Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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The adventure I'm working on has an OC Demon Lord as our Big Bad, and I've pulled in EVERY in universe book that covers demons the best. Including the Demonomicon of Iggwilv. But I doubt Tasha will let just anyone read her book free of charge. For this adventure, she contacts the PC's because she has a vested interest in stopping the OC Demon Lord, and sees the PC's as allies for this. But requires them to do something for her in return for allowing them to read her book.
That being said, I have every known Demon Lord as an option for PC's who are Warlocks and I'm curious about what Tasha would do or react to a PC who has her lover as a patron. I've even decided that if I have a Warlock PC with Graz'zt as their patron, Graz'zt is the one who instructs them to find Tasha.
To answer your question, it is entirely up to you as the DM. A lot of that will be driven by how you want to play the characters.
Personally, I think she might be bemused - her and Graz’zt’s relationship is typically seen as… let us just say they both know exactly what they’re looking for out of the liaison, and it is not romance. Theirs is a relationship of competition - often ripe with forced imprisonment and some pretty twisted dynamics that work for them, but are not exactly what most folks would consider healthy in a relationship. Some little tiny warlock plaything that does not know what they’re getting into and is never going to be any real threat to the Witch Queen? A trifling amusement at best.
But the real answer to your question is this: Do not bother speculating on what might happen. If a player never picks this option, it does not matter. And if a player does, you’re going to have to rewrite the answer to frame it in terms of how the player envisions their backstory anyway. This kind of advance speculation is a waste of time at best and, at worst, gives the DM preconceptions they then try to force on a player, interfering with the player’s agency in creating their own backstory.
That would be a fun development, especially depending on which era of Tasha's history you're drawing from.
If she's still operating as a witch, she might view the PC as an asset, either working alongside them or leveraging them to gather information and power. If you're in her demon lord period, she and Graz'zt could treat the PC like a plaything between them, assigning strange arcane tasks that amount to petty digs at each other, or thinly veiled attempts at flirting. And if you're playing with her fey incarnation, she might look at the warlock with outright pity.
Either way, the tension between former lovers and the PC caught in the middle creates some roleplay opportunities.
Probably it will depend a lot on if he's been remembering to put the toilet seat back down lately.
Seriously though, if one considers the sardonic quips in TCoE as canon, that might be a line she would use if you decide they are currently on the outs. My head canon always had them in a sort of make-up/break-up situationship. But as always, make it what you want. You can always decide they don't mean anything to each other and never have if you don't want the complication. Or have them have kids. What version of them will make the story more interesting without getting in the way and sucking up too much time from the PCs?
Oh, they have a shit ton of kids and cambions together already. Iuz the Destroyer being one of them.
"You're not chaotic evil! You're just chaotic SHIT!"
This is probably better in the Story & Lore subforum, lots of theorycrafting in there.
Thanks.
As I have said in a related post on the Warlock discussion forum, regarding warlocks and their choice of patrons, a devil will be willing to dine with a warlock with the goal of gradually guiding the warlock down a very slippery slope into eventual, terminal and fatal damnation. A demon, on the other hand, will be bored by the long term temptation and simply devour the warlock, body, mind and soul in a few minutes.
I mean, not every demon is all crazy attention defici- MURDER!!!!! all the time. A lot of the big names can play a long game, although they're still more prone to be swayed by a passing whim or feeling.
Okay. My point was that a devil usually has a sufficiently patient temperament to savor the thought of eventually dining on your soul after it has been sufficiently sullied and defiled by a life time of ignoble deeds, so that no denizen of the Upper Planes will have any thing at all to do with your soul after you die. (Please consult "The Screwtape Letters" for a description of how a master devil prefers to slowly and patiently anticipate the luscious aroma of a thoroughly corrupted soul that is being carefully roasted on a spit over the fires of damnation.)
A demon, though, usually does not want to wait that long to devour your soul.
A devil is willing to wait for a medium rare filet mignon, with a baked Yukon Gold potato dripping with chilled sour cream and a nice glass or two of merlot style wine. A demon wants a couple McDonald's Quarter Pounders, a large bag of fries and a jumbo Coke, to go........NOW!
This is a great idea and great campaign. I would use the PC as the in-between in some petty will-they-won't-they high school lovers drama. Make them carry love notes or maybe Tasha pretends to cheat on the Demon Lord with the PC or vice versa setting up the other as a temporary villain. I hope it works out for you.
On a side note Tasha is ridiculously evil. She turns every potion into a spell rather than turning spells into potions. It is insanity! My rivalry is a professional one as she could have truly been the best of the best when it comes to Alchemy but her desire to do away with apothecary altogether is an out right curse to the profession. What a pity all that wasted talent is.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
Interesting view point. So, would that be the idea behind the Level 6 spell in the 2024 PHB, that is entitled "Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron"? My warlock PC really loves that spell because it permits him to conjure each day about five(5) potions of greater healing. (My warlock has a Charisma score of 20, which has a modifier of 5, which is how he conjures five(5) potions each time). Normally, a potion of greater healing costs about 250 gold, so five such potions would cost 250 x 5, or about 1250 gold.
Ah, yes, this is the same warlock who is on very extended trip through the Feywild, serving as one of the prime examples of why, (as that great sage, Puck, once remarked), "What fools these mortals be".
Ah, but you see you are using magic to produce a potion not Alchemy. This would put you under the thumb of Mystra who could prevent the spell from working all together. Pure Alchemy on the other hand is something that operates outside all that. The only time magic is involved is when you brew the potion and even then Mystra cannot stop you from brewing the potion. All she can do is know you are going to brew a potion six months before you brew it and then afterwards she has no idea when, by whom, or where that potion will be used, and she can only do this with potions that replicate an Arcane spell. If Tasha had gone pure Alchemist she wouldn't be subject to Mystra's magical restrictions.
Oh, and an Alchemist can craft those at 100gp in 2.5 days or less with the right Feats and Origin.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
No, using magic to make a potion is still alchemy. That's what distinguishes alchemy from mundane chemistry.
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Ah, friend, you did not read the FULL description of that spell in the 2024 PHB. Those potions that my warlock conjures will last only until my warlock casts that spell again. A REAL alchemist can make potions that last for days, weeks and months, while these conjured potions last only until my warlock casts the Bubbling Cauldron into being again.
This may well be Tasha's grand scheme: to pull off a stunt that circumvents what arcane governs and what alchemy governs.
As for what Mystra might say, or do, on this matter, I have no comment.
As for the subject of alchemy, that is a realm of specialized knowledge that would fall under the domain of Oghma (deity of knowledge) and probably Gond (deity of artisans and crafters), because an alchemist is a specialist artisan.
Some of my thoughts on this topic are based upon the C.S. Lewis book, "The Screwtape Letters", an excellent book if you want to appreciate a devious mind at work.
Some of my other thoughts are based upon Arthur C. Clarke's observation that a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from.....magic. If you doubt this, consider some one wearing an ear bud who is seen talking aloud to......no one nearby.
Addendum: if you are interested in what Tasha has been doing lately, please read "The Feywild Job". This is a novel about plots and sub plots in the Feywild and one of the NPCs that keep the cauldron bubbling is.......Tasha.