How to take the edge off of a Warlock?

[Babuguuscooties]

This is not a slight against anyone who plays a Warlock of any flavor.

Let me repeat, this is not meant as a thread to disparage roleplay of any kind.

My question genuinely is this: Are there any possible ways to roleplay a Warlock that isn't quite so dark and gothic-like? I understand there are fey warlocks, right? Could anyone give me some brief examples? Thank you!

[Tekill]

You disparaging me? You disparaging to me? Then who the hell else are you disparaging... you disparaging me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the f&*% do you think you're disparaging? Oh yeah? OK.


Warlock Alignment restrictions: Any Evil or any Chaotic

A deal is being made for power. The being or patron making the deal has to be powerful enough to be able to bestow powers. These powers are in exchange for something that your everyday day typical mortal might possess. A powerful being is not just going to give this power to just any fool that asks...
Traditionally the Baatezu (Devils) made exchanges of power for ones soul. Being lawful evil they had to legitimately con you for you soul. They had to play by rules to aquire your sould. A deal with the devil sort of thing. This is the most common type of pact and the root of a lot of warlock stereotype.
I suppose other powerful beings would grant warlock abilities for various reasons. The warlock has evolved quite a bit from the original devil-pact. But this server is based of DnD 3.5 so I think if you want a unique pact with a unique benifactor I would consult the DMs.
I beleive Abysal, Infernal, slaads, Seelie (fey) were some of the authorized pacts. Dragon pact has been recently advertised as well. I have heard of Star pacts (aberations) and Angel pacts as well, but again i would consult a DM about these, as they may not comply with the lore/rules whatnot.
There are all sorts of pacts (deals) you can make as well. You can have multiple pacts with various patrons, for small to large powers.
There are pacts made that span multiple generations of a bloodlines. For example Some people RP thier warlock as though they are a decendant from the actual pact maker. Maybe a characters grandfather promised his first born granchild in a deal or something. A lot of warlocks play this sort of, hey I was born cursed this way and I live with it, kind of warlock. I suppose there could be a Chaotic Good version of this sort of Warlock.
Personally I like my warlocks to be the deal makers. Take responsibility!
But in the end, it tends to by typically gothic and evil because devils and demons want something from you-your soul. What could you give a venerable dragon or faerie queen from the land of the faeries, that would make them want to share their power?
Actually the land of the fairies have evolved in DnD to this really cool land called the Feywild. A wild chaotic place, right out of a Brothers Grimm story. A deal with a rumpelstiltskin type there would be a curse as much as a gift. There is a sourcebook about the Feywild and everything. Unfortunately due to the timelind of the server, the Feywild has not been created yet. At this point its just seems to be this vague place in a dimension called the land of the fey...or something. Not nearly as defined as the Feywild.
I think in the end the whole idea of being a Warlock is that you get this great link to powers that you learn to channel, but said powers come at a price. A heavy burden.
This is really a class that to make work, properly, would require the help of a DM to play the patron. We warlock should be working for the patron in my opinion. There should be a struggle to keep up our side of the bargain to find a way out of it or around it....or else.

[Zanniej]

There are indeed fey-pacted warlocks. I'm no expert on how common they are lorewise, but they are indeed less dark and brooding than the demon-pact warlocks.

I think there's also blood-pacted warlocks, who are just born with it.

An issue I found while playing warlocks, is that it's not easy to RP something else than dark and brooding, because a lot of people will treat you as dark and brooding, because you're a warlock, so you must be evil, right?


Fey-pacts and blood-pacts however do give room to explore more good (or neutral) aligned warlocks, while they'll still stay chaotic at heart (for who else would dare to dabble in such magics, but the chaotic at heart. It surely is against the laws ... so no lawful good warlocks )

From what I once read (though do not take anything I say as lore-appropriate, and run it by the DMs if you're unsure), a fey-pact can happen just because a fey-like creature sees it as beneficial.

You could become a neutral blood-pact warlock, I think (again, run it by DMs that know more of pacts and lore concerning existing pacts than I do), that is neutral, in constant battle to do good, but cursed with an evil(ish) power in his/her blood and cursed with the way others will view the person due to said cursed magic.

[Babuguuscooties]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. I'm just brainstorming, and needed some help. Keep 'em coming if anyone has more to add.

[kleomenes]

That Pact of Blood is homebrew so it isn't good lore.

Obviously, my personal view follows:

The source books of relevance to Warlocks in 3rd edition are limited and also not Forgotten Realms specific. There is more for later editions but how applicable it is, is up for debate.

Complete Arcane gives an overview as its what introduced the class. That casts the class as primarily composed of individuals pacting with darker arcane powers and does have a devil-pact tint. That said, it does allow for pacting with less malevolent creatures (Fey, perhaps?), and for the pacting being done by ancestors.

This has to be read with Fiendish Codex 2: Tyrants of the Nine Hells which goes into some detail into how faustian devil pacts work. These are expressly based on a contract and require free willed consent of the pactee. There are devils entirely oriented around the luring of mortals into pacts. There is even a fiendish court where one may challenge the contract and if you have been tricked into the pact in some way you can get out of it. This would seem to preclude ancestral devil pacts as you have not consented of your free will to something if you are born with it. The only way I could personally see such backgrounds working is that "inherited" warlock powers deriving from a Devil are not a pact, per se, until the individual willingly uses the powers - at which point they have in fact ratified the pact themselves and their consent has been given. That or inherited devil pacts just don't exist

Fey pacts would seem to be fair game for ancestral pacts, as they don't involve soul trading (neccessarily) and don't seem to require consent. Benevolent Fey could even empower someone to serve their purposes with little cost. As far as I know Demon pacts are rare like Fey pacts but are possible, and they would not need to be governed by rules either being chaotic creatures. Demons could offer a pact just to see mortals spread destruction on the material plane.

It would be helpful to have a sticky or section in Lore of the Lands detailing the various pact options and how they work. Particularly to see if the more obscure pacts from 4th edition onwards are valid for the server. I suppose there would need to be agreement for that! Maybe we could hash things out here and submit to the DM team? Or just request the DM team make a ruling.

[Nemni]

Fey are chaotic more than anything and I don't associate chaos with dark, gothic or brooding. Even evil fey play games and are whimsical, though their games typically end in disaster. A fey bond warlock would probably have to be somewhat feylike itself, to attract fey to them. So to RP such a warlock one would need to figure out how the chaotic alignment manifests in you and focus on that more than good or evil. That's my take anyway.

[Sputnik]

Keep in mind that practicing Eldritch magic of ANY kind is very illegal in both BG and Amn.
Banishment or death is the punishment... which means potential perma-strikes.

Something to consider for upcoming (and existing!) warlocks. . .

[Zanniej]

That Pact of Blood is homebrew so it isn't good lore.

Obviously, my personal view follows:

The source books of relevance to Warlocks in 3rd edition are limited and also not Forgotten Realms specific. There is more for later editions but how applicable it is, is up for debate.

Complete Arcane gives an overview as its what introduced the class. That casts the class as primarily composed of individuals pacting with darker arcane powers and does have a devil-pact tint. That said, it does allow for pacting with less malevolent creatures (Fey, perhaps?), and for the pacting being done by ancestors.

This has to be read with Fiendish Codex 2: Tyrants of the Nine Hells which goes into some detail into how faustian devil pacts work. These are expressly based on a contract and require free willed consent of the pactee. There are devils entirely oriented around the luring of mortals into pacts. There is even a fiendish court where one may challenge the contract and if you have been tricked into the pact in some way you can get out of it. This would seem to preclude ancestral devil pacts as you have not consented of your free will to something if you are born with it. The only way I could personally see such backgrounds working is that "inherited" warlock powers deriving from a Devil are not a pact, per se, until the individual willingly uses the powers - at which point they have in fact ratified the pact themselves and their consent has been given. That or inherited devil pacts just don't exist

Fey pacts would seem to be fair game for ancestral pacts, as they don't involve soul trading (neccessarily) and don't seem to require consent. Benevolent Fey could even empower someone to serve their purposes with little cost. As far as I know Demon pacts are rare like Fey pacts but are possible, and they would not need to be governed by rules either being chaotic creatures. Demons could offer a pact just to see mortals spread destruction on the material plane.

It would be helpful to have a sticky or section in Lore of the Lands detailing the various pact options and how they work. Particularly to see if the more obscure pacts from 4th edition onwards are valid for the server. I suppose there would need to be agreement for that! Maybe we could hash things out here and submit to the DM team? Or just request the DM team make a ruling.

Good idea. I'll go after it. Thanks

[Babuguuscooties]

Thanks for the feedback. Do you think we could get a stickied lore thread on this under Lore of the Lands as suggested? I don't play a warlock, but for me to even be able to consider playing one I'd really need to know what the options are in BGTSCC.

[DM Dagon]

I would like to echo the sentiment that, if you want anything not in 3.5 lore or something quite special, you should reach out to the DM Team first.

If there is a push for it, we can indeed make a ruling, but until then, I think it is safe to say that if you stick to "vanilla" devil/demon/fey pacts, there should be no issue.

However, I do encourage anyone to play devil pacted warlocks, as they offer quite a few distinct opportunities of play, above the faustian pact (which is called boring by some).

[Babuguuscooties]

I would like to echo the sentiment that, if you want anything not in 3.5 lore or something quite special, you should reach out to the DM Team first.

If there is a push for it, we can indeed make a ruling, but until then, I think it is safe to say that if you stick to "vanilla" devil/demon/fey pacts, there should be no issue.

However, I do encourage anyone to play devil pacted warlocks, as they offer quite a few distinct opportunities of play, above the faustian pact (which is called boring by some).

I guess I just need to read up more. I still don't feel quite comfortable playing a warlock whose made a pact with an entity I can't ever see or interact with IC. I think at this point if I do roll a warlock I will first reach out to the DM team to see about some interaction to breath a little more life into the whole pact portion of playing a warlock.

[aaron22]

dont fight the edge. embrace the edge. embrace your dark proprietor. embrace the darkness

join the darkside....
we have gift baskets

[Babuguuscooties]

Nice try, but I think I'll stick to my dull, edgeless good two-shoes for now.

[metaquad4]

I'd say the most important part to a warlock is the creature the warlock is pacted to. You should have a firm grasp on the creature, what its needs/wants are, and why it would creature a warlock. Is it furfilling the creatures desires and/or does creating the warlock match with the creature's nature and purpose? Does the creature gain anything from it?

Once you can answer these types of questions about your warlock, you are set. A warlock is just a regular (for an adventurer) person who was granted these powers. Your character can have pretty much any personality type, as they are granted these powers to use in any way.

Of course, the nature of the pact deal could weigh on the character. For example, one warlock I created on another server was pacted to a fey and had to drain the blood of a sentient creature in a cave, surrounded by bats, every week. I imagine such a cost would make a character a little "broodish" (and indeed, the character was pretty broodish a few months in!).

The cost and the information about the being are the most important parts of playing a warlock. Once you have those down, you can determine how they would clash with your warlock's personality type. That'll help you to create an in-lore but not edgelord-like warlock.

Maybe, as was suggested about, the creature is whimsical and wants your character to pull (maybe dangerous) pranks on people because they recognize your character's potential to be like them. Or maybe your character sold their soul and doesn't really give a crap about going to the hells when they die (thus, remaining a cheerful mortal)! Both examples being both cheerful, colourful, and friendly. . .and a warlock!

[Diamore]

Keep in mind that practicing Eldritch magic of ANY kind is very illegal in both BG and Amn.
Banishment or death is the punishment... which means potential perma-strikes.

What does this mean? And where do I find clarification of it?