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Overview: What is a Warlock?
“Is the dark side stronger?”
“No, no, no. Quicker, easier, more seductive.”
-Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back
A Warlock is an arcane magic user who derives their magic from a pact with a powerful being who acts as their patron. This is not to be confused with the relationship between a cleric and a God. While some warlocks may indeed “worship” their patron, a patron is not a God.
The important thing to remember, is that the patron has taught the Warlock secrets that allow them to access a source of power. Once the Warlock knows how to access that power, it is theirs to use as they will. This is very different from the Cleric/God relationship where the God is directly giving the player power each day, and can stop giving it if they want to.
A common misconception is that Warlocks with evil patrons are always evil themselves, and that Warlocks are effectively slaves to their patrons. While this could be true in some cases, it really depends on the pact. Generally I feel that while NPC’s might indeed be slaves to their patron, PC’s should not be.
Dark Pacts:
Thankfully the rules for the pact have been left intentionally vague to allow players to be creative and have the freedom to come up with their own backstory and flavor to their pact and patron relationship. It’s up to the player and the DM to decide the terms and conditions of the pact and how it will affect the game. That said, it is very important to discuss this with the DM ahead of time to ensure you are on the same page.
You may encounter a DM who insists that your pact be a punishing burden, and who constantly tries to involve your patron in the story and use it to strongarm your character into certain actions. This is, in my opinion, the wrong way to handle the Warlock. I would recommend avoiding the class in this case unless you actually enjoy that type of DM behaviour for some reason, or you trust that your DM is going to make an entertaining story out of it and isn’t doing it purely to punish the player.
My view of the pact, and I believe the more commonly used one, is that the pact is like a contract, and is binding to both parties, but is very long term in nature so usually doesn’t directly influence the player’s actions in the here and now. Patrons are typically immortal beings that are quite detached from the day to day happenings of mortal existence. They don’t care what you do or how you do it, they just want something specific, like your soul when you eventually die. The patron grants the player access to their power, and the player grants the patron something in return, eventually.
The patron doesn’t get to boss around the player or withdraw their power if they don’t like the player. Sure, they can try and kill the player if they want to, and things like other warlocks of the same patron trying to defeat the player are reasonable and interesting story options. At the same time, the player may very well be striving to defeat their patron and free themselves from their side of the pact. “I sold my soul for power, and now I’ll do anything to get it back” makes for an interesting character motivation and is even one of the bonds for the sage background in the PHB.
After all, the Demon Lord can’t claim your soul when you die, if you find a way to kill him first!
Warlock, past and present:
In 3rd edition, the warlock was a late addition as a splat book class with some very unique mechanics. The class centered around Eldritch Blast which was an at-will ranged attack, and could be modified by various class abilities, allowing it to to be shaped into an AoE or do different types of damage and effects. They also had a bunch of minor at-will powers that were usually about as powerful as low level utility spells. Generally they weren’t overly powerful as they could only attack with Eldritch Blast once per round, putting them behind the multi-attack physical classes; and while they could shape the blast and do some consistent at-will AoE damage, they weren’t nearly as powerful as sorcerers or wizards.
In 4th edition, the warlock was an arcane striker, meant to be a spell based single target damage dealer. Eldritch Blast was still an at-will ability unique to the class, but was overshadowed by other at-will abilities that applied debuff effects or even better damage. In the AEDU (at-will, encounter, daily and utility) power system they worked very similar to other classes, generally casting the same types of encounter and daily abilities. Like the ranger and rogue, they gained a bonus damage die feature, their hex, which acted as a single target damage booster. The lack of a multi-attack at-will ability and poor scaling of hex left them as a middle of the road striker that never really excelled. The basic themes and abilities of the three patrons, Fiend, Fey and Star (Great Old One now) started in 4th edition, and continue into 5th.
In 5th edition, the warlock benefits from the cantrip system and has the most powerful attack cantrip in the game. They now have spells they can cast with a twist on the vancian magic system, and with their invocations they retain some of the utility at-will flavor from 3rd edition. The three patrons as well as the three types of pacts offer a wide range of character choices and in my opinion are some of the most well designed in the PHB in terms of balance, variety and flavor.
Role:
The Warlock has retained some of it’s striker aspects, and does respectable and sustainable single target ranged damage with Eldritch Blast. Some have even referred to the Warlock as an “arcane archer” (not to be confused with the old prestige class) because they can throw some spells and have some arcane utility, but often end up spending a lot of their time ranged attacking with Eldritch Blast. In some ways this is true, but the warlocks other abilities are not to be underestimated.
They have a good spell list and can cast some of the best level 4-5 spells more frequently than other classes. They have quite a bit of utility as well, through their invocations and their pact features. They can’t throw buffs and other miscellaneous spells around like a wizard does, but they can field enough arcane ability to land the big spells when it matters, and to fill the general arcane caster role reasonably well if they want to.
The Warlock can also be played as a melee Fighter/Mage type character, usually referred to as a Hexblade. This is a viable option but requires quite a bit of different thinking when it comes to play style and character choices. I will try to cover this option as well as I can, but keep in mind this guide generally assumes that you are playing the Warlock as a spellcaster. My ratings are from that perspective unless otherwise noted.
Why play a Warlock:
Ultimately the Warlock represents the quick route to power, just like the dark side of the force. Think of the Wizard’s apprentice who is tired of toiling endlessly for his foolish old master who expects him to wait decades to learn his secrets, so instead he seeks out forbidden tomes for a faster way. Or the dashing rogue who steals an ancient weapon and discovers that it is the key to great and terrible arcane power.
Pretty much any character with a strong personality (Charisma) who has an interest in arcane power, but lacks the ability (Intelligence) and patience to be a Wizard, isn’t fortunate enough to be born with innate power like a Sorcerer, and thinks singing is lame, would be easily tempted by what the path of the Warlock has to offer.
Color Coding the Guide:
This guide will use the following ratings:
Red is dead. A trap that you will want to avoid at all costs, either because it's ineffective or because it's thoroughly outclassed by another option that accomplishes something similar.
Purple is a substandard choice. It might be useful in corner-case situations, but overall it's not worth the investment.
Black is average. You're not hurting your character by taking this, and it might even help in some situations, but there are better choices.
Blue is a good choice. It definitely helps your character in the majority of cases.
Sky Blue is a fantastic choice. An option you should strongly consider above most others.
Gold is a rare rating that denotes something that is so good that you must take it in most cases, or you can't call yourself optimized.
Races:
It should be noted that no races have an outright penalty to Charisma now, and with the cap being 20 for scores, all races are viable eventually. Because of this, none of them are rated red.
Higher rated races start with better stats which frees them up for feats earlier, or have other abilities that are particularly nice for a Warlock, as noted below. Rolling very high ability scores to start with provides a lot more flexibility of course, and if you are in this lucky position, choose your race on flavor or specific racial abilities that you like.
Also note that in the case of a Hexblade, the stat requirements are a bit different, with less of an emphasis on Charisma and more on Strength or Dexterity. I won’t change the ratings because I would have to put a sub rating for every race, just be aware that some of the more physical oriented races and certain racial powers might be better for Hexblade.
Dwarf (Mountain): Mountain Dwarf is great for Strength focused Hexblades, or generally for those who want to get medium armor for free.
Elf (Drow): The High and wood Elf are good races but don’t have a Charisma bonus. Drow gets most of the same benefits and a Charisma bonus, so can make an excellent Warlock and even give you a decent set of bonus spells to cast.
Half Elf: +2 Charisma, +1 to two any other stats you want, 2 free skills, Darkvision, Fey ancestry… What’s not to love? You get everything you could ever want in a race, other than a free feat. I’m tempted to even rate them gold.
Human (variant): The bonus feat and skill of the variant human can be quite handy, and you can still get +1 to Charisma. The lack of Darkvision is a common negative for Humans, but the Warlock can easily make up for that with a single evocation, making Human variant a great choice.
Half Orc: No Charisma bonuses but good physical stats and weapon bonuses for Strength Hexblades.
Dragonborn: Strength and Charisma bonuses are useful on a Hexblade that chooses to go Strength. Getting resistance for free is nice, and Breath weapon while great to add some AoE is not too important, as you can use spells for AoE if you want.
Tiefling: Nearly as good as half elf. Good stats, resistant to fire, a few daily spells. Lots of RP considerations that might fit well with the Warlock, especially Fiend patron.
Halfling (Lightfoot): Lightfoot can make a decent Warlock with its +1 Charisma and Dex bonus. Lucky is quite good and being able to hide behind allies could actually help a lot for a squishy caster.
Gnome: Better suited to being a wizard with their high int bonus.
DMG:
Aasimar: Similar to Tiefling with celestial traits and light spells instead of Darkness. May not fit thematically with certain patrons like Fiend, but that’s not an outright restriction.
Eladrin: Basically a High Elf that gets Misty Step once per short rest instead of an extra cantrip. Misty Step is great, though not something you want to burn your Pact Magic slots on often, so getting it regularly as a racial is amazing. This makes it an especially good race for a Dexterity Hexblade.
Unearthed Arcana:
Eberron:
Changeling: +1 Charisma and Dex. And can shapechange to disguise themselves. If you want to be a con artist or more roguelike, this is great, though Warlock can replicate the shape changing easily with invocations.
Shifter: No Charisma bonuses, nothing particularly useful to you.
Warforged: No Charisma bonuses, nothing particularly useful to you.
E.E Players Companion:
Aarakocra: No Charisma bonus, but flight can be handy.
Deep Gnome: No Charisma bonus but some nice other abilities.
Genasi: No Charisma bonuses, but decent physical stats and some racial abilities that might be useful for certain builds.
Goliath: No Charisma bonuses, great physical stats could make a good Hexblade.
Stats:
Strength (Hexblade): If you want to be a melee Hexblade, Dexterity is usually still the better choice for you. If you want to be a heavy weapon Hexblade then this is your main stat.
Dexterity (Hexblade): Considered by many to be the “god stat” of this edition, it applies to initiative, saving throws vs most damage effects, AC, and a variety of decent skills. It can also apply to weapon attack and damage on finesse weapons with no feat investment, making it the better choice for most Hexblades unless they need the heavier weapons for some reason.
Constitution (Hexblade): Important for everybody for hit points, and because it applies to Constitution saves to avoid losing a concentration spell when you take damage. Not being proficient in the save means that a good score is especially important. I personally like the idea of being a HP hoarder with the Fiend patron as well (and do sometimes miss the 4th edition days where this could be your main attack stat).
Intelligence: Applies to some skills but otherwise isn’t very useful to you. Not rated lower because I feel that skills like Arcana are still somewhat important for you as an arcane caster. If you are the only arcane caster in the group and are expected to make Arcana checks, have at least some bonus.
Wisdom: Applies to Wisdom saves and Perception checks. Both are important, and you are proficient in the save, but it’s not important enough to invest heavily in this. Dont completely dump it though.
Charisma: Your Primary stat. Start as high as you can, get it to 20 as soon as you can, no exceptions other than Hexblades who can get by starting with it a bit lower, at least until level 12.
Proficiencies:
Warlocks start with simple weapons and light armor, and proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves. This gives them some limited combat ability and means they aren’t as squishy as a Sorcerer or Wizard.
The Charisma save doesn’t come up a lot, but you will be really good at it. Bonus to Wisdom saves is nice, but you won’t have a high Wisdom stat usually. Constitution saves are probably your main priority if you do decide to take an extra one with a feat.
Skills:
Class Skills:
Arcana: Even though you likely won’t have high Intelligence, being able to identify and have knowledge of various magical things is sort of your job. It also helps you use some magic items like scrolls, which can help you expand your spell versatility.
History: Can be handy for plot purposes depending on the campaign.
Deception
Intimidation
Your High Charisma means that you can make an effective social skill user, which means it’s probably the best thing you can pick skill wise, as you aren’t really amazing at anything else. You may choose to take the invocation that gives you both of these for free. Note that if you do so later, you are allowed to change out these skills for other ones, so you can still pick these at level 1.
Investigation: Can be handy for plot purposes depending on the campaign.
Nature: In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it.
Religion: In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it.
Other Skills:
I will also rank the other skills as it’s very easy now to grab 2-4 of these from background and racial bonuses. The game is very forgiving about letting you swap these around, for example if you gain a skill you already had from a class feature, you can pick a new skill to replace it.
Athletics: You won’t be good at this even if you take it, unless you are a Strength based Hexblade.
Acrobatics: You might have decent Dexterity and this gives you a few options for when physical skills are required.
Sleight of Hand: Situationally useful, and In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it.
Stealth: Can actually be really nice to have some extra stealthy characters in the group, and your decent Dexterity and lack of armor mean you can be pretty good at it, especially with some spell support.
Animal Handling:In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it.
Medicine: In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it. Can still be nice to be able to stabilize in a pinch, if say, the party healer goes down.
Perception: Nearly a must have for every class regardless of Wisdom score. I’m ranking it gold because it’s so easy to grab from a race or background and so much better to have than all the other non class skills. Nobody wants to be surprised, and every little bit helps.
Survival:In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it.
Performance: You can be good at it if you want to, but other than for RP reasons, no need for it.
Persuasion: You have the Charisma for it, though you are more likely to focus on deception or intimidation.
Insight: Useful as a social character, but In most cases somebody else in the party will have this and be better than you at it.
Class Features:
The Warlock has several unique class mechanics including a spellcasting system that is quite different from the other spellcasters. Overall this means lots of choices which makes for a diverse and interesting character building experience.
Otherworldly Patron:
These are your class archetypes and there are three patrons to choose from. This choice has the biggest impact on your character, as it determines a variety of abilities that you gain as you level up.
Expanded Spell list: These spells are not automatically learned, but expand the options and provide a lot of themed spell variety to the different patrons. I will rate the individual spells in the spells section. For now I will give an overall rating with a few highlights. Overall they are all quite good and you will likely want to pick a few of these spells regardless of the patron you chose, but you don’t have to.
Archfey:
Fey are fairy like beings that are associated with nature and elves, and their motivations tend to be more mischievous than evil. Their abilities are themed towards charms and illusions, and a bit of a nature theme.
Expanded Spell list: A lot of great picks here that also fit really well into the theme. Faerie Fire and Sleep are great at low level, and Greater Invisibility and Dominate Person top off the list at the high end.
Fey Presence: Free area charm or fear effect once per short rest. Only lasts one turn but still a nice effect and useful at all levels.
Misty Escape: Teleport and become invisible as a reaction when you take damage. This can save you in a tough fight, allowing you to reposition easily (60 feet is a long distance) and then follow up with advantage on your attacks on your next turn for being invisible.
Beguiling Defenses: Protection against charm, and the ability to turn the charm back on the caster. Can be really nice when it comes up, but I can count on one hand the number of times enemies have actually charmed my allies, and even fewer that they actually targeted me as a caster. Usually if there is a charm, they go after the big dumb fighter.
Dark Delirium: Another charm or fear effect that lasts 1 minute and only affects 1 creature. Basically about as good as a free low level charm spell and it refreshes on short rests. Requires concentration so it will conflict with some of your other spells, especially Hex.
Fiend:
Fiends include Demon Lords and Archdevils and are definitely evil. Their abilities focus on dealing more damage as well as providing some extra survival through temporary hit points and resistances.
Expanded Spell list: Provides a lot of direct damage burnination that the base warlock list is lacking, making it ideal for those that want to be an up front damage dealing caster. Scorching Ray and Fireball are probably the prime picks, but the list also includes a few nice debuffs and zone control spells.
Dark One’s Blessing: Free temporary hit points every time you drop an enemy, which should be at least once per fight. You can hold these over until you take a long rest, so they carry through to the next fight if you end a fight by killing something (And fights typically end with something getting killed). If you’re careful you can go into most fights with a nice buffer. Try and coordinate with your party to get a kill steal at least once per fight.
Dark One’s Own Luck: A hefty 1d10 applied to any ability check or saving throw you want (after you see the roll) once per short rest. Should just go ahead and use this any time you roll low on something as you might only need to make one or two important roles or saves between rests anyway. I would also recommend mostly using this for saving throws unless an ability check is critical. Save DC’s tend to be in the mid teens so if you roll around 8-10 this can often make the check for you.
Fiendish Resilience: Nice to have but not amazing. Very useful if you know you are going to be facing a certain colored dragon or monster with a specific elemental attack. Individual physical resists can be chosen as well, but magic or silver will pierce the resistance. Just leaving this set to fire most of the time isn’t a terrible idea, and gives you some leeway to fireball yourself in the face if the situation warrants it, which I like to do from time to time.
Hurl Through Hell: Take one creature out of the fight for a round and do a huge 10d10 psychic damage to it. All you have to do is hit it once, which shouldn’t be hard with multiple Eldritch Blast rays, and it gets no save vs the effect. Only once per long rest though.
Great Old One:
Expanded Spell list: A bit of overlap with the Archfey list, but in a good way. Includes the Dominate spells as well as some zones like Evard’s Black Tentacles and is a bit heavier on the mind powers, including Detect Thoughts and Telekinesis.
Awakened Mind: Mostly a RP ability but a good one. Talk to any creature you want, silently, regardless of language, all the time. Amazing potential, though your communication only goes one way so they can’t actually talk back.
Entropic Ward: Nice little defensive ability with a counterattack component. Simply impose disadvantage and if they miss, you can attack them with advantage on your next attack. Short rest.
Thought Shield: Blocks telepathy and thought reading, and resistance to psychic damage. Both things are rarely encountered, so this might not get a lot of use.
Create Thrall: Pretty much permanently charm a single creature. Your DM may try and restrict your use of this as it can be quite powerful if used creatively.
Pact Boon:
In addition to choosing a patron, the Warlock can choose from several Pact Boons that further customize their abilities.
Pact of the Blade:
Known as Hexblades, this path leads to a very different playstyle that really needs its own guide, but I will try and cover it as well as I can. It will require a high Charisma as well as a high Strength or Dexterity, and may even require multiclassing to reach its full potential. Charisma can be lower to start, though you probably want to get it up by the time you get Lifedrinker at level 12.
Most of the benefits are just giving you things the other melee classes get. Free magic weapon is nice from level 1-7 or so but becomes redundant. Being able to use any weapon without being proficient can be great and you can make any weapon you want your pact weapon. This means you don’t have to go hunting for proficiencies through multiclassing or feats.
You need to spend invocations to get a second attack at level 5, something every other martial class gets for free, and for Lifedrinker, which lets you add your Charisma to weapon damage in addition to your Strength/Dexterity, but you don’t get it until level 12 (Both of those are Warlock level, not total character level, as per recent Errata. This affects your multiclassing options).
From level 1-10 if you take the invocations and have max stats, the Pact Blade and Eldritch Blast will do similar damage, though this depends on the weapon damage dice. Most one handers are 1d8’s which are lower than Eldritch Blast’s 1d10, and most two handers will be slightly higher at 2d6 or 1d12.
The big breakpoints after that are the third attack for Eldritch Blast at level 11, the extra damage for the Pact Blade from Lifedrinker at 12, and the fourth attack for Eldritch Blast at 17.
The end result is that the Pact Blade will mostly keep with Eldritch Blast, or even pull ahead, depending on your level. The biggest reason the Pact Blade might be better, is +1-3 magic weapons, something you can’t get to augment your spells. In this case the extra accuracy and damage helps the Hexblade keep up and even pull ahead slightly. You need to make sure your campaign includes magic weapons though.
Let’s compare the Hexblade and Eldritch Blast Warlock at level 11 and 12 to look at the way the 3rd attack and Lifedrinker change the formula. We will assume a +2 1d10 weapon for the Hexblade, Hex on the target, and base 50% hit rate (so 60% for the +2 weapon):
Level 11:
Eldritch Blast: 3 attacks at 1d10+5+1d6 = 42 damage X 50% accuracy = 21 damage.
Pact Blade: 2 attacks at 1d10+5+2+1d6 = 32 damage X 60% accuracy = 19.2 damage.
Level 12:
Eldritch Blast: 3 attacks at 1d10+5+1d6 = 42 damage X 50% accuracy = 21 damage.
Pact Blade: 2 attacks at 1d10+5+5+2+1d6 = 42 damage X 60% accuracy = 25.2 damage.
Lets do a another comparison at level 20, max stats, assuming a +3 1d10 weapon for the Hexblade, Hex on the target, and base 50% hit rate (so 65% for the +3 weapon):
Level 20:
Eldritch Blast: 4 attacks at 1d10+5+1d6 = 56 damage X 50% accuracy = 28 damage.
Pact Blade: 2 attacks at 1d10+5+5+3+1d6 = 44 damage X 65% accuracy = 28.6 damage.
As you can see Eldritch Blast only pulls ahead slightly at level 11 and the Pact Blade will be much better from 12 to 17, and then mostly even up to level 20
Now of course, you should also factor in some of the many ways Hexblades might get extra attacks like dual wielding or Haste, extra damage from things like Fighter weapon styles or Feats or Rogue Sneak Attacks. Basically anything that can buff your melee damage further will result in the Hexblade pulling ahead in single target damage.
There is also the potential for the Hexblade to be using damage reflecting spells so that he can some do spell damage in addition to a full attack. This is more difficult to quantify, but it’s easy to see how the Hexblade can be a viable melee combatant and pile on some magic damage at the same time.
There are a few general paths for Hexblades. You can of course choose between Strength and Dexterity, which for the most part will affect what type of weapons you can use, as well as whether you might want to push for access to medium or heavy armor.
The Fiend Pact will work well for a tanky front line Hexblade who focuses on staying alive with temporary hit points, and getting hit and using his spells (Armor of Agathys, Fire Shield, Hellish Rebuke) to reflect damage back at his attackers. This would work with Strength or Dexterity depending on weapon, and some combat feats (Sentinel, Polearm Master, War Caster, Sheild Mastery, etc) could make for a very good battlefield controller.
Fey Pact could be a good Roguelike combatant using illusions (Invisibility, Mirror Image) to stay safe, as well as their many teleport options. For example an Eladrin Fey Warlock can Mmisty Step as both a once per rest racial ability and as regular spell, and also use the misty escape pact ability to get amazing mobility. Dual wielding and maybe some Rogue levels for Sneak Attack could make for a very dangerous and hard to hit melee fighter.
If you are starting with a lower Charisma, you might want to focus on spells that don’t require attack rolls or saving throws, or self buff and utility like misty step. You’re more likely to keep Hex up at all times to boost your damage, as most of the self buff and damage reflect spells you will use don’t require concentration anyway.
Ultimately the high stat requirements as well as the need to spend invocations and maybe even extra feats to get the most of this makes it harder to pull off than the other pact boons, but very rewarding if you enjoy Figher/Mage type characters.
Pact of the Tome:
This is a straight up caster Pact Boon that grants you 3 cantrips from any class list in the game. Since Eldritch Blast is already going to be your best damage cantrip by far, you should focus on utility cantrips, and really try and plug the holes left by your lack of low level utility spells, to round yourself out as a caster. There are lots of great options for this like Guidance and Vicious Mockery. Personally I really like Thaumaturgy from the Cleric list for RP purposes, and can be a nice and entertaining touch to include on your intimidation attempts.
If you select the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation (and you should), you get the ability to add rituals to your Tome and can choose from every class list in the game, making you the best ritual caster in the game. I really like this as it gives you a lot of those low level utility spells that the party might expect an arcane caster to have, and you don’t have to spend precious spell slots on them.
You can also learn the Find Familiar ritual and get a familiar. It won’t be as powerful as the Chain Pact familiar but you still get one, on top of all these other great features.
If you like the Warlock, but you’re like me and you want to pretend to be the party Wizard, the pact of the Tome has everything you could ever want.
Pact of the Chain:
You get a free familiar and get to choose from a few special options including the Imp, Pseudodragon, Quasit or Sprite. This can be great for scouting and general utility, and many of these have special effects on their attacks. The most common use of this familiar is to use the help action to aid you in combat, granting you advantage.
Also according to the Monster Manual entry for the Imp, it can share its Magic Resistance ability with its master. It is uncertain whether this is intended to apply for Warlock’s as well, and I lean towards no, as it seems like an oversight to have this ability and not mention it in the Warlock class description. If your DM goes for it though, enjoy.
You can take invocations to communicate telepathically with your familiar, and at later levels get a free Hold Monster ability that can be used on Fiends, Celestials or Elemental once per long rest.
If you like having a pet and are creative in using it to perform tasks for you and help you out, this path gives some nice features and is a solid choice.
Pact Magic:
Perhaps the most unique and difficult to analyze class feature of the Warlock is the Pact Magic. The warlock learns spells of each level from 1-5 as they level up, just like many other classes, but the way their slots work are very different. They have a small number of spell slots, starting with 1 slot, 2 slots at level 2, 3 slots at level 11 and 4 slots at level 17.
Many people are turned off by the low number of slots and see this as a big disadvantage, and fear they will be relegated to Eldritch Blast spam all the time. I will show that these fears are not warranted. Yes the Warlock casting works differently but he still gets plenty of spell slots in a day and these slots always cast as the highest level spell slot up to level 5 spell slots at level 9.
Unlike normal spell slots they refresh on short rests, potentially allowing the warlock to cast those spells again 2-3 or even more times during a day. This is of course very dependent on how the short rest mechanic works in your games. If your DM is liberal with them, it’s amazing, and if he constantly tries to prevent short rests, it really sucks. Then there is the dreaded single encounter per day campaign style, which some DM’s favor. I wasn’t sure how to approach the warlock when 5th edition first came out because I couldn’t tell how common short rests would be. Now that I’ve been playing for a while I have a better idea.
Short rests take an hour. This means the Warlocks slots can’t be treated as 4th edition style encounter powers where 5 minutes was considered the time between encounters. It takes a bit of experience and thinking ahead to make the right decisions about when to safely blow your slots, and when to conserve them for the next fight.
A single random encounter on the road probably has time for a short rest after. Fighting the guards outside the main bosses room in the keep you are storming probably won’t give you a rest before the next fight. Think about where your party is and how likely it is that you’ll get a chance to hide and take a breather before you decide to unload all your spells in a fight.
Generally I’ve found you can expect at least one or two short rests in an adventuring day, and can sometimes get more if you push the party to find a place to rest more often. By the time the party might need a third or fourth rest though, you can expect the Cleric to be out of healing spells and many of your allies to be out of hit dice to spend and in need of a long rest anyway.
With that in mind, you can expect your number of spell slots to refresh at least once, maybe twice during a day (apparently the official guidline for short rests is 2 per day). I’m going to compare the Warlock Pact Magic to the Sorcerer and his Font of Magic ability to calculate the raw casting power relative to the spell slots of regular casters. I’m doing this as a numerical means of measuring those lower level slots that the warlock is lacking, by having the Sorcerer burn them for Sorcery points to create more of his highest level 1-5 slots, and compare total number of higher level slots per day for each class.
level 5:
Warlock: 2 X 3rd level slots.
Sorcerer: 2 X 3rd level slots. Lower slots burn for 10 points = 2 more 3rd level slots
The Warlock can probably cast 4-6 3rd level spells in a day with one or two rests. The Sorcerer can cast 4.
level 9:
Warlock: 2 X 5th level slots.
Sorcerer: 1 X 5th level slot. Lower slots burn for 31 points = 4 more 5th level slots.
The Warlock can probably cast 4-6 5th level spells in a day with one or two rests. The Sorcerer can cast 5.
Level 11:
Warlock: 3 X 5th level slots
Sorcerer: 2 X 5th level slots. Lower slots burn for 31 points = 4 more 5th level slots.
The Warlock can probably cast 6-9 5th level spells in a day with one or two rests. The Sorcerer can cast 6.
Level 18:
Warlock: 4 X 5th level slots
Sorcerer: 3 X 5th level slots. Lower slots burn for 31 points = 4 more 5th level slots.
The Warlock can probably cast 8-12 5th level spells in a day with one or two rests. The Sorcerer can cast 7.
The point of all that is to show that the Warlock pact magic slots while limited, keep him mechanically as powerful as the other caster classes by being more potent. The Warlock at most levels will be able to cast more of his highest (level 1-5) level spells than the other caster classes, and the power of these extra spell slots make up for low level slots that he is missing out on (in terms of raw spell power, not in terms of utility of course).
Once you start really thinking of your Pact Magic slots as being equivalent to the same level 4 or 5 slots that other classes only get 2-3 of in a day, you realize that the limitation of 2 slots before level 11 isn’t really that big of a limitation. Most of the time you get double or triple the number listed while the other classes still only get their 2-3 per day.
Mystic Arcanum:
This ability is mostly equivalent to what other classes get as their level 6-9 spells. I think the reason they gave it its own name and made it a separate ability is that it would have been too confusing to explain the difference between this and the pact magic slots otherwise.
Effectively they wanted to give the Warlock “normal” level 6-9 spell slots that only refresh on a long rest like the other classes spells.
This mostly works, but is more limiting. The Warlock only gets to learn a single spell of each level from a much more limited list, and never gets the 2nd level 6 and 7 slot that other classes get at level 19 and 20.
Because of this I don’t really see much incentive to take the Warlock all the way to 20 as a single class. The true breakpoints are your extra Pact Magic slot at level 11 and 17, and perhaps your patron feature at 14. This means that 2-3 or even 6-8 level dips into other classes can be quite viable and we will discuss that more in the multiclass section.
Eldritch Master:
At level 20 you gain the ability to refresh your Pact Magic slots in 1 minute once per day. This may not seem like much but it effectively guarantees at minimum one refresh of your spells regardless of whether the party gets a short rest. Provides some stability to your Pact Magic and ensures that you don’t get disadvantaged by campaign circumstances as much.
Eldritch Invocations:
A variety of abilities that range from modifications to Eldritch Blast and other class features, to utility spells, passive buffs and spells known. I’ll review them by category.
You get 2 at level 2 and then a new one every few levels for a total of 8, so there is actually lots of room for flexibility here. For this reason I won’t rate any particularly low, unless they are an outright redundancy with another class feature, as indicated.
Eldritch Blast:
Agonizing Blast (Hexblade): Adding your Charisma to damage is what makes this cantrip good. A must pick for everyone. Even Hexblades will sometimes need a ranged option and this can be a good fallback if you have the Charisma. This is especially true for Strength Hexblades who might not have the Dexterity for ranged weapons otherwise.
Repelling Blast: Broken powerful. Lets you push any creature 10 feet every time you hit with Eldritch Blast, which could be 4 rays at high level. Should probably limit by size and once per turn or something. I don’t choose it myself because I consider it cheese and my DM would hate me.
Eldritch Spear: Range is rarely important beyond 100 feet or so. If you really need the range, take the Spell Sniper feat instead, and get a bunch of additional benefits that apply to all of your ranged attack spells.
Pact of the Tome:
Book of Ancient Secrets: If you picked Tome this is a must have. There are over 30 rituals, mostly level 1-3 but a few level 4-5 or even level 6 spells. Once you have them in your book you can cast them any time (out of combat) without spell slots.
Pact of the Chain:
Voice of the Chain Master: If you’re going to have a special familiar, being able to talk to (or through) them nearly anywhere and any time is very useful.
Chains of Carceri: A free hold monster is nice, but there will be many days where this never even comes up and you can always just take the actual Hold Monster with your regular spell picks anyway. Or if you are going to use a spell, then Banishing this type of creature is way more effective anyway.
Pact of the Blade:
Thirsting Blade: A necessary pick, but all it does is give you something that every other melee class has. It’s a pure invocation tax, so I refuse to rate it highly.
Lifedrinker: Keeps your damage respectable but depends on you maxing your Charisma along with your attack stat. Still a bit of an invocation tax but at least it’s a unique effect.
At-Will Spells:
Eldritch Sight (Tome): Detect Magic can be handy. If you are a Tome Warlock you should have it as a ritual for free anyway. Rated it a bit higher than the other ritual invocations because you might sometimes want to cast this in combat or in situations where you don’t have time for a ritual.
Mask of Many Faces: Great roleplaying potential.
Fiendish Vigor (low levels, Fiend): This is a great little HP buffer, but is redundant with the Fiend’s Dark One’s Blessing. Can still be useful for Fiend at low level to provide a pre-fight buffer. Outside of combat you can keep casting this until you get the max of 8 THP, since it’s at-will.
Armor of Shadows: Free armor that is only slightly better than light armor, but only +1 AC which is not worth one of your two invocations at low level. Once you have +1 studded leather, which you should around level 7 or 8 this is completely useless.
Misty Visions: A very versatile illusion spell with many uses. If you aren’t an illusion junkie you might be satisfied with just the Minor Illusion cantrip, which can do a lot of the same effects, just smaller size limit, shorter duration, etc.
Beast Speech (Tome): Can come in handy but you have many better choices. Fits the theme of the Fey Warlock best. Tome Warlocks can learn this as a ritual.
Otherworldly Leap: If you’re trying to make some sort of Jedi Warlock with the Blade Pact, this is a must. Otherwise not really necessary. I’ve also never really been able to figure out the jumping rules in this edition, they left it quite vague.
Ascendant Step: Levitation is a great utility spell but situationally useful, especially with the self cast only restriction.
Whispers of the Grave: Can be handy for collecting information, especially if your party tends to be overzealous with killing plot NPC’s. It’s still a free level 3 spell, just not a particularly useful one.
Master of Myriad Forms: A good spell that can disguise you as well as alter your form for certain abilities (like gills to breath underwater) but comes much too late at level 15, given it’s only a level 2 spell. May as well swap out Mask of Many faces for this if you chose it though.
Visions of Distant Realms: A free scout that can explore almost anything for you at absolutely no risk. A bit late in the game but a free level 4 spell with so much utility is an easy choice to make.
Passives:
Devil’s Sight: The increased range is nice even if you already have Darkvision. Being able to see through magical darkness is golden, as many monsters and enemy casters will use Darkness. Casting Darkness yourself to blind everyone else and get advantage is very powerful but will annoy your party and your DM, so use with care.
Beguiling Influence: It’s just two skills you may have taken anyway, but keep in mind that the way skill rules work, if you take this but already have one or both, you can swap them out for two new skills, even non class skills. So effectively treat this like 2 free skills, not necessarily the ones listed.
Eyes of the Rune Keeper (Tome): Can be handy but usually understanding spoken languages is more important, and the Tome Warlock should get Comprehend Languages as a ritual anyway.
Gaze of two Minds (Chain): Can use this to scout or spy, though you may have better tools for that anyway, especially Chain Warlocks.
One with Shadows: You can’t move, but there are many situations where you can use this out of combat to prepare for a fight, getting surprise and advantage on the first round. Or run around a corner and hide. Just remember to use it when you get the chance.
Witch Sight: Pretty close to True Seeing, a level 6 spell, as it relates to looking at creatures which is probably the most important use. Free high level spells are always good.
Once per day Spells:
I generally don’t like these invocations at all. I feel the Warlock’s spell list is pretty good as it is, and few of these choices are that great that they justify an invocation just for a once per day use that also burns a spell slot. The designers justification for this according to the modifying classes guide was that they didn’t want Warlocks to be able to cast spells too frequently that are too “annoying” (i.e too powerful). I don’t agree with that. Plenty of the Warlocks actual spells are sufficiently “annoying” on their own, many even more than the ones on this list.
That said, with 8 invocations total, most Warlocks have room for a few throwaway choices and if you really like one of these, go for it. Also, keep in mind that all of these require concentration.
Thief of Five Fates (Bane): A nice debuff that will effect 7 creatures as a level 5 slot, but if you are fighting that many enemies usually they are not particularly strong anyway.
Sign of Ill Omen (Bestow Curse): Works a lot like a more powerful version of Hex, and thematically should have been a Warlock spell to begin with. Can be great if your DM will agree to a creative alternative curse. Note that as a level 5 spell, does not require concentration and could be used as a 1d8 version of Hex, but requires touch and cannot be transferred to another target like Hex.
Mire the Mind (Slow): A decent group debuff but not good enough to go out of your way to get it with an invocation.
Bewitching Whispers (Compulsion): A good area charm that can control the battlefield quite well. If you are a charmer type warlock that likes this type of spell, it’s an ok pickup. Keep in mind it only makes them move, but doesn’t prevent them from attacking from range.
Dreadful Word (Confusion): I’ve always liked this spell and usually use it on my Sorcerers.
Sculptor of Flesh (Polymorph): Very powerful buff or debuff with lots of creative options, and is especially powerful with the free hit points that shape changing provides. Even as a once per day this is actually a good pickup.
Minions of Chaos (Conjure Elemental): A good summoning spell for a class that mostly doesn’t get summons. Keep in mind if your concentration gets broken it will turn on you, rather than just disappearing.
Notes on Spell Selection:
Class considerations:
Because of the way Pact Magic works, when selecting spells to learn and deciding what to cast, you need to remember that eventually these are always going to be cast with 5th level spell slots, and they need to be treated as such. We should generally not be choosing or using level 1 spells that don’t scale with spell slot level, because it would be a waste of a level 5 spell slot to ever use them.
There may be some exceptions for low level spells that are just that good on their own. But for the most part, if the Sorcerer/Wizard/Cleric wouldn’t want to blow their level 5 slot on that level 1 spell that doesn’t have a scaling slot benefit, then you probably shouldn’t even pick it up, other than at low levels to swap out later.
For this reason I am in favor of a few levels dip into another caster class, preferably Sorcerer (Bard can work too). Only level 1 and possibly level 2 slots are required, and can be used for those spells that don’t really need a level 5 slot. Hex in particular can be cast this way, as the only benefit it gets with the higher slot level is duration. If you know you might drop your Hex for another concentration spell, it makes more sense to use a level 1 slot for it if you have one available. We will discuss this more in the multiclass section.
Concentration:
As a way of balancing powerful buff and debuff spells, and eliminating “buff rounds”, where the party does nothing but buff up for 5 turns before every fight, the designers have introduced a new concentration mechanic that prevents you from having more than one concentration spell active at a time.
While I agree with the purpose of this, I do think in some cases they have gone overboard with it, and in many cases have not been consistent with how it has been applied. Spells that have ongoing effects without requiring concentration are now much more desirable picks, and there are many. Spells that have a limited benefit but use your concentration for an extended time should obviously be avoided.
This means you need to take care with your spell selection. You don’t need to avoid concentration spells altogether, some of them are actually really amazing. But you do need to ensure that you aren’t picking just concentration spells that you will never be able to maintain at the same time, or that are heavily overshadowed by your better concentration spells. The Warlock is particularly vulnerable to this because of one spell... Hex.
Don’t get me wrong, Hex is great, but it requires concentration, and the only benefit it gets from higher slot levels is longer duration, eventually 24 hours. Obviously the intention was that this spell would be cast at the beginning of the day, and last the whole day. The designers understandably wanted you to choose between the damage from Hex or your more potent spells.
What bothers me is that they’ve given us this 24 hour Hex but to cast any other concentration spell, not only do we have to drop Hex, but we then have to burn another Pact Magic slot to re-cast Hex at a later time if we want to keep using it. It’s a very inefficient use of spells slots and pushes Warlocks to choose between Hex and their other spells more or less for the day.
Personally I feel that some of the more powerful concentration spells are worth more to me than the 1d6 damage per attack from Hex, most of the time. Hex still has it’s place, but only in certain fights where straight up single target damage is more important than shutting down the entire fight with crowd control.
If you want to play the warlock as a pure damage blaster, you can try and maintain Hex all day, and just and Eldritch Blast spam with the odd Fireball type spell, that’s certainly viable. I would only recommend that style of play when you can rely on another caster to provide the important concentration spells though.
A Hexblade can also do a lot with non-concentration spells as many of the best ones are defensive buffs and damage reflecting spells. This means a Hexblade is giving up a lot less from their play style by keeping Hex up all day (though being in melee means maintaining concentration will be harder).
Spells:
As I’ve just discussed, low level spells that don’t scale are a waste on the Warlock and I will be making my ratings with that in mind.
Generally I find that while the Warlock gets the same number of spells known as the Sorcerer, their good choices are more limited and their role is more narrow, making it a bit easier to decide and get all the spells you really want.
Cantrips
After Eldritch Blast, I’d recommend a close range attack like poison spray if you aren’t a Hexblade. After that go for utility.
Blade Ward (Hexblade): You usually have better things to do with your action, but could be ok on Hexblade who already has a bunch of damage reflect spells active and wants to get hit.
Chill Touch: An interesting side effect of stopping enemy healing that probably rarely comes up, and a debuff for undead that only helps you. And oh yeah, undead are usually immune to necrotic damage too…
Eldritch Blast (Hexblade): Every Warlock should have this, even melee focused Hexblades can make use of it sometimes (I hate carrying around a bow).
Friends: Great no save win button for social situations where you don't care if the guy gets mad. Like interrogating a captive enemy.
Mage Hand: Pretty handy utility spell that doesn't even need concentration. Can’t ask for much else from a cantrip.
Minor Illusion: Lots of tricky things you can do with this. Not really my thing but some people like this stuff.
Prestidigitation: Can do some interesting out of combat stuff and decent variety.
Poison Spray: A higher damage close range option.
True Strike: Would be great if it didn’t eat your action, and also being concentration makes it really bad for a pure caster.
EE Players Companion:
Create Bonfire: ground effect fire zone that functions similar to cloud of daggers. The fact that it’s a cantrip makes it much much better, and makes cloud of daggers that much worse.
Frostbite: Cold based vicious mockery that targets Con. Will work on things that are charm immune, though the con save might be harder to hit on heavy hitting monsters.
Magic Stone: Why throw magic rocks when your Eldritch Blast is infinitely better. I guess you could give them to a friend.
Thunderclap (Hexblade): Close range thunder AoE. Hexblades might get some use out of this if they can hit enough targets.
Pact of the Tome:
Just a few honorable mentions for Tome Pact Warlocks. I'll add more if people suggest them.
Guidance: Can provide a lot of utility to the party, but being concentration, you don’t want to use it if you are maintaining a spell like Hex between fights.
Vicious Mockery: Less useful now that Frostbite provides the same debuff and more damage, though targets wisdom and psychic is less resisted than cold.
Shocking Grasp: Provides another melee option for non Hexblades. If you hit they can’t react if you walk away, so can get you out of melee.
Thaumaturgy: I just like it for RP reasons.
Spare the Dying: In a pinch you could keep someone from dying if nobody else can get to them.
Shillelagh: Another way to get a melee attack, especially if you don’t have a high Strength or Dexterity.
Level 1
Armor of Agathys and Hex are too good to pass up. After that I’d mostly pick things I can later swap out for higher level spells, unless there’s something her you really like.
Armor of Agathys (Hexblade): Temporary hit points AND damage reflect, and both scale with spell slot. As long as those hit points remain, reflect is a flat and large damage amount (25 at level 5 slots).
Arms of Hadar: A decent zone, would be better if it restrained rather than just prevent reactions. Damage scales but not very much.
Charm Person: Upgraded version of Friends. Can at least scale it for more targets.
Comprehend Languages (Tome Pact): If you want this type of utility be a Wizard. As a ritual you can get this for free anyway if you go Tome Pact.
Expeditious Retreat: Good movement boost but you have better things to cast and it doesn’t scale anyway.
Hellish Rebuke: Another good source of damage reflect, gives you a way to do damage with your reaction, and scales well. Generally I’d rather pre-cast Armor of Agathys instead though.
Heroism: Not worth concentration, and for self use you have better ways of getting temporary hit points.
Hex: I have a bit of a love hate with this spell as you may have seen. Gold for the way it ups your damage, but you need to put serious thought into when you use this over other concentration spells. Target strength if you have a grappler or other combat maneuver using member of your party to help them out.
Illusory Script (Tome Pact): If you want this type of utility be a Wizard. As a ritual you can get this for free anyway if you go Tome Pact.
Protection from Evil and Good: You probably have better things to do with a concentration spell, and also get no benefit to this with higher level slots.
Unseen Servant (Tome Pact): If you want this type of utility be a Wizard. As a ritual you can get this for free anyway if you go Tome Pact.
Witch Bolt: Ok at low levels to get repeating damage on something with high HP. The fact that only the initial damage scales makes it useless later on.
Archfey:
Faerie Fire: A great spell but requires concentration. Every party should have at least one person who can cast this, so pick it if there is no Druid or Bard.
Sleep: You definitely want to grab this early game, but drop it by level 5 or so as it starts to become obsolete.
Fiend:
Burning Hands: Decent early game AoE damage. Scales with level and actually stays pretty close to Fireball in damage. Smaller area but that can be better for certain situations.
Command: Good simple control spell that scales for more targets and doesn’t need concentration.
Great Old One:
Dissonant Whispers: Do damage and make them run from you. Damage scales but not very much, I wouldn’t keep it at later levels. Can force opportunity attacks at least.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter: Weaker hold person, probably not worth keeping beyond the first few levels.
Level 2
Has quite a few good disable and utility spells.
Cloud of Daggers: A weak zone effect that is far too easy to avoid, and you’re probably better off just getting the Create Bonfire cantrip now.
Crown of Madness: Sounds good at first glance but requiring your action and only hitting things they can reach makes this charm spell less useful.
Darkness: Broken powerful with Devil’s Sight, but remember to consider your party and how annoying this can be for them, and it requires concentration.
Enthrall: Help your party sneak past something while ensuring that it can definitely see you? I don’t see any use for this.
Hold Person: Advantage and automatic crits for your party. Scales number of targets, so any fight where there are a bunch of humanoids coming at the party this can be a win button.
Invisibility: A bit situational and more out of combat, but great utility that can eventually affect 4 allies.
Mirror Image: A great defensive spell. It doesn’t scale with spell slot level but it’s a case where the spell is good enough that you might still want to cast it with that level 5 slot. I’d still only use it when I really need to though, rather than try and enter every fight with it.
Misty Step: Great movement spell, but doesn’t scale and you probably won’t want to waste a slot on it unless your life depends on it. Still good to have in an emergency
Ray of Enfeeblement: Allowing a save every turn really hurts this spell, since you could do much nastier things instead, like hold person. Most large brutes will probably have good Constitution saves anyway.
Shatter: Situationally useful, otherwise stick with traditional damage spells.
Spider Climb: Too situational for a Pact Magic slot.
Suggestion: An 8 hour disable that only allows one save, and has lots of out of combat utility as well.
Archfey:
Calm Emotions: Soft form of crowd control with a few uses. I’d rather hold person usually.
Phantasmal Force: Lots of things have bad Int saves and you can replicate a lot of great effects with this.
Fiend:
Blindness/Deafness: A nice Constitution targeting disable that doesn’t require concentration.
Scorching Ray: Up to 6 rays that will each do 2d6 plus your 1d6 from Hex. That’s an average of 63 if all hit, compared to 56 from a full 4 ray Eldritch Blast with Hex. So it’s good at earlier levels for a damage spike, but only marginally better than your Eldritch Blast at later levels, meaning you’ll probably swap it out later for something else.
Great Old One:
Detect Thoughts: Great for social situations in combo with your Awakened Mind to be able to interrogate someone telepathically.
Phantasmal Force: Lots of things have bad Int saves and you can replicate a lot of great effects with this.
EE Players Companion:
Earthbind: Situationally useful, but too many better things to choose.
Level 3
Some of the classic mid level spells. Fey and Fiend will probably pick something from their list, Great Old One not so much.
Counterspell: A great spell, and casting at level 5 guarantees you can counter a level 5 or below spell. Can counter higher level spells with a roll. More useful if you have a decent Arcana skill to know what the enemy is casting. Use your judgment to decide whether a spell is worth countering of course.
Dispel Magic: A great spell, and casting at level 5 guarantees you can dispel a level 5 or below spell. Use your judgment to decide whether a spell is worth countering of course. I’d usually prefer counterspell instead, as a lot of effects you would want to dispel are better to just counter if you can. Leave this to the Cleric or other caster if you have the choice.
Fear: Can save you if you’re in trouble but I’ve always found making things run away is annoying. Remember if your Hex target runs and ends up escaping you can’t transfer to a new target.
Fly: A good Utility spell but you’ll never affect more than 3 people, so you won’t usually be able to do it for your whole party.
Gaseous Form: Can have some utility uses to get you or someone into a place or escape something, but otherwise not very useful.
Hunger of Hadar: Area blind, difficult terrain, acid and cold damage. Doesn’t scale but the blind along with everything else makes it a good way to shut down a cluster of ranged enemies.
Hypnotic Pattern: Area charm effect that takes multiple targets out of the fight for the entire duration (until you damage them or somebody wakes them up) with just one save and no follow up save chances. I foolishly rated this low at first, thanks to all the commenters who convinced me how great it is.
Magic Circle: Can trap or keep out certain monsters. Pretty situational.
Major Image: A more advanced illusion spell with sounds and realistic movements. Usefullness depends on creativity.
Remove Curse: Curses aren’t that common and you can usually find an NPC you can pay for this.
Tongues: Situational, leave it to the wizard or whoever else can do it. Then again, you might be the only person who can cast it and you are probably the party face...
Vampiric Touch: I really like this spell even though it doesn’t really do that much damage and requires Concentration. For a non Hexblade who gets caught in melee it could be enough to keep you alive and give you a decent attack for a while.
Archfey:
Blink: A great defensive spell that doesn’t require concentration and has a 50% chance each round to make you untargetable by most enemies.
Plant Growth: A large very difficult terrain. I guess if you need to slow down an army...
Fiend:
Fireball: The classic AoE damage spell.
Stinking Cloud: An AoE disable, but gives repeated saves and obscures the area, making it hard to attack them. I’d rather use something like Hypnotic Pattern or Hold to take people out of the fight..
Great Old One:
Clairvoyance: Good for scouting or spying on an area but you can probably find other ways to do that.
Sending: Send a short message long range. There are probably better ways to accomplish this and most campaigns will give you a means to do this if you need to for some reason.
Level 4
A short list, but still some very good spells:
Banishment: Charisma should be easy to hit on a lot of things, and can take two creatures out of a fight. Can permanently remove anything from another plane if you keep it up the entire minute (Demons, Devils, Elementals, etc) though those creatures are usually the ones with good Charisma saves.
Blight: Targets Constitution and half damage on a save. Better against plant creatures, useless against undead or constructs. Scorching Ray with Hex does 63 average damage while this will do 44 (assuming all hit). Even better, when you get your third ray at level 11 Eldritch Blast and Hex will do 42 damage if all hit. So by the numbers this is really not worth using a Pact Magic slot on unless you are attacking a plant or know that Constitution will be way easier to hit that AC for some reason.
Dimension Door: Longer range teleport and can bring an ally. More utility use than Misty Step but probably a lot less combat use, aside from just running away.
Hallucinatory Terrain: Make an area look like different terrain, with no negative effects. So you can use it to trick people… perhaps even making them not want to walk there… so OP.
Archfey:
Dominate Beast: Take control of a Beast for a fight. Situational as you won’t always be fighting Beasts and they usually aren’t that powerful or dangerous anyway.
Greater Invisibility: Awesome mainly because it lasts through combat, making you very hard to hit (or even find) and giving you advantage on attacks against most things. This alone is a great reason to take the Fey Pact, especially for Hexblades.
Fiend:
Fire Shield (Fiend, Hexblade): The damage isn’t huge, but the 10 minute duration that doesn’t need concentration makes this a viable option for a damage reflect focused Hexblade, or at least a Fiend pact who can handle taking some hits. Also handy as a source of fire or cold resistance. The opposite nature of the damage and resist can work in your favor too, as sometimes things that do fire damage are also vulnerable to cold, for example.
Wall of Fire: A wall that also does damage. Works great on low hit point minions to trap them in an area of even wipe them out. Remember that it also blocks vision so can be used to keep ranged attackers out of the fight. If you can, try to position it against other obstacles so that enemies have no choice but to either stand in the burning side, or walk through the actual wall.
Great Old One:
Evard’s Black Tentacles: A difficult terrain zone that damages and restrains. Enemies can use Strength or Dexterity to escape, but it still ties them up for at least a turn if they get caught in it, and they keep taking damage until they get out.
Dominate Beast: Take control of a Beast for a fight. Situational as you won’t always be fighting Beasts and they usually aren’t that powerful or dangerous anyway.
EE Players Companion:
Elemental Bane: Removes resistance to an element and makes them vulnerable to it. Would be gold for a Sorcerer, but sadly they don’t get it. Warlocks don’t rely on any of these elements that much, we do force damage with Eldritch Blast and necrotic with Hex. Fiend Warlocks at least use some fire, and we have a few cold spells, but if you’re burning a Pact Magic slot to cast this, you only have one or two slots left to cast anything that can benefit. On a damage reflect build using Fire Shield or Armor of Agathys this could be ok, but only if you are sure you will get multiple instances of reflecting damage on that target somehow, and you only get to hit two targets with this at most. Oh and it’s also concentration so you can’t use Hex if you cast it.
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RhaegarT wrote:
A great guide, I love how you talk about Patrons.
Personally I put the connection between Patron-Warlock in three categories, each giving its power in a different way and having a different “payment”:
Fiend: Gives you power in exchange for your soul.
Great Old One: This alien form slowly corrupts your mind, but also imbues you with dark magic.
Archfey: Grants you power in exchange for servitude.
So if I have to put them in order of lots of contact to no contact with the Warlock it would be: Archfey > Great Old One (through dreams and corruption) > Fiend.
As I will read this guide I will name some things that draw my attention.
Races:
You forgot the Eladrin.
I think you underrated the non-Charisma classes; since bladelocks are quite good.
And especially the Elves because they gain Perception.
Ability-scores:
Charisma: Your Primary stat. Start as high as you can, get it to 20 as soon as you can, no exceptions.
Mirtek wrote:
Kangodo wrote:
Great to see a new guide! The light blue shade you are using does not contrast sufficiently with the background, which makes it virtuallly unreadable. Any chance you could switch to a different shade?
RhaegarT wrote:
Ascendant Step only lets you cast levitate on yourself. Your guide mentions you can cast it offensively on enemies. Likely downgrade in color code.
Nevvur wrote:
Can you direct me to the place where it says that if you gain proficiency in a skill you already have then you can swap it for another skill?
Is Eladrin in the DMG? My book is at a friends place, I'll have to check tomorrow.
Hey RhaegarT, thanks for the guide so far, however as Kangodo already pointed out, you are severly underestimating how much damage a bladelock can do and even how much different a bladelock feels in playing.
The have so much options that rival or are even better than those of other melee classes. For example the agile fey pact bladelock can rival other melee classes second round of combat and can take teleport and invisiblity spells to do stuff generally only a Way of the Shadow monk can, without the limitation of darkness or dim light. A fiend pact bladelock can go on much much longer in large groups of small enemies, due to the insane amount of THP she gets.
The only thing I can agree with regarding the bladelocks is the feat and invocation tax to keep up with the other melee classes/optimizers, but you get still other/better options other classes don't have.
And you don't have to take those, you'll just do less damage in regards to other melee classes /shrugs, who cares about that really :D
All good points about the Hexblade. I won't try to write a full guide for them but I'll review and try to make a better effort to clarify how differently they play and where there are some good options for them.
Kangodo wrote:
Mirtek wrote:
Leugren wrote:
Quick note on Faerie Fire- while the spell itself doesn't scale the effect of advantage, by it's very nature, scales. Depending on the party Faerie Fire could still be the best spell to cast even using a lvl 5 spot. The larger the party the better and if most of the party is making hit rolls.
Really enjoying this guide so far, thanks.
Great Old One:
Dissonant Whispers: Do damage and make them run from you. Damage scales but not very much, I wouldn’t keep it at later levels.
Tasha's Hideous Laughter: Weaker hold person, probably not worth keeping beyond the first few levels.
Being Patron spells, are you actually allowed to swap these out at later levels?
Also Dissonant Whispers is highly regarded by many, mainly due to the OA's it can provoke. Curious, why only a black rating for you?
Cheers.
Lilika wrote:
Wow, thought I was permanently stuck with those. I will happily swap one or two of mine out now
Cheers very much for that info
ArialBlack wrote:
Made quite a few updates including more Hexblade stuff and better Hexblade racial and stat considerations. Got up to level 4 spells.
Kangodo wrote:
This guide should be stickied! Great job!!
FunkySpunk wrote:
RhaegarT wrote:
FunkySpunk wrote:
ArialBlack wrote:
Kangodo wrote:
Life drinker only works with your "pact weapon". So it does not count for your second dual wielding weapon. Only Hex would.
Polearm master and great weapon master's bonus attacks would work with lifedrinker.
And if you allow for the loophole, and make a magic crossbow your pact weapon, and then you can use crossbow expertise.
mellored wrote:
Yunru wrote:
Aww yea. I'm hype for this guide. Can't wait to see what cool ideas you got for multiclassing Rhegar.
keep reading...
....Ah! Gotcha thanks.
Not sure I'd get away with that though.
Just so you know: Under Pact of The Blade class feature your accuracies are off. In point of fact a BlastLock is just as likely to have a +2 Rod of the Pact Keeper, or +2 Wand of the Warmage as any Bladelock is to have a +2 weapon. Ergo they should have the same accuracies listed, namely 60% in your example given.
I'd even go so far as to say, that any BlastLock worth their salt is going to have both, bringing their stated accuracy to 70% under the same set of conditions.
Therefore, I'm sure you'll see, that a BlastLock will out damage a BladeLock under all circumstances. (but only in a statistical sense, and based on attack rolls. Obviously damage reflect BladeLocks will likely come out ahead given correct tactics.)
But yes, Warlocks can double up on bonuses to spell attack rolls (and DCs?).