One of the characters in my group is a Warlock and I have zero experience with this class, both as a player and a DM. The player chose an Archfey as a patron and I'm feeling a bit lost. Thankfully the player has never played before, so I have a bit of time to figure things out.
I'm hoping to get some ideas on who exactly his Patron is and what sort of powers he/she has. The character in question is Dragonborn, so I'm wondering if that could play into it somehow.
Also, the PHB states that the character must perform significant favors in return for bestowing power upon the warlock. What sort of quests should these be? Retireving an artifact? A sacrifice of gold or treasure? Obviously they should get more difficult as the character rises in level.
Actually, it's just fine not knowing exactly who the patron is, much less his powers. Actually, let the player do the heavy lifting. Just have the player come up with a cool sounding name inspired by the suggestions for the Archfey in the PHB, or just use one of those names. Then, have the player come up with a (not too long or elaborate) story of how s/he encountered or made contact with the Archfey. Was s/he like Sleeping Beauty, and perhaps blessed (or cursed) by kindly (or cruel and vindictive) fey at his/her birth, which encounter has allowed her/him to bargain for power in adulthood? Was s/he walking in a forest with a thin and permeable border to the Feywild? Slept overnight in a faerie ring? Was s/he in desperate need and turned to the very wise and very powerful, but very dangerous hag in the marshes? Or did s/he foolishly recite the old rhyme while spinning counterclockwise on the night of the new moon under a willow tree and summon the powerful and generous but equally crafty and perilously sedcutive Fair Lord of the Shadowmere, who always keeps his promises but never forgets those in his debt? Or...
Well, you get the idea. Just begin with an evocative name and a simple (one or two line) story of the encounter/bargain/curse/blessing that tied the PC to an Archfey. Let everything else develop through actual play.
This is very much RP-based than mechanics. Because of that, it's up to the PC how much they know about their character, their powers, and their patron. They might know almost nothing (intentionally), leaving you plenty of wiggle room to make stuff up on the fly and stuff. Or maybe they have a fully fleshed out history, so you don't have much to prepare, instead focusing more on the application of said PC and Patron in the adventure. Perhaps they don't actually care about the patron (out of game) and just like the powers and/or "feel" of the class, which allows you to forgo as much of the background as you want (focusing more on mechanics than fluff).
So...my advice? How into making complex backgrounds and personal history is your PC? Because that determines exactly how much work you'd have to do, if any. Regardless of the answer, though, try and work together on it! Leave some things a mystery, though, because sometimes surprises can be fun 
Thanks to both.
Timborama wrote:
Well, if they like goofy, Archfey fits in nicely! Well, any pact can with the right twist, but Archfey seems to be easier to "goofify"
It would be a lot of fun to say his Patron is Queen of the Unicorns and that he had to occasionally leave a boquet of daisies in an forest glade in return for his powers.
A Dragonborn's archfey patron could very well be this: 
The individual in question mostly dozes on his hoard these days, but he uses the individuals who he makes pacts with as raw material for his daydreams. (He "listens over their shoulder" as they have adventures.) The main requirement is that new material keep flowing in - no Early Retirement for you !
BRJN wrote: