Quick Links
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons is 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 aroun𝄹d, and when you play the Great Old One Warlock, you step into their shoes.
As the Great Old One Warlock, you commune with unknowable horrors-- a creature of the Far Realm like Cthulhu, Hastur, Tharizdun, or That Which Lur💧ks. 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 others to gather information and uncover forbidden secrets, and your high Charisma makes you great at skills like Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion.
Your divination spells like Detect Thoughts and Clairvoyance make you a fantastic spy, while your Dominate spells mean you can turn enemies into unwilling allies. In combat, your main job is crowd control, and spells like Tasha's Hideous Laughter and the Dominate spells help you incapacitate foes, or turn them to your side.
Spells like Telekinesis and Evard's black tentacles help you reposition foes into places that are more useful to your allies, and spells like Mindspike and Psychic Scream let you throw around unfathomable amounts of psychic damage.
Best Species
Any species can make a good Great Old One Warlock, but some 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 species also have spells they can cast from Charisma, powerful natꩵural 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.
Species |
Description |
Traits |
Changeling |
Shapeshifters who can wear many faces. |
Good ability bonuses, social skill proficiencies |
Dragonborn |
Strong, gruff, descended from dragons. |
Good ability bonuses, breath weapon that supplemen💛ts your spells/invocations nic♌ely, damage resistance, and natively speaks Draconic |
Drow |
Elegantly evil dark elves with sinister relig⛄ious 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 Fe🐟y Step teleport synergize nicely with crowd control |
Fairy |
Cute little feꦦy 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 belon🌠ging 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 subject🌊s. |
Good ability bonuses, unarmed attacks, + 1 AC bonus, and the animal-human hybrid thing is great for L☂ovecraftian horror |
Tiefling |
Descende𓂃nts of devil-worshippers, 𝓀cursed 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 can 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 wꦰith a history of poison a🔥nd infiltration. |
Choose yꦛour 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 be꧂tween 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.
Ability Score Spread
A good ability score spread fo♍r the Great Old One Warlock might look something like this:
Strength |
Dexterity |
Constitution |
Intelligence |
Wisdom |
Charisma |
8 (-1) |
14 (+2) |
16 (+3) |
10 (0) |
10 (0) |
16 (+3) |
Charisma is by far the most important ability for 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, and everything 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.
Best Starting Background
Background |
Description |
Traits |
Source |
Charlatan |
Co💫n man, fa༺st-talker, the diplomatic wrong side of the law |
Deception proficien👍cy, disg🐟uise kit, false identity. |
Player's Handbook |
Criminal |
Burglar, thief, spy- the hands-🍒on wrong side of the law |
Deception proficiency, criminal contacts, cꦆrowbar. |
Player's Handbook |
Reformed Cultist |
You were a dark cultist, but now you're not. Fantastic roleplay potential for a Great Old One Warlock. |
Deception proficiency, unholy secrets. |
Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting |
Haunted One |
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, s🗹ecret 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. |
Invesꦺtigation and persuasion prof▨iciencies, merchant connections. |
Acquisitions Inc. |
Courtier |
You know royal courts like the back of your hand. |
Insight and persuasion proficie🦩nci♋es can navigate courts easily. |
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide |
All of these backgrounds give you proficiencies in social skills, as well as equipment or contacts that might be useful for a Charisma-focused character.
We'd recommend the Haunted One or the Criminal for a 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 for campaigns that are more focused on intrigue, and the Faceless and the Reformed Cultist fall somewhere in between the two.
Best Starting Equipment
Think carefully about whether you want a melee or ranged build, as you've got Eldritch Blast no matter what. A crossbow is a good backup, but having a second simple weapon can come in handy.
The dungeoneer's pack has some useful tools if you're doing a dungeon crawl campaign, but the scholar's pack is 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 out the Haunted One, Charlatan, and Criminal gear packs. The Haunted One's monster hunter pack and horror trinket are great for a horror-themed campaign, the Charlatan disguise and forgery kits are always useful and a source of RP potential, and if you're doing anything shady, the Criminal's crowbar and hood can 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 spells focus on dealing psychic damage, getting a better position on the battlefield, casting illusions, and overall messing with people's heads.
Cantrips
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Eldritch Blast |
Shoot ranged magic blasts. |
Your bread-and-butter dam🦋age sp🍸ell, this is a must-have for any warlock. |
Friends |
Gain advantage on all Charisma checks against a person🍨, and make them angry after. |
Good ꦦfor one-time schmoozing around an unfriendly non-hostile NPC. |
Lightning Lure |
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 yo𓆉ur enemies take psychic damage and take a disadvanta🌊ge on saving throws. |
Makes your enemies worse aꦗt 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 you an even mix of damage, utility, and crowd control.
Level One
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
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 t𝔍ime you hit with a🎀n 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 𝕴humanoid friendly t𝕴o you and is unable to attack. |
You become instant friends with anyone, as long as they've failed their Wisdom save. |
Cause Fear |
Makes creatures afraid of 🌠you and ꧂unwilling to approach you. |
Keeps enemy attention off squishier ta𝕴rgets, including you. |
Another mix of damage, utility, and crowd control. Because Fear keeps enemies from coming near you, Witch Bolt and Hex are great offensive spells, and Charm Person is great both in and out of combat.
Level Two
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Crown of Madness |
Charm an enemy, and di📖rect them ไto attack a creature every turn. |
Instant friends, now with added violence. |
Hold Person |
Paralyze a humanoid enemy. |
Neutralize a threat and make att♕ack rolls agains🐈t it easier. |
Mind Spike |
Do psychic damage and know the target's location. |
Good for offense and information-gathering. |
Suggestion |
Influence a creature to do a (no♔n-harmful-to-them) action. |
The uses 🃏for thi🌠s are as infinite as they are disturbing. |
Mirror Image |
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, and Suggestion has as many uses as you can imagine.
Level Three
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
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🌳 cr🍸eature who ends their turn there. |
Make𝔉 a section of the battlefield unusable for enemies and use your o꧅ther abilities to guide them into it. |
Major Image |
Create a seemingly real image with♔ sou♔nds, smells, and temperature, but things can pass through it. |
Misdirection, ꦛboth in social and combat situations. |
Dispel Magic |
Spells cast on the target end. |
Debuff enemies, and remove debuffs on friends. |
Hypnotic Pattern |
Charm and incapacitate any💧one who ❀sees the pattern. |
Incapacita👍te enemies and make a lot ♕of very temporary friends. |
Level three is when most spell lists start opening up, and the Great Old One Warlock is no exception. Dispel Magic and Major Image are fantastic utilities, Fear and Hypnotic Pattern are great for crowd control, and Hunger of Hadar lets you open a hole in the universe and damage your enemies with it.
Level Four
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Banishment |
Send creatures to another plane. |
Is a monster giving you too much trouble? Not any🐈more. |
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 ꦕa 🐽high amount of psychic damage and incapacitate them. |
An effective source of damage and crowd control. |
Summon Aberration |
Call in a monster from the Far Realm. |
Instant ally that does p꧟sychic damage to your enemies. |
Dimension Door |
Teleport yourself within 500 feet. |
Reposition yourself on the battlefield- get away from monsters or find a tactically advantageous pꦏosition |
At level four, you start to get spells that let you mess with the planes. Dimension Door, Summon Aberration, and Banishment let you bend time and space to your will! Charm Monster lets you make friends with any creature regardless of its type - so you can, theoretically, instantly befriend the baby dragon - and Raulothim's Psychic Lance is just a good damage spell.
Level Five
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Danse Macabre |
Create up to five zom💫bies or skeletons, and command them. |
A handy source of extra attacks or me🧸at shields if needed. |
Mislead |
Become invisible and makeཧ an illusory double of yourself. |
Be in two places at once, as far as an꧒yone else knows. |
Synaptic Static |
Do psychic damage and muddle creatures' thoughts in a 20-foot radius. |
A good debuff and damaging spell. |
Hold Monster |
Paralyzes any monster, humanoid or not. |
I🌟ncapacitate threats of any kind, no matter the species. |
Teleportation Circle |
Link to any teleportation circle꧑ you know of on the same plane. |
Warp back to home base or other imp♎ortant locations. |
Your fifth-level spells are mostly focused on utility. Teleportation Circle lets you travel more easily, so you can instantly get back to your home base, your local temple, or your bolt hole. Hold Monster is an upgraded version of Hold Person; Mislead is a combination of invisibility and illusion spell; Danse Macabre gives you a skeleton army, and Synaptic Static is a good debuff/damage spell.
Level Six
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Eyebite |
Give creatures panic, sickness, or sleep. |
Crowd control and debuffing. |
Mass Suggestion |
Suggestion, but on up to twelve creatures. |
The uses for this🔯 are as infinite as they are disturbing. |
Scatter |
Teleport up to five creatures within 120 feet. |
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, im⛎munities, A✃C bonus, magical weapons, and double attack. |
A powered-up form that lets you get away from danger fasterꦆ 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.
Level Seven
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Force Cage |
Traps creatures in a cube of force. |
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 oth♍er 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 locationꦕ. |
Crown of Stars |
Does a high amount of radian♏t damꦕage, 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 can become ethereal and travel to the Ethereal Plane that overlaps our reality, or Plane Shift to the Nine Hells or Elysium. Trap creatures in a tiny box, or cause your enemies excruciating pain with a word. Crown of Stars is your only good damage spell, and it's a doozy-- especially as a lot of powerful monsters are weak to radiant damage.
Level Eight
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Dominate Monster |
Like Dominate Person, but ཧworks 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 pi&nt💟ilde;ata. |
Maddening Darkness |
Magical darkness makes it impossib🌱le to see and does psychic damage. |
This is a good AOE, it makes the battlefield hard to n♏avigate for enemies and wears their HP down. |
Demiplane |
Make your pocket dimension! |
Storage, enemy trap, or shelter from a powerful foe- whಞatever 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.
Level Nine
Spell |
Effects |
Use Case |
Psychic Scream |
A huge amount of psychic d𒉰amage stuns targets, and if they die, their heads explode. |
A powerful damage spell, good for any warlock. |
True Polymorph |
Turn anything into anything else. |
Once again, the uses of this spell are only constrain🀅ed by your imagination. |
Weird |
Manifest a creature's worst nightmare, frightening them and doing massive psychic damage. |
A cruell🦋y delightful way to dispatch your enemies. |
Gate |
Create a doorway🍎 between planes, or pull a creature💝 through. |
T💜ravel 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 wal൩ls. |
You've got your hands on true power now. Your massive psychic damage can explode heads or cause a creature to die of friღght; 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 feats that will improve your spellcasting, your Charisma, or your social skill proficiencies, as these feats make you better at the things you're already good at.
Alternatively, you can also take feats that use your high Charisma or spellcasting to give you more options in combat. Want to be the secondary healer, have more options to🎀 cause fright, or hꦚave an extra invocation?
Feat |
Use Case |
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 s🗹core 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 ca🧸n 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 can 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. |