Warlock Patrons Wanted!

[Isabella]

Okay, for a bit of background, here's how I'm handling Warlocks in 4e:
Requiring the player to sell his soul for class abilities isn't my thing, so I have three main ways of getting your Warlock powers. First is to find a book (or other appropriate focus) related to your pact path. So, an Infernal Pact Warlock may have found a copy of the Madrigorian, a Star Pact may have found the Necronomicon, a Fey Pact may have ancient Druidic runes written on a stone disk, and so on. You're delving into dangerous magics at this point, but you aren't in over your head... yet.

The second option is to have a bloodline of whatever pact you choose, kind of like 3e sorcerers. Tieflings would, thus, be exceptionally likely to have an Infernal Pact, Elves and Eladrin a Fey Pact, and.... er, I'll get back to you on Star Pact, but these really represent general trends than set in stone ideals. After all, the bloodline may have been way back, and you could have a half-elf tiefling or a fey with a spot of "other" blood for a Star Pact.

The third option is to actually have a patron. Even Warlocks of the other to types may find themselves with a patron if they are not careful (for example, committing a lot DPCs). Having a patron is a Bad Thing for those who want to keep a non-evil alignment, and might just be a Bad Thing in general.

Anyway, this gist of this long rambling exposition is that I drew up a list of Patrons for each pact.

Infernal has pretty much the entire contents of Van Richten's guide to fiends. Of course, 4e has changed some of these to demons (which are not outsiders), not to mention some of them make poor patrons anyway. For instance, the Whistling Fiend does not strike me as someone who makes infernal bargains.
I'm also uncertain of which fiends I want to be patrons. Does the Gentleman Caller bother with patrons? Can Malocchio grant powers? Ebonbane? The Wishing Imp?

Fey Pact has the Loas of Sourgane, the Green Maiden, And Loht and Maeve. I'd had some thought of making boogeymen possible patrons but I'm not sure about that one yet.

Star Pact has the Green Maiden, Gwydion, and the God Brain.

Miscellaneous people who probably should be able to grant Pact Powers, like Azalin, I filed under Dark Pact.

As you can see, the Fey and Star Part patron lists are a little sparse. I'd considered adding some in (like the Black Pharoh, Nyarlathotep, to the Burning Sands), but I wanted any suggestions pulled from cannon first. Of course, feel free to add your own ideas for patrons as well.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Perhaps the Star Pact could derive from Thaani ancestry? IIRC, Gaz I describes them as having some weird (superficial) physiognomic quirks, suggesting a past history of illithid tampering with their genes.

That would leave a Thaani character who aspires to become powerful with an interesting moral dilemma: do they stick with conventional psionics, which means they'll have a rough time finding a trainer, or do they choose the easy, do-it-yourself path and pursue forbidden Star Pact skills instead? It could be their equivalent of an arcane caster's choosing whether to learn necromantic magic.

[Lanus]

Actually the book idea seems nice.

First of all, it stills keeps the idea of heroes, in the same sense that the investigators who learn a spell in Call of Cthulhu are still heroes. They aren't doing anything wrong per se; they're using the knowledge of the "bad guys" against the bad guys. Of course, it all goes downhill from there but still they will not get lynched from the start

Second of all, it let us reflavor things a bit: The warlocks becomes the scholarly Crowley-esque type while the wizard stills retains the flavor of "fantasy wizard". It fits nicer in the more culturally developed domains, imo.

Thoughts?

[DocBeard]

Give me a couple days to brainstorm and I'll come up with some awesome stuff.

While I'm working on that: I agree that Darklords should be a ready source for power. Throwing the ball back in your court: Should the study of the Mists be a Dark Pact, or a Ravenloft-unique Mist Pact?

[Isabella]

Perhaps the Star Pact could derive from Thaani ancestry? IIRC, Gaz I describes them as having some weird (superficial) physiognomic quirks, suggesting a past history of illithid tampering with their genes.

Good idea as the default explanation, although I doubt that's the only reason you would have a far realm bloodline. Lovecraft had his Yithians, after all, and I recall the 3.5 illithid bloodline, which actually meant you were one of the ancestors of the illithid race before they evolved and traveled back in time. Bit of a mind screw there (which is appropriate for star pact, really).

First of all, it stills keeps the idea of heroes, in the same sense that the investigators who learn a spell in Call of Cthulhu are still heroes. They aren't doing anything wrong per se; they're using the knowledge of the "bad guys" against the bad guys. Of course, it all goes downhill from there but still they will not get lynched from the start

Second of all, it let us reflavor things a bit: The warlocks becomes the scholarly Crowley-esque type while the wizard stills retains the flavor of "fantasy wizard". It fits nicer in the more culturally developed domains, imo.

Yes, that was the idea. The warlock is the new archivist, of sorts, only dealing with powers far beyond their control, and hoping no one notices. Getting a patron means someone noticed.
Of course, they aren't all bad; the Maiden of the Swamp from Souragne would be a benevolent pact-patron.

While I'm working on that: I agree that Darklords should be a ready source for power. Throwing the ball back in your court: Should the study of the Mists be a Dark Pact, or a Ravenloft-unique Mist Pact?

I need to go back and take a good, long look at the Dark Pact; there didn't seem to be any overriding theme to the powers that I noticed. (other than "LOL hurt your friends!")

I also don't think all Darklords should be able to grant powers. Azalin and Misroi, sure, D'Honaire and Jacky Renier, no (athough the living brain might be able to ). It may go back to that suggestion you gave that Darklords gained powers based on how connected they were to their domains, kinda like fiends; closing the domain boarders could be one "optional gained" power, and being able to grant powers could be another.

[NeoTiamat]

Sign me up as another person fond of the Book idea.

Regarding Fey-Pacts... I seem to recall that Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey said that each of the nine Breeds had its own lord. So Maeve was the Shee-Lord, and Loht the Sith-Lord, but Powrie, Portunes, Muryan, Teg, Brag, Alven, and Fir all had Lords also. So that can give the Fey-Pacts a bit more personalization (Someone Pacted with the Alven Lord would be quite a different person than someone with a Pact with the Teg Lord).

If you're looking for homebrew Faerie Lord, I've got a whole bunch I can offer you. Wholesale, as it were.

[DasSoviet]

I need to go back and take a good, long look at the Dark Pact; there didn't seem to be any overriding theme to the powers that I noticed. (other than "LOL hurt your friends!")

It seems to be very much typical "Drow politicking"... backstab your friends, poison your enemies, forcing your enemy to attack their allies/themselves, as well as some tapping into the Shadowfell and necromanctic forces....

I think Death would make a good patron for this pact, maybe Ebonsbane as well. Kind of a more 'civilized' or 'refined' pact of the damned.

Or, if you want to go books... uhh... an old drow text from the Arak of eld?

[Igor the Henchman]

What is the Dark Pact? Haven't seen it in my Player's Handbook.

As for the question...

For the Fey pact, you might try the Three Hags, Lady of the Lake, the Valachani moon-god Yutow, or the White Rose of Sithicus. As NeoTiamat mentioned, there are scores of lesser known fey lords running around - I might point out Lord Sithington, mentioned in the Mordent Gazetteer under the Scottmatter family description. As for the Bogeymen, I'd maybe see Mr Fox and the Scissorman go for something like that, especially if the bargain was made while the PC was only a child - both seem unusually apt at planning ahead and keeping tabs on adult affairs from time to time.

For Star Pact, have you considered the El Koth race from the Hazlan Gazetteer?

Two more possibilities for the infernal pact I think noone mentioned are Easan the Mad and something or other called "Lou'gal the Smiling One", mentioned in the Mordent Gazetteer in relation to the Gauldamon family - apparently a fiend with a taste for theatre and baby sacrifices.

Incidentally, I've toyed with the idea of making the "priests" from G'Henna into Warlocks with a unique "Zhakata pact", to reaffirm how their abilities don't really come from a divine source. Instead, the powers come from a bargain with dark forces, in which Yagno's end of the deal is to continually create more calibans. So long as Yagno keeps warping innocents into monstrous wretches, his clergy retains its abilities.

[DasSoviet]

It's in the Forgotten Realm's player's guide, along with the Swordmage class and the drow and genasi race. It's a pact formed with the dark entities that dwell at the edges of drow civilization, and it's overarching theme is "poision, darkness, disease, madness and spite" as well as hurting your allies to power your own spells.

[Igor the Henchman]

Ah. Thanks a lot.

[Gnarfflinger]

I think Ravenloft opens the door to a number of Warlock options if there is the will to write them up. Someone already listed mists, and Zakata, but a what about a Lunar pact if Lycanthropes are common? Maybe a straight up Death pact, where you still deal necrotic damage, but without the demonic connotations of the infernal pact. A Nightmare pact, drawn from the Nightmare court would be perfect for someone that likes to mess with the mind of his foes.

Maybe someone with design ambitions would be very busy with these ideas...

[Jester of the FoS]

Having worked on the Mist pact I can clearly say "no."

With four pacts plus mine, there's already 30% more warlock powers out there than for any other PHB class. Even if you bring in Dragon magazine, the three classes to be features are the warlock, wizard, and swordmage.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Sounds like you might want to consider developing some Mist-related or otherwise Ravenloft-specific power options for other classes, not just for warlocks.

[DasSoviet]

Sounds like you might want to consider developing some Mist-related or otherwise Ravenloft-specific power options for other classes, not just for warlocks.

Kinda like the Spellscarred class in the FRPHB, or the Gladiator class coming out later this month in Dragon, right? Not a true class, per say, but something you can multiclass into, take a few powers and mix them in with your standard class powers... a little complicated, to be sure, but definitely doable.

[Jester of the FoS]

Well, I view the Mist Pact as the new equivalent of mist powers from the VRG.
While I could add extra powers to other classes (gun fears for rangers, swashbuckler rogue feats, Ezra cleric feats, etc) it's be redundant and a heck of alot of work.