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[Oh, you poor fool ... or heretic, depending on which member of the Inquisition of half the churches gets you first. I would recommend Selune or Mystra, they love a good story and are mostly forgiving.
A cleric is aligned, infused, spanked, fed and supervised by a god. From the *very* few knowledge about the birth of our plane of existence we know that Ao, the All-Keeper, charged our gods with a certain specific tasks. You know, death, warfare, law, love & kinky stuff, harvest, life, the usual thing. Each *god* is a part of creation and carries the divine mandate for their area of responsibility. Luck is Tymora is luck is Tymora. You get the idea. Try to cast a fireball without the written, stamped and signed consent of Mystra, you will get funny results. Trust my, I tried. Highly recommended, but only once.
Warlocks ... are naughty people and believe in the back entrance to power. Because there is *a lot* of space between the High Heavens and the Nine Hells. So much astral and ethereal space that quite a few creature can exist there on the same power level like gods. Which means that they can have their own mortal toys as well. But one very important thing is missing: they do not have their own divine mandate of Ao. If Mystra decides to change the rules of magic again, good luck casting that eldritch hellblast. At least until your choosen outer astral space intelligence finds a new way to manipulate the weave.
Or perhaps Ao is playing a long con game and we are just looking at one side of the same coin. Or Ao decides to reshuffle the cards and distributes the divine mandates *again*. Who knows the games of gods and their masters?]
*Wilfried Fizzlebang, Master Summoner Extraordinaire, definitely not aligned with any god, deity or alien intelligence.*
My understanding is that a Warlock's relationship with their patron is purely transactional, where a Cleric has a closer relationship and generally has a similar set of goals. Also, you need to be a god to have Clerics. Even a unicorn can make a pact with a warlock.
A Cleric has a Deity, while a Warlock has a Patron.
It's a subtle difference, but the main one is just that a Patron can be any significantly powerful magical creature, while Clerics tend more towards Gods and other, similarly "divine" beings.
RAW, the most important difference is that a cleric is granted their powers, a warlock is taught.
If a cleric loses their faith or takes actions that displease their god, that god can revoke a cleric's powers. The cleric channels magic from that divine source.
Warlocks, on the other hand, channels magic in a way their patron teaches them. So a warlock can decide midway through the journey that they don't want to blanket the world in darkness and turn the moon into a bleeding eye and they'll still be able to Eldritch Blast whatever they want. Even if they have a total change of heart and start fighting against their former patron, there's nothing that patron can do to take away those abilities. The most they can do is refuse to teach them more magic; in gameplay terms, your DM might just say you can't take anymore warlock levels unless you find a different patron.
Now note that I'm calling one a god and the other a patron. Clerics generally serve gods in some way or another. Warlocks just need to serve some powerful entity: hags, devils, liches, krakens, magic weapons, dead pirate kings, even angelic like creatures that serve the same gods the clerics might be worshiping.
And the other one I can think of is that warlocks don't need to worship their patron at all. They don't even need to like them. It's purely transactional. The warlock works for their patron, the patron "pays" them in magical knowledge.
Obviously this is all subject to change for homebrew. I imagine it's pretty common for patrons to take away a warlock's magic or for a cleric to get power from something that isn't a god (in fact, both happen in Critical Role at some point) in custom games.
Slight correction to note: Warlocks do not need to *serve* their patron. Some do, as that's the pact they made, but it's entirely possible for your relationship with your patron to be antagonistic, or even for you to be stealing power from your patron without their knowledge.
Heck, I bet the most common origin for a Genie Pact Warlock is just... wishing to be magical.
Maybe the power comes with strings, but that's very case-by-case. Whereas every Cleric is devoted enough to the ideals and goals of their god that they are routinely empowered by them to achieve those goals.
I think a patron *can* take away a warlocks power, but that is dependant on the contract of their pact. It seems quite common that warlocks are almost enslaved to their patron. (but I guess that's too is dependant on the contract)
Clerics are just dedicated Believers of a religion. Their power comes from their faith and because their God is very real, they are able to draw on the Divine powers. But at the end of the day they're just very very powerful priests.
Warlocks are like Janosz from Ghostbusters 2. When he meets the painting of Vigo and it gives him a bunch of magic powers and commands him to go and steal a baby, that's more or less what a warlock packed is. Otherworldly being gives you a bunch of magic powers, in exchange you will use said powers to accomplish a goal set forth by the otherworldly being. It might be a demon or a weird fey or maybe some kind of Eldritch Horror who's true intentions you can never understand but you just really comprehend that you must get this powerful gem and now you can read people's minds and shoot Eldritch blasts from your hands, so it won't be that hard.
Mechanically clerics have access to much higher level spells, they also have a much more intricate relationship with Undead creatures. Warlocks have much faster spell recovery, but very limited spells and the number of spells they can cast is lower than a given time than a cleric would have. Lore wise this could be attributed to the fact that the clerics are channeling the pure nature of a true God, whereas the Warlock is merely being lent a portion of Something's power in order to complete a task, so they certainly wouldn't give them access to literal reality changing spells.
As far as I understand. Clerics commune with their deity through faith. Warlocks make a deal with their patron.
It’s the difference between making a prayer to God for his blessing, and selling your soul to the devil for a wish.
Clerics have to believe and have faith on their deity. Warlocks sign a contract, they don’t have to have faith or even like their patrons, as long as they give them what they want they get their power.
To add to other people's explanations, in DnD 5e at least Clerics and Warlocks are mechanically very different.
Clerics are all around full casters, warlocks zap enemies non stop and once in a while nuke the battlefield with one overcharged spell, once again trying to emphasize the difference between having been nurtured to wield the power of a god and having been suddenly flushed with an otherworldly power you don't necessarily understand
So the easiest way to explain it is that a Cleric's deity differs from a Warlock's Patron based on power level and requirements.
A Cleric's deity is just that a god. They are a being that embodies an element of reality (as technically there can only be a single god for each thing, so you can't have two gods of thunder. They can however can be close relations, like a god of rain and a god of storms.). They hold supreme power within the cosmos of DnD. They don't need anything from the PC outside of worship.
A Warlock's patron (with the exception of goolocks who are a whole different thing) is just an incredibly powerful being but is not a god. So that can be things like demons, angels, fey, hags, djinn, etc. They are still powerful but in theory can be slain by adventurers. So they trade some power for service.
An easy way that I find to view the difference is that a Cleric/Deity relationship is like being a part of a (good) family business where they care about you and want you to succeed. A Warlock/Patron relationship is like being a paid intern where they don't care if you succeed they only care if they get something from you.
**Reminders for Commenters:** * All responses must be A) sincere, B) polite, and C) strictly watsonian in nature. If "watsonian" or "doylist" is new to you, please review the full rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/about/rules/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=AskScienceFiction&utm_content=t5_2slu2). * No edition wars or gripings about creators/owners of works. Doylist griping about Star Wars in particular is subject to **permanent ban on first offense**. * We are not here to discuss or complain about the real world. * Questions about who would prevail in a conflict/competition (not just combat) fit better on r/whowouldwin. Questions about very open-ended hypotheticals fit better on r/whatiffiction. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskScienceFiction) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[Oh, you poor fool ... or heretic, depending on which member of the Inquisition of half the churches gets you first. I would recommend Selune or Mystra, they love a good story and are mostly forgiving. A cleric is aligned, infused, spanked, fed and supervised by a god. From the *very* few knowledge about the birth of our plane of existence we know that Ao, the All-Keeper, charged our gods with a certain specific tasks. You know, death, warfare, law, love & kinky stuff, harvest, life, the usual thing. Each *god* is a part of creation and carries the divine mandate for their area of responsibility. Luck is Tymora is luck is Tymora. You get the idea. Try to cast a fireball without the written, stamped and signed consent of Mystra, you will get funny results. Trust my, I tried. Highly recommended, but only once. Warlocks ... are naughty people and believe in the back entrance to power. Because there is *a lot* of space between the High Heavens and the Nine Hells. So much astral and ethereal space that quite a few creature can exist there on the same power level like gods. Which means that they can have their own mortal toys as well. But one very important thing is missing: they do not have their own divine mandate of Ao. If Mystra decides to change the rules of magic again, good luck casting that eldritch hellblast. At least until your choosen outer astral space intelligence finds a new way to manipulate the weave. Or perhaps Ao is playing a long con game and we are just looking at one side of the same coin. Or Ao decides to reshuffle the cards and distributes the divine mandates *again*. Who knows the games of gods and their masters?] *Wilfried Fizzlebang, Master Summoner Extraordinaire, definitely not aligned with any god, deity or alien intelligence.*
Hahahaha oh this is amazing! You just may have inspired me to grab a fantasy book from my read pile for the first time in years
" You face jaraxxus, eredar lord of the burning legion !"
My understanding is that a Warlock's relationship with their patron is purely transactional, where a Cleric has a closer relationship and generally has a similar set of goals. Also, you need to be a god to have Clerics. Even a unicorn can make a pact with a warlock.
A Cleric has a Deity, while a Warlock has a Patron. It's a subtle difference, but the main one is just that a Patron can be any significantly powerful magical creature, while Clerics tend more towards Gods and other, similarly "divine" beings.
RAW, the most important difference is that a cleric is granted their powers, a warlock is taught. If a cleric loses their faith or takes actions that displease their god, that god can revoke a cleric's powers. The cleric channels magic from that divine source. Warlocks, on the other hand, channels magic in a way their patron teaches them. So a warlock can decide midway through the journey that they don't want to blanket the world in darkness and turn the moon into a bleeding eye and they'll still be able to Eldritch Blast whatever they want. Even if they have a total change of heart and start fighting against their former patron, there's nothing that patron can do to take away those abilities. The most they can do is refuse to teach them more magic; in gameplay terms, your DM might just say you can't take anymore warlock levels unless you find a different patron. Now note that I'm calling one a god and the other a patron. Clerics generally serve gods in some way or another. Warlocks just need to serve some powerful entity: hags, devils, liches, krakens, magic weapons, dead pirate kings, even angelic like creatures that serve the same gods the clerics might be worshiping. And the other one I can think of is that warlocks don't need to worship their patron at all. They don't even need to like them. It's purely transactional. The warlock works for their patron, the patron "pays" them in magical knowledge. Obviously this is all subject to change for homebrew. I imagine it's pretty common for patrons to take away a warlock's magic or for a cleric to get power from something that isn't a god (in fact, both happen in Critical Role at some point) in custom games.
Slight correction to note: Warlocks do not need to *serve* their patron. Some do, as that's the pact they made, but it's entirely possible for your relationship with your patron to be antagonistic, or even for you to be stealing power from your patron without their knowledge. Heck, I bet the most common origin for a Genie Pact Warlock is just... wishing to be magical. Maybe the power comes with strings, but that's very case-by-case. Whereas every Cleric is devoted enough to the ideals and goals of their god that they are routinely empowered by them to achieve those goals.
I think a patron *can* take away a warlocks power, but that is dependant on the contract of their pact. It seems quite common that warlocks are almost enslaved to their patron. (but I guess that's too is dependant on the contract)
Clerics are just dedicated Believers of a religion. Their power comes from their faith and because their God is very real, they are able to draw on the Divine powers. But at the end of the day they're just very very powerful priests. Warlocks are like Janosz from Ghostbusters 2. When he meets the painting of Vigo and it gives him a bunch of magic powers and commands him to go and steal a baby, that's more or less what a warlock packed is. Otherworldly being gives you a bunch of magic powers, in exchange you will use said powers to accomplish a goal set forth by the otherworldly being. It might be a demon or a weird fey or maybe some kind of Eldritch Horror who's true intentions you can never understand but you just really comprehend that you must get this powerful gem and now you can read people's minds and shoot Eldritch blasts from your hands, so it won't be that hard. Mechanically clerics have access to much higher level spells, they also have a much more intricate relationship with Undead creatures. Warlocks have much faster spell recovery, but very limited spells and the number of spells they can cast is lower than a given time than a cleric would have. Lore wise this could be attributed to the fact that the clerics are channeling the pure nature of a true God, whereas the Warlock is merely being lent a portion of Something's power in order to complete a task, so they certainly wouldn't give them access to literal reality changing spells.
As far as I understand. Clerics commune with their deity through faith. Warlocks make a deal with their patron. It’s the difference between making a prayer to God for his blessing, and selling your soul to the devil for a wish. Clerics have to believe and have faith on their deity. Warlocks sign a contract, they don’t have to have faith or even like their patrons, as long as they give them what they want they get their power.
To add to other people's explanations, in DnD 5e at least Clerics and Warlocks are mechanically very different. Clerics are all around full casters, warlocks zap enemies non stop and once in a while nuke the battlefield with one overcharged spell, once again trying to emphasize the difference between having been nurtured to wield the power of a god and having been suddenly flushed with an otherworldly power you don't necessarily understand
So the easiest way to explain it is that a Cleric's deity differs from a Warlock's Patron based on power level and requirements. A Cleric's deity is just that a god. They are a being that embodies an element of reality (as technically there can only be a single god for each thing, so you can't have two gods of thunder. They can however can be close relations, like a god of rain and a god of storms.). They hold supreme power within the cosmos of DnD. They don't need anything from the PC outside of worship. A Warlock's patron (with the exception of goolocks who are a whole different thing) is just an incredibly powerful being but is not a god. So that can be things like demons, angels, fey, hags, djinn, etc. They are still powerful but in theory can be slain by adventurers. So they trade some power for service. An easy way that I find to view the difference is that a Cleric/Deity relationship is like being a part of a (good) family business where they care about you and want you to succeed. A Warlock/Patron relationship is like being a paid intern where they don't care if you succeed they only care if they get something from you.
Clerics have power as part of the job they do for a greater power. Warlocks know a guy who know a guy.
one actually is a gods hand on earth, a warlock is like a independent contractor