How To Play a Hexblade Paladin Witch Knight in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ส.ค. 2024
- MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... We take a look at this extremely powerful and complex multiclass option. Discussing the various feats, spells, invocations, gear, and more that you may want to consider to bring your Witch Knight to life at the table.
TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Intro
2:05 - Why Play A Witch Knight
7:04 - Level 1
10:58 - Level 3
12:50 - Level 5
15:27 - Level 7
22:08 - Level 11
27: 55 - Level 18
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Player: "I want to play a Hexadin"
Every DM in a five mile radius: *angry hissing*
My DM actually nudged me towards being a hexadin.... after I accidentally lost and severely pissed off my warlock's patron
My DM actually encourages wacky and broken builds because he enjoys abusing and stressing the system as much as possible.
Dude's the one who introduced Coffeelock to us and basically begged one of the players to use the build.
@@DGrayEX Chad DM right there.
and you know why ?! because every gm hates discussions instead of playing and asshole players that always want to be special cause exactly this
@@DGrayEX if youre into theory dnd and endless discussions instead of playing the game and enjoying the story fine....
Idea: The oath of vengeance paladins obsession with revenge has caused his weapon to become awakened. It promises him the power to destroy his foes in exchange for allowing it to feed on blood, making him a hexblade.
That sounds like a good way to describe the Belmont clan. They swear vengeance upon Dracula and the whip is their pact weapon.
Very similar to the Padlock I am currently running. Paladin seeking vengeance that finds a sword that promises him revenge in return for fighting fiends and starts talking warlock levels.
Stealing this for sure! Great Idea :)
@@Music_Engineering Thanks!
Yeah I was thinking about a hexblood that wanted revenge against all kinds of filth like hags for making him what he is, and a vengeance paladin that makes a pact with a weapon fits pretty well
"The dark side of the [paladin] is a pathway to many abilities some consider, unnatural"
"Have you ever heard the tragedy of Lord Soth the wise? I thought not, It's not a story the paladins would tell you."
@Noob7Zilla "Not in Ravenloft."
I enjoy watching your channel and just wanted to say it was a pleasant surprise to see you use one of my illustrations on your thumbnail :)
Are you an official dnd artist? If not you deserve to be credited
This is disapointing. I love the Dungeon Dudes, but not giving credit to an independent artist is one of those things that are so awful. Hope they come around and give you due credit
@@leandrocarvalho2261 he's a WoTC artist
@@leandrocarvalho2261 Dont assume that the person is an independent artist. That thumbnail is taken from a WotC publication. Most of the thumbnails they use are taken from official WotC stuff. cause this is an easily missed thing I'll add the nearly all RPG publications not just WotC credit the artists involved in that publication's art work.
@@leandrocarvalho2261 relax
A few things for consideration:
In some settings, paladins draw their power from their devotion, rather than the creature they swear their oath to. In those settings, a paladin could swear their oath to a wheel of cheese as long as their faith is potent and genuine enough.
Warlock patrons don't necessarily have to be evil or edgy. The hexblade is intended to be tied to the Shadowfel and the Raven Queen, that lends itself incredibly well to a paladin.
That's what I'm thinking at the moment.
Yeah I tend to try to come up with good or neutral patrons because evil warlock patron is what everyone does lol
Now I'm imagining a rat paladin who swore an oath to a wheel of cheese
My exact concept for a paladin warlock multiclass was one whose vengeance oath is sworn to the Raven Queen, promising her a steady supply of corpses, as his hexblade grants him additional power to do so.
I just finished playing a witch night character. He “was” a wood elf paladin of the ancients. But died in the line of duty defending his charge. Many years later he was brought back to life by hags for their own purpose. New race as a Returned now and hexblade warlock multi class. He was so fun playing. Pretty much kept the party alive in final battle with his wards and being able to have bless on the part at all times with the CON resilience feat was so clutch.
I read “he was brought back to life by hugs,” and had to do a double take.
Sounds like a really cool character.
Those hags sound so nice! Bringing back a fallen warrior without even asking!
That’s so dope
No longer ancients but now an oathbreaker then?
I’m planning a similar fairy to play should my fighter/warlock Goliath die.
For those of you familiar with the Stormlight Archive, the Hexblade Paladin screams Radiant Knight. And depending on the spells you take you can even pick which order you’ll be. It would be especially easy to take a lot of illusion magic and be a Lightweaver.
This. As soon as I read the books I thought warlock/paly
Just starting book one
@@mrbill_oh_no you are in for a treat! 😊🌩️
I'm on book 2, Word of Radiance, now and I was thinking the same thing
I am dying to do a Kaladin like character
T I hate it when people say that the hex blade paladin doesn’t make any sense flavour wise when one of the most iconic stories in the English Language, King Arthur, is a hex blade paladin.
This can also work if the Hexblade you made a pact with is a neutral or good weapon (like the blade of Zariel or something like that) and you play it more on the knightly side
It could easily be a divine gift from your god, perhaps like an Angel in their service who volunteered to become a weapon to aid you in
It doesn't even need to be an sentient weapon, a weapon that is leaking magic energy but can only be extracted with certain conditions (there is the "pact" part) serves just as well.
@@Sharkakaka Yes, but I honestly like having a good sentient weapon
You could be an oath of vengeance paladin and then it doesn’t matter
A good weapon that traps souls as a cursed spector?
Here's a fun take on the Witch Knight concept, and something I want to play someday: A paladin who gets their hands on a cursed/malevolent sentient sword and walks the route of the hexblade to bind it to themselves in order to make sure no one else can get their hands on it and use it for evil purposes as the 'Witch Knight' travels the land in search of someone who can either cleanse or destroy the weapon for good.
Ad telfling as character
Isn't there an anime with that plot? Sounds like an anime plot.
@@ToudaHell there’s a warhammer character with this story too
Sounds similar to the Elric books.
Very cool framework for a story. Lots of fun RP opportunities!
I'm like, "So...a death knight?" and Monty is like, "Here's Arthas!"
In my experience, I've seen that most people think of a multiclass Paladin/Warlock has to constantly walk the line between loyalty to his Oath and to his Patron, and that the two would be constantly at odds. But remember that Warlock Patrons aren't always "evil" or contradictory to a Paladins Oath, and can even be the same being; Oath of Ancients and Archfey, Devotion and Celestial, Conquest and Fiend, etc. A Paladin could take levels in Hexblade because he's _so_ overwhelmingly devout and dedicated to his god that a celestial came down to reward him by giving him the campaign equivalent of the Archangel Michael's sword.
Even things like conquest dont have to be a fiend, maybe the Oath was made to become the champion of the God of war
@@joshuamorrow8863 Exactly my point. I just didn't want to create a giant paragraph with every example I can think of.
@@arcticbanana66 it's cool, I wasn't bashing, just adding to the point lol
another idea for the weapon, they are gifted Durendal, the sword of the one of the 12 Paladins of Charlemagne, Roland
the sword was a holy and unbreakable weapon that was said to have 3 miracles within the gemstone on its hilt... yes i am saying your weapon is the prototype of Luck Blades
another option you could go for is Mjolnir or Storm Breaker
theres a ton of magical and legendary weapons from our mythologies that would work great for a Hex weapon, personally im using Gae Bolg from Irish myth
@@Sawtooth44 Gae Bolg's a strong choice. There are _a lot_ of good options in Irish folklore: Cliamh Solais, Caladcholg, Fragarach, Lorg Mór, Mac An Lúin; Orna could even _speak._ I'm somewhat partial to Gae Assail myself. Irish folklore is criminally underused.
"Death is the best crowd control"
I'm building an aasimir Paladin/warlock. Her hexblade "i'm roleplaying it as a blessblade" is a gift from her holy parent and the paladin features are further extensions of her godly heritage. She thought she was a human but as the campaign goes on she is slowly gaining and learning these ne abilities. We're lvl 4 and I still haven't used her angel form yet, but its all coming together.
Fallen Aasimar with conquest Paladin is also sweet.
What oath will you/have you taken? What subrace of aasimar did you choose?
I went scourge and vengeance. I've only went nuclear once, and it was when we were surrounded by a couple dozen frozen spectors. It and green flame blade let me mop them up swiftly while the rest of the group focused on the guy controlling them.
@@SomeDigitalGhost I went scourge as well, but i'm not sure which oath, but probably vengence depends on how the character develops.
@@TheRightTastes would you share a summary of their backstory?
@@SomeDigitalGhost I'm playing the empire of the ghouls campaign from the midgard books. She is from a nomadic people that make up several trading caravans and mercenary groups. The underground ghoul imperium and the Vampire duchy combined to take over an area called krakova. Her father thought this could be an opportunity to get a permanent home for their people by aiding the people of krakova. Their expeditionary force was ambushed, her father was killed with his sword (the blessblade) stolen. Ru'ula the sole survivor now wants to find her father's killer take back his sword (a gift from Ru'ula's mother), and then fulfill his dream of a new home for their people.
Ya know, here is a weird thought: why does the blade have to be a dark weapon? What if it was something like the Sword of Truth from the seeker series (with obvious differences)? Where the goal the weapon drives you to is seeking out the corruption of the world, even to the character's detriment at times. A blade that pushes the Witch Knight to action in a corrupt Duke's court or a crime Lord's den is a struggle for the wielder not to just leap into a frenzy and start mauling.
Exactly. My Pally 'made' his sword into a hexblade of sorts by constantly pushing divine energy through it in a bid to acquire more power so he could protect more people. Add to that a sorcerous bloodline and, after a bit of time, the sacrifices of blood, magic and divine energy awakened the blade. It now exists to hunt evil at all costs necessary -it makes Aku Soku Zan look basically tame and chill. Anyone but someone with a high level of mental fortitude would be basically taken over as a puppet and brutally hunt down anything 'evil'. It is now the duty of my Pally to temper and educate the blade he has created by his own hand, teach it 'humanity' and 'compassion', how to help protect rather than just kill. It's fun!
Reflavoring is always a thing if your dm is open to it
I LOVE the idea of covering different multi class builds. Y’all’s “how to play X class” videos are some of my favorite cause I love the theory crafting side of this game and adding multiclassing into the mix just makes it that much more cool and entertaining. (Plus that’s a lot of potential content for y’all 😉)
Guts from berserk in some respects isn’t an awful source of inspiration, especially with an oath of vengeance
I want to say yes. But… barbarian. I’m convinced guts was the inspiration for wizards making the berserker barbarian.
You know, lack of spellcasting aside, he does fit the mold rather well.
@@MagpieDynamics especially if you look at his hex blade as his berserker armor rather than the dragon slayer.
@@rylanfitzgerald6085 in early arcs I’d agree 100 percent, but post eclipse the oath of vengeance Paladin makes more sense to me
I would say that Guts is more of a Blood Hunter if anything.
I tend to like the idea of leaning more heavily in Paladin and dipping only 2-3 levels into Hexblade as the paladin features tend to be a little better in tier 2 play. The concept is driven more as a shadow knight who is a servant of the Raven Queen.
Yup that is how I did it. Both are great options. However I was also the party tank so I needed that extra HP as well.
Yeah RQ takes that kind of thing in stride
I tend to go Paladin 16/Warlock 4 but going Paladin 15/Warlock 5 does give access to 3rd level warlock slots and, therefore, the Fly spell.
I feel like the optimal level splits are:
19P/W1
18P/W1
13P/W7
11P/W9
6P/W14
Dipping 1-2 levels into warlock works if you're using a shield and a longsword or spear/quarterstaff. Otherwise, using a two-handed weapon needs pact of the blade to work with Hex Warrior. The 17/3 split doesn't really look that appealing to me personally, and at that point you might as well get more levels in Warlock.
Its exacly the witch knight. I am playing the exact same built and I play a humman with no fear for death , death is my mother I am an angel of death and this is fcng great. Highly recommended
Putting Witch Knight in the video title just tripled the Halloween vibes
Also Witch Knight totally sounds like a patron of Iggwilv the Witch Queen
Whenever I consider the Warlock's Darkness/Devil's Sight combo, I always gravitate towards Half-Elf for my race, to boost my CHA and DEX, as well as to have access to the Elven Accuracy feat, which again boosts CHA, but also gives you "super" Advantage whenever you attack with advantage using your Charisma, which is pretty much all the time if you're in Darkness.
Very low chance to miss rolling 3d20 for every attack, and with the Hex up it's a significant increase to your chances of landing a Crit and popping off a Smite.
I tend to gravitate to Half-Elf as well for the same reason but if attribute rolls allow, I prefer Wood Elf for the extra movement speed and Hide capabilities. But only if attribute rolls allow. Otherwise, yeah, Half-Elf.
If the DM allows use of customized origins, I always go with Wood Elf then select the bonuses to attributes provided by the half-elf. And swap ASIs out for feats if at all possible.
Elven Accuracy is overrated, once you have advantage, the benefit of rolling 1 dice more is not comparable, for example, on using great weapon master or the CHA ASI
I am now imagining playing this build and shouting out "Vengeance is mine!" everytime I crit while rolling all 19 dice
My favorite combination! Now I can finally sound smart when I try to explain it!
I've also seen a version of this build that crams the elven accuracy feat in there, so your devils sight/darkness combo can lead to crit fishing smite/eldritch smite absurdity. I'd love to see a whole video about elven accuracy, honestly. If you've never tried it, you'd be amazed how drastically it starts to screw over the whole games bounded accuracy.
Another great example is a Samurai dex fighter with a longbow who takes elven accuracy at lvl 4 and sharpshooter at lvl 6. They can throw out like 70 damage on their action surge turn!
Oh that's right, with Hexblade Elven Accuracy applies! So you crit on a 19, get an extra dmg die, and get to make another BA attack. Oooo-weeeee. I knew I kinda wanted to play this with a Drow...
I really appriciate that you guys did a level breakdown for this and when to take which class is best... way too many builds I've seen online just give u the lvl20 split and not when to take what... so many thanks for this, I would love to see other multiclass builds like this from u guys
Watch treantmonk he is also great
A good race to have as well is warforged, because you get +2 to con, which is great for multiple reasons, and a +1 to any other ability, on top of that, any armor you don, becomes your body, allowing you to sleep in full armor without receiving exhaustion points. It’s great for middle of the night ambushes.
Haha, I was so happy about this combination too!
Until I realized that warforged don't sleep anyway. 😇
And you can hold a great sword and a shield
I'm in a curse of strahd campaign rn. I made a Warforged reflavored as a purified Raven Queen sanctioned hexadin who's autonomy is fueled via the moonlit greatsword pact weapon and his oath of vengeance to destroy Strahd for felling his paladin brothers during the time when Strahd initially took over Barovia. It's been a blast playing him. Roleplaying has been awesome and I really underestimated hoe powerful Hexadins are.
Forever DM getting a chance to play a 6th level one shot my buddy is doing for my birthday next month and he was like yeah no limitations on character build.
Say hello to the Magical war machine of RPGesus. Oh and he’s letting us pick an uncommon magic item and I went with Shatterspike from The Sunless Citadel.
Hopefully I don’t loose a friend over this but he said anything goes.
@@theMrLife yes partially true, you do have to shut off for 6hrs, but you can still make perception checks, I just tell my players that those checks have a stricter pov example a 15 ft cone, and are made with disadvantage. Just to make sure the race isn’t too powerful in my campaigns
I want to play something like this witch the new Dragonborn options. Fey patron Hexblade, oath of the ancients paladin and just go all out on the fey knight theme
I play a very similar build but my character was tricked into taking the weapon by an Arch Fey and the spear he uses just pulls him around the battle field and rag dolls him around during battles. He's super fun to play.
Do it!!
I've just finished a campaign with a dragonborn in this mold (with 2 lvl deep in sorcerer as well) it was awesome!!!
Hypnum was a power in the battlefield and pure chaos in social moments.
I recently played a Hexblade Paladin for my groups fifth "season" in our on-going campaign, after serving as DM for the previous season. Even before I made her a playable character (she was originally a "rival"/ boss fight for the party), she was a fan favorite, but then getting to play her as a proper party member was incredibly fun!
I took a very different approach than Monty and Kelly did though, and focused more on crowd control and buffs/debuffs since our party already had some sluggers in the DPS department. Stuff like Hex, Hypnotic Patter, Protection from Good & Evil, and Conquering Presence from the Channel Divinity where incredibly fun to use in conjunction with the various smites I was doing when the situation called for more offense.
She was such a well received character, both in terms of role-play and in combat, that I'm now taking the characters from our various campaigns and using them as a foundation for a pulp detective-noir story with this Witch Knight as the protagonist.
That's so cool you got to actually be one of your beloved NPCs! I have some I think fondly about getting to play as players as well. It's a different story focus when you get to just exist in their heads, and how gratifying your fellow players were excited to see her join them. :)
Love that the are more multiclass theory craft videos coming out. So much room for character design with MC and you guys always have such great insights.
So hyped for you to mention Elric as a character inspiration for this. From the beginning of you describing the concept, he was the character I thought of the most.
Yup. Elric of Melnibone is a killer character. I have a build like this but w medium armor (1st lvl hexblade) and sword and board.
Not a bad example
Really really good breakdown, from a listeners perspective this was perfect. We need more of these! Also liked that you combined your powers to agree upon the best character build.
Been watching you guys make videos for about a year or so now, and it always puts a smile on my face when you go in depth on a character designed I tried (and failed) to bring alive, improving it the whole way. I'm definitely going to try the Witch Knight at some point if I ever get the chance.
Keep being awesome, guys!
Fear based Paladin with dark magic, does big damage and is relatively tough. Instead of witch Knight, I'd dub this thing a "Knightmare".
All you have to do at that point is name your patron blade Souledge and you're golden.
@@starslayer8390 And have a rival Paladin named Siegfried.
Another fun build of this multi-class is to go vengeance paladin and pick up polearm master + war caster. You won’t come online until level 8 or so, but you will have a blast each time an enemy approaches you. Smack them with booming blade using a spear or staff, walk a few squares back, and let them choose if it’s worth taking that 2d8+ to move into range again. Constantly maximize the use of your reaction.
Love the info and ideas.. this is actually my back up build for my current campaign. But we aren't multi classing we are doing gasalt rules two classes at the same time.(enemies do to) this really helps layout the direction for them. Thank you guys love the content keep up the awesome work!
I'm loving this. My handle on most different platforms is Witchknight and I came up with the name to describe my Paladin Warlock Hybrid I played back in 4E.
Just passing by to say that I was looking for a Evil Paladin 7months ago, I saw your videos Dudes and I love it. After all those months, I have much content to check it out. Moreover, I love how you roll the sponsor thing. Much better than any channel I have ever watched.
I play one of these. I love this multi class. My paladin is devoted to the Raven Queen. He is so much fun to play.
I've run a Neutral Vengeance pallock dedicated to both Silvanus and the Raven Queen. Scared even the other players.
A fellow Raven Queen follower. :)
This is perfect, I'm going to play a 'witch knight' in a new campaign I'm starting in. I was calling mine the Fright Knight, due to the fact that I was going to heavily utilize the fear aspect - Spells such as Cause Fear and Fear, along with Oath of Conquest's Channel Divinity. The DM is letting me use a custom subclass for the Paladin that I've made. It has similar abilities, but different spell lists and a bit more randomness added into the aspect.
I really like this multiclass, both in mechanics and what it could be in roleplaying. What I personally don't enjoy about it is seeing people choose this multiclass from the start just saying "I'm gonna multiclass into Hexblade" and when asked how that's tied to his story, they say "I don't know, I'm just gonna take levels of Hexblade at levels x-y". It is absolutely to each their own, but I prefer to start with the intention of sticking to one class, and multiclassing if it comes up naturally in the story.
I think that "Multiclassing via frontstory" and "Multiclassing via backstory" are both equally valid but I do think that "Multiclassing for the sake of powerbuilding" should be shutdown if you're not just going for a wargame, cut the enemies down and sing about how big your numbers are kind of campaign. Not only will the other players who are trying to have an immersive experience feel a little taken out of the world but the powergamer is eventually going to feel the energy and fun of the game come to a crawl. Having a strong character is fine and building them that way on purpose is also fine but in a roleplaying game you should have some character behind those big numbers on the character sheet.
Another way I like to look at it is that this "multiclass" is a "homebrew class" that is made within the rules. This isn't a paladin/warlock; it's a "witch knight" or whatever other classes you chose. My rogue/wizard is a "soul weaver", built around buffs, summons, and melee combat. You only need a middling int for that.
@@crownlexicon5225 Yeah I think that’s a good way to think about it. I feel like if you have that concept that you’re going for for the Story of the character, which this implies, it’s fine with me and I think that’s actually cool.
@@RealMiniLink Well said! Preplanning is a valid way to go about it if you have the character’s design fit around it. But just randomly decide just when starting to do a level up is a bit odd especially if its just for the mechanics
@@crownlexicon5225 Soul Reaver sounds menacing. If you don't mind me asking, which subclasses + race would that go best with? My guess is inquisitive rogue, conjuration wizard on a hexblood lineage
Lancer Arthuria from FGO is an example of Hexadin who absolutely in holy side of both Paladin and Hexblade. Her Rhongomyniad is technically a conjured weapon and her Warlock patron is The Tower at End of The World Rhongomyniad.
FGO ? Sounds cool but I have no idea what it is
@@bluebird3281 Fate Grand Order. A mobile game from Fate series. The gacha system is painful but it has amazing story.
Ngl the first character I thought of regarding the Witch Knight build was Mordred from FGO. Works with either the Oath of Vengeance or Conquest subclass, Clarent is her Hexblade patron, and all of those buffs and smites stacked on top of each other is pretty much her noble phantasm.
@@Chatterbox-pt1kv Actually Mordred and Clarent are the opposite of Hexblade tho. Clarent was nothing but a decorative/ ceremonial sword. It only became a legendary sword after Mordred wield it and use it to slay her father.
Love these videos guys!
I played a Vengeance Pally 5 x Hexblade 4 in tomb of annihilation and it was a blast. Great point on double dipping the spells, but Vow of Enmity was too good to pass up!
So stoked we get this the same day as CR. Cheers Dudes! Been waiting on this one!
Seriously fun character to play. I ran this almost exactly as laid out here and she was a blast! Thank you
This was certainly a different way from my own build for Hexadin, but there is a lot here that I will be using on my own build. You guys are the best D&D resource on YT keep up the great work.
This build has been living rent free in my head for weeks! A couple of things I like to change up with my Witch Knight build. First on the roleplay side, I like to reverse the roles of the player and Hexblade. In other words, the player is Chaotic borderline evil, but the patron is Lawful/Netural good, pushing the player to make moral choices. This gives me a bit of flexibility to be the party "bad guy" while still serving the greater good. Regard the build itself, I really like to push into paladin more then warlock. I pick up dueling and build a sword and board conquest paladin. Once I pick up warlock invocations I grab improved pact weapon so I can summon a lance as a main hand. As I move forward with paladin I make sure to grab find steed and likely mounted combat as a feat. Depending on how you build, there is a point where you can have a steed, a spiritual weapon, a shadow spawn and a spector in play at the same time.
I like picking up Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast invocation to shore up the "ranged" weakness that the Paladin normally has for those situations where you can't reach the target you really need to.
DUDES!
Just wanna say you guys rock! I'm on the last session of Dungeons of Drakkenheim and every episode has been great! Looking forward to watching Shadows next. Your other videos are great too with how you balance info depth and video length. Your subclass and multiclassing videos always give me tons of ideas for character builds. I'm relatively new to DnD (though I've played other systems) but you guys make it really easy to navigate all the details and possibilities.
I could easily go on without overstating the quality of your work, but I'll leave it here.
May your 20s be natural and abundant!
Thank you so much!
Nice to see more How to Play videos. Really helps to see these things in action and seeing other people's perspectives helps, at least me, avoid mental ruts.
Ayo I didn't realize this was something that actually existed, this was something that I've been kinda wanting to make in a character so it seems kinda neat, thank you guys for making a vid on it.
Yo loving the P3 profile pic
This is what’s I’ve been doing for my Elric of Melnibone build hexblade/Paladin with Stormbringer aka blackrazor
So happy I came across this video! Just starting out in dnd (after playing deathknights and berserkers in game) and was planning to start as a paladin. Even tho I probably need some more dnd experience to try this out (especially since i'm dead set on playing a zariel tiefling paladin with oath of the ancients, so I will probably first need to learn how to play that) I'm absolutly saving this build for the future! It would fit the backstory of my tiefling perfectly. Thank you for maling this easy to understand build!
Thanks for the inspiration! Though I didn’t build a “witch knight” for our current gladiator mini adventure. I used the concept of looking at the combo of two classes like it’s a new class rather than just a Paladin and X. So I went Oath of Conquest and Divine soul. I call it the “Herald” it’s my absolute favorite character! Thanks again for the help!
It is an interesting build. It is always interesting get a different perspective on character builds. I am not sure I would want to make this character but it still an interesting way to look at things and theories behind could work great to refine other character ideas.
A good thing to keep in mind here is that the more damage you pile on your attacks, the less worthwhile the trade off of using GWM's -5/+10 becomes. There is a formula for what AC you should be using it on and the max AC you should use it against goes down as your attack's damage increases.
Mind sharing it?
@@DarthJaarJaar I believe it’s Max AC = (normal to hit bonus) - (normal average damage)/2 + 16
If your target has an AC lower than this number, then it’s worthwhile using the GWM, otherwise you’re lowering your expected damage.
So say I’m a level 9 sharpshooter rogue with 5d6 sneak attack and 20 DEX using a longbow. My to hit will be +9 and I do 1d8+5d6+5 damage without using SS for an average damage of 27. So the formula says the threshold AC is 11.5 and so I should rarely use the penalty. But if I have a second attack somehow or can’t get sneak attack, my expected damage drops to 9.5 and the formula says I should use it on anything with an AC under 19.25.
This obviously ignores enemies that you can only hit with a Nat 20, or enemies who are on their last legs (where you just wanna guarantee the hit if you can).
@@dascientist8443 thanks man, appreciate it!
@@dascientist8443 that's for sure only an approximation, a lot of variables are missing. (LVL, how the damage is divided btw bonus and dice....)
The actual result is a graph Average turn damage VS AC, in which the 2 lines (withGWM and withoutGWM) intersect at a certain AC. For lower AC, GWM grants more average damage output.
With advantage, the two lines moves to higher AC and becomes curved (since the benefit of advantage is lower against high and low AC).
That's true. A good way to think this is going on the extremes: if your attack make 1000 damage, GWM it's not worthwhile (what's the point on risk to miss for only 10 more damages?).
The same happen when the difference AC-attack bonus is high (which defines low probability to hit): when you can only hit with 16+, you are effectively making it impossible to hit.
Anyway, in most cases GWM is really useful (almost all cases with advantage or bless); but even if it wasn't always good, it is still good to take the feat only to use it against low AC monsters.
And all this without counting the second effect of the feat.
Great vid as always! Love your vids and I find them very helpful especially for a new player like myself.
Love seeing you both back in the same room!
Hey guys! Great video. Warlocks in general are probably my favorite class, and Hexblade is definitely one of my favorite subclasses.
The book wasn't out at the time of the video, but another really good race for the Hexblade is the Shadar-Kai from Monsters of the Multiverse. You essentially get Misty Step PB times per long rest, only better because after third level, you're resistant to all damage until your next turn. Combine that with immunity to sleep, performing a long rest in four hours, darkvision, advantage against being charmed and proficiency in perception...it's really fun.
Just had session 0 on Sunday with this multi-class... we are doing Strahd so DM is tying my weapon into that and I'm a Scourge Aasimar so role-playing the whole made a pact with a weapon when I fell aspect to it.
Try and switch to Fallen instead. As it gives a fear effect for conquest plus doesn't do self harm forcing concentration saves.
I had to comment - I built this character for a game I am playing in based off of this video and it is a beast! One of the funnest characters I have played in a while. Thanks for sharing this great build!
We started a one off group last weekend, and the DM gave me a pre-gen warlock. These will be the go-to characters we use when more than one of us can’t make a game session.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the character, and boom! The Dudes bring some good options. I am still thinking Sorlock also, so still need to make some decisions...
I have seen comments in recent months where this coincidence of timing happened for others too, so your powers are amazing!
Thanks so much!
I love these build videos! I'm currently playing a Paladin / Bard multiclass that I've heard affectionately called the "Blues Brothers Build." I'd love to see your take on this type of character.
A very charming idea.
It's 106 miles to Waterdeep. We've got a full supply of rations, a half -stocked herbalism kit, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
How did that build work
@@Lostangel1000 I'm still playing him! We're about to hit level 6 and he is the party face and frontline. He's an incredible face, with a 19 CHA and expertise in Persuasion, and he is pretty solid as a frontliner with 19 AC, cutting words, mirror image, and shield of faith to all buff his survivability!
With that new chromatic dragon feat from Fizban’s, this is the first time I’m considering going warlock instead of sorcerer for a Paladin!
What is it about that feat that makes it particularly suited to Warlocks over Sorcerers?
@@donaldmccabe975 More power to a melee-based warlock since Sorcerers dont have a lot of melee based options.
@@lvlHive lol what's the name of the feat?
@@robcarlton2341 It is literally Called Gift of the Chromatic dragon's
@@donaldmccabe975 it replaces the spell “absorb elements”, while also buffing your Melee attacks. The only way to get absorb elements on a Paladin (usually very good because Paladin Dex is usually a dump stat) is by taking a level in sorcerer druid or wizard. Sorcerer is CHA so it makes the most sense and is the strongest 1 level dip. With this feat, you could just take Hexblade Warlock instead (Hexblade gets access to shield spell) and still have a way to half elemental damage (usually a Dex save) and make a stronger Melee focused build with more replenishable spell slots for smiting, and then use eldritch blast for range. Covers a lot of weaknesses! A Watchers Paladin Hexblade warlock with this feat would be amazing! Pick up the resilient feat for constitution and you are pretty much set defensively. Watchers helps initiative with low Dex, the feat helps tank with low Dex, warlock has shield spell to tank, and warlock spell slots and invocations and even subclsss features can help fill in any other gaps. Hell, grab fey touched too for teleportation, or even throw in 3 levels of fighter too for echo knight. Really really strong!
Thank you for making these videos, Dudes :D Good stuff!
I'm just starting the video, but this is the exact character I'm building for my next session, so thank you for publishing a video about this!!
An inspiration I really like for this build is Michel from the Dresden files. The idea is that the hexblade weapon is a holy weapon from god and that way you can still be a true holy knight.
Micheal always rung as a Champion Fighter for me. Like it was said in Skin Game his technique wasnt all that showy but his timing was pretty much perfect which accounts for the increased crit chance. Amorachius could be seen as a Holy Avenger
@@leofrank6864 my guy Micheal is very clearly a Paladin😂 dude straight up used Healing Hands on Dresden in Skin Game along with his touch burning vampires all the way back from Grave Peril. He’s a Paladin imo.
@@joshuafoy9355 It has been a little bit since I read Skin Game and while I don't remember the Lay on Hands moment, I am going to giving you the benefit of the doubt on that one. However Micheal isn't the only one who has damaged vampires with a touch. Harry even had a similar level of protection against Lara before his interactions Lucio. This proves to be more of an in universe quirk of the various vampire species rather than a power specific to Micheal as a Paladin.
@@leofrank6864 that’s because Harry had true love’s protection against Lara, which is when a White Court vampire who feeds on lust tries to feed on the list of someone in love. The vampire Micheal burned was a Red Court vampire who feed on blood, and the fire that burned him was holy white fire, not heat burns like with White Court vampires.
@@joshuafoy9355 Hard to argue against that, so what about 7 Champion Fighter, 13 Devotion Paladin.
I play with a triple multiclass of Swashbuckler Rogue/Hexblade Warlock/Vengance Paladin, he founded a holy order for the Raven Queen, he looks like a spanish duelist but here is the thing... he is a total goof, he likes to eat and cook for his companions and he loves his new found family of friends.
This video came out nearly the day I wanted to learn quite how this worked. Awesome
And thanks, your guide is an eye opener, for this and for the artíficer, y probed both and is so much fun to play.
I have been using Vengeance Paladin + Celestial Warlock and it's so much fun. Also have Transformation level 1 Vampire, but that just adds to the nuance of the character.
He has used Darkness+DS to just slay out because his entire goal is to wipe out monsters. Reduce them to atoms with powerful smites and crits and remove their threat as fast as possible.
The interesting thing about 5e is that the paladin don't get their power from a deity but instead the oath it's self gives them power. While most oaths are sworn to deities it isn't required. So I've had fun playing this build in the past where I swore an oath of vengeance for the murder of my comrads and taken on a hexblade to get revenge but also in doing so becoming what I hated. Lots of fun flavour/RP possibilities with this build
I like that 5e is more open. I've done cleric/warlocks where I worship a god but made a pact with one of the god's powerful servants. So, that works for a paladin also. You could pick one of the gods of swords and make a pact with an artifact sword, or worship a god of battle and make a pact with a powerful fallen knight swearing to continue their quest.
Hell yeah!!
Was waiting a long time for your take on this build!!!
Thanks for the video! This gave me a lot of ideas for a build I'm trying to figure out which is a Hexblade with an Oathbreaker Paladin.
I Really enjoy your Videos!
Could you guys make a video about Sorlock? Please.
I would really like to see that character explained by you
Here I am, at lunch again, watching dungeon dudes.
I recently played a hexblade Vengeance pally and I loved it. So much fun
Thank you! Always enjoy ya'll!
something that wasn't mentioned about taking 15 strength right away: moving in heavy armor. even if you end up using charisma for attacks, high strength will still be good at high levels when you get heavy armor.
It was mentioned at about 9:30~
Hey this time *I* get to be the "I was just going to make one of these, what great timing!" guy!
Same! Literally just had session 0 this past Sunday 😄
Been playing around with a Fighter (Rune Knight) strength based Warlock (Celestial) Blade Pact. Race was Mountain Dwarf and follows a very similar advancement path. Is fun so far. Thanks for your videos and thoughts, they are very enjoyable
I don't know how you guys do it, but every video you guys post is somehow related to what dnd thing I'm working on at the moment. I'm currently mapping out a hexadin for the next campaign I play. 😂
I personally go with 8 Oath Breaker and 12 Hexblade warlock so I can add my charisma modifier to damage three times over. Moreover I have my find steed mount count as a fiend, as well as have dance macabre at the ready.
That's exactly what I would do. And it would fit an Arthas character really well.
Yeah, these guys did an odd build. The meta is either what you said (Oathbreaker 8/Hexblade 12) or Venveance 17/Hexblade 3 (or Vengeance 12/Hexblade 3/Caster 5[I like Whisper Bard for Psychic Blades]).
The former is more consistent high damage, while the latter is focused on massive nova damage.
And who's building Hexadins without being Half Elves? Elven Accuracy is too good with Darkness/Devil's Sight.
@@CrownlessStudios A lot of people wouldn't go half-elf for various reasons. This isn't a crit fishing build. Variant Human is always a good choice, or the custom lineage. Then, there are options that go well thematically, like Fallen Aasimar or Reborn with their own advantages. Most importantly, not everyone likes half-elves.
@@CrownlessStudios You know that talking about a meta in a pnp is...really stupid?
How so?
I’ll share my favorite “Witch Knight” character I’ve designed.
Alaric Westmorn - Reborn Oathbreaker Paladin/Hexblade Warlock
Alaric was a Champion to Bahamut having sworn an Oath of the Crown to the dragon-king disciple of Bahamut. The forces of Tiamat attack the castle and kill everyone, The Dragon King reveals himself to be a Green Dragon shape changed and orders Alaric to slay the love of his life. Alaric instead kills the Green Dragon to be murdered by Tiamat’s forces. Hundreds of Years later, after burning in Baator An adventurer stumbles upon an ancient weapon activating it. Resurrecting Alaric with a flare of fire, cold, poison, acid and lightning, being absorbed into 5 crystals on the cross guard. With a suit of armor wielding the blade. Possessed by the spirit of Alaric, The Warrior of Tiamat. Alaric quickly tries to abandon this blade but whenever he moves to far from it, it reappears on him. He can’t escape it. He’s cursed with a patronage of this Blade of Tiamat. Alaric having broken his oath in The Great Dragon War now has an odd control over other undead creatures. He eventually gains the notice of Bahamut, a Warrior of Tiamat praying to Bahamut every morning (taking 1d10 damage every time he does) and Bahamut gives him his blessing in a moment of great need (Gift of the Metallic Dragon Feat) where Alaric saves the life of a party member right as a red dragon makes an attack against a downed party member, shielding the party member from the certain death with majestic platinum wings sprouting from his back for the first time. The gemstones within his sword heat up and cool down to an iridescent hued crystal, the blackened blade turning platinum. Alaric’s turn being next he takes his new Blade of Bahamut and flies up straight through the dragon’s skull slaying it. Standing over the dead red dragon he removes his helmet for the first time, revealing that his body has also been restored. Lifting the curse over him. All of his necromantic summons, get reflavored to truly resurrecting weaker souls who follow the path of Bahamut and swear their fealty to the redeemed Paladin of Bahamut.
This is absolutely fucking lit 🔥
My feral tiefling dampier who has a flying speed of 30 and doesn't need to breed underwater "** the crusade has no limit**"
This came out at literally the perfect time!!
Same
I am eager to play a Hexblade/oath of conquest character, this is the video i was waiting for
Edit: OMG THEY ACTUALLY MADE IT WITH OATH OF CONQUEST
Half elf is a stronger choice imo for this character, because you can use elven accuracy with GWM because of hexblade
I'm not sure what you mean, GWM doesn't give you advantage at all. How would Elven Accuracy help? Genuinely curious, I wanna run this.
@@gordongreene7360 you would still need to get advantage from another source (darkness for example). the reason for mentioning elven accuracy here is that the hexblade makes your great weapon attack use CHR thus triggering elven accuracy while you have advantage. elven accuracy doesnt work on STR based attacks.
Kudos on the Spawn reference! Great idea!! Thanks Kelly!!!
I take my hat off and bow. Good Job. I had a friend suggest I make a video on the Hex Warrior, but after seeing your build I'll suggest he watch your video.
Starting warlock before pally is fun too. By the time eldritch blasting gets boring you'll have enough cheese to melee.
*edit* I'd probably still start pally for the heavy armor/martial weapon proficiecies just immediately switch to warlock and use eldritch blast until I have smite invocations then go more pally.
I did the same and imho best combo is HEx+Oath of Conquest, with Paladin/Hex 13/7 That way you get both 4 level pally spells and 4 th level lock spells.
My kink has changed from watching the D-Dude who isn't talking, to seeing the smug look on their faces when they get their intro flawlessly (I'm assuming first take).
Thank you for reminding me of that comment from like a year ago.
Alot of help, thanks!
I recently started binging the DoD campain. Good stuff so far.
Oath of Devotion doesn’t get enough love. Combined with Hexblade you’re talking about getting DOUBLE your Charisma on your attack mod in a pinch (even if your DM strikes that down you can still get Cha+Str). Combine that with great weapon master and bless and you’re probably landing that bonus damage consistently and you’re still eligible for other effects that give advantage to hit.
Except you can't use hexblade warrior on two-handed weapons.
@@GuiAntonioli I think I was mistaken about GWM because most DM’s I’ve played with have allowed it to be used with versatile weapons when used in both hands
What about oathbreaker, double cha on your self + cha on your party extra
Is anyone else looking at the dope jacket Kelly is wearing
Crazy that this comes out after I made myself a Pallock! I went celestial patron so far at Lv. 3; Warlock 2, Pally 1 with a half elf for in-game lore reasons
Textbook Witch-knight is Sigfreid/ Nightmare from the Soul Edge/Soul Caliber series.
I have a Tiefling Hexadin (Oath of the Watchers/Hexblade). He fights to protect mortal realms from more of his kin and their machinations.
Best build. Those two subclasses are elite!
Are the dungeon dudes in my head? I just started a campaign last night that is planned to go to high levels (20 I hope). Straight Sword & Board build. Standard Array Fallen Aasamar Sailor: strength 15 (hope to wear plate one day) Dexterity 10, Constitution 13, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 12 & charisma 17. Paladin (Conquest when oath activates at L. 3), Fey Touched to round Charisma to 18 at L 4. Will go to Paladin 5 to activate multi attack (Conquest Paladin is secretly a 3x a round attacker with Spiritual Weapon), dip 1 level hexblade warlock for L 6 (Eldritch Blast now gives you awesome ranged option, green flame blade can help you hurt extra stuff locked into your fear aura while nova focusing down a big bad, spells, get that shield spell every short rest and attack using Charisma now! second spell I’d pick cause fear because the fear aura is so good). Go Paladin to 8 to max Charisma and get those sweet sweet auras. Go Hexblade Warlock 2 for 10th Level and grab Eldritch Mind and Devils Sight (don’t be a darkness dick, but be ready for fighting in no light conditions). After that Bard all the way to L 10, Whispers: psychic blades & smite give you crazy nova damage, you have a ton of spell slots (warlock slots and spent inspiration refresh on short rests so nova burnout isn’t as big a deal). For magical secrets grab counterspell and spirit guardians if you really want to have a brutal aura synergy (speed 0 when creatures are frightened helps you trap people in the spirit guardian range). You only have 5th level spells known as a bard, but you’ll have a 6th level & 7th level slot which are great for your Aid spell and Armor of Agathys spell to help your less than awesome HP. I’d grab Resilient Con at Bard 4 and go either Con 16 or Warcaster for level 8 bard depending on how tight your table rules casting shield with sword & board in place (you already have concentration advantage from warlock invocation).
I'm currently running a Witch Knight character in a Homebrew Rime of the Frost Maiden game. Currently, 6 Levels Vengeance Paladin & 3 levels Hexblade Warlock. It's really fun, especially since I did not plan on doing the build, it just happened as a result of the story that was being told. The Damage output is really nice, but you were right when mentioning there are a lot of things to choose from your Bonus Action list.
Outstanding breakdown. One critically underused multiclass is Swarmkeeper Ranger 5/ Kensei monk X. Hunters mark stacked on flurry of blows, as well as spike growth with crusher feat for 4 chances to hit and make them make a save for 5-20 feet of shove through spikes