At least in 3e proper, you don't have to actually follow a god to be a cleric (though nearly everyone I've met houserules this)

So, heck, you could have a warlock actually _be_ a follower of a god. It's just a different relationship.

Similarly, you can have a bard or druid who follows a god. Or a paladin.


One way of considering it is that a cleric is connected to divine energies, while a warlock is granted power or revealed magic.

Quote from: Will;771771At least in 3e proper, you don't have to actually follow a god to be a cleric (though nearly everyone I've met houserules this)

So, heck, you could have a warlock actually _be_ a follower of a god. It's just a different relationship.

Similarly, you can have a bard or druid who follows a god. Or a paladin.


One way of considering it is that a cleric is connected to divine energies, while a warlock is granted power or revealed magic.

Yes, and the 'flavor, mannerisms, customs, trappings, etc..' can vary greatly regardless of the class and divine or arcane connection.

One of the things I really like about Pathfinder is that there is an even thinner line between Druids and Clerics.

You can have some very druid-like clerics, with animal companions and a devotion to nature. Heck, by 3e RAW, as I said, you could worship the concept of nature itself and not a specific god.

Conversely, a druid could give up animal companion and, instead, gain clerical domain of Earth or something, and follow a god of the Earth. Granted, still with a 'natural world' spin on it.

I tend to see priests as devotees, and warlocks as power-hungry brokers.

I don't necessarily associate warlock pacts with service, though that is pretty much a take supported by historical views on witches and warlocks as servants of the Devil.

On the other hand, pacts with the Devil are not necessarily in exchange for service and there's the nebulous status of "selling your soul" -- Satan gives you what you want and you do whatever you want with it. I'm not sure I'd call Doctor Faustus as portrayed by Marlowe or Goethe a "servant" or "worshipper" of his demonic patron.

I suppose there's a decently-sized spectrum between "demon-powered mage" and "priest of the demon lords" for GMs and players botrh to place their warlock characters.

But I still think DCC does the absolute best job of handling pacts with supernatural beings with the Patron subsystem.

I've always seen the difference as such:

Clerics: worship their god, through devotion gains divine magic that may be withheld if they are a shitty priest

Warlock: may worship their demon/demon-type creature, but gains power through being taught forbidden magic.  Therefore can't be stripped away ad hoc by the demon.  If warlocks are a shitty devotee?  They just get killed

Quote from: Sacrosanct;771791I've always seen the difference as such:

Clerics: worship their god, through devotion gains divine magic that may be withheld if they are a shitty priest

Warlock: may worship their demon/demon-type creature, but gains power through being taught forbidden magic.  Therefore can't be stripped away ad hoc by the demon.  If warlocks are a shitty devotee?  They just get killed

I like Warlocks to be very vulnerable to their power being stripped away.

But your example of forbidden magic works fine for me as well.