Hexblade build.

[Jaycuity1]

So I am winding down a build I’m going to be playing in an upcoming eberron campaign with friends. Wondering what are good invocations spells and a good weapon to focus on. My DM has previously denied the use of devil sight and darkness so that’s out. Also was wondering if a 1 level dip in sorc would make sense for the spell slots mostly? Looking at Clockwork soul aberrant mind and shadow magic in that order. Were starting at level 2 or 3 so I’d start sorc and then go the rest of the way in warlock. My stats are 13 14 15 15 16 16 (we rolled and I got super lucky haha). Thanks in advance.

[OptimizedAC]

Here's the top 3 results from my googling of "hexblade build". Ignore the recommendations for Darkness and Devilsight interactions that presumably show up
:
https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/warlock/subclasses/hexblade/
https://www.thegamer.com/dungeons-dragons-dnd-hexblade-warlock-build-guide/
https://arcaneeye.com/class-guides/hexblade-5e-guide/

Assuming you want more specific advice, are there more specific details you want to share for what you have in mind for the build?

[CTurbo]

With stats like that, I'd opt for a more MAD build personally, but if you really want to be a Hexblade, consider 2 levels of Paladin for heavy armor and smites.

Paladin 2/Hexblade/Bladelock 18 would be very good.

If you want to dip in Sorcerer, I'd probably want some more Sorcerer levels for Sorcery Points and Metamagic.

[Mastikator]

I agree with paladin.

Race: Shadar kai

ability scores
STR 16
DEX 13
CON 15 (+1 => 16)
INT 14
WIS 15
CHA 16 (+2 => 18)

Levels 1-6 you are a conquest or ancients or vengeance paladin of the raven queen. (I'm pretty sure she's thelanis in eberron, or maybe mabar, or whatever your DM says)
Level 7+ you take only levels in warlock hexblade.

At level 4 grab elven accuracy (charisma), at 10 grab GWM.

Pact: of the blade.
Invocations: agonizing blast and improved pact weapon

At level 10 grab a charisma improving half feat or GWM

[Schwann145]

Hexblade is so overdone. Buck the trend and go Tomelock; be a massive book nerd. 🤓

[DruidAlanon]

The standard Clockwork Soul Sorc + Hex is one of the strongest builds in 5e and I would naturally point you towards Hex 2/ Clock Sorc X. The idea behind Hex/Sorc is a caster with medium armor + shield (around 19 AC) plus full spell progression + benchmark, resourceless damage & control with eldtrich blast + repelling blast + agonising blast. If this sounds good, go for hex 2 / clockwork sorc X and make sure you discuss with your DM how you will deal with the infamous coffeelock broken interaction. This is by far the strongest "hexblade" build you can play and essentially you play a tanky controller caster that can also blast if he wants/needs to.

The real question is what playstyle you want (as well as what level of optimisation the rest of your party is aiming/capable of). If you want e.g. to go mellee, then obviously the above build will not work for you, and you'll go for one of the numerous Hexadin builds.

[RSP]

Are you looking at Hexblade to be a melee caster (“Gish”)?

If so, Hexblade is fine in melee up until about the end of tier 2. However, somewhere around level 9-ish, monster damage becomes too much for the Hexblade to consistently stay in melee combat.

Unlike other “Gish” classes, Hexblade doesn’t have much in the way of avoiding hits, or effective damage mitigation.

If you give us more on what you’re looking for in this PC, we may be able to better help.

[DruidAlanon]

Are you looking at Hexblade to be a melee caster (“Gish”)?

If so, Hexblade is fine in melee up until about the end of tier 2. However, somewhere around level 9-ish, monster damage becomes too much for the Hexblade to consistently stay in melee combat.

Unlike other “Gish” classes, Hexblade doesn’t have much in the way of avoiding hits, or effective damage mitigation.

If you give us more on what you’re looking for in this PC, we may be able to better help.

To the best of my knowledge, excluding darkness, only the shadow of moil spell can provide some defence in the form of disadvantage, but depends on concentration, so it's good until it's not.

Then there's armor of agathys, which can be upcasted, but the contribution to sturdiness is not that significant.

[RSP]

To the best of my knowledge, excluding darkness, only the shadow of moil spell can provide some defence in the form of disadvantage, but depends on concentration, so it's good until it's not.

Then there's armor of agathys, which can be upcasted, but the contribution to sturdiness is not that significant.

AoA for a melee Warlock is a less than stellar use of their Action and limited spell casting ability.

I used a Hexblade Bladelock in SKT and once we were facing giants, AoA was essentially useless. For the cost of your Action and a 4th or 5th level spell you mitigate 20-25 damage, and do 20-25 damage. Against a Fire Giant, the average of 1 hit is 28, so you’re not even mitigating one entire hit. And you’re doing only 20-25 damage. And AoA doesn’t even do the damage if you get hit from range.

It’s just not enough umph to protect a d8 PC in melee. A Shield spell, for instance, can mitigate an entire attack (maybe more than one) while not using an Action, and only a 1st level slot.

And that 20-25 damage doesn’t do much to a creature with 162 HPs, even if they take it. Much better using that slot and action on something more effective.

If you have an ability like Rage or Bastion of Law that can effectively extend the damage over multiple hits, AoA functions much better.

SoM is okay, but Disadvantage even with an 18 AC, isn’t enough when the attacker has double digit to hit bonuses. Yeah, it’ll help, but just not enough for it to be an Action and half/a third of your casting, not to mention Concentration while being in melee.

[DruidAlanon]

AoA for a melee Warlock is a less than stellar use of their Action and limited spell casting ability.

I used a Hexblade Bladelock in SKT and once we were facing giants, AoA was essentially useless. For the cost of your Action and a 4th or 5th level spell you mitigate 20-25 damage, and do 20-25 damage. Against a Fire Giant, the average of 1 hit is 28, so you’re not even mitigating one entire hit. And you’re doing only 20-25 damage. And AoA doesn’t even do the damage if you get hit from range.

It’s just not enough umph to protect a d8 PC in melee. A Shield spell, for instance, can mitigate an entire attack (maybe more than one) while not using an Action, and only a 1st level slot.

And that 20-25 damage doesn’t do much to a creature with 162 HPs, even if they take it. Much better using that slot and action on something more effective.

If you have an ability like Rage or Bastion of Law that can effectively extend the damage over multiple hits, AoA functions much better.

SoM is okay, but Disadvantage even with an 18 AC, isn’t enough when the attacker has double digit to hit bonuses. Yeah, it’ll help, but just not enough for it to be an Action and half/a third of your casting, not to mention Concentration while being in melee.

Indeed. A gish hexblade will benefit a lot from a controller that can buff/debuff accordingly. I'm not a big advocate of melee hexblades but it's a fun option.

[JLandan]

I recently played a Christmas one-shot for level 8 PCs. Since it was a one-shot, I thought it would be a good opportunity to play an experiment I had been considering.

Variant human Fighter 1, to get Dual-Wielder and Two-Weapon Fighting.
Rogue 1, to get better skills and a sneak die, just one but a die is a die.
Warlock 6 Hexblade, to get EB for ranged, Shadow Armor, Devil's Sight, imp. pact weapon, the smite spells, and Shadow Blade for my off-hand. Bonus action heavy, but oh well.

So his thing was to two-weapon his pact rapier and Shadow Blade getting SA when possible, which was often because I used my Accursed Specter (named The Spirit of Christmas Right Freaking Now) to get the ally adjacency. When smite spells were better to use than Shadow Blade, he used his back-up rapier for off-hand.

Not the most optimal combat caster, never did use CHA for attacks because his DEX was better, but it was especially fun when the Krampus took a critical from the Shadow Blade (3d8x2+3) with SA (1d6x2) right after failing the save for Max HP loss from the Specter. A horrible round for him, but a hoot-and-a-holler for me.

[Chaos Theory]

I played a hexblade in a campaign earlier this year. Invocations for my basic hexblade build include Improved Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, Eldritch Smite, Eldritch Mind, Devil Sight, and Lifedrinker. It is versatile and supports many fighting styles - ranged, heavy, reach, or sword + board. However, if I had to recommend one style to focus on, it would be ranged using a longbow or hand crossbow. Range mitigates the hexblade's defensive mediocrity while remaining compatible with all of the class's features. In short, play a hexblade the same way you would play a ranger.

I'd recommend sticking with single-class warlock. Hexblade's martial and caster abilites both scale well with level. At its core, a hexblade is still a warlock with full-progression spellcasting and a high save DC. For spells, I like Hex, Shield, and Misty Step but I don't like Armor of Agathys, Mirror Image, or Blink. Instead of preparing for a protracted engagement, I prefer to save pact magic slots for abilities that will save my life or that will alter the course of a fight. It helps to coordinate spell lists with the party's main caster and to take whatever complements them. For example, I took Hunger of Hadar to combo with the sorcerer's Web. The full progression also applies to weapon attacks which improve with Thirsting Blade at level 5 and Lifedrinker at level 12. If you have to dip something, consider Fighter for archery fighting style and action surge. Sorcerer just delays pact magic and invocation progression without adding anything useful.