Is Hex worth it at high levels?

[GeneralVryth]

I don't use it as a pejorative, but as a neutral description.

Maybe not by you, but it certainly was being used antagonistically earlier in this thread.

“You need to recast Hex whenever you change targets”, is, 100%, a house rule. Nothing in any existing part of the RAW even hints at this.

I haven't said it was a re-cast, some have. But just because it's not a recast doesn't mean "cursing" someone doesn't have requirements.

A DM creating new requirements that are not in the rules is not "a ruling", or there is no such thing as a houserule. A ruling is the DM evaluating different rules and how they fit together and apply to different situations not covered by the rules.

Adjudicating something that isn't clear is a ruling, see below.

Then I guess there should be a discussion on what is a homebrew, what is a houserule and what is a ruling.

These are 100% just my opinion. Feel free to agree, disagree, or agree to disagree...

A Homebrew is anything that doesn't appear anywhere in any book that creates something new out of whole cloth. A new spell, a new class, a new subclass... It's not a modification to an existing rule; it's not changing Fireball to deal d8s, or only 5d6 damage. It's not changing stipulations or requirements to an existing rule; it's not removing the need for the Warcaster feat to cast spells while wielding a weapon and shield. Homebrew tends to be DM specific and difficult to port into someone else's game. As such, I would say something like critical fumbles would be homebrew.

A Houserule is a modification to a current rule, not something wholly new. Basically, all the things I said weren't Homebrew, are houserules. They're fundamental changes to how the existing rules as written state how they work. These also include all the optional rules in the DMG - so, gritty realism, proficiency dice, even the Death Domain and Oathbreaker subclasses - all houserules. They are things you could generally request at any table and get buy-in, all things being equal.

A Ruling is an interpretation by a single DM to a specific interaction that isn't expressly covered in the rules. Hopefully the ruling is consistent within a specific campaign, but doesn't need to be across different campaigns with the same DM. Things like spell interactions (the famous Wall of Fire vs Tidal Wave), or what is required to curse or mark another creature with Hex or Hunter's Mark.

I agree on the homebrew front. Here is how I would define houserules versus rulings (though they do drift close together).

A ruling is an adjudication of something (usually an interaction between things) in the rules that is unclear or not spelled out. Defining what it means to curse someone in the case of Hex, is a ruling. So is the Flame Wall versus Tidal Wave (or Tsunami) debate, and just about anything that was being discussed near the end of that thread. As a general rule if you are in the territory of trying to infer what something means from other parts of the text because it's not spelled out, it's a ruling.

A houserule, is clear modification of an existing rule. A favorite of mine banning/significantly changing Simulacrum. Removing the concentration requirement of Hex when up-cast past a certain point is another (and one I may allow, same with Hunter's Mark).