Warlock: What spells would you choose for the Magic Initiate Feat?

[Cyclops08]

Var Human gets a bonus feat at first level. You are putting together a lock with this feat. What spells would you choose? Min Max if you wish, But I am looking for spells that would make a character a lot more fun.

So what would you do? two cantrips and a first level spell.

[RogueJK]

We really need additional information about the type of Warlock you're building in order to help guide the choices. Options can vary wildly depending on your pact, patron, and intended role. But in general, good options could include:

Magic Initiate: Wizard with utility cantrips like Mage Hand and Message, and Mage Armor or Find Familiar (although Find Familiar would be redundant if you're going Chain Pact, or Tome Pact with the Ritual book invocation.)

Magic Initiate: Bard with a couple utility cantrips like Mage Hand and Minor Illusion, and Faerie Fire.

Magic Initiate: Cleric with Guidance, a utility cantrip like Mending or Thaumaturgy, and Bless. (Especially fitting for the Celestial Patron.)

Magic Initiate: Sorcerer with Mind Sliver, a utility cantrip like Mage Hand or one of the elemental cantrips, and then something like Mage Armor, Shield, or Absorb Elements. (Mind Sliver could be handy if you have another caster in the party, to set up the one-two punch of Mind Sliver followed by a Save-or-Suck spell. And an elemental cantrip paired to your Genie Patron's element would be thematically appropriate.)

Magic Initiate: Druid with Guidance, a utility cantrip like Mold Earth or Shape Water, and Goodberry or Absorb Elements.


But also consider something like Fey Touched or Shadow Touched instead. These feats give you additional spells known in addition to free castings, which means that unlike the spell from Magic Initiate these spells can also be cast using your spell slots if so desired. And you get a 1st and 2nd level spell, instead of a 1st level spell and 2 cantrips. (Tome Pact Warlocks in particular already get a good number of Cantrips.)

And importantly, you'd also get +1 to CHA with either of those feats too. That could mean starting with either +2 CHA/+1 CON or DEX, or +1 DEX/+1 CON/+1 CHA, on a VHuman.

I think either of these feats are strictly better than Magic Initiate, unless you're after some specific non-Warlock cantrip or a specific non-Divination/Enchantment/Illusion/Necromancy 1st level spell for a certain specific purpose.

[Ogre Mage]

I concur that I would pick the Fey Touched or Shadow Touched feat instead. Especially as it gives you +1 Cha. Between the two I prefer Fey Touched as I think the options for 1st level divination and enchantment spells are better than necromancy and illusion. I would probably choose dissonant whispers, command or bless.

[Tanarii]

I'd probably take Spell Sniper and Shocking Grasp instead. Unless I wasn't expecting to use Eldritch Blast and need to escape melee all that much, ie I was making a Bladelock.

[Sandeman]

Magic Initiate is very outclassed by Fey/Shadow Touched.
I think at least that Magic Initiate should be changed to to allow you to use your own spell slots to cast the 1st level spell.

[Kane0]

Bless is a great choice (which couples with guidance and sacred flame or word of radiance), as are shield, absorb elements and find familiar (which couple with bladetrips, mind sliver and all sorts of utility cantrips).
If your MI spell counts as known anything that scales decently is also worth considering, like heals, blasts and sleep.

[Vogie]

It all depends on the lock that you're building.

I could see a non-hex Bladelock, for example, picking up MI:Wizard for utility cantrips and either Mage Armor, Find Familiar or Shield - It's something they'll likely use throughout the character's life, and scaling isn't needed. Why Mage Armor? Because Bladelocks are already invocation-starved, and being able to avoid having to waste an invocation on Armor of Shadows early on.

Remember you can also further-upgrade your warlock by Choosing MI: Warlock, and allowing you to grab MORE spells/cantrips that are innately yours. Remember, warlocks have a huge list of spells, but due to their compact number of spells known you seldom see the more flavorful ones because the base RAW lock has max of 4, with only 2 to begin with. If you have EB, that's even less choice. For example:

Non-tome Celestial Warlocks wanting more cantrips
Hexblade Warlocks wanting a 1st level slot for Shield
Warlocks with Repelling blast or Grasp of Hadar that want to also get their targets stuck in a Create Bonfire
Future Bladelocks that want more than just EB and Booming Blade at level 1
Fathomless Warlocks wanting to have access to Create/Destroy Water, for story/campaign reasons, but knowing they'll never upcast it or cast it more than 1x/day.
Some Warlocks use MI to pick up Hex, as they know they'll only want to cast it at 1st level for boss fights only
Having Expeditious Retreat always readily available even when you are "out" of Pact slots
And so on

[msfnc]

Shield. It has saved my 'Lock's bacon more than once.