My current fiendlock is a tiefling orphan who made a pact with her "father" (whether or not he actually is hasn't and likely never will be revealed) after an undead apocalypse happened because she didn't want to be zombie chow. She regrets it, but is seriously short of better alternatives.
Sometimes you have to kick the consequences can down the road. Avoiding becoming zombie chow is a pretty solid reason to make a really poor life choice.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
In the Half-Elven kingdom of Neros, forming Warlock pacts is common, although the preferred patrons are the Archfey, Celestials, and the Raven Queen/Hexblade. There are shrines to those patrons throughout the kingdom. Bonds formed with "evil" entities are frowned on, though not prohibited. Some make a good living writing up contracts for those patrons that don't have any legal loopholes that the patron can use against the Warlock.
The bonds formed with the "good" patrons tend to be more informal, almost familial in some respects. Because Adelberto's father, Nazario, is a Hexblade Warlock, the Raven Queen sought out and formed a pact with him. She finds his music enjoyable too (entertainer background).
I had my character cursed with nightmares by an adversary and made a pact with a celestial to take away all my bad dreams. Seems simple and sweet but in actuality the adversary is a warlock who had ask my patron's sibling to get me cursed with nightmares.
well i still do not quite know why my devilish lawyer leucis did it, i am currently switching between him just working in the bureaucracies of hell so much that his infernal warlock powers just manifested, that they are just tricks of the trade he slowly learned, that he made the deal specifically to become a better lawyer and that the spell casting was just a bonus utility, or that he just outright is working to further the goals of the nine hells and his specific hellish overlord since he thinks that is just a good thing, that that will just make life simpler and more organized
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Alabastor Calistar’s Hexblade patron is a Great Wyrm Shadow Dragon, who just so happens to also be his mother (his father is human). The pact was made so that the mother could help teach her son how to control the emerging, volatile magic within himself as he is a Half-Shadow Dragon and the Calistar lineage is full of powerful magic users. She also forged the pact with him as a way of keeping an eye on him and to help keep him safe as he was the firstborn prince to an important neutral kingdom in the world.
Sophia Tabris’s Celestial patron was a Solar of Ilmater whom she saved by taking a killing blow from a pit fiend meant for the Angel during an brief outer plane war that spilled into the material plane. The Solar was so moved by the little Aasimar’s selfless act that he saved her life by combining his life force to hers, creating an unintentional pact. Now Sophia goes around and explores the world while her patron watches from the heavens and subtly aid her in her travels.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Chastity Half-Elven's Patron is Lilith, the first succubus, who has, over time, become the Queen of all Succubi. Chastity is a Warlock who's Patron is The Fiend, but she doesn't know that, nor does she know the name "Lilith" and she wouldn't recognize the name if she was told it. She's a girl who grew up on a small farm in an insignificant little village. At a moment when she was under terrible stress, a voice came into her head and said "Swear to serve me, and I will give you the power to protect yourself." That's the only thing her Patron has said to her directly. She's now at first level, and she has a good heart, but she's more than a little naive. I'm really looking forward to playing her.
I saw one DM's homebrew world where warlocks were the most numerous of the spell casters...simply because it was the easy way to power. In his world, locks were like gunslingers, the good ones were constables and sheriffs, the bad ones were bandits and duelists.
Duffyn was not a smart tiefling and was bullied incessantly about his heritage and lack of intelligence. One day while he was being beaten and called names, he cried out to the heavens for help. A GOO happened to hear his call and was amused or something. A pact was formed in that moment and he gained intelligence to boot (DM fiat). Shortly thereafter his patron who he only knows as "Steve" asked him to see the world as an adventurer reporting back periodically.
Watchkeeper is a warforged made to help bolster the thinning number of dwarven warriors in their hold. His job is mobile artillery (Eldritch Blast) and support (Bard levels). He was bonded with a Dao (genie pact) at creation with a ring. The Dao is trying to convince him that he is a slave to his dwarf creators and that he needs to break free, taking as much wealth as he can carry.
Abriand always hated his lineage. Not only was it bad enough to be a Tiefling but to be a Tiefling of an Angel turned Devil who was a traitor to their own kind....Zariel's fall was a stain on him and his family name.
Now he works for the Solar Dreptate as a Celestial Warlock performing the wet work that his Lawful Good patron would not dirty himself with.
Will the Solar ever allow Abriand and his family to forgo the curse on his bloodline? Or will they constantly judge him and see him wanting?
I remade an old character concept (2e old). Half orc witch doctor/shaman type. He was trained and raised amongst his tribe with the purpose of making a pact with, in their minds, a totem spirit. He was forced to flee when instead of the usual spirits/patrons he was chosen by an unknown (to them) spirit. In game terms instead of having a fiend or fey (unseelie) like most his tribe, he is has a celestial patron.
While not exactly D&D fodder, I can say that sometimes being your own worst friend can cause this to some measure and I'm sure has in this sort of fantasy world.
TL;DR, "Wrong word; wrong time"
Expanded Version: To explain a bit more, I do archery in real life and practice on private land. So when I'm out shooting its uncommon but it can happen to lose an arrow sometimes for good depending on how bad a shot someone makes, or if my equipment malfunctions. I've had a few of these be pretty bad with the release. That said one evening I was out before dinner doing some target shooting at around 25ft or so just to keep muscles up, I managed to adjust my release a bit to lightly and sent the first arrow off into the brush behind the target, shallow ground, but not easy to find one in. I reset it loosed the second, same result. I then had dinner, went back outside and looked around for about an hour just trying to relax at the same time before going to bed. On the way in I think out loud, "If there were some sort of arrow retrieving dog, I'd buy that @#$% a cookie."
Next day same time, go outside to look for arrows because replacing them cost money and it's not the weekend yet. Within two minutes of looking I step on the first one, "Huh? sweet." I pick it up out of the shrub take one more step on to number two, "YES!" I stand up walk back to the house to get my bow and setup for more when it hits me, "Wait a minute... isn't this how you end up with really shit warlock pacts... F!@#$"
I proceeded to leave a few cookies outside that night just in case. Now I'm not a superstitious person, but damn.
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"I once knew this fella, Aasimar raised in the Underdark. Was like a brother to me. When he escaped we couldn't take much with us. Poor, emaciated husks of the living we were. 'ts okay though. We survived and made our ways. I'll never forget the way the people from my home looked at us when we walked in the archway. Though, I'm frighteningly certain the feelings they would have, had they but the opportunity ta see us leave." --Manolovo the Traitor, Memoirs of a Scoundrel
My Celestial Warlock is afflicted by a disease that can’t be cured (i haven’t figured out what disease yet, but it’s non-contagious and slow-working). He was just traveling one day when his disease flared and he died. Nearby, the last shrine of a lesser god was about to be desecrated by a couple of cultists. The lesser god would die if it wasn’t stopped and couldn’t intervene physically, so he offered to revive my warlock in exchange for stopping the desecration of his shrine. My warlock wasn’t about to complain at a second chance for life. In addition to reviving him, the lesser god also gave him magical abilities and suppression of his disease. My warlock did as the pact required and drove off the cultists. The lesser god now just follows my warlock around in his head, because no one else remembers him.
I am considering asking a celestial for a pact. I am neutral good, an Owlin with the Air Acrobat home brew background (thank you EpicBoss99 and dndwiki). I have become trapped in a dim gray world ruled by a vampire and surrounded by some deadly mists. I very much want to break free and also help the many other people trapped here to be free of this cursed place. I am only a 4th level and already the rulers have noticed me. I am desperate to have the power to survive and fight this evil. Celestials hate darkness, right?
I'm playing pact of the genie. My character is a kobold. After siring 173 kobold children he decided to leave the brood because he found family life to be aggravating. On his travels he found a dirty old bottle while scavenging. He rubbed the bottle and a genie came out. The genie was an evil fire genie who wanted to escape his prison, so he tricked the kobold into assuming his place "temporarily" on a trial as a genie in training. This left the efreeti free to wander from his bottle prison, the kobold serving as the genie's proxy. The time will come in which he will have to venture to the plane of fire to choose whether or not he will to ascend to full blown genie-hood or return to his life as a powerless lizard.
Since this is back in rotation, the thing is it really depends on the deal. The classic sell your soul ones in a universe with a known hell seems a hard sell for anyone sane, unless they are incredibly desperate, or are willing to fall on their sword to use the power for some goal. But if its serve the fey queen for 5 years and after that you will gain your powers and since you are starting at level 1 with powers you already served your 5 years, your backstory can be how it worked out or backfired, GOO locks might have just cast a ritual peering into a eldritch entities mind and that is it, a Genie may ask for a perfect gemstone of a certain kind which you already did in your backstory which may or may not have complications etc. 5 years of service for magical power I could see a lot of people going for, providing a gem stone even if it needed to be stolen same, gazing into the abyss believing your mind can withstand it maybe less often but I can see people doing it, selling the soul i mean pretty rare.
Outside the sell your soul one, there are tons of pacts people would be willing to do especially if you paid up front and don't have something hanging over your head forever. In a universe were hell is a known factor and not something people just might have faith in the sell your soul ones have to be pretty dang desperate.
I have an idea for a character that I'm hoping to get to play: they were originally an ordinary human who found a lamp with a Djinn inside it and wished for power and adventure. Now they're an Air Genasi with the Djinn as their warlock patron (this concept also works for Earth and Water Genasi with Dao and Marid patrons, respectively).
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
"Believe me, I understand why you were upset. The Slumberer of Abanath seemed like a great Patron, and I have to agree; it's one of the reasons I also chose it. Perform the required rituals, and the Slumberer grants the power. The Slumberer exacts no price. The Slumberer makes no demands. The Slumberer has no inconvenient and powerful foes. The Slumberer...Slumbers.."
"And as warlocks of the Slumberer, we have a vested interest in making sure that the Slumber continues. So we keep an eye on things that could wake the Slumberer. And one of the things that we have determined could wake it is if the number of warlocks gets too large. We strive to keep comfortably away from that number, as a variety of different groups, by a variety of different means."
The warlock wiped off his blade, dismissed it, and looked down at the remains.
"Well, at least one of us is glad we had this talk."
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🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
Sometimes you have to kick the consequences can down the road. Avoiding becoming zombie chow is a pretty solid reason to make a really poor life choice.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
In the Half-Elven kingdom of Neros, forming Warlock pacts is common, although the preferred patrons are the Archfey, Celestials, and the Raven Queen/Hexblade. There are shrines to those patrons throughout the kingdom. Bonds formed with "evil" entities are frowned on, though not prohibited. Some make a good living writing up contracts for those patrons that don't have any legal loopholes that the patron can use against the Warlock.
The bonds formed with the "good" patrons tend to be more informal, almost familial in some respects. Because Adelberto's father, Nazario, is a Hexblade Warlock, the Raven Queen sought out and formed a pact with him. She finds his music enjoyable too (entertainer background).
I had my character cursed with nightmares by an adversary and made a pact with a celestial to take away all my bad dreams. Seems simple and sweet but in actuality the adversary is a warlock who had ask my patron's sibling to get me cursed with nightmares.
well i still do not quite know why my devilish lawyer leucis did it, i am currently switching between him just working in the bureaucracies of hell so much that his infernal warlock powers just manifested, that they are just tricks of the trade he slowly learned, that he made the deal specifically to become a better lawyer and that the spell casting was just a bonus utility, or that he just outright is working to further the goals of the nine hells and his specific hellish overlord since he thinks that is just a good thing, that that will just make life simpler and more organized
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Mine is I was just a sailor until a patron came to me and forced me to serve them, due to my great - great - great - grandfather making a pact for me.
Alabastor Calistar’s Hexblade patron is a Great Wyrm Shadow Dragon, who just so happens to also be his mother (his father is human). The pact was made so that the mother could help teach her son how to control the emerging, volatile magic within himself as he is a Half-Shadow Dragon and the Calistar lineage is full of powerful magic users. She also forged the pact with him as a way of keeping an eye on him and to help keep him safe as he was the firstborn prince to an important neutral kingdom in the world.
Sophia Tabris’s Celestial patron was a Solar of Ilmater whom she saved by taking a killing blow from a pit fiend meant for the Angel during an brief outer plane war that spilled into the material plane. The Solar was so moved by the little Aasimar’s selfless act that he saved her life by combining his life force to hers, creating an unintentional pact. Now Sophia goes around and explores the world while her patron watches from the heavens and subtly aid her in her travels.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Homebrew - Circle of the Living Machines Druid, Path of the Dragon Soul Barbarian
My hombrew Great Wyrm Dragons
Chastity Half-Elven's Patron is Lilith, the first succubus, who has, over time, become the Queen of all Succubi. Chastity is a Warlock who's Patron is The Fiend, but she doesn't know that, nor does she know the name "Lilith" and she wouldn't recognize the name if she was told it. She's a girl who grew up on a small farm in an insignificant little village. At a moment when she was under terrible stress, a voice came into her head and said "Swear to serve me, and I will give you the power to protect yourself." That's the only thing her Patron has said to her directly. She's now at first level, and she has a good heart, but she's more than a little naive. I'm really looking forward to playing her.
<Insert clever signature here>
I saw one DM's homebrew world where warlocks were the most numerous of the spell casters...simply because it was the easy way to power. In his world, locks were like gunslingers, the good ones were constables and sheriffs, the bad ones were bandits and duelists.
I have two that are interesting.
Duffyn was not a smart tiefling and was bullied incessantly about his heritage and lack of intelligence. One day while he was being beaten and called names, he cried out to the heavens for help. A GOO happened to hear his call and was amused or something. A pact was formed in that moment and he gained intelligence to boot (DM fiat). Shortly thereafter his patron who he only knows as "Steve" asked him to see the world as an adventurer reporting back periodically.
Watchkeeper is a warforged made to help bolster the thinning number of dwarven warriors in their hold. His job is mobile artillery (Eldritch Blast) and support (Bard levels). He was bonded with a Dao (genie pact) at creation with a ring. The Dao is trying to convince him that he is a slave to his dwarf creators and that he needs to break free, taking as much wealth as he can carry.
Abriand Amok- Zariel Tiefling- Celestial Patron
Abriand always hated his lineage. Not only was it bad enough to be a Tiefling but to be a Tiefling of an Angel turned Devil who was a traitor to their own kind....Zariel's fall was a stain on him and his family name.
Now he works for the Solar Dreptate as a Celestial Warlock performing the wet work that his Lawful Good patron would not dirty himself with.
Will the Solar ever allow Abriand and his family to forgo the curse on his bloodline? Or will they constantly judge him and see him wanting?
I remade an old character concept (2e old). Half orc witch doctor/shaman type. He was trained and raised amongst his tribe with the purpose of making a pact with, in their minds, a totem spirit. He was forced to flee when instead of the usual spirits/patrons he was chosen by an unknown (to them) spirit. In game terms instead of having a fiend or fey (unseelie) like most his tribe, he is has a celestial patron.
While not exactly D&D fodder, I can say that sometimes being your own worst friend can cause this to some measure and I'm sure has in this sort of fantasy world.
TL;DR, "Wrong word; wrong time"
Expanded Version:
To explain a bit more, I do archery in real life and practice on private land. So when I'm out shooting its uncommon but it can happen to lose an arrow sometimes for good depending on how bad a shot someone makes, or if my equipment malfunctions. I've had a few of these be pretty bad with the release. That said one evening I was out before dinner doing some target shooting at around 25ft or so just to keep muscles up, I managed to adjust my release a bit to lightly and sent the first arrow off into the brush behind the target, shallow ground, but not easy to find one in. I reset it loosed the second, same result. I then had dinner, went back outside and looked around for about an hour just trying to relax at the same time before going to bed. On the way in I think out loud, "If there were some sort of arrow retrieving dog, I'd buy that @#$% a cookie."
Next day same time, go outside to look for arrows because replacing them cost money and it's not the weekend yet. Within two minutes of looking I step on the first one, "Huh? sweet." I pick it up out of the shrub take one more step on to number two, "YES!" I stand up walk back to the house to get my bow and setup for more when it hits me, "Wait a minute... isn't this how you end up with really shit warlock pacts... F!@#$"
I proceeded to leave a few cookies outside that night just in case. Now I'm not a superstitious person, but damn.
"I once knew this fella, Aasimar raised in the Underdark. Was like a brother to me. When he escaped we couldn't take much with us. Poor, emaciated husks of the living we were. 'ts okay though. We survived and made our ways. I'll never forget the way the people from my home looked at us when we walked in the archway. Though, I'm frighteningly certain the feelings they would have, had they but the opportunity ta see us leave." --Manolovo the Traitor, Memoirs of a Scoundrel
My Celestial Warlock is afflicted by a disease that can’t be cured (i haven’t figured out what disease yet, but it’s non-contagious and slow-working). He was just traveling one day when his disease flared and he died. Nearby, the last shrine of a lesser god was about to be desecrated by a couple of cultists. The lesser god would die if it wasn’t stopped and couldn’t intervene physically, so he offered to revive my warlock in exchange for stopping the desecration of his shrine. My warlock wasn’t about to complain at a second chance for life. In addition to reviving him, the lesser god also gave him magical abilities and suppression of his disease. My warlock did as the pact required and drove off the cultists. The lesser god now just follows my warlock around in his head, because no one else remembers him.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXI?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
I am considering asking a celestial for a pact. I am neutral good, an Owlin with the Air Acrobat home brew background (thank you EpicBoss99 and dndwiki). I have become trapped in a dim gray world ruled by a vampire and surrounded by some deadly mists. I very much want to break free and also help the many other people trapped here to be free of this cursed place. I am only a 4th level and already the rulers have noticed me. I am desperate to have the power to survive and fight this evil. Celestials hate darkness, right?
Cool character xMakeRx!
I'm playing pact of the genie. My character is a kobold. After siring 173 kobold children he decided to leave the brood because he found family life to be aggravating. On his travels he found a dirty old bottle while scavenging. He rubbed the bottle and a genie came out. The genie was an evil fire genie who wanted to escape his prison, so he tricked the kobold into assuming his place "temporarily" on a trial as a genie in training. This left the efreeti free to wander from his bottle prison, the kobold serving as the genie's proxy. The time will come in which he will have to venture to the plane of fire to choose whether or not he will to ascend to full blown genie-hood or return to his life as a powerless lizard.
Since this is back in rotation, the thing is it really depends on the deal. The classic sell your soul ones in a universe with a known hell seems a hard sell for anyone sane, unless they are incredibly desperate, or are willing to fall on their sword to use the power for some goal. But if its serve the fey queen for 5 years and after that you will gain your powers and since you are starting at level 1 with powers you already served your 5 years, your backstory can be how it worked out or backfired, GOO locks might have just cast a ritual peering into a eldritch entities mind and that is it, a Genie may ask for a perfect gemstone of a certain kind which you already did in your backstory which may or may not have complications etc. 5 years of service for magical power I could see a lot of people going for, providing a gem stone even if it needed to be stolen same, gazing into the abyss believing your mind can withstand it maybe less often but I can see people doing it, selling the soul i mean pretty rare.
Outside the sell your soul one, there are tons of pacts people would be willing to do especially if you paid up front and don't have something hanging over your head forever. In a universe were hell is a known factor and not something people just might have faith in the sell your soul ones have to be pretty dang desperate.
I have an idea for a character that I'm hoping to get to play: they were originally an ordinary human who found a lamp with a Djinn inside it and wished for power and adventure. Now they're an Air Genasi with the Djinn as their warlock patron (this concept also works for Earth and Water Genasi with Dao and Marid patrons, respectively).
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
"Believe me, I understand why you were upset. The Slumberer of Abanath seemed like a great Patron, and I have to agree; it's one of the reasons I also chose it. Perform the required rituals, and the Slumberer grants the power. The Slumberer exacts no price. The Slumberer makes no demands. The Slumberer has no inconvenient and powerful foes. The Slumberer...Slumbers.."
"And as warlocks of the Slumberer, we have a vested interest in making sure that the Slumber continues. So we keep an eye on things that could wake the Slumberer. And one of the things that we have determined could wake it is if the number of warlocks gets too large. We strive to keep comfortably away from that number, as a variety of different groups, by a variety of different means."
The warlock wiped off his blade, dismissed it, and looked down at the remains.
"Well, at least one of us is glad we had this talk."
🎵I'm on top of the world, looking down on creation, wreaking death and devastation with my mind.
As the power that I've found erupts freely from the ground, I will cackle from the top of the world.🎵
"Power! Muahahahahaha!"