What do warlocks start with?

What Do Warlocks Start With? A Comprehensive Guide

When playing a warlock in D&D, it’s crucial to understand what abilities, spells, and invocations they start with. A warlock’s beginning statistics, abilities, and knowledge shape the foundation of their gameplay. In this article, we’ll delve into the starting point of warlocks and explore what to expect from this mystical class.

Starting Abilities

According to the official D&D rules, warlocks can start with the following basic abilities:

• Dexterity: At 8, as no default Dexterity score can be applied.
• Strength: At 15.
• Constitution: At 12.

Warlocks also receive four skill points to allocate. You can choose any combinations of the following skills, or decide to spend four skill points on one exceptional skill.

Starting Gear

As a warlock, you begin with some essential equipment:

• A dagger (1d4 + 2 piercing damage)
• Leather armor
• Component pouch
• Herbalism kit (includes 3 doses of healing potion)

Spells

Newly minted warlocks have the following learned spells:

Cantrips: All warlocks can cast three cantrips:

* **Chill of the Shadow**: Creates 1 square of icy aura that slows creatures within for 1 minute.
* **Daggerhand**: Unleashes three short-ranged attacks within 30 feet, making 1d4 slashing damage.
* **Shooting Stars**: Delivers three small meteor-shots to a 150-foot cone, each deal 1d6+1 force damage.

1st Level Spells:

1. Charm: Implants a subject’s mind with a suggested mood or direction, allowing your choice to influence their will for up to 60 seconds.
2. Major Image: Conjures an impressive illusion within an 100-foot radius.
3. Mage Arms: Conjures spectral shields around a target for an extra AC bonus.
4. Shield: Deploys a spectral barrier reducing incoming damage by up to 3.

What Else to Expect

Now that we’ve covered what warlocks start with, let’s discuss a few other aspects:

• Warlocks typically rely on pacts with celestial beings or other entities of the planes to tap their mystical energies.
• Depending on your warlock variant (Celestial, Archfey, or Fallen), your starting abilities or invocations might change, providing different playstyles to experiment with.
• During your adventuring career, warlocks can pick up additional spells of up to 5 levels below your current level; the choices are usually 2-4th levels, though.

FAQ and Next Steps

Feel free to ask the wizard! Got questions or further requests?

Warlocks at Higher Levels

Continue learning spells, abilities, and invocations as we venture through the realm!

I hope this article comprehensively covered the basics you needed to know about Warlocks and their starting powers!