D&D 5E Single class Hexblade - missing something?

[Cap'n Kobold]

Your arguing for what here? I have no complaint about the warlocks not having the same spell power as standard full casters (they don't but that's fine), I also never said warlocks should do more damage. I also never said to give warlocks more spell slots ( can see the argument for 6 up front and recharge on long rest, but I don't think its necessary)

Not arguing for anything as much as explaining that one of the reasons you may find your warlock underperforms is due to your group's playstyle not being very compatible with the way the class was designed.

Hopefully what I've said will also come in handy if you have to advocate to your group about a houserule to rectify this: either introducing a new defensive ability at level 6 or getting Thirsting Blade for free as you suggest, or just changing the warlock to a long rest refresh like I did.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I think you are selling Hexblades somewhat short.

Yes, you are likely spending a lot of resources (invocations, slots, ASIs) to keep up your melee damage and survivability.

However, you also have options that other frontliners lack. Someone in this thread described a mission involving infiltrating a stronghold as an example of a situation where the hexblade would not be able to benefit from short rests.

On the other hand, the hexblade could use Mask of many faces (1 invocation) plus their high Charisma to sneak in, possibly bringing in the other characters as “prisoners”. The hexblade could also potentially bypass an entire encounter with Major Image. Sure, it takes one of their two slots, but the fighter can’t really do anything equivalent, and using one slot to get the entire party out of a fight can be a good deal.

 

[ClaytonCross]

I think you are selling Hexblades somewhat short.

Yes, you are likely spending a lot of resources (invocations, slots, ASIs) to keep up your melee damage and survivability.

However, you also have options that other frontliners lack. Someone in this thread described a mission involving infiltrating a stronghold as an example of a situation where the hexblade would not be able to benefit from short rests.

On the other hand, the hexblade could use Mask of many faces (1 invocation) plus their high Charisma to sneak in, possibly bringing in the other characters as “prisoners”. The hexblade could also potentially bypass an entire encounter with Major Image. Sure, it takes one of their two slots, but the fighter can’t really do anything equivalent, and using one slot to get the entire party out of a fight can be a good deal.

I don't think they are being sold short. They do get times to shine and I am not see complains about their damage. Its just that the use of all the pact of the pact of the blade invocation is a natural trap. So the complains are more "Hexblade does not live up to my expectation" but those expectation are not about base function but about flexibility. They end up working really well in very niche situations when your we informed about how to avoid trappings and mitigate issues that prevent them from meeting the expectations you had about flexibility allowing specific role play goals. I would not advise this subclass or a new player or an old player without first walking them through those problems so they can use the fixes they that help them align to target or realign their expectations to the actual design of the class instead of the natural concept of the class that is misleading.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I agree with you that a warlock can fill the party role and fits the overall fantasy trope of a "caster". I would differ in that I think "full caster" is mechanical jargon used in 5e to indicate the pattern of spell slot and spell level progression, not an indication of the worth of the role. The warlock isn't a "full caster" in technical 5e parlance, but it also isn't a "partial caster"; it's very much its own thing, more of an "alternate caster".

Yeah, sounds like it's just a different way we use the term. I've always used "full caster" to refer to classes whose spell slots go all the way up to 9th level (and can, by inference, perform in a certain way). That's contrasted with the "half casters" like paladins and rangers, or 3/4 caster like the 3e bard. I'm pretty sure that was standard usage in 3e at least. "Alternate caster" is a pretty good term that seems to work too.

 

[Ancalagon]

I re-read the subclass, and it does seem like it already knows about the EP cheese... "some foregoe such arms and merely weave dark magics" (not 100% correct but close enough).

I think you would have to flavor it to be palatable - like you would "project wind blades from your sword" to attack the enemy with EB. Instead of taking 2 attacks, you devote a cantrip to Green Flame Blade or Booming blade.

So you are a hex"blade".