A Comprehensive Guide for Every Warlock Spell in DnD 5e

Channel Your Eldritch Power

Warlocks in 5e draw their power from their Charisma ability for spellcasting, and they have a unique feature called the Pact Magic, which grants them a limited number of spell slots that refresh on a short rest. Unlike wizards, warlocks don’t have a vast array of spells to choose from. Instead, they rely on a smaller set of spells known but can cast them at higher levels more frequently.

As befits their class theme, the warlock’s spell list is infused with eldritch energies and often features spells that manipulate shadows, summon otherworldly beings, and curse their enemies. While the warlock’s spell selection offers potent offensive and control options, it may lack the versatility found in other spellcasters’ lists.

Warlock Spells Tips

Here are some quick tips to help you choose the most effective spells for your warlock:

What are the must-have spells on the warlock spell list?

Warlocks have access to the best cantrip in the game, Eldritch Blast, which does 1d10 like Firebolt but does force damage instead of fire. It also can be empowered by invocations to deal extra damage, push back foes, and hit targets from further away.

Key 1st-level spells for warlocks include Hex, Armor of Agathys, and Charm Person, providing a mix of damage, control, and utility. As you gain access to 2nd-level spells, consider spells like Darkness, Hold Person, Invisibility, Mirror Image, and Misty Step for their versatility and combat effectiveness. When delving into 3rd-level spells, options like Fly, Hunger of Hadar, and Hypnotic Pattern become invaluable tools for a warlock’s arsenal.

How does pact magic work?

Warlocks possess a unique form of spellcasting known as Pact Magic, which combines arcane research and the mystical powers bestowed upon them by their patrons. Instead of a traditional spellcasting system, warlocks utilize a fixed number of spell slots that are all of the same level. These spell slots are restored after a short or long rest. Warlocks also begin their journey with knowledge of two cantrips from the warlock spell list, which expands as they gain levels.

What is this guide?

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the best spells for the 5e warlock. For the full overview of the warlock class, check out our warlock class guide.

To allow you to scan through the options quickly, we use the following color rating scheme:

• Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
• Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
• Green is a good option
• Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
• Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

Warlock Spells in D&D 5e

Cantrip

• Blade Ward: The only time this is worth it is if you know for a fact you're going to be taking bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing from a weapon in the next turn which isn't a common occurrence. Otherwise, if you find yourself in a tricky situation and need to mitigate damage for a turn, take the Dodge action.
• Chill Touch: With eldritch blast at your disposal you don’t need any other damage-dealing cantrips.
• Create Bonfire: Good damage and battlefield control.
• Eldritch Blast: Eldritch blast is easily the best damage cantrip in the game and is your bread and butter as a warlock. The range is amazing, it has a d10 damage dice, it does force damage, works really well with hex, can target multiple targets at higher levels, can critical hit, and it scales like any other cantrip. Make sure to pick up the Agonizing Blast invocation which will allow you to add your CHA modifier to the damage.
• Friends: Give yourself advantage on CHA checks, but after a minute the target will become hostile. This certainly has its uses, like interrogation or doing a very quick deal with a shopkeeper. Otherwise, the cons outweigh the pros.
• Frostbite: Frostbite has a very interesting secondary effect (giving disadvantage on target’s next attack). The problem is that it requires a CON save which many monsters are very good at.
• Green-Flame Blade: Good option for martial spellcasters as long as the enemy their attacking has allies nearby. Scales relatively well with levels, but depending on the amount of extra attacks you get this may or may not be worth it. Definitely a good option for builds that have picked up War Caster.
• Mage Hand: Mage hand provides a lot of utility for a caster, allowing them to extend the range they can grab or interact with objects, with little combat benefit.
• Magic Stone: If you have an spellcasting modifier of at least +3, this is a better option to use than fire bolt from 1st-4th levels because of the higher average damage. Once you hit 5th level, change this out for fire bolt if you can.
• Mind Sliver: This spell isn't quite the damage output you're looking for when compared to eldritch blast. That said, it can help debuff enemies for a big spell cast by an ally or on your next turn.
• Minor Illusion: If used creatively, this cantrip can be the most flexible tool in a spellcaster arsenal.
• Poison Spray: Bad range, a common save to avoid all damage, and a commonly resisted damage type. Pass.
• Prestidigitation: Extremely versatile, even if the effects are small this cantrip can do a lot.
• Sword Burst: Good AoE damage if you get surrounded.
• Thunderclap: Good AoE damage but targets a common save and can’t be used while stealthing.
• Toll the Dead: Good damage, rarely resisted damage type, and solid range. Obviously, it's best to use on an enemy that has already been damaged.
• True Strike: Wasting a whole turn just to gain advantage on a single creature the next turn is not what you want to be doing.

1st level

• Armor of Agathys: Great self-buff that can provide some temporary HP and does damage if you get hit. If you’re a Pact of the Blade Warlock you definitely want this. Scales with your level.
• Arms of Hadar: Decent AoE with a short-range that will allow you to escape a group of enemies if they fail their save. This is a spell you don’t want to have to use.
• Cause Fear: Frightened is a decent condition and it scales with levels. Keep in mind that creatures have to be within 30ft of one another when you upcast.
• Charm Person: One of the better options for dealing with NPCs outside of combat. Good for quick interactions, but the biggest caveat to this spell is the target knows it was charmed by you once the effect ends.
• Comprehend Languages: Been able to read and understand any language will have its uses at some point. Is it worth it to keep the spell stocked for your whole campaign? Probably not. Is it worth it to stock when you're heading into ancient ruins? Probably.
• Expeditious Retreat: This spell could come in handy for characters that value high movement and may have no real use for their bonus action, like a Bladesinger.
• Hellish Rebuke: Awesome use for your reaction. Scales with levels.
• Hex: Deal an extra 1d6 of necrotic damage when you hit a creature with an attack. This is the spell of choice for casters that will be making spell attacks more often than not, like the warlock with their eldritch blast. Similar to hunter's mark in effect but it does necrotic instead of additional weapon damage and can be used on any type of attack, not just weapon attacks. The main downside of hex over hunter's mark is that it requires VSM components, which can be difficult to manage if you have your hands full and don't have the War Caster feat.
• Illusory Script: Much more of a DM, story-based spell than a player-focused one. Pick it up if you need to write a secret message that you can't relay telepathically using message or sending.
• Protection from Evil and Good: You love to see this spell in any party, the buffs this can provide are extremely useful in any combat scenario. The creature types this affects are very common so this spell will likely be useful in your campaign.
• Unseen Servant: Not really much more effective than a mage hand at the end of the day.
• Witch Bolt: Underwhelming damage, requires your action and concentration, and can be thwarted by simply stepping out of range.

2nd level

• Borrowed Knowledge: If your party is lacking a critically important skill, getting time limited proficiency can come in handy.
• Cloud of Daggers: If you can get this into a chokepoint you can do amazing damage.
• Crown of Madness: This spell has a lot of crippling limitations because of its powerful effect at such a low level.
• Darkness: Darkness + the Devil's Sight invocation is a nasty combo. Keep in mind, your party won't be able to see in the magical darkness.
• Earthbind: If you need to lock down a flying creature and don’t have a way of making it fall prone this is a good option. Useful in very narrow circumstances.
• Enthrall: This is not a good spell.
• Hold Person: This can be encounter-breaking against humanoids. Scales well with levels.
• Invisibility: Certainly a good spell but blowing a higher-level spell slot on situations where you don’t need to make more than one thing invisible isn’t great.
• Mind Spike: The damage isn't great, but it allows you to track an enemy. Can be helpful if you're up against invisible or retreating enemies, but you have to be able to see the creature before you can target them with the spell.
• Mirror Image: Good self-buff but doesn’t scale with levels.
• Misty Step: Good option to get out of tough situations, if you’re looking for a late pickup this could be a good choice. Doesn’t scale with levels.
• Ray of Enfeeblement: Concentration, 1 minute duration, only affects STR weapon attacks, and CON saves for the enemy to escape. Most STR-based enemies you target with this spell will have great CON saves, which makes this a very clunky spell.
• Shadow Blade: Typical warlocks don’t want any part of melee combat and this doesn’t work with Hexblade builds because the Hex Warrior trait so you won’t be able to attack with CHA.
• Shatter: Decent AoE that can be super effective against specific creatures. Also good for destroying inanimate objects.
• Spider Climb: A useful movement option if you want to get away from a combatant or sneak into a hostile area. Seeing as your hands are free, you're still able to attack and cast spells while climbing. Will also allow you to live out your Spider-Man fantasy.
• Suggestion: Never underestimate the power of suggesting a course of action to an NPC. Yes, Mr. Scary Guard, why don’t you give us the keys to your king’s treasure vault?

3rd level

• Counterspell: You don’t necessarily want your warlock to be blowing spell slots on counterspell because you can't control which level you're going to cast it at. But if nobody else has it you, need to take it.
• Dispel Magic: You don’t necessarily want your warlock to be blowing spell slots on dispel magic because you can't control which level you're going to cast it at. But if nobody else has it you, need to take it.
• Enemies Abound: Enemies abound only works in fights with more than one enemy, if your allies are willing to ignore that enemy, and if the enemy isn’t immune to being frightened. Really only useful for causing a stir from a hidden position.
• Fear: Amazing crowd control spell. Particularly good because they don’t get to retry the save until they break line of sight.
• Fly: Extremely useful movement option. Being able to fly opens up a whole new world and can overcome many obstacles. Be cautious about the concentration component when flying to lofty heights.
• Gaseous Form: This spell can honestly vie for the top “infiltration” spell over invisibility. Being able to fly and move through tiny cracks as an inconspicuous cloud can make getting into any heavily defended fortress a cinch.
• Hunger of Hadar: Decent crowd control option, solid damage if you can keep baddies in there or cast it at a choke point. It has been confirmed by Jeremy Crawford that the Devil’s Sight invocation cannot see into the spell’s area. It doesn’t stack with spell levels which makes it less viable for a Warlock long term.
• Hypnotic Pattern: Good range, good AoE, and its effect are potent. Incapacitating multiple enemies is a fantastic tactic to passively flee from the situation or do massive damage with automatic crits. The effect can be ended by a friendly creature taking an action to wake the affected creature from its stupor, but that will eat up a lot of action economy. Either way you slice it, hypnotic pattern is one of the best crowd control spells at this level.
• Intellect Fortress: Only useful in very specific circumstances. Say, for example, when wandering into a den of Mind Flayers.
• Magic Circle: While celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead are quite common, this spell provides a very lackluster effect against them. As the creatures can still attack inside the cylinder and can still teleport out using a CHA save, it's not very effective at containing, nor protecting from, these creatures.
• Major Image: Much like silent image, major image is really only limited by your imagination. A 20ft cube is quite the space to play around in and fit just about any creature (within reason).
• Remove Curse: Cursed items can be absolutely brutal. This is an excellent way to make sure your party member isn't possessed by a demon after the put on a locket they found in a haunted house.
• Spirit Shroud: Most warlocks don’t want to be within 10ft for their enemies. This is decent for Hexblade builds but the damage doesn’t outpace hex by that much and can’t be used at range. This will be an underwhelming use of a 3rd level spell slot and concentration.
• Summon Fey: Easily one of the best Summon options from TCoE. Teleportation every round accompanied with advantage on at least one attack per round and decent damage. This one is actually worth upcasting in certain circumstances.
• Summon Shadowspawn: The Shadowspawn gets a 1/day ability that is pretty much the same as the Fear spell. This means that if you’re going to use that spell, this nets an extra body that gets advantage on attacks against Frightened creatures out of the deal.
• Summon Undead: Doesn’t put out as much damage as the summon fey options but is more versatile in combat. The Putrid form is effective for hoards, the Skeletal form is a good ranged option, and the Ghastly option is good for infiltration.
• Summon Undead: This is a solid spell because you don't need a corpse already available to bring an ally into a battle. It is also significantly more powerful than a single zombie or skeleton. Unfortunately, it only lasts for 1 hour, so you can't create an army of the dead with it, like you can with animate dead.
• Thunder Step: Great spell in case you are surrounded and need to retreat. You get to damage the enemies and carry a friend with you.
• Tongues: Most of the time, it will be tough to justify a 3rd-level spell for the effect this produces. Of course, understanding a creature and allowing it to understand you could have the potential to stop a terrible situation unfolding. This is a spell that would be worthwhile to prepare for specific situations, but is too niche to consider stocking all the time.
• Vampiric Touch: Gives you a 3d6 melee weapon with life drain as long as you can concentrate but those concentration checks are going to kill you. You essentially need War Caster to make this worth it.

4th level

• Banishment: Get rid of creatures from another plane, or take out a big threat for most of the combat. One of the better save or suck spells out there. Keep in mind that, unless the creature is natively from another plane, they will return after the spell ends.
• Blight: 4th-level single-target spell that targets a common save. It barely out damages 4th-level fireball and flat-out doesn’t work on some common creature types. SKIP.
• Charm Monster: Charm person, just for any creature. Great for avoiding fights with potentially hostile monsters.
• Dimension Door: Teleport, with a friend, over a much longer distance than misty step. Unfortunately, it’s two spell slots higher than misty step and a full action to cast. Still, this spell can save your bacon is a tight circumstance.
• Elemental Bane: If you need to remove a resistance to a certain damage type, get the Elemental Adept feat so you don’t have to waste a turn and 4th-level spell whenever you run into a creature that has a resistance to your damage type.
• Hallucinatory Terrain: This is more of a DM-spell than a player-focused on. Particularly creative players will be able to find a use, but most of the time this is unnecessary.
• Shadow of Moil: Give your assailants disadvantage, get resistance to radiant damage, and damage any creature that manages to land an attack. This is a niche choice for regular casts but very good for Hexblades. Keep in mind that it doesn’t spell doesn’t scale with level.
• Sickening Radiance: Giving creatures levels of exhaustion seems good on paper but you need at least two failures for this spell to really kick in. Radiance damage is great for getting around a resistance but this spell also targets CON (common save for monsters) and requires concentration.
• Summon Aberration: Great summon option with a good amount of versatility. The Beholderkin provides flight and ranged attacks, Slaad can tank and has decent melee damage, and Star Spawn provides psychic damage and AoE.
• Summon Greater Demon: The notion that you can lose control of the demon makes this spell a massive gamble.

5th level

• Contact Other Plane: This powerful effect is tarnished by the huge downside associated with failing the save. Seeing as no WIS-based casters can access to this spell, even a DC 15 save is a gamble to pass. Unless you have a cleric standing by with a greater restoration this spell is too risky to cast.
• Danse Macabre: Situationally useful because you need five Small or Medium corpses. If you already carry them around with you, this is great for action economy.
• Dream: While it may not look like much, dream is an insanely powerful spell. First of all, it can target a creature no matter how far away they are, as long as you know the creature and the creature has to sleep. Second, you're able to stay in that creature's dream for up to 8 hours, which can allow a ton of time to communicate with the creature for long periods without being attacked. Last, and most importantly, you can negate the effects of a long rest AND do damage. This might not be an issue for a high level enemy with legendary resistances, but can definitely cause issues for less powerful foes. This spell is definitely a slow burn type of spell but can have massive ramifications in the long run.
• Enervation: What happens when you cross witch bolt with vampiric touch and make them actually good? The increased range is a huge upgrade and being able to damage creatures while healing yourself is twice the value.
• Far Step: Typically a single misty step will work best for spellcasters who won’t be using this ability on each turn to teleport around the battlefield, using their movement to close in and attack creatures teleporting out of danger.
• Hold Monster: Spell that can take a creature out of the fight. Allows for a save after each turn which makes it worse than banishment for consistently keeping a monster out of the fight, but the monster can be attacked with advantage which will make quick work of it after it fails a save or two.
• Negative Energy Flood: Nothing can turn the tide on a battle more than turning the enemy’s lackies into your own. If you’re battling a horde of weaker creatures, this is an amazing spell. Otherwise, the damage isn't great and it only targets on creature.
• Scrying: Useful but niche.
• Synaptic Static: Fireball damage and a debuff rolled into one. Be careful using it on beasts as they are likely to have an INT 2 or less.
• Wall of Light: Radiant is a great damage type, but 4d8 on a 5th level spell isn’t amazing. The Blinded condition is nice, but is only activated when the spell first appears and doesn’t discriminate between friend and foe. The lasers that you can shoot each following turn use your action, shrink the wall, and provide some solid turn-over-turn damage.

6th level

• Arcane Gate: Allows you to open a portal between two locations that you can see. Fairly similar effect to dimension door except as many creatures as you like can move through the portal in a 10 minute time span. Useful for getting more than one companion out of dodge, but it's quite a high spell slot for the effect.
• Circle of Death: Fireball type effect, but has a much wider radius. Necrotic damage, isn't enough to make this 6th level spell worth it, especially because it targets a CON save.
• Conjure Fey: There are some nasty fey creatures out there that you could summon with this spell. Unfortunately,  the risk that you'd lose control over that creature makes this spell too much of a gamble in most circumstances.
• Create Undead: You can create stronger undead than with animate dead but main downside is the higher spell slot required. Create undead isn't usually worth it when creating a troop of undead servants to follow you around, because it will require too many spell slots to maintain.
• Eyebite: Clunky spell with powerful effects. Essentially, as long as you maintain concentration, you can use your action to imbue a powerful debuff. Unfortunately, casting something like fear or hypnotic pattern will likely allow you to impose conditions on more enemies, for less action economy, for a lower spell slot.
• Flesh to Stone: This is a relatively low-level way to permanently take a baddie out of the fight. Can be especially useful if the villains of your campaign have a way to bring their minions back from the dead. Of course, the target needs to fail four CON saves to be petrified but that could be feasible if you have some way to make them roll their checks with disadvantage. All in all, this is a moderately effective debuff that has a lot of potential for upsides.
• Investiture of Flame: Damage immunities and resistances are fine but the passive effect has terrible range and the AoE effect is mediocre damage. The biggest issue here is that, if you are using the fire immunity it’s very likely that your enemies are immune to fire damage. Also, requires concentration so you can cast the spell, and lose it before you’re able to use the AoE feature.
• Investiture of Ice: Damage immunities and resistances are fine but the passive effect has terrible range and is even less effective than the IoF and the AoE effect is mediocre damage. The biggest issue here is that, if you are using the ice immunity it’s very likely that your enemies are immune to ice damage. Also, requires concentration so you can cast the spell, and lose it before you’re able to use the AoE feature.
• Investiture of Stone: The resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing are pretty useless in Tier 3 because most creatures will have magical weapons. The passive effect allows you to move through the earth but ejects you if you end your turn there so you can’t travel far distances. The action effect is terrible, it doesn’t even do damage. Also, requires concentration so you can cast the spell, and lose it before you’re able to use any features.
• Investiture of Wind: One of the better Investitures, but it’s really only effective as a defensive buff. The flight is a great movement buff, and ranged attacks have disadvantage. The action can’t even compete with cantrip damage at this point.
• Mass Suggestion: Amazing charm effect. No saving throws, target up to twelve creatures, and a duration of 24 hours.
• Mental Prison: There are plenty of ways to take single creatures out of the fight, but this provides a way to do some damage while also locking down a creature. Nothing crazy for a 6th-level spell but it’s decent.
• Scatter: It has uses, but none that are particularly worth a 6th-level spell.
• Soul Cage: As you can only cast this 6th-level spell slot once per long rest, this burns your 6th-level slot but lasts for the entire day. The best option here is definitely healing 2d8 as a bonus action 6 times, but the other options can be useful (depending on whose soul you suck up).
• Summon Fiend: Unfortunately, you can’t cast darkness in conjunction with summon fiend in order to take advantage of the Devil’s ability to see in magical darkness. Otherwise, the Fiend’s magical resistance helps make this an especially tanky summon.
• Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise: Bonus action to gain +2 to AC, damage immunities, and flight make this a solid defensive spell. Even though the spell grants the ability to make attacks with spellcasting modifier and allows you to attack twice, you will rarely use these features as a unless your a martial spellcaster.
• True Seeing: Gain the abilities of truesight, spotting secret doors, and seeing into the ethereal plane, all without concentration. This will be effective at some point but a 6th level spell is steep.

7th level

• Crown of Stars: Great bonus action damage, long duration, no concentration. Up and down a great spell.
• Dream of the Blue Veil: This spell has more campaign-derailing, shenanigan potential than just about any other spell short of wish. Do your DM a favor and let them know your plans before casting this spell. Because this is more of a plot-based spell, it will not receive a rating.
• Etherealness: This spell allows you to fly or move through solid objects, while not being affected or able to affect creatures not on the Ethereal Plane. You can only target yourself but there is no concentration. Pretty middle of the road all around.
• Finger of Death: It’s a CON save, but they still take half damage on a success. If you want some huge single target damage, it’s not a bad pick.
• Forcecage: No save and no way to get out once you get put in. This spell is a great way to contain a scary melee creature.
• Plane Shift: Good utility to run away from a fight that has turned south, or force a CHA save to avoid getting banished.
• Power Word Pain: As long as the target has less than 100hp, they don't get to make a save to resist the effect. This makes it a decent choice when targeting a creature with Legendary Resistance. The debuff is quite potent, it provides disadvantage on attacks, ability checks, and saving throws, and casting spells becomes more difficult. Unfortunately, the effect can be ended with a successful CON saving throw so there's a good chance the effect only lasts one round. For a 7th-level spell, this is rarely worth it.

8th level

• Abi-Dalzim’s Horrid Wilting: Essentially just an upcast fireball. Don’t bother unless you fight a lot of plants.
• Demiplane: Good utility spell, if you have a strong buddy or good charm spells you can create your own demi-prison system.
• Dominate Monster: Extremely good option to help swing the tides of battle in your favor. If you manage to dominate one of your enemies, you're 2-for-1ing the opponent by adding an ally to your side while subtracting an enemy from your enemy's side.
• Feeblemind: Encounter ending debuff if you hit a spellcaster with it. Usually, spellcasters at this level will have a very strong INT save or Legendary Resistance.
• Glibness: A seemingly small effect for such a high-level spell, although it can be useful in niche circumstances.
• Maddening Darkness: Huge radius, good damage, and can be combined with the Devil’s Sight invocation. The biggest issue here is that your party members won’t be able to see anything happening in the radius.
• Power Word Stun: You can auto-stun a creature that has less than 150hp, but they get to make a save at the end of each of their turns.

9th level

• Astral Projection: Niche and you will probably have some other reason for getting to the Astral Plane if you need to be there.
• Blade of Disaster: This is a solid, bonus action, multiturn damage spell that can pay off big time with a couple of crits.
• Foresight: Insane buff and it’s not concentration.
• Imprisonment: There are other ways to permanently dispose of those big baddies.
• Power Word Kill: Very mechanically interesting spell. Essentially, you can auto-kill a creature if they have less than 100hp. Now, as a player, we do not know how much HP a monster has, but an Investigation or Insight check might allow some clues as to whether or not they’re close. Still, Meteor Swarm can do, on average, 140 damage (70 on a save), and can hit multiple creatures so this might not be that worth it.
• Psychic Scream: Great damage, targets an uncommon save (INT), stuns on a failed save, and explodes your targets head if they die from the damage.
• True Polymorph: This can be a crazy buff, or an extremely effective way to permanently get rid of a creature. For the buff portion, you can turn a creature into another creature whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's. If the creature you're transforming is a player character, the CR matches the character's level. Seeing as challenge rating is meant to match a party of four to five players of that level, you can get a huge power boost by turning into a creature that has a CR equal to your level. For example, a 20th-level character can be turned into an ancient dragon, which would typically take a party of 20th-level adventurers to defeat. On the other hand, if you target an enemy and manage to concentrate successfully for an hour, the effect can be permanent. Therefore you could turn the big bad into a rock or something. Forever.