My DM and I are having a disagreement over how the pact weapon from Pact of the Blade (PotB) is summoned.
Specifically, as a Hexblade with PotB, when I choose to summon my pact weapon as whatever – sword, axe, anything – do I have to roll a d20 to see if I successfully call it to me, regardless of whether I'm changing its form or if I'm recalling its previous form?
I've done some looking into the subject and haven't found a single reference to any such role being necessary. The description of Pact of the Blade (under the Pact Boon feature) states:
You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand.
You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you
create it […]
Am I missing something?
His view seems to be PotB is the same as the pact I've made with my Patron (aka simply the fact I'm a warlock and that's the backstory of how we have/do magic) and thus just as I need a DC to cast, say, eldritch blast, or any other spell, I need one to call/summon my PotB pact weapon.
Do I need to roll any dice when I summon my pact weapon?
Best Answer
There is nothing like that in the actual rules, you do not need to throw anything to summon the pact weapon. It is just as you yourself quote, if you do it in a battle it costs an action (so you may want to keep a summoned pact weapon in a scabbard always).
Most DMs would be inclined to house-rule the other way, making summoning easier (a bonus action or an object interaction), because it's Cool to summon the weapon in the battle, instead of drawing it from a scabbard lika an ordinary weapon. Anyway, if your DM insists on the summoning being unreliable, just keep the weapon summoned and in a scabbard.
About Hexblade patron and Pact of the Blade pact boon: these are separate. You can pick Pact of the Blade with any patron, and you can pick any boon with Hexblade. They are separate features with very little interacation (Hex Warrior just allows you to use CHA with any summoned weapon). The major defining features of Hexblade are the Hex, and using CHA for weapon attacks.
Then you seem to imply you are testing against your own spell DC? If that's indeed what you do, well, that's kinda... to be frank, it's plain stupid, as the DC becomes harder as you level up (proficiency bonus). Spell DC is what others roll when they try to resist your spells (and only those which call for a saving throw). But maybe you didn't mean this.
Also, spellcasting DC does not interact with Eldritch Blast in any way. With EB you do a ranged spell attack (for Warlock: d20 + proficiency bonus + CHA bonus), against the Armor Class of the target. Just read the spell description, and read the combat rules in the PHB (there are ambiguous bits in the rules, sure, but this is not one of them).