My Hexblade

Kurashu

First Post

• Jan 27, 2007

• #1

Ok. The hexblade pretty much sucks. All, well most all, of us accept this. They get no love with supplements (occasionally they do, but not nearly enough). The Hex Feats are alrights and letting them have access to ever Sor/Wiz spell is alright too. However, I'd like to take the Hexblade in a slightly different direction and make them the martial brother of the Warlock and the arcane equal of the paladin (instead of his retard rebel kid brother).

First I striped away everything from the Hexblade except the arcane resistance and Mettle. Spells? Gone. Curse? Gone. Aura of Unluck? Gone. I replaced the familiar with the Dark Compaion option from PHB II. Eldricth Blast and Invocations added in, although at signifcantly reduced pace. I gave them good fort saves and armored mage light at 1st, med at 5th, heavy at 10th.

Here's the final product, just add fluff.
See Post #9

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2007

log in or register to remove this ad

airwalkrr

Adventurer

• Jan 27, 2007

• #2

I like this idea quite a lot. However, I don't think it would make the class extremely overpowered to keep the curse, or even the aura of unluck. As far as flavor goes, these are the best abilities the class has to offer, and they aren't that bad as far as utility either. Giving the hexblade an eldritch blast does little more than give it a marginally effective ranged attack (and I've seen hexblade/archer builds that were more effective than eldritch blast). So the eldritch blast doesn't mean as much as the invocations. As you have it, I still don't think this puts it on par with other base classes.

Here's how I would do it. Give it the same eldritch blast progression that you have, keep the hex curse and the aura of unluck. If you give it mettle, take away good Fort, or keep good Fort and take away mettle; both at the same time is too much. Only let him get least and lesser invocations. He gets a least invocation at 4th and 8th and a lesser or least invocation at 12th, 16th, and 20th. The dark companion is fine, although you could take it or leave it. Maybe give him his Cha bonus to all saves somewhere too. I think that would do nicely.

I might just yoink this idea, although it needs a bit of brushing up. Nice one.

 

Nifft

Penguin Herder

• Jan 27, 2007

• #3

Cool! I like the idea of a Warlock-based Hexblade a lot.

I'm a little confused on what he gets for his first level, though. Does he get an Eldritch Blast? If not, what exactly does Armored Mage do for him (at 1st level)?

But I kinda liked the curse thing from the Hexblade, even if the mechanics made it a sucky ability.

So, let's see if we can work that back in...

Steal Luck (Su): The Hexblade can make a melee attack which also damages its target's luck. As a standard action make a single melee attack. If the attack hits, the target must make a Will save DC 10 + 1/2 your Hexblade level + your Cha bonus. If your opponent fails, he suffers a -1 penalty to all attack and damage rolls, all skill checks, and all saving throws, while you gain a +1 luck bonus to AC.
You may only steal luck from one creature at a time. If you attempt to steal luck from one creature while a previous target is still afflicted, the previous target is immediately freed.

At higher levels you can steal more luck (at 6th, 11th and 16th levels, because then you're giving up more attacks). Maybe you can share stolen luck with allies (via an aura?).

Cheers, -- N

 

Kurashu

First Post

• Jan 27, 2007

• #4

First, I'd like to say thank you for receiving this well. I'm actually surprised no one has done this before.

Nifft: I gave him AM (Light) at first level because it seemed like a good place to start giving AM. The Steal Luck is a good idea.

Air: Perhaps remove mettle (I keep wanting to type metal o_o), keep good fort, and make Arcane Resistance = Divine Grace. I do like the idea of restricting him to least & lesser invocations. I suppose adding back the Curses and Aura wouldn't be too much.

I'm split between the Steal Luck and the Curses/Aura. Perhaps if we made Steal Luck in a Curse/Hex Feat.

Either way, I'm sure the player in my group who wants to play a Hexblade will enjoy this variant greatly; especially since it'll let him tank.

 

airwalkrr

Adventurer

• Jan 27, 2007

• #5

Yea, granting armored mage is not a big deal these days. As long as the class gets at least medium, then you can always take a feat to improve it to heavy anyway.

 

Nonlethal Force

First Post

• Jan 27, 2007

• #6

Or pay for mithril and save a feat.

 

Three_Haligonians

First Post

• Jan 27, 2007

• #7

For me, the Hexblade looked like a PrC - so I condensed it down to 10 lvls and played around with it a bit:

- I too took out the Hexblade spells and replaced them with Invocations, giving them only one "Greater" at its highest levels.
- I kept the curses and the unluck aura, I thought they were ok but I guess some think otherwise, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
- I kept the bonus feats too, but I changed it to include fighter bonus feats (save specialization) and the [Hex] feats from Dragon 339.

But, I do like what I see here - I am afraid I'm going to have to incorporate some of this stuff.

J from Three Haligonians

 

Nifft

Penguin Herder

• Jan 27, 2007

• #8

Kurashu said:

Nifft: I gave him AM (Light) at first level because it seemed like a good place to start giving AM.

Click to expand...

No, my point is: what is he casting at 1st level? Wearing heavy armor has no effect on a "caster" who has zero Invocations.

-- N

 

Kurashu

First Post

• Jan 27, 2007

• #9

Ok, here's the revised Hexblade.

Hexblade

BAB: Full
Good Saves: Fort/Will
HD: d10
Skill Points: 2 + INT
Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana/Planes), Profession, Ride, Spellcraft
Weapon Profs: All simple/martial
Armor/Shield Prof: Light at 1st; Medium at 5th; Heavy at 10th; light and heavy sheilds (but not tower shields) and are subject to ASF

Code:

Level         Special                                   Invoc. Known
1.............AM(Light), HB Curse 1/day......................0
2.............Arcane Resistance..............................0
3..........................................................0
4.............Least Invocs., EB +1d6.........................1
5.............AM(Medium), HB Curse 2/day.....................1
6.............Dark Companion.................................1
7.............Greater Curse..................................2
8.............EB +2d6........................................2
9.............HB Curse 3/day.................................2
10............AM(Heavy)....................................3
11.........................................................3
12............Lesser Invocs, EB +3d6, Unluck Aura 1/day......3
13............HB CUrse 4/day.................................4
14.........................................................4
15.........................................................4
16............EB +4d6, Unluck Aura 2/day.....................5
17............HB Curse 5/day.................................5
18.........................................................5
19............Dire Curse.....................................5
20............EB +5d6, Unluck Aura...........................6

Arcane Resistance (Su): At 2nd level, a hexblade gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws.

 

Nifft

Penguin Herder

• Jan 27, 2007

• #10

Same issue as before: zero magical abilities at level 1 (or maybe: what do you think "0 invocations" means? It means something very different than "0 spells".)

Arcane Resistance is way too strong if he gets those two good saves. Give him good Fort only if you're going to give him that much Paladin goodness.

Cures 1/day -- isn't that rather un-Warlock? Shouldn't he have something he can do all day, every day?

-- N