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?

 

[Hitdice]

Did I miss something? I see a couple of different invocations that have The Seeker as a patron. What book/supplement is The Seeker in?

It's a UA column from last year, titled Non-Divine Faithful.

 

[Blue]

Random thoughts as I go through.

Hexblade - oh look, the fixes that people were putting on Blade Pact, but now you need to give up your patron to get them. Oh, and lots of concentration spells that don't play together. Oh, and Hex Warrior is so ready to be cherry picked by every none GWM paladin and every valor bard. And maybe the Earth sorcerer from last UA.

Caiphon's Beacon - advantage against charmed ... but doesn't that usually break the charm?

Chronicle of the Raven Queen - while I am not fond of specific patron and pact, I do like the power. Very flavorful.

Claw of Acamar - better damage then divine smite, and on a sorta full caster. Plus super flail - one handed reach that reduces speed to 0. Too bad it is great old one becuase I'd love to use this with Hexblade's Hex Warrior.

Cursebringer - hey, requires Hex Blade, but because it's a greatsword you can't use the Hex Warrior feature. Say what?

Kiss of Mephistopheles - WOW. Effectively an extra spell known plus extra good action economy. And with multiple bolts you ca be pretty sure of hitting and getting to trigger when you want. But it isn't perfect placement since you need to center on the target which actually is a big deal. I like.

Frost Lance - knock them back with one invocation, and slow them with this one. Can you say "Kite"?

Gaze of Khirad - I like this a lot.

Green Lord Gift - not playing around, this is nice.

Mace of Dispater - again great smite damage

Moon Bow - very nice. needs to be to compete with EB. Better than smite damage on a ranged weapon. Dex based unlike all the others. And unlimited arrows.

Relentless Hex - Between this and the Earth Sorcerer from last week I can make a functioning 5e swordmage.

Sea Twins' Gift - water breathing targets 10 for 24 hours. And others can cast it as a ritual so as not to use a slot. And it has no benefit from being upcast. Why make it take a slot to use, and why oh why limit it to once every 24 hours?

Tome of Levistus - one get-out-of-jail-free vs. damage every short rest. Very nice.

Lore Mastery - Int skill expertise, eh okay. You were already the best at them because no one else has your INT bonus, this will just force DC inflation to really bring them out of others reach. Spell secrets and Alchemical Casting really feel like they are infringing on metamagic, one of the biggest differentiators for sorcerers. Prodigious Memory is really cool - but perhaps too cool. Master of Magic goes too far. Once per day you have the right spell, no matter who's list. It could be that really odd corner case, it could be you need a revivify to use on the cleric. It just allows you to barge into anyone else's home and steal their perfect toy. (And you can still use Spell Secrets and Alchemical Casting to cast it BETTER then them.)

Conclusion: some gems, but not overly impressed.

 

[Lanliss]

+3 just isn't enough of a bonus on your primary attack. With that rule you'd be much better off building your hexblade as a traditional eldritch blasting warlock, or going for STR/DEX as primary stat. Just get rid of the entire ability if you think it is too strong.

Fair enough, the curse is pretty potent by itself. I just generally prefer attempting to balance issues rather than remove them entirely.

 

[machineelf]

Lore Master with the Elemental Adept feat?

Wouldn't that be a little redundant? The purpose of the ability of the Lore Master to change their damage type is to target a damage type that the monster isn't resistant to. Adding elemental adept isn't giving you much more, so it seems like a waste of a feat.

 

[zaratan]

Okay, that´s right. The Bard/Warlock should have a magical weapon because Curse Bringer only deals Slashing Damage (non-magical) but on Lvl 20 that shouldn´t be a problem.

I prefer the Archfey Bladelock with Radiant Damage and wouldn´t multiclass with Bard but take a Fighter-Dip for Archery Weapon Style. Perhaps Sharpshooter and I´m independent from my GM concerning Magic Weapons.

yep, fighter for 2 lvl deep in fact, for action surge, or even 3 for combat manuever. about the max nova, probably battlemaster 3/hexblade3/assassin3/old favored soul 11 - half-orc. concentration in haste with great weapon master and great weapon fighter:

5d6+26d8+20
5d6+22d8+20
5d6+22d8+20
5d6+18d8+20
5d6+16d8+20
quick green flame blade 5d6+22d8+20 (+8d8 in another creature)

rerolling 1 and 2, total avarage of 906,3 +8d8 in another creature
Maybe this can be even bigger with some levels in mystic to get psionic weapon.

obviously this is a one perfect shot build, probably not really usefull in a real game.

 

[Hathorym]

Wouldn't that be a little redundant? The purpose of the ability of the Lore Master to change their damage type is to target a damage type that the monster isn't resistant to. Adding elemental adept isn't giving you much more, so it seems like a waste of a feat.

Good point. In my excitement I forgot to use logic. Bah.

 

[gweinel]

Isn't the first level of Hexblade waaaaayy more powerful than the other first level patron powers? Hexblade gets at 1st lvl proficiency at medium armor and shields, cha. modifier instead str/dex, and to one cursed creature once per long rest gets 19-20 critical, bonus to dmg equal to prof. bonus and when reduces an enemy to 0 hp gains warlock lvl+Cha mod. At the same time the fiend patron at 1st lvl get temp. hp equal to warlock lvl+cha mod. It seems to me very unbalanced...

 

[Juomari Veren]

I actually love the idea of the patron-specific weapon invocations, but I do think that 2d8 flat damage per spell level is a bit much for nova damage. It steps on the Paladin's toes a bit - not that that's a bad thing, I'm not a big fan of how powerful it is - but it should at least be a bit lower damage, even 2d6 per spell level would be fine in my opinion. Actually, now that I think about it that even sort of invalidates Rogues because Warlocks can do this trick every short rest, which is more than a Paladin, and does more damage per smite than a Rogue does with sneak attack, even considering the reduced upkeep in spell slots that's still incredibly strong on a full caster already.

I do like the idea, just needs a leetle itty bit of balancing to keep it comparable but not competitive with other classes who deal with rolling giant handfuls of damage dice. The rest of the UA is great - the other invocations, the patrons, even the Wizard Archetype is meh at best in my opinion, and keeping wizards balanced but boring is fine by me.

 

[Ahrimon]

So, Moon Bow, Mace of Dispater, Curse Bringer and Claw of Acamar can do 18d8 of damage for a 9th spell slot? By paladin, we have a new class for the new ultimate nova combo.
And Curse Bringer can critical with 19-20.

a hexblade/paladin with lance and mount looks interesting with his 1d12 weapon that only need Cha.

I don't like the specific weapon aspect of these pacts. While flavorful, it limits player creativity. They pretty much do the same thing, but lock the player into a specific weapon. It takes an action to summon the pact weapon so switching to this specific form would be a waste in combat. This pretty much means that they will always have to use that type of weapon.

As far as the damage goes, warlocks are limited to 5th level spell slots so that's 10d8. It does allow for a 3 level dip and 8th level spells 16d8 to a full caster. But a 3 level dip is a bit odd.

I would rather see some of these invocations be more generic in function. For example, curse bringer: When you attack the target of your hex spell with your pact blade you score a critical hit on a 19-20. Burning Hex: when you hit the target of your hex spell with your pact blade you can use your bonus action to deal fire damage equal to X. Stuff like that. But I think they need to make better use of the Hex spell and not rely on a new class feature for something that is already there. New invocation: Armor of Hexes, when the target of your hex spell attacks you they do so at disadvantage.

Bow is unique and I like it since it now allows for a bow warlock, but at the same time if you want to go ranged why not just use eldritch blast.

 

[cbwjm]

I've only had a chance to glance over the latest UA, but I do like what I see. I really like the invocations that are bound to certain pacts and the loremaster wizard looks really good. I'm perfectly fine with their energy alteration ability and the metamagic type abilities that they receive and would happily allow it into my game.