Warlock changes in the revised D&D 5e 2024 Player’s Handbook

Everything you need to know about the new warlock for D&D 5e 2024 including rules and tactics

If you want to see the original reveal, you can check out the video below:

Why are we getting changes to the warlock?

Warlocks are a fun and unique class with some great flavour and unique social options with their patrons and adhering to their will. However, they have tended to struggle when it comes to versatility. They’re often overly reliant on eldritch blast, have too few spell options and can struggle to compete with full spellcasters in games with few short rests.

The other big issue has been around translating that flavour into their mechanics. Warlocks are supposed to be spooky Spellcasters, but tend to fall short in this regard. This is especially the case for certain subclasses, particularly the archfey and the great old one who lack mechanics that truly show their whimsy or their creepy eldritch horror.

To address this, below are the main things the revised warlock adapts:

• Eldritch invocation can be applied to a range of cantrips now
• Bigger spell lists
• You can get multiple pact boons starting at earlier levels
• Subclasses (especially the archfey the great old one) have been updated for better flavour and abilities

Below I’ve unpicked exactly what these changes are and how they work.

What changes have been made to the 2024 warlock?

The main things here are about giving greater flexibility to how you build your warlock. In fact, warlocks could well be the most varied and modular class in the 2024 PHB. Ultimately, what we get is a super flexible spellcasting class that can be built into a varied range of functions.

Eldritch invocations – lv1

We got our first reveal in the warlock video that all classes will get their subclass at level 3 (warlocks used to get theirs at level 1). This may be a balancing change, perhaps for multiclassing purposes, but that’s something for another article.

To fill the space, eldritch invocations have been shifted to be a level 1 feature. They’ve also been given broader scope, allowing you to use them on many different cantrips, not just eldritch blast. This gives you a lot more choice when it comes to what spells you want to stack with your cantrips and invocations.

We’ve also been told that we’ll get more eldritch invocations, though what those will be is yet to be revealed. Many invocations have also been improved, and, where they came in at too high a level, those level prerequisites have been lowered. In contrast, because eldritch invocations are now a 1st level feature, some level restrictions have also been increased to maintain the balance of the levels.

Finally, your pact boons are now eldritch invocations. You get more invocations and you get them from 1st level meaning you can grab what was a pact boon at 1st level. You can also, potentially, grab all the pact boons (instead of just the one as was the case int he 2014 edition) as you get multiple eldritch invocations as you level up.

Many of the pact boons options have been enhanced too so pact of the chain has more familiars to choose from and they tend to be more creepy (like a skeletal hand). These all get stat blocks in the PHB. You’ll also get to enhance your pact boons with further invocations allowing things like pact of the blade to grant extra attacks or heal on a hit for instance.

This seems to be where a lot of the customisation of the warlock fits in. Become a martial warrior with enhanced pact of the blade, become a more powerful Spellcaster with pact of the tome or specialise in other ways with other invocations.

Medium armor proficiency – lv1

A simple but useful change allowing warlocks to be proficient in medium armor and save them having to over invest in dexterity to be viable in close combat. The 2014 warlock was only proficient in light armor.

Magical cunning – lv2

A new feature that allows you to regain half your spell slots by performing a 1 minute ritual. It’s not a big deal as that’s just 1 recovered spell slot at levels 1-10. It also won’t help you in combat and many times, you can do a short rest if you’re stopping anyway to have a more substantial recovery. Still, it’s some support for keeping your spell slots from being depleted in smaller moments of respite.

Lessons of the first one

Warlocks get an option here to pick another origin feat instead of an eldritch invocation. This is yet another way to stylise your warlock into whatever role you want. You could pick tough to become a more resilient warrior or warcaster to be a more competent Spellcaster and so on.

Contact patron – lv9

Previously, there’s been no mechanical way to contact your patron. Contact patron resolves this giving you a method for speaking to your patron when required. We have no details so far on exactly how this will function but it seems most patrons aren’t interested in you pestering them until you hit level 9.

Mystic arcanum – lv11

This appears to function the same as it currently does. However, we’ve been told that warlocks get an expanded spell list which may come through their spells known and subclass spells, but may also come into play here. Don’t expect as many spells as a sorcerer or wizard though.

Part of the design balance with the warlock is ensuring that warlocks don’t become too reliant on their spellcasting so they still use their invocations, while also making sure that the spells they have available don’t interact with invocations in unintended and wild ways.

Epic boon – lv19

Like all classes at lv19, you get an epic boon (kind of like a super feat). This will allow you to increase an ability score (even beyond the normal maximum of 20, allowing you to potentially go up to 30 in an ability score). You’ll also get an ability alongside that feat too.

To make things juicer, when you gain levels beyond lv20, you’ll get an epic boon each time making you even gnarlier (there are 12, presumably 1 geared towards each of the 12 classes, though any class can take any epic boon)!

Warlock 2024 subclasses

Like for the 2014 warlock, you get to choose a subclass known as an otherworldly patron, though now you don’t get your subclass until level 3 rather than the previous level 1. This is a change occurring for all classes. You get 4 options in the 2024 PHB (The previous PHB has 3 so a slight upgrade) and all 3 of the options from the 2014 book are available in updated form here (Archfey, fiend and great old one). We also get access to an updated version of the celestial from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.

Every single warlock subclass will benefit from an expanded spell list. As mentioned previously, this won’t bring them in line with other full casters, but will help give some much needed versatility to the class. These subclass specific spells are all known to the warlock now rather than just being additional options they can select from.

Below I’ve outlined everything that’s changing in the new subclasses:

Archfey

It was felt that the archfey lacked a lot of the flavour in mechanics even if the flavour of a fey patron was quite appealing. Many fey mechanics revolve around teleportation – disappearing and reappearing in different places – so the mechanics lean heavily into this.

Archfey warlocks will now get a lot of teleportation features that will also grant additional abilities as you teleport (known as steps of the fey). These abilities can be stacked too. You might for instance, teleport and gain temporary hit points, but then might also teleport and taunt causing disadvantage on attacks made against anyone but you. This might seem bad for a class that isn’t that tanky, but other features of the archfey will let you cause psychic damage when hit causing problems for your enemies. You also get features that can make you invisible making things really infuriating for a taunted enemy.

A lv14 feature called bewitching magic will allow you to teleport for free whenever you cast an enchantment or illusion spell. This may encourage leaning heavily into these types of spells.

Celestial

The celestial warlock doesn’t get a huge number of changes, but they have tried to lean harder into the idea of the helpful warlock. This is manifest most in the expanded spell list with spells like cure wounds and aid available as well as other clericy spells like guiding bolt. On top of this, searing vengeance can now apply to yourself or an ally.

The biggest new spell available is summon celestial. In fact, summon spells have had a big revamp and are more widely available through subclass spell lists.

Fiend

Like the celestial, much of the fiend subclass remains similar to the 2014 version. There are still some improvements here though. In some instances, abilities now have more uses like with dark one’s luck. In fact, this ability now works whenever an ally near you kills an enemy, not just when you kill someone, making positioning amd teamwork crucial.

The resistance from fiendish resilience can no longer be bypassed by magical weapons. They’ve also taken ideas from Baldur’s Gate 3 and granted temporary hit points when you kill an enemy.

Great old one

Similar to the archfey, the great old one felt like a great concept executed poorly in the 2014 PHB. The big issue being that the mechanics lacked the flavour the class ideally needed. This is a warlock granted power from terrible eldritch beings and the 2024 version really dials up this concept with oozing and psionic abilities.

As with all the warlock subclasses, the spell list gets expanded and improved with the likes of detect thoughts, phantasmal force, hunger of Hadar, modify memory, telekinesis and summon aberration. Summon aberration sounds exciting as you can literally summon a mind flayers with this ability (though it sounds like a lower level mind flayer than the ones we’re familiar with from the 2014 monster manual). This seems to go back to the alterations being made to the monster manuals with groups of monsters of various levels rather than a singular stat block.

You get all new/completely reworked abilities like create thrall which allows you to summon creatures from beyond the stars to aid you. There’s also an ability called psychic spells which allows you to cast enchantments and illusions without verbal or somatic components (because you’re just using your psychic abilities to create these effects rather than actually casting the spell). You can also choose to transform the damage you do from a warlock spell into psychic damage which could be handy for bypassing resistances.

Awakened mind will let you connect to the minds of others. Clairvoyant combatant then enhances that ability allowing you to make that connection go bad and cause damage to the target. Eldritch hex is also more powerful giving disadvantage on saving throws against certain abilities too.

Tactics

Below are a few interesting, new ways you can approach playing as a warlock with the 2024 update:

So there you have it, all the changes to the 2024 warlock. It’ll be exciting to dig into the specifics of eldritch invocations and the pact boons to see exactly how modular you can get and how much you can specialise in a certain discipline. An interesting combination might be grabbing a level of fighter (or another martial) to gain access to weapon mastery abilities alongside a pact of the blade for example.

What do you think of the changes to the warlock? Let us know in the comments below.

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