I'm fairly new to DnD, and am playing a Pact of the Fiend Warlock with Pact of the Blade and the Improved Pact Weapon invocation. All the guides I've looked at suggest switching to another Pact Boon due to the poor usability of the Pact Weapon without being a Hexblade. However, it seems like so long as the weapon is kept within 5 feet of my character every minute, it's a +1 weapon of any type that can be used by a martial class. At low levels (up to 5?), there aren't frequently many magic weapons available to the party, so this seems reasonably powerful, so I'm guessing I'm missing something important about how this combination actually works.
The reason people suggest being Hexblade for Pact of the Blade instead of anything else is because Hexblade gets the (slightly OP) benefit of being able to substitute their CHA modifier for their STR/DEX modifier for attack rolls and damage, thus they need to worry about fewer ability scores since everything works off of CHA.
It's entirely playable without hexblade, it's just that you need to do more. Hexblade gets you better armor, shields, using charisma as your fighting stat, and a curse that doesn't need concentration or a spell slot, unlike hex.
Without it, you have to spend stat bumps to raise str or dex, instead of the weapon feats so beloved by optimizers, you likely want the mage armor invocation, and you have to rely on or forego hex. Dex and finesse weapons is the way I'd go, because that means you don't suffer as much from not having medium armor proficiency.
Meanwhile, you still have the abilities your other patron gives you in the place of "easy mode melee warlock". At low levels, Dark One's Blessing is pretty sweet for you.
to answer the question, yes, you can be pact of the blade and hand your pact weapon to a martial to use. That's a really poor reason to pick blade pact, but it DOES work.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
You need to spend many invocations to just make it usable and you may still suffer from low AC in melee and not great HP's. You will probably need to worry about your concentration being broken more often.
Pact of the Tome and Chain are great with minimal investment.
I picked PotB but my DM and me worked out that his weapon is a whip that transforms into a tentacled arm that grants other abilities as he levels.
With a good DM many things in D&D can be made to work but if playing btb I would have picked Tome.
I'm fairly new to DnD, and am playing a Pact of the Fiend Warlock with Pact of the Blade and the Improved Pact Weapon invocation. All the guides I've looked at suggest switching to another Pact Boon due to the poor usability of the Pact Weapon without being a Hexblade. However, it seems like so long as the weapon is kept within 5 feet of my character every minute, it's a +1 weapon of any type that can be used by a martial class. At low levels (up to 5?), there aren't frequently many magic weapons available to the party, so this seems reasonably powerful, so I'm guessing I'm missing something important about how this combination actually works.
The reason people suggest being Hexblade for Pact of the Blade instead of anything else is because Hexblade gets the (slightly OP) benefit of being able to substitute their CHA modifier for their STR/DEX modifier for attack rolls and damage, thus they need to worry about fewer ability scores since everything works off of CHA.
It's entirely playable without hexblade, it's just that you need to do more. Hexblade gets you better armor, shields, using charisma as your fighting stat, and a curse that doesn't need concentration or a spell slot, unlike hex.
Without it, you have to spend stat bumps to raise str or dex, instead of the weapon feats so beloved by optimizers, you likely want the mage armor invocation, and you have to rely on or forego hex. Dex and finesse weapons is the way I'd go, because that means you don't suffer as much from not having medium armor proficiency.
Meanwhile, you still have the abilities your other patron gives you in the place of "easy mode melee warlock". At low levels, Dark One's Blessing is pretty sweet for you.
to answer the question, yes, you can be pact of the blade and hand your pact weapon to a martial to use. That's a really poor reason to pick blade pact, but it DOES work.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
You need to spend many invocations to just make it usable and you may still suffer from low AC in melee and not great HP's. You will probably need to worry about your concentration being broken more often.
Pact of the Tome and Chain are great with minimal investment.
I picked PotB but my DM and me worked out that his weapon is a whip that transforms into a tentacled arm that grants other abilities as he levels.
With a good DM many things in D&D can be made to work but if playing btb I would have picked Tome.