Reflavoring Hexblades

[Mr.Spastic]

How would you guys go about reflavoring the Hexblade to be less... evil. I'm not looking for ability changes, just some refluffing mainly with the specter thing. I have a player who doesn't want everyone to think he is evil when the wretched spirit of his fallen enemies rises up after he kills them so how should I reflavor this. His patron is this holy angle of battle.

[lunaticfringe]

A servant of their patron possesses the corpse of the fallen, it's a happy, shiny, angelic corpse =).

What I did was let my player choose a different patron's level 6 feature. They chose Dark One's Own Luck from Fiend. Not really reflavoring but it worked.

[Vexacia]

Reflavor it to be any higher power associated with weaponry or war. This bit here's already mostly covered by you saying the Patron is the "holy angel of war", but I wanted to write it out anyway for anyone who reads this thread and is looking for some Hexblade reflavor ideas.

Celestials are the perfect example (stay with me here, I promise I'm talking about Hexblade in the end). The Celestial Patron itself gives examples of bizarrely low CR Celestials that can serve as Patrons, like Unicorns (CR5) and Ki-Rin (CR12).

Meanwhile, there are some extremely martially oriented Celestials well above that in power, such as Planetars (CR16) and Solars (CR21).

in particular for a reflavored Angelic / Celestial style Hexblade, Planetars stand out because they are described as acting as the living weapons of their gods, and because they are known to occasionally be willing to help Good mortals (!). So I posit that Planetars are the perfect Patron for a Good aligned Hexblade once you reflavor the Shadowfell garbage out of the picture.

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Getting directly rather than indirectly on topic:

The only thing that needs major direct reflavoring is Accursed Specter, as you're currently running into.

What I would do is simply rename it Bound Spirit and have that Specter be the spirit of the creature temporarily conscripted into service in the name of Good ("your time is not yet finished" type of deal).

Then since it sounds like you're the DM, I would exercise some DM fiat and take the actual Specter NPC that spawns and change it from Chaotic Evil to Lawful Good, describe its appearance as ethereal and bluish white with a silver glow, and change the damage type of its Life Drain ability from necrotic to radiant.

[Naanomi]

The spectre doesn’t have any mechanical ties to the killed being that allowed it to be summoned... maybe it is an ‘Einheriar’ like being; a noble fallen warrior allowed temporary access to the Prime as you send a wicked soul to its deserved condemnation

Alternately, leave it as it is but flavor it as forcing a wicked soul to serve one small part of its eternal sentence of torment in your service... a blessed momentary reprieve from the lower planes and a small chance to act and redeem some small small part of its misdeeds

[Mr.Spastic]

Ah. Thank you all for the help. Those were perfect suggestions. I really like the idea of conscripting their soul for temporary service.

[HappyDaze]

The spectre doesn’t have any mechanical ties to the killed being that allowed it to be summoned... maybe it is an ‘Einheriar’ like being; a noble fallen warrior allowed temporary access to the Prime as you send a wicked soul to its deserved condemnation

Alternately, leave it as it is but flavor it as forcing a wicked soul to serve one small part of its eternal sentence of torment in your service... a blessed momentary reprieve from the lower planes and a small chance to act and redeem some small small part of its misdeeds

You're a follower of the Hexblade: Have it be an animated "intelligent" weapon that you draw forth from the fallen foe. It has all the stats of specter regardless of what it looks like. It's actually the stolen essence that the Hexblade (that's your character's patron, not your character) uses to make new intelligent weapons. You just get to borrow it for a short while before your patron claims it.

[Trustypeaches]

Hexblades are honestly so vague you could reskin them as basically anything.

[Unoriginal]

If you prove yourself in battle by killing an enemy, one of the fight-loving spirits of the dead from Ysgard shows up and help you for a while, hoping to have fun in the world of the living again.

The Hexblade doesn't have an evil flavor, though.

[Solusek]

I know you said no changes, but I asked my GM if I could reflavor Hexblade to a Pact of the White Well (http://timeoffire.wikidot.com/the-lady-of-the-white-well) which I guess was a 4e Hexblade subclass, and if i could replace the spectre with achfey pacts Misty Escape ability. A simple level 6 ability swap and now I can be a chaotic good hexblade who isn't evil at all!

[HappyDaze]

Hexblades are honestly so vague you could reskin them as basically anything.

I actually find that the Hexblade less vague than the other patrons. There are numerous fiends, archfey, celestials, and Great Old Ones that could serve as patrons, but only one Hexblade (and that one is strongly hinted to be the Raven Queen). This is also why Hexblade needs a bit of reflavoring to fit many campaign worlds while the others require much less.

[DevilMcam]

I played a more neutral themed one from level 9 to 13 (my other char died at level 9).
My patron was a ghost ship (or rather it's first mate), that protected a place beyond death.
Most abilities were shaped as the ghosts showing up to assist, or getting ghostly features.

As for the spirit summoning ability : "Welcome on Board mate". Evil souls were force to serve on the ship as punishment.

It was not a lawful-good hexblade, but definitely not an evil one.

[HappyDaze]

As for the spirit summoning ability : "Welcome on Board mate". Evil souls were force to serve on the ship as punishment.

It was not a lawful-good hexblade, but definitely not an evil one.

Enslaving souls--even those of bad people--is certainly evil in my eyes.

[Naanomi]

Enslaving souls--even those of bad people--is certainly evil in my eyes.
Remember, those same souls are bound for ‘eternal’ torment in one of several possible horrid lower planes... a one day ‘stay of sentence’ in your service is likely a mercy by comparison

[Zaltman]

Might be more than you are looking for, but:

I have a Hexblade with the Raven Queen as a patron. Agree that Accursed Specter just feels wrong for a patron that abhors unlife (our interpretation). My DM has not decided, but thinking of the following replacement options:
1) The Way of Shadows Monk 6th level ability – Shadow Step. At will use in presence of shadows might be too powerful?
2) Archfey Warlock Misty Escape. Replace mist fluff with shadow fluff. One time use, clean swap, but like first option better.
3) Soul of the Raven ability from the UA Raven Queen Warlock. Would only work for a Chainlock. I love this one and gives a nice boost to further differentiate Chains familiars from base familiars.

[Mr.Spastic]

Thank you all again for your wonderful suggestions. I just want to chime in to say that I think that hexblades are both specific and vague at the same time. They are built as combat warlocks, which fits a wide variety of themes, but their abilities(accursed specter) are based on the fact that they were made for Blackrazor. It always slightly bothered me but thanks to this thread, I now have ways to get around that.