Warlock/Binder/Hexblade Pact deals

[Grimmjow]

When any of the above classes make a pact they are basically agreeing to do something for the person giving the power in return for said power right?
So what I'm wondering is if anyone has ever had your players follow through on the terms of the pact they formed, in the form of a quest or mini adventure or anything.

Ive been wanting to do it...but sense i brought it up my players have been avoiding any form of the warlock class.....

 

[mcmillan]

So far it's been mostly flavor, I did suggest my DM run with a conflict between patrons when by coincidence a written adventure had an enemy with powers that were associated with my pact. Unfortunately that campaign fell apart soon afterwards, so we never really went anywhere with it.

Honestly I think this is one of the cool things about the warlock class, that it has the potential for these kinds of hooks built into the class. They may be concerned that this is locking into giving up some control over their character, so you could make it clearer about what level of connection they might have. I'd say that they've already made a deal and have the powers, so if they decide to go against something their patron asks it would give them a powerful enemy, but not force them to change classes or something like that.

If you think this kind of thing makes your players uncomfortable you also might want talk to them, since it may be a sign of some disconnect between you and them that would apply to other classes as well.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'm doing something of the sort to our party Paladin of all people. A revenant with amnesia. Sure he's a paladin. That's not changed. He wrote the amnesia into his background. And wasn't raised or granted powers by the being he thought he was.

And with permission of the player I may have a patron order a Warlock out of a fight. See what happens.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Put me down as another who thinks this is one of the better aspects of the class, and one that is largely ignored by DMs.

It gets juicier if you have things like Warlocks with multiple pacts, or some multiclassing or hybridizing going on- especially with other classes that have vows or pacts built into them (Avengers, Paladins, etc.).

 

[Grimmjow]

My plan is just to givethem a quest or so to give them the spotlight for a bit, not make them change classes if they dont do it. Here's an example.Lets say there was a drow dark pact warlock. Hes told me that he made the pact with an ancient purple dragon. Thieves snuck into the dragons layer and stole on of its most prize possestions. Insteadof him going after them, he sends his warlock after the thieves instead, iploring thepower of the pactto make him

 

[Breaks]

In many cases, the fluff points to the cost of the pact being paid by not the warlock, but by his targets.

An infernal lock gains tremendous demonic strength and toughness, and, in return, sends the souls of his enemies to his patron to feast upon. A star or elemental or fey pact warlock, through the use of his powers, weaken the planar fabric keeping the patron from acting locally itself. A sorcerer-king warlock, played according to dark sun fluff, perpetuates the law of the land through a display of the evil overlord's superior might - even if the actions aren't directly relevant to the patron's agenda.

This doesn't mean don't use it as a story hook, but it does mean you don't have to feel bad if you don't use it as a story hook, nor should you penalize a warlock who acts directly opposed to his patron. Because he is still making his patron stronger, even of he doesn't realize it.

 

[Grimmjow]

This doesn't mean don't use it as a story hook, but it does mean you don't have to feel bad if you don't use it as a story hook, nor should you penalize a warlock who acts directly opposed to his patron. Because he is still making his patron stronger, even of he doesn't realize it.

How terrible would they feel if they were trying to use their infernal power to fight their devil master and ended up making him more powerful, and didnt find out till the finial fight with his devil master

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I had a player running a Star Pact warlock in our first campaign. During heroic tier mostly not a lot was made of it. The character made the pact to get knowledge he wanted (which was established in his background). He did eventually learn more about the powers he was pacted with and it was shaping up kind of like his patron had plans, which was going to eventually lead to some interesting issues. Eventually he also made a second pact with a powerful hag. That was all starting to get interesting and now and then he'd do some mysterious errand or run into some situation where his patron's interests were involved (and once they seemed to work at cross purposes).

I didn't make him jump through too many flaming hoops, but that game wound down in mid-paragon. IMHO you don't want to drag the PC totally through heck to benefit from his expected class abilities, but there is a lot of scope in there to put him in the spotlight sometimes. These things you kind of have to go by feel on and see where the story leads. Some players will really want to run with it, others would rather just play it straight and not worry about it much. Same can go for other types of PCs and background elements in general.

 

[Breaks]

How terrible would they feel if they were trying to use their infernal power to fight their devil master and ended up making him more powerful, and didnt find out till the finial fight with his devil master

It's a very real danger, but I feel like the details of the infernal pact are slightly more obvious than some of the others. If someone makes a deal to feed the souls of their victims to a demon, they probably realize at some point that this will make him more powerful.

But if they were forced into their pact against their will, it does raise a potential catch-22.

An evil warlock might relish the opportunity to claim all of that power for themselves.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

How terrible would they feel if they were trying to use their infernal power to fight their devil master and ended up making him more powerful, and didnt find out till the finial fight with his devil master

My Dwarven Starlock is fighting fire with fire...