Warlock Spell Tier List – The Best Warlock Spells
This will be a deeper dive and analysis on why spells have their tier ranking on the Warlock spell list.
Compared to other full casters, Warlocks are unique as they have spell slots up to fifth level (fewer than other full casters), and then Mystic Arcanum after that. With the limitation on their resources being tied to short and long rests, spells need to have a high impact to be considered. That being said, all of your non-Mystic Arcanum spells are automatically upcast, so any spell that does well with being upcast will be placed higher than spells that would normally be good, but don’t upcast as well.
- Cantrips
- 1st Level Spells
- 2nd Level Spells
- 3rd Level Spells
- 4th Level Spells
- 5th Level Spells
- 6th Level Spells
- 7th Level Spells
- 8th Level Spells
- 9th Level Spells
Tier List Rankings
I do a standard S-F tier ranking and here’s how I categorize them:
S Tier – The absolute best of the best. These options can even broach into unfair territory and may be subject to being banned at certain tables. If you’re looking for power level alone, there’s functionally no reason not to use these.
A Tier – While not as broken as the S Tier options, these are as good as you can get without broaching into unfair territory, although some of them may be strong enough to feel unfair!
B Tier – These will not be as inherently powerful as A Tier options, but are still quite strong in their own right. These are likely a bit more situational or slightly weaker than the A tier options, but still very good.
C Tier – Decent options, but likely not overtly strong. These options don’t offer too much or may just be a bit too situational to be ranked higher, but are still options you should consider as these will be the average power level.
D Tier – While not completely useless, these options are either very weak or very situational so are unlikely to be used, but unlike F tier, these aren’t completely unusable or actively detrimental.
F Tier – Either so weak or so situational that these should functionally never be taken or considered unless in the most niche of circumstances.
Cantrips
S Tier
Eldritch Blast – Great range and great damage. While Invocations can now interact with other cantrips, you’ll still be hard pressed to find a better offensive cantrip than this.
A Tier
Mage Hand – Being able to manipulate objects from a distance is quite powerful, especially when it’s free. You’d be surprised how often a low grade telekinesis can come in handy whether it’s to grab something, activate a trap, or anything else a floating hand can accomplish.
Magic Stone – For normal uses, this damage isn’t too bad, but does get pretty quickly outclassed once you gain some levels. However, before you level up, this is some solid damage for a cantrip with only a bonus action to initially cast. Furthermore, if you’re able to get some sort of helpers in battle, this turns them into actual threats as most spells that create familiar adjacent things will be able to toss these. This is pretty cheeky, but a powerful interaction if you’re willing to set this up.
Mind Sliver – The damage is pretty low for a cantrip, but comes with some real upsides. First off, hitting on this is extremely consistent as Intelligence saving throws tend to be terrible for both players and adversaries alike. Second, giving a 1d4 penalty on an enemies next saving throw can make all the difference in them failing an important check or not. If you need consistency, this is king for a cantrip.
Minor Illusion – Even if it’s just in a 5 foot cube, the amount of versatility this cantrip can give you is nearly unmatched. Creating a distraction, making a quick hiding spot for free, or pretty much anything else someone creative can think of can be very powerful in the right situations.
Prestidigitation – This does an exceptional amount of things for one cantrip and is easily the most versatile cantrip in D&D. With six distinct options, there are thousands of things you could with this. None of these effects are high impact, but the versatility is completely unmatched.
B Tier
Booming Blade* – This is the gold standard for cantrips if you’re getting up close and personal with enemies. Attempting to seal enemy movements by threatening 1d8 damage is pretty good, especially if you can weave in and out of combat with something like the Mobile feat. This cantrip sweetens a lot more once you hit level 5 as you get 1d8 up front and 2d8 if they move which is a solid amount of damage for a cantrip.
Create Bonfire – The damage on this cantrip is pretty standard, but getting even a small amount of area denial on a cantrip can be really strong. If you have ways to force movement from other creatures or even lock creatures down into a space, this can be very powerful. This would be an A tier cantrip if it didn’t require Concentration to keep going as you will likely have something better to concentrate on than this most of the time.
Green-Flame Blade* – Like Booming Blade, you’re only using this if you’re stepping right up to enemies. While Booming Blade is better for single targets, this works best when there’s two enemies close to each other. If you like getting into melee, you’re using Booming Blade or this as your most common cantrips.
Toll the Dead – Half the range of Eldritch Blast and sometimes less the damage, but if the target is missing any health, this does deal a bit more damage than an Eldritch Blast that doesn’t have any upgrades from Eldritch Invocations.
True Strike* – Completely reworked from 5th edition, this lets you not have a particularly high combat stat (STR or DEX) and still deal reasonable damage with a weapon attack. Crucially, you aren’t limited to melee weapons here so you do have greater versatility on how you use this which is interesting. While using this with a crossbow will technically be the highest damage dealing cantrip you could get up until level 5, it will then get outpaced after that making it good if you want that extra point or so of damage on average (and you wouldn’t have already gotten it without this), but then you should swap this out unless your build is relying on it.
C Tier
Blade Ward* – While much worse for full casters as a minor attack penalty for enemies is likely not going to save you, this is pretty potent on more martial characters where that functional slight AC buff may be the difference between an attack hitting or not. That said, this does cost a whole action which makes this a bit painful on classes that can’t weave cantrips into their attack, so I would probably limit this to just Bladesingers, Eldritch Knights, and Valor Bards.
Chill Touch – Decent damage and a cool effect to prevent healing, but having to be up close and personal with an enemy for this to work is definitely not the easiest proposition for most spellcasters. To make matters worse, if you want to be in melee range, why not just use Booming Blade?
Frostbite – The range is whatever, the damage isn’t great, and Constitution saves tend to be pretty high, but giving disadvantage on an attack roll is quite powerful if this connects.
Poison Spray – Great damage, but pretty short range and bad damage type. Still, this is a decent cantrip if you’re looking to be somewhat close to enemies.
Sword Burst* – If you are somehow surrounded by enemies (which is a bad place to be unless you’re ok with being in melee range), this is quite powerful as you can dole out a lot of damage on one action.
D Tier
Infestation – Low range, low damage, a Constitution save, a commonly resisted damage type, and random forced movement does not bode well for this spell, but any forced movement with damage on a cantrip can’t be all bad.
Lightning Lure* – Like Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, and Sword Burst, you really do not want to be using this unless you like being in melee range, but pulling enemies towards you can be strong if you need to move them away from your lower health allies and you need to get into melee range.
F Tier
Friends – Advantage on Charisma checks can really smooth over negotiations, but only having a minute, only working against humanoids, doesn’t work against anyone you’re fighting, and the target being instantly hostile to you after the fact really limits the practical applications of this.
Thunderclap – While this may be an ok distraction, damage only within 5 feet and a Constitution saving throw makes this really, really bad.
1st Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Armor of Agathys – A staple for Warlocks in the early game. 5 additional health is a big deal, and anything hitting you taking an unconditional 5 damage is quite strong as well. Furthermore, when you level up and are forced to upcast, you get more and more temporary health as well as more damage when you get hit. The only issue is that this spell deactivates when you run out of temporary health so it’s definitely weaker than it used to be, but anything that gives temporary health is now better than it used to be as well.
Hex* – This looks a lot better than it may initially read. Dealing an additional d6 on all attack rolls can add up, especially once you start firing multiple Eldritch Blasts, and giving disadvantage can be a big deal for your spellcasting teammates. While excellent early, this does fall off in higher levels where the damage boost becomes more and more marginal, even though it does still work reasonably well with Eldritch Blast as you get more beams. I wouldn’t keep this forever, but I would definitely stick with it for awhile.
B Tier
Expeditious Retreat – This is good if you need to chase something or run away, but using your Concentration is quite rough, especially with only a 10 minute duration. That being said, this can be used really effectively to kite enemies on the battlefield and a good portion of enemies will have no real recourse to this strategy, so this can be pretty powerful in the right fights.
Hideous Laughter – A solid “save or suck” spell for lower levels. Taking an enemy out of combat temporarily is very good, and if their Wisdom save is low enough, that can be for awhile. Since you don’t get guaranteed criticals on them like you would for Hold Person, it’s best to let them be until you take out their allies rather than disturb them. Now that it can be upcasted, it is even better on Warlocks than it would be for normal casters!
Witch Bolt – Decent damage and you can keep zapping your target as a bonus action even if you miss? Pretty solid! This won’t keep up at higher levels as only the initial blast gets stronger when upcast, but it is solid early.
C Tier
Arms of Hadar – Interesting substitution for disengaging. The AOE isn’t that large and the damage isn’t great, but if you find yourself getting surrounded often, this could be a solid inclusion.
Cause Fear – Frightening creatures can be pretty solid, especially if you target creatures that like being in melee. Furthermore, you can upcast this to get multiple enemies when needed which is pretty nice. The downside is that the creature is only frightened of you and they can still attack even if you’re in line of sight, albeit at disadvantage.
Charm Person – This is like Friends, but actually reasonable. Being charmed is substantially better than just getting advantage on Charisma checks, but similar to Friends, they will know they were charmed at the end of the spell’s duration so there is risk there.
Comprehend Languages – This may not come up often, so it may be hard to justify it’s inclusion. Considering you aren’t a ritual caster, this spell is even more cumbersome as spending a slot on it can be pretty painful. If nobody else can learn it and it seems relevant to the campaign, it can be a worthy inclusion.
Detect Magic – Not always the most impactful, but having this is really important in a lot of scenarios. That said, Warlocks don’t get to prepare too many spells per day, so using one of those slots on a ritual that someone else can probably take will likely not be worth it.
Hellish Rebuke – Only being able to cast this if you get hurt is far from great, and with so few spell slots, it’s hard to justify using one on just middling damage. This isn’t bad, but it’s far from great.
Protection from Evil and Good – If you’re facing any of the mentioned creature types, this is decent protection from them. Depending on your campaign, these creature types may be more or less prevalent, but obviously the more undead and extraplanar beings you’re fighting, the better this gets.
Unseen Servant – This really doesn’t provide much more utility than Mage Hand in the average campaign, but it has more strength so you can have it haul some things or interact with heavier objects as needed. However, you can summon one or a bunch of these, give them Magic Stones, and have them go to town to make this a much more powerful spell. All that said, this isn’t the best on Warlocks who get so few spell slots, so you’re unlikely to grab this.
D Tier
Bane – While the debuff is minor, sometimes that can make all the difference. Since you get three targets, you have a good chance of hitting at least one of them which isn’t terrible, but you probably have better uses of your Concentration, especially as you progress in levels.
Speak with Animals – While I probably like this spell more than most, it’s nearly impossible to justify taking this on a class that can prepare and cast so few spells.
F Tier
Illusory Script – If you’re lucky, you may use this literally once in a campaign as it is so specific. This is probably more for DM use than player use.
2nd Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Suggestion* – This spell is pretty nuts. You only get a sentence or two to give your course of action, but a lot of information can be transferred in just a sentence. Whether you’re using this against one lone enemy or one enemy in a group, you’re going to get a lot of mileage out of this. The only issue with this for Warlock’s in particular is that there is no upcast version of this, so this does have diminishing returns as you level up, so while excellent early, I would likely swap it out around level 7.
B Tier
Darkness – This isn’t too different than Fog Cloud in terms of obscurement, but if you or a party member have the Devil’s Sight eldritch invocation, then you can do some serious damage in that darkness while the enemies are completely blind. However, without a way to mitigate the downside, the uses of this are very limited.
Invisibility – Being invisible is unmatched for infiltration, surprise attacks, and anything else you may need to be invisible for. While offensive actions will break it, getting a surprise round can easily trivialize an encounter. Furthermore, since all your spells have to be upcast anyway, this works really well in later levels where most, if not all of your party can be invisible with you.
Mirror Image – This is a pretty powerful defensive option, especially since this doesn’t take your Concentration up at all. The issue is your images are likely to be destroyed somewhat quickly if you’re being focused down making this potentially riskier than something like Blur, but this pretty reasonable if you think you need a defensive option.
C Tier
Cloud of Daggers – Area denial spells are generally pretty strong, but with such a small area of effect and not too much damage, this isn’t that strong. If you can cover an important choke point or force movement into it, this can be reasonably good. Furthermore, you can now move it around which is nice, although it costs you a full action. Pretty decent overall.
Earthbind – If you have a lot of allies that are mainly melee, being able to pull a flying enemy to the ground can be invaluable. Realistically most characters have ranged options which makes this pretty niche, especially in the early game where flying enemies have low health, but this can be more useful in the later game where dragons may come into play.
Enthrall – This is way better than it used to be, but still pretty situational. This is like a reverse Pass Without Trace, so as long as you only need to sneak past a few people, this is pretty effective.
Hold Person – The biggest “save or suck” spell at this level. The problem with “save or suck” spells is how swingy they are – if the target passes their check, you wasted your turn, if they fail, you get incredible value. This looks super tempting as you get auto-criticals on any target hit by this spell, but the risk that you waste your turn if they pass the check or only deprive them of an action is definitely high. Furthermore, enemies that aren’t monsters tend to be really low leveled or really high levels NPCs, so the amount of times you could even use this may be inherently limited by your setting.
Misty Step – A bonus action to move 30 feet is excellent, especially for casters that need to continue concentrating on a spell or you need a quick escape. While this is normally S tier, this is not nearly as good on Warlocks who have very limited spell slots, especially when there is a strictly better effect that does this next level.
Ray of Enfeeblement – Pretty reasonable against Strength based enemies as, even if they pass, they get disadvantage on their next attack. If they fail, they have disadvantage on all attacks and a damage debuff. A little specific, but I can get behind this.
Spider Climb – A solid spell as you can navigate up and down walls, ceilings, chasms, you name it, but will very quickly be outclassed by Fly. That said, if you’re in an enclosed space, this may be better than Fly.
D Tier
Crown of Madness – In theory, this spell could’ve been great. Turning an enemy and forcing them to attack an ally is very strong. However, everything kind of falls apart after that. You need to use your Action to keep control of the target, the target gets a saving throw every turn, and they have to use their action before their movement which severely limits how much they get to do. If you can target someone in the middle of a group, this should still be reasonably useful, but that’s not going to be easy to set up.
F Tier
Mind Spike – The same amount of damage as lower level spells with a weird and really not helpful caveat added on top of it. If you really need to keep tabs on someone, I guess this is how you’d do it, but the situations in which this would be relevant seems super rare.
Shadow Blade – This spell is really strong, but this does not work well with Warlocks. The only Warlock looking to get close is the Hexblade, and since this isn’t your pact weapon, there’s no real reason to use this.
3rd Level Spells
S Tier
Counterspell – An absolute necessity for every party. Reaction spells are excellent and this is one of the most iconic and powerful ones, even if it technically got nerfed.
A Tier
Dispel Magic – An absolute necessity for every party, even if it may not come up too often.
Fly – While there is a risk in plummeting to your death if you lose concentration, Fly can absolutely break the game against certain encounters. While Warlocks are probably the “worst” full caster to put a Fly on, dive-bombing enemies with Eldritch Blast can only be so bad.
Hypnotic Pattern – While this may not be the easiest to aim if your allies are strewn about, Pattern can absolutely demolish an encounter if you catch enough people with it. Although it’s relatively easy to break with them taken damage or an ally shaking them out, you are trading your one action for a large amount of actions from the enemies.
B Tier
Enemies Abound – While this will only be effective facing a group of enemies, turning an enemy in the middle of the group is extremely disrupting. Furthermore, forcing an Intelligence saving throw which is likely to be really bad for most enemies makes this much more likely it will work.
Fear – This is an excellent CC spell with a pretty big AOE, but immunity to being frightened may start being common around this level. Still a great option if you’re looking to heavily disrupt enemies.
Major Image – Since this doesn’t trigger a saving throw, you are pretty much guaranteed to get some value out of this as enemies need to interact with the image or pass an Investigation (Intelligence) check against your save DC. Like other illusions, how good this is will hinge on how creative you are, but this should be useful in a wide variety of scenarios.
Summon Shadowspawn – Not the highest AC for a summon, but a decent health pool and damage output helps make up for that. Furthermore, you have three great options to pick from that can synergize well with a lot of different party compositions. You do have to be careful as the abilities here affect all creatures, not just opposing, but as long as you’re being cognizant with where you’re placing it, you should be fine.
Summon Undead – While the damage is kind of low for a summon, the Ghost form of this is quite strong with decent damage, incorporealness, and a fly speed which makes this solid in and out of battle.
Thunder Step – This spell isn’t as strong as Misty Step for other spellcasters, but for Warlocks who have to upcast anyway, this can be viewed as an upgrade. Using an action over a bonus action may hurt if you have something good to do with your action, but if you don’t normally, this is then just a better version as you can get some damage.
C Tier
Gaseous Form – This can be a decent infiltration or escape option, but your other options for scouting or escaping are probably more effective or a lower leveled spell. Still, the versatility here is nice.
Hunger of Hadar – Solid AOE, difficult terrain, blindness, and ok damage! This spell does a good amount for the level and can really help in splitting up groups of enemies.
Intellect Fortress – This probably won’t come up often, but this is an excellent defense against enemy spell casters trying to use CC effects on you. A little niche and it requires your concentration, but when it’s relevant, it can be really relevant.
Remove Curse – Not going to be relevant often, especially as some curses specify that this doesn’t work on them, but this will get the job done if you need it to a decent amount of the time.
Summon Fey – For a third level summon, the health, AC, and damage are all pretty decent, but that’s about all this spell offers. The different options are all pretty much the same power level as none of them have a stand out effect. This isn’t bad if you care about damage over utility, but you likely have better options at this level.
Vampiric Touch* – While most spellcasters don’t want to be close enough to use this, Hexblades wouldn’t mind some extra healing. While the extra damage isn’t too high and the healing is even less, being able to regain health at all and deal a lot of extra damage over time is still valuable.
D Tier
Magic Circle – This isn’t that different from Protection from Evil and Good, but this is both two levels higher, requires a minute to cast, and is put into a fixed place. This doesn’t require concentration at least, but this is still incredibly hard to justify.
Tongues – Depending on the campaign, this and Comprehend Languages can range from excellent to pretty mediocre, but this is the only spell that does this effect so it’s hard to replace. That said, it’s very hard to justify using a spell slot on this unless your setting makes this mandatory.
F Tier
Spirit Shroud – While you can cast this as a bonus action and it adds a bit of damage to all of your attack rolls, this is very low impact for a third level spell. The speed reduction can be nice, but only being able to do that to one creature is pretty lame. There are almost certainly better uses for your Concentration, but if you find an enemy that’s either constantly regenerating or is vulnerable to one of the damage types listed, then this could potentially be alright.
Summon Lesser Demons – Why summon a creature that will be hostile to everyone when you can summon a creature that will just obey you instead?
4th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Banishment – Being able to remove an enemy from the fight for a full minute is really powerful, especially if you nab an extraplanar being with this. If they fail the save and you’re able to maintain your concentration for a full minute, that extraplanar creature is sent to a random plane that makes sense for them. No more fight, they’re just gone!
Dimension Door – A really solid teleportation spell when you need it, especially if it’s to a spot you know is there but can’t currently see. Furthermore you get to take a creature along with you which is obviously strong, but they do need to be within 5 feet of you. On the flip side, having a range of 500 feet is massive and an excellent escape mechanism. The issue with this spell is that teleporting to a place you can’t see does come with risk as you can accidentally fail if you try to teleport within an object or creature, but that’s unlikely unless your DM is a real stickler.
Sickening Radiance – While the save being Constitution based is always a negative, the AOE of this spell is absolutely massive with a radius of 30 feet that even moves around corners. Furthermore, for anyone who moves into the area or starts their turn there, they take 4d10 damage, gain no advantage from being invisible, and get a level of exhaustion (exhaustion is more crippling now than it used to be)! The massive AOE is also a double-edged sword as your allies may get caught up in the area as well which can obviously be problematic. If you think you may be fighting hordes of enemies or you need to help cut off a large choke point, this could be a solid choice as you’ll get a much greater area from this compared to a spell like Wall of Fire (which Warlocks can’t get naturally) and you get the additional CC of exhaustion on top of it.
Summon Greater Demon – Unlike Summon Lesser Demons, this spell is actually pretty solid. First of all, you can get a CR 5 demon or lower which is pretty strong. Second, you can control it (at least until it passes a Charisma save) which is much better than letting demons run wild. When you use this, you generally have two options: make it fight for you immediately and risk losing control of it (less important if you can summon it near a group of enemies) or use its action to make it tell you its true name so it gets disadvantage on the saving throw to break your control. Either way, this should be a pretty useful summon to you, even if you lose control of it quickly.
B Tier
Shadow of Moil – This is pretty similar to Armor of Agathys in that it gives you a buff as well as punish people for hurting you, but this gives you a unique advantage in being “heavily obscured” from enemies. That means you have advantage on your attacks while opponents have disadvantage which can be excellent for any Eldritch Blast enjoyers or Hexblades.
C Tier
Summon Aberration – You have a trio of ok options here that are all pretty different which helps you have the right creature for each encounter. The Slaad form is interesting with its health regeneration, but non-magical damage and very little health regen on a creature that doesn’t have the highest AC, have the most health, or deal the most damage isn’t too exciting. The Star Spawn is a bit better with attacks and an aura that deals psychic damage which is a pretty rare resistance, and finally a Beholderkin which is just your ranged option, also with psychic damage. Not a bad summon, but nothing special either.
D Tier
Elemental Bane – Even if the target fails their Constitution saving throw, the effect on this is very minor. Removing a resistance and adding 2d6 if that elemental damage is used is a very niche effect and would only matter if you come across a creature that has resistances to every damage type you’re throwing at it. The only other scenario you may want to consider this is the vast majority of your team likes using the same elemental damage, and in that case, the damage could add up, but even then this probably won’t compare to the damage of a normal offensive spell. This isn’t completely worthless, but hard to imagine a scenario where you’d want to prepare this.
Hallucinatory Terrain – Very much an out of combat spell with a ten minute casting time, you can use this to completely morph an 150 foot cube to fool all common senses (until it’s interacted with or a creature passes an Investigation check). This is a very unique spell, but it’s hard to imagine in what scenario this will be helpful beyond some weird ambush potential.
F Tier
Blight – Not nearly enough damage for the level, low range, single target, and a Constitution saving throw. This is really rough and only should be considered if you know you’re facing plants, and even then, this may not be your best option.
Charm Monster – Being able to charm monsters is decent as they’ll stop targeting you, but this doesn’t extend to your allies and them being friendly is likely not going to matter unless they’re capable of conversation. If it’s really important for a specific monster to not hit you, this is a solid option, but this can feel weaker than Suggestion which is a second level spell.
5th Level Spells
This is the last level where your normal spell slots will apply before they switch to Mystic Arcanum. That’s why it’s really unfortunate that there not many spells and the best ones are not great (C tier). It is ROUGH. If you’re at this point, before you move up to sixth level spells, make sure all the spells you know are ones that do well with being upcast or are just great on their own.
S Tier
None
A Tier
Storm of Radiance – If you are just using this spell by itself, this is a not so great blast spell that enemies can simply walk out of after you cast it. However, if your party can coordinate in order to keep enemies in the area of effect, this will be brutal for spellcasters and non-casters alike. I generally don’t love spells that require help to make good, but the upside here is high enough that this should be a consideration for most team compositions.
Synaptic Static – The damage isn’t super high as it rivals a third level Fireball, it’s Psychic damage which is functionally never resisted, it’s an Intelligence saving throw which is going to be really low for most enemies, and it even debuffs them on top of it. Definitely a solid spell all around if you want an AOE blast spell.
B Tier
Teleportation Circle – With a one minute casting time and it consuming a 50 gp material component, this is not a spell you’re going to use too often. To make this even tougher to use, this needs to be connected to an established teleportation circle so this may have limited places this can even go, the exact opposite of what you’d want from a long range teleport. If the DM is nice and gives you ample circles to work with (which the spell even recommends, saying that many major temples, guilds, or other important places should have one), then this is good for mass or long distance travel.
C Tier
Hold Monster – Hold Person, but for monsters. You’re going to be fighting monsters much more often than people which gives this a big leg up, but with all other “save or suck” spells, not hitting on this is brutal. High risk, high reward, but still better than the other options Warlock gets at this level.
Danse Macabre* – This spell is very weird as it just specifies that you reanimate five medium or small creatures, not necessarily humanoids, so that does lead to ambiguity on what stat block you use. None the less, the most common use case of this is to reanimate five humanoids into skeletons, give them bows, and let them go to town at a distance.
Scrying – A solid surveillance spell if you need to know what a specific creature is doing or need to spy across long distances. The issue is the target gets a saving throw and will likely know they were going to be spied on which is really bad compared to something like Arcane Eye. Furthermore, with so few spell slots, it’s weird that the Warlock would need to take it, but trying to spy on someone and then short resting to try it again isn’t a bad idea.
D Tier
Contact Other Plane* – You get this spell automatically prepared at level 9, but this rating is based on casting it after the free cast. This is an awesome divination spell, but does not work well on Warlocks. First off, Warlocks have so few known spells that using one of them for this is just not a great deal. Second, making the DC 15 Intelligence saving throw to not go crazy for the day is pretty tough for a Warlock. Overall, not a spell a normal Warlock is looking to cast.
Far Step – If you need a lot of mobility during a fight, this can technically do the job as it let’s you use a better Misty Step every turn, but this needs your Concentration and it’s hard to imagine a scenario where this would be necessary versus a much lower leveled spell that can help you move around or escape.
Infernal Calling – While you can summon a pretty strong creature for the spell level, you have next to no control over it, especially if you aren’t evil. Unless you’re planning on doing something particularly evil, this may actually hurt you more than help you. Even if you aren’t evil, you may be able to sufficiently convince the demon to kill your enemies before trying to kill you.
Mislead – This spell is really strange as, if you’re invisible, you want to be sneaky, but you have a duplicate that’s perfectly visible. This can be a decent scouting option as you can both see and hear through it or give yourself an alibi if you’re looking to do something nefarious, but the options here are quite limited.
Planar Binding – For Wizards, they can go through the motions of casting an inverted Magic Circle, summoning a good creature, and then casting this to get a much longer summon. While Warlocks can also cast Magic Circle, they have so few spell slots that using them to do this set up with a summon does not seem great, unless you’re coordinating with another spellcaster.
F Tier
Dream – There are some neat things you can do with this, especially if you loved the movie Inception, but viable applications of this spell are going to be very few and far between. It’s substantially more likely your DM will use this spell compared to a player doing so.
Enervation – Witch Bolt is a first level spell and will average 6.5 damage per turn if it’s successful where this is fifth level spell that will deal an average on 18 damage per turn if it’s successful, or just an average of nine damage on a successful save from the target. That is just plain terrible.
Negative Energy Flood – Ok-ish damage for the level, but single target and a Constitution saving throw makes this spell super bad.
Wall of Light – This is really rough for a wall spell as it’s not a physical wall, doesn’t deal much damage, uses a Constitution saving throw to resist, and creatures have to end their turns there to be damaged rather than getting pushed into it. Blinded is a decent status condition to inflict, but getting multiple Constitution saving throws to end it makes it tough for it be consistent. The only use case I would consider using this is against a group of spellcasters who can stand in convenient spots for you, but that’s about it.
6th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Scatter – This teleportation spell is super versatile as you can use this against allies or enemies alike and move them 120 feet whichever way you feel. You’ll most often use this to help you and your party escape, but being able to target enemies and put them into a hazardous area can be really powerful. You can even mix and match enemies and allies to make this even more versatile.
B Tier
Eyebite – Being able to constantly CC enemies with one of three solid effects is pretty strong, even if it does take some time to use this on multiple enemies. The Asleep option is clearly the stand out here as you rob them of their action, and then their you may rob an ally of an action if they choose to wake them up (but they may not even bother). Panicked is also solid if you’re worried about someone waking them or you really need to put distance between you and that target. Finally, you have Sickened which is probably the weakest of the three as the target gets multiple saving throws, but it still has some utility.
Mental Prison – “Save or suck” spells are generally rough as a passed save means you wasted your turn, but Mental Prison has a few unique advantages. First off, even if the target passes their save, you still get a decent chunk of damage which is better than nothing. The second interesting difference is they only get the one chance to resist this spell or they take the damage and imagine themselves being trapped. There is no further check they can do to save themselves from this and their only option is to stay put or walk through which will yield a pretty nasty amount of damage. This is excellent against single, big enemies as you can wail on them while they’re trapped or just deal a boatload of damage to them if they escape quickly.
Soul Cage – A very strange, but extremely versatile spell. You can get healing, get some answers as a much better Speak with Dead, you can get advantage on an attack, ability check, or saving throw, or get a scouting spell in an any area that creature has ever been. All these abilities are solid, but the versatility of it and getting six charges really pushes the power level of the spell.
C Tier
Arcane Gate – Mass teleportation, even if it’s only 500 feet is generally very helpful, but this comes with a lot of caveats. The first issue is that you have to pick a point within 10 feet of you to set up the first gate. If your allies aren’t all around you, some people may be left out of the teleportation or you’ll have to hold it open longer, which in that time, enemies can follow you which is a problem. The second issue is you have to see the point where you want the second gate, so if you’re in an enclosed space, you’re out of luck. Not completely useless, but a bit tough to use.
Bubbling Cauldron – First off, this spell is just super cool. Being able to cook up a bunch of different potions that most, if not all of your party can use is just a cool concept, even if the spell slot is kind of high. While no common or uncommon potion is going to be super high impact, having the versatility to create a potion that would be helpful on the fly makes this spell better than it looks. Since the potential use cases here are incredibly varied, it is hard to give this an accurate rating as it’s nearly impossible to say when a potion is really going to help your party out. While how niche these situations are would make me personally shy away from this spell a bit, this is cool enough that many players should consider taking it.
Summon Fiend – The health and abilities on the summon definitely leave a bit to be desired, but the Demon and Devil form are solid whether you want a melee summon that will explode upon death or a flying devil that will hurl fire at enemies. Not a bad summon, but a little lacking for a sixth level spell.
D Tier
Investiture of Flame – The damage on this is not really not great for the level, but getting pure immunity to Fire can be good if you know you’re going to be dealing with a lot of it soon.
Investiture of Ice – The damage on this is not really not great for the level, but getting pure immunity to Frost can be good if you know you’re going to be dealing with a lot of it soon.
Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise – An interesting set of buffs for a Wizard that seem more geared toward melee combat. This probably wouldn’t be worthwhile to most spellcasters, but if you typically get into melee range, this could end up being useful. Even still, this is not the highest impact use of a sixth level slot, and Concentration spells that invite you to get into an enemies range obviously comes with a lot of inherent risk.
True Seeing – If you are going to find yourself in a scenario where there’s going to be a lot of illusions, invisible creatures, stuff in the ethereal plane, or all of the above, this is invaluable. That said, it’s hard to imagine that’s going to happen often unless your DM really likes utilizing them.
F Tier
Circle of Death – A massive AOE, but poor damage and prompting a Constitution saving throw is just terrible.
Create Undead – Even though this makes multiple summons for a good amount of time, the creatures created are just not strong enough to really justify it. Furthermore, you have to either keep recasting this to not lose control over the undead created or have them get destroyed so they don’t turn on you. Just not nearly impactful enough for a sixth level slot.
Investiture of Stone – Unlike Investiture of Flame or Investiture of Ice, you don’t gain a damage immunity but instead get resistance to piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning attacks. This is not a worthy tradeoff as spellcasters should be staying out of the way of attacks, not tanking them, and the earthquake action and difficult terrain mobility don’t even come close to justifying this spell.
Investiture of Wind – Unlike Investiture of Flame or Investiture of Ice, you don’t gain a damage immunity, but you do get a Fly speed of 60 and ranged attacks have disadvantage to hit you which can be interesting. The rough part is that this is barely better than Fly, and that’s three levels lower.
7th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
Crown of Stars – Although this does take a few turns to get its full effect, this is just an effective damage spell that doesn’t need Concentration and can be set up ahead of time.
B Tier
Forcecage – While expensive to cast, this spell can not be beat in terms of containing an enemy. There’s no save and the cage can be a solid box so sight based teleportation won’t work. Even if the enemy is a high enough level spellcaster to know teleportation that doesn’t require line of sight (like Dimension Door), they would still need to pass a Charisma saving throw which may not be their stat of choice to successfully escape. That said, consuming a 1500gp component is very painful and now requiring Concentration makes this much less reliable than it used to be. Still, this is a solid spell if you can afford the costly component.
Plane Shift – If you need to get real far away from something, this definitely does the job by bringing you to a different plane without any chance of mishap. The downside though is that all the creatures have to be touching in order for this to work which may not make this viable as an escape spell.
C Tier
Etherealness – This is an interesting spell as this is kind of a combined escape/scouting/infiltration spell as anyone and anything on the material plane won’t be able to interact or perceive you (without some serious magical aid) giving this a lot of utility. The issue is this only affects you, and it’s hard to imagine many scenarios in which you’re escaping or infiltrating by yourself.
D Tier
Finger of Death – A single target and Constitution based saving throw is pretty rough and it being barely better than lower level options, which is obviously not great. The one upside is that any creature that gets killed by this becomes a permanent zombie for you, so you could hypothetically slaughter a town with this and have an undead army at your disposal, but be sure to clear that with your DM first if you plan on trying that out.
F Tier
Dream of the Blue Veil – This spell will only matter if there’s story significance to one of the material planes and is otherwise useless.
Power Word: Pain – The Power Word spells are hard to use as you won’t always know when an enemy is below 100 health, but can have pretty strong effects if you guess right. This is not a strong effect. Just giving the creature disadvantage on checks and also multiple Constitution saving throws to break out of its effects is really weak.
8th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
None
B Tier
Dominate Monster – A “save or suck” spell at eighth level is definitely a big risk as using and failing is terrible value, and there is the other issue of targets in combat with you have advantage on the Wisdom saving throw to resist this. While that may seem too risky, if you get this to work, the effect could be devastating. Imagine dominating a dragon or any similarly terrifying creature (you’ll have to work through their legendary resistance first more than likely, but still)? This can easily trivialize an encounter if this works making it the very definition of high risk, high reward.
C Tier
Befuddlement – A dangerous spell that can completely devastate spellcasters, but it’s really only useful against spellcasters that don’t have a great Intelligence score. Since this doesn’t wipe memories as the target will still defend itself and its friends, you can’t effectively use this against creatures that don’t rely on their Intelligence or Charisma.
Demiplane – This is a weird spell as you can create an indefinite and mobile safe area or store house on demand as you can keep going back to the same plane if you so desire. You don’t necessarily need to be too creative to get good use out of this, but it’s hard to say how often you’d need to use this.
Maddening Darkness – This is a huge AOE damage spell that also blankets the area in darkness which is obviously powerful in any confined area or against any enemy who requires sight to do stuff (which is most people). The damage isn’t particularly high and it only deals damage if a creature starts their turn there rather then when they enter for the first time which does limit its usefulness.
Power Word: Stun – The Power Word spells are hard to use as you won’t always know when an enemy is below 150 health, but can have pretty strong effects if you guess right. Stunning an enemy is pretty strong as you get auto-crits which is clearly strong if they are already low on health. The issue is that they get a Constitution save at the end of each turn which makes this pretty easy to beat, but you will get a turn with it.
D Tier
Glibness – While there are some scenarios where this can be very helpful, those scenarios seem very few and far between. For skill checks involving Charisma, a 15 is likely going to be lower than your average roll anyway, so this doesn’t help. Circumventing lie detection magic like Zone of Truth only works if you can cast this without the other party seeing you do it. This does help with ability checks that require your Charisma, but 15 may not even cut it anymore unless we’re talking about auto-succeeding a Dispel Magic on a fifth level spell or lower, but is that really worth an eighth level slot?
F Tier
None
9th Level Spells
S Tier
None
A Tier
True Polymorph – The amount of stuff you can do with this spell is nearly unparalled, whether you’re looking to transform something scary into something harmless, harmless into scary, or scary into scarier. I won’t go into all the use cases as there’s too many to explain, but consider turning yourself or others into a Dragon or similarly terrifying creature and go nuts. Unfortunately, losing the temporary HP granted to you by this form does undo the spell when it didn’t before so it’s not as strong as it used to be, but it’s still very strong.
B Tier
Foresight – Likely the strongest buff spell in the game, lasts a long time, and doesn’t require Concentration. This is good on anyone, but unbelievable on a melee character. The only reason this isn’t ranked higher is because the power level of ninth level spells are just that high.
Psychic Scream – As a damage spell, this pales in comparison to Meteor Swarm which deals substantially more damage over a much greater area (Warlocks don’t get Meteor Swarm of course, but it’s good to compare). That said, this is an Intelligence saving throw which is likely to be low for most people and stuns anyone who fails it. If you believe you’re going to be in a longer fight, stunning can definitely be more helpful than the extra damage as you’ll get auto-criticals, and a melee class can definitely deal some stupid damage if they always critical.
C Tier
Blade of Disaster – This spell is definitely incredibly strong, but still pales in comparison to what other ninth level spells can do. That being said, a bonus action spell that can deal a lot of damage over the course of a fight is very strong.
Gate – This is a very weird spell that has a lot of uses. The classic use of this spell is to teleport yourself to a different plane of existence, but it has a lot of other implications as well. You can forcibly summon a creature that’s on a different plane and it doesn’t even get a saving throw – you can use this to set up traps beforehand and absolutely obliterate it if you please. You could even use this to transport a lot of stuff to do a different plane, like water or lava. Although this has a lot of uses, they are all still fairly niche making this spell somewhat hard to use.
D Tier
Astral Projection – This is a weird spell that’s helpful if you need to go into the Astral plane or other planes for some reason, but it doesn’t have much utility beyond that.
Imprisonment – It’s hard to imagine a player casting this spell unless there’s an enemy they can’t beat without binding them (but of course, you need to set a freedom condition as well). This spell reads like a DM spell rather than something players should actually consider.
Power Word: Kill – This spell realistically exists just so a DM can strike fear in player’s hearts when they’re still lower level. If you already have an enemy at 100 health or below, you can probably just kill them with something else rather than banking on being right on how much health they have left. That said, this does at least deal some damage if they are above 100 health, but again, you may as well just use something else.
F Tier
Weird – The weirdest thing about this is how it got to be a ninth level spell. The strength of this is nowhere near the other options and I would never consider taking it.
