Hi everyone,
I would need some advice on how to improve my idea of Hexblade build for a campaign where I will start at lv2 and finish at lv10, the concept is to create a Melee DPS that does a lot of damage in 1 round, that has control spell and that has as a combination of Feats Polearm Master + Warcaster.
I thought I was doing something like this:
- Race: Variant Human
Starting Feat: Polearm Master
LV4 Feat: Warcaster
Combo I'd like to use (Blooming Blade triggered by Polearm Master's AOO both when monsters enter my range and when they exit)
- Stat: 8 STR / 14 DEX / 16 CON / 8 INT / 10 WIS / 16 CHA
-Weapons: Quarterstaff + Shield
at LV5 on average I would attack with the Quarterstaff 1d6 + 1d8 (booming blade) +4 when they enter range and 1d6 + 2d8 (booming blade) + 4 when they go out of range.
like Eldritch Invocations I thought I would use:
Devil's Sight
Improve Pact Weapon
Thirsting Blade
they are decided as spells on HEX - Armor of Agathys - Darkness, for the other spells instead total indecision.
do you think it is a good idea to try to take this path or should I eliminate the idea of the polearm + warcaster combo compared to other builds?
Seems fine but you will also need Spell Sniper Feat for booming blade to work with your polearm at its 10ft range, which is where your opportunity attacks will trigger from. Take it at 8th level
Also if you want a damage build and are planning to use devils sight with the darkness spell you selected, you can drop hex and pick a different spell. I’d pick hellish rebuke instead.
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Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
Seems fine but you will also need Spell Sniper Feat for booming blade to work with your polearm at its 10ft range, which is where your opportunity attacks will trigger from. Take it at 8th level
Also if you want a damage build and are planning to use devils sight with the darkness spell you selected, you can drop hex and pick a different spell. I’d pick hellish rebuke instead.
You would need to check with DM concerning Spell Sniper and Booming Blade range as it is debatable whether the radius of range of self can be increased.
So, there's a number of issues that is see with this build, and namely revolves around bonus action bloat and it's low damage overall.
You're a hexblade, so you'll want to lay down your hexblade curse. But maybe you also want to misty step. Maybe you want to use your hex spell too. When does the bonus action for PAM kick in? Was it worth taking a whole feat to access it that late in combat? I wouldn't say so.
Second, your reaction. You could have saved it for shield instead. You could have saved it for when things are running away from you, and you'd get your whole booming blade value out of it. But to use it on a half-hearted booming blade when things get in range? Not worth it in my opinion.
Building around booming blade is such a trap, because more often than not, you don't have a reliable way to proc the secondary damage. You would need to toss in another feat like crusher into the mix, but by then we're talking about a build centered around a single trick.
So, if you want to create a high damage build, it won't be done in a single turn with a hexblade as you'll want some set up. If you want to stick with PAM, I'd grab a halberd, then get grab GWM. Now, if you set up with darkness and hexblade curse on round 1, you'll do three attacks the following round with advantage. 2d10+1d4+9+30+9=61.5 damage, or more like 30 DPR after accounting chance to got with advantage. That's a crap load of damage.
Your build would do around 1d6+1d8+3, or 11 damage on reaction, and another 18 when it's finally your turn. 29 damage before we've accounted chance to hit, less than the adjusted GWM build presented.
Thirsting blade will not work with booming blade because booming blade uses the cast a spell action, not the attack action.
If you are going to use blade cantrips instead of attacking, I think crusher would work better than warcaster for this build at 4th level. If you did this you could hit with booming blade and move the enemy back 5 feet which on most enemies will mean they must move and trigger damage to hit you. You could then pick up warcaster at 8th level and you could do this on the AOO too.
In terms of damage, I think this is the only way you will come close to what you can do with extra attack and GWM instead.
Also if you can buy magic items another option is undead warlock instead of hexblade, then buy gauntlets of ogre power, that has the additional advantage of imposing the frightened condition which means after you move them back they can't close with you again.
So, if you want to create a high damage build, it won't be done in a single turn with a hexblade as you'll want some set up. If you want to stick with PAM, I'd grab a halberd, then get grab GWM. Now, if you set up with darkness and hexblade curse on round 1, you'll do three attacks the following round with advantage. 2d10+1d4+9+30+9=61.5 damage, or more like 30 DPR after accounting chance to got with advantage. That's a crap load of damage.
Your build would do around 1d6+1d8+3, or 11 damage on reaction, and another 18 when it's finally your turn. 29 damage before we've accounted chance to hit, less than the adjusted GWM build presented.
When you're talking to people who don't know what you're talking about, which is why you're bothering to reply with advice, you need to breakdown specifics. I can't understand where half of that damage you've included comes from. You're also not including things like the fact you could have attacked instead of casting spells, meaning even though you're doing potentially more damage as a result of the buff from spells, it came at a potential loss to damage initially, depending on the situation, sometimes that's just simple not worth it.
So, if you want to create a high damage build, it won't be done in a single turn with a hexblade as you'll want some set up. If you want to stick with PAM, I'd grab a halberd, then get grab GWM. Now, if you set up with darkness and hexblade curse on round 1, you'll do three attacks the following round with advantage. 2d10+1d4+9+30+9=61.5 damage, or more like 30 DPR after accounting chance to got with advantage. That's a crap load of damage.
Your build would do around 1d6+1d8+3, or 11 damage on reaction, and another 18 when it's finally your turn. 29 damage before we've accounted chance to hit, less than the adjusted GWM build presented.
When you're talking to people who don't know what you're talking about, which is why you're bothering to reply with advice, you need to breakdown specifics. I can't understand where half of that damage you've included comes from. You're also not including things like the fact you could have attacked instead of casting spells, meaning even though you're doing potentially more damage as a result of the buff from spells, it came at a potential loss to damage initially, depending on the situation, sometimes that's just simple not worth it.
That post is from over 2 years ago but I am guessing the numbers are
I am assuming this is level 5 for extra attack so PB is +3 and I assume the level 4 ASI/Feat as GWM, so CHA modifier is still +3. It would give: 2d10+1d4+9+30+9
On top of this I assume V.Human, with a starting feat of PAM.
Hi everyone, I would need some advice on how to improve my idea of Hexblade build for a campaign where I will start at lv2 and finish at lv10, the concept is to create a Melee DPS that does a lot of damage in 1 round, that has control spell and that has as a combination of Feats Polearm Master + Warcaster. I thought I was doing something like this: - Race: Variant Human Starting Feat: Polearm Master LV4 Feat: Warcaster Combo I'd like to use (Blooming Blade triggered by Polearm Master's AOO both when monsters enter my range and when they exit) - Stat: 8 STR / 14 DEX / 16 CON / 8 INT / 10 WIS / 16 CHA -Weapons: Quarterstaff + Shield at LV5 on average I would attack with the Quarterstaff 1d6 + 1d8 (booming blade) +4 when they enter range and 1d6 + 2d8 (booming blade) + 4 when they go out of range. like Eldritch Invocations I thought I would use: Devil's Sight Improve Pact Weapon Thirsting Blade they are decided as spells on HEX - Armor of Agathys - Darkness, for the other spells instead total indecision. do you think it is a good idea to try to take this path or should I eliminate the idea of the polearm + warcaster combo compared to other builds?
Seems fine but you will also need Spell Sniper Feat for booming blade to work with your polearm at its 10ft range, which is where your opportunity attacks will trigger from. Take it at 8th level
Also if you want a damage build and are planning to use devils sight with the darkness spell you selected, you can drop hex and pick a different spell. I’d pick hellish rebuke instead.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
You would need to check with DM concerning Spell Sniper and Booming Blade range as it is debatable whether the radius of range of self can be increased.
So, there's a number of issues that is see with this build, and namely revolves around bonus action bloat and it's low damage overall.
You're a hexblade, so you'll want to lay down your hexblade curse. But maybe you also want to misty step. Maybe you want to use your hex spell too. When does the bonus action for PAM kick in? Was it worth taking a whole feat to access it that late in combat? I wouldn't say so.
Second, your reaction. You could have saved it for shield instead. You could have saved it for when things are running away from you, and you'd get your whole booming blade value out of it. But to use it on a half-hearted booming blade when things get in range? Not worth it in my opinion.
Building around booming blade is such a trap, because more often than not, you don't have a reliable way to proc the secondary damage. You would need to toss in another feat like crusher into the mix, but by then we're talking about a build centered around a single trick.
So, if you want to create a high damage build, it won't be done in a single turn with a hexblade as you'll want some set up. If you want to stick with PAM, I'd grab a halberd, then get grab GWM. Now, if you set up with darkness and hexblade curse on round 1, you'll do three attacks the following round with advantage. 2d10+1d4+9+30+9=61.5 damage, or more like 30 DPR after accounting chance to got with advantage. That's a crap load of damage.
Your build would do around 1d6+1d8+3, or 11 damage on reaction, and another 18 when it's finally your turn. 29 damage before we've accounted chance to hit, less than the adjusted GWM build presented.
Thirsting blade will not work with booming blade because booming blade uses the cast a spell action, not the attack action.
If you are going to use blade cantrips instead of attacking, I think crusher would work better than warcaster for this build at 4th level. If you did this you could hit with booming blade and move the enemy back 5 feet which on most enemies will mean they must move and trigger damage to hit you. You could then pick up warcaster at 8th level and you could do this on the AOO too.
In terms of damage, I think this is the only way you will come close to what you can do with extra attack and GWM instead.
Also if you can buy magic items another option is undead warlock instead of hexblade, then buy gauntlets of ogre power, that has the additional advantage of imposing the frightened condition which means after you move them back they can't close with you again.
When you're talking to people who don't know what you're talking about, which is why you're bothering to reply with advice, you need to breakdown specifics.
I can't understand where half of that damage you've included comes from.
You're also not including things like the fact you could have attacked instead of casting spells, meaning even though you're doing potentially more damage as a result of the buff from spells, it came at a potential loss to damage initially, depending on the situation, sometimes that's just simple not worth it.
That post is from over 2 years ago but I am guessing the numbers are
Attack 1 - 1d10 + CHA + Hexblade's Curse (PB) + GWM (10)
Attack 2 - 1d10 + CHA + Hexblade's Curse (PB) + GWM (10)
Attack 3 - 1d4 + CHA + Hexblade's Curse (PB) + GWM (10)
I am assuming this is level 5 for extra attack so PB is +3 and I assume the level 4 ASI/Feat as GWM, so CHA modifier is still +3. It would give: 2d10+1d4+9+30+9
On top of this I assume V.Human, with a starting feat of PAM.
Thank you.