How valuable is a level 1 Hexblade dip for a Sorcadin?

[jacob902uhhs]

I'm looking at leveling a Sorcadin for a game with friends, and I'm contemplating a dip into Hexblade.

Human V.
16 12 16* 9 11 18*

I'm most interested in a Divine Soul / Conquest mix.
I'll pretty much be the "Tank" for our group, with maybe a Drunken Monk at the front lines with me.

Initially I was looking at 2 Pala > 2 Pala 1 Sorc > 7 Pala X Sorc. I wouldn't delay my aura by much, while still getting some Gish feel in early.

But if I do the same thing, but swap that first Sorc dip for Hexblade, I can forget about boosting STR. That leaves my Attack and Casting stat maxed at level 5.
Leaving me all kinds of feats to mess with. Now, if I wanted to go 2H down the road, I have to invest 3 Hexblade.
Which leaves my split either 7 Conquest / 1 Hexblade / 12 Sorcerer or 7 Conquest / 3 Hexblade / 10 Sorcerer.

I will be leaving myself with a smaller hit die, but I think I could have a blast trying to RP this.
Is there anything I'm over looking by going this route though?

Thanks in advance for any input!

[Foxhound438]

I was going to say not at all, but it looks like you have really high charisma out the gate. It might actually be worthwhile to forget about sorcerer altogether and use warlock slots to have 2 big smites per short rest. Something like pally 13 warlock 7 to get max smite damage with IDS.

If you're set on sorlock as the foundation though, 1 off level wouldn't really hurt.

[jacob902uhhs]

Going Warlock would give me superb short rest recovery and a better hit die.
Two things I can't simply overlook for flavor. I'm cautious about relying on short rest spells.
I've yet to play a Warlock, so I'm not sure how it plays out.

I'm very interesting in the Divine Soul subclass for sure. I love the flavor, and mixing cleric/sorcerer spells are fun.
I get a small hit die but our spell slots combine pretty well, so I'll always have higher slots to burn for sorcerer points.

The faster the game starts, the faster I can stop trying to improve my character idea.

[Davrix]

*shakes fist* Dats my build boy

heh joking aside im doing exactly the same thing in my game and if your going conquest its totally worth it. Id argue even 2 or 3 levels for the invocations benefits and the pact perk. You want a familiar be it from the tomb pact or the chain pact because using that little guy to offer help actions around the battle is a great boon to the party. I also might suggest sword and board using the war caster and sentinel feats if your going tank and if your DM likes to use a lot of casters nab the mage slayer feat as well and watch your DM cry when his caster cant move out of your fear aura and you doge every spell and interrupt all of his.

Right now I'm torn between what I want to do and how many levels I want to dip into warlock and sorc but what I may go with is the very simple 1 warlock and 3 sorc just to pick up the meta magic stuff because you want to be able to twin things like booming blade and quicken things like blade ward. Improved divine smite is a hard thing to give up and you have to remember also taking 1 in warlock will make you loose out on a +2 stat increase or another feat so you have to make it work out evenly so your not giving up any more stat increases.

Not to mention the high Char synergies very well with all the will saves you need to impose for fear and having the char damage aura at 15 is nice but yea it depends on how far your game is going to go. If you know your going to be up at 18 keep in mind you wont be getting the 30ft aura increase from paladin which can be devastating for mass combat. But this also depends on how your DM run's things. If its a lot of big bosses then that aura increase means very little to you.

[jacob902uhhs]

I didn't even think of going for a familiar, but I can see how important that can be.

I don't foresee this getting to Tier 4, so I'm not taking any capstone or late level boon into account.
I'm definitely going Sword and Board, since I'll be the tank for the party.
I've been thinking about evocations, but I'm trying to find which class I'll be focusing more on.

I'll focus on getting to Conquest 7 / Hexblade 1 / Divine Soul 3, then from how that plays I'll push on from there.
By then, I think I'd have a good idea if I want to focus more on either class for the boons. Maybe I want to cast more, or have better short rest recovery.
I'll be maxed out for Attacking and Casting stat by level 5, and I can dip Conquest 8 or Divine Soul 4 for a feat that suites my play style by then.
Who knows if I want sentinel for stickiness, or Shield Mastery, or Polearm Mastery, ect.

I'm going to use Pala 2 / Hex 1 as the chassis, and build him up from there.
I want to have a LN alignment, so not fully evil by any means. More of a Grey of sorts.

I just need to think of a big ideal to drive the character to make these choices.

[Chugger]

Consider going hexblade early for ending MADness (cha is your casting and combat stat) - and for the curse - and for Shield. Everyone seems to overlook that, that hexblades get Shield, which can come in very handy.

I'd say it's definitely worth it. Beware the advice above that you might as well dip 3 for invo and other lock stuff. Yeah, it's nice, but so are your lvl 6 and 7 conq pal features, which you get at 7 and 8 if you 1-dip hexblade. And so is metamagic from sorc. Sorc also gives you access to Absorb Elements, which combined with Shield make you very tough.

[Easy_Lee]

Consider going hexblade early for ending MADness (cha is your casting and combat stat) - and for the curse - and for Shield. Everyone seems to overlook that, that hexblades get Shield, which can come in very handy.

I'd say it's definitely worth it. Beware the advice above that you might as well dip 3 for invo and other lock stuff. Yeah, it's nice, but so are your lvl 6 and 7 conq pal features, which you get at 7 and 8 if you 1-dip hexblade. And so is metamagic from sorc. Sorc also gives you access to Absorb Elements, which combined with Shield make you very tough.

I agree with this. It's a tough choice, but ultimately sorcerer works better with paladin than warlock does because it uses the same spell slots. For spell slot progression, you have spell slots equal to a sorcerer of your sorcerer level plus half your paladin level. And as Chugger said, metamagic is a big deal. Sorcadins traditionally make use of Quicken Hold Person and similar.

A single level of Hexblade is great for charisma weapon attacks and Hex Warrior, allowing you to crit twice as often and deal extra damage to a target once per short rest. A second level of warlock would get you some invocations, and a third would get you short rest castings of some 2nd level spells plus a pact, but be careful. Every level of warlock takes away from your paladin and sorcerer progression.

Something like Warlock 1 - > Paladin 6 - > Sorcerer might work best.

[HunterOfJello]

Warlock levels and odd numbered Paladin levels don't boost your spell slot progression. Warlock does give you the equivalent of new low level spell slots that you can use to cast prepared paladin spells, known sorcerer spells, or known warlock spells of that level. That's pretty cool.

Were you going to go sword and shield or two handed weapon? Hexblade at level 1 doesn't have their Hex Warrior feature apply to two handed weapons. This changes if you get the pact weapon at level 3.

It's also worth noting that your stats are all pretty high. Your charisma is a bit higher than your strength, but not *massively* higher, so the boost isn't as huge as it might first seem. You have to compare +1 attack and +1 damage to a new level of sorcerer spells. Sorcerer spells are probably going to be more worthwhile. This is especially true since your big damage comes from burning 5th level spell slots for the paladin's Divine Smite.

[Malifice]

I'm looking at leveling a Sorcadin for a game with friends, and I'm contemplating a dip into Hexblade.

Human V.
16 12 16* 9 11 18*

I'm most interested in a Divine Soul / Conquest mix.
I'll pretty much be the "Tank" for our group, with maybe a Drunken Monk at the front lines with me.

Initially I was looking at 2 Pala > 2 Pala 1 Sorc > 7 Pala X Sorc. I wouldn't delay my aura by much, while still getting some Gish feel in early.

But if I do the same thing, but swap that first Sorc dip for Hexblade, I can forget about boosting STR. That leaves my Attack and Casting stat maxed at level 5.
Leaving me all kinds of feats to mess with. Now, if I wanted to go 2H down the road, I have to invest 3 Hexblade.
Which leaves my split either 7 Conquest / 1 Hexblade / 12 Sorcerer or 7 Conquest / 3 Hexblade / 10 Sorcerer.

I will be leaving myself with a smaller hit die, but I think I could have a blast trying to RP this.
Is there anything I'm over looking by going this route though?

Thanks in advance for any input!

Those dips are going to delay you extra attack.

Also; you need a minimum Str 13 to M/C [into/ out of] Paladin anyway.

What are you really getting by taking the Hexblade levels? And what are you giving away (or delaying to the point you wont ever see the ability)

[bid]

I'm looking at leveling a Sorcadin for a game with friends, and I'm contemplating a dip into Hexblade.

Human V.
16 12 16* 9 11 18*
Str16 is good enough for a tank. Maybe after you reach Cha20 the difference is worth wasting a level.

Now, if you were to start with Str14 and Cha16... the 2 ASI delay would make hexblade useful.

[PeteNutButter]

Take one hexblade level after level 5. Your cha should be 20 by then so it'll be +2 to hit and damage.

Paladin to 5 (ASI in cha) > Hexblade 1 > Paladin 6 > Sorcerer 4-5 (Probably Warcaster)

So by level 12 you have Paladin 6/Warlock 1/Sorcerer 5. SAD for cha is amazing and completely worth the 1 level dip. At that point you may likely decide that you want more sorcery points and higher level spells so you can keep going in sorcerer, or you can grab some more warlock.

Don't be afraid to use coffee lock tricks, but don't go full coffee lock unless you want the torches and pitchforks coming after you. Starting your adventuring day with a couple of short rests for an extra first level slot or two isn't breaking anything.

[BobZan]

Hexblade dip is invaluable for every single CHA-based character