Warlock

### Variants

Archfey warlocks, Dark pact warlocks, deceptive warlocks, fiend warlocks, Great Old One warlocks, scourge warlocks

A **warlock** was an arcane spellcaster who gained power through pacts with powerful entities. These pacts allowed warlocks to channel powerful abilities of arcane might that would otherwise be closed to them.

## Culture

Warlocks had an overall poor reputation, a result of their dealings with otherworldly and often malevolent outsiders. However, not all warlocks were evil by nature and may have used such deadly gifts for more benign purposes. How far the warlock went to fulfilling their pact was entirely up to them, though corruption was an ever-present danger for warlocks of all stripes. Likewise, many warlocks made pacts with several creatures, rather than just one, in order to access even more power, though all warlocks eventually favored one pact over all the others.

Like sorcerers, many warlocks came from a supernatural bloodline, and it had been said that warlocks were "born, not made." This was not true for all warlocks, though many did indeed come from fiendish bloodlines. Those that weren't were still often touched by destiny in some special way, sought out by powerful extraplanar forces as tools and minions, altering their souls and giving them supernatural abilities beyond the ken of most mortals. These forces beheld warlocks to their power, though some broke away from the chains of their servitude to forge their own destiny. More often, warlocks, by choice or by circumstance, became much like the cruel and capricious beings they served.

Warlocks had varying views of those who differ from them, in part because of their outsider place in society. Generally, warlocks viewed other arcanists through a lens of bitter rivalry but many had a healthy respect for fighters' strength or rogues' cleverness. Few warlocks got along well with practitioners of divine magic, in part due to their dealings with unholy powers, but warlocks rarely tried to deliberately upset allies who could have proven useful, which included healing clerics.

## Abilities

As a result of their pacts, warlocks channeled arcane power with more ease than most other arcanists, though this power was most particularly focused around a warlock's pact.

Warlocks had some degree of training in the use of basic weapons and leather armor, which gave them a slight edge over both wizards and sorcerers in non-magical battle, though still left them vulnerable to the attacks of more specialized combatants. For the most part, warlocks, like other arcanists, relied on their magic as both a shield and a weapon, and the tools a warlock was most likely to use was his or her implements. For this purpose most warlocks used rods or wands, though specialized weapons, pact blades being the most common, could sometimes be used by highly experienced warlocks to enhance their spellcraft.

Several warlocks learned additional abilities to help them. From their ties to dark powers, some warlocks gained a resistance to cold iron over time. Others learned to make their bodies more resilient, healing more quickly through their fiendish power, sometimes at extraordinary rates. Similarly, many warlocks acquired resistance to various energy types, particularly attacks that used acid, cold, electricity, fire, or psionic energy as a major component. Lastly, some warlocks became so full of arcane power that they were able to literally imbue mundane items with their power at a whim, creating magical items of great value, even if they did not possess the knowledge typically necessary to create such an item.

## Warlock pacts

The attributes and qualities of a warlock were largely determined by the kind of being with whom they have made their primary pact. The following were the known examples of warlock pacts.

Core Classes
Ardent • Avenger • Barbarian • Bard • Battlemind • Bushi • Cleric • Druid • Fighter • Invoker • Monk • Paladin • Psion • Ranger • Rogue • Runepriest • Samurai • Seeker • Shaman • Sorcerer • Spellscarred • Swordmage • Warden • **Warlock** • Warlord • Wizard

Arcane Spellcasters
Alchemist • Arachnomancer • Arcane Archer • Arcane Devotee • Arcane Trickster • Arcanist • Artificer • Bard (Cunning Bard • Skald) • Beguiler • Binder • Bladesinger • Dimensionalist • Dragonfire Adept • Dread Necromancer • Duskblade • Eldritch Knight • Elven Dualist • Factotum • Force Mage • Geometer • High Forest Scout • Horizon Walker • Impilturan Demonslayer • Incantatrix • Mentalist • Mystic Theurge • Netherese Arcanist • Shadow Mage • Shadow Walker • Sha'ir • Song Mage • Sorcerer (Cosmic Sorcerer • Draconic Sorcerer • Elementalist • Storm Sorcerer • Wild Mage) • Spellsinger • Spellthief • Swordmage • War Wizard of Cormyr • **Warlock** (Archfey Warlock • Elemental Warlock • Fiend Warlock • Great Old One Warlock • Hexblade • Sorcerer-King Warlock • Vestige Warlock) •
Warmage • Wizard (Mage • Specialist Wizard) • Witch • Wu Jen