2Ftr/9Hex needs Advantage

[Cowboy_ninja]

Im trying to maximise the number of times i can crit with banishing smite and Eldritch smite.

I have a lvl 2 fighter/9 hexblade with elven accuracy.

I've been using Shadow of Moil to get advantage but now I have the 5lvl spell Banishing Smite which is also concentration. I can't concentrate on both.

I'm thinking I need another way to get advantage that doesn't involve concentrating on a spell. Potential options are a 3rd lvl in fighter and go Samurai archetype for the Fighting Spirit class feature, but I'd prefer to go Champion and get the Improved Critical class feature.

What are some other, self sufficient, options to get advantage on all my attacks?

[Skrum]

Convince the party/DM to play with flanking :smallsmile:

Samurai is an option, as you noted. Other than that, fighters get....shoving. If you can knock someone prone, you'll have advantage on all your subsequent attacks, as will the rest of your party until they stand back up again. This isn't a particularly good strategy if you have to do it every round of course, since you have to give up weapon attacks to shove.

Battle Masters can take Trip Attack, which gives them a chance to knock someone prone as part of their attack. This massively increases the viability of using it as a general strategy.

But - eldritch smite has an auto-prone. This is very good to combine with Action Surge. Smite on the first hit, knock them prone, and then action surge to take advantage of them being prone.

[RogueJK]

Yep, Shoving Prone is about the only resourceless, self-sufficient, non-Concentration way for a Fighter 2/Hexblade 9 to generate frequent Advantage. But this requires giving up 50% of your attacks in the hopes that your crits will make up for it in the big picture. Not exactly the most efficient way to go about it. But your other options are going to require teamwork, or Concentration spells, or spell slots.

Even Samurai only gets you Advantage for 3 turns per day. That's not many, plus it costs your Bonus Action, which means you can't use Fighting Spirit in the same turn that you cast Banishing Smite.

Battlemaster is your better option for a Fighter subclass, letting you use Maneuvers like Trip Attack to gain Advantage up to four times per Short Rest, compared to Samurai's three times per Long Rest. But that's predicated upon you having a high enough STR or DEX score to make enemies reasonably likely to fail against your Maneuver DC.

Champion actually doesn't get a Hexblade as much, because they can already use Hexblade's Curse to get a 19-20 crit range. You can't stack the two to crit on an 18-20.

Even Eldritch Knight could get you an Owl Familiar to use the Flyby Help action, which could get you Advantage on 1 attack each turn with no other investment. That's probably the way to get Advantage the most throughout the adventuring day, although it's once each turn for every turn instead of for an entire turn a few times per long/short rest. Plus you'd have two 1st level EK spell slots for Shield or Hex or whatnot.

[Mastikator]

Samurai's fighting spirit uses bonus action, hard to combine with banishing smite if you're crit fishing. Improved crit doesn't stack with hexblade's curse.

Reckless attack from 2 levels of barbarian would give you always advantage without expending resources or action economy. But it's costly to take 2 levels of barbarian just for that.

[Lunatism]

Reckless attack from 2 levels of barbarian would give you always advantage without expending resources or action economy. But it's costly to take 2 levels of barbarian just for that.

Additionally, you cannot concentrate on spells while you are raging. 2lv of barb is surely out of the question.

[Hytheter]

Since you can't choose whether to trigger Banishing Smite on a hit, trying to crit-fish with it seems like a fool's errand.

[Molchmeister]

My DM has inspiration cards from some third party. I pulled one off with a 13th level hexblade warlock. Inspiration card gave me crit on next hit. Bonus banishing smite, action booming blade, attack roll war cleric gives +10 to hit, and drop a slot for smite. 2d10 weapon 10d10 Banishing, 6d8 BB, 12d8 eldritch smite, +5 ability, +5 lifedrinker. I did 168 damage with a single attack against a BBEG already damaged then the less than 50 hp no save, so no legendary resistance kicked in and BB Demonlord goes bye bye and DM re-evaluates inspiration cards.

[Molchmeister]

Additionally, you cannot concentrate on spells while you are raging. 2lv of barb is surely out of the question.

You don't have to be raging to go reckless.

[Hytheter]

You don't have to be raging to go reckless.

No, but it's a wasted level.

Reckless Attack is unlikely to help a Hexblade, anyway, since it only applies to STR based attacks.

[nickl_2000]

3 levels of Rogue would net you an extra 2d6 sneak attack damage and Steady Aim. It's a long ways to go, but it is a reliable way to generate Advantage and at least you get good other stuff from 3 levels of Rogue.

[RogueJK]

Reckless attack from 2 levels of barbarian would give you always advantage without expending resources or action economy. But it's costly to take 2 levels of barbarian just for that.

Reckless Attack requires STR-based attack. With 9 level of Hexblade, it's a good bet that they're relying on CHA for their attacks.

[Molchmeister]

What about five levels of fighter pick up grappler as a feat and extra attack, then either 1 rogue for expertise in athletics or another fighter for prodigy.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Yep, Shoving Prone is about the only resourceless, self-sufficient, non-Concentration way for a Fighter 2/Hexblade 9 to generate frequent Advantage. But this requires giving up 50% of your attacks in the hopes that your crits will make up for it in the big picture. Not exactly the most efficient way to go about it. But your other options are going to require teamwork, or Concentration spells, or spell slots.

Even Samurai only gets you Advantage for 3 turns per day. That's not many, plus it costs your Bonus Action, which means you can't use Fighting Spirit in the same turn that you cast Banishing Smite.

Battlemaster is your better option for a Fighter subclass, letting you use Maneuvers like Trip Attack to gain Advantage up to four times per Short Rest, compared to Samurai's three times per Long Rest. But that's predicated upon you having a high enough STR or DEX score to make enemies reasonably likely to fail against your Maneuver DC.

Champion actually doesn't get a Hexblade as much, because they can already use Hexblade's Curse to get a 19-20 crit range. You can't stack the two to crit on an 18-20.

Even Eldritch Knight could get you an Owl Familiar to use the Flyby Help action, which could get you Advantage on 1 attack each turn with no other investment. That's probably the way to get Advantage the most throughout the adventuring day, although it's once each turn for every turn instead of for an entire turn a few times per long/short rest. Plus you'd have two 1st level EK spell slots for Shield or Hex or whatnot.

The OP could double up on these ideas: Take Magic Initiate for Find Familiar and the level of BM. Get advantage on the first attack with the Familiar, while using Trip Attack, which will hopefully work and trigger advantage on the 2nd (and 3rd with PAM)

[Mastikator]

The OP could double up on these ideas: Take Magic Initiate for Find Familiar and the level of BM. Get advantage on the first attack with the Familiar, while using Trip Attack, which will hopefully work and trigger advantage on the 2nd (and 3rd with PAM)

He only needs 1 more level of fighter to take Eldritch Knight to use a scroll of Find Familiar. Or ask his DM if he can take find familiar instead of his prescribed abjuration/evocation spells.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

He only needs 1 more level of fighter to take Eldritch Knight to use a scroll of Find Familiar. Or ask his DM if he can take find familiar instead of his prescribed abjuration/evocation spells.

Yes, but I think you missed my point. With a level of Battlemaster and Magic Initiate you get 2 ways of creating advantage. The familiar provides you advantage on your first attack every turn. 4 times per short rest you also use Tripping Attack with attack #1, then subsequent attacks would also have advantage, assuming the trip works.

[RogueJK]

He only needs 1 more level of fighter to take Eldritch Knight to use a scroll of Find Familiar. Or ask his DM if he can take find familiar instead of his prescribed abjuration/evocation spells.

EKs get one "any school" spell pick at EK 3. That can be Find Familiar.

[Corran]

Im trying to maximise the number of times i can crit with banishing smite and Eldritch smite.

I have a lvl 2 fighter/9 hexblade with elven accuracy.

I've been using Shadow of Moil to get advantage but now I have the 5lvl spell Banishing Smite which is also concentration. I can't concentrate on both.

I'm thinking I need another way to get advantage that doesn't involve concentrating on a spell. Potential options are a 3rd lvl in fighter and go Samurai archetype for the Fighting Spirit class feature, but I'd prefer to go Champion and get the Improved Critical class feature.

What are some other, self sufficient, options to get advantage on all my attacks?
In some circumstances you may consider switching to a bow, to shoot your enemy from outside their darkvision's range if that's possible. You'll need devil sight for this or any other way to beat your enemy's line of sight.

Similarly, stealth can also benefit you in that you attack with advantage when being unseen, but unless you can optimize its action economy it will most likely help you mostly during the first turn.

Two levels of rogue for cunning action (hide/dash/steady aim) can help, as well as a familiar (granted from a feat, further multiclassing, or a 3rd level in fighter), but rogue levels are a stretch when you are already two levels into fighter (unless you are willing to swap), and familiars are fragile. Still, options for you to consider.

Samurai too, as you mention, though be mindful, that similarly with cunning action, it dpes use your bonus action which you need for banishing smite if you are not pre casting (be careful for when precasting can ruin surprise, cause that's very rarely a good trade). Dont worry about missing on champion, worry about delaying warlock levels.

Allies are a great source of advantage sometimes (buffs on you like greater invisibility, or debuffs/CC like web and faerie fire). See if they have such options available, though try not to focus too much on character performance and miss on the bigger picture.

Finally, a note on banishing smite. It's worse than eldritch smite for critfishing, because once you cast it you get to use it without choosing when, so its double damage crit potential can easily be wasted. That said, it's not that important if the dice do end up wasting banishing smite's double crit potential, as it will be missing on its tactical potential. Which IMO is that it can be used to attempt at taking out enemy glass canons and thus hurting the enemy's action economy quite a lot. 5d10 damage is not a lot, but if you can stack more damage on top of it (eg eldritch smite, sharpshooter, action surge), then you improve your chances of the 50hp remaining on the enemy applying (assuming you delay banishing smite enough) and thus at the very least on the banishing effect taking place (if not outright killing your target). No saves involved, just AC. And you can do that all the way from 600 feet away (with no disadvantage if you have sharpshooter). With a good way to cover your tracks, you can be a one-man guerilla army (bit hyperbolic) if you want, thanks to how fast your slots recharge. You dont even have to be a dedicated archer to do that, just have a longbow around (sharpshooter and cha-to-attacks are entirely optional, the real opportunity cost is picking up banishing smite, which you already have anyway). So if I was to leave you with one thought, be on the lookout for enemy glass canons when a fair fight starts. Final note. If {you are missing on action surge} or {a hard hitting ally rolls high on initiative} while also you do roll well in initiative and a glass-canon-ish enemy is within striking (sword/bow) distance of both you and that aforementioned ally(allies) of yours, then consider casting banishing smite and readying an attack against that enemy glass canon on top of which you'll drop both an eldritch smite and your banishing smite after your "quick" ally/allies attack that enemy. This way you do increase your chances of taking out that enemy faster (by a probability of 50 over the average damage total of all those who attack that enemy), at an increased risk of missing the target (because of relying on just one instead of the usual 2 -or 4 if action surging- attacks to hit). That risk can be mitigated by having the lucky feat, but either way in some cases (eg low enemy AC) it can be worth it either way.