Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana: Wizards & Warlocks -- Hexblades, Raven Queens, and Lore Mastery!

Master of Hexes
Starting at 14th level, you can use your
Hexblade’s Curse again without resting, but
when you apply it to a new target, the curse
immediately ends on the previous target.

Does this mean you can cast it one more time, or over and over again? And does the 1 minute duration reset upon a new target, or does it continue from the previous target?

 

[TerraDave]

The Loremaster seems like it was written for a lot of the ENWorld crowd, and boy could it be game breaking. I am not saying those things are linked...

Both warlock ones are appropriately emo, though I certainly prefer the older, Moorcockian vibe of the hexblade.

But, with the hexblade, so you have this weapon as a patron, but you don't wield it? Blackrazor...gave me this book? Or better this pet?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

4 pages in I didn't see any mention of this but I'll be honest I haven't gotten through all 7 yet... Did anyone notice there are Invocations that require the Seeker Patron?

Path of the Seeker - Prerequisite: The Seeker Patron
Seekers Speech - Prerequisite: The Seeker Patron

So who is this Seeker Patron? Does he give you the Sword of Truth? Also XP for anyone that gets that reference without google...

EDIT: got ninja'ed.

It is written in the description of the invocations section, its from a previous uneathed arcana called the Faithful. its a pact based around augury and astral divination.

 

[Inchoroi]

Not sure I like using Cha as a hit/dmg modifier, seems to lead down the path of subclasses that tailor everything to a specific ability stat, and to me is the worst kind of power creep. That said, I'm willing to have an open mind if someone can show me how being charming leads to hitting harder in combat.

Everything else I love. I do hope that WoC has structured these UA releases to hide some surprises for us. Sorcerer could really use something similar to the new Wizard tradition, so perhaps we could see a version of that in the same way there is a Fighter and Rouge Scout.

This is how I feel, in a nutshell. I never liked the ability to use a different ability to hit things other than Dex/Str. Bothers me. My wife disagrees with me, however. Rather vehemently, actually.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Sure, fine, that's great. Your strength of personality lets you swing a sword better, because of magic. That's how it's been for years, and there's nothing remotely controversial about that.

The problem is when your Charisma causes your Strength to stop being relevant. As written, a Hexblade with Strength 8 and Charisma 20 swings their longsword exactly as hard as one with Strength 20 and Charisma 20. All of that force-of-muscle is being completely overwritten by your force of will. And that's just shenanigans. Especially given that we already have mechanics for letting your Charisma contribute to melee attacks, in the form of various smite effects.

So, am I literally the only one who took one look at the Hexblade's fluff and figured out the justification for the Cha replaces Strength thing is because you're literally drawing upon the power of the magic weapon you derive your magic from and using it to guide your blade in battle? I mean, this is literally what Elric of Melnibone, the obvious inspiration for this warlock archetype, did with Stormbringer - without its magic bolstering him, he was an invalid.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Sure, fine, that's great. Your strength of personality lets you swing a sword better, because of magic. That's how it's been for years, and there's nothing remotely controversial about that.

The problem is when your Charisma causes your Strength to stop being relevant. As written, a Hexblade with Strength 8 and Charisma 20 swings their longsword exactly as hard as one with Strength 20 and Charisma 20. All of that force-of-muscle is being completely overwritten by your force of will. And that's just shenanigans. Especially given that we already have mechanics for letting your Charisma contribute to melee attacks, in the form of various smite effects.

So, am I literally the only one who took one look at the Hexblade's fluff and figured out the justification for the Cha replaces Strength thing is because you're drawing upon the power of the magic weapon you derive your magic from and using it to guide your blade in battle? I mean, this is literally what Elric of Melnibone, the obvious inspiration for this warlock archetype, did with Stormbringer - without its magic bolstering him, he was an invalid.

 

[phantomK9]

Stormbringer
Mournblade

Thanks, I knew about these. I just thought that from the description, that there were MORE powerful weapons out there.
I guess my complaint would be that the Hexblade as presented really just doesn't make much sense to me. As others have stated, if the weapons are this powerful how are they still just weapons.

The description of the weapons, literally states that some were forged by the Raven Queen herself, and then the very next patron is the Raven Queen. Storywise how does it make sense that you could make a pact with the thing that someone else's patron created. Let's see do I make a pact with the creator or the creator's tool?

 

[flametitan]

So something I'm curious about: Does the fact that they reference the Seeker Patron, but not the Undying Light Patron, give an indication that they dropped the latter? It seems like if they wanted to keep a previous subclass around they reference in a relevant UA (such as the Ranger rework getting the Underdark subclass ported forward with it.)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I like most of it. But charisma on attack rolls is too much. Way too much. That makes warlock multiclass too good. With a single level you have a great ranged and melee option. The curse on top. No thanks.

 

[Proxxy55]

Well, gee, I wasn't aware that I was required to post entire pact boons here in the comment section.

Of course, I was told that it was impossible to create any new pact boons, or, as you so pithily put it, LOL. Wait, let me google .... (PAUSE) ...

I just googled "HOMEBREW WARLOCK PACTS" and I was able to find the impossible, including some of the ones that I just mentioned! I know, this is shocking and unheard of in our modern age.

EDIT- Okay, that was a little snarky, and I apologize for that. The point being is that there are numerous ways to make new pact boons, and I don't think that it is impossible to make between one - three new ones available for play.

Are you kidding me? My point is that you didn't actually create any valid ideas for pact boons. You belted out some names, which is easy and unhelpful. The hard part about those boons is making them different than the existing ones without invalidating them.

And I just took a quick glance at the boons I assume you're talking about, and, from a cursory look, they seem to have the exact problem I mentioned. They are just different variations of magic weapons, which, surprise, are already covered under Pact of the Blade.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I thought about them a little more. The bladelock has always suffered from what I think of as hybrid oversell (people thinking they were getting 50/50 melee/magic, but really getting 25/75), so the hexblade seems like a good way to move that closer to 50/50. The hex related features make it useful for tomelocks and chainlocks as well, although the warlock wasn't suffering for a lack of ability to curse anyone before. It does annoy me that we didn't get a good version of this for the paladin though (oath of stewardship)

The Raven Queen: I am glad she is still around and running things in the Fell (nice to get a little more lore on the Shadowfell and the Feywild from the invocations). I can see a patron being slightly for a pact type, but this one is really against the chainlock. Outside of someone trying to channel Mark Singer's Beastmaster (multiclass BM or BC ranger with RQ chainlock for 3 pets running around), I have a hard time seeing why you would want to chainlock with the RQ as a patron.

The invocations are flavorful. I notice that all of the fiend ones were named after devils, but most of the fiend and GOO pact ones can be reflavored easily.

The lore master wizard is in need of a serious beating with the nerf stick, and probably 2 beatings just to make sure. I have slowly become okay with taking part of Class A and putting into a subclass for Class B, but this is borderline putting the whole of the sorcerer into a wizard subclass.