I've got an idea for a character, half elf sword and sorcery type which I think is a hexblade warlock with eldritch blast for one of his cantrips. But the theme I'm going for is his patron is sort of an avenging angel/celestial rather than a fiend in the vein of mcu moonknight minus the multiple personalities. Can you recommend a build progression and what D&D beyond content I should buy to unlock that?
It sounds like a straightforward Hexblade - as long as you have access to Xanathar's (for the subclass and some extra swordsy invocations) that's all you really need. Everything else is flavour.
Can you explain to me how pact weapon works, (I bought Xanabar and the players guide in dnd beyond) but seem unable to select a shortsword in dnd beyond. Is the pact weapon a free weapon and what can I choose for the pact weapon? I believe I'd be able to duel wield a short sword and dagger (bonus action) from the get go, but would I ever be able to duel wield 2 short swords and is there a light weapon that does better than d6 (maybe something like a rapier) Also where can I find a list of dnd deities so I can find an avenger of injustice to fill in. And I was thinking of using point buy for 10, 14(13+1), 14(13+1), 12, 12, 16(14+2) after half elf attribute bonuses... am I screwing myself over by not making str a dump stat 8 and not putting int at 10?
The Hexblade Patron, despite the wording of the subclass, does not actually provide you with a weapon. However, you can choose any weapon you own that does not have the Two-Handed property (which locks you out of heavy weapons and most ranged weapons), and while wielding that specific weapon you can attack using your Charisma instead of STR and DEX. However, it is only with that one specific weapon... so if you try to create a dual-wielding build, you will only be able to attack with Charisma using your designated weapon.
A D6 is the upper limit on damage from Light Weapons... the only way to wield something better (like a rapier) while dual wielding is to take the Dual Wielder feat, which allows you to dual wield any two weapons as long as they lack the two-handed property, which bumps you up to a d8.
Overall your stat array seems fine to me... you want CHA to be your highest stat, and since you can attack with Charisma you can safely experiment a bit more with your other stats.
Agree their is nothing wrong with your stats. You could Dump strength in order to get start at 15 in Dex or Con if you have a particualr half feat in mind but strength saves are very common. I remember one character I had nearly died due to not being able ot get out of an entangle spell due to dumping strength.
Intelligrence is rather more group dependent. If there is a wizard or artificer in the party and they always act optimally (after the combat only the wizard is allowed to search the bodies) then their is little need for intelligence until you come across an intellect devourer. If you are likely to have to try and remember things from your past and/or there is no intellegence based character in the party having a positive modifier can help a lot.
Ok I was reading on like that paladin and warlock combo's well, since im going for an avenging/4e avenger type character (a little like mcu moon knight in terms of a pact with conshu) sure a little bit of healing.... character was raised in a temple by a cleric after his parents were killed how well would a 1 or 2 level dip in paladin work and would it be more advantageous to start paladin or warlock?
If you're going for a Hexblade it mostly doesn't matter... both Paladin and Warlock give you proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. However, if you take Paladin as your first level you'll get proficiency in Heavy Armor... although without a Strength score of at least 15, there's not much use for it. So ultimately it doesn't really matter what class you take first. All you really need is a 2 level dip into Paladin... the main thing you want is to get Divine Smite from level 2, as well as a fighting style. I'd recommend the Dueling fighting style... with Hexblade you're going to be wielding one-handed weapons, and this gives you a solid +2 to damage.
It might be worth going to third level, though, to get to the Vengeance subclass. It's thematically appropriate to what you're describing, and has a great feature where you can use a bonus action to give yourself advantage against a single target. It pairs great with Hexblade's Curse, which lets you crit on 19, although it takes a bit of set up, since both abilities require a bonus action to activate. Still, against a big enemy that's going to take several rounds to defeat, it's a huge boost in efficiency and neither ability requires concentration, so you can still combine it with Concentration spells.
If you're going for a Hexblade it mostly doesn't matter... both Paladin and Warlock give you proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. However, if you take Paladin as your first level you'll get proficiency in Heavy Armor... although without a Strength score of at least 15, there's not much use for it. So ultimately it doesn't really matter what class you take first. All you really need is a 2 level dip into Paladin... the main thing you want is to get Divine Smite from level 2, as well as a fighting style. I'd recommend the Dueling fighting style... with Hexblade you're going to be wielding one-handed weapons, and this gives you a solid +2 to damage.
It might be worth going to third level, though, to get to the Vengeance subclass. It's thematically appropriate to what you're describing, and has a great feature where you can use a bonus action to give yourself advantage against a single target. It pairs great with Hexblade's Curse, which lets you crit on 19, although it takes a bit of set up, since both abilities require a bonus action to activate. Still, against a big enemy that's going to take several rounds to defeat, it's a huge boost in efficiency and neither ability requires concentration, so you can still combine it with Concentration spells.
THANKS SO MUCH... would I get extra hp if I started paladin.... I think doing 3 levels paladin for vengeance then switching to warlock would be the most narrative appropriate.
That is a good point... yes, starting as a Paladin will guarantee you 2 additional HP at level 1 compared to starting as a Warlock.
I'd recommend starting your fist level as Paladin, but then multiclassing into Warlock at level 2, because you get your Hexblade subclass features right at level 1, so that single level of Warlock is all you need to get access to the Hex Warrior feature, which will let you make physical attacks using your Charisma stat. If you stick to Paladin for your first three levels, you'll have a weaker attack until you finally get to Warlock at character level 4. So my recommendation is start Paladin at level 1, then one level of warlock, then two more of Paladin, and finally just Warlock straight from there forward.
How do paladin spells work... can I use each prepared spell once or an unlimited number of times,, do I get for example 4 level 2 slots which means 4 spells uses and I can use any spell upto 4 times (because I have 4 spell slots). I'm asking this because I can't seem to figure out how to get beyond character generator to prepare the same spell more than once. Do I get extra uses of divine smite if I leave spells unprepared? Do I get 1 or zero uses of divine smite if i prepare 2 of my 4 1st level paladin spells?
Ok I've figured out how spells and ability increases work when multiclassing..
To get "green flame blade" I either need to get the sword coast adventurers guide or Tasha's cauldron of everything, which do you recommend for this character?
I'd recommend Tasha's Cauldron of Everythign over Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide... it includes a lot more additional content. The SCAG was one of the earlier expansions to 5e and as a result not a lot of what's in there is as well thought out or useful as what you'll get in a lot of later publications... for the most part, the only thing people regularly used from it were the spells like Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade... once Tasha's was published it became pretty irrelevant.
Multiclassing with paladin means I have to have a 13 in str which to be efficient puts my starting stats at
13, 14 (13+1), 14 (13+1), 12, 11, 15 (13+2)
That means I really ought to take 4 levels of paladin to get to the attribute increase/feat.
Should I get the attribute increase (wisdom & charisma) or the warcaster feat at character level=paladin level 4?
When I take level 2 of warlock, I get 2 eldritch invocations which are agonizing blast and either eldritch mind/improved pact weapon
Eldritch mind is kind of like "war caster" light (advantage on the savings throw to not break concentration) warcaster also allows you to do somatic components /gestures while one or both hands occupied.
So is warcaster + improved pact weapon more or less valuable than an ability bump (essentially a +2 increase to charisma at character level 8) and eldritch mind?
Is there another way to get a feat that won't cost an ability bump?
Yes, good catch, I completely forgot about multiclassing minimum stats.
Warcaster is a useful feat, and overall pairs well with your class, but it does become fairly redundant if you have Eldritch Mind and Improved Pact Weapon. I'd say, though, that it's probably still good for you to take Improved Pact Weapon and Warcaster... one of the weird quirks of D&D spellcasting is, if a spell has a somatic component and a material component, you can use a spellcasting focus in one hand to fulfill both... so with Improved Pact Weapon, you can wield a sword and shield and still cast most of your spells. However, if a spell has a somatic component but no material component, you require a full free hand... Warcaster, however, let's you perform the Somatic Component while your hands are full, meaning with both Warcaster and Improved Pact Weapon you can cast almost any spell while fully equipped for combat. In that case, there's no need for Eldritch Mind and you can focus on other invocations instead.
That said, especially since you had to shift your stats around a bit for multiclassing. you're probably better off taking a proper Ability Score Improvement at level 4 to get your CHA score up. However, if you do want to start the game with the Warcaster feat you'll need to play as either a Variant Human or a Custom Lineage for your race... both options allow you to learn one feat at level 1. Variant Human is included as part of the Player's Handbook, and Custom Lineage is available through Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
I could drop int from 12 to 10 to boost staring charisma a point.
I read online that eladrin boosted dexterity and charisma... but beyond says only a +1 to intellect, was that a errata/nerf (probably) or could I get a better eladrin buy buying Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.
What about "dragon marked" races, think they're from Eberron: Rising From The Last War
The version of Eladrin in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is actually a sub-race of Elf, and provides a +2DEX and +1 CHA. I'm not sure why it's saying that you get a +1 INT. The race did get kind of errata'd in Monsters of the Multiverse where they removed default Ability Scores... if you use that version, you can put your +2/+1 into any two stats you want (or even go +1/+1/+1 to three different stats). I believe Tasha's also unlocks being able to shift ability scores for all races.
Dragon Marked races are a bit more complicated... they're honestly a bit overpowered, and that's partly because, in the Eberron setting, there's additional complications in roleplay as a result of being Dragon Marked. Anyway, all the Dragon Mark races are basically new subraces that all include some amount of spellcasting, a feature to add a d4 to specific skill checks, and an expanded spell list for any spellcasting class. This is usually on top of most of their other race features
I've got an idea for a character, half elf sword and sorcery type which I think is a hexblade warlock with eldritch blast for one of his cantrips. But the theme I'm going for is his patron is sort of an avenging angel/celestial rather than a fiend in the vein of mcu moonknight minus the multiple personalities. Can you recommend a build progression and what D&D beyond content I should buy to unlock that?
It sounds like a straightforward Hexblade - as long as you have access to Xanathar's (for the subclass and some extra swordsy invocations) that's all you really need. Everything else is flavour.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Can you explain to me how pact weapon works, (I bought Xanabar and the players guide in dnd beyond) but seem unable to select a shortsword in dnd beyond. Is the pact weapon a free weapon and what can I choose for the pact weapon? I believe I'd be able to duel wield a short sword and dagger (bonus action) from the get go, but would I ever be able to duel wield 2 short swords and is there a light weapon that does better than d6 (maybe something like a rapier) Also where can I find a list of dnd deities so I can find an avenger of injustice to fill in. And I was thinking of using point buy for 10, 14(13+1), 14(13+1), 12, 12, 16(14+2) after half elf attribute bonuses... am I screwing myself over by not making str a dump stat 8 and not putting int at 10?
The Hexblade Patron, despite the wording of the subclass, does not actually provide you with a weapon. However, you can choose any weapon you own that does not have the Two-Handed property (which locks you out of heavy weapons and most ranged weapons), and while wielding that specific weapon you can attack using your Charisma instead of STR and DEX. However, it is only with that one specific weapon... so if you try to create a dual-wielding build, you will only be able to attack with Charisma using your designated weapon.
A D6 is the upper limit on damage from Light Weapons... the only way to wield something better (like a rapier) while dual wielding is to take the Dual Wielder feat, which allows you to dual wield any two weapons as long as they lack the two-handed property, which bumps you up to a d8.
Overall your stat array seems fine to me... you want CHA to be your highest stat, and since you can attack with Charisma you can safely experiment a bit more with your other stats.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Agree their is nothing wrong with your stats. You could Dump strength in order to get start at 15 in Dex or Con if you have a particualr half feat in mind but strength saves are very common. I remember one character I had nearly died due to not being able ot get out of an entangle spell due to dumping strength.
Intelligrence is rather more group dependent. If there is a wizard or artificer in the party and they always act optimally (after the combat only the wizard is allowed to search the bodies) then their is little need for intelligence until you come across an intellect devourer. If you are likely to have to try and remember things from your past and/or there is no intellegence based character in the party having a positive modifier can help a lot.
Ok I was reading on like that paladin and warlock combo's well, since im going for an avenging/4e avenger type character (a little like mcu moon knight in terms of a pact with conshu) sure a little bit of healing.... character was raised in a temple by a cleric after his parents were killed how well would a 1 or 2 level dip in paladin work and would it be more advantageous to start paladin or warlock?
If you're going for a Hexblade it mostly doesn't matter... both Paladin and Warlock give you proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. However, if you take Paladin as your first level you'll get proficiency in Heavy Armor... although without a Strength score of at least 15, there's not much use for it. So ultimately it doesn't really matter what class you take first. All you really need is a 2 level dip into Paladin... the main thing you want is to get Divine Smite from level 2, as well as a fighting style. I'd recommend the Dueling fighting style... with Hexblade you're going to be wielding one-handed weapons, and this gives you a solid +2 to damage.
It might be worth going to third level, though, to get to the Vengeance subclass. It's thematically appropriate to what you're describing, and has a great feature where you can use a bonus action to give yourself advantage against a single target. It pairs great with Hexblade's Curse, which lets you crit on 19, although it takes a bit of set up, since both abilities require a bonus action to activate. Still, against a big enemy that's going to take several rounds to defeat, it's a huge boost in efficiency and neither ability requires concentration, so you can still combine it with Concentration spells.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
THANKS SO MUCH... would I get extra hp if I started paladin.... I think doing 3 levels paladin for vengeance then switching to warlock would be the most narrative appropriate.
That is a good point... yes, starting as a Paladin will guarantee you 2 additional HP at level 1 compared to starting as a Warlock.
I'd recommend starting your fist level as Paladin, but then multiclassing into Warlock at level 2, because you get your Hexblade subclass features right at level 1, so that single level of Warlock is all you need to get access to the Hex Warrior feature, which will let you make physical attacks using your Charisma stat. If you stick to Paladin for your first three levels, you'll have a weaker attack until you finally get to Warlock at character level 4. So my recommendation is start Paladin at level 1, then one level of warlock, then two more of Paladin, and finally just Warlock straight from there forward.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
What book is divine smote in, I have dnd beyond content xanabars and the players handbook and it's not showing up in dnd beyond
Divine smite is a paladin class feature. It uses spell slots but is not an actual spell. All paladins get access to divine smite.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
How do paladin spells work... can I use each prepared spell once or an unlimited number of times,, do I get for example 4 level 2 slots which means 4 spells uses and I can use any spell upto 4 times (because I have 4 spell slots). I'm asking this because I can't seem to figure out how to get beyond character generator to prepare the same spell more than once. Do I get extra uses of divine smite if I leave spells unprepared? Do I get 1 or zero uses of divine smite if i prepare 2 of my 4 1st level paladin spells?
Also are attribute increases tied to character level or class level?
Ok I've figured out how spells and ability increases work when multiclassing..
To get "green flame blade" I either need to get the sword coast adventurers guide or Tasha's cauldron of everything, which do you recommend for this character?
I'd recommend Tasha's Cauldron of Everythign over Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide... it includes a lot more additional content. The SCAG was one of the earlier expansions to 5e and as a result not a lot of what's in there is as well thought out or useful as what you'll get in a lot of later publications... for the most part, the only thing people regularly used from it were the spells like Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade... once Tasha's was published it became pretty irrelevant.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Thanks
Multiclassing with paladin means I have to have a 13 in str which to be efficient puts my starting stats at
13, 14 (13+1), 14 (13+1), 12, 11, 15 (13+2)
That means I really ought to take 4 levels of paladin to get to the attribute increase/feat.
Should I get the attribute increase (wisdom & charisma) or the warcaster feat at character level=paladin level 4?
When I take level 2 of warlock, I get 2 eldritch invocations which are agonizing blast and either eldritch mind/improved pact weapon
Eldritch mind is kind of like "war caster" light (advantage on the savings throw to not break concentration) warcaster also allows you to do somatic components /gestures while one or both hands occupied.
So is warcaster + improved pact weapon more or less valuable than an ability bump (essentially a +2 increase to charisma at character level 8) and eldritch mind?
Is there another way to get a feat that won't cost an ability bump?
Yes, good catch, I completely forgot about multiclassing minimum stats.
Warcaster is a useful feat, and overall pairs well with your class, but it does become fairly redundant if you have Eldritch Mind and Improved Pact Weapon. I'd say, though, that it's probably still good for you to take Improved Pact Weapon and Warcaster... one of the weird quirks of D&D spellcasting is, if a spell has a somatic component and a material component, you can use a spellcasting focus in one hand to fulfill both... so with Improved Pact Weapon, you can wield a sword and shield and still cast most of your spells. However, if a spell has a somatic component but no material component, you require a full free hand... Warcaster, however, let's you perform the Somatic Component while your hands are full, meaning with both Warcaster and Improved Pact Weapon you can cast almost any spell while fully equipped for combat. In that case, there's no need for Eldritch Mind and you can focus on other invocations instead.
That said, especially since you had to shift your stats around a bit for multiclassing. you're probably better off taking a proper Ability Score Improvement at level 4 to get your CHA score up. However, if you do want to start the game with the Warcaster feat you'll need to play as either a Variant Human or a Custom Lineage for your race... both options allow you to learn one feat at level 1. Variant Human is included as part of the Player's Handbook, and Custom Lineage is available through Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I could drop int from 12 to 10 to boost staring charisma a point.
I read online that eladrin boosted dexterity and charisma... but beyond says only a +1 to intellect, was that a errata/nerf (probably) or could I get a better eladrin buy buying Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.
What about "dragon marked" races, think they're from Eberron: Rising From The Last War
The version of Eladrin in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is actually a sub-race of Elf, and provides a +2DEX and +1 CHA. I'm not sure why it's saying that you get a +1 INT. The race did get kind of errata'd in Monsters of the Multiverse where they removed default Ability Scores... if you use that version, you can put your +2/+1 into any two stats you want (or even go +1/+1/+1 to three different stats). I believe Tasha's also unlocks being able to shift ability scores for all races.
Dragon Marked races are a bit more complicated... they're honestly a bit overpowered, and that's partly because, in the Eberron setting, there's additional complications in roleplay as a result of being Dragon Marked. Anyway, all the Dragon Mark races are basically new subraces that all include some amount of spellcasting, a feature to add a d4 to specific skill checks, and an expanded spell list for any spellcasting class. This is usually on top of most of their other race features
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Ok I'm probably going to drop int from 12 to 10 to boost starting cha to 14+2=16, then get warcaster at level 4.
But... I'm trying to pick warlock cantrips the first 2 I've settled on are eldritch blast and green flame blade.
The 3 I'm trying to choose between are mind sliver, mage hand, and prestidigitation.
What's your advice?