So, I'm trying to figure out a patron for my half-orc warlock. Here's the idea:
He was raised by his human father in the woods somewhere secluded because he was embarrassed of his ugly half-orc son. However, his father died while he was still under 10 and wandering in the woods he was kidnaped by an orc raiding party and kept for many years as a cruelly treated servant. When he was around 12, a particularly ambitioned Rutterkin with a couple goblin followers slaughtered the orc raiding party and, upon finding the child, recruited him to join them. After working for the Rutterkin for a year or so and proving himself worthy, the Rutterkin (who ultimately wants to ascend as a demon lord in like manner as Orcus) offers to patron my half-orc as a warlock, in return for being serving the Rutterkin at a moment's notice and sometimes providing him with fresh flesh to eat as tribute.
Usually Patrons are already god-like beings. Hard to imagine any such creature working with a couple of goblin followers. In my opinion the back story works better with "A failed summoning called Demon Lord GrAfab, Emperor of the Rutterkin, who promptly destroyed all the orcs older than 13 and required the loyalty of all that he spared."
Okay, the failed summoning seems to work better, but maybe with a Glabrezu instead? And maybe some Rutterkins could come with him into the material plane, since they're just fun for little encounters.
After a summoning, though, would the Glabrezu be allowed to stay in the MP? I'm really fuzzy on abyssal lore and mechanics...
Glabrezu is fine. Demons often try to stay as long as they want. The spell failed, how exactly it failed is up to you. Not hard to say the failure let the demon stay as long as you desire. Or you could put in some weird limit like "Until the last orc present at the summoning died." Or "Until the Demon kills an elf." etc. etc.
The patron doesn't really need to be that powerful, it can get unusual if you have a warlock who becomes more powerful than their patron but there are ways around that.
The patron could have awakened some existing power they had
They could gain more power over time from other sources, different magical creatures, hidden lore and alike
They could eventually absorb a larger chunk of the patrons power ( in which case it only needs to be as powerful as what ever level character max you want)
the patron can have also increased in power over time. The rutterkin could become like a rutterkin lord with a small army of abyssal wretch under it now or possibly even other rutterkin. For example take one of the warlock monsters ( e.g Warlock of the Fiend ) and combine it with the rutterkin. It may have even become a sibriex. It really just depends at what level you want it to be a challenge for.
The glabrezu also works it's just more of a monster that lives in the shadows type than the kind of flesh warping body horror of the rutterkin and sibriex
For a patron it can go however you want, you could pick a field mouse to be the patron. I would try to go for something that makes sense for the Warlock subclass however. If you want to do the Rutterkin, then it should have some artifact of obscene power it lucked into that would greatly raise its stats and intelligence. Rutterkin has an Int of 5, a dolphin with an int 6 is smarter than the Rutterkin.
Read up on the Xvart's and their creator Raxivort, whose history is similar to what I wrote.
For a patron it can go however you want, you could pick a field mouse to be the patron. I would try to go for something that makes sense for the Warlock subclass however. If you want to do the Rutterkin, then it should have some artifact of obscene power it lucked into that would greatly raise its stats and intelligence. Rutterkin has an Int of 5, a dolphin with an int 6 is smarter than the Rutterkin.
Read up on the Xvart's and their creator Raxivort, whose history is similar to what I wrote.
It doesn't need to have obscene power to be a patron. A patron only needs to be more powerful than the sum of it's warlocks cr 2 rutterkin, probably could support a level 1 warlock but not like a level 3 warlock without a buff. A group of rutterkin or a single rutterkin with a pack of abyssal wretch could potentially support a level 3 warlock as its channelling the power of multiple entities. There's nothing that says a patron must be a single entity it could be a rutterkin cult.
The only real issue with the rutterkin as a low level patron is it's intelligence. You should probably boost that so it can take a more leaderly role but it needs no special artefact for that. The chaos of the abyss and the formation of demons from human souls is a sufficient explanation for a stronger rutterkin. It could be a human transformed into the rutterkin which kept some of it's sentience or it could just be randomly smart.
It's potentially better to do these weaker patrons as you then give your player the option of fighting and killing that patron where as literal gods and demons are basically off the table for that in most campaigns. That power struggle can be really interesting but is rare from level 1-14 where most campaigns occur. It also means that the patron won't over shadow any other villains as the big bad guy.
Finally like I said before a warlock can surpass their patron they just need a method that isn't just absorbing power from their patron like a cleric.
So, I'm trying to figure out a patron for my half-orc warlock. Here's the idea:
He was raised by his human father in the woods somewhere secluded because he was embarrassed of his ugly half-orc son. However, his father died while he was still under 10 and wandering in the woods he was kidnaped by an orc raiding party and kept for many years as a cruelly treated servant. When he was around 12, a particularly ambitioned Rutterkin with a couple goblin followers slaughtered the orc raiding party and, upon finding the child, recruited him to join them. After working for the Rutterkin for a year or so and proving himself worthy, the Rutterkin (who ultimately wants to ascend as a demon lord in like manner as Orcus) offers to patron my half-orc as a warlock, in return for being serving the Rutterkin at a moment's notice and sometimes providing him with fresh flesh to eat as tribute.
Does this work? thoughts?
Usually Patrons are already god-like beings. Hard to imagine any such creature working with a couple of goblin followers. In my opinion the back story works better with "A failed summoning called Demon Lord GrAfab, Emperor of the Rutterkin, who promptly destroyed all the orcs older than 13 and required the loyalty of all that he spared."
Okay, the failed summoning seems to work better, but maybe with a Glabrezu instead? And maybe some Rutterkins could come with him into the material plane, since they're just fun for little encounters.
After a summoning, though, would the Glabrezu be allowed to stay in the MP? I'm really fuzzy on abyssal lore and mechanics...
Glabrezu is fine. Demons often try to stay as long as they want. The spell failed, how exactly it failed is up to you. Not hard to say the failure let the demon stay as long as you desire. Or you could put in some weird limit like "Until the last orc present at the summoning died." Or "Until the Demon kills an elf." etc. etc.
The patron doesn't really need to be that powerful, it can get unusual if you have a warlock who becomes more powerful than their patron but there are ways around that.
the patron can have also increased in power over time. The rutterkin could become like a rutterkin lord with a small army of abyssal wretch under it now or possibly even other rutterkin. For example take one of the warlock monsters ( e.g Warlock of the Fiend ) and combine it with the rutterkin. It may have even become a sibriex. It really just depends at what level you want it to be a challenge for.
The glabrezu also works it's just more of a monster that lives in the shadows type than the kind of flesh warping body horror of the rutterkin and sibriex
For a patron it can go however you want, you could pick a field mouse to be the patron. I would try to go for something that makes sense for the Warlock subclass however. If you want to do the Rutterkin, then it should have some artifact of obscene power it lucked into that would greatly raise its stats and intelligence. Rutterkin has an Int of 5, a dolphin with an int 6 is smarter than the Rutterkin.
Read up on the Xvart's and their creator Raxivort, whose history is similar to what I wrote.
It doesn't need to have obscene power to be a patron. A patron only needs to be more powerful than the sum of it's warlocks cr 2 rutterkin, probably could support a level 1 warlock but not like a level 3 warlock without a buff. A group of rutterkin or a single rutterkin with a pack of abyssal wretch could potentially support a level 3 warlock as its channelling the power of multiple entities. There's nothing that says a patron must be a single entity it could be a rutterkin cult.
The only real issue with the rutterkin as a low level patron is it's intelligence. You should probably boost that so it can take a more leaderly role but it needs no special artefact for that. The chaos of the abyss and the formation of demons from human souls is a sufficient explanation for a stronger rutterkin. It could be a human transformed into the rutterkin which kept some of it's sentience or it could just be randomly smart.
It's potentially better to do these weaker patrons as you then give your player the option of fighting and killing that patron where as literal gods and demons are basically off the table for that in most campaigns. That power struggle can be really interesting but is rare from level 1-14 where most campaigns occur. It also means that the patron won't over shadow any other villains as the big bad guy.
Finally like I said before a warlock can surpass their patron they just need a method that isn't just absorbing power from their patron like a cleric.