Death Bringer: A Crazy Damage Paladin Build | D&D 5e

The trouble with using 'Darkness' in combat is that, unless your entire party builds around it, 'Darkness' will screw out all but you when you use it.

I like this build and if you wanted more options for spell casting and invocations you can take more levels on warlock and at 12th level you can take the life drinker invocation to add your Charisma modifier to your damage again so your 7th level paladin feature you can add a plus 15 to each attack damage from Charisma alone and add eldritch smite to it and when you hit that crit for you can divine smite and eldritch smite for massive damage and knocking them prove because there is no saving throw to eldritch smite

Paladin 6/warlock 1/bard 13. Smites for days.

I went Conquest over Oathbreaker and about 6 levels into Hexblade so I could grab eldritch Smite
It required a bit more set up but the conquest channel divinity for a +10 to an attack roll negated GWM attack roll penalty and even if it wasn't a crit an eldritch smite coupled with a regular divine smite and gwm made them go prone which set me up advantage next attack was a painful combo for monsters

After level 8 (1 hexblade, 7 oathbreaker) you could continue hexblade. At hexblade 5, pickup summon undead, and they benefit from your aura as well.

This is actually what I'm doing in one of the games I play! My level 4 character is an Oath of Devotion Pally with a Hexblade dip that is slowly being corrupted by an evil force. I plan on going a second level Warlock because I'm the only character without darkvision, and it's caused some issues lol.
But that brings a fantastic story reason to bait my character into further evil. The power is too alluring and will allow me to better serve my cause. At least that's what the ominous voice is telling me, anyway.
I'll become an Oathbreaker at level 6 by taking another level in Paladin, which coincides perfectly with an ASI. Once I fully give in to the evil force, I'll gain a massive power boost. What the consequence will be is entirely up to the DM, and I'm excited to see what she has planned.

Wat caster is going to get you a lot of bang for your buck. It allows you to use the shield spell from hexblade with your hands full, lets you use booming blade as a reaction attack and makes wrathful smite really stick (which you are a great user for).

You got options out of the wazoo after getting set up. More paladin gets you improved divine smite, right before that war caster or final ASI. Eldritch knight gets you defence FS, action surge and absorb elements with find familiar. This gives you stupid burst, utility and makes you harder to kill. There's the classic sorcadin build that's extremely effective here too. Honestly it is hard to go wrong.... Except if you fight that demon with 9 attacks.

The one level warlock dip is for the players that don’t get into the game and pretty much every DM and player would prefer was not there. It’s a min/max tool not an RP tool

If you'll go warlock first, you will not get heavy armor. For heavy armor you need to start paladin first. It's pure loss if you start warlock, because saves and number of proficiencies you get are the same.

If you go 5 into Hexblade, you get 3rd level spells which includes Summon Undead. Your summon would also benefit from your aura, and have the same to-hit as you. The ghostly and putrid options have some interesting rider effects that would mesh well with your concept.

I like the build, it's great mechanically and it has a good theme. However, something I see quite a bit in build videos is the discussion about how far a character can move and still do something. You mentioned 120 since the horse can Dash since the enemy is likely in Darkness. As a DM, how many people have a map that big? I don't mean 120 feet...with 5' squares that's only 24...but I mean a map big enough to draw out the scene, put the enemy on it, any terrain etc., and STILL have enough room to move that far? I don't. Something else is that your numbers for movement are useless inside unless the character wants to drag his mount around inside the dungeon. I understand that such a tactic is POSSIBLE, but I don't think that it should be a major selling point for a build because it's what I consider a corner case.

I personally prefer Undead Patron over Hexblade for a dip, probably because Conquest is my favorite Paladin Oath.

Sorry to break it to some of you, but RAW multiclassing into paladin won't give us the heavy armor proficiency

RAW, aura of hate is aoe buff for all fiends and undead allies or enemies. So the fiends and undead enemies surrounding your PC also gain dmg buff against your PC.

So, maybe I'm missing something but doesn't only 1 level in hexblade allow a weapon that lacks the two handed property? Wouldn't you need to get to third level?

Glaive would only work with 3 hexblade. You need "pact boon: blade" to use heavy and two-handed Weapons

i had thought of something a bit different, but the same bones, instead of doing a few warlock levels, instead start with 1 in warlock, hit paladin 7 or 8, then take warlock to 12 or 13. with hexblade, you can take the lifedrinker invocation for +5 to damage with a maxed charisma, which combines with aura of hate and your hexblade weapon, so with a +5 to charisma, that's +15 to damage with each attack or +25 with great weapon master, without including hexblades curse, or your eldritch and divine smites

Interesting build. I wonder about going more slowly with a half elf or a shadu kai and taking elven accuracy, but that would be much slower. Also after you take Hexblade 2 and Pally 8 or 11, I wonder about going Sorcerer

Arnt "rules" ment to be broken? Under the right circumstances. Lol

I'd have really think about what I would do different. Tho Battle Smith Artificer is lingering around the door. Lol so.... idk as of yet.

Awesome build
Worthy of ☕️ ☕️ the double cup of coffee.

A very cool build, definitely something I'd try to do, depending of the campaign! Although, wouldn't it be better to start with paladin, to get the heavy armor proficiency, then dip into warlock, and the rest paladin? 'Cause even hexblades don't get heavy armor, and multiclassing into paladin doesn't give you heavy armor too. But the rest is really good.

How to make a charismatic nuke on a horse 101

Lol sounds like a fun build

So, I would almost go with a 12 warlock, 8 paladin split with this to get the life drinker invocation. That'll give you +1 from improved pact weapon, +5 from charisma, +5 from life drinker, +5 from your aura, +6 from hexblade curse, and +10 from GWM. That is a +32 to damage or +22 without GWM. That is a 53.025 DPR without GWM, and 72.33 DPR with advantage. With GWM the DPR is 33.15, and 53.445 with advantage. So, GWM isn't super useful at the 60% accuracy baseline. These numbers are assuming you have PAM, and have activated hex blade curse. With sword and board your DPR comes out to 35.35 DPR which is almost the same as a fighter with GWM and PAM, and with advantage DPR is 48.22 which is above the elite DPR base line.
Edit: You can also just add 20d8 to every critical hit which is kind of nutty.

A fun build! Given how stat efficient it is, I think delaying Polearm Master and taking a non-Vuman starter species could be fun. There are so many potential species that could enhance the flavor of this class. Many of the elvish races for a bonus action teleport, or the Halflings to neutralize the potential of a nat-1 (which indirectly synergizes with the Hexblade's Curse and further increases the chances of a crit!)

I dont think hexblade pqtron is mandatory on paladins.
Sometimes you want undead patron.

Very fun and thematic build. The hexblade is to strong for a dip , but as a straight build I think it balances fairly well and I think it's the best gish build. I know that bladesinger has a higher skill cap and is a better caster because we'll wizard. The hex though as long as you don't mind eldritch blast as your main damage dealing spell and you get the invocation to deal two attacks with your pact weapon you are good to go. Much simpler for newer players to get a sword and sorcery feel without being overly complicated or m.a.d.

Hexblade is really cool as a concept but it's too strong for any charisma martial build not to include it in it and I'm genuinely sick of seeing the hexadin/sorcadin (even though it's really fun to 5th level smite on crits)

Play a dwarf and ignore strength altogether because is fun.

Works flavor-wise as well

First again 🦾 still loving the videos brother awesome builds. Would love to see a video on your take of an eldritch iron man type class who gets his mech suit knowledge from some eldritch horror that is obsessed with mixing living organisms with machine.