Hexblade dip and other advice for a Sorcadin build

[Morrison]

I'm building a Sorcadin character (Shadow, probably Vengeance) and I'm wondering if a one-level dip into Hexblade is a worth it for that sweet sweet Hex Warrior class feature (Hexblade's Curse is also nice). Is this a good idea? I have never played a 5e paladin, sorcerer, or hexblade before.

Also, what kind of weapons and armour are good for this build? I like the idea of a big ****-off two-handed weapon, and I know Vengeance gets some good use out of those. Would Polearm Mastery be worth it for this class combo? And how about armour? Even if they're not my attacking stats, I'd still want either a 14 Dex or a 15 Str to get my AC to a good level, so I still couldn't be as Charisma SAD as I'd like.

In terms of race I am leaning towards either Half-Elf (nice ability score bonuses) or Shifter (either Longtooth or Beasthide). Longtooth is very reliant on bonus actions for full effectiveness; what would my action economy look like?

[Gignere]

I'm building a Sorcadin character (Shadow, probably Vengeance) and I'm wondering if a one-level dip into Hexblade is a worth it for that sweet sweet Hex Warrior class feature (Hexblade's Curse is also nice). Is this a good idea? I have never played a 5e paladin, sorcerer, or hexblade before.

Also, what kind of weapons and armour are good for this build? I like the idea of a big ****-off two-handed weapon, and I know Vengeance gets some good use out of those. Would Polearm Mastery be worth it for this class combo? And how about armour? Even if they're not my attacking stats, I'd still want either a 14 Dex or a 15 Str to get my AC to a good level, so I still couldn't be as Charisma SAD as I'd like.

In terms of race I am leaning towards either Half-Elf (nice ability score bonuses) or Shifter (either Longtooth or Beasthide). Longtooth is very reliant on bonus actions for full effectiveness; what would my action economy look like?

The one level hexblade dip doesn’t work with two hander builds. Because the charisma to attack, until you get pact of the blade at level 3, only works with 1 hand weapons.

[Morrison]

The one level hexblade dip doesn’t work with two hander builds. Because the charisma to attack, until you get pact of the blade at level 3, only works with 1 hand weapons.

Oh dang, you're right. I missed that.
I feel like a three-level dip in hexblade is a bit too much of an investment. At that point I must as well just make a straight padlock. Which would be fine, but my understanding is the sorcadin is more powerful.

I guess that settles my weapons question. Sword (or maybe axe) and shield it is.

[quindraco]

I'm building a Sorcadin character (Shadow, probably Vengeance) and I'm wondering if a one-level dip into Hexblade is a worth it for that sweet sweet Hex Warrior class feature (Hexblade's Curse is also nice). Is this a good idea? I have never played a 5e paladin, sorcerer, or hexblade before.

Also, what kind of weapons and armour are good for this build? I like the idea of a big ****-off two-handed weapon, and I know Vengeance gets some good use out of those. Would Polearm Mastery be worth it for this class combo? And how about armour? Even if they're not my attacking stats, I'd still want either a 14 Dex or a 15 Str to get my AC to a good level, so I still couldn't be as Charisma SAD as I'd like.

In terms of race I am leaning towards either Half-Elf (nice ability score bonuses) or Shifter (either Longtooth or Beasthide). Longtooth is very reliant on bonus actions for full effectiveness; what would my action economy look like?

The core of what you're talking about takes... different levels than you're implying, and can then grow in several different directions. Half-elf is an excellent choice, but I wouldn't take Shadow, because of the Darkvision overlap. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Divine Soul.

This is the core:
Paladin 2: Divine Smite (Divine Smite is strictly worse than Eldritch Smite in terms of damage type, damage amount inflicted with a 5th level slot against non-Undead, and knocking targets prone, but Divine Smite works with non-Warlock slots, which is critical)
Sorcerer 3: Metamagic, so you can cast Quickened Booming Blade
Warlock 3: Charisma Greatsword or Halberd (or Longbow or Heavy Crossbow in a pinch using an invocation, but Eldritch Blast is better)

Then you can grow it several different ways from there, depending on what direction you want to lean into.

[Morrison]

The core of what you're talking about takes... different levels than you're implying, and can then grow in several different directions. Half-elf is an excellent choice, but I wouldn't take Shadow, because of the Darkvision overlap. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Divine Soul.

This is the core:
Paladin 2: Divine Smite (Divine Smite is strictly worse than Eldritch Smite in terms of damage type, damage amount inflicted with a 5th level slot against non-Undead, and knocking targets prone, but Divine Smite works with non-Warlock slots, which is critical)
Sorcerer 3: Metamagic, so you can cast Quickened Booming Blade
Warlock 3: Charisma Greatsword or Halberd (or Longbow or Heavy Crossbow in a pinch using an invocation, but Eldritch Blast is better)

Then you can grow it several different ways from there, depending on what direction you want to lean into.

Divine Soul doesn't really fit this character. I also don't think I want to take all three levels of Hexblade just to get access to two-handed weapons, cool though they are.

[MrCharlie]

There are multiple versions of this build. Variants include:

Hexblade 1-3, Paladin 6, Sorcerer X

The goal here is to just mostly be a Paladin with more smites and less of auras and archetype features. Doing this, the sorcerer archetype choice is the most important. Shadow is mediocre compared to the ones introduce in Tasha's cauldron, and the most abusable feature (see through own darkness) can be done with devils sight. Your paladin oath only gets a few spells and channel, so the choice matters a bit less-good choices include vengeance, glory, redemption. I personally don't think hexblade 3 is worth charisma greatswords, and in general don't think Paladin is ideal for great weapons to begin with; smite is antisynergy with attack penalties. Sometimes doing lots of damage in a single hit does matter though, and this is the build for that. That said if you darkness abuse you can easily offset the attack malus.

Hexblade 1-3, Paladin 2, Sorcerer X

This one uses booming blade. It's not as good now because they destroyed the build by making booming blade a self range spell. If you're doing what you should, and ignoring the booming blade errata, this is an excellent build. You attack a target with greenflame blade, or if there is a second enemy in range you twin booming blade and hit 'em both. Effectively, you keep extra attack, gain more sorcerer levels, and can still smite. Even if you aren't ignoring the errata it's got fine round to round damage, you just lose an attack and thus get fewer smite attacks-it's more of a "Sorcerer with better cantrips" than "Better Paladin".

Also, there is next to no reason to grab polearm master with this build, because you can't trigger bonus action attacks off of booming blade. Its still a decent feat just for the AOO as they enter reach, but there are better ways to go like inspiring leader, GWM, etc. Great weapons are the same as in the first build, that is I don't think they are needed.

[Morrison]

There are multiple versions of this build. Variants include:

Hexblade 1-3, Paladin 6, Sorcerer X

The goal here is to just mostly be a Paladin with more smites and less of auras and archetype features. Doing this, the sorcerer archetype choice is the most important. Shadow is mediocre compared to the ones introduce in Tasha's cauldron, and the most abusable feature (see through own darkness) can be done with devils sight. Your paladin oath only gets a few spells and channel, so the choice matters a bit less-good choices include vengeance, glory, redemption. I personally don't think hexblade 3 is worth charisma greatswords, and in general don't think Paladin is ideal for great weapons to begin with; smite is antisynergy with attack penalties. Sometimes doing lots of damage in a single hit does matter though, and this is the build for that. That said if you darkness abuse you can easily offset the attack malus.

Hexblade 1-3, Paladin 2, Sorcerer X

This one uses booming blade. It's not as good now because they destroyed the build by making booming blade a self range spell. If you're doing what you should, and ignoring the booming blade errata, this is an excellent build. You attack a target with greenflame blade, or if there is a second enemy in range you twin booming blade and hit 'em both. Effectively, you keep extra attack, gain more sorcerer levels, and can still smite. Even if you aren't ignoring the errata it's got fine round to round damage, you just lose an attack and thus get fewer smite attacks-it's more of a "Sorcerer with better cantrips" than "Better Paladin".

Also, there is next to no reason to grab polearm master with this build, because you can't trigger bonus action attacks off of booming blade. Its still a decent feat just for the AOO as they enter reach, but there are better ways to go like inspiring leader, GWM, etc. Great weapons are the same as in the first build, that is I don't think they are needed.

Shadow is really the only sorcerer bloodline I'm interested in for this character, thematically. Devil's Sight is great, but warlocks don't get invocations until level 2 anyway, so if I'm just doing a one-level dip it's moot.

I don't think I'd be able to get away with ignoring the Errata in my group, so the second build wouldn't be quite as awesome without Twinned Booming Blades.

Maybe I should go Variant Human? The feat is handy and there's no Darkvision redundancy, but the ability score bonuses aren't quite as nice as half-elf (though I could pick a feat that boosts those) and I'd lose that sweet Shifter durability.

[Sception]

Hex Warrior may or may not be worth it depending on your intended spell choice, number of paladin levels, and expected total number of levels.

In a build that only takes pal2 and only uses spell slots for smites, buffs, and non-save-based battlefield control, which is a viable build even with the booming blade changes, then you don't really need Charisma for anything other than multiclassing reqs. In that case switching your melee stat to charisma isn't worth the level investment.

Likewise, if you're only going to level 10, then charisma isn't likely to pull so far ahead of strength that its worth bothering with. Plenty of builds take feats for their first 2 asis and have their campaigns end before they ever touch their stats. For the first 10 levels, ie the entirety of most campaigns and the bulk of those that remain, the biggest benefit of hex warrior is the armor proficiencies, not cha melee attacks, and multiclass paladin builds don't need the proficiencies.

There's also strength setting items to consider: gauntlets of ogre strength, belts of giant strength. These are pretty common in published adventures, and the party paladin def has strongest claim to them. If you get any of these they basixally fis weapon attack concerns on their own, making hex warrior unnecessary.

My suggestion to you is to start with a +3 stat mod in both strength and charisma, and only multiclass into hexblade if your charisma bonus gets to +5 before you find a strength fixing item. Chances are your campaign will end before that happens.


As for half elf vs human, both are top notch, pick based on role playing preference, imo. Half Drow from SCAG get you an extra darkness per day, so that's another option to consider, though I generally find I want the extra skill proficiencies on a paladin.

Fallen aasimar is also equally good, as is Triton - especially in a maritime game. Dragonborn & Zariel Legacy Tieflings are only a bit behind, so if you like them narratively they're also worth considering.

And, of course, most races are top notch options if tashas stat swapping is allowed in your game.