my group is starting tomb of annihilation soon and I’m looking to make a competent Hexblade. There are three others in my party, one is a monk, one is a cleric and the other is a ranger. Our DM has said we can use any of the published books to make our characters. I would really appreciate it if someone could suggest ideas to maximise damage output and survivability for my character. Preferably more melee focused. We are starting at level one, but plans for future levels would be appreciated.
Also I’m going for a samurai theme but I’ve been told I can’t go fighter, monk or paladin because I play them too much.
Edit: I can multiclass into the classes above but can just go those classes
This is a build of a Hal Elf (drow) lvl 6 Hexblade warlock who wields a Greatsword and uses darkness and devils sight to provide advantage for himself, which he uses in tandem with Elven Acurracy to fish for crits where he can use his Eldritch smites. It’s not final and I never used it.
He casts darkness in a pendent he wears, so it moves with him. He can also gain advantage through Faerie Fire.
I disagree with nightspirit2099. Darkness + Devil's Sight is a great combo for back line artillery, but terrible for melee. Surrounding the enemies in darkness makes it harder for your entire party to fight. I've seen somebody use this combo and the entire party let the character fight the enemies by themselves until the darkness (or the character) was dropped. Creating a bubble in the back so that a spellcaster and ranger can sling attacks from it in relative safety, on the other hand, is a much more useful use of this technique. Another useful use of Darkness is if you can use it to create an opaque barrier between you and enemy spellcasters removing any target-based spells or forcing them closer to the fight.
Armor of Agathys is your friend. It is both survivability and damage that you can recover on a short rest and it scales with your level.
Thanks for the response, I’ve decided to take Armour of Agathys, but hex is pretty much included in the hexblade. I agree with you on the darkness + devils sight combo, taking it would be bad for the party. Which races would you recommend. And do you think it’s worth taking feats or just using the ability score improvements. Recommendations of stat arrangement using point buy would be appreciated too.
Any charisma-based race is decent. Since you're proficient in medium armor, I'd recommend having at least 14 dex. After that constitution is your third priority.
I think ASI's are more important for Hexblades. However, if you take an odd numbered charisma score to start with, you could take a feat that raises it by one point and get the best of both. A good example is Elven Accuracy if you're a half elf or a drow.
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In my humble opinion, the standard half-elf is far superior to the variant forms, but I say that with the bias of liking characters with a large number of skills.
If you are going with a melee build, then Fleet of Foot could be useful to get you up to the fight a little faster, but unless you are making skirmisher style the extra 5-feet of movement will really only matter in the first and that is to cover distance to engage in the fight. If you going ranged, then Fleet of Foot is wasted. Mask of the Wild is going to be absolutely wasted in ToA so do not waste your time there. Weapon Training is also wasted with a Hexblade. That leaves you with Cantrip.... which can be quite potent, but you already have the best damage dealing cantrip in the game available to you.
The Drow Magic is a better trade, especially since it's based off Charisma and the spells you gain would be beneficial. So that could definitely be a good choice for you.
thanks. Just another thing though are there any feats you would recommend and are there any tweaks I could make to a character to have an easier time in ToA
The darkness tactic can be done without hindering the party, but you have to be creative with this. Anyhow, the point is, you have to get advantage so you can proxy Elven Acurracy, you will be wielding a greatsword through pact of the blade boon, take the Great Weapon Master feat, use Hex spell, use the hex from the subclass (crit on 19-20), Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite on a crit, and so on. I think this is a solid melee character. Pump char, dex and con.
If you dont wanna do devil's sight + darkness combo, you could take the improved pact weapon and get a +1 to your pact weapons and you can use a longbow and could use Eldritch Smite to knock prone flying enemies.
Note that this is the only build that can use Elven Acurracy and Great Weapon Master, as far as I know.
Elven Acurracy, using point buy for attributes you will have cha 18 by lvl 4. Suggested attributes at that point: str 8 (-1) dex 14 (+2) con 16 (+3) int 10 (0) wis 10 (0) cha 18 (+4)
my group is starting tomb of annihilation soon and I’m looking to make a competent Hexblade. There are three others in my party, one is a monk, one is a cleric and the other is a ranger. Our DM has said we can use any of the published books to make our characters. I would really appreciate it if someone could suggest ideas to maximise damage output and survivability for my character. Preferably more melee focused. We are starting at level one, but plans for future levels would be appreciated.
Also I’m going for a samurai theme but I’ve been told I can’t go fighter, monk or paladin because I play them too much.
I thought you couldn’t, but if you can, wait until lvl 5 at least, that way you can get the Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite invocations. Also, with your attributes you are limited to taking bard, fighter, rogue or sorcerer multiclass. Fighter or rogue would make you more melee capable, the other two would give you more spells.
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my group is starting tomb of annihilation soon and I’m looking to make a competent Hexblade. There are three others in my party, one is a monk, one is a cleric and the other is a ranger. Our DM has said we can use any of the published books to make our characters. I would really appreciate it if someone could suggest ideas to maximise damage output and survivability for my character. Preferably more melee focused. We are starting at level one, but plans for future levels would be appreciated.
Also I’m going for a samurai theme but I’ve been told I can’t go fighter, monk or paladin because I play them too much.
Edit: I can multiclass into the classes above but can just go those classes
ddb.ac/characters/3708317/S1U0DB
This is a build of a Hal Elf (drow) lvl 6 Hexblade warlock who wields a Greatsword and uses darkness and devils sight to provide advantage for himself, which he uses in tandem with Elven Acurracy to fish for crits where he can use his Eldritch smites. It’s not final and I never used it.
He casts darkness in a pendent he wears, so it moves with him. He can also gain advantage through Faerie Fire.
I disagree with nightspirit2099. Darkness + Devil's Sight is a great combo for back line artillery, but terrible for melee. Surrounding the enemies in darkness makes it harder for your entire party to fight. I've seen somebody use this combo and the entire party let the character fight the enemies by themselves until the darkness (or the character) was dropped. Creating a bubble in the back so that a spellcaster and ranger can sling attacks from it in relative safety, on the other hand, is a much more useful use of this technique. Another useful use of Darkness is if you can use it to create an opaque barrier between you and enemy spellcasters removing any target-based spells or forcing them closer to the fight.
Armor of Agathys is your friend. It is both survivability and damage that you can recover on a short rest and it scales with your level.
Hex amplifies the damage of both your melee and Eldritch Blasts.
The Agonizing Blast invocation is also a good way to amplify Eldritch Blasts. The bonus applies to each projectile.
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Thanks for the response, I’ve decided to take Armour of Agathys, but hex is pretty much included in the hexblade. I agree with you on the darkness + devils sight combo, taking it would be bad for the party. Which races would you recommend. And do you think it’s worth taking feats or just using the ability score improvements. Recommendations of stat arrangement using point buy would be appreciated too.
Any charisma-based race is decent. Since you're proficient in medium armor, I'd recommend having at least 14 dex. After that constitution is your third priority.
I think ASI's are more important for Hexblades. However, if you take an odd numbered charisma score to start with, you could take a feat that raises it by one point and get the best of both. A good example is Elven Accuracy if you're a half elf or a drow.
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Thanks
Can you show me that but for level 1 please
I think I’m going to go with half elf, do you think I should use the standard features or the variant ones
In my humble opinion, the standard half-elf is far superior to the variant forms, but I say that with the bias of liking characters with a large number of skills.
If you are going with a melee build, then Fleet of Foot could be useful to get you up to the fight a little faster, but unless you are making skirmisher style the extra 5-feet of movement will really only matter in the first and that is to cover distance to engage in the fight. If you going ranged, then Fleet of Foot is wasted. Mask of the Wild is going to be absolutely wasted in ToA so do not waste your time there. Weapon Training is also wasted with a Hexblade. That leaves you with Cantrip.... which can be quite potent, but you already have the best damage dealing cantrip in the game available to you.
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
Thanks for the response, is the drow half elf variant any good though
The Drow Magic is a better trade, especially since it's based off Charisma and the spells you gain would be beneficial. So that could definitely be a good choice for you.
Valaith "Rimehand" Kalukavi - Chronicles of Arden
thanks. Just another thing though are there any feats you would recommend and are there any tweaks I could make to a character to have an easier time in ToA
The darkness tactic can be done without hindering the party, but you have to be creative with this. Anyhow, the point is, you have to get advantage so you can proxy Elven Acurracy, you will be wielding a greatsword through pact of the blade boon, take the Great Weapon Master feat, use Hex spell, use the hex from the subclass (crit on 19-20), Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite on a crit, and so on. I think this is a solid melee character. Pump char, dex and con.
If you dont wanna do devil's sight + darkness combo, you could take the improved pact weapon and get a +1 to your pact weapons and you can use a longbow and could use Eldritch Smite to knock prone flying enemies.
Note that this is the only build that can use Elven Acurracy and Great Weapon Master, as far as I know.
A really strong Hexblade multiclass is Blade-Pact Hexblade/College of Sword Bard.
My groups only going to level 11 so what would the split between warlock and bard be
I hadn’t even thought about that, it seems really good
Also should I take GWM or Elven accuracy first
Elven Acurracy, using point buy for attributes you will have cha 18 by lvl 4. Suggested attributes at that point: str 8 (-1) dex 14 (+2) con 16 (+3) int 10 (0) wis 10 (0) cha 18 (+4)
Thanks, also would you recommend multiclasing, I’ve been considering a 2 level dip into either, fighter, bard or paladin
I thought you couldn’t, but if you can, wait until lvl 5 at least, that way you can get the Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite invocations. Also, with your attributes you are limited to taking bard, fighter, rogue or sorcerer multiclass. Fighter or rogue would make you more melee capable, the other two would give you more spells.