Hexblade Warlock to Level 2

I'm playing in Descent into Avernus in an Adventurer's League setting (though a friend who's in all of my home games is DM'ing) and, given that I don't know when I'll be able to play my sweet baby boy Great Old One Warlock, I've decided to play another Warlock and not worry about making him a somewhat similar build.

While the GOO 'lock went Variant human to get Moderately Armored (well, more that the story felt best with a human character and I figured I'd take advantage of the higher AC,) the new one, Old Knox, has a Hexblade patron, and thus basically gets that (as well as martial weapon proficiencies) for free.

While Hexblades are clearly built to support a melee-based Warlock (to the extent that I kind of feel like it makes other patrons' Bladelocks feel wimpy in comparison) I've decided that I'm still going to focus on an Eldritch Blast build. The Hex Warrior changes do, however, mean that I don't need to find another cantrip to deal with targets that get into melee range - if they get too close, I just pull out a bonded weapon and smash it into their skulls for the same attack bonus and nearly as much damage (right now, given the starting equipment, I've only gotten enough gold to upgrade my armor to Scale Mail and shield, and I've still just got a handaxe. If I can get enough before we leave Baldur's Gate, I'm going to try to buy a longsword, battleaxe, or warhammer - longsword's probably the most expensive, but also feels like the best fit flavor-wise.)

The one combat encounter we've run, we were seven party members fighting seven pirates, and I killed three of them with single hits to each, just using Hex and Eldritch Blast or the Handaxe.

For level 2, I've taken most obviously useful invocations: Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast.

Agonizing Blast, I like to think, basically makes you a ranged fighter with more powerful spells than an Eldritch Knight. Indeed, the fact that you get four Eldritch Blast attacks at level 17 makes the Fighter's 4 attacks at level 20 feel kind of underwhelming. But the point is that now, you are no less capable of dealing damage with attacks than a Fighter with a bow, at least before we start talking about magic weapons and such.

Repelling Blast, however, gives you your own magic sauce to serve with your damage. This invocation scales quite profoundly. First off, any time you hit, it simply happens. That means that even some gargantuan, legendary creature cannot save against it. As long as they don't have a wall to stop them, Repelling Blast will do what you want it to do. Enemies need to be very wary of cliffs. This can also be used to rescue other players - if your wizard or sorcerer is stuck in melee with a creature, you can knock it back, creating a window for the character to escape without worrying about opportunity attacks. And given that this happens each time you hit, as Eldritch Blast levels up, you'll eventually be able to move a target a potential of 40 feet with it.

Now, let's talk spells.

I began with Hex and Armor of Agathys - both Warlock staples. Certainly at low levels, Hex is a nice thing to buff your damage - being able to deal 1d10+1d6 damage to those pirates might explain why I was killing them so efficiently (that's an average of 9 damage per attack, and Bandits have an average of 11 health, so I guess I was a little lucky on damage rolls.)

Level 2 is the last time I'm limited to 1st level spells, so my options are somewhat narrow. Hexblades get access to Shield and Wrathful Smite. The latter seems cool, but given that I'm far more of a caster, I don't really see myself using it much. Plus, it's concentration, and certainly at these levels, I imagine I'll want to save that for Hex.

Shield has been fantastic on my Eldritch Knight character, but he's also built far more to be a tank. The Warlock is a ranged caster, and while some defense is useful, I like the damage potential of Armor of Agathys (and its scaling - eventually dealing 25 damage every time someone hits you while it's still up.)

So ultimately, I went simple and picked up Charm Person. It's not concentration (unlike, say, Cause Fear,) and seems like it could be useful situationally.

Looking ahead, I think at level 3 I'm going to take Shatter to have some AoE abilities early on. The really big question will be what Pact I take.

Pact of the Blade I think is out, given that I'm not really going to be melee-focused. Eldritch Blast is better than any ranged weapon I could summon at this point (and I think that might require another invocation.)

So it's between Tome and Chain.

Of course, Tome, with Book of Ancient Secrets, allows you to learn ritual spells, including Find Familiar. So in a way, it feels foolish. On the other hand, there are some Chain-specific invocations that might be good to have.

Tome does give more Cantrips, though, which is nice. Thankfully I'll have another week after tomorrow to figure that out.

EDIT: I think I'll be going with Chain. In part, this gives me Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, which causes any healing to be maximized while I'm within I believe a hundred feet of my familiar. The other reason is that I'll be able to summon an Imp (ironically, I could make my familiar a Celestial Imp - technically, the familiar is just a spirit who takes on a form I choose, and he'll just conveniently look like a devil despite not being one.) As an Imp, he gets Devil's Sight, and so I can just have him sit on my shoulder and swap to "camera two" to benefit from that. Next, the Imp can transform into various shapes, including a rat, raven, or spider. Other than movement speeds, the stats remain the same, and at a base of about 10 hit points, that's better than a lot of familiars.