Changing character class. Advice needed

[SkepticalSquid]

I'm currently playing a high elf warlock, and due to story reasons (the party will probably end up killing his patron at some point) he will cease to be a warlock. My DM has been talking to me about what class he will end up being after that, and has suggested Paladin. It seems like a cool idea, character wise, and is justified in story, but I'm unsure about it combat wise, as I'd originally imagined this character as a spellcaster. Also, it would likely cause some intra-party conflict due to his choice of god.

Anyways, I was wondering what you all would recommend as a choice for a future class for this character. Currently he's 5th level, with the stats strength 13, dexterity 15, constitution 15, intelligence 15, wisdom 10, and charisma 18. Any other information needed, I would be happy to share. Thanks in advance.

[Wildarm]

I'm currently playing a high elf warlock, and due to story reasons (the party will probably end up killing his patron at some point) he will cease to be a warlock. My DM has been talking to me about what class he will end up being after that, and has suggested Paladin. It seems like a cool idea, character wise, and is justified in story, but I'm unsure about it combat wise, as I'd originally imagined this character as a spellcaster. Also, it would likely cause some intra-party conflict due to his choice of god.

Anyways, I was wondering what you all would recommend as a choice for a future class for this character. Currently he's 5th level, with the stats strength 13, dexterity 15, constitution 15, intelligence 15, wisdom 10, and charisma 18. Any other information needed, I would be happy to share. Thanks in advance.

I'd fight for keeping a single level of hexblade warlock if possible to let you keep charisma as your attack stat. Call it residual power from when you were connected to your patron. Other than that, switching to Paladin should be fine with those stats.

[CTurbo]

What Patron/Pact?

[Man_Over_Game]

He absorbed his patron's powers, becoming part Paladin (using martial talent) and part Sorcerer (inherent magical talent).

It's hard to go wrong with subclasses in this combination, but Ancients Paladin/Wild Magic would be a fun combo for a caster that had magic that he's still learning to control, but has resistance against any magical mishaps that happen to work against him.

Paladin + Sorcerer is a strong combination of caster and martial, and you can mix and match it to be exactly how you want it (more Sorcerer means more cool combat tricks, more Paladin means more sustainability and HP).

[sithlordnergal]

Might I suggest Wild Magic Sorcerer? Mechanically you're still a full caster and have the benefits of being a full caster with a fun class.

Story wise, Wild Magic Sorcerers are pretty easy to justify. The DM could say that killing your patron caused a massive surge of magical energy that shoots through any Warlock with that being as their Patron. Said surge exposes them to raw magical energy, and the magic they use to be granted gets twisted into a chaotic force that manifests itself through Wild Magic Surges. You could even talk to your DM to re-flavor a few of the neutral effects on the chart. For example, if your Patron was a Cthulhu-esque being, you grow a mini tentacle beard instead of a feather beard.

[nickl_2000]

So, technically he doesn't cease to be a warlock if the patron dies.... but if it makes sense to change sure.


Thematically, sorcerer makes the most sense to me. It can easily be explained as the Patron taking advantage of a sorcerer bloodline and simply activated that bloodline instead of giving you a spark of their power. However, it's really a character personality thing than anything else. Is you character someone who it would makes sense that he is taking Paladin oaths, or would he be leery of that after having had a bad experience with a warlock pact?

[Tallytrev813]

I'd think Sorcerer or Bard (Glamour/Whispers maybe?).

[SkepticalSquid]

What Patron/Pact?

His patron is a Great Old One, pact of the tome.

I like the idea of him becoming a sorcerer as a result of exposure to magic in the final fight with his patron. Whether he would end up becoming a sorcerer/paladin multiclass really depends on what happens in game, I guess. But the magic exposure in the fight is cool, so I'll probably ask my DM about that. Right now we're exploring some magically-volatile mines and the DM indicated to me that if I want to move into being a sorcerer I should basically do something stupid in the mines to get exposed to magic there, but I sort of wavered, I wasn't certain if I wanted to take that path.

[Rukelnikov]

You can always remain Lock and just change patron...

However, I changed for story reasons from GOO to Celestial, and... I didn't really like it. Telepathy is just too good, the character was never the same, which I think is adecquate, after what he went thru, but, as a player, I just wasn't as invested after that.

Otherwise, just go Sorcerer, you know how Sorcs bloodlines are sometimes explained by "an ancestor of yours did a pact with X and his descendants got magic blood"? Well, you are that ancestor, you didn't have magic in your blood originally, but after the ordeal, having the GOOs power in you for so long awakened magic in you. Shadow and Wild are likely the most fitting bloodlines.

[Man_Over_Game]

Another option is that you keep some of the powers of being a GOO Warlock (maybe 1-2 levels?) and the rest of your levels go into being a Paladin, for destroying your Patron for a certain cause.

How you follow the tenets is really open ended. Some treat them as laws, but you could simply treat them as a requirement.

That is, some say that in order to be an Ancients Paladin, you must constantly fight for passion and beauty. But why can't you just fight for passion and beauty, just because its in your nature, and be rewarded for being so?

[nickl_2000]

Another option is that you keep some of the powers of being a GOO Warlock (maybe 1-2 levels?) and the rest of your levels go into being a Paladin, for destroying your Patron for a certain cause.

How you follow the tenets is really open ended. Some treat them as laws, but you could simply treat them as a requirement.

That is, some say that in order to be an Ancients Paladin, you must constantly fight for passion and beauty. But why can't you just fight for passion and beauty, just because its in your nature, and be rewarded for being so?

From an optimization stand point I get it, but if someone hated the pact so much they fought and killed their patron why would they immediately enter into a new pact? Wouldn't they be a little worried about being burned again?

[Rukelnikov]

From an optimization stand point I get it, but if someone hated the pact so much they fought and killed their patron why would they immediately enter into a new pact? Wouldn't they be a little worried about being burned again?

We lack a lot of context. Maybe hes not fighting his patron out of spite but power hunger

[Man_Over_Game]

From an optimization stand point I get it, but if someone hated the pact so much they fought and killed their patron why would they immediately enter into a new pact? Wouldn't they be a little worried about being burned again?

It's not a new pact. Nothing about the Warlock says you have to have an ongoing Patron to maintain those powers. You could have already have done the deed and been paid for the powers you now have. Or the powers could be something that weren't severed from your connection.

It'd make sense for a 5th level Warlock to only keep 2 levels of Warlock if the Patron was slain. Maybe part of it was energy he absorbed from the Patron. Maybe the mutations that created those powers within him are permanent. Maybe it was so much power that not all of it could have been drained from him after slaying the Patron. There's a lot of options that don't include signing another pact.

I don't necessarily mean signing a pact by joining an Oath or anything. I just mean that it's entirely plausible that someone can accidentally join a Paladin Oath. We always assume it's a conscious choice, that someone chooses to travel down the path of becoming a Paladin, but why can't someone be chosen? Certainly slaying a Warlock Patron is something worth noting, and it might be enough of a dramatic event to draw the attention of some greater powers.

[SkepticalSquid]

We lack a lot of context. Maybe hes not fighting his patron out of spite but power hunger

No, he hates his current patron. He sort of got slurped into a pact against his will when he was the equivalent of 12 years old, and has spent his life from that point on trying his best to hide from his patron, living in the forest making conspiracy theories. I have no idea what my DM is planning by way of terms of the pact, and neither does the character.

[Galithar]

You don't need a patron to have powers. Unless you WANT to change class you shouldn't have to. You made the deal, you got your reward. The power is RAW yours now. Warlocks can't 'fall' and lose their abilites. And you seem a bit reluctant to change classes to be. It's going to drastically change your character to suddenly have none of your abilities from before, but have a whole new set of unrelated powers. For me, I would almost instantly lose interest in the character, but I build my characters with very specific capabilites in mind.

The only narrative justification I see for stripping your powers is if they are actually directly provided by the patron. In that case, for the fight against the patron, you should immediately lose all class levels and essentially be a commoner. Why would your patron provide powers to you while you're trying to kill them?

[EdenIndustries]

From an optimization stand point I get it, but if someone hated the pact so much they fought and killed their patron why would they immediately enter into a new pact? Wouldn't they be a little worried about being burned again?

The Forgotten Realms series Abolethic Sovereignty has a Warlock as one of the main characters that hates his Fey patron and eventually switches to what would be a Great Old One in 5e parlance when he's finally able to break his pact, partially out of a need for power after his Fey-pact powers were stripped after breaking his pact. Anyway, it's pretty interesting and provides at least one example of why someone hated their pact and their patron but still immediately enters into a new pact following the dissolution of their original pact.