D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Six - Favorite Mundane Item

This is a tough one, but I think for my favorite mundane item is probably the ten-foot pole. It's easily the most classic item that all D&D groups need to have to go dungeon crawling. The thief thinks there might be a pit trap around and wants to check the floor? Ten-foot pole. The party wants to test the depth of a pool they find? Ten-foot pole. The party needs some extra firewood on the way back to town? Ten-foot pole. The thief gets the brilliant idea to pole-vault over a chasm to explore the tunnel on the other side? Ten-foot pole.

It's an item with dozens of different uses that every adventurer worth his salt should have.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Five - Favorite Magic Item

My favorite magic item in D&D is probably the Sword of Kas. The illustration in the 3E Dungeon Master's Guide is easily one of the best magic item illustrations in the book as far as I'm concerned.

Aside from the illustration, I really like the story behind it. An insanely powerful lich being betrayed by his vampire lieutenant and losing his hand and eye to a magic sword? Yes please. Vecna is one of the more interesting deities in 3E, and anything relating to his rise to godhood is of interest to me.

The Sword of Kas has had multiple different forms over the various editions, and it varies between being a short sword, longsword, or greatsword, but it's always an evil, intelligent artifact with its own agenda. If I ever use an artifact in a high level game, the Sword of Kas is the first one I think of. Other artifacts are undoubtedly cool, but there's just something about that sword that really works for me. I could easily see it being the focus of a series of adventures to destroy it. It could also be a major player in a Vecna-oriented adventure (as I understand is the case with the Vecna Lives module).

Seriously, how awesome is this illustration? Photo taken of my original D&D 3rd Edition DMG

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Four - Favorite Element

This post is very similar to my earlier post about my favorite elemental monster, and the answer is pretty much the same: fire.

It's the classic dragon breath weapon. It's a key part of one of D&D's most iconic spells, Fireball. It's often the byproduct of a wizard gone amok.

Fire is interesting because it can take so many forms during an adventure. It can be a living threat in the form of a fire elemental. It can be a part of multiple spells (think pyromancer). It's a red dragon's signature weapon. But, it's also an event. A village burning down, for instance.

It's also a good thing for adventurers, though. Most parties wouldn't get very far without a healthy supply of torches, after all, nor would they even get to most dungeons without camping in the wilderness and using fire to light up the darkness and keep them safe at night.

Fire is both helpful and potentially devastating to adventurers. That's what makes it so interesting.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Three - Least Favorite Monster

I don't know that I have a single least-favorite monster. There are plenty of monsters I generally don't use, but none really stand out for me. Overall, probably, the monsters I really don't like using most are the law and chaos aligned monsters. I'm not a huge fan of alignment to begin with, but good and evil make more sense to me than law and chaos. To be fair, I rarely use demons, devils, or angels either, but the ones I do use (like the balor and pit fiend) are more iconic and interesting to me than monsters like slaads or inevitables.

I don't really have much to say on this subject. At one point or another, I've used (or at least planned on using) most of the monsters in the 3.5 Monster Manual and Monster Manual 2.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Two - Favorite Monster Overall

This time, I'm going to have to go with a cliché: my favorite monster is the dragon. They're the ultimate monster, as far as I'm concerned.

Dragons are not only monstrously powerful in a physical sense, with their claws, breath weapon, and massive jaws, but they're also intelligent and, in most editions, natural spellcasters. Great wyrm dragons are incredibly scary monsters because not only can they eat an adventurer in a single bite, but they can also cast high-level spells, possibly incapacitating entire parties with spells like Power Word, Kill or Mage's Disjunction.

I'll have a longer post up in a few days or so detailing a lot more about dragons, their lairs, and items they may value in their hoards, but for now, I think it's worth mentioning that there is a reason dragons are in the name of the game. These are classic “boss” monsters, and they should be treated as such.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-One - Favorite Dragon Color/Type

This is a fairly easy topic. My favorite dragon type is probably the black dragon. They've got really interesting lairs, they breathe fire rather than acid, and they're more likely to be swimming than flying.

Black dragons typically lair in swamps. The default dragon lair is, at least in my experience, some kind of mountain cave, maybe with some lava or at least high temperatures (because the default dragon breathes fire), and is kind of a standard dungeon as far as environment goes. Black dragons throw that out the window: underwater entrances and emergency exits, swamp-dwelling monsters like lizardfolk, and utter darkness (rather than having fire burning like in a red dragon's lair). I love the swamp theme: air so humid that the walls are dripping, deep pools of water that may contain monsters or hidden treasures, moss and pond scum growing everywhere, and complete pitch blackness.

Going along with the swamp theme, black dragons always have lots of water in their lairs. Their hoard might even be deep in a pool. The dragon could have a much higher chance to surprise the PCs; it's tough to miss a massive dragon sitting on a pile of gold, but if the dragon only has its eyes and nostrils above water (like a crocodile), it's much harder to spot.

On top of that, black dragons spit acid instead of breathing fire. Their breath doesn't light up the darkness – it just eats through the PCs while they fumble around in the darkness. I'd even rule that the acid could put out a torch if it hits a PC carrying one.

Black dragons, to me, seem way more like sneaky, devious opponents than standard red dragons; where reds may just rush into combat, hoping to burn and claw their enemies, my black dragons use darkness and water to get the drop on adventurers, taking their time to attack rather than blatantly exposing themselves to attacks.

As an aside, my fondness for black dragons might stem from my first experience reading about dragons of any kind. I read Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman when I was ten or so, and the scene where Onyx rises out of the well to attack the group, casting a darkness spell and breathing acid on Riverwind is one of my favorite fantasy scenes ever.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty - Favorite Humanoid Monster

Out of all the dozens of humanoids in D&D, I think my favorite has to be the kobold, particularly how they were portrayed in 3.5. They were small, dextrous, and deviously clever. Kobold lairs were like miniature versions of dragon's lairs: lots of traps, lots of areas where the characters were vulnerable, and devilishly tough to survive. Any trap you could possibly think of, the kobolds had at least one.

Their lairs were small, cramped, tough for human-sized creatures to move in, and absolutely lousy with traps. Rolling boulder traps, spiked pits, acid-spraying mechanisms, completely empty chests protected with poison needles and spiked walls that closed on the characters; you name it, the kobolds had it, and the worst part was that the kobolds were always in a position to counter attack the characters at their most vulnerable.

Not only were the kobolds masterminds of traps, but they were the descendants of dragons. There was always a good chance to find some kind of draconic item or a dragon-blooded kobold at one point or another. Even at higher levels, kobolds were still a threat because of the sheer deadliness of their lairs and the love of wealth they shared with their draconic ancestors.

Possible Traps in a Kobold Lair

1. Empty chest with a pressure plate in front of it attached to a poison dart mechanism.

2. A deadfall – if characters move a specific piece of treasure or hit a pressure plate, the ceiling collapses.

3. A pit with a gelatinous cube at the bottom and greased walls.

4. Two logs hung from walls that smash together when the trap is triggered, crushing anyone between them.

5. Vials of alchemist's fire that drop from the ceiling onto the characters when the trap is triggered.

6. A floor that sinks into a pit of acid when too much weight is put onto it.

7. A trap that sprays the adventurers with oil, in a room filled with candles and a fire pit.

8. Hidden blades set into the wall, high enough that the kobolds are in no danger, but that can swing out and decapitate larger adventurers.

9. Spikes that spring out of the floor, stabbing into adventurers' feet to hobble them.

10. A round boulder of the perfect size to roll down the sloping, conveniently round tunnel.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Nineteen - Favorite Elemental Monster

Continuing with the favorite monster theme, for this category I'm going to choose the fire elemental. Yeah, it's simple, and it's not a big bad villain-type monster this time, but I love the simplicity of the fire elemental. It burns, and that's it's big attraction. It's an uncontrolled blaze that managed to get itself summoned to the material plane (at least that's how it usually works).

It's possible to use magic to control them, but the interesting part is what happens when the magic fails. What happens if a wizard loses control of his fire elemental in the middle of his laboratory? All the arcane stuff in there is bound to have some sort of effect on the elemental. Or what happens when a fire elemental gets loose within city limits? The townsfolk generally can't hope to contain the blaze – that's where the PCs come in.

It's a simple monster, but it can lead to bigger situations than just “okay, there it is, let's kill it now.” That's where the draw of the fire elemental is for me.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Eighteen - Favorite Immortal/Outsider Monster

For my favorite immortal or outsider monster, I think it's got to be some variety of devil, probably the pit fiend. It's got the classic devil form – horns, wings, red skin, massive musculature – and it's intelligent and utterly malevolent. They're smart enough to be the evil mastermind, but also strong enough to go toe-to-toe in melee combat.

The fun part about pit fiends and other devils is not using them as just another foe. Pit fiends are the masters of the other devils. They should be major antagonists over the course of entire campaigns. At low levels, the PCs might face a devil cult with pit fiend imagery in the cultists' lair. At medium levels, the pit fiend may send lesser devils after the group, either to destroy or corrupt them. At higher levels, the PCs can finally track down the pit fiend on its own plane to try to find a way to permanently kill it.

The pit fiend is not only the classic devil, but if it is played well, it can be an enemy that the players remember for years afterward.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Seventeen - Favorite D&D Animal

I'm going to have to go with dinosaurs for my favorite D&D animals. Seriously, how often do you get to smash together a fantasy game with Jurassic Park?

Whether they're a natural part of the setting or some wizard's magical creations, dinosaurs fit all sorts of different roles. Looking for a lizardfolk equivalent for cows? Triceratops or stegosaurus fits the bill. Druid's animal companion? Why not go with a deinonychus instead of a bear? Pissed off halfling doesn't want to ride a pony? Deinonychus works for that too. An underwater adventure needs something a bit more intimidating than a shark? Throw an elasmosaurus at the party. The group needs a way to fly without using a spell? Giant pterodactyls are the answer. How about a wizard's thrall, guarding his tower? Tyrannosaurus rex seems appropriate there.

This is a short entry, but there's not much to be said here. If you want to have a more prehistoric or reptilian feel, dinosaurs are the perfect replacements for regular animals.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Sixteen - Favorite Aberrant Monster

My favorite aberrant monster in D&D is most definitely the illithid. Also known as the mind flayer, they're some of the most interesting Big Bad Guy monsters out there. They're almost always ridiculously intelligent, they've got their mind blast and tough psionic powers, and they're generally surrounded by their thrall minions. On top of all that, they eat their victims' brains.

From the Far Realm (or your campaign setting's equivalent), mind flayers are utterly alien and irrevocably evil. With their intelligence and penchant for enthralling some of the tougher victims they catch, they make great boss-type enemies. They're perfect for dungeon crawl adventures; given that they're intelligent and often psions or wizards, they make for a great way to combine the classic wizard's laboratory and a standard cave-style dungeon. They're great for Underdark adventures, but with all of their history, they're an even better enemy for multi-planar adventures, especially if the githyanki or githzerai are involved.

On a different note, I've been trying to put together a big blog post detailing some setting stuff I've been working on, a few ideas on implementing new-school races like warforged or dragonborn in old-school games like Swords & Wizardry and Dark Dungeons, and maybe a few adventure hooks and ideas. I'm hoping to get it up sometime this week, but I'm not going to make any definite statements yet. Once this D&D 30 Day Challenge is finished up, I plan on making at least two posts a week, but for the most part, they'll be longer than these challenge posts.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Fifteen - Favorite Undead Monster

When it comes to undead, my favorite has to be the lich. Yeah, skeletons and zombies are classic, but not only are liches powerful magic-users, they're also immortal. They're very similar to dragons in that they're almost certainly going to have deadly lairs filled with devious traps and undead minions.

So, liches have a ton of advantages that make them dangerous foes for adventurers. They're functionally immortal. If their body is destroyed, it will regenerate unless their phylactery (which is sure to be magically protected in at least one way) is also destroyed. They have access to a ridiculous amount of magic, mostly because they have all the time in the world to research new spells (even if they're clerics).

Now, liches do have some major disadvantages. They're susceptible to turning (though if a cleric is high enough level to turn a lich, the lich has more problems to worry about), and if their phylactery is destroyed, they're out of luck on the whole immortality deal.

However, a lich's biggest adventage is that they have a lot of experience. Over the course of a lich's unlife, chances are that they've seen most things that adventurers can dream up. They've typically got hundreds, if not thousands, of years of experience learning everything they possibly can.

The most devious, deadly, horrifying dungeon crawl in the history of D&D, the Tomb of Horrors was the home of a lich, Acererak. I rest my case.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Fourteen - Favorite NPC

Note: Yesterday I accidentally entitled Day Thirteen as Day Fourteen. That has been fixed, and here is the content for Day Fourteen of the 30 Day Challenge.

Choosing a specific favorite NPC is tough, especially given all the various types of NPCs across all the games I've played and run, so I'm going to choose an NPC archetype instead: the super villain.

I'm not talking about a comic book super villain like Lex Luthor or Venom. I'm talking about the big bad guys, the boss monster at the end of the dungeon, the major antagonists that players love to hate.

I've already mentioned that I love the dragon's lair as a dungeon location, but a lot of that comes from the fact that I absolutely love smart, evil, dedicated villains as NPCs. Sure, the classic “some orcs in a room guarding a chest” scenario is great; there's a reason it's a classic, after all, but those orcs aren't really interesting unless there's something more there. The orc chief, the hobgoblin warband leader, the dragon leading an army of kobolds, the archmage throwing arcane minions at the party, the slick mayor who's got the town guard in his back pocket: these are villains. They're not just enemies, they're not crossbow fodder, they're villains. The man with the plan.

In my experience, it's the true villains that are interesting, and I mentioned super villains because there's definitely a comparison to be made there. In a comic book, the focus is rarely on the groups of faceless thugs attacking Batman; rather, the focus is, and should be, on the Joker. The Joker is interesting, he's unpredictable, and he's absolutely ruthless. That's what a villain should be: interesting.

Villains are interesting because they provide a counterpoint to the PCs. Where the PCs want to save the townsfolk, the villain wants the town under his control. If the PCs are going after a magic artifact, the villain does what he can to make sure they don't get it. The PCs go after something themselves, while the villain has minions to do his bidding.

That's why villains are so interesting: their sole purpose as a game element is to provide more than “a few orcs in a room guarding a chest.” They give the PCs a reason to adventure: to stop the villain.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Thirteen - Favorite Trap

Whenever I DM, my favorite trap is almost always the pit trap. It's classic, it's versatile, and it can be triggered a thousand different ways.

The pit trap is easy to make interesting and deadly, even at higher levels. At low levels, it's pretty common to just have a straight ten-foot-deep pit with a solid stone floor. It does some damage, but it's usually pretty easy to get out of it if the party is carrying rope (and really, what self-respecting adventurer doesn't carry rope?). At higher levels though, the pit can have spikes at the bottom for extra damage, it can be deeper, or it can have something waiting in it.

My favorite pit trap for high-level parties is to have a pit trap with greased walls and a pit of acid ten-feet down. It's tough to get out of something like that. Or, even better, have it be a regular pit with walls angled so that the pit is wider at the bottom than at the top (to prevent climbing) and have a family of monsters living down there (carrion crawlers, wolves, dire rats, anything like that). Or, go with a classic monster and have the adventurers fall directly on top of (and into) a gelatinous cube.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Twelve - Favorite Dungeon Location

My favorite type of dungeon is almost certainly the dragon's lair.

Dragon lairs are awesome for a few reasons. One, they're the source of a major decision for the party; either A) go in and possibly get killed by a monstrously powerful dragon, or B) walk away and ignore the massive pile of treasure at the end. Dragons are a huge part of D&D (who'd have thought?), and making a good dragon's lair takes a lot of effort. As a DM, you've got to balance good encounters and traps to keep the party on their toes before getting to the dragon without using up so many of the party's resources (spells, healing abilities, hit points, etc.) that they won't be strong enough to face the dragon at the end. You've also got to make the reward worth it, so even if the party loses a member or two, there will be enough treasure to make it worth the sacrifice (maybe with enough gold for a Raise Dead spell or two).

The other major difficulty in using a dragon's lair is the dragon itself; a fight with a dragon has to be climactic, epic, and tense. While some of that falls on the dice and how well the DM and players are rolling, it also has to do with making sure the dragon is a suitable opponent for the party: too tough, and the party isn't going to succeed at all. Too easy, and the party is going to stomp over the dragon and won't feel like they've really earned all that dragon treasure.

Sometime soon, I'll be writing another, longer post about how to make memorable dragon lairs.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Eleven - My Favorite Adventure

My favorite adventure that I've run has to be The Sunless Citadel by Bruce Cordell. It was not only the first full-length adventure I played through, but it's also the first adventure I ever ran.

What I like about The Sunless Citadel is that it kind of breaks the mold for what I think of as a typical first-level adventure. Normally, for a first-level adventure, I think the cliché is “rescue someone or retrieve some item from some goblins or orcs, and get a few gold out of the deal.” Pretty simple stuff, really.

In contrast to that, The Sunless Citadel has a ton going on: the kobold/goblin feud, the goblins working for Belak, Belak and the Gulthias Tree, the mystery of the twig blights, and the missing adventuring party. Not only does it have all of that, but there's also foreshadowing and references to a dragon called Ashardalon, along with a map that leads to the next adventure in the series, The Forge of Fury. On top of that, there's even a dragon in The Sunless Citadel. What more could you ask for out of a first-level adventure?

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Ten - The Craziest Thing I Ever Saw in a D&D Game

The craziest thing I've ever seen in D&D actually is related to the black d20 from the My Favorite Dice entry.

It was a game of D&D 4E, I was DMing, and the party was running through a standard dungeon crawl. I think it was Treasure of Talon Pass, but I'm honestly not sure. Anyway, the party, which was only three PCs (a cleric, a wizard, and a fighter, I think), was up against a group of kobolds. It should have been a fairly easy fight; there weren't a lot of kobolds, but they had some cover. The kobolds won initiative, so the party had to weather some fire before getting to fight back. Now, it's important to note that I rolled in front of the players for this whole encounter. You'll see why.

The first kobold threw a spear at the wizard and rolled a crit. The wizard was immediately bloodied (he had pretty low HP). Okay, it's easy enough to deal with that; the cleric had plenty of healing to spare. The second kobold threw another spear at the wizard, with another crit. The wizard dropped to negative hit points and the players started to sweat a little. The third kobold stepped up to stab the fighter. Another crit and the fighter is just above bloodied (he'd been hit in an earlier fight and was a few hit points down already). The fourth and fifth both hit the cleric. Both of them rolled critical hits and the cleric went down.

Five critical hits in a row. The entire table was speechless. Five straight crits was unheard of. The fighter had no healing and no area attacks. He got wrecked.

After that, it was the players' turns, but they couldn't pull out of that five critical hit fiasco. The fighter fought on for a couple rounds, but the wizard and cleric bled out with some terrible death save rolls. The fighter got overwhelmed by the kobolds pretty rapidly after that. To top it all off, it was only the second time I'd DMed 4E.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Nine - Favorite Characters I Have Never Played

There are two characters I've thought up that I never got to play. One, because the group I was playing with fell apart, and the second because it's a little goofy for most games of D&D. Both of them were for D&D 4E.

The first character was a warforged paladin of the Raven Queen. I loved the idea of an essentially-immortal construct becoming a champion of the goddess of death. He absolutely loathed undead, because they were even stranger than the normal fleshbags he hung out with (AKA the rest of the adventuring party), and because they upset the normal balance of things. He figured that, as a warforged, he was the perfect weapon to fight undead for his deity. He was essentially the opposite of intelligent undead like vampires or liches: he would never die naturally, he was a champion for the living, and he sent undead to his goddess for judgment.

The second character, the goofier one, was a warforged bard based on heavy metal music. His theme song was Black Sabbath's “Iron Man,” and when he wasn't playing a badass guitar solo, he was using that guitar as a battle axe (it was a unique combo axe/guitar). Fun to think about, even more fun to make playlists for, but it's a character that I think would only really work for a one-shot game.

I'm amazed I was able to actually find an image of a warforged bard using a battle axe guitar. That's so awesome.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Eight - Favorite Character I've Played

My favorite D&D character would probably be Vaskar, a thief I played in a Play-by-Post forum game of Dark Dungeons on RPG.net. That was the first character I ever played in an old-school game, and despite having only three hit points, he managed to survive multiple dungeons and even made it to second level before the game went on hiatus.

Vaskar was my first “roll 3d6 in order” character (though truth be told, I did get three sets of ability scores to choose from), and the first character I really had to track encumbrance with. He always had some sort of quip or comment, managed to find a couple traps (despite accidentally tripping one while attempting to disarm it), and carried a bastard sword even though melee combat was almost assuredly a death sentence for him.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day Seven - Favorite Edition

This one is a tough call. I'll always love original Third Edition D&D, as it's the edition I started with, but I think my favorite edition is probably 3.5, simply for the amazing wealth of options and different splat books published for that edition.

I don't play much 3.5 much anymore, mostly because it gets fairly complex at higher levels, but I still use a lot of the books for inspiration. The Expanded Psionics Handbook is by far my favorite D&D book, to the point where I consider it to be the fourth core book for 3.5. I love the general aesthetic of the 3.5 books in terms of the artwork, especially the Expanded Psionics Handbook and the first Monster Manual. My only problem with 3.5 (aside from the extreme balance issues between casters and non-casters, which is another post altogether) is that there weren't any official Dark Sun supplements published for it.

Converting the 4E Hexblade to Dark Dungeons - Part Two

I'm almost finished with this conversion. All I really have left to do is finish up the list of invocations (which I'm patterning after spells), and then figure out how to make a decent-looking PDF out of it. I'll try to get a post up either tomorrow or the day after with full invocation descriptions, with a PDF coming sometime after that. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Hexblade

Hexblades are arcane characters who bargain with otherworldly entities in exchange for arcane power. They use a special pact weapon and have an eldritch blast to defeat their enemies and grow in power and glory.

Hit Points

Hexblades gain 1d6 hit points per level until 9^th level. They add their Constitution bonus to these rolls. After 9^th level, Hexblades gain 1 hit point per level and do not add further Constitution bonuses (but do retain the bonuses to previous rolls).

Experience

Hexblades level up at the same rate as elves.

Base Attack Bonus

As elves.

Skills

As elves.

Weapon Feats

Hexblades begin play with two weapon feats, one of which must be spent on basic proficiency with their pact weapon, and the other must be spent on basic proficiency on a different weapon. After first level, Hexblades gain new weapon feats at the same rate as elves.

Equipment Restrictions

Hexblades can wear any armor or shields, and may use any weapon.

Pact Weapons

At first level, each Hexblade selects a pact. This pact determines the Hexblade's choice of invocations and pact weapon. The pact weapon is a unique weapon imbued with a portion of the Hexblade's power. This allows the Hexblade to channel invocations through the pact weapon in the same manner as using an invocation on the eldritch blast.

Infernal Pact – Bastard Sword

Fey Pact – Scimitar

Star Pact – Long Sword

When using their pact weapon, the Hexblade gains +1 to attack and damage every fifth level (5, 10, 15, 20, 25) up to a maximum of +5. In addition, the pact weapon is the only weapon that the Hexblade can channel their invocations through.

Eldritch Blast
The eldritch blast is the key feature of any Warlock. The Hexblade in particular uses the eldritch blast as a backup to the pact weapon. In 4E, the Warlock's eldritch blast was a ranged at-will power that could be used as a basic attack. In the more old-school Dark Dungeons, the eldritch blast is going to be a power with limited daily use. Usable once per day at first level, the eldritch blast is essentially a ranged attack that is modified by invocations. The eldritch blast deals 1d6 at first level damage and can be modified by invocations. The damage cannot be saved against unless specifically stated by an invocation.

Invocations

Invocations modify a Hexblade's eldritch blast or pact weapon. A Hexblade can only use a single invocation on each use of their eldritch blast. The Hexblade has a core list of invocations and an additional list of invocations granted by their pact. Using an invocation does not count as an action; instead, using an invocation is part of a separate action (either making an attack or using eldritch blast).

As a Hexblade gains levels, she learns new invocations. A Hexblade does not need to spend time learning these new invocations; rather, they are granted by the power the Hexblade made their pact with.

Using an invocation to alter the Hexblade's pact weapon on a single attack counts as a use of eldritch blast, whether the attack hits or misses. Using an invocation on the pact weapon generally has the exact same effect as it would as using the invocation on a use of eldritch blast. Invocations cannot be used on a weapon other than the Hexblade's pact weapon.

Hexblade Invocations

The Black Terror

Deafening Blast

Chill of the Void

Hex of Desiccation

Split Blast

Forceful Blast

Sphere of Darkness

Infernal Pact Invocations

Flames of the Abyss

Acidic Sphere

Blinding Blast

Devouring Blast

Shredding Blast

Fey Pact Invocations

Sickening Blast

Shriek of the Banshee

Warding Blast

Entrancement

Spider's Webbing

Star Pact Invocations

Dazzling Blast

Petrifying Blast

Confusion

Holding Blast

Suffocating Blast

Level	Eldritch Blast Damage	Eldritch Blast Uses Per Day	Invocations Known	Highest Level Invocation Known	Pact Weapon Bonus
1	1d6	1	1	1	+0
2	1d6	1	1	1	+0
3	1d6	1	1	1	+0
4	1d6	2	2	1	+0
5	1d6	2	2	1	+1
6	1d6	2	2	1	+1
7	2d6	3	3	2	+1
8	2d6	3	3	2	+1
9	2d6	3	3	2	+1
10	2d6	4	4	2	+2
11	2d6	4	4	2	+2
12	2d6	4	4	2	+2
13	3d6	5	5	3	+2
14	3d6	5	5	3	+2
15	3d6	5	5	3	+3
16	3d6	6	6	3	+3
17	3d6	6	6	3	+3
18	3d6	6	6	3	+3
19	4d6	7	7	4	+3
20	4d6	7	7	4	+4
21	4d6	7	7	4	+4
22	4d6	8	8	4	+4
23	4d6	8	8	4	+4
24	4d6	8	8	4	+4
25	5d6	9	9	5	+5
26	5d6	9	9	5	+5
27	5d6	9	9	5	+5
28	5d6	10	10	5	+5
29	5d6	10	10	5	+5
30	5d6	10	10	5	+5
31	6d6	11	11	6	+5
32	6d6	11	11	6	+5
33	6d6	11	11	6	+5
34	6d6	12	12	6	+5
35	6d6	12	12	6	+5
36	6d6	12	12	6	+5