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Seerow
2014-01-06, 12:34 AM
Recently, a player in my group was wanting to roll up a hexblade. Hexblades are really a class that I haven't spent much time looking into in the past, as I've never seen a real use for them, or had anyone particularly interested in playing one.

Looking at it, the Hexblade seems like an obvious counterpart to the Paladin. Ideally I wanted to fix it along the same lines as I did my Paladin Fix (with little in the way of truly 'new' features, just stronger utilization of already existing features). The problem is, where the Paladin already had Spellcasting, Smite, Lay on Hands, and Turn Undead... the Hexblade has Spellcasting and Hex. While Lay on Hands is negligible, the hexblade really doesn't get anything anywhere near as potent or flexible as Turn Undead.

So while I like the general template used, I had to stretch and add other things. This class draws on the Duskblade, the Hexblade, and my revamped Paladin, and produces something I think ends up unique, powerful, and still identifiably the Hexblade, just cranked up to 11.

Please, let me know if I succeeded at that.



The Hexblade
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/cwc_Hexblade_med.jpg

Hit Die: D10
Skill Points: 4+int mod (x4 at 1st level)
Class Skills Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot(Wis), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
1st +1 +2 +0 +2 Hexblade's Curse, Familiar 1 - - -
2nd +2 +3 +0 +3 Arcane Presence (1 active) 2 - - -
3rd +3 +3 +1 +3 Arcane Channeling 3 - - -
4th +4 +4 +1 +4 Greater Curse, Mettle 3 - - -
5th +5 +4 +1 +4 Dark Companion 4 1 - -
6th +6 +5 +2 +5 Bonus Feat 4 2 - -
7th +7 +5 +2 +5 Greater Curse 4 3 - -
8th +8 +6 +2 +6 Arcane Presence (2 active) 7 3 - -
9th +9 +6 +3 +6 Superb Presence (1/day) 5 4 1 -
10th +10 +7 +3 +7 Greater Curse 5 4 2 -
11th +11 +7 +3 +7 Curse Admixture 5 4 3 -
12th +12 +8 +4 +8 Bonus Feat 6 8 3 -
13th +13 +8 +4 +8 Dire Curse 6 8 4 1
14th +14 +9 +4 +9 Arcane Presence (3 active) 6 5 4 2
15th +15 +9 +5 +9 Full Attack Channeling 6 5 4 3
16th +16 +10 +5 +10 Dire Curse 6 6 5 3
17th +17 +10 +5 +10 Superb Presence (2/day) 7 6 5 4
18th +18 +11 +6 +11 Bonus Feat 7 6 5 4
19th +19 +11 +6 +11 Dire Curse 7 6 5 4
20th +20 +12 +6 +12 Arcane Presence (4 active), Curse Everything 7 6 6 5
Class Features

Weapons and Armor: Hexblades are proficient with all Simple and Martial weapons, and with all armor and shields (except Tower Shields). Because the somatic components required for hexblade spells are simple, a hexblade can cast hexblade spells while wearing light or medium armor, or a shield, without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However like any other arcane spellcaster, a hexblade wearing heavy armor incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has a somatic component. A multiclass hexblade still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells derived from other classes.

Hexblade's Curse(Su): As a swift action, a hexblade can unleash a curse upon a foe. The target must be visible to the hexblade and within 60 feet. The target of a hexblade's curse takes a -2 penalty on armor class, saving throws, and weapon damage rolls. This penalty increases by 1 at 5th level, and every 4 levels thereafter (to a maximum of -6 at level 17). A successful Will save (DC 10+1/2 class elvel + cha modifier) halves the penalty imposed by this curse.

When a Hexblade curses a target, that curse remains in effect until the Hexblade spends a swift action to release that curse. As long as the curse is in effect, the Hexblade knows the exact location of the target he has cursed. At level 1, a Hexblade may have only one target cursed at a time, but at every even numbered level, (2, 4, 6, etc) the Hexblade gains the ability to have one additional curse active at a time. If a Hexblade already has his maximum number of curses active and attempts to apply a new curse to a different target, the curse from the one of the old targets (chosen by the Hexblade) is removed automatically and the new curse resolves as normal.

A Hexblade's may only have one curse active on a given target at a time. So while a 4th level Hexblade may have 3 active curses, these must be active on three separate enemies. A Hexblade's curse overlaps with any other curse inflicted by another Hexblade (So if two Hexblades curse the same enemy, only the more potent effect applies), but stacks with penalties from any other source (such as a Bestow Curse spell). The target of a Hexblade's curse may get the curse removed before the Hexblade voluntarily lifts it through the Remove Curse spell, or similar effects.

Familiar: A hexblade can obtain a familiar. Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100gp. A familiar is a magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant. The hexblade chooses the kind of familiar he gets. As the hexblade advances in level, his familiar also increases in power. Treat the hexblade as a sorcerer of his level for determining the familiar's powers and abilities (see the Familiars sidebar on page 52 of the Player's Handbook).

A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.

Spells: A hexblade gains the ability to cast a number of arcane spells, drawn from the Hexblade spell list (see: Chapter 3 Complete Warrior). He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time, just as a sorcerer can. To learn or cast a spell, a hexblade must have a charisma score equal to at least 10+the spell level (Cha 11 for 1st level spells, Cha 12 for 2nd level spells, and so forth). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a hexblade's spell is 10+the spell level+the hexblade's Cha modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a hexblade can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily alotment is shown on the class table. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score (see Table 1-1: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells, page 8 of the Player's Handbook).

The hexblade's selection of spells is limited. A hexblade begins play with 2 1st level spells known, and 2+cha mod 0th level spells known. Each time you gain an odd numbered class level, you learn one additional spell of any level you can cast, chosen from the Hexblade spell list.

Upon reaching 6th level, and at every subsequent even numbered level, you can choose to learn a new spell in place of one you already know. In effect you lose access to the old spell in exchange for gaining the new one. The new spell's level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest level spell you can cast.


Arcane Presence (Su): A 2nd level Hexblade's magic seeps into the core of who he is, augmenting many of his actions in subtle ways. The Hexblade gains two of the following abilities. Only one Arcane Presence may be manifested at a time, but the Hexblade may change which Presence is active with a full round action. At 5th level, and every 3 levels thereafter, he gains access to one additional presence. Starting at 8th level the Hexblade may have two presences active at once. At 14th the Hexblade may have 3 presences active at once. At 20th, he may have 4 presences active at once.


Presence of Fortitude-The Hexblade gains his charisma modifier as a bonus to Fortitude saves.

Presence of Reflexes-The Hexblade gains his Charisma modifier as a bonus to Reflex Saves

Presence of Arcane Will-The Hexblade gains his Charisma modifier as a bonus to Will Saves.

Presence of Accuracy-The Hexblade may use his Charisma modifier in place of his strength modifier for to-hit rolls.

Presence of Might-The Hexblade may use his Charisma modifier as a bonus to Damage rolls.

Presence of Speed-The Hexblade adds 5ft x the highest level Hexblade spell he has available as a bonus to his movement speed.

Presence of the Mind-The Hexblade adds his Charisma modifier as a bonus to all intelligence based skills.

Presence of Charm-The Hexblade doubles his Charisma modifier on Charisma based skill checks.

Presence of the Body-The Hexblade adds his charisma modifier as a bonus to all Strength and Con ability checks and skills.

Presence of the Cat-The Hexblade adds his charisma modifier as a bonus to all Dexterity based skills.

Presence of Evasiveness-The Hexblade uses his Charisma modifier in place of his Dexterity modifier to determine his armor class.

Presence of Readiness-The Hexblade may use his Charisma modifier in place of his Dexterity modifier to determine his Initiative bonus.

Presence of the Stalwart-The Hexblade gains twice his highest available spell level as DR/- (For example a 2nd level Hexblade would gain DR2/-. A 20th level Hexblade gains DR8/-).

Presence of the Caster-The Hexblade's spell levels are considered to be doubled when determining the save DCs for his Hexblade spells. (Example: A 3rd level Hexblade spell would be 16+cha mod instead of 13+cha mod)

Wild Presence-The Hexblade gains a bonus to his caster level for all spells equal to the highest level Hexblade spell he has available.

Presence of the Technician-The Hexblade may add his Charisma modifier on all special attack actions (such as Bullrush, Trip, Grapple, etc)

Accursed Presence-The penalty inflicted by the Hexblade's curse is increased by 2.

Presence of the Unrelenting-The Hexblade ignores difficult terrain, and gain a bonus equal to Charisma modifier to all saving throws or skill/ability checks made to avoid being moved against his will.

Presence of Shadow-The Hexblade gains concealment, granting a miss chance equal to to 10% times the highest level Hexblade spell he has available (so if you have access to 3rd level spells, gain a 30% miss chance).

Presence of Resistance-The Hexblade gains Spell Resistance equal to 10+Hexblade level.

Channel Spell (Su):Beginning at 3rd level, as part of an attack you can cast any touch spell you know, or your Hexblade's curse, and deliver the spell through your weapon with a melee attack to a single target, once per round. Casting a spell in this manner does not provoke attacks of opportunity. The spell must have a casting time of 1 standard action or less, and cannot be a spell that deals damage. If the melee attack is successful, the attack deals damage normally, then the effect of the spell is resolved.

Mettle (Ex):At 4th level and higher, a hexblade can resist magical and unusal attacks with great willpower or fortitude. If he makes a successful Will or Fortitude save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect on a successful save (such as any spell with a saving throw entry of Will half, or Fortitude partial), he instead completely negates the effect. An unconcious or sleeping hexblade does not gain the benefit of Mettle.

Greater Curse (Su):Beginning at 4th level, the Hexblade gains the capability to invoke different types of curses on his enemies. He gains access to a Greater Curse, chosen from the list below. At 7th and 10th levels he gains one additional Greater Curse. A Greater Curse is a swift action unless otherwise specified in the curse description.

A Greater Curse counts as one of a Hexblade's curses for determining how many curses a Hexblade may have active at once. As usual, a Hexblade may have only one curse on a given subject at a time. If more than one Hexblade applies a the same Curse to a target, they do not stack, only the strongest applies. However, if two Hexblades apply different curses to the same target, both curses apply normally.



Curse of Competence-Apply your Hexblade's curse penalty to the target's Attack Rolls, saving throw DCs, and skill checks, instead of Saving Throws and AC. The target may make a Will Saving throw to reduce this penalty by half.

Curse of Dampening-Any time the subject of this curse makes a damage roll, that roll is treated as its minimum possible value. The target may make a Will Saving throw to negate this effect.

Curse of Unluck-While this curse is active, once per round, when an enemy within 60ft of the Hexblade succeeds on a roll, the Hexblade can use this curse as an Immediate Action to force the enemy to reroll that success with a penalty to the roll equal to the Hexblade's charisma modifier. If the Hexblade is not within 60ft of the target of this curse, the target is forced to reroll the first successful action he takes every round. A successful Will saving throw negates this effect.

Curse of Vulnerability-The subject of this curse loses 5 points of elemental resistance times the hexblade's curse penalty. (So a 20th level hexblade removes 30 points of resistance). This penalty applies to a single element, and cannot reduce the resistance below 0. A target with immunity is reduced to Resistance 30 with the first 10 points, and may be reduced further from there. The target of this curse may make a Will saving throw to reduce this effect by half.

Assay Resistance-The Subject's Spell Resistance is reduced by your charisma modifier.

Curse of Disruption-The target of this curse is subjected to a targeted Greater Dispel Magic effect, with a caster level equal to your Hexblade Level. As long as the curse persists, the target gains Spell Resistance 12+hexblade level against any (Harmless) spell. A successful Will Saving throw negates this effect.

Curse of Mobility-The target's movement speed is reduced by 5ft per penalty inflicted by your standard hexblade's curse (so a level 17 hexblade reduces movement by 30ft). A successful Fortitude saving throw reduces this effect by half.


Dark Companion:At 5th level, your familiar gains a shadowy veil, spun from the darkness of the night. An enemy adjacent to your familiar takes a -2 penalty on its saving throws and to its AC (this stacks with the penalties of your curse, if applicable). Your familiar's speed increases to be equal to yours (if lower) or gains a +10ft bonus to movement speed (if higher). It additionally gains total concealment, any enemy attacking it has a 50% miss chance.

This effect on your familiar is treated as a spell effect with a caster level equal to your hexblade level, and may be dispelled. If the effect is dispelled, it is automatically restored after you restore your spells the following day.

Bonus Feat:At 6th, 12th, and 18th levels the Hexblade gains a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Arcane Strike, Battle Caster, Combat Casting, Greater Spell Focus(Enchantment, Necromancy, or Transmutation), Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Familiar, Spell Focus(Enchantment, Necromancy, or Transmutation), Spell Penetration, or any Fighter Bonus feat that he qualifies for.

The Hexblade may choose to give up this bonus feat to add any one Enchantment, Necromancy, or Transmutation spell from the Wizard Spell list to his spells known.

Superb Presence(Su):At 9th level the Hexblade gains the ability to enhance his natural mana flow, greatly augmenting himself for a short period of time. Once per day, as a standard action, you may activate double the normal number of active presences. This effect lasts for your charisma modifier in rounds. This ability is usable twice a day at 17th.

Curse Admixture(Su):An 11th level Hexblade has mastered the use of his curses, and may apply two different curses he knows on the same target as a swift action. The Hexblade may not admixture a curse applied through channeling. An admixtured curse counts as the same number of active curses as both curses being admixtured, plus 1. So admixturing two Greater curses counts as 3 active curses. Admixturing a Greater and Dire curse counts as 4. Admixturing two Dire curses counts as 5.

Admixtured curses are an exception to the general rule that you can have only one curse on a target at a time.

Dire Curse(Su): Beginning at 13th level, the Hexblade gains the capability to invoke different types of curses on his enemies. He gains access to a Dire Curse, chosen from the list below. At 16th and 19th levels he gains one additional Dire Curse. Using a Dire Curse is particularly taxing, and counts as two curses when determining how many curses a Hexblade may have active at a time. Using Dire Curse is a swift action unless otherwise specified in the curse description.


Nauseating Curse-The target of this curse is afflicted with an ongoing nausea effect. Every round the target may make a Fortitude save to act normally, failure indicates they are nauseated for the round. The target may make a Will save when the curse is applied to negate this effect.

Curse of Confusion-The target of this curse becomes Confused. A Will save negates this effect.

Curse of Suffering-The subject of this curse takes 1d6 non-lethal damage per penalty of your standard Hexblade's Curse (so if you normally inflict a -5 penalty to targets, Curse of Suffering deals 5d6 damage) every round. If the target is a caster, any spell casting attempted requires a Concentration Check DC15+spell level+damage dealt by the curse this round. A successful Will Saving throw reduces the curse's damage in half.

Curse of Energy Drain-The subject of this curse is inflicted with 1 negative level per penalty of your Standard Hexblade's Curse. If this brings the target's effective level or hit dice to 0, they die immediately. A Fortitude Save halves the negative levels inflicted by this curse.

Karmic Curse-The subject of this curse must succeed on a Will Saving throw, or half of any damage they inflict is inflicted upon themselves. (For example if an afflicted enemy hits something for 20 points of damage, the enemy takes 10 points of damage themselves).

Locking Curse-A target subjected to this curse is incapable of utilizing movement modes other than ground movement. Flying creatures are grounded. The creature cannot teleport, as though subjected to a dimensional anchor spell. Creatures lose Burrowing Speed, Climb Speed, Earth Glide, or any other alternative forms of movement. A Will Saving throw negates this effect.


Full Attack Channeling(Su): At 15th level, you can channel any spell or curse you know as a part of a full attack action. When you do so, the spell or curse affects every foe you hit in that round. A curse applied to multiple targets this way counts as double the number of a single application of the curse, regardless of how many targets you affect. (So if you full attack channel a Dire Curse, and hit 3 targets, this counts as 4 active curses. A full attack channel of a standard curse counts as 2 active curses).

Curse Everything(Su): A 20th level hexblade may Use a Swift Action to curse as many targets as desired within 60ft. He may apply any curse or admixtured curse desired. Using Curse Everything makes the curse being applied count as twice as many curses as it would affecting a single target, regardless of how many targets are affected. For example, the Hexblade could Admixture two Dire Curses, normally counting as 5 active curses, and use Curse Everything, doubling that to 10, but apply the admixtured curse to all enemies within 60ft.



ACF: Hexknife
BAB becomes Medium. Fort becomes low, Reflex becomes high.
HD becomes d6.
Lose Medium and Heavy armor proficiency. Lose shield proficiencies.
Increase skill points per level to 8+int mod.
Add Disable Device, Forgery, Escape Artist,Hide, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, and Sleight of Hand to the class skill list.
Gain Trapfinding at level 1.
Mettle becomes Evasion.


1) The Presences seem kind of like they're out of nowhere, but I basically adapted them from the Hexblade's Arcane Resistance. If you go for them for the defenses, it ends up weaker until higher levels. In exchange, the Presences become much more versatile, closer to selfish Marshal Auras. I kind of want to work in a way to make them not stack with those Auras, just to avoid weird stacking effects, but I figure that's a niche enough build that it's probably not worth worrying about.

Anyway, the idea for these was a Hexblade really is the Sorcerer/Fighter hybrid. While most of his active energies are focused on debuffing enemies, these presences represent how his magic helps him in his own fighting.

2) The Hexblade gets a lot more cursing capability, and the ability to shunt his spells into even more curses if desired. If you run out of Curses past very low levels, there's something going wrong. He also gains a lot of interesting new curse effects. The low level ones are generally scaling penalties, while the high level ones are more potent status effects. These curses act as the backbone of the class, making up for being limited to 4th level spells, acting in many ways like the Bardic Musics do for a Bard.

3) I've considered expanding the Hexblade's spell list (I was originally planning to make it closer to the Duskblade, with 0th and 5th level spells), but as of now have decided against it, because the other features turned out really strong. So for now I'm leaving it be, but am open to suggestions of any spells that are "Why does this exist and not appear on the Hexblade's spell list?" type of things.

4) The familiar is supposed to be a much bigger part of this class. And it makes sense. Familiars gain HP and BAB based on their master. The hexblade is a d10 HP full BAB class that gets a familiar innately. Their familiars are going to be mini-badasses. I rolled the Dark Companion ACF into the familiar (making the Dark Companion a little more vulnerable to mundane attacks, and a little less vulnerable to dispelling).
4a)I considered giving Improved Familiar feat for free, decided against it for now. If I do change my mind there, it'll probably come at level 6, replacing the bonus feat. Then at level 12 the Hexblade will probably get a Battle Blessing equivalent in place of the feat, and need to think of smoething at level 18 to replace that feat. But I think as it is now is probably fine.



Anyway, that's what all the text above basically boils down to. The Hexblade gets an awesome familiar, curses, Spells, and Spell/Cha based bonuses. The goal was to take what the Hexblade already had, and crank it up to 11 in a way that works. Hopefully this hit the mark

Seerow
2014-01-06, 06:12 PM
Update: Got some feedback from RL people, and as a result updated the curse mechanic. Instead of working like a weird hybrid of Bardic Music and Turn Undead, it's now more of its own thing. The usage is more at-will, with the focus on your limit of how many curses you can have active. At low levels it's about figuring out who to apply your curse to. At high levels it's more about figuring out which combination of curses you want, because with a pool of 11 to choose from, single abilities that can cost 4-5 points get pretty expensive. Then at level 20 you get the ability to nova and just dump everything at once.

I actually like this a little bit better, because with the way the daily limit was set up before, it wasn't particularly limiting after level 8 or so. It also adds a bit of flavor, since instead of time durations, the curse lasts until the Hexblade decides he wants it somewhere else more. It leaves room open for a vindictive hexblade who keeps something like Curse of Unluck on a guy he doesn't like basically forever, or who tosses a hex onto an enemy and maintains it to track them down later.

Legendxp
2014-01-06, 06:15 PM
Dark Companion:At 5th level, your familiar gains a shadowy veil, spun from the darkness of the night. An enemy adjacent to your familiar takes a -2 penalty on its saving throws and to its AC (this stacks with the penalties of your curse, if applicable). Your familiar's speed increases to be equal to yours (if lower) or gains a +10ft bonus to movement speed (if higher). It additionally gains total concealment, any enemy attacking it has a 50% miss chance.

This effect on your familiar is treated as a spell effect with a caster level equal to your hexblade level, and may be dispelled. If the effect is dispelled, it is automatically restored after you restore your spells the following day.

Love this ability, really neat function. Although, I'd be wary about including a familiar in a fight. Does this ability prevent your familiar from being seen?


Bonus Feat:At 6th, 12th, and 18th levels the Hexblade gains a bonus feat, chosen from the following list: Arcane Strike, Battle Caster, Combat Casting, Greater Spell Focus(Enchantment, Necromancy, or Transmutation), Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Familiar, Spell Focus(Enchantment, Necromancy, or Transmutation), Spell Penetration, or any Fighter Bonus feat or Reserve feat that he qualifies for.


You should quote the sources from which these feats come from. Also, what is a reserve feat? I've never heard of it before.


Greater Curse (Su):Beginning at 4th level, the Hexblade gains the capability to invoke different types of curses on his enemies. He gains access to a Greater Curse, chosen from the list below. At 7th and 10th levels he gains one additional Greater Curse. Using a Greater Curse takes one daily use of the Hexblade's Curse ability. A Greater Curse is a swift action unless otherwise specified in the curse description.

When using a curse, do you have to channel it? If not, does it require an attack roll or a saving throw? Or is it like a magic missile (requires neither)?
I figured it out.


A hexblade may only affect a target with one curse at a time.

...and may spend 3 daily uses of Hexblade's Curse to activate two different curses he knows on the same target as a swift action.

You should add a clause stating that it ignores the previous statement about only one curse at a time, just in case.


Supreme Channeling(Su):At 15th level, you can channel any spell or curse you know as a part of a full attack action. When you do so, the spell affects every foe you hit in that round.

If you hit the same foe twice, will it double the penalties of the curse? Will it activate the same spell again on the same enemy?


Curse Everything(Su):A 20th level hexblade may Use a Swift Action and two additional uses of Hexblade's Curse to curse as many targets as desired within 60ft.

I feel like you should up the uses that this consumes, although this is just my opinion.

Seriously though, this class looks pretty cool. I like the multitude of different options you can pick for your presence and curse abilities. I'm sorry I couldn't offer any more help, this class seems almost completely finished and I couldn't think of anything to add. I guess if people someone (d'oh) doesn't have much to say about it, it can't be too bad. :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: Crap, sorry, didn't notice the update. I'll look through everything again.


[b]Hexblade's Curse(Su):[b]

Your bolded title is broken.


Curse of Vulnerability-The subject of this curse looses 5 points of elemental resistance times the hexblade's curse penalty.

Typo

How many curses do you get a day?

Seerow
2014-01-06, 06:29 PM
Legendxp, you caught me right in the middle of updating it. So some of the things you quoted already changed lol.


Love this ability, really neat function. Although, I'd be wary about including a familiar in a fight. Does this ability prevent your familiar from being seen?


This feature was actually an ACF in PHB2, except it replaced the Familiar rather than augmenting it, and is just an illusory effect rather than something targetable. Personally I felt integrating with the familiar was for the better.

The ability doesn't prevent the familiar from being seen, however it gives them concealment, so they could use that concealment to hide if I'm remembering the hide rules correctly.

Either way, your familiar should be pretty durable. It gained 50% miss chance, and it has at minimum half your HP (and you have a D10 with every reason to have Cha/Con as your primaries). Most have pretty decent AC at low level, and you can get them more AC if you want. There's also the Improved Familiar feat (Complete Arcane) if desired, which gets you away from things like little house cats, and gets you into the realm of large sized winter wolves as your familiar, which are awesome on their own.

You'll also note I didn't include the normal line about losing exp when you lose your familiar. So getting a new familiar is as cheap as 100g and 24 hours if yours dies. Not too bad of a deal.


You should quote the sources from which these feats come from. Also, what is a reserve feat? I've never heard of it before.


I'll get on that. The majority of them came straight off the CW Hexblade's list. I think the only ones I added were Improved Familiar (CW), Battle Caster (Complete Arcane I think?), and the Reserve feats (which show up in Complete Mage and Complete Champion. They basically give you access to minor at will abilities as long as you have a spell of the associated type available to cast. Honestly reconsidering including those on the list, but at the time I was thinking there was at least one that was useful.


You should add a clause stating that it ignores the previous statement about only one curse at a time, just in case.


I thought that was implied, as specific trumps general, but I'll make that more clear.


If you hit the same foe twice, will it double the penalties of the curse? Will it activate the same spell again on the same enemy?


No. Just like the Duskblade's full attack channel, order of operations is make your full attack, then effect goes off on all enemies hit during the full attack.


I feel like you should up the uses that this consumes, although this is just my opinion.

I think the new version makes it more adequately expensive. It's relatively cheap to put a small curse on everyone, but very expensive to put an awesome curse on everyone.


Seriously though, this class looks pretty cool. I like the multitude of different options you can pick for your presence and curse abilities. I'm sorry I couldn't offer any more help, this class seems almost completely finished and I couldn't think of anything to add. I guess if people someone doesn't have much to say about it, it can't be too bad.

Thanks for the feedback. You definitely pointed out a few places I need to clean up or explain better, so it was more useful than you think. And of course any and all comments are always appreciated.


edit:

How many curses do you get a day?

Under the new system, Curses are at will. Your limitation is how many you can have active, rather than how many you can use in a day. It's a pretty jarring shift, but under the old paradigm, shifting Spells into curses meant having effectively infinite curses anyway, and really undermined the fun of the higher level features letting you apply your curses to multiple targets. I think this works better overall, though it probably seems stronger at a glance.

Legendxp
2014-01-06, 06:38 PM
Okay I got it now, I was reading it wrong... oops... >_>

Seerow
2014-01-06, 06:40 PM
Okay I got it now, I was reading it wrong... oops... >_>

What parts were confusing? Are there any places I could clear text up to make the meaning more clear?

Legendxp
2014-01-06, 11:48 PM
Mostly it was just me reading things poorly. It takes me awhile to learn new things if I haven't seen them before. Soulmelds, for example, took me forever to learn. Took me quite the time for maneuvers as well. Curses are just adding to my list of D&D knowledge. Quick question though, if a multiclassed sorcerer/hexblade casts bestow curse and then tries to use his curse ability, what happens?

EDIT: I guess a separate column for "curses active" would help a bit.

Seerow
2014-01-07, 12:02 AM
Mostly it was just me reading things poorly. It takes me awhile to learn new things if I haven't seen them before. Soulmelds, for example, took me forever to learn. Took me quite the time for maneuvers as well. Curses are just adding to my list of D&D knowledge. Quick question though, if a multiclassed sorcerer/hexblade casts bestow curse and then tries to use his curse ability, what happens?

Both are applied. They are different effects, one originating from a spell and one from a class ability.

I'll make a note clarifying that (and also adding that the Hexblade's Curse can be removed by the Remove Curse spell or similar effects).


Edit: Cleaned up the wording on Hexblade's Curse. Made the restrictions and stacking rules more clear, and specified it can be broken with Remove Curse. Also slightly tweaked the wording of Greater Curse, Dire Curse, and Curse Admixture to reflect this. Removed Reserve feats from the bonus feat list, after determining there actually isn't much there of pertinence to the Hexblade.

Edit2: Also considering restricting Spells Known further (to Fighter level progression, so 1 + 1 every even level), and giving the option to trade a bonus feat to add one Enchantment, Necromancy, or Transmutation spell chosen from the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list to his spells known. Basically Advanced Learning in place of a feat. Thoughts?

Seerow
2014-03-10, 10:35 PM
I made the above mentioned change to spells known, so the Hexblade starts with 2, gaining 1 on every odd level (to allow them to get a new spell known when a new spell level opens up), and retraining spells changed to even levels. Bonus feats can now be changed out for a spell known from the Wizard list.

Hoping to get some more feedback on this.

Kazyan
2014-03-10, 10:48 PM
Presence of Shadow-The hexblade gains concealment, granting a miss chance equal to to 10% times his highest spell level (so if you have access to 3rd level spells, gain a 30% miss chance).

Could be a tad more specific: Hexblade 5/Ur-Priest 10, with necessary class skill fiddling via Education, gets 90% miss chance as-written.

(I don't have much to add except for pointing out a loophole. Yup, it's a Hexblade fix alright.)

Seerow
2014-03-10, 10:57 PM
Could be a tad more specific: Hexblade 5/Ur-Priest 10, with necessary class skill fiddling via Education, gets 90% miss chance as-written.

(I don't have much to add except for pointing out a loophole. Yup, it's a Hexblade fix alright.)

Good catch. There were 3 instances that allow similar things, I fixed the wording to specify highest level Hexblade spell instead of highest level spell.

Blue_C.
2014-03-11, 02:51 AM
First, I quite like this redesign. Hits the flavor correctly.


This class draws on the Duskblade, the Hexblade, and my revamped Paladin, and produces something I think ends up unique, powerful, and still identifiably the Hexblade, just cranked up to 11.

Please, let me know if I succeeded at that.

Oh, I think you succeeded in that design attempt.


Weapons and Armor:
Hexblade's Curse(Su):

Great changes to both of these sections.


Arcane Presence (Su): A 2nd level Hexblade's magic seeps into the core of who he is, augmenting many of his actions in subtle ways. The Hexblade gains two of the following abilities. Only one Arcane Presence may be manifested at a time, but the Hexblade may change which Presence is active with a full round action. At 5th level, and every 3 levels thereafter, he gains access to one additional presence. Starting at 8th level the Hexblade may have two presences active at once. At 14th the Hexblade may have 3 presences active at once. At 20th, he may have 4 presences active at once.

Honestly, between this and the souped up curses, I'm not sure your hexblade even *needs* spells. I can definitely see a few I would maintain on the hexblade, Eagle's Splendor and Augment Familiar chief among them, but it might be able to get along without them now.

One thing though; I would add back in Arcane Resistance. I realize that the new save presences can individually buff the saves, and that those presences apply to all saving throws (rather than just ones against magical sources), but honestly in a world with Divine Grace, that might be overly restrictive.


Using a Greater Curse takes one daily use of the Hexblade's Curse ability.

I assume this sentence should be ignored?


Curse Admixture(Su):An 11th level Hexblade has mastered the use of his curses, and may activate two different curses he knows on the same target as a swift action.

Would it make more sense to say: "and may apply two different curses he knows on the same target..."? As it is, I got what you meant via your later comments in this thread, but that probably wouldn't have been my first guess if I had stuck to just the write-up.


Curse Everything(Su):
I think I like this ability solely because, on reading it, I heard Mushu's rant from Mulan.


On a side note, even here, I'm not sold on the familiar as an appropriate class ability. On the other hand, this version of the familiar can create flanking situations, can't they? Especially with Augment Familiar. That might bear thinking on.

Seerow
2014-03-11, 07:53 AM
First, I quite like this redesign. Hits the flavor correctly.


Oh, I think you succeeded in that design attempt.

:smallbiggrin:





Honestly, between this and the souped up curses, I'm not sure your hexblade even *needs* spells. I can definitely see a few I would maintain on the hexblade, Eagle's Splendor and Augment Familiar chief among them, but it might be able to get along without them now.

You could probably get along without them, but with no spells at all you're hurting a fair bit for versatility. The spells can let you cover a number of holes in out of combat utility and/or give you some extra in combat tricks beyond cursing people.


One thing though; I would add back in Arcane Resistance. I realize that the new save presences can individually buff the saves, and that those presences apply to all saving throws (rather than just ones against magical sources), but honestly in a world with Divine Grace, that might be overly restrictive.

You lose out on the raw power of getting all 3 at once in exchange for getting more options. Consider, the marshal is still a very popular dip, and a lot of the presences are basically marshal auras that are self only.



I assume this sentence should be ignored?

Hah. Yeah. Holdover from the initial draft. I'll edit that in a minute.




Would it make more sense to say: "and may apply two different curses he knows on the same target..."? As it is, I got what you meant via your later comments in this thread, but that probably wouldn't have been my first guess if I had stuck to just the write-up.

Sure, I can do that.



I think I like this ability solely because, on reading it, I heard Mushu's rant from Mulan.

That hadn't even crossed my mind, but now I'll hear it every time I see it. Thanks.


On a side note, even here, I'm not sold on the familiar as an appropriate class ability. On the other hand, this version of the familiar can create flanking situations, can't they? Especially with Augment Familiar. That might bear thinking on.

A big thing to remember for familiars is they get HP and BAB based on their master. That makes for a full BAB d10 frontliner class's familiar to be more significant than you'd normally expect. Also the Improved Familiar feat I mentioned upthread really is awesome, because it unlocks new forms for your familiar and you get things like the Blink Dog, Winter Wolf, Hippogriff, Hell Hound, and so on, that turn your familiar from an unnoticeable bonus into an Animal Companion level ally.

The Hexblade's spell list also includes both Polymorph and Alter Self, which can be cast directly on or shared with the familiar, and can be pretty devastating. This is before considering the Dark Companion feature turning your familiar into a mobile stacking debuff and giving it concealment to make it more durable.

I think it's honestly a pretty big benefit. I could make the Improved Familiar feat come for free to emphasize this more, as I mentioned above. Another possibility is to let the Hexblade share his presences with a familiar in the same way he shares spells. Would either of these things make you feel better about it?



[Edit: Edited the Original Post, removed the line about daily uses, and changed the wording of admixture. Also cleaned up the text in a couple of other places that seemed unclear on rereading]

drayen
2014-03-12, 03:55 AM
I have always liked the Hexblade; it was my favorite to play in Living Greyhawk. I like your changes to this class.

As to the questions about keeping the familiar, even with it's addition of the Dark Companion alternate class feature, don't forget that the Hound of Doom spell is another great way to bolster the Hexblade; both in damage and crowd control. A Hexblade only spell, an illusion without a save or SR, minutes/level duration, a dire wolf with the Hexblade's own full hit points, the Hexblade's BAB plus it's own STR bonus to attack, a deflection bonus to AC equal to the Hexblade's CHA modifier, the large size to complement a winter wolf, hell hound, etc. and an automatic trip on a successful bite.

I did this back in the day, but I had to take two feats: Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar. This new build saves a feat.

One point to your bit in a post upthread about not including the exp loss for losing a familiar. Hexblade's only lost exp from the death of a familiar if they failed their Fortitude save. If they succeeded, Mettle kicked in and there was no exp loss. Your build would include an exp loss in the first three levels due to Familiar being a first level class feature, but otherwise, it becomes very unlikely when the average character would likely have a 14 CON and 16 CHA by fourth level and probably a Cloak of Resistance +1. That's a 75% chance to succeed the save (if they have the Presence of Fortitude, 60% without).

You may want to clean up your Presences spoiler because you go back and forth on capitalizing charisma in each description of the individual presences.

Seerow
2014-03-12, 06:31 AM
As to the questions about keeping the familiar, even with it's addition of the Dark Companion alternate class feature, don't forget that the Hound of Doom spell is another great way to bolster the Hexblade; both in damage and crowd control. A Hexblade only spell, an illusion without a save or SR, minutes/level duration, a dire wolf with the Hexblade's own full hit points, the Hexblade's BAB plus it's own STR bonus to attack, a deflection bonus to AC equal to the Hexblade's CHA modifier, the large size to complement a winter wolf, hell hound, etc. and an automatic trip on a successful bite.


I never saw that spell before. That actually is pretty nice. Also the image of the hexblade with a pair of large shadowy wolves flanking with him is pretty awesome.


I did this back in the day, but I had to take two feats: Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar. This new build saves a feat.


The original hexblade gains the ability to Obtain a familiar at level 4, I moved it up, there was no extra feat required before.


One point to your bit in a post upthread about not including the exp loss for losing a familiar. Hexblade's only lost exp from the death of a familiar if they failed their Fortitude save. If they succeeded, Mettle kicked in and there was no exp loss. Your build would include an exp loss in the first three levels due to Familiar being a first level class feature, but otherwise, it becomes very unlikely when the average character would likely have a 14 CON and 16 CHA by fourth level and probably a Cloak of Resistance +1. That's a 75% chance to succeed the save (if they have the Presence of Fortitude, 60% without).


It's not just that. The normal familiar feature explicitly has the experience loss in the description of the class feature. I deliberately omitted that from this class, so you don't have to worry about it. If your familiar dies, just pay the 100g to get a new one next time you have some downtime.

For comparison, Wizard/Sorc familiar from SRD:

A sorcerer can obtain a familiar. Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp. A familiar is a magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant.

The sorcerer chooses the kind of familiar he gets. As the sorcerer advances in level, his familiar also increases in power.

If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the sorcerer, the sorcerer must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per sorcerer level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a sorcerer’s experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar’s demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs.

A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.


A hexblade can obtain a familiar. Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100gp. A familiar is a magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant. The hexblade chooses the kind of familiar he gets. As the hexblade advances in level, his familiar also increases in power. Treat the hexblade as a sorcerer of his level for determining the familiar's powers and abilities (see the Familiars sidebar on page 52 of the Player's Handbook).

A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.

Basically the whole second paragraph that details the experience loss, and year wait to obtain a new familiar, was removed. I guess I can add in a paragraph stating explicitly those restrictions from the Sorcerer don't apply, to make it more clear.





You may want to clean up your Presences spoiler because you go back and forth on capitalizing charisma in each description of the individual presences.


Will do. I'm pretty bad about doing that sort of thing in general.

Grim Reader
2014-03-12, 12:46 PM
I've also made some changes to the Hexblade. I went in a different direction from you, but I figured I'd post them here for comparison.

I was on a project of rebalancing the gish base classes, the Magus, Duskblade and Hexblade. As written, the Magus is the big brother, the Duskblade the little brother, and the Hexblade the mentally deficient family servant. I made comparisons at various levels, tried out fixes, but nothing really clicked. Not untill I was doing some worldbuilding, and looked at the Witch patrons. And things just fell into place.

The Hex-blade as a martial Hexcaster, drawing power from the Witch patrons just works for me, and it opens up a lot of worldbuilding flavor... So the fix is:

The Hexblade gains the Witch hexes and hex progression. The Hexblades curse becomes a Hexblade-only hex, always the first one learned. Itis a swift action, useful any number of times per day, but as it is a hex, any target that saves cannot be targeted again for 24 hours.

Also, gains good fort save.

The connection opens up the familiar teaching familiar option for learning spells from the Witch list, vastly expanding the potential number of spells known.

drayen
2014-03-14, 01:15 AM
The original hexblade gains the ability to Obtain a familiar at level 4, I moved it up, there was no extra feat required before.

What I meant is that you could have either the Dark Companion alternate class feature (which replaced the familiar) or a familiar in 3.5. Yet, with the feat, Obtain Familiar, you could have both a Dark Companion and a familiar as two separate entities. Your build obviates the need for Obtain Familiar as you get the benefits of both automatically.


It's not just that. The normal familiar feature explicitly has the experience loss in the description of the class feature. I deliberately omitted that from this class, so you don't have to worry about it. If your familiar dies, just pay the 100g to get a new one next time you have some downtime.

That's what I was pointing out. In the original build, it was a standard familiar with the normal Fortitude save to reduce the experience loss from 200 xp/level to 100 xp/level. The Mettle class feature would kick in on this Fortitude save if it were successful, negating the xp loss entirely. Now with your build, it is not a consideration.

Seerow
2014-03-14, 01:30 AM
What I meant is that you could have either the Dark Companion alternate class feature (which replaced the familiar) or a familiar in 3.5. Yet, with the feat, Obtain Familiar, you could have both a Dark Companion and a familiar as two separate entities. Your build obviates the need for Obtain Familiar as you get the benefits of both automatically.



That's what I was pointing out. In the original build, it was a standard familiar with the normal Fortitude save to reduce the experience loss from 200 xp/level to 100 xp/level. The Mettle class feature would kick in on this Fortitude save if it were successful, negating the xp loss entirely. Now with your build, it is not a consideration.

Ah, okay. I was just misunderstanding what you were saying in both cases then. Don't mind me.


Also that means when you were playing the Hexblade you had 3 level appropriate shadowy companions running around the field. I'll bet you made every ranger ever feel jealous.

drayen
2014-03-14, 02:13 AM
Also that means when you were playing the Hexblade you had 3 level appropriate shadowy companions running around the field. I'll bet you made every ranger ever feel jealous.

Also had a pixie cohort with levels in hexblade. She was a little faerie goth.