A Guide to Picking the Best Warlock Pact Boon in 5th Edition D&D
The Warlock knew her patron was somewhere in the murky waters before her. There was a loud splash from far away, and a sword came whirling towards the Warlock, sticking in the sand at her feet. “Oh… thank you! I love presents.”
Spellcasters are usually pigeonholed into one party role: maybe they focus on damage or mainly support their friends. Warlocks collect all these roles and jump between them on a whim. Pact Boons are one way they can do this, allowing you to specialize in almost any spellcaster role while the other spellcasting classes look on with envy.
When you prove to your patron that your magic powers were a worthwhile investment, they grant you a Boon to upgrade you from Junior Cultist to Full-Time Warlock. This Pact Boon lets you do things like conjure weapons, summon imps, or just scream into someone’s ear across planes of existence.
Picking your Pact Boon can feel big and scary, but never fear! This guide will help you pick the perfect Boon for your Warlock build and fill the role of your choice.
Using This Guide
Everything in this guide has an emoji, ranking how useful a given ability or feature is to playing this class effectively.
✅ — An absolutely crucial feature. Often forms the backbone of a class’ look and feel. Will provide some bonus that can’t be found through other means.
🆗 — A solid feature that does its job well. Not game-breaking, and certainly replaceable, but a strong choice that shores up some weakness.
⚠️ — A debatable choice. Could work for a specific build, but otherwise is either a wasted opportunity or weaker than other alternatives.
⛔ — Outright bad and detrimental. This weighs down the class and just takes up space on the character sheet. A weakness you will have to accommodate for.
These rankings are meant to help you optimize your class build, but remember—DnD isn’t a game where you need to win to have fun. Weaker but flavorful builds also have their place and can make for fulfilling characters.
What Are Warlock Pact Boons?
When a Warlock hits Level 3, their patron grants them a Boon. Most other classes choose subclasses at this level, and these Pact Boons operate in a similar fashion. Each Pact Boon grants a unique feature, but you can only pick one. They round out Warlock’s skillset with the option to shore up a weakness or double-down on a strength.
Picking a Pact Boon is an important crossroads for Warlock, having almost as big an impact on gameplay as the individual subclasses. Like everything about Warlock, they are very adaptable and customizable. You cannot switch your Pact Boon once you’ve chosen one (unless using an optional rule from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything), so be sure to read up on which doors your choice opens or closes.
One element of Pact Boons is that they tend to start rather weak and require you to use Eldritch Invocations to upgrade them. Each Pact Boon is still useful on its own, but with the right Invocations, they can become very powerful. When upgraded, Pact Boons blur the lines between Warlock and other classes, giving you access to an unmatched breadth of skills and abilities.
⚔ Player Tip: You and Your Patron ⚔
Pact Boons and other Warlock class abilities borrow power from a mysterious entity—your patron. They probably won’t grant magic powers for free and will expect you to obey orders or draw others into their service. If your patron is cooperative, you may be able to talk with them and discuss details such as which Pact Boon you are considering.
How To Choose A Pact Boon
While they are an important part of your Warlock build, Pact Boons won’t significantly impact how you play. Most of your core gameplay comes from the base Warlock class, no matter which Boon you pick. This makes Pact Boons one of the best class features to pick based on flavor alone.
If you want to optimize your Pact Boon, plan ahead. You will want to take a few Eldritch Invocations that synergize with your Boons, so scope out Invocations you’d like to take. Consider which spells you want to learn down the line and think how they might pair well with the different Boons.
Some Pact Boons lend themselves to certain playstyles. Consider which role you want to fill in your party and which of your friends are already filling which roles. For instance, if your party has a Wizard with lots of utility spells, you can skip over learning such spells, and don’t need a Pact Boon that is useful for a utility caster.
🆗 Pact of the Blade
Let’s make one thing very clear: this is a Pact Boon that gives your Warlock access to melee combat. Warlocks aren’t typically good at melee combat. Only the Hexblade Warlock is truly a melee fighter, and any other subclass that picks this Pact Boon will struggle to stay alive because of their low defense and difficulty landing attacks.
However, if you commit to the weapon-Warlock life, this is an excellent way to transition into a melee fighter. Pact of the Blade is good at what it sets out to do. You end up being able to do some real damage, even if eldritch blast is more consistent. Pact of the Blade lets you summon any melee weapon, which allows you to deal a maximum 2d6 damage before modifiers. That’s not bad. Once you get your hands on a magic weapon, it can be quite good.
The trick is you are still adding either your Strength or Dexterity to attack and damage rolls, so one or the other needs to be quite high to make Pact of the Blade effective. Warlock doesn’t really care about either but might have some Dexterity to increase their AC, so finesse weapons are the way to go. Hexblade Warlock gets subclass abilities that fix this whole problem instantly. For more info, check out this guide from Enworld that breaks down how to best play a weapon Warlock.
Key Invocations
🆗 Improved Pact Weapon
The +1 to attack and damage rolls improves your consistency, and getting to summon ranged weapons makes you more versatile. Although if you want ranged damage, eldritch blast is often better.
✅ Lifedrinker
Extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier puts you on par with combat classes who add their highest ability modifier to every attack. Suddenly your damage output can handle the high HP of your enemies.
✅ Thirsting Blade
It’s an extra attack. Just do it. Combat classes get extra attacks at Level 5, so this Invocation is a must if you want to stay competitive.
Best Party Roles
The only role that wants to enter melee combat is the Striker. For more attacks and more damage, this is the best option for Warlock. It provides a solid backup for when you run out of spell slots and still want to kick butt (but really, just use eldritch blast).
⚠️ Pact of the Chain
If you get into a lot of fights, this Pact Boon won’t help you much until you upgrade it, and even then, it’s only marginally good. Outside of combat though, Pact of the Chain offers tons of fun for roleplay or reconnaissance. The Pact Boon grants you access to the find familiar spell with a few additional forms for your familiar.
Pact of the Chain is one of those abilities you need to go out of your way for it to be strong. If you just want a cute pet to cuddle with and wave around in social situations, that’s great. But to do anything more than mage hand or unseen servant could accomplish, you will need to be very proactive, which feels like a waste of energy when compared to the other Pact Boons which offer immediate power.
Should you choose to use your familiar in combat, it isn’t much help for dealing damage. Having to forgo an attack yourself means you and your familiar only get one attack a round, and shooting off an eldritch blast is guaranteed to deal more damage. Even when upgraded so it attacks on your bonus action, your familiar isn’t that strong. Its real use is flanking opponents to grant advantage to allied attacks and deliver some touch spells.
Key Invocations
✅ Investment of the Chain Master
This is a necessity to use Pact of the Chain. It upgrades your familiar to something closer to Ranger’s beast companion. Attacking on your bonus action means you don’t need to waste a turn to get extra damage, and the other bonuses expand your familiar’s scouting abilities and survivability.
Best Party Roles
This Pact Boon favors roles that are happy to leave combat to other party members. The Controller and Support both benefit from running their familiar around to trip up enemies. Meanwhile, the Face or the Utility can use their familiar out of combat to great effect.
🆗 Pact of the Talisman
This is one of the Pact Boons that can work fine on any Warlock. Pact of the Talisman grants you a bonus d4 on failed ability checks, which is useful for anyone. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, so as you get to higher levels and probably fail checks more often as they grow in difficulty, you can fall back on this bonus more frequently.
The twist of this Pact Boon is that all of its bonuses and features apply to whoever is wearing the titular talisman. Normally that’s you, but you can pass it off to a friend and buff them. This makes Pact of the Talisman the only Pact Boon that can directly support your allies.
Everything about this Pact Boon acts reactively, even when upgraded with Invocations. That makes it great for defense, but means if you want to affect the battlefield or a social encounter, you’ll need to turn to your spells and skills. This fact does limit how powerful Pact of the Talisman can be since it only helps out when you’re in trouble, so you may go days without using it. Still, as a class that could use the help staying alive, this Pact Boon is a welcome bonus.
Key Invocations
🆗 Bond of the Talisman
A great way for you and a friend to teleport out of danger (with unlimited range, too). Makes flanking maneuvers safer and makes your talisman an even better defensive option.
✅ Protection of the Talisman
The normal d4 only applies to ability checks, so expanding that to saving throws means your talisman is now capable of actively saving your life. This is also a separate pool of d4s from the ability check bonus, so you get to add loads of dice to your rolls throughout one day.
Best Party Roles
The defensive power of Pact of the Tome makes it great for roles that are getting down and dirty in combat. The Striker can use it to survive hits and outmaneuver enemies, and the Support gets to stay alive longer to help their friends.
✅ Pact of the Tome
This is the go-to Pact Boon for the Warlock who likes casting spells first and foremost. Extra cantrips from any class open a lot of doors, letting you fill multiple roles in the party, or fill every role as a jack-of-all-trades. It also makes for a solid Pact Boon to default to if you’re indecisive because more cantrips help you save your precious spell slots for only the most bombastic effects rather than bland utility use.
When upgraded, Pact of the Tome helps you act as a backline fighter that provides covering fire with eldritch blast and your other cantrips. It also makes you quite useful outside of combat with plenty of utility spells. If you don’t have a Wizard in your party, everyone will be looking to you for these crucial spells.
You have quite a few good options when selecting your cantrips. The best damage cantrips outside of the Warlock spell list would be firebolt, ray of frost, and sacred flame. For defense, you can help out allies with guidance and resistance. Finally, some key utility includes dancing lights, mending, message, mold earth, shape water, spare the dying, and thaumaturgy. It can be tempting to only pull from other class’ spell lists, but don’t be afraid to grab Warlock cantrips you didn’t have room for before. You can quickly look up any cantrip with this reference tool from dnd5e.wikidot.
Key Invocations
🆗 Book of Ancient Secrets
Getting to cast rituals is great and lets you become your party’s magical toolbox (you can even grab find familiar—suck it, Pact of the Chain). Plus, getting to jot down new spells means before long, your spell list will be as long as a Wizard’s.
🆗 Gift of the Protectors
You can only activate the effect on one creature a day, but getting to save a party member from dropping in combat is super useful, especially if they’re somewhere your healer can’t reach.
Best Party Roles
There is so much flexibility that comes from knowing more spells, like granting the Utility Caster more tools or giving the Striker a few more damaging cantrips. Additionally, the Controller or the Face both benefit from having a magical answer to any situation.
Losing Your Pact
There is no specific mechanical prompt for losing your Pact Boon, but it is a prime roleplay opportunity for you and your DM. Upsetting your patron could mean getting your Warlock toys taken away, including your Pact Boon. Waking up one morning to find your Pact of the Blade only conjures thin air is a bit of a kick in the head.
Many Warlock features like the Pact Boon are treated as rewards from your patron for obeying the conditions of your Pact. Talk to your DM and perhaps try a few in-character conversations between you and your patron as you hash out the details of what you must do to keep your Pact and its associated Boon.
If you do lose your pact, your Pact Boon and spells are all likely forfeit. You may need to struggle along without any powers until you can accomplish a goal for your patron and reinstate the Pact. Alternatively, if the Pact is permanently broken, your DM may let you multiclass or switch into a different class entirely.
Which Pact Is Best?
Unfortunately, Pact of the Blade and Pact of the Chain need very specific character builds to be useful. Meanwhile, any Warlock will benefit from Pact of the Talisman or Pact of the Tome, making them objectively stronger.
Pact of the Talisman
While Warlock has better survivability than spellcasters like Sorcerer or Warlock, they are still squishy. This Pact Boon helps keep you alive, and allows you to transfer its defensive bonuses to an ally who may need them more than you. Best for combat or support Warlock builds.
Pact of the Tome
Having more options to solve problems is always a good idea as a spellcaster, so it’s universally better to have more spells. This Pact Boon adds versatility to your Warlock’s spell list and allows you to rely on your cantrips more, conserving your spell slots. Best for spellcasting or roleplay Warlock builds.
Pact Boons can be complex but offer so much flavor and power they’re hard not to love. Did this guide help you with choosing a Pact Boon? If so, tell us all about your Warlock build in the comments! And be sure to share the guide with your friends.
