The Hexblade lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. number of spell slots. Another good multi-target damage spell, but this one has an impressive range. Yeah, to me that's just fun being able to like sort of use magic to bridge the gap between what you are as a warlock and what you want to be as a warrior. Also used for a lot of saving throws if you have an extra ability score increase lying about. Hexblade Backstories - Warlock - Class Forums - D&D Beyond As flames spring to life in her hands, a wizened human whispers the secret name of her demonic patron, infusing her spell with fiendish magic. This weighs down the class and just takes up space on the character sheet. These resources will instead go towards feats that allow us to maximize our damage. Bad smite #3you just dont have the spell slots to waste them on so little single-target damage. Free damage with no save, and it hits multiple creatures! The Hexblade - DnD Wiki | Dungeons and Dragons (D&D 5E) Wiki To me, that's always fun. I didn't liked the class itself for a long time, because this class is treated like an One Trick Pony (you know, you can't do anything without taking an Short Rest later). That said, with a little work you can fill your niche as a primary damage dealer in the front lines while staying reasonably safe thanks to your spells and later parts of your kit. Also, because ranged builds wont be in combat as often, they need less resources toward DEX and CON. A Complete Guide To Playing A Hexblade Warlock In 5e D&D. The Warlock anxiously paced back and forth in front of his party. The Hexblade subclass improves your combat capability and gives you some tools to dish out single-target damage. HumanPHB: Versatile and fantastic at everything. But if you can get those gem-encased eyeballs, youre going to have a real good time. Without War Caster a sword and board Hexblade will have a hard time casting anything once theyre in melee. The ended, it's still ambiguous and huh? The next time you hit a creature with a weapon attack before this spell ends, the weapon gleams with astral radiance as you strike. Flying is always good, even if youre primarily a melee character. In the description of the Hexblade warlock 's Hex Warrior class feature ( Xanathar's Guide to Everything, p. 55), it states that you can bond with a weapon that lacks the two-handed property. The reasoning behind this is: Agonizing Blast is amazing. If you think youll be able to get a short rest in after the fight, feel free to go nova. Equipment (Choose gold over equipment, 4d4 x 10 = average of 100gp): Eldritch Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Mind, Eldritch Invocations: Improved Pact Weapon, Eldritch Invocations: Agonizing Blast, Devils Sight, SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Naturally, invocations like Agonizing Blast are still going to be light blue for Hexblades. We want to start off with a longbow so we can get access to a second attack (via Thirsting Blade) as soon as possible. Hexblade warlocks trained even more thoroughly in the martial arts than other Warlocks, mastering use of a broader variety of weapons and the ability to effectively fight in heavier armor . The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. The Devils Sight + darkness combo still works wonders for EB builds and they will be able to effectively control the battlefield with all of the fun buffs provided by the invocations. Some better armor, bigger weapons, and the ability to stamp enemies with literal curses are all great reasons to sign up today with your nearest sentient weapon. Having read the Hexblades features once again i do not find anything that makes them weapon users. Warlock is a class that brings many possibilities to the table in D&D and is one of the best for multiclassing combinations. Some other choices which give you powerful defensive bonuses include Eladrin, Verdan, Warforged, and Yuan-Ti Pureblood. Usually, the game plan past 5th-level is to cast hex at the beginning of the day (usually targetting a rat and killing it so that you can curse another target later). How To Build A Hexblade Warlock In DND - TheGamer Need help for creating a hexblade warlock on character sheet Pact of the Talisman: This is a meh option for most Warlocks and that fact doesnt chance with Hexblades. Dragonmarked HalflingERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace. As I understand it the Dragon article was written to fit in any D&D setting, but it was written by Keith Baker with the specific themes of Eberron and Thelanis in mind. Dungeons & Dragons: All 9 Official Warlock Subclasses, Ranked - TheGamer Dex: Warlocks have notoriously poor AC, and If you play an evil character, you can play the evil character as just the mustache twirling, "I'm here just to make everyone else's life miserable," which is boring. Would it be worth it to just forgo the whole weapon stuff and use eldritch blast as a weapon? They have the consistent damage of a Fighter with the ability to buff their AC to ridiculous levels. Could work for a specific build, but otherwise is either a wasted opportunity or is just weaker than other alternatives. Pact of the Blade already makes you into more of a combat class, so it makes sense for a combat-focused Hexblade. That's your 6th level ability and that was one, when we're developing, it started out as like this Hound of Ill Ailment kind of like shadow hound and the flavor just wasn't connecting. A hexblade was an arcane spellcaster who combined magical power with martial skill. Reactive damage is the gravy on top of having advantage on all attacks and disadvantage to your attackers. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. Is it better than never? move the effect to an angry rat which you keep in a sack (the old bag of You could argue that Darkvision is appealing, but I talked to Mike Mearls about one of his favorite subclasses appearing in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Because of Hex Warrior, you can make weapon attacks with CHA instead of STR or DEX. One more Eldritch Invocation makes for nine in total. unequipped, allowing you to meet the AC of characters in light armor and a Shadow of Moil is truly one of the best things that ever happened to us. Effective and murderous. I'm Todd Kenreck. The Hexblade Patron is a mysterious force from the Shadowfell that manifests in sentient magical weapons. Keep Hexblades Curse for when you really want a tough creature dead if you think there will be multiple encounters between rests. Being a primary defender is not advisable as a warlock, but that certainly doesnt have to stop you. The spell doesnt require concentration and will last for an entire combat, so you can drop it and enjoy the benefits worry-free. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you. Hexblade's Curse. Let's take a look at how to make it sing. Warlock has a number of control options that prevent enemies from taking actions or which establish ongoing area-of-effect damage pools to create an obstacle. Roll initiative for the specter, which has its own turns. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows. Clears up most injured enemies. Tips on a non hexblade Front-line warlock : r/dndnext - Reddit Why does this appeal so much to you personally? Not game-breaking, and certainly replaceable, but a strong choice that shores up some weakness. Use the buttons below to fine tune the content you see in our guides. If you're not familiar with the stories and the Elric Saga, his weapon is an intelligent artifact and as it drains souls, it gives him more power and when it's not draining souls, he's actually physically very weak. These changes will be noted in bold. I like that versatility and so a lot of the subclasses we built for the pact was this idea of keeping that idea of the shadow making it a bit sinister and then finding ways where you could think it was a player, this idea that you have this pact you made with this weapon, like Elric and his sword. The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. But, as weve seen above, this trait can siphon up a huge amount of resources for little gain against a maxed-out eldritch blasts damage. The Artillerist or Battle Smith subclasses each let you produce a minion that deals extra damage by utilizing your underappreciated Warlock bonus action. This brings melee/ranged Warlocks from Multiple-Ability Dependent (MAD) to Single-Ability Dependent (SAD). And I'm very curious as to how the hexblade warlock works. EB Hexblades will love the AC boosts as well. You have the tools available to protect yourself enough that the shield is no longer necessary and you can transition to having two swings of a great sword as your action. Now you can attack someone on your turn and still booming blade them if they try to walk away. Maybe by the end of the campaign. Sure frightened was a little cute but if you really want something frightened on a spell slot you have phantasmal killer anyway. Some Hexblades prefer to use their pact weapon to get down and dirty in combat whereas others will prefer to stay at range and fire a ranged weapon or eldritch blasts. Look for ways to break a fight up into manageable chunks instead of battling an entire army all at once. If you want to double-down on ranged attacks, you could even pick up a hand crossbow, which combined with the Crossbow Expert feat lets you make three weapon attacks in a turn. We also discuss options that normally would be good for a typical build, but underperform when used in a subclass. Straightforward defense buff, and since youre harder to hit, your concentration is easier to maintain. Obviously, melee/ranged builds take more resources to do comparable damage to EB builds, but there are certainly some upsides to using weapons as a Hexblade. Stuff dies if it gets too close to you. When melee/ranged Hexblade builds are able to utilize Feats such as Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter to provide boosts in damage, they can end up outputting more damage than EB builds. When Feats get brought in. I think now that as we're talking through this I'm thinking that my be why I like the Hexblade because I also like playing evil characters, but I don't like playing characters who are evil just for the sake of being evil. Our goal here is to provide scannable, but comprehensive guides for you as you develop your character. A suit of medium armor is almost a requirement for Hexblade Warlocks, keeping you alive in combat by compensating for your small health pool. In most situations, armor of agathys will be huge to help with your lacking hit points especially because it doesnt require concentration. As discussed in our Hexblades Builds, melee/ranged Hexblades require a lot more resources in order to keep their damage on par with their EB counterparts. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. Particularly, if your party wants to make use of undead minions, this is a great way to support that as Hellish Knight with Skeletal Squires. The biggest boon of the Hex Warrior trait allows Hexblades to add their CHA bonus to weapon attack rolls and damage, instead of STR and DEX. works once per Short or Long Rest, remember that you may still have better Lightfoot Halfling: +1 to CHA, in addition to the bonus to DEX and Lucky from the Halfling traits, is pretty nice. larger Charisma increases may be better. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you. Since they have access to so many spells, a Hexblade could use Shapechanger in combination with a whole host of Illusion spells to make a pretty sly character. Blast. Prerequisite: 5th level. Only choose Constitution with this feat, but proficiency on saves to maintain concentration keeps your spells active, especially when stacked with the Eldritch Mind Invocation. you alive, and two free skills to help you serve as your partys Face. Really great guide, referencing it for my current character. Given the meager selection of leveled Warlock spells that do damage this amount of damage is well worth burning a spell slot for. At 1st level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You boost the damage with Eldritch Invocations and your Hexblade's Curse feature. I also strongly recommen reading my Warlock Eldritch Invocation Breakdown and my Warlock Spells Breakdown. Todd Kenreck: The Hexblade Warlock gets their power from the Shadowfell itself. Eldritch Master lets you ask for your spell slots back once per day without completing a short rest, which saves you 59 minutes once a day. For the duration, any creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against you. Instead of acting as a magical multitool like other spellcasters, you want to be on the front lines of combat breaking skulls with the combat classes. Nothing crazy, but sometimes the best way to control a battlefield is with mass-murder. Your choice of weapon matters fairly little, and Pact of the Blade allows you to change your weapon easily (unless youve bound a magic weapon), so you can easily choose a weapon to suit the situation. When you do so, you deal psychic damage to the target and each creature of your choice within 5 feet of it. Thanks for pointing this out, its been fixed! anything you can do to address that will still require high Dexterity unless It also means youll be hit by more attacks on average, so bonuses to maintaining concentration on your limited spells are crucial. Hexblade Warlock Guide - 5e DnD | Dungeon Mastering Not really anything in particular here for Hexblades. Or you can say, "Look, this is a challenge. They are unmatched at ranged damage and can do more than hold their own in a vicious melee. Melee builds will want to put more of a focus into this than ranged/EB builds but both will benefit from the extra hit points and bonuses to Concentration checks. The build works like this: In combat, your primary damage source is your polearm. Hexblade Warlocks bring a lot of power and versatility from the base class and amp it up with the melee combat skills of the subclass. Noteverysettingallowseveryrace,andwhilemostracespresentedinthecorerulesandincontentfortheForgottenRealmscanbeusedinothersettings,racesspecifictosettingslikeRavnicaarenttypicallyallowedinothersettings. One exception to your downgrading of the War Caster feat would be a Hexblade who was going sword and board (sword and shield) as Eldritch Mind does not get rid of the somatic spell component which you cant do when both your hands are full. Thanks for the great comment. When the specter appears, it gains temporary hit points equal to half your warlock level. The debuff is nice, but not crippling enough to make this worthwhile. Dragonmarked GnomeERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace. 2 hander + platemail warlock should feel very different from traditional hexblade. Some may find that out-of-combat, EB builds have more versatility because they can spend fewer resources on combat-oriented features. Then any class that can kill someone and rip out their soul and make them a specter that serves them, that's always fun. Outright bad and detrimental. The target is cursed for 1 minute. Because your spell slots work differently from other spellcasters, spells which scale when theyre cast with a higher-level spell slot can often be good options even though other spells on a specific dragonmarks spell list arent interesting. Helps you do more of what youre doingfocusing down a single target. Required fields are marked *. increases and damage resistance. Hexblades Curse means more ways to use this Invocation. Properly set up and played a Hexblades damage output will be significantly greater then a ranged eldritch blaster. I choose a component pouch because a Verdan would love to explore what components create what effects. The Expanded Spell list that Hexblades get is pretty horrendous. With a pseudodragon curled on his shoulder, a young elf in golden robes smiles warmly, weaving a magical charm into his honeyed words and bending the palace sentinel to his will. allows you to reach these numbers while picking a race with a Charisma Hexblades Curse only works on one target and cant be moved, so save it for something which you know will take a lot of damage to bring down. It is the single most important number for Warlock which will affect every aspect of gameplay. Having advantage in the saves youre proficient in also just feels really good. Without this youll have a terrible time casting spells with material components during battle with most melee builds. Also keep in mind that Hex Warrior doesnt allow your touched weapon to have the Two-Handed property, so if you want to use a two-handed weapon youll definitely need Pact of the Blade. The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Meet the Hexblade Warlock in 'Xanathar's Guide to Everything' - D&D Beyond While the design intent for Dragonmarks was that they would offer some innate spellcasting for everyone, every dragonmark includes an expanded spell list which is arguably a more significant benefit than most of the provided racial traits. Ridiculously efficient and powerful. Dexterity brings you to 20 AC with very little effort. Because weve established a great base for Hexblades in the melee Hexblade build, we are only going to trade out a couple of things to optimize for ranged builds. very tempting for class dips into Warlock, totally disregarding how good Hex I find the Hexblade interesting because I've always liked the idea . Bad smite #2negating the targets invisibility takes concentration. It has some of the best scaling in the game. The target is cursed for 1 minute. Components: V Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute The next time you hit with a melee weapon attack during this spell's duration, your attack deals an extra 1d6 psychic damage. At 3rd level Warlock it makes you functionally invisible for the length of most combats with the only enemies getting around it those who can see in *magical* darkness or True Sight which almost no enemies will have at lower levels. Stack this with Hexblades Curse and watch your target explode after just a few hits. Check out this list from AideDD of all the feats and their prerequisites. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. This works with your Pact of the Blade weapon, so while a few features overlap, you still get an increase in damage. The Hexblade is a Warlock subclass that was introduced to 5e in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. For more info on common resistances and vulnerabilities, check out 4d6d1s guide here. Well start at 16 Charisma, so two ability score increases will go into Charisma, but well have three more to spend. When the creature cursed by your Hexblade's Curse dies, you can apply the curse to a different creature you can see within 30 feet of you, provided you aren't incapacitated. Part of this effect doubles up with Eldritch Mind, so be aware. There any reason to do all that stuff instead of just taking eldritch blast and spending the feats and invocations on utility and all the other amazing stuff? Fallen and Protector are the best for sure. Oftentimes youll find yourself using inefficient options because theyre your best bet in the moment. Armor of Hexes Every attack that hits you has a 50% chance of missing from your cursed target. For more information on Warlock spells, check out our complete guide here. Weve used pretty much all of our invocations to buff our eldritch blast because well be using it so much. I think that when choosing the race you should add in that Tieflings have resistance to fire damage because that could be quite beneficial when fighting spellcasters, add that was what pushed me over the line for my Hexblade. Otherwise take Green-Flame blade. Will provide some bonus that cant be found through other means. The party members rolled their eyes. This pairs well with Hexblades Curse to make your eldritch blast hit harder than any non-spell attack in the game. Their medium armor and shield proficiencies will offer a significant AC boost and their Hexblades Curse works perfectly fine because eldritch blast is a spell attack cantrip. The best general abilities that this subclass gives are the bonus proficiencies: medium armor, martial weapons, and shields. It's also very fun to roleplay because of your otherworldly patron. Your email address will not be published. The DnD book Xanathar's Guide to Everything cites the Raven Queen as the forger of the first of these dark weapons. Curse the biggest enemy on the battlefield and blast it into a fine pulp before cleaning up its minions. Ive heard some DMs let players get away with ridiculous item juggling to get around this but no DM I play with would (and I wouldnt either). / Hasbro, Inc. thats what Devils Sight is for. Pact of the Tome: This is the weakest option for Hexblades. You can mostly ignore this. Like do you just start out with this sentient weapon when making your character? Whatever entity orchestrated your pact is likely evil, considering the Shadowfells nature, but your characters alignment can be whatever you like.