Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Would bard/hexblade be a good combination ?

Hi, in my current PT I have a halfling college-of-lore-bard (custom mercenary, so not one from Withers). We found the Falar Aluve, and I equipped her with it. (She has longsword proficiency, and as this blade is versatile, gets her DEX bonus , so all is well.) But I was wondering if it would be beneficial to multiclass now with hexblade warlock, or if I should just continue to build pure bard. I have no experience with hexblade, and can't judge very well how much I would gain. I like it that you get "shield" on lvl 1. I like that reaction spell, and my bard can use some additional protection from attacks. The hexblade curse sounds cool, but I never saw it in action, and I'm not sure if it is worth it. What do you think ? Will it make a difference ?

The party consists of Durge - a drunken master monk, Lae'zel, the halfling bard and a Duergar sorcerer hireling.

( The durge has trouble resisting urges, so Gale, Astarion, Shadowheart, Wyll ,Karlach and even Minthy are already all dead or left for good, is why I need the hirelings)

It can be good. Depends on what you're after.

2 levels as Hexblade can be great. Eldritch Blast (Plus Agonizing Blast invocation) can be a strong tool for more of a full caster Lore Bard. Meanwhile, free Medium Armor proficiency and free Hexxed weapon help for more martial style Bard (Though you'd need 5 levels for Deepened Pact along with Pact of the Blade to get the extra attack as Lore Bard doesn't get one like Swords/Valour)

If you're interested in such things, I'd suggest getting your Lore Bard to level 6 before you put a couple of levels into Hexblade. Since getting your Magical Secrets will be significant as there are several very good spells to pick (Such as Call Lightning, Counterspell, Spirit Guardians, Hunger of Hadar and Fireball)

As far as Hexblade Curse goes, after the fix to the bug with it... It's not that impactful. From my experience, the proc from attacks itself is irrelevant as most things die before it activates. Meaning you only have the single active use per long rest and even then it's pretty insignificant overall (And will be even less significant the more you do things other than regular attacks, which as a Lore Bard the subclass's schtick is that it is more caster focused than other Bard subclasses). Hexblade is more about the Medium Armour proficiency and the level 1+2 weapon bond when compared to other Warlock subclasses (Honestly GoOlock's AoE Frighten on Crit and Archfiend's temp health on kill are more noteworthy than the Curse)

Thanks. I'm almost lvl 6, so I 'll take that as a bard level still. Good advice. I'll probably take the multiclass after that for the armor. (I already played a full bard in a previous PT, and I liked that a lot, but trying new variants is also fun , and I do want to do something more with Falar Aluve than just let it sing in the background)

a one level dip gives you medium armour, all weapons and the option to have her main weapon use charisma instead of str or dex... at level 6 it also gives two shots with her blast which may sometimes be worth if charisma is high
the curse is extra damage against one target so best used against a boss with the typical scenario being to run upto the mob; use her action to activate Falar Aluve [shreak] and her bonus action to curse whatever target needs killing most

with both Falar Aluve and curse on the target your sorcerer now magic missiles its ass into the grave so if you don't want your bard up in their faces consider giving Falar Aluve to Lae'zel instead

p.s, yes lore Bard really wants that level 6 but that one level dip gives more normally... a single level is all i would consider because 11-1 bard is so much better than 10-2 without the second magical secrete