Hi everyone I am working on a Warlock Playbook and so far I am really pleased with it.

15 thoughts on “Hi everyone I am working on a Warlock Playbook and so far I am really pleased with it.”

1. They should really interact interestingly with their Pact, and in particular the holder of that Pact. The original (I think) Warlock, in an expansion in v3.5 D&D, gained power and had only vague suggestions about the negative side of the deal they had made. In the time since then, the type of Pact has been expanded (in particular, allowing the three major types of Warlock you see both in 4th edition D&D and D&D Next), but I don’t feel like there has been much exploration of what this kind of deal gets you into.

   I wonder whether you could make a good move based on a starting point like:

   When you refuse help to an ally because of the terms of your pact, …

2. I was going to have a mechanic in place where going against your particular patrons wishes would cost you in some way. A bit like the GM would gain hold and be able to spend it to make your patron punish +/ hinder you for not furthering it’s bizarre agenda.

3. That could be cool. Coming up with a good trigger for it will be important.

4. Have you seen the Cultist?  http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/110884/The-Cultist–A-Dungeon-World-Playbook?term=cultist++

5. The Tainted from Urban Shadows has a pact vibe going on. You can earn favors from your patron by completing jobs (the type of work is chosen from a pick list) or giving them debts on you (this can happen sometimes just as a result of using your granted powers as well), and they can cash in debts on you to make you do things you mightn’t like.

6. A warlock (coming from the DnD meaning) is someone that traded parts of their soul or likewise to a cosmic and most likely evil entity. I always felt like such a bargain would come with phenomenal power, otherwise why make such a terrible deal? You want Awestrucking demon gifts, not blasts powers. Unimaginable riches or knowledge.

   Someone that has these kinds of powers wouldn’t NEED to go adventuring and therefore the class concept in itself is flawed for me.

7. Tim Franzke You have to adventure ’cause you are pleasing the desires of your master. 😀

8. Tim Franzke Andrea Parducci Or alternatively, souls aren’t worth as much as you might think, especially when you’re parting them out.

   Pact Makers work like drug-dealers; the first taste is the top-of-the-shelf stuff that they give out cheap to get you hooked, but it doesn’t last long. No matter how miserly you are, riches get frittered away, powers fizzle and run out, knowledge turns out to be obsolete. So you come back for that next hit, and it’s more expensive, but hell, you’re already damned so what’s the point in turning back now? And if your soul is too precious to give up or too shriveled to be desirable, hey, there are plenty of things need doing. Just sign on the dotted line–oh wait. You already did.

   And let’s be clear here, the Pact Maker knows your soul at a very intimate level; with the kind of power they have, they knew you long before you ever knew them. If you placed a too-high value on your soul or were the type to be smart and come out ahead like those message board wish-hack theorists and Chick Tract karma houdinis, they wouldn’t have made the deal with you in the first place.

9. There’s also an argument that someone who would willingly barter their immortal soul to the devil is already going to the dark world when the die anyways, so there is no point in said devil spending power on something they will eventually get for free.

   Instead, the warlock becomes the vessel for the patron’s desires. Power is given in exchange for advancing the agenda of the patron in the material plane and bringing in more converts to his worship.

   The Cleric is someone who worships a being of god-like power, and he in exchange is granted power. Why does the Cleric adventure?

10. Peter Johansen The Cleric is a very nice parallel. Hadn’t considered that!

11. With regards to the OP, I think it depends on how you define it, and where you pull your inspiration from. Is the Warlock a cultist fanatically worshipping an incomprehensible being from beyond? Is he a Faust or a Dorian Grey, or a Mister Nick? All of these are certainly valid points of view.

    I’ve tried this class before, and it wound up not working out very well, so good luck to you. Although after reading Class Warfare, I’m tempted to try again, possibly turning out a variation on a holy caster.

12. Also, I think the warlock could team with a not-evil power too. Maybe alien, maybe ancient, surely with his agenda, but not necessarily evil every time. The Fey patronage can be a good example. Even some ancient Super Dragon-like creature.

13. I can’t help but thinking that the warlock should come with their very own front, danger(s), grim portents, and impending doom(s). And that choosing these should be tied to choosing the warlock’s powers/moves/alignment.

    Maybe there’s a currency that you get, and when you use enough of it a grim portent happens. Or maybe they just tick off normally, as a hard GM move or a natural result of the fiction.

    I don’t really have any ideas what this would actually look like or (hoo boy) how to get it on a character sheet. But that’s the path I’d go.

14. I have made a mixture of ‘Good’ ‘Neutral’ and ‘Evil’ Pacts you can make as Warlock. Namely: Fey, Star, Infernal, Dark, Celestial.

15. sub

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