I would just like to remind Larian that 5-10 level parties are considered "Heroes of the Realm" - page 37, Dungeon Master's Guide. Level 4 is not quite there, true, but it isn't that far either. If I was an Outerwordly patron - frankly, I would be disgusted at my character's inaptitude and would consider embracing that child instead!
Eldritch Blast should be powerful as an force heavy crossbow. The idea of a goblin child surviving it makes ZERO sense.
However, this "tiers" on 5e are just RETARDED. Seriously. An lv 17 guy on the city of Liches can be the weakest non slave in that city and hence not even close to an "local hero" there, but according to the tier, he is a "hero of the world". This FORCES the DM to escalate teh conflict with the character growth and you can't have interesting high level adventures that are more local or even personal, like an hero trying to escape from Carceri.
As for warlocks, warlocks LEARNS from their patron. IDK why so many people believe that they are clerics. This wasen't the case on 2e and 3.5e...
