Hexblade Sorlock

Why Sorlock?

I love Warlock and for the longest time wanted to try The Hexblade, however, always found pure warlock spell slot economy awful. You have all these shiny toys to play with, but they’re only for display because you have no spell slots left most of the time, so you’re stick to re-casting concentration Hex,

Of course the fix is simple – multiclass. There are a few rather good Hexblade Warlock multiclass options:

Paladin is prolly the most popular for it’s Divine Smite abuse and tons of support
College of Swords Bard for a more support-focused playstyle
Bladesinging Wizard for it’s double extra attack abuse with Hexblade outside Honour Mode

I decided to go with Shadow Magic Sorcerer because of it’s Hound of Ill Omen + Accursed Specter interaction and much better spell slot economy with the added benefit of Sorcery Points and Metamagic.

No respec

This build is respec-free, although you can re-spec around level 8 if you prefer to have access to some later Sorc features sooner.

Honour mode ready

This build is ready to tackle Honour mode. No exclusive interactions, no haste extra attack abuse, just a no-nonsense solid all around build.

Build details

This build blends Hexed Shadow Blade’s ridiculous melee damage with a multitude of ranged options like Fireball, Lightning Bolt and Eldritch Blast, nice range of cc with Darkness, Hold Person, Booming Blade, and Nimbusess Umbral Tanglee, it’s base AC with Armour of Agathys and Mirror Image making it incredibly tanky, tons of utility through Branding Smite, Counterspell, Twinned Haste and more.

Core synergies

Booming Bladee procs Ring of Arcane Synergy
Melee attacks (including Booming Blade) proc Band of the Mystic Scoundrell allowing the cast of Hold Person, Mirror Image and Phantasmal Force as a bonus action
Sorcery point recovery thanks to Nimbuses Ominous Bite and our elemental cantrip coverage
Nimbuss + Accursed Spectres sharing Right Behind You

Background

Optimal race: Half-Orc

Melee classes work beautifully with Savage Attacks and Relentless Endurance is a godsend in Honour mode.

Although this pick is mostly up to you. Notable picks:

Any elf works well thanks to Fey Ancestry, especially Wood Half-Elf with Fleet of Foot (tho i’d avoid Drow Half-Elf as you get Darkness from Shadow Sorc)
Githyanki for Misty Step @ level 5, that means you can pick up an extra Sorc spell
Halfling if you have a terrible luck for critical misses
Gnome for saving throw advantage with Gnome Cunning

Abilities

You start with:

You can also go with 14 Dexterity and 15+1 Constitution, although I had felt that the extra initiative helped me out more than the occasional extra constitution save.

You can get your Charisma up to 18 using Auntie Ethel’s Hair, If you’re not planning on getting it, go for 16 Charisma.

Later when you obtain Amulet of Greater Health you can dump Constitution in favor of other stats.

Level progression

Pretty straightforward 6 levels of Hexblade Warlock followed by 6 levels of Shadow Magic Sorcerer picking up anything you need along the way.

At Warlock level 3 take Shadow Blade to bring the build online.
From this point on just finish Warlock until lvl 6 to get Accursed Spectre.
At level 7 take Shadow Magic Sorcerer

Alternatively, you can take 3 levels of Warlock to get Shadow Blade. Then take 6 levels of Sorcerer and finish up the build with the remaining 3 levels of Warlock. This alternative is for people who prefer Sorcerer leveling curve to Warlock.

Alternative level split

You can also dump one level of Warlock in favor of Sorcerer going 5 Warlock / 7 Sorcerer if you prefer to have access to level 4 Sorcerer spells and an extra level 4 spell slots instead of Accursed Spectre. This, however, means you would miss out on Nimbus + Accursed Spectre interaction plus would need to make some sacrifices in your spell arsenal.

Gearing

As we’re using Shadow Blade as our mainhand, we do not have to worry about getting a weapon after level 3.

Offhand:
No need to stress over a good offhand, just pick whatever until you get the BiS Knife of the Undermountain Kingg in Crèche Y’llek.

Good early game Helmet choices:

Good early game Armour choices:

Good early game Gloves:

Good early game Boots:

Good early game Amulet:

Broodmother’s Revenge

Good early game Rings:

General playstyle

In general the build defaults to a Booming Blade melee loop:

Booming Blade
→ weapon hit activates Band of the Mystic Scoundrel
→ cantrip damage activates Arcane Synergy
→ second Shadow Blade attack with Arcane Synergy
→ Bonus action Hold Person / Mirror Image / Phantasmal Force depending on the situation

The Band triggers from a weapon hit, while the Ring triggers from cantrip damage, so Booming Blade is doing double duty as the switch that turns both halves of the gear package on.

Then you have a couple of options:

Quickened Spell to cast spells not supported by Mystic Scoundrel
Misty Step when you need to reposition quickly
Hunger of Hadar / Darkness when battlefield control beats melee
Fireball / Lightning Bolt / Eldritch Blast when you need AoE/ranged pressure
Twinned Haste when you deliberately want to abandon your normal concentration gameplan and turn the party into crackheads
Elemental cantrip to replenish a Sorcery Point when Nimbus inflicts an omen through Ominous Bite