So I just had my second session in DnD in my whole life. My first session that happened not to long ago, that party was not able to continue our campaign due to schedule etc. So this one is a new campaign, i decided to be a rogue cuz i really had fun on the social aspect of the game. All the lying stealing flirting etc is fun. However this new party i am currently with wants more on the combat side so i have to adjust. Sadly i dont knpw how to build or optimize classes yet. All i know is that a want a level by level guide/build on either a:
A.) Rogue swashbuxklwr/ hexblade
For more of a rogue that, despite relying also on stealth, can handle himself even w/o stealth gameplay. And the CHA damage bonus synergizeswith Roleplay hehe. Melee ofc
Or
B.) Rogue assassin/warlock (idk what patron goes with assassin :/)
For more of a stealthy stealthy stabby stabby boi. Not shooty shooty arrow. Just stabby stabby boi
Im a half elf with an abberant dragonmark solely for lore purposes (if you can find a mechanical use for it im fine with that hahahah) whose mom si from the house of death and dad is house thuranni. Parents were killed during the dragonmark wars. Seeks vengeance against house thuranni for killing my parents. Whilst enjoying the pleasures of life
I am not adept in understanding all the combat mechanics yet so pls be.... simple woth the explanation hahaha. I know more about lore rather than the combat mechanics. Heck i dont even know the difference between a action and moving forward. Again this is only the technically ny FIRST ever DnD game. Not adventureres league just plain good old home dnd. My first session was considered useless cuz i managed to talk my partyaway from encounters lmao up until it wasnt continued.
Combat based Swashbuckler actually can outdamage a fighter sometimes and my friend in our campaign has a fun time with it because it’s the most combat based rogue with still a ton of RPA. Assassin has a lot of flavor, such as that mercenary who comes is a bounty hunter, working only for the highest builder. Some builds can insta kill a weaker dragon with surprise round.
So if we are looking at Swashbuckler/Hexblade I would suggest starting as rogue for the first level and probably take your second in Hexblade to pick up the additional perks of weapon and armor proficiencies. You would probably have 14 in Dexterity (you can go higher but if you are staying stabby the Hexblade has you covered for attack rolls and damage) and Make Charisma your highest stat. Next probably would be constitution and everything else is really up to you. After taking the one level in hexblade I would continue in Rogue until 3rd or 4th level to get access to swashbuckleryness and your first stat bump (or feat). Get AT LEAST one more level in Hexblade to get your invocations, and probably go to 4th level for an extra spell slot, Pact Blade, and that second stat bump.
With that being said I think from there out you stay rogue. The Eldritch Invocations I would suggest would be Improved Pact Weapon, if you want a little bit extra survival you could also take Fiendish Vigor, but really I would stay keep that second option open for what YOU want to do with your character. A number of them can be quite fun if you are of the mind to utilize them).
So TL;DR Level 1 - Rogue 1 (High charisma, at least 14 dexterity) Level 2 - Warlock 1 (Hexblade) Level 3 - Rogue 2 Level 4 - Rogue 3 (Swashbuckler) Level 5 - Rogue 4 (ASI/Feat) Level 6 - Warlock 2 (Pick what you like for invocations, additional spell slot) Level 7 - Warlock 3 (Pact of the Blade, Swap an invocation to Improved Pact Weapon) Level 8 - Warlock 4 (ASI/Feat) Level 9+ - Rogue
You may want to take your second level of Hexblade sooner for an additional spell slot and the invocations, but that really depends on how you feel your performance up to that point has been going. I hope this helps with your concept. Don't take anything here as hard and fast, sometimes you should just go with the flow and find what works for you.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
For the Assassin/Warlock combo, I think the Archfey would be a solid option for patron, I mean really none of them would be BAD.
I think the three most synergistic would be
Archfey for charm/fear feature to either shmooze your way past someone, or send them running and Sleep, useful for getting a free sneak attack.
Fiend lifesteal feature makes you a little stronger after each kill and Command, Blindness/Deafness to disrupt your enemies.
Great Old Ones would give you an assassin that likes to torment before the kill, Telepathy to speak into their minds with no one else hearing, and Dissonant Whispers, and Detect Thoughts to REALLY get into their head and mess with them.
Good luck and enjoy whatever you pick.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I've actually played with this concept a bit and always really liked the flavor of it. Mechanically it works pretty well and there are a lot of great options and mechanisms that can really tailor the character to what you enjoy. I have two builds I've created with this very concept. I might even take my level 5 warlock into one of these directions. I'll go into detail about what makes each of them work and what the strengths of each are. I'll omit any optional choices you can make. You can just take whatever you like there.
Build 1, the Assassin 15 Hexblade 5 with Shadow Blade. This build does good damage when you get to attack with your shadow blade. If you are out of spells, meaning you don't get shadow blade and instead will use two short swords, this build will do not great damage. However, if you're in dim or dark light, you attack with advantage with your shadow blade, and the damage takes a healthy step up due to hitting and critically hitting more often:
Rogue 1
You'll want Expertise in stealth. Every other choice here is up to you.
Rogue 2
Rogue 3
Take Assassin for the subclass
Warlock 1
Take the Hexblade subclass- This build is all about sneak attack with a Shadow Blade.
Spells are largely up to you. The only (somewhat) required spells at Warlock 1 are:
Eldritch Blast - A must on any warlock. So useful for range.
Prestidigitation - it's a good cantrip for putting out lights and such to try to be sneaky.
Hex - You won't actually use this for very long, but it's useful until you hit Warlock 3. Depending on how many encounters you have between short rests, this might actually be more useful. When it's upcast, the duration gets longer. This basically means you can move it onto any target within the duration even in different encounters.
Warlock 2
Mask of many faces will fit well with the assassin. You can make yourself look like a friend to the enemy. Walk up, stabby stabby. It also works great for flavor with the assassin. The other one is up to you as it will get swapped out next level anyway.
Warlock 3
Take Pact of the Blade. It's actually only mostly useful but the other ones are not useful at all for this build.
Grab Improved Pact Weapon invocation. You'll be using a short sword in one hand and that will be your pact weapon. 1d6+1 with a +1 to hit is super.
Take Shadow Blade. This will actually go in your off hand at Warlock 5 but it doesn't really matter at this point. It's a major part of the build. It is a finesse weapon so it uses your dex for attack and damage, and allows you to do sneak attack damage with a hit using it.
Mirror Image is a great defensive spell that doesn't require concentration which is important because Shadow Blade is taking up your concentration.
The rest of the spells and choices are up to you.
Warlock 4
You get an Ability score improvement or feat here. Warcaster feat will be required because you'll want to keep that Shadow Blade active. If you take damage, you need to pass a check to make sure you can maintain concentration on the spell. This will allow you to do so at advantage which significantly increases the odds you'll keep Shadow Blade Active.
Dex is extremely important for you in this build. All your damage relies on dex. You may want to get to 18 dex here but if you're feeling bold, grab the sentinel feat. Whenever someone attacks someone near you but not you, you can make a reaction attack. Fun fact, if your mirror image gets attacked instead of you, sentinel allows you to make a reaction attack.
Warlock 5
Grab Thirsting blade invocation here. It will allow you to attack twice with your pact weapon, that short sword from before. It doesn't seem like that much, but it gives you a bit more damage AND it will up the probability that you will do your sneak attack damage (and maybe critically hit with sneak attack damage).
Your Shadow Blade now does an extra 1d8 of damage for a total of 3d8 damage. So that's 1d6 with your short sword (twice with thirsting blade), and 3d8 with your bonus action shadow blade attack. You can also attack with the shadow blade if you need your bonus action for something else.
You get level 3 spells here. Honestly, not that great. You can take counterspell if you want. You could also take Hunger of Hadar for when you need to do area of effect damage. That being said, Hunger of Hadar requires concentration so you'll probably just want to keep up your shadow blade.
From here, it's all Rogue levels. Attack with your shadow blade whenever possible. If you need a bonus action for something else, you might want to attack with the short sword pact blade because you do so twice. However, if you're in dim light or darkness, attacking with the shadow blade will be at advantage and will be much more effective. If you can get hexblades curse on a target, criticals are at 19 and 20. If you critically hit with your shadow blade and can get sneak attack damage, you roll ALL your dice twice. Sneak attack and Shadow blade damage twice! If you make it to level 20, that critical is 6d8 + 14d6! And because you're an assassin, you will auto crit if your target is surprised.
Another variant of this build is Assassin 17, hexblade 3. It has a huge first surprise round at 20, but at the cost of being less effective from levels 1-19 and all rounds after the first.
Another build is the Assassin 5-7, hexblade 12-14 Revenant blade, with some room for variability. The hook with this build is your pact/hex weapon will be a weapon you can attack with up to 3 times (2 from thirsting blade, 1 from bonus action. This build always does very good damage. It relies less on sneak attack and more on spells and the lifedrinker invocation at Warlock 12. It actually starts better if you take warlock for the first 3 levels, but that's ok.
Rogue 1
Take stealth expertise
Rogue 2
Rogue 3
Assassin
Warlock 1
Hexblade
Hex spell - always useful
With going this deap in Warlock, Armor of Agathys is very useful.
Warlock 2
Devils sight invocation
Warlock 3
Pact of the blade
Thirsting blade invocation
Improved pact weapon invocation
Darkness spell, synergizes with devil's sight. It allows you to cast darkness on yourself, run in and attack enemies at advantage. They attack you at disadvantage. This however is annoying for your teammates if everyone is in darkness all the time.
Hold person for when darkness is too annoying.
Mirror image again is the defensive spell of choice.
Warlock 4
Take the Revenant Blade feat. It's amazing. Take 1 Charisma and that should get you to 18 Charisma. You'll also treat the double bladed scimitar as a finesse weapon which allows for sneak attack damage.
Buy a double bladed scimitar.
Warlock 5
Take thirsting blade for 2 attacks
Take the elemental weapon spell. Use this instead of hex if you see a fight coming and can cast it out of combat. Still use hex if you think you won't be able to get short rests in between encounters.
Warlock 6
You get a pet ghost, sorta.
Warlock 7
Level 4 spells. Take Shadow of Moil, situationally useful
Warlock 8
Another ability score increase. Get Charisma to 20 or take a feat like sentinal.
Warlock 9
Level 5 spells. Upcasting elemental weapon here is +2 to attack and + 2d4 damage. That's pretty awesome.
Warlock 10
Armor of hexes can negate a lot of damage.
Warlock 11
Soul Cage is a thematically cool spell. I don't know if it is worth one of your very small number of slots though.
Warlock 12
The reason we went 12 into Warlock is because of this level. The Eldritch Invocation called Lifedrinker is amazing. You get to attack with our pact weapon twice and a third time as a bonus action. That's 15 extra damage per round, assuming they all hit. That is so strong!
You also get an Ability Score Improvement. If Charisma isn't 20 yet, get it to 20!
Levels 16 through 20 are a bit up in the air. Take an odd number of rogue levels. You're at 3 by this point in the build. You get an additional sneak attack dice every odd rogue level. Getting rogue 5 or 7 is super. 2 levels in fighter would be great for action surge. You can also take great weapon fighting as your fighting style. Rerolling 1's and 2's increases your weapon damage by about 12% (Not total damage. Most damage comes from other things. The actual damage increase is about 2%). Not a ton, but every little bit helps. You could also take Defense for 1 more AC which would likely be more impactful. 2 Levels in warlock is also very useful as Warlock 14 gives you the ability to move Hexblades curse around to every target in an encounter, up from a max of one. It is probably worth it.
With this build, in a round of combat you're attacking 3 times and (assuming they all hit) dealing 6d4 with your weapon attacks + 15 from your Charisma modifier + 15 from Lifedrinker + 18 from Hexblades curse and + 6d4 from elemental weapons (or 3d6 from hex). It is silly. This might be the highest sustained damage build I've ever come up with. Also - you get auto crit damage from assassin if you surprise your target.
One other build I'll mention that is a bit lower damage than these two but still pretty good is Assassin 13, Archfey Warlock 7. A lot of the same stuff as the second build but this will give you the greater invisibility spell. Always being invisible in a fight? Sounds good to me! Not as much damage though as you're missing out on Lifedrinker, Hexblades curse, and Hex/Elemental weapon. That being said you do get quite a few extra sneak attack dice. It is a much more defensive build that still deals fairly strong damage.
So if we are looking at Swashbuckler/Hexblade I would suggest starting as rogue for the first level and probably take your second in Hexblade to pick up the additional perks of weapon and armor proficiencies. You would probably have 14 in Dexterity (you can go higher but if you are staying stabby the Hexblade has you covered for attack rolls and damage) and Make Charisma your highest stat. Next probably would be constitution and everything else is really up to you. After taking the one level in hexblade I would continue in Rogue until 3rd or 4th level to get access to swashbuckleryness and your first stat bump (or feat). Get AT LEAST one more level in Hexblade to get your invocations, and probably go to 4th level for an extra spell slot, Pact Blade, and that second stat bump.
With that being said I think from there out you stay rogue. The Eldritch Invocations I would suggest would be Improved Pact Weapon, if you want a little bit extra survival you could also take Fiendish Vigor, but really I would stay keep that second option open for what YOU want to do with your character. A number of them can be quite fun if you are of the mind to utilize them).
So TL;DR Level 1 - Rogue 1 (High charisma, at least 14 dexterity) Level 2 - Warlock 1 (Hexblade) Level 3 - Rogue 2 Level 4 - Rogue 3 (Swashbuckler) Level 5 - Rogue 4 (ASI/Feat) Level 6 - Warlock 2 (Pick what you like for invocations, additional spell slot) Level 7 - Warlock 3 (Pact of the Blade, Swap an invocation to Improved Pact Weapon) Level 8 - Warlock 4 (ASI/Feat) Level 9+ - Rogue
You may want to take your second level of Hexblade sooner for an additional spell slot and the invocations, but that really depends on how you feel your performance up to that point has been going. I hope this helps with your concept. Don't take anything here as hard and fast, sometimes you should just go with the flow and find what works for you.
I like your concept, but I do have one thing to point out. You're at 16 rogue / Warlock 4. Your last level in rogue gets you blind sense. It's not bad at all but you get your final sneak attack die at 15. If you went with one more level in warlock you get level 3 spells and Thirsting Blade for an extra attack. Getting another attack drastically increases your chance of dealing that sneak attack damage. On average you'll use your sneak attack dice around 75% of the time with one attack. If you up that to 2 attacks, that average increases to 92%. If you have two attacks and use your bonus action to attack? 96% chance that at least one of your attacks hits for sneak attack! (This is based on an average across levels. It's not exact, but it gives a good representation of the differences.)
You are absolutely correct, I knew there was something I was forgetting from the warlock side for invocations. Could not for the life of me remember where they get their second attack from. Thought I had imagined it at one point.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Check out Revenant blade feat and summon a double bladed scimitar. It will get you a bonus attack but the bonus attack is still your pact weapon. So you get all those benefits on your bonus action. Or check out Polearm master feat. That will add the same mechanic for a single weapon getting max use out of hexblade stuff. You could pair that with Sentinel for some crazy fun.
Darkness + Devil's sight is great because it means when inside the darkness spell you always attack at advantage and everything else attacks at disadvantage. That includes your allies though so just be careful using it.
Edit - I'm a dope. Polearm Master feat is a terrible plan because polearms wouldn't get you sneak attack damage. Don't do this!
The downside to the darkness/devils sight is it can cause havoc not just for enemies but for your teammates too. Feats wise, you certainly don't need ASI's because your stats are already very high across the board. Not sure what Homebrew feat revenant blade is but... yeah.
Really I would say figure out how you like to play your character once you start getting some Warlock abilities. Elven Accuracy is a strong contender, helps to make those sneak attacks land and get a higher chance for criticals, Mage Slayer could be another one depending on your campaign. Alertness is always a good standby. But I would still say make that decision when you reach your first 4th level (which you probably should'nt until at least level 5 or 6 for character level since you are multiclassing.)
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
The downside to the darkness/devils sight is it can cause havoc not just for enemies but for your teammates too. Feats wise, you certainly don't need ASI's because your stats are already very high across the board. Not sure what Homebrew feat revenant blade is but... yeah.
Really I would say figure out how you like to play your character once you start getting some Warlock abilities. Elven Accuracy is a strong contender, helps to make those sneak attacks land and get a higher chance for criticals, Mage Slayer could be another one depending on your campaign. Alertness is always a good standby. But I would still say make that decision when you reach your first 4th level (which you probably should'nt until at least level 5 or 6 for character level since you are multiclassing.)
It's not homebrew. It's in Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron.
So yeah if you are playing an Eberron campaign you can use that one.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
For the last two levels, i was thinking if i should dip in 2 levels of figher to get that action surge. or just continue dipping 1 in rogue and 1 in warlock for the blindsense-accursed spectre
note this is not in order hahaa. it just seems orderly and easy for me to list out per class
Looks like what we were talking about, Should be good.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I think you've got something good going there. I have a few notes but otherwise this looks very well thought out!
1.) Rogue 1: Sneak attack,, Expertise
2.) Rogue 2: Cunning action
3.) Rogue 3:swashbuckler stuff
4.) Rogue 4: +2 to charisma (for that sweet 20) - Seeing as how you're not taking hexblade until level 14, you don't need this very early or possibly at all since you already have 20 Dex. You might want to consider something else here. +1 extra initiative for a swashbuckler and +1 to Charisma roles and saves isn't worth the ASI/Feat to me. I second the Elvin Accuracy advice that HeroZero mentioned. You can get +1 to Charisma with it. Later you could use another ASI (level 8?) to get to 20 charisma. Another contender would be Skulker since you want to take that anyway. Sentinel is a great feat for rogues too and should be considered. If you're next to someone and they attack someone else, you get to deal sneak attack damage with your reaction. If you're alone with an enemy who is sick of getting beat up by you and tries to disengage from you, you attack them anyway and deal sneak attack damage because you're a swashbuckler.
5.) Rogue 5: Uncanny dodge
6.) Rogue 6: Expertise
7.) Rogue 7: evasion
8.) Rogue 8: +1 +1 Wisdom Con - No reason to take +1 wisdom. That would get you to 15 which does nothing for you. Wisdom is itself a stat you don't need to worry about much. If you took Elvin Accuracy and + 1 Charisma, swap Wisdom out of Charisma to get 20. If you did not take it and don't plan on it, consider taking Resilient feat with Constitution. That will get you to 16 Con and give you the proficiency bonus with Con saves. It's good by itself, but once you start casting hex on things it will be very useful to maintain concentration.
9.) Rogue 9: Panache
10.) rogue 10: Skulker Feat
11.) rogue 11: Reliable talent
12.) rogue 12: (idk what feat yet? or maybe just ASI?) - As mentioned, Sentinel or Elvin Accuracy would be good. HeroZero mentioned Mage Slayer and that could be good if you find yourself going up against a lot of casters. Dual wielder wouldn't be bad. You should definitely be dual wielding. This would let you use rapiers instead of short swords and get you one more AC.
13.) Rogue 13: Elegant Maneuver
14.) Rogue 13/ Warlock 1: Hexblade, Booming blade, Eldritch blast, Hex - You won't get much use out of booming blade. The way it works is that it's a spell attack, not a weapon attack. That means you wouldn't get to use your bonus action for an off hand attack and you wouldn't get a second attack from thirsting blade when you take that. If you have advantage, it could work. Even then though I think you'd be better off rolling more attack dice to hope for more hits or even a critical hit. Critical hits let you roll your sneak attack dice twice. If your target has hexblade curse on them and you attack twice, the odds of critically hitting them at least once increase to 19%! If you attack twice with your weapon and once with your bonus action, your odds of critically hitting at least once are 27.1%! If you have advantage, 27.1% for two attacks and 34.4% for two attacks + the bonus action attack! At this level, your booming blade would attack for 2d8 extra and if they move on their own, another 3d8 if they move. That's a lot. However, your chance of critically hitting drops to 10% (or 19% with advantage). You would roll an extra 2d8 damage on top of everything else, but the odds of doing so are obviously drastically decreased.
15.) rogue 13/ Warlock 2: Devil's sight, Improved pact weapon - You can't take improved pact weapon here. You would need to take it at warlock 3 after you've taken pact of the blade. Also, by this point you may well have magic weapons. The effects of Improved pact weapon don't stack with a magic weapon unless the bonuses provided are of a different type. If you're using two +2 short swords, Improved Pact Weapon does nothing. If you're using a [magicitem]Frost Brand[\magicitem], then you would still get all the benefits of Improved Pact Weapon as well as the abilities the sword grants.
For the last two levels, i was thinking if i should dip in 2 levels of figher to get that action surge. or just continue dipping 1 in rogue and 1 in warlock for the blindsense-accursed spectre - Blind sense is good but if you are doing that, you might as well take another level for another sneak attack die. Accursed Specter is ok and if you take that, you might as well take one more level in warlock for level 4 spells slots. I guess what I'm saying is either take 2 levels of fighter, 2 of Rogue, or 2 of warlock. There could be an argument for 2 in Sorcerer too.
note this is not in order hahaa. it just seems orderly and easy for me to list out per class
thoughts?
Not i any particular order.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I started in Hexblade, and had gone up 3 levels already before deciding to dip into Rogue for Swashbuckler. So, my path is a little different, but I wanted to MC for that level 3 feature, and also for roleplay reasons. My character was the token criminal, and her patron diverted her from what would probably been a straight Rogue path. So, she stuck to Hexblade for 5 (being melee heavy, she wanted Thirsting Blade...) then as a part of meeting up with her criminal mentor/assassination contract sugardaddy, she took a step back to her roots and did the 3 level Swashbuckler dip.
Next, she's going back to Hexblade, for at least the next several levels. It was hard to stick to the same spells for 3 Rogue levels. I made at least 1 error, and as it turns out, might have stumbled into a very advantageous spell choice...
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So I just had my second session in DnD in my whole life. My first session that happened not to long ago, that party was not able to continue our campaign due to schedule etc. So this one is a new campaign, i decided to be a rogue cuz i really had fun on the social aspect of the game. All the lying stealing flirting etc is fun. However this new party i am currently with wants more on the combat side so i have to adjust. Sadly i dont knpw how to build or optimize classes yet. All i know is that a want a level by level guide/build on either a:
A.) Rogue swashbuxklwr/ hexblade
For more of a rogue that, despite relying also on stealth, can handle himself even w/o stealth gameplay. And the CHA damage bonus synergizeswith Roleplay hehe. Melee ofc
Or
B.) Rogue assassin/warlock (idk what patron goes with assassin :/)
For more of a stealthy stealthy stabby stabby boi. Not shooty shooty arrow. Just stabby stabby boi
Im a half elf with an abberant dragonmark solely for lore purposes (if you can find a mechanical use for it im fine with that hahahah) whose mom si from the house of death and dad is house thuranni. Parents were killed during the dragonmark wars. Seeks vengeance against house thuranni for killing my parents. Whilst enjoying the pleasures of life
I am not adept in understanding all the combat mechanics yet so pls be.... simple woth the explanation hahaha. I know more about lore rather than the combat mechanics. Heck i dont even know the difference between a action and moving forward. Again this is only the technically ny FIRST ever DnD game. Not adventureres league just plain good old home dnd. My first session was considered useless cuz i managed to talk my partyaway from encounters lmao up until it wasnt continued.
Pls help ty. Im already rogue 2 hahaha
Combat based Swashbuckler actually can outdamage a fighter sometimes and my friend in our campaign has a fun time with it because it’s the most combat based rogue with still a ton of RPA. Assassin has a lot of flavor, such as that mercenary who comes is a bounty hunter, working only for the highest builder. Some builds can insta kill a weaker dragon with surprise round.
Would you mind telling me the build for it and what to take per level?
So if we are looking at Swashbuckler/Hexblade I would suggest starting as rogue for the first level and probably take your second in Hexblade to pick up the additional perks of weapon and armor proficiencies. You would probably have 14 in Dexterity (you can go higher but if you are staying stabby the Hexblade has you covered for attack rolls and damage) and Make Charisma your highest stat. Next probably would be constitution and everything else is really up to you. After taking the one level in hexblade I would continue in Rogue until 3rd or 4th level to get access to swashbuckleryness and your first stat bump (or feat). Get AT LEAST one more level in Hexblade to get your invocations, and probably go to 4th level for an extra spell slot, Pact Blade, and that second stat bump.
With that being said I think from there out you stay rogue. The Eldritch Invocations I would suggest would be Improved Pact Weapon, if you want a little bit extra survival you could also take Fiendish Vigor, but really I would stay keep that second option open for what YOU want to do with your character. A number of them can be quite fun if you are of the mind to utilize them).
So TL;DR
Level 1 - Rogue 1 (High charisma, at least 14 dexterity)
Level 2 - Warlock 1 (Hexblade)
Level 3 - Rogue 2
Level 4 - Rogue 3 (Swashbuckler)
Level 5 - Rogue 4 (ASI/Feat)
Level 6 - Warlock 2 (Pick what you like for invocations, additional spell slot)
Level 7 - Warlock 3 (Pact of the Blade, Swap an invocation to Improved Pact Weapon)
Level 8 - Warlock 4 (ASI/Feat)
Level 9+ - Rogue
You may want to take your second level of Hexblade sooner for an additional spell slot and the invocations, but that really depends on how you feel your performance up to that point has been going. I hope this helps with your concept. Don't take anything here as hard and fast, sometimes you should just go with the flow and find what works for you.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
For the Assassin/Warlock combo, I think the Archfey would be a solid option for patron, I mean really none of them would be BAD.
I think the three most synergistic would be
Archfey for charm/fear feature to either shmooze your way past someone, or send them running and Sleep, useful for getting a free sneak attack.
Fiend lifesteal feature makes you a little stronger after each kill and Command, Blindness/Deafness to disrupt your enemies.
Great Old Ones would give you an assassin that likes to torment before the kill, Telepathy to speak into their minds with no one else hearing, and Dissonant Whispers, and Detect Thoughts to REALLY get into their head and mess with them.
Good luck and enjoy whatever you pick.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I've actually played with this concept a bit and always really liked the flavor of it. Mechanically it works pretty well and there are a lot of great options and mechanisms that can really tailor the character to what you enjoy. I have two builds I've created with this very concept. I might even take my level 5 warlock into one of these directions. I'll go into detail about what makes each of them work and what the strengths of each are. I'll omit any optional choices you can make. You can just take whatever you like there.
Build 1, the Assassin 15 Hexblade 5 with Shadow Blade. This build does good damage when you get to attack with your shadow blade. If you are out of spells, meaning you don't get shadow blade and instead will use two short swords, this build will do not great damage. However, if you're in dim or dark light, you attack with advantage with your shadow blade, and the damage takes a healthy step up due to hitting and critically hitting more often:
From here, it's all Rogue levels. Attack with your shadow blade whenever possible. If you need a bonus action for something else, you might want to attack with the short sword pact blade because you do so twice. However, if you're in dim light or darkness, attacking with the shadow blade will be at advantage and will be much more effective. If you can get hexblades curse on a target, criticals are at 19 and 20. If you critically hit with your shadow blade and can get sneak attack damage, you roll ALL your dice twice. Sneak attack and Shadow blade damage twice! If you make it to level 20, that critical is 6d8 + 14d6! And because you're an assassin, you will auto crit if your target is surprised.
Another variant of this build is Assassin 17, hexblade 3. It has a huge first surprise round at 20, but at the cost of being less effective from levels 1-19 and all rounds after the first.
Another build is the Assassin 5-7, hexblade 12-14 Revenant blade, with some room for variability. The hook with this build is your pact/hex weapon will be a weapon you can attack with up to 3 times (2 from thirsting blade, 1 from bonus action. This build always does very good damage. It relies less on sneak attack and more on spells and the lifedrinker invocation at Warlock 12. It actually starts better if you take warlock for the first 3 levels, but that's ok.
Levels 16 through 20 are a bit up in the air. Take an odd number of rogue levels. You're at 3 by this point in the build. You get an additional sneak attack dice every odd rogue level. Getting rogue 5 or 7 is super. 2 levels in fighter would be great for action surge. You can also take great weapon fighting as your fighting style. Rerolling 1's and 2's increases your weapon damage by about 12% (Not total damage. Most damage comes from other things. The actual damage increase is about 2%). Not a ton, but every little bit helps. You could also take Defense for 1 more AC which would likely be more impactful. 2 Levels in warlock is also very useful as Warlock 14 gives you the ability to move Hexblades curse around to every target in an encounter, up from a max of one. It is probably worth it.
With this build, in a round of combat you're attacking 3 times and (assuming they all hit) dealing 6d4 with your weapon attacks + 15 from your Charisma modifier + 15 from Lifedrinker + 18 from Hexblades curse and + 6d4 from elemental weapons (or 3d6 from hex). It is silly. This might be the highest sustained damage build I've ever come up with. Also - you get auto crit damage from assassin if you surprise your target.
One other build I'll mention that is a bit lower damage than these two but still pretty good is Assassin 13, Archfey Warlock 7. A lot of the same stuff as the second build but this will give you the greater invisibility spell. Always being invisible in a fight? Sounds good to me! Not as much damage though as you're missing out on Lifedrinker, Hexblades curse, and Hex/Elemental weapon. That being said you do get quite a few extra sneak attack dice. It is a much more defensive build that still deals fairly strong damage.
I like your concept, but I do have one thing to point out. You're at 16 rogue / Warlock 4. Your last level in rogue gets you blind sense. It's not bad at all but you get your final sneak attack die at 15. If you went with one more level in warlock you get level 3 spells and Thirsting Blade for an extra attack. Getting another attack drastically increases your chance of dealing that sneak attack damage. On average you'll use your sneak attack dice around 75% of the time with one attack. If you up that to 2 attacks, that average increases to 92%. If you have two attacks and use your bonus action to attack? 96% chance that at least one of your attacks hits for sneak attack! (This is based on an average across levels. It's not exact, but it gives a good representation of the differences.)
You are absolutely correct, I knew there was something I was forgetting from the warlock side for invocations. Could not for the life of me remember where they get their second attack from. Thought I had imagined it at one point.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Damn im sorry i forgot to mention. Since we aleady started prior to the ppst. I already have my char
Half elf
Rogue 2 (just leveled up)
Dex: 20
Char: 18
Con: 15
Intelligence 14
Wisdom: 14
Strength: 11
Also what feats would be nice with this? Should i get dual wielder so i have 2 attacks: my mainweapom then my pact qeapon?
Also ive been reading a lot of "darkness+devils sight" for hexblade spells? Is it worht it really for yhe concept i imagine?
Check out Revenant blade feat and summon a double bladed scimitar. It will get you a bonus attack but the bonus attack is still your pact weapon. So you get all those benefits on your bonus action. Or check out Polearm master feat. That will add the same mechanic for a single weapon getting max use out of hexblade stuff. You could pair that with Sentinel for some crazy fun.
Darkness + Devil's sight is great because it means when inside the darkness spell you always attack at advantage and everything else attacks at disadvantage. That includes your allies though so just be careful using it.
Edit - I'm a dope. Polearm Master feat is a terrible plan because polearms wouldn't get you sneak attack damage. Don't do this!
The downside to the darkness/devils sight is it can cause havoc not just for enemies but for your teammates too. Feats wise, you certainly don't need ASI's because your stats are already very high across the board. Not sure what Homebrew feat revenant blade is but... yeah.
Really I would say figure out how you like to play your character once you start getting some Warlock abilities. Elven Accuracy is a strong contender, helps to make those sneak attacks land and get a higher chance for criticals, Mage Slayer could be another one depending on your campaign. Alertness is always a good standby. But I would still say make that decision when you reach your first 4th level (which you probably should'nt until at least level 5 or 6 for character level since you are multiclassing.)
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
It's not homebrew. It's in Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron.
So yeah if you are playing an Eberron campaign you can use that one.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Is it not considered AL official material yet?
I think i managed to nail it down. Please tell me how it is hahaha
1.) Rogue 1: Sneak attack,, Expertise
2.) Rogue 2: Cunning action
3.) Rogue 3:swashbuckler stuff
4.) Rogue 4: +2 to charisma (for that sweet 20)
5.) Rogue 5: Uncanny dodge
6.) Rogue 6: Expertise
7.) Rogue 7: evasion
8.) Rogue 8: +1 +1 Wisdom Con
9.) Rogue 9: Panache
10.) rogue 10: Skulker Feat
11.) rogue 11: Reliable talent
12.) rogue 12: (idk what feat yet? or maybe just ASI?)
13.) Rogue 13: Elegant Maneuver
14.) Rogue 13/ Warlock 1: Hexblade, Booming blade, Eldritch blast, Hex
15.) rogue 13/ Warlock 2: Devil's sight, Improved pact weapon
16.) rogue 13/ warlock 3: Pact of the blade
17.) rogue 13/warlock 4: (another feat?) (mage slayer?)
18.) rogue 13/ warlock 5: Thirsting blade
For the last two levels, i was thinking if i should dip in 2 levels of figher to get that action surge. or just continue dipping 1 in rogue and 1 in warlock for the blindsense-accursed spectre
note this is not in order hahaa. it just seems orderly and easy for me to list out per class
thoughts?
Looks like what we were talking about, Should be good.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I think you've got something good going there. I have a few notes but otherwise this looks very well thought out!
1.) Rogue 1: Sneak attack,, Expertise
2.) Rogue 2: Cunning action
3.) Rogue 3:swashbuckler stuff
4.) Rogue 4: +2 to charisma (for that sweet 20) - Seeing as how you're not taking hexblade until level 14, you don't need this very early or possibly at all since you already have 20 Dex. You might want to consider something else here. +1 extra initiative for a swashbuckler and +1 to Charisma roles and saves isn't worth the ASI/Feat to me. I second the Elvin Accuracy advice that HeroZero mentioned. You can get +1 to Charisma with it. Later you could use another ASI (level 8?) to get to 20 charisma. Another contender would be Skulker since you want to take that anyway. Sentinel is a great feat for rogues too and should be considered. If you're next to someone and they attack someone else, you get to deal sneak attack damage with your reaction. If you're alone with an enemy who is sick of getting beat up by you and tries to disengage from you, you attack them anyway and deal sneak attack damage because you're a swashbuckler.
5.) Rogue 5: Uncanny dodge
6.) Rogue 6: Expertise
7.) Rogue 7: evasion
8.) Rogue 8: +1 +1 Wisdom Con - No reason to take +1 wisdom. That would get you to 15 which does nothing for you. Wisdom is itself a stat you don't need to worry about much. If you took Elvin Accuracy and + 1 Charisma, swap Wisdom out of Charisma to get 20. If you did not take it and don't plan on it, consider taking Resilient feat with Constitution. That will get you to 16 Con and give you the proficiency bonus with Con saves. It's good by itself, but once you start casting hex on things it will be very useful to maintain concentration.
9.) Rogue 9: Panache
10.) rogue 10: Skulker Feat
11.) rogue 11: Reliable talent
12.) rogue 12: (idk what feat yet? or maybe just ASI?) - As mentioned, Sentinel or Elvin Accuracy would be good. HeroZero mentioned Mage Slayer and that could be good if you find yourself going up against a lot of casters. Dual wielder wouldn't be bad. You should definitely be dual wielding. This would let you use rapiers instead of short swords and get you one more AC.
13.) Rogue 13: Elegant Maneuver
14.) Rogue 13/ Warlock 1: Hexblade, Booming blade, Eldritch blast, Hex - You won't get much use out of booming blade. The way it works is that it's a spell attack, not a weapon attack. That means you wouldn't get to use your bonus action for an off hand attack and you wouldn't get a second attack from thirsting blade when you take that. If you have advantage, it could work. Even then though I think you'd be better off rolling more attack dice to hope for more hits or even a critical hit. Critical hits let you roll your sneak attack dice twice. If your target has hexblade curse on them and you attack twice, the odds of critically hitting them at least once increase to 19%! If you attack twice with your weapon and once with your bonus action, your odds of critically hitting at least once are 27.1%! If you have advantage, 27.1% for two attacks and 34.4% for two attacks + the bonus action attack! At this level, your booming blade would attack for 2d8 extra and if they move on their own, another 3d8 if they move. That's a lot. However, your chance of critically hitting drops to 10% (or 19% with advantage). You would roll an extra 2d8 damage on top of everything else, but the odds of doing so are obviously drastically decreased.
15.) rogue 13/ Warlock 2: Devil's sight, Improved pact weapon - You can't take improved pact weapon here. You would need to take it at warlock 3 after you've taken pact of the blade. Also, by this point you may well have magic weapons. The effects of Improved pact weapon don't stack with a magic weapon unless the bonuses provided are of a different type. If you're using two +2 short swords, Improved Pact Weapon does nothing. If you're using a [magicitem]Frost Brand[\magicitem], then you would still get all the benefits of Improved Pact Weapon as well as the abilities the sword grants.
16.) rogue 13/ warlock 3: Pact of the blade
17.) rogue 13/warlock 4: (another feat?) (mage slayer?)
18.) rogue 13/ warlock 5: Thirsting blade
For the last two levels, i was thinking if i should dip in 2 levels of figher to get that action surge. or just continue dipping 1 in rogue and 1 in warlock for the blindsense-accursed spectre - Blind sense is good but if you are doing that, you might as well take another level for another sneak attack die. Accursed Specter is ok and if you take that, you might as well take one more level in warlock for level 4 spells slots. I guess what I'm saying is either take 2 levels of fighter, 2 of Rogue, or 2 of warlock. There could be an argument for 2 in Sorcerer too.
Otherwise, looks great!
Not i any particular order.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I started in Hexblade, and had gone up 3 levels already before deciding to dip into Rogue for Swashbuckler. So, my path is a little different, but I wanted to MC for that level 3 feature, and also for roleplay reasons. My character was the token criminal, and her patron diverted her from what would probably been a straight Rogue path. So, she stuck to Hexblade for 5 (being melee heavy, she wanted Thirsting Blade...) then as a part of meeting up with her criminal mentor/assassination contract sugardaddy, she took a step back to her roots and did the 3 level Swashbuckler dip.
Next, she's going back to Hexblade, for at least the next several levels. It was hard to stick to the same spells for 3 Rogue levels. I made at least 1 error, and as it turns out, might have stumbled into a very advantageous spell choice...