Help me pick

[carrdrivesyou]

I'll be starting a new campaign soon, and I'd like to run either a celestial warlock or an ancients paladin. Thoughts?

[Particle_Man]

What does the rest of the party look like? What do you want to do with the character? Is multiclassing to take both an option for you?

[Finback]

Particle_Man hits the nail on the head - what sort of campaign is it? Classic dungeon crawl, OotA, urban intrigue?

(Vengadin/cellock was my first 5e PC, and it was a lot of fun. He got so angry he should shoot lasers from his eyes.)

[carrdrivesyou]

It's for CoS, but I have no idea what the other party members are gonna be. I was thinking of a charitable Noble type to offset the gloomy atmosphere.

[nickl_2000]

So, in CoS both would be pretty powerful and useful. So, I would create both and bring them to the zero session. If you find you love the backstory or mechanics of one over another as you are creating it go with that one. If not, go with whatever fits the party better.

[Man_Over_Game]

It's for CoS, but I have no idea what the other party members are gonna be. I was thinking of a charitable Noble type to offset the gloomy atmosphere.

A Celestial Warlock solves a lot of concerns regarding utility and out-of-combat scenarios. It's a multitool, healing and helping the entire team, all of the time. The bonuses to radiant damage will help a lot. The weakness is that the Celestial doesn't have many strong options in combat to deal damage with.

The Ancients Paladin is designed around being hard to kill. It acts as a giant shield between the allies and the thing that's trying to kill them. The weakness is that the Ancients Paladin is somewhat dull in combat, often relying on the same tactics for every fight.

I'd probably resort to using the Paladin, because a group of melee combatants is a lot more playable than a group of ranged casters, especially since more players like to play ranged characters than melee ones. When you don't know what your team looks like, default to melee.

[carrdrivesyou]

A Celestial Warlock solves a lot of concerns regarding utility and out-of-combat scenarios. It's a multitool, healing and helping the entire team, all of the time. The bonuses to radiant damage will help a lot. The weakness is that the Celestial doesn't have many strong options in combat to deal damage with.

The Ancients Paladin is designed around being hard to kill. It acts as a giant shield between the allies and the thing that's trying to kill them. The weakness is that the Ancients Paladin is somewhat dull in combat, often relying on the same tactics for every fight.

I'd probably resort to using the Paladin, because a group of melee combatants is a lot more playable than a group of ranged casters, especially since more players like to play ranged characters than melee ones. When you don't know what your team looks like, default to melee.

I was teetering between ancients and vengeance. Ancients fits my halfling idea better, but i think i'm going to go with the warlock for now, and if nobody decides on a melee character, i'll swap.

Thanks for the help guys/gals!

[Vogie]

... Why not both? Pick up a level in Celestial Warlock after your first 2 levels of paladin, then make your decision from there. The pair of classes is quite complementary, and the Ancient to which you have an oath towards, and Celestial Patron, are the same being. It gives the normally melee-only paladin the Sacred Flame Cantrip & Guiding Bolt for a ranged attack, and the melee Lay on Hands ability is augmented by the ranged Healing light die.

I'd go Paladin 1-2 / Warlock 1 / Paladin 3-7 / Warlock 2-3 for the first 10 levels.

That leans solidly on the paladin frame, but with a single level 1 spell slot that can refresh on a short rest (until after level 8), which only delays extra attack by a single level.