So I tend to gravitate towards Warlocks. I've been playing for only a year or two though, so nothing has really... come full circle yet. My favorite Warlock I ever made was a warlock called Chase Runeblade. A half-drow who's human father ran a massive trade industry in Faerun. Basically making him the king of his own empire. Chase and his father were leaving a show one night when a member of a crime family showed up and stabbed Chase and his father in cold blood. While Chase was laying there, soaked in blood; an apparition appeared to him. She called herself the lady of Winterwatch, which Chase recognized as the name of a tower that he wasn't allowed to visit. There were strange tales of that place, and now that he thought about it; he realized that they were only a stone's throw from it. The apparition offered Chase a deal. She would revive him, but he would have to take vengeance on the family that slew her and her husband. Chase took the pact and became her warlock.
As I said, I've only been playing about a year and my group keeps switching campaigns for some reason, so nothing ever became of Chase Runeblade.
My current warlock player threw a spanner in the works when he told me what he wanted his patron to be, but I adapted some of the world lore to work for it. His patron is Cthulhu. I've let him take the great old ones patron route, and he doesn't have a name for his actual patron yet but he does get nightmares that leave him soaked to the bone and with terrible hangovers.
As for the legend himself, Cthulhu is out for vengeance against the people that destroyed his totally not a cult religion because it was his one chance of escaping the cage that the Current Gods put him in (essentially, an uber christian religion wiped out a bunch of smaller religions and instilled itself as The One True Religion with the backing of The Current Gods) so now he's having to bond and make pacts with people who have reason to want to destroy TOTR. The PC was kidnapped by the clerics of The One True Religion and tortured because he had innate magical abilities that would have made him a useful weapon. He escapes with the help of this mysterious patron, who he has no idea about beyond the implicit agreement to help each other destroy the religion, and then spends his time attacking the caravans of kids that the clerics are shipping back to their military complex.
Now my warlock and the rest of the PCs are on their way to try and destroy the religion, and Cthulhu might start to reveal himself and his potentially nefarious intentions along the way.
One of my current characters is a Great Old One warlock whose patron is the spirit of the island he washed up on as a child, who named him and raised him and transformed him into a changeling so that he can reflect the ever-shifting nature of his patron. He chose pact of the tome to reflect the spirit's desire to learn, since the spirit can't leave its own island, so it has to view the world through its patron's eyes.
For a GOO lock, could Tiamat or Bahamut be their patron? Are those gods 'great' or 'old' enough?
Tiamat... maaaybe... but its not really the theme that the GOOs are about. Creatures that give you existential terror just by their mere existence, mostly beings that have been entirely forgotten by the vast majority of mortals. Bahamut would be more likely to be a Celestial patron, or some representative of him. Lavos, Leviathan, Jormungand could be some GOO ideas to start from (or make your own terrifying being from beyond the stars of this universe) as ideas. Beings that if they came to the material plane (or woke up) would likely mean the end of all life on the material plane if not the whole universe.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
For a GOO lock, could Tiamat or Bahamut be their patron? Are those gods 'great' or 'old' enough?
Tiamat... maaaybe... but its not really the theme that the GOOs are about. Creatures that give you existential terror just by their mere existence, mostly beings that have been entirely forgotten by the vast majority of mortals. Bahamut would be more likely to be a Celestial patron, or some representative of him. Lavos, Leviathan, Jormungand could be some GOO ideas to start from (or make your own terrifying being from beyond the stars of this universe) as ideas. Beings that if they came to the material plane (or woke up) would likely mean the end of all life on the material plane if not the whole universe.
I recently played a warlock of the Undying (fwiw the character was a yuan-ti pureblood who'd been raised since infancy by humans who had been responsible for slaughtering the other yuan-ti of his enclave). The specific patron I chose was Izir, the Ilithilich, which is one of the patrons detailed in the Rykard's Book of Patrons supplement, available at DMs Guild. I played the character through the White Plume Mountain campaign and had a heck of a lot of fun with it. With my DMs approval, the optional abilities from the supplement integrated seamlessly with the game, and the patron's customized goals and backstory really helped me flesh out my own character's personality quirks. It also prevented me from merely taking my patron for granted as just some murky concept behind my character; instead, I found myself constantly on my toes to make sure my character was acting in a way that would please my patron and was not doing anything that might incur the patron's wrath. In the past, I've sometimes felt like I've taken the patron for granted with other warlock characters
Full disclosure, the author of Rykard's Book of Patrons is a friend of mine, but even were that not the case, I'd highly recommend checking out the supplement if you're looking for ways to add some cool customization, backstory, lore, and character motivation to your warlock's patron choice... It worked for me!
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Author of Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, The Primal Gith, and other forthcoming titles at DMs Guild
Great Old Ones = Chtullu and other Lovecraftian Mythos.
Or whatever else people agree upon for a game.
I like to think of Great Old One patrons as pretty much any aberration powerful enough to confer warlock powers and enter into a pact (and this would include Cthulhu Mythos entities, imho, but might also include Neogi deities, or an unusually powerful beholder or balhannoth or elder brain, etc). There's a lot of similarity between the way the PH describes Great Old One patrons and MM describes aberrations; the only real difference seems to be a question of power and degree...
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Author of Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, The Primal Gith, and other forthcoming titles at DMs Guild
That is an exremely good point, and very spot on. Aboleths and things like that could be patrons I would think.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Great Old Ones = Chtullu and other Lovecraftian Mythos.
Or whatever else people agree upon for a game.
I like to think of Great Old One patrons as pretty much any aberration powerful enough to confer warlock powers and enter into a pact (and this would include Cthulhu Mythos entities, imho, but might also include Neogi deities, or an unusually powerful beholder or balhannoth or elder brain, etc). There's a lot of similarity between the way the PH describes Great Old One patrons and MM describes aberrations; the only real difference seems to be a question of power and degree...
but also the Primordials from 4e, sentient stars don't have to be particularly lovecraftian, etc.
My current character, a hexblade warlock, made her pact with a sentient fragment of residual evil energy left by evil gods (long story from a previous campaign I DM'ed) as a child, that would possess her weapons and later try to possess her . After seeing her arm become pitch black she sought a sentient rapier to from a new pact with.
My group is starting a new campaign this weekend; I will be playing a Celestial pact warlock whose pact is with a vestige of Mystryl, the original goddess of magic in Forgotten Realms. The vestige, has recovered some of her original power which had been vested in Larloch as one of Mystryl's chosen now wants back into the goddess club. She forged a pact with my warlock granting him a shred of power.
In return, his job is to draw attention to Mystryl. She can't re-ascend to divinity without worshippers, and to get worshippers, she needs to "get her name out there". He's a used-goddess salesman.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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
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Well, this is an older thread but...yeah.
So I tend to gravitate towards Warlocks. I've been playing for only a year or two though, so nothing has really... come full circle yet. My favorite Warlock I ever made was a warlock called Chase Runeblade. A half-drow who's human father ran a massive trade industry in Faerun. Basically making him the king of his own empire. Chase and his father were leaving a show one night when a member of a crime family showed up and stabbed Chase and his father in cold blood. While Chase was laying there, soaked in blood; an apparition appeared to him. She called herself the lady of Winterwatch, which Chase recognized as the name of a tower that he wasn't allowed to visit. There were strange tales of that place, and now that he thought about it; he realized that they were only a stone's throw from it. The apparition offered Chase a deal. She would revive him, but he would have to take vengeance on the family that slew her and her husband. Chase took the pact and became her warlock.
As I said, I've only been playing about a year and my group keeps switching campaigns for some reason, so nothing ever became of Chase Runeblade.
My current warlock player threw a spanner in the works when he told me what he wanted his patron to be, but I adapted some of the world lore to work for it. His patron is Cthulhu. I've let him take the great old ones patron route, and he doesn't have a name for his actual patron yet but he does get nightmares that leave him soaked to the bone and with terrible hangovers.
As for the legend himself, Cthulhu is out for vengeance against the people that destroyed his totally not a cult religion because it was his one chance of escaping the cage that the Current Gods put him in (essentially, an uber christian religion wiped out a bunch of smaller religions and instilled itself as The One True Religion with the backing of The Current Gods) so now he's having to bond and make pacts with people who have reason to want to destroy TOTR. The PC was kidnapped by the clerics of The One True Religion and tortured because he had innate magical abilities that would have made him a useful weapon. He escapes with the help of this mysterious patron, who he has no idea about beyond the implicit agreement to help each other destroy the religion, and then spends his time attacking the caravans of kids that the clerics are shipping back to their military complex.
Now my warlock and the rest of the PCs are on their way to try and destroy the religion, and Cthulhu might start to reveal himself and his potentially nefarious intentions along the way.
One of my current characters is a Great Old One warlock whose patron is the spirit of the island he washed up on as a child, who named him and raised him and transformed him into a changeling so that he can reflect the ever-shifting nature of his patron. He chose pact of the tome to reflect the spirit's desire to learn, since the spirit can't leave its own island, so it has to view the world through its patron's eyes.
For a GOO lock, could Tiamat or Bahamut be their patron? Are those gods 'great' or 'old' enough?
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
Tiamat... maaaybe... but its not really the theme that the GOOs are about. Creatures that give you existential terror just by their mere existence, mostly beings that have been entirely forgotten by the vast majority of mortals. Bahamut would be more likely to be a Celestial patron, or some representative of him. Lavos, Leviathan, Jormungand could be some GOO ideas to start from (or make your own terrifying being from beyond the stars of this universe) as ideas. Beings that if they came to the material plane (or woke up) would likely mean the end of all life on the material plane if not the whole universe.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Good thoughts. Cheers
PbP 🎲: Tyekanik; Moneo Noree; Korba Muris; & occasional DM:
I recently played a warlock of the Undying (fwiw the character was a yuan-ti pureblood who'd been raised since infancy by humans who had been responsible for slaughtering the other yuan-ti of his enclave). The specific patron I chose was Izir, the Ilithilich, which is one of the patrons detailed in the Rykard's Book of Patrons supplement, available at DMs Guild. I played the character through the White Plume Mountain campaign and had a heck of a lot of fun with it. With my DMs approval, the optional abilities from the supplement integrated seamlessly with the game, and the patron's customized goals and backstory really helped me flesh out my own character's personality quirks. It also prevented me from merely taking my patron for granted as just some murky concept behind my character; instead, I found myself constantly on my toes to make sure my character was acting in a way that would please my patron and was not doing anything that might incur the patron's wrath. In the past, I've sometimes felt like I've taken the patron for granted with other warlock characters
Full disclosure, the author of Rykard's Book of Patrons is a friend of mine, but even were that not the case, I'd highly recommend checking out the supplement if you're looking for ways to add some cool customization, backstory, lore, and character motivation to your warlock's patron choice... It worked for me!
Author of Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, The Primal Gith, and other forthcoming titles at DMs Guild
Great Old Ones = Chtullu and other Lovecraftian Mythos.
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
Or whatever else people agree upon for a game.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Tiamat for sure. She is a horror that wants to eat the world.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
I like to think of Great Old One patrons as pretty much any aberration powerful enough to confer warlock powers and enter into a pact (and this would include Cthulhu Mythos entities, imho, but might also include Neogi deities, or an unusually powerful beholder or balhannoth or elder brain, etc). There's a lot of similarity between the way the PH describes Great Old One patrons and MM describes aberrations; the only real difference seems to be a question of power and degree...
Author of Fellozial's Ultimate Guide to Poison, The Primal Gith, and other forthcoming titles at DMs Guild
That is an exremely good point, and very spot on. Aboleths and things like that could be patrons I would think.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
but also the Primordials from 4e, sentient stars don't have to be particularly lovecraftian, etc.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
My current character, a hexblade warlock, made her pact with a sentient fragment of residual evil energy left by evil gods (long story from a previous campaign I DM'ed) as a child, that would possess her weapons and later try to possess her . After seeing her arm become pitch black she sought a sentient rapier to from a new pact with.
My group is starting a new campaign this weekend; I will be playing a Celestial pact warlock whose pact is with a vestige of Mystryl, the original goddess of magic in Forgotten Realms. The vestige, has recovered some of her original power which had been vested in Larloch as one of Mystryl's chosen now wants back into the goddess club. She forged a pact with my warlock granting him a shred of power.
In return, his job is to draw attention to Mystryl. She can't re-ascend to divinity without worshippers, and to get worshippers, she needs to "get her name out there". He's a used-goddess salesman.
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