Anyone played a Hexblade?

[Felon]

Is a Hexblade (from the Complete Warrior) as crummy as it looks? I was looking for something to replace the paladin in my campaign, and this is the best I've found. In particular, I don't think Mettle is that hot just because most Fort and Will saves tend to be of the all-or-nothing variety, and familiars just suck.

Some house rules I'm thinking about making:

• A successful save against the hexblade's curse only cuts the penalty in half.
• Hexblades use divine magic instead of arcane, and gain proficiency with medium and heavy armor.
• Replace the familiar with something else (not sure what).

 

[Nightfall]

Uhm there's always holy warrior...or barring that Champion from AU/AE.

 

[Crothian]

actually it seems to be a pretty good class as is

 

[Nightfall]

actually it seems to be a pretty good class as is

Agreed but I guess not everyone sees it that way Crothy.

But if a DM/GM IS replacing paladin, I don't think I'd use Hexblade.

 

[Felon]

actually it seems to be a pretty good class as is

Got any actual insight to offer?

Agreed but I guess not everyone sees it that way Crothy.

I stated what I think's wrong with it, but I haven't seen it in action. Please tell me why you think it's worthwhile? What does it do well?

But if a DM/GM IS replacing paladin, I don't think I'd use Hexblade.

It's replacing the paladin because the paladin's not appropriate for the campaign, but I'd like some class to fill the whole "magical warrior" niche.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I'll chime in for AU/AE too, but it sounds like you might want to look at the "Mage Blade" class instead of, or in addition to, the "Champion." I haven't tried it, but I suspect that it would convert over to divine magic reasonably well if you didn't want to use the cool new magic system (neither arcane nor divine).

I wanted to like the hexblade, but I just couldn't. Too much unneeded specific flavor without the cool to back it up.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Expanding the Hexblade's Charisma saving throw bonus to all saves, like the Paladin, would be a good start, as would expanding their bonus feat list to include some Fighter bonus feats.

I don't think they're a bad class, overall.

 

[ThirdWizard]

It's been a while. Someone made one when CW was first published, but as it was a seven PC group and the person was relatively new to the game, it is very hard to guage. Overall, I don't remember the class being weak.

They make great NPCs, since their Hex lasts so long. I used a half-fiend hobgoblin hexblade to great use recently, though that's not really helpful to players.

I don't have the book with me, so I can't do much of an analysys, but this is what I remember from way back.

 

[Neo]

actually it seems to be a pretty good class as is

I have to agree, I played one while I was taking a break from GMing a while back and I really enjoyed the class, it did not seem to have any glaring inconsistencies or design flaws, was very themed and fun to play.

 

[Snowy]

theres one in the campaign I'm DMing, the curse is a little clunky, I think save for half would work, I may even give her that sounds like a special reward from thier favourite loremaster .

The spell selection is nice and they still seem to be able to beat things up good with those swords.

Shes gone for a very intimidate heavy skill selection and with a 22 charisma and a nice frosty greatsword she tends to make people think again. Played that way it seems to have a lot of flavour.