Generalist type Fighter

[MrStabby]

I will be starting a new game (hopefully) inabout a month or so. I was looking to break with tradition and not play a character that is primarily a spellcaster. Now this is hard for me, and I won't quite be able to leave my spells behind but I was thinking of doing something as a bit of an interim step to get me on that path. So I want a character that is a nice, general split between offense, dense and control.



I am looking at an echo knight/hexblade and wanted to see what people thought of it.

We are starting at either level 6 or level 7 so I get to skip a few levels.

Broadly, my plan is to start with (assuming level 6), 5 levels of Echo knight and a single level of hexblade.

Level 7 gets me another fighter level.

Level 8 gets me a second level of Hexblade.


This leaves me some hard feat choices.

I want sentinel (naturaly - does anyone play an Echo Knight without it?)

I want to play a Dragonborn and pick up the Dragon Fear Feat (as I wil be prioritising Charisma)

I would also like to pick up fey-touched and Pole Arm Mastery (planning to go spear and shield), though to my mind these are lower priority.


Yet to roll for stats but I am assuming I will be able to score a 15 in charisma to start (DM usually helps ensure we have at least pretty good stats). I am thinking that with a dragonborn this will give me a decent 17 starting value and I think that taking a first feat of Dragon Fear will give a solid round 18. I think that this should give me some decent enough crowd control for when I need it.

On the other hand, starting with sentinel gives me better single enemy lockdown and maybe a bit better in a world where there may be a rich supply of fear imune enemies, but it will lower some key skills, my attack stat and spell save DCs.

If I pick up sentinel then at level 8 it isn't too long a wait. I guess I can then pick up Fey-Touched if I have an odd charisma at level 10, or pole arm mastery otherwise. Pole arm mastery is a great feat but I am thinking that its value will be a little diminished if I have such a rich set of bonus actions - hexblade's curse, probably wrathful smite, hex, manifest echo, second wind, misty step if I have fey-touch... so I was thinking it is a bit less important.

Not sure if it is worth getting the second level of hexblade early though - It just seems so tempting to pick up invocations and to pick up that second short rest spell slot (I figured wrathful smite from an echo would be quite effective and multiple shields would make me quite tanky). On the other hand getting that Fighter 8 feat is still tempting.

For the other choices, there are some Tasha's options on the table. Fighting style is interesting to me. Defensive style is obviously good, Superior technique is also interesting to give a bit of a richer set of options (though having not prioritised Str or Dex it limits options). Dueling could also be handy - between action surge, bonus action attacks from Unleash Incarnation, and a good number of attacks of opportunity I would expect this to actually add quite a bit of damage.

So the character isn't entirely focussed around defense nor offense nor damage but I think it should do well enough at all of these (with hexblades curse, dueling fighing style, action surge, unleash incarnation all stacking there is a lot of nova potential for a character not designed round it. Heavy armour and shield is decent enough defence - nothing special, but with a bit of second wind, decent HP, access to the shield spell it should make you quite sticky. And on control the character feels... OK I guess, good for a non full caster (or Conquest Paladin). Dragon fear, wrathful smite and sentinel + echo are passable to at least play a role in that area.

There is then the question of what to do after level 10. I should have the main feats I want then - I can go for more hexblade (open up more weapon choices), more fighter or add another class. Sticking in fighter till I get to level 13 (11 levels of fighter) is attractive as all those attacks seem cool. But I wonder if other options might be in any way better. Paladin is accessible, but seems to overlap quite a bit. Bard is interesting - it will make the character a lot more versatile and add things like healing to use bonus actions for. Anything else seems a bit speculative at this stage not knowing stats.

Honestly, if we hit high levels I am tempted by a ranger dip, if I can squeeze the wisdom in. It might mean being more dex focussed than strenght (focused is the wrong word when using Cha from hexblade, but whatever I need to multiclass out of figher. Gloomstalker is awesome with fighter and action surge anyway - a little cheesey, but powerful.

Any thoughts, tips, tricks I have missed?

[Khrysaes]

I think you miswrote what levels you get feats.
Assuming starting at 6, as a fighter 5/ warlock1, you get one at fighter 4. You get your next at character level 7, fighter 6, and then a third at fighter 8 or character level 9.

As for which to take first. Im not sure it will matter too much, dragon fear OR sentinel. That said, sentinel is resource free so i would take that at 4.

Warcaster could be good since warlock can take booming blade. 2 warlock could be good too for repelling blast, agonizing blast, grasp of hadar, and several other invocation choices.

I would strive for at least fighter 12/warlock 2. But it is really up to you.

If you really want some generalizability, pick up ritual caster wizard.

Edit: looking towards 20 i would consider 4 levels of a full caster with sorcerer or bard being the obvious choices, mainly to open up spell slots so you can use more spells. You can take fighter 12,divine sorc 4, hexblade chain lock 4, and make a coffee lock fighter, getting 4 sorcery points per short rest by converting your warlock slots ro points, then 2 1st level slots or 1 second level slot. This will also get you 6 feats/asi. Ranged healing with healing word. And some good cleric or sorc buffs.

[MrCharlie]

Honestly, if you want a mixture of defense, offense, and control, then the rune knight or psi warrior can do all three. The echo knight's schtick is teleportation and AOO, but that does not sound like what you actually want. Maybe the teleportation, but then you're going to delay it to level 8? That seems entirely counter-productive.

The rune knight can double as a grappler and control through that means, and has excellent defensive and decent offensive options, while the psi warrior is actually applicable here-they are adept at repositioning enemies, get some abilities that provide pseudo-smites, and have some shielding abilities. In fact, psi warrior feels like it ticks all the boxes you want.

Also straight eldritch knight is always an option, for a generalist. Their main weakness is that most of their abilities are circumstantial. But...So will hexblade casting if you only go a measly one or two levels. Your hexblade level solely for hexblades curse is just not that good. What you're talking about sounds like a lot of feats whose only purpose is to be an eldritch knight.

So what do you actually want to accomplish here? It seems like you've got some ideal, but I'm not sure your class picks help that ideal at all right now.

[MrStabby]

I think you miswrote what levels you get feats.
Assuming starting at 6, as a fighter 5/ warlock1, you get one at fighter 4. You get your next at character level 7, fighter 6, and then a third at fighter 8 or character level 9.

As for which to take first. Im not sure it will matter too much, dragon fear OR sentinel. That said, sentinel is resource free so i would take that at 4.

Warcaster could be good since warlock can take booming blade. 2 warlock could be good too for repelling blast, agonizing blast, grasp of hadar, and several other invocation choices.

I would strive for at least fighter 12/warlock 2. But it is really up to you.

If you really want some generalizability, pick up ritual caster wizard.

Edit: looking towards 20 i would consider 4 levels of a full caster with sorcerer or bard being the obvious choices, mainly to open up spell slots so you can use more spells. You can take fighter 12,divine sorc 4, hexblade chain lock 4, and make a coffee lock fighter, getting 4 sorcery points per short rest by converting your warlock slots ro points, then 2 1st level slots or 1 second level slot. This will also get you 6 feats/asi. Ranged healing with healing word. And some good cleric or sorc buffs.

Yes, leaning to bard for later levels, though at expected rate.of pay there will probably be new content released by then.

And yes, I screwed up the leveling numbers - this is what happens when you change your mind four times whilst writing the post. I will try and edit.


Honestly, if you want a mixture of defense, offense, and control, then the rune knight or psi warrior can do all three. The echo knight's schtick is teleportation and AOO, but that does not sound like what you actually want. Maybe the teleportation, but then you're going to delay it to level 8? That seems entirely counter-productive.

The rune knight can double as a grappler and control through that means, and has excellent defensive and decent offensive options, while the psi warrior is actually applicable here-they are adept at repositioning enemies, get some abilities that provide pseudo-smites, and have some shielding abilities. In fact, psi warrior feels like it ticks all the boxes you want.

Also straight eldritch knight is always an option, for a generalist. Their main weakness is that most of their abilities are circumstantial. But...So will hexblade casting if you only go a measly one or two levels. Your hexblade level solely for hexblades curse is just not that good. What you're talking about sounds like a lot of feats whose only purpose is to be an eldritch knight.

So what do you actually want to accomplish here? It seems like you've got some ideal, but I'm not sure your class picks help that ideal at all right now.

So the big hexblade thing is letting me me charisma focused. This supports a couple of things. 1) better support for out of combat facility. 2) Dragon Fear keyed off charisma - which is an awesome half feat on charisma based martials.

You are right that the extra spells could come from eldritch knight, but I was weighing up the secondary benefits of hexblades curse, six(ish) spells per day (though only level 1 spells the hexblade selection I really powerful).

The teleportation from Echo Knight is maybe not what I consider a key feature, but for a tanky melee character getting to the right place at the right time is really important. Without a fly speed or monk mobility etc. this is very nice.

It's hard to really articulate the strengths of Echo knight in my mind (over other fighters) because it isn't one big thing, but rather the cumulative effect of a lot of different things.

It isn't the reach, or the ability to lock down an enemy with sentinel but it is both together.

I do love Rune Knight as well (maybe I should look at psi warrior again) but when I tried to build something similar with this the madness was a bit of a pain. Wanting Charisma for the fear effects and needing Con for Rune Knight (at least till level 7 fighter) just made it feel a little clunky.

[MrCharlie]

So the big hexblade thing is letting me me charisma focused. This supports a couple of things. 1) better support for out of combat facility. 2) Dragon Fear keyed off charisma - which is an awesome half feat on charisma based martials.

You are right that the extra spells could come from eldritch knight, but I was weighing up the secondary benefits of hexblades curse, six(ish) spells per day (though only level 1 spells the hexblade selection I really powerful).

The teleportation from Echo Knight is maybe not what I consider a key feature, but for a tanky melee character getting to the right place at the right time is really important. Without a fly speed or monk mobility etc. this is very nice.

It's hard to really articulate the strengths of Echo knight in my mind (over other fighters) because it isn't one big thing, but rather the cumulative effect of a lot of different things.

It isn't the reach, or the ability to lock down an enemy with sentinel but it is both together.

I do love Rune Knight as well (maybe I should look at psi warrior again) but when I tried to build something similar with this the madness was a bit of a pain. Wanting Charisma for the fear effects and needing Con for Rune Knight (at least till level 7 fighter) just made it feel a little clunky.
Honestly? I'm not sure why you want dragon fear. I do not understand a core goal of this build, and why you're building for it to begin with as a fighter. It seems to me that if you want dragon fear you ought to just be a conquest paladin, not a fighter, or a hexblade, at all. It's a bit antisynergy to use the feat with the damage aura given how you save from it, but you can always just not stay within 10 feet of feared targets if you don't want to give them more saves.

Echo knight is great, but for things complete unrelated to what you want here. And this clunky multiclass and weird combination of feats is evidence of that. In my experience, the vast majority of the time when you're building something this complex it's better to just keep it simple and go with a different class.

[Sillybird99]

I want sentinel (naturaly - does anyone play an Echo Knight without it?)

Yes. Make sure you and your DM have a common understanding of how sentinel works with your Echo. I think +2 Con is a way stronger choice, and that's the least effective of the alternatives I'd consider for the first couple ASI/feats.



I want to play a Dragonborn and pick up the Dragon Fear Feat (as I wil be prioritising Charisma)

Why Charisma? Or even Hexblade? The main virtue in taking Hexlade that I can see would be access to the shield spell, which you can't use without warcaster if you have a shield and spear.

Instead of changing to a SAD build or armor/shield prof like most Hexblade dips, you aren't really gaining much.



I would also like to pick up fey-touched and Pole Arm Mastery (planning to go spear and shield), though to my mind these are lower priority.


PAM is going to clutter your bonus action use a lot with Manifest Echo. As will misty Step. And you can already bonus action teleport if you have 15ft of movement. Misty step is still good in niche cases, but like with Sentinel, Hexblade, and PAM, I don't think these choices are going to add to the build in the ways that you want.

It really seems like with these build options you would be better served playing a hexblade/conquest paladin. Way more build synergy and way less action economy clutter.

[Bobthewizard]

I think dragon fear on an echo knight would be fun, especially on a Fizban's subrace. Fear keeps the enemy from approaching you, then you attack it with your echo, which you then move out of their reach. As an object, the echo doesn't provoke an AOO.

Personally, I'd go echo knight 3, then Hexblade 17. It gets you more spells, two attacks, life drinker, and eldritch smites. Your second attack is late but for those 3 levels, unleash incarnation keeps you competitive.

I would skip PAM on an echo knight. The reason to take it wouldn't be for the BA attack, which is already full for you, it would be for the reaction attack when someone charges you after hitting your echo. It's maybe worth it late but I might take GWM instead. Hexblades are great at creating advantage to offset the -5 to hit and two-handed weapons work better for spellcasting than TWF or sword and board.

I'd go dragon fear > sentinel > max CHA > GWM > max CON (yes, I know you won't get enough ASIs for all of these. I'm just listing how I'd prioritize them.)

[Sorinth]

I would be tempted to use an actual polearm instead of spear and shield. Grab the Defence fighting style and you haven't even lost much in terms of AC.

I'd certainly take Sentinel before Dragon Fear. Even without the fear if you are using the new Metallic Dragonborn then you have a decent crowd control option even if the save is based on your Con rather then Cha. Given you are Cha SAD due to Hexblade and Unleash Incarnation also triggers off Con you will no doubt have a decent Con score anyways so it's probably at most a 1 DC difference and is a better effect anyways. Dragon Fear is still a decent feat but you will probably find yourself switching between the two based on the situation anyways so it's not as important.

I'm not sure I would bother with Fey Touched. If your DM allows for a Bludgeoning Polearm like a Lucerne Hammer then Crusher would be much more interesting. Otherwise I'd probably go with the regular ASIs.

[MrStabby]

Honestly? I'm not sure why you want dragon fear. I do not understand a core goal of this build, and why you're building for it to begin with as a fighter. It seems to me that if you want dragon fear you ought to just be a conquest paladin, not a fighter, or a hexblade, at all. It's a bit antisynergy to use the feat with the damage aura given how you save from it, but you can always just not stay within 10 feet of feared targets if you don't want to give them more saves.

Echo knight is great, but for things complete unrelated to what you want here. And this clunky multiclass and weird combination of feats is evidence of that. In my experience, the vast majority of the time when you're building something this complex it's better to just keep it simple and go with a different class.

So i did think about Conquest Paladin - and it is absolutely a viable option. This is looking to just explore something different. It may be that this won't work out so well, but at the moment it looks liek its doing OK in that regard.

I would say that a core goal of the build is to have a bit of an effective toolbox to use. Not being super specialist in one area but being strong by being able to pick the most approapriate ability/tool for a particular situation. Being mobbed by lots of melee enemies - dragon fear will buy a lot of space (and will be somewhat better than the paladin option as you can attack as well). Dealing with a small number of very dangerous enemies - echo+sentinel can help impede their mobility and keep them out of combat. Dealing with mobile enemies that its hard to close with - eldritch blast will suffice.
Dealing with things immune to fear/charm and with a good ranged attack -pop hexblade's curse, action surge and possibly hex (on turn 2) and just win by reducing their hitpoints to zero.

Some of the abilities are a bit more limited than say a Conquest Paladin, but with a bit more breadth that means you are less reliant on one thing that may be subject to resistances or immunities. It isn't that a conquest paladin is bad facing a Stone Golem, but you don't get to do much special.

The reason why fighter/hexblade is due to the need for feats. With sentinel and Dragon Fear as a minimum, being SAD and getting that extra feat early on just helps pull the whole thing together. If I am wanting to add more feats later this becomes especially relevant.




Yes. Make sure you and your DM have a common understanding of how sentinel works with your Echo. I think +2 Con is a way stronger choice, and that's the least effective of the alternatives I'd consider for the first couple ASI/feats.


Why Charisma? Or even Hexblade? The main virtue in taking Hexlade that I can see would be access to the shield spell, which you can't use without warcaster if you have a shield and spear.

Instead of changing to a SAD build or armor/shield prof like most Hexblade dips, you aren't really gaining much.

PAM is going to clutter your bonus action use a lot with Manifest Echo. As will misty Step. And you can already bonus action teleport if you have 15ft of movement. Misty step is still good in niche cases, but like with Sentinel, Hexblade, and PAM, I don't think these choices are going to add to the build in the ways that you want.

It really seems like with these build options you would be better served playing a hexblade/conquest paladin. Way more build synergy and way less action economy clutter.

Good point on the shield spell. I guess that would require, as you say, warcaster, or improved pact weapon. I guess better then to pick up something like Sivery Barbs through Fey Touched as a verbal only alternative.

I agree that I might not be getting the same things out of Hexblade as other classes, but I do get a lot that others don't.

Wrathful smite is an awesome spell and getting short rest spell slots to use it means I have a powerful tool when facing low wisdom enemies that most other fighters wouldn't. Having Con save proficiency and access to heavy armour just makes it better than on a straight warlock
Eldritch Blast is a powerful ranged attack - and if dex focussed I could pick this up easily, but harder for a Str fighter to get something that good; mage hind would likely be my second cantrip which is also very useful
Invocations are powerful additions, and although 2nd level of hexblade may need some leveling up, some combination of devil's sight, mask of many faces, eldritch blast and repelling blast will be nice additions.
Hex is going to be a very solid spell. Yes, there are other bonus action tools but hex on a short rest means I should be able to have smething nice most combats. Protection from Evil and Good is also a prime candidate for a spell to take (again, very nice on a frontline fighter).
It does make the character SAD, as it aligns my attack stat with both dragon fear and the skills proficiencies I would be looking to take.

Not that this list should be definative, or to say that it is perfect - but to say there are some good reasons for going down this path and things I both couldn't get as a pure fighter, pure palading or pure hexblade.

I think I agree with you on PAM. I had had it as lower priority, but it might just be worth dropping it. Given the role of the Echo I imagine reactions will be a little more limited, and given the other BA uses these will be squeezed as well.

Regarding Fey Touched, I am a bit more positive. As a half feat that +Cha might be really useful and Misty Step will sometimes be very much worth having. You do have a point that its value is diminished somewhat as I have the options from the Echo. On the other hand, if I need to pick up Silvery Barbs as an alernative to Shield then it is a valuable addition. It is possibly worth throwing out that I might also be able to use the Eberron Aberant Dragonmake to pich this up and get a Con boost instead (effecively trading a cantrip known for misty step casting).

Regarding Sentinel/Echo, AFB at the moment by my online source reads:

When a creature that you can see within 5 feet of your echo moves at least 5 feet away from it, you can use your reaction to make an opportunity attack against that creature as if you were in the echo's space.


When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature's speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.
Creatures provoke opportunity attacks from you even if they take the Disengage action before leaving your reach.
When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you (and that target doesn't have this feat), you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature.

So I would be making an opportunity attack from the Echo space. As I make the attack its speed is reduced to zero. The Echo isn't me though, so disengaging from the Echo still works. Also the 3rd part of sentinel doesn't trigger if someone hits an ally near the Echo.

This is my take - haven't run it past the DM but I might be missing something here, but don't see anything controversial?








I think dragon fear on an echo knight would be fun, especially on a Fizban's subrace. Fear keeps the enemy from approaching you, then you attack it with your echo, which you then move out of their reach. As an object, the echo doesn't provoke an AOO.

Personally, I'd go echo knight 3, then Hexblade 17. It gets you more spells, two attacks, life drinker, and eldritch smites. Your second attack is late but for those 3 levels, unleash incarnation keeps you competitive.

I would skip PAM on an echo knight. The reason to take it wouldn't be for the BA attack, which is already full for you, it would be for the reaction attack when someone charges you after hitting your echo. It's maybe worth it late but I might take GWM instead. Hexblades are great at creating advantage to offset the -5 to hit and two-handed weapons work better for spellcasting than TWF or sword and board.

I'd go dragon fear > sentinel > max CHA > GWM > max CON (yes, I know you won't get enough ASIs for all of these. I'm just listing how I'd prioritize them.)

Yes, I should have said, using the Fizban's subrace. And yes, really hoping to be able to control movement with this then take advantage of it.




I would be tempted to use an actual polearm instead of spear and shield. Grab the Defence fighting style and you haven't even lost much in terms of AC.

I'd certainly take Sentinel before Dragon Fear. Even without the fear if you are using the new Metallic Dragonborn then you have a decent crowd control option even if the save is based on your Con rather then Cha. Given you are Cha SAD due to Hexblade and Unleash Incarnation also triggers off Con you will no doubt have a decent Con score anyways so it's probably at most a 1 DC difference and is a better effect anyways. Dragon Fear is still a decent feat but you will probably find yourself switching between the two based on the situation anyways so it's not as important.

I'm not sure I would bother with Fey Touched. If your DM allows for a Bludgeoning Polearm like a Lucerne Hammer then Crusher would be much more interesting. Otherwise I'd probably go with the regular ASIs.

Yeah. I see your point. Not entirely sure if it is better but it seems plausible. My thinking was that for anything less than 3 levels of hexblade I couldn't use Charisma. I picked spear as I thought I would be picking up PAM and would need a one handed weapon. It might be that I start off this way and then at higher levels I go up to Hexblade 3 and Pivot a bit. Honestly, I am not sure that I would even need a Pole Arm at that point. Most of my attacks would be through the Echo, which I could just resummon so I would be less worried about standing next to someone so just grabbing a greasword or similar would work just fine for me.

Unleash incarnation was something that I hadn't really placed too much emphasis on. Sure, I will have a decent enough Con score so would expect 2 to 3 uses of the ability, but hadn't really thought I would boost it high. Still, if it starts as an odd number and I can throw an aberrant dragonmark on it then it could be worth taking a bit more note of. Still, it's a couple of extra attacks per day - nice but not my highest priority to boost.

I do like the Chromatic level 5 option, and even though a 15ft cone is prety short range, positioning should be easy enough with the aid of an echo. I think breadth of options is important and being able to hit an enemy wizard/low con save caster with this is a great addition to the toolbox. That you can incapacitate them, deny them the use of shield or many oher options, then really lay into them is quite nice. Or even just knocking them over and using action surge to get more attacks with advantage on them whilst they are down.

The other option, especially relevant if drpping the idea of PAM, is to take some rogue levels. Hexblade 2, Fighter 6 would get me 2 ASIs. Rapier + Shield would be a solid loadout and would support sneak attack. Experise would support my Face credentials, Sneak attack would be potentially very effective - both the Echo ability and the Sentinal ability should open up some good reaction attacks enabling multiple sneak atttack uses per round. Cunning Action will be relatively weak as I have some mobility options, but it is never useless and it would take my effective reach to extraordinary levels (60ft move + move Echo 30ft). At 9th level I could take a 3rd level of rogue - this would seem to be very powerful as I could take Swashbuckler to get the ability to have my echo make sneak attacks against isloated targets and would give me a nifty bonus to initiative.

If this were to continue to high levels, then Panache might also become interesting - Character would be charisma focussed, would have put expertise into social skills and should be able to succed on an opposed check vs most enemies. This would have a few nice features: 1) circumventing any legendary saves for a start or other bonuses to saves. 2) Is at-will so can be repeated (you can cheese an initiaive order by having your allies tha take thier turn after the enemy still atack it and try and reapply the condition next turn 3) You should be very tanky with shield, the best armour and uncanny dodge if needed (and probably something like silvery barbs) 4) I has a really neat out of combat use as well.

[Sillybird99]

i

So I would be making an opportunity attack from the Echo space. As I make the attack its speed is reduced to zero. The Echo isn't me though, so disengaging from the Echo still works. Also the 3rd part of sentinel doesn't trigger if someone hits an ally near the Echo.

This is my take - haven't run it past the DM but I might be missing something here, but don't see anything controversial?


No you are understanding it right. I wouldn't expect to many creatures to run from your echo and give you that first part of Sentinel. It has 1 hp. Mine have always died often. I've never wished I had Sentinel feat on my lvl 10 echo-knight. YMMV

I still think you would be way better off doing Hexblade 2/ Conquest Paladin x and using Booming blade til you get extra attack. Defense fighting style with Polearm is only 1 less AC than using a shield and let's you cast the Shield spell without needing warcaster.

With your high Cha, your con saves will eventually be solid from aura of protection, but you could do Resilient Con or Warcaster if you were really worried about it.

BTW my echo knight is a paladin MC as well (wasnt planned btw). Unleash incarnation is for your nova round. 2 attacks +1 UI and action surge to do it again. 6 attacks. Smite on the crit and very few things will be alive. You gotta have your bonus action available though, to either summon an Echo or move it/yourself into position. This nova can be overkill on a single target but the echo enables you to attack at many locations easily, spreading the damage to multiple targets as needed.

I just dont see the value to hexblade for this build. it isnt making your Echo night SAD, it's just swapping str for cha and then adding a bunch of charisma feats when you could be getting better feats/boosting strength and con, or just playing a paladin or multiclassing with one with Echo Knight if you really like the Echo stuff. Paladin will give you the spells you want (wrathful smite, PfEaG), a better fear effect that you dont spend feats on, and more spell slots than hexblade unless you are taking lots of short rests.