Complete Warlock Class Guide for DnD 5E
- What is a Warlock?
- Eldritch Blast
- A Brand New Casting Experience
- Power Napping Problem Solver
- Skills
- Roleplaying a Warlock
- In short
- Offense
- Defense
- Control
- Support
- Ability Score Priority
- Example Point-Buy Stat Spreads
- The Archfey (★★☆☆☆)
- The Celestial (★★★☆☆)
- The Fathomless (★★★★★)
- The Fiend (★★★★☆)
- The Genie (★★★★★)
- The Great Old One (★★★☆☆)
- The Hexblade (★★★★☆)
- The Undead (★★★★★)
- The Undying (★★☆☆☆)
- Invocations
- Warlock Races
- Warlock Feats
- Warlock Spells
- BG3 Honor Build: The Fiend Warlock
- Rage Fiend: Giant Barbarian in DnD 5E
- Flagship Build: Gloom Stalker Ranger
- Hexvoker: School of Evocation Wizard
- Witchfire: Wildfire Warlock Build Guide
- Flagship Build: Oath of the Watchers Paladin
- Flagship Build: College of Eloquence Bard
- Flagship Build: Clockwork Soul Sorcerer
- Ghostlance: Echo Knight Warlock Build Guide
Author: Lilith
Welcome to the Warlock class guide on Tabletop Builds! Our class guides are intended to be a comprehensive source for optimization information related to each of the classes in D&D 5E. This one will be focusing on the Warlock class.
Confused about what our star and color ratings mean? Here is the explanation.
What is a Warlock?
The Warlock is a full caster that trades the consistent spellcasting progression for only the biggest spells. However, their spells recharge on a short rest, and they pack a selection of at-will abilities and customization. Of the full casters, Warlocks tend to be the hardest to build, but simplest to play.
Eldritch Blast
The Warlock’s signature attack, eldritch blast, is not just the cantrip being hyped for at-will damage, nor is it "the only thing you have left because you ran out of spells”. It is a significant part of your tool kit, like Extra Attack is to a Ranger.
The staple eldritch blast invocations are Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast. Agonizing Blast is a strong, no fuss option, putting your at-will damage contribution above lazy martials; but if damage isn’t what you’re too concerned about, this isn’t essential.
The real star of the show is Repelling Blast. This is a 10 foot push at practically no cost and offers no saving throw. As eldritch blast scales into multiple hits, this push can add up to 20 feet, then 30 feet, and finally, 40 feet (which can be split across multiple foes). At minimum, you can use this to push an enemy out of melee range of an ally, or push melee enemies back enough that they waste a turn running back. Combined with any hazardous terrain effect, such as from the map, from items like caltrops and ball bearings, or from your party dropping area spells – web, sleet storm, sickening radiance, and the likes, suddenly eldritch blast is no longer just a damaging cantrip, it’s an exciting and interactive value generator.
There are other ways you can customize this cantrip for your own synergy/combos, feel free to play around. Remember: eldritch blast will constantly get more interesting as your party acquires more options and interactions on the battlefield.
A Brand New Casting Experience
Among the classes of DnD, we have the martials who hit things and find ways to hit things better, spellcasters who prepare a repertoire of impactful spells and ration them out throughout the day, half-casters who fall somewhere in between and rely a bit more on their signature abilities. And then, we have the Warlock, with a distinct resource economy mixed with at-will options. You can be the most conservative character in the party in one situation, and the most lavish with your spell slots the next. The Warlock provides a rather refreshing gameplay pattern among the class options of 5e.
One of the most common complaints about Warlocks is how fast they run out of gas. At 5th level, a Wizard starts their day with 9 slots total, and can regain 3 levels of spells once. A Warlock is fixed to 2 per short rest until level 11.
So how many short rests would a Warlock need to “keep up”, in a 6-8 encounters day? One or two is enough. Realistically, you only need one spell per tough encounter, and if things go south you might put in the other slot to win that fight, or to escape, after which the group is already inclined to have a short rest anyways. Of course, many groups don’t run 6-8 encounters per day, but if they are not deathly allergic to resting, you should do fine. More common range is 4-6 encounters and one short rest, and shorter days featuring 2-3 encounters with a rest in between will still be fine. We do not recommend playing in combat-focused games that only do single encounter days.
In general, the encounter is either easy enough that there is no real threat to the party’s hit points and thus you do not need all the spell slots for it, or it is hard enough that the group already wants to rest to recover resources afterwards. As described in our resource management article, this style best fits the Resource Conservation approach, but might not be ideal for an Impact/Progression maximization approach if your game often runs single encounter day or is deathly afraid of short resting.
A Warlock’s game plan in a fight is fairly straightforward. If extra firepower is needed, pick a spell appropriate to the situation to cast, protect yourself and throw eldritch blast while you rake in all the value, and use subclass features as appropriate. Drop a hypnotic pattern to shut down half the encounter, have a sickening radiance to keep pushing foes into with Repelling Blast while denying space, summon greater demon to for a meaty body with some extra utilities, or a one and done synaptic static that applies a persistent debuff after softening up enemies.
At 5th level, normal full caster progression gives you two 3rd level slots, at 7th, one 4th level, and 9th, one 5th level. Until 11th level, Warlocks can do two of them per rest, and with just one rest, that’s four times the best spell of that level. In terms of power, Warlocks have power, and the big appeal is that when the day gets rough and more short rests are called, they can get even more to play with. Since you only pick a few staple spells for your highest level pact slot, you have extra room to pick up more situational spells.
Once you’ve reached level 11 and above, Mystic Arcanum is in line with the normal spellcasting progression for tier 3 and 4, albeit slightly more restrictive, and you will go back to picking best-in-slot options for 6th level spells and above.
Power Napping Problem Solver
The real utility of the Warlock lies in their boundless reservoir of solutions. You can use your biggest spells as many times as you need in a day, while other casters have a hard cap and still have to be frugal if they expect combat.
In downtime, you can use spells like suggestion, invisibility, remove curse, dispel magic, dimension door, dream, scrying, teleportation circle… with impunity.
In exploration and dungeons, you can spend your short rest recharge spell slots on the more costly options and then take a quick rest to get it back. Chasm to cross? Dimension door, or summon a Dybbuk with summon greater demon for at-will teleportation. Magical traps? Dispel magic, or summon a Babau with summon greater demon for at-will dispel. Ally got cursed? Found cursed magic items? Remove curse. The next room is full of melee bruisers? Cast fly on the archers and let them clean up. All it takes is a quick 1 hour “nap”, the same amount of time for the wizard to cast their find familiar ritual.
Up until about level 9, Warlocks are relatively tight on spell selection because they have to spend their new spell learned and swapped spell on picking the best spells for their highest level spell slot, while still keeping some 2nd, 3rd and 4th level spells that remain useful. But once they get 5th level spells and stop growing, they have many more spell preparations than they have slots, so they can afford more situational and utility spells for little opportunity cost.
Skills
As a Warlock, you get two skills from a list, which is the default for most classes. Because you have Charisma as a primary stat, you may struggle to fit in all the skills you want, especially if your other primary stat is Dexterity. Races that offer extra skills are very nice, as well as getting two useful skills from your background. Unfortunately, you will almost certainly not have room to take feats that boost your skills, and no patron gives you additional skills.
Class skills: Arcana, Deception, History, Intimidation, Investigation, Nature, and Religion.
The role of skills (other than Perception and Stealth) is not tangibly defined within 5e rules, so the utility of skills has significant table variation. Ultimately, the best skill proficiencies are the ones favored by the way your table plays and what fits your character concept.
Arcana tends to come up often when dealing with magical issues, or even for knowledge on magical creatures. Proficiency with Arcana is required to be able to scribe scrolls, so if your campaign has ample time for scroll scribing, this skill becomes much better.Deception and Intimidation are fairly commonly used Charisma based skills, and since you are Charisma based, you’ll be good at them too.
Roleplaying a Warlock
“Warlocks are seekers of the knowledge that lies hidden in the fabric of the multiverse. Through pacts made with mysterious beings of supernatural power, warlocks unlock magical effects both subtle and spectacular. Drawing on the ancient knowledge of beings such as fey nobles, demons, devils, hags, and alien entities of the Far Realm, warlocks piece together arcane secrets to bolster their own power.…Sometimes the relationship between warlock and patron is like that of a cleric and a deity … More often, though, the arrangement is similar to that between a master and an apprentice. The warlock learns and grows in power, at the cost of occasional services performed on the patron’s behalf.” – PHB, pg 105.
Similar to the Paladin, the Warlock often falls under quite a lot of scrutiny in how they ought to be played. Many believe that there must be an active patron of some kind, that they’re inherently some level of evil and will have caveats and demands that may cause you to lose access to your power. Being a Warlock is deemed in itself a heresy, forcing conflicts with other beliefs, themes, or even character options. It’s worth noting that Warlocks as presented are equal part contractually involved, and equal part knowledge seekers, hence the frequent discussion around making them INT-based rather than CHA.
At Tabletop Builds, flavor is free is one of our core tenets, and we believe that you should have a say in how your character’s relationship can play out. You can lean into the strict, contractual obligations of a pact, or make it about siphoning from the unknown workings of an otherworldly entity, a productive teacher-student relationship, or leave the pact to be a minor plot device to emphasize other aspects of the character’s story. The patron’s relationship can be as involved or absent as you decide, perhaps not even recognizing that there is a direct relationship. You can also rewrite the magical abilities as something else altogether, so long as they fit with the narrative of the world and the abilities themselves are unchanged. There is no such thing as a class power being balanced by its “roleplay restriction”, but the relationship with the patron can serve as narrative hooks that everyone at the table can engage with and enjoy.
In short
The Warlock is a full caster with many interesting customization options on top of their unique spellcasting mechanics. They are dynamic to build, and relatively straightforward to play effectively. A straight classed Warlock can easily reach Mid Op, will be effective throughout every tier of play, and won’t struggle in most parties. Warlock is a common element in characters even at the highest optimization levels, though usually only one or two levels of it. They struggle to survive on their own in High Op parties, but the Warlock’s short rest efficiency is a genuine power boon that might make it worth it for High Op parties to defend one, granted they raise their defenses as much as possible in order to not be one-shot.
On 'Tech'
Throughout this guide, certain ‘tech’ will appear where appropriate, in a box that looks like this. Tech are techniques based on the Rules as Written which may not be obvious upon first reading. Tech sometimes relies on subtle aspects of the rules which people can disagree on. Bring tech up with your DM before you use it, or be prepared to be told “no.” Communication is key! We will mention it as we go, but we will not include it in our evaluations because of table variance.
What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Warlock?
Offense
Nova damage
Once 4th level spells become available, Warlocks are capable of boosting their damage contribution in a fight by casting the summon greater demon spell. This can be used to summon a Babau, or a Barlgura once 4th level Pact Slots are available, to provide solid damage in a fight. Summon greater demon has the option to immediately drop concentration so you can have the demon wreak havoc in the back lines while also contributing with another concentration spell. The Warlock and its subclasses also have access to several efficient area of effect damage spells that can allow them to output vast amounts of damage divided over multiple creatures on a short rest recharge.
At-will damage
With the Agonizing Blast Invocation, you can add your Charisma modifier to each beam of eldritch blast. This allows eldritch blast to become an adequate damaging option that scales exactly when it needs to, providing Warlocks with a means of contributing an acceptable amount of damage in a fight even when they are concentrating on another spell.
Once 5th level spells become available, Warlocks can noticeably increase their damage by making use of the danse macabre spell. This animates up to five skeletons that can add your Charisma modifier to their attacks and damage rolls. The hour-long duration allows this spell to be active for potentially multiple fights, meaning it’s best for the skeletons to attack with their shortbows at range if you want to maintain their survivability. Alternatively, handing them conjured magic stones will allow up to three skeletons to bypass resistance to non-magical piercing damage, increasing their damage.
Defense
Warlocks start with light armor, d8 hit dice, and Wisdom as their strong save, with centralized spellcasting (only the highest level slots). This gives you several ways to approach defense:Wisdom and Charisma save proficiency means you’ll be more resistant to debilitating crowd control effects. The lack of Constitution save means having at least one form of concentration protection is premium. This can be the Eldritch Mind invocation, Resilient: Constitution, War Caster, or to a lesser extent, Lucky. You only cast the biggest spells, you don’t want to drop concentration on them.Without any feats or multiclassing, the Warlock has weak AC, less than most other base classes that put in some effort. Even fitting in the common defensive options available to other spell casting classes, namely spells like shield, absorb elements, and silvery barbs, is difficult due to the unique mechanics of Pact Slots. As effective as these spells are, it is hard to justify spending the precious few 5th, 4th, 3rd, or even 2nd level spell slots you have available each short rest.However, being a full caster, and with their main Action (eldritch blast) having an effective range of 120 feet, you can more easily stay out of danger, behind cover, or in obscurement. If the game is more challenging, or you expect to be within line of fire often, the feat Moderately Armored will keep you comfortably protected. The Hexblade subclass gives the same defense boost. A Multiclass dip for Armor delays your spellcasting progression which is your main advantage over other casters, but if the levels line up well for a one-shot, it works seamlessly.
Control
Control spells
Once 3rd level spells become available, three staple control spells get added to the Warlock’s repertoire in hypnotic pattern, hunger of Hadar and fear. Despite these spells not giving any additional benefits for casting with higher level spell slots, they are still worth keeping around to be cast with 4th and even 5th level Pact Slots in the situations where they are the best spells to be cast in a fight.
Control features
With the Repelling Blast Invocation, eldritch blast becomes a useful at-will control Cantrip. With enough forced movement, an enemy limited to only melee options may have to resort to using their action to Dash rather than attacking. Repelling Blast also synergises well with control spells provided by other casting classes, such as web or sleet storm.
Support
In terms of support, Warlocks have some options, but they are not exceptional at it. Warlocks have no healing or reviving spells, barring certain subclasses. Warlock does have access to some nice buff spells such as fly and invisibilty and upcasting them to hit more party members can be useful; but a number of other buff spells have no effect when upcast, making them hard to justify using after a few levels. If the Warlock is multiclassed or otherwise has access to more spells outside the Warlock Spell List, then the Warlock can buff the party with something long lasting such as gift of alacrity, then short rest and regain their spell slots for a lot of value.
Out of combat, the Warlock can cast utility spells with abandon, since they can then just short rest to get it back, but Warlocks don’t learn many spells and aren’t naturally ritual casters. A few invocations like Mask of Many Faces allow a warlock to cast a utility spell at will, but oftentimes this is not notably better than just spending a single spell slot when it’s relevant.
Ability Scores
Ability Score Priority
Charisma > Constitution > Dexterity > Wisdom > Strength=Intelligence
Charisma is recommended to be at 16 or 17, because it governs your spell save DC and spell attack bonus, bonus damage with Agonizing Blast, and bonuses to several subclass features.
Constitution governs your Hit Points, and the amount you heal from Hit Dice. Constitution saving throws are quite common and often devastating to fail, and they’re also used for Concentration saves, which are highly important for you as a spellcaster, and even more so for a Warlock to get value from their “big gun” spells. A minimum of 14 is recommended for the Constitution score.
Dexterity governs your bonus to hit and to damage with finesse and ranged weapons, your Initiative, your Armor Class in Light or Medium Armor, and multiple useful skills. Dexterity saving throws are common, mainly on generic damaging effects. If you do not expect to gain medium armor proficiency, starting with a 16 is a good idea, otherwise 14 will suffice.
Wisdom governs many different skills, including the most important skill in the game, Perception. Wisdom saving throws are both common and very important. Wisdom is a very nice ability score to have, but it isn’t the most necessary, especially since you already have Wisdom saving throw proficiency. You’ll often end up with a 10 here, but if you can manage a 12 or higher without harming your more important stats, that will be nice.
Strength governs your bonus to hit and to damage with most melee weapons, is required to wear Heavy Armor without suffering a movement penalty, and is used for the Athletics skill. Strength saving throws are seen relatively often mainly to avoid being moved or fall prone, but such effects tend to concern (melee) martials more than you. Since these areas are of little concern to a Warlock, a Strength score of 8 is recommended unless you have multiclassed in order to acquire heavy armor proficiency.
Intelligence governs many different skills. Intelligence saving throws are extremely rare, though most of the effects that do use them are devastating to fail (such as feeblemind). Unfortunately, you simply do not have room for a good score here, and almost every Warlock build will end up with 8 Intelligence.
Example Point-Buy Stat Spreads
“The Standard +2/+1”8 Str, 15+1 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, 14+2 Cha
This should be your default stat spread for Warlock. Taking this with a typical +2, +1 race allows for a 16 in Dexterity and Charisma.
“The Custom Lineage”8 Str, 13+1 Dex, 15 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, 15+2 Cha
For Custom Lineage, a straight Warlock can more comfortably afford to get the Moderately Armored feat, allowing them to start with a 13+1 Dexterity and put the +2 in Charisma, then later pick up a Charisma half feat and Resilient Constitution to round the odd scores up.
“The Variant Human”8 Str, 13+1 Dex, 15+1 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, 15+1 Cha
Much like the Custom Lineage, Variant Human also allows for the Moderately Armored feat, and can immediately round out Constitution and Charisma, leaving you with some alternative feat choices later down the line. Having a 16 Constitution from level 1 is a nice benefit here.
Class Feature Ratings
Level 1: Pact Magic (★★★★★)
This is where it all begins, the feature that you care about the most. This also means that the value of other features are also affected by how well they compliment spellcasting or the staple spells on your list.
Level 2: Eldritch Invocations (★★★★★)
Eldritch Invocations bring an extra bit of customizability to your character, and they add a lot to your capabilities as a Warlock.
Level 3: Pact Boon (★★★★☆)
More customization options, giving you the choice between Pact of the Blade, Pact of the Tome, Pact of the Chain, and Pact of the Talisman. Though none are spectacular on their own, they are prerequisites for invocations that can significantly improve your character.
Pact of the Tome (★★★★☆)
This pact adds some cantrip options and has two major supporting invocations, giving you many utility options. Book of Ancient Secrets lets you have access to ritual spells from any class if you can find them, and rituals from your own spellcasting as well. Gift of the Protectors is a shared death ward that is guaranteed to be useful.
Pact of the Blade (★★★☆☆)
This pact supports a gish character style by giving the equivalent of Extra Attack at level 5 and other support for a weapon user. This has the potential to significantly improve your at-will damage potential while maintaining your full caster progression. It is held back by requiring feat investment for using weapons to be possibly worth it.
Pact of the Chain (★★★★☆)
This pact gives you superior familiar options, especially for scouting. Notably, Investment of the Chain Master with the Sprite familiar enables an at-will poison that lasts for a full minute on a hit and only offers one saving throw against your spell DC, while Voice of the Chain Master lets you have an always-on access to familiar’s special sight per rules as written. This is also generally the best Pact Boon if you aren’t going to spend any invocations on improving them.
Pact of the Talisman (★★★☆☆)
This pact provides support and protection to yourself or an ally of your choice. It provides small and direct power boosts and protection across the different invocation options. This is also the most straightforward pact boon if you’re looking for something simple.
Levels 4, 8, 12, 16, 19: Ability Score Improvement (★★★★☆)
You can choose either to increase one of your stats by 2, increase 2 of your stats by 1, or take a feat. Usually feats are higher priority since you want to cover your defenses.
Level 4, 8, 12, 16, 19: Eldritch Versatility (★★★☆☆)
Mainly a quality of life feature, which can smooth out your leveling progression, or even lets you benefit from certain spells or abilities before swapping them to something more desirable for later levels.
Level 11, 13, 15, 17: Mystic Arcanum (★★★★★)
These are effectively your high-level spell slots. While they are slightly more restrictive (can’t cast forcecage with your 8th level slot for example), you do have access to some of the very best high level spells in the game.
Level 20: Eldritch Master (★★★☆☆)
Basically an accelerated short rest once per day. Nothing spectacular, but it is useful.
The Archfey (★★☆☆☆)
In the very early game this class is decent due to providing strong spells, but most of its other features are underwhelming abilities that apply the charm/frightened condition.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★★☆)
Notable options: faerie fire, sleep, phantasmal force, plant growth, and greater invisibility. Sleep is great in the early game and covers up Warlock’s weak early spell options, and phantasmal force is another solid choice. Plant growth’s a great spell, but its value is dependent on how your table interprets it. This is The Archfey’s best feature.
Level 1: Fey Presence (★☆☆☆☆)
Action, once per short rest, to apply the charmed or frightened condition in a 10-foot cube from your position with a save. Basically melee range, limited use, lasts a single turn, and the effect isn’t even that strong. Pass.
Level 6: Misty Escape (★★☆☆☆)
In terms of defense, this has incredibly low value. You still take the damage, and you are not hidden so enemies still know your location if they wish to pursue. Even then, enemies can turn to your allies instead. On the other hand, this is a teleport on short rest if you happen to get hit at the right time, or actively damage yourself with a needle or similar.
Level 10: Beguiling Defense (★★★☆☆)
Charm immunity is good. The ability to charm as a reaction when you’re targeting with a charm effect isn’t, and won’t provide any noticeable value, but at least there is no limit to its number of uses.
Level 14: Dark Delirium (★☆☆☆☆)
Basically applies a limited form of blindness while also charming or frightening the target if they fail a Wisdom saving throw. For a 14th level feature that has limited range, takes your concentration, does nothing if the target passes a saving throw and ends immediately if the target takes any damage (they could even hit themselves), this isn’t very good.
The Celestial (★★★☆☆)
The Celestial boasts a solid package that improves your party’s longevity.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★☆☆)
Notable options: cure wounds, revivify, guardian of faith, wall of fire, greater restoration. Cure wounds is mostly something you cast before a rest. Guardian of faith and wall of fire mix well with your area control game. Lastly, if anyone can afford to prepare and cast greater restoration during the adventuring day, it’s the Warlock.
Level 1: Bonus Cantrips (★★☆☆☆)
Having more cantrip slots is nice early on, and sacred flame might have its use if your party has no other way to turn off something like a vampire’s regeneration trait.
Level 1: Healing Light (★★★★☆)
Basically non-spell healing word with a more convenient range, a hefty number of uses, and without restricting the use of other spells on the turn. Use this to bring allies up from unconsciousness, one die at a time.
Level 6: Radiant Soul (★☆☆☆☆)
Radiant is a very uncommon damage type, making the resistance close to a ribbon in value. The extra damage applies mostly to spells you shouldn’t even consider casting, and doesn’t offer a significant bonus even to those which you should.
Level 10: Celestial Resilience (★★★★☆)
Slightly worse Inspiring Leader, but Inspiring Leader is a pretty good feat. A nice bonus, assuming you don’t have another source of temporary hit points, but nothing game changing.
Level 14: Searing Vengeance (★★☆☆☆)
The ability feels great if it ever comes up, but is overall disappointing, as it adds nothing relevant to your central game plan.
The Fathomless (★★★★★)
The Great Old One’s cooler cousin. The Fathomless provides you with a battlefield control option in the form of your magic tentacle, but the real appeal is its strong spell list and a special perk when casting Evard’s black tentacles, a spell you’d love to have.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★★★)
Notable options: thunder wave, sleet storm, control water, Bigby’s hand. The stand out here is sleet storm, a spell that’s amazing on its own but even stronger with party support. A huge area that can split up the encounter, delay melee enemies, screw over casters, and neutralize advantage and disadvantage. The spells from your list fill the needs of a Warlock very well. You get a quick blast for early tiers, A power pick, sleet storm, that covers your big gun needs during tier 2 alongside hypnotic pattern, and situational 4th and 5th level picks that complement your kit when the best spells like summon greater demon or synaptic static take the spotlight.
Level 1: Tentacle of the Deeps (★★★★☆)
What makes this ability shine is its ease of use with just a bonus action while covering a deceptively large area. The 10 foot slow can be added on top of other movement control abilities, making it easier to reach the breakpoint where the enemy cannot reach your party and waste their turn.
Level 1: Gift of the Sea (★★☆☆☆)
This is nice when it comes up, but in most adventurers you won’t have the opportunity to use this much.
Level 6: Oceanic Soul (★★★☆☆)
Cold damage is relatively common and gaining resistance makes up for your lack of absorb elements. You can also invite a friendly NPC to a relaxing hot spring if somehow your group faces insurmountable language issue with them.
Level 6: Guardian Coil (★★★☆☆)
This looks insignificant at first glance, but it doesn’t really cost you anything to use either. Unless you plan to use counterspell because things are going south, this is just free damage mitigation whenever it comes up.
Level 10: Grasping Tentacles (★★★★★)
Evard’s black tentacles is a great spell, even with 5th level slots, and it is always prepared. You have innate synergy with Repelling Blast, and enemies don’t escape the restrained condition even if they leave the spell area. The free casting once per day makes your resource management game even more comfortable. The temporary hit points and unbreakable concentration when taking damage is a sweet bonus, and it’s worth casting the spell during your breakfast just for the free temporary hit points before resting back up to start the day.
Basically, this ability functions as your early capstone.
Level 14: Fathomless Plunge (★★★☆☆)
Teleport yourself and your friends out of trouble. The main limiting factor is whether your game cares about having a grand retreat option at all. Recharging on short rest is a nifty bonus if you use this actively. Seeing any pool-sized body of water during your travel shouldn’t be a challenge if you try. Otherwise, just pump a hole full of water for your own teleport waypoint (Come on, you’re 14th level adventurers). Make it a base of operation with your own mineral spring jacuzzi while we’re at it.
The Fiend (★★★★☆)
The Fiend is the best of the subclasses in the PHB. While its features do not synergize with each other, they are all independently useful.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★★☆)
Notable options: command, fireball, wall of fire. Command can still be a worthwhile upcast at 2nd level. Fireball your problems away for the early tier 2. Wall of fire plays into your movement control game nicely.
Level 1: Dark One’s Blessing (★★★★☆)
Each time you drop an enemy to 0 hit points, you get temporary hit points. A nice, rechargeable boost to your longevity, which scales with level. Siphon off some critters after a fight for easy top-up.
Level 6: Dark One’s Own Luck (★★★★☆)
+1d10 to one check or saving throw per short rest is an additional layer of defense similar to Divine Soul Sorcerer’s Favored by the Gods. Unlike Favored by the Gods, this can be applied to ability checks, including initiative.
Level 10: Fiendish Resilience (★★★☆☆)
Adaptable resistance to one damage type of your choice, so being informed of what you will be facing will go a long way. Still, this doesn’t change your game plan significantly.
Level 14: Hurl through Hell (★★★★☆)
Throw a creature out of the fight for a turn, and deal some damage on top without offering a saving throw. Great ability that always delivers its value, but comes a bit late and is only once per long rest.
The Genie (★★★★★)
The Genie may very well be the most powerful and most well designed of the warlock subclasses. Unique to it is the choice of multiple subclasses, with interesting features throughout and some good spell choices on top.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★★★)
You get a list of universal Genie spells, and a list for each of the genie kinds.
| Genie Kind | Notable options | Notes |
| Genie spells | Phantasmal force, wish | Phantasmal force gives a worthwhile 2nd level spell regardless of genie kind. Wish is wish, you know the deal. |
| Dao (★★★★★) | Sanctuary, spike growth, wall of stone | Sanctuary is handy for things like doorway dodging early on, spike growth is great on its own, and can be fueled by Repelling Blast. Wall of stone is not only a relevant combat spell, but also one that you can weaponize really well with short rest slot. |
| Djinni (★★☆☆☆) | Thunderwave, greater invisibility | Thunderwave is worthwhile for early levels, greater invisibility sees some niche uses. The spell list is otherwise underwhelming. |
| Efreeti (★★★☆☆) | Fireball | It’s just fireball, and that’s good enough. The other blast spells are both bad and outclassed by other options you have. |
| Marid (★★★★★) | Fog cloud, sleet storm, control water | Sleet storm is an amazing spell, making this worth it on its own. Fog cloud can still see some use when upcasted, since the radius becomes massive. |
Level 1: Genie’s Vessel (★★★★★)
Two impactful features in a trenchcoat. Genie’s Wrath is a simple damage bonus. The damage type doesn’t matter much since it’s only a 1-2 damage difference with resistance. One interesting synergy, however, is the bludgeoning damage from Dao genie enabling Crusher. The only attack roll you’d ever use with it is going to be eldritch blast. Bottled Respite is a fascinating ability. It’s your personal demiplane, your emergency bag of holding, your get out of jail free card, or just a very comfortable space with personal furnishing. Put what you want in the vessel, break it for emergency retrieval, get inside it to escape anything you don’t like to deal with (and emerge with just a bonus action), or order a familiar to carry the vessel for easy flight.
Level 6: Elemental Gift (★★★★★)
A comfortable 10 minutes flight with hover and no concentration. As a bonus, you also get resistance to a damage type based on your genie kind that are usually quite common, except for Djinni (thunder).
Level 10: Sanctuary Vessel (★★★★☆)
While the ability to take shorter short rest is of ambiguous value, the extra healing from hit dice and the potential to be inconspicuous are nice bonuses. Additionally, you can use this ability to simply gather up your allies within 30 feet and get them out of trouble, reemerging immediately if needed. This can also be a tool for group transport that only requires the vessel to be transported, such as through someone carrying the vessel or with your own Galder’s speedy courier.
Level 14: Limited Wish (★★★★★)
While Limited Wish does not let you ignore casting time like wish does, it is still a world of potential. You can use this for big gun spells like wall of force, antilife shell, or scatter, or use it to solve problems your party is otherwise not prepared for, with heal, greater restoration, revivify, remove curse.
The Great Old One (★★★☆☆)
This Patron has a plethora of disappointing abilities but its spell list saves it from being the worst subclass.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★★☆)
Notable options: dissonant whispers, Tasha’s hideous laughter, phantasmal force, sending, Evard’s black tentacles, telekinesis. You have good lower level spells where Warlock is in dire need of early options. Evard’s black tentacles is a great higher level addition for Warlocks and telekinesis will provide great value against tougher enemies. Abuse your short rest slots with detect thoughts, sending, or even clairvoyance. Definitely one of the better subclass spell lists.
Level 1: Awakened Mind (★☆☆☆☆)
Telepathy is generally a ribbon feature, but this one doesn’t even let your target communicate back, while still requiring your sight.
Level 6: Entropic Ward (★★☆☆☆)
You’re not hungry for reactions, so the disadvantage on an attack against you is nice, albeit only for one attack. The limited usage devalues this a lot.
Level 10: Thought Shield (★☆☆☆☆)
Psychic damage doesn’t come up very often and it’s rare you’ll seriously need your thoughts to be shielded. If this were the effect of mind blank, it would’ve been so much better.
Level 14: Create Thrall (★☆☆☆☆)
In combat, you could use this on a target affected by hypnotic pattern, but you have to touch them yourself, and the charmed condition just gives you advantage on checks to socially interact with them and prevents them from attacking you (but they can still attack your party). So much for having a “thrall”.
The Hexblade (★★★★☆)
As a dip, this subclass is a hefty package from the armor proficiency and shield spell alone. As a main class, you’re either trying to replicate a martial or just playing Warlock with a free feat.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★☆☆☆)
Notable options: shield, wrathful smite. Your patron spells will not be relevant upon reaching tier 2, with one notable exception. If you have the downtime to produce scrolls, you can be the only straight-classed Warlock with downtime-fuelled 24 AC.
Level 1: Hexblade’s Curse (★★★☆☆)
This ability has interesting synergies with a number of multiclass options, such as when combining with magic missile or spike growth. For a straight-classed Warlock however, it’s just a small damage bump and some extra short rest healing.
Level 1: Hex Warrior (★★★★★)
This feature nets you a comfortable 19 AC (half-plate, shield) without needing to take Moderately Armored. The attack stat change has some niche uses early on with wrathful smite and booming blade, and opens up the potential for utilizing Pact of the Blade. Building for Pact of the Blade means forgoing the Agonizing Blast – Repelling Blast package, however.
Level 6: Accursed Specter (★★★☆☆)
Having a free Specter is rarely going to make or break a fight, and it has the awkwardness of requiring you to encounter and kill a humanoid. Still, having access to an incorporeal scout can be handy at times.
Level 10: Armor of Hexes (★☆☆☆☆)
This ability is a dud. A weaker, less consistent shield that only works for one attack. It being tied to the target of your Hexblade’s curse makes this so much clunkier.
Level 14: Master of Hexes (★★☆☆☆)
This doesn’t add much to your kit, but it does make the ability less finicky to use. If you have a big enough bag of rats, Hexblade’s curse might even last multiple encounters.
The Undead (★★★★★)
The new subclass opens up so many great options that it inspired us to write an article about it. Hexblade used to be the king of dips but Undead levels the playing field, and quite well too.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★★★★★)
Notable options: phantasmal force, phantom steed, death ward, antilife shell. Shout out to death ward in particular for providing a great incentive to invest in the subclass beyond a few levels. Phantom steed is an amazing choice, making the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation very appealing. Antilife shell fills an interesting niche at later levels that can solve some encounters on its own.
Level 1: Form of Dread (★★★★★)
This ability is great, especially when you stack it up with other control options available like Repelling Blast, Lance of Lethargy and Telekinetic. Frightened is a potent condition to inflict, and when using Form of Dread, we can do it every turn.
Level 6: Grave Touched (★★★☆☆)
This is a nice power boost to our Form of Dread. Simple, plain damage.
Level 10: Necrotic Husk (★★☆☆☆)
A couple of okay defensive additions but nothing groundbreaking here. Note that you could have death ward active as an extra layer of protection on top of the reaction this feature grants. We’ll take a resistance/immunity to a damage type, especially since immunity is significantly more impactful than resistance.
Level 14: Spirit Projection (★★★★☆)
This is a fairly potent and interesting ability; the concentration is a downside, but as a Warlock at this level we can do fine casting synaptic static while concentrating on Spirit Projection in a fight. This will need some preparation to use though, you generally will want to activate it before any fights break out so that you don’t need to spend an action entering the form and to leave your body in a safe location.
Spirit Resource Duplication
Spirit Projection reads “Your spirit resembles your mortal form in almost every way, replicating your game statistics but not your possessions. Any damage or other effects that apply to your spirit or physical body affects the other.“ Basically, the spirit is a completely separate creature from your body, with its own set of spells and Mystic Arcanum and so on. If you don’t consider losing spell slots or having cast Mystic Arcanum an “effect that appl[ies] to your spirit”, then the spirit has its own set of resources which you can use without digging into your main supply.
The Undying (★★☆☆☆)
Undying used to have a niche charged out for it with respect to death ward, but with The Undead released, that niche has a clearly superior option and this subclass has largely been left in the dust.
Level 1: Patron Spells (★☆☆☆☆)
You get death ward, and maybe get some use out of short rest fuelled legend lore, but that’s just scraping the bottom of the barrel considering the feature drought you receive to get there.
Level 1: Among The Dead (★☆☆☆☆)
Spare the dying is forgettable in a game where healing word spells exist. Having a weaker sanctuary against only one enemy type that ceases to work when you start casting your spells is awful unless you’re in a game with a lot of undead, but even then, the threat can be easily redirected at your party.
Level 6: Defy Death (★★☆☆☆)
A pseudo healing word on self once per rest. This isn’t going to come up often. It would be better if using spare the dying healed the target you used it on, but strangely it still just heals yourself.
Level 10: Undying Nature (★☆☆☆☆)
This does a lot of stuff, but nothing very useful. Ribbon feature.
Level 14: Indestructible Life (★☆☆☆☆)
This is a slightly worse version of Fighter’s Second Wind, but at level 14 instead of 1.
Eldritch Invocations
Your first couple of invocation choices can be very tight, but once the staple invocations are locked in, you can afford to go for the more situational ones. Your choice of Pact Boon might also come with some standout invocation options, but they will still have to compete with the eldritch blast package.
Invocations
Race Ratings
With the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, racial modifiers are now normalized floating racial ability score modifiers during character creation, making the choice of race no longer dependent on their ability scores. We have subsequently created a full list of every race and how we rank them, which you can find here. Below, however, are races that interact differently with the Warlock, or where Warlock is a particularly interesting option for that race with an explanation as to why that is. Note that this is not a list of the best races for Warlock, use the full race guide to see the best races in general. This is just a list of the races that have some interesting synergy with Warlock.
Warlock Races
Feat Ratings
There are a ton of feats, only some of which you should consider taking. If something is not on the list, assume it’s generally not worth taking. Refer to our class-agnostic feat guide for more information.
Warlock Feats
Spell Ratings
Warlock Spells
Multiclass Options
Warlock is a very popular class for multiclassing, but mostly as a “dip” for other classes. If you are willing to multiclass, it is often hard to justify taking Warlock levels over more levels in a class you’re dipping into. That being said, multiclassing as a Warlock can grant certain benefits.Refer to our Guide to Optimized Multiclassing for more detailed information.
As a one or two level dip, Warlock is very powerful. A single level grants access to eldritch blast – arguably the best offensive cantrip and some potentially powerful subclass features. Most notably, Hexblade gives medium armor, shield proficiency, Hexblade’s Curse, the shield spell, and the ability to use Charisma for weapon attacks. Other subclasses can be quite useful too, for example Undead’s Form of Dread adds some powerful control and scales off Proficiency Bonus. All Warlocks also grant light armor proficiency, which isn’t useful by itself, but enables you to pick up the Moderately Armored feat if you are a Wizard or Sorcerer.
For a second level, Warlock gives a second spell slot which is regained on a short rest, which makes low level spells like shield and absorb element a lot more spammable. You also gain invocations, which can really turn eldritch blast into a synergistic powerhouse. Other invocations like Devil’s Sight can be useful in parties which use darkness.
A third level turns the spell slots into 2nd level ones, which can be useful to cast some particularly potent spells like pass without trace and web, and also gives a Pact Boon, some of which, like Chain, don’t require much invocation investment to be good.
For the Warlock class whose stand-out strength is being able to cast the highest spell level more often than everyone, there is a lot of incentive to stay straight classed. Still, if you are looking for classes to dip into, Sorcerer isn’t a bad choice, subclasses like Divine Soul, Clockwork and Lunar Sorcerer give powerful abilities for a just a single level, and learning shield and getting a few extra spell slots shores up one of Warlock’s major weaknesses. Unfortunately, the Warlock will only gain 2 first level spell slots, which might not be enough castings of shield in difficult games. Like pretty much any caster, a level of Peace Cleric for Embolding Bond and medium armor proficiency is great, and level of fighter with defense fighting style will also improve your AC greatly.
Warlock Builds
BG3 Honor Build: The Fiend Warlock
This Fiendish Warlock uses a powerful combination of damage, control, and sturdiness, to solve the challenges Honor Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3 presents!
Rage Fiend: Giant Barbarian in DnD 5E
The Rage Fiend takes a different path to the usual optimized Barbarian, and focuses on a higher survival capability while punishing monsters that target you.
Flagship Build: Gloom Stalker Ranger
This D&D 5E Gloom Stalker Ranger build uses powerful spells and martial prowess to provide great single target damage and sustain the party throughout the day.
Hexvoker: School of Evocation Wizard
The Hexvoker is a master of both control and blasting. This multiclassed build excels at nova, and multi-target damage, with the usual Wizard tricks on top.
Witchfire: Wildfire Warlock Build Guide
The Witchfire is a Circle of Wildfire Druid for D&D 5E that can relocate allies on a whim and has incredible offense, control, and out of combat utility.
Flagship Build: Oath of the Watchers Paladin
This D&D 5E build, the HexWatchers (and variant UndeadWatchers) is a force multiplier that lets a party punch far above its weight class defensively.
Flagship Build: College of Eloquence Bard
This D&D 5E build, the HexElo (and variant DSSElo) can uniquely fill in certain spellcasting gaps that can manifest even in a highly optimized party.
Flagship Build: Clockwork Soul Sorcerer
This D&D 5E build is a robust, jack-of-all-trades caster—the HexClock is possibly our most straight-up powerful Flagship Build to add to any party.
Ghostlance: Echo Knight Warlock Build Guide
Our latest build guide, the Ghostlance, is an Echo Knight Fighter / Warlock that uses an amazing technique to be the ultimate puppet master on the battlefield.
Part of our D&D 5E Basic Build Series, this Fiend Patron Warlock uses the Pact of the Chain to complement a suite of damage and control spells.
