I have an idea for a monk who is tasked to retrieve a possessed blade for his master, but ends up getting corrupted by the blade and Multi classes into a hex blade. I’m just trying to figure out how many levels I should remain a monk before I switch and what monk archetype would synergize with hex blade. I’m thinking Kensie but what do you guys think?
I’m just trying to figure out how many levels I should remain a monk before I switch and what monk archetype would synergize with hex blade.
That's quite a challenge. Monks already with need good DEX, CON, and WIS, and with Warlock you add a CHA requirement as well. Plus, with multi-classing you will lose and/or delay ASI's. And medium armor and sheild profeciencies, or monk unarmored defense will be wasted.
Kensei depends. Works best when magic weapons are rare in your game or if you don't go to Monk 11 (sharpened strike). Unfortunatly Agile Parry doesn't synergize well at all - forgoeing a weapon attack for an unarmed strike to get +2 AC means dropping1d10 (versatile long sword, pole arm, or similar) + DEX or CHA + CHA (+ CHA again if lifedrinker) down to 1d6 + DEX.
You could also do Way of the Open Hand. Hexblade is focused on a single target with it's curse and Eldritch Smite. You can leverage Open Hand Technique, attempting to prone, push, cancel reactions, to your advantage against that one target. Targets may make their saves a bit more often as your WIS may not be high for save DC.
As to how many levels of Monk to take, 5th level gets you 1d6 unarmed strike damage, Extra Attack (freeing up an invocation later), and Stunning Strike, so at least go there.
If you go open hand you could stop at 5 to get as many Warlock levels as possible, but 6 for Ki-empowered strikes , and 7 for evasion and stillness of mind are tempting. If you go Kensei you want to go at least to level 6 for Deft Strike.
Unfortunatly Agile Parry doesn't synergize well at all - forgoeing a weapon attack for an unarmed strike to get +2 AC means dropping1d10 (versatile long sword, pole arm, or similar) + DEX + CHA (+ CHA again if lifedrinker) down to 1d6 + DEX.
Hex Warrior lets you use Cha instead of Str or Dex, just like finesse lets you use Dex instead of Str.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
i've been playing a Kensei with a dip in hexblade for a while now, the concept was of a boy raised in a monastery that prays for an entity known as "The Primordial Flame", representing the flames where the world was forged by the gods.
long story short, at some point it made a pact with the entity, since i was not planning on going a long way as a warlock (more like a dip for hex and hexblade's curse, since the extra damage on 4 atacks/turn goes a long way in long fights) i could reflavor it for a more "holy" apearence and not go for the clearly evil flavor of the hexblade.
Build wise: go variant human and for the love of god grab mobile as a feat, go pure kensei monk until lvl 6 for the third kensei weapon and magic weapons/punches. Small dip into warlock (1 lvl ) and then you have these options:
A- kensei 19 warlock 1 , aka "i did it for the hexes" , you dump the dumb ribbom feat that monks get at lvl 20 and get hexes and some cantrips instead (bonus for style points)
REMEMBER, you make 4 atacks/turn and you can reroll one atack per turn, with a crit on 19 (on the cursed target)
GREEDY VARIANT: if you are feeling greedy(and it fits the concept) you can go kensei 17 warlock 1 fighter 2 for action surge 6 attacks turns
focus on dex wis and con with cha as a last priority since you may want to eldrich blast something for the lulz and the extra health on hexblade's curse is nice, str if you like to grapple stuff and you gm makes you make too much athletic tests and, lastly int, you're a monk, you hit stuff, and you made a pact with an evil blade, clearly not rly smart
B- kensei 17 warlock 3, grab the lvl 3 pact of the blade and the improved pact weapon invocation, talk to your GM about flavour and now you have a demonic sword that morphs into the weapons you are trained with (i recommend longsword, longbow/crossbow and a whip reflavoured for some chains and blades since 10 ft monk strikes with hex and hexblade's curse hurt like a truck and you can forgo 10 ft of movement to get in and give him a flurry of blows and, thanks to mobile and monk stuff, get out), also you still get to reroll one atack every tutn thanks to kensei lvl 17 shenanigans, also weapons with a d10 damage dice, plus hex and stuff. And to top it off, from this point forward, if you are not feeling like hexing people, you can go for the shadow blade spell to summon a magical longsword of darkness with base 2d8 damage + dex+prof (on cursed target)+1d10 (if willing to spend ki for deft strike)
Same stats as before
C-kensei 14 warlock 6: you get to give your kensei weapons a d8 of damage, (on a whip or bow, wich is cool) , can still burn ki to give one of your atacks one extra damage dice, but most important of all, you have proficiency on all saving throws thanks to diamond soul, also, now you can go full Shao Kahn and use your enemies' tortured souls in battle , also eldrich smite is really cool, also shadow blade for 3d8 damage+dex+prof+1d8 (deft strike)
Stats are the same, but you should consider buffing your cha if you want to cast attack spells.
D- kensei 11 Warlock 9: same as before, but you will exchange the comprehension of all languages, all saving throw proficiencys and 5 ft of movement for the lvl 5 spell slots, so you'll need higher cha to make it count, you may get to blast a guy into oblivion with a hit from a lvl five shadowblade: 4d8+dex+prof+1d8(deft strike)+6d8 for eldrich smite but the kensei adds too little to this equation
Stats self explanatory
Past this point you get some insane MAD builds (even for monk standards) since you'll still need the dex and wis (or you'll be letting go of unarmed movement and unnarmed defense, and at this point a fighter/hexblade would look better).You will need high Dex and Cha will be as important as Wis for your second stat (maybe as important as dex) and you will also need some decent Con, the rest stays the same. Also, you will miss the ki points, a lot, like for example:
E- kensei 6 warlock 14:you get the extra atack without spending an invocation on thirsting weapon, also magic kensei weapons and 3 of them, daft strike and stunning strike to give you some advantage on atacks and damage boost when you crit (crits on 19 still awesome), but you will not abuse the high AC+patient defense combo but you'll be transfering a whole lot of hexes and curses with your bonus actions so you'll rarelly burn ki for flurry (unless GM likes group vs one big bad fights, in wich case you will miss your ki),but you will get lifedrinker to sort of compensate for the lost damage.
Also anything with less kensei levels will be more flavour-oriented than usefull build-wise combos you should be considering:
eldrich knight/hexblade: since you get attacks after cantrips and you can go untill lvl 7 eldrich with low int using a dex-based weapon and cantrips, also you can dump wis , get some extra feats like war caster to use booming blade on attacks of oportunity or spell sniper for the day you decide to use a lance (bonus points if you combo both with the polearm master feat to thunderslap anyone who enters your range). Also, did someone say ACTION SURGE on a warlock?
or
battlemaster/hexblade: you can't go wrong here, double atack, action surge, battle master shenanigans, weapon variety and a class that works with dex-based weapons and light armor lets you hit stuff with a lot of style while getting you some utility and action economy
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Been a monk make you able to use your dex to the weapons, and hexblade the same but with charisma if im not wrong, so... could work a half elf 15 wis, 14 dex, 13 cha 12 con 10 int 8 str 14 monk 6 hexblade?
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I have an idea for a monk who is tasked to retrieve a possessed blade for his master, but ends up getting corrupted by the blade and Multi classes into a hex blade. I’m just trying to figure out how many levels I should remain a monk before I switch and what monk archetype would synergize with hex blade. I’m thinking Kensie but what do you guys think?
Well i guess you really want evasion and ki empowered strikes so lvl 7 in monk would be very nice.
i personally dont like multiclass with monk cause of the scaling martials art die and they get cool stuff. but kensei seems to fit to your story.
Thanks for the input. I know it’s not optimal, but sometimes it’s needed for the character.
+ CHA(+ CHA again if lifedrinker) down to 1d6 + DEX."Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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i've been playing a Kensei with a dip in hexblade for a while now, the concept was of a boy raised in a monastery that prays for an entity known as "The Primordial Flame", representing the flames where the world was forged by the gods.
long story short, at some point it made a pact with the entity, since i was not planning on going a long way as a warlock (more like a dip for hex and hexblade's curse, since the extra damage on 4 atacks/turn goes a long way in long fights) i could reflavor it for a more "holy" apearence and not go for the clearly evil flavor of the hexblade.
Build wise: go variant human and for the love of god grab mobile as a feat, go pure kensei monk until lvl 6 for the third kensei weapon and magic weapons/punches. Small dip into warlock (1 lvl ) and then you have these options:
A- kensei 19 warlock 1 , aka "i did it for the hexes" , you dump the dumb ribbom feat that monks get at lvl 20 and get hexes and some cantrips instead (bonus for style points)
REMEMBER, you make 4 atacks/turn and you can reroll one atack per turn, with a crit on 19 (on the cursed target)
GREEDY VARIANT: if you are feeling greedy(and it fits the concept) you can go kensei 17 warlock 1 fighter 2 for action surge 6 attacks turns
focus on dex wis and con with cha as a last priority since you may want to eldrich blast something for the lulz and the extra health on hexblade's curse is nice, str if you like to grapple stuff and you gm makes you make too much athletic tests and, lastly int, you're a monk, you hit stuff, and you made a pact with an evil blade, clearly not rly smart
B- kensei 17 warlock 3, grab the lvl 3 pact of the blade and the improved pact weapon invocation, talk to your GM about flavour and now you have a demonic sword that morphs into the weapons you are trained with (i recommend longsword, longbow/crossbow and a whip reflavoured for some chains and blades since 10 ft monk strikes with hex and hexblade's curse hurt like a truck and you can forgo 10 ft of movement to get in and give him a flurry of blows and, thanks to mobile and monk stuff, get out), also you still get to reroll one atack every tutn thanks to kensei lvl 17 shenanigans, also weapons with a d10 damage dice, plus hex and stuff. And to top it off, from this point forward, if you are not feeling like hexing people, you can go for the shadow blade spell to summon a magical longsword of darkness with base 2d8 damage + dex+prof (on cursed target)+1d10 (if willing to spend ki for deft strike)
Same stats as before
C-kensei 14 warlock 6: you get to give your kensei weapons a d8 of damage, (on a whip or bow, wich is cool) , can still burn ki to give one of your atacks one extra damage dice, but most important of all, you have proficiency on all saving throws thanks to diamond soul, also, now you can go full Shao Kahn and use your enemies' tortured souls in battle , also eldrich smite is really cool, also shadow blade for 3d8 damage+dex+prof+1d8 (deft strike)
Stats are the same, but you should consider buffing your cha if you want to cast attack spells.
D- kensei 11 Warlock 9: same as before, but you will exchange the comprehension of all languages, all saving throw proficiencys and 5 ft of movement for the lvl 5 spell slots, so you'll need higher cha to make it count, you may get to blast a guy into oblivion with a hit from a lvl five shadowblade: 4d8+dex+prof+1d8(deft strike)+6d8 for eldrich smite but the kensei adds too little to this equation
Stats self explanatory
Past this point you get some insane MAD builds (even for monk standards) since you'll still need the dex and wis (or you'll be letting go of unarmed movement and unnarmed defense, and at this point a fighter/hexblade would look better).You will need high Dex and Cha will be as important as Wis for your second stat (maybe as important as dex) and you will also need some decent Con, the rest stays the same. Also, you will miss the ki points, a lot, like for example:
E- kensei 6 warlock 14:you get the extra atack without spending an invocation on thirsting weapon, also magic kensei weapons and 3 of them, daft strike and stunning strike to give you some advantage on atacks and damage boost when you crit (crits on 19 still awesome), but you will not abuse the high AC+patient defense combo but you'll be transfering a whole lot of hexes and curses with your bonus actions so you'll rarelly burn ki for flurry (unless GM likes group vs one big bad fights, in wich case you will miss your ki),but you will get lifedrinker to sort of compensate for the lost damage.
Also anything with less kensei levels will be more flavour-oriented than usefull build-wise combos you should be considering:
eldrich knight/hexblade: since you get attacks after cantrips and you can go untill lvl 7 eldrich with low int using a dex-based weapon and cantrips, also you can dump wis , get some extra feats like war caster to use booming blade on attacks of oportunity or spell sniper for the day you decide to use a lance (bonus points if you combo both with the polearm master feat to thunderslap anyone who enters your range). Also, did someone say ACTION SURGE on a warlock?
or
battlemaster/hexblade: you can't go wrong here, double atack, action surge, battle master shenanigans, weapon variety and a class that works with dex-based weapons and light armor lets you hit stuff with a lot of style while getting you some utility and action economy
Been a monk make you able to use your dex to the weapons, and hexblade the same but with charisma if im not wrong, so... could work a half elf 15 wis, 14 dex, 13 cha 12 con 10 int 8 str 14 monk 6 hexblade?