How would you build this character idea

[Qbertt5681]

I'm envisioning an elf or a half elf(probably half). Wielding a 2 handed sword and chain mail, who is a guardian and protector of the forest.

He either found, or was chosen by the elves, or chosen by the forest - to wield a powerful 2 handed sword, that may or may not be sentient. The wielded of this sword is the protector of an ancient forest.

I'm thinking one day he became lost deep in an ancient forest. I'm thinking he was running from some.abomination of nature, maybe a werewolf or something. Or he was tracking it. He was caught. Death was imminent. But he was gifted a weapon by the forest, a powerful sword. Not one to question his luck, he used it to strike down the evil. Now he finds himself filled with purpose. He must cleanse this forest of evil and protect it from those who would harm it.

I'm envisioning an oath of the ancients paladin, or a hexblade, or a multi class of the two. Maybe taking stuff like jump invocation to mimic inhuman nimbleness. Maybe take stealth. Not sure.

How would you take this character concept and min/max it?

I was thinking something like 13, 16, 14, 10, 10, 16 half elf, oath of ancients/hex blade. Open to any and all suggestions.

[A Fat Dragon]

Start off with Paladin, and at 2nd level, Multiclass into hexblade Warlock. Build Paladin until Lvl 3, and then from there, choose Oath of the Ancients. Grab the Two-Handed Fighting Style, and from their, use Great-Sword/Heavy Armor. Build it as Cha > Con > Wis > Str > Dex > Int. I’d recommend grabbing Variant Half-Elf - Dark Elf Racial Spells, as having a few extra spells in your pocket is always a good thing. Plus, Flavor Points is you build it as Redemption-Esc.

Beyond Lvl 4, I’d say solely level Paladin, and use ASIs to raise Charisma and Constitution. Grab the Great-Weapon Fighter and Sentinel Feats, and you’d be fine. Swap your Constitution and Dexterity, and don’t build your strength beyond 13, as it’s mostly there to get you to be able to wear your armor. Int is mostly unnecessary, and though it is nice, so is Dex, so place Wisdom over Dex in my eyes (Wisdom gets you Perception, Insight, and Survival - All good things). I’d say 13 10 16 14 10 16 would be a better line up, and place your Half-Elf bonuses in Charisma and Consitution.

[Qbertt5681]

Start off with Paladin, and at 2nd level, Multiclass into hexblade Warlock. Build Paladin until Lvl 3, and then from there, choose Oath of the Ancients. Grab the Two-Handed Fighting Style, and from their, use Great-Sword/Heavy Armor. Build it as Cha > Con > Wis > Str > Dex > Int. I’d recommend grabbing Variant Half-Elf - Dark Elf Racial Spells, as having a few extra spells in your pocket is always a good thing. Plus, Flavor Points is you build it as Redemption-Esc.

Beyond Lvl 4, I’d say solely level Paladin, and use ASIs to raise Charisma and Constitution. Grab the Great-Weapon Fighter and Sentinel Feats, and you’d be fine. Swap your Constitution and Dexterity, and don’t build your strength beyond 13, as it’s mostly there to get you to be able to wear your armor. Int is mostly unnecessary, and though it is nice, so is Dex, so place Wisdom over Dex in my eyes (Wisdom gets you Perception, Insight, and Survival - All good things). I’d say 13 10 16 14 10 16 would be a better line up, and place your Half-Elf bonuses in Charisma and Consitution.

The only issue with that, and one I'm having, is hex blade doesn't let you use cha for 2 handed weapons until you get pact of the blade at 3. Kinda kills my concept.

[Consensus]

I don't see any issue to stop this character from being monoclass ancients paladin. Paladin's one of the best classes, and you won't regret getting the aura at level 7

[Vogie]

It depends on what you want, and where you're starting.

If the weapon is an actual, specific 2handed weapon, then, if you're:

starting at 1-2, then Paladin is probably your best bet.
starting at 3+, then Hexblade 3 then drop over to Paladin for smiting.


If the weapon is a Pact from the forest, and the shape doesn't matter, you can just start at level 1 Hexblade, with a one-handed weapon, which works with Hex Warrior. Then, once you reach level 3 in Hexblade, you can choose pact of the Blade and "the forest" changes it's gift to you as a 2-handed weapon.

Another option, if starting at 1 although it won't be optimized out of the gate, is Fighter 1 / Hexblade Warlock X. The story of your Character is the level 1 fighter who finds the blade, can use the GWF from the get-go. Then over the next several levels they connect with the blade more and more, culminating in the Hex Warrior SAD conversion at level 4 (1 Fighter / 3 Warlock).

[Qbertt5681]

Start off with Paladin, and at 2nd level, Multiclass into hexblade Warlock. Build Paladin until Lvl 3, and then from there, choose Oath of the Ancients. Grab the Two-Handed Fighting Style, and from their, use Great-Sword/Heavy Armor. Build it as Cha > Con > Wis > Str > Dex > Int. I’d recommend grabbing Variant Half-Elf - Dark Elf Racial Spells, as having a few extra spells in your pocket is always a good thing. Plus, Flavor Points is you build it as Redemption-Esc.

Beyond Lvl 4, I’d say solely level Paladin, and use ASIs to raise Charisma and Constitution. Grab the Great-Weapon Fighter and Sentinel Feats, and you’d be fine. Swap your Constitution and Dexterity, and don’t build your strength beyond 13, as it’s mostly there to get you to be able to wear your armor. Int is mostly unnecessary, and though it is nice, so is Dex, so place Wisdom over Dex in my eyes (Wisdom gets you Perception, Insight, and Survival - All good things). I’d say 13 10 16 14 10 16 would be a better line up, and place your Half-Elf bonuses in Charisma and Consitution.

Kind of along the lines I was thinking. It's just going that way makes me have to wait a long time for smite and extra attack. But if I level paladin first, I can't use charisma for greatsword. Which is my dilemma.

Kinda frustrating only because i don't really see this as being an op build but it as a big compromise because of that.

[Qbertt5681]

I don't see any issue to stop this character from being monoclass ancients paladin. Paladin's one of the best classes, and you won't regret getting the aura at level 7

Hey, I like ancients paladin. Only thing is I didn't envision him in heavy armor. Like I want him more dex based but with greatsword. The multiclass almost let's me. Plus the idea if a sentient sword, but I guess i could be flexible on that.

[Qbertt5681]

It depends on what you want, and where you're starting.

If the weapon is an actual, specific 2handed weapon, then, if you're:

starting at 1-2, then Paladin is probably your best bet.
starting at 3+, then Hexblade 3 then drop over to Paladin for smiting.


If the weapon is a Pact from the forest, and the shape doesn't matter, you can just start at level 1 Hexblade, with a one-handed weapon, which works with Hex Warrior. Then, once you reach level 3 in Hexblade, you can choose pact of the Blade and "the forest" changes it's gift to you as a 2-handed weapon.

Another option, if starting at 1 although it won't be optimized out of the gate, is Fighter 1 / Hexblade Warlock X. The story of your Character is the level 1 fighter who finds the blade, can use the GWF from the get-go. Then over the next several levels they connect with the blade more and more, culminating in the Hex Warrior SAD conversion at level 4 (1 Fighter / 3 Warlock).

Yea the idea that it could change form works. It does just seem like it will take a while to get rolling. I either have to delay my extra attack, or put more into Warlock than I was thinking of.

[Vogie]

Yea the idea that it could change form works. It does just seem like it will take a while to get rolling. I either have to delay my extra attack, or put more into Warlock than I was thinking of.

Extra attack requires 5 levels in either class. You had mentioned you wanted the Jump Invocation, which requires 9 levels in warlock, so I figured you would have gone down that road first. If you're okay with the sword changing, going straight up the Warlock tree would work, then moving over to paladin at 10... although you may want to keep going for the armor of Hexes at 10 and first Mythic Arcanum at 11

[Qbertt5681]

Curious how strong this would be. I've seen people suggest that the hex warrior features of medium armor proficiency and cha for attacks should be part of pact of the blade.

If DM was cool with it, how strong would a full Warlock pact of the blade with archfey patron be?

Figure he had lots of sources of advantage, like frighten, faeri fire, greater invisibility. So can use GWM. Only bummer is how few spell slots Warlock gets. Won't be able actually use eldrich smite much. But thematically I think it can for what I want as well.

Is it decent? Will he be competent in melee?

[KorvinStarmast]

Ancients Paladin covers this well.
Then go, when ready, ArchFey Warlock
or
Pact of the Blade warlock.
No need to go hex blade, you have all of those smites already from paladin levels. Or is the HexBlade hook the sword itself?

[KorvinStarmast]

The only issue with that, and one I'm having, is hex blade doesn't let you use cha for 2 handed weapons until you get pact of the blade at 3. Kinda kills my concept.
You can use a long sword versatile with it, can't you? (I am not near my books at the moment).

[Qbertt5681]

Ancients Paladin covers this well.
Then go, when ready, ArchFey Warlock
or
Pact of the Blade warlock.
No need to go hex blade, you have all of those smites already from paladin levels. Or is the HexBlade hook the sword itself?

The hook was the sword itself(and not needing str and cha), but I'm not married to it. Can just as easily say a fey creature saved me or something.

[Qbertt5681]

You can use a long sword versatile with it, can't you? (I am not near my books at the moment).

I can I think.

[clash]

There is also the Primeval Guardian from the Ranger UA http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/2017_01_UA_RangerRogue_0117JCMM.pdf

[Vogie]

Curious how strong this would be. I've seen people suggest that the hex warrior features of medium armor proficiency and cha for attacks should be part of pact of the blade.

If DM was cool with it, how strong would a full Warlock pact of the blade with archfey patron be?

Figure he had lots of sources of advantage, like frighten, faeri fire, greater invisibility. So can use GWM. Only bummer is how few spell slots Warlock gets. Won't be able actually use eldrich smite much. But thematically I think it can for what I want as well.

Is it decent? Will he be competent in melee?


Kind of - By RAW, Only Hexblade patron grants medium armor proficiency AND martial weapons, so with Archfey you'd have to rely on the Armor of Shadows/Mage Armor and simple weapons, being a dex-based melee fighter rather than a Cha-based one, which is fine, especially if you're going down a melee route for fighting styles later on. If you want to use all of the Great Weapon Master's active abilities, you have to use a heavy weapon, which normal warlocks don't have access to (simple weapons only), and longswords don't count for (as it isn't heavy).

Even if your DM handwaives the armor proficiency, martial weapons proficiency & Cha-based damage into all Bladepacts (which guts the hex warrior ability pretty much completely), I don't know if Archfey would work with the concept.

The Archfey's expanded spell list and abilities lean more towards social situations and crowd control, which is kind of the opposite of the "kill the interlopers" & "protect the forest" style you had described. Yes, you do get Faerie Fire & Greater Invisibility, but they may not be worth the use of a spell slot - Warlocks can opt for Invisibility at will later on, or One With Shadow's mini-invisibility at will, at level 5.

Raven Queen X, however, would certainly work for you. It's UA, it gives you a faux-miliar even if you're pact of the blade, which can attack with its itty bitty bite attack, and the abilities and expanded spell selection will augment a guerilla tactics style. Maybe it's a spirit of the forest, or whatever. By level 3, you get a faux-extra attacks through the Spiritual Weapon spell, so levels 5+ you will have two melee weapon attacks and 1 spiritual weapon attack, which is really cool and something only Conquest Paladins can do.

You'd still need to get some way to get martial weapon proficiency, whether that be DM fiat or a 1-level fighter or paladin dip.