Best Warlock Spells in D&D 5e (2014) — Ranked by Pact Magic

Introduction

A Warlock at level 9 has five known spells, three Pact Magic slots, and every one of those slots is a 5th-level slot. A Wizard at the same level has a spellbook stuffed with dozens of options and a staggered array of slots from 1st through 5th level. On paper the Wizard looks like it won the deal. In practice, the Warlock's five spells refill after an hour of downtime instead of eight, so across a full adventuring day the Warlock frequently casts more total spells at higher effective power than the Wizard does. This is the entire logic of Pact Magic, and it means the question "which Warlock spells are best" has a different answer than the same question asked about any other class.

Short answer: Hex for damage-over-time and a skill-check debuff that never leaves once it's on, Hunger of Hadar for the best area-denial spell any class gets at 3rd level, and Hold Person and Banishment for hard control that ends a fight outright. Eldritch Blast with the Agonizing Blast invocation runs underneath all of it as a resource-free damage floor. This guide ranks the full 2014 Warlock spell list, cantrips through 5th level plus Mystic Arcanum's 6th-through-9th-level picks, against the specific math of a class that recovers everything on a short rest and never has more than a handful of slots to spend.

● Blue: Fantastic. Best-in-class, almost always the right choice for a Warlock's limited known-spell slots. ● Green: Good. Reliable, worth learning in most builds. ● Orange: Situational. Correct in specific builds, Patrons, or campaigns. ● Red: Bad. Skip it; a Warlock's known-spell count is too precious to spend here.

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Why Pact Magic Changes Everything

Every other full caster in D&D 5e recovers spell slots on a long rest and hoards a staggered pool across multiple levels. A 9th-level Wizard has four 1st-level slots, three 2nd, three 3rd, three 4th, and one 5th, all sitting around for a single adventuring day. A 9th-level Warlock has three slots, period, and all three are 5th level. Those three slots come back after a single short rest, not an overnight rest.

That distinction rewires spell selection from the ground up.

Frequency beats ceiling. A Wizard can afford to learn a spell that's spectacular once per day and mediocre otherwise, because they have plenty of lower-level slots to fill the gaps. A Warlock does not have gap-filler slots. Every known spell needs to earn its place across many castings per day, not one spectacular casting. That's why Hex, a cheap, renewable curse, consistently outranks flashier one-shot spells in a Warlock's rotation, and why a spell like Contact Other Plane, powerful as it is, sits near the bottom of a competitive known-spell list: it's a once-a-day tool competing for a slot against spells you'll cast six or eight times before your next long rest.

Upcasting is not a choice, it's automatic. A Wizard chooses whether to burn a higher slot on Hold Person for a better DC or save it for something else. A Warlock's Hold Person is always cast at their maximum slot level whether they want it to be or not; there's no 2nd-level Hold Person option once you're past level 4. This makes control and save-or-suck spells punch far above their listed level for a Warlock, since a nominally "2nd-level" spell like Hold Person is quietly a 5th-level spell with a correspondingly brutal DC by the time it matters.

Known spells are the real bottleneck, not slots. A Warlock has as few as two known spells at level 1 and caps at fifteen by level 20, spread across cantrips and leveled spells combined. Compare that to a Wizard's spellbook, which can hold over forty spells by the same level. Every single pick has to do real work. This guide treats "which spells should a Warlock know" as the central question rather than "which spells are strong in a vacuum," because a spell can be excellent for a Sorcerer or Wizard and still be the wrong pick for a Warlock's tiny, precious list.

Short rests are a party negotiation, not a guarantee. The Warlock's entire spell economy depends on the party actually stopping to take short rests. A campaign that rushes from encounter to encounter without pause turns a Warlock's five spells known into a scarce resource, which makes renewable, cheap-cost spells like Hex, Armor of Agathys, and Misty Step more valuable relative to expensive one-and-done spells like Banishment or Hold Monster than the raw power level alone would suggest.

Hot Take: Hex outranks every other 1st-level Warlock spell, including Armor of Agathys, and it isn't especially close. A 1-hour duration that survives a short-rest reset, a bonus-action recast, and +1d6 necrotic on every hit for the rest of combat is exactly the kind of cheap, constant value that Pact Magic rewards. Armor of Agathys, by comparison, is a one-shot defensive buff that gets eaten by the first enemy who simply declines to hit you in melee.

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Cantrips: The Only Spells You Cast for Free

Cantrips are the one part of a Warlock's spell list that scale with character level instead of slot expenditure, which makes them the actual backbone of the class's turn-to-turn damage output.

1. Eldritch Blast — Cantrip — ●

Eldritch Blast fires one beam of 1d10 force damage at level 1, scaling to two beams at level 5, three at level 11, and four at level 17. It requires no spell slot, no material component, and no resource of any kind. Paired with the Agonizing Blast invocation (Charisma modifier added to every beam), it becomes the highest sustained damage-per-round option most Warlocks will ever have, and it never runs dry between short rests the way every leveled spell does. For the full breakdown of beam scaling and every invocation that modifies it, see the Eldritch Blast spell guide. No Warlock spell-selection conversation matters more than this one, and it's the reason a Warlock's known-spell list can afford to lean toward control and utility instead of more damage: Eldritch Blast already has damage covered.

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2. Minor Illusion — Cantrip — ●

An illusory sound or image, no concentration, no attack roll. Distract a guard, fake a voice around a corner, cover a retreat with a decoy noise. Free, renewable utility that never competes with a Warlock's limited leveled-spell slots.

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3. Mage Hand — Cantrip — ●

A spectral hand that lifts, opens, and retrieves objects at range. Trap disarming from a distance, picking a pocket, or grabbing an item without stepping into a trigger zone. Minor but useful across an entire campaign.

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4. Chill Touch — Cantrip — ●

1d8 necrotic on a ranged spell attack, plus the target can't regain hit points until the start of your next turn, and undead targets get disadvantage on attacks against you for that round. Worse average damage than Eldritch Blast and redundant on most builds, but the healing-prevention clause is a real answer to regenerating enemies like trolls when your party lacks another source of it.

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5. Poison Spray — Cantrip — ●

1d12 poison damage, Constitution save for no damage, 10-foot range. The short range is the problem: a Warlock built for Eldritch Blast has no reason to stand at melee distance, and poison resistance or immunity is common enough in monster statistics to make this a coin flip at best.

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6. Prestidigitation — Cantrip — ●

A grab-bag of minor magical effects: light a candle, clean an object, chill or warm food, create a harmless sensory effect. Never a combat pick, but consistently useful for roleplay and downtime, and it costs nothing to know.

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Cantrips to Skip

• True Strike — Grants advantage on your next attack roll after using an entire action to cast it. Any melee weapon attack or another cantrip does more with the same action economy. Never take it.
• Friends — Advantage on Charisma checks against one creature for 1 minute, but the target knows you charmed it afterward and typically becomes hostile. The downside outweighs the upside for a class that relies on repeat social interactions.
• Blade Ward — Resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for one round, using your action. A Warlock standing at range rarely needs this, and the action cost is steep for a defensive effect a ranged caster shouldn't often need.

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1st-Level Spells

1. Hex — 1st Level — ●

Curse a target: every hit against it deals an extra 1d6 necrotic damage, and you choose one ability score on which it has disadvantage. Cast it as a bonus action, which leaves your action free for Eldritch Blast the same turn. The 1-hour duration means one casting can carry through an entire encounter, and if the target dies you can move the curse to a new one with your bonus action on a later turn at no extra slot cost. For the complete breakdown including target-swap timing and concentration-management tips, see the Hex spell guide. This is the highest-value 1st-level pick in the entire Warlock list because it's cheap to maintain and constantly earning its slot rather than sitting idle between big moments.

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2. Armor of Agathys — 1st Level — ●

5 temporary hit points, and any creature that hits you in melee while those temporary hit points remain takes 5 cold damage. Scales +5/+5 per slot level above 1st (10/10 at 2nd level, up to 25/25 at a 5th-level slot). No concentration, which means it stacks cleanly with Hex. The best defensive buy for a Pact of the Blade Warlock wading into melee, and a reasonable panic-button option for a ranged Warlock who anticipates getting jumped, though it's dead weight once the temp HP falls off before anything hits you.

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3. Protection from Evil and Good — 1st Level — ●

Advantage on saves against, and disadvantage for attacks by, a specific creature-type list (aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, undead). Also blocks charm, fright, and possession from those types outright. Extremely strong against the exact monster families that dominate high-fantasy campaigns, near-useless against humanoids and constructs. A great situational pick for a campaign that leans heavily on demons, devils, or undead; a dead slot in a game about bandits and cultists.

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4. Charm Person — 1st Level — ●

Charm a humanoid on a failed Wisdom save (disadvantage if you or your allies are fighting it). No concentration, 1-hour duration. Situational but strong social utility for a Charisma-primary class: talk your way past a guard, defuse a hostile NPC, or turn a witness friendly before an interrogation. The target knows it was charmed once the spell ends, so this is a tool for the moment, not a long-term ally-maker.

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5. Comprehend Languages — 1st Level — ●

Understand any spoken or written language for 1 hour, ritual-castable if you have Pact of the Tome's Book of Ancient Secrets invocation. Without ritual casting it competes for a known-spell slot on a class that has very few; with ritual access through Pact of the Tome it's free utility that never touches your Pact Magic pool.

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6. Hellish Rebuke — 1st Level — ●

Reaction spell: when a creature damages you, force a Dexterity save for 2d10 fire damage (half on success), scaling +1d10 per slot above 1st. The reaction cost is the appeal; it doesn't compete with your action economy at all. But a Warlock with Agonizing Blast Eldritch Blast usually deals more expected damage on their own turn than this deals as a reaction, and burning a precious short-rest slot as a reaction to being hit is a rough trade against a class with only a handful of slots.

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7. Arms of Hadar — 1st Level — ●

2d6 necrotic damage to every creature within 10 feet, Strength save for half, and creatures that fail also can't take reactions until their next turn. A melee-adjacent AoE that's strong when a Warlock is surrounded, but most Warlock builds are built around staying at range, which makes this a niche pick outside of a Pact of the Blade or grapple-focused build.

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8. Unseen Servant — 1st Level — ●

An invisible force that performs simple labor: fetch, open, clean, carry. Ritual-castable with Pact of the Tome. Useful for utility-minded parties (opening doors from a distance to check for traps, carrying items across a hazard) but rarely worth a known-spell slot without ritual access, since it competes with combat picks otherwise.

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Skip: Witch Bolt, Illusory Script

Witch Bolt deals a modest 1d12 lightning damage per turn but requires concentration, and a single missed attack or broken concentration ends the whole spell. Hex does more reliable damage-over-time with a better duration and no attack roll required. Illusory Script is nearly pure roleplay flavor (a hidden message readable only by chosen readers) and almost never worth one of a Warlock's precious known-spell slots outside a very specific intrigue campaign.

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2nd-Level Spells

1. Hold Person — 2nd Level — ●

Paralyze a humanoid on a failed Wisdom save, with a new save each turn. Remember that a Warlock's "2nd-level" Hold Person is quietly cast at whatever their Pact Magic slot level actually is: 3rd level by character level 5, and up to 5th level by character level 9, which lets it hit up to three targets simultaneously once upcast for free by Pact Magic's fixed slot level. Paralysis auto-fails Dexterity saves and grants attackers automatic critical hits on any melee hit within 5 feet, which turns a single successful Hold Person into a fight-ending burst window for the whole party.

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2. Misty Step — 2nd Level — ●

Teleport 30 feet as a bonus action, no line-of-sight or line-of-effect requirement beyond a space you can see. For the full mechanical breakdown, see the Misty Step spell guide. No verbal spell text to interrupt casting, no concentration to break, and it costs a bonus action that a ranged Warlock usually isn't spending on anything else. Escape a grapple, reposition around cover, or close distance for a melee Hexblade build: the cheapest emergency-mobility spell any caster gets.

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3. Darkness — 2nd Level — ●

Create a 15-foot-radius sphere of magical darkness, which blocks normal darkvision. On its own this is a defensive tool: retreat into it, or cast it centered on yourself and let allies with normal darkvision fight blind alongside you. Combined with the Devil's Sight invocation, it flips into a full offensive combo: you see perfectly through your own magical darkness while every enemy without special vision is effectively blinded, and blinded creatures grant attackers advantage while suffering disadvantage on their own attacks. That combo is one of the most efficient action-economy plays in the entire class, and it's the single strongest reason to know this spell if you've taken Devil's Sight.

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4. Invisibility — 2nd Level — ●

Invisible until you attack or cast another spell, up to 1 hour, touch range so you can also target an ally. Scouting, escaping a bad fight, or setting up a guaranteed-advantage opening attack. Ends the instant you cast a leveled spell or attack, so it doesn't stack with an aggressive Eldritch Blast turn: plan the opening strike before you go invisible, not after.

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5. Suggestion — 2nd Level — ●

Command a creature to follow a reasonable-sounding course of action on a failed Wisdom save, for up to 8 hours or until the task is done. "Leave and don't come back," "hand over the key," "surrender." No combat required at all, and it's one of the strongest non-combat problem-solvers a CHA-primary class can carry. The long duration means it survives a short-rest reset entirely if cast at the right moment.

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6. Shatter — 2nd Level — ●

3d8 thunder damage in a 10-foot sphere, Constitution save for half, no concentration. The only real area-damage option most Warlocks have access to as a known spell (barring the Fiend Patron's free Fireball); see the Shatter spell guide for the full breakdown of when the radius earns its slot. Worth a known-spell slot for any Warlock without a Fiend Patron's built-in AoE answer.

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7. Spider Climb — 2nd Level — ●

Climb walls and ceilings without a check, no need for hands. Strong terrain utility in vertical dungeons or against enemies that fly or cling to ceilings, but it's rarely worth burning a limited known-spell slot outside of a campaign that specifically calls for it.

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8. Enthrall — 2nd Level — ●

Distract a group with a captivating performance or speech, giving disadvantage on Perception checks against anything but you for 1 minute. Purely social and tactical setup, useful for covering an ally's pickpocketing or sneaking, but narrow enough in application that it rarely beats a combat pick for a limited slot list.

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9. Ray of Enfeeblement — 2nd Level — ●

Halves the damage of a target's Strength-based weapon attacks on a failed Constitution save, with a new save each turn to end it. Strong against a single melee brute, but Eldritch Blast's raw damage output usually outcompetes it as an action-economy choice, and it does nothing against spellcasters or ranged attackers.

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Skip: Crown of Madness, Cloud of Daggers

Crown of Madness forces a charmed target to attack a creature of your choice each turn, but it requires your bonus action every subsequent round to redirect the target and ends the moment they take damage from anyone, an unreliable engine for a bonus action that's usually better spent maintaining Hex. Cloud of Daggers deals modest damage (4d4) in a tiny 5-foot cube that most enemies simply walk around, making it one of the weaker area options on the list.

Borrowed Knowledge — 2nd Level — ●

From Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos. Grants proficiency in one chosen skill for 1 hour. As a known spell through Pact Magic, it's a narrow pick that rarely beats Hex or your invocation-gated options for one of a Warlock's scarce known-spell slots.

Also From Planescape: Warp Sense

Campaign-gated. Senses portals within 30 feet, including inactive ones, and reveals a detected portal's destination plane and required key on a successful check. Only relevant in a Sigil or Outlands-based campaign, and even there it's competing with Hex and your invocation-gated options for one of a Warlock's scarce known-spell slots.

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3rd-Level Spells

1. Hunger of Hadar — 3rd Level — ●

A 20-foot-radius zone of magical darkness that deals 2d6 cold damage to anything that starts its turn inside, and any creature that enters or ends its turn adjacent to the edge is restrained until it leaves. This is a Warlock-flavored spell in mechanics and name, and it's one of the best area-denial tools any class gets at 3rd level: it locks down a doorway, a chokepoint, or a boss's escape route while doing damage every single round it's up. Combine with Devil's Sight to fight from inside the darkness while enemies are blinded and restrained around its edge.

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2. Counterspell — 3rd Level — ●

Interrupt a spell as it's being cast, auto-succeeding against spells of 3rd level or lower and requiring an ability check against higher-level ones. This is the single best answer to an enemy spellcaster in the game, and because it's a reaction it never competes with your own turn's Eldritch Blast. The tradeoff for a Warlock specifically is that you're spending one of your very few precious slots reactively, so it's strongest for a Warlock who has taken multiple short rests that day and can afford to hold one back.

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3. Hypnotic Pattern — 3rd Level — ●

A 30-foot cube of shifting colors; creatures that fail a Wisdom save are charmed and incapacitated for the duration, with no repeat save unless they take damage. One failed save can remove an entire group of enemies from a fight simultaneously, and unlike most control spells it targets Wisdom, which many high-Strength brutes are weak against. One of the best mass-control spells in the game at this level for any class, and a Warlock's Pact Magic upcasting means it hits the battlefield at full slot-level strength every single casting.

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4. Fly — 3rd Level — ●

60-foot fly speed for 10 minutes, touch range so it can go on an ally instead. Strong mobility and positioning tool for encounters against flying enemies or vertical terrain, and it's a rare answer to enemies who otherwise stay out of melee reach.

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5. Fear — 3rd Level — ●

Every creature in a 30-foot cone makes a Wisdom save or drops what it's holding and flees at max speed away from you each turn. Excellent crowd control against a cluster of weaker enemies, weaker against a single powerful target who can just fail the check and run away without meaningfully losing the fight.

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6. Vampiric Touch — 3rd Level — ●

3d6 necrotic damage on a melee spell attack, half of the damage dealt is regained as hit points, and it can be repeated as an action each turn while concentration holds. Strong sustained melee damage plus self-healing, best on a Pact of the Blade build that's already committed to melee range rather than a ranged Eldritch Blast build.

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7. Major Image — 3rd Level — ●

A fully sensory illusion (sight, sound, smell) up to a 20-foot cube, movable and controllable as a bonus action. Sturdier and more flexible than Minor Illusion: a fabricated obstacle, a fake monster to redirect enemies, a false wall to hide a party. Strong for a Pact of the Tome Warlock or Archfey Patron already leaning into deception.

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8. Dispel Magic — 3rd Level — ●

End one spell effect on a target, automatic against spells of your slot level or lower, an ability check against higher-level ones. Situational but occasionally mandatory: dropping a Wall of Force, ending an enemy buff, or breaking a curse on an ally. Worth knowing if your table's DM leans heavily on enemy spellcasters and magical hazards; a dead slot otherwise.

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Also From Tasha's Cauldron: Spirit Shroud, Summon Fey, Summon Shadowspawn, Summon Undead

Four more options once your table allows TCoE content. Spirit Shroud (bonus action, concentration) adds 1d8 damage of your choice on every attack you land within 10 feet, but it eats the same bonus action and concentration slot Hex already wants, so it's a build-specific pick for a melee Pact of the Blade Warlock rather than a default. Summon Fey, Summon Shadowspawn, and Summon Undead each conjure a themed spirit ally that shares your initiative and scales with the slot spent - reasonable if you want a standing extra combatant, but none outperforms Hunger of Hadar or Hypnotic Pattern's control value at the same level.

Skip: Magic Circle, Remove Curse, Tongues, Gaseous Form

Magic Circle and Remove Curse are both useful but extremely narrow: situational answers to specific problems (extraplanar creatures, curse removal) that a party can usually route around with an NPC or a Remove Curse scroll rather than spending one of a Warlock's few known-spell slots permanently. Tongues (understand and speak any language for an hour) overlaps heavily with the cheaper, ritual-castable Comprehend Languages. Gaseous Form is a strong escape tool in isolation, but Misty Step already covers most of the same emergency-mobility need at half the spell level and a fraction of the action cost.

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4th-Level Spells

1. Banishment — 4th Level — ●

Remove one creature from the fight entirely on a failed Charisma save, banished to a harmless demiplane for up to 1 minute (permanently, if the target isn't native to the current plane and the spell is maintained until it ends). This is the cleanest hard-control answer to a single dangerous enemy that any Warlock gets: no damage roll, no ongoing management beyond maintaining concentration, just a creature removed from the fight. Especially strong against a boss whose allies are the real threat: banish the boss, mop up the rest, and if the target isn't native to the plane it can vanish for good.

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2. Dimension Door — 4th Level — ●

Teleport yourself (and one willing creature within 5 feet) up to 500 feet to a visualized or previously-seen location, no concentration. A far bigger jump than Misty Step, at the cost of a much heavier slot. Excellent for a rescue, a dramatic escape, or repositioning the whole party's front line in a single action.

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3. Blight — 4th Level — ●

8d8 necrotic damage on a Constitution save (half on success), no concentration, single target. The heaviest single-target burst on the list below 5th level, a real nova option when a fight calls for maximum damage right now, at the cost of one of a Warlock's very few 4th- or 5th-level slots.

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4. Raulothim's Psychic Lance — 4th Level — ●

From Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Single-target Intelligence save for 7d6 psychic damage, plus the target is incapacitated until the start of your next turn on a failed save. Less raw damage than Blight (7d6 average 24.5 versus 8d8 average 36), but the incapacitate rider adds a control layer Blight doesn't, and the V-only component list works with a hand full of your Pact Weapon or focus. With so few known spells and even fewer high-level slots, most Warlocks still reach for Blight as the primary nova and treat this as the secondary option when the extra control matters more than the extra damage.

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Also From Tasha's Cauldron: Summon Aberration

A themed spirit ally conjured for the slot's duration, sharing your initiative and scaling with the slot spent. A niche pick against Banishment's single-target removal at the same level, but a reasonable choice for a summon-focused build.

Skip: Hallucinatory Terrain

A powerful worldbuilding and exploration tool (disguise an entire outdoor area as different terrain for 24 hours), but almost never combat-relevant and rarely worth a known-spell slot ahead of Banishment, Dimension Door, or Blight.

Also From Planescape: Gate Seal

Campaign-gated. Seals portals in a 30-foot cube for 24 hours (consuming a broken portal key as its material component), blocking planar travel effects like plane shift or gate from crossing the area. A strong situational tool for shutting down a specific portal threat in a Sigil-based campaign, dead weight anywhere else.

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5th-Level Spells

1. Hold Monster — 5th Level — ●

Hold Person's big sibling: paralyze any creature, not just humanoids, on a failed Wisdom save. Against a paralyzed target every melee hit within 5 feet is an automatic critical, which turns a single successful cast into the party's best single-target damage spike at the levels where a Warlock can access it. The premier boss-lockdown spell for any Warlock who's reached a 5th-level Pact Magic slot.

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2. Scrying — 5th Level — ●

See and hear a specific target anywhere on the plane, contested by a Wisdom save. Long-term investigation and campaign utility rather than a combat pick: track a fleeing villain, verify a suspicion, scout ahead of a dangerous meeting. Best in campaigns with a strong intrigue or investigation thread.

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3. Dream — 5th Level — ●

Send a message or a nightmare (2d10 psychic damage and lost rest) to a sleeping target anywhere on the plane. Thematically excellent for a Warlock delivering their Patron's threats, but mechanically a downtime tool with no combat relevance: a flavor pick more than a competitive one.

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4. Contact Other Plane — 5th Level — ●

Ask an extraplanar entity up to five one-word-answer questions, with a real risk of 6d6 psychic damage and being incapacitated for a day on a failed Intelligence save. Powerful for a DM-facilitated mystery campaign, risky as written, and a rare pick outside of a specific investigation-heavy game.

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Mystic Arcanum: Your Once-a-Day Nova

Mystic Arcanum sits entirely outside Pact Magic. At levels 11, 13, 15, and 17 you choose one 6th-, 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-level spell respectively, and each is usable once per long rest, not short rest, and it doesn't compete with your Pact Magic slots at all. These are the only spells above 5th level a Warlock ever accesses, and because each is a once-a-day pick rather than a repeatable resource, the calculus flips back toward a spectacular single cast instead of reliable repetition.

• Eyebite (6th) — ● An ongoing single-target debuff (asleep, panicked, or sickened) with no concentration required after the initial cast, and a new save each turn for the target to end it. The best 6th-level pick for a control-focused Warlock.
• Summon Fiend (6th, Tasha's Cauldron) — ● Conjures a fiendish spirit ally following the same shared-initiative summon template as the lower-level Tasha's Cauldron summon spells. Weaker as a once-a-day Arcanum pick than Eyebite's repeatable control, since a summon spent on your once-per-long-rest slot doesn't come back until tomorrow.
• Finger of Death (7th) — ● 7d8+30 necrotic damage on a failed Constitution save (half on success), and a humanoid killed by it rises as a zombie under your control. The single hardest-hitting spell a Warlock can cast.
• Glibness (8th) — ● Replace any Charisma check roll with a flat 15 for the duration, and advantage on saves against being detected as lying. A social-encounter or Patron-negotiation spell for a CHA-primary class.
• Foresight (9th) — ● Advantage on every attack roll, ability check, and saving throw you make for 8 hours, and attackers against you have disadvantage. One of the single most powerful spells in the game, and once per long rest at level 17 it's still worth building a fight around.

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Invocation-Gated Spell Access

Several Eldritch Invocations grant spells outright, and they change the calculus of what a Warlock's known-spell list even needs to cover.

• Mask of Many Faces grants at-will Disguise Self, removing the need to ever learn a shapeshifting or disguise spell as a known pick: infinite free identity changes at no slot cost.
• Misty Visions grants at-will Silent Image, covering most of the same illusion-utility ground as Minor Illusion but with a stronger effect, again for free.
• Book of Ancient Secrets (Pact of the Tome only) grants ritual casting of any spell with the ritual tag from any class's spell list, once inscribed in your Book of Shadows. This is the single biggest known-spell-list expansion available to a Warlock, since ritual casts never touch Pact Magic at all.
• Devil's Sight doesn't grant a spell directly, but it's the invocation that makes Darkness worth a known-spell slot in the first place; see the Darkness entry above.

A Warlock who commits to Pact of the Tome effectively gets three bonus cantrip-equivalent picks from any class's list plus ritual access, worth weighing against Pact of the Chain's familiar and Pact of the Blade's melee weapon before finalizing spell choices. Those extra Tome cantrips can cover a gap (a healing cantrip, a utility option) that the base Warlock list doesn't otherwise fill. Pact of the Chain, by contrast, doesn't add spells to your known list at all, but it does hand you an out-of-combat scout and combatant through your familiar. For the full rundown on how a Warlock's familiar compares to a Ranger's beast companion or a Wizard's own Find Familiar pick, see the D&D 5e 2014 Familiars Guide.

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Patron-Specific Bonus Spells

Every Otherworldly Patron grants a fixed list of expanded spells, two per spell level from 1st through 5th, and unlike your known-spell picks, these are always prepared and never cost you a slot in your limited list. This is a real part of a Warlock's spell-selection math: a Patron's free spells effectively expand your five-known-spells-per-tier into seven, and a Patron whose bonus list plugs a real gap is worth weighing alongside the mechanical subclass features themselves.

For the complete feature-by-feature breakdown of every Patron and how the mechanical subclass features (not just the bonus spells) stack up, see the full D&D 5e Warlock Guide.

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Build Archetype Shortlists

Eldritch Blast Ranged Build (any Patron, Agonizing Blast mandatory): Hex, Armor of Agathys, Misty Step, Hold Person, Darkness (with Devil's Sight), Hunger of Hadar, Counterspell, Banishment, Hold Monster. This list leans entirely into control and utility because Eldritch Blast already covers damage: every known-spell slot goes toward locking down or removing a threat instead of duplicating what the cantrip already does for free.

Hexblade Melee Build (Pact of the Blade, Thirsting Blade invocation): Hex, Armor of Agathys, Vampiric Touch, Misty Step, Hold Person, Fear, Blight, Banishment. Vampiric Touch and Blight both reward standing in melee range where a Hexblade already wants to be, and Armor of Agathys punishes anything that swings back.

Face/Utility Build (Pact of the Tome, social-focused campaign): Charm Person, Comprehend Languages (ritual), Suggestion, Major Image, Hypnotic Pattern, Dimension Door, Scrying. Combine with Book of Ancient Secrets ritual casting to add more utility spells from other class lists without ever touching your known-spell count.

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Spells to Avoid

• True Strike (cantrip) — Spends your entire action for advantage on your next attack. Strictly worse than any competing cantrip or a weapon attack in the same action.
• Witch Bolt (1st) — Concentration-dependent damage-over-time that ends the instant you miss an attack roll or lose concentration. Hex does the same job with a better duration and no attack roll required.
• Illusory Script (1st) — Pure flavor utility with almost no application outside a narrow intrigue subplot.
• Hallucinatory Terrain (4th) — Powerful worldbuilding tool, essentially never combat-relevant, and expensive relative to Banishment or Blight competing for the same slot tier.
• Contact Other Plane (5th) — Real risk of a full day of incapacitation on a failed save, for a spell that only functions with active DM buy-in on the mystery it's meant to solve.

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Verdict

A Warlock's spell list rewards the opposite instinct from every other full caster: don't chase the biggest one-time number, chase the spell that's still doing work on the sixth casting of the day. Hex, Misty Step, and Hold Person anchor the low end because they're cheap, renewable, and scale automatically with Pact Magic's fixed slot level. Hunger of Hadar and Banishment anchor the mid tier because they solve entire encounters outright rather than chipping at them. Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast sits underneath everything as the resource-free floor that makes the rest of the list possible: it's the reason a Warlock can afford to spend its precious few known spells on control instead of damage. Layer in a Patron's fixed bonus spells to plug the gaps your five-or-so known picks can't cover, and a Warlock's tiny spell list stops looking like a weakness and starts looking like exactly the tool a short-rest caster needs.

For the complete class breakdown including Invocations, Pact Boons, and every Patron's full feature set, read the D&D 5e Warlock Guide. For the full feat priority list by level, see our Best Feats for Warlock guide.

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FAQ

What is the best Warlock spell in D&D 5e 2014? Hex is the best 1st-level pick for almost every Warlock build: a bonus action, a long duration, and +1d6 necrotic on every hit for the rest of combat. Eldritch Blast, while technically a cantrip and not a "known spell" in the competitive sense, is the single most important thing on a Warlock's character sheet.

Why do Warlocks know so few spells compared to Wizards? Pact Magic trades spell quantity for slot quality. A Warlock's spells always recover on a short rest instead of a long rest, and every slot is always cast at the Warlock's highest available level. A Wizard hoards forty prepared spells and a dozen slots split across levels; a Warlock carries a handful of spells they know cold and casts each one at full power, refilled roughly every hour.

Should a Warlock take Mystic Arcanum spells or focus on Pact Magic slots? Both. They don't compete. Mystic Arcanum (levels 11, 13, 15, 17) grants one use each of a 6th-, 7th-, 8th-, and 9th-level spell per long rest, completely separate from the short-rest Pact Magic pool. Foresight at 9th level and Finger of Death at 7th level are the standout picks.

Is Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast mandatory for every Warlock? For any Warlock not built entirely around Pact of the Blade melee, yes. Eldritch Blast is at-will, scales with level independent of spell slots, and Agonizing Blast adds Charisma modifier to every beam. It's the only damage source that never runs out, which matters enormously for a class with so few slots.

What is the best Patron for spell selection specifically? The Fiend, because Fireball at 3rd level is an always-prepared spell that solves the Warlock's single biggest hole: area damage. A Warlock's tiny known-spell list rarely has room for a dedicated AoE pick, so getting one for free from the Patron table is the strongest spell-selection value of any subclass.

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Continue Exploring

For the full class breakdown (subclasses, ability scores, race and feat synergy, and level-by-level builds), see the D&D 5e Warlock Guide. For which feats to prioritize alongside these spells, see Best Feats for Warlock. Or return to the D&D 5e Class Guides hub to compare every class.

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