Warlock

Source:
Player's Handbook, Pg 108
(Core)

Your patron is a lord or lady of the fey, a creature of legend who holds secrets that were forgotten before the mortal races were born. This being's motivations are often inscrutable, and sometimes whimsical, and might involve a striving for greater magical power or the settling of age-old grudges. Beings of this sort include the Prince of Desires, The Gentleman, ~~The Petal Dragon~~, The Seelie King and others that may be revealed later..

2024 Revision Available

Source:
Xanatha's Guide to Everything, Pg 54
(Supplement)

Your patron is a powerful being of Celestia but usually not among the Pantheon You have bound yourself to an ancient empyrean, Seraph, Hym Singer, unicorn, or other entity that resides in the planes of everlasting bliss. Your pact with that being allows you to experience the barest touch of the holy light that illuminates the multiverse. Being connected to such power can cause changes to your behaviour and beliefs. You might find yourself driven to annihilate the undead, to defeat fiends, and to protect the innocent. At times, your heart might also be filled with a longing for the celestial realm of your patron, a desire to wander that paradise for the rest of your days. But you know that your mission is among mortals for now and that your pact binds you to bring light to the dark places of the world

2024 Revision Available

Source:
Arcadia, Vol 9
(MCDM 5e)

Instead of a single patron, you’re beholden to a myriad of pacts and contracts with different magical creatures, drawing small fragments of power from each of them to form a coherent magical library. You might forge these pacts during a long journey, painstakingly searching for a number of patrons willing to work with one another, or multiple lesser entities might approach you after witnessing you fall out with your previous patron. Living up to the demands of multiple patrons can be taxing, and you might find yourself at the center of conflicting requests from many of them. Warlocks who manage to maintain these manyfold pacts often pit their patrons against one another, using their bickering rivalries as a way to force them to keep one another in check.

Source:
Guide to Drakenhime, Pg 172
(3rd Party)

Some warlocks gain their eldritch power from the very cosmos known as the Astral Sea, answering to entities of space, the constellations, planets, and moons. A warlock swearing fealty to a Cosmic patron typically believes they speak to gods, or god-like beings, but these entities are shrouded in mystery, their appearance incomprehensible and horrible, and their divine power is bestowed into the warlock from the stars and galaxies beyond.

Source:
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Pg 72
(Supplement)

You have plunged into a pact with the deeps. An entity of the deep ocean, the Elemental Plane of Water, or another otherworldly sea now allows you to draw on its thalassic power. Is it merely using you to learn about terrestrial realms, or does it want you to open cosmic floodgates and drown the world?
Perhaps you were born into a generational cult that venerates the Fathomless and its spawn. Or you might have been shipwrecked and on the brink of drowning when your patron's grasp offered you a chance at life. Whatever the reason for your pact, the sea and its unknown depths call to you.
Entities of the deep that might empower a warlock include krakens, ancient water elementals, godlike hallucinations dreamed into being by Kuo-Toa, merfolk demigods, and sea hag covens.

Source:
Player's Handbook, Pg 109
(Core)

You have made a pact with a Fiend, Arch-Devil or other powerful being from the Nine Hells, a being whose aims are evil, even if you strive against those aims. Such beings desire the corruption or destruction of all things, ultimately including you. Fiends or Arch-Devils powerful enough to forge a pact include Asmodeus the ruler of Nessus, Dispater The Ruler of Dis, The Black Winged Devil, and other powerful beings such as Pit Fiends and Yogoloths.

2024 Revision Available

Source:
Guide to Drakenhime, Pg 174
(3rd Party)

A Warlock of the Flesh has made a pact with an entity from the Court of Flesh, In Pandemonium these god-like beings are so alien and unknown that the mere existence is enough to cause madness in most people. These warlocks have allowed an alien entity to inhabit their bodies, answering to some ancient and eldritch thing from beyond comprehension. This entity creates a symbiotic relationship with the host, granting them powers while reshaping and twisting their form.

Source:
Floral Dragon Subclasses, Pg 6
(3rd Party)

You have entered into a pact with a great Fungus, intertwining your life with it in exchange for power. The Fungus is a strange entity, neither animal nor vegetable. Tying your life to it changes you in peculiar ways as your body becomes a substrate for its mycelium. The alien will of the fungus is difficult to comprehend, but the deeper you go down this path, the more it makes sense. Fungi may wish to grow and expand, revitalize the environment through decay, or carry out some other strange design. You may have tied yourself to a Fungus that is part of the natural cycle of life and death. Or perhaps you have given yourself over to the corrupted Pleurossa, taking on its vengeful mission to eradicate the floral dragons.

Source:
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Pg 73
(Supplement)

You have made a pact with one of the rarest kinds of genie, a noble genie. Such entities rule vast fiefs on the Elemental Planes and have great influence over lesser genies and elemental creatures. Noble genies are varied in their motivations, but most are arrogant and wield power that rivals that of lesser deities. They delight in turning the table on mortals, who often bind genies into servitude, and readily enter into pacts that expand their reach. There are Genie for a variety of the elemental plains, You may have chosen which one you wished to borrow power from or the choice was made for you.

Source:
Grim Hollow: Valika, Pg 118
(3rd Party)

You can hear the breathing of the Prismatic Serpent that coils around the world. You feel the coldfire of its breath upon your flesh. You can taste the rime of the northern seas upon your lips. Long has Gormadraug slumbered, and long may it yet slumber before the world’s ending. Even if that day is far off, your patron grants you power on one condition: that you hasten that day’s arrival.
Nearly all Valikans have a healthy mistrust of magic, but the hierophants of Thrull despise you over all others. To them, you are a sign of the world’s approaching end, a weed in the garden of life that must be torn out by the root before it can go to seed. They preach that those who claim to hear the voice of Gormadraug are mad, that they only hear the corrupting voice of one of the Serpent’s panjaians—its elemental servitors—for the serpent could not possibly speak while it still slumbers. The truth likely matters little to you, for you are to be persecuted by the fearful and faithful regardless of who exactly speaks to you in whispers. You may not be an agent of evil, but your powers were still granted to you by the enemy of all Grarjord, and for that, you know that you must keep your power hidden.

Source:
Arcadia, Vol 8
(MCDM 5e)

Grandmother hags never stop scheming and relish the assistance of a minion…warlock…same thing. They train assistants inclined toward herbalism, animal care, spellwork, and menace. With time, these warlocks rely upon their grandmothers for magical gifts.
Hags are involved patrons. Quick to punish her warlocks for acting against her interests, a hag patron is opinionated and dedicated to molding her “grandchildren.” Warlocks who have an entire coven mentoring them typically also have to work around inter-coven politics, with each hag using the warlock to gain advantage over the other hags.

Player Story Tips & Ideas Emphasis should be put on the patron, Is the character a willing servant? A daughter to become a Hag?
The Hag Patron would be very involved with the character’s story.

What to Expect A Warlock who has obtained power from a Grandmother Hag. Gaining Hag related abilities such as a strong natural weapon attack, fearing foes with horrifying appearance and gaining bonuses attacking feared creatures, unique hag themes such as creating hag eyes or hearth stones.
Choosing from 1 of 4 hag types to get different themed abilities.

What would DM Darwin Change? Allow choosing and gaining the abilities of two (2) types of hags over just one (1)

Source:
Xanatha's Guide to Everything, Pg 55
(Supplement)

You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell A forces that manifest in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The mighty slate Great Sword Consummate is the most notable of these weapons, another the twinblades Vincere and Punire. Weapons such as these have been spread across the multiverse over the ages. The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting.
While most Hexblades are shards of the original blade Consummate there are a number of other Sentient weapons not cut from the original Slate Blade.
Some of these weapons are forged by powerful beings, One such weapon known to be forged by the Raven Queen which is said to have played a major role during the material plane's infant years. others such as the Twin Blades were Devil Twins forgoing their original physical forms to become weapons of destruction themselves.

Source:
Arcadia, Vol 2
(MCDM 5e)

Fear and apprehension permeate the autumn winds. Lush greens pass to dying oranges, soft grass turns to prickling leaves, and vibrant life slows towards deathly stillness. Hunters ready their tools, wit, and ferocity to seek out food and glory. And it is here, in this season of dispassionate bloodshed, that your patron comes to be. A being of blood and sweat, the Horned One is a proud and harried participant in the thrill of the hunt. For sport or for survival, many attempt to share in the Horned One’s chase. But only those with true determination and courage can endure the autumn hunt and be molded by its power.
The Horned One often takes the form of hunted or harried animals, testing would-be warlocks to see if they have the courage to face blood. At other times, they take the form of a large and terrifying predator to harry potential warlocks and challenge them to pit fortitude against fear. Those who pass such trials are given the blessing of the autumn hunt: a pact with the Horned One. Silent and patient, the Horned One rarely interferes with the actions of those who receive their favor, but may call upon you one crisp fall day for a hunt of great importance. Until such a time, it is up to you to continue to prove yourself with dangerous prey and grand kills.

Source:
Player's Handbook, Pg 109
(Core)

Your patron is a mysterious entity whose nature is utterly foreign to the fabric of reality. It might come from the Far Realm, the space beyond reality, or it could be one of the Old Gods known only in legends. Its motives are incomprehensible to mortals, and its knowledge so immense and ancient that even the greatest libraries pale in comparison to the vast secrets it holds. The Great Old Ones might be unaware of your existence or entirely indifferent to you, but the secrets you have learned allow you to draw your magic from it.
Entities of this type include the Watcher Norgrazath, The Harvester Nyala, the Crawler Uahrah and other unfathomable beings.

2024 Revision Available

Source:
Grim Hollow, Pg 73
(3rd Party)

Your patron is a cosmic parasite, draining the vitality out of whole peoples and worlds. Upon forging a pact with such a patron, you become host to one of its nascent offspring. As you grow in power, the boundary between your identity and the parasitic larva within you blurs.

Source:
Arcadia, Vol 9
(MCDM 5e)

Your patron is an entity that you have stolen power from. The Swindled might be a previous patron of yours, who severed ties with you after you broke your end of the bargain, or they could be an entirely new eldritch being from whom you steal secrets and siphon power. While forging this stolen pact is a remarkable rarity, it isn’t necessarily a willing occurrence. Perhaps you accidentally stumbled upon an ancient artifact that stole the patron’s power, and now the item wields you as its host. The patron may not even be aware of your connection to them. Regardless of how you obtained the stolen power, you are in constant peril of being discovered, by the entity whose power you draw upon or by others who covet your powers.

(The First Vampire)

Source:
Grim Hollow, Pg 72
(3rd Party)

You have made a pact with a powerful Vampire Lord cursed by the gods or born as a creature of the night. Hundreds of haunted beings serve this vampire, so why enter a pact with you? Because you can act in the light of day unhindered? To cull weaker vampires? But most likely they find you entertaining. They have taken your lust for power or your lust for love and used it against you, to bind you in a contract you were either against or willingly accepted. Perhaps they made you one of their Vampire spawn, or a special toy they intend to play with, a pet to show off to other Vampire Lords. What ever the reason your in deep now.
Vampire Lords as Patrons are rather tight nit with their warlocks, They only ever have a few at a time and each one is given alot of personal time. If your out on an adventure you can be sure your Vampire lord is watching closely, weather you were allowed to leave or escaped, perhaps if you did escape the only reason you haven't been forcibly returned is the entertainment you are providing.

Source:
Hexbound, Pg 41
(3rd Party)

Witches need a mentor to teach them witchcraft. Warlocks need a patron to grant them their powers. As a Witch Patron warlock, your mentor and your patron are one and the same. An incredibly powerful witch taught you witchcraft, and through your covenant they also became both your mentor and your patron. Your magic stems both from the summoning of spirits and from your mentor themselves. You are able to tap into your patron’s immense source of magic, so long as they agree with your actions. Under the watchful eye of your familiar, your patron sees your every move. Whether this is to protect you from harm or to ensure you carry on their evil deeds depends on the mentor and patron you chose. Your training under an immensely powerful witch has taught you the importance and strength that lies in belonging to a coven; a powerful coterie of magic users that enhance each other’s magical abilities. You know that there’s strength in numbers, and with both your coven and your familiar at your side, there’s little in this plane or any other that can oppose you.

Source:
Van Richten's guide to Ravenloft, Pg 30
(Setting)

You've made a pact with a deathless being, a creature that defies the cycle and life and death, forsaking its mortal shell so it might eternally pursue its unfathomable ambitions. For such beings, time and morality are fleeting things, the concerns of those for whom grains of sand still rush through life's hourglass. Having once been mortal themselves, these ancient undead know firsthand the paths of ambition and the routes past the doors of death. They eagerly share this profane knowledge, along with other secrets, with those who work their will among the living.
Beings of this type include Liches, Mummy Lords, Draco-Liches, The First of the Dead Nuz-kul and other beings of Undeath.

Source:
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Pg 139
(Setting)

Death holds no sway over your patron, who has unlocked the secrets of everlasting life, although such a prize; like all power, comes at a price. Once mortal, the Undying has seen mortal lifetimes pass like the seasons, like the flicker of endless days and nights. It has the secrets of the ages to share, secrets of life and death.
While Undead Patrons have snuffed life and found new existence in Undeath, Undying Patrons hold onto their life force far longer than they should. Beings such as the Great Alchemist Uzmoldi, The Immortal Vi-Gon and other such beings that sustain their life long after their time is due but have yet to cross the border into Undeath.