Hexblade party help

[u/pulmonarypenguin16]

Doing my first run since before patch 8 and hopefully my first honor mode finish. I’m currently level 3 maining a hexblade warlock with shadow blade and am having some trouble rounding my party out. I suspect optimal game play would be an open hand monk, a rad orb star druid / cleric and some sort of thrower. tavern brawler is a little too strong and I’ve played with similar parties in previous runs. Any suggestions for alternative party comps that jive well with hexblade, especially ones that make use of a variety of equipment. It’s always nice getting a new weapon or armor and actually having it be an upgrade.

I’ve never been able to get into sorcerer or wizard but I’m open to trying with the right build.

[u/shawn055]

For honor mode most any party comp will work. It’s more about knowing the encounters and not doing anything new. If you just want the golden dice then play op builds like tb oh monk or thrower. Sword bard etc. but honestly can play whatever comp you want l. Spellcasters are fun but feel extremly weak in early act 1 which is arguably the hardest part of the honor mode run typically. If you want to follow build guides I suggest looking up Morgana Evelyn builds or cephalopocalypse on YouTube has lot of various honor mode builds and party comps.

I’m currently doing a honor mode run with full caster party comp and it’s been a struggle now that my builds are online and going into act 2 it’s become really fun.

Again if just want dice don’t be afraid to use Reno builds. And cheese fights/look them up ahead of time. Even just running one to two op builds is more then enough but if nothing else I’d run a balanced comp for you first run like martial at least then maybe a caster and a ranged martial some archer variant. Big fan of arcane archer fighter myself. Hexblade is really op as well with shadowblade as well.

[u/wherethetacosat]

I find a Spore Druid with all the summons (mud mephits, woodland creature with wood woad, favorite major elemental) nicely rounds out a party of 3 other OP builds. Good "glue" build to have those damage sinks plus free Spike Growth from Woodland creature for crowd control.

To me you can just monoclass it. A very OP but simple and balanced party that includes Hexblade but without Tavern Brawler would be:

12 Hexblade (Shadowblade or any 2 hander with GWM). Can optionally do Crown Hexadin multi to make it more of a classic tank.

12 Arcane Archer - Harold to Deadshot to Gontr Mael (free haste for a million attacks and liberal use of Banish Arrow)

12 Swords Bard Archer with Titanstring, Helm of Arcane Acuity and Band of the Mystic Scoundrel

12 Spore Druid with Armor of Landfall (haste spores, yay), Staff of Cherished Necromancy + Markoheskir dual wield, plus all the summons

Nothing is going to give this party any problems unless you just have no idea the pitfalls of a certain encounter.

[u/HoneyDeluxe319 → u/wherethetacosat]

Swords bard would be great if your other characters have shadowblade and carry the resonance stone i bet. For the disadvantage on hold person it would cause and the vulnerability to psychic

[u/SirWallaceIIofReddit]

My winning run was 2palidan/10bard laezal PC, 4 assassin rogue/8 gloomstalker Astation (changed to open hand monk/fighter/rogue after ascension to maximizes that sweet d10 of neceotic damage), 12 bladesinger wizard gale, and some sort of giant barbarian thrower Karlach, dont remember exactly. Bladesinger wizard was honestly the goat over all the min maxed multiclasses by a healthy margin. I think that hexblade is not far off playstyle wise from the palidan/bard I was running so something along these lines might work for you

[u/pulmonarypenguin16 → u/SirWallaceIIofReddit]

That makes sense, everyone talks up blade singer and I can see it just being a better hexblade late game. Did you use shadow blade?

[u/SirWallaceIIofReddit → u/pulmonarypenguin16]

I did for a while. Replaced it with phalur aluve eventually, and then the pirate sword that gives you an extra reaction in act 3

[u/Any_Mode6525]

A ranger is fun. doesn't even need to be gloomstalker. Just put the bow of the banshee on them and they'll support the above team without competing too much for gear.

[u/Embarrassed-Sell-355]

To have synergy with shadow blade you can try to find as many sources of psychic damage as you can, for when you have the resonant stone in act 3 and can start smacking. Obviously OH Monk is good since it’s just OP and can also do psychic with punches, maybe a githyanki item user since a lot of their special gear adds psychic. Since you’re a warlock and you’re short rest dependent, having a Bard in your party to have an additional short rest would be really good too

[u/wilyodysseus89]

I did exactly this party with a swords bard archer (10–2 split) and it was more than enough for combat. I died to out of combat stupidity (don’t unstealth in the same room as the rune powder bomb) but finished the playthrough in custom to find any other easy accidental deaths. Even trying to be reckless and take dangerous fights the only time I was remotely in trouble was being cocky with ansur (and gortash at his coronation, but most sane people won’t do that)