Hexblade13 Eldritch Knight7 (thoughts and help for a beginner needed)

[Kerero]

Hello,
I'm thinking of creating a Hexblade warlock with Eldritch knight with the goal of creating a Diplomat of sorts that is also a versatile Fighter (for that i would use aditionals spells from tasha) but i'm unsure about some aspects because i get some more oedas he could go in (like more meele or more crowd control.....i hope you like it :-)

(unsure) Race:
Galsnya: (like the possabilty with the ilusion spells i can use once when i take the race)
Half- Elf: (coz skill versatility and +1 on 2 Abilities of my choice)
Satyr: (Abilities, reveler and magic resistance)
Changeling (obvious)

background: urchin

Feats:Medium armor Master, dual wielder, defensive duelist, war caster, great weapon master (unsure about the order but warcaster is the first)

Class (unsure how i should lvl up my classes but i would start with 3 in Hexbladeand 3 in fighter)

Eldritch Knight:
Fighting style: Two-weapon fighting
Spells:
Cantrips: Mindsliver, encode thoughts
1st. level: grease, distort Value, Shield
2nd level: Knock and Tasha's Mind whip
(rest is just as normaly in this class)

Warlock HB: (starting class and with additional spells)
Prof: Arcana and Deception(or investigation)
Patron: Hexblade
Boon: Blade
Eldritch invocations (unsure what to take):
Improved Pact weapon and eldritch smite i would take fixed.
for more crowd control (as Eb gets more balls i can use on doffrent enemies) grasp of hadar, agonizing blast, repelling blast and maybe lance of lethargy for slowing down
for more versatility (that my never be used dependen on the DM/campaign i guess)
beguiling influence, mask of many faces, eldritch sight, sculputurer of death

Mystic arcanum:
6th lvl.: Tasha's otherworldy guise (form)
7th lvl.: Crown of stars.

Spells
Cantrips: balde ward, green-flame blade, mage hand, booming blade/Eldritch blast
1st lvl.: armor of agathys, wrathful smite
2nd. lvl.: Blur,branding smite, shadowblade (important)
3rd. lvl.: Vampiric touch
4th. lvl.: Blight,Pantasmal killer, staggering smite
5th. lvl.: banishing smite, everation, mislead


my thought about his character is. that it can fight with two and one handed weapons. as i can also summon my weapon and don't need a material one i can decide from what distance i attack.
my char would use a versatile weapon and when possible or nedded cast shadowblade (finesse so defensive duelist kicks in and warcaster is needed) for dual wielding
thanks to duel-wielder and medium armor master i have 2 additional ac (and if needed tasha's guise) and o don't have disadv. on stealth
and as i get extra attack and war caster i can use a cantrip (like Eldritch blast or booming blade) i could attack like that

cantrip->attack-> bonus action attack

im Unsure if i could use extra attack with the bonus action attack or does or if it needs to be with the normal attack after the cantrip.

with EB it would deal alot of damage and get the enemies away or near me then i could aatack with my pact weapon (or shadowblade) and then the bonus action..that is at least my understanding

for me crowd control makes more sense but i'm afraid that i will be a eldritch blast spamming warlock and I#m unsure how i should keep up with the lvl up from my class above lvl 6.

i probably forgot some things to write about this character but that is the most of it. if you want more details about it just tell me.
as in the Title i would be glad for help about it

[Lunatism]

The fundamental mistakes are too many, I would just pick some of them to talk about.

First of all, you should bump your Cha to 20, you are a diplomat, right? Go get some diplomat ability, please.

Second, choose your spells wisely, Blur, Smite-spells and shadowblade ALL requires concentration, and you can only concentrate on 1 spell at a time. Don't keep them all.

Third, NO, your "cantrip->attack-> bonus action attack" is not working, Extra Attack only works if you use you action to make weapon attack.

One suggestion: Don't take the fighter multiclass at all, you don't really need it to be a combat-diplomat.

[Keravath]

One more comment ..

You have too many feats and not enough ASI's to boost your charisma and other stats as needed. Hexblade can use charisma for weapon attacks as well as agonizing blast for ranged attacks so charisma is your primary stat (in addition to the improvements it brings with your diplomatic skills - persuasion, deception, intimidation).

Your choice of feats is also off - Great Weapon Master works with heavy 2 handed weapons while dual wielding is one handed weapons and defensive dualist is just a +proficiency to AC when wielding a finesse weapon. It doesn't work with GWM.

If you plan to attack - you need to decide which kind of attacks and choose ASIs/weapons/feats appropriately ...
- heavy two handed weapons - great sword, polearms
- one handed weapon + shield - better AC - rapier (finesse) or longsword etc
- two weapon fighting - possibility of a bonus action attack
- two handed ranged weapons - long bow, crossbows
- one handed ranged weapon - hand cross bow
- spells - melee cantrips + ranged cantrips (agonizing blast for most warlocks)

When you have decided which kind of fighting you would prefer you can then make other character choices that will help those out.

However, when you are first starting out it is much better to start at level 1 than level 20 :) ... few games get all the way to level 20 and you want to have fun playing your character all the way along.

One last comment, there can be a fair bit of overlap between hexblade and eldritch knight which may or may not be a concern for you. Eldritch knight only gets a bit of spellcasting and they use intelligence as their casting stat. On the other hand a sorcerer or bard uses charisma as their casting stat and has a much faster spell slot progression so if you want a warrior diplomat, you might be better served by combining hexblade and sorcerer or bard rather than eldritch knight.

In particular, lore bards pick up three more skills at level 3 and also have expertise in two skills so the best diplomat you can make would probably be a lore bard/hexblade with expertise in persuasion.

P.S. Defensive duelist really isn't a very good feat. It uses your reaction, is only good against one attack/round, it uses a very valuable ASI/feat and the increase in AC only scales with your proficiency. You would be much better off with the shield spell from hexblade warlock or sorcerer and a few level of sorcerer or bard to give you the spell slots to use it when you need it. Shield is +5 AC for the entire round against all attacks, it protects against magic missiles and all it costs is a spell slot and your reaction for the turn. This would likely be a much better approach to increasing your AC temporarily than the defensive duelist feat.

[mistajames]

Some fundamental issues:

1. What your final build will end up being is much less relevant than how you level them up. When are you taking those Fighter levels? If you're taking them before L5, you're delaying Extra Attack and higher level (especially L3) spells. That said, not taking Fighter 1 means that you lose Con proficiency.

2. You need to ask yourself what you are actually getting out of those EK levels that's better than just continuing to level Hexblade. EK's first "really good" ability (apart from casting, which you get anyways) comes at level 10. That's way too long to sit in one class just to get one ability. Why not take 2 levels of Fighter and a bunch of Sorcerer levels? If you want Vancian casting, why not just take Sorcerer levels?

3. Why EK 7? A BA attack is mostly irrelevant with Booming Blade - you won't be attacking with cantrips anyways. I'd go Fighter 2 or (better yet) avoid Fighter altogether and just take more Hexblade levels.

4. The whole point of going Hexblade is to get Cha to your attack rolls. If you go Two-Weapon Style, you don't get to use Cha for your off-handed attack.

Basically, Hexblade 18/Fighter 2, Hexblade 14/Aberrant Mind 6, or Hexblade 15/Fighter 2/Sorcerer 3 with GWM/PAM is better in almost every way.

[Kerero]

My thoughts behind it was to create a „weapon master who can go two and one handed. My thought about the duel wielding part was that attack normally with my pact weapon and with my BA i would use the shadowblade thats why warcaster and fighter would‘ve been handy.

But why should i not take PAM and GWM together ? Wouldn‘t that be dmgwise better ?

[Lunatism]

My thoughts behind it was to create a „weapon master who can go two and one handed. My thought about the duel wielding part was that attack normally with my pact weapon and with my BA i would use the shadowblade thats why warcaster and fighter would‘ve been handy.

You don't need warcaster for two weapon fighting.


But why should i not take PAM and GWM together ? Wouldn‘t that be dmgwise better ?

PAM and GWM are amazing feats, but they don't work well with two weapon fighting. They all cost your bonus action, which you have only 1 per round.

Moreover, the -5/+10 from GWM only works with heavy weapons, which are all two-handed.

So yeah, PAM and GWM don't make your two weapon fighting build better damage-wise.

[Kerero]

Warcaster was ment that situational i cast EB for the crowd control and i can‘t cast spells/get disadv. When i do so...at least that what everyone told me.
does a dual bladelock who uses his pact blade an shadowblade to fight even make sense or should i go a completly diffrent way ?

[Lunatism]

Warcaster was ment that situational i cast EB for the crowd control and i can‘t cast spells/get disadv. When i do so...at least that what everyone told me.

In fact, what warcaster do is:


helps you keep concentration on a spell
fits the somatic component of spells while holding weapons (which you don't need as you have Improved Pact Weapon already)
allow you to cast a spell instead of opportunity attack



it doesn't help directly in crowd control.

Additionally, the push/pull from EB is not a very powerful crowd control, when the need rises, you should use something like Suggestion or Banishment. (yeah it requires concentration, say bye-bye to your Shadow Blade when those spells are needed)


does a dual bladelock who uses his pact blade an shadowblade to fight even make sense or should i go a completly diffrent way ?

Dual-wielding is always a sub-optimal build in 5th edition, but not overwhelmingly weak.

If you like "dual bladelock who uses his pact blade and shadowblade" because it is cool and fun to play, then play it.

[Trafalgar]

What are your Stats? I think you need to evaluate whether it is worth pumping all you're ASIs into feats or not.

[Kerero]

Thanks for all the help and informations you guys gave me i will make more research and hope i can create a build that i like

[mistajames]

If you're new, seriously consider just picking a class and going with it. There is nothing wrong or suboptimal with just taking all of your levels in Hexblade or Fighter or Bladesinger or whatever. Multiclassing isn't really about increasing overall power most of the time, it's about enabling certain specific rules interactions and character concepts.

Want to play a shounen magical warrior? Sorcadin or Sorlock is the way to go. Is it stronger than just rolling up a straight-up Aberrant Mind sorc? Well... it depends.

I would strongly recommend against multiclassing if you don't have a firm grasp on the rules yet.

[KorvinStarmast]

Hello,
I'm thinking of creating a Hexblade warlock with Eldritch knight with the goal of creating a Diplomat of sorts that is also a versatile Fighter Are you starting at first level, or are you starting at a higher level?