Fey Pact Warlocks

[sonofzeal]

Not having played 4e, I'm highly curious - where do Fey Pact Warlocks come from? With demons/devils/far-realms it makes sense because each of those contains creatures powerful beyond imagining... but I've never seen an entity on that scale among the fey, so who or what are you making the pact with? How do you negotiate it? Is there some elaborate ritual the character needs in the backstory to tie them to the Feywild?

Specifically, I'm thinking about this in terms of reflavoured 3e Warlocks if it makes a difference.

[NecroRebel]

Supposedly, there actually are arch-fey in the 4E cosmology on par with archdemons, and it is these who grant you your powers. None are technically statted out, AFAIK, but would presumably be level ~29-33 challenges if the given Demon Lords and lesser deities are any indication. Presumably, by that point you're such a skilled Warlock that you yourself are your power supply, or you're drawing energy from the Feywild itself.

There is a sidebar on page 36 of the 4E Manual of the Planes that spells out some ways a Feylock can gain their abilities, but it's implied that the Fey's reasons for empowering someone are as enigmatic as the Fey themself. Really, I see little difference between the archfey and the things from beyond that grant a Starlock their abilties in the standard flavor, so you can generally think of them as similar.

[Oracle_Hunter]

There is a sidebar on page 36 of the 4E Manual of the Planes that spells out some ways a Feylock can gain their abilities, but it's implied that the Fey's reasons for empowering someone are as enigmatic as the Fey themself. Really, I see little difference between the archfey and the things from beyond that grant a Starlock their abilties in the standard flavor, so you can generally think of them as similar.

I'd say the main difference between Starlock Patrons and Feylock Patrons lies in their motives. Starlock Patrons are, well, Cthulhu. They know things that Are Not Meant To Be Known and ultimately seek to devour your soul. This was reinforced by the Dragon article awhile back, and it just fits all the description in the PHB too well.

The Arch-Fey are kind of like Ravenloft's Dark Powers - mysterious beings that pervade the land and can grant boon and curse as it suits them. They are inscrutable as well, but not because they possess secret knowledge; they are just intelligences too alien to be understood by mortals. Basically, it seems like they give out mystic gifts for the lulz.

As of yet, I don't think anyone over at WotC has provided fluff for what all the Pact Rituals should look like, but you can probably figure out the jist of them. Infernal Pacts are classic Deals with the Devil, Star Pacts are more of the Contact Elder Gods school, and Fey Pacts are more whimsical - the Arch-Fey "touches" their Warlock in some fashion, probably after the Warlock visits an area where the Feywild and Prime Material Plane overlap.

[KKL]

the Arch-Fey "touches" their Warlock in some fashion, probably after the Warlock visits an area where the Feywild and Prime Material Plane overlap.

If you know what I mean.

[Oracle_Hunter]

If you know what I mean.

Hey, they haven't released a 4E version of the Book of Erotic Fantasy yet!

[TheOOB]

Read some of the traditional Gaelic works about faeries, or the aes sidhe and you'll realize that faeries are powerful, dangerous beings on par with devils and lovecraftian horrors.

Or just pick up White Wolf's Changling: the Lost, for a great idea of how great and terrible the fae can be. Basically what you have are beings of divine power, almost omnipotent by mortal standards, and while the good ones don't mean mortals any harm(they may even be fascinated by humans), they do not at all understand human emotion and thus don't have a shred of empathy. Think Elmira from Tiny Toons but with god-like powers.

And that's the ones that aren't evil.

As for how to make a deal, faeries are all about contract and obligation, so really if you can get a fae's attention(which may be a difficult as performing an ancient ritual, or as easy as having an interesting shade of green eyes depending on the fae) it wouldn't be too hard to work out some sort of contract, though I would guarantee that you are getting the short end of the stick somehow.

[DoomHat]

To put it succinctly,

Infernals are working for what amounts to Satan.
Stars are working for what amounts to Cthulhu.
Fey are working for what amounts to Oberon.

Look into old fairy tales and take a gander at the weird things leprechauns, elves, brownies, changelings, pixies, sprites and goblins inflicted on people seemingly for the hell of it. People who get invited to the world of the fey, staying only twenty minutes, later find that thirty year have gone by in the mortal world. A shoe cobbler who’s fallen on hard times gets some help from tiny elves that show up in the wee hours of the night who immediately leave, never to return, the moment they’re thanked.

While the Star pact patrons are madness inducing, fey pact patrons are just mad. They follow bizarre, seemingly arbitrary rules.
Sometimes they're banished if you can get them so laugh, some suffer from overwhelming obsessive compulsive behaviors, often you can extort favors from ones who are nigh omnipotent so long as you can guess their name, steal their shoes, come up with a riddle they can’t answer or some other arbitrary thing they might be bound to.

[sonofzeal]

So how would all that translate to 3e Greyhawk? Does it? Can it be made to?

What sort of backstory features would you recommend for a 3e Warlock themed around Fey (and charms) rather than Demons?

[Kurald Galain]

Infernals are working for what amounts to Satan.
Stars are working for what amounts to Cthulhu.
Fey are working for what amounts to Oberon.

Okay, so what about Darklocks? The one from the FR book, that is.

[hamishspence]

Going by the names of some of the powers, things from the Demonweb Pits- maybe yochol or Lolth's highest ranking minions?

Alternatively it might simply be Mysterious Underdark Inhabitants.

[Kurald Galain]

Going by the names of some of the powers, things from the Demonweb Pits- maybe yochol or Lolth's highest ranking minions?

Alternatively it might simply be Mysterious Underdark Inhabitants.

All right, but how is that different from Satan / Ctulhu?

[Burley]

Just want to throw this out there: Warlocks have always had the ability to get their powers from the Fey. It was never reflavored or anything. It is in the flavor text of the 3.5 Warlock that they get their powers from Fey, too.
I recall reading a great deal in a book I can't recall about a Council of Nine, and Queen Mab, and Warlocks created for fun.

Also, I concur with Hamishspence. The Darklocks get their powers from the Underdark, or perhaps from the cra-a-azy air that creates silly multi-class only classes.

[hamishspence]

maybe they are more diverse- elder brains, aboleth lords, cloakers, shadow dragons, etc. anything powerful that dwells in the depths might be a candidate and hero might not know what.

Or it could just be a mysterious force like "the Dark Itself" made up for the setting.

I wouldn't be averse to describing it as the alternate Vestige pact- wherever there is dark, vestiges look out from a Void where they dwell.

[lisiecki]

All right, but how is that different from Satan / Ctulhu?

Hey thats not fair. Its not like when Satan is liberated he will teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy ourselves, and all the earth will flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

[sonofzeal]

Just want to throw this out there: Warlocks have always had the ability to get their powers from the Fey. It was never reflavored or anything. It is in the flavor text of the 3.5 Warlock that they get their powers from Fey, too.

This.

How does this work? Does 3e D&D have an archfey that I somehow missed? How do you explain it when the strongest core fey is a mere CR 7, the second strongest a mere CR 4? If I have a fey-themed 3e Warlock, how can I resolve his backstory so that his powers make some small sense?

[Adumbration]

Check out the prestige class Wild Soul from Complete Mage. The fluff section is full of referances to the Seelie and Unseelie court, Oberan ruling the former, Queen of Air and Darkness the latter.

[Blackfang108]

This.

How does this work? Does 3e D&D have an archfey that I somehow missed? How do you explain it when the strongest core fey is a mere CR 7, the second strongest a mere CR 4? If I have a fey-themed 3e Warlock, how can I resolve his backstory so that his powers make some small sense?

Just because Queen Mab, the Leananne Sidthe, Titania, Aurora, Mave, the Earlking, etc. don't have core statrs doesn't mean they don't exist.

Choose one of them. Harry Dresden had the Leananne Sidthe as his Fairy Godmother, until Queen Mab bought his debt. (OK, he's a Wizard in Chicago's Yellow pages. Still...)

[kamikasei]

You know, a 3.5 warlock doesn't have to have a patron. He may have made a pact with, or be distantly descended from, or be descended from someone who made a pact with, any more or less powerful chaotic or evil fey or outsider. In the event that your powers are granted by someone who dealt with either you or your ancestor, presumably they must be powerful enough to do the granting, which implies more powerful than you. If you're just descended from fey or fey-touched in some way, though, you could wield the power of nature or fey-ishness more skillfully than the one who sired or awakened you.

(And yes, I would always have assumed that more powerful fey existed - Oberon, Mab, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, etc. I believe such entities have been statted up now and then in Dragon.)

[Oracle_Hunter]

All right, but how is that different from Satan / Ctulhu?

Well, to start with they have different goals.

Satan likes corrupting sentient beings and tricking them into terrible bargains. The Infernal Pact is probably a LE Contract which your standard Warlock doesn't fully understand (at first).

Cthulhu likes eating souls, plain and simple. He gives out power to cultists almost as an afterthought; by preparing the way for him to bring about the End Times, his cultists happen to grab onto esoteric Elder God knowledge they can use for their own ends.

The Dark? Well, I don't have the FR book, but they are neither in Hell nor the Far Realms so that's a start. In 2E, "The Dark" could have been the source of the mysterious radiation that allowed the Drow to have their nifty toys - perhaps a Lavos-like entity that wants to ultimately breech the surface and consume the planet?

Yeah, let's go with "The Dark" as Lavos. If you haven't played Chrono Trigger by now, you should be ashamed with yourself.

[Morty]

Yeah, let's go with "The Dark" as Lavos. If you haven't played Chrono Trigger by now, you should be ashamed with yourself.

Yet somehow, I feel no shame.
Anyway, on topic: the fey described in Monster Manual are small-time fey wandering the Material Plane. There's nothing that stops you from making up some arch-fey your character made a pact with. Or you can go with original Warlock flavor and say that your chracter' is fey-touched from birht for whatever reason.

[Asbestos]

Baba Yaga is mentioned in the Manual of the Planes as an archfey. Read some stories concerning her and making a pact with her doesn't seem all that far fetched.

[lisiecki]

Cthulhu likes eating souls, plain and simple. He gives out power to cultists almost as an afterthought; by preparing the way for him to bring about the End Times, his cultists happen to grab onto esoteric Elder God knowledge they can use for their own ends.

Hey

Now don't get down on the big C.
All lovecraft says about him is that when he shows up humanity's going to have a good time. *

"The Call of Cthulhu," p. 141.

[Hzurr]

I always assumed that the darkpact warlocks came into being after someone at WotC said "Wait a minute...how on earth would a drow ever actually see a star?", and felt that they should have a 3rd option.

[Inyssius Tor]

Heh heh heh--ironic, then, that they appear in a book where the Sea of Stars is literally collapsing in on the drow-inhabited parts of the Underdark.

[Siegel]

I always assumed that the darkpact warlocks came into being after someone at WotC said "Wait a minute...how on earth would a drow ever actually see a star?", and felt that they should have a 3rd option.

I think it's more like

Infernal - The abyss
Fey - The feywild
Star - Far realm
Dark - Shadowfell
???? - Elemental Chaos

Some parts of the underdark overlapp with the underdark the same way the normal word overlaps with the feywild sometimes. Dark pact for me is a pact with a Shadowfell enity.

[Hzurr]

I think it's more like

Infernal - The abyss
Fey - The feywild
Star - Far realm
Dark - Shadowfell
???? - Elemental Chaos

Some parts of the underdark overlapp with the underdark the same way the normal word overlaps with the feywild sometimes. Dark pact for me is a pact with a Shadowfell enity.

Eh, sounds good. My guess is that the elemental chaos one will co-inside with the Arcane power sourcebook they're releasing next year.

[hamishspence]

in the previews for 4th ed, Infernal pact was "created by" renegade devils.

However, in Manual of the Planes, Mephistopheles is cited as a common patron for Infernal Warlocks.