D&D 5E Starting to Hate Hexblades

Minigiant

Legend
Supporter
I guess this is why the half-casters in the various editions always seem to be clerical or druidical? Fighter/magic-user is just too powerful a build, from the BECMI D&D elf to the modern hexblade problems you mention.

One of the things that always got me about powergaming, though...if half of these things were real, people really would be exploiting the wazoo out of them. Wizards would haste armies, flaming spheres would be cast into the enemy's granary, lords would send clerics to cast contagion on the enemy's troops...

Don't hate the player, hate the game. ;)

That's why as a DM I really only ban classes and multiclasses that don'tmatch the setting, over or under power the base assumption of the game by a lot, or obviousl take up too much spotlight.

Because if D&D were real, 40-60% of adventurers would be powergamed and munckined to hell.
80% of the humans.
And I'm lowballing.
 

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Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
And never even seen one in action.
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If I don't want something in my game, I say, "No [whatever] in my game."

It's the simplest and most reliable way of accomplishing the goal. Never understood the need to complicate it.

The point of complicating it is so that you have a rich gameworld of free choice with consequences rather than a constrained gameworld of "DM may I".

But yes, if the thing will really ruin the game for you, you should just say you're not okay with it (whatever your role at the table).
 
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Cadence

Legend
Supporter
I don't let people dip.

If you're gonna multiclass in one of my games, which I generally try to avoid, it's going to be a commitment on your part, not a 1 and done "Oh, I just wanted these benefits".

Talk to me about what you wanna have from your class and we'll work something out that doesn't involve a dip. If that means designing or re-building a subclass or entire class to cover what you're hoping to do, so be it.
Multiclassing seemed to be a big thing in 3.5/PF (in spite of all of the classes in PF). How important is it in 5e? How important is it that 6e (or an alternative to 5e) support it now.
 

Steampunkette

Rules Tinkerer and Freelance Writer
Supporter
That's why as a DM I really only ban classes and multiclasses that don'tmatch the setting, over or under power the base assumption of the game by a lot, or obviousl take up too much spotlight.

Because if D&D were real, 40-60% of adventurers would be powergamed and munckined to hell.
80% of the humans.
And I'm lowballing.
If D&D were real no one would be powergamed or munchkinned out.

Because if D&D were real, none of us would know the rules of the game.
 

Mind of tempest

(he/him)advocate for 5e psionics
I guess this is why the half-casters in the various editions always seem to be clerical or druidical? Fighter/magic-user is just too powerful a build, from the BECMI D&D elf to the modern hexblade problems you mention.

One of the things that always got me about powergaming, though...if half of these things were real, people really would be exploiting the wazoo out of them. Wizards would haste armies, flaming spheres would be cast into the enemy's granary, lords would send clerics to cast contagion on the enemy's troops...

Don't hate the player, hate the game. ;)
it is not too powerful it is a problem of spells on offer properly curated list solves that, it worked for the paladin.
 

Kurotowa

Legend
The point of complicating it is so that you have a rich gameworld of free choice with consequences rather than a constrained gameworld of "DM may I".
Passive aggressive punishment for making choices you don't approve of isn't a more healthy play dynamic. If you want to ban powergaming, then just ban powergaming. Deliberately giving your players a miserable time for picking what they believe if a perfectly acceptable character choice is just ruining everyone's fun.

For my part, having played a straight Hexblade PC in a couple year campaign, the subclass is nothing special. What's driving the crazy munchkin builds is multiclassing, and even then like the Zardnaar reported a lot of the builds don't come together until very high level. Even 99% of feats aren't any sort of problem. The real issues are GWF and Sharpshooter, which are well outside the usual power range for feats. Outside of those they're nothing special.
 

Vaalingrade

Legend
Hexblade is potentially overpowered as a class dip. The solution is to just emphasize, repeatedly in all situations, what a loser the Hexblade is. I mean selling your soul for power is one thing, but selling your soul to be the minion of an uppity, inanimate weapon is quite another. If you don't want Hexblades in your game, make the Hexblade patron obnoxious.
Yeah, harassing the player for their class choices certainly sounds like a fun idea that won't make the player hate you personally for being a jerk to them.
 

Honestly single class hexblade is fine. I'm playing a reskinned one right now. DM has let me permanently switch eldritch blast from force to cold as well, in order to suit the ice theme I'm going for.

Due to the multiclassing rules, they're pretty badly designed though. Too front loaded which means people just want to take all the benefits of the class as a tiny dip and leave it as that. The attack on charisma should be moved to pact of the blade imo, which would push it back to lvl 3.

The multiclass system this edition is... just awful. It's stupidly unbalanced, doesn't respect tiers of play, and generally feels like the entire thing was wrote on a friday afternoon right as an afterthought right before publishing.
 


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