Why You Should Play Undead Warlock

Author: Xenken

The Undead Patron for Warlock, released just recently in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, is set to be one of the book’s biggest impacts for character building and optimization, standing out even among intense competition with its unique and powerful features. We recently posted a build using this subclass as a centerpiece, but there is more here to unearth.

The first reason why Undead Patron Warlock is so good, and the reason why it’ll be the next in the line of dipping powerhouses, is Form of the Dead, its first level feature. With proficiency bonus number of uses per long rest, expect to have it up at least half the time. As a non-spell bonus action, it takes very little out of your turn, and the effects range from good to great. The temporary hit points provided is a nice cushion, and the immunity to the frightened condition can help maintain your ability to move around. The really big deal, however is this:

Frightened’s disadvantage on attacks and checks is already a pretty strong debuff (considering you can apply it repeatedly), but it also comes with the drawback of not being able to move toward the fear’s source. That’s, y’know, you—the ranged attacker. You can just walk into a room, see the troll about to charge at your Fighter, turn this on, shoot them, and lock the troll out of combat forever. Oh, you missed? Or they saved and they make it into melee for a turn? Well you probably have Repelling Blast, so you can hit them again, push them, and send them right back into the cage. Being frightened and at a distance (an increasing distance with Repelling Blast) is basically equivalent to being banished for a huge chunk of the bestiary, and the vast majority of what is leftover is still heavily impeded due to their inferior ranged attacks. And you can apply this to your cantrip, as a bonus action, without concentration, and with 2 other effects! Wild.

So let’s talk about that dip. Up until now, if you wanted to take a few Warlock levels in order to grab the machine that is eldritch blast with invocations, Hexblade was far and away the best option. Even on classes that didn’t particularly need the Charisma weapons or the armor proficiency, Hexblade’s Curse and shield provided an incomparable amount of value. But there is now competition, as the fear from Undead’s Form of Dread makes it notably better than Hexblade’s Curse, meaning that many classes that would formerly have dipped Hexblade will be forced to reconsider their options. Let’s take Paladin, as a classic example.

The traditional Hexblade Paladin, either Hexblade 1 or Hexblade 2, invests into smite spells, Divine Smite, and Extra Attack by supplementing them with feats like Polearm Master, and so relies on Hex Warrior to effectively pump both its attacking and Aura of Protection Ability Scores at once. But an increasingly popular Hexblade Paladin variant forgoes this investment entirely, relying only on eldritch blast as its main source of damage. This is a powerful strategy because it means the Paladin doesn’t have to choose between going into melee and positioning ranged and caster teammates within its auras, and Undead 2 (or even 1, with Extra Attack magic stone) is almost unilaterally better here. There’s no need for armor proficiency or Charisma to hit with weapons, and said Paladin may end up picking up shield anyway from the popular Sorcerer (second) multiclass. Even Hexblade 2 versions of Polearm Master Paladin may also switch, as the frightened immunity lets them still approach to melee against creatures that might otherwise force them out, while eldritch blast with push and on hit frightened helps to keep them from being surrounded and focused down. Alternatively, Polearm Master builds could take Undead 3 for shillelagh via Pact of the Tome to have Charisma weaponry anyway, like we would have done before Hexblade was released.

Overall Hexblade is still more broadly applicable, due to medium armor, shields, and shield covering multiple important gaps in class toolkits, but Form’s of Dread’s raw power cannot be denied, and its ability to add strong non-concentration control in a single level will always make it a consideration for dipping. There’s a new Warlock dip in town.

Let’s say you’re not interested at all in multiclassing. You’re a straight-classed Undead Warlock in Tier 2 and you’re looking for mid-game value from your subclass. Well fear not, because The Undead Patron follows up its powerful level 1 with one of the better extra damage subclass features in Grave Touched. This feature gives you the ability to turn the damage from an attack roll into necrotic damage and do one extra die of damage once per turn. Despite the mild nerf from the Unearthed Arcana version of this ability, it remains a consistent and fairly powerful offensive boost, especially since the damage can trigger from a second eldritch blast beam even if the first one misses. And what if I told you that wasn’t even the best thing about Tier 2 Undead Warlock?

The best thing about The Undead Patron is its list of bonus spells. Two important spells of note here are phantom steed and death ward. The former is an amazing pick for the enterprising Pact of the Tome player looking for ritual advantage. With a 1 hour duration, 11 minute ritual casting time, and the ability for anyone else to ride the summoned steed, you could potentially give it to multiple party members. Considering that their base 100ft speed is boosted by their ability to Dash for an insane 200ft of movement, (“only” 100ft while squeezing through a medium space,) the Undead Warlock can put their party head and shoulders above any enemy in terms of positioning. Death ward, meanwhile, is a potentially stackable 8 hour buff coming off of a class who can recover any slot spent to cast it in only 1 hour. Give the subclass an inch in terms of resting or morning off time, and they’ll just slather the party in death wards and provide an important, powerful safety net for their team. Even if your table does not permit the stacking of death ward as utilized in the Death Warden, everyone having death ward up every day is amazing. Add on other great picks like phantasmal force and antilife shell and you have a powerful set of spell choices for the subclass.

The other features are fine too. Defensive stuff you will definitely not be sad to have. You should definitely try this subclass. While it hasn’t taken over the “build space” for Warlock entirely, with the Hexblade dip and the Genie straight class being as powerful as they are, it manages to compete with both by using a combination of control, mobility, and support that’s entirely unique to itself, serving as a reliable backbone even (or perhaps especially) in the toughest of games.

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