The gish and the hex blade, what am I missing?

[Paul Farquhar]

Because it can do all of those things as well AND have better skills AND better combat capacity...

Better skills? Definitely. But we didn't come here for skills. Better combat capacity? Depends. You are stuffed if the DM doesn't dish out magic weapons like candy and you are up against normal weapon immune foes. You are disadvantaged if you suddenly find yourself in need of a reach weapon. You are inferior at range unless you take a second Warlock level. Want to use that awesome two handed sword you just found? Sorry. Spellcasting? Your choice of spells is simply very different, and can't really be compared. You access high level spells later by multiclassing though.

There is nothing wrong with a hexblade/blade. There is nothing wrong with a single class hexblade. they are just different. However a blade without a level of hexblade is straight up inferior to both. That's where the problem lies.

 

[Ancalagon]

Some of the same things, yes. Some things I can't do too. But I've got some tricks the Bard multiclass gives up, and for my character in my party those are valuable tricks. See in my campaign, I'm the front line. I run sword and board even though it's far from the most "optimal". And last session we had a fairly climactic battle where my life was saved twice by high level Warlock defensive abilities; once by Armor of Hexes and once by Tomb of Levistus. Without them I'd have been a thin red smear.

The college of sword does have those combat dice that can boost AC - but yes some of those tricks are pretty neat.

Maybe I'd do more damage as a Bard with a Hexblade dip. Maybe I'd be a better front liner if I were a different class entirely. But my group has an understanding where the players don't start a power level arms race by importing expertly minmaxed multi-class builds cribbed from the forums, and the DM doesn't throw similarly minmaxed encounters at us or play the NPCs as tactical geniuses unless it fits their character background. Which works out for the best for everyone, because this way I get to play the character I wanted to play and not have to follow a build guide I need to tie myself into knots to justify the level dips for.

I really do admire this sentiment btw.