The 15 Best Feats for Warlocks

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

Whenever you build a character, the perennial question of feats comes up. Should you pick a feat instead of an Ability Score increase? If so, what feats are worth taking?

This guide provides an easily referenced list of the best feats for Warlock characters so you can decide what feats best fit your Hexblade warlock or Eldritch Blast spammer. 

Feats vs. Ability Score Increase 

Whenever your warlock hits level 4, 8, 12, 16, or 20, they are eligible for an Ability Score increase of two points, distributed as you wish. However, instead of this increase, you might decide to take a feat.

Picking a feat always means sacrificing Ability Score points. If you pick a feat, it should either be vital to your character build or you should be already happy with where your ability scores are. 

For warlocks, the critical Ability Score is Charisma. Pretty much everything for Warlocks is Charisma based, and you want to get it to 20 as soon as you can.

That said, the Hexblade warlock is notable for changing a caster class into a martial attacker. If you wield a weapon, either Strength or Dexterity will also be a key stat for you. 

I recommend picking Dexterity, personally, as it also influences your AC and initiative. However, a greatsword-wielding warlock has undeniable appeal. 

Notably, some feats also grant a single point to an Ability Score (though your choices are usually constrained).

These half feats can mitigate the cost of choosing a feat over an ASI and can be useful when only a single point added to your Ability Scores would be useful. 

Because of the Hexblade warlock and the Pact of the Blade, several of the below feats are staples for martial characters that have excellent synergy with a more martial Warlock. 

Best Feats for Warlocks

1. Crossbow Expert

This feat lets you ignore the loading property of crossbows that you are proficient with, removes the disadvantage imposed on your ranged attack rolls when a hostile creature is within 5 feet, and lets you use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow when you attack with a one-handed weapon. 

Hexblades can make this feat work really well if they choose to specialize in hand crossbows.

Both Hex and Hexblade’s Curse can stack damage on your multiple crossbow attacks, and the invocation Lifedrinker (+Charisma modifier in damage) only adds to this.

It can take a few rounds to completely set up, but it’s still a pretty powerful combo. 

2. Eldritch Adept

This feat grants a single eldritch invocation. Whenever you gain a level, you can replace the invocation with another one. 

While it may seem redundant for a warlock who already gets some eldritch invocations to pick this feat, eldritch invocations are good enough that you might want to spend a feat just to acquire one more.

I recommend picking this feat only if you have a specific build in mind, however.

3. Fighting Initiate

This feat is mostly handy for Hexblade warlocks, depending on what weapon they want to use. It grants access to one of the fighter’s fighting styles. 

Blind Fighting can be good, though Devil’s Sight means that you probably don’t want to pick a feat just for that.

Both Archery and Dueling provide nice damage bonuses if your main weapon fits their restrictions. Tunnel Fighter (UA) can be useful for an opportunity attack build, but you should be very clear on your build ahead of time.

The other options can potentially be useful, but I don’t recommend them. 

4. Great Weapon Master

This feat lets you make an additional melee weapon attack as a bonus action whenever you get a critical hit or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with the weapon.

You can also take a -5 penalty to your attack roll when you attack with a heavy weapon you have proficiency with in exchange for +10 to damage. 

With a hexblade’s ability to get a critical on a 19 or 20 and the ease with which they can pick up advantage (Darkness + Devil’s Sight), this feat is perfect for a heavy-weapon-wielding warlock.

5. Lucky

This is just a great feat overall. You get 3 luck points that refresh on a long rest.

Any time you make an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can spend one luck point to reroll the D20 involved, as long as you do it before the outcome is determined, and you get to choose which of the rolls to keep. 

You can also use a luck point when someone makes an attack against you, making this feat defensive as well.

Remember that concentration checks are a kind of ability check as well, so this feat can work well with a Hexblade warlock, who is likely to be on the front lines. 

6. Polearm Master

This feat grants the ability to to use a bonus action to attack with the other end of a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear whenever you use the attack action to attack with the weapon.

The other end has a weapon die of 1d4 and does bludgeoning damage. While wielding one of these weapons, you also get to make an opportunity attack whenever a creature enters your reach with the weapon.

For Hexblades wielding a polearm, this can be a great use of their bonus action, which isn’t as reliably used up as it is with some other classes.

A d4 is not a ton of damage, but it is another attack and can benefit from additional sources of damage per attack, such as Hex, Hexblade’s Curse, and the Lifedrinker invocation. 

7. Inspiring Leader

This feat allows you to spend 10 minutes inspiring your companions. This inspiration grants up to six allies who can see or hear you and understand you temporary hit points equal to your level + your charisma modifier.

The ability can only apply to a creature once per rest.

Warlocks have the charisma to make this feat useful, and it can be a great (and reliable) way to buff allies, especially familiars with their low hp. 

8. Metamagic Adept

This feat grants 2 sorcery points that refresh on a long rest as well as two metamagic options from the sorcerer class. These can be swapped out whenever you reach a level that grants an ASI. 

Metamagic is usually excellent for casters, and warlocks are no different.

The metamagic you choose will be dependant on what spells you use and what your playstyle is, but generally, Quickened Spell (2 points), Subtle Spell (1 point), Twinned Spell (2x the spell level), and Distant Spell for Eldritch Blast lovers (1 point) are all excellent options.

9. Spell Sniper

This feat lets you double the range of any spell you cast with an attack roll, and ranged spell attacks ignore up to three-quarters cover.

You also get to learn a cantrip that requires an attack roll, though this matters little for Warlocks who will usually be using Eldritch Blast. 

This feat is excellent for those who like to use Eldritch Blast, especially at long range. Negating cover is a way to drop up to 5 points off the AC of your target, and a 240-foot range for the spell is nothing to sneeze at. 

While it’s not exactly optimal since you’ll rarely (if ever) find yourself fighting at ultra long ranges, this feat can stack with the eldritch invocation Eldritch Spear.

That invocation gives your Eldritch Blast a range of 300 feet, and with this feat, that doubles to 600 feet. With the Distant Spell metamagic, you could hit targets 1,200 feet away (if you can see them!).

10. War Caster

This feat grants advantage on concentration checks made to maintain concentration on a spell as a result of taking damage.

It also removes the need to have a hand free of a weapon to use somatic components and allows you to burn your reaction when you could make an opportunity attack to instead cast a spell that takes 1 action to cast and only targets that creature. 

This is an excellent feat for Hexblades, who can take advantage of every part of it.

In addition to solving annoying issues that come up in gish builds, the ability to use a spell as a reaction, even limited by having to replace an opportunity attack, is incredibly powerful. 

Note that this sadly does not stack with the Tunnel Fighter (UA), as this replaces your opportunity attack. You cannot cast a spell as an opportunity attack. 

Best Half-Feats for Warlocks

Each of these feats grants 1 point to a specific Ability Score or set of Ability Scores. For Warlocks, I recommend choosing Charisma as the Ability Score to increase.

You can also pick Dexterity or Strength if you are a Hexblade.

11. Actor

This feat grants 1 point to Charisma. Whenever you are pretending to be a different person, you gain advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Performance) checks.

Plus, you can mimic the speech of another or the sounds of a creature if you’ve heard them for at least one minute. It takes a successful Wisdom (Insight) check to determine that the mimicry is mimicry and not real. 

This feat won’t be useful in every campaign, but if you’re playing a highly social character in a highly social setting, this feat works well with the warlock’s naturally high charisma. 

12. Elven Accuracy (Elves and Half Elves Only) 

This feat grants 1 point to Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. Whenever you have advantage on an attack roll with one of these four ability scores, you can reroll one of the dice once. 

This effectively grants triple advantage, which can be excellent if your build focuses on methods of gaining advantage.

I recommend this feat for Hexblade warlocks (who mostly use Dexterity to attack) or those warlocks who like to use Eldritch Blast as their default (which uses Charisma).

In addition, the Darkness spell combined with the Devil’s Sight invocation can give warlocks in particular an easy method of acquiring advantage.  

13. Fey Touched

This feat grants 1 point to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. It also grants the Misty Step spell and one 1st-level Divination or Enchantment spell. Each spell can be used once per long rest without needing a spell slot. 

Misty Step makes a great mobility tool to enhance your warlock, and the extra spell is especially valuable to warlocks with their extremely limited spell slots. 

14. Shadow Touched

This feat grants 1 point to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. It also grants the Invisibility spell and one 1st-level Illusion or Necromancy spell, both of which can be used once per long rest without needing a spell slot. 

Invisibility is a generally useful spell, even for Warlocks who aren’t built for stealth. In addition, just like the Fey Touched feat, this feat provides valuable extra spell power for your spell-slot-limited warlock. 

15. Telekinetic 

This feat grants 1 point to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. It also grants the Mage Hand cantrip for free and augments it by removing the need for verbal and somatic components and allowing the hand to be invisible.

If you already know the cantrip, the range is also expanded by 30 feet. 

The real gift of this feat, though, is the ability to, as a bonus action, telekinetically shove or pull a creature you can see within 30 feet.

The creature gets a Strength-saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + the ability modifier of the score this feat increases), but if it fails, it gets pushed 5 feet away from you or pulled closer toward you. 

This feat is excellent for warlocks, who often don’t have a ton of reliable bonus actions to take. Moreover, it can work extremely well with a battlefield-control warlock who augments their Eldritch Blast with their own push-and-pull effects.

If you feel you don’t have a lot of bonus actions to take with your build, I highly recommend this feat. 

Final Thoughts

Warlocks have a plethora of feat options partly because they’re such a versatile class.

You can focus on spellcasting, doing damage through the highest damage cantrip in the game, or you can pick up a weapon and start swinging/shooting.

However you build your warlock, there are several good feats waiting for you, and most warlock builds will benefit from at least one feat (even if it’s just Telekinetic).

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