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Whether you didn’t read the fine print on the devil’s contract, stared into the wrong abyss, or simply picked up a particularly cursed sword, you’re a warlock now. Don’t worry if your patron sends you on a dangerous journey—they’re giving you lots of magical superpowers, so it all balances out. (Right?)
As a warlock, your patron expands your spell list with about 10 additional spells, letting you further customize your magic. But what about spells that nearly any warlock might select? Below, I’ve compiled a list of 10 of the best warlock spells, most of which should fit most patrons and playstyles.
- Armor of Agathys
- Crown of Stars
- Eldritch Blast
- Eyebite
- Far Step
- Hex
- Hypnotic Pattern
- Mirror Image
- Shadow of Moil
- Synaptic Static
Pact Magic
As we know and love and lament, the warlock has very few Pact Magic slots to use for spellcasting. From 2nd level to 10th level, the warlock boasts two whole Pact Magic slots, which they regain on a Short Rest. With this in mind, warlocks need to ensure that the spells they cast provide value for as long as possible, ideally for an entire encounter.
You should also always keep an eye on what spell slot you’re currently casting spells at based on your warlock level. If you can only cast spells using a 3rd-level spell slot, choosing a 1st-level spell that you can’t upcast doesn’t provide good value for your limited resources.
1. Armor of Agathys
1st-level abjuration
Starting off the list with a warlock exclusive, I present armor of agathys. You are covered in a protective, spectral frost that grants you that temporary hit points and damages any foe who hits you with a melee attack. This single spell, particularly when upcast, provides a powerful defense against swarms of smaller monsters, obliterating them for daring to touch you.
Let’s say an enemy necromancer summons skeletons to attack your party, and you cast armor of agathys to protect yourself. You’re a 7th level warlock, so your 4th level Pact Magic slots grant you 20 temporary hit points. A skeleton hits you with its shortsword for 4 damage; your armor of agathys erupts in icy spikes, dealing 20 cold damage to the skeleton, obliterating it. The second one hits for 6 damage; though you only have 16 temporary hit points remaining, your spell still deals 20 cold damage to the second skeleton, destroying it as well.
2. Crown of Stars
7th-level evocation
Now, radiant damage in particular may not suit your warlock; very fair. But in terms of mileage, crown of stars is nearly impossible to beat. Motes of starlight circle your head, sparking and crackling with your patron’s power. For one use of your 7th-level Mystic Arcanum, you have seven long-range bonus action spell attacks, greatly increasing your potential for damage output. Warlocks aren’t usually dealing much damage as a bonus action, but crown of stars grants you the opportunity to deal 4d12 damage seven times. And crown of stars doesn’t even require concentration! Combine it with debilitating spells like hypnotic pattern, damaging spells like hex, or defensive spells such as shadow of moil.
If your patron is darker and more evil, perhaps they will find the radiant damage more palatable if you pitch it as moonlight? Not sure, but good luck! Maybe ask the celestial warlocks for advice.
3. Eldritch Blast
Evocation cantrip
Before we even begin boosting its power with Eldritch Invocations, this cantrip has two advantages over its competition: a more valuable damage type, and greater tactical flexibility.
Force damage is one of the least-resisted damage types in the game. Fire bolt and toll the dead can deal similar damage, but fire will glance off of many fiends and necromancy will be useless against many undead. Casters of all stripes also yearn for eldritch blast because it distributes damage in multiple beams, providing more tactical flexibility than a single-target cantrip. Use this to impose multiple concentration checks on one spellcaster, or to distribute this damage among a mob of enemies.
This cantrip already has a bit of a leg up on its competition, and we haven’t touched an Eldritch Invocation yet. Five Eldritch Invocations can amplify eldritch blast’s power:
- Agonizing Blast: When you cast eldritch blast, add your Charisma modifier to the damage it deals on a hit.
- Eldritch Spear: When you cast eldritch blast, its range is 300 feet.
- Grasp of Hadar: Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with your eldritch blast, you can move that creature in a straight line 10 feet closer to you.
- Lance of Lethargy: Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with your eldritch blast, you can reduce that creature’s speed by 10 feet until the end of your next turn.
- Repelling Blast: When you hit a creature with eldritch blast, you can push the creature up to 10 feet away from you in a straight line.
Want to take this cantrip to its extreme? A 9th-level warlock with these 5 invocations could use Eldritch Blast from 300 feet away and could use the beams to yank the target 10 feet in any direction and reduce their speed by 10 feet. (Want to keep dialing it higher? Pick up the Spell Sniper and Metamagic Adept feats to extend the range out to 1200 feet, turning you into an ultimate arcane sniper.) Every enemy standing near a ledge or cliff would be one eldritch blast away from falling to their demise, no saving throw required.
No other cantrip comes close to this degree of battlefield control, precision, flexibility, and damage.
4. Eyebite
6th-level necromancy
Like many warlock spells, eyebite is designed to last an entire encounter, requiring concentration but in return giving you a powerful action you can perform each turn.
5. Far Step
5th-level conjuration
If you want your warlock to be highly mobile and difficult to pin down, far step is your dream come true. As simple as it is useful: This concentration spell lasts for 1 minute, during which you can use your bonus action to teleport 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. That’s twice the distance of misty step!
Use far step to stay out of enemies’ melee range, find an angle for eldritch blast where your foe doesn’t have cover, or ensure you can catch as many enemies as possible in an area of effect. You could also invoke far step during a heist to poof down a hallway of guards or out a window. Or, finally, spice up your rooftop chase scene with a little teleportation!
6. Hex
1st-level enchantment
But hex is more than just the perfect power-up for eldritch blast—it also has a critically useful roleplay application. When you hex a target, you can select one of their abilities, such as Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, and impose disadvantage on their checks made with that ability. If you can manage to sneakily cast this spell on a target before a social interaction, you can gain a huge upper hand.
Impose disadvantage on Insight (Wisdom) checks before you tell a lie, or on Investigation (Intelligence) checks before they have an opportunity to inspect your disguise self spell. This feature does have combat implications as well: impose disadvantage on Athletics (Strength) or Acrobatics (Dexterity) checks so your fighter has an easier time shoving targets prone, or on the enemy mage’s spellcasting ability checks before they cast counterspell or dispel magic.
Hex is a warlock’s best friend, hindering enemies in and out of combat.
7. Hypnotic Pattern
3rd-level illusion
Everybody has their own preferred playstyle, but when I play a warlock I often like to spend my Pact Magic slots on control or debuff spells that can last for an entire encounter. Some will prefer hold person or banishment, others might like fear or sickening radiance—all great choices. I prefer hypnotic pattern, a 30-foot cube of twisting colors and enchanting lights. The spell goes off like a flashbang, charming and incapacitating enemies and reducing their speed to 0 for 1 minute or until they take damage or are shaken awake. Hypnotic pattern allows your party to take out dazed foes one-by-one or could create the opportunity your party needs to flee from a horde.
If mass incapacitation isn’t your style and you prefer to make foes susceptible to your allies’ magic, use the Thief of Five Fates Eldritch Invocation to pick up bane. (Or just ask your Undead patron very nicely.)
8. Mirror Image
2nd-level illusion
You’ll breathe a deep sigh of relief when the DM rolls a critical hit, only to destroy one of your illusory duplicates while you remain unharmed. Just be prepared for your bard to make a few predictable jokes about how “one of you was frightening enough.”
9. Shadow of Moil
4th-level necromancy
Once you reach 7th level, you’ll be able to cast shadow of moil, a potent defensive spell that I think goes overlooked. It makes you much harder to hit, wraps you in darkness, grants you resistance to radiant damage, and deals damage to nearby enemies who do manage to hit you.
If you’re a warlock who stays at longer range, shadow of moil might be most useful to cover a retreat and ensure you don’t get bogged down by arrows or zombies. If you’re a Hexblade who doesn’t want to spend concentration on an offensive spell like spirit shroud, then you’ll love this spell during melee combat. Finally, this could also be useful when sneaking around or partaking in a heist, as it shrouds you in shadow and obscures the details of your face.
10. Synaptic Static
5th-level abjuration
Warlocks deserve a couple of damage-dealing area-of-effect spells, as a treat. And though warlocks don’t get some of the classics like fireball or lightning bolt, synaptic static is worth the wait. Synaptic static forces an Intelligence saving throw, in which monsters are rarely proficient, and it deals psychic damage, to which enemies are rarely resistant. Furthermore, it hinders a target for up to 1 minute, weakening its attacks and ability checks. This lasting effect helps make a one-time burst of damage worthwhile to a warlock with few slots to spare.
If you want your area of effect spell to cover a bigger area—or perhaps psychic damage just isn’t your style—take a look at circle of death.
Building a Warlock
Now that you’ve selected some spells from the warlock spell list and rounded them out with spells provided exclusively by your patron, it’s time to jump over to the D&D Beyond character builder and create your favorite eldritch spellcaster!
Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerûn, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.
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