Genie Warlock

Genie Warlock Overview

“Do not be fooled by appearances, for genies can be both powerful and cunning.”
— One Thousand and One Nights

Lovers of Middle Eastern folklore or the tales of One Thousand and One Nights will appreciate the distinct flavour of the Genie Warlock subclass. This subclass allows players to live out the classic fantasy of Aladdin and his magic lamp, by adding their own DnD twist.

Featuring four distinctive patrons to suit your playstyle, the Genie Warlock is a versatile subclass that can be built in a number of different ways. Like other Warlock subclasses, the Genie Warlock features a number of opportunities for disruption and deceit, leaning thematically towards spells that provide illusion effects in general.

Strengths

The choice between four different patrons make this subclass an incredibly versatile option, which can be a draw for many players. The Genie Warlock’s features naturally lend themselves to stealth and subterfuge through the use of its Magical Vessel, in addition to some of the spells available to Warlocks in general.

Weaknesses

When you take stock of the additional spells available to the Genie Warlock, the first thing you’ll notice is that the core spell list is pretty underwhelming. None of the patrons particularly stand out as a great upgrade, apart from the Efreeti Fire patron, who doesn’t synergize well with the subclass’ built-in strengths. While it might be flavourful, if you’re looking for a super optimised, coherent build, the Genie Warlock isn’t likely to be it…

Subclass Guide Rating Scheme

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the Genie subclass. For a full overview of the Warlock class, check out our Warlock 5e Guide.

For our class guides, 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.

Genie Spells

The core list of genie spells is thematically linked to the idea of illusion magic, but are below average in strength. Apart from Wish, which you gain access to as part of your Warlock Mystic Arcanum, none of these core spells are super appealing. This limited selection is one of the weakest features of the subclass.

• Detect Evil and Good
• Phantasmal Force
• Create Food and Water
• Phantasmal Killer
• Creation
• Wish

Dao Spells

If you choose a Dao as your patron, you can access Earth elemental abilities. These spells are average, but not great. You get some better options at later levels, but nothing spectacular. This makes the subclass the least appealing, which is unfortunate because its resistance type (through Elemental Gift) is the most useful for combat.

• Sanctuary
• Spike Growth
• Meld into Stone
• Stone Shape
• Wall of Stone

Djinni Spells

If you choose a Djinni as your patron, you can access Air elemental abilities. These spells are a mixed bag. Your first option in Thunderwave is a strong start, but then you’ll be waiting until Greater Invisibility at 4th Level for another good pick. This makes the Djinni patron another lukewarm choice, but the spells do fit the Genie Warlock’s stealth-oriented options.

• Thunderwave
• Gust of Wind
• Wind Wall
• Greater Invisibility
• Seeming

Efreeti Spells

If you choose an Efreeti (or Ifrit) as your patron, you can access Fire elemental abilities. This is the most combat-oriented spell list with powerful mid-game options like Scorching Ray and Fireball. These selections make the Efreeti patron your most tantalizing option as a Genie Warlock, but don’t necessarily synergize well with the subclass’ other strengths.

• Burning Hands
• Scorching Ray
• Fireball
• Fire Shield
• Flame Strike

Marid Spells

If you choose a Marid as your patron, you can access Frost elemental abilities. This is a thoroughly underwhelming list with nothing bad, but nothing that particularly stands out. Choose this patron if you want a control-oriented build that lets you disrupt opponents in combat.

• Fog Cloud
• Blur
• Sleet Storm
• Control Water
• Cone of Cold

Genie Warlock Subclass Features

When you pick Genie Warlock, you get access to certain core subclass features, which don’t change depending on your chosen type of elemental genie. These features play into the subclass’ ‘genie fantasy’ by allowing you to pop in and out of a magical vessel and gain select genie traits.

1st Level

Genie’s Vessel

Your patron gifts you a magical vessel that grants you a measure of the genie’s power. The vessel is a Tiny object, and you can use it as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. You decide what the object is, or you can determine what it is randomly by rolling on the Genie’s Vessel table.

While you are touching the vessel, you can use it in the following ways:

Bottled Respite. As an action, you can magically vanish and enter your vessel, which remains in the space you left. The interior of the vessel is an extradimensional space in the shape of a 20-foot-radius cylinder, 20 feet high, and resembles your vessel. The interior is appointed with cushions and low tables and is a comfortable temperature.

While inside, you can hear the area around your vessel as if you were in its space. You can remain inside the vessel up to a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus. You exit the vessel early if you use a bonus action to leave, if you die, or if the vessel is destroyed.

When you exit the vessel, you appear in the unoccupied space closest to it. Any objects left in the vessel remain there until carried out, and if the vessel is destroyed, every object stored there harmlessly appears in the unoccupied spaces closest to the vessel’s former space. Once you enter the vessel, you can’t enter again until you finish a long rest.

Genie’s Wrath. Once during each of your turns when you hit with an attack roll, you can deal extra damage to the target equal to your proficiency bonus. The type of this damage is determined by your patron: bludgeoning (dao), thunder (djinni), fire (efreeti), or cold (marid).

The vessel’s AC equals your spell save DC. Its hit points equal your warlock level plus your proficiency bonus, and it is immune to poison and psychic damage.

If the vessel is destroyed or you lose it, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a replacement from your patron. This ceremony can be performed during a short or long rest, and the previous vessel is destroyed if it still exists. The vessel vanishes in a flare of elemental power when you die.

Your basic feature as a Genie Warlock is the aptly-named Genie’s Vessel. Basically, you are given Aladdin’s famous lamp (or substitute whatever item you choose to use), which functions as a mobile demi-plane. You can use it to stash loot, hide from enemies, spy on people, etc. There possibilities are almost endless with this feature.

What’s limiting about it initially is only you can use the feature, which means it has limited effectiveness for the party. The vessel can also be destroyed, ejecting the occupant, so you also have to be sneaking when using it.

The Vessel gives you a small damage buff in combat once per turn, thematically tied to your type of Genie patron. This buff isn’t much, but it’s a nice little bonus.

When assessing power level, this feature is really what you make of it. It adds a fun flavour to your character and provides a ton of creative possibilities, but it can be pretty unimpactful if you don’t take advantage of it.

6th Level

Elemental Gift

You begin to take on characteristics of your patron’s kind. You now have resistance to a damage type determined by your patron’s kind: bludgeoning (dao), thunder (djinni), fire (efreeti), or cold (marid).

In addition, as a bonus action, you can give yourself a flying speed of 30 feet that lasts for 10 minutes, during which you can hover. You can use this bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

The ability to fly is a powerful feature to have at the 6th Level and can be incredibly useful in both combat and non-combat scenarios. The additional damage resistance is a strong passive, but not all genies are created equal in this regard. Bludgeoning is probably the best resistance to pick up here, followed by Fire, so you will want to think about this when choosing your patron.

10th Level

Sanctuary Vessel

When you enter your Genie’s Vessel via the Bottled Respite feature, you can now choose up to five willing creatures that you can see within 30 feet of you, and the chosen creatures are drawn into the vessel with you.

As a bonus action, you can eject any number of creatures from the vessel, and everyone is ejected if you leave or die or if the vessel is destroyed. In addition, anyone (including you) who remains within the vessel for at least 10 minutes gains the benefit of finishing a short rest, and anyone can add your proficiency bonus to the number of hit points they regain if they spend any Hit Dice as part of a short rest there.

Extending the benefits of the Vessel to your entire party (and potential allies) really opens up the possibilities of using this feature to sneak or spy on enemies. The option to also use the Vessel to take a short rest is a nice addition, which improves its utility in dungeon-type scenarios.

Overall, this feature can still be underwhelming if opportunities don’t pop up to take advantage of it. If you were going to be able to short rest anyways, then doing it in a shiny lamp doesn’t add much. But there’s definitely potential here for the creative player.

14th Level

Limited Wish

You entreat your patron to grant you a small wish. As an action, you can speak your desire to your Genie’s Vessel, requesting the effect of one spell that is 6th level or lower and has a casting time of 1 action. The spell can be from any class’s spell list, and you don’t need to meet the requirements in that spell, including costly components; the spell simply takes effect as part of this action.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish 1d4 long rests.

Gaining access to any 6th level spell or lower (from any class) certainly seems like a great ability in theory. In practice, it depends a lot on how familiar you are with all your spellcasting options. If you can call to mind the perfect spell for any situation, you’ll love this ability. The feature also doesn’t burn a spell slot, which is great for Warlocks.

That said, it only resets after 1d4 long rests, which is a pretty long downtime. This prevents the Genie Warlock’s ultimate feature from being truly top-tier, although it’s still a great option to have in tight situations.

How to Play Genie Warlock

When playing a Genie Warlock, your specific playstyle will vary greatly depending on the genie patron that you choose and the elemental abilities available. In this guide, we’ve sketched out some of the potential directions from Genie Warlock builds — there are a lot of choices available!

Can Fire Warlock Match the Alternatives?

The most obvious direction for an optimised Genie Warlock is a Efreeti Fire build that makes use of its powerful mid-game spells (usually unavailable to Warlocks) for max damage potential.

Unfortunately, the big issue with playing a Fire Warlock is this: if you want to max out your fire damage, why wouldn’t you simply play a Draconic Sorcerer or an Evocation Wizard instead?

The Warlock’s limited spell slots make this class a poor choice for a dedicated spellcaster. You’ll find yourself relying on Eldritch Blast for consistent damage and, while you will have access to other Warlock disruption, it’s going to feel more like your standard Warlock with some fire damage on top.

Classic Disruption with Vessel Utility

Playing either the Dao or Marid patrons gives you a bunch of middle-of-the-road utility options, which can be powerful if used well, especially in conjunction with core Warlock spells. This pushes you towards the Warlock’s stereotypical controller playstyle, where you offer a ton of disruption effects to hurt powerful enemies.

There is nothing wrong with this path, but if you’re looking for something different out of the Genie Warlock subclass then it’s unlikely to be the answer. The playstyle of a Dao or Marid patron will probably feel similar to other Warlock subclasses with some small variation in spell choices.

Deceit and Subterfuge for Roleplay

One of the more interesting options for a Genie Warlock player is to lean into the subclass’ tools for stealth, deceit, and subterfuge with the Magical Vessel. To do this effectively, we recommend picking the Djinni patron for access to spells like Greater Invisibility and Seeming.

Stat-wise, Warlocks are already well-geared towards this type of gameplay with strong Charisma and Dexterity skills. This will serve you well in your attempts to sneak and bluff your way through enemies, plus your Vessel will provide some truly game-breaking opportunities if you are creative with it.

Ultimately, the power of this build won’t compare to the skills of a Thief Rogue or similar. That said, this subclass might make a fun addition to a party that’s already focused on sneaking around. You can check out our build example for a Djinni Warlock below.

Ability Scores for Genie Warlock

As with all Warlock classes, Charisma is the most important ability score for Genie Warlocks. If you do want to lean into stealth antics, you should put additional points in Dexterity as well. Constitution is valuable for durability and Wisdom can be useful for saving throws and some skill checks.

If you’re using point buy, a recommended starting stat distribution could be:

• Strength: 8 (-1)
• Dexterity: 14 (+2)
• Constitution: 14 (+2)
• Intelligence: 8 (-1)
• Wisdom: 12 (+1)
• Charisma: 15 (+2)

If using another ability score generation method, just follow the color coding above.

Genie Warlock Races

Any race that makes a good warlock will make a good Genie warlock. See our suggestion for warlock races here.

Genie Warlock Feats

Any feat that works for a normal warlock will work for a Genie warlock. See our suggestion for warlock feats here.

The Genie 5e Build Example

This build example showcases the Djinni patron option mentioned above, which leans into the Genie Warlock’s natural inclination towards stealth and subterfuge.

Race

To start with, we’ll choose the Tiefling with Bloodline of Glasya as our Infernal Descent, which provides more stealth abilities with Minor Illusion, Disguise Self, and Invisibility. This Bloodline also gives an ASI to Dexterity, as well as Charisma, which is perfect for our build.

There are other similar Tiefling options like Bloodline of Dispater, which can also be suitable for this build. If you’re curious or you want to try a different kind of Genie Warlock build, check out our guide to Warlock races.

Background

The best background for Warlocks is Criminal and that’s a perfect fit for our stealthy build example. This option gives us access to Deception and Stealth from the 1st Level, which will be essential tools in our arsenal. Charlatan is another decent option.

Pact Boon & Eldritch Invocations

At the 3rd level, we want to pick Pact of the Chain because of the increased opportunities for sneaking around provided by our familiar. We recommend choosing an Imp and augmenting your abilities with the invocation Voice of the Chain Master at 3rd Level.

This pact choice will also unlock one of the most powerful late-game invocations in Chains of the Carceri, which becomes available at 15th Level and allows you to cast Hold Monster at will, without expending a spell slot.

Some other Eldritch Invocations will be core tools for this Genie Warlock build. Make sure you pick Mask of Many Faces at 2nd Level. This does overlap with your Tiefling Bloodline spells, but doesn’t use a spell slot. You should also take invocations like One with Shadows and Shroud of Shadows at later levels to enhance your sneaky abilities.

Feats

The first feat that you’ll want to take with this build is Actor, which works super well with the Mask of Many Faces invocation to help you easily deceive your foes. Add the Warlock staple Fey Touched to your list as soon as possible, unlocking Misty Step to help you get out of sticky situations — and escape back into the shadows.

Mystic Arcanum

For any Genie Warlock build, you will want to make one change to your Mystic Arcanum choices and this is picking Wish as your 9th Level spell at 17th Level. This is the real capstone to this subclass, so it would be a shame to not use the most powerful spell in DnD. Check out our Warlock Spell Guide for more explanation on the best spell choices for your Mystic Arcanum.