Baldur’s Gate 3 The Great Old One Warlock Build Guide

The Warlock is a decent and straightforward choice for those who are learning the ropes of being a Spellcaster. Right from the start, they’re already a force to be reckoned with because of Eldritch Blast. This is a Ranged Attack Cantrip, which means that it has to be used from a distance, and since it’s a Cantrip, you won’t need to spend any Spell Slot when cast. Coupled with The Great Old One’s unique Spells such as Dissonant Whispers and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, it’ll be simple to debilitate targets and efficiently slay them in the process.

What’s more, is that they gain the advantage of summoning Familiars due to their patron. Not only do these creatures attack enemies effectively but they also serve as worthy distractions in encounters. Since Warlocks can only wear Light Armor, they’re not as durable as the other Classes, meaning it would be best to position them as far away from the middle of Combat as possible for added protection.

Baldur’s Gate 3 The Great Old One Warlock Character Creation

In this section, we’ll take a look at how to set up your Warlock during Character Creation for the best results. You don’t have to follow this to the letter, and this will likely change at the game’s full launch. However, this will hold you in good stead during Early Access.

Background

For Background, choosing one that provides you with Charisma Skills should be enough since this is your primary Ability to hit and damage enemies, alongside Dexterity and Intelligence. Charisma has Deception, Intimidation, Persuasion, and Performance. Some Background examples are Entertainer, Sage, and Soldier.

Race

The first Race that works well for this Build is the Wood Half-Elf. Wood Half-Elves can reach at most 17 Charisma but you’ll only need to get to 16 during Character Creation. This is because you’ll gain another opportunity to gain 2 Ability points at Level 4 in Early Access. You’ll be aiming to get to 18 Charisma by then to improve the effectiveness of your Cantrips and Spells. This Race also has Darkvision to see and attack better in dark places. And lastly, you become Proficient in Stealth.

Next is the Lightfoot Halfling since they can also reach 16 Charisma, and gain Lucky, allowing them to make another Attack Roll when they roll a natural 1. They receive a +2 Dexterity bonus and are naturally Stealthy. Last but not least is the Drow who not only has Superior Darkvision, allowing them to see twice as far in the dark as the Wood Half-Elf but also Dancing Lights. This Cantrip will serve as a light source to benefit allies who need it.

Class

During Character Creation, you’ll be selecting the Subclass that you’d want to specialize in. For the Warlock, it’ll differ based on their respective Subclass Features as well as some of the Spells available to them. For this Build, you’ll choose The Great Old One. As The Great Old One, you gain access to Mortal Reminder, which will automatically incapacitate a creature when they’re Critically Hit. Because they end up being Frightened, they won’t be able to move and they even incur a Disadvantage on Attack Rolls, making it challenging for their hits to connect.

For Cantrips, I recommend taking Blade Ward, and especially Eldritch Blast, which is the bread and butter of the Warlock.

Blade Ward grants Physical Damage Resistance from Weapon attacks, thereby lowering the corresponding damage by half. This is particularly useful for survivability should melee enemies get too close to you.

Eldritch Blast deals 1-10 Force Damage from a distance. And since this is a Cantrip, you can keep casting it every round without worrying about your remaining (and few) Spell Slots.

For Spells, I suggest picking Hex and Dissonant Whispers.

Hex imposes a Disadvantage on a Saving Throw of your choice. For instance, if you have another Warlock or Wyll in the party, and you cast Hex, the other Spellcaster’s chances of landing Tasha’s Hideous Laughter will be much higher since the lower roll will be considered when the affected target makes a Saving Throw. You can also use this Spell for the opponent to receive an additional Necrotic Damage upon hitting it. One example is casting Eldritch Blast right after Hex in the same turn since the latter is a Bonus Action anyway. Furthermore, if that same target dies, you can use this Spell again without consuming a Spell Slot provided that you maintain Concentration by successfully making Constitution Saving Throws.

Dissonant Whispers deals massive Psychic Damage in addition to temporarily Frightening the target for a couple of turns. Should they successfully roll a Wisdom Saving Throw, they still take half the damage.

Skills

For Skills again it’s not super important, but you’ll have high Charisma and Dexterity, so selecting Skills that fall under these Abilities is ideal. Dexterity has Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth, and I’ve already listed what Charisma Skills there are. You can also choose Intelligence Skills like Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion since you’ll have a decent score for this Ability.

Abilities

The primary Abilities that are needed for The Great Old One Warlock Build are Charisma, Dexterity, and Constitution. Charisma is necessary to land and effectively harm your foes with Spells while Dexterity is important to increase your AC, considering that you can only wear Light Armor, in order to survive longer in encounters. Moreover, Constitution increases HP and helps to maintain Concentration. Lastly, there’s Intelligence, although not useful in combat, encompasses a large number of Skills. And if the Warlock is your player character then it’s wise to have a few points here to help with interactions.

Baldur’s Gate 3 The Great Old One Warlock Level 2

Eldritch Invocations

At Level 2, you’ll be able to select 2 Eldritch Invocations that will allow you to further customize your Warlock. Out of the 9 options, I highly recommend taking Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast as they’ll greatly improve the effectiveness of Eldritch Blast. Agonizing Blast adds your Charisma Modifier to the damage of this Cantrip. This will be +3 Damage until Level 4, at which point it’ll become +4 when you increase Charisma to 18.

Meanwhile, Repelling Blast pushes back the target hit by Eldritch Blast 4.5m away, thereby preventing them from reaching you and your allies.

Spell and Concentration

You also gain 1 Spell Slot. Here, you should take Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. Tasha’s Hideous Laughter leaves the target laughing like mad on the floor for up to 10 turns provided that you maintain Concentration. It makes them a dead weight to their allies since they can’t do anything significant while knocked Prone.

Concentration is broken if you cast another Cantrip or Spell that also requires Concentration. You can tell which these are because it will say so on the Spell itself. For example, if you cast Hex, but then you cast Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, you would stop “Concentrating” on Hex and begin Concentrating on Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.

Moreover, if you take damage while Concentrating on a Spell, you must make a Constitution Saving Throw, and if you fail, then the effect of that Spell ends. Should you succeed in your Saving Throw, you maintain your Concentration and the Spell continues. This is why it’s vital for Warlocks to have average to high Constitution because of the Spells that require this Ability and is wasted if it’s constantly broken.

Replacement Spell

You’ll be able to unlearn and learn old and new Spells, respectively, via the Replacement Spell, similar to the Ranger. Unlearning a Spell lets you select what you wish to remove from your list. As a replacement, you’ll get to pick one Spell when you level up. But if you want to keep your current list, you can simply ignore this feature and continue to learn new Spells. In The Great Old One Warlock Build Guide, we won’t be unlearning any Spells since the ones we’ve chosen are essential in combat.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Level 3

At Level 3, you gain access to Pact of the Chain, which allows you to summon a Familiar to assist you in combat. So make sure you start casting this outside of combat so it can help you defeat enemies when fighting. For the Warlock, the creature I tend to summon often is the Imp because they’re unique to the Find Familiar Spell and they have the ability to cover huge distances thanks to fly. Imps can even sting their prey, possibly poisoning them in the process.

Additionally, you can pick 1 Spell. Here, I recommend Shatter, Hellish Rebuke, or Misty Step.

Shatter deals huge Thunder Damage against multiple adjacent enemies. Unlike Cloud of Daggers, it doesn’t require Concentration so you can still maintain the benefits of Hex, for example, while casting this Spell.

Hellish Rebuke is very useful, especially if you’re constantly the prime target in combat. As a Reaction, meaning you can’t initiate this Spell yourself, you end up dealing at least 2-20 Fire Damage when you receive damage, potentially killing enemies with low to average HP. However, remember that it can’t be triggered more than once in a single turn and when you run out of Spell Slots. Otherwise, you can choose to continue reaping its benefits.

Misty Step lets you teleport to a location you can see, allowing you to get to High Ground easily to gain the +2 Attack Roll bonus when using Eldritch Blast. Since this is a Bonus Action, you can also perform an Action during the same turn. Alternatively, you can opt to get the Amulet of Misty Step from the Underdark instead to be able to gain Misty Step but you’re going to have to wait a while to do so.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Level 4

At Level 4, you’ll gain 2 Ability points to place into Charisma, bringing it to 18 and your corresponding Modifier to +4. This will not only increase the likelihood of landing your attacks but also increase Eldritch Blast’s damage by +1.

You can also pick another Cantrip of your choice and any of the Spells you didn’t select from the previous Level.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Warlock Level 5

At Level 5, you get to choose 1 more Eldritch Invocation, and here I recommend taking One with Shadows. One with Shadows makes you temporarily Invisible so you gain an Advantage on your Attack Rolls. Once you perform an attack, cast a Spell, or even walk toward your enemies, you’ll be revealed. So it’s best to use this right before initiating combat. Alternatively, you can go with Devil’s Sight if you’re not a Drow to prevent incurring a Disadvantage as well as to see better in dark places!

Additionally, you can select 1 Level 3 Spell. The good ones to consider are Counterspell and Fear. Counterspell is a Reaction that can significantly throw a wretch in your enemy’s plans as long as they’re located within 18m of you. Doing so will let you stop the corresponding Spell’s effects. But remember that since it consumes The Great Old One’s Spell Slots, you can only use this at most 2 times before taking a Long Rest.

Next is Fear, which would allow you to scare your enemies. In doing so, they drop their Weapons, regardless of whether or not they’re metal, and they end up running for their lives to stay away from you, making it a win-win condition.

Equipment

As The Great Old One Warlock, you don’t have to concern yourself with finding the right Weapons since for the most part, you’ll be casting Spells anyway. Instead, it’ll only be useful if you can’t move away from the melee range without taking damage. So remember to equip any Simple Weapon like The Watcher’s Guide or dual Daggers. With dual Daggers, you get to inflict Main Hand Attack and Off-hand Attack (Melee) in the same turn.

And then for the Ranged Weapon, you can wield the Light Crossbow. With its Piercing Shot Weapon Action, you not only deal a decent amount of Piercing Damage but also inflict Gaping Wounds for extra damage. The Light Crossbow will let you shoot enemies from afar as an alternative to your Ranged Spells and Cantrips.

In terms of Armor, you should wear the Spidersilk Armour, which you get after defeating Minthara in the Shattered Sanctum. This, together with your +3 Dexterity Modifier, should give you a total of 15 AC.

For Accessories, you can equip the Helmet of Grit from the Shattered Sanctum and Tarnished Charm from Auntie Ethel. Helmet of Grit is another Light Armor where you receive an extra Bonus Action if your HP dips to 50% or less. On the other hand, Tarnished Charm is useful if you find yourself rolling Death Saving Throws frequently. With its Fey Life Feature, your chances of successfully making these rolls are going to be higher.

Final Tips

The Great Old One Warlock makes use of Hex, Eldritch Blast, and a couple of powerful Spells that deal great damage or make targets useless in combat such as Tasha’s Hideous Laughter. With Hex, they inflict extra Necrotic Damage every time the affected enemy is attacked, thereby increasing the chances of eliminating them quickly. Remember that for Eldritch Blast, you’re going to have to position yourself on High Ground with respect to your target to boost your chances of hitting them. Doing so with Misty Step or Jump will make life easier for you.

Compared to the other Spellcasters in Baldur’s Gate 3, the Spell Slots of Warlocks don’t increase (and are limited to 2) as they level up, instead, they are automatically upcast. The difference is that they can simply replenish these Spell Slots by taking a Short Rest instead of a Long Rest. But in Early Access, the latter doesn’t affect the way you play since you have numerous Camp Supplies anyway but I’m guessing that this will change when the game fully launches.

Lastly, if you have another Spellcaster in the party who can cast Fly on you, then it would be beneficial. Using only your Movement Speed, you can easily approach Fearful targets and hit them with any of your offensive Cantrips or Spells.

Stay tuned for more Baldur’s Gate 3 content as we update the other Builds, and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. If you need something specific, check out our Baldur’s Gate 3 Wiki which is being worked on night and day!