Warlock's Hex Spell: Why does it do necrotic damage?

[JakOfAllTirades]

This is the only Enchantment spell I've seen to do necrotic damage. All the other damaging Enchantment spells that I know of do psychic damage. (Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers, Synaptic Static, Psychic Scream... did I miss any?)

So I have this question: Should Hex do psychic damage instead of necrotic damage? And what makes it different from all the other Enchantment spells to begin with?

[Safety Sword]

I have zero evidence, but I think thematically the curse is one of darkness or weakening of life force.

It's not directly an attack against the mind of the target.

[DracoKnight]

This is the only Enchantment spell I've seen to do necrotic damage.


I have zero evidence, but I think thematically the curse is one of darkness or weakening of life force.

It's not directly an attack against the mind of the target.

Emphasis, mine. If bestow curse (which I kind of see as hex+) is a Necromancy spell, then Hex should be too. Necromancy is the "black magic" school of magic (which is the ONLY reason I can think of why healing spells aren't in the school of magic that revolves around "manipulating the energies of life and death." ~PHB, pg. 203) so a lot of the curses fall into that school. Hell, a remove curse ends hex, so it probably should be Necromancy.

So my fix is that it's not an Enchantment.

[Millstone85]

Necromancy is the "black magic" school of magic (which is the ONLY reason I can think of why healing spells aren't in the school of magic that revolves around "manipulating the energies of life and death." ~PHB, pg. 203) so a lot of the curses fall into that school.To complicate matters, while healing spells aren't in that school, resurrection spells are indeed tagged as necromancy.

[Edwin Briar]

A problem I have with Hex is that it is a Warlock spell and Warlocks are defined by their Patron....I think the damage type should adapt to it, as it makes little sense for a celestial warlock to deal necrotic damage. Probably something that needs to be house ruled.

[Kane0]

Curses are bad... m’kay?

[NNescio]

Curses are bad... m’kay?

Speaking of which, are there any curses in 5e (DMG/splatbooks/APs' examples) that can be 'exploited' for beneficial effect? Back in 3.X there were some curses that can be put to good use, like drawing enemies' aggro to yourself, MMO style.

Edit: Wait a minute, you can curse yourself for disadvantage on Attack rolls against yourself, using one of the explicit examples provided within the spell description itself. It's a rather niche benefit though, being highly unlikely to come up. Only situations I see are if your attack gets redirected or if you're somehow compelled to hit yourself.

[JakOfAllTirades]

A problem I have with Hex is that it is a Warlock spell and Warlocks are defined by their Patron....I think the damage type should adapt to it, as it makes little sense for a celestial warlock to deal necrotic damage. Probably something that needs to be house ruled.

This makes a lot of sense. I'm currently running a FeyLock, and casting a Hex that adds necrotic damage to all my attacks seems out of character, somehow. Psychic damage would fit better, thematically.

Same thing goes for the Lifedrinker Invocation.

[JackPhoenix]

Speaking of which, are there any curses in 5e (DMG/splatbooks/APs' examples) that can be 'exploited' for beneficial effect? Back in 3.X there were some curses that can be put to good use, like drawing enemies' aggro to yourself, MMO style.

Cursing the bard (or similar character) with infertility can prevent a lot of problems in the long run. If you really want to stop him from causing troubles, impotence instead of infertility.
Changing the cursed target's sex may be desirable for some people.
There's a trick with Shield of Missile Attraction: you'll get cursed when you attune to the shield, and the curse will persist even after you throw the shield away. Give it to a monk to turn him into arrow magnet with Deflect Missiles. Be careful if you have archers of your own, though.

[Lunali]

Cursing the bard (or similar character) with infertility can prevent a lot of problems in the long run. If you really want to stop him from causing troubles, impotence instead of infertility.
Changing the cursed target's sex may be desirable for some people.
There's a trick with Shield of Missile Attraction: you'll get cursed when you attune to the shield, and the curse will persist even after you throw the shield away. Give it to a monk to turn him into arrow magnet with Deflect Missiles. Be careful if you have archers of your own, though.

Curses like the shield take up an attunement slot until you use remove curse to break the attunement, so the value of the curse drops as you get enough items to attune.

[NNescio]

Cursing the bard (or similar character) with infertility can prevent a lot of problems in the long run. If you really want to stop him from causing troubles, impotence instead of infertility.
Changing the cursed target's sex may be desirable for some people.
There's a trick with Shield of Missile Attraction: you'll get cursed when you attune to the shield, and the curse will persist even after you throw the shield away. Give it to a monk to turn him into arrow magnet with Deflect Missiles. Be careful if you have archers of your own, though.

Brilliant.



Curses like the shield take up an attunement slot until you use remove curse to break the attunement, so the value of the curse drops as you get enough items to attune.

You can still break attunement without breaking the curse (cursed items only block voluntary deattunement). So, stay 100 ft away from the shield for 24 hours, find another sucker to attune to the shield, or die and get revived. (Don't use True Rez, that one breaks curses.)

[DracoKnight]

A problem I have with Hex is that it is a Warlock spell and Warlocks are defined by their Patron....I think the damage type should adapt to it, as it makes little sense for a celestial warlock to deal necrotic damage. Probably something that needs to be house ruled.

Yeah, you're probably not wrong.

Archfey - Psychic
Fiend - Fire
Great Old One - Psychic
Undying - Necrotic
Celestial - Radiant
Hexblade - Necrotic

Those all seem about right, to me. The only thing I don't love is Fiend dealing fire damage because fire tends to suck :smalltongue:

[Chronos]

Eh, fiend doing necrotic isn't really a mismatch, either. Compare to spells like Flame Strike or Spirit Guardians that do radiant if you're good, but necrotic if you're evil.

[DracoKnight]

Eh, fiend doing necrotic isn't really a mismatch, either. Compare to spells like Flame Strike or Spirit Guardians that do radiant if you're good, but necrotic if you're evil.

Very true. I'd kinda forgotten about that.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Eh, fiend doing necrotic isn't really a mismatch, either. Compare to spells like Flame Strike or Spirit Guardians that do radiant if you're good, but necrotic if you're evil.

I rather like avoiding elemental damage, and choosing from necrotic/psychic/radiant, based on one's Patron. I'll most likely use that for my own campaign.

[Zetakya]

Eh, fiend doing necrotic isn't really a mismatch, either. Compare to spells like Flame Strike or Spirit Guardians that do radiant if you're good, but necrotic if you're evil.

Depends on what Demon or Devil your pact is with. There's quite a few Ice Demons and Devils, most notably Levistus.

[Cyclops08]

I am getting ready to play a hexblade/pact of the chain character.
The Blade I've made a pact with is tied not to the Raven Queen, but to Strahd: where every death strengthens the land of Barovia.

Necrotic damage fits very well with that.
For that matter, any Pact with the Shadow Realm (pretty much all Hexblades) ought to do necrotic damage.

[Coffee_Dragon]

It could be argued that Hex should do the same type of damage as the attack, on the grounds that the curse makes you hit better, it's not a separate effect that happens to hit only when you hit and happens to miss whenever you miss. However, if it does do its own damage, then necrotic makes as much sense as anything else for a curse.

[Chronos]

Its sister spell Hunter's Mark does do the same kind of damage as the weapon. But Hex isn't based on you using your weapon better; it's about any woulds you inflict instantly rotting and festering.

[stoutstien]

I'm in the camp that curse could be a damage type on its own.
Quite a few poison and necrotic spells and effects feel better as curses.

[Aimeryan]

I am getting ready to play a hexblade/pact of the chain character.
The Blade I've made a pact with is tied not to the Raven Queen, but to Strahd: where every death strengthens the land of Barovia.

Necrotic damage fits very well with that.
For that matter, any Pact with the Shadow Realm (pretty much all Hexblades) ought to do necrotic damage.

Just as a note, the patron is the Raven Queen or some other force behind the blades, not the blades themselves.


The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it.

[Cyclops08]

Just as a note, the patron is the Raven Queen or some other force behind the blades, not the blades themselves.
Yes. My Patron is ultimately Strahd Von Zarovich (though I am not aware of it), the Vampire Lord of Barovia which is now located in the Shadow realm. He made the sword of My pact.

--I wanted something different from the standard Raven Queen. There are other powers in Shadow.