Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Class Explained

If you’re familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, you’ll know that the class of Warlock is the total opposite of the class Cleric. While both are devoted worshipers, the former worship God while the latter have a pact with the Devil himself to get evil powers. The official site for the game Baldur’s Gate 3 also sees Warlock class similarly with them described as:

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

This class is usually equipped with light armor and mediocre weapons as it has more charisma and spells. Although they can control both aspects as it’s up to the player, you should know about them before you decide how to build them, so here’s a guide about them to help you.

Warlock Basic Stats

• Primary Ability: Charisma
• Saving Throw Proficiencies: Wisdom and Charisma
• Hit Dice: 1D8 per level
• Armour: Light Armour
• Weapons: Simple Weapon
• Skills: Any 2 from:
  • Arcana
  • Deception
  • History
  • Intimidation
  • Investigation
  • Nature
  • Religion

Warlock Subclasses

The Fiend

The Fiend subclass in Warlocks is the pact Magic between the powerful devil or another creature that can be called the Demon Lord. This class is best in combat ability with damaging spells. They work towards corruption to others, over which they get profit for themselves.

This subclass feature is Dark One’s Blessing, which is used when the player reduces a creature to 0 hit points. In turn, this feature grants the player Charisma and hit points according to level.

The Great Old One

In this subclass, instead of the devil, the Pact Magic is formed with Eldritch creatures which signify wisdom and power. The most prominent combat style of this class is fighting the enemies and draining them of their psychic powers, which influences a lot of enemies at the same time. They know how to control it, and their features confirm that. The feature for this subclass is Mortal Reminder which makes enemies frightened when any critical hit is landed.

The Archfey

Archfey Warlocks are formed when a contract is formed with a lord or lady of the fey. They are known as the creatures who thrive on destruction. As said, this class thrives on manipulating, tricking, and charming enemies for their benefit. If others fight with their power or wisdom, Archfey does it with manipulation.

Fey Presence is the feature spell for this class. Within a range of 3m, you can charm or frighten nearby foes. You can use it for a Wisdom saving throw against your Warlock spell and save DC.

Warlock Pact Boons

Pact of the Chain

This Pact allows you to keep a familiar. This familiar is a fey spirit that can be in any form you want, ranging from animal to imp or quasit.

• Unlocked at level 3.
• The familiar upgrades at level 5 and can now attack twice instead of one as it used to before.

Pact of the Blade

If you like to play as a combat player, this pact will allow you to have a pact weapon or make a pact with the one you are holding. There is not a single ability that the pact binds itself to, but instead attributes to the highest one.

• Unlocked at level 3.
• At level 5, the pact weapon gets an additional attack.

Weapons that can be used as pact weapon:

Pact of the Tome

The Pact of the Tome is about Wisdom and once you select this, you are given Grimoire, which is known as The Book of Shadows. This book offers you wisdom in the form of spells, from which you can now cast more spells.

• Unlocked at level 3.
• After you gain level 5, you can cast spells like Animate Dead, Call Lightning, and Haste one time after a long rest.

Unique Warlock Class Features

Eldritch Blast

Acquired at: Level 1

Eldritch is a ranged attack that is shown as beams of magic that increase at certain levels. It has a range of 18m and doesn’t require any sort of concentration towards one spot. At level 5 the beams increase to two while they turn three at level 11.

Eldritch Invocations

Acquired at: Level 2

This is the updated version of Eldritch Blast. It allows players to select between other spells available.

Deepened Pact

Acquired at: Level 5

The Deepened Pact is a feature that benefits your class according to the pact boon.

• Pact of the Chain: The familiar gets an additional attack.
• Pact of the Blade: Gets an additional attack with the pact weapon.
• Pact of the Tome: Once in a while can cast Animate Dead, Haste, and Call Lightning.

Mystic Arcanum

Acquired at: Level 11

This feature allows the warlock to cast one of the Level 6 spells once after every long rest without putting it in the official spell slot.

The available level 6 spells are:

• Circle of Death
• Arcane Gate
• Eyebite
• Flesh to Stone

Equipment

Warlock as Charismatic character

Warlocks are known to have high charisma, which makes them a good choice to command, frighten or control enemies. Their spells also reflect this notion, with some instilling fear in enemies while others completely making them unable to attack you. This shows that Warlocks can be adjusted into any position you want them to be.

They are best as long-ranged spell castors, as they are best at weakening the enemies with just their spells. They don’t have any combat advantages, but if paired correctly with spell they can easily inflict a lot of damage. For example, The Fiend paired with Pact of the Blade can make a good and powerful combat spell-castor.

That is all for Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock class guide. Another class that is quite interesting with its purity and evil contrast is the Paladin class, so do check the details about that too.