Unlimited Blade Works: The Guide to the Ultimate Paladin/Sorcerer Multiclass

[Storyteller_Arc]

Now that I think about it, I'd actually say that lucky is strictly better than resilient for the reasons I mentioned above (always assuming Warcaster and aura of protection in play).

That's actually pretty good reasoning and justification for it. I guess it comes down to what you would prefer when considering your first level feat, an element of defence and a safety shield that can help you throughout your entire career, or whenever or not you want to sacrifice some of your late-game/high-level defence potential, in order to give yourself a significant bump to your offensive capabilities at lower levels in order to help you get through the lower levels successfully to get to the higher levels.

After all, doesn't D&D typically follow the maxim that the best defence is a good offence?

Regarding what I said at the beginning of this post, about details of optimization, I think that if our human sorcadin (aura of protection, planning for Warcaster) is part of a large enough group (off the top of my head, I'd say 5 or more), not taking inspiring leader as the starting feat is a huge missed opportunity.

Assuming no one else like a Bard or Warlock is taking it instead. But well reasoned.

because gfb's secondary damage is easy to trigger

Eeeeeeeh... I'm honestly pretty sceptical of this claim. They have to be right next to each other, and I've found a lot of combat encounters when people end up spread out and without anyone but their opponent directly adjacent to them. Might just be because of my limited experiences in these campaigns, but I don't think that gfb is reliable as people claim it to be at times. Especially as we are talking about Fire Damage here, with is infamous in how many creatures resist or are outright immune to it.

Not to say it is unreliable, just that I don't think it is as reliable as people want to believe it is.

That is not correct. GWM on Devotion Paladin will do more than PAM because with Sacred Weapon they start with -2 instead of -5 when using GWM + Sacred Weapon.

Well, okay fine. Devotion Paladin can pick up Greater Weapon Master and swap the +2 Shield for massive damage potential. That's still only one type of Paladin. We still have Ancients, Crown and Conquest, possible Oathbreaker as well though I doubt that Oathbreaker is worth an actual discussion.

Vengeance Paladin will also start with Hunter's Mark. You will be most of your career, probably up to level 6-7 running with 16 STR because every Sorcadin and most Paladins focus on CHA increase as you can later get Ogre Gloves.

So with 16 STR, your PAM Paladin will deal every turn extra 1d4 + 3 dmg. That is on average 5.5 dmg.

Vengeance Paladin with Hunter's Mark and Sword n Shield will deal with his two attacks bonus damage of average 7. Sure there is also 2 vs 3 attacks, accuracy etc. But it's not THAT good as you make it be.

... Did, did you forget to add in the fact that a Vengeance Paladin gains Hunter's Mark's damage on the Polearm Master Attack? Because your calculations are pretty poor here.

STR 16 Paladin, going Oath of Vengeance at 3rd level for Hunter's Mark. Spear & Polearm Master vs Sword & IDK, Inspiring Leader.
Level's 1-2:
PAM: 1d6+3+1d4+3 = Average Damage is 12.
S&S: 1d8+3 = 7.5 Average Damage.
Sure, that's only a total increase of 4.5 damage. But this is level 1-2. HP is rarely above 20. That 4.5 damage is huge at this stage in the game.

Level's 3-4:
PAM: 2d6+3 + 1d4+1d6+3. Average Damage = 19
S&S: 1d8+1d6+3. Average Damage = 11.
And the difference jumped from 4.5 to 8. Which is a pretty significant boost to your DPR, and that difference only grows bigger if you get other stacking bonuses. Did you choose Dueling over Defence? +2 difference. Gone Oathbreaker, and hit level 7? Just got a +4-5 boon right there. Magic weapons? Sure that +1 doesn't mean much, but it does add up.

And then when you get to the higher levels, and you want to start throwing in Green-Flame Blade instead of just an attack Action? Well. If you're a Vengeance Paladin, for example, your quite likely to be looking at Haste. And did you know that Polearm Master's bonus action attack triggers off from Haste's Single Weapon Attack? It does count as an Attack Action after all. Meaning you can cast Green-Flame Blade, and still lash out with two different attacks chained together.

I think your underestimating how much of DPS increase PAM is.

If using RAW without Jeremy RAI

Aaaaaand there's going a lot of your argument as well. As it has been ruled that Shield Master's shove can only be used after your attacks, and not before it. So going with 'RAW' is argunig that its DM Fiat, which is very subjective.