Help A Paladin Out: WWYD? (What Would You Do)

[newsman77]

There's a discussion on which would be more fun to play: paladin 20 or paladin 7/fighter 13 (although not married to those specific levels)? Do you lose too much by dipping into fighter?

Our party has 7 people: Me (Paladin), Druid, Cleric, Wizard, Barbarian, Monk, Sorcerer/Cleric.
My Stats: 19/10/14/9/11/16
Fighting Style: Protection
Oath: Oath of Ancients
Feats: Shield Master, Heavy Armor Master
Background: Solider - one of the surviving members of a healer/fighter for hire group.
Concept: Frontline Champion - A lot of tanking, some buffing, and a little healing to keep peeps off the floor.

I know I want paladin to until 7 at least. That gives you spell resistance, extra attack, divine grace and 3 second levels spells. If you dip fighter, you pick up some amazing goodies (Second Wind, Action Surge, Extra Attacks2, Another Fighting Style and Martial Archtype)... but you lose out on some good stuff too (3/4/5 level spells, Divine Smite, Capstone).

You still end up with 5 Ability Improvements/Feats and +6 Proficiency.

What are your thoughts?

[Malifice]

There's a discussion on which would be more fun to play: paladin 20 or paladin 7/fighter 13 (although not married to those specific levels)? Do you lose too much by dipping into fighter?

Our party has 7 people: Me (Paladin), Druid, Cleric, Wizard, Barbarian, Monk, Sorcerer/Cleric.
My Stats: 19/10/14/9/11/16
Fighting Style: Protection
Oath: Oath of Ancients
Feats: Shield Master, Heavy Armor Master
Background: Solider - one of the surviving members of a healer/fighter for hire group.
Concept: Frontline Champion - A lot of tanking, some buffing, and a little healing to keep peeps off the floor.

I know I want paladin to until 7 at least. That gives you spell resistance, extra attack, divine grace and 3 second levels spells. If you dip fighter, you pick up some amazing goodies (Second Wind, Action Surge, Extra Attacks2, Another Fighting Style and Martial Archtype)... but you lose out on some good stuff too (3/4/5 level spells, Divine Smite, Capstone).

You still end up with 5 Ability Improvements/Feats and +6 Proficiency.

What are your thoughts?

Take paladin to 6th, then dip Fighter (champion) for 3 levels. Stick with Paladin for the rest. 19-20 crit range is super impressive with Smite dice doubling on crits. Also: action surge. Take Defense F/S for the extra tankiness.

[Ashrym]

Paladin 12 / battlemaster 8 gets you 6 ASI's, great paladin benefits with oath of ancients and solid maneuvers.

[MadBear]

You really can't go wrong with Paladin 20. It gives you everything you need to smash face in the name of whatever deity you choose to smash face for.

Nothing at all wrong with a fighter dip though. I just find every level of paladin so far to be juicy enough to always be worth another level.

[ZenBear]

Paladin 20

My next Paladin will be thus:

VHuman Oath of Vengence

STR16 CON16 DEX10 INT8 WIS10 CHA14

Take Resilient:CON at 1st, Polearm Master at 4th, STR to 20 and then either CON to 20 for super tank and concentration checks, or Sentinel at 8th and the last stat/feat TBD. The only reason Sentinel isn't a hard lock is because the wording about creatures within 5 feet might screw you with a reach weapon, enemies might be able to walk away with a Disengage. Depends on the DM's interpretation.

Hunter's Mark will be a bread-and-butter damage buff early game and Divine Smite mid-late with 3 attacks per turn plus plenty of opportunity attacks and with Polearm Master/Sentinel they wont even be able to get within 5 feet.

Perhaps a dip into Fighter or some other class could be useful after Divine Smite (what is that, lvl 11? Doesn't it improve again after that? I don't have the book in front of me). The capstone power is too cool though, and Paladins have few enough spell slots as it is.

[silveralen]

Personally, I'd do something like paladin 11/fighter 9

The reasoning is thus: taking paladin to at least 9 gets you third level spells. That's a fairly small investment of additional levels if you are determined to get to 7. Taking it an additional two gets you a damage feature, which is handy in the extreme.

Given your ability scores, ASI isn't a huge deal for you, and fighter 6 basically catches you up, making the impact of the split unimportant.

Now, as for the two variants, they get you different things. The former gets your extra basic damage on level, then dips for fighter goodies. If you go with eldritch knight, you can even get 4th lvl smite slots, or you can just go with battlemaster which honestly evens out, as you can stack the manuever damage with smites. Indomitable is also a good place to shoot for, with your cha save bonus it's quite handy.