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Pretty simple here y'all. I'm playing Myth Drannor as an all-day one-shot this Saturday, and I'm making a Hexblade as a backup character.
I'm using the variant Criminal (Spy) background, as a former spy for one of the major governments. The character is Half-Elven as well.
What I'm looking for are just maybe 5-10 dead simple bullet points that can be used for a backstory. Nothing crazy or off the wall necessary. Just looking for ideas.
Thanks!
I'd start by answering some questions:
1) Who is your patron, and why is it making a deal.
- It's the weapon of a dirty, and it wants to accomplosh the diety's goals. There's a secret society opposed to the diety that it wants you to kill, and it will let you know when it wants something.
- It's a legendary weapon that has been fragmented across the planes and it wants you to recover and reforge it.
- It's a reified idea of battle/protection/whatever that you've tapped into.
- it's the weapon a legendary hero/conquerer/whatever, and it wants you to finish her mission and protect/conquer/whatever Ankh Morpork
2) How did you contact it?
- Dreams/Stumbled into a fragment/Family bloodcurse from when your great grandfather survived a wound from it/took shelter in a forgotten shrine/etc.
3) Why did you take the deal?
- Up to you
First, I'd just like to note that there is no requirement to dedicate the warlock to a specific sentient weapon.
Here is the fluff:
"You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell—a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. ... The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it.
Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends."
The pact is with "a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell". This force does manifest in the material plane as sentient magic weapons but these could also just be considered other tools of the "mysterious entity" who is the hexblade patron.
The second paragraph suggests that the pact could be with the Raven Queen herself since she created the first of the weapons.
However, depending on your DM, the pact could potentially be with any powerful mysterious entity from the Shadowfell who might be capable of granting abilities to a warlock. There is nothing to indicate that only one entity is capable of creating shadow weapons nor that all hexblade's necessarily share a singular patron.
Every other type of warlock ... fiend, goo, fey, celestial has many options for specific patrons and the same could be true for hexblades depending on how many "mysterious entities from the Shadowfell" might qualify.
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So ... some possibilities:
- the half-elf is half or partially shadow elf and traces his lineage back to the Shadowfell. This created a bond or affinity with the "mysterious entity" in the plane of shadow who became his patron.
- the patron bond could be an explixit pact where power is offered in exchange for service. It could also be a more insidious pact where the whispers from the Shadowfell intertwine with how the character sees the world and grant abilities but the character may or may not be fully aware of the influence.
- is the patron evil? Does evil apply as a concept in this context or does the implication of shadow just mean that they see the world in shades of gray perhaps with no real right or wrong.
- or you could go the weapon route. You came across a dagger (or other weapon) to which shadows appear to cling. This forged a link between the character and the mysterious entity.
- perhaps your criminal activities lead you into contact with shadow thieves or some other agent of the plane of shadow who thought you would be a useful recruit. They offered you a deal on behalf of their patron and you took it.
Backstory (though why I am doing the work for you I have no idea :) ).
- grew up in a medium sized human town in the elven slum
- fell in with the wrong crowd - became an apprentice thief, maybe worked a bit scouting targets
- discovered that information in the right hands could be more valuable than the gold from a robbery
- started hiring some urchins and others for a couple of coins, kept an eye on merchants and the wealthy, found when they would be away and their houses easy to rob, found blackmail information
- learned that wealthy taverns were one of the better sources of information but urchins wouldn't fit in there ... created personas for yourself and some of your most trusted assistants ... found that trading information at an even higher level was even more profitable.
- however, your activities have not gone unnoticed. Contacted by two people (could be the same one)
A) a representative of a government interested in using your information network
B) a representative of the Shadowfell entity also interested in enhancing your power in exchange for services and information.
- you accept both offers and become a hexblade warlock which really enhances your abilities with your information network ... and you start feeding information to the government organization for a substantial profit of course.
Thank you both! Warlocks and their Patrons are my one real weak point in D&D. I've only very recently become interested in them, and haven't really gotten a deep understanding of how it all works.
Excellent questions! I hadn't even considered the weapon aspect of it. I like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by BaconAwesome
These are both fantastic! I wouldn't have thought of those at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Keravath
Thank you!
Kerevath is right that the game materials describe the patron as a mysterious shadow entity, but I've always liked using a weapon so legendary that it (a) is approaching some kind of demigod status; (b) casts a reflection in shadow; or (c) shares in the power of the diety that wields it. If it's a legendary weapon that originated in shadow, I'm OK with that too.
My Hexblade's background:
* Bounty hunter is pursuing an outlaw.
* Outlaw stabs him with a strange slate-gray blade.
* Left for dead, character has a vision of the blade which offers him a new life in return for pledging his service.
* Recovers from his wounds and discovers he has magical gifts that augment his combat skills.
* Physically weak from wound, but able to fight regardless, ala Elric.
* Turns out this is how the Hexblade propagates -- new warlocks are selected from creatures wounded by other Hexblades.
* Hexblade depends on conflict to root out the unworthy and elevate the strong.
* As a reward for a year of service, character receives slate-gray boon weapon, which is pulled from chest, ala Scott Pilgrim.
Could cop out and go all sword.in the stone.
Mine was an attempted sacrifice for a lich. The attempted lich was my own father. He was caught in the middle of the ritual by the Harpers, who discovered me. When my father's soul was forced out of me, it left a void in the ritual. The connection with the ritual for me to be used as a weapon, combined with the lack of resistance from my will, made entities of the dark swarm to me. One being forced all of the others out to bind to me, and promised to make me into a weapon to defend myself. Surrounded by shadows and strangers, fearing for my life, I accepted.
I didn't have much of an identity, as I was simply raised to be a phylactery, and so that was what my "father" called me and was the only name I knew. "Phylactery".
The Harpers saw me get into a good home with my newly adopted family, the Jones's, after teaching me my real name was "Phyl". They were good people.
So I became Phyl Jones, with my biological name being Phylactery.
My patron eventually had me join the Harpers. With my hidden powers, I succeeded all of their tasks and all of the trials put in front of me. I became a double agent, helping the Harpers while feeding my patron information about their plans. I don't know what plans he has in store, but I hope I live long enough to see it.
This character was originally my Rogue Swashbuckler/Old One Warlock (was before XGtE) but it's still applicable to a straight Hexblade. Picked up Actor as a variant human + Mask Invocation, and was easily my favorite character of all time to play.
The Revanent Blade
- There once was an intelligent sunblade, forged for a mighty Paladin who led a resistance.
- It was not created with sentience. Instead, an elf woman wished to become a baelnorn lich and defend a holy site. The lich ritual went wrong, destroying her body, so they sealed her spirit and intellect in a sword.
- The Sword was passed down for many years by the Paladins followers.
- The sunblade was eventually killed, whether through a dispelling or overchanneling of power, by an agent of a powerful fiend. The sword died.
- The owner tried to have her reformed, but something went wrong.
- When the sword was reformed, she was darker, drawing from the element of Ash instead of Radiance. Her personality was also more relentless (read: neutral instead of good)
- She is a revanent, and will only allow someone to wield her who swears to destroy the enemies who are responsible for her death.
Obviously, the details such as the type of blade, original humanoid, and other such things could be changed.
Your hexblade isn't a blade at all, but a piece of a sentient suit of armor the major government had somehow acquired.Quote:
Originally Posted by Oramac
- An ancient champion from centuries before had their essence imprinted in a suit of armor, but the government which found the suit realized it would be only marginally less powerful if someone only used a piece of the suit.
- That government's intelligence created a service that would take people, attune them to pieces of the suit, and used these powered individuals to perform clandestine operations
- As a spy, you were assigned to, and bonded with, a small, easily concealed piece of the suit, such as a bracer, pauldron, or glove.
- You've only heard that the armor is sentient through whispers and tales from others that have had contact with the armor, as it only seems to be sentient while it's together.
- Since you had left the agency, due to being burned/the agency being disavowed/the rest of the suit being stolen, you have started to get this feeling from the artifact that you need to collect the other pieces of the suit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oramac
- Grew up in highlands. A hamlet (population 300-400) on rolling hills with some cliff dwellings. Mostly human-dominated.
- Family are refugees, fleeing after "bad intelligence" was given to a major government power which resulted in a calamity or war.
- Early childhood involved historical religious instruction. Worshiped <Hexblade> for years, but does so in secret and does not observe commitments openly nor consistently.
- After relocation and hiding, you learned to farm. Helped plant, weed and harvest crops (wheat or similar) and kept a low profile.
- During daily routine, significant villain (perhaps noble from previous government power) threatened the community.
- Your family patron <Hexblade> fulfilled its end of a pact / bargain in dealing with the villain.