Samurai Hexblade creation help in Ravenloft

[fable082]

Good morning Playground!

My friends and I are starting a ravenloft campaign and we will be starting at lv 4. I am playing a reborn samurai hexblade with the haunted one background and a symbiotic dark gift he was a half elf so my dm is allowing me to take the elven accuracy feat when I get there. this is only my second time playing so I am asking for help in optimizing the build and tying everything together. my rolled stats are 16 16 16 13 13 11(no order)

Here's what I got so far:
Ryuma awoke in a shallow grave without any memory of how he ended up in this predicament other than his own name and the name of his master. While processing what had happened he realized his arm was missing, but after clawing his way to to surface something happened. He felt his dragon tattoo on his back pulsating, breathing and moving towards his missing arm and as he watched a black clawed arm emerge. It was here that Orochi made himself known and spoke to ryuma telling him if he wanted to know what happened to him and why he is here he would have to work with him and he would grant him abilities to avenge his death the death of his Master and even reclaim his prized sword. Ryuma obviously agreed after the mention of his master.

I'm looking at starting off fighter 3 hexblade 1 then taking fighter 4 and getting the elven accuracy feat. I plan on going fighter 5 hex 5 by level 10 but where to from there? part of the draw to this build is being able to use charisma for GWM wit elven accuracy and fighting spirit.

please any thoughts comments or tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Rerem115]

Okay, so your core power fantasy for this character is using Charisma to GWM? That's...well, that's tricky to pull off, but Hexblade does have the tools to get it done. The biggest issue I'm seeing is that it requires Warlock 3 for Blade Pact (Hexblades are otherwise limited to one-handed weapons), which you aren't getting until CL 7 at the earliest, assuming you go Samurai 4>Warlock 2-3>Samurai 5>Warlock 4-5. Of course, that means you're limited to one weapon attack per round until CL 8, and can't take GWM until CL 9.

That means you're spending 5 levels waiting and preparing to do the Cool ThingTM you've envisioned for this character, and you'll be worse at melee combat than any single-classed martial fighter. If you're willing to lean on tricks like Booming Blade, Darkness/Devil's Sight, and Eldritch Blast spam, you can manage, but just be forewarned that it's going to be quite a while before your Samurai is nimbly cutting through foes with an oversized blade with maximum grace. Or even longer, if you want to add PAM/Sentinel to the mix.

[Deathtongue]

I'm looking at starting off fighter 3 hexblade 1 then taking fighter 4 and getting the elven accuracy feat. I plan on going fighter 5 hex 5 by level 10 but where to from there? part of the draw to this build is being able to use charisma for GWM wit elven accuracy and fighting spirit.

please any thoughts comments or tips would be greatly appreciated.Get to Fighter 5 ASAP. Extra Attack is a huge game-changer, especially with Hex/Hexblade's Curse. You don't need GWM starting out, in fact until you get a reliable source of advantage (Fighting Spirit doesn't really cut it) it will hurt more than it help if you use it; you'd rather max out your charisma ASAP before grabbing that feat rather than making most of your attacks at something like +2-4 to hit as a level 8 character.

Actually, I'm kind of curious why you don't take all of your levels in Hexblade, or at least the first seven levels? You don't get Fighting Spirit / Action Surge right away, but you get access to Great Weapon Master faster, Elemental Weapon at level 5 for a very welcome DPR increase, Shadow of Moil for an OMG huge defensive bonus and always-on advantage for your GWM, and before then baller Invocations like the infamous Devil's Sight + Darkness combo, Improved Pact Weapon, and Thirsting Blade. You probably won't get to level 12 as anything in that campaign, but imagine if you did: without finding any magical weapons, you could with Shadow of Moil, Great Weapon Master, Hexblade's Curse, Thirsting Blade, Pact Weapon, and Lifedrinker easily attack twice with advantage with a nonmagical Greatsword that did 2d6+25 damage per hit against a target you really disliked, 2d6+21 against everyone else. And the road there would be a lot smoother than trying to delay access to Extra Attack, which I absolutely do not recommend for any martial who knows they'll reach Tier 2.

[fable082]

My thoughts were following from this post:
It won't let me cite the page though

Level 1: Fighter. Pick up the GWF fighting style.
Level 2: Warlock, Hexblade patron, take Eldritch Blast (obviously), True Strike, Hellish Rebuke and Shield. This gives a lot of options in melee combat already, useful ranged ability, and the ability to grant yourself advantage. This is also important.
Level 3: Keep going in Fighter. Action Surge is great.
Level 4: Fighter, and take the Samurai subclass. True Strike was useful, but Fighting Spirit is gonna take over from here.
Level 5: Fighter, and make sure you get the Elven Accuracy feat, and boost either DEX or CHA. Triple advantage whenever we want with Fighting Spirit and True Strike? Sweet!
Level 6: Fighter, get hold of extra attack, and save us an invocation later.
Level 7: Warlock, and take the Fiendish Vigor and Agonizing Blast invocations. Take Hex too, because why not.
Level 8: Warlock, take Pact of the Blade, and replace one of the two invocations with Improved Pact Weapon. Now we're getting somewhere. Take Hold Person as your spell.
Level 9: Warlock, and pick up GWM feat. Take Mirror Image as your spell, and whatever cantrip. Friends or Minor Illusion are good fun.
Level 10: Warlock. This is where it gets silly. Take Eldritch Smite. Take Counterspell to shut down those pesky mages.

[Hael]

So Samurai and Hexblade are a bit clashy, as they have a lot of feature redundancy, and mixing levels as you have is suboptimal. Something that is much better is eg fighter 1, then the rest in Hexblade until late game. Or alternatively, fighter 5, hex 3, fighter X.

[Mitchellnotes]

My thoughts were following from this post:
It won't let me cite the page though

Level 1: Fighter. Pick up the GWF fighting style.
Level 2: Warlock, Hexblade patron, take Eldritch Blast (obviously), True Strike, Hellish Rebuke and Shield. This gives a lot of options in melee combat already, useful ranged ability, and the ability to grant yourself advantage. This is also important.
Level 3: Keep going in Fighter. Action Surge is great.
Level 4: Fighter, and take the Samurai subclass. True Strike was useful, but Fighting Spirit is gonna take over from here.
Level 5: Fighter, and make sure you get the Elven Accuracy feat, and boost either DEX or CHA. Triple advantage whenever we want with Fighting Spirit and True Strike? Sweet!
Level 6: Fighter, get hold of extra attack, and save us an invocation later.
Level 7: Warlock, and take the Fiendish Vigor and Agonizing Blast invocations. Take Hex too, because why not.
Level 8: Warlock, take Pact of the Blade, and replace one of the two invocations with Improved Pact Weapon. Now we're getting somewhere. Take Hold Person as your spell.
Level 9: Warlock, and pick up GWM feat. Take Mirror Image as your spell, and whatever cantrip. Friends or Minor Illusion are good fun.
Level 10: Warlock. This is where it gets silly. Take Eldritch Smite. Take Counterspell to shut down those pesky mages.

I would 2nd the thought of staying hexblade and there are some really dubious choices in the progression you shared.

Id start with 13 (+1) in dex, 16 con, 16 (+2) in cha and the other points wherever (prob 16 in wis for saves?) This will get you max def bonus in medium armor.

For invocations, id focus on the blade pact ones (improved pact weapon is really good until you get a magic item) but pick up agonizing blast and the one that lets you see in the dark (devils sight?)

For feats, id get GWM at 4, and elvish acc at 8

For spells, id avoid true strike. Armor of agathys is good, shield is good, darkness w/ devils sight is good.

Sticking straight hexblade lets you get 4th and even 5th level spells which are very, very good. Plus, your bonus action is going to get clogged w/ samurai (fighting spirit, hex curse, and hex all use it)

[Gignere]

Unless this is for RP purposes, there is very little synergies between Hexblade and Samurai. You’ll probably be better of with a Hexblade / Battlemaster.

Hexblade have so many ways of getting advantage naturally so is redundant with samurai, but BM maneuvers like precise strike does stack with advantage. Also riposte/brace will net you very nice reaction attack.

For this type of build I’d either beeline for level 5 in fighter or hexblade than dip 3 levels for the other. Alternative maybe start level 1 fighter and go level 5 hexblade than back to fighter.

You definitely want to unlock extra attack and elven accuracy ASAP.

[RogueJK]

For this type of build I’d either beeline for level 5 in fighter or hexblade than dip 3 levels for the other.

Exactly. And as pointed out, you have to be at least Warlock 3 to be able to use CHA with a Great Weapon anyway. A Hexblade 1 or 2 is limited to only using CHA with one-handed weapons. You have to get to Warlock 3 to select Pact of the Blade to be able to make a big 2H weapon your Pact Weapon and use CHA with it.

So you'll want to make it to Warlock 3 ASAP, as well as then continuing on to hit Warlock 5 ASAP for the Thirsting Blade Invocation for Extra Attack. Delaying Extra Attack on a martial character is costly.


Since you're starting at Level 4, a good plan is to start at Hexblade 4 with Elven Accuracy. Then next level, take Warlock 5 to get Extra Attack. Then considering dipping 4 levels of Fighter (either Battlemaster or Samurai), before going back to Warlock. Or just stay straight Warlock throughout, with no Fighter levels.

Alternately, if you're wanting to wear Heavy Armor, start Fighter 1/Warlock 3. You'll still continue to Warlock 5 before considering taking Fighter 2/3/4, and then back to Warlock.

Either of these let you start off wielding a big 2H weapon with CHA from the beginning, picking up Elven Accuracy at Warlock 4, and then GWM at the next ASI (either at Warlock 8 if no dip or at Fighter 4).


As for where to go from Level 10, the answer is simple: You'll be either a Warlock 10 or a Warlock 6/Fighter 4 at Level 10, and you'll simply want to continue as a Warlock from there.