I want to note that the Player's Handbook offers a few options here. I'm going to keep those and adapt them slightly to fit what's canon in my world, and I'm also going to create a few from scratch that would exist in my world. Specifically, the Player's Handbook names three "otherworldly patrons," namely The Archfey, The Fiend, and The Great Old One. I'll tackle these adaptations of what's in the Player's Handbook first, and then get into the patrons that I've created. These descriptions are for lore and worldbuilding purposes, but I am also going to include class abilities for each patron in case any of these get used in the future. So let's get started--here are the Warlock patrons of my homebrew setting.
The Archfae
In my world, the Faewyld is a confusing and haunting space where multiple dimensions exist at once. It takes mortals months or even years of time in the Faewyld to adjust to the disorientation. The Fae and other creatures who live in the Faewyld are typically extremely chaotic, but they generally tend toward good actions in the end. Extremely powerful Fae have a strong enough grasp of magic that they are able to grant power to those who are willing to serve them. Fae of this sort are typically elevated in some way in Fae society, be it through political leadership or achievement in magic, but sheer power is enough to grant a Fae access to being a patron.
To become a Warlock with the Archfae, one must strike a deal. Fae are famous for negotiating and striking bargains, the conditions of which are not always clear upon making the deal. In Of Gods and Dragons, Aurora gained her access to her custom class by striking a deal with a Fae (perhaps an Archfae in secret?), and Aurora would not know until session twelve that the price of her powers was destroying the city she came from. It is not uncommon for an Archfae to select a humanoid to accomplish one large task and then leave them alone, seeking a new and specially qualified humanoid for their next big goal, but still supporting the old humanoid so long as they serve the Archfae's interests.
Class Abilities:
Fae Bearing
Starting at 1st level, your character is inherently more charming like the Fae. All Persuasion checks made with a +2 modifier and can roll one Persuasion check with advantage per long rest.
Dimension Step
Starting at 6th level, your character is able to step across dimensions as though in the Faewyld. You are able to disappear and then reappear within 100 feet as a free action, used once per long rest.
Defense Against Influence
Starting at 10th level, when someone is using a Persuasion or Diplomacy check against you, you can use a successful Wisdom saving throw (DC 14) to see past their words given your experience with Fae communication. You get advantage on saving throws against mind-affecting magic.
Faewyld Tour
Starting at 14th level, you can send a creature to the Faewyld, where the unsettling shape of the world will terrorize them. Once per long rest, you can invoke this power against a creature, which must roll a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. A failure means spending up to 10 minutes in the Faewyld or until the Warlock recalls the creature, whichever comes first; a success means being stunned for 1d6 rounds.
Magoth, King of the Underworld
Far below the other dimensions lies a primordial area that defies imagination. Mortals on Izar talk about lakes of lava and endless fires, pain that cannot be escaped, psychological torment that goes forever. But Magoth's realm is more akin to deprivation. All is black. There is a feeling of constriction, of paralysis, of not quite getting enough air on each breath. But no other sensation is experienced by any in this lowest dimension--even Magoth himself is subject to the constant agony of his realm, prodding him to continue inflicting pain on those he has claimed--all former champions who disappointed Magoth. None in Magoth's realm have power except for him, and his power is enough to be a patron, but inadequate for him to escape his own punishment.
To strike a deal with Magoth, one must forsake all that they have in the world and will ever have, promising to always wreak pain and suffering on the living. Magoth has made allowances for champions who have a single-minded hate of one group of people, but his favorite champions are those who have a blind hatred of all people. Because Magoth is considered an obscure and occult interest, fewer people are aware of him than other Warlock patrons, but Magoth has counteracted this by communicating directly with cultists, who have been able to spread word of the lowest dimension and its ruler.
Class Abilities:
Consumption of Life
Starting at 1st level, can leech life directly from an enemy; your character can regain up to your Charisma modifier + your Warlock level when you reduce a creature to 0 hit points.
Magoth's Hatred
Starting at 6th level, you can focus Magoth's hatred--on any attack, skill check, or saving throw, you can roll with advantage thanks to your channeled rage. You must declare the advantaged roll before rolling. Works once per long rest.
Demonic Resistance
Starting at 10th level, you become inured to the pain of Magoth. Every long rest, you may choose a new damage type; you are resistant to this damage type until your next long rest. Magical weapons and silver weapons ignore this resistance.
Time In Hell
Starting at 14th level, you can send a creature to Magoth's realm when you strike it and deal at least half of the roll's possible damage. The creature spends what seems like years in the constrictive nothingness, then reappears where it was at the end of its next turn. The creature must perform a Wisdom saving throw (your Warlock spell save DC) or take 12d10 psychic damage.
The Ancient
Relatively little is known of what space looks like beyond Izar, but somewhere out there beyond the reach of telescopes and imagination are ancient beings suited for life in the unnourishing void of nothingness. Those who have made contact have described a wide variety of beings, ranging from incorporeal glowing entities to massive, lumbering, shapeless things to imperceptible combinations of senses that overwhelm the onlooker. The entities lack names or traditional communication as known by humanoids, but when contacted, some have been willing to lend some of their unknowable power to those who strike them as interesting.
To enter a pact with an Ancient, one must first learn how to contact one, a feat requiring a great deal of arcane study; then, one must contact Ancient after Ancient until one strikes the Ancient's fancy; then they must discuss the powers to be shared and the conditions of one's power. This can take years or even decades. One of the greatest challenges is in learning to communicate with the Ancient, a task that can require considerable trial and error before introductions can even be made.
Class Abilities:
Language of the Stars
Starting at 1st level, you can communicate telepathically with any creature within 30 feet of you after the ordeal of learning to communicate with an eldritch being. This power works with any creature who can speak at least one language.
Turn the Tides
Starting at 6th level, you can see through the world as it is. When you are attacked, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on their attack. If they miss, you can attack on your next turn with advantage.
Celestial Armor
Starting at 10th level, you are immune to any means of reading your mind after being fortified by your patron. You are also immune to psychic damage, reflecting any psychic damage back to the creature attacking you.
Eldritch Bond
Starting at 14th level, you gain the ability to charm one humanoid which is incapacitated as your patron does. Your patron takes partial control of that humanoid, keeping them charmed until remove curse is cast or the ability is used again. You can telepathically communicate with the charmed humanoid as long as you are on the same plane of existence.
Zxete, the Force of Change
While scientists and philosophers struggle to define the causes and effects of changes in all variety of contexts, what invariably must be agreed to exist is the change itself. But while changes have effects, the change itself is not the effect. This force--the change itself--is a living, sentient energy which brings more changes with it. The Force of Change, called by some Zxete, has an everchanging personality which is at turns spiteful or benevolent, subdued or manic, refined or base, all in constantly shifting ways both gradual and sudden. The Force of Change favors those most touched by its effects, those who have known great upheaval or growth in life.
To enter a pact with Zxete, one must endure or cause tremendous change. Once one has survived the great change and mastered it, Zxete becomes willing to grant an audience to the potential champion. Zxete is only interested in champions who will both have a claim to Its power and further Its agenda. That agenda is not revealed to the champion, who Zxete will reveal the full agenda only as it comes to be. Zxete communicates in a manner that is equivalent to telepathy, but which uses change itself to form words that can be understood by humanoids.
Class Abilities:
Altered Perception
Starting at 1st level, you can see the world for the changing processes that it is. You gain +2 to all Perception checks and can roll one Perception check with advantage per long rest.
Cascading Effects
Starting at 6th level, once per day, you can see the effects of changes; roll a Charisma check (DC 14) to ascertain the major consequences of any action, identical to casting the spell Augury, with the exception that the timeframe affected is one day rather than thirty minutes.
Zxete's Force
Starting at 10th level, you can redirect energy that is focused on changing you. If a creature makes an attack against you, you can negate the damage and focus it instead on another creature within 100 feet. Reroll the damage, adding 2d6.
Forced Change
Starting at 14th level, you can impose massive change on a humanoid once per long rest. The humanoid gets a Wisdom saving throw at the Warlock's spell save DC. A success means nothing happens. A failure means the target will experience a massive change determined by rolling a d6:
1 - Race changes at random
2 - Age changes at random
3 - Appearance changes at random
4 - Equipment changes at random
5 - Personality changes at random
6 - Two of the above change at random; roll twice, ignore doubles of the same option, if 6 is rolled again then add another roll
Existence
Everything that exists--every star and planet and moon and sun in the cosmos; every living thing that ever has been, is, or will be; every idea, feeling, or spiritual sensation; simply everything that could be and is, real or imagined--has a trace of natural energy in it. Individually, the natural energy of say, a blade of grass or a story once told by a halfling 6,000 years ago, is not much, though it is undeniable. But all of that natural energy is connected, and together, it forms the strongest force in all of existence--existence itself. Existence, as a powerful conscious form of life, tends towards the good and ordered in things, and only chooses champions who will meaningfully advance the wellbeing of the universe. Existence, a term only chosen because the entity resists a name, is more interested in action than knowledge, though it is partially formed of all information.
To enter a pact with the entity of all existence, one must be learn to recognize the natural energy in oneself and in all things, forming relationships with those energies until the combined energy of existence trusts them. The champion-to-be must propose a meeting, which existence accepts or denies based on whether it believes the champion-to-be will advance good and order. Existence then speaks to the champion-to-be, relating some of the truth of the universe, revealing information and experiences valuable to achieving shared goals. Once the champion has recovered from the unveiling of universal truths, existence grants its champion powers and returns them to life with a new understanding of the universe.
Class Abilities:
Universal Connection
Starting at 1st level, you contain the wisdom of the things around you; all Wisdom-based skills get a +1 bonus.
The Ebb and Flow of Life
Starting at 6th level, your connection to the world around you means that you an share life force with them. By focusing for one round, you can draw life force from the world around you; roll 2d8 hit points to harmlessly absorb life from the universe. Can be used once per long rest.
The Whole Universe
Starting at 10th level, you can target the foes of existence's agenda more effectively. Existence itself bends reality to grant you +2 AC against chaotic or evil enemies, and advantage on attack rolls against chaotic evil enemies.
The Fabric of Reality
Starting at 14th level, you can guide the forces of existence yourself. Once per long rest, you may grant advantage to any roll (including other creatures' rolls) and impose disadvantage on any roll (including other creatures' rolls).
Dyzyq
Witches on Izar have a variety of routes to honing their craft: one can study and master the arcane arts, others are born into powers they refine, and still others strike a bargain to become Warlocks. Those who take the Warlock route usually choose Dyzyq as their patron. Unlike other Warlock patrons, Dyzyq accepts all who come to her for power; the catch is that she only empowers those who agree with her ideals, which tend to be neutral good with an occasional flair for the chaotic. Dyzyq draws her power from nature, and she teaches her champions to draw their power from nature too--alchemy is highly popular among Warlocks of Dyzyq. Dyzyq also demands that her champions practice a craft--after all, it is witchcraft, and most Warlocks of Dyzyq practice one practical skill like weaving or carving as well as one magical skill like divination or enchantment. Legend says that Dyzyq is herself an ascended witch, or perhaps the first witch, but no one is sure.
To enter a pact with Dyzyq, one must learn of her through study or by chance. Contacting her requires what amounts to a prayer asking for her guidance, at which point Dyzyq speaks to the champion-to-be, helping to reveal things about them that they did not know. Dyzyq bestows her power slowly; while other patrons give their power in steps, Dyzyq requires that her champions seek out and learn new secrets of magic and craft with her help, which she tends to bestow graciously. A champion's relationship with Dyzyq is more akin to a religious one than a traditional pact.
Class Abilities:
Skilled in the Craft
Starting at 1st level, you become more skilled in the crafts of witchcraft. Of the skills Arcana, Nature, and Medicine, choose one to get a +2 bonus and another one to get a +1 bonus.
Cloak Against Magic
Starting at 6th level, you gain protection from natural magic. You gain a +2 bonus on all rolls against magic directed at you (spell saves, rolls to take partial damage, etc.), and an Arcana check of DC 14 allows you to redirect the spell if the first roll is successful.
Expert Casting
Starting at 10th level, you become more in tune with the natural magic of Dyzyq. Once per long rest, you can roll any spell-related roll (spell attacks, spell damage, dice-determined effects) with advantage; an Arcana check of DC 15 allows you to roll with double advantage.
Crafted Spell
Starting at 14th level, your grasp of witchcraft allows you to empower your magic. Once per day, with a skill check of DC 15, either Arcana, Nature, or Medicine, you can cast any spell at one power level higher as though it were cast with a higher spell slot. You can cast your highest level spell with this ability and receive an effect outside of your ability. You cannot choose spells from a level you have not reached. This heightened spell gets any spellcasting roll (spell attacks, spell damage, dice-determined effects) to automatically achieve maximum score.
There you have it--the three classic 5E patrons with twists to make them fit my world better, plus three new patrons with entirely different feels and alignments. It struck me writing this that the Archfey of 5E is essentially chaotic neutral, the Fiend is neutral evil, and the Ancient One is basically true neutral. But that left a whole range of alignments untouched, namely all the good ones. I felt like we should have good-aligned patrons too, so we can count Zxete as chaotic good, Existence as lawful good, and Dyzyq as neutral good. I would add here that if a player really wanted a chaotic evil or lawful neutral patron, I would make those for them, too--remember that it's all about what would make the player enjoy the game the most. It was also interesting to make and adjust class abilities--I haven't made a guide where I needed to do anything mechanical in a long time. I'm sure some of the changes I made will need tweaking later, but getting the general idea down so that we can tweak it is the most important and difficult step. To Warlocks, and to seeing one in my homebrew setting.
That's all for now. Coming soon: the unspoken rules of communication in my homebrew setting, how D&D ended up on my Master's thesis, and the core values of each group in my homebrew setting and how they pursue them. Until next time, happy gaming!
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