Last week, my coworker, news writer Harvey Randall, wrote a 100% correct love letter to taking a single level of Baldur's Gate 3's new Hexblade in a multiclass build. Hexblade gets so much at level one—Charisma-based melee attacks, Shield on short rest, Booming Blade, easier critical hits—that almost any melee character could be improved with a cheeky nip of Hexblade. Swashbuckler 11 / Hexblade 1, Paladin 7 / Hexblade 5, Eldritch Knight 11 / Hexblade 1, they all spank.
But I'm almost to the end of act one on Honour mode, and I have a crucial message for my fellow power gamers: Hexblade isn't just a single-level side dish, it's worth being your main course. What's more, my Hexblade might be the first character I take all the way through Baldur's Gate 3 without any multiclassing at all.
Mindsword madness
The big impetus, the thing that made me go "whoah, Hexblade time," was Shadow Blade, a completely revamped level two spell that might be one of the most overpowered in the game. It does 2d8+[your damage attribute modifier, here Charisma] psychic damage out of the gate, better than nearly every other melee weapon in act one.
But it also gets stronger as you level up, dealing 3d8 damage and finally 4d8 damage with level three and five spell slots respectively. Add in the psychic damage-doubling Resonance Stone and fuhgeddaboudit, Shadow Blade is one of the best weapons you can use in BG3.
That committed me to at least nine levels of Hexblade for full-power Shadow Blade, but I was still considering filling the rest with something else—probably Champion Fighter, for even more crits and Action Surge. However, I've seen how great a pure Hexblade can be already after seven levels, and a thread on the BG3Builds subreddit on just this subject convinced me to stay Hexy with it: Shadow Blade was just my gateway drug to a full 12 levels of Warlock.
Infinite necrotic ghost turrets
At level six, Hexblades unlock Accursed Spectre, which, like the Swashbuckler's Dirty Tricks, is an ability I wrote off as "neat, but probably not all that powerful" at first glance. In practice, naturally, it is utterly insane and feels amazing to use.
I'm not sure how intentional it is, but the subclass' Hexed Weapons will apply a Hexblade's Curse debuff far more reliably than the ability description would make you think—pretty much every enemy I attack will be cursed by the time they die. Come level six, Hexblades can use a Reaction to turn nearly any enemy killed while hexed into a freaky ghost to fight by their side. Here's what makes it nutty:
- Reactions are a far less valuable resource overall than Actions or Bonus Actions, and this effectively lets you cast a summoning spell once per round without giving up your attacks.
- Even the weakest version of the ghost is super strong, dealing a ton of damage and prioritizing the enemies you attack.
- There is no limit to how many you can have up at once. The only ghost limitation is how many reactions you have per round. If this is a bug, I hope it never gets fixed.
You're basically an edgelord melee DPS guy who gets to summon pets every time they kill an enemy, with no downside, and the ghosts also just look and feel so good in action. When you attack an enemy, each ghost in play will magnetize to them and attack at once in a cascade of green damage numbers. It's sick.
Endgame
There are three big additions at Warlock level 11 and 12 that convinced me to stick with Hexblade all the way: An extra level five spell slot, Mummy summoning, and a capstone ability I never even realized was in the game called Lifedrinker.
At level 11, Warlocks go from casting two spells per short rest, to getting three, for a total of nine level five spell slots per long rest. Warlocks have some juicy spells that can really compliment the Hexblade's melee DPS focus: Hunger of Hadar for crowd control, Armour of Agathys for tankiness, Haste for extra attacks, and Darkness (paired with the Devil's Sight Invocation) for tankiness and an accuracy bonus, just to name a few.
Warlocks also get to pick from a special selection of level six spells called Mystic Arcanum, cast once per long rest, and for my money the best Hexblade option is Create Undead, which summons a powerful mummy to do your bidding. This one gets points for letting you cast it outside combat, saving your precious actions for more Shadow Blade attacks.
Lifedrinker, meanwhile, is a Warlock Invocation (one of their every-few-levels special abilities) that adds your Charisma bonus as Necrotic damage to every melee attack. Stacking the same ability bonus multiple times for damage is one of the strongest buildcrafting moves in Baldur's Gate 3, and with Lifedrinker, a Hexblade will be adding their Charisma bonus to attacks three-to-four times between Hexed Weapon, Diadem of Arcane Synergy, Lifedrinker, and the Potent Robe (on your Booming Blade attacks).
So yeah, I've never been a Warlock guy or a single-class guy over 450 hours of BG3 to date, but all of a sudden I'm locked in. 12 levels of what is not only one of the most powerful spellswords in BG3, but also an incredibly cool class fantasy: Dark magic edgy melee damage dealer with a summoned mind blade and undead minions. This might be my favorite BG3 character I've made yet.
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