So. Depending on the party, others may have some grudges against Warlocks and how they got their powers. How do you guys play this out ? Are you open about the source of your power? Do you know? Do they know? Just wanna gey some inspiration on rping a warlock in a party.
A player in my campaign (where it is illegal to be a magic user unless you learned through an Imperial institution, and are a registered wizard/bard/cleric/paladin. Druids/warlocks/sorcerors are all outlawed) is an archfey warlock but presented himself as an enchantment wizard. He had a fake name that the players knew him by the whole time, falsified documents and everything to say that he had graduated. He's gotten into a couple of situations he had to cleverly talk his way out of, such as meeting a former professor of the wizard school who didn't remember him. When eventually the secrets came out, due to a zone of truth, the party had gotten to a point where they didn't care (a lot of them wouldn't have cared anyway though, to be fair)
So. Depending on the party, others may have some grudges against Warlocks and how they got their powers. How do you guys play this out ? Are you open about the source of your power? Do you know? Do they know? Just wanna gey some inspiration on rping a warlock in a party.
I have played it out many different ways ranging from "This was a last resort to help my village" and "I just wanted to see what it was like." and even "This ritual won't work guys, I'm just sayin'." Everything between and beyond that is wholly acceptable depending on the variety in the campaign.
The source of power and how open one is about revealing that is usually something I leave to the player, or advise with the DM (if I am the player in that instance) on what the 'source of power' is because there are so many different patrons from all of the Patron subclasses. I would invest (speaking for myself) a lot of mystery into the discovery of why I made this choice to attain power the way I did, or perhaps gain better understanding of what it is that gives me this power. It opens up a lot of sub-quest options that aren't dire to be completed but add flavor to the story in general, and gives your character meaning.
It bears mentioning that the warlock class can be reflavored such that a patron isn't part of the deal, so there's that.
In most cases, the typical onlooker shouldn't be able to tell a warlock from any other arcane spellcaster (or perhaps spellcaster in general), so unless you actually bring it up, there's no reason anybody should, out of the blue, ask you about your power source.
It's just a thing with me that my characters are very up-front with their teammates; if we're trusting each other with our lives, something like 'where I got my abilities' seems trivial in comparison, and for 99% of everybody, IME, how you got your abilities and what they are doesn't matter; it's what you do with them that counts.
My warlock got his powers unwillingly, so no one holds a grudge against him.
Long story short. (I'm leaving out A LOT of detail). My character looked in a mirror, saw strange and wondrous things, and that's when Kthanid (Cthulhu's brother) decided that he was the "chosen one".
My Warlock isn't exactly sure who (or what) her patron is. She had resorted to killing for money to survive, but was faltering - she couldn't do it. Suddenly, an overwhelming cool calmness stilled her hand, and she was able to kill the enemy. She was whisked away to the Shadowfell, and interacted with a man-shaped black shadow. The shadow said the Raven Queen wanted to help her, in return for my PC's loyalty, and retrieving some "problems" for her. Then she woke up, with a new sword at her feet.
RP wise, my PC tends to sit in dark corners and whisper things to herself, sharing her observations, dreams and thoughts with her patron. So, yeah, she's a weirdo. But, when her Pact Weapon sword turns ice cold - the rest of the party knows to step back, because Ash has a job to do...
My current Warlock started off keeping the source of his magic a secret. If it came up, he described himself as "a scholar of fey magic" and left it at that. Sometime around 4th/5th level, he decided to trust his companions and told them he's a Warlock. Now he's 11th level and it's no longer a secret; he's powerful enough not to care what people think, and he's more than willing to call out his Patron's enemies if they have a problem.
So. Depending on the party, others may have some grudges against Warlocks and how they got their powers. How do you guys play this out ? Are you open about the source of your power? Do you know? Do they know? Just wanna gey some inspiration on rping a warlock in a party.
A player in my campaign (where it is illegal to be a magic user unless you learned through an Imperial institution, and are a registered wizard/bard/cleric/paladin. Druids/warlocks/sorcerors are all outlawed) is an archfey warlock but presented himself as an enchantment wizard. He had a fake name that the players knew him by the whole time, falsified documents and everything to say that he had graduated. He's gotten into a couple of situations he had to cleverly talk his way out of, such as meeting a former professor of the wizard school who didn't remember him. When eventually the secrets came out, due to a zone of truth, the party had gotten to a point where they didn't care (a lot of them wouldn't have cared anyway though, to be fair)
I've never been in a group where anyone cared very much about where anyone else got their training or powers.
I have played it out many different ways ranging from "This was a last resort to help my village" and "I just wanted to see what it was like." and even "This ritual won't work guys, I'm just sayin'." Everything between and beyond that is wholly acceptable depending on the variety in the campaign.
The source of power and how open one is about revealing that is usually something I leave to the player, or advise with the DM (if I am the player in that instance) on what the 'source of power' is because there are so many different patrons from all of the Patron subclasses. I would invest (speaking for myself) a lot of mystery into the discovery of why I made this choice to attain power the way I did, or perhaps gain better understanding of what it is that gives me this power. It opens up a lot of sub-quest options that aren't dire to be completed but add flavor to the story in general, and gives your character meaning.
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It bears mentioning that the warlock class can be reflavored such that a patron isn't part of the deal, so there's that.
In most cases, the typical onlooker shouldn't be able to tell a warlock from any other arcane spellcaster (or perhaps spellcaster in general), so unless you actually bring it up, there's no reason anybody should, out of the blue, ask you about your power source.
It's just a thing with me that my characters are very up-front with their teammates; if we're trusting each other with our lives, something like 'where I got my abilities' seems trivial in comparison, and for 99% of everybody, IME, how you got your abilities and what they are doesn't matter; it's what you do with them that counts.
My warlock got his powers unwillingly, so no one holds a grudge against him.
Long story short. (I'm leaving out A LOT of detail). My character looked in a mirror, saw strange and wondrous things, and that's when Kthanid (Cthulhu's brother) decided that he was the "chosen one".
My Warlock isn't exactly sure who (or what) her patron is. She had resorted to killing for money to survive, but was faltering - she couldn't do it. Suddenly, an overwhelming cool calmness stilled her hand, and she was able to kill the enemy.
She was whisked away to the Shadowfell, and interacted with a man-shaped black shadow. The shadow said the Raven Queen wanted to help her, in return for my PC's loyalty, and retrieving some "problems" for her. Then she woke up, with a new sword at her feet.
RP wise, my PC tends to sit in dark corners and whisper things to herself, sharing her observations, dreams and thoughts with her patron. So, yeah, she's a weirdo. But, when her Pact Weapon sword turns ice cold - the rest of the party knows to step back, because Ash has a job to do...
My current Warlock started off keeping the source of his magic a secret. If it came up, he described himself as "a scholar of fey magic" and left it at that. Sometime around 4th/5th level, he decided to trust his companions and told them he's a Warlock. Now he's 11th level and it's no longer a secret; he's powerful enough not to care what people think, and he's more than willing to call out his Patron's enemies if they have a problem.
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I do like the ones that have some evolution in it. Thanks for the inspiration!