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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6534807" data-attributes="member: 2067">I approach this as a student of religion and culture, so my take is perhaps a bit more nuanced than many campaigns are looking for, but perhaps this angle can help explain it. [sblock=weird diversion]For me, Warlocks are occultists and charismatics. Inspiration-wise, they are Alister Crowley and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dee" target="_blank">John Dee</a>. They are kabbalists and thelemics and gnostics. Pythagoreans and Socrates. Even vodun and saint-cults and Abraham and Ezekiel and prophets and ascetics and dervishes and snake-handlers. They are something of a bridge between the learned magic of the wizard and the spiritual magic of the cleric. There's a HUGE tradition of "speaking with angels" in the occult tradition (and this is pretty much always done in ritualized, esoteric ways that are condemned by the proper churches of the time). Stuff like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enochian_magic" target="_blank">enochian magic</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosicrucianism" target="_blank">Rosicrucianism</a> drip with this, most obviously, but I'd even draw inspiration from things like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte" target="_blank">Santa Muerte</a> and revelatory hallucinogenic experiences and shamanism. It's more broadly about one's relationship to the origin of one's power. Clerics explicitly worship their gods in a very Judeo-Christian, "sacrifice, appeasement, good behavior, lots of songs and prayers, in a church" kind of way. Warlocks don't worship their patrons, but they have an agreement, a bond cemented over their shared goals, a partnership more than a loyalty and service. Their patrons aren't people they always agree with, or beings that are always looking for worship and sacrifice.  Lets take a hypothetical warlock whose patron is Bahamut (or one of Bahamut's underlings acting in Bahamut's name), a paladin who swears themselves to Bahamut, and a cleric belonging to the church of Bahamut. Lets also throw in a Wizard who worships Bahamut, and a Sorcerer who believes Bahamut is a distant parent. How might these different classes approach this one source of power?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For the cleric, Bahamut is an entity to be worshiped, the best among a pantheon of deities, one that is worthy of emulation. The cleric is trained in a church, and wields divine power on behalf of all who pray to Bahamut. His responsibility is to honor Bahamut's commands, and, especially, to advance the agenda and worship of Bahamut. He uses the magic granted by Bahamut to nurture and protect their fellow faithful. When the cleric gets to Name Level, he founds a church in the name of Bahamut, and gathers followers. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For the paladin, Bahamut is something to be devoted to, to swear an oath by. If the cleric wields divine power on behalf of the faithful in a church, using it as a shield, a paladin uses it as a sword - to slay the church's enemies. Because Bahamut is good, this likely is as a defensive role - the enemies of the church are those who attack the church, those who seek Bahamut's end (like Tiamat). The clerics bolster the faithful, while the paladins destroy those who seek the faithful's end. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For the wizard, Bahamut is not a direct source of power, but is perhaps a guiding influence over how she gathers and uses the power. The SOURCE of her power is knowledge - she uses magic based on academic information, statistics, mathematics, astronomy, pattern, and memory. She may credit Bahamut with the ultimate creation of this ordered world, and likely credits him with its continued existence, but her spells come from her knowledge. And her knowledge is gained through facts, figures, tests, demonstrations, through science, in the rarefied halls of academia. Perhaps Bahamut is even a patron of her school (perhaps she is an abjurer!), acknowledging the ability of magic to unveil the mysteries of the world. The wizard gets no more power from Bahamut than a fighter worshiping the same god would get. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For the sorcerer, Bahamut is a source of power, but there is no formal relationship there. Her power comes because she has the blood of a dragon-god flowing through her veins, the genetic DNA of him, but she is no more beholden to him than you are to your great-great-great-grandmother. His power is hers now, to do with as she desires, and she need not answer to his demands.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> For the warlock, Bahamut is a patron - one who supports their work in the world. The warlock doesn't bow to the god in worship, or care one whit for those who do, any more than the Sorcerer does. Yet the bond is closer - the Warlock depends on the charity of their patron going forward, and always risks displeasing the being if they do not deliver results that delight them. This is not the distant relationship of one who emulates the god - indeed, the Warlock may have very different goals from that of her patron. But the goals overlap, at least in the results. The warlock and Bahamut share an agenda in the world. Perhaps the warlock is a dragon-hunter and Bahamut, pleased at the destruction of Tiamat's creations, empowers the warlock to go about his grim business. A Paladin would only act in devotion to what Bahamut stands for, but the warlock doesn't care what Bahamut stands for, only about the power they can be given by him. A paladin might not risk the lives of innocents on a desperate gamble to slay a green dragon, and a cleric would not be overly concerned unless it was harassing the faithful, but a warlock? That's someone who might do something a little reckless. And of course, the churches and the colleges deride this as false, untrue, charlatan, dangerous, outside the norm...and they're not necessarily wrong. A church stands for the faithful, a college for the knowledge of all, but a warlock? They just stand for themselves. </li> </ul>In this way, Bahamut may grant many kinds of magic. The spell list of a dragon-sorcerer, an abjurer, a cleric of life, a paladin of devotion, and a possible celestial-pact warlock all believe their power derives from Bahamut in some way, but have very different purposes for that power and relationships with that source. A warlock always risks something with their pact - their mind, their soul. With a celestial pact, a warlock will be risking divine judgement in a way that a cleric never really has to deal with. A cleric is loyal, and aims to please. A warlock who turns celestial magic to evil ends, though? THAT is a dangerous foe worthy of divine wrath indeed. Anyway, I'm not really trying to "sell" it, it's fine if your game never has a warlock swearing a pact with a celestial, but I find it a very intriguing idea, with a lot of resonance for various historical tropes that typically get a little neglected in fantasy RPG play. But that's just my over-wrought idea. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> [/sblock]</blockquote>

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