Turning the Hexblade "Patron" into modular powers

[Great Dragon]

Heh. Nor do I; I do enjoy theorycraft, though.

It can be interesting, but actually seeing it brought to life is lots more Fun!!

Right. The idea behind this thread is to eliminate the Hexblade as a Patron.

Instead, acknowledging that the Hexblade Patron is designed to make level 1-2 Warlocks intending to go Pact of the Blade at level 3 able to gish from the get-go, the idea is to provide them a means of effective gishing for those levels without locking them into a specific patron.

The problem there is, that all you need to do in order to make all the Patrons Gish from 1st level is just add shillelagh to all of them.

And now we have SCAG and Booming Blade, Lightning Lash, and Green Flame Blade, so Shillelagh isn't really needed, anymore.

Upon doing some research, I've noticed that even with the new options in Xanathar's, there is very little difference between Blade, Chain, and Tome Pacts when it comes to spell choices. And this is even true with Invocations, except for obvious choices.

With Tome being the least affected, since all the Book of Ancient Secrets does is give slightly better access to Ritual spells, when compared to the Feat.

I answer this with a question designed to make you analyze your assumptions: "How do Pact of the Blade and its various associated options fit onto any Patron other than Hexblade?"

Making the spell, cantrip, and Invocation replacement(s) for the Hexblade is not designed to "fit onto" another Patron any more than Pact of the Blade is meant to "fit onto" them. Or, put another way, it fits them as well as any other option a Warlock has that isn't a Patron fits those other Patrons.

The Warlock who takes shillelagh and eldritch curse as first level options has greatly increased his melee capabilities, but that doesn't make him incompatible with a Great Old One or a Fiend or an Archfey, nor even the Raven Queen or the Undead Patron. Probably fits best with the Fiend, but the Fiend fits best with aggressive builds in general.

So the difference between a Warlock who takes eldritch curse and one who takes a different spell is the same as it always has been: they have different spells and playstyles based on them.

I still tend to see the "Hexblade" as a different Pact, especially if "added" to another Patron.

But, even the original "Hexblade" had problems really showing the difference between the Pacts.
The Blade just never lost their Weapon.
The Chain had an Invisible Familiar.
The Tome could do more Out of Combat stuff, but still Gish-ed with the rest.

Your changes don't really address this problem, and actually causes more confusion, since there is no "Hexblade" to begin with; it just means that, like I pointed out above, the Players could get all the benefits of a chosen Patron and take whatever Pact they wanted, and by simply picking Weapon Cantrip and Eldritch Curse spells, still be standing above all other Gish options.

What's a "normal warlock?" Without the Hexblade Patron, what's a "Hexblade Warlock?"

In my formulation, there is no "Hexblade."

Yes, but the original "Hexblade" still needs to be compared to, for the discussion. (Which is what I'm pointing to in my references to it)

Only by covering all that the original subclass does, can you "eliminate" it.

Ok: so the things that are really needed to focus on are:
"Armor, shield, and Weapons" and
"Hexblade's Curse"
All the other "Hexblade" abilities can be made into Invocations.

Giving shields (and maybe a weapon) at 1st Level should be ok. Especially with Weapon Cantrips added.

Blade Pact already allows changing the Bonded Weapon between Martial Weapon types.
The Improved Pact Weapon Invocation also gives access to All Ranged Weapons.

Putting Medium Armor behind an Invocation that requires either Blade Pact (or 5th level) can work.
So long as the DM is aware that this will allow PCs with 14 Dex to still achieve AC 19 easily.
Since making it have that requirement means that the PC needs to go to 5th level to get it, means that it becomes less of a choice for Multiclassing.

Note: the only real Multiclassing problem is: "Hexblade" Warlock plus Rogues.
Giving Rogues access to both (mithril) Half Plate and shield is a bit potent. But, by making Medium Armor available only at 5th level with an Invocation, this is less of a problem.
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The "Curse" part is the hardest to work with.
Making it a spell is one option, but then that spell would almost always be chosen.
Which just leads back to the problem of what separates the Pacts.

Since your wanting to put "Curse" into all the other Patrons, I'd suggest making "Curse" it's own Pact.
With all the options (one weapon, base "Hexblade Curse" abilities, Hex Armor, Miss Chance, etc) available upon taking it.
The Player still needs to choose which option is active each round. (Take "Armaments" Invocation for Medium Armor)

This suggestion makes the Player choose between Blade (Weapon versitility) and Curse (affect other Creatures) while still allowing Chain (Familiar) and Tome (Rituals) to stand out.

It also makes Hexadins take more the just one "Hexblade" level to get Cursing powers.

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To me, having a Weapon being the Patron is less weird then some Near-God-Level Being(s) "randomly" giving out Power to mortals.

Making a Deal with (the) Devils is a classic trope, but doing so almost always lands the mortal in bigger trouble. Usually in the "Eternity" department.

Stealing the Power from a Patron could work, I suppose, but then the DM is considered being "mean" when they have said Being take notice and confronting the PC.

It's a different approach, and more self-contained. Not necessarily a bad invocation, but awfully situational; crits aren't that common, and being hit at all is still very disappointing. Strikes me as a very low-level invocation.

Just keep Rebuking Curse but adding that on a 20 rolled by the Warlock cancels the Double Damage of a Natural 20 - but still hits and does normal damage? (The odds of a Natural 20 being rolled by two different people is really high)

Nah. I wasn't touching any other Patrons. I had thought you were proposing multiple NEW Patrons, and that's to what I was replying here.

Well, multiple new Patrons was my original idea, but changing them to (Hexblade) Crafter Beings works better for my games.
Unlike "The Raven Queen" they can be Encountered directly.
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I am working on making different Warlock Pacts to see the difference (I'm very visual) between them.