D&D 5E New Warlock Pacts: What are your concepts?

[QuietBrowser]

So, over in the thread dedicated to the Warlocks & Wizards UA we had this month, there was a user or two complaining that WoTC focused on making new Patrons (entities to forge contracts with, what 4e called "Pacts") and not new Pacts (manifestations of the contract between Patron and Warlock). Now, at the time, I found this complaint kind of unfounded; with the existing Pacts of Blade (a magical weapon), Chain (a familiar) and Tome (a book of eldritch lore), what's honestly left for Warlocks to possible get as a symbol of their Pact? These fit pretty solid hits in terms of both thematic and mechanical value.

But then, I stopped and thought about that from a different angle: what is left? What other possible gifts could a Patron give to their Warlock that would actually have mechanical impact without, essentially, stepping on the toes of the three that came before?

So, I thought I'd start this topic and see if anyone else has interesting ideas for workable Pacts. Keep in mind, anyone can just spout a random "cool sounding" title. If you want to be taken seriously, you got to come up with an idea on how the Pact would actually function, crunch-wise. Furthermore, a Pact only gives a single, one-level, mechanical benefit, which in all honesty is probably why Patrons are more the subclass than Pacts are.

Personally, there's only one Pact idea that I have, and that is the Pact of the Steed. This Pact, admittedly somewhat close to the Pact of the Chain, would give the Warlock a mystical beast companion in the form of a magical steed that they can use to carry them into battle or through the wilderness. There's some interesting potential here, I think, but there's also a lot of problems.

The first major issue is mechanically balancing it; as cool as the image of a warlock riding to battle atop a faerie elk or a unicorn or a nightmare or a shantak is, the steed couldn't be made too beefy, and that leads to complaints that their awesome looking steed is ultimately little tougher than the standard riding horse.

The second major issue is that... well, there's a reason the Cavalier has traditionally sucked, and that nobody paid any real attention to the "Divine Steed" class feature for Paladins back in 3e, and that's the fact that a mount is only situationally useful. In, say, the traditional dungeon crawl, there's no room to use the thing, and it ends up as a waste of a feature. At least familiars are small and readily deployed for stealth purposes.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I think a Boon of Minions would be interesting.

The Patron loans the Warlock a number of individually-weak creatures to act as servants. These little creatures can run around and gather equipment, help with crafting and research, and generally say "yes master" a lot in a funny (or creepy) accent. They can't help in combat, but are great at utility. Perhaps they can even work together and act as a mount (for example, a buzzing swarm of beetles that fly the warlock around).

It is distinct from a familiar because that is a single, fairly-strong servant.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Dualazi]

I like the minion themed pact as mentioned.

One I haven't seen brought up at all, would be a pact of mutations, which would obviously focus on altering the warlock's body in ways associated with their patron. I personally envision this as more of a tanky option akin to the guardian ranger but it has wide potential for anything really. You can draw some easy inspiration from the warhammer chaos armies, they have a few units that specialize in this.

 

[Caliban]

I like the minion themed pact as mentioned.

One I haven't seen brought up at all, would be a pact of mutations, which would obviously focus on altering the warlock's body in ways associated with their patron. I personally envision this as more of a tanky option akin to the guardian ranger but it has wide potential for anything really. You can draw some easy inspiration from the warhammer chaos armies, they have a few units that specialize in this.

I'd call it "Pact of the Flesh". I think there was a prestige class with a similar theme back in 3e.

 

[Xeviat]

Pact of the Dagger: Like Pact of the Tome, this pact gives you a literal and physical item. This dagger is the conduit for sending souls to your patron. Using it, the Warlock can voluntarily deal X damage 1/(short? Long?) to themselves and regain a spell slot. The dagger works as an arcane implement. Any magic dagger can be converted to your pact dagger with a ritual, and it can be summoned with a ritual if lost.


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[Guest 6801328]

Pact of the Sentient Attack Tome. It's an intelligent spell-book that you can wield as a weapon, and will also scout for you.

(More seriously, I like the Steed idea, and have always wanted a pact that involves physical changes.)

 

[Caliban]

Pact of the Void. You can summon a tiny black hole as a familiar. Once.

(I actually like the name, just can't think of a concept to go with it right now.)

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

We have a book pact with the Tomelock, how about filling out the triad with Bell and Candle? Bell could offer some type of summoning boon, and Candle could let the Warlock take a minor in Artificer.

 

[Mad_Jack]

I'd call it "Pack of the Flesh". I think there was a prestige class with a similar theme back in 3e.

I'm really digging the Pact of the Flesh idea - not quite sure what the initial pact boon would be, but you could easily make a number of invocations that either mimic or allow you to use some physical buff spells like Barkskin, etc... The effects are all due to physical alterations to the warlock's body, either permanent or while the invocation is in effect.
And there's already a bit of a thematic precedent for it in the Devil's Sight invocation.