Introduction
The Warlock in Tales of the Valiant is built around a contradiction: you are the hungriest caster and one of the most reliable at-will attackers at the same time. Your Wyrd spell list is narrow, your known spells are few, and Eldritch Blast does the heavy lifting so your spells can be surgical.
Warlocks draw from the Wyrd spell list, a distinct magic source tied to pacts and powers beyond material reality. CHA is your casting stat for both Eldritch Blast attack rolls and spell save DCs. Pact of the Blade also uses CHA for its pact weapon's attack and damage rolls.
The Old Margreve expands the Warlock's Wyrd options with painful marks, shadow scouting, corpse magic, spectral swarms, fey hounds, and one major forest ritual. These additions are flavorful and sometimes excellent, but Warlocks do not have prepared-caster slack. A spell can be good and still fail the Warlock known-spell test.
The Labyrinth Worldbook makes the Wyrd list stranger and meaner: misfortune cantrips, eldritch smites, Void rifts, nightmare control, gravity wells, and body-ruining high magic. The best additions either improve Eldritch Blast follow-up, support Pact of the Blade, or turn one known spell into an encounter-level problem.
Player's Guide 2 gives Warlocks another wave of Wyrd tools: luck cantrips, movement denial, body horror, smites, psychic defense, short-range portals, delayed spells, void bubbles, and high-circle cosmic nastiness. It is very on-brand. Nobody opens a Wyrd spell list expecting a spa day.
The design rewards specialization. You cannot cover every party role with a small known-spell list, and Eldritch Blast already gives you reliable at-will pressure. Choose Wyrd spells that add control, defense, movement, or a capability your blasts cannot provide.
The Pact Boon chosen at 1st level shapes your identity. Blade Warlocks create or bind a melee pact weapon and use CHA for its attacks. Chain Warlocks gain an improved find familiar ritual and a familiar that can attack. Tome Warlocks gain three cantrips from any source list; their ritual access arrives through the 6th-level Enhanced Boon feature. Each boon changes what a good spell pick looks like.
How to Use This Guide
Ratings are for the Warlock specifically, accounting for known-spell scarcity, ordinary long-rest Wyrd slots, Pact Spell and Pact Magic context, Eldritch Blast, and invocation synergies.
- ● Red — Bad. Do not learn this.
- ● Orange — Situational. There are better uses of a precious slot.
- ● Green — Good. Earns its place reliably.
- ● Blue — Fantastic. Never replace this.
Cantrips
Warlocks gain cantrips starting at 4th level and top out at 4 known. Eldritch Blast (the class feature) is separate from cantrips.
Grave Touch ●: Necrotic damage and prevents healing on hit until your next turn. Psychic + necrotic are the least-resisted damage types in the game. The healing prevention is extraordinary against regenerating enemies, trolls, or creatures with life steal. Your best offensive cantrip after Eldritch Blast.
Hamstring (The Old Margreve) ●: Force damage and reaction denial on hit. Eldritch Blast is still your damage engine, but Hamstring gives you a cantrip that helps allies disengage, move through threat zones, or escape opportunity attacks. Take it for tactical utility, not DPR.
Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Psychic harm plus disadvantage setup. This is the best Labyrinth cantrip for control Warlocks because it makes the next hold, bane follow-up, dominate, or fear effect more likely to matter.
Crushing Curse (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Psychic damage with a deafening rider. Eldritch Blast still handles damage, but this gives you a cantrip that attacks a different axis and can disrupt sound-based tactics.
Demonic Pact (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd defensive magic that reduces damage with infernal flavor. It is not your damage plan; it is the "I would prefer not to be pulp" button, which is a valid character goal.
Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd support that turns a miss or failed save by 1 into success. Warlocks do not get many cantrips, but this is a great support pick because it makes the party's big turns land.
Pernicious Radiance (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Illuminates a target and makes it easier to hit. This is Warlock-friendly because advantage and hit reliability are already part of the Eldritch Blast plan.
Doorbind (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Holds a door closed. Brilliant in dungeons, retreats, and chase scenes; blank in open fights. Take only if the campaign rewards environmental tactics.
Influence (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Temporary advantage on Charisma checks. Warlocks already have high CHA, so this is a campaign-style pick for intrigue tables.
Swift Stash (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Pocket an object. Great for theft, smuggling, and pact-flavored skulduggery, but it competes with very few Warlock cantrip slots.
Vicious Mockery (Tome or Feature Access) ●: Psychic damage plus disadvantage on the target's next attack roll. This is not a base Wyrd pick here; take it only through Pact of the Tome or another explicit off-list option.
Dancing Lights ●: Four floating lights you control. Utility. Take only if no one else has light sources and darkvision is unavailable.
Guidance (Tome or Feature Access) ●: Add 1d4 to one ability check. This is not base Wyrd access, but Tome Warlocks should look at it hard because out-of-combat support is how you make the party forgive your patron's social habits.
Mage Hand ●: Universal utility hand. Pact of the Tome Warlocks should strongly consider this as one of their cross-list picks.
Message (Tome or Feature Access) ●: Whisper to a target at 120 feet. Covert communication in social encounters, signaling allies across the battlefield, coordinating silent approaches. Solid, but not a base Wyrd cantrip in PG2.
Minor Illusion ●: Sound or image for 1 minute. Creative crowd control, distraction, and communication tool.
Thaumaturgy ●: Harmless displays of power. Roleplaying tool, not mechanical weight.
1st Circle Spells
Warlocks access 1st-circle slots at 2nd level with 2 known spells. These picks anchor your early game.
Agonizing Mark (The Old Margreve) ●: Concentration mark that can knock the target prone each time you damage it. Warlocks are unusually good at triggering this because Eldritch Blast can keep applying damage from range. The issue is competition: bane and faerie fire help the whole party, while Agonizing Mark is a single-target focus-fire tool.
Bane ●: Up to three creatures subtract 1d4 from attack rolls and saves. Concentration, 1 minute. Upscaling this to 3rd circle affects five targets. The penalty to saves makes your follow-up control spells (hold, dominate) harder to resist. The attack penalty reduces incoming damage. Bane is one of the highest-value 1st-circle spells in the game for the Warlock because it scales with your slot tier.
Charm ●: Target trusts you until it takes damage. Concentration, 1 hour. Strong social utility and situational combat use (isolate a target from their allies). At higher circles this scales to affect multiple targets. Upcasting makes it significantly better.
Command ●: One-word order, WIS save. No concentration. Upcast to 3rd circle to command three creatures simultaneously. "Drop," "flee," "halt," "grovel" — each word creates a different tactical situation. Instantaneous effects mean no concentration management.
Detect Evil and Good ●: Sense creature types within 30 feet. Concentration. Too passive for a limited slot. Invocations like Beyond Sight provide passive awareness that does not cost a known spell.
Detect Magic ●: Sense magic. Concentration. It can be useful in a magic-heavy campaign, but its narrow use competes with a scarce known-spell pick.
Disguise Self ●: Change appearance. Concentration. Situational. Pact of the Tome Warlocks with Minor Illusion cover most of this ground without a slot.
Faerie Fire (Patron or Feature Access) ●: Outline creatures in light, giving advantage on attacks against affected targets. This is excellent when a patron, subclass, or Tome route grants it; do not treat it as automatic base Wyrd access unless your table's spell list says so.
Feed the Forest (The Old Margreve) ●: Suppresses the Margreve Forest spellcasting penalty for 1 hour. If the campaign uses that rule, this may be mandatory. Outside the Margreve, it does nothing. For a Warlock, that is a brutal ask for a known spell unless the whole campaign is set there.
Ruminate (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Instills distracting daydreams. It is a clean low-circle mental disruption spell, and it remains relevant when your campaign rewards soft control instead of raw blasting.
Sapping Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Weapon hit adds necrotic pressure and slows the target. Ranged Warlocks skip it; Pact of the Blade Warlocks should consider it because slowing an enemy you are dueling is real control.
Truth of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Frighten a creature with Void revelation. Fear is movement control, not just a condition. Cast it before the monster reaches your line, then blast it backward while it cannot willingly close.
Distance Dilation (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd illusion that ruins a creature's distance judgment. It is great when your party fights through corridors, ledges, hazards, and kiting lanes; less exciting in a featureless room, also known as the tragic rectangle.
Stumble (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd reaction control against movement. Slowing a charger or knocking it prone is exactly the kind of low-circle spell that buys Eldritch Blast another round of breathing room.
Void Glimpse (Player's Guide 2) ● - Cosmic information at a cost. Very Warlock flavor, but you learn this only if your campaign rewards occult answers more often than it punishes occult curiosity. The void does not have a customer service desk.
Hellfire Brand (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd weapon fire for Blade builds. Good on a melee pact plan, but a ranged blaster should not spend a known spell pretending to be someone else's Paladin.
Guiding Bolt ●: Radiant + advantage on next attack vs. target. Single-use burst. Too much competition at 1st circle for a Warlock slot.
Hellish Rebuke ●: Reaction, fire damage to your attacker. 2d10 at 1st circle, scales up. No concentration, no attack roll. Free retribution damage whenever you are hit costs only a reaction and a slot. Against melee-heavy enemies, this discourages focus-fire on you. Strong self-defensive tool that rewards being targeted.
Hideous Laughter ●: Incapacitate a Humanoid, INT save. Concentration. Removes a target from the fight while they laugh uncontrollably. Only affects Humanoids, which limits utility against monsters. Still, incapacitation is the strongest debuff in the game when it applies.
Illusory Script ●: Hidden writing only a designated reader understands. Zero combat value. Skip.
Inflict Wounds ●: Melee spell attack, 3d10 necrotic. Your damage is Eldritch Blast. Do not waste a known slot on a melee touch damage spell.
Protection from Evil and Good ●: Shield a creature from specific creature types: advantage on saves, attacks against them with disadvantage. Concentration. In campaigns against Undead, Fiends, Fey, or Aberrations — which describes most high-level ToV play — this is powerful sustained protection on your most vulnerable ally.
Sleep ●: Sleep creatures up to a combined HP pool. Scales poorly past 3rd level. Replace by 7th level if you take it.
Unseen Servant ●: Conjure an invisible servant. Ritual for Tome Warlocks. Not a known spell.
2nd Circle Spells
Augury ●: Divine an omen. Ritual. Tome Warlock ritual territory. Not a known spell.
Blindness/Deafness ●: Blind or deafen a creature, CON save each turn. No concentration. A blinded creature makes attacks at disadvantage and is attacked with advantage. No concentration means you can maintain bane or hold simultaneously. Stacks with your control suite.
Darkness ●: 15-foot radius magical darkness. Concentration. Pair with the Beyond Sight invocation — you see through magical darkness, enemies do not. Cast darkness on yourself and become effectively invisible while attacking normally. This combo is one of the Warlock's signature power moves.
Detect Thoughts ●: Read surface thoughts, deep dive possible. Concentration. Social powerhouse. Interrogation, negotiation, reading lying NPCs. The most useful 2nd-circle non-combat spell in the game.
Enthrall ●: Targets can only pay attention to you. Concentration. Creatures can break free by taking damage. Useful in a specific social-combat hybrid scenario; too narrow for a known slot.
Hold ●: Paralyze a Medium creature, CON save at end of each turn. Concentration. A paralyzed creature fails STR and DEX saves and is hit with automatic critical hits in melee. If your Warlock list or patron access includes it, this is one of your best single-target control options.
Dream Lance (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Damages and debilitates a foe's mind. It is very on-plan for Warlocks: psychic pressure, control texture, and a target profile that complements your usual charm and fear package.
Healing Malediction (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Turns magical healing into harm. This is brutal against healing-heavy villains and irrelevant everywhere else. Prepare for a known-spell slot only if the campaign makes enemy healing a pattern.
Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Weapon hit adds radiant pressure and makes the target easier to hit. Excellent for Pact of the Blade because it turns one attack into party focus-fire support.
Maddening Whispers (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Incapacitate a creature with mental pressure. Warlocks love single-target disables, but check concentration and save overlap against hold before committing.
Vengeful Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Weapon hit adds psychic damage and fear. Pact of the Blade wants this most: damage plus frightened control helps you win the melee exchange and protect your backline.
Psychic Block (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd defense that makes a target struggle to find or attack you. This is one of the cleanest PG2 Warlock picks because it protects your concentration and your body at the same time. Warlocks enjoy having both.
Eldritch Smite (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd force smite that makes the target easier to hit. Blade Warlocks should care; blast Warlocks can admire it from a safe distance.
Discrete Pathing (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd movement restriction that forces straight-line movement. Excellent with hazards, chokepoints, repelling Eldritch Blast builds, and any map that has learned geometry.
Lockjaw (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd anti-speech control. Prepare for caster-heavy campaigns, negotiation ambushes, and monsters whose best plan involves opening their mouth and ruining your day.
Perceive Vulnerability (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd scouting for weaknesses and critical-damage setup. Warlocks like it most in parties with heavy weapon attackers; the spell is less exciting if your team mostly solves problems with saving throws and poor decisions.
Invisibility ●: Invisible until you attack or cast. Concentration. Setup for ambush, infiltration, and repositioning. Standard value: solid utility, eventually replaced by Greater Invisibility for combat turns.
Locate ●: Find a creature or object. Ritual for Tome Warlocks. Not a known spell.
Magic Mouth ●: Recorded message on an object. Ritual. Not a known spell.
Magic Weapon ●: Enchant a weapon. Concentration. Pact of the Blade Warlocks already have a magic weapon by definition. Others have Eldritch Blast. Skip.
Mirror Image ●: Three decoys absorb hits. No concentration. Survival insurance for the d8-HD Warlock who is being focused. Three copies burn through before hitting you. Stack with hellish rebuke: take a hit, burn a decoy, rebuke the attacker.
Misty Step ●: Bonus action 30-foot teleport. No concentration. You are frequently the most dangerous target on the field. This is your panic button. In melee with an enemy after being grappled, misty step is freedom. Learning it means you are never truly trapped. One of the highest-priority 2nd-circle picks for any Warlock.
Ray of Enfeeblement ●: Halve STR-based damage. Concentration. Competing with hold and bane. Bane does more across more targets.
Rope Trick ●: Extradimensional hideaway. No slot in a known Warlock list. Ritual territory.
See Invisibility ●: See invisible. No concentration, 1 hour. Beyond Sight already covers the most common darkness play pattern, so this is usually too narrow for a known spell.
Silence ●: 20-foot radius deafening quiet, prevents verbal components. Concentration. Silences enemy spellcasters entirely. They cannot cast any spell with verbal components inside the zone. Against a caster-heavy encounter, silence is more impactful than any offensive spell.
Spiritual Weapon (Patron or Feature Access) ●: Bonus-action spectral weapon, force damage. Check access carefully; if a Warlock feature grants it, use your Warlock spellcasting rules for that feature rather than importing another class's assumptions.
Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) ●: Concentration scouting through your shadow for 1 minute. The duration is short, but the use case is clean: look under doors, through shutters, between cracks, and around corners before the party commits. It is not combat tech; it is a very Warlock-flavored reconnaissance pick.
Suggestion ●: Mentally reasonable order, creature obeys. Concentration. A strong social and tactical spell when your Warlock access includes it: frame a reasonable suggestion and a creature with a failed WIS save does exactly what you ask.
3rd Circle Spells
Bestow Curse ●: Choose from several curse effects. Concentration. Disadvantage on all saves is the best curse effect because it applies to every subsequent control spell you cast on the target.
Blink ●: 50% chance to shift ethereal each turn. No concentration. Pure survival — half the time you are completely untouchable. Unreliable but passively powerful when you cannot afford to maintain active concentration.
Blood Offering (The Old Margreve) ●: Consume life force from a corpse you helped kill within the last hour to heal yourself for 1d4 times its challenge rating. No concentration is nice, but the timing, corpse restriction, and resurrection consequence make this more grisly cleanup tool than reliable combat sustain.
Conjure Animals (Check Access) ●: Summon Beasts. Concentration. PG2 gives Wyrd Warlocks Lesser Conjure Animals, not blanket proof that every beast-summon variant belongs on the base list. Use the exact spell your source grants.
Forceful Courser (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Conjure trampling spirits. Good if you want a forceful battlefield effect that creates pressure while your Eldritch Blast keeps enemies out of position.
Golden Bull (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Punishes and pushes approaching enemies. Better for Blade and midline Warlocks than pure backline blasters, but excellent when enemies are trying to close.
Fear ●: 30-foot cone, WIS save, frightened. Concentration. Frightened creatures cannot voluntarily move toward you and have disadvantage on attacks. Area debuff against WIS-weak enemies. Pairs with bane's save penalty for easier initial failure.
Hypnotic Pattern ●: 30-foot cube, charm all who fail WIS save. Concentration. Multi-target control that can remove a crowd from the fight. Excellent when your Warlock list, patron, or feature access includes it.
Nondetection ●: Shield from divination. Situational. Not a permanent pick.
Remove Curse ●: End curses. Situational utility. Leave to a Cleric.
Revivify ●: Resurrect 1-minute dead. Leave to a Cleric. Warlocks are not healers, and this costs 300 gp of diamond dust each cast.
Sending ●: 25-word message. Ritual territory for Tome Warlocks.
Spirit Guardians (Patron or Feature Access) ●: Strong Divine aura magic, but not a default PG2 Wyrd spell. If a patron or feature grants it, evaluate it as a melee/midline concentration plan rather than a normal blaster pick.
Stinking Cloud ●: 20-foot radius nausea zone, CON save or waste action. Concentration. Low-concentration area denial. Creatures with failed saves waste their action — effectively removed from offensive contribution.
Tracer (The Old Margreve) ●: Bonus-action ammunition beacon that lets the firing weapon point toward the marked target for 8 hours. It is a strong tracking effect, but Warlocks usually fight with Eldritch Blast instead of ammunition. Better if you coordinate with an archer than if you spend your own actions setting it up.
Virulent Nightmare (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Nightmare magic that turns enemy aggression sideways. This is more valuable than raw damage when the party wants enemies wasting attacks or hurting the wrong targets.
Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Launch bolts of darkness. Warlocks already have Eldritch Blast, so the spell needs its rider and multi-target profile to matter. It is best in dark, Void-themed, or resistance-heavy encounters where your normal damage plan needs another lane.
Vampiric Touch ●: Melee touch, 3d6 necrotic + heal half. Concentration. For Pact of the Blade Warlocks in melee, this provides self-healing while dealing reliable damage. Not worth it for ranged Warlocks.
Pocket Portal (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd portal positioning. This is one of the best PG2 Warlock spells because it does something Eldritch Blast never will: rewrite the map. Use it for escapes, ally repositioning, ambush geometry, and "the door was optional" nonsense.
Mantle of Death (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd necrotic resistance and retaliation. Blade Warlocks and Reaper-flavored builds like this most; backline blasters should treat it as a campaign-tone pick.
Animal Aspect (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd self/ally adaptation. Movement, senses, defense, venom, and flight-style utility modes make it more flexible than it first looks. It is a toolbox wearing a fur coat.
Abjuring Smite (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd/Divine smite that punishes extraplanar targets. Strong for Blade Warlocks in planar campaigns, too narrow for normal blasters.
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Start Building4th Circle Spells
Banishment ●: CHA save or temporarily removed from the plane. Concentration. Against non-native plane creatures (fiends, elementals, undead from another plane), the banishment becomes permanent if concentration holds 1 minute. This is the Warlock's hard remove for extra-planar boss threats. Always warlock in campaigns with planar enemies.
Black Tentacles ●: 20-foot square of restrained tentacles, 3d6 per round. Concentration. Area restraint without a save to enter. Every enemy in the zone is restrained, granting your party advantage on attack rolls. Strong zone control for the Warlock who wants a different flavor from hypnotic pattern.
Compulsion ●: Charm targets to move as you direct. Concentration. Competing with banishment and greater invisibility at this tier. Skip.
Confusion ●: Random actions in 10-foot radius. Concentration. Good against a cluster of enemies but less reliable than hypnotic pattern.
Conjure Minor Elementals ●: Summon elementals. Concentration. Complicated to run, competing with better control options.
Dimension Door ●: 500-foot teleport with a companion. No concentration. Your long-range escape or repositioning tool when misty step is not enough distance.
Faithful Hound ●: Invisible guard dog. Concentration. Warlock conjuration territory but too passive.
Greater Invisibility ●: Invisible even while attacking. Concentration. Your Eldritch Blast hits with advantage, enemies attack you with disadvantage. Four beams at 14th level, each with advantage — your damage output from Eldritch Blast alone becomes monstrous. This is the Warlock's highest-priority 4th-circle known spell.
Nether Weapon (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Weapon deals necrotic damage. This is for Pact of the Blade, not the default blaster Warlock. In the right melee build, it gives you a strong damage-type lane and a clean pact-weapon identity.
Mass Faerie Fire ●: Better faerie fire on a larger area. Concentration. If your party has multiple melee combatants who would benefit from advantage, this scales beyond faerie fire. Excellent in the right party composition.
Phantasmal Killer ●: Fear and psychic per round. Concentration. Weak compared to banishment and greater invisibility.
Storm of Wings (The Old Margreve) ●: 15-foot-radius mobile swarm that can deal necrotic damage and slow, impose attack disadvantage with slashing birds, or disrupt spellcasting with poison insects. Concentration competition is severe at 4th circle, but the mode-swapping and bonus-action movement make this one of the better Old Margreve combat additions for Warlocks.
Spirit Rend (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd necrotic and psychic punishment that can pin speed at 0. That is a Warlock sentence: hurt the target, scare the target, and make sure it cannot make its problems your problems.
Fey Song (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd charm through music, strongest around Beasts and fey-flavored scenes. Take it in the right campaign; skip it in the "mostly armored cultists in basements" campaign.
5th Circle Spells
Cloudkill ●: 20-foot radius poison cloud, 5d8 per turn. Concentration. Moves each round. Sustained poison damage zone. Good area control, especially in enclosed spaces.
Conjure Elemental ●: Powerful elemental. Concentration. If concentration breaks, the elemental becomes hostile. Risky for a class that is frequently targeted.
Conjure Fey Hound (The Old Margreve) ●: Summon one hound of the night, two winter wolves, or four dire wolves for up to 1 hour. This is clean action economy for a Warlock who wants board presence while Eldritch Blast keeps firing. It competes with dominate and greater hold, but it is much less all-or-nothing than a single failed control save.
Conjure Minor Voidborn (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Call Void creatures to help. Warlocks can use this well because board presence lets Eldritch Blast keep firing while something else creates pressure.
Detonate Metal (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Make metal objects explode. In a dungeon, armory, forge, clockwork ruin, or armored battlefield, this is an encounter spell. In a wilderness monster hunt, it is a dead pick.
Dispel Evil and Good ●: Send creature types home or end enchantment effects. Concentration. Campaign-specific but powerful when relevant — aura of protection against specified creature types plus the banishment option.
Dominate ●: Control a Medium creature. Concentration. Turning an enemy against their allies is the highest-value single-target control play in the game. Your bane penalty from an earlier round makes the initial WIS save harder. The controlled creature acts on its own initiative with your mental commands. Learn this.
Greater Hold ●: Paralyze any creature. Concentration. No size limit. Automatic critical hits on all melee attacks. If you have Wyrd or patron access, this is a devastating boss-control pick.
Maim (The Old Margreve) ●: Melee spell attack that deals necrotic damage and permanently withers part of the target until serious magic removes it. Stripping resistance or creating vulnerability to bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing can define a boss fight if your party has martial damage lined up. Ranged Warlocks can skip it; Blade Warlocks should look hard.
Starbright (Labyrinth Worldbook) ●: Create stars that shoot at foes. Repeatable ranged pressure is less special on a class with Eldritch Blast, but Starbright can still matter when you need a spell effect rather than a class-feature attack.
Psychic Barrage (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd psychic lances that can debilitate saving throws. This is exactly what a Warlock wants: pressure that helps later control land, not another button labeled "damage, but moodier."
Lifeblind (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd necromancy that stops a foe from seeing living creatures. It is narrow, nasty, and very good when most of the party still qualifies as living.
Spirit Double (Player's Guide 2) ● - Wyrd spirit pressure that terrorizes foes. Good for fear/control Warlocks who want their presence on the battlefield to feel less like a spell and more like a bad omen with shoes.
Seeming ●: Disguise many creatures. 8 hours. Too passive for a Warlock's slot economy.
Telekinesis ●: Move creatures or massive objects. Concentration. Strong control option for large objects and persistent force against physical threats.
Telepathic Bond ●: Party telepathy. Concentration. Ritual for Tome Warlocks.
Wall of Force ●: Impenetrable, impermanent (but sustained). Concentration. Split an encounter. Remove a threat. Create indestructible cover. Available to Warlocks via the Wyrd list — worth learning in campaigns where encounter management is critical.
6th–9th Circle Spells
Conjure Forest Defender (The Old Margreve) ● (6th, ritual) — Turn a Humanoid body in a forest into a persistent forest defender using vine golem statistics. This is not a normal fight spell and the material component is extremely grim, but for Tome Warlocks or ritual-focused builds, a no-concentration guardian that lasts until destroyed is real campaign infrastructure.
Circle of Death ● (6th): 60-foot radius necrotic, 8d6. No concentration. Mass necrotic burst — one slot, one action, massive area. Strong opener.
Void Rift (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (6th): Create a rift to the Void. A strong high-circle battlefield hazard for Warlocks who want their limited arcanum choices to reshape terrain and enemy movement.
Delay Spell (Player's Guide 2) ● (6th) - Wyrd reaction magic that postpones a spell's effect. It is not a clean counter, but it is a very Warlock answer: make the problem arrive late, preferably after the target has already been blasted into a new zip code.
Void Bubble (Player's Guide 2) ● (6th) - Wyrd darkness sphere that deals necrotic and cold pressure. Best in control builds that can trap or herd enemies inside the unpleasant cosmic bathtub.
Pronouncement of Doom (Player's Guide 2) ● (6th) - Wyrd/Divine debuff pressure. It is good when your party is about to force important checks, and also good for saying "doom" in a serious voice, which is legally half the Warlock fantasy.
Eyebite ● (6th): Panic, sicken, or sleep targets each turn. Concentration. WIS save applied to one target per turn without spending additional slots. Sustained debuff engine at 6th circle.
Irresistible Dance ● (6th): No initial save, target dances for up to 1 minute. Concentration. The lack of an initial saving throw means even a creature immune to being charmed or frightened is still affected on the first turn — it only saves at the end of each turn. Guaranteed at least one round of debilitation against anything.
Conjure Voidborn (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (7th): Call a Void creature to help. It is a strong arcanum for Warlocks who want one big ally instead of one big save-or-lose spell, but it depends heavily on how your table handles summoned creature tactics.
Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (7th): Create a gravity well. This is very Warlock: oppressive, positional, and excellent when the party can punish enemies pulled into the wrong place.
Petrifying Chains (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (7th): Petrify a creature with eldritch chains. Single-target lockdown is always relevant for Warlocks, though Forcecage still sets the no-save benchmark at this circle.
Mutual Doom (Player's Guide 2) ● (7th) - Wyrd necromancy that binds your survival to an enemy's. It is powerful, dramatic, and exactly the kind of spell that makes the party healer stare at you across the table.
Void Embrace (Player's Guide 2) ● (7th) - Wyrd supernatural energy projection. Strong in void-flavored campaigns and for Warlocks who want arcanum picks that feel like patron pressure, not generic wizard homework.
Mass Suggestion ● (6th): Reasonable suggestion to up to 12 creatures. Concentration. Social and tactical influence at scale.
True Seeing ● (6th): Truesight for 1 hour. Concentration. Passthrough for all illusions and true forms of shapeshifters. Excellent against illusion-heavy enemies.
Etherealness ● (7th): Step into the Ethereal Plane for 8 hours. No concentration. Ultimate escape or infiltration tool.
Finger of Death ● (7th): 7d8+30 necrotic, no save reduction. Dead Humanoids rise as zombies. Guaranteed massive damage that does not care about saves.
Forcecage ● (7th): Imprison any creature for 1 hour. No concentration, no saving throw. Hard remove of one threat for an entire encounter. No concentration is what makes this extraordinary — you can concentrate on something else while one major threat is simply locked away.
Greater Dominate ● (8th): Control any creature. Concentration. The upgrade to dominate with no size restriction. Turn any creature against the enemy. The pinnacle of Warlock single-target control.
Body of Ruin (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (8th): Creature pulses with Void energy. This is a high-risk, high-payoff pressure spell for Warlocks who want an arcanum that makes a body on the board dangerous every round.
Power Word Petrify (Player's Guide 2) ● (8th) - Wyrd no-save threshold petrification. When it works, it is not a debuff; it is interior decorating with consequences.
Star Well (Player's Guide 2) ● (9th) - Wyrd cosmic horror that grips nearby minds. It is campaign-defining, dramatic, and absolutely not subtle. If you wanted subtle, the patron would have hired a Bard.
Demiplane ● (8th): Door to a small dimension. Concentrated or instant access to an extradimensional space. Exceptional utility and combat application.
Maze ● (8th): Send a creature to a demiplane maze. Concentration. The target makes INT checks to escape — but many creatures have terrible INT. A demon with INT 8 trapped in a maze spends most of the encounter failing checks while your party eliminates everything else.
Power Word Stun ● (8th): Stun a creature at 150 HP or fewer. No roll, no save. Stunning means automatic fail on STR and DEX saves, advantage for attackers, and loss of actions and reactions. A stunned boss that then fails the CON save to shake it off is finished.
Greater Maze (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● (9th): Send a target to a nightmarish demiplane maze. Maze-style removal is already strong; this version is for Warlocks who want their 9th-circle arcanum to erase one creature from the tactical map.
Gate ● (9th): Interplanar portal, call specific creature. Concentration.
Power Word Kill ● (9th): Kill any creature at 100 HP or fewer. The word is the deed.
Weird ● (9th): Mass phantasmal killer in a 30-foot sphere.
Wish ● (9th): Wish for anything safely replicate any spell of 8th circle or lower.
Wraithblade (Player's Guide 2) ● (9th) - Wyrd necrotic blade that lowers maximum HP. It is best for Blade Warlocks and patron-champion builds; ranged Warlocks can usually get more from high-circle control.
Top 10 Warlock Spells
| Spell | Circle | Why It's Essential |
|---|---|---|
| Hypnotic Pattern | 3rd | Multi-target incapacitation that wins encounters outright |
| Hold | 2nd | Auto-crit setup for allies if your access includes it |
| Greater Invisibility | 4th | Eldritch Blast with advantage makes your baseline turn scary |
| Misty Step | 2nd | Panic button teleport that keeps you out of melee |
| Suggestion | 2nd | Undetectable social control with long duration |
| Bane | 1st | Party-wide attack and save penalty |
| Dominate | 5th | Turn the enemy against itself for an entire combat |
| Faerie Fire | 1st | Patron/feature access can turn party attacks reliable |
| Greater Hold | 5th | Paralyze major threats when Wyrd or patron access grants it |
| Forcecage | 7th | Hard-remove one threat, no concentration required |
Best Old Margreve Warlock Picks
| Spell | Circle | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Agonizing Mark (The Old Margreve) ● | 1st | Eldritch Blast can repeatedly trigger prone saves against one focus-fire target |
| Spy My Shadow (The Old Margreve) ● | 2nd | Shadow scouting fits the Warlock toolkit without stepping on Eldritch Blast |
| Storm of Wings (The Old Margreve) ● | 4th | Flexible area harassment with anti-attack, anti-movement, and anti-caster modes |
| Conjure Fey Hound (The Old Margreve) ● | 5th | Summon pressure gives Warlocks action economy without relying on one failed save |
| Maim (The Old Margreve) ● | 5th | Blade Warlocks can turn martial damage types into a boss-killing vulnerability plan |
| Conjure Forest Defender (The Old Margreve) ● | 6th ritual | Tome and ritual builds can turn downtime, forests, and bodies into lasting defense |
Best Labyrinth Worldbook Warlock Picks
| Spell | Circle | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | Cantrip | Sets up the failed save your control spell needs |
| Truth of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 1st | Low-circle fear and movement denial |
| Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 2nd | Blade Warlock focus-fire support |
| Vengeful Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 2nd | Psychic damage plus fear for melee pact builds |
| Virulent Nightmare (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 3rd | Turns enemy aggression into a liability |
| Void Strike (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 3rd | Dark multi-target pressure when Eldritch Blast needs help |
| Conjure Minor Voidborn (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 5th | Board presence while Eldritch Blast keeps firing |
| Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 7th | Gravity control for high-level positional fights |
| Body of Ruin (Labyrinth Worldbook) ● | 8th | Void pressure for Warlocks who want an arcanum that keeps hurting |
Best Player's Guide 2 Warlock Picks
| Spell | Circle | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Luck Bait (Player's Guide 2) ● | Cantrip | Turns a miss-by-1 into a success |
| Stumble (Player's Guide 2) ● | 1st | Reaction movement control |
| Psychic Block (Player's Guide 2) ● | 2nd | Protects concentration and body at once |
| Pocket Portal (Player's Guide 2) ● | 3rd | Rewrites positioning instead of adding more damage |
| Psychic Barrage (Player's Guide 2) ● | 5th | Psychic pressure that helps control stick |
| Delay Spell (Player's Guide 2) ● | 6th | Anti-caster timing disruption |
| Power Word Petrify (Player's Guide 2) ● | 8th | Threshold petrification for wounded bosses |
| Star Well (Player's Guide 2) ● | 9th | Cosmic horror pressure for endgame Wyrd builds |
Spell Synergies
Darkness + Beyond Sight Invocation Cast darkness on yourself or a nearby object. You see through magical darkness thanks to Beyond Sight; enemies see nothing. You fire Eldritch Blast with full accuracy while enemies attack you with disadvantage or simply cannot target you. This is the Warlock's signature defensive-offensive combination and remains effective through all levels.
Bane + Hold or Greater Hold Apply bane first (-1d4 to saves), then cast hold or greater hold. The bane penalty directly applies to the CON save a target makes to shake off the paralysis at the end of each turn. Once a creature is paralyzed, your Pact of the Blade ally deals double damage on every melee hit. The penalty-stacking setup is Warlock at its most systematic.
Faerie Fire (Patron or Feature Access) + Eldritch Blast When a patron, subclass, or feature gives you Faerie Fire, affected targets grant advantage on attack rolls against them. At 14th level you fire four Eldritch Blast beams. Four beams, each with advantage — that is eight d20 rolls selecting the highest. Combined with Agonizing Blast invocation, this is sustained damage that few classes match.
Hypnotic Pattern + Silence Drop hypnotic pattern to lock down multiple enemies, then cast silence over the area. Enemies who are charmed cannot take actions to break free, and enemies who resist the pattern cannot cast verbal spells inside the silence. You have effectively created a dead zone that neutralizes both physical and magical threats simultaneously.
Misty Step + Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast Invocation When surrounded: misty step to 30 feet away, cast Eldritch Blast with Repelling Blast (push each target hit 10 feet back). You moved away, now you are pushing them further. By the time enemies close again, it is your next turn. This kiting loop keeps the ranged Warlock perpetually out of melee range.
Agonizing Mark (The Old Margreve) + Eldritch Blast Mark one priority target, then keep damaging it with Eldritch Blast beams. Each damage event threatens a prone rider, which turns a normal focus-fire round into a control round. It is worse than faerie fire against crowds, but nastier against one creature the whole party wants on the ground.
Maim (The Old Margreve) + Pact of the Blade Allies If your party can dogpile one enemy with weapon attacks, Maim's body option can remove resistance or create vulnerability to bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. That is not a little damage boost; it can double the party's martial output against a boss if the attack lands.
Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Hold Use Word of Misfortune to soften the target's next save, then spend a known spell on hold if your access includes it. The Warlock's best turns are often two-turn setups where Eldritch Blast is not the point.
Truth of the Void (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Repelling Blast Frightened enemies cannot willingly move closer. Repelling Blast pushes them away. Together, they can strand a melee monster outside the fight while the rest of the party handles the room.
Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Pact of the Blade Luminous Smite is not just extra damage; it makes the target easier for everyone to hit. That turns a Blade Warlock's attack into party-wide accuracy support.
Event Horizon (Labyrinth Worldbook) + Area Control Gravity wells get much better when the party has zones to punish forced positioning. Pair it with walls, hazards, Spirit Guardians from an ally, or any terrain that makes the enemy regret being moved.
Psychic Block (Player's Guide 2) + Concentration Control Psychic Block helps keep a dangerous target from finding or attacking you cleanly. That matters because Warlock control spells are only impressive while you are still standing there, concentrating, and looking smug in a responsible way.
Pocket Portal (Player's Guide 2) + Repelling Blast Portal placement plus forced movement lets you turn a simple push into a map problem. If the battlefield has hazards, ledges, locked rooms, or bad geometry, Pocket Portal is where the Warlock stops blasting harder and starts blasting smarter.
Hot Takes
Hot Take: Pact of the Tome is underrated, and most Warlock players are leaving the best long-term option on the table. Pact of the Blade is the flashy choice because hitting things with a CHA-based weapon is satisfying. Chain is popular because familiars are popular. But Tome support gives Warlocks the best route into cantrips and ritual-style utility without poisoning the known-spell list.
Hot Take: Warlock known spell selection is too often offense-heavy. Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast already deals solid damage without concentration. Spending a known spell on mild damage amplification is usually redundant. Spend that pick on a control, defense, movement, or utility spell that does something Eldritch Blast literally cannot do.
Hot Take: Forcecage is one of the best spells a Warlock can access when the list or feature path grants it. No concentration. No saving throw. One hour of hard removal. This is the Warlock's contribution to the "I ended the encounter" club, with a membership card made of spite.
Hot Take: Player's Guide 2 makes Warlock better at not dying, which is rude but appreciated. Psychic Block, Delay Spell, Spirit Ward, Void Bubble, and Power Word Petrify all help you keep the fight from becoming "everyone attacks the spooky one until the spooky one is flat."
Hot Take: Agonizing Mark (The Old Margreve) is the most Warlock-shaped spell in the book and still not an automatic pick. The upside is obvious: Eldritch Blast keeps triggering the prone rider. The problem is that bane, faerie fire, hold, and hypnotic pattern all ask for the same concentration slot. It is great in a boss-hunting Warlock build and merely cute in a party that needs you to solve whole encounters.
Hot Take: Conjure Forest Defender (The Old Margreve) is a better Tome Warlock prize than a Warlock known spell. Warlocks are punished for learning narrow spells, but Tome Warlocks are rewarded for collecting rituals that turn time into power. A persistent vine-golem-style guardian is exactly the kind of weird, table-warping utility Pact of the Tome should be exploiting.
Hot Take: Word of Misfortune (Labyrinth Worldbook) is better Warlock tech than most damage cantrips because Eldritch Blast already solved damage. The cantrip that helps your limited slots land is the one that actually changes your ceiling.
Hot Take: The Labyrinth Worldbook quietly makes Pact of the Blade more defensible. Luminous Smite, Sapping Smite, Vengeful Smite, Nether Weapon, and Golden Bull do not make every Warlock a melee character, but they finally give Blade builds more Wyrd reasons to stand near the monster.
Hot Take: Detonate Metal (Labyrinth Worldbook) is either encounter-winning or nearly blank, with very little middle ground. That makes it a perfect example of a Warlock trap: an awesome spell you should only learn if your campaign's maps keep proving it will matter.
Final Notes
The Warlock wins encounters not through overwhelming damage but through overwhelming inevitability. Bane makes every save the boss makes slightly more likely to fail. Hold and Greater Hold set up killing blows when your access includes them. Hypnotic Pattern, Pocket Portal, Psychic Barrage, Delay Spell, and Power Word Petrify are the kinds of spells that change the shape of a fight. Your Eldritch Blast fills every gap between these setups at zero resource cost.
Pact Magic is a separate short-rest resource for Pact Spells. Ordinary Wyrd slots return on a long rest, so treat the regular known-spell list as a set of durable commitments rather than short-rest ammunition.
Every known spell pick is a commitment. Make commitments to control, utility, and the spells that complement Eldritch Blast's inherent damage. The Warlock who learns movement, defense, control, and patron-relevant Wyrd spells has built a character who shapes encounters without pretending the known-spell list is a bargain bin.
Player's Guide 2, The Old Margreve, and Labyrinth Worldbook additions are strongest when they reinforce that identity instead of replacing it. Take Agonizing Mark if your table loves focus-fire boss fights. Take Spy My Shadow if scouting matters. Take Pocket Portal, Psychic Block, Psychic Barrage, Delay Spell, Storm of Wings, or Conjure Fey Hound if you want battlefield texture. Test Word of Misfortune, Truth of the Void, Void Strike, and the smites when they support your pact plan.
For the full class context, see the Tales of the Valiant Warlock Guide. For source-level spell comparisons, use the Cantrip Guide, 1st Circle Guide, 2nd Circle Guide, 3rd Circle Guide, 4th-5th Circle Guide, and 6th-9th Circle Guide.
For the class and circle index, return to the Tales of the Valiant Spell Guides.
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