bracing beams were burned. Workers were occasionally found dead. No one knew what evil force was causing this trouble... but I noticed that these tragedies often matched the nightmares I was having each night.
Was it me? Had something in that cavern connected with me? Was it controlling me, making me commit these terrible crimes without my awareness? For the safety of the clan, I left. An axe, a pack of rations, and a handful of coins were all I brought with me. I could not in good conscience risk the safety of my clan by staying one more night.
So I'm now in search of someone who can help me break this curse.
...
That's as far as I've gotten. I just like the idea of an unwilling warlock. He doesn't want his patron. He doesn't want his powers. But he'll use the powers he has tapped into to try to find a "cure". But along the way his patron (Baphomet) keeps calling to him, sometimes making him do terrible things which he may or may not even remember.
Sometimes the pact is a two way street. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
If you can't think of a good reason, play a GOO warlock. The pact just happens as the result of a triggering event that your warlock didn't have to intentionally initiate..like accidentally opening up a the wrong book.
My warlock woke up in a pact that her parent's kind of made on her behalf. An accident in an arcane lab sent her to the nine hells at the age of 7 and she was captured by Baalzebul in the realm of Maladomini. Her parent's made a deal with Oberron to rescue her, but since time works differently across the planes, by the time he was able to get to her, 21 years had passed so she was totally insane as a thrall to the Slug Lord. So because Oberron had to slowly bring her back to sanity, he decided to take her on as a student and boom- my pact of the Archfey Eladrin had a back story.
My warlock, honestly doesn't care about a pact. My warlock became a lover to a powerful fey who made a pact with him to help him survive. In return my character is trying to become worthy of his patron's love
I took another tack with the one I did ... he didn't make the pact, his parents did. PC was born sickly and frail, not likely to survive childbirth much less childhood, thus the Celestial Warlock pact was struck; save the kid, get a 'servant', sign on the dotted line.
If nothing else, you can reflavor the class in a variety of ways, really, since the patron/deal thing is 99% flavor text.
My Hexblade/Raven Queen patron Warlock has twice had her pact blade grow cold - a signal from her patron that she wants my character to "send her a soul."
She has to work with the information she has - what's she's seen and heard so far - to inform her of who to kill. Of course, it's always when there's multiple foes.
But that can bring a level of DM influence to the table, and I just have to hope I get it right. Yes, it can be strictly for flavor, but it can influence the game. It so far has led her to do rash things, like once blindly leap into a pit, and another time, surprise attack the leader of a group of people we were talking to, with no outward sign of aggression. And, now my DM knows I'm instantly triggered...
I've had a warlock who just happened to be at the wrong place in the wrong time and became part/victim of a ritual.
Without really knowing it he is tied to a Great Old One and receives visions from this being. The visions manifest as his spells. If he gets a vision of eternal darkness swallowing the land, he casts darkness, visions of fire and flame are used for hellish rebukes, Voices and pure fear manifest as dissonant whispers.
He regains more and more control over it as the he progresses, but still.
Holy crap. that sound like you don't have much control in combat... or any time. what part does he play in the group when he is not casting spells? why is he adventuring?