So I've been thinking of setting up something where the warlocks in my campaigns can chose more specific patrons for additional risk/reward. Just since the pact and choice of patron seems to sometimes be an afterthought. Also, they sometimes feel one-sided since I'm assuming the Great Old One/Archfey/Fiend/etc would be trying to get something out of empowering the Warlock.
For the Great Old One, I was thinking of giving them the choice between a few of the ones that are mentioned in "Volo's", "Curse of Strahd", "City of Torment" and the like (or even go into Lovecraft and make the pact a bit more dangerous. The Warlocks would get an additional power/ability/spell but it'd come with some sort of timed or permanent penalty to some other things.
For example, In "Curse of Strahd" & "City of Torment", mention is made of the Elder Evil Khirad (the star of secrets). Warlocks who pick this patron would get access to divination and scrying but in payment, they would only be able to whisper and their smiles would appear scheming and untrustworthy to others (so a penalty in interacting with people) for a time after the ability was used. The more they use it, the longer the effects last. Once a certain level is passed, the Great Old One would also begin whispering secrets to the Warlock (not necessarily useful for the quest either).
Another would be Zhudun (the corpse star) who would give access to a modified form of True Resurrection and a custom spell referenced in "Curse of Strahd" where you torment your opponent with horrific prophetic visions of death, undeath, etc. The downside is that the DM would roll a dice to decide on what effect it would have on the Warlock (in this case, slowly altering the Warlock's appearance so they start looking like an undead being (which would complicate how they'd handle interacting with others).
Or Caiphon (the guiding star) who grants a form of teleportation but the Warlock and anyone travelling with them would be forced to see the inbetween (space between realities (I'm kinda thinking like the scene in Doctor Strange). So every time, the Warlock and everyone along for the ride would get a penalty based on temporary madness (on Warlock this can build up to become permanent).
etc (beings like Gibbeth, Hadar, Nihal, Acamar, Delban, ...)
I'd add options for each and was thinking of setting this up in Homebrew so anyone could benefit from the work I'd do but I'm kinda stuck a bit. What would be the best way to set this up? I can recycle some spells or slightly alter existing ones to get that part of what I need. I was originally thinking of having the Warlocks select the patron as their faith/deity of choice and then give them a corresponding feat that would give them access to the extra stuff. Alternatively, I could make this into subclasses and so on.
Since I've never actually set something like this up in Homebrew, I'm hoping to save some time playing around in there by asking for advice here.
You may not need to add anything mechanically homebrew. You could simply make the entity that is bestowing the power very shrude and require a risk/reward style deal. You'd of course need to make your players aware of the potential consequences to becoming a Warlock if you wanted to do something like this. It should be something that is discussed with the players heavily before you commit to something like this.
Of course if you wanted to add some risk to becoming a Warlock, what you've listed seem like compelling ideas to me.
Hi,
So I've been thinking of setting up something where the warlocks in my campaigns can chose more specific patrons for additional risk/reward. Just since the pact and choice of patron seems to sometimes be an afterthought. Also, they sometimes feel one-sided since I'm assuming the Great Old One/Archfey/Fiend/etc would be trying to get something out of empowering the Warlock.
For the Great Old One, I was thinking of giving them the choice between a few of the ones that are mentioned in "Volo's", "Curse of Strahd", "City of Torment" and the like (or even go into Lovecraft and make the pact a bit more dangerous. The Warlocks would get an additional power/ability/spell but it'd come with some sort of timed or permanent penalty to some other things.
I'd add options for each and was thinking of setting this up in Homebrew so anyone could benefit from the work I'd do but I'm kinda stuck a bit. What would be the best way to set this up? I can recycle some spells or slightly alter existing ones to get that part of what I need. I was originally thinking of having the Warlocks select the patron as their faith/deity of choice and then give them a corresponding feat that would give them access to the extra stuff. Alternatively, I could make this into subclasses and so on.
Since I've never actually set something like this up in Homebrew, I'm hoping to save some time playing around in there by asking for advice here.
You may not need to add anything mechanically homebrew. You could simply make the entity that is bestowing the power very shrude and require a risk/reward style deal. You'd of course need to make your players aware of the potential consequences to becoming a Warlock if you wanted to do something like this. It should be something that is discussed with the players heavily before you commit to something like this.
Of course if you wanted to add some risk to becoming a Warlock, what you've listed seem like compelling ideas to me.
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Thanks for the advice!