Complete Warrior base classes

[Klaus]

I'll just toss my two coppers into this conversation. The hexblade is a poorly designed class. The class requires good Strength and Constitution scores because it is essentially a fighting class. It also requires a good Dexterity because you are limited to light armor. Plus you need Charisma to make your special abilities and spells work well. Intelligence and Wisdom aren't exactly dump stats because it has a poor Will save and poor skill set. I think the class is fixed well enough if you give it heavy or at least medium armor proficiency without affecting spellcasting.

Eh?

The Hexblade has good Will saves. He can go by with nothing more than a 10 on Wisdom.

With his full BAB, the Hexblade can make do with nothing better than a 13 on Strength, allowing him to wield a two-handed weapon and get that 2:1 damage bonus (and Magic Weapon adds +1/+1 to it).

12 on Int gets the Hexblade to maximize Concentration, Intimidate and Bluff (or Concentration, Knowledge [arcana] and Spellcfrat). Skills aren't his main thing, though. You could put an 8 on Int and be human, efectively negating the skill point loss.

Light armor does entail a need for Dexterity, possibly a 15, if you plan on wielding two weapons (great if you later get Arcane Strike, since the feat, as worded, affects both weapons). But a 14 would do. And a mithril breatplate (or Battle Caster and a level of Fighter) gives a Hexblade all the AC he needs.

His d10 HD means he gets more than decent hp with just a 10 on Con, but Mettle and poor Fort saves make a hexblade wish for a 12 or 13 on Con.

Only Charisma needs the higher-the-better treatment, since two of the class' abilities (curse and spellcasting) are governed by it.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Well the samurai loses access only to one to three feats which according to your comparison is 80% of his effectiveness. I don't think you fully realise how being able to use two weapon without having a high dex can be powerfull, especially in a point buy.

The samurai fills a hole in the core class. It allow to create an heavily armored effective two weapon figther. The problem is that they're isn't much support in terms of feat and samurai class ability to support the combat style. without dipping into rogue level (which just slow down his two weapon style progression since it's directly related to the Samurai level) the samurai won't be able to keep up with the two-handed weapon warrior in terms of damage.

And the other ability like MerricB says aren't that great.

If DnD used sensible two-weapon fighting rules (the way D20 Modern does), this wouldn't be an issue. There are "heavy" dual-wielders in DnD novels, but not in the game rules.

 

[DarkMaster]

If DnD used sensible two-weapon fighting rules (the way D20 Modern does), this wouldn't be an issue. There are "heavy" dual-wielders in DnD novels, but not in the game rules.

Well there could be in a non point buy game and with higher than average roll where you can afford to waste your high dex in an heavy armor.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Well there could be in a non point buy game and with higher than average roll where you can afford to waste your high dex in an heavy armor.

That would be legal but not sensible.

 

[airwalkrr]

The Hexblade has good Will saves. He can go by with nothing more than a 10 on Wisdom.

My bad. I had forgotten about that. Nevertheless, I maintain my position. Pointing out he does in fact have a good Will save is setting up a straw man as it is clearly one of the least essential elements of my argument.

The class: a) lacks good skills and skill points, b) adds Charisma to the list of abilities that fighters need to keep high c) makes a half-hearted attempt at redemption from a power with decent potential but tightly reigned in by allowing saving throws and tightly limiting its uses per day d) loses heavy and medium armor which is essentially the trade-off for spellcasting while a Ftr/Wiz still gets a better spell progression and MUCH better spell list and e) has less competitive spells than a ranger or paladin while gaining significantly fewer abilties than these classes (which it is clearly an arcane variant of). The hexblade needs a lot more. They should have added in more hexblade feats with CW to make the class more worthwhile like the Class Acts in Dragon that printed a bunch of hexblade feats. I would never consider playing one unless it was purely a role-playing decision in a campaign where I didn't mind being underpowered.