Warlock w/out the Pact fluff?

[wayne62682]

I'm curious if there would be any issues with a total reflavoring of the Warlock class to not make use of any of the Pact "themes" but still pick a pact for the mechanics. I love the feel of the class, especially the Hexblade variant, but I don't like the whole "sell your soul a demon/fey creature/tentacle monster from outer space/ancient dead spirit/shadow creature" thing.

Basically I have a concept for an "Arcane Duelist" who uses magic and swordplay, but I don't want to be a Swordmage. Mechanics-wise the Hexblade fits the most, but I want his powers to be his own magical abilities and not a gift from some unseen entity that I bargained with and which might expect me to return a favor for someday. It's actually a bit more involved than that since the character is for an Eberron game so I'm thinking of making his abilities the result of being in Cyre during the Day of Mourning, but I might just decide I want a sorcerer (not the class, obviously) who uses a sword equally well.

Would there be any issues I should be aware of that could result from this before I toss the idea to my DM to see if he's cool with it?

 

[Zaphling]

no. not at all. good thing about 4e is you can reflavor everything. so you can opt not to do the pacts but at least have a good explanation.

 

[Mentat55]

The patron and the pact doesn't come into play unless the DM wants it to be part of the story. So I think you could absolutely re-flavor the hexblade to an arcane duelist.

The only thing I think you would want to consider is why the hexblade gets a power boost when he slays an enemy or an enemy dies next to him. Perhaps he has been corrupted by the Mourning?

 

[WalterKovacs]

Technically speaking, the whole soul thing is entirely a fluff thing. It's just as likely that you've tricked something into giving you power. It's pretty much up to you and your DM to decide on fluff. [For example, in my Dark Sun game I'm running, the star pact warlock's patron is actually from the Void, not the Far Realm, since it gives me an interesting hook in the long term].

Just like divine characters, the default assumption is once you have the powers, they can't be taken away. So, if the bill collector came to collect, you don't have to keep up your end of the bargain. That might end up creating a powerful enemy, but he can't take back your powers.

 

[wayne62682]

Could be; I have to check the pact boons a little more to see; I'm probably going Fey since that suits my concept better (not too keen on all the cold magic but it's whatever, not a big deal) so I'd have to read a little more.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

If you want to go Fey, but don't like cold, you could try the Pact of the White Well from the November issue of Dragon; it uses Radiant and has a moon flavour to its powers. The pact weapon doesn't suit a duelist as much though (+2/1d12 instead of +3/1d10).

I had a concept pretty similar to this and went Hexblade; seems to work fairly well (so far).