question for a friend - Warlock

[Dash4031]

How are vanilla pact warlocks viewed across the server from an IC perspective? How do NPC's view them, and how should the playerbase perceive and receive them through RP?

[blue_penguin]

By vanilla pact, do you mean your down to mill devil pact? Commonfolk would probably not understand and hate you. Good-aligned NPCs may understand it and hate you. Neutral and Evil-aligned NPCs... depends, I suppose.

PCs are usually more complex than NPCs, so their reactions would depend on their personalities and backgrounds.

[Nomster]

Not an expert on warlocks but here goes,

How are vanilla pact warlocks viewed across the server from an IC perspective?

I would say, few people choose to RP their character's warlock abilities as EVIL. Family curse and fey pacts are used quite a bit to avoid that EVIL stamp. Which is understandable in some ways because walking around as an openly evil warlock will get you killed. It requires the character to be low profile and preferably in a group of some sort for support. Some people do RP characters with infernal pacts as a redeeming RP, which will gain sympathy from some other characters but there will always be those who would claim they are bluffing and should be killed.

How do NPC's view them, and how should the playerbase perceive and receive them through RP?

As with orcs and drow and whatnot, outright hostility (or even mild hostility and disdain) can be difficult to RP because of the people who will step in favour of the misunderstood warlock/orc/drow. The playerbase IMO should view warlocks pretty much as mentioned below. Some players (and their characters) will put a warlock to death and have gained enough knowledge IC and through events to recognize a warlock by its powers.

The server has not, to my knowledge, made a stance on exactly how warlocks are recognized. Any warlock player will at some point encounter someone else who will "out them" because of the way spellcraft works and identifies warlock powers. So uh, for this reason I would tell any new warlock to wear a disguise outfit when 'grinding' and something else for socializing in until they have made some connections. While some people will jump at any opportunity to kill an allegedly evil warlock, some will not react in any way if it becomes known to them. Even if they -should-. Any good character should be suspicious of warlocks because warlocks are known to be -evil-.

From Complete Arcane 3.5, p 164. I would suggest to read the Sorcerer and Wizard entries as well, as they compare the three classes to each other. And, there is a pic of a lonely, misunderstood warlock. With a funny beard.
[if the server is using any other lore or stance, do correct me!]

WARLOCKS
Even more so than sorcerers, warlocks tend to be viewed with great suspicion and fear, and only the most infamous necromancers come close to provoking the distrust and enmity that warlocks commonly elicit. Even the least superstitious know that a warlock’s power is derived from dangerous and evil patrons, and even a warlock whose worth has been proven time and again in the service of good might still be thought to have the potential for dark treachery.

Few towns or cities will long abide a known warlock in their midst—low-level warlocks often risk being assaulted by pitchfork- wielding mobs. Warlocks of moderate power rarely need fear outright attack, but they might find themselves subject to a variety of hints (subtle or otherwise) that their presence is unwanted. High-level warlocks are generally considered far too dangerous to offend, but they can often find themselves subject to harassment of a different sort as successive waves of crusading adventurers show up on their doorsteps, each intent on eliminating such a clearly malevolent threat.

Warlocks fare a little better when under the protection of a local lord, but few good-hearted nobles freely offer a warlock employment. The reputation of these fell arcanists is simply too black, and it takes a lord of exceptional wisdom and character to ignore a warlock’s fearsome reputation and look into the heart of the person beneath the stereotype. Like the sorcerer, the warlock is valued far less for his counsel and knowledge than for his ability to wreak havoc against his foes, and those rare few who obtain a powerful patron likely serve as bodyguards or highly capable arcane warriors. Most warlocks never swear fealty to another individual, though, preferring to wield their unique power only in their own name.

[Baboonicorn]

While it depends on the individual, a fiendish pact should generally engender varying degrees of hostility from all but the most black-hearted surfacers.

The person has bargained away their very soul - the thing that makes them who they are - and exchanged it for power with a creature that defines evil.

My old wizard, who was neutral in the "nothing is black or white" sense, always deemed them fools for making such an imbalanced deal.

In practice, you would probably find that as you gain levels, you need to be more careful who you use your warlock powers around. Little warlock adepts blast all and sundry in the BG and Cloakwood lizards, but as you gain server notoriety then the importance of reputation and good PR grows exponentially, especially if you don't wish to hang around other evil PCs who only see you as a means to an end.