#Finest Hexblade Warlock construct in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) – Destructoid
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In the appropriate palms, Warlock will be one of the crucial enjoyable Baldur’s Gate 3 courses you need to use. Eldritch Blast alone could make a playthrough hilarious, not to mention its subclasses and skills that allow you to make pacts with weapons and use high-level phantasm spells to mess along with your enemies.
That’s the place Hexblade Warlock is available in. This subclass binds your character to magical weapons, immediately changing into proficient with them and utilizing your charisma to strengthen them slightly than power or dexterity. Let’s dive into how you can make the perfect BG3 Hexblade Warlock construct so you may flip easy swords and daggers into hard-hitting weapons.
Hexblade Warlock construct overview
Hexblade Warlock, because the title suggests, focuses on binding magical weapons to your character. Though you may’t drop or throw your weapon, you’ll immediately change into proficient with it when you weren’t already and have an opportunity to use Hexblade’s Curse to your goal. You’re additionally mechanically proficient with Medium Armour, Shields, and Martial Weapons.
Right here’s an summary of Hexblade Warlock’s beginning class actions and options:
| Talents | Description |
|---|---|
| Bind Hexed Weapon (Motion) | Bind to your fundamental hand weapon. Its injury turns into magical, you can not drop or throw it, and also you change into Proficient with it when you weren’t already. If you assault with this weapon, there’s a probability that Hexblade’s Curse might be utilized to the goal. |
| Hexblade’s Curse (Bonus Motion) | Curse a goal. Your injury rolls in opposition to the goal achieve a bonus equal to your Proficiency Bonus. The quantity you might want to roll a Essential Hit whereas attacking the goal can be diminished by 1. This impact lasts 10 turns and has an 18-meter vary. |
| Hex Warrior (Subclass characteristic) | You achieve proficiency with Medium Armour, Shields, and Martial Weapons. You achieve Bind Hexed Weapon, which helps you to use your Charisma modifier as a substitute of Power or Dexterity when attacking with weapons that you’re proficient with. |
You can even select from the next Cantrips and spells at degree one:
Beginning Cantrips
- Blade Ward
- Booming Blade
- Bone Chill
- Eldritch Blast
- Associates
- Mage Hand
- Minor Phantasm
- Poison Spray
- Toll the Useless
- True Strike
The beginning cantrips for this Hexblade Warlock construct are Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade. Warlock has a ton of Eldritch Blast upgrading capabilities no matter your construct, making it a go-to cantrip besides in area of interest conditions. Booming Blade pairs nicely with Hexblade, specifically, as a melee vary assault that inflicts Resonance onto the goal, dealing Thunder injury anytime the goal strikes.
As we’ll focus on later, there are particular races that may grant you a further Cantrip. For those who select one among these choices, you may decide a non-combat choice like Associates for Benefit on Charisma Checks in opposition to non-hostile creatures or spells like True Strike that provide you with Benefit in your subsequent Assault Roll.
Beginning Spells
- Armor of Agathys
- Arms of Hadar
- Allure Particular person
- Expeditious Retreat
- Hellish Rebuke
- Hex
- Safety from Evil and Good
- Protect
- Witch Bolt
- Wrathful Smite
For Hexblade Warlock, specifically, your finest spell early on might be Wrathful Smite. It’s one other melee vary spell that offers your weapon’s ordinary injury alongside 1d6 Psychic injury. It additionally has an opportunity to frighten your goal, stopping them from shifting and giving Drawback on Capability Checks and Assault Rolls.
Your second choice will differ relying in your playstyle, however some worthwhile pickups are Protect, Hellish Rebuke, or Hex. Since we’re specializing in a melee construct right here, Protect is normally your finest wager early on, letting you increase your Armor Class by 5 and making you proof against Magic Missile. It isn’t as useful within the late recreation as you enhance your gear, however it might probably prevent in a pinch inside Acts One and Two.
Finest Hexblade Warlock race and background
The most effective race for a Hexblade Warlock is the Half-Orc. From the beginning, they achieve Savage Assaults, providing you with an additional cube of weapon injury if you land a Essential Hit with a melee weapon assault. Contemplating Hexblade Warlock is all about benefiting from melee assaults with some AoE and phantasm spells blended in, something that buffs this early on is a win.
Another choice is the Excessive Elf. Alongside their Fey Ancestry that provides them Benefit on Saving Throws in opposition to being Charmed, you’ll additionally achieve Elven Weapon Coaching for extra melee and ranged weapon proficiency and an additional Cantrip choice. Excessive Elf will all the time be a stable choice no matter what Warlock construct you go.
The most effective background choice for Hexblade Warlock is Entertainer. Entertainer offers you proficiency in Acrobatics and Efficiency, which scale with Dexterity and Charisma. Alternatively, when you don’t plan on having Astarion as a companion, you may decide up Charlatan to enhance your Deception and Sleight of Palms.
Finest Hexblade Warlock Capability Scores
Hexblade Warlock is all about Charisma. Whereas this construct focuses on melee injury along with your hexed weapons, your injury immediately scales along with your Charisma modifier. It’s by far a very powerful stat to think about when strengthening your character.
That stated, we are able to fully ignore Power because it received’t impression your melee assault energy. As a substitute, our secondary focus is Dexterity, adopted by Structure. Dexterity influences your Armor Class and Initiative, whereas Structure gives you some additional well being factors so that you keep alive on the frontlines.
Right here’s an entire breakdown of what your stats ought to appear like after creating your character:
| Capability | Factors |
|---|---|
| Power | 8 |
| Dexterity | 16 (+1) |
| Structure | 14 |
| Intelligence | 10 |
| Knowledge | 10 |
| Charisma | 16 (+2) |
Hexblade Warlock expertise and degree development
Right here’s an entire breakdown of how it is best to degree up your Hexblade Warlock from degree one to 12 in Baldur’s Gate 3:
Degree one
- Class: Warlock
- Cantrip: Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade
- Subclass: The Hexblade
- Spells: Wrathful Smite and Protect
- Capability Factors:
- Power: 8
- Dexterity: 16 (+1)
- Structure: 14
- Intelligence: 10
- Knowledge: 10
- Charisma: 16 (+2)
Degree two
- Two Eldritch Invocations: Agonising Blast and Repelling Blast
- Two Spells: Armour of Agathys and Hex
Choosing up spells like Hex and Armour of Agathys is your finest wager to begin. Because you’ll usually be in melee vary, Armour of Agathys will grant your short-term hit factors and inflict Chilly injury to any creature that melee assaults you whereas it’s lively. Hex offers your assaults additional Necrotic injury and supplies free recasts in case your goal dies earlier than the spell ends.
You’ll all the time need to decide Agonising Blast and Repelling Blast to your first two Eldritch Invocations. Each choices considerably buff Eldritch Blast, including your Charisma Modifier to its injury and pushing enemies away from you, letting you launch them off cliff edges or into abysses for instakills. These are nice choices for any Warlock construct even outdoors of Hexblade.
Degree three
- Pact Boon: Pact of the Blade
- Spell: Shadow Blade
- Exchange Spell: Protect with Maintain Particular person
Since Hexblade Warlock already has Bind Hexed Weapon, you’ll initially imagine it isn’t helpful to choose up Pact of the Blade. Regardless of this, Pact of the Blade gives you an additional assault in a while, making it useful to choose up regardless.
As for spells, your finest choices are Shadow Blade and Maintain Particular person. Whereas it’s early to swap out Protect, you’ll seemingly produce other occasion members by now with shielding and therapeutic capabilities that may enhance your survivability. As a substitute, your job is to carry your enemies in place and knock them down along with your Cantrips and Shadow Blade, which solely get stronger ranging from degree 4.
Degree 4
- Cantrip: Toll the Useless
- Spell: Darkness
- Exchange: Hex with Branding Smite
- Feat: Capability Enchancment (Charisma)
The Toll the Useless Cantrip is an efficient option to diversify your injury parts. It offers 1d12 Necrotic injury, with it inflicting much less injury in case your goal is at full well being. Utilizing this on weak opponents who’re susceptible to necrotic injury can deal some hefty injury even when you’re usually higher off sticking to Booming Blade and Eldritch Blast. With this, you may as well change Hex with Branding Smite to present you much more melee assault choices.
To your spell, we suggest taking Darkness. You’ll blind anybody inside its vary, stopping your opponents from making ranged assaults. Your Shadow Blade assault rolls even have benefit if utilized in dim mild or darkness, making it way more highly effective than it was beforehand. The one draw back is that you just and your occasion may even be affected by this in the event that they’re inside its radius, however your Hexblade Warlock can have a counter for this in future ranges.
Lastly, your Feat will virtually all the time be Capability Enchancment into Charisma, elevating it from 16 to 18. There’s no draw back to this: all the pieces about your character might be stronger with this buff, making it a go-to for any construct.
Degree 5
- Class Function: Deepened Pact
- Happy along with your service, your otherworldly patron added new boons to the phrases of your pact. Blade pactholders achieve an additional assault with their pact weapon.
- Eldritch Invocation: Satan’s Sight
- Spell: Starvation of Hadar
Now that you just’re degree 5, you’ll have Deepened Pact, which buffs your chosen pact from degree three. On this case, we now have two assaults with our Pact of the Blade.
Since we picked up Darkness final degree, your subsequent best choice is Starvation of Hadar. Any creature inside its radius might be blinded and take injury at first and finish of its flip. Total, its AoE injury and debuffing make it a stable decide for a number of class builds, together with this one.
With Darkness in our roster, the Satan’s Sight invocation is the only option for seeing in darkness with out penalty. Whereas there’s room to debate the out-of-combat advantages of Beguiling Affect, having companions like Astarion round to do the speaking or relying in your excessive Charisma will normally do the job with out the necessity for this additional invocation.
Degree six
- Subclass Function: Accursed Spectre
- If you or an ally inside 18 meters slay a creature that’s bothered with Hexblade’s Curse, you may increase an Accursed Spectre that may combat alongside you for a brief time frame.
- Spell: Misty Step
Though we’re primarily a melee as a Hexblade Warlock, having some traversal expertise is an efficient technique to escape from a sticky scenario. Misty Step will accomplish precisely that, letting you teleport wherever inside an 18-meter area. This spell can be useful if you wish to seem in the course of the battlefield and wreak havoc with out worrying about spending additional turns working right into a room or battle space.
Degree seven
- Eldritch Invocation: Dreadful Phrase
- Spell: Staggering Smite
Sticking with our melee construct, your subsequent best choice is grabbing Staggering Smite, letting you stagger your opponents and deal each bludgeoning and psychic injury. Whereas we now have a number of smite assaults by now, you’ll a minimum of have choices for nearly any enemy kind, relying on the scenario.
To your invocation, it’s time to choose up Dreadful Phrase. Dreadful Phrase grants you Confusion, an AoE assault that confuses a gaggle of creatures, inflicting them to assault randomly and sometimes skip their flip. For those who’re fortunate, confused enemies will injury their very own allies, making most of your fights a lot simpler.
Degree eight
- Spell: Blight
- Feat: Capability Enchancment (Charisma)
Degree eight is considerably of a filler degree relating to spells. On this case, we suggest taking Blight for its excessive injury potential and to diversify our elemental choice. Phantasmal Killer is one other viable choice for inflicting Psychic injury per flip, stopping your enemy from shifting, and giving them Drawback on Capability Checks and Assault Rolls.
You’ll additionally need Capability Enchancment once more to your Feat, bumping your Charisma as much as 20. Like earlier than, this strengthens each facet of your character, from injury output to Persuasion dialogue Checks.
Degree 9
- Eldritch Invocation: Minions of Chaos
- Spell: Cone of Chilly
The following finest Eldritch Invocation to choose up throughout degree 9 is Minions of Chaos to conjure an elemental. Whereas invocations like Mire the Thoughts and Sculptor of Flesh are additionally viable right here, the basic you get from Minions of Chaos may help act as a meat defend throughout fights or present some extra injury output to your occasion. There are many stable choices, however this one is particularly enjoyable to make use of.
As for spells, we’re taking Cone of Chilly as one other huge AoE injury assault. It is a nice one to make use of simply earlier than you get into melee vary of your foes or if you might want to briefly escape however nonetheless need to inflict some injury from afar.
Degree ten
- Subclass Function: Armour of Hexes
- When a creature you cursed with Hexblade’s Curse assaults you, probably nullify the assault as a response. This has a 50 p.c probability of succeeding.
- Cantrip: Blade Ward
- Spell: Banishing Smite
Degree ten is a serious degree for our Hexblade Warlock, gaining the Armour of Hexes subclass characteristic that has an opportunity to nullify assaults as a response. For something you don’t nullify, you may cut back its injury utilizing Blade Ward, halving injury from bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing assaults. As for spells, we’re choosing Banishing Smite for its improbable crowd-control capabilities and injury scaling along with your weapon.
Degree eleven
- Mystic Arcanum: Circle of Demise
- Spell: Phantasmal Killer
Circle of Demise is an especially highly effective potential, inflicting 8d6 Necrotic injury in an enormous sphere across the battlefield. Very similar to Cone of Chilly, this one is nice when you’ve obtained a big group you might want to take care of shortly. By this level in your Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough, you’ll have an entire lot of those to deal with.
To your spell, taking Phantasmal Killer will allow you to hang-out creatures, inflicting excessive psychic injury per flip and giving them Drawback on each Capability Checks and Assault Rolls. It lasts ten turns, making this an excellent potential so long as nobody breaks your focus.
Degree twelve
- Eldritch Invocation: Lifedrinker
- Spell: Maintain Monster
- Feat: Alert
Final however not least, we now have degree twelve. So much occurs right here, together with the introduction of Grasp Hexblade’s Curse, which helps you to deal extra injury in opposition to your goal and heal your well being once they die.
For Eldritch Invocation, you’re taking a look at Lifedrinker because the go-to choice for Hexblade Warlock. With this invocation, any assaults you take care of your Pact Weapon deal extra necrotic injury that scales along with your Charisma. There’s no competitors: that is the most suitable choice you’ll have accessible for this explicit construct.
To your spell, taking Maintain Monster will grant you one other technique to paralyze any creatures you encounter. By now, you’ll have the ability to maintain 4 humanoid creatures with Maintain Particular person or one creature with Maintain Monster, providing you with a number of choices for this spell if the scenario requires it.
You’ll need to take Alert to your final feat, providing you with a +5 bonus to Initiative. You can also’t be stunned with this feat, guaranteeing you all the time get the primary assault whatever the scenario. Total, this is without doubt one of the most useful choices for a number of character builds, with this being among the many bunch that advantages significantly from it.
Finest Hexblade Warlock weapons and armor
The weapons and armor you utilize as a Hexblade Warlock in BG3 will rely solely on what stage of the sport you’re at. Right here’s a breakdown of early and late-game choices for this construct:
Early-game gear
- Head: Haste Helm
- Armor: Adamantine Scale Mail
- Gloves: Gloves of Missile Snaring
- Footwear: Disintegrating Night time Walkers
- Cloak: Deathstalker Mantle or Cloak of Safety
- Amulet: Broodmother’s Revenge
- Rings: Unusual Conduit Ring and Ring of Safety
- Weapons: Phalar Aluve
- Off-Hand: Adamantine Protect
- Ranged Weapon: Bow of Consciousness
Late-game gear
- Head: Birthright
- Armor: Bhaalist Armor or Armor of Agility
- Gloves: Helldusk Gloves
- Footwear: Helldusk Boots
- Cloak: Deathstalker Mantle or Cloak of Safety
- Amulet: Amulet of Larger Well being
- Rings: Unusual Conduit Ring and Ring of Safety
- Weapons: Shar’s Spear of Night
- Off-Hand: Viconia’s Strolling Fortress
- Ranged Weapon: Hellrider Longbow
Whereas early-game choices just like the Haste Helm and Disintegrating Night time Walkers assist your mobility, the Adamantine Scale Mail and Protect are all about decreasing incoming injury and stopping vital hits. Early on, one of the crucial vital items of kit is the Phalar Aluve, a longsword that permits you to Sing to buff your allies or Shriek to debuff your enemies. It’s additionally highly effective sufficient to be efficient within the late recreation with this construct.
As you progress later in your playthrough, choices like Bhaalist Armor and the Helldusk armor pair are improbable for growing your total injury. For those who desire a tankier playstyle, you may swap out the Bhaalist Armor for Armor of Agility or comparable chest items. Birthright can be a noteworthy choice for giving two additional Charisma factors, performing as a free Capability Enchancment feat.
Equally, acquiring the Shar’s Spear of Night is essential to creating this construct work nicely because it pairs nicely with Darkness casting and Satan’s Sight. For those who select Shadowheart’s different route throughout this level in Baldur’s Gate 3’s story, you may keep on with the Phalar Aluve to your playthrough and nonetheless be extremely highly effective.
