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?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[76512390ag12]

I'm a bit confused about the Hexblade patron.
Are there literally powerful weapons out there calling to people? Maybe I haven't read enough lore but everything I know about powerful artifact level weapons is that they are waiting for people to find them and then once they attune, they may attempt to take over.

Stormbringer
Mournblade

Posted by C4-D4RS on the MetroLiberal HoloNet

 

[Waterbizkit]

I like it, but there's some wrinkles that need to be ironed out. Par for the course for me & UA.

I like that Hexblade in particular finally allows you to make a good strength-based Pact of the Blade Warlock without having to multiclass into something like Fighter or Paladin. I also like the gated Invocations since almost all of them in the PHB are open to everyone, it gives some unique flavor to the patrons/pacts.

The Lore Master seems... a bit powerful. Cool and interesting, but needs some toning down. It also fills the gap where the "generalist" used to be. I would have liked to see something like this for the sorcerer too though, something more of a generic "arcane" bloodline... but that's a comment for another thread.

Anyway, as usual I'll be interested to see how these shake out in the end and finally turn up in a book.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Do the new Pact of the Blade features seem strictly better than the Paladin's Divine Smite?
Is there enough of an opportunity cost in taking one of those invocations that this is okay?
I'm not certain.

Well, its all about opportunity cost.
-If you ignore the awesome mix of Hexblade + Blade boon + Curse Bringer, you need to take another pact which doesnt give you armor prof, unless you're a mountain dwarf or multiclass. You also need to raise Dex or Str to wield your weapon.
-Then you need to spend 1 invocation to get the new pact-themed weapons, which arent as good as other weapon if you have access to feat.
-Then you have to take another invocation to get a second attack to keep up with the Paladin's extra attack.
-Then you need to spend one or two of your spell slots to ''smite'' your foes, keeping in mind that you're limited to 2 or 3 slots most of your career.

So, I guess it can be powerful, but to make a warlock compete with a paladin you need to give up a lot, and meanwhile your paladin has auras, other spells, figthing style etc.

 

[Opposition01]

On their own, I really like most of the new options. But some of the options opened up when multiclassing strike me as truly insane. As written, I see nothing in the rules to prevent a Hexblade/Paladin from stacking Curse Bringer with Divine Smite. And that goes for Fiend and Old One pact blades too, since they also get new melee weapon invocations. The nuke potential there is game breaking, so what if it burns an extra spell slot.

 

[Taronkov]

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...

 

[TerraDave]

This is garbage. They've had an extra week to get it right, and they don't get a free pass just because it's free material. The lack of competency of the designers, or their arrogance at just outright ignoring my desires is unacceptable.


Am I doing it right?

Your a week late.

And the sorcerer led to a lot of whine. Though I thought the options were fine. (And I like to rhyme).

 

[Dualazi]

Just going to put in a quick take and re-visit after sleep:

Warlock is disappointment on the whole. They've got some good ideas, but many of them are locked behind needlessly niche combinations. Like the cloak of flies that deals poison damage, could that also not work for feylocks with a swarm of tiny faeries or something?

Hexblade sucks. Period, in my opinion. I find it super uninspired lore-wise "hey guys, remember those iconic weapons from way-back-when?", but it's also an incredible stretch to me from a concept point of view. Like if blackrazor is so powerful it can gift a full class-list of abilities to some dude, then clearly it could find some way to be ambulatory or stop being a sword. Not to mention it steps on the bladelock's toes.

Raven queen is also sub-par, but that's just because I find her theme conducive to edgy players and we don't need more crap dealing necrotic damage.

Lore wizard is awful from a balance perspective I think, it's way too flexible, and gives way too many ways to nova. They can tailor all their spells to exploit enemy weakness or dodge resists, amp the damage further with spell slot use, and as others have pointed out, have a largely un-answerable range advantage, though I think that will be the most niche of their stuff. Oh yeah, and they can select the enemy's worst saving throw, in a game where high level saves are already borderline impossible, and they can increase the DC by a further 2 if they really want it to stick. Ridiculous.

Master of Magic is also a huge problem, I seem to recall that pathfinder had a very popular power-build centered around basically this ability, because it might as well be a 1/day problem solver, since you can tailor your response to the situation from any spell list in the game. Which also means that it is hilariously power-creepy by default, as just with prior editions each new spell resource gets added to the wizard repertoire as well.

All in all this might be on of the worst UA's they've released in my opinion, what little I did enjoy is tarnished by its implementation.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

How about this:
Your Charisma stat isn't just about being charming. It's about the strength of your own sense of self. As a Warlock, your Patron chose to make a pact with you because of your strong personality & sense of self. If Wisdom is the Willpower of the mind, Charisma is the Willpower of the gut, intestinal fortitude(or testicular fortitude if you're a sports/WWE fan). Casting spells and wielding your Patron's gifts aren't intellectual exercises for you, you draw from deep down inside you for the power you need. And in the case of a Hexblade, one of those gifts is martial prowess.

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.

 

[QuietBrowser]

[MENTION=6781208]Taronkov[/MENTION]: The Seeker patron for Warlocks showed up in "The Faithful", the Unearthed Arcana for August in 2016, which it shared with the Theurge tradition for Wizards.