The Hexblade is a character class in the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition that was introduced in the Complete Warrior.
A Hexblade is an unusual class, that combines arcane magic with combat ability. They are able to cast arcane spells while wearing armour, but are unlike bards as they are more combat bent. Therefore, some have drawn comparisons to arcane paladins. All are either evil or neutral, and never good.
Hexblades often show their power at early ages, through bad luck and strange accidents of people around them. Although hexblades are basically self taught, sometimes they receive training from other arcane casters before beginning to adventure. Due to their inherent evil, hexblades typically adventure for power, prestige, wealth or something similar, almost always for personal gain. They have no particular bent towards law or chaos. Typically, hexblades are not very religious, instead relying on their own strange powers. Hexblades that do worship a deity often choose Wee Jas, Boccob, Nerull or Vecna. Hexblades share a strange bond with one another and, although they will not always become friends with one, they will rarely fight another hexblade.
Most hexblades are humans or half-elves, as is the case with sorcerers. Gnomes who enjoy a more sinister twist to their magic may become hexblades. Elves who wish to take a similar path to that of a hexblade are more likely to become a fighter/wizard multiclass, or a Duskblade. Halflings and dwarves are too good of heart to regularly become hexblades. Often, hexblades become leaders or advisors in the communities of more savage races. The hexblade, as of yet, is not the favoured class of any race.
All hexblades have the ability to curse opponents. At first level, they may only do so once per day, but they gain more curses as they gain more levels in the class. They can curse anyone they can see, who is within a certain distance from the character. Once cursed, opponents take numerical penalties on many things, including saves and attack rolls. At higher level, the hexblade's curse becomes a Greater Hexblade's Curse and then a Dire Hexblades Curse. These work in the same way, but a larger numerical penalty on the opponents rolls is taken.
At mid level, hexblades gain access to spells, presuming their charisma ability score is high enough. Hexblades are spontaneous arcane casters, meaning that they know a certain number of spells of different levels, and may cast a certain number of spells of each level per day.[1] However, the hexblade spell list is limited, and there is little room for change once a spell has been selected.[2]
Hexblades gain the Mettle ability when they have advanced to the right level. This gives them greater protection against certain magical and unusual attacks.
When a hexblade reaches the correct level, they can summon a familiar to aid them.[1] The Player's Handbook II provides an option for Hexblades to choose a "shadow companion" instead of a familiar. The shadow companion is not a living thing, but a constantly active illusion that Hexblades use to distract and harry their opponents.[3]
When the hexblade reaches a high enough level, they gain access to the Aura of Unluck ability. This ability means that they can give themselves an aura of the same name, which means people have a good chance of missing the hexblade with their attacks.[1]
As the hexblade is a relatively new class, Complete Warrior only being released in November 2003, and it being non-core, hexblades are not a classic aspect of Dungeons & Dragons, meaning that they do not feature much in novels and other sourcebooks.[4] However, they have appeared in some others, such as in the Player's Handbook II, where there were numerous suggestions of how to expand a hexblade character. It gave recommendations of character themes, character backgrounds, alternative starting packages and an alternative class feature in place of Familiar.[3]
So far, one official miniature has been released, the Half-Elf Hexblade from the Aberrations line.[5]