Exaction. I remember the first time I played a warlock, I didn't know I could change my spells when I leveled up, so there where too many instances where I know look back and think how useful that info could've been.
Yes, you have to swap out spells as some lose their steam. Others just don't scale well enough to make sense. My warlock just took a Bard level for a couple low level spell slots to play with. If you don't plan to multi, expect lots of spell and invocation exchanging.
I think Witch Bolt is good if you're in a large group and fighting a large opponent, because you can do the continuous damage thing.
From experience, Witch Bolt is good for 1st and 2nd level characters. It’s Ok for 3rd level characters. By 4th level it’s very weak because 1d12 damage per round isn’t worth your concentration at 4th level.
I think Witch Bolt is good if you're in a large group and fighting a large opponent, because you can do the continuous damage thing.
From experience, Witch Bolt is good for 1st and 2nd level characters. It’s Ok for 3rd level characters. By 4th level it’s very weak because 1d12 damage per round isn’t worth your concentration at 4th level.
Well on a lock it would be 2d12 at 3rd level and so on, that being said i think you are being generous. It requiring an action on top of its concentration and other limitations makes it meh at level 1, weak by level 2 for most locks.
Because Warlocks have a small selection of spells, and a tiny amount of spell slots, I like to use a race that comes with a significant number of racial spells, like Drow or Tiefling. Drow also get the Drow High Magic feat that gives Detect Magic on demand and once per day uses of Levitate and Dispel Magic. When it comes to selecting spells I tend to go for ones that provide utility, hopefully with a decent duration.
Currently my level 5 Drow Hexblade has Spirit Shroud, Fly, Invisibility, Misty Step, Shield, and Armor of Agathys. Obviously, as a Hexblade, he's going to get use out of Armor of Agathys and Shield (as a last ditch attempt at evasion) while a more ranged Warlock wouldn't have much use for them. Since the whole point of going Fiendlock is because you want the ranged damage spells you should always take one, but you probably won't get much mileage out of more than one.
Start with Burning Hands, and replace it with Fireball when you get the level 3 slots. Other than that just focus on support and control spells.
At first level I recommend both Fiend‘s expanded spells: Burning Hands (enough said) and Command (good utility and scales well). Take Eldritch Blast as must have cantrip and the second one is a tough choice: Look at Mage Hand, Minor Illusion and Prestidigitation and pick your favorite one.
At second level I recommend the Agonizing Blast Invocation because it will boost Eldritch Blast and makes it your best Damage Dealer. The other Invocation should probably be Mask of Many Faces or Misty Visions (again pick your favorite; Note that Misty Visions combos well with the Minor Illusion cantrip) because they both offer At-Will-Spells. With your small number of spell slots they offer the most at this level. Take Hex as your third spell.
At third level you have to choose your pact boon and that influences your choices.
I think Witch Bolt is good if you're in a large group and fighting a large opponent, because you can do the continuous damage thing.
From experience, Witch Bolt is good for 1st and 2nd level characters. It’s Ok for 3rd level characters. By 4th level it’s very weak because 1d12 damage per round isn’t worth your concentration at 4th level.
Well on a lock it would be 2d12 at 3rd level and so on, that being said i think you are being generous. It requiring an action on top of its concentration and other limitations makes it meh at level 1, weak by level 2 for most locks.
Unfortunately you’re mistaken. On a Warlock Witch Bolt does 2d12 damage the first round at 3rd level and 1d12 damage every round after the first round. That’s terrible scaling!
I think Witch Bolt is good if you're in a large group and fighting a large opponent, because you can do the continuous damage thing.
From experience, Witch Bolt is good for 1st and 2nd level characters. It’s Ok for 3rd level characters. By 4th level it’s very weak because 1d12 damage per round isn’t worth your concentration at 4th level.
Well on a lock it would be 2d12 at 3rd level and so on, that being said i think you are being generous. It requiring an action on top of its concentration and other limitations makes it meh at level 1, weak by level 2 for most locks.
Unfortunately you’re mistaken. On a Warlock Witch Bolt does 2d12 damage the first round at 3rd level and 1d12 damage every round after the first round. That’s terrible scaling!
Well dang, I misread it, its just the initial damage that boosts. Its even worse than I thought. Even if every round it was increased its not that good given all its limitations
I mentioned it before, but Witch Bolt is really only good with a class like sorcerer than twin the spell, and even then its only good for the first 4 levels or so. Def not worth a pact magic spell slot
While I'm aware it was initially posed as a question regarding spells, I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Fiendish Vigor invocation. Free false life is fantastic, especially for the first few levels when your health is a shallow pool.
While I'm aware it was initially posed as a question regarding spells, I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Fiendish Vigor invocation. Free false life is fantastic, especially for the first few levels when your health is a shallow pool.
I'll agree fiendish vigor is useful if you cast it at will... if you have to blow one of your two spell slots per short rest, that's a big pass for me, even if it does scale up.
Guess noone was think invocation +spells as opposed to straight spell slots
While I'm aware it was initially posed as a question regarding spells, I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Fiendish Vigor invocation. Free false life is fantastic, especially for the first few levels when your health is a shallow pool.
I'll agree fiendish vigor is useful if you cast it at will... if you have to blow one of your two spell slots per short rest, that's a big pass for me, even if it does scale up.
Guess noone was think invocation +spells as opposed to straight spell slots
Not to say that it's a bad choice, not at all, but man does it have to compete with some seriously good stuff out there. You really wanna take agonizing blast. You may really want eldritch mind. You may really want mask of many faces. You may really, really want repelling blast. Misty visions, fantastic choice. A lot of them have very practical and frequent applications, whereas fiendish vigor's purpose is just to add a bit of extra security in tier 1, but with a d8 hit die you're not exactly the squishiest thing out there.
This hasn't even touched on invocations from your pact, many that are considered must-haves.
Hex and armor of Agathys are always solid choices for low level spells. When I play warlocks it's generally more about eldritch blast and invocations. I'm not really a fan of burning hands because it loses it's effectiveness.
Hex requiring concentration is a hefty restraint so I tend to give it up for better concentration spells later. Warlocks don't have the slots to keep renewing hex after using or losing concentration so my advice is keep hex and avoid other concentration spells for the most part or give up hex in favor of other concentration spells later like hypnotic pattern (which is what I do).
I am a huge fan of misty visions, however, and invest invocations into at-will spell-like abilities. For me I'd be likely to take prestidigitation or mage hand and minor illusion at 1st level. Eldritch blast is one of the best damage cantrips available and better with invocations but a single die doesn't really outperform a crossbow. I pick it up at 4th level in preparation for the second bolt and wait for 5th level to take agonizing blast. If you take misty visions and fiendish vigor you can use the THP for survivability and then swap fiendish vigor for book of ancient secrets at 3rd level to pick up ritual casting. That will give you find familiar and unseen servant at the very least if you haven't found any scrolls to add.
Book of shadows at 3rd level allows adding prestidigitation or mage hand, guidance, and shocking grasp (useful for denying reactions) or mind sliver (for the saving throw debuff you can apply). As mentioned, you want to take eldritch blast at 4th level so you can take agonizing blast at 5th level and have a decent at-will damage attack for a caster.
Basically, if you have a lot of options that don't cost spell slots then the short rest throttle on spell slots is less restricting. There's room to toy with the build but EB/AG gives you damage and misty visions gives you a 1st-level spell at will when everyone else is very restricted on slots so they need cantrips, but pact of the tome gives you more cantrips than other classes and adds rituals as well. It's a solid caster style warlock that's very competitive with other casters.
At 1st level hex and armor of Agathys are good choices (as stated) and then you might add hellish rebuke or protection from evil and good at 2nd level, or possibly command.
At 3rd and 4th level suggestion and misty step are good choices. Replace misty step with far step later.
At 5th level you'll have access to fireball, hypnotic pattern, spirit shroud, and summon lesser demons. I'd take fireball, trade hex off for hypnotic pattern, and pick up summon lesser demons at 6th level. At this point you'll be trying to create variety for the spell slots because of the short rest throttle in the tightest levels. That's why we added a lot of at-will earlier.
At 7th and 8th level wall of fire, banishment, dimension door, and charm monster are all decent choices. I like banishment and wall of fire here. 7th level is also a good time to pick up eldritch mind if you don't want to spend a feat to help with concentration checks. Otherwise, one with shadows or repelling blast are fun invocations. I like ghostly gaze, or devil's sight, or beguiling influence here as well. It's an opportunity to grab a useful low level invocation not already taken pretty much by personal preference because more spell-like abilities are coming up. If you take mask of many faces here you can replace it with master of myriad forms later, or if you take one with shadows you can replace it with shroud of shadow later.
At 9th level pick up scrying. Ascendant step is a good invocation here, and I had a lot of fun with whispers of the grave. It's a good time to upgrade misty step to far step.
At 10th level you already have several cantrips so something you might interesting or useful is a bonus given all the at-will ability by this point. I like adding an AoE like sword burst just in case.
At 11th level more lower level spells for additional utility start taking place at the same time slots start to increase. I would probably add dream here. Eyebite or soul cage are long use mystic arcana, and true seeing is useful even if it hurts a bit taking a divination for a mystic arcanum.
At 12th level I would pick another at-will spell like ability. Several have been mentioned and there's no new level gated options in that area. My personal preference is to not take eldritch mind and use this ASI for resilience: CON. IME there's more room for feats than invocations. Eldritch mind is good in a featless game.
At 13th level force cage is a strong choice for mystic arcanum. Plane shift covers a traditional arcane role and if a person doesn't mind resting a day on another plane it can be a low key teleport alternative. By this time I'm also looking at more situational spells and might consider adding dispel magic.
At 15th level you can add another spell already mentioned or possibly use tongues because is goes well with glibness as a mystic arcanum. As long as you have glibness it's impossible to fail a DC 20 favor check as long as you have 20 CHA, among other benefits such as destroying the DC's on dispel magic checks. 15th level is also the level gate for some good invocations in addition to the new one added. Visions of the distant realms is choice for an at will ability. Upgrade mask of many faces to master of myriad forms here if you took it. If not and you took one with shadows then upgrade that to shroud of shadow. If you have mask of many faces and one with shadows then master of myriad forms should be the priority.
At 16th level it's just an ASI, but if you don't have shroud of shadow you can still pull add it with an upgrade and use the feat on skill expertise: stealth to go with the ability to cast invisibility at will. That normally makes bypassing typical passive perceptions simple.
At 17th level I would have said take wish for the mystic arcanum but that's only available to genie warlocks. Foresight is an amazing buff with a lot of benefits for a long duration and no concentration requirements. True polymorph has some cheese to it and it a solid choice. Power word kill never impressed my by itself without knowing a target's hit points, but a person can swap in sculptor of flesh (normally bad choice for an invocation, to be clear) for the cheesy combo of polymorphing a target into a creature with hit points below the power word kill threshold. It's a method to save-or-die on a second round of actions once power word kill becomes available. I'd go with foresight but there are other reasonable choices. Gaseous form and major illusion are still interesting spells to consider if you are still looking beyond what's already been listed.
At 18th level I'm still partial to spell like abilities that can either be done at will or give free uses. I'd still be filling out from what's listed.
At 19th level we've pretty much covered the spells and pick whatever. I find that I'm generally not pressed giving the warlock spells known are applied to 5 spell levels instead of 9 like sorcerers. The last feat is is also partial to choice. Moderately armored is good for an AC boost and evening out a possible odd stat.
Feat order is subject to change and the only really important ones are hitting 20 CHA and helping with concentration saves. Fey touched can be decent as well but shadow touched typically adds spells a warlock can pick up in invocations so it's better for warlocks not focusing on spell-like abilities.
4th-Level: Banishment, Wall of Fire, Charm Monster
5th-Level: Scrying, Far Step, Dream
6th-Level: True Seeing
7th-Level: Plane Shift
8th-Level: Glibness
9th-Level: Foresight
Final invocations: agonizing blast, repelling blast, book of ancient secrets, misty visions, ascendant step, master of myriad forms, visions of the distant realms, shroud of shadow
Yes, you have to swap out spells as some lose their steam. Others just don't scale well enough to make sense. My warlock just took a Bard level for a couple low level spell slots to play with. If you don't plan to multi, expect lots of spell and invocation exchanging.
From experience, Witch Bolt is good for 1st and 2nd level characters. It’s Ok for 3rd level characters. By 4th level it’s very weak because 1d12 damage per round isn’t worth your concentration at 4th level.
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Well on a lock it would be 2d12 at 3rd level and so on, that being said i think you are being generous. It requiring an action on top of its concentration and other limitations makes it meh at level 1, weak by level 2 for most locks.
Because Warlocks have a small selection of spells, and a tiny amount of spell slots, I like to use a race that comes with a significant number of racial spells, like Drow or Tiefling. Drow also get the Drow High Magic feat that gives Detect Magic on demand and once per day uses of Levitate and Dispel Magic. When it comes to selecting spells I tend to go for ones that provide utility, hopefully with a decent duration.
Currently my level 5 Drow Hexblade has Spirit Shroud, Fly, Invisibility, Misty Step, Shield, and Armor of Agathys. Obviously, as a Hexblade, he's going to get use out of Armor of Agathys and Shield (as a last ditch attempt at evasion) while a more ranged Warlock wouldn't have much use for them. Since the whole point of going Fiendlock is because you want the ranged damage spells you should always take one, but you probably won't get much mileage out of more than one.
Start with Burning Hands, and replace it with Fireball when you get the level 3 slots. Other than that just focus on support and control spells.
At first level I recommend both Fiend‘s expanded spells: Burning Hands (enough said) and Command (good utility and scales well). Take Eldritch Blast as must have cantrip and the second one is a tough choice: Look at Mage Hand, Minor Illusion and Prestidigitation and pick your favorite one.
At second level I recommend the Agonizing Blast Invocation because it will boost Eldritch Blast and makes it your best Damage Dealer. The other Invocation should probably be Mask of Many Faces or Misty Visions (again pick your favorite; Note that Misty Visions combos well with the Minor Illusion cantrip) because they both offer At-Will-Spells. With your small number of spell slots they offer the most at this level. Take Hex as your third spell.
At third level you have to choose your pact boon and that influences your choices.
Have fun with your warlock!
Unfortunately you’re mistaken. On a Warlock Witch Bolt does 2d12 damage the first round at 3rd level and 1d12 damage every round after the first round. That’s terrible scaling!
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Well dang, I misread it, its just the initial damage that boosts. Its even worse than I thought. Even if every round it was increased its not that good given all its limitations
I mentioned it before, but Witch Bolt is really only good with a class like sorcerer than twin the spell, and even then its only good for the first 4 levels or so. Def not worth a pact magic spell slot
While I'm aware it was initially posed as a question regarding spells, I'm disappointed that no one mentioned the Fiendish Vigor invocation. Free false life is fantastic, especially for the first few levels when your health is a shallow pool.
I'll agree fiendish vigor is useful if you cast it at will... if you have to blow one of your two spell slots per short rest, that's a big pass for me, even if it does scale up.
Guess noone was think invocation +spells as opposed to straight spell slots
Not to say that it's a bad choice, not at all, but man does it have to compete with some seriously good stuff out there. You really wanna take agonizing blast. You may really want eldritch mind. You may really want mask of many faces. You may really, really want repelling blast. Misty visions, fantastic choice. A lot of them have very practical and frequent applications, whereas fiendish vigor's purpose is just to add a bit of extra security in tier 1, but with a d8 hit die you're not exactly the squishiest thing out there.
This hasn't even touched on invocations from your pact, many that are considered must-haves.
Create a homebrew background and stick all the spells in there.
Very good for a Cleric.
Hex and armor of Agathys are always solid choices for low level spells. When I play warlocks it's generally more about eldritch blast and invocations. I'm not really a fan of burning hands because it loses it's effectiveness.
Hex requiring concentration is a hefty restraint so I tend to give it up for better concentration spells later. Warlocks don't have the slots to keep renewing hex after using or losing concentration so my advice is keep hex and avoid other concentration spells for the most part or give up hex in favor of other concentration spells later like hypnotic pattern (which is what I do).
I am a huge fan of misty visions, however, and invest invocations into at-will spell-like abilities. For me I'd be likely to take prestidigitation or mage hand and minor illusion at 1st level. Eldritch blast is one of the best damage cantrips available and better with invocations but a single die doesn't really outperform a crossbow. I pick it up at 4th level in preparation for the second bolt and wait for 5th level to take agonizing blast. If you take misty visions and fiendish vigor you can use the THP for survivability and then swap fiendish vigor for book of ancient secrets at 3rd level to pick up ritual casting. That will give you find familiar and unseen servant at the very least if you haven't found any scrolls to add.
Book of shadows at 3rd level allows adding prestidigitation or mage hand, guidance, and shocking grasp (useful for denying reactions) or mind sliver (for the saving throw debuff you can apply). As mentioned, you want to take eldritch blast at 4th level so you can take agonizing blast at 5th level and have a decent at-will damage attack for a caster.
Basically, if you have a lot of options that don't cost spell slots then the short rest throttle on spell slots is less restricting. There's room to toy with the build but EB/AG gives you damage and misty visions gives you a 1st-level spell at will when everyone else is very restricted on slots so they need cantrips, but pact of the tome gives you more cantrips than other classes and adds rituals as well. It's a solid caster style warlock that's very competitive with other casters.
At 1st level hex and armor of Agathys are good choices (as stated) and then you might add hellish rebuke or protection from evil and good at 2nd level, or possibly command.
At 3rd and 4th level suggestion and misty step are good choices. Replace misty step with far step later.
At 5th level you'll have access to fireball, hypnotic pattern, spirit shroud, and summon lesser demons. I'd take fireball, trade hex off for hypnotic pattern, and pick up summon lesser demons at 6th level. At this point you'll be trying to create variety for the spell slots because of the short rest throttle in the tightest levels. That's why we added a lot of at-will earlier.
At 7th and 8th level wall of fire, banishment, dimension door, and charm monster are all decent choices. I like banishment and wall of fire here. 7th level is also a good time to pick up eldritch mind if you don't want to spend a feat to help with concentration checks. Otherwise, one with shadows or repelling blast are fun invocations. I like ghostly gaze, or devil's sight, or beguiling influence here as well. It's an opportunity to grab a useful low level invocation not already taken pretty much by personal preference because more spell-like abilities are coming up. If you take mask of many faces here you can replace it with master of myriad forms later, or if you take one with shadows you can replace it with shroud of shadow later.
At 9th level pick up scrying. Ascendant step is a good invocation here, and I had a lot of fun with whispers of the grave. It's a good time to upgrade misty step to far step.
At 10th level you already have several cantrips so something you might interesting or useful is a bonus given all the at-will ability by this point. I like adding an AoE like sword burst just in case.
At 11th level more lower level spells for additional utility start taking place at the same time slots start to increase. I would probably add dream here. Eyebite or soul cage are long use mystic arcana, and true seeing is useful even if it hurts a bit taking a divination for a mystic arcanum.
At 12th level I would pick another at-will spell like ability. Several have been mentioned and there's no new level gated options in that area. My personal preference is to not take eldritch mind and use this ASI for resilience: CON. IME there's more room for feats than invocations. Eldritch mind is good in a featless game.
At 13th level force cage is a strong choice for mystic arcanum. Plane shift covers a traditional arcane role and if a person doesn't mind resting a day on another plane it can be a low key teleport alternative. By this time I'm also looking at more situational spells and might consider adding dispel magic.
At 15th level you can add another spell already mentioned or possibly use tongues because is goes well with glibness as a mystic arcanum. As long as you have glibness it's impossible to fail a DC 20 favor check as long as you have 20 CHA, among other benefits such as destroying the DC's on dispel magic checks. 15th level is also the level gate for some good invocations in addition to the new one added. Visions of the distant realms is choice for an at will ability. Upgrade mask of many faces to master of myriad forms here if you took it. If not and you took one with shadows then upgrade that to shroud of shadow. If you have mask of many faces and one with shadows then master of myriad forms should be the priority.
At 16th level it's just an ASI, but if you don't have shroud of shadow you can still pull add it with an upgrade and use the feat on skill expertise: stealth to go with the ability to cast invisibility at will. That normally makes bypassing typical passive perceptions simple.
At 17th level I would have said take wish for the mystic arcanum but that's only available to genie warlocks. Foresight is an amazing buff with a lot of benefits for a long duration and no concentration requirements. True polymorph has some cheese to it and it a solid choice. Power word kill never impressed my by itself without knowing a target's hit points, but a person can swap in sculptor of flesh (normally bad choice for an invocation, to be clear) for the cheesy combo of polymorphing a target into a creature with hit points below the power word kill threshold. It's a method to save-or-die on a second round of actions once power word kill becomes available. I'd go with foresight but there are other reasonable choices. Gaseous form and major illusion are still interesting spells to consider if you are still looking beyond what's already been listed.
At 18th level I'm still partial to spell like abilities that can either be done at will or give free uses. I'd still be filling out from what's listed.
At 19th level we've pretty much covered the spells and pick whatever. I find that I'm generally not pressed giving the warlock spells known are applied to 5 spell levels instead of 9 like sorcerers. The last feat is is also partial to choice. Moderately armored is good for an AC boost and evening out a possible odd stat.
Feat order is subject to change and the only really important ones are hitting 20 CHA and helping with concentration saves. Fey touched can be decent as well but shadow touched typically adds spells a warlock can pick up in invocations so it's better for warlocks not focusing on spell-like abilities.
A sample build might look like:
Tiefling (standard PHB on point buy)
Starting ability scores:
Final ability scores
Feats:
Final spell list:
Final invocations: agonizing blast, repelling blast, book of ancient secrets, misty visions, ascendant step, master of myriad forms, visions of the distant realms, shroud of shadow
Starting rituals: find familiar, detect magic
1/day spells: hellish rebuke, darkness, detect thoughts
At-will spells: silent image, levitate (self only), alter self, arcane eye, invisibility
Skill proficiencies (urchin background): stealth +14, sleight-of-hand +8, arcana +6, investigation +6, perception +8
Not optimized but it should give some food for thought. The best thing about warlock casters is they have access to a lot of at-will ability.