The Fiend 5e warlock subclass

A pact with a demon or devil: fire spells, temporary hit points with every kill, and a trip through the Lower Planes for your enemies.

Jump to: Features by level · Playing the Fiend · 2014 features · What changed in 2024 · 2024 features · Common questions

The Fiend at a glance

Class: Warlock
Subclass type: Otherworldly Patron, chosen at 1st level (level 3 in 2024)
2024 rules: Renamed Fiend Patron
Key abilities: Charisma, then Constitution
Spells: 2014: Expanded Spell List; 2024: Fiend Spells
Source: System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2 (Player’s Handbook 2014 and 2024)

The warlock class page has the class features this subclass builds on, and the warlock spell list the rest of your spells come from.

The Fiend features by level

The warlock subclass features you gain at each warlock level, in the 2014 rules and the 2024 rules. Each one links to its full text below.

Level	2014 rules (SRD 5.1)	2024 rules (SRD 5.2)
1	Expanded Spell List, Dark One's Blessing	—
3	—	Dark One's Blessing, Fiend Spells
5	—	Fiend Spells
6	Dark One's Own Luck	Dark One's Own Luck
7	—	Fiend Spells
9	—	Fiend Spells
10	Fiendish Resilience	Fiendish Resilience
14	Hurl Through Hell	Hurl Through Hell

Who the Fiend suits

The Fiend is for players who want a warlock that deals damage and stays standing. Its temporary hit points make it one of the tougher warlocks, and its spells are mostly fire. It also gives a strong hook for the story: a patron whose aims are evil, and a character who may or may not be fighting against them.

It is a straightforward patron with no pet, no extra rules to track and features that trigger on their own, so it suits a first warlock.

How the Fiend plays

2014 rules. At 1st level the Fiend adds an expanded spell list to your warlock options, from Burning Hands and Command up to Flame Strike and Hallow, though you still learn them with your spells known. Dark One’s Blessing gives temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + your warlock level (minimum 1) whenever you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points. Dark One’s Own Luck (6th) adds a d10 to an ability check or save once per short or long rest, Fiendish Resilience (10th) gives resistance to a damage type you choose on a rest (magical and silver weapons ignore it), and Hurl Through Hell (14th) sends a creature you hit through the lower planes for 10d10 psychic damage, once per long rest.

2024 rules. The Fiend Patron starts at level 3. Dark One’s Blessing also triggers when someone else reduces an enemy within 10 feet of you to 0 hit points, and the Fiend Spells are always prepared rather than an expanded list. Dark One’s Own Luck works a number of times per long rest equal to your Charisma modifier. Fiendish Resilience covers any type but force, with no weapon exception. Hurl Through Hell now allows a Charisma save, deals 8d10 psychic damage and leaves the target incapacitated, and you can restore it with a Pact Magic slot.

Ability scores for a Fiend warlock

Charisma first: it sets your spell save DC, your Eldritch Blast attacks and the size of Dark One’s Blessing. Constitution second for hit points and concentration, and Dexterity third for Armor Class in light armor.

With the standard array: Charisma 15, Constitution 14, Dexterity 13, Wisdom 12, Intelligence 10, Strength 8.

Spells and feats to pair with it

Eldritch Blast is your main attack in both editions. Hex adds damage to it, and the Fiend’s own Fireball and Scorching Ray cast at your pact slot level. Warlock slots return on a short rest, so a big fire spell is cheap to use every fight. In 2024, Suggestion and Command are always prepared, which frees your own picks for defense and utility.

For feats, War Caster or a Constitution increase protects concentration on Hex. Elemental Adept (fire) helps if you lean on the Fiend’s fire spells. In 2024, Alert is a good origin feat for a warlock who wants to act first, and Magic Initiate from the cleric or wizard list adds a cantrip and a level 1 spell.

The Fiend features (2014 rules, SRD 5.1)

You have made a pact with a fiend from the lower planes of existence, a being whose aims are evil, even if you strive against those aims. Such beings desire the corruption or destruction of all things, ultimately including you. Fiends powerful enough to forge a pact include demon lords such as Demogorgon, Orcus, Fraz'Urb-luu, and Baphomet; archdevils such as Asmodeus, Dispater, Mephistopheles, and Belial; pit fiends and balors that are especially mighty; and ultroloths and other lords of the yugoloths.

Expanded Spell List

1st level

The Fiend lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Fiend Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	Burning Hands, Command
2nd	Blindness/Deafness, Scorching Ray
3rd	Fireball, Stinking Cloud
4th	Fire Shield, Wall of Fire
5th	Flame Strike, Hallow

Dark One's Blessing

1st level

Starting at 1st level, when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + your warlock level (minimum of 1).

Dark One's Own Luck

6th level

Starting at 6th level, you can call on your patron to alter fate in your favor. When you make an ability check or a saving throw, you can use this feature to add a d10 to your roll. You can do so after seeing the initial roll but before any of the roll's effects occur.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Fiendish Resilience

10th level

Starting at 10th level, you can choose one damage type when you finish a short or long rest. You gain resistance to that damage type until you choose a different one with this feature. Damage from magical weapons or silver weapons ignores this resistance.

Hurl Through Hell

14th level

Starting at 14th level, when you hit a creature with an attack, you can use this feature to instantly transport the target through the lower planes. The creature disappears and hurtles through a nightmare landscape.

At the end of your next turn, the target returns to the space it previously occupied, or the nearest unoccupied space. If the target is not a fiend, it takes 10d10 psychic damage as it reels from its horrific experience.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Your Pact Boon

Each Pact Boon option produces a special creature or an object that reflects your patron's nature.

Pact of the Chain. Your familiar is more cunning than a typical familiar. Its default form can be a reflection of your patron, with imps and quasits tied to the Fiend.

Pact of the Blade. If you serve the Fiend, your weapon could be an axe made of black metal and adorned with decorative flames.

Pact of the Tome. Your Book of Shadows could be a weighty tome bound in demon hide studded with iron, holding spells of conjuration and a wealth of forbidden lore about the sinister regions of the cosmos, a gift of the Fiend.

What changed in 2024

The 2024 Player’s Handbook revised the Fiend as the Fiend Patron, and the System Reference Document 5.2 has the new version. The biggest differences in play:

The patron starts at level 3, and its spells become Fiend Spells that are always prepared, adding Suggestion, Geas and Insect Plague and dropping Blindness/Deafness, Flame Strike and Hallow.
Dark One’s Blessing also triggers when an ally drops an enemy within 10 feet of you, and Dark One’s Own Luck has uses equal to your Charisma modifier per long rest.
Hurl Through Hell allows a Charisma save, deals 8d10 psychic damage (from 10d10) and incapacitates the target; you can use it again by spending a Pact Magic slot.

Feature by feature

The Fiend is called the Fiend Patron in the 2024 rules.
You choose it at level 3 instead of 1st level, like every subclass in the 2024 rules.
Moved: Expanded Spell List (now Fiend Spells), 1st level → level 3; Dark One's Blessing, 1st level → level 3.
Spells added to the list: Suggestion, Geas and Insect Plague.
Spells no longer on it: Blindness/Deafness, Flame Strike and Hallow.

Fiend Patron features in the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2)

Make a Deal with the Lower Planes

Your pact draws on the Lower Planes, the realms of perdition. You might forge a bargain with a demon lord, an archdevil, or another fiend that is especially mighty. That patron's aims are evil—the corruption or destruction of all things, ultimately including you—and your path is defined by the extent to which you strive against those aims.

Level 3: Dark One's Blessing

When you reduce an enemy to 0 Hit Points, you gain Temporary Hit Points equal to your Charisma modifier plus your Warlock level (minimum of 1 Temporary Hit Point). You also gain this benefit if someone else reduces an enemy within 10 feet of you to 0 Hit Points.

Level 3: Fiend Spells

The magic of your patron ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Warlock level specified in the Fiend Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.

Fiend Spells

Warlock Level	Spells
3	Burning Hands, Command, Scorching Ray, Suggestion
5	Fireball, Stinking Cloud
7	Fire Shield, Wall of Fire
9	Geas, Insect Plague

Level 6: Dark One's Own Luck

You can call on your fiendish patron to alter fate in your favor. When you make an ability check or a saving throw, you can use this feature to add 1d10 to your roll. You can do so after seeing the roll but before any of the roll's effects occur.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), but you can use it no more than once per roll. You regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Level 10: Fiendish Resilience

Choose one damage type, other than Force, whenever you finish a Short or Long Rest. You have Resistance to that damage type until you choose a different one with this feature.

Level 14: Hurl Through Hell

Once per turn when you hit a creature with an attack roll, you can try to instantly transport the target through the Lower Planes. The target must succeed on a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC, or the target disappears and hurtles through a nightmare landscape. The target takes 8d10 Psychic damage if it isn't a Fiend, and it has the Incapacitated condition until the end of your next turn, when it returns to the space it previously occupied or the nearest unoccupied space.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a Long Rest unless you expend a Pact Magic spell slot (no action required) to restore your use of it.

Common questions

How many temporary hit points does Dark One’s Blessing give?

Your Charisma modifier + your warlock level, minimum 1. A 5th-level warlock with Charisma 16 gains 8. Temporary hit points don’t stack: when you gain more, you keep either the old amount or the new one.

Does Dark One’s Blessing work when an ally gets the kill?

Not in the 2014 rules, which need you to reduce the creature to 0 hit points. In the 2024 rules it also works when someone else reduces an enemy within 10 feet of you to 0 hit points.

Are the Fiend’s spells always prepared?

In 2024, yes: the Fiend Spells are always prepared and don’t count against your prepared spells. In 2014 they are an expanded list you can choose from when you learn warlock spells.

How much damage does Hurl Through Hell deal?

10d10 psychic damage in 2014 (none to a fiend), with no save. 8d10 psychic in 2024 (none to a fiend), on a failed Charisma save, plus the Incapacitated condition until the end of your next turn.

When does a warlock choose the Fiend?

At 1st level in the 2014 rules, and at level 3 in the 2024 rules, where it is the Fiend Patron.

The Fiend compared with other options

Page	How it compares
Warlock class	Pact Magic, Eldritch Invocations and pact boons, the base every patron uses.
Draconic Bloodline	The other Charisma blaster: more spell slots and natural armor instead of temporary hit points.
School of Evocation	The Intelligence blaster with the biggest spell list.
Eldritch Blast	The warlock cantrip at the heart of every Fiend’s turn.

How to build a warlock with the Fiend

Open the builder, choose the 2014 or 2024 rules on the first step, pick Warlock as your class, and choose the Fiend (the Fiend Patron in the 2024 rules) as your otherworldly patron once your character is 1st level (3rd in the 2024 rules). The builder works out everything the rules can: hit points, Armor Class, attack bonuses, spell save DC and the subclass’s spells.

Other SRD subclasses

Back to the Warlock class or all classes.