D&D (2024) Alternate GOO Warlock Patron Ideas

[Dragonhelm]

I dig the idea of a warlock patron granting psionic abilities, but I wish there were alternatives to having Cthulhu-like beings granting them. I'd like to come up with some alternatives.

The first thing that comes to my mind, which would be great for thri-kreen, is a hive mind. It has the luxury of still being alien.

What else would work?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Aliens from Outer Space, if that's a thing that works in your setting? Maybe some aliens that allow you access to psionic power in exchange for you basically observing the world, possibly to prepare for official "First Contact", invasion, or just studies. Maybe you get some symbiotic graft from their biotechnology that grants you those psychic abilities.

On the "observer" idea, maybe time travelers from the future grant you psychic abilities to study history (or change it?).

In 4E, psionics were created by the primal spirits of the material world, IIRC, as a tool to stop the Dawn War raging on the material plane. (Been some time since I read this).

 

[mellored]

4e had shardmind.

Shardminds are sentient fragments of the Living Gate, which once stood at the pinnacle of the intricate lattace of the Astral Sea. Beyond the gate lay the alien Far Realm, and the gate's destruction during the Dawn War resulted in the rise of the mind flayer empire. Though Ioun's power holds the portal closed, shardminds seek to rebuild the gate and forever cut off the Far Realm's ability to influence the world.

 

[MarkB]

How about a "monsters from the id" take on deities. When a god is at rest or slumbering their subconscious is still active, acting out their darkest or deepest desires in dreams. Sometimes this subconscious can reach out psionically, seeking receptive beings to carry out its wishes.

This patron is never really a fully-sentient being, simply a set of desires made manifest, but it can still express needs and grant powers.

 

[Bladesinger]

One of my players used the GOO Pact to pact with a Gem Dragon for its Psionic Power.

 

[Minigiant]

I saw a warlock made a pact with the intelligent magic bookmark the Gods of Magic, Secrets, and Lore fought over.

Not the spellbook. The bookmark.

My 4e warlock made a pact with the glowing artificial glass eyes of a dead god.

 

[azabaro]

Based on the pre-errata 5E’s version of the GOO Warlock, I went looking at the William S. Burroughs quote “Language is a virus from outer space.” The idea was the Warlock made a pact with some psychic entity which was language itself and slumbered distributed across the minds of all beings capable of linguistic understanding.

I’m assuming “came to an agreement with the illithid tadpole in my brain” feels overdone at the moment.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

There are non-tentacle GOO's in the Lovecraft adjacent literature. The King in Yellow seems like one who would willingly enter into a pact with a mortal and is probably the second most famous GOO.

 

[Clint_L]

Someone from the future.

 

[Parmandur]

One of my players used the GOO Pact to pact with a Gem Dragon for its Psionic Power.

Indeed, I think that Fizban's specifically suggests that.