Eldritch Adept Feat 5E Guide | Pros, Cons, and Builds

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything decided it might be a good idea to spread the love a little bit. They give you some new options with the Eldritch Adept feat. Your studies of occult lore have finally paid off, granting you some power that’s normally only accessible by giving yourself to a Patron. Instead, your inherent eldritch might has unlocked a unique trait within you. Learn how to best abuse this new strength with our Eldritch Adept Feat 5E guide!

Eldritch Adept Feat 5E Guide

The Eldritch Adept feat allows the user (who must be a spellcaster or Warlock) to learn one Warlock Invocation that they meet the prerequisites for. This means that only Warlocks can take an invocation that has any listed prerequisites. However, this invocation can be changed whenever the user levels up.

Pros

Eldritch Invocations can be absolutely insane. There are a few really strong invocations that can actively adjust how you play a character. And the fact that any class can theoretically access a pool of eldritch invocations, however minor, can shake up a party. 

If that wasn’t enough, the ability to change the invocation at each level allows for a quickly adapting and mobile party comp. Think you’re going to talk for a long time? Bam, get Beguiling Presence for the level! Then swap back to whatever you need once you level up.

And on a Warlock, this can make some builds activate much earlier, since you might be able to find that Invocation you were looking for much sooner.

Cons

Hoo boy… So, a Feat is a pretty big step in your career. They usually have between 3 to 5 major benefits, and are actively huge parts of a build. For a feat to do nothing but give a single Eldritch invocation, without a single +1 to Charisma or anything, is pretty basic. In fact, I’d say that it’s never really worth replacing an Ability Score Improvement, unless your build hinges on that invocation.

If you’re not a Warlock, then your choices are hilariously small; Misty Visions, Mask of Many Faces, Gaze of Two Minds, Fiendish Vigor, Eyes of the Rune Keeper, Eldritch Sight, Eldritch Mind, Devil’s Sight, Beguiling Influence, Beast Speech, and Armor of Shadows. 11 total options to choose from, that don’t have a Warlock level prerequisite or a Warlock class feature prerequisite. Of those, you can argue that a few of them are good; Fiendish Vigor gives temp hit points, Devil’s Sight lets you see through any darkness, Eldritch Sight is a constant Detect Magic. But are any of them worth replacing an ability score improvement? I’m less sure.

Potential Builds

Warlocks probably make the best use of this. Boring, but being a Warlock allows you to attain any level or prerequisite ability that you’d otherwise have trouble getting to. You only have so many Invocation slots. Getting one more can shake things up.

Otherwise… Eldritch Sight might be useful on a Paladin or Ranger who is looking for magic users to destroy. Misty Visions gives a ton of out-of-combat utility that a cantrip can’t quite match. Beast Speech might work out for a Druid who doesn’t want to spend spell slots to always be able to talk with an animal… But if any of these ideas sound like a stretch, it’s because it probably is. This is a hard feat to swallow for anyone who isn’t a Warlock, and even then it’s hard to say!

I might be missing a legitimately powerful combo, or misinterpreting the “Prerequisite” clause. If I am, please leave a comment with a potential build that works really well!

Conclusions

As long as I am interpreting this right, this feat just doesn’t do very much compared to other feats. Having access to Warlock invocations might be good, and they’re versatile as long as you consistently level. But… Other feats can do this better. Try this out on an Invocation-heavy Warlock build, but thing about your other feat options first. Don’t forget to check out our Feats 5E Guide as well.