Curse of Stradh Hexblade optimization

[Benny89]

I know that Paladins and Clerics are better for this adventure, but I hope other players will fill that roles. If that happens I would like to play Hexblade sent by Raven Queen herself to lift the Stradh curse and send him to afterlife.

So I wonder if I should just go pure Hexblade Variant Human with PAM + GWM on level 1 and 4 or maybe some multiclass combo.

The basic idea is to just go Variant Human with PAM + GWM and abuse Darkness/Shadow of Moil + retreats + PAM OAs + Hex Curse for most fights and fall back into spamming Agonizing Blast if I don't have melee buffs ready.

Adventure is from DM told us probably 1-10, maybe 11 if we get some bonus xp around. We start on level 2 as nobody likes level 1 :D

So at first I plan to take Devil's Sight + Agonizing Blast and then on level 3 replace Agonizing Blast with Improved Pact Weapon and summon Pact Glaive. On level 4 take GWM and my basic melee power is done.

Then I guess on level 4 it would be Agonizing Blast. There is no point in Smite here as I won't get 3 slots in this campaign so I will most likely use them for Shadow of Moil/Darkness/Armor of Agathys only. Then replace it with Thirsting Blade on level 5. The on level 7 - agonizing blast again.

On level 9 I guess Tomb of Levistus would be nice additon.

I wonder if I should take on level 8 +2 CHA or RES (CON)/War Caster.

Do you think Hexblade will be viable and good choice for Curse of Stradh? Or should I maybe take Devotion Paladin or Arcana/Tempest Cleric?

[adb82]

About your feats: if you use the buy point system i think you ll much more better max cha before GWM (better hit 1 than miss 2), and if you dont need max cha bcs you got it already hight (while even a 18 i would first push to 20 and than think about more feats) than u can think also about sentinel that fits very well with polearm master (and anyway the variant human let you get Polearm master at lv 1 and it gives you already what u need for long) Second thing: you need kinda hight CON if u want keep darkness on (16 is good, but no less without con save and war caster feat, and even with 16 dont think will be so easy keep concentration without get the feat or multiclass), warcaster it helps, but i dont like it with polearms and with eldricht blast, its necessary for shield and rapier.

For multiclass hexblade its good with some dips paladin (6 i think), even u said you dont want smite, than maybe sorcerer and monk can be good options, while a lv of fighter (max 2 for action surge) for heavy harmor, a fighting style and con save is always a great choice that dont delay too much your warlock progression.

About the adventure i dont know as i didnt play it.

[Fable Wright]

Notes:

1. Your party cannot see in the darkness, and that means that you'll often be overextended. This is risky in Curse of Strahd.
2. It is incredibly hard to go wrong with a maxxed stat and polearm master, and it's even harder to go wrong with Agonizing Blast and a maxxed charisma.
3. As a Curse of Strahd player who has had around four warlocks in a pool of 20 characters, and seen 4 warlocks betray the party and try to seriously murder party members, I would be giving you the side-eye the entire time.
4. Consider Sentinel at level 4 instead of GWM. It protects you & the party, synergizes with PAM infamously well, and gives you a plausible fighting retreat from most situations. Also 15 AC is low for the adventure, and having a +2 to attack at level 5 (+1 Improved Pact, +3 Cha, +3 Prof) is so not worth the +10 damage, advantage or no. I'd seriously consider a Cha boost here and maybe GWM at 8.

[Blood of Gaea]

This is my general Hexblade copy/paste.

------------------------------------

Race: Half-Elf

Str: 8 or 10
Dex: 13+1
Con: 14+1
Int: 8 or 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 15+2

ASI 1: Elven Accuracy +1 Cha

ASI 2: Great Weapon Master

ASI 3: +2 Cha

ASI 4: Resilient Constitution

ASI 5: Lucky, Warcaster, or Tough.

Invocations in Order:

Devil's Sight
Agonizing Blast
Agonizing Blast -> Improved Pact Weapon
Thirsting Blade
Tomb of Levistus
Trickster's Escape
Lifedrinker
Agonizing Blast
Eldritch Smite

From levels 3-6, use Darkness to give yourself advantage, keep your allies and the current situation in mind when utilizing it.

From levels 7-16, Shadow of Moil will usually be used over Darkness, but sometimes Darkness will be very useful for your party, keep it in mind.

From level 17-20, use Foresight to grant advantage in the majority of your fights.

Hexblade spells:

1st: +Armor of Agathys, +Expeditious Retreat.

3rd: -Expeditious Retreat, +Darkness

4th: +Hold Person

5th: +Hypnotic Pattern

6th: +Fly

7th: +Shadow of Moil

8th: +Dimension Door

9th: +Synaptic Static

11th: From this point, just grab whatever interests you, you have the selection I consider very important.

Mystic Arcanum: Mass Suggestion, Crown of Stars OR Forcecage OR Planeshift, Demiplane OR Feeblemind OR Glibness, Foresight.

---------------------------------------

Depending on your party, it might be better do go Agonizing Blast + Hex from levels 1-7.

An alternative PAM progrssion is:

ASI 1: Elven Accuracy +1 Cha

ASI 2: Great Weapon Master

ASI 3: Polearm Master

ASI 4: Resilient Constitution

ASI 5: +2 Cha

[Mitsu]

This is my general Hexblade copy/paste. snip

Problem is that campaign is going to level 10, maybe 11 max so Half-Elf with his one feat behind and 2 ASI behind taking either EA or PAM is not really attractive to me.

For low level range campaigns I prefer extra feat faster on Vuman. But thanks for your suggestion!


Notes:

1. Your party cannot see in the darkness, and that means that you'll often be overextended. This is risky in Curse of Strahd.
2. It is incredibly hard to go wrong with a maxxed stat and polearm master, and it's even harder to go wrong with Agonizing Blast and a maxxed charisma.
3. As a Curse of Strahd player who has had around four warlocks in a pool of 20 characters, and seen 4 warlocks betray the party and try to seriously murder party members, I would be giving you the side-eye the entire time.
4. Consider Sentinel at level 4 instead of GWM. It protects you & the party, synergizes with PAM infamously well, and gives you a plausible fighting retreat from most situations. Also 15 AC is low for the adventure, and having a +2 to attack at level 5 (+1 Improved Pact, +3 Cha, +3 Prof) is so not worth the +10 damage, advantage or no. I'd seriously consider a Cha boost here and maybe GWM at 8.

My party will probably see in darkness as I am pretty much the only one playing Variant Human, most prefer dwarfs, elfs or other mixes, but I think we are safe when it comes to darkvision.

As for GWM. +1 Improved Pact, +3 CHA +3 Prof and +5 on average from advantage is total of avg + 12 to hit. Penalty from -5 still nets average +7 to hit. CoS AC numbers seems to be really low with zombies having AC of 8, Vampire Spawns AC 15 and Strahd himself AC 16.

I have been playing GWM PAM Vengeance Paladin with 16 STR for quite long time and with VoE there wasn't much problem with hitting stuff.

I also fully expect at least one player to be Paladin or Cleric so Bless is a thing too.

[Gignere]

Problem is that campaign is going to level 10, maybe 11 max so Half-Elf with his one feat behind and 2 ASI behind taking either EA or PAM is not really attractive to me.

For low level range campaigns I prefer extra feat faster on Vuman. But thanks for your suggestion!



My party will probably see in darkness as I am pretty much the only one playing Variant Human, most prefer dwarfs, elfs or other mixes, but I think we are safe when it comes to darkvision.

As for GWM. +1 Improved Pact, +3 CHA +3 Prof and +5 on average from advantage is total of avg + 12 to hit. Penalty from -5 still nets average +7 to hit. CoS AC numbers seems to be really low with zombies having AC of 8, Vampire Spawns AC 15 and Strahd himself AC 16.

I have been playing GWM PAM Vengeance Paladin with 16 STR for quite long time and with VoE there wasn't much problem with hitting stuff.

I also fully expect at least one player to be Paladin or Cleric so Bless is a thing too.

My only one suggestion is switch the order you’d get GWM, and get Cha at 4 and wait until 8 to get GWM. Unlike a vengeance Paladin it’s hard for a lock to get easy advantage prior to getting the moil spell.

Darkness seems like it should be easy but because of positioning blinding your teammates over half the encounters it hurts more than helps. So you may find yourself without advantage in more fights than you’d expect.

[Mitsu]

Can Hexblade use Shadow Blade effectively? Anyone tried to make Shadow Blade build?

[Keravath]

I currently have a level 10, 9 hexblade/1 shadow sorcerer, with GWM+PAM+resilient con, that generally does very well with melee damage.
Started with point buy: 8 14 15 10 10 16

The main downside is AC which is 16 but the disadvantage when others try to hit with darkness or shadow of moil up helps. I took the shadow sorcerer dip at level 8 for several reasons but mainly to get some level 1 spell slots since I had acquired a ring of spell storing and wanted to load it with shield spells (and a hex or two).

Shield on the warlock without other spell slots is a trap since they need the high level spell slots for shadow of moil/darkness. In addition, trying to cast a shield spell into the ring using the warlock spell slots casts as a level 3,4,5 spell depending on the warlock level and takes up that many spaces in the ring making it pretty useless since a level 9 warlock can only load one shield spell into a ring of spell storing.

Anyway, as a melee build using a reach weapon it works pretty well. It takes a little creative movement at low level when you are using darkness for advantage so that your spell casters can see opponents if they want to cast a spell requiring them to see the target. Otherwise the impact is usually pretty minimal since RAW, being unable to see your target causes disadvantage while the target being unable to see you gives advantage, so for everyone who can't see in the darkness they attack with a straight roll which doesn't change much in terms of melee combat for most classes. (Barbarians are an exception since their reckless attack won't work though).

[Blood of Gaea]

Can Hexblade use Shadow Blade effectively? Anyone tried to make Shadow Blade build?
Not really, Shadow Blade has to use Dex, and Hexblades would become MAD for that.

[Gignere]

(Barbarians are an exception since their reckless attack won't work though).

I think rogues are screwed too. I don’t think they can sneak attack once there is disadvantage even if it’s negated by a source of advantage.

[saucerhead]

Not really, Shadow Blade has to use Dex, and Hexblades would become MAD for that.

Shadow Blade makes a simple weapon with the finesse property. You can use whatever method of attack you want: Strength or Dexterity. Charisma wouldn't apply because your hex warrior ability has you focus on a particular weapon after a long rest, unless your DM says you can.

[Blood of Gaea]

Shadow Blade makes a simple weapon with the finesse property. You can use whatever method of attack you want: Strength or Dexterity. Charisma wouldn't apply because your hex warrior ability has you focus on a particular weapon after a long rest, unless your DM says you can.
I could have been more clear. If you're optimizing a build for Shadow Blade, you want a Dex build. Hexblades are Cha builds.

To optimize for Shadow Blade, I'd go for Eldritch Knight, probably multiclassing into Wizard or Sorcerer.

[Keravath]

I think rogues are screwed too. I don’t think they can sneak attack once there is disadvantage even if it’s negated by a source of advantage.

As far as I know this isn't the case. The text says:

"You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll."

It specifically says disadvantage on the attack roll itself. As long as when the rogue is rolling the die they do not suffer disadvantage then sneak attack is an option if they fulfill the other conditions to enable sneak attack (enemy within 5' of target or other conditions which vary depending on their archetype). They can't have advantage in this circumstance but there are other conditions that enable sneak attack.

[Nhorianscum]

I know that Paladins and Clerics are better for this adventure, but I hope other players will fill that roles. If that happens I would like to play Hexblade sent by Raven Queen herself to lift the Stradh curse and send him to afterlife.

So I wonder if I should just go pure Hexblade Variant Human with PAM + GWM on level 1 and 4 or maybe some multiclass combo.

The basic idea is to just go Variant Human with PAM + GWM and abuse Darkness/Shadow of Moil + retreats + PAM OAs + Hex Curse for most fights and fall back into spamming Agonizing Blast if I don't have melee buffs ready.

Adventure is from DM told us probably 1-10, maybe 11 if we get some bonus xp around. We start on level 2 as nobody likes level 1 :D

So at first I plan to take Devil's Sight + Agonizing Blast and then on level 3 replace Agonizing Blast with Improved Pact Weapon and summon Pact Glaive. On level 4 take GWM and my basic melee power is done.

Then I guess on level 4 it would be Agonizing Blast. There is no point in Smite here as I won't get 3 slots in this campaign so I will most likely use them for Shadow of Moil/Darkness/Armor of Agathys only. Then replace it with Thirsting Blade on level 5. The on level 7 - agonizing blast again.

On level 9 I guess Tomb of Levistus would be nice additon.

I wonder if I should take on level 8 +2 CHA or RES (CON)/War Caster.

Do you think Hexblade will be viable and good choice for Curse of Stradh? Or should I maybe take Devotion Paladin or Arcana/Tempest Cleric?

Ideally? Hexblade hexblade and more hexblade. Orzhova background. Build for utility.

If not? Do whatever, CoS is more about playing smart than building for direct damage.