Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Ok, I'm a pretty new player so forgive me if these are dumb questions. I'm building a character that's mainly hexblade warlock with a few levels in fighter, probably battlemaster, using 5.5e rules (yes I know hexblade isn't an official class anymore, just roll with it). My question is about how many fighter levels to take. My DM says we'll get to level 20 this campaign, so I can choose to do either a 17 3 split or a 16 4 split. If I do 16-4 I can take an extra epic boon feat (at least I'm pretty sure, correct me if I'm wrong) and get my charisma score to 22, but if I do 17-3 I get level 9 mystic arcanum. Not sure which one would be better, what does everyone else think?
Hexblade is an official subclass that's perfectly valid for use with the 5.5e rules.
I would ask: what level are you starting at?
If it's less than 16, my advice would be: do not worry about this now at all. Play the character for a while, learn the game more, and see what parts of it you like and what parts you don't, and let that inform your decision much, much later. It's going to be a long time before you need to actually make this decision and there's a good chance you'll change your mind along the way anyway.
(And yes, the rules as written do allow you to take two Epic Boon feats if you take 16 levels of one class and 4 of another in a very specific order, but it's not clear that this is an intended interaction and some DMs may not allow it.)
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Oh so they did add hexblade, I could never get a straight answer out of Google. That is a fair point, I'm only level 7 right now so it's a long ways off, but thank you for the clarifications!
There hasn't been a 5.5e version of Hexblade yet, if that's what you're saying. The 5.5e rules allow using 5e content that hasn't been updated yet.
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I second this.
Especially as a new player, avoid the "build" mentality. Planning your character with a focus on what it will have at level 20 is a thing for people who are building theoretical characters.
Do what makes sense in the moment, and what fits the personality of your character. You will spend most of your time not at the highest levels. Make choices that are fun now, even if they mean you won't be the "best" you could possibly be when the campaign's wrapping. (You won't notice the difference, anyway.)
That said: each level of fighter you take delays your warlock spells and other features further. Unless there are in-character reasons to take multiple levels, there's not a lot of good reasons to take more than one. Also, 9th-level spells are really sweet. (And again, you'll have them longer than you will any epic boons.)
i honestly would not take more than 1 level. Start as a fighter, go warlock the rest of the way. you only lose out on warlocks level 20 which is crap anyways. you will get 9th level spells and all your feats.
It really comes down to more are you taking fighter so you can actually survive in melee and are a bit better at it with weapon masteries. Or are you trying to create a sort of new class by making a hybrid multi class build. 1 level is enough for the first, the second usually needs more levels in both to get the vibe.
Good advice above. I would ask what your purpose/goal is for each level of fighter as opposed to putting it into straight Warlock? Second wind? Action Surge? Weapon master? A specific fighter subclass that you feel will fit well with the Hex build? Then compare it to what you'd be delaying or giving up with Warlock.
No wrong answer here as it is 'your' character to design, build and play. And there is a lot of fun with that in mind.
You mentioned you are currently 7th level. Is that straight Warlock so far or have you dipped into fighter at this point?
1st level was fighter, the rest are warlock. I was planning to get action surge and a subclass feature, so 3 or above. I'm not super worried about second wind because honestly it's decent at lower levels, but 1d10 health is nothing once you get higher up.
Just as an aside, if you do end up taking at least two levels of Fighter, you'll probably find that Tactical Mind is a much more impactful use of your Second Winds than the Second Wind feature itself, and its usefulness doesn't depend on your Fighter level.
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Are the warlock features above 17 really worth it though? I feel like one invocation and one prepared spell doesn't seem like much and I'd be better off with action surge?
That's a good point, I completely forgot it could do that.
That is not the question you should be asking when you are doing week in and week out games and slowly slogging up the levels.
You should ask which next class level is a better choice. Followed by, is it worth it to take a couple of levels to get class level X.
If you are 7th level, a better question "is it better to get ftr 2 & 3 or Warlock 7 & 8?"
"If FTR level 2 is undesirable, is Level 3 worth while?" If the answer to both are no, does it matter above level 16 for warlock?
the only long term planning id look at is making sure if i am taking more than 1 level of fighter do i want a epic feat as you need the warlock level 16 to hit at level 19 if you still want 9th level spells as well. which means delaying 9th level spells to level 20. if you do not care about epic feats its not a issue. but unless you are taking 4 levels it is a feat you are giving up as well epic or not, not just a known spell and a invocation. though i value those over fighter sub class features and action surge. but i am very caster focussed.