Warlock Patrons: Hexblade

Guide by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

Have you ever wanted to work for your sword? Functionally, that’s what Hexblades are; servants to a weird shadow entity manifesting as some kind of magic weapon. Alternatively, have you tried the Pact of the Blade and found it wildly underwhelming? If either is true, the Hexblade Otherworldly Patron is here for you.

Hexblades initially might seem like they are forced to be melee frontliners, but that’s not entirely true; any weapon based build can work with this patron. Want to get a pair of crossbows and hunt your patron? This subclass can help with that. Typically, though, you’re going to see Hexblades as frontline paladin/warlock hybrids slashing their way through baddies with the edgiest swords you can think of.

1st-3rd Level: Hexblade’s Curse, Hex Warrior, and Expanded Spells

Hexblade’s Curse is their defining 1st level ability, and it's… fine. It's a once per short rest 30 ft. range single target curse that deals bonus damage equal to your proficiency bonus when you hit them, lets you crit on 19s and 20s, and gives you a bit of free healing when they die. You assign it as a bonus action, then proceed to wack it with your action. A fairly clear play pattern. You can mix this with Hex as well for more bonus damage to particularly large things, which is nifty, and when you start getting extra attacks, this damage does stack up quite fast.
Hex Warrior is the other critical element to the Hexblade identity. It grants you proficiencies with shields, medium armor, and martial weapons. On top of that, it lets you attack with your Charisma modifier with a weapon that isn’t two handed (unless it's a pact weapon, which it basically has to be after 3rd level). That means you can take a +2 Dex and +3 Charisma, get all the value out of your spell saves and spellcasting ability modifier based abilities while also getting your maximum bonuses to hit and damage, all while wearing about as good armor as you can ask for. Shields are a secret major boon here; they’ll often just feel like a free bonus to your AC.
Shield, while normally one of the best 1st level spells in the game, quickly becomes obsolete when you’re forced to spend 3rd level or higher spell slots on it. At 1st level it can be fine, but can be hard to justify over a higher impact or longer duration spell for your slot. Past 3rd level, you don’t want to be spending 2nd level slots on Shield. Shield is good because it costs you a 1st level slot, which full-casters have an abundance of. Warlocks do not share this trait.
Wrathful Smite is a bonus d6 damage and a potential fear on a weapon attack. It doesn’t scale with level, breaks your concentration by taking it itself, and has such a low impact I can’t fathom trying this and being happy with it. Wrathful Smite is awful.
Blur imposes disadvantage on attacks against you while also taking your concentration; contradictory effects that will often leave this feeling like a 2nd level spell for disadvantage on three or four attack rolls. It's fine at 3rd level probably; past 5th, you don’t want to be spending 3rd level spell slots on this weak of a defensive ability.
Branding Smite is not fine. It's terrible. Once again, it breaks your concentration, gives you 2d6 bonus radiant damage, and has no other meaningful text. At least it up-casts, but you don’t want to be spending spell slots dealing this weak of damage to creatures, especially when Hex is sitting right there waiting.

4th-7th Level: Accursed Specter and 3rd and 4th Level Expanded Spells

Accursed Specter at 6th level is an INSANE ability. Once per long rest, when yo kill a humanoid, you can turn it into a specter. A literal, actual specter. You get an incorporeal servant that can move through walls, drains the life out of creatures with a 3d6 necrotic damage Life Drain attack (boosted by your Charisma modifier as well), has a dozen damage resistances, and comes with a 50 ft. hovering fly speed. All of this would be par for the course if it took your concentration or required you spend spell slots on it at least, but nope. This is in addition to a shadowspawn or undead you summon with Summon Shadowspawn or Summon Undead. It's a crazy good feature that will encourage you to be super evil to get value out of it.
Blink is a chaotic, underwhelming teleportation effect that doesn’t offer much tactical advantage to most characters. Skirmisher style Hexblades might find they don’t care that much if they disappear or not, and could satisfy a specific ethereal, ghostly fantasy with this, but I don’t see it being that worthwhile of an effect for a 3rd level slot.
Elemental Weapon feels like a Hex side-grade, giving you an hour-long +1 bonus to hit for a downgraded damage dice from d6 to d4. You get to pick an elemental type at least, and the plus to hit will increase when you get 5th level slots, but come on. Hex will have a longer duration and deals more damage than this. Elemental Weapon isn’t going to be worth it the majority of the time.
Phantasmal Killer takes the 1st level spell, Cause Fear, and says if it fails two saves in a row, you get a bonus 4d10 psychic damage! Even if they fail three saves, over two rounds, you’re getting 8d10 psychic damage and a single target fear for your spell slot. Not only is it wildly inconsistent, the best case scenario outcome is just fine, it's not even particularly backbreaking for many monsters. Phantasmal Killer takes your concentration, too, meaning any long duration summon or Hex you’re working with stops, not to mention the effect can end by you taking damage from the creature before it even gets a chance to attempt the 2nd save, should it fail the first one. Phantasmal Killer is terrible.
Staggering Smite is a bonus action 4d6 bonus damage on an attack roll that pseudo-frightens a creature hit if it then also fails a Wisdom saving throw. 4d6 damage? For a 4th level spell slot? Get out of here. A single target disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks for one round? What a joke.

8th-10th Level: Armor of Hexes and 5th Level Expanded Spells

Armor of Hexes is a defensive feature that at least is mechanically interesting, and scales when you upgrade your Hexblade’s Curse with Master of Hexes next level. It will make you an excellent duelist that deals with one creature incredibly well, as you can cause one hit a round to have a fifty percent chance to miss with your reaction, which is great. As things start getting multi-attack this will feel a bit lackluster, especially as its tied to your minute duration curse you get once a short rest, but in the mid tiers especially Armor of Hexes can feel great.
Banishing Smite takes Banishment, a solid spell, and makes it attached to a 5d10 damaging attack roll that only affects things with 50 or fewer hit points after damage. To be fair, there are no save requirements here, but I often feel like you’ll be better off just killing the thing you’re dealing a bonus 25 damage to, especially around 9th level when you’re casting this. If you ever cast this, get the damage, and don’t banish something, you’ll at least take solace in your 5th level spell slot being a glorified divine smite. Of the smite options, this is probably the best, and can have a powerful effect on a fight; it’ll be finicky, and inconsistent table to table.
Cone of Cold finally is a spell worth its slot in terms of damage. This is the Hexblade Fireball; a way to deal a bunch of damage in a huge area. It takes their normally duelist limited tool kit and gives them a new way to challenge the world around them in a powerful way. Cone of Cold is one of the most critical spells a Hexblade can get at 9th level.

14th Level: Master of Hexes

Master of Hexes upgrades your Hexblade’s Curse to have the same retargeting system Hex has out the gate, this time without even needing to spend a bonus action. Paired with Armor of Hexes, this will make your Hexblade’s Curse have a much higher impact in upper tier encounters. What makes this feel pretty bad to me is it doesn’t offer you more uses of the curse, nor increase its duration, making it a feature that you’re still only getting once per short rest which can easily be more than one encounter. As far as a capstone subclass feature goes, a quality of life improvement doesn’t feel like enough to me, especially when compared to bangers like Hurl Through Hell on the Fiend patron or the Celestial’s Searing Vengeance.

All Together

The Hexblade is for characters dedicated to Pact of the Blade. It basically requires you to commit to Thirsting Blade and Pact of the Blade when you pick it up, as both are critical for its functionality. If you want to build a ranged option, and don’t get a ranged magic weapon to bind to, you’re stuck with needing Improved Pact Weapon as well. Accursed Specter does a lot of heavy lifting in keeping this option feeling like it has more things to do than just attack like a champion fighter, especially given how limited they are in uses for Hexblade’s Curse. You can do powerful things with it, especially at 5th level or with another character taking a dip into for its proficiencies and short rest recharging pact magic slot and curse, but you have to be really into the fantasy for the repetitive play pattern to be all that exciting to keep going with. The spell list is largely atrocious as well, easily being the worst out of all the expanded spell options the patrons offer. If you love the concept, I’d recommend taking this as a multi-class martial boon more than a full dedicated 20 levels in warlock.

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