D&D 5E Is Hex actually that great?

[FormerlyHemlock]

Interesting...as a warlock player I'd LOVE it if my DM let me use spell points...how have you seen this played out?

Just compute the spell point totals for a warlock's slots and apply other rules for spell points as usual. E.g. a 11th level warlock will have 21 spell points per short rest, plus his Mystic Arcanum.

My table is low-combat and has few warlocks over level two, so it hasn't made much difference. There's only one mid-level warlock, and he's mostly only been onscreen for non-combat activities. I do remember him casting Fireball, once, in a rescue scene, and Hunger of Hadar in a chase scene. Perhaps he would not have done so if he were restricted to spell slots--but it seems doubtful. So I suspect that warlock spell slots have had near-zero impact on my game so far. Wizard spell points have had more impact.

 

[Caliban]

If I was a player, I'd be very dubious about eating Hexed food for breakfast!

That was pretty much the reaction of the other players when I made the offer.

 

[Arial Black]

That was pretty much the reaction of the other players when I made the offer.

That happened to me too. My paladin/warlock pirate captain and his crew fought some giant crabs. Good eating, but we didn't eat the ones with necrotic damage.

For the 'chicken sacrifice', just have everyone with hex/hunter's mark target the chicken, then let someone who didn't use hex do the actual killing. Mmmm, chicken for breakfast, and breakfast will last about...59 minutes...?

 

[Primus Pilus]

Does no one ever consider the roleplay uses of spells? Yeah hex isnt your heaviest damage dealer but considering its duration is longer than the average spell it's intended more for the disadvantage part which is fun and EXTREMELY useful. Plan on lying or sneaking? Disadvantage on Wisdom checks. Plan on winning some kind of strength based competition? Disadvantage on all strength based checks. Spells are more than just damage outlets.

 

[abirdcall]

I knew it lasted longer than the average spell, but I didn't think it would last for 3 years.

 

[jgsugden]

Thread necropotence is strong with our new member. This post is from 2015. The mechanics were still being figured out back then...

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Oops, bad post. please ignore, move along, nothing to see here *whistles*.

 

[Horwath]

Since we are doing necromancy here;

Our 1st campaign: I was wood elf assassin, friend was bladelock.

Hex, disadvantage on wisdom checks. Oh, boy did I get every round advantage with sneak attack with sharpshooter +10 bonus.

you are not playing alone. hex has some great party synergies.

 

[Warpiglet]

The important caveat for me was "without multiclassing." I like a level of sorcerer with warlock for additional additional slots. Without some throwaway first level slots I won't generally use hex since there are bigger and more interesting things to do generally.

I would use hex sometimes while lower level but would not dump a fifth level slot for it!

 

[5ekyu]

Does no one ever consider the roleplay uses of spells? Yeah hex isnt your heaviest damage dealer but considering its duration is longer than the average spell it's intended more for the disadvantage part which is fun and EXTREMELY useful. Plan on lying or sneaking? Disadvantage on Wisdom checks. Plan on winning some kind of strength based competition? Disadvantage on all strength based checks. Spells are more than just damage outlets.

Drawn to the air of necromancy

Actually, to answer your question, yes some people do. The skill check thing is big although that whole casting spell thing sometimes may make it questionable.

For me, one of the biggies is using it to force disadvantage on CHA checks before interrogating. That way their deceptions, if any, are just not gonna be that... deceptive.

But others apply. The good part is Hex scales fairly well due to its duration gains.

But the drawback of course to the non-combat use is not being able to swap to a new target unless you zero HP the initial target or re-cast using another slot.