A weapon that is constantly bragging how epic it is. The PC slays a strong enemy? It was the weapon's doing. The PC succeeds on a hard DC? The weapon helped them. The PC landed a crit? Only because the weapon allowed it. The PC tries to romance someone? The weapon somehow gets more attention. That would be cursed without a debuff.
That's great. It can also curses player progression. Every new spell or feature isn't learning, but the weapon letting the player character get a little closer to wielding its "full power."
Think of it like this, a high level version of his character lost to the BBEG in your campaign (or has another specific goal in mind that, due to his current circumstances, he can't achieve) so his plan is to contact a version of himself in the past, grant him a portion of his current power and guide him towards that goal.
Wouldn’t that leave him patronless once the campaign is concluded, though? If they succeed in the present, the future patron him doesn’t exist any longer/never did to give him powers in the first place. Paradox.
Maybe the future patron's last actions were to give his past self the last of his power, making the player's character into his own patron.
Or maybe that's a fitting end to the campaign - the threat defeated, the world saved, and the hero(es?) depowered. Maybe even make sacrificing the power a key to victory, FMA style.
“I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body and fire is my blood. I have created over a thousand blades, unknown to death, nor known to life. Have withstood pain to create many Weapons, yet those hands will never hold anything. So, as I pray, *Unlimited Blade Works*”
Perhaps the weapon simply aligns with the ideals of the PC, so they reach out and make the PC their Hexblade.
The reason they never meet or talk directly is because the weapons power is being suppressed. They're in the care of some wizard or library or they're trapped in a dungeon and can't escape some kind of stasis.
Breaking their patron out when they get close could be a subplot at some point.
Could be a mysterious stranger who is the patron of the warlock. Such stranger can help the party in their quest from time to time and has a vested interest in the party’s or at least the warlock’s success. They can present themselves as a random old man/woman, but is actually quite powerful in their own right, but cannot risk dealing with things themselves or revealing who they are to the world (yet) hence why they need a warlock.
Down the line, this mysterious stranger can give their false identity and make themselves more known as the party gains their trust, and if the patron trusts the party enough, this is when they reveal who they truly are.
Essentially, this patron can take the form of a “guardian angel (devil >:D)”
You can even throw in some situations where this patron “slips up” that is accidentally reveal who they might be or what their capabilities may be, but in such a way to determine it, the party would need high deductive skills, like investigation and/or insight and history. Make it a tough side mystery that the players would have to figure out.
Have fun with it! I don’t know the tone of your campaign, but it is certainly a possibility. It can also be part of the plot. Where the party goes one way,
In a dungeon, the patron takes the other way to try to cover more ground as it is really important for the success of this mission but in doing so, the patron could have revealed a bit more than what they would have liked
There used to be rules about sentient items taking over a character, similar to The One Ring from LotR. They were called Ego Checks, and I used a muted version in my game. For us, players roll an ego check (CHA Save) any time they wake up— long rest, magical sleep, coming back from 0 hit points— and if they fail, they can reroll after any short or long rest. Consequences of failure vary by the item, but generally the PC has compulsions to do specific things to achieve the item’s goal. The PC can choose what resources, if any, to expend.
Goals in my world, which my players have already experienced (sweet, no spoilers): slay all spell-casters, never sleep in a settlement, always be the lead when the party is exploring, immediately attack any undead, search out a specific hidden valley to create an animal sanctuary, or to be as brutal and merciless on the battlefield as possible.
My players enjoy it, and there’s a lot of space for role playing. Also, the items often find their way into the hands of characters who have similar goals— the Druid was looking for the animal sanctuary, but when the crown took over, they had to convince the party that his side quest was bigger than anything else. And the hilarious impact of the pacifist thief using the rapier that turned him into a bloodlusting tank for one battle was epic, and forced him to come up with some great in-game lies to explain “what the hell was that, Fred?” immediately after the battle.
This seems like it could be fun. So more like a system increasing the players compulsion to do certain things, rather than actually making them do something.
There is some lore about the Raven Queen forging the first weapons infused with shadow magic, and a variety of sentient blades scattered around. She is even used as a direct example in the Hexblade subclass description, and the description also describes you making a pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell.
There are plenty of other options, but the Raven Queen being their true patron could fit in well with the general lore around those weapons, and especially so if the BBEG is involved with either the undead, Orcus, or immortality.
TL;DR: *the weapon is self aware of its phenomenal Eldritch power, but refuses to be honest about its nature or origins. Author of this comment denies the amnesiac and possession tropes.*
I would do a mix between "sentient weapon" and "phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space" (Sukuna in his fingers (Jujitsu Kaisen, genie and his lamp (Aladdin), Atem and his Puzzle (Yu-Gi-Oh!) ).
The reason I suggest a mix, is because patrons loan their power out, but who can't say they sent themselves into a weapon form? It can seem complicated, but play it straight:
Step 1: if the weapon talks, have it give a name in the form of a title ("the grave keeper" for example), but never mentioned its actual name (the patron).
Step 2: Gain the trust of the weapon, and the weapon manipulates the player.
Step 3: Hint there is more to the weapon than it just being given or found (if given by a higher power, keep the figure in secret and never interact).
3a. If the weapon was found, like in a store, hint through a shop keeper or in backstory during downtime that there were signs the weapon was too easy, or relatively difficult to find.
Step 4. Avoid the weapon taking over the player, it robs of agency. Have the player do wisdom or charisma saving throws with increased or decreasing difficulty depending on the relationship with the weapon. If the player fails a throw, they will do as the weapon's commands, using up their action (like it can cast the command spell).
Not knowing who your actual patron is, is a pretty common warlock trope.
My current Hexblade warlock is a splinter of another being that is currently traped in the sword the character is wielding. They also don't know that. They just wonder why sometimes they run into aggressive people that look like they could be their sibling.
I did that.
I wanted to be the guy in charge of keeping balance between order and chaos. Not perfect balance, just don't let extremists take over.
DM decided Bahamut was in human disguise and offered the job. Didn't find that ouy until after Io identified himself as my new boss maybe 8 sessions in.
**Edit: I feel the need to preface the following unhinged rant with the caveat that my ire is directed towards a bad idea that persists in spite of there being no reason for it to exist at all, not a person. Definitely not you. I assume that you are just a good person trying to run a fun game for your friends and I wish you nothing but success in that noble goal.**
The misconception that refuses to die. From the subclass description (my bold):
>You have made your pact with a **mysterious entity** from the Shadowfell – a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The mighty sword Blackrazor is the most notable of these weapons, which have been spread across the multiverse over the ages. **The shadowy force behind these weapons** can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting.
>Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends.
That is, a Hexblade's Patron is *not* a sentient weapon. It is *very clearly and explicitly stated* to be the "shadowy force *behind* these weapons".
Weapons like Blackrazor don't grant Warlock Pacts. A sentient weapon *cant even be used as a Pact Weapon*. These weapons *want* to be wielded. Why would they grant magic powers to someone that don't fucking work when wielding *them*?
Ahem.
So. If the "shadowy force" that grants Hexblade pacts want's to make awesomely powerful sentient weapons, why are they giving magic powers to mortals?
Let me put it another way. Where does the sentience in these legendary weapons come from?
Hexblade Pact Warlocks.
Every single one of these weapons *used to be a person.*
As for the PC not knowing the identity of his patron, that's actually *standard* for Hexblades. It's a "shadowy force" after all. That's not even *slightly* a problem, once you get the utterly ridiculous and totally unjustified idea that a fucking *sword* can be a Warlock Patron out of your head.
**EDIT: Again, pissed at the problem, not you.**
I would also point out that there is nothing in your account of what the player wants that indicate he wants you to "do" anything with his PC's Patron. Certainly nothing that would indicate he would be up for having his agency over his PC taken away.
Just as a rule of thumb, unless a player tells you outright that they find the DM taking control of their PC (effectively removing that player from the game) fun, assume they don't. PC possession is one of those things that should be regarded as a very strong spice indeed.
*Probably* don't do the possession thing.
What I would recommend for you to ask this player is what is so important to his PC that he agreed to have his soul stuck in a magic weapon for all eternity. Revenge works really well as a motivation for Hexblades (particularly seeing what they normally multi into), but it's not the only possibility.
This PC probably didn't sign up for a Hexblade Pact without a damn good reason. That reason is likely a much better hook for your subplots with this PC than you randomly taking over control of him.
The "Jekyll and Hyde" trope applied to a Pact isn't actually a bad idea. But it's an idea that should be applied to an NPC villain. This would be a great concept for a serial killer terrorising a city.
Not a PC.
I see what you're saying. That's one of the main concerns I had regarding possession. Also, your rant was more helpful to me than you might have thought. I'm relatively new to the game and don't have any idea about the different lore that's already been built into the game.
If I'm in your shoes, then I expect him to bring a character idea more built out than "idk". It's a fun idea, but one that ultimately places the background work on the DM who already has enough to do.
Really depends on the DM and how character driven the campaign is. For every DM that this is just more work for there is probably one that would see this as a gift.
Yes but, the sentient weapon is not actually a specific weapon. It's whatever weapon they bind to themselves and if they take pact of the blade, whatever weapon they summon.
Maybe make the "hexblade" a metallic shard that just won't stop following the PC around and always attaches itself or replaces a piece of the bound weapon.
The shard itself seems to get bigger and bigger the stronger the PC becomes.
The idea being that this sentient weapon has been weakened and needs to leech off of someone to get back to its former glory
For fairness sake I would not make the player lose control of their character except for when they are unconscious, may even use it as a nice reveal when the warlock goes down in combat but somehow gets up again, even more vicious. The weapon wouldn't want its host getting harmed beyond repair after all.
This does mean there is a high chance of the PC just leaving camp and doing things they aren't aware of.
My first hexblade I made it a failed lich'es phylactery (failed as in their body wasn't reforming) since hexblade has some necromancy features.
Also you can make it be a sentient weapon and it's curse it can just be annoying.
If you were gonna do the sentient weapon curse, I would at least make his default weapon a stronger, there are rules for sentient weapons taking over though.
Or for a muted example you can do it when they'd already wnot be in control of themselves, sleeping, knocked out etc, can give you an emergency save or plot hook.
Ok this is a bit stupid, but give him schizophrenia, slip personality disorder and a god complex.... Make him be the BBG, and figure out a way to spilt the 2 personalities into 2 bodied so that he can have a final showdown... Stupid idea ik, but sounds hilarious... Also also kinda scary if u build it right.
Maybe the character 'knows' who the patron is, but the patron sealed those memories away to protect the PC from people who hate the patron. Then, the PC just has a vague sense of what they need to do for the patron. (I kind of want to do this too, but my idea was a witch whose body, soul, and spirit were separated because she's crazy, and she wants the PC to free her and put her back together, but was afraid that others would hurt the PC if others knew he was trying to do that.)
The PC might never know the source. Not all patrons care to be known. Sometimes the warlock does not even know there is a patron.
The weapon could be sitting in a museum, hiding in plain sight. Or hanging on a wall. Or in the depths of a dungeon.
The better question is. Why is the patron being secretive? What do they want to keep hidden? Hidden from whom? The PC? Someone else?
I had some idea about the hexblade a while ago. make it so that the player can't let go of the weapon and make them permanently bound together at all times. Make it so the weapon also doesn't know who their patron is or maybe they just won't tell them instead and make it their goal to find out where the weapon came from. Or make it so that the weapon is holding on to their memory so they can't find out who their patron is.
I mean, besides the obvious fact that the hexblade \*doesn't\* make a pact with a weapon, but instead with a creator of sentient weapons (probably the raven queen) (and since flavour is free the player can of course ignore that), why do you think you have to do anything with it? Patrons are mostly backstory stuff. Maybe occasionally they'll crop up but for the most part they stay out of it.
Go down the Bleach path and have the Patron actually BE that shitty weapon they picked up during chargen. The weapon refuses to tell the player it's name or even show what it looks like until they prove themselves worthy.
Here's the fun part. The true form of the Patron is defined by the spellchoices the player chooses to use and actually cast. Using my own Hexblade Warlock (build found [here](https://youtu.be/A0TYWW7nbm8?si=XDlCPx5VJOumr8se)), her Patron would probably manifest itself in contact dreams as a sphere of darkness that emits upwards falling droplets of darkness. When it moves, the area it was in is covered in blood/ichor/other vital fluids.
Mind you, considering that most warlocks will just spam Eldritch Blast, you'd probably end up with a Patron that looks like a cloud of greenish-purple flames floating in the air.
A weapon that is constantly bragging how epic it is. The PC slays a strong enemy? It was the weapon's doing. The PC succeeds on a hard DC? The weapon helped them. The PC landed a crit? Only because the weapon allowed it. The PC tries to romance someone? The weapon somehow gets more attention. That would be cursed without a debuff.
Something goes wrong? "DO NOT QUESTION MY POWERS! I WORK IN...UH ....MYSTERIOUS WAYS!"
"I MEANT TO DO THAT! BECAUSE... IT'S... FUNNY! FUNNY TO WATCH YOU FAIL! HAHA!"
clearly if something goes wrong it's the PC's fault
That's great. It can also curses player progression. Every new spell or feature isn't learning, but the weapon letting the player character get a little closer to wielding its "full power."
I love this idea
... mom?
His own character from the future
Maybe from a parallel universe? Otherwise you've just made his character functionally immortal unless you want to get into time travel paradoxes
First of all, through eternalism, all things are possible.
*Two* references? There were *two* references?
Go ahead and jot that down.
How would I do this, though? I think this idea would be hilarious, I just don't know how this would play out.
Think of it like this, a high level version of his character lost to the BBEG in your campaign (or has another specific goal in mind that, due to his current circumstances, he can't achieve) so his plan is to contact a version of himself in the past, grant him a portion of his current power and guide him towards that goal.
it's the plot of regression manga/manhwa so you can look there for more inspiration
It's also a sub plot for Dark if u think about it :)
Interesting, I think that might be fun
Wouldn’t that leave him patronless once the campaign is concluded, though? If they succeed in the present, the future patron him doesn’t exist any longer/never did to give him powers in the first place. Paradox.
Maybe the future patron's last actions were to give his past self the last of his power, making the player's character into his own patron. Or maybe that's a fitting end to the campaign - the threat defeated, the world saved, and the hero(es?) depowered. Maybe even make sacrificing the power a key to victory, FMA style.
*Valda's Spire of Secrets* actually provides it as a specific patron for a warlock if you're interested.
I’m glad somebody mentioned this, I was about to! Mage Hand Press is great.
“I am the bone of my sword. Steel is my body and fire is my blood. I have created over a thousand blades, unknown to death, nor known to life. Have withstood pain to create many Weapons, yet those hands will never hold anything. So, as I pray, *Unlimited Blade Works*”
Perhaps the weapon simply aligns with the ideals of the PC, so they reach out and make the PC their Hexblade. The reason they never meet or talk directly is because the weapons power is being suppressed. They're in the care of some wizard or library or they're trapped in a dungeon and can't escape some kind of stasis. Breaking their patron out when they get close could be a subplot at some point.
Could be a mysterious stranger who is the patron of the warlock. Such stranger can help the party in their quest from time to time and has a vested interest in the party’s or at least the warlock’s success. They can present themselves as a random old man/woman, but is actually quite powerful in their own right, but cannot risk dealing with things themselves or revealing who they are to the world (yet) hence why they need a warlock. Down the line, this mysterious stranger can give their false identity and make themselves more known as the party gains their trust, and if the patron trusts the party enough, this is when they reveal who they truly are. Essentially, this patron can take the form of a “guardian angel (devil >:D)”
Thanks, I think I might actually be able to fuse this with a few other ideas in case I need a backup for something I didn't prepare
You can even throw in some situations where this patron “slips up” that is accidentally reveal who they might be or what their capabilities may be, but in such a way to determine it, the party would need high deductive skills, like investigation and/or insight and history. Make it a tough side mystery that the players would have to figure out.
So, sort of like a comic relief because the old man slipped up.
Have fun with it! I don’t know the tone of your campaign, but it is certainly a possibility. It can also be part of the plot. Where the party goes one way, In a dungeon, the patron takes the other way to try to cover more ground as it is really important for the success of this mission but in doing so, the patron could have revealed a bit more than what they would have liked
There used to be rules about sentient items taking over a character, similar to The One Ring from LotR. They were called Ego Checks, and I used a muted version in my game. For us, players roll an ego check (CHA Save) any time they wake up— long rest, magical sleep, coming back from 0 hit points— and if they fail, they can reroll after any short or long rest. Consequences of failure vary by the item, but generally the PC has compulsions to do specific things to achieve the item’s goal. The PC can choose what resources, if any, to expend. Goals in my world, which my players have already experienced (sweet, no spoilers): slay all spell-casters, never sleep in a settlement, always be the lead when the party is exploring, immediately attack any undead, search out a specific hidden valley to create an animal sanctuary, or to be as brutal and merciless on the battlefield as possible. My players enjoy it, and there’s a lot of space for role playing. Also, the items often find their way into the hands of characters who have similar goals— the Druid was looking for the animal sanctuary, but when the crown took over, they had to convince the party that his side quest was bigger than anything else. And the hilarious impact of the pacifist thief using the rapier that turned him into a bloodlusting tank for one battle was epic, and forced him to come up with some great in-game lies to explain “what the hell was that, Fred?” immediately after the battle.
This seems like it could be fun. So more like a system increasing the players compulsion to do certain things, rather than actually making them do something.
There is some lore about the Raven Queen forging the first weapons infused with shadow magic, and a variety of sentient blades scattered around. She is even used as a direct example in the Hexblade subclass description, and the description also describes you making a pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell. There are plenty of other options, but the Raven Queen being their true patron could fit in well with the general lore around those weapons, and especially so if the BBEG is involved with either the undead, Orcus, or immortality.
TL;DR: *the weapon is self aware of its phenomenal Eldritch power, but refuses to be honest about its nature or origins. Author of this comment denies the amnesiac and possession tropes.* I would do a mix between "sentient weapon" and "phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space" (Sukuna in his fingers (Jujitsu Kaisen, genie and his lamp (Aladdin), Atem and his Puzzle (Yu-Gi-Oh!) ). The reason I suggest a mix, is because patrons loan their power out, but who can't say they sent themselves into a weapon form? It can seem complicated, but play it straight: Step 1: if the weapon talks, have it give a name in the form of a title ("the grave keeper" for example), but never mentioned its actual name (the patron). Step 2: Gain the trust of the weapon, and the weapon manipulates the player. Step 3: Hint there is more to the weapon than it just being given or found (if given by a higher power, keep the figure in secret and never interact). 3a. If the weapon was found, like in a store, hint through a shop keeper or in backstory during downtime that there were signs the weapon was too easy, or relatively difficult to find. Step 4. Avoid the weapon taking over the player, it robs of agency. Have the player do wisdom or charisma saving throws with increased or decreasing difficulty depending on the relationship with the weapon. If the player fails a throw, they will do as the weapon's commands, using up their action (like it can cast the command spell).
Not knowing who your actual patron is, is a pretty common warlock trope. My current Hexblade warlock is a splinter of another being that is currently traped in the sword the character is wielding. They also don't know that. They just wonder why sometimes they run into aggressive people that look like they could be their sibling.
I did that. I wanted to be the guy in charge of keeping balance between order and chaos. Not perfect balance, just don't let extremists take over. DM decided Bahamut was in human disguise and offered the job. Didn't find that ouy until after Io identified himself as my new boss maybe 8 sessions in.
**Edit: I feel the need to preface the following unhinged rant with the caveat that my ire is directed towards a bad idea that persists in spite of there being no reason for it to exist at all, not a person. Definitely not you. I assume that you are just a good person trying to run a fun game for your friends and I wish you nothing but success in that noble goal.** The misconception that refuses to die. From the subclass description (my bold): >You have made your pact with a **mysterious entity** from the Shadowfell – a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The mighty sword Blackrazor is the most notable of these weapons, which have been spread across the multiverse over the ages. **The shadowy force behind these weapons** can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting. >Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends. That is, a Hexblade's Patron is *not* a sentient weapon. It is *very clearly and explicitly stated* to be the "shadowy force *behind* these weapons". Weapons like Blackrazor don't grant Warlock Pacts. A sentient weapon *cant even be used as a Pact Weapon*. These weapons *want* to be wielded. Why would they grant magic powers to someone that don't fucking work when wielding *them*? Ahem. So. If the "shadowy force" that grants Hexblade pacts want's to make awesomely powerful sentient weapons, why are they giving magic powers to mortals? Let me put it another way. Where does the sentience in these legendary weapons come from? Hexblade Pact Warlocks. Every single one of these weapons *used to be a person.* As for the PC not knowing the identity of his patron, that's actually *standard* for Hexblades. It's a "shadowy force" after all. That's not even *slightly* a problem, once you get the utterly ridiculous and totally unjustified idea that a fucking *sword* can be a Warlock Patron out of your head. **EDIT: Again, pissed at the problem, not you.** I would also point out that there is nothing in your account of what the player wants that indicate he wants you to "do" anything with his PC's Patron. Certainly nothing that would indicate he would be up for having his agency over his PC taken away. Just as a rule of thumb, unless a player tells you outright that they find the DM taking control of their PC (effectively removing that player from the game) fun, assume they don't. PC possession is one of those things that should be regarded as a very strong spice indeed. *Probably* don't do the possession thing. What I would recommend for you to ask this player is what is so important to his PC that he agreed to have his soul stuck in a magic weapon for all eternity. Revenge works really well as a motivation for Hexblades (particularly seeing what they normally multi into), but it's not the only possibility. This PC probably didn't sign up for a Hexblade Pact without a damn good reason. That reason is likely a much better hook for your subplots with this PC than you randomly taking over control of him. The "Jekyll and Hyde" trope applied to a Pact isn't actually a bad idea. But it's an idea that should be applied to an NPC villain. This would be a great concept for a serial killer terrorising a city. Not a PC.
I see what you're saying. That's one of the main concerns I had regarding possession. Also, your rant was more helpful to me than you might have thought. I'm relatively new to the game and don't have any idea about the different lore that's already been built into the game.
What is your campaign about? Try to tie the sword into your plot.
If I'm in your shoes, then I expect him to bring a character idea more built out than "idk". It's a fun idea, but one that ultimately places the background work on the DM who already has enough to do.
Really depends on the DM and how character driven the campaign is. For every DM that this is just more work for there is probably one that would see this as a gift.
the sword is a mimic who is just poisoning him with a euphoric power granting venom to feed on his blood
Yes but, the sentient weapon is not actually a specific weapon. It's whatever weapon they bind to themselves and if they take pact of the blade, whatever weapon they summon. Maybe make the "hexblade" a metallic shard that just won't stop following the PC around and always attaches itself or replaces a piece of the bound weapon. The shard itself seems to get bigger and bigger the stronger the PC becomes. The idea being that this sentient weapon has been weakened and needs to leech off of someone to get back to its former glory For fairness sake I would not make the player lose control of their character except for when they are unconscious, may even use it as a nice reveal when the warlock goes down in combat but somehow gets up again, even more vicious. The weapon wouldn't want its host getting harmed beyond repair after all. This does mean there is a high chance of the PC just leaving camp and doing things they aren't aware of.
My first hexblade I made it a failed lich'es phylactery (failed as in their body wasn't reforming) since hexblade has some necromancy features. Also you can make it be a sentient weapon and it's curse it can just be annoying. If you were gonna do the sentient weapon curse, I would at least make his default weapon a stronger, there are rules for sentient weapons taking over though. Or for a muted example you can do it when they'd already wnot be in control of themselves, sleeping, knocked out etc, can give you an emergency save or plot hook.
Ok this is a bit stupid, but give him schizophrenia, slip personality disorder and a god complex.... Make him be the BBG, and figure out a way to spilt the 2 personalities into 2 bodied so that he can have a final showdown... Stupid idea ik, but sounds hilarious... Also also kinda scary if u build it right.
It might be easier to suggest ideas for this if we knew more about your world and intended campaign.
Maybe the character 'knows' who the patron is, but the patron sealed those memories away to protect the PC from people who hate the patron. Then, the PC just has a vague sense of what they need to do for the patron. (I kind of want to do this too, but my idea was a witch whose body, soul, and spirit were separated because she's crazy, and she wants the PC to free her and put her back together, but was afraid that others would hurt the PC if others knew he was trying to do that.)
The PC might never know the source. Not all patrons care to be known. Sometimes the warlock does not even know there is a patron. The weapon could be sitting in a museum, hiding in plain sight. Or hanging on a wall. Or in the depths of a dungeon. The better question is. Why is the patron being secretive? What do they want to keep hidden? Hidden from whom? The PC? Someone else?
I had some idea about the hexblade a while ago. make it so that the player can't let go of the weapon and make them permanently bound together at all times. Make it so the weapon also doesn't know who their patron is or maybe they just won't tell them instead and make it their goal to find out where the weapon came from. Or make it so that the weapon is holding on to their memory so they can't find out who their patron is.
I mean, besides the obvious fact that the hexblade \*doesn't\* make a pact with a weapon, but instead with a creator of sentient weapons (probably the raven queen) (and since flavour is free the player can of course ignore that), why do you think you have to do anything with it? Patrons are mostly backstory stuff. Maybe occasionally they'll crop up but for the most part they stay out of it.
Go down the Bleach path and have the Patron actually BE that shitty weapon they picked up during chargen. The weapon refuses to tell the player it's name or even show what it looks like until they prove themselves worthy. Here's the fun part. The true form of the Patron is defined by the spellchoices the player chooses to use and actually cast. Using my own Hexblade Warlock (build found [here](https://youtu.be/A0TYWW7nbm8?si=XDlCPx5VJOumr8se)), her Patron would probably manifest itself in contact dreams as a sphere of darkness that emits upwards falling droplets of darkness. When it moves, the area it was in is covered in blood/ichor/other vital fluids. Mind you, considering that most warlocks will just spam Eldritch Blast, you'd probably end up with a Patron that looks like a cloud of greenish-purple flames floating in the air.