Esker
Hero
tl;dr: Can a Hexblade with the tavern brawler feat make their shield their hex weapon?
The Hex Warrior property requires a weapon you are proficient with that lacks the two-handed property. Tavern brawler makes you proficient with improvised weapons, which includes a shield used to bash. But since improvised weapons (and in particular, shields) are not weapons when they are not being used to attack, they may not qualify as a weapon at the moment the Hexblade chooses their Hex weapon at the end of a long rest.
How would you rule?
I can't find any discussion of this particular issue (Note that this is distinct from the issue of whether an improvised weapon can be a pact weapon: it can't, since a pact weapon must be a simple or martial weapon)
Here's my context: I have a Swords Bard with one level of Hexblade, and wind up being the de facto tank in a party with a wizard, a monk, and a rogue. The wizard took enlarge and I took expertise in athletics, so some grappling is clearly in order. Tavern Brawler gives a nice bonus action use, plus rounds out my odd CON score, but requires improvised weapon or unarmed attacks to qualify. Plus, in order to keep my AC up while maintaining the grapple, I need to hit with a weapon attack.
I could just do a shield bash with STR to qualify, but my CHA is significantly higher. So it'd be nifty if I could just be shield bash and grapple guy, without giving up the benefit of Hex Warrior...
The Hex Warrior property requires a weapon you are proficient with that lacks the two-handed property. Tavern brawler makes you proficient with improvised weapons, which includes a shield used to bash. But since improvised weapons (and in particular, shields) are not weapons when they are not being used to attack, they may not qualify as a weapon at the moment the Hexblade chooses their Hex weapon at the end of a long rest.
How would you rule?
I can't find any discussion of this particular issue (Note that this is distinct from the issue of whether an improvised weapon can be a pact weapon: it can't, since a pact weapon must be a simple or martial weapon)
Here's my context: I have a Swords Bard with one level of Hexblade, and wind up being the de facto tank in a party with a wizard, a monk, and a rogue. The wizard took enlarge and I took expertise in athletics, so some grappling is clearly in order. Tavern Brawler gives a nice bonus action use, plus rounds out my odd CON score, but requires improvised weapon or unarmed attacks to qualify. Plus, in order to keep my AC up while maintaining the grapple, I need to hit with a weapon attack.
I could just do a shield bash with STR to qualify, but my CHA is significantly higher. So it'd be nifty if I could just be shield bash and grapple guy, without giving up the benefit of Hex Warrior...