Hexblood: Optimization and Analysis
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2024
- A look at the new Hexblood lineage for D&D
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:54 Changing into a Hexblood
2:57 Lineage Features
7:12 Conclusions
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I like the idea of a hexblood when working with an eldritch Knight build.
The hex spell scales nicely with the fighters extra attack and action surge since it’s a bonus action to cast. Hex concentration is bolstered by the fighters constitution save proficiency. Hex also gives a target disadvantage on an ability check specified at casting, so the hexblood can be a formidable grappler.
The additional magic spells and token options give the Eldritch Knight a bit more utility than the subclass restrictions normally allow for.
The ability to cast those spells for free once stretches the subclasses limited slots a bit too.
YUP. I’d even argue this might be THE best choice for an eldritch knight or a hexblade - that is, gishes with limited slots/spells known. It negates the warlock’s Hex tax, and likewise is fantastic on a fighter with slots to recast Hex. Both spells are outside the EK’s school limitation, and if you don’t care that much abt misty step, you can skip the otherwise fantastic Fey Touched l, freeing up a feat or ASI. Or take the feat and have 4 free spell casts per day - that literally DOUBLES a 5th level Eldritch Knight’s spells per day
As an Arcane Trickster you could smuggle the token into a target‘s pocket and gain info about it‘s whereabouts at night! Or simply cause them some nightmares....
That's cool, shame rogue gets the least out of hex. I guess you could just take mage hand as a (dex) EB?
@@autodidacticpoly Well, one could argue 1d6 extra damage is equivalent to two levels of rogue... unfortunately, the EK can‘t use the magic hand legerdemain feature and therefore not store things in other people‘s pockets stealthily, RAW...
inquisitive insightful fighting could be buffed by hexing the target charismas, that way their contested check is at a disadvantage, so you can get sneak attack more frequently.
Tie up the token on your familiar, enhance your familiar's scouting abilities up to 10 miles. If your familiar can fly, congrats, you now have GPS. That's pretty sweet.
"My hexblood hexblade casts hex and then hacks! You know, for the heck of it!"
My favorite of the Lineages. Just so much in style and some decent power. Hex is a spell people will multiclass to get, and getting it as a freebie is actually pretty solid, the disguise self is a good problem solver, and the token is a good utility tool to have in your back pocket. Plus, one could cause some serious chaos with that token with some clever roleplay (say deposit the hair onto a target, then whisper words into their ears to get an NPC to act in a way you want)
Then again, my Hexblood character idea looks like a Tabaxi, but is actually a Warlock and his Familiar fused into a new conjoined form, because the "magic gone haywire" aspect is pretty sweet
So its basically the same as a custom lineage with feytouched. You trade misty step for disguise self and the token.
Go eldritch knight for a bunch of d6s for your attacks from hex, and you can still burn your 1st level slots for it.
You can get a familiar to move the token around which might let you, delayed, inform party members if youre away from them.
The real benefit I see is you can still take feytouched for another 1st level spell, maybe something like gift of alacrity?
Basically, any class with a bunch of attacks on a singe target does well with hexblood so monk could work too but then its only once per day.
Lots of content this week!
I came up with a custom class for a specific campaign last year, the Witch class. Hexblood lineages capture the general feeling of what I was going for.
This comment isn't a flex. It's really just to feed the algorithm. ;)
This looks like it's a lineage that was custom made specifically for the warlock. Two more free spells to add on top of your cantrips and incantation "spells", the token for telepathy and scouting, your choice to bump Charisma and the stat of your choice . . . plus it's thematically appropriate for a warlock with the Archfey Patron type. Hags are even one of the patron options there. Now part of your "pact" is that you are slowly turning into your patrons offspring. How great is that?
I love that the creature type is fey, so many spells that don’t effect you and add that magical feeling that the hex blood already gives
I think hags trying to convert a PC could be interesting if the Player of the PC says it is okay for him if he should lose his character this way.
Hexblood mixed with a talisman warlock could be a interesting sneaky diviner style character or NPC. Not sure how'd it be built, but could be flavorful.
I wanna play a hexblood arcane trickster to use mage hand legerdemain to plant my eerie token on an enemy and spy on them (or just screw with them with a disembodied voice that only they can hear).
It's only once per long rest unless you have spell slots, so it might not be a huge benefit, but a free use of hex would be a nice one time damage buff for any class with lots of attacks.
Eldritch Knight or Samurai Fighter? Monks with their flurry of blows? (they're bonus action hungry, but they could drop the hex on a boss or bruiser that isn't expected to fall quickly)
The lineage isnt hugely powerful or anything, but I think there's enough there mechanically and conceptually to make some interesting characters.
For sure and its simpler to make good use out of than the Dhampir. Even if you go the simple warlock rout then you get +2spells known at lvl 1, Hex among them! You just can go wrong with this :)
It's even good on a warlock. It does save you from need of the mask of many faces invocation (how often do you actually cast it).
As someone that really likes Gishes, an option that gives you hex for free is certainly interesting for me. Plus with all the different subclasses that tie into the Feywild, there's a good opportunity for building a backstory. Like, what if your character found out they were part of a ritual to be turned into a hag, only to enter a deal with a stronger Fey being to prevent the full transformation?
Thinking on it, this would be a good match for a Ranger. Hex can substitute for Hunter's Mark once per day and free up a spell learned. Though this would be restricted in use being limited to only one cast, it's still good to have the versatility and have access to lesser used Ranger spells.
It would only be limited to once a long rest if you're not wanting to spend your spell slots on it
3:42 last sentence of the first section
You can also recast it using spell slots, so you can cast it just as much as you'd normaly cast Hunter's Mark +1. The only downsides are occasional resistance vs necrotic and having a material component that prevents the you from using it when your hands are full, but few Rangers would suffer from those.
@@predwin1998 that is true, you can use extra spell slots, I overlooked that.
Without looking at numbers I would think necrotic resist would also be less common than weapon resists early game before magic weapons become prevalent.
@@papersage69 True, but the reason I tend to prefer increasing the damage of my weapon over most other damage types, specifically for adding it to weapon attacks, is because when you do face resistance against your weapon, your damage is already reduced, so you'd be less inclined to use those anyway, even if your bonus damage does bypass the resistance. That said, it also depends on if you have an alternative game plan for when that happens. If not, having at least part of your damage bypass the resistance would still be preferable.
But Hex does have the disadvantage on skill checks tacked on as well. And last but not least, when you do face resistance against necrotic damage, you probably have other spells you can concentrate on instead of Hex, such as a summon.
I think any Ranger not worried about having their hands full could happily trade Hunter's Mark for Hex.
A weekend video! What a treat!
It's not specific to the token, but any time you have an expressly telepathic action, even if it's one way, you have a strong case to make for allowing the "Aid Another" benefit for a broad array of activities, basically anything that it helps to have someone coaching you through, that cannot be detected by most other creatures.
Great Video, appreciate the current content updates... you mentioned a video or 2 ago about a "push party", one that is focused on having the whole party focus on moving enemies & themselves around on the battlefield... could you make a video covering the actual party makeup!? It would be great to hear how you would build a party around that concept, as several of your builds already cover that concept, and you really are one of the folks who pushed that concept to the forefront of optimizations. Mahalo.
I've been thinking of doing a "full party" build video, though it's daunting as it will be quite involved.
The hex blood is one of the best linage and also one that they made the least mistakes on. It works great on any class. Familiars can take a token to someone or use it or even (ideally female) can waive the hair into a token for a Knight to carry into a meeting and you could see who was there though your unknowing compatriot - at level 1! If you have to fight your way though you got that too. Really good.
I would love to hear your opinion on the races, post-Tasha's... like how the dwarf can be a wonderful optimization for artificer or Wizard, etc.
I’m about ready to home brew the racial features out of races entirely.
Construct your character as usual, following all the mechanics.
At the end, disregard the name of the race.
Pick a race. That is your race. Make no mechanical changes. If your elf has stonecunning and a 25’ move, that is a RP opportunity.
You are more or less humanoid looking. The less humanoid, check with me. Nothing is forbidden...but this isn’t sci-fi. Have a reason.
The last thing I’m interested in, as a DM, is having a philosophical debate about bioessenialism. It’s a role playing game. The mechanical game part...that is just math. Ignore any cultural/historical/fluff information. Those are the rules. The fluff part is role playing...do whatever you want, just be definitive. The basic rules connect specific fluff as a theoretical “why” to explain the mechanics. If you change the fluff, there is no “why” unless you provide it. But, there doesn’t need to be. Maybe your character doesn’t know why. Plenty of fantasy heros have powers that just “happen” without a lot of control or understanding. Your character might not even begin the game aware of all their abilities until you, as the player, state the ability is used. It is kind of an interesting question...how does a caster like a sorcerer know what their abilities are?
No matter what, the fluff doesn’t change the mechanics.
Two hexbloods swapping tokens for 10 mile 2 way communication seems handy.
Playing a spellcaster with scorching ray is great for hex magic. You can cast hex more than once since you have spell slots and scorching ray is a beast of a spell with hex added on to it
I play a hexblood and I always make sure I give a lock of hair to every party member and we use them as a com system. I will also use it to spy on them occasionally without them knowing. I also tied a hair to an animal messenger and used it as a pudeo familiar.
I guess the question is: does the token count as you/part of you? If it does (as it is part of your body), you could theoretically use it to dimension door/Misty step across huge distances because the space you can see through it is within 30ft of you
Really want to create a character who went to Hagwarts...
Hexblood Eldritch Knight could be a fun option.
The Hex spell pairs well with the Fighter getting multiple attacks each round, and Disguise Self is a good addition to the limited casting of the Eldritch Knight. An Eldritch Knight can (and probably should) get a familiar as well for shenanigans with the Eerie Token.
This is an example of a lineage done well. Though I still miss dualtyping,
Altough hexblood got better from it. With dualtype you would still be affected by charm person, etc.
Damn, bro, just poppin ‘em out left and right.
If it’s presented as being miles away, that’s one thing. But you could have a very different effect if you’re a lookout or a spotter. And you could be in the same room and have secure one way communication.
I like this with Aberrant Mind Sorcs. With psychic spells, you should be able to modify memory with remote viewing.
Darkness and the token can make us have eldritch sight without the invocation if we use the token on an ally that is not in the darkness but only works if also the enemy is not. So basically ranged darkness advantage. We can sit in a corner as a ranged martial class or warlock and not take the invocation. Big on arcane tricksters so we can always attack with advantage with a ranged weapon and also move (steady aim is the same if we stay).
I guess it also "works" on a samurai fighter, we can hex and generate advantage this way tho you need someone to cast darkness
Also eldritch knight but again, need to be ranged
This could work with spells that only needs us to see the target if we want to prepare something (like "portent" - divination wizard)before our barbarian runs behind the corner.
works well with duplicates so you can spy as your duplicate (eg trickster cleric)
I feel like eerie token would b a gr8 dm tool, having the party find one in a loot drop, and then suddenly an enemy starts knowing too much abt them? Or maybe a less antagonistic npc starts tempting them with too good to be true promises? Idk a lot of potential intrigue here
i want to make a hex blood druid now, useing hex in the build.
You could put that long distance Eldritch Blast to work. Gift of the chain master imp familiar takes a tooth over to you targets and you rain down spells from a distance. Maybe have a misty step for emergency escape.
In sure a wizard could do this even better.
I would probably use the token by sneaking it into a party member’s belongings. Particularly if that party member has in their possession an item the BBEG is interested in or an NPC that is at risk of being kidnapped.
That way if the party member or NPC disappears, I can communicate telepathically with the person to figure out where they’ve gone, if they’re within 10 miles of me, and who has taken them captive.
As always, part of the utility of the telepathy ability is determined by how the target experiences your “telepathic voice”. Does it sound exactly like your voice? Can you make it sound different? Can you use skills/abilities that alter your physical voice to change the telepathic one?
If your DM likes the “creepy gaslighting” thing, this can be a pretty powerful RP curse effect. Plant a token on a target and you can mess with for excessive periods of time. Personally, I’d go with everything in the first person. This is certain to fail. I feel fat today. I feel like somebody is watching me. My nose itches. Why do I always feel like someone is listening to my thoughts? Why am I here? Oh my God! If I can’t remember that thing, she’s going to kill me.
The fact it isn’t two-way is probably better. You just keep talking into their head 24/7, like you were their actual mind, and they were just riding along. The fact no discourse is possible makes it much more difficult to be “tricked” into revealing anything or granting the target a sense of control. As long as you practice your horoscope/cold reading techniques, not knowing what is going on is probably better, as well. The target will always do a better job filling in the details of the artificial psychosis than a deception role. Do you think you could wake them up. I think I saw something over there in that shadow. Don’t spiders have eight legs? Why does it always sound like someone is talking to me?
Of course, in any are where hexbloods (or telepathy in general) are common, I’m pretty sure this trick is already well played out.
At my table, an interpretation that has worked well is that a person that is telepathically contacted immediately recognizes that the voice is coming into their mind from an outside intelligence without sound. What it “sounds like” is a construction of the mind of the target and the person sending doesn’t control that or have awareness of it - like the “reading voice” you might hear in your own mind when reading a passage of text. Similarly, when a person casts Detect Thoughts what they obtain “sounds like” whatever the caster images it ought to sound like. I’ve ruled that it’s initially something reflexive, but a person receiving telepathic information can adjust the voice to suit with about as much effort as it takes to focus your eyes on something. If you want the Mind Flayer to sound like Alvin the Chipmunk, that is your call. It’s like giving people personalized ring tones on your cellphone they might not appreciate if they knew about them.
Recognizing a telepathic voice that previously contacted you is perception (DC based on frequency and total time) with advantage if you have “always on” send-receive telepathic ability and disadvantage if you have no experience doing both at least once using an ability or spell by your own independent action. But, in no case can a new telepath “fake” another telepath, as nobody can perceive what anyone else “sounds like” in your head.
This also allows easy interpretation of telepathic contact with intelligent creatures that have language but don’t have ears or use sound to communicate. What do you “sound like” to V’ger when you mind-meld with it? Whatever it thinks you sound like - maybe Alvin the Chipmunk. What does it sound like to you? Same.
Given the number of ways telepathy can be gained under the current rules, every group I DM now ends up with at least one telepath of some kind, eventually. It stands to reason that telepathy isn’t a sci-fi weird add-on in a standard 5e milieu as of 2020, unless the DM specifically excludes NPCs from having abilities players commonly get at low level.
Therefore, as a DM, you WILL in short order hit the “What does my telepathic voice sound like / can I pretend to be the King in Yellow?” question. Since players hate when a DM uses the clever trick on them, the “fairest” and simplest ruling I’ve found is, when telepathically contacted you know you’re being telepathically contacted with the same certainty you could distinguish a voice you hear from your own thoughts. But, you don’t know where the voice is coming from and what you “hear” is a user-illusion constructed by your own mind for the purpose of receiving and translating - you are aware it isn’t a real voice and you know there is about zero chance that is actually anything like the “real voice” because that would mean you intuitively guessed spot on. And, you can change it to anything you like with a little practice. Otherwise, without any visual cues at all, it would be quite difficult to keep the “channels” separated and distinct on party-line telepathy like Telepathic Bond. The troll is to who’s left? Third Base.
Of course, this provides a perfect opportunity when a new potential patron contacts the party telepathically out of the blue...
After a pause our Bard asked “Wait, is Steven Hawking offering us a job?” And then I waited, and waited, and after what had to be at least three full seconds of dead air, our Wizard started laughing. The Bard looks over and the Wizard says “It’s...well [laughs again] um...damn. Look, if I explain it to you, it’s going to sound dork stupid and I’m already laughing like an idiot...so, no...you figure it out.”
Thematically is like them for a fathomless warlock (coven of sea hags) or as a spore druid (just need a way to get need more attacks)
Aww, I was expecting that this race would let you make weapon attacks with your Charisma.
I was going to comment on Hexblood Eldritch Knight, but it seems like that's been a very obvious combination I'm far from the first to figure out.
Getting Hex for free also helps the Warlock and Ranger which have a severe limit on spells known at early levels.
If I remember correctly, aren’t the stat bonuses for these lineages a choice between +2 +1, or +1 +1+1?
Just a small detail you missed, and could be helpful if you happen to roll a few high odd numbers
They are
• Hexblood
• Moon Druid
• Summon Wild Companion to scout enemy camp
• Disguise Self for infiltration into enemy camp
• Hex Intelligence (Investigation) of guard
• Wild Shape into Deinonychus
• Multiattack + Pounce + Extra Bite, and all with added Hex Damage
• Move Hex to new target and continue wreaking havoc
• Expend spell slots to heal
• When opponents finally knock you out of Wild Shape, then cast Fog Cloud and make a fast exit
They won’t know what hit them!
If you use my idea, my last name is pronounced “shob”, like Shelob without the “el”! 😉
Whoops, I forgot your initial question!
A Magic Token could be left with the party and used to communicate with them long distance, and while Wild Shaped.
If you tie the hair(token) around a creature's head do you get 360 vision?
technically in 5e you already have 360 degree vision strangely enough.
One character I really want to play is a hexblade eldritch knight with a 1 level multiclass into monk, unarmed fighting style and straight up go around hexing and punching people while pretty much naked. Dump charisma and reflavour the character as a hagspawn, ugly male weird skin color, big and weird.
If you don't have access to a familiar, tie your token to an arrow, shoot it into the goblin's camp to spy on them.
I’m kinda disappointed how they didn’t have the ability to swap out spells based on what kind of hag you made your deal with
It's a grabbag of abilities.
I envision a sword bard, for class. Or a valor.
If you swallowed the eerie token, would you be able to look at your stomach and colon?
Captions: Hey updancers
It kind of bums me out that they made this a "hags only" heritage. I mean, I can easily see Titania, Oberon, or the Morrigan bestowing this "gift" on a mortal ...
Nothing stopping you from changing the flavor of it. As long as it doesn't affect the rules go ahead.
Chris, what do you think?
I do see a case for possible DM abuse. Because the text doesn't say anytrhing about needing consent from the player to gain the lineage, so a ''d*ck'' DM could use this to remove features and/or weapon/armor proficiencies from your character to nerve it and now you've lossed the mechanics that made you unique. Examples: ''Hey Barbarian have fun casting spells that you can't use while raging.'', losing unique racial features like spells, Bugbear reach, alternate armor calculations, Kobold pack tactics, Loxodons trunk and etc. There's a whole slew of things that you would then no longer have and optimizers may have relied on those unique qualities when they made their character and without them they could be significantly less fun to play with. (I think that the Reborn of course has the same problem, Dhampir too but to a much lesser extend because it's more powerful and I think that with all the hubbub around them they are way less likely to be used to bully a player)
Yeah exactly i guess elemental will be rewritten as a lineage and hopfeully buffed. Need good water power :) water genasi and triton are meh. Blue merfolk would have been a perfect wizard race but was only planeshift.
Hexblood is great but it’s a little bittersweet for me. The fact that playing a Hexblood Druid is the closest you can come to playing a Dryad just feels wrong to me, idk.
Am I the only one that thinks the term "lineage" is _more_ confusing? I was under the impression that humans, dwarves, elf, dragonborn, etc were more like different species, lineage implies they are just different ancestry of the same species.
Yeah it's sort of odd since these are clearly not lineages.
The way I understand it, at least as written in 5e, is that a race is something you are born into, a lineage is something you may become.
@@TreantmonksTemple Yes we know it's mostly that the word lineage is another word for something you are born into so the concept of lineages in D&D seems oddly misnamed.
@@TreantmonksTemple That make sense, I guess my confusion was that people were conflating the terms lineage and race. I see how the descriptions in Ravenloft do not describe races or subraces but a transformed lineage. However, it also seems like in large part they've moved away from the term race but that might be a misunderstanding on my part based on how people talk about the new content and not the exact wording in the books.
hexblood reminds you aasimar?
It reminds me Hagspawns, Like Gannayev Of Dreams (I think you use his artwork somewhere?).
Also, I really like the artwork of that duergar-devil hybrid at 1:47 . And I dont think hexblood is a good template for either of these
It reminds him of Aasimars from a thematic standpoint of how the lineage is made, not from an aesthetic standpoint.
@@Awoken0 maybe, that is not well represented in the mechanics.
An aasimar has a distant relative who is/was a celestial, and the aasimar is still humanoid.
This hexblood suggests a close enough relative that the hexblood is fey isntead of humanoid.
Yes, Hagspawn was the first thing I thought of, loved Mask of the Betrayer! I guess the difference here is that you are born Hagspawn, but Hexblood is something you can become later.
Yeah always wanted a dhampir race but the others are boring. Why not werewolf, mummy? I am sure would have been a lot more hype about that.
You have the reborn, which is literally perfect for a mummy. The dhampir could just as well be a pseudo werewolf. it (interestingly enough) doesn't say that you have to be a half vampire.
@@DanishHellhound cause draining life force and spider climb is such a werewolf thing? And dont think reborn screams mummy. Then i would probably reskin a yuanti, tabaxi or aracockra for the egyptian gods. For me personally the only monster phase i had was vampire with legacy of kain and the masquerade series and that was like 15 years ago so even vampire is kinda sucked dry for me. ;) the other monster i never cares much for. Maybe werewolf a bit but vampire has just the better skillset compared to shift and bite stuff is being a supernatural attractive version of superman hard to beat especially when you are young. :)
Why all the hype about Arcane Trickster?
Surely your not all suggesting 3 levels of rogue just for the ability to plant a hair on a target.
Meh
I gotta say, this is a very weak race. I'd much rather play a Dwarf, Tabaxi, Halfling, Yuan-Ti, Satyr or Custom Lineage.
I hate this new races, let's give Hex to everyone cause why not...
Anyone could get Hex via feats ever since the game was introduced. It's not a huge deal.
@@Awoken0 yeah but a feat cost something to be taken and previous feats gave you 1x day Hex they didn't let you cast it with your spell slots.
Tasha started the nothing make sense extravaganza. It subverted the rules of its own system power creeping everything, it presented itself as optional when in fact every D&D product after Tasha will follow its rule breaking powercreep
The prime example is that Treantmonk is using that shitty mess that is the Custom Lineage for every build, cause it fuck hard any other racial option which pales in front of it
I'll Switch to OSR at this pace
@@Tom-bb3fm Races were unbalanced as soon as Variant Humans were introduced, and yet I still see plenty of other races all around besides optimizers. Custom Lineages are hardly better than those, so that isn't new.
Besides, if your problem is that a single race dominates all builds (allegedly), why complain about a new (fairly balanced) race introducing new build options?