What would happen if a Cleric blessed a Warlock with a fiend patron?

Question

So I am a cleric in our party, and our Warlock has a fiend as a patron. During last night's session, I was casting guidance on everybody that I could, because I knew we were about to get in a possible situation we would need it. The Warlock was RP'ing correctly when he denied this blessing, because he has a pact with a fiend, so a holy blessing would seem counter to his character.

But that got me thinking, what would happen if the cleric did cast bless on a fiend warlock? I would be imbuing him with the power of my God, but would that potentially hurt him, as his patron is a fiend?

I know Bless is a spell on it's own. However in this context I am saying any buff I give to allies via my holy power is a blessing from my God.

It's ultimately your call, but people generally give a day or two before accepting an answer. Seeing the green check on an answer often dissuades people from answering at all, and there could be somebody out there with a better answer than either myself or @NautArch. — T.J.L., Dec 19 '19 at 15:16
@T.J.L. that makes sense to me. I will leave it open for today. — Just Another Guy, Dec 19 '19 at 15:16
Minor note on "was casting guidance on everybody that I could": the spell needs concentration, so you wouldn't be able to keep it up on multiple people. — Szega, Dec 19 '19 at 15:48
@Szega thank you. I was playing a fighter before so spells fairly new to me. I knew some required concentration but went off a bad assumption that cantrips wouldn't. The issue moreso is no one else seemed to catch it, but a lot of stuff was going on at the time this was done. Will know for future situations. — Just Another Guy, Dec 19 '19 at 16:23
From the context of the question, are we to assume that the god your cleric serves is good aligned or is otherwise opposed to lower planes creatures? — krb, Dec 19 '19 at 16:37
Narratively, Order of the Stick actually has a great solution to this problem: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0954.html — Nacht, Dec 20 '19 at 03:09

score 29 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 16 '20 at 10:23

29

The warlock would get the benefits of bless

Bless (PHB, 219) does not have any restrictions other than the targets must creatures:

You bless up to three creatures of your choice within range.

They don't even have to be willing, so even if the Warlock didn't want the bless, they could still get and receive the benefits of the spell.

The warlock could refuse Guidance

On the other hand, Guidance (PHB, 248) does require a willing creature:

You touch one willing creature...

Guidance is also a concentration spell that only lasts 1 minute. So you can't actually have simultaneous guidance on multiple party members. You can cast it on one, and then either after the minute duration is up you can recast it on someone else, or recast on someone else under that minute and have it end on the original target. The spell also ends immediately after the next ability check.

However, if they did not refuse it, then they would still get the benefits of guidance as the spell has no restrictions or penalties and neither does the warlock class.

Party Cohesion and buff spells

Players are free to roleplay as they wish, but I'd talk with your table and DM about whether or not the party is supposed to be working with, against, or parallel to each other. Refusing to work together may be a symptom of My Guy Syndrome.

If you are going to 'flavor' your spell to be specifically a blessing from your god, then you and your table are going to need to reconcile what that means. It isn't something we can tell you, but please see the paragraph above about how your party works as a group.

edited Jun 16 '20 at 10:23

Community

1

answered Dec 19 '19 at 14:56

NotArch

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I came to mention the 'willing subjects' bit - there are no (and there should be no) in game repercussions from this act.
Roleplaying in game there's a million reasons why a fiend patron would appreciate or even revel in some other 'foolish mortal' conveying more power to your character.
– Joshjurg Dec 19 '19 at 15:05
@Joshjurg what would be a reason why the fiend would appreciate the buff instead of being upset about it? Perhaps I can bring that context to light in game. – Just Another Guy Dec 19 '19 at 15:13
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Why would a devil or a demon care where the blessing comes from, if it makes their servant stronger? Using the powers of good for evil deeds is like their go-to thing. – Theik Dec 19 '19 at 15:14
Mechanically speaking, it's more raw power to assist you in reaching your patron's aims. Story-wise, power in the form of small favors (particularly ones that don't need to be repaid) are probably currency for beings like your patron. It's like someone is donating to your fiendish cause.
It also could be a sign that the patron's investment in you was wise.
– Joshjurg Dec 19 '19 at 15:17
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@J.Wagner: I may be reading you wrong but you - or the other player - also seem to have an implicit assumption that the fiend-pact warlock is necessarily evil themselves. Obviously the player is free to RP this way, but just want to point out that there is no alignment restriction on the warlock regardless of pact. There are many reasons how a pact with an evil fiend could have come about, and they don't all require the warlock to be evil! (Think: Ghost Rider!) – PJRZ Dec 19 '19 at 15:21
@PJRZ for some more context, he was not evil before, but as he wrote his character the fiend saved his life in return to become a servant of the fiend, and in doing so he becomes more and more evil the more power he gets. We've already had to circumvent the my guy syndrome on both ends just to make the party work in general, but that seems to have ironed itself out. I'm thinking it was just an RP moment for him, I just wanted to know if there was actually a mechanical issue with it. – Just Another Guy Dec 19 '19 at 15:23
@J.Wagner Given the context of this question, i'm not sure that it has been ironed out. – NotArch Dec 19 '19 at 15:25
@NautArch well his Chaotic Evil character is not trying to stop me from blessing anyone else, and he does not openly kill in front of me like he does with other party members. I feel we figured out a balance where we dont set ourselves up in major moral decisions the other disagrees with, so we can stomach being in a party. This group is also 8 deep, so we can "avoid" each other in game a good bit. – Just Another Guy Dec 19 '19 at 15:28
The question alone made me think the "my guy syndrome" inference was way out of place, because this just seemed like good in-character roleplay of what two collaborating but {ideologically,spiritually,religiously,politically} opposed people would actually do, and I'm concerned by any evidence of cognition that takes that alone as evidence of (or conflates it with) the kind of toxicity that "my guy syndrome" refers to. However, give the additional comments, maybe it was more reasonable than I realized to bring up or heuristically jump to. – mtraceur Dec 20 '19 at 21:08

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 10:23

Bless works, Guidance does not.

At least, not the way you think it does.

Both spells are Concentration spells. You can't cast...

guidance on everybody that I could, because I knew we were about to get in a possible situation we would need it.

As soon as you cast Guidance on a second character, or cast Bless, the prior Concentration effect goes away. You can only have one.

As for the Warlock

Spells only do what they say they do, and neither Bless nor Guidance deal any damage to the target. For Guidance, the warlock could refuse allowing the cleric to make contact - Guidance require the caster to touch a willing creature. Bless doesn't require a willing target, so the Warlock cannot mechanically refuse the benefits.

The warlock player could have the character react to it in-character in whatever way suits the roleplaying, but there is no mechanical effect unless the DM adds one. I could see the patron actually liking the idea of a cleric using divine power to aid the warlock. It could be seen as the first step towards forging a new pact.

On House Rules

If the DM does add a damage effect, you're into house rule territory. The DM should consider the upsides, downsides, and potential future implications of applying some sort of damage when Blessing particular creatures. Off the top of my head, I'd advise against it, because the irresistible nature of Bless would logically lead to irresistible damage on creatures other than the warlock, and that's not the kind of spell Bless is meant to be.

Crap I totally forgot that Guidance was concentration. Oops! Well I guess in the heat of the moment no one looked into it and let it fly, but I will absolutely pay attention to that next time! — Just Another Guy, Dec 19 '19 at 15:15