DnD Genie Warlock 5e subclass guide

The DnD Genie Warlock 5e subclass gets its immense power from – you guessed it – a Genie. You can lean into this aesthetic hard if you like, creating a character that rubs a magic lamp to gain all sorts of wishes. Or, you can completely shake things up, creating a Warlock that whispers into a teapot before casting a Fireball. The flavor is flexible, and the build options are just as versatile. If you’re keen to make a pact with a Genie, we can show you the world.

Before you sign your soul away to this particular DnD Warlock Patron, we want to ask – are you sure you want to be a DnD Warlock? If not, our DnD classes guide can walk you through your other options. Otherwise, read on for the lowdown on the DnD spells your Warlock will get, as well as the best DnD races and 5e feats that gel well with your chosen subclass.

Here’s everything you need to know about the DnD Genie Warlock:

DnD Genie Warlock 5e subclass features

Here are the subclass features your Patron grants you at certain DnD level ups:

Expanded spell list

Level: One

Every time you learn a Warlock spell, your Patron allows you to choose it from an expanded list of spells. Technically, you’ll have two expanded spell lists to choose from: a general list of Genie spells, as well as one tied to the type of Genie you made your pact with.

You can work with one of four kinds of Genie, each tied to a different element. These are:

Here’s each of the spell lists your Warlock can choose from:

Genie spells

Dao spells

Djinni spells

Efreeti spells

Marid spells

Genie’s Vessel

Level: One

Your Patron gifts you a Tiny object that can be used as a spellcasting focus for Warlock spells. You can decide what that object is, so feel free to get creative. It has an armor class equal to your spell save DC, and it has hit points equal to your Warlock level plus your proficiency bonus. The vessel also can’t be poisoned or take psychic damage.

When you touch the vessel, you can use one of its two features. First, you can spend an action to disappear once per DnD long rest, reappearing inside your vessel. Inside counts as an extradimensional space, so you’ll avoid being crushed to death. Heck, it even comes with creature comforts like cushions and tables.

Any object you leave inside the vessel stays there until it’s retrieved or the vessel is destroyed. You can stay here for a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus, or you can leave early as a bonus action. You’re also kicked out early if you die or the vessel is destroyed.

Your second possible use of the vessel triggers when you hit with an attack roll. Once per turn, you can deal extra damage to your target equal to your proficiency bonus. The DnD damage type is determined by your Patron – Dao deal bludgeoning damage, Djinni do thunder, Efreeti deal fire damage, and Marid has cold damage.

Elemental Gift

Level: Six

You gain resistance to a certain damage type, which is determined by your chosen Patron:

• Dao – Bludgeoning
• Djinni – Thunder
• Efreeti – Fire
• Marid – Cold

Elemental Gift also lets you spend a bonus action to gain a flying speed of 30 feet. This lasts for ten minutes, and you can use the feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. After that, you’ll need a long rest to replenish your uses of the feature.

Sanctuary Vessel

Level: Ten

When you go inside your vessel, you can bring up to five willing creatures with you. These individuals need to be within 30 feet, and you must be able to see them.

You can spend a bonus action to return as many creatures as you like to the regular world. If you die or the vessel is destroyed, everyone is ejected immediately.

The vessel now has some healing benefits, too. Anyone who stays inside for at least ten minutes gains the benefits of a short rest, and your allies can add your proficiency bonus to the number of hit points they get back from their Hit Dice.

Limited Wish

Level: 14

As an action, you can speak to your vessel and ask it to create the effects of one particular spell. The spell must have a casting time of one action, and it must be level six or lower.

This doesn’t have to be a spell you can cast – the vessel can cast from any of the classes’ spell lists, as long as those other requirements are met. You also don’t need any components for the spell, even expensive ones. If you fancied casting Revivify, this might be the cheapest way to get the job done.

DnD Genie Warlock build

Plenty of races work well with the Genie Warlock subclass. Tiefling and Dragonborn both provide useful ability score increases, and any race that can expand your limited spell list is an excellent option. But we’d like to suggest a very popular – and very silly – Genie Warlock build. And for that, you’ll need to play a Variant DnD Human.

Use your two +1 ability score increases to buff your Charisma and your Constitution. When assigning your points to DnD stats, prioritize them in this order: Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Strength.

You get a free feat from the get-go, which is the real reason to go with a Variant Human. Choose the Crusher feat (assigning the +1 increase to your Constitution). Once per turn, when you deal bludgeoning damage to a creature, you can move it five feet into an unoccupied space.

With this in mind, choose the Dao as your Warlock Patron. This lets you turn your DnD Eldritch Blast into an attack that deals bludgeoning damage.

At level two, your Eldritch Invocations should be Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast. The first makes you a better damage dealer in general, and the second lets you push a creature ten feet from you every time you hit it with an Eldritch Blast.

The Pact Boon you choose doesn’t impact this build too much, but we recommend either the Pact of the Chain or the Pact of the Tome. Level three gives you something far more important, anyway – the spell Spike Growth.

D&D fans like to call this build ‘The Cheese Grater’, and perhaps you can already see why.

Step one: Cast Spike Growth in an area where enemies will struggle to avoid it. Step two: Hit an enemy with a Repelling Blast that deals bludgeoning damage, pushing them back through the Spike Growth and dealing extra damage. Step three: Activate the Crusher feat and pull them five feet back into the Spike Growth, dealing even more damage.

If you want to upgrade this build even more, take the Telekinetic feat later on. This gives you yet another way to drag enemies back and forth across your cheese grater – gnarly.

Need more character creation advice? Here are our favorite DnD backgrounds. Or, if you’re on the Dungeon Master’s side of the screen, here are the DnD campaigns and DnD one shots we’d recommend.