Warlock manual pdf

Thank you for the kind words Rojel! I am somewhat surprised that you dont even mention Actor in the feat list despite the great combo with the Mask of Many Faces. With the Mask, one can be anybody anytime, and will never be uncovered thanks to Actor except if somebody becomes that suspicious he pats you down or casts Dispel Magic.

Actor would be a great choice for a build that makes the most of Mask of Many Faces. Thanks for pointing that out! I have a level 1 fighter level 4 Warlock hex blade obviously who tanks with armor of Agathys.

Thanks for putting the multi class guide there! Though it may not be as good as the combos you mentioned, I think it would be worth mentioning the rogue since there are specific invocations that I think were made for rogue type feature, mask of many faces, one with the shadows.

Anyone using that combo would probably want to take the pact of the chain. I think a Rogue looking for invocations would be best off choosing the Eldritch Adept feats. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.

Learn how your comment data is processed. Welcome to our new Source Toggler! You can now use the buttons below to fine tune the content you see in our Class Guides. This feature is currently in beta testing and we haven't rolled it out to all of our guides yet. Please be patient while we work to make your experience on Arcane Eye a nat 20! Table of Contents. Did you know?

Aarakocra : The only beneficial thing here is flight. Aasimar : Any of the subraces will work for Warlock. Fallen and Protector are the best for sure. Since they have access to so many spells, a Warlock could use Shapechanger in combination with a whole host of Illusion spells to make a pretty sly character. Simic Hybrids : CHA is your only reasonable option for the flexible ability score. Carapace is a good choice for the squishier caster classes. A melee Hexblade Warlock could be an interesting build here as the Swiftstride has a way of avoiding opportunity attacks and grants a sizeable DEX boost.

The rest of the racial traits are very movement-focused, with some solid proficiencies thrown in. Control Air and Water gives you a few more spells to play with. Warforged : Warforged Warlocks do best when built with melee combat in mind. Warlocks need CHA and nothing else is critically important.

STR : Just no. INT : Dump this stat for sure. Best Backgrounds for Warlocks Charlatan : Deception to go with the great CHA and sleight of hand can always be useful Criminal : Deception and one of the most important skills in 5e, Stealth.

Persuasion is a super useful skill here. Skills : Unfortunately the Warlock only gets to pick two skills from their not-so-good Skill pool: Arcana INT : You will probably be leaving this up to other party members. If you have no other casters in your party it might be worth a take but dumping INT will make this tough. The Archfey The Archfey Warlock focuses on using the glamor and magic of the fey to ensnare the senses of enemies.

It can easily end encounters at lower levels. By the time you reach level 5 it will be pretty useless unless you want a semi-consistent way of none lethal damage. Faerie Fire : Faerie Fire is a better spell overall than Sleep because it scales and is a great way to deal with pesky invisibility. If any of the hostile creatures make their CHA saves, you will still be in for a bad time. Phantasmal Force : There are extreme situations where this could be useful, but it is simply not a good spell.

Plant Growth : Could be useful in certain circumstances when you need to control the battlefield. Greater Invisibility : Great spell to avoid damage in combat while also getting advantage on your attacks. Also, you can give it to a melee teammate for a very potent, hard to hit damage dealer. Seeming : Neat out of combat spell. Can help you get out of combat or for RP purposes. Save this for when the consequences are especially dire.

The immunity is great but being able to charm the enemy back is great value. This is less effective than just banishing the creature because the effect ends if the target takes any damage.

The upside is this is more powerful in RP scenarios. The Celestial Channel the power of an entity of the Upper Planes into divine healing energy. Scales well with levels. Especially so if you are up against a horde of weak enemies. Damage scales well with Warlock spell levels. Dispelling darkness could be situationally useful.

Revivify : Bringing allies back from the dead is extremely valuable. Guardian of Faith can also be used as a sort of alarm when taking a long rest in a dangerous place. Wall of Fire : Amazing battlefield control option to divide enemies and deal massive damage.

Greater Restoration : Great spell to have that can get you or party members out of very tricky situations. Bonus Cantrips Light : Useful, but you can probably go without it. Sacred Flame : Good ranged damage option early on but not as good as Eldritch Blast.

Scales well as a source of radiant damage and works with Radiant Soul. Healing Light : This option provides a really solid amount of bonus action, ranged healing. Unlike most Warlock features, this only recovers on a long rest. The addition of your CHA to one dice of fire and radiant damage is all well and good, but seeing as your spell slots are so limited you will likely end up relying on cantrips.

On top of that, you get to deal AoE radiant damage and blindness so it will be easier for you to get away from your assailants. The Fathomless Draw power from the crushing, dark cold of the deepest oceans. Thunderwave : One of your few options to knock opponents back if you find yourself in a sticky situation.

Silence : Silence is a niche spell with a high ceiling. Sleet Storm : Messes with enemy concentration, can extinguish flames, and has the potential to knock enemies prone. That said, it is still effective and scales with higher spell slots.

It can do repeat damage, help you escape, and hold down a baddy, all while increasing your action economy because it only uses a bonus action to command. Cone of Cold : Not quite as potent as Fireball or Lightning Bolt for the resource of a 5th Level spell slot and it targets CON saves which are a common proficiency in monsters.

This feature can provide tons of damage and action economy over an encounter. The fact that the tentacle sticks around without needing concentration, is a bonus action to summon, has an effective damage type, works with Hex, and has a small debuff on hit makes it extremely effective.

Gift of the Sea : Both a swimming speed and being able to breathe underwater are effective in the case that you need to go underwater. Whether that happens a lot your campaign is completely based on the environments encounter.

Guardian Coil : An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is made even more effective by the temp hp equal to your level every time you cast it and the lack of concentration requirement. Unfortunately, this teleportation is particularly limited. First, the distance can only be up to one mile.

Genie Spells : Nothing truly amazing from this spell list other than Wish , which you can now pick up with your Mystic Arcanum. Dao Spells : Some battlefield control options but nothing spectacular. Efreeti Spells : Easily the best spell list. You get access to all of the damage-dealing classics. Marid Spells : All of these spells are decent pickups. Good mix of utility, battlefield control, and AoE damage.

The additional damage equal to your proficiency bonus is a solid amount of damage to add to each attack. Of course, this is limited from being an insanely powerful feature by the long cooldown time of 1d4 long rests. The Hexblade Channel your powers through a weapon summoned from the plane of shadows.

Scales well with Warlock spell slots. False Life : A good way to get temp hp, but you will be given a better way to do this in your Form of Dread feature. Still, one-hour duration and no concentration can make this a worthwhile way to heal after your Form HP have run out. Only downside is that is targets CON. Speak With Dead : Get some interesting lore, help solve a mystery, or get advice on how to proceed through a dungeon.

Greater Invisibility : Probably the best buff in the game, tied with Haste. Attack with advantage and enemies attack you with disadvantage. It will also hedge out your allies. Cloudkill : Not great in an open field but if you can get the drop on an enemy or contain a group of enemies within the spell it can be very effective because it deals damage turn after turn, as long as the caster keeps concentration.

It can also be effective to block off a vantage point used by ranged enemies. Form of Dread : The temp HP are great and scale with level. The free Frightened effect once per turn is an amazing addition to your Eldritch Blasts. The only downside is the effect automatically ends, as opposed to continuing until the creature saves.

The real magic happens when you can roll an additional damage dice while in your form of dread once per turn. An extra d10 of damage per turn really stacks up over the course of an encounter. Additionally, you get a feature that allows you to resist death and instead deliver an AoE attack at the cost of 1 level of exhaustion. First off, you can pick up more damage resistances from bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing.

Second, you gain a flying speed and can move through objects and walls. While the design intent for Dragonmarks was that they would offer some innate spellcasting for everyone, every dragonmark includes an expanded spell list which is arguably a more significant benefit than most of the provided racial traits. Dragonmarks are uniquely helpful for the Warlock. Any amount of extra spellcasting can significantly improve your capabilities since your spell slots are so limited.

Dragonmark traits replace some of your normal racial traits, as described in the entry for each Dragonmark. Basically a worse locathah unless you plan to put ability score increases into Constitution and ignore Dexterity entirely. Animal Enhancement offers several excellent options as you gain levels, and saves you the trouble of getting those effects from your limited number of spell slots.

Vedalken Dispassion provides an excellent defensive option, and Tireless Precision can make you more effective at some non-magical stuff. If you just want durability the Yuan-Ti Pureblood may be more effective, but the Vedalken is still a very effective choice.

Wildemount elves share the core traits of PHB elves, but Wildemount adds two new subraces. See above for more information on other elf subraces. Wildemount halflings share the core traits of PHB halflings, but Wildemount adds a new subrace. See above for information on other halfling subraces. Lineages are applied on top of a base race. Despite selecting a base race, you do not count as a member of your race for the purposes of any other effect, such as qualifying for feats or using magic items.

Hex and Disguise Self for free save you the trouble of learning them, not to mention saving you spell slots since you can cast each of them once per day for free. Ancestral Legacy can get you either two skills or a movement type, and either is a great options. Flight is probably the go-to choice here, making the Hexblood at least equal to the Fairy in effectiveness. If you go for skills, you can expand beyond Face skills, and Knowledge From a Past Life will provide a useful bonus on skill checks.

Instead, this section will cover the options which I think work especially well for the class, or which might be tempting but poor choices. Racial feats are discussed in the Races section, above. Since Warlocks already have high Charisma and access to two Face skills, look for Persusasion, bonus languages, and possibly Insight.

Instead, this section will cover feats which I think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices. Only Blade Pact Warlocks actually need weapons, which means that only Hexblades should be using them. Hexblades get proficiency with shields, and since warlocks have relatively low hit dice and hexblades still only get medium armor I think a shield is a good idea most of the time. For more on multiclassing, see my Practical Guide to Multiclassing. Your eyes search for the source of the purple blast that just blew past your hair.

After adjusting from the momentary brightness, they land on a burnished orange Tiefling, her white eyes reflecting the violet hues of the fizzling spell.

She stands tall and graceful with her leather armor and elegantly curved horns, her beauty as enchanting as her power. If you need a functional build with nothing fancy or complicated, this is a great place to start.

The combination of Tiefling and Infernal patron place a lot of emphasis on fire damage. Fortunately warlocks can always fall back on Eldritch Blast. If your party already has a Face, it may be helpful to adjust your ability scores to raise your Intelligence, then pick up options like Arcana, History, Nature or Religion. Also keep in mind that certain Eldritch Invocations can give you proficiency in more skills.

None of the options in the basic rules are an especially good fit for us as a Face, unfortunately. Criminal gets us a redundant proficiency in Deception which we can trade for Persuasion, and Noble gets us Persuasion on its own, so either of the two will work. Elemental Adept Fire and Flames of Phlegethos will both help keep your fire damage options useful, and Magic Initiate can help pad your spellcasting options. At this level you can cast Hellish Rebuke as a racial spell, so knowing it as a Warlock spell is less useful.

The Warlock starts immediately with a relationship to their patron. Pact Magic starts of slow. You get just two spells known and just one spell slot to share between the two, so your spell slot needs to do a lot of work between short rests. Use Burning Hands to handle multiple enemies, or save your spell slot for Hellish Rebuke if something gets into melee with you.

For cantrips, take Eldritch Blast for fighting and Mage Hand for utility. I would normal say Prestidigitation, but you get Thaumaturgy for free as a Tiefling, which I think provides enough magical miscellany to get you through first level.

When combat breaks out, your go-to option is either Eldritch Blast or your crossbow. I typically recommend Hex as a good 1st-level spell for the Warlock because you can get so much mileage out of one spell slot.

At this level you get your second spell slot, and you get Agonizing Blast. Agonizing Blast adds your Charisma bonus to the damage dealt by Eldritch Blast, making it truly your go-to option for combat. At this level consider learning Protection from Evil and Good. At third level you get to pick a Pact Boon. The Imp is easily the best familiar option available. See my assessment of Pact of the Chain above. At this level you might consider sending your imp to attack rather than casting Eldritch Blast.

This level raises your spell slots to 2nd level, so you can start learning 2nd-level spells. Send your familiar to use the Help action to assist your allies, which will offset the Disadvantage for attacking in the dark. Your first Charisma does a lot for you.

At this level you learn a new cantrip. I suggest a utility option like Minor Illusion or Prestidigitation, but you may want Chill Touch if you really want more offensive options for some reason.

By this level we have a defensive spell Hellish Rebuke , an AOE spell Burning Hands , and an area control spell Darkness , so a utility spell or crowd control spell is a good addition to our arsenal. I recommend Invisibility, but Enthrall and Spider Climb are great options too. At 5th level you get access to some new invocation options. This opens a fun combination: Voice of the Chain Master allows you to speak through your familiar. Thaumaturgy which you get as a racial spell allows you to triple the volume of your voice.

Your imp can turn invisible. So you can have your imp turn invisible, fly somewhere, and you can speak through your imp like a terrifying invisible megaphone. At this level you gain the ability to cast Darkness as a racial spell.

Finally, 5th level adds a second ray to Eldritch Blast. Counterspell allows you to shut down enemy spellcasts though it will feel like a disappointing way to spen a spell slot and Dispel Magic will allow you to remove problematic ongoing magical effects. More attack and damage with Eldritch Blast and a higher save DC with everything else. Grab Banishment so that you can one-shot powerful extraplanar enemies.

At this point you have a lot of options for your invocations, and deciding can be very difficult. Whispers of the Grave is a nice, universally-appealing option. Adventuring involves killing a lot of things, and sometimes those things know things that you want to know. This is where your spell slots reach their maximum effectiveness.

When you run out of good 5th-level spells to select, look at lower-level spells which are still useful like utility options or spells which scale with spell slot level. It works in nearly any fight, and sometimes it can even prevent a fight from happening.

This level also marks a turning point in how the Warlock advances. You no longer gain new spell levels, and you gain interesting new class features slower. Even at 20th level, your 5th-level spell slots are the most important parts of your spellcasting arsenal beyond Eldritch Blast, so be prepared to look for creative ways to apply your spells as you face new challenges.

Fiendish Resilience is a difficult ability to use. Our first Mystic Arcanum gets us accustomed to the mechanic. You get to cast each of your Mystic Arcanum spells once per day, so you want each option to be broadly useful. In this case I suggest Mass Suggestion. We have plenty of options for hindering and killing enemies, but we have very few less lethal options.

Mass Suggestion allows you to conveniently remove 12 creatures. Tell them to go take a long walk, or march out of the dungeon to gather food, or something else that conveniently removes them without actually harming them. You have everything that you need to function. If you want more AC consider increasing Dexterity, otherwise you probably want to increase Constitution.

Force Cage is a really cool spell. Hurl Through Hell is a once per day damage boost.