Making a Villain of the Warlock with a Little Help from our Friends
Warlock is probably one of the most popular fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character classes. It didn’t come into existence as a character class until the later part of 3.5 D&D. Fourth edition D&D made it a core class in the fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: According to April’s And Beyond live stream with D&D Beyond lead Adam Bradford, warlocks are the No. 1 most created character class over there.]
A monstrous warlock to plague adventurers’ dreams
Warlock is one of the few things that was kept going from 4E D&D into 5E. It is the perfect character class for monsters as well for several reasons.
- They benefit greatly from short rests.
- It’s already by default got dark leanings.
- All warlocks serve a master, most of which are evil.
For our villain we wanted to embrace the new D&D golden child, because it’s just such a fun class. At the same time we wanted to stay away from the low-hanging fruit or fiend and great old one patrons. The decision was made to lean into the darker nature of some fey. The idea at first was to create a haunted forest where fey marauders would terrify locals and travelers alike. We ended up taking some left turns that weren’t expected.
- First unexpected twist was the bandit captain. An Archfey Patron warlock made sense, but on a whim we chose to make him an oni, or ogre magi.
- Our second twist was what the bandits were after and why. We decided it would be something strange, and went with dreams that fey lords and ladies would use to get intoxicated from.
- The third twist were the actual fey themselves. Inspired from an undetermined source, Nerdarchist Ted came up with several monster ideas.
Jarease, the Lord of Dead Dreams, is the focus for Nerdarchy’s May Patreon rewards, a dealer in dream essence. [Art by Nelson Vieira]
Sean McGovern from PowerScore RPG works his magic
For us, the fourth and final twist was turning things over to Sean McGovern. He adapted our ideas into a coherent storyline, in the process creating new NPCs, a monster, magic items, and an encounter. The ogre magi gets transformed into a powerful villain to assail your players with.
Three fey nobles are introduced as concepts and ideas to haunt your campaign. We learn what happens when mortals partake of the dreams of others if they dare. We also get a look at the onibara — the daughters of ogre magi.
You can become Patreon patron by May 1, 2018 to get these rewards – Here
You can also download the Empusia, Curator of Souls for free. It’s a chance to look at some of Sean’s work for free and get a preview of what our revamped Patreon rewards will look like going forward. We’ll be tapping the fantastic creators in the D&D community to take our concepts and develop them into new reward packages every month with brand new layouts, designs and artwork exclusively for our supporters. The Nerdarchy community makes it possible for us to keep doing what we do and living up to our motto, for nerds, by nerds.
You can check out two videos below too. The original video where we shared ideas and concepts for this warlock antagonist and a more recent one where we discuss the fantastic work Sean did developing those ideas.
Here are some other places to find Sean’s work, along with his latest accomplishment, creating the official D&D Dice, Camera, Action wiki.
Sean McGovern on the DM’s Guild
I am proud to announce that the official #dnd Dice, Camera, Action wiki is open! I poured everything into this thing. Now I ask the #wafflefam to make it 20 times better! https://t.co/rCyX0o1DJD @Wizards_DnD @AnnaProsser @HollyConrad @ProJared @NateWantsToBtl @ChrisPerkinsDnD pic.twitter.com/tIDbgunbMm
— Power Score (@Powerscorerpg) April 23, 2018
Warlock Ogre Magi Mash-Up in this D&D Terrible Terrain
The original video to inspire the May’ 2018 Patreon rewards
Warlock Gangsta Up in the Fey Haunt Terrible Terrain
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