If there’s one thing a Warlock knows, it’s how to make a bargain. While Warlocks received some pretty noticeable changes in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, the Warlocks must have made sure their patrons were part of the negotiating committee. Warlocks’ powerful patron magic has been shifted around, allowing you to access certain powers earlier and pack a more pronounced punch when you do. The 2024 Warlock also comes with an impressive and robust amount of customization by treating your Eldritch Invocations as an even larger smorgasbord of options than before.
Below, we cover key changes to the 2024 Warlock you’ll find in the new Player’s Handbook. If there’s a feature we don’t cover, such as Pact Magic, that means it remains unchanged or saw minor changes.
The 2024 Player’s Handbook is Now Available!
Buy the 2024 Player’s Handbook today and dive into revised rules, enhanced character options, and exciting gameplay innovations.
Get your copy on the D&D Beyond marketplace and seamlessly integrate your new content with D&D Beyond's library of digital tools built to make D&D easier, so you can focus on the fun!
Class Feature |
Level |
What’s New |
---|---|---|
1 |
|
|
2 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
9 |
|
|
11 |
|
|
19 |
|
2024 Warlock Class Features Overview
Eldritch Invocations — Level 1
One of the first noticeable changes to the 2024 Warlock is that you get access to your first Eldritch Invocation at Warlock level 1 now instead of level 2. Overall, Eldritch Invocations have received a major overhaul, with key changes including several quality-of-life updates. Let’s take a look at some of the big shifts.
Pact Boons Are Now Eldritch Invocations
In the 2014 Warlock, your Pact Boon, such as Pact of the Blade, Pact of the Tome, or Pact of the Chain, was a separate feature bestowed at level 3. In the 2024 Warlock, the Pact Boon feature is gone, and these pacts are now options you can choose as part of your Eldritch Invocations. In the 2014 Warlock, further improvements to your Pact Boon were accessible via invocations, such as Gift of the Protectors, Investment of the Chain Master, and Thirsting Blade. So rolling Pact Boons entirely into Eldritch Invocations simplifies the structure while preserving the mechanics.
There are two really important and beneficial aspects to this shift. First, you no longer have to choose between them. All three of the former Pact Boon options can be selected as you level up and gain access to more invocations. So, you could have a pact weapon via Pact of the Blade, a familiar via Pact of the Chain, and a Book of Shadows from Pact of the Tome.
Second, while some Eldritch Invocations do carry prerequisite levels, such as Agonizing Blast, which requires you to be a level 2+ Warlock, the former Pact Boon invocations do not. This means you can select from a familiar, Book of Shadows, or pact weapon as early as level 1. The 2014 Player’s Handbook had these features arrive at level 3, so you’re getting them 2 levels earlier for the 2024 Warlock.
More Eldritch Invocations
Seeing as you get an invocation at level 1, and the progression has been expedited, 2024 Warlocks will have access to more invocations than their 2014 counterpart, maxing out at 10 when they hit level 18.
As with the older version of the Warlock, whenever you gain a Warlock level, you can replace one invocation with another as long as it isn’t a prerequisite for another invocation that you have.
Some Eldritch Invocations Can Be Repeated
Popular Eldritch Invocations for Warlocks like Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast are still here but with a couple of big changes.
First, they are no longer limited to Eldritch Blast. Instead, you choose one of your known Warlock cantrips that deals damage, and now you can add your Charisma modifier to that damage roll. So now you can boost damage for Toll the Dead or Thunderclap with Agonizing Blast if that suits your Warlock build better than Eldritch Blast. Note, however, that Repelling Blast is restricted to cantrips that deal damage via an attack roll.
Next, you can select these invocations multiple times when adding new Eldritch Invocations. So if you’re trying to build a cantrip powerhouse, you could add Agonizing Blast or Repelling Blast to multiple cantrips. But of course, you still can use it for Eldritch Blast because, let’s face it, if you’re a Warlock, you’re probably going to want to.
Spell Slots? Who Needs ‘em?
With the exception of Eldritch Smite, which deals a significant amount of damage and gives an enemy the Prone condition, none of the 2024 Player’s Handbook Eldritch Invocations carry the "using a Warlock spell slot" description. You still have spell slots for your Pact Magic, but they largely no longer fuel the invocations you get from your patron. Instead, your Eldritch Invocations feel like a wholly separate power branch unique to the Warlock class.
The customization allowed via these changes to invocations makes the 2024 Warlock feel more like someone who has pored over contracts with their patron and selected the powers best suited to them.
Magical Cunning — Level 2
The Warlock's Pact Magic and spell slot progression works the same way for the 2024 Warlock as it did for 2014. You also can still recover expended spell slots at the end of a Short or Long Rest. Magical Cunning gives you another way to recover your Warlock spell slots, however. Now, once per Long Rest, you can use this feature to spend 1 minute on a ritual that restores half of your maximum spell slots, rounded up.
The Eldritch Master feature granted at level 20 still allows you to regain all of your Pact Magic spell slots, but flavor-wise, it is now considered a more powerful version of this level 2 feature.
Warlock Subclass — Level 3
At level 3, your 2024 Warlock gains their subclass. While Warlocks used to get their subclass at level 1, this brings the Warlock in line with the other class options in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, which will make it easier for a party of players to manage their levels and for a DM to keep track of player advancement.
The Archfey, Fiend, and Great Old One Patrons all received substantial overhauls, updates to their always-prepared spell lists, quality-of-life changes, and tweaks that bring them more in line with their flavor concepts. Also, in 2014, a subclass's Expanded Spell List only added the listed spells to your Warlock spell list. In 2024, the listed spells are added to your Warlock spell list and they're always prepared for you. A considerable upgrade!
- Archfey Patron: The Archfey Patron subclass leans more into the Feywild nature of your patron. Misty Step is added to your prepared spell list, and many of the features of this subclass give you extra uses of the spell, along with healing bonuses and damage effects on enemies when you use it. Beguiling Defenses has also been updated to reduce damage you take and inflict damage with a Reaction.
- Celestial Patron: This subclass, which originally appeared in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, has been revised for its inclusion in the 2024 Player's Handbook. Its spell list now includes Aid (which replaces Flaming Sphere) and Summon Celestial (which replaces Flame Strike). Radiant Soul is now limited to just once per turn. Celestial Resilience now also grants Temporary Hit Points when you finish your Magical Cunning ritual or complete a Short or Long Rest. Searing Vengeance can now apply to you or an ally.
- Fiend Patron: Dark One’s Blessing now also grants you Temporary Hit Points if someone else reduces an enemy to 0 Hit Points within 10 feet of you. On the Fiend Spells list, Blindness/Deafness has been replaced by Suggestion, and Flame Strike and Hallow have been replaced by Geas and Insect Plague. Instead of once per Long Rest, you can use Dark One’s Own Luck a number of times per Long Rest equal to your Charisma modifier. Hurl Through Hell now requires a Charisma save and deals 8d10 Psychic damage instead of 10d10, but in addition to once per Long Rest, you can now use this feature again by expending a Pact Magic spell slot.
- Great Old One Patron: The Great One One Patron has received the biggest changes to any of the 2024 Warlock subclasses and now is much more heavily focused on the Lovecraftian, eldritch horror elements of it. The features of this subclass now are heavily centered on using your patron’s powers to curse your enemies with Hex, break their minds with Psychic damage, and even unleash aberrant horrors on the battlefield.
Contact Patron — Level 9
The 2024 Player’s Handbook has a brand new feature for Warlocks that ties directly into your role as the recipient of power from a patron. Starting at level 9, every 2024 Warlock has the ability to reach out and contact their patron directly once per Long Rest. This feature grants you the spell Contact Other Plane as an always-prepared spell. You can use the spell once per day to contact your patron without expending a spell slot, and you automatically succeed on the Intelligence saving throw required to complete the spell. So, go ahead and ask your patron if you can have cake for dinner. You deserve it.
Mystic Arcanum — Level 11
Mystic Arcanum functions and progresses the same as it did for the 2014 Warlock with one extra benefit. Whenever you gain a Warlock level beyond 11, you may replace one of your arcanum spells with another of the same level.
Epic Boon — Level 19
Epic Boons are a new type of feat introduced in the revised core ruleset, that all carry a prerequisite of level 19+ to access. A level 19 Warlock has access to one Epic Boon of their choice or another feat they qualify for. There are twelve Epic Boons found in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.
The following is the recommended Epic Boon for a 2024 Warlock:
- Boon of Fate: Increase one ability score of 1 to a maximum of 30. When you or another creature within 60 feet of you succeeds or fails on a D20 Test, you can roll 2d4 and add or subtract the result from the d20 roll. Once you use this feat, you can’t use it again until you complete a Short Rest, a Long Rest, or roll for Initiative.
What a Deal!
The 2024 Player's Handbook is now available on the D&D Beyond marketplace, which means it's time to set out on new adventures with fresh or familiar characters!
The updates to the 2024 Player’s Handbook for Warlocks pack a lot of changes into the earlier levels and then allow you to settle into a more familiar level progression as you develop. The changes really lean heavily into the chosen flavor of your Warlock and their relationship to their patron. Does your pact mean you’re a cunning swordslinger, slicing your way through your enemies fueled by your Charisma? Do you want to zip across the battlefield hopped up on Feywild magic? Or do you want to use powerful psychic magic to weaken your enemies and bring them to heel? With the 2024 Warlock, the choice is yours.
We’re delighted to share with you the changes to fifth edition D&D that appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Make sure to keep an eye out on D&D Beyond for more useful guides on using the wealth of new options, rules, and mechanics found in the 2024 Player's Handbook!
Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
This article was updated on August 13, 2024, to issue corrections or expand coverage for the following features and subclasses:
- Warlock Subclass: Added that the spells on the Warlock subclass's spell lists are always prepared.
- Warlock Subclass (Celestial Patron): Clarified that the Celestial Patron has been brought from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Also expanded coverage to detail all the updates to this subclass.
- Warlock Subclass (Fiend Patron): Expanded coverage to detail all the updates to this subclass.
- Mystic Arcanum: Cut text stating that the Eldritch Versatility option in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has effectively been brought to the base class. This feature only allowed you to update Mystic Arcanum spells at levels 16 and 19.
There’s a pretty good Abandoned Warlock subclass on homebrew that I’d say is fairly balanced
That does not justify them backpedalling so hard they went right back to 2014 Warlock with 1 extra invocation and a shittier version of their already shitty capstone earlier. It really feels like they didn't even try. "Well, our amazing idea of turning warlock into a half-caster, gutting mystic arcanum and somehow managing to make the capstone even worse was - incredibly surprisingly - rejected by the community, time to pack it up boys. Jerry the intern can come up with a new feature or two and we'll slap that on and call it a day."
Really the subclass changes are the only good ones, but the base class and its issues were not addressed at all.
Invocations are more about being a Warlock in general - a scholar of esoteric magic and otherworldly forces that imparts on you bits of knowledge and neat little tricks at the risk of your own sanity and soul - rather than being a core part of your specific Pact with an outsider entity. Sure, you can flavour the invocations that way, but in all honesty, that argument is pretty weak, since "you can just reflavour it bro" applies to literally every single thing in this game, but will not work at every single table or with every single DM. The complaints are specifically about the rules, mechanics and lore/flavour established by these books as the default, and how poorly WOTC is handling some of the changes (or lack thereof) that they are making.
"I made a deal with someone to get powers but I'm not gonna know who it is until level three!!!"
The problem with their way of conducting a playtest and collecting feedback is that once they get burned with negative feedback, they stop trying to fix the problem and just revert back to 2014. They didn't even try to iterate on half-caster model. It was very raw, but promising.
My personal feeling is the community was never going to be ok with the half-caster, but in general I agree with your take that other iterations would have been good.
Will warlocks keep light armoproficiency? I have some unearthed arcana suggesting that the warlock class will have no armor pof. Unless we play mountain dwarves.
I like most of the changes, particularly when factoring in the "newish" way they have designed the subclasses.
However as some have already posted, you now technically get only 1 additional invocation, as previously a pact was a separate feature. Now in order to have a pact you have to use an invocation to take one.
Despite the main feedback for the Warlock being the amount of spell slots, they have done nothing to address it.
The new feature for the One minute ritual is pointless in my opinion, the most you'll ever get back is 1 spell slot unless you get to max level which most do not. In game is there really much of a difference between asking the DM to allow a one minute ritual or asking for a short rest ? Particularly as more classes benefit from a short rest now.
I've never played a game where the DM is timing rests and rituals unless in combat, in which case a 1 minute ritual equates to 10 rounds in combat making it a worthless option.
Lastly it seems like pact of the blade is definitely the dominant option here, In which case it could be worth arguing that a blade pact warlock is now a better martial then some of the martial classes :/
I feel like wizards launched playtests 7 called it a day and threw all the feedback out the window...
The one minute ritual is 1/2 rounded up so it becomes 2 spells at level 11. Every DM I've played with (several) allow maybe 1-2 short rest per day 3 if you beg. But all of them have no issues with casting 1 min or 10 min spells. This features will be useful in most groups but you're still better taking a short rest when you can choose between the two.
A major difference between a short rest and casting a ritual is that the former prohibits you from performing certain things while the latter doesn't. RAW you can cast a ritual while e.g., travelling. You only need to maintain concentration - which is only broken by damage or casting a spell that requires concentration. And this "one minute ritual" is not even a ritual spell, so I guess you don't even have to concentrate unless it is specifically stated. Therefore, you don't really have to ask anyone for permission, you just use the feature and 1 min later you have you spell slot back.
I don't think you understand how averages work lol
Thanks for the explanation, I guess I don't really know rituals too well.
My main issue is the same as most though, in which most of the sessions I have played are ones in which their is a lot more RP and one longish combat encounter per session.
In which the Warlock isn't the most optimal, but the theme flavour and customisability of the class make it one of the best IMO.
Yeah, I would like to know this as well. Especially that your extra EI has to be used for your pact, which was free before.
We'll have to wait for the release, but the last playtest, IIRC, you round up on the once/LR spell recovery. (1-10 1, 11-19 2, 20 4). Plus, you still get recovery on short rests. Plus, get you a rod of the pact keeper and get one slot back/LR. Plus, be a Pact of the Tome and get one extra slot/LR.
Invocations are better, too. Free castings of flavor and utility spells all day every day.
Subclasses are nicely powered, too. Nightcrawler Archfey *bamf*ing all over the place.
They made a solid class even better.
Quit being whiney b!tche$
Sure, warlocks are solid.
But nothing above justifies (especially "you can get a magic item X") calling them "the most powerful class".
Also, the number of invocations is not as huge as you think (Pacts are no longer free).
You have two second level warlocks; One is planning on following a fiend patron while the other a celestial patron. These two warlocks have the exact same spell and invocation options. What happened to those subclass defining abilities like Awakened Mind, Form of Dread, Healing Light, and Genie's Vessel that added so much flavor and uniqueness? Even if these abilities return as Eldritch Invocation choices, we'll have to choose between what were baseline abilities and having pact boons.
So far it seems like in 2024, the warlock's pact, the supposed source of the their power, is the least impactful choice they will make in their adventuring career.
Sure, and no one is stopping me from RPing an arcane trickster rogue who made a pact with a fey, but do you know what would be better? A class that rewarded my imagination with unique mechanical benefits that reinforced the RP! And guess what... the 2014 warlock did that starting at level 1. This particular change is simply a downgrade for many players.
Maybe it would still be that way if everyone didn't abuse it with one of the most frequent 1-2 level dips in the game. This is why we can't have nice things.
Not this again...
It looks like some people think that after reaching 3rd level there is suddenly a mail in your inbox "Hello, we're calling you from Cthulhu Online Incorporated, we are looking for new morons/disciples, if you are interested click the link below. Additional terms and conditions may apply", and before you are a commoner with proficiency in light armor
Seriously, are people really so lazy nowadays? If your RP concept needs a feature from level 1, maybe it is not as interesting for you as you claim.
Two simplest, obvious explanations, which require about 10 seconds of thinking
* Your patron is waiting until you prove yourself worthy (e.g. because many morons die on level 1, he does not want to waste his power)
* You can't control all the power yet (it is more applicable to the sorcerers but still can be used with the warlocks), trying to use it now would kill you
The more and more I read this whining, the more I am convinced that it is not about RP, but about removing access to the features by 1 level dip.
I do not see wizard players complaining "My character was trained from childhood by the secret cabal of oracles, why do I not get Diviner stuff from level 1?"
Or cleric/paladin (who are very similar here to warlocks, i.e. they get power from the external source) players "Why does my deity wait till 3rd level until I get something from them?"