Hexblade warlock

[kefremthemagus]

i know its coming in patch 8..question, i was watching a video and it says bind hexblade affects main hand weapon. My question is...can that be a ranged weapon?

[Ghost]

Don't know how they're going to implement it yet so who knows, but typically no. Melee only.

[Chaosolous]

I just loaded a save with my Pact of the Blade warlock and you can't bind ranged weapons with that.

Hexblade is obviously a bit different but I think the key thing here is that it's "blade", either Pact of the BLADE or HexBLADE.

My instinct says no.

[Mike Garrison]

The basic concept is to use eldritch blast at range and a melee weapon up close. But I guess we'll see.

Moreover, the "main hand" slot is a specific equipment slot. You can't put a ranged weapon into it. (Though you can put a thrown weapon into it.) So if they tied it to the "main hand" slot, then I expect not.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by kefremthemagus:

i know its coming in patch 8..question, i was watching a video and it says bind hexblade affects main hand weapon. My question is...can that be a ranged weapon?

absolutely. You can use a spear, javelin, dagger, throwing hammer... etc with POTB, EK, and surely hexblade. The problem is this begs a high strength, which warlocks were avoiding by using cha for the weapon stat, which you don't want because mechanics.

It seems unlikely they will work with dexterity ranged weapons (bows/xbows)

There is some question as well whether hexblade / update changes are going to prevent throwing your bound weapon. There is some specific text that it cannot be thrown after binding, so ??? on whether you can do a thrower here or not.

[GrandMajora]

I really don't understand the point behind why we have Pact of the Blade, AND a Hexblade in the same setting?

Like, the concept of Pact of the Blade is that your patron gifts you with a magic weapon as a reward for your service. While the concept of a Hexblade is that your patron IS the magic weapon.

To me, it always seemed like the Hexblade was obligated to take Pact of the Blade, for obvious reasons, but then it's contradicted by the fact that you can change out which weapon you pact is bound to.

It just doesn't make any sense to me, and comes across as if there was some kind of communication error between the writers.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Pact of the Blade came first, in the PHB.

Hexblade patron came later in XGtE, and was observed by many to be a stronger version of the concept.

FWIW, the hexblade patron isn't a sentient weapon, but usually a Shadowfell enttity that can provide some power in the form of a weapon.

[Raz]

Originally posted by GrandMajora:

I really don't understand the point behind why we have Pact of the Blade, AND a Hexblade in the same setting?

Like, the concept of Pact of the Blade is that your patron gifts you with a magic weapon as a reward for your service. While the concept of a Hexblade is that your patron IS the magic weapon.

To me, it always seemed like the Hexblade was obligated to take Pact of the Blade, for obvious reasons, but then it's contradicted by the fact that you can change out which weapon you pact is bound to.

It just doesn't make any sense to me, and comes across as if there was some kind of communication error between the writers.

Pact of the Blade never used to give you Extra Attack nor did it use your Spellcasting modifier for its Attack Rolls nor adding to its Damage Rolls. All it did was make you proficient with said weapon and make its attack magical for bypassing resistances. You still needed to multiclass into a Martial class up to Lv5 to get Extra Attack as any Warlock with Pact of the Blade before Hexblade came about. Improved Pact just gave a Pact of the Blade Warlock a +1 to their attack rolls assuming the weapon wasn't already magical. If it was, you didn't even get that.

BG3 and the 2024 Players Hand Book changed a lot of that.

Hexblade still has a space it can sit in with Pact of the Blade since a Hexblade has no reason to pick up Pact of the Blade (in BG3 as it doesn't look like they are giving Warlock any of the Unearthed Arcana that came with Hexblade, but that remains to be seen if it will change) giving them the option of Pact of the Tome or Pact of the Chain whereas Pact of the Blade is still worth picking up on other Patrons like Great Old One if you're trying to have a frontliner who can spread Fear and control the battlefield with things like Confusion.

Hexblade is definitely the better Warlock dip for Martial main classes since you only need one level into Hexblade to turn your Charisma into your attack stat so a Paladin 11/1 Hexblade is a thing to keep Improved Divine Smite but not need to worry about Strength or still run Strength but now you can Hexblade Pact your weapon you'd use in your offhand by putting it in your main then swapping so you have a pseudo Two-Weapon Fighting.

[seeker1]

There's no real reason to Bind a ranged weapon to you -- whether you are a Warlock, an Eldritch Knight, or something else with the power to bind its weapon.

Binding does two things.
1. Prevents you from being disarmed. Well, a disarming attack can't disarm you of your ranged weapon, only your melee weapon.
2. Ensures that if you throw the weapon, it returns to you. But it also can make things that aren't normally throwable weapons, like swords, into throwable weapons, that again, you can throw and return. But those still have to go in your melee slot.

The ranged weapons that go in the ranged slot are, by their very nature, not thrown weapons or melee weapons that could be made throwable; therefore you can't bind bows, crossbows, or anything else that goes in the ranged slot.

Now the way Larian does this does create some oddities. The game's files contain darts, but they are not implemented in-game. Well, some modders have restored darts into the game in some of their mods. Now this is what's really kinda odd -- darts are not coded as throwable weapons. Because, all the other throwables have a melee function. You can hack with a handaxe, or throw it. Slam with a light hammer, or throw it. Stab with a dagger, or throw it. And if you bind a sword, yes, also, now you can throw the sword, or slash with it.

Because you can't melee with darts, Larian's darts actually go into your ranged slot, and kinda work like bows. Essentially unlimited uses or "ammunition".

There's a shuriken mod I'm using right now because, well, I love ninjas. But as the shuriken are coded as darts, they essentially go in the ranged slot. Why? Cuz you can't (or wouldn't normally) try and slash somebody's face with a throwing star.

But ... and this is good ... as rogues, including rogue ninjas, can only do ranged sneak attack with weapons that go in the ranged slot, NOT thrown weapons, that they go in that slot allows my ninja rogues to sneak attack with them.

[GrandMajora]

Originally posted by Raz:

Hexblade still has a space it can sit in with Pact of the Blade since a Hexblade has no reason to pick up Pact of the Blade (in BG3 as it doesn't look like they are giving Warlock any of the Unearthed Arcana that came with Hexblade, but that remains to be seen if it will change) giving them the option of Pact of the Tome or Pact of the Chain whereas Pact of the Blade is still worth picking up on other Patrons like Great Old One if you're trying to have a frontliner who can spread Fear and control the battlefield with things like Confusion.

I personally like to take Blade on an Arch Fey patron, as it reminds me of stories about fairy tale heroes being gifted magic weapons to defeat a great evil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_TwJuIT6uw

[lefty1117]

I think it was Xanathar's guide, one of the eldritch invocations was Improved Pact Weapon, which required you to have Pact of the Blade; it gave +1 attack and damage, could take the form of a standard ranged weapon (bow/crossbow) but most importantly for me was allowed you to use the pact weapon as a spellcasting focus. Therefore I could equip a shield and still cast. I don't get why you'd ever want to use it as a ranged weapon though, the implication is you wouldn't take eldritch blast in that case and that just seems silly.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Binding does two things.
1. Prevents you from being disarmed. Well, a disarming attack can't disarm you of your ranged weapon, only your melee weapon.
2. Ensures that if you throw the weapon, it returns to you. But it also can make things that aren't normally throwable weapons, like swords, into throwable weapons, that again, you can throw and return. But those still have to go in your melee slot.

In BG3, a successful disarm knocks both of my hand xbows onto the floor. I don't recall being hit with it for a 2h bow, as I moved off into thrown weapons after failing to make a 3 shot barbarian titanstring shooter perform well enough and am unsure what happens with the disarm for that case.

Being unable to drop the ranged weapon if the game is making you do that on a disarm is useful. But in general I agree with you and would not think it offers much to bind a bow under normal rules and builds. I thought there was a bow specific warlock out there in the extra content world... the web talks about improved pact of the bow in places but its off the beaten path. Others say POTB works fine with bows, but offers few benefits other than summoning one from nothing to shoot a magic arrow.

[Thomas D.]

Binding a bow or ranged weapon would allow to wield it with charisma 😁. Also with Pact Blade it might allow you to stack Pact Blades Multi Attack with Multi Attack from another class. Probably allowing for some interesting combinations. Plus the staff with disarm and so. Further Hex blade gets the curse on attacks with his bound weapons so, it could be kind of interesting.

But I don't know if it's possible but right now I would assume it's not even the Hex blade has a Ranged Attack Spell with his Bound Weapon

[seeker1]

Originally posted by jonnin:

In BG3, a successful disarm knocks both of my hand xbows onto the floor. I don't recall being hit with it for a 2h bow, as I moved off into thrown weapons after failing to make a 3 shot barbarian titanstring shooter perform well enough and am unsure what happens with the disarm for that case.

Well... so here goes my experience. then ... I can tell you I've had Bae'Zel (and others) often hit by enemy disarm attacks, and she drops her sword, but NOT her crossbow or bow (I never have her dual wielding hand xbows). So I honestly didn't think that could happen. So? Does dual wielding hand xbows allow a unique vulnerability? F'd if I know.

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by seeker1:

Originally posted by jonnin:

In BG3, a successful disarm knocks both of my hand xbows onto the floor. I don't recall being hit with it for a 2h bow, as I moved off into thrown weapons after failing to make a 3 shot barbarian titanstring shooter perform well enough and am unsure what happens with the disarm for that case.

Well... so here goes my experience. then ... I can tell you I've had Bae'Zel (and others) often hit by enemy disarm attacks, and she drops her sword, but NOT her crossbow or bow (I never have her dual wielding hand xbows). So I honestly didn't think that could happen. So? Does dual wielding hand xbows allow a unique vulnerability? F'd if I know.

A disarm drops your melee weapons if those are in your hand, or it drops your ranged weapons if those are in your hand.

If your melee weapons are in your hand when you get disarmed, your ranged weapons don't get dropped. And vice versa if your ranged weapons were in your hand when you got disarmed.