Baldur’s Gate 3 has a lot of classes for players to look through and mull over what their end-party composition will consist of. It is not enough to just decide on which classes you want, as each of these classes has subclasses that can wildly change what roles they will be taking up during the player’s journey in games like Baldur’s Gate 3.
Warlocks are Charisma-based spell casters just like Bards and Sorcerers. However, they only have one spell slot, which might seem like a dealbreaker for those that want a spell caster in their group. However, this spell slot will continue to grow in levels and be bound to just low-level spells. The Warlock offers a slew of benefits in the form of Eldritch Invocations and the unique options they get from the Warlock Spell List, including their bread-and-butter cantrip, Eldritch Blast. Each Warlock makes a pact with a powerful entity that serves as the patron of their powers, with each patron offering different benefits.
Updated by Chad Thesen on August 22, 2023: This guide has been updated to feature new embedded links that can allow easier navigation for readers. These embedded links include a guide for all available sorcerer classes and a guide for how to build a Paladin for your playthroughs.
3 The Great Old One
Having the Great Old One as your chosen patron will provide you with some very useful spells and can have a similar feel to playing a Wizard from the Enchantment School. As your Spell Slot increases in level, you will have the new spell options become available thanks to the Expanded Spell List feature. At the first level, it will provide Dissonant Whispers and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. The second level will provide Detect Thoughts and Phantasmal Force. The third level will provide Clairvoyance and Sending. The fourth level will provide Dominate Beast and Evard’s Black Tentacles. Finally, the fifth level will provide you with Dominate Person and Telekinesis. Knowing the spells you gain access to from each patron is a big part of deciding what subclass to use as it can change the entire playstyle of your Warlock. One of the features of this subclass is Mortal Reminder.
This feature will give the Frightened condition to any enemies you land a critical hit on, as well as any other enemies close to the target you hit. This condition will last until the end of your next turn. The assortment of spells granted by this subclass has a nice balance of combat application and utility. You can deal a chunk of psychic damage to a target while also making it frightened of you thanks to Dissonant Whispers. You can let loose a continuous barrage of damage thanks to Phantasmal Force, which will be able to continuously change the type of damage that hits its target each turn. Tasha’s Hideous Laughter will have its target laying prone without being able to get back up. One of the most appealing spells for the Great Old One is Detect Thoughts, as it will let you skim information by reading the mind of whatever target you are talking with.
2 Archfey
With the Archfey as your Warlock’s patron, they will have some great options to trick and deceive their targets. At times, it will feel similar to having the Great Old One as your patron, but at other times, you will have access to spells and features that give it its own unique feel. Just like with the previous entry, your Spell Slot increases in level as you gain experience. This will lead you to gain new spell options from your Expanded Spell List feature. The first level will provide Faerie Fire and Sleep. The second level will provide Calm Emotion and Phantasmal Force. The third level will provide Blink and Plant Growth. The fourth level will provide Dominate Beast and Greater Invisibility. Finally, the fifth level will provide you with Dominate Person and Seeming. As you can see, the Archfey shares some spell options with the Great Old One but also offers different choices for different circumstances. The Archfey also comes with several noteworthy features that will become available to the Warlock as they level up.
The first of these features comes at level 1, which will let the Warlock use their Action to either frighten or charm all the creatures within 10 feet of it. The Archfey subclass will add a degree of survivability at level 6 thanks to Misty Escape. This lets the Warlock both teleport and turn invisible as a reaction to taking damage. This lets them get some distance from their attacker and reposition where to continue the fight from. Finally, this subclass will add one more piece of protection to your kit in the form of Beguiling Defenses. This will come with level 10 and will make your Warlock immune to being charmed. In addition, when another character attempts to charm the Warlock, they will be able to make a roll to charm that character instead. Having access to a spell-like Faerie Fire lets you negate the benefits of any target using invisibility. This can shut down the cornerstone of any invisible enemies' strengths and make fights significantly easier. Another great utility spell for fights is Plant Growth, which will quarter the movement speed of enemies moving through it. This means it takes them a lot longer to engage in melee.
1 Fiend
The Fiend is the most combat-heavy patron of the lot. They will add a slew of new offensive and defensive options to benefit the party in encounters thanks to the options in their Expanded Spell List. The first level will provide Burning Hands and Command. The second level will provide Scorching Ray and Blindness. The third level will provide Fireball and Stinking Cloud. The fourth level will provide Fire Shield and Wall of Fire. Finally, the fifth level will provide you with Flame Strike and Hallow.
The Warlock is also able to heal themselves thanks to the Dark One’s Blessing feature. This feature lets them regain HP whenever they reduce a hostile target’s HP to 0. The amount of HP they regain is equal to their Charisma Modifier plus their current level. A lot of their spells will focus on dealing damage in different ways, but they also have some utility options, such as Command. The Command spell will let you command a target to flee, come closer, stop, fall prone, or drop their weapon. It also has Stinking Cloud that prevents creatures within its gas from taking any action. The fiend is one of the easiest and most simple of Warlock subclasses, but it also performs exceptionally well in any party using a Warlock. This also happens to be the patron for one of the game's Origin companions, Wyll. This subclass is a great multiclass option for Paladins and Sorcerers due to its combat applications.