Warlocks also get the most powerful damage cantrip in the game, giving them a solid, reliable option for violence in between your big spells. The Warlock typically fills the party's Wizard-equivalent requirement, offering options as a Controller and Striker, and with some minor investments the Warlock can also serve as the party's Face.

Blade, Book, and Chain: the Warlock GuideAs originally published by Mephi1234 on the Wizards of the Coast message boards“Knowledge itself is never dangerous, it is how that knowledge is used that is dangerous”―,h=4 Table of Contents/h1. Proficiencies, Backgrounds, Patrons and Pact Forms3. Spells - Slots and Mystic Arcanum4. Eldritch Invocations5. Builds and CombosThis guide will use the following ratings:Blue choices are excellent. It’s hard to go wrong with one of these buddies.Green choices are good.

Maybe not top-tier, but you’ll be good with this choice.Black choices are just average.Purple choices are substandard and situational. It also may represent a good choice at low level, but one to drop at high.Red choices are traps. Avoid these at all costs.(( Currently in the process of updating to the following. )Gold is mandatory.

It's a rare rating that denotes something that is so good that you must take it, or you can't call yourself optimized.Sky Blue choices are excellent. It’s hard to go wrong with one of these buddies.Blue are very strong options for a wide variety of things.Black choices are just average. They neither add to, nor subtract, from anything.Purple choices are substandard and situational. It also may represent a good choice at low level, but one to drop at high.Red choices are traps. Avoid these at all costs.h=4 What is a Warlock?/h To be a warlock is to be a student of an eldritch being, shaped and changed by the very arcane forces you are taught to channel. The problem is those very arcane forces tend to be rather on the dark side. As well, these occult dabblers have a strong tendency to turn away from the gods and to the forces of darkness in their pursuit of power - Learning Pact Magic requires much sacrifice and dedication as any paladin’s Oath, and the prices always have teeth.

Warlocks embody every dark rumor of witches burned at the stake and occultists dabbling in knowledge no one was meant to know.But as for the meat of what makes a warlock tick, the actual mechanics? Unlike every other caster in the game, this class is not vancian magic.

Warlocks do not Spellcast, a specific game mechanic. Instead, they have Pact Magic, which relies on a combination of powerful at will effects, passive pact blessings, a handful of encounter based spells, and the occasional daily powers, as well as your choice of Invocations that can be any of the above.

Warlocks are very much a sum of many moving parts, all coming together; all these different parts are all filled with different choices, making the Warlock the most customizable and one of the most flexible classes to date. Pact Magic - unlike other casters, the warlock only has a handful of spell slots for all their 1-5th level spells.

They grow in power as the warlock levels, so all they're always cast at the same power level. Example: If you know Charm Person and you’re a level 7 character, you will always cast the spell as a 4th level spell; at level 9, you will always cast the spell as a 5th level spell. The slots also all recharge with every short rest.

At level 11, you start gaining 'Mystic Arcanum' - short hand for saying that your level 6+ spells are daily powers. Three Patrons and three Pact Forms - the Patron offers spells and some boons, while the pact form lets you choose if you want to be a gish (blade), a dedicated spellcaster (book), or pet master (chain).

Invocations are a grab bag of random abilities, spells, and enhancements to the warlock. They're kind of like a collection of warlock specific feats. See below for more details.A note on Spell Slots and RestingSpell by spell, a warlock can easily keep up with the damage a wizard does. The difference, however, comes from the fact that warlocks have so few spell slots.

While they do refresh easily on short rests, you cannot count on a rest between every encounter; its recommended you get two short rests a day, and around 4 combats. Depending on the adventuring day, you might get more than that, you might get less. There are days where a warlock is not given any chance to get a short rest at all. It all depends on your GM, the current story, your party make up, and how generous short rests are in your current game.

It also depends if your GM is using any of the options in the DMG to lengthen or shorten the time it takes to have a short rest.So, its a good idea to keep an eye on your party composition when building. Fighters (especially Battlemasters), Monks, Bards (notably song of rest and bardic inspiration), and clerics / druids that focus on Channel Divinity / Wildshape powers. All these have benefits that rely on more short rests than few, and a party comprised of them will want more short rests more often than not.Thus, depending on the GM and party composition, a warlock can very easily swing between the 4th edition AEDU (at-will, encounter, daily, utility) style of play, or the 3e at-will-caster style warlock.PlayStyles and Class FocusSomething to keep in mind - warlocks are not AoE blasters like the evoker wizard or the sorcerer. Instead, they have a few major defining aspects - eldritch blasts, curses, and mind control. You could be a Pact of the Blade follower that functions much like a dark paladin. A warlock that focuses on eldritch blasts can be compared to a magical version of an archery-focused Fighter.

Someone that focuses on the battlefield mobiilty and control, especially the book-locks, are much like an anti-bard, with inflicting debuffs on enemies instead of buffing friends. As well, there is the potential to be a pet-focused class, much like a druid summoner, or a necromancer, but with dominated people instead of summons or undead.h=2 2. Race, Proficiencies, Backgrounds,/hh=2 Races/h Those who come to practice the eldritch arts can be born to anyone - there's someone, in any society, who's drawn to dark magic. That said, some are naturally better than others.

And some who are even born to it.Dwarf - The Hill (PHB) dwarves rarely let themselves be unwise enough to practice the dark arts. Their Mountain kin, however, find that their armor and enhanced strength, when coupled with the natural Constitution boost for Concentration checks and HP, plus medium armor for defense, make halfway decent Fiend Hexblades.

The lack of Charisma is even not bad until you reach level 11 and pick up your second Blade Invocation, since there's not a lot dependant on having a high Charisma score with a fiend-blade.Elf - It should come as no surprise that they fey-born elves make excellent Archfey warlocks. The natural dexterity fits well with the trickster angle of the Patron and its dex-based hexblades, and being resistant to charm is a potent ability in 5e - practically any kind of mind control spells are charms, including Dominate-class magic. Sleep effects are now a powerful mage-killers, so protection on that front is nice as well.

Perception is a useful skill, no matter what class. High Elf (PHB) and Eladrin (DMG) can both bring extra magic to the table, in the form of either an extra cantrip, or a short-rest misty step, even as the lack of Charisma hurts. The Wild Elf's (PHB) increased speed, wisdom, and wilderness hiding, while not hurting, doesn't actually help as much. That said, the Drow (PHB) make excellent fey warlocks - Dancing Lights is a good trickster cantrip, faerie fire is a strong spell on its own, and the Devilsight / Darkness combo can bypass the drow's sunlight sensitivity.Human (PHB) - The default human path is nothing special; they can be good to help round out someone with a lot of odd numbers in their build, but don't really specialize. The human variant, on the other hand?

Stat synergy, free skill, and recommended medium armor/shield proficencies for the free feat? One of the best survivable choices out of the gate, and a good overall canidate.Halfling - Dexterity is good for a tricky warlock that likes being stealthy. Lucky will come up halfway often, given how often you will be making attack rolls. Lightfoot's (PHB) charisma and stealth complement the warlock path, making this a decent choice for a highly mobile character. Some of the new cantrips from the SCAG are really awesome for warlocks. The Pact of the Blade almost demands to take Booming blade and/or Greenflame Blade, they are both useful and pretty powerful, obviously different in use, the former against single target, the latter against 2+.

Not sure of lighting lure.somewhat similar to the druid's whip, but is it worth it to sacrifice the action? Maybe, probably to get an enemy out of cover or maybe a flying in range.To other Pacts: sword burst can be very useful when low level monster swarm you. Against a single enemy though getting away with shocking grasp is probably still the best choice. It's force damage, which is always a good thing, as warlocks know better than any other class.Hoping that this great guide will be updated, i post the new cantrips and spells.New Cantrips:SCAGBooming bladeGreenflame BladeLighting lureSword BurstPOA COMPANION'SCreate BonfireFrostbiteMagic StoneThunderclapNew Spells:POA COMPANION'SEathbindElemental BaneInvestiture of Flame, Ice, Stone, Wind.

Pretty good guide and the effort that goes into these is always appreciated. Disagree with some of the rankings, but that's hardly anything new to guides and nothing worth quibbling over.

I would however recommend some more proof reading and reexamination of the abilities.As a quick example: Ascendant Step in the guide mentions using it against enemies to remove a threat, yet in the PHB the Invocation clearly states you get the ability to cast Levitation on yourself at will amd makes no mention of being able to use the spell against an enemy in any capacity. Now I still like the Invocation myself as it's written, but others may rate it differently when they realize it can only target yourself rather than be used freely.Of course maybe I'm misinterpreting the intent of what it says in the PHB or perhaps missed an errata or the like. Anyway, the effort is appreciated none the less and the guide is still a solid piece of work overall. Pretty good guide and the effort that goes into these is always appreciated.

Disagree with some of the rankings, but that's hardly anything new to guides and nothing worth quibbling over. I would however recommend some more proof reading and reexamination of the abilities.As a quick example: Ascendant Step in the guide mentions using it against enemies to remove a threat, yet in the PHB the Invocation clearly states you get the ability to cast Levitation on yourself at will amd makes no mention of being able to use the spell against an enemy in any capacity. Now I still like the Invocation myself as it's written, but others may rate it differently when they realize it can only target yourself rather than be used freely.Of course maybe I'm misinterpreting the intent of what it says in the PHB or perhaps missed an errata or the like.

Anyway, the effort is appreciated none the less and the guide is still a solid piece of work overall. It's true, the Warlock doesn't have as much in the way of big AoE spells, the class isn't really meant to be the party's blaster. There are a few AoE spells, though several of them are more focused on the area surrounding the Warlock(Arms Of Hadar, Thunderclap, Sword Burst, etc). You can get Circle Of Death as one of your Mystic Arcana. It does less damage than a Fireball, but it has a HUGE radius. The Warlock trades some of those blasty-type spells that the Wizard & Sorcerer can use and has a pretty limited selection of spells in general, in exchange for things like the Invocations & Patron features, not to mention arguably the strongest attack cantrip in the game, Eldtritch Blast.

Plus they get proficiency in Light Armor which neither the Sorcerer nor Wizard come with, and their Hit Dice are d8's instead of the d6's for the Sorcerer & Wizard. Also, since this is using a variant rule not found in the PHB, the guide's line of thinking will never work in an AL game.I think that the guide needs to be updated to reflect this misinterpretation of the rules. Imp Familiar!= Imp familiar. The former is a creature variant with no defined rules of player acquisition, while the latter is an option for the Find Familiar spell that only Chainlocks have access to.

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Guides should be written as if playing a vanilla game of 5e by RAW. RAI can be included within a guide, but should be relegated to side notes that have explicit warnings about expecting table variation. The problem I see with Ascendant Step is simply that as a Warlock, so many abilities compete for your concentration. Does Ascendant Step not require you to use concentration unlike the actual Levitation spell, or do I have to cancel my Hex, Darkness, Improved Invisibility, Polymorph, etc to float into the sky? Overall doesn't seem worth it unless it's just being used as a utility to get to a higher elevation. In combat I might as well just stay on the ground unless I'm fighting in some niche spot where the enemy can both see through magical darkness or invisibility, but has no ranged attacks.

Warlocks & Warriors has several things going for it when viewed through a Holmes lens (as we always view things here). The game came out the same year (1977) as Holmes Basic, in the same size box, and with the same cover artist (Sutherland). It was designed by comic book/fantasy writer Gardner Fox, mentioned by name on page 40 of the Blue Book (this was not in Holmes' original manuscript, but was a later edit by Gygax/TSR). Fox published a series of Conan-esque fantasies from the late 60s to early 80s, including the, the Kyrik series and the. The first volume of the Kyrik series is actually called 'Warlock Warrior' (1975), which I still need to read to see if it's connected in any way to the game (so far, I've only read the Niall stories). I'll need to think on this some more, but obviously the Sea Port in the lower right hand corner would be Portown, and the Castle in the upper left hand corner would be the Keep on the Borderlands.perhaps the 'Borderlands' is all of the area between.

Skull Mountain would be in the Mystery Mountains. The Dragon's Lair would be home to an ancient red dragon - the same one shown on the cover of the Basic set. Other Basic Level modules could be placed in various locations; B4 would fit in the Parched Desert, B1 might be the Lost Dungeon, etc. Each circle would represent one 'hex' of x miles (size to be determined later) that has a path through it. Characters might move off the path with some kind of penalty. The stars would represent special areas; IIRC, in the game they are the spots where wizard characters can cast spells, so they might be areas of increased magic and/or enchanted monsters.

Arrows would represent difficult terrain (in the game they send you back two circles). The random tables printed on the map might be worked into the encounter areas.