This is my first campaign using a pact of the blade hexblade, and I'm not sure what the best build path is. I don't care if it's super optimal, but I do want to be at least decent in combat. We're currently level 3 and our group typically does 1-2 year campaigns, and by the end we could make it around level 15 depending on a lot of factors. Since our group rolled in roll20 these are my stats currently after the boost from my half elf:
Str: 13
Dex: 16
Con: 14
Int: 13
Wis: 10
Cha: 19
I know that i probably should have put my dex at 14 and my str at 15 so i could use medium armor, but I wanted to use light armor/mage armor because it fits the character idea i had better; also 2 members of my group are rogues, with one of them being an assassin, and I didn't want to hinder their chance of surprising the opponent. Now that my stats are like this, however, I wanted to know what direction I should be considering. I'm thinking Elven Accuracy for my charisma might be a good start at level 4, maybe go to warlock 5 or 7 for Thirsting blade and/or Shadow of moil. Right now I planned on using a greatsword, but it may be better to use a bow instead and grab improved pact weapon?
Beyond that though, I'm not sure which direction I should go from here. I didn't know if sorcerer would be good to quicken the speed of my buffs like shadow of moil. My character in his backstory did watch a friend that was a paladin of bahamut die while they were traveling together, so it might be possible to go paladin later without any changes. I'm just not sure if paladin/warlock is as good now that warlock has its own smite. Should I go Warlock/Paladin/Sorcerer, Warlock/Sorcerer, or something different entirely? I'm totally open to other multiclasses too
Hi. Here is some insight based on my L8 Half-Elven Blade Pact Hexblade:
1. Str is not an issue. I always use my Pact Weapon (LS) with CHA in melee, and Agonizing Blast with CHA from range.
2. I wear Breastplate and Shield with a 14 Dex, so my AC is 18 without magic and no disadvantage to stealth.
3. Until you get Thirsting Blade, Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade will be helpful.
4. Elven Accuracy at L4 will get you to +5 Cha bonus AND extreme advantage.
Note that while focusing your feats and invocations on melee will make you somewhat comparable to melee classes, you never get third or fourth attack - but you still get third and fourth EB/AB beams. This is why my subsequent Warlocks have been ranged damage Hexblades with the Pact of the Tome, leaving invocations and feats for OOC situations.
Yeah, i did notice after i picked my pact that using a greatsword would probably be worse than just using EB in most cases later. Not only does it do decent damage and benefit from the crit range increase from hexblade, but it puts you at a safe range. Like you mentioned, you get additional beams later and when you use that with hex and sorcerer metamagic you can pop out heckin damage. I think i'm gonna try my best to be as safe in melee as possible, but if i go for sorcerer levels it does also inherently boost my eldritch blast for later too.
Using a bow seems redundant to (and less damaging than...) Eldritch Blast... I suppose though that a bow and magic arrows can give you a wider range of damage types.
I'm playing a melee-heavy, two-handed sword weilding PotB Hexblade now, so I can't offer much advice on a ranged 'blade. She does well in battle, but can't keep up with a raging GWM Barbarian. But, she's not supposed to - she fairly flexible, but charging up to the front is her go to. I did a 3-level dip into rogue Swashbuckler, but your party doesn't need anymore tricksters.
Think you've got a good path forward. One in my party is a SorLock, and there's nice benefits there.
Go glaive, screw swords. Polearms are much better then swords in most cases, especially due to the reach and Polearm master. And will be even better if/when you get Sentinel. A HexBlade without polearm is like Hugh Hefner without a bunny.
Min-maxing is fine I guess. I get it. But Powergaming just gets boring to me. I've skipped a feat to bump my CHA, and might do it again to bump DEX - gasp! He's a Hexblade, and isn't going to max out his CHA? Well, I also don't like getting hit.
@dukeforau yeah polearms are definitely better, but idk i have a special place in my heart for great swords. Also, all the feats will take a while to come on. Getting PAM, Sentinel, and gwm means that my whole build doesn't come online until lvl 12 if I ignore ability score increases.
@Dnd_Berserker yeah, you're right, i should be using eldritch blast for range. I don't plan on being a ranged hexblade, i just wanted a ranged option because i think i'll go down quickly if i position poorly. I just wanted a decent ranged option for when i need to misty step away.
If I can go warlock 7/sorc 3 i can quicken blink, shadow of moil, or haste depending on what items i have. Shadow of moil is just full-on-cool, granted blink or haste could conditionally be better if you don't need the benefits of being obscured. Then i can stab at people with advantage while they try to poke me with disadvantage. The primary thought process for three levels of sorcerer is so i don't have to waste a whole round to buff myself up.
Then i can go warlock 8/sorc 3 to get the ASI from warlock and figure out the rest once i get there. At least that's what i'm currently considering.
Honestly, go hexblade straight until 15. Life drinker is a very good invocation at 12. You basically get to use Hexblade's curse all the time at 14. There are super cool invocations at 15 like shroud of shadow for at will invisibility. Also at 15 you get a level 8 spell. I think this is all better than anything you'd get from a multi class. Hexblade is so good all the way through.
If you're not using medium armor, consider taking armor of shadows for free at will mage armor.
I just did the math, taking GWM and getting Elvish advantage while using shadow of moil and a great sword does pretty fantastic damage. Doing the same thing with a polearm and PAM does do more damage, but requires an extra feat.
@Kendis full warlock is definitely an option, i'm just afraid that if I go full hexblade and use shadow of moil every combat, when possible, that i'll waste my first turn every combat putting up a buff spell.
@Kendis full warlock is definitely an option, i'm just afraid that if I go full hexblade and use shadow of moil every combat, when possible, that i'll waste my first turn every combat putting up a buff spell.
I only use actual spells on bosses. It's Melee or Agonizing Blast for 90% of encounters.
I would recommend starting out as a fighter for your first level at least, this would give you proficiency with all weapons and armor along with giving you proficiency with Con saves for any consideration spell you might be doing.
Even without putting up shadow of moil your going to be hitting fairly hard. You have other things at your disposal that require a bonus action that still at to your damage. I'd you think a fight is going to be short or fairly easy, you can just save the slot or cat hex. After a few spell levels you can basically cast hex forever, even between combats. Cat it once using a bonus action and just keep it on whatever your target is.
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This is my first campaign using a pact of the blade hexblade, and I'm not sure what the best build path is. I don't care if it's super optimal, but I do want to be at least decent in combat. We're currently level 3 and our group typically does 1-2 year campaigns, and by the end we could make it around level 15 depending on a lot of factors. Since our group rolled in roll20 these are my stats currently after the boost from my half elf:
I know that i probably should have put my dex at 14 and my str at 15 so i could use medium armor, but I wanted to use light armor/mage armor because it fits the character idea i had better; also 2 members of my group are rogues, with one of them being an assassin, and I didn't want to hinder their chance of surprising the opponent. Now that my stats are like this, however, I wanted to know what direction I should be considering. I'm thinking Elven Accuracy for my charisma might be a good start at level 4, maybe go to warlock 5 or 7 for Thirsting blade and/or Shadow of moil. Right now I planned on using a greatsword, but it may be better to use a bow instead and grab improved pact weapon?
Beyond that though, I'm not sure which direction I should go from here. I didn't know if sorcerer would be good to quicken the speed of my buffs like shadow of moil. My character in his backstory did watch a friend that was a paladin of bahamut die while they were traveling together, so it might be possible to go paladin later without any changes. I'm just not sure if paladin/warlock is as good now that warlock has its own smite. Should I go Warlock/Paladin/Sorcerer, Warlock/Sorcerer, or something different entirely? I'm totally open to other multiclasses too
Hi. Here is some insight based on my L8 Half-Elven Blade Pact Hexblade:
1. Str is not an issue. I always use my Pact Weapon (LS) with CHA in melee, and Agonizing Blast with CHA from range.
2. I wear Breastplate and Shield with a 14 Dex, so my AC is 18 without magic and no disadvantage to stealth.
3. Until you get Thirsting Blade, Booming Blade and/or Green Flame Blade will be helpful.
4. Elven Accuracy at L4 will get you to +5 Cha bonus AND extreme advantage.
Note that while focusing your feats and invocations on melee will make you somewhat comparable to melee classes, you never get third or fourth attack - but you still get third and fourth EB/AB beams. This is why my subsequent Warlocks have been ranged damage Hexblades with the Pact of the Tome, leaving invocations and feats for OOC situations.
Yeah, i did notice after i picked my pact that using a greatsword would probably be worse than just using EB in most cases later. Not only does it do decent damage and benefit from the crit range increase from hexblade, but it puts you at a safe range. Like you mentioned, you get additional beams later and when you use that with hex and sorcerer metamagic you can pop out heckin damage. I think i'm gonna try my best to be as safe in melee as possible, but if i go for sorcerer levels it does also inherently boost my eldritch blast for later too.
Using a bow seems redundant to (and less damaging than...) Eldritch Blast... I suppose though that a bow and magic arrows can give you a wider range of damage types.
I'm playing a melee-heavy, two-handed sword weilding PotB Hexblade now, so I can't offer much advice on a ranged 'blade. She does well in battle, but can't keep up with a raging GWM Barbarian. But, she's not supposed to - she fairly flexible, but charging up to the front is her go to. I did a 3-level dip into rogue Swashbuckler, but your party doesn't need anymore tricksters.
Think you've got a good path forward. One in my party is a SorLock, and there's nice benefits there.
Go glaive, screw swords. Polearms are much better then swords in most cases, especially due to the reach and Polearm master. And will be even better if/when you get Sentinel. A HexBlade without polearm is like Hugh Hefner without a bunny.
RP > DPR, IMHO...
Min-maxing is fine I guess. I get it. But Powergaming just gets boring to me. I've skipped a feat to bump my CHA, and might do it again to bump DEX - gasp! He's a Hexblade, and isn't going to max out his CHA? Well, I also don't like getting hit.
@dukeforau yeah polearms are definitely better, but idk i have a special place in my heart for great swords. Also, all the feats will take a while to come on. Getting PAM, Sentinel, and gwm means that my whole build doesn't come online until lvl 12 if I ignore ability score increases.
@Dnd_Berserker yeah, you're right, i should be using eldritch blast for range. I don't plan on being a ranged hexblade, i just wanted a ranged option because i think i'll go down quickly if i position poorly. I just wanted a decent ranged option for when i need to misty step away.
If I can go warlock 7/sorc 3 i can quicken blink, shadow of moil, or haste depending on what items i have. Shadow of moil is just full-on-cool, granted blink or haste could conditionally be better if you don't need the benefits of being obscured. Then i can stab at people with advantage while they try to poke me with disadvantage. The primary thought process for three levels of sorcerer is so i don't have to waste a whole round to buff myself up.
Then i can go warlock 8/sorc 3 to get the ASI from warlock and figure out the rest once i get there. At least that's what i'm currently considering.
Honestly, go hexblade straight until 15. Life drinker is a very good invocation at 12. You basically get to use Hexblade's curse all the time at 14. There are super cool invocations at 15 like shroud of shadow for at will invisibility. Also at 15 you get a level 8 spell. I think this is all better than anything you'd get from a multi class. Hexblade is so good all the way through.
If you're not using medium armor, consider taking armor of shadows for free at will mage armor.
I just did the math, taking GWM and getting Elvish advantage while using shadow of moil and a great sword does pretty fantastic damage. Doing the same thing with a polearm and PAM does do more damage, but requires an extra feat.
@Kendis full warlock is definitely an option, i'm just afraid that if I go full hexblade and use shadow of moil every combat, when possible, that i'll waste my first turn every combat putting up a buff spell.
I only use actual spells on bosses. It's Melee or Agonizing Blast for 90% of encounters.
My party has good healers, so I rarely do defensive spells, and save slots for Smites. Which I try to save for crits...
Or, there's good AoE spells like Shatter and Hunger of Hadar.
I would recommend starting out as a fighter for your first level at least, this would give you proficiency with all weapons and armor along with giving you proficiency with Con saves for any consideration spell you might be doing.
Yum Yum Hunger of Hadar
Even without putting up shadow of moil your going to be hitting fairly hard. You have other things at your disposal that require a bonus action that still at to your damage. I'd you think a fight is going to be short or fairly easy, you can just save the slot or cat hex. After a few spell levels you can basically cast hex forever, even between combats. Cat it once using a bonus action and just keep it on whatever your target is.