I've seen arguments here and there claiming that the War Caster feat is a required pick for Hexblade warlocks, but something about it always seemed to bother me. I think I've finally figured out why: my assumption has always been that most Hexblades will naturally gravitate toward the Pact of the Blade and its associated invocation Improved Pact Weapon, which states that any pact weapon you summon can be used as a focus for spell casting. As the PHB says, a spell casting focus can be used in the same hand used for the somatic components of a spell, which would seem to me to make War Caster less necessary.
Now, obviously, the War Caster feat does a lot more than just making it possible to cast spells while holding weapons, and is still plenty valuable on those grounds. But what do you all think?
I think the biggest reason that people like warcaster for hexblade is the advantage on concentration checks. Since you're likely in melee you're also likely to make significantly more concentration checks to hold up spells like (hex!) which means the advantage is priceless (arguably resilient con paired with improved pact weapon is a "better" solution). Additionally warcaster with a +3 weapon is better than improved pact weapon technically.
Its a tradeoff. So the question becomes which is more valuable for you a feat or an invocation
I don't know. I'm playing my first caster with my hexblade and honestly my next feat level I'm thinking of taking resilient constitution. I feel like I'd have a plain higher chance of succeeding DCs. And either Pact of the Blade or Hexblade gives us shields and weapon-spell focus already, so it renders a lot of Warcaster moot.
Warcaster does have its strong points as does Resilient CON, in my opinion the Warcaster reaction attack is quite handy, while the ability to have a shield and weapon, or two weapons and allow casting with Somatic and Material components along with having advantage on those CON saves to maintain concentration. I myself actually prefer both, when it comes to casters if I can afford it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've seen arguments here and there claiming that the War Caster feat is a required pick for Hexblade warlocks, but something about it always seemed to bother me. I think I've finally figured out why: my assumption has always been that most Hexblades will naturally gravitate toward the Pact of the Blade and its associated invocation Improved Pact Weapon, which states that any pact weapon you summon can be used as a focus for spell casting. As the PHB says, a spell casting focus can be used in the same hand used for the somatic components of a spell, which would seem to me to make War Caster less necessary.
Now, obviously, the War Caster feat does a lot more than just making it possible to cast spells while holding weapons, and is still plenty valuable on those grounds. But what do you all think?
I think the biggest reason that people like warcaster for hexblade is the advantage on concentration checks. Since you're likely in melee you're also likely to make significantly more concentration checks to hold up spells like (hex!) which means the advantage is priceless (arguably resilient con paired with improved pact weapon is a "better" solution). Additionally warcaster with a +3 weapon is better than improved pact weapon technically.
Its a tradeoff. So the question becomes which is more valuable for you a feat or an invocation
I don't know. I'm playing my first caster with my hexblade and honestly my next feat level I'm thinking of taking resilient constitution. I feel like I'd have a plain higher chance of succeeding DCs. And either Pact of the Blade or Hexblade gives us shields and weapon-spell focus already, so it renders a lot of Warcaster moot.
https://ddb.ac/characters/6093721/dNVeZI
I agree that Resilient (Con) is a better pick than warcaster, or possibly just taking the ASI in Con depending on how your scores are distributed.
Warcaster does have its strong points as does Resilient CON, in my opinion the Warcaster reaction attack is quite handy, while the ability to have a shield and weapon, or two weapons and allow casting with Somatic and Material components along with having advantage on those CON saves to maintain concentration. I myself actually prefer both, when it comes to casters if I can afford it.