Cleric paladin multiclass

[Calibus]

Any idea if this is worth the build?

I was going to go with 2 levels of paladin and the rest cleric.

My idea was that I was going with war domain cleric and get paladin to level 2 for smite. With cleric I'd be able to have more spell slots for smiling(auto corrected but screw it. It's hilarious) for thar extra dmg for the extra dmg of war domain that I'm dealing along with the supportive Frontline of cleric healing and buffing.

Just wanna hear what you guys think of that?

[Lollerabe]

Hardly worth it IMO due to the MADness of the build, unless you roll for stats, plus the early delay in your caster progression is painful.

I think smiting is overrated on this forum in all honesty.

[Malifice]

Hardly worth it IMO due to the MADness of the build, unless you roll for stats, plus the early delay in your caster progression is painful.

I think smiting is overrated on this forum in all honesty.

You're dumping Dex and Int, and only need a Cha of 13, so Madness isnt really an issue.

Wisdom can be plonked at 13. Turf a 15 in Strength and a 13 in Charisma. Go Vuman, pump Str/ Wis both up to 16/14. Dump Dex and Int to 8. Con 14.

[Calibus]

Forgot to mention. Our party is rolling for stats. My numbers:
11
14
15
17
12
13
7

[MrStabby]

Some of this seems a bit wasteful - doesn't mean it cant be done but you get a lot of overlap from your features.

Paladin spells - some overlap not only with cleric spells but even more so with the war domain spells. Access to the extra spells is a little wasteful.

Heavy armour and weapon proficiency from both classes is also an overlap.

If you were to take paladin further then your channel divinity uses wouldn't stack either.



Switching cleric domain could get you more options. For example taking the light domain wouldn't lose you either weapon proficiency or armour if you had already got that from the paladin nor would you lose access to the divine favour spell either. I just used light as an example though.

[Lollerabe]

Okay fair points, again I personally don't like delaying caster progression to much and I feel that clerics often have better things to do with their spellslots than smiting either way.

The overlap of features is another thing, the paladin dip dosent give you a saving throw you need, no wep/armor prof either.
So it boils down to a fightstyle and smiting, you do get LOH for 10 points and some other minor things - again just my personal opinion but I really don't think it's worth it. A 2 lvl fighter dip would make more sense for me and I wouldn't advise that either.

BUT if there is something about the flavor of the combo (fx a holy priest lighting his weapon up with holy fire) that gets you going, sure - it's not a horrible build and you do got the stats to support it.

Edit: slightly ninja'ed

[MrStabby]

Okay fair points, again I personally don't like delaying caster progression to much and I feel that clerics often have better things to do with their spellslots than smiting either way.



I think clerics do have a lot of good uses for their spell slots, and yes better things than smiting. I am not sure that all spellslots are going to be used this way. I think that the best cleric spells are concentration spells, some of which have long durations. There is a limit to how many of these you can get through in a day. Is the smite damage better than say, a healing spell? Generally downing an enemy with a level 1 spell a turn earlier will save more damage than a level 1 healing word would recover.

I generally agree that cutting spell slot/known progression isn't good, but clerics do better than most for upcasting spells and their higher levels spells fall a little behind some of the other casters.

[hymer]

Just want to mention Favoured Soul while we're at it. Fuels your smites at least as well as cleric, keys off charisma, even gets multiple attacks. May not be kosher at your table, though.

[Malifice]

Forgot to mention. Our party is rolling for stats. My numbers:
11
14
15
17
12
13
7

Int: 11
Wis: 14
Con: 15(16)
Str: 17(18)
Dex: 12
Cha: 13

Is how I'd have them. Vuman obvs.

Although personally, I would go Paladin 6/ Cleric 14 and swap Cha and Con.

Keep 9th level slots, get +Cha to saves and extra attack.

Cleric 11/ Fighter 3/ Paladin 6 is my personal favorite.

[Lollerabe]

It's also worth asking what kind of weapons, feats etc were you thinking of ? With Malifices suggested stat spread you would be a bit restricted in domain power usage and spell selection (14 is somewhat low).
But maybe you just wanted to combo power attack with the +10 to hit (forgot the name of the feature, AFB) channel power.

As mr stabby pointed out - the overlap of features when comboing war domain and a paladin might make other domains more attractive, the life domain fx would let you get more out of your heals, which would be less taxing on your spell slots which could lead to more smiting.

So yeah consider the other domains. The war domains force is basically 'sprinkle some more fighter on your cleric' which the paladin lvls already takes care of.

[Giant2005]

You are better off replacing the Cleric aspect with Draconic Sorcerer levels.
It reduces MADness, the Sorc's level 6 ability combined with Green Flame Blade is far superior to the Cleric's weapon damage bonuses, and a quickened GFB is far superior to the War Cleric's bonus action attack.

[Calibus]

Going with great weapons. And a a onehander/board for more accurate foes. We don't have too much on the way for offense in the party. Because reasons. I just wanted something more flavorful than fighter/barb/rogue. Just wanted option while being the party cannon.

I'm liking the idea of gfb. But I'd be a bit more squishy. But I would get shield for reaction... hmm

[DracoKnight]

You are better off replacing the Cleric aspect with Draconic Sorcerer levels.
It reduces MADness, the Sorc's level 6 ability combined with Green Flame Blade is far superior to the Cleric's weapon damage bonuses, and a quickened GFB is far superior to the War Cleric's bonus action attack.

I'm going to second this, however with a slightly different twist. I recommend that you go Paladin 6/Favored Soul (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/modifying-classes) (War Domain) 14. I have a player doing that in my game, and soon she'll have the ability to twin cast Magic Weapon which will be a huge boon to the party.

EDIT: If you start off as a Sorcerer, you'll get proficiency in CON saves, and then when you multiclass paladin you'll get martial weapons. Going from there, you can pick up Heavy Armor with a feat, which you have room to do with your stat array, or you can do if you go Vuman and take Heavily Armored as your 1st level feat.

[MrStabby]

You are better off replacing the Cleric aspect with Draconic Sorcerer levels.
It reduces MADness, the Sorc's level 6 ability combined with Green Flame Blade is far superior to the Cleric's weapon damage bonuses, and a quickened GFB is far superior to the War Cleric's bonus action attack.

Given that stat array I don't think MAD is an issue. Given that the desired class is a cleric with the role of "supportive Frontline of cleric healing and buffing" I am not sure replacing that class with a sorcerer will meet expectations.

[Giant2005]

Given that stat array I don't think MAD is an issue. Given that the desired class is a cleric with the role of "supportive Frontline of cleric healing and buffing" I am not sure replacing that class with a sorcerer will meet expectations.

Fair call.
If the whole point is to be a Cleric, then I'd recommend the Death Cleric over the War Cleric. Death Clerics have better ranged and melee damage, with the only real cost being losing access to heavy armor (which the Paladin levels are already bringing to the table).

[MrStabby]

Fair call.
If the whole point is to be a Cleric, then I'd recommend the Death Cleric over the War Cleric. Death Clerics have better ranged and melee damage, with the only real cost being losing access to heavy armor (which the Paladin levels are already bringing to the table).

Ah, now that could work. Could be a very fun character.

[RinIzunia17]

Ah, now that could work. Could be a very fun character.

Can confirm it is quite fun. Two levels in Paladin while leveling Death Cleric is fun af

[Aett_Thorn]

Can confirm it is quite fun. Two levels in Paladin while leveling Death Cleric is fun af

Thread necro, ahoy!

[Shuruke]

I like idea of storm cleric with 3 pally for channel divinity options and thunderous smite to go with booming blade

Then eventually channel divinity on the destruction wave that is typically pally only but tempest gets.

(Not allowed RAW or RAI but maximizing the thunder damage of booming blade, thunderous smite, and 8th level feature could b funny. You could do it with multiple divinity but if dm lets it with one even better.)

[Amdy_vill]

Any idea if this is worth the build?

I was going to go with 2 levels of paladin and the rest cleric.

My idea was that I was going with war domain cleric and get paladin to level 2 for smite. With cleric I'd be able to have more spell slots for smiling(auto corrected but screw it. It's hilarious) for thar extra dmg for the extra dmg of war domain that I'm dealing along with the supportive Frontline of cleric healing and buffing.

Just wanna hear what you guys think of that?

Order domain and 2 paladin would be interesting as you get 2 divine smite like abilities.

[Corran]

Switching cleric domain could get you more options.
I think that the war domain works best, due to the extra attack it allows. When it's worth it to go nova during that hard encounter of the day, you want as many attacks as possible so that you can smite more. Smite is a poor dpr boost, but it's good for nova. And going nova is good only for certain encounters/targets. Meaning that spending spell slots uniformly during the day for smites is a bad call. Using slots to smite will be a good call for a certain few rounds during the adventuring day. And during the certain few rounds you want to use as many smites as possible. That's why extra attack is useful. Clerics don't get extra attack, but that war domain feature is just as good as far as smiting goes. And that's because its uses will be enough for when it's actually worth smiting.

I think that investing two levels in paladin just for smite and a fighting style is not worth it. Too much investment for too small a benefit. Then again, having the ability to smite is a good incentive for a cleric to use a weapon (at the cost of making it MAD). I like clerics that use weapons instead of cantrips, so anything that pushes me towards the direction of playing a weapon wielding cleric is a good thing IMO. But aesthetics aside, I don't think it's worth it, cause as I said, too much investment for a small benefit.Thread necro.