Base Class: Warlock
Some Warlocks make their pact not with a being of ambition or cruelty, but with an entity of boundless knowledge,a living archive, a divine scribe, or an eternal oracle that records the history of magic across the planes. This entity does not grant power for conquest or dominion, but for preservation, discovery, and control over knowledge itself.
Warlocks who follow the Archivist are gifted with the ability to transcribe and wield spells they witness, capturing the essence of arcane formulae in their ever-growing magical tomes. They do not simply study magic, they record and bind it into themselves through memory and insight. These warlocks serve as seekers, scribes, and sometimes secret-keepers of ancient magical lore. In time, their minds become so sharpened and insulated by layered knowledge that few illusions can deceive them, and few minds can reach them.
The Archivist is a patron for the meticulous, the curious, and the dangerously well-informed. Their magic comes not only from pacts, but from pages.
Level 3: Eye of the Scribe
Your patron has gifted you with a magical scribe’s intuition, allowing you to transcribe spells as you witness them.
When you see a creature cast a spell from the Wizard spell list, you may choose to begin transcribing it into your Archivist’s Book (a spellbook granted by your patron, similar to a wizard’s spellbook). You must be able to see the spell being cast and identify it (no check required, but the spell must be visible or audible to you).
Copying the spell into your book follows the rules of Copying a Spell into a Spellbook (Player’s Handbook, p. 114): for each level of the spell, the process takes 8 hours and costs 50 gp per level in rare inks and materials. Cantrips take 4 hours and cost 25 gp.
You may only have a number of these transcribed wizard spells prepared equal to your proficiency bonus. You prepare them after a long rest, and they count as Warlock spells for you only while prepared this way. You can replace your prepared transcribed spells when you finish a long rest.
Important Notes:
You have to use Warlock spell slots to cast the spell
You cannot learn ritual-only utility spells like Leomund’s Tiny Hut unless you can cast them with Pact Magic.
You cannot upcast these spells unless your Pact Magic spell slot level is high enough.
If you have Pact of the Tome, you can cast a spell that is higher level than your spell splots. Cast it at base level and spend a slot anyway
Level 3: Archivist’s Knowledge
Your mind becomes a living archive of accumulated facts and theories.
You gain a bonus to all Intelligence-based ability checks equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). This applies to checks like Arcana, History, Nature, Religion, and Investigation—even if you’re not proficient in the skill.
This represents your instinctive grasp of information and your ability to connect obscure details quickly and precisely.
Level 6: Recall the Forgotten
Your mind can retrieve obscure magical patterns at will.
As a bonus action, you may temporarily prepare one Wizard spell from your spellbook (copied via Eye of the Scribe) that you don’t currently have prepared.
This spell becomes available for 1 minute, and counts as a Warlock spell for you during that time.
Once used, you must finish a short or long rest before using this feature again.
Level 10: Mind Vault
The Archivist fortifies your thoughts against intrusion and enhances your perception of knowledge.
You gain the following benefits:
You are immune to being charmed or frightened while you are not incapacitated.
You have resistance to psychic damage.
You can cast Detect Thoughts once per long rest without expending a spell slot. You may also cast it using a Warlock spell slot.
Level 14: Cognizance Unbound
You unlock a moment of divine cognition, where your mind operates on a higher plane.
As an action, you enter a state of hyper-awareness for 1 minute. For the duration:
You automatically know if a creature you can see is under the effect of a spell, and can identify that spell without a check.
You can cast one spell from your Archivist spellbook without consuming a spell slot. This spell must be 5th level or lower.
Once during the duration, when a creature you can see casts a spell, you may use your reaction to immediately learn and transcribe that spell into your book if it’s from the Wizard spell list and a level you can cast.
Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.