I'd usually start with an idea about what sort of patron the warlock will have and work out a concept from there, here's an example for an archfey based on the goblin king from the film Labyrinth:
The Warlock's title is Gobshite.
Gobshite (which means a foolish or incompetent person) are in service to Jar'eth, the Goblin King. Jar'eth dwells in a place called the Goblin City, which exists in the middle of a labyrinth of ever changing walls somewhere in the Feywild. It is said that anyone that knows the correct incantation can ask a single wish of Jar'eth and he will comply and, for good or ill, arrange for it to come true. Goblins are his servants and he allows them to live in and maintain his city, Jar'eth himself is not a goblin, nor does he actually look vaguely goblin so it is a mystery why the goblins serve him so willingly. Jar'eth has an uneasy truce with Hoggle, the Boggle Lord. Any Goblin that dwells in the Goblin City for any length of time become a Fey version of Goblin called a Gobshite, much like the Eladrin are Fey versions of Elves. The fact the Jar'eth refers to his warlocks as Gobshites leads some to wonder whether he actually likes his servants or not, a common activity for his warlocks is to travel the material plane and kidnap goblins and bring them to the Goblin City.
From that I'd then go on to piece out the usual background and pact side of things and decide if the warlock is in good favour or not, does the warlock have a mission or are they being given free reign for a while etc.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
I would base it on your characters backstory, motivations, and relationship with his patron.
The great thing about warlocks is that they come from diverse backgrounds, and their patrons have a wide variety of motivations and tasks for them.
I personally avoid the tropes you see with a lot of warlocks.
My warlock's task is to destroy all aberrations. since there aren't many aberrations in Waterdeep (except Xanathar), he has taken it upon himself to join the Grey Hand and destroy any evil threatening the city. Eventually he wants to gain enough power to take Xanathar on, but that's a long ways off.
His patron occasionally sends him confusing visons that he has trouble understanding, so I play him as a bit neurotic
Yeah, what they said… but also take a good look at the pact boons because they can change your range of RP.
Pact of the chain: arguing with an imp, sprite, or quasit because your alignment doesn't match theirs...
Pact of the blade: playing a bladelock where your weapon talks to you or pushes your emotions to hold back or get aggressive at odd times may make you not want to use it.
Pact of the tome: might make you more wizard-y or taking "aspect of the moon" (XGtE) means you no longer need sleep and if you don't tell anyone how you do so will creep them out.
Pact of the talisman: People may start looking at you like your crazy when you try to hand them what looks (or not) like a cursed necklace.
To be a warlock is to sell your soul or pledge your life to a generally not nice superpowerful being. Why on earth or any other world would you do that? Having a good reason for it is the core of your character's personality. Let that guide your character development. I played a neutral good rogue who became a warlock of Malcanthet because the Demon Queen of Succubi had possessed another party member, and my rogue agreed to the pact in exchange for Malcanthet freeing the other character.
To be a warlock is to sell your soul or pledge your life to a generally not nice superpowerful being.
Not all patrons are evil. Not all pacts are parasitic or require one to give up their soul.
I second this.
My Hexblade Warlock’s Patron is his own mother, an ancient shadow dragon who uses the warlock pact to help control and nurture the volatile magic her son is naturally imbued with due to his family’s lineage containing a lot of powerful magic users.
Seems the Renfield-like slavish devotee to their patron is the least popular cliche. Seems the middle popular ground is somehow being your patron's "special" where there are designs for you.
This is cliche too, but I like to play and see when I DM arrogant, cocky, or at least aloof Warlocks who actually don't see eye to eye with their patrons, and sometimes the patrons regret making the pact in the first place. A pact is deal, and whose to say a Warlock securing their best interests didn't walk away with the better hand. Whether the Warlock has in fact pulled such a fast one, that's something to be figured out at the table; but we're talking about the Warlock's take on reality, which they presume is superior than the conventional view, so to speak. In other words, treat the pact as a joke or a scam made possible by delusions of grandeur ... or maybe the Warlock just needs the write card to keep up their sleeve, like their party. They play with fire and haven't been burned yet.
For easy references: John Constantine sometimes fits into this mode. Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul gets the personality I'm trying to get across. Think of Han Solo's relationship with his patron Jabba the Hutt, and make it D&D. Another personality I'd draw on would be John Noble's character from Fringe, suppose the parallel universe was his patron, and his super science was his boon. Smart, eccentric, marked by an awareness the world is more or less than what it seems.
This question is truly the one part of your backstory you want to flush out. I would recommend noting it from a top level and not feel compelled to write out every detail of the origin of your pact. I say this because many DM's will look to evolve that relationship in the game itself.
My Example: Lord Julius Danvers was born to a noble family leading the fabrics guild of Waterdeep. When his parents were killed by pirates during a merchant transport, the family fortune and status was close to ruin. Julius made a pact with Dispater, pledging his servitude in exchange for a boon to restore the family coffers flush with gold. His travels have found him in the company of adventurers, and immersed into a secret plot that threatens the Empire itself. Julius is eager to help, but he is selfish and ultimately looks to acquire power. With enough influence both in the kingdom and in his dark powers, Julius can leverage the terms of his pact.
I've done a thousand different ways. Genie Lock - my character made a wish to be powerful, the genie made him powerful. Turned him into a changling and gave him sub-par genie powers, cuz genie's are *****. He now very rreluctantly serves the Genie whom will appear or do things to **** with him. GoO lock - He was a dude that studied ancient languages/artifacts and opened one that opened his mind and gave him abilities, he now seeks out all ancient artifacts and collects them. Hexblade - He made a pact with a living weapon and yeah....Fiend - She was married to him and in order to protect his love he gave her abilities. Fathomless - He was dying in the water when an ancient being whispered to him and gave him a second chance at life. I could go on and on. As a DM i've created many interesting npcs and warlocks literally could have just accidently tapped into power of a SUPER powerful being and the being not even know.
When considering the Pact- remember you can get creative too with how the pact is fulfilled. My Archfey Eladrin warlock only has to do small silly jobs from time to time as payment for her powers because most of the payment came from her parent's hiring Oberron to rescue her from the Nine Hells. Oberron had to keep her trapped in an illusion for 6 months to slowly restore her sanity as part of the deal of rescuing her and in that process became one of his "chosen." Boom Warlock powers with no sinister soul trading required!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
hey! I was wondering how you guys normally rp a warlock. I'm debating playing as one, but i never have before, so I'm a little lost.
I'll jump before I'll fall <3
I'd usually start with an idea about what sort of patron the warlock will have and work out a concept from there, here's an example for an archfey based on the goblin king from the film Labyrinth:
The Warlock's title is Gobshite.
Gobshite (which means a foolish or incompetent person) are in service to Jar'eth, the Goblin King. Jar'eth dwells in a place called the Goblin City, which exists in the middle of a labyrinth of ever changing walls somewhere in the Feywild. It is said that anyone that knows the correct incantation can ask a single wish of Jar'eth and he will comply and, for good or ill, arrange for it to come true. Goblins are his servants and he allows them to live in and maintain his city, Jar'eth himself is not a goblin, nor does he actually look vaguely goblin so it is a mystery why the goblins serve him so willingly. Jar'eth has an uneasy truce with Hoggle, the Boggle Lord. Any Goblin that dwells in the Goblin City for any length of time become a Fey version of Goblin called a Gobshite, much like the Eladrin are Fey versions of Elves. The fact the Jar'eth refers to his warlocks as Gobshites leads some to wonder whether he actually likes his servants or not, a common activity for his warlocks is to travel the material plane and kidnap goblins and bring them to the Goblin City.
From that I'd then go on to piece out the usual background and pact side of things and decide if the warlock is in good favour or not, does the warlock have a mission or are they being given free reign for a while etc.
I would base it on your characters backstory, motivations, and relationship with his patron.
The great thing about warlocks is that they come from diverse backgrounds, and their patrons have a wide variety of motivations and tasks for them.
I personally avoid the tropes you see with a lot of warlocks.
My warlock's task is to destroy all aberrations. since there aren't many aberrations in Waterdeep (except Xanathar), he has taken it upon himself to join the Grey Hand and destroy any evil threatening the city. Eventually he wants to gain enough power to take Xanathar on, but that's a long ways off.
His patron occasionally sends him confusing visons that he has trouble understanding, so I play him as a bit neurotic
Yeah, what they said… but also take a good look at the pact boons because they can change your range of RP.
Pact of the chain: arguing with an imp, sprite, or quasit because your alignment doesn't match theirs...
Pact of the blade: playing a bladelock where your weapon talks to you or pushes your emotions to hold back or get aggressive at odd times may make you not want to use it.
Pact of the tome: might make you more wizard-y or taking "aspect of the moon" (XGtE) means you no longer need sleep and if you don't tell anyone how you do so will creep them out.
Pact of the talisman: People may start looking at you like your crazy when you try to hand them what looks (or not) like a cursed necklace.
To be a warlock is to sell your soul or pledge your life to a generally not nice superpowerful being. Why on earth or any other world would you do that? Having a good reason for it is the core of your character's personality. Let that guide your character development. I played a neutral good rogue who became a warlock of Malcanthet because the Demon Queen of Succubi had possessed another party member, and my rogue agreed to the pact in exchange for Malcanthet freeing the other character.
Not all patrons are evil. Not all pacts are parasitic or require one to give up their soul.
I second this.
My Hexblade Warlock’s Patron is his own mother, an ancient shadow dragon who uses the warlock pact to help control and nurture the volatile magic her son is naturally imbued with due to his family’s lineage containing a lot of powerful magic users.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
I think one of the really fun aspects of this class is that you can RP them as pretty much anything.
I mean, who hasn't gone out and got really drunk and woken up somewhere weird beholden to an inscrutable eldritch patron?
Seems the Renfield-like slavish devotee to their patron is the least popular cliche. Seems the middle popular ground is somehow being your patron's "special" where there are designs for you.
This is cliche too, but I like to play and see when I DM arrogant, cocky, or at least aloof Warlocks who actually don't see eye to eye with their patrons, and sometimes the patrons regret making the pact in the first place. A pact is deal, and whose to say a Warlock securing their best interests didn't walk away with the better hand. Whether the Warlock has in fact pulled such a fast one, that's something to be figured out at the table; but we're talking about the Warlock's take on reality, which they presume is superior than the conventional view, so to speak. In other words, treat the pact as a joke or a scam made possible by delusions of grandeur ... or maybe the Warlock just needs the write card to keep up their sleeve, like their party. They play with fire and haven't been burned yet.
For easy references: John Constantine sometimes fits into this mode. Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul gets the personality I'm trying to get across. Think of Han Solo's relationship with his patron Jabba the Hutt, and make it D&D. Another personality I'd draw on would be John Noble's character from Fringe, suppose the parallel universe was his patron, and his super science was his boon. Smart, eccentric, marked by an awareness the world is more or less than what it seems.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This question is truly the one part of your backstory you want to flush out. I would recommend noting it from a top level and not feel compelled to write out every detail of the origin of your pact. I say this because many DM's will look to evolve that relationship in the game itself.
My Example: Lord Julius Danvers was born to a noble family leading the fabrics guild of Waterdeep. When his parents were killed by pirates during a merchant transport, the family fortune and status was close to ruin. Julius made a pact with Dispater, pledging his servitude in exchange for a boon to restore the family coffers flush with gold. His travels have found him in the company of adventurers, and immersed into a secret plot that threatens the Empire itself. Julius is eager to help, but he is selfish and ultimately looks to acquire power. With enough influence both in the kingdom and in his dark powers, Julius can leverage the terms of his pact.
@sfPanzer - These are both great! So good to see more adventurers with both parents still alive! 😛
I've done a thousand different ways. Genie Lock - my character made a wish to be powerful, the genie made him powerful. Turned him into a changling and gave him sub-par genie powers, cuz genie's are *****. He now very rreluctantly serves the Genie whom will appear or do things to **** with him. GoO lock - He was a dude that studied ancient languages/artifacts and opened one that opened his mind and gave him abilities, he now seeks out all ancient artifacts and collects them. Hexblade - He made a pact with a living weapon and yeah....Fiend - She was married to him and in order to protect his love he gave her abilities. Fathomless - He was dying in the water when an ancient being whispered to him and gave him a second chance at life. I could go on and on. As a DM i've created many interesting npcs and warlocks literally could have just accidently tapped into power of a SUPER powerful being and the being not even know.
When considering the Pact- remember you can get creative too with how the pact is fulfilled. My Archfey Eladrin warlock only has to do small silly jobs from time to time as payment for her powers because most of the payment came from her parent's hiring Oberron to rescue her from the Nine Hells. Oberron had to keep her trapped in an illusion for 6 months to slowly restore her sanity as part of the deal of rescuing her and in that process became one of his "chosen." Boom Warlock powers with no sinister soul trading required!