Hexblade Glaive Fighter Newbie Help

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

I'm brand new to dnd and based on how my first session went, I'll probably need a second character ready to go pretty quickly. So I want to do something that will both delight my DM and make her hate me. I want to optimize a glaive weapon fighter with minimal strength or a negative strength modifier and then transition it into a hexblade/glaive fighter. What I'm having trouble with is when to take which levels. Here's my idea so far. The goal is an 8/12 fighter/hexblade warlock.

Human (Variant)
Feat: either Sentinal or Polearm Master. I'm leaning more toward the Sentinal for the beginning.

Str 9
Dex 16
Con 17*
Int 13
Wis 12
Chr 18*



Fighter (great weapon fighting) This gets me Con saving throw proficiency.
Warlock (Hexblade)
W2 invocations: Devils Sight and Agonizing Blast.
W3 Pact of the Blade. Ideally this is where the character would start but I don't know if that will work out.
W4 Grab either Polearm Master or Great Weapon Master.
W5 Thirsting Blade Invocation, and switch out agonizing blast for Eldritch Smite. This also gives me darkness to pair with my Devil's Sight.
F2 Action surge.
F3 Martial archetype, probably battlemaster.
F4 Whichever feat I hadn't already taken, probably GWM.


Beyond this point I'm unsure what the best way to go is, I can go back to Warlock for a few levels and get relentless hex, or I can grab two more fighter levels and grab second attack, and an ASI to bump my CHR to 20.

I would love any input on this especially if I've missed anything major, also what battle maneuver's would you reccomend? , Thank you.

[Azgeroth]

ok, not a bad concept, very death knight esque.

so first level fighter, because your dumping str, no real heavy armor for you, and with your dex of 16 its a toss up between medium and light (from a point of the starting equipment)

just a point, you don't need proficiency in any weapon as a hexblade(pact of the blade) warlock you are automatically proficient with whatever your pact weapon is. just to note.

so at first, you want a finesse weapon, and a shield, so you dont utterly suck at lvl's 1 - 4.

(and taking sentinel at the start wont raise suspicions.. hehehe...)

so i would take
1st fighter 1
2nd - 5th warlock 1-4
6th - either, fighter 2, or warlock 5 (remember cantrip damage goes of character not class level)

really, you need to know what level this campaign is going to run to. if you take 3 levels of fighter your not seeing 9th level slots until 20, if you take 4 you will never get 9th level slots. might not be an issue for your concept but its something you need to know to plan out the higher levels.

dont have the books to hand, so im afraid others are going to have to give you actual feature breakdowns.

biggest problem with multiclassing is your always pushing the higher level features back the deeper you go into any other class..

so breakdown exactly what lvls 3 and 4 get you for fighter, as opposed to another 2 levels in warlock, 2 levels in fighter is definitely a good investment (mmmm action surge) but you may want to go all the way to 5 for extra attack (though i think hex blades get something similar if not extra attack? which would make it a mute point (doesn't stack))

also, i wouldn't give up eldritch blast. because its awesome.

EDIT : i'll revisit this when i get home and have the books, i think there is a better 'hexblade' than the PHB in XgtE..

[BobZan]

You will only have access to Glaive with CHA by Hexblade 3, with Improved Pact Weapon.

I would recommend:
Hexblade all the way with Polearm Master
Start with a Quarterstaff, switch to Glaive on 3rd level.

[suplee215]

I do not see what the fighter level is giving you and it prevents progression early on. I say go Hexblade, it gives you medium armor (you not using heavy), shields and all martial weapons already. Only thing you are missing out on is a fighting style, which you won't be using too much as your glaive only comes online at level 3. Also I say polearm master first. An extra attack is extremely good in this game. Just simply put. Another way to play the first 3 levels is to eldritch blast your way through from range before getting up close but a dex weapon is good enough.

[trctelles]

I'm brand new to dnd and based on how my first session went, I'll probably need a second character ready to go pretty quickly. So I want to do something that will both delight my DM and make her hate me. I want to optimize a glaive weapon fighter with minimal strength or a negative strength modifier and then transition it into a hexblade/glaive fighter. What I'm having trouble with is when to take which levels. Here's my idea so far. The goal is an 8/12 fighter/hexblade warlock.

Human (Variant)
Feat: either Sentinal or Polearm Master. I'm leaning more toward the Sentinal for the beginning.

Str 9
Dex 16
Con 17*
Int 13
Wis 12
Chr 18*



Fighter (great weapon fighting) This gets me Con saving throw proficiency.
Warlock (Hexblade)
W2 invocations: Devils Sight and Agonizing Blast.
W3 Pact of the Blade. Ideally this is where the character would start but I don't know if that will work out.
W4 Grab either Polearm Master or Great Weapon Master.
W5 Thirsting Blade Invocation, and switch out agonizing blast for Eldritch Smite. This also gives me darkness to pair with my Devil's Sight.
F2 Action surge.
F3 Martial archetype, probably battlemaster.
F4 Whichever feat I hadn't already taken, probably GWM.


Beyond this point I'm unsure what the best way to go is, I can go back to Warlock for a few levels and get relentless hex, or I can grab two more fighter levels and grab second attack, and an ASI to bump my CHR to 20.

I would love any input on this especially if I've missed anything major, also what battle maneuver's would you reccomend? , Thank you.

I would say too to dump the lvl's in fighter and just go pure Hexblade. Sentinel is great, but get PAM from Vuman, it will help more. Use a quarterstaff from lvls 1-3 with shield, you will be able to use CHA for attacks AND PAM, so at lvl 1 you should have from 18-19 AC (depending if you DM will give you a Scale/Breastplate or a Half plate) and do 1d6+4 and 1d4+4 with a bonus action. It's pretty good IMO.

Great weapon fighting only add about 0,8 more damage on average using a Glaive main attack, and 0,4 damage with the opposite end https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/47172/how-much-damage-does-great-weapon-fighting-add-on-average (math in here), so it's not that much worth it to pick fighter for it. If you still want to dip fighter for a fighting style, get Defense for +1 AC, since your hit die is a d8 and you could use the extra tankiness.

Remeber that every lvl you put in another class will delay your extra attack and spell slots, and with warlocks, the invocations too. Considering the build you gave us, it's a lvl 9 character. By lvl 9, warlocks get 5 invocations, and you should have at least Agonizing Blast, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite and Repelling Blast. Even thought you're not a blaster, it's REALLY GOOD to have your Eldritch Blast upgraded to still be able to do damage when they are not in range, and to be able to have utility by pushing them with Repelling Blast. Note that by lvl 9 you won't need Devil's Sight, since you can cast Shadow's of Moil, which is a improved Darkness that doesn't need an invocation to work.

Your progression in invocations should be: Agonizing Blast and Improved Pact Weapon at lvl 2, then switch Improved Pact Weapon for Devil's Sight at lvl 3, since you will be able to use your Glaive and your spell slots will allow you to cast Darkness, the rest is up to you. At lvl 5 get Thirsting Blade for extra attack, at lvl 7 either Improved Pact Weapon if your DM is mean and doesn't give you a magic glaive by then, or Repelling Blast if you already have one and want the utility.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

I do not see what the fighter level is giving you and it prevents progression early on. I say go Hexblade, it gives you medium armor (you not using heavy), shields and all martial weapons already. Only thing you are missing out on is a fighting style, which you won't be using too much as your glaive only comes online at level 3. Also I say polearm master first. An extra attack is extremely good in this game. Just simply put. Another way to play the first 3 levels is to eldritch blast your way through from range before getting up close but a dex weapon is good enough.

I was primarily going the fighter route for two reasons. Action Surge and Con saving throw proficiency. Battle maneuvers would also be pretty nice with the glaive giving me a 15 foot reach.

I was thinking for heavy hitters, They come in and at 10 feet I hit them with an opportunity attack stopping them from getting any closer. then on my turn I hit them twice with my normal attack, twice more with action surge and then either the but of the glaive for a fifth attack or if i crit then two more standard attacks. Giving me 4 1d10+4+4 from Hexblade's curse. and then either 1d4+4+4 or and additional 2 1d10+8 with the crit.
so assuming a crit and no misses I would do 7d10+48 damage at level 10. this could be upped by 6d6 with the addition of hex instead of using darkness. and with further utilization of GWM could be bumped as high as 7d10+108 single turn nova damage maximum.


I would say too to dump the lvl's in fighter and just go pure Hexblade. Sentinel is great, but get PAM from Vuman, it will help more. Use a quarterstaff from lvls 1-3 with shield, you will be able to use CHA for attacks AND PAM, so at lvl 1 you should have from 18-19 AC (depending if you DM will give you a Scale/Breastplate or a Half plate) and do 1d6+4 and 1d4+4 with a bonus action. It's pretty good IMO.

I apparently didn't read PAM's description very well, thank you (i didn't realize that it worked with quarterstaves.)


Great weapon fighting only add about 0,8 more damage on average using a Glaive main attack, and 0,4 damage with the opposite end Link redacted due to post count (math in here), so it's not that much worth it to pick fighter for it. If you still want to dip fighter for a fighting style, get Defense for +1 AC, since your hit die is a d8 and you could use the extra tankiness.

I wasn't sure on how much this would do, thank you for clarifying that for me.


Remeber that every lvl you put in another class will delay your extra attack and spell slots, and with warlocks, the invocations too. Considering the build you gave us, it's a lvl 9 character. By lvl 9, warlocks get 5 invocations, and you should have at least Agonizing Blast, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite and Repelling Blast. Even thought you're not a blaster, it's REALLY GOOD to have your Eldritch Blast upgraded to still be able to do damage when they are not in range, and to be able to have utility by pushing them with Repelling Blast.
So if i'm thinking about this correctly at level 9 i'd be switching out action surge, con proficiency, 1 AC, and battle maneuvers for utility of having eldritch blast do an additional 4-5 dmg/shot, 10' of knockback? is that right?

At level 20 this would be me missing out on 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells and two invocations, while gaining the above mentioned benefits plus an extra ASI/feat.


Note that by lvl 9 you won't need Devil's Sight, since you can cast Shadow's of Moil, which is a improved Darkness that doesn't need an invocation to work.

I don't think Shadow's of Moil will work as consistently as Darkness+Devil's sight. It only turns to darkness if there is already dim light, Correct?


Your progression in invocations should be: Agonizing Blast and Improved Pact Weapon at lvl 2, then switch Improved Pact Weapon for Devil's Sight at lvl 3, since you will be able to use your Glaive and your spell slots will allow you to cast Darkness, the rest is up to you. At lvl 5 get Thirsting Blade for extra attack, at lvl 7 either Improved Pact Weapon if your DM is mean and doesn't give you a magic glaive by then, or Repelling Blast if you already have one and want the utility.

This progression seems solid though at Lvl 7 I'm planning on going relentless hex (primarily for awesomeness)

[Davrix]

How are you allowed to use a polearm as a hex blade the feature says you cant use anything with the two handed property?

[trctelles]

I was primarily going the fighter route for two reasons. Action Surge and Con saving throw proficiency. Battle maneuvers would also be pretty nice with the glaive giving me a 15 foot reach.

I was thinking for heavy hitters, They come in and at 10 feet I hit them with an opportunity attack stopping them from (...)

Sentinel can only hit people at 10 feet if you combo it with PAM first. Otherwise, you can't AoO when they enter your reach and stop them from getting to you (Yeah, I know, it sucks)




So if i'm thinking about this correctly at level 9 i'd be switching out action surge, con proficiency, 1 AC, and battle maneuvers for utility of having eldritch blast do an additional 4-5 dmg/shot, 10' of knockback? is that right?

Oh, I forgot to mention that lvl 9 is the first lvl you can cast 5th lvl spells (Banishing Smite, Cone of Cold and Hold Monster are the best one available). At warlock 10 you get Armor of Hexes too, which is only one lvl away. And remember that each lvl of fighter you take will delay Thirsting Blade. But that's about it. Also, 7th, 8th and 9th spells are sweet. If you don't care much about them, go with the fighter route.





I don't think Shadow's of Moil will work as consistently as Darkness+Devil's sight. It only turns to darkness if there is already dim light, Correct?
You become heavily obscured to OTHERS. It work the same way as Darkness (giving you advantage to hit and disadvantage to people trying to hit you), PLUS resistance to radiant damage (DM dependant if this will be good or meh) and 2d8 necrotic damage to people that hit you. And you don't need to use and invocation =) .

[trctelles]

How are you allowed to use a polearm as a hex blade the feature says you cant use anything with the two handed property?
If you take Pact of the Blade at lvl 3 (You should as Hexblade IMO), you can use Hex Warrior with ANY weapon.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Sentinel can only hit people at 10 feet if you combo it with PAM first. Otherwise, you can't AoO when they enter your reach and stop them from getting to you (Yeah, I know, it sucks)

This is the entire reason why i'm starting as V human instead of going bugbear so that I can get this effectively running at level 4-5 instead of 6-9 (depending on level breakdowns between fighter and warlock. We are running storm kings thunder so i expect that the majority of the game will be between levels 5 and 15


Oh, I forgot to mention that lvl 9 is the first lvl you can cast 5th lvl spells (Banishing Smite, Cone of Cold and Hold Monster are the best one available). At warlock 10 you get Armor of Hexes too, which is only one lvl away. And remember that each lvl of fighter you take will delay Thirsting Blade. But that's about it. Also, 7th, 8th and 9th spells are sweet. If you don't care much about them, go with the fighter route.

Honestly looking at the spell list on ,8, and 9 the spells would massively break the game if i pull them off. aka True Polymorph and Dominate Monster. I can actually drop two levels of fighter which loses an ASI/feat but gains me lvl 7 spells and master of hexes which I'd totally forgotten about.


You become heavily obscured to OTHERS. It work the same way as Darkness (giving you advantage to hit and disadvantage to people trying to hit you), PLUS resistance to radiant damage (DM dependant if this will be good or meh) and 2d8 necrotic damage to people that hit you. And you don't need to use and invocation =) .

Thank you for clarifying that I payed more attention to the lighting piece of it. I have another party member who has devil sight as well whose planning on doing kind of the opposite build using warlock. Would this still give him advantage or no?

[Davrix]

If you take Pact of the Blade at lvl 3 (You should as Hexblade IMO), you can use Hex Warrior with ANY weapon.


Oh sweet Jesus yea i missed that part because its a little blurb on the next page that I must of skipped over.

[trctelles]

Shadows of Moil state that your character becomes heavily obscured, so I don't think it would work for other players other than yourself.
You could also get Warcaster(also give advantage in CON saves to keep concentration) + PAM and use Eldritch Blast with Repelling Blast at lvl 4 when enemies get into your 10 feet range, and remember that you can apply Repelling Blast once per beam, so you could possibly permanently keep someone away from you, if they are dumb enough to keep trying it the same way. By RAW (rules as written), this combo work perfectly fine, but some DMs might not allow it because JC said PAM was not intended to work like this (but this combo is out since 5e came out and had no errata correcting it, so it must be fine).

At later level's, you can blast the enemy 4 times for 4d10+20 + 4d6 (if hexed) with a reaction and push him 40 feet away from you. I'm doing this combo with my Hexblade, and my DM is OK with it.

[Chugger]

Keep in mind that PAM grants you a b.a. attack for 1d4 + cha mod (if hexblade). As a hexblade what else are you using your b.a. for? To hex or curse, so that is one round with no bonus attack. Do you plan on other spells or things that use b.a. a lot? Not sure that locks have too many, except when something dies and they move the hex. Fighters use the b.a. to second wind, which is rare. So you're probably okay - i.e. you don't have that much of a conflict here.

This is always something to keep in mind when thinking about using PAM. Sometimes it's better to go 2hander doing 1d12 or 2d6 and take GWM, but for you I think PAM and glaive is okay.

If you're a va hu start with PAM, not sent. You want that extra damage. At low levels it is very significant.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

Shadows of Moil state that your character becomes heavily obscured, so I don't think it would work for other players other than yourself.

I think I'll have to see how this one plays out at early levels to make that decision, primarily whether it will negatively impact my other two party members.


You could also get Warcaster(also give advantage in CON saves to keep concentration) + PAM and use Eldritch Blast with Repelling Blast at lvl 4 when enemies get into your 10 feet range, and remember that you can apply Repelling Blast once per beam, so you could possibly permanently keep someone away from you, if they are dumb enough to keep trying it the same way. By RAW (rules as written), this combo work perfectly fine, but some DMs might not allow it because JC said PAM was not intended to work like this (but this combo is out since 5e came out and had no errata correcting it, so it must be fine).

So in this situation, I'm just chilling with my polearm and the second they hit that 10' range they get knocked back 10-40 feet and can't move... this seems mildly broken. My DM is a first time DM and is trying to play as close to RAW as she can so this should work. Secondary question as part of this does warcaster synergize with sentinel's opportunity against them if they attack someone else and are within 5' of me?


Keep in mind that PAM grants you a b.a. attack for 1d4 + cha mod (if hexblade). As a hexblade what else are you using your b.a. for? To hex or curse, so that is one round with no bonus attack. Do you plan on other spells or things that use b.a. a lot? Not sure that locks have too many, except when something dies and they move the hex. Fighters use the b.a. to second wind, which is rare. So you're probably okay - i.e. you don't have that much of a conflict here.
This is always something to keep in mind when thinking about using PAM. Sometimes it's better to go 2hander doing 1d12 or 2d6 and take GWM, but for you I think PAM and glaive is okay.
If you're a va hu start with PAM, not sent. You want that extra damage. At low levels it is very significant.

Depending on the level my bonus actions can include any of the following.

PAM Secondary Attack
GWM allowing a full attack. Lvl 8-9
Hexblade's Curse
Hex
Relentless Hex Lvl 7-11 somewhere

[Chugger]

I'm not telling you it's bad - the b.a. conflict. I'm just pointing out you sometimes will have one - i.e. two things you can do for a b.a. but only one b.a. in which to do it.

PAM gives you a b.a. every time you melee attack. GWM only rarely does. Just keep that in mind as you go through your other possible b.a.'s and understand how often there will be a conflict going one or the other (and you can go pam and gwm later on of course).

If PAM will really really mess up some other use of b.a. that's really cool, don't take it. In your case it looks like you're okay taking PAM. Every once in a while you'll have to miss out on something, like applying your hex or curse you'll not be able to take the 1d4 attack - but I think you can live w/ that.

[bid]

Human (Variant)
Feat: either Sentinel or Polearm Master.

Str 9
Dex 16
Con 17*
Int 13
Wis 12
Chr 18*

Don't Con17, odd values give you nothing.
You are much better with Str10 / Con16 or plan for resilient(Wis) with Wis13 / Con16.

Sentinel's 3rd point is not an OA, so no warcaster.

[th3g0dc0mp13x]

I'm not telling you it's bad - the b.a. conflict. I'm just pointing out you sometimes will have one - i.e. two things you can do for a b.a. but only one b.a. in which to do it.
PAM gives you a b.a. every time you melee attack. GWM only rarely does. Just keep that in mind as you go through your other possible b.a.'s and understand how often there will be a conflict going one or the other (and you can go pam and gwm later on of course).
If PAM will really really mess up some other use of b.a. that's really cool, don't take it. In your case it looks like you're okay taking PAM. Every once in a while you'll have to miss out on something, like applying your hex or curse you'll not be able to take the 1d4 attack - but I think you can live w/ that.

Oh gotcha, I actually wasn't sure what point you were trying to make. Thank you for clarifying that. Honestly the main reason i'm taking GWM is for the -5+10 feature and PAM is 100% required to make the idea function. The 1d4+(any number between 4 and 28) is gravy on top.


Don't Con17, odd values give you nothing.
You are much better with Str10 / Con16 or plan for resilient(Wis) with Wis13 / Con16.

I have no idea how I missed that, thanks.


Sentinel's 3rd point is not an OA, so no warcaster.

Gotcha, Reaction attack isn't an opportunity attack, but an opportunity attack is a reaction.