New Warlock Article - Sealing the Pact

[Phaezen]

Awesome new article for Warlocks up today.

This is the DMs companion to the "Performing the Pact" article from Dragon 381. A nice discussion in working a Warlocks Patron into a campaign, using the Patron to instigate adventures, deciding wether said patron aids or interferes with the warloks quest and ways a patron might reward a favoured warlock, or punish one who has fallen out of favour.

Wouldn't mind seeing this kind of article more often in the DDI magazines looking at patrons/organisations/motivations for other classes.

 

[Kinneus]

Decent article... but I somehow missed "Performing the Pact." I read them back-to-back, and really loved the example patrons provided. Really excellent.

I'm going to be DMing a new campaign soon. I hope at least one player rolls up a warlock, simply because I love the endless stream of plot-fuel that patrons provide.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Decent article... but I somehow missed "Performing the Pact." I read them back-to-back, and really loved the example patrons provided. Really excellent.

I'm going to be DMing a new campaign soon. I hope at least one player rolls up a warlock, simply because I love the endless stream of plot-fuel that patrons provide.

I still think Warlock is one of the coolest, most flavorful classes in 4E.

I am a little disappointed with the Star Pact adventure and arc ideas. It doesn't seem much about the suggested "unreality" or "illusion of free will".

 

[Phaezen]

I still think Warlock is one of the coolest, most flavorful classes in 4E.

Granted they have the whoe patron thing built in to the core class fluff, but this article has me wanting to do similar things with other classes, for example bringing a cleric/paladin/avanger/invoker's church in as a "patron" using ideas in the article to bring the organisiation more into the game. Other classes could use mentor/school/guild/gang/noble sponsor or something else in a similar role.

Bring the characters background more into the campaign.

 

[Rechan]

Bring the characters background more into the campaign.

It's very easy to do the same for a primal character and a specific spirit. For instance, teh Shaman's spirit companion could be an emissary/protection/watcher/whatnot given to the shaman by their patron spirit.

 

[Phaezen]

I still think Warlock is one of the coolest, most flavorful classes in 4E.

I am a little disappointed with the Star Pact adventure and arc ideas. It doesn't seem much about the suggested "unreality" or "illusion of free will".

A little Starlock trivia which Rich Baker put on his block on 1 Jan, which I have only just noticed

And here’s where we come to one of the little secrets of 4e that I was *certain* that someone would have noticed by now: Several of the star names I used in warlock powers—Acamar, Thuban, Khirad, and Hadar--are actually real stars. I’ve been waiting almost two years for someone to notice, and I guess I’m tired of waiting.

These stars appear on the list of 57 navigable stars used in celestial navigation. (I studied celestial navigation back during my Navy days, and I was always fascinated by the star names.) Many more famous stars are also on the list, of course, but I knew I couldn’t use a Rigel or Sirius or Betelgeuse without giving it the wrong “feel.” In developing a list of new “proper nouns” for a piece of the D&D game flavor, I wanted to find a naming scheme that would accomplish several objectives. I wanted a scheme that would hang together and feel like it derived from a common source or language, I wanted something that felt exotic and mystical, I wanted something with a subtle cultural or mythical resonance, and I wanted something that was not too obvious. I settled on the navigable stars because I thought they’d meet the objectives. Many of the stars have Arabic names, so they’re linked by a common language—a language that appears a little exotic to most English-speaking readers. Seen in combination, the names also pick up a real Doctor Strange feel to them, which I viewed as a pretty big plus. Clearly the derivation of these names wasn’t too obvious, since it’s gone unremarked so far.