Every edition of D&D is easily recognizable. It's a rpg not rocket science. It's about as difficult to understand as one wants it to be. That's not the fault of the rules of any edition it's on you.v

Quote from: DavetheLost;990230And people wonder why I say I don't even recognize 5e as D&D.

"Old One"-blade-warlock. Really it's not that hard. "Warlock" = PC that uses magic. "Fey Pact" = Power from fairies. "Old One Pact" = Cthulhu provides you your charge-ups. I know you can do it.

OTOH maybe I only get it because I'm one of those durn kids playing on the D&D lawn ... since 1980.

To get back on topic, "builds" as starting packages for a given fantasy or SF or horror or name-your-genre-experience are fine. I never bothered with "builds" as "roadmaps for advancement," largely because (in 4E) the system was robust enough that you maintained a decent level of effectiveness even if you never char-opped. But I'm not for 'em in the abstract.

Quote from: Vargold;990243"Old One"-blade-warlock. Really it's not that hard. "Warlock" = PC that uses magic. "Fey Pact" = Power from fairies. "Old One Pact" = Cthulhu provides you your charge-ups. I know you can do it.

OTOH maybe I only get it because I'm one of those durn kids playing on the D&D lawn ... since 1980.

Well, that, and they are trivially easy to ignore.  I did for my two 5E campaigns, because I don't like them, and didn't want the players to deal with their mechanics.  Same with the Battlemaster path.  And no one around me wants to play a monk.  The game works just fine with the old standbys.

Quote from: Dumarest;990082Yeah, but I wanna be an archetypical fey-pact warlock modeled on all those famous fey-pact warlocks from various mythologies and literature.

Irish, Greek and some Native American stories have the equivalent. Probably more from lands Im just not aware of or remembering at the moment. People who one way or another gain the favour, equipment, and sometimes magic from a patron in the outer realm.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;990206Fey-pact warlock? One-blade warlock? In 5e?

I suddenly feel like an elderly person struggling to use a smartphone.

Old one patron - pact of the blade - warlock.

Quote from: DavetheLost;990230And people wonder why I say I don't even recognize 5e as D&D.

Because you are an idiot for dismissing it because some other idiots made up idiotic terms?

Quote from: Omega;990284Irish, Greek and some Native American stories have the equivalent. Probably more from lands Im just not aware of or remembering at the moment. People who one way or another gain the favour, equipment, and sometimes magic from a patron in the outer realm.

Give me some names so I can educate myself then!

Quote from: Dumarest;990297Give me some names so I can educate myself then!

First one that comes to mind from Greek is Perseus. He gets a magic shield, a sword and effectively a "flesh to stone" via medusa head, and "Fly" via Pegasus. Theres others. In NA tales one was recently reading about was Burnt Face. Who was healed and himself gained healing powers from the "little people" another where a child was lost and adopted by them and gained some of their magic, becoming very strong. And so on. And thats just from what I've hears myself and a quick glance online for just one region. For others try the Tuatha Dé Danann and branch out from there.

There was a series of these books in our library way back. Each one covering a different region. All I remember those were the Native American and the Russian ones. Id love to find those again but Im not even sure the name of the set.

Perseus is a terrible analogy, nothing even remotely close to a Pact Warlock of any type in any way, really.  Folktales have people who become enhanced through a bargain with supernatural forces, and there's always good old Faust.

It's WotC D&D.  It's going to be filled with lame-ass compound words, MtG-like metadata tags for everything, and even in supposedly "retro" 5e, full of widgets to build your dec...err character with.  You either grit your teeth still they stop itching, or play something else.

That having been said, considering the system, the Warlock is a well-put together class that works as a good archetype within the assumptions of the D&D cosmology, not our reality.

Quote from: CRKrueger;990370Perseus is a terrible analogy, nothing even remotely close to a Pact Warlock of any type in any way, really.  Folktales have people who become enhanced through a bargain with supernatural forces, and there's always good old Faust.

Yeah Faust seemed the obvious example to me as well.

Ooooooh~! That stat line looks delicious! 9str, 12dex, 11 con, 15int, 7wis, 17cha. All those odd numbers to tease. I feel the urge to spooge over this topic!

Juliette's Romeo
Human Fighter, Noble
Lvl 1. PB +2. Saves: STR, CON. Alignment: NG
HD: d10. HP: 11. AC: 14 (16 w/ shield).

STR 10 (0), DEX 13 (1), CON 12 (1), INT 16 (3), WIS 8 (-1), CHA 18 (4)

Lang: Hu Common 1, Hu Common 2, Hu Common 3 (bkrd).

Race: Human -- All stats +1.

Class
Armor: All armor & Shields.
Weapons: All simple & martial.
Tools: Chess Set (bkrd).

Skills: History +5 (bkrd), Insight +1, Intimidation +6, Persuasion (bkrd) +6.

Fighting Style, Duelist -- when one-handed melee (no other weapons) +2 dmg.
Second Wind -- bonus act, regain (1d10 +fighter lvl) HP; recharge Short or Long rest.

Background - Noble
Feature: Position of Privilege.
Personality: Flatterer. Ideal: Family.
Bond: Star-Crossed Love. Flaw: Scandalous Secret.
Gear: fine clothes, signet ring, pedigree scroll, purse +25 gp.

Wealth: ?? (@ 25 gp petty cash)

Armor:
Chain Shirt - 50 gp, AC 13+DEX (max 2).
Shield - 10 gp, +2 AC.
Weapons:
Rapier - 25 gp. +3 atk. 1d8+1 (+3 duel) p. finesse.
Whip - 2 gp. +3 atk. 1d4+1 (+3 duel) s. finesse, reach.
2x Dagger - 2 gp. +3 atk. 1d4+1 (+3 duel) p. finesse, light, thrown (rng 20/60).

Gear: Explorer's Pack (backpack, bedroll, mess kit, tinderbox, 10x torches, 10x rations, water skin, rope hemp 50') - 10 gp. Plus Noble stuff!

And now I want roving noble youth gangs and whip duels in the streets of fair Verona.

The basic concept of someone having made a pact with ancient/cosmic forces to gain power certainly predates D&D. "Fey" is just another word for "faerie," but one teenage boys won't snigger at (jklol yes they will). So basically a Pact of the Archfey Warlock is someond who's made bargain with some kind of faerie king for power (strangely enough, every single ancient, cosmic force available for pact-making seems to make the exact same deal: you can attack several times per turn to do 1d10+CHA force damage). It's not exactly ripped  straight from a classical myth or 1960s pulp fantasy, but it's also not a wholly original concoction of WotC, either.

IMO the Cleric was a pure Gygaxianism. Maybe the armor-clad, mace-wielding, zombie-frightening, party-buffing healer appears somewhere in myth...but clearly it's not a popular enough trope for me to know where. So it's not like 'I can identify which European myth this comes from' is the sine qua non of being in D&D. It's always been a mix of the classic and original.

Dude, Bishop Odo and Van Helsing totally had a baby together.