On Multiclassing a Kalashtar Fighter

[Waifu Collector]

I’m playing a Fighter who is a Kalashtar in a post-apocalyptic world. Basically the whole world was nuked into the medieval age with remnants of advanced tech here and there. My Quori spirit is an ancestor of mine who is a legendary warrior from over a thousand years ago.

I really wanted to play a Cavalier and so I did, but I also want to reflect the psychic powers/spiritual ability Kalashtar have in my combat. I was thinking about doing one of two things.

1. Multiclass into cleric for Spirit Guardians, probably do either War or Forge Domain, or possibly even Arcana, Tempest, or Light Domain.
2. Multiclass into Ancestral Guardian Barbarian. Since my character typically charges head first into combat with reckless abandon, it would be a good thematic fit. Not to mention all the abilities work perfect for the flavor, I just don’t like barbarian too much as a class.

What do you all think, 1 or 2? Or perhaps something different entirely?

In case you’re wondering, I would like to mix optimization with flavor here, not one over the other.

Edit: I’m level 6 btw, and I just grabbed Great Weapon Master

[lunaticfringe]

I personally think Sorcerers make the best Psionic stand ins.

Mage Hand, Message, Shield, Feather fall, Catapult, Levitate, Detect Thoughts, etc can all be picked up without going deep into sorcerer levels.

[Man_Over_Game]

The devs have confirmed that flavor is fluid in 5e. Just because Ancestral Guardians says "spirits" doesn't mean it actually has to be spirits. The same is also true of the Cavalier Mark. You're not "naturally talented" riding a horse, that's you actually reading its surface thoughts to guide it. That's not a "mark" you're hitting your enemies with, that's a psychic brand that's forcing them to be too distracted to hit anyone but you. If you notice, Ancestral Guardians and Cavalier has almost the exact same "mark" concept, so you could easily reflavor your Cavalier abilities to match.

lunaticfringe is onto something, suggesting Sorcerer as a good solution.

Alternatively, Warlock can also suit, considering you get things like one-way telepathy at level 1, being able to gain the perceptions of a willing humanoid for as long as you focus, and Feign Death. You can get quite a few options for RP, and abilities to increase your own survival.

With Cleric, I'd recommend Knowledge over everything else. The spells you get, including things like Object Reading, Identify, Speak with Dead, etc., are all things that aren't redundant with the Cavalier. The issue with being a Str-based Fighter is that spells are going to get in the way of your attacks, Concentration doesn't do well when being hit, and you aren't going to get any new armor/weapon proficiencies, so the only things you're generally going to benefit from by multiclassing into a caster are utility effects or defensive abilities.

[sambojin]

2-3 levels of Spore Druid isn't terrible, especially if your DM graciously lets you change the weapon damage to anything that isn't poison (force or psychic would be a perfect fit, but maybe OP. Basically anything not poison is good).

Reaction based necrotic damage showing your psychic defender side, a bit of extra poison (or even just?...) weapon damage and temp HP when you spore-shape for "super psychic fighter" stuff, very "spiritual" spells that can just be psionic powers (it's worth 3 levels for lvl2 spells off the druid list and your circle spells), and even actual mini-wildshape for utility/clan of the *whatever* Kalashtar stuff (read: telepathy abuse).

Sorcerer or Warlock is probably better/more optimized, but Spore Druid isn't bad persay. Oh, ignore the no-metal-armour thing if you have to. That's just silly for a fighter.

[Nhorianscum]

Assuming cleric was chosen because you have the stats for that multiclass I would recommend knowledge, or order cleric depending on what sort or psionics you want to emulate. Arcana is another option to get telekinetic ish cantrips on the cleric chassis.

Alternately the circle of twilight fits the flavor of your world to a T.

Gonna echo the above, if you have the Cha for it sorcerer is absolutely the not-psionic of choice.