I lowkey think armor of agathis is good for mid to melee range warlock as the damage scales with the temp hp. Meaning the damage for a 5th level cast is 25 no matter if you get hit with a 1 or 25 damage attack.
Hex can also target a monster's spellcasting ability; since counterspelling often calls for an ability check, you can kneecap one of your enemy's best defensive measures with a slot you spent four hours ago and recovered since.
@@adamsharp9081 how does that address his point? An enemy that only has a 3rd level counterspell to use on your 4th level spell is now rolling at disadvantage to counterspell.
@@lord6617 you only have 2 spell slots, you're still wasting one. its a bad spell even in the niche areas where the ability check might help slightly. it using concentration in particular is such a massive hindrance to a warlock who again only gets 2 spell slots for the majority of their adventure.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 Saying "you only have two spell slots" here is downright misrepresentation. The original comment here was specifically pointing out that hex can be cast and then continue to be used even after you've recovered your spell slots, so saying "you have only two spell slots" implies you've missed the point completely. Mentioning concentration is a very valid complaint about hex. If you're level 5 and have access to hypnotic pattern, this spell looks very unappealing, as using your best spell is incompatible with it. However the game doesn't end at level 5. Once you reach level 9 you can learn synaptic static (as the video points out) and that spell doesn't require concentration. On your first combat of the day, you can spend turn 1 casting hex (int) and eldritch blast on the strongest looking enemy, then casting synaptic static turn 2 to try and kill or debilitate the strongest enemy of the encounter. This is no doubt much worse than just casting synaptic static twice but the game doesn't end after the first encounter either. You may now do a short rest, recover both spell slots, and since you cast hex at 5th level you have almost 23 hours of hex concentration left, assuming you haven't failed a concentration save yet. You bow have access to hex, without using spell slots or casting spells. In your next encounter, you can bonus action hex, then synaptic static (both on turn 1 this time as using hex isn't a spell this time, then synaptic static again, that's really powerful. But this is still improvable. After finishing an eight hour long rest you can immediately look for a bug, then catch it, hex it, kill it, short rest. Your rest lasts nine hours instead of eight, but you go into the day already concentrating on hex, meaning you have an extra spell slot and you can hex turn 1 without having to wait to cast another spell. This may be gamey as hell, but unless you're playing a vegan warlock you can give enemies disadvantage on saving throws basically for free. Naturally this all falls apart if your best spell is or becomes concentration again or the situation calls for one, but since you're probably taking hex for the early game anyway, having the opportunity to pull stuff like this can be very impactful.
@@alienplatypus7712 you are right about most of your points, except it is ability CHECKS not saving throws. It might still be worth doing in the way you describe, but it will not make the enemy more vulnerable to the save for Synaptic Static.
I'm playing a fighter grappler currently. Multiclassed into a single level of genie warlock for the bonus damage bludgeoning and giving enemies disadvantage on resisting my shoves/grapples via hex.
Why give them disadvantage when you can just give yourself expertise on athletics with skill expert and advantage with Rune Knight(lv 3 Fighter includes Huge creatures) or any flavor Barbarian lv 1
@@adrianlevampiro4567 Sure if you're fighting 1off. If it came down to the choice tho I'd rather have advantage against against any target rather than disadvantage on 1.
Imposing disadvantage helps, but expertise + advantage will likely be sufficient most of the time. The issue with dipping on a fighter is missing out on that fourth attack (especially if you grapple with both hands). That said, genielock is a nice dip for a lot of builds.
I thought about it giving it a Fighter. Even with only one Extra Attack that will turn to 4d6 with Action Surge when you Hit of course. I am not sure if it works, but with the Great Weapon fighting style you can re-roll all 1s and 2s. Not sure if that counts with the Hex or not, but giving Hex to a martial Fighter who doesn't need to concentrate on something else, even at higher levels, over multiple rounds the d6 damage rolls would stack up quite good. ...though, now I want it to give someone disadvantage for Initiative Rolls.
@@Ocker3 The casting of any spell should be enough to trigger initiative in the first place, unless you’re hidden. In which case casting the spell would reveal you. So good for an ambush, I suppose?
@@Ocker3 In my games I rule that any spell is enough to trigger initiative, since in a tense situation the other side doesn’t _know_ what you’re casting. Anything with somatic or verbal components anyways. If you want Shield of Faith or Mage Armour, make sure you have it up ahead of time. But also my players have ridiculously high perception so they’re rarely caught in a fight without time to prepare, lol.
I took this for my Dimir Ravnica Warlock, I never used it in combat. My character was built around being deceptive so I would always cast it on NPCs before we would talk to them and give them disadvantage on Wisdom checks so there insight would suffer. That spell was clutch in several different social encounters
The ability to make a target instantly shitty at something is very nice. The easy one is to pick Str or Dex to help the party's barbarian suplex an ogre. I hadn't even considered the social aspect of it all. Subtle Spell lets you sneaky it, iirc.
@@Ninjat126 aberrant mind sorcerer can have it from lvl 1 and can subtle it for free at lvl 6 and above highly recommend aberrant mind is probably the best social class in the game you can easily break social encounters in multiple ways casting hex without vsm for 1 sp is just the tip of the iceberg
@@nebei3740 It seems much stronger on a sorcerer than a warlock at high levels, since the sorcerer can much more easily throw away early spells. Also any sorcerer might want to consider a dip into Warlock anyway, because Agonizing Eldritch Blast is such a powerful way to dish out tons of damage in combat without expending any spells, and you can get it in several ways. A 2-level Warlock dip, 2 feats, or one feat and one level
@@astuteanansi4935just to nitpick, 2 feats with no levels in Warlock wouldn't work, since Agonizing Blast has a prerequisite which Eldritch Adept doesn't allow if you're not a warlock.
Minor note: Hex with wisdom disadvantage can reduce passive perception checks or make active ones harder. Perfect for helping your party rogue sneak about in combat (assuming they’re not using steady aim)
The hex effect has a fairly long duration at 1 hour. The bonus action to move the effect to another creature after a target dies doesn’t have to be done immediately, so it can be moved to the next creature after time passes without even having to cast it around the creature. This would not be a perceivable effect.
I find hex to be a valuable spell because of its duration. From 5th level onwards, you're always casting it at 3th level, which means that you can mantain it active for 8 hours. That's most adventuring days, and you can do multiple short rests while still concentrating on it. When you play a class that only has 2 spell slots per short rest until 11th level, that is big. If you want damage, assuming you don't lose concentration, hex can grant you up to 2d6 extra damage every turn for the whole day.
Don't forget, readying an action to cast EB breaks concentration on hex. A minor detail, but important for Warlocks who love to ready EB while adventuring.
does no one take short rests? i can’t imagine an adventuring day where i’d want to use my concentration on a first level spell just because it lasts a long time. my tables usually take a short rest every two to three encounters or so, which means i rarely need my spell to last more than an hour if it’s going to go for multiple fights. at that point use summon shadowspawn or summon fey for more damage and another body on the field.
until you mentioned it, i misunderstood the duration mechanic for hex. i hadn't considered the wording properly and it hadn't occurred to me that it can persist between battles. thanks for clearing that up
@@littlecow2000 not awful at all. understanding concentration rules helps to prevent casters from being too broken. If you are loose with concentration rules a cleric will DESTROY the balance of your game.
I grabbed it as part of the Fey Touched feat on my Monk. Hex works really well when you are doing 3 hits per round, and it upped my Wisdom score, and the disadvantage to ability checks when you want to throw people around is a fun bonus.
I'm planning to play an astral self monk with good stats who'll be partly built around grappling anad shoving, and I'm taking Fey Touched for this exact reason +11 Wisdom (Athletics) at level 5 is gonna be crazy.
For real. I'm going with a Sun Soul monk, so I'm covering my range, and Hex is going to cripple spellcasters' ability score. Plus I'm doing an extra bit of damage 2-3 times a turn, with a damage type I won't get elsewhere. Not much damage, sure, but the versatility it gives to anyone taking Fey Touched is nice. I really think this works best for classes who aren't getting spells at all, like Monks and Fighters. Kind of disappointed that he didn't cover Fey Touched's application to other classes.
My monk is a hexblood drunken master with shadow touched feat ( invisibility + inflicting wounds) I deal 6d10 ( inflicting wounds)+ flurry of blows ( 1d8 +8) + 1d6 necrotic from hex
3:39 A point to remember for Armor of Agathys is that warlock spells upcast automatically. That, and AoA is not concentration. At 1st level, yeah, it sucks (though extra HP helps a lot more, and 5 damage might be enough to finish off whatever enemy hit you). But by 9th+ level, it's giving you 25 temp HP and dealing 25 damage each time you get hit. The best time to cast it is when faced with a horde of weaker creatures, namely those who will die from the retaliatory damage and won't quickly deplete that temp HP. Cast it and run past some gobbos to provoke OAs from them, and kill 5 or 6 of them for the cost of a single action. Against heavier hitting monsters, or monsters who rely on ranged attacks, this spell gives a lot less value.
I always shop for the non-Concentration spells. Totally agree about AoA being the bomb against a weenie horde, whereas against a giant it's really only one hit.
A fun alternative is starting off as a class proficient in heavy armor like paladin and then taking 9 levels as a warlock (maybe some patron enticed your character to leave the faith). Then you can take heavy armor master to extend how many hits will result in enemies taking cold damage since most melee is bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. You can do this without multiclassing if you're a conquest paladin. But it'll take way longer to max the damage as a half caster. It's still pretty nice at level 3 if you take the feat as a variant human, though. You can even cast compelled duel with it.
@@probablyprocrastinating59 You could also dip a few levels barbarian, bear totem gives quite a few resistances, and you can always drop rage when you run out of temp HP to switch back. Plus the unarmored defence would help AC
I have a rather unorthodox bladelock build that combines Armor of Agathys and Dark One's Blessing (obv not at the same time) with Barbarian resistances to give you a rather good level of sustain, along with a good amount of flexibility in that you still have options while out of rages or spell slots. Battlefield control when you need it, damage resistance when you don't, that's how I play it. Plus having access to counterspell against enemy casters, better saving throws then your typical barb, and invocations to really flesh out your options... Yeah, this gets rediculous pretty quickly, comes online early (just stick to Warlock until level 5 for Thirsting Blade, and then jump off for Barbarian just when things start getting more challenging), and the piece de resistance: Combining a Lifedrinker GWM at advantage with Reckless, Eldritch Smite, and Hurl Through Hell all in a single blow that can do upwards of around 120 damage without even critting, all the while removing a threat from the fight for a round and setting up for a massive nova of held actions when they return. As for Armor of Agathys... That 25 thp goes a lot further when you have Rage, so casting that, then raging, when you're surrounded by foes or facing extra attacks, is considerable. Then you apply roughly 20 thp whenever something dies to one of your attacks-- which with your damage numbers happens frequently-- then you're looking at sustain out the butt. Bonus Points if you reflavor your patron as the Grim Reaper and take Zealot Barb for a radiant/necrotic life/death duality. Personally love making this with a Reborn for flavor
The main use for armor of agathys is making abjuration wizard into a tank. Start with fighter or artificer for Con save proficiency and either second wind and a fighting style, or tools and spells. Then take one level of celestial warlock for cure wounds, AoA, and the warlock version of second wind. Then go abjuration wizard the rest of the way. Upcast AoA with wizard slots and the abjuration ward and you quickly get the same of more HP as barbarians.
Something I would enjoy in your videos is delineating between "Optimal", "Effective", and "Not Effective". You don't have to be the best, to be good. And I think that's a niche you could fulfill with your channel. Provide content that says "This is the optimal choice. But here are some other choices that are also effective compared to actual trap choices." Where a trap choice is one that brings the character's effectiveness in combat low enough that they're a detriment to the average party. i.e. going below what you might consider a Warlock's baseline damage per round.
Yea, hex is in no way a trap, and the whole 'warlock is not a damage dealer' when their best subclasses focus on blasting and spellsword/blasting damage boosting and their invocations having so many that focus on a single damage dealing cantrip making it pretty damn obvious they ARE meant to be magical damage dealers with *some* utility, like a draconic sorcerer or evocation wizard, damaging spells is priority number 1 and utility is secondary, unlike bards and druids who are all about utility first. Also, saying it's 'only baseline' is misleading. Hex is being factored into warlock baseline *because it's worth taking as a reliable booster to your baseline*. It is literally a spell that increases damage, counting it as baseline is skewing the math against it. The true baseline would be pure eldritch blast with no invocations or hex added
@@torunsmok5890 The reason it's baseline is that it's also the ONLY thing of worth at low levels. As mentioned in the video, except in very specific circumstances, it is the ONLY level 1 spell you should be casting, not because it's that amazing, but because everything else is just about useless. Their best subclasses that "focus" on blasting have far better options for concentration. Celestial has flaming sphere, archfey has faerie fire, hexblade has smite spells and eldritch smite, dao has spike growth, etc. All things that do far more than 1d6 damage per hit on a single target, and generally have better utility than disadvantage on a single ability score. And, again, as stated in the video, there are MYRIAD better options at higher levels for every subclass and pact. Shadow of Moil or Spirit Shroud come to mind if you just want to be a eldritch blaster. Adding a mere 2 damage per hit is pretty damned lame by comparison to Moil's permanent advantage and defenses or Shroud's SIX damage a hit, literally triple hex's average damage for the same spell slot. That's the point of calling it a trap. It's an utterly "just fine" spell, but so many warlocks cast it in every possible situation at every possible level because they think that "hex is so good" or somehow class defining. And the reason they call it baseline, again, as said in the video, is that anyone that focuses on damage should be ABSOLUTELY able to do better than eldritch blast and hex. It's the bare minimum dpr to call oneself a damage dealer, not anything special. That's before noting that almost all the warlock multiclass dips, especially the damage dealing ones, use the pact slots for something else aside from spells entirely, i.e. short rest regenerating divine smites or sorcery points.
Sure at lvl one it's nice, but when you get second lvl slots you have some better options already and the opportunity cost of hex gets progressively worse with each spell lvl
I agree that Hex is fairly strong at low level. D10 vs D10+D6 is a pretty significant difference. As you go up in levels though, the strength of a warlock moves more and more towards control over damage. You bring up Shield and Sleep as good first level spells, but like with Hex, not sure I would be spending pact slots once they can cast higher level spells (especially 3+). The spells known list of a 9th or 10th level warlock should pretty much be 3-5 level spells.
I often feel like I can maybe squeeze one short rest between long rests, so grabbing a long duration spell that I can keep applying is fairly nice. I still agree however that it's worse of if you don't have pact of the blade and thirsting blade, but if you do, that additional bonus helps. Especially if you're a Hexblade with both, being able to save your other slots for shield can be pretty crucial. It gets even better if you have a party member in melee with you that has the shield matter feat and then you can help by targeting the enemy's strength, to more easily knock them prone. If you don't, targeting intelligence, wisdom, or charisma can help if counterspell antics are abound
My Hexblade Warlock has been using Hex as my main concentration spell at level 9ish to a pretty reliable effectiveness. Once it's upcast to 5th level, it stays active pretty much the entire adventuring day. I can start out with Armor of Agathys and Hex, fight through most of the encounters, still using short rests and never losing the temp HP or dropping Hex. The only times I ever break the spell are for defensiveness (I use Armor of Agathys + Shadow of Moil in harder fights). My Warlock also happens to have a Rapier of Wounding. If the enemy makes a wisdom (medicine) check, they can clear the wounds I've stacked on them. The fact that Hex will make them less likely to get rid of the wounds helps me ramp up damage against harder enemies. I'm easily one of the highest sustain damage characters in our party.
High-level tactics the spell can be useful. It bypasses saving throws so you can, for example, cast it on Orcus and your simulacrum (or another party caster) uses telekinesis to take his wand as he makes his checks at disadvantage until it is yours. Just one example, but you can see bypassing saving throws for many spells that use ability checks like counterspell, detect thoughts, etc. can be useful.
I think you actually got it right; Hex IS a trap. However, it's not a trap because it's sub-optimal. It's a trap because people don't understand Why it's optimal, and how to make it useful. 1.) It doesn't only cast as a bonus action, it also Moves on a bonus action; Meaning that, once cast, you can move it on your turn and cast another fully leveled spell. 2.) The duration is unmatched. It holds concentration, but what else are you concentrating on? If your DM allows holding concentration through rests, this spell is essentially free damage for the rest of the day after the first casting; At high enough levels, you can even use it on a squirrel before bed and hold it for the majority of the following adventuring day. 3.) Disadvantage on ability checks is actually quite relevant, because almost every party will have at least one character who can benefit from it. Figure out who it is, assign your Hex to give disadvantage on that check, and it's a constant bonus for that party member. 4.) Hex applies its damage to All attack roles, not just eldritch blast. This combos quite nicely with Scorching Ray as well as Hexblade builds. 5.) Hex deals Necrotic damage, a damage type that is quite rare to see resistance or invulnerability to. 6.) It's not Just warlocks that can take this spell. Bards can also get access to it, as well as anyone willing to spend a feat on magic initiate. Anyone with lower-level slots to spend on it will find it a valid option for those first level slots, and I've seen more than a few fighter builds that can make use of it on a set-up turn to gain a good deal of extra damage. If your DM likes putting distance between you and your targets on the first round of combat, maximizing your set-up turns can be a major benefit and Hex has more than enough range to allow for that. These are many of the reasons this spell is actually quite optimal. However, a careful eye will note that many of these reasons don't always apply, and don't generally revolve around it being an optimal source of damage. As many people take it to be a source of damage for them, that makes it a trap. It appears optimal-because it can be-but ultimately isn't optimal for the reasons people often take it. It's not 'wrong' to take this spell. However, people should carefully consider when and how they use it, and most usually don't.
Glad someone else notices this. I like getting it through the feat for my wizard and smacking them with magic missile. 100% acc under 90% on conditions (counters being shield, counterspell or a Brooch of Shielding) giving each of those 1d4 +1 missiles an extra 1d6. That makes a lvl 3 magic missile go from a 5d4 +5 (or a 10-25 output) to a 5d4 +5 with 5d6 (or a 15-55 damage).
@@DamianDoran That wouldn't work; Magic missile isn't an 'attack' and thus doesn't trigger hex damage. In 5e, to be an 'attack,' as opposed to a spell that does damage, then the spell must make an 'attack role.' Magic missile doesn't roll for an attack, it just selects targets and hits them. Much the same way a fireball doesn't roll to hit, and doesn't gain any bonus from Hex, neither would magic missile. Scorching ray would gain the bonus, and in fact works quite well as it means a spell that usually does 2d6/spell level above base as its max damage now does 3d6/spell level above base as its max damage. Again; Good example of why Hex is a trap. Great spell, people understand the idea, they just don't quite understand the proper function.
Thank you, I was going to write this but you already have. In particular the point about it having a very long duration at higher levels and being able to maintain concentration through a short rest(confirmed by Crawford). It’s a “free” spell for a class that almost always has only two casts before resting.
@@Necroes I'd say that, if your DM allows for Concentration to carry through rests, they would likely be flexible to allow the damage to trigger off of Magic Missile. Then again, I don't allow concentration through rests; resting is supposed to be all about relaxing, physically as well as mentally, while a spell that requires concentration... well, kinda prevents that. It's murky waters, but when I DM, that's my ruling. I do agree on basically every other point you made though.
You mentioned the two purposes of Hex: to add some damage at Tier 1 levels (level 1 to 4) and to combine with a party member that really wants to land spells that check on abilities or to grapple an enemy. But like ALL low-level Warlock spells, you should be swapping them out for HIGHER level Warlock spells on every level-up. There's ZERO reason to keep casting level 1 spells with a level 5 Pact Slot except in the the most unusual circumstances. I personally almost never go 20 straight levels of Warlock, preferring to instead take my favorite one-level dip: Cleric. That gives me access to Bless, which I would ALWAYS cast over Hex because I like hitting my target and making my saving throws.
Some spells upcast well, so casting them using a higher slot makes sense. Hex greatly extends the duration, making it last all day with a 5th level slot. Is that worth giving up your concentration? I don't think so, but someone else might. Some spells are also strong enough that even if they don't upcast at all, it might be worth keeping them on your warlock. Fireball, for example, or several utility spells, such as Fly. Or, as you point out, Bless (obtainable by dipping or via Fey Touched). With a 5th level slot, Bless can affect the whole party, plus a few mounts, pets, hirelings, and/or familiars.
@@Greywander87 Bless is always good, but typically you access it with a one-level dip in Cleric, and you can cast it with a Cleric slot. Generally, you don't really need to hit more than 3 people: yourself (ALWAYS yourself) and the two most potent damage dealers. Fireball and other blast spells drop off really hard and are rarely worth up-casting. It's fine to keep it on your spell list since, if you have it, you are likely Fiend Pact and it's going to be really the only blast option you get (Flame Strike is just worse, in general), but that doesn't mean it's going to be a great use of a pact slot to throw our 10d6 damage (an average of 40 damage) when you could use that slot for what the Warlock is really good at: battlefield control. In the end, it's your character, of course. But in general I find that it's best to use a Warlock's limited spells known to ensure you have the most powerful options at your disposal. Oh, another advantage of that one-level Cleric dip: you can cast Hex with a 1st-level Cleric slot, saving your Pact Magic for better spells. You can't always count on that short rest, after all.
You can also get hex, bless, and command with fey touched, which is great for post tier 2 play, because you don't have to burn a high level pact slot. Hex is great low tier play and multiclassed warlocks. It's definitely not a trap, it just depreciates with pure build locks.
@@hopeforescape884 You don't get the saving throw proficiencies if you subclass in something, and I'm not typically going to make my subclass a level 1 dip because it screws with backstory and character concept. Also, getting free armor proficiency is really powerful with a Cleric dip, and that's typically the reason I take it. Divine Soul is still a very strong choice, from a mechanical standpoint. So is Bard, as Bardic Inspiration is fantastic and scales in use with Charisma; Bard makes an excellent two-level dip for Jack of All Trades as well.
@@christopherprice9989 It's astonishingly simple. All you need to be is a 7th level Warlock. Pick up the Find Familiar and Hex spells in any way you like (really the best way would just be the Pact of the Chain, that way you can choose an Imp with invisibility and a flying speed) Then for your 7th level you can pick up Relentless Hex as the prerequisite only says that you need Hex OR a warlock feature that curses. At the start of the day or before a short rest, you simply cast Hex on your familiar (at this point it lasts for 8 hours) and for as long as your concentration lasts, you can then teleport next to your familiar as a bonus action. You can even combo this further by using your action to look through your familiar's eyes if it's behind a wall. And if you're a Genie Warlock, you can even have your familiar invisibly!!! carry around your home with you (and at later levels the entire party) inside. Generally the Pact of the Chain is pretty underrated in utility, you could also use your familiar as an infinite range walkie talkie or as the source of some pretty nasty poison.
I don’t use Hex with warlocks. It’s great for other classes. Take the magic initiate feat for extra damage for fighters and rogues. Monks get 1d6 extra damage for all their attacks. Hex is a great spell if you use it in the right way.
Hex is good with Magic Initiate because you don't need a good spellcasting modifier. Doesn't matter if your Charisma is trash. Hex has no attack roll and no saving throw. Just automatic damage.
@@damobeck1 it isn't an amazing bonus, thats the point. did you watch the video even? the math on the damage it adds does not change regardless of what types of attacks your making. in particular its a MASSIVE waste of a feat/asi when just boosting stats is more impactful and things like great weapon master sharpshooter cross bow expert pole arm master and for spell casters specifically mage slayer exist already
Hex is still pretty useful at high levels. Hex is still a debuff spell that you can use without a saving throw. It allows you to give enemies disadvantage on strength checks which helps strength players like barbarian or any spellcaster that can cast Telekinesis against enemies with Legendary resistance. Also in terms of damage, it can still be useful to the new Undead Warlock, at level 6 ability doubles (2d6) hex damage.
@@imhulki463 This is the skill that boosts hex damage for Undead Warlock Grave Touched At 6th level, your patron’s powers have a profound effect on your body and magic. You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe. In addition, once during each of your turns, when you hit a creature with an attack and roll damage against the creature, you can replace the damage type with necrotic damage. While you are using your Form of Dread, you can roll one additional damage die when determining the necrotic damage the target takes.
@@imhulki463 The wording is that, while under the form of dread, necrotic damage gets +1 damage dice. changing the attack to necrotic is a separate part of the ability. This is my interpretation of the wording due to the lack of conjunction between the sentences, but I could be wrong.
@@drahcir7x23 I'm sorry but no, there isn't two segments to this feature. Read it like this : When you deal damage with an attack, you can once per turn change the damage type to necrotic AND IF you are using your form of dread, that instance of damage gets a bonus of one additional damage dice. I can understand where the confusion comes from but sadly, since Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Class features usually works in such a way that they can be used only once per turn, much to the dismay of my player and his rune knight fighter.
So, I was playing a celestial warlock in one of my games, and the other players were wondering why I was using flaming sphere instead of hex at 5th level. I simply told then if I use my action to cast a healing spell Hex is useless, and if I use eldritch blast their is a chance I'll miss one or both of them giving me only 1d6 or no damage. Meanwhile, if I use a 3rd level flaming sphere even if the enemy doesn't end their turn within 5 feet of it I can deal 3d6 damage with a dex save for half regardless of whether I use eldritch blast, and if the enemy does end its turn within 5ft of the flaming sphere they take a total of 6d6 damage with two dex save for half each effecting 3d6 damage each. When casted at 5th level your flaming sphere does 5d6 damage dex save for half on collision, and another 5d6 damage dex save for half on any enemy that ends its turn within 5ft of the flaming ball of death.
Even if you can't get the additional damage from an enemy standing within 5ft of your flaming ball of death they are going to take an opportunity attack if they dash away or they are going to take the disengage action in which case you'll ram into them next round, and regardless of that they are going to be wasting their action not attacking you unless they have a movement speed higher than 30ft in which case you can reduce their speed by 10ft with an invocation and eldritch blast making very few monsters capable of properly avoid this combo.
@@99sonder Indeed that is why whenever I play a warlock I always end up using summons because they end up being the most effective damage wise. Additionally, if you get your wizard to pick up the catnap spell you can take a short rest in 10 minutes which is even easier if you have a genies vessel because your familiar just hides in the corner somewhere till you finish. I personally advise a weasel for this if you don't have pact of the chain because they have a burrow speed so they can hide in a hole where no enemies can reach them.
Flaming Sphere does conflict with your BA heal (but then Celestial also buffs fire damage). So that's something to consider. BA opportunity cost can be an issue for some builds, but there is an advantage in having options on what to use your BA for. You probably don't use your BA heal that much (at least, if your Flaming Sphere is out), but when you really need it you don't mind spending your BA to heal instead of on your Flaming Sphere.
My favorite use of hex was on an Unarmed Fighting Rune Knight focused on grapples. Made it really easy to grapple when I had advantage, and they had disadvantage with no save. Damage was okay, but when you can punch someone 4x a turn for 2d8+3d6+1d4+7, another d6 is just a drop in the bucket.
One thing with Hex is that the Warlock recovers spell slots on a short rest, which is normally FAR under the duration of higher level castings of it. 3rd/4th level slot ups it to 8 hours, meaning it's up for quite some time, and higher than that, you've got it until the next long rest. It becomes an all day bonus there if you have other options for your concentration there.
Honestly, I start to respect AoA. Cause nowadays I see warlocks as less as full casters and more like the gish classes like Paladin and Rangers. If you got Hexblade you also have better armor options to reinforce that notion.
> I see warlocks as less as full casters and more like the gish classes like Paladin and Rangers I'd agree with this. Though as always Warlock's power (and level of caster) relies on how many short rests you expect. But yeah, they get similar options for (resource-light) DPR that are better than full casters who have crappy firebolt cantrip damage, but not on the level of the actual DPR classes of rogue, fighter, barbarian etc. And their casting can be potent just as a paladin's bless or smites can, but it isn't as reliable as a cleric's or wizard's is.
@@Kurse_of_Kall The short rest dependence can be really irritating. In a party with other "I want short rests" type characters like the monk or fighter it's not too bad. Otherwise I think it often comes off as player whinging. Also, the reality is that many adventures really aren't going to have six to eight mini encounters with a few short rests sprinkled in. WotC was just plain old wrong in their assumptions.
You didn't address the additional Eldritch Invocations that enhance Hex. Maddening Hex is good when you don't have any other uses for your BA and that's at least a little more guaranteed damage. Relentless Hex is good for melee builds such as the Hexblade. Before you mention Hexblade's Curse, keep it mind you only get it once per rest, so if there's another enemy you need to pin down, Hex them and use Relentless to close the gap quicker. Alright, with that out of the way, lemme just mention my other thoughts about Hex. I currently have the privilege of playing a level 17 pure warlock (Undead pact best, fite me). I found that, as I leveled up, I was naturally casting Hex less and less. I was instead using my concentration on spells like Greater Invis, Enervation, and Hold Monster. Even then, once I hit level 14, I was foregoing those in favor of Spirit Projection, which eats up concentration anyway (I think that's stupid, but okay WIzards). My point is, many warlocks (who don't rely on Maddening/Relentless for their build) will eventually learn to stop casting Hex naturally. Was this video good advice? Yes, it's a further incentive to use the spell more sparingly. PS: If you doubt the warlock's DPR, you haven't seen one who's been given an Illusionist's Bracers. That shit's scary.
You mention that relentless hex is good for hexblades, but the synergy with the spell isn't necessary on hexblades. Relentless hex works on hexblades curse you don't need the hex spell. Maddening hex on the other hand is something that more than just hexblades consider. So let's consider it. It's a bonus action to do damage, and the target took a bonus action to have hex on him, that turn prior was hex first then eldritch blast, the turn then is eldritch blast then maddening hex, so the target will take 2 full turns of hex eldritch blast damage before they take any damage from maddening hex at all, if they're alive at after all that plus the warlocks allies. When they do die the problem repeats itself. How long is a target expected to live? How often do you move it? Madening hex may do 5 damage true with no save, but the DPR is still low because so few turns of your action economy are actually spent doing maddening hex damage. If you are considering either, consider them on a hexblade when hexblades curse can be used. Hexblades curse is good unlike hex. And these invocations struggle to compete with seeing through magical darkness created by hungar of hadar or darkness, or a cloak of flies if you are in melee, since that doesn't take any action economy to do it's 5 foot range 5 damage. And it certainly doesn't compete with the damage you can concentrate on by repelling blast people through, or lance of lethargy people in environmental hazards which you might create yourself with such spells as hungar of hadar or wall of fire or spike growth or black tentacles depending on subclass which actually out DPR hex. maddening hex included! It's a poor investment into damage when you could be improving both your utility, defenses control AND damage by an even larger margin with a more powerful versatile invocation and spell combo! In short: Maddening hex improves the DPR of hex by a margin smaller than another invocation can improve the DPR of another spell or tactic.
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar nb maddening hex also damages any targets of your choice within 5 feet of the hexed monster; that doesn't make it good, but it's worth factoring in
@@forfaerghus8092 at that point you are investing into a situation far too specific for one of your limited spells known, I’d generally recommend a way of closing the distance that doesn’t itself require 2 bonus actions per enemy you want to approach, one to apply and one to close, because in 2 rounds you can usually get to most enemies. especially when you can get misty step or far step which doesn’t have to wait the turn you apply it before you can teleport and isn’t restricted to towards your opponent. You lose out on some dpr. But gain considerably more maneuverability and save a invocation. You might also consider the extra speed you get from fly, or if you insist on an invocation eldritch pull pulls each hit. Especially when you are a hex blade there are more invocations worth getting than you can ever dream of having and spending 2 turns to be able to teleport next to a creature is clunky and awkward. Hex has a range of 60 feet and it takes two turns to teleport you can head 60 feet in that time so you need only worry about using it if in combinations with the environment flight or a target running away, but in such situations isn’t fly going to be better? Or dimensions door? Or far step or something? We would you set up a way to teleport to a target two turns walking distance away from you that itself takes 2 turns to preform? Hex blades curse is 1/sr but that’s still every other combat
Id like to point out that if we are comparing the damage effectiveness of this 1 slot/bonus action when compared to others, the total damage for the entire battle should be considered. It doesn't just do 2.3 average damage once, it does 6.9 average damage over a 3 round encounter. At level 5, that ups to 13.8. Which isn't much, but it isn't like there are a lot of other spells that can deal that much with a BA or 25+ average damage with an action (adjusted for 65% accuracy) at that level.
the fact that they adjusted it to DPR already does this. Damage Per Round is a standardized metric that measures the effective damage a given strategy, build, or combo deals compared to the amount of effort and time it takes you to pull it off. This is actually more useful, as we can't actually control for how long a fight is going to be outside of generalization, but we -can- control for efficient use of resources on a per-turn basis, because whether the fight lasts one turn or 100 turns, the build/strategy/combo that pulls off the highest DPR will on average end up with the highest total damage, because it compounds linearly over time.
@@aidenbaloca8534 No, on account of it's not an attack since you don't make an attack roll. To be less of a pedantic ass and answer the question you were probably asking, each magic missile die is a separate instance of damage yes. It's what makes MM so good at breaking concentration. No matter what your mod is, roll enough and you'll eventually fail.
@@aidenbaloca8534 "damages with an attack" feels like something some DMs might call that out on, 'If you aren't making an attack roll it's not an attack' sort of thing. So maybe.
And saying that you shouldn't use it at every encounter like most warlocks do is like saying you shouldn't use fairy fire at every encounter, but fairy fire is more obvious
I find the disadvantage on ability check makes hex a great spell to pick up for a martial class through a feat. Though it is weird that the poster spell for warlocks scales so terribly with their spellcasting.
@@MethosJK9 I've seen it do some fantastic work on an assassination rogue. Choose wisdom to debuff their perception checks, crit sneak attack with 2d6 extra necrotic damage and then rinse and repeat. It won't work for every bandit stronghold but it'll work on a decent number.
To list a number of superior options to Hex at various levels, available to Warlocks: Magic Stone: Bonus action damage cantrip, 1d6+mod per attack. Three attacks at maximum. Hand these out to NPC hirelings, Tiny Servants or whatever the party has. Bless: A 1-level dip in Divine Soul gives you a DPR boost better than Hex when you look at the whole party, factoring in the opportunity cost of not EBing that round. Phantasmal Force, when used to make something that obscures enemy line of sight and deals 1d6 damage, deals around 12 damage(party deals baseline damage). Shatter does more in one round than Hex in four versus three targets. Opportunity cost of not EBing included. Tasha summons do better damage and have special abilities. Summon Lesser Demons has abyssal chickens, throw them in a fog cloud(they have blindsight) and they do almost as much damage in one round as Hex does in a day! Fiend gets Fireball which is of course insane, even upcast Shatter outperforms. Level 4 spells, Summon Greater Demon gives two melee bruisers in the form of Barlglura and Tanarukk. There's also upcasting Tasha summons for 2 attacks. Level 5 spells, Danse Macabre is absolutely glorious with Magic Stone, it's basically the Warlock's Animate Objects but even better and ranged! Upwards of 40DPR while Hex is doing 4.9. Then there's Synaptic which is Fireball damage with a glorious condition applied on top. Hex lul.
> Bless You don't need to dip anything. Fey-touched lets you choose any 1st-level Enchantment spell. Bless is Enchantment. Edit: On that note, this also means anyone - even a Fighter - can get Hex/Hunter's Mark, since both are Enchantment.
Your comment is a bit of a roller-coaster of good and bad ideas. Magic Stone is unreliable as it requires minions. You simply don't have enough cantrip choices to justify taking it at 1st. Even later they are just too easy to kill. Bless is amazing but there's a whole video on that. Phantasmal Force is amusing but you never count damage dealt by allies in a spell you cast. Control is always good however. Shatter is good as you mention. Obviously summons are great at both dealing damage and protection as any damage they take is hopefully damage that your party doesn't. This point holds up. Danse Macabre is unreliable, it requires humanoid corpses. At least that is solvable in most adventures since your killing things, at last your Magic Stone is finally useful now that your 9th level... Even better it falls apart if your not killing humanoids. At least it lasts an hour? However it's foolish to take something unreliable over something good like Synaptic Static. Honestly its likely better to cast Summon Undead (Skeleton) over Danse Macabre, at least you can guarantee you can use it.
8:18 a good option for hex would be Wisdom checks for if you have a rogue in your party since having disadvantage on their perception checks will subtract their passive perception by -5 which is what a rogue's stealth check needs to beat in order to be hidden and then disadvantage if they use their action on their turn to make a perception check
when i first read Hex, i made the mistake thinking "disadvantage on ability checks" was the same as "disadvantage on saving throws". I thought i could hex their wisdom saves to make other spells more likely to land. . .and it doesn't work that way. ability checks are like, if you want to jump across a pit or keep from slipping on ice, and i realize, that's not quite so useful in midcombat when you are trying to damage the eemy down. but on the same grain, extra damage is extra damge , no? it's better than witch bolt, because wotch bolt requires an attack roll to hit and IF your witch bolt lands, you pretty much can't do anything else as long as you maintain it and when the target dies, the spell ends, you can't move it to another target like you can with hex. i do agree with the argument to swap it out when you reach higher levels and gain access to better options
Thing is, Hex's greatness isn't from the extra damage. It's for disadvantage. A target does not know it's been hexed. Need to lie to an npc, hex their Wisdom. Now they roll Insight on disadvantage. Need to sell something at a super high price, hex their Intelligence. Want your frontliner to have an easier time knocking someone prone or off a cliff, hex their Strength or Dexterity. Want to make sure a Counterspell attempt fails, hex their spellcasting modifier. Hex is good not just in battle but also for social combat.
@@Ashtari yeah I find it's so useful in a creative combat group that does more than the mmorpg style of dps rotation kind of play, but instead tries for trips, shoves and other restraining style plays that make use of checks. Out of combat use is also great but I feel that you must know the mechanics at your table of hidden spell casting as audible range of verbal components and how noticeable the visual ques of spells or somatic components are. I love the subtle spell metamagic, but I find that it's existence without any rules or guidelines on sneaky casting kind of makes it so it's either the only way to be sneaky while casting or it's useless unless you are a close up street magician. I love that most of the base illusions only have m as a component and it's a common fabric so very easy to have in your hand. You can't expect no one to notice Guard 1 "hey you there, why are you here?" PC: oh shit got to talk my way out of this While making a controlled arcane gesture towards guard with a petrified eye of a newt in the other hand and saying "Vissto hamma nu'masto" PC: "who me? I've been sent by the mayor to investigate what's going on" Guard: "What the fuck was that? Did you just cast a spell on me?" While that's an obvious case where you need subtle magic.... Can you pre cast before approaching the guard so you give him not only disadvantage on insight but also perception and how far away do you have to be. Stealthy casting is different to subtle magic and I think has to be clarified at a table. Allow to much and you step on the sorcs toes and possibly allow for too much, be too strict and you limit spell creativity outside of combat.
Also, no the real cost of Hex is your concentration and the impact that a bigger spell might have had. Putting one enemy to sleep to reduce the enemy's action economy is always going to be stronger. Similar for prismatic spray and so on.
@@solsystem1342 with a range of 90ft, it will be hard to spot. Most shops have windows, would be easy to hit a shopkeeper with it from down the street where they would never look.
I'm currently playing a melee warlock that used Hex until I got the ability to cast Spirit Shroud because it gives me more of a damage benefit and I generally end up using it in combination with slasher and a Tidecutter(basically a longsword that works like the thorn whip cantrip) as well as Mobile Flourish(multiclassed into swords bard) to control the movement of enemies.
Small shout out to Hex on Wisdom and Dexterity. Wisdom decreases enemy passice perception with 5, making it WAY easier to get advantage against the enemy using stealth. this way you convert hex into granting advantage (some of the time) for some characters. The same goes for dexterity the other way, you make it way more difficult for enemies to stealth mid combat.
You could also use Hex to make sure that your party will have a higher initiative than an enemy by giving them disadvantage to dex since initiative is a dex check.
@@fredfullthedreadful IMO you would trigger initiative by wanting to cast hex on the enemy. and you would not be able to cast hex before your turn in initiative.
@@herrkrabbe148 You and many others have said something like that in this comment section, and you are all stuck in combat-brain. Have you ever tried casting spells outside of combat? With 90ft range, you could cast it from the third floor of a tower through an arrow slit at someone passing below. They _should_ fail the perception check to see you, and with their Wisdom cursed your party Rogue can stalk them for hours. At higher levels, it does become extremely niche, but imposing disadvantage without a save can be a nice tool in your belt. Edit: I'm implying that spell casting shouldn't make everyone roll initiative if nobody even detects the spell casting. Do you make people roll initiative when they cast teleport in the town square? When they cast Detect Magic as a ritual? When they are using healing spells after the combat is over? No.
7:43 Counterpoint: The warlock feels to me like someone tried to design a caster using the design guidelines for martials, so it ends up feeling more like a martial than a caster in terms of how it's balanced. It's more similar to a magic archer than it is to other full casters. That said, you still have a point in that they _are_ casters, even if their balance is closer to that of a martial, and so you should be focusing more on what kind of spells you can cast, rather than pure damage output.
I will always say this: warlocks were made for multiclassing In their story hooks, in their front-loaded nature, synergies with other classes, the sheer versatility, the ability to get a few spell slots on a short rest separate from regular casting but also compatible with it, and hex I think is the epitome of that. The thing is, with warlock pure, you'd be forced to use one of your few high level slots for that first level spell. Not so with even a single level in, say, sorcerer. Better yet, going deep enough for metamagic gives you better uses for your bonus action, which actually improves the dps of hex if you're quickening EB for burst. Also, if you can hex before the fight breaks out!! A dex hex will have general uses, AND stiffle the most important skill check in combat: INITIATIVE. Subtle Hex the enemy caster before initiative and then just double EB nuke em down
I've played Bard 10 Warlock 1 with the Eldritch Adept feat for Agonizing Blast. Hex is an incredible spell when you have that deep pool of spell casting to draw from. Hex is only a trap if you're playing a full warlock, for all other classes it can easily add 20d6 damage per cast, better than the best fireball.
Hex really isn't all that good when you get second level spells that use concentration like darkness. If you use it right for one level if you taje devil's seight its basically permanent advantage on attack rolls to you and disadvantage to an enemy trying to hit you. Stack it with a mirror image and you're basically invincible with a bad AC and can freely walk around lol.
Okay, so I watched through the whole video and I feel like something very important about Hex was missed, especially in relation to the Warlock. Hex has an INSANE duration time and while it may do less straight up damage in one encounter, one casting can be dragged out throughout the WHOLE DAY when cast at a certain level, which is majorly important to a Warlock who only has like 2 or 3 spell slots. Additionally you can apparently maintain it through a short rest, meaning you now have Hex going AND all your spell slots, making it the best option at the start of the day. If it’s the end of the day and you’re probably going to long rest after the fight you’re doing, sure go for the big damage spells.
I did bring up the duration in another comment, but as I think about it, this is less of an issue for warlocks. Since you can get your slots back on a short rest, warlocks don't really need the spell to last for 24 hours. It's nice, sure, but the real price is _still_ concentration, and there's much better spells to concentrate on, especially at higher levels.
@@Greywander87 Yes but like I said, you can maintain concentration through short rests, so you're literally just getting a bonus until you need another concentration spell, making it still worth it if cast early in the day. This was confirmed by Mike Mearls when asked about this in regards to Hex and short rests. As long as you don't sleep during your short rest, you're good to go. It's sustainabiliy and more bang for your buck to drag out your spell slot.
@@connerkline6269 I noticed the long duration early on in 5E and yes you can concentrate on it across rests, but that's classic WotC too clever by half design, I think. So often it seems to get forgotten. If it doesn't, it's yet another thing to remember and/or annoy the DM with.
@@crimfan I don't understand why that would be annoying or hard to remember. If you cast Hex towards the start of the day, just remember to drop it if you cast another concentration spell or fail a concentration check, which you'd have to do anyway with any concentration spell. It shouldn't be annoying, it's just using your spell slots intelligently.
@@connerkline6269 I dunno but it always seems to be forgotten. Then you have to say to the DM that you did actually cast it. I think it’s because of the super long duration across short rests. That’s why I think WotC was too clever by half with it. They wanted you to cast it, short rest, and get a slot back, but that really feels like pointless paper pushing to me. I really dislike Concentration as a mechanic, but especially outside of combat. In combat easy enough to remember and makes sense, but out of it it just ends up being irritating.
You didn't talk about this part, "If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to curse a new creature." By the rules you can concentrate for an hour and transfer it between creatures. Subsequent turn means that outside the first combat you use it in, you can still concentrate on it till the next combat. In a dungeon crawl this is a really proficient use of a spell slot.
Mm. This is mostly correct, but rounds are in play even if the group isnt tracking them. Time still continues even if you're not paying attention to it. Unfortunately, in this case, the "next round" is simply the set of six seconds immediately following the previous one, not specifically referencing "the next round -of combat-".
@@michaelanthony2852 Yeah, the spell doesn't specify which round, just a subsequent turn. It means you can keep it going till the next combat. That I think is the value for warlock. Plus lowering someones ability score is good.
I'm in a campaign that typically does about 3 fights between short rests, one of those being a mini boss or occasional puzzle fight (the campaign is basically strung together micro adventures as we chase our teleporting baddie). Having hex up for 8 hours means I can go for 3 or 4 sessions without feeling compelled to cast a spell every fight to stay relevant, and I can still cast my big ones too! After the first short rest of the "day" I *still* have hex up, and *also* have my spell slots back for big spells. Hex isn't good in an individual fight no, and if I was in a situation where my concentration was constantly at risk it definitely would reconsider, but getting to have it all day for the cost of a slot you get back an hour later anyway? It's pretty efficient.
I've never casted this spell before, but I'd take it in a more roleplay heavy campaign, specifically if the dm has a lot of npcs doing active checks. Its supposed to be more like a debuff curse than a damage buff. Imagine casting hex on the manipulative bad guy you know is deceiving a royal court, so you can give him disadvantage on charisma checks. Or giving a guard keeping watch disadvantage on wisdom so your rogue has an even better chance to sneak past.
I'm gonna be honest, I think you're sleeping on the advantages eldritch invocations can give with hex. With hex placed on an owl familiar with the maddening hex and relentless hex invocations your bonus action can do aoe damage or be used for a speedy escape. If you have a source of first level castings for it, through multi-classing or feytouched or w/e, it can be really solid, and if the familiar dies you can just switch it to someone else and still get the damage
@@L0stHumanity Maddening Hex deals damage to the cursed creature, plus any creatures of your choice within 5ft of it. So yes, this is correct, unless the owl is somehow immune to psychic damage.
The value of hex comes over it’s duration. It’s a bonus 3.5 damage every attack for 8 hours. With eldritch blast it can get up to 14 extra damage per round for 8 hours. And with how few spell slots the warlock gets it pulls it’s weight hard. People just need to realize that there are certain scenarios in which your concentration is better served on other spells.
I second the thoughts on Sleep being underrated, particularly for Warlocks. At high level, it gets automatically upcast to 5th level, meaning you'll have 13d8 (avg 58.5) affected hp. Nothing 5th level or lower potentially matches that. If it rolls higher than their current hp, there is no save, no legendary resistance, nothing. Unless they are straight up immune to charm or sleep spells, they drop. That's actually a really powerful tool, even if it's not applicable in every single fight.
On the topic of disadvantage on checks, let's not forget that a creature with disadvantage on perception takes a -5 to their passive perception, what makes it much easier for the rogue to successfuly hide against them
The real fun comes with the disadvantage to ability checks which is niche but has plenty of applications if you try. I wouldn't say that the entire point of Barbarian is to have good single target damage either. I think the only thing they get to increase their damage is a +2 per round, from levels 1-3. Other than that minor nitpick, great video. I love the subtle costume change at the end.
Hex can only continue being really useful at higher levels of you take advantage of it's increased duration. Wake up, cast it on a squirrel, blast the squirrel to bits, then spend an hour getting ready for the day. You've recovered the spell slot, and now still have the effect for 8 or 24 hours. If you need to throw something else with concentration later, go ahead--no big loss, since you had already recovered the spell slot.
Better off with hunter's mark if you want raw damage as it matches the weapons damage type. Very few things resist magical weapon damage while there's a number that resist necrotic.
@@JonathanMandrake Hexblood is considered a lineage right? Which means giving up racial traits and there are potentially powerful traits & features that you may not want to give up like the kobolds pack tactics or an Aasimar's transformation.
Why multi-classing at all? We've Magic Initiate. Want to know what happens when a 5th level monk who decides not to use his 2 extra attacks for double the damage of the other 2 normal attacks? Nothing different! Want to know what happens next turn when all 4 of his attacks do double the damage? It happens that there is much more blood all over the monk than inside the target.
This is why I really like taking the Fey Touched feat. It gives me the flexibility to still use hex, but not spend my spell slots unless I really need it. Plus misty step and a +1CHA
You're forgetting the disadvantage on ability checks (with *no* save). Yeah, the spell may fall off on the damage curve, but if you pair it with something (like, say, a grappling front-liner) or target a strength to turn it into a weakness (such as an abjurer's spellcasting ability to cripple counters and dispels), Hex became extremely useful extremely quickly.
Yeah, I was gonna say that the only reason most Locks use Hex so often is probably for the disadvantage to one ability check (edited out "save") to combo with other casters _but_ you covered that towards the end. 😄 Also, totally agree that Locks should be using the biggest spells. All. 👏 The. 👏 Time. 👏 To get the most out of that class. I don't recall the highest level my Fey Lock reached but when I realized I was upcasting many spells, you know I was going for the best bang for my buck (now if I could only pick spells better 😅).
Good message but the overuse of emojis was so cringe while reading your comment. Plus it was preaching to to the choir for me as I’m a veteran player of both the warlock and bloodhunter classes. To me at least, it was very intuitive that the warlock class was basically a human artillery piece so at least for me, It was obvious from the get-go that I should take the most spectacular spells that I could and then for my reliable damage and even more control (either to stack on my spells or have it if if I don’t get it from my spells), I’d roid up eldritch blast.
Instead of Hex, the best spell I have found to combo with Eldritch Blast is Spike Growth. Grab Repelling Blast and maybe Grasp of Hadar and you will be dealing 4d4 instead of 1d6 and sanding your enemy against the floor, while potentially affecting several different opponents. This also works wonders with Hexblade, because due to the wording of Hexblade's Curse, both the eldritch blast and the spikes count as separate damage sources, meaning your target takes double proficiency damage each time you move them across the field of spikes. With 20 CHA, EB, SG, RB, GoH and Agonizing blast, at level 17 you will be dealing 1d10+4d4+5+12 damage per hit. Throw in Metamagic Adept, Warcaster, Polearm Master, and Action surge if you really wanna minmax it.
Don't use shield as a warlock either though because it's not worth one of you 2 spellslots (until level 11 far after you have higher level spells) for one turn of higher ac
Hey Kobold! For what it's worth, I haven't seen Hex on a Warlock in years with people I play with :) They'd rather try other things, at least beyond low levels. I wouldn't say they're optimizers, either.
On the one time I've played Warlock, I didn't grabbed Hex. For one, I had almost no defensive option (dumped Dex due to character concept), so Armor of Agathys was the thing that allowed me to survive when hit. Second, Archfey has two great first level spells on Sleep and especially Faerie Fire. And third, I was more geared towards support, so the damage was useless. I usually defend spells like Haste and Hunter's Mark for their secondary uses and cumulative value. But Hex is the one I honestly don't see myself grabbing it. It doesn't even have an out-of-combat utility like Hunter's Mark. It is mostly damage and, at most, disadvantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks. You could cast it to give disadvantage on Perception and Insight checks on sneaking around, but guess what? Charm Person does it better. Overall Hex is not a trap, it's just a bad spell. And even considering Warlock's spell list, there are better options. Again, Armor of Agathys, while not amazing, gives you the survivability to hold one or two attacks. Hellish Rebuke is a decent damage tool on reaction, something rare to see. And, most importantly, you have Cause Fear, a great single target shutdown for 1st level. What would be better against the big boss from your first dungeon, 2 more damage per turn or forcing disadvantage against its attacks and forcing it to not approach the rest of the party? You have Arms of Hadar, Charm Person and Protection from Evil and Good as well, all options that do more than Hex.
I really like Armor of Agathys for the reasons you list. Also, it's not a Concentration spell. I played a Warlock in AL. In that, it's not all that unusual for a character to have to step outside their role such as when you're 3rd or 4th level and the party fighter is 1st level. AoA helps a lot with stepping into the breach. It also scales reasonably well with level.
The last warlock i played, I found using my few spell slots to support my party with counter spell, or negating other enemy actions was far more useful then hex.
The reason why hex is so good is because you can basically hex a critter, kill it and then move it on something else with a bonus action later on. You can basically hex someone without them being able to notice it at all. A trap is something that looks good on first glance, but doesnt hold up to further investigation. Hex is none of that. Hex is even better if you make full use of its potential.
@@Dile0303 It's basically the same. One damage dice per attack. 1d8 instead of 1d6, not a big deal. It has some advantages and disadvantages compared to Hex, but in the end, it comes pretty even I think. No, maybe it's even worse than Hex. No need to switch targets may save you a bonus action or two, upcast for damage is good, but it's still only 2d8 max and it's not enough to compete with the other options, and 10 ft range makes it useless for any non-Blade warlock as you don't want to be that close to enemies as a warlock. Speed reduction isn't that meaningful since the enemies are already 10 ft away from you. Really, the only class this spell makes some sense on is Paladin, and even then I'm not sure there aren't better options.
In my experience it is almost always better to just kill what your fighting instead of crowd control, and debuff spells. Also you say it is bad damage, but you have two spells. Until water later. And at the end you only really have 4 slots. There is really no spell that will allow you to do consistently more damage then her. Being at higher level it lasts 24 hours. And yes you can do more damage faster with other spells. But unless your dm is really nice you are not getting a short rest after every fight. So thus ya you did damage faster in that one fight, but now you have no spells for the next one. Then all you have is a damage cantrip. And yes eldrich blast is the best damage one. Whether it is stand alone or with hex. Now yes others can be used and it is fine, but having a cantrip you can add a mod to damage makes you so much stronger. And with the whole bonus action thing unless you are multiclassing warlocks don't use there bonus action constantly. And because of this you can also get the evocation that makes it so you can do a small aoe damage from your hex every turn. Making it deal even more damage. Now to end a warlock is not and never will be a full caster. A full caster has 21 spell slots at level 20. A war lock has 4 and 4 special spells slots. That is not even half a full caster. And you can't even use spell points as a warlock by the rules. They get short sheeted in almost every regard. I love warlocks and ranges but they bothe need some love. That they probably will never get
do you never take short rests? did you also forget about mystic arcanum, or their capstone? i’m not going to say their capstone is good, but they still get 12 castings of spells a day at level 20, and they’re all at 5th level or higher. that’s more than half, ever so slightly, and it’s way more 5th level spells than anyone else. i agree they should get a couple more spell slots (proficiency bonus maybe) but if you’re not short resting, everyone’s worse off. everyone can spend hit dice, fighters get almost everything back, monks do get everything back, the only ones who get nothing but spending hit dice are barbarians, rangers, rogues, and sorcerers. even some of their subclass features will key off of short rests.
@@Hazel-xl8in yes this is true but i was more meaning in a fight. you have 4 spells at the end. and yes there is mystic arcanum but those spells are once a day, and you can not change them. so if you picked one that was good at a low level. well now it is not. so you have an almost worthless spell. also you can not always short rest. lets say you have to do two fights back to back. then what. you at most will have time to use your capstone. where every other class spell caster or not. has so much more sustain then you. heck the ranger has more sustain then you.
If you're playing against homebrew monsters where the DM can just say "oh it has immunity to charm/fear condition" when you cast hypnotic pattern/fear then Hex is still one of the most reliable option
Warlock is cursed with being one of the strongest dips in the game so full or near full warlocks are pretty rare to see while dips are super common. At least in my experience. Same with paladins and to a lesser extent clerics.
One thing I love about Hex that stays good is that if you have another spellcaster in the party, you can coordinate with them to target a saving throw that the caster uses a lot, making your buddy more effective.
Bestow curse in many ways would fulfill this role; the problem with that spell for warlocks is that they have to use an invocation to get access to that spell if you are not multiclassing
hex doesn’t work with magic missile? i mean, if you take jim’s magic missile with acquisitions incorporated, sure. but normal magic missile has no attack rolls, therefore no hex damage.
Would like to throw out some advice, with tasha’s by level 4 as a warlock take fey touched feat every time and this gives a +1 to CHA (or wis/int but obvi take cha) PLUS you learn misty step and a 1st lvl divination or enchantment spell, and pick hex. You learn both spells and can cast them with spell slots but also get a free casting of each spell once per long rest, allowing you to still use ol reliable at any level without consuming those valuable spell slots. If your campaign goes on long enough I’d also consider taking 2 levels in fighter for extra AC (defense training plus shield proficiency for +3AC) and get action surge to throw out twice as many eldritch blasts once per short rest to potentially double that hex damage in a turn. Also the maddening hex feat is really good if you need something to do with your bonus action (bonus action to deal your cha mod in dmg to a hexed target and any creatures of your choice within 5ft of that target, which would also trigger hex damage). Enjoy!
I'd say one of the biggest boons for Hex is the upcasted duration, because you might not have a DM that follows the suggested number of short rests vs long rests per adventure arc. When playing from long rest to long rest, having the ability to keep a spell going for 8+ hours is a major boon for a Warlock, especially if you're more focused on the hex-based invocations. While the 1d6 bonus damage is minute, the necrotic aspect is useful against creatures who are vulnerable against it or have their regeneration prevented by it. Finally, the fact you can apply disadvantage to an ability check can be amazing inside and outside of combat: Strength: You've captured the Bandit Chief alive and are ready to turn him for the bounty. You cast Hex on him to make it difficult for him to break his restraints. Dexterity: You're chasing a cutpurse who nabbed your satchel down the market street. You cast Hex on the thief, which makes it difficult for her to weave through the crowd and to hide. Constitution: A bard offends you before he leaves for the red light district. You cast Hex on the bard to make it more difficult to endure the night. Wisdom: There is a lone guard on duty watching the warehouse entrance. You cast Hex so your Rogue Assassin has an easier time sneaking by or taking out the guard. Intelligence: Your party trying to pawn off a gold-coated lead statuette as solid gold to a black market merchant. You cast Hex on the merchant to make his inspection more difficult. Charisma: A comedian has offended a noble and the noble wants you yo humiliate the comedian publicly. You cast Hex on the performer to make his performance more difficult. While there are better short term options at the Warlock's disposal as you've mentioned, however I don't think Hex is as bad as you make it out to be.
I laughed a big when he said level 1 spells cant out do things like fighter. Chormatic orb 3d8 and inflict wounds 3d10 both level one spells. Also high level clarics are so scary at dps spirtal weapon + inficlt wounds = death
Kobold is not the brightest He's actually not even good He usually misinterprets things and don't put his creativity to work, specially on this, since Hex is not just a combat cantrip
Fathomless gets the tentacle at level 1, which actually just outclasses Hex it most situations in tier 1 play. Tentacle does 1d8 cold vs Hex's 1d6 necrotic. Both are bonus actions. The only issue is that Tentacle requires a seperate attack roll, and the bonus action every turn. So I dunno which is better, but I'm sure someone will tell you.
Mathematically, splitting up damage between separate attack rolls doesn't effect the damage per round. It defiantly makes a difference outside of the white board of damage calculations, but in this case it just further supports the Fathomless tentacle (I.E. Killing one enemy with Eldritch Blast then getting to hit another one with the Tentacle.) So damage wise, the Tentacle does outclass Hex in Tier 1 by 0.7 damage a round. It'll fall below baseline by Tier 2, but as stated in this video you'll have better things to cast than Hex in Tier 2. And that's not going into the utility of the tentacles slowing enemies by 10 feet, which pairs nicely with Repealing Blast.
Starting as of level 2, Misty Visions is a great use of your concentration. Cover the entire party (if they are within a 15ft. cube) with illusory darkness. All covered members are heavily obscured but the enemies are not! All members make attacks at advantage and are attacked at disadvantage + immunity to sight spells. Win button
Pact tactics I have to say I've found you only a couple days ago and honestly?? These guides have been a joy to listen to. This video alone made me go "Finally! Someone agrees with me on hex!" 🤣
I have once made a warlock of dionysus, where I concentrated on mindaffecting spells and psychic damage spells. I found mind spike to be a really good pick there, because the spell becomes a good cc and multitarget spell on higher levels.
Consider the following: be a College of Swords Bard with the Fey Touched feat, take hex with this feat. Your other caster friend has Hold Person. Hex, Hold Person, and do a flourish (in that order). Not particularly sustainable, but really fun to do, you really squeeze every last bit out of your attacks. Especially if your DM lets you teleport 30ft above the enemy for the extra 3d6 damage on a hit.
Hex has an interesting benefit outside of combat as well. Since it doesn't cause a save, you could arguably use it to influence a target that needs to make checks to avoid a trap, traverse difficult terrain, or identify an illusion without them being aware they were ever targeted.
2 points about this great video 1. I have seen one person not take hex, in a gritty realism game using some homebrew balance changes. One change was to make thief of five fates viable, by letting you cast bane at will only targeting creatures up to your proficiency bonus, and creatures that make the save cant be targeted again for 24 hours. This one change opened up an incredible debuff Celestial warlock build that doesn't feel bad about dropping Hex and Eldritch Blast. 2. Like this video a lot, but I feel it's missing one option: Taking Hex with Fey Touched. This build choice keeps almost all the benefits of Hex post level 5. Out of slots for big spells and need something reliable? Hex is there for you when you actually need it. Sure, it doesn't come back on a short rest, but all your big spells do. This means even when Hex isn't there for you, your character is still reaping the benefits of being a Warlock. Taking Bless over Hex in Fey Touched is better on paper, but in my personal experience, your bonus spell from Fey Touched only comes out AFTER you've burnt your Warlock spells. That should mean you are at least in the 3rd round of combat and the fight could be a few rounds from its conclusion. Both spells are worse for it, but Bless takes your action when Hex comes online the turn its cast. Then if you are deep in a dungeon with no time to short rest, Hex will stay with you. At 1st level, Hex's duration is conveniently 1 hour, the amount of time needed for a short rest, so you are far less likely to be caught with your pants down out of spell slots. (Unless your DM attacks you in the last minute or so of a short rest, in which case, the optimal play might be to find a new DM.) I feel like there is something to be said for "ease of use" as well. I understand that most people watching are interesting in tactics, but maximizing the benefit of your Bless over Hex is harder, and nobody plays perfectly as a spreadsheet implies. Humans position poorly, waste slots on bad calls, and just target the wrong creatures. Hex is more forgiving than Bless on player mistakes and bad situations. Warlocks are already a higher skill floor class that relies on capitalizing limited resources, so giving yourself a "tactically simple" option to fall on has a different kind of value.
Warlock 1st level spells are pretty decent for a blade pact warlock all things considered. For example, longsword, 1d8, cast hex and agathys, save hellish rebuke for emergencies, pretty good melee damage this way... Now I have a level 7 undead patron warlock who uses these spells and spirit shroud or shadow of moil depending on what flavor I desire, and with thirsting blade giving 2 attacks I can deal a fair amount of damage in one turn, in fact, we used the deck of many things and I got the sun card, and I got the blood fury tattoo, so that is fat stacks of necrotic that I can double the dice with undead feature... Forgot to mention eldritch smite for emergency mega damage
I'm not sure if it makes it better enough to be balanced, but I allow upcasting hex to increase the size of the damage die by one for each level upcast.
I will fix the thumbnail btw guys. Sorry.
what's wrong with it?
Yeah I don’t see a problem here
What if you had magic missile from magic initiate? Could it be good then?
@@Spiceodog Magic Missile isn't an attack.
I lowkey think armor of agathis is good for mid to melee range warlock as the damage scales with the temp hp. Meaning the damage for a 5th level cast is 25 no matter if you get hit with a 1 or 25 damage attack.
Hex can also target a monster's spellcasting ability; since counterspelling often calls for an ability check, you can kneecap one of your enemy's best defensive measures with a slot you spent four hours ago and recovered since.
Smart enemies will save there good stuff for your good stuff tho
@@adamsharp9081 how does that address his point? An enemy that only has a 3rd level counterspell to use on your 4th level spell is now rolling at disadvantage to counterspell.
@@lord6617 you only have 2 spell slots, you're still wasting one. its a bad spell even in the niche areas where the ability check might help slightly. it using concentration in particular is such a massive hindrance to a warlock who again only gets 2 spell slots for the majority of their adventure.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 Saying "you only have two spell slots" here is downright misrepresentation. The original comment here was specifically pointing out that hex can be cast and then continue to be used even after you've recovered your spell slots, so saying "you have only two spell slots" implies you've missed the point completely.
Mentioning concentration is a very valid complaint about hex. If you're level 5 and have access to hypnotic pattern, this spell looks very unappealing, as using your best spell is incompatible with it. However the game doesn't end at level 5. Once you reach level 9 you can learn synaptic static (as the video points out) and that spell doesn't require concentration. On your first combat of the day, you can spend turn 1 casting hex (int) and eldritch blast on the strongest looking enemy, then casting synaptic static turn 2 to try and kill or debilitate the strongest enemy of the encounter. This is no doubt much worse than just casting synaptic static twice but the game doesn't end after the first encounter either. You may now do a short rest, recover both spell slots, and since you cast hex at 5th level you have almost 23 hours of hex concentration left, assuming you haven't failed a concentration save yet. You bow have access to hex, without using spell slots or casting spells. In your next encounter, you can bonus action hex, then synaptic static (both on turn 1 this time as using hex isn't a spell this time, then synaptic static again, that's really powerful. But this is still improvable. After finishing an eight hour long rest you can immediately look for a bug, then catch it, hex it, kill it, short rest. Your rest lasts nine hours instead of eight, but you go into the day already concentrating on hex, meaning you have an extra spell slot and you can hex turn 1 without having to wait to cast another spell. This may be gamey as hell, but unless you're playing a vegan warlock you can give enemies disadvantage on saving throws basically for free. Naturally this all falls apart if your best spell is or becomes concentration again or the situation calls for one, but since you're probably taking hex for the early game anyway, having the opportunity to pull stuff like this can be very impactful.
@@alienplatypus7712 you are right about most of your points, except it is ability CHECKS not saving throws. It might still be worth doing in the way you describe, but it will not make the enemy more vulnerable to the save for Synaptic Static.
I'm playing a fighter grappler currently. Multiclassed into a single level of genie warlock for the bonus damage bludgeoning and giving enemies disadvantage on resisting my shoves/grapples via hex.
Why give them disadvantage when you can just give yourself expertise on athletics with skill expert and advantage with Rune Knight(lv 3 Fighter includes Huge creatures) or any flavor Barbarian lv 1
@@PH03NIX96 Just do both
@@adrianlevampiro4567 Sure if you're fighting 1off.
If it came down to the choice tho I'd rather have advantage against against any target rather than disadvantage on 1.
I'm planning on taking skill expert later on.
Imposing disadvantage helps, but expertise + advantage will likely be sufficient most of the time. The issue with dipping on a fighter is missing out on that fourth attack (especially if you grapple with both hands). That said, genielock is a nice dip for a lot of builds.
Honestly, I always saw the ability debuff as the main selling point of hex, the damage is just a bonus.
Cast Hex on opponent before Initiative rolls, target Dex checks, suddenly their turn is later in the order.
I thought about it giving it a Fighter. Even with only one Extra Attack that will turn to 4d6 with Action Surge when you Hit of course.
I am not sure if it works, but with the Great Weapon fighting style you can re-roll all 1s and 2s. Not sure if that counts with the Hex or not, but giving Hex to a martial Fighter who doesn't need to concentrate on something else, even at higher levels, over multiple rounds the d6 damage rolls would stack up quite good.
...though, now I want it to give someone disadvantage for Initiative Rolls.
@@Ocker3 The casting of any spell should be enough to trigger initiative in the first place, unless you’re hidden. In which case casting the spell would reveal you. So good for an ambush, I suppose?
@@kieransaul2711 depends on if the other individual/group realises that it was hostile.
@@Ocker3 In my games I rule that any spell is enough to trigger initiative, since in a tense situation the other side doesn’t _know_ what you’re casting. Anything with somatic or verbal components anyways. If you want Shield of Faith or Mage Armour, make sure you have it up ahead of time.
But also my players have ridiculously high perception so they’re rarely caught in a fight without time to prepare, lol.
I took this for my Dimir Ravnica Warlock, I never used it in combat. My character was built around being deceptive so I would always cast it on NPCs before we would talk to them and give them disadvantage on Wisdom checks so there insight would suffer. That spell was clutch in several different social encounters
The ability to make a target instantly shitty at something is very nice.
The easy one is to pick Str or Dex to help the party's barbarian suplex an ogre.
I hadn't even considered the social aspect of it all. Subtle Spell lets you sneaky it, iirc.
@@Ninjat126 aberrant mind sorcerer can have it from lvl 1 and can subtle it for free at lvl 6 and above highly recommend aberrant mind is probably the best social class in the game you can easily break social encounters in multiple ways casting hex without vsm for 1 sp is just the tip of the iceberg
@@nebei3740 It seems much stronger on a sorcerer than a warlock at high levels, since the sorcerer can much more easily throw away early spells.
Also any sorcerer might want to consider a dip into Warlock anyway, because Agonizing Eldritch Blast is such a powerful way to dish out tons of damage in combat without expending any spells, and you can get it in several ways. A 2-level Warlock dip, 2 feats, or one feat and one level
and no one cared you were walking around cursing people willy nilly? you should have had a lynch mob after you pretty fast doing bullshit like that.
@@astuteanansi4935just to nitpick, 2 feats with no levels in Warlock wouldn't work, since Agonizing Blast has a prerequisite which Eldritch Adept doesn't allow if you're not a warlock.
Minor note: Hex with wisdom disadvantage can reduce passive perception checks or make active ones harder. Perfect for helping your party rogue sneak about in combat (assuming they’re not using steady aim)
And there’s always hexing CHA for interrogations.
I think I would be pretty alerted if someone casted a curse on me...
@@estebanrodriguez5409 I don’t think you’d be aware of the effect RAW
@@estebanrodriguez5409 and range 90 feet, so I would say you could definitely cast it out of hearing range.
The hex effect has a fairly long duration at 1 hour. The bonus action to move the effect to another creature after a target dies doesn’t have to be done immediately, so it can be moved to the next creature after time passes without even having to cast it around the creature.
This would not be a perceivable effect.
I find hex to be a valuable spell because of its duration. From 5th level onwards, you're always casting it at 3th level, which means that you can mantain it active for 8 hours. That's most adventuring days, and you can do multiple short rests while still concentrating on it. When you play a class that only has 2 spell slots per short rest until 11th level, that is big. If you want damage, assuming you don't lose concentration, hex can grant you up to 2d6 extra damage every turn for the whole day.
Don't forget, readying an action to cast EB breaks concentration on hex. A minor detail, but important for Warlocks who love to ready EB while adventuring.
@@danielvanpatten5815 wow, sounds awful, and sounds like something my dm would rule away. thanks for sharing that.
does no one take short rests? i can’t imagine an adventuring day where i’d want to use my concentration on a first level spell just because it lasts a long time. my tables usually take a short rest every two to three encounters or so, which means i rarely need my spell to last more than an hour if it’s going to go for multiple fights. at that point use summon shadowspawn or summon fey for more damage and another body on the field.
until you mentioned it, i misunderstood the duration mechanic for hex. i hadn't considered the wording properly and it hadn't occurred to me that it can persist between battles. thanks for clearing that up
@@littlecow2000 not awful at all. understanding concentration rules helps to prevent casters from being too broken.
If you are loose with concentration rules a cleric will DESTROY the balance of your game.
I grabbed it as part of the Fey Touched feat on my Monk. Hex works really well when you are doing 3 hits per round, and it upped my Wisdom score, and the disadvantage to ability checks when you want to throw people around is a fun bonus.
I'm planning to play an astral self monk with good stats who'll be partly built around grappling anad shoving, and I'm taking Fey Touched for this exact reason +11 Wisdom (Athletics) at level 5 is gonna be crazy.
For real. I'm going with a Sun Soul monk, so I'm covering my range, and Hex is going to cripple spellcasters' ability score. Plus I'm doing an extra bit of damage 2-3 times a turn, with a damage type I won't get elsewhere. Not much damage, sure, but the versatility it gives to anyone taking Fey Touched is nice.
I really think this works best for classes who aren't getting spells at all, like Monks and Fighters. Kind of disappointed that he didn't cover Fey Touched's application to other classes.
My monk is a hexblood drunken master with shadow touched feat ( invisibility + inflicting wounds)
I deal 6d10 ( inflicting wounds)+ flurry of blows ( 1d8 +8) + 1d6 necrotic from hex
3:39 A point to remember for Armor of Agathys is that warlock spells upcast automatically. That, and AoA is not concentration. At 1st level, yeah, it sucks (though extra HP helps a lot more, and 5 damage might be enough to finish off whatever enemy hit you). But by 9th+ level, it's giving you 25 temp HP and dealing 25 damage each time you get hit. The best time to cast it is when faced with a horde of weaker creatures, namely those who will die from the retaliatory damage and won't quickly deplete that temp HP. Cast it and run past some gobbos to provoke OAs from them, and kill 5 or 6 of them for the cost of a single action. Against heavier hitting monsters, or monsters who rely on ranged attacks, this spell gives a lot less value.
I always shop for the non-Concentration spells. Totally agree about AoA being the bomb against a weenie horde, whereas against a giant it's really only one hit.
A fun alternative is starting off as a class proficient in heavy armor like paladin and then taking 9 levels as a warlock (maybe some patron enticed your character to leave the faith). Then you can take heavy armor master to extend how many hits will result in enemies taking cold damage since most melee is bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing. You can do this without multiclassing if you're a conquest paladin. But it'll take way longer to max the damage as a half caster. It's still pretty nice at level 3 if you take the feat as a variant human, though. You can even cast compelled duel with it.
@@probablyprocrastinating59 You could also dip a few levels barbarian, bear totem gives quite a few resistances, and you can always drop rage when you run out of temp HP to switch back. Plus the unarmored defence would help AC
I have a rather unorthodox bladelock build that combines Armor of Agathys and Dark One's Blessing (obv not at the same time) with Barbarian resistances to give you a rather good level of sustain, along with a good amount of flexibility in that you still have options while out of rages or spell slots. Battlefield control when you need it, damage resistance when you don't, that's how I play it. Plus having access to counterspell against enemy casters, better saving throws then your typical barb, and invocations to really flesh out your options... Yeah, this gets rediculous pretty quickly, comes online early (just stick to Warlock until level 5 for Thirsting Blade, and then jump off for Barbarian just when things start getting more challenging), and the piece de resistance: Combining a Lifedrinker GWM at advantage with Reckless, Eldritch Smite, and Hurl Through Hell all in a single blow that can do upwards of around 120 damage without even critting, all the while removing a threat from the fight for a round and setting up for a massive nova of held actions when they return.
As for Armor of Agathys... That 25 thp goes a lot further when you have Rage, so casting that, then raging, when you're surrounded by foes or facing extra attacks, is considerable. Then you apply roughly 20 thp whenever something dies to one of your attacks-- which with your damage numbers happens frequently-- then you're looking at sustain out the butt.
Bonus Points if you reflavor your patron as the Grim Reaper and take Zealot Barb for a radiant/necrotic life/death duality. Personally love making this with a Reborn for flavor
The main use for armor of agathys is making abjuration wizard into a tank. Start with fighter or artificer for Con save proficiency and either second wind and a fighting style, or tools and spells. Then take one level of celestial warlock for cure wounds, AoA, and the warlock version of second wind. Then go abjuration wizard the rest of the way. Upcast AoA with wizard slots and the abjuration ward and you quickly get the same of more HP as barbarians.
Something I would enjoy in your videos is delineating between "Optimal", "Effective", and "Not Effective".
You don't have to be the best, to be good. And I think that's a niche you could fulfill with your channel.
Provide content that says "This is the optimal choice. But here are some other choices that are also effective compared to actual trap choices."
Where a trap choice is one that brings the character's effectiveness in combat low enough that they're a detriment to the average party.
i.e. going below what you might consider a Warlock's baseline damage per round.
Yea, hex is in no way a trap, and the whole 'warlock is not a damage dealer' when their best subclasses focus on blasting and spellsword/blasting damage boosting and their invocations having so many that focus on a single damage dealing cantrip making it pretty damn obvious they ARE meant to be magical damage dealers with *some* utility, like a draconic sorcerer or evocation wizard, damaging spells is priority number 1 and utility is secondary, unlike bards and druids who are all about utility first. Also, saying it's 'only baseline' is misleading. Hex is being factored into warlock baseline *because it's worth taking as a reliable booster to your baseline*. It is literally a spell that increases damage, counting it as baseline is skewing the math against it. The true baseline would be pure eldritch blast with no invocations or hex added
@@torunsmok5890 The reason it's baseline is that it's also the ONLY thing of worth at low levels. As mentioned in the video, except in very specific circumstances, it is the ONLY level 1 spell you should be casting, not because it's that amazing, but because everything else is just about useless. Their best subclasses that "focus" on blasting have far better options for concentration. Celestial has flaming sphere, archfey has faerie fire, hexblade has smite spells and eldritch smite, dao has spike growth, etc. All things that do far more than 1d6 damage per hit on a single target, and generally have better utility than disadvantage on a single ability score. And, again, as stated in the video, there are MYRIAD better options at higher levels for every subclass and pact. Shadow of Moil or Spirit Shroud come to mind if you just want to be a eldritch blaster. Adding a mere 2 damage per hit is pretty damned lame by comparison to Moil's permanent advantage and defenses or Shroud's SIX damage a hit, literally triple hex's average damage for the same spell slot.
That's the point of calling it a trap. It's an utterly "just fine" spell, but so many warlocks cast it in every possible situation at every possible level because they think that "hex is so good" or somehow class defining. And the reason they call it baseline, again, as said in the video, is that anyone that focuses on damage should be ABSOLUTELY able to do better than eldritch blast and hex. It's the bare minimum dpr to call oneself a damage dealer, not anything special.
That's before noting that almost all the warlock multiclass dips, especially the damage dealing ones, use the pact slots for something else aside from spells entirely, i.e. short rest regenerating divine smites or sorcery points.
Sure at lvl one it's nice, but when you get second lvl slots you have some better options already and the opportunity cost of hex gets progressively worse with each spell lvl
*munches on chips*
I agree that Hex is fairly strong at low level. D10 vs D10+D6 is a pretty significant difference. As you go up in levels though, the strength of a warlock moves more and more towards control over damage. You bring up Shield and Sleep as good first level spells, but like with Hex, not sure I would be spending pact slots once they can cast higher level spells (especially 3+). The spells known list of a 9th or 10th level warlock should pretty much be 3-5 level spells.
Hello Chris! Thank you for watching!
I often feel like I can maybe squeeze one short rest between long rests, so grabbing a long duration spell that I can keep applying is fairly nice. I still agree however that it's worse of if you don't have pact of the blade and thirsting blade, but if you do, that additional bonus helps. Especially if you're a Hexblade with both, being able to save your other slots for shield can be pretty crucial. It gets even better if you have a party member in melee with you that has the shield matter feat and then you can help by targeting the enemy's strength, to more easily knock them prone. If you don't, targeting intelligence, wisdom, or charisma can help if counterspell antics are abound
My Hexblade Warlock has been using Hex as my main concentration spell at level 9ish to a pretty reliable effectiveness. Once it's upcast to 5th level, it stays active pretty much the entire adventuring day. I can start out with Armor of Agathys and Hex, fight through most of the encounters, still using short rests and never losing the temp HP or dropping Hex. The only times I ever break the spell are for defensiveness (I use Armor of Agathys + Shadow of Moil in harder fights).
My Warlock also happens to have a Rapier of Wounding. If the enemy makes a wisdom (medicine) check, they can clear the wounds I've stacked on them. The fact that Hex will make them less likely to get rid of the wounds helps me ramp up damage against harder enemies. I'm easily one of the highest sustain damage characters in our party.
High-level tactics the spell can be useful. It bypasses saving throws so you can, for example, cast it on Orcus and your simulacrum (or another party caster) uses telekinesis to take his wand as he makes his checks at disadvantage until it is yours. Just one example, but you can see bypassing saving throws for many spells that use ability checks like counterspell, detect thoughts, etc. can be useful.
Hex, with hexblades curse is a bit nutty with magic missile or when you have more shots with eldritch blast.
Good video homie, appreciate the analysis!
Yo! Love your builds!
FOR THE GREAT FIREBALL!!!
I think you actually got it right; Hex IS a trap. However, it's not a trap because it's sub-optimal. It's a trap because people don't understand Why it's optimal, and how to make it useful.
1.) It doesn't only cast as a bonus action, it also Moves on a bonus action; Meaning that, once cast, you can move it on your turn and cast another fully leveled spell.
2.) The duration is unmatched. It holds concentration, but what else are you concentrating on? If your DM allows holding concentration through rests, this spell is essentially free damage for the rest of the day after the first casting; At high enough levels, you can even use it on a squirrel before bed and hold it for the majority of the following adventuring day.
3.) Disadvantage on ability checks is actually quite relevant, because almost every party will have at least one character who can benefit from it. Figure out who it is, assign your Hex to give disadvantage on that check, and it's a constant bonus for that party member.
4.) Hex applies its damage to All attack roles, not just eldritch blast. This combos quite nicely with Scorching Ray as well as Hexblade builds.
5.) Hex deals Necrotic damage, a damage type that is quite rare to see resistance or invulnerability to.
6.) It's not Just warlocks that can take this spell. Bards can also get access to it, as well as anyone willing to spend a feat on magic initiate. Anyone with lower-level slots to spend on it will find it a valid option for those first level slots, and I've seen more than a few fighter builds that can make use of it on a set-up turn to gain a good deal of extra damage. If your DM likes putting distance between you and your targets on the first round of combat, maximizing your set-up turns can be a major benefit and Hex has more than enough range to allow for that.
These are many of the reasons this spell is actually quite optimal. However, a careful eye will note that many of these reasons don't always apply, and don't generally revolve around it being an optimal source of damage. As many people take it to be a source of damage for them, that makes it a trap. It appears optimal-because it can be-but ultimately isn't optimal for the reasons people often take it.
It's not 'wrong' to take this spell. However, people should carefully consider when and how they use it, and most usually don't.
Glad someone else notices this. I like getting it through the feat for my wizard and smacking them with magic missile. 100% acc under 90% on conditions (counters being shield, counterspell or a Brooch of Shielding) giving each of those 1d4 +1 missiles an extra 1d6. That makes a lvl 3 magic missile go from a 5d4 +5 (or a 10-25 output) to a 5d4 +5 with 5d6 (or a 15-55 damage).
@@DamianDoran That wouldn't work; Magic missile isn't an 'attack' and thus doesn't trigger hex damage. In 5e, to be an 'attack,' as opposed to a spell that does damage, then the spell must make an 'attack role.' Magic missile doesn't roll for an attack, it just selects targets and hits them. Much the same way a fireball doesn't roll to hit, and doesn't gain any bonus from Hex, neither would magic missile. Scorching ray would gain the bonus, and in fact works quite well as it means a spell that usually does 2d6/spell level above base as its max damage now does 3d6/spell level above base as its max damage.
Again; Good example of why Hex is a trap. Great spell, people understand the idea, they just don't quite understand the proper function.
I got it through fey touched on my echo knight and its been working pretty well for me.
Thank you, I was going to write this but you already have. In particular the point about it having a very long duration at higher levels and being able to maintain concentration through a short rest(confirmed by Crawford). It’s a “free” spell for a class that almost always has only two casts before resting.
@@Necroes I'd say that, if your DM allows for Concentration to carry through rests, they would likely be flexible to allow the damage to trigger off of Magic Missile.
Then again, I don't allow concentration through rests; resting is supposed to be all about relaxing, physically as well as mentally, while a spell that requires concentration... well, kinda prevents that. It's murky waters, but when I DM, that's my ruling. I do agree on basically every other point you made though.
You mentioned the two purposes of Hex: to add some damage at Tier 1 levels (level 1 to 4) and to combine with a party member that really wants to land spells that check on abilities or to grapple an enemy. But like ALL low-level Warlock spells, you should be swapping them out for HIGHER level Warlock spells on every level-up. There's ZERO reason to keep casting level 1 spells with a level 5 Pact Slot except in the the most unusual circumstances.
I personally almost never go 20 straight levels of Warlock, preferring to instead take my favorite one-level dip: Cleric. That gives me access to Bless, which I would ALWAYS cast over Hex because I like hitting my target and making my saving throws.
Some spells upcast well, so casting them using a higher slot makes sense. Hex greatly extends the duration, making it last all day with a 5th level slot. Is that worth giving up your concentration? I don't think so, but someone else might. Some spells are also strong enough that even if they don't upcast at all, it might be worth keeping them on your warlock. Fireball, for example, or several utility spells, such as Fly. Or, as you point out, Bless (obtainable by dipping or via Fey Touched). With a 5th level slot, Bless can affect the whole party, plus a few mounts, pets, hirelings, and/or familiars.
@@Greywander87 Bless is always good, but typically you access it with a one-level dip in Cleric, and you can cast it with a Cleric slot. Generally, you don't really need to hit more than 3 people: yourself (ALWAYS yourself) and the two most potent damage dealers.
Fireball and other blast spells drop off really hard and are rarely worth up-casting. It's fine to keep it on your spell list since, if you have it, you are likely Fiend Pact and it's going to be really the only blast option you get (Flame Strike is just worse, in general), but that doesn't mean it's going to be a great use of a pact slot to throw our 10d6 damage (an average of 40 damage) when you could use that slot for what the Warlock is really good at: battlefield control.
In the end, it's your character, of course. But in general I find that it's best to use a Warlock's limited spells known to ensure you have the most powerful options at your disposal.
Oh, another advantage of that one-level Cleric dip: you can cast Hex with a 1st-level Cleric slot, saving your Pact Magic for better spells. You can't always count on that short rest, after all.
You can also get hex, bless, and command with fey touched, which is great for post tier 2 play, because you don't have to burn a high level pact slot.
Hex is great low tier play and multiclassed warlocks.
It's definitely not a trap, it just depreciates with pure build locks.
I like divine soul dips better, Con save proficency, shield, absorb elements, bless, favored by the gods, 4 cantrips.
But cleric dips are nice too.
@@hopeforescape884 You don't get the saving throw proficiencies if you subclass in something, and I'm not typically going to make my subclass a level 1 dip because it screws with backstory and character concept. Also, getting free armor proficiency is really powerful with a Cleric dip, and that's typically the reason I take it.
Divine Soul is still a very strong choice, from a mechanical standpoint. So is Bard, as Bardic Inspiration is fantastic and scales in use with Charisma; Bard makes an excellent two-level dip for Jack of All Trades as well.
Anyone ever cast Hex on their own familiar? Well you should.
Combine with Relentless Hex for effectively infinite Misty Steps on 8h concentration.
This is actually brilliant
Wait how would you go about using this? I haven't heard of a combo like this.
@@christopherprice9989 It's astonishingly simple. All you need to be is a 7th level Warlock.
Pick up the Find Familiar and Hex spells in any way you like (really the best way would just be the Pact of the Chain, that way you can choose an Imp with invisibility and a flying speed)
Then for your 7th level you can pick up Relentless Hex as the prerequisite only says that you need Hex OR a warlock feature that curses.
At the start of the day or before a short rest, you simply cast Hex on your familiar (at this point it lasts for 8 hours) and for as long as your concentration lasts, you can then teleport next to your familiar as a bonus action.
You can even combo this further by using your action to look through your familiar's eyes if it's behind a wall.
And if you're a Genie Warlock, you can even have your familiar invisibly!!! carry around your home with you (and at later levels the entire party) inside.
Generally the Pact of the Chain is pretty underrated in utility, you could also use your familiar as an infinite range walkie talkie or as the source of some pretty nasty poison.
This is some giga brain shit right here
This is genius.
I don’t use Hex with warlocks. It’s great for other classes. Take the magic initiate feat for extra damage for fighters and rogues. Monks get 1d6 extra damage for all their attacks. Hex is a great spell if you use it in the right way.
Hex is good for death clerics, as well.
Hex is good with Magic Initiate because you don't need a good spellcasting modifier. Doesn't matter if your Charisma is trash. Hex has no attack roll and no saving throw. Just automatic damage.
I mean it SEEMS great for monks, but every time they cast or move it, they lose two attacks. It's only good for big single-target fights.
@@GFirenight you act like this isn’t still an amazing bonus.
@@damobeck1 it isn't an amazing bonus, thats the point. did you watch the video even? the math on the damage it adds does not change regardless of what types of attacks your making.
in particular its a MASSIVE waste of a feat/asi when just boosting stats is more impactful and things like great weapon master sharpshooter cross bow expert pole arm master and for spell casters specifically mage slayer exist already
Hex is still pretty useful at high levels. Hex is still a debuff spell that you can use without a saving throw. It allows you to give enemies disadvantage on strength checks which helps strength players like barbarian or any spellcaster that can cast Telekinesis against enemies with Legendary resistance. Also in terms of damage, it can still be useful to the new Undead Warlock, at level 6 ability doubles (2d6) hex damage.
Wait does it actually double hex damage? How?
@@imhulki463 This is the skill that boosts hex damage for Undead Warlock
Grave Touched
At 6th level, your patron’s powers have a profound effect on your body and magic. You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
In addition, once during each of your turns, when you hit a creature with an attack and roll damage against the creature, you can replace the damage type with necrotic damage. While you are using your Form of Dread, you can roll one additional damage die when determining the necrotic damage the target takes.
@@drahcir7x23 doesn't that only affect the attack you're changing the element of?
Like eldritch blast for example, wouldn't that be only 2d10+1d6
@@imhulki463 The wording is that, while under the form of dread, necrotic damage gets +1 damage dice. changing the attack to necrotic is a separate part of the ability. This is my interpretation of the wording due to the lack of conjunction between the sentences, but I could be wrong.
@@drahcir7x23 I'm sorry but no, there isn't two segments to this feature. Read it like this : When you deal damage with an attack, you can once per turn change the damage type to necrotic AND IF you are using your form of dread, that instance of damage gets a bonus of one additional damage dice. I can understand where the confusion comes from but sadly, since Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, Class features usually works in such a way that they can be used only once per turn, much to the dismay of my player and his rune knight fighter.
So, I was playing a celestial warlock in one of my games, and the other players were wondering why I was using flaming sphere instead of hex at 5th level. I simply told then if I use my action to cast a healing spell Hex is useless, and if I use eldritch blast their is a chance I'll miss one or both of them giving me only 1d6 or no damage. Meanwhile, if I use a 3rd level flaming sphere even if the enemy doesn't end their turn within 5 feet of it I can deal 3d6 damage with a dex save for half regardless of whether I use eldritch blast, and if the enemy does end its turn within 5ft of the flaming sphere they take a total of 6d6 damage with two dex save for half each effecting 3d6 damage each. When casted at 5th level your flaming sphere does 5d6 damage dex save for half on collision, and another 5d6 damage dex save for half on any enemy that ends its turn within 5ft of the flaming ball of death.
Even if you can't get the additional damage from an enemy standing within 5ft of your flaming ball of death they are going to take an opportunity attack if they dash away or they are going to take the disengage action in which case you'll ram into them next round, and regardless of that they are going to be wasting their action not attacking you unless they have a movement speed higher than 30ft in which case you can reduce their speed by 10ft with an invocation and eldritch blast making very few monsters capable of properly avoid this combo.
+1 for the flaming sphere on celestial. I'll be honest I have played many warlocks and almost never used hex.
Flaming Sphere is quite the underrated spell. Damage over time is really nice for making the most of having few spell slots
@@99sonder Indeed that is why whenever I play a warlock I always end up using summons because they end up being the most effective damage wise. Additionally, if you get your wizard to pick up the catnap spell you can take a short rest in 10 minutes which is even easier if you have a genies vessel because your familiar just hides in the corner somewhere till you finish. I personally advise a weasel for this if you don't have pact of the chain because they have a burrow speed so they can hide in a hole where no enemies can reach them.
Flaming Sphere does conflict with your BA heal (but then Celestial also buffs fire damage). So that's something to consider. BA opportunity cost can be an issue for some builds, but there is an advantage in having options on what to use your BA for. You probably don't use your BA heal that much (at least, if your Flaming Sphere is out), but when you really need it you don't mind spending your BA to heal instead of on your Flaming Sphere.
My favorite use of hex was on an Unarmed Fighting Rune Knight focused on grapples. Made it really easy to grapple when I had advantage, and they had disadvantage with no save. Damage was okay, but when you can punch someone 4x a turn for 2d8+3d6+1d4+7, another d6 is just a drop in the bucket.
One thing with Hex is that the Warlock recovers spell slots on a short rest, which is normally FAR under the duration of higher level castings of it. 3rd/4th level slot ups it to 8 hours, meaning it's up for quite some time, and higher than that, you've got it until the next long rest. It becomes an all day bonus there if you have other options for your concentration there.
Honestly, I start to respect AoA. Cause nowadays I see warlocks as less as full casters and more like the gish classes like Paladin and Rangers. If you got Hexblade you also have better armor options to reinforce that notion.
> I see warlocks as less as full casters and more like the gish classes like Paladin and Rangers
I'd agree with this. Though as always Warlock's power (and level of caster) relies on how many short rests you expect. But yeah, they get similar options for (resource-light) DPR that are better than full casters who have crappy firebolt cantrip damage, but not on the level of the actual DPR classes of rogue, fighter, barbarian etc. And their casting can be potent just as a paladin's bless or smites can, but it isn't as reliable as a cleric's or wizard's is.
@@Kurse_of_Kall The short rest dependence can be really irritating. In a party with other "I want short rests" type characters like the monk or fighter it's not too bad. Otherwise I think it often comes off as player whinging. Also, the reality is that many adventures really aren't going to have six to eight mini encounters with a few short rests sprinkled in. WotC was just plain old wrong in their assumptions.
I agree, warlocks feel more like a 3/4 caster to me. They're more magical than a Paladin or Ranger but don't have the abilities of a full caster.
Combine Armor of Agathys with Shadow of Moil, Cloak of Flies, and Blade Ward.
I only play Hexblade warlock. No eldritch blast. Armor of Agaths is my friend, but hex only works if I somehow get to use a DB scimitar.
You didn't address the additional Eldritch Invocations that enhance Hex. Maddening Hex is good when you don't have any other uses for your BA and that's at least a little more guaranteed damage. Relentless Hex is good for melee builds such as the Hexblade. Before you mention Hexblade's Curse, keep it mind you only get it once per rest, so if there's another enemy you need to pin down, Hex them and use Relentless to close the gap quicker.
Alright, with that out of the way, lemme just mention my other thoughts about Hex. I currently have the privilege of playing a level 17 pure warlock (Undead pact best, fite me). I found that, as I leveled up, I was naturally casting Hex less and less. I was instead using my concentration on spells like Greater Invis, Enervation, and Hold Monster. Even then, once I hit level 14, I was foregoing those in favor of Spirit Projection, which eats up concentration anyway (I think that's stupid, but okay WIzards). My point is, many warlocks (who don't rely on Maddening/Relentless for their build) will eventually learn to stop casting Hex naturally. Was this video good advice? Yes, it's a further incentive to use the spell more sparingly.
PS: If you doubt the warlock's DPR, you haven't seen one who's been given an Illusionist's Bracers. That shit's scary.
I actually forgot the invocations to enhance hex lol. I don't value them though.
You mention that relentless hex is good for hexblades, but the synergy with the spell isn't necessary on hexblades. Relentless hex works on hexblades curse you don't need the hex spell.
Maddening hex on the other hand is something that more than just hexblades consider. So let's consider it. It's a bonus action to do damage, and the target took a bonus action to have hex on him, that turn prior was hex first then eldritch blast, the turn then is eldritch blast then maddening hex, so the target will take 2 full turns of hex eldritch blast damage before they take any damage from maddening hex at all, if they're alive at after all that plus the warlocks allies. When they do die the problem repeats itself. How long is a target expected to live? How often do you move it? Madening hex may do 5 damage true with no save, but the DPR is still low because so few turns of your action economy are actually spent doing maddening hex damage.
If you are considering either, consider them on a hexblade when hexblades curse can be used. Hexblades curse is good unlike hex. And these invocations struggle to compete with seeing through magical darkness created by hungar of hadar or darkness, or a cloak of flies if you are in melee, since that doesn't take any action economy to do it's 5 foot range 5 damage. And it certainly doesn't compete with the damage you can concentrate on by repelling blast people through, or lance of lethargy people in environmental hazards which you might create yourself with such spells as hungar of hadar or wall of fire or spike growth or black tentacles depending on subclass which actually out DPR hex. maddening hex included! It's a poor investment into damage when you could be improving both your utility, defenses control AND damage by an even larger margin with a more powerful versatile invocation and spell combo! In short: Maddening hex improves the DPR of hex by a margin smaller than another invocation can improve the DPR of another spell or tactic.
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar I mentioned that even with hbc, that's once per short rest when the possibility exists of needing to lock down another target
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar nb maddening hex also damages any targets of your choice within 5 feet of the hexed monster; that doesn't make it good, but it's worth factoring in
@@forfaerghus8092 at that point you are investing into a situation far too specific for one of your limited spells known,
I’d generally recommend a way of closing the distance that doesn’t itself require 2 bonus actions per enemy you want to approach, one to apply and one to close, because in 2 rounds you can usually get to most enemies. especially when you can get misty step or far step which doesn’t have to wait the turn you apply it before you can teleport and isn’t restricted to towards your opponent. You lose out on some dpr. But gain considerably more maneuverability and save a invocation. You might also consider the extra speed you get from fly, or if you insist on an invocation eldritch pull pulls each hit.
Especially when you are a hex blade there are more invocations worth getting than you can ever dream of having and spending 2 turns to be able to teleport next to a creature is clunky and awkward. Hex has a range of 60 feet and it takes two turns to teleport you can head 60 feet in that time so you need only worry about using it if in combinations with the environment flight or a target running away, but in such situations isn’t fly going to be better? Or dimensions door? Or far step or something? We would you set up a way to teleport to a target two turns walking distance away from you that itself takes 2 turns to preform?
Hex blades curse is 1/sr but that’s still every other combat
Id like to point out that if we are comparing the damage effectiveness of this 1 slot/bonus action when compared to others, the total damage for the entire battle should be considered. It doesn't just do 2.3 average damage once, it does 6.9 average damage over a 3 round encounter. At level 5, that ups to 13.8. Which isn't much, but it isn't like there are a lot of other spells that can deal that much with a BA or 25+ average damage with an action (adjusted for 65% accuracy) at that level.
the fact that they adjusted it to DPR already does this. Damage Per Round is a standardized metric that measures the effective damage a given strategy, build, or combo deals compared to the amount of effort and time it takes you to pull it off. This is actually more useful, as we can't actually control for how long a fight is going to be outside of generalization, but we -can- control for efficient use of resources on a per-turn basis, because whether the fight lasts one turn or 100 turns, the build/strategy/combo that pulls off the highest DPR will on average end up with the highest total damage, because it compounds linearly over time.
Wait does magic missile with 3 darts at level 1 count as 3 attacks?
@@aidenbaloca8534 No, on account of it's not an attack since you don't make an attack roll.
To be less of a pedantic ass and answer the question you were probably asking, each magic missile die is a separate instance of damage yes. It's what makes MM so good at breaking concentration. No matter what your mod is, roll enough and you'll eventually fail.
@@aidenbaloca8534 "damages with an attack" feels like something some DMs might call that out on, 'If you aren't making an attack roll it's not an attack' sort of thing. So maybe.
Invocations make the damage not matter anyway, and you can make the enemy worse at what they do best.
Judging Hex by its Damage per round is like judging Fairy Fire by how often you encounter invisible enemies...
And saying that you shouldn't use it at every encounter like most warlocks do is like saying you shouldn't use fairy fire at every encounter, but fairy fire is more obvious
So how are you judging it? It doesn't offer much else.
He does say to take it and to use it, just not to use it exclusively.
I find the disadvantage on ability check makes hex a great spell to pick up for a martial class through a feat. Though it is weird that the poster spell for warlocks scales so terribly with their spellcasting.
Hunger of Hadar suffer even worse as it doesn't gain anything from upcasting.
It's great spell to pick for the Fey Touched feat, even better on a melée spellcasting class like paladin or eldritch knight.
@@MethosJK9 I've seen it do some fantastic work on an assassination rogue. Choose wisdom to debuff their perception checks, crit sneak attack with 2d6 extra necrotic damage and then rinse and repeat. It won't work for every bandit stronghold but it'll work on a decent number.
To list a number of superior options to Hex at various levels, available to Warlocks:
Magic Stone: Bonus action damage cantrip, 1d6+mod per attack. Three attacks at maximum. Hand these out to NPC hirelings, Tiny Servants or whatever the party has.
Bless: A 1-level dip in Divine Soul gives you a DPR boost better than Hex when you look at the whole party, factoring in the opportunity cost of not EBing that round.
Phantasmal Force, when used to make something that obscures enemy line of sight and deals 1d6 damage, deals around 12 damage(party deals baseline damage).
Shatter does more in one round than Hex in four versus three targets. Opportunity cost of not EBing included.
Tasha summons do better damage and have special abilities. Summon Lesser Demons has abyssal chickens, throw them in a fog cloud(they have blindsight) and they do almost as much damage in one round as Hex does in a day! Fiend gets Fireball which is of course insane, even upcast Shatter outperforms.
Level 4 spells, Summon Greater Demon gives two melee bruisers in the form of Barlglura and Tanarukk. There's also upcasting Tasha summons for 2 attacks.
Level 5 spells, Danse Macabre is absolutely glorious with Magic Stone, it's basically the Warlock's Animate Objects but even better and ranged! Upwards of 40DPR while Hex is doing 4.9. Then there's Synaptic which is Fireball damage with a glorious condition applied on top.
Hex lul.
> Bless
You don't need to dip anything. Fey-touched lets you choose any 1st-level Enchantment spell. Bless is Enchantment.
Edit: On that note, this also means anyone - even a Fighter - can get Hex/Hunter's Mark, since both are Enchantment.
I forget about magic stone.
It usually isn't talked about much.
@@terraomastar Hex is Enchantment, Hunter's Mark is Divination.
@@carlosforma5978 Ah, you are correct! Fey-touched allows for either school, so that's why I forgot that detail.
Your comment is a bit of a roller-coaster of good and bad ideas.
Magic Stone is unreliable as it requires minions. You simply don't have enough cantrip choices to justify taking it at 1st. Even later they are just too easy to kill.
Bless is amazing but there's a whole video on that.
Phantasmal Force is amusing but you never count damage dealt by allies in a spell you cast. Control is always good however.
Shatter is good as you mention.
Obviously summons are great at both dealing damage and protection as any damage they take is hopefully damage that your party doesn't. This point holds up.
Danse Macabre is unreliable, it requires humanoid corpses. At least that is solvable in most adventures since your killing things, at last your Magic Stone is finally useful now that your 9th level... Even better it falls apart if your not killing humanoids. At least it lasts an hour? However it's foolish to take something unreliable over something good like Synaptic Static. Honestly its likely better to cast Summon Undead (Skeleton) over Danse Macabre, at least you can guarantee you can use it.
8:18 a good option for hex would be Wisdom checks for if you have a rogue in your party since having disadvantage on their perception checks will subtract their passive perception by -5 which is what a rogue's stealth check needs to beat in order to be hidden and then disadvantage if they use their action on their turn to make a perception check
when i first read Hex, i made the mistake thinking "disadvantage on ability checks" was the same as "disadvantage on saving throws". I thought i could hex their wisdom saves to make other spells more likely to land. . .and it doesn't work that way. ability checks are like, if you want to jump across a pit or keep from slipping on ice, and i realize, that's not quite so useful in midcombat when you are trying to damage the eemy down. but on the same grain, extra damage is extra damge , no? it's better than witch bolt, because wotch bolt requires an attack roll to hit and IF your witch bolt lands, you pretty much can't do anything else as long as you maintain it and when the target dies, the spell ends, you can't move it to another target like you can with hex.
i do agree with the argument to swap it out when you reach higher levels and gain access to better options
Thing is, Hex's greatness isn't from the extra damage. It's for disadvantage. A target does not know it's been hexed. Need to lie to an npc, hex their Wisdom. Now they roll Insight on disadvantage. Need to sell something at a super high price, hex their Intelligence. Want your frontliner to have an easier time knocking someone prone or off a cliff, hex their Strength or Dexterity. Want to make sure a Counterspell attempt fails, hex their spellcasting modifier.
Hex is good not just in battle but also for social combat.
@@Ashtari yeah I find it's so useful in a creative combat group that does more than the mmorpg style of dps rotation kind of play, but instead tries for trips, shoves and other restraining style plays that make use of checks. Out of combat use is also great but I feel that you must know the mechanics at your table of hidden spell casting as audible range of verbal components and how noticeable the visual ques of spells or somatic components are.
I love the subtle spell metamagic, but I find that it's existence without any rules or guidelines on sneaky casting kind of makes it so it's either the only way to be sneaky while casting or it's useless unless you are a close up street magician.
I love that most of the base illusions only have m as a component and it's a common fabric so very easy to have in your hand.
You can't expect no one to notice
Guard 1 "hey you there, why are you here?"
PC: oh shit got to talk my way out of this
While making a controlled arcane gesture towards guard with a petrified eye of a newt in the other hand and saying "Vissto hamma nu'masto"
PC: "who me? I've been sent by the mayor to investigate what's going on"
Guard: "What the fuck was that? Did you just cast a spell on me?"
While that's an obvious case where you need subtle magic....
Can you pre cast before approaching the guard so you give him not only disadvantage on insight but also perception and how far away do you have to be.
Stealthy casting is different to subtle magic and I think has to be clarified at a table. Allow to much and you step on the sorcs toes and possibly allow for too much, be too strict and you limit spell creativity outside of combat.
@@Ashtari except they can see you cast the spell unless you're a sorcealock with subtle spell.
Also, no the real cost of Hex is your concentration and the impact that a bigger spell might have had. Putting one enemy to sleep to reduce the enemy's action economy is always going to be stronger. Similar for prismatic spray and so on.
@@solsystem1342 with a range of 90ft, it will be hard to spot. Most shops have windows, would be easy to hit a shopkeeper with it from down the street where they would never look.
I'm currently playing a melee warlock that used Hex until I got the ability to cast Spirit Shroud because it gives me more of a damage benefit and I generally end up using it in combination with slasher and a Tidecutter(basically a longsword that works like the thorn whip cantrip) as well as Mobile Flourish(multiclassed into swords bard) to control the movement of enemies.
Yes why have we not mentioned Spirit Shroud for Hexblades?
Small shout out to Hex on Wisdom and Dexterity. Wisdom decreases enemy passice perception with 5, making it WAY easier to get advantage against the enemy using stealth. this way you convert hex into granting advantage (some of the time) for some characters. The same goes for dexterity the other way, you make it way more difficult for enemies to stealth mid combat.
You could also use Hex to make sure that your party will have a higher initiative than an enemy by giving them disadvantage to dex since initiative is a dex check.
@@fredfullthedreadful IMO you would trigger initiative by wanting to cast hex on the enemy. and you would not be able to cast hex before your turn in initiative.
@@herrkrabbe148 You and many others have said something like that in this comment section, and you are all stuck in combat-brain. Have you ever tried casting spells outside of combat?
With 90ft range, you could cast it from the third floor of a tower through an arrow slit at someone passing below. They _should_ fail the perception check to see you, and with their Wisdom cursed your party Rogue can stalk them for hours.
At higher levels, it does become extremely niche, but imposing disadvantage without a save can be a nice tool in your belt.
Edit: I'm implying that spell casting shouldn't make everyone roll initiative if nobody even detects the spell casting. Do you make people roll initiative when they cast teleport in the town square? When they cast Detect Magic as a ritual? When they are using healing spells after the combat is over? No.
7:43 Counterpoint: The warlock feels to me like someone tried to design a caster using the design guidelines for martials, so it ends up feeling more like a martial than a caster in terms of how it's balanced. It's more similar to a magic archer than it is to other full casters. That said, you still have a point in that they _are_ casters, even if their balance is closer to that of a martial, and so you should be focusing more on what kind of spells you can cast, rather than pure damage output.
Treantmonk mentioned your channel in one of your videos, and so far I've really been enjoying the content. Keep up the great work
I will always say this: warlocks were made for multiclassing
In their story hooks, in their front-loaded nature, synergies with other classes, the sheer versatility, the ability to get a few spell slots on a short rest separate from regular casting but also compatible with it, and hex I think is the epitome of that.
The thing is, with warlock pure, you'd be forced to use one of your few high level slots for that first level spell. Not so with even a single level in, say, sorcerer. Better yet, going deep enough for metamagic gives you better uses for your bonus action, which actually improves the dps of hex if you're quickening EB for burst.
Also, if you can hex before the fight breaks out!!
A dex hex will have general uses, AND stiffle the most important skill check in combat: INITIATIVE. Subtle Hex the enemy caster before initiative and then just double EB nuke em down
I've played Bard 10 Warlock 1 with the Eldritch Adept feat for Agonizing Blast. Hex is an incredible spell when you have that deep pool of spell casting to draw from. Hex is only a trap if you're playing a full warlock, for all other classes it can easily add 20d6 damage per cast, better than the best fireball.
@@abronian I'm very much considering hexblade levels on my Astral Self monk... the dps increase.......
Hex really isn't all that good when you get second level spells that use concentration like darkness. If you use it right for one level if you taje devil's seight its basically permanent advantage on attack rolls to you and disadvantage to an enemy trying to hit you. Stack it with a mirror image and you're basically invincible with a bad AC and can freely walk around lol.
Okay, so I watched through the whole video and I feel like something very important about Hex was missed, especially in relation to the Warlock.
Hex has an INSANE duration time and while it may do less straight up damage in one encounter, one casting can be dragged out throughout the WHOLE DAY when cast at a certain level, which is majorly important to a Warlock who only has like 2 or 3 spell slots.
Additionally you can apparently maintain it through a short rest, meaning you now have Hex going AND all your spell slots, making it the best option at the start of the day.
If it’s the end of the day and you’re probably going to long rest after the fight you’re doing, sure go for the big damage spells.
I did bring up the duration in another comment, but as I think about it, this is less of an issue for warlocks. Since you can get your slots back on a short rest, warlocks don't really need the spell to last for 24 hours. It's nice, sure, but the real price is _still_ concentration, and there's much better spells to concentrate on, especially at higher levels.
@@Greywander87 Yes but like I said, you can maintain concentration through short rests, so you're literally just getting a bonus until you need another concentration spell, making it still worth it if cast early in the day. This was confirmed by Mike Mearls when asked about this in regards to Hex and short rests. As long as you don't sleep during your short rest, you're good to go.
It's sustainabiliy and more bang for your buck to drag out your spell slot.
@@connerkline6269 I noticed the long duration early on in 5E and yes you can concentrate on it across rests, but that's classic WotC too clever by half design, I think. So often it seems to get forgotten. If it doesn't, it's yet another thing to remember and/or annoy the DM with.
@@crimfan I don't understand why that would be annoying or hard to remember. If you cast Hex towards the start of the day, just remember to drop it if you cast another concentration spell or fail a concentration check, which you'd have to do anyway with any concentration spell. It shouldn't be annoying, it's just using your spell slots intelligently.
@@connerkline6269 I dunno but it always seems to be forgotten. Then you have to say to the DM that you did actually cast it. I think it’s because of the super long duration across short rests. That’s why I think WotC was too clever by half with it. They wanted you to cast it, short rest, and get a slot back, but that really feels like pointless paper pushing to me.
I really dislike Concentration as a mechanic, but especially outside of combat. In combat easy enough to remember and makes sense, but out of it it just ends up being irritating.
You didn't talk about this part,
"If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to curse a new creature."
By the rules you can concentrate for an hour and transfer it between creatures. Subsequent turn means that outside the first combat you use it in, you can still concentrate on it till the next combat. In a dungeon crawl this is a really proficient use of a spell slot.
Mm. This is mostly correct, but rounds are in play even if the group isnt tracking them. Time still continues even if you're not paying attention to it. Unfortunately, in this case, the "next round" is simply the set of six seconds immediately following the previous one, not specifically referencing "the next round -of combat-".
@@michaelanthony2852 Yeah, the spell doesn't specify which round, just a subsequent turn. It means you can keep it going till the next combat. That I think is the value for warlock. Plus lowering someones ability score is good.
I'm in a campaign that typically does about 3 fights between short rests, one of those being a mini boss or occasional puzzle fight (the campaign is basically strung together micro adventures as we chase our teleporting baddie). Having hex up for 8 hours means I can go for 3 or 4 sessions without feeling compelled to cast a spell every fight to stay relevant, and I can still cast my big ones too! After the first short rest of the "day" I *still* have hex up, and *also* have my spell slots back for big spells. Hex isn't good in an individual fight no, and if I was in a situation where my concentration was constantly at risk it definitely would reconsider, but getting to have it all day for the cost of a slot you get back an hour later anyway? It's pretty efficient.
I've never casted this spell before, but I'd take it in a more roleplay heavy campaign, specifically if the dm has a lot of npcs doing active checks. Its supposed to be more like a debuff curse than a damage buff. Imagine casting hex on the manipulative bad guy you know is deceiving a royal court, so you can give him disadvantage on charisma checks. Or giving a guard keeping watch disadvantage on wisdom so your rogue has an even better chance to sneak past.
I'm gonna be honest, I think you're sleeping on the advantages eldritch invocations can give with hex. With hex placed on an owl familiar with the maddening hex and relentless hex invocations your bonus action can do aoe damage or be used for a speedy escape. If you have a source of first level castings for it, through multi-classing or feytouched or w/e, it can be really solid, and if the familiar dies you can just switch it to someone else and still get the damage
But you'll kill your owl with a maddening hex 👀
@@L0stHumanity
Maddening Hex deals damage to the cursed creature, plus any creatures of your choice within 5ft of it. So yes, this is correct, unless the owl is somehow immune to psychic damage.
The value of hex comes over it’s duration. It’s a bonus 3.5 damage every attack for 8 hours. With eldritch blast it can get up to 14 extra damage per round for 8 hours. And with how few spell slots the warlock gets it pulls it’s weight hard. People just need to realize that there are certain scenarios in which your concentration is better served on other spells.
I second the thoughts on Sleep being underrated, particularly for Warlocks. At high level, it gets automatically upcast to 5th level, meaning you'll have 13d8 (avg 58.5) affected hp. Nothing 5th level or lower potentially matches that. If it rolls higher than their current hp, there is no save, no legendary resistance, nothing. Unless they are straight up immune to charm or sleep spells, they drop. That's actually a really powerful tool, even if it's not applicable in every single fight.
On the topic of disadvantage on checks, let's not forget that a creature with disadvantage on perception takes a -5 to their passive perception, what makes it much easier for the rogue to successfuly hide against them
The real fun comes with the disadvantage to ability checks which is niche but has plenty of applications if you try. I wouldn't say that the entire point of Barbarian is to have good single target damage either. I think the only thing they get to increase their damage is a +2 per round, from levels 1-3. Other than that minor nitpick, great video. I love the subtle costume change at the end.
I love the way you share all of your information. This is my favorite style for power builds.
Appreciate the love of just acknowledging Blood Hunters
I actually... Don't know what they can do. Never seen them in play or read them. I just know they focus on single target damage.
@@PackTactics they do, and they're really really good at it
Archfey Warlock also gets Faerie Fire to raise DPR for the entire party which is a more valuable use of concentration.
Look mom! Its the better Hunters Mark! Too bad its still not very good
I appreciate the Interesting take somthing I never considered before. Always enjoy optimisation talk
Digging the pipes in the background. Really distinguished choice for fill noise.
Thanks for the video!
That's actually me playing. I'm a bagpiper.
Hex can only continue being really useful at higher levels of you take advantage of it's increased duration. Wake up, cast it on a squirrel, blast the squirrel to bits, then spend an hour getting ready for the day. You've recovered the spell slot, and now still have the effect for 8 or 24 hours. If you need to throw something else with concentration later, go ahead--no big loss, since you had already recovered the spell slot.
For Multiclassing, Hex can be pretty good. As a Fighter, a D6 to any Attack scales much faster
Better off with hunter's mark if you want raw damage as it matches the weapons damage type. Very few things resist magical weapon damage while there's a number that resist necrotic.
@@Kronosxviii1 Yes, but you can get Hex with Hexblood, Hunters Mark requires Multiclassing, a Feat or some Race I don't know of if it exists
@@JonathanMandrake Hexblood is considered a lineage right? Which means giving up racial traits and there are potentially powerful traits & features that you may not want to give up like the kobolds pack tactics or an Aasimar's transformation.
Why multi-classing at all? We've Magic Initiate.
Want to know what happens when a 5th level monk who decides not to use his 2 extra attacks for double the damage of the other 2 normal attacks? Nothing different!
Want to know what happens next turn when all 4 of his attacks do double the damage? It happens that there is much more blood all over the monk than inside the target.
@@simoneval2619 Forget Magic Initiate. Fey Touched can get you Hex, Misty Step, and a boost to one of your stats.
This is why I really like taking the Fey Touched feat. It gives me the flexibility to still use hex, but not spend my spell slots unless I really need it. Plus misty step and a +1CHA
Nice explanation, never understood why it was considered a trap when I couldn't pick anything better at first level, but this made a lot of sense
I like spamming _sypnotic static._
You're forgetting the disadvantage on ability checks (with *no* save). Yeah, the spell may fall off on the damage curve, but if you pair it with something (like, say, a grappling front-liner) or target a strength to turn it into a weakness (such as an abjurer's spellcasting ability to cripple counters and dispels), Hex became extremely useful extremely quickly.
A day will come when Kobold correctly pronounces Synaptic static, but its not today.
Wait till I cover the spell!
Love the shout out for Sanctuary - it's always been one of my favorite spells and doesn't seem like it gets much love.
Yeah, I was gonna say that the only reason most Locks use Hex so often is probably for the disadvantage to one ability check (edited out "save") to combo with other casters _but_ you covered that towards the end. 😄 Also, totally agree that Locks should be using the biggest spells. All. 👏 The. 👏 Time. 👏 To get the most out of that class. I don't recall the highest level my Fey Lock reached but when I realized I was upcasting many spells, you know I was going for the best bang for my buck (now if I could only pick spells better 😅).
"Hex so often is probably for the disadvantage to one save"
just to clarify, hex does not affect saving throws, only skills checks.
@@RayQuade Ah yes, you're right. I should have double checked that part. Oops.
Good message but the overuse of emojis was so cringe while reading your comment. Plus it was preaching to to the choir for me as I’m a veteran player of both the warlock and bloodhunter classes. To me at least, it was very intuitive that the warlock class was basically a human artillery piece so at least for me, It was obvious from the get-go that I should take the most spectacular spells that I could and then for my reliable damage and even more control (either to stack on my spells or have it if if I don’t get it from my spells), I’d roid up eldritch blast.
Instead of Hex, the best spell I have found to combo with Eldritch Blast is Spike Growth. Grab Repelling Blast and maybe Grasp of Hadar and you will be dealing 4d4 instead of 1d6 and sanding your enemy against the floor, while potentially affecting several different opponents. This also works wonders with Hexblade, because due to the wording of Hexblade's Curse, both the eldritch blast and the spikes count as separate damage sources, meaning your target takes double proficiency damage each time you move them across the field of spikes.
With 20 CHA, EB, SG, RB, GoH and Agonizing blast, at level 17 you will be dealing 1d10+4d4+5+12 damage per hit. Throw in Metamagic Adept, Warcaster, Polearm Master, and Action surge if you really wanna minmax it.
The Eldritch Cheese Grater
God I hate this build, saw it twice... it took so long to throw all dices...
Don't use shield as a warlock either though because it's not worth one of you 2 spellslots (until level 11 far after you have higher level spells) for one turn of higher ac
I enjoy the different perspective than most guides that, like you said "don't think, just take it"
Hey Kobold! For what it's worth, I haven't seen Hex on a Warlock in years with people I play with :) They'd rather try other things, at least beyond low levels. I wouldn't say they're optimizers, either.
Guess I'm out of touch. I see it too often.
On the one time I've played Warlock, I didn't grabbed Hex. For one, I had almost no defensive option (dumped Dex due to character concept), so Armor of Agathys was the thing that allowed me to survive when hit. Second, Archfey has two great first level spells on Sleep and especially Faerie Fire. And third, I was more geared towards support, so the damage was useless.
I usually defend spells like Haste and Hunter's Mark for their secondary uses and cumulative value. But Hex is the one I honestly don't see myself grabbing it. It doesn't even have an out-of-combat utility like Hunter's Mark. It is mostly damage and, at most, disadvantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks. You could cast it to give disadvantage on Perception and Insight checks on sneaking around, but guess what? Charm Person does it better.
Overall Hex is not a trap, it's just a bad spell. And even considering Warlock's spell list, there are better options. Again, Armor of Agathys, while not amazing, gives you the survivability to hold one or two attacks. Hellish Rebuke is a decent damage tool on reaction, something rare to see. And, most importantly, you have Cause Fear, a great single target shutdown for 1st level. What would be better against the big boss from your first dungeon, 2 more damage per turn or forcing disadvantage against its attacks and forcing it to not approach the rest of the party? You have Arms of Hadar, Charm Person and Protection from Evil and Good as well, all options that do more than Hex.
I really like Armor of Agathys for the reasons you list. Also, it's not a Concentration spell. I played a Warlock in AL. In that, it's not all that unusual for a character to have to step outside their role such as when you're 3rd or 4th level and the party fighter is 1st level. AoA helps a lot with stepping into the breach. It also scales reasonably well with level.
"Have you ever seen a straight warlock--" I'ma let you finish, but no.
The last warlock i played, I found using my few spell slots to support my party with counter spell, or negating other enemy actions was far more useful then hex.
The reason why hex is so good is because you can basically hex a critter, kill it and then move it on something else with a bonus action later on. You can basically hex someone without them being able to notice it at all.
A trap is something that looks good on first glance, but doesnt hold up to further investigation. Hex is none of that. Hex is even better if you make full use of its potential.
Nice vid, good job on making the point about it affecting ability checks, most people seem to sleep on that.
'The rangers spell list is better.'
Every spellcaster ever in a batman voice: "You take that back!"
Swap it for Spirit shroud immediately when the chance presents itself to you
Or better still, one of the good spells. Spirit Shroud is a trap just as much as Hex.
@@haenhaen4282 Can you elaborate on that?
@@Dile0303 It's basically the same. One damage dice per attack. 1d8 instead of 1d6, not a big deal. It has some advantages and disadvantages compared to Hex, but in the end, it comes pretty even I think. No, maybe it's even worse than Hex. No need to switch targets may save you a bonus action or two, upcast for damage is good, but it's still only 2d8 max and it's not enough to compete with the other options, and 10 ft range makes it useless for any non-Blade warlock as you don't want to be that close to enemies as a warlock. Speed reduction isn't that meaningful since the enemies are already 10 ft away from you. Really, the only class this spell makes some sense on is Paladin, and even then I'm not sure there aren't better options.
@@antongrigoryev6381 iirc bless is a bigger damage boost than spirit shroud, it really is weak on paladins
@@haenhaen4282 Also thought so. It's just if we don't present Paladins as an option, it means this spell is totally useless.
**Sweats In Warlock Main who has never cast Hex.**
The damage is just the cherry on top, my dude.
I just like the idea of psuedodragon making someone go unconscious by failing their con save
In my experience it is almost always better to just kill what your fighting instead of crowd control, and debuff spells. Also you say it is bad damage, but you have two spells. Until water later. And at the end you only really have 4 slots. There is really no spell that will allow you to do consistently more damage then her. Being at higher level it lasts 24 hours. And yes you can do more damage faster with other spells. But unless your dm is really nice you are not getting a short rest after every fight. So thus ya you did damage faster in that one fight, but now you have no spells for the next one. Then all you have is a damage cantrip. And yes eldrich blast is the best damage one. Whether it is stand alone or with hex. Now yes others can be used and it is fine, but having a cantrip you can add a mod to damage makes you so much stronger.
And with the whole bonus action thing unless you are multiclassing warlocks don't use there bonus action constantly. And because of this you can also get the evocation that makes it so you can do a small aoe damage from your hex every turn. Making it deal even more damage.
Now to end a warlock is not and never will be a full caster. A full caster has 21 spell slots at level 20. A war lock has 4 and 4 special spells slots. That is not even half a full caster. And you can't even use spell points as a warlock by the rules. They get short sheeted in almost every regard.
I love warlocks and ranges but they bothe need some love. That they probably will never get
do you never take short rests? did you also forget about mystic arcanum, or their capstone? i’m not going to say their capstone is good, but they still get 12 castings of spells a day at level 20, and they’re all at 5th level or higher. that’s more than half, ever so slightly, and it’s way more 5th level spells than anyone else.
i agree they should get a couple more spell slots (proficiency bonus maybe) but if you’re not short resting, everyone’s worse off. everyone can spend hit dice, fighters get almost everything back, monks do get everything back, the only ones who get nothing but spending hit dice are barbarians, rangers, rogues, and sorcerers. even some of their subclass features will key off of short rests.
@@Hazel-xl8in yes this is true but i was more meaning in a fight. you have 4 spells at the end. and yes there is mystic arcanum but those spells are once a day, and you can not change them. so if you picked one that was good at a low level. well now it is not. so you have an almost worthless spell. also you can not always short rest. lets say you have to do two fights back to back. then what. you at most will have time to use your capstone. where every other class spell caster or not. has so much more sustain then you. heck the ranger has more sustain then you.
If you're playing against homebrew monsters where the DM can just say "oh it has immunity to charm/fear condition" when you cast hypnotic pattern/fear then Hex is still one of the most reliable option
Warlock is cursed with being one of the strongest dips in the game so full or near full warlocks are pretty rare to see while dips are super common. At least in my experience. Same with paladins and to a lesser extent clerics.
I couldn't subscribe until I checked you knew how to calculate advantage properly. You do. Great video!
One thing I love about Hex that stays good is that if you have another spellcaster in the party, you can coordinate with them to target a saving throw that the caster uses a lot, making your buddy more effective.
hex only works on ability checks, not saving throws.
Been playing a hexblade for about 8 months now and never cast Hex and have no regrets 😂😂
I still think it's pretty decent for the magic missile build, though I do wish there was a greater hex type spell
Bestow curse in many ways would fulfill this role; the problem with that spell for warlocks is that they have to use an invocation to get access to that spell if you are not multiclassing
hex doesn’t work with magic missile? i mean, if you take jim’s magic missile with acquisitions incorporated, sure. but normal magic missile has no attack rolls, therefore no hex damage.
Would like to throw out some advice, with tasha’s by level 4 as a warlock take fey touched feat every time and this gives a +1 to CHA (or wis/int but obvi take cha) PLUS you learn misty step and a 1st lvl divination or enchantment spell, and pick hex. You learn both spells and can cast them with spell slots but also get a free casting of each spell once per long rest, allowing you to still use ol reliable at any level without consuming those valuable spell slots.
If your campaign goes on long enough I’d also consider taking 2 levels in fighter for extra AC (defense training plus shield proficiency for +3AC) and get action surge to throw out twice as many eldritch blasts once per short rest to potentially double that hex damage in a turn. Also the maddening hex feat is really good if you need something to do with your bonus action (bonus action to deal your cha mod in dmg to a hexed target and any creatures of your choice within 5ft of that target, which would also trigger hex damage). Enjoy!
I'd say one of the biggest boons for Hex is the upcasted duration, because you might not have a DM that follows the suggested number of short rests vs long rests per adventure arc. When playing from long rest to long rest, having the ability to keep a spell going for 8+ hours is a major boon for a Warlock, especially if you're more focused on the hex-based invocations.
While the 1d6 bonus damage is minute, the necrotic aspect is useful against creatures who are vulnerable against it or have their regeneration prevented by it.
Finally, the fact you can apply disadvantage to an ability check can be amazing inside and outside of combat:
Strength: You've captured the Bandit Chief alive and are ready to turn him for the bounty. You cast Hex on him to make it difficult for him to break his restraints.
Dexterity: You're chasing a cutpurse who nabbed your satchel down the market street. You cast Hex on the thief, which makes it difficult for her to weave through the crowd and to hide.
Constitution: A bard offends you before he leaves for the red light district. You cast Hex on the bard to make it more difficult to endure the night.
Wisdom: There is a lone guard on duty watching the warehouse entrance. You cast Hex so your Rogue Assassin has an easier time sneaking by or taking out the guard.
Intelligence: Your party trying to pawn off a gold-coated lead statuette as solid gold to a black market merchant. You cast Hex on the merchant to make his inspection more difficult.
Charisma: A comedian has offended a noble and the noble wants you yo humiliate the comedian publicly. You cast Hex on the performer to make his performance more difficult.
While there are better short term options at the Warlock's disposal as you've mentioned, however I don't think Hex is as bad as you make it out to be.
I laughed a big when he said level 1 spells cant out do things like fighter. Chormatic orb 3d8 and inflict wounds 3d10 both level one spells. Also high level clarics are so scary at dps spirtal weapon + inficlt wounds = death
Kobold is not the brightest
He's actually not even good
He usually misinterprets things and don't put his creativity to work, specially on this, since Hex is not just a combat cantrip
Fathomless gets the tentacle at level 1, which actually just outclasses Hex it most situations in tier 1 play. Tentacle does 1d8 cold vs Hex's 1d6 necrotic. Both are bonus actions. The only issue is that Tentacle requires a seperate attack roll, and the bonus action every turn.
So I dunno which is better, but I'm sure someone will tell you.
Dont forget the tentacle nerfs the enemy speed by 10 feet if I recall. Properly, man do I love Fathomless so much
And Thunderwave is a solid spell at level 1-2 instead of Hex.
Mathematically, splitting up damage between separate attack rolls doesn't effect the damage per round. It defiantly makes a difference outside of the white board of damage calculations, but in this case it just further supports the Fathomless tentacle (I.E. Killing one enemy with Eldritch Blast then getting to hit another one with the Tentacle.)
So damage wise, the Tentacle does outclass Hex in Tier 1 by 0.7 damage a round. It'll fall below baseline by Tier 2, but as stated in this video you'll have better things to cast than Hex in Tier 2. And that's not going into the utility of the tentacles slowing enemies by 10 feet, which pairs nicely with Repealing Blast.
Hex to Warlocks is Sheleighly to Druids. Bonus action, great at low levels, doesn't scale so gets left behind.
The "oh kobold gator" killed me
Starting as of level 2, Misty Visions is a great use of your concentration. Cover the entire party (if they are within a 15ft. cube) with illusory darkness. All covered members are heavily obscured but the enemies are not! All members make attacks at advantage and are attacked at disadvantage + immunity to sight spells. Win button
These videos on 1.25 speed are....different in the best way? Woah. love this channel
Maddening Hex, Hexblades Curse, Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast armed with Crown of Stars = Dead Enemies
Come for the strategy, stay for the- “BUH-BYE!”
I've always had misgivings about Hex. Thanks for the validation.
Pact tactics I have to say I've found you only a couple days ago and honestly?? These guides have been a joy to listen to. This video alone made me go "Finally! Someone agrees with me on hex!" 🤣
Thanks for running these numbers. Much appreciated!
I have once made a warlock of dionysus, where I concentrated on mindaffecting spells and psychic damage spells. I found mind spike to be a really good pick there, because the spell becomes a good cc and multitarget spell on higher levels.
Consider the following: be a College of Swords Bard with the Fey Touched feat, take hex with this feat. Your other caster friend has Hold Person. Hex, Hold Person, and do a flourish (in that order). Not particularly sustainable, but really fun to do, you really squeeze every last bit out of your attacks. Especially if your DM lets you teleport 30ft above the enemy for the extra 3d6 damage on a hit.
Hex has an interesting benefit outside of combat as well. Since it doesn't cause a save, you could arguably use it to influence a target that needs to make checks to avoid a trap, traverse difficult terrain, or identify an illusion without them being aware they were ever targeted.
2 points about this great video
1. I have seen one person not take hex, in a gritty realism game using some homebrew balance changes. One change was to make thief of five fates viable, by letting you cast bane at will only targeting creatures up to your proficiency bonus, and creatures that make the save cant be targeted again for 24 hours. This one change opened up an incredible debuff Celestial warlock build that doesn't feel bad about dropping Hex and Eldritch Blast.
2. Like this video a lot, but I feel it's missing one option: Taking Hex with Fey Touched.
This build choice keeps almost all the benefits of Hex post level 5. Out of slots for big spells and need something reliable? Hex is there for you when you actually need it. Sure, it doesn't come back on a short rest, but all your big spells do. This means even when Hex isn't there for you, your character is still reaping the benefits of being a Warlock. Taking Bless over Hex in Fey Touched is better on paper, but in my personal experience, your bonus spell from Fey Touched only comes out AFTER you've burnt your Warlock spells. That should mean you are at least in the 3rd round of combat and the fight could be a few rounds from its conclusion. Both spells are worse for it, but Bless takes your action when Hex comes online the turn its cast.
Then if you are deep in a dungeon with no time to short rest, Hex will stay with you. At 1st level, Hex's duration is conveniently 1 hour, the amount of time needed for a short rest, so you are far less likely to be caught with your pants down out of spell slots. (Unless your DM attacks you in the last minute or so of a short rest, in which case, the optimal play might be to find a new DM.)
I feel like there is something to be said for "ease of use" as well. I understand that most people watching are interesting in tactics, but maximizing the benefit of your Bless over Hex is harder, and nobody plays perfectly as a spreadsheet implies. Humans position poorly, waste slots on bad calls, and just target the wrong creatures. Hex is more forgiving than Bless on player mistakes and bad situations. Warlocks are already a higher skill floor class that relies on capitalizing limited resources, so giving yourself a "tactically simple" option to fall on has a different kind of value.
About to make a bbeg hexbard who turns the souls into an electric guitar and phantasmal forces enemies during torture
Playing a warlock now, honestly if it wasn't for backstory reasons, I would have ditched Hex, but saying "I'm a Hex offender" I'd just too fun.
Despite being someone who lovess the warlock class, diidn't know this spell existed and never thought it was that good.
Warlock 1st level spells are pretty decent for a blade pact warlock all things considered.
For example, longsword, 1d8, cast hex and agathys, save hellish rebuke for emergencies, pretty good melee damage this way... Now I have a level 7 undead patron warlock who uses these spells and spirit shroud or shadow of moil depending on what flavor I desire, and with thirsting blade giving 2 attacks I can deal a fair amount of damage in one turn, in fact, we used the deck of many things and I got the sun card, and I got the blood fury tattoo, so that is fat stacks of necrotic that I can double the dice with undead feature...
Forgot to mention eldritch smite for emergency mega damage
I'm not sure if it makes it better enough to be balanced, but I allow upcasting hex to increase the size of the damage die by one for each level upcast.
Ah yes, the ol' reliable slippery slope fallacy.