Elf Great Old One Patron Warlock Build Guide
Pairing the Elf's unearthly grace with the mind-bending secrets of the Great Old One creates a hauntingly elusive controller who dominates the battlefield.
Free — no signup needed for the free tier.
Why Great Old One Patron?
As a Great Old One Warlock, your main job is to act as a "Controller," a role focused on manipulating enemies and locking down the battlefield. The Elf's natural agility and sharp senses perfectly complement this playstyle. With Fey Ancestry, you gain protection against being charmed, ensuring you stay focused on maintaining concentration on your crucial crowd-control spells.
Additionally, your psychic abilities shine when paired with your elven heritage. The Awakened Mind feature allows you to telepathically project thoughts into any creature's mind. When combined with the Elf's Trance trait, which lets you stay semi-conscious during a short rest, you can keep silent watch while mentally communicating with allies without making a sound.
Your stats support this perfectly. Your high Charisma of 15 drives your spellcasting, making your mind-altering spells incredibly difficult for enemies to resist, while your Dexterity of 14 keeps your defenses high without heavy armor.
Great Old One Patron Features
Awakened Mind
Level 3You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet. You don't need to share a language for the creature to understand your telepathic messages, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.
Great Old One Spells
Level 3You gain additional spells that count as warlock spells for you: Dissonant Whispers, Tasha's Hideous Laughter (level 1); Detect Thoughts, Phantasmal Force (level 3); Clairvoyance, Hunger of Hadar (level 5); Dominate Beast, Evard's Black Tentacles (level 7); Dominate Person, Telekinesis (level 9).
Psychic Spells
Level 3You learn additional psionic spells that count as warlock spells for you. These spells allow you to invade and manipulate the minds of your enemies.
Clairvoyant Combatant
Level 6When you deal damage to a creature, you gain advantage on attack rolls against that creature until the end of your current turn, as you peer briefly into its immediate future. Additionally, that creature can't make opportunity attacks against you for the rest of that turn.
Eldritch Hex
Level 10When you place a curse on a creature (such as with the Hex spell or a warlock feature that curses), you can use a bonus action to give that creature disadvantage on saving throws against one ability of your choice until the curse ends.
Thought Shield
Level 10Your thoughts can't be read by telepathy or other means unless you allow it. You also have resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of psychic damage.
Create Thrall
Level 14You can use your action to touch an incapacitated humanoid. That creature is then charmed by you until a Remove Curse spell is cast on it, the charmed condition is removed from it, or you use this feature again. You can communicate telepathically with the charmed creature as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence.
Recommended Ability Scores
Elf Traits That Benefit Great Old One Patron Warlock
Fey Ancestry
Extra saving throw advantages protect against debilitating spells and effects.
Trance
Trance means shorter rests and the ability to keep watch more effectively.
Darkvision
Elf Darkvision helps Warlocks scout ahead and fight in darkness without needing a torch.
Keen Senses
Free Perception proficiency is valuable for any Warlock, especially in exploration.
Combat Effectiveness
| Level | HP | Melee DPR | Spell DPR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 5 | 33 | 3.9 | 9 |
| Level 11 | 69 | 3.58 | 12.38 |
| Level 17 | 105 | 3.58 | 16.5 |
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Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- ♦ Great Old One Patron grants Awakened Mind at level 3
- ♦ Strong species-class synergy enhances core abilities
- ♦ Darkvision for dungeon exploration
- ♦ Versatile spellcasting options
Weaknesses
- ♦ Low Wisdom — vulnerable to common saving throws
- ♦ May require careful feat selection to optimize
Pro Tips
Use Awakened Mind to telepathically coordinate battle plans with your allies silently while scouting ahead using your elven Darkvision.
Position yourself safely behind your sturdier allies; maintaining concentration on your Great Old One Spells is your top priority.
Pair Clairvoyant Combatant with your elven mobility to safely analyze and avoid dangerous enemy attacks while casting from a distance.
Leverage your Trance rest periods to remain mentally active, using telepathy to interrogate captive enemies while the rest of the party sleeps.
Other Warlock Subclasses for Elf
Other Races for Great Old One Patron Warlock
Frequently Asked Questions
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What makes Great Old One Patron different from other Warlock subclasses?
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