Quick Links
Dungeons & Dragonsis a game full of classic fantasy protagonists, like knights and folk heroes. But what if you want to play the bad guy instead? Cultists have made deals with dark gods for as long as modern fantasy has been around, and when you play the Great Old One Warlock, you step into their shoes.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons: How To Build A Twilight Domain Cleric
As the Great Old One Warlock, you commune with unknowable horrors– a creature of the Far Realm like Cthulhu, Hastur, Tharizdun, or That Which Lurks. The forbidden knowledge they grant lets you warp the minds of your enemies, turning them into thralls and uncovering their secrets.
A Crowd-Controlling Magic Class
The Great Old One Warlock serves two roles. Out of combat, you’re the party face, interacting with othersto gather information and uncover forbidden secrets, and your high Charismamakes you great at skills like Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion.
Your divination spells likeDetect ThoughtsandClairvoyancemake you a fantastic spy, while yourDominatespells meanyou can turn enemies into unwilling allies.In combat,your main job is crowd control, and spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and the Dominate spellshelp you incapacitate foes, or turn them to your side.
Spells like Telekinesis and Evard’s black tentacles help youreposition foesinto places that are more useful to your allies, and spells like Mindspike and Psychic Scream let youthrow around unfathomable amounts of psychic damage.
Best Species
Any species can make a good Great Old One Warlock, butsome species are designed with the warlock class in mind.They’ve got bonuses in Charisma (or if you’re playing with Monsters of the Multiverse’s alternate rules, ability bonuses that can be put towards Charisma).
Many of these speciesalso have spells they can cast from Charisma,powerful natural abilities, or proficiencies in social skills that will help with your role as the party face.
If you want to build the best Great Old One Warlock,consider making your character one of these species.
Good ability bonuses, social skill proficiencies
Dragonborn
Strong, gruff, descended from dragons.
Good ability bonuses, breath weapon that supplements your spells/invocations nicely, damage resistance, and natively speaks Draconic
Drow
Elegantly evil dark elves with sinister religious rituals.
Good ability bonuses, magic using Charisma that can supplement your spell selection, weapon training that gives you options that don’t need magic
Eladrin
Elves from the Feywild, magic and strange.
Good ability bonuses and Fey Step teleport synergize nicely with crowd control
Fairy
Cute little fey creature, whimsical and capricious.
Fairies can fly and cast some spells warlocks don’t normally have access to with Charisma. Get yourself out of combat more easily, and use the ability you were using anyway for a few extra buffs/debuffs.
Half-Elf
Neither human nor elf, never quite belonging to either world.
Good ability bonuses, Skill Versatility lets you pick up social skills you don’t get from your class or background
Kenku
Birdlike mimics who can copy anything easily.
If you’re going to play a spy warlock you can’t go wrong with a kenku. Kenku Recall and Expert Duplication give you photographic memory and 2 skill proficiencies.
Satyr
Hedonistic party fey, masters of music and wine.
Good ability bonuses, saving throws against spells, and unarmed strikes mean you’re never weaponless
Simic Hybrid
Animal-humanoid hybrids, experimental test subjects.
Good ability bonuses, unarmed attacks, + 1 AC bonus, and the animal-human hybrid thing is great for Lovecraftian horror
Tiefling
Descendents of devil-worshippers, cursed by infernal magic.
Tieflings are built around the warlock class. Their ability bonuses, cantrips, and spell options complement the warlock’s spells and class features. If you may play with variants, pick the Glasya tiefling for pick the winged tiefling and fly away from danger
Warforged
Artificial constructs, fantasy robots.
Ability bonus and AC bonus are great for spellcasters, being immune to poison/disease/hunger/sleep is useful for any adventurer, and skill/tool proficiencies let you focus on Charisma skills that your background won’t give you
Yuan-ti
Snake people with a history of poison and infiltration.
Choose your ability bonuses, magic and poison resistance, cast useful spells with Charisma, and lore that fits well with Lovecraftian horror
Any Custom Lineage
Choose your adventure.
Total control over your build. Put your +2 into Charisma, pick a feat from the list below, and choose between darkvision and a social skill proficiency
Winged characters are banned in Adventurers' League, so it’s a good idea to ask your DM before you make a winged character. You don’t want to spend hours agonizing over your build only to get shot out of the sky.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons: Tiefling Species Guide
Ability Score Spread
A good ability score spread for the Great Old One Warlock might look something like this:
8 (-1)
14 (+2)
16 (+3)
10 (0)
Charisma is by far the most important abilityfor the Great Old One warlock, synergizing with both your combat capabilities and diplomatic dealings. It’s the ability score for a Great Old One Warlock, andeverything else is secondary.
That being said,don’t overlook Constitution and Dexterity. Being able to tough out a hit or dodge a fireball is going to make or break your long-term survival.
If you want to focus more on social skills and less on combat,swap out that 14 in Dexterity and put it in Wisdom instead.
Con man, fast-talker, the diplomatic wrong side of the law
Burglar, thief, spy- the hands-on wrong side of the law
Player’s Handbook
Reformed Cultist
You were a dark cultist, but now you’re not. Fantastic roleplay potential for a Great Old One Warlock.
Classic horror protag, scarred by their dark past
Arcana and investigation proficiencies, horror trinket, monster hunter’s kit.
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Faceless
Do you want to be Batman? This is how you play Batman.
Deception and intimidation proficiencies, secret identity, disguise kit.
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
Failed Merchant
You tried business and weren’t cut out for it. Now you serve dark gods. It’s the same thing.
Investigation and persuasion proficiencies, merchant connections.
Insight and persuasion proficiencies can navigate courts easily.
Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
All of these backgroundsgive you proficiencies in social skills, as well as equipment or contactsthat might be useful for a Charisma-focused character.
We’d recommend the Haunted One or the Criminal fora traditional dungeon-crawling campaign, as they’ve got abilities and skills that are useful for a more combat-focused game. The Courtier, Charlatan, and Failed Merchant are better forcampaigns that are more focused on intrigue, and the Faceless and the Reformed Cultistfall somewhere in between the two.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons: How To Build An Eldritch Knight
Best Starting Equipment
Think carefully aboutwhether you want a melee or ranged build, as you’ve got Eldritch Blast no matter what. A crossbow is a good backup, buthaving a second simple weapon can come in handy.
The dungeoneer’s pack has some useful toolsif you’re doing a dungeon crawl campaign, but thescholar’s packis more useful for an intriguing campaign, so don’t underestimate its value either. In any case, you’ll get leather armour, daggers, and an extra simple weapon no matter what so don’t feel too constrained by your starting options.
And if you’re thinking about background gear, we’d shout outthe Haunted One, Charlatan, and Criminal gear packs. The Haunted One’smonster hunter packand horror trinket are great for a horror-themed campaign, theCharlatan disguise and forgery kitsare always useful and a source of RP potential, and if you’re doing anything shady, the Criminal’s crowbar and hoodcan help you get into places without being identified.
Best Spells
Warlocks can pull from a small, but focused, list of spells, which they cast from Charisma. The Great Old One Warlock’s spellsfocus on dealing psychic damage, getting a better position on the battlefield, casting illusions,and overall messing with people’s heads.
Eldritch Blast
Shoot ranged magic blasts.
Your bread-and-butter damage spell, this is a must-have for any warlock.
Friends
Gain advantage on all Charisma checks against a person, and make them angry after.
Do damage and move monsters around the battlefield.
Great for crowd control and positioning.
Minor Illusion
Make a five-foot cube’s worth of illusory images or a loud sound.
Good distraction, good for con jobs.
Mind Sliver
Make your enemies take psychic damage and take a disadvantage on saving throws.
Makes your enemies worse at resisting your other attacks. Fry their brains, and then fling them with Lightning Lure.
Since you can cast cantrips whenever you want, they’re some of your most important spells, especially at low levels. This spell spread gives youan even mix of damage, utility, and crowd control.
Armour of Agathys
5 temp HP, cold damage to enemies that hit you.
Your bread-and-butter defensive spell; no reason why a warlock shouldn’t pick this up.
Hex
Curse on a creature within range, 1d6 necrotic damage every time you hit with an attack + give the creature a disadvantage on attacks that use its chosen ability.
Hex lets you rack up combos like a DMC character.
Witch Bolt
Ranged attack that does continuous lightning damage to one creature as long as you concentrate.
You’ll be able to electrify your foes from a safe distance.
Charm Person
Makes a humanoid friendly to you and is unable to attack.
You become instant friends with anyone, as long as they’ve failed their Wisdom save.
Makes creatures afraid of you and unwilling to approach you.
Keeps enemy attention off squishier targets, including you.
Another mix ofdamage, utility, and crowd control.Because Fear keeps enemies from coming near you, Witch Bolt and Hex are great offensive spells, andCharm Person is great both in and out of combat.
Use Case
Crown of Madness
Charm an enemy, and direct them to attack a creature every turn.
Neutralize a threat and make attack rolls against it easier.
Do psychic damage and know the target’s location.
Good for offense and information-gathering.
Suggestion
Influence a creature to do a (non-harmful-to-them) action.
The uses for this are as infinite as they are disturbing.
Create mirror duplicates that mimic your actions.
Makes enemies have a hard time hitting you.
Hold Person and Crown of Madness are great for crowd control, neutralizing threats before they can hit you, or making a threat your temporary ally.Mirror Image is a good defensive utility spell, Mind Spike does some pretty sweet damage and lets you track targets, andSuggestionhas as many uses as you’re able to imagine.
Fear
Project an image of a creature’s worst fears, and make a creature run away from you.
Crowd control and ambushes.
Hunger of Hadar
Open a gateway to the dark between the stars, create difficult terrain, and damage any creature who ends their turn there.
Make a section of the battlefield unusable for enemies and use your other abilities to guide them into it.
Major Image
Create a seemingly real image with sounds, smells, and temperature, but things can pass through it.
Misdirection, both in social and combat situations.
Debuff enemies, and remove debuffs on friends.
Charm and incapacitate anyone who sees the pattern.
Incapacitate enemies and make a lot of very temporary friends.
Level three iswhen most spell lists start opening up,and the Great Old One Warlock is no exception.Dispel Magic and Major Imageare fantastic utilities, Fear and Hypnotic Pattern are great for crowd control, and Hunger of Hadarlets you open a hole in the universe and damage your enemies with it.
Is a monster giving you too much trouble? Not anymore.
Charm Monster
Charm any creature, humanoid or not, that isn’t immune to charm.
Become instant friends with any monster.
Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
Blast a creature with a high amount of psychic damage and incapacitate them.
An effective source of damage and crowd control.
Dimension Door
Teleport yourself within 500 feet.
Reposition yourself on the battlefield- get away from monsters or find a tactically advantageous position
At level four, you start to get spellsthat let you mess with the planes.Dimension Door, Summon Aberration, and Banishmentlet you bend time and space to your will! Charm Monster lets youmake friends with any creature regardless of its type- so you can, theoretically, instantly befriend the baby dragon - and Raulothim’s Psychic Lanceis just a good damage spell.
Danse Macabre
Create up to five zombies or skeletons, and command them.
A handy source of extra attacks or meat shields if needed.
Mislead
Become invisible and make an illusory double of yourself.
Be in two places at once, as far as anyone else knows.
Synaptic Static
Do psychic damage and muddle creatures' thoughts in a 20-foot radius.
A good debuff and damaging spell.
Paralyzes any monster, humanoid or not.
Incapacitate threats of any kind, no matter the species.
Teleportation Circle
Link to any teleportation circle you know of on the same plane.
Warp back to home base or other important locations.
Yourfifth-level spells are mostly focused on utility.Teleportation Circlelets you travel more easily, so you may instantly get back to your home base, your local temple, or your bolt hole.Hold Monsteris an upgraded version of Hold Person;Misleadis a combination of invisibility and illusion spell;Danse Macabregives you a skeleton army, andSynaptic Staticis a good debuff/damage spell.
Give creatures panic, sickness, or sleep.
Crowd control and debuffing.
Mass Suggestion
Suggestion, but on up to twelve creatures.
Reshuffle the battlefield, repositioning both friends and foes.
True Seeing
See-through illusions, magic, and darkness.
Fighting an invisible monster? Looking for shapeshifters in a crowd at a party? This one’s for you.
Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise
Wings, immunities, AC bonus, magical weapons, and double attack.
A powered-up form that lets you get away from danger faster and hit harder.
You’re starting to hit true power by the time you can cast sixth-level spells. Mind tricking a small crowd? Toss your enemies around like a pigeon playing chess? Casually debuff enemies just by looking them in the eye, or reach a true powered-up form? For you, that’s Tuesday.
Interrogate, isolate, or protect the unwilling.
Plane Shift
Travel to another plane of existence.
Free yourself from the confines of the Material Plane, and adventure in other realms.
Etherealness
Travel through the Ethereal Plane, which overlaps the real world.
Walk through walls, spy on others, and fly- then snap back to your original location.
Crown of Stars
Does a high amount of radiant damage, and sheds light.
A powerful damage option, in a type that’s good against many strong monsters.
Power Word Pain
Slow enemies, keep them from casting spells and give them a disadvantage on any roll that isn’t a Constitution save.
A powerful debuff that’s great for neutralizing enemy wizards.
At this level, you’re learning more and more ways to travel the planes and bend creatures to your will. You canbecome ethereal and travel to the Ethereal Planethat overlaps our reality, orPlane Shiftto the Nine Hells or Elysium. Trap creatures in a tiny box, or cause your enemies excruciating pain with a word.Crown of Starsis your only good damage spell, and it’s a doozy– especially as a lot of powerful monsters are weak to radiant damage.
Like Dominate Person, but works on any type of creature.
Suddenly control one of the monsters on the battlefield.
Feeblemind
Does psychic damage and drops the target’s Intelligence and Charisma scores to 1.
Neutralizes a powerful foe, and in an intrigue game, this is the nuclear option. In a dungeon crawler, you can turn a mage into a piñata.
Maddening Darkness
Magical darkness makes it impossible to see and does psychic damage.
This is a good AOE, it makes the battlefield hard to navigate for enemies and wears their HP down.
Demiplane
Make your pocket dimension!
Storage, enemy trap, or shelter from a powerful foe- whatever you could use a 30x30 room for.
Glibness
You can take 15 on all Charisma checks and magical lie detectors show you telling the truth.
Makes socializing a breeze, which is great if you’re the party face.
You’ve got some truly potent spells at your disposal now–you can make your own pocket dimension, shatter a creature’s mind, or dominate dragons to your will.
Psychic Scream
A huge amount of psychic damage stuns targets, and if they die, their heads explode.
True Polymorph
Turn anything into anything else.
Once again, the uses of this spell are only constrained by your imagination.
Weird
Manifest a creature’s worst nightmare, frightening them and doing massive psychic damage.
Gate
Create a doorway between planes, or pull a creature through.
Travel to different worlds, or bring any named creature to you.
Blade of Disaster
Slice a hole in reality and hit people with it.
It inflicts massive force damage, and the blade can pass through walls.
You’ve got your hands on true power now. Yourmassive psychic damagecanexplode heads or cause a creature to die of fright; you can punch holes in reality or turn someone into a newt.
Best Feats
Feat selection is important for any character, and the Great Old One Warlock is no exception. For a Great Old One Warlock, you want featsthat will improve your spellcasting, your Charisma, or your social skill proficiencies,as thesefeats make you better at the things you’re already good at.
Alternatively, you may also take feats that use your high Charisma or spellcastingto give you more options in combat.Want to be the secondary healer, have more options to cause fright, or have an extra invocation?
Spell Sniper
Doubles the range of your attack spells, and makes them ignore half and three-quarters cover, but the real kicker here is the free cantrip from (almost) any spellcasting class. Pick a bard or sorcerer cantrip - Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, or Shocking Grasp are all good options- and you’ve got an extra damage-dealing spell.
Resilient
Increase any ability score by 1 point, and get an advantage on saves that use that ability score. You can use this to pump up your Charisma; alternately, use it on your Constitution or Dexterity, for more survivability.
Dragon Fear
Dragonborn only; you can raise your Charisma or Constitution and you gain the ability to roar, frightening enemies. This gives you either more attack power or more survivability, as well as even more options for crowd control. A frightened enemy won’t go anywhere near you willingly, so you have more opportunities for tactical positioning.
Inspiring Leader
Give your friends temporary hit points with a friendship speech! While the fluff on this one doesn’t match your character, your Charisma makes it a great feat for you.
Prodigy
Half-elf, half-orc, or human only. you may gain a skill proficiency, a tool proficiency, and a language proficiency of your choice, along with expertise in one skill. This lets you focus on your Charisma skills like Persuasion, Intimidation, and Deception.
Eldritch Adept
you may pick an extra invocation, as long as you meet the requirements. While it’s not the flashiest ability, warlocks have a pretty limited spell pool. The extra invocations can help you beef up your eldritch blasts or give you more utilities outside of combat.
Next:Dungeons & Dragons: How To Build A School Of Evocation Wizard
