Hexblade optimization with sharpshooter

[ZETHTHERED]

These are the things I know:
My next character is going to be a Hexblade.
I am going to be a half-elf.
I am going to use a Longbow as my Pact Weapon.
We will probably only get to Level 12 (though feel free to post ideas up to 20th).
We play Adventure's League so I have the PHB+1 (XGtE) rule.

We have a wizard, 2 melee strikers and a rogue.
My goal is to do damage from a distance and not get hit!
I am planning on using the Darkness Devil's Sight combination to get advantage on attack rolls.
I want to take Elven Accuracy at 4th level which will then allow me to re-roll 1 of my attack dice (I will be rolling 2 because of advantage from Darkness.)

The question is where do I go after 5th level Hexblade (I am going to take Thirsting Blade for the Extra Attack).
Do I continue Hexblade?
I really want to maximize my damage!!!

Thanks to DM Rewards I will be giving my Hexblade a Ring of Spell Storing at 5th level.

I appreciate your assistance!!!

[Legendairy]

I am not as adept at optimization as some, but I will throw in a few options, that may work! 3 levels of Champion fighter will net you more crits especially with Elven accuracy. You really want to grab sharpshooter and elven accuracy if you are going to have fairly often advantage and the crit fishing from champ are nice. Another possibility for 20th would be 10 levels in valor bard for Swift quiver spell and it may synergize fairly well for 4 attacks with advantage and that juicy +10 to damage and if you have 3 levels of champ fighter thats also critting on 19+

[nickl_2000]

Here's my 2 cents, and I'm assuming you have 14 dex for max AC.
1-5 Hexblade (to get Hex lasting 8 hours a casting) for second attack, a feat, devil's sight, improved pact weapon, and Thirsting Blade
6-9 Battlemaster fighter for 3 levels to get fighting style archery (+2 to hit), second wind, action surge, and 3 maneuvers (Precision Strike, Commanders Strike, and Disarming attack), and a feat
9-X The rest Rogue Scout for bonus action stuff, reaction stuff, and improved damage from sneak attack.

You get a crazy to hit with archery style and the hexblade invocations. hex for extra damage on each hit, and good action economy (as you have a solid action, reaction, and bonus action). Alternately to devil's sight/darkness you can take maddening hex, then you get at will psychic splash damage as a bonus action.





NOTE: It's also a shame that you are playing AL, because 4 levels UA fighter Scout is amazingly better than battlemaster for it.

[Spyderson]

Keep in mind you'll have to take improved pact weapon out of xanthars as an invocation to start with a longbow as your pact weapon. As soon as you find a magic longbow in your adventure you can swap out the invocation for something else.

The sharpshooter feat will help you a lot with pumping out those huge hits. You have advantage from darkness so the -5 to hit will be mitigated. The +1 to hit from improved pact weapon will help too.

Rogue would probably be a really good multiclass adding sneak attack die to your shots out of darkness.

Bard is another really good multiclass as your spell casting mod is the same and gives you more support options. If you invest the rest of your levels into bard ypur level 10 magical secrets also gets you access to rangers swift quiver spell which gives you 2 extra attacks on a bonus action.

Edit: the build in the post above looks really juicy. But I'd take goading or distracting strike over commanders strike because of the poor action economy on commanders strike. Goading has a save but benefits your whole party, distracting gives a single party member advantage.

[nickl_2000]

Edit: the build in the post above looks really juicy. But I'd take goading or distracting strike over commanders strike because of the poor action economy on commanders strike. I'd favour goading because they get disadvantage on everyone but you and most opponents will have a really hard time getting to you in darkness.


Commander's strike is there 100% for the rogue in the party. A rogue gets 1 sneak attack a turn, but since it is your turn it allows him to sneak attack again as a reaction. Getting a rogue to hit a second time with a sneak attack could make a gigantic difference in the encounter.

Also, goading and distracting strike have a save DC based on 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice). Since you are a hexblade your dex won't be that great, meaning that the save will often be made. Commanders strike and Precision Strike don't have a DC to the save, thus the effect of a low dex is mitigated somewhat.


At least that's my reasoning for the choices I gave, but hey everyone has different ways they want to do things.

[Ali_face]

Trip attack, to make your melee strikers brutally efficient.

Bonus, that it works on Flying creatures to knock them prone :cool:

But otherwise the above build looks A+

[Vogie]

That Archery Fighting style is gold if you're going sharpshooter.

Another strong fighter option is 3 levels into Arcane Archer. If you're fighting a single foe, a Shadow arrow can give you the "darkness" effect without using any of those precious spell slots. You can also get Banishing Arrow, giving you a banishment effect also without the use of spell slots for Banishment.

Alternatively, going 3 into ranger will also increase your DPR. In addition to Hunter's mark acting as a bonus-action-Hex-lite, Hunter will give you either faux-AoE through Horde Breaker, or increased damage throughout with either Colossus slayer Hunter, Monster Slayer, or Horizon Walker, or an extra attack on the first turn & darkvision shielding with Deep stalker. Regardless of archetype, you also get favored enemy bonuses, and access to spells like Hail of Thorns and Zephyr strike.

You can also free up an invocation by going to 5 in either class for extra attacks.

[DethBySquirl]

What about going adding Ranger (Gloom Stalker) into Rogue (Assassin)? You get Archery style, Hunter's Mark, invisibility to darkvision, and a potential 4 attack opening volley with 2d6+1d8 extra damage tacked on that are an automatic critical vs unaware targets. Umbral Sight might also extend Devil's Sight, for 150 feet of perfect darkvision. Throw in something like One With Shadows and you become the supreme ambusher, capable of obliterating single targets from stealth with high accuracy and piles of damage.

[Izur Saiga]

I'd argue Fighter1-3/HexbladeX is a very good SS build, but it has some technical hiccups in AL.

Fighter1 gives you Archery Fighting Style, CON saves, 10 HP at lv. 1 and a cheap auto-healing. Fighter2 gives you action surge, 'nuff said. And Fighter3 gives you Battlemaster. The thing is, the further you go into Fighter, the more you delay the other features and frankly, Archery Fighting Style is basically what you need to excel with SS although Precision Strike is also great.

Hexblade 19 gives you a lot of arguably reliable and high DPR in the form of extra attack, advantage-granting spells (Darkness, Shadow of Moil), ranged smites, Improved Pact Weapon (this is obviously a necessity but it also gives you +1 to-hit/dmg, greatly synergizing with SS and Archery) and the biggest draw, Lifedrinker. Together with having a nice spell progression (eventually, up to lv. 9 spells) and more invocations, I think this gives you strong reasons to go Hexblade17-19.

To maximize DPR and get the most out of SS you will need more attacks, mainly Crossbow Expert. You can use CHA-to-attack with a single hand crossbow with no problems with the Hex Warrior feature, but to use a hand crossbow as a pact weapon with the Pact of the Blade feature you need to find a magical hand crossbow and bond with it since Improved Pact Weapon grants you the ability to summon light and heavy crossbows but not hand ones. I dunno how you get loot on your specific AL game, but finding a magical hand crossbow can be tough. The other options is the DM handwaving this for you, but if this actual AL this might be unlikely.

But since you went with helf and also want to use Darkness+DS, you can pick Elven Accuracy and SS on lv. 4 and 8 (5 and 9, if you dip Fighter1), so the need for the magical hand crossbow won't even be a thing until lv. 12/13, when you can grab Crossbow Expert.

Without taking to-hit into account since you can probably get easy access to triple advantage by using a single spell per fight, at lv. 8 with CHA 18 you can expect the following damage


2 x (d84.5 + CHA4 + IPW1 + SS10 ) = 39;

without power attack: 19;

with hb curse: 39 + (2 x Prof3 ) = 45;
+ eldritch smite: + (5 x d84.5 ) = + 22.5

with minimal resource expenditure. I don't think it's worth using Hex because it will compete for your concentration and concentrating on spells that give you triple advantage will net you a greater increase in damage.

At lv. 12, if you go the SS/CE route:


3 x (d63.5 + CHA4 + CHA4 + IPW1 + SS10 ) = 67.5;

without power attack: 37.5;

with hb curse: 55.5 + (3 x Prof4 ) = 79.5;


But the non-crossbow route would wield a significantly lower DPR even having CHA 20 since it doesn't get a bonus action attack, with 2 attacks resulting in 51, 31 and 58 average damage, respectively.

I played this build in a three-shot, reskinned the hand crossbows with magically powered breech-loading pistols and it was pretty fun! Bonus points if someone in your party buffs you with Haste.