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artimus261
2018-03-28, 09:15 PM
The following is a fix I whipped up that I think gives the hexblade a healthy change to his curse. While it doesn't give him more uses each day, or even earlier uses each day like the fix provided by Mike Mearls, it stretches what the curse is capable of and late game even provides the hexblade with a means of potentially dealing damage on par with a sorcerer or wizard to some degree. Anyway, here it is, the Virulent Curse


Minor Fixes
Good Fortitude Save
Add Bestow Curse as a 4th level spell to their Spell List


Virulent Hex
The hexblade’s curse is infectious and lingers provided there is always a target that is an enemy to him. Beginning at 3rd level whenever a creature that is under the effects of the hexblade’s curse dies the curse travels to another randomly selected enemy. The enemy can attempt a saving throw against the curse as normal. The curse continues to travel to additional targets until there are no enemies remaining or until a creature successfully saves against it.
At 6th level the hexblade’s curse can now pass on to additional targets even if a target of his curse succeeds on his save. This continues until a creature is affected by his curse or every opponent succeeds on a saving throw against his curse.
At 8th level the hexblade is able to decide which enemy his curse passes onto whenever the current victim dies or whenever a target succeeds on their save against it.

Malevolent Burst(Su)
Beginning at 11th level the hexblade’s curse now releases malevolent energy when it finds no subject to afflict. If all remaining target’s succeed on their saving throws, or the current target of the curse is slain and all remaining targets have already succeeded on their saving throw against the curse, the curse releases a 60ft burst. All enemies within 60ft of the final target takes a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws for a number of rounds equal to the Hexblade’s Charisma modifier. This penalty stacks with all others, including it’s own.
At 14th level the hexblade can choose to cause a malevolent burst whenever a target of his curse successfully makes it’s saving throw.

Fracturing Hex(Su)
Beginning at 18th level the hexblade is now able to inflict grievous injury to the victims of his curse by igniting the malevolent energies present in the curse itself. A hexblade now gains a new use of his curse when using it again on a target that is already afflicted by his hexblade curse or is under the effects of a curse caused by bestow curse. A creature that fails this saving throw against the hexblade’s curse takes 1d6 points of damage per class level.
Additionally, if the target dies from this damage all enemies within 60ft of the slain foe must succeed on a saving throw, with a DC of the hexblade’s curse, or be afflicted by greater hexblade’s curse.

Minor Details: The damage inflicted by fracturing hex is explicitly untyped. The curse it inflicts to other targets when the target is slain by fracturing curse never improves to the dire hexblade curse. And one thing I'm thinking of removing is the detail about bestow curse in the fracturing curse section. It would potentially allow the hexblade to apply fracturing hex more often by casting the spell first instead of using the class ability but bestow curse is also at a much lower DC than the hexblade curse so it feels balanced.

Gorum
2018-04-07, 09:34 AM
Semi-Official Update (http://molivero.com/dndtools/USRD/srd/classes/baseCwar/hexblade.html)
It is more than obvious that hexblade is an underpowered class. This is because, in the early days of 3.5 (the hexblade class is from complete warrior, an early 3.5 supplement), the R&D thought that a class which could wear armor, grab martial feats and use magic would be potentially broken. Unfortunately, the contrary is true, but the hexblade still suffers from the punishment of early armored mages. For example compare the hexblade class with her sister class, the duskblade from player's handbook II, a much more mature gish. Several years ago, one of the creators of the class, Mike Mearls, made some suggestions of boosting up the hexblade. His post is quoted below:

"The hexblade suffers a little because he came on the scene relatively early in 3.5's life. As R&D pushes the boundaries of the game, we learn that some things we thought were risky or potentially broken aren't. Other times, we learn things that look fine don't actually work in play. Armored mages fall into the first category. Them seem really powerful, but in the long run they aren't. Spells and magic items allow an unarmored mage to build great defenses. The spell mage armor is as good as medium armor, and its duration allows most mages to keep it active at all times. If you compare the hexblade to the duskblade from PH 2, you can see how the thinking has changed. If you want to boost the hexblade, I'd try the following changes:

* Good Fortitude save;

* Curse ability usable 1 + the hexblade's Cha modifier per day;

* Curse ability usable as a swift action;

* Curse ability does not count as used if the target makes his saving throw;

* Ability to cast in light or medium armor and while carrying a light shield or buckler;

* At 6th level, the hexblade can cast one hexblade spell per day as a swift action, as long as its original casting time is a standard action or faster. He gains an additional use of this power at levels 8, 11, 14, and 18.

The key to the hexblade is his curse ability, but it's a little un-fun to have it so limited in use. The hexblade also has trouble casting spells and using his melee attacks, so shifting spells to swift actions fits in with the idea of an armored mage. (These are by no means official. They're just off the top of my head changes I'd consider making.)"