Quote from crzyhawk >>

Depends on the patron's view of the warlock in question.  I don't think there's really a correct answer.  Client is the most generically correct term imo.

 'Client' is indeed probably the preferred term, although my Archfey patron sometimes refers to my character as Her Little Kitten. My character treads very lightly when my patron uses that term.

August 7, 2025: my character treads very lightly to avoid being shape shifted into a Persian cat with pink chiffon style fur and a large red bow tie collar. Another of My Most Magnificent Patron's clients displeased Her so much, that the unfortunate fool wanders through the Glorious Feywild Palace in the guise of a rather large rat, while another idiot was shape shifted into an animated, sentient block of Swiss cheese. I try to avoid both of them during my brief visits to the Palace.

In the ancient world those who received favor from a Patron were called Clients.

For my characters, it ends up being embarrassing waste of magic and time. *sighs* 

Unpaid Intern

I have a character who's patron is Tiamat and Tiamat calls him "pointless idiot" cause he makes bad decisions like constantly.

Quote from Aur_The_Great >>

I have a character who's patron is Tiamat and Tiamat calls him "pointless idiot" cause he makes bad decisions like constantly.

I love this. Can I ask which patron/subclass you use to represent Tiamat?

Fiend Pact

I have been recently thinking of making a homebrew Pact of the Dragon- maybe the Fiend could be a good start

A Discord Kitten

Quote from Math495 >>

I have been recently thinking of making a homebrew Pact of the Dragon- maybe the Fiend could be a good start

 Fiend pact for Tiamat is probably best because Tiamat is an extremely powerful demon. On the other hand, Tiamat, herself, would probably insist on a unique Pact with no connection to the Fiend Pact, probably a version of the Great Old One Pact, because Tiamat is the Greatest Dragon That Has Ever Existed....do you not agree, insignificant little mortal?

I like Investment.

Ah I see my investment has produced decent results this time. We shall see if you continue to pay off.

intern

I have a couple characters who serve Tiamat. A paladin and a sorcerer. They're very cool. Also, Fiend is a great subclass for that, but Genie works well also because of its elemental theme.

Here's my question: What would a warlock be called to their patron if their patron didn't really gift the warlock their powers?

Examples:
The warlock has a magical commensalistic symbiosis of sorts with the patron. Pardon the scientific vocabulary. The warlock draws upon their patron's power, but the patron isn't "giving" it to them. It's just there for the taking.
Also, what if the patron is dead and the warlock's magic remained. They're free of servitude, but their magic is permanent, so what is the patron called now? And what about the warlock? Are they called something else because they are no longer in their patron's servitude?

Quote from Potato66807 >>

I have a couple characters who serve Tiamat. A paladin and a sorcerer. They're very cool. Also, Fiend is a great subclass for that, but Genie works well also because of its elemental theme.

Here's my question: What would a warlock be called to their patron if their patron didn't really gift the warlock their powers?

Examples:
The warlock has a magical commensalistic symbiosis of sorts with the patron. Pardon the scientific vocabulary. The warlock draws upon their patron's power, but the patron isn't "giving" it to them. It's just there for the taking.
Also, what if the patron is dead and the warlock's magic remained. They're free of servitude, but their magic is permanent, so what is the patron called now? And what about the warlock? Are they called something else because they are no longer in their patron's servitude?

 A paladin (usually a good alignment) in cahoots with a Chaotic Evil being? Something is gravely out of whack here.

Alignment requirements for classes have not been a thing for a loooooooooooong time.

For all practical role playing purposes, I tend to treat a warlock's patron as being immortal and extremely difficult to kill.

Yeah, my paladin is lawful evil. She's an Oathbreaker technically, but I reflavored it as an "Oath of Darkness."

Why would the Patron even know the Paladin exists or that it is siphoning power?

I looked up what that means and the example in google is "For example, barnacles on a whale benefit from transport and food, but the whale remains unaffected. "

Using that same example.  There are a lot of barnacles on the whale, yet it is really doubtful that the whale is aware of any particular barnacle.  I assume it is aware there are barnacles, just not aware of any individual.

If you are a barnacle from the example, the Patron is aware it has individuals siphoning power, but would it know who they particularly are with out looking for them?

I think because of your relationship of communalistic symbiosis of sorts with the patron, the Patron has no idea you exist.  So if it calls you anything it is unknown #xxxx

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Alignment requirements for classes have not been a thing for a loooooooooooong time.

 Okay....but for some of us old timers, Paladin implies Lawful Good.

Quote from Character77006 >>

Why would the Patron even know the Paladin exists or that it is siphoning power?

I looked up what that means and the example in google is "For example, barnacles on a whale benefit from transport and food, but the whale remains unaffected. "

Using that same example.  There are a lot of barnacles on the whale, yet it is really doubtful that the whale is aware of any particular barnacle.  I assume it is aware there are barnacles, just not aware of any individual.

If you are a barnacle from the example, the Patron is aware it has individuals siphoning power, but would it know who they particularly are with out looking for them?

I think because of your relationship of communalistic symbiosis of sorts with the patron, the Patron has no idea you exist.  So if it calls you anything it is unknown #xxxx

 If the Patron has no idea that your character even exists, then please explain how your character was able to create a Patron / Client pact?