Hexblade Questions

[Petioni]

I am relatively new to D&D and have recently joined a 3.5 campaign with some friends, I decided on a hexblade as my first character and have a few questions as to what I should be doing at level 3 (DM started the party at level 3).

1.The kind of character I want to have is a relatively slippery one, but not due to his own abilities, as in making you miss rather than him dodging, what feats/spells can help me accomplish this?

2.I want to use two weapons. The reason I want to use two weapons compounds with my first question, I want to pretty much put as many negatives on a given enemy as possible and what's worse than getting hit by one attack, getting hit by 2-4 at the same time. So do I want this or is it a preference thing?

[Yorrin]

I'll answer your questions in reverse order.

Two weapon fighting is generally considered worse than most other "styles" of fighting (two hander, unarmed, and natural weapons come to mind). A two handed weapon is basically the go-to for melee effectiveness. Power Attack + Improved Bull Rush + Shock Trooper + Leap Attack is the "standard" melee feat chain. That being said, TWF can still work, but it usually goes best with some form of bonus damage. Sneak Attack is the easiest answer. Rogue 4/Hexblade x would be a fine build.

In terms of making enemies miss, a lot depends on what you have available to you. The term you're looking for is "miss-chance," by the way. Concealment is the most basic form of this. If you have access to the Magic Item Compendium then look into the Greater Blurring armor property. Getting it on armor (or bracers of armor) can be expensive, but if you let your DM know you're aiming for it he might throw it to you a little early. If you prefer to get it with a feat and your table uses Magic of Incarnum then you can get it with Shape: Soulmeld (Fellmist Robe). If you're doing that then you'll want to also pick up the feat Bonus Essentia, and choose Azurin as your race (basically a human that trades bonus skill points for an extra point of essentia). There are other methods, of course, but those are some simple ones, if allowed.

[StreamOfTheSky]

I am relatively new to D&D and have recently joined a 3.5 campaign with some friends, I decided on a hexblade as my first character and have a few questions as to what I should be doing at level 3 (DM started the party at level 3).

1.The kind of character I want to have is a relatively slippery one, but not due to his own abilities, as in making you miss rather than him dodging, what feats/spells can help me accomplish this?

2.I want to use two weapons. The reason I want to use two weapons compounds with my first question, I want to pretty much put as many negatives on a given enemy as possible and what's worse than getting hit by one attack, getting hit by 2-4 at the same time. So do I want this or is it a preference thing?

First of all, I'd suggest the PHB 2 variant that gives you a shadowy pet to inflict debuffs for level 4. Secondly, I'd suggest ditching Hexblade for other classes about then; it's a really weak class.

For being "slippery"...try looking into Elusive Target feat (particularly the Cause Overreach tactic and the one that makes a foe auto-miss you and hit his flanking buddy), maybe Defensive Throw. The difference between making someone miss and dodging the attack is ultimately a case of how you describe how they missed you, though.

I'd advise against TWF, it's a weak style even under ideal conditions (good source of bonus damage to each attack; able to reliably full attack typically via pouncing) which...you don't have, and is feat intensive. If you still want it, I'd suggest getting Gloves of the Balanced Hand from Magic Item Compendium for 8000 gp. They give you TWF feat, and if you later pick it up yourself, instead give you Improved TWF feat.


In terms of making enemies miss, a lot depends on what you have available to you. The term you're looking for is "miss-chance," by the way. Concealment is the most basic form of this. If you have access to the Magic Item Compendium then look into the Greater Blurring armor property. Getting it on armor (or bracers of armor) can be expensive, but if you let your DM know you're aiming for it he might throw it to you a little early. If you prefer to get it with a feat and your table uses Magic of Incarnum then you can get it with Shape: Soulmeld (Fellmist Robe). If you're doing that then you'll want to also pick up the feat Bonus Essentia, and choose Azurin as your race (basically a human that trades bonus skill points for an extra point of essentia). There are other methods, of course, but those are some simple ones, if allowed.

If you can access MIC, just take the Mithralmist specific armor, it's basically +1 mithral chain shirt that lets you 5/day drop an Obscuring Mist as a swift action. And the latter ability only adds about 1000 gp to the normal price of +1 mithral armor.

[Petioni]

Then can I be a whirling ball of death incarnate focusing in aoe 2 hander damage?

[mabriss lethe]

As always when the Hexblade gets brought up, talk to your DM about using the "Unofficial official patch" for the class. These are notes about the class written by Mike Mearls, the class's designer, and are a sort of band aid to cover over some of the more glaring flaws in the class.


The hexblade suffers a little because he came on the scene relatively early in 3.5's life. As R&D pushes the boundaries of the game, we learn that some things we thought were risky or potentially broken aren't. Other times, we learn things that look fine don't actually work in play.

Armored mages fall into the first category. Them seem really powerful, but in the long run they aren't. Spells and magic items allow an unarmored mage to build great defenses. The spell mage armor is as good as medium armor, and its duration allows most mages to keep it active at all times. If you compare the hexblade to the duskblade from PH 2, you can see how the thinking has changed.

If you want to boost the hexblade, I'd try the following changes:

Good Fortitude save
Curse ability usable 1 + the hexblade's Cha modifier per day
Curse ability usable as a swift action
Curse ability does not count as used if the target makes his saving throw
Ability to cast in light or medium armour and while carrying a light shield or buckler
At 6th level, the hexblade can cast one hexblade spell per day as a swift action, as long as its original casting time is a standard action or faster. He gains an additional use of this power at levels 8, 11, 14, and 18.

The key to the hexblade is his curse ability, but it's a little un-fun to have it so limited in use. The hexblade also has trouble casting spells and using his melee attacks, so shifting spells to swift actions fits in with the idea of an armored mage.

(These are by no means official. They're just off the top of my head changes I'd consider)

[sonofzeal]

Definitely get "Entropic Shield" as one of your first level spells, that will help.



Second... spend a lot of time re-reading the movement section of the PHB. Being "slippery" is often less about character abilities and more about player skill in positioning and use of available options. Make sure you fully understand Attacks of Opportunities, and keep a constant eye on ways to make enemies have to suffer them to get to you, and how to avoid them yourself. Make sure you understand Tumble, 5-foot-step, Full Round Withdrawal, Fighting Defensively, and Full Round Defence. Know how to use Ready Actions and Delay Actions effectively. If you don't use it already, d20srd.org (http://www.d20srd.org/) is a convenient place to read up on such things.

Assume that if a melee monster begins its turn within a 5-foot-step of being able to full-attack you, that it's potentially lethal. Many won't be, but you do not have the AC or HP to afford going toe-to-toe. You need to be cagey and careful until your enemy is properly debuffed, and only then move in for the kill. Be aware of which teammates are sturdier melee combatants, and actively try to tilt matters so that they take the hits when fighting stronger enemies.

Focus on doing what you can do that the Fighter can't - sapping your enemy's strength and defences, and setting them up for the rest of the team to be that much more effective against them. Destroy their saving throws before the mage launches a game-changing spell, or simply reduce their attack and damage so that the focused melee combattants of the team can take him out safely. On the other side, you are a second-line combattant, so while you should pick your battles, you should definitely be running interference for your even-squishier allies to keep them safe, and closing in for the kill when it's time to put something in the ground.

[gorfnab]

Hexblade Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7412)

You could potentially go with a trip based Hexbalde. Guisarme (or Spiked Chain if you want to spend a feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency) + Combat Expertise + Improved Trip + Combat Reflexes + Stand Still. Another more interesting trick for a Hexblade is focusing on debuffing. Dreadful Wrath + Imperious Command + Never Outnumbered skill trick + Dark Companion ACF can really mess enemies up.

[Kennisiou]

Hexblade Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7412)

You could potentially go with a trip based Hexbalde. Guisarme (or Spiked Chain if you want to spend a feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency) + Combat Expertise + Improved Trip + Combat Reflexes + Stand Still. Another more interesting trick for a Hexblade is focusing on debuffing. Dreadful Wrath + Imperious Command + Never Outnumbered skill trick + Dark Companion ACF can really mess enemies up.

Add in Bind Vestige and Improved Bind Vestige as feats to bind Focalor to give even more save penalties to anyone adjacent to you for that debuffing build and you can do some really powerful intimidation. Get the armor that lets you demoralize as a swift action once per combat (forget name, Drow of the Underdark) and enter combat by placing your dark companion near a group of foes, charging someone in that group to trigger dreadful wrath, then swift demoralizing all of them with never outnumbered while they have a bunch of penalties to saves and rolls. Hexblades are honestly up there with Barbarians and Samurai as having really powerful intimidation-based fear builds. Sadly it's generally not a particularly powerful strategy, and it can be feat intensive, but it often leaves room for leadership or obtain familiar + improved familiar (and a human with flaws can pick up all the feats he needs and get those three minion feats easily) and you can be a follower magnet with some neat fear and debuffing attached.

As for Hexblade as a weak class... Without the fix it's low tier 4 high tier 5. With it it's mid to high tier 4, pretty much all on that swift casting of spells and the additional curses. Its biggest problem in both cases is honestly that its best features tend to be front-loaded and you may be better off only taking a few levels and then multiclassing out to other classes that are good at accomplishing what you'd like to do. Marshal, bard, samurai, barbarian, and variant paladins can all do the hexblade's fear/henchman/combat trick builds nicely and crusader with some hexblade levels is particularly nice since Crusader gives Hexblade some better combat options while hexblade gives crusader more things to do with their swift actions via swift action cast spells (either from using "the fix" or as a result of Hexblade just getting a fair number of naturally swift spells) or swift action cursing (via "the fix" otherwise it's something of an odd special case free action -- which the Crusader still appreciates by the by) -- something Crusader really likes since they're low on boosts and high on strikes.