I am personally hoping for, wishing for, Hexblade patron. While frowned upon as a powerful one level dip, I've been quite enjoying playing just straight Hexblade, and I would love to recreate the warlock I've been playing in tabletop recently.
Would be lovely if we could get the melee cantrips as well (Booming and Green-Flame Blade) but I won't hold my breath.
Pact of the blade seems interesting BUT i really miss the Eldritch Glaive. Best melee ability ever from 3.5e.
I haven't experienced any of the editions before 5e ^^;
But from the description, sounds a lot like Bladelock who chose to summon a glaive as their weapon. And if you have a Hexblade patron, you can add your Charisma instead of Strength to your attack/damage rolls!
Hexblade also gives you Medium Armour proficiency which is nice, and a curse that lets you add proficiency to damage, with 19-20 crit against a single target once per short rest.
Honestly, if they don't make Hexblade a thing, they could at least make Charisma attacks an invocation for Pact of the Blade and I would be happy.
Other non-PHB invocations for warlocks that would be great if Larian considered (I'm looking at this from the point of view of someone who loves gish archetypes) are
- Eldritch Smite! - Divine Smite, but warlocky (Force damage, and prone)
- Cloak of Flies - Persistent, 5 foot range Charisma modifier damage aura that can be turned on and off at will. Also imposes advantage in Intimidation checks and disadvantage on other Charisma checks.
- Grasp of Hadar - Your Eldritch Blast can now pull the target 10 feet towards you.
- Improved Pact Weapon - +1 to your summoned weapon, you can use it as a focus, and you can now summon bows and crossbows as well.
And a whole bunch of other things honestly, Xanathar's has been a great book for warlocks.
