Good multi-class options for a paladin

[Death knight 00]

So do you guys have any ideas?

[Submortimer]

There are lots of good options. Paladin doesn't make a great dip class, but that doesn't seem to be your intent.

Most synergistic
- Paladin/warlock (best themed fits are OotA paladin and Archfey warlock, and Oathbreaker paladin and Fiend warlock)
- Paladin/Sorcerer (probably one of the most fun "Gish" builds. Go dragon sorcerer for best effectiveness)
- Paladin/Fighter (only for two levels; an extra fighting style, second wind, and action surge never hurt nobody)
- Paladin/Bard (valor, most likely. Play him like Galavant, singing his own praises everywhere and writing his own heroic tales...of himself.)
- Paladin/Rogue (The new Swashbuckler subclass only. He's got abilities that key off Cha skills, is great out in the open, and I don't need to tell you how awesome sneak attack + smite would be. Personality wise, he'd probably be similar to the bard above.)

Everything else is possible, but requires some very specific building, and stretches your ASI's a little thin. Remember, As a paladin, of any type, you and your party want you to have the highest charisma in the party: it will literally save their lives (after level 6, of course).

Less synergistic ideas
- Paladin/monk (SMITE ON ALL THE PUNCHES!)(This one might not be so hard to work out...just have to have a 13 wis, then build a Str or Dex paladin as normal. Hmm..)
- Paladin/Barbarian (you can't cast while you rage, but you can sure as hell smite. Would be neat as a holy warrior of some kind of war god, just build around strength.)

Things to avoid
- Paladin/cleric (seems counterintuitive, but cleric is all about that wisdom)
- Paladin/druid (see above)
- Paladin/rogue (Everything but swashbuckler. You're a paladin, you're supposed to be out in the middle of it, not hiding in the shadows.)
- Paladin/ranger (aragon build, sure, but it just doesn't synergies well. For what you get, you'd be better served dipping Fighter.
- Paladin/wizard (no. Just....no.)

[Safety Sword]

More Paladin :smallbiggrin:

[Submortimer]

This is the actual correct answer. Paladin is SO good in 5e compared to how it used to be.

[djreynolds]

Paladin/ Rouge

Now before you have a cow, hear me out. Think Batman. I believe sneak only works with finesse weapons, so you'll hit hard with a rapier, or short sword. Hand crossbow to start it out the attack and then charge in. Expertise in perception and athletics for shoving and advantage. Not your typical knight in shining armor, but a dark knight. Dueling would work fine. You could have your archetype arcane trickster for "theatrics and deception". Your Paladin would be "MAD", but you don't need but really 3 to six levels of rouge so a 14 intelligence would satisfy that if you went Arcane Trickster. Half-Elf would be best, but Human is more in line. Skulker feat does give a limited darkvision.

I have seen Fighter/ Rouge/ Paladin on the WOTC website under Rouge Builds that is primarily a Paladin. Check out "Dealing Death: Handbook of the True Assassin," very cool.

Obviously sorcerer is cool and bard or warlock. I'm not keen on Fighter only cause I played the original A&D and you were a fighter cause you didn't role high enough to be a paladin.

[AmbientRaven]

Paladin with a little warlock is a good option.
Paladin bard works great
Paladin Fighter

I like the idea of Swashbuckler or Assassin and Paladin

Panache + Cha to init + always sneak.
Assassin. Sneak, auto crit surprise round, unload biggest smite. Build dex use rapier.

Remember paladins need no longer be lawful good. You can build a flavourful paladin of Mask for example

[djreynolds]

I believe the build is fighter 4 (battlemaster), assassin (3), paladin (vengeance) 13. It is pretty cool build.

[Mandragola]

Personally I don't think you should multiclasding a paladin before level 11 and improved divine smite. Then after that there's an ASI at 12 and 4 th level spells at 13 - all of which are great. You get seriously good features and spells every level up to that.

So the opinion of a great many people is that the best option is staying paladin, to as late in the game as most of as get. After that point there are good options, most of which have been mentioned. If you've got the dexfor it then I do like the assassin option and action surge. Just bear in mind builds like that won't actually see much play.

[Giant2005]

Personally I don't think you should multiclasding a paladin before level 11 and improved divine smite. Then after that there's an ASI at 12 and 4 th level spells at 13 - all of which are great. You get seriously good features and spells every level up to that.

So the opinion of a great many people is that the best option is staying paladin, to as late in the game as most of as get. After that point there are good options, most of which have been mentioned. If you've got the dexfor it then I do like the assassin option and action surge. Just bear in mind builds like that won't actually see much play.

I agree that staying pure Paladin until 11 is an absolute must and I agree that you may as well stick it to 12 unless you rolled exceptionally well on your stats and don't need another ASI/Feat.
I'm not sure that I'd agree that the level 4 spells are worth sticking it out for though. All of the Paladin's best spells are level 3 or lower which means he already has everything worth taking. The extra spell slots however are incredibly valuable but he can get those and more of them by multiclassing into a pure caster.
I don't think there is any real incentive at all to stay Paladin after level 11 or 12. Paladin is one of the few classes that really should be multiclassing as they don't suffer the same opportunity cost that others might.

[Fable Wright]

Currently building a Half-Elf Paladin 2/Fiend Patron (Chain - Imp) Warlock 4 (Polearm Mastery)/Oathbreaker Paladin +7 (grabbing Warcaster followed by Charisma boost)/Warlock +1/Oathbreaker X. May work much, much better with Variant Human to pick up the Polearm Mastery at 1st level and Warcaster at 6th, but my group is not playing with variant human. The build (debatably) does lose out a bit compared to normal Paladins from levels 7 to 10, but after that the Warlock does serious work in the build.

Chain pact warlock grants you an Imp familiar, granting you Magic Resistance, a more powerful and versatile benefit than the exceptional Oath of Ancients 7th level aura, in addition to Advantage on all ability checks, some of your attack rolls, access to an invisible, shapechanging, extremely fast flying rogue that you can teleport to you across any distance with two actions, automatic poison for your weapon each round, and so on. At level 11, when most Paladins are gaining their Improved Divine Smite, you gain the Oathbreaker's 7th-level aura, a comparable damage boost on its own—that is shared with your (fiendish) mount (and your familiar, should you ever for any reason attack with it). Additionally, you have smites on a short rest, can Agonizing Blast on a reaction when an opponent enters your glaive's reach, have Darkness + Devil's Sight to negate enemy advantage, get Concentration-duration Foresight, and with your telepathic familiar that also has similar sight, can relay enemy coordinates to your teammates. Oh, and temporary HP whenever you kill a creature, plus access to Hex, and perhaps the biggest draw to the build—Smites/short rest.

At level 14, you have Animate Dead on a short rest. Also boosted by Oathbreaker aura. Have fun. Oh, and at this level, Repelling Blast essentially adds Sentinel to your Polearm Master + Warcaster combo, allowing you to always keep an enemy out of your reach on its approach. Except with three attacks instead of 1.

Granted, there's still a strong argument for going straight Oathbreaker, especially early on, but the benefits of Warlock are great enough to actually justify deviations from the Paladin's path—no small feat.

[Submortimer]

I still cant get past the fact that a high level Blade pact warlock/oathbreaker paladin with GWM and PM can do a flat 75 damage a round, BEFORE dice.

With hex involved, it's basically (over three attacks) 2d10+1d4+3d6+75, or avg 99 damage a round.

THAT'S what a level 20 character should be DOING!

[Mandragola]

I think there's a case for warlock multiclassing at quite low levels but I think it's extremely hard to argue for any multiclass before level 5, if you're planning on going that far at all.

That second attack is a huge deal and all classes get massive bonuses at 5th. I was discussing this with my group last night as it genuinely feels like a character's output doubles at 5th level. Getting a 2nd attack, or fireball, spirit guardians, stunning fist or whatever - and +1 to proficiencies, is transformational.

[CNagy]

Currently building a Half-Elf Paladin 2/Fiend Patron (Chain - Imp) Warlock 4 (Polearm Mastery)/Oathbreaker Paladin +7 (grabbing Warcaster followed by Charisma boost)/Warlock +1/Oathbreaker X. May work much, much better with Variant Human to pick up the Polearm Mastery at 1st level and Warcaster at 6th, but my group is not playing with variant human. The build (debatably) does lose out a bit compared to normal Paladins from levels 7 to 10, but after that the Warlock does serious work in the build.

Chain pact warlock grants you an Imp familiar, granting you Magic Resistance, a more powerful and versatile benefit than the exceptional Oath of Ancients 7th level aura, in addition to Advantage on all ability checks, some of your attack rolls, access to an invisible, shapechanging, extremely fast flying rogue that you can teleport to you across any distance with two actions, automatic poison for your weapon each round, and so on. At level 11, when most Paladins are gaining their Improved Divine Smite, you gain the Oathbreaker's 7th-level aura, a comparable damage boost on its own—that is shared with your (fiendish) mount (and your familiar, should you ever for any reason attack with it). Additionally, you have smites on a short rest, can Agonizing Blast on a reaction when an opponent enters your glaive's reach, have Darkness + Devil's Sight to negate enemy advantage, get Concentration-duration Foresight, and with your telepathic familiar that also has similar sight, can relay enemy coordinates to your teammates. Oh, and temporary HP whenever you kill a creature, plus access to Hex, and perhaps the biggest draw to the build—Smites/short rest.

At level 14, you have Animate Dead on a short rest. Also boosted by Oathbreaker aura. Have fun. Oh, and at this level, Repelling Blast essentially adds Sentinel to your Polearm Master + Warcaster combo, allowing you to always keep an enemy out of your reach on its approach. Except with three attacks instead of 1.

Granted, there's still a strong argument for going straight Oathbreaker, especially early on, but the benefits of Warlock are great enough to actually justify deviations from the Paladin's path—no small feat.

This particular combo was quashed with twitter-clarification: http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/16/polearm-caster/

[Spacehamster]

6 levels paladin and 14 levels lore bard seems solid to me, good saves, spell versatility and reaches lvl 7 bard spells and can cherry pick the best smite spells if you want it to feel fully paladiny. ;) oh and for rp put expertise in perform and religion and be the fired up charismatic fanatic holding crazy speeches everywhere you go. :D

[Kidbuu51]

Fighter 3 champion for imp crit which means more smite damage and an extra fighting style so, armored and gwf or armored and deuling

[ryan92084]

There are lots of good options. Paladin doesn't make a great dip class, but that doesn't seem to be your intent.

....snip

Less synergistic ideas
- Paladin/monk (SMITE ON ALL THE PUNCHES!)(This one might not be so hard to work out...just have to have a 13 wis, then build a Str or Dex paladin as normal. Hmm..)
- Paladin/Barbarian (you can't cast while you rage, but you can sure as hell smite. Would be neat as a holy warrior of some kind of war god, just build around strength.)

snip...

I really wish the Barbadin worked little better together. Fully armored knight fueled by holy righteousness frothing at the mouth while he smites his enemies into the ground is just too awesome. Very zealot like.

[PoeticDwarf]

In my party is a 9 paladin 4 fighter, he multiclassed into fighter because he didn't like his lv. 7/8 features. I don't think it was smart because he misses his lv. 5 spells AND a 13 paladin can rek everyone in da face.

[Spacehamster]

I really wish the Barbadin worked little better together. Fully armored knight fueled by holy righteousness frothing at the mouth while he smites his enemies into the ground is just too awesome. Very zealot like.

They should totally make a paladin subclass that gets some variation of rage call it "holy wrath" or smthn like that and make it a bit different to barb rage so no toes are stepped on. :)

[Arial Black]

This particular combo was quashed with twitter-clarification: http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/16/polearm-caster/

IIRC, some people believed that the OA granted by Polearm Master allowed you to take that OA with any weapon you liked, rather than being limited to OAs with the polearm itself. Crawford clarified that the feat doesn't provide an OA with any weapon, it only provides an OA with the polearm.

However, War Caster has an oft-overlooked benefit: 'When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack.

So the PM's OA is limited to the polearm, but the reaction to cast a spell via WC is not an OA, therefore the restriction on which weapon takes the OA is irrelevant. Crawford's post had nothing to do with War Caster.

[Arial Black]

We are making characters right now. We've been asked to make 5th level PCs. I chose paladin2/warlock3, pact of the chain, fiend pact.

At first glace, there seem several problems with this. Even if I take my next 3 levels in paladin (and I do plan to: vengeance, of course), it will be 8th level at the earliest before I get 2 attacks.

I'm also going to take feats instead of increasing my Str/Cha. All this seems against advice.

So, why? First, I expect to have advantage on nearly every attack I make, thanks to the help action from my imp, the Oath of Vengeance Channel Divinity, or Darkness/Devil's Sight.

Second, I expect to do a lot of damage with my single hit, through hex, GWF, smites regained on a short rest, and when I get GWM I'll do more damage and get a bonus weapon attack.

I've mitigated the disadvantages, and the choices I made have plenty of advantages, and I love my concept RP-wise.

I won't bore you with the details. : )

[Mandragola]

Second, I expect to do a lot of damage with my single hit, through hex, GWF, smites regained on a short rest, and when I get GWM I'll do more damage and get a bonus weapon attack.

You'll still do a lot less than you'd do with a 2nd attack. If you're ok with that then that's ok. After lvl 8 it will be pretty much the same.

Personally I'd recommend going with only 2 levels of warlock and 3 of paladin, then get your 2nd attack at lvl 7. It will be a bit less pain that way.

And have a bunch of charisma, because EB is going to be your best attack to start with.

[Xetheral]

An Ancients Paladin/Moon Druid can work surprisingly well to boost the damage and tanking potential of wildshape forms. Paladin 2 lets you burn your slots for damage in addition to healing, Paladin 5 gives you an additional attack for use with non-multiattack forms, Paladin 6 and 7 make you a higher-priority target, thus drawing more fire. Paladin 11 (if you go that far) increases potential damage even further. You could even toss in a little Ranger for Hordebreaker to take the offense-oriented nature-themed tank concept even farther.

On that note, Paladin X/Ranger 3 (Hordebreaker) works well... more attacks means more smites.

[Spacehamster]

Vengence paladin 6 war cleric or tempest cleric 14 also sounds good. :)

[CNagy]

So the PM's OA is limited to the polearm, but the reaction to cast a spell via WC is not an OA, therefore the restriction on which weapon takes the OA is irrelevant. Crawford's post had nothing to do with War Caster.

We've got this one from Mearls (which I've already posted): http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/16/polearm-caster/
"Do Polearm Master and War Caster combine to allow a magic user to make a spell opportunity attack when they enter reach?"
"No - polearm master applies only if you use the weapons it lists to make the attack."

The wording there is clear: polearm master applies only if... which is to say unless you are using the polearm to make the attack, then the opponent is not provoking an OA from Polearm Master, so you have nothing to substitute your War Caster spell for. Yes, it is a bit loopy with cause and effect, but the same can be said of the standard OA in the first place.

Crawford's tweet is likewise clear: http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/03/27/war-caster-feat/
"if I have the war caster feat and a reach weapon can I use a spell instead of the weapon if they move to 15 ft?"
"The intent is that any OA triggered because you're wielding a polearm is then made with that polearm."

By invoking "intent," Crawford acknowledges that War Caster can be read that way but wasn't intended. When an OA is provoked through reach, only the weapon giving you reach can use it. The answer may not include the words "War Caster" but it is a direct answer to a question asking specifically about War Caster. So the RAW says yes but RAI is no.

[Arial Black]

You'll still do a lot less than you'd do with a 2nd attack. If you're ok with that then that's ok. After lvl 8 it will be pretty much the same.

Personally I'd recommend going with only 2 levels of warlock and 3 of paladin, then get your 2nd attack at lvl 7. It will be a bit less pain that way.

And have a bunch of charisma, because EB is going to be your best attack to start with.

I need 3 levels of warlock to get the imp, which has become central to my story; it retains raven form and pretends to be Hugin, sent by Odin himself to advise me, while in reality is an imp sent by a devil to corrupt me.

Also, I'm deliberately not taking Agonising Blast, because I want to be in melee and attack with my greatsword. It also frees up Invocations so I can take Devil's Sight and Mask of Many Faces.

Not optimised overall, but optimised in the role I've chosen for myself, and it will be enormous fun. : )

[Person_Man]

My suggestions:

Strait Paladin: Works perfectly fine as-is.
Paladin 2/Valor Bard 18: This gives you Smite, followed by full casting. Full casters get a lot more spells then half casters, and thus you can Smite a lot more often. Valor Bards get Extra Attack, have a strong spell list, and can cherry pick a small number of spells from any list. Just note that your at-will damage will be lacking at level 11+, so you'll need to compensate by using buffs regularly, like Spiritual Weapon or Haste. You can also do Pact of Blade Warlock, though I would only suggest it if your DM allows frequent Short Rests.
Oath of Ancients Paladin 7/Any full caster 13: This gives you armor/shield, Fighting Style, Smite, Extra Attack, and the two uber Auras, which are arguably 90% of the Paladin's best class features. Any full caster will end up giving you more/better spells.
Assassin Rogue 3/Paladin 2/Valor Bard 15: I wouldn't suggest this unless your game is starting at level 10 or higher. But hear me out. Assassin grants Expertise, Cunning Action, a couple dice of Sneak Attack, and Assassinate. Paladin grants shield proficiency and Smite. Valor Bard gives you Extra Attack and spell progression. Hide. Ambush enemies. Deal massive, massive damage. Then fall back and switch to a longbow and spells as needed.

[Fable Wright]

We've got this one from Mearls (which I've already posted): http://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/16/polearm-caster/
"Do Polearm Master and War Caster combine to allow a magic user to make a spell opportunity attack when they enter reach?"
"No - polearm master applies only if you use the weapons it lists to make the attack."

This fills me with much rage.

Mostly because of how arbitrary it is.

Take the nearly identical case of Crossbow Expert applying to throwing weapons (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/10/crossbow-expert-with-throwing-weapon/). Does it work? Sure! Despite that the rest of the feat explicitly mentions crossbows and benefits you have while using them, this is exactly what the designers intended. They even intended by RAW that it helps with ranged spell attacks! (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_feats)Unlike Polearm master. The rest of that feat explicitly mentions polearms and the benefits you have while using them, so obviously this is not something that the designers intended. Having it interact with spells? Good heavens, no.

Only difference is that the War Caster and Polearm Master combo replaces two ASIs for an effect that requires investing resources as per the PM + Sentinel combo for a different but similarly powerful effect, whereas the Crossbow Expert is one feat on its own.

Just... incredibly arbitrary decisions by someone who has at times been intoxicated while making them (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/10/ready-extra-attack/).

I am not okay with this.

[Giant2005]

This fills me with much rage.

Mostly because of how arbitrary it is.

Take the nearly identical case of Crossbow Expert applying to throwing weapons (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/10/crossbow-expert-with-throwing-weapon/). Does it work? Sure! Despite that the rest of the feat explicitly mentions crossbows and benefits you have while using them, this is exactly what the designers intended. They even intended by RAW that it helps with ranged spell attacks! (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_feats)Unlike Polearm master. The rest of that feat explicitly mentions polearms and the benefits you have while using them, so obviously this is not something that the designers intended. Having it interact with spells? Good heavens, no.

Only difference is that the War Caster and Polearm Master combo replaces two ASIs for an effect that requires investing resources as per the PM + Sentinel combo for a different but similarly powerful effect, whereas the Crossbow Expert is one feat on its own.

Just... incredibly arbitrary decisions by someone who has at times been intoxicated while making them (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/10/ready-extra-attack/).

I am not okay with this.

Well you can rest assured now!
With the release of the Errata (And the decision to not change Polearm Master to requiring that Polearm be used for the OA), they have essentially invalidated those tweets. Polearm Master + Warcaster is back to being okay.

[CNagy]

This fills me with much rage.

Mostly because of how arbitrary it is.

Take the nearly identical case of Crossbow Expert applying to throwing weapons (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/10/crossbow-expert-with-throwing-weapon/). Does it work? Sure! Despite that the rest of the feat explicitly mentions crossbows and benefits you have while using them, this is exactly what the designers intended. They even intended by RAW that it helps with ranged spell attacks! (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/sageadvice_feats)Unlike Polearm master. The rest of that feat explicitly mentions polearms and the benefits you have while using them, so obviously this is not something that the designers intended. Having it interact with spells? Good heavens, no.

Only difference is that the War Caster and Polearm Master combo replaces two ASIs for an effect that requires investing resources as per the PM + Sentinel combo for a different but similarly powerful effect, whereas the Crossbow Expert is one feat on its own.

Just... incredibly arbitrary decisions by someone who has at times been intoxicated while making them (http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/10/ready-extra-attack/).

I am not okay with this.

It's not nearly identical. In the one case you have a bullet point that gives a more generalized benefit to anyone who takes it. In the other case, you have a bullet point that flat-out prefaces the benefit with "when you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff..."

A near identical case to Crossbow Expert would be Mage Slayer. It has two benefits out of three that specify that you must be within 5 feet. But the other benefit is far more general: when you deal damage to a creature concentrating on a spell, it gets disadvantage to the saving throw to maintain the spell. That works whether you are a fighter in someone's face, an archer from 100 feet away, or even another spellcaster.

Polearm Master and Sentinel synergize in an entirely different way. Sentinel adds a 0 move effect to your OAs. Polearm Master gives you additional criteria for OAs. The two together have a nice synergy that is greater than the individual parts--you can stop someone in their tracks before they get to you, and potentially attack you.

Polearm Master and Warcaster are in direct competition; they are fighting over the same reaction. To say the two work together is to say that "I am trained to find openings for an attack with my polearm, so when I see that opening I can... stop wielding my polearm and cast a spell." Sure, the RAW technically allows it but that blows open a pretty big exploit of using expanded criteria for actions given by feats or class features to turn around and do something completely different. But at the end of the day, if you're not seriously hunting for that polearm attack then Polearm Master isn't going to give it to you, and that's what the RAI twitter ruling reflects.

[MrStabby]

Paladin is a great class to continue in (as mentioned) but most classes have something to add through a MC.

Off the top of my head:

Rogue - assassin already mentioned but also you get expertise which you can combine with charisma for some good persuasion/intimidate/bluff skills. AT gives you a few extra spell slots for using smites with and cantrips if you can use them so you get a lot of extra role play scope and out of combat skills. MAD slightly mitigated by an extra ASI at high levels.


Druid

Seems weak but extra spell slots are always good. You can either take min wisdom for MCing or Max out wisdom and use shillelagh. Land druid also helps you recover some spell slots for smites.


Cleric

More complicated as there are so many domains but still with some benefits. Obviously the spell slots but some of the other benefits are solid. Life will make you a pretty damn good healer with only a lvl 1 dip, Nature can let you overcome MAD with Shillelagh again. War clerics can have a very flexible spell selection whilst keeping spells like spiritual weapon and spirit guardians (Very useful if you have no other plans for your bonus action).

Fighter

At high levels EK's ability to give disadvantage on saves can help you force through riders on smites (or other spells). At very high levels where you can deliver a hold person (vengence) and then smite them on the crits you will have a nice trick for piling on massive damage but there are also a lot of cool other things you can do.

Champion and battlemaster already covered.



Monk

I see monk as best for a 1 level dip - martial arts for bonus action attacks with improved smite damage is pretty solid (aditional hunters mark damage with monk is not bad either) and it lets you focus on dex (unfortunatly MC rules stop you dumping Str hard).


Bard

Some builds at high level are ok but mainly it comes down to spell slots and having a casting attribute that you want high anyway. Magical secrets is very characterful and lets you customise your character well - although from an RP perspective you might just prefer to take the class that gives you that spell. Like rogue you can use this to be very persuasive.


Barbarian

The raging zealot type character is fun - don't forget advantage on attacks means more criticals to use smites on as well. Downside is fewer spell slots but you can always top those up with a full caster if you want.

Sorcerer

I am hesitant to judge this one. I know it is good and it is fun but I am also sure I am missing some awesome tricks to make it an even better MC choice. Usual spell slots business plus a little more from sorcery points. Metamagic is a huge Sorcerer thing though and I would like to find some particularly nice things to use it with from the Paladin's spell list. Liekewise the dragon sorc elemental ability is something I would love to use with smite spells (searing smite for an extra d6+Cha damage is still less than you might expect from a 2d8 smite - so you really need them to fail a save to make it worthwhile (+fire resistance and no bonus damage vs things like undead coupled with concentration requirement and less extra damage on a critical all push it a bit lower in my estimation).


Warlock

Pretty much covered here. There are a lot of different ways to do this - take a lvl 5 in either class for an extra attack - but probably not both. Use invocations to flesh out your character and give you more versatility.


Wizard

This is the hardest class to make a case for. Low hitpoints, little extra combat ability, needs Int... It has the whole full caster to get extra spell slots thing and some of the lvl 2 abilities are pretty good. You can do ok with low Int and careful spell selection - some things like animate objects are pretty good and are an attractive use of your concentration, likewise haste. The Abjuration shield is nice, but probably not that relevant if you are only taking a few levels of warlock. Spell slot recovery is also very nice but might not be enough to justify the class.

Paladin is powerful enough and can make enough use of enough skills, physical prowess and spellcasting that with a little care you should be able to make any Multiclass a fun and individual character.