Great Old One Patron Warlock: D&D 2024 Optimisation Guide

Harness psychic powers and the eldritch magic of the far realm with this sinister warlock subclass

Can there be anything worse than contractually binding yourself into the service of a devil? Well perhaps. Some warlocks go a step further in the pursuit of power by binding themselves to some kind of eldritch being from the Far Realm.

Mostly, these entities are entirely alien and unknowable, with warped desires. At best, they are indifferent to the mortal realm, at worst, they want to see the utter destruction of the universe, yourself included!

Great old one warlocks may find themselves bound to some sort of elder god such as Thatizdun the chained god, Zargon the returner, Hadar the dark hunger or great Chthulu. Some warlocks manage to draw powers from several Far Realms beings without becoming tied to the whims of any one entity.

Whomever you bind yourself to, you gain alien-like powers. Many of these powers enhance your psychic abilities, altering the damage you cause, allowing you to speak telepathically and letting you get into the minds of your enemies.

The 2024 great old one subclass gets a lot of improvements over the 2014 version. My guide below will take you through these changes, tactics you can employ and how to build a highly optimised great old one warlock.

At a glance

Highly adaptable class that can fill many party roles depending on your build
Use spells for attacks and powerful effects
Use psychic powers to disrupt your enemies
Use hex and other powers to take down really tough goes

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

A lot! This is a complete reworking of the subclass. The new great old one warlock is better flavoured and more effective with the following changes:

Prepared spells have been altered

Improved version of summon aberration that doesn’t require concentration
Can cast enchantments and illusions without using verbal or somatic components (so casting spells psychically)
Can change the damage type of warlock spells to make them psychic damage instead
Can use your telepathy to enhance your hex spell against an enemy

Related articles

Great old one patron features

Dragonborn warlock DnD 2024 — Dragonborn warlock: Wizards of the Coast

Great old one spells – Lv3

How it works

You get the below spells as prepared spells.

Warlock level	Spells
3	Detect thoughts, dissonant whispers, phantasmal force, Tasha’s hideous laughter
5	Clairvoyance, hunger of Hadar
7	Confusion, summon aberration
9	Modify memory, telekinesis

Awakened mind – Lv3

How it works

Gain telepathy.

Tactics

Great for stealth when you need to remain quiet or when you need to split up but stay in contact. Just be aware of the distance and time limitations.
There’s not check for speaking to someone’s mind, so have fun messing with your enemies’ minds. Pretend to be the god of a religious zealot or a terrifying aberration come to eat a guard’s brains. This could grant opportunities not normally available to other characters.

Clairvoyant combatant – Lv6

How it works

When forming a telepathic bond with a creature, you can force it to make a wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on attacks against you and you to have advantage on attacks against it.

Tactics

Between this and a couple of other features, great old one warlocks are really built for tough, nasty enemies.
You’ll want to combine this with hex so you can give the opponent disadvantage on wisdom saving throws. Then on your next turn, apply this to the enemy giving a high chance of success. Note that this will only work once you hit level 10.
Now you deal more damage to the enemy and attack with advantage.
Between this and hex, you’ll want a build that makes a lot of attacks either through eldritch blast or weapon attacks.
Be sure to use this against tough creatures and don’t waste it on enemies with few hit points.

Eldritch hex – Lv10

How it works

Always have the hex spell prepared and cause disadvantage on saving throws for a certain ability as well as ability checks.

Tactics

As mentioned above, save this for really tough enemies and combine with clairvoyant combatant to become really devastating.

Thought shield – LV10

How it works

You can’t have your thoughts read, have resistance to psychic damage and can deal back the same amount of psychic damage as is dealt to you.

Tactics

Most of this is reactionary and relies on being targeted by a relatively uncommon damage type or mind reading. Nice when they come up, but this will be rare.

Create thrall – Lv14

How it works

Summon aberration can be cast without requiring concentration. The aberration has extra temporary hit points when summoned and deals extra damage to your hex target once per turn.

Tactics

This means you can have 2 fairly powerful spells on the go you’d normally be concentrating on. This works great for a warlock who needs to conserve spell slots, as these will last the duration of the combat making them and efficient use of your spell slots.
It’s important to note with this that you can’t lose concentration on summon aberration so the spell shouldn’t end prematurely.
You’ll want to combine this with a casting of hex to get the most out of your thrall.

Building a great old one warlock

Between some damage resistance and a psychic abilities that can easily nullify a tough enemy against you, I’d argue that the best place for a great old one warlock is often in melee combat, but with precautions.

You’re best off against a big nasty enemy that you can hex and use clairvoyant combatant on. This will enhance you against it, and nullify it against you. Because you’ll be in melee range, trying to leave you to attack someone else will result in an attack of opportunity (also affected by these abilities and spells).

You’ll want to be careful of crowds though. You may be relatively safe against one big nasty enemy, but a crowd will quickly overwhelm you. I’d suggest working with allies too and have them cast save or suck spells on the big bad guy that require wisdom saving throws to nullify them further.

Because of this, I’ve favoured a melee build below, though a ranged build is perfectly viable for a great old one warlock too.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Charisma: This will improve your spells, subclass features, face skills and even your weapon attacks if you take pact of the blade (which I’d recommend).
Dexterity: You’ll likely be in melee combat a lot and with no options for anything more than light armor, this will be important for keeping you safe.
Constitution: Again, you’ll need this to toughen up your naturally weak physique.

Options to avoid

Strength: Just take pact of the blade to use charisma for weapon attacks.
Intelligence: You don’t need intelligence.
Wisdom: Only good for some saving throws and skills.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	10
Dexterity	15	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	15	15

Skills

Recommended options

Arcana: Decent enough knowledge skill.
Deception: One of the best face skills, especially if you intend on lying a lot.
History: OK knowledge skill.
Intimidation: Alright face skill as long as you’re not playing a gentle character.
Investigation: Decent skill though a more intelligent character might do better with this.
Religion: Decent enough knowledge skill.

Options to avoid

Nature: Rarely needed so not worth taking.

Species/race

I’d consider the following when picking a species for a great old one patron warlock:

Safety first: Warlocks aren’t that durable and you’re going to be jumping into the front lines so anything that makes you tougher will be welcome.
Innate spellcasting: More spells and spells uses is hugely useful to warlocks who have a sparse set of spells.

Recommended options

Dragonborn (2024): If you go down the melee build route, this can be great. Take devouring and thirsting blade for extra weapon attacks, then use your breath weapon in place of one of those attacks. A resistance is good for durability and occasional flight is good for those times when you do need to retreat and attack from a distance.
Dwarves (2024): Dwarves are all about their hardiness so a great option for a typically vulnerable melee build.
Elves (2024): Lots of extra spells to cast. The High Elf is a good option for misty step which you can use to get yourself out of danger easily.
Human (2024): Great for a party face as you’ll need extra skills (you could even go for the skilled origin feat If your party is looking light on skills). You’ll also get a steady supply of heroic inspiration which is always useful.
Tiefling (2024): I’d go for an Infernal Tiefling for the darkness spell (which works well with the appropriately named devil’s sight). You’ll also get fire resistance which is one of the more common damage types.

Backgrounds

Your background will give you an origin feat, ability score increases and skill and tool proficiencies.

As a potential party face with very few skills, grabbing the right background can be important. The most important thing though, is to ensure you have the right ability score improvements (charisma, then one of dexterity or constitution).

Below I’ve included the backgrounds that could work well for a great old one warlock.

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forgery kit
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One kind of musical instrument
Hermit	Constitution, wisdom, charisma	Healer	Medicine, religion	Herbalism kit
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Wayfarer	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Lucky	Insight, stealth	Thieves’ tools

Merchant will get you persuasion and lucky, both great options, but charlatan is also a good choice with the skilled feat allowing you to grab persuasion and could allow you to play both a party face and a backup rogue.

Feats

At 1st level, you can grab an origin feat through your background and from level 4, you can pick up a general feat (or another origin feat if you want) instead of an ability score increase.

I’d suggest the following feats for a great old one warlock:

Origin feats

Lucky – A good feat for any character.
Magic initiate – Grab more spells from another class. Great for warlocks that tend to lack in spell options.
Musician – Grant everyone in the party a regular supply of heroic inspiration.
Savage attacker – Good if you’re going for a melee build for better attacks.
Skilled – This will help you make up the deficit in skills for a party face or even a backup rogue. Warlocks can be effective rogues with decent charisma and some nice supplemental spells and face skills.
Tough – Will make you more durable as a vulnerable melee character.

General feats

Actor – A good option if you want to play an impersonator. Pointless if you don’t.
Fey-touched – 2 more spells prepared and 2 free castings expands your repertoire nicely. Misty step works well for getting out of danger.
Inspiring leader – Go for the charisma increase and bestow temporary hit points on the party each rest. A good idea to have someone in your party with this.
Lightly armored – Grab shield proficiency for extra durability.
Mage slayer – Get better at dealing with mages plus a form of legendary resistance.
Ritual caster – Can really expand your spell repertoire for some utility spells, plus they don’t require spell slots when cast as rituals.
Skill expert – Get really good at a face skill like persuasion or deception (or any other skills).
Shadow-touched – 2 free castings of spells expands your spell castings nicely and invisible is a great option.
Warcaster – Will help you maintain hex when you’re getting hit a decent bit.
Weapon master – Great for melee builds and something like push will make it easy to engage in hit and run tactics without using spells slots on something like misty step.

Weapons

If you don’t choose pact of the blade, your spells will easily outstrip weapons for damage. Especially if you take the agonising blast eldritch invocation.

However, as mentioned previously, I’d recommend going for a melee build which means grabbing pact of the blade and some other melee-focused eldritch invocations.

If you want to go this route, taking feats and other eldritch invocations that enhance your durability, ability to hit and run and damage output is important. If you take the weapon mastery feat, your weapon choices becomes more important. You can check out my weapon mastery guide to help here.

If you opt for lightly armored, a single-handed weapon will work with a shield. Two weapon fighting takes a fair bit of customisation to make work so won’t be great for most builds making a two handed weapon one of the better options without feats.

Armor

Studded leather is your best armor option. You can also grab lightly armored for shield proficiency if you want to be even tougher.

Alternatively, grab the armor of shadows eldritch invocation and use mage armor without expending spell slots. It’s 1 AC better than studded leather and can be used without spell slots and concentration so you could just continuously cast it.

Eldritch invocations

Eldritch invocations are what turn warlocks into a modular class that can adapt to the way you want to play. You can style yourself into a melee warrior, ranged spellcaster, utility caster or various other roles.

For the great old one warlock, I’d lean towards a melee build, but they work well in other roles too:

Agonising blast – Even if you go for a melee build, you’ll likely need to engage in ranged attacks too. Grab this to make your cantrips (especially eldritch blast) more effective.
Armor of shadows – Slightly better AC than your best armor is worthwhile for a melee build.
Devouring blade and thirsting blade – These will give you extra attacks which are essential for keeping pace on damage output when playing a melee build.
Eldritch mind – You’ll likely be using hex a lot, and in close combat making it easy to lose concentration. You’ll want this to stop yourself wasting spells.
Eldritch smite – Strong option for weapon-wielding warlocks with extra damage and causing prone.
Investment of the chain master – Enhance your familiar in some substantial ways.
Lifedrinker – Regular healing and extra damage for melee warlocks is really handy.
Pact of the blade – You’ll need this if you’re going for a melee build.
Pact of the chain – Gain access to better familiars and extra familiar perks.