Hexblades: Spells

Today's Hexblade update will focus on their spell list. To discuss this post with the community, please join us on the on the #hexblade Discord channel.

Design philosophy

The Hexblade is a little different than some of the other melee caster classes that have been overhauled recently. While those classes do wield magic, the Hexblade has a deeper connection with the magic granted by their otherwordly pact. This is reflected in the Hexblade's spell list, which is a mix of damage, protection, and utility spells. Though they lack some of the mundane abilities common to Rogues and Rangers (like sneak and hide), the intent is to make up for that with some types of spells that are typically not granted to melee classes.

For the defensive spells, our approach was to create a layered defensive strategy, rather than one or two key spells. Our hope is that this approach will help Hexblades stay alive in an engaging and interesting way, while also offering some situational tools.

The basics

Hexblades are spontaneous casters, meaning they do not need to prepare spells ahead of time. They have 5 spell circles gained at levels 1, 10, 20, 30, and 40. Their spell slot refresh times are the same as Rangers, Paladins and Blackguards.

The spells

1st circle

  • Spider Scuttle: Ethereal spider legs sprout from your body, allowing increased movement.

  • Frostblade: Encases your weapon in a layer of eldritch frost, dealing extra damage on every melee hit.

  • Astral Eyes: Imbue your eyes with astral light, sharpening your vision and allowing you to sense life and detect invisibility.

2nd circle

  • Gift of the Everliving Ones: Harness the power of ancient eldritch being to heal your wounds.

  • Spectral Fade: You fade away, becoming invisible.

  • Eldritch Chains: Ghostly chains lash your enemy, dealing damage and weakening them.

3rd circle

  • Armor of Winter's Grasp: Abyssal ice surround you, granting some resistance against physical damage. In addition, any enemy who lands a melee attack will be slowed.

  • Blade of Annihilation: A terrible bloodlust infuses your weapon, causing it to deal additional negative damage on every attack for a short time.

4th circle

  • Armor of Hexes: A spectral armor encases you, making you very hard to hit.

  • Death Shroud: You channel ancient death magic to drain the life force of enemies in the area and return a portion of their hitpoints to you. The more enemies that are hit, the more healing you will receive.

  • Cloak of Flies: A venomous cloud of flies surrounds you, causing acidic damage to any enemy that attacks you.

5th circle

  • Armor of the Void: A suit of dark void matter encases you and increases your resistance to all damage types.

  • Shadowslip: You slip into the shadow realm and emerge somewhere else in the world. This spell allows the Hexblade to relocate anywhere in the game, using either a teleport beacon or another player as a target.

  • Blazing Doom: Infernal magic infuses your weapon with hellish flames. Melee attacks deal additional fire damage, and the next melee power used will cause a huge eruption of flames to the target.

What's next

Next up: implementation! Hexblades are coming in the next couple of days, along with the full patch notes. There are still a few more things to disclose, so make sure to read the patch notes when they're up.

Please feel free to ask questions or leave feedback in the #hexblade Discord channel.

Shevarash

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