D&D 5E How to role play warlock

delph

Explorer
I'm actualy playing sorlock - Hexblade Shadow Sorcerer, but his RP Is warlock. But I can't catch good RP to feel "warlocky"
I've just spend time to time on graveyards, meditating, but that's all. How I can get more from "serving to my patron"?
Get some new fellows for my Queen...

Some advices? Hints? Stories how did you play it.
 

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Stormonu

Legend
My current character is a Goliath Hexblade Warlock in Icewind Dale, named Yniborys Decamite. He is a combination of hunter and sheriff for his clan (Knight background), resposible for feeding and protecting his clan. Because of this, he has a supernatural bond to the animal spirits of the area; he can detect the presence of living beasts to hunt and mimic their ways (Mage Armor, Survival skill), and he can beseech the supernatural spirits for aid and insight into "crimes" against his people (Hexblade curse, branding smite, Guidance, Resistance) .

This has the side affect he can speak to animals (beast speech). When he hunts, he forms his hunting implements by reaching into the nearby snow and withdrawing solidified, spirit-infused weapons with which to hunt and fight - or magically reshaping the bones of his former quarry into the weapons he needs.

(As you can see, I don't use the Raven Queen, Black Razor or any such thing; though my patron is the Hexblade, the mystical force he draws upon is actually the supernatural manifestation of animal life, much like a totem warrior).
 

DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
I'm actualy playing sorlock - Hexblade Shadow Sorcerer, but his RP Is warlock. But I can't catch good RP to feel "warlocky"
I've just spend time to time on graveyards, meditating, but that's all. How I can get more from "serving to my patron"?
Get some new fellows for my Queen...

Some advices? Hints? Stories how did you play it.
Since you say "my Queen", I'm presuming you're using the Raven Queen as part of your backstory? Have you come up in your backstory what your weapon is,? When you acquired it? How did you acquire it, and why the Raven Queen granted it to you? What was the purpose of the Raven Queen giving you this shadow weapon, and did she give you instructions on what you were meant to do with it?

If you have answers to all these question, please share them here as it would greatly assist in us figuring out ways to use them in your roleplay. If you HAVEN'T come up with answers for these questions... then that's your problem right there. Until you know how or why your PC made this pact with the Raven Queen and what the purpose of the pact was from her point of view... you will never have anything concrete to do roleplay-wise during the game.
 
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I'm actualy playing sorlock - Hexblade Shadow Sorcerer, but his RP Is warlock. But I can't catch good RP to feel "warlocky"
I've just spend time to time on graveyards, meditating, but that's all. How I can get more from "serving to my patron"?
Get some new fellows for my Queen...

Some advices? Hints? Stories how did you play it.
Has your DM roleplayed your patron and interacted with your character? What sort of thing does your patron want? And what sort of person is your Warlock character?

There is no single way to be "warlocky". My warlock character for example, is outgoing, aggravatingly heroic, and tries to set an inspirational example to everyone who sees her. She relishes challenges and wouldn't be seen dead in a graveyard.
 

jgsugden

Legend
A warlock agrees to serve another being in an exchange.

Who did you make an agreement with? If you're a Fiend Pact Warlock, was it with a Demon, a Devil, an Archfiend, or something else?
What were the terms of the agreement?
What did you give up? Freedom? Soul? Family?
What did you get? Just class abilities? Or was there more?
Why did you make it?
When did you make it?
Were you enthusiastic about it, or was it done in ignorance, or in desperation?
Wat did your friends and family know? What did they think of what they knew?
How do you feel about others that have made the same deal?
Does the being you signed a deal with also have clerics, paladins, cultists or other followers? What makes you different?
What form did the pact take? Verbal? A contract? A ritual?
What does your patron want?
Why did they select you to give them what they want?
Do you feel the same now as you did when you signed the pact?
Is your pact a secret?
What do others think of your pact, if they know of it?
What happens if you do not live up to the pact terms?
What happens if you live up to the terms, technically, but not the spirit of the agreement?
Is the agreement transferable?
Is there someone else that has signed a similar deal that is jealous of your position?

Spend time with those questions, and asking yourself whatever else you can think of and I think you'll find a bit more role playing inspiration.
 

Stormonu

Legend
Just a note, it doesn't have to be an agreement to serve. I've had warlock players before that steal power from others* or exploit ancient contracts** to "muscle in" on using their abilities.

* In one such example, it was a "chained god" and the pact allowed the Warlock to physically steal the powers of that ability.

** In the one example I saw, a family member had created an infernal contract. Family members ("blood of") had the ability to call on the contract for powers because of the wording, but weren't necessarily bound to give anything back - the just had to obey the wording of the contract - in this case "Let no good deed go unpunished."
 

delph

Explorer
So from beginning:

My character was found as a small baby on the battlefield in hands of his elven mother and next to human father. Surrounded by goblins. He was found by Zentharim patrol looking at what wealth can offer this land without rulers. The truth was Human was dragon sorcerer and Elven woman not specified (but probably some magic evil too. It's open for some story twist in future in hands of GM), but they were leaders of goblins and they all were killed by paladins and their comrades... But Zentharim soliders was thinking that my parents was killed by goblins and that it a story I know.
Then live in Waterdeep with Zentharim (get as spy background) and once he got a quest to get to one house of a magical user to steal something. But was caught by the owner, an older woman - hexblade warlock. And he got two choices: death or serve to her and her patron Raven Queen. So I give my breath and serve.
For first 2 lvl I was a pure hexblade using rapier, but our party was Fighter, Monk, Rogue, Blood Hunter, Ranger and Me. So after short talk with my GM I've got MC to shadow sorcerer as just a little different way how to get power from Raven Queen. So I'm still count as warlock even I have only to 2 lvls of warlock and 5 lvls of sorcerer. And be a little better magic-user in group...

Than on 5th lvl I've got some meditation and short vision from Raven Queen.
Than on 6th lvl I've died on some battle. And in hall os Raven Queen I've done new deal. She said She has a problem with some creature locked in her domain, but it's slowly breaking out back to the world. And She need champion rising in power to deal with it. So I gave her my heart (now I'm not breathing and heart beating) and was given back.
Later I've got a message to get on some place, where is some hint what I need to do.

All of this is playing in background of Thunderstorm Campaign.

fun fact - as not breathing and not hearth beating person we was in trouble with some travel space on griffs, so I'v been traveling in bag of holding... :D
 


Sakuglak

Villager
Hexblade can be kind of difficult by default because it doesn't give you a whole lot to go on. My experience with warlock was a rogue/GOOlock mechanically but reskinned with my patron as Baba Yaga. Character was obsessed with meeting her in person but began to have second thoughts about serving her when he was getting hints she was going to turn him into a loving scarecrow. What helped me was playing up my devotion to my patron. I hated gnomes like Baba Yaga does and would mess with them. I freaked out children in an orphanage in her name(thankfully with mask of many faces). A useful tool was coming up with several odd phrases that drove home how peculiar the character was. "There's no such thing in all the world as death."
 

I'm actualy playing sorlock - Hexblade Shadow Sorcerer, but his RP Is warlock. But I can't catch good RP to feel "warlocky"
I've just spend time to time on graveyards, meditating, but that's all. How I can get more from "serving to my patron"?
Get some new fellows for my Queen...

Some advices? Hints? Stories how did you play it.

You havent given any actual human motivations or background or goals and desires for your PC and you want advice for how to roleplay him?

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My Hexblade Blade Lock/ Shadow Sorcerer is a lone survivor from Thulanthar (the Netherese City of Shade) and a direct descendant of the High Arcanist.

He was killed when Elminster crashed the City of Shade on Myth Drannor. Transported to the Shadowfell on his demise, he was approached by a mysterious raven haired woman. Mistaking her for Shar, he recoiled in horror, but was soon corrected; for she was an extraplanar entity who called herself the Raven Queen.

An interloper and a direct challenge to Shars authority, she sought a champion in Faerun. Granting me a magical black bladed Greatsword called 'Harvester of Sorrow' she returned me to the mortal world as her emissary.

My goal is to restore the City of Shade as the capital of a new Netherese Empire, united under the Raven Queen as its patron. I seek Netherese artifacts and history on the ancient Empire, and violently oppose Shar as the cause of the downfall of Thulanthar.
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Like any other fictional character (in a novel or movie or whatever) come up with a backstory for your PC and a series of goals he is trying to achieve. With an Ideal, Bond and Flaw, and an Alignment to view those through, the actual roleplaying of that PC will just naturally flow through you as you look through the eyes of that fictional person, with that fictional history, seeing his fictional goals.
 

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