Advice for Healer-Blaster: Hexblade 2/Divine Soul X

[Omni-Centrist]

I've been trying to think about what would make the most sense for a Divine Soul sorcerer. Before I thought it would make more sense to build them like a blaster, with Devil Sight-Darkness Quickened immediately in first turn as a Defense/Elven Accuracy boon.

But with metamagic like Distant Spell and Twinned Spell, those would seem to make more sense for a Healing based Sorcerer class. Would it be more beneficial to lean into the healing with that, or would it make more sense to just keep acting like an off healer than a dedicated one, like a cleric?

[RogueJK]

What are you wanting to get from Hexblade? Is it mainly just Devil's Sight and Agonizing Eldritch Blast? If so, Celestial Warlock could be a better option on a primary healer than Hexblade. You trade Medium Armor + Shield for a better Bonus Action healing option than Healing Word that doesn't use spell slots. (You can still get Medium Armor and Shield through the Moderately Armored feat if you want.)

Also, have you seen someone utilizing Devil's Sight + Darkness in actual play before? I know a lot of folks like the idea in a white room vacuum, but the reality is that it's tougher to pull off in actual play without hampering your party just as much as the enemies. It might make your character better, thanks to being able to see in the Darkness and getting that Elven Accuracy Triple Advantage, but it can make all your other party members worse at the same time. You have to be pretty choosy with when you use it... It's not going to be your go-to option for every fight, or even most fights.

With that in mind, you might consider a Life Cleric 1/Divine Soul Sorcerer X instead. It doesn't get Eldritch Blast or Darkness + Devil's Sight, but you still get Medium Armor + Shield, it makes all your healing better, and it doesn't delay your Sorcerer levels as much.


I also really like the Celestial Generalist build in this other thread as an all-around CHA-based caster/melee/healer option, which may be similar to what you may be going for with this Hexblade/Sorcerer, although without as much AoE blasting capability due to the limited spell slots per short rest and no Metamagic since it's a straight Warlock: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds

[Omni-Centrist]

My pick of Hexblade was definitely for that EB, and medium armor and shield. Seems like it fixes the issues of Sorcerer pretty well, for only a two level dip. The cleric one wouldn't necessarily be MAD but that would be a 13 in Wis I dont really have to work with using Point Buy.

I was just trying to figure out if a Divine Sorc would be useful as an primary healer. If so, Distant Spell seems like a no brainer.

[Hael]

My pick of Hexblade was definitely for that EB, and medium armor and shield. Seems like it fixes the issues of Sorcerer pretty well, for only a two level dip. The cleric one wouldn't necessarily be MAD but that would be a 13 in Wis I dont really have to work with using Point Buy.

I was just trying to figure out if a Divine Sorc would be useful as an primary healer. If so, Distant Spell seems like a no brainer.

So I played this exact build for many levels and suffice it to say it’s really good. I don’t agree that Darkness/ds is bad for the party at all. However in practice the ds part of this equation is actually better than the dpr bit. In other words I didn’t quicken eb or cast darkness as much as I thought. The buffing side is so very strong, and there’s so many good things you can use your concentration on and do with your turns other than blasting. It’s a very versatile build.

Now, the healing is not as good. It’s ok, but resource intensive, and this class is better at doing things like twinning buffs than outright healing. Which is why it’s better as a secondary healer. But still, you can do that, but be aware tier 1 is going to be rough for that role.

There’s about two levels that will also be generally suboptimal before you come online at lvl7.