I don’t think it’s great for any class to take back powers that the character has earned. Not even clerics. For as long as there have been religions, there have been schisms and power plays. It even ruins possible intrigue involving religions if you can tell what follower of a good god has gone astray by asking them to cast a spell.
There are more interesting ways to do consequences for defiance of higher powers than to hold their abilities hostage. That feels less like the consequences of a living world, and more like the DM yanking the player’s leash.
But I can accept that this is an established system/setting thing for clerics and paladins. For warlocks, it is not.
Pretty sure they have rules for this in 3.5. I know they do for Paladins that get off alignment (it’s also how you make some prestige classes to create an “evil” paladin or death knight or whatever it was called).
With Warlocks, I feel like the punishment could be anything, as the devil’s contract would likely stipulate exactly what happens if you fail to obey the patron. Maybe you lose your powers. Maybe they draft you into the Blood War. Maybe they just take your ass to the Hells.
In general, you don’t want a player to loser their powers. But if you can turn the threat of losing their powers into a plotline, then that’s awesome. Warlocks losing powers for breaking contracts is bad. Warlocks having to fend off eldritch repo folks for breaking contracts is good.
I did have a game where the warlock lost all their powers and went down to a level 0 commoner, but that lasted for something like 2 days irl and it was because my fighter killed his patron. He’s a cleric now
I don’t think it’s great for any class to take back powers that the character has earned. Not even clerics. For as long as there have been religions, there have been schisms and power plays. It even ruins possible intrigue involving religions if you can tell what follower of a good god has gone astray by asking them to cast a spell.
There are more interesting ways to do consequences for defiance of higher powers than to hold their abilities hostage. That feels less like the consequences of a living world, and more like the DM yanking the player’s leash.
But I can accept that this is an established system/setting thing for clerics and paladins. For warlocks, it is not.
I like the idea of the cleric being required to do some kind of penance, on the threat of losing their powers.
Pretty sure they have rules for this in 3.5. I know they do for Paladins that get off alignment (it’s also how you make some prestige classes to create an “evil” paladin or death knight or whatever it was called).
With Warlocks, I feel like the punishment could be anything, as the devil’s contract would likely stipulate exactly what happens if you fail to obey the patron. Maybe you lose your powers. Maybe they draft you into the Blood War. Maybe they just take your ass to the Hells.
GOOD MORNING AVERNUS
In general, you don’t want a player to loser their powers. But if you can turn the threat of losing their powers into a plotline, then that’s awesome. Warlocks losing powers for breaking contracts is bad. Warlocks having to fend off eldritch repo folks for breaking contracts is good.
I did have a game where the warlock lost all their powers and went down to a level 0 commoner, but that lasted for something like 2 days irl and it was because my fighter killed his patron. He’s a cleric now