5e Warlock Level Guide

5E Warlock Level Guide: it’s (probably) not a pyramid scheme.

By Johnathon Wilson

Before you go and get all judgmental, I need you to understand something. Magic is HARD. It’s complicated, and finicky, and for every rule that makes sense there’s 3.5 that don’t. Now, if you’re lucky enough to have a grandparent who was a dragon or angel or some bullshit, congratu-fucking-lations.

Some of us weren’t so lucky, and instead of having puberty be full of newfound magical powers, it was literally just acne. Just acne from top to bottom. So yeah, if you can’t be born with it, what are your other options? Study? Like a nerd? Pray? Also like a nerd?? Both of those options require a lot of discipline, and faith. Literal faith if you’re going to pray your way to magic like a Cleric, and faith in yourself if you want to study your way there like a Wizard. This all brings me back to my point about magic being hard and bullshit.

Now what if I could tell you, that you could still access (some) phenomenal cosmic power without all of that prayer and studying, or even communing with nature! If anything, I think that you’ll find most Patrons are extremely accommodating! There’s something refreshing about being able to know that if I do X for my Patron, I’ll be able to do Y. Granted, Y is often cast Eldritch Blast, but so what? That spell fucking RULES, as does all the dope shit that Warlocks can do with it. The Warlock class is the resident at-will arcane spellcaster for Dungeons and Dragons, which means that they do magic shit, and a decent bit of it, but aren’t all religious about it. In function, Warlock’s feel a lot like how some folks would like all martial classes to play, with excellent sustained damage and a couple of other tricks or options.

The inherent modularity of the Warlock class allows for a customization that many other classes do not have, and Eldritch Blast can help to ensure that you never need to prioritize dealing damage, if that’s your bag. In flavor, Warlocks are hungry for knowledge, willing to bargain with otherworldly beings for power and access to arcane (sometimes even divine!) secrets. Much like the power from an unspeakable eldritch abomination, the Warlock class gives you the tools to shape your character however you want. So, the question really just becomes, who do you want to be?

The actual word Warlock is commonly accepted to have been derived from an Old English word translating to “deceiver” or “breaker of oaths”, so we’re already off to pretty fucking metal start. It came to be associated with a male witch, or men who had broken their Christian faith in lieu of making a pact with the Devil, which again, metal. In 2004, Richard Baker brought Complete Arcane to the world, and with it, the Warlock class. The brief description at the beginning of the book describes a Warlock as “...[a] supernatural character whose sinister powers are inborn abilities, not spells”, which is honestly a little more in line with the Sorcerer class in Fifth Edition (5E) than anything. Warlocks are further described as all descending from supernatural bloodlines, and having enormous and inherent reserves of magical energy, which they learn to wield and shape.

That’s SO fucking cool. I mean yes, the Sorcerer entry in the 5E Player’s Handbook does say that they are “...suffus[ed] body, mind, and spirit with a latent power that waits to be tapped” and that “[s]ome sorcerers wield magic that springs from an ancient bloodline…” but that really feels like a problem for Sorcerers, not us. Anyway, it’s left in no uncertain terms that Warlocks originally did NOT cast spells, but channeled their magical energy through abilities called invocations. Eldritch Blast was a baked-in attack that all Warlocks knew, that scaled with Warlock level and could be modified by invocations affecting the damage, or essence, of the blast, and the shape of the blast!

This is peering behind the curtain a little, but I really would love to see some Blast Shape invocations in future editions, it’s a super cool idea that would add another layer of delicious customization. Since Warlocks didn’t get ANY spellcasting, they got a lot of built in at-will powers, and then pretty much every invocation that didn’t modify Eldritch Blast provided an at-will spell to cast or replicate in some way. Before we move on, I want to say that I am a bit of a sucker for at-will magic casters, both in theme and in practice. I love the flavor of a character that is suffused with magic, and manipulates that power or energy in powerful or interesting ways. I understand that not everyone feels the same way, even if I don’t understand why. Unfortunately, the only Lantern ring I could even possibly be a candidate for is orange, or maybe red, if I ever have to play fucking MARIO PARTY with BRETT again.

I considered adding a section here about 4E Warlocks, but a lot of the differences come down to general thematic differences between 4E and 3.5E as opposed to Warlocks themselves. THAT BEING SAID, there is a lot of cool stuff in the 4E Warlock that’s worth looking at, whether for your own game or just for posterity. For instance, the Warlock’s Curse was something you could use as a minor action on your turn, to place a curse on the nearest enemy that you could see. The curse caused them to take an extra 1-3d6 (scaling based on class level) of damage from you, once per round, after being damaged by you. Pretty direct inspiration for the 1st level enchantment spell Hex.

Hex is only available on the Warlock spell list, and adds 1d6 of necrotic damage to all of your damage rolls against the Hex’d target. What I like about Warlock’s Curse is that it’s an at-will ability for every Warlock, as opposed to being a 1st level spell, it can be applied to multiple targets, and the bonus damage doesn’t specifically require an Attack. The last bit there implies that any damage can trigger the bonus damage, as opposed to requiring an Attack Roll like the Hex spell, which would allow big Area of Effect spells like Fireball to trigger the extra damage! That may not be a game breaking difference, but it’s still an interesting difference to me. Interesting enough to make you read about it? Probably not! 

While Warlocks are no longer PURELY at-will arcane casters, they’re still as close as you can get in 5E. Something that you’ll notice as we go forward is that the Warlock class is deeply modular, which in these terms means “...a collection of building blocks that can be configured in different ways, adapting for different [player] needs”. Does that mean that all Warlocks are really just animated LEGO monsters? Yes, or at least it does if you’re as stoned as I was when I had that particular vision. To be fair, if I was making a Pact with an extra planar being for unfathomable cosmic power, I too would want to pick and choose my perks! While it can’t be denied that the “tentacles” package is attractive, it can be a bit…. gooey. All I’m saying is that it makes sense functionally, thematically, and sexua…. nevermind.

The relationship between warlock and patron is defined by the pact between them, or maybe the other way around, depending on your particular warlock! The stereotype of “magical sugar baby” is so fucking tired and boring, it’s barely worth mentioning, especially since it’s fundamentally misunderstood. Now, you can obviously craft your warlock to be whatever/however you want, but it’s a pretty common theme for people to assume all warlocks sell their soul, which just straight up isn’t true. There’s a couple of pieces of important evidence for this, straight from the first page of the Warlock class in the PHB. The relationship between warlock and patron is defined as “...like that of a cleric and deity, though the beings that serve as patrons for warlocks are not gods…beings not typically served by clerics” and that more often than not “...the arrangement is similar to that between a master and an apprentice”.

Now, that relationship is going to look very different depending on your patron, since I’ve gotta imagine that a powerful fiend is going to have different requests than a Ki-rin, but nowhere is ETERNAL SERVITUDE mentioned as an entry fee. The actual entry fee is 100% up to you and your DM, as is the way your pact was formed. Not every pact HAS to start with a power-hungry human bargaining for the power to seek revenge, even if the original printing did specifically call them out as “[a]mbitious and often unprincipled, humans are the most likely to seek out the dangerous shortcuts to power that lead to life as warlocks”. Regardless of who your warlock is, or what they become, what you do have is a hell of a lot of options to choose from!

The first two levels of Warlock absolutely slap, you cannot deny that these are two of the dopest consecutive levels in all of D&D. They fucking rock so hard, that “dipping two levels of Warlock” is a fundamental component of a majority of Charisma based power builds, and are frequently featured on lists of things your DM’S WILL HATE. Which is…. fair. There’s some bullshit chicanery you can pull depending on how lenient your DM is with Rules as Written/Intended, so I do understand the anger.

But at the end of the day, the biggest issue is that Level 1 and 2 of Warlock are chockablock full of good shit. They’re one of only three classes (Cleric and Sorcerer being the others) that get their subclass benefits at Level 1, which is pretty gnarly. A D8 Hit Die means that Warlocks are going to have more Hit Points than Wizards or Sorcerers, which has been the trend since they were released! In earlier editions, Wizards and Sorcerers had a measly D4 Hit Die while Warlocks were sitting at a D6. This is meant to implicate more martial tendencies and abilities in Warlocks, but can also be attributed to Wizards and Sorcerers having bird bones. 

Starting at first level Warlocks get to pick their Otherworldly Patron and learn their Pact Magic, with your Otherworldly Patron providing the source of your aforementioned Phenomenal Cosmic Power. At the time of this writing there are 8 officially accessible Otherworldly Patrons, all of which offer an ability at first level that ranges from “meh” to “are you fucking kidding me?”. Granted, a portion of the “are you fucking kidding me” can be attributed to general design bloat, as the primary offenders are the Genie and Hexblade patrons. Hexblade is the Globo Gym of Warlock subclasses, so much so that every Charisma based multi-class wants a little.

Any powergaming Sorcerer, Bard, or Paladin, is going to find a way to squeeze in two levels of Hexblade, for good reason. Part of it is the way design has evolved in 5E, with a move towards some scaling based off of proficiency bonus. Proficiency bonus is tied directly to overall Character level, as opposed to Class level, and is therefore less diluted by taking some levels in other Classes. For instance, the Hexblades Curse ability is gained at level 1 and allows the caster to use a bonus action to place a curse on a creature within 30 feet. For one minute, this curse causes the target to take additional damage equal to the caster’s proficiency bonus, ANY attack roll you make against the target is a critical hit on a 19 or 20 of the d20, and if the target dies whilst cursed you heal an amount equal to your warlock level + your charisma modifier. You can do this 1/short rest, which synergizes beautifully with Pact Magic (we’ll get there when we GET THERE), much like the rest of fucking Hexblade.

That’s one of THREE features within the FIRST GODDAMN LEVEL of Hexblade, which is in and of itself a feature of the Warlock class! It’s a motherfucking matryoshka doll of class features, or class featureception if you prefer. The Genie isn’t quite as offensive in their blessings, but still offers an expanded spell list, free damage equal to your proficiency bonus once per round, and a portable tiny house that you can also use as a free bag of holding. Both of make the expanded spell list and Fey Presence from The Archfey, look like absolute dogshit, even if both of those features are perfectly meh.

Pact Magic is the way that Fifth Edition warlocks cast spells, so they aren’t strictly at-will casters anymore. Even so, Pact Magic is still different from the traditional spellcasting that other spellcasters have access to. Most dork ass casters have the same progression of spell slots, that all come back after completing a long rest. This means that a 3rd level Cleric, Wizard, and Sorcerer are all going to start their day with 4 first level slots, and 2 second level slots available to cast. This predictability is nice but also a liiiiiiiiiiittle boring in my opinion. Whether that’s a reflection of the class design, or my own need for novelty and excitement, is up for debate. 

The two main differences between us and them are that Pact Magic slots only scale up to 5th level spells, and that said slots recharge after a short rest. The actual amount of available slots scales differently as well, in a kind of a frustrating way if you ask me. Of the 20 potential character levels currently available in 5e, a warlock will spend TEN of those with 2 available spell slots per short rest. It’s actually worse than that, because at first level we only have 1! All I’m saying, is that the meme about all warlocks being nap hungry little bitches is…. kind of true. The design of the Warlock class is one of low-level sustained magic, supplemented with big spikes of power/ability. This CAN feel like you need to be miserly with your magic, but that’s also ok in my eyes, as every class has resource management involved in some capacity. 

At first level, Pact Magic gives us a single 1st level spell slot to use, as well as a total of two spells known and two cantrips known. In my experience, most parties don’t spend too long at first level unless it’s a campaign designed around being low level. It can be swingy and boring, and those are literally the exact reasons I don’t visit my Grandparents retirement community anymore. Choosing spells and cantrips is a vital task for a Warlock. Cantrips are important choices for everyone, but as a “known” caster, our spell choices are that much more crucial. In the world of 5e spellcasting, you can either know your spells or you can prepare them every morning. If you are a “known” caster, the expectation is generally that you can either do more with your spells (Sorcerer, Warlock), or you have things to do other than cast spells (Ranger, Bard). Whereas “prepared” casters have the option to pick a whole new list of spells every single morning. The biggest difference between the two is that being a known caster requires CONVICTION.

With that in mind, be intentional with the spells you choose, both in terms of flavor for your character and in terms of playability. With spell slots recharging on a short rest, spell duration can be your best friend. Hex is something we already touched on, and while it’s also an iconic Warlock ability, it also comes with a baked-in 1-hour duration at 1st level. The inherent synergy of Hex and Eldritch Blast only gets better with time, as the duration of Hex increases with spell level and Eldritch Blast gains more beams to attack with as character level increases. With a longer duration, you can be extremely efficient by keeping one cast of Hex up for hours at a time, assuming you don’t get a boo-boo and lose concentration anyway.

Before moving on, I want to make a shoutout for a spell that I think could save the life of a first level Warlock. This recommendation is based on the clause in our spells known section that states “...when you gain a level in this class you can choose one of the warlock spells you know and replace it with another spell from the warlock spell list”. Basically, if you don’t like it, you can replace it when you level up and it won’t cost you anything.

All of that preamble was to say that Expeditious Retreat adds a lot of survivability for a low-level warlock. For the uninitiated, Expeditious Retreat is a first level spell that you can cast as a bonus action, it lasts for ten minutes and lets you take the Dash action when you cast the spell, and as a bonus action on subsequent turns. It is a concentration spell, but at level one you only have the one spell slot anyway so that doesn’t really matter. The Dash action allows you to move up to your movement speed, which could potentially allow you to not get stabbed to death, or something similar. Just a thought. 

When it comes to cantrips, you almost need to be choosier than you are with your spells. Cantrips are described as spells that can be cast without spending a spell slot, and as spells that a caster has practiced to the point of being “...infused…with the magic needed to produce the effect over and over”. It makes sense to me that something so thoroughly practiced would be pretty deeply ingrained, it’d be like trying to jerk off without my clown mask on. In fact, outside of Eldritch Versatility, an optional class feature from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, there isn’t a way to change cantrips outside of learning new ones. Even Eldritch Versatility only adds the option to change one cantrip on levels when you gain an Ability Score Improvement, which is every 4 levels. Eldritch Versatility also allows you to change some other features that we’ll touch on later, but regardless, it enforces the point that cantrip choice is important. 

I hope you aren’t sick of the word Eldritch, because it’s about to get PREVALENT. Well, I suppose we can just shorten it to EB, because folks we gotta talk about Eldritch Blast. As I previously mentioned EB was previously just something that all warlocks did. Right when you became a warlock, you gained the ability to blast eldritchly. While that is no longer the case, EB is only on the Warlock spell list, so outside of certain feats you still need to be a warlock to shoot those magical finger guns. EB by itself is a very good cantrip, the d10 is a fantastic base damage die, force damage is a great damage type, and the scaling is ideal. Cantrips grow more powerful as characters gain levels, increasing in damage at 5th, 11th, and 17th levels. EB does this by creating more beams of crackling energy for you to shoot, to a maximum of 4 beams at 17th level. This scaling, combined with some of the other tasty options in our near-future, is what gives us the flexibility to function like a Fighter or Ranger with sustainable ranged damage. 

With all of that in mind, EB is no longer baked into the Warlock class, it’s a cantrip you CAN choose. There are plenty of ways to leverage the rest of the Warlock class, so that you don’t have to feel like a basic bitch spamming EB every round. I personally have a 9th level Celestial Warlock named Boggs, who doesn’t know EB, and instead relies on Sacred Flame and the rest of his Celestial blessings to make up for it. While I have never really felt constrained by the lack of EB, there have been a couple of times it would’ve been nice to have the ability to make multiple shots, and at LEAST one bitch ass Hag that would be dead. I personally think that taking EB for MOST warlocks is a good thing. It allows you to have access to reliable and sustained damage, in the event that you need it. I don’t think every character needs to be optimized to the gills or anything, but I do think that it feels good to contribute to the overall needs of the party…. which is usually murder.

That being said, there really hasn’t been a better time to be a warlock without EB because Mind Sliver is pretty fucking filthy. It’s not going to be a good damage substitute, but it IS going to allow you to debuff enemy saving throws, something that’s usually limited to Bards, Bane, and Divination Wizards. This would really help make a save-based warlock function well, and maybe make your DM hate you for fucking with their rolls so much.

Whether you choose to take EB or not, you’re going to need to be firm in your decisions (remember, CONVICTION) because even with Eldritch Versatility, you won’t have an opportunity to change anything until 4th level. Depending on your DM this could be a long ass time, so if you want to be able to lean on EB at some point, you may wanna make that point right now. 

Level two is when shit gets SPICY. The jump from first to second level is big for a lot of classes, and it’s where we see a lot of defining features come online. Druids learn how to Wild Shape, Monks learn how to harness their Ki, and Wizards gain their Portent dice or learn to Bladesong. I’m aware that Illusory Reality is possibly the most broken class feature in the game, but Illusion Wizards don’t get that until level 14, and we’re at level 2. Also, being able to hit your DM with a “no u”, or occasionally become nigh-untouchable in melee (stats willing anyway), are both preeeeeeeeetty satisfying so tbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbt, jog on.

What do WE get, you ask? First off, we double our available spell slots from 1 to 2, which is already a pretty fucking great start. Next, we learn another spell, which as previously mentioned also provides us the opportunity to change out one of the spells we already know. So, if you hypothetically took Expeditious Retreat and don’t like it, you could get rid of it but IT’S A COOL SPELL, OK?!

Moving onto the meat and potatoes of level 2, the juice, the good good, the Invocations. Invocations have been a part of the Warlock class since jump street, and honestly used to be even more important. Since original flavor warlocks didn’t cast ANY spells, their invocations allowed them to use “spell-like” abilities for their magical chicanery. As I previously mentioned, there also used to be whole categories of invocations that allowed warlocks to modify their Eldritch Blast, which I think is BADASS. I want more of that, do you hear me Wizards of the Coast?! That’s good shit! I want EB to be a class feature again, and more invocations for the Shape and Essence of the Blast.

Anyway, invocations in their current state are still extremely important since they provide a significant source of power and customization for every warlock. 5e has opted to have level restrictions for certain invocations, as opposed to “grades” of: least, lesser, greater, dark. The grading system represented level ranges for invocations, which is kind of neat but I do think that the 5e system of having a level requirement for certain invocations to be more efficient. This is especially true for invocations like Thirsting Blade, that provide access to an ability that is otherwise level-gated for other classes like Extra Attack.  

So, you’ve got 2 choices of invocations at second level and some significant thought to put into it. It should go without saying that you need to meet the prerequisites for an invocation to learn it, which eliminates a lot of choices right off the bat. Invocations are a potent source of power and flavor for your character. Would your warlock be better served with the Mask of Many Faces? The ability to cast Disguise Self at-will is extremely cool, and can open a lot of doors for both character concept and role play. Or would you be better served by the classic Agonizing Blast? Adding your charisma modifier to every hit of your Eldritch Blast is not only mechanically strong, but feels powerful in practice with EB increasing in number of attacks as you level up. If you’re thinking about leaning on EB as a source of damage, you’re gonna want to have Agonizing Blast doin’ work for you. It would be trite to list and describe every available invocation here, since even at second level there’s roughly 15 available to choose from.

What I will say is that invocations can be extremely useful to shore up potential weakness in a character build, or allow access to previously inaccessible abilities. These abilities are things like feats, with Eldritch Mind mimicking half of the War Caster feat, or senses, with Devil’s Sight allowing you to see through even MAGICAL darkness to a distance of 120 ft. Let’s not forget at-will spellcasting! Like ye olde Warlock, Armor of Shadows, Eldritch Sight, and Fiendish Vigor, all allow you to cast spells on yourself at-will (Mage Armor, Detect Magic, False Life), and any of those options can be interesting options for a character both mechanically, and flavorfully.

For instance, the spell False Life (accessed via Fiendish Vigor) provides 1d4+4 temporary hit points for up to an hour, without needing to concentrate. That isn’t a LOT of temporary hit points (THP), but being able to cast the spell at-will means that you can rip through a few casts until you get that max roll of 8 THP when you’re out of combat. With a d8 hit dice, an extra 8 to your max HP can feel a lot like having an additional level in your class, at least for the first 8-10 levels.

If you wanted to build a tankier feeling Warlock, Fiendish Vigor is a great little invocation to take, especially since when you level up you can swap out one of your invocations for another than you also meet the prerequisites for. ALL I’m saying is that Expeditious Retreat and Fiendish Vigor don’t suck THAT bad and that there’s SO little risk in taking them that you MIGHT AS WELL GIVE THEM A SHOT.  

With that we’re finally moving onto level 3, and while it may not be as wildly action packed as the first two, it’s still pretty fuuuuuuuucking sweet. The first thing to mention is that we learn another spell, bringing us up to 4 total spells known, and our spell slots become level 2! Warlocks learn a spell at nearly every level, which is very handy for helping our spell list to evolve as our spell slots grow to 5th level. Coming into level 3, we’ll know three 1st level spells.

This means that we can learn a 2nd level spell, and potentially change out one of our existing 1st level spells for another 2nd level spell. This would result in knowing two 1st and 2nd level spells, and can provide a lot of flexibility in your spell-based repertoire. With regards to potential spell choices, the combination of the aforementioned Devil’s Sight invocation and the Darkness spell (2nd level) cannot be denied. The magical Darkness prevents vision for a large majority of creatures within the D&D cosmos, but Devil’s Sight penetrates even the spookiest of darkness. Mechanically, this subjects creatures in the darkness to the Blinded condition, which basically means they have disadvantage on their attack rolls and everything has advantage against them.

The goofy thing is that if all parties within the darkness are equally blinded, the nature of advantage and disadvantage causes the various sources to cancel out, so everyone is rolling without either. This holds true for everybody WITHIN the darkness, but people outside the darkness just…. can’t see in. So, if whatever they wanna do requires “a target you can see”, they’re pretty screwed for the most part. Basically, it might be a good way to give yourself advantage, but also might absolutely screw the rest of your party. So, it really comes down to, how much do you like your party??

Look, level 2 honestly has some really great spell choices, so much so that we could spend an awful lot of time going into the pros and cons and which spells fit with which builds. All I’ll say is that Misty Step and Mirror Image are both phenomenal spells to have and that they’ll become less valuable as your slots level up. One of the mini-games within the Warlock class is tailoring your spell choices to what level your Pact Magic slots are. Since you only have (for now) slots of one level at a time, every spell you cast is going to be the same level.

That may sound like a stupid simplification, and it is, but it’s also important to remember as you have the opportunity to choose new spells. Not all spells “upcast” well, meaning that not all spells benefit from being cast with a higher-level slot than the spell organically is. Going back to Darkness, while it is no doubt a potent level 2 spell, it gains no benefit from being cast with a higher-level spell slot, it literally doesn’t change. Compared to the previously mentioned Hex, which increases with duration as it’s upcast, that fucking SUCKS. Granted, we are comparing a spell designed specifically for the Warlock class, and another Level 2 spell that happens to synergize well, but still. 

Finally, we’ve got our Pact Boon, or Subclass Part 2: Electric Boogaloo. Basically, since you’ve done such a good job Warlockin’, your Patron has decided to bestow ANOTHER unique blessing on you. Instead of spells and other assorted magical powers, this time we get STUFF. Specifically, you get to choose from the Blade, the Tome, the Talisman, and the Chain. The boon you choose ends up informing quite a lot of your character since there are a number of invocations that have prerequisites relating to a boon. I really like pact boons; they add another lovely source of customization for your character and are also thematically awesome.

For instance, let’s say you’re a young half-elven duelist, and you’ve always wanted to be the very best, like no-one ever was. You’re pretty good with a sword, but poor and from common stock, and the only way to access the very BEST instructors is through the local nobility. There’s nothing you can do about that, and your frustration drives you to leave the town and your lack of prospects behind. Only a few days into your travels, you doze off next to a forest glade and wake up to find yourself trapped in what appears to be a naturally grown cage made of light but strong wood.

The Fey Price who enjoys the way the sunlight shines on this glade, every second Thursday of even-numbered months, happened upon you and couldn’t help but notice the disappointment and hurt in your heart. Finding your struggle amusing and admirable, he offers you the tools to follow your dreams, as long as you make sure that this glade is safe and unmarred by civilization. The Prince provides you with blessings including the means to disguise yourself (Mask of Many Faces invocation), and a shape-shifting magical weapon fit for their champion, your Pact of the Blade. That’s pretty cool right?? All of the available boons can provide just as much rich inspiration for your character and their narrative progression! 

If you couldn’t tell, I’m a bit of a Pact of the Blade fanboy, because having a magical weapon that can change its shape and also be stored in a pocket dimension is SO COOL. Like holy shit that’s so cool. Anyway, if you’re a nerd you can take something like the Pact of the Tome, so you can more convincingly cosplay as a Wizard. Yes, it’s the only way to access Ritual Casting as a warlock, and yes you can snipe any three cantrips from ANY class list, and YES you can choose Find Familiar as one of those rituals, but still, NERD.

Pact of the Chain is a very clever way for your patron to keep even closer tabs than usual on you, but it’s still probably worth it. Learning Find Familiar is great, even if you can technically get it through the Tome and the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation. Learning Find Familiar and being able to summon an Imp, Pseudodragon, Quasit, or Sprite, is even better since all four of those familiar types can do fun and interesting things! Each option has heaps of potential for both roleplay and mechanics, and adds another layer of modularity for your character. I mean, three out of four of those options have the Invisibility Action, where they can just magically turn invisible (including equipment that’s being worn or carried until it attacks or loses concentration. Combine that with the Bottled Respite ability granted by the Genie patron, and your familiar will be able to invisibly sneak you both into just about wherever you’d like to go.

The final, and newest option is the Pact of the Talisman. The Talisman is a neat little necklace that your patron gives you, which lets the wearer add a d4 to a failed ability check which could potentially cause the check to succeed, and can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. That’s not BAD, since you only need the d4 if you’re going to fail the check, and since you can allow someone else to wear your talisman. But it’s not particularly amazing either. I usually get all sorts of excited about class features that let you do stuff your class isn’t supposed to, and adding a d4 to an ability check is a lot more Cleric or Bard than it is Warlock, buuuuuuuuuuuuut it’s kinda meh. Thematically, I think it’s SUPER cool. A magical trinket that your patron can juice up with magic, that allows you or a friend to cheat the probability of reality? That’s pretty freaking sweet, and might actually be cool enough to change my whole opinion.  

I promise that every level from this point forward won’t be nearly so packed with juice, and I really can’t be blamed for going into detail on all that tasty shit. That isn’t to say that there aren’t goodies to look forward to, because I assure you, they are DECADENT.  

 Level four starts off with learning a new spell, which is great, and then an Ability Score Improvement, which is better! Ability Score Improvements, or ASI’s, allow you to allocate two points into your Ability Scores. Depending on your game, your DM may also allow you to instead take a Feat! For the uninitiated, feats are an optional rule that allow access to a set of features you can essentially purchase with your ability score improvement. Some feats are awesome, some are fucking usless, and some are so strong that they’re seen as necessary for certain class builds (lookin’ at you Great Weapon Master).

My personal recommendation would probably be to look at your stats first, since at level four you haven’t been able to pump them at all. Realistically you’re going to want to put those points into Charisma, since you’re probably going to use it for just about everything, unless your Constitution is trash. If you’re bound and determined to take a feat, there are a few options worth looking at. I personally love Skill Expert for just about any character, but it may not be the best allocation of resources early on.

On the other hand, Fey Touched from Tasha’s, is an absolute BANGER of a feat for a warlock. First off, it’s a half-feat, which means that part of the benefit is a point to put into either Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. That isn’t true for all half-feats, but it is for this one! On top of a point being put into charisma (duh), Fey Touched also teaches you the spell Misty Step and then one first level spell of your choice from the schools of divination or enchantment.

You may then cast those spells FOR FREE, once per day, and use any spell slots of the appropriate level after that to cast them again, simply meaning that you can’t use a first level spell slot to cast Misty Step after that point. Now, that’s fucking fantastic. A free short-range, bonus-action teleport is absolutely wonderful for basically any character. But it’s especially lovely for the…. spell-slot challenged. Not to mention that you get to choose ANOTHER spell, and that even with the restrictions you can still choose from amazing spells like: Bless, Bane, Detect Magic, Heroism. None of those are on the Warlock spell list, really! Not even Bane, which is a warlocky ass spell if you ask me. You could also take Hex, which would give you a free casting per day and then you could swap it out for something else on your spell list, but you do you boo boo. 

OH SHIT LEVEL FIVE LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO. There isn’t a class in D&D that doesn’t absolutely adore level five. I wanna say that Druids probably have the most boring level five and they can finally Conjure Animals which is one of the more druidy things you can do! Of all the classes, Warlocks might almost love fifth level the most. Not only do we get another beam of EB, giving us another attack roll for every Action we use to cast it, but we ALSO get Fireb… oh that’s only for warlocks with a fiendish patron?

Well…. sucks to suck for everyone else, but I guess this time it doesn’t suck to work for Zariel. So yeah, we get third level spell slots, which is when shit starts to get reaaaaaal magical. I’m not gonna say that your DM will hate you for Hypnotic Pattern or Counterspell, but they won’t be fuckin jazzed about it. On the spectrum of “player picks up a blatantly cursed weapon” to “player brings an uninterested romantic partner to game night”, it’s probably closer to door number two. 

Level five also increases Proficiency Bonus for the first time, from a +2 to a +3. This may sound like nothing, but your proficiency bonus is used in an enormous amount of your modifiers. Between potentially bumping up your Charisma at level four, and proficiency bonus at level five, it can be easy to have a net +2 to a majority of your rolls over the course of two levels. That bonus will also apply to your spell save DC, so even a save-based warlock is going to be feeling strong! 

The last thing we need to talk about for level five is something known as invocation tax. What this refers to, is the need for a warlock to take certain invocations to make their character work, mostly with regard to their pact boon. For instance, if you want to play a weapon-based warlock with a pact of the blade, you have the opportunity to use your fifth level invocation to take Thirsting Blade.

This invocation allows you to attack with your pact weapon twice, whenever you take the Attack action, which is great! That’s a 100% increase in weapon damage, and emulates Extra Attack, which is the class feature that martial classes receive at level five. You get to stay consistent with other martial classes in terms of attacks made and general scaling, but it does mean that you HAVE to use your invocation choice for that. With how few invocations we have, this can feel not so great.

That being said, this is one of the things I love so much about the Warlock class. You have the options, and resources, to make nearly any character concept work thanks to the bevy of choices you have. The thing to remember is that while you can make nearly anything work, it will require choices to be made with clear intent. Also, just to be clear, all of the pact boons have an invocation or two that are just about necessary for them to function at their best, it’s not JUST pact of the blade. 

Sixth level is…the first level that’s kind of boring. Yes, we get another blessing from our Patron, but level six is largely the defensive level for your Otherworldly Patron so it’s mostly resistances and then that weird Accursed Specter that Hexblades get. That being said, I want to give a huge shout-out to Guardian Coil from The Fathomless patron. This is such a cool feature that it made me give this whole patron a second look.

To back up a hair, at level one The Fathomless patron bestows upon you the ability to magically summon one of its tentacles. It doesn’t specifically say that said tentacle is in fact one of your Patron’s tentacles, but it also doesn’t say that it isn’t and I can see absolutely no reason why this wouldn’t be the case. To be honest, if you’re the type of person to seek out a giant squid god to make a pact with, you’re probably SUPER into tentacles already. Could be the suckers too, you could be into the suckers.

Anyway, you get to summon one of its tentacles and batter folks upside the head with it using your bonus action. At level six, when you or a creature you can see takes damage within 10 feet of the tentacle, you can use your bonus action to reduce that damage by 1d8. I like that a lot! It’s not going to be as game changing as a counterspell, but it’s something you can use frequently for either yourself or your big burly barbarian up on the front lines. Something else to consider is that you probably aren’t going to use your Reaction every turn, so your lil slimy boi here can let you squeeze every last drop out of your action economy. All I’m saying is that The Fathomless has a lot to offer, and not JUST all the sexy tentacles. 

Our seventh level brings another spell known, another invocation, and also fourth level spell slots! If you were to ask someone their favorite level of spell slot, I really doubt the first one that comes to mind is going to be four. It’s the bottom side of halfway to level nine, and seems forgettable. But there’s enough fuckin juice in here to keep you sippin for years. I mean, these are spells you’re going to cast and want to keep casting, especially for a warlock!

Banishment has historically been one of my favorite spells to cast for my warlocks, because it’s fucking GROSS. You attempt to force a creature of your choice to the plane of existence it came from, which is only like 30% as racist as it sounds. The target has to make a Charisma saving throw, which in and of itself is fantastic because like 90% of your enemies will be terrible at them. If they succeed, nothing happens which is a huge bummer, but if they fail it depends on where they came from…so yeah, a little racist.

If the target is native to the plane of existence, you’re on, they’re sent to a harmless demiplane and knocked unconscious. If they ain’t from round here, they get sent home, with a faint popping noise! It would be easy to call the lack of repeated saving throws the best part of this spell, but it’s obviously the fact that there is canonically a faint popping noise. Once the target is banished, they stay that way until you lose concentration, or one-minute passes. If you stay focused the whole time, and the target is native to a different plane, they just…stay there. It’s an amazing way to deal with an enemy that you’d rather not fuck with at this very moment.

Plus, if you can mop up the rest of the bad guys, nothing stops you from coordinating a curb stomp on the nerd you banished when you drop your concentration. I genuinely intended to go into detail on a few other spells here, but fuck do I love Banishment. Instead, we’ll do this: Dimension Door is a necessity, Blight is how you say fuck YOU, Hallucinatory Terrain lets you bamboozle a building, and Sickening Radience is a shockingly lethal microwave. 

At level eight we learn another spell and get an Ability Score Improvement. 

Level nine is a lot like level seven, in that we learn a spell, an invocation, and our slots jump up another level. However, at level nine we ALSO get a bump to proficiency bonus, taking us from +3 to +4, and getting us awfully close to +10 territory. The star of level nine is absolutely getting our spell slots up to fifth level, which is deeeeeeeelightful.

Upcasting a spell is almost always more powerful than using a lower-level slot, and for most classes is avoided for the sake of efficiency. We don’t have to worry about that though, since dear old patron HATES bookkeeping and says that all of our slots are now fifth level, forever. Which is honestly fine, it’s a good level to upcast a lot of spells to, and comes with some pretty tasty spells of its own accord. I mean stuff like Hold Monster and Scrying are both outstanding choices, for combat and roleplay alike.

Hold Monster allows you to paralyze anything that isn’t undead or just like, a house, and Scrying is a reminder that with enough money you can spy on anyone. I have to throw a recommendation out for Far Step as well, because it facilitates the anime swordsman bullshit that I love better than anything this side of Steel Wind Strike. The last thing I have to say about our fifth level choices, is that outside of The Undying, all of the patron spells are fantastic and you’re probably going to want to snag one of them after Far Step. 

Tenth level is kind of weird, because in lieu of learning a spell we learn a cantrip! Which is odd since we probably already know Eldritch Blast, but hey maybe you haven’t gotten around to it yet. The rest of level ten is devoted to our Otherworldly Patron Feature, and outside of a couple of specific examples they’re all fucking fantastic.

Unfortunately, The Undying fails us yet again since Undying Nature is basically a fucking ribbon. Not needing to breathe, eat, drink, or sleep, is very flavorful, but there’s zero mechanical benefit. The text even says that you still require rest to reduce exhaustion, and still benefit from short/long rests, so you don’t get to cheat around spell slot rules or anything!

Every other Patron absolutely makes it rain with features that are thematic, and powerful. It may not be the most powerful, but Beguiling Defenses provided by The Archfey, is probably my favorite of the tenth level features. Immunity to the charmed condition may not change the game, but it’s a fantastically on-brand thing for The Archfey to bless you with. “If anybody’s gonna mind-control my apostle it’s gonna be me!”.

The cherry on top is that in the event some fool does try and charm you, you can use your reaction to hit them with a NO U and force them to save against your save DC or be charmed for 1 minute or until they take damage. It’s a fun ability that provides thematic strength, both of which are things that make for a top tier class feature. 

Level eleven is the first major power spike after level five, for just about every class in the game, and if you’re familiar with the “tiers of play” it marks the beginning of tier 3. What I’m trying to say is that you should buckle the fuck up buttercup, it’s time to frag.

First things first, EB gets a third beam and therefore third opportunity to apply damage from Hex or Agonizing Blast, but even without that is a 50% increase in damage potential. This is such a huge quality of life upgrade that before long you’ll forget what it was like to only have two beams. Speaking of quality of life, it’s also time for our THIRD GODDAMN PACT MAGIC SLOT. Three slots per short rest?? Is this how full casters feel all the time?? Fat, ripe, even overflowing with arcane power??

Intoxicating doesn’t even begin to describe the freedom and feeling of casting with such reckless abandon. Which is good, because our other landmark feature isn’t one, we can be so reckless with. Mystic Arcanum is a blessing, but also the price that we pay for our quickly regenerating pact magic slots. Our lovely patrons bestow upon us the ability to cast AH sixth level spell that we can cast once per day without using a spell slot, which is important for a couple of reasons.

The flavor of our Mystic Arcanum is that your single spell is a magical secret taught by your patron, so the fact that it’s an unchangeable ability makes sense. The behind-the-scenes function is as a counterbalance to the flexibility of Eldritch Blast and Pact Magic. The Spell Point variant in the Dungeon Master’s Guide has a similar limit, where the flexibility of the variant system is offset by only being able to use those points to cast one spell of each level sixth and above per day, depending on your level. 

Remember earlier, when I said that being a Warlock requires conviction? Well, that is never truer than when it comes time to choose Mystic Arcanum. Rules as written, once you learn your Mystic Arcanum spells, they are fixed and unable to be changed. So be extremely careful about what you take, or prepare to live in disappointment like I did with fucking Eyebite. The only reason I was able to salvage that character is because Tom is the world's most generous DM, thank you again Tom.

Fortunately for you, that mistake can be avoided and you can instead choose a better spell that you’ll actually want to cast every day! Another fortunate thing is that a lot of the sixth level warlock spells have strong identities, and can be pretty sweet special moves regardless of how your warlock gets down. While Circle of Death sure sounds like the edgiest option, that honor really has to go to Soul Cage.

The only edgy part of Circle of Death is the radius and damage type, while everything about Soul Cage is SO FUCKING MEAN. When I say mean, what I’m trying to say is that there isn’t even a word for the kind of bullying that Soul Cage is. Put yourself in the shoes of the recently murdered henchperson, a henchperson that thought the worst of their suffering was over, and is about to find about that they couldn’t be more wrong. Soul Cage traps the soul of a recently deceased in an adorable tiny silver cage and then allows the caster to milk that soul for information and abilities, like a macabre MegaMan.

The four options are: Steal Life, Query Soul, Borrow Experience and Eyes of the Dead, and believe it or not Steal Life is the lamest option. When you only have six charges to burn, using one to heal 2d8 is a lot less useful than Query Soul, which lets you force the soul to TRUTHFULLY answer a question. The answer is still short, potentially cryptic, and the soul only knows what it knew in life, but that's still a lot of information. Same for Eyes of the Dead which essentially lets you Scry on a place the dead humanoid saw in life, and the eight-hour duration of Soul Cage allows you to set up somewhere safe for your creeping. I really can’t spend any more time talking about Soul Cage, and I honestly meant to make other recommendations here, but we all know that’s just going to end with a tirade about how cool the Investitures are, but how disappointing it is to only have one.

One final asterisk on all of this is that Eldritch Versatility allows for a warlock of twelfth level or higher to replace one spell from Mystic Arcanum with a spell of the same level. However, this only functions on levels where you gain an ASI, which after level twelve is a grand total of twice.

Level twelve is something of a reload level, in the sense that we get another ASI and Invocation, but Pact of the Blade loooooooooooves it. The Lifedrinker invocation allows wielders of the blade pact to add their Charisma modifier to the damage of their pact weapon, which helps them stay somewhat in line with similarly leveled martial characters. If you are playing a Pact of the Blade warlock, you should not really expect to function identically to a martial character, but you also don’t want to feel like you’re hitting your enemies with a pool noodle. If you aren’t down like that, I dunno, take Misty Visions and get creative or some shit. 

Level thirteen brings us to another Mystic Arcanum, obviously for our seventh level choice. There are fewer choices here than compared to sixth level spells, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because the choices that we do have are delightful. Crown of Stars and Finger of Death are both potent sources of damage for any growing warlock, and while I’m a fan of Crown of Stars for the blending of Eldritch Blast shots with the motes from the Crown, Finger of Death is unquestionably the bigger flex.

I think that there’s room for an honest debate about which spell would look cooler, and Crown of Stars is likely to do more damage, but come on the spell is literally called FINGER of Death. You can tell someone to go fuck themselves to death, and it might just happen! Plus, if a humanoid is slain by this spell they’re raised as a zombie permanently under your control, which is a whole new level of disrespect. Plus, you could dump both of your Mystic Arcanums on some unsuspecting fool and murder them with Finger of Death, just to use your reaction to snag them with your Soul Cage. You would then have their body as your permanent zombie, and soul in a cage ready to be milked for all its magical juices.

I don’t know what KIND of evil that would be, but it should probably start with a capital E. It’s also RAW as the only Casting Time limit for spellcasting is with regards to casting a spell with a Bonus Action and available options after that point, nerds. Oh, proficiency bonus also scales up to 5 at this point, so you should probably have a +10 to most things you’re super good at, which is always sweet. 

Fourteenth level is our final Otherworldly Patron Feature, and it’s…. a mixed bag. Hurl Through Hell is powerful, flavorful, and satisfying to use. The Fiend patron really knocks it out of the park here with an ability that you are going to want to use on the first even remotely tough looking bad guy you see.

The first thing I love about this feature is that it doesn’t require the target to make a saving throw, and you don’t have to make a specific attack roll to hurl something through the titular hell. All you need to do is hit with AN attack, not even a specific attack, and you can choose to hurl said fool through hell. This functions very similarly to Divine Smite from the Paladin class, at least in terms of efficiency and casting time, definitely not in theme. The target then spends the next turn hurtling through a “nightmare landscape”, and at the END of your next turn it reappears and takes 10d10 psychic damage unless it’s a fiend.

That’s an average of 55 psychic damage, which is going to royally fuck up a shitload of creatures. The damage is wonderful, but the biggest strengths are being able to remove a target from combat for a turn without being able to make a saving throw to avoid it. No saving throw means that a boss monster won’t have a chance to use a Legendary Resistance and completely shut your shit down, and working through Legendary Resistances is a huge part of high-level D&D combat.

I would also be remiss to not point out that Lesser Wish from the Genie patron is just as fucking broken as it sounds. It’s like regular old ninth level Wish, but you can ONLY use it to cast any sixth level spell you want without meeting any of the requirements and off any spell list. While it does take 1d4 long rests to get back after using, that’s still pretty banana pancakes.

Before getting into level fifteen, I realize I’ve neglected to point out all the times that we’ve learned spells since our pact magic slots hit level five. It’s been a few, and hopefully you’ve used those options to round out your repertoire and fill in the gaps in your options. Or don’t round it out and fucking fully send damage spells, I can’t tell you want to do, I’m not your dad.

Anyway, the big banger of level fifteen is another Mystic Arcanum that lets us pick our eighth level spell. There really aren’t very many options, so you can basically choose whether you want: to create new pocket dimensions, dominate anything, ruin somethings brain, lie REALLY well, make the scariest haunted house ever, or use a level five Monk ability.

That might be a little unfair, since Power Word Stun doesn’t allow a save on the initial instance of the Stunned condition, whereas Stunning Strike requires a successful attack roll AND a failed constitution save. But Power Word Stun still fucking blows, and if you take it, you should feel bad.

It MIGHT be cool for a DM to flex nuts on another spellcaster, since the target must be below 150 Hit Points, and unless you’re Brom the fucking Broken Bladesinger, they probably aren’t that stout. Before you ask, yes, Brom is all my fault, and no, a Wizard should not have that many Hit Points. I’d like to say it’s because I’m a generous DM, but it’s probably because I struggle to say no to my friends when they have an idea that sounds SO FUCKING COOL.

We also get another invocation, bringing us to seven total, and also to the end of the level-gated invocations. At level fifteen we can take stuff like Shroud of Shadow, for at-will Invisibility, or Visions of Distant Realms for at-will Arcane Eye, both of which continue to slot into the theme of at-will caster virtuoso. 

Wizards of the Coast must hate the number eight, because level eight was the most boring level UNTIL LEVEL SIXTEEN. We get an Ability Score Improvement, that's IT. The only classes that get anything outside of an ASI at level sixteen are: Barbarians (+1 rage/day), Monks (+1 Ki point), Paladins (+5 Lay on Hands), and Sorcerers (+1 Sorcery point). It’s pretty much just Barbarians getting angrier and then anything that’s based on total levels in a class, which is kind of an overall dead level since Barbarians are always finding new ways to be angry. 

Level seventeen may as well be level twenty for all the fuckin juice that’s packed into it. We FINALLY get our fourth Pact Magic slot per short rest, and also get our ninth level Mystic Arcanum! That’s right, we finally get that good good max level magic, and again we have a few distinct options outside of Genie patron warlocks who are the cheatingest of the cheaters because they can take Wish. Apparently Lesser Wish wasn’t good enough for the spoiled brats, they also had to be the only subclass that gets an expanded list for their Mystic Arcanum, and it’s expanded to fucking WISH.

For those of you who don’t know, the primary function of the ninth level spell Wish is that you may cast any spell of eighth level or lower without meeting any of the requirements. That’s an enormous assortment of spells, with a staggering number of potential applications. If that isn’t enough, you can also use Wish to do a whole bunch of other bullshit that breaks most of the foundational rules of D&D. If you choose to engage in such chicanery, there’s a 33% chance that you never get to cast Wish again, so ya know, be careful.

All of that being said, there are seven options for most warlocks and their ninth level Mystic Arcanum, and most of them are honestly pretty sweet. Astral Projection and Imprisonment are both big time plot device spells, which may end up being necessary to a campaign but not necessarily spells you’re going to cast every day. When you only have ONE available ninth level spell, I am of the opinion that you’re going to want to make sure that it’s one you love.

The remaining five spells could all arguably fit that niche, even if Foresight is my favorite. Part of that is that Foresight enables the anime swordsmen vibe harder than just about any spell this side of Steel Wind Strike, but also that it lasts for eight hours with no concentration. Now, this is just as vulnerable to a Dispel Magic as any magical effect or spell, but advantage on every roll you make is a pretty amazing benefit. I recommend you give all of the other ninth level spells a thorough reading.

Blade of Disaster is a much better Arcane Sword, like a much much better version. True Polymorph is how to train your friends to become a dragon, Power Word Kill is exactly what it sounds like, and Psychic Scream can canonically make heads explode, what more do you want?

 I am not going to cover the next three levels. Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty all fucking blow for warlocks. The most exciting parts are another invocation at eighteen, and an ASI at nineteen. Our capstone is fuuuuuuuuuuucking bad, which I suppose is fair since a lot of capstones are bad.

Eldritch Master is so misnamed that I’m tempted to start calling myself Handsome McRichguy since apparently words mean fucking nothing. How does being able to quickly flex through PART of a short rest ONCE per day make you an Eldritch Master? Ya know what would’ve been cool, outside of literally anything else? How about access to some of the Dark Invocations from Complete Arcane?

Yeah, we’ve come all the way back to the beginning. You can see traces of this, since the Dark Foresight invocation provided access to…Foresight the spell. But why not just pull some other stuff too?? I mean damn, I can’t think of a Warlock that would say no to being able to use Dark Discorporation and become “...a swarm of batlike shadows, gaining many benefits of the swarm subtype”.

This doesn’t port directly to fifth edition, but fuck they could’ve tried! Or fucking ELDRITCH DOOM, capitalization mine, which is a Dark Blast Shape Invocation, that causes Eldritch Blast to affect all enemies within 20 ft. That’s reaaaaaaaaaaally cool, and twentieth level capstones SHOULD be absurd, that’s a hill I’m willing to die on. By the time you’re playing at that level, you’re just about playing Calvinball with the rules anyway, and if you’ve stuck with a class through all twenty levels you deserve to be rewarded. 

I may be furious about Eldritch Master being a waste of time, but overall, I adore this class, and I hope you do too. There aren’t many other classes that offer so many ways to fulfill the vision you have for your character, even if it is easy to just Eldritch Blast everything and sort out the details later. While warlocks are still the most at-will spellcaster in fifth edition, we end up feeling a little bit more like magical martial characters with some big special moves.

Eldritch Blast is a lot like a ranged weapon attack, but it’s cooler because you can literally finger-gun someone to death. Not finger-blast, that’s different and grosser. While our Pact Magic slots give us access to excellent options for both utility and area of effect damage spells, ensuring that we always have something up our sleeve, even if that option is often Hex or Synaptic Static. With a little creativity, and a lot of conviction, all things are possible through the path of the warlock. Unless you want to cast two sixth level spells per day, you’ll need to take that one up with Somewhat Humanoid Resources.