Triton Paladin Oath Of Vengeance/Warlock Lurker in the Deep Multiclass

[.::Pr0 n00b::.]

Hello everyone im makeing a Triton Paladin

My Backstory is that he is a Noble Triton from a great house who guards the depths of the ocean. He is the captain of a squad that protect the western part of the ocean. In the squad there is his sister who is a cleric of persana. His sister is known to be beautiful even some people on the land have heard of her. So a wizard who is interested in his sister travels in the ocean with his mercenaries to try and take her but they couldnt do it so he decided to freeze her inside a Ice Prison. My character wants to pursue the wizard and find out how to free her sister but the tritons tell him that their duty is to protect the ocean from monsters and if he goes he will be banished. So ofc he goes so he can help his sister. He goes to Persana and he gives him his powers (Oath of Vengeance Paladin) so he travels on the land for the next decades trying to find the wizard so he can tell him how to break the spell.

So i saw the UA Lurker in the Deep Warlock and it has some nice spells and a feature that lets you summon a spectral tentancle. Kinda like the flavour it brings like Persana is helping him by summoning the ocean creatures to his side even in spectral form. What do you think the best Level spread is for this multiclass.

We are starting at lvl 1 and my stats are

STR 18
DEX 9
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 18

I know i need atleast first 5 lvl of paladin but after that i dont know how to continue

[Keravath]

It sounds like an interesting back story as long as the DM is onside with it.

As for building your character, I would suggest level 6 paladin at least since the aura for saving throws is a boon to both the paladin and their companions.

You would probably want at least a couple of levels of warlock which will give you some sort rest spell slots and a couple of invocations. With a Dex of 9, you will have difficulty with ranged attacks except perhaps a javelin which has a normal range of 30'. Warlock adds agonizing eldritch blast as a good option for ranged attacks. What invocations you pick would be up to you but I personally like devils sight and agonizing blast most of the time since devils sight lets you see perfectly in the dark while darkvision lets you see but all your visual perception checks have disadvantage. However, if you already have darkvision and don't really care about seeing better, there are a lot of good options for the second invocation.

Depending on what sort of paladin you want to play you can either stop at 6, go to 7 for the seventh level archetype ability depending on whether it seems useful to you (vengeance isn't that great in my opinion) ... or take paladin to level 11 for improved divine smite. IDS adds a d8 of radiant damage to every paladin attack and is quite useful. There are also various other useful paladin features like the aura of courage at level 10. If you combine IDS with taking the polearm master feat somewhere along the way, the paladin will have three attacks at level 11, each adding a d8 of damage. Use a spear or quarterstaff with a shield and you can use the polearm master abilities without sacrificing armor class. However, this does require using an ASI for the polearm master feat ... on the other hand, your stats are good enough that you can afford to do that.

After 11 paladin/2 warlock you have lots of choices ... 11 paladin/9 warlock is one option but misses out on higher level paladin spells - however, you pick up level 5 short rest spell slots and several invocations. 11 paladin/ 2 warlock/9 sorcerer will give you more long rest spell slots for smiting. more cantrips and access to meta magic (so you could quicken a spell on the first round without losing your attack action for example).

Anyway, long term development depends on how you see the character growing and how the character interacts with the events in the game. I'd start with paladin 6 though unless you think the warlock aspect is important to your character development in which case you could go 3 paladin/2 warlock but that will make levels 5,6 a bit more difficult since you won't get extra attack until level 7.

[.::Pr0 n00b::.]

It sounds like an interesting back story as long as the DM is onside with it.

As for building your character, I would suggest level 6 paladin at least since the aura for saving throws is a boon to both the paladin and their companions.

You would probably want at least a couple of levels of warlock which will give you some sort rest spell slots and a couple of invocations. With a Dex of 9, you will have difficulty with ranged attacks except perhaps a javelin which has a normal range of 30'. Warlock adds agonizing eldritch blast as a good option for ranged attacks. What invocations you pick would be up to you but I personally like devils sight and agonizing blast most of the time since devils sight lets you see perfectly in the dark while darkvision lets you see but all your visual perception checks have disadvantage. However, if you already have darkvision and don't really care about seeing better, there are a lot of good options for the second invocation.

Depending on what sort of paladin you want to play you can either stop at 6, go to 7 for the seventh level archetype ability depending on whether it seems useful to you (vengeance isn't that great in my opinion) ... or take paladin to level 11 for improved divine smite. IDS adds a d8 of radiant damage to every paladin attack and is quite useful. There are also various other useful paladin features like the aura of courage at level 10. If you combine IDS with taking the polearm master feat somewhere along the way, the paladin will have three attacks at level 11, each adding a d8 of damage. Use a spear or quarterstaff with a shield and you can use the polearm master abilities without sacrificing armor class. However, this does require using an ASI for the polearm master feat ... on the other hand, your stats are good enough that you can afford to do that.

After 11 paladin/2 warlock you have lots of choices ... 11 paladin/9 warlock is one option but misses out on higher level paladin spells - however, you pick up level 5 short rest spell slots and several invocations. 11 paladin/ 2 warlock/9 sorcerer will give you more long rest spell slots for smiting. more cantrips and access to meta magic (so you could quicken a spell on the first round without losing your attack action for example).

Anyway, long term development depends on how you see the character growing and how the character interacts with the events in the game. I'd start with paladin 6 though unless you think the warlock aspect is important to your character development in which case you could go 3 paladin/2 warlock but that will make levels 5,6 a bit more difficult since you won't get extra attack until level 7.

Yeah my DM told me the backstory is fine and even told me that maybe the key to opening the spell is a magic item that i get after finding the wizard. Plus Triton on land and not trusting much of the humans (because the wizard was a human) makes for an interesting party dinamic.

Yeah now when you say it i def need paladin to lvl because of the aura. I want him to be more of a Melee fighter but with a greater sense of magic. Because his family are closely tied to Persana and always one of the members becomes a cleric in his name. Plus Devils sight really benefits me because Tritons for some reason dont have darkvision. Btw does a Trident work as a polearm ? i see your points with spear so i dont lose the shield which is smart.

Edit: Mainly i want the warlock for RP reasons even though it has mechanical benefits. Especially RP reason is the spectral tentacles and some of the water based spells that you get. I want to RP that Persana is helping my triton because he lost one of his Clerics and does not appreciate when someone messes with his companions

[Warlush]

Going lvl 3 for pact of the tomb can go a long way for role play. Having thematic rituals,(cleric) can make you're Paladin feel way more magical and spiritual. Not to mention a suite of any flavor cantrips. It does require more Warlock levels for higher level rituals though.

[CTurbo]

Story wise, when/why/how will you form a pact with your patron? Is Persana going to be your patron too?

[.::Pr0 n00b::.]

Story wise, when/why/how will you form a pact with your patron? Is Persana going to be your patron too?

Yes, at first he will just give me powers (paladin) so i could be strong enough to find the way to free my sister (also vengeance is kinda thematic because even though Tritons are almost always Lawful good mine is chaotic because he will probably do anything if its gonna help). The Warlock side is more like Persana is in a way spiritual with me on the journey because he did lose one of his clerics, a cleric from a family that has for generations made the best servants. The spells and features like the tentacles are more like an extention from him helping me than me selling my soul for power if it makes sense.