Help me survive in the Underdark - Out of the Abyss Campaign - Fighter Multiclass

[Ahimoth]

Quick intro. We've just started the campaign, we have a pretty large party, lacking in nothing except healing. The back story for my character is that he's a fighter who wants to become a Paladin(or cleric) essentially a holy warrior. He served some time at a temple (acolyte back story) and now is going on his journey.

As a lvl 1 fighter I've taken GWF for my fighting style as I didn't really fancy any of the others, except defense for that +1 AC but it wouldn't really matter until I got better armour. I like the Polearm master -> Sentinel build very much as it has good synergy with battle master.

I've read some other posts and they've given me great ideas about Paladin builds mixing with spell casters but not many mixing with straight up fighters. As level 15 is the proposed cap I've decided to bring that down to 14 for arguments sake.

Level 14 at a 11/3 split would give me all the goodness that a fighter offers as a second action surge is out of reach anyway and extra attack (4) is also. 3 levels into paladin will give me, 3 1st level spells, a heal, divine smite, awesome paladin archetype and on top of all that another fighting style. For the additional fighting style I'm hoping my DM will be convinced to allow me to play test one of the new fighting styles in Unearthed Arcana (tunnel fighting style) he might even be open to the new Paladin Archetype in Sword of the Coast .

I'd love to hear your opinions and inputs on this :)

Stats:
Str 17, Dex 10, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 13
Feat: Heavy Armour Master
Gear: Short sword, no Armour because reasons. >.>

My reasoning for taking HAM was because my only exposure to D&D was a little encounter I played in which my fighter got taken down in like 3 hits damage being in the region of 5. So My justification is if I'm going to be so squishy level one I might as well reduce any and all damage coming in by 3 so I can at least survive until the higher levels. >.>

Then I got hit for 17 right off the bat and was downed so that was fun! Drow elite are total butt holes!

I'm currently reading through his post about multi-class cut offs, it's very interesting.

[MightyDog16]

I'm DMing OotA right now and my group is having similar struggles. One thing you have to understand about the underdark is that it's not meant to be approached head on. It's designed to be difficult. Strategy, stealth, and knowing when to retreat are going to be your saving graces. Those elite drow were not meant to be fought, you were just supposed to try and escape. It's not that your fighter is super squishy, you were just picking a fight with the wrong drow.

[Ahimoth]

I'm DMing OotA right now and my group is having similar struggles. One thing you have to understand about the underdark is that it's not meant to be approached head on. It's designed to be difficult. Strategy, stealth, and knowing when to retreat are going to be your saving graces. Those elite drow were not meant to be fought, you were just supposed to try and escape. It's not that your fighter is super squishy, you were just picking a fight with the wrong drow.

Mmm I understand 100%. We're in session 2 (session 1 for me) so we've just staged our escape. We killed one Elite Drow but now we're in a position to either stand and fight or flee. I prefer the latter however the EXP and gear we're leaving behind :'( It hurts my soul lol.

[djreynolds]

You will get another feat at 12 and 14. Take GWM, and lucky along with sentinel and Polearm master and max out strength. That's what you could get for staying battle-master. Pretty good. You will have access to 6 feats with human variant, or 5 with another race. So you if took HAM, max strength and throw 1 one in con that 3 feats down. And then grab your polearm master and sentinel and then snag lucky.

[Ahimoth]

You will get another feat at 12 and 14. Take GWM, and lucky along with sentinel and Polearm master and max out strength. That's what you could get for staying battle-master. Pretty good. You will have access to 6 feats with human variant, or 5 with another race. So you if took HAM, max strength and throw 1 one in con that 3 feats down. And then grab your polearm master and sentinel and then snag lucky.

Right I'll just stick to a straight up BM fighter maybe next time I'll branch out a little thanks for the input peeps :)

[Envyus]

Mmm I understand 100%. We're in session 2 (session 1 for me) so we've just staged our escape. We killed one Elite Drow but now we're in a position to either stand and fight or flee. I prefer the latter however the EXP and gear we're leaving behind :'( It hurts my soul lol.

The priestess there can wipe your level 1 party with single spell. Plus there are 5 or so Drow Elites in there. Running is the good idea.

[Ahimoth]

The priestess there can wipe your level 1 party with single spell. Plus there are 5 or so Drow Elites in there. Running is the good idea.

Good idea! I'm going to suggest we loot the armory we have access to and then high tail it out of there with any NPCs we can convince to come with us.