Please help with the following build. Levels are one through fourteen. Xanathar’s, SCAG, and the PHB are permitted. At least one level of hexblade will be included. Point buy attributes. Theme is more important than power of the build.
Playing a Lawful Evil, Dragonborn, Oath of Conquest, with the Noble background.
He isn’t native to Icewind Dale and really, really hates the damned cold. He tends to refer to himself in the third person. He has an outrageous ego. On the other hand, those people who do recognize his authority and rightful position as alpha are treated well for their loyalty. Those who don’t are forced to submit. With the blood of dragons in his veins, he relishes defeating his enemies via overwhelming fear.
Back in his native land, he discovered that a temple to a god of war had an artifact sequestered away. This artifact was an intelligent, blood thirsty weapon. It seduced him and he stole it.
Under its influence, he ended up publicly declaring another noble a coward. That noble (who was, in fact, a coward) was better connected politically than my character. My character was exiled by even more powerful nobility (perhaps the king) to Icewind Dale.
That appears to be exactly what the hexblade wanted to happen. The hexblade is sending him visions which make him believe that he can stop the prolonged winter in Icewind Dale. Whether he’s outrageously self-deluded about that or actually can stop the prolonged winter, who knows?
Meanwhile, the church that he stole the hexblade from continues searching for it.
Other characters in the party include; a Spelldancer, a Goliath Barbarian, a Celestial Warlock, and a Rogue.
What do you want to accomplish through your hexadin build? This is an important question because it sets the stage for how much hexblade to build. If all you want is to make your character SAD while having the flavor of the warlock dip, one level is all you need. If you want to be a gish build that can use ranged just as well as melee, 2 levels is all you need to access agonizing blast invocation. If you want to use a great sword build, then you need 3 levels of hexblade. If you want to double smite on crits for insane damage (imagine tossing out 16d8s, assuming 3rd lvl slots, for an average of 72 damage on top of your regular damage) then you need 5 levels of hexblade.
Granted, since this is a conquest paladin, you're strongly encouraged to take 7 levels of paladin at the very least cause that aura's nice. Since you're building in the scope of 14 levels, this rules out lvl 9 hexblade. You'd be looking at 7 hexblade at the very most, but you'd be limited to two ASI boosts, though you'd have access to 4th level spell slots.
It's all about what you wanna do, cause from the looks of it your party has you covered pretty solidly, so fun can be your priority here.
I really enjoy the idea of a martial Dragonborn with fear as a central schtick. But, I think I’ll see how the party functions as a team before I focus too strongly on any one thing.
The one thing I’d like to plan for though is making my enemies prone so that the Aura of Conquest can keep them there.
Okay, here's how I'd build then: Start off with proficiency in athletics, 17 CHA, and 15 STR (to wear plate later on). Get command as one of your spells. When you're able to get your first ASI, get the feat Skill Expert, bump your CHA to 18, and pick up expertise in athletics. Now, you have two methods of making enemies prone: using command for grovel, or shoving enemies prone.
The thing about conquest paladins that’s tricky, is sticking to your tenets, without alienating yourself too much from the party.
A long running offline group I am in, my character is a conquest paladin, and the “use fear” as a schitck is super easy to do, but what you don’t expect... is how effective they are at it. Our fighter has gone to almost entirely a rearguard/ranged fighter route. And the rogue now focuses on crossbow expert ranged shenanigans despite being a swashbuckler, because the conquest paladin is just so so so so effective in that up close melee martial area for either crowd control, or single target smearing to send a message.
The barbarian in your party might feel a bit useless after awhile as barbarians really do not have much non combat stuff going for them. And with what you’ll be able to do there’s nothing he can really do better than you except grapple things and move faster. Basically being your right hand lackey if you wanted.
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Please help with the following build. Levels are one through fourteen. Xanathar’s, SCAG, and the PHB are permitted. At least one level of hexblade will be included. Point buy attributes. Theme is more important than power of the build.
Playing a Lawful Evil, Dragonborn, Oath of Conquest, with the Noble background.
He isn’t native to Icewind Dale and really, really hates the damned cold. He tends to refer to himself in the third person. He has an outrageous ego. On the other hand, those people who do recognize his authority and rightful position as alpha are treated well for their loyalty. Those who don’t are forced to submit. With the blood of dragons in his veins, he relishes defeating his enemies via overwhelming fear.
Back in his native land, he discovered that a temple to a god of war had an artifact sequestered away. This artifact was an intelligent, blood thirsty weapon. It seduced him and he stole it.
Under its influence, he ended up publicly declaring another noble a coward. That noble (who was, in fact, a coward) was better connected politically than my character. My character was exiled by even more powerful nobility (perhaps the king) to Icewind Dale.
That appears to be exactly what the hexblade wanted to happen. The hexblade is sending him visions which make him believe that he can stop the prolonged winter in Icewind Dale. Whether he’s outrageously self-deluded about that or actually can stop the prolonged winter, who knows?
Meanwhile, the church that he stole the hexblade from continues searching for it.
Other characters in the party include; a Spelldancer, a Goliath Barbarian, a Celestial Warlock, and a Rogue.
What do you want to accomplish through your hexadin build? This is an important question because it sets the stage for how much hexblade to build. If all you want is to make your character SAD while having the flavor of the warlock dip, one level is all you need. If you want to be a gish build that can use ranged just as well as melee, 2 levels is all you need to access agonizing blast invocation. If you want to use a great sword build, then you need 3 levels of hexblade. If you want to double smite on crits for insane damage (imagine tossing out 16d8s, assuming 3rd lvl slots, for an average of 72 damage on top of your regular damage) then you need 5 levels of hexblade.
Granted, since this is a conquest paladin, you're strongly encouraged to take 7 levels of paladin at the very least cause that aura's nice. Since you're building in the scope of 14 levels, this rules out lvl 9 hexblade. You'd be looking at 7 hexblade at the very most, but you'd be limited to two ASI boosts, though you'd have access to 4th level spell slots.
It's all about what you wanna do, cause from the looks of it your party has you covered pretty solidly, so fun can be your priority here.
I really enjoy the idea of a martial Dragonborn with fear as a central schtick. But, I think I’ll see how the party functions as a team before I focus too strongly on any one thing.
The one thing I’d like to plan for though is making my enemies prone so that the Aura of Conquest can keep them there.
Okay, here's how I'd build then: Start off with proficiency in athletics, 17 CHA, and 15 STR (to wear plate later on). Get command as one of your spells. When you're able to get your first ASI, get the feat Skill Expert, bump your CHA to 18, and pick up expertise in athletics. Now, you have two methods of making enemies prone: using command for grovel, or shoving enemies prone.
The thing about conquest paladins that’s tricky, is sticking to your tenets, without alienating yourself too much from the party.
A long running offline group I am in, my character is a conquest paladin, and the “use fear” as a schitck is super easy to do, but what you don’t expect... is how effective they are at it. Our fighter has gone to almost entirely a rearguard/ranged fighter route. And the rogue now focuses on crossbow expert ranged shenanigans despite being a swashbuckler, because the conquest paladin is just so so so so effective in that up close melee martial area for either crowd control, or single target smearing to send a message.
The barbarian in your party might feel a bit useless after awhile as barbarians really do not have much non combat stuff going for them. And with what you’ll be able to do there’s nothing he can really do better than you except grapple things and move faster. Basically being your right hand lackey if you wanted.
Watch me on twitch