Long-term Fiend Warlock

[Rieler]

I want to play a pact of the fiend warlock in my next campaign, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be viable in the long term. A lot of warlock with evil patrons I saw before are usually trying to get out of the deal and if they’re successful they multiclass into something else.

But there are so many amazing abilities that fiend warlocks get at higher levels and I don’t want to switch classes midway through the campaign. Is there a way to play a good-aligned pact of the fiend warlock all the way to level 20 (if the fates allow)?

[Amnestic]

Sure.

What immediately comes to mind is that you have the patron against your will (perhaps a relative tied the fiend to your bloodline as part of a deal) and rather than sit around or mope you're going to do your best to redeem your patron from the baddies to the goodies. It gives you a reason to maintain your pact and it's very goodie-two-shoes. It sets up a fine rivalry with the fiend trying to corrupt you and you trying to 'corrupt' them.

Alternatively, perhaps they don't even *know* their patron is a fiend. Maybe they've been tricked and believe their patron to be a celestial or the like.

Alternatively alternatively, your character knows who their patron is and isn't interested in redeeming them - just taking their power and putting it to Good (heh) use, flaunting their good deeds in the fiend's face as a way of saying "I'm using your powers to make the world better, what are you going to do about it?" Maybe then it's the *fiend* who wants to get out of the pact.

[jojosskul]

So, at least in the Forgotten Realms, the way the Blood War and fiends work is that Evil souls of the right variety get sent to the Hells, the Abyss, or Gehenna and then become fuel for the Blood War.

Maybe your patron is absolutely fine with you going out and smiting evil, because the more evil souls you send to the Hells, the better his/her/it's recruiting numbers, and the better chance it has of promotion to a better type of fiend.

To keep things from getting too murky, it's part of your deal that your patron ONLY gets evil souls, so if you accidentally kill a good or neutral one you're not dooming it to fight forever in the Blood War.

[Rieler]

Sure.

What immediately comes to mind is that you have the patron against your will (perhaps a relative tied the fiend to your bloodline as part of a deal) and rather than sit around or mope you're going to do your best to redeem your patron from the baddies to the goodies. It gives you a reason to maintain your pact and it's very goodie-two-shoes. It sets up a fine rivalry with the fiend trying to corrupt you and you trying to 'corrupt' them.

Alternatively, perhaps they don't even *know* their patron is a fiend. Maybe they've been tricked and believe their patron to be a celestial or the like.

Alternatively alternatively, your character knows who their patron is and isn't interested in redeeming them - just taking their power and putting it to Good (heh) use, flaunting their good deeds in the fiend's face as a way of saying "I'm using your powers to make the world better, what are you going to do about it?" Maybe then it's the *fiend* who wants to get out of the pact.

I was thinking more like the latter scenario. Knowingly entering the pact for revenge and then trying to change for the better and use those powers for good. Sounds a bit edgy, I know, but I had a lot of cool details in mind. But the Fiend trying to escape the pact with me, again poses the same issue.

[Unoriginal]

I want to play a pact of the fiend warlock in my next campaign, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be viable in the long term. A lot of warlock with evil patrons I saw before are usually trying to get out of the deal and if they’re successful they multiclass into something else.

But there are so many amazing abilities that fiend warlocks get at higher levels and I don’t want to switch classes midway through the campaign. Is there a way to play a good-aligned pact of the fiend warlock all the way to level 20 (if the fates allow)?

Patron and Warlock don't require to have an ongoing relationship with each other. As far as the game's writers are concerned, the deal is something that can be done and paid for in the backstory of the Warlock, and unless the Patron has put special conditions in the pact once the spark of power is given to the Warlock it can't be taken back.

Not all Patrons demand the moon and the rivers, either. Raxxivort offers Warlock powers in exchange for an interesting magic item, for example.

Heck your character could have gotten their Pact by beating the Fiend in a contest or because you've helped them somehow (like freeing one from where it was sealed) and they paid back the favor.


But the Fiend trying to escape the pact with me, again poses the same issue.

That can only happen if the pact has such a clause in the first place.

The PHB even describes pacts where the *Patron* is the unwilling (or at least unknowing) party whose power is getting leeched on.

[Hellpyre]

Heck your character could have gotten their Pact by beating the Fiend in a contest

Ah yes, the Charlie Daniels school of Bardlock origins.

[Zero Prime]

I played a Warlock, Garret, who was a street urchin, and an 'apprentice' to another PC, a full wizard. He assumed he was a wizard, because he had magical abilities, the Wizard, Mathimaticus, never told him otherwise. He was on a quest to gain arcane power because he had to oppose a demonic cult that killed his parents.

However, Garret's backstory went down like this:
Parents members of Infernal Cult, fell in love & run away.
Cult summoned a Greater demon to track down and slay the fleeing cult members.
Greater demon commands lesser demon to track and discover parents.
Greater demon appears, offers the couple a chance to save their lives. Agrees to dismiss Cult's demon if they offer it their first born.
Couple agree to pact, Greater demon dismisses Minor demon, informs woman that she is pregnant and claims his price.
Hides child in an urban orphanage.
Greater demon informs Cult of deserters location, Cult kills parents, fulfilling the Contract.
14 years later Greater demon who is bound by Cult and cannot harm it's members, reveals to child that Cult killed his parents.
Greater Demon, disguised as human, pledges to gift Garret arcane power if he eliminates his parent's killers.
Garret opposes Cult; freeing his Patron from the Cult's Contract.

So now, Garret. a Neutral Good warlock, works with the party to eliminate the cultists, but since the contract that granted him his infernal powers require that he eliminate his parent's killer, and his patron is culpable in their death, the elimination of the cult doesn't end the contract. Therefore the patron cannot revoke his power's without breaking his own contract, and the conclusion of the contract is that Garret kills his patron. They both know that they are opposed, and Garret, while earning power and allies to help him defeat his patron, has to dodge his patron's traps and other followers.

[RedMage125]

I invite you to cherry-pick from this or steal it wholesale.

My fiend pact warlock concept differs from the narrative of "sold my soul".

His name is Teraptus. He was a Sailor on a merchant ship. His ship crashed on a remote island. Turns out, a devil cult was trying to bring a powerful archdevil to the Prime, the resulting release of energies is what crashed the ship. But there was a cabal of people trying to stop them on the island, too. The crew of Teraptus' ship filled in for the members the cabal had lost, and together they participated in a ritual to bind the fiend. All the participants are now warlocks. And they are stealing this power.

Now, this backstory also gives the DM some story hooks for down the line. Because all the warlocks from that ritual have gone their separate ways. The more they draw power from the fiend (i.e. using their powers), the more they take from him, weakening him and keeping him bound (so when they level up, he loses power). BUT, if any of them are killed by the fiend's minions, that warlock's share of power returns to him. The fiend's minions would surely try and hunt down as many as possible, to free their master. So, one day, down the line, enough of Teraptus' "brothers and sisters" may be killed for the fiend to break his bonds and be free. At which point, he will surely hunt down the rest of the warlocks siphoning his power...

[cutlery]

Well, for one you could ask to reflavor it to some sort of fire elemental theme, there isn’t much about it that inherently evil or devil-ish.

If not, a Warlock need not share the alignment or even the goals of their patron. Some DMs might not even make the patron a major part of the story; in the same way a wizard’s former mentor or teacher might not be part of a campaign.

[Evaar]

My Warlock won another Warlock's signet ring in a game of cards. That signet ring was the key to unlocking the Book of Shadows. Displeased, the other Warlock's patron incinerated him later that night.

When my character realized what he'd come to possess, he tried leave them at the home of another infernalist. That infernalist, actually a rakshasa, found my character and returned the items (in the middle of the night, standing over his bed), saying they were his now.

So there's no clear pact. But whoever is in charge has decided they want my character to have these things. Could be any number of reasons why, that would be up to the DM. Maybe that entity just thinks my character will be a thorn in the side of his competitors. Maybe it thinks my character will corrupt himself with the power. Maybe it's just following rules that were set up before my character ever entered the picture, and although it's not happy about my character having the ring and book it is required to follow those rules until, presumably, my character loses them or dies.

At the moment I have no reason to think my character's soul is in any particular danger.