D&D 5E What kind of warlocks would a Wizard Guild make?

[tetrasodium]

See, spells like that are why wizards get hunted down and murdered for being wizards, in some places.

A fireball is just a big gun. Mind control is vastly more sinister and repulsive.

Oh indeed. the Op never said that the wizard guild was "good". Adding to that though, it's not like either of us suggested that the wizard's guild in question was abducting people off the street for this program. Lets say this took place in eberron & the guild purges the memories causing ptsd, provides N years of extensive training along with supplies & equipment commensurate for service in exchange for Y years of service & magically certified "loyalty" as explained in the contract provided & explained during the pre-acceptance counseling & mental fitness program... not only are they not getting hunted down for it... they are advertising it in the newspapers in no uncertain terms

 

[Ancalagon]

My 1st thought was more along the lines of students, under great pressure & the facing the disgrace of failure, cheat.
Of course several "patrons" are well aware of the Academy & its pressures and view this as a prime recruiting ground....

That's sort of the thing - the wizards know some students are going to cheat, so they push the students they can't afford not to succeed in that direction...

 

[Undrave]

Imagine a powerful wizard's guild. They have the arcane magical monopoly in a large kingdom, or maybe even several kingdoms. All mages are "sanctioned" by the Guild, or are renegades hunted down.

This guild is very influential, but does not rule. Its members are forbidden from holding a title of nobility. So they often accept bastard children, 3rd sons etc. So they are tied to the nobility, and the nobility gives them a lot of money. Of course, the Guild scours the countryside for kids showing magical gifts so they can been enrolled in the guild academy too!

So you have a scion of nobility learning to become a wizard in the guild. What happens if this student doesn't have an inborn gift for magic (isn't a sorcerer) nor is a good student (not wizard material?). Well if it's a petty noble, oh well, it doesn't always work, your offspring is now a kind of scholar I guess?. But what if it's a noble family you cannot let down? Too powerful, too generous...

Well, you warn the student that they are going to get expelled soon, then you let them find out about the "secret book of power" in the "hidden library". The student goes to look for it, aaaand blam, pact is formed. The student is now a "wizard" (or maybe a sorcerer?) and is certainly anxious to maintain the illusion of that. This makes perfect sense. Wizard use arcane solutions to difficult problems. What do you do when you have someone you must turn into a "mage" and they aren't talented at wizardry and have no innate power? Well, "warlock-ize" them! Problem solved!

So I was wondering... what kind of warlocks would a wizard guild/academy create? Clearly it has to be something the Academy feels it can control - a patron that is not a threat to the academy and is instead pleased by the constant stream of disciples.... Genie seems like a winner, but perhaps fiend, or even hexblade?

Love the story!

Would definitely be a Pact of the Tome, that's for sure.

I could see an Archfey being amused by the ruse, and probably related to the founder of the Guild (who was a High Elf or something).

A possibility that could be interesting would be a sentient book of spells as a custom patron! A bit like the Scribe's book but stronger. Essentially, it'd be to the Pact of the Tome what the Hexblade is to the Pact of the Blade! I'm not sure off-hand what that would look like, but I think it'd be pretty cool. A massive book, hidden under the guild, that contains a bit of knowledge from every member to ever write in it.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think they would create a sentient magical item capable of serving as a Hexblade patron, if they didn't already have one in their collection. Letting some other being of great power in would be too foolish for them. If pact patrons are so easy to find and they weren't wary of them then why did they all go to the trouble of becoming wizards rather than warlocks? But, thinking they can control a sentient magical item in their hubris as people who can learn everything they need to know about the average magical item with a level one spell and perhaps are even the creators of that magical item seems much more wizardy.

 

[Quartz]

By far, the most "controllable" patron is the Undying, who is basically just a powerful Necromancer.

q.v. Raistlin / Fistandantilus.

 

[Quartz]

In the 3E ELH there's a demilich, Sharlee, who runs The Order of the Book which is devoted to scribing every spell out there. She would be a good patron for this scenario, with the pact-takers as her researchers.

Oh, and how about the Codex of the Infinite Planes?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I'd say a homebrew subclass. I have personally made and seen a couple arcane subclasses for the Warlock that are pretty well balanced.

As for official ones, I would say either Undying or Great Old One. They're not perfect, but it's about the best that it's going to get for this idea using strictly official rules.

 

[Minigiant]

I would suggest that it's not which patron the guild feels they can control... it's the patron for whom keeping the knowledge that this "mage" ain't a mage (but is actually a warlock) secret. So in that case I'd say Fiend or Great Old One.

Wouldn't that be a archfey as Fey are really into keeping contracts and not purposely tricking you into breaking them?

 

[cbwjm]

Hexblade has been mentioned, that might be a good option or at least something like it. A staff is often, at least for me, the most recognisable implement of the wizard so a hexstaff might make a good patron. The guild implants power into the staff that allows the newly minted warlock channel magic. Rather than the armour options, some other thematic ability that relates to wizards could be chosen. Other hexblade abilities might have to change as well but I'd have to reread hexblade to familiarise myself with their abilities again to know for sure.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh indeed. the Op never said that the wizard guild was "good". Adding to that though, it's not like either of us suggested that the wizard's guild in question was abducting people off the street for this program. Lets say this took place in eberron & the guild purges the memories causing ptsd, provides N years of extensive training along with supplies & equipment commensurate for service in exchange for Y years of service & magically certified "loyalty" as explained in the contract provided & explained during the pre-acceptance counseling & mental fitness program... not only are they not getting hunted down for it... they are advertising it in the newspapers in no uncertain terms

I disagree strongly. That service might exist, but it will be far from uncontroversial, and indeed I would go so far as to say that it would be a group that is the impetus of at least one "extremist" group that works to undermine and ultimately destroy whatever group is running that program.

People distrusted the CIA long before we knew for certain just how bad some of their actions have been, largely because of rumours of mind control and experiments with people's minds.

I've a hard time believing many people would give a chance to agents from that program.