So we just turned level 6 and my character is a Hexblade warlock with a great sword and heavy weapon master feat. Our party originally had a Paladin to help me on the front lines but he decided he did not like the character and opted to change to a death cleric. Which now leaves me as the party main tank, yay. The rest of the party consists of a rogue (soul knife), ranger and bard, so everyone mostly stays to the back, the cleric does come up to the frontline occasionally.
I do have half plate so AC is at 17, and I recently found a couple of homebrew magic items that help me sustain the front a little better, some gloves that let me expend charges to increase my AC by 2 per charge spent for one attack (5 charges total, using my reaction), and a new +2 great sword that heals me 1 hp for each attack I hit, and 4hp if it is a crit. I also have another homebrew item that does not require attunement that allows one misty step per day, so some extra free mobility for oh shit moments.
Now I’ve planned all along to multi class into a vengeance Paladin, just 3 levels. But now I am thinking of possibly going as a Fighter multi class instead (again only planning 3 levels) either battle master or echo knight.
So do I try to gain more survivability or at this point just go all in on damage, they can’t hurt me if they’re dead right?
So fighting style? Great weapon fighting or defense? I originally wanted to go great weapon for more consistent higher damage.
Vengeance Paladin? Smites (I do have the eldritch smite invocation), spellcasting and channel divinity for advantage on attacks for big bads. The level 1 spell slots could also be used for the shield spell if my glove charges are spent, and could also use it for Hex instead of using my more valuable warlock spell slots.
Battle master fighter? Action surge, fighting style and second wind. Planning on battle maneuvers of riposte to hit them if they miss me, precision attack to help me land my hits if I miss, and possibly parry to decrease incoming damage.
Lastly, Echo Knight? The flavor alone works well with the hexblade subclass, but again also getting action surge, fighting style and second wind. Then I can position the echo knight to switch places if I need to get out of harms way, can attack through him from afar, and get that extra attack through him (only twice since my con is only 14, but hey that’s 6 attacks with action surge).
Sorry for the long post, just been thinking of all this for several days and cannot come to a conclusion.
To my way of thinking, Vengeance and BM are both solid choices - there's absolutely nothing wrong with those... but EK looks really interesting, and to be a lot more fun to play. I've been toying around with one for a while now, and it seems like the tactical opportunities would be super interesting on a regular basis. And you get all of the groovy fighter goodness.
Thanks for your reply. I know I feel that Paladin and BM are more cohesive with hexblade, but EK does look so fun. I’m torn still but this input helps!
I'm having a great time multiclassing into Devine Soul Sorcerer on my Hexblade.
I gives me a few extra spellslots for spells like Shield, that doesn't scale, also it gives me access to things like Guidance, holy word and later meta magic options like Twinned spell and a few Sorecery point :D
I would stick it out with Hexblade until level 12. When you hit level 7 you get Shadows of Moil spell which should help your defensive capabilities a bit by imposing disadvantage to your enemies attacks. Lifedrinker invocation at level 12 is too good to delay for a Great Weapon Master Hexblade, turning every hit you have Great Weapon Master activated into a guaranteed 20 damage before rolling any dice. Not to mention you get a 3rd spell slot at 11.
Same here. Our Pally quitted our campaign and my hexblade warlock needed to tank the party.
At lvl 6 i took Blur and equiped a shield. Hexlocks can change their wielded weapon (You want a one hand sword and a shield in order to gain +2ac) At lvl 7 you should get Shadow of Moil and at lvl 8 you can go for Master shield feat or Constitution/dex stats
So what are you using your spell slots for? If it is mostly eldritch smites and your planning on using them for diving smites I would put a level into barbarian or 3 for the path feature. I think rage is nice to have in your arsenal if you are battling melee monsters and don’t have many spell slots left or you just need the extra resistance.
Definitely couldn’t make up my mind before the session started so just took another level in warlock, at this point it just makes sense to go warlock to level 8 to get shadow of moil and my ASI to boost CHA to 20. So gives me some time to decide on multi classing or pushing for lifedrinker
Same here. Our Pally quitted our campaign and my hexblade warlock needed to tank the party.
At lvl 6 i took Blur and equiped a shield. Hexlocks can change their wielded weapon (You want a one hand sword and a shield in order to gain +2ac) At lvl 7 you should get Shadow of Moil and at lvl 8 you can go for Master shield feat or Constitution/dex stats
Will get shadow of moil at 7, not keen on taking a shield since I already took great weapon master feat, have the homebrew gloves I can use to help boost my AC so I like the current combo of my greatsword and gloves over sword and board
Hexblade, while still an effective melee combatant, is a full caster, and as such it really benefits from uninterrupted level progression. Certainly as a D8 class, and probably starting with 14 constitution, it doesn't have a huge HP pool, and its armor is a little short of full plate (although only by 1AC) but what it does do is offer most of the damage potential of a Paladin, along with full progression spellcasting.
I would not multiclass with Warlock as my primary.
You will need support from your party, haste is nice, for example, and healing of course, since unlike Paladin you don't have your own.
The spell Spirit Shroud is key to racking up near Paladin smite levels of damage. With level 3 spell slots it adds D8 radiant (or necrotic or cold) damage to every hit you successfully make. With level 5 slots that becomes 2D8. With polearm master and thirsting blade that's three attacks, potentially adding up to 6D8 damage a turn, and it lasts for 1 minute. It is a concentration spell, so Eldritch Mind is likely a good investment, but with it in play you can approach a thousand damage over ten rounds of combat. With haste from a friendly character that can increase even further.
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Hi all,
So we just turned level 6 and my character is a Hexblade warlock with a great sword and heavy weapon master feat. Our party originally had a Paladin to help me on the front lines but he decided he did not like the character and opted to change to a death cleric. Which now leaves me as the party main tank, yay. The rest of the party consists of a rogue (soul knife), ranger and bard, so everyone mostly stays to the back, the cleric does come up to the frontline occasionally.
I do have half plate so AC is at 17, and I recently found a couple of homebrew magic items that help me sustain the front a little better, some gloves that let me expend charges to increase my AC by 2 per charge spent for one attack (5 charges total, using my reaction), and a new +2 great sword that heals me 1 hp for each attack I hit, and 4hp if it is a crit. I also have another homebrew item that does not require attunement that allows one misty step per day, so some extra free mobility for oh shit moments.
Now I’ve planned all along to multi class into a vengeance Paladin, just 3 levels. But now I am thinking of possibly going as a Fighter multi class instead (again only planning 3 levels) either battle master or echo knight.
So do I try to gain more survivability or at this point just go all in on damage, they can’t hurt me if they’re dead right?
So fighting style? Great weapon fighting or defense? I originally wanted to go great weapon for more consistent higher damage.
Vengeance Paladin? Smites (I do have the eldritch smite invocation), spellcasting and channel divinity for advantage on attacks for big bads. The level 1 spell slots could also be used for the shield spell if my glove charges are spent, and could also use it for Hex instead of using my more valuable warlock spell slots.
Battle master fighter? Action surge, fighting style and second wind. Planning on battle maneuvers of riposte to hit them if they miss me, precision attack to help me land my hits if I miss, and possibly parry to decrease incoming damage.
Lastly, Echo Knight? The flavor alone works well with the hexblade subclass, but again also getting action surge, fighting style and second wind. Then I can position the echo knight to switch places if I need to get out of harms way, can attack through him from afar, and get that extra attack through him (only twice since my con is only 14, but hey that’s 6 attacks with action surge).
Sorry for the long post, just been thinking of all this for several days and cannot come to a conclusion.
To my way of thinking, Vengeance and BM are both solid choices - there's absolutely nothing wrong with those... but EK looks really interesting, and to be a lot more fun to play. I've been toying around with one for a while now, and it seems like the tactical opportunities would be super interesting on a regular basis. And you get all of the groovy fighter goodness.
EK gets my vote.
Thanks for your reply. I know I feel that Paladin and BM are more cohesive with hexblade, but EK does look so fun. I’m torn still but this input helps!
I'm having a great time multiclassing into Devine Soul Sorcerer on my Hexblade.
I gives me a few extra spellslots for spells like Shield, that doesn't scale, also it gives me access to things like Guidance, holy word and later meta magic options like Twinned spell and a few Sorecery point :D
I would stick it out with Hexblade until level 12. When you hit level 7 you get Shadows of Moil spell which should help your defensive capabilities a bit by imposing disadvantage to your enemies attacks. Lifedrinker invocation at level 12 is too good to delay for a Great Weapon Master Hexblade, turning every hit you have Great Weapon Master activated into a guaranteed 20 damage before rolling any dice. Not to mention you get a 3rd spell slot at 11.
Same here. Our Pally quitted our campaign and my hexblade warlock needed to tank the party.
At lvl 6 i took Blur and equiped a shield. Hexlocks can change their wielded weapon (You want a one hand sword and a shield in order to gain +2ac)
At lvl 7 you should get Shadow of Moil and at lvl 8 you can go for Master shield feat or Constitution/dex stats
So what are you using your spell slots for? If it is mostly eldritch smites and your planning on using them for diving smites I would put a level into barbarian or 3 for the path feature. I think rage is nice to have in your arsenal if you are battling melee monsters and don’t have many spell slots left or you just need the extra resistance.
Definitely couldn’t make up my mind before the session started so just took another level in warlock, at this point it just makes sense to go warlock to level 8 to get shadow of moil and my ASI to boost CHA to 20. So gives me some time to decide on multi classing or pushing for lifedrinker
Will get shadow of moil at 7, not keen on taking a shield since I already took great weapon master feat, have the homebrew gloves I can use to help boost my AC so I like the current combo of my greatsword and gloves over sword and board
Ahead of you are some of the best levels of warlock for power:
9. 5th level spells, invocation
10. Patron feature, cantrip
11. 3rd spell slot, mystic arcanum
12. ASI, lifedrinker
Hexblade, while still an effective melee combatant, is a full caster, and as such it really benefits from uninterrupted level progression. Certainly as a D8 class, and probably starting with 14 constitution, it doesn't have a huge HP pool, and its armor is a little short of full plate (although only by 1AC) but what it does do is offer most of the damage potential of a Paladin, along with full progression spellcasting.
I would not multiclass with Warlock as my primary.
You will need support from your party, haste is nice, for example, and healing of course, since unlike Paladin you don't have your own.
The spell Spirit Shroud is key to racking up near Paladin smite levels of damage. With level 3 spell slots it adds D8 radiant (or necrotic or cold) damage to every hit you successfully make. With level 5 slots that becomes 2D8. With polearm master and thirsting blade that's three attacks, potentially adding up to 6D8 damage a turn, and it lasts for 1 minute. It is a concentration spell, so Eldritch Mind is likely a good investment, but with it in play you can approach a thousand damage over ten rounds of combat. With haste from a friendly character that can increase even further.