Eldritch Adept 5e

Published on March 12, 2022, Last modified on May 16th, 2022

Eldritch Invocations are extremely unique class features exclusively for warlocks. The only way to pick one up, beside multiclassing into warlock, is to take the Eldritch Adept feat.

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Table of Contents

What is Eldritch Adept in 5e?

One of the new additions with the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything was an array of new feats that blended class features into a feat for anyone to pick up, barring some requirements. The feat in question today adds the ability to pick up Eldritch Invocations to any spellcasting class, but is it genuinely worth the spent feat?

How does Eldritch Adept work?

This feat does have a prerequisite. The character must be able to cast spells or have the Pact Magic feature to select this feat.

Once you pick up this feat, you get to learn a single Eldritch Invocation from the warlock class. However, you still need to meet any prerequisites for that invocation. Also, you can replace the invocation with another whenever you gain a level.

Most invocations require you to be a specific level of warlock or to have access to eldritch blast, so unless you’re already a warlock, you only have access to these:

Armor of Shadows
Beast Speech
Beguiling Influence
Devil’s Sight
Eldritch Mind
Eldritch Sight
Eyes of the Rune Keeper
Fiendish Vigor
Gaze of Two Minds
Mask of Many Faces
Misty Visions
Thief of Five Fates

Is Eldritch Adept good?

In our 5e Feats Tier List, Eldritch Adept was given a B Tier rating, making it a niche feat that can improve some builds in D&D 5e.

Locking the invocations that have prerequisites behind the warlock class is a fair choice to balance this feat but also drastically reduces the potential of this feat. As it stands, this feat’s best choices are the ones that allow you to turn a 1st-level spell into a Cantrip:

Armor of Shadows – Great for any spellcaster that doesn’t have access to armor.
Beast Speech – For those that want to talk to animals at will (rangers and druids mainly)
Devil’s Sight – Picking up 120ft Darkvision is good in any circumstance. Being able to grab the ability to see in magical darkness makes this even better. Especially good for casters with access to darkness. Unfortunately your party still isn’t able to see in magical darkness, so be sure to allow other party members to still be effective when considering going with this combo.
Eldritch Sight – Casting detect magic at will is quite useful if you don’t have a spellcaster with ritual casting
Mask of Many Faces – Casting disguise self at will is great for CHA-based casters that will be infiltrating hostile areas
Misty Visions – Most casters can get by with minor illusion but an Illusion wizard will absolutely love being able to cast silent image at will

Eldritch Adept Interactions

One of the biggest things to take into consideration when choosing Eldritch Adept is that Thief of Five Fates doesn’t work with any class except warlock, because it specifies bane must be cast with a warlock spell slot.

Which Classes Make the Most of Eldritch Adept?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Eldritch Adept feat is for a specific class/subclass.

Black is typically ineffective or doesn’t work well with this feat.
Red is usually detrimental or entirely useless for a character build.
Orange is an OK option.
Green is a good option.
Blue is an excellent option, and you should probably pick up this feat if you choose this class.
Sky Blue is a fantastic option, and this is among the best choices if you want to make the most optimal build.

Because there are so many Eldritch Invocations to choose from, it’s challenging to pick a perfect invocation for everyone. It’s always best to see what specific invocation you’d like and fit that into your build if necessary. However, most of these aren’t impactful and are more for utility reasons.

Artificer: They can find some use out of Eldritch Mind or some of the spellcasting options, but none of them are very impactful. Most of the time, artificers are better off with other feats unless they pick this for flavor reasons.

Barbarian: Barbarians can’t pick up this feat without multiclassing, so there’s no point worrying about it.

Bard: Choose the Mask of Many Faces Invocation and cast disguise self at will to go with your great CHA modifier.

Cleric: While the bonus of a new at-will spell isn’t bad, most clerics will probably be interested in the advantage on Eldritch Mind. However, between this feat, Resilient (CON), and War Caster, Resilient is the superior feat for clerics. Other invocations, like casting detect magic, are probably better.

Druid: Great option to pick up Armor of Shadows for a free mage armor whenever you want it.

Fighter: Fighters can’t pick up this feat unless they were to multiclass or pick Eldritch Knight as a subclass. Even then, it doesn’t add much to the subclass. War Caster poses as a better feat than this one, but adding a few utility spells isn’t terrible.

Monk: Since most monks cannot cast spells, they’re unable to pick this feat. While Way of the Four Elements monks can cast spells, we don’t think any noteworthy invocations would make it worth it over other feats.

Paladin: Most of these invocations are utility spells, which can work well since paladins have so few spell slots. Being able to cast detect magic at will is pretty handy but not as good as some other feats. Paladins who multiclass into Hexblade warlocks should value this feat much higher, though, as it gives them access to the entire list of invocations.

Ranger: While rangers can find use in some of these utility spells, they don’t impact any aspect of gameplay beyond utility. Like druids, if they choose Beast Speech, it’s a flavor win but not an essential part of the ranger class.

Rogue: Only those who choose the Arcane Trickster subclass can gain this feat, giving them a little more utility. The best invocation would be Mask of Many Faces, granting them unlimited uses of alter self. Misty Visions may be helpful, too, for infinite silent image casts.

Sorcerer: Great option to pick up Armor of Shadows for free mage armor whenever you want it.

Warlock: Warlocks get access to plenty of invocations, the only time a warlock would choose this feat would be when they plan on multiclassing but still need access to a particular invocation for their build.

Wizard: Great option to pick up Armor of Shadows for free mage armor whenever you want it. Kind of like a mini "Spell Mastery" with a limited spell list.

Conclusion

It’s nice to see a feat that adds such a unique core class feature to any class. While there are limitations to this feat, it’s still an excellent addition to any player who wants to add great flavor to their character.

What are your thoughts on Eldritch Adept? Did we miss an interaction that you’ve come across? Show us your builds in the comments, and ensure you don’t get too lost in service to your patron.

Jeff Nabors

Jeff Nabors has been playing D&D ever since he stumbled upon the 3.5E core books in his high school library. When he isn’t running a campaign or designing a game, you can find him on Twitch, writing about game design, or staring off into the endless abyss.