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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cognomen's Cassowary" data-source="post: 7291635" data-attributes="member: 6801445">I'm not sure how much this matters when it's not available to other subclasses and is given to every hexblade. Still, let's give it a look mathematically.For a party of four 10th-level characters, a CR 12 or 13 provides a hard but not deadly encounter. According to the DMG, creatures at those CRs have around +8 to hit and deal about 81 damage per round, or 27 per attack if we assume three attacks.Against AC 16 - typical warlock with armor of shadows, Dex-based TWF hexblade in leather, polearm hexblade in breastplate - 60% chance to hit + 5% chance to crit = 18.9 damage per attack, reduced to 9.45 by armor of hexesAgainst AC 17 - Dex-Based TWF hexblade in studded leather, polearm hexblade in half-plate - 55% chance to hit + 5% chance to crit = 17.55 damage per attack, reduced to 8.775 by AoHAgainst AC 18 - sword-and-board hexblade in breastplate - 50% chance to hit + 5% chance to crit = 16.2 average, reduced to 8.1Against AC 19 - sword-and-board in half-plate - 45% chance to hit + 5% chance to crit = 14.85 average, reduced to 7.425Compared to a typical warlock at an AC of 16, a sword-and-board hexblade in half-plate will take 11.475 less damage per attack, with 4.05 of that owing to armor and 7.425 coming from armor of hexes. Compared to a hexblade at 16 AC (or a hypothetical non-hexblade with a hexblade feature), the sword-and-board takes 2.025 less damage, gaining 4.05 from AC and losing 2.025 in AoH reduction. A hypothetical sword-and-board hexblade without AoH (in half-plate) will take 5.4 more average damage than a hypothetical non-hexblade with AoH.An AC 18 hexblade, compared to a hypothetical AC 16 non-hexblade with AoH, will need to be attacked 9.45 / 8.1 = 1.167 times as often (that's 1/6th more) to get the same value out of AoH. That seems quite achievable, for a hexblade in melee to be attacked seven times for every six times a stand-back-and-blast warlock is attacked.While it is too bad that there is some antergy in the hexblade features, I would conclude that the armor of hexes feature is not a bad one. Since it is a much more powerful effect than equipping a shield, I would view it as a DPR upgrade in addition to a defensive one, as it allows you to switch when fighting bosses to a heavy weapon (assuming pact of the blade) or to TWF with the shadow blade spell.</blockquote>

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