Paladin multiclassing

[Auron]

I'm not super familiar with making good multi classes, so I'll post my idea here for some thoughts.

I'm thinking about doing:
6 Paladin for aura of protection and smites (and the extra attack), since most of my party are mostly martial classes.

2 warlock, for the pact slots for more smites (Smite can be used with the pact slots right?)

and finally 4 levels of College of Swords Bard for more spell slots since its a full caster, and the extra stort rest for warlock, extra fighting style, and the flourishes.

Im currently a level 6 paladin, so I'm thinking of doing 4 levels into warlock first so I can get a feat at level 10, then respecing at level 12 to do the actual build.

[TaKo]

why would you do 2 points of warlock when you could do 3+ to get pact of the blade to use CHA for both spells and melee attack/dmg rolls?

[Thorak]

2 pala, 10 sword bard or 5 pala, 3 warlock, 4 fighter would be my suggestions. 6 pala, 6 sorc could work as well. If you're not playing honour mode, then 5 pala, 5 warlock, 2 fighter

[Detective Costeau]

I have to agree, within the 12 levels BG3 gives you Paladin 2/Swords bard 10 is one of your best options. You've got good defenses, good damage from smites, and crowd control from bard magic. It's super fun.
The only problem is it only really comes online all the way at level 8, as that's where you get the multiple attacks from Swords bard. You can either just suck it up and lean on your party a bit more from levels 5-7, or just play single-class until level 8 and then respec into a 2/6 split, according to personal preference.

[Thomas D.]

6 Paladin is perfectly fine, especially because Aura of Protection is really strong / usefull if you have high Charisma. If you just want to have Smites and get Extra Attack with another class (like Swordbard) then 2 Levels of Paladin would be also sufficient and you could get higher in Bard / Warlock. But you wont have the Aura this way.

And yes you can use the Warlock Spell Slots for Smites but choosing Warlock 2 only for those Warlock Spell Slots isnt a great idea because this are just 2 Level 1 Spell Slots. But if you choose Warlock for something else, too (like the Invocations) then sure its fine. You basically gain 6 Level 1 Smites (with a Bard even 8).

Bard is also a good option for Multiclassing a Paladin / Warlock, especially because you get more Spell Slots than a Paladin usually would.

So basically yes what you want to do will work perfectly fine.

But I would suggest to get at least 3 Levels Warlock so you can go Pactblade and bind your weapon and ditch Strength completely and put everything you can into Charisma (it will be used for all Paladin, Warlock and even Bard Spells plus for your Melee Hits and your Melee Damage instead of Strength).

And if you dont play Honour Mode, I even recommend to get at least 5 Levels in Warlock because then Pact of Blade will give you an additional Attack (that stacks with Extra Attack, but only non Honour Mode).

This way you will be able to do as many attacks as a Fighter (without Action Surge) plus use Smites on any of it. Also your Warlock Spell Slots will be Level 3 (so 6x Level 3 Smites, even more with a Bard in group), which isnt that bad.

[FunkyMonkey]

I really like Paladin 6 / Bard 6. You get Aura of protection, more spell (smite) slots with Bard levels and from Bard you get more skills, utility spells and either Magical secrets for Counterspell and Spirit guardians with Lore bard or Florishes from Swords bard. Both are good.

Paladin 6 / Bard 6 is money.

[Auron]

Originally posted by Thomas D.:

6 Paladin is perfectly fine, especially because Aura of Protection is really strong / usefull if you have high Charisma. If you just want to have Smites and get Extra Attack with another class (like Swordbard) then 2 Levels of Paladin would be also sufficient and you could get higher in Bard / Warlock. But you wont have the Aura this way.

And yes you can use the Warlock Spell Slots for Smites but choosing Warlock 2 only for those Warlock Spell Slots isnt a great idea because this are just 2 Level 1 Spell Slots. But if you choose Warlock for something else, too (like the Invocations) then sure its fine. You basically gain 6 Level 1 Smites (with a Bard even 8).

Bard is also a good option for Multiclassing a Paladin / Warlock, especially because you get more Spell Slots than a Paladin usually would.

So basically yes what you want to do will work perfectly fine.

But I would suggest to get at least 3 Levels Warlock so you can go Pactblade and bind your weapon and ditch Strength completely and put everything you can into Charisma (it will be used for all Paladin, Warlock and even Bard Spells plus for your Melee Hits and your Melee Damage instead of Strength).

And if you dont play Honour Mode, I even recommend to get at least 5 Levels in Warlock because then Pact of Blade will give you an additional Attack (that stacks with Extra Attack, but only non Honour Mode).

This way you will be able to do as many attacks as a Fighter (without Action Surge) plus use Smites on any of it. Also your Warlock Spell Slots will be Level 3 (so 6x Level 3 Smites, even more with a Bard in group), which isnt that bad.

wait... extra attack from pact weapon can stack with extra attack from another class? But only in non-honor mode? Is this a bug that they decided to keep as a feature, but only for the casuals?

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Auron:

Paladin multiclassing
I'm not super familiar with making good multi classes, so I'll post my idea here for some thoughts.

I'm thinking about doing:
6 Paladin for aura of protection and smites (and the extra attack), since most of my party are mostly martial classes.

2 warlock, for the pact slots for more smites (Smite can be used with the pact slots right?)

and finally 4 levels of College of Swords Bard for more spell slots since its a full caster, and the extra stort rest for warlock, extra fighting style, and the flourishes.

Im currently a level 6 paladin, so I'm thinking of doing 4 levels into warlock first so I can get a feat at level 10, then respecing at level 12 to do the actual build.

Before I give a suggestion: what is your overall aim?
Regarding basics of multiclassing and builds for beginners see also
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3124459563
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3114624793
Though I liked to ask first since I see your build but I cannot tell what you are aiming for with that build. It seems not to make the best of the multiclasses or if it does, then I cannot tell what you plan on doing with that build where other builds might be better.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Auron:

Originally posted by Thomas D.:

6 Paladin is perfectly fine, especially because Aura of Protection is really strong / usefull if you have high Charisma. If you just want to have Smites and get Extra Attack with another class (like Swordbard) then 2 Levels of Paladin would be also sufficient and you could get higher in Bard / Warlock. But you wont have the Aura this way.

And yes you can use the Warlock Spell Slots for Smites but choosing Warlock 2 only for those Warlock Spell Slots isnt a great idea because this are just 2 Level 1 Spell Slots. But if you choose Warlock for something else, too (like the Invocations) then sure its fine. You basically gain 6 Level 1 Smites (with a Bard even 8).

Bard is also a good option for Multiclassing a Paladin / Warlock, especially because you get more Spell Slots than a Paladin usually would.

So basically yes what you want to do will work perfectly fine.

But I would suggest to get at least 3 Levels Warlock so you can go Pactblade and bind your weapon and ditch Strength completely and put everything you can into Charisma (it will be used for all Paladin, Warlock and even Bard Spells plus for your Melee Hits and your Melee Damage instead of Strength).

And if you dont play Honour Mode, I even recommend to get at least 5 Levels in Warlock because then Pact of Blade will give you an additional Attack (that stacks with Extra Attack, but only non Honour Mode).

This way you will be able to do as many attacks as a Fighter (without Action Surge) plus use Smites on any of it. Also your Warlock Spell Slots will be Level 3 (so 6x Level 3 Smites, even more with a Bard in group), which isnt that bad.

wait... extra attack from pact weapon can stack with extra attack from another class? But only in non-honor mode? Is this a bug that they decided to keep as a feature, but only for the casuals?

Yes. That is why Paladin / Warlock can get up to three attacks per round that way. The mix is quite popular since Paladin benefit from Warlock's spell slot restoration (short rest) and Warlock benefits from Paladin's Smite while both use Charisma. 6/6 for a powerful melee/caster

[Auron]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Auron:

Paladin multiclassing
I'm not super familiar with making good multi classes, so I'll post my idea here for some thoughts.

I'm thinking about doing:
6 Paladin for aura of protection and smites (and the extra attack), since most of my party are mostly martial classes.

2 warlock, for the pact slots for more smites (Smite can be used with the pact slots right?)

and finally 4 levels of College of Swords Bard for more spell slots since its a full caster, and the extra stort rest for warlock, extra fighting style, and the flourishes.

Im currently a level 6 paladin, so I'm thinking of doing 4 levels into warlock first so I can get a feat at level 10, then respecing at level 12 to do the actual build.

Before I give a suggestion: what is your overall aim?
Regarding basics of multiclassing and builds for beginners see also
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3124459563
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3114624793
Though I liked to ask first since I see your build but I cannot tell what you are aiming for with that build. It seems not to make the best of the multiclasses or if it does, then I cannot tell what you plan on doing with that build where other builds might be better.

I just wanna be a paladin and spam as many divine smites as humanly (dragonbornly?) possible.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Auron:

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Before I give a suggestion: what is your overall aim?
Regarding basics of multiclassing and builds for beginners see also
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3124459563
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3114624793
Though I liked to ask first since I see your build but I cannot tell what you are aiming for with that build. It seems not to make the best of the multiclasses or if it does, then I cannot tell what you plan on doing with that build where other builds might be better.

I just wanna be a paladin and spam as many divine smites as humanly (dragonbornly?) possible.

So a 6/6 or 2/10 Paladin / Sorcerer would work too with the extra spell slots.

Or how important are the warlock and bard parts to you?

[Lamprey Unbirthing]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Auron:

wait... extra attack from pact weapon can stack with extra attack from another class? But only in non-honor mode? Is this a bug that they decided to keep as a feature, but only for the casuals?

Yes. That is why Paladin / Warlock can get up to three attacks per round that way. The mix is quite popular since Paladin benefit from Warlock's spell slot restoration (short rest) and Warlock benefits from Paladin's Smite while both use Charisma. 6/6 for a powerful melee/caster

7/5 is better cause you can get Aura of Hate to add more melee damage based of Charisma, level 6 in Warlock doesn't net you much in comparison

[@%thesock10150alpha49]

Paladin likes going 2 or 6 and then running a full caster the rest of the way for better/more spell slots to smite with. Good candidates as the off-class are Sorcerer, Warlock, and Bard, since they have the same casting stat and also bring a lot of added utility in class features (i.e. Slashing Flourish or Metamagic or Pact Weapon).

There are other, more complex multis but, if you stick to this formula it's hard to end up with a bad character. Just use most of your spell slots on smites and only worry about casting if absolutely needed.

[Lamprey Unbirthing]

If you're set on Paladin/Warlock/Bard, you could do 2 Paladin for Smites, 5 Warlock for Pact of Blade extra attack, 5 Sword Bard for extra attack and Font of Inspiration to replenish your flourishes with short rests along with warlock spell slots. Your Warlock spellslots get to level 3 along with your Bard slots. You lose Aura of Protection, Branding Smite and level 3 channel oath abilities, but imo none of them are worth 3 attacks per turn and replenishing flourishes.

If you really want Aura of Protection, then 6/3/3 would be better, you still get Pact of Blade, level 2 warlock spellslots and florishes but not Font of Inspiration or PoB extra attack and you are down another feat. 6/2/4 gives you a feat but loses the ability to make your melee run of CHA, which is the main reason to go Padlock to begin with.

Edit: Forgot Sword Bard gets extra attack at level 6 not 5, two extra attacks and florishes doesn't fit onto any build, you could go 5/3/4 or 5/4/3 for extra attack, CHA weapon damage and two feats or give up a feat for Aura of Protection and go 6/3/3. Still don't think giving up Pact of Blade is worth Aura of Protection or a feat.

[Thomas D.]

Doesnt work to go 2/5/5 because Sword Bard gets Extra Attack on Level 6.

And no its not directly a bug that the Additional Attack of a Pact Weapon stacks. Because Extra Attack is an ability of the player while the Additional Attack of a Pact Weapon can be seen as an Attack your Patron provides you (see it like if the weapon would strike quickly an additional time for you like it would be an intelligent weapon). There are few other things that stack with Extra Attack. Like for example that Potion that gives you an Extra Attack when killing or that Feat for Two Handed Weapons or for example War Cleric Charges.

But because plenty of people were complaining and thought its a bug Larian decided to disable it in Honour Mode.

Also dont underestimate tha benefit of using Charisma instead of Strength! Especially considering that you can pump your Charisma up to 24 without the need for consumables.

And yeah Aura of Hate is nice, especially because it scales with Charisma and if you go Oathbreaker 7 and Warlock 5 that means your Charisma Modifier is added at least 3x (up to 5x) a round as extra damage. Thats btw. exactly what I played, you sometimes even dont need smites to oneshot stuff 😁. But keep in mind that Aura of Hate might buff your enemies, too if they are undead for example!

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by Thomas D.:

And no its not directly a bug that the Additional Attack of a Pact Weapon stacks.

Pretty sure that the official D&D ruling on that is that it does not stack, though. But I guess if you are running a game at your own table you can say it does.

The thing is, you still only have one ACTION. Level 5 Paladins can use one action to make two attacks. Level 5 PotB warlocks can use one action to make two attacks (but only with their pact weapon). However, if you use your action as a Paladin you can't use it as a Warlock or vice versa.

In other words, Extra Attack is an ability that turns one action into two attacks (or three for a level 11 fighter). It is not just a free attack that you can use. So that's why it doesn't stack.