As one last follow up (as at this point this discussion is obsolete unless WoTC actually gives us another UA hexblade to try out and give feedback on), I tried to ‘fix’ their UA version of the hexblade without adding or removing much of anything, but just polishing its functionality a bit and just add some power to 2 specific features that did not scale at all and felt almost useless.
Hexblades Curse - lvl3
Charisma number of uses per long rest. Curse a target and get benefits against that target. Accursed critical: crit on a 19 or 20 (moved here from 14) Hungering hex: when cursed target dies, regain D8+CHA modifier hit points.
Unyielding Will - lvl3
Accursed shield: While concentrating on a spell, and not wearing medium or heavy armor or wielding a shield, you get a +2 bonus to AC. (Tied it to concentration and without range restriction on cursed target so it’s easier to turn on and maintain, also not limited by hexblades curse uses and stacks with light armor). Vengeful Hex: Whenever you succeed on a concentration saving throw, you may deal necrotic dmg to all creatures of your choice within 10 feet of you equal to D8+Warlock level. Once you use this feature you can’t so again until the start of you next turn. (Made it scale with warlock level to keep it relevant throughout the entire progression. Could be scrapped in favor of proficiency dmg on hexblades curse). Eldritch fortitude: Whenever you would fail a concentration saving throw you may choose to succeed instead and gain a number of temp HP equal to D8+warlock level. Refreshes on a long rest.
Malign Brutality - lvl6
Harrowing hex: After you cast a leveled spell, you may make one weapon attack as part of the same action (attack is made as part of same action so not to clash with hexblades curse, animate objects command timing and to make feel close to what other gish subclasses get). Hindering hex: when you hit the hexblades curse target with a weapon attack, it gets disadvantage on its next saving throw before the start of your next turn. Inescapable hex: When you put your hexblades curse on a creature, or as a bonus action on your turn, you may teleport up to 30 feet to an empty space within 5 feet of you hexblades curse target (teleports are cooler than anime running towards you target, plus the ‘straight’ clause on the UA wording made it weird to use and also provoked AoO. It foes require your BA for future uses, but I think it would be a good trade off for better functionality).
Armor of Hexes - lvl10
Dmg reduction vs cursed target (Unchanged).
Masterful Hex - lvl14
Lingering hex: If a creature cursed by your hexblades curse dies, you can use a BA to curse a new target on subsequent turns. This does not refresh its duration. (Instead of gaining back 1 measly use of the curse with magical cunning, restored ability to move the curse around to be effective against multiple targets. While at such late level this would probably be less useful, I think it’s still nice to have and ok as half of a capstone). Exploding hex: When you hit the hexblades curse target with a weapon attack, you can cause an explosion in a 30-foot emanation from the cursed creature. That creature and all creatures of your choice within the emanation take 4D6+warlock level necrotic, radiant or psychic dmg and are knocked prone. Refresh on a long rest or can be used with a pact magic slot (dmg increased and scales with warlock level to be kelt relevant and worthy of a pct magic slot if one decided to use it that way. Slow effect replaced with applying prone, meaning slow effect is better because this usually means half movement and adds utility because melee attackers get advantage until they get back up, which for a capstone I think it feels much more impactful)
Together with this, I suggest home-brewing armor of shadows to be 10+DEX+CHA instead of mage armor (all it means is that it grants +1 more AC at lvl4 and an additional +1 at lvl 8 if both feats are used to increase the Charisma score). Nothing too crazy IMO seeing as sorcerers got this and even bards got this this and I think it would be a gkkf change to make warlocks feel good about their AC without multiclassing (AoS assuming 14 DEX grants 15 AC at lvls 1-3, at which point the subclass comes i granting a potential +2 for an AC kf 17. At lvl 4 CHA gies to 18 and AC goes to 16 or 18 with accursed shield, and finally at lvl8 CHA goes to 20 and AC goes to 17 base or 19 with accursed shield, which can be further improved by investing in DEX if one wishes to do so, and I do no think these values are crazy our unbalanced)
Thats just my 2 cents. Hopefully WoTC can come up with something better in the near future.
Arcane subclasses update in newest UA and Hexblade is nowhere to be found. Guess we have spent months arguing and discussing for nothing because the designers clearly do not care enough to take the feedback and work on it, they just want to pump out content as quickly as possible and all that matters is money in the end. Guess its time to switch to a new game system where the designers/the people in charge care about the game not about the numbers in their bank account.
Maybe they’re preparing something for the new UA. It’s too early to assume anything. We need more inputs, and they need more feedback. As the article itself highlights.
Your Feedback Matters
Once you’ve read or played with these playtest materials, be sure to fill out the survey on D&D Beyond, coming on September 25, and let us know what you think.
If it's not there, they may have received enough feedback, possibly consistent feedback, that they are satisfied with the path forward. It does not mean that the UA version will be the final version (but there is a good chance).
If it's not there, they may have received enough feedback, possibly consistent feedback, that they are satisfied with the path forward. It does not mean that the UA version will be the final version (but there is a good chance).
Yeah but if they are not releasing another UA it means its gonna be the UA version with tweaks, and the UA version, to put it mildly, is trash (if for example accursed shield stays the same but stacks with light armor its still garbage). So yeah, I do not have any hopes, deva are clueless and WotC only care about money. The DnD Ship is sinking, time to jump.
Must have been a temporary glitch or a desktop issues. I couldn't see the latest UA via the sources menu, but I didn't seem to have issues reloading the direct link.
Edit: Weird. I can't see it on my desktop, but I can on my phone. Same desktop browser and incognito mode and it's fine. Maybe the page is cached.
The new Hexblade is stupid, confusing, boring, slows the game down with inconsequential damage rolls, and is not fun to play. Nobody will play this garbage. Your aren’t proving anything by absolutely ruining this beloved subclass and vanquishing it to obscurity.
The old Hexblade is fun. The class is already fixed by moving CHA base attacks to Pact of the Blade and moving the subclass to level 3. Players only multiclass in Hexblade because warlock is broken, only receiving 2 spell slots until tier 3, not because Hexblade is broken.
Every warlock is reduced to an eldritch blaster after one round of combat. Players have to multiclass warlock to have some spell slots to cast utility spells. If a class is reduced to eldritch blast and they get everything they need to do it in the first few levels then why keep going? Hiding those abilities behind a level 14 firewall won't solve anything. It will just mean they switch to a different warlock with a better level 3 mechanic.
Warlock is broken because of the unlimited short rest mechanic, rather than limiting short rests to once per day, which should have been the focus of 5.5. Unlimited short rests also slow the game down considerably. Anyone with a modicum of talent for game design and experience at a D&D table recognizes this.
(Reply to NullStalker's comment on missing the Hexblade in the updated Arcane Subclass UA)
I think a more likely scenario is that they tried an experiment for the new Hexblade and got very mixed feedback, so they are pulling it back to cook some more.
To me this is a good thing, because the first UA Hexblade is not really something I find exciting and doesn't fill the role that the old Hexblade did (for the Warlock, not for multiclassers). I understand what they wanted to go for but I think the result is pigeonholing the subclass in an unhealthy way.
The second UA Hexblade (from Arcane Subclasses) was a lot more appealing in direction but felt weak and full of conditions/limits. Especially the lvl 3 features were only granting a bit of healing on kill and some AC when unarmored and some conditional return-damage. Warlock already have Light Armor Training for a Studded Leather Armor's 12 + DEX (and whatever magic items can later be acquired). This leads to an incentive to use Mage Armor's 13 + DEX AC with +2 from the Curse (adding more to the Invocation-tax to run a melee build). The healing is proc'ed on kill, which would also end the curse on the target and your +2 AC... So on one hand you want to kill to get HP back and on the other hand you want to remain shielded. This feels like a bad version of the Bladesinger's Bladesong with little else to weigh up.
Really, some of the designers need to check themselves into a clinic to treat their addiction to keying classes and subclasses to a specific 1rst level concentration spell for all 20 levels of play. It's bad design no matter how many times they try.
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As one last follow up (as at this point this discussion is obsolete unless WoTC actually gives us another UA hexblade to try out and give feedback on), I tried to ‘fix’ their UA version of the hexblade without adding or removing much of anything, but just polishing its functionality a bit and just add some power to 2 specific features that did not scale at all and felt almost useless.
Hexblades Curse - lvl3
Charisma number of uses per long rest. Curse a target and get benefits against that target.
Accursed critical: crit on a 19 or 20 (moved here from 14) Hungering hex: when cursed target dies, regain D8+CHA modifier hit points.
Unyielding Will - lvl3
Accursed shield: While concentrating on a spell, and not wearing medium or heavy armor or wielding a shield, you get a +2 bonus to AC. (Tied it to concentration and without range restriction on cursed target so it’s easier to turn on and maintain, also not limited by hexblades curse uses and stacks with light armor). Vengeful Hex: Whenever you succeed on a concentration saving throw, you may deal necrotic dmg to all creatures of your choice within 10 feet of you equal to D8+Warlock level. Once you use this feature you can’t so again until the start of you next turn. (Made it scale with warlock level to keep it relevant throughout the entire progression. Could be scrapped in favor of proficiency dmg on hexblades curse). Eldritch fortitude: Whenever you would fail a concentration saving throw you may choose to succeed instead and gain a number of temp HP equal to D8+warlock level. Refreshes on a long rest.
Malign Brutality - lvl6
Harrowing hex: After you cast a leveled spell, you may make one weapon attack as part of the same action (attack is made as part of same action so not to clash with hexblades curse, animate objects command timing and to make feel close to what other gish subclasses get). Hindering hex: when you hit the hexblades curse target with a weapon attack, it gets disadvantage on its next saving throw before the start of your next turn. Inescapable hex: When you put your hexblades curse on a creature, or as a bonus action on your turn, you may teleport up to 30 feet to an empty space within 5 feet of you hexblades curse target (teleports are cooler than anime running towards you target, plus the ‘straight’ clause on the UA wording made it weird to use and also provoked AoO. It foes require your BA for future uses, but I think it would be a good trade off for better functionality).
Armor of Hexes - lvl10
Dmg reduction vs cursed target (Unchanged).
Masterful Hex - lvl14
Lingering hex: If a creature cursed by your hexblades curse dies, you can use a BA to curse a new target on subsequent turns. This does not refresh its duration. (Instead of gaining back 1 measly use of the curse with magical cunning, restored ability to move the curse around to be effective against multiple targets. While at such late level this would probably be less useful, I think it’s still nice to have and ok as half of a capstone). Exploding hex: When you hit the hexblades curse target with a weapon attack, you can cause an explosion in a 30-foot emanation from the cursed creature. That creature and all creatures of your choice within the emanation take 4D6+warlock level necrotic, radiant or psychic dmg and are knocked prone. Refresh on a long rest or can be used with a pact magic slot (dmg increased and scales with warlock level to be kelt relevant and worthy of a pct magic slot if one decided to use it that way. Slow effect replaced with applying prone, meaning slow effect is better because this usually means half movement and adds utility because melee attackers get advantage until they get back up, which for a capstone I think it feels much more impactful)
Together with this, I suggest home-brewing armor of shadows to be 10+DEX+CHA instead of mage armor (all it means is that it grants +1 more AC at lvl4 and an additional +1 at lvl 8 if both feats are used to increase the Charisma score). Nothing too crazy IMO seeing as sorcerers got this and even bards got this this and I think it would be a gkkf change to make warlocks feel good about their AC without multiclassing (AoS assuming 14 DEX grants 15 AC at lvls 1-3, at which point the subclass comes i granting a potential +2 for an AC kf 17. At lvl 4 CHA gies to 18 and AC goes to 16 or 18 with accursed shield, and finally at lvl8 CHA goes to 20 and AC goes to 17 base or 19 with accursed shield, which can be further improved by investing in DEX if one wishes to do so, and I do no think these values are crazy our unbalanced)
Thats just my 2 cents. Hopefully WoTC can come up with something better in the near future.
Arcane subclasses update in newest UA and Hexblade is nowhere to be found. Guess we have spent months arguing and discussing for nothing because the designers clearly do not care enough to take the feedback and work on it, they just want to pump out content as quickly as possible and all that matters is money in the end. Guess its time to switch to a new game system where the designers/the people in charge care about the game not about the numbers in their bank account.
Maybe they’re preparing something for the new UA. It’s too early to assume anything. We need more inputs, and they need more feedback. As the article itself highlights.
I hope.
If it's not there, they may have received enough feedback, possibly consistent feedback, that they are satisfied with the path forward. It does not mean that the UA version will be the final version (but there is a good chance).
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Yeah but if they are not releasing another UA it means its gonna be the UA version with tweaks, and the UA version, to put it mildly, is trash (if for example accursed shield stays the same but stacks with light armor its still garbage). So yeah, I do not have any hopes, deva are clueless and WotC only care about money. The DnD Ship is sinking, time to jump.
Is anybody else unable to access the current UA? Perhaps it was released prematurely?
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Nope. It's right here: https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/arcane-subclasses-update/LEwFmioFBYHWqzpd/UA2025-ArcaneSubclassesUpdate.pdf
Must have been a temporary glitch or a desktop issues. I couldn't see the latest UA via the sources menu, but I didn't seem to have issues reloading the direct link.
Edit: Weird. I can't see it on my desktop, but I can on my phone. Same desktop browser and incognito mode and it's fine. Maybe the page is cached.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
The new Hexblade is stupid, confusing, boring, slows the game down with inconsequential damage rolls, and is not fun to play. Nobody will play this garbage. Your aren’t proving anything by absolutely ruining this beloved subclass and vanquishing it to obscurity.
The old Hexblade is fun. The class is already fixed by moving CHA base attacks to Pact of the Blade and moving the subclass to level 3. Players only multiclass in Hexblade because warlock is broken, only receiving 2 spell slots until tier 3, not because Hexblade is broken.
Every warlock is reduced to an eldritch blaster after one round of combat. Players have to multiclass warlock to have some spell slots to cast utility spells. If a class is reduced to eldritch blast and they get everything they need to do it in the first few levels then why keep going? Hiding those abilities behind a level 14 firewall won't solve anything. It will just mean they switch to a different warlock with a better level 3 mechanic.
Warlock is broken because of the unlimited short rest mechanic, rather than limiting short rests to once per day, which should have been the focus of 5.5. Unlimited short rests also slow the game down considerably. Anyone with a modicum of talent for game design and experience at a D&D table recognizes this.
(Reply to NullStalker's comment on missing the Hexblade in the updated Arcane Subclass UA)
I think a more likely scenario is that they tried an experiment for the new Hexblade and got very mixed feedback, so they are pulling it back to cook some more.
To me this is a good thing, because the first UA Hexblade is not really something I find exciting and doesn't fill the role that the old Hexblade did (for the Warlock, not for multiclassers). I understand what they wanted to go for but I think the result is pigeonholing the subclass in an unhealthy way.
The second UA Hexblade (from Arcane Subclasses) was a lot more appealing in direction but felt weak and full of conditions/limits. Especially the lvl 3 features were only granting a bit of healing on kill and some AC when unarmored and some conditional return-damage. Warlock already have Light Armor Training for a Studded Leather Armor's 12 + DEX (and whatever magic items can later be acquired). This leads to an incentive to use Mage Armor's 13 + DEX AC with +2 from the Curse (adding more to the Invocation-tax to run a melee build). The healing is proc'ed on kill, which would also end the curse on the target and your +2 AC... So on one hand you want to kill to get HP back and on the other hand you want to remain shielded. This feels like a bad version of the Bladesinger's Bladesong with little else to weigh up.
Really, some of the designers need to check themselves into a clinic to treat their addiction to keying classes and subclasses to a specific 1rst level concentration spell for all 20 levels of play. It's bad design no matter how many times they try.