Is Hex worth it at high levels?

[Psyren]

I now have a new term to toy with: the squirrel loophole. That's an unexpected bonus from this thread.

I'd say it's not exactly new, it's also known as bag of rats or boil an anthill or sacrificial lamb/sheep. Basically, any game mechanic that triggers on death, the designers should test what happens if you use that mechanic on a critter or insect (and/or multitudes). If the players get power or utility out of doing so, then the mechanic needs to be revised because they absolutely will try that in game. Unfortunately that wasn't the case here.

I believe trying to divine what the devs intended, absent their actual words, be it officially on the SAC or even unofficially on Twitter, is something of a fool's game, and we end up believing that the devs intended exactly what we think should be the rule.

Also, it seems odd to go from “this spell isn’t worth it” to “this spell is overpowered” based on the cursing a new target not being detectable or not.

I’ve never thought of that before this thread brought it up, but I’d say the spell loses a lot of what it has going for it if you add in a noticeable cue that says “you’ve been Hexed!”

It's not that it's "overpowered" - but clearly if they meant for Hex to be undetectable they wouldn't have given it a verbal component in the first place. Compare Hex to something like, say, the Friends cantrip, which is much more clearly intended to be subtly usable mid-conversation and not noticed when cast (though afterward is a different matter.)