Hexblade Warlock – Shadow Blade Nuker

The Hexblade Warlock — Shadow Blade Nuker

The purpose of this build is to take advantage of the insane damage potential of Shadow Blade.

For character creation, I like to pick a Wood Half-Elf for the movement speed bonus, but it works with any race—so just choose the one you prefer. This character is a good candidate to be the face of your team.

Ability Scores and Feats

A very late-game item, the Amulet of Greater Health, makes a respec highly recommended. The scores shown in the build planner are those of the respec. However, before we get that amulet, we start and play with these scores instead:

• STR: 8
• DEX: 16
• CON: 15
• INT: 8
• WIS: 8
• CHA: 17

Consequently, our feats differ from those in the planner (which assumes post-respec stats). Before obtaining the Amulet of Greater Health, our feats are:

• Ability Improvement: CON +1 / CHA +1
• Alert
• Ability Improvement: CHA +2

You may prefer to take Alert first—it’s entirely up to you.

As we are throwing a lot of dices, another very good feat to consider is Savage Attacker. You would have to sacrifice one of the two Ability Improvements. In the final build, taking scores from the builder, you would then take these feats:

• Ability Improvement: DEX+2 or CHA +2
• Alert
• Savage Attacker

The choice between Dexterity and Charisma is up to you, knowing that:

• If you take DEX+2, you will need to wait until visiting the Cloister of Sombre Embrace deep in Act 3 to round your score from 17 to 20 using the Mirror of Loss.
• If you take CHA+2, you will have a high but odd charisma at 19 before using the Mirror of Loss to end at 22 CHA. You will also lose 1 initiative point, down from 9 to 8, and 1 AC, down from 20 to 19.

All in all, I don’t recommend to replace the Diadem of Arcane Synergy by Birthright to gain 2 CHA, as Arcane Synergy add our CHA modifier to our weapon attacks, which is better than raising this modifier by one. I don’t recommend either to switch one of our rings with the Ring of Arcane Synergy to free the head slot, as our Strange Conduit Ring adds 1d4 Psychic to our damage (and we love psychic damage, see below) and the Ring of Protection makes us less squishy (but it is an option if not playing in Honor mode). Also, using the Hag’s Hair (CHA) and adapting ability scores accordingly to play all the game with an even score is possible.

Core of the Build: Shadow Blade

From level 1–4, Shadow Blade deals 2d8 + CHA damage.
From level 5–8, it increases to 3d8 + CHA.
From level 9 onwards, you’re swinging for a whopping 4d8 + CHA.

In one round, you can dish out:

• Booming Blade: 4d8 + CHA (psychic) + 2d8 (thunder)
• Extra Attack: 4d8 + CHA (psychic)
• Additional Extra Attack (bonus action, thanks to Belm): 4d8 + CHA (psychic)

The stat modifier is Charisma because we are (of course) binding our Shadow Blade with Bind Hexed Weapon. With 22 Charisma, even without extra sources of damage, you’re already hitting for 12d8 + 18 (psychic) + 1d8 (thunder). That’s an average of 76.5 damage per round.

Now, imagine you also have a Resonance Stone, which doubles all psychic damage:
(12d8 + 18) ×2 + 1d8, for a new average of 148.5 damage per round.

And it doesn’t stop there:

• Add a little extra, like 1d4 psychic (also doubled) from the Strange Conduit Ring (you’ll almost always be concentrating on something).
• With the Spellmight Gloves, you can tack on another 1d8 psychic (doubled) to your Booming Blade.

As you can see, this build is very straightforward: it’s all about hitting huge numbers.

Surviving in Melee

Of course, we have a risk to mitigate. We’re still a squishy caster diving into melee, so we need to survive the enemies that we haven’t obliterated in round 1.

Thanks to our high Dexterity (18) and the Alert feat, we should usually act first—crucial for round 1 kills.

• High DEX gives us +4 AC.
• The Potent Robe only provides +1 AC, so we supplement with the Ring of Protection and Cloak of Protection (+1 AC each).
• Cast Mage Armour (with another character’s help if you don’t take Armour of Shadows as Eltritch invocation) to reach a respectable 20 AC total.

It’s always smart to keep one of our three spell slots open for Shield, in case a dangerous hit connects.

We’re also a perfect candidate for the Amulet of Greater Health, which provides:

1. A huge HP boost.
2. Advantage on CON saving throws, making concentration much safer.
3. Freed-up stat points—since CON is set to 23, we can put those into WIS for better saving throws against dangerous spells.

If more AC is needed, Warding Bond is my favorite buff: it grants resistance to all damage types and +1 AC. For a level 2 spell, it’s absurdly strong (but remember: the caster takes the same damage you do).

Alternative Armor

All end-game equipment is detailed in the build planner. Since we’re in melee range, it may also be worth wearing the Bhaalist Armor to make enemies vulnerable to piercing damage—helping support our archers. Your AC stays at 20. You lose the benefit of the Potent Robe, but the piercing vulnerability aura can easily be worth it.

Spells

We won’t be relying much on spells. Our real defensive tools are Counterspell and Shield, though they do require holding a spell slot in reserve.

For concentration, I suggest running either Hex or Elemental Weapon for steady damage boosts.