Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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maybe i wrote that a bit mistunderstanding you take either a lvl of paladin or a lvl of figther not both :)
as for the studded leather this is the way you have to go ( or mage armor which will cost you an invocation ) if you go pure Warlock ....
how does true strike bridge the gap its easy:
Weapon Longsword = 1d8 + 4 ( chr 18 ) x 2 attacks with 60% hit chance = 9 dps
Longsword = 1d8 + 4 ( chr 18 ) + 1d6 = 8 dps
with the difference that true strike is radiant dmg, if you use a different weapon i wont change much
as for 16 dex and heavy armor you dont have the stats to make that so you have to take the tradeoff of 15 str, 10 dex and heavy armor or 13 str, 14 dex and medium armor ( which looses you 1 point of AC )
If you want to go for nova dmg that 1 lvl paladin split will outperform the pure warlock by a large margin:
beginning at 6th lvl you could do the following:
- attack with your weapon and when you hit
- add a 3rd lvl eldritch smite ( from warlock ) = +4d6 force dmg
- add a 3rd lvl divine smite = +4d8 radiant dmg
with the same attack as Eldritch smite does not need you to cast a spell or use a bonus action, only divine smite does that
2 attacks vs 1 attack that has more damage.
With 2 attacks you have a chance to get an actual hit. With one attack there is a (good?) chance you will not actually get a hit. A hit that does minimal damage is much better then not hitting. this total damage number makes no sense as it assumes what cannot be assumed, you actually hit. If on average you are hitting about once every 3-4 rounds/attempts, it is far better to have 2 attacks per round.
Where are you getting these ability scores? It looks like you are just generating numbers to make your point.
📜 SUBCLASS DESIGN (D&D 5.5): THE NEW HEXBLADE
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/PpiSdMqZdqia
Hey everyone! After a thousand hours of analyzing playtests and the new 2024 (5.5) rules, I got tired of seeing how official designers just can't seem to figure out the Hexblade. I designed this complete rework focused on rescuing the subclass's soul, solving the three structural problems it has been dragging since 2014: Lore, Mechanics, and that damn dependency on external resources.
If any brave soul wants to playtest this at their tables, here are the key design concepts behind it:
I firmly believe that a subclass should be a complete, self-sufficient, and fully functional package on its own. This Hexblade functions purely from level 3 to 14, without forcing the player to break their character's narrative with mandatory multiclassing or burning valuable feats just to patch up the manual's shortcomings.
Let's be clear from the start: this is a subclass exclusively designed for a Melee Warlock. If your campaign goal is to stay safely at a 90-foot distance spamming Eldritch Blast, there is already a massive catalog of official patrons that do that perfectly well. This design actively rewards the player who embraces the fantasy of getting into the mud with cold steel in hand.
In the official version, your patron is an abstract force from the Shadowfell. In this rework, the contract is directly made with a Sentient Hex Weapon. Your blade is your companion, your partner, or your jailer. It is alive, it talks inside your head, and it has its own quirks, fears, and goals. I added detailed rolling tables to help you build its personality and define its real-time relationship with you (ranging from an awkward alliance to absolute contempt). Furthermore, through the passive Essence Devourer mechanic, your weapon isn't replaced by loot; it feeds on the magic of other blades to evolve along with the campaign tier.
Since Wizards of the Coast flat-out refuses to give melee Warlocks native Medium Armor proficiency, I decided to bypass their stubbornness cleanly: while wielding your Hex Weapon, you gain a flat +2 bonus to AC (as long as you are not using heavy armor or a shield).
To free up the Warlock's high-level spell slots and allow them to cast massive control spells (looking at you, Hunger of Hadar), my version of the level 3 curse does not require concentration and offers free uses based on Charisma. However, I built in the necessary mathematical locks to ensure it doesn't break the game:
At level 6, I wanted to solidify the true gameplay experience of a Gish (warrior/mage).
Let's be honest: every official version of Armor of Hexes was awful and bogged down combat by forcing extra dice rolls just to see if an enemy missed randomly. I did a complete overhaul based on the Arcana Unleashed philosophy and the trend where almost every subclass gains a resistance at level 10:
At level 14, every official subclass gets a major power spike, and this design is no exception, boosting both passive damage and magical mechanics in a highly tactical way:
Thank you very much for reading my version of the Hexblade! I hope you like it, and I'd be incredibly grateful for any constructive criticism. Cheers!
I like your rework, though I think the properties of the sentient hex weapon (beyond those granted by Pact of the Blade) feel overpowered to me.
The chance to hit is likely the same between the two scenarios, so if we assume the consensus average of 65% hit rate rolling straight (no ADV/DisADV) it applies evenly to the 2x attacks and the 1x Cantrip empowered attack. (I think I'd rather use Booming Blade rather than True Strike, seeing as we already have levels in Warlock to get Pact of the Blade to use CHA as the weapon stat)
Whether it's a Paladin with Sword'n'Board and Fighting Style: Dueling
2x (1d8 + 4 STR + 2 FS: Duel) * 65% hit chance = 13.65 AVG. DPR
Or a Pala/Warlock with Sword'n'Board and using Booming Blade
1x (1d8 + 4 CHA + 1d8 BB-hit) * 65% hit chance = 8.45 AVG. DPR
And if you can get Booming Blade to trigger, which is easier with Weapon Mastery: Push from the Warhammer against melee opponents (that are Large size or smaller) you can add 2d8 (9 AVG DMG or 5.85 AVG DPR with the hit chance) to up that to 14.3 AVG. DPR
Versus Pala/Warlock with Sword'n'Board just attacking straight
1x (1d8 + 4 CHA ) * 65% hit chance = 5.53 AVG. DPR
Whether you have one big hit or multiple smaller hits, if the hit chance is the same, it doesn't matter statistically. Sure having more attacks are generally better due to stuff like Concentration or overkill-potential but it's unlikely a major factor for a lvl 5 party, and when they hit lvl 6 the Pala/Warlock multiclass has caught up.
Yeah, this particular point is getting muddy.
I believe their point is that going pure Warlock means you're stuck with Studded Leather or Mage Armor from invocations, so to maximize your AC you need to invest 15 DEX base stats and get a +1 from your Background (assuming Point Buy which is the norm for theory crafting). This results in 15-16 AC and as a Warlock with Pact of the Blade you likely want to prioritize CHA for ASIs, so your AC is stuck at 15 or 16 until you've capped CHA, which is likely first at lvl 12 that you can make your first investment into more DEX for a higher AC.
Going with a multiclass solution obviously opens up access to Medium's 15 + 2 DEX AC Half-Plate or Heavy's 18 AC Plate AND a Shield for +2 on top (at least eventually). Medium Armor requires 14 DEX minimum to get the most out of and opens up your stat investment to increase your CON for more HP and better CON/Concentration saves. Heavy Armor (/Plate) requires 15 STR to wield without losing Speed - and unless you pick up Archfey for some Misty Step mobility, you likely don't want to lose out on that Speed.
As for your comment on "Why not have full plate even though you have a 16 dex? Dex helps with initiative and saving throws. So what if your armor does not use your dex score." - again assuming Point Buy you can only afford 15 STR, 16 DEX and max CHA (17) if you literally dump CON, INT, and WIS to an 8. All in order to bump your DEX saves and Initiative. That's not worth it. If you go for a Heavy armor user you likely want a stat spread looking like 14 STR / 10 DEX / 14 CON / 8 INT / 10 WIS / 15 CHA, with Background granting +1 STR / +2 CHA on top. You could dump DEX and WIS to 8 to get 16 CON instead, but that trade-off is often not favorable.
The 13 STR, 14 DEX stat split they talk about is assuming a Paladin multiclass that requires 13 STR (and CHA) for multiclassing, whilst Fighter allows for either 13 STR or DEX and thus is a lot more flexible, especially for Medium armor users. Generally speaking if you multiclass Paladin with Warlock you want your 1st level in Paladin and go for Heavy armor to reduce your stat spread. Unless you specifically want Paladin for access to Smites or for later picking Pala levels for Aura of Protection (which is very viable as Warlock levels don't add much for a melee build after lvl 12) there's a good argument to go for a Fighter multiclass and go for Medium Armor and a DEX investment and invest more into CON.
I'm curious what you find overpowered, as the Sentient weapon only seems capable of destroying magical items to copy its abilities - essentially similar to how Pact of the Blade can be used to bond to a magic item - except here you permanently destroy the magic item and cannot sell it once you find an upgrade.
But the build may have been edited since you saw it.
As for Hanzza's suggested revision of the Hexblade, it is relatively similar to current UA as a mix of both 1st and 2nd edition Hexblade with fewer restrictions, some upgrades and a more complex mechanical structure.
I like it a lot better than the UA, but also find it a bit too overcomplicated than needed - for instance the Sentient Weapon could function exactly like Pact of the Blade does and just re-bind to a new item during a Long Rest. The entity could just as easily be possessing the weapon similar to a house, rather than this elaborate magic devouring that functionally does the exact same as PotB re-binding but with a major downside, and no actual upside.
I do find quite a few of the feature descriptions to be a little overexplained, that could be reduced for brevity and perhaps even clarity - I'll enclose my thoughts in a spoiler.
Level 3: Hex Warrior
Simplify and just have it read:
While you wield your Hex Weapon and don't wear Heavy Armor, or wield a Shield, you gain a +2 bonus to your AC.
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Hexblade's Curse
Normally you list uses after the feature. And there's only reason to mention "...you can use a Bonus Action to >expend one use of this feature<" if there are options to use multiple uses of the feature for something else - for instance if you could use two uses of the feature to instead deal X bonus damage. Otherwise it is implied when you list uses of the feature, often at the end of the feature description. See Fighter's Second Wind as an example:
Level 1: Second Wind
You have a limited well of physical and mental stamina that you can draw on. As a Bonus Action, you can use it to regain Hit Points equal to 1d10 plus your Fighter level.
You can use this feature twice. You regain one expended use when you finish a Short Rest, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
When you reach certain Fighter levels, you gain more uses of this feature, as shown in the Second Wind column of the Fighter Features table.
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Is there a specific purpose to wording it the way you do, and not just have it function similar to Ranger's Favored Enemy (Hunter's Mark) where you Learn and always have the spell readied, and you can cast the spell through the feature for free (no spell slots)?
It would seem simpler to just have it read:
You learn the Hex spell and you always have it prepared.
You can cast it through this feature without expending a spell slot and you can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses of this ability when you finish a Long Rest.
When you cast Hex through this feature, the spell doesn't require Concentration. Instead the spell lasts for 1 minute, but it ends early if you cast that spell again, have the Incapacitated condition, you die or if the cursed target is reduced to 0 Hit Points. The spell's bonus damage when hitting the cursed target with an attack roll, only applies to weapon attacks made with your Hex Weapon.
- A balance thing to consider is that Ranger's Hunter's Mark feature allows transfers, so it could be considered to let this feature regain all or at least one expended use on a Short Rest to go with the "Warlock resets spell slots on a Short Rest"-shtick. You're hard-locking the user to go with either the Hexblade-version or the regular casting of Hex, and if you pick the HB-version, you're also locked to only using your Hex Weapon if you want the benefit.
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Level 10: Armor of Hexes: Unyielding Will
This benefit is a bit confusing on its limits. You specifically write that once you use the retaliation, you can't do so again until the start of your next turn. Then the entire benefit later states "Once you use this benefit, you cannot do so again until you finish a Long Rest."
So is the retaliation a one-off per Long Rest or a one-off per "round"?
As the more balance or gameplay feedback:
Level 6: Hungering Hex
I'm a little confused whether this feature requires you to be the one to deliver the fatal blow or if there is a grace-period from when you hit them with your Hex Weapon. The thing about a requirement to be the one to last-hit, is that it feels bad when you don't secure it, and it feels bad for others to take it from you - leading to some friction in gameplay (see '14 version of Fiend Patron versus '24 version of the Dark One's Blessing). Consider it just to require that you attacked them with your Hex Weapon since the beginning of your last turn or if the target is afflicted with a curse you cast on them (e.g. Hex or Bestow Curse).
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Level 6: Harrowing Hex
I always found this feature a bit bothersome as it doesn't synergize with the Thirsting Blade nor Devouring Blade invocations. On one hand, it's bad if it doesn't work with those invocations, on the other it is bad if it doesn't work without them.
The simplest solution I can think of is to split it into "two" sub-benefits:
Quench the Thirst
When you take the Attack action, you may replace one of your attacks with a casting of one of your cantrips with a normal casting time of an Action and range of touch or self. You can use a Bonus Action to instead replace one of your attacks with a casting of one of your level 1+ spells with a casting time of an Action (no limit on range).
Weave and Cut
After you cast a level 1+ spell with a casting time of an action, you may make one weapon attack with your Hex Weapon as a Bonus Action.
Quench makes certain you can utilize it together with Thirsting Blade and Devouring Blade, bringing it into line with Valor Bards, EKs, and Bladesingers who gets to cantrip-replace. To remove Eldritch Blast from the roster we add range as a limit - often not an issue for use cases for the Hexblade who prefer to cast weapon-empowering cantrips like Booming Blade or True Strike, rather than Firebolt (if one was to specifically ban Eldritch Blast). And it could also be used to put up Blade Ward.
The Bonus Action-cost to upgrade it to a leveled spell is technically the same as what Harrowing Hex already does when you get it: You spend your Action and Bonus Action and get one leveled spell plus one weapon attack. But if we acquire Devouring Blade you get two attacks and a spell instead, so synergy. Additionally Warlocks have few spell slots (even considering Mystic Arcanum later on) per Long Rest, so even with this upgrade it doesn't amount to many additional weapon attacks per Long Rest. Not to mention that many of the Mystic Arcanum choices, especially early levels don't pair super well with being in combat, so it would pigeon-hole you into selecting from a very narrow slew of spells in order to utilize this.
Weave and Cut is only really here to make sure you get something out of this feature, regardless of your Invocations. Expectedly this sub-benefit sees little to no use for your run-of-the-mill Hexblade.
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Level 10: Armor of Hexes
The thing about resistance is that it generally doesn't do much when resistant to elements. Resistance against Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing is a lot better as they are more common across enemies. However selecting one of them out and using it for your Hex Weapon and for defense, seems like a recipe to reducing choice. You get more defense out of being resistant against B/P/S but that also means if you find a sweet Sun Blade... then your defenses dip or you skip the sweet weapon upgrade.
I understand the reasoning to streamline it and avoid rolling for a coin-flip to ignore the attack (as per the '14 rules) but it comes with a slew of meta-gaming brain-wracking. Even just being able to select one of B/P/S to be resistant to on a Long Rest seems preferable. Still being resistant to a specific damage type carries a lot of risk of being pointless a lot of the time.
A generic way to reduce damage overall seems better, and if we want to just streamline it and not deal with reactions, it could just be similar to Heavy Armor Master:
Whenever you take damage, reduce the total damage you take by a number equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). This cannot reduce Force, Necrotic, Radiant, nor Psychic damage and it cannot reduce total damage below 0. This damage reduction is applied after Resistance or Vulnerability to damage is applied.
At level 10, your Charisma modifier is likely a +5, so you take 5 less damage. Why the F/N/R/P exception? Mainly to play on that you can reduce physical damage (B/Pi/S) and elemental damage (A/C/F/L/Po/T) but not cosmic damage (F/N/R/Ps) - some chinks in the armor is also fun to deal with. Having it be a flat damage reduction means it will scale up against multi-attack for tier 3 and 4. Still it will likely be less damage reduction against big baddies compared to the UA's "Reaction to reduce dmg by Warlock lvl". But it will function a lot better against mobs - especially since it doesn't require your Hexblade Curse on them to work.
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Unyielding Will
I like the "If you fail to maintain Concentration, you can choose to succeed instead once per Long Rest" from the UA, but never been a fan of the retaliation. As noted in the more technical notes I don't understand if the retaliation is a one-off per Long Rest or if it resets on starting your turn (one per round). If it's one per round I feel like a 2d6 10 ft. AoE might be a bit high, especially against mobs of smaller critters. If it's once per Long Rest, I will hardly ever feel it matter. Give me more security in maintaining concentration any day of the week rather than this. (For reference a Bladesinger gets to add +INT to their Concentration saves whilst in their main battle-active: Bladesong).
Warlocks can get ADV through invocations, but that's only an average of +3. You likely need DEX to pump your AC, so unlikely to have a very high CON, meaning even a DC 10 Concentration save is a very real risk of dropping Concentration and you don't have that many slots to recast a Concentration spell.
Still I find the retaliation to be in a weird spot where it seems very strong against weak enemies and basically useless against larger enemies. Personally I would divert this portion of power budget to something else.
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Level 14: Master of Hexes
Accursed Critical is back. It does have some great potential with the suggested cantrip-replacement from Harrowing Hex if you can crit for a Booming Blade. Otherwise it'll add a bit of extra damage.
Unleashed Hunger
Not sure if it's typo that only the extra damage die is increased to 2d8 for Hungering Hex and not to the HP regain. Tho Hungering Hex still allows a kill afflicted with a curse to get the bonus die to heal for 2d8 + CHA.
Shared Concentration
You already allow the Hexblade to cast a limited number of single-use Hex'es without Concentration, and the Hex Weapon only allow for basically Spirit Shroud (as per backwards compatibility). Magic Weapon and Elemental Weapon are both not on the Warlock's spell list and neither on the Hexblade's. Furthermore they require the weapon they enhance to be nonmagical, which a Sentient item never really can be. Either way the drawback is way too high compared to the upside. The one level of exhaustion is a -2 to every D20 test until you Long Rest (or convince your Cleric/Druid/Ranger/Pala to spend 100 GP diamond Dust and a 5th lvl slot to Greater Restoration). Spirit Shroud's +2d8 at 5th level is not worth this risk, and I would only have 2 spell slots for other Concentration spells.
If you really want to utilize more concentration spells, I would put a cap on the level of the spell: C - 2nd level and just have the Hex Weapon allow you to Concentrate on a spell of this level and not hinder another Concentration spell. Now it would need to be a limit on lowest level of the spell - as Pact slots are 5th level at this point. And what's the worst we can think of with a spell of cantrip, 1st or 2nd level: Hex can last 24 hours, Bane can afflict up to 7 creatures with a -1d4 to ATK rolls and Saves, Tasha's Hideous Laughter can target up to 5 creatures within 30 ft. to get them Prone - they will likely make their WIS saves quickly between one per round and one with ADV per time they take damage. You still spend the Pact slots, you risk losing concentration on two spells at once. I think that would be risk enough.
I kinda like the idea to make this shared Concentration a resource to cast concentration spells from and "slot" the concentration "into" the weapon - still only +1 Concentration spell. Picture you have 5 charges, resetting on a Long Rest. Each level of the spell you cast this way costs one charge but you basically ignore that you Concentrate on this spell for the purpose of casting other spells. So you could spend 3 charges to cast Fly and then on another turn you could spend a Pact slot to cast J's Storm of Radiance. If you take damage and fail your Concentration save both spells drop. You can then use two charges to cast Hold Person to "slot into the weapon".
I would very much like this feature to be able to "slot" in cantrip concentration spells without spending a charge, so you can "freely" maintain Blade Ward to increase your AC in late tier 3. At this point your Pureblood Warlock is likely running 12 Studded Leather + 2-3 DEX + 2 Hex Warrior, so adding another 1d4 or AVG. +2 AC is a great way to increase your AC from 16-17 to 18-19, feel like you engage in casting spells for your defense, and to utilize Harrowing Hex's cantrip replacement as your Concentration eventually drops. A multiclass Med Armor would have 15 + 2 DEX + 2 Hex Warrior and adding +2 BW for a total of 21 AC is still less than your average Bladesinger (13 MA + 2 DEX + 5 INT + 5 Shield spell) or Valor Bard (15 Med Armor + 2 DEX + 2 Shield + 5 Shield spell) and likely on similar AC levels as most frontline martials but with much less HP and fewer survival tools.
(Just for reference then CR 15+ monsters generally have +9-11 to hit, CR 18+ around +12, so you get hit a lot)
As for wording, something like:
You have a pool of 5 charges of magical energy. You can use this energy to cast your spells that require concentration instead of expending a spell slot. Each level of the spell you cast costs one charge from your pool. Cantrips costs no charges. You regain expended charges when you finish a Long Rest.
Spells cast through this feature ignore the rules that casting another spell or magical effect that require Concentration makes you lose Concentration on the first spell, as long as both of those spells are not cast through this feature.
You can only concentrate on one spell cast through this feature at any given time. If you use this feature to cast a spell that requires Concentration whilst concentrating on a spell cast through this feature, the first spell ends. If you take damage you must make a Constitution saving roll to maintain concentration as normal, and you lose Concentration on all spells if you fail to maintain Concentration, become incapacitated, or you die.
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For the most part I expect this feature will be used to slot in defensive spells like Blade Ward, Blur, Haste, Greater Invisibility/Shadow of Moil (most of whom require that the Hexblade spell list be amended).