There was this Hexblade concept I had a while back which was a guy who discovered a sword possessed by its former owner, a notorious long-deceased pirate. The warlock is desperately trying to figure out the location of the pirate's hidden treasure, but is impeded by the fact the guy is extremely senile and forgetful.
Reminds me of my own concept a smidge. A weapon possessed by the spirit of a famous adventurer whose adopted child inherited the sword. If I were to figure out their eventual pact weapon I imagine it would be the claymore rebuilding itself. Though I could also see for more complicated weapons that the core crystal just eats the rest of the sword to re-shape it.
Have a Hexblade warlock with a sentient dagger that's a tsundere. dagger: "I didn't save you because I like you. I just needed some one to carry me till I could fined a more worthy host.''
Hexblade is definitely one of my favorite subclasses in terms of flavor. The fact that, ironically, you don't actually have to use your Hex Warrior weapon allows you to make something more akin to a witch, cursing your enemies and raising the dead for assistance
in that case, I'd make it a ritual dagger, don't worry about daggers being a bad weapon since you're not going to use it anyways, hell you could even use the dagger like an athame to stab the air to fire your EB
Love the elementalist one! Also I like the idea of a brawler Hexblade whose weapon is brass knuckles. He can punch someone so hard their soul comes out of their body, then he grabs the soul by the scruff of the neck like "not so fast, you're with me now!"
I had a really fun hexblade which I played in a world that was post-magical nuclear war. My character was a Symic Hybrid, and his backstory was that he was taken as a child and experimented on. He had basically been spliced with a dragon. The group that was conducting the experiments discovered a weapon in what seemed to be an old fae grove. They used it on Nine (my character) The weapon was sentient and it chose Nine when it was used in him. It was the weapon of an arch devil that had been lost by its previous user in the grove, and the weapon had been purified and turned against its original master. It chose Nine because it felt kinship for a being that wished to fight against its original maker and purpose, and it helped him escape. Super fun character, very damaged, and he had this problem that the dragon would begin to take over when he was confronted with those that had harmed him. Very much trying to break the cycle of being a monster.
Yep! I have a hexblade paladin inspired by She-Ra and He-Man. It could also be a Celestial warlock with pact of the blade, but that's not as powerful nor as interesting.
For a campaign that unfortunately didn't last very long, I played a hexblade who was probably my favorite character I've played. Refonzo was a young dark elf boy who grew up without a father because he went off to war. Now, the two travel together and joined an adventuring party. Refonzo got his warlock powers from a mental illness that causes hallucinations, which was presented akin to the pyro from tf2. He pretty much lived in pyroland, but was a grim reaper-esq force of nature. However, he was still very naive and innocent. He loved (non-copyright) poems, and would read them out during downtime. I've been thinking of recycling the character for a later campaign so I can fully realize the greatness that is Refonzo Punworker. Edit: REFONZO WILL BE BACK BOYS LETS GO! The DM is writing a continuation of the campaign so we can finally play our characters again. Super exciting
I like the concept of a Vistana from Curse of Strahd using the mists that surround Barovia. Solidifying a rapier made of creepy supernatural fog, using tarokka card readings for curses, or just the evil eye.
Currently running a Hexblade Whisper Bard. He got on the bad side of a lich who used imprisonment to trap the bards soul in a blood ruby. That ruby is now afixed to the bards cane sword. Because his soul is sealed away, the bard is now an unwilling immortal, kind of like Dorian Gray. I used the Reborn race because every time he dies, the ruby restores his body, but not his memories. So by now, he’s actually forgotten everything, and thinks all the fragmented glimpses he has at night are just nightmares.
The accursed specter ability didn’t really make sense to me for the Hexblade especially if you’re patron is the Raven Queen whom hates the undead. I’ve flavored it to be a sentient weapon. I’m playing a metallic dragonborn hexblade who’s patron is an ancient dragon and the pact weapon is from the dragon’s hoard. The weapon bonds with the warlock and the invocation from pact of the blade is the weapon getting more powerful as the warlock levels up.
I think the Raven Queen doesn't have a problem with the of undead. She has a problem with undead that doesn't control. So having her warlocks conjure them (in her name/power) is not out of character.
An idea I have for a hexbladelock is using a sheathe as the way you summon weapons, see how confuses your enemies are when you throw away your longsword and pull a greataxe from your sheathe. This also kinda works with the magician concept of using sleight of hand to make weapons appear.
My hexblade’s patron is a powerful magic sword that went unused for a 1000 years and eventually lost most of it’s power. Seeing that my character had the ambition to become a hero but lacked the talent, the sword lent its remaining power in the hopes that it will regain its magic and sentience as my character grows stronger. A rare circumstance where the patron and client have the same goals and similar alignments.
An idea I had for a Hexblade was with the Kalashtar race from Eberron. Something happens to damage the connection between the host and dream spirit that make the Kalashtar. What was one is now two. So in order to maintain what connection they have left, they essentially form a pact with themselves. Drawing on the eldritch powers of the realm Dal-Quor through the dream spirit. Thus meaning the weapons you summon are the truest manifestation of the Quori spirit it can muster in the material plane in order to protect its host. If you want to take it a step further, have your Accursed Specter be your Quori spirit briefly possessing a corpse.
My Hexblade concept was a little girl with a teddy bear. The Teddy Bear is her patron, and always looked out for her and made sure she never had any nightmares. Inside the zipper pouch of the teddy bear is the weapon, or tome, or talisman, or familiar, like an extra-dimensional pocket.
I got an idea from the game "Transistor" with a twist, the patron is a paladin lover who was killed by a hellish sword. The paladin help her by moving the sword and giving her the magic through an oath.
I used a hexblade warforged that the blade was stuck in them and awakened the sleeping machine. Once downed the sword was a sentient, but not overly so. Was a fun mini boss encounter for players and I thought it was fun to re-flavour.
I have a hexblade who's prior owner swore her soul to the sword my dude finds. Basically she none too happy that this dude of all dudes is the one to get it but she agrees to work w him if he finishes her bounties, and the hexblade Warlock discovers that since her sort of reawakening, he's become a target of her old enemies too.
Another idea I’ve had lately is to treat it like the enchanted knights/carian knights from elden ring, and have your “patron” be your martial training (basically patronless, sorcerer with training and extra steps)
@@TheClericCorner Thanks! This one works REALLY well with the in game lore about Caria and glintstone sorcery thematically (which is basically pure, raw magic from the stars. Eldritch Blast and the force damage fit super well with this thematically). It's actually going to be my next Hexblade character too that I run!
When i read that your patron is your martial training, first line that comes up to mind for your 'patron' is: "Get dem maximum gains bruh!" Idk why....
I've been making my Hexblade to act similarly to a jedi, mage hand, super jump ability, but also lawful good dude that comes from a healthy family and is trying to help his friends go on adventures. GM has let me just think the Patron is just a voice I hear from time to time "Thanks creepy voice in my head! If you need help sounding less creepy we can workshop that a bit! You're loved too!"
My favorite Hexblade I've ever made was a farmer who got thrown into a *Colour Out of Space* situation and had to leave his life's work, bringing only his vaguely radioactive/sentient harvesting scythe with him. Also his name is a pun, Blyss Fulknight.
Currently playing a hexblade that is the sentient magic weapon (Spiked Knuckle Duster), his wielder is completely dominated and sadly just a passenger along for the ride. Although his conscience is starting to twist the weapon, DM has had a blast running the poor meat bag
Hex Lock/ Shadow Sorcerer… basically armor and weapons are all conjurations of pure shadow. Mage armor on command and weapons summons. If you ever make it lvl14 as the SS you get the awesome shocks jumping ability. Always like the Shadovar from FR!
Eventhough I loved Hex Blade but since I learned it's one of the most powerful subclasses in the game I've learned to love the Accursed Class by Ross Lieser. Maybe you could make a video on creative D&D curses to flavor your characters powers. Great Vid!
For my graduation party me and my friends are going to play a Greek/d&d Theros campaign where I’m going to play as a Revenant Hexblade Warlock who got killed by assassins who massacred and burned his home village, all the spectators he has are bound to 3 wisp clusters that are actually his village mates. Coming from Tartarus he has reaper like powers. His curse is similar to a mummy curse but fire and Tartarus themed
Love all of these ideas! I don't know why but warlock has always been stuck in my head as the trope "dark and broody, sold my soul to a demon and all I got was eldrich blast" class. Yes, I know, there are plenty of examples of how this isn't the case, but it still felt that way to me... and I am a creative player too! I reflavor most of my classes to fit my idea of the class at that time. I guess I just have a mental block when it comes to warlocks. This video and your better warlock video have helped a lot. Would love to see more. Thanks!
@@TheClericCorner Lol! I love them! What an amazing idea for a set of videos! There are plenty of channels that say "here is how to build a wizard" or "here is a novel way to play you fighter" but your videos go beyond that. I think the idea of taking the mechanics and making your own flavor for the entire class is amazing. As you can probably tell from my comments, I love coming up with ideas for interesting characters. Your channel has shown me a whole new way to flavor classes. I guess it should be obvious but it wasn't for me. Thank you again. And prepare for another stream of comments the next time I get the chance to watch a bunch. Lol. Great job, good luck, and keep it up!
Rather than a pure Warlock, I've been running a mix of Hexblade, Rogue, and Vengeance Paladin combination for a year now, thanks to the character being built according to in-game campaign events. Took awhile for it to ramp up (like character level 6 with Hex 1, Pal 4, Rogue 1) but it's an incredible combination. And the real core of it is the Hexblade 2 capabilities of Devil's Sight, Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast, and access to the Shield spell as a reaction. One thing the character is really good at is what the military calls a "mission kill". That is, not killing an enemy but completely negating that enemy's ability to accomplish anything. Hexblade cannot be complimented enough as far as I'm concerned; even one level of Hexblade boosts any characters' effectiveness if played properly.
I feel like you missed a step by mentioning He-Man but not any of the Magical Girl transformations from anime. Very similar in mechanics, yet different in flavor.
I had an idea for a Hexblade who is basically every Jack Black character ever A wannabe rock star who finds a magical guitar (literally an axe in the shape of a guitar) who imbues corpses with the power of rock and roll. His name…Jablinski
I had an idea for a hexblade super soldier, kind of similar to the abomination idea, but instead the sword was built by an artificer and then forged into the characters body. Said sword is sentient and the two form a pact out of necessity. Character escapes, party shenanigans ensue
On the same line of thinking as the Abomination, maybe summoning your pact weapon causes the bones of your hand and arm to grow rapidly, ripping through your skin to form your chosen weapon. Unsummoning it could be the unnatural bones crumbling and taking away from your hand, or for extra body horror you have to actually break the bones off to drop it. While I'm on Pact of the Blade flavor I should mention that in Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive the Knights Radiant gain their powers through bonding with a spren (a kind of spirit) that takes the shape of their weapon when needed. This is a great route to take it. Who says your patron has to hold all the power in the relationship instead of being a partner? I have to mention Tulok the Barbrarian's Scott Pilgrim build because it's kind of hilarious. He's a Hexblade having made a pact with his own dark side: Nega Scott. Just because the book says the Hexblade patron is usually a weapon doesn't mean it can't be the collective spirits of your ancestors with your accursed specters being their souls coming back to help you instead of the enemy you just killed.
I have been working on a custom lineage (half draw/half shadarkai) Hexblade Warlock which is a Fake Wizard, someone that pretends to be wizard casting spells out of a book but the book is a sentient entity that gives him his warlock powers. His Eldritch Blasts come out as beams of fire, electricity, or cold even though they only do force damage.He is a blaster build even though he is a Hexblade, going for Pact of the Tome instead of Pact of the Blade. Later on he also takes levesl in Shadow sorcerer to use some of the magic in his shadowfell heritage to keep up that image of a wizard even though he is not.
Zombie ants are more terrefyring, as they don't take over the brain, just the nerve to move the ant. So imagine you seeing your own body move on it's own, and you can't stop it, as the fungus cut of the connections between the brain and the body
I recently found homebrew where the class is given an alternative reflavoring where it became from a charisma based caster who made a deal with an otherworldly patron to an int based caster, known as an Evoker, who is a mage but never delving deeper into their studies like a wizard or just got their magic like a sorcerer. For hexblade i would like to reflavor it to a mage knight, perhaps elvish in origin, who knows how to fight up close and from a distance with fighting prowess and magic respectively.
Here’s my idea to flavour 1lvl dips into Hexblade, if you’re a Kalashtar you imbue the weapon with your Quori spirit during a long rest through a meditation ritual, or if you’re a tiefling, during the long rest you slather a weapon with a bit of your blood; imbuing it with the fiendish magic that runs through you and turning it into your hexblade weapon
My two favorite hexblades I've made are as follows: The first is a warlock character that I love to play who works for a mercenary company and literally his entire class from levels 1 to 20 or a written out contract between him and the company. He noted a loophole that there was nothing in the hexblade subcategory of the contract that actually necessitated he use a weapon. So he instead chose to utilize the Eldritch blast cantrip because it was 'more consistent', and learn to use the other features more creatively. His Undead servant was merely a local intern who is still looking for work in the field without having to worry about their original body getting destroyed and is the summoned in spiritual form with an instant recall should he come close to death. The second was a failed artificer. His grandfather was a ancient and powerful wizard and his father before him was a great artificer. But he wasn't good at anything magical. One night he poured everything he couldn't to making a sentience sword and their goal together was to try and both become as magical and as powerful as possible. Though they sometimes argued and got each other's throats it was a usually beneficial partnership and both growed as individuals. Unfortunately later down the line they ended up making a deal with a genie that turned all of their descendants into genasi in exchange for more spell slots, but that wasn't going to affect him so who cares.
I have this concept of a chaotic evil hexblade warlock which accidentally made a pact with a lawful good entity, so now he's constantly forced to be a hero with no apparent way to get out of the pact. So his goal is to break the pact.
There’s also the option, which I’m playing now, of a smith as a hexblade. Someone who forged their hexblade through either dedication, or ritual when forging. I won’t lie I kind of did it as a game of thrones reference. Forged the blade for 50 days and nights and had to imbue it with the soul of someone he loved (His mother in his case, they were already dead it’s fiiiiiineee) The specter is nothing to spectacular, the person within the sword was an ice mage so they’re icy ghosts. Still makes for a great and unique warlock story which is fun.
@@TheClericCorner most of them stump me but most especially the clockwork soul and wild magic, so id love to see your take on reflavoring either of those!
Im playing a hexblade except im the blade. My character was an oathbreaker paladin lvl 20 imprisoned within a sapphire blade feeding small abilities to the wielder (only two spell slots, minor invocation abilities, etc.)
Dark Templar from Age of Conan. Name your Spectre and flavor it as the slain enemy being the catalyst to summon your specific Spectre (I named mine Avitus of the Lost Legion) the way cultists kill a victim to summon a different entity. Also, give flowery names to all the class abilities to announce whenever you do something as a weaponfighter that is magical, and/or conceptualize the various features coming from specific relics from rings to amulets, various icons and other exotic items. Armor of Hexes: the Black Sight Amulet. Hexblade's Curse: Ring of Amonkaro's Revenge. Accursed Spectre: Lost Scroll of Azith's Archive. Etc. Or, the opposite route where it's as unmagical as possible. You play it off that you're not magically cursing your target; just taunting them. Your glib sense of superiority in a duel seems to make your weapon move faster than should be possible, or maybe your words are impeding the concentration of those around you. Armor of Hexes has you imposing just a 1% sluggishness to the attacks of those you hold eye contact with.
Could also go with a Darkin approach, where you fight over superiority of the flesh with your pact weapon. Every level up is a charisma saving throw. Succeed? More levels in Hexblade. Fail? You are a whole new character now, multiclass into Paladin, or Fighter.
Trying to find an RP flavor to justify Accursed Specter, I came up with an entire reflavoring of Hexblade: the Valkyrie. Everything fits. Hex and Hexblade Curse are like Hunter's Mark, a sign of impending judgement. A crooked Staff focus is a ceremonial bow from which an arrow of energy is fired (Eldritch Blast, even though the game doesn't require material components) Accursed Specter is a fate reserved for the blasphemers who dared defy a messenger of the gods. I reflavor Cloak of Flies into flightless wings beating up a storm of feathers that sting like wasps. She can eventually Speak with Dead at will. And the zombies she can conjure? Einherjars, ready to fight one last time to right a wrong done to them before you send them to Valhalla proper.
My Hexblade is basically Gilfaroy Lockhart with a semi-sentient magical spear. He made a wish to become the most famous hero in the world to an Arch Fey. His patron created a spear that forces him to perform acts of heroism. In battle, the spear takes over and rag dolls him around the battle field. I have the Accursed Spectre as a cloud of ravenous pixies that get summoned from the Feywild. His Spirit Shroud is also a swarm of pixies. He's super fun to play. He acts like Gildaroy Lockhart outside of combat and is trying to publish books of his exploits. Before getting the spear, he used to steal stories of heroes who died in combat.
@@TheClericCorner yeah.... Lots of folks are lol but it is a new flare to the idea and I be down to use or let my players use it for their hexblade character
My Hexblade is a Dragonbord noble, her family has been in possesion of a Longsword for centuries that grant its wielder pact powers if they are a member of their bloodline. When previous users of the blade dies a part of their soul is transfered to the blade.
One ability I give to Warlocks is the ability to change the damage type of their spells to match a type associated with their Patron. For Hexblades that type depends upon their Patron Weapons Damage which are Slashing, Piercing, or Bludgeoning. The spells take the visualization of phantasmal versions of the Patron Weapon.
After a recent tpk in our group we're starting over and i got he idea fort a echo knight/hexblade, focusing on making myself hard to hit with mirror image and blur, i think this'll be a fun way to play, fingers crossed that i don't mess up and die the the 3rd fight of the day :Þ
My hexblade is a construct (mechanically a warforged) made by an ancient vampire wizard to guard his lair. Inside the construct is a bound divine spirit who was a scribe to Jergal. His patron is actually himself, as he levels up he slowly regains his memories and powers. His motivations are to get revenge on the wizard who enslaved him and to find a way to be free of the material plane.
I had a similar inspiration. All of the magic would be flavored as augmentations. Ranged attack spells would be made from some sort of retractable gun as an example.
my hexblade is like the Hexadecimal character from Reboot... the mask that swaps shape but is otherwise static on the face.. and the vacant eyes, mouth, and nostril hold the weapon it can flick it out like a really long tongue, or snot whip... or just something protruding from the eye hole
I have a character consept where the weapon my air genasi hexblade/psi warrio multi-class uses, has a sappire draconic shard living inside of it, who helps him to hunt down abarations. This draconic shard is the one who taught him to use psionic powers and the hexes he makes are powered by his patrions psionic might.
i had an idea for a superhero serie character, Calista from Powers, SPOILER . . . . she would start as thief or bard with urchin background (street kid or waitress or both) then she gets her powers from wolfe (and sway) before he dies, so that could qualify him as her patreon even if he's no longer around she inherited his hunger and turn power into what she wanted (retrogirl's powers) but sadly punching isn't a weapon in dnd unless maybe we dip into monk but that's not RP with the character if we consider that the weapon is a part of you like the abomination exemple then yes, it would work. or gloves/gauntlets maybe...
I made a Reborn Hexblade Swords Bard character as a backup in case my first character dies in Curse of Strahd. Her backstory? She's one of the countless adventurers previously slain by Strahd, when he thrust her own rapier through her heart. She manifests and possesses the body of my fallen character, shedding her signature weapon and armor and instead drawing her old rapier out of her chest like a phantasm. All her determination and her hatred for Strahd bled from her into her sword, keeping her essence and magical power intact until an appropriate vessel later fell to Strahd much like she did.
I multiclassed with college of whispers so my hexblade curse is whispers lingering in their mind that then attack them, and my wrathful smite and booming blade spell are both the whispers I leave in their mind reaching a critical mass and exploding inside their head
δm currently playing an Eladrin Hexblade using a Longbow that is channeled from the Feywild itself while taking the appearance of Season appropriate blooming flowers
Can hexblades summon any weapon they want or do they have to be a pact of the blade warlock as well? I’m asking because I’m trying to make a hexblade that has a “symbiote” weapon knows as the Omni-blade that can be any weapon where it’s whole goal is to be as powerful as possible and my character was just a normal dude before it found him like venom found Eddie but I don’t know if I can do that without some tweaking
i had an idea for a hexblade/fiend warlock where they're turning into a fiend using the transformation from grim hollow with your infernal blade being your hexblade
There is a guy in hunter x hunter where his ability makes so another entity chooses his weapon, but he has just been gaslighting it into always giving him good weapons while believe it gave him a bad one
My fighter bought a magical sword with a purple glow that pulsed with her heartbeat when she picked it up. I don't know yet what it does. Now I am wondering if it could be a Hexblade. Only thing is, she's nowhere near charismatic enough to be a warlock with rules as written.
I came up with an idea I call it the returned loved one what if your hexblade was a spell caster who brought a loved one back to life by binding there soul to a weapon and now your trying to get them a new body or keep them with you
Even worse though is that cordyceps does not take over the ant's brain, but rather drugs it with hallucinogens and takes over the *muscles*. Effectively puppeteering the ant's body while it is still semi-conscious to witness itself losing control to a fungal infection. >:D
I have an undead blade lock concept with a cybernetic claw with acidic chemicals that he both pumps into his victims to harm them greatly and himself to gain muscle mass and power, at the cost of his overall health and his sanity. I just don’t know how to make the subclasses cap stone ability work with the theme! Any ideas?
Amazing idea: Base a pc off of Megaman Starforce using your abomination idea. He literally has a talking alien wolf specter. When in combat, they fuse together and the alien's head replaces your hand. All of your weapons and attacks come from the head as well.
me an avid reader: Hexblade paladin Knights radiant from the stormlight archives? I feel like Spren are better "patrons" as they don't really have a reason to backstab or screw you over.
My warlocks (concepts, because I haven’t played one yet) just don’t have patrons. One of them learnt witchcraft, and the other one made a magic chemical to become near immortal and be powerful.
Mine is gonna be a different cause my story is about a father who dies protecting his daughter from an attack of some kind. His daughter is a prodigy so she puts him in the sword used to kill him now it’s gonna be a story of a father in a possessed weapon trying to protect his daughters innocents and life as they try to find a way to bring him back. Imagine a little girl with a sword that moves and flies around her like a fairy and talks instead of her. My girls is gonna be mute and shy her dad does all the talking
I'm currently playing a hexblade that has his patron as his daughter's soul which is contained in a palmel that can be swapped out with different swords.
