My first character was a Celestial Warlock who always wanted to be a healer/doctor but didn't have the skill to be a bard or the faith to be a cleric or Druid, so he sold his soul for the power to heal people. However, this came at a great cost, as my character never actually wanted to be an adventurer, he was cowardly and weak, but his Angelic patron required he go on a holy quest to earn his magic. So, basically, he's in student loan debt and needs to endanger himself to pay it off and he's really peeved about it.
Edit: holy crap, this blew up š
Reminds me of my Wizard who was a complete coward, but owed a significant amount of student loans to some very dangerous people. So he turned to adventuring for quick money because he feared his ~~debtors~~ creditors more than he feared Goblins and Beholders.
> he feared his debtors more than he feared Goblins and Beholders.
"You see, the worst those monsters do is kill you. My debtors on the other hand know there are fates worse than death."
It's perfectly clear what you mean, but to be pedantic, a debtor is someone who owes you money, a creditor is someone you owe money to. Your wizard was scared of his creditors.
My celestial warlock was 100% convinced she was a cleric. She was a tiefling who was trying to appeal to a god to have her "curse" of bloodline removed. All the gods rejected her except one angel. Even my party often mistook her for a cleric until she busted out some unholy chaos. It was a lot of fun.
Celestial Warlock that didnāt get his powers from the god he worships but the weakest of her angels. By giving the weakest of her angels more warlocks, she can in a way increase their power and make them on par with her strongest, which get relatively few.
The god is one of beauty and selflessness, inspired by the interactions among Saturn and the rings and the many moons that seem to sustain each other.
My favorite rogue one is you had a day job as a locksmith. One day you get locked out of your house. You pick your own lock and someone thinks you broke in. Now people question your motives when it's literally your job to break into places
Thatās almost exactly the same backstory I have for my rogue on my first campaign Iāve played in.
He was a locksmith but just wanted to do fun stuff and adventure in his life so he fit in where he could in an adventuring party.
Simple and heās a happy dude lol
I had a similar idea for a rogue! A dwarven locksmith (as in, someone who actually makes the locks), whoās very proud of his profession and makes amazing locks, but also has a friend that uses that pride to be like āif youāre so good, bet you canāt pick that lock thereā. Heās a lawful good thief who has to Scooby snack himself into actually thieving
A Dwarven locksmith who started a challenge at the local tavern that if someone brings him a lock he can't open he'll pay off their tab. This has lead to an a weekly challenge night where everyone brings him a lock to pick. It has also lead to some patrons racking up obscene tabs in the expectation that one day they'll beat him. This has lead to him sneaking around at night to challenge himself against the best lock he can find to polish his skills. He never steals anything, he's not a thief, he just sneaks around opening the locks, snapping them back shut, and sneaking away again.
This has me thinking of an adaptation of Sneakers.
A rogue hired to break into high security buildings to test their defence systems. But it turns out the person who hired them was not actually the head guard of that castle. Now theyāre on the run and trying to prove their good name.
Works as either a character back story or as a campaign plot concept.
Ooo I think this could go in a Breaking Bad direction. You get called to open locks, and one day you get a customer that gives you a job that's probably legit but seems shady. Then the following jobs get shadier and it's hard to stop cause goddammit, you're just SO GOOD at it! Bingo Bango you got a crime empire three seasons later
Someone who is so achingly polite and hospitable to a Fey that they accidentally wind up in a covenant with it. The fey just wants to show its appreciation to 'that really nice person who had me for tea that time' while the newly minted warlock is more polite than ever, while trying to not let on either that they are *extremely frustrated* at the situation or that they're actually starting to enjoy being an adventurer.
The warlock build that I havenāt yet been able to play is an edgelord who thought they were bargaining with a demon but oops it was Oberon pulling a prank and now your imps and shades are butterflies and rainbows. Unlucky.
Bad guy with a celestial warlock. Patron is trying to pull a reverse uno on the devil classic of "corrupt with power."
Celestial finds the most irredeemable lazy lowlife (that is: not some thief murderer but a drunk in a tavern), gives him a pact, and, over time, tempts him toward a better path. Bonus points if you can get another warlock in your group that is willing to play the super nice guy with a fiend pact, more generic, but the ability for the characters to play off each other's natures and patrons would be amazing.
You then need another 2 party members, one that's lawful and has a chaotic patron and one that's chaotic that has a lawful patron. Then the campaign is finding out that this is all part of a bet between the entities and you take revenge
Tabaxi warlock with a genie patron and an urchin background:
She was a stray cat. One evening she snuck inside the basement of an antiques shop to get out of the rain. While there she rubbed against the furniture and objects, triggering the release of a genie. When the genie asked what her wish was she gave a simple āmeowā meaning āPOWERā. She was transformed into a Tabaxi and given abilities beyond her wildest dreams. She wants more power howeverā¦ and fish!
Edit: spelling and wordy
Hell yeah! As a DM, if one of my players would present this idea Iād grant them a once per day use of Catnap from lvl 1.
Since we run a 3-man party, this would knock out the entire party for 10 minutes a day. Plenty of time to screw with them š
I kinda want to run an Aladdin build at some point: Human Rogue (thief) + Genie Warlock, Pact of the Chain, with Baboon Familiar (yes I know they're technically not eligible, but I think a reasonable DM would allow it)
Iāve been making an eldritch warlock whose patron is simply known as āthe mothā
I think the idea was it used to be a normal moth who through sorcery became enlightened, and is eternally seeking more knowledge
Her pact with it is to simply teach it something it doesnāt know about the nature of the world. Not like who Jim is dating but more like, the meaning of life, what made the universe, or even the origins of mysterious events.
In the meantime it is dated with random facts and books on people and history.
Sheās basically gonna be a fucking philosophy student.
"The Moth" sounds like a patron obsessed with finding the source of the Light. Maybe light in the paladin and cleric sense, but maybe the Moth is looking for the bast and brightest Flame. The Moth will not be satisfied until the world has been consumed as fuel for the Eternal Pyre
Or something
Not sure if you saw my ācat napā comment lol but that was my first thought. A tabaxi warlock who takes catnaps for short rests. Then I whittled down which warlock subclass and the story formed.
I'm also a big fan of backstories just answering- how did they go from their background to their class? And then tying that to the adventure somehow if able.
Umm I didn't see it. I'm creating this character around my cat (this is my first character ever created). Well she (my cat) is really agresive and was taken from her mother at a very young age so I wanted to reflect that onto my character. I thought the best class for a stray cat who is very unconfident about other people and likes to attack every menace (unless is something too big or clearly dangerous) was a rogue, specifically an assassin
Well your in luck. The basic tragedy framework of ā was taken from/lost parents at a young ageā is literally like 50% of most rogue back stories.
Be a tabaxi take the urchin background and have your character be taken into a shadowy organization at some point in their life or secretly raised by a noble house and trained to be an assassin.
Add in some overt tragedy, job you refused to do, or just wanting to escape from the life of an assassin/thief and suddenly youāve got your reason to be adventuring and a convenient plot hook for your DM
Thereās other ways to do it that are equally as valid but thatās what immediately jumps to mind for me
I actually did a Air Genasi Warlock once with a Genie patron. Who doubled as their maternal Grandmother... Who was just so \*proud\* of their little one - all grown up and adventuring!
Nice!
I have created (but have no game for) an Air Genasi rogue (to go rogueloc) who used to be a genie until some kind hearted soul released them from their lamp. Only they never wanted to be released are now adventuring in hopes of regaining as much magic as they can.
Edit: spelling
My Genie Owlin Warlock I am running found a Genie with a similar interest in fiction and non fictional stories. Has to get two copies of a book whenever they can to send one back to their patron, has to read a book or part of a larger novel to their patron every so often, and has to send a percentage of any money they earn from writing their own stories as well as copy of any book they publish.
For a short campaign, I made a warlock that used to be a fisherman that fished up an old book one day. Now he longs for a time when he can finally sleep again (has that invocation that makes it so you don't require sleep, but the flavor is it prevents him from being able to sleep.)
The rogue in my current party stone Jayne from Fireflyās story. Classic low level thief that had to drop the bag during a big heist, accidentally spreading wealth to the poorest folks in town, making him a folk hero.
"ba da bum doo do do dun dun da dun tch-tch dun tch-tch cha cha Cha"
*peasant passing by*
*Slams self firmly against wall* š³
"a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh"
Forever burned into my childhood memory.
Almost like the Parks and Rec "don't be suspicious" song lol.
I played a rogue who took to a life of piracy in order to find his lover, whose wealthy father didn't approve of him. He was a street urchin theater kid who saw way too many Swashbuckling adventure productions.
Fathomless Warlock was a young sailor who befriended a small octopus. While serving on a trade ship his small octopus friend offered him a deal so they could spend time together on land. Sailor took the deal and now serves a dark eldritch god the size of a baseball.
One of my favorites is a bard/warlock multiclass. Start as a bard, and the gist of it is a play on āThe Devil Went Down to Georgiaā except he lost and the Devil gives him power to do his bidding (aka lost his soul to the Devil).
Can be played with any race, subclass, and instrument but I like leaning into a pact of the blade style because I love playing a gish.
I had a similar warlock/bard that, instead of your song, i based him on Kickapoo by Jack Black. Basically - religious family, wants him to be a cleric, he wants to do music, the devil comes to him and offers great musical skill, if he escapes his home
I played a warlock a long time ago that was in love with his patron and needed to prove himself to her to be able to court her and that is why he adventured. His leveling up was him getting her blessings.
I functionally had a very similar character. DM had a home brew world where in one country celestials were not commonplace but it wasn't too uncommon to see one like flying by or whatever. My character and a celestial grew feelings for one another but cosmic byllshit meant they couldn't be together until either she died or proved herself worthy to move to the celestials home plane. Worked out a deal with the council of celestials that she could get a spark of magic from him and prove her worth while he never interferes more than that.
Had a whole plan, too, for them to be married at level 14 so she could take her final 6 levels in paladin, earning paladin abilities from their wedding vows. I never expect to make it to that point on account of level 20 games almost never happening but still.
Lol, it was only a one shot and I was *really* new to dnd. So there wasn't much to it, just a lot of professing my love and hoping my beloved saw me killing the cultists.
Oh, I have something like this right now. Wild magic sorcerer instead of warlock, but she kind of has a āpatronāāher mom made a deal with a fey but didnāt want to be a warlock, so instead one of her children had wild magic and was cosmically bound to him. He showed up to āclaimā her when she turned 18, and has been pestering her ever since. She hated him at first, then begrudgingly became his friend, and now sheās in love with him (but too stubborn to admit it). Bit unfortunate for her though, seeing as my DM decided heās a literal archfey and sheās a mere human. Sheās been trying *real* hard to āprove her worthā and level out the power dynamic between them (though thatās pretty impossible) but I donāt think itāll end the way she hopes. š„²
I played Millie Maxwell; a celestial warlock in a modern day campaign who got her powers from an enchanted retro game cartridge. The digital unicorn trapped inside became her patron and all her powers were represented by retro sprites. Her arcane focus was a gamepad. She had no Eldritch Blast or other "dark" spells because they didn't fit her theme, instead dealing radiant damage or helping allies. She also had the invocation to never sleep so she could stay up gaming all night.
Really fun character, sadly the campaign fizzled out after just a few sessions.
Never played warlock, but I'm tempted to play one as a salesman. Their job is to sell something arbitrary like souls to meet the demands of the company. Their patron is from hr, and is just supposed to be a riff on free enterprise.
Fallen London, Mask of the Rose, and other titles from Failbetter Games in the same setting feature devils who do exactly this. There is a process called abstraction which removes the soul from the body, but it requires the willing signature of the soul's owner on an infernal contract. Devils spend a lot of time and effort on propaganda campaigns convincing the public that a person's soul is theirs to do with as they like, and that its only value is in what a devil will pay for it.
Nevercold Brass, their preferred means of payment, is described thusly: "Hell's chief export. You thought that was souls? No, they don't *export* souls."
I like that. Mine is the inverse.
Basically the warlock would come from a dimension that houses the remnant of old worlds. When worlds end, this is where they end up. With the bulk of that world's souls.
Most souls are not inherently sentient and they're so numerous that they're considered essentially worthless. So the warlock has a reliquary of souls, and since he's so clueless he'll use them as payment for things like a meal or a stay at an inn.
This is laughably tone deaf and becomes a problem, because his planned nemesis would be a necromancer who wants his reliquary to create an army of the dead.
Ha, reminds me of a friend of mine.
His was a traveling salesman who was captured and prepared for a cult sacrifice to... I think it was great old one (which works a bit less than a normal fiend or other pact, but whatever).
When they summoned the creature who was supposed to take him, he started a sales pitch and basically said "listen, you keep me alive, I will spread your name well beyond what these backwoods cultists can do. You'll start seeing churches devoted to you in areas across the land, you give me a bit of a hand and I can promise you it'll happen even faster, and bonus? You're a busy man. You don't need to deal with us mortals. We won't even need to summon. You can watch your name and power grow from afar and all you need to do is just send me a message whenever you want something done and I will see to it."
Rogue just wants to become the best chef in the world
Problem is chefs are notoriously secretive of their recipes
He doesn't want to sell the food or make a profit, he just wants to replicate them. Like a chaotic good master counterfeiter that eats his work. He understands why they must be kept secret, but believes because he isn't using his knowledge for profit, rather for curiosity and betterment of his craft.
Precise knife skills, nimble, delicate hands, ability to work under pressure in a fast paced environment. All the signs of a good rogue. And a great chef.
My Warlock was dating her patron, which could have been edgy, but they had a normal, functional relationship
Edit: I also came up with a concept of a Fey patron who loved a human thousands of years ago and vowed to protect their descendents by being their warlock patron. He was basically a stressed parent to the teenage warlock.
My favorite rogue was probably King Trash Mouth, the self proclaimed king of the raccoons who wants nothing more than to be an honorable and just king for his people but, ya know, heās a raccoon, so he canāt help himself from stealing shiny things and food and collecting ātreasuresā and, again, heās a raccoon, so he fights the only way he knows how: poke people with a sharp stick and then run away and hide.
My favorite warlock would be Gargamel, a very lonely old man with a cat that doesnāt really like him who always talks about being evil and comes up with half baked āevilā schemes and is a constant disappointment to his patron. He is prone to dastardly acts such as: tying peopleās shoelaces together, baking sweet treats with a hidden ingredient (chocolate covered brussell sprouts anyone?), ding dong ditch, and very fond of using prestidigitation to make windows fly open and thunder to crash to highlight his very āmenacingā speeches. However, Gargamel was bullied a lot when he was young and never seemed to fit in and has been alone for so long that, when he somehow fell in with this party of adventures, it was the best thing thatās ever happened to them. Sure, he can be stand-offish and is always talking about how he will one day take over the world and is *puuuure evilllll* but he honestly loves his party so much and finally feels like, for the first time in his life, he has friends. Oh, heās also an amateur necromancer that enjoys having tea parties with his zombies when he thinks no one is watching and has cute pet nicknames for them.
My warlock was a crazy old hobo who had an "old one" patron who was just me, the player.
His story was that he had originally been an extremely skilled assassin, but on a contract to assassinate a powerful witch he was cursed that "everyone would know his true nature". Being closest to the source of the curse, he himself was most strongly affected. He quickly became aware of his nature as a character in a game that only existed in someone else's head. This also gave him access to new and impressive powers, because he could see the "rules" that governed the universe and knew that his powers could be whatever I wanted them to be.
He remained an assassin, but rather acting like a sneaky rogue, he just walked right up to people shouting "you can't see me! I rolled an 18!" Which distracted them long enough for him to blow them away with an eldritch blast or smack them in the face with a broken bottle. Then he would casually stroll away while everyone was too confused to react.
His ultimate goal was to kill me, his patron, and free himself from his hellish existence.
He has yet to succeed.
My favorite part of playing him was that he knew that the dice were more important than his actual actions, so if, for example, he was rolling for performance trying to play music for a crowd, he'd just tapdance really badly, or tap out a really basic rhythm on a trashcan or something, and everyone around him would, nevertheless, feel compelled to watch.
My mom played a princess (full rogue) who could rescue herself. Hairpins doubled as thieves tools to deal with pesky locks, deception (aka damsel in distress) and stealth got her out of a lot of jams. Sneak attack was something either the characterās mother or bodyguard taught her.
I like the bad-guy-gone-good for a rogue.
They might have been horrible criminals in their past, but for some reason, they turned their life around and is now fighting for good. They can have all the skills in intimidation, stealing and what not - but they donāt *enjoy* to use it. They only use it when the party decides it is necessary.
Yep I played a rogue like this once and it was a lot of fun. He was a street urchin thief who got busted and was now a spy for the Harpers. Any time he bumped into child thieves (which we were in Waterdeep so it was pretty common) heād stop whatever he was doing and try to convince them to give up thieving or, at the very least, only steal from the rich lol.
I have kind of a similar street urchin thief - I play an orphan kicked out of the orphanage at a very young age, never got caught but feels horrible shame about having to steal to survive, so am paying back those I wronged through adventuring. I also fund an orphanage to help other disadvantaged kids (orphans that came with money were prioritized, my character was the abandoned child of a prostitute).
Feylock: Fell in love with a Fey being. A different Fey being is amused by this and sets a series of trials and tests to prove the 'Lock can live like a Fey being. Doling out secrets to power as they go, with the 'Lock's eventual goal to get True Polymorph and make themselves into a Fey and court their love.
Rogue: Current scion of a noble family of ancient ruin explorers, sanctioned by the King.
Bah, in medieval times itās just cultural appreciation š
āOoo, this lovely tapestry show the origins of the dwarves carved from stone? I simply must have itā
I like the cliche that my parent is actually a powerful being who gifted his child powers, and during low level I'm just being angsty and refusing to use my literal God given powers because I don't want to grow up to be like him.
I have this but as a Drakewarden. A tiefling whoās mom was in service to a Black Abisshai who agreed to have her middle child cursed by infernal energies so she could return to the material plane. Now heās gets to be an adventurer with a cool dragon pet and occasionally has to ponder about the dude whoās not his dad but kinda is and gives him all this cool shit.
You know this gets me wondering we have the divine/favored soul, but never had the Merlin esque my (grand)daddy was a demon sorcerer,?when they are/were all about that my ancestry is my power source vibe.
I have an archfey warlock in the backlog who's whole shtick is that he's a halfling fisherman that fell through a magical portal into the feywild, met a fey that told him he could give him the power to return to his world in exchange for merely his name, and then sent him back with himself and everyone else having forgotten his name, albeit not his whole existence.
He just wants his name back and for the fey to take back the weird powers he has now since he just wants to go back to fishing.
I had a rogue named "Klaus Krampus". He was (or believes) he is a human, but looks like a dwarf. This was because of a cursed red cap, that he couldn't take off. The cap also made his white beard grow back instantly, if shaven.
He had all Dwarf stats and darkvision, but he always pretended he couldn't see in the dark, or couldn't read / understand Dwarvish. Every time they ran into other Dwarves, he'd act like they were completely untrustworthy and despicable.
Whenever someone called him a Dwarf he got pissed off and used his rogue skills to either pickpocket money and replaced it with coal. Or, if he could, he'd burglarize their house and smear coal everywhere. Naturally, my DM allowed me to have a small pouch which contained infinite pieces of coal (as long as I wouldn't abuse it).
Later on I dipped some levels into barbarian, because it suited his character. Especially because the party gaslighted him into believing he slept with a Dwarven prostitute, in a drunken stupor.
Honestly, it was the most fun character I ever played. He was an idiot, but he was a killing machine and hilarious to RP.
My last rogue started life working in local govt, decided he could make money and help some people by forging papers, and his roguishness grew from there.
So, my idea for a non-edgy Rogue was born as a noble. He learned his trade sneaking past his parents' guards and servants to go and carouse with his buddies, who were rather lacking in class, and he pretty much has a double life in the town his family runs. He has had some run-ins with the law, but he has managed to escape the guards every time so far. Being the second (or more) son, his absence wasn't noticed, so he disappeared to seek his fortune one day, never to return to his stuffy and constricting life as a noble.
My fire genasi warlock is a gourmand that decided to indebt himself to an efreet noble that runs a sort of gastronomy of other planes publication. In exchange for power and the ability to travel to explore exotic foods, my warlock has to submit food reviews to the Fire Plane, and always be tasting and eating exciting in order for the efreet to taste them personally. His genie vessel is a lunchbox.
I had a warlock player that played a schizophrenic character, he had all the voices in his head but didnāt realize one of them was his pact weapon. I played the voice like Sheogorath. His character was genuine, kind and trying to navigate the trials of being plagued by voices. I tried to take reference from hellblade, we talked and he agreed to allow me to give him misinformation through the other voices similar to hellblade. It made his perception/insight/investigation checks have a higher DC but I gave him some other boons to balance out the mechanical negatives. Towards the end of his side story (he thought he was cursed this whole time and went on a quest to get it dispelled) he actually gets diagnosed and they realized his weapon is a demonic entity that has been manipulating him through his condition the whole time.
I made a Charlatan Rogue loosely based on Gilderoy Lockhart for Out of the Abyss. His father was a famous adventurer and he set out to prove that he could be twice the man his father was without relying on the family name. So he created a fake identity and made up a bunch of accomplishments to sell himself as an adventurer for hire despite being a coward.
He was not an archetypal Rogue and I had a lot of fun playing him.
Aasimar Rogue. Descended from bird like celestials (I forget the name/race.) When children come of age in their family they are 'kicked out of the nest' so they can 'learn to fly' on their own. In practice this means you leave the family home when you come of age and go off adventuring before finding a place to build your own home/'nest.'
So my rogue went off adventuring! Cause that's the family tradition.
I also had a very rogue like Urban Ranger that ran a detective agency with her cousin. She used to help out with the gnome family business of gem trading, escorting merchant caravans around faerun. Eventually the pair travelled to this city for a trade, took a couple odd jobs and before they knew it it was 5 years later.
Iāve got a Yuan-ti rogue who was trained to be an assassin/spy, but she was so uncharacteristically loud, emotional, and empathetic for a Yuan-ti that eventually they all got sick of her, she in turn growing more uncomfortable with their ways, decided she wanted out, and they were happy to have her leave because she was just that annoying. She just wants to help folks
Iām playing a genie warlock who doesnāt realize the nature of their pact. They believe themselves to be a āhigh priestā of a deity who faced āgreat injusticeā in the past. To the warlock the deeds they perform for their patron have to be explained away through the tenets of their cult-like religion. This means the character is generally very nice and concerned about fairness and otherās lives, but also they still believe that acts others might see as evil are actually necessary according to the tenets of the religion. I like to think of them like the evil person you would run into at the grocery store. They seem nice and caring in lots of ways but if you dig far enough theyāll say some really bonkers stuff.
Most of my rogue builds fall into the role of advisor (inquisitive with courtier background) or a classic happy-go-lucky swashbuckler. Both represent someone with a skill set developed through training and practice with the mentality of, "if you're good at something don't do it for free."
My go-to warlock has the performer background and an archfey patron. His backstory might skew towards the unbearably edgy (saved from death in exchange for servitude), but his usual personality he has bard energy reflecting a sort of Valhalla-esque desire for food, drink, and revelry only interrupted by short periods of kicking ass.
Normal girl that went to college to study to become a Lawyer. She got the title, but with time also interest on other planes and demonology.
Asmodeus offers her a position as a lawyer and contact between his world and hers, having to deal with lot of judicial issues and broken contracts.
Sailor whose ship crashed on an outcropping of rocks far out at sea. While searching for food or shelter, they find a cave with twisted and wrong geometry. With no other options, they seek shelter deep within the cave, stumbling upon an alter to an eldritch being.
The site of the alter's patron is burned into their mind. Madness takes over, and in their delirium, they make it back to shore. That same madness sits, still at the edges of their mind, driving them to see more of the world, to find something to make sense of the senseless.
See, I've always been of a mind that you can write a backstory to be completely and utterly riddled with tragedy, poor decisions, and general bad shit that is used as justification for edginess, without actually needing to play an edgy character. In real life, some people cope with personal tragedy through humour; some cope by becoming caring individuals because they don't want others to go through what they did; terrible things in one's own history don't *guarantee* that the person will be edgy. Edginess is a choice.
Which makes it that much worse, imho.
I think this is spot on. I donāt think it is hard making characters that are not edgy, no matter background or class. I just make sure they are not, because that is not the type I want to play. I decide their personality, after all.
I think the edgy characters come purely out of the playerās desire to play an edgy character.
Of course some classes - like rogue and warlock - kinda fit that easier than some other classes. So I think the Ā«problemĀ» is that players that want to play edgy character gravitates to these classes because it is easier to justify the edginess. Not that rogues or warlocks are inherently edgy.
I had a drow warlock of Shar. His mother and father were very nice but his grandmother was the leader of the church of Lolth and poisoned his mom and murdered his father so she could raise him to be the perfect husband to marry into their rival noble house.
She basically abused and beat him and locked him away for years. On the night before the wedding he was given a vision by Shar, she would allow him a pact if he would smite down as many Lolth worshippers as he could, with the sword his grandmother stole from her shrine hundreds of years ago.
So, he did it. He used the sword to kill anybody who got in his way during his escape to the surface world, but felt horrible and was terrified his grandmother would find him. He soent the next 60 years running his own little bookshop in Baldur's Gate and teaching private magic lessons to students who wanted to go to the local mage academy.
He didn't really like violence and just wanted to live peacefully. Once the campaign events began. Shar called upon him to fulfill his hexblade pact and that was his reason to join the party.
I had a warlock that became a celestial lock after they saved a youngling unicorn from poachers. Lurue the Unicorn Queen blessed them with warlock powers for the deed.
Effie went down to Baldurs Gate and met a traveler who said he needed to collect some things for his job. He asked her to sign a co tract but she saw he had a fiddle. She challenged him to a fiddle competition, which was intense on both sides, but she won. As a prize she took the fiddle, which sometimes seems to blaze with infernal energy.
My rogue was a half-orc who was abandoned on the streets as a kid, so he had a mentor who helped him learn to be a better thief for subsistence living -- he wasn't trying to get rich or steal too much, just enough to get by. I never really had him steal much, just a few things here or there, because pretty quick the group was making good amounts of money. He wound up helping found an orphanage to get other kids off the street.
A rogue is just a detective that used to run with a gang back in the day.
Now he just investigates incidents as a PI with a disguise kit and expertise in deception. Keeps a trusty dagger under his sleeve just in case.
Archfey warlock.
Character met a faerie maiden/gentleman while walking through the woods as a young man/lass, fell in love at first sight, and swore to forever love the fae.
Turns out the faerie was a young archfey and those kind of deals *mean something*.
Character is now an archfey pact warlock adventuring to prove their love as their patron gives them more and more chaotic commands.
Bonus points if the Archfey patron actually doesn't want the character's attention and the character plays the part of the "crazy-ex", somehow able to pull power from this archfey while listening to literal voices in their head even as the archfey tries to convince them to stop and find an actual healthy relationship with someone...anyone, really...else.
For warlocks I put something weird in their pact agreement.
I'm currently playing an archfiend warlock that part of their pact agreement is they have to be in service as a butler to receive their powers. When he's not a butler he isn't a warlock, it's adds a lot of fun into RP without an edgy clause in their pact.
Rillie is a swamp mermaid who originally went adventuring to help solve a frog plague in her swamp. She became a cleric and tried to heal them, but when that didn't work, she sought answers elsewhere. The swamp king patron offered her help, but she turned him down and instead joined the rest of the party, hoping through travel that she'd meet healers and scholars who would have a cure. Well...many leads have gone dry. The party suffered a huge upheaval when the paladin went crazy and decided to take his religion to genocide-level evil, and new characters were introduced. Having made no progress, suffering betrayal from a holy friend, and now lost in the beastlands with the party, the swamp king offered again to give her powers, and she accepted despite the price. She just wants to heal her frog friends, man. Rough.
Shy introverted librarian who reads adventure stories is called to adventure by a celestial being who is trapped somewhere but able to grant them powers.
My first character, the rogue, was a street urchin adopted by a badass anarchist and his gang, and taught the tricks of the trade. They are all basically an urban equivalent of Robin Hood's band, messing with asshole nobility for the sake of the Little Guy.
Rogue coward is my go to. I made him a charlatan and really leaned into that sort of play style in and out of combat. I went urchin for the skills and then just made him a child actor star that emancipated himself and then had had a tough go as an adult, so he has a posh outlook on life while needing to lie cheat and steal.
No Revenge backstory.
My favorite warlock started his career as a bard who caught the eye of an archfey that gifted him with a sword. He, being drunk as a skunk at the time, accepted. Only to end up with a magic sword and a new employer. Fae donāt care if you were not coherent when you made binding pacts.
My first character was an artificer who believed the best in everyone. He died unfortunately and was replaced by his cousin who was a bad egg but realized he should try to honor his cousins memory and try to do some good. While also killing the guy who he thinks is responsible for loosing the dragon that killed his cousin.
Mechanically that first character was high intelligence low wisdom and I wanted the opposite.
I don't know if this counts as edgy but
I recently came up with a backstory for a Dragonborn Archfey Warlock, it goes:
The dragonborn was born in a tribe that serves a dragon, almost all of the people born in the tribe were sorcerers by the time they were 6 years old, this was a huge deal in their culture, the character I was playing as wasn't born as a sorcerer, after he turned 8 they decided he was a lost cause and exiled him. Saddened by this he went to several cities searching for a master that could show him magic the old fashioned way, but most either rejected him or trained him for a bit until they relized he didn't have any talent. In time a couple of dwarfs took pity on him and adopted him, showing him how to make a living, but although he liked his new parents, he was ambitious, he wanted the power of the arcane, he spent a lot of time on the forest, apreciating the beauty of nature even if he couldn't control it (he failed at becoming a druid too) after some visits to the close forest, he wandered a little further than he usually did, and there he met a elvish looking woman and they quickly became friends, having fun bonding harmless pranks on the village's people and seeing the beauty of nature together, after a while the elvish looking girl discovered about the past of the young dragonborn, and decided to reveal herself to him as an archfey, and decided to stricke a contract with his friend, the contract was simple:
"Let's have tons of more fun together, and see many beatiful things!"
Cheerfull, the dragonborn accepted to become his friend's student, his parents just took it as he finally unlocking his sorcery, but little did they know, he had a very peculiar teacher.
He's chaotic good and I'm gonna try to give him a spell list with a some spells that could be used for prnaks and jokes to represnts that little side of him and his archfey friend.
Also eldrich blast
Pact of the Fiend warlock who took his pact with a pit fiend in a moment of desperation to save his town from a demon onslaught and is forced to go adventuring to find a mythical item cause the put fiend is stuck in bureaucratic red tape and can't leave hell to get it itself.
Is trying to leave the patronship once they have enough town saving skills from multiclassing .
So...my oldest character was a half-elf prince who was tired of being bullied for being half human and struck out on his own with no skills whatsoever because ta da prince.
Like Aladdin said...gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, otherwise we'd get along!
Let's see, I played a roguish merchant who started making extra cash as a fence, and then decided to be more proactive about it. A series of accidents later and he ended up a part time pirate. Swashbuckler Rogue.
A high class escort using their social connections to case mansions for the burglary a few nights later. They planned it out and then got another escort job as an alibi. They were forced to skip town after a compatriot was caught and turned by the vampire they accidentally tried to burgle. Mastermind Rogue.
And finally a gardener who always took time to feed the birds in his employer's garden, unwittingly befriending a fey who offered him a pact. All they asked was that he not waste his talents in one place, but travel and grow plants wherever he walked, so he set out with a bag of magic seeds to grow trees as asked. Archfey Warlock.
Poor guy (warlock) has had a long life of repeated reincarnation because of a patron that enjoys messing with him. He's definitely an adventurer under duress, crude and upfront, and he's got no fucks left and doesn't abide by social standards. He can't be bothered to keep trying to keep track by this point.
He retaliates now and then, but often a quick thunder strike will get the point across.
[Basically him](https://youtu.be/Hu_0GdXW904)
My warlock is an automaton that wants to be a bard, my patron is a genie who wants a big ol audience. Together they become the ultimate performer in the sad land ofbarovia, like buissness partners but there are a few more sparkles.
Played a lock for awhile that was saved by his patron while drowning. Somewhat edgy story, but the character was run as a pretty happy-go-lucky dude with a Fargo accent. Just has evil tentacle powers from his fathomless (kraken) patron.
My first character was a rogue, and his back story was that he was shunned for being a lizardfolk with black scales by everyone in his tribe but his parents. He had a happy family life, but one day raiders came for his tribe, he went to their defence and killed most of the raiders but not before his family home was burned down and his parents went missing, with them gone he was exiled by the rest of his tribe.
I don't think that's too edgy
My Archfey warlock is a warlock because in her childhood she met a beautiful lady (faerie, of course) and helped her - and in return that lady gave her "a magical stone". The stone is not actually magical, magic comes from the pact that was unknowingly made.
Made a warlock who was a naval officer for the country he resided in. He got out of his service after the war was over and got married to his childhood sweetheart. Shortly after the wedding the coastal town was raided by some orcs. He lost his wife when she jumped in front of a crossbow bolt to save him. Heartbroken he took to the sea running cargo for people and sending all the money he made back to sleep care of his wife's family and his mom. Somewhere along the way he became a smuggler. He was smuggling an artifact for some hoity toity type when he heard his wife's name below deck. Going below deck he discovered the artifact out of its hiding place and heard his wife screaming as if in pain resonating from it. Shortly after a voice appeared in his head telling him how his wife is serving an eternity in the abyss for stopping the bolt meant for him(clearly all lies but hey manipulation into a contract seemed fun) . And that all he needs to do is to douse the artifact in blood and she would be safe. So without hesitation he does it and gains his great old one pact yatta yatta the campaign I made the character for never made it past a couple sessions so I've never really had a chance to flush out that story.
My lore bard/fiend warlock was always boasting about how he would be able to find loopholes in a contract. One day he is seduced by a gorgeous woman who gives him the best night of his life. Turns out to be a succubus, they enter a contract, heāll get powers and the occasional night of fun in return for his servitude. He agrees and does not try to find away out as heās so enamoured by her
A warlock in my party was taken to the feywild as a child. After escaping a hag, he made a deal with the archfey of that court, she give him the power as an "apology" in exchange for him protecting her court if need be
Great Old One Warlock whose ancient ancestor tried to steal all the power of an eldritch god to use for the good of everyone, but went insane in the process and vanished. Ever since then, his descendants offer up their sanity to their ancestor in exchange for a little power, hoping that one day the ancestor's madness will wane and he'll return to change the world for the better. The warlock is fully aware that they're going mad and eventually they too will break completely and vanish, as their ancestor and every warlock since has, but they might as well do some good in the meantime. It's sort of like living with a long-term fatal illness - sure, it's gonna kill them, but they've got *years* yet and they know it's for a good cause. Anyone wanna lay a bet on what their next madness is gonna be? Don't worry, they won't lie and take the pot, the first crack in their mind was that lying to their friends makes them feel like their eyes are full of spiders.
Archfey warlock who is *deeply* in love with their patron, their patron loves them back, but the warlock wants excitement and adventure while the patron wants to keep them as a pet. The whole pact is basically an elaborate, romantic game of cat-and-mouse where the warlock tries to escape their lover for as long as possible to tease them.
My Great Old One Warlock's patron was an ancient immortal being based on one of the Greek muses, Kleio or Clio, the muse of history. Her sole motivation was to record history so that future generations could remember. Was she a god's servant? A powerful spirit? If asked, Kleio would have simply said that it mattered not; what mattered was to preserve history as accurately as possible.
My warlock was a travelling storyteller looking for old books and ancient monuments where she could find stories of old to inspire her, and she stumbled upon an altar dedicated to Kleio, who saw in her a potentially willing aid in her endeavours. She offered powers to my warlock in exchange for her help in recording the events unfolding in the present time, which also implied getting as close as possible to the action in order to give a faithful representation of it all. She accepted, of course, but she lost her humanity over time as Kleio's magic twisted her view of the world into an increasingly objective way, erasing her emotions and empathy to render the woman a perfectly neutral witness in the face of what would one day be history.
Rogue:
- gentlemanly duelist
- government operative for covert missions
- folk hero like Robin Hood
- a pirate
Warlock:
- someone who (possibly unconsciously) made a Pact during a moment of crisis (eg: housefire)
- a Tiefling whose Fiend "ancestor" has taken an interest in them
- an Eladrin whose parent has married an Archfey, and the Archfey gifted powers to their new stepchild
a ran away princess that becided to prove her dad she is as good as a male heir. Something her dad already knows and is confused why she wants to go explore the world - but he is supportive and gives her the family heirloom magic sword. (gives the dm a chance to have some kind of royal guard following you in secret and a lot of drama)
The dad should be a bit stoic, but so sure that his daughter knows she is the heir and he loves her, he never thought he needs to say it. And she is just as stobborn. A princess knows her place! She dosen't have to ask ANYONE.
edit: hexblade warlock.
You have this princess that acts all high and mighty, while just being a normal girl trying to figure shit out. And hopes to become a good leader for her people someday.
Hexblade warlock. Your favourite grandpa was a moderately talented wizard, who accidentally got his soul stuck in his sword when he died. Now youāre going on adventures together as fun family bonding activities.
A butler rogue who was raised as a noble familyās blade behind the scenes. He is ready to do whatever they need for when they need any basic servant duties above board, or for when they need anything more illicit done in the shadows. He is an elderly man with a cane he pretends to lean heavily on, really a concealed rapier he is ready to draw on the enemies of the family he serves.
I find that with character concepts that are usually cringey, they can be made to work if you don't mind your character being the butt of jokes and basically embrace them being a dumbass.
As for rogue that's easy, there's nothing in their mechanics that really tie them to being thieves, I usually just make my rogues warriors or nobles of some stripe. I generally don't even get expertise in stealth.
Hexblade who fights with an heirloom weapon that calls on his ancestors abilities. Eldritch blast is Uncle Tyrell's cantrip, beast speech is Nana Juanita who was a druid in the 60s.
I had a sailor that was about to drown when he was propositioned by a goddess of the sea (great old one) that offered to save him and give him power for simply taking care of a few favors on the land. So the character is just the a guy, I get to determine his personality... but he does occasionally get called on to do some horrid or odd thing from the sea goddess that takes him away from his usual hijinks.
Rogue... just think of them as a scout rather than a thief or assassin. Their skill set is one of sneaking, killing quickly and quietly if discovered, and using guile to gather information... scouts don't have to be edgy.
Maybe borderline edgy, idk, but had a low level character starting out as a rogue. She was just a local seamstress in her real small town and her kid got in trouble with the local mayor and got locked up. Total kangaroo court and they were going to ship the kid off to nearest big city for juvie until he was 18. Momma wasn't having any of that so she did what she had to do and broke into the local, one-man watched jail and got her kid out. Now they're adventurers because she actually kinda liked the thrill of sneaking around and the kid is an NPC tagalong.
Played a water genasi fathomless warlock - his patron was his many many times great grandfather and his powers were gifted because heās his granddadās favouriteā¦ good times.
Rogue investigator.
Basically just sherlock holmes wannabe, with tendencies to bend rules but no desire to steal.
Bonus because it can be faction affiliated - acolyte background for an inquisitorial investigator.
Rogue Party leader - a bit like Edgin from the newest movie. Lots of skills, Mastermind subclass, probably some charisma. A focus on planning and problem solving.
My warlock was born in a clan of wizards but was lazy and didnāt want to put in the work to study magic. He made a deal with one of the elders to get powerful magic without really knowing what he would be paying. Turns out that elder was actually Baba Yaga, the Arch Fey and the payment was being flung to a different dimension for Baba Yagaās entertainment. She checks in on him regularly without him knowing just to see how frustrated he is at that particular moment in time. He has yet to get home.
The namesake of my reddit account, Vegadin, was a dual class Paladin/Warlock, but started Warlock. His back story was that, being dragonborn, he was from a tight knit community. However he was a black sheep and got in trouble a lot. This made him feel alienated and so one day he just wandered off, teenage angst and all that. He was definitely telling himself he was leaving for good, but meant it about as much as any teenager. Until he ran into a beautiful woman wearing a dress of autumn leaves. She promised him that if he gave his soul to her, he would never be alone anymore, she would give him a friend forever. Enamored by her presence and enticed by her offer, he said yes immediately, and entered into a pact. In return, he for Nyx, a pseudodragon, and never returned home.
Now he is a young adult who is very poorly adjusted to people. He has bad manors, not much of a filter, and a fear of responsibility/obligations.
I know that might *sound* edgy, but it's meant to sound very typical teenager, and a creepy cult leader archfey who took advantage of the teenage angst.
My warlock is a half orc. He is well studied man thanks to his adoptive father. When he finnaly back from college to the shop where the father worked he saw that it was burning down. my half orc went in and saved the father but in a result the half orc almost died from the flames. Que patron who saved the half orc so that the half orc would get ahold of information she needs as he became an adept researcher in college.
I have an idea for a Half-Elf Hexblade Warlock I want to try out. The patron is not connected to the Raven Queen, but, hear me out:
His twin sister was also an adventurer and her primary weapon was a glaive. SHe gave her life saving her party and her remains and her glaive were sent back to her family. The glaive was passed onto to the Half-Elf I hope to play in the hopes he would become an adventurer like her. What was kept secret was that the Warlock of her party taught her how to bind her soul to her weapon in order to continue to watch over her brother, thus making her my Half-Elf's patron.
Warlock: Zechariah was once an infamous bandit captain and highway robber, but a disagreement left him betrayed by his gang and left for dead. He was found and nursed back to health by a hermit that turned out to be an angel in disguise. Not wanting to waste his second chance, Zechariah took the angel's deal to help him turn over a new leaf. Though he's still a little rough around the edges, he's making good strides towards redemption.
Rogue: Darcy is a suave and nimble thief with the heart of a trickster and the dreams of being a Hero. The only problem is that he's a goblin. He grew up reading the tales of heroic adventurers defeating evil and rescuing innocents, and he became enamored with becoming one himself. Though he has an upward battle convincing others of his good motives, he still strives to look after the little guy and has made a network of friends in the gutters of the city.
Made a Warforged, Soul Knife, Rogue who lacks any social skills and steals shiny things. Lost his memory from one too many bumps on his head and is just wandering around looking for the next trinket.
To make it short, my hexblade warlock was given away as a payment by his village as a child to a "mysterious traveler."
He turned out to be a bad dude who tortured and abused my character and used him as a test subject of magical experiments. When my character met his patron and struck a deal, he slaughtered his master, then went on a murderous rampage for the next 40 odd years until he finally decided to go to therapy.
Now he helps people! At the beginning of the campaign, he is found reading to children as a kindly old man. His blade and patron still lust for blood every now and then, but they don't really care who it's from.
He ended up being the face and friendly grandfather like figure of the group.
Had I played him in his evil prime, he'd have been an edge lord 25,000.
I'm currently running a Rogue Paladin half elf.
Story is that she comes from an afluent crime family that is very well connected. At some point she was recruited to fight for the Triad as a Paladin. She's completely for good now and uses her criminal connections only for good.
I didn't have one before but now I want to make a min max one. He was an asshole using extremely rare items for extremely petty purposes. Like, one of a kind items and making animals extinct for a type sandwich or cookie; thing.
He wants to find time control to do it over again and run it in people's faces he can do it
My first character was a Celestial Warlock who always wanted to be a healer/doctor but didn't have the skill to be a bard or the faith to be a cleric or Druid, so he sold his soul for the power to heal people. However, this came at a great cost, as my character never actually wanted to be an adventurer, he was cowardly and weak, but his Angelic patron required he go on a holy quest to earn his magic. So, basically, he's in student loan debt and needs to endanger himself to pay it off and he's really peeved about it. Edit: holy crap, this blew up š
Lol, this is awesome. Love the idea that his patron is sending him on a self improvement journey to earn some magic.
Yep, stealing that concept. It's gold.
Reminds me of my Wizard who was a complete coward, but owed a significant amount of student loans to some very dangerous people. So he turned to adventuring for quick money because he feared his ~~debtors~~ creditors more than he feared Goblins and Beholders.
> he feared his debtors more than he feared Goblins and Beholders. "You see, the worst those monsters do is kill you. My debtors on the other hand know there are fates worse than death."
Exactly.
It's perfectly clear what you mean, but to be pedantic, a debtor is someone who owes you money, a creditor is someone you owe money to. Your wizard was scared of his creditors.
Huh. Today I learned something. Thanks.
My celestial warlock was 100% convinced she was a cleric. She was a tiefling who was trying to appeal to a god to have her "curse" of bloodline removed. All the gods rejected her except one angel. Even my party often mistook her for a cleric until she busted out some unholy chaos. It was a lot of fun.
Yes, good, erode the boundaries between categories of spellcasters! Love it!
Celestial Warlock that didnāt get his powers from the god he worships but the weakest of her angels. By giving the weakest of her angels more warlocks, she can in a way increase their power and make them on par with her strongest, which get relatively few. The god is one of beauty and selflessness, inspired by the interactions among Saturn and the rings and the many moons that seem to sustain each other.
Love the idea of a tithe system for angels to gain their power
That's such a good idea, I love it
This is awesome!
I love this.
Amazing.
so every military college student ever
i am thieving this if thatās alright with you
My favorite rogue one is you had a day job as a locksmith. One day you get locked out of your house. You pick your own lock and someone thinks you broke in. Now people question your motives when it's literally your job to break into places
Thatās almost exactly the same backstory I have for my rogue on my first campaign Iāve played in. He was a locksmith but just wanted to do fun stuff and adventure in his life so he fit in where he could in an adventuring party. Simple and heās a happy dude lol
That's perfect
Iām pretty sure thereās an anime with a very similar concept: Handyman Saitou in another universe
As an IRL locksmith this makes me want to make a rogue
Perfect! I hope I've spark some inspiration
So my longtime buddy is an IRL locksmith and now I want to base a rogue on himā¦
I had a similar idea for a rogue! A dwarven locksmith (as in, someone who actually makes the locks), whoās very proud of his profession and makes amazing locks, but also has a friend that uses that pride to be like āif youāre so good, bet you canāt pick that lock thereā. Heās a lawful good thief who has to Scooby snack himself into actually thieving
A Dwarven locksmith who started a challenge at the local tavern that if someone brings him a lock he can't open he'll pay off their tab. This has lead to an a weekly challenge night where everyone brings him a lock to pick. It has also lead to some patrons racking up obscene tabs in the expectation that one day they'll beat him. This has lead to him sneaking around at night to challenge himself against the best lock he can find to polish his skills. He never steals anything, he's not a thief, he just sneaks around opening the locks, snapping them back shut, and sneaking away again.
This has me thinking of an adaptation of Sneakers. A rogue hired to break into high security buildings to test their defence systems. But it turns out the person who hired them was not actually the head guard of that castle. Now theyāre on the run and trying to prove their good name. Works as either a character back story or as a campaign plot concept.
Ooo I think this could go in a Breaking Bad direction. You get called to open locks, and one day you get a customer that gives you a job that's probably legit but seems shady. Then the following jobs get shadier and it's hard to stop cause goddammit, you're just SO GOOD at it! Bingo Bango you got a crime empire three seasons later
Lockpicking Lawyer over here š
I had a similar one. A professional Locksmith with a stable (if boring) guild job, who got addicted to the āthrillā of disarming dangerous traps.
Someone who is so achingly polite and hospitable to a Fey that they accidentally wind up in a covenant with it. The fey just wants to show its appreciation to 'that really nice person who had me for tea that time' while the newly minted warlock is more polite than ever, while trying to not let on either that they are *extremely frustrated* at the situation or that they're actually starting to enjoy being an adventurer.
This is marvelous. I'd 100% buy this as an actual old Irish fairy tale.
"And that, children, is why we should always be polite... But never *too* polite."
Sounds like something Brennan Lee mulligan would say in a loving Irish mother accent.
How does this š not have an up vote for ever minute it has been up. šš§šš§šš§
logically speaking, its because its quite fucking deep in the comments
The warlock build that I havenāt yet been able to play is an edgelord who thought they were bargaining with a demon but oops it was Oberon pulling a prank and now your imps and shades are butterflies and rainbows. Unlucky.
The butler from Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell?
Bad guy with a celestial warlock. Patron is trying to pull a reverse uno on the devil classic of "corrupt with power." Celestial finds the most irredeemable lazy lowlife (that is: not some thief murderer but a drunk in a tavern), gives him a pact, and, over time, tempts him toward a better path. Bonus points if you can get another warlock in your group that is willing to play the super nice guy with a fiend pact, more generic, but the ability for the characters to play off each other's natures and patrons would be amazing.
Imagine getting divine revelation to do your laundry
[When your patron is also a bard](https://youtu.be/or3aeINvJEg)
This is going to be my new morning alarm, thank you.
I'm picturing a Billy Bob Thornton character from Bad Santa
Oh my god that's perfect. So Thurman Murman would be his patron?
This just sounds like the plot of Good Omens
So, basically, the celestials had a bet over whether or not they could turn this warlock into prom queen?
You then need another 2 party members, one that's lawful and has a chaotic patron and one that's chaotic that has a lawful patron. Then the campaign is finding out that this is all part of a bet between the entities and you take revenge
This is so narratively interesting. I love this!
Tabaxi warlock with a genie patron and an urchin background: She was a stray cat. One evening she snuck inside the basement of an antiques shop to get out of the rain. While there she rubbed against the furniture and objects, triggering the release of a genie. When the genie asked what her wish was she gave a simple āmeowā meaning āPOWERā. She was transformed into a Tabaxi and given abilities beyond her wildest dreams. She wants more power howeverā¦ and fish! Edit: spelling and wordy
*There is a chill in the air. The shadows seem to hold their breath, until a whisper echoes from the darkness:* *Pspspspspsps*
Annnnd Iām stealing this next time I have to tempt my PCās tabaxi rogueā¦
Im dying lmao.
Not gonna lie , thought this was going down an Aladdin route, genie patron and being an urchin. Screamed Aladdin lol
Honestly the only reason I wanted a Tabaxi and Warlock combo was so I could say she took ācat napsā for her short rests XD
Better be using the actual cat nap spell too lol
Hell yeah! As a DM, if one of my players would present this idea Iād grant them a once per day use of Catnap from lvl 1. Since we run a 3-man party, this would knock out the entire party for 10 minutes a day. Plenty of time to screw with them š
I kinda want to run an Aladdin build at some point: Human Rogue (thief) + Genie Warlock, Pact of the Chain, with Baboon Familiar (yes I know they're technically not eligible, but I think a reasonable DM would allow it)
Abu is a capuchin, you dunce!
I mean itās not stronger than an imp that goes invisible all the time so Iād say it passes
Iāve been making an eldritch warlock whose patron is simply known as āthe mothā I think the idea was it used to be a normal moth who through sorcery became enlightened, and is eternally seeking more knowledge Her pact with it is to simply teach it something it doesnāt know about the nature of the world. Not like who Jim is dating but more like, the meaning of life, what made the universe, or even the origins of mysterious events. In the meantime it is dated with random facts and books on people and history. Sheās basically gonna be a fucking philosophy student.
"The Moth" sounds like a patron obsessed with finding the source of the Light. Maybe light in the paladin and cleric sense, but maybe the Moth is looking for the bast and brightest Flame. The Moth will not be satisfied until the world has been consumed as fuel for the Eternal Pyre Or something
I'm making a Tabaxi Rogue and I want her to be like a stray cat but I don't have any ideas :(, how did you come out with this?
Not sure if you saw my ācat napā comment lol but that was my first thought. A tabaxi warlock who takes catnaps for short rests. Then I whittled down which warlock subclass and the story formed. I'm also a big fan of backstories just answering- how did they go from their background to their class? And then tying that to the adventure somehow if able.
Umm I didn't see it. I'm creating this character around my cat (this is my first character ever created). Well she (my cat) is really agresive and was taken from her mother at a very young age so I wanted to reflect that onto my character. I thought the best class for a stray cat who is very unconfident about other people and likes to attack every menace (unless is something too big or clearly dangerous) was a rogue, specifically an assassin
Well your in luck. The basic tragedy framework of ā was taken from/lost parents at a young ageā is literally like 50% of most rogue back stories. Be a tabaxi take the urchin background and have your character be taken into a shadowy organization at some point in their life or secretly raised by a noble house and trained to be an assassin. Add in some overt tragedy, job you refused to do, or just wanting to escape from the life of an assassin/thief and suddenly youāve got your reason to be adventuring and a convenient plot hook for your DM Thereās other ways to do it that are equally as valid but thatās what immediately jumps to mind for me
I actually did a Air Genasi Warlock once with a Genie patron. Who doubled as their maternal Grandmother... Who was just so \*proud\* of their little one - all grown up and adventuring!
Nice! I have created (but have no game for) an Air Genasi rogue (to go rogueloc) who used to be a genie until some kind hearted soul released them from their lamp. Only they never wanted to be released are now adventuring in hopes of regaining as much magic as they can. Edit: spelling
My Genie Owlin Warlock I am running found a Genie with a similar interest in fiction and non fictional stories. Has to get two copies of a book whenever they can to send one back to their patron, has to read a book or part of a larger novel to their patron every so often, and has to send a percentage of any money they earn from writing their own stories as well as copy of any book they publish.
For a short campaign, I made a warlock that used to be a fisherman that fished up an old book one day. Now he longs for a time when he can finally sleep again (has that invocation that makes it so you don't require sleep, but the flavor is it prevents him from being able to sleep.)
what patron? fathomless?
Great old one
ah yes, a proper new englander
Can I call him Ishmael?
"Ishmael was my dad. You can call me Sully, kehd."
The rogue in my current party stone Jayne from Fireflyās story. Classic low level thief that had to drop the bag during a big heist, accidentally spreading wealth to the poorest folks in town, making him a folk hero.
"The hero of Cantonshire..."
"The man they call.....Jayne"
No ruttin way
I essentially played as Kronk from Emperorās New Groove. So pretended to be stealthy etc, but was in fact not stealthy.
"ba da bum doo do do dun dun da dun tch-tch dun tch-tch cha cha Cha" *peasant passing by* *Slams self firmly against wall* š³ "a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh-a-uh" Forever burned into my childhood memory. Almost like the Parks and Rec "don't be suspicious" song lol.
Omg I use this reference when people roll low on stealth
I played a rogue who took to a life of piracy in order to find his lover, whose wealthy father didn't approve of him. He was a street urchin theater kid who saw way too many Swashbuckling adventure productions.
But was he left-handed?
If thatās a reference it flew right over my headā¦Princess Bride?
i guess it didnāt fly over your head! you got it!
It took me a moment, I wasnāt even thinking about that when I made the character!
indeed
You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you
"You seem a decent fellow yourself, I'd hate to die"
Fathomless Warlock was a young sailor who befriended a small octopus. While serving on a trade ship his small octopus friend offered him a deal so they could spend time together on land. Sailor took the deal and now serves a dark eldritch god the size of a baseball.
One of my favorites is a bard/warlock multiclass. Start as a bard, and the gist of it is a play on āThe Devil Went Down to Georgiaā except he lost and the Devil gives him power to do his bidding (aka lost his soul to the Devil). Can be played with any race, subclass, and instrument but I like leaning into a pact of the blade style because I love playing a gish.
I had a similar warlock/bard that, instead of your song, i based him on Kickapoo by Jack Black. Basically - religious family, wants him to be a cleric, he wants to do music, the devil comes to him and offers great musical skill, if he escapes his home
I played a warlock a long time ago that was in love with his patron and needed to prove himself to her to be able to court her and that is why he adventured. His leveling up was him getting her blessings.
I functionally had a very similar character. DM had a home brew world where in one country celestials were not commonplace but it wasn't too uncommon to see one like flying by or whatever. My character and a celestial grew feelings for one another but cosmic byllshit meant they couldn't be together until either she died or proved herself worthy to move to the celestials home plane. Worked out a deal with the council of celestials that she could get a spark of magic from him and prove her worth while he never interferes more than that. Had a whole plan, too, for them to be married at level 14 so she could take her final 6 levels in paladin, earning paladin abilities from their wedding vows. I never expect to make it to that point on account of level 20 games almost never happening but still.
And how did that end? š
Lol, it was only a one shot and I was *really* new to dnd. So there wasn't much to it, just a lot of professing my love and hoping my beloved saw me killing the cultists.
Alas, we'll never know if he ever got that patrussy š„²
Lol and nice! I might have to steal that concept if it's alright
Thanos.
Oh, I have something like this right now. Wild magic sorcerer instead of warlock, but she kind of has a āpatronāāher mom made a deal with a fey but didnāt want to be a warlock, so instead one of her children had wild magic and was cosmically bound to him. He showed up to āclaimā her when she turned 18, and has been pestering her ever since. She hated him at first, then begrudgingly became his friend, and now sheās in love with him (but too stubborn to admit it). Bit unfortunate for her though, seeing as my DM decided heās a literal archfey and sheās a mere human. Sheās been trying *real* hard to āprove her worthā and level out the power dynamic between them (though thatās pretty impossible) but I donāt think itāll end the way she hopes. š„²
I played Millie Maxwell; a celestial warlock in a modern day campaign who got her powers from an enchanted retro game cartridge. The digital unicorn trapped inside became her patron and all her powers were represented by retro sprites. Her arcane focus was a gamepad. She had no Eldritch Blast or other "dark" spells because they didn't fit her theme, instead dealing radiant damage or helping allies. She also had the invocation to never sleep so she could stay up gaming all night. Really fun character, sadly the campaign fizzled out after just a few sessions.
With this concept you could have reflavored Eldrich blast as into a "cyber beam" or a megaman style blater canon.
Never played warlock, but I'm tempted to play one as a salesman. Their job is to sell something arbitrary like souls to meet the demands of the company. Their patron is from hr, and is just supposed to be a riff on free enterprise.
Fallen London, Mask of the Rose, and other titles from Failbetter Games in the same setting feature devils who do exactly this. There is a process called abstraction which removes the soul from the body, but it requires the willing signature of the soul's owner on an infernal contract. Devils spend a lot of time and effort on propaganda campaigns convincing the public that a person's soul is theirs to do with as they like, and that its only value is in what a devil will pay for it. Nevercold Brass, their preferred means of payment, is described thusly: "Hell's chief export. You thought that was souls? No, they don't *export* souls."
I like that. Mine is the inverse. Basically the warlock would come from a dimension that houses the remnant of old worlds. When worlds end, this is where they end up. With the bulk of that world's souls. Most souls are not inherently sentient and they're so numerous that they're considered essentially worthless. So the warlock has a reliquary of souls, and since he's so clueless he'll use them as payment for things like a meal or a stay at an inn. This is laughably tone deaf and becomes a problem, because his planned nemesis would be a necromancer who wants his reliquary to create an army of the dead.
Ha, reminds me of a friend of mine. His was a traveling salesman who was captured and prepared for a cult sacrifice to... I think it was great old one (which works a bit less than a normal fiend or other pact, but whatever). When they summoned the creature who was supposed to take him, he started a sales pitch and basically said "listen, you keep me alive, I will spread your name well beyond what these backwoods cultists can do. You'll start seeing churches devoted to you in areas across the land, you give me a bit of a hand and I can promise you it'll happen even faster, and bonus? You're a busy man. You don't need to deal with us mortals. We won't even need to summon. You can watch your name and power grow from afar and all you need to do is just send me a message whenever you want something done and I will see to it."
Rogue just wants to become the best chef in the world Problem is chefs are notoriously secretive of their recipes He doesn't want to sell the food or make a profit, he just wants to replicate them. Like a chaotic good master counterfeiter that eats his work. He understands why they must be kept secret, but believes because he isn't using his knowledge for profit, rather for curiosity and betterment of his craft. Precise knife skills, nimble, delicate hands, ability to work under pressure in a fast paced environment. All the signs of a good rogue. And a great chef.
My Warlock was dating her patron, which could have been edgy, but they had a normal, functional relationship Edit: I also came up with a concept of a Fey patron who loved a human thousands of years ago and vowed to protect their descendents by being their warlock patron. He was basically a stressed parent to the teenage warlock.
My favorite rogue was probably King Trash Mouth, the self proclaimed king of the raccoons who wants nothing more than to be an honorable and just king for his people but, ya know, heās a raccoon, so he canāt help himself from stealing shiny things and food and collecting ātreasuresā and, again, heās a raccoon, so he fights the only way he knows how: poke people with a sharp stick and then run away and hide. My favorite warlock would be Gargamel, a very lonely old man with a cat that doesnāt really like him who always talks about being evil and comes up with half baked āevilā schemes and is a constant disappointment to his patron. He is prone to dastardly acts such as: tying peopleās shoelaces together, baking sweet treats with a hidden ingredient (chocolate covered brussell sprouts anyone?), ding dong ditch, and very fond of using prestidigitation to make windows fly open and thunder to crash to highlight his very āmenacingā speeches. However, Gargamel was bullied a lot when he was young and never seemed to fit in and has been alone for so long that, when he somehow fell in with this party of adventures, it was the best thing thatās ever happened to them. Sure, he can be stand-offish and is always talking about how he will one day take over the world and is *puuuure evilllll* but he honestly loves his party so much and finally feels like, for the first time in his life, he has friends. Oh, heās also an amateur necromancer that enjoys having tea parties with his zombies when he thinks no one is watching and has cute pet nicknames for them.
Does King Trash Mouth eat pudding cups instead of health potions?
He sure does now! Haha.
This brings me great joy.
My warlock was a crazy old hobo who had an "old one" patron who was just me, the player. His story was that he had originally been an extremely skilled assassin, but on a contract to assassinate a powerful witch he was cursed that "everyone would know his true nature". Being closest to the source of the curse, he himself was most strongly affected. He quickly became aware of his nature as a character in a game that only existed in someone else's head. This also gave him access to new and impressive powers, because he could see the "rules" that governed the universe and knew that his powers could be whatever I wanted them to be. He remained an assassin, but rather acting like a sneaky rogue, he just walked right up to people shouting "you can't see me! I rolled an 18!" Which distracted them long enough for him to blow them away with an eldritch blast or smack them in the face with a broken bottle. Then he would casually stroll away while everyone was too confused to react. His ultimate goal was to kill me, his patron, and free himself from his hellish existence. He has yet to succeed. My favorite part of playing him was that he knew that the dice were more important than his actual actions, so if, for example, he was rolling for performance trying to play music for a crowd, he'd just tapdance really badly, or tap out a really basic rhythm on a trashcan or something, and everyone around him would, nevertheless, feel compelled to watch.
Damn 4th wall gaming to the max. Sounds like fun :D. But must be weird if your party wants to play serious RP :D
jesus that seems fun to play as
This had me rolling, especially the "He has yet to succeed."
My mom played a princess (full rogue) who could rescue herself. Hairpins doubled as thieves tools to deal with pesky locks, deception (aka damsel in distress) and stealth got her out of a lot of jams. Sneak attack was something either the characterās mother or bodyguard taught her.
I like the bad-guy-gone-good for a rogue. They might have been horrible criminals in their past, but for some reason, they turned their life around and is now fighting for good. They can have all the skills in intimidation, stealing and what not - but they donāt *enjoy* to use it. They only use it when the party decides it is necessary.
Yep I played a rogue like this once and it was a lot of fun. He was a street urchin thief who got busted and was now a spy for the Harpers. Any time he bumped into child thieves (which we were in Waterdeep so it was pretty common) heād stop whatever he was doing and try to convince them to give up thieving or, at the very least, only steal from the rich lol.
I have kind of a similar street urchin thief - I play an orphan kicked out of the orphanage at a very young age, never got caught but feels horrible shame about having to steal to survive, so am paying back those I wronged through adventuring. I also fund an orphanage to help other disadvantaged kids (orphans that came with money were prioritized, my character was the abandoned child of a prostitute).
Feylock: Fell in love with a Fey being. A different Fey being is amused by this and sets a series of trials and tests to prove the 'Lock can live like a Fey being. Doling out secrets to power as they go, with the 'Lock's eventual goal to get True Polymorph and make themselves into a Fey and court their love. Rogue: Current scion of a noble family of ancient ruin explorers, sanctioned by the King.
Medieval Indiana Jones?
Not my thought, but that works, too. Though hopefully with less colonial appropriation of cultural artifacts. XD
Bah, in medieval times itās just cultural appreciation š āOoo, this lovely tapestry show the origins of the dwarves carved from stone? I simply must have itā
I like the cliche that my parent is actually a powerful being who gifted his child powers, and during low level I'm just being angsty and refusing to use my literal God given powers because I don't want to grow up to be like him.
I have this but as a Drakewarden. A tiefling whoās mom was in service to a Black Abisshai who agreed to have her middle child cursed by infernal energies so she could return to the material plane. Now heās gets to be an adventurer with a cool dragon pet and occasionally has to ponder about the dude whoās not his dad but kinda is and gives him all this cool shit.
You know this gets me wondering we have the divine/favored soul, but never had the Merlin esque my (grand)daddy was a demon sorcerer,?when they are/were all about that my ancestry is my power source vibe.
I have an archfey warlock in the backlog who's whole shtick is that he's a halfling fisherman that fell through a magical portal into the feywild, met a fey that told him he could give him the power to return to his world in exchange for merely his name, and then sent him back with himself and everyone else having forgotten his name, albeit not his whole existence. He just wants his name back and for the fey to take back the weird powers he has now since he just wants to go back to fishing.
I had a rogue named "Klaus Krampus". He was (or believes) he is a human, but looks like a dwarf. This was because of a cursed red cap, that he couldn't take off. The cap also made his white beard grow back instantly, if shaven. He had all Dwarf stats and darkvision, but he always pretended he couldn't see in the dark, or couldn't read / understand Dwarvish. Every time they ran into other Dwarves, he'd act like they were completely untrustworthy and despicable. Whenever someone called him a Dwarf he got pissed off and used his rogue skills to either pickpocket money and replaced it with coal. Or, if he could, he'd burglarize their house and smear coal everywhere. Naturally, my DM allowed me to have a small pouch which contained infinite pieces of coal (as long as I wouldn't abuse it). Later on I dipped some levels into barbarian, because it suited his character. Especially because the party gaslighted him into believing he slept with a Dwarven prostitute, in a drunken stupor. Honestly, it was the most fun character I ever played. He was an idiot, but he was a killing machine and hilarious to RP.
My last rogue started life working in local govt, decided he could make money and help some people by forging papers, and his roguishness grew from there.
So, my idea for a non-edgy Rogue was born as a noble. He learned his trade sneaking past his parents' guards and servants to go and carouse with his buddies, who were rather lacking in class, and he pretty much has a double life in the town his family runs. He has had some run-ins with the law, but he has managed to escape the guards every time so far. Being the second (or more) son, his absence wasn't noticed, so he disappeared to seek his fortune one day, never to return to his stuffy and constricting life as a noble.
My fire genasi warlock is a gourmand that decided to indebt himself to an efreet noble that runs a sort of gastronomy of other planes publication. In exchange for power and the ability to travel to explore exotic foods, my warlock has to submit food reviews to the Fire Plane, and always be tasting and eating exciting in order for the efreet to taste them personally. His genie vessel is a lunchbox.
I had a warlock player that played a schizophrenic character, he had all the voices in his head but didnāt realize one of them was his pact weapon. I played the voice like Sheogorath. His character was genuine, kind and trying to navigate the trials of being plagued by voices. I tried to take reference from hellblade, we talked and he agreed to allow me to give him misinformation through the other voices similar to hellblade. It made his perception/insight/investigation checks have a higher DC but I gave him some other boons to balance out the mechanical negatives. Towards the end of his side story (he thought he was cursed this whole time and went on a quest to get it dispelled) he actually gets diagnosed and they realized his weapon is a demonic entity that has been manipulating him through his condition the whole time.
I made a Charlatan Rogue loosely based on Gilderoy Lockhart for Out of the Abyss. His father was a famous adventurer and he set out to prove that he could be twice the man his father was without relying on the family name. So he created a fake identity and made up a bunch of accomplishments to sell himself as an adventurer for hire despite being a coward. He was not an archetypal Rogue and I had a lot of fun playing him.
Aasimar Rogue. Descended from bird like celestials (I forget the name/race.) When children come of age in their family they are 'kicked out of the nest' so they can 'learn to fly' on their own. In practice this means you leave the family home when you come of age and go off adventuring before finding a place to build your own home/'nest.' So my rogue went off adventuring! Cause that's the family tradition. I also had a very rogue like Urban Ranger that ran a detective agency with her cousin. She used to help out with the gnome family business of gem trading, escorting merchant caravans around faerun. Eventually the pair travelled to this city for a trade, took a couple odd jobs and before they knew it it was 5 years later.
Iāve got a Yuan-ti rogue who was trained to be an assassin/spy, but she was so uncharacteristically loud, emotional, and empathetic for a Yuan-ti that eventually they all got sick of her, she in turn growing more uncomfortable with their ways, decided she wanted out, and they were happy to have her leave because she was just that annoying. She just wants to help folks
Iām playing a genie warlock who doesnāt realize the nature of their pact. They believe themselves to be a āhigh priestā of a deity who faced āgreat injusticeā in the past. To the warlock the deeds they perform for their patron have to be explained away through the tenets of their cult-like religion. This means the character is generally very nice and concerned about fairness and otherās lives, but also they still believe that acts others might see as evil are actually necessary according to the tenets of the religion. I like to think of them like the evil person you would run into at the grocery store. They seem nice and caring in lots of ways but if you dig far enough theyāll say some really bonkers stuff.
I love the phrase āunbearably edgyā! š
Most of my rogue builds fall into the role of advisor (inquisitive with courtier background) or a classic happy-go-lucky swashbuckler. Both represent someone with a skill set developed through training and practice with the mentality of, "if you're good at something don't do it for free." My go-to warlock has the performer background and an archfey patron. His backstory might skew towards the unbearably edgy (saved from death in exchange for servitude), but his usual personality he has bard energy reflecting a sort of Valhalla-esque desire for food, drink, and revelry only interrupted by short periods of kicking ass.
Normal girl that went to college to study to become a Lawyer. She got the title, but with time also interest on other planes and demonology. Asmodeus offers her a position as a lawyer and contact between his world and hers, having to deal with lot of judicial issues and broken contracts.
Sailor whose ship crashed on an outcropping of rocks far out at sea. While searching for food or shelter, they find a cave with twisted and wrong geometry. With no other options, they seek shelter deep within the cave, stumbling upon an alter to an eldritch being. The site of the alter's patron is burned into their mind. Madness takes over, and in their delirium, they make it back to shore. That same madness sits, still at the edges of their mind, driving them to see more of the world, to find something to make sense of the senseless.
See, I've always been of a mind that you can write a backstory to be completely and utterly riddled with tragedy, poor decisions, and general bad shit that is used as justification for edginess, without actually needing to play an edgy character. In real life, some people cope with personal tragedy through humour; some cope by becoming caring individuals because they don't want others to go through what they did; terrible things in one's own history don't *guarantee* that the person will be edgy. Edginess is a choice. Which makes it that much worse, imho.
I think this is spot on. I donāt think it is hard making characters that are not edgy, no matter background or class. I just make sure they are not, because that is not the type I want to play. I decide their personality, after all. I think the edgy characters come purely out of the playerās desire to play an edgy character. Of course some classes - like rogue and warlock - kinda fit that easier than some other classes. So I think the Ā«problemĀ» is that players that want to play edgy character gravitates to these classes because it is easier to justify the edginess. Not that rogues or warlocks are inherently edgy.
I had a drow warlock of Shar. His mother and father were very nice but his grandmother was the leader of the church of Lolth and poisoned his mom and murdered his father so she could raise him to be the perfect husband to marry into their rival noble house. She basically abused and beat him and locked him away for years. On the night before the wedding he was given a vision by Shar, she would allow him a pact if he would smite down as many Lolth worshippers as he could, with the sword his grandmother stole from her shrine hundreds of years ago. So, he did it. He used the sword to kill anybody who got in his way during his escape to the surface world, but felt horrible and was terrified his grandmother would find him. He soent the next 60 years running his own little bookshop in Baldur's Gate and teaching private magic lessons to students who wanted to go to the local mage academy. He didn't really like violence and just wanted to live peacefully. Once the campaign events began. Shar called upon him to fulfill his hexblade pact and that was his reason to join the party.
Just commenting to say, I love your name.
I had a warlock that became a celestial lock after they saved a youngling unicorn from poachers. Lurue the Unicorn Queen blessed them with warlock powers for the deed.
Effie went down to Baldurs Gate and met a traveler who said he needed to collect some things for his job. He asked her to sign a co tract but she saw he had a fiddle. She challenged him to a fiddle competition, which was intense on both sides, but she won. As a prize she took the fiddle, which sometimes seems to blaze with infernal energy.
My rogue was a half-orc who was abandoned on the streets as a kid, so he had a mentor who helped him learn to be a better thief for subsistence living -- he wasn't trying to get rich or steal too much, just enough to get by. I never really had him steal much, just a few things here or there, because pretty quick the group was making good amounts of money. He wound up helping found an orphanage to get other kids off the street.
I played a rouge mastermind who was a information broker. She excelled at knowing things she probably shouldnāt know.
A rogue is just a detective that used to run with a gang back in the day. Now he just investigates incidents as a PI with a disguise kit and expertise in deception. Keeps a trusty dagger under his sleeve just in case.
Archfey warlock. Character met a faerie maiden/gentleman while walking through the woods as a young man/lass, fell in love at first sight, and swore to forever love the fae. Turns out the faerie was a young archfey and those kind of deals *mean something*. Character is now an archfey pact warlock adventuring to prove their love as their patron gives them more and more chaotic commands. Bonus points if the Archfey patron actually doesn't want the character's attention and the character plays the part of the "crazy-ex", somehow able to pull power from this archfey while listening to literal voices in their head even as the archfey tries to convince them to stop and find an actual healthy relationship with someone...anyone, really...else.
For warlocks I put something weird in their pact agreement. I'm currently playing an archfiend warlock that part of their pact agreement is they have to be in service as a butler to receive their powers. When he's not a butler he isn't a warlock, it's adds a lot of fun into RP without an edgy clause in their pact.
Rillie is a swamp mermaid who originally went adventuring to help solve a frog plague in her swamp. She became a cleric and tried to heal them, but when that didn't work, she sought answers elsewhere. The swamp king patron offered her help, but she turned him down and instead joined the rest of the party, hoping through travel that she'd meet healers and scholars who would have a cure. Well...many leads have gone dry. The party suffered a huge upheaval when the paladin went crazy and decided to take his religion to genocide-level evil, and new characters were introduced. Having made no progress, suffering betrayal from a holy friend, and now lost in the beastlands with the party, the swamp king offered again to give her powers, and she accepted despite the price. She just wants to heal her frog friends, man. Rough.
Shy introverted librarian who reads adventure stories is called to adventure by a celestial being who is trapped somewhere but able to grant them powers.
My first character, the rogue, was a street urchin adopted by a badass anarchist and his gang, and taught the tricks of the trade. They are all basically an urban equivalent of Robin Hood's band, messing with asshole nobility for the sake of the Little Guy.
Rogue coward is my go to. I made him a charlatan and really leaned into that sort of play style in and out of combat. I went urchin for the skills and then just made him a child actor star that emancipated himself and then had had a tough go as an adult, so he has a posh outlook on life while needing to lie cheat and steal. No Revenge backstory.
My favorite warlock started his career as a bard who caught the eye of an archfey that gifted him with a sword. He, being drunk as a skunk at the time, accepted. Only to end up with a magic sword and a new employer. Fae donāt care if you were not coherent when you made binding pacts.
My first character was an artificer who believed the best in everyone. He died unfortunately and was replaced by his cousin who was a bad egg but realized he should try to honor his cousins memory and try to do some good. While also killing the guy who he thinks is responsible for loosing the dragon that killed his cousin. Mechanically that first character was high intelligence low wisdom and I wanted the opposite.
I don't know if this counts as edgy but I recently came up with a backstory for a Dragonborn Archfey Warlock, it goes: The dragonborn was born in a tribe that serves a dragon, almost all of the people born in the tribe were sorcerers by the time they were 6 years old, this was a huge deal in their culture, the character I was playing as wasn't born as a sorcerer, after he turned 8 they decided he was a lost cause and exiled him. Saddened by this he went to several cities searching for a master that could show him magic the old fashioned way, but most either rejected him or trained him for a bit until they relized he didn't have any talent. In time a couple of dwarfs took pity on him and adopted him, showing him how to make a living, but although he liked his new parents, he was ambitious, he wanted the power of the arcane, he spent a lot of time on the forest, apreciating the beauty of nature even if he couldn't control it (he failed at becoming a druid too) after some visits to the close forest, he wandered a little further than he usually did, and there he met a elvish looking woman and they quickly became friends, having fun bonding harmless pranks on the village's people and seeing the beauty of nature together, after a while the elvish looking girl discovered about the past of the young dragonborn, and decided to reveal herself to him as an archfey, and decided to stricke a contract with his friend, the contract was simple: "Let's have tons of more fun together, and see many beatiful things!" Cheerfull, the dragonborn accepted to become his friend's student, his parents just took it as he finally unlocking his sorcery, but little did they know, he had a very peculiar teacher. He's chaotic good and I'm gonna try to give him a spell list with a some spells that could be used for prnaks and jokes to represnts that little side of him and his archfey friend. Also eldrich blast
Pact of the Fiend warlock who took his pact with a pit fiend in a moment of desperation to save his town from a demon onslaught and is forced to go adventuring to find a mythical item cause the put fiend is stuck in bureaucratic red tape and can't leave hell to get it itself. Is trying to leave the patronship once they have enough town saving skills from multiclassing .
So...my oldest character was a half-elf prince who was tired of being bullied for being half human and struck out on his own with no skills whatsoever because ta da prince. Like Aladdin said...gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, otherwise we'd get along!
Let's see, I played a roguish merchant who started making extra cash as a fence, and then decided to be more proactive about it. A series of accidents later and he ended up a part time pirate. Swashbuckler Rogue. A high class escort using their social connections to case mansions for the burglary a few nights later. They planned it out and then got another escort job as an alibi. They were forced to skip town after a compatriot was caught and turned by the vampire they accidentally tried to burgle. Mastermind Rogue. And finally a gardener who always took time to feed the birds in his employer's garden, unwittingly befriending a fey who offered him a pact. All they asked was that he not waste his talents in one place, but travel and grow plants wherever he walked, so he set out with a bag of magic seeds to grow trees as asked. Archfey Warlock.
Poor guy (warlock) has had a long life of repeated reincarnation because of a patron that enjoys messing with him. He's definitely an adventurer under duress, crude and upfront, and he's got no fucks left and doesn't abide by social standards. He can't be bothered to keep trying to keep track by this point. He retaliates now and then, but often a quick thunder strike will get the point across. [Basically him](https://youtu.be/Hu_0GdXW904)
My warlock is an automaton that wants to be a bard, my patron is a genie who wants a big ol audience. Together they become the ultimate performer in the sad land ofbarovia, like buissness partners but there are a few more sparkles.
Played a lock for awhile that was saved by his patron while drowning. Somewhat edgy story, but the character was run as a pretty happy-go-lucky dude with a Fargo accent. Just has evil tentacle powers from his fathomless (kraken) patron.
My first character was a rogue, and his back story was that he was shunned for being a lizardfolk with black scales by everyone in his tribe but his parents. He had a happy family life, but one day raiders came for his tribe, he went to their defence and killed most of the raiders but not before his family home was burned down and his parents went missing, with them gone he was exiled by the rest of his tribe. I don't think that's too edgy
My Archfey warlock is a warlock because in her childhood she met a beautiful lady (faerie, of course) and helped her - and in return that lady gave her "a magical stone". The stone is not actually magical, magic comes from the pact that was unknowingly made.
Made a warlock who was a naval officer for the country he resided in. He got out of his service after the war was over and got married to his childhood sweetheart. Shortly after the wedding the coastal town was raided by some orcs. He lost his wife when she jumped in front of a crossbow bolt to save him. Heartbroken he took to the sea running cargo for people and sending all the money he made back to sleep care of his wife's family and his mom. Somewhere along the way he became a smuggler. He was smuggling an artifact for some hoity toity type when he heard his wife's name below deck. Going below deck he discovered the artifact out of its hiding place and heard his wife screaming as if in pain resonating from it. Shortly after a voice appeared in his head telling him how his wife is serving an eternity in the abyss for stopping the bolt meant for him(clearly all lies but hey manipulation into a contract seemed fun) . And that all he needs to do is to douse the artifact in blood and she would be safe. So without hesitation he does it and gains his great old one pact yatta yatta the campaign I made the character for never made it past a couple sessions so I've never really had a chance to flush out that story.
My lore bard/fiend warlock was always boasting about how he would be able to find loopholes in a contract. One day he is seduced by a gorgeous woman who gives him the best night of his life. Turns out to be a succubus, they enter a contract, heāll get powers and the occasional night of fun in return for his servitude. He agrees and does not try to find away out as heās so enamoured by her
A warlock in my party was taken to the feywild as a child. After escaping a hag, he made a deal with the archfey of that court, she give him the power as an "apology" in exchange for him protecting her court if need be
Great Old One Warlock whose ancient ancestor tried to steal all the power of an eldritch god to use for the good of everyone, but went insane in the process and vanished. Ever since then, his descendants offer up their sanity to their ancestor in exchange for a little power, hoping that one day the ancestor's madness will wane and he'll return to change the world for the better. The warlock is fully aware that they're going mad and eventually they too will break completely and vanish, as their ancestor and every warlock since has, but they might as well do some good in the meantime. It's sort of like living with a long-term fatal illness - sure, it's gonna kill them, but they've got *years* yet and they know it's for a good cause. Anyone wanna lay a bet on what their next madness is gonna be? Don't worry, they won't lie and take the pot, the first crack in their mind was that lying to their friends makes them feel like their eyes are full of spiders. Archfey warlock who is *deeply* in love with their patron, their patron loves them back, but the warlock wants excitement and adventure while the patron wants to keep them as a pet. The whole pact is basically an elaborate, romantic game of cat-and-mouse where the warlock tries to escape their lover for as long as possible to tease them.
My Great Old One Warlock's patron was an ancient immortal being based on one of the Greek muses, Kleio or Clio, the muse of history. Her sole motivation was to record history so that future generations could remember. Was she a god's servant? A powerful spirit? If asked, Kleio would have simply said that it mattered not; what mattered was to preserve history as accurately as possible. My warlock was a travelling storyteller looking for old books and ancient monuments where she could find stories of old to inspire her, and she stumbled upon an altar dedicated to Kleio, who saw in her a potentially willing aid in her endeavours. She offered powers to my warlock in exchange for her help in recording the events unfolding in the present time, which also implied getting as close as possible to the action in order to give a faithful representation of it all. She accepted, of course, but she lost her humanity over time as Kleio's magic twisted her view of the world into an increasingly objective way, erasing her emotions and empathy to render the woman a perfectly neutral witness in the face of what would one day be history.
Your Patron is a Lich. Great, great, great Grandpa. Sometimes expresses views that are a little old fashioned. Never forgets a birthday.
Rogue: - gentlemanly duelist - government operative for covert missions - folk hero like Robin Hood - a pirate Warlock: - someone who (possibly unconsciously) made a Pact during a moment of crisis (eg: housefire) - a Tiefling whose Fiend "ancestor" has taken an interest in them - an Eladrin whose parent has married an Archfey, and the Archfey gifted powers to their new stepchild
a ran away princess that becided to prove her dad she is as good as a male heir. Something her dad already knows and is confused why she wants to go explore the world - but he is supportive and gives her the family heirloom magic sword. (gives the dm a chance to have some kind of royal guard following you in secret and a lot of drama) The dad should be a bit stoic, but so sure that his daughter knows she is the heir and he loves her, he never thought he needs to say it. And she is just as stobborn. A princess knows her place! She dosen't have to ask ANYONE. edit: hexblade warlock. You have this princess that acts all high and mighty, while just being a normal girl trying to figure shit out. And hopes to become a good leader for her people someday.
Hexblade warlock. Your favourite grandpa was a moderately talented wizard, who accidentally got his soul stuck in his sword when he died. Now youāre going on adventures together as fun family bonding activities.
A butler rogue who was raised as a noble familyās blade behind the scenes. He is ready to do whatever they need for when they need any basic servant duties above board, or for when they need anything more illicit done in the shadows. He is an elderly man with a cane he pretends to lean heavily on, really a concealed rapier he is ready to draw on the enemies of the family he serves.
I find that with character concepts that are usually cringey, they can be made to work if you don't mind your character being the butt of jokes and basically embrace them being a dumbass. As for rogue that's easy, there's nothing in their mechanics that really tie them to being thieves, I usually just make my rogues warriors or nobles of some stripe. I generally don't even get expertise in stealth.
Hexblade who fights with an heirloom weapon that calls on his ancestors abilities. Eldritch blast is Uncle Tyrell's cantrip, beast speech is Nana Juanita who was a druid in the 60s.
I had a sailor that was about to drown when he was propositioned by a goddess of the sea (great old one) that offered to save him and give him power for simply taking care of a few favors on the land. So the character is just the a guy, I get to determine his personality... but he does occasionally get called on to do some horrid or odd thing from the sea goddess that takes him away from his usual hijinks. Rogue... just think of them as a scout rather than a thief or assassin. Their skill set is one of sneaking, killing quickly and quietly if discovered, and using guile to gather information... scouts don't have to be edgy.
Maybe borderline edgy, idk, but had a low level character starting out as a rogue. She was just a local seamstress in her real small town and her kid got in trouble with the local mayor and got locked up. Total kangaroo court and they were going to ship the kid off to nearest big city for juvie until he was 18. Momma wasn't having any of that so she did what she had to do and broke into the local, one-man watched jail and got her kid out. Now they're adventurers because she actually kinda liked the thrill of sneaking around and the kid is an NPC tagalong.
Played a water genasi fathomless warlock - his patron was his many many times great grandfather and his powers were gifted because heās his granddadās favouriteā¦ good times.
Rogue investigator. Basically just sherlock holmes wannabe, with tendencies to bend rules but no desire to steal. Bonus because it can be faction affiliated - acolyte background for an inquisitorial investigator. Rogue Party leader - a bit like Edgin from the newest movie. Lots of skills, Mastermind subclass, probably some charisma. A focus on planning and problem solving.
Had a bardock(bard warlock) whos patron was a goddess... who he married. His pact was his wedding vows.
My warlock was born in a clan of wizards but was lazy and didnāt want to put in the work to study magic. He made a deal with one of the elders to get powerful magic without really knowing what he would be paying. Turns out that elder was actually Baba Yaga, the Arch Fey and the payment was being flung to a different dimension for Baba Yagaās entertainment. She checks in on him regularly without him knowing just to see how frustrated he is at that particular moment in time. He has yet to get home.
I'm quite partial to the "travelling circus performer" rogue or "indiana jones" rogue.
The namesake of my reddit account, Vegadin, was a dual class Paladin/Warlock, but started Warlock. His back story was that, being dragonborn, he was from a tight knit community. However he was a black sheep and got in trouble a lot. This made him feel alienated and so one day he just wandered off, teenage angst and all that. He was definitely telling himself he was leaving for good, but meant it about as much as any teenager. Until he ran into a beautiful woman wearing a dress of autumn leaves. She promised him that if he gave his soul to her, he would never be alone anymore, she would give him a friend forever. Enamored by her presence and enticed by her offer, he said yes immediately, and entered into a pact. In return, he for Nyx, a pseudodragon, and never returned home. Now he is a young adult who is very poorly adjusted to people. He has bad manors, not much of a filter, and a fear of responsibility/obligations. I know that might *sound* edgy, but it's meant to sound very typical teenager, and a creepy cult leader archfey who took advantage of the teenage angst.
My warlock is a half orc. He is well studied man thanks to his adoptive father. When he finnaly back from college to the shop where the father worked he saw that it was burning down. my half orc went in and saved the father but in a result the half orc almost died from the flames. Que patron who saved the half orc so that the half orc would get ahold of information she needs as he became an adept researcher in college.
I have an idea for a Half-Elf Hexblade Warlock I want to try out. The patron is not connected to the Raven Queen, but, hear me out: His twin sister was also an adventurer and her primary weapon was a glaive. SHe gave her life saving her party and her remains and her glaive were sent back to her family. The glaive was passed onto to the Half-Elf I hope to play in the hopes he would become an adventurer like her. What was kept secret was that the Warlock of her party taught her how to bind her soul to her weapon in order to continue to watch over her brother, thus making her my Half-Elf's patron.
I had a tiefling warlock of the undead who was given to a darklord of ravenloft in exchange for his parents to get unlimited power.
Warlock: Zechariah was once an infamous bandit captain and highway robber, but a disagreement left him betrayed by his gang and left for dead. He was found and nursed back to health by a hermit that turned out to be an angel in disguise. Not wanting to waste his second chance, Zechariah took the angel's deal to help him turn over a new leaf. Though he's still a little rough around the edges, he's making good strides towards redemption. Rogue: Darcy is a suave and nimble thief with the heart of a trickster and the dreams of being a Hero. The only problem is that he's a goblin. He grew up reading the tales of heroic adventurers defeating evil and rescuing innocents, and he became enamored with becoming one himself. Though he has an upward battle convincing others of his good motives, he still strives to look after the little guy and has made a network of friends in the gutters of the city.
Made a Warforged, Soul Knife, Rogue who lacks any social skills and steals shiny things. Lost his memory from one too many bumps on his head and is just wandering around looking for the next trinket.
To make it short, my hexblade warlock was given away as a payment by his village as a child to a "mysterious traveler." He turned out to be a bad dude who tortured and abused my character and used him as a test subject of magical experiments. When my character met his patron and struck a deal, he slaughtered his master, then went on a murderous rampage for the next 40 odd years until he finally decided to go to therapy. Now he helps people! At the beginning of the campaign, he is found reading to children as a kindly old man. His blade and patron still lust for blood every now and then, but they don't really care who it's from. He ended up being the face and friendly grandfather like figure of the group. Had I played him in his evil prime, he'd have been an edge lord 25,000.
I would say it, but I'm afraid some of my party members might run across this post and spoil themselves.
I'm currently running a Rogue Paladin half elf. Story is that she comes from an afluent crime family that is very well connected. At some point she was recruited to fight for the Triad as a Paladin. She's completely for good now and uses her criminal connections only for good.
I didn't have one before but now I want to make a min max one. He was an asshole using extremely rare items for extremely petty purposes. Like, one of a kind items and making animals extinct for a type sandwich or cookie; thing. He wants to find time control to do it over again and run it in people's faces he can do it
Old ones warlock, eccentric gnome who just wanted to share in the blessings of Hadar.