D&D 5E Has Anyone Seen the Following Builds?

[EzekielRaiden]

If you or someone you know has seen any of the following armed and dangerous builds, report these sightings to your local Orthodoxy Enforcement Officer immediately. Remember: Negligence is a crime! If you discover that someone is using unacceptable mechanics, do not engage.

BE VIGILANT. BE SAFE.

(Not sure why this thought only strikes me now, long after the thread started. But "Has anyone seen X?" makes my brain go for either wanted posters, or missing persons reports. The former is funnier given the ban, ban, ban attitude I so often see in contemporary D&D.)

Ah, the hexadin: when 'trying to get the game to be reasonable about MAD' is 'overpowered'.

Of course. Because everyone knows, if you don't suffer first, you can't have your cool mechanics. How would all the people who already suffered for their cool mechanics feel, if now you get to have yours without suffering? How can you appreciate how cool your mechanics are if you haven't suffered first? How can the game be <personal preference interpreted as objective value> if the player hasn't earned it through suffering?

 

[Voadam]

That's... way outside my experience. I've pretty much never needed to use a backup weapon unless it was a ranged-only fight, which are 1/campaign events.

Same, and when it is ranged your hexblade level gives you access to eldritch blast.

For a similar concept without multiclassing my dex 8 human paladin used his variant human feat to pick up eldritch blast to cover ranged attacks.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Same, and when it is ranged your hexblade level gives you access to eldritch blast.

For a similar concept without multiclassing my dex 8 human paladin used his variant human feat to pick up eldritch blast to cover ranged attacks.

Indeed. Hexblade 1 or 3 (for Blade Pact so you can do 2H weapons) gives quite a solid boost. Part of why I wrote a "you cannot be a Warlock" requirement for the Silver Pyromancer PrC homebrew I made. It gets damage boosts in other ways, so having eldritch blast on top of that would be overkill.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ah, the hexadin: when 'trying to get the game to be reasonable about MAD' is 'overpowered'.

Paladins tuned fairly high power level wise.

+5 to hit and damage and all saves at very low opportunity cost.

 

[FrogReaver]

In an actual real game? Close enough also counts the level doesn't need to be exact

Eldritch Knight 6, Bladesinger 2

Paladin 6/hexblade1 (or any hexblade dip on a charisma class).

Divine Soul xyz, Death Cleric 1

Fighter 2/Wizard xyz

Eldritch Knight 6/Paladin xyz

If you've seen them how did they play out in a real game? I have only seen the divine Soul in action.

I planned on having a fighter 2 / wizard xyz. Died before I was going to take 2nd fighter level at level 7 or so.

I don’t think I’ve seen the others. I’m not a fan of Paladin/hexblade dips. I think they are more of a sidegrade than a straight upgrade.

I’m a big fan of multiclassing martial 5 or 6 into a full caster or warlock, though you don’t see that often either.

 

[CleverNickName]

Sometimes I miss the 3E rules for multiclassing.

(But only sometimes.)

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Sometimes I miss the 3E rules for multiclassing.

(But only sometimes.)

It's certainly a siren song, and I totally understand why some variation of its rules remains very popular today. It promises so, so much.

The delivery, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired.

 

[jurrubin]

In an actual real game? Close enough also counts the level doesn't need to be exact

Eldritch Knight 6, Bladesinger 2

Paladin 6/hexblade1 (or any hexblade dip on a charisma class).

Divine Soul xyz, Death Cleric 1

Fighter 2/Wizard xyz

Eldritch Knight 6/Paladin xyz

If you've seen them how did they play out in a real game? I have only seen the divine Soul in action.

I actively run Paladin/Hexblades in 3 different campaigns.

The Wood Elf Paladin 8/Hexblade 2 multiclass is one of my top 3 favorite characters ever and I've been playing D&D since 1977. All the Hexblade abilities serve to support the Paladin in combat. Even the Eldritch Blast and associated invocations are essentially an instantly available "no ammo needed" heavy crossbow for enemy mage harassment. My Pallock (a.k.a. Witch Knight) easily switches roles from off tank to DPS to team support/off healer or even magical sniper at will. A truly amazing combination that requires real forethought in building and deep knowledge of class abilities during play. It will never be as combat effective as a dedicated paladin or warlock but it truly is a jack-of-all-trades that is never boring.

One caveat: The combo requires STR or DEX, CON, and CHA. I prefer DEX over STR due to buff in Initiative as well as being able to get Medium Armor ACs while wearing Light Armor. Scores of 18 in all three are NOT needed but a 16 in DEX and CHAR with a 14 in CON would be extremely useful. Although doable using point-assigned attributes, it's better to have rolled attributes that help offset the multiple attribute dependency (MAD) of the combination and allow any Attribute Score Improvements to be put into feats to improve defense and saves. The combo seems to work best when built for durability and survivability rather than DPS; the DPS of any dead character is zero. Use smites and the use of the Hex spell for spiking DPS .

Another Paladin/Hexblade combo I'm working on has added 1 level of Rogue to capture some of the save buff goodness that starting as a Rogue provides. Basically, take a Wood Elf. Start with 1 level of Rogue then switch to Paladin for 5 levels to get the Extra Attack then grab 1 level of Warlock Hexblade for Eldritch Blast.

One thing about the 5e Paladin/Hexblade multiclass is that it is powerful in melee combat until it runs out of spell slots for smites and defensive spells. Then it becomes a defensive warlock that can switch between swordplay and spamming Eldritch Blast. The Paladin/Hexblade combo is always useful.

 

[ECMO3]

One caveat: The combo requires STR or DEX, CON, and CHA. I prefer DEX over STR due to buff in Initiative as well as being able to get Medium Armor ACs while wearing Light Armor. Scores of 18 in all three are NOT needed but a 16 in DEX and CHAR with a 14 in CON would be extremely useful. Although doable using point-assigned attributes, it's better to have rolled attributes that help offset the multiple attribute dependency (MAD) of the combination and allow any Attribute Score Improvements to be put into feats to improve defense and saves. The combo seems to work best when built for durability and survivability rather than DPS; the DPS of any dead character is zero. Use smites and the use of the Hex spell for spiking DPS .

You need a 13 strength to multiclass into or out of Paladin, so it is not really either Strength or Dexterity. If you are doing standard array Strength will need to be one of your 3 highest scores and you will not be able to start with a 16 Dex, 16 Charisma and 14 Con (unless you start as a Paladin and take an ASI or half feat in strength at level 4).

Another Paladin/Hexblade combo I'm working on has added 1 level of Rogue to capture some of the save buff goodness that starting as a Rogue provides. Basically, take a Wood Elf. Start with 1 level of Rogue then switch to Paladin for 5 levels to get the Extra Attack then grab 1 level of Warlock Hexblade for Eldritch Blast.

A Halfling Assasin 11 -Vengence Paladin 5 did the highest damage on a single hit I have seen done in play (crit sneak attack-smite). That character was really awesome but she had no Warlock in it though.

Not sure what you mean about save buff. It is Dex saves, which are not as good as Wisdom saves I don't think. They do get you and extra skill though and that is probably worth it

I think you would want at least 2 levels of Hexblade for this to get Agonizing Blast

 

[Yaarel]

In an actual real game? Close enough also counts the level doesn't need to be exact

Eldritch Knight 6, Bladesinger 2

Paladin 6/hexblade1 (or any hexblade dip on a charisma class).

Divine Soul xyz, Death Cleric 1

Fighter 2/Wizard xyz

Eldritch Knight 6/Paladin xyz

If you've seen them how did they play out in a real game? I have only seen the divine Soul in action.

Treantmonk has a great Fighter 2 / Warmage 18 build. Because level 1 is Fighter, it has a reasonably strong Fighter flavor for the low tiers.

It is a fantastic Strength Wizard build. I plan to play one.

He built it with Githyanki, but any 2024 species is optimal now.