The magic of your otherworldly patron ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Warlock level specified in the Hexblade Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
At 3rd level, your Hexblade Patron empowers your curses. You always have the Hex spell prepared. You can cast Hex spell without using a spell slot. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:
You gain your proficiency bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target.
Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
If the cursed target drops to 0 Hit Points, you can end the Hex spell to regain hit points or Temporary Hit Points equal to your warlock level plus your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point) or curse a new creature on your later turns. (no Action required).
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a Long Rest.
Hex Warrior
At 3rd level, you acquire proficiency with Medium Armor and Shields. You also gain a Fighting Style, you can use the mastery properties of your pact weapons and when you gain a Ability Score Improvement in Strength or Dexterity, you can gain in Charisma instead, to maximum of 20.
At 5th level in this class, you can create or transform up to two weapons into your pact weapons. At 11th level in this class, you can create or transform up to three weapons into your pact weapons.
Accursed Power
At 6th level, when you drop a creature to 0 Hit Points, you can drain and store three Accursed Power. You can manipulate these powers in any of the ways described below:
Accursed Magic: You can spend one Accursed Power(no action required) to use Eldritch Smite or cast a spell without expending Pact Magic spell slot. Once you use this feature twice, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
Accursed Summon: As a Reaction, immediately after you drain Accursed Power, or as a Magic action you can spend two Accursed Power to cast Summon Undead or one summon spell that you know from warlocks class without expending Pact Magic spell slot. This summon spell is cast one level higher than your highest Pact Magic spell slot and doesn’t require concentration. The summoned creature always obeys your verbal commands and remains in your service until the end of your next Long Rest, at which point it vanishes leaving nothing behind.
Once you drain Accursed Power with this feature, you can’t use the feature again until you finish a Long Rest.
Armor of Hexes
At 10th level, if a creature cursed by your spells or warlock features hits you with an attack roll, you can to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, you can use your Reaction to make the attack miss you, regardless of its roll.
Master of Hexes
At 14th level, your Armor of Hexes and Hexblade’s Curse grow stronger.
Master of Armor of Hexes
You have Resistance to all damage from creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
Master of Hexblade’s Curse
At 14th level, your Hexblade’s Curse gains two additional benefits:
You have Advantage on D20 Test against creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
To pile on the beaten dead horse, my opinions on the UA Hexblade
As with everyone else. This does not scream, maybe whispers vaguely, melee warlock. Subclasses and abilities moved to 3d lvl. Not so much a problem, except when it is, and the UA Hexblade is.
UA Hexblade spell table, hit and miss. Hexblades have Shield, YAY! Of all the Spells, only Hex and Animate objects are Concentration, Brilliant! Conjure Barrage, the smeg? How about Blinding Smite instead. Dispel Magic, Replace it with Counterspell, it's a defensive dirty trick to have on hand. Booming Blade DOA. Animate Objects feels like a backhanded replacement of the Accursed Spectre, at lvl 9 from lvl 6.
Dissection of old Hexblade and Hex Warrior into the current Hexblade class features. Let's start with Hex Warrior, and the lack of Martial weapons, Medium Armor, and Shields, Valor Bards get Medium armor, shield, and martial weapon proficiencies at 3rd. Seems a viable comparison. Pact of the Blade Invocation takes care of any weapon issues. Anyone think a sliver of Blackrazor would accept it's wielder to be a ranged blaster?
Hexblade's Curse. Level 1. Hex for no slots, CHA Mod/Long Rest versus 1/Short Rest. Sure, seems fair. Proficiency Bonus damage to Hexed Target on hit, moved from lvl 1 to lvl 6 Life Stealer(Inevitable Blade), now CHA mod necrotic damage on miss. Hexed target dies, you heal for Warlock lvl + CHAmod, moved to lvl 6 Life Stealer(Hungering Hex) now 1d8+ CHAmod. Assume healing at lvl 6 for both Old (6+4=10) and New (d+4=5-12). At lvl 6, roughly 2/3s the time this is triggered It heals less than Old, at lvl 10 Old is 14 and New is still 5-12. On Attack roll for Hexed Target, 19-20 on the d20 are Critical damage. Originally, lvl 1 and now Lvl 14 Masterful Hex(Accursed Critical) For comparison, only other subclass feature with 19-20 crit range is Fighter(Champion) Lvl 3 Improved Critical. All of these are contingent on Hex and focus on hexed Target. 4-ish pts of contingent damage and swingy healing are not worth the Lvl 6. I'd prefer to see the Life Stealer functions at Lvl 3 when the subclass kicks off. Boosted Crit Range at Lvl 14. Again, contingent on Hex and focus on hexed Target. I'd push it down to lvl 6.
Speaking of Lvl 6, with no Accursed Spectre to engage the hexed Target and give the Hexblade Advantage. Can the old Invocation Relentless Hex be dropped in here? A Bonus Action to teleport up to 30' to be 5' from the Hexed Target. Maybe up it to 60', splits the difference between range of Hex and Relentless Hex and plays to the Melee-centric Hexblade. It would not allow the Hexing of the Target and the teleport, both are bonus actions.
Lvl 10 Armor of Hexes. Old, reaction 50% to ignore damage from hit by Hexed Target. New, reaction to reduce damage from attack by Hexed Target by 2d8(9)+ CHAmod(4) a CHAmod(4)/Long Rest. Either way, Once per round where combat classes are attacking 2 or more times, damage mitigated will never feel enough and non-hexed ignore mitigation all together.
Lvl 14 Master of Hexes to Masterful Hex. Old, move Hex from dead Target to another w/ 30' if you are not incap. This move negates gaining HP from death of Hexed Target. New, already addressed Accursed Critical, Resilient Hex is superflous with Eldritch Mind and War Caster, Infectious Hex when using Hexblade Maneuver target 1 add'l creature w/ 30' of hexed target and takes 1d6 Necrotic damage. Instead, maybe take Old allow for the healing and new target takes 1d6 Necrotic Damage and DisAdvantage on next Save. Perhaps overkill.
The magic of your otherworldly patron ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Warlock level specified in the Hexblade Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
At 3rd level, your Hexblade Patron empowers your curses. You always have the Hex spell prepared. You can cast Hex spell without using a spell slot. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:
You gain your proficiency bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target.
Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
If the cursed target drops to 0 Hit Points, you can end the Hex spell to regain hit points or Temporary Hit Points equal to your warlock level plus your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point) or curse a new creature on your later turns. (no Action required).
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a Long Rest.
Hex Warrior
At 3rd level, you acquire proficiency with Medium Armor and Shields. You also gain a Fighting Style, you can use the mastery properties of your pact weapons and when you gain a Ability Score Improvement in Strength or Dexterity, you can gain in Charisma instead, to maximum of 20.
At 5th level in this class, you can create or transform up to two weapons into your pact weapons. At 11th level in this class, you can create or transform up to three weapons into your pact weapons.
Accursed Power
At 6th level, when you drop a creature to 0 Hit Points, you can drain and store three Accursed Power. You can manipulate these powers in any of the ways described below:
Accursed Magic: You can spend one Accursed Power(no action required) to use Eldritch Smite or cast a spell without expending Pact Magic spell slot. Once you use this feature twice, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
Accursed Summon: As a Reaction, immediately after you drain Accursed Power, or as a Magic action you can spend two Accursed Power to cast Summon Undead or one summon spell that you know from warlocks class without expending Pact Magic spell slot. This summon spell is cast one level higher than your highest Pact Magic spell slot and doesn’t require concentration. The summoned creature always obeys your verbal commands and remains in your service until the end of your next Long Rest, at which point it vanishes leaving nothing behind.
Once you drain Accursed Power with this feature, you can’t use the feature again until you finish a Long Rest.
Armor of Hexes
At 10th level, if a creature cursed by your spells or warlock features hits you with an attack roll, you can to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, you can use your Reaction to make the attack miss you, regardless of its roll.
Master of Hexes
At 14th level, your Armor of Hexes and Hexblade’s Curse grow stronger.
Master of Armor of Hexes
You have Resistance to all damage from creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
Master of Hexblade’s Curse
At 14th level, your Hexblade’s Curse gains two additional benefits:
You have Advantage on D20 Test against creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
aka what I'm currently using, though I have a few thoughts -
1. I'm not sure no-concentration Hex shouldn't have a reduced 1 or maybe 10 minute duration instead of an hour.
2. Additional Pact Weapons should come at 6th and 10th level, remaining in line with regular subclass upgrades (though 5th and 11th make a certain amount of sense with caster upgrade levels).
3. Jumping from 1d6 to 3d6 is weird on Hex. I know the version I'm currently running of this shows as 2d6 at 14th level, wondering if 3d6 here is a typo.
Overall though, it's working out well, but we just hit level 6, so we'll see what I think balance wise with the new abilities that came with that. But certainly better than the crap they put out as a Hexblade in the UA (which I could have designed better in my sleep).
The magic of your otherworldly patron ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Warlock level specified in the Hexblade Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
At 3rd level, your Hexblade Patron empowers your curses. You always have the Hex spell prepared. You can cast Hex spell without using a spell slot. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:
You gain your proficiency bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target.
Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
If the cursed target drops to 0 Hit Points, you can end the Hex spell to regain hit points or Temporary Hit Points equal to your warlock level plus your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point) or curse a new creature on your later turns. (no Action required).
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a Long Rest.
Hex Warrior
At 3rd level, you acquire proficiency with Medium Armor and Shields. You also gain a Fighting Style, you can use the mastery properties of your pact weapons and when you gain a Ability Score Improvement in Strength or Dexterity, you can gain in Charisma instead, to maximum of 20.
At 5th level in this class, you can create or transform up to two weapons into your pact weapons. At 11th level in this class, you can create or transform up to three weapons into your pact weapons.
Accursed Power
At 6th level, when you drop a creature to 0 Hit Points, you can drain and store three Accursed Power. You can manipulate these powers in any of the ways described below:
Accursed Magic: You can spend one Accursed Power(no action required) to use Eldritch Smite or cast a spell without expending Pact Magic spell slot. Once you use this feature twice, you can’t use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
Accursed Summon: As a Reaction, immediately after you drain Accursed Power, or as a Magic action you can spend two Accursed Power to cast Summon Undead or one summon spell that you know from warlocks class without expending Pact Magic spell slot. This summon spell is cast one level higher than your highest Pact Magic spell slot and doesn’t require concentration. The summoned creature always obeys your verbal commands and remains in your service until the end of your next Long Rest, at which point it vanishes leaving nothing behind.
Once you drain Accursed Power with this feature, you can’t use the feature again until you finish a Long Rest.
Armor of Hexes
At 10th level, if a creature cursed by your spells or warlock features hits you with an attack roll, you can to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, you can use your Reaction to make the attack miss you, regardless of its roll.
Master of Hexes
At 14th level, your Armor of Hexes and Hexblade’s Curse grow stronger.
Master of Armor of Hexes
You have Resistance to all damage from creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
Master of Hexblade’s Curse
At 14th level, your Hexblade’s Curse gains two additional benefits:
You have Advantage on D20 Test against creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
aka what I'm currently using, though I have a few thoughts -
1. I'm not sure no-concentration Hex shouldn't have a reduced 1 or maybe 10 minute duration instead of an hour.
2. Additional Pact Weapons should come at 6th and 10th level, remaining in line with regular subclass upgrades (though 5th and 11th make a certain amount of sense with caster upgrade levels).
3. Jumping from 1d6 to 3d6 is weird on Hex. I know the version I'm currently running of this shows as 2d6 at 14th level, wondering if 3d6 here is a typo.
Overall though, it's working out well, but we just hit level 6, so we'll see what I think balance wise with the new abilities that came with that. But certainly better than the crap they put out as a Hexblade in the UA (which I could have designed better in my sleep).
1. WoTC has decided they are against no concentration “target specific damage boost on hit” spells like hex and HM. I doubt that will ever make it to official release especially not at lvl 3. Hex already gives a damage boost, so I’m not sure why you add your PB to damage as well. I like bringing the the enhanced crit range back to lvl 3. It belongs there. Hex warrior is also a must, but just let it do what it did 2014. It’s fine. Having both a hex blade and a pact weapon isn’t bad, or you could replace your pact of the blade invocation if you wanted. I don’t like giving out fighting styles, or weapon masteries to any more subclasses. Too many have it already. Anyone else who wants them should be getting them via a feat. 2. Accursed power is far too strong. The duration, no concentration, ease of getting it (no longer requiring humanoid, which I like) and level boost puts it far above the 2014 specter. 3. I don’t know if hex should be getting a damage increase at 14 when you have damage increases from having more attacks from invocations and cantrips just getting stronger as you level. 4. I’m sure everything I mentioned negatively is working fine at your table and you are having fun. I’m not trying to diminish your enjoyment I’m just saying I wouldn’t like those things to become the official rules. Bringing the enhanced crit range and the features of 2014 hex warrior back to level 3 are things I would like to see in the 2024 Hexblade.
As others have pointed out, the new Hexblade design is pretty underwhelming. In fact, my custom subclass has received 100% positive feedback even before its UA release
We shouldn't treat concentration as game-breaking when it's a core mechanic tied to specific spells. Think about it: by level 5, not having to concentrate on Hex gives you around +3 average damage per hit. By level 14, that jumps to about +10. And let’s not forget—Lifedrinker used to be much stronger in earlier versions.
Keep in mind, this subclass is meant to be a killer—but only for its cursed target. Most of its features rely on that curse being active, which I think is both a solid balancing factor and thematically awesome.
Any point about "The Lore(TM)" is irrelevant because this is not Xanathar's Hexblade, nor is this based on external works.
If they'd just bring back the Medium Armor & Shields, & not ramrod Hex usage into another Warlock, a lot of this would work as a maneuver-based(Maneuver points?) Warlock which doesn't exclude non-optimizers who play Hexblade with the Chain or Tome. Likewise, this addresses an issue with the 2014 Hexblade being backwards compatible with 2024 Warlock(I expect a fix for Shepherd Druid is also inevitable) in the form of invocations & early feats reducing that initial feature.
I think Warlock Subclasses in general should have more direct & substantial effects on PHB invocations as a general fix to overspecialization akin to the Profane Soul Blood Hunter. But that's a discussion for another time & place.
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DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Hexblade already gets access to Shield in the UA. They just need Mage Armor and they'd be solid. They definitely shouldn't get access to medium armor, shields, or weapon masteries. Getting proficiency in armor and shields just means that they're eligible for getting magic armor and shields and the last thing a martial needs is competition for magic items from a primary spellcaster.
I looked over it twice and I don't see shield proficiency in the class or in the UA. So unless I missed it, we're not talking about a subclass with shield proficiency.
Hexblade already gets access to Shield in the UA. They just need Mage Armor and they'd be solid. They definitely shouldn't get access to medium armor, shields, or weapon masteries. Getting proficiency in armor and shields just means that they're eligible for getting magic armor and shields and the last thing a martial needs is competition for magic items from a primary spellcaster.
There’s an Invocation for casting Mage Armor at will.
Hexblade already gets access to Shield in the UA. They just need Mage Armor and they'd be solid. They definitely shouldn't get access to medium armor, shields, or weapon masteries. Getting proficiency in armor and shields just means that they're eligible for getting magic armor and shields and the last thing a martial needs is competition for magic items from a primary spellcaster.
There’s an Invocation for casting Mage Armor at will.
Right. I forgot about that lol It was in the back of my head but it slipped my mind. So Hexblades are in a good place defensively then. At most they could just revert the Armor of Hexes to the old version and that'd be that (assuming the math checks out to be generally more useful).
Hexblade already gets access to Shield in the UA. They just need Mage Armor and they'd be solid. They definitely shouldn't get access to medium armor, shields, or weapon masteries. Getting proficiency in armor and shields just means that they're eligible for getting magic armor and shields and the last thing a martial needs is competition for magic items from a primary spellcaster.
There’s an Invocation for casting Mage Armor at will.
Right. I forgot about that lol It was in the back of my head but it slipped my mind. So Hexblades are in a good place defensively then. At most they could just revert the Armor of Hexes to the old version and that'd be that (assuming the math checks out to be generally more useful).
False, they aren’t in a good place defensively. Casting the shield spell should only be done in the most dire of situations and is not as consistently good as holding a physical shield. Mage Armor at will is no way equal to Medium Armor training. Having a Warlock competing for magical shields and armor is no different than having an Eldritch Knight, Paladin, Ranger, or Arcane Trickster competing for a pearl of power, wand of the war mage, or etc. It’s okay to have a warlock subclass that has access to Armor, shield, and Weapon training. Without shields and armor training it is far superior to play a ranged warlock even with the UA Hexblade subclass. Nothing in this class draws you toward melee combat.
Hexblade already gets access to Shield in the UA. They just need Mage Armor and they'd be solid. They definitely shouldn't get access to medium armor, shields, or weapon masteries. Getting proficiency in armor and shields just means that they're eligible for getting magic armor and shields and the last thing a martial needs is competition for magic items from a primary spellcaster.
There’s an Invocation for casting Mage Armor at will.
Right. I forgot about that lol It was in the back of my head but it slipped my mind. So Hexblades are in a good place defensively then. At most they could just revert the Armor of Hexes to the old version and that'd be that (assuming the math checks out to be generally more useful).
One strange detail (among many) is that this subclass is being built around the hex spell, yet the great old one subclass gets a boost to hex at level 10 that is arguably stronger than anything in the hexblade UA.
Warlocks also have Armor of Agathys for defense, and with the free casts of Hex it doesn’t chew through their slots all that quickly, relative to typical encounter length. No, they’re never going to boldly stand at the front like a Paladin or Fighter, but neither do Bladesingers or martial Bards.
What I expected:
Hexblade Spells
The magic of your otherworldly patron ensures you always have certain spells ready; when you reach a Warlock level specified in the Hexblade Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
Hexblade Spells
Hexblade’s Curse
At 3rd level, your Hexblade Patron empowers your curses. You always have the Hex spell prepared. You can cast Hex spell without using a spell slot. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a Long Rest.
Hex Warrior
At 3rd level, you acquire proficiency with Medium Armor and Shields. You also gain a Fighting Style, you can use the mastery properties of your pact weapons and when you gain a Ability Score Improvement in Strength or Dexterity, you can gain in Charisma instead, to maximum of 20.
At 5th level in this class, you can create or transform up to two weapons into your pact weapons. At 11th level in this class, you can create or transform up to three weapons into your pact weapons.
Accursed Power
At 6th level, when you drop a creature to 0 Hit Points, you can drain and store three Accursed Power. You can manipulate these powers in any of the ways described below:
Once you drain Accursed Power with this feature, you can’t use the feature again until you finish a Long Rest.
Armor of Hexes
At 10th level, if a creature cursed by your spells or warlock features hits you with an attack roll, you can to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, you can use your Reaction to make the attack miss you, regardless of its roll.
Master of Hexes
At 14th level, your Armor of Hexes and Hexblade’s Curse grow stronger.
Master of Armor of Hexes
You have Resistance to all damage from creatures cursed by your spells or warlock features.
Master of Hexblade’s Curse
At 14th level, your Hexblade’s Curse gains two additional benefits:
To pile on the beaten dead horse, my opinions on the UA Hexblade
As with everyone else. This does not scream, maybe whispers vaguely, melee warlock. Subclasses and abilities moved to 3d lvl. Not so much a problem, except when it is, and the UA Hexblade is.
UA Hexblade spell table, hit and miss. Hexblades have Shield, YAY! Of all the Spells, only Hex and Animate objects are Concentration, Brilliant! Conjure Barrage, the smeg? How about Blinding Smite instead. Dispel Magic, Replace it with Counterspell, it's a defensive dirty trick to have on hand. Booming Blade DOA. Animate Objects feels like a backhanded replacement of the Accursed Spectre, at lvl 9 from lvl 6.
Dissection of old Hexblade and Hex Warrior into the current Hexblade class features.
Let's start with Hex Warrior, and the lack of Martial weapons, Medium Armor, and Shields, Valor Bards get Medium armor, shield, and martial weapon proficiencies at 3rd. Seems a viable comparison. Pact of the Blade Invocation takes care of any weapon issues. Anyone think a sliver of Blackrazor would accept it's wielder to be a ranged blaster?
Hexblade's Curse. Level 1. Hex for no slots, CHA Mod/Long Rest versus 1/Short Rest. Sure, seems fair.
Proficiency Bonus damage to Hexed Target on hit, moved from lvl 1 to lvl 6 Life Stealer(Inevitable Blade), now CHA mod necrotic damage on miss.
Hexed target dies, you heal for Warlock lvl + CHAmod, moved to lvl 6 Life Stealer(Hungering Hex) now 1d8+ CHAmod. Assume healing at lvl 6 for both Old (6+4=10) and New (d+4=5-12). At lvl 6, roughly 2/3s the time this is triggered It heals less than Old, at lvl 10 Old is 14 and New is still 5-12.
On Attack roll for Hexed Target, 19-20 on the d20 are Critical damage. Originally, lvl 1 and now Lvl 14 Masterful Hex(Accursed Critical) For comparison,
only other subclass feature with 19-20 crit range is Fighter(Champion) Lvl 3 Improved Critical.
All of these are contingent on Hex and focus on hexed Target. 4-ish pts of contingent damage and swingy healing are not worth the Lvl 6. I'd prefer to see the Life Stealer functions at Lvl 3 when the subclass kicks off.
Boosted Crit Range at Lvl 14. Again, contingent on Hex and focus on hexed Target. I'd push it down to lvl 6.
Speaking of Lvl 6, with no Accursed Spectre to engage the hexed Target and give the Hexblade Advantage. Can the old Invocation Relentless Hex be dropped in here? A Bonus Action to teleport up to 30' to be 5' from the Hexed Target. Maybe up it to 60', splits the difference between range of Hex and Relentless Hex and plays to the Melee-centric Hexblade. It would not allow the Hexing of the Target and the teleport, both are bonus actions.
Lvl 10 Armor of Hexes. Old, reaction 50% to ignore damage from hit by Hexed Target. New, reaction to reduce damage from attack by Hexed Target by 2d8(9)+ CHAmod(4) a CHAmod(4)/Long Rest. Either way, Once per round where combat classes are attacking 2 or more times, damage mitigated will never feel enough and non-hexed ignore mitigation all together.
Lvl 14 Master of Hexes to Masterful Hex. Old, move Hex from dead Target to another w/ 30' if you are not incap. This move negates gaining HP from death of Hexed Target. New, already addressed Accursed Critical, Resilient Hex is superflous with Eldritch Mind and War Caster, Infectious Hex when using Hexblade Maneuver target 1 add'l creature w/ 30' of hexed target and takes 1d6 Necrotic damage. Instead, maybe take Old allow for the healing and new target takes 1d6 Necrotic Damage and DisAdvantage on next Save. Perhaps overkill.
Have you seen the Sign?
aka what I'm currently using, though I have a few thoughts -
1. I'm not sure no-concentration Hex shouldn't have a reduced 1 or maybe 10 minute duration instead of an hour.
2. Additional Pact Weapons should come at 6th and 10th level, remaining in line with regular subclass upgrades (though 5th and 11th make a certain amount of sense with caster upgrade levels).
3. Jumping from 1d6 to 3d6 is weird on Hex. I know the version I'm currently running of this shows as 2d6 at 14th level, wondering if 3d6 here is a typo.
Overall though, it's working out well, but we just hit level 6, so we'll see what I think balance wise with the new abilities that came with that. But certainly better than the crap they put out as a Hexblade in the UA (which I could have designed better in my sleep).
1. WoTC has decided they are against no concentration “target specific damage boost on hit” spells like hex and HM. I doubt that will ever make it to official release especially not at lvl 3. Hex already gives a damage boost, so I’m not sure why you add your PB to damage as well. I like bringing the the enhanced crit range back to lvl 3. It belongs there. Hex warrior is also a must, but just let it do what it did 2014. It’s fine. Having both a hex blade and a pact weapon isn’t bad, or you could replace your pact of the blade invocation if you wanted. I don’t like giving out fighting styles, or weapon masteries to any more subclasses. Too many have it already. Anyone else who wants them should be getting them via a feat.
2. Accursed power is far too strong. The duration, no concentration, ease of getting it (no longer requiring humanoid, which I like) and level boost puts it far above the 2014 specter.
3. I don’t know if hex should be getting a damage increase at 14 when you have damage increases from having more attacks from invocations and cantrips just getting stronger as you level.
4. I’m sure everything I mentioned negatively is working fine at your table and you are having fun. I’m not trying to diminish your enjoyment I’m just saying I wouldn’t like those things to become the official rules. Bringing the enhanced crit range and the features of 2014 hex warrior back to level 3 are things I would like to see in the 2024 Hexblade.
Hey everyone, feedback is always welcome!
As others have pointed out, the new Hexblade design is pretty underwhelming. In fact, my custom subclass has received 100% positive feedback even before its UA release
We shouldn't treat concentration as game-breaking when it's a core mechanic tied to specific spells. Think about it: by level 5, not having to concentrate on Hex gives you around +3 average damage per hit. By level 14, that jumps to about +10. And let’s not forget—Lifedrinker used to be much stronger in earlier versions.
Keep in mind, this subclass is meant to be a killer—but only for its cursed target. Most of its features rely on that curse being active, which I think is both a solid balancing factor and thematically awesome.
Any point about "The Lore(TM)" is irrelevant because this is not Xanathar's Hexblade, nor is this based on external works.
If they'd just bring back the Medium Armor & Shields, & not ramrod Hex usage into another Warlock, a lot of this would work as a maneuver-based(Maneuver points?) Warlock which doesn't exclude non-optimizers who play Hexblade with the Chain or Tome. Likewise, this addresses an issue with the 2014 Hexblade being backwards compatible with 2024 Warlock(I expect a fix for Shepherd Druid is also inevitable) in the form of invocations & early feats reducing that initial feature.
I think Warlock Subclasses in general should have more direct & substantial effects on PHB invocations as a general fix to overspecialization akin to the Profane Soul Blood Hunter. But that's a discussion for another time & place.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Hexblade already gets access to Shield in the UA. They just need Mage Armor and they'd be solid. They definitely shouldn't get access to medium armor, shields, or weapon masteries. Getting proficiency in armor and shields just means that they're eligible for getting magic armor and shields and the last thing a martial needs is competition for magic items from a primary spellcaster.
HI Captain, keep in mind, we're talking about a subclass with shield proficiency.
I looked over it twice and I don't see shield proficiency in the class or in the UA. So unless I missed it, we're not talking about a subclass with shield proficiency.
There’s an Invocation for casting Mage Armor at will.
Right. I forgot about that lol It was in the back of my head but it slipped my mind. So Hexblades are in a good place defensively then. At most they could just revert the Armor of Hexes to the old version and that'd be that (assuming the math checks out to be generally more useful).
False, they aren’t in a good place defensively. Casting the shield spell should only be done in the most dire of situations and is not as consistently good as holding a physical shield. Mage Armor at will is no way equal to Medium Armor training. Having a Warlock competing for magical shields and armor is no different than having an Eldritch Knight, Paladin, Ranger, or Arcane Trickster competing for a pearl of power, wand of the war mage, or etc. It’s okay to have a warlock subclass that has access to Armor, shield, and Weapon training. Without shields and armor training it is far superior to play a ranged warlock even with the UA Hexblade subclass. Nothing in this class draws you toward melee combat.
lol you are very wrong my friend.
One strange detail (among many) is that this subclass is being built around the hex spell, yet the great old one subclass gets a boost to hex at level 10 that is arguably stronger than anything in the hexblade UA.
Warlocks also have Armor of Agathys for defense, and with the free casts of Hex it doesn’t chew through their slots all that quickly, relative to typical encounter length. No, they’re never going to boldly stand at the front like a Paladin or Fighter, but neither do Bladesingers or martial Bards.
Hexblade already had Medium Armor and Shield. I don't even know why Its a discussion .
Well said Great Old One Hex is far better.
Because this one is not designed to be a dedicated weapon-user, and ergo doesn’t have the same need for AC.
So the admitting the new Hexblade that has blade on its name is not weapon based? So whats is based on?
Hex, clearly. I’ve said a few times it needs to be renamed rather than trying to carry forward an existing name.
It's based on receiving power FROM a blade that you do not necessarily possess, & lowering the need to make it power FOR a blade.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
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