Here is a description of how a Half Drow became a warlock. What Warlock patron does this sound like and if you had to name this patron, who do you think it would be?
The character is a Half Drow slave. Its the character I was working on a while ago. He was kept in a cell with his Drow mother, by a Human Wizard who somehow acquired a very young Drow girl and through years of magic and physical torture, broke her spirit and turned her into his obedient play thing.
The girl has a son at some point and the father kept them both locked in the same cell with hardly any food, no clothes to speak of and only themselves for company.
I say only themselves but the characters father would regularly take them out of the cell, the mother for his entertainment and son to use in his experiements (he was obsessed with creating the perfect form of life, so he would inject his son with all kinds of chemicals and expose him to magical elements, to see how his body reacted.)
One day when it was his mothers turn to be taken out of the cell, she didn't move fast enough and the the master instructed the goblins he also had a slaves to punish her. They started beating her with the wooden rods they carried.
The character has finally had enough, where he got the strength, no one knows, but he started to attack the goblins and managed to get one of the wooden sticks, with which he beat back the others. He then stood in front of his mother and declared himself her protector.
His father ordered the goblins out, walked over to the character and said "so youre her protector are you? Then protect her from this!". He then brushed the character aside like it was nothing, pulled out a knife and slit his mothers throat. He then turned around, walked out and closed to door, leaving her to bleed out and die.
The character tried to stop the bleeding but he didn't really have anything to stop it with and started to cry out, for someone, anyone to help him, and as he did so the cell began to change, and then he and his mother were no longer in the cell, but an impossibly large room, so large and so dark that he couldn't see the walls or the ceiling or the floor, but he did hear a voice, deep and ancient "poor little mortal, there is not long left for her now"
The character looked at his mother and could somehow see the life draining from her.
The voice spoken again, "so weak, so fragile, so very dead!". The character tried to respond to say that she wasn't dead yet, but the voice cut him off as though it read his mind - "she will be soon enough!"
This angered the character and he shouted out his response "who are you?"
There was deep laugh that vibrated around the room, so that character couldn't tell from which direction it came, and the voice spoke again.
"I have been known by many different names, spoken with reverence and fear in a thousand different langues throughout the history of your world."
This response just angered the character more, who repeated his question, this time more precisely. "What do I call you?"
The reply came back even before he was finished with his question. "That little master, is for you to decide, look into your heart, search your soul and you will know me!"
The character was quiet for a while and then called out a name, as he named the voice, the darkness began to twist itself, condensing, into the form of great black birds, as the darkness took the form of the birds, it was replaced by light, and then the birds formed by darkness, and the light that had taken the place of the darkness began to twist and whirl and roar and burn as it formed the shape of a being.
The being seemed to be humanoid, and yet not, almost like it was so vast that it's humanoid shape could barely contain it.
As the being that had just been created, stepped forth from the raining shadow, it spoke again to the boy.
"I have been summoned, I can never be changed, and that which is sacrificed can never be regained."
The character took no notice of this beings warning and asked it if it could save his mother, to which the being replied "you have the power now"
The character started pressing on his mothers wound to try and stop any more blood escaping, to no avail, he tried and tried and then eventually with tears in his eyes, cried out that he didn't know how.
The being responded to this, by placing it's hand upon the characters head and saying "open your mind"
Ages seemed to rush through the mind of the character, filling him with knowledge and power and then, just before he reach his limit, it stopped and the being removed it's hand from his head.
Somehow he knew what to do. He placed his hands on his mother and just as she was about to breath her last, spoke the words and as he spoke, the wound knitted together, her breathing stabilised and life seemed to fill her body once more.
By the time he was finished, he was back in the cell, but there was a voice inside his head that had not been there before and it spoke - "my power is yours, your body is mine!"
So guys, what Warlock patron does this sound like and if you had to name this patron, who do you think it would be?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Strikes me as a Celestial Pact patron, possibly some sort of divine servant of the Raven Queen or maybe another minor deity. Arguably, the Undying patron would work as well.
EDIT: I would name it something something punny like Peckard or Cawly.
EDIT EDIT: Also I think you meant to put this thread in another sub-forum, as it probably won't get a much traction here as your other threads.
Periodically, when the character reaches the levels at which he gets a feat or ASI, he would be returned to the place where he first summoned the entity and got his powers.
Each time he returns there, the place looks more and more like a cathedral or church, and the entity looks more and more like him.
Until his final ASI, when he is taken there to receive his last power up.
At this point, the place would appear as a grand dark cathedral of magnificent design and the entity has finally taken the full form of the character, and is sat on a high ivory throne, adorned with dark velvet robes, trimmed with gold and decorated with intricate designs. He would also be wearing a beautiful crown made of ivory and gold.
The entity speak to him now, not in the deep ancient voice it once had, but in his own voice.
So that adds a slightly different dimension to the whole thing. They entity told him, that it's power was his and his body belonged to it. As the character gets stronger and becomes able to weild more of the entities power, so the entity becomes more like him, until eventually, it has become him, and the two beings, the entity and the character have become so intertwined, that it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.
This raises another question though. Why would an ancient entity of incredibly vast knowledge and power, do this kind thing?
This raises another question though. Why would an ancient entity of incredibly vast knowledge and power, do this kind thing?
Maybe the entity was sealed from entering the Prime Material Plane and through this proces he hopes to replace the character and enter it once again to wreak havoc or what have you.
For sure that sounds Celestial. Bear in mind, celestial doesn't necessarily mean "goody-goidy two-shoes." Being good-aligned doesn't keep you from being cold, or distant, or haughty, thinking mortals are all beneath you, being manipulative, willing to use people for ultimately good ends, convincing yourself that the ends really do justify the means. I only mention since the entity you described, while definitely sounds like a Celestial patron, definitely does not sound all sweetness and light, and that's not the contradiction most people would take it for. I think having a shady dark good power would actually be real interesting, especially if the character doesn't fully comprehend their patron's motives themselves.
As for why, maybe it has work it must do on the material plane (duty is everything to angels), but Angellic law forbids a being of such great power (like a high ranking angel) from directly influencing the mortal world. What they were supposed to do was to act through mortals to accomplish whatever goal they were given, but this patron is prideful and mistrustful of mortals, so instead decide to execute a loophole in the law that would allow them to go down to the mortal plane themselves and finish the job. This loophole is to merge with a "willing" mortal, eventually taking his form while still technically "acting through" him.
Honestly, I hear elements of the demon, undying, Old One, Celestial, and Archfey all wrapped into one.
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" The Shadow Monarch is the ultimate expression of a "One Man Army" even in a team Setting his minions would act as meat shields for the allies while going on the Offensive, maybe in future version I will develop tactics and formations for the minions so the minions and party won't easily be decimated by random monsters or even the character's current enemies."
" The Shadow Monarch is the ultimate expression of a "One Man Army" even in a team Setting his minions would act as meat shields for the allies while going on the Offensive, maybe in future version I will develop tactics and formations for the minions so the minions and party won't easily be decimated by random monsters or even the character's current enemies."
He is someone who sees himself as being a protector. Of his mother but also of others as well. Because of his early experiences he isn't strong enough to be your standard paladin but he does have this power as a warlock that he used to protect the people he cares about.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
He is someone who sees himself as being a protector. Of his mother but also of others as well. Because of his early experiences he isn't strong enough to be your standard paladin but he does have this power as a warlock that he used to protect the people he cares about.
Based on simply on that narrative I would say Celestial would be the best choice, Archfey a close second for a whimsical bit, Demon would only work if there was a desire to corrupt the character as time passes. Old One if he so hellbound to his ideals that he can be used like a puppet on strings.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
" The Shadow Monarch is the ultimate expression of a "One Man Army" even in a team Setting his minions would act as meat shields for the allies while going on the Offensive, maybe in future version I will develop tactics and formations for the minions so the minions and party won't easily be decimated by random monsters or even the character's current enemies."
Honestly, I hear elements of the demon, undying, Old One, Celestial, and Archfey all wrapped into one.
Is there one that most fits though. Because obviously I have to choose a patron type, but not sure which type of patron this fits the best.
Neat concept. Celestial fits mechanically (healing dice, or a cure spell), which otherwise I don't think you can get a way to heal otherwise.
However, Thematically either Great Old one or Undying fit as well, especially the later. My rationale, is that the reason is that for your patron is taking your character's form, is that for their life to continue, they are going to take your body/soul or merge with it. This cycle has repeated itself time and time again, and you are on a long line of shells. Is the character going to embrace it or fight it? Just an idea.
The protector aspect, isn't one of the patron; that's the character. Does it alter the patron? Another story/mystery. I'd say yes, and this is a consequence of the "merging of souls."
Here is a description of how a Half Drow became a warlock. What Warlock patron does this sound like and if you had to name this patron, who do you think it would be?
The character is a Half Drow slave. Its the character I was working on a while ago. He was kept in a cell with his Drow mother, by a Human Wizard who somehow acquired a very young Drow girl and through years of magic and physical torture, broke her spirit and turned her into his obedient play thing.
The girl has a son at some point and the father kept them both locked in the same cell with hardly any food, no clothes to speak of and only themselves for company.
I say only themselves but the characters father would regularly take them out of the cell, the mother for his entertainment and son to use in his experiements (he was obsessed with creating the perfect form of life, so he would inject his son with all kinds of chemicals and expose him to magical elements, to see how his body reacted.)
One day when it was his mothers turn to be taken out of the cell, she didn't move fast enough and the the master instructed the goblins he also had a slaves to punish her. They started beating her with the wooden rods they carried.
The character has finally had enough, where he got the strength, no one knows, but he started to attack the goblins and managed to get one of the wooden sticks, with which he beat back the others. He then stood in front of his mother and declared himself her protector.
His father ordered the goblins out, walked over to the character and said "so youre her protector are you? Then protect her from this!". He then brushed the character aside like it was nothing, pulled out a knife and slit his mothers throat. He then turned around, walked out and closed to door, leaving her to bleed out and die.
The character tried to stop the bleeding but he didn't really have anything to stop it with and started to cry out, for someone, anyone to help him, and as he did so the cell began to change, and then he and his mother were no longer in the cell, but an impossibly large room, so large and so dark that he couldn't see the walls or the ceiling or the floor, but he did hear a voice, deep and ancient "poor little mortal, there is not long left for her now"
The character looked at his mother and could somehow see the life draining from her.
The voice spoken again, "so weak, so fragile, so very dead!". The character tried to respond to say that she wasn't dead yet, but the voice cut him off as though it read his mind - "she will be soon enough!"
This angered the character and he shouted out his response "who are you?"
There was deep laugh that vibrated around the room, so that character couldn't tell from which direction it came, and the voice spoke again.
"I have been known by many different names, spoken with reverence and fear in a thousand different langues throughout the history of your world."
This response just angered the character more, who repeated his question, this time more precisely. "What do I call you?"
The reply came back even before he was finished with his question. "That little master, is for you to decide, look into your heart, search your soul and you will know me!"
The character was quiet for a while and then called out a name, as he named the voice, the darkness began to twist itself, condensing, into the form of great black birds, as the darkness took the form of the birds, it was replaced by light, and then the birds formed by darkness, and the light that had taken the place of the darkness began to twist and whirl and roar and burn as it formed the shape of a being.
The being seemed to be humanoid, and yet not, almost like it was so vast that it's humanoid shape could barely contain it.
As the being that had just been created, stepped forth from the raining shadow, it spoke again to the boy.
"I have been summoned, I can never be changed, and that which is sacrificed can never be regained."
The character took no notice of this beings warning and asked it if it could save his mother, to which the being replied "you have the power now"
The character started pressing on his mothers wound to try and stop any more blood escaping, to no avail, he tried and tried and then eventually with tears in his eyes, cried out that he didn't know how.
The being responded to this, by placing it's hand upon the characters head and saying "open your mind"
Ages seemed to rush through the mind of the character, filling him with knowledge and power and then, just before he reach his limit, it stopped and the being removed it's hand from his head.
Somehow he knew what to do. He placed his hands on his mother and just as she was about to breath her last, spoke the words and as he spoke, the wound knitted together, her breathing stabilised and life seemed to fill her body once more.
By the time he was finished, he was back in the cell, but there was a voice inside his head that had not been there before and it spoke - "my power is yours, your body is mine!"
So guys, what Warlock patron does this sound like and if you had to name this patron, who do you think it would be?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Strikes me as a Celestial Pact patron, possibly some sort of divine servant of the Raven Queen or maybe another minor deity. Arguably, the Undying patron would work as well.
EDIT: I would name it something something punny like Peckard or Cawly.
EDIT EDIT: Also I think you meant to put this thread in another sub-forum, as it probably won't get a much traction here as your other threads.
I wasn't sure which one it belonged in so I just tried placed in in the one for tips.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I had an additional about this.
Periodically, when the character reaches the levels at which he gets a feat or ASI, he would be returned to the place where he first summoned the entity and got his powers.
Each time he returns there, the place looks more and more like a cathedral or church, and the entity looks more and more like him.
Until his final ASI, when he is taken there to receive his last power up.
At this point, the place would appear as a grand dark cathedral of magnificent design and the entity has finally taken the full form of the character, and is sat on a high ivory throne, adorned with dark velvet robes, trimmed with gold and decorated with intricate designs. He would also be wearing a beautiful crown made of ivory and gold.
The entity speak to him now, not in the deep ancient voice it once had, but in his own voice.
So that adds a slightly different dimension to the whole thing. They entity told him, that it's power was his and his body belonged to it. As the character gets stronger and becomes able to weild more of the entities power, so the entity becomes more like him, until eventually, it has become him, and the two beings, the entity and the character have become so intertwined, that it's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.
This raises another question though. Why would an ancient entity of incredibly vast knowledge and power, do this kind thing?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Maybe the entity was sealed from entering the Prime Material Plane and through this proces he hopes to replace the character and enter it once again to wreak havoc or what have you.
For sure that sounds Celestial. Bear in mind, celestial doesn't necessarily mean "goody-goidy two-shoes." Being good-aligned doesn't keep you from being cold, or distant, or haughty, thinking mortals are all beneath you, being manipulative, willing to use people for ultimately good ends, convincing yourself that the ends really do justify the means. I only mention since the entity you described, while definitely sounds like a Celestial patron, definitely does not sound all sweetness and light, and that's not the contradiction most people would take it for. I think having a shady dark good power would actually be real interesting, especially if the character doesn't fully comprehend their patron's motives themselves.
As for why, maybe it has work it must do on the material plane (duty is everything to angels), but Angellic law forbids a being of such great power (like a high ranking angel) from directly influencing the mortal world. What they were supposed to do was to act through mortals to accomplish whatever goal they were given, but this patron is prideful and mistrustful of mortals, so instead decide to execute a loophole in the law that would allow them to go down to the mortal plane themselves and finish the job. This loophole is to merge with a "willing" mortal, eventually taking his form while still technically "acting through" him.
Honestly, I hear elements of the demon, undying, Old One, Celestial, and Archfey all wrapped into one.
Is there one that most fits though. Because obviously I have to choose a patron type, but not sure which type of patron this fits the best.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
what is the character like that this is for?
He is someone who sees himself as being a protector. Of his mother but also of others as well. Because of his early experiences he isn't strong enough to be your standard paladin but he does have this power as a warlock that he used to protect the people he cares about.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Based on simply on that narrative I would say Celestial would be the best choice, Archfey a close second for a whimsical bit, Demon would only work if there was a desire to corrupt the character as time passes. Old One if he so hellbound to his ideals that he can be used like a puppet on strings.
Neat concept. Celestial fits mechanically (healing dice, or a cure spell), which otherwise I don't think you can get a way to heal otherwise.
However, Thematically either Great Old one or Undying fit as well, especially the later. My rationale, is that the reason is that for your patron is taking your character's form, is that for their life to continue, they are going to take your body/soul or merge with it. This cycle has repeated itself time and time again, and you are on a long line of shells. Is the character going to embrace it or fight it? Just an idea.
The protector aspect, isn't one of the patron; that's the character. Does it alter the patron? Another story/mystery. I'd say yes, and this is a consequence of the "merging of souls."
Again, just an idea.