Hey guys, I'm interested in playing a hex blade warlock but I'm struggling to wrap my head around what's so great about the pact blade? Does it do extra damage that a normal weapon I'd be carrying wouldn't do? And if it can change into any weapon, what is that limited to and how does that work on DnDBeyond?

Any answers are really appreciated, ive watched some YouTube videos but I guess I still don't really understand what makes the pact blade so appealing, and the hexblade so good in total, compared to something like the Fiend warlock?

Hexblade Warlock with Pact of Blade plays kind of like a ranger and paladin, where you use Hex to mark and debuff your foe, and wack them with Smites a lot. You also have access to good ranged damage via Eldritch Smite, so you are not stuck as a melee character unless you want to play that way. You are also a full caster with access to higher level spells.

I cannot say how good Hexblades are, since I am not the most well versed in D&D's mechanics and math, but I can say that many people think Hexblades are pretty freaking cool due to the flavor.

Thanks mate. Only thing I'm still confused on are the invocations, they don't seem to come up on DnDBeyond, do I have to put them in notes and just make sure I remember them? I have thirsting blade selected at level 5 which gives me the opportunity to attack again with my pact weapon as a bonus action, but nothing comes up on the character sheet to indicate I have this invocation selected. Same with adding my charisma modifier on DnDBeyond, do I do this manually?

Thanks in advance for any help.

You select the Invocations in the character builder and they display on the sheet under “Features & Traits.” To add your charisma modifier to the weapon’s damage you must go under Inventory, select the weapon and when the sidebar slides out check the box next to “Hex Weapon.” If that weapon is also your Pact of the Blade hoo pact weapon then you should also check the box next to “Pact Weapon.”

Pictures or it didn’t happen:

 I hope that helps.

Quote from RobertBungalows >>

Thanks mate. Only thing I'm still confused on are the invocations, they don't seem to come up on DnDBeyond, do I have to put them in notes and just make sure I remember them? I have thirsting blade selected at level 5 which gives me the opportunity to attack again with my pact weapon as a bonus action, but nothing comes up on the character sheet to indicate I have this invocation selected. Same with adding my charisma modifier on DnDBeyond, do I do this manually?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 To the bolded, you get two attacks as part of your attack action. Not your bonus action. You still have your bonus action for other uses. It’s like extra attack on the fighter. 
IamSposta has the helpful information on how to get it on your sheet. 
As far as pact weapon, it can take any form described in the pact, but you will probably have to add a weapon to your inventory and make it a pact weapon like Sposta showed. So if you want it to be a longsword or other weapon (or you want to switch it up) you need them in your inventory. Just go under the slide out in your inventory and customize them to zero weight so they don’t encumber you (if you are materializing a weapon to use and not an actual real weapon)

Awesome, thanks so much, I feel like I actually understand it now. Last thing I'm wondering, is if I'm a hexblade warrior, with pact of the blade, improved pact weapons and thirsting blade, can I carry a greatsword and attack with that twice, then use my bonus action to cast wrathful smite on that creature?

Quote from RobertBungalows >>

Awesome, thanks so much, I feel like I actually understand it now. Last thing I'm wondering, is if I'm a hexblade warrior, with pact of the blade, improved pact weapons and thirsting blade, can I carry a greatsword and attack with that twice, then use my bonus action to cast wrathful smite on that creature?

You'd want to use your Bonus Action to cast Wrathful Smite first, because that spell doesn't damage a target directly, it imbues your attacks with magic to do extra damage and fear. But otherwise you're correct.

You don’t cast wrathful smite on a creature, you cast it on yourself. Then, the next time you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack the spell triggers. So you would use your bonus action to cast the spell first, then you would use your action to make two attacks and the first one that hits will trigger the spell.

Quote from Ophidimancer >>

Quote from RobertBungalows >>

Awesome, thanks so much, I feel like I actually understand it now. Last thing I'm wondering, is if I'm a hexblade warrior, with pact of the blade, improved pact weapons and thirsting blade, can I carry a greatsword and attack with that twice, then use my bonus action to cast wrathful smite on that creature?

You'd want to use your Bonus Action to cast Wrathful Smite first, because that spell doesn't damage a target directly, it imbues your attacks with magic to do extra damage and fear. But otherwise you're correct.

 
🥷

Does anyone know how to edit the weight of a weapon in my inventory? I'm trying to do it now and not finding any way.

When you click/tap the weapon and bring it up in the sidebar, “Customize” the weapon and you can adjust the weight there.

There are several features of the hexblade warlock that make them "better" for blade pact characters.

- they are proficient with medium armor, shields and martial weapons. This means a higher AC and that they can use pretty much any magical weapon found in the campaign since they will likely be proficient with it.They also won't need a dexterity higher than 14 for maximum AC. Other warlocks only have light armor, simple weapon proficiency, and might have to increase dexterity if they want a better AC.

- hexblade warlocks have the hex warrior feature. This allows the warlock to use charisma for attack and damage rolls with either the hex warrior weapon or their pact weapon rather than dex or str. This means that a hexblade can use charisma with a pact weapon great sword for example. It also means that a hexblade can focus on increasing charisma making both their weapon attacks and their spells more effective.

Those are the main features that make hexblade warlocks a "better" choice than other warlocks for blade pact.

The other blade pact weapon features apply for any blade pact warlock.

- the pact weapon is magical (a magical weapon at level 3 can be important in some campaigns)

- the pact weapon can assume the form of any melee weapon and the warlock is automatically proficient with it

- the pact weapon can be improved with the enhanced pact weapon invocation which makes it a +1 weapon and allows it to assume the form of long/short bow or heavy/light crossbow (note that hand crossbows are not an option) as well as the normal options.

- the thirsting blade invocation allows the warlock to make two attacks with the pact weapon as part of the Attack action