Would Hexblade work better as a pact than a patron?

[RipTide]

So when the new UA came out and I read Hex blade, I got super excited. I always wanted to play a bladelock because they seem like an interesting class, but you have to jump through so many hoops to make them good it never seemed worth it. Then here comes hex blade, the perfect patron for a pure bladelock, and bam looks great. Except after reading some of the discussions on this forum and doing some thinking myself I started thinking, maybe hex blade would make a better pact than a patron.

First reason, isn't it a little weird that you get all your magical power form a magic weapon that you aren't using? I mean isn't it a bit strange saying "I get all my magic from that cool sword over there and I'm going to beat you to death with this mace I found in the back of a cave". It just seems to me it would make more sense to infuse a part of your patron into your weapon, than to have your patron be a weapon your never going to use.

Second, a lot of people have been suggesting that various parts of Hex blade should be invocations, and pacts get most of their strength from the invocations they allow access to. Part of why people are saying its unbalanced is because of what it gives to multi class for a 1 level dip. If you gate the abilities as invocations locked to a hexblade pact then its at least a 3 level dip to get some of the stuff.

Third, Bladelock is a bit of a mess, and I doubt there is ever going to be a revised bladelock like revised ranger. There are some working builds but like I said at the start you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make it work, and even then its not as good as just going for eldritch blast. Hex Blade just seems like a good fit to for making a melee warlock that is a little better set up than the current bladelock.


I have some ideas about how it would work and still be distinct form the existing bladelock, but I mostly just want to gauge the reaction to this in general, and not have this post be too massive of a wall of text. So what do you guys think? Should Hexblade continue as is and be refined as a patron? Or should it be reworked into a new pact?

[Sir cryosin]

So when the new UA came out and I read Hex blade, I got super excited. I always wanted to play a bladelock because they seem like an interesting class, but you have to jump through so many hoops to make them good it never seemed worth it. Then here comes hex blade, the perfect patron for a pure bladelock, and bam looks great. Except after reading some of the discussions on this forum and doing some thinking myself I started thinking, maybe hex blade would make a better pact than a patron.

First reason, isn't it a little weird that you get all your magical power form a magic weapon that you aren't using? I mean isn't it a bit strange saying "I get all my magic from that cool sword over there and I'm going to beat you to death with this mace I found in the back of a cave". It just seems to me it would make more sense to infuse a part of your patron into your weapon, than to have your patron be a weapon your never going to use.

Second, a lot of people have been suggesting that various parts of Hex blade should be invocations, and pacts get most of their strength from the invocations they allow access to. Part of why people are saying its unbalanced is because of what it gives to multi class for a 1 level dip. If you gate the abilities as invocations locked to a hexblade pact then its at least a 3 level dip to get some of the stuff.

Third, Bladelock is a bit of a mess, and I doubt there is ever going to be a revised bladelock like revised ranger. There are some working builds but like I said at the start you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make it work, and even then its not as good as just going for eldritch blast. Hex Blade just seems like a good fit to for making a melee warlock that is a little better set up than the current bladelock.


I have some ideas about how it would work and still be distinct form the existing bladelock, but I mostly just want to gauge the reaction to this in general, and not have this post be too massive of a wall of text. So what do you guys think? Should Hexblade continue as is and be refined as a patron? Or should it be reworked into a new pact?


First we can't say to much if it broken no one has played it yet. I rolled up a vhuman hexblade feat for heavy armor. Then at lv 4 took the tough feat. We roll stats so I have 16,14,17,10,10,18 that order. And vacations are burning hex, curse bringer, extra attack. Last night it was a lot of RP so I haven't been able to test any of it. But we need to give it more time.

But they do need to do something with hexblade Patron.
Warlock is a front heavy class as is. It looks a lot like they get a lot of muilticlass but they get char to weapons without two hand property, then 1min hexblade Cruse. All but hexblade and fey don't have a rest dependent ability. Muilticlass is a weird subject because it something that makes it almost impossible to balance around. I like the way the hexblade is but I don't know what to make about the crit on a 19 part of the cures.

[Kite474]

In terms of fluff it works fine if the sword is sentient. So it makes sense that your not wielding it, your not worthy.... yet

As for as a pact. No just requiering Bladelock to take more invocation just to catch up is just cruel to people who want to play Bladlock. Why should they jump through a million whoops just to be something more than "EB turret"?

As for the actual Hexblade Crunch I agree its a bit front loaded.