There is no conflict. Paladins and clerics ask their Gods for powers, while a Warlock barters for their power. If a lawyer can be religious, a hero can be oth a paladin and a warlock.
I respectfully disagree. A faithful follower of a deity, who receives powers from said deity, wouldn't then go on the side bartering with a patron for power. Why would they? Their god provides! And why would the deity tolerate their chosen followers consorting with a supernatural being of suspect - if not entirely offensive - nature, motives and ethos? Bah, BAH I say.
Now there *is* an edge case where the deity and patron are allies, or have similar interest. So it IS doable. But it has to be crafted carefully.
Even if the patron was some Great Old One who is so far removed from the world, so inscrutably unconcerned with Oerth's doings that, to it, granting a speck of power to this thing that calls itself a dwarf (what is that, a tiny star?) was as meaningless and unnoticed an action as blinking would be to that dwarf?As for the warlock patron that you've just abandoned.... Don't be surprised when you find out you've just signed yourself (& by default the other characters) onto the list of some really powerful entity.
Even if the patron was some Great Old One who is so far removed from the world, so inscrutably unconcerned with Oerth's doings that, to it, granting a speck of power to this thing that calls itself a dwarf (what is that, a tiny star?) was as meaningless and unnoticed an action as blinking would be to that dwarf?
I would be surprised.