Everything You Need To Know About Warlocks In Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 introduces the warlock as a blend of consistent ranged power and broad customization, with surprising ease-to-play for a spellcasting class. Leaning heavily on their signature Eldritch Blast cantrip, warlocks can consistently inflict damage without wrangling with the complex resource management that other full-casters face.

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Warlocks can further specialize through their pacts and Eldritch Invocations, unique enhancements that amplify their spells and character attributes. In all, Warlocks offer an accessible and versatile spellcasting experience while being one of the best ranged strikers of the game, which makes them a great choice for both novice and seasoned players alike.

Updated September 26, 2023: With Baldur’s Gate 3 now in its full release, we’ve taken the time to extend this guide and make sure it covers every subclass and every level.

Warlocks: An Overview

Bound by a pact to an all-powerful patron, warlocks trade their loyalty for supernatural abilities and unique magic.

The warlock is a highly formidable single-target striker, capable of delivering robust damage in short bursts of combat. Its unique spellcasting mechanism centers on limited spell slots that refresh on short rests rather than the long rests of all other casters. They also always cast their spells at the highest available level, yielding intense, albeit brief, combat potency.

When they’re not blasting foes with pinpoint accuracy from afar, warlocks also flourish in social situations due to their high Charisma.

Warlocks get two class ‘specializations’—their patron (subclass), which they choose at first level, and their pact, which they choose at third level.

Their patron impacts their spells and class features, while their pact gives them a further specialization of playstyle. More on this in later sections!

Warlocks lean heavily on the Eldritch Blast cantrip and Hex spell, which, while powerful, could lead to repetitive gameplay.

This can be offset by the versatility offered by Eldritch Invocations, which are small customizations that enhance the Warlock’s abilities. Eldritch Invocations can give the warlock new features and spells and even change how their existing spells work.

Although Warlocks individually pack a punch, they don’t contribute significantly to the overall synergy of a four-person party, lacking role specialization in support and reliable means of crowd-control.

And though hardier than some other full-casters, they still lack the durability of most front liners.

These factors mean that warlocks flourish best in a well-balanced party with controllers and defenders to keep enemies in check while the warlock blasts away.

Starting Out As A Warlock

Ability Scores

Skills Proficiencies

Warlocks start out with the standard two skill proficiencies, available in skills related to knowledge and magic.

Spellcasting

Warlocks use a special form of spellcasting that completely differs from all other casters in the game.

Firstly, warlocks have much fewer spell slots than other spellcasters. For instance, a fifth-level wizard would have nine spell slots, while a fifth-level Warlock has only two.

To balance this, instead of several differently-leveled spell slots, warlock spell slots are always upcast to the highest level possible for that warlock level. This means that every single spell that a fifth-level warlock casts will be cast at third level—while a fifth-level wizard would have spell slots ranging from first to third level.

Lastly, warlock spell slots are restored on a Short Rest, while all other casters only regain spell slots on a Long Rest.

Spellcasting Playstyle

All these factors make the warlocks excellent short-term skirmishers, with the ability to cast many more high-powered spells per day than other spellcasters. However, they struggle in drawn-out fights due to their need to short-rest between every couple of spells.

In combat, warlocks should be using their scarce spell slots either on spells that scale well, thus benefiting greatly from the warlock’s upcasting, or spells that can help them set up consistent damage increases for the rest of the fight (such as Hex).

Class Features

In this section, we’ll go over each warlock class feature, what they mean, and how to effectively use them.

Eldritch Invocations (Level 2)

At second level, warlocks gain two Eldritch Invocations. They continue to gain more as they progress through their warlock levels (once more at 5, 7, 9, and 12).

Unique to warlocks, invocations grant them some versatile utility in a class that would otherwise be locked into the striker role. Each invocation brings something new to the table, and they all have their own situational uses. That said, there are a few that stand out as especially strong picks in general play:

• Agonizing Blast provides a sizable amount of sure damage—and when most damage is determined by the roll of a dice, any guaranteed damage is excellent. As a warlock, your Charisma modifier is likely between three and five; combined with spells like Hex (which add another 1d6 per attack) and the multi-uses of Eldritch Blast at Level 5, this can make Eldritch Blast deal more damage than many leveled spells, despite being a cantrip.
• Repelling Blast allows for displacement and control on the battlefield. There is a lot of verticality in the maps of Baldur’s Gate 3, giving you plenty of opportunities to knock foes off of cliffs and deal hefty damage to them.
• Fiendish Vigor grants the warlock a sizable amount of durability at no cost.
• Thief of Five Fates grants the warlock access to Bane, a good controller spell, though it, unfortunately, competes with Hex for concentration.
• Sculptor of Flesh grants access to Polymorph, a great controller spell that completely incapacitates a single enemy.

Pact Boon (Level 3)

At Level 3, you gain extra power from your patron in the form of a pact boon. Each pact can be very useful depending on your play style and what roles your party lacks.

Chain provides a scout and extra combatant for your party; Blade makes you capable of dealing sizable damage with melee weapons; Tome grants you access to a list of very useful utility cantrips.

Deepened Pact (Level 6)

At Level 6, your patron rewards you with an extra boon depending on which pact you chose at Level 3.

Mystic Arcanum (Level 11)

Grants you one of the following sixth-level warlock spells:

• Circle of Death
• Arcane Gate
• Eyebite
• Flesh to Stone
• Create Undead (this is exclusive to Pact of the Tome)

Warlock Patrons – Subclass Overview

Warlocks choose their subclass at their first level, meaning you start the game with the specialization of your subclass. As such, it’s important to read ahead and properly understand each subclass before even starting the game.

Fiend Patron – Warlock Subclass

Warlocks in service to fiends work towards corrupting, destructive ends – intentionally or otherwise – and receive hellish blessings in turn.

The Fiend is a straightforward subclass, emphasizing offensive capabilities with a touch of defensive strengths. Focused on fire damage, the Fiend Warlock excels at blasting enemies, making it an effective choice in the frequently-large fights of Baldur’s Gate 3. Warlocks usually lack in area-of-effect spells, but the Fiend’s extended spell list softens this deficiency. Dark One’s Blessing also provides a great deal of durability that the Warlock could certainly use.

Dark One’s Blessing (Level 1, Fiend Warlock)

This feature nullifies the need for the Fiendish Vigor invocation, granting your warlock temporary hit points each time you kill something. The requirement makes this feature a little less than reliable but still grants you a sizable amount of durability, given that your party members are willing and able to let you ‘last-hit’ foes.

Dark One’s Own Luck (Level 6, Fiend Warlock)

This feature isn’t flashy, but it’s solid and can help you pass certain important story checks.

Fiendish Resilience (Level 10, Fiend Warlock)

Resistance to damage means that you take half as much damage from that damage type—needless to say, this can greatly bolster your defenses and give you a boost to survivability.

Which damage type you choose will depend on what sort of enemies you plan on facing that day.

At this level, resistance to slashing and piercing damage can be great to have due to the sheer number of humanoid enemies in te city of Baldur’s Gate, especially if you’re facing down one of the plethora of cultists capable of inflicting vulnerability to piercing damage.

Great Old One – Warlock Subclass

Warlocks bound to eldritch beings in the Far Realms work towards inscrutable goals, gaining strange powers over entropy and the mind.

The Great Old One warlocks, often referred to as “GOOLock,” embody the mysterious essence of drawing power from the unknowable aberrations of Faerun, boasting a blend of potent but situational abilities that make it a formidable controller on the battlefield.

The Great Old One warlock’s spell list seems tailor-made for the class, providing spells that greatly enhance the capabilities of any quintessential Eldritch Blast-focused warlock.

Mortal Reminder (Level 1, Great Old One Warlock)

The requirement of a critical hit makes this feature a little too inconsistent to be reliable at early levels. However, provided with the right amount of support—advantages, multi-attacks, status conditions such as incapacitation, etc.—Mortal Reminder becomes an excellent control debuff that can badly impair large groups of enemies at once.

Entrophic Ward (Level 6, Great Old One Warlock)

The short cooldown of this feature adds a great deal of reliable survivability to you, all while boosting your attack power. This is a solid feature that you should definitely use liberally during tough fights.

Thought Shield: Psychic Resistance (Level 10, Great Old One Warlock)

Though permanent resistance to a damage type is generally good, this comes in much later than the parts of the game where psychic damage is most rampant—in the Githyanki Crèche, where each Githyanki deals psychic damage per attack, and in the Mindflayer Colony when fighting large amounts of illithids.

Still, this feature will see some use in Baldur’s Gate, where there are still occasional spells and enemy features that use psychic damage.

Thought Shield: Psychic Reflection (Level 10, Great Old One Warlock)

As mentioned above, psychic damage is rarer in Act Three than in certain parts of Acts One and Two.

Still, this feature will still occasionally see use in Baldur’s Gate, where there are still spells and enemy features that use psychic damage.

Archfey – Warlock Subclass

Graced by a lady or lord of the fey, you are imbued with all the sumptuous and scary qualities of your patron’s extraordinary realm.

The Archfey warlock specializes in enchantment magic—inflicting the charm and frightened condition to crowd-control hordes of enemies, while preventing themselves from suffering from these conditions themselves.

Fey Presence (Level 1, Archfey Warlock)

Area of Effect status-infliction like this is hard to come by and generally makes for some of the best crowd control in the game.

Unfortunately, an Archfey warlock should almost never find themselves in such close quarters and surrounded by enemies. Still, if you find yourself in this sticky situation, this feature will almost certainly save your life.

Misty Escape (Level 6, Archfey Warlock)

Though a solid defensive feature that can get you out of a hairy melee situation, an Archfey warlock should ideally never be close enough to the fray to require this.

Still, it’ll be useful in a pinch and can be especially valuable against enemies with several multi-attacks—stopping them short on the first one.

Beguiling Defenses (Level 10, Archfey Warlock)

This is, unfortunately, an extremely situational ability for such a high level. Still, it may see some uses in some parts of Act Three against certain undead and spellcasters.

Warlock Companions

Baldur’s Gate 3 features one warlock Origin Character: Wyll, the Blade of Frontiers.

A disgraced noble seeking the thrill, glory, and honor of being a folk hero, Wyll is a Warlock whom you can meet early on in the game, shortly after the Nautiloid crash.

You can find him by reaching the Druid Grove and helping the adventurers fend off the goblin raid. Enter the grove and look for Wyll in the training grounds. You can ask him to join you on your travels after a short conversation.

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