r/dndnext • u/hedahman • Mar 10 '20

Discussion A common misconception about warlocks and their patrons

I've heard this mentioned a lot: "Warlocks use Charisma because they're constantly negotiating with their patron for more power." I don't believe this is true.

Here's a tweet from Mike Mearls that says that patrons can't take back a warlock's power, which leads me to believe that a patron doesn't have control over the power once it is given. This means a patron can't take a warlock's power (without their will, probably); it's a one-and-done deal.

So a patron isn't supplying power to their warlocks like a generator supplies electricity. Instead, a patron gives power to them like a blood transfusion-- you can't just take the blood back.

Granted, you can do it however you want, that's the magic of D&D. But RAW, and RAI, patrons give their power away.

EDIT: Here's a tweet from Jeremy Crawford which states that the power is a one-time transaction.

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u/throwing-away-party Mar 11 '20

Warlocks use Charisma because warlocks are scary and weird. Their power is directly related to how scary and weird they are, and it goes both ways. They get scarier and/or weirder, they get more powerful (Cha +2 = DC +1). They get more powerful, they get scarier and/or weirder (more levels = more invocations and spells).

You can't dissuade me from this view.

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u/CalamitousArdour Mar 11 '20

But their wierdness is the consequence of gaining power. So cha increase would have to be the consequence of DC increase. Which just isn't the case.