When Dungeons & Dragons players think of Warlocks, the go-to image is often of secretive pacts made in the dark with infernal entities or horrors from beyond the stars. However, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything introduced a way to play the class in a lighter way with the Celestial Patron. Drawing on the power of the Upper Planes, Celestial Warlocks gain access to a powerful suite of light and fire-based spells, as well as extremely efficient healing. This means they can serve as a party’s healer, while still offering the quirkiness and customization Warlocks are known for.
Celestial Warlocks also gain powerful secondary abilities as they level up, including bonuses to radiant and fire damage and temporary hit points for themselves and the rest of the party. If those weren’t enough, their Searing Vengence at 14th level makes them the perfect healer. While dedicated healers often doom the party when they fall, this feature allows the Celestial Warlock to return to half health the first time they go down, even blinding all nearby enemies when they do. If all of this sounds like the perfect fit for your next campaign, here’s how to build the best possible Celestial Warlock.
Prioritize the Celestial Warlocks’ Charisma and Dexterity
Charisma is by far the most important ability score for this build. It’s the Warlock’s primary spellcasting stat, and as such will determine the save DC and hit bonus of their spells. It will also determine the maximum number of dice the Celestial Warlock can spend for their Healing Light feature, which lets them draw from a pool of d6s to heal allies as a bonus action. In general, it’s best to only spend one die at a time to get allies back in the fight, but having the ability to also pump out a massive surge of healing is immensely useful. After getting Charisma to 20, focus on boosting Dexterity to improve the Warlock’s Armor Class and initiative bonus.
Aasimar Is An Obvious And Flavorful Racial Choice
For this build, players should pick a race that provides a bonus to Charisma, and one lineage is a perfect fit: the Aasimar. Aasimar are descended from celestial beings, the natural opposite to Tieflings. This gives players a perfect narrative reason for why they made a pact with an angel, and even offers up some fun role-playing potential. It’s one thing to bargain with a mysterious extradimensional entity and another to play a wet-behind-the-ears Warlock getting their powers from a parent.
The Aasimar race also provides some other mechanical benefits, with a once-per day heal, darkvision and damage resistances. The best subrace choice is the Protector Aasimar, since the Fallen’s +1 to Strength doesn’t help much and the Scourge’s area-of-effect damage conflicts with the Celestial Warlock’s healer role.
Choose High-Damage Concentration Spells
Even at 20th level, Warlocks only get four spell slots before a short or long rest. As such, it’s important to make every one of them count. The best strategy for Celestial Warlocks is to cast a spell like Wall of Fire that persists over multiple rounds. Then, they can use Eldritch Blast to knock enemies back into it, keeping their bonus action free to bring back allies with Healing Light. Other critical spells are Revivify, Armor of Agathys, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Fly, Invisibility and Suggestion. While there are other good options, avoid other concentration spells that would be used during combat.
Once the Warlock reaches level 11, they gain access to the Mystic Arcanum. Instead of receiving spell slots of higher than fifth level, the Warlock gets exactly one spell of sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth level. For sixth level take Mass Suggestion, which is immensely useful in or out of combat. At seventh level, take Forcecage, which can take enemies out of a fight entirely, but only if you can acquire its expensive material component.
Eighth level brings with it Power Word Stun, which is an immensely powerful condition to inflict with no saving throw. Finally, at ninth level, take Foresight. Advantage on every roll a character makes might sound underwhelming when compared to the earth-shattering power of other spells, but consistency is key.
The Best Feats for Celestial Warlocks
Celestial Warlocks should focus on putting their limited ability score improvements into Charisma or Dexterity. However, if players have the chance to take feats, there are a few that can be useful. Lucky is a great choice for any character, letting players reroll up to three dice each day. War Caster can help to keep up the all-important Wall of Fire, while also allowing use of Eldritch Blast as a reaction for opportunity attacks. Resilient serves a similar purpose if players pick Constitution, pumping up a critical save. Elemental Adept lets their attacks ignore resistance to fire damage, which often becomes common as enemies grow stronger. Finally, Gift of the Metallic Dragon provides another once-per-day heal and a more limited version of the Shield spell.
The Best Pact Boons and Eldritch Invocations for a Celestial Warlock
Warlocks get far more customization options than other classes, choosing a Patron at first level and a Pact Boon at third. Celestial Warlocks should take Pact of the Chain, which lets them summon a helpful spirit from the Upper Planes to aim them out of combat. As for Eldritch Invocations, start by powering up Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Spear, Lance of Lethargy and Repelling Blast. After that, boost their Armor Class by taking Armor of Shadows and gain some temporary hit points with Tomb of Levistus. Lastly, Eldritch Sight and Mask of Many Faces let the Celestial Warlock cast the incredibly useful Detect Magic and Disguise Self spells at will.
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