[RPG] Can your Hexblade patron be your pact weapon even though it’s sentient

dnd-5ehexbladewarlock

I'm asking RAW, not "talk with your DM." Thank you for your help beforehand.

Pact of the Blade says "You can't affect an artifact or sentient weapon in this way" in regards to making a magic weapon your pact weapon.

A Hexblade is a sentient magic weapon, as read in XGtE, "a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons…"

It sounds to me like you cannot turn your patron into your pact weapon, which would be very self defeating because you're effectively making a contract with a living weapon to be able to better wield other weapons.

Am I interpreting this correctly or overthinking it?

Best Answer

The Hexblade is the warlock, not the weapon

Let's start by reading the Hexblade description carefully. From Xanathar's Guide to Everything, page 55:

You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell - a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons [...] The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it.

(emphasis mine)

Note that the Hexblade Warlock is not making a pact with a sentient weapon, nor are they necessarily in possession of one. Rather, they are making a pact with a being that also creates and manifests within sentient weapons. The warlock may then wield a mundane or magical weapon as their pact blade, following the normal rules for pact weapons.

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