Tiefling Great Old One Patron Warlock Build Guide
Combining tiefling heritage with the cosmic horrors of the Great Old One turns you into the ultimate telepathic battlefield controller.
Free — no signup needed for the free tier.
Why Great Old One Patron?
Playing a Tiefling Great Old One Warlock allows you to manipulate the minds of your enemies from the safety of the shadows. As a Controller, your job is to dictate the flow of battle, shutting down threats before they can harm your allies. By prioritizing Charisma (starting at 15), you ensure your mind-bending spells are incredibly difficult for foes to resist.
Your Tiefling heritage grants you the Fiendish Legacy trait, giving you innate fire resistance and extra spells that do not consume your precious Warlock spell slots. This perfectly offsets the Warlock's limited casting resources, leaving you free to cast powerful Great Old One psychic spells or use your Awakened Mind feature to telepathically direct your party without making a sound.
Meanwhile, your Darkvision lets you see in pitch-black environments, making you an excellent scout. In combat, you can comfortably sit back, using your high Charisma and telepathic abilities to confuse, hex, and dominate your enemies while your frontline allies clean up the mess.
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
Tiefling Traits That Benefit Great Old One Patron Warlock
Fiendish Legacy
Tiefling fire resistance and innate spellcasting complement the Warlock's magical abilities.
Darkvision
Tiefling Darkvision helps Warlocks scout ahead and fight in darkness without needing a torch.
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
- ♦ Built-in damage resistance improves survivability
Weaknesses
- ♦ Low Wisdom — vulnerable to common saving throws
- ♦ May require careful feat selection to optimize
Pro Tips
Use your Awakened Mind telepathy to coordinate stealthy ambushes with your party while scouting ahead in the dark using Darkvision.
Lean on your Fiendish Legacy spells for extra firepower so you can save your Warlock slots for high-impact Great Old One crowd control.
Once you get Clairvoyant Combatant, use it to safely track and target hidden enemies who think they are safe from your psychic grasp.
Combine Eldritch Hex with your control spells to weaken a boss's mental defenses, making them easy to shut down completely.
Other Warlock Subclasses for Tiefling
Other Races for Great Old One Patron Warlock
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Great Old One Patron a good subclass for Tiefling Warlock?
What makes Great Old One Patron different from other Warlock subclasses?
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