Building a maximum cheese Hexblade Archer

[deathadder99]

Hey Giantitp,

Long time no see, and unfortunately for me, long time no play... But it's all changing. I'm starting a new campaign (and as a player!) in a couple weeks. I also just picked up a copy of Xanathar's.

I've loved the concept of the Moonbow since it was first unveiled in the UA. The concept is simple - I want to make a bladelock archer, and I want it to be as optimised as possible, as this DM pulls no punches. All officially published material is fair game, plus the Mystic. No other UA is allowed.

We will be starting at level 6.

Currently, my line of thinking is the following -

Eladrin

8 Str, 17 Dex, 12 Con, 16 Int, 8 Wisdom, 13 Cha

Hexblade Pact of the Blade 5/ Immortal Mystic 1

Invocations are Thirsting Blade, Imp. Pact Weapon, Eldritch Smite

Mystic Disciplines are Mastery of Light and Dark, Bestial Form, Psionic Weapon

At level 4, I take Elven Accuracy and increase Dex by 1.
----

Now, I've got a few reservations. I'm not sure how to best build this so it comes online early enough, and scales decently into late game. I'm happy to theorycraft up until level 20, but it's unlikely to happen...

I feel like the Warlock Invocations I took are pretty much mandatory for this build to work. An alternative would be to stop Warlock at 3, but since Eldritch Smite now scales with Warlock spell slots only, I'm not sure it's worth it. 1 level in Mystic for Mastery of Light and Dark is the only way to get a Darkness/Pseudo Devil's sight thing going at level 6. Wu-Jen Mystic used to be amazing for the old (UA) Eldritch Smite, but now it's restricted to warlock spell slots only. Psionic Weapon gives me some extra damage on my bow attacks, and Bestial Form gives concentration free flight later on (assuming I keep going Mystic).

Are there any other classes/things I've overlooked that could make this even better? I've seen some people mention starting Fighter level 1, but I'm not sure that Con saves and Archery Fighting Style is worth it over Darkness Devil's Sight. I also considered going Half-Elf (half drow seems actually very appealing) and building this as Cha SAD, but I feel like Dexterity is just a better stat overall. I am happy to be convinced otherwise.

Going forward, I think continuing in Mystic to 12, and taking 3 levels of Fighter (Champion maybe?) are the best options. Mystic at level 11 can concentrate on multiple things at once, making them excellent. Archery Fighting style is just such a great boost, and Action Surge will let me set up my buffs and attack in one turn. Champion would give me 19-20 crits passively, synergizing perfectly with Elven Accuracy. Sharpshooter is obviously the next feat on the list.

[Oms]

I also considered going Half-Elf (half drow seems actually very appealing) and building this as Cha SAD, but I feel like Dexterity is just a better stat overall. I am happy to be convinced otherwise.

Dex is great, but the biggest boon of using the Hexblade pact is that you don't need Str or Dex for weapon damage. I would get Dex to 14 for medium armour (or 16 if you are planning on taking Medium Armour Master) and put more points in Cha. Having low Cha (and thus a low Spell Save DC) isn't very fun, it really limits your spell-casting efficiency.

[deathadder99]

Dex is great, but the biggest boon of using the Hexblade pact is that you don't need Str or Dex for weapon damage. I would get Dex to 14 for medium armour (or 16 if you are planning on taking Medium Armour Master) and put more points in Cha. Having low Cha (and thus a low Spell Save DC) isn't very fun, it really limits your spell-casting efficiency.

I was actually going to not be casting spells which need a save DC. Fly, invisibility, hex, mirror image etc... I’m not sure there are any spells worth taking - maybe if I go more levels in Warlock.

[BobZan]

Why Hexblade if you're not going Cha or Medium armor? Just for curse and Shield spell? Idk if it's worth.

A blade pact fiend or celestial could be better for that way

[deathadder99]

Why Hexblade if you're not going Cha or Medium armor? Just for curse and Shield spell? Idk if it's worth.

A blade pact fiend or celestial could be better for that way

Hexbalde curse really. I am not expecting to take Warlock past level 5 (unless someone has a good suggestion), and curse seems the most effective of all the level 1 patron features. Fiend with low Cha is not great, and Celestial seems to fall off quickly. Hexblade curse + advantage + elven accuracy really seems to synergise well.

[Callin]

Max cheese is hexblade lock 5 for bow and then favored soul sorc. Use spell point system to cheese more ranged smites. Coffeelock spell point variant. Be a beast!

Quicken Bless and Sharpshooter. Use darkness and devils sight for advantage. Or just use a familiar for 1 shot advantage.

[deathadder99]

Max cheese is hexblade lock 5 for bow and then favored soul sorc. Use spell point system to cheese more ranged smites. Coffeelock spell point variant. Be a beast!

Quicken Bless and Sharpshooter. Use darkness and devils sight for advantage. Or just use a familiar for 1 shot advantage.

Can you RAW turn spell points into Warlock Spell slots - as Eldritch smite explicitly calls out Warlock Spell Slots? In that case, Sorc seems incredibly strong. Though 1 point in Fighter for Archery Fighting style is probably well worth.

EDIT
Also, unfortunately with all the invocation tax, getting Darkness/Devil's sight sacrifices Eldritch Smite or Imp. Pact Weapon or Thirsting Blade, all of which are really good. Which sucks... Going Shadow Sorceror works, though you lose the wings from Divine Soul... The old old favoured soul with the extra attack at level 6 would work fine, but unfortunately it's UA which has a newer version in Xanathar's so I don't think it will fly. Any insight?

[BobZan]

Can you RAW turn spell points into Warlock Spell slots - as Eldritch smite explicitly calls out Warlock Spell Slots? In that case, Sorc seems incredibly strong. Though 1 point in Fighter for Archery Fighting style is probably well worth.

EDIT
Also, unfortunately with all the invocation tax, getting Darkness/Devil's sight sacrifices Eldritch Smite or Imp. Pact Weapon or Thirsting Blade, all of which are really good. Which sucks... Going Shadow Sorceror works, though you lose the wings from Divine Soul... The old old favoured soul with the extra attack at level 6 would work fine, but unfortunately it's UA which has a newer version in Xanathar's so I don't think it will fly. Any insight?

RAW you can use SP for warlock slots.

Fighter/Divine Soul has a great precision set for Archers. Archery Fight Style, Precision from Battlemaster, short rest +2d4 feafure, bless (quicken). You can deploy Sharpshooter more often. Sharpshooter is a 2d8ish smite spending low to none resources.

Bless increases party accuracy in 12,5%. Archery FS is another 10%, Divine Soul feature 25%, BM precision 22,5%.

[deathadder99]

RAW you can use SP for warlock slots.

Fighter/Divine Soul has a great precision set for Archers. Archery Fight Style, Precision from Battlemaster, short rest +2d4 feafure, bless (quicken). You can deploy Sharpshooter more often. Sharpshooter is a 2d8ish smite spending low to none resources.

Bless increases party accuracy in 12,5%. Archery FS is another 10%, Divine Soul feature 25%, BM precision 22,5%.

Yeah, I think Divine Soul is excellent the more I think about it...


I was toying around with

Hexblade 5
Mystic 1
Ftr 3
->
Divine Soul X

earlier. I think it's the best way to get perma advantage via darkness/devil's sight without giving up too much. Unfortunately you can't pick up wings at divine soul 14, but if flight is really needed, you can pick up 4 levels of mystic and get Bestial form... This also seems to have a really nice and smooth power curve. I'm wondering if Battlemaster is not slightly overkill, and getting Champion for the always-on 19-20 crit is better. With advantage + elven accuracy, Nomadic Arrow, 2d4 from divine soul, Archery Fighting style, you'll be missing very infrequently.

Edit:
Does delay Sharpshooter though.... I think it’s still a step in right direction

[BobZan]

Overall Battlemaster is better than Champion. If you're crit fishing for smite and not aiming for early Ss, Champion is better. Revised Ranger + xgte Gloom Stalker is also very good to benefit from elven accuracy.

[Mongobear]

I'm actually not too familiar with the Mystic, as I tend to avoid UA stuff until it's made official, so I cant comment on that build. However, as soon as I read level 6 BladeLock Archer, Fighter 1/Hexblade 5 jumped into my head.

This is how I would do it, assuming normal Point Buy/ASI/Feat progression?

Half-Elf (Drow Spellcasting Variant)
((You could do VHuman to start with Sharpshooter and just use Darkness/Devil's Sight and use 4th level for almost identical Ability scores.)
15/8/16/8/8/17
Start Fighter for proficiencies
Archery Fighting Style
Full Plate Armor

Hexblade 5
Invocations - Imp Pact Weapon, Thirsting Blade, Devil's Sight
Level 4 - Take either Sharp Shooter or Elven Accuracy(+1 Cha)
You can ignore Eldritch Blast entirely since youre a Ranged Striker already.

Use Darkness/Devil's Sight shenanigans which is actually much more versatile on a Ranged build since you don't need to worry about Blinding your other Party members. Sharpshooter at 4 is probably the better option, free advantage and Archery Style counters the penalties nicely, then grab Elven Accuracy at your next ASI.

Unless you want more spells, I would stall at Hexblade 5 and go deeper into Fighter(at least 4th level) for either BM or Arcane Archer for trick shots/utility. And if you go further, you can then trade out Invocations later in Warlock to drop Thirsting Blade for Eldritch Smite or something similar. However this does require you to go a full level with a redundancy of having Extra Attack AND Thirsting Blade, so stopping at Fighter 4 is probably a better idea, focusing on Fighter 4/Hexblade X for a final build.

[Easy_Lee]

Eldritch Smite only works with warlock slots. That's something to consider when designing your build.

If you're going to put levels in fighter, champion is redundant with Hexblade. But if you have Elven Accuracy and frequent advantage, why would you even need +2 from archery? You're going to roll 17+ approximately half of the time. What are you trying to hit?

Sample build that I haven't yet seen posted: Hexblade 10 / Divine Soul X. This gives you most of the good stuff from Hexblade and lets you start using Metamagic for quickened darkness and so on. You also gain some lower level spell slots right away, useful for things like Shield, absorb elements, and even feather fall.

[deathadder99]

Eldritch Smite only works with warlock slots. That's something to consider when designing your build.

If you're going to put levels in fighter, champion is redundant with Hexblade. But if you have Elven Accuracy and frequent advantage, why would you even need +2 from archery? You're going to roll 17+ approximately half of the time. What are you trying to hit?

Sample build that I haven't yet seen posted: Hexblade 10 / Divine Soul X. This gives you most of the good stuff from Hexblade and lets you start using Metamagic for quickened darkness and so on. You also gain some lower level spell slots right away, useful for things like Shield, absorb elements, and even feather fall.

Champion is sort of redundant, but you get always on 19-20 crit, whereas the Curse is only once per rest. Hexblade gives you the Cha for attack rolls as well, so you get a lot from it even if there is some redundancy. The +2 from archery is useful if we're going to be using Sharpshooter on every shot.

Why go so many levels in Hexblade? I don't rate the level 10 ability that highly - would it just be so that you get 5th level slots? The RAW is pretty unclear on if you can create a level 5 warlock spell slot if you don't have 5th level spell casting from your Warlock level. Eldritch Smite is the only thing so far to explicitly call out 'warlock spell slots' which opens up a whole can of worms, but I'd read it as you could use spell points to create a Warlock spell slot, and you can already create a spell slot higher than you can cast, so I reckon you can do the same with 'warlock' spell slots.

I definitely think Divine Soul is the best multiclass for this, the metamagic + ability to use spell points to create Warlock spell slots is going to be the killer feature there. Quickened spell opens up an awful lot of utility.