SorLockAdinOptimization Help please!

[Edern]

Hi! So I’ve been creating a backup character as a SorcLockAdin because it currently feels like only a single person in my party of 5 has consistent decent nova damage making fights tougher than they need to be and incase my Wizard ever croaks I’d like for my next character to help out in that niche.

My party comp of 5:
Barbarian, BardLock, Bladesong Wizard, Shepherd Druid and finally my Evocation Wizard which will be replaced.

Stat rolls:
17, 16, 15, 15, 13, 7

Level 7 Conquest Paladin with a level 1 dip in Hexblade and in Divine Soul Sorcerer currently (Level 9 total)

Half Elf, with one feat so far (from Paladin ASI):
War Caster because Sword n Board, planning on grabbing Elven Accuracy next

After all the bonuses my stats come out to this:
13 STR, 16 DEX, 16 CON, 7 INT, 16 WIS, 20 CHA

Now I was wondering where to go from here. Do I need both those feats or should I swap one out to get 20 CHA instead of Resilient?
Should I stay with Sword n Shield or should I aim for a Polearm and a level 3 dip in Hexblade dropping Warcaster along the way so I can grab Sentinel and Polearm Master?
Another option I was looking at was dropping Half Elf and taking Variant Human for the extra feat, however Dark Vision is a MUST in this campaign.
I’ve also considered dropping Conquest Paladin in favour of Ancients but I’m not quite sure yet, I’d love to hear everyones opinions on this.

TL;DR: Half Elf or V.Human? Polearm or Sword n Board? Hexblade 1 or 3? Ancients or Conquest? Are the feats okay or should I change them?
If Hexblade to 3, should I do that first or get Sorc to 4?

I’m not really sure what to do here and all of these options sound good, but the optimizer in me wants to not regret my decision. Any and all help for this would be very, very, very much appreciated!! Thank you so much!

[Snowbluff]

Decisions decisions.

I'd go with SB if you're only taking paladin to 6. This is a strong defensive combination, and when in doubt you can get your bonus action to do damage with Spiritual Weapon (on the conquest or cleric list).

Going polearm master is best when you have paladin 11, meaning you have 3 procs of Improved Divine Smite. However, you can literally do both with a spear or quarterstaff. The only upside to not using a shield then would basically be GWM.

Take Hexblade to at least 2. Getting Agonizing Blast will help with the pain of fighting at range as a paladin. Alternative, learn to live with Firebolt and take Hexblade to 1.

Go Helf. Dark Vision and Charm resistance never go out of style.

Controversial opinion, but the best oath for Cha sad is probably Devotion, since they can add Cha to attacks again. However, this ability is a standard action to activate. Conquestion is best for some of the spells, IMO. However, you can already get what I think is a big ticket spell, SPiritual weapon, from Divine Sorc.

Important Spell: Haste. This is a really good spell for a melee character. This will be your go-to unless you need a lot of AoE, in which case I say Spirit Guardians (which also has a very long duration). Both of these require sorcerer 5.

[Edern]

I'd go with SB if you're only taking paladin to 6.

Will be taking Paladin to 7 for Aura of Conquest!

[PeteNutButter]

The thing about Conquest Paladin [especially] is it's really tough to bail on it at any given level. If you leave it at 7, you're dipping one level before an ASI. If you leave it at 8, you're dipping 1 level before 3rd level spells (FEAR!). Obviously 11 is improved divine smite.

You might be best going Pure paladin to 11. At paladin 9, you can cast fear, and lock down enemies and just murder them. If they fail that first save, that's it. You have a minute where all they can do is cower. It encourages maxing cha first anyways, so you can always dip hexblade later.

[Fryy]

I’m not really sure what to do here and all of these options sound good, but the optimizer in me wants to not regret my decision. Any and all help for this would be very, very, very much appreciated!! Thank you so much!

One more vote for Sword & Board.

If you dont want regrets later and don't know which direction you want to go yet then... I would suggest to max CHA and Hold Off on locking yourself into Polearm Master and 3 levels of Warlock.

I look forward to seeing which way you go with it.

[Nhorianscum]

Evocation wizard already has a pretty good nova.

Magic missile at 5th level = 7 (2.5+6) or 59.5. Animate Objects is hitting for 45/round so we need to beat 104.5 DPR on a nova to consider our sorclockadin an upgrade. This is pretty close to our local GWM users nova. A stronger version of this is spammable every fight with wands of magic missile (cheap and easy to make).

Edit: As the express purpose of the character is nova damage if you go Sorcadin aim for CQ7/Sorc 13. With a 3 level Hexblade dip you're delaying nova potential until CL 13 and you're still swinging with a +4 modifier until CL 14. With hex 1 S&B you have less nova damage fewer times a day than your wizard would at 10. With Sorc 3/Paladin 6 and GWM our nova at 9 is 124.5 making this a potentially viable increase in nova potential.

Except not really because MM autohits

[Edern]

Evocation wizard already has a pretty good nova.

Magic missile at 5th level = 7 (2.5+6) or 59.5. Animate Objects is hitting for 45/round so we need to beat 104.5 DPR on a nova to consider our sorclockadin an upgrade. This is pretty close to our local GWM users nova. A stronger version of this is spammable every fight with wands of magic missile (cheap and easy to make).

Edit: As the express purpose of the character is nova damage if you go Sorcadin aim for CQ7/Sorc 13. With a 3 level Hexblade dip you're delaying nova potential until CL 13 and you're still swinging with a +4 modifier until CL 14. With hex 1 S&B you have less nova damage fewer times a day than your wizard would at 10. With Sorc 3/Paladin 6 and GWM our nova at 9 is 124.5 making this a potentially viable increase in nova potential.

Except not really because MM autohits

We're not level 10 yet therefore I don't have Empowered Evocation.
Also this is a backup character incase the Wizard dies, Sorcadin also has the added benefit of being a lot tankier and frontliney than a Wizard, and while we're on that topic, our DM is pretty smart and would introduce Monsters/Humanoids that have AoE. Counterspell doesn't work 100% of the time and only has a range of 60 feet AND can be counterspelled back so having a single fireball potentially destroy my Nova until a short rest is pretty disheartening.

Thank you for your input though!

[Nhorianscum]

We're not level 10 yet therefore I don't have Empowered Evocation.
Also this is a backup character incase the Wizard dies, Sorcadin also has the added benefit of being a lot tankier and frontliney than a Wizard, and while we're on that topic, our DM is pretty smart and would introduce Monsters/Humanoids that have AoE. Counterspell doesn't work 100% of the time and only has a range of 60 feet AND can be counterspelled back so having a single fireball potentially destroy my Nova until a short rest is pretty disheartening.

Thank you for your input though!

Ah, figured you were just dumpstering the wiz glad to know the CQadin is the backup, still this argument confuses me in terms of ye old "DM obviously metagaming"

Worth mentioning, medium objects deal 40/round and have enough HP to not die to the average roll of a 5th level fireball or cone of cold.

A more likely scenario would be enemies resistant to silvered/adamintine non-magical P/B/S damage (short list) which does cut animate's output in half (about the same result as a fireball on tiny objects without a wasted action and spell).