What to do with my 6th lvl

[Bnewby724@gmail]

I'm playing a Oath of the Ancients paladin we just leveled up. I'm unsure where I want to put my 6th. I plan on making a fey pact and taking some warlock lvls. I'm not sure which one I will focus on more, but my dilemma is if I should wait for lvl 7 paladin to get aura of ward asap. Or take my first lock lvl for fun and flavor.

My back story is that my dwarf ancestors left the mines and forges. Because an arch fey offered to show them a new way of life, since then they have cultivated and protected her grove.

[Galadhrim]

I'm playing a Oath of the Ancients paladin we just leveled up. I'm unsure where I want to put my 6th. I plan on making a fey pact and taking some warlock lvls. I'm not sure which one I will focus on more, but my dilemma is if I should wait for lvl 7 paladin to get aura of ward asap. Or take my first lock lvl for fun and flavor.

For me, the way you stated your question makes it easy to answer? You should do what is fun and flavorful. It sounds like for you that is taking the fey pact asap. It may not be completely optimal, but...so what.

Aura of warding will be powerful for you whenever you get to it.

[Quoz]

As stated above, do what you want for a RP perspective. If you're looking for mechanical optimization paladin 6 and 7 are about as good as it gets. Your paladin aura is one of the best defensive features out there, adding your Cha bonus to all saves for you and any nearby friends at 6 and resistance to all spell damage at 7. If you've got a good Cha score that can be better than proficiency.

Paladin and warlock mesh very well together. Paladin provides divine smite and low level spell slots for spells a lot of warlocks cant indulge in because of their low number of spells per rest. Warlock gives short rest spell slots for higher level smites and invocations for whatever build you want. Most builds will be Paladin 2 for divine smite or Paladin 6 for your Aura. Its just hard to justify jumping out right before such a powerful feature.

[CTurbo]

I need to ask yourself if it's worth sacrificing mechanics for flavor, because if it is, then you need to take the Warlock levels asap.

Mechanically speaking, you certainly don't want to multiclass before level 7 and I could even argue that every "next" Paladin level would be superior to taking any Warlock levels. Level 8 is ASI/feat which is huge for Paladins, level 9 are 3rd level spells which are strong, level 10 is immunity to Charm, level 11 is Improved Divine Smite, etc...

IMO, Paladins are the one class that benefit the least from multiclassing despite all the other Cha based classes and synergy with them. A pure class Paladin will always be superior, mechanically, to any and all possible multiclass options, but I guess that's an argument for another day.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sacrificing mechanics for flavor sometimes. If taking some Warlock levels are necessary to fit the character concept then that's great. I'd do it now and get the over with.