The Fiend Subclass Guide and Builds

The Fiend is a Warlock subclass in Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3). Check out our guide for how to unlock the Fiend subclass, its features, as well as its best build.

Warlock Subclasses Warlock Class Guide
The Archfey	The Fiend	The Great Old One

The Fiend Subclass Overview

The Fiend Basic Information

Subclass Overview
	The Fiend Warlocks in service to fiends work towards corrupting, destructive ends - intentionally or otherwise - and receive hellish blessings in return.
Parent Class	Warlock
How to Unlock	Available during Character Creation.
Spellcasting Ability	Charisma
Starting Subclass Features
・Grants the Dark One's Blessing Passive ・All Warlock Class Features.

The Fiend is a Warlock Subclass that is focused on increasing the Warlocks's survivability. It grants two features that directly increases the Survivability of the Warlock and another Feature that grants a bonus to any ability checks. The Fiend is a great Subclass to choose due to the bonuses is naturally provides!

How to Unlock the The Fiend Subclass

Available When Creating a Warlock

The Fiend subclass will become available once you start creating a Warlock at the Character Creation screen. Unlike most classes, Warlocks are one of the few that get to pick out their subclass before they start the game.

The Fiend Subclass Features

The Fiend Features
Dark One's Blessing	Dark One's Own Luck	Fiendish Resilience
▼ Level Progression and Features Chart ▼

Dark One's Blessing

Dark One's Blessing is a simple passive that grants the Warlock bonus HP based on the Warlock's Charisma when you kill an enemy. This is a nice passive for any builds (whether you plan to be a full spell caster or a frontline Warlock) since it boosts your survivability which is essential for any class in the game.

Since you only get the bonus HP after killing an enemy, The Dark One's Blessing works much better the higher your DPS, and would work well with high DPS builds.

Dark One's Own Luck

Dark One's Own Luck adds a 1d10 to any ability checks that the Warlock makes. This trivializes a lot of ability checks in the game if the player is willing to reload bad rolls (save scum). For reference, the Guidance cantrip which is one of the best Cantrips you can have in the early game only provides a 1d4 bonus to Ability checks.

Fiendish Resilience

Fiendish Resilience is the last The Fiend feature you can obtain and is obtained at level 10. The Fiendish Resilience allows you to choose one damage type and become resistant to it. This can allow the Warlock to position much closer to the enemies much easier and safer.

This works well with the Pact of Blade pact due to being able to equip melee weapons that scale with Charisma. This lets you use Warlocks as a strong frontline attacker.

The Fiend Level Progression and Features Chart

Lvl	Features Unlocked
1	・Access to Expanded Spell List ・Dark One's Blessing Feature
6	・Dark One's Own Luck Feature
10	・Fiendish Resilience Feature

Best The Fiend Builds

Hexblade Warlock Early Game Build Overview

					Recommended Equipment
Helm					Haste Helm
Cloak					Vivacious Cloak
Armor					Player's Choice
Gloves					Daredevil Gloves / Gloves of the Growling Underdog
Boots					Boots of Striding
					Recommended Weapons
Slot					Main Hand					Off-Hand
Melee					Infernal Rapier / Sorrow					Absolute's Protector (Optional)
					Recommended Accessories
Amulet					Amulet of the Harpers
Ring 1					Strange Conduit Ring
Ring 2					Player's Choice
This build requires you to be in melee range most of the time to deal damage. These items synergize well with being a melee warlock because it boosts your movement and survivability to help you get in close.

Equipment of Choice

Haste Helm

Haste Helm grants you Momentum for 3 turns at the start of combat. This grants you more mobility to get to priority enemies quicker without having to use an action for Dash.

Haste Helm: Armor Guide and How to Get

Vivacious Cloak

Vivacious Cloak grants you 7 temporary hit points after casting a spell in melee. This increases your survivability consistently since you can cast spells in melee range often, especially when paired with Daredevil Gloves.

Daredevil Gloves

Daredevil Gloves can turn your ranged spell attacks into melee ones when you are next to an enemy. This is great since it allows you to use ranged spells like Eldritch Blast in melee without the disadvantage.

Boots of Striding

Similar to the Haste Helm, Boots of Striding grants the wearer Momentum when casting spells that require Concentration.

Additionally, these boots immunize the wearer against Shove and Prone while concentrating.

Boots of Striding: Armor Guide and How to Get

Infernal Rapier or Sorrow

The Infernal Rapier is a great weapon since it automatically changes the Dexterity Modifier into your Spellcasting Ability Modifier, which allows you to deal damage based on your Charisma. Additionally, it also lets you summon a Cambion that can deal strong ranged or melee damage.

Infernal Rapier: Weapon Guide and How to Get

Although, you can only obtain the Infernal Rapier at the end of Act 2. As a substitute, you can equip Sorrow instead to gain Sorrowful Lash as a bonus action spell. It is incredibly useful since it lets you deal extra damage during every turn while also pulling enemies closer to you.

Sorrow: Weapon Guide and How to Get

Absolute's Protector

Absolute's Protector allows you to react against melee attacks and knock the enemy Prone if they fail a Dexterity Saving Throw. It also decreases the damage of incoming spells by 1 if you are marked with the Absolute's Brand.

Absolute's Protector: Shield Guide and How to Get

Amulet of the Harpers

The Amulet of the Harpers grants you the Shield spell which lets you react to enemy attacks and increase your Armor Class by 5. This is useful during difficult situations where the extra armor can give you just enough survivability to win.

Strange Conduit Ring

Strange Conduit Ring lets you deal additional Psychic damage to your weapon while you are Concentrating on a spell. This synergizes well with the True Stike spell since it's a concentration spell and it only uses a bonus action for the Warlock.

Best Races to Use As The Fiend Warlock

Half-Orc

Half-Orcs can be amazing Hexblade Warlocks because of their survivability and increased damage. Since you'll be using a melee weapon most of the time, your Critical Hits will deal significantly more damage since the damage dice is tripled. This activates the Dark One's Blessing more consistently as you kill enemies quicker and easier.

• Darkvision allows you to see an extra 12m in Dark Areas. This can be helpful for ranged classes that want to see threats and targets as soon as possible.
• Relentless Endurance lets you regain 1 hit points instead of becoming Downed when you are reduced to 0 hit points.
• Savage Attacks triples your damage dice instead of doubles when you land a Critical Hit with a melee weapon on an enemy.

Half-Orc Race Guide and Best Classes

Gold Dwarf

Being a Gold Dwarf is a great choice as a Melee Warlock since they are naturally tanky thanks to the extra HP they gain every time they level up. This added HP stacks up with the temporary HP you get from your spells and items, which allows you to take a decent amount of damage without dying.

• Dwarven Combat Training grants Proifiency with Battleaxes, Handaxes, Light Hammers, and Warhammers.
• Darkvision allows you to see an extra 12m in Dark Areas. This can be helpful for ranged classes that want to see threats and targets as soon as possible.
• Dwarven Resilience grants Advantage on Saving Throws against Poison, as well as grants a resistance to Poison Damage.
• Dwarven Toughness increases Max HP by 1, and another +1 per Lv.

Gold Dwarf Subrace Guide and Best Classes

Wood Half-Elf

Another race that does well as a Warlock are Wood Half-Elves because you gain Light Armour and Shield proficiency which naturally increases your Armor Class. More importantly, you also gain increased movement speed, and this helps you move to low health enemies quicker without using Dash.

• Civil Militia grants Proifiency with Spears, Pikes, Halberds, Glaives, Light Armour, and Shields.
• Darkvision allows you to see an extra 12m in Dark Areas. This can be helpful for ranged classes that want to see threats and targets as soon as possible.
• Fleet of Foot grants an additional 1.5m to your movement speed.

Wood Half-Elf Subrace Guide and Best Classes

Best The Fiend Warlock Ability Scores

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12	14	15(+1)	9	8	17(+2)

Charisma is the primary spell casting ability for Warlocks. Having this ability as high as possible will increase the damage you do with your conjured weapons.

Constitution and Dexterity are the next priority to provide the Warlock with as much survivability as possible.

Strength is increased so that the Warlock can wear Medium Armor without penalties. This helps you naturally increase your Armour Class and durability during fights.

Intelligence is a dump stat for Warlocks as they don't get much use for it.

Wisdom is the secondary dump stat since Warlocks don't typically use this stat for spells or during dialogue.

Best The Fiend Feats

War Caster

War Caster helps maintain your concentration when casting spells that require it. This lets you maintain defensive spells that require concentration, such as Armour of Agathys.

Additionally, this feat allows the user to use Shocking Grasp as a reaction on targets who are moving out of melee range.

War Caster Feat Guide and Effects

Durable

As melee characters, Fiend Warlocks will oftentimes be well within reach of the enemy. Durable increases your Con, thereby increasing your survivability as well as making it harder for enemies to break your Concentration. This feat also has the added effect of fully healing your HP every short rest, meaning you'll have to spend less spell slots and resources overall to maintain your team's health during your adventure.

You could also opt to pickup Tough instead of Durable. While the benefits of this feat are less than Durable's in terms of variety, the effect provides more maxaimum HP overall.

Durable Feat Guide and Effects

Baldur's Gate 3 Related Guides

Warlock Class Guide

All Warlock Subclasses

All Warlock Subclasses
The Archfey	The Fiend	The Great Old One