The Chivalric Order | An Otherworldly Patron, and on warlocks and trends in homebrew

Today I'm sharing the Chivalric Order. It's funny to me that this foray into warlock archetype design is basically a paladin, or really a group of paladins, as an Otherworldly Patron. I'm very pleased with this homebrew, in both its narrative and its mechanics. I think it's my best Patron that I've created so far, so I hope you enjoy it.

The Chivalric Order also serves as a good example of something that I'd like to write about: trends in homebrew.

Some of the homebrew I've posted so far has included "extra" content beyond the archetype itself: for example, variant features, additional spells, traits tables, and so forth. But none have had quite so much content as the Chivalric Order does, which is accompanied by six Eldritch Invocations and two new creatures to be options for Pact of the Chain familiars. Why so much additional content beyond the Otherworldly Patron itself?

There is of course, the simple answer: it's fun, and it's cool. But there's also more to it than just my personal decision. After all, the previous answer just begs another question: so I think it's fun and cool, but where did the idea to do so come from? I didn't actually come up with the idea myself. It's part of a trend in Otherworldly Patron homebrew.

The earliest appearance of this, to my knowledge at least, was in 2017. William King, otherwise known as Genuine (see his blog in the sidebar), created an Otherworldly Patron called the Shadowcat, shortly followed by a whole Compendium of Forgotten Secrets of unique patrons. For many in the Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons homebrew community, this will be familiar. Today, the commercially published Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening is one of the most popular third party products on the market!

The very first compendium. If you don't remember this, I can't help but feel old.

Genuine's Shadowcat—along with every other Patron he created—was accompanied by special invocations unique to warlocks in service of that patron. In other words, the invocations had subclass prerequisites, just as the invocations that accompany the Chivalric Order do.

By curious serendipity, this design innovation ended up preceding Wizards of the Coast's own brief flirt with the idea. The official Unearthed Arcana playtest content for February 2017 was "Warlock and Wizard," introducing two dozen invocations with subclass prerequisites for both the playtest subclasses (the Hexblade and Raven Queen) as well as for options from the Player's Handbook. Of the unexpected parallel, Genuine told me he "felt a bit validated."

I also asked him why he did this. Where did he get the idea for this invocation innovation? He said,

I felt like warlock itself had more mechanical space to explore the themes of a given patron than any other class, so I wanted to expand into the territory of pact boons first and foremost; invocations were the easier, better way to touch those.

From here, patron-relevant "Familiars were just a natural progression; it felt like a needed part."

After Genuine's initial innovation and Wizards of the Coast's parallel experimentation, the idea spread. For example, Walrock Homebrew's Ancient Dragon (see his blog in the sidebar also), released in September 2017, includes a few patron-prerequisite invocations.

Eventually, however, Xanathar's Guide to Everything came to reckon with the experiment. In November 2017, the official Xanathar's did away with patron prerequisites, instead dispensing with too-specific invocations and generalizing others. For some, this marked the end of the era; Walrock, for example, revised his Fathom Horror in November 2017 to accord with the official style.

However, Genuine decided to stick with his idea. He kept with it as he continued creating new patrons and revising old ones. Today, his Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening, the revised and expanded third party publication form of the original Compendium homebrew, features over 100 such invocations and seventeen new familiars. And as he continued to do it, I noticed other creators also participate in the style, regardless of Wizards of the Coast's move away from it.

I will say, of course, that there's no right or wrong way to go about it. Choosing to stick to Wizards of the Coast's format is completely fine. If a homebrewer or third party designer enjoys creating that way, all power to them. And choosing to embrace this format popularized by Compendium is also fine. I myself enjoy creating warlocks this way—I just think that it's a lot of fun!

The Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening today.

So, that's the history behind my including patron invocations and familiars with the Chivalric Order. In the end, I am in some ways back to my original answer: I did it because I think it's fun and cool! But I think it's also interesting to see the idea in its larger context: to see where it came from, where it's gone, and the choices that different creators make.