Author Topic: [Base Class] Hexblade  (Read 6866 times)

Offline Garryl

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[Base Class] Hexblade
« on: December 02, 2015, 09:09:48 PM »
Hexblade base class
A re-envisioning of the original Hexblade with enhanced curses and improved spellcasting.

Alignment: Any nongood

Hit Die: d10


Level
Base
Attack Bonus
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Will
Save

Special
Spells Per Day
01st2nd3rd4th5th6th
1+1+2+0+2Hexblade's Curse, Curse of Misfortune -2, Curse of Stupor, Martial Spellcaster2------------
2+2+3+0+3Arcane Resistance30----------
3+3+3+1+3Cursed Opportunity, Mettle31----------
4+4+4+1+4Siphon Misfortune +1, Summon Familiar320--------
5+5+4+1+4Chaotic Commands, Ill Tidings331--------
6+6/+1+5+2+5Black Cloud 20 ft.332--------
7+7/+2+5+2+5Curse of Misfortune -33320------
8+8/+3+6+2+6Chains of Adversity3331------
9+9/+4+6+3+6Black Cloud 30 ft., Silver Lining3332------
10+10/+5+7+3+7Double Hexblade's Curse33320----
11+11/+6/+1+7+3+7Mystic Contrariness33331----
12+12/+7/+2+8+4+8Black Cloud 40 ft., Siphon Misfortune +233332----
13+13/+8/+3+8+4+8Curse of Misfortune -4, Fortune's Foe333320--
14+14/+9/+4+9+4+9Dark Companion433331--
15+15/+10/+5+9+5+9Black Cloud 50 ft.443332--
16+16/+11/+6/+1+10+5+10Aura of Unluck4443320
17+17/+12/+7/+2+10+5+10The Same Doubled4444331
18+18/+13/+8/+3+11+6+11Black Cloud 60 ft.4444432
19+19/+14/+9/+4+11+6+11Curse of Misfortune -54444443
20+20/+15/+10/+5+12+6+12Karmic Imbalance, Siphon Misfortune +3, Triple Hexblade's Curse4444444

Class skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, and Spellcraft.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As a Hexblade, you are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with light armor, and with shields (except tower shields).

Hexblade's Curse (Su): Hexblades are known for their ability to curse their foes, stealing skill and fortune with a glance. You can attempt to curse any target within 60 feet. Unless otherwise stated, curses take a swift action to use and last 5 minutes unless removed earlier (you can dismiss any of your curses as a free action). If a curse allows a saving throw, the DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your Hexblade level + your Charisma modifier. You can use your curses a total number of times per day equal to your Hexblade level plus your Charisma modifier (minimum 1/day). Some curses, particularly stronger ones, require multiple daily uses to effect.

Most curses normally only affect one or a few targets. However, beginning at 6th level, you gain the ability to bring your curses into effect as a black cloud of misfortune. Each curse that can be used this way indicates its effects when effected as a black cloud. Curses that do not indicate their black cloud effects cannot be used as a black cloud. The radius of your black cloud is 20 feet at 6th level, and increases by 10 feet every 3 levels thereafter, to a maximum of 60 feet at level 18. You can dismiss your curses from each subject of a black cloud individually, without affecting the other subjects or the cloud itself. A curse effected as a black cloud appears as a thin black mist that does not impede vision.

A given subject can only be affected by a single one of your Hexblade's Curses at once. Any creature only has a finite amount of luck to steal away. To apply new curses, you must first dismiss your older ones (a free action). As you gain levels, you learn to steal even more dregs of fortune from your victims. Starting at 10th level, you can affect your subjects with 2 curses at once, Increasing to 3 curses at level 20. This limit applies only to your own Hexblade's Curses. Hexblade's Curses from other Hexblades and curses from other sources and abilities (even your own) are not subject to this limit.

Subjects of your Hexblade's Curse are automatically aware that they are cursed and the effects of the curse.

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Martial Spellcaster: Hexblades train both sword and sorcery together and learn variations on standard spells with simpler somatic components. Shields and light armor do not impose their normal chance of arcane spell failure on your Hexblade spells. Additionally, wielding a weapon does not impede your ability to fulfill the components of your Hexblade spells, such as performing the motions of somatic components or drawing and manipulating material components.

Spells: As a Hexblade, you gain the ability to spontaneously cast a small number of arcane spells the way a Sorcerer does, which are drawn from the Hexblade spell list. You can cast any spell you know without preparing it ahead of time.

To learn or cast a spell, you must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against your spell is 10 + the spell level + your Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, you can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Your base daily spell allotment is given on the table above. In addition, you receive bonus spells per day if you have a high Charisma score. When the table above indicates that you get 0 spells per day of a given spell level, you gain only the bonus spells you would be entitled to based on your Charisma score for that spell level.

A Hexblade's selection of spells is extremely limited. You begin play knowing four 0-level spells of your choice. At most new Hexblade levels, you gain one or more new spells, as indicated on the table below. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells you know is not affected by your Charisma score; the numbers on the table below are fixed.)

Upon reaching 5th level, and at every third Hexblade level after that (8th, 11th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new spell in place of one you already know. In effect, you "lose" the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least two levels lower than the highest-level Hexblade spell you can cast. You may swap only a single spell at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that you gain new spells known for the level.

As noted above, you need not prepare your spells in advance. You can cast any spell you know at any time, assuming you have not yet used up your allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.


Level
Spells Known
01st2nd3rd4th5th6th
14------------
2521----------
363----------
46321--------
5643--------
6643--------
764421------
86443------
96443------
10644421----
1164443----
1264443----
136444421--
14644443--
15644443--
1665444421
176554443
186555443
196555544
206555554
1. Provided you have a high enough Charisma score to have a bonus spell of this level.

Arcane Resistance (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you gain a bonus equal to your Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities.

Cursed Opportunity (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, you no longer provoke attacks of opportunity from opponents afflicted by your Hexblade's Curses for casting Hexblade spells.

Mettle (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, fortune smiles upon you, whether it wishes to or not. Whenever you make a successful Fortitude or Will saving throw against an effect that would normally have a lesser effect on a successful save, you may choose to instead completely negate the effect.

Summon Familiar: Starting at 4th level, you can obtain a familiar in exactly the same manner as a Sorcerer can.

Siphon Misfortune (Su): When you steal away the luck of others, it need not go to waste. Starting at 4th level, you gain a +1 luck bonus on all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks for 1 round after effecting a curse. This improves to +2 at level 12 and +3 at level 20.

Silver Lining (Su): Beginning at 9th level, you can share some of the luck you steal from others. Your Siphon Misfortune ability also applies to all allies within the area of a curse you effect as a black cloud at the time you effect it.

Fortune's Foe (Su): Starting at 13th level, any luck bonuses your opponents have to attack rolls, damage rolls, Armor Class, saving throws, opposed checks, caster level, caster level checks, and save DCs are reduced to 0 with respect to you. This ability has no effect on luck penalties, luck bonuses to other statistics, nor any other types of bonuses.

Aura of Unluck (Su): Even when you aren't actively willing it, luck just isn't with your enemies. Beginning at 16th level, all melee and ranged attacks directed against you, except those that you specifically allow through, have a 20% chance of missing entirely. This stacks with (and is checked separately from) other miss chances, such as those from concealment and incorporeality.

Ex-Hexblades: A Hexblade becomes good in alignment cannot progress in levels as a Hexblade, though he retains all his Hexblade abilities.

Hexblade Spell List
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Change Log
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« Last Edit: July 06, 2017, 06:08:15 PM by Garryl »

Offline Garryl

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(Continued) [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2015, 09:10:12 PM »
New Spells
This section primarily contains new spells designed for use with this version of the Hexblade class.



New Cleric Spells
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New Hexblade Spells
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New Sorcerer/Wizard Spells
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Accursed Glyph
Level: Hexblade 3

This spell functions like glyph of warding except that it can only be used as a blast glyph or a curse glyph.

Blast Glyph
As the blast glyph option of glyph of warding.

Curse Glyph
You can store any curse that you produce (such as with your Hexblade's Curse ability or from a spell you cast). All level-dependent features of the curse are based on your level at the time of casting the glyph. If the curse has a target, it targets the intruder. If the curse has an area or an amorphous effect the area or effect is centered on the intruder. If the curse summons creatures, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack. Saving throws and spell resistance operate as normal for the curse.



Azure Bonds
Necromancy
Level: Hexblade 6, Sor/Wiz 8
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Permanent (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell allows you to transform your arcane mark into a magical binding. Once in place, you can take control of the subject's actions with a thought.

First, you must place your arcane mark on the subject. Then you cast this spell, which infuses the mark, making it visible to the naked eye (if it was invisible) and preventing it from being dispelled, from fading from normal wear, or otherwise being removed while the curse remains. Even if the body part upon which the mark is inscribed is removed, the mark simply reappears elsewhere on the subject's body.

While you concentrate (a standard action, as though with a spell with a duration of concentration), you can take direct control of the subject, giving you access to its senses and forcing it to act as you desire. You do not gain access to the subject's knowledge or memories, so you cannot force it to use abilities you are not aware it possesses. You can, however, force it to employ any abilities you know of, even purely mental ones (such as manifesting powers).

While you control the subject's actions, your arcane mark glows as bright as candlelight. The subject retains no memories of its time under your control.

This curse ends immediately if you die or are destroyed.

Since this spell takes 10 minutes to cast and involves writing on the target, you can cast it only on a creature that is willing or restrained.

You need not be within range to take control of the subject or to dismiss azure bonds. You can do so at any time, regardless of where you and the subject are, even if you are on different planes.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell. Remove curse works only if its caster level is at least two higher than your azure bonds caster level.

Material Component
Special inks worth 1000 gp.



Contagious Curse
Necromancy
Level: Hexblade 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None; Will negates
Spell Resistance: No; Yes

Upon touching the subject, you become aware of all curses on her. Choose one curse on the subject, excluding curses tied to a specific object (such as cursed magic items). Immediately, and again each round thereafter for the duration of this spell (including the final round), the curse attempts to spread to the nearest valid creature within 30 feet of the subject. It will not attempt to spread to you, nor to any creature it has tried and failed to spread to previously during this casting of contagious curse. When the curse attempts to spread, the new victim must make a Will save against this spell or become affected by it as well. If the curse originally allowed a saving throw, the save DC is the  lesser of this spell's save DC and the curse's save DC. Otherwise, use this spell's normal save DC.

A curse spread through contagious curse is not itself contagious (unless, of course, this spell is cast again on the new victim). Only the original subject of this spell continues to spread the curse.

A curse spread through contagious curse functions normally and can be removed from each victim independently. However, if it is removed from the subject of contagious curse, the creature from which it had originally spread, it is also removed from all creatures it spread to with this spell.

If the chosen curse is removed while contagious curse is still ongoing, the spell immediately ends.



Corpse Puppet
Level: Hexblade 2, Sor/Wiz 3
Target: One mostly intact corpse with discernible limbs
Duration: 1 day
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This spell functions like puppeteer's curse except as noted above. The corpse uses the statistics and abilities of a zombie while you are controlling it, except that since you are controlling its movements, rather than animating it with negative energy, it has the type and traits of a construct, rather than an undead creature.

You can animate and control a zombie with no more HD than twice your caster level with this spell.

Unlike animate dead, this spell does not interact with the dead creature's soul, so no special means are required to raise the subject from the dead.

This curse ends immediately if the subject is returned to life.

Material Component
A clay doll with the same basic form as the corpse.



Curse of Energies
Evocation
Level: Hexblade 5, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: Permanent (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

The subject becomes vulnerable to all types of energy damage (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic). It takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from any such attack or effect, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or failure.

Curse of energies is mutually exclusive with curse of vulnerability. A given creature can be under the effects of only one of them at a time.

Curse of energies dispels and counters curse of vulnerability.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.



Curse of the Black Pearl
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Cleric 2, Hexblade 1
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One non-undead, corporeal creature that has a skeletal system
Duration: 1 day
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

You place a curse on the subject. If it dies before the curse is lifted, it rises as a skeleton as though with the animate dead spell. As per animate dead, creatures with more than 10 HD cannot be made into skeletons, and you cannot animate more HD of undead than twice your caster level. The skeleton remains animated only as long as it is under the curse; when the curse ends or is removed, the skeleton is destroyed.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.

Material Component
A stolen gold coin worth at least 1 gp.



Curse of Vulnerability
Transmutation
Level: Cleric 6, Hexblade 5
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: Permanent (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

The subject becomes vulnerable to all types of physical damage (bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing). It takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from any such attack or effect, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or failure.

Curse of vulnerability is mutually exclusive with curse of energies. A given creature can be under the effects of only one of them at a time.

Curse of vulnerability dispels and counters curse of energies.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.



Detect Curses
Level: Hexblade 0

This spell functions like detect magic except that it only reveals the auras of curses and cursed items.



Extract Curse
Necromancy
Level: Hexblade 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature or item or cursed area touched
Duration: Instantaneous; 1 day
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless); See text
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless); See text

This spell removes a single curse, as the remove curse spell, and transfers its energies into the glass globe used for the material component. If the target is affected by multiple curses, you can choose which one to remove. The curse's energies are visible within the globe, usually as a roiling black fog.

During the spell's duration, the globe can be thrown to release the curse once more. To attack with it, make a ranged touch attack against the target. No weapon proficiency is required, so you don’t take the -4 nonproficiency penalty. On a hit, the globe shatters, applying the curse to whatever was struck (if the curse could be applied to it). On a miss, the globe still breaks, but the curse's energies dissipate harmlessly.

If you remove and store a curse affecting an area, the globe instead functions as a splash weapon, applying the curse to the area around where it hits.

If the globe is broken otherwise, the curse's energies dissipate harmlessly.

If the spell ends, the globe shatters and the curse's energies dissipate harmlessly.

Only a single curse can be stored in a given globe at once.

If you cast this spell without a material component, it removes the curse, but does not store it.

Material Component
A small, clear, hollow glass globe specially prepared and treated for this spell, worth 25 gp.



Karrius Infusion
Necromancy [Death]
Level: Hexblade 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Permanent (D)
Saving Throw: None; Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes; No

The subject of this curse becomes infused with the malign aura of Karrius, the Silent Valley. Once the subject has spent a total of at least one week of its life under this curse or within Karrius, it must make a Fortitude save every hour while the curse remains or die.

You need not be within range to dismiss karrius infusion. You can dismiss it at any time, regardless of where you and the subject are, even if you are on different planes.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell. Remove curse works only if its caster level is equal to or higher than your karrius infusion caster level.



Lesser Bestow Curse
Level: Cleric 2, Hexblade 2, Sor/Wiz 3
Duration: 1 day

This spell functions like bestow curse except for its lesser duration and penalties:
  • -4 decrease to an ability score (minimum 1).
  • -2 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks.
  • Each turn, the target has a 75% chance to act normally; otherwise, it takes no action.
You may also invent your own curse, but it should be no more powerful than those described above.



Mass Corpse Puppet
Level: Hexblade 5, Sor/Wiz 6
Target: Up to one mostly intact corpse with discernible limbs per level

This spell functions like corpse puppet except that it affects multiple corpses. You can concentrate on and control the movements of any number of puppet zombies at once whose total HD do not exceed quadruple your caster level.

You can animate and control zombies each of which have no more HD than twice your caster level with this spell.



Puppeteer's Curse
Necromancy
Level: Hexblade 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target: One creature with discernible limbs
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

You place a curse on the subject, making it a puppet for you to control. While you concentrate (a standard action, as though with a spell with a duration of concentration), you can control the subject's limbs, forcing movement independent of the target’s mind. You can force the subject to stand up, sit down, walk, turn around, and so on. You can also hold the subject immobile, rendering it helpless.

You can only control the subject's limbs. You cannot, for example, operate its vocal cords or even stop it from speaking, nor can you force the subject to manifest powers, cast spells, or use any special ability that is not a function of just its limb movements. You can, however, force it to make use of any abilities or attack forms it possesses that rely solely on the use its limbs, such as attacking with natural and manufactured weapons, grappling, rending, and so forth.

While acting under your control, the subject uses your ability score that controls the save DC of this spell in place of its Strength and Dexterity scores, and your base attack bonus in place of its own. During its turn, you can force the subject to take its normal complement of actions as you direct it. While you control its movements, a subject of this curse is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC and cannot make attacks of opportunity.

Although the subject’s body is under your control, the subject’s mind is not. Creatures capable of taking purely mental actions (such as manifesting powers) or actions that do not involve the use of its limbs (such as casting spells with no somatic, material, or focus components) can do so. Any actions the subject takes on its own use its normal ability scores and base attack bonus.

You only control the subject's movements while you concentrate. If you lose concentration, you can regain it on your turn as a standard action, taking control of the subject once again.

The curse bestowed by this spell cannot be dispelled, but it can be removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, miracle, remove curse, or wish spell.

Material Component
String from a puppet.



Change Log
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« Last Edit: July 06, 2017, 06:10:28 PM by Garryl »

Offline bhu

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2015, 11:17:17 PM »
I havent had a chance to give it a good overview, but as a Hexblade fan I currently approve!

Offline Garryl

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(Continued) [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2015, 01:11:44 AM »
New Feats
This section contains a number of new feats. While most of them are designed primarily for use with the classes presented here, characters of other classes can frequently benefit from them, too.

General FeatsPrerequisitesBenefit
Barbed Curses--Deal +1d6 damage/curse to cursed foes
Black FogBlack cloud, hexblade's curseBlack cloud curses also creating obscuring fog
Black Miasma   Black Fog, black cloud, hexblade's curseBlack fog also sickens creatures within it
Curse of MalfeasanceHexblade's curse, curse of misfortuneCurse of misfortune applies penalties to other statistics
Dark AllianceDiplomacy 18 ranks, hexblade's curse, dark companionAllies can target dark-companion victims through you
Distant Hexblade's CurseHexblade's curseHexblade's Curse range is 250 feet
Extra Hexblade's CurseHexblade's curseGain +4 uses/day of Hexblade's Curse
Malign CommandsIntimidate 12 ranks, Combat Reflexes, hexblade's curse, chaotic commandsChaotic commands forces subject to make AoOs
Mystic OppositionHexblade's curse, mystic contrarinessMystic contrariness also interferes with beneficial spells
Persistent Hexblade's CurseHexblade's curse, double hexblade's curseSpend +2 uses of Hexblade's Curse to curse foes for 24 hours
Shackles of AdversityHexblade's curse, chains of adversityEnemies linked by chains of adversity become entangled when not adjacent to one another
Suggestible StuporBluff 9 ranks, hexblade's curse, curse of stuporMake a suggestion to foes fascinated by curse of stupor



Barbed Curses [General]
Benefit: You deal additional damage whenever you hit an opponent under the effects of a curse you placed on them. The extra damage is 1d6 per each of your curses on the target. Like all bonus damage dice, this is not multiplied if you score a critical hit.



Black Fog [General]
Prerequisite: Black cloud, hexblade's curse.
Benefit: Whenever you effect a curse as a black cloud, you can elect to thicken the cloud into a momentary sight-obscuring fog. If you do, for 1 round, the area of the black cloud is obscured and filled with fog as per a fog cloud spell, except that you can see normally through this fog.



Black Miasma [General]
Prerequisite: Black Fog, black cloud, hexblade's curse.
Benefit: When you use Black Fog, the fog also sickens creatures while they remain within it and for 1 round thereafter.



Curse of Malfeasance [General]
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse, curse of misfortune.
Benefit: Your curse of misfortune also applies a luck penalty to the victim's level checks, Armor Class, and spell resistance (if it has any).
Normal: Curse of misfortune applies a luck penalty to all attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.



Dark Alliance [General]
Prerequisite: Diplomacy 18 ranks, hexblade's curse, dark companion.
Benefit: Your allies can target and affect the victims of your dark companion through you. They can cast spells and effect curses against the victim or the space it occupies just like you can by targeting you or your space. Each spell cast or curse effected by your allies through you costs a use of your Hexblade's Curse, just like when you do so yourself. If you do not spend the use of Hexblade's Curse, the spell or curse has no effect.



Distant Hexblade's Curse [General]
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse.
Benefit: The range of your Hexblade's Curse is 250 feet.
Normal: The range of Hexblade's Curse is 60 feet.



Extra Hexblade's Curse [General]
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse.
Benefit: You gain 4 additional daily uses of your Hexblade's Curse ability.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times. Its effect stacks.



Malign Commands [General]
Prerequisite: Intimidate 12 ranks, Combat Reflexes, hexblade's curse, chaotic commands.
Benefit: You chaotic commands also forces the subject to attempt every attack of opportunity provoked from it, even from creatures it would otherwise see as allies. The subject uses its strongest available weapon, and cannot voluntarily miss with the attack.



Mystic Opposition [General]
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse, mystic contrariness.
Benefit: Your mystic contrariness also grants the subject SR 15 + your effective Hexblade level. This spell resistance only applies against harmless spells, but it cannot be voluntarily lowered and also applies against the subject's own spells.



Persistent Hexblade's Curse [General]
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse, double hexblade's curse.
Benefit: Whenever you effect a Hexblade's Curse, you can spend 2 additional uses of your Hexblade's Curse. If you do, the curse's duration increases to 24 hours. You can only use this feat with a curse that lasts for the normal Hexblade's Curse duration.
Normal: Hexblade's Curse lasts for 5 minutes.



Shackles of Adversity [General]
Prerequisite: Hexblade's curse, chains of adversity.
Benefit: Victims linked by your chains of adversity are also entangled whenever they are not adjacent to at each other. If more than two creatures are linked together (for example, if the curse is effected as a black cloud), each need be adjacent to only a single creature with which they are linked to avoid being entangled.



Suggestible Stupor [General]
Prerequisite: Bluff 9 ranks, hexblade's curse, curse of stupor.
Benefit: You gain an additional use for your Hexblade's Curse ability. As a standard action, you can make a suggestion (as the spell) to a creature that is fascinated by your curse of stupor. Using this ability does not allow the subject a second saving throw against the fascinate effect. Making a suggestion doesn’t count against your daily limit on curses. A Will saving throw negates the effect. This ability affects only a single creature. If you have 21 or more tanks in the Bluff skill, you can instead make a suggestion to any number of fascinated creatures at once (the same suggestion applies to all these creatures). Subjects of this effect will act on your suggestion for as long as they remain fascinated by your curse of stupor.



Change Log
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« Last Edit: July 06, 2017, 06:08:59 PM by Garryl »

Offline bhu

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2015, 01:54:19 AM »
Perhaps it could make a curse effect permanent?

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2015, 07:14:05 AM »
Thoughts as I'm going through this:
  • Curse of Misfortune - Strictly better as an AoE, provided you can force the fight to take place inside of it (inside, or a dungeon, etc.), which most of the others aren't.
  • Chaotic Commands - In a large number of fights, this is a useless curse. You have to be able to identify abilities to be able to tell when it's even worthwhile to use.
  • Ill Tidings - Does it affect the target or the caster of divinations? Wording is ambiguous. And again, mostly useless. Counters a very specific scenario if you can tell ahead of time it's happening.
  • Chains of Adversity - No save against the normal version? Does this also apply to other "saves", like grease and icy slick spells? Also, the AoE version, in conjunction with a decent AoE attack spell, could quickly get absurd.
  • Mystic Contrariness - Doesn't strike me as strong enough for the given level. In many cases, it'll be strictly worse than just using Curse of Misfortune, especially as an AoE.
  • Dark Companion - Why throw in the line about not ignoring what dark companion lets you ignore? Again, a wildly specific curse, because the penalties are far weaker Misfortune, and it only applies if the target is somehow invisible/behind a wall, yet still in range.
  • The Same Doubled - Do targets know what the curse does, or do they one hit KO themselves by accident?
  • Karmic Imbalance - Unimpressive capstone, since it only has a small % chance to trigger, and mostly benefits your enemies. Especially given it's a death effect, and many creatures at 20th are immune to it. At which point the best bet is to curse your ally with it, since they're rocking death ward. Giving your ally the ability to roll double 20s for every action, on the other hand, is quite a nice boost. So, nice buff, cruddy curse.
On the whole, it strikes me (much as the original Hexblade), as a disjointed class. It's got a fair number of spells, but no class abilities that support them. It has curses, but no real class abilities or feats that support them. And it's a melee chassis, but with no melee abilities. Why isn't there a Channel Curse ability, like the Duskblade's Arcane Channeling, for instance? Or a better ability regarding using the stolen luck? Or something that allows the Hexblade to cast his spells on cursed targets without drawing an AoO from them (since he's a melee character)? It's two moderate to weak abilities (curses and spells) glued onto a bland melee chassis.

Offline RobbyPants

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2015, 08:28:05 AM »
I like the idea of the class. I've modified the casting to match a bard in my house-rules, too, but the curses are much more extensive in this rework. I especially like the low level curses.

I agree that Karmic Imbalance is pretty weak. If someone rolls a d20 roll each round, it will take, on average, ten rounds to trigger the effect. This will really screw over people with lots of attacks a round, but someone like a caster can likely go the entire five minutes of the effect without rolling very many d20s.

It'd probably be more level-appropriate if you forced them to take the lower of the two rolls. You could keep the curse triggering on a natural 20 if you wanted. It wouldn't matter one way or the other except for that Will save vs death (where a natural 1 kills them anyway, and this removes the "auto win" on a natural 20).
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Offline Garryl

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2015, 02:01:59 PM »
Some feat ideas (could also be class features):
- Barbed Curses: Deal +1d6 precision damage per Hexblade's Curse affecting target.
- Black Fog: Black cloud curses impede sight for 1 round as fog cloud. You can still see clearly through them.
- Distant Curse: Curse range increases to 250 feet.
- Persistent Curse: Spend extra curse uses to increase duration to 1 day.

Thoughts as I'm going through this:
  • Curse of Misfortune - Strictly better as an AoE, provided you can force the fight to take place inside of it (inside, or a dungeon, etc.), which most of the others aren't.
  • Chaotic Commands - In a large number of fights, this is a useless curse. You have to be able to identify abilities to be able to tell when it's even worthwhile to use.
  • Ill Tidings - Does it affect the target or the caster of divinations? Wording is ambiguous. And again, mostly useless. Counters a very specific scenario if you can tell ahead of time it's happening.
  • Chains of Adversity - No save against the normal version? Does this also apply to other "saves", like grease and icy slick spells? Also, the AoE version, in conjunction with a decent AoE attack spell, could quickly get absurd.
  • Mystic Contrariness - Doesn't strike me as strong enough for the given level. In many cases, it'll be strictly worse than just using Curse of Misfortune, especially as an AoE.
  • Dark Companion - Why throw in the line about not ignoring what dark companion lets you ignore? Again, a wildly specific curse, because the penalties are far weaker Misfortune, and it only applies if the target is somehow invisible/behind a wall, yet still in range.
  • The Same Doubled - Do targets know what the curse does, or do they one hit KO themselves by accident?
  • Karmic Imbalance - Unimpressive capstone, since it only has a small % chance to trigger, and mostly benefits your enemies. Especially given it's a death effect, and many creatures at 20th are immune to it. At which point the best bet is to curse your ally with it, since they're rocking death ward. Giving your ally the ability to roll double 20s for every action, on the other hand, is quite a nice boost. So, nice buff, cruddy curse.

Aside from Curse of Stupor, all of the curses are swift actions. They're not supposed to be game-winningly powerful. Many of them are designed to be overtly weak, but situationally potent. It's probably a good idea for enemies to know what they're cursed with in general, so I'll put that in, too.

Curse of Misfortune: A black cloud has the distinct disadvantage of being easily removed. If you move outside the cloud, you don't take the penalties. In close quarters, yes, it's strictly advantageous. The question is if this is a problem (is it too powerful like that?) and if so, what to do about it (reduced penalties? increased cost?).

Chaotic Commands: Yeah, probably way too situational and probably requires metagame knowledge to be useful in most cases. I also had some specific anti-swarm/mob applications for it that I forgot to put in (another piece of homebrew further built on this ability and I never got around to propagating it back).

Ill Tidings: Agreed, way too specific/situational, even for this sort of thing. It's designed to dispel sensory boosters, with the rest just tacked on. The intent is that cursed creature (the subject) has a 50% failure rate on auguries and divinations and contact other planes it uses. As a black cloud, though, it's useful defensively to protect from See Invisibility and True Seeing and the like. Got any suggestions?

Chains of Adversity: Correct, no save against the normal version. If one guy is in the area of a Grease and fails his save, both of them fall prone. I need to rework the wording on this curse, though, as it's not clear at all (ambiguous at best, missing at worst) that if multiple linked subjects are hit by the same attack, everyone only gets hit once, no matter how many people fail their save.
Ex: Alice, Bob, Carol, and Dave are linked together and are hit by a 30 damage fireball. Alice and Bob both fail their saves, Carol succeeds, and Dave is out of the AoE entirely. The fireball deals 30 damage to everyone, as though they were all in the area and had each failed their saves. This would be the same no matter which or how many of Alice, Bob, and Carol failed their saves. If all three succeeded, they would take the reduced effect (15 damage) and Dave would be unaffected.
Fun tactic: Link an enemy with an ally, then bombard the ally with save-or-dies that she's immune to. Ally gives up her save, enemy dies w/ no save. Probably OP, needs adjusting.

Mystic Contrariness: Unlike Curse of Misfortune, this allows no saving throw. It can also remove functional capabilities if you target the right items (ex: disable wings of flying or a necklace of adaptation). If you or an ally has DR/magic, it becomes easy to make it useful simply by disabling magic weapons. Definitely more of an anti-PC curse, though, as monsters (and even humanoid enemies) are much less likely to use potent magic items. Also, it can be used to disable magic traps (no check, no rolls, just turn it off for 5 minutes).

Dark Companion: Will remove the unnecessary verbiage. For the second part, unlike curse of misfortune, Dark Companion allows no saving throw, allowing you to reliably weaken an enemy's saves for any followup attacks. That's what it's about, making the subject unable to protect himself against any further attacks you want to throw at him. If he runs or hides, you can find him, or just throw spells through the link. Great for hit-and-run tactics.

Karmic Imbalance has been due for a replacement since before day 1. I just left it there because I know I want something but didn't have any ideas. Suggestions are welcome.

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On the whole, it strikes me (much as the original Hexblade), as a disjointed class. It's got a fair number of spells, but no class abilities that support them. It has curses, but no real class abilities or feats that support them. And it's a melee chassis, but with no melee abilities. Why isn't there a Channel Curse ability, like the Duskblade's Arcane Channeling, for instance? Or a better ability regarding using the stolen luck? Or something that allows the Hexblade to cast his spells on cursed targets without drawing an AoO from them (since he's a melee character)? It's two moderate to weak abilities (curses and spells) glued onto a bland melee chassis.

The name's misleading in that HexBLADE implies some sort of melee weapon use, but that's a legacy thing. Curse range is 60 feet, so there's no strong reason not to use a ranged weapon from the back ranks. I'm also planning to add a feat or something for even longer curse range.

Not drawing AoOs from cursed enemies when casting is great for a class feature. Any idea what level it would be good at? Should it come at level 1, or maybe a little bit later? Certainly by level 7 at the absolute latest.

I'm hoping to add some spell-curse synergy from the spell side of things (see Contagious Curse, and I'd like to add more spells like that). I just need the ideas first.

Edit: Not saying the Hexblade necessarily must be at range, just that it's a valid option. Ideally, both melee and range should be equally viable.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2015, 02:12:57 PM by Garryl »

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2015, 03:17:05 PM »
Some feat ideas (could also be class features):
- Barbed Curses: Deal +1d6 precision damage per Hexblade's Curse affecting target.
- Black Fog: Black cloud curses impede sight for 1 round as fog cloud. You can still see clearly through them.
- Distant Curse: Curse range increases to 250 feet.
- Persistent Curse: Spend extra curse uses to increase duration to 1 day.

Additional feats:
Dark Curse - Black clouds lower illumination in area/grant concealment as per darkness
Spreading Malediction - Anyone standing adjacent to cursed creature also affected by curse
Extra Curses - Obvious what this one does
Cloudy Curse - Curse creates black cloud around creature struck by curse
Shattering Curse - Failing save against curse dazes/stuns/staggers creature for one round

Aside from Curse of Stupor, all of the curses are swift actions. They're not supposed to be game-winningly powerful. Many of them are designed to be overtly weak, but situationally potent. It's probably a good idea for enemies to know what they're cursed with in general, so I'll put that in, too.

Curse of Misfortune: A black cloud has the distinct disadvantage of being easily removed. If you move outside the cloud, you don't take the penalties. In close quarters, yes, it's strictly advantageous. The question is if this is a problem (is it too powerful like that?) and if so, what to do about it (reduced penalties? increased cost?).

Honestly, I'd leave this one alone. I think you got the power level about right here.

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Ill Tidings: Agreed, way too specific/situational, even for this sort of thing. It's designed to dispel sensory boosters, with the rest just tacked on. The intent is that cursed creature (the subject) has a 50% failure rate on auguries and divinations and contact other planes it uses. As a black cloud, though, it's useful defensively to protect from See Invisibility and True Seeing and the like. Got any suggestions?

Make them see two versions of the future, and generally choose the wrong action? Something like they're affected by illusions/cloud mind powers and can't always see where people are/are going to be.

Quote
Chains of Adversity: Correct, no save against the normal version. If one guy is in the area of a Grease and fails his save, both of them fall prone. I need to rework the wording on this curse, though, as it's not clear at all (ambiguous at best, missing at worst) that if multiple linked subjects are hit by the same attack, everyone only gets hit once, no matter how many people fail their save.
Ex: Alice, Bob, Carol, and Dave are linked together and are hit by a 30 damage fireball. Alice and Bob both fail their saves, Carol succeeds, and Dave is out of the AoE entirely. The fireball deals 30 damage to everyone, as though they were all in the area and had each failed their saves. This would be the same no matter which or how many of Alice, Bob, and Carol failed their saves. If all three succeeded, they would take the reduced effect (15 damage) and Dave would be unaffected.
Fun tactic: Link an enemy with an ally, then bombard the ally with save-or-dies that she's immune to. Ally gives up her save, enemy dies w/ no save. Probably OP, needs adjusting.

Reason I asked about Grease and Icy Slick (among others) is they have no save - what they actually have is a Balance check. So would they echo through this ability? And that's the weakest interpretation of the ability, aside from the ally-bombing cheese - which would create a nasty jovoc bomb type scenario or a lot of DM arguments.

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Mystic Contrariness: Unlike Curse of Misfortune, this allows no saving throw. It can also remove functional capabilities if you target the right items (ex: disable wings of flying or a necklace of adaptation). If you or an ally has DR/magic, it becomes easy to make it useful simply by disabling magic weapons. Definitely more of an anti-PC curse, though, as monsters (and even humanoid enemies) are much less likely to use potent magic items. Also, it can be used to disable magic traps (no check, no rolls, just turn it off for 5 minutes).

But how does the PC know in-character what item does what? Certain ones (armour, weapons, staves) are obvious, but for an amulet? A ring? Is he whipping out identify mid-fight? This is where the ability falls down - it assumes OOC knowledge or luck to be most useful.

Quote
Dark Companion: Will remove the unnecessary verbiage. For the second part, unlike curse of misfortune, Dark Companion allows no saving throw, allowing you to reliably weaken an enemy's saves for any followup attacks. That's what it's about, making the subject unable to protect himself against any further attacks you want to throw at him. If he runs or hides, you can find him, or just throw spells through the link. Great for hit-and-run tactics.

What I'd love to see is an ability that allows your allies to cast down the DC link, because the Hexblade doesn't quite have enough of a punishing spell list to really take advantage of the opportunity.

Quote
Karmic Imbalance has been due for a replacement since before day 1. I just left it there because I know I want something but didn't have any ideas. Suggestions are welcome.

This is my collection of curses for Necromantic magic. The best curse as a suggestion is probably Attract or Decrepify.

Quote
The name's misleading in that HexBLADE implies some sort of melee weapon use, but that's a legacy thing. Curse range is 60 feet, so there's no strong reason not to use a ranged weapon from the back ranks. I'm also planning to add a feat or something for even longer curse range.

Well, somewhat. Except the class as it stands now has no out of combat utility at all, aside from Cha based party face, something that other characters are probably pretty good at too. So what it needs is to be really good at combat, and it's a bit weak for that as it stands.

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Not drawing AoOs from cursed enemies when casting is great for a class feature. Any idea what level it would be good at? Should it come at level 1, or maybe a little bit later? Certainly by level 7 at the absolute latest.

I'd probably slot it in at 2 or 3 - those levels are really dead and boring right now.

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I'm hoping to add some spell-curse synergy from the spell side of things (see Contagious Curse, and I'd like to add more spells like that). I just need the ideas first.

Spells that increase range, number of targets, uses, apply through weapon attacks, add rider effects to a curse, allow you to cast two curses at once, boost the damage/attack of people hitting a cursed creature, allow you to teleport a cursed creature to you/teleport to it, let you puppeteer it, makes it emit a smell like a ghast that affects its allies... those all came to mind right away as spells you could do.

Offline Garryl

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2015, 05:55:39 PM »
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Ill Tidings: Agreed, way too specific/situational, even for this sort of thing. It's designed to dispel sensory boosters, with the rest just tacked on. The intent is that cursed creature (the subject) has a 50% failure rate on auguries and divinations and contact other planes it uses. As a black cloud, though, it's useful defensively to protect from See Invisibility and True Seeing and the like. Got any suggestions?

Make them see two versions of the future, and generally choose the wrong action? Something like they're affected by illusions/cloud mind powers and can't always see where people are/are going to be.

Like a miniature Confusion effect? Or like concealment chance to miss sort of thing?

Quote
Quote
Chains of Adversity: Correct, no save against the normal version. If one guy is in the area of a Grease and fails his save, both of them fall prone. I need to rework the wording on this curse, though, as it's not clear at all (ambiguous at best, missing at worst) that if multiple linked subjects are hit by the same attack, everyone only gets hit once, no matter how many people fail their save.
Ex: Alice, Bob, Carol, and Dave are linked together and are hit by a 30 damage fireball. Alice and Bob both fail their saves, Carol succeeds, and Dave is out of the AoE entirely. The fireball deals 30 damage to everyone, as though they were all in the area and had each failed their saves. This would be the same no matter which or how many of Alice, Bob, and Carol failed their saves. If all three succeeded, they would take the reduced effect (15 damage) and Dave would be unaffected.
Fun tactic: Link an enemy with an ally, then bombard the ally with save-or-dies that she's immune to. Ally gives up her save, enemy dies w/ no save. Probably OP, needs adjusting.

Reason I asked about Grease and Icy Slick (among others) is they have no save - what they actually have is a Balance check. So would they echo through this ability? And that's the weakest interpretation of the ability, aside from the ally-bombing cheese - which would create a nasty jovoc bomb type scenario or a lot of DM arguments.

It only shares on a failed saving throw. Other rolls (like Balance checks) don't do anything. So if you fail the Reflex save when Grease is cast, your partner falls prone too, but if you just mess up the Balance check for walking through it, you're the only one who suffers. Likewise, effects with no save at all (Magic Missiles, Acid Arrow), grapple checks (Black Tentacles), ability checks (trip attempts), and so forth are not shared.

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Mystic Contrariness: Unlike Curse of Misfortune, this allows no saving throw. It can also remove functional capabilities if you target the right items (ex: disable wings of flying or a necklace of adaptation). If you or an ally has DR/magic, it becomes easy to make it useful simply by disabling magic weapons. Definitely more of an anti-PC curse, though, as monsters (and even humanoid enemies) are much less likely to use potent magic items. Also, it can be used to disable magic traps (no check, no rolls, just turn it off for 5 minutes).

But how does the PC know in-character what item does what? Certain ones (armour, weapons, staves) are obvious, but for an amulet? A ring? Is he whipping out identify mid-fight? This is where the ability falls down - it assumes OOC knowledge or luck to be most useful.

True, true. The same can be said of Dispel Magic targeted vs. items, but that's a secondary option that nobody ever uses (excepting Chain Spell to disable ALL the magic items), rather than the primary focus of the curse. Any ideas what to do about it? I love the concept of the curse (make magic items struggle against their wielders), but I agree that the execution requires too much metagame knowledge. Maybe some sort of creature-targeted version that disables magic weapons, armor, and shields in general, and gives a chance to fail to activate other magic items (triggered items don't respond, wands fizzle, potions refuse to flow out of their containers, etc.)?

Quote
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Dark Companion: Will remove the unnecessary verbiage. For the second part, unlike curse of misfortune, Dark Companion allows no saving throw, allowing you to reliably weaken an enemy's saves for any followup attacks. That's what it's about, making the subject unable to protect himself against any further attacks you want to throw at him. If he runs or hides, you can find him, or just throw spells through the link. Great for hit-and-run tactics.

What I'd love to see is an ability that allows your allies to cast down the DC link, because the Hexblade doesn't quite have enough of a punishing spell list to really take advantage of the opportunity.

Opening it up that much feels a little too open-ended for the base ability, but maybe as a feat or something? I'd been thinking of making a set of feats, one for each curse that empowers it in some way.

Quote
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Karmic Imbalance has been due for a replacement since before day 1. I just left it there because I know I want something but didn't have any ideas. Suggestions are welcome.

This is my collection of curses for Necromantic magic. The best curse as a suggestion is probably Attract or Decrepify.

Looking through them now, thanks.

Quote
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The name's misleading in that HexBLADE implies some sort of melee weapon use, but that's a legacy thing. Curse range is 60 feet, so there's no strong reason not to use a ranged weapon from the back ranks. I'm also planning to add a feat or something for even longer curse range.

Well, somewhat. Except the class as it stands now has no out of combat utility at all, aside from Cha based party face, something that other characters are probably pretty good at too. So what it needs is to be really good at combat, and it's a bit weak for that as it stands.

Not even from the spells? They don't have (nor should they) the widest selection of noncombat utilities available, but they have a good few, including Scrying, Identify, the Invisibility line, Contact Other Plane, and Phantom Steed from the original Complete Warrior Hexblade spell list. I'm open to suggestions of more noncombat spells that fit the class's theme to be added.

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2015, 07:09:29 PM »
Like a miniature Confusion effect? Or like concealment chance to miss sort of thing?

The closest effect to what I had in mind is that they see illusionary doubles of their opponents, but they aren't in the same square and the affected creature isn't sure which is which. Something similar to the image spells.

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It only shares on a failed saving throw. Other rolls (like Balance checks) don't do anything. So if you fail the Reflex save when Grease is cast, your partner falls prone too, but if you just mess up the Balance check for walking through it, you're the only one who suffers. Likewise, effects with no save at all (Magic Missiles, Acid Arrow), grapple checks (Black Tentacles), ability checks (trip attempts), and so forth are not shared.

Pity, but that's mechanically much easier than coping with all of the corner cases.

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True, true. The same can be said of Dispel Magic targeted vs. items, but that's a secondary option that nobody ever uses (excepting Chain Spell to disable ALL the magic items), rather than the primary focus of the curse. Any ideas what to do about it? I love the concept of the curse (make magic items struggle against their wielders), but I agree that the execution requires too much metagame knowledge. Maybe some sort of creature-targeted version that disables magic weapons, armor, and shields in general, and gives a chance to fail to activate other magic items (triggered items don't respond, wands fizzle, potions refuse to flow out of their containers, etc.)?

I tend to just do blanket suppression when dealing with magic items - trying to do a % based option results in a lot of recalculating at the table. But the other option I've used is that the enhancement bonus reverses - so a +3 becomes a -3 penalty to the same rolls. It's a pretty nasty penalty if you land it on a good piece of armour. Maybe have it for activated items the target is determined randomly among all legal targets rather than chosen by the wielder?

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Opening it up that much feels a little too open-ended for the base ability, but maybe as a feat or something? I'd been thinking of making a set of feats, one for each curse that empowers it in some way.

I think that would be a good thing, but it might also be a bit expensive in the feat department. Maybe a series of tactical/style feats that boost curse use slightly more generally?

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Not even from the spells? They don't have (nor should they) the widest selection of noncombat utilities available, but they have a good few, including Scrying, Identify, the Invisibility line, Contact Other Plane, and Phantom Steed from the original Complete Warrior Hexblade spell list. I'm open to suggestions of more noncombat spells that fit the class's theme to be added.

I'd honestly forgotten it had those utility spells on the list - I'd been going off memory and remembering them as more combat/curse focused. In general, a number of illusion spells (especially the phantasm and figment subschools), enchantment's compulsion subschool, and a number of Necromancy curses like Blood to Water, Choking Sands, Curse of Ill Fortune, and Ebon Ray of Doom would be appropriate.

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #11 on: December 03, 2015, 10:30:29 PM »
Added the Cursed Opportunity and Fortune's Foe class features. Hexblade's Curse gives knowledge of the curse. Curse of Stupor prevents knowledge of the curse if fascination is not broken. Chaotic Commands has an added effect against swarms and mobs. Chains of Adversity no longer triggers on voluntarily failed saves and states that an effect only affects each subject once. Rewrote Mystic Contrariness. Cleared up wording in Dark Companion. Rewrote Karmic Imbalance. Fixed the 1st-level spell list, which was accidentally copied from another class. Added seeming and teleport at 5th level. Added greater scrying, mislead, and veil at 6th level.

Current ideas for feats:
- Barbed Curses: Deal +1d6 precision damage per Hexblade's Curse affecting target.
- Black Fog: Black cloud curses impede sight for 1 round as fog cloud. You can still see clearly through them.
- Distant Hexblade's Curse: Curse range increases to 250 feet.
- Persistent Hexblade's Curse: Spend extra curse uses to increase duration to 1 day.
- Extra Hexblade's Curse: +4 uses/day of Hexblade's Curse.

Curse-specific booster feats (maybe as tactical feats so we can merge multiples together?):
- Curse of Malfeasance: Half of Curse of Misfortune penalty also applies to AC and SR.
- Suggestible Stupor: Make a suggestion to one foe dazed or fascinated by Curse of Stupor.
- Mass Suggestible Stupor: Make a mass suggestion to all foes fascinated by black cloud Curse of Stupor.
- Malign Commands: Victim of Chaotic Commands must attempt any attack of opportunity provoked. Victim's AoOs against your enemies do not count against per-round limit.
- Bonds of Adversity: Enemies linked by Chains of Adversity become entangled when not adjacent to one another.
- Cage of Adversity: Enemies linked by black cloud Chains of Adversity cannot leave the area unless ALL linked enemies succeed on a Will save.
- Mystic Opposition: Mystic Contrariness also requires a Will save or ALL magic items are disabled and activation failure chance increases to 100%.
- Dark Alliance: Dark Companion lets allies target victims of the curse through you.

Spell ideas
- Curse of Vulnerability: Subject is vulnerable (+50% damage taken) to physical (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing) damage.
- Curse of Energies: Subject is vulnerable (+50% damage taken) to energy (acid, cold, electricity, fire, sonic) damage.
- Curse of Agony: As symbol of pain, single target.
- Puppeteer's Curse: Control subject's body (similar to control body).
- Extract Curse: Remove a curse and store it in a bauble. Break the bauble within 1 day to release the curse on whatever the bauble struck.

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #12 on: December 09, 2015, 06:00:43 PM »
Added accursed glyph, corpse puppet, extract curse, Karrius infusion, mass corpse puppet, and puppeteer's curse spells.

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2015, 08:44:39 PM »
Puppeteer's Curse needs a few more pieces of information, namely, what's the action to concentrate, and how many attacks a round does a puppet get? Based on BAB or the creature's natural attack routine, for instance. Can you use a creature's special attacks, like rend or improved grab. Also, it might actually be a better buff spell than a curse, since you can now stack attack, AC, and damage bonuses all onto the same stat. A sorcerer could buff up with Divine Power and this, as an example for boosting their BAB and then sticking all their charisma into offense.

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #14 on: December 09, 2015, 09:43:00 PM »
Puppeteer's Curse needs a few more pieces of information, namely, what's the action to concentrate, and how many attacks a round does a puppet get? Based on BAB or the creature's natural attack routine, for instance. Can you use a creature's special attacks, like rend or improved grab. Also, it might actually be a better buff spell than a curse, since you can now stack attack, AC, and damage bonuses all onto the same stat. A sorcerer could buff up with Divine Power and this, as an example for boosting their BAB and then sticking all their charisma into offense.

Concentration is supposed to be like a concentration duration spell (a standard action each round). I'm amending the description to reference that, since it does not appear to be a general rule, only one for that type of duration.

Most of the text is copied straight form the Control Body power (Kineticist 4). The main changes are only controlling limbs (as opposed to the whole body), the ability to regain concentration if lost, and using Cha instead of Int.

Here's a partial revision to the spell to fix the ambiguities. Still considering how to handle the issue of the thing being used as a buff, and whether or not to restrict the puppeted character to a single action.

(click to show/hide)

Offline Stratovarius

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #15 on: December 11, 2015, 09:43:39 AM »
Okay, that revision fixes most of the issues.

As a minor nitpick, I'd avoid mentioning Initiating in there - you'll get into a mess of Ex vs Su strikes, and why is the Hexblade able to command a Girallon Windmill Flesh Rip when he doesn't know what it is (presumably).

Comments in bold
Current ideas for feats:
- Barbed Curses: Deal +1d6 precision damage per Hexblade's Curse affecting target. All allies of the Hexblade or just the Hexblade? Just the Hexblade seems too weak.
- Black Fog: Black cloud curses impede sight for 1 round as fog cloud. You can still see clearly through them. I like this one. Gives some BFC. Might be an "always take" feat though.
- Distant Hexblade's Curse: Curse range increases to 250 feet.
- Persistent Hexblade's Curse: Spend extra curse uses to increase duration to 1 day.
- Extra Hexblade's Curse: +4 uses/day of Hexblade's Curse.

Curse-specific booster feats (maybe as tactical feats so we can merge multiples together?):
- Curse of Malfeasance: Half of Curse of Misfortune penalty also applies to AC and SR.
- Suggestible Stupor: Make a suggestion to one foe dazed or fascinated by Curse of Stupor. I like this one.
- Mass Suggestible Stupor: Make a mass suggestion to all foes fascinated by black cloud Curse of Stupor. I can see this being a bit strong, I'm assuming it's locked behind the base feat?
- Malign Commands: Victim of Chaotic Commands must attempt any attack of opportunity provoked. Victim's AoOs against your enemies do not count against per-round limit. I would make them count - that way your allies can now move freely around once they know an enemy has used his AoO. Otherwise they can't.
- Bonds of Adversity: Enemies linked by Chains of Adversity become entangled when not adjacent to one another.
- Cage of Adversity: Enemies linked by black cloud Chains of Adversity cannot leave the area unless ALL linked enemies succeed on a Will save. Given this is a death sentence against any team with a good AoE attack, it's a bit much.
- Mystic Opposition: Mystic Contrariness also requires a Will save or ALL magic items are disabled and activation failure chance increases to 100%. A nice boost, although it might be considered too strong against Christmas Tree NPCs.
- Dark Alliance: Dark Companion lets allies target victims of the curse through you. I like.

Spell ideas
- Curse of Vulnerability: Subject is vulnerable (+50% damage taken) to physical (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing) damage. Maybe another curse/spell that doubles the impact of existing vulnerabilities as well?
- Curse of Energies: Subject is vulnerable (+50% damage taken) to energy (acid, cold, electricity, fire, sonic) damage.
- Curse of Agony: As symbol of pain, single target.
- Puppeteer's Curse: Control subject's body (similar to control body).
- Extract Curse: Remove a curse and store it in a bauble. Break the bauble within 1 day to release the curse on whatever the bauble struck. Can you store Black Cloud as a grenade-like?

Offline Garryl

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #16 on: December 11, 2015, 10:59:29 PM »
  • Typo fixes and rewording in Dark Companion. Dark Companion is now limited to spells with a cast time of 1 round or less.
  • Added azure bonds, curse of energies, curse of the black pearl, and curse of vulnerability. Extract curse now also works on area curses. Karrius infusion can be dismissed at any range. Clarified some things with puppeteer's curse.
  • Feats posted.

Okay, that revision fixes most of the issues.

As a minor nitpick, I'd avoid mentioning Initiating in there - you'll get into a mess of Ex vs Su strikes, and why is the Hexblade able to command a Girallon Windmill Flesh Rip when he doesn't know what it is (presumably).

Comments in bold
Current ideas for feats:
...

Spell ideas
...

Thanks for the feedback. Good ideas. I've included several of them. I might still go with your suggestion for Barbed Curses, but I already had the current version written (all curses, not just Hexblade's Curse, and without precision damage's limitations).


Offline Garryl

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Re: [Base Class] Hexblade
« Reply #17 on: December 13, 2015, 04:31:50 PM »
Added the Mystic Opposition feat and the Detect Curses spell, and changed Curse of Energies/Vulnerability to Evocation and Transmutation, respectively. That should be everything. I don't have any more Hexblade material planned.