Hexblade + Rogue?

[Mad Max]

I've heard a lot about Warlock/Rogue being very powerful, but I haven't heard if the Hexblade archetype in particular has any synergy with rogue. It seems like it might, but that might just be fluff, not actual mechanics.

My party is a tank barbarian, two fighters (both of which are champions), an arcane trickster rogue, a heal bot cleric and a sorceror who never participates in fights. I'm going to end up being our main source of magic damage, but the idea of using invocations and my specter to do powerful sneak attacks seemed appealing. Is it at all feasible? And if so, which rogue archetype would pair up best with it?

[Trustypeaches]

Hexblades that focus on melee have solid synergy with Rogues, as they benefit from sneak attack die.

I probably wouldn't go any further than 3 levels into Rogue, though, just far enough to get 2d6 sneak attack and the Swashbuckler Archetype.

[DeanH]

You can take Variant Human with the first level as Hexblade to get Warcaster and the Shield and Hex spells, plus GFB and BB or other cantrips, then go Arcane Trickster from there. Your AT slots can be used to cast the Warlock spells. This is probably the tankiest rogue option available.

[Exocist]

With Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica this is even easier.

Hexblade 5/Swashbuckler 15 is all you need.

Take the Rakdos Cultist background (or create a custom background - it's AL legal to do so! - and poach the feature that gives you an expanded spell selection). Use this to get the spell Haste on the Warlock spell list.

Every fight past there, you want to do the following:


Step 1) Cast Haste
Step 2) Attack with the extra action granted by haste, Ready an action to attack/cast booming blade or green flame blade (on some trigger), getting your sneak attack damage a second time (as its 1/turn, not 1/round)
Step 3) Reap the reward of 2 sneak attacks per round
Step 4) ???
Step 5) Profit


As for Race and Stat choices, I recommend the following:

Variant Human (take the feat War Caster, as Haste is still very risky).

Stats:
STR: 8
DEX: 14 (13+1) - You want this at 14 to get the full benefit out of the medium armor granted by Hexblade.
CON: 14 (14)
INT: 10 (I prefer INT 10 over STR 10, but they're interchangeable)
WIS: 12
CHA: 16 (15+1)

From there on, use ASIs to increase Charisma. Take Resilient (Constitution) if you don't feel that you're making your concentration check enough (Though with 20-21 AC you shouldn't even be getting hit enough to worry about concentration checks).

Invocations: Can pretty much be whatever. I still like having Agonising Blast to give yourself a decent ranged option, but its not essential.
Cantrips: Eldritch Blade, one of Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade
Pact: Pact of the Chain is actually extremely good, gives you a free help action every round. I'd understand if you took Tome for Book of Ancient Secrets though.

[CTurbo]

There is a lot of synergy yes, especially with a Swashbuckler that likes Cha, but I would still use Dex for attacks as Dex would still be really important to you.

[Keravath]

Also, if you are taking warlock to level 5, I would likely take blade pact for the thirsting blade invocation. If there is one thing that is crucial to a rogue, it is landing your sneak attack as many turns as possible.

Extra attack helps enable that.

In addition, warlock has several abilities to enable advantage which synergizes well with rogues.

[Exocist]

There is a lot of synergy yes, especially with a Swashbuckler that likes Cha, but I would still use Dex for attacks as Dex would still be really important to you.

Dex is useless to us past 14

Attack rolls and Damage rolls are covered by Charisma (Hexblade)

Initiative is covered by Charisma (Swashbuckler)

AC bonus caps at +2 for medium armor (Hexblade)

Stealth/Sleight of Hand/Acrobatics can be expertised if needed.


Also, if you are taking warlock to level 5, I would likely take blade pact for the thirsting blade invocation. If there is one thing that is crucial to a rogue, it is landing your sneak attack as many turns as possible.

Extra attack helps enable that.

In addition, warlock has several abilities to enable advantage which synergizes well with rogues.


Thirsting Blade won't help with Haste. The attack you get with Haste only allows you to make one attack, and extra attack/thirsting blade only specifies giving you an extra attack on your turn.

[Arkhios]

I haven't really thought about this before, but yes, I do think that Hexblade+Swashbuckler would match very well.

As a Hexblade, you'll get proficiency in medium armor either way you choose to take the levels as it comes from the Patron, not the base class.

Since you gain most benefit from having high charisma, you can easily leave Dexterity at 14 (or 16 if you can afford it without suffering elsewhere).
As Sneak Attack only depends on the weapons' specifics (a melee weapon with Finesse, or a ranged weapon), you'll be able to sneak attack regardless of which ability you use to attack.
In your case it would be Charisma. I'd actually recommend taking Medium Armor Master with the build, and go for the heaviest possible medium armor (Half-plate) as soon as you're able.
Dex 14 or 16 and Expertise in Stealth guarantees you'll be stealthy enough to be better than most in your group even if you didn't have Dex 20.
As a swashbuckler, high charisma means you'll most likely go first in initiative as well. If you can afford a 2 level dip in bard, you'll have pretty insane initiative bonus.

All in all, a Hexblade+Swashbuckler would make really strong, tanky and stealthy combatant.

[ATHATH]

With Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica this is even easier.

Hexblade 5/Swashbuckler 15 is all you need.

Take the Rakdos Cultist background (or create a custom background - it's AL legal to do so! - and poach the feature that gives you an expanded spell selection). Use this to get the spell Haste on the Warlock spell list.

Every fight past there, you want to do the following:


Step 1) Cast Haste
Step 2) Attack with the extra action granted by haste, Ready an action to attack/cast booming blade or green flame blade (on some trigger), getting your sneak attack damage a second time (as its 1/turn, not 1/round)
Step 3) Reap the reward of 2 sneak attacks per round
Step 4) ???
Step 5) Profit


As for Race and Stat choices, I recommend the following:

Variant Human (take the feat War Caster, as Haste is still very risky).

Stats:
STR: 8
DEX: 14 (13+1) - You want this at 14 to get the full benefit out of the medium armor granted by Hexblade.
CON: 14 (14)
INT: 10 (I prefer INT 10 over STR 10, but they're interchangeable)
WIS: 12
CHA: 16 (15+1)

From there on, use ASIs to increase Charisma. Take Resilient (Constitution) if you don't feel that you're making your concentration check enough (Though with 20-21 AC you shouldn't even be getting hit enough to worry about concentration checks).

Invocations: Can pretty much be whatever. I still like having Agonising Blast to give yourself a decent ranged option, but its not essential.
Cantrips: Eldritch Blade, one of Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade
Pact: Pact of the Chain is actually extremely good, gives you a free help action every round. I'd understand if you took Tome for Book of Ancient Secrets though.
Wait, are the features from the backgrounds from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravinica gonna be available for poaching for your own custom backgrounds in AL?

I guess that makes sense, since presumably the Order Cleric and Spores Druid are gonna be AL legal as well.

Still, being able to get 1/2 of a Bard's Magical Secrets class feature from a background feature is pretty darn strong. Which background is that feature (originally) from?

[Keravath]

Ravnica is not AL legal so you can’t poach background quirks from it for AL.

[ATHATH]

Ravnica is not AL legal so you can’t poach background quirks from it for AL.
Wait a minute- I just realized that it's spelled "Ravnica", not "Ravinica".

In other news, I recently learned that "Gyarados" is not spelled "Gyrados".

[Reth]

Dex is useless to us past 14


Initiative is covered by Charisma (Swashbuckler)

From what I have found playing a hexblade/sorcerer with the alert feat and a swashbuckler/ college of swords bard is that more initiative is never bad. More so for a rogue. My swashbuckler bard has a glorious +9 to initiative at level 8, it's pretty nice always going first and CC the encounter then taking a bonus action to hide.


AC bonus caps at +2 for medium armor (Hexblade)
You can get more AC with max dex and light armor and still not have disadvantage on stealth checks then you can with medium armor.


Stealth/Sleight of Hand/Acrobatics can be expertised if needed.[/quote}

I'd still rather have a +11 by level 7 or 8 in those skills. As long as I am rolling a 5 or better I'm beating most things passive perception.



[quote]Thirsting Blade won't help with Haste. The attack you get with Haste only allows you to make one attack, and extra attack/thirsting blade only specifies giving you an extra attack on your turn.
You still get another attack thou, and 2 chances to hit with your SA and then use the extra action from haste to disengage and then use your bonus action to hide/dash.

[ATHATH]

You still get another attack thou, and 2 chances to hit with your SA and then use the extra action from haste to disengage and then use your bonus action to hide/dash.
But then you're not getting off-turn Sneak Attack opportunities, as you're making both of your attacks on the same turn. Remember, the restriction is that you can get your Sneak Attack damage once per TURN, not once per ROUND.

[Trustypeaches]

You can get more AC with max dex and light armor and still not have disadvantage on stealth checks then you can with medium armor.

I'd still rather have a +11 by level 7 or 8 in those skills.You could, but you're getting progressively more MAD, and your ASIs are better spent on Charisma and Feats.

[MephitBlue]

As someone playing a Hexblade / Swashbuckler Rogue, I can tell you that there is a lot of synergy between the two classes. I've taken Hexblade up to level 5 for the extra attack and I'm currently at level 3 as a Rogue.


Hex makes up for on of the lost sneak attack dice
Hexblade's curse makes it easier to crit. Always fun to double sneak attack dice
Thirsting blade gives you an extra chance to land your sneak attack
Charisma focus makes you likely always to go first in combat
The Swashbuckler's mobility makes surviving combat much easier


One thing to keep in mind is that it takes awhile for this multi-class to really hit its stride. So if you are starting at level 1, you may feel underpowered for a few levels. We started our campaign at level 5, and even then there were times I felt I would have been stronger going pure Hexblade or pure Rogue. At level 8 I'm finally feeling like the multiclass combo is paying off and is a lot of fun to play.

[darknite]

I started one recently. So far he's Warlock-3 (Hexblade)/Rogue-1, with the plan of getting him to Warlock (Hexblade)-5/Rogue (Swashbuckler)-3 by level 8 and an eventual split of Warlock (Hexblade)-11/Rogue (Swashbuckler)-9.

At this point I'm doing a fair bit of two-weapon fighting with a short sword and Shadow Blade. Still a bit dangerous because he can't evade out of combat effectively until he's 8th level but I wanted the 2 Attacks he will get from Thirsting Blade invocation at his Warlock 5th level as soon as possible.

[Talionis]

It is very easy to forget that Fluff and Ribbon synergy is also present in this combo. Many of the Invocations allow for a social intrigue. Being able to cast Disguise Self at will is very nice. Hexblade allows you to hide your sneak attack weapon, so in social situations you can look unarmed and at a moments notice have a weapon for sneak attacks then quickly pocket dimension the weapon so you can go back to your disguise.

Beyond that Hexblade can often be better as a skirmisher than a Tank. The mobility you get from Rogue is very useful to getting to attack the opponent you actually want to attack in melee each round and then be in a spot to get away from a melee opponent after you have attacked him.

Also don't forget that attacks of opportunity can trigger sneak attack a second time on other people's turns... Feats like Warcaster are helpful if you have access to Booming Blade. But even without Booming Blade you do want to try to position yourself to get attacks of opportunity as often as possible.

Another weird thing that might be important is Magic Stones is a Warlock cantrip. If you use a Magic Stone in a sling, you can sneak attack with it. Slings are pretty easy to hide on your person, so you don't need to make the sling your Pact Weapon, though you could. This is very helpful since you may want a ranged weapon that can trigger sneak attack that is not your Pact Weapon. You need to be pretty heavily invested in Rogue for this to be mechanically better than Eldritch Blast, but I do throw it out there as a possibility.

This is a fun combination because it has to be so tactical with the battlefield.