Undead Patron Warlock: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Optimisation Guide

Unleash necrotic powers from powerful, undead entities.

At a glance

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

Quite a lot. The undead patron still operates in similar ways to how it did before, but there have been some substantial changes to how those things work. Largely, these mean you can benefit from your features more and aren’t hampered by things like undead being resistant to your best abilities. Some of these changes are buffs and others are debuffs, but the subclass still comes out performing strongly.

• Undead spells: Removed false life, phantom steed and death ward, replacing them with ray of sickness, speak with dead and phantasmal killer.

• Form of dread: Number of uses is now based on your charisma modifier rather than your proficiency bonus. This usually means more uses at most levels.
• Grave touched: Can only change damage type to necrotic for spells, not just any attack (but does expand this to spells that require a saving throw). The extra damage can only be caused once per turn now. No longer need to sleep and magic can’t put you to sleep. Can now ignore necrotic resistance.
• Necrotic husk: Unholy resuscitation now grants a lot more hit points and can be used every short rest rather than 1d4 long rests. The damage has been decreased a bit though.
• Superior dread/spirit projection: You no longer project your spirit and the enhancements are tied to your form of dread. You no longer heal yourself when you deal damage and because this is tied to your form of dread, you get more uses of this feature.

Undead patron features

Form of dread (Lv3) – 5/5

As a warlock, you should be maximising your charisma ability score and the undead patron emphasises this needs even more. You’ll want to be using your form of dread for most encounters that aren’t minor and you should be able to manage that with a charisma modifier of between +3 and +5.

This also begins the undead patron’s features that make them more resilient and perhaps one of your best options for a blade build (or bladelock). They work perfectly well at range too, but if you want a blade build, the undead patron is great for this. The temporary hit points are significant here and scale nicely with your level. Immunity to frightened is also quite handy at times.

Being able to attempt to frighten once per turn without affecting your action economy is also very nice. This does push you down the route of attack rolls, but that generally isn’t a problem for a warlock. Either pick up eldritch blast or go for blade eldritch invocations. You might pop off the odd levelled spells, but attacks will be the bread and butter actions for your warlock anyway.

Undead spells (Lv3) – 4/5

Warlock level	Spells
3	Bane, blindness/deafness, phantasmal force, ray of sickness
5	Speak with dead, summon undead
7	Greater invisibility, phantasmal killer
9	Antilife shell, cloudkill

The spells here are solid. There’s some utility here with the likes of speak with dead and greater invisibility. You’ve also got some combined damage dealing and debuffs with spells like ray of sickness, phantasmal killer and cloudkill. You’ve also got the option of pure debuffs like blindness/deafness and bane.

Summon undead also gives you a bit more of a meat shield to work with and debuffs enemies further. I quite like the idea of the putrid undead causing poisoned and paralyzed. You’ll want to get it in the middle of enemies a bit so as many creatures are affected by their festering aura as possible. It’ll also get 2 attacks from level 7 when you’ll be casting this at level 4 allowing you to attack 2 enemies each turn and attempt to paralyze them both. You can even use ray of sickness to attempt to poison creatures yourself and help them get paralyzed.

Grave touched (Lv6) – 4/5

You’ll want to be using dreaded necrosis as often as possible. Fortunately, this is really easy. If you’ve taken pact of the blade, your pact blade can deal necrotic damage and now, can ignore resistances to necrotic damage so you might as well always make this damage necrotic and get some extra damage each turn.

If you’ve gone for more of a ranged build, you can just change the damage type of the spells you cast (like eldritch blast) to necrotic. This works for the spell’s damage type, not just for one attack so all bolts from eldritch blast will qualify for this each turn.

I do think there’s some vagueness in necrotic dread. It says you can roll an additional damage die but it doesn’t specify what damage die you roll. I assume the implication would be an additional damage die of the size used to make the attack, but it doesn’t specify this clearly. Assuming that’s the case, go for high die spells/weapons like a greataxe or eldritch blast.

It’s worth being aware that dreaded necrosis works once per turn, not just on your turns, so if you can deal necrotic damage on other creatures’ turns, then you can deal this extra damage more often. Feats like polearm master can let you make more opportunity attacks with weapons while hellish rebuke can be made to cause necrotic damage and also deal damage on another creature’s turn.

Necrotic husk (Lv10) – 5/5

Resistance/immunity to necrotic damage is a solid resilience buff (and you can probably expect immunity for most substantial encounters at this stage).

The survivability here is big though. You can simply not drop to 0HP once per short rest and gain twice your warlock level in HP. This is considerably strong than most similar features which tend to be limited to long rests.

You also get some vengeance damage in a large area and as it’s necrotic damage, it qualifies for the extra damage from dreaded necrosis. It’s worth being aware too that dreaded necrosis works once per turn, but not necessarily on your turn. This means you can use it on your turn and on another creatures turn when you use this feature.

There is a drawback though. You gain levels of exhaustion when using this feature which will quickly become very debilitating. You could encourage your friendly party cleric to take greater restoration to help if you get too exhausted.

Superior dread (Lv14) – 5/5

Resistance against bludgeoning, piercing and splashing damage protects you against 3 very common damage types which really ups your resilience. The fly speed and incorporeal nature can be handy for safety tactics like hit and run tactics or just keeping yourself away from melee.

Profane casting is a really interesting one. The lack of components makes for some very subtle casting which might aid you in stealth situations.

How good is the undead patron warlock?

The undead patron warlock is a surprisingly resilient subclass. This makes it a really strong option for bladelocks but its flexibility means that ranged builds work well too.

It manages to hit harder, last longer and debuffs more than most subclasses and does this progressively in many small, but substantial ways. I do also think that summoning undead can be a strong option for enhancing all of this further with an extra meat shield, more attacks and more debuffs being dished out.

We may not have a proper necromancer released for D&D 2024 yet, but the undead patron warlock certainly fulfills much of that role.

5/5

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Building an undead warlock

Undead patron warlocks still function in a similar way to most warlocks, but lean on the tougher side of things. They can work well both in melee and at range and I’ll try and keep both in mind with my advice below.

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. You’ll also get more uses of form of dread with this which will fuel many of your best features.
• Dexterity: You may be in melee combat a lot and with no options for anything more than light armor, this will be important for keeping you safe. Even ranged builds will appreciate the extra protection.
• 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 or use spells. No need for strength.
• 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

• Deception: One of the best face skills, especially if you intend on lying a lot.
• Intimidation: Alright face skill as long as you’re not playing a gentle character.
• Persuasion: Warlocks don’t gain persuasion proficiency from their class, but I’d recommend grabbing it through your background, feats or species as you’ll likely play the party face and this will be important.

Species/race

I’d consider the following when picking a species for an undead patron warlock:

• Safety first: Warlocks aren’t that durable (even the undead patron) and you may 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

• Changeling (2024): A great option for a party face as you have enhanced charisma ability checks and you can easily impersonate someone by shapechanging. You’ll need a high charisma to pull this off though.
• 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.
• Warforged (2024): A great option for more durability with improved AC, resistances and more.

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 an undead 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
Shadowmoor expert	Dexterity, intelligence, charisma	Shadowmoor hexer	Acrobatics, deception	Glassblower’s tools
Spellfire initiate	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Spellfire spark	Arcana, perception	One kind of gaming set
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 an undead 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.
• Shadowmoor hexer – Warlocks tend to have enough attacks to justify using hex a fair bit. This makes hex even better and gives you an additional casting (which is particularly handy for a warlock). 
• 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.
• Spellfire spark – A bit less damage from magic is good for anyone. Sacred flame is a decent cantrip, but being able to cast it as a bonus action is a really useful way to up your damage output in a turn. Cantrips scale in damage with your level so this will get better as you level up. Casting cantrips also won’t get in the way of using levelled spells on the same turn either.
• 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.
• Polearm master – Use a polearm as your pact weapon and get bonus action attacks and easier reaction attacks which can then be enhanced by your grave touched damage boost.
• Ritual caster – Can really expand your spell repertoire for some utility spells, plus they don’t require spell slots when cast as rituals.
• Resilient – Grab constitution proficiency to help with concentration saving throws.
• 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.
• War caster – 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.
• Zhentarim tactics – Another way to gain more common opportunity attacks. This can work well for a blade build, allowing you to benefit from the extra damage from grave touched more often.

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.

You could go for a blade build if you take pact of the blade. Two weapon fighting won’t be optimal, nor will ranged weaponry (including thrown weapons). Your best option will be a two handed weapon for maximum damage, or taking lightly armored for shield proficiency and grabbing a single handed weapon.

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.

I’d consider the following as some of the higher priority eldritch invocations for an undead warlock:

• 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 – If you’re using concentration spells a lot, especially in close combat, it might be easy to lose your concentration. You’ll want this to stop yourself wasting spells.
• Eldritch smite – Strong option for weapon-wielding warlocks with extra damage and causing prone.
• 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

Other class guides

Not sure an undead patron warlock is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other D&D 2024 class and subclass guides.