Introduction
DnD 5e’s Warlocks draw magic power from a pact with a powerful otherworldly being, such as a powerful fey creature, a celestial, an elder deity, or a fiend. The Warlock’s unique Pact Magic mechanic presents a novel take on spellcasting, and their Eldritch Invocations make them one of the most customizable classes in the game. This wide degree of customization makes it easy to play Warlocks back-to-back with very little overlap in your builds.
The Warlock is arguably the easiest of any spellcaster class to play. You get only a handful of spell slots at a time, and never have to juggle multiple spell slot levels. Warlocks also get the most powerful damage cantrip in the game, giving them a solid, reliable option for damage output in between your big spells.
The Warlock typically fills the party’s Wizard-equivalent role, offering options as a Blaster, Controller, and Striker, and with some minor investments the Warlock can also serve as the party’s Face. The Warlock falls a bit short in terms of Utility spell options compared to similar spellcasters, but that can be mitigated with Pact of the Tome and a few Eldritch Invocation choices if your party can’t compensate for that shortcoming. The Celestial Patron subclass also adds Healer to your role options.
This article is for the 2024 DnD rules. For the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Warlock Class Guide.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Warlock Class Features
- 2024 Warlock Changes from 2014 Rules
- Warlock Backgrounds
- Warlock Species
- Warlock Ability Scores
- Warlock Skills
- Warlock Feats
- Warlock Weapons
- Warlock Armor
- Warlock Multiclassing
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
Warlock Class Features
: d8 is pretty good for a dedicated spellcaster. Melee Pact of the Blade builds may struggle, especially in only light armor.
: Wisdom and Charisma saves are great for resisting things like mind control and paralysis which might subdue you, but Warlocks will have lots of issues with effects that affect their bodies.
: Light armor and simple weapons are fine since most Warlocks won’t use weapons, but the skill list is frustrating. You get two skills and access to a couple of Face skills, but most of your non-Face skills are Intelligence-based. If you want to be your party’s Face, you’ll need to get some Face skills from your background.
1. : A major decision point in your build, Eldritch Invocations offer a lot of very powerful options, including signature Warlock options like Agonizing Blast and Pact Boons. You get a total of 10 invocations over the course of 20 Warlock levels (provided that you don’t take the Eldritch Adept feat to get another), which feels like a lot, but isn’t enough that you’ll be able to take everything you want.
1. : Warlocks have a completely unique form of magic. Unlike other spellcasters, your spell slots are all the same level, and you only get a handful of them, but they recharge on a short rest. This means that you will need to rely much more heavily on cantrips, and use your leveled spells when they can be the most effective. Because Pact Magic works differently from other spellcasting, be sure to double-check the Multiclassing rules before you look at other spellcasting classes.
2. : Helpful if you’re having trouble taking Short Rests.
3. Subclass: Warlock subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Warlock Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.
- Archfey Patron: Lean heavily into Misty Step, gaining a pool of free castings and the ability to add rider effects when you cast it.
- Celestial Patron: Gain powerful healing options and some offensive options borrowed from the Cleric.
- Fiend Patron: Some luck, some fire damage, and the ability to hurl enemies through hell.
- Great Old One Patron: Emphasize messing with your enemies minds by changing your spell to deal psychic damage, and use your ability to communicate telepathically and read minds to overcome your enemies.
9. : Thematically awesome, and Contact Other Plane is a great way to get access to plot information which might otherwise be totally unavailable to you.
11, 13, 15, 17. : You’ve spent 10 levels having your own way to cast spells, and now Mystic Arcanum makes your high-level spellcasting work very similarly to everyone else’s. Unlike your Pact Magic spell slots, these spells don’t scale as you level. Be sure to pick your favorite spells, because you can only change your Mystic Arcanum when you gain another Warlock level.
20. : 2 more level 5 spell slots per day. It’s nice, but it’s nowhere near as exciting as most class’s level 20 capstone features.
2024 Warlock Changes from 2014 Rules
This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.
- 1. Invocations. The progression of invocations has changed. You now get 1 at level 1 instead of 2 at level 2. The maximum has also increased from 8 to 10. Pact Boons are now Invocations, which means that you can get them at level 1 or you could skip them entirely.
- 1. Pact Magic. Mostly unchanged from the 2014 rules, but now allows you to change a cantrip when you gain a Warlock level.
- 2. Magical Cunning. Perform a 1-minute ritual to recover half of your Pact Magic spell slots (rounded up) once per day. A small boost to the Warlock’s sustainability.
- 9. Contact Patron. Allows you to cast Contact Other Plane once per day. Thematically, it’s to talk to your patron, but RAW you could talk to whatever the spell allows.
- 11. Mystic Arcanum. You can now retrain Mystic Arcanum spells. I found the inability to retrain these a huge problem in the 2014 rules, so I’m excited to see this change.
- 20. Eldritch Master. Magical Cunning now restores all of your Pact Magic spell slots.
Warlock Backgrounds
An increase to Charisma is too crucial to forgo, so any Background which doesn’t include Charisma is immediately out. Dexterity and Constitution are also helpful, especially for Pact of the Blade builds. Charisma-based skills are also ideal. Warlocks notably can’t select proficiency in Persuasion using their two class skills, so a Background which offers Persuasion proficiency is helpful.
For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted by your Background, see the Warlock Feats section, below.
- (PHB) : Magic Initiate (Cleric) is great, but the skills aren’t.
- (PHB) : Perfect ability scores, and an easy way to cover all of the Face skills that you need while leaving space for other skill proficiencies.
- (PHB) : The ability scores are good and the Musician feat is welcome in any party, but it’s hard to waste two skill proficiencies on borderline useless skills.
- (PHB) : Good ability scores, and Healer may be worthwhile if your party lacks other healing options, but the skills are poor.
- (PHB) : Good ability scores, and Lucky is an easy feat on any character. The only low point is Animal Handling.
- (PHB) : Fine, but Charlatan is a much easier choice.
- (PHB) : Magic Initiate (Wizard) is good, but the skills aren’t, and the Warlock’s spell list already significantly overlaps with the Wizard’s spell list.
- (PHB) : Good ability scores, decent skills, and Lucky is good on any character.
Warlock Species
- (PHB): Two damage resistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combat transformation. Heavenly Wings lets you fly without Concentration, and Necrotic Shroud can discourage enemies from closing to melee. For a Pact of the Blade build, Celestial Revelation is especially helpful in melee.
- (PHB): Darkvision, a damage resistance, and once per day flight are great, but you will likely never use the breath weapon beyond very low levels unless you’re building around Pact of the Blade.
- (PHB): Darkvision, resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points. The durability is largely wasted on a spellcaster fighting from a safe distance, and you have spells to handle hidden and invisible enemies, but Pact of the Blade will welcome the additional durability.
- (PHB): Darkvision and an extra skill are both great, plus you can get access to some spells from outside of the Warlock’s spell list, as well as nicely complementing your limited number of prepared spells and your extremely limited number of spell slots.
- (PHB): Darkvision and Gnomish Cunning are both great, and the added cantrips from Gnomish Lineage offer some interesting utility options. Warlocks don’t need much Wisdom, but proficiency in Wisdom saves and Advantage will make your Wisdom saves reliably good.
- (PHB): Giant Form offers some interesting options which can help make up for the Warlock’s relative lack of spell slots. Cloud Jaunt is basically Misty Step, and Stone’s Endurance fills the same niche as Shield. You might consider the on-hit damage options for Pact of the Blade builds, but I would go for Stone’s Endurance in those builds to compensate for the Warlock’s d8 hit dice and poor armor.
- (PHB): Brave and Lucky are both helpful, and Halfling Nimbleness may help you get past enemies to get into a safer position, though it won’t prevent Opportunity Attacks when you need to leave an enemy’s reach. Naturally Stealthy might let you hide before combat starts, but without Cunning Action it won’t see use in combat.
- (PHB): An additional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
- (PHB): Adrenaline Rush is an excellent option for getting out of dangerous positions quickly without a spell, and the Temporary Hit Points are great on a frail spellcaster. If that doesn’t keep you alive, Relentless Endurance provides some insurance. These traits will be especially useful for melee Pact of the Blade builds since you’ll be drawing more attacks.
- (PHB): The Tiefling’s innate spellcasting is a great compliment to the Warlock’s limited spellcasting. Infernal is the easy choice here, but don’t overlook the other options.
Warlock Ability Scores
For the most part, Warlocks are all about Charisma. Beyond that, use your ability scores to improve your defenses.
: Dump.
: Melee Warlocks need 14 Dexterity to pad their AC, but Pact of the Blade uses Charisma for attack and damage, so you don’t need high Dexterity to support your weapons. Other Warlocks still need some for AC, but 14 or 16 is usually sufficient.
: Everyone needs hit points. You don’t need a ton because you can depend on Fiendish Vigor for an easy hp boost, but you still don’t want to skimp on Constitution.
: A bit for Knowledge skills is nice, but if you don’t have any knowledge skills you can dump it.
: Only needed for saves, and you’re proficient, so your proficiency will mitigate a poor Wisdom score.
: Your pirmary ability score.
Conventional Warlock
| Point Buy | Adjusted | Standard Array | Adjusted | PHB Recommended | Adjusted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
| Con | 14 | 15 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 14 |
| Int | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| Wis | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| Cha | 15 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 15 | 17 |
Dexterity-Based Warlock
A Pact of the Blade Warlock might build around Dexterity and avoid offensive spells, allowing you to more easily take martial feats like Polearm Master or Slasher since you don’t need high Charisma to boost spell attacks and save DCs.
| Point Buy | Adjusted | Standard Array | Adjusted | PHB Recommended | Adjusted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Str | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Dex | 15 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 14 | 16 |
| Con | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 |
| Int | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
| Wis | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| Cha | 15 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 16 |
Warlock Skills
- (Int): One of the most important knowledge skills in the game.
- (Cha): Important for any Face.
- (Int): An important knowledge skill.
- (Cha): Important for any Face.
- (Int): Helpful, but you probably don’t have enough Intelligence or skill choices to justify it.
- (Int): An important knowledge skill.
- (Int): One of the most important knowledge skills in the game.
Warlock Feats
This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover feats which we think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices.
Origin Feats
These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select an Origin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may get more from sources like the Human’s species traits.
- (PHB): Great for starting big area control spells or for dropping big area damage spells before allies get in the way or enemies get into melee range.
- (PHB): Neat, but not especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful early in the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anything in the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice, so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
- (PHB): An easy choice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s a great default if you don’t need anything else.
- (PHB): A good way to expand your spellcasting. Shillelagh is normally a good choice for gish builds, but you want that functionality from Pact of the Blade.
- (PHB): A great way to contribute to any party.
- (PHB): Passable for Pact of the Blade builds.
- (PHB): Great for covering all of the Face skills so that you can make room for other options, especially in a small party with poor skill coverage.
- (PHB): Helpful with d8 hit dice and poor armor, but not essential.
General Feats
- (PHB): Pact of the Blade only works with one weapon at a time, and heavy crossbows aren’t so much better than longbows that it justifies a feat.
- (PHB): A good way to control enemies’ positions if you’re built around Pact of the Blade, but you probably don’t need the ability score increase early in your career. Wait to take this until you have 20 Charisma.
- (PHB): Tempting for Pact of the Blade, but eventually you’ll be running Shadow of Moil, and the ability score increase probably won’t help you.
- (PHB): Pact of the Blade only works with one weapon, but a Dexterity-based Pact of the Blade build could capitalize on the additional Bonus Action attack to get a lot of damage out of Hex, and Dexterity-based builds care less about their Pact of the Blade weapon. The Bonus Action attack will compete with options like Hex, but the ability to make up to 4 attacks per turn will mean a lot of damage output.
- (PHB): Not as good as you would hope. The Bonus Action to spend a Hit Point Die notably does not add your Constitution modifier, which makes it an expensive and frustrating way to burn through your Hit Point Dice very quickly with minimal impact. Unless your party has some other deep, inexpensive healing resource, you need those dice for Short Rests to refill your massive pool of hit points. Take Chef instead.
- (PHB): If you’re worried about resistances to elemental damage, use Eldritch Blast.
- (PHB): Two more prepared spells and access to some 1st-level spells from outside of your spell list. Misty Step is great on any spellcaster. The free castings also give you options beyond your Pact Magic slots, which is fantastic.
- (PHB): Pact of the Blade works with qualifying weapons. Unfortunately, the Strength increase is useless, so you probably want to wait to take this until you have 20 Charisma. Of course, by then your Proficiency Bonus will be big and probably might have 3 attacks, so this will feel really good.
- (PHB): A 1-level class dip into Cleric or Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
- (PHB): This is great for your party, but if you only care about yourself, you can use Fiendish Vigor.
- (PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
- (PHB): Great for Dexterity-focused Pact of the Blade builds, but since it can’t increase your Charisma, other builds should wait to take it until you have 20 Charisma.
- (PHB): A fantastic addition to Pact of the Blade builds, but Pole Strike will compete for your Bonus Action with options like Hex, and it doesn’t let you increase your Charisma. You can increase your Dexterity, but there are no Finesse polearms, so the only use case is Charisma-based Pact of the Blade builds that already have 20 Charisma.
- (PHB): Resilient (Constitution) will do a lot to help maintain Concentration, which is very important for a class that gets so few spell slots.
- (PHB): If you want to be better at rituals, take Pact of the Tome.
- (PHB): A good addition to melee Pact of the Blade builds, but it doesn’t let you increase your Charisma.
- (PHB): Two more prepared spells and some free castings each day. The 1st-level spells aren’t as good as Fey Touched.
- (PHB): Even if you’re built around Pact of the Blade, if you run into issues with cover, you can use spells instead.
- (PHB): Pact of the Blade won’t give you the Strength to back up Shield Bash.
- (PHB): A great way to expand beyond Face skills or to pick up Face skills that you couldn’t get at level 1.
- (PHB): Great for Dexterity-focused Pact of the Blade builds, but since it can’t increase your Charisma, other builds should wait to take it until you have 20 Charisma.
- (PHB): Very tempting to improve your effectiveness with Eldritch Blast.
- (PHB): An easy go-to option. Remember that creatures can willingly fail saving throws, allowing you to use this on allies in order to move them out of dangerous positions, break grapples, or otherwise help them.
- (PHB): Very cool, but usually talking works fine.
- (PHB): Fantastic for melee Pact of the Blade builds.
- (PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
Epic Boons
- (PHB): Simple and consistently useful for Pact of the Blade.
-
(PHB): Basically
free Misty Step every time that you cast a spell as an Action.
Unfortunately, Bonus Action and Reaction spells don’t qualify. According to
the Rules Glossary: “When you take the Magic action, you cast a spell that
has a casting time of an action or use a feature or magic item that requires
a Magic action to be activated.”
Outside of combat, you can still use this to get around obstacles. Cast a harmless spell like Prestidigitation and you can teleport without making a mess.
- (PHB): A powerful defense on any character.
- (PHB): 2d4 averages to 5. Adding +5/-5 to a saving throw can rescue you or an ally, or it can cause an enemy to fail a save. On a d20 scale, 5 means that there’s a 25% chance on any given roll that this will have an impact. Granted, it is still a dice roll, so the smaller the gap, the safer this is to use. On a full caster where save-or-suck spells are such a huge part of your arsenal, this is devastatingly effective. The fact that you can use it once per encounter is amazing.
- (PHB): More hit points are great on a class as frail as the Warlock, but given the choice between this and Resilient (Constitution), you need proficiency in Constitution saves much more than 40 hp and some extra healing.
- (PHB): Tempting for Pact of the Blade, but you’re attacking with Charisma, so the damage bonus is much smaller than for typical martial characters. Bypassing Bludgeoning/Piercing/Slashing resistance is nice, but you can use spells if damage resistances are a problem for you.
- (PHB): The Last Stand feature is great insurance, but definitely not enough to justify your first Epic Boon. Try to get someone to cast Death Ward on you.
- (PHB): Potentially useful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
- (PHB): Take Boon of Dimensional Travel instead.
- (PHB): All of your spell slots are 5th level, so they don’t qualify.
- (PHB): Take Devil’s Sight, cast Darkness, and go about your day with Resistance to almost all damage. The invisibility is also nice.
- (PHB): Probably your only option for handling invisible enemies. If you’ve made it this far, your party is covering for you or you’ve found a creative solution.
Warlock Weapons
The Walorck is proficient in simple weapons. They do not get access to Weapon Mastery.
Pact of the Blade expands your weapon options to effectively any weapon. However, unlike conventional martial characters, you can’t always rush to collect feats like Polearm Master or Slasher because they don’t allow you to increase your Charisma.
Conventional Warlock Weapons
- : Carry one or two for utility purposes at any level, but the damage isn’t good enough to make it a good idea.
- : A light crossbow combined with True Strike will deal more damage than Fire Bolt until you reach level 11, making it the Warlock’s go-to attack option at least until level 11.
- : If you’re preparing True Strike to use with a light crossbow, you can also use it with a quarterstaff two-handed for the same amount of damage. You don’t want to do this intentionally, but it’s a good backup option.
Pact of the Blade Weapons
With no proficiency in shields, Charisma-based builds will frequently want two-handed weapons (though remember that this still requires 13 Strength/Dexterity to use Heavy weapons), while Dexterity-based builds will want two-weapon fighting or ranged weapons. Unfortunately, the lack of Weapon Mastery makes your weapon options much less interesting.
- : Frequently your go-to options for melee builds. Using a Versatile (d10) weapon in two hands is the most damage that you can get without running into the Heavy property, and avoiding the need for 13 Strength makes your build much simpler.
- : Reach.
- : Your best damage, but you will need 13 Strength, or the Heavy property will impose Disadvantage on your attacks. Since you already need high Dexterity (light armor), Constitution, and Charisma, this may not be feasible.
- : Two-weapon fighting via Crossbow Expert. Throwing daggers gets you as many attacks, but for Dexterity-based builds, Crossbow Expert will get you better range and better damage.
- : Briefly useful at low levels because of its large damage die, but obsolete once you get Thirsting Blade. Crossbow Expert negates the Loading property, but you’re going to take a feat, either take Gunner and grab a pistol or a musket or use hand crossbows.
- : The go-to weapon for ranged builds.
- : With the Gunner feat, this is a linear upgrade from the Longbow, at least in terms of damage. Range might be an issue occasionally, but if that worries you, take Sharpshooter. This has the Loading property, which will present a problem as soon as you get Extra Attack.
- : Good damage for a one-handed weapon, and the Vex mastery. Advantage from Vex will make your DPR with a pistol better than DPR with a musket so long as you’re repeatedly attacking the same target. If you have enough gold, you can bring a whole bunch of loaded pistols and repeatedly draw and fire them instead of reloading. Or you could take the Gunner feat.
- : Charisma-based builds want a bigger weapon. Dexterity-based builds want a shortsword for two-weapon fighting. If you get proficiency in shields, this becomes a much better option.
- : Your go-to weapons or two-weapon fighting.
- : If you want reach, there’s no reason not to use a polearm.
Warlock Armor
The Warlock is proficient in light armor.
- : You’re going to live in this.
Warlock Multiclassing
This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.
- : One level gets you some spellcasting, including great options like Guidance and Healing Word. Two gets you Expertise. Bards are also Charisma-based spellcasters, so multiclassing between the two is relatively easy.
- : Starting as a Fighter gets you proficiency in Constitution saves, heavy armor, and shields, which opens up a lot of options for a Pact of the Blade Warlock. Fighting Style and Weapon Mastery make you even more effective with weapons.
- : Like a Fighter, you can get heavy armor, shields, and Weapon Mastery. Divine Smite kets you you to burn your spell slots to add a bunch of radiant damage to the attack, but you can take Eldritch Smite instead.
- : Sneak Attack only works with weapons, so Pact of the Blade is the only good combination with rogue unless you’re taking a class dip solely for Expertise.
- : Sorcerers are also Charisma-based spellcasters, but their features (with the exception of Metamagic) are very level-dependent, so you need to devote yourself to leveling as a Sorcerer to benefit from Sorcerer levels unless you’re just take a class dip for Font of Magic and Metamagic. If you go that route, it’s probably so that you can quicken Eldrith Blast. 2 levels of Sorcerer gets you 2 types of Metamagic, and if you convert all of your Sorcerer spell slots to Sorcery Points, you’ll get a 3 moe per day. You can also convert your Pact Magic spell slots into Sorcery Points, allowing you to recharge on a Short Rest.
