[3.5/Heroic]Hexblade Revision

Chambers · 07-22-2010, 11:46 PM

Hexblade

Note: This class revision is intended for balance within D&D Heroic Edition but it is hoped that it will be playable in regular D&D.

The Hexblade is an arcane warrior, using her special knowledge of magic to curse her foes to wreck their bodies and minds while she attacks them. With a vast reportaire of hexes she targets opponents for her curse and lays it upon them before destroying them with her attacks. She combines a fighters prowess with her hexes to defeat her foes.

Changes to the Hexblade.

The hexblade is a really neat idea - a warrior class that lays a curse upon her foes. But the mechanics of the curse left a lot to be desired, leading to a variety of fixes, some even from the designer of the class. The hexblades curse becomes an At-Will ability usable with a swift action but has a shorter duration, lasting 1 round. She gains essences that she can modify her curse with, similar to the warlocks eldritch blast & shape essences. At lower levels she may only affect a single target with her curse but at higher levels she knows how to hex multiple oppoents at once in a variety of ways.

She also gains an At-Will standard action attack that deals extra damage against an opponent that was a target of her curse in that round. The Aura of Unluck is expanded and made a constant aura that may have different effects.

Note: I'm not satisfied with the dead levels in the class but I'm not sure what to put there.

Level	BaB	Fort
1	+1	Hexblades Curse, Cursed Strike, Armored Hex, Hex Aura
2	+2	Hex Resistance, Blinding Curse
3	+3	Mettle, Straight Curse
4	+4	Hex Aura
5	+5	Slowing Curse
6	+6/+1	Chained Curse
7	+7/+2
8	+8/+3	Hex Aura
9	+9/+4	Cursed Cone
10	+10/+5	Lingering Curse, Nauseating Curse
11	+11/+6/+1
12	+12/+7/+2	Bursting Curse, Hex Aura
13	+13/+8/+3	Improved Mettle
14	+14/+9/+4
15	+15/+10/+5	Stunning Curse
16	+16/+11/+6/+1	Hex Aura
17	+17/+12/+7/+2
18	+18/+13/+8/+3
19	+19/+14/+9/+4
20	+20/+15/10/+5	Paralyzing Curse, Hex Aura

Armored Hex (Ex): A hexblade may use her hexblades curse ability while wearing armor and shields whose use she is proficient in without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. This ability does not apply to any other spell-like abilities that the hexblade may have as a result of race, multi-classing or other sources.

Hexblades Curse (Sp): The signature ability of the hexblade is her ability to curse her enemies. As a swift action she may target any opponent within 60ft that she has line of effect to with her curse. Targeted creatures must make a Will saving throw, DC equal to 10 + half the hexblades class level + Charisma modifier. Creatures that fail their saving throw suffer a -1 penalty on their attacks, damage, saving throws, ability checks and skill checks for 1 round. This penalty increases by 1 for every 4 hexblade levels to a maximum penalty of -6 at 20th level.

The hexblades curse is not affected by spell resistance. The Ability Focus feat increases the DC's of all a hexblade's curses by +2.

At higher levels a hexblade may apply essences to her curse, adding an additional effect or having it affect multiple opponents. A hexblade may apply one curse essence and one shape essence to her hexblades curse at a single time. Each curse essence imposes the original penalties in addition to the status condition.

Spoiler

Cursed Strike (Su): As a standard action the hexblade may make a single attack against an opponent she has targeted with her curse in the current round. This extra damage is 1d6 at first level and it increases by +1d6 for every other hexblade level. Should the hexblade score a critical hit with a cursed strike, this extra damage is not multiplied.

A hexblades cursed strike only functions against an opponent that she has cursed in the current round. The target takes the extra damage regardless of whether it made the saving throw.

If a hexblade has used her Lingering Curse ability on a target she may only make cursed strikes against the target while the curse is lingering on the target.

Hex Aura (Sp): The hexblade surrounds herself with a palpitable aura of misfortune, forcing bad luck on those that attack her. The hexblades aura may be initiated as a free action and lasts for the duration of the encounter. If it is dispelled in some manner the hexblade may bring the field back with a free action.

Enemies with 15ft of the Hexblade suffer the effects of the aura unless they make a Will saving throw, DC 10 + hexblade class level + Cha modifier. If a creature makes the save against the aura it is immune to all of the aura's effects for 24 hours. Creatures that fail the saving throw and leave the area of the aura and then re-enter gain a new saving throw to resist the effects.

At 1st level the hexblades Hex Aura imposes a -1 penalty on attack rolls on enemies within the aura. This penalty and all of the subsequent aura effects increase by 1 for every 4 hexblade levels, to a maximum of of -6 at 20th level.

Spoiler

Lingering Curse (Sp): The hexblade may choose to leave her curse upon her enemies instead of cursing new victims. A hexblade of 10th level and higher must first affect an opponent with her curse, having the oppoent fail their saving throw. The hexblade may then leave the curse on the opponent having it continually affect the target for the duration of the encounter or until the hexblade withdraws the curse as a free action. The target may make a new saving throw each round to remove the effect. While the hexblades curse is lingering on an opponent she may not target any other creature with her curse.

A hexblade may only use lingering curse against a single opponent, regardless of whether multiple opponents failed their saving throws in the case of a shape essence curse.

Hex Resistance (Ex): The hexblades arcane knowledge enables her to better resist spell-like, supernatural abilities and other magical effects. The hexblade adds her Charisma modifier as a bonus (minimum +1) against spell-like and supernatural abilities and effects. This ability does not stack with any other ability that allows the hexblade to add her Charisma modifier to her saving throws.

Mettle (Ex): As Hexblade.

Improved Mettle (Ex): If the hexblade fails a Will or Fortitude saving throw she takes the partial effect if the effect allows a partial effect on a succesful save.

Pechvarry · 07-23-2010, 02:29 PM

Nice work. I think I like how you're working this. Everyone loves a bit of Warlockiness. So, onto the critique:

Lingering Aura: take out your placeholder text (level xx). You've decided on 10. :)

Armored Hex: you really don't need this to be a class feature, as it's at 1st level when you get the hex. Just update your Hex description. I suppose you're using this so viewers who are familiar with the original are aware of the limitations you're lifting.

I noticed you changed the curse's effect to line of effect instead of line of sight. That's worthy of note, as it makes it harder for mages to get out of it, which is why I've made the same change. I think there was also originally a 24 hour line in there that I'm also glad to see missing.

It's unfortunate that Hex Aura has a 24 hour bit for saving. It's unfortunate, but I understand why you did it. Maybe changing it to "cannot be affected for the rest of the encounter" would be better, though.

Skilled Hex - I suggest changing this to also include Ability checks. You could even toss in all combat special maneuvers and it still wouldn't be overpowered. For example, you know the gargantuan monstrosity has Improved Grab: put up this aura and suddenly he's taking a penalty to grapple checks.

Ahh finally. Cursed Strike. 5x.5Hexblade level is... well, is there a reason for that formula? You could simply use Smite mechanics for this and it'd work quite well:
Against any target currently afflicted by your Curse (this clears up the need to mess with Lingering Curse), you may add Charisma to attack and your Hexblade level to damage. (Or say as a Standard Action against target afflicted by Curse)

One question: what about spells?

All in all, good rebuild. Does a great job of using the flavor in complete warrior and actually having a class that matches it.

Tinydwarfman · 07-23-2010, 03:06 PM

Yeah, did the spellcasting go poof? It was the only thing that could really salvage the Hexblade before...

Chambers · 07-23-2010, 03:06 PM

Spoiler

Fixed Lingering Curse.

24 hour to encounter duration immunity sounds good, and I like your ideas for Skilled Hex.

Cursed Strike. The number mechanic is based on the Fighters attack, because the Hexblade is a warrior, but not as good as the Fighter. Charisma to attack and Hexblade level to damage is not enough at higher levels. As it is now the Hexblade gets an extra 50dmg (at 20th level) against the target of their Curse. Lowering it makes the Hexblade weaker, I think.

And I made the Cursed Strike work against opponents regardless of whether they made or failed their save because if the target makes their save then the Hexblade is boned for that round. The target isn't debuffed and they don't get any extra damage. This way even if the target makes the save the Hexblade can still attack for extra damage, and it's only a single target since it's a standard action.

---

Spells are removed from the Heroic Edition, at least in the form that 3.5 uses them. Classes instead get a limited number of abilities, some that may duplicate the effects of spells, but the days of the massive spell lists and 30+ spells per day are gone.

---

On another note, I'm a little concerned with the Hexblade overall. I like how the abilities function, but I don't know if they come together to make an unified, effective whole. As it is the Hexblade basically has three main abilities:

Single or multiple target debuff. multiple target lasts 1 round, single target may last longer.
Standard action attack for extra damage against current target of curse.
Personal debuff aura.

Tinydwarfman · 07-23-2010, 03:08 PM

Where can we find this spellcasting redux?

Chambers · 07-23-2010, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinydwarfman

Where can we find this spellcasting redux?

Heroic Edition. It's also in my sig.

It's still very much a rough draft, work in progress. And honestly, the more I work on it the more it feels like I'm recreating 4th edition using 3.5 rules.

Tinydwarfman · 07-23-2010, 04:09 PM

Indeed, I was directed here from the thread, but I was wondering if you had made any kind of spell redux, or if you were cutting it entirely.

Chambers · 07-23-2010, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tinydwarfman

Indeed, I was directed here from the thread, but I was wondering if you had made any kind of spell redux, or if you were cutting it entirely.

Oh. Whoops.

The spells per day mechanic is completely gone. The spell-like abilities that classes get are modeled on the invocation / aura systems, pretty much. Each class will have one main ability/attack that scales with levels, in addition to other abilities that enhance their focus/concept.

cooperflood · 07-23-2010, 05:03 PM

In general I really like the mechanics for this class. My only complaint is that I would like it to be a bit more customizable. I don't want the entire class to be laid out in stone for me I want to occasionally be able to pick options.

For example:

1: Hexblade Curse, Hex Aura, Armored Hex
2: Hex Resistance
3: Improved Curse
4: Cursed Strike
5: Improved Curse
6: Mettle
7: Improved Curse
8: Slow Reflexes
9: Improved Curse
10: Extended Aura
11: Improved Curse
12: Improved Mettle
13: Improved Curse
14:
15: Improved Curse
16:
17: Improved Curse
18:
19: Improved Curse
20:

New Abilities:

Slow Reflexes: Once per day as a free action after Initiative has been rolled force one opponent to reroll his initiative if he fails a Will Save (10+1/2 Level+CHA).

Extended Aura: Once per day as a swift action you may double the range of your Hex Aura for a number of rounds equal to your CHA.

Improved Curse: At third level and every two Hexblade levels there after gain an additional curse ability from the following list. You must meet the minimum level requirement to gain the ability:

Blinding Curse (3rd)
Ability Focus (3rd)
Spell Penetration (3rd)
Line Curse (3rd) (30ft Line)
Slow Curse (5th)
Chained Curse (5th)
Cursed Cone (5th) (15ft Cone)
Greater Spell Penetration (5th)
Nauseating Curse (9th)
Bursting Curse (9th) (10 foot Burst)
Extended Range (9th) (Double the Range of all curse abilities)
Lingering Curse (9th)
Stunning Curse (15th)
Paralyzing Curse (15th)

Chambers · 07-23-2010, 05:33 PM

cooperflood

I changed the Hex Aura's so that the hexblade may choose which Hex Aura to learn when they learn a new one.

I will likely rework the Curse & Shape Essences to a similar system. Thanks!

Extended Aura: I will probably just have the aura increase it's range at a specific level.

Doctor Acula · 07-23-2010, 09:52 PM

Is hex resistance the same as arcane resistance?
Did you intentionally cut the 5th level bonus feat?

Quote:

Originally Posted by unnamedhero

On another note, I'm a little concerned with the Hexblade overall. I like how the abilities function, but I don't know if they come together to make an unified, effective whole. As it is the Hexblade basically has three main abilities:

Single or multiple target debuff. multiple target lasts 1 round, single target may last longer.
Standard action attack for extra damage against current target of curse.
Personal debuff aura.

Keep in mind they still have a full BaB if you give them a better armor proficency they may be able to fufil a fighter's role in the party in a much cooler way. To further that end you could keep their every 5th level bonus feat and just make it from the fighters feat list

Chambers · 07-23-2010, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doctor Acula

Is hex resistance the same as arcane resistance?
Did you intentionally cut the 5th level bonus feat?

Yes and yes. Bear in mind I don't consider this class "finished". I posted what I had, which is mainly the revised curse mechanic and hex aura.

Doctor Acula · 07-24-2010, 07:13 AM

Oh, I assumed it was done because you were already asking people to play test it.

BumblingDM · 07-31-2010, 05:47 PM

I like the idea of having it work a bit more like smite instead of the extra d6, i notice you use that in almost all the classes, I like it on the fighter but not so much here.

Is there any small fluff things you think could be added to fill in some of those blank gaps? levels 12 and up look a little sparse.

But all around I am liking your heroic classes, still going through and reading them all at the moment.