D&D 5E Interesting Warlocks, particularly blade pact with an emphasis on INTERESTING

[Warpiglet]

Lucky thing you chose Mace. If you go Fiend Patron, the smite invocation is Mace of Dispater. That is a good bit of power right there, and at 5th you can get either Improved Pact weapon, or Thirsting Blade, to add a bit more damage (or both over time). Those both seem reasonable for a little bit to keep you dealing damage. At a glance, the Smite invocations are the EB for a bladelock, almost a must-have, but at the least a good fall-back when you need something reliable. Other than that, maybe multiclass Paladin (for real smites, and a bit of armor IIRC), or cleric for some magic back up, and either will fit your story.

Yes. I may have to go fiend. At higher level, landing some smites would be incredibly powerful. If your follow up is "feeble" mace strikes, so what? I don't need to do MOAR DAMAGE! I just want to be a very reasonable combatant. If I went this way, I could skip great weapon master and do something that has more flavor such as Magic Initiate that ties in with his puritanical cult background from the start.

All of the suggestions are appreciated. I just would have to make a good case for being a fiendlock without intentionally being in league with a fiend. I would want to find a way to be deluded or something. Perhaps due to his narrow mindedness and insistence he is right, maybe a fiend would teach him tools to do what he thinks is right, all the while expecting the power to lead to self corruption. And perhaps putting moral dilemmas in front of him. Or something. I am leaning toward a Lawful Neutral alignment. He would be Lawful Good if he wasn't so punitive and so forth! A Devil might think he can sculpt a guy like that...

Nothing says a fiend has to be upfront about their intentions or alignment tendencies...

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Yes. I may have to go fiend. At higher level, landing some smites would be incredibly powerful. If your follow up is "feeble" mace strikes, so what? I don't need to do MOAR DAMAGE! I just want to be a very reasonable combatant. If I went this way, I could skip great weapon master and do something that has more flavor such as Magic Initiate that ties in with his puritanical cult background from the start.

All of the suggestions are appreciated. I just would have to make a good case for being a fiendlock without intentionally being in league with a fiend. I would want to find a way to be deluded or something. Perhaps due to his narrow mindedness and insistence he is right, maybe a fiend would teach him tools to do what he thinks is right, all the while expecting the power to lead to self corruption. And perhaps putting moral dilemmas in front of him. Or something. I am leaning toward a Lawful Neutral alignment. He would be Lawful Good if he wasn't so punitive and so forth! A Devil might think he can sculpt a guy like that...

Nothing says a fiend has to be upfront about their intentions or alignment tendencies...

Or even that the fiend is a fiend at all. Sure, if it is a 2-headed, tentacled monster, it would be a hard sell, but if a pretty lady with wings is offering magic powers in exchange for some future service against the forces of chaos, well that seems like a good deal, right?

 

[Lanliss]

Yes. I may have to go fiend. At higher level, landing some smites would be incredibly powerful. If your follow up is "feeble" mace strikes, so what? I don't need to do MOAR DAMAGE! I just want to be a very reasonable combatant. If I went this way, I could skip great weapon master and do something that has more flavor such as Magic Initiate that ties in with his puritanical cult background from the start.

All of the suggestions are appreciated. I just would have to make a good case for being a fiendlock without intentionally being in league with a fiend. I would want to find a way to be deluded or something. Perhaps due to his narrow mindedness and insistence he is right, maybe a fiend would teach him tools to do what he thinks is right, all the while expecting the power to lead to self corruption. And perhaps putting moral dilemmas in front of him. Or something. I am leaning toward a Lawful Neutral alignment. He would be Lawful Good if he wasn't so punitive and so forth! A Devil might think he can sculpt a guy like that...

Nothing says a fiend has to be upfront about their intentions or alignment tendencies...

I am personally a fan of "Spark" patrons, kind of like the Undying light is a Patron of Pure positive. In my world, there are Sparks for the various patrons, so instead of having a specific patron you simply leech power off of the Core essence of that particular Plane, without it affecting your outlook or agenda. Of course, that is just my world, not sure how that idea would mesh with your DMs world or setup.

 

[Caliban]

For me, one of the more interesting aspects of a Bladelock is more RP than mechanical - you get to choose the form of your summoned weapon and can make it look like whatever you want. I use this to give a theme to my summoned or bonded weapon that reflects the nature of the patron and/or the bargain they made. No mechanical benefit, but they look like highly impractical fantasy weapons.

Examples from bladelocks I've played:

Mordite - dwarven bladelock with a greatsword made of magma and obsidian.

Nightblade - Goliath bladelock with a greatsword that looks a piece of the night sky in the shape of a sword. Every time he kills a creature a new point of light appears in the blade, forming tiny constellations.

Adam Brightblade - a human bladelock with a succubus patron. His halberd was gilded in gold, encrusted with jewels, and with a blade of solid blue sapphire. It is intended to spark feelings of jealousy and greed in those who see it.

Jorel Helstrom - his patron was a bone devil. His blade looked to be constructed of bones that gained a reddish hue as he killed his opponents.

 

[Ganymede81]

My current Blade Pact warlock has the Mobile and Defensive Duelist feats. He has a lot of fun bolting across the battlefield with Expeditious Retreat to stab people with his rapier.

 

[Gadget]

I actually thought making most of the HexBlade abilities general invocations (perhaps some restricted to pact of the blade) would go a long way to beefing up the pact of the blade build and making it more interesting. Throw the shadow hound ability on the Raven Queen Warlock, and you are done.