So Monday we took a first look at adapting the 5e Warlock class for Pathfinder 1st edition. (tackling proficiencies and the class table), and yesterday we outlined how we are going to handle spell access and spell slots.

It’s time to tackle a Patron.

Your patron is one of the crucial elements of the warlock. It represents the otherwordly force with which you have made a pact, and from which you gain your powers. The concept is extremely similar to witch patrons, but warlocks interact with their patrons using different rites and rituals, and have access to their own list of possible patrons.

At 1st level each patron gives you an eldritch blast, a granted power, an expanded list of spells you may select as warlock spells known at the appropriate level, and a series of patron gifts you can choose from.

While we’d likely to patrons for most of the same ones witches have access to in a full version of the class, for now let’s create the classic fiendish patron option.

Fiendish Patron
You have made a pact with a fiend from the lower planes of existence, 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 powerful enough to forge a pact include demon lords, archdevils, pit fiends and balors that are especially mighty, and ultroloths and other lords of the yugoloths.

(Art by Brian Brinlee)

Patron Spells
The following spells are considered part of your warlock spell list, allowing you to select them as spells known and use spell completion items linked to them.

1st—protection from good, 2nd—align weapon (evil only), 3rd—magic circle against good, 4th—unholy blight, 5th—dispel good.

Eldritch Blast (Su)
You gain the power to channel a form of fiendish fire as an attack against your foes. You can use this as an attack action, and must have a hand free, or holding a weapon with which you are proficient, to use this power. Beginning at 8th level, you can take a full attack action to make multiple eldritch blasts just as you would with a standard weapon. You are proficient with your eldritch blast, and can select with for feats and class features that apply to weapons (such as Weapon Focus).

Your eldritch blast can benefit from effects that augment natural attacks, such as an amulet of might fists or the magic fang spell.

Your fiendish eldritch blast is a ranged attack with a range increment of 30 feet, that deals 1d8 fire damage. You add your Charisma bonus, rather than your Dexterity bonus, to your attack rolls, and also add your Charisma bonus to the damage of your eldritch blast.

Your eldritch blast has a critical threat range of 19-20. On a critical hit you do double damage, and your target takes a -2 penalty to saving throws for 1d4 rounds.

Dark One’s Blessing
Starting at 1st level, when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 or fewer hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + your warlock level (minimum of 1). These hit points last until expended or you next regain your spell slots, but do not stack.

Patron Gift: This is be a flexible class feature similar to oracle revelations. In fact, I borroewed heavily from an oraclae mystery for the following  into patrons, just so I don’t have to create a whole slew of new class features.

A warlock with the fiendish patron can choose from any of the following patron gifts.

Balefire (Su): You call upon the searing fires of the lower planes to burn your foes. As a standard action, one target within 30 feet is wreathed in screaming flames and takes 1d6 points of fire damage per level. A successful Reflex save halves this damage. At 10th level, the fire’s howls cause any creatures damaged by it to be staggered for 1 round. At 15th level, creatures who fail their saves against the balefire are staggered for 1d4 rounds and stunned for 1 round. You can use this ability once per day plus one additional time per day at 10th level.

Dark One’s Own Luck (Su): You can call on your patron to alter fate in your favor. When you make an ability check, skill check, or saving throw, you can use this feature to add a d6 to your roll. You can do so after seeing the initial roll but before any of the roll’s effects occur. This increases to 1d8 at 8th level, and 1d10 at 16th level. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you regain your spell slots.

Demonhide (Su): You alter your flesh to be as tough as a demon’s hide, granting you a +4 armor bonus. At 7th level, and every four levels thereafter, this bonus increases by +2. At 13th level, this armor also grants you DR 5/cold iron. You can use this revelation for 1 hour per day per warlock level. The duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-hour increments.

Dread Resilience (Ex): You have been hardened by exposure to the otherworldly energies of the lower planes, and you just keep getting tougher. You gain a +1 inherent bonus to Constitution upon taking this revelation and another for every four warlock levels gained thereafter. You must be at least 10th level to select this revelation.

Fiendish Magic (Su): Your spells gain a +4 bonus on caster level checks made to overcome the spell resistance of chaotic, good, or lawful outsiders.

Fiendish Resilience (Su): Each time you regain your spell slots, you can choose one damage type. You gain protection against that damage type until you choose a different one with this feature. If you select bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing you gain DR/gld iron equal to 1/4 your warlock level. If you select acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic, you gain energy resistance equal to your warlock level.

Fiendish Weapon (Su): Your understanding of the powers that move through the lower planes allows you to imbue weapons with the ability to penetrate the defenses of creatures native to other planes. Once per day as a standard action, you can touch one weapon (or a group of up to 20 similar pieces of ammunition) and give it the ability to penetrate DR/cold iron for 1 minute per caster level. At 9th level, you can also grant the additional ability to bypass DR/chaotic, DR/evil, or and DR/law. You can use this ability an additional time per day for every 5 warlock levels you possess.

Hurl Through Hell (Sp): Once per day when you hit a creature with your eldritch blast, you can use this feature to instantly transport the target through a temporary demiplane you create that emulates the lower planes. This is treated as plane shift with a spell level equal to 1/2 your class level, though the effect is as follows — the creature disappears and hurtles through a nightmare landscape. At the end of your next turn, the target returns to the space it previously occupied, or the nearest unoccupied space. If the target is not a fiend, it takes 10d10 damage as it reels from its horrific experience.

Mystic Arcanum (Sp): You gain a spell you can cast once per day as a spell-like ability. You may select one spell from the following list. You may select this patron gift more than once. each time, you select a different spell. You must meet the listed minimum level to select the listed spells.
Warlock Level 12th– caustic blood, commune, flame strike, unholy ice, or any 5th level spell from your warlock spell list.
Warlock level 14th– curse of the outcast, dust form, invoke deity (chaos, evil, fire, law only)
Warlock level 16th– blasphemy, dictum, word of chaos
Warlock level 18th– divine vessel (anarchic, axiomatic, or fiendish only)

Planar Haze (Su): You can fill an area with the smoky miasma of the lower planes. Once per day when you cast a spell that has an area, as a swift action you may also fill that area with a thick haze that acts as obscuring mist, except it originates at the center of your spell effect and cannot expand beyond the spell’s area. At 10th level, the haze functions as fog cloud. You may use this ability one additional time per day at 7th level, and one additional time per day at 14th level.

Planar Infusion (Su): As a standard action once per day, you can cause a 20-foot-spread to gain the mildly chaotic-aligned, mildly evil-aligned, or mildly-lawfully aligned planar trait for a number of rounds equal to your warlock level. Lawful creatures in a chaotic-aligned area take a –2 circumstance penalty on all Charisma-based checks, as do good creatures in an evil-aligned area and chaotic creatures in a lawful-aligned area. At 11th level, the infusion makes the area strongly aligned, which causes the –2 circumstance penalty to apply on all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by any creature that lacks the matching alignment component (these penalties stack with those from the lower-level effect).

Telepathy (Su): You can mentally communicate with any other creature within 100 feet that has a language, as per the telepathy power of demons. You must be at least 10th level before selecting this gift.

Unearthly Terrain (Su): You can twist the material world into the harsh, jagged edges and uneven angles of the outer planes. As a standard action, you can turn one 20-foot square into difficult terrain for 1 round per level. Once you use this ability, you cannot do so again until you next regain your spell slots.

Wings of Terror (Su): You can manifest a pair of enormous, batlike demon wings that grant you a fly speed of 60 feet with average maneuverability and a +4 bonus on Intimidate checks. At 10th level, your speed increases to 90 feet, your maneuverability increases to good, and the bonus increases to +8 on Intimidate checks. You can use these wings for 1 minute per day per warlock level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-minute increments.

Eldritch Master
At 20th level, you gain the ability to open rifts between planes. This allows you to use gate as a spell-like ability once per day. If you use this ability to call creatures, you still need to provide 10,000 gp in offerings to secure the creature’s aid.

Additionally, you can select any one patron gift from any patron that does not list a level requirement, or any patron gift from your own patron.

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