By the Power of Dragons; The Dragon Patron (PEACH)

[Great Dragon]

Are the tables you've played at giving out 3.5e quantities of gold for 5e games? In my experience you can often upgrade to Splint at 3rd, but would need another player's help to afford a breastplate.

I do my best to not do that, but I'm amazed at how many "Homebrew" games I'm in have PCs with AC over 17 at first to third level.
There is no way that's Point Buy, and rolling that high for MAD Abilities for so many PCs, is (rather) unbelievable.

The primary problem is that martial characters dipping into warlock only have one subclass option that boosts their damage output. To reduce the problem, I have homebrewed the bonus damage from the hexblades' curse to work the same as a barbarian's Rage Damage. Unless you want to multiclass to warlock purely for damage purposes anyway, this makes the alternatives more comparable.

Like I mentioned, Multiclassing has its own costs.

If the characters is dealing with minions in a melee, the Fiend grants more survivability, if they're dipping from being a rogue or champion Faerie Fire may be more useful, and if they're a barbarian the Celestial lets them heal mid rage. But if you're just looking for damage from a warlock dip, Hexblade is flat out the best option.

Yep.

My dragon patron trades the temp hp and short rest renewal for their damage bonus that hexblades get for better burst damage, higher low level AC, being more MAD, and extra attack (or an extra invocation, for dragon bladelocks). They're also less dependent on being bladelocks to get the full benefit. So I do think it would reduce the rate Hexblades are chosen as a subclass.

Maybe someday I'll find someone willing to do some Playtesting.

If you're multiclassing to get the Defense Fighting style, you could start as a fighter/paladin and have the same armor proficiency anyway. If you're a sorcerer, you get a lot more benefit.

See above.

Studded armor is mitigated by the need for high dexterity.

There's also the issue that you technically need the War Caster feat to cast a lot of spells while wielding a weapon and a shield. If you find the AC a problem, you could just enforce that rule.

Oh, I enforce that, and as such see more vHumans as a result. Combined, of course with PAM and Sentinel as quickly as possible. Having a style for your PC is nice, but I've kinda gotten over being a Power Gamer, just for LoLz.

Prior getting to playtesting, this isn't a bad concept, but you're stepping on both the Archfey patron and draconic sorcerer's toes.

It's also not a melee warlock subclass, so it doesn't cut into how often Hexblades get chosen.

I was trying for more Balanced, but looks like I missed the mark.

Acid Splash is a cantrip. As are shocking grasp and chill touch.

Darkness, Hold Person, Fly, Mirror Image, Dispel Magic, Hold Monster, Invisibility, Dimension Door, Banishment, Expeditious Retreat, Spider Climb, and Blight are already on the warlock spell list. Adding them to the warlock spell list does nothing.

Allowing a warlock to cast Polymorph normally is broken, as evidenced by the Invocation allowing you to cast it once per long rest.

Humm. It will take some time to figure out what to replace these with.

If you're interested in improving my idea/s, please post Suggestions in Ancient Realms.

Thanks for responding.