Cleric/Paladin multiclass

[J-H]

Seems like a lot of trouble for a npc you can just make it what you need it to be however easiest.

I could, but I'll be handing them his (simplified) character sheet for combat, so I'd rather keep it at least appearing to follow the rules.

At the risk of taking this thread a bit off the rails, what are the forum's thoughts on allowing the Paly to be Wis based, then going with a multi-class that starts with 6 levels of Paly then goes Cleric the rest of the way? Our other DM and I were chatting about this the other day and our first thought was that it would be roughly in balance with the Charisma based Sorcerer option, so it seemed to open up choice while not being OP.

You'd be trading the stronger spells and metamagic benefits of Sorc for a stronger save stat in Wis, so I can't see any reason to dis-allow it if a player wanted to go that way.
Anything I'm missing?

Expect them to be just as powerful as a Sorcadin. Less blasting, but more healing and self-buffing. Circle of Power is a 5th-level Paladin spell that is quite a gem in long boss fights. Everyone has advantage on saves vs spells and "other magical effects" (so basically everything you save against that's not a physical attack), and save-for-half becomes save-for-none. I'd rather have it up than AMF in terms of no-selling a caster or lich... especially when combined with Resilient:Con to keep it up.

I don't know BG, but he doesn't sound like he's got much WIS (especially early) - maybe keep that stat low-ish. You can still be effective as a cleric w/ a crap spell attack / save. Then you can put more resources in CHA / ST / CON as fits his character and arc.

As an NPC, how optimized do you want him to be? At what levels do you expect him to participate? His power progression will be very slow, but he's an NPC so that's probably desirable (and the DM can always choose to gift him a belt of giant ST or other boon if he needs a bit of a boost).

I'd assume he's mostly story and secondarily a combat asset mechanically.

I don't mind a slower spell power progression. He's really more of a "hits things with his weapon, but is also a cleric" type character, and I think this supports it. War Cleric gives him that second weapon attack, which is useful if he has a good magic weapon, and at very high levels (Paladin Extra Attack) lets him feel almost like he's got a bit of Fighter for 3 attacks/rd... which fits the feel.

I think I'm happy on this one.