So brief description - I'm dming for a warlock who has chosen The Fiend, the fiend is a rakshasa who has fallen out of good graces with the other devils in the nine hells and is essentially trying to rack up souls of 'good' mortals so can make their way back up the nine hells and gain the respect of the fellow devils. Problem is I want the rakshasa to contact the PC and request 'payment for their powers' or 'show their loyalty' but not sure what they would ask of the PC?
As a master of subterfuge have the Rakshasa give them a small ritual to cast on a corpse, potentially a corrupted Gentle Repose spell, give it to them as a free spell they can perform as a ritual once per long rest even though my may not have access to ritual casting. Tell the Warlock that part of the pact they have invovles them having to cast this ritual on a body once at least once a week/month etc. Any body affected by the ritual has its soul sent to the Rakshasa instead of the afterlife. Then have the Rakshasa contact th Warlock from time to time with specific indiiduals it eliminated and the ritual cast on.
Any other spell casting seeing the ritual will likely just assume it is a gentle repose spell and give them an Arcana DC20+ check to see if they spot the alteration to the spell if they get suspicious.
It depends on the alignment of the rest of the party. If they're the one evil player in a group of good characters, it can be an annoying detail that they all have to just look the other way or otherwise explain why their characters aren't bothered by their friend stealing good souls to give to a Devil. That said, I actually have a fairly good example from my current campaign of a warlock providing souls to her patron... the key difference is that her patron wants corrupted souls, and specifically wants souls of betrayers. The warlock instead just needs a moment to subtly absorb the souls of the kind of people the party is likely to be killing anyway. An alternative that I've done with a Warlock I've played a few games with was to have the character regularly cut the hearts out of downed opponents to give as tribute to his patron... it's messy and has the potential to create problems, but it's an interesting character quirk that doesn't necessarily put strain on the party, since the hearts could come from any source.
If they have book of ancient secrets have the patron give them the illusory script ritual. Have the warlock get people to sign their name on illusory documents that are actually contracts with the patron.
With this you can have the patron send scrolls of rituals that will be used to fulfill mission for the patron. Detect magic to find an artifact, water breathing for retrieving an item under the sea, cast silence on some rival entities alter to stop a ritual.
This way the player is rewarded by another ritual for doing something, instead of just feeling like the class has extra reequipments imposed by the DM.
Leave it vague. Just something like “I have granted you power, you must now grant me service. I require 5 pure souls to be corrupted.” Then let the players figure out how to do it.
This is something that needs to be sorted out when the character first becomes a warlock.
Warlocks are not clerics. A patron doesn't give power in return for worship or followers or fame. The exchange of power is from a contractual agreement, the pact. The GM and player should work together to hash out the details of the pact.
Some warlocks gain power by essentially stealing it, some negotiate with the patron directly for some mutually agreeable costs, some trick the patron. In some cases the patron offers the power in return for a price. It could be the warlock's soul; it could be something trivial.
For example, a warlock in my game gets their power in return for promising to use a different weapon type (sword, axe, whip, etc) every day. What can I say, the patron just likes variety. :-)
Thanks! The warlock's son was first contacted by the rakshasa to collect corrupted souls but the warlock intervened and took the son's place instead not knowing what the terms were, giving me as the DM some leniency on what they could ask for.
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So brief description - I'm dming for a warlock who has chosen The Fiend, the fiend is a rakshasa who has fallen out of good graces with the other devils in the nine hells and is essentially trying to rack up souls of 'good' mortals so can make their way back up the nine hells and gain the respect of the fellow devils. Problem is I want the rakshasa to contact the PC and request 'payment for their powers' or 'show their loyalty' but not sure what they would ask of the PC?
Either trying to convert others to him (NPCs) or sacrifice an item of great power/value to him (can make a quest to find said item).
The player is an agent of this Fiend, have them work on that angle, essentially try to get the player to become a cult leader of sorts to this Fiend.
As a master of subterfuge have the Rakshasa give them a small ritual to cast on a corpse, potentially a corrupted Gentle Repose spell, give it to them as a free spell they can perform as a ritual once per long rest even though my may not have access to ritual casting. Tell the Warlock that part of the pact they have invovles them having to cast this ritual on a body once at least once a week/month etc. Any body affected by the ritual has its soul sent to the Rakshasa instead of the afterlife. Then have the Rakshasa contact th Warlock from time to time with specific indiiduals it eliminated and the ritual cast on.
Any other spell casting seeing the ritual will likely just assume it is a gentle repose spell and give them an Arcana DC20+ check to see if they spot the alteration to the spell if they get suspicious.
It depends on the alignment of the rest of the party. If they're the one evil player in a group of good characters, it can be an annoying detail that they all have to just look the other way or otherwise explain why their characters aren't bothered by their friend stealing good souls to give to a Devil. That said, I actually have a fairly good example from my current campaign of a warlock providing souls to her patron... the key difference is that her patron wants corrupted souls, and specifically wants souls of betrayers. The warlock instead just needs a moment to subtly absorb the souls of the kind of people the party is likely to be killing anyway. An alternative that I've done with a Warlock I've played a few games with was to have the character regularly cut the hearts out of downed opponents to give as tribute to his patron... it's messy and has the potential to create problems, but it's an interesting character quirk that doesn't necessarily put strain on the party, since the hearts could come from any source.
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Nothing says loyalty like killing your parent(s) or loved ones and siphoning their soul(s) lol.
If they have book of ancient secrets have the patron give them the illusory script ritual. Have the warlock get people to sign their name on illusory documents that are actually contracts with the patron.
With this you can have the patron send scrolls of rituals that will be used to fulfill mission for the patron. Detect magic to find an artifact, water breathing for retrieving an item under the sea, cast silence on some rival entities alter to stop a ritual.
This way the player is rewarded by another ritual for doing something, instead of just feeling like the class has extra reequipments imposed by the DM.
Leave it vague. Just something like “I have granted you power, you must now grant me service. I require 5 pure souls to be corrupted.” Then let the players figure out how to do it.
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This is something that needs to be sorted out when the character first becomes a warlock.
Warlocks are not clerics. A patron doesn't give power in return for worship or followers or fame. The exchange of power is from a contractual agreement, the pact. The GM and player should work together to hash out the details of the pact.
Some warlocks gain power by essentially stealing it, some negotiate with the patron directly for some mutually agreeable costs, some trick the patron. In some cases the patron offers the power in return for a price. It could be the warlock's soul; it could be something trivial.
For example, a warlock in my game gets their power in return for promising to use a different weapon type (sword, axe, whip, etc) every day. What can I say, the patron just likes variety. :-)
Thanks! The warlock's son was first contacted by the rakshasa to collect corrupted souls but the warlock intervened and took the son's place instead not knowing what the terms were, giving me as the DM some leniency on what they could ask for.