Baldur's Gate 3 offers players an array of different classes to choose from, each offering unique abilities and skills to aid them during combat and when exploring the world. The Warlock Class is a particularly unusual arcane caster that receives its power from a powerful and mysterious patron via a pact.

Baldur's Gate 3 allows players to further customize their character via a subclass, selected either at character creation, at level 2 or at level 3, depending on the class. Warlocks choose their subclass during character creation since their subclass indicates what kind of being they made a pact with in exchange for their power. Be it a Fiend, Archfey, or Great Old One, their powers are sourced from dangerous creatures with ulterior motives.

Updated on August 7, 2023, by Thomas Hawkins: Now that the full release of BG3 is available, information on Subclasses as they reach the levels above five has become available. Most notably, the Archfey Pact is now an option for player-created Warlocks, offering a different playstyle and set of skills to the two Pacts playable during Early Access. This guide has been adjusted accordingly to provide information on subclass abilities all the way to the level cap.

Updated on February 20th, 2024, by Thomas Hawkins: Now that Baldur's Gate 3 has been out for a while and players have plumbed its depths in search of magic items, a ton of useful items that benefit the Warlock class have been uncovered. Additionally, multiclassing synergies have been found that can further strengthen any Warlock or offer unique capabilities otherwise unavailable. This guide has been adjusted to include information on items and multiclassing options that could be useful.

RELATED: All Baldur's Gate 3 Barbarian Subclasses, Ranked

The Fiend

Fiend Warlocks made a pact with an entity known for corrupting and destroying and often served those ends through their actions, intentionally or otherwise. Fiend Warlocks immediately receive the power "Dark One's Blessing," which allows them to receive HP equal to their Charisma modifier plus their level whenever they reduce a foe to 0 HP. This helps keep the Fiend's health topped off and allows them greater survivability.

They also gain access to the additional Spell options "Burning Hands" and "Command (Halt)" at level 1, which are unavailable to other Warlocks. This allows them to start fires and freeze foes in their tracks. At level three, they gain access to "Scorching Ray" and "Blindness," too, providing them with further offensive and debuffing capabilities. At level five, they gain "Fireball" and "Stinking Cloud" spells, allowing them to create a debilitating cloud of gas and use one of D&D's most famous damaging spells.

At level six, Fiend Warlocks gain the ability "Dark One's Own Luck," allowing them to add 1d10 to an ability check once per short rest.

At level seven, they add "Fire Shield" and "Wall of Fire" to their list of possible spells, giving them additional defensive options and the ability to create hazardous obstacles for their foes. At level nine, "Cone of Cold" and "Flame Strike" become available, giving them powerful cold and radiant damage options.

At level 10, the Fiend Warlock gains "Fiendish Resilience," allowing them to choose a damage type to become resistant to. They can change this damage type once per short rest for even more versatility.

The Great Old One

Great Old One Warlocks (sometimes called "Goolocks" by D&D players) make their pact with eldritch beings in the Far Realms whose goals are inscrutable and alien. At level one, a Goolock gains the power "Mortal Reminder," which causes them to frighten the target and all nearby enemies for a turn when they land a critical hit. This can be great for weakening enemy groups, though since it triggers only on critical hits, it can't be relied upon.

Goolocks also get the spell options "Dissonant Whispers" and "Tasha's Hideous Laughter" at level 1. The former allows them to inflict psychic damage and frighten a foe, while the latter can leave a foe helplessly laughing on the ground for up to ten rounds. They gain the spells "Detect Thoughts" and "Phantasmal Force" at level three,allowing them to read minds without relying on the Mindflayer Tadpole and inflict psychic damage whose damage type changes to match the last attack that hit the target and occurs every turn for ten turns. At level five, they can get "Bestow Curse" and "Slow," which offer them a huge range of debuff options for dealing with strong foes.

At level six, a Goolock gains the ability "Entropic Ward," allowing them to impose a disadvantage on an incoming attack as a reaction. Should that attack miss, they then gain an advantage on their next attack against the failed attacker. This can be used once per short rest.

Level seven offers "Dominate Beast" and "Evard's Black Tentacles," allowing them to turn animal enemies to their side and brutally restrain their foes with conjured tendrils. At Level nine, they can get "Dominate Person" and "Telekinesis," letting them manipulate humanoids and throw people and objects around freely.

At level ten, Goolocks will get "Thought Shield: Psychic Resistance" and "Thought Shield: Psychic Reflection," granting them resistance to psychic damage and automatically dealing psychic damage equal to any psychic damage they do take to their attacker.

The Archfey

The Archfey Warlock makes their pact with a powerful Fey and draws on the capricious and whimsical powers of the Feywild. At level one, they gain the power "Fey Presence," which allows them to frighten or charm all creatures in a 3m range as an action, assuming they fail a Wisdom Saving Throw.

At level one, they also have the additional spell options "Faerie Fire" and "Sleep," allowing them to outline targets to grant advantage or just put their enemies to sleep. At level three, they can also choose "Phantasmal Force" and "Calm Emotions," letting them deal repeating psychic damage that will shift damage type to match the last attack that hit the target and allow them to immunize themselves and their allies from being charmed or frightened. Level five adds the options of "Plant Growth" and "Blink," letting them create difficult terrain and flicker out of reality after their turn to evade attacks (sometimes Fey Magic is fickle.)

At level six, they gain Misty Escape, letting them turn invisible after taking damage once per short rest. Once invisible they can choose to cast Misty Step on their next turn, though doing so breaks the invisibility effect.

Level 7 allows access to "Dominate Beast" and "Greater Invisibility," enabling them to turn animals to their side and render a target invisible for ten rounds whether they attack or not. Level 9 grants them access to "Dominate Person" and "Seeming," letting them manipulate humanoids and disguise all four party members simultaneously. Finally, at level 10, an Archfey Warlock gains "Beguiling Defenses", becoming immune to charm.

Equipment & Multiclassing

This section will discuss some generally good equipment that works for any warlock subclass. An important item to mention is the Potent Robe, obtained in Act 2 by speaking with Alfina, but only if you aided the Tieflings during act 1. This robe adds your Charisma to the damage of all Cantrips and stacks with the effects of the Agonizing Blast invocation, allowing the Warlock to add double their Charisma to their Eldritch Blasts. Players focusing on spells should also grab the Daredevil Gloves at the Githyanki Creche during Act 1, allowing them to use all their ranged spells as melee attacks to avoid the penalty for using ranged attacks in melee. Players wanting to stack up their Charisma even higher should look into Duke Ravengard's Longsword, which also grants +2 Charisma and is an excellent weapon for Warlocks using Pact of the Blade.

To help with their spellcasting, players should also grab the Protecty Sparkswall clothes during Act 1 at Grymforge, which provides +1 to Spell Save DC and boosts their defense while they have lightning charges. For similar reasons, players should consider grabbing the Birthright Helmet and Quickspell Gloves during Act 3, which grant +2 to Charisma and the ability to cast spells as a bonus action (once per short rest) respectively.

Where multiclassing is concerned, Warlock pairs excellently with the other Charisma Caster classes: Paladin, Bard, and Sorcerer. A Paladin with Pact of the Blade can dump their strength stat entirely and focus on Charisma, gaining better spellcasting with no loss in their melee combat capabilities, while also using the Warlock's spell slots (which recharge on a short rest) to dish out Divine Smites more often. Access to Metamagic from the Sorcerer can allow some incredibly busted combos through the use of quickened spell and distant spell, including the ability to rapid-fire 6 eldritch blasts in a single turn at level 10. Bards with the College of Swords subclass can make excellent use of the Pact of the Blade to reduce the number of attributes they need to worry about, while also gaining access to a much wider range of damage and support spells from the Bard spell list and Magical Secrets.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available now for PC, Mac, and PS5.