new to d&d and looking to try something out of the box different with a paladin, played many computer games over the years as paladin covering tank, healing and damage dealer.
with the small group that is about to start am being partially forced down the route of being able to take a hit, as the other 2 players are going to be full warlock and mage classes.
having a hex blade sounds interesting and different, but instead of being a 2h, my thoughts think, should I be using sword and shield but possibly in the same hex blade style.
any thoughts on this? Could I potentially 2h and still soak damage with other spells like shadow armour etc. Or would I need to be sword/shield to be more viable with just lock and mage companions.
p.s I don’t do things the easy way, I was originally wanting to do an oath breaker but that’s seems to be overly complex for first time, I also know multiclassing straight out might be making life harder lol.
Multiclassing is one of those things that while yes, you can make mistakes, isn't actually that bad with a vague idea of what your doing. Paladins do make excellent support characters though being able to get high ac, give bonuses to saves, and have healing spells. The warlock multiclass is a classic, though starting as paladin is the better idea. If you wanted to go more into the whole healing support stuff I would take oath of the ancients or maybe oath of heroism. The 1-2 level dip into warlock early is a decent idea just so you can scale your melee with charisma, and then just going straight paladin for awhile, maybe to level 6-8 depending on the oath you choose. Shields are generally a better choice than a great sword for a few reasons, fighting style dueling pumps your one handed damage up to be quite comparable, and the shield mathematically gives you a +10% chance to dodge any hits. You can also always use the sword hand instead for eldritch blasting, or grab warcaster/magic item to let you cast with two hands full.
Hexadin is tried and true. The one way you can mess this up is if you play by the rules and mistake V,S,M spellcasting requirements with V,S with sword and shield. Without warcaster, V/S spells will make you have a hand open.
V only is almost always good (outside of mute/silence)
VS is tricky because you need to have a free hand to doodle
VSM is ok with both hands full and holy emblem pounded onto your shield
Why rules? heck... magic i guess. Though it does make sense you gotta sheath your sword to cast cure wounds on someone, or some other things like a free hand to grapple...
Hexadin is tried and true. The one way you can mess this up is if you play by the rules and mistake V,S,M spellcasting requirements with V,S with sword and shield. Without warcaster, V/S spells will make you have a hand open.
V only is almost always good (outside of mute/silence)
VS is tricky because you need to have a free hand to doodle
VSM is ok with both hands full and holy emblem pounded onto your shield
Why rules? heck... magic i guess. Though it does make sense you gotta sheath your sword to cast cure wounds on someone, or some other things like a free hand to grapple...
Considering that dropping a weapon is a free action and picking up a weapon to wield is your "interact with an object" action (not a full action), then you don't even need Warcaster to cast spells with both of your hands being full. Is it a bit silly to be dropping your weapon and picking it up every time you cast a spell? Sure, but it's within the boundaries of the rules.
If you're using a 2H weapon like a greatsword it's even less silly because all you have to do is take one hand off your weapon, cast a spell, and put your hand back.
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hey all,
new to d&d and looking to try something out of the box different with a paladin, played many computer games over the years as paladin covering tank, healing and damage dealer.
with the small group that is about to start am being partially forced down the route of being able to take a hit, as the other 2 players are going to be full warlock and mage classes.
having a hex blade sounds interesting and different, but instead of being a 2h, my thoughts think, should I be using sword and shield but possibly in the same hex blade style.
any thoughts on this? Could I potentially 2h and still soak damage with other spells like shadow armour etc. Or would I need to be sword/shield to be more viable with just lock and mage companions.
p.s I don’t do things the easy way, I was originally wanting to do an oath breaker but that’s seems to be overly complex for first time, I also know multiclassing straight out might be making life harder lol.
Multiclassing is one of those things that while yes, you can make mistakes, isn't actually that bad with a vague idea of what your doing. Paladins do make excellent support characters though being able to get high ac, give bonuses to saves, and have healing spells. The warlock multiclass is a classic, though starting as paladin is the better idea. If you wanted to go more into the whole healing support stuff I would take oath of the ancients or maybe oath of heroism. The 1-2 level dip into warlock early is a decent idea just so you can scale your melee with charisma, and then just going straight paladin for awhile, maybe to level 6-8 depending on the oath you choose. Shields are generally a better choice than a great sword for a few reasons, fighting style dueling pumps your one handed damage up to be quite comparable, and the shield mathematically gives you a +10% chance to dodge any hits. You can also always use the sword hand instead for eldritch blasting, or grab warcaster/magic item to let you cast with two hands full.
Hexadin is tried and true. The one way you can mess this up is if you play by the rules and mistake V,S,M spellcasting requirements with V,S with sword and shield. Without warcaster, V/S spells will make you have a hand open.
V only is almost always good (outside of mute/silence)
VS is tricky because you need to have a free hand to doodle
VSM is ok with both hands full and holy emblem pounded onto your shield
Why rules? heck... magic i guess. Though it does make sense you gotta sheath your sword to cast cure wounds on someone, or some other things like a free hand to grapple...
Considering that dropping a weapon is a free action and picking up a weapon to wield is your "interact with an object" action (not a full action), then you don't even need Warcaster to cast spells with both of your hands being full. Is it a bit silly to be dropping your weapon and picking it up every time you cast a spell? Sure, but it's within the boundaries of the rules.
If you're using a 2H weapon like a greatsword it's even less silly because all you have to do is take one hand off your weapon, cast a spell, and put your hand back.