I don't see how. Cleric subclasses are tied to thematic concepts, Love, War, Knowledge, Death, Light; meanwhile warlock patrons are tied to types of beings, Fey, Fiend, Undead, Aberration. Those two things are not really going to overlap more than a Glamour Bard, Dream Druid, Fey Wanderer Ranger and Feylock already do... which is very very little.
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.
I don't disagree with that, I just think this is an artifact of the Arcane Skill being the skill associated with a lot of planar forces. I think the warlock HAS studied magic, because you need some magical rituals to even summon or contact an otherworldly force on purpose. But I agree the emphasis should be on the pact and the patron.
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.
Why is both not an option? Why can't some of their magic and powers come from the patron bestowing power on a continual basis, some come from a single use "event", and some come from their book or blade? It only has to be one or the other if you force it to be.
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.
Your phrasing indicates that the cleric and the paladin are channeling power, that's even how the patron and warlock are doing it. Channeling power from a specific individual force. That isn't how sorcerers work. That would be like saying that a Pit Fiend's power comes from another entity, because the pit fiend was created with fiendish powers.... no? The pit fiend is, in and of itself, a source of power.
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.
The sorcerer's blood has an origin, sure, but that doesn't mean that they are the conduit for a dragon's magic they are INNATELY FILLED with draconic magic.
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.
You may like to think the event is an encounter with an entity, but you are wrong. Actual sorcerers I've seen in play:
- A storm sorcerer who, as a young thief, grabbed a gemstone filled with the elemental power of storms. The gem fused with them, embedding itself in their hand, and altering them to be a sorcerer
- A shadow sorcerer who, during an attack that they feared killed their family, was ripped into a planar portal and lost in the Shadowfell. When they finally found their way back to the prime material plane, they had been infused with shadow magic
- A wild magic sorcerer who (I've seen this twice) either stole or created a potion of pure magic. Upon drinking the potion, they were infused with raw, uncontrollable magicks.
None of those stories involved an entity, but they all did involve an "event" a singular point in time where the magic was infused into the person.
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.
Fully agreed. I tend to remove nature domain gods and arcane domain gods, to keep those concepts separated.
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.
