D&D 5E Warlock Class Eldritch Pact

[staticdrifter]

How do you set up an Eldritch Pact?
I have a character, a wizard's apprentice who is going to start as a Warlock (Level 0 Wizard/Level 1-> Warlock). I am playing 5th Ed and have read in the players handbook about The Great Old Ones... entities beyond the ken of the mortal realm. Fascinating subject, but how would one make an Eldritch Pact with such a being? Its motives are unknowable and its power is (seemingly) absolute, what use would it have for a lowly mortal. In addition to this conundrum, how do you surprise-create a Warlock? I want my character to have been either duped into servitude or just shanghaied into servitude, but how would I go about a contract-less... contract?

 

[Li Shenron]

Why not get some inspirations from the original source of the Great Old Ones Warlock concept?

http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/sources/ccmtce.aspx

As for unknowable motives, you can in fact maintain the whole pact pretty much nonsensical

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[famousringo]

Easy.

You find a musty, mysterious tome full of dark secrets. Despite the arcane symbols and disturbing imagery, you felt compelled to turn page after page. The strange words of a dead language filling your mind with alien thoughts.

When you finished, days had passed. You did not eat, sleep or drink, but you don't feel weary. No, you feel energized and excited. Your eyes are wide open. You feel almost enlightened, on the very cusp of perceiving truths you hadn't even imagined possible. You can almost see the Far Realm in the corner of your eye, hear it calling... muffled as though through a wall.

The book has revealed enough of this eldritch universe to you that you can begin to bend the very fabric of reality, but you know you've not yet scratched the surface. You've taken only the first step on a journey to reveal the darkest nature of existence itself. Knowledge so heavy that most minds would break under the weight of it. You aren't even sure if your own mind can bear it, but you know you can't turn back now. Pretending to forget what you now know would drive you mad as surely as comprehending the whole of it.

You have to know.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I find that middlemen (beings) are useful for Great Old One pacts. Even if it some sucker who wrote a book of forbidden lore or painted a picture that drives men mad, the middleman has solved the issue of how you make an arrangement with the GOO. In fact, the GOO might not even know who you are (pyramid scheme style, the GOO only cares about the middleman).

 

[staticdrifter]

Thanks guys, this really helps a lot. [MENTION=6792445]famousringo[/MENTION] yours were especially helpful! Right to the point I was trying to imagine. Thanks.

 

[Salamandyr]

[MENTION=6792445]famousringo[/MENTION] has the right idea up there.

Pacts don't really necessarily need to be personal*. You find a tome of forbidden lore. In the world of the game world, calling on the names of certain eldritch beings allows you to use a fraction of their power (By the Nine Moons of Munipoor, taste the Crimson Bands of Cytorak!) or, Elbereth! Gilthoniel!

There's a warlock I've been hankering to play whose pact is actually as a member of ancient order of magicians dedicated to stopping eldritch evils. Each of them (and he's one of the last) draws on the collected mystic energy of the order over the centuries.

I think a little too much is made of the the pact and patrons. The great thing about the warlock is the idea that magic is something unnatural and in possession of beings that don't necessarily have the lives of humanity, or even just the magician, in mind.

*unless of course, the DM decides it works that way in his world. And that's okay too; that's how you get Faust and Spawn. But I like Dr. Strange and Baron Mordo as my inspirations for warlocks.

 

[Ancalagon]

I too like [MENTION=6792445]famousringo[/MENTION] 's writeup

A wizard apprentice - someone who knows the basic (a cantrip or two, the Arcana skill etc) but isn't a full level 1 character yet - is trying to learn magic. It's difficult and arduous - clearly wizardry is the route to great power but why does it have to be so hard!? Why is it taking so long? Why do I have to sweep these floors?!?

Once this apprentice has found the ancient (some say cursed) tomes... a new path to power and knowledge has opened - one easier and more seductive than the drudgery the apprentice's master is offering.

In other words, wizard's apprentices are the *perfect* candidate to become full-fledged warlocks.

(Heck, take someone in the same condition and instead of being an ancient tome... a fiend, or fae, that the master has once tangled with, comes to the apprentice and makes a bargain "listen, don't let my horns and bad reputation distract you. You know you're here for at least another 5 years, maybe 10, before you actually learn any powerful spells. I'll show you power. You have a life to live! There is a whole wide world beyond this musty tower! Let me be your mentor..." )

 

[Hopsong]

My Warlock grew up in an orphanage in a big city (Waterdeep) where he did scams for a Master with arcane skill. He was very good (Charlatan background) but one day he discovered the Master abusing other children and killed him. He found the ratty old book that the man was always studying. It was a book of astronomical calculations that taught him where to look to find Bolothomog, a dark patch in the night sky. Soon he learned how to access the power of Him Who Watches from Beyond the Stars and has been adventuring ever since.

 

[Ranthalan]

The Warlock in my campaign has seizures, during which he receives visions from the "Old One" vaguely instructing him on what to do. He's playing with the sanity option, so he needs to make a sanity save every time he has one of these visions.

The character is a gnome with a backstory of when he was an apprentice his master gave him an introductory magic tome to copy by hand. Being a gnome he figured it would be easier to invent a device to do the copying. The device worked... mostly. There were transcription errors that causes certain forgotten rituals to be copied out. (It's vague as to whether this was happenstance or the influence of the Old One.) Not realizing the error, the apprentice performed said ritual initiating contact with the Old One. Since then, he's had a new master.