omg. I've just gotta say, thank you *so* much for making this video, its been such a joy to watch and right in the nick of time! Our next session is tomorrow, and this has given me a ton of great ideas! To give context as to what I've planned out after watching this: We're loosely following an official swords of the coast module, Icewind Dale, Rime of the Frostmaiden, and the setting fits in really well with some of the ideas suggested. (spoilers for the module ahead) The final act is in an ancient city frozen deep beneath a massive glacier, which the BBEG of the campaign (Auril the Frostmaiden) froze beneath the ice thousands of years ago. This provides the perfect opportunity for the warlock's patron, some eldritch creature that once inhabited the former sea in this place was frozen within the ice and has been trapped here for just as long. This provides a great setup, as the city is a former netherese floating city, and so if the warlock completes some object given by their patron (laying some of its former cultist members in the city to rest, etc), then they'll be rewarded by unfreezing the glacier above the city, allowing it access to the outside word, and so they can use the mythallar to ascend the city back into the sky (with the patron being freed as well, of course). I think it'll be the perfect opportunity to tie in the patron and make it feel very rooted into the campaign and not just tacked in on the side, as this city, its flying properties and etc have been talked about for most of the campaign. Even if they don't manage to complete the patron's objectives, they still get their great fight against the bbeg, just without the nice bonus flying city if they win.
Wow. That fits really well considering I had no clue what module or type of adventure you were running. I think your warlock will really end up liking that! If those glaciers unfreeze, maybe the patron is released and could either show up in your next campaign (if you do one) or even be the bbeg. Good luck with everything and let us know how it all works out!
The warlock saving the patron idea is always goated. But if you had like 3 sessions left and really wanted to get it in without changing your dungeon the patron could be more of an ally. Imagine after an intense day of dungeon crawls warlock goes down everything looks grimm and the party hasn't been able to rest. But instead of death saving throws they are laying there spitting up unimaginable amounts of water. The water fills the room the fight is taking place in and drowns the enemies. The warlock sees there patron, the patron asks for something else another sacrifice to strengthen the ties between them. Player gives something up (magic item, memory, ability, etc.) the water disappears and the party is left gasping for air but feeling wildly refreshed having gained the benefits of a long rest. Something like that could be an easy one time way to have a patron be more than a subclass.
