What is a good hexblade feat?

[cavanaht]

Ok, here's my build...
I'm a 11th level dragonborn hexblade who has focused on intimidating strike. I have a +28 to intimidate with gear. I also took the dark companion ACF. Usually with the dark companion and a successful intimidating strike, I can unleash a hexblade curse to really cripple the opponent. (-8 on all d20 rolls and -4 damage)
My question is, what would be a decent 12th level feat?
I have already taken entangling breath, intimidating strike, frightful presence, obtain familiar and planar familiar (lantern archon, for more penalties).

Every book is available, and so far the only feat that is not allowed is the everbroken Leadership.

[Grynning]

Ability Focus for your curse isn't bad. The save DC isn't very good on its own.

Are you playing with the "unofficial" fixed Hexblade (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=10585113#post10585113)? If you're not, you may want to run it by the DM, it's significantly better balanced with other classes.

[Kizara]

"Don't take any level after 4th" is my favorite hexblade 'feat', it considerably improves any build involving the class.

[Grynning]

By the way, I just looked up Intimidating Strike, and while it's not bad, it's not going to work on every monster, and you may want to actually deal some damage sometimes. Good old Power Attack and a two-handed weapon is your best bet there.

[The_Snark]

It's not a hexblade feat, exactly, but Imperious Command, from Drow of the Underdark, is a very good choice for any intimidate-based build. It makes any enemy you demoralize cower (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#cowering) for a round, and then they're shaken for the next round. Cowering is a very nasty condition to inflict on enemies.

[Immutep]

By the way, I just looked up Intimidating Strike, and while it's not bad, it's not going to work on every monster, and you may want to actually deal some damage sometimes. Good old Power Attack and a two-handed weapon is your best bet there.

While i agree with the basic premise here, i think that a bastard sword is a better way to go. With proficiency with the weapon you can switch between one and two handed wielding making somatic casting much easier in the middle of a fight (you've not mentioned combat casting? Odd for what is basically a secondary fighter/caster class)

[Kaiyanwang]

While i agree with the basic premise here, i think that a bastard sword is a better way to go. With proficiency with the weapon you can switch between one and two handed wielding making somatic casting much easier in the middle of a fight (you've not mentioned combat casting? Odd for what is basically a secondary fighter/caster class)

Depending from the party composition, Polearms are good for many Hexblades too.

[Cheesegear]

Ability Focus (Curse), is always good.
Improved Trip/Disarm, since you've cursed them and they can't do anything and you lord it over them.
Spell Focus (Enchantment) perhaps? Skill Focus (Concentration) or Combat Casting are always great feats for a combat-caster.

[AslanCross]

I don't know if your DM would allow them, but CrystalKeep has Hexblade curse feats that add alternative effects to your curse. (They were printed in Dragon 339)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'll agree that Improved Disarm and/or Improved Trip would be amazing to use once they're debuffed to -8. Casting Hound of Doom is just as good as Improved Trip, especially with a Lesser Rod of Extend. Practiced Spellcaster is a must-have for any of the classes that only get half their class level to their caster level.

[JellyPooga]

How about Undead Leadership (Lib.Mort.)...hey, it's not Leadership! :smalltongue:

Seriously though, I would go for something combat-oriented. You've got a whole bunch of stuff to de-buff your foe, It's probably time to start thinking about following up on it!

The obvious ones are Power Attack (Leap Attack later), Imp Trip (as has already been mentioned, though you'd need Combat Expertise 1st), Combat Reflexes and the like, though I'd need to know your character style for something less generic...

[cavanaht]

Our party composition is this:
-Chaos gnome illusionist who prestiged into master specialist
-Human cleric who prestiged into holy exorcist
-Killoren druid who took 1 level of beastmaster to offset the -3 levels for grabbing a more powerful animal companion
-Dragonborn hexblade who hasn't prestiged

We've done extremely well so far. Our druid's favorite spells are blinding spittle and spike stones. He also likes to cast evard's menacing tentacles on himself to let his animal companion rip up the baddies.
Our illusionist uses his spells pretty well and now that he has shadow conjuration/evocation, he's abusing the crap out of defenstrating sphere. And his DCs are incredibly high. Esoterica + spell focus is crazy insane.
Our cleric uses his turn undeads to quick heal the party via divine feats and then throws a prayer/bless or spiritual weapon at the enemy.

So far, I tend to be nothing more than ancillary support.

[Kizara]

Consider making a new character as a duskblade. Less suck, more fun, etc.

[Tengu_temp]

While i agree with the basic premise here, i think that a bastard sword is a better way to go. With proficiency with the weapon you can switch between one and two handed wielding making somatic casting much easier in the middle of a fight (you've not mentioned combat casting? Odd for what is basically a secondary fighter/caster class)

You can hold a longsword in two hands too, you know.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

While i agree with the basic premise here, i think that a bastard sword is a better way to go. With proficiency with the weapon you can switch between one and two handed wielding making somatic casting much easier in the middle of a fight (you've not mentioned combat casting? Odd for what is basically a secondary fighter/caster class)Combat Casting is a waste of a Feat. It's weaker than Skill Focus.

Also, either a Longsword or Somatic Weaponry is better than wasting a feat on EWP for an additional 1(!) point of damage.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Our party composition is this:
-Chaos gnome illusionist who prestiged into master specialist
-Human cleric who prestiged into holy exorcist
-Killoren druid who took 1 level of beastmaster to offset the -3 levels for grabbing a more powerful animal companion
-Dragonborn hexblade who hasn't prestiged

We've done extremely well so far. Our druid's favorite spells are blinding spittle and spike stones. He also likes to cast evard's menacing tentacles on himself to let his animal companion rip up the baddies.
Our illusionist uses his spells pretty well and now that he has shadow conjuration/evocation, he's abusing the crap out of defenstrating sphere. And his DCs are incredibly high. Esoterica + spell focus is crazy insane.
Our cleric uses his turn undeads to quick heal the party via divine feats and then throws a prayer/bless or spiritual weapon at the enemy.

So far, I tend to be nothing more than ancillary support.

Chaos gnome illusionist: Should have taken Shadowcraft Mage, Heighten Spell, Earth Spell, and convert Silent Image into Shadow Conjuration/Evocation effects.

Killoren druid can still take Natural Bond and, as per being able to add your own bonuses in the most beneficial order, go (level -3) and then (natural bond +3) then (beastmaster +3) and end up being counted as three levels higher than his character level for his animal companion. Magic of the Land (RotW) with Aspect of the Ancient adds free healing to buffs.

Dragonborn hexblade? Is that a nongood variant of Dragonborn of Bahamut, or has the nongood requirement of Hexblade been lifted? See if you can retrain into Talon of Tiamat, a favorite build of mine is Hexblade 3/ Sorcerer 2/ Talon of Tiamat 10/ Spellsword 5, taking one Spellsword level after the fifth Talon level. Use Power Attack, Arcane Strike, and Wraithstrike to deal considerable damage in melee, get Maximize Breath and Clinging Breath and your cone of acid will deal (60+30+15+7) damage, the ones later on are even better. Cast Blinding Breath to use with your racial breath attack. Get a Spell Storing weapon and a Lesser Rod of Maximize and put something like Maximized Shivering Touch (FB) or a Maximized Vampiric Touch into it. At level 20 you'll be able to use Channel Spell with Cloudkill to deal an obscene amount of Con damage over a long period of time. This makes for an excellent melee damage dealer plus secondary AoE nuker plus party face.

[Person_Man]

Intimidating Strike is a horrible tactic. It's a Standard Action. With a Standard Action you can cast a spell or make a full attack. There are much better and easier ways to get the same, or better, effect.

Brutal Strike (PHBII): Once a round you can make any bludgeoning weapon attack a brutal strike. Enemy must Save or be Sickened, imposing yet another -2 penalty on them.

Exotic Weapon Prof Flindbar (MMIII): Basically nunchucks. When you threaten a crit you get a free Disarm check, and you get +2 to Disarm. With the Impact enhancement (Keen for blunt weapons) you get a free Disarm check on 20% of your attacks.

Netherese Battle Curse (Lost Empires of Faerun): You can burn a spell to make an attack a curse attack, imposing yet another -2 penalty on them.

Draconic Claw (Comp Arcane): Gives you a natural claw attack. You can make natural attacks as a secondary attack at -5 when you make a full attack. In addition, when you cast a Standard Action spell, you can make a claw attack as a Swift Action. Natural Weapons count for Power Attack and Weapon Finesse.

Net, Razor Net, Lasso: This is just a tactic every Hexblade should use. Each of these imposes a -4 penalty to Dex, no Save. Penalties from different sources stack. If you get an enemy's Dex down to 0, then they're paralyzed. Don't bother investing in the weapon proficiencies, because they're touch attacks and your To-Hit is high. You can look them up on the crystalkeep equipment page.