D&D 5e Warlock Subclasses Ranked Worst to Best
by Prince Phantom
Of all the full spellcasters (and yes, Warlock goes in that group, we get 9th level spells), I believe the Warlock is the one that is most dependent on their subclass. Without interesting things from the subclass, the Warlock boils down to Eldritch Blast and a few leveled spells per short rest, which just isn’t as exciting as I would hope.
A Warlock with a bad subclass can still do powerful things thanks to spells, but there is a big gap between the lowest and the highest rankings here. Also, keep in mind that the expanded spell lists only add their spells as options for when you learn new spells through leveling up. They are not automatically prepared, and therefore won’t have a huge impact on these rankings.
9: Undying
You know this subclass is bad, I know this subclass is bad, WOTC even knew that this subclass was bad, hence why they completely remade it as the Undead Warlock. The only thing interesting that Undying brings is Death Ward stacking with pact slots, which the Undead Warlock gets as well, so it’s not unique to this subclass. Just go back to forgetting that this exists.
8: Great Old One
Nothing pains my Eldritch Horror loving heart more than putting Great Old One so low, but the simple truth is that it just doesn’t do anything. The best thing about it is the expanded spells, and those still cost learned spell selections so that isn’t a big plus.
Awakened Mind is a decent form of telepathy, but that’s literally all we get until 6th level, where then all we get is to impose disadvantage on one attack per rest. Thought Shield is way too situational, and Create Thrall is another example of a feature not doing what its name implies. It’s just a permanent charm effect with infinite range telepathy stapled on.
The charmed condition is not mind control, they just regard you as a friend and you have advantage on checks to interact with them. You cannot use this to have the prince try to assassinate his father the king.
7: Archfey
There’s cool stuff in Archfey, just not enough of it. A few decent extra spell options, an AoE charm/frighten effect that has melee range and therefore is really dangerous to use, and a reaction to teleport after we take damage and turn invisible for a turn.
The problem is that both of those features are once per rest, which just leaves you feeling like you don’t have a subclass a lot of the time. Beguiling Defenses is situational, though complete immunity to charm is pretty nice.
Reflecting the charm will frequently be irrelevant, as charm in combat is not that great. Again, it isn’t mind control, you likely can’t get someone to change sides in the middle of a battle with this. Dark Delirium is neat, though again, once per rest. Let me use my cool subclass stuff more than once!
6: Celestial
The best part about Celestial is the Healing Word-like feature we get right at level 1. This is actually better than Healing Word for a few reasons. For one, it’s not a spell, meaning we can still cast a leveled spell on the same turn, and additionally, we get a ton of uses of it.
Past that, things get less exciting. Radiant Soul gives us extra damage to fire and radiant damage spells, but only +5 at most and only to one target of the spell. I like Celestial Resistance, giving us and our friends a big pool of temporary HP after every rest, and Searing Vengeance is a decent revival ability, though I’m never super high on revival abilities.
Wall of Fire is probably the best expanded spell, as outside of it I wouldn’t select any of these. This is a decent subclass, but we have much better options.
5: Fathomless
We’re in the realm of good subclasses now, and I wholeheartedly recommend you give any of these a spin. Fathomless gives us a very flexible tentacle that we can pound people with, laughing with pleasure as we watch them choke on our moist, sticky friend. Okay, maybe I should leave the raunchy writing to Robert…
Oh right, how good is this? Well, the tentacle deals pretty poor damage, but Warlocks are pretty free for their bonus action. The damage reduction ability is likewise very small in its impact, though you aren’t restricted on uses. I love the 10th level feature, essentially giving us a great spell and a slot to use it with, which is fantastic for a Warlock.
The 14th level ability has me very confused, as I have no idea how good or bad it is, but my intuition tells me it isn’t very good. Still, if you want a Warlock that can perform very consistently for the entire day, this will do just that.
4: Fiend
Fiend is just a subclass that has quality features and never misses. We can grab great spells like Command, Fireball, and Wall of Fire. Dark One’s Blessing keeps a steady supply of temporary HP flowing into us, Dark One’s Own Luck is one of the best features in the game to help us with saving throws, Fiendish Resilience is whatever you want each day (if you don’t know what to pick, grab piercing resistance, it’s the most common damage type on average.
Hurl Through Hell is one of my favorite features in the entire game, not even bothering to grant a saving throw, just instantly transporting your target straight to hell, do not pass go, and do collect 10d10 psychic damage on your way back to reality. Legendary resistance who?
So if all this is so great, why is this only above average? Well, there’s no real synergies here, and not much to build off of or towards. These are all generically good features but they don’t really work together at all. This is a perfect subclass for your first Warlock, or for someone who wants to play something simple, yet still fairly powerful.
3: Hexblade
Seeing Hexblade at #3 was probably enough to send some of you into cardiac arrest, but I am prepared to defend my position. First the good, and there is plenty of it, otherwise it wouldn’t make it this high on the list. Medium armor and shield proficiency is a massive increase to our AC over other Warlocks. This is such a big deal that I recommend that other Warlocks take the Moderately Armored feat ASAP to replicate this.
Hexblade’s Curse is a decent way to increase damage, though its incredibly limited uses means you won’t see it very often. It’s also completely outclassed by any means of attacking with that same bonus action used to set it up, in much the same way that Hex and Hunter’s Mark are. Using Charisma as our attacking stat is a big deal though, and is the reason why you see this multiclassed with Paladin so often.
And of course, therein lies the thing holding this subclass back from #1: when was the last time you saw someone play this without multiclassing? It’s easy to see why, there is a steep drop off in terms of quality of features after level 1.
Accursed Specter only works on humanoids, making it situational and only coming online when humanoid enemies start becoming less common is not helping either. Armor of Hexes relies on Hexblade’s Curse, meaning you won’t be seeing it in action very much at all. Master of Hexes just gives Hexblade’s Curse a feature it should have had at level 1. Yes, this subclass enables a ton of fantastic multiclass builds, but I cannot in good faith award it #1 when that’s normally how many levels of it people take.
2: Undead
Now THIS is how you fix a terrible subclass! Gut it, throw it out to the trash, and start over. Decent spell options in Death Ward and Greater Invisibility, along with some of the best subclass features of all Warlocks. Form of Dread is a fantastic transformation that gives us temporary HP, immunity to the frightened condition, and the chance to frighten an enemy we hit every turn. It’s rare that you can threaten to impose a status condition this frequently, and fear is a great one to do that with.
Level 6 further improves that with extra damage and not needing to eat, drink or breathe. That last one actually does come up occasionally. Level 10 makes us resistant to Necrotic damage and immune to it while in our dread form, and a revival effect. The 14th level feature is definitely weird, and certainly powerful. Undead is a great subclass to take one level in for Form of Dread, or go the full 20 and be a terrifying presence on the battlefield.
1: Genie
So if Undead was so amazing for combat, why does Genie rank higher? The reason is simple, Genie is just as good at combat, and has tons of out of combat utility.
First, we have 4 sub-subclasses here, one for each of the major Genie types. I believe Dao to be the strongest for their synergy with the Crusher feat, expanded spell list including Spike Growth and Wall of Stone, and having the best resistance in bludgeoning damage. The other options are good too, such as Efreeti getting access to Fireball, but Dao is the best of the options.
Genie’s Wrath gives us free damage every round, no action required, and Bottled Respite is one of the most interesting features in the game. We get an inter-dimensional room akin to the Demiplane spell, which we can access once per day. We can store items here, take short rests while our party is marching, be carried by our invisible Imp familiar to places we can’t normally access and then pop out, the possibilities are vast.
All that, and I’ve only talked about level 1! At further levels, we get a damage resistance based on our Genie type, and freaking FLIGHT with no concentration at level 6! Flying is amazing for ranged characters like Warlocks, and we get it for 10 minutes, proficiency times per day! Sanctuary Vessel at level 10 lets us have our party join us in the vessel, allowing for easy transportation with that familiar trick I mentioned earlier, and lets your party get a short rest in just 10 minutes.
Finally, we get Limited Wish, which is basically the Wish spell but only to replicate 6th level or lower spells. Oh, and we eventually get the actual Wish spell too, an additional feature that no other Warlock subclass can even hold a candle to. Everyone should give this a go, being Aladdin is amazing!
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