I like big numbers and I cannot lie [Bladelocks x Hexblades]

[Yuukale]

Hey guys, as the title says, I like big numbers. I also like Bladelocks and Hexblades. So, how would you go about making the most damaging Bladelock by level 20? (that is, his primary damage would come from attacking with his weapon). It can be a 2hander or a 1hander, it doesn't matter to me. Would you multiclass it with Paladin to smite? Fighter for extra attacks?

thanks a lot, folks =)

[Kane0]

Well paladin smite + warlock smite + bonus action hex/curse/smite spell should do the trick, plus you can throw on action surge,great weapon fighting style & mastery, maybe sneak attack, battlemaster maneuvers or similar.

[Meta]

Well paladin smite + warlock smite + bonus action hex/curse/smite spell should do the trick, plus you can throw on action surge,great weapon fighting style & mastery, maybe sneak attack, battlemaster maneuvers or similar.

PaladinX/Warlock2/Fighter2/Rogue3 would be a lot of damage if you get the drop on an enemy with the Assassin feature. Auto crits with a lot of damage dice.

Sticking with more consistent damage:

I think the Hexblade's best features are early on, so 1 level or 2 if you have your eye on invocations, maybe a 3rd if you want a familiar? Those can be great utility and semi regular advantage against stuff without blindsight. Paladin is a great fit, uses your Charisma well. Oath of Ancients is great for also being durable and party friendly, Vengeance gives you some advantage once a short rest, but you'll run out of bonus actions. I'd put most levels here for bigger smites.

You really only need CHA at 20 and you can easily pick up 2-3 ASIs as a paladin. Free to branch out in to Fighter for action surge for more damage.

If you want to focus on just making a lot of attacks and less spell focus, you could put most of your time in to fighter. You wont be able to get the Fighter's 4th attack (that's at 20) but you could get the third. Paladin 7/ Warlock 2/Fighter 11 would do quite a bit of damage and have great saving throws and spell resistance. Still 4 ASIs total as well.

[prototype00]

I'd recommend trying to get Tri-vantage via Elven Accuracy (with devil's sight and darkness, you basically have constant advantage against everything 2x/short rest). Then go for the biggest weapon you can find, a Greatsword or a Maul. With the increased threat range from Hexblade's curse, you can more or less get yourself a critical every round (or other round). And of course you now don't really have to worry about that -5 to hit from Great Weapon Master.

Once you've got all that set up (around lvl 8 for Half Elves), then go paladin (or start with a level of Paladin, but then you are delaying the above, besides mid armor-heavy armor you aren't really giving up much) for the actual smiting (maybe don't take Eldritch Smite as you need your spell slots for the constant advantage).

prototype00

[Arceus]

Levels in Sorcerer provides some good benefits for this, if you want to go Triadvantage- enough levels nets you Greater Invisibility, and if you go Shadow Sorcerer you can do the Darkness + Devil's Sight without using an invocation slot, thus you can provide yourself with two ways of getting advantage- obviously Darkness is more efficient, given it's a level 2 spell slot and can be cast for only 2 spell points rather than the level 4 slot needed for Greater Invisibility, but there's always the chance you come up against something that ignores the Darkness, ie Devils.

Other than that... 2 levels of Paladin nets you fighting style and divine smite, as well as Medium Armor (or heavy if you start Paladin), 5 levels of Warlock nets you Eldritch Smite and Thirsting Blade, though if you don't want Eldritch Smite you can either use a different invocation, or only 3 levels of Warlock just for Improved Pact Weapon, you can get Extra Attack via levels of Fighter (which you want at least 2 of anyway, for action surge and the extra fighting style) or Paladin.

Rogue levels nets you Sneak Attack, and although you wont have space for many levels of Rogue, the extra dice (that you will usually get, due to Triadvantage) will be nice, though if going for a GWM build it's not as useful due to not getting SA with a 2 handed weapon. It being also only once per turn does mean that GWM will do far more damage, in which case just more levels of Fighter or Paladin would be fine

[Zene]

Most damaging hexblade at 20?

Are you ok with just a hexblade dip?

If I wanted weapon attacks, I’d go:

Half-elf, Hexblade 3/Battlemaster 17, Elven Accuracy (cha), sharpshooter, crossbow expert, Dex ASI to 20, lucky.

That’s if I had reliable sources of advantage and Haste from other party members. If I didn’t have the reliable source of advantage, I’d sub the Battlemaster levels with Samurai and drop crossbow expert. If I didn’t have the reliable source of Haste, I’d instead go Hexblade 3 / Eldritch Knight 17.

But if I didn’t care about weapon attacks, and just wanted the most damage overall, I’d go Hexblade 3, Dragon Sorcerer 17.

[Khrysaes]

I was just reading Xanathar's. I noticed something interesting.

"Whenever an adamantine weapon
or piece of ammunition hits an object, the hit is a
critical hit."

As a game designer. Especially as a programmer. I consider EVERYTHING that is physical an object.

That bookshelf is an object. The door is an object. the animals are objects, with behaviours. and other people are objects.

As a DM I wouldn't allow the connection between the two thought processes.. But hey. Crit all you want with huge numbers.

[Lonely Tylenol]

I personally prefer Hexblade 12/Oathbreaker 8. I use Vuman for AL because I prefer front-loaded feats (take Polearm Master at level 1), but if you are using rolls or a higher stat method or a lenient DM with free feats, go half-elf for Elven Accuracy. Great Weapon Master is preferred at low to mid levels, but is actually unnecessary at later levels (unless you also have Elven Accuracy). Your damage sources look like this:

Bladelock level 19 (20 Cha, +5 Prof, Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master, Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, Lifedrinker, Aura of Hate, Hex)
2d10 +1d4 + 3d6 (3*Hex) + 45 (9*Cha) + 15 (3*Prof) + 3 (IPW) = 90 + 30 (3*GWM) = 120
GWM: * .45 = 54, * .6975 = 83.7 with advantage
No GWM: * .7 = 63, * .91 = 81.9 with advantage

With Elven Accuracy:
120 * .833625 = 100.04 with tri-advantage
90 * .9753 = 87.57 with tri-advantage

These numbers do not assume smite values, for which you could use either Divine Smite (with any spell slot) or Eldritch Smite (with Warlock slots only), or critical hit values (which go up with advantage and especially tri-advantage with a 19-20 threat range!), so the numbers can only go up!

[TheUser]

Sharpshooter Build!

Hexblade 5/Paladin 2/Arcane Trickster X (max level 13 in Arcane Trickster)

Sharpshooter attack for 1d8+15 +4d8 Eldritch Smite damage + Paladin Smite for another 4d8 + Sneak Attack for 7d6

98 Damage and you can still attack again.

Best of all if you run out of slots (which Eldritch Smite does after 2 attacks) you still have sneak attack.
You will also have access to the haste spell if you want to make 3 sharpshooter auto attacks per round (4 if you take crossbow expert)....So your damage is still very competitive with eldritch blast.