D&D 5E Hexblade vs Other Warlocks

[doctorbadwolf]

Ultimately I feel that a lot of this can be addressed by using the existing design space around Eldritch blast.

Pact of the Blade

Gain the Agonizing Blast invocation (or a different invocation if you already have it). Gain medium armor and shield proficiency.

As a free action you can summon a single blade of force in your hand. The blade has the throwing property.

The blades attack roll, damage, and number of attacks are the same as Eldritch blast. In addition, the blade has a +1 enhancement bonus, +1 for every 5 warlock levels. Any abilities that effect Eldritch blast also affect your blade.

The blade disappears when you summon a new one.


This version is simplier, and allows better scaling with existing invocations and abilities.

I’ve been saying a similar thing for years.

I would stack so much onto it, though. I don’t think it needs to gain agonizing blast automatically, for instance, or the auto scaling. let it absorb magic weapons, and let Blade-locks take the same invocations that any other warlock would take.

Or make Agonizing Blast a class feature that adds Cha mod to damage with a warlock cantrip you choose at level 1. You learn that cantrip in addition to your other warlock cantrips. You can change what cantrip you gain with this feature, and that gains the bonus damage, any time you learn an additional warlock cantrip.

Then, Pact of The Blade could add to that feature. Your Agonizing Spell Cantrip gains a range of 5ft and can be used to make melee spell attacks.

 

[Chaosmancer]

What I ended up doing was the oft-suggested change to the Pact Boon. I agree there is a strange issue with the levels 1 and 2, but there are a few ways to tackle that.

1) Start play at level 3
2) Flavor it that your patron is testing your worthiness before granting you what you really wanted. You made a pact to be a fearsome warrior, but first you have to wax on and wax off for a few levels.

Or some of the other good suggestions.

Anyways, my changes ended up being a bit extensive. Because after giving the armor, shields and cha to attack on the Pact of the Blade, I felt I needed to give some minor boosts to the other Boons. Oh yeah, I also gave the Blade Pact the ability to summon and alter their weapon as a bonus action. You have a morphic weapon, and no one every uses that ability to swap weapons. Even as a bonus action, but at least then it is possible (My aesthetic sense hurts)

Here is my current breakdown of them:

Spoiler: Pact Boons Rewritten

Pact of the Blade

You gain proficiency with medium armor and shields. Additionally, you can use your bonus action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it. You are proficient with it while you wield it and can use your Charisma modifier for the attack and damage rolls. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Your pact weapon disappears if it is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more. It also disappears if you use this feature again, if you dismiss the weapon (no action required), or if you die.

You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the weapon, shunting it into an extradimensional space, and it appears whenever you create your pact weapon thereafter. You can’t affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.


Pact of the Chain

You learn the Find Familiar spell. You can cast this spell ritually without components and with the casting time reduced to 10 minutes.

When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms based upon your Patron: Imp (Devils), Pseudodragon (Fey), Quasit (Demons), Will O' Wisp (Undying or Cursed), or Sprite (Fey).

Your familiar takes its turn at the same time you do, and is not prevented from taking the attack action. Additionally, you can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar’s senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. While perceiving through your familiar’s senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

Pact of the Tome

Your patron gives you a grimoire called a Book of Shadows. When you gain this feature, choose three cantrips from any class’s spell list (the three needn’t be from the same list). While the book is on your person, you can cast those cantrips at will. They don’t count against your number of cantrips known. If they don’t appear on the warlock spell list, they are nonetheless warlock spells for you.

You also can inscribe magical rituals in your Book of Shadows. Choose two 1st-level spells that have the ritual tag from any class’s spell list (the two needn’t be from the same list). The spells appear in the book and don’t count against the number of spells you know. With your Book of Shadows in hand, you can cast the chosen spells as rituals. You can’t cast the spells except as rituals, unless you’ve learned them by some other means. You can also cast a warlock spell you know as a ritual if it has the ritual tag.

On your adventures, you can add other ritual spells to your Book of Shadows. When you find such a spell, you can add it to the book if the spell’s level is equal to or less than half your warlock level (rounded up) and if you can spare the time to transcribe the spell. For each level of the spell, the transcription process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp for the rare inks needed to inscribe it.

If you lose your Book of Shadows, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a replacement from your patron. This ceremony can be performed during a short or long rest, and it destroys the previous book. The book turns to ash when you die.

Basically, I moved a few of the Invocations directly into the pacts, while also making some new invocations that gave some interesting or useful abilities. Like the Tome getting that Deathward effect from the UA, or the Chain (at high levels) letting their familiar hold a concentration spell for them.


Then I reworked the Hexblade as being a master of curses and called it the, well, Accursed One Patron

Spoiler: Accursed One

You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell — a being of ill-luck and dark intent. Many make pacts with such beings to bring ruin and calamity as vengeance upon their enemies, spreading gloom and misfortune to many innocents. Sometimes even yourself.

Many beings who make these pacts are nameless, hiding in the cracks of reality from which they warp and twist the world. Those known however include the Lady of Spores, The Nightmare, and The King of Sorrow. (Homebrew list)

Patron Spells
The Cursed One gives you additional spells when you reach certain levels. The following spells are added to your spells known.

Cursed One Expanded Spells
1st: Hex, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
2nd: Blur, Blindness/Deafness
3rd: Bestow Curse Enemies Abound
4th: Phantasmal Killer, Confusion
5th: Cloudkill, Modify Memory

Baleful Curse
Starting at 1st level, you gain the ability to place a baleful curse on someone. As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 minute. The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:

• You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
• 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 dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point).

You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Chain of Hexes
Starting at 1st level, when a creature affected by your Hex spell is reduced to 0 hp, you may use your reaction to move the Hex to a new creature automatically.

Starting at 6th level, you may use your bonus action to move your Hex spell, even if the current target has not been reduced to zero HP.

Accursed Specter
Starting at 6th level, you can curse the soul of a creature you slay, temporarily binding it to your service. When you slay a creature that is a Humanoid, Beast or Monstrosity, you can cause its spirit to rise from its corpse as a specter, the statistics for which are in the Monster Manual. When the specter appears, it gains temporary hit points equal to half your warlock level. The Specter takes its turn starting after your next turn. It obeys your verbal commands, and it gains a special bonus to its attack rolls equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of +0).

The specter remains in your service until the end of your next long rest, at which point it vanishes to the afterlife.
Once you bind a specter with this feature, you can’t use the feature again until you finish a long rest.

Armor of Hexes
At 10th level, your hex grows more powerful. If the target cursed by your Baleful Curse hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll.

If a target under the effect of your Hex spell hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 6, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll.

Master of Hexes
Starting at 14th level, you can spread your Baleful Curse from a slain creature to another creature. When the creature cursed by your Baleful Curse dies, you can apply the curse to a different creature you can see within 30 feet of you, provided you aren’t incapacitated. When you apply the curse in this way, you only regain hit points from the death of the previously cursed creature equal to your Charisma modifier.

Additionally, the Hex spell is no longer a Concentration spell for you.

The idea behind this was really on the Chain of Hexes ability, this Warlock is the master of the Hex spell, and able to do things with it that no other Warlock can, which I felt was some fun flavor for the class.

 

[Stalker0]

If it's a hexblade, charisma?

it’s charisma, just like Eldritch blast

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What I ended up doing was the oft-suggested change to the Pact Boon. I agree there is a strange issue with the levels 1 and 2, but there are a few ways to tackle that.

1) Start play at level 3
2) Flavor it that your patron is testing your worthiness before granting you what you really wanted. You made a pact to be a fearsome warrior, but first you have to wax on and wax off for a few levels.

Or some of the other good suggestions.

Anyways, my changes ended up being a bit extensive. Because after giving the armor, shields and cha to attack on the Pact of the Blade, I felt I needed to give some minor boosts to the other Boons. Oh yeah, I also gave the Blade Pact the ability to summon and alter their weapon as a bonus action. You have a morphic weapon, and no one every uses that ability to swap weapons. Even as a bonus action, but at least then it is possible (My aesthetic sense hurts)

Here is my current breakdown of them:

Spoiler: Pact Boons Rewritten

Pact of the Blade

You gain proficiency with medium armor and shields. Additionally, you can use your bonus action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it. You are proficient with it while you wield it and can use your Charisma modifier for the attack and damage rolls. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

Your pact weapon disappears if it is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more. It also disappears if you use this feature again, if you dismiss the weapon (no action required), or if you die.

You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. You can then dismiss the weapon, shunting it into an extradimensional space, and it appears whenever you create your pact weapon thereafter. You can’t affect an artifact or a sentient weapon in this way. The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it. The weapon appears at your feet if it is in the extradimensional space when the bond breaks.


Pact of the Chain

You learn the Find Familiar spell. You can cast this spell ritually without components and with the casting time reduced to 10 minutes.

When you cast the spell, you can choose one of the normal forms for your familiar or one of the following special forms based upon your Patron: Imp (Devils), Pseudodragon (Fey), Quasit (Demons), Will O' Wisp (Undying or Cursed), or Sprite (Fey).

Your familiar takes its turn at the same time you do, and is not prevented from taking the attack action. Additionally, you can communicate telepathically with your familiar and perceive through your familiar’s senses as long as you are on the same plane of existence. While perceiving through your familiar’s senses, you can also speak through your familiar in your own voice, even if your familiar is normally incapable of speech.

Pact of the Tome

Your patron gives you a grimoire called a Book of Shadows. When you gain this feature, choose three cantrips from any class’s spell list (the three needn’t be from the same list). While the book is on your person, you can cast those cantrips at will. They don’t count against your number of cantrips known. If they don’t appear on the warlock spell list, they are nonetheless warlock spells for you.

You also can inscribe magical rituals in your Book of Shadows. Choose two 1st-level spells that have the ritual tag from any class’s spell list (the two needn’t be from the same list). The spells appear in the book and don’t count against the number of spells you know. With your Book of Shadows in hand, you can cast the chosen spells as rituals. You can’t cast the spells except as rituals, unless you’ve learned them by some other means. You can also cast a warlock spell you know as a ritual if it has the ritual tag.

On your adventures, you can add other ritual spells to your Book of Shadows. When you find such a spell, you can add it to the book if the spell’s level is equal to or less than half your warlock level (rounded up) and if you can spare the time to transcribe the spell. For each level of the spell, the transcription process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp for the rare inks needed to inscribe it.

If you lose your Book of Shadows, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a replacement from your patron. This ceremony can be performed during a short or long rest, and it destroys the previous book. The book turns to ash when you die.

Basically, I moved a few of the Invocations directly into the pacts, while also making some new invocations that gave some interesting or useful abilities. Like the Tome getting that Deathward effect from the UA, or the Chain (at high levels) letting their familiar hold a concentration spell for them.


Then I reworked the Hexblade as being a master of curses and called it the, well, Accursed One Patron

Spoiler: Accursed One

You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell — a being of ill-luck and dark intent. Many make pacts with such beings to bring ruin and calamity as vengeance upon their enemies, spreading gloom and misfortune to many innocents. Sometimes even yourself.

Many beings who make these pacts are nameless, hiding in the cracks of reality from which they warp and twist the world. Those known however include the Lady of Spores, The Nightmare, and The King of Sorrow. (Homebrew list)

Patron Spells
The Cursed One gives you additional spells when you reach certain levels. The following spells are added to your spells known.

Cursed One Expanded Spells
1st: Hex, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
2nd: Blur, Blindness/Deafness
3rd: Bestow Curse Enemies Abound
4th: Phantasmal Killer, Confusion
5th: Cloudkill, Modify Memory

Baleful Curse
Starting at 1st level, you gain the ability to place a baleful curse on someone. As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 minute. The curse ends early if the target dies, you die, or you are incapacitated. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:

• You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
• 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 dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 hit point).

You can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Chain of Hexes
Starting at 1st level, when a creature affected by your Hex spell is reduced to 0 hp, you may use your reaction to move the Hex to a new creature automatically.

Starting at 6th level, you may use your bonus action to move your Hex spell, even if the current target has not been reduced to zero HP.

Accursed Specter
Starting at 6th level, you can curse the soul of a creature you slay, temporarily binding it to your service. When you slay a creature that is a Humanoid, Beast or Monstrosity, you can cause its spirit to rise from its corpse as a specter, the statistics for which are in the Monster Manual. When the specter appears, it gains temporary hit points equal to half your warlock level. The Specter takes its turn starting after your next turn. It obeys your verbal commands, and it gains a special bonus to its attack rolls equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of +0).

The specter remains in your service until the end of your next long rest, at which point it vanishes to the afterlife.
Once you bind a specter with this feature, you can’t use the feature again until you finish a long rest.

Armor of Hexes
At 10th level, your hex grows more powerful. If the target cursed by your Baleful Curse hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 4 or higher, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll.

If a target under the effect of your Hex spell hits you with an attack roll, you can use your reaction to roll a d6. On a 6, the attack instead misses you, regardless of its roll.

Master of Hexes
Starting at 14th level, you can spread your Baleful Curse from a slain creature to another creature. When the creature cursed by your Baleful Curse dies, you can apply the curse to a different creature you can see within 30 feet of you, provided you aren’t incapacitated. When you apply the curse in this way, you only regain hit points from the death of the previously cursed creature equal to your Charisma modifier.

Additionally, the Hex spell is no longer a Concentration spell for you.

The idea behind this was really on the Chain of Hexes ability, this Warlock is the master of the Hex spell, and able to do things with it that no other Warlock can, which I felt was some fun flavor for the class.

I’d consider making the hex features work with the hex spell or the baleful curse.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I’d consider making the hex features work with the hex spell or the baleful curse.

You mean allow bonus action shifts to happen with the Baleful Curse?

Hmmm, maybe. I think the Baleful Curse is more powerful, and it isn't meant to be moved until 14th level, when it begins moving automatically on death. But, it is worth considering

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You mean allow bonus action shifts to happen with the Baleful Curse?

Hmmm, maybe. I think the Baleful Curse is more powerful, and it isn't meant to be moved until 14th level, when it begins moving automatically on death. But, it is worth considering

Nvm I’m dumb. Yes that.

 

[Marandahir]

I'll admit that I forgot most of those subclasses were in the Sword Coast book. Do you know why I forgot? Because they were reprinted in Xanathar's Guide. There's your way to bring them forward without having to muck around.

Though I will admit, a lot of my annoyance is specifically with those cantrips. I can't count how many times people have come up with interesting gish builds or subclasses and been shot down with "Not as good as the SCAG cantrips lol" replies. Also I foolishly tried playing an Undying Warlock in my first 5e campaign, before I'd gotten back up to speed on what was considered good and what wasn't, and that leaves a sting.

It's believed that those cantrips are being reprinted - alongside Bladesinger, which is confirmed - in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

Maybe they'll errata them in the process, though.

 

[Kurotowa]

It's believed that those cantrips are being reprinted - alongside Bladesinger, which is confirmed - in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

Maybe they'll errata them in the process, though.

New information since I made that post, but yes. That is indeed my strong hope.

 

[Marandahir]

New information since I made that post, but yes. That is indeed my strong hope.

Ah whoops, I missed the dates on Page 1. Thought the thread was entirely more recent.

Here's hoping!

EDIT: Details from Dragon+ #33 suggest that the Wizard Tradition, Bladesinger, is being revised.

"This book also contains a new version of the blade singer from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide.”

Sounds like the SCAG content is getting more than a new coat of paint.