Pretty different. As the paladin has the holy warrior built in, those features scale simultaneously. Besides losing out on those two aspects being interwoven with the Smites-feature, the main differences comes from the inconviences of adding those two features on top of each other with multiclassing.
At tier 1, it's okay (besides the fact that you can't start off with both aspects). Fighter 1-3/Cleric 1 will be pretty close to Paladin X both martially and magically. The two subclass-features are potentially both stronger than the Channel Divinity Paladin gets. Second Wind is a selfish Lay on Hands. At level 4 the paladin has an extra feat and spell slot. But neither really outperforms the other in terms of the holy warrior fantasy.
That stops being the case in Tier 2, where the multiclass stands as clumsiest compared to the Paladin. If you're going Fighter as a multiclass (and not just a 2-lvl dip) you really, really want Extra Attack. And at level 5, Fighter 4/Cleric 1 will really miss it. Going heavier into Cleric before reaching Fighter 5 will have you miss it even more - you're not comparable to the paladin as a lvl 5+ warrior without Extra Attack. But in addition to the extra attack, Paladin now also have second level spells. The multiclass starts tier 2 with a lot of catching up to do.
Lvl 6 brings the extra attack, but this only does so much to shorten the gap. The paladin now completes the trifecta it has of Spell-casting, Extra Attack and Aura of Protection - three of the strongest features in the game.
It's only a level 8 that this tier offers comparable spell-casting, with Fighter 5/Cleric 3 and Paladin 8 both at 2nd lvl spells. The next level paladins get 3rd level spells. At 8th level, they're ahead a feat, which favours their martial prowess.
So until level 10 (i.e. until the campaign has probably ended) you've largely either been either a fighter with one level dipped into Cleric, or you've been a less effective Holy Warrior than the Paladin. You're not smiting, nor are you projecting an Aura of Protection. At later levels, you can be a stronger caster than the monoclass Paladin (although the Paladin is happy to multiclass into a stronger focus on casting). Or level opportunistically towards whichever features of Fighter and Cleric you want the most.
In general, I'd say that if you want to be a holy warrior (and that term doesn't have iffy connotations for ya), things are generally favourable to the Paladin. However. The paladin has 9 published subclasses. Fighter has 10, and Cleric has an entire 14. Combining the two latter let's you get closer to a lot of different concepts than the former allows. If you just want to be a holy warrior, you should probably go Paladin. If you want to be a holy warrior that in combat projects images of herself, some as decoys and some to strike, or a holy warrior that has mastered both the creation of weapons and mastered battling with them in elegant techniques, or a holy warrior that... Well, a Cleric/Fighter might distinguish itself by how it brings that fantasy to the table.
A Paladin is a much more straightforward holy warrior.
That said I think this is really easy if you go Eldritch Knight Fighter. Then your spell casting will scale (albeit slowly)
If I am thinking of a Cleric that gets heavy armor I would start with Cleric for the Wisdom save, but if I am looking at one that doesn't get that I would start as a fighter. I would want to get to Fighter 5 pretty quick, so I would not take more than 1 cleric levell and then I would go 6 in Fighter. Level 6 is a good time to switch back to Cleric because you have 2ASIs and with 6 levels in fighter you will have 2 caster levels to add with your cleric levels. Level 7 would also give you warmagic and 2nd level wizard spells although I would probably wait on that.
As far as Cleric Subclass there are a lot of ways to go. Order is really good I think because of the 6th level ability. This comes late but it would let you use an enchantment spell and follow it up with an attack action. Light is really good defensively and gives you fireball. War is obviously a thematic choice. Tempest is good because of the defensive uses of wrath of the storm and also good with Eldritch Knight because you can use the thunder stuff when you use booming blade.
So, to answer you, it really depends on how you split the build of the paladin vs the fighter/cleric. Suppose if the mutliclass is a lvl 1-2 fighter with the rest into cleric. So, by lvl 8 I could have a fighter 1/cleric 7 who's got warcaster and CON save proficiency. That's a really long lasting spirit guardians that's super hard to knock out of concentration and easily would do better in mosh-pit situations than the paladin would and access to 4th lvl spells. You could even take advantage of the fact that fighter grants proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor to give those proficiencies to a cleric that lacks them as opposed to the ones that do, like taking arcana cleric instead of twilight. Hey, taking arcana cleric gives you access to a couple wizard cantrips, possibly GFB or BB, so even the lack of extra attack isn't as big a hindrance, especially with it's lvl 8 Potent Spellcasting feature.
By contrast, a lvl 5 fighter/3 cleric is just an inferior paladin. At that point, the fighter/cleric can't offer anything the paladin is already delivering, and is in fact missing crucial features like the aura of protection and smites. Now, fighter 6/cleric 4 versus a lvl 10 paladin has an extra feat/asi, and you could argue is offering something else, but again, it depends on what point of comparison you're wanting to look at. Are we looking at characters in tier 1? lvl 8 vs 9? end of a campaign at lvl 11? how they look entering tier 2?
Biggest difference between a Paladin and a Fighter/Cleric multiclass is Divine Smite which means the Paladin can make their crits hurt a lot more than the multiclass character.
Biggest difference between a Paladin and a Fighter/Cleric multiclass is Divine Smite which means the Paladin can make their crits hurt a lot more than the multiclass character.
True, but Fighter/Clerics get Divine/Blessed Strikes. Combo that with something like Spirit Guardians and Spiritual weapon and you get a pretty nice damage dealing potential.
Biggest difference between a Paladin and a Fighter/Cleric multiclass is Divine Smite which means the Paladin can make their crits hurt a lot more than the multiclass character.
True, but Fighter/Clerics get Divine/Blessed Strikes. Combo that with something like Spirit Guardians and Spiritual weapon and you get a pretty nice damage dealing potential.
So far the only thing Spirit Guardians has netted every time I’ve brushed it off in combat (literally only one casting of it on a divine soul sorcerer and two castings of it in the same combat on a twilight cleric) is an angry DM and then focus-fired all to hell until my concentration breaks. Meanwhile the paladin in the group does all the paladin things, including crazy destructive divine smites, and my DM is relatively chill about it all. YMMV but my DM HATES the holy blender, even more than twilight sanctuary! I’d go pally or plan on a different strategy for the fighter/cleric—it does not pay off in my game lol
Biggest difference between a Paladin and a Fighter/Cleric multiclass is Divine Smite which means the Paladin can make their crits hurt a lot more than the multiclass character.
True, but Fighter/Clerics get Divine/Blessed Strikes. Combo that with something like Spirit Guardians and Spiritual weapon and you get a pretty nice damage dealing potential.
So far the only thing Spirit Guardians has netted every time I’ve brushed it off in combat (literally only one casting of it on a divine soul sorcerer and two castings of it in the same combat on a twilight cleric) is an angry DM and then focus-fired all to hell until my concentration breaks. Meanwhile the paladin in the group does all the paladin things, including crazy destructive divine smites, and my DM is relatively chill about it all. YMMV but my DM HATES the holy blender, even more than twilight sanctuary! I’d go pally or plan on a different strategy for the fighter/cleric—it does not pay off in my game lol
A fighter War cleric build is a nice combination that has pretty good power at early levels....Fighter 1 for con save/ Cleric to two for War cleric...than fighter to 5. At 7th you are striking three times almost every turn with the big axe, using bless and Channel divinity to counter the -5 of GWM to get the extra +10 damage....And don't forget the shield spell from Eldritch Knight....Anything that allows the heavy armor and shield spell is strong.
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Paladin - a holy warrior that uses both fighting and divine magic
Cleric - divine spell caster
Fighter - basic warrior cut your face off type guy
How different is a Paladin from a Fighter multiclassing as a Cleric, or vice versa?
Pretty different. As the paladin has the holy warrior built in, those features scale simultaneously. Besides losing out on those two aspects being interwoven with the Smites-feature, the main differences comes from the inconviences of adding those two features on top of each other with multiclassing.
At tier 1, it's okay (besides the fact that you can't start off with both aspects). Fighter 1-3/Cleric 1 will be pretty close to Paladin X both martially and magically. The two subclass-features are potentially both stronger than the Channel Divinity Paladin gets. Second Wind is a selfish Lay on Hands. At level 4 the paladin has an extra feat and spell slot. But neither really outperforms the other in terms of the holy warrior fantasy.
That stops being the case in Tier 2, where the multiclass stands as clumsiest compared to the Paladin. If you're going Fighter as a multiclass (and not just a 2-lvl dip) you really, really want Extra Attack. And at level 5, Fighter 4/Cleric 1 will really miss it. Going heavier into Cleric before reaching Fighter 5 will have you miss it even more - you're not comparable to the paladin as a lvl 5+ warrior without Extra Attack. But in addition to the extra attack, Paladin now also have second level spells. The multiclass starts tier 2 with a lot of catching up to do.
Lvl 6 brings the extra attack, but this only does so much to shorten the gap. The paladin now completes the trifecta it has of Spell-casting, Extra Attack and Aura of Protection - three of the strongest features in the game.
It's only a level 8 that this tier offers comparable spell-casting, with Fighter 5/Cleric 3 and Paladin 8 both at 2nd lvl spells. The next level paladins get 3rd level spells. At 8th level, they're ahead a feat, which favours their martial prowess.
So until level 10 (i.e. until the campaign has probably ended) you've largely either been either a fighter with one level dipped into Cleric, or you've been a less effective Holy Warrior than the Paladin. You're not smiting, nor are you projecting an Aura of Protection. At later levels, you can be a stronger caster than the monoclass Paladin (although the Paladin is happy to multiclass into a stronger focus on casting). Or level opportunistically towards whichever features of Fighter and Cleric you want the most.
In general, I'd say that if you want to be a holy warrior (and that term doesn't have iffy connotations for ya), things are generally favourable to the Paladin. However. The paladin has 9 published subclasses. Fighter has 10, and Cleric has an entire 14. Combining the two latter let's you get closer to a lot of different concepts than the former allows. If you just want to be a holy warrior, you should probably go Paladin. If you want to be a holy warrior that in combat projects images of herself, some as decoys and some to strike, or a holy warrior that has mastered both the creation of weapons and mastered battling with them in elegant techniques, or a holy warrior that... Well, a Cleric/Fighter might distinguish itself by how it brings that fantasy to the table.
A Paladin is a much more straightforward holy warrior.
That said I think this is really easy if you go Eldritch Knight Fighter. Then your spell casting will scale (albeit slowly)
If I am thinking of a Cleric that gets heavy armor I would start with Cleric for the Wisdom save, but if I am looking at one that doesn't get that I would start as a fighter. I would want to get to Fighter 5 pretty quick, so I would not take more than 1 cleric levell and then I would go 6 in Fighter. Level 6 is a good time to switch back to Cleric because you have 2ASIs and with 6 levels in fighter you will have 2 caster levels to add with your cleric levels. Level 7 would also give you warmagic and 2nd level wizard spells although I would probably wait on that.
As far as Cleric Subclass there are a lot of ways to go. Order is really good I think because of the 6th level ability. This comes late but it would let you use an enchantment spell and follow it up with an attack action. Light is really good defensively and gives you fireball. War is obviously a thematic choice. Tempest is good because of the defensive uses of wrath of the storm and also good with Eldritch Knight because you can use the thunder stuff when you use booming blade.
I like exploring this topic.
So, to answer you, it really depends on how you split the build of the paladin vs the fighter/cleric. Suppose if the mutliclass is a lvl 1-2 fighter with the rest into cleric. So, by lvl 8 I could have a fighter 1/cleric 7 who's got warcaster and CON save proficiency. That's a really long lasting spirit guardians that's super hard to knock out of concentration and easily would do better in mosh-pit situations than the paladin would and access to 4th lvl spells. You could even take advantage of the fact that fighter grants proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor to give those proficiencies to a cleric that lacks them as opposed to the ones that do, like taking arcana cleric instead of twilight. Hey, taking arcana cleric gives you access to a couple wizard cantrips, possibly GFB or BB, so even the lack of extra attack isn't as big a hindrance, especially with it's lvl 8 Potent Spellcasting feature.
By contrast, a lvl 5 fighter/3 cleric is just an inferior paladin. At that point, the fighter/cleric can't offer anything the paladin is already delivering, and is in fact missing crucial features like the aura of protection and smites. Now, fighter 6/cleric 4 versus a lvl 10 paladin has an extra feat/asi, and you could argue is offering something else, but again, it depends on what point of comparison you're wanting to look at. Are we looking at characters in tier 1? lvl 8 vs 9? end of a campaign at lvl 11? how they look entering tier 2?
Biggest difference between a Paladin and a Fighter/Cleric multiclass is Divine Smite which means the Paladin can make their crits hurt a lot more than the multiclass character.
True, but Fighter/Clerics get Divine/Blessed Strikes. Combo that with something like Spirit Guardians and Spiritual weapon and you get a pretty nice damage dealing potential.
So far the only thing Spirit Guardians has netted every time I’ve brushed it off in combat (literally only one casting of it on a divine soul sorcerer and two castings of it in the same combat on a twilight cleric) is an angry DM and then focus-fired all to hell until my concentration breaks. Meanwhile the paladin in the group does all the paladin things, including crazy destructive divine smites, and my DM is relatively chill about it all. YMMV but my DM HATES the holy blender, even more than twilight sanctuary! I’d go pally or plan on a different strategy for the fighter/cleric—it does not pay off in my game lol
Which just shows how effective it is. B)
A fighter War cleric build is a nice combination that has pretty good power at early levels....Fighter 1 for con save/ Cleric to two for War cleric...than fighter to 5. At 7th you are striking three times almost every turn with the big axe, using bless and Channel divinity to counter the -5 of GWM to get the extra +10 damage....And don't forget the shield spell from Eldritch Knight....Anything that allows the heavy armor and shield spell is strong.