How does one build a proper hexblade?

[Prince_Vorrel]

The more I play my current hexblade the more troubled I feel about his build.

Race: Variant Human (polearm master)
Classes: Fighter 1 (first class level)/ Warlock 3 for the rest
Armor: Heavy armor (splint mail)
Weapon: Glaive (quarterstaff+shield with PaM is banned from the table because of cheese)

He's currently the tankiest person in the party sadly despite not feeling exceptionally durable. My polearm master keeps eating my bonus actions so sometimes I have trouble getting hexblade out in combat at all cause I want that chance to hit...worst of all I have trouble keeping hex up when i do get it out despite the con proficiency cause my AC isnt high enough to keep stuff from hitting me.

I dunno I just feel very spread thin on him and not sure wtf to do about it. It seriously feels like that in order to be better at melee then EB is at simple ranged spam requires a LOT of investment and then you lose some MUCH needed durablity since your in melee in order to simply keep your damage ON-PAR. And then you lose out on hex cause you keep getting it knocked off...

It just feels like a mess and i need some help. T_T

[Submortimer]

What kind of stats are you working with, and what invocations do you have?

[Jethro]

Try casting Mirror Image first instead of Hex or cast Armor of Agathys.

From what I can see Hexblade is a striker class. It's not a tank. You could sword and board and tank pretty solid, but try playing more defensive. Both with spells and tactics.

PAM is great for O, but struggles on D...at least until you get Sentinel. Also, team work can help if there's another frontliner you can play off of, or some spell casters can help shape the battlefield so you're in more 1on1 situations.

It's kinda like Bladesinger - it's a spellcaster class with great melee options...but you're a spellcaster first, especially till you get higher level.

[Mikal]

The more I play my current hexblade the more troubled I feel about his build.

Race: Variant Human (polearm master)
Classes: Fighter 1 (first class level)/ Warlock 3 for the rest
Armor: Heavy armor (splint mail)
Weapon: Glaive (quarterstaff+shield with PaM is banned from the table because of cheese)

He's currently the tankiest person in the party sadly despite not feeling exceptionally durable. My polearm master keeps eating my bonus actions so sometimes I have trouble getting hexblade out in combat at all cause I want that chance to hit...worst of all I have trouble keeping hex up when i do get it out despite the con proficiency cause my AC isnt high enough to keep stuff from hitting me.

I dunno I just feel very spread thin on him and not sure wtf to do about it. It seriously feels like that in order to be better at melee then EB is at simple ranged spam requires a LOT of investment and then you lose some MUCH needed durablity since your in melee in order to simply keep your damage ON-PAR. And then you lose out on hex cause you keep getting it knocked off...

It just feels like a mess and i need some help. T_T

What fighting style are you using? Defensive, or Tunnel Master?
Do you have the Shield spell?

Personally, I feel that a Hexblade Bladepact doesn't necessarily need to start in fighter any more. As long as you can max your Cha and hit a 14 dex (and thus can ignore the Str requirement you have for that heavy armor), medium armor should do well enough. However, since you can't use a polearm with Hex Warrior until level 3, you might have done better with Sentinel over PAM for those early levels, then pick up PAM at 4 when you could actually use the polearm with Hex Warrior.

This type of Hexblade is more DPS over Tank anyway- you have some battlefield control, but you aren't meant to take a lot of hits anyway- You should be stopping the hits via OA and 0 speed, shield spells, Darkness/Devil Sight disadvantage, or dropping them to 0 hp.

Also, around level 4-5 Hexblade I'd probably consider dropping Hex anyway for Darkness as my concentration spell (advantage is more useful for you than the 1d6 damage around that point with Thirsting Blade and PAM bonus action), foregoing the PAM bonus action in round one for the times you want to use Hexblade Curse.

[prototype00]

Yeah, I agree that the Fighter dip really isn’t required, as you say, you are quite tanky enough already.

I’m building a 1st level Hexblade for AL and I’ll post my experiences here if you don’t mind. It’ll be a learning experience for all of us!

Lvl 1 (log 1)

Evan Fitzmourne, Half Elf lvl 1 Hexblade

- First thing I did was sell basically all my starting gear for half price and bought some Scale Mail, a Shield and a Longsword. Now I am a tank at 18AC.

- Cantrips are Eldritch Blast and Minor Illusion. Good in-combat-out of combat utility

- Bread and butter 1st lvls are Hex and Armor of Agathys (Also have Shield for emergencies) Melee should do better than range damage wise at this lvl, so I will try to mix it up if I can.

[Laserlight]

Don't tank unless you have Darkness/Devil's Sight. You can't take the hits.

Of course, if you have D/DS and get into the thick of things-- as I did for several levels--you have to pay attention to your maneuvering so as not to leave your buddies without a target. I didn't have a problem with that, but we were almost always outdoors and spread out. YMMV.

[Prince_Vorrel]

What kind of stats are you working with, and what invocations do you have?

Str: 15
Dex: 8
Con: 16
int: 8
wis: 10
Cha: 16

And i've got devil's sight and improved pact weapon as my invocations.

Also looking at what other people are saying...I can't use darkness all the time or even occassionally. The party mostly fights in dungeons or castles so it ****s with the rest of the group too hard.

[Prince_Vorrel]

Don't tank unless you have Darkness/Devil's Sight. You can't take the hits.

Of course, if you have D/DS and get into the thick of things-- as I did for several levels--you have to pay attention to your maneuvering so as not to leave your buddies without a target. I didn't have a problem with that, but we were almost always outdoors and spread out. YMMV.

Wouldn't heavy armor + the defense fighting style be sufficient for a tank? And yea no using darkness in my group...too much indoor fighting.

[prototype00]

Str: 15
Dex: 8
Con: 16
int: 8
wis: 10
Cha: 16

And i've got devil's sight and improved pact weapon as my invocations.

Also looking at what other people are saying...I can't use darkness all the time or even occassionally. The party mostly fights in dungeons or castles so it ****s with the rest of the group too hard.

I figure a trick here is to activate it after everyone has engaged. Then everyone has both advantage and disadvantage to hit their target, and do roll normally.

Except you of course, you’ll be cutting things up like some knind of tenebrous wraith.

[Foff]

honestly, If you to play a melee hexblade tank, I think you're better off with some paladin levels, maybe even go to Paladin 6 to get +cha to saves

high str and cha are almost redundant, you'd be better off swapping str and dex for the better saves, and either rock a half plate or still keep using full plate, either way AC 19 is enough for most of your career, expecially if you have enough slots to use Shield consistently, also Mirror Image is bonkers not requiring concentration

if you find yourself being grappled and restrained into oblivion by your enemies who suddently figured out you're fairly physically weak, pick up misty step as a "oh ****" button and get out of any grapple you might end up in

[Prince_Vorrel]

honestly, If you to play a melee hexblade tank, I think you're better off with some paladin levels, maybe even go to Paladin 6 to get +cha to saves

high str and cha are almost redundant, you'd be better off swapping str and dex for the better saves, and either rock a half plate or still keep using full plate, either way AC 19 is enough for most of your career, expecially if you have enough slots to use Shield consistently, also Mirror Image is bonkers not requiring concentration

if you find yourself being grappled and restrained into oblivion by your enemies who suddently figured out you're fairly physically weak, pick up misty step as a "oh ****" button and get out of any grapple you might end up in

not allowed to do paladin/warlock multiclass at my table sadly.

and I need str for heavy armor. I don't think medium armor without a shield will give me good enough ac to be in melee.

[AttilatheYeon]

Start with good social graces proficiency in persuasion would be good. A copy of Emily post is helpful. And don't forget an English accent goes a long way to being propper 😉

[Mandragola]

I’m using a fiend pact bladelock in storm king’s thunder. Single class variant human. I took moderately-armoured as my bonus feat and heavily armoured at 4th. Stats are now 18, 8, 14, 10, 8, 16. I’ve got devil’s sight and agonising blast for my invocations.

If I can make that work, you can make a hexblade with a level of fighter work 

I think heavy armour is probably a trap for a hexblade, as some others have mentioned. The beauty of the hexblade is that it isn’t MAD – but you are because of needing strength for your armour. Having said that of course you’d still need 14 dex for medium armour and a lower AC, but dex is extremely useful – much more so than strength.

I’ve just got some plate, giving me the best AC in the party. I find that fiendish resilience allows me to actually be very tanky, especially against small enemies where I often get kills. The problem is that my concentration save is pretty terrible, though it will hopefully be improved by devil’s own luck.

I think PAM is going to be key for both of us. I won’t have it till level 8, so until then I’m going sword and board. One of the major things it does is reduce the need to cast hex all the time. Not that hex would be bad with PAM of course, but it uses one of your two spell slots, requires concentration, and fights with PAM for your bonus action. As a hexblade I think I’d hardly ever cast it and rely much more on hexblade’s curse for extra damage. Maybe use hex on big monsters but not all of the time. It's required for blaster locks but not PAM locks - which is one of the very few advantages a bladelock has going.

As a bladelock it’s important to remember that you’re a caster first and a melee fighter second. In the most recent fight I actually gave my pact blade to our barbarian so she could beat the big bad’s damage resistance, then stepped back to throw EBs at it. Casting spells is still a really important part of what a bladelock does.

I wouldn’t multiclass a hexblade now – and not just because I hate how multiclassing works in 5th. I’d make a Vuman with stats of 8, 14, 16, 10, 8, 16. Probably start out with PAM, scale mail and a quarterstaff. I think that would be a pretty good striker character.

To be honest when hexblade first appeared I was a bit annoyed, thinking my fiend guy was basically obsolete. I’m not sure that’s true though, as the fiend’s tankiness isn’t replicated with the hexblade.

[samcifer]

I’m using a fiend pact bladelock in storm king’s thunder. Single class variant human. I took moderately-armoured as my bonus feat and heavily armoured at 4th. Stats are now 18, 8, 14, 10, 8, 16. I’ve got devil’s sight and agonising blast for my invocations.

If I can make that work, you can make a hexblade with a level of fighter work 

I think heavy armour is probably a trap for a hexblade, as some others have mentioned. The beauty of the hexblade is that it isn’t MAD – but you are because of needing strength for your armour. Having said that of course you’d still need 14 dex for medium armour and a lower AC, but dex is extremely useful – much more so than strength.

I’ve just got some plate, giving me the best AC in the party. I find that fiendish resilience allows me to actually be very tanky, especially against small enemies where I often get kills. The problem is that my concentration save is pretty terrible, though it will hopefully be improved by devil’s own luck.

I think PAM is going to be key for both of us. I won’t have it till level 8, so until then I’m going sword and board. One of the major things it does is reduce the need to cast hex all the time. Not that hex would be bad with PAM of course, but it uses one of your two spell slots, requires concentration, and fights with PAM for your bonus action. As a hexblade I think I’d hardly ever cast it and rely much more on hexblade’s curse for extra damage. Maybe use hex on big monsters but not all of the time. It's required for blaster locks but not PAM locks - which is one of the very few advantages a bladelock has going.

As a bladelock it’s important to remember that you’re a caster first and a melee fighter second. In the most recent fight I actually gave my pact blade to our barbarian so she could beat the big bad’s damage resistance, then stepped back to throw EBs at it. Casting spells is still a really important part of what a bladelock does.

I wouldn’t multiclass a hexblade now – and not just because I hate how multiclassing works in 5th. I’d make a Vuman with stats of 8, 14, 16, 10, 8, 16. Probably start out with PAM, scale mail and a quarterstaff. I think that would be a pretty good striker character.

To be honest when hexblade first appeared I was a bit annoyed, thinking my fiend guy was basically obsolete. I’m not sure that’s true though, as the fiend’s tankiness isn’t replicated with the hexblade.

Hexblade is also a Patron, if I recall correctly, so you can't be both HB AND Fiend. Only one of the two.

[Mikal]

not allowed to do paladin/warlock multiclass at my table sadly.

and I need str for heavy armor. I don't think medium armor without a shield will give me good enough ac to be in melee.

Use blur if you need disadvantage until you hit level 7. Then you get shadow of moil aka the party friendly darkness made just for warlocks.

The fighter level is pretty dead for you to be honest, and hexblades aren't really built for defense. Trying to do it forces you to put points into a stat that doesn't help you, slows down your progression, and generally makes you a weaker hexblade.

I'm currently running a PAM Sentinel Hexblade blade pact right now and if you play it smart (ie don't pretend you're meant to take hits) you can keep the enemy away from you most
Of the time and deal out that righteous damage