Baldur’s Gate 3: How to make a Hexblade build in BG3

Warlock has the best innate storytelling of any Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition class. Making a pact with a patron is so interesting and Wizards of the Coast has offered us nine options. The Hexblade is a build that many players have been itching to try in Baldur’s Gate 3.

This famous melee Warlock Patron offers incredible damage, durability, and even utility for anyone willing to wield a sword. So, is the Patron in the game? And, if it isn’t, what build follows it most closely?

What is the Hexblade Patron in BG3

The Hexblade Warlock in 5E serves as a melee damage dealer. Its abilities focus on bringing the relatively squishy Warlock to the frontlines with amazing abilities like attacking with Charisma, healing on kills, and high AC through Armor Proficiency and magic.

As the subclass continues, characters who take this patron get to summon a Specter, dodge attacks, and even spread curses.

Is the Hexblade Patron in BG3?

Unfortunately, the Hexblade is not out as of the current patch of BG3. There is no patron named the Hexblade that you can select during your level one Warlock choices. Without mods or announced DLC for BG3, it is unlikely that the Hexblade will be added to the game through Larian Studios.

The Larian devs have already announced they have work for after BG3 and, other than patches, will likely not add additional content to the game. While disappointing, this follows Larian’s release schedule for Divinity and Divinity II. But, with the explosive reception that BG3 has had so far, it’s possible that a small team might work on additional DLC to help improve replay-ability while the bulk of the team develops their next project.

While the Hexblade might not be included in the Patron package, a gigantic and hard-to-find feature made it in. With the Pact of the Blade, a Warlock may use their Charisma for attack and damage rolls with a selected weapon. With this colossal buff, Warlocks don’t have to scramble for Dexterity to wield a rapier in order to survive and deal damage in melee.

So, can we emulate a Hexblade in Baldur’s Gate 3? While we don’t have all of the class features that made it such a powerhouse on tabletops, we can at least give it a try.

Best Hexblade build in BG3 without multiclassing

Since the Hexblade is not available in BG3 on release, we are going to have to improvise builds that include some of its shining features. This includes using Charisma for attack, good armor proficiency, and decent defensive spell options. We’ll discuss potential strategies through not multiclassing and multiclassing.

BG3 is missing a lot of tools that a 5E Warlock has for melee combat. Cantrips like Green-Flame Blade are gone, the Patron is missing, and the invocation list isn’t quite as diverse. But we can still outdo some melee classes if we’re tricky enough.

Races and Ability Scores for Hexblade Warlocks in BG3

Our Race and ability scores are quite important. We want to lock down our AC at around 16 to 18 since we’ll be taking quite a lot of punishment on the frontlines. We can do this through two methods: Shield Proficiency or Medium Armor Proficiency. Humans and Half-Elves provide the Shields, while Shield Dwarves and Githyanki provide the Medium Armor.

For Shield-wielding Hexblades, we want

• Strength 8
• Dexterity 16
• Constitution 14
• Intelligence 8
• Wisdom 12
• Charisma 16

In Leather armor and a Shield, that gives us an AC of 16 to 17 once we find Studded Leather.

For Medium Armor Hexblades, we can just swap DEX and CON (Dexterity 14, Constitution 16) since Dexterity is locked at plus two for AC with medium Armor. So, with Scale Mail, you’ll be sitting at 16 That’s more than fine for early game. Without races or multiclassing, we’ll have to wait until level four and take a feat for Medium Armor and Shield proficiency. And I’d much rather get a plus-two to Charisma.

Best Skills for the Hexblade Build in BG3

As a Hexblade, you want to be the party’s face. Warlocks are inherently quite good at talking to otherws, so Deception and Intimidation are shoe-ins.

However, the Beguiling Influence Invocation, taken at level two, can be good for a Warlock looking to get Persuasion. Alternatively, we recommend taking the Guild Artisan background for proficiency in Insight and Persuasion. That lets you take a different invocation.

Best Subclass for Melee Warlocks in BG3

We’ll be taking power from the Fiend for our Warlock Subclass, standing in for the Hexblade Patron. The temporary health on kill is important for how we survive on the frontlines.

Best Spells for Hexblades in BG3

For our Hexblade build, the only spell that we’re really concerned about is Hex. Hex is a staple for Warlocks and, while the Hexblade had their own curse to throw around, we want some extra reward for hitting people.

Otherwise, make sure you have Eldritch Blast for a ranged option, and area of effect option like Cloud of Daggers or Hunger of Hadar to help care of smaller creatures. Utility options like Counterspell can prevent your party from eating Act Two’s Fireballs, or Grant Flight can help your party solve puzzles. The Fiend’s Fireball and Scorching Ray are exceptional burst damage options.

For Mystic Arcanum, Eyebite is a really strong and solid option that is the best one a Hexblade has. The crowd control options that Eyebite offers are staggering, and they last until you take a long rest. That’s a lot of value, perfect for an enterprising Hexblade.

Best Invocations for Hexblades in BG3

As you level, you’ll take a few Invocations. You get a total of six over the course of your career. Here are our suggested picks—in the suggested order:

• Agonizing Blast, so your ranged option has some bite.
• Devil’s Sight, because magical darkness is terrible. A higher priority if your race doesn’t have natural darkvision. This also lets you flex Darkness as a combat control too.
• Sign of Ill Omen, while thematically appropriate for Hexblades, also allows you to debuff major stats on a combatant, making bosses significantly easier on a failed saving throw.
• Sculptor of Flesh for good combat crowd-control.
• Minions of Chaos to clog fights where a swarm of allies is more useful than Hex or other concentration spells.
• Lifedrinker for endgame damage.

For Warlocks with Shield Proficiency, Armor of Shadows and a Shield can be better than Light Armor. At least until you get magical light armor.

Best Pact and Feats for Hexblade in BG3

Make sure that, of all of the Pact options, you take Pact of the Blade. You’ve come all of this way to get CHA to attack and damage, after all.

At level four, eight, and 12, you’ll also get a Feat. The exceptionally boring, and sadly correct, option is to bump up Charisma by two until you get it to 20. It’s quite literally everything for you. Once you reach level 12, your feat options open up, and you can take some defensive options.

But the BG3 Pact of the Blade has an option that the tabletop Hexblade doesn’t have easy access to—glaives. Since you can use glaives and spears with Charisma, you can actually take the Polearm Master feat for at-reach denial and a free bonus action for a spear-butt. With Hex online, that means you can reach three attacks a turn, the same as Eldritch Blast. Polearm Master, other than Ability Score Improvement, is the best feat for a Hexblade.

If you’re less boring than we are, you can collect feats like Resilient or War Caster for concentration checks, Tough to make yourself a frontline beast, or Great Weapon Master to nuke specific encounters.

Best multiclass Hexblade build in BG3

Our doors are wide open if we want to make a 5E-style Hexblade using the multiclass system, and the best build for it is Paladin 2, Warlock 8, Sorcerer 2.

We are going to start as a Paladin, annoyingly enough, since it provides the Armor and Shield proficiencies we need to work with. Once we have one level of Paladin, we will go three deep into Fiend Warlock, dipping a level back into Paladin for Smite and then investing the rest into Warlock.

Once we reach the endgame, we can loop two levels into Sorcerer. Those two levels are important for accessing the Shield spell as well as several defensive options that the Sorcerer has to offer.

Let’s take a deep dive to figure out why these steps are necessary.

The First Level

• Starting Paladin gives us Medium and Heavy Armor Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, good starting Skills, and even good HP. The main issue with going whole-hog into Melee Warlock is that your starting health and AC don’t justify being in melee all of the time. By beginning with Paladin, we’re set up for success.
  • Race really doesn’t matter. Low movement speed for the short characters isn’t that big of a deal, nor is having super good Darkvision, thanks to Warlock Invocations. We suggest Gold Dwarf for HP or Mephistopheles Tiefling for the utility and Fire Resistance. But, seriously, don’t worry about it.
  • Our Paladin Oath can be any of the three. We like Devotion if your goal is to be the party tank and Vengeance if you want to tear your foes a new one. Oathbreaker, however, provides a way to do a damage over time effect to your opponent, which might fit into the style of Hexblade.
  • Ability scores should care mostly about our Constitution and Charisma. Dexterity 14, Constitution 16, and Charisma 16 should be your benchmarks.
    • Strength 8
    • Dexterity 14
    • Constitution 16
    • Intelligence 8
    • Wisdom 8
    • Charisma 16
  • If you’re willing to respec at your camp, you can instead use Strength 16, Constitution 14, and Charisma 16 to really hammer enemies early on and then swap to the more standard build once you reach level three Warlock.
  • Skills are important for us. You should be the party’s face. So much so that you might even want to invest in the Beguiling Influence Invocation early on, which grants proficiency in Deception and Persuasion. The Paladin can then take Outlander as a background, with Athletics and Survival proficiency. The best skills from the class become Insight and Intimidation, which rounds out your talking-to-people setup.

Warlock to Three

Once we’ve invested in Paladin, we can safely start getting Warlock to three. While a fighting style, Paladin spells, and Smite are important, we really want that Charisma to attack and damage.

Our Warlock Patron is Fiend. None of the Patrons perfectly match the Hexblade, but the Fiend can give us some survivability on the frontlines.

See the above section for what Warlock spells we recommend. We are going to have either the same amount of spell options or slightly less, depending on if we want to invest in Sorcerer. We also go over invocation choices above, though we lose one to two Invocations compared to the pure build.

Take Pact of the Blade at Warlock three. It is the reason we’re running this build at all.

Paladin to Two

Back into Paladin. Now that we have Charisma to attack rolls and damage rolls, we want that second level of Pally for the fighting style (I love Defense, but any taking Great Weapon Fighter improves damage with greatswords by a significant amount), Smite, and spells.

The goal of this build is to maximize the Warlock’s power, so we’re not going to use many Paladin spells. They interrupt concentration too much with their Smites and Compelled Duels. However, Shield of Faith for dangerous hallways is nice, since we don’t have quite as strong defensive options as the standard Hexblade. That also interrupts concentration, but a plus-two to AC is very nice to have.

We took Defense and focused on using a Shield and Longsword for most of the game. While Dueling would have provided a plus-two to damage, we don’t really have the health to take stray hits. The plus-one to AC, while minor, is more “health” than it may look like.

Warlock to Eight, Sorcerer to Two

From here, we finish out the Hexblade with Warlock levels while taking a two level dip into Sorcerer. We are basically only really considering this for the Shield spell, which would let us protect ourselves with a titanic plus-five to AC. The Hexblade has this in the tabletop game, so dipping a toe into Sorcerer to get it isn’t the worst idea we’ve had. By going for White Dragon Draconic Sorcerer, we can learn Armor of Agathys, a solid spell to cast to gain Temporary HP.

If we choose this option, then our spells are pretty simple: Shield, Feather Fall, Fog Cloud, Longstrider, Sleep. We want stuff that is valid utility in the now since we only get second level spell slots.

For Metamagic, we just want Twinned and Distant. Hit more people and hit people far away. Dust our hands off that issue.

If you want to know what feats to take in the multiclass, see the Warlock section. You’ll only get two, though. That usually means 20 Charisma but can mean Polearm Master or Tough for specific party compositions, or if your Warlock is the lucky recipient of Auntie Ethel’s Hair.

Best items for the Hexblade

The Hexblade, as a frontline warrior, is privy to Medium Armor, Shields, and Spellcaster Weapons.

• Voss’s Silver Sword works well for Act Three, but really any weapon can function as long as it is using Pact of the Blade. The Blood-Bound Blade works great as a generic damaging option.
• The Reaper’s Embrace armor, found on Ketheric Thorm, is perfect for a Paladin/Warlock with high spell DCs.
• The Shield of Devotion grants a first-level spell slot, great for spamming Shield. Admittedly, every spellcaster from Shadowheart to Gale will be wanting this.
• Armor pieces should be a mix of survivability and damaging options.
  • Birthright, an item from Sorcerous Sundries, is a great idea for a damage-based helm.
  • Quickspell Gloves allows for Blade Ward or Eldritch Blast to be cast as a bonus action once per rest.
  • Boots of Persistence solves a lot of problems for our Warlock, from Hold Person to simply not having enough movement speed during turn one.
  • Quite honestly, the spare Cloak of Protection we had was too effective to take off. Our Hexblade got hit often and hard without it.
• Jewelry should focus on mobility, a huge weakness of the Hexblade on tabletop and in BG3. The Crusher’s Ring, Amulet of Misty Step, and Killer’s Sweetheart worked especially well for us.

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