D&D 5E A tad confused about Warlock magic

[Joe Liker]

I don't understand why the warlock spell list goes past level 5 -- all the way to level 9, in fact!

Warlocks never get spell slots higher than level 5, and your maximum level for Spells Known is explicitly tied to spell slot level. Even if they multiclass, Spells Known are kept separate for each class, so it seems like the warlock would still be restricted to his maximum warlock spell slot level.

I know you can use slots gained from Spellcasting and Pact Magic interchangeably, but that doesn't seem like it would allow you to learn higher-level warlock spells. In fact, the multiclass rules specifically state that having higher-level spell slots does not grant you access to higher-level spells.

What am I missing?

 

[Remathilis]

Mystic Arcaenum.

 

[Tony Semana]

See the Mystic Arcanum class feature on page 108. This feature is what gives warlocks access to spells from Levels 6-9. This access isn't linked to their spell slots, which is why it's a little confusing if you're only looking from the class table to the available-spell list:

At 11th level, your patron bestows upon you a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 6th-level spell from the warlock spell list as this arcanum. You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

You get additional spells at higher levels.

 

[Joe Liker]

Oh, derp. I knew it had made sense to me at one point, which was why I was freaking out about it suddenly not making sense. Thanks!

 

[Otakkun]

Basically you get only 1 spell per level from 6th to 9th, which you can only cast once a day each.