Purely Hypothetical game balance regarding Xan's

[stoutstien]

This is a question for the people the Run/play campains and enjoyed Homebrew and tweaking with the game.
Prior to the release of xans would you have allowed the hexblade patron or elven accuracy as written from a Homebrewed source. Would you allow one and not the other?

As far as hexblade it's the fact you can make 4 different classes SAD with a single lv dip.
Elven accuracy isn't really out of line it's just reinforces the hex warrior problem in my eyes.

Again, purely hypothetical.

[thoroughlyS]

I'm not a huge fan of Elven Accuracy, but after looking at the numbers (https://anydice.com/program/1e0a) it seems reasonable. However, I would prefer the Unearthed Arcana (http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/RJSJC2017_04UASkillFeats_24v10.pdf) version.

I would disallow the Hexblade, because gishes don't need to be SAD. The Paladin is a quintessential gish, and didn't need CHA to attack in order to work. Hexblade is just another example of Warlock getting all the love, and was designed to patch the glaring problem with Pact of the Blade which was really just a lack of armor proficiencies.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Elven Accuracy, eh, sure.

Hexblade, no. It's blatantly "everything a gish needs first, flavor later," and out of line with other Patrons. Then again, I still don't allow it in its original form in my games, so.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Elven Accuracy isn't a game breaker, although it seems a bit more powerful than other racial feats to me. If so, it wouldn't be the first time Elves were "favored" by the mechanics of D&D.

The Hexblade is just poor game design, in terms of both background and mechanics. The former is under-developed and the latter is over-powered. Again, not quite a game breaker, but I think it comes close.

I allow it in my games, but I don't like it. The background can be re-worked into something that fits any given setting easily enough. The mechanics are another problem entirely because taking anything away from a player for any reason tends to ruin their fun and I'm opposed to that.

The REAL problem with Hexblade, as I see it: I'd normally be okay with whatever class someone chose to play, if they could honestly say they were into it for role playing reasons. But the Hexblade's lack of any real background makes it extremely difficult to believe that unless they've done a LOT of work on their character background. The bar for "not being a power gamer" is set very high for anyone who comes to me with a Hexblade character.

[bc56]

Elven accuracy is on the strong side. Sending it back to its UA roots would make it much more reasonable in my eyes.

Hexblade is something that if I had seen it as homebrew first, would have disallowed it. Even now, I'm thinking about it, just for the tendency of everyone with any use for Cha taking a level. If you can't explain why your holy warrior is pledging their soul to a sentient weapon forged from pure darkness, you shouldn't be taking that level.

[Man_Over_Game]

About Hexblade
One thing we've implemented was moving the Charisma-based attacking and the Martial proficiencies from Hexblade onto the Pact of the Blade. We compensated by making the Hexblade have a bonus to Concentration saving throws equal to their Charisma.

We then reflavored the Hexblade to being a curse-master, turning you into a perfect weapon for the Patron, and effectively making you a spirit of vengeance to cause pain on those who wronged you. Similar to the Vengeance Paladin, but more ambitious.

The idea was to make Pact of the Blade a more likable option that pushed people for melee combat, while providing something for the Hexblade that made it more in-line with other patrons as a mostly-ranged option.

We didn't know what to do with the melee smite spells, so we left them, and made them more consistent by making the Concentration saving throws buffed up, which also influences your ability to use curses like Hex that can be utilized by invocations. Combined with the fact that the new Hexblade is practically a weapon (so it gains spells that utilize weapons), and that it would like to inflict pain while being up close and personal, it seemed fair enough.

All-in-all, it made you go Pact of the Blade for melee, and Hexblade for offensive options against single targets with occasional burst damage in melee. It also meant that players couldn't be lazy with their builds by grabbing Warlock 1 for Charisma-based attacking, and allowed other Patrons for melee use (Archfey is great with this). It all worked out really well.

[thoroughlyS]

Elven Accuracy isn't a game breaker, although it seems a bit more powerful than other racial feats to me. If so, it wouldn't be the first time Elves were "favored" by the mechanics of D&D.
High elves also get Fey Teleportation, for misty step on a short rest.

The Hexblade is just poor game design, in terms of both background and mechanics. The former is under-developed and the latter is over-powered. Again, not quite a game breaker, but I think it comes close.
I really like this reflavor (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?571477-Warlock-Capstone) of the hexblade pact (the name needs work though). Make a pact with a vengeful entity.

[Grod_The_Giant]

About Hexblade
One thing we've implemented was moving the Charisma-based attacking and the Martial proficiencies from Hexblade onto the Pact of the Blade. We compensated by making the Hexblade have a bonus to Concentration saving throws equal to their Charisma.

We then reflavored the Hexblade to being a curse-master, turning you into a perfect weapon for the Patron, and effectively making you a spirit of vengeance to cause pain on those who wronged you. Similar to the Vengeance Paladin, but more ambitious.
I did something similar, yeah-- Blade Pact gets armor proficiency, Hexblade gets a spell list actually focused on curses*, and absolutely no-one gets Cha to attack.



*Bane, Dissonant Whispers; Blindness/Deafness, Phantasmal Force; Bestow Curse, Slow; Confusion, Phantasmal Killer; Cone of Cold, Contagion

[Man_Over_Game]

I did something similar, yeah-- Blade Pact gets armor proficiency, Hexblade gets a spell list actually focused on curses*, and absolutely no-one gets Cha to attack.



*Bane, Dissonant Whispers; Blindness/Deafness, Phantasmal Force; Bestow Curse, Slow; Confusion, Phantasmal Killer; Cone of Cold, Contagion

Great spell list choices. I think I'll coin that. I think Pact of the Blade still needs something to keep up even after Armor proficiencies, but that's definitely closing the gap between it and the other boons.