Looking for flavor/background for Vestige Pact Warlock

[ppaladin123]

I've been meaning to play a Vestige-pact warlock ever since it came out in Arcane Power. I loved the binder class in 3.5e and I still love this idea. The problem is, that I always blank on a good character background. How does one come to make pacts with the spiritual remnants of gods, primordial and other powerful figures? How does one even find out about such things? Then what would possess you (hah) to allow one of these spirits to possess you?

The revenant provides an easy story (and great stats) for a binder/vestige pact warlock: you came back from the realm of the dead changed. You made contact with some of these beings on the other side and now you are haunted. You can see and hear spirits and can offer them entrance to your physical form in exchange for some power. Great.

Say I am not a revenant. How would I become a vestige-pact warlock? How would a dwarf or a halfling or a goliath or even a wilden end up on this path? Why would a farmer or a soldier or a noble become a vestige-pact warlock? I'd love to hear some ideas.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You're a bookworm. You read everything and anything, but you prefer to read about occult history and the arcane.

And one day, you find a fragment of mystical text that speaks to you (possibly literally), giving you a clue to the existence of deeper mysteries.

Then you find your first tome- little more than a chapbook, or a fragment of a rune-etched tablet- that depicts a ritual that puts you in contact with something...incomplete...but still powerful. You touch the power...and you are changed forever.



Its a kind of background you might find in a Mythos character, or in the Johnny Depp movie, The Ninth Gate.

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

give a look also to epic destinies for ideas

anyhow

...you found ancient ruins of a bygone age (even a few stones) that create a contact....

...you dream of strange gods....

...a stranger come to your house only to die talking of forgotten powers....

...you are hit by a lightning and instead of dying become a vestige warlock....

....you take a disease and your feverished dream let you contact powers beyond time.....

and so on

 

[InspectorHound]

Ancestor Worship = Vestige Pact

We just dealt with this in one of our campaigns with a new player wanting to play a warlock.

He re-skinned the 'vestige' concept to be Dwarven Ancestor Worship, so the various vestiges are different Dwarven ancestors that he's created a relationship with and empower him at his calling.

Mechanically, Dwarves make pretty good Vestige Pact warlocks: an attribute bonus to Con, and with Dwarven Weapon Training, a Pact Crag-Hammer makes for a fairly brutal Eldritch Strike melee attack, with one hand-free for a Rod too.

Just gotta come up with some more "Dwarfish" sounding names for the various Daily Powers that grant new vestiges mid-battle.

 

[ppaladin123]

We just dealt with this in one of our campaigns with a new player wanting to play a warlock.

He re-skinned the 'vestige' concept to be Dwarven Ancestor Worship, so the various vestiges are different Dwarven ancestors that he's created a relationship with and empower him at his calling.

Mechanically, Dwarves make pretty good Vestige Pact warlocks: an attribute bonus to Con, and with Dwarven Weapon Training, a Pact Crag-Hammer makes for a fairly brutal Eldritch Strike melee attack, with one hand-free for a Rod too.

Just gotta come up with some more "Dwarfish" sounding names for the various Daily Powers that grant new vestiges mid-battle.

Hmm, I considered that. It also fits with the fluff for the goliath race/society.

I suppose that you could also think of devas as tapping into the abilities of it past incarnations.

Thanks.

 

[MrMyth]

I always have trouble with the Vestige pact, namely cause I'd like to have a character built around a specific Vestige, rather than having a bunch I tap into every so often.

You could make a character who is some sort of mad archaeologist or historian - you've found relics of these ancient, almost forgotten figures, and you've learned how to call upon their power.

As mentioned above, ancestor worship can be a great fit for dwarves and goliaths and others.

It could also be an involuntary thing - you happen to be a uniquely suited vessel for these ancient vestiges to surge into and try and touch the world once more. These spirits fight over the chance to possess you - and maybe even, through you, one day be reborn - while you try and retain your own identity... even as you know that there are times when you may need their power.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It could also be an involuntary thing - you happen to be a uniquely suited vessel for these ancient vestiges to surge into and try and touch the world once more. These spirits fight over the chance to possess you - and maybe even, through you, one day be reborn - while you try and retain your own identity... even as you know that there are times when you may need their power.

That sounds like the perfect skin for a Vestige Warlock with a Vodoun flavor! Nicely done!

 

[Ryujin]

You stumbled upon a physical fragment of a dead god, or an imprisoned bit of godly power.

You ARE a physical fragment of a dead god.

You were cursed to be a conduit for the channelling of extra dimensional beings.

Exposure to some sort of raw magical power, like that of The Far Realm, opened your mind so that powerful beings from other times can mentally manifest through you.

 

[Klaus]

BTW, Dragon Magazine had an awesome article a while back focused on the roleplaying aspects of the warlock pacts (IIRC, the title was "Forging the Pact" or somesuch).

The sample patron for the Vestige Pact was a "ferrymen of the dead" type of entity.

Very cool article, highly recommended.

 

[ppaladin123]

BTW, Dragon Magazine had an awesome article a while back focused on the roleplaying aspects of the warlock pacts (IIRC, the title was "Forging the Pact" or somesuch).

The sample patron for the Vestige Pact was a "ferrymen of the dead" type of entity.

Very cool article, highly recommended.

Dragon 381. Thank you! I hadn't considered the idea of making the pact with one being who had the power to offer me various vestiges depending on my needs. That is kind of cool.