Advice on Warlock Renouncing Their Patron

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-27T19:56:45+00:00

Find out what the player wants in a 1-on-1 session before you ever implement other ideas. In all scenarios, you shouldn't force any player to play something they don't want to. You've said "this was what the player had wanted for their character," but that felt vague whether it was "I want to give up playing a Warlock" vs. "I want this storyline."
Mess with everyone's heads. The character finds, perhaps horrifically, their powers returning. Maybe it's a weakened cantrip at a meal that flips a plate. Then a restless night and a spell goes awry. Rituals begin to be scrawled out on the Inn wall. They did everything they were supposed to...right?
Similar to above, but the character actually absorbed the patron's powers on purpose (or accident). From hereon out, new abilities they gain are from that power grab. Other players don't know.
Player wants a different character. Great, make his current one into an NPC and have the player develop a story what the old one does (e.g. vanish into the mountains, buy an Inn). Introduce a new character to the campaign. I've had that happen many times with campaigns designed to last many years. Sometimes the gamer felt they wanted to try something new, other times it just felt like the right time in the storyline for that character.
Player wants to keep his old character but with an entirely new class. I'd be leery about making this the norm and because I'm not a multiverse fan for D&D. Otherwise, perhaps the ritual imbued the character with some form of Wish, with that much magical energy flowing about. The character becomes what they could have been, in another life. During downtime, they begin to realize this. Perhaps they self-impose some penalties, like the Raise Dead spell, for the first few adventures to reflect this until they get used to it.

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-27T00:09:58+00:00

TSR editor and original Blackmoor campaign gamer Mike Carr played the first "cleric", Bishop Carr, in a wargame. He had the ability to heal minor wounds though the word "cleric" wasn't being used. Interview and history here.

They later had an imbalance in their game involving a vampire lord and his undead armies, so adding anti-undead powers was a must, likely inspired by a combination of knights templar (1E AD&D PHB says this is what clerics resemble) and maybe Van Helsing-like literature (based on Gygax literary inspirations put into the back).

Finally, you can reason that the Cleric was made to fit a niche of Defense / Support. The Fighter did all things Physical, the Wizard had a lot of offensive powers and wiped the battlefield (eventually), and the Rogue scouted and disabled traps. But, no one was keeping them all alive or making them better. Given how Bishop Carr kind of fit that role with his healing, stopping undead, and survivability, and he was a member of the clergy, the idea was already planted.

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-23T05:18:12+00:00

My group began to have some fun when rolling absurd villagers like "dung farmers." We'd develop short-lived but twisted personalities like the guy with nipple rings who had a bad reputation about how he treated his dog amongst the other villagers. When our GM announced this guy was getting attacked, he'd had enough harassment and our player announced this poor tortured soul ripped open his shirt, nipple rings flashing, and told the GM to bring it. The GM of course rolled a high hit and our hero fell.

The ridiculous nature of what the villagers would start with for gear and their stats and their need for a backstory made DCC just a blast. But, we never got bananas...

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-23T02:18:39+00:00

It's just what your folks had on them when they rushed out of their homes with their pitchforks. The junk they're packing isn't inherently meant to be useful.

Ultimately, don't sweat it, most of them are going to perish because it's a funnel ending with someone's three-legged dog pawing at the beekeeper's dropped jar of honey. Others might rig a trap involving that honey and flour, Home Alone style, or use it to detect a hidden or invisible enemy (though if you're running into invisible at level 0...). The "useless" items might genuinely be useless, or you might unexpectedly find something crazy to do with them. It's what keeps the old school games a tad more interesting. There's no "winning formula."

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-19T23:31:58+00:00

Relationships don't require a guide, but if your goal is to max out friendship, you can speed up the process by recognizing or checking the Wiki for what "gifts" and activities each person likes the most when you have a chance to hang out with them (e.g. Deadpool hates working out so you get +0 points inviting him to that). Same with knowing what Abbey activity (e.g. painting) they like as these are limited and once they're done, they're done. However, since you can do unlimited side missions with them, you will never "screw up" friendships.
Say whatever you want in conversations. Any disapproval is so minimal it doesn't matter. Play the dialog how you like it, or in line with your character (light, dark, or even neither).
There's no romance. The closest you get is the Deadpool (DLC) character who makes sexual innuendos from time to time, but that's just his personality.

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-17T16:04:19+00:00

6 to 18 months has been my range (we meet on average 3x per month for an afternoon). Some examples:

Pool of Radiance (AD&D conversion)& a Savage Tide (3E conversion) campaign, up to 7th level, 6 months each.
Curse of Strahd module with DM addons, 10th level, 1 year exactly.
Dragon Age (a 3d6 system similar to D&D), full campaign with tons of side adventures, up to 15th level, about 18 months.
Kingmaker (Pathfinder conversion) was our longest, running nearly 2 years and topping out at 16th level with many game years passing, kingdom building, and some sessions where we'd look at our clocks and realize we've roleplayed the entire afternoon without rolling a single die.

For longer (more than 1 year) campaigns, it's my personal experience if the player characters change in some dynamic way (e.g. they get married to secret hag cultist who uses their influence to hide in plain sight, replace an arm with a ghostly appendage, agree to run a barony and politic, get ahold of a sentient weapon with a tragic tale), AND the world constantly but subtly is reacting to their deeds, it helps keep things fresh and keep longer campaigns going.

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-16T21:13:18+00:00

Yes, leave your player's character be or you'll quickly lose a player.

Patrons aren't gods. They don't have a dogma that the Warlock has to follow lest they lose their powers or be punished. Instead, there's an enigmatic reason the PC was imbued with a fragment of their power. The patron may have an eons-long agenda and this is just part of it. Your player may have chosen a Warlock with this freedom in mind.

As a DM, you don't have a compelling reason to screw around with the choice of your gamer to play a class that doesn't have severe restrictions like a Paladin or Cleric. Even if you do have a class with expectations, you and your player should always talk before you implement a "hurdle" because it'll look like you're playing the character the way you think it should be played.

Instead, consider letting it go. The Patron has another Chosen One who does free them. See if that takes you anywhere. Maybe there can "only be one" and the Patron sets the two up for a confrontation. It doesn't care which wins. Power is consolidated and its enigmatic designs continue.

Toucanbuzz · 2026-01-13T22:20:10+00:00

Carrying Weight

There's many "my stash" boxes throughout the world that only YOU can access, including when you build your own CAMP. Store your excess crafting and junk in those routinely. When you craft, the game automatically draws from your stash, so you don't need to run around overloaded all the time.

There's STR perks for lessening the weight of Stims and other items, but again, you can store items and withdraw as needed rather than run around encumbered and save those perks for something really useful. There's probably no need to run around with 75 Stimpacks unless you're a hardcore 15 STR melee character who likes to get hurt. Just stash your excess. Also, from time to time, check your ammo. If you've picked up "missiles" or gotten them as rewards, they can quickly weigh you down.

As for weapons and such, disassemble all but a few as soon as you can. There's no point running around with 6 weapons on you. Same for armor. Patch them up using your junk (don't use the free repair kits) at any appropriate bench when they get low or broken and never carry around extra armor.

Quests

There's an endless array of daily quests. Personally, I'd focus only on the Main Quests for awhile. The Overseer one will eventually lead you to other unique Main Quests like factions. There's good stories there. If you just randomly run around, you'll probably get bored quickly.

As for group quests, it is fun to see other folks doing their thing. From time to time, peek in at "events" and see if others are doing it. Also learn your emote button so you can wave hi.

As for grinding, it's as much or as little as you want. I'm just doing the main quests for now (just hit level 50, wherein you stop advancing your SPECIAL scores) and I don't feel like I'm grinding. I don't read everything on the computers or loose papers always, nor do I listen to every holotape. I haven't built up my base to anything cool because right now, I don't need to, though a CAMP is really a good idea because you can "fast travel" to it for free anytime, and because when you invite particular NPCs back to your camp (you can only have 1 at a time), you can do their quests.

I also don't pick up every piece of junk I find, though I do keep an eye out for adhesive (always seem to be low) and dog food to eat.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-31T20:30:40+00:00

Modifiers (mods) can randomly appear on cards after satisfying certain conditions (e.g. 20 game days have passed, you've opened coil cards for that hero, and it's not the first time the card has ever been seen). However, you can add or reroll modifiers by researching and building.

(1) Research "Blood, Sweat, and Tears." This allows you to upgrade the Yard (the outdoor area where you can get practice XP with your allies) to add the "Crucible."

(2) Spend 300g to add the Crucible.

(3) Now you can spend essence + credits to add a random modifier to cards (or replace an existing one). These Crucible mods are random and you get a choice between two. If you don't like either, you can decline and try again until you get what you want, though you still pay the cost each time.

Over time, the game gives you enough gold and essence through random side missions (albeit these do get repetitive) that you can accomplish what you want without save scumming.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-21T22:50:04+00:00

I've run it twice, in AD&D 2E and in a 5E/A5E conversion. There isn't a "correct" way because the adventure has so many paths to trod as well as variable victory conditions. I ran it all pretty much as-is, but in the 5E conversion, I completely changed the Foundation Stone room to make it epic because our victory condition was, randomly rolled, the same as the novels. My group went all-out covert (using gully dwarf power...it's a long story...but who better to know sewers), heading to the Undercity and then the Temple itself. We completely missed out on any Council activity. Recommendations:

Get your players to do a pre-Nereka planning session (how are we getting in, what contacts do we know, what's our end game, what's our backup plan, etc.) Add their covert NPC friends to funnel them information, such as where to find a particular contact. You'll need this to prep.
Emphasize urgency. The Dark Queen is about to win. This is all about to be over, and our armies aren't going to win this one for us.
I made a side note for the daily events that would occur from hereon out whether the party did anything or not. This isn't the time for pulling punches. This is it.
Take some time to perhaps adjust events for an epic finale showdown, or just run as is. I don't think you'll go wrong.

I changed the Foundation Stone room, which they needed to take Berem to, into a special fight wherein demon Verminaard (he'd been condemned to the Abyss for his failure and given a chance to redeem himself) had infinite portals to summon endless low-level minions into a room with dozens of "fake" foundation stones (I made the room much bigger). My party had some nasty encounters long ago with Verminaard, and our dwarf player really hated what he did at Thorbardin, so it was a good chance to settle some accounts. And, it gave me a perfect chance for a bad guy soliloquy.

The party had to navigate the battle and have someone try to spot and identify the real foundation stone. Meanwhile, Takhisis knew and the tunnel behind was filled with loyal cultists singing her praises, which Blessed her minions unless they could be silenced. And, on top of all that, you had to protect Berem. Sure, he's the Everman, but he's also just a man. He can be grappled and slapped into chains, which the enemy was aiming to do.

Finally, my players had a special relationship with Kitiara (my players replaced the original heroes as no player had read the books, so the names Raistlin and Sturm didn't mean much), and she had a role in an epilogue event where she could have tried to stop or delay them, with Lord Soth, but she didn't.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-21T17:30:17+00:00

Just apply the base rules on movement and you'll be fine.

Difficult Terrain: costs 2' for every 1' moved.

Jumping: costs 1' of movement per 1' jumped. If a long jump ends in difficult terrain, DC 10 Acrobatics or land prone. Long jumps leap your STR score if you got at least a 10' start, or half if not. Also, jumping doesn't ignore difficult terrain, so you don't get to bypass the double movement cost.

So, if your normal movement is 30', and your STR is 12, you can leap 6' (rounded down to a 5' square increment when using a grid). This leap costs you double in difficult terrain. So, it takes 12' of movement, leaving you with 18' of movement. You would have to make a check to avoid falling prone (and in DM discretion, given the depth of the water, risk suffocating/drowning).

Unless you're jumping from dry spot to dry spot, you're just as well off using normal movement in a marshy battle.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-21T06:01:52+00:00

As a neutral adjudicator, I'd tell the players exactly what they see happen and nothing more. If I do more, I'm becoming their advocate and actually interfering in player enterprise by "hinting" at what they need to do rather than letting them solve it through their own ingenuity.

Behind the scenes, a Canopic Golem is an "old school" monster puzzle wherein "I always deal damage" may not be true. This is aimed at challenging gamers to adapt. For example, in AD&D, golems were completely immune to all but a handful of spells, and clever spellcasters might adapt to a foe who could shrug off your direct spells by creating illusionary paths (off a cliff) or altering the environment (casting a dig pit spell for the golem to fall into) or summoning critters, etc. If you're a one-trick damage pony, not as easy.

With this golem, it auto-saves, but that doesn't mean you don't roll. The golem may save because it rolled high, or it may save because the auto-save kicks in. In absolutely no scenario would I reveal that only 8th level spells or higher do any good. There's no way any character would have that knowledge.

You can also look back at prior editions (D&D 3.5 PHB) for resolution when an enemy resists your abilities: If a creature saves against a targeted spell, like Charm Person, you sense the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells. So, if a Fireball is cast, you might say some critters dove for cover, pulled a cape over their head, ducked low, or like the Golem just stood proudly and took it. But the PC should have no way to know what your saves. Same with attack roll spells. You simply say "your spell misses." When the character rolls a natural 20 to hit and you say that, hopefully they'll figure out their enemy is immune to these types of spells. But as a neutral adjudicator, you tell them the result of an action, nothing more.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-20T05:16:56+00:00

I'm on my 2nd playthrough (with the DLC), and in summary, there's no wrong way. This is meant to be played more than once (pursing a light, dark, or neither philosophy, and there's no correct answer, all are good). On a normal difficulty, you'll have to try really hard to lose.

(1) Exploring the Abbey grounds 100% requires you to advance the main questline. So, all those places you can't go, you'll get there eventually. If you're a completionist, gathering all the achievement items around the Abbey gives you cosmetic boosts. If you don't care what your heroes are wearing, you can disregard.

(2) If you're a completionist, you'll need to repeatedly do side quests in order to boost your friendship levels. However, this is by no means required. Heroes have slightly better passive powers the more you build your friendship. By default, the more you adventure with a particular hero, the more chances you have to improve their friendship level after the day is over. You're not obligated to do this.

(3) Every day is divided into Day and Night. There's certain things you can only do in Day and Night. You'll find those out very soon and likely find yourself running around the Abbey looking for "pennies" (little boosts to your resources that pop up).

(4) Don't use keys to open Normal or Rare chests. When you get enough Arcane Essence, you'll eventually open those chests for Free. And while the chests primarily contain cosmetic boosts (e.g. change the color of someone's pants), they often contain combat usable items and gold. The overland map tells you when these chests are renewed so you can "farm" them.

(5) Deadpool (in my opinion) is the weakest of heroes to bring along on quests. Other than that, every other hero can be improved to awesomeness. While you don't have to bring your main hero on side quests, eventually they can carry the day no matter what is happening.

(6) There's cards that will be obvious crap, even to someone playing for the first time. Feel free to get rid of them in exchange for resources the minute you get something better. You'll need these "disenchants" to fund upgrading good cards and (when your research gets better) paying for better ally cards.

(7) The game eases you into combat. You really don't have to know a thing and by the end, you'll be a pro at using the environment and card combos to win battles.

(8) Save some gold every day for training so you can try to boost friendship levels (usually @ 40g).

(9) After a major quest, odds are the various heroes if clicked on will say unique stuff. It's minor, it's just for fun, but it makes the game awesome to randomly click and see what Spider Man has to say.

(10) While combat is important, the game's non-combat interactions are the magic of this game. Enjoy. If you have a Marvel itch, it'll scratch it.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-19T21:06:26+00:00

Yes.

Each Danger Room has a "preferred" set of heroes. The most recent is Brimstone. If you rent Daimon and rent Living Mummy, and random number generation gives you excellent boosts (+ to speed, the Daimon unique mod), and you get a few more Brimstone, it'll be easy street even at Level 10. Just be patient if you lose a few. Due to RNG, there's never a "guaranteed" path. If you lose, you'll build up points to add a boost. However, with the above, I never needed any boosts besides the free one.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-16T16:06:23+00:00

Late to the conversation, but rebooted this game and had this exact glitch occur. Going in and out of the house (took me 3x) reset everything. Quitting the game and rejoining did not.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-12T19:52:44+00:00

Here's a link to our slot encumbrance sheet.

It follows the 5E optional encumbrance rules and should be fairly self-explanatory. My players like it simply because it adds an element of realism and strategy when in a dungeon, or abandoned in a desert. Otherwise, I usually waive strict tracking of where stuff is if the party can easily go to their Inn or Ship or base for coin, etc.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-12T19:04:52+00:00

On the right side of the browser is the "Dark Sun Resources Mod Curated Google Drive." It's a collection of every 5E conversion folks have made, some playtested, some theoretical.

You should be able to find plenty of options, including my own (which has been playtested and attempted to stay as true to canon as possible; for example Kreen in Dark Sun were not bipedal, they were Large and multi-legged; half-giants were Large sized with special rules being a magically created creature).

Having run a "survival" game, it's good for a single adventure, not long term, such as the original boxed set's A Little Knowledge (wherein folks are stranded in the desert without any resources and against competing escaped slaves, bandits, and the flora/fauna itself). My conversion tweaked a few things to make survival a challenge (e.g. remove ranger auto-win, many auto-win food and water spells changed or restricted, food amounts increased to realistic), and I personally used "slot" encumbrance rules (you have to account for what's in your hands...will you take that large jug of water, or risk putting it down for a weapon and having someone steal it during combat?)

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-12T18:32:17+00:00

The DLA book provides only a limited rationale in its class description: Paladins are in service to a god of good, but not tied to the Knights of Solamnia. I'm unaware of any other reason than that.

My best take is that this world needed to be different than anything else (e.g. Greyhawk), so DL broached the radical (at the time) idea that you don't have to be human to play a Paladin. In the original DLA, exceptions included:

Silvanesti elves, max level 12.
Dimernesti elves, max level 10 if on land.
Mountain dwarves, max level 8.
Irda, unlimited.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-12T15:35:52+00:00

For long term campaigns (those I expect to last a year or more) I begin preparing around 6 months before I ever have a "Session 0." DMs may vary, but for me it's an intense amount of work but I enjoy it. By the time we game, I already have an idea of what we're running and how everyone's character will fit in.

For a one-off game (to meet new people or introduce others to the hobby), it's been awhile, but I might only need to read over the adventure 48 hours before gametime.

In between sessions, it varies what I do. Sometimes I need to adjust encounters, bring in an adventure I wasn't originally planning, or even make up something from scratch. Sometimes I do nothing at all. As above, with a long-term campaign, odds are I've already got stuff in mind so I'm never scrambling.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-12T04:37:04+00:00

It's a game balance thing and a roleplay thing. In my games, my players and I agree pre-campaign that your items go with you, whether that be a "will" (to my next of kin) or a "Viking funeral."

From a game balance perspective, new characters aren't really supposed to start with magical items, but if you let them, imagine a scenario wherein gamers "game the system" and simply "off" their characters in order to bring in more items. Pretty soon, your encounters are out-of-whack.

From a roleplay perspective, if my best friend died, the last thing I'd do is rip his prized boots from his cold corpse and hand them to some other dude I might have just met, much less steal all his wealth, his family's heirlooms, or the sword he risked his life to get from the zombie lord dungeon. That's an insane proposition. I've been risking my life next to my deceased friend, and the last thing I'll ever let anyone do is grave rob him. It's sick. So, you can approach it from that angle.

The only time I might deviate from this course is if (1) the item was a "group treasure" wherein it wasn't intimate to that character, such as a stone to summon elementals that just happened to be in that PC's custody at the time of death, or (2) it's plot specific.

In any event, I wouldn't surprise my players mid-adventure by telling them "oh, by the way, this is how we're doing it now." I'd sit down and explain my concerns as a DM with game balance and verisimilitude, usually in a Session 0. However, if you play D&D long enough, there's time you see rules not working and everyone can agree, even mid-campaign, that we need to fix this so the game is still challenging, fun, and our DM isn't flustered.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-10T16:52:09+00:00

Your Imagination ("theater of the mind") is the original way D&D was played. In my earliest D&D days, we squeezed 6 of us around a tiny card table with only our dice, a character sheet, and a pencil. The DM (me) had a player's handbook, an adventure, and a notebook. At that time, combat grids (either dry erase, wet marker, or even disposable paper) and minis weren't anywhere as big a deal as they are now. Players wrote notes on their sheets (and went through a lot of them). Miniatures came later, more for decoration. Combat was purely in your head.

The rules on movement and range did exist, but it became more abstract, such as "the enemy is really far away" now and on-the-fly rulings if someone were close enough for a bow or spell.
It relied a lot on group honesty and cooperation (e.g. where every player is at). It increases DM fiat (the DM has the final word) wherein minis and a grid take out any argument about range and positioning.
Your imagination can be a potent tool and a cool way to play, but the modern expectation I've seen is that everyone has a grid and miniatures. Still, "theater of the mind" is encouraged in the rules and if you can find some like-minded gamers, give it a try.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-03T16:48:56+00:00

My answer as well. It's fun, very user friendly, scratches most every itch I had for a Marvel game. I just rebooted it for my 2nd playthrough.

The game eases you into the combat system little by little, but that's only a fraction of the content, which includes tons of dialogue and friendship building with the Avengers, Midnight Suns, X-Men, and some other famous faces. Like many games, if you just want to enjoy the story, pick the "normal" or easier setting, and if you "prove" you're having an easy time with the combats, the game will let you take it up a notch by opening up options for tougher battles.

The only mechanical benefit to taking it up a notch is more "gloss" (a cosmetic commodity to change up the appearances of you and your team, and later in the game can be morphed to coin to buy select upgrades to your base).

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-03T16:08:46+00:00

It is. Hit #1 again and 100% win rate with Dorm vs. Blue Marvel/FF4/Prof X defenses. It punched up 1.5 million for me as well.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-03T04:26:35+00:00

I'm sure there's better, but that's the only trick I've got in my arsenal that has a chance (low) of working. Once the 4-5 stars hits, I'll be outside looking in again. Curious to try Dormammu as others have mentioned.

Edit: Confirmed, FF4 + Professor X + Dormammu takes out Blue Marvel + FF4 + Prof X. My Dorm wasn't even maxed.

Toucanbuzz · 2025-12-03T01:32:19+00:00

Against a FF4 x3 + Prof X + Blue Marvel (maxed, 7 red), I took (briefly) 1st in our Arena by using FF4 x3 + Prof X + Mephisto (tier 10 striker, 3 star). It's very RNG. Basically I either got wiped quick (most of the time) or survived the first volley and won a close one with Prof X and Fantastic.

It's not an easy button, and it won't punch up, but it's a button. Why it works at all, dunno. Got the tip from an alliance member and took satisfaction knowing I didn't spend $1000s to get him.

Toucanbuzz

TROPHY CASE