Warlocks / Bards

[Barradoor]

So, you can pact with something with/after 3 levels of bard. Can you change from warlock to bard? With like a crazy spiritual path nonsence type thing?

[Mithreas]

There are NPCs in game (on the main server) that let you make pacts. Find them in game.

[Barradoor]

Can you change from warlock to bard? With like a crazy spiritual path nonsence type thing?

So, Bard ->>> warlock
Not Warlock ->>> bard

[The Rambling Midget]

I think she's asking whether you can switch back through a NPC.

[Ecstatic]

To my knowledge, you cannot. Striking a pact is a one way street. In most cases, breaking a pact made would carry truly dire consequences, as fey, devils, and demons are not likely to look fondly on what they will regard as you breaking your word with them. Simply disallowing that change of course is, by comparison, merciful.

[Valo65]

Speaking as a player, not a DM/Dev with any authoritative power...
-Your pact is very open ended. I believe the dialog with the NPC's to gain the pacts post-creation mention that it will require a part of you. However, this could be wrong. I believe this is an in-character way of explaining why your character loses the Bard Song, which is the heart of a Bard's creative/artistic ability.
-Any additional aspects of the pact beyond the loss of Bard Song are entirely up to the player.
-Pacts of this nature in D&D and fantasy in general are very hard to break. They can and will haunt a PC who does not embrace them. Choosing to break your pact is entirely possible. A PC could stop using his power, fail to uphold whatever aspects of his pact he so desired, and try to live a normal life. I do not know about DM policies on this but it is possible (though I doubt it is likely) that they may even be willing to run an encounter or two where angry fey/demons/devils try to get you to uphold your pact.

So for instance:
If your pact, that you chose to give yourself, requires that you, say.. murder one humanoid creature per day, you are within your rights to no longer do so once your Warlock comes to the conclusion that "Killing is bad, mm'kay?"

Realistically speaking, you would be making enemies of those you made your pact with, however. But, at the same time, the power is still with you, as it is in a sense a refinement/corruption of your Bard Song ability.

But how do you BREAK the pact, and return to the way you once were?

Well, it's entirely possible in RP, I suppose. Speaking in D&D mechanics terms, I imagine spells such as Wish and Miracle could do the trick. If I were DM'ing a PnP adventure where a warlock wished to break his pact, I may have a cleric there who sends him on a mission of atonement, before a ritual were carried out. Along the way the Warlock would be confronted at every turn by agents of the master he is betraying, and constantly tempted to use this power he is trying to abandon, putting him in an ethical dilemma.

But then how do you do it on Arelith? There is no way of doing this mechanically. Your PC cannot regain his bard song... BUT! You can remake the character as a bard. You will start over at level 2, and all your stuff will be lost, but it's still acceptable to do this and have him be the same person (assuming he's of the same race). Similar things have been done numerous times in the past, and I've personally seen epic levels remake when the RP demanded it of them, starting over at level 2.

DM's/Dev's feel free to correct me.

[Mithreas]

To my knowledge, you cannot. Striking a pact is a one way street. In most cases, breaking a pact made would carry truly dire consequences, as fey, devils, and demons are not likely to look fondly on what they will regard as you breaking your word with them. Simply disallowing that change of course is, by comparison, merciful.

This.

It's been done with DM assistance before, I think, but it wasn't easy or painless.

[The Rambling Midget]

My Warlock was given the option to break her pact at a huge personal cost, but only after about 6-8 RL months of supporting RP. It's a pretty big deal.