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I was planning on asking the following question:

Does each warlock pact type from 4e have an equivalent in 5e?

I know little of 4e, but am familiar with 5e. I know there are various types of pact in 4e and was interested to know what their equivalents would be in 5e.

Of the little I know of 4e, I can at least make the following mapping:

  • Infernal pact -> The Fiend patron
  • Fey pact -> The Archfey patron
  • Star pact -> The Great Old One patron

What other 4e pacts are there, and do they "map" to anything in 5e? For example, I've heard of a "Dark pact", but I cannot imagine what that would be without a 5e equivalent to compare against. Note that by equivalent, I mean thematically; I'm not interested in comparing the gameplay mechanics of 4e/5e warlocks.

However, I am concerned that trying to determine what these equivalents are (especially given the last sentence of my proposed question) may descend into opinion based answers, such as "well, I think the Dark pact from 4e is sorta like the Undying patron from 5e", "No, the Dark pact is more like the Great Old One patron...", etc. I'd rather this be more objective than that, but how objective can one be about thematic equivalents?

Is this question primarily opinion-based? If so, is there a way to put further restraints on it so that it isn't just opinion-based (but is still going to give me what I'm after), or it is just inherently too opinion-based for SE?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Is there a concrete problem you're trying to address with the mapping? There might be something much more workable available there. \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 12:03
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    \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener I suppose my original thought was "What on earth is a Dark pact?" and then wondered whether there were other pacts from 4e that don't fit into my 5e-centric understanding. So perhaps a lore question on what a dark pact patron is more on-topic? \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 12:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ That sounds workable! Make sure you do the research you can first and note it, otherwise you might be highly susceptible to lack-of-research downvotes. A reasonable question you'll be ask is "have you read the D&D 4e book?", so have an answer for that. (E.g. you don't know which one it is and/or don't have it.) \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 12:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ Note that mapping the dark pact to some (close, approximate) warlock pact in D&D 5e won't necessarily tell you what the D&D 4e dark pact was anyway. For example, from what I read about the Archfey patron, that doesn't actually really correspond to the Fey warlock in D&D 4e other than they both happen to have fey patrons (and there the similarities begin and end). This is a bit like finding out Disney is the Western equivalent of Studio Ghibli, then studing Disney to learn more about Studio Ghibli (instead of studying Studio Ghibli). \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 12:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener Thank you for your feedback. I think what I'm realising here is that I don't actually know enough about what I'm interested in learning about to ask a proper question on SE. I have no 4e books, nor access to any (short of buying them, which I won't just for the sake of curiosity when I don't plan on playing 4e), so I think what I'd really benefit from is a conversation with a 4e expert, rather than an SE-style Q&A. The chat is probably the best place for that, I'm guessing... \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 12:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ The first two links in this answer look interesting; the first one does contain some information on the Dark Pact, so that's helping to fill in the blanks for me. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 13:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ It's worth that noting that 4e & 5e have wildly different mechanics, and non-trivial differences in setting/fluff as well. I suspect you won't gain much from comparing the two; if you're interested in 4e then study 4e, and if you're interested in 5e then study 5e. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 15:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ObliviousSage This is what I'm starting to understand; the premise of my question is flawed, hence the external links in that answer I linked above have been far more enlightening to me than trying to compare it to 5e stuff. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 15:27

1 Answer 1

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For me it is quite simple:

Are there objective criteria to say answer is good or bad?

or

Can we determine that some answers are better or more correct than other answers?

If not, then the question is primarily opinion-based.

In your specific case, we don't know how would you judge answers. We don't know what your goal is, so we can't assume you will judge answers by how well they help you solve the underlying problem. And for most problems I can imagine off the top of my head, such a table is not needed:

  • Converting a PC? You only need to convert one, and the converted character does not even have to have the same class.
  • Converting an NPC? They do not use actual classes anyway.
  • Converting lore pieces? Why would they need conversion? Warlocks of old could've been different.

And so on.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'll happily accept this answer, as the "Are there objective criteria to say answer is good or bad?" point is exactly why I've concluded not to ask this question. Having that in an answer (your answer) quite nicely allows me to put this meta Q&A to bed. \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Commented Feb 28, 2020 at 14:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ Another way to approach that question is “can we determine that some answers are better or more correct than other answers?” \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener Mod
    Commented Feb 28, 2020 at 15:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener both pretty much means the same, imo, but added your wording to the answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mołot
    Commented Feb 28, 2020 at 15:25

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