"Powerful magical creatures who are excellent at research. Training makes them more powerful and expands their range of spells. If there are Warlocks in a group and their total experience is more than fifteen, they lead a rebellion against the rest of the group. The only way to combat this is to put them in a Prison or put one in the Torture Chamber. For this reason, Warlocks work well either with other Warlocks or alone."
— Dungeon Keeper Manual
The Warlock's portrait
Warlocks are evil humanoid spellcasters and Library experts. As the Library is a basic room, Warlocks can be drawn into the dungeon almost right away.
Ingame animation of a Warlock
Warlocks train in fire element and support spells. Both their offensive and defensive capabilities are decisively inferior to the hero spellcasting classes, especially the Wizard, Fairy, and Priestess, but even a Monk will best a Warlock in combat. Their low health also makes them vulnerable to an enemy Keeper's Lightning; considering all this, Warlocks are seldom worth training for battle beyond the earliest Campaign maps.
Research is a Warlock's default job. After all projects are completed, they will lurk around in their Lair unless they get new orders. They are strong at scavenging and adequate at training, but refuse to manufacture.
Starting at level 2, Warlocks occasionally fling Fireballs at "unworthy researchers" in the Library, which in their opinion is anything for whom research is not a primary or secondary job. It is therefore recommended to build the Library with only one entrance to prevent through traffic, and to reinforce the walls in the very beginning so that Imps do not court death in there by returning to finish the task later.
Warlocks gain experience from sleeping next to a gold seam; however, the quantity gained is so measly (just 1 XP per turn! At that rate, it takes over 3 and a half hours for a Warlock to get to level 2, and that's if the game's running at its maxium framerate of 20fps and he sleeps without interruption (which he doesn't)) that it's hardly noticeable or worth it. This is fixed in KeeperFX. The lengths of time to reach each level (from the previous level) from sleep alone (at 20fps) are shown in the table below:
Level
Time required
2
3 hours 33 minutes 20 seconds
3
12 hours 26 minutes 40 seconds
4
17 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds
5
23 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds
6
1 day 6 hours 13 minutes 20 seconds
7
1 day 13 hours 20 minutes
8
1 day 22 hours 13 minutes 20 seconds
9
2 days 8 hours 53 minutes 20 seconds
10
2 days 23 hours 6 minutes 40 seconds
Total
12 days 10 hours 40 minutes
There are three possible explanations as to why it is so slow:
The Sleep Experience stat was mistaken for a "training skill" value; that is, they thought it meant they'd gain XP equivalent to training with that level of training skill.
They decided on Sleep Experience values in reference to the creature's levelling up values without realising that those values are multiplied by 256 in-game (e.g. creatures require 256,000 XP to level up to level 2, not 1000).
It was not meant to be a serious game mechanic, but an Easter Egg noticeable only to those who are extremely patient and observant. However, as this mechanic is mentioned in the manual (even if only for the Dragon), the likelihood of this possibility is a matter of debate.
Early 1996 shot of hiring a Warlock (then known as the Sorcerer) from the Order Corporeal Creatures panel
The Warlock was originally known as the Sorcerer (sometimes misspelt 'Sorceror'),[2][3] and still is in the game's data and code.
As to the rebellious behavior described in the official docs, Warlocks are assigned the unique ANGER_JOB_PERSUADE. It is nevertheless unclear how and whether this mechanic works, because anger steadily decreases when creatures are idling in their Lair.
Warlocks will only train if dropped in a Training Room. They are set to gain annoyance if left untrained, but this, too, is mysteriously hard to observe. Samurai have the double the annoyance value, and they get very obviously angry when untrained.
Prior to KeeperFX 1.0, Warlocks were the only spellcaster to have neither Rebound nor Armour (from KeeperFX 1.0, the Time Mage and Druid also have neither). Even with KeeperFX, Warlocks are the only spellcaster with neither Lightning nor Drain. This makes them extremely weak in combat relative to the heroes, and they don't stand a snowball's chance in hell against Priestesses and Fairies, who have both Lightning and Rebound, in one-to-one combat. If both are at level 10, a Warlock would be lucky to even score a hit against a Fairy before he falls. A level 10 Wizard would pulverise a level 10 Warlock, and even a Monk would best a Warlock.
Dungeon Keeper 2[]
"Warlocks are highly intelligent sorcerers, who have been shunned by the Overworld and now seek refuge in the depths of the Underworld. Warlocks are tireless in their quest for knowledge and likely to ally with any Keeper who allows them access to his extensive Libraries.
They shy away from physical contact (which may explain their hatred of Wizards), and prefer to loiter at the back of any fights, hurling fireballs at their lowly opponents. Proud as they are of their intellectual prowess, Warlocks always attempt to set up Lair near Libraries and consider themselves above menial tasks such as manufacturing"
"Hark now, a Warlock has arrived to study spells within your library. His research will serve your magic well. Restrict him not to his books for within combat he may prove formidable with fireballs." — The Mentor, Campaign Mode (DK2)
"A Warlock - use him in combat to support your other creatures. He is also your primary spell researcher and will spend long hours in the Library discovering new incantations for you." — The Mentor, Pet Dungeon Mode (DK2)
Trivia[]
Unlike Dungeon Keeper, Warlocks will sometimes randomly train without prompting, even when there are spells left to research.
They can heal other creatures; this is especially useful when training creatures in the Combat Pit as Warlocks have no mana cost. To do this, cast Possession on a Warlock outside the Combat Pit, and manually heal the fighting creatures as they take damage.
Their fireball spell has a very long windup time. This means in battle they are much more suited in support roles, but this also makes them very easy to train in the Combat Pit.
Warlocks have less health than hero Wizards, and less powerful spells at a higher level; but can heal.
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Progression
Notes[]
Effective defence against mêlée minions when there was a wall to act as cover. The Warlocks' fire-based damage was especially effective against Trolls.
Good at sniping resource rooms or the Dungeon Heart after Trolls had cleared a nearby defensive room.
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