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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fuindordm" data-source="post: 3988860" data-attributes="member: 5435">I'm a bit on the fence.I imagine my campaign world's moral argument as this: those who seek raw power for its own sake are seldom worthy to have it. Good empowers those who serve: clerics are servants of a specific deity, and paladins are those who serve the greater good. Anyone who bargains for power is motivated as much by pride as a desire to do good.Evil and amoral powers may strike such bargains, not caring terribly if they mistook the PCs motives and strength of character.  (In grand tradition, they may even imitate angels as they do so, taking advantage of mortals in their time of need.) Good will not take the risk, and immediately revokes the magic of those deemed unworthy.In that sense, the paladin and the warlock are opposites. The paladin is given magic only because she clearly deserves it; the warlock takes magic simply to do what he wills. It doesn't matter that he wills to do good at the moment; the motive is ultimately selfish.That's definitely a 1e kind of attitude, I know.In the context of 4E, however, it makes sense to open up the warlock class to good powers.  A character class seems to be just a loose group of themed powers (some fixed, some optional) that defining a character's role in combat. The fluff is secondary, or even tertiary. If Evil has its paladins, shouldn't Good have its warlocks? The only problem is one of imagination: thinking of a Good power source that doesn't care greatly about its warlock's actions--if they did care, why would they enter such a pact? (Answer: they wouldn't--they would reserve the right to revoke the warlock's power, i.e.,make them a cleric.)The Force? Maybe Warlocks are really Jedi.Vestiges? Maybe the Astral sea is occupied by a semiconscious gestalt of long-dead but beneficent gods.The DM? Maybe the world is just the dream of some greater being, and warlocks are just those who manage to touch this consciousness directly. How they interpret that experience is up to them.Alien Invasion? Again, maybe all warlocks really touch the same power source--an alien entity that whispers of madness (see the books of Lawrence Watt-Evans)...wait a minute, I'm veering into EMO again. The first two ideas could work, though.</blockquote>

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