I am playing a fey-pact Hexblade in my home game. The paragon path, with its emphasis on invisibility doesn't suit my character. I was wondering what the community thought of adapting a Sorcerer Paragon Path for the Hexblade class. Because the Hexblade and Sorcerer share the same striker-damage mechanic, I think it works. Because the warlock paths rely so much on cursing, they are actually more difficult to adapt.
Essence Mage (AP) - Adapted11 Action Point: +4 attack rolls 'til start of next turn
11: +1d6 when you hit with an attack with two damage types
this is where things get interesting. For at-wills, does Blazing Starfall (sorc a/w 1) count? Either way, arcane admixture takes care of that. Since all three hexblade encounter power do more than one damage type, we need to compare usefulness to the originally intended sorcerer.
- 3 Encounter - dancing lightning (dark blue) & Swirling Stars (dark blue)
- 7 E - Blazing Bolts (dark blue)
- 13 E - Primordial Storm (black / dark blue)
- 17 E - Thunderstroke (black / dark blue)
- 23 E - rumbling storm bolt (purple) & sun and stars (dark blue)
- 27 E - chaos infusion (dark blue)
There are acceptable options at every level above 1, so it isn't unfair for the Hexblade to get the bonus on all three encounter powers.
- 15 Daily - Day and Night (dark blue) & Prismatic Lightning (sky blue)
- 19 D - radiant wings (black)
- 25 D - acid typhoon (black) & wrathful vapors (sky blue)
- 29 D - hellish firestorm
The Hexblade has limited multi-damage options, the sorcerer's are much better, so that's not an advantage for the Hexblade.
16: Increase resistance by 3/4. Hexblade: Gain resist cold (fey) or resist fire (infernal) 3/4.
It's the same thing.11 Encounter: range attack with same value to both classes
12 utility: nice defense feature, similar value to both classes
20 daily: close burst 2, better for close-in types like the hexblade, but barely matters.
So my evaluation would be that
Essence Mage makes a perfectly good Essence of the Pact Hexblade paragon path. Please let me know your opinion.