Personally I think the Warlock could use something for those dead levels, but the descriptions are nice.
Uh... what dead levels?
5th? learns a new spell, raises slot level to 3rd, and learns another invocation, on top of proficiency bonus increasing.
7th? learns another new spell, raises slot level to 4th, and learns another invocation.
9th? learns another new spell, raises slot level to 5th, and learns another invocation, on top of proficiency bonus increasing.
18th? learns another invocation... I guess you can call this one level "dead" if you want.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
GreenWarlock wrote:
mellored wrote:
GreenWarlock wrote:
mellored wrote:
I feel a lot better about this picture now that I can better make out what that thing is the warlock is holding. No more Halloween bag!
Mephi1234 wrote:
mellored wrote:
GreenWarlock wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
"What kind of relationship do you have with your patron? Is it friendly, antagonistic, uneasy, or romantic?"
I'm so going to make a female warlock based on Andromeda Slate, the main character of the YA supernatural romance novel "Awoken."
"In his house at R'lyeh, great Cthulhu lies dreaming… of her." 
edwin_su wrote:
We'll see when the final version comes out, I suppose. Right now, its all just guessing.
What we can probably take away from this chart right now, however? Level 3, Pact Boon. Anyone want to place money that's where the book, blade, and chain division comes into play? Otherworldly Patron sounds like where you pick Infernal, Fey, or Star Pacts. Pact Magic is probably the Spellcasting feature most other classes get.
Four subclass benefits, capping at 14. Personally, I'm more of a fan of the classes that let you "capstone" the subclass closer to 17 like cleric and rogue or 18 like the fighter, instead of a general "Spell Mastery" bit like the wizard gets. The level 18 Invocation may have some Patron prerequisites, though.
No further benefits that seem tied to book, blade, chain; though there may be Invocations that work off them. The old "essences" or similar?
Five ability score improvements, same as wizard and cleric, one less than rogue, two less than fighter. Of course, that difference is more of a rogue/fighter benefit, as every class seems to get these ASIs at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19.
Eldritch blast makes a return as a cantrip. No mention of curses or hexes of yet, which is sad.
Quick build seems to suggest that you do, indeed, pick damage spells for your spell slots to use on. Ray of Sickness and Witch Bolt both sound combat-y.
Ohhhh, me likey.
Just a reminder to people that the article linked below gives a lot of context to that preview:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20140303
The_White_Sorcerer wrote:
Istbor wrote:
Istbor wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
eberg wrote:
So far, we've seen six backgrounds - five of the six seem to perfectly line up with classes: soldier to fighter, criminal to rogue, accolyte to cleric, sage to wizard, hermit to monk. It seems that the favored warlock background is "Charlatan," which, of the playtest, involved disguises and fake documents. If it remains close to the same, its an interesting choice for warlocks to favor.
Though, I admit, I was kind of hoping that there'd be a background with a Coven feature. Maybe such a feature will appear elsewhere - it'd be fun.
GreenWarlock wrote:
Looks good. Can't wait to make one.
1eejit wrote:
d8 for Hit Points, beefy. I think the Bard will be similarly bumped.
"RED DRAGON & ADVENTURERS" picture is exactly what Hit Points are about. No tactics, just stay in front of huge dragon and deal enough damage to him. 
pauln6 wrote:
Consona wrote:
frothsof wrote:
The_White_Sorcerer wrote:
Lots of nice Wizard pics there. Not a lot else...
Mostly decent artwork though. The red dragon pic is great. I'm less of a fan of the high elf wizard one though, it's a touch too scribbly for my taste and her face feels a little... flat.
Generally good art though, which is encouraging.
I think I'm finally figuring out what position the elf wizard's body is in, but I'm having a harder time figuring out how the dress would look in a normal stance. For some reason that's the important part for me. 
As the class is written it is more a less an evil class with the exception of the fey pact. Will I be allowing infernalist/diabolists as PCs?d probably not though In my 4e game there was a lady who played a Tiefling infernal pact warlock, not what I would approve of but her backstory and the fact that I married her influenced my judgement. Is there a way to make a LG Warlock? Maybe but I am not sure how has the pacts given all seem either CG fey or CE/NE/LE infernalists/diabolists and the star pact always seems like some kind of Cthulhu/Mythos jazz.
The_White_Sorcerer wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
The_White_Sorcerer wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
Gah, that right hand. The butt of that staff should be behind her or she's breaking her wrist.
I like the art. The warlock looks eery and there is a toad. Its wonderful that they have one of the coolest classes in 4e (and it was cool in 3.5e too). Its interesting that warlocks get both spell slots and invocations. I am curious as to what their spell lists and invocation lists will look like.
Cennedi wrote:
DLfan wrote:
FallingIcicle wrote:
Mordenkainen's sword looks bad ass even if it is a totally weak sauce spell.
The odds of me casting the spell just went up quite a bit..
"Pact Magic" and "Otherwordly Patron Feature" ...
Sounds a lot like the 3e Binder class, and I hope it is cause it was a very cool class.
Rastapopoulos wrote:
waffle299 wrote:
Is the Warlock class evil? Yes and No.
Yes, in that the warlock, even the Fey Pact warlock, is definitely on the dark side of magic. There's a reason why the picture there is of a witch behind a haunted house - because these are the kinds of witches that actually do dabble in mixing foul potions, cursing people, and the rest. The magic is abosultely slanted towards black. The Infernal Pact tends to have a bit of incarnum magic associated with it, stealing bits of life energy / soul energy with each kill - vampirism without the blood or sunlight allergy. Star pact involves using psychic power to take over people's minds, or shatter them. The Fey pact isn't much better than the star - just more illusions mixed in with the mind controls. Its still a set of highly agressive abilities. There's nothing nice or pleasant about any warlock pact.
No, in that no part of the class requires you to be an evil, a jerk, or anything else. This is not a blackguard, where you are dedicated to an Evil cause for your power. You're not a priest, where you follow your patron's whims automatically because you're devoted to them. Its a lot like the Final Fantasy Blue Mage, where you are taking the power from monsters and making it your own. And, actually, one could even play the warlock where gain your powers from slaying monsters and absorbing their energy - fighting fire with fire. You could have inherited your pact - there's nothing stopping you from being involved in a generational pact your foremothers made. Or from being tricked into one. Bad night, got drunk, ended up at a party that went really, really wrong. Maybe you were involved in a no-win situation: pact or watch someone you care about die. Maybe you wanted power, and got it, but now realize that its not worth the cost and you're on a repentance journey.
Dark powers do not make evil people. But it doesn't exactly inspire healers or defenders either.
The Warlock has some minor but important differences from how it's rumored to be. On the downside, they lose their 16th level cantrip (I've heard that they had 5 cantrips before; now it's maxxed at 4) and they get their third otherwordly patron feature at 10th level instead of 9th level; on the plus side, the get a 6th level spell slot at 20th level instead of a 5th level spell slot (actually helps in improving capstone abilities, but it's a little too late in my opinion).
Obviously, it's still to early to comment on any changes to the actual Pact Boons, Invocations, Otherwordly Patron Features as this preview doesn't cover those. It DOES confirm, however, that the Charlatan background made it into Chapter 4 (separate from the Criminal and Urchin backgrounds, giving us at least three nice roguish ones to work with). I also like that the Warlock is not worried about treading into melee, and is sort of like an arcane cleric in that respect (it's no gish, but at least when they don't want to fire off a spell or use an invocation, they can smash with a mace or something, unlike Wizards or Sorcerers).
As for the previewed artwork, I like the Warlock, it makes me feel weired by the Eladrin-like eyes (I assume this Warlock's patron is The Archfey); those always put me off, but in the case of the Warlock, that's a good thing. Frog familiar is classic. I love how their playing up the Warlock with a Familiar connection, and I can imagine this girl up to witchy tricks. 
waffle299 wrote:
Marandahir wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
1. At first I thought the warlock spread looked a little funky, until I looked at the page numbers and realized it isn't actually a spread - the first page is odd and the second even, so they're split across two pages in the physical book.
2. Can't unsee her arm being twisted backwards. Oops!
3. Invocations are at-will effects. Mystic Arcanum is level 6-9 daily spell slots.
4. Art continues to be awesome overall.
Since I mostly DM, I don't mind the warlock, as is, having an evil flavor (although it is funny that the evil cleric domains and the antipaladin are supposed to be in the DMG, but "sell your soul to the devil" warlock is in the PHB), since a lot of my warlocks will be evil. In my campaigns, the "Big 8" alignments have a sort of Olympics for the souls of the unaligned and any TN dirt farmers (any TN character with 3+ levels or critter with 4+ hit die becomes a rilmani instead) and they have to use mortals as champions, either true believers (paladins) or mercenaries (warlocks). Making the deal isn't an evil act, but participating in the Olympics for an evil alignment is. Good alignments tend to use more paladins then evil and neutral alignments, and, when good alignments hire warlocks, they tend to use the blade pact (purifying fire damage instead of hellfire). I figure the chain warlock could be refluffed into a shaman--in fact, gnoll society is run by evil shamans with ghosts as pets, and, if the gnolls steal your stuff, when you die, you might be the ghost if you are famous or infamous enough.
While I imagine a lot of warlocks DO participate for various reasons, and often enough on the dark side, I would like to point out that warlocks aren't like paladins who can violate their Oath and lose their powers if they go against an ideal. Goodly warlocks are likely as common as evil blackguards, so take that as you will.
Following in the theme of alignment classes would also suggest that monks would be the Lawful, and bards the Chaotic, and be mutually opposed as well?
Caliburn101. wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
Am I the only one who read the bit under sworn and beholden?
Cennedi wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
Mechagamera wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Antheros wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
ChrisTheS wrote:
For that matter, King Solomon was supposed to be a master of controlling 72 demons, if you go by the Clavicula Solmanis. He did so by invoking holy symbols and divine right. Lots of ways to run that as well.
Mephi1234 wrote:
Depends on the myth you run with, yeah. Still, lots of ways to go about it
Mephi1234 wrote:
Goethe's Faust isn't exactly 'good' by the end, but he definitely isn't evil anymore. One possible message of the story is that knowledge itself can never be evil no matter its source, and that a truly rational person will eventually put aside any evil they carry within once it proves unfulfilling.
ChrisTheS wrote:
Due to a combination of 'exact words' (Faust never achieves the goal he set in the terms of the pact, but was anticipating a future moment in which his life's work would be fulfilled - Mephistopheles killed him too early by mistake), the intercession of an innocent, and pretty much literal Deus ex Machina, the demon is forced to forfeit.
Compared with Marlowe, in which Faustus is repeatedly given the choice between good and evil and consistently chooses evil until he no longer remembers how to choose good (but ultimately it's still his choice rather than an external force of corruption).
Mephi1234 wrote:
I hate that the page ends right before the crunch! No info on armor and weapon proficiencies, skills or saving throws. Darn you Wizards! *Shakes fist* WWWAAAAOOOOOTTTTTSEEEE!!!! (Best Captain Kirk Impression I can write down. )
ChrisTheS wrote:
Lord_Ventnor wrote:
"The miners dug too deep. There was something buried there - ancient, burning, evil. Too powerful to be slain, they said - and its dark fires consumed many of my kin."
"But the dwarves have old ways of binding evil, and I found one. It's still in that mine, and my homestead can never be reclaimed while it lives - but I survived."
"I bound it there. I stole part of its power in the process. And now I'm going to search for a way to kill that fiend with its own fire."
- A Dwarven Warlock I played once, whose name escapes me at this hour.
Cennedi wrote:
Skoldorf wrote:
Lord_Ventnor wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
A possible inspiration for a non-evil warlock might be Sam from "Reaper," whose parents sold his soul to the Devil.
Cennedi wrote:
Far Realm creatuers arn't neccicaraly evil.
Chaotic, sure. But you could get a pact with a creature that thinks solid creatures should be turned into a slime. Where they can mingle and connect with others on a more intimate level then they ever could imagine with their ridges bodies. Live peacfully without less needs, less war. 
Cennedi wrote:
mellored wrote:
ChrisTheS wrote:
Skoldorf wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Balrog Pact is essentially an Infernal Pact (fallen Maia and all that) so yeah.
Still, I'm surprised anyone could bind a Balrog. Even Sauron was wary of Durin's Bane.
ChrisTheS wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Can lead to corruption isn't the same as will lead to corruption, and I would argue that the GM shouldn't be offering that kind of temptation to the player unless the player is interested in exploring that angle of their character (just choosing the class isn't an expression of interest). It isn't as though they're balanced against the possibility of their pact becoming either an ethical or a practical liability (and a good thing too, because you can't really balance things based on something the GM could do).
ChrisTheS wrote:
Then there's the matter of what the fiend wants in exchange: the contract might simply be "I will give you this power so that you can use it to kill sinners and send their souls to populate my kingdom: I don't want yours, it doesn't match the drapes."
Mephi1234 wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
ChrisTheS wrote:
Since I'm the GM that postulated the scenario and I generally prefer to screw players over for boneheaded decisions they've made in-game rather than for their choice of class, no, I won't take that bet
Mephi1234 wrote:
ChrisTheS wrote:
Evil can be lazy. Sloth is a deadly sin, after all.
Cennedi wrote:
ChrisTheS wrote:
Cennedi, all I'm going to say is this: Go read the Brimstone Angels series. Rent them from the library, if you can. Or the 3e book Tyrants of the Nine Hells, especially on the different kinds of pacts that devils make. If you read the books, I promise you'll get to see a lot more interest in the class than just outright labeling them delusinal or evil.
Going around accusing people of not playing things EVIL!!!! enough is not cool, especially when you admit to banning the warlock in your game instead of making it work. Frankly, I'm finding it more than mildly annoying.
Mephi1234 wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
I'll agree that no demon or devil does anyhting that doesn't further it's goals, but I don't think that needs to translate as extremely as you've suggested so far Cennedi. Personally, I would follow one of the suggestions of previous posters as to why a Warlock PC can be good, but harness infernal power thorugh their pact. Each side can be argued forever, but at the end of the day, I tend to let players create a character to their envisioned concept as much as possible, and if that means someone wants to play a good warlock no matter their pact, then we'll work out a way for that to happen.
All that being said, I definitely would like to see something like a celestial pact, or perhaps even something like an elemental pact. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw these kinds of things rolled out in splats.
"Your character is not so special a snowflake that he will outwit the schemes of an ageless, eternal, force wholly devoted to evil. "
This makes the assumption that the "Patron" is so powerful that, in the final 20th level showdown, the party can't kick it's cloven-hooofed hindquarters.
Defeating the patron of a Warlocks the party cares for to redeem them - or at least save them from the pit - sounds like a pretty awesome campaign idea.
Devilbass wrote:
DemoMonkey wrote:
There's little difference between a DM choosing to require a warlock to be mindlessly evil and a player of a CN Kender thief choosing to constantly rob the other PCs. The player of the Kender could find ways to be twerpy and annoying without antagonizing other players, but he hides behind alignment and "it's what my character would do." The DM could find ways to play up the risk the warlock assumes for the sake of power without antagonizing the player, but he hides behind alignment and "it's how the world would work."
Both are griefing the rest of the group. Both believe that their preferences are the most important at the table, to the point that they put their narratives ahead of everyone else's. Both fail to see that a character can face challenges in a way that a player finds interesting. Instead, they insist on making one or more players regret being part of the game.
Devilbass wrote:
"yes it does but then what happens to a warlock who has no patron? No powers?"
The same thing that happens to the rest of the 20th level characters after the final battle. Nothing, because the movie is over!
Cennedi wrote:
DemoMonkey wrote:
"Do not ship the Warlocks, for it makes them soggy and hard to light."
DemoMonkey wrote:
DemoMonkey wrote:
emwasick wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
There were a bunch of Archfey articles (Court of the Stars series) which detailed various members of the Archfey leadership, what their monster stats are like, what their servants are like, what they want, and how they'd be patrons to Warlocks. These were some of the best-written articles in Dungeon magazine (and in Dragon magazine before and after they moved DM content over to Dungeon for a while). In addition, Heroes of the Feywild featured a bunch of great inspiring stories that could churn ideas for Fey-Pact Warlocks. Also, there were a bunch of Warlock patron articles to help get the wheels spinning too. As for Goblins, well, they are a force in the Feywild, but they're not Fey (just like Humans exist in the Feywild but aren't Fey) – but that doesn't mean they can't grant pacts, especially powerful Goblins of the Feywild like the King of Nachtur!
• Here's a list of the Archfey that appeared in Court of the Stars:
Prince of Frost (Dragon #374, also featured in Heroes of the Feywild, Dragon #394 "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic of Old"; and other sources)
Selephra, the Bramble Queen (Dungeon #185)
Baba-Yaga (Dungeon #196)
The Trinket-Lord (Dungeon #205)
Thrumbolg, First Lord of Mag Tureagh (Dragon #420; also featured in Heroes of the Feywild and Manual of the Planes)
Psilofyr, the Carrion King (Spore-Lord of the Myconids; Dragon #420; also featured in Underdark)
Hyrsam, the Prince of Satyrs (Dragon #422; also mentioned in Manual of the Planes)
The Horned Lord (Dragon #428)
• Here are a list of other Archfey and related patrons mentioned in Heroes of the Feywild:
Tiandra, the Summer Queen (clearly based upon Titania from folklore and Shakespeare)
Oran the Green Lord (clearly based upon Oberon from folklore and Shakespeare)
The Sea Lords, Elias and Siobhan Alastai
Porpherio (clearly based on Prospero from Shakespeare), a Powerful spellcaster who rules an island near the Isle of Dread and the Court of Coral, the seas of the Sea Lords
Maiden of the Moon, one of the Gloaming Fey's leaders, and enemy of all Lycanthropes (save those who are secluded in the Brokenstone Vale; also featured in Dragon #406, "Paragons of Fey Valor")
The Great Gark, the Goblin Wizard King of Nachtur, featured in Bard's Tale "The Vanishing Villagers" (also featured in "Backdrop on the Moonshaes," Dungeon #196)
The Lady of the White Well, an Archfey of Divine origin (also featured in Dragon #393)
The Prince of Hearts, one of the Gloaming Fey's leaders
The Witch of Fates, one of the Gloaming Fey's leaders, who pronounced the end of Cendriane during its Height
Queen Connomae, Fomorian Ruler of Vor Thormil
King Bronnor, Fomorian Ruler of Cannomae
Queen Fathaghn, the Dryad Queen who created the Maze of Fathaghn to protect the Mother Tree
The Mother Tree itself (original source of all the Green Fey)
The Wizard Halkith of the Isle of Dread (creator of Su Monsters)
The Isle of Dread itself
A Crippled Satyr with the power to curse even a Sidhe Lord into a hideous monstrocity (Bard's Tale, "The Sidhe Lord and the Satyr)
Calenon Thray, Ranger-Lord of Shinaelestra, the Fading City
Lady Shandria, Niece of Queen Tiandra, and Ruler of Astrazalian, the City of Starlight
The Sisters of Lament Lady Velayn and Lady Loralae, servants of the Prince of Frost (all also detailed in Dragon #374's "Court of the Stars: The Prince of Frost")
Lady Sharae, the sister to Velayn and Loralae; when they were the Daughters of Delight, she betrayed the Summer Prince to become the Prince of Frost (as detailed in Dragon #374)
Razcoreth, the Whispering Wyrm of the Lake of Dreams
• In addition, Dungeon #174 and Dragon #381 feature the twinned articles, "Sealing the Pact" and "Performing the Pact," respectively about developing a patron for your Warlock.
The Fey Pact example given is the Eochaid, an extremely powerful satyr-like, treant-like, being of arcane energy created by Corellon, who seeks to expand arcana's influence and find and protect relics of the fey gods (Corellon, Sehanine, Lolth, etc).
• And here are some other ideas for Feypact Patrons, that I came across or thought of while finding the relevant articles:
Amon Bassiri, Lord Marshal of the Watchers of Night, and a member of Mithrendain's Council (Dragon #366, "Mithrendain, Citadel of the Feywild")
Jelendra, a Tulani of Summer (seeking vengeance against the Highridge Arcane council of Eladrin elders; a Dungeon Delve adventure from Dungeon #160)
The Cat Lord (Manual of the Planes)
The Monkey King, born out of stone (Manual of the Planes)
Karl Stoneshine, Leader of the Gnome Council in the Feywild (Manual of the Planes)
Viktor Mazen, Werewolf Lord of the Brokenstone Vale (Manual of the Planes)
Koliada, the Winter Witch (a powerful member of the Winter Court; featured in an epic-tier adventure, "Winter of the Witch," Dungeon #162)
The Rose King, an Archfey who led a failed campaign against the Drow of the Feydark (Dragon #386, "Channel Divinity - Corellon: The House of Flowers")
Zarra, Drow Priestess of Irith Tal, who seduced the Rose King and bore a child (Liria Valthorin) with him (Dragon #386, "Channel Divinity - Corellon: The House of Flowers")
Liria Valthorin, Half-drow, Half-Eladrin-Archfey, founder of the House of Flowers spy network in the Feydark (Dragon #386, "Channel Divinity - Corellon: The House of Flowers")
Ilyara Lathiel, Commandant of the Winterguard of Cendriane (an Eladrin Swordmage made immortal by the Archmages of Cendriane, but bound within her own magical prison of Winter's Rise; Dragon #405, "Class Acts - Swordmage: The Winterguard of Cendriane")
The Dream King (featured in Adventurer's Vault 2 and Dragon #387 "Wayfaring Bards)
A Dryad Briar-Witch
A Dangerously Beautiful Nymph
An Ancient Treant
Oreph Calhad, a former-human leader in the Walkers on the Unseen Path, who so unified his spirit with that of the Feywild that he became a Half-elf (Dragon #384, "To Walk on Unseen Paths")
Arkevia Greenleaf, a Ranger/Druid human leader in the Walkers on the Unseen Path (Dragon #384, "To Walk on Unseen Paths")
A Centaur Khan from the Plains of Echoing Thunder
A Murkroot Bogbottom Goblin Drug Lord of the Murkendraw
Other Murkroot Trade Moot Personalities (Dragon #393, "The Murkroot Trade Moot") are great for 5e Warlocks, as below:
Nagaptha, the Curse Witch; a Bog Hag disguised as an Eladrin who sells curses and their cures at the Murkroot Trade Moot – for a price of bearing a curse or doing a task for her. Great patron for any Warlock.
Grakkus, the Oath Seller; a Cyclops who buys and sells individuals bound by an oath, slaves to him and the person he sells it to, until the terms to his patrons and of the oath are fulfilled. Great patron for Pact of the Chain Warlock's Familiar.
Menilitus, a Gnome purveyor of potions; eccentric, but his goods are high quality, though they usually come at a price: a distant, difficult, dangerous service for him. Good patron in that point.
Continuing on, Fomorian King Musagzi, who set his eye on Mithrendain (Dungeon #157, "Dark Heart of Mithrendain")
Inzira, the Daughter of Frostwhite Forest (an Eladrin revered by Firbolgs and featured in Dungeon #166 "Scales of War" adventure path adventure, "The Stone-Skinned King")
King Cachlain, a Fomorian Ruler (featured in Dungeon #166 "Scales of War" adventure path adventure, "The Stone-Skinned King")
King Donnel, Fomorian Ruler of Inbharann (a sort of Feydark version of Mordor; featured in the book Underdark).
Other Fomorians – King or Queen, Jailor, Witch, etc
(Maybe they've implanted an Evil Eye into you as an experiment, and the Eye sends you missions but grants you magical power)
A Firbolg Duskhunter of the Wild Hunt
For that matter, perhaps the Wild Hunt ITSELF is your patron
An Elf Ruler of the Alliance of Vailin (as per the Conquest of Nerath boardgame map)
A Hag Witch (any kind, Bog, Forest, etc)
A Sea Elf Lord of Thaliessal (the Coral City off the coast of the Barony of the Emerald Blade (Conquest of Nerath); Dragon #401, "Nerathi Legends: Merindaelion, Barony of the Emerald Blade")
Malar the Beast Lord and the Beast Kazgoroth, the sires of the Darkwalkers of the Moonshaes (Dragon #405, "Character Themes: Heroes of the Moonshaes")
The High Lady of Sarifal (featured in Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and Dragon #405, "Character Themes: Heroes of the Moonshaes")
One of the LeShay, Primal Spirit/Archfey progenitors of the Fey in the Forgotten Realms, such as the Earthmother and her children
A Mermaid or Siren who rescued you from certain death, and now demands you serve her
Actually, thinking about Mermaid myths and stories… You ate the flesh of a Mermaid, didn't die, but aren't quite immortal… but you're cursed with crazy powers
A Tuathan Pirate King/Queen
A Tuathan Witch Queen/King
An Eladrin Wizard-in-hiding, one of the legendary creators of the Orbs of Dragonkind (Dragon #394, "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic of Old")
Mindartis, the Eladrin and Elf Folk-hero, wielder of the Winged Shield (Dragon #394, "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic of Old")
Vanthia, the Nymph Queen who desired Mindartis (Dragon #394, "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic of Old")
Thessalia, the Snake-Haired Goddess of the Black-tongue Goblins (Dragon #394, "Bazaar of the Bizarre: Magic of Old")
One of the Professors or other personalities from the Veiled Academy Tanathriel, the Castle of Dreams (Dragon #392, "Tanathriel, the School of Elven Wizardy")
A Peter Pan-esque Soaring Rake (Dragon #406, "Paragons of Fey Valor")
An entire Wilden village (since they're of a hive-mind mentality)
A Hengeyokai Shapeshifter
A Bamboo, River, or Sea Spirit Folk from Kara-Tur (many people have refluffed Devas as these)
A Vistani Fortune-Teller
An Oni (Ogre-mage)
An Elemental, in a setting where the Elementals are tied to Faerie (for example, a Sylph is a Fae spirit of Wind in 4e; many settings have Sylph, Undine, Gnome, and Salamander as the four elementals, other settings make these elementals closer to druids and shamans and faeries and elves).
A Korred or Spriggan Trickster, Corrupted Gnomes of the wilds of Faerie
King Finutar, Ruler of Drochdan, Kingdom of the Gnomes in the Feydark (featured in Underdark)
Any other Gnome King deep beneath the Mountain (whether Rock, Forest, or Svirfneblin)
A Shadar-Kai Shadow Witch in a setting where the Shadar-Kai are shadowy fae rather than natives of the Shadowfell/Ravenloft/Plane of Shadow
A Terrible Beast whom your father stole a rose from, and now have to serve to spare your father's life (i.e., Beauty and the Beast, the fairy tale)
A Cyclops Slaver, himself a Slave, but a Great Power nontheless
The Oba of Gulg (a City in Athas), who uses Primal Spirits as her slaves, and might as well be expressed with a Fey-Pact until we get a Sorcerer-King Pact Warlock again
King Sunfire, the Lord of Pixies (Dungeon #211 Adventure)
An Eldritch Giant or Titan
Eachthighern (pronounced "Whitehorn"), the Lord of Unicorns and a respected Archfey in the Court of the Stars (featured in Dragon #406, "Paragons of Fey Valor")
Lesser Magical Creatures, like your random Unicorn or Pegasus
Or An Owlbear, for that matter
Another creature example: The Forest Spirit (Elk God) from Princess Mononoke
Or, in a pure D&D variant: A Sovereign Elk (as featured in Dungeon #190 adventure, "Forces of Nature")
A Satyr of the Night (i.e., The Faun from Pan's Labyrinth) (Ecology article in Dungeon #197)
Eladrin Lord of one of the Taers that pop into existance in Eberron
A Rainbow Dragon (Green Dragon transformed by the Feywild)
An Eladrin Sultan in a Pocket Feywild Plane amidst the Desert Sands of Athas
A Valenar Elf Outrider General
An Elf Thief-Lord who rules the Underbelly of a City-State in Athas
A Dusk Elf Chieftain, an ancient remant of those Elves from before the Eladrin-Elf-Drow split
A Drow Mistress of a Great House, or a Priestess of Lolth, from Erelhei-Cinlu (Nerath setting) or perhaps Menzoberranzan (Forgotten Realms setting)
What about a Pact with Drizz't?
A Drow Huntmaster from X'endrik (Eberron)
A Q'Barran Faerie-Dragon
A Silver Lake in the Feywild that reflects the moon and gives power to Lycanthropes (as per "Bark at the Moon," big adventure in Dungeon #185)
For that matter, who's the say that Primal Spirits of various areas of the world or the Feywild can't give out Fey Bargains?
Like, a Forest of Glass that sings (Chaos Scar Adventure, Dungeon #175)
Or a Taer like Taer Lian Doresh itself (The Fortress of Fading Dreams, featured in Dungeon #183)?
A Living Spell (probably from the Enchantment School, the Illusion School, or the Transmutation School)
The Deadtrees – the turned-to-stone roots of the Forest Monarchs, great trees that once towered over the Feywild (Ivory Tree of Winter, Golden Tree of Daw, the Silver Yew, and the Blood Oak)
And yes, this is a reply to the question about what is an Archfey from HOURS AND HOURS ago. It took me that long to pour through all the old 4e Feywild material.
Marandahir wrote:
No problem. Took a while, but was worth it, because it jogged my memory on my favourite fluff from 4e.
DemoMonkey wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
LupusRegalis wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
emwasick wrote:
Lord_Ventnor wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Marandahir wrote:
emwasick wrote:
Marandahir wrote:
Marandahir wrote:
Be3Al2 wrote:
Elemental pacts... Man, now I want an Efreet-bound Warlock.
mellored wrote:
[quote="Joe_the_Rat"]
Elemental pacts... Man, now I want an Efreet-bound Warlock.
I have considered that instead of a wish, when you find a genie in a bottle, you can get 1-3 levels of elemental pact warlock (type of element based on type of genie).
Joe_the_Rat wrote:
mellored wrote:
The way I always interpreted the fluff for a Warlock is that he has made a bargain with a devil/fey/Cthulhu/... for knowledge and that as he levels, the patron teaches him more eldritch/demon/fey spells and powers. However, should a Warlock 'lose' his patron, I'd say he stops leveling as a Warlock, since he's not getting any new knowledge, but still keep all the powers and spells he was taught by his former patron. It's the divine classes that need to nicely ask their god for spells every day, in my opinion.
Mephi1234 wrote:
You could also present it as that the patron shared secrets of power with the warlock with the agreement that the warlock would serve him in some way. However once learned these secrets cannot be taken back. So when the warlock had second thoughts and decided to run off with said secrets without fulfilling his end of the bargain.
Now the patron is seeking it former apprentice. Perhaps has the patron zeroes in on the warlock strange things begin to happen around him. Food spoils, walls bleed, storms gather, animals become feral, whatever. This is a sign to the warlock that his patron is nearing and it is time for to for him to move on.
Jynx_lucky_j wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
emwasick wrote:
Cennedi wrote:
emwasick wrote:
emwasick wrote:
emwasick wrote:
Azzy1974 wrote:
emwasick wrote:
DLfan wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
Switching gears a bit to a mechanical question - are those spells on the chart per day, like the L&L a few months age implied? Because it seems crazy that a level 10 caster is supposed to get by on two spells per day, even with cantrips and invocations...
ClockworkNecktie wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote:
Thank Corellon. My eagerness is restored.
As for non-evil demonic-pact warlocks... It surprises me than anyone nerdy enough to post here can't think of a half dozen examples off the top of their head. ;) Spawn, Harry Dresden, etc. A couple more I was considering:
A young girl was born to parents living in a forest far from any civilized land. When a plague struck the countryside, her parents slowly starved, doing everything they could to keep her fed. When her mother and her father finally passed away, she whispered a desperate prayer to the only god whose name she knew: Asmodeus, whose name her father would mutter in covert curses. Intrigued at the possibilities this girl offered, Asmodeus sent one of his imps to instruct the young girl in simple demonic rites. She obeyed eagerly, sacrificing small animals and ritually scarring herself in return for food and shelter. She came to see Asmodeus as a kindly father figure. Eventually, she made her way of of the wilderness and into the city, but when Asmodeus' minions tried to convince her to sacrifice a human child, she was repelled and accused the demons of apostasy against her perfect master, who would never demand such a thing. Asmodeus was infuriated by his minions' failure, but as a fallen angel, he was too intrigued by the existence of this one, truly selfless follower to strike her down. Instead, he watches over her, even adding to her power and indulging her strange conception of him, planning for the day when he can finally corrupt her and bring her to his side as one of his greatest acolytes.
A weathered bard, Jon has lived a long time off his web of connections and his knack for trading favors. Little surprise that when his number was up, he was able to make a wager the devil himself couldn't resist: a musical duel pitting his soul against a fragment of Asmodeus' power, embodied physically in a fiddle made of pure gold. Jonny rosined up that bow and played his fiddle hard, because Hell broke loose in Faerun and the devil's dealing cards. Etc.
ClockworkNecktie wrote:
When was Rodney's Q&A? Because last I heard, it was refresh on a daily, though that could have changed.
Marandahir wrote:
Mephi1234 wrote:
In the leaked alpha they were daily, but since that was allegedly from February, it would make sense that this got changed after that internal playtest, Mike was slightly out of date in his information when he posted the L&L in March (often the case since he's more high-level focused), and Rodney set the record straight in the Q&A.
I asked Mike on twitter for a clarification but nothing so far in response.
Cennedi wrote:
DLfan wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
Truthfully, if the articles were equal, I would lean more towards daily. But Rule of Three feels more definitive in tone than the L&L one on the matter, and since the alpha doc's version was daily, the final may have switched to encounter based, and the L&L writer got confused.
Personally, I'm more curious to see how Tiefling and Drow (the two iconic warlock races) and their racial spells tie into being warlocks. Is it redundant? Helpful? Does the damage dealing spell scale, since damage cantrips do? Are we going by multi-class rules and have the spells be allowed to draw on spell slots, effectively becoming "get this spell for free if you're a caster?" Or do they have to remain separate?
And why are spells given so much weight, when they're low level and restricted to once a day?
Brock_Landers wrote:
edwin_su wrote:
24 hours in the day. Unless you've got an Elf on the team (or a Warforged), 10 of those hours are eaten up by resting (each character in an average 5-person party keeping watch for 2 hours and getting 8 hours of sleep). That leaves you with 14 hours in the day to work. A vast majority of that time will be spent moving about. An average day's march is 8 hours, beyond which you start to get exhausted, as per the Basic document. Whether you're exploring a dungeon or pursuing a villain across countryside, you're likely to use at least 8 hours on exploration, leaving 6 hours for other things. Combat encounters play out about 2 minutes an encounter, on average, and social encounters might be two hours at MOST. Let's say that all your combat encounters for the day fit into one hour (that's 30 encounters, which I can pretty much assure you that you won't be fighting that many in a day), and that you have a social encounter with the boss man that fills out the remainder of the hour and let's say an hour more, just to be on the safe side (maybe you have a few more, smaller social encounters that day). That leaves you with 4 short rests through the day. That seems about right to me – though obviously, if you push harder because "the Orcs run as if the whips of their masters were at their backs," and you need to make "three days and nights pursuit" (though clearly, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are of much higher level, and attempting that as low-level characters would be really foolhardy, since you'd be way way way overexhausted), you'd have fewer short rests before the end of the day. So I'm guessing 2-5 short rests, depending on if there are any social encounters, but tending more towards the 3-4 middle range there, rather than the just 2 per day. That still lets you you your "short-rest" features 3-6 times, as opposed to your daily features. I really won't say that it's reasonable to only give the players 1 short rest a day. Of course, if you're putting the timelimits on them, of course they'll keep pushing. But they're more apt to take the short rest and recover those features than eat 10 hours taking a long-rest to recover all their features; 10 hours of resting time just isn't worth spending willy-nilly if you're undertime constraints. You only take a long rest because you have to, not because it will recover all your abilities. Short rests you take because they'll give you an edge as you keep going; an hour invested in recovery is worth every minute lost. Ten hours, not necessarily.
Now I think I understand why "Elves are Better than thou." They only need 4 hours rest, and they can be keeping watch during that time. An all-elf Party would find the difference between a few 1 hour short rests and another 4-hour long rest negligible. And even a party that just has 1 Elf in it doesn't need to rest for 10 hours; they've got an elf trancing for 4 of the 8 hours, and he or she is good to go after that, so they only need to rest for 8.
Personally, I just assume that 8 hours are spent traveling, exploring, fighting, working, etc, 8 hours sleeping, and at least 4 to 6 hours to wake up, wash yourself, eat, break camp, find a new camp, clean up, find then eat dinner, and go to sleep. Which leaves about 3 hours, give or take, to just relax and socialize.
Kind of like real life. Sleep 8, work 8, then spend the off hours either getting ready for sleep / work, or having time to relax with people and socialize.
ClockworkNecktie wrote:
The warlock would be horribly underpowerd if it could only cast 2-4 spells per day. Their weird single level slot mechanic really doesn't make sense unless its based on a short rest.
Mephi1234 wrote: