Hexblade Warlock 5e Handbook: DnD Subclass Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Hexblade warlocks are an interesting subclass: they can easily be a trapbecause their apparent versatility can leave you wanting to have many tools atyour disposal only to discover that none of them quite satisfy the way thatthe more specialized subclasses can. That said, with a little work you canfill your niche as a primary damage dealer in the front lines while stayingreasonably safe thanks to your spells and later parts of your kit.

EDIT: This was the first article I ever wrote for RPGBOT, long enough ago that it was published on the old version of the site. More importantly, it was written before Tasha’s was published. That means that a lot of work went into the Races section (which has largely been made irrelevant, though feel free to give it a read), and one of the single most important optimization options hadn’t been introduced yet: Elven Accuracy. This is a cornerstone of modern Warlock optimization for obvious reasons, and means that I need to redo the example build. Even if you’ve read this guide before, I recommend taking another thorough look at the table presented at the end.

This guide is specifically for the Hexblade Warlock, and omits sections of my typical class handbooks when those sections aren’t meaningfully different from other members of the class. For more information on the Warlock, see our Warlock Handbook. I also strongly recommend reading our Warlock Eldritch Invocation Breakdown and Warlock Spell List Breakdown.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Hexblade Subclass Features
• Hexblade Ability Scores
• Hexblade Races
  • Races of Eberron
    • Dragonmarks
  • Races of Ravnica
  • Races of Theros
  • Races of Wildemount
• Feats
• Weapons
• Armor
• Hexblade Warlock Spellcasting
• Example Build – High-Elf Warlock
  • Abilities
  • Race
  • Background
  • Skills and Tools
  • Feats
  • Levels

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Hexblade Subclass Features

• Expanded Spell List: While severaloptions on this list are very good, many of them require Concentration. Inparticular, even though all the smites are Bonus Actions (good for youraction economy), they require Concentration to ensure that you’re able toactually get the effect off as long as you hit sometime during the nextminute, but this prevents you from running other excellent Concentrationbuffs like Blur and Elemental Weapon from the very same expanded list.Furthermore, since the smite spells don’t scale well (if they scale at all),they’re often a poor use of your limited Warlock spell slots. Consider usingthem for a level or two when you first get them, but replace them after thatwhen better spells become available (even if it’s just the next smitespell).
  • 1st-level Spells: Shield isfantastic… on any other spellcasting class. It costs a precious spellslot, and offers no benefits for upcasting, so it’s only helpful untilyou get access to 2nd-level slots for Armor of Agathys. If you aren’trunning another Concentration spell, Wrathful Smite into Booming Bladeis staggeringly good damage at low levels, assuming the target moves andtriggers the secondary damage. The Wisdom save for fear is a nice touch,though your defenses aren’t really turned on yet so maintainingConcentration can be a challenge in melee. To summarize: temptingoptions at low levels, but you’ll abandon them in favor of other optionsalmost immediately.
  • 2nd-level Spells: Blur is just asuperb spell. Turn it on if you have more than one thing attacking youand/or your Armor of Agathys doesn’t look up to the job. Branding smitefills some excellent niches, but is not otherwise overly helpful. It’sprobably the only way you’re going to be able to deal radiant damage(you’ll be very grateful if you ever come across zombies) and it alsoprevents invisibility if your party can’t cast Faerie Fire, InvisibilityPurge, or something else along those lines.
  • 3rd-level Spells: Blink would beinteresting if it wasn’t random in the fashion it is. Elemental weapon’sprimary benefit is making a weapon magical if for some reason you aren’trunning Pact of the Blade, and I’m not sure why you would skip Pact ofthe Blade (and the Invocations which require it like Thirsting Blade)and still use a weapon. It still runs into the Concentration problem,interfering with smites and defensive buffs, but it adds a small amountof extra damage (which will increase when your spell slot levelsincrease). Keep in mind that the Pact Weapon granted by Pact of theBlade counts as a magic weaponfor the purpose of overcoming damage resistance and immunity.It’s technically not a magic weapon unless you bind a specific magicweapon, so you can use your Pact Weapon with ElementalWeapon.
  • 4th-level Spells: Phantasmal Killeris still an excellent spell, although the fact that it never scales past5th level for warlocks is disappointing at higher levels. StaggeringSmite would be much better if the effect lasted more than one round.Both spells cause the creature to suffer Disadvantage on attack rolls,but Phantasmal Killer works at range and lasts longer.
  • 5th-level Spells: Banishing Smite is abig pile of damage on a Bonus Action and the rider effect doesn’t allowa saving throw. 50 hit points is a reasonably large window, andbanishing the target could dramatically affect the outcome of anencounter. Cone of Cold is a helpful way for you to do area of effectdamage, but apart from being a big pile of damage does little else foryou.
• Hexblade’s Curse: Are you ready to confuseliterally every new player by being the only thing that gets proficiency todamage? Then Hexblade is for you. Note that you can both Curse and Hexsomeone if you like to track several effects at the same time. In allseriousness though, this is a fantastic ability.

  You only get this once per Short or Long Rest, so be sure to use it whereit will matter. You want to make as many attack rolls as possible whilethis is running, so at high levels this will frequently work best whencombined with Eldritch Blast since Warlocks can’t get more than threeattacks (assuming Thirsting Blade and either two-weapon fighting orCrossbow Expert). However, since this only works once per Short or LongRest, remember that you may still have better results focusing on otherparts of your build, and focusing on being effective with weapons is oftena better choice for the Hexblade than Eldritch Blast even though you mayget fewer attacks.

  Since this comes in at 1st level and scales based on your proficiencybonus, it’s very tempting for class dips into Warlock, totallydisregarding how good Hex Warrior is.

• Hex Warrior: This is probably why youpicked the subclass. You get medium armor and shields so that you’re able toexist in the front line without dying immediately, but far more importantlyyou get to be a melee character and still have Str and Dex be dump stats.You do still need enough Dexterity to fill out Half Plate’s Dexterity cap,but that’s not hard.

  Using your Charisma for attack and damage rolls in place of Strength iscrazy powerful. Not only does it make Pact of the Blade considerablyeasier for the Warlock, it makes Paladin/Warlock multiclass buildsmassively more effective. Keep in mind that by default Hex Warrior’sweapon effect works on a weapon which you touch at the end of a long rest,but if you later take Pact of the Blade the effect extends to that weapontoo, so you can affect have two weapons with which to attack usingCharisma. This is important if you plan to explore two-weapon fighting orif you want a backup weapon or something.

• Accursed Specter: Not only does it haveto be a humanoid, but you personally have to get the killing blow. Thatsaid, if you can get one, Specters are a phenomenal companion to have withyou. They are effective in combat (although they never scalebeyond the tinyamount of temporary hit points and the attack bonus which you give them)and, while they can’t speak, they will follow your verbal commands allowinga creative person to use one for scouting and have it report back. However,they have no ability to speak, to their ability to report their findings islimited to gestures like nodding, pointing, and pantomime.
• Armor of Hexes: Take the already excellentHexblade’s Curse and put an astonishing and unique defensive buff on it.Somewhere, a 40k player is wondering how 4-up saves got into their D&D.This is a 50% miss chance on top of whatever other defenses you might haverunning (Blur or Shadow of Moil, for example),
• Master of Hexes: The only problem withHexblade’s Curse was that it could feel wasted if you used it on somethingand then ran into something more threatening before your next rest. That isnow slightly mitigated by allowing you to chain it through a whole fight.You do need to be able to see a new target creature when you move Hexblade’sCurse, so if you’re facing hidden or invisible enemies you may need to keepthat in mind before you finish off your current target.

  Clever players might try to move the effect to an angry rat which youkeep in a sack (the old “bag of rats” trick) to allow you to carry one useof Hexblade’s Curse all day, but wise DM’s should explicitly disallow suchshenanigans.

Hexblade Ability Scores

Unlike other Warlocks, you will need to invest some into Dexterity to makebest use of that medium armor you’re now allowed to wear and boy will you needit. Otherwise, focus on Charisma.

Str: You can’t afford to have high abilityscores in four abilities, and Strength simply isn’t useful enough.

Dex: Warlocks have notoriously poor AC, andanything you can do to address that will still require some Dexterity unlessyou multiclass or something to get heavy armor.

Con: Being in melee means you want hitpoints and a better chance of passing Con saves when targeted by things you’remaking angry.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Dump.

Cha: You are powered by Charisma.

Hexblade Races

Ability scores are crucial for the Hexblade Warlock, but also easy toachieve. Look for some combination of Charisma and either Dexterity andConstitution in most cases, but you only need 14 Dexterity if you’re happy inmedium armor. Beyond that, innate spellcasting or things that improve yourdurability are great options.

The list of races and subraces below is intentionally reduced to thoseoptions which I think make an effective Hexblade Warlock or which offer traitswhich are illustrative of what you should look for in other races, and it doesnot address the Customizing Your Origin optional rules. These are by no meansthe only viable options (especially with the custom origin optional rules inplace), and I encourage you to explore other options not listed below.

For full race coverage (including discussion of options which work well forthe Hexblade), please see ourWarlock Races Breakdown, which includes the full range of available races.

Elf^PHB: Dexterity is helpful for Blade Pact Warlocks, and Perception is alwaysnice. Drow and Eladrin both make fine choices, but options which providelarger Charisma increases may be better.

• Drow^PHB: Bonus Charisma and some Charisma-based innate spellcasting, but SunlightSensitivity can be a pain.
• Eladrin^MToF: Dexterity and Charisma are a great spread for warlocks, and freeteleportation on a short rest means that you don’t need to spend one of yourspell slots to do it.
• High Elf: A Wizard Cantrip gets youaccess to a lot of useful options, including Booming Blade which doesn’tcare about a poor Intelligence score. But most of those options are alreadyavailable to us.

Half-Elf^PHB: The abilities work great, and bonus skills are always nice, but VariantHuman is likely better. You could argue that Darkvision is appealing, butthat’s what Devil’s Sight is for.

• Drow^SCAG: With a very limited number of spell slots, innate spells provide fantasticutility.
• High/Moon/Sun^SCAG: Wizard cantrips are great for utility, but you already have the bestdamage cantrips. Consider Booming Blade since it doesn’t care about yourspellcasting modifier.

Human^PHB: Versatile and fantastic at everything.

• Variant: You still get a crucial bonus toyour Charisma, and you can get an awesome feat at level 1.

Tiefling: Bonus Charisma and Charisma-basedinnate spellcasting.

• Asmodeus^PHB/MToF: A perfectly fine option, but the Intelligence is wasted and you can findbetter spells from other subraces.
• Baalzebul^MToF: The Intelligence is wasted, but access to Thaumaturgy could be nice.
• Dispater^MToF: Dexterity means better AC, and the spells are great if you want to besneaky or tricky.
• Fierna^MToF: The Wisdom is largely wasted, but the spells are great for a Face.
• Glasya^MToF: Dexterity means better AC, and the spells are great if you want to besneaky or tricky.
• Levistus^MToF: Constitution means more hit points, and the spells offer a nice mix ofdefensive, offensive, and utility options.
• Mammon^MToF: The Intelligence is wasted, and the leveled spells are highlysituational.
• Mephistopheles^MToF: Flame Blade will be worse than just using your weapon.
• Zariel^MToF: Strength is wasted and you already get the smite spells.
• Variant: Feral^SCAG: Dexterity is normally fine for a melee build, but for Warlocks you’ll beusing your Charisma thanks to Hexblade.
• Variant: Devil’s Tongue^SCAG: Good options for a standard Warlock but doesn’t help a Hexblade.
• Variant: Hellfire^SCAG: Burning Hands is about as good for the Warlock as Hellish Rebuke, butdoesn’t require you to be hit to use it.
• Variant: Winged^SCAG: Flight is fantastic even if you’re built for melee because it offers youa way to engage enemies trying to use flight to stay out of reach.

Tortle^TP: The natural armor is decent and won’t require 14 Dexterity, but your accessto medium armor and shields already allows you to reach these numbers.

Triton^VGTM: A fantastic option for blade pact warlocks. Good ability score increases,and the innate spellcasting provides some good utility options.

Verdan^AcInc: Constitution and Charisma is a perfect combination for a Charisma-basedspellcaster, and getting Persuasion for free is great. You’ll almost certainlybe your party’s Face, and the Verdan’s Telepathic Insight can go a long way toaddress language barriers despite its limited capability.

Yuan-Ti Pureblood^{VGTM / MotM}: Good Charisma, some innate spellcasting, Magic Resistance, and PoisonImmunity (resistance with the updated version).

Setting-specificracesareaddressbelow.Noteverysettingallowseveryrace,andwhilemostracespresentedinthecorerulesandincontentfortheForgottenRealmscanbeusedinothersettings,racesspecifictosettingslikeRavnicaaren’ttypicallyallowedinothersettings.TalktoyourDMaboutwhatracesareallowedinyourgame.

Races of Eberron

Kalashtar^ERLW: A Charisma increase, and you’ll be really good at Wisdom saving throwsdespite not being proficient. The Kalashtar doesn’t support any specific partof being a warlock, but it’s a fine starting point for a warlock of any kind.

Warforged^ERLW: The flexible ability increase goes into Charisma, and the Warforged’s othertraits will make you more durable than a typical sorcerer before consideringspells. A warforged with Mage Armor would have an AC of 14+Dex totallyunequipped, allowing you to meet the AC of characters in light armor and ashield. A warforged hexblade can do even better: half-plate, a shield, and 14Dexterity brings you to 20 AC with very little effort.

Dragonmarks

While the design intent for Dragonmarks was that they would offer some innate spellcasting for everyone, every dragonmark includes an expanded spell list which is arguably a more significant benefit than most of the provided racial traits. Because the expanded spell options are such an important part of the dragonmarks, if you’re not playing a spellcaster you’re giving up a huge part of your racial traits, which makes it exceptionally difficult to justify playing a dragonmark character who can’t cast spells.

Dragonmarks are uniquely helpful for the Warlock. Any amount of extraspellcasting can significantly improve your capabilities since your spellslots are so limited. Because your spell slots work differently from otherspellcasters, spells which scale when they’re cast with a higher-level spellslot can often be good options even though other spells on a specificdragonmark’s spell list aren’t interesting.

Dragonmarked Dwarf^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace.

• Mark of Warding: Bad ability spread.

Dragonmarked Elf^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace.

• Mark of Shadow: The ability scoreincreases are great, the innate spellcasting is good, and there are severaldragonmark spells which warlocks can normally only get from specificpatrons.

Dragonmarked Gnome^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace.

• Mark of Scribing: The ability scoreincreases work, and several of the dragonmark spells are new to theWarlock’s spell list, but most of the spells aren’t very good.

Dragonmarked Half-Elf^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace some of your normal racial traits, as describedin the entry for each Dragonmark.

• Mark of Detection: The ability scoreincreases work, and with the exception of two spells available to great oldone warlocks, every spell provided by Mark of Detection is new to the Walockspell list. Many of the spells are powerful divination options, offeringgreat utility and scouting options.
• Mark of Storm: The ability score increaseswork, and while most of the spells aren’t very good they’re quickly replacedby better options as you gain levels, and easy to replace spells known, andseveral of the better spells aren’t on the Warlock’s spell list.

Dragonmarked Half-Orc^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace ALL of your racial traits.

• Mark of Finding: Bad ability spread.

Dragonmarked Halfling^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace.

• Mark of Healing: Bad ability spread.
• Mark of Hospitality: The ability scoreincreases work well, and the spellcasting is surprisingly good for theWarlock. The innate spellcasting offers useful utility options, and thelow-level spells include great options that scale well with spell level.

Dragonmarked Human^ERLW: Dragonmark traits replace ALL of your racial traits.

• Mark of Finding: See Mark of Finding underDragonmarked Half-Orc, above. Mechanically, the final racial traits areidentical.
• Mark of Handling: The ability scoreincreases can work, but many of the racial traits depend on you alwayshaving Animal Friendship and Speak With Animals prepared, and neither ofthem scale as you gain levels. Spending a 5th-level spell slot on a mediocre1st-level spell feels terrible, and it’s rarely useful as you reachmid-level.
• Mark of Making: The ability scoreincreases can work, but the spellcasting isn’t especially useful. MagicWeapon won’t work on pact weapons, hexblades already get elemental weapon,and there aren’t enough other good options on the spell list to make up forhow many options aren’t useful for you.
• Mark of Passage: Dexterity and Charismaare great, free Misty Step is excellent, and nearly every one of thedragonmark spells is new to the Warlock’s spell list.
• Mark of Sentinel: Bad ability spread.

Races of Ravnica

Simic Hybrid^GGTR: The constitution increase is helpful, especially if you’re consideringHexblade. Animal Enhancement offers several excellent options as you gainlevels, and saves you the trouble of getting those effects from your limitednumber of spell slots.

Races of Theros

Satyr^MOoT: Dexterity for you AC, Charisma for your spells, Magic Resistance to keepyou alive, and two free skills to help you serve as your party’s Face.

Races of Wildemount

Dragonborn: Wildemount presents two newDragonborn variants, each replacing the standard Dragonborn’s ability scoreincreases and damage resistance.

• Draconblood^EGtW: Roughly equivalent to the standard Dragonborn, but if you’re playing yourparty’s Face you might enjoy Forceful Presence. Getting Darkvision isusually great, but it’s less important thanks to Devil’s Sight.

Feats

Our Warlock Handbook details advice for warlock feats in general, but a selection of feats which many Hexblades enjoy are presented below.

• Crossbow Expert^PHB: Hexblades can abolutely make Crossbow Expert work. Hex and Hexblade’sCurse both benefit greatly from additional attacks, and even EldritchBlast+Agonizing Blast can’t keep up with Crossbow Expert, especially onceyou add Lifedrinker. However, this requires your Bonus Action for two roundsto set up, and in that time other warlocks are happily doing other thingswhich don’t require resources that need a short rest to recharge. Sincecombats generally last around three rounds, in most cases you can except toget your combo set up and start using the Bonus Action attack from CrossbowExpert an average of once per encounter.
• Elven Accuracy^PHB: This is practically tailor-made for Warlocks, and Hexblades will be able to make great use of it, especially if you follow the melee build detailed below. Triple advantage on a Greatsword makes you very likely to proc Great Weapon Master’s bonus attack, and you have several ways to get that going like casting Darkness on a piece of your clothing and using the Devil’s Sight Invocation or just using Shadow of Moil as written which we discuss in this article.
• Great Weapon Master^PHB: Hexblades can make effective use of two-handed weapons, which makes thisa possibility. Hexblade’s curse allows you to score a critical hit againstthe target on a 19-20, which makes it more likely that you can trigger thefirst portion of the feat. If you use Darkness with the Devil’s Sightinvocation you can easily get Advantage, making the second half of the feata safe and reliable option. However, the weapon which you touch with HexWarrior can’t have the Heavy property, and all two-handed weapons have theHeavy property so you can’t use Great Weapon Master with that weapon. Onceyou gain Pact of the Blade, your Pact Weapon can be two-handed, and HexWarrior extends to your Pact Weapon.
• Heavily Armored^PHB: Tempting for a Hexblade, but the Strength requirements for full platemake heavy armor unappealing.
• Medium Armor Master^PHB: Heavy armor isn’t appealing for Hexblades because of the Strengthrequirements to wear it, so medium armor master can allow you to match heavyarmor AC without caring about Strength. That’s nice, but it’s also only adifference of +1 AC. A feat is too precious for so little.
• Polearm Master^PHB: Hexblades can make effective use of polearms. I would probably stick to aquarterstaff or spear (spear was added in errata in 2018) so that you canuse a shield to compensate for the Warlock’s relatively poor AC and lowhitpoints, but maybe you’re braver than I am. The total damage outputroughly matches that of a Crossbow Expert build and will have higher AC, butyou give up the advantage of range.
• Resilient^PHB: Proficiency in Constitution saves really helps with Concentration, not tomention how common Consitution saves are. If you care primarily aboutConcentration it’s easy to compare this to War Caster. Advantage works outto a little more than +3, so once your Proficiency Bonus hits +4 Resilientbecomes the more effective option of the two.
• Sharpshooter^PHB: Warlocks don’t use ranged weapons with the possible exception ofHexblades, but even then Crossbow Expert is a better choice.
• War Caster^PHB: If you’re a Hexblade, you want this. Juggling your weapon to cast spellsis annoying, but the ability to reliably maintain Concentration when youtake damage means that you can reliably maintain Concentration even whiledrawing a lot of attacks. For other subclasses, consider Resilient(Constitution) instead because mathematically it’s more effective thanAdvantage as your Proficiency Bonus increases.

Weapons

Only Blade Pact Warlocks actually need weapons, which generally means thatonly Hexblades should be using them. Your choice of weapon matters fairlylittle, and Pact of the Blade allows you to change your weapon easily (unlessyou’ve bound a magic weapon), so you can easily choose a weapon to suit thesituation. Hexblades get proficiency with shields, and since warlocks haverelatively low hit dice and hexblades still only get medium armor I think ashield is a good idea most of the time.

Also keep in mind that Hex Warrior doesn’t allow your touched weapon to havethe Two-Handed property, so if you want to use a two-handed weapon you’lldefinitely need Pact of the Blade. Versatile weapons still work, though, andthe difference between a longsword and a greatsword isn’t huge.

• Crossbow, Hand: The go-to for CrossbowExpert builds.
• Crossbow, Heavy: A good ranged optionuntil you get Crossbow Expert and/or Extra Attack.
• Glaive / Halberd: Great for two-handedmelee builds, it has reach, and it works with Polearm Master.
• Greatsword: Your go-to for two-handedmelee builds unless you want reach and or intend to take Polearm Master.
• Longbow: A decent ranged weapon, but itcan’t come close to the damage output of a Crossbow Expert build so it’s nota good primary weapon. If you’re built for melee, the Longbow will be a goodranged option once you pick up Extra Attack.
• Longsword / Rapier: Interchangeable ifyou’re using Hex Warrior. A good go-to for sword-and-board builds unless youwant the reach from a whip.
• Spear / Quarterstaff: Want to combine thedurability of sword-and-board with the number of attacks (and therefore thedamage output) of Crossbow Expert or two-weapon fighting? Grab a spear or astaff and pick up Polearm Master.
• Whip: One-handed and reach mean that youdon’t need to be in enemies’ reach to attack, and you can still hold ashield in your other hand. The damage difference of 1d4 vs. 1d8 fromsomething like a longsword seems significant, but when you consider the flatbonuses added by your various class features, the difference of 2 damage onaverage is negligible.

Armor

• Leather: The Warlock’s starting armorunless you take the 100 gp starting equipment variant. The Warlock’sstarting gear was written long before the Hexblade, and it doesn’t accountfor the possibility of medium armor proficiency.
• Scale Mail: Take the 100 gp startingequipment variant so that you can start with scale mail or you’ll bepinching coppers until you can afford decent armor before you can riskdiving into melee.
• Half Plate: Your permanent armor.
• Shield: Great since you’re in mediumarmor with d8 hit dice, but many hexblades go for two-handed weapons orCrossbow Expert so they’re force to give up a shield.

Hexblade Warlock Spellcasting

The Hexblade Warlock likely needs to keep a melee weapon in-hand both forattacking on their own turn and for making opportunity attacks. They alsoprobably have a shield. Unfortunately, that means that you’ll need toconstantly draw/store your weapon to get a free hand with which to cast spellsunless you’re using a two-handed weapon or a hand crossbow, or if you havePact Weapon.

If you need to draw a Spellcasting Focus or Material Components, it could require you to spend your item interaction on two successive turns to switch from a weapon to a focus or from a focus to a weapon. Because this can be a problem and will often leave you empty-handed between turns, try to use spells that lack Material and Somatic components whenever possible until you can pick up Improved Pact Weapon, which conveniently allows your Pact Weapon to serve as a spellcasting focus.

The Warlock Spell List Breakdown already includes notes about Hexblade/Pactof the Blade uses for spells but let me just plug Armor of Agathys again here.It has some of the best scaling in the game. When you get access to 5th-levelspell slots, even if something hits you twice for 24 damage each time, it’sstill going to take 50 damage and you’re only taking 23 of the 48 you couldhave been taking.

Example Build – High-Elf Warlock

I traded my soul for the ability to stab things really hard. Seems fair.

This build leans into the Hexblade’s ability to use weapons more effectively than your typical warlock. Using spells like Armor of Agathys and Shadows of Moil to improve our durability, plus weapon-focused Eldritch Invocations and the Great Weapon Master feat, we create a durable melee threat with incredible damage output and Warlock spellcasting to fall back on for utility.

Abilities

We will assume the point buy abilities suggested above. Half High Elf gives us +2 Charisma, +1 Dexterity, and +1 Constitution.

Race

Half High Elf gives us easy access to the Booming Blade Cantrip, meaning we can walk out with that, Sword Burst, and Eldritch Blast, guaranteeing our capacity to do optimal damage in any situation. It also qualifies us as an Elf for the purposes of feat prerequisites and gives us a great ability spread.

Background

Take Faction Agent to get proficiency in Insight and trade Intimidation for Persuasion. Keep one campaign-appropriate language and turn the other into Thieves’ Tools proficiency. With a Dex this high, you could also make a viable Scout if your party doesn’t have one. If you want to lean harder into Scout, drop Insight, hope your DM doesn’t feel like lying to you very much, pick up Stealth, and wear a Breastplate.

Skills and Tools

Take Deception and Intimidation from Warlock. We get Insight, Persuasion, and a language from our background, giving us the full compliment of Face skills.

Feats

At 4 we take Elven Accuracy and immediately start abusing it. This also lets us raise Charisma to 18.

At 8 we take Great Weapon Master.

At 12 we finish capping Charisma.

At 16 we take War Caster.

At 19 we take an ASI in Constitution.

Levels