Alternate Hexblade Patrons

[Nicrosil]

So Xanathar's Guide to Everything is here, and with it is one of the most divisive subclasses of 5th edition: the Hexblade. Whether you think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, or that it's an awkward patch to the Blade Pact, I think we can all agree on one thing.

The fluff's pretty weird.

For those who don't have the book and haven't read it elsewhere, here's how the fluff goes: your Patron is a entity from the Shadowfell that makes powerful weapons and spreads them across the multiverse, like Blackrazor. You don't get one of these weapons, but instead learn to make one like it, maybe. Oh, and your Patron is defiantly not the Raven Queen wink wink nudge nudge.

Compared to the other Patrons, that's really specific. Think about it this way, it would be really hard to give a general concept to a brand new player. Demons, angels, undead, everyone's heard of them. Archfey and Great Old Ones are a bit weirder, but there's still plenty of examples in mainstream culture. And then there's the Hexblade. Your Patron is the Raven Queen from the Shadowfell who makes powerful weapons like the Blackrazor. Who from the what makes the whatnow? Plus, what if I want to play a Pact of the Chain Hexblade? Or a Pact of the Tome? Magic sword making doesn't really apply there.

So, the point of this topic is to come up with some alternate Patrons for the Hexblade, in the way, say, Demogorgon and Asmodeus are both potential fiendish Patrons despite being very different entities. What examples from D&D lore or other fiction can I draw on when making a Hexblade?

So, an obvious idea is making your Patron a sentient magic item. Your Patron is an established artifact, like Blackrazor or the Sun Sword or Excalibur, or the Book of Vile Deeds or the Necronomicon for Tome Pacts. Over the course of your career you forge a weapon or write a tome that emulates them; perhaps one day you become worthy enough to wield your Patron yourself. An alternate explanation is that your Patron is your sword or book right out of the gate, and as you grow stronger it becomes more and more powerful as well. Of course, this doesn't work so well for Chain Pacts...

Another idea is to theme the class around shadows and shadowy powers. There are tons of shadow based classes and prestige classes from older editions, so there is precedent for shadow based magic in D&D. From media, we have Doctor Facilier from the Princess and the Frog, Raven from Teen Titans, Midna from Legend of Zelda, any ghost or dark type Pokémon, and more. These can all be examples of Hexblade warlocks. Problem with this one is that while individual Hexblades can be very different, we still don't have any examples of Patrons...

What alternate Hexblade Patrons have you guys come up with?

[QuintonBeck]

So, an obvious idea is making your Patron a sentient magic item. Your Patron is an established artifact, like Blackrazor or the Sun Sword or Excalibur, or the Book of Vile Deeds or the Necronomicon for Tome Pacts. Over the course of your career you forge a weapon or write a tome that emulates them; perhaps one day you become worthy enough to wield your Patron yourself. An alternate explanation is that your Patron is your sword or book right out of the gate, and as you grow stronger it becomes more and more powerful as well. Of course, this doesn't work so well for Chain Pacts...

This is my preferred method. Loosening the strictures from strictly Shadowfell arts & crafts to allow incorporation of major artifacts into the narrative right from the get go. You're right that this doesn't quite play out as easily for a Chainlock but it does offer answers for Blades and Tomes.

I like the idea of the Hexblade patron being a piece of a greater whole that has been separate from the whole for so long that it's become its own thing. Sort of a rogue AI/personality developing from a rudimentary divine purpose. A Hexblade patron could be the mythical door/seal crafted to keep something very dangerous locked away at the beginning of time. Over the millennia the seal was affected by the very bad thing it contains and the occasional cult/church popping up to either protect it or break into it. With so much magic and power in its proximity and put into its creation it awakens and it develops its own wants and desires. Basically, take the "your patron can be an object of power" and run with it to the extremes. Not just handheld items but full on sentient tools/creations of the gods left to develop their own internal power which they eventually can master granting to others.

[ProsecutorGodot]

My first thought at what a hexblade could be was the Darkins out of of League of Legends. Sentient weapons that work towards dominating the mind and body of their hosts. Fall too far into what they want from you and risk losing yourself to them. I'd even go so far as to say that if the dm was willing it could simply be a inherited sword/weapon from your family that's granted your fathers and their fathers supernatural strength and ability. The twist being that the power comes from your ancestors very souls being devoured by the sword after a time of adventuring.

In my opinion, it's a pretty open concept as long as the DM is willing to let you be creative with it. Unfortunately if your DM is a stickler for the rules, you might have to end up being happy having a knockoff Blackrazor.

[Millstone85]

The Reaper
Your patron is a personification of the ineluctability of death. Some such entities act as psychopomps, guiding the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Others pursue those that would try to escape their mortality through undeath or other unnatural means. Many originate from the Shadowfell and serve gods of the grave such as Anubis, Kelemvor, the Raven Queen or Wee Jas. They are also known to forge and wield weapons that reap the soul from the body, such as Blackrazor or the Grim Scythe.