Well, the most immediate that stands out its Celestial Warlock, Divine Soul Sorcerer, Life Doman Cleric, but Grave Domain Cleric, Shadow Sorcerer, The Undead Warlock is another. There are even more overlaps between Cleric and Warlock or Cleric and Sorcerer as well.
Thematic concepts are often tied to types of beings.
Yes, the Divine Soul Sorcerer and the Celestial Warlock and the Cleric all deal with the gods, celestials and divine forces... Your point? All clerics are tied with celestials. Heck, you put Grave cleric on there, but Grave Clerics have nothing to do with the undead, and the shadow sorcerers have nothing to do with the undead. I mean, seriously, here is the text for the Grave Cleric "Followers of these deities seek to put wandering spirits to rest,
destroy the undead, and ease the suffering of the dying.", I mean, I guess wanting to destroy the undead and wanting to work for the undead and become one have connections... sort of like how a Police officer has a connection to a Crime Boss, but they aren't the same themes.
Arcana definitely makes sense for a Warlock, if you want it. But that doesn't mean the warlock has studied magic. They could, sure, but the text in the PHB is generic enough to imply it is the norm.
(bolded) Not necessarily. There are plenty of tales and stories where an entity comes to an individual and offers them power/magic in exchange for service or something else.
Sure, which is why I like that the warlock text has some wiggle room in it for different interpretations. But that IS why the text mentions arcane studies, to plant that idea in the player's head.
I could be. My point was IME most people run it either one way or the other. Many people think once a Patron bestows magic, the Patron can't do anything to remove that magic from the Warlock. Others think that the Warlock's Pact with the Patron includes ongoing service, etc. or the Patron can deny additional power, if not remove it completely.
I, personally, am not doing anything... just highlighting the most common viewpoints IME.
Sure, but if we are going to highlight common viewpoints with the goal of altering the text and presentation... then it behooves us to cover other possibilities as well. After all, whether or not people THINK it has to be one or the other does not mean they are CORRECT.
In case you didn't realize this, it isn't my phrasing, but WotC's, taken directly from the PHB. Unless you were referencing just my comments on the Sorcerer and Warlock? In which case my phrasing really doesn't imply "channeling power" like the Cleric and Paladin IMO. With the sorcerer I simply said your blood (e.g. your magic) somehow came from the Entity, such as a Dragon infusing magic for the Draconic Bloodline. For Warlock, I am actually questioning, hence the question mark, whether the magic comes directly from the Patron.
Anyway, Sorcerer's also "channel power from a specific individual force"---their own. So, they do work that way. Now, it is their's presently (as Sorcerer because of gaining it from an Entity (or their ancestor did), or from an Event.
I was referencing how you ordered all four together to make a connection. However, even here, you are misrepresenting the connections.
For example, you say hat the sorcerer is channeling power from a source.. themself. However, this is completely different from the other three (assuming you want to put the warlock here) because they channel power from an outside source. This is like saying that the Purchase Clerk at Amazon is the exact same as a millionaire, because both have access to a lot of money. But one of those two people is using THEIR OWN money, and that makes a substantial difference.
You are also claiming that the bloodline had to come from an entity... it doesn't. A family born near a portal to Mechanus could become Clockwork Souls... and their bloodline could continue. The Sorcerer has the power from their blood (their mother and her mother and her mother all had the same power) but the bloodline didn't start with an entity, it started with a location.
This is a problem, because people keep trying to present the warlock's patron and the origin of the Sorcerer bloodline as somehow nearly identical, but you keep flattening and misrepresenting the vast variety of sorcerer origins. Maybe a Divine Soul's bloodline comes from their continued guardianship of a divine artifact, no entity required. Frankly, the sorcerers who DO go with the "my great-great granddaddy was a bard who laid the dragon" are often the ones with the least interest in their backstories.
No, they are not a conduit for the dragon's magic, they are just a conduit for magic--linked by either their bloodline from an Entity or from the Event that changed their blood to be infused with magic.
Right, which is completely different from being a conduit for a third party's magical power.
You seem to be thinking I am voicing it is one or the other. I put them both their because they are how the PHB says a sorcerer gets their power. From the "blood"(i.e. power) of an Entity (instilled in the sorcerer's blood) or by have the magic infused in their (or ancestor's) blood by the Event. Both are options for Sorcerers. The Event doesn't
have to be an encounter with an Entity, but it could be.
Sure, it could be. But I was directly responding to your words. Looking back, I missed an "if" that seems to be what you are hinging your distinction on. But seriously, that is weak. "If" the sorcerer gains their bloodline magic from having a powerful entity in their family tree, how is that different from going and making a deal with a powerful entity for magic? Because one is born with power, desired or not, and the other sought power. That is not a minor difference.
While I don't think druids as "divine", I have no issue with having Gods of Nature or Gods of Magic. In fact, the patheon we play in has both a God of Nature and a God of Magic.
I do, because the way DnD likes to portray Gods sets them up as "controlling" the aspect they are a god of. This is why, canonically, Mystra is so powerful. She literally controls all magic for all beings, and therefore must be neutral or.... bad guys woudn't have magic...
I much prefer Arcane magic to be largely like physics, it exists and can be harnessed by mortals. This helps prevent Immortal beings from simply running roughshod over mortals. Sure, a God is very helpful for a community, but an Archmage can gain enormous power through dedication, study, and the harnessing of principles of magic. Meanwhile, the realms of nature are handled by powerful spirits that existed before the gods. The Spirit of Fire, The Spirit of the Python, The Spirit of the Mangrove Tree, these are powers that can be equal to Gods, but older and often unconcerned with mortals or anything that doesn't directly come to their attention.
For the Gods, I leave them as embodying concepts of "civilization" and "communities". Healing, War, Commerce, Travel, Freedom, Justice, Order, Knowledge, Love. These are powerful and heady forces, but they only exist in a world that has mortals and has civilizations. They are currently ascendant, but in the world without cities, the bear does not go to war, and the gravity still pulls the rain from the sky.