Human Great Old One Patron Warlock Build Guide
Playing a Human Great Old One Warlock lets you anchor mind-bending cosmic horrors with adaptable mortal resolve and a vital starting feat.
Free — no signup needed for the free tier.
Why Great Old One Patron?
Choosing a Human for your Great Old One Warlock creates a highly resilient and adaptable controller. As a Human, your Versatile trait lets you select a free Origin feat at level 1, such as Alert to ensure you cast your mind-controlling spells before enemies can act, or Magic Initiate to expand your early spell selection. This gives you a massive head start in tailoring your build for psychic battlefield control.
Your role in the party is to dictate the flow of combat through mental manipulation. Thanks to Awakened Mind, you can telepathically communicate with any creature you can see, bypassing language barriers. When enemies try to fight back, the Human's Resourceful trait comes in handy by granting you Heroic Inspiration after every long rest, giving you a crucial reroll to keep your concentration on powerful psychic spells secure.
As you grow in power, features like Clairvoyant Combatant allow you to read your foes' movements to protect yourself, while your extra Skillful proficiency makes you an excellent face for the party out of combat. By blending human flexibility with alien psychic powers, you become a master of mental manipulation.
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
Human Traits That Benefit Great Old One Patron Warlock
Versatile
A free Origin feat provides a meaningful boost to any Warlock build right from level 1.
Resourceful
Free Heroic Inspiration each long rest gives a reliable reroll for critical moments.
Skillful
An extra skill proficiency expands the Warlock's out-of-combat versatility.
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
- ♦ Versatile spellcasting options
- ♦ Flexible build with room for customization
Weaknesses
- ♦ Low Wisdom — vulnerable to common saving throws
- ♦ No Darkvision — may need light sources in dungeons
Pro Tips
Use your Human Versatile trait to grab the Alert feat, letting you use Awakened Mind to coordinate with allies before enemies can react.
Save your Resourceful Heroic Inspiration to reroll Concentration checks, ensuring your powerful control spells from Great Old One Spells stay active.
Combine your Skillful bonus proficiency in Insight with Clairvoyant Combatant to completely read your targets inside and outside of active combat.
Apply Eldritch Hex to high-threat targets to impose disadvantage on their saving throws, making them easy prey for your mind-controlling spells.
Other Warlock Subclasses for Human
Other Races for Great Old One Patron Warlock
Frequently Asked Questions
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