Favorite Cantrips

[thompur]

Hi all,
I'm playing a GOO pact Warlock and I just hit 2nd level. I took Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast(I know, real innovative), so direct damage is covered. Now when I get to 3rd, I'm going Tomelock, and I want to pick some interesting, and useful, cantrips. I already have Prestidigitation, so what others have you found effective and flavorful in actual game use.

[Toadkiller]

Check out the class guides.

Really though, you know your campaign and GM better than we do. Pick stuff that sounds fun.

I enjoyed shillelagh. It's perhaps not "optimal" but it was fun and made it feel like I had options. Especially when mixed with green flame blade or something. Ended up with utility beyond that.

Save the dying might be fun. Light, guidance, vicious mockery is fun to role play. Mage hand.

[brainface]

Message lets you telepathy at a far greater range.
Minor illusion is... is a thing, you should probably take it.
If you're caught in melee, shocking grasp can help you get away in a more violent manner than normal.
All the prestidigitation copies are fun. (Thaumaturgy, Earthcraft, the ToEE elemental ones.)

[Gastronomie]

Shape Water from EE. I think there was a whole thread about how to abuse the hell out of it, and it was quite hilarious (but DM dependant as well).

Shocking Grasp can get you out of some nasty situations. Guidance is awesome. Stuff among those lines. Message opens up a lot of RP potential, especially when trying to lie to an NPC (signal the others to try and support your lies without the NPC ever realizing), but if you're a GOO Warlock, the 1st-Level ability is basically the same thing.

EDIT: Message can allow you to communicate to people you can't see, or are on the other side of a wall. I think you should take it if in doubt, it works wonders in certain situations.

[RickAllison]

Mold Earth. Incredibly useful, especially for siege warfare and agriculture. Last Sunday, the group I'm in spent our last session perhaps for the next three months doing ordinary farmwork. Using that cantrip, I tilled an old man's fields and planted crops in one day, something that would have taken him much longer because he would have to do it by hand.

Our DM was a little agape at the fact that we were thrown back in time to stop the apocalypse from occurring and our first plan was not to exploit time travel, but to play Farmville.

[Naanomi]

Depends on what other people in the party have. If it isn't present already, I can't imagine not taking Guidance. Spare the Dying also gives the Warlock something he probably can't do any other way.

[Tanarii]

Guidance is always good. Unfortunately it requires concentration so if you try to keep Hex up over multiple fights that's a problem.

Combat wise, Thorn Whip for pulls, and Vicious Mockery for disadvantage, and Ray of Frost to slow, all offer some additional control. At the cost of damage compared to your EB, of course.

Spare the Dyning can be useful if you don't have any healers. Light if you don't have Darkvision.

I'm not really up to speed on the EE cantrips, but they added some new elemental control cantrips that could be fun and flavorful.

And of course you can always poach Druidcraft or Thaumaturgy to get that divine power touch. Especially fun for a Charalatan Warlock pretending to be a holy man.

[Gtdead]

Guidance, Mage Hand and Minor Illusion are my favorites. They have a wide range of applications.

[JumboWheat01]

I vote for Vicious Mockery as one of your Tome cantrips. Because nothing is quite as fun as insulting your DM's favorite big bad and doing damage to him in the process.

Plus, you know, the disadvantage is nice.

Guidance is a GREAT cantrip for non-combat situations, and a handy thing to have on hand, so it gets a secondary vote from me.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Guidance is never a bad pick, nor is Minor Illusion.

Frostbite (from EE) is a good substitute for Vicious Mockery if you're not very good at wordplay, or want to play a more straight-laced character. I love the flavour of Gust as well, and it's useful both in and out of combat. It's like having a shove attack that runs off your casting stat!

As it happens, I'm currently playing a wizard at the moment, and my cantrips are Firebolt, Gust and Minor Illusion. A couple of times, I've wished I had Thaumaturgy, but other than that, I'm happy with those three.

[PoeticDwarf]

Guidance is useful.

Minor illusion and mage hand are amazing with loads of options

EE cantrips, especially shape water and maybe mold earth, are also pretty cool

Shocking grasp could be useful for a blastlock

Thorn whip is great fun, so can shillelagh combined with Green Flame Blade be as a melee option

[Khutef]

I'm currently playing a warlock who has gotten a lot of use out of Thaumaturgy. Making your voice boom and holding the enemy commander's severed head in your hand is a great way to demoralize enemies. My warlock is a crippled svirfneblin and the enemy group was 8 kobolds :P.

[Tanarii]

Shocking grasp could be useful for a blastlock


Gad can't believe I missed that. SG is the very first pick a Tomelock should make, unless he's going to pick up Spell Sniper.

[Joe the Rat]

I vote for Vicious Mockery as one of your Tome cantrips. Because nothing is quite as fun as insulting your DM's favorite big bad and doing damage to him in the process.

Plus, you know, the disadvantage is nice.


Frostbite (from EE) is a good substitute for Vicious Mockery if you're not very good at wordplay, or want to play a more straight-laced character.

The nice thing here is both are save-based vs. attack roll, and generate disadvantage on an attack. Wisdom save for small damage of a rarely-resisted type, or Consititution save for more damage that is more commonly resisted. Neither of these are Dex saves, so cover isn't a factor - which it is for your EB (ignore this part if you're getting Spell Sniper). No attack roll means you can use them point blank without penalty. Combined with the disadvantage on attack, it gives you a weaker version of Shocking Grasps' escape option (the OA would be at disadvantage, rather than not at all, and it doesn't stop held actions).

I'd pick the one that is more likely to take - if you can't land a hit by AC, is that target more likely to have low WIS, or low CON?

And as everybody has mentioned, Guidance, particularly if your "real" divine casters don't have it.

[Markoff Chainey]

Guidance, Mage Hand and Minor Illusion are my favorites. They have a wide range of applications.

this!

I played a Tomelock until level 9 and had a LOT of fun with these...

Shillelaqh and GFB or BB is something totally different and let's you mimick a bladelock - but you have EB already for dealing damage and so this is totally obsolete in my book.

Guidance makes you a "mini-bard", minor illusion turns you into a trickster and mage hand + the ascendant step invocation lets you (almost) fly!!! (besides the fun stuff that you can do with it)

I also highly recommend the disguise-self-at-will invocation and ascendant step... (especially with mage hand - it allows you to move yourself as a bonus action - I ended up floating through the underdark sitting in a comfortable lotus position...)

[Oramac]

I vote for Vicious Mockery as one of your Tome cantrips. Because nothing is quite as fun as insulting your DM's favorite big bad and doing damage to him in the process.

This.

Also, it's a bit situational, but I've always had good luck with Mending.