Warlock- The Old One vs. Fey

[KnotKnormal]

I'm having trouble choosing between these to pact... The extra spells are almost identical minus a few extra utilities you get later. Other then that it a mater of the BS you want to deal with, I think. Any helpful advice?

[xyianth]

The archfey patron abilities are a little better for general combat usage: a slotless fear isn't useless, misty escape is great for getting out of bad spots, immunity to charm + reflexive charm is great in some situations (like against vampires that have an actually useful/scary version of charm), and dark delirium is pretty good lockdown tool.

The great old one patron abilites are more geared for RP and intrigue based characters: telepathy has tons of RP uses, but very little combat potential; entropic ward is very weak as a 1/rest ability (would be better if it was charisma/rest or something); thought shield is fantastic for intrigue plots, but combat use depends on how common psychic damage is (usually not very); and create thrall is terrible RAW, the charmed condition is laughably weak in 5e and comes nowhere even close to turning someone into a thrall.

It actually appears to me that the entire warlock class was written at a time when the charmed condition was much stronger and then not updated when it was nerfed into the ground, either that or WOTC hates warlocks for some unknown reason...

As far as spells go, remember that those spells get added to the class list, you still have to spend a spell known slot on them. Archfey has the overall better spell list in my opinion, though not by much. They are about tied at 1st and 5th level spells, archfey has better 3rd and 4th level options while great old one has better second level options. When I build warlocks, I tend to only select 1st-3rd level spells from the patron list anyway, as most spell choices come from the generic warlock list.

If you are playing a chain pact warlock, the choice can be more meaningful. Technically you can choose any of the expanded familiar options regardless of your patron, but sprite fits an archfey patron thematically and there isn't really a good thematic fit for great old one patron warlocks.

[Joe the Rat]

Besides the BS part, it comes down to what you want to do: Make Friends (Thrall, communicate to anything with a language via creepy mind magic), or Influence People (Charm factory).


If you are playing a chain pact warlock, the choice can be more meaningful. Technically you can choose any of the expanded familiar options regardless of your patron, but sprite fits an archfey patron thematically and there isn't really a good thematic fit for great old one patron warlocks.Rats. Rats with unnaturally humanlike paws and a malevolent intelligence roiling behind their beady eyes. Quasits aren't too bad of a fit: Crazy evil, with weird eyes and lamprey mouths, shapechanging like baby Nylarlathoteps...