Is starting fighter 1worth it for hexblade?

[Spacehamster]

Is dueling, heavy armor and CON saves worth being one level behind for a sword & board hexblade? The delayed extra attack from invocation does not matter that much due to agonizing blast just letting you use eldritch blast for 2d10 + 8(2 beams) at that level.

Would be spear & shield with polearm master from level 1 custom lineage.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Unoriginal]

Is dueling, heavy armor and CON saves worth being one level behind for a sword & board hexblade? The delayed extra attack from invocation does not matter that much due to agonizing blast just letting you use eldritch blast for 2d10 + 8(2 beams) at that level.

Would be spear & shield with polearm master from level 1 custom lineage.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kinds of depends how much you're investing in STR and DEX relatively to your other stats. It can be very much worth it.

I would suggest taking a second level of Fighter at some point, though (likely once you get Warlock at 5 or more).

[Chaos Jackal]

Not particularly, no.

Multiclassing any caster class always has the significant drawback of delaying spell progression and starting on the back foot in that regard is already an issue. For warlock, it'll also be until lv3 that you get your second slot and lv12 for the third, both of which are a big deal as they represent a significant increase in the number of spells you can cast per short rest. So from the get-go, it's a loss and one that will follow you for the entire game.

What are you getting in return for setting yourself back before the game even begins?

Str saves over Cha? Not exactly an amazing deal, I think Str saves are more common than Cha but more often than not they're not exactly debilitating and there are other ways to get around them as a caster while Cha, albeit rare, tend to have devastating consequences on a failure. On top of that, your Str is likely to be middling or even dumped, so the save's not particularly strong, especially in the early levels where proficiency is low.

Con saves over Wis? Frankly, you tend to want both so it's kind of a wash in the long run, you'd be likely to pick Resilient either way down the road. Due to concentration it's probably slightly better to start with Con rather than Wis, but only slightly so.

Heavy armor? It's barely an advantage, if at all. Investing in 13-15 Str is inferior to investing in 14 Dex, depending on loot availability and in-game economy heavy armors can take a while to come by and at best you're getting either an otherwise-mostly-useless Str score over Dex or an annoying movement penalty in exchange for 1 AC.

Second Wind? It's kinda cool early, but as your hp increases and you're not getting any more fighter levels it goes out of style rather fast.

Fighting Style? A nice bonus to be sure, but with the rest of the features really not giving you much it's gotta do a lot of heavy lifting to make up for a game-long delay in spellcasting. And it can't lift such a burden.

Honestly, the best thing about fighter 1 is the ability to go fighter 2 and pick Action Surge. At that point you're an entire spell level behind, but at least Action Surge is a damn big deal. Ultimately, however, if you want a couple fighter levels on a caster, it's usually better to use them for rounding out a character rather than starting them off like that.

[RogueJK]

Not for a Hexblade, no. You have multiple other means to boost your Concentration (Eldritch Mind/Warcaster/Resilient/etc.), so the Warlock's base CHA/WIS save proficiencies are better there. And as a Hexblade, you don't need the Fighter's weapon/armor proficiencies. So you're basically looking at trading a whole level of spellcasting progression for a Fighting Style and 1d10+1 Second Wind. Not worth it.

However, starting Fighter 1 is a potentially better option if you're going for a non-Hexblade Bladelock, as a means to access martial weapons, shields, and medium armor. For example, a Fighter 1/Undead Bladelock X is a good option for a melee Warlock that isn't the same old Hexblade build. But even then, you have to decide if the Fighting Style, CON save proficiency, and minimal Second Wind are better than the extra cantrips, 1st level spells and slots, and domain powers of a 1 level Death/Tempest/Twilight/War Cleric dip instead. Or just don't dip at all, instead taking the Moderately Armored feat for medium armor/shield and making do with a simple weapon until your Pact Weapon comes online at Level 3 (with which you're automatically proficient regardless of type).

[Unoriginal]

However, starting Fighter 1 is a potentially better option if you're going for a non-Hexblade Bladelock

Thinking about this again, you're absolutely right here.

Hexblade really don't get much benefit from going Fighter, as they're basically THE only-CHA-needed subclass. Other Bladelocks would get more benefit as they need to invest in their STR or DEX anyway.

[strangebloke]

Agreed with RogueJK. The classic build is something like fighter 1 / fiendlock X. The fiendlock has THP, which when combined with second wind and the armor, and dark one's own luck for saving throws, makes you pretty hard to take down in melee. Works well with a darkness / devil's sight combo at some levels.

Hexblade just doesn't care about anything fighter 1 offers. If there's an argument for any fighter MC, it would be fighter 2 or 3.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Is dueling, heavy armor and CON saves worth being one level behind for a sword & board hexblade? The delayed extra attack from invocation does not matter that much due to agonizing blast just letting you use eldritch blast for 2d10 + 8(2 beams) at that level.

Would be spear & shield with polearm master from level 1 custom lineage.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Heavy Armor I don't see as an upgrade to Med. Given that your attack stat isn't strength, I'm doubling down on this POV.
Con saves I don't see as an upgrade to Wis. In the long run I'd be trying to get both anyway.
So, that leaves Dueling, which is a nice bump, and the ability you didn't mention, Second Wind, which I also like. I tend to think SW as a BA heal is a somewhat under-rated feature of fighters.

That being said, my short answer is no. If I was going to dip something, a level of Divine Soul is the first thing that comes to mind for Bless and Healing Word, but Fey Touched is so darn good and provides Bless that I keep ending up with this feat on my characters.

[RogueJK]

Agreed with RogueJK. The classic build is something like fighter 1 / fiendlock X. The fiendlock has THP, which when combined with second wind and the armor, and dark one's own luck for saving throws, makes you pretty hard to take down in melee. Works well with a darkness / devil's sight combo at some levels.

Similarly, the newer Fighter 1/Undeadlock X version of this also has access to lots of THP, but then adds in stuff like free debuffs, extra weapon damage dice, and the eventual ability to stay at 1 HP instead of going down via Necrotic Husk (similar to abilities like Relentless Endurance or Relentless Rage). And you now also have access to Death Ward, which can be used as a "1 hour ritual" at the beginning of the day by casting it on 2-3 party member and then taking a short rest to recoup your Pact slots, and still have 7 hours duration left.

Something like this:

Half Orc Fighter 1/Undead Bladelock X
STR 15+2
DEX 8
CON 14
INT 9
WIS 13
CHA 13+1
ASIs: GWM at 4, Orcish Fury (18 STR) at 8, Resilient WIS at 12, 20 STR or 16 CHA at 16 and the other at 19
Invocations: Devil's Sight, Eldritch Mind, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite
Defense Fighting Style

Wear Heavy Armor and use a Greataxe. Your axe can do 2d12 damage on one hit per turn while under your Form of Dread thanks to Grave Touched, plus you get another +1d12 damage on crits thanks to Savage Attacks, and 1x/SR you can use Orcish Fury to choose to add another damage dice to the weapon (save for crits). This means you're rolling up to 7d12 (3d12 doubled +1d12) on a critical hit. Use stuff like Darkness + Devil's Sight or Greater Invisibility for Advantage to help offset the GWM attack penalty, and your Concentration on spells like those is tough to break, thanks to CON proficiency alongside Advantage from Eldritch Mind. Stick to buff/utility/exploration spells and Eldritch Smite for your spell slots, since you have only middling CHA. (Think of it more as a meleer who can self-buff than a caster who can fight.) Use Eldritch Blast for ranged backup when necessary. Take Booming Blade at Warlock 4 to bridge the one level gap in your delayed access to Extra Attack from the Fighter dip, then swap it out for a different cantrip at Warlock 8 via Eldritch Versatility since it's no longer of use.

You're ridiculously hard to kill, thanks to access to Temp HP from Form of Dread and occasionally Armor of Agathys, as well as three different ways to keep from going to 0 HP: the Death Ward "ritual" as described above, your racial Relentless Endurance, and Necrotic Husk as a last resort (since it inflicts exhaustion). You can just straight up deny three different killing blows in a row, plus make an Attack (Orcish Fury) and/or deal AoE damage (Necrotic Husk) with your Reaction(s) while doing so.


Heavy Armor I don't see as an upgrade to Med. Given that your attack stat isn't strength

Absolutely. On a Hexblade, your focus is maxing your CHA, so putting a 14 in DEX and sticking to medium armor is far superior to the alternative of putting a 15 in STR and taking a 1 level spellcasting deficit just to gain +1 AC from Heavy Armor.

[animorte]

Hexblade really don't get much benefit from going Fighter, as they're basically THE only-CHA-needed subclass.
I disagree with this. Nearly any character can benefit well enough from Fighter. But I agree with this:

Hexblade just doesn't care about anything fighter 1 offers. If there's an argument for any fighter MC, it would be fighter 2 or 3.

Although, for many people, the question is still whether or not you’re ok setting back spell progression.

[Witty Username]

If you are planning on fighter 2, then fighter 1, warlock 5-9, fighter 2 is a fair plan, mostly your only getting Con proficiency doing that, unless you want high strength for whatever reason.

[Frogreaver]

I would say you are better off starting straight hexblade till 5.

Concentration spells like hex at these low levels aren't what I would be using early for a melee warlock. Spells like Hellish Rebuke, Armor of Agathys and Shatter will tend to have more impact at these levels with far less risk.

Though if you really want to start as fighter your character won't suck.

[LudicSavant]

Is dueling, heavy armor and CON saves worth being one level behind for a sword & board hexblade? I'd say no.

Heavy armor isn't doing you any favors since you're not Strength-based, and Con saves aren't that much better than Wis saves. Invocations, spell progression, etc are often more substantial than Dueling.

Action Surge may be more tempting, if you're planning to go beyond Fighter 1.