Hey. I'm playing a blastlock and just hit level 4. I've avoided taking Hex as a spell because of the limited spell slots. But with level 5 coming next and that means both an extra EB attack, and Hex could potentially last 8 hours. My question to people who have played a blaster Warlock is; do you get enough mileage out of Hex to justify using it? I'm thinking I'd need to be creative to get it to last the 8 hours at 5th level.
I'd say its campaign dependent. If you are having a bunch of fights per day the proverbial 6-8, yeah its totally solid. It does lock you into mostly non concentration spells for your actions though if you focus on it.
Really its lasting 2-3 fights then you have a short rest, and its effectively free from that point until it goes down. See the curse a bird, kill it at breakfast strategy if you want your DM to slap you to make it free all day. I don't think most games actually do that many fights though so the damage does not really add up. That being said you can get mileage just out of the disadvantage part of it. Wizard casts something like evards or web, those are attribute checks to free themselves, disadvantage on their strong suit may keep them locked in. But lets say fights last 3 rounds on average, 2 attacks, potential 6d6 a fight, 6 fights 36d6. Is another 21 damage a fight worth it? Maybe, the way I see it is death is the ultimate crowd control so more damage is always good. but party composition may reduce the need.
Hex, overall, is a spell that I find is highly useful even outside of combat. Social situation? Sneakery? Use Hex to penalize WIS skill checks. It is realistically a great spell that has lots of uses throughout your warlock adventuring career, not just combat. And there's lots of little tricks you can use with it. Short rest, set up a bag of rats to kick it off, then short rest again for full spell slots. Fill up a ring of spell storing with level 1 hexes.
How long Hex lasts really depends on a couple of things. One is how well your party is set up to keep monsters from smacking you and dropping Concentration. The second major thing is "this would be the perfect situation to cast this other spell." Hypnotic Pattern, Banishment, Darkness, tentacle spells, Fly... lots of Concentration-based spells (especially with the warlock Rod for high DC) that are game changers, and worth your few spell slots. Heck, don't forget Detect Magic - you can even spam that spell for free with Eldritch Sight! I find that avoiding damage checks is fairly easy in most games, which makes Concentration-spells the biggest worry.
Of course, you can dedicate your slots to casting Armor of Agyths, Counterspell and Dispel Magic - that's a valid, and rather powerful, strategy. You'll have to ignore Detect Magic and other Concentration spells, but its doable if your group can get by without the spell (usually in more combat heavy games).
Anyways, my point really boils down to "Concentration is a pain, so how well do you manage it in your group and with your particular build?"
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I just cast the Hex onto my character and move it. If I want to interfere with spellcasters I will recast.
I ended up taking Hex, and at 5th level I took the Maddening Hex invocation. I could see when fighting a group, or multiple casters, the ability to put free damage on multiple people for free is highly useful.
Asked the Dm(s), they house ruled it. If you would have thought about it before being a snarky muppet you would have understood. An other option would have been cast it in the first combat, maintain concentration and curse a new creature in the next combat as there is no range req for doing that oh Wise Muppet.
I did not mean to be rude and if I came across so then I apologize. Nowhere did you mention that your Hex spell was house ruled so I was running on the assumption that the Hex could only be moved when a creature dropped to 0 hp hence the commit suicide joke.
Again I apologize if I came across as being snarky.
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I never got that use. I mean hey go for it, now shopkeeper X is charisma hexed and you win your trade deal, but its stuck on them. One of your precious spells for that seems kind of weak.
The bag of rats, that is just how the spell works, hex a creature, kill a creature, in subsequent rounds as long as you maintain concentration you can decide to move it to another target. And given a warlocks incredibly limited slots letting them work a gimmick around it does not seem something worth fighting. A wizard casts like 20 spells and you want to ride a warlock because he squeezed 3 out of a short rest.
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I never got that use. I mean hey go for it, now shopkeeper X is charisma hexed and you win your trade deal, but its stuck on them. One of your precious spells for that seems kind of weak.
The bag of rats, that is just how the spell works, hex a creature, kill a creature, in subsequent rounds as long as you maintain concentration you can decide to move it to another target. And given a warlocks incredibly limited slots letting them work a gimmick around it does not seem something worth fighting. A wizard casts like 20 spells and you want to ride a warlock because he squeezed 3 out of a short rest.
The problem is if the shopkeeper sees you casting a spell on them, would they consider you as a hostile and call the guards? Hex is not a friend making spell lol
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I never got that use. I mean hey go for it, now shopkeeper X is charisma hexed and you win your trade deal, but its stuck on them. One of your precious spells for that seems kind of weak.
The bag of rats, that is just how the spell works, hex a creature, kill a creature, in subsequent rounds as long as you maintain concentration you can decide to move it to another target. And given a warlocks incredibly limited slots letting them work a gimmick around it does not seem something worth fighting. A wizard casts like 20 spells and you want to ride a warlock because he squeezed 3 out of a short rest.
The problem is if the shopkeeper sees you casting a spell on them, would they consider you as a hostile and call the guards? Hex is not a friend making spell lol
Hex is also not a subtle spell. If many charm spells give away that magic has been used on them. Hex affecting them would do the same and wouldn't have the grace period that charm spells have before that bothers them. And what better base assumption than the one that afflicted you is the person or persons that just walked into your shop and now suddenly want to do business just at the same time that your now afflicted mysteriously.
Asked the Dm(s), they house ruled it. If you would have thought about it before being a snarky muppet you would have understood. An other option would have been cast it in the first combat, maintain concentration and curse a new creature in the next combat as there is no range req for doing that oh Wise Muppet.
You place a curse on a creature that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. The target has disadvantage on ability checks made with the chosen ability.
If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to curse a new creature.
If you cast it on yourself, you are the target, and therefore, RAW, you have to drop to 0 HP before you can change targets. However, if you drop to 0 HP you automatically lose concentration, and the spell ends. Features like relentless endurance don't trigger the condition, so you can't switch targets. It's an interesting house-rule, that massively increases the effectiveness, if you are willing to take the disadvantage for however long till your next fight.
However, since it is a house rule, and you made no mention of it in your post, ThelonelyMagi made a perfectly reasonable assumption that you were misinterpreting the rules.
Asked the Dm(s), they house ruled it. If you would have thought about it before being a snarky muppet you would have understood. An other option would have been cast it in the first combat, maintain concentration and curse a new creature in the next combat as there is no range req for doing that oh Wise Muppet.
You place a curse on a creature that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 necrotic damage to the target whenever you hit it with an attack. Also, choose one ability when you cast the spell. The target has disadvantage on ability checks made with the chosen ability.
If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to curse a new creature.
If you cast it on yourself, you are the target, and therefore, RAW, you have to drop to 0 HP before you can change targets. However, if you drop to 0 HP you automatically lose concentration, and the spell ends. Features like relentless endurance don't trigger the condition, so you can't switch targets. It's an interesting house-rule, that massively increases the effectiveness, if you are willing to take the disadvantage for however long till your next fight.
However, since it is a house rule, and you made no mention of it in your post, ThelonelyMagi made a perfectly reasonable assumption that you were misinterpreting the rules.
The assumption yes, the way it was done no.
There is nothing wrong with his remark. If you are getting upset over the way he phrased his comment because you can't see even a little humor in the absurdity of the proposed idea in any situation except the one that you gave absolutely no context for. That's not his fault for finding a little humor in it as he asked. if you see that as a mocking tone and way of speaking about such a concept to the point that it tilts you that is actually on you for perceiving it as something more than the comment is.
And that's coming from a person that has trouble recognizing social and tonal queues from other people and sometimes even the potential tones in their own responses.
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I never got that use. I mean hey go for it, now shopkeeper X is charisma hexed and you win your trade deal, but its stuck on them. One of your precious spells for that seems kind of weak.
The bag of rats, that is just how the spell works, hex a creature, kill a creature, in subsequent rounds as long as you maintain concentration you can decide to move it to another target. And given a warlocks incredibly limited slots letting them work a gimmick around it does not seem something worth fighting. A wizard casts like 20 spells and you want to ride a warlock because he squeezed 3 out of a short rest.
The problem is if the shopkeeper sees you casting a spell on them, would they consider you as a hostile and call the guards? Hex is not a friend making spell lol
Hex is also not a subtle spell. If many charm spells give away that magic has been used on them. Hex affecting them would do the same and wouldn't have the grace period that charm spells have before that bothers them. And what better base assumption than the one that afflicted you is the person or persons that just walked into your shop and now suddenly want to do business just at the same time that your now afflicted mysteriously.
Charms specify it happening, it is not clear whether hex is subtle or not. I'd suspect in the games where people use it this way it is.
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I never got that use. I mean hey go for it, now shopkeeper X is charisma hexed and you win your trade deal, but its stuck on them. One of your precious spells for that seems kind of weak.
The bag of rats, that is just how the spell works, hex a creature, kill a creature, in subsequent rounds as long as you maintain concentration you can decide to move it to another target. And given a warlocks incredibly limited slots letting them work a gimmick around it does not seem something worth fighting. A wizard casts like 20 spells and you want to ride a warlock because he squeezed 3 out of a short rest.
The problem is if the shopkeeper sees you casting a spell on them, would they consider you as a hostile and call the guards? Hex is not a friend making spell lol
Hex is also not a subtle spell. If many charm spells give away that magic has been used on them. Hex affecting them would do the same and wouldn't have the grace period that charm spells have before that bothers them. And what better base assumption than the one that afflicted you is the person or persons that just walked into your shop and now suddenly want to do business just at the same time that your now afflicted mysteriously.
Charms specify it happening, it is not clear whether hex is subtle or not. I'd suspect in the games where people use it this way it is.
incorrect. Charms specify that the change in their moods and the subtleness of the spell does not specifically hide it. Which they did in many previous versions and is important for certain powers of the Enchanter Wizard as well as a distinction for players to know from older Editions and the nature of the way that charm spells make people friendly so they are prone to liking you and your actions.
However. Hex does not improve ones disposition while it's in effect or giving the target a preference for being ok with your actions and is not in any way stated that it is subtle in any capacity.
Charm specifically says when the spell ends the target knows it was charmed by you, where as suggestion does not say that as its supposed to be more subtle, where Hex falls in that continuum is up the the table.
Charm specifically says when the spell ends the target knows it was charmed by you, where as suggestion does not say that as its supposed to be more subtle, where Hex falls in that continuum is up the the table.
That's you applying extra qualities to spells that are not charm. Not how spell casting works. Spells are obvious things for the most part. Again those specifications are made because that effect after it wears off is important because the spells do something in direct contrast to that reaction after it disappears. And Again the Enchanter Wizard archetype gives the ability to make charm spells subtle.
This does not mean that somehow just because you want it to be that any other spell that is not a charm spell or working under the conditions of charm just goes un-noticed.
Hey. I'm playing a blastlock and just hit level 4. I've avoided taking Hex as a spell because of the limited spell slots. But with level 5 coming next and that means both an extra EB attack, and Hex could potentially last 8 hours. My question to people who have played a blaster Warlock is; do you get enough mileage out of Hex to justify using it? I'm thinking I'd need to be creative to get it to last the 8 hours at 5th level.
I'd say its campaign dependent. If you are having a bunch of fights per day the proverbial 6-8, yeah its totally solid. It does lock you into mostly non concentration spells for your actions though if you focus on it.
Really its lasting 2-3 fights then you have a short rest, and its effectively free from that point until it goes down. See the curse a bird, kill it at breakfast strategy if you want your DM to slap you to make it free all day. I don't think most games actually do that many fights though so the damage does not really add up. That being said you can get mileage just out of the disadvantage part of it. Wizard casts something like evards or web, those are attribute checks to free themselves, disadvantage on their strong suit may keep them locked in. But lets say fights last 3 rounds on average, 2 attacks, potential 6d6 a fight, 6 fights 36d6. Is another 21 damage a fight worth it? Maybe, the way I see it is death is the ultimate crowd control so more damage is always good. but party composition may reduce the need.
Hex, overall, is a spell that I find is highly useful even outside of combat. Social situation? Sneakery? Use Hex to penalize WIS skill checks. It is realistically a great spell that has lots of uses throughout your warlock adventuring career, not just combat. And there's lots of little tricks you can use with it. Short rest, set up a bag of rats to kick it off, then short rest again for full spell slots. Fill up a ring of spell storing with level 1 hexes.
How long Hex lasts really depends on a couple of things. One is how well your party is set up to keep monsters from smacking you and dropping Concentration. The second major thing is "this would be the perfect situation to cast this other spell." Hypnotic Pattern, Banishment, Darkness, tentacle spells, Fly... lots of Concentration-based spells (especially with the warlock Rod for high DC) that are game changers, and worth your few spell slots. Heck, don't forget Detect Magic - you can even spam that spell for free with Eldritch Sight! I find that avoiding damage checks is fairly easy in most games, which makes Concentration-spells the biggest worry.
Of course, you can dedicate your slots to casting Armor of Agyths, Counterspell and Dispel Magic - that's a valid, and rather powerful, strategy. You'll have to ignore Detect Magic and other Concentration spells, but its doable if your group can get by without the spell (usually in more combat heavy games).
Anyways, my point really boils down to "Concentration is a pain, so how well do you manage it in your group and with your particular build?"
A bit late but if you would have taken the Fey Touched feat you could have taken Hex as the second spell.
Wow.....who are these permissive DM's who let you cast Hex spells on NPC's during social situations and carry around a bag of rats and allow them to count as the Hexed creature??? Hand holding much lol.
I just cast the Hex onto my character and move it. If I want to interfere with spellcasters I will recast.
Move it? How? Commit suicide? lol
I ended up taking Hex, and at 5th level I took the Maddening Hex invocation. I could see when fighting a group, or multiple casters, the ability to put free damage on multiple people for free is highly useful.
Asked the Dm(s), they house ruled it. If you would have thought about it before being a snarky muppet you would have understood. An other option would have been cast it in the first combat, maintain concentration and curse a new creature in the next combat as there is no range req for doing that oh Wise Muppet.
I did not mean to be rude and if I came across so then I apologize. Nowhere did you mention that your Hex spell was house ruled so I was running on the assumption that the Hex could only be moved when a creature dropped to 0 hp hence the commit suicide joke.
Again I apologize if I came across as being snarky.
I never got that use. I mean hey go for it, now shopkeeper X is charisma hexed and you win your trade deal, but its stuck on them. One of your precious spells for that seems kind of weak.
The bag of rats, that is just how the spell works, hex a creature, kill a creature, in subsequent rounds as long as you maintain concentration you can decide to move it to another target. And given a warlocks incredibly limited slots letting them work a gimmick around it does not seem something worth fighting. A wizard casts like 20 spells and you want to ride a warlock because he squeezed 3 out of a short rest.
The problem is if the shopkeeper sees you casting a spell on them, would they consider you as a hostile and call the guards? Hex is not a friend making spell lol
Hex is also not a subtle spell. If many charm spells give away that magic has been used on them. Hex affecting them would do the same and wouldn't have the grace period that charm spells have before that bothers them. And what better base assumption than the one that afflicted you is the person or persons that just walked into your shop and now suddenly want to do business just at the same time that your now afflicted mysteriously.
The assumption yes, the way it was done no.
There is nothing wrong with his remark. If you are getting upset over the way he phrased his comment because you can't see even a little humor in the absurdity of the proposed idea in any situation except the one that you gave absolutely no context for. That's not his fault for finding a little humor in it as he asked. if you see that as a mocking tone and way of speaking about such a concept to the point that it tilts you that is actually on you for perceiving it as something more than the comment is.
And that's coming from a person that has trouble recognizing social and tonal queues from other people and sometimes even the potential tones in their own responses.
Charms specify it happening, it is not clear whether hex is subtle or not. I'd suspect in the games where people use it this way it is.
incorrect. Charms specify that the change in their moods and the subtleness of the spell does not specifically hide it. Which they did in many previous versions and is important for certain powers of the Enchanter Wizard as well as a distinction for players to know from older Editions and the nature of the way that charm spells make people friendly so they are prone to liking you and your actions.
However. Hex does not improve ones disposition while it's in effect or giving the target a preference for being ok with your actions and is not in any way stated that it is subtle in any capacity.
Charm specifically says when the spell ends the target knows it was charmed by you, where as suggestion does not say that as its supposed to be more subtle, where Hex falls in that continuum is up the the table.
That's you applying extra qualities to spells that are not charm. Not how spell casting works. Spells are obvious things for the most part. Again those specifications are made because that effect after it wears off is important because the spells do something in direct contrast to that reaction after it disappears. And Again the Enchanter Wizard archetype gives the ability to make charm spells subtle.
This does not mean that somehow just because you want it to be that any other spell that is not a charm spell or working under the conditions of charm just goes un-noticed.
Feel free to play your game that way.
Edit to add you may want to reread pg 204 spell targeting again.