Baldur’s Gate 3 Complete Warlock Class Guide | Best Warlock Spells, Feats, Invocations

Warlocks are one of the spellcasting classes in both Baldur’s Gate 3 and traditional Dungeons & Dragons with the unique spin that they get their magic and power from a Pact with a mysterious, usually malevolent, Patron. In terms of playing a Warlock in BG3, they can be quite the unwieldy class to learn and master on account of their tricky spell management and a menagerie of bonuses and abilities from their Eldritch Invocations and Pact Boons. If you go into playing a Warlock without the knowledge and temperament to overcome the class’s many shortcomings, you may wish you’d have rolled up a completely different character: Use the knowledge present in this guide, though, and you’ll soon be spreading the devastating magic of your Patron through all of Faerun. 

From learning how the Warlock’s limited but powerful spell pool works to how the intricate Eldritch Invocation and Pact Boon system operates, there is a ton to dissect and learn about the Warlock. That isn’t even mentioning the class’s various subclasses, with each available Patron allowing your Warlock to specialise in either all-out offence, deceptive domination of the battlefield or a tricksy hybrid of the two. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the Warlock class in Baldur’s Gate 3, including how their signature abilities work, what Proficiencies they have, what their best Spells and Feats are and much more. 

Want more Baldur’s Gate 3 content and coverage? You can find it here on KeenGamer:

1. Baldur’s Gate 3 Review | Natural 20
2. Baldur’s Gate 3 | How to Change Classes, Multiclass and Respec
3. Baldur’s Gate 3 | Sorcerer Sundries Vault Guide (How to Open the Karsus and Elminster Vaults)
4. Baldur’s Gate 3 | All Dribbles the Clown Body Part Locations (Find Dribbles Quest Guide)
5. Baldur’s Gate 3 Wyrmway Guide | How to Find and Beat Ansur the Wyrm

Warlock Class Overview

Warlock Playstyle in Baldur’s Gate III

Warlocks are one of the stranger, more laborious spellcasters to choose in Baldur’s Gate III. These mages get their magic through Pacts with powerful, mysterious Patrons, deals and agreements with Devils, Fey, Gods or other unknowable entities. In terms of roleplay value, Warlocks have some incredible potential and are a super fun class to play. They’re one of the game Charisma casters alongside Bards, Paladins and Sorcerers, giving them an edge in social situations alongside their combat prowess. 

In terms of playstyle in combat, though, Warlocks are hard to nail down. With a very limited number of Spell Slots and a relatively shallow pool of spells, Warlocks can really only focus on one or two things per battle: they generally get one big move that can turn the tide (or not, depending on the dice roll) before they return to slinging Cantrips as their main way of aiding the team. This isn’t to say that diverse Warlock playstyles don’t exist – we’ll even discuss some later on when talking about Warlock subclasses – but it is significantly harder than with other spellcasters. 

What they lack in variety, though, they make up for in consistency. Instead of relying on their spells and having to manage spell slots, Warlocks rely on their unique capabilities and Cantrips to carry them through fights. They have a lot of different tools and abilities which buff their neutral game and their good mix of starting Weapon and Armour Proficiencies allows them to be more aggressive and reckless than your average Wizard. With a more limited palette to choose from, you can also focus on deepening your mastery around other aspects of combat, such as positioning or team play.

Overall, Warlocks are a tricky class to play. If you don’t understand how to get the most out of your spells or simply get unlucky, your Warlock may end up being pretty useless in certain battles thanks to their low overall damage output (compared to other spellcasters) and a small number of usable spells per battle. However, they’re one of the best classes to challenge players and test your knowledge of overall game systems and push you into making more interesting decision-making, especially when there’s so much to choose from with the Eldritch Invocation and Pact Boon systems. Warlocks are one of the most rewarding classes in Baldur’s Gate 3 but you’ll have to put in a decent amount of work to get the most out of them. 

Warlocks, Pact Born Magic

Warlock Proficiencies (Weapons, Armour, Skills and Saving Throws)

As a Warlock, you gain proficiency with Simple Weapons (which includes everything from Spears to Quaterstaffs to Handaxes) and Light Armour, giving you a bit more offensive and defensive potential when compared to other spellcasters such as Wizards or Sorcerers, who are far more limited in that regard. Additionally, something to consider is that spellcasters in BG3 can still cast spells while dual-wielding, opening Warlocks to close-range melee options such as dual-wielding Handaxes, especially because they have a very limited pool of Bonus Action abilities. 

In the Abilities department, Warlock’s main stat is Charisma (CHA) granting them proficiency in Charisma Saving Throws. A large portion of their abilities and skills, including their Spell Casting Modifier, relies on having high Charisma, so you’ll want to increase this as high as you can through normal means. Following that, consider levelling up Constitution, as it increases max HP and Warlocks are one of the most rough-and-tumble spellcasters in the game, or Intelligence, as a lot of your most vital Skill Proficiencies scale off of INT.  

Speaking of Skill Proficiencies, Warlocks can choose two from the following list:

• Arcana (Intelligence)
• History (Intelligence)
• Investigation (Intelligence)
• Nature (Intelligence)
• Deception (Charisma)

Warlocks are the halfway point between the scholarly Wizards and the charming Bard. They have the Skill Proficiencies and knowledge usually reserved for more intelligent classes alongside a silver tongue that can carry them through even the tensest situations and scenarios. If you play it right, a Warlock can become an unstoppable social juggernaut who can talk their way around nearly every situation, with knowledge and know-how in most areas to back up their honeyed words. Their weaknesses obviously come with any physically oriented task, such as those requiring STR or DEX, and they’ll also fall short on most Perception or WIS-based checks due to a lack of expertise in those areas. 

Warlock Skill Proficiencies

Signature Abilities: Eldritch Invocations and Pact Boons

The main signature abilities of Warlocks are Eldritch Invocations and Pact Boons.

Starting with Eldritch Invocations, these are a set of special abilities said to be fragments of forbidden magical knowledge which you can imbue your Warlock with. There are a total of 19 different Eldritch Invocations to choose from and a level 12 Warlock can have up to 6 Invocations. Each Invocation is very different and provides a unique ability. Some, like Sign of Ill Omen or Fiendish Vigour, allow the Warlock to cast a new spell (sometimes without the need for a Spell Slot) whereas others provide passives such as a special kind of Dark Vision with Devil’s Sight or Proficiency in Deception and Persuasion with Beguiling Influence.

In general, the best Invocations to choose from are the ones which provide useful passive abilities or give you benefits and bonuses to already existing skills. For example, Agonising Blast and Repelling Blast are both Invocations focused on enhancing the Eldritch Blast Cantrip and they will dramatically boost both your damage and combat capabilities when chosen, allowing you to deal more damage per Blast and forcibly move targets on hit. Other incredibly useful Invocations include Beast Speech and Whispers of the Grave for a permanent free Speak With Animals and Speak With Dead, respectively.

List of Eldritch Invocations

The other main signature ability of the Warlock is Pact Boons. You decide on a Pact Boon upon reaching level 3 and there are three options to choose from. There’s the Pact of the Chain which allows you to summon a special Familiar to aid you in combat or exploration, Pact of the Blade which lets you summon a special weapon to use in melee, and Pact of the Tome which gives you a Book of Shadows filled with additional spells otherwise unavailable to most Warlocks. 

Your Pact Boon is one of the primary ways of differentiating playstyles between each Warlock: do you want to play a minion master who summons an Imp to help aid them in battle, or are you more a Hexblade who rushes in with their magically bound Greatsword to cleave apart their foes? You’ll get some additional bonuses and boosts to your Pact Boon in later levels, making it even stronger and more effective. Don’t neglect or forget about your Pact Boon, either, as it can become a vital part of your Warlock identity and playstyle deep into the end of the game. 

Warlock Pact Boons

Warlock Subclasses

The Fiend

Warlocks in service to a Patron who fits the description of the Fiend are said to work towards corrupting, destructive ends – whether intentionally or otherwise – and receive fittingly hellish blessings in return.

As for what you get from being aligned with the Fiend, you’ll instantly gain access to the spells Armour of Agathys and Arms of Hadar, two signature Warlock spells which can aid dramatically in the realms of defence and offence, respectively. Additionally, you’ll also get the Dark One’s Blessing Subclass Feature, which grants you 4 temporary hit points as a gift from your patron when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points. At later levels, Fiend Warlocks will obtain the ability to add 1d10 to any Ability Check they make and they can become Resistant to a damage type which they can change every Short Rest. 

Out of all the Warlock subclasses, the Fiend subclass is probably the most damage and offensive-oriented. The starter spells you receive are strong all the way throughout the game and provide your Warlock with a good deal more survivability and strength in melee, something most Warlocks would struggle with. Additionally, their range of available spells comes stacked with some truly devastating and powerful options such as Fireball, allowing you to decimate and master any portion of the battlefield. Fiend Warlocks are the least tactical out of the Pact-sworn, preferring a more direct approach to combat without the beguiling charms or seductions of either other subclasses. 

The Fiend

The Great Old One

Warlocks bound to a Patron belonging to the Great Old One classification are tethered to eldritch beings in the Far Realm, creatures unknowable and unimaginable. They work towards inscrutable goals that are beyond mortal reckoning or understanding, gaining strange powers that allow them to manipulate the minds of others. 

As soon as you take up the Great Old One subclass, you’ll gain the spells Dissonant Whispers and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, spells focused primarily on utility and causing their targets to become afflicted with some sort of debuff. You’ll also get the Mortal Reminder subclass feature which forces an enemy to roll a Wisdom Saving Throw whenever you land a Critical Hit: if they fail, they become Frightened of you until the end of their next turn. At later levels, Great Old One Warlocks can use a Reaction to impose Disadvantage on Attack Rolls against themselves, gain Resistance to Psychic damage and mirror any Psychic damage they take back at their attacker. 

Great Old One Warlocks are very interesting. Compared to the brutal and offence-focused Fiend subclass or the whimsical Archfey subclass, the Great Old One subclass is centred on disruption and control with a repertoire of spells and abilities to cause chaos, either on the battlefield or off it. If you don’t lean into this more supportive, debuffer role and want to actively engage in combat more often, the Great Old One may not be the Patron for you: if dominating the minds of men and beasts alike and bending them to your will excites you, though, then there’s no better Warlock path to take than the Great OId One. 

The Great Old One

The Archfey

Finally, we come to the Archfey Patron. Your Warlock has been graced by a lord or lady of the Fey and you have been imbued with the same mystifying and terrifying qualities of the Feywild, transforming you into an unpredictable force of nature.

At level 1, Archfey Warlocks gain the Faerie Fire and Sleep spells, playing into that trickster role usually applied to the Fey. They also get the Fey Presence class action which allows them to Charm or Frighten nearby foes with the beguiling, disturbing magic of the Feywild should they fail a Wisdom Save. At later levels, Archfey Warlocks can look forward to gaining the Misty Escape subclass feature, which lets them become Invisible upon taking damage and then use Misty Step for free on their next turn, and immunity to the Charmed effect. 

Archfey Warlocks exist between the destructive heights of the Fiend Warlocks and the manipulative strength of the Great Old One Warlocks. A large majority of their spells and abilities have to do with the same disruptive effects of their eldritch contemporaries but with a more mischievous spin, whereas they can still pack a surprising punch with their attacking option. An Archfey Warlock is best played when their player can juggle these two playstyles and combine them: while they won’t be as strong as a Fiend Warlock or as overbearing as a Great Old One Warlock, they can play the best of both worlds and use the strength of both to create a devious, tricky spellcaster who darts around the battlefield causing unimaginable chaos wherever they can.

The Archfey

Warlock Spell List

Next, we come to the Warlock’s list of spells in Baldur’s Gate 3. There’s a lot to love here but, just like with everything else related to the Warlock, there are a few caveats to get out of the way, first. 

The biggest hurdle any would-be Warlock has to face is how they approach casting spells. Out of all the main spellcasters in Baldur’s Gate 3, Warlocks have the lowest amount of Spell Slots, totalling a mere three Slots at max level (level 12). Once you get your second Spell Slot at level 2 you better enjoy it because the third one doesn’t come until level 11, leaving you with very limited spell options for most of the game. Of course, the main benefit of this is that Warlocks regain all of their slots on a Short Rest and their spells are always cast at the highest level.

Another thing to note before we dive into all of the Warlock’s available spells is that a large majority of them are Concentration-based. Spellcasters can only use one Concentration spell at a time and you’ll lose Concentration if you cast another Concentration spell or fail a CON Save after being hit. For other spellcasters, losing out on Concentration isn’t a massive deal as they have the Slots to recast those spells: for a Warlock, though, losing Concentration due to an unlucky roll severely cripples your combat capabilities for that fight. You need to be very aware of what you’re using and it’s one of the reasons why having a high Constitution is pretty nice for a Warlock. 

So Many Spells, So Few Slots

Finally, it should also be noted that some spells change availability depending on your chosen subclass: for example, Fiend Warlocks can learn spells such as Fireball or Fire Wall whereas Archfey Warlocks can learn Plant Growth and Blink. These subclass-exclusive spells usually relate heavily to the assigned role of each subclass, with Fiend spells being more damage-oriented whereas Great Old Ones spells are about controlling and dominating others, and so playing into them can be a great way to get into character.

With that out of the way, here are all the spells Warlocks can learn in Baldur’s Gate III: 

Eternal Servitude

Mystic Arcanum

When a Warlock reaches level 11, they’ll gain access to a new class ability called the Mystic Arcanum. Your Warlock will choose one of five Level 6 Spells when they level up. Then, once per Long Rest, they can cast that sixth-level spell without expending a Spell Slot. These are the highest-level spells a Warlock can naturally learn without using magic items or feats.

Compared to the rest of the Warlock’s repertoire, the Mystic Arcanum spells are incredibly powerful and play into the already-established fantasies and roles created by the Warlock subclasses and restrictions. Most of the spells are utility-focused, for example, and either create more allies to aid you or debilitate an enemy for a prolonged period. Seeing as these spells can only be used once per Long Rest, you should save them for tough boss fights or against elite opponents.

The five Mystic Arcanum spells you have to choose from in BG3 are:

• Circle of Death (Necromancy)
• Arcane Gate (Conjuration)
• Eyebite (Necromancy)
• Flesh to Stone (Transmutation)
• Create Undead (Necromancy)

Mystic Arcanum

Best Warlock Spells in BG3

As a side effect of their lower Spell Slot count, Warlocks will find themselves relying heavily on their Cantrips to see them through battle. Due to this, Eldritch Blast is an absolute must-pick on basically every single Warlock: not only is it relatively strong, but it also gets a ton of benefits from two separate Eldritch Invocations, allowing it to hit multiple targets and potentially blast them off the side of cliffs or buildings. Other really useful Cantrips include Friends to help Charisma checks go over more smoothly, Blade Ward to make melee more of a viable option, True Strike to help guarantee that you get the most out of your attacking spells and Bone Chill to cripple irritating enemies. 

For level 1 and level 2 spells, Hex is absolutely iconic for Warlocks and will give you a good utility tool to use as a Bonus Action. The additional damage from Hex is always going to be a benefit whether you’re fighting smaller enemies or bosses alike, and the Disadvantage you impose can be extremely useful when paired with certain abilities from your allies. Alongside Hex, consider picking up Misty Step for more mobility during combat, Hellish Rebuke for a powerful reactionary option when getting damaged or Phantasmal Force for a damaging spell which continually deals damage each round.

Level 3 and 4 spells are where you’re able to express a bit more identity in your Warlock, especially seeing as this is when the majority of utility spells come online. One such example is Hunger of Hadar, a risky spell which has great potential to either work in your favour or mess up your ally: if you aim it just right, the Blinding sphere created by this spell can completely take out a whole squadron of enemies, slowing and damaging them in the process. Other spells here to consider include the absolutely essential Counterspell, the game-changing Slow or Fear spells, Blight if you want a powerful late-game damage option or Dimension Door for an even better teleport. 

Wyll the Warlock

Best Warlock Feats

Considering that the Warlock’s spell list is so heavily inundated with Concentration Spells, War Caster is one of the best Feats to take. It will give you Advantage on Saving Throws to maintain Concentration on a spell and allow you to use Shocking Grasp as an Opportunity Attack. While the second part is a nice bonus, that first bit of the Feat is essential and 100% worthwhile so your Warlock doesn’t have to be as concerned with losing Concentration on their Hunger of Hadar, Slow, Crown of Madness or any other spell. War Caster should be your first option when choosing a Feat for Warlocks in BG3.

Aside from War Caster, there are a few other potent choices in terms of Feats. Spell Sniper lets you learn an additional Cantrip – Bone Chill, Firebolt, Ray of Frost or Shocking Grasp – and lowers the number you need to roll to get a Critical Hit with spells by 1, making the new Critical Hit number 19. This is invaluable as it lets your Warlock get a lot more potential damage out of their Eldritch Blasts and other offensive spells. Meanwhile, Actor is a nice choice that will impact both your combat and conversational gameplay as it increases your Charisma by 1 and doubles your Proficiency Bonus for Deception and Performance checks. Lastly, Lucky is always going to be a good choice for any class, no matter what.

However, don’t just dump everything into Feats. Improving your Warlock’s Charisma with an Ability Improvement is sure to greatly benefit you in the long run. You may also want to up your Constitution to both help you survive a bit more in the late game and give you more opportunities to succeed on Concentration Checks. We recommend taking at least one Ability Improvement Feat per Warlock playthrough. 

War Caster Feat

That was your complete guide to the Warlock class in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you want to learn about more classes in BG3, check out our Paladin Class guide here.