Retribution Paladin! A Fun excercise in theorycrafting.

[Ravinsild]

Essentially marrying the idea of a Fighter with a Priest more for offense than support I was perusing the many UA Articles, books I have and other sources such as the Wizards Theurgy School, Eldritch Knight to marry with this for Str/Int based style...Levels of Paladin and Cleric of course, the Undying Light Warlock Pact and other holy powered articles and came to the conclusion that 5 Paladin/15 Cleric would get the best "feeling" of this idea.

Things like: Summon Steed, Lay on Hands, Flash of Light, Judgement, Exorcism, Consecration, Divine Storm, Crusader's Strike and more may be familiar to some of you.

I think this combination of classes brings the light utility and heavy damage of a Retribution Style Paladin from Warcraft.

The race I chose was Aasimar because it's so thematic, a Protector Aasimar at least gets +1 bump to Wis and the Cha bonus isn't the worst for the Paladin spells. I am sure other races would fit more appropriately however.

I chose Great-Weapon Fighting because you have to use a giant two-handed weapon even if it's stupid because you just have to.

Spells like Summon Steed, Cure Wounds, Resurrection, Bless and so on from either the Paladin or Cleric spell pages gives that off-utility feeling the Retribution Paladin brings. Not a pure healer but will do in a pinch and can revive someone of they go down.

Cantrips and spells like Sacred Flame, Turn Undead, Flame Strike and Guiding Bolt which deal ranged Radiant (Holy) damage feel appropriate for "Judgement" "Exorcism" "Turn Undead" and so forth from the Cleric Spells and Channel Divinity.

Battle Cleric gives a Bonus Action attack at 1st level so you can Sacred Flame (Judgement) and melee Attack for a gish-like feeling to capture Holy Magic + Sword striking.

5 levels of Paladin gives you immunity to disease, lay on hands, divine smite for when you "pop wings" for burst DPS, and a Vow which can imbue your weapon with extra damage or give you advantage on an enemy.

By 8th level of Cleric and 5th level of Paladin at level 13 you can Attack 3 times or cast a spell (Cure Wounds) and Attack, Divine Smite on a natural 20 and also use the 8th level feature to pour even more damage into your righteous Crusader's Strike...or Templar's Verdict for the big time plays.

Bless would be like Blessing of Kings or something and you can maintain a Bless as your concentration. I thought it might be wise to pump mostly Wisdom for better heals and damage so to relegate your 4 Paladin spells as buffs/utility.

What do you think? Pretty solid multiclass to make a heavy swinging Holy Warrior that don't afraid of no ghosts?

[bid]

Battle Cleric gives a Bonus Action attack at 1st level so you can Sacred Flame (Judgement) and melee Attack for a gish-like feeling to capture Holy Magic + Sword striking.
Not really. Sacred flame uses "cast a spell" action, war cleric BA requires "attack" action. And it's limited to 3ish times per day.

[Ravinsild]

Not really. Sacred flame uses "cast a spell" action, war cleric BA requires "attack" action. And it's limited to 3ish times per day.

In my PHB it says as a bonus action if I am not mistaken. In addition Sacred Flame is a Cantrip. So could you not use Standard Action: Cast a Spell Cantrip Sacred Flame, Bonus Action: Melee Attack?

[bid]

In my PHB it says as a bonus action if I am not mistaken. In addition Sacred Flame is a Cantrip. So could you not use Standard Action: Cast a Spell Cantrip Sacred Flame, Bonus Action: Melee Attack?
Sorry I wasn't clear. The requisite for your BA attack are not fulfilled.

War priest: "When you use the Attack action, ... "

... but you cannot cast a spell with the Attack action, you must use the Cast a spell action.

[Ravinsild]

Sorry I wasn't clear. The requisite for your BA attack are not fulfilled.

War priest: "When you use the Attack action, ... "

... but you cannot cast a spell with the Attack action, you must use the Cast a spell action.

CLASS FANTASY RUINED ;-; This is why I was looking at Eldritch Knight and the Theurgy Wizard but oh well. Butt socks.

I guess it still is 99% there without this one little thing.

[dejarnjc]

CLASS FANTASY RUINED ;-; This is why I was looking at Eldritch Knight and the Theurgy Wizard but oh well. Butt socks.

I guess it still is 99% there without this one little thing.

I say just re-skin the Eldritch Knight. Make the spell casting stat wisdom. Choose spells from the cleric spell list instead of the wizard's. Badda bing badda boom.

[bid]

I say just re-skin the Eldritch Knight. Make the spell casting stat wisdom. Choose spells from the cleric spell list instead of the wizard's. Badda bing badda boom.
Yep, war magic (EK 7) does that spell + sword combo.

[CaptainSarathai]

Why not just run Paladin2, Favored Soul Sorc18?
1) Now you're all Charisma.
2) You get your first level Pally Spells, plus Fighting Style, Lay on Hands and Smite.
3) You get the Domain Spells from a Cleric Domain of your choice
4) You get Extra Attack from the Sorc
6) Sorcerer Cantrips and Spells (to include GFB/BB, and 9th level spells)
7) More slots, plus Sorcery Points
8) Metamagic - you can now Attack, and then Quicken a spell as a Bonus Action (the opposite of what Warcaster does - you can get 2 full attacks as an Attack Action, and then cast an Action spell as a Bonus). When using GFB/BB, this basically gives you 3 weapon attacks. This also begins at 3rd level, rather than 7th.

[Ravinsild]

Why not just run Paladin2, Favored Soul Sorc18?
1) Now you're all Charisma.
2) You get your first level Pally Spells, plus Fighting Style, Lay on Hands and Smite.
3) You get the Domain Spells from a Cleric Domain of your choice
4) You get Extra Attack from the Sorc
6) Sorcerer Cantrips and Spells (to include GFB/BB, and 9th level spells)
7) More slots, plus Sorcery Points
8) Metamagic - you can now Attack, and then Quicken a spell as a Bonus Action (the opposite of what Warcaster does - you can get 2 full attacks as an Attack Action, and then cast an Action spell as a Bonus). When using GFB/BB, this basically gives you 3 weapon attacks. This also begins at 3rd level, rather than 7th.

Oh that fits pretty well too. I looked at Favored Soul but I wasn't sure you could get literally only/exclusively Cleric spells. I thought you could only pick one per new spell you learn or something. Can you also choose Cleric Cantrips? If so then yeah this is even better :) Plus it fits Aasimar Racials better woo.

[CaptainSarathai]

Oh that fits pretty well too. I looked at Favored Soul but I wasn't sure you could get literally only/exclusively Cleric spells. I thought you could only pick one per new spell you learn or something. Can you also choose Cleric Cantrips? If so then yeah this is even better :) Plus it fits Aasimar Racials better woo.

You get the Domain spells, not the entire Cleric Spell list. That means you don't get Cantrips from the Cleric.

If there's a particular Spell/Cantrip that you want, you still have options. There's Arcane Initiate, which snags you some cantrips and a 1st level Spell, but they stay Wis based.
Another option would be 3 levels of Warlock, Pact of the Tome. This gets you 3 Cantrips from any class, and they key off Cha. You could go Undying Light for a patron who's not wholly evil, and you get a solid +Cha to Radiant and Fire damage as well. Unfortunately, you'd be giving up your upper level spell slots from Sorc, if that bothers you.

[Ravinsild]

You get the Domain spells, not the entire Cleric Spell list. That means you don't get Cantrips from the Cleric.

If there's a particular Spell/Cantrip that you want, you still have options. There's Arcane Initiate, which snags you some cantrips and a 1st level Spell, but they stay Wis based.
Another option would be 3 levels of Warlock, Pact of the Tome. This gets you 3 Cantrips from any class, and they key off Cha. You could go Undying Light for a patron who's not wholly evil, and you get a solid +Cha to Radiant and Fire damage as well. Unfortunately, you'd be giving up your upper level spell slots from Sorc, if that bothers you.

Ah yeah, I sort of wanted a "Holy Blaster"/Gish style thing (basically what the Retribution paladin is in WoW, long ranged Holy damage spells and lots of melee) so I figured stuff like Guiding Bolt, Sacred Flame and Flame Strike were appropriate over the "Arcane Fire" of the Sorcerer/Favored Soul.

That's why I ultimately went with 5 Paladin/15 Battle Cleric to get that Extra Attack from Paladin plus some Concentration/Fluff utility spells and focusing the spellcasting bits from the Cleric and the bonus attack from the attack option for 3 attacks with a two-handed weapon which seemed pretty strong.

I may be off on that path of thinking though?

I figured the way to limit the MADness of Cha spells, Wis Spells and Str attacking was to relegate the up to 2nd level Paladin spells to Concentration buffs and rituals like Find Steed and also the utility of the Cleric like "Cure Wounds" and "Raise Dead" and stuff fit the flavor of the Retribution Paladin who does have healing with Flash of Light and can raise dead players with "Resurrect" and they still get their Hand spells like "Hand of Protection" and so forth for some off-utility despite being mainly DPS.