Imagine if Hexblades Didn't Suck
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:13 pm
Interesting note: the team that made them actually commented off-the-record that, looking back, it's underpowered at what it does, and basically every other "I mix swords with spells" class does it better. They offered a few fixes (to be used all together), but even combined, it's still not very good.
So what would a Tome one look like? I figure they'd keep the basic hit die and all that, but then...
1. They have a Hex ability that scales with level. Maybe it's the 1/round Free Action Will Negates thing where using it doesn't cost you anything, or maybe it uses a real action but just works. Perhaps the "base" hex is the simple -2/-4/-6/-8 to "stuff" and then they gain a class feature that lets them apply specialist hexes that do crap like strip away immunities, cause bad conditions or whatever. If it does take a real action to use, then at some point let them apply it 1/round when they hit someone, because that sounds "Hex"y and also "Blade"y.
2. They should have either some small amount of spellcasting (mostly things that summon crap onto the field to annoy enemies without a save or that augment their own abilities, or that move them about the place and let them see the invisible and such) or gain SLAs or something. Honestly, were I doing it back in the day I'd tie it in with the Warlock and have them gain a very small number of Invocations, but let the Invocations all have another use (such as "Cloud of Concealment and Fatigue... a Hexed target treats it as Full Concealment and takes nonlethal damage every round." or various "Infuse this Invocation into your weapon: when it hits someone, _____" abilities). But you could also give them real spellcasting with all 9 levels, just a spell list that is very restricted, and not very many spells per day so it doesn't feel like their main thing.
3. People really liked the fact that they got a beefy Familiar (as in, it has more Hit Points than the party Wizard, never mind the Wizard's familiar) or a Shadow Companion. Besides, having pets is all the rage in games, so at level 4-ish, let them choose between:
[*]Gain an Improved Familiar. If it dies, the only drawback is you don't have it with you for a whole day/week. It's generally a low-intellect Magical Beast or Outsider that exists to assist in combat and maybe gets a few basic SLAs, so stuff like Hellhound, Winter Wolf or Imp. At higher levels, it's still basically a Hellhound, Winter Wolf, or Imp, it just has a lot of HP and hit dice and all that.
[*]Shadow Companion, maybe improve it a bit more so that it does Flank, and can make a basic Mind-Affecting attack.
[*]Summon a fiendish mount like a Blackguard, generally ending up as a Nightmare or something. This could honestly be just folded into the familiar options.
[*]Perpetual demon possession, granting a few benefits (starting with basic See In Any Darkness and Telepathy, then eventually gaining immunity to Mind-Affecting (and backlash on those that try it) and such).
[*]That demonic skin graft from Fiend Folio. I can't even remember what it does, but I think it might be useful. If not, alter it a bit so that it is.
Other abilities can be sprinkled on to fill levels such as Mettle, +Cha to saves, the Aura of Unluck, whatever. So as a class, it lets them resist stuff, curse people to lower their abilities, run up and smack them in the face, then use their spells/spell-likes to handle "the door is very far away" or "your enemy is flying and invisible".
What would people do? Because it's an interesting enough idea, even if the actual finished product is crap.
So what would a Tome one look like? I figure they'd keep the basic hit die and all that, but then...
1. They have a Hex ability that scales with level. Maybe it's the 1/round Free Action Will Negates thing where using it doesn't cost you anything, or maybe it uses a real action but just works. Perhaps the "base" hex is the simple -2/-4/-6/-8 to "stuff" and then they gain a class feature that lets them apply specialist hexes that do crap like strip away immunities, cause bad conditions or whatever. If it does take a real action to use, then at some point let them apply it 1/round when they hit someone, because that sounds "Hex"y and also "Blade"y.
2. They should have either some small amount of spellcasting (mostly things that summon crap onto the field to annoy enemies without a save or that augment their own abilities, or that move them about the place and let them see the invisible and such) or gain SLAs or something. Honestly, were I doing it back in the day I'd tie it in with the Warlock and have them gain a very small number of Invocations, but let the Invocations all have another use (such as "Cloud of Concealment and Fatigue... a Hexed target treats it as Full Concealment and takes nonlethal damage every round." or various "Infuse this Invocation into your weapon: when it hits someone, _____" abilities). But you could also give them real spellcasting with all 9 levels, just a spell list that is very restricted, and not very many spells per day so it doesn't feel like their main thing.
3. People really liked the fact that they got a beefy Familiar (as in, it has more Hit Points than the party Wizard, never mind the Wizard's familiar) or a Shadow Companion. Besides, having pets is all the rage in games, so at level 4-ish, let them choose between:
[*]Gain an Improved Familiar. If it dies, the only drawback is you don't have it with you for a whole day/week. It's generally a low-intellect Magical Beast or Outsider that exists to assist in combat and maybe gets a few basic SLAs, so stuff like Hellhound, Winter Wolf or Imp. At higher levels, it's still basically a Hellhound, Winter Wolf, or Imp, it just has a lot of HP and hit dice and all that.
[*]Shadow Companion, maybe improve it a bit more so that it does Flank, and can make a basic Mind-Affecting attack.
[*]Summon a fiendish mount like a Blackguard, generally ending up as a Nightmare or something. This could honestly be just folded into the familiar options.
[*]Perpetual demon possession, granting a few benefits (starting with basic See In Any Darkness and Telepathy, then eventually gaining immunity to Mind-Affecting (and backlash on those that try it) and such).
[*]That demonic skin graft from Fiend Folio. I can't even remember what it does, but I think it might be useful. If not, alter it a bit so that it is.
Other abilities can be sprinkled on to fill levels such as Mettle, +Cha to saves, the Aura of Unluck, whatever. So as a class, it lets them resist stuff, curse people to lower their abilities, run up and smack them in the face, then use their spells/spell-likes to handle "the door is very far away" or "your enemy is flying and invisible".
What would people do? Because it's an interesting enough idea, even if the actual finished product is crap.