Homebrew Hexblade Curse Feats - pick 'em apart, please

[ForceUser]

Hello humans. As a DM I have a great liking for the Hexblade class that debuted in Complete Warrior. To that end I have developed some special feats that augment the class's curse power in different ways. My design goal was twofold: first, I wanted the hexblade to have feats synonymous with the rage feats available to barbarians, the divine and smite feats of paladins, and the favored enemy feats that rangers can choose from. Second, I wanted to vary the possibilites for a hexblade's curse and provide exciting high level feats for the hexblade to look forward to. I am looking for honest critique from a game design perspective. If you think something's just too powerful feel free to say so, but tell me why. Thanks.

HEXBLADE CURSE FEATS

BLINDING CURSE
You can blind a foe with a curse.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 7th.
Benefit: When you curse your target, he is blinded for the duration of the curse effect. You must expend two curse attempts to make a blinding curse and it takes a standard action to perform. This effect does not stack with greater hexblade's curse or dire hexblade's curse. Any effect that removes or dispels a curse eliminates this effect.
Special: A hexblade may select Blinding Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

CURSE OF DECAY
Your curses are lethal.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 13th.
Benefit: A single visible target within 30 feet decays and dies instantly if it fails to save verses your curse. This curse replaces the normal hexblade curse effect. You must expend four curse attempts to make a curse of decay and it takes a standard action to perform. Constructs, deathless, and undead are immune to this curse.
Special: A hexblade may select Curse of Decay as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

EXTRA CURSE
You can curse more often.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 1st.
Benefit: You may use hexblade's curse, greater hexblade's curse, or dire hexblade's curse one extra time per day.
Special: A character may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.
A hexblade may select Extra Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

GREATER POTENT CURSE
Your curses are astoundingly difficult to endure.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, Potent Curse.
Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against your hexblade curses. This bonus stacks with the bonus from Potent Curse.
Special: A hexblade may select Greater Potent Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

LEGENDARY CURSE
You can curse all enemies within range.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 17th.
Benefit: You may extend your curse to all visible enemies within 60 ft. You must expend five curse attempts to make a legendary curse and it takes a full round action to perform. This effect does not stack with greater hexblade's curse or dire hexblade's curse. Any effect that removes or dispels a curse eliminates this effect.
Special: A hexblade may select Legendary Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.


LEGION'S CURSE
You can curse several enemies within range.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 9th.
Benefit: You may extend your curse to all visible enemies within a 15-ft.-radius spread who are within 60 ft. You must expend three curse attempts to make a legion's curse and it takes a standard action to perform. This effect does not stack with greater hexblade's curse or dire hexblade's curse. Any effect that removes or dispels a curse eliminates this effect.
Special: A hexblade may select Legion's Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

LINGERING CURSE
Your curses last longer than normal.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 5th.
Benefit: Your curses last 1 hour/2 hexblade levels.
Normal: A hexblade's curse lasts for 1 hour.
Special: A hexblade may select Lingering Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

POTENT CURSE
Your curses are harder to overcome.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 1st.
Benefit: Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against your hexblade curses.
Special: A hexblade may select Potent Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

WRACKING CURSE
Your curses wrack a victim with intense, cramping pain.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 7th.
Benefit: When you curse your target, he is nauseated for the first round of the curse effect. Attempting a wracking curse is a standard action. Any effect that removes or dispels a curse eliminates this effect.
Special: A hexblade may select Wracking Curse as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

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And just for fun, here's the hexblade flavor text I came up with for my campaign gazetteer.

“Bewares the hexblades curses/Mes littles time is nigh/For by an’ by I be afflicted/O’ th’ whoresons evil eye.”

From folklore about evil spirits and the restless dead, wives’ tales of black faeries of the wood that steal the children of the unwary, and the dying curses of those truly wronged comes the hexblade, a solemn warrior blessed (some would say cursed) with innate power in the dark arts. More an antihero than a hero, most hexblades grew up among poor or disenfranchised communities, such as the Vistani who wander Eriador endlessly. Some hexblades claim they were taught their art by fey, others by the ghosts of dead loved ones, while a few hexblades simply remain silent on the origin of their power. Whatever their history, hexblades are distrusted, feared and often hated for their ability to curse those who have offended them. Outcast, loner, misfit, thief, assassin, knave, opportunist, and mercenary, all these terms and more are thrust upon the hexblade, and as such they develop little love or respect for “normal” people and legitimate authority. Likewise, many hexblades turn from the gods in a dogged pursuit of greater secrets in the black arts, and it is the rare hexblade that does not scorn society and turn to a life of self-centered, callous evil.

Hexblades are warriors who combine a natural aptitude in arcane magic with skill at arms. Often they seem to be swathed in an aura of unluckiness – black cats cross their paths, mirrors shatter in their presence, water tastes foul and murky, small objects go missing or fall off shelves, untouched. Even hexblades who try to fit in with society inevitably deal with accusations of witchcraft and bringing bad luck upon a community. When a hexblade focuses this ambient power in the fury of battle, however, he is a terrifying force to be reckoned with. Many warriors are loathe to face down a hexblade and risk being cursed for life...or death.

Perhaps because of their fey heritage and the stigma that carries in human society, aelfborn make natural hexblades, and other half-breeds occasionally gravitate to the role as well. Outcast gnomes sometimes become hexblades, and goblins are also particularly well-suited to the class. Hexblades are exceedingly rare among most humans, although tales of them abound within the Vistani tribes, and some have been known to spring from Ulvmann or Vangal origins. It is almost unheard of for a warforged or lizardfolk to become a hexblade.

 

[Beholder Bob]

CURSE OF DECAY: Save or die is too much - and falling over dead feals more like death magic then a curse. Curse of decay should take at least a little while. Have it cause the target to take 1d6 con if they fail the save, then save again the following round. Each time the save is failed, 1d6 con damage, but once the save is made, the effect ends. The con damage heals normally.

EXTRA CURSE: Good idea, but not enough to make it worth a feat. Based on extra turning, extra bard songs, and extra rages - I'd guess +2-3 uses a day.

I like the concept of feats for hex-curses!

BB

 

[Anabstercorian]

I like it.

 

[Machiavelli]

This is a bump of truly epic proportions. I apologize. Now let's move on to ForceUser's awesome ideas, and a few not-so-bad ones of my own, shall we?

This effect does not stack with greater hexblade's curse or dire hexblade's curse.

This is a trait shared by almost all of the feats, but I can't make sense of it. A "greater" or "dire" curse is actually just a regular hexblade's curse. It exhausts a regular curse/day use. The class abilities "Greater Hexblade's Curse" and "Dire HBC" just make those regular curses nastier. Because using these class abilities is not a conscious decision, I really do think they should not be ignored just to use HBC feats; they should stack.

I'd say Beholder Bob got the change to Curse of Decay right. His version sounds much like real "decay" should be, though perhaps 4 curse uses is a bit much then; I'd go with 3.
His change to Extra Curse is also probably a good idea. In line with the usual "extra" feats, 2 additional uses would be appropriate; definitely not three, because a hexblade normally only gets 5 uses anyway.


I'd also like to suggest my own feat:

CURSED WEAPON [CURSE]
You can deliver a curse with an injurious strike.
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse ability, hexblade level 4th.
Benefit: As a swift action, you may expend one hexblade's curse use to charge one piercing or slashing weapon with a shimmering, faintly translucent blackness, like obsidian. Until the beginning of your next turn, any target you successfully deal damage to is affected by a hexblade's curse. This feat may not be used with other curse feats.
Special: A hexblade may select Cursed Weapon as one of his hexblade bonus feats.

These are the sorts of things hexblades are meant for. In their normal arrangement, they were boring to play, in my opinion. I multiclassed out of Hexblade pretty quickly when I played one. He bacame a sorcerer, then an eldrich knight, so that I wouldn't stray too far from the Hexblade idea, but I wouldn't be bored out of my skull any longer.

Perhaps therein lies the Hexblade's strength: multiclassing. Of course a base class should be designed to be fun and viable at every level.

 

[Land Outcast]

I'm thinking about a feat which enables the curse to be surpassed with either will or fortitude save, whichever the worst of the victim... or something around the lines

Also, Potent Curse and Greater Potent Curse:
Beng a 1-time ability against an enemy, I find them seriously underpowered...
perhaps +2/+4?

 

[thosfsull]

Dragom 339 had all these added Hexblade curses on page 93.

Curse of Failure ~Bonuses for allies who flank the cursed
Paranoia ~Penalty on one type of save
Distraction ~Foe must make a concentration check on each and every speel cast
Ignorance ~Penalty on any 2 skill checks
Sloth ~Hamstring movement
Softened Blade ~damage is reduced on weapon weilded
Stricken ~Curse victim's AC
Empower Curse ~Enhance penalty by 1
Extend Curse ~Each curse lasts a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Extra Curse ~Get another additional use of HEX ability

 

[thosfsull]

All require a curse class ability of course, but Distraction, Failure, & Sloth need you to have one other Hexing feat before taking it. Stricken And Softened Blade require two previous Hexing feats to get them.

I forgot Foe of the Unlucky which allows you to blow a use of a Hex to make an enemy reroll his critical confirmation on you.

 

[nonamazing]

Hey, I like most of those feats, Forceuser. One of my players is currently running a hexblade and he has been looking for ways to get more out of his curses. I'll have to show him those.

I came up with a few hexblade feats of my own as well. I hope nobody minds if I post them here.

Surprising Curse

When you catch your foes off guard, they're powerless against your curses.

Prerequisites: Hexblade's curse; ability to cast 1st level spells
Benefit: Whenever you use your curse against a flat-footed opponent, that opponent must make two saving throws to resist. If it fails either one, it is affected by the curse as per normal.

Lingering Curse

Your curse does not die when your opponents do.

Prerequisites: Hexblade's curse, Intimidate 4 ranks
Benefit: When you deal the finishing blow to an opponent suffering from your Hexblade's curse (reducing them to -1 hit points or below), you may use a swift action to redirect the curse to any opponent within 30 feet. You must have line of sight to your new opponent in order to use this ability, and the new target of your curse gets a saving throw as per normal. You may use this ability an unlimited number of times per day.

Curse of Lifetheft

When you strike a foe suffering from your curses, you can draw their life force away from them, taking it for yourself.

Prerequisites: Hexblade's curse, ability to cast one 1st level necromancy spell
Benefit: When you successfully deal damage to an opponent currently affected by your curse, you may choose to end that curse immediately. If you do so, you heal a number of hit points equal to one-half the damage you just dealt. Constructs and the undead are immune to this ability.

Counterspelling Curse

Those you have cursed have a hard time using their magic against you.

Prerequisites: Hexblade's curse, Spellcraft 4 ranks
Benefit: If a spellcaster currently affected by your curse tries to cast a spell that you successfully recognize, you can choose to release your curse in order to counterspell their magic. You and your opponent make opposing caster level checks (your opponent suffers a -2 penalty to this roll due to your curse, which fades out immediately after the counterspell attempt). If you succeed, the spell is wasted and has no effect.


PS. Thanks to thosfsull for reminding me which Dragon issue those feats were in!