Zack Bardlock

What This Build Is

A Charisma-based melee duelist who fights with a magically summoned sword and blasts at range. Talkative, tanky, and hitting three times per turn by the end. Designed for Balanced difficulty.

You are a Hexblade Warlock 5 / College of Valour Bard 7. Warlock levels first, Bard levels second. Do not reorder these. The Warlock levels are what make the build function, and taking them first means the character works from level 1 instead of level 7.

The core trick: Hexblade lets you attack with Charisma instead of Strength or Dexterity. The one stat that makes you a great talker also makes you a great fighter. Everything points at Charisma.

The Long Rest Ritual

Every time you finish a Long Rest, do all of this in camp before you go anywhere.

1. Summon and bind your sword

1. Cast Shadow Blade. This summons your weapon. It lasts until your next Long Rest and does not require Concentration.
2. Use Bind Hexed Weapon on your Shadow Blade.

2. Buff the party

Cast Longstrider on your companions. More movement means reaching enemies and getting into position.

3. Buff yourself

Cast Light, cast on your ranged weapon. It does not matter which weapon. You are not shooting with it, it is just a lamp. This gives you a permanent light source without burning a hand on a torch.

Cast Speak with Animals. It opens up a surprising number of conversations, quests, and free information.

Cast Freedom of Movement (available from level 12). It makes you immune to being magically Paralysed or Restrained, and difficult terrain cannot slow you. This is the only buffing spell that consumes a spell slot – it is well worth it.

Your Turn in Combat

1. Bonus Action: Hexblade’s Curse on the scariest enemy. It gives bonus damage, easier critical hits, and heals you if that enemy dies. It refreshes on a Short Rest.
2. Action: attack, and always lead with Booming Blade.

Why Booming Blade must come first: it is a cantrip, so it switches on your Ring of Arcane Synergy (which adds your Charisma to weapon damage), and its thunder damage switches on your Gloves of Belligerent Skies and Boots of Elemental Momentum. Your follow-up swings then benefit from all three. Lead with anything else and you waste three items.

Once you have Extra Attack, your Action becomes Booming Blade, then a normal Shadow Blade swing. At level 11 it becomes Booming Blade, then swing, then swing. Booming Blade can only be used once per Action, so the extra attacks are regular attacks.

Two Big Combos

Hold Person equals free critical hits

A Paralysed enemy takes automatic critical hits from every melee attack made within 3m, and all attacks against it have Advantage. Land Hold Person on a humanoid boss and your entire Action becomes three guaranteed critical hits. This is your single strongest burst window. It only works on humanoids, and it requires Concentration.

Darkness plus Devil’s Sight

You can see through magical Darkness. Almost nothing else can. Stand inside your own Darkness cloud and enemies attack you at Disadvantage while you swing normally, and Shadow Blade gains Advantage against anything standing in the dark.

Two catches you must understand:

Nobody can make ranged attacks into or out of Darkness, including you. Standing in your own cloud turns off Eldritch Blast entirely. Darkness is a melee tool. Step out of it to blast.

Darkness requires Concentration, even when cast from a Scroll. If you cast it, you cannot also concentrate on Hold Person or Enhance Ability. This is what the Scrolls of Darkness are for: hand them to a companion so they hold the Concentration and you keep yours free.

Other Notes

Repelling Blast may look like it fights against a melee build. It does not. It shoves enemies off cliffs, kicks them away when you need to escape or reposition, and it is extremely fun. Keep it.

Eldritch Blast is your ranged option, not your damage rotation. Once you are hitting three times per turn, melee is worth far more. Use Eldritch Blast for enemies you cannot reach, for shoving, and for finishing off runners.

Counterspell is taken at Warlock 5. It lets you shut down an enemy spell as a Reaction. It costs one of your two Warlock slots, so hold a slot in reserve during fights with enemy casters.

Resonance Stone (Act 2). It causes everything nearby to take double Psychic damage, and your Shadow Blade deals Psychic damage. This roughly doubles your melee output. It affects your own party too, so send it to camp when facing enemies that deal Psychic damage, or when its Disadvantage on mental saving throws is causing problems.

Gear. The listed equipment is what you should aim to have by the end of Act 1, with the exception of the cape. Replace anything with better items as you find them. Nothing here is sacred. One later upgrade worth watching for is an amulet that boosts Constitution, which will meaningfully raise your health, since you have a small hit die.

Permanent stat bonuses (all optional). This build reaches 20 Charisma on its own and needs none of these. If you want more:

• Auntie Ethel’s Hair (Act 1): +1 Charisma, taking you to 21. On its own this does nothing, because 21 gives the same bonus as 20. It only pays off once you also collect the two Act 3 items below.
• Patriar’s Memory (Act 3): +1 Charisma, taking you to 22. Now you gain a point of bonus.
• Mirror of Loss (Act 3): +2 Charisma, taking you to 24. This is the big one.

Take all three and you finish at 24 Charisma, which improves your attack rolls, your damage twice over (once from Hexblade and again from the Ring of Arcane Synergy), your spell save DCs, and every beam of Eldritch Blast.

Level-Up Highlights

1. Warlock 1. Hexblade: Charisma-based weapon attacks, medium armour, shields, and martial weapons. Hexblade’s Curse. Booming Blade, Eldritch Blast, and Thaumaturgy cantrips. Darkvision. Proficiency in Deception, Intimidation, Investigation, and Sleight of Hand.
2. Warlock 2. Agonising Blast and Repelling Blast. Eldritch Blast becomes much stronger and gains a shove.
3. Warlock 3. Pact of the Blade. Shadow Blade, your real weapon from here on.
4. Warlock 4. Stats become 14 DEX, 14 CON, 14 WIS, and 18 CHA. Friends cantrip. Darkness spell.
5. Warlock 5. Extra Attack. Devil’s Sight. Counterspell. Shadow Blade upgrades to 3d8.
6. Bard 1. Persuasion proficiency (better trade prices). Bardic Inspiration. Healing Word, Longstrider, Speak with Animals, Disguise Self, Light, and Mage Hand.
7. Bard 2. Jack of All Trades, which makes you better at everything. Song of Rest, a free extra Short Rest per Long Rest, meaning an extra set of Warlock slots and an extra Hexblade’s Curse. Feather Fall.
8. Bard 3. College of Valour: Combat Inspiration. Expertise in Persuasion (better trade prices) and Sleight of Hand (DC 30 traps and locks). Hold Person.
9. Bard 4. Charisma reaches 20. Vicious Mockery. Enhance Ability.
10. Bard 5. Bardic Inspiration improves.
11. Bard 6. Second Extra Attack. You now attack three times per Action. Glyph of Warding.
12. Bard 7. Freedom of Movement.

College of Valour also grants medium armour and shield proficiency at level 8, but you already have both from Hexblade, so you can ignore it.