The Hexbow: D&D Build #166

what class makes the best ranged weapon user  in DND 5 fighter no Ranger I mean come on   gloomstalkers pretty amazing again I'm going  to say no would you be surprised if I said I   thought it was a spellcaster if you want  to find out why keep watching welcome to [Music] D4 hey everybody so here at D4 each week  I take a deep dive into character builds for are   my favorite role playing games I like to crunch  numbers about them Theory craft about them not   so that I can tell you the right way or the  best way to play a certain character despite   my little teaser intro there but to explore one  potential way to build a character in the hopes   of creating something that's both fun but also  really powerful to play so if you enjoy creating   characters for your favorite role playing games  almost as much as you enjoy playing the actual   game itself or if you're just looking for tips  or ideas on how to build something that you're   thinking about playing then welcome home this is  absolutely Ely where you belong and I'm so glad   that you're here so thank you for watching my name  is Colby so yeah ever since I started this channel   I've been on a quest to find the highest damage  dealing ranged weapon user in DND I've taken a   lot of stabs at it and we've come up with some  great ones but as great as say the pure fighter   ranged character is uh which you could watch there  or even like a half Caster ranged character like a   ranger can be with ranged weapons you would think  right uh maybe like that one there I think when   you take a good look at what something like  a gishy Caster character can do you kind of   come up with like exhibit number 327 on why full  casters tend to Trump pure Marshall characters and   even often half Casters in D and D 5e at least  if we're talking about damage but actually if   you're talking about other stuff too right but  especially if you can multiclass those casters   into a marshall character to pick up some of  the Marshall class's best features because   sure Marshall characters often get things that  can enhance their attacks fighting styles weapon   proficiencies class and subclass features but at  the end of the day despite those things it's just   really hard for Pure Marshall characters to keep  up with the power of spells spells that can just   about guarantee you advantage on your attacks  or that augment your damage often scaling when   you upcast them thus encouraging you to take more  level in Caster rather than a marshall class these   things very often let a marshall focused Caster or  Gish right or spell swword outpace the damage that   a full Caster can do and that's saying nothing of  all the other amazing control utility and support   you can get from spells outside of just damage  take all of that and add it to a Caster subass   that gets some additional weapon using benefits  like the swords b or the blade singer or yes   the hex blade Warlock and the gap between  Marshalls and casters gets even wider on that   note the one ranged build that I've never done  that people have been asking me to do a video   on since day one of this YouTube channel is the  hexo and I mean I have done plenty of hex blade   warlocks even a ranged one the hex blade singer  right and even a ranged Genie lock mixed with an   Arcane Archer uh that you can check out there  but I've never really taken stab at the true   hex bow itself now this is not a concept that  I invented right I'm not quite sure who did   though I know that Chris uh [ __ ] monk did a  video on the idea years ago but today I figured   okay it's been long enough how would I try to  optimize this concept and the video today is the   results of that attempt and let me just add this  quickly it does seem to me at least like Wizards   of the Coast is trying to narrow that divide or  maybe perceived divide I suppose for some of you   between Marshalls and casters with the new rules  that are coming out later in 2024 in the play test   at least it seems to me that there's still a bit  of a problem in that you could as a mostly Caster   just dip into a marshall class to pick up a lot of  the benefits that Marshals are getting but it does   seem like Marshalls are scaling a bit better  in the upcoming material I hope that ends up   being the case and that Wizards does even more to  help them scale further making it less tempting to   multiclass into a Caster as much as I love doing  so but we'll see anyways today I am excited to   present D and D build number 166 the Expo huge  thanks to my good friend Randall Hampton for the   Fantastic artwork that he put out for this build  he does this every week I love what he comes up   with if you would be interested in following him  to check out the other art that he does or maybe   even reaching out to see if you can commission  him to create some art for your character or   even your entire party I will put links in the  video description as always on how to do so ooh son of uh D and D cancelled again third time in  a row dang it if I don't play some D and D soon   I'm going to explode have you ever considered  playing DN d by yourself what the what are you   like my RPG Fairy Godmother or something more  like your obvious mimic but you don't look like   forget it okay cool shirt by the way thank you  so wait solo D and D that sounds complicated or   like maybe impossible you'd think so but what if I  told you that there was a company who specialized   in creating solo DN Adventures meant to be played  by yourself whether because you're regular group   cancelled or because you're just feeling a little  antisocial or you can't find a group or maybe   you just need to scratch that itch between  sessions you have my attention what if I told   you that this company has not only already created  two very successful solo D and Adventures to date   but that they had a third called Oki Island that  is currently in Kickstarter and has destroyed its   funding goal I'd say tell me more okay I will this  adventure is full of swashbuckling action hidden   treasure and Open Seas it's set in a world that is  as Whimsical as it is deadly basically letting you   fulfill all of your DND pirate fantasies but you  play at your own pace you level up you gain Loot   and if nothing else it would let you test out all  of the what are we up to 166 different character   builds to date that you haven't had a chance  to play yet right take my money perfect just   go to the link in the video description or in the  pinned comment and you know use that so that they   know your favorite mimic sent you and back the  project don't delay because you've only got a   few days left and you don't want to miss out on  the opportunity to get all of the great goodies   from backing a Kickstarter project while it's  still in Kickstarter right I know if you put it   off you're going to forget don't do it all right  big thanks to obvious mimic and let's get back to   the build okay at level one for our starting class  we're building a hex blade warlock ranged weapon   user naturally then the first thing that we're  going to do is start fighter sorry folks it's   just the optimal Choice here for two main reasons  right Constitution saving throw proficiency so   that we can have better concentration checks and  a very important fighting style feel free to Dive   Right into warlock Instead at level one if you'd  rather but yeah we are going to start Fighter for   our race though I'm going to present two different  options option number one half elf half elf is   great because you get more ability score increase  points than other races except the mountain dwarf   I guess and access to the famed Elven accuracy  feed the problem is on this build you wouldn't   actually take Elven accuracy until what would be  character level 13 as I've mapped it out anyways   from that point on yeah it would do more damage  than the second option that I'll mention in a   second but up until then unless you're playing  at a table that gives everyone a free feat at   level one in which case yeah go half elf all the  way for sure option two is going to be stronger   numerically anyways and since most of us don't  even play the game up to or Beyond level 13 it   just made more sense for me I think to assume that  we're going to go with the second option which   would be to start no not custom lineage that's  boring and so overused we're going to go very   inhuman which is like just as overused because yes  varant humans get to start with a free feat and   as a ranged weapon user there are of course two  very important Feats for us to take and if we can   start with one of them and then get the other one  just a few levels in we will be in such a better   place place for a long long time than if we hadn't  started with a free feet those two Feats of course   are Sharpshooter and crossbow expert and the  only real question is which one should we start   with I'm going to say Sharpshooter but you could  really go either way which one is better is going   to depend on the enemy's Armor class more than  anything but since that tends to be fairly low   for the first few levels let's go ahead and start  Sharpshooter here it's amazing it tells us that we   don't have disadvantage on the longer range of our  ranged weapons right like we otherwise would that   we ignore half and 3/4 cover when making ranged  attacks which usually would increase an enemy's   AC by two or five respectively and then yes when  we make an attack with a ranged weapon we can if   we choose take a minus 5 penalty to hit in  order to do 10 more flat damage and that's   just a ton more damage I will as always indicate  in the spreadsheets that I link to in the video   description for each build which you know check  that out if you didn't know that I do that but   anyways I will indicate at what enemy AC that  you'll want to turn this feature off like I   also always do the cell that's yellow is the point  at which you know you no longer use Sharpshooter   or great weapon Master for that matter on builds  that use great weapon master um but at this level   you're probably going to want to have it on most  of the time if not all of the time unless your   DM is super mean and pitting you against High  AC enemies as for our starting ability scores   I'm going to assume that we're going the point  by Method as always and say let's go with a 15   Charisma and then take one of our plus ones from  variant human there a 15 Constitution the other   plus one one there and then a 14 dexterity uh  this is going to let us get the best possible   start for our health and concentration checks our  armor class and soon for both our weapon damage   and spell DC for now we'll have to get by with a  14 dexterity for our weapon attacks but that will   switch to Charisma soon enough as for equipment  that we should start with here I'm just going to   say let's make sure to grab a hand crossbow and  then some scale male armor you might have to go   the gold bu method in order to do that but then  as a fighter one we get second wind which let   us heal ourselves a little bit once per short  rest as a bonus action and then the aforementioned   fighting style which of course will be the archery  fighting style for us best fighting style in game   it gives us a plus two to hit with ranged weapons  which is so much stronger than adding a little bit   of damage per hit especially when we consider  things like Sharpshooter right that are going   to be subtracting five to our hit chance but  at level two with those important features   from starting fighter secured it's time to get  into war warlock so that we can be firing on all   cylinders by our first damage report coming up  at level six so we would be a warlock one here   and as a warlock 1 we get our otherworldly Patron  but speaking of patrons uh you should seriously   consider becoming a patron of this channel how's  that for swaave for reals though if you enjoy what   I do here I would really appreciate it if you  guys would consider joining the channel as a   member there's a little button down there it says  join if you click it it'll tell you about all the   little perks you can get by being a channel member  everything from access to the library of writeups   that I create for these builds every week to help  you recreate them yourself a little more easily   to access to our D4 Community Discord server to  access to the monthly live Q&A sessions that we   do a huge shout out and thank you to my patrons  channel members you guys are awesome I could not   do this without you and everybody else thank you  just for being here and watching and liking and   subscribing and clicking the notifications Bell  you don't have to be a member if you don't want to   the fact that you're watching me say these things  right now is indicative of your support and I am   grateful for it anyways yes as for the subass that  we take here our otherworldly Patron we are going   to take hex play of course which will give us a  couple of wonderful features hex Warrior gives us   proficiency with medium armor Shields and Marshall  weapons none of which we actually need but it also   lets us touch one weapon that we're proficient  in and make it essentially our hex weapon the   book doesn't call it that but D and D Beyond does  meaning that we can use our Charisma for our plus   to hit and damage with it instead of our strength  or dexterity now that weapon cannot have the   two-handed property which is why we didn't want  to go with like a long bow or a heavy crossbow   at level one though later we will be able to use  a two-handed weapon even then we're not going to   want to because we're going to be getting crossbow  experts soon which really shines with the hand   crossbow right so we're going to be content just  sticking hand crossbow and yeah this is one of the   best things about hex blades as most of you know  being able to be so so sad single ability score   dependent so that we can focus on bumping our  Charisma and just our Charisma and thus be a great   party face and have fantastic spell potency and  make our weapon attacks as great as they can be   all with one single ability score now we also as a  hex blade get hex blades curse which tells us that   once per short rest as a bonus action we can curse  a Target and thereafter we get a critical hit on   that Target when we roll a 19 or a 20 doubling  our critical hit chance nice also whenever we   do damage to that Target we get to add our  proficiency bonus in damage and when they   die we heal hit points equal to our warlock  level plus our Charisma modifier such a great   feature it's not really sustainable though so I'm  not going to count it towards our damage when we   crunch numbers as we are building this character  for sustained damage I don't think I've actually   mentioned that yet have I anyways yeah sustained  damage here but later much later actually it will   be sustainable damage as we'll eventually see now  as a warlock one we get spells and I'd probably   just go with the usual suspects here nothing I'm  necessarily going to be trying to account for when   we do crunch numbers here in a few minutes but  hex is not a bad use of our concentration for now   especially since we don't have a good use for our  bonus action letting us do an extra D6 of damage   when we hit uh armor of agius is a nice defensive  option that gives temporary hit points and returns   damage to a melee attacker if they hit us XX  blades amazingly get access to the shield spell   that warlocks typically don't get access to one of  the best defensive spells in the game raising our   armor class by five if we use our reaction to cast  it when we get hit potentially causing the hit to   miss and even lasting until the beginning of our  next turn I would focus on those spells and then   whatever else you think you might want at level  three we would be a warlock 2 and that means we   get the beautiful lovely eldrich invocations  these let us buff ourselves and or our spells   or abilities and variety of ways and we can take  two at this level and the two that I would take   for now anyways would be eldrich mind as it gives  us advantage on our concentration checks and while   that is awesome I would be swapping it out for  something else Next Level which we can do with   our Elder gy vocations whenever we gain a level  in warlock right but then for the second one i'   take yeah that old standby devil sight letting  us see in magical and non-magical darkness at   a distance of up to 120 ft yeah you probably  know where we're going here but it's going to be   okay so level four we'd be a warlock 3 um that  means we get our packed Boon right and of the   options available to us of course we're going  to want pack of the blade not so much because   it gives us a ton of benefits in and of itself  I mean it lets us magically create or summon a   previously bonded weapon into our hand with an  action which is kind of cool but we mostly want   this packed because it's a prerequisite for a  lot of fantastic invocations that we're going   to want to pick up throughout our career starting  with improved packed weapon which we should swap   in for eldrich mind here I think improved packed  weapon makes our packed weapon which will be the   same as our hex weapon right a spell casting focus  and also makes it a plus one weapon giving us a   better hit chance and more damage very nice also  don't forget that we're told by our hex Warrior   feature that if we get the Packa of the blade  later then any weapon that we conjure with packed   of the blade can use our Charisma for attacking  not just our hex weapon and it doesn't matter what   the weapon's type is me meaning that yeah we could  use a two-handed weapon for our hex and or packed   weapon right now if we wanted we don't want to do  that or at least not once we get a hand crossbow   I suppose for now sure we could use like a heavy  crossbow just until next level to get a little bit   more damage or alternatively yeah we could like  dual wield right now using our Charisma for both   our hex weapon and our packed weapon they don't  have to be the same weapon something we tried   to make use of in the fairly recent uh hex blade  2.0 video we also get second level warlock spells   here and while there are a lot of great ones to  choose from I'm going to say we absolutely need to   make sure that we get Misty step first up because  it's a bonus action teleport that you just always   want if you can get it and then yeah the darkness  spell hello darkness my old I've come to with you   again at this point it may feel a little cliche  but let's discuss so yeah with Darkness we use   our action and and our concentration to cast a  15t radius sphere of magical Darkness centered   on a point of our choosing it will be choosing  ourselves for that point or like maybe something   that we're carrying maybe our weapon right now  creatures with dark vision can't see through   this Darkness but with devil sight yeah we can  the great benefit to this of course is that it   means that most creatures unless they have some  way of seeing in magical Darkness themselves and   most don't will have disadvantage on attacks  against you and your attacks against them will   have of advantage since they can't see you now  yes the big drawback to going the devil sight   Darkness route is that it can potentially really  mess up your teammates as they probably can't see   in magical Darkness any better than your enemies  can and that can be really annoying but let me say   two things number one this is way less annoying if  you are a ranged character since you're not going   to be running up to your enemy and attacking them  keeping your allies from seeing them right most of   the time especially with Sharpshooter you should  be able to stay pretty far away from both your   enemies and your allies and just make your attacks  with Advantage without disturbing your friends too   much and the great thing about darkness is that  it moves with whatever you cast the spell on so   if you cast it on yourself or something you're  wearing it's going to move with you unlike in   balers Gate 3 annoyingly take a drink now it  can still be problematic if you're fighting   in a small room or something right but most of  the time you should be okay but then the second   thing that makes me feel okay about using this  strategy is we're only going to be doing this   for like four levels so if you take both of those  things together yeah I'm a lot less worried about   using the darkness devil site tactic for a few  levels here than I would if we weren't planning on   changing our tactics later and if we were a Melee  character think we can stomach it for a few levels   all right let's do it at level five we would be  a warlock 4 that means we get an ability score   increase our feet and yes we want that other super  potent feet that makes the one two punch of the   hand crossbow user so good crossbow expert this  tells us that we ignore the loading property of   crossbows now which is nice since otherwise we'd  only be able to make one attack with them per turn   no matter how many attacks we might potentially  have right also that being within 5 ft of an enemy   doesn't impose disadvantage on our ranged attacks  really nice so that we don't have to worry so much   about whether or not an enemy manages to get up  into melee range and then best of all when we   attack with a one-handed weapon with our attack  action we can use a bonus action to attack with   a hand crossbow that we are holding and since  a hand crossbow is a one-handed weapon that   means that it qualifies for the prerequisite of  being able to make a bonus action attack with the   one-handed crossbow so we can now just make two  attacks on our turn with that same hand crossbow   three attacks once we get extra attack right or  something like it now I feel compelled to mention   that yes both Sharpshooter and crossbow expert  are slated to get Nerfs with the new rules coming   out in 2024 arguably crossbow expert is kind of  getting some Buffs and some Nerfs but overall   I think losing the bonus action attack outweighs  the small Buffs that it's getting so yeah there's   a chance that you might want to go a different  route if you're watching this video post September   2024 but we'll see I'll for sure be making a lot  of character builds with the new rule set once   they come out so you know be sure to tune in all  right at level six we would be a warlock 5 and   that means we get third level warlock spells and  while of course counter spell fly hypnotic pattern   fear and more are really strong and absolutely  worth considering I'll maybe just mention Spirit   shroud here as a potential damage option though I  don't think we should be using it much it requires   our concentration so we couldn't use Darkness  right but then causes our attacks made from   within 10 ft of the enemy to do an extra d8 of  damage and it can scale when upcast up to 2 d8   with a fifth level spell but generally especially  with that minus5 to hit plus 10 to damage from   Sharpshooter we'll be a lot better off using our  concentration on Darkness to get advantage on all   but the very lowest enemy ACS when compared to  Spirit shroud of course you know maybe you've   got an ally casting fairy fire or something I  don't know if so this is worth considering but   the 10t range for it to work is kind of annoying  on a ranged build right anyways having those other   really powerful spells to pull out when we need  them will just be really fantastic but I'm just   going to assume when I crunch numbers that  we're still concentrating on Darkness but as   great as those third level spells are the thing  that I'm most excited about about at warlock   5 is the fact that we get a third invocation  and that we can now take the thirsting blade   invocation which tells us that we can attack  twice with our packed weapon now when we take   the attack action meaning that we will get three  Sharpshooter infused attacks every single round   and that's just going to add up to some really  big damage just in time for our level six damage report so tactics wise things are fairly  straightforward for us on round one we'd   cast Darkness on ourselves and thereafter we'd  start turning our enemies into pin cushions   making three hand crossbow attacks against them  every round adding three damage from our Charisma   one from our improved packed weapon invocation  and 10 from Sharpshooter to every single attack   with a fairly decent hit chance here all things  considered plus three from our proficiency plus   three from our Charisma modifier plus one from  improved packed weapon and plus two from archery   fighting style means that even after our minus5  to hit penalty from Sharpshooter we're still at a   plus4 to hit with advantage that is not not bad  at all and so against enemies with a 10 Armor   class here we would on average do 53 damage per  round and against enemies with a 15 AC it would   be 47 DPR and compared to other sustained damage  dealers that I've built to date at this level that   puts us right near the top of tier one including  both my first ever video on this channel the hex   blade warlock that was a Melee character right  the Pam lock I don't have many cards left but   here's the thumbnail build number one and it  also outdamages every other sustained damage   dealing weapon user that I've ever made at this  level anyways and maybe at other levels too so   yeah sorry crossbow Fighters and Rangers of the  world the hexo just ranks I'm kind of upset too   don't get mad at me oh and yeah we can also Mass  fear or hypnotic pattern or counter spell when we   need to or cast The Shield spell and enemies have  disadvantage on attacks against us and guess what   it only gets better from here but not because of  the hex blade feature that we get at level seven   warlock 6 which is a cursed Spectre this is my  least favorite hex blade feature it's kind of cool   and flavorful but mechanically it just feels a  little clunky to me it's hard to account for it in   the spreadsheets anyways it tells us that once per  day when we kill a humanoid specifically we can   raise a spectre from its corpse that will obey and  fight for us rolling its own initiative and just   obeying our verbal commands you know no action or  bonus action required by us it will last until it   dies or we take a long rest so potentially  it can add to our sustained DPR but I feel   a little uncomfortable making that assumption  if it worked on any creature not just humanoids   and if we could do this proficiency bonus times  per day or something it'd be a little easier to   assume that but I don't know if you're going to  be fighting humanoids or if we are going to get   the killing blow on a humanoid for that matter or  if it will still be alive every single fight once   you have raised it right most likely they won't  be when we have them it'll be a nice little damage   bump maybe add add a little tankiness to our party  you know potentially absorbing some attacks that   otherwise would go to ourselves or a friend it  does get a little extra temporary hit points   equal to half our warlock level and a bonus to  hit equal to our Charisma modifier and it hits   for 3d6 damage but it has sunlight sensitivity so  they'd have disadvantage if they were in direct   sunlight that's kind of annoying and only a 12  AC with basically 25 hit points right now so   it's probably only going to be around for a fight  or maybe two if we do manage to get it going does   have a lot of decent damage res istances even  some damage and condition immunities and I mean   hey if your enemies are focusing on it instead of  you and your other party members that's a win so   yeah nice when we can use it but I'm not sure how  often that'll be for you we also do get a fourth   invocation at this level and while there are lots  of great ones to choose from and I would really   love to get eldrich mind back which I dropped a  while ago since we have Constitution saving throw   proficiency by starting fighter one and since most  enemies will have disadvantage on attacks against   us to begin with I'm probably instead going to  take eldrid Smite here because it's just so cool   it's similar to Divine Smite it can add damage to  our weapon attacks right 2 d8 for a first level   spell plus another d8 for every spell level above  that that we upcast it but unlike Divine Smite it   doesn't cap at 5 d8 meaning it can do up to 68  with a fifth level spell slot and best of all   it doesn't have to be a melee weapon attack all  right channeling my best Bluey oh my goodness now   we can only do it once per turn and we have to  use a warlock spell slot for it even if we had   spell slots from some other class right we only  have two warlock spell slots per short rest and   I'm going to be using one of them to cast Darkness  right so yeah meaning at best we'd have one spell   slot left for a fight do you really want to blow  your last spell slot to do what would be an extra   4 d8 of damage at this level heck yeah we do if  we crit because yeah then you could double the   damage to 8 d8 and that's just too juicy to pass  up I think so sure going forward I'm going to add   this to the numbers if we crit I'll assume that  we Smite and then we're going to double the Smite   damage right I know I won't always have the spell  slot available and I also know that sometimes I'm   going to want to Smite even if I don't crit since  it just might be enough to finish off an enemy   yeah but it seems maybe the best way to account  for smites on a sustained damage build is like   this hopefully it doesn't upset you too much oh  also we're told that eldrich Smite can knock an   enemy prone if they're huge or smaller which is  awesome unless we're needing to attack them from   range because if they're prone we're going to have  disadvantage right just remember simply because we   can knock them prone doesn't mean we have to but  just because you can beat him up doesn't give you   the right to if it were me I'd probably do it if  it were like our last attack on our turn so that   our melee allies could then have advantage  on their attacks and so that the enemy has   to use half their movement speed on their turn to  stand up but otherwise I probably wouldn't bother   knocking them prone at level eight we would be  a warlock 7 and that means we get fourth level   warlock spells and while banishment is really  fantastic for single Target control dimension   door is a wonderful utility spell to teleport  both you and a friend a huge distance the one   I'm going to say we absolutely have to get here is  shadow of Mo as that is going to end our Darkness   problem since shadow of moil heavily obscures  you creating the same benefits of you not being   seen right but it's just you and only you no more  30ft bubble what's more this spell has the added   benefits of giving you radiant damage resistance  and returning 2 d8 necrotic damage automatically   whenever an enemy within 10 ft of you hits you  with an attack and you know I kind of want to   say this about warlocks people sometimes complain  about how they only have two spell slots for most   of their career but to me there's something kind  of nice about just always having your spells be of   the highest level possible at all times it sort of  takes away the anxiety I sometimes get about what   whether or not I should upcast a thing you know do  I really want to spend a fifth level spell slot on   Spirit shroud or Spirit Guardians here what a  third level spell slot or a fourth level spell   slot be sufficient if warlocks worked like other  casters I'd probably be tempted to keep using   Darkness at this point in the build despite  the problematic nature of the thing instead   it's just an automatic jump to shadow of Mo no  anxiety needed because all of my spell slots   are four double spell slots right and while sure  you only have two spell slots the fact that they   res set on a short rest makes it so that you can  almost always know that you'll have at least one   for a combat encounter and it makes for a really  unique play style and build strategy that I enjoy   I'm really glad Wizards of the Coast decided  to keep that intact for the new version of the   rules coming out later this year in play testing  originally they were trying to make them more like   other Casters in the game right and they reverted  back and I'm glad they did to be fair the flip   side can be frustrating in that you want to cast a  second level spell you have four level spell slots   doesn't give you any additional benefit when you  upcast it but you really need to misy step right   or whatever of course in our case that would  mean we get to dimension door now instead which   is better but you get what I'm saying another  nice benefit of being able to use shadow of Mo   now instead of darkness is that we don't need the  devil's sight invocation anymore you might want   to keep it because dark vision's great and if we  went very inhuman we don't have it let alone being   able to see in magical Darkness I think personally  I'd switch that invocation out at this level for   eldrich mind though so that I could both add my  proficiency bonus to my concentration checks and   have advantage on those concentration checks  with enemies having disadvantage to hit me I   am very very rarely dropping concentration on this  character especially if I can get this invocation   and that just feels awesome at level 9 we would be  a warlock 8 and that means another ability score   increase or feat and if we're interested in damage  above all else then of course we're going to bump   our Charisma here taking it to 18 and that has the  added benefit of improving our social interactions   and spells to boot and yeah for those who decided  to play for the late game and start as a half elf   you're just now getting to crossbow expert at  character level 9 that feels pretty crappy by   comparison and you still only have a plus three  modifier to your charisma yucky we do get a fifth   invocation here as well and I'm just going to say  pyf pick your favorite there are tons of great   options ascendant step for like at will levitation  might be my first pick I think but tomb of listus   is a fun break glass in case of emergency survival  tool Relentless hex lets you teleport at will to   your hex blade cursed Target that could be clutch  I seem to remember Matt Mercer using that in a   game once to like save himself from falling off  a cliff to his death anyways I'd love to hear   which invocation you would take at this level  okay at level 9 it is time for our next damage report since last check our damage increases have  come in the form of a better Charisma score and an   eldrich smite at the fourth level on a crit not  huge gains but we have the much better shadow of   Mo now for Advantage purposes and we've picked  up some great utility and control potential as   well and even a little cursed Spectre to help us  out once in a while but here against enemies with   10 Armor class we would on average do 68 DPR and  against a 16 AC it would be 58 damage per round   and compared to other DPR builds that I've done to  date at this level we've plateaued a little bit by   comparison putting us more like middle of tier  2 here but yeah we've got some really nice bumps   coming our way soon and hey mid- tier 2 is still  a really strong place to be all right at level   10 we would be a warlock n and that means fifth  level spells and yeah hold monster is incredible   for single Target control consider using your  concentration on this if you feel fairly confident   that the enemy will fail their save against it  as it's going to mean a ton of autoc crits for   your entire party right not to mention keep the  enemy from doing anything synaptic static I love   for the fireball like damage and area of effect  that targets an intelligent saving throw and gives   a nasty debuff a banishing Smite could be a fun  Nova option that also controls and is unique for   hex blades among warlocks if it didn't require  concentration I'd love it a lot more but it's   still a strong option it's still worth considering  regardless uh nothing here that I'll plan on using   in combat necessarily so PF at level 11 we'd be  a warlock 10 and as a hex blade warlock we get   our armor of hex's here this is a cool defensive  feature for hex blades telling us that if our hex   blade cursed Target hits us with an attack you  can use your reaction to roll a D6 and if you   roll A4 or higher the attack just misses instead  so 50% chance that at least once around you can   have your cursed Target miss you this could come  in handy if you were low on health or if they crit   you especially the unreliability of it is a little  frustrating to me I wish that like maybe you'd get   your reaction back if it f failed or something or  maybe it would cut the damage in half if it failed   but there will be times that it'll be a huge  Lifesaver no question at level 12 we would be   a warlock 11 and unfortunately this is where our  spell slots stop progressing right they stay at   level five forever though we do have three of them  now and three fifth level spell slots at level 11   that reset on a short rest is pretty dang powerful  anyways we do get six level spells here but they   come in the form of Mystic arum right and as  such don't take a spell slot to cast and we can't   further upcast other spells to sixth level right  and then we can only use that Mystic Arcanum once   per day of all the options available to us here  I think Mass suggestion is the clear pick as it   can potentially just end a combat encounter all  by itself depending on what you suggest and how   many enemies fail their safe against it anyways  it doesn't even require concentration meaning we   could keep using shadow of Mo if we wanted in  the same encounter so good feel free to take   something else if you really want but I think  you'd be crazy for doing so but that's okay I   like crazy at level 13 we would be a warlock  12 and that means yet another ability score   increase or feat and yeah let's bump Charisma one  more time to finally cap it at 20 here now if you   went half elf you finally get to enjoy the main  reason you went that route in the first place you   know you get Elven accuracy here and even though  that would only put our charisma at an 18 assuming   we start with a 17 Charisma right that triple  advantage that we get from the feat is going to   mean that the build finally outpaces a variant  human version damage wise at least at kind of   middling and higher enemy Armor class we do get  a sixth invocation here at this level as well and   this is the one I have been eyeballing ever since  level one it is one of the most potent invocations   available to gishy warlocks but wasn't available  until this level and it's just so good it's kind   of like Tavern brawler in bg3 take a drink in that  it doubles now our Charisma modifier for damage   when we hit with our packed weapon meaning that  yeah when we hit an enemy with Sharpshooter turned   on we're going to do 20 damage before we even roll  any dice 21 with improved packed weapon I guess or   if we have an even stronger hand crossbow by now  which we very well could that's just so awesome I   am absolutely in love with consistent guaranteed  damage and this is about as good as it gets in D   and D for that alongside with like blade singer  song of Victory but this is even better I think   and available sooner for that matter and all of  that comes just in time for our next damage report   since last check in addition to the nice defensive  control and utility options that we've picked up   we've capped our Charisma and gotten that O So  Sweet Life Drinker invocation as well as increased   our potential smites on a crit to 12 d8 damage and  altogether this is going to do really nice things   for our numbers so against enemies with a 10 Armor  class here we would do 90 damage per round pound   on average and against a 17 it would be 79 DPR  and compared to other DPR builds that I've done   to date at this level that puts us kind of top  of tier 2 bottom of tier one so we've made up   some ground almost broke that century mark and are  filled with fantastic defense utility and control   capabilities it is an awesome place to be at  level 14 we would be a warlock 13 wait we're still   taking warlock levels where is Colby and what have  you done with him I know I'm just as surprised as   you are but there are so many good things for us  on the horizon so yeah I think we got to stick   with warlock a little bit longer first up that  means that we get our seventh level Mystic Arcanum   here and as great as some of the spell options are  I think we've got to take Force cage here I mean   it's one of the best control spells in the game it  just traps creatures inside of an invisible cage   that's really hard to get out of and it doesn't  even require concentration that's a no-brainer   to me and such a fantastic weapon to add to  our Arsenal but then at level 15 we would be   warlock 14 and we get the hex blade like Capstone  feature and again it's just so good master of   hex's lets us continue to apply our hex blades  curse to our next Target when our curse Target   dies and that means that hex blades curse can  finally be considered sustainable and yeah an   extra five damage now six pretty soon on every  single attack is pretty beefy meaning that we're   looking at a flat what 27 damage on every single  hit before dice rolls and critting on a 19 or a   20 which when we Smite for 12 d8 on a crit is  a pretty nice little bump now one note when   you apply the curse in this way you don't get  the healing from the previously killed Target   and that's fine honestly but at level 16 yes  now that we've hit that hex blade Capstone I   think I probably would go back to fighter here  it's definitely not mandatory eighth and Ninth   level warlock spells would be nice and more  invocations would be great too but if we're   looking for sustainable damage not to mention Bur  damage options it's hard to pass on a couple more   fighter levels instead in my book at Fighter 2  then yeah we get action surge H that lets us take   two actions on a turn once per short rest and as  great as this can be for burst damage I think I   would more often be using it to cast shadow of Mo  action Surge and then go into my damage rotation   right on round one instead of having to wait a  turn to like set things up before we start hitting   right it just feels so much better than waiting  until round two to start firing in fact for that   reason I probably would have taken Fighter 2 a lot  sooner if I were playing this character in game   maybe after I got to like warlock 5 I'm thinking  but the spreadsheets just looked a lot better if   I delayed it until now so here we are but then  finally for us at level 13 we would be a fighter   3 and that means we get our Marshall archetype  our fighter subass and I think there are several   options that would work great here Battle Master  is always fantastic both for damage utility uh run   Knight is a favorite of course for a little damage  bump and some powerful runes but I think for this   character my preference would actually be Sai  Warrior first of all because they feel a little magicyoyo now that our proficiency bonus is so  high feels a lot more usable and sustainable   than other options psionic power tells us that we  now have a pool of psionic energy dice similar to   superiority dice for battl Masters the dice are  d6s and we have two times our proficiency bonus   of them so 12 now they don't set until a long rest  but depending on your table you should be able to   use them a lot of the time still at least once per  turn for one combat encounter which is kind of my   bare minimum to consider a thing sustainable right  and especially since you can once per short rest   regain one energy di as a bonus action now we use  these to do one of three things protective field   lets us use our reaction to absorb some damage  done to us or an ally it's not much though with   our low intelligence modifier probably not really  worth using unless it's the difference between   life or death telekinetic movement lets us move  an object or a willing creature with our mind some   handy utility there and then yeah psionic strike  which lets us add an energy die in damage once   per turn to a Target within 30 ft of us that we  hit with a weapon attack uh plus our intelligence   modifier but we kind of dumped intelligence so  doesn't really do much for us hopefully you got   it up to at least a 10 at character creation we  should had the points for that or better yet maybe   you've been able to find a headband of intellect  uh here though do we really want to use one of   our Attunement slots for a headband of intellect  at this level probably not anyways I'm just going   to assume that we've got a flat D6 to our damage  once per turn not a lot but it's a little bump as   well as some additional utility and unlike the  Giants might feature from run knights we don't   have to spend a bonus action first to be able to  get that extra bit of damage right Rune Knights   got to activate giant might that takes a bonus  action and this you can just add it on a hit so   I think it's a little better okay at level 17 it  is time for our final damage report since last   check we have gained some nice burst and control  options and a nice sustained damage bump thanks   to master of hex's and a small bump from psionic  Strike but here against enemies with a 10 Armor   class we would on average do 112 damage per round  and against an 18 AC it would be 98 DPR getting us   past that century mark almost at an 18 Armor class  even which is just Fant fantastic Landing us kind   of in the middle of tier one compared to other  sustained damage builds that I've done to date   at this level so let's bring it on Home with some  final thoughts any Last Words the tier score for   this build if you take the damage that they do at  each of the armor classes that we account for at   each of the four damage reports that we report on  just average them all into one big number we end   up with a 6437 actually right next to that first  build melee focused Pam lock right the hex blade   not too surprisingly they've got a lot of similar  features but with the Fantastic added benefit of   being ranged and having a little more burst damage  capability or maybe ability to get firing on all   cylinders a little quicker thanks to the fighter  dip in the end is the build a success no question   yeah absolutely it really does outperform every  other ranged weapon user I've ever built at every   damage report and it's beating or is neck and  neck with every other hex blade character I've   ever done for sustained damage and it just  brings so much fantastic utility control and   defensive options with them along to the table  in addition to that damage so yeah again sorry   Fighters and Rangers but the next time I decide  to play a ranged weapon user in a d and d game I   think I probably got to go hexo and that doesn't  make me too sad hopefully it doesn't make you too   sad either but either way that's the build for the  week so I hope you enjoyed it I hope you guys know   that I love you thank you so much for all that  you do for me for the channel you're so awesome   I hope you have a great day and a fantastic week  and if you don't please don't give up but I hope   that you will do good and be kind and that I  see you again very soon but until then take care [Music] bye all men have left here but you have  remained at the banks of the river forever the   same though no water flows here the memory [Music]  stays as long as it stays you are here heartbroken   year after year people running away running  like strangers day after day leave him alone golden river from her home oh if you guys have not  listened to the staves you ought to check them out   they're out of the UK um they're like a folk pop  group I love absolutely um just like Melancholy   lovely harmonious music anyways check him out that  one the mother load that might be my favorite of   their songs I think have you seen the new Bluey  episodes couple more just came out Bluey fans   you know the one it was there was like this one  that was 30 minutes okay Excuse me while I wax on   about Bluey there was one the sign it was like 30  minutes long which is way long for a blue episode   um and I was a little disappointed in it because  it was all about like well spoiler spoiler alert   it's all about like they were going to move  and blue and bingo didn't want to and neither   did like the parents really that much for that  matter but like they kind of thought that it   was for the best and then they were really sad  about it and in the end they decided to stay and   it's like that's great but I feel like the show  is at its best when it's kind of showing people   and children but really all people that like hey  sometimes hard things happen and it's okay to be   sad about that and also like you're going to be  okay right and you're going to figure this out   and that was just kind of like oh you're super  sad and you know what fine let's just stay and   I can't help but think that like all the kids  watching who have moved recently are going to   be like hey that's no fair I'll come blue got to  stay what makes the best ranged okay you kind of   come up with like exhibit number 320 7 on White  full casters oops and it also outdamages every   other rain every come on so that our melee anime  the sunlight has penetrated the defenses oh hey son all right let alone you know let  alone are though do we really want to   use one of our uh oh shoot what's  it called um a tum yeah all right

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 65,256

Keywords: D&D, dnd, dungeons & dragons, warlock, damage, dpr, dps, best, hexblade, min max, optimize, guide, how to, tips, tricks, character, build, creation, fighter, crossbow, spells, short, shorts, spellbow

Id: N_iU4wCfjHs

Length: 47min 58sec (2878 seconds)

Published: Tue May 07 2024