Best 5E Feats for Warlocks

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Warlocks are a remarkable class, and one that is one of my favorites because they are pretty much the most versatile class around. There are warlocks built as rogues, built as fighters, built as blaster casters – and plenty of mixed builds in between. This is a challenging class that takes a lot of knowledge and work to build, but man is it fun!

Warlocks are known for being relentless in their search for knowledge. Each having gone so far as to make a pact with some mysterious and powerful being in order to gain their powers and search for even more knowledge. Feats are a natural extension of this search for both knowledge and power, so which are the best feats for warlocks, both for mechanical and flavor reasons?

This is a hard question because there are just so many builds for the warlock in 5E, but here are some of the Feats that will best aid a Warlock on their never ending hunt for knowledge, power, and/or answers in your next 5th Ed D&D campaign!

10. Fey Touched & Shadow Touched (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)

These are paired together because I see them as “Cousin Feats,” and they are both powerful, versatile feats that fit in with builds of most classes, but seem especially suited to Warlocks because of their background. Fey Touched comes from exposure to the mysterious and strange Fey Wild (Hello Arch Fey Patron!) while Shadow Touched comes from exposure to the Shadowfell (Hello….Great Old One? Aberration? Other thing you don’t want to deal with consistently?)

Each of these feats involve a free powerful spell (Misty Step and Invisible, respectively) that can be cast once for free in between rests, as well as allowing the caster to cast them with a spell slot afterwards.

Each feat also allows the player to take a +1 to one of the three casting abilities, and to learn another 1st-level spell from certain schools of magic (illusion or necromancy for Shadow Touched, enchantment or divination for Fey Touched) which they can cast once for free between rests and then cast if they have the right spell slot open.

Any feat that gives the spell-starved warlock more spells to work with is going to be a powerful feat, especially when the spells are this useful, and even give a couple of free casts on top of that. Either one of these, or both, are great for warlocks, and because of their nature can easily be tied in story-wise to a patron or other otherworldly entity.

9. Telekinetic (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)

The Telekinetic feat plays to the versatility of the Warlock. With this feat you gain the mage hand cantrip (or a stronger version if you already had it), a +1 to Wisdom, Charisma, or Intelligence, and the ability to use a telekinetic shove to just shove a person whether it’s a fellow party member out of danger (remember, forced movement can’t create attacks of opportunity), to create a distraction in a crowded place, distract a guard of a camp, or even shove an enemy into dangerous terrain.

This is a versatile feat that gives the warlock something every warlock build needs: additional tools to make up for that middle ground between melee, spellcaster, and support that limited spellcasting and a d8 hit dice make challenging.

Adding everything the telekinetic feat brings to the table to the toolbox of invocations, spells, and features of the Warlock class makes them just that much stronger and versatile a class.

8. War Caster (The Player’s Handbook)

One reason this Feat is excellent for Warlocks is that it requires characters to already have the ability to cast at least one spell, and spells and magic are sort of a Warlock’s whole deal.

War caster is a great spell for a warlock looking for an advantage when it comes to Constitution. War caster also lets you go “hands-free,” allowing you to perform somatic components of a spell even when your character has both hands full with a weapon or shield, if your DM actually tracks that sort of thing.

With War caster, when a hostile creature tries to attack you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at them (and only them) instead of making an opportunity attack. Considering you have the 3 attacks in one cast Eldritch Blast, usually juiced up, and may find yourself in the middle of a fray more so than a sorcerer or wizard, that makes the War Caster Feat great because it gives you more wiggle room when it comes to attacking. You’ll have a small advantage on several different playing fields. This can give any Warlock an extra edge against your opponents.

7. Tough (The Player’s Handbook)

Tough is simple but powerful. With the Tough feat, you gain 2 more hit points at every level, so your character becomes tougher. When you first grab this feat, you get your character level * 2 hit points to get the benefit of Tough on all your previous levels. If you’re taking this at level 8 that means +16 hit points right there. At level 12, that’s +24 hit points right then and there.

That’s not a small amount, especially for a class where Constitution is often (at best) your 3rd primary ability score, and your hit dice is only a d8. Every single level in the future, you not only roll your hit die plus Constitution modifier for hit points, but you keep adding +2 HP on top of that for the rest of the campaign.

Anything that helps you live longer, especially if you’re going with a melee warlock like Hexblade or Pact of the Blade that will put you in the middle of the action, is going to be extremely useful to you throughout the game.

Well that’s terrifying – a warlock in their prime.

6. Spell Sniper (The Player’s Handbook)

Spell Sniper is pretty awesome, and there’s a reason that it is on the shortlist of every casting class and even many half caster classes. Much like a real sniper, you have more range with your attacks. The Spell Sniper feat gives you double the range on any spell that requires an attack roll. A spell with 30 foot range now has 60. 60 feet now becomes 120, and you can see very quickly how those can stack.

Considering there are invocations to extend the range of Eldritch Blast, it’s possible to have your fired up Eldritch Blast covering distances of hundreds of feats, allowing you to aim at any enemy on the battlefield, sometimes kicking off things with several surprise rounds from a distance as the enemies need to close the gap to even start the regular battle.

Spell Sniper also has the same “sniper” aspect that the Sharpshooter feat has, which is ignoring partial cover completely. If you can see any part of the enemy, you can make that shot!

Not only does this apply to spells with rolls you already know, but you also get to learn a cantrip of your choice that requires an attack roll whether it’s usually available to your class or not. While you won’t often see a better option than turbo charging your Eldritch Blast, having some elemental damage on your side is also a pretty good idea.

5. Mobile (The Player’s Handbook)

Mobile is a Feat for the warlock on the go. It lets you increase speed, makes it easier for your character to get around, and makes it so you don’t provoke opportunity attacks. That is a great combination, especially for Hexblade warlocks, but this can be useful for many other classes of warlock, as well.

Mobile is a great Feat to choose if you want, well, mobility! Your character has increased movement and control in the game, which can give you a lot of advantages. It’s more of a defensive than offensive action, but it could be used for both. It’s a very reliable Feat that comes in handy in a bind.

4. Metamagic Adept (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)

Obtaining this Feat means that you have learned to alter how your spells function through sheer force of will! You are now able to learn 2 Metamagic spells from the sorcerer’s class.

Whenever you reach a level that grants the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can replace one of these Metamagic options with another one from the sorcerer class.

Suggested Metamagic feats for Warlocks:

  • Heightened Spell:
    • When you cast a spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw to resist its effects, you can spend 3 sorcery points to give one target of the spell disadvantage on its first saving throw made against the spell.
  • Quickened Spell:
    • When you cast that’s casting time is 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting.
  • Twinned Spell:
    • When you cast a spell that targets only one creature and doesn’t have a range of self, you can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level to target a second creature in range with the same spell (1 sorcery point if the spell is a cantrip).
    • To be eligible for being twinned, a spell must be incapable of targeting more than one creature at the spell’s current level. For example, Magic Missile and Scorching Ray aren’t eligible, but Ray of Frost is.
    • This one is especially nice as it doesn’t require expending an additional spell slot.

3. Inspiring Leader (The Player’s Handbook)

Inspiring Leader is more defensive than it is offensive, but it doesn’t involve fighting any hideous beasts. Rather, you do exactly what the title says you do – you make an inspiring speech as a leader prior to an engagement, when you have 10 minutes to give a rousing speech!

This might not sound as flashy or exciting as making attacks or shooting over six hundred feet, but Dungeons and Dragons is a teamwork-based game, so it can make a lot of difference.

You inspire up to 6 of your teammates and rouse them with an inspirational speech. This “Coach ’em up!” talk means each member of your team gets temporary hit points equal to your level + your Charisma modifier. Since Charisma is your main stat, this is going to be a high modifier and since it scales with level, this can become a significant level of temporary hit points.

At low levels every hit point counts, and even at mid levels a likely 14-15 temporary hit points is an impressive amount, especially for squishy classes.

Plus the potential for great roleplay moments with giving a speech is fantastic, as Braden demonstrated at our Sunday game with an amazing Tabaxi Warlock. After a minute of an epically delivered speech on tuna vs grouper, salmon vs carp, cream vs watery milk, as DM my response was “Somehow even all non-Tabaxi gain 14 temporary hit points.”

They are potentially great spotlight type moments.

2. Eldritch Adept (Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything)

I mean this should be no surprise as this is the feat that is made for warlocks. One thing about warlocks is that they have so many invocations which give the class their versatility, and no one who has ever played a 5E warlock felt like choosing them was easy. There were always great invocations with every build that had to be left behind, and this allows you to not only pick up another one – but with this one to trade it out upon leveling up.

This can be huge as it allows you to pick a good mid-level invocation for when you need it in the campaign, but still reserve that extra invocation space for a big-power invocation at later levels.

Definitely worth a look for warlocks, especially if you find yourself just one invocation short of what you really want.

1. Resilient (The Player’s Handbook)

Resilient is extremely useful to Warlocks because it can increase your ability to concentrate on a spell. This Feat allows you to add 1 to any ability score per experience level, but the best thing for Warlocks may be to add those points to Constitution. By adding to Constitution, you can boost your hit points and have a higher chance of success on your spell concentration throws.

Being able to hold concentration on one of those precious spells, since warlocks get so few, is crucial. Adding an entire save proficiency is also a quality boost on top of it.

Why No Magic Initiate?

This is a good question, and a case can be made for the Magic Initiate Feat being a good pick because getting additional spells is a huge deal, especially for a warlock. I wouldn’t fault most warlock builds for considering it. The difference is that since Eldritch Blast gets super-charged for warlocks there aren’t many other attack cantrips that make sense, lessening many of the popular options other classes choose with this feat.

There’s also the fact that you must use the casting ability score of the class you’re learning the spells from. This isn’t as big a deal since the charisma means you won’t have a problem adopting to Bard or Sorcerer spell options.

It’s not a bad feat, but because of the unique ways that warlocks work in 5th Edition campaigns, they’re the one spellcasting class that might get a lot less out of it in reality as opposed to what it looks like on paper.

Best Feats for Warlocks: Concluding Thoughts

Warlocks are one of my favorite classes just because of how versatile they are and how unique the invocations allow builds to be. As someone who loves strange versatile combinations over traditional min-maxing, and is story/background first, I love everything about this class and how the best warlock feats can allow you to build stunningly effective characters that look completely different from one another even if the same class or even same patron type.

If you take a look at what these 5E feats have to offer, you will be able to put together a warlock that can hold their own in any situation and be a major asset to the adventuring party while being very fun to play.

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