Warlock Pact RP

[Brandon Steel]

I am not a dm, but I feel like that's kind of a key part of warlocks. Their lust for power gets them in way over their head. On the wiki there are examples of this, such as an abyssal warlock slowly being convinced to do slightly more and more evil things until they're just as bad as a demon.

You likely recall that for a time I wanted Warlock PCs to get 'demands' levelled against them by their patron power, in keeping with the alignment and theme of the power, a bit like the Radiant Heart quest system, but decidedly NOT optional, and with the only reward being the ability to retain one's warlock abilities.

Too harsh? Possibly, but the much harder part would be the massive time investment in preparing and scripting enough of these 'payments' to keep the system interesting.

I do hope people RP similar stuff though.

I actually think that would be sick. I wonder if there’s some sort of generator out there to give random assignments like that. If not, I might make a rough one for myself.

[Amateur Hour]

I am not a dm, but I feel like that's kind of a key part of warlocks. Their lust for power gets them in way over their head. On the wiki there are examples of this, such as an abyssal warlock slowly being convinced to do slightly more and more evil things until they're just as bad as a demon.

You likely recall that for a time I wanted Warlock PCs to get 'demands' levelled against them by their patron power, in keeping with the alignment and theme of the power, a bit like the Radiant Heart quest system, but decidedly NOT optional, and with the only reward being the ability to retain one's warlock abilities.

Too harsh? Possibly, but the much harder part would be the massive time investment in preparing and scripting enough of these 'payments' to keep the system interesting.

I do hope people RP similar stuff though.

I actually think that would be sick. I wonder if there’s some sort of generator out there to give random assignments like that. If not, I might make a rough one for myself.

The only reason I'm sort of glad they don't is that it does give the freedom for people to come up with their own pact's terms, rather than whatever random stuff the generator produces.

It'd be a tremendous DM lift so I completely understand why this is not the case, but I kind of wish that warlock had a lightweight app lock, where the application would just be submitting intended pact terms, purely to show the player has considered that facet of the class.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

I watched a level 6-8 warlock get lynched in Cordor the other week for the crime of being seen using eldritch blast in the Bramble Woods. That sort of thing gives me a bad taste in my mouth for a base class that while worthy of suspicion and caution, doesn't turn you into Mega-Hitler in any other instance of d&d.

So before I hit my tangent- I agree that this is pretty lame. I can think of circumstances and situations where it wouldn't be and it's entirely deserved, but in good faith, it sounds lame af without some serious elaboration.

With that said, there are certain worlds in D&D, and certain places in FR, where it wouldn't matter if you were a warlock, a wizard, or a filthy bloodmage, where they'd literally cut out your tongue and burn you alive to keep you from working more of your witchcraft. There are many instances of outright attempted eradication of all things good, evil, naturey, magical, and divine in FR alone.

The point of this tangent- I feel there needs to be a little more give and take on both sides of this equation, and this is one of those situations where I feel like WYSIWYG works against us all a little bit. If I'm playing a guard, much less a paladin, and I see someone use an eldritch blast and summon a demon, I'm in a pretty precarious position. Everyone else sees that I'm a member of the Radiant Heart with a sky high charisma and knows I'm a member of the guard, and everyone else sees eldritch blast and fiend.

Now, I can play around this moment, comically have my head turned 90 degrees the wrong way IC the entire time, and never see a thing. Even if I happen to pass a spellcraft check due to high INT, I can 100% dive super deep in to the horribly placed field of vision joke and assume that eldritch blast must have come from an enemy, because a level 6-8 warlock probably isn't hoping to have their story blown up like that at level 6-8 over what they may have been hoping was a quick casual run.

But everyone else sees a guard (or worse, paladin) and a warlock hanging out together and collectively loses their minds, and now the sky is falling and we need to focus on immersion /and/ inclusion and what is either side supposed to do?

TL;DR
At a certain point we have to accept that immersion sometimes means sacrificing inclusion and vice-versa. Then we have to figure out where exactly that line is, and what we should strive to achieve in relation to that conjunction of Be Nice and Atmospheric Consistency- because in some instances these two streets diverge at right angles no matter how hard you try.

[chris a gogo]

Two unforgivable sins.
Creating undead and Infernalism( fyi infernalism is consorting with creatures of the lower planes whatever there alignment is).

If a character is doing either of those things they are the most depraved people there is and fully deserve to the be lynched, boiled in oil etc.
No grey area there at all no matter how you work it up in your character development the fact is your doing one of the two most disgusting things in the world(FR).
What tends to happen is the necromancer/ warlock gets ignored because players don't want to be a jerk and spoil someone's fun on an ooc level, but IC they should inform the guards attempt to kill them all sorts of negative things to the warlock character.
There are systems in place to protect your character for getting lynched by angry mobs but it is the expected result of getting caught in the act.

[Eyeliner]

In general I think the scale of the reaction should fit the character's level. A <10 character summoning an imp or who's toting a zombie or skeleton (basically an animated corpse) is a dabbler, comparatively. Call them out, try to teach them they're going on the wrong path, shun them, but that's not a supervillain who must be destroyed-- that's like a RL metalhead teen spray painting pentagrams on their high school walls. This requires punishment but to a degree that they have an opportunity to turn things around and remain part of the community.

I generally think our reactions are appropriate but Arelith players have almost no sense of subtlety and often take it to "11" on the dial when they should be at 1 or 2.

[xf1313]

Two unforgivable sins.
Creating undead and Infernalism( fyi infernalism is consorting with creatures of the lower planes whatever there alignment is).

If a character is doing either of those things they are the most depraved people there is and fully deserve to the be lynched, boiled in oil etc.
No grey area there at all no matter how you work it up in your character development the fact is your doing one of the two most disgusting things in the world(FR).
What tends to happen is the necromancer/ warlock gets ignored because players don't want to be a jerk and spoil someone's fun on an ooc level, but IC they should inform the guards attempt to kill them all sorts of negative things to the warlock character.
There are systems in place to protect your character for getting lynched by angry mobs but it is the expected result of getting caught in the act.

Undead/demon summoning, right. Thou I do feel outing someone for casting to many haste spell or because one is blasting monsters are too much

A friend of mine got chased by some guards because he cast flame shield and haste a couple of times. He got away in the end, but that is just over the boundary metagaming.

[Exordius]

People just like to kill-bash honestly. Low level characters are preferred since they cant fight back effectively. Its not about the story or the rp... pvp is god to some people and if your not stomping people in pvp 24/7 then your not playing the game right in their opinion lol. Its dumb.

[MRFTW]

.
It'd be a tremendous DM lift so I completely understand why this is not the case, but I kind of wish that warlock had a lightweight app lock, where the application would just be submitting intended pact terms, purely to show the player has considered that facet of the class.

If this were the case, my warlocks, which have been so kindly complimented on previous pages, would never have existed.

I can't be the only one that isn't willing to have random strangers arbitrate my creativity. With all of the love in the world, I don't play games to seek validation, I play them for fun. Filling in applications and being told 'your character isn't good enough' is not fun at the very least, and can be outright crushing at worst.

If there are problems with warlocks, update the server rules or enforce them better. Turning it into a gated community where you can only enter with the permission of our faceless overlords is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

While I truly enjoy the thought of patron-quests for player warlocks to do, and do them myself, the impetus for such things should come from the players, or at least at their request.

If players have made warlocks, but aren't sure how they should RP that, or what terms their pact might have, that is the place for a DM to step in, in a helping and guiding role, once requested.

[Eyeliner]

A badly played cleric is way more damaging than any warlock. They are the clergy of deities other characters worship, after all, and they arrive at level 3 as representatives of immensively powerful churches and religions.

But nobody would ever suggest clerics be application locked. That’s just not feasible. Same should go with warlocks or a dozen other classes that take more than lightweight RP. We just have to have trust our fellow players know what they’re doing.

[evilkittenofdoom]

... I watched a level 6-8 warlock get lynched in Cordor the other week for the crime of being seen using eldritch blast in the Bramble Woods. That sort of thing gives me a bad taste in my mouth for a base class that while worthy of suspicion and caution, doesn't turn you into Mega-Hitler in any other instance of d&d.

This is precisely what bothers me so much about Warlock on Arelith (and why I will only play one in the UD where nobody really cares anyway at that point). On much of the surface, there's a short list of absolute, no questions asked always not acceptable things and it, IMO, really inhibits the amount of RP that can develop from having these sorts of moderately antagonistic forces around.

Take Necromancy, for instance. Necromancy is "inherently evil," but is a True Neutral wizard raising a bunch of undead to protect a town from invading orcs now inherently on the path to villainy? I'd argue not. It was a merely a tool at their disposal, and probably not even their first choice.

Warlocks often fall into that same category to a degree. They gained power, they paid (or are paying) a price for that power, no different than a fighter pays in blood, sweat and time training, or a wizard pays in time dedicated to study. Sure, they took the quick and dirty route and made unsavory bargains to obtain that power, but it's not so black and white as it's made out to be. For certain many warlocks do end up needing to continue to pay for their power or are going to tend towards evil deeds, but again, that doesn't mean they should be put onto that list of completely unacceptable things, no questions asked no exceptions. Assess the person as an individual, not as a category.

A friend of mine got chased by some guards because he cast flame shield and haste a couple of times. He got away in the end, but that is just over the boundary metagaming.

With Elemenalist now being able to do this, hopefully that becomes less an issue, but prime example of the problem at hand.

[Xerah]

The usual response is “they’ll come after us when they get stronger so get them now” but, like, good? That’s part of the roleplay.

It’s finch to see Big King Ed drop down the law to limit this somewhat, but people are still going to press things in that direction unfortunately. Best that one can do I feel, is show that you don’t need to care about tyrant fog zombies in the brambles or eldrich blast in the Malars and maybe others pick up on it.

[Spriggan Bride]

If a character doesn't have very high lore or doesn't have extensive experience fighting or working with warlocks there's no way they should recognize spell casting patterns. Your paladin doesn't get to read the Arelith wiki.

Honestly this should be freeing and not a problem. If you know it's a warlock but your character doesn't know everything that entails that's opportunity for them to befriend someone they won't be able to later when they've been around the block. Being able to "play dumb" is a blessing and not a curse.

[Hinty]

The usual response is “they’ll come after us when they get stronger so get them now” but, like, good? That’s part of the roleplay.

It’s finch to see Big King Ed drop down the law to limit this somewhat, but people are still going to press things in that direction unfortunately. Best that one can do I feel, is show that you don’t need to care about tyrant fog zombies in the brambles or eldrich blast in the Malars and maybe others pick up on it.

Sadly the removal of PnG law in corder has had the reverse effect.

Previously my Warlock was happy to move around in Cordor, no one knew what she was, and if they did find out, well, she'd be forced to leave.

Now they have some crazy new law that says if you use "eldritch magic" anywhere on the island and they see you in Cordor you are guilty of the highest level crime or something. My Warlock wont even go anywhere near the city now. Not worth the possible RP you might find there to risk getting mobbed by PC guards the moment someone says "warlock"

People are always so quick to resort to punishment and execution. Has no one on Arelith ever heard of redemption? An evil guy executed isn't a victory for Good. You've just taken one of Evils pawns off the board, they'll get a new one in a few days. An evil guy redeemed? Well, you've taken away one of Evils pawns, GAINED a pawn for the forces of good AND possibly gained someone who can give you info on the plans Evil were working on.

(and don't get me started on the people who run around killing pickpockets. That shit needs MAJOR Evil alignment shifts.)

If a character doesn't have very high lore or doesn't have extensive experience fighting or working with warlocks there's no way they should recognize spell casting patterns. Your paladin doesn't get to read the Arelith wiki.

Honestly this should be freeing and not a problem. If you know it's a warlock but your character doesn't know everything that entails that's opportunity for them to befriend someone they won't be able to later when they've been around the block. Being able to "play dumb" is a blessing and not a curse.

Seriously this is just plain wrong. Someone pointing out "Hey that guy has cast 30 odd hold person spells, they must be a Warlock" while they travel with a guy who has thrown a three fireballs into every fight they've had, is metagaming, plain and simple.

.
It'd be a tremendous DM lift so I completely understand why this is not the case, but I kind of wish that warlock had a lightweight app lock, where the application would just be submitting intended pact terms, purely to show the player has considered that facet of the class.

No go from the start, too many warlocks, not enough DMs, the applications would swamp them they would have no time to do anything else.

What I have started to do, however, is carry a book in the inventory of my warlocks, that has had its description altered to contain the details of my warlocks patron, and contract. That way, if any DM is curious the information is there, if they have issues with the concept they can poke me and say.

(also it serves as a very handy way to refresh my memory if I forget a detail)

[chris a gogo]

Cordor has the problem that players think they rule the island and any laws they make are enforced beyond the boarders.
This just isn't true and they have no right to execute anyone for crimes committed anywhere else but in Cordor.

Also repeated casting of spells isn't an IC outing for a warlock, eldritch blast is channeling power from your patron so that's a fine way to identify the warlock as a warlock presuming you pass the spell craft check so you know what they did.

And while I agree you shouldn't be done for it in Cordor if you cast it elsewhere being shunned as a known Warlock is kind of fine.