Trying to help friends who are starting DnD warlock characters, and its hard to find information on the patrons. One went with fiend and the other with The Great Old One. From what it seems theres a lot of leeway with what you want to do with their story. But. More information on how to run them as their DM...and trying to balance it out. Any advice. Articles. Sources. Or past experiences would be GREATLY appreciated.
Warlocks learn from their patrons. The warlock may not have direct contact with their patron(like with a Great Old One) or they may need to commune with their patron regularly for level ups, asking for aid in puzzles, or in an attempt to curse someone perminantly. They are like a student and a teacher, though the student may hate the teacher and vice versa.
One of my players is a warlock with the Hexblade patron. I started with just having him learn that there is in fact, a powerful being connected to the sword he picked up. Then I had him actually make the pact when he arrived at 3rd level, conveniently explaining away the pact boon. I now continue to have him learn how to wield both sword and magic from his patron.
I like that example. Teacher and student. Thank you!! I also found there is a section on classes specifically and found some info there. Thank you so much. :)
I like the ambivalent relationship between the Patron and the Warlock to grow as the campaign evolves.
A flawed Patron is nice. He may be an outcast in his own society and in need of a warlock to do some of his dirty work (or not so dirty).
One of the things I liked was the relationship between the Sorcerer Kings and their Templars in the Darksun setting. I made them warlocks because of the Master/Servant. Also there is a whole power structure around the Patron in that exemple and GM can draw from that. It s esay to recreate the same thing in other settings. A secret society turned toward serving the same Patron.
As I found out when researching patrons for my warlock, there are endless amounts of them. You just have to find the one that can fit your backstory and then it is down to the DM whether you have any interaction with your Patron.
Any kind of Extra Planar or Demi god like entity can be a Patron, so either you find one that would suit your character and/or your own taste, or make one from scratch.
My Hexblade's Patron is actually the first in the his Lineage, the Ancestor of his family, a Narzugon who was a called the Prince of Blades, and was later emprisoned by rivals, but before he was emprisoned and had his essence drained from him, he stored half of his powers into his favored Blade, and gave it to his inheritors, who had the mission to hid it in the Material plane and wait till the time to brign it back to their Lord and get their revenge.
Millenias later, my character is the last descendant of that bloodline and has unbeknowst to him, the duty to Find the blade( it was lost somewhere) and bring it back to his Ancestor, who's guiding him and helping him, so that he can be freed of his captors and get his revenge.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
I think a big factor in making a patron interesting is how well known your patron is in the world you're building. Is it like the Archfiend Asmodeus, where people tremble at his name, or is something like Cthulhu, where any knowledge of his mere existence is a scarce secret that scars the minds of those unfortunate enough to have their subconscious touched by his influence? Things like that make for both interesting roleplaying hooks and interesting immersion on the player's part. If their patron is a being that would be well known to anyone familiar with the arcane, maybe they might want to hide that fact for fear of retribution, or maybe they openly flaunt their patron's power and revel in their might? Up to you to decide.
On a side note, I'm pretty fond of making the player work to learn more about their patrons. An example of this is my TGOO Warlock Edgar, who's patron is a enormous primordial space whale that is the living embodiment of the ever-looming heat death of an immeasurable amount of universes. before formally making his pact, Edgar is haunted by vivid night terrors of the void of space, death, and prophetic visions of things to come. Only by delving deeper into the darkness does he learn of the space whale's existence, and her of his.
Once they make contact, Edgar is informed that she means no harm, and cannot help but be what she is. She has spent eons passively gifting mortals with her power in order to somehow prepare their realms for her imminent arrival, however far off it might be. By taking the red pill and going deeper into the insanity, he is given cosmic knowledge and a purpose, to be a herald of the end.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's ok Ranger, you'll always be cool to me.. Unless druid gets another use for its wild shape charges.
I had one player with a warlock character, but that same player also plays a zealot barbarian that I'm treating very similarly.
The warlock was a tiefling of Levistus' heritage, that frozen archdevil who offers deals to those imprisoned or facing inescapable destiny. Her patron was an archfey. The player wanted to keep that icy theme, so what I did was look at lore and pop culture stuff on the Winter fey. A lot of it was The Dresden Files, I admit. I settled on three archfey: the maiden, impulsive and driven by desires, the queen, cold, dark but with powerful emotions that can at times override her otherwise logical mind, and the crone, alien and unknowable, the night itself. I presented these options to the player, along with an extreme example of their relative power. The maiden could kill a farmer's crops with an overnight freeze. The queen could bury the country in unrelenting winter. The crone could freeze the world in a new ice age. The player went with the queen, who was Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler of the Unseelie Court.
In my setting, the Shadowdark and Feywild are the same plane, split between the Unseelie and Seelie courts, with many pockets of Wyldfae and assorted domains between and among them. Similarly, the Abyss and Nine Hells are also the same plane. My "Blood War" is not between demons and devils, but instead fiends and fey. The fiends want the material realms, and the fey plane encircles it like a protective cover. This warlock, a tiefling, naturally would be an agent of the fiends. And indeed, when this tiefling looked beyond the material realms for power, she was initially looking to that whose blood courses through her veins. However, it was the Unseelie who granted her this power, unbeknownst to her. Queen Mab is her patron, for the idea of a stolen pet piques her interest. She manipulates the warlock, twisting her goals more into Mab's favor. Over time, as the warlock grows more powerful and strengthens her bond with her patron, she'll come to discover the truth. The player is obviously aware, but is playing the character as unwitting.
That warlock is being played in a side campaign of one-shots centered around the Waterdeep adventures, in the main campaign this same player is playing a zealot barbarian. While going with necrotic over radiant damage, the intent is that the damage inflicted simply becomes more vicious, targets more brutalized. The god which grants her character this inspiration to zealotry was developed over play. By coincidence, it has also become rather fey-related; it is both an archfey and a demigod. This demigod originated from divine plane that orbits alongside the abyssal hell plane on the outermost edge of the varied planes. He was cast out from this plane as a newborn, and landed within the Feywilds. The reason behind his exile is obscured by time and erased memory, but it's a very Olympian-style drama. Landing within the realm of the Summer court, an area of rampant growth and unhindered predation, this demigod grew to embrace savagery and accumulates a bestial pack of Black Hounds (see Shadow Mastiffs in Volo's Guide). While still within his formative years, this young deity was taken in by a race of elves. This is a completely homebrewed race, the primogenitor of all elves, a hunter-gatherer society that is to elves what the neanderthals are to humanity. These alderkin are very much elfin, but their differences highlight the race. None of the dancer's grace, but the poise and surety of movement of a panther. They have a core of rugged strength, a muscular bulk that belies otherwise lithe forms. Though handsome and beautiful of face, their features are asymmetrical. Few in number and ageless, for they come from an age in which life could only be taken, never lost. The union of alderkin and this godling is the final stage of his metamorphosis. The horned lord over a retinue of predators and hunters alike, bound together by the wild hunt. He is not associated with the Summer court or the broader seelie fae, and is instead classified as a wyldfae.
Due to the proximity of the faerie planes to the material realm, and certain divine protections placed to inhibit the powers of both fiends and gods alike in the mortal realm, this entity has powerful influence over the material plane. While comparatively far weaker than any greater god, he is far more capable of leveraging his power upon the material realm. He even enters the material plane himself on occasion, on his irregular but regularly feared Wild Hunts. Because of this, as far as mortals are concerned he is as much of a god as any other divinity. At this stage of the campaign, the barbarian has got the hunter-god's attention. It still remains to be seen however, if this deity sees within her a kindred spirit, or if he is merely eyeing prey. We'll find out for sure when it comes time for a Wild Hunt, maybe five or six sessions from now.
Wow...just...wow....sooo good. So many helpful ideas. And seeing you reach into areas of your own creation gives me confidence in my own help with my friend's warlock. And the things he is unknowingly stepping into.
Try asking what sort of relationship he wants with the patron? Does his character know the patron or not? Are they in good terms? is it mutual relationship or is it one sided (probably towards the patron but new stuff are welcome)?
Second does the player wants an original patron? or something already exists to ease thing?
Here is some that i know:
HP lovecraft: (they have more depths if you read his books but i'll give you the short version, also i'd suggest googling them for appearance. Bare in mind they are named Evil gods but lovecraft some what stated that they are beyond our concept of good and evil as we are too insignificant to them so if he fears the too evil patron you can play with that concept)
Cthulhu, an entity that slumbers beneath the oceans waiting for the correct time to rise up and retake the world.
Nyarlathotep, an entity that enjoys scheming and spreading madness until he's bored then he might destroy the entire exitstance
Azethoth, the greatest being in the cosmos, a being that we maybe the result of his dreams. A blind idiot god and the last (unconfirmed) to exist after great war with other beings before time itself
Yog-Sothoth, a golden mass of spheres who is able to see through past, present and future. the keeper of all sorts of knowledge though dealing with him seems to always to have a hefty price unless you are okay with it.
There are several such as Shub-niggurath and others that are not by HP lovecraft but he refrenced them in his stories such as Hastur the king in yellow and many others.
There ones in the game and here are few that i can remember:
Tharizdun, Some what and possibly a reference to Azethoth from hp lovecraft, but he is an elder evil that currently lives or the abyss was made from him and he was sealed by the power of many gods and now he remains imprisoned until the day he is free and spread madness and destruction.
Dendar the night serpent, a colossal snake that resides in Hades. It's possible that she came to existence after the first being slept and had a nightmare. (generally worshiped by the Yuan-Ti but other could possibly have been lured to her traps.
Zargon, an elder evil that is rumored to be the previous ruler the nine hells before being overthrown by out old friend Asmodeus others say he was a demon prince who was thrown out of the abyss. I say they might be both true.
Kazef, a large plagues hound that tend to hunt souls of those who don't worshiped or stopped worshiping gods
Hadar the endless hunger, When there is is a spell in the game that has the name of an old god in it you know you're dealing with something pretty powerful. Especially when you look at the spells such as hunger of Hadar.... He's easy to understand. An elder evil that wants to devour everything.
There are so many great old ones in both dnd and other sources (mainly wiki, and novels and books). As the others said,they may not know or will never know you are tapping into their power. Someone explained to me like you are the rats outside a restaurant eating trash. You might not be noticed and even if you did the entity might not care unless you became a nuisance or can be of benefit.
Few homebrew/unusual ones that need a co-op between the DM and the player to make it work:
Some can be symbiotic such as Daelkyr which are body parts the live off you or maybe you can alter as to become a mutual relationship as you both want to survive.
or something like the Quori just like the Kalishtar (they are a playable race in dnd beyond so you can check them out!)
That's all what i can muster right now, hoped i was helpful and sorry for the wall of text! Good luck!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Trying to help friends who are starting DnD warlock characters, and its hard to find information on the patrons. One went with fiend and the other with The Great Old One. From what it seems theres a lot of leeway with what you want to do with their story. But. More information on how to run them as their DM...and trying to balance it out. Any advice. Articles. Sources. Or past experiences would be GREATLY appreciated.
Warlocks learn from their patrons. The warlock may not have direct contact with their patron(like with a Great Old One) or they may need to commune with their patron regularly for level ups, asking for aid in puzzles, or in an attempt to curse someone perminantly. They are like a student and a teacher, though the student may hate the teacher and vice versa.
One of my players is a warlock with the Hexblade patron. I started with just having him learn that there is in fact, a powerful being connected to the sword he picked up. Then I had him actually make the pact when he arrived at 3rd level, conveniently explaining away the pact boon. I now continue to have him learn how to wield both sword and magic from his patron.
I like that example. Teacher and student. Thank you!! I also found there is a section on classes specifically and found some info there. Thank you so much. :)
I like the ambivalent relationship between the Patron and the Warlock to grow as the campaign evolves.
A flawed Patron is nice. He may be an outcast in his own society and in need of a warlock to do some of his dirty work (or not so dirty).
One of the things I liked was the relationship between the Sorcerer Kings and their Templars in the Darksun setting. I made them warlocks because of the Master/Servant. Also there is a whole power structure around the Patron in that exemple and GM can draw from that. It s esay to recreate the same thing in other settings. A secret society turned toward serving the same Patron.
Writing a Story
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/story-lore/27837-magister-reborn-story-thread
Oh snap. Ill have to look into that. Thats pretty sweet!
As I found out when researching patrons for my warlock, there are endless amounts of them. You just have to find the one that can fit your backstory and then it is down to the DM whether you have any interaction with your Patron.
From Within Chaos Comes Order!
Any kind of Extra Planar or Demi god like entity can be a Patron, so either you find one that would suit your character and/or your own taste, or make one from scratch.
My Hexblade's Patron is actually the first in the his Lineage, the Ancestor of his family, a Narzugon who was a called the Prince of Blades, and was later emprisoned by rivals, but before he was emprisoned and had his essence drained from him, he stored half of his powers into his favored Blade, and gave it to his inheritors, who had the mission to hid it in the Material plane and wait till the time to brign it back to their Lord and get their revenge.
Millenias later, my character is the last descendant of that bloodline and has unbeknowst to him, the duty to Find the blade( it was lost somewhere) and bring it back to his Ancestor, who's guiding him and helping him, so that he can be freed of his captors and get his revenge.
"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)
I think a big factor in making a patron interesting is how well known your patron is in the world you're building. Is it like the Archfiend Asmodeus, where people tremble at his name, or is something like Cthulhu, where any knowledge of his mere existence is a scarce secret that scars the minds of those unfortunate enough to have their subconscious touched by his influence? Things like that make for both interesting roleplaying hooks and interesting immersion on the player's part. If their patron is a being that would be well known to anyone familiar with the arcane, maybe they might want to hide that fact for fear of retribution, or maybe they openly flaunt their patron's power and revel in their might? Up to you to decide.
On a side note, I'm pretty fond of making the player work to learn more about their patrons. An example of this is my TGOO Warlock Edgar, who's patron is a enormous primordial space whale that is the living embodiment of the ever-looming heat death of an immeasurable amount of universes. before formally making his pact, Edgar is haunted by vivid night terrors of the void of space, death, and prophetic visions of things to come. Only by delving deeper into the darkness does he learn of the space whale's existence, and her of his.
Once they make contact, Edgar is informed that she means no harm, and cannot help but be what she is. She has spent eons passively gifting mortals with her power in order to somehow prepare their realms for her imminent arrival, however far off it might be. By taking the red pill and going deeper into the insanity, he is given cosmic knowledge and a purpose, to be a herald of the end.
It's ok Ranger, you'll always be cool to me.. Unless druid gets another use for its wild shape charges.
I had one player with a warlock character, but that same player also plays a zealot barbarian that I'm treating very similarly.
The warlock was a tiefling of Levistus' heritage, that frozen archdevil who offers deals to those imprisoned or facing inescapable destiny. Her patron was an archfey. The player wanted to keep that icy theme, so what I did was look at lore and pop culture stuff on the Winter fey. A lot of it was The Dresden Files, I admit. I settled on three archfey: the maiden, impulsive and driven by desires, the queen, cold, dark but with powerful emotions that can at times override her otherwise logical mind, and the crone, alien and unknowable, the night itself. I presented these options to the player, along with an extreme example of their relative power. The maiden could kill a farmer's crops with an overnight freeze. The queen could bury the country in unrelenting winter. The crone could freeze the world in a new ice age. The player went with the queen, who was Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler of the Unseelie Court.
In my setting, the Shadowdark and Feywild are the same plane, split between the Unseelie and Seelie courts, with many pockets of Wyldfae and assorted domains between and among them. Similarly, the Abyss and Nine Hells are also the same plane. My "Blood War" is not between demons and devils, but instead fiends and fey. The fiends want the material realms, and the fey plane encircles it like a protective cover. This warlock, a tiefling, naturally would be an agent of the fiends. And indeed, when this tiefling looked beyond the material realms for power, she was initially looking to that whose blood courses through her veins. However, it was the Unseelie who granted her this power, unbeknownst to her. Queen Mab is her patron, for the idea of a stolen pet piques her interest. She manipulates the warlock, twisting her goals more into Mab's favor. Over time, as the warlock grows more powerful and strengthens her bond with her patron, she'll come to discover the truth. The player is obviously aware, but is playing the character as unwitting.
That warlock is being played in a side campaign of one-shots centered around the Waterdeep adventures, in the main campaign this same player is playing a zealot barbarian. While going with necrotic over radiant damage, the intent is that the damage inflicted simply becomes more vicious, targets more brutalized. The god which grants her character this inspiration to zealotry was developed over play. By coincidence, it has also become rather fey-related; it is both an archfey and a demigod. This demigod originated from divine plane that orbits alongside the abyssal hell plane on the outermost edge of the varied planes. He was cast out from this plane as a newborn, and landed within the Feywilds. The reason behind his exile is obscured by time and erased memory, but it's a very Olympian-style drama. Landing within the realm of the Summer court, an area of rampant growth and unhindered predation, this demigod grew to embrace savagery and accumulates a bestial pack of Black Hounds (see Shadow Mastiffs in Volo's Guide). While still within his formative years, this young deity was taken in by a race of elves. This is a completely homebrewed race, the primogenitor of all elves, a hunter-gatherer society that is to elves what the neanderthals are to humanity. These alderkin are very much elfin, but their differences highlight the race. None of the dancer's grace, but the poise and surety of movement of a panther. They have a core of rugged strength, a muscular bulk that belies otherwise lithe forms. Though handsome and beautiful of face, their features are asymmetrical. Few in number and ageless, for they come from an age in which life could only be taken, never lost. The union of alderkin and this godling is the final stage of his metamorphosis. The horned lord over a retinue of predators and hunters alike, bound together by the wild hunt. He is not associated with the Summer court or the broader seelie fae, and is instead classified as a wyldfae.
Due to the proximity of the faerie planes to the material realm, and certain divine protections placed to inhibit the powers of both fiends and gods alike in the mortal realm, this entity has powerful influence over the material plane. While comparatively far weaker than any greater god, he is far more capable of leveraging his power upon the material realm. He even enters the material plane himself on occasion, on his irregular but regularly feared Wild Hunts. Because of this, as far as mortals are concerned he is as much of a god as any other divinity. At this stage of the campaign, the barbarian has got the hunter-god's attention. It still remains to be seen however, if this deity sees within her a kindred spirit, or if he is merely eyeing prey. We'll find out for sure when it comes time for a Wild Hunt, maybe five or six sessions from now.
Wow...just...wow....sooo good. So many helpful ideas. And seeing you reach into areas of your own creation gives me confidence in my own help with my friend's warlock. And the things he is unknowingly stepping into.
Try asking what sort of relationship he wants with the patron? Does his character know the patron or not? Are they in good terms? is it mutual relationship or is it one sided (probably towards the patron but new stuff are welcome)?
Second does the player wants an original patron? or something already exists to ease thing?
Here is some that i know:
HP lovecraft: (they have more depths if you read his books but i'll give you the short version, also i'd suggest googling them for appearance. Bare in mind they are named Evil gods but lovecraft some what stated that they are beyond our concept of good and evil as we are too insignificant to them so if he fears the too evil patron you can play with that concept)
Cthulhu, an entity that slumbers beneath the oceans waiting for the correct time to rise up and retake the world.
Nyarlathotep, an entity that enjoys scheming and spreading madness until he's bored then he might destroy the entire exitstance
Azethoth, the greatest being in the cosmos, a being that we maybe the result of his dreams. A blind idiot god and the last (unconfirmed) to exist after great war with other beings before time itself
Yog-Sothoth, a golden mass of spheres who is able to see through past, present and future. the keeper of all sorts of knowledge though dealing with him seems to always to have a hefty price unless you are okay with it.
There are several such as Shub-niggurath and others that are not by HP lovecraft but he refrenced them in his stories such as Hastur the king in yellow and many others.
There ones in the game and here are few that i can remember:
Tharizdun, Some what and possibly a reference to Azethoth from hp lovecraft, but he is an elder evil that currently lives or the abyss was made from him and he was sealed by the power of many gods and now he remains imprisoned until the day he is free and spread madness and destruction.
Dendar the night serpent, a colossal snake that resides in Hades. It's possible that she came to existence after the first being slept and had a nightmare. (generally worshiped by the Yuan-Ti but other could possibly have been lured to her traps.
Zargon, an elder evil that is rumored to be the previous ruler the nine hells before being overthrown by out old friend Asmodeus others say he was a demon prince who was thrown out of the abyss. I say they might be both true.
Kazef, a large plagues hound that tend to hunt souls of those who don't worshiped or stopped worshiping gods
Hadar the endless hunger, When there is is a spell in the game that has the name of an old god in it you know you're dealing with something pretty powerful. Especially when you look at the spells such as hunger of Hadar.... He's easy to understand. An elder evil that wants to devour everything.
There are so many great old ones in both dnd and other sources (mainly wiki, and novels and books). As the others said,they may not know or will never know you are tapping into their power. Someone explained to me like you are the rats outside a restaurant eating trash. You might not be noticed and even if you did the entity might not care unless you became a nuisance or can be of benefit.
Few homebrew/unusual ones that need a co-op between the DM and the player to make it work:
Some can be symbiotic such as Daelkyr which are body parts the live off you or maybe you can alter as to become a mutual relationship as you both want to survive.
or something like the Quori just like the Kalishtar (they are a playable race in dnd beyond so you can check them out!)
That's all what i can muster right now, hoped i was helpful and sorry for the wall of text! Good luck!
Born under the watch of something from the furthest corners of the far realms.... It knows all.... it sees all... and it asks: "What is it that you want to see?"... and my answer is... ALL"