TwoSix
Everyone's literal second-favorite poster
I definitely want to play a game where the only available classes are the sidekick classes.
D&D 5E What if Warlocks were the only spellcasters?
- Thread starter Yora
- Start date
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
That path leads to Ladle, the game
There is one race: ladle
There is one class: ladle
You use your ladle sword to kill ladle monsters and take their ladle-coins
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Definitely would be feasible
jgsugden
Legend
It'd be fine. I've played in groups where we had no spellcasters, although I'm not sure I've done that in this edition. It would make the 4 Element Monk more useful, though.... You'd also see short rests being a lot more popular. The feats that add healing spells to your spell list would be popular, as would a Celestial Pact Warlock.
I don't think it'd be as dramatic as you'd like. If you want this feel, you're better off using pregenerated PCs. Without Pregeneration, the PCs will find the wokarounds.
I don't think it'd be as dramatic as you'd like. If you want this feel, you're better off using pregenerated PCs. Without Pregeneration, the PCs will find the wokarounds.
jmartkdr2
Hero
Weird side effect of this, there's two kinds of priests: those without magic (but they would have skills) and those who somehow made a pact with a celestial.
Depending on how common the later is, they could be senior priests, bishops, or prophets.
The more I think about it, the more I dig this idea, though.
Depending on how common the later is, they could be senior priests, bishops, or prophets.
The more I think about it, the more I dig this idea, though.
Faolyn
(she/her)
I've often wanted to do this. I think it'd be slightly easier now that Level Up is out, since that has nonmagical Rangers and Marshals in addition to the Fighters, Rogues, Berserkers, and Adepts, and Adepts aren't as inherently magical as Monks used to be.
One thing from Level Up that could be used even in a standard 05e only-warlock game would be to have different bonus spell lists and let the player pick which one they want. Like, the current fiendlock bonus spells are mostly fire-related, but you can make lists that center on poison and disease, acid, cold, darkness, illusions, and so on.
One thing from Level Up that could be used even in a standard 05e only-warlock game would be to have different bonus spell lists and let the player pick which one they want. Like, the current fiendlock bonus spells are mostly fire-related, but you can make lists that center on poison and disease, acid, cold, darkness, illusions, and so on.
Yora
Legend
Not really different than with clerics, really.
Islayre d'Argolh
Explorer
I suggest the Blood sword style ! : Fighter, Monk, Rogue & Warlock
The inner discipline of the Monk goes well with the psionic powers (as an alternative to Pact magic) and the Mercy Monk is a very effectiv healer. Also this re-create the Fighter/Cleric/Thief/Magic-user original cast...
People are talking about warlocks being rare but I could easily see the opposite.
imagine a world where the core patrons are at war. The fey fights the fiend fights the celestial. The world is divided, and everyone is picking a side. Warlocks are common on the battleground in such a world context.
imagine a world where the core patrons are at war. The fey fights the fiend fights the celestial. The world is divided, and everyone is picking a side. Warlocks are common on the battleground in such a world context.
RainOnTheSun
Explorer
I came to this a bit late, but it's absolutely fascinating to me and now that I've read it I'm going to spit out some rambling thoughts on the subject from a setting perspective. Apologies in advance.
There are two main variables, to my thinking: a) how difficult/unusual is it to make a pact, and b) how many patrons can a warlock make a pact with? If pacts are difficult and rare, warlocks are strange aberrations, and the question of how many patrons there are becomes less important to most people. Any warlock is a scary or miraculous thing with powers the average person doesn't understand, granted by forces they don't understand. If pacts are easy to make, though, you're going to see a lot of warlocks. The demand for magic in a D&D world hasn't gone down, just the number of options for getting it. And then the patron "economy," so to speak, gets a lot more important, because any fighting force is going to have the choice of either going without magic or being influenced by a patron. That means pact magic runs through a lot of adventuring parties, but it also means it runs through the city guard. And the army. Every army.
So, how many patrons are there, and how well do they work together? If there are a lot of options for patrons, people will probably favor the most benign options. The effect of patrons on society will be relatively low, both because people make pacts with the least demanding patrons they can find and because society doesn't need to depend on any one patron for survival. If there are only a few patrons, and they don't get along, you're probably going to have something like Stalker0 said, a hot or cold war between... uh... patron-ocracies. There might be kings or parliaments that are independent on paper, but in practice they're still going to be dependent on one of the patrons.
What if pactmaking is fairly easy, there's a moderate number of possible patrons in the known universe, and they get along moderately well? Then each patron probably has considerable power over society, but not absolute power. Mortal authorities will try to keep any one patron from becoming ascendant in their country, for their own safety: if the prime minister sees that his army has a lot of warlocks from Patron A in it, he's probably going to encourage his soldiers to make pacts with Patron B or Patron C. When patrons go to war, it takes place all across the world at once: patrons have agents in multiple countries, and a warlock's loyalty to their patron is higher than their loyalty to their nation if they want to keep being a warlock. Mortal authorities will do what they can to contain or suppress battles between warlocks, of course, but their ability to do so will be limited by their dependence on their only sources of magic. I think this would be an interesting world to play a game in, but it should probably be run by somebody with more cyberpunk experience than me.
There are two main variables, to my thinking: a) how difficult/unusual is it to make a pact, and b) how many patrons can a warlock make a pact with? If pacts are difficult and rare, warlocks are strange aberrations, and the question of how many patrons there are becomes less important to most people. Any warlock is a scary or miraculous thing with powers the average person doesn't understand, granted by forces they don't understand. If pacts are easy to make, though, you're going to see a lot of warlocks. The demand for magic in a D&D world hasn't gone down, just the number of options for getting it. And then the patron "economy," so to speak, gets a lot more important, because any fighting force is going to have the choice of either going without magic or being influenced by a patron. That means pact magic runs through a lot of adventuring parties, but it also means it runs through the city guard. And the army. Every army.
So, how many patrons are there, and how well do they work together? If there are a lot of options for patrons, people will probably favor the most benign options. The effect of patrons on society will be relatively low, both because people make pacts with the least demanding patrons they can find and because society doesn't need to depend on any one patron for survival. If there are only a few patrons, and they don't get along, you're probably going to have something like Stalker0 said, a hot or cold war between... uh... patron-ocracies. There might be kings or parliaments that are independent on paper, but in practice they're still going to be dependent on one of the patrons.
What if pactmaking is fairly easy, there's a moderate number of possible patrons in the known universe, and they get along moderately well? Then each patron probably has considerable power over society, but not absolute power. Mortal authorities will try to keep any one patron from becoming ascendant in their country, for their own safety: if the prime minister sees that his army has a lot of warlocks from Patron A in it, he's probably going to encourage his soldiers to make pacts with Patron B or Patron C. When patrons go to war, it takes place all across the world at once: patrons have agents in multiple countries, and a warlock's loyalty to their patron is higher than their loyalty to their nation if they want to keep being a warlock. Mortal authorities will do what they can to contain or suppress battles between warlocks, of course, but their ability to do so will be limited by their dependence on their only sources of magic. I think this would be an interesting world to play a game in, but it should probably be run by somebody with more cyberpunk experience than me.
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