Nazerel
First Post
Also wanted to point out that the anti-impact property only halves damage from falling, constriction, or crushing attacks/effects, not from blunt/bludgeoning weapons.
Aside from that correction, wanted to say thanks for the write up! It's very informative as I rather like the hexblade class, even if it is a little underpowered. They could give it a little boost by just giving the class good Fortitude saves like other warrior types (which I don't really understand why the designers didn't do so in the first place; it's not like there are a flood of Fortitude partial entry spells out there compared to those with Reflex half, and even those classes that get evasion have good Reflex saves and eventually improved evasion to boot - so calling it an issue of balance is a bit suspect).
Dark companion is pretty nice to have, though I went with the focus caster (abjuration only - I don't agree with the focus being required for ALL spells, makes more sense to apply the focus to only the chosen school) variant for my hexblade instead, combined with abjurant champion PrC and gestalted with bard/sublime chord PrC. Basically he's very Jedi-ish in his abilities (wields a starmetal sun blade) and also a caster's worst nightmare (swift cast abjurations with double durations AND additional extra targets); combined with arcane turmoil, (greater) dispel magic, spell theft, and other abjurations, he's the ultimate buffer/debuffer plus enemy casters will have a hard time with him (the members of his order/guild are basically trained to defeat rogue/out-of-control casters and keep the balance of magic in the world).
Harbingers are decent flavor wise and at low-mid levels, but their bardic abilities won't affect very many enemies at higher levels given that bardic music is mind-affecting (which rules out undead, many aberrations, fey, outsiders, etc.). IMHO, it's better that the mind-affecting abilities are buffing allies rather than debuffing enemies at the 10+ levels (rampant use of mind blank among you and your allies notwithstanding). Still, might be applicable for a Sith-type, non-psionic gestalt build (relying on fear and debuffs rather than heroics and buffs). But both variants have their pros and cons.
Anyway, the write-up for hexblade is very eye-opening and helped a lot when I designed mine. I ought to find that Dragon mag with the unique curses, sounds very interesting. Thanks again!
Aside from that correction, wanted to say thanks for the write up! It's very informative as I rather like the hexblade class, even if it is a little underpowered. They could give it a little boost by just giving the class good Fortitude saves like other warrior types (which I don't really understand why the designers didn't do so in the first place; it's not like there are a flood of Fortitude partial entry spells out there compared to those with Reflex half, and even those classes that get evasion have good Reflex saves and eventually improved evasion to boot - so calling it an issue of balance is a bit suspect).
Dark companion is pretty nice to have, though I went with the focus caster (abjuration only - I don't agree with the focus being required for ALL spells, makes more sense to apply the focus to only the chosen school) variant for my hexblade instead, combined with abjurant champion PrC and gestalted with bard/sublime chord PrC. Basically he's very Jedi-ish in his abilities (wields a starmetal sun blade) and also a caster's worst nightmare (swift cast abjurations with double durations AND additional extra targets); combined with arcane turmoil, (greater) dispel magic, spell theft, and other abjurations, he's the ultimate buffer/debuffer plus enemy casters will have a hard time with him (the members of his order/guild are basically trained to defeat rogue/out-of-control casters and keep the balance of magic in the world).
Harbingers are decent flavor wise and at low-mid levels, but their bardic abilities won't affect very many enemies at higher levels given that bardic music is mind-affecting (which rules out undead, many aberrations, fey, outsiders, etc.). IMHO, it's better that the mind-affecting abilities are buffing allies rather than debuffing enemies at the 10+ levels (rampant use of mind blank among you and your allies notwithstanding). Still, might be applicable for a Sith-type, non-psionic gestalt build (relying on fear and debuffs rather than heroics and buffs). But both variants have their pros and cons.
Anyway, the write-up for hexblade is very eye-opening and helped a lot when I designed mine. I ought to find that Dragon mag with the unique curses, sounds very interesting. Thanks again!
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
