It can. For example, for a long time I have wanted to do a joke character that DW hammer and sickle. Sadly, the damage dice is a bit low on the light hammer and the sickle, however monk fixes that problem.
I assume DW is Drunken Master and not a homebrew/third party.
How does the monk provide access to armor? Martial Arts doesn't work wearing armor and without that, the monk no longer has inherent damage scaling; dealing 1 + strength damage instead of 1d6 to 1d12 + strength or dexterity on an unarmed strike is not impressive. A monk class does not doesn't help build an armored, hammer-wielding warrior. Level 1 is a complete waste. Level 2 gives Monk's Focus and Uncanny Movement; Unarmored Movement does nothing for a monk in armor. There are aspects of his journeys which could be represented using different abilities and classes, but for the core concept of Thor, the warrior thunder god, monk doesn't work.
Ever since 1e, he is represented as being able to wear chain, at a minimum, which almost completely shuts down a monk. In Norse myth, things get less clear, but even then his Warhammer is far from a light hammer and he needs to magic items to safely wield. I can't recall if it is classic myth or Marvel where Mjolnir was a Warhammer or War Mattock (in D&D terms, a Maul) with a handle shortened to prevent two-handed use due to Loki's trickery.
You are providing an example of changing the flavor to fit the class and saying that it proves that you can use the class to fit the flavor.
Accepting armor training is out of the question in 2024, while playing with concepts that feel more like 2014.
3rd level Hexblade Spells
Same as UA
3rd Level Hex Warrior
At 3rd level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle and power over curses that make you more effective in close quarters. You gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Hex Weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with. If the weapon is heavy you ignore disadvantage caused by not having the required Strength or Dexterity score. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. As a bonus action you may send the weapon to a pocket dimension or summon it from that pocket dimension. While in the pocket dimension the weapons is considered to be within 1ft of you. A weapon returns from the pocket dimension if you die. These benefits last until you finish a long rest. If you have/gain the Pact of the Blade invocation these benefits extend to every pact weapon you bond with or conjure with that invocation.
Hungering Hex. When a cursed enemy within 10ft of you drops to 0 hit points you regain 1d8+ your Charisma Modifier hit points.
Accused Shield. When you are within 10ft of a cursed enemy you gain +2 to your AC as long as you aren't wearing medium armor, heavy armor, or using a shield.
3rd Level Unyielding Will
Same as UA
6th Level Malign Brutality
Accursed Critical. Any melee attack roll you make against a cursed target scores a Critical Hit on a 19 or 20 on the d20.
Harrowing Hex. Same as UA
Hindering Curse. When you hit a target cursed by you with an attack roll, the target has disadvantage on its next saving throw before the start of your next turn.
10th Level Armor of Hexes
If an enemy that is cursed by you deals damage to you, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 6 you take no damage. If you don’t roll a 6 you instead reduce the damage by your Warlock level + the number rolled on the d6.
14 Level Master of Hexes
Hexblade’s Curse. You can curse one creature within 30 feet of you that fails a saving throw against a level 1+ warlock spell that requires concentration that you cast with Hexblade’s curse. The Hexblade’s curse ends when the spell ends. It ends immediately if you place another creature under a Hexblade’s curse. You deal an additional 1d8 necrotic or psychic damage (your choice) to a creature suffering from Hexblade’s curse when you hit them with an attack roll. When a creature suffering Hexblade’s curse ends its turn more than 30ft from you they take 1d4 psychic damage.
Inescapable Hex. If a cursed creature starts its turn within 10 ft of you and ends its turn 30ft or further from you, but within 100ft of you, you can teleport to an unoccupied space within 10ft of the creature.
At 3rd level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle and power over curses that make you more effective in close quarters. You gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Hex Weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with. If the weapon is heavy you ignore disadvantage caused by not having the required Strength or Dexterity score. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. As a bonus action you may send the weapon to a pocket dimension or summon it from that pocket dimension. While in the pocket dimension the weapons is considered to be within 1ft of you. A weapon returns from the pocket dimension if you die. These benefits last until you finish a long rest. If you have/gain the Pact of the Blade invocation these benefits extend to every pact weapon you bond with or conjure with that invocation.
Hungering Hex. When a cursed enemy within 10ft of you drops to 0 hit points you regain 1d8+ your Charisma Modifier hit points.
Accused Shield. When you are within 10ft of a cursed enemy you gain +2 to your AC as long as you aren't wearing medium armor, heavy armor, or using a shield.
3rd Level Unyielding Will
Same as UA
So, at 3rd level, you're trading ignoring Dexterity and Strength penalties on Heavy Weapons instead of the Hexblade Curse ability Charisma times per day. Instead, Hungering Hex, Accursed Shield, Hindering Curse (6th), Inescapable Hex (6th), Armor of Hexes, Accursed Critical, and Explosive Hex all key off of any curse. Seems too strong to me.
Accursed Critical. Any melee attack roll against a cursed target scores a Critical Hit on a 19 or 20 on the d20.
Harrowing Hex. Same as UA
Hindering Curse. When you hit a target cursed by you with an attack roll, the target has disadvantage on its next saving throw before the start of your next turn.
I assume Accursed Critical only applies to attacks by you against the cursed target?
If an enemy that is cursed by you deals damage to you, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 6 you take no damage. If you don’t roll a 6 you instead reduce the damage by your Warlock level + the number rolled on the d6.
One in 6 chance to negate the damage from an attack completely? Too strong. Armor of Hexes is fine. Because of the scaling, it could appear lower in the subclass features, but it is okay at 10.
Hexblade’s Curse. You can curse one creature that fails a saving throw against a warlock spell you cast with Hexblade’s curse. The Hexblade’s curse lasts until the start of your next turn or the spell's duration, whichever is longer. It ends immediately if you place another creature under a Hexblade’s curse. You deal an additional 1d8 necrotic or psychic damage (your choice) to a creature suffering from Hexblade’s curse when you hit them with an attack roll. When a creature suffering Hexblade’s curse ends its turn more than 10ft from you they take 1d4 psychic damage.
Inescapable Hex. If a cursed creature starts its turn within 10 ft of you and ends its turn 30ft or further from you, but still on the same plane you can teleport to an unoccupied space within 10ft of of the creature.
Inescapable Hex is too good. Combined with a long duration spell, Hexblade's Curse can become an automatic kill, particularly when triggered without the target being aware. Booming Blade deals the damage once per hit. Even without a particularly long duration, this triggers off of Cantrips, like Create Bonfire, and low-level spells, like Cause Fear. This is once it fails the original save, it's ongoing damage with no save to shrug off unless the original spell allows one (like Friends). Technically, with Suggestion, it's a death sentence since the damage is a rider effect and so suggestion doesn't obviously cause damage. This true for Dream as well if you make the messenger terrifying to the target. Both of these can lead to a potential 4,800d4 damage. Not to mention that you can set up chain with Hindering Curse followed by Hexblade's Curse. As a Warlock player, nope.
Hex weapon restores some of the 2014 Hexblade fuctionality.
Hex and Bestow Curse are the only ways for a player to curse an enemy in the core rules. I believe there is another spell in the expanded rules. This only opens up use for team play if someone else in your party can cast those spells. So allowing some things to trigger on any cursed enemy isn’t as strong as you are imagining.
Yeah Accursed Critical is the Hexblade’s attacks.
If you think my Armor of Hexes is too strong you didn’t play a Hexblade to high levels with the 2014 rules. They have a 50% chance to avoid all attack roll hits from their cursed target. A 17% chance to negate all damage with some reduction if you fail to negate isn’t that strong compared to 50% against all attack rolls.
Inescapable Hex is definitely not too strong. I wrote that kind of as a joke. If an enemy your party was fighting teleports out of sight of the entire party are you brave enough to follow? You don’t know how far, only that if it works you are on the same plane of existence.
Hexblade’s Curse has multiple oversights. That should have been level 1+ warlock spell. I didn’t think of Dream. Also I can’t just assume an enemy would have access to Dispel Magic, Remove Curse, Greater Restoration, or some way to remove the curse. I originally wrote it to only work on concentration spells which might be the more balanced option. Also it should only be applied if the target is within 30ft of you when you cast the spell. I’ll edit my post.
It can. For example, for a long time I have wanted to do a joke character that DW hammer and sickle. Sadly, the damage dice is a bit low on the light hammer and the sickle, however monk fixes that problem.
I assume DW is Drunken Master and not a homebrew/third party.
How does the monk provide access to armor? Martial Arts doesn't work wearing armor and without that, the monk no longer has inherent damage scaling; dealing 1 + strength damage instead of 1d6 to 1d12 + strength or dexterity on an unarmed strike is not impressive. A monk class does not doesn't help build an armored, hammer-wielding warrior. Level 1 is a complete waste. Level 2 gives Monk's Focus and Uncanny Movement; Unarmored Movement does nothing for a monk in armor. There are aspects of his journeys which could be represented using different abilities and classes, but for the core concept of Thor, the warrior thunder god, monk doesn't work.
Ever since 1e, he is represented as being able to wear chain, at a minimum, which almost completely shuts down a monk. In Norse myth, things get less clear, but even then his Warhammer is far from a light hammer and he needs to magic items to safely wield. I can't recall if it is classic myth or Marvel where Mjolnir was a Warhammer or War Mattock (in D&D terms, a Maul) with a handle shortened to prevent two-handed use due to Loki's trickery.
You are providing an example of changing the flavor to fit the class and saying that it proves that you can use the class to fit the flavor.
I think you're missing the point of my original post. I can't tell whether you're doing it intentionally to be argumentative, or not.
In this case, I would not make a monk to do an armored warrior Thor. The point of the original post, is that you can choose whatever class necessary to make a concept work, and ignore the fluff that WOTC provides. Monk's a chassis. It's got a set of mechanics. If those mechanics fit, the character is a monk whether he ever set foot in a monastery or not. I feel like the point of YOUR post was to deflect from the point I was making, hone in on a very specific case that was not relevant to my original point and use that as proof that I was wrong. Since I don't feel you're discussing things with any shred of intellectual honesty, I will just leave you to your opinion, and hope you have a wonderful day.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
If you think my Armor of Hexes is too strong you didn’t play a Hexblade to high levels with the 2014 rules. They have a 50% chance to avoid all attack roll hits from their cursed target. A 17% chance to negate all damage with some reduction if you fail to negate isn’t that strong compared to 50% against all attack rolls.
I am not advocating reclaiming the 2014 effectiveness of Armor of Hexes.
Inescapable Hex is definitely not too strong. I wrote that kind of as a joke. If an enemy your party was fighting teleports out of sight of the entire party are you brave enough to follow? You don’t know how far, only that if it works you are on the same plane of existence.
Teleporting to a foe out of sight is foolish. Teleporting adjacent to a fast moving target can result in wild movement distances that aren't matched by equivalent options for other classes.
Hex weapon restores some of the 2014 Hexblade fuctionality.
The Hexblade was restricted from selecting weapons with the two-handed properties. Ignoring ability modifiers isn't really in line with "restoring some of the functionality". The pocket dimension storage is also new. Actually, nothing Hex Weapon does restores any functionality; it's all new.
Hex and Bestow Curse are the only ways for a player to curse an enemy in the core rules. I believe there is another spell in the expanded rules. This only opens up use for team play if someone else in your party can cast those spells. So allowing some things to trigger on any cursed enemy isn’t as strong as you are imagining.
Wait. Your version keys off any curse not just those cast by the Hexblade (which in 2014 they could do about once per encounter). That's a massive buff. I'd have to check if there are any multitarget curses that make the Hexblade more effective in multitarget encounters as well as single target ones.
It can. For example, for a long time I have wanted to do a joke character that DW hammer and sickle. Sadly, the damage dice is a bit low on the light hammer and the sickle, however monk fixes that problem.
I assume DW is Drunken Master and not a homebrew/third party.
How does the monk provide access to armor? Martial Arts doesn't work wearing armor and without that, the monk no longer has inherent damage scaling; dealing 1 + strength damage instead of 1d6 to 1d12 + strength or dexterity on an unarmed strike is not impressive. A monk class does not doesn't help build an armored, hammer-wielding warrior. Level 1 is a complete waste. Level 2 gives Monk's Focus and Uncanny Movement; Unarmored Movement does nothing for a monk in armor. There are aspects of his journeys which could be represented using different abilities and classes, but for the core concept of Thor, the warrior thunder god, monk doesn't work.
Ever since 1e, he is represented as being able to wear chain, at a minimum, which almost completely shuts down a monk. In Norse myth, things get less clear, but even then his Warhammer is far from a light hammer and he needs to magic items to safely wield. I can't recall if it is classic myth or Marvel where Mjolnir was a Warhammer or War Mattock (in D&D terms, a Maul) with a handle shortened to prevent two-handed use due to Loki's trickery.
You are providing an example of changing the flavor to fit the class and saying that it proves that you can use the class to fit the flavor.
I think you're missing the point of my original post. I can't tell whether you're doing it intentionally to be argumentative, or not.
In this case, I would not make a monk to do an armored warrior Thor. The point of the original post, is that you can choose whatever class necessary to make a concept work, and ignore the fluff that WOTC provides. Monk's a chassis. It's got a set of mechanics. If those mechanics fit, the character is a monk whether he ever set foot in a monastery or not.
I think you're missing the point of my original post that you responded to.
The Hexblade is a set of flavor, an armored warrior using curses and melee weapons in battle. The UA version strips away the medium armor proficiency and adds a feature to encourage unarmored play.
This is equivalent to taking an armored warrior, known for wielding a heavy weapon and saying this is now a monk. No armor, maybe light weapons. Some treatments of Thor refer to him as unarmored and looking like a peasant so a way of the Elements monk may fit that (and scaling up the throwable light hammer does a decent Mjolnir impression), but for a traditional representation of an armored warrior, monk is off base. I have repeatedly said that monk is not mechanically good at representing an armored Thor and you are now telling me to ignore the monastery associations of monk. Who cares about monasteries? When did I say monastery traditions was the blocker here?
I have been an advocate of classes are mechanic/stat sticks that you flavor however you want since 3.0.
My point is my version of Armor of Hexes is not to strong compared to what was already in the game?
For my version of Inescapable Hex to work the Warlock would have to be within 10 feet of a cursed target at the start of the targets turn. It’s not near as strong as you think. You have to check 2 boxes before it’s usable, and any creature that can move on other’s turns can definitely escape.
I question whether you played a Hexblade in 2014. I think you said you were a Warlock player, but you didn’t specifically say Hexblade, so I might have made an assumption. In 2014 Pact of the Blade allowed you to use any weapon and when paired with Hex Warrior you could have a heavy weapon as your pact/hex weapon. In 2024 the new restriction on heavy weapons makes it difficult for people to make some of the same builds they once had. So yes allowing them to ignore the new heavy weapon restrictions is bringing back old Hexblade functionality. Also by having hex warrior and pact of the blade separate it allows for two weapons for those that prefer that. More importantly it allows a player to not take pact of the blade if that is what they want. They would still get a Hexblade experience without using an invocation. Obviously the experience is improved by PotB, but the option should be there just like in 2014.
Curses that players can use are very rare to be honest. Bestow Curse and Hex are it in the core rules that are player facing. The DM usually handles all other curses. Raven loft has a section about creating curses, but that’s DM facing. By no means was the Hexblade balanced and ready for the game. I just like to put out ideas, but i base them off of concepts that already exist so they aren’t tipping the power scale.
Armor of Hexes isn’t an ideal design even It was +2 AC. It functions as a stackable AC mechanic, which introduces unnecessary complications and balance issues. Medium Armor was already the cleaner, more elegant solution — which is exactly why it was part of the 2014 version.
Armor of Hexes isn’t an ideal design even It was +2 AC. It functions as a stackable AC mechanic, which introduces unnecessary complications and balance issues. Medium Armor was already the cleaner, more elegant solution — which is exactly why it was part of the 2014 version.
The 2014 edition was improved armor via medium armor and shields PLUS armor of hexes giving you a (conditional) 50% miss chance. With increased access to disadvantage in 2024 (an ally with sap, for example), something has to go and medium armor doesn't have to be the casualty, but the 2014 version was too good to continue in 2024. Honestly, I'd like to see them get damage reduction equal to their proficiency bonus versus the cursed target on every hit (flat, constant value with no additional rolls) or Warlock level with restricted uses (scales better and encourages single class characters but too strong to be every hit)..
Proficiency bonus damage reduction seems weak but I am curious how it would combo with medium armor, false life/armor of Agathys.
What if the hexblade could use a attunement slot to give a wepon there holding or a pack wepon extra abilities equal to their cha mod? They could have a list of things they could add to there attuned wepon. Like a plus to there attack and damage roll , an additional die of elemental damage, maybe an improved crit range. Things like that
The 2014 Hexblade is a beloved and iconic subclass — its popularity is undeniable. That’s why any changes should be approached with passion and care, always respecting its core identity.
Just look at the BG3 statistics below as evidence of its lasting appeal.
Let’s focus on making the Hexblade a refined evolution — one that stays true to its original concept and mechanics.
Honestly the new Hexblade is just a mess IMO. Their are trying so hard to not make this the optimal PotB subclass when they SHOULD be leaning into that. Not to say it should be directly ties to PotB in terms of functionality, but the Hexblade should be the gish subclass for warlocks. They did it with spellsingers and honestly it looks fantastic. I dont know why they cant do that for warlocks.
in terms of AC, I have no issue with them taking away medium armor and shields, but the replacement should not be Accuraed shield. That feature is so bad its honestly mind blowing someone at WoTc looked at it and said “yeah, this looks good”. Give Hexblades the bladesinger treatment where they can add their CHA to AC. Somthing like “while not wearing medium or heavy armor, and not carrying a shield, you get a bonus to your AC eqaul to your CHA modifier while concentrating on a spell”. It would combine nicely with unyielding will and would allow warlocks to frontline without dipping.
Also certain features need to scale, the dmg from unyielding will needs to scale with warlock level or just remove it, the dmg from exploding hex needs to scale with warlock level or change the capstone entirely and accursed ciritcal needs to go back to base hexblades curse alongside a dmg buff. Hexblades curse should be a offensive buff not a defensive one.
Malaign brutality is the only feature which seems decent and its still has glaring issues. The BA attack should be reworded to be made as part if the same action when casting a spell. You already have alot of bonus actions as a warlock and hexblade which means this feature will almost always be useless. It does not even work with animate objects since that requires your BA to command the objects.
I hipe we get another revised version of the hexblade in thr next UA so we can give them more feedback because if this goes live as is or with some minor tweaks, it will be the death of my favorite subclass and character build. As someone said on this tread, with how things are rn, PotB warlocks who want to build for melee will still dip for armor and take any other subclass over this mess. Its frustratingly stupid that ALL other subclasses seem better for melee warlocks than this mess. Honestly 1 lvl in fighter is almost mandatory unless they fix the survivability issue with the hexblade and being forced to multiclass is bad design IMO.
Honestly the new Hexblade is just a mess IMO. Their are trying so hard to not make this the optimal PotB subclass when they SHOULD be leaning into that. Not to say it should be directly ties to PotB in terms of functionality, but the Hexblade should be the gish subclass for warlocks. They did it with spellsingers and honestly it looks fantastic. I dont know why they cant do that for warlocks.
in terms of AC, I have no issue with them taking away medium armor and shields, but the replacement should not be Accuraed shield. That feature is so bad its honestly mind blowing someone at WoTc looked at it and said “yeah, this looks good”. Give Hexblades the bladesinger treatment where they can add their CHA to AC. Somthing like “while not wearing medium or heavy armor, and not carrying a shield, you get a bonus to your AC eqaul to your CHA modifier while concentrating on a spell”. It would combine nicely with unyielding will and would allow warlocks to frontline without dipping.
Also certain features need to scale, the dmg from unyielding will needs to scale with warlock level or just remove it, the dmg from exploding hex needs to scale with warlock level or change the capstone entirely and accursed ciritcal needs to go back to base hexblades curse alongside a dmg buff. Hexblades curse should be a offensive buff not a defensive one.
Malaign brutality is the only feature which seems decent and its still has glaring issues. The BA attack should be reworded to be made as part if the same action when casting a spell. You already have alot of bonus actions as a warlock and hexblade which means this feature will almost always be useless. It does not even work with animate objects since that requires your BA to command the objects.
I hipe we get another revised version of the hexblade in thr next UA so we can give them more feedback because if this goes live as is or with some minor tweaks, it will be the death of my favorite subclass and character build. As someone said on this tread, with how things are rn, PotB warlocks who want to build for melee will still dip for armor and take any other subclass over this mess. Its frustratingly stupid that ALL other subclasses seem better for melee warlocks than this mess. Honestly 1 lvl in fighter is almost mandatory unless they fix the survivability issue with the hexblade and being forced to multiclass is bad design IMO.
This UA hexblade is the most pact if the blade warlock in existence, even including the old hexblade (which had no particular reason not just use edlritch blast).
1. it has a feature which allows you to attack with a weapon as a bonus attack when casting a spell with your action. if you arent using pact of the blade, this would be a simple weapon (which is inherently inferior to mattial weapons) with probably a lower ability score.
2.Unyielding will only damages enemies close to you.
3. accursed shield gives you bonus AC as long as you are in melee range with your target.
thise features alone makes it the most melee weapon focused warlock.
you can hate it or love it, but objectively its mellee focused.
most people who want medium armor, or something like unarmored defense, that are always on would be making it less melee/weapon focused. (and more boring)
As for unyielding will scaling, while i like seeing numbers go up, hexblade and warlock is already pushing the boundaries of how much dpr it should have, especially in later levels.
at level 7 it gets 2d8 per hit via spirit shroud, thats 42-43 dpr at level 7, assuming you get hit half the rounds, thats 45-47dpr.on main target, +3.5 to each additional target in range.
and that number only increases as they level, with lifedrinker at 9, (50ish dpr) (and concentrationless bestow curse if you care) level 11, more spells per SR, level 12 (60+ dpr) devouring blade, extra attack, level 14, one aoe burst per day + 19 crit rate (72+dpr) (on a class with eldricth smite) and at 17, foresight. (85+dpr)
which basically would make it dpr wise superior to almost all martials. the subclass, and likely class, really doesnt need more scaling on unyielding will, unless you are somehow going to lower its baseline damage potential.
Honestly the new Hexblade is just a mess IMO. Their are trying so hard to not make this the optimal PotB subclass when they SHOULD be leaning into that. Not to say it should be directly ties to PotB in terms of functionality, but the Hexblade should be the gish subclass for warlocks. They did it with spellsingers and honestly it looks fantastic. I dont know why they cant do that for warlocks.
in terms of AC, I have no issue with them taking away medium armor and shields, but the replacement should not be Accuraed shield. That feature is so bad its honestly mind blowing someone at WoTc looked at it and said “yeah, this looks good”. Give Hexblades the bladesinger treatment where they can add their CHA to AC. Somthing like “while not wearing medium or heavy armor, and not carrying a shield, you get a bonus to your AC eqaul to your CHA modifier while concentrating on a spell”. It would combine nicely with unyielding will and would allow warlocks to frontline without dipping.
Also certain features need to scale, the dmg from unyielding will needs to scale with warlock level or just remove it, the dmg from exploding hex needs to scale with warlock level or change the capstone entirely and accursed ciritcal needs to go back to base hexblades curse alongside a dmg buff. Hexblades curse should be a offensive buff not a defensive one.
Malaign brutality is the only feature which seems decent and its still has glaring issues. The BA attack should be reworded to be made as part if the same action when casting a spell. You already have alot of bonus actions as a warlock and hexblade which means this feature will almost always be useless. It does not even work with animate objects since that requires your BA to command the objects.
I hipe we get another revised version of the hexblade in thr next UA so we can give them more feedback because if this goes live as is or with some minor tweaks, it will be the death of my favorite subclass and character build. As someone said on this tread, with how things are rn, PotB warlocks who want to build for melee will still dip for armor and take any other subclass over this mess. Its frustratingly stupid that ALL other subclasses seem better for melee warlocks than this mess. Honestly 1 lvl in fighter is almost mandatory unless they fix the survivability issue with the hexblade and being forced to multiclass is bad design IMO.
This UA hexblade is the most pact if the blade warlock in existence, even including the old hexblade (which had no particular reason not just use edlritch blast).
1. it has a feature which allows you to attack with a weapon as a bonus attack when casting a spell with your action. if you arent using pact of the blade, this would be a simple weapon (which is inherently inferior to mattial weapons) with probably a lower ability score.
2.Unyielding will only damages enemies close to you.
3. accursed shield gives you bonus AC as long as you are in melee range with your target.
thise features alone makes it the most melee weapon focused warlock.
you can hate it or love it, but objectively its mellee focused.
most people who want medium armor, or something like unarmored defense, that are always on would be making it less melee/weapon focused. (and more boring)
As for unyielding will scaling, while i like seeing numbers go up, hexblade and warlock is already pushing the boundaries of how much dpr it should have, especially in later levels.
at level 7 it gets 2d8 per hit via spirit shroud, thats 42-43 dpr at level 7, assuming you get hit half the rounds, thats 45-47dpr.on main target, +3.5 to each additional target in range.
and that number only increases as they level, with lifedrinker at 9, (50ish dpr) (and concentrationless bestow curse if you care) level 11, more spells per SR, level 12 (60+ dpr) devouring blade, extra attack, level 14, one aoe burst per day + 19 crit rate (72+dpr) (on a class with eldricth smite) and at 17, foresight. (85+dpr)
which basically would make it dpr wise superior to almost all martials. the subclass, and likely class, really doesnt need more scaling on unyielding will, unless you are somehow going to lower its baseline damage potential.
I agree that it has melee focused features, but I disagree that they are any good.
accursed shield is a laughable boost to AC, both in terms of the actual bonus and because of all the hoops you have to jump through (having hexblades curse up which has limited uses and have to be within 10ft of that specific target and hoping it does not die too soon otherwise you lose the AC, which is counterintuitive of hexblade who usually wants to nuke that targetvas quickly as possible.)
The bonus action attack is super bad and needs to be an attack you make for feee as part of the same action. You already have too much BA features and spells, even animate objects does not work with it since it requires a BA to command the objects to move and attack.
Unyielding wills dmg is laughable to start already and it becomes worse and worse as you reach higher levels, I would much rather seeing it removed if its not gonna scale.
Also I see you are using spirit shroud as an excuse to get high DPR numbers which is the same thing treantmonk did in his video when the PotB package was put in playtest 7 of one dnd which led to it being nerfed into the ground. Spirit shroud is not in the 2024 ruleset which means it will likely get updated and nerfed into the ground a future release. Lifedrinker being a D6 dmg boost only once per turn is laughably bad and not worth an invocation. Not to mention warlocks will never be able to wield heavy weapons and go for GWM easily because of the STR requirement on both those things, to do so you would have to sacrifice you constitution and slow you CHA advancement which is a pretty steep cost.
The only ppl who are arguing in favor of this version of hexblade are ppl who either never played a bladelock i their life or ppl who hate bladelocks and what to see a bad hexblade published because of the 2014 hexblade debuckle. Truth is the 2014 hexblade wasn't even that good to tale for straight warlock builds, it was the beat option to dip in for paladins and now bladelocks are suffering for the sins of that hexblade which benefited other classes more.
This hexblade provides nothing to bladelocks. The defensjve bonuses are laughably bad and the offensive bonuses come in way too late for what they are. Why do bladesingers get to stack their INT on top of light armor while hexblades dont? Why does a feature given to lvl3 champion fighters come in at level 14? Why does nothing scale? Truth is whoever is designing these revised hexblades has no idea what to do with the subclass or what it should be/do.
I sincerely hope very few ppl have your point of view because if anything close to this version gets published bladelock players will have been screwed hard on this one. As i already said, if this or anything similar i whats published, bladelocks will have no option to build their characters without multiclassing or being at a substantial disadvantage compared to everything else at the table. I would much rather have boring and functional than trying to be too clever and cute and be worst that whats already available.
Me personally I would like to see something that fills in the gaps PotB has, while also being able to stand on its own feet and feel interesting to play but also powerful at all levels, not features which come in way too late or that do not scale and become crappy at later levels.
hexblades curse: cast hex a number of times for free equal to CHA modifier per long rest. In addition you get extra benefits against your Hex target; weapon attacks crit on a 19 against it and when reduced to 0 ho you heal D8+CHA.
unyielding will: while concentrating on a spell and not wearing medium/heavy armor and not carrying a shield, you add CHA modifier to your AC. In addition oncer per short rest when you fail concentration you can choose to pass it and gain temp HP equal to D8+warlock level.
malign brutality: when you take the magic action on your turn you can make a one weapon attack as part of the same action. When you do, the spell you cast must be of lvl1 or higher and must use a pact magic slot to cast it. (Worded in a way that the attack can be made before the spell Is cast to synergies with feature that imposes disadvantage against spells). In addition, the dmg of your Hex spell is increased to 2D6.
Armor of hexes: All damage you take from creatures cursed by your Hex spell is reduced by an amount equal to your half your warlock level and whenever that creature hits you with an attack, it takes necrotic damage equal to the dmg prevented.
masterful hex: when you hit a creature with a weapon attacks it gets disadvantage on its next saving throw against a spell until the start if your next turn.
exploding hex: when you hit a creature cursed by your Hex, you can choose to explode it in a 30ft emanation radius. All creature of your choice in the emanation take 3D6+warlock level necrotic dmg and have their speed reduced by 10ft. Once you use this feature you cant use it until long rest or by using a pact magic slot.
there is exactly one build for the UA Hexblade as presented that i came up with that is playable, everything else is just not fun and not worth a spot in a group:
drum roll : 6 Paladin / 14 Hexblade, with armor & shield of the Paladin as well as the Aura of protection this version of Hexblade can be rescued, but its a sad day if you have to take a mc build for a subclass to be playable.
Accursed shield : is useless on so many fronts, only works within 10' of the target and only if the target is cursed ( you only have 3 uses per long rest that is laughable ) to get a semi-usable AC you have to MC, no other way around it ( prio dex over chr = lots of dpr loss, spells not landing, and so on ) All of the ability's this subclass grants on the Warlock are fixed on only working on the cursed target, so useless on anything else by the cursed target, they might be semi useful for a BBEG at the end of a campaign if that BBEG is alone.
This sublcass is a def. D-tier if not even E or F-tier
Completely agree with you on everything. If I need to multicalss to make hexblade playable I could just take 1 lvl in fighter and then literally play any other warlock subclass and it would probably be better than this. The undead from the horror UA seems fun and has much better defensive options than this tragedy of a subclass.
Again, what is most frustrating is how they gave bladesingers all the tools to be a good gish wizard, yet they are designing the hexblade to be as weak and suboptimal as possible, or at least that is the feeling I am getting.
There are good ideas in this UA as opposed to the horror one but it still needs major changes, most of all to hexblades curse which does basically nothing until Lvl10 when you get armor of hexes and even that seems very weak for a lvl10 feature.
The changes that need to happen IMO are as follows: - hexblades curse needs to be an offensive buff with healing on kill close to the original as possible but with more uses per long rest.
- The AC boost needs to scale with CHA and not be reliant on conditions which are too specific or hard to achieve, I would like to see it be active while concentrating on a spell, but it could be on while you have the hexblades curse active without having to be within 10ft of the target, maybe make it as long as the target is visible at any range or something and should stack with light armor. Or just give medium armor prof.
- Features need to scale: the dmg on both unyielding will and exploding hex is laughably bad.
- The BA attack from malagin brutality needs to be made part of the same action as hexblades already have a lot kf BA to do and honestly warlocks have 2/3 spell slots for most of their career some which will be used on BA spells and sometimes even to smite meaning you wont get a lot of milage out of this ability, at least make it easier and more fluid to use when you actually get the opportunity to do so.
- Armor of hexes needs to be either always on against the cursed targets or if its gonna be a reaction the dmg reeducation needs to be much higher, reducing 10 dmg from one attack is simply bad. At these level you're getting hit multiple times and for much more than that.
- They need to come up with a good capstone feature. Its like they are allergic to giving warlocks good capstones in general. Exploding hex seems fun but unless they're going to make the dmg worth it its just bad. Either make the dmg scale ir be a feature that can be used multiple times for free.
I honestly hope they release another hexblade UA and not just go live with it because if they push out a version thats even close to this current one, its gonna be sad for bladelocks. I hate when builds are forced into multiclassing and rn it feels like the only way to play a decent bladelock is to start as a fighter or a paladin, and even than this hexblade is just jot worth picking up.
i agree the uses per day of hexblade's curse needs to be looked at. 3-5 uses is not good enough IMO. this is modifed at 14, but thats a long time.
by some interpretations you can use hex to apply it and keep it moving it, but thats not certain to be Raw/rai. and if it does work still has some design issues.
I can also see some benefit to getting free casts of hex, as it reduces the feeling of not having enough spell/play variation in t2, though its not strictly needed in terms of power.
2024 rules and playtests are meant to work with older books. I doubt spirit shroud will get a signifigant nerf, (if they even remake it) its weaker than conjure elementals, and thats after they errata'd it.
Not sure the reasoning on the BA attack being bad.
if you are casting a spell with a slot, you cant cast a spell as your bonus action. This might be the case with a cantrip main action, but using a cantrip compared to an attack action for a melee build is not a good bet. Perhaps eldritch blast, but i dont think the goal of this hexblade is to be built around eldritch blast.
If you dont value lifedrinker, dont take it, but its an option for those who are looking for more damage/recovery. If something else gives you more benefit, that just means that at level 9 you are even better than i projected.
i playtested multiple hexblades for many levels, i have also tested many other 2024 classes and UAs. Hexblade was never lacking in power, and was one of the more survivable /durable builds.
my main complaint was not enough tactical/gameplay decisions from level 5-10 (cantrips can provide variation early on but are irrelevant once younget extra attack)
If you are saying hexblade is unplayable, or d teir, as presented, what are you measuring it against? Most classes are not performing like an optimized MC
lets compare a berserker and eldritch knight to hexblade
Berserker PAM lvl 5, 32 dpr HP: 55. AC 17. Evasion% 30.25%. CR4 enemy dpr (not including accuracy) 20/12( resistence), HP recovery 0, dpr taken with evasion 8.37
Hexblade PAM lvl 5: 30.6 dpr(+3.5 per aoe unyielding) HP 58 (Agathys/lessons) AC16/18. Evasion% 50%/60%. CR4 enemy DPR 20, HP recovery +8.5(per hexcurse). dpr taken with evasion 10/8
Ek PAM lvl 5 DPR: 22/45(action surge) 25avg daily HP: 49, AC 18, Evasion 60%/85%(shield) CR4 DPRbase: 20 Hp recovery 10.5 per second wind. DPRtaken: 8/3(shield) 7 avg 4 encounter day.
lvl 9:
barbarian PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR 52. HP:95 AC 17 evasion: 16% CR7 DPRbase: 49/35, HP recovery 0, DPRtaken 29.4
eldritch PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR: 36/56(surge) 38.5 avg daily, HP: 85, AC:18, evasion: 45% 70%, CR7 DPRbase: 49, hp recovery 14.5 (wind), DPR taken 27/14.7, 24 avg 4 encounter day
level 12
barb pam/gwm lvl12 DPR 64, HP:125, AC 17, evasion 13% CR10 DPRbase: 60/42 Hp recovery zero, DPRtaken: 36.54
hex pam/gwm level12 DPR 70, HP:124, AC16/18 evasion 30%/40% CR10 DPRbase: 60. HP recovery 9.5(curse)5.5(drink) DPR taken 42/36(base) 30/24(armor curses)
EK pam/gwm level12 DPR 52(88(surge) 56.5 daily. HP112, AC 18, evasion: 40%/65% CR10 DPRbase base: 60. Hp recovery 17.5, DPR taken 36/21 32 avg DPR 4 encounter day
and this isnt event the 'best' hexblade, just one that provides an easy comparison with high damage martials. (similar weapons/ac/hp) things like mirror image/ dex build would give more defense on average.
and warlock gets full caster spell levels, they still have things like hypnotic pattern, staggering smite, synaptic static, conjure barrage, steel wind strike, arcane vigor in their back pocket, they can just as easily build further in the debuff/caster direction
we can see here hexblade is definitely competitive in dpr and survivability with top martials.
maybe people would prefer different functionality, but relative performance wise its not lacking.
you could not, while being balanced, increase the DPR of the class without nerfing its survivability or versatility just as much, or vice versa
i agree the uses per day of hexblade's curse needs to be looked at. 3-5 uses is not good enough IMO. this is modifed at 14, but thats a long time.
by some interpretations you can use hex to apply it and keep it moving it, but thats not certain to be Raw/rai. and if it does work still has some design issues.
I can also see some benefit to getting free casts of hex, as it reduces the feeling of not having enough spell/play variation in t2, though its not strictly needed in terms of power.
2024 rules and playtests are meant to work with older books. I doubt spirit shroud will get a signifigant nerf, (if they even remake it) its weaker than conjure elementals, and thats after they errata'd it.
Not sure the reasoning on the BA attack being bad.
if you are casting a spell with a slot, you cant cast a spell as your bonus action. This might be the case with a cantrip main action, but using a cantrip compared to an attack action for a melee build is not a good bet. Perhaps eldritch blast, but i dont think the goal of this hexblade is to be built around eldritch blast.
If you dont value lifedrinker, dont take it, but its an option for those who are looking for more damage/recovery. If something else gives you more benefit, that just means that at level 9 you are even better than i projected.
i playtested multiple hexblades for many levels, i have also tested many other 2024 classes and UAs. Hexblade was never lacking in power, and was one of the more survivable /durable builds.
my main complaint was not enough tactical/gameplay decisions from level 5-10 (cantrips can provide variation early on but are irrelevant once younget extra attack)
If you are saying hexblade is unplayable, or d teir, as presented, what are you measuring it against? Most classes are not performing like an optimized MC
lets compare a berserker and eldritch knight to hexblade
Berserker PAM lvl 5, 32 dpr HP: 55. AC 17. Evasion% 30.25%. CR4 enemy dpr (not including accuracy) 20/12( resistence), HP recovery 0, dpr taken with evasion 8.37
Hexblade PAM lvl 5: 30.6 dpr(+3.5 per aoe unyielding) HP 58 (Agathys/lessons) AC16/18. Evasion% 50%/60%. CR4 enemy DPR 20, HP recovery +8.5(per hexcurse). dpr taken with evasion 10/8
Ek PAM lvl 5 DPR: 22/45(action surge) 25avg daily HP: 49, AC 18, Evasion 60%/85%(shield) CR4 DPRbase: 20 Hp recovery 10.5 per second wind. DPRtaken: 8/3(shield) 7 avg 4 encounter day.
lvl 9:
barbarian PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR 52. HP:95 AC 17 evasion: 16% CR7 DPRbase: 49/35, HP recovery 0, DPRtaken 29.4
eldritch PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR: 36/56(surge) 38.5 avg daily, HP: 85, AC:18, evasion: 45% 70%, CR7 DPRbase: 49, hp recovery 14.5 (wind), DPR taken 27/14.7, 24 avg 4 encounter day
level 12
barb pam/gwm lvl12 DPR 64, HP:125, AC 17, evasion 13% CR10 DPRbase: 60/42 Hp recovery zero, DPRtaken: 36.54
hex pam/gwm level12 DPR 70, HP:124, AC16/18 evasion 30%/40% CR10 DPRbase: 60. HP recovery 9.5(curse)5.5(drink) DPR taken 42/36(base) 30/24(armor curses)
EK pam/gwm level12 DPR 52(88(surge) 56.5 daily. HP112, AC 18, evasion: 40%/65% CR10 DPRbase base: 60. Hp recovery 17.5, DPR taken 36/21 32 avg DPR 4 encounter day
and this isnt event the 'best' hexblade, just one that provides an easy comparison with high damage martials. (similar weapons/ac/hp) things like mirror image/ dex build would give more defense on average.
and warlock gets full caster spell levels, they still have things like hypnotic pattern, staggering smite, synaptic static, conjure barrage, steel wind strike, arcane vigor in their back pocket, they can just as easily build further in the debuff/caster direction
we can see here hexblade is definitely competitive in dpr and survivability with top martials.
maybe people would prefer different functionality, but relative performance wise its not lacking.
you could not, while being balanced, increase the DPR of the class without nerfing its survivability or versatility just as much, or vice versa
The BA attack is bad because its requires your bonus action, something which as a warlock especially hexblade is not as free as you might assume. The BA attack does not work with both smite spells you get as a hexblade because they use your BA to cast, Hexblades curse requires a BA to use and is something you want to have up as much as possible, it does not even work with Animate Objects which requires a BA to command the creatures you conjure with it. On top of that warlocks only get 2 spells slots for most of their career meaning this feature is only really usable up to twice per short rest and even then you might be casting spells like Spirit shroud which is a BA meaning you wont trigger this "free" attack. Its yet another hexblade feature which very conditional and I do not see hexblades using it all that much.
Lifedrinker has been nerfed to the ground. I do not see why it does not apply on all attacks, in UA playtest 7 of one dnd something weird happened, GWM was a once per turn dmg boost and got buffed to apply on all attacks, while lifedrinker was on all attacks on get nerfed to once per turn. This happened because ppl complained that PotB was too powerful mainly due to a video by treantmonk crunching numbers like you did here without giving any context, but besides that, lifedrinker being a lvl9 invocation that is just a oncer per turn D6 dmg boost and some healing which is not even free because it uses hit dice which is another limited resource is very very bad. And i don't value lifedrinker not because I am already good without its because its an abysmal investment.
Hexbalde is unplayable because of what it is supposed to do. Its supposed to compliment PotB and give you the tools needed to be a melee combatant, meaning survivability most of all, and features which compliment melee fighting. It does none of these things well. The defensive tools are very conditional and even with the conditions met they are still bad. The +2 AC is already laughable as far as the actual boost goes, but when you take into account all the hoops you have to jump through to get it, its just so bad I cant even find the words to describe it. Armor of hexes is another very bad defensive tool. Its a once per turn dmg reduction which can only be used against the creature hexed by your target. At level 10+ enemies are usually attacking twice if not more. Reducing 10 dmg form one attack is not worth the reaction it takes nor worth the 10th level feature slot. Yes it scales, but so does the dmg dealt by the enemies, so it never gets better in terms of the % of dmg reduced, it just gets worse.
In you DPR breakdown you are assuming hexbaldes are getting thisn like GWM and PAM, explain to me how are you getting your CHA to 20 while also investing in features which boost your STR? If you are investing in STR instead then I do not see the point of playing a hexblade and dumping CHA, at the point I would rather play a Paladin. Comparing the survivability of a fighter which gets full played armor and FS-defense (if EK they can also cast shield with their lvl1 spell slots), to the hexblade which gets their defensive tools conditionally and sometimes only against one target is misleading and disingenuous. The fighter will have 19+ AC against all attacks coming (not taking into account magical armor), while this hexbalde will start the fight with a 15 AC at best (with an invocation tax on armor of shadows which sucks), then you have to use your BA to curse a target and hopefully you can reliably stick to them to go up to a miserable 17 AC, and you can reduce some dmg coming only from that target. At this point you are hoping your enemy can't fly, teleport, go invisible, or whatever shenanigans it can get up to, because if it doe you are in for a miserable time.
You also said that warlocks get full caster progression, which a) they don't really, they get pact casting which is much different and b) in your examples you are assuming you are using those slots for defensive boosts such as mirror image and armor of agathys. At that point why bother with the hexblade? If I have to use my limited spell slots for temporary defensive boosts to try and survive, might as well play an actual martial without spell slots, but have my defenses always on, or play a Paladin or EK, have my defenses always on and also get some spell casting which I do not have to waste on Band-Aid fixes to my survivability.
Every single feature the hexblade has is conditional and easy to miss on, making it very unappealing and from the point of view of many, very weak, to the point that for what it is supposed to do, it is not worth it. I have seen many people discussing this hexblade, and for many baldelock players, it is not appealing. That is a big issue, because this is supposed to appeal to those players, and if it is not, something is very wrong. As I, and many others have said, looking at this version of the hexblade, if I want to play a bladelock, I am still gonna start as a lvl1 fighter, get my proficiencies and a bunch of goodies, and switch over to warlock at lvl2, then take literally any other subclass which provides features which are always ready for use without having to do a billion things. Fiend gives me temp HP every time something dies close to me, and as a melee, that is gonna happen often, no resources or actions needed, something dies, I just get the thing. Fey, get abunch of teleports to be bale to move from target to target are get out if I am in a pinch. GOO provides a better hexbaldes curse then hexblade, granting adv to you and disadv to your target for a minute on ALL attacks. Yes it requires a saving throw but is still better than what thsi hexbalde provides. The undead from the horror UA grants me temp HP on command, immunity to fear and necrotic dmg while also allowing my attacks to bypass resistances and at lvl10 get an actual good defensive option with a cool and decent capstone.
My point is with this hexbalde, I can find issues with every single feature, I can envision endless scenarios where I get screwed out of every single feature in my subclass due to how a fight set up, enemy abilities or general anti-synergy within the subclass itself (ex. A fight with a boss style enemy and some of his minions. On my first round I use hexbaldes curse on the main target, then use steel wind strike to deal dmg to multiple targets so my allies can start clearing to small guys before focusing the big dude. I find myself having cast a leveled spell as my action, but because hexblades curse uses my BA I am 'cheated' out of my 'free' attack form my subclass' on feature. Or i start the fight by casting animate objects, use my BA to command them and yet again lose my BA attack. Not to mention the plethora of BA spells hexblade warlocks have which interact negatively with that feature.). Every single feature has serious functionality issues, and IMO and by what ive seen and read the opinion of many others, it is an uninspired, clunky, mess.
Someone said this was a D-tier subclass. Me personally I would even score it, because in its current state I wouldn't consider it a viable option, not even for a casual table, because not only is it weak, it is also complicated and clunky to use. I look at the bladesinger UA and I see a subclass designed by someone who understood what they were designing and to who they where trying to appeal to with it. THAT is a well designed and satisfactory gish subclass, by comparison, this hexblade, is the leftover dinner from 3 days ago that has been reheated twice.
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I assume DW is Drunken Master and not a homebrew/third party.
How does the monk provide access to armor? Martial Arts doesn't work wearing armor and without that, the monk no longer has inherent damage scaling; dealing 1 + strength damage instead of 1d6 to 1d12 + strength or dexterity on an unarmed strike is not impressive. A monk class does not doesn't help build an armored, hammer-wielding warrior. Level 1 is a complete waste. Level 2 gives Monk's Focus and Uncanny Movement; Unarmored Movement does nothing for a monk in armor. There are aspects of his journeys which could be represented using different abilities and classes, but for the core concept of Thor, the warrior thunder god, monk doesn't work.
Ever since 1e, he is represented as being able to wear chain, at a minimum, which almost completely shuts down a monk. In Norse myth, things get less clear, but even then his Warhammer is far from a light hammer and he needs to magic items to safely wield. I can't recall if it is classic myth or Marvel where Mjolnir was a Warhammer or War Mattock (in D&D terms, a Maul) with a handle shortened to prevent two-handed use due to Loki's trickery.
You are providing an example of changing the flavor to fit the class and saying that it proves that you can use the class to fit the flavor.
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Accepting armor training is out of the question in 2024, while playing with concepts that feel more like 2014.
3rd level Hexblade Spells
Same as UA
3rd Level Hex Warrior
At 3rd level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle and power over curses that make you more effective in close quarters. You gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Hex Weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with. If the weapon is heavy you ignore disadvantage caused by not having the required Strength or Dexterity score. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. As a bonus action you may send the weapon to a pocket dimension or summon it from that pocket dimension. While in the pocket dimension the weapons is considered to be within 1ft of you. A weapon returns from the pocket dimension if you die. These benefits last until you finish a long rest. If you have/gain the Pact of the Blade invocation these benefits extend to every pact weapon you bond with or conjure with that invocation.
Hungering Hex. When a cursed enemy within 10ft of you drops to 0 hit points you regain 1d8+ your Charisma Modifier hit points.
Accused Shield. When you are within 10ft of a cursed enemy you gain +2 to your AC as long as you aren't wearing medium armor, heavy armor, or using a shield.
3rd Level Unyielding Will
Same as UA
6th Level Malign Brutality
Accursed Critical. Any melee attack roll you make against a cursed target scores a Critical Hit on a 19 or 20 on the d20.
Harrowing Hex. Same as UA
Hindering Curse. When you hit a target cursed by you with an attack roll, the target has disadvantage on its next saving throw before the start of your next turn.
10th Level Armor of Hexes
If an enemy that is cursed by you deals damage to you, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 6 you take no damage. If you don’t roll a 6 you instead reduce the damage by your Warlock level + the number rolled on the d6.
14 Level Master of Hexes
Hexblade’s Curse. You can curse one creature within 30 feet of you that fails a saving throw against a level 1+ warlock spell that requires concentration that you cast with Hexblade’s curse. The Hexblade’s curse ends when the spell ends.
It ends immediately if you place another creature under a Hexblade’s curse.You deal an additional 1d8 necrotic or psychic damage (your choice) to a creature suffering from Hexblade’s curse when you hit them with an attack roll. When a creature suffering Hexblade’s curse ends its turn more than 30ft from you they take 1d4 psychic damage.Inescapable Hex. If a cursed creature starts its turn within 10 ft of you and ends its turn 30ft or further from you, but within 100ft of you, you can teleport to an unoccupied space within 10ft of the creature.
So, at 3rd level, you're trading ignoring Dexterity and Strength penalties on Heavy Weapons instead of the Hexblade Curse ability Charisma times per day. Instead, Hungering Hex, Accursed Shield, Hindering Curse (6th), Inescapable Hex (6th), Armor of Hexes, Accursed Critical, and Explosive Hex all key off of any curse. Seems too strong to me.
I assume Accursed Critical only applies to attacks by you against the cursed target?
One in 6 chance to negate the damage from an attack completely? Too strong. Armor of Hexes is fine. Because of the scaling, it could appear lower in the subclass features, but it is okay at 10.
Inescapable Hex is too good. Combined with a long duration spell, Hexblade's Curse can become an automatic kill, particularly when triggered without the target being aware. Booming Blade deals the damage once per hit. Even without a particularly long duration, this triggers off of Cantrips, like Create Bonfire, and low-level spells, like Cause Fear. This is once it fails the original save, it's ongoing damage with no save to shrug off unless the original spell allows one (like Friends). Technically, with Suggestion, it's a death sentence since the damage is a rider effect and so suggestion doesn't obviously cause damage. This true for Dream as well if you make the messenger terrifying to the target. Both of these can lead to a potential 4,800d4 damage. Not to mention that you can set up chain with Hindering Curse followed by Hexblade's Curse. As a Warlock player, nope.
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Hex weapon restores some of the 2014 Hexblade fuctionality.
Hex and Bestow Curse are the only ways for a player to curse an enemy in the core rules. I believe there is another spell in the expanded rules. This only opens up use for team play if someone else in your party can cast those spells. So allowing some things to trigger on any cursed enemy isn’t as strong as you are imagining.
Yeah Accursed Critical is the Hexblade’s attacks.
If you think my Armor of Hexes is too strong you didn’t play a Hexblade to high levels with the 2014 rules. They have a 50% chance to avoid all attack roll hits from their cursed target. A 17% chance to negate all damage with some reduction if you fail to negate isn’t that strong compared to 50% against all attack rolls.
Inescapable Hex is definitely not too strong. I wrote that kind of as a joke. If an enemy your party was fighting teleports out of sight of the entire party are you brave enough to follow? You don’t know how far, only that if it works you are on the same plane of existence.
Hexblade’s Curse has multiple oversights. That should have been level 1+ warlock spell. I didn’t think of Dream. Also I can’t just assume an enemy would have access to Dispel Magic, Remove Curse, Greater Restoration, or some way to remove the curse. I originally wrote it to only work on concentration spells which might be the more balanced option. Also it should only be applied if the target is within 30ft of you when you cast the spell. I’ll edit my post.
I think you're missing the point of my original post. I can't tell whether you're doing it intentionally to be argumentative, or not.
In this case, I would not make a monk to do an armored warrior Thor. The point of the original post, is that you can choose whatever class necessary to make a concept work, and ignore the fluff that WOTC provides. Monk's a chassis. It's got a set of mechanics. If those mechanics fit, the character is a monk whether he ever set foot in a monastery or not. I feel like the point of YOUR post was to deflect from the point I was making, hone in on a very specific case that was not relevant to my original point and use that as proof that I was wrong. Since I don't feel you're discussing things with any shred of intellectual honesty, I will just leave you to your opinion, and hope you have a wonderful day.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I am not advocating reclaiming the 2014 effectiveness of Armor of Hexes.
Teleporting to a foe out of sight is foolish. Teleporting adjacent to a fast moving target can result in wild movement distances that aren't matched by equivalent options for other classes.
The Hexblade was restricted from selecting weapons with the two-handed properties. Ignoring ability modifiers isn't really in line with "restoring some of the functionality". The pocket dimension storage is also new. Actually, nothing Hex Weapon does restores any functionality; it's all new.
Wait. Your version keys off any curse not just those cast by the Hexblade (which in 2014 they could do about once per encounter). That's a massive buff. I'd have to check if there are any multitarget curses that make the Hexblade more effective in multitarget encounters as well as single target ones.
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I think you're missing the point of my original post that you responded to.
The Hexblade is a set of flavor, an armored warrior using curses and melee weapons in battle. The UA version strips away the medium armor proficiency and adds a feature to encourage unarmored play.
This is equivalent to taking an armored warrior, known for wielding a heavy weapon and saying this is now a monk. No armor, maybe light weapons. Some treatments of Thor refer to him as unarmored and looking like a peasant so a way of the Elements monk may fit that (and scaling up the throwable light hammer does a decent Mjolnir impression), but for a traditional representation of an armored warrior, monk is off base. I have repeatedly said that monk is not mechanically good at representing an armored Thor and you are now telling me to ignore the monastery associations of monk. Who cares about monasteries? When did I say monastery traditions was the blocker here?
I have been an advocate of classes are mechanic/stat sticks that you flavor however you want since 3.0.
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My point is my version of Armor of Hexes is not to strong compared to what was already in the game?
For my version of Inescapable Hex to work the Warlock would have to be within 10 feet of a cursed target at the start of the targets turn. It’s not near as strong as you think. You have to check 2 boxes before it’s usable, and any creature that can move on other’s turns can definitely escape.
I question whether you played a Hexblade in 2014. I think you said you were a Warlock player, but you didn’t specifically say Hexblade, so I might have made an assumption. In 2014 Pact of the Blade allowed you to use any weapon and when paired with Hex Warrior you could have a heavy weapon as your pact/hex weapon. In 2024 the new restriction on heavy weapons makes it difficult for people to make some of the same builds they once had. So yes allowing them to ignore the new heavy weapon restrictions is bringing back old Hexblade functionality. Also by having hex warrior and pact of the blade separate it allows for two weapons for those that prefer that. More importantly it allows a player to not take pact of the blade if that is what they want. They would still get a Hexblade experience without using an invocation. Obviously the experience is improved by PotB, but the option should be there just like in 2014.
Curses that players can use are very rare to be honest. Bestow Curse and Hex are it in the core rules that are player facing. The DM usually handles all other curses. Raven loft has a section about creating curses, but that’s DM facing. By no means was the Hexblade balanced and ready for the game. I just like to put out ideas, but i base them off of concepts that already exist so they aren’t tipping the power scale.
Armor of Hexes isn’t an ideal design even It was +2 AC. It functions as a stackable AC mechanic, which introduces unnecessary complications and balance issues. Medium Armor was already the cleaner, more elegant solution — which is exactly why it was part of the 2014 version.
The 2014 edition was improved armor via medium armor and shields PLUS armor of hexes giving you a (conditional) 50% miss chance. With increased access to disadvantage in 2024 (an ally with sap, for example), something has to go and medium armor doesn't have to be the casualty, but the 2014 version was too good to continue in 2024. Honestly, I'd like to see them get damage reduction equal to their proficiency bonus versus the cursed target on every hit (flat, constant value with no additional rolls) or Warlock level with restricted uses (scales better and encourages single class characters but too strong to be every hit)..
Proficiency bonus damage reduction seems weak but I am curious how it would combo with medium armor, false life/armor of Agathys.
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What if the hexblade could use a attunement slot to give a wepon there holding or a pack wepon extra abilities equal to their cha mod? They could have a list of things they could add to there attuned wepon. Like a plus to there attack and damage roll , an additional die of elemental damage, maybe an improved crit range. Things like that
The 2014 Hexblade is a beloved and iconic subclass — its popularity is undeniable. That’s why any changes should be approached with passion and care, always respecting its core identity.
Just look at the BG3 statistics below as evidence of its lasting appeal.
Let’s focus on making the Hexblade a refined evolution — one that stays true to its original concept and mechanics.
Honestly the new Hexblade is just a mess IMO. Their are trying so hard to not make this the optimal PotB subclass when they SHOULD be leaning into that. Not to say it should be directly ties to PotB in terms of functionality, but the Hexblade should be the gish subclass for warlocks. They did it with spellsingers and honestly it looks fantastic. I dont know why they cant do that for warlocks.
in terms of AC, I have no issue with them taking away medium armor and shields, but the replacement should not be Accuraed shield. That feature is so bad its honestly mind blowing someone at WoTc looked at it and said “yeah, this looks good”. Give Hexblades the bladesinger treatment where they can add their CHA to AC. Somthing like “while not wearing medium or heavy armor, and not carrying a shield, you get a bonus to your AC eqaul to your CHA modifier while concentrating on a spell”. It would combine nicely with unyielding will and would allow warlocks to frontline without dipping.
Also certain features need to scale, the dmg from unyielding will needs to scale with warlock level or just remove it, the dmg from exploding hex needs to scale with warlock level or change the capstone entirely and accursed ciritcal needs to go back to base hexblades curse alongside a dmg buff. Hexblades curse should be a offensive buff not a defensive one.
Malaign brutality is the only feature which seems decent and its still has glaring issues. The BA attack should be reworded to be made as part if the same action when casting a spell. You already have alot of bonus actions as a warlock and hexblade which means this feature will almost always be useless. It does not even work with animate objects since that requires your BA to command the objects.
I hipe we get another revised version of the hexblade in thr next UA so we can give them more feedback because if this goes live as is or with some minor tweaks, it will be the death of my favorite subclass and character build. As someone said on this tread, with how things are rn, PotB warlocks who want to build for melee will still dip for armor and take any other subclass over this mess. Its frustratingly stupid that ALL other subclasses seem better for melee warlocks than this mess. Honestly 1 lvl in fighter is almost mandatory unless they fix the survivability issue with the hexblade and being forced to multiclass is bad design IMO.
This UA hexblade is the most pact if the blade warlock in existence, even including the old hexblade (which had no particular reason not just use edlritch blast).
1. it has a feature which allows you to attack with a weapon as a bonus attack when casting a spell with your action. if you arent using pact of the blade, this would be a simple weapon (which is inherently inferior to mattial weapons) with probably a lower ability score.
2.Unyielding will only damages enemies close to you.
3. accursed shield gives you bonus AC as long as you are in melee range with your target.
thise features alone makes it the most melee weapon focused warlock.
you can hate it or love it, but objectively its mellee focused.
most people who want medium armor, or something like unarmored defense, that are always on would be making it less melee/weapon focused. (and more boring)
As for unyielding will scaling, while i like seeing numbers go up, hexblade and warlock is already pushing the boundaries of how much dpr it should have, especially in later levels.
at level 7 it gets 2d8 per hit via spirit shroud, thats 42-43 dpr at level 7, assuming you get hit half the rounds, thats 45-47dpr.on main target, +3.5 to each additional target in range.
and that number only increases as they level, with lifedrinker at 9, (50ish dpr) (and concentrationless bestow curse if you care) level 11, more spells per SR, level 12 (60+ dpr) devouring blade, extra attack, level 14, one aoe burst per day + 19 crit rate (72+dpr) (on a class with eldricth smite) and at 17, foresight. (85+dpr)
which basically would make it dpr wise superior to almost all martials. the subclass, and likely class, really doesnt need more scaling on unyielding will, unless you are somehow going to lower its baseline damage potential.
I agree that it has melee focused features, but I disagree that they are any good.
accursed shield is a laughable boost to AC, both in terms of the actual bonus and because of all the hoops you have to jump through (having hexblades curse up which has limited uses and have to be within 10ft of that specific target and hoping it does not die too soon otherwise you lose the AC, which is counterintuitive of hexblade who usually wants to nuke that targetvas quickly as possible.)
The bonus action attack is super bad and needs to be an attack you make for feee as part of the same action. You already have too much BA features and spells, even animate objects does not work with it since it requires a BA to command the objects to move and attack.
Unyielding wills dmg is laughable to start already and it becomes worse and worse as you reach higher levels, I would much rather seeing it removed if its not gonna scale.
Also I see you are using spirit shroud as an excuse to get high DPR numbers which is the same thing treantmonk did in his video when the PotB package was put in playtest 7 of one dnd which led to it being nerfed into the ground. Spirit shroud is not in the 2024 ruleset which means it will likely get updated and nerfed into the ground a future release. Lifedrinker being a D6 dmg boost only once per turn is laughably bad and not worth an invocation. Not to mention warlocks will never be able to wield heavy weapons and go for GWM easily because of the STR requirement on both those things, to do so you would have to sacrifice you constitution and slow you CHA advancement which is a pretty steep cost.
The only ppl who are arguing in favor of this version of hexblade are ppl who either never played a bladelock i their life or ppl who hate bladelocks and what to see a bad hexblade published because of the 2014 hexblade debuckle. Truth is the 2014 hexblade wasn't even that good to tale for straight warlock builds, it was the beat option to dip in for paladins and now bladelocks are suffering for the sins of that hexblade which benefited other classes more.
This hexblade provides nothing to bladelocks. The defensjve bonuses are laughably bad and the offensive bonuses come in way too late for what they are. Why do bladesingers get to stack their INT on top of light armor while hexblades dont?
Why does a feature given to lvl3 champion fighters come in at level 14? Why does nothing scale?
Truth is whoever is designing these revised hexblades has no idea what to do with the subclass or what it should be/do.
I sincerely hope very few ppl have your point of view because if anything close to this version gets published bladelock players will have been screwed hard on this one. As i already said, if this or anything similar i whats published, bladelocks will have no option to build their characters without multiclassing or being at a substantial disadvantage compared to everything else at the table. I would much rather have boring and functional than trying to be too clever and cute and be worst that whats already available.
Me personally I would like to see something that fills in the gaps PotB has, while also being able to stand on its own feet and feel interesting to play but also powerful at all levels, not features which come in way too late or that do not scale and become crappy at later levels.
hexblades curse: cast hex a number of times for free equal to CHA modifier per long rest. In addition you get extra benefits against your Hex target; weapon attacks crit on a 19 against it and when reduced to 0 ho you heal D8+CHA.
unyielding will: while concentrating on a spell and not wearing medium/heavy armor and not carrying a shield, you add CHA modifier to your AC. In addition oncer per short rest when you fail concentration you can choose to pass it and gain temp HP equal to D8+warlock level.
malign brutality: when you take the magic action on your turn you can make a one weapon attack as part of the same action. When you do, the spell you cast must be of lvl1 or higher and must use a pact magic slot to cast it. (Worded in a way that the attack can be made before the spell Is cast to synergies with feature that imposes disadvantage against spells). In addition, the dmg of your Hex spell is increased to 2D6.
Armor of hexes: All damage you take from creatures cursed by your Hex spell is reduced by an amount equal to your half your warlock level and whenever that creature hits you with an attack, it takes necrotic damage equal to the dmg prevented.
masterful hex: when you hit a creature with a weapon attacks it gets disadvantage on its next saving throw against a spell until the start if your next turn.
exploding hex: when you hit a creature cursed by your Hex, you can choose to explode it in a 30ft emanation radius. All creature of your choice in the emanation take 3D6+warlock level necrotic dmg and have their speed reduced by 10ft. Once you use this feature you cant use it until long rest or by using a pact magic slot.
there is exactly one build for the UA Hexblade as presented that i came up with that is playable, everything else is just not fun and not worth a spot in a group:
drum roll : 6 Paladin / 14 Hexblade, with armor & shield of the Paladin as well as the Aura of protection this version of Hexblade can be rescued, but its a sad day if you have to take a mc build for a subclass to be playable.
Accursed shield : is useless on so many fronts, only works within 10' of the target and only if the target is cursed ( you only have 3 uses per long rest that is laughable )
to get a semi-usable AC you have to MC, no other way around it ( prio dex over chr = lots of dpr loss, spells not landing, and so on )
All of the ability's this subclass grants on the Warlock are fixed on only working on the cursed target, so useless on anything else by the cursed target, they might be semi useful for a BBEG at the end of a campaign if that BBEG is alone.
This sublcass is a def. D-tier if not even E or F-tier
Completely agree with you on everything. If I need to multicalss to make hexblade playable I could just take 1 lvl in fighter and then literally play any other warlock subclass and it would probably be better than this. The undead from the horror UA seems fun and has much better defensive options than this tragedy of a subclass.
Again, what is most frustrating is how they gave bladesingers all the tools to be a good gish wizard, yet they are designing the hexblade to be as weak and suboptimal as possible, or at least that is the feeling I am getting.
There are good ideas in this UA as opposed to the horror one but it still needs major changes, most of all to hexblades curse which does basically nothing until Lvl10 when you get armor of hexes and even that seems very weak for a lvl10 feature.
The changes that need to happen IMO are as follows:
- hexblades curse needs to be an offensive buff with healing on kill close to the original as possible but with more uses per long rest.
- The AC boost needs to scale with CHA and not be reliant on conditions which are too specific or hard to achieve, I would like to see it be active while concentrating on a spell, but it could be on while you have the hexblades curse active without having to be within 10ft of the target, maybe make it as long as the target is visible at any range or something and should stack with light armor. Or just give medium armor prof.
- Features need to scale: the dmg on both unyielding will and exploding hex is laughably bad.
- The BA attack from malagin brutality needs to be made part of the same action as hexblades already have a lot kf BA to do and honestly warlocks have 2/3 spell slots for most of their career some which will be used on BA spells and sometimes even to smite meaning you wont get a lot of milage out of this ability, at least make it easier and more fluid to use when you actually get the opportunity to do so.
- Armor of hexes needs to be either always on against the cursed targets or if its gonna be a reaction the dmg reeducation needs to be much higher, reducing 10 dmg from one attack is simply bad. At these level you're getting hit multiple times and for much more than that.
- They need to come up with a good capstone feature. Its like they are allergic to giving warlocks good capstones in general. Exploding hex seems fun but unless they're going to make the dmg worth it its just bad. Either make the dmg scale ir be a feature that can be used multiple times for free.
I honestly hope they release another hexblade UA and not just go live with it because if they push out a version thats even close to this current one, its gonna be sad for bladelocks. I hate when builds are forced into multiclassing and rn it feels like the only way to play a decent bladelock is to start as a fighter or a paladin, and even than this hexblade is just jot worth picking up.
i agree the uses per day of hexblade's curse needs to be looked at. 3-5 uses is not good enough IMO. this is modifed at 14, but thats a long time.
by some interpretations you can use hex to apply it and keep it moving it, but thats not certain to be Raw/rai. and if it does work still has some design issues.
I can also see some benefit to getting free casts of hex, as it reduces the feeling of not having enough spell/play variation in t2, though its not strictly needed in terms of power.
2024 rules and playtests are meant to work with older books. I doubt spirit shroud will get a signifigant nerf, (if they even remake it) its weaker than conjure elementals, and thats after they errata'd it.
Not sure the reasoning on the BA attack being bad.
if you are casting a spell with a slot, you cant cast a spell as your bonus action. This might be the case with a cantrip main action, but using a cantrip compared to an attack action for a melee build is not a good bet. Perhaps eldritch blast, but i dont think the goal of this hexblade is to be built around eldritch blast.
If you dont value lifedrinker, dont take it, but its an option for those who are looking for more damage/recovery. If something else gives you more benefit, that just means that at level 9 you are even better than i projected.
i playtested multiple hexblades for many levels, i have also tested many other 2024 classes and UAs. Hexblade was never lacking in power, and was one of the more survivable /durable builds.
my main complaint was not enough tactical/gameplay decisions from level 5-10 (cantrips can provide variation early on but are irrelevant once younget extra attack)
If you are saying hexblade is unplayable, or d teir, as presented, what are you measuring it against? Most classes are not performing like an optimized MC
lets compare a berserker and eldritch knight to hexblade
Berserker PAM lvl 5, 32 dpr HP: 55. AC 17. Evasion% 30.25%. CR4 enemy dpr (not including accuracy) 20/12( resistence), HP recovery 0, dpr taken with evasion 8.37
Hexblade PAM lvl 5: 30.6 dpr(+3.5 per aoe unyielding) HP 58 (Agathys/lessons) AC16/18. Evasion% 50%/60%. CR4 enemy DPR 20, HP recovery +8.5(per hexcurse). dpr taken with evasion 10/8
Ek PAM lvl 5 DPR: 22/45(action surge) 25avg daily HP: 49, AC 18, Evasion 60%/85%(shield) CR4 DPRbase: 20 Hp recovery 10.5 per second wind. DPRtaken: 8/3(shield) 7 avg 4 encounter day.
lvl 9:
barbarian PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR 52. HP:95 AC 17 evasion: 16% CR7 DPRbase: 49/35, HP recovery 0, DPRtaken 29.4
hexblade PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR: 47.6, HP:100(agathys/lessons), AC:16/18, evasion:35%/45% CR7 DPRbase: 49, HP recovery 8.5 per hexcurse 5.5per lifedrinker, DPR taken, 31/27
eldritch PAM/GWM lvl 9 DPR: 36/56(surge) 38.5 avg daily, HP: 85, AC:18, evasion: 45% 70%, CR7 DPRbase: 49, hp recovery 14.5 (wind), DPR taken 27/14.7, 24 avg 4 encounter day
level 12
barb pam/gwm lvl12 DPR 64, HP:125, AC 17, evasion 13% CR10 DPRbase: 60/42 Hp recovery zero, DPRtaken: 36.54
hex pam/gwm level12 DPR 70, HP:124, AC16/18 evasion 30%/40% CR10 DPRbase: 60. HP recovery 9.5(curse)5.5(drink) DPR taken 42/36(base) 30/24(armor curses)
EK pam/gwm level12 DPR 52(88(surge) 56.5 daily. HP112, AC 18, evasion: 40%/65% CR10 DPRbase base: 60. Hp recovery 17.5, DPR taken 36/21 32 avg DPR 4 encounter day
and this isnt event the 'best' hexblade, just one that provides an easy comparison with high damage martials. (similar weapons/ac/hp) things like mirror image/ dex build would give more defense on average.
and warlock gets full caster spell levels, they still have things like hypnotic pattern, staggering smite, synaptic static, conjure barrage, steel wind strike, arcane vigor in their back pocket, they can just as easily build further in the debuff/caster direction
we can see here hexblade is definitely competitive in dpr and survivability with top martials.
maybe people would prefer different functionality, but relative performance wise its not lacking.
you could not, while being balanced, increase the DPR of the class without nerfing its survivability or versatility just as much, or vice versa
The BA attack is bad because its requires your bonus action, something which as a warlock especially hexblade is not as free as you might assume. The BA attack does not work with both smite spells you get as a hexblade because they use your BA to cast, Hexblades curse requires a BA to use and is something you want to have up as much as possible, it does not even work with Animate Objects which requires a BA to command the creatures you conjure with it. On top of that warlocks only get 2 spells slots for most of their career meaning this feature is only really usable up to twice per short rest and even then you might be casting spells like Spirit shroud which is a BA meaning you wont trigger this "free" attack. Its yet another hexblade feature which very conditional and I do not see hexblades using it all that much.
Lifedrinker has been nerfed to the ground. I do not see why it does not apply on all attacks, in UA playtest 7 of one dnd something weird happened, GWM was a once per turn dmg boost and got buffed to apply on all attacks, while lifedrinker was on all attacks on get nerfed to once per turn. This happened because ppl complained that PotB was too powerful mainly due to a video by treantmonk crunching numbers like you did here without giving any context, but besides that, lifedrinker being a lvl9 invocation that is just a oncer per turn D6 dmg boost and some healing which is not even free because it uses hit dice which is another limited resource is very very bad. And i don't value lifedrinker not because I am already good without its because its an abysmal investment.
Hexbalde is unplayable because of what it is supposed to do. Its supposed to compliment PotB and give you the tools needed to be a melee combatant, meaning survivability most of all, and features which compliment melee fighting. It does none of these things well. The defensive tools are very conditional and even with the conditions met they are still bad. The +2 AC is already laughable as far as the actual boost goes, but when you take into account all the hoops you have to jump through to get it, its just so bad I cant even find the words to describe it. Armor of hexes is another very bad defensive tool. Its a once per turn dmg reduction which can only be used against the creature hexed by your target. At level 10+ enemies are usually attacking twice if not more. Reducing 10 dmg form one attack is not worth the reaction it takes nor worth the 10th level feature slot. Yes it scales, but so does the dmg dealt by the enemies, so it never gets better in terms of the % of dmg reduced, it just gets worse.
In you DPR breakdown you are assuming hexbaldes are getting thisn like GWM and PAM, explain to me how are you getting your CHA to 20 while also investing in features which boost your STR? If you are investing in STR instead then I do not see the point of playing a hexblade and dumping CHA, at the point I would rather play a Paladin. Comparing the survivability of a fighter which gets full played armor and FS-defense (if EK they can also cast shield with their lvl1 spell slots), to the hexblade which gets their defensive tools conditionally and sometimes only against one target is misleading and disingenuous. The fighter will have 19+ AC against all attacks coming (not taking into account magical armor), while this hexbalde will start the fight with a 15 AC at best (with an invocation tax on armor of shadows which sucks), then you have to use your BA to curse a target and hopefully you can reliably stick to them to go up to a miserable 17 AC, and you can reduce some dmg coming only from that target. At this point you are hoping your enemy can't fly, teleport, go invisible, or whatever shenanigans it can get up to, because if it doe you are in for a miserable time.
You also said that warlocks get full caster progression, which a) they don't really, they get pact casting which is much different and b) in your examples you are assuming you are using those slots for defensive boosts such as mirror image and armor of agathys. At that point why bother with the hexblade? If I have to use my limited spell slots for temporary defensive boosts to try and survive, might as well play an actual martial without spell slots, but have my defenses always on, or play a Paladin or EK, have my defenses always on and also get some spell casting which I do not have to waste on Band-Aid fixes to my survivability.
Every single feature the hexblade has is conditional and easy to miss on, making it very unappealing and from the point of view of many, very weak, to the point that for what it is supposed to do, it is not worth it. I have seen many people discussing this hexblade, and for many baldelock players, it is not appealing. That is a big issue, because this is supposed to appeal to those players, and if it is not, something is very wrong. As I, and many others have said, looking at this version of the hexblade, if I want to play a bladelock, I am still gonna start as a lvl1 fighter, get my proficiencies and a bunch of goodies, and switch over to warlock at lvl2, then take literally any other subclass which provides features which are always ready for use without having to do a billion things. Fiend gives me temp HP every time something dies close to me, and as a melee, that is gonna happen often, no resources or actions needed, something dies, I just get the thing. Fey, get abunch of teleports to be bale to move from target to target are get out if I am in a pinch. GOO provides a better hexbaldes curse then hexblade, granting adv to you and disadv to your target for a minute on ALL attacks. Yes it requires a saving throw but is still better than what thsi hexbalde provides. The undead from the horror UA grants me temp HP on command, immunity to fear and necrotic dmg while also allowing my attacks to bypass resistances and at lvl10 get an actual good defensive option with a cool and decent capstone.
My point is with this hexbalde, I can find issues with every single feature, I can envision endless scenarios where I get screwed out of every single feature in my subclass due to how a fight set up, enemy abilities or general anti-synergy within the subclass itself (ex. A fight with a boss style enemy and some of his minions. On my first round I use hexbaldes curse on the main target, then use steel wind strike to deal dmg to multiple targets so my allies can start clearing to small guys before focusing the big dude. I find myself having cast a leveled spell as my action, but because hexblades curse uses my BA I am 'cheated' out of my 'free' attack form my subclass' on feature. Or i start the fight by casting animate objects, use my BA to command them and yet again lose my BA attack. Not to mention the plethora of BA spells hexblade warlocks have which interact negatively with that feature.).
Every single feature has serious functionality issues, and IMO and by what ive seen and read the opinion of many others, it is an uninspired, clunky, mess.
Someone said this was a D-tier subclass. Me personally I would even score it, because in its current state I wouldn't consider it a viable option, not even for a casual table, because not only is it weak, it is also complicated and clunky to use.
I look at the bladesinger UA and I see a subclass designed by someone who understood what they were designing and to who they where trying to appeal to with it. THAT is a well designed and satisfactory gish subclass, by comparison, this hexblade, is the leftover dinner from 3 days ago that has been reheated twice.