There are a lot of choices for subclasses in Baldur's Gate 3 and each affects the abilities, spells, and roles you will have access to, in turn bringing their own set of advantages and play style. The choice affects some classes differently; Warlocks for example get their subclass choice at level 1, so you will have to know what direction you want your abilities to go in early on.
The three Warlock subclasses include The Fiend, The Archfey, and The Great Old One; below we rank them all.
3. The Great Old One
The Great Old One subclass gives players access to some interesting spells that focus more on debuffing than damage, including Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Dissonant Whispers, Detect Thoughts, and more at higher levels. Laughter will drop enemies prone, which can be very helpful for melee characters to get advantage on a given enemy, while Dissonant Whispers can deal damage and frighten an enemy, which can be paired nicely with the Great Old One features.
Here are the Great Old One features and what levels you get them at:
| Subclass Feature | Description | Level |
| Mortal Reminder | When you land a Critical Hit against a creature, that creature and nearby enemies are Frightened until the end of their next turn | 1 |
| Entropic Ward | As a reaction, you can impose Disadvantage on an Attack Roll against you. If the attack misses, you gain Advantage on your next attack roll against your attacker for 1 turn. | 6 |
Mortal Reminder is great because it can keep enemies at bay and allow you to use your Eldritch Blast effectively. Meanwhile, Entropic Ward can keep you safe and allows you to punish missed attacks.
Related: What are Wares in Baldur’s Gate 3?
2. The Archfey
The Archfey Warlock takes a Fey entity as their patron, allowing them access to different spells and features that are great for utility, buffs, and debuffs, like Fairie Fire, Sleep, Calm Emotion, Phantasmal Force, and more in later levels.
Here are the Archfey features and what level you get them at:
| Subclass Feature | Description | Level |
| Fey Presence | As an action, you can create a 10-foot cube originating from you to frighten or charm every creature in it who fails a Wisdom saving throw. | 1 |
| Misty Escape | When you take damage, you can use your reaction to turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. You remain invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack or cast a spell | 6 |
Fey Presence can affect multiple enemies if you are overwhelmed, while Misty Escape can be a life-saver, as you can quickly move away from danger if you take damage. Both these features can be used as last-ditch efforts to stay alive or as a strategic move to gain the upper hand in fights.
1. The Fiend
The Fiend is the most powerful subclass for Warlocks, as it gives you access to great offensive and defensive spells like Armour of Agathys, Arms of Hadar, Blindness, Scotching Ray, Fireball, and Stinking Cloud. Meanwhile, the features help greatly with checks and for restoring health in combat. Fiend Warlocks can be a force to be reckoned with and combined with other multiclasses, can make for a very powerful build in Baldur's Gate 3.
Here are the features Fiend Warlocks receive:
| Subclass Feature | Description | Level |
| Dark One's Blessing | When you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, you receive HP equal to your Charisma Modifier + Level | 1 |
| Dark One's Own Luck | Call on your patron to change your fate and add a 1d10 to an Ability Check. | 6 |
Dark One's Blessing can keep your health up during fights, especially if you are dishing out a lot of damage and killing blows, while Dark One's Own Luck is extremely helpful because it can change a failed Ability Check to a success (great during story events).
For more on Baldur's Gate, check out Trap Disarming Guide (Baldur’s Gate 3) here on Pro Game Guides.
Published: Aug 3, 2023 11:27 am