Warlocks casting spells at higher than 5th level

[zeek0]

Could I as a warlock cast, say, Witch Bolt at 6th level in order to cause 6d12 damage on the first hit?

Thanks, perhaps I am just confused.

[Jlooney]

A cantrip automatically levels up as you do and you can't memorize it at a higher level. All spells that a warlock casts of 1st level or higher must be the max level you are able to cast it at. No matter if you want to or not

[MaxWilson]

Could I as a warlock cast, say, Witch Bolt at 6th level in order to cause 6d12 damage on the first hit?

No, because you never get 6th level spell slots. Mystic Arcanum (or whatever they're called) don't come out of spell slots.

[zeek0]

A cantrip automatically levels up as you do and you can't memorize it at a higher level. All spells that a warlock casts of 1st level or higher must be the max level you are able to cast it at. No matter if you want to or not

I realize that. But can I cast a lower-level spell I know as a 6th level spell? I am uncertain that Mystic Arcanum allows me to cast spells at levels higher than 5.

[Iolo Morganwg]

It allows you to cast one specific level six spell once per long rest.

[Jlooney]

I realize that. But can I cast a lower-level spell I know as a 6th level spell? I am uncertain that Mystic Arcanum allows me to cast spells at levels higher than 5.

No. Like some less said you don't get 6th level slots. You get a single spell that is x level.

[zeek0]

I'm getting lots of conflicting answers. Can somebody cite the PHB?

[Jlooney]

Do you not have a phb? It shows you on their progression chart and under their spell area. You must always cast a spell at the highest available slot.

[MaxWilson]

I'm getting lots of conflicting answers. Can somebody cite the PHB?

I don't see any conflicts. One person said, "It's always at the max level," and other people pointed out that your max spell slot level is never greater than five.

[silveralen]

You only have spell slots up to fifth level. Eventually, you can cast a single 6th-9th lvl spell per day, but it isn't based on slots it's a specific spell.

[ghost_warlock]

Could I as a warlock cast, say, Witch Bolt at 6th level in order to cause 6d12 damage on the first hit?

Thanks, perhaps I am just confused.

As others have noted, warlocks don't have any sixth-level spell slots.

When you gain the Mystic Arcanum feature, you choose a spell from the respective list and gain the ability to cast that spell once per day. So, when you reach warlock level 11, you could choose mass suggestion and cast that once per day. You could not, however, learn witch bolt as a sixth-level spell as you don't actually gain a sixth-level spell slot.


A cantrip automatically levels up as you do and you can't memorize it at a higher level. All spells that a warlock casts of 1st level or higher must be the max level you are able to cast it at. No matter if you want to or not

Witch Bolt isn't a cantrip.

[MaxWilson]

As an additional note: even if you could choose 6th level Witch Bolt as your Mystic Arcanum, you should never do so because Witch Bolt is terrible at scaling up, unlike (say) Hold Person.

[Osiris]

What about casting, say, a seventh level spell normally? Would that have to be scaled down instead of up, if it scales with spell level?
Do you even get sixth level spells or higher? I too am confused by this "cast at the highest level" part of Pact Magic.
If somebody could elaborate, they have my thanks.

[silveralen]

What about casting, say, a seventh level spell normally? Would that have to be scaled down instead of up, if it scales with spell level?
Do you even get sixth level spells or higher? I too am confused by this "cast at the highest level" part of Pact Magic.
If somebody could elaborate, they have my thanks.

Your normal spells learned are level. Like normal spell casting, the highest level you can learn increases as you gain experience. Unlike other casters, all of your normal spells are cast at the highest level you can learn, as rather you don't have slots per level, but just spell slots overall.

Example: If you are high enough level to learn lvl four spells, all your known spells are lvl 1-4, and when you cast one it is cast at lvl 4.

Mystic Arcanum is different. You gain the ability to use one spell of a certain level (6, 7, 8, 9) once per day. You cannot cast these spells normally, nor do you know these spells for other purposes. It'd be more akin to gaining a spell like ability that requires normal casting procedure.

The two are separate and do not interact.

[zeek0]

So to clarify:

When I am 11th level I cannot cast Armor of Agathys using my 6th level Mystic Arcanum slot in order to gain 30 temporary hit points.

Thanks for the clarification.

[MaxWilson]

So to clarify:

When I am 11th level I cannot cast Armor of Agathys using my 6th level Mystic Arcanum slot in order to gain 30 temporary hit points.

Thanks for the clarification.

That is correct. And, technically, you don't have a 6th level Mystic Arcanum slot at all.

[Jlooney]

As others have noted, warlocks don't have any sixth-level spell slots.

When you gain the Mystic Arcanum feature, you choose a spell from the respective list and gain the ability to cast that spell once per day. So, when you reach warlock level 11, you could choose mass suggestion and cast that once per day. You could not, however, learn witch bolt as a sixth-level spell as you don't actually gain a sixth-level spell slot.



Witch Bolt isn't a cantrip.

I know witch bolt isn't a cantrip. I just wanted to clarify the difference between a spell and a cantrip. If the op was having trouble with this mechanic I figured he might confuse others. Was going for most clarity possible.

[Dalebert]

There's a lot of confusing posts. Warlock is a weird caster class but let me sum up.

You get a very limited number of spell slots as a warlock but they all come back with a short rest and any spell cast is at the max level you're capable of, thought that's never higher than 5th (at 9th level).

The exception to this is the Mystic Arcanum class feature. Starting at level 11 you pick a single 6th level spell and you can cast that spell once per day as a 6th level spell. You gain a 7th lvl spell once per day at 13th, an 8th at lvl 15, and a 9th at lvl 17. You essentially get one slot for each of those levels at the minimum level for each. You will never know more than one spell each for 6th-9th level spells and you will never be able to use those slots for any other spells.

Make sense now? So the answer is "no". You can never cast a 1st through 5th level spell at higher than 5th level. Those higher level slots are limited to specific spells for warlocks.

[Iolo Morganwg]

One minor nit to pick: Arcanum spells are once per long rest, not once per day. A lot of the time those are the same, but not always.

[Waylor]

One minor nit to pick: Arcanum spells are once per long rest, not once per day. A lot of the time those are the same, but not always.

I don't have my PHB here with me now, but I'm pretty sure it states somewhere that you can only benefit from a long rest once a day.

[Pex]

I don't have my PHB here with me now, but I'm pretty sure it states somewhere that you can only benefit from a long rest once a day.

It makes a difference if you use the heroic variant where short rests are 5 minutes and long rests are an hour.

[Shadow]

To clear up any confusion:
Don't even consider Mystic Arcanum as slots, because they aren't.
To put it in 3.x terms, each time you gain a Mystic Arcanum spell, it grants you a spell like ability once per day (long rest). Not a slot. A once/day ability.
Your slots end at 5th level.

edited typo

[MaxWilson]

To clear up any confusion:
Don't even consider Mystic Arcanum as slots, because they aren't.
To put it in 3.x terms, each time you gain a Mystic Arcanum spell, it grants you a spell like ability once per day (short rest). Not a slot. A once/day ability.
Your slots end at 5th level.

To clear up any confusion generated by the confusion-clearing post: the bolded text above should say "long rest." It's just a typo on Shadow's part. Mystic Arcana are one per long rest.

[Iolo Morganwg]

I don't have my PHB here with me now, but I'm pretty sure it states somewhere that you can only benefit from a long rest once a day.

Now that you've said that, I'm remembering something like that too. Will check PHB tonight!

[Ashrym]

Now that you've said that, I'm remembering something like that too. Will check PHB tonight!

A PC can only benefit from a long rest once in a 24 hour period as the standard. Additionally, the PC needs to have at least 1 hp at the beginning of the long rest to benefit from it, but I don't see that as a common occurrence to not have that hit point.