Warlock Tier Rankings (Part 1) in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

Meh. There's pretty much no point in ever playing a warlock other than the cool rp flavor.

they can be a worse wizard, or a worse melee, or a worse bard.

People go crazy about eldritch blast, but it is barely meaningfully distinct from firebolt until several levels down the line. Sure you have a 5m push, but you're sacrificing like 5-6 spell slots for it.

Don't get me wrong, they're perfectly playable. There's just not much they do that other classes can't do better..... so..... why not play those other classes instead?

Awakened mind might not be suggestion at will, but it pairs great with suggestion. Since it breaks the language barrier by telepathy, and makes normally unsuggestable monsters suggestable

Why would anyone think that telepathy=mind control? just because they don't know where the voices are coming from doesn't mean they're under any compulsion to listen to them. Do these people also think that the sending or message spells are mind control?

actually, you don't have to KILL to get temp hp as a fiend warlock, you gave to lower them to 0, which is not the same. knock them unconscious, non-lethally - and you'll still get your hp.

Awakened Mind is amazing for also being able to be social to anyone. Sure you cannot understand them, but that's easy to mitigate. And for Create Thrall, remember, the target has no knowledge it was ever charmed unless directly told which is pretty neat!

Before the Hexblade, i think the fiend was the best choice to make a melee Warlock with a multiclass.

I feel the destruction warlock in wow was modeled after the fiend subclass

I feel like telepathy could work like a suggestion only if You use it on a religious lunatic and pass a high charisma check.

But the only useful, offensive way to use it is if you use it on let's say fighters opponent in a duel if You need to win that duel

Look , I need help , I am a Gloomstalker Ranger and I want to take a 1 level dip in warlock since , The new one dnd rules means I can get pact of the blade and pick Wisdom as a spellcasting ability , So I can attack with Wisdom , Now my DM was generous , He allowed me to pick ranged weapons as a pact weapon and he also allowed me to pick my warlock subclass , What do I pick , And please , I have played enough Hexblades in my life.

I'm playing as an Archfey-lock and struggled a bit since it falls flat in combat. I often don't know what to do or my spells - aside Eldritch Blast - are mostly useless.
I am still very new to DnD but you gave me a lot of insight into the class and how I might rearrange some things.

That illusion world to interrogate a character sounds like when you kill a target in Assassin’s Creed and the 2 of you talk in a cloudy space.

trying to decide my class in Baldur`s Gate 3

Personally I would rate the great old one C, it's not that bad mechanically but it feels like they tried too much to keep it balanced and as a result it really doesn't fit the fantasy of being an old god cultists. The make thrall not actually making thralls being the best example.

In the end I would rather play as an aberrant mind sorcerer and slightly twist the origin to have a patron-like entity be the source of those powers.

illusurary

Omg Kelly
“Not only does your patron want you to burn things, he wants you to kill people as well 😃”
Lmao

I think I would like to use the non-consentual one way telepethy ability of the GOO Warlock to just scream into the skull of anyone who tries to attack me ... try to get a good shot off at me with a consistant banshee wail in your head!

WarlockOn

A half an hour long video, but you guys only rank 3 of the subclasses 😥

soooo wouldn't fiend be an A tier? it supports an important specilization and is extremely potent when played well but it is not insanely broadly applicable. it just gets a decent bonus to ability checks if you're not considering their role of a blaster. don't get me wrong, the video is good but this felt a bit off

What confuses me is they promote the fiend for its spell list to S teir, but then demote celestial to B teir when they share a lot of the same spells in their expanded spell list, but then celestial actually casts them better with radiant soul... weird

Fiend is the fattest S tier I've ever seen

After trying to get into D&D for years and finally finding a group to play with. I got to bring my first character to life. I am thoroughly enjoying my time in Borovia with my Great Old One Warlock! The flavour is so much fun!

So, with temp hp, you kill someone, gain 5 thp, get hit for 8 points, kill them , get 5 the, correct?

"This is probably the most combat focused build for a warlock"
Hexblade: "are you sure about that?"

The Fiend Warlock should be called a Murder HoBOOM

You might be metal but you've never been so metal that you punch someone through hell and back out.

In Theory, the Dragonqueen Tiamat could be considered a Fiend pact, since she does dwell in the first circle of the 9 Hells.

I mean with Create Thrall you could easily make scenarios where you say this man deserves to be arrested then roll a persuasion check with advantage.

They didn’t really discuss why they think the community isn’t in agreement about an A tier for Archfey and I wanted to give my two cents. What it comes down to is the amount of enemies who get resistance to charm and frighten as the game progresses which directly effects the progression of the class. The effects are great at low levels but you cannot count on them in many campaigns which hit higher levels. Secondly the infiltration and social abilities are cool but that too is very dependent on the group you are in. A wargaming like group will have no need for social abilities. So this really does fot the B tier going of the Dungeon Dude’s own standards. This is a fine subclass in most groups but not always great, but it has the potential to be an S tier if it was only in the right campaign.

Charming someone is a little more than making a Friend, 😂 it's more like making someone who is obsessed with pleasing you. When you stop and think what Advantage on all social skills translate to into the Fiction, its super powerful, and oozes flavour.

How do you rule on Warlocks who are killed, being brought back with Raise Dead and spells like it? Raise Dead for instance reads, "You return a dead creature you touch to life, provided that it has been dead no longer than 10 days. If the creature's soul is both willing and at liberty to rejoin the body, the creature returns to life with 1 hit point." ... I don't see a Demon or Devil being willing to let the Warlock return, after they've gotten hold of their soul, do you? 🤔

The GOO lvl 6 feature is almost useles... In this level every enemy has multyattak or/and +7 to hit, one thisadventage is not that big deal... Is even worse because the warlok ac rarelu is better than 16 in level 6, and becomes worse every level up, creatures have more attacks and bonus es to hit, the ac does not improve... (and this thing can only be use unice every rest, is useless)
The level 10 feature is bad, the damage resistance is Good but comes soo late... And the damage type is so uncommun you never will use it, to make it worth would be better to have the resestsnce in level one, and gaining recilence against charms ir fears in level 10, or proficiency in intelligence saves...
In lvl 14 the numbers of tralls can be Prof bonus or so... And to maje intetesting, give the tralls some of the Goo features, so 5 tralls resilient against charms and fears, having unreadable minds and shared telepathy... And make the feature force a carisma save sabd the effect not to be an charm but a indefinite madness that has the effect of servitude (non humanoid target have adventage in the save).

Okay, so the Traveller didn't do mass charm enough times, seeing the community results :P Good stuff, Dudes!

Actual Conversation between me and an old DM:
"My character is going to be a Fiend Patron Warlock."
"Okay, background?"
"Criminal"
"Okay, bit edgy, but I can work with it. Any plans on your Pact feature?"
"Pact of the Blade. It's going to take the form of a bladed chain."
"Okay, we......wait......ARE YOU PLAYING GHOST RIDER?"
"...maybe."
"...You're getting a horse."

my feylock took plant growth for better farming

I play an Great Old One who most of the time talks trough telepathy because his hole family talks this way...

Any player who thought it was supposed to work like the suggestion spell was trying to screw you.

Fiend sounds cool but I feel like if I wanted to do a lot of fire damage a sorcerer is a better option. I dunno i'm new just an outside take.

I used the telepathy to trick someone into thinking someone was talking crap about them and starting a bar fight with a deception check. It was a pretty awesome moment in our first session

I use awakened mind to tell my enemies their mom doesn't love them before I kill them.

I decided to play a fiend warlock forgetting how much my DM loves sending us fiends as enemies, so nearly everything we fight has ended up resisting or immune to fire damage, which means I rarely use my expanded spell list.

Nice

If I know that the campaign will have Succubus at some point and it will go at lvl 14+, then I will make a Great Old One to make a Succubus my wife...this right here makes the subclass SSS tier.

Monklock I have to try this

Cant wait to play Sienna Ashwood, the trans warlock who got titania to pay for her transition.

Hurl through Hell, sounds like we're gonna be playing some AC/DC

y'all are the only people I've heard talking about warlock subclasses that actually gets the archfey warlock. You even get that they effectively get 1 more spell than other warlocks per short rest with their level 1 ability. Well done.

I feel like every Warlock subclass (and Warlock itself) is at least a LITTLE bit better than it appears on the surface like they were saying with Fiend, just because a crafty player can find invocations that synergize really well the the strengths of the subclass in odd or unintentional ways