Genie Warlock 5E Guide | Warlock Subclass from Tasha’s Cauldron

Care to make a wish? Well, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything can grant it! Warlocks tend to look anywhere and everywhere they can to find patrons, so why not some of the most powerful mortals in the universe? Making a pact with a genie is tricky; they’re cunning, and to give you this much power, you had to find a Noble Genie. You’ll likely be a weapon to play as a pawn in a genie-based rivalry, and this pact will be little more than a bragging right… But at least you get some power out of it! Check out what you’ve earned in our Genie Warlock 5E guide!

What’s Your Wish?: The Genie Warlock 5E

The Genie is a strange utility Warlock with crazy coverage of the spell lists and great options through the 4 types of Genie. Because of that, they have a mix of damage, rest protection, and grants the Warlock access to Wish. They’re very versatile, and quite safe.

When you choose a Genie, you also choose their type; Dao, Djinni, Efreeti, and Marid.

Expanded Spell List

When you get spells, these are spells that you can also learn. The Genie list are the spells you’re guaranteed to get added to the Warlock’s options, and then you gain a second spell from the type of Genie you’ve formed a pact with.

Let’s talk about the spells you’ll always get. Detect Evil and Good tends to be useful, since most campaigns go into combat against Evil things. It may also find you a Fey or Celestial trickster hiding amongst a crowd. Nice for you! Phantasmal Force is one of the better illusion spells that you can make, and you can even theoretically use it to deal damage. It’s better as a problem solving or distraction tool, though. Create Food and Water is also mostly for problem solving, since most DMs don’t care too much about where you get food. When it does come up, you have a literally infinite supply of nutrition. Nice!

Phantasmal Killer is great crowd control and damage, forcing the Frightened condition and even dealing strong damage! Make sure they don’t have a good wisdom save, or immunity to fear, and this will go far! Creation is far too utility-based for it’s own good, but with a creative DM you can make this do anything you want! Usually, Creation is a job for a Wizard, though. Wish is a great spell, but you can only cast it once per day… Though, be very, very careful about using Wish. The Downside of the Wish spell when used creatively is very large.

So, not a horrible list, though they’re mostly utility spells that might be better for Wizards. Of the other options, Efreeti is the best blaster, Dao is a defensive choice, Djinni grants Greater Invisibility, and Marid is about combat control. Choose what your Warlock does best, and go down that line! Or, use the following abilities to decide on your path instead.

Genie’s Vessel

Also at level 1, you gain a Tiny object, which is your spellcasting implement. This is your “Genie’s Bottle”, and thus it should be fairly custom-built to you.

Bottled Respite. As an action, you can magically vanish and enter your vessel, which remains in the space you left. The interior of the vessel is an extradimensional space in the shape of a 20-foot-radius cylinder, 20 feet high, and resembles your vessel… You can remain inside the vessel up to a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus. Once you enter the vessel, you can’t enter again until you finish a long rest.

Genie’s Wrath. Once during each of your turns when you hit with an attack roll, you can deal extra damage to the target equal to your proficiency bonus. The type of this damage is determined by your patron: bludgeoning (dao), thunder (djinni), fire (efreeti), or cold (marid).

Bottled Respite is a cool ability, horribly neutered by the final sentence. You get to hide in your own dimension, which can let others carry you, or steal your bottle. And then you have a sick bachelor pad that you can chill out in. And you can stay there for up to 12 hours in the late game! That’s a ton of protection.

Unfortunately, you only get to enter your bottle once per day, so it’s just there to protect you briefly. At least you’ll get a good Short Rest, without needing to talk to anyone else. But… gosh, you really don’t get to use this ability to its fullest!

The other benefit is a pretty small amount of bonus damage, but hey, it hurts things. Dealing 2-6 damage consistently will whittle down an enemy pretty quickly, and it’s not limited to number of times per day or anything. So it’s free!

However, your vessel can be destroyed… Fairly easily. It’s health is your Warlock level plus proficiency bonus, maxing out at 26 at level 20. If someone wants your home destroyed, they’ll decimate it. You can replace it during an hour-long ceremony, so that’s nice at least. You can change your lamp whenever you rest, if you want to. 

This ability isn’t too important. Don’t worry, it’ll get better!

Elemental Gift

At level 6, you gain two significant abilities.

You now have resistance to a damage type determined by your patron’s kind: bludgeoning (dao), thunder (djinni), fire (efreeti), or cold (marid).

In addition, as a bonus action, you can give yourself a flying speed of 30 feet that lasts for 10 minutes, during which you can hover. You can use this bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

You resist your Genie’s element. Efreeti are representing fire damage, and that tends to be common… But bludgeoning resistance? That’s not common! This is the last ability that your patron’s kind is based on, so you might want to use their spells to determine what type they are. Alternatively… Fire is most common, then bludgeoning, then cold, then thunder. That’s an approximation, of course, but that just tends to be the case.

The flying speed is much more enticing. You gain up to 60 minutes of flight, which is usually enough to handle most situations. You’ll be very magic-item efficient, since this’ll replace your need for flight boots or anything like that. Instead, you can just pop flight and explode into the air. Wonderful! Just make sure you’ll need ten minutes of flight when you use a charge of this.

Sanctuary Vessel

At level 10, you buff your Bottled Respite… Just slightly.

When you enter your Genie’s Vessel via the Bottled Respite feature, you can now choose up to five willing creatures that you can see within 30 feet of you, and the chosen creatures are drawn into the vessel with you.

As a bonus action, you can eject any number of creatures from the vessel, and everyone is ejected if you leave or die or if the vessel is destroyed.

In addition, anyone (including you) who remains within the vessel for at least 10 minutes gains the benefit of finishing a short rest, and anyone can add your proficiency bonus to the number of hit points they regain if they spend any Hit Dice as part of a short rest there.

So, cool, you get to protect all of your allies during that short rest. Alternatively, you can use this to teleport people out of bad situations, like being in a jail cell or falling off a cliff. Then you catch them in your comfy-cozy bedroom, just to chillax. 

However, perhaps more impressive is the buff to short rests. First of all, you reduce one short rest per day from one hour to ten minutes. That’s amazing! That’s so much time saving, so you can do a time-sensitive quest and basically get a free short rest during it. That can be insanely nice… And at least you get another short rest for free. As a Warlock, that’s critical!

Limited Wish

Your final ability, at level 14, is intriguing. You get to talk directly to your patron, and get a modicum of their power.

As an action, you can speak your desire to your Genie’s Vessel, requesting the effect of one spell that is 6th level or lower and has a casting time of 1 action. The spell can be from any class’s spell list, and you don’t need to meet the requirements in that spell, including costly components; the spell simply takes effect as part of this action.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish 1d4 long rests.

This is a pretty wonderful ability. You get to cycle through an infinite series of spells to cast any one you want, and you only spend an action. Admittedly, you don’t get the powerful spells that take awhile to cast, like Restoration. You only get problem solving spells that are useful in fights. That’s okay; scan some of the spell lists for potent 6th level options. You might find things like Conjure Fey or Heal to be useful from Druids, for instance; Heal is an especially good option to have as a class with such limited healing!

Of course, this ability’s usefulness coincides with how well you know the spell list. If you’re familiar with casting, or have a friend who is, this will be insanely good for you! If you get into a situation and get worried, scan the spell lists and start begging!

Pact Boon Synergies

Like most Warlocks, the Genie tends towards two of the three pact boons.

Pact of the Blade

Yeah… no on Pact of the Blade. You get absolutely no reason to go to the frontlines; no temp HP, no Charisma for weapon attacks, no increased armor. Nothing. In fact, with Flight, you’re better off with spells.

Pact of the Chain

Here’s where it gets interesting. The Pact of the Chain is a great way to get a scout for your team. If you want to crush early game encounters, the Imp will decimate any enemy it stings. If that wasn’t good enough, you can have the Imp look like a little Genie themselves. Then you can have him head into your little home and have some great flavor going for you… But realistically the Imp is a stellar scout and great companion.

Pact of the Talisman

Depending on your Genie type, learning a type of permanent Guidance might seem good. Usually it is, but Tome often offers significant improvements over Talisman that we prefer to go with the option that gives us ritual spells. It’s not the worst decision that you can make, but most Genie options focus more on the damage side of things. Pact of the Talisman is okay if your party needs to round out ability checks, though.

Pact of the Tome

The Pact of the Tome is the safe option. You get more cantrips from multiple different classes, increasing your general utility. Your invocations open to give you more spells from different classes, giving you access to options that you wouldn’t normally have. If you chose the Genie for utility casting, this is probably the choice for you.

Best Race for The Genie Warlocks

The Genie wants Charisma, since it’s so centered around casting spells and using Eldritch Blast. Afterwards, you can use Dexterity or Constitution to keep yourself safe on the battlefield.

Scourge Aasimar

The Scourge Aasimar are absolute beasts from Volo’s Guide to Monsters. They gain the +2 Charisma, +1 Constitution that I think is oh so perfect for Warlocks. Darkvision is great utility, Celestial resilience gives two solid resistances, and Healing Hands lets you pick your cleric off the ground during touch fights. However, what may be more interesting is Radiant Consumption which, at level 3, allows you to take some damage to deal more damage with each attack. This can really boost your damage per round with Eldritch Blast; Radiant Consumption and Genie’s Wrath is a +16 damage buff at level 20!

Best Feats for Genie Warlock

Like most Warlocks, the Genie Warlock really wants to help their party want to take short rests. Since Genies also have the ability to take short rests more often with their Sanctuary Vessel, you’re even further incentivized to improve your party’s ability to rest.

Chef

The Chef feat is one of our favorite Warlock options. If you want to master the short rest, this feat is a really solid way to do so.

To begin, Chef offers players a +1 to Charisma or Constitution. Both of these options are incredibly strong for a Warlock, but only if your gameplan is to round out your ability scores with the feat. Still, Warlocks love starting with 17 Charisma. Having this as a gameplan to get to 18 is a good idea.

Then, you get three separate abilities, none of which are particularly impactful by themselves. Proficiency in Chef’s Utensils might get you a job as a chef for someone, but it doesn’t have any real in-dungeon effects worth noting.

The other two boons are actually quite strong. The first is a bonus to your short rest healing. Whenever you or a party member spends hit dice during a short rest, you add a d8 to the healing. Not exactly game-warping in strength, but even 4 average hitpoints improve someone’s health pool. Much more impactful to health pools are the treats. You can grant between 4-36 temporary hitpoints, based on what point in your build that you’re in. 

While not as impactful as the Inspiring Leader feat, which is also on our list, this lets us target temporary hitpoints onto party members that need them the most while rewarding them consistently for rests. And who says you can’t take both this and Inspiring Leader?

Fey Touched

Fey Touched offers the Warlock a lot of what it wants. To begin, it gives a +1 to Charisma. That already makes it rather potent in our books! Like Chef, Fey Touched can round out a starting Charisma of 17 to 18, which is a great reason to grab it in the first place.

However, unlike Chef, Fey Touched is all about spells. You learn two spells and get to cast them each once for free. The first spell that you must learn is Misty Step. Misty Step is an insanely potent spell that allows you to move 60 feet as a bonus action. And, since it’s a teleport, very few things are able to stop this movement. Very important for keeping Warlocks safe or potentially solving distance-based puzzles in a flash.

The other spell is a bit more unique. It’s a level 1 spell from the divination or enchantment schools. This usually means you can collect something like Command or Silvery Barbs, spells that are useful early on and keep their power until endgame. Silvery Barbs suffers quite a bit from Warlock’s spell slots, but even a level 5 slot on giving disadvantage to an attack and advantage to someone else? That’s not the end of the world.

Investigate the list of divination and enchantment for yourself. You’ll find some legitimate winners there.

Inspiring Leader

If you have ever had problems getting your party to take short rests during the midgame of DnD 5E, look no further than Inspiring Leader. Even the most staunch Barbarian will think twice before denying a 100 temporary HP shield to their entire party by level 20. 

Inspiring Leader is legendary for its endgame performance, since the temporary HP that you give out is based on level and charisma. Therefore, you want it in the midgame, where it can give around 17-21 HP by level 12 or 16, respectively. That way, you can still give a shield to your entire party which equates to around 68-84 health for a four person party on every rest!

As a Warlock, you really want to short rest. So, giving everyone else incentive to rest as well – insane amounts of extra survivability – is a good way to get on your party’s good side.

Resilient

Another basic feat from the Player’s Handbook, Resilient has stayed around for one very specific reason: Concentration saves. Concentration is exceptionally important to the Warlock, who can maintain Concentration on Hex for a full day if left uninterrupted. Eldritch Mind is a great way to prevent concentration drops in the first place, but we’re really reliant on our ability to keep it around.

Resilient can help quite significantly. Constitution +1 is actually a fairly consistent option if you want to buff up your health just a little bit. Taking two feats to get to +2 Constitution (like Heavily Armored or Chef) can be a realistic gameplan from level 12 to level 19.

Telekinetic

Telekinetic is one of the strongest options for casters who want a +1 to Charisma but don’t want to invest in Fey Touched. Telekinetic keeps that +1, but offers a few other unique benefits to fill out your feature quota that you’d expect from it.

The first benefit is learning the Mage Hand cantrip. This version of Mage Hand is invisible, and you can cast it without anyone knowing. This turns one of the best utility feats into one that is legitimately very strong for stealth. And, if you already knew Mage Hand, you can increase its range by 30 feet through this feat. A 60 foot Mage Hand is legitimately difficult for DMs to work around in specific puzzles.

The other benefit that Telekinetic brings to the table is a bonus action. This bonus action lets you push or pull a target by 5 feet. A target can willingly fail the save, meaning you can use this feat to move an ally away – or towards – a potential foe. Five feet might not seem like a lot, but it can be the difference between a safe necromancer and a necromancer next to your Mage Slayer Barbarian.

Usually, Fey Touched and Telekinetic battle it out for supremacy for your Charisma 18 feat. It’s a hard choice, and usually is based on your party.

Best Multiclass Options for Genie Warlock

Genie Warlocks can benefit from classes that boost their durability and damage. However, they can also benefit from other methods of using and abusing short rests, if you’re willing to deal with some slower early game action.

Bard

Bard multiclass is usually not worth too much. But, the Genie Warlock’s reliance on short rests can work to your advantage here. Bard’s adore short rests, as long as they can get to level 5. Level 5 in Bard will also let you work through many strong spells, Healing Word, potent debuffs, and some alright buffs.

However, this is a deep multiclass. Five to six levels, at minimum! This gives you very strong Bardic Inspiration which recharges on Short Rest, a feat, and some access to solid spell choices. Going less deep will just give you some spells and some okay long rest support.

Paladin

If you want to multiclass Paladin, we’d recommend starting as one and then going to Warlock. Paladin’s Heavy Armor proficiency does not translate into multiclass, and we don’t care too much about what a Warlock offers as your starting class.

The Paladin’s most notable aspect from the multiclass is the good armor at the cost of needing okay Charisma. However, if you invest two levels into Paladin, you get a Fighting Style (we like Defense) and Divine Smite. Smite is a great way to spend Warlock spell slots to deal guaranteed damage. 2d8 might not seem like much, but eventually it’ll stick around the maximum of 6d8.

This can be a fun build, though usually just as a backup plan and defensive option. If you’re considering taking Moderately Armored, for example, multiclassing to Paladin might be better.

Sorcerer

The Sorcerer is Genie’s best friend. By going Draconic, you can turn your Genie into a verifiable blaster with 13 AC and some really good options for a 6 level dip. Depending on your Genie, you can add Charisma to a lot of your damaging options.

Metamagic is the real meat-and-potatoes of this strong build. Using your Warlock spell slots for sorcery points, or Sorcery spell slots for it, you can easily produce strong metamagic effects or create temporary spell slots for your day. 

That’s not to mention the fact that Sorcerers tend to hoard several very strong spells to themselves (and Wizards). Haste, for instance, is not on our spell list. So, getting access to it even with limited spell slots isn’t a terrible idea.

Best Backgrounds for Genie Warlock

Mechanically, Warlocks are best at talking to people with their high Charisma score. As a result, our backgrounds should either help facilitate that play style or round out their exploration ability.

Guild Artisan

The Guild Artisan background is probably the best Warlock background from the Player’s Handbook. The reason why is because Warlocks don’t have access to either Insight or Persuasion, two skills that the Guild Artisan has in spades. Artisan’s Tools aren’t great, but everyone likes someone who can brew or cook. Your language learned will usually be one that your DM recommends, since each campaign requires a bit of speculation and direction. But, as the person who is talking to others, it’s not a bad idea to have around.

The gear and feature of the background is usually not as important, and that’s the case here. You get some Artisan’s Tools, which is nice since you just got proficiency in one set. You also get a letter of introduction, clothing, and 15 gp. Again, nothing spectacular.

Your Guild Member feature, on the other hand, is worth taking note of. For a measly 5 gp per month, you have a guild on your side. They’ll root for you in legal matters, give you expensive room and board for free, and provide a lot of juicy information. Remember to pay your dues and you’ll have a powerful ally! As long as your DM remembers to use them. Don’t let them forget.

Investigator

The Investigator, from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, offers a lot of non-conversationalist features for a Warlock. You can still get Insight, but then you have your choice between Investigation and Perception. We’d take Perception every time, since it is the most used skill in the game. You’ll also get proficiency with Disguise Kits and Thieves’ Tools. Disguise Kits are funny, but Thieves’ Tools are basically required if you want to dungeoneer correctly.

The rest of the Investigator is significantly less impactful. Your equipment is mostly flavor and your feature is a double-edged sword. If people know you before you even walk into a town, they know the good and the bad.

Urban Bounty Hunter

Urban Bounty Hunter has a gigantic set of options compared to most backgrounds. You can choose between four skills, though we’d recommend Insight and Persuasion (though Persuasion and Stealth is very legitimate as well). Then, for your tools, you should usually go for a Musical Instrument and Thieves’ Tools. Thieves’ Tools are extremely useful and strong. The Musical Instrument, however, is usually just because it’s easier to justify adding Charisma to your proficiency with Musical Instruments compared to Gaming Sets.

Your equipment is basically just 20 gp, which is actually kinda neat. Ear to the Ground is a great feature that grants you quite a lot of information and aid.

FAQ for the Genie Warlock

What deities work best for a Genie Warlock?

Gods of fate and wish-granting work quite well for a Genie Warlock looking to worship. Savras, the god of divination and fate, might receive blessings from Genie Warlocks before a Wish is cast. Tymora, the goddess of good luck, brings a similar vibe to a Genie-pacted Warlock.

Can you bring others into a Genie’s Vessel?

You cannot bring another creature into your vessel through your Bottled Respite ability. You must first access your Sanctuary Vessel ability which strictly allows you to bring up to five other creatures with you. You may ask your DM to see if a person in, say, a Bag of Holding can join you in your vessel before level 10.

How do you get Wish as a Warlock?

In order to actually learn Wish, you must join a pact with a Genie. Then, when you reach your 4th Mystic Arcanum at level 17, you can choose Wish as an option. You do not have to choose Wish, though it is the strongest option of the 9th level spells that Warlock has access to.

Example Genie Warlock Build

Before we can even get started on our Genie Warlock build, we have a few limitations and requirements to discuss.

• No multiclassing. All 20 levels will go into Warlock, by decree of a DM who is scared of multiclassing. That’s fine by us. Multiclassing can be overwhelming for DMs and players alike, so we’ll take it slow.
• No lineage. While this stinks and locks us out of several races, it’s not the end of the world. Also, please keep in mind that you can more or less follow this guide if you select a race with Lineage rules. Ability scores are probably the most restrictive parts of a race, and lineage rules make many other races much more flexible.
• Any book is allowed. While we’re locked out of Lineage races, we’re otherwise okay with selecting from any game expansion.
• Standard Array for Ability Scores. 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Those are fine, though losing out on two 14s or 15s can hurt our durability a bit. We’ll be fine, though.
• Standard equipment. This will prevent us from starting with anything fun, like Thieves’ Tools. But, otherwise, it will make no difference. Warlocks aren’t overly reliant on gear.
• Our party is a Barbarian, Druid, and Rogue. What a fun group! Our goal will be to help deal with crowds of enemies during key combats.

Okay, that was a few requirements, but it’s important that everyone is comfy at the table. With that in mind, we can start crafting our character!

Our Warlock is going to be a base Half-Elf, mostly due to their extremely wide range of skills and abilities. Our Half Elf’s skills will be Perception and Performance. Our background will be Urban Bounty Hunter. We made a pact with a Genie to help us hunt down our prey, which are usually aberrations that hang out under cities. Our DM tells us that Draconic will be a good language to have under our belts, so let’s go for that.

With our current party’s setup, we’ll be prioritizing Constitution over Dexterity. While we aren’t going to be in a comfortable place with AC, we’re going to need that Constitution more often. We plan on getting Moderately Armored at level 12, which gives a +1 to Dexterity, so we can afford to be a bit low on AC early on. This is only because we couldn’t multiclass – the feat usually isn’t worth it otherwise.

Our equipment is going to be very simple. It really, really doesn’t matter what we select. Everything is cheap and affordable, so grab what comes naturally.

5E Genie Warlock Build

Race: Half-Elf Ability Scores: STR 8, DEX 14 (13 + 1), CON 15 (14 + 1), INT 10, WIS 12, CHA 17 (15 + 2) Proficiencies: Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Performance, Insight, Persuasion, Bongos, Thieves’ Tools Starting Equipment: Light Crossbow, 20 Bolts, Component Pouch, Dungeoneer’s Pack, Leather Armor, Spear, two Daggers, Aberration Hunter’s Clothing, 20 gp Languages: Common, Elven, Draconic

Level	Class Benefits	Choices
1	-Pact Magic -Expanded Spell List -Genie’s Vessel	Hope you weren’t done with making choices yet. This archetype has a lot of stuff to do at level 1!  Cantrips. In general, Eldritch Blast is far too strong to ignore if you ever make a Warlock. Even melee-focused Warlocks should grab it, since it does such high damage. For our utility cantrip, Prestidigitation will do the job for us. We’re performers, after all, so having a small arsenal of tricks is nice.  Spells. Hex and Sleep are our choices. Hex will last the rest of the game and is our go-to Concentration spell. Sleep will only be good early on but supplies a devastating status effect that few creatures can overcome easily before level 4. Genie Kind. Because our party is more focused on single-target damage, it will be a good idea to focus on area of effect damage for our spell list. Efreeti is our choice for this build, though the other three Genie types are exceptionally strong. Keep that spell list in mind as we level up.
2	-Eldritch Invocations	Our first level!  Spell. We get another spell here, and can potentially replace an earlier spell. Nothing super important here, so we’ll just grab Armor of Agathys to keep us alive until our feats can provide high-quality temporary hitpoints.  Invocations. At this level, we also get two invocations. Agonizing Blast is a good start, since it’s so important that when we hit our Eldritch Blasts, we hit hard. As for our other invocation, we’ll go with Armor of Shadows. Our AC is relatively low, so for now, bumping it up is a good idea. Once we get +1 Studded Leather armor, Armor of Shadows is getting traded.
3	-Pact Boon -2nd Level Pact Magic	Another somewhat busy level. Don’t worry, the first half of the Warlock is the harder one.  Pact. Our pact will be Pact of the Tome. It offers a lot of utility and spell choice for our Warlock.  Tome Cantrips. We’ll get Guidance, Message, and Thaumaturgy for our Tome. Guidance is a great cantrip to have so our Druid and we can buff two party members at once. Message lets us communicate nearly silently with others. Thaumaturgy lets us communicate quite loudly with others.  Spells. Scorching Ray is one of the admittedly few options that we plan on taking from our Efreeti Patron. The ability to deal 6d6 damage to a single target is monumentous. And, it scales very well with our Warlock spell slots! So, it’s going to be our single-target nuke option for characters we’ve already infested with our Hex.
4	-Ability Score Improvement	We’ve made it to our first Feat level. While we could take Moderately Armored now to help our survival, we are still hiding behind allies to avoid damage. So, let’s take Telekinesis for our feat. This feat will give us Mage Hand, a great bonus action for setting up our future Fireball turns, and create opportunities to help push our allies into the right square.  Spell. To further insulate ourselves against humanoid targets, Hold Person is our choice. This spell alone can sometimes win fights, and we want it now. Humanoids slowly phase out of campaigns over time, so having the ability to paralyze one or more of them will fade as well. Speaking of fade, we’ll tag out Sleep with Darkness. Not quite the same power level, but we can leverage Darkness more readily against unready enemies or use it to cover our escape.  Cantrip. We’re going to take Mage Hand to buff the range of our cantrip by 30 feet. The 60 foot invisible Mage Hand will basically be a party staple the first few times you use it.
5	-3rd Level Pact Magic	We’ve made it to the beginning of our domination!  Spell. Fireball is the entire reason we chose Efreeti in the first place. Simply chuck that into a room and watch what 8d6 can do to a group of enemies. In addition, we’re going to immediately lose Darkness and get Tongues. We will not be using Darkness to its full advantage quiet yet. Invocation. We chose the Tome, we’re taking Book of Ancient Secrets. It gives us too much value, since we can learn theoretically infinite ritual spells. As for the spells we’ll learn to start, Find Familiar and Identify will work well enough. Our party was kinda riding their coattails and paying for identification services before. Now, we can do it ourselves. As a side note, we will not be noting additional Rituals that you will learn from here on. Since rituals are entirely adventure-based, you will find different ones with different DMs during different stories. Don’t worry too much about it and copy down as many as you can find. They’re almost all worth it at 50 gp a pop.
6	-Elemental Gift	Fire Resistance and a flight speed are going to come in handy a lot during standard campaigns. Use them at your leisure.  Spells. Counterspell is a Warlock staple, allowing us to clear the air of opponent’s Fireballs with relatively high-level spell slots.
7	-4th Level Pact Magic	We’re approaching the point where Warlocks start to slow down. Spells. With level 4 unlocked, we actually don’t get much to help our current build. Area of Effect is going to be carried by Fireball. So, let’s scoop up Banishment, which we can use to save our ally from certain death or prevent enemies from helping one another.  Invocations. We’re going to lose Armor of Shadows this level, since it’s safe to assume we can find leather clothing that gives 13 AC at base by now. We’ll replace it with Far Scribe to get information to where it needs to be and Sculptor of Flesh to learn Polymorph, a fairly impactful spell at every point in a 5E game.
8	-Ability Score Improvement	This feat level is going to be rather boring, since we’re just gonna take our +2 to Charisma. Not exactly exciting, but it gets us to 20 Charisma, which is critical for our damage and DCs. Let’s take a look at our current spells known.  Cantrips. Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation Spells. Armor of Agathys, Hex, Hold Person, Scorching Ray, Counterspell, Fireball, Tongues, Banishment Tome Cantrips. Guidance, Message, Thaumaturgy Tome Rituals. Find Familiar, Identify  A fun spread so far. No spell on this list is without purpose quite yet, which is a great place to be for a Warlock. We are limiting ourselves to a select few Concentration spells, which is smart. Hex will take that slot most of the time, but we can bail into Banishment or Hold Person when required.  Spell. The next spell to join our list should follow a similar theme. Misty Step is a 2nd level spell, but allows us to escape from danger – danger that is becoming all too common by now. Enemies are much more likely to get to us, so a combination of high temp HP and timely use of escaping spells is important. This spell lets us leave a bad situation and launch a volley of Eldritch Blasts behind us.
9	-5th Level Pact Magic	The last spell level for Warlock’s Pact Magic feature can be a bit awkward to navigate. Thankfully, our Patron has us partially covered.  Spell. Creation is way too fun to not grab. It can solve problems, create new problems, or simply serve as entertainment. Having this spell active on every short rest is so much fun! We don’t care much for Flame Strike, as it is almost always a significantly weaker Fireball except for when creatures have immunity to fire. Even when they have resistance, the average damage doesn’t actually increase at all! Those 2 lost d6s hurt so much.  Invocation. Gift of the Protectors is so great. You can protect your whole party from dropping, giving them extra turns to help you turn the tide. You can even swap out party members for NPCs if you dearly need them to survive. Such a useful ability.
10	-Sanctuary Vessel	This is the first level where we do not learn a new spell, unless we want to. It’s also the point where we get to hide our party away in our lamp like a little gremlin!  Cantrip. Our final cantrip will be Blade Ward. It’s just an option that lets us survive. Warlocks don’t get too many utility options, and our party doesn’t need Minor Illusion for now. Spells. Even though we aren’t learning new spells, we can always tag out old ones. For instance, we can consider taking Far Step instead of Misty Step, since the former can be used multiple times. But, because it uses our Concentration, I’d rather not. I’m quite happy with our spell list, so let’s keep our Hex train a-rollin’.
11	-Mystic Arcanum (6th Level)	At this point, we start getting once-per-day spells called Mystic Arcanum. Let’s make sure they are solid options that we plan on casting at least once during a day with combat.  Mystic Arcanum. We’re a huge fan of Scatter, since it lets us handle combat situations, puzzle solving, or emergencies. Getting the entire party into position to dunk on enemies via teleportation is very strong.  Spell. For the purposes of this campaign, let’s assume that we haven’t used Hold Person in a while. We’ll trade Hold Person for Hold Monster, a spell that hits many different creatures. We’ll also grab Danse Macabre, another concentration spell but one that summons surprisingly threatening corpses for you to wallop enemies with.
12	-Ability Score Improvement	Like we said earlier, this level’s feat will be Moderately Armored. This puts our Dexterity at a frustrating 15, but also gives us an average boost to AC of about 7-10. Our party is fairly medium armor hungry, but we might be able to take the good shields.  Invocation. We also get an invocation here. We like Devil’s Sight so we can finally abuse magical darkness.  Spells. To work with our Devil’s Sight, let’s trade out Armor of Agathys for Darkness. While the Armor served us well, we have plans to use Darkness as our defensive trick. We won’t need the Armor for much longer, anyways.
13	-Mystic Arcanum (7th Level)	Mystic Arcanum. At this level, Crown of Stars is a very legitimate option. It gives us a bonus action attack for when we really need to just beat the crap out of someone. While Telekinetic serves well as a positioning tool, we do need to consider 4d12+5 damage as a bonus action too!  Spell. Synaptic Static gives us high damage and a solid debuff, all targeting Intelligence. As the party’s blaster caster, it might be a good idea to spread our wings a bit away from Fireball.
14	-Limited Wish	If you don’t want to trade out Invocations or Spells this level, there’s no choice to make here. You may want to choose when to use Limited Wish wisely, though. That ability is so incredibly powerful and versatile, but with a gigantic cooldown. Try your best to save it for emergencies.
15	-Mystic Arcanum (8th Level)	Alright, we have a few things to do at this level.  Mystic Arcanum. Power Word Stun is our pet favorite ability here. The ability to potentially ruin a boss’s entire turn is incredible, and unique to a few classes. Since it doesn’t take our Concentration, we can use it to set up a devastating barrage in future turns, but it is mostly there so our allies can capitalize on a stunned target.  Spell. Similar to our Mystic Arcanum, we’re going to focus on an ability that nukes bosses. Raulothim’s Psychic Lance does 8d6 damage, targets Intelligence, and could incapacitate the target. Incapacitation is a kinda weak condition, but almost nothing in the entire game is immune to it. Put that boss into a stun that it can’t possibly refuse!  Invocation. We legitimately like Shroud of Shadow here, as it lets you do basically whatever you’d like outside of combat. Sure, Truesight and other alternative sight types are more commonplace. But, even if you make an enemy waste a turn on something you apply for no resources, you’ve gotten a minor win.
16	-Ability Score Improvement	Here we’ll take Inspiring Leader. 21 temporary hitpoints is too many to ignore, and they will scale ever higher as you level up. Otherwise, I enjoy our spell list and still get occasional utility out of our invocations. However, we’ll take out Sculptor of Flesh for Eldritch Mind. Advantage on Concentration checks is becoming more and more required as we get into the endgame and eat 40+ damage with a single attack.
17	-Mystic Arcanum (9th Level)	Mystic Arcanum. We have to take Wish. No questions about it! That’s basically any spell in the entire game, or can let you change the course of history… albeit at a major cost. You’re missing out if you don’t consider it.  Spell. Mislead is funny, and if we are in a social campaign, being able to maneuver a Wizard is worth considering. However, this is only available to a Warlock with a variant spell list, so ask your DM before locking this in.
18		Invocation. Our final invocation is going to be Trickster’s Escape. In scenarios where we’re being locked down, having this as an option is going to be very nice to have. It can only be cast on yourself, though, so you can’t use it to help your poor paralyzed Barbarian.
19	-Ability Score Improvement	Feat. For our final feat, Chef will do. +1 to Constitution, a funny tool proficiency for a level 19 hero, and 36 health of delicious treats per short rest. Every time we rest, we’ll give our party of four around 152 hitpoints of value. That’s very difficult to resist, even for the biggest hater of short rests.
20	-Eldritch Master	You’re done. You’ve made it. Let’s look at our lists before we say goodbye to the build.  Cantrips. Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation  Spells. Hex, Darkness, Misty Step, Scorching Ray, Counterspell, Fireball, Tongues, Banishment, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, Creation, Danse Macabre, Hold Monster, Mislead, Synaptic Static  Tome Cantrips. Guidance, Message, Thaumaturgy  Tome Rituals. Find Familiar, Identify  Mystic Arcanum. Scatter, Crown of Stars, Power Word Stun, Wish  Once again, not counting our Ritual Spells, this is a powerful spell list with good concentration, not-concentration, and even out-of-combat options. Feel free to change them as you see fit for your campaign, but something like this is good for most Warlock builds. Make sure you fill in your role, but also consider ways to make your interesting pact magic work for you.

Conclusion – Our Take on the Genie Patron

The Genie is a weird one, with a ton of options but a mechanic that’s not too powerful. If you’re looking for a non-standard Warlock, which has a ton of options rather than a few good blasting spells, look no further.