I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer (particularly Dragon Bloodline) as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned. Thirdly should I start Paladin 2/Sorcerer 1 or Sorcerer 3 and multiclass Paladin later.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
What's the purpose of your paladin levels? Ordinarily, a Sorcadin focuses on melee attacks, and uses sorcerer spell slots to fuel Divine Smite. That emphasizes Strength for making your attacks (or Dexterity I suppose), with a minor in constitution and or charisma. Unless there's Hexblade mixed in, which shifts the Strength focus to Charisma.
But, I'm getting the impression that may not be what you're doing? Maybe.... tough (high AC, high HP) frontline caster? I don't want to assume, though, so why don't you describe what playstyle you're shooting for, and we can work from there?
My intention here is to play mostly caster here as sorcerer are primarily that, however Sorcerers are normally rather frail and this build intends on shoring up the Sorcerer with better AC and Hp while also giving me a fairly powerful melee option when when I happen to be cornered. I intended to play a mid to close range caster with this build switching when needed. I originally had this as a pure sorcerer but thought Paladin could be interesting to mix in and would definitely help in sorcerer’s short comings.
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are Can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
You have pretty good stats, not stellar, but better than standard array which is where the MAD concern comes in.
Starting with a level in Paladin would give you Heavy Armor for an AC of 16, you could get that with a 16 dex and Draconic Resilience and it would be a 15 with a dex of 14 or 15. Adding a level of Paladin after would allow you to get the 16 with Scale Mail with a 14 or 15 dex, but you'd have to buy it. A shield could bump that to 18 (or 17). Getting Lay on Hands is nice at one, but it will cap at 10 total points with only 2 levels. Divine Sense is nice in CoS.
At 2nd level, you'll get spellcasting and a fighting style. If you aren't attacking with weapons, Great Weapon Fighting and Dueling are useless. Without a Shield, Protection is pointless. If you aren't using armor, Defense fighting style won't benefit you. Blessed Warrior for two Cleric Cantrips, Blind Fighting for 10 ft blindsight, or Interception to reduce damage for an ally within 5 ft of you if you are wielding a shield, a simple weapon, or a martial weapon are all interesting but similarly conditional.
The spellcasting will limit you to 1st level spells, but you'll potentially be able to use all of them throughout the campaign since Paladins are prepared casters. This will increase the number of spells known for you, which is a weak point for Sorcerers. You'll also get Divine Smite, but it won't benefit you if you don't attack and a +2 attack bonus from your attack stat is not great.
If you start as Paladin, you'll get 10 HP vs the 7 you would get with the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. For the other level (or if you take two levels of Paladin after a level or more of Sorcerer) you will get 6 HP per level vs the 5 HP per level for the Sorcerer. You'll gain 2-4 HP more with 2 Paladin Levels.
To get this, you'll have to give up on one spellcaster level (Paladin 1 doesn't add a spellcaster level) and you'll be delayed two sorcerer levels worth of spellcasting. You won't get Sorcerer 9 or 10, which is 2 spells known, the ability to know 5th level spells, 2 SP, an extra cantrip, and an extra metamagic option.
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
There isn't a difference between a 14 or 15 as far as modifiers so putting the 15 into strength would give you access to all heavy armors. However, that doesn't matter since you are a dwarf. Putting the con at 12 would max your constitution at 15 and cost you 20 HP over the course of the 10 levels, so you'd either deal with a lower dex (if going heavy armor) or a lower wisdom (if going medium armor or the Draconic Resilience AC method).
If you wield a shield, you can put your emblem on it and be able to cast (V)/(S)/M component Paladin spells while wielding a weapon or an arcane focus for your sorcerer spells, but you would be forced to put the non-shield item away to cast (V)/S component spells. You'd have to acquire one of the spellcasting foci and there are some magical items that make nice Paladin Foci regardless of whether your DM uses other sources for the magic items or just what is found in the adventure. However, to get the Sorcerer one from equipment, you'd have to start sorcerer and forgo heavy armor proficiency. This is less of a problem if your DM handwaves components.
Starting Paladin gives you save proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma as opposed to the Constitution and Charisma for Sorcerer.
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are Can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
You have pretty good stats, not stellar, but better than standard array which is where the MAD concern comes in.
Starting with a level in Paladin would give you Heavy Armor for an AC of 16, you could get that with a 16 dex and Draconic Resilience and it would be a 15 with a dex of 14 or 15. Adding a level of Paladin after would allow you to get the 16 with Scale Mail with a 14 or 15 dex, but you'd have to buy it. A shield could bump that to 18 (or 17). Getting Lay on Hands is nice at one, but it will cap at 10 total points with only 2 levels. Divine Sense is nice in CoS.
At 2nd level, you'll get spellcasting and a fighting style. If you aren't attacking with weapons, Great Weapon Fighting and Dueling are useless. Without a Shield, Protection is pointless. If you aren't using armor, Defense fighting style won't benefit you. Blessed Warrior for two Cleric Cantrips, Blind Fighting for 10 ft blindsight, or Interception to reduce damage for an ally within 5 ft of you if you are wielding a shield, a simple weapon, or a martial weapon are all interesting but similarly conditional.
The spellcasting will limit you to 1st level spells, but you'll potentially be able to use all of them throughout the campaign since Paladins are prepared casters. This will increase the number of spells known for you, which is a weak point for Sorcerers. You'll also get Divine Smite, but it won't benefit you if you don't attack and a +2 attack bonus from your attack stat is not great.
If you start as Paladin, you'll get 10 HP vs the 7 you would get with the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. For the other level (or if you take two levels of Paladin after a level or more of Sorcerer) you will get 6 HP per level vs the 5 HP per level for the Sorcerer. You'll gain 2-4 HP more with 2 Paladin Levels.
To get this, you'll have to give up on one spellcaster level (Paladin 1 doesn't add a spellcaster level) and you'll be delayed two sorcerer levels worth of spellcasting. You won't get Sorcerer 9 or 10, which is 2 spells known, the ability to know 5th level spells, 2 SP, an extra cantrip, and an extra metamagic option.
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
There isn't a difference between a 14 or 15 as far as modifiers so putting the 15 into strength would give you access to all heavy armors. However, that doesn't matter since you are a dwarf. Putting the con at 12 would max your constitution at 15 and cost you 20 HP over the course of the 10 levels, so you'd either deal with a lower dex (if going heavy armor) or a lower wisdom (if going medium armor or the Draconic Resilience AC method).
If you wield a shield, you can put your emblem on it and be able to cast (V)/(S)/M component Paladin spells while wielding a weapon or an arcane focus for your sorcerer spells, but you would be forced to put the non-shield item away to cast (V)/S component spells. You'd have to acquire one of the spellcasting foci and there are some magical items that make nice Paladin Foci regardless of whether your DM uses other sources for the magic items or just what is found in the adventure. However, to get the Sorcerer one from equipment, you'd have to start sorcerer and forgo heavy armor proficiency. This is less of a problem if your DM handwaves components.
Starting Paladin gives you save proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma as opposed to the Constitution and Charisma for Sorcerer.
This was very helpful and gave me a lot of insight on how to build the character so thank you. However you did make a small miscalculation on the Hp per level difference on the class and I don’t blame you due to sorcerer’s reputation. But start first level Sorcerer I’d have 11 hp and Paladin I’d have 14 (assuming 16/17 con), and each level up I’d average 9 hp per sorcerer and 10 hp per Paladin so it’s actually a lot better than you initially thought. This is of course factoring draconian resilience and dwarven toughness which each give me an extra +1 hp per level. This make the difference on average with 1-3 hp if each other which is much better that you initial predicted, to to mention tough which will add an extra 20 hp if I decide to take it.
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are Can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
You have pretty good stats, not stellar, but better than standard array which is where the MAD concern comes in.
Starting with a level in Paladin would give you Heavy Armor for an AC of 16, you could get that with a 16 dex and Draconic Resilience and it would be a 15 with a dex of 14 or 15. Adding a level of Paladin after would allow you to get the 16 with Scale Mail with a 14 or 15 dex, but you'd have to buy it. A shield could bump that to 18 (or 17). Getting Lay on Hands is nice at one, but it will cap at 10 total points with only 2 levels. Divine Sense is nice in CoS.
At 2nd level, you'll get spellcasting and a fighting style. If you aren't attacking with weapons, Great Weapon Fighting and Dueling are useless. Without a Shield, Protection is pointless. If you aren't using armor, Defense fighting style won't benefit you. Blessed Warrior for two Cleric Cantrips, Blind Fighting for 10 ft blindsight, or Interception to reduce damage for an ally within 5 ft of you if you are wielding a shield, a simple weapon, or a martial weapon are all interesting but similarly conditional.
The spellcasting will limit you to 1st level spells, but you'll potentially be able to use all of them throughout the campaign since Paladins are prepared casters. This will increase the number of spells known for you, which is a weak point for Sorcerers. You'll also get Divine Smite, but it won't benefit you if you don't attack and a +2 attack bonus from your attack stat is not great.
If you start as Paladin, you'll get 10 HP vs the 7 you would get with the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. For the other level (or if you take two levels of Paladin after a level or more of Sorcerer) you will get 6 HP per level vs the 5 HP per level for the Sorcerer. You'll gain 2-4 HP more with 2 Paladin Levels.
To get this, you'll have to give up on one spellcaster level (Paladin 1 doesn't add a spellcaster level) and you'll be delayed two sorcerer levels worth of spellcasting. You won't get Sorcerer 9 or 10, which is 2 spells known, the ability to know 5th level spells, 2 SP, an extra cantrip, and an extra metamagic option.
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
There isn't a difference between a 14 or 15 as far as modifiers so putting the 15 into strength would give you access to all heavy armors. However, that doesn't matter since you are a dwarf. Putting the con at 12 would max your constitution at 15 and cost you 20 HP over the course of the 10 levels, so you'd either deal with a lower dex (if going heavy armor) or a lower wisdom (if going medium armor or the Draconic Resilience AC method).
If you wield a shield, you can put your emblem on it and be able to cast (V)/(S)/M component Paladin spells while wielding a weapon or an arcane focus for your sorcerer spells, but you would be forced to put the non-shield item away to cast (V)/S component spells. You'd have to acquire one of the spellcasting foci and there are some magical items that make nice Paladin Foci regardless of whether your DM uses other sources for the magic items or just what is found in the adventure. However, to get the Sorcerer one from equipment, you'd have to start sorcerer and forgo heavy armor proficiency. This is less of a problem if your DM handwaves components.
Starting Paladin gives you save proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma as opposed to the Constitution and Charisma for Sorcerer.
This was very helpful and gave me a lot of insight on how to build the character so thank you. However you did make a small miscalculation on the Hp per level difference on the class and I don’t blame you due to sorcerer’s reputation. But start first level Sorcerer I’d have 11 hp and Paladin I’d have 14 (assuming 16/17 con), and each level up I’d average 9 hp per sorcerer and 10 hp per Paladin so it’s actually a lot better than you initially thought. This is of course factoring draconian resilience and dwarven toughness which each give me an extra +1 hp per level. This make the difference on average with 1-3 hp if each other which is much better that you initial predicted, to to mention tough which will add an extra 20 hp if I decide to take it.
I wasn't adding in the constitution modifier, the Tough feat or the Hill Dwarf Racial bonus, it was strictly the difference between the classes. Everything else being equal, I wasn't concerned about those for the comparison.
Edit: it might be a good idea to go with Shocking Grasp or have a save cantrip for a melee range attack. If you go Paladin with Blessed Warrior, you could grab Sacred Flame to help combat the undead (and possibly grab Guidance as well). If you don't, grabbing Mind Sliver is a great enabler of other save based spells and works in melee. If you have a cleric friend or like leveled spells with saves, you can cast mind Sliver (followed by a quickened save spell, if needed).
If you do choose to go Paladin for the smites, you may want to get something like Faerie Fire to up your hit rate (as well as your crit rate!) so that you'll be more effective in melee when you need it. This might be one of the few times that True Strike isn't as bad. Just remember that you can't quicken it to attack in the same turn with it, though you can quicken it to attack the following round with it.
Another option to look at with this build, the Inspiring Leader Feat. If you can get someone else to get the Chef feat, you can have two sets of Temp HPs that you can rotate between rests (Inspiring Leader right after the rest, followed by a character eating the treats once those Temp HPs are gone)
So curse of Strahd typically runs through about level 10, and you're starting at 3. Seems to me you've got about three choices here: paladin/sorc, pure sorc, fighter/sorc, or monk/sorc. What do each of those look like at level 3, vs. level 10?
1) Dwarven pal/sorc:
At level 3 (Paladin 2/Sorc 1)
15 / 12 / 17 / 12 / 14 / 16 ability scores
capable of wearing plate, wielding shield, and having Defensive fighting style for 21 AC. VERY good in Tier 1, and can even Shield.
31 HP, on par with a conventional non-dwarven Fighter.
Wisdom saves (good) and Charisma saves (useless)
Poor Tier 1 melee attacks (only +4 to hit, with no plans to increase str in near future). Divine Smite unlikely to be used often. Usually don't even draw melee weapon, so no OAs.
Good Tier 1 sorc cantrips and spells (+5 to hit/ DC 13)
Multiclass caster level 2 (three first level slots), about half as good as a pure level 3 caster (four 1st level, two 2nd level)
Some flexible healing from Lay on Hands
At level 10 (Paladin 2/Sorc 8)
15 / 12 / 18 / 12 / 14 / 16 ability scores
same 21 AC, which is still very good
Took Dwarven Fortitude (+1 Con) at character level 6, and Tough at character level 10.
126 HP, about 20 more than a conventional non-dwarven Fighter without Tough
Can heal yourself with a Dodge... but doesn't often Dodge, since it's an action.
Very poor Tier 2 melee attacks (only +6 to hit, when conventional fighters have +9). Divine Smite very unlikely to be used often. Usually don't even draw melee weapon, no weapon OAs (and would miss them anyway).
Poor Tier 2 sorc cantrips and spells (only +7 to hit / DC 15 , when conventional casters have +9 / DC 17)
Multiclass caster level 9, good, but spellcasting modifiers are poor
Same Lay on Hands healing pool
Some +3 damage bonuses to one element for spells, optional resilience
Takeaways? Other than 21-26 AC and a beefy HP pool.... you're just poor at spellcasting, and VERY poor at melee fighting.
2) Dwarven Sorc/Fighter
Level 3 (Fighter 1/Sorc 2)
basically, same as the Paladin
feel free to put 15 in Dex instead of Str, since Dwarves don't need str for armor and Dex is a more useful saving throw.
instead of 10 HP of Lay on Hands/long rest, have a Bonus Action 1d10+Con self-heal from Second Wind/short rest. So... MORE hardy than the Paladin, but less able to heal others.
Instead of Wis & Charisma, Constitution saves (very good) and Strength saves (useless)
Level 10 (Fighter 1/Sorc 9)
see above, otherwise same as Paladin. Picked up Tough and Dwarven Fortitude a character level earlier (5 and 9), too
Takeaways: Second Wind, and Constitution saves make the Fighter MUCH better than the Paladin as a Sorc MC, since you'll never make a melee attack anyway.
3) Dwarven Sorc
At level 3
12 / 15 / 16 / 12 / 14 / 17 (put the +2 in Cha and +1 in Con)
Scaly natural armor for AC 15, which is average in T1. But have access to Shield when needed.
28 HP, on par with conventional fighter
Constitution saves (very good) and charisma saves (useless)
Melee is cantrips, good Tier 1 (+5 to hit / DC 13)
Good Tier 1 ranged and spells (+5 to hit / DC 13)
Pure caster (4 1st and 2 2nd level slots)
no healing
At level 10
12 / 16 / 16 / 12 / 14 / 18
Scaly natural armor for AC 16, which is average/poor in T2. But have access to Shield when needed.
122 HP, about 15 more than a conventional non-dwarven Fighter.
Took ASI (+1 Dex, +1 Cha) at 4, and Tough at 8.
Melee is cantrips, decent Tier 2 (+8 to hit / DC 16)
Ranged/spells is decent Tier 2 (+8 to hit / DC 16)
Pure caster 10, good
Some +4 damage modifiers to one element
Takeaways: This is virtually the same HP as the Sorcadin or Fighter/Sorc, but drops the rarely-used Dwarven Toughness healing, the useless melee combat, and is a better caster. Squishier AC though, unless you burn slots using Shield.
4) Dwarven Sorc/Monk
Level 3 (Sorc 2/Monk 1)
12 / 15 / 16 / 12 / 14 / 17 (put the +2 in Cha and +1 in Con)
Monk level is a waste at this point, does virtually nothing for you since Dragon Sorc gives you better Natural Armor
Caster level 2, fine.
Level 10 (Sorc 8/Monk 2)
12 / 16 / 16/ 12 / 14 / 18
the second monk level has let you Bonus Action Dodge twice/short rest. Makes your Dwarven Fortitude feat (which you'll take instead of Tough) actually useful. And +10 speed is nice as well. Pretty weird, but only real way I see Dwarven Fortitude as being useful, soooo
Otherwise, see Sorc above, but minus 2 caster levels (lost 5th level spells). AC 16 (+ Shield), HP in the 120ish range, decent casting)
My post is too hard to parse. Long story short... I think that Dwarven Fortitude is too hard to benefit from, and pushing your Con to 18 isn't that important anyway. You're plenty tough from being a dwarf, and a draconic sorcerer, and taking tough... overkill.
Start at level 1 as a Paladin or a Fighter, to have Heavy Armor proficiency. Fighter is the superior of the two, because (1) you can leave Str at 12 instead of 15, (2) Second Wind is better than Divine Smite or Lay on Hands are for you, and (3) it gets you feats and spellcasting progression earlier, since you only need 1 fighter level. Take the next 9 in sorcerer. For your first feat, take an ASI for +1 Con/+1 Cha, because you need to bring Cha up to 18 to be competent. For your second feat, either take Tough if you feel you need it, or another ASI for +2 Cha to 20.
My post is too hard to parse. Long story short... I think that Dwarven Fortitude is too hard to benefit from, and pushing your Con to 18 isn't that important anyway. You're plenty dwarf from being a dwarf, and a draconic sorcerer, and taking tough... overkill.
Start at level 1 as a Paladin or a Fighter, to have Heavy Armor proficiency. Fighter is the superior of the two, because (1) you can leave Str at 12 instead of 15, (2) Second Wind is better than Divine Smite or Lay on Hands are for you, and (3) it gets you feats earlier, since you only need 1 fighter level. Take the next 9 in sorcerer. For your first feat, take an ASI for +1 Con/+1 Cha, because you need to bring Cha up to 18 to be competent. For your second feat, either take Tough if you feel you need it, or another ASI for +2 Cha to 20.
I was going to suggest this, or maybe a hexblade dip for more spellcasting options where the one or two levels that aren't contributing to your spellcasting level are still giving you slots and spell options. The HP will either be one better if you start hexblade or the same, but it gives you melee attacks with your charisma stat while leaving your cantrips free for other options and better AC with the limited Dexterity that you'll have without getting into heavy armor.
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are Can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
You have pretty good stats, not stellar, but better than standard array which is where the MAD concern comes in.
Starting with a level in Paladin would give you Heavy Armor for an AC of 16, you could get that with a 16 dex and Draconic Resilience and it would be a 15 with a dex of 14 or 15. Adding a level of Paladin after would allow you to get the 16 with Scale Mail with a 14 or 15 dex, but you'd have to buy it. A shield could bump that to 18 (or 17). Getting Lay on Hands is nice at one, but it will cap at 10 total points with only 2 levels. Divine Sense is nice in CoS.
At 2nd level, you'll get spellcasting and a fighting style. If you aren't attacking with weapons, Great Weapon Fighting and Dueling are useless. Without a Shield, Protection is pointless. If you aren't using armor, Defense fighting style won't benefit you. Blessed Warrior for two Cleric Cantrips, Blind Fighting for 10 ft blindsight, or Interception to reduce damage for an ally within 5 ft of you if you are wielding a shield, a simple weapon, or a martial weapon are all interesting but similarly conditional.
The spellcasting will limit you to 1st level spells, but you'll potentially be able to use all of them throughout the campaign since Paladins are prepared casters. This will increase the number of spells known for you, which is a weak point for Sorcerers. You'll also get Divine Smite, but it won't benefit you if you don't attack and a +2 attack bonus from your attack stat is not great.
If you start as Paladin, you'll get 10 HP vs the 7 you would get with the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. For the other level (or if you take two levels of Paladin after a level or more of Sorcerer) you will get 6 HP per level vs the 5 HP per level for the Sorcerer. You'll gain 2-4 HP more with 2 Paladin Levels.
To get this, you'll have to give up on one spellcaster level (Paladin 1 doesn't add a spellcaster level) and you'll be delayed two sorcerer levels worth of spellcasting. You won't get Sorcerer 9 or 10, which is 2 spells known, the ability to know 5th level spells, 2 SP, an extra cantrip, and an extra metamagic option.
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
There isn't a difference between a 14 or 15 as far as modifiers so putting the 15 into strength would give you access to all heavy armors. However, that doesn't matter since you are a dwarf. Putting the con at 12 would max your constitution at 15 and cost you 20 HP over the course of the 10 levels, so you'd either deal with a lower dex (if going heavy armor) or a lower wisdom (if going medium armor or the Draconic Resilience AC method).
If you wield a shield, you can put your emblem on it and be able to cast (V)/(S)/M component Paladin spells while wielding a weapon or an arcane focus for your sorcerer spells, but you would be forced to put the non-shield item away to cast (V)/S component spells. You'd have to acquire one of the spellcasting foci and there are some magical items that make nice Paladin Foci regardless of whether your DM uses other sources for the magic items or just what is found in the adventure. However, to get the Sorcerer one from equipment, you'd have to start sorcerer and forgo heavy armor proficiency. This is less of a problem if your DM handwaves components.
Starting Paladin gives you save proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma as opposed to the Constitution and Charisma for Sorcerer.
My post is too hard to parse. Long story short... I think that Dwarven Fortitude is too hard to benefit from, and pushing your Con to 18 isn't that important anyway. You're plenty tough from being a dwarf, and a draconic sorcerer, and taking tough... overkill.
Start at level 1 as a Paladin or a Fighter, to have Heavy Armor proficiency. Fighter is the superior of the two, because (1) you can leave Str at 12 instead of 15, (2) Second Wind is better than Divine Smite or Lay on Hands are for you, and (3) it gets you feats and spellcasting progression earlier, since you only need 1 fighter level. Take the next 9 in sorcerer. For your first feat, take an ASI for +1 Con/+1 Cha, because you need to bring Cha up to 18 to be competent. For your second feat, either take Tough if you feel you need it, or another ASI for +2 Cha to 20.
Pretty sure you have to have the stat requirements for multiclassing for both entering and leaving the class.
So their Strength will need to be at least 13 if Paladin is involved.
To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table.
If the plan is to be a tough spellcaster, I suggest 1 level cleric (anything with heavy armor; forge will probably do the best) and 9 levels sorcerer. You have full caster level for spells per day, heavy armor, shields, and access to useful team buffs. You're slightly behind on spells known since you don't get level 3 spells until level 6, but that's not crippling.
For a melee range caster, Con saves are more important than Wis saves. Cleric gets you to heavy armor, and keeps you as a full progression caster, but doesn't give you a Con save, doesn't give you a Fighting Style for +1 AC, and is unlikely to have any other level 1 features that help you be a tough front liner. I think that Fighter or Paladin are the tanky choices.
Someone said Hexblade above, and yeah, that too. Medium Armor + Shield and no Defensive fighting style would leave you at only 19 AC instead of 21... but in exchange, you'd have the awesome Eldritch Blast, and the ability to make melee weapon attacks (for whatever reason) that the Sorcadin lacked.
There's plenty of configurations that work. But CHA 20 by character level 8, 9, or 10 should be a bigger priority, even if "high AC and HP" is your charcacter concept.
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are Can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
You have pretty good stats...
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
My post is too hard to parse. Long story short... I think that Dwarven Fortitude is too hard to benefit from, and pushing your Con to 18 isn't that important anyway. You're plenty tough from being a dwarf, and a draconic sorcerer, and taking tough... overkill.
Start at level 1 as a Paladin or a Fighter, to have Heavy Armor proficiency. Fighter is the superior of the two, because (1) you can leave Str at 12 instead of 15, (2) Second Wind is better than Divine Smite or Lay on Hands are for you, and (3) it gets you feats and spellcasting progression earlier, since you only need 1 fighter level. Take the next 9 in sorcerer. For your first feat, take an ASI for +1 Con/+1 Cha, because you need to bring Cha up to 18 to be competent. For your second feat, either take Tough if you feel you need it, or another ASI for +2 Cha to 20.
Pretty sure you have to have the stat requirements for multiclassing for both entering and leaving the class.
So their Strength will need to be at least 13 if Paladin is involved.
To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table.
Paladin
Strength 13 and Charisma 13
Neither of us said otherwise. I stated that my preference was to dump strength but that Paladin requires at least 13 (I deleted the parts not addressing that in the quote) and Chicken_Champ said that they'd prefer fighter so that strength wouldn't have to be 13, dex would be.
If the plan is to be a tough spellcaster, I suggest 1 level cleric (anything with heavy armor; forge will probably do the best) and 9 levels sorcerer. You have full caster level for spells per day, heavy armor, shields, and access to useful team buffs. You're slightly behind on spells known since you don't get level 3 spells until level 6, but that's not crippling.
That's another good option and has the benefit of not requiring Cleric at first like Paladin or Fighter. Having a 14/15 wisdom gives decent heals and War priest would have the bonus action attack while Forge gives you either a bonus to AC or a +1 weapon (which will help with the melee attacks being stuck at a +2 attack mod added to proficiency for your to hit bonus). You can focus your cantrips on utility here and attack with Sorcerer, or grab Sacred Flame for your undead battles.
Edit: Put Sorcerer instead of Fighter, corrected that. Also, Life Cleric can make your heals more efficient and twinning a Healing Word or Cure Wounds gives you a potent emergency heal option off of Life Cleric one. Tempest is more offensive than tanky, Nature isn't a great one level dip unless there is a druid cantrip that you want for some reason, Order gives a ally the option to make a reaction attack against a target, and twilight gives super dark vision that you can share with a number of winning creatures equal to your wisdom modifier (likely +2).
For a melee range caster, Con saves are more important than Wis saves. Cleric gets you to heavy armor, and keeps you as a full progression caster, but doesn't give you a Con save, doesn't give you a Fighting Style for +1 AC, and is unlikely to have any other level 1 features that help you be a tough front liner. I think that Fighter or Paladin are the tanky choices.
Someone said Hexblade above, and yeah, that too. Medium Armor + Shield and no Defensive fighting style would leave you at only 19 AC instead of 21... but in exchange, you'd have the awesome Eldritch Blast, and the ability to make melee weapon attacks (for whatever reason) that the Sorcadin lacked.
There's plenty of configurations that work. But CHA 20 by character level 8, 9, or 10 should be a bigger priority, even if "high AC and HP" is your charcacter concept.
Cleric doesn't have to be 1st level like fighter or paladin, meaning the Sorc 1 would give you the con saves. Defense fighting style does stack with magical armor but guaranteed magical armor or weapon is available at 1 with Forge cleric. Cleric also has additional spells known and can cast Cure Wounds on self to approximate Second Wind. It is a more magical version but would be limited to ac Warhammer as a weapon.
That's true, Cleric and I believe Armorer are the only ways to pick up Heavy Armor as a multiclass class feature after level 1. If LilBig780 is intent on pumping Con and taking tough while leaving Cha languishing at 16, then being able to cast Cure Wounds, Healing Word, and Bless with their spell slots would do a lot to redeem them as a party member. A Draconic Sorcerer 9/Order Cleric 1 with crappy Charisma and Wisdom is still a very effective heal and buff bot, who will be handing out reaction attacks to their teammates with each spell cast.
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are Can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
You have pretty good stats...
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
My post is too hard to parse. Long story short... I think that Dwarven Fortitude is too hard to benefit from, and pushing your Con to 18 isn't that important anyway. You're plenty tough from being a dwarf, and a draconic sorcerer, and taking tough... overkill.
Start at level 1 as a Paladin or a Fighter, to have Heavy Armor proficiency. Fighter is the superior of the two, because (1) you can leave Str at 12 instead of 15, (2) Second Wind is better than Divine Smite or Lay on Hands are for you, and (3) it gets you feats and spellcasting progression earlier, since you only need 1 fighter level. Take the next 9 in sorcerer. For your first feat, take an ASI for +1 Con/+1 Cha, because you need to bring Cha up to 18 to be competent. For your second feat, either take Tough if you feel you need it, or another ASI for +2 Cha to 20.
Pretty sure you have to have the stat requirements for multiclassing for both entering and leaving the class.
So their Strength will need to be at least 13 if Paladin is involved.
To qualify for a new class, you must meet the ability score prerequisites for both your current class and your new one, as shown in the Multiclassing Prerequisites table.
Paladin
Strength 13 and Charisma 13
Neither of us said otherwise. I stated that my preference was to dump strength but that Paladin requires at least 13 (I deleted the parts not addressing that in the quote) and Chicken_Champ said that they'd prefer fighter so that strength wouldn't have to be 13, dex would be.
First I want to thank everyone for their insights on the build, and I do understand that this is a flawed build and unfortunately I didn’t roll well enough to take advantage of it. I am looking into certain suggestions that were made to make the build better, like dropping one of the feats for an ASI or more advantageous feat, as well as possibly changing my approach and dropping Paladin all together. I gonna look more into some of these builds like Sorlock or a quick cleric dip and see if that suits me better or maybe stick with the original pure sorcerer idea, as I think it probably could work with some tweaking. I thank everyone for their recommendations and I suppose I’ll make an update when I decide on a new build.
You rolled amazing, instead of 15/15/15/8/8/8 you have 15/15/15/14/12/12. You’ve got plenty of stat points. But it just doesn’t change that casters need 20 in their casting stat!
I’m currently playing through Curse of Strahd and we just finished Death House. It lived up to it name and my character unfortunately died due to the curiosity of some of my party members, but no hard feelings. We are making 3rd level characters and will most likely be going up to 10th as per the Module. I’m think I wanna play a sorcerer (particularly Dragon Bloodline) as I have never played one, and I heard about the popularity of the Sorcadin and thought that could be interesting to try out.
The Stats I rolled are as follows: 15/15/15/14/12/12. I plan on making a Hill Dwarf and using custom lineage from Tasha’s to swap +1 Wis out for +1 Cha. My plan here is to take advantage of Dwarven Toughness + Draconic Resilience + Tough to make a rather bulky Sorcerer. I don’t currently intend on take more that 2 of Paladin or any ASI for that matter. The 2 feats that I plan on taking are Tough, as mentioned, and Dwarven Fortitude to take advantage of the Dodge healing + Quicken spell so I can still get off an attack while dodging.
My main questions here are can a Sorcadin Work with only 2 levels of Paladin and are the 2 levels even worth the time or would it be more advantageous to stick with a pure sorcerer build. Secondly do I even have the stats to pull off an effective Sorcadin, because I understand that it is quite a MAD Build, and should I take an ASI because I’d would consider dropping one of the feats mentioned. Thirdly should I start Paladin 2/Sorcerer 1 or Sorcerer 3 and multiclass Paladin later.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear some responses.
Take a look at the Sorcerer class forum where there are many, many discussions on this build.
What's the purpose of your paladin levels? Ordinarily, a Sorcadin focuses on melee attacks, and uses sorcerer spell slots to fuel Divine Smite. That emphasizes Strength for making your attacks (or Dexterity I suppose), with a minor in constitution and or charisma. Unless there's Hexblade mixed in, which shifts the Strength focus to Charisma.
But, I'm getting the impression that may not be what you're doing? Maybe.... tough (high AC, high HP) frontline caster? I don't want to assume, though, so why don't you describe what playstyle you're shooting for, and we can work from there?
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My intention here is to play mostly caster here as sorcerer are primarily that, however Sorcerers are normally rather frail and this build intends on shoring up the Sorcerer with better AC and Hp while also giving me a fairly powerful melee option when when I happen to be cornered. I intended to play a mid to close range caster with this build switching when needed. I originally had this as a pure sorcerer but thought Paladin could be interesting to mix in and would definitely help in sorcerer’s short comings.
You have pretty good stats, not stellar, but better than standard array which is where the MAD concern comes in.
Starting with a level in Paladin would give you Heavy Armor for an AC of 16, you could get that with a 16 dex and Draconic Resilience and it would be a 15 with a dex of 14 or 15. Adding a level of Paladin after would allow you to get the 16 with Scale Mail with a 14 or 15 dex, but you'd have to buy it. A shield could bump that to 18 (or 17). Getting Lay on Hands is nice at one, but it will cap at 10 total points with only 2 levels. Divine Sense is nice in CoS.
At 2nd level, you'll get spellcasting and a fighting style. If you aren't attacking with weapons, Great Weapon Fighting and Dueling are useless. Without a Shield, Protection is pointless. If you aren't using armor, Defense fighting style won't benefit you. Blessed Warrior for two Cleric Cantrips, Blind Fighting for 10 ft blindsight, or Interception to reduce damage for an ally within 5 ft of you if you are wielding a shield, a simple weapon, or a martial weapon are all interesting but similarly conditional.
The spellcasting will limit you to 1st level spells, but you'll potentially be able to use all of them throughout the campaign since Paladins are prepared casters. This will increase the number of spells known for you, which is a weak point for Sorcerers. You'll also get Divine Smite, but it won't benefit you if you don't attack and a +2 attack bonus from your attack stat is not great.
If you start as Paladin, you'll get 10 HP vs the 7 you would get with the Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. For the other level (or if you take two levels of Paladin after a level or more of Sorcerer) you will get 6 HP per level vs the 5 HP per level for the Sorcerer. You'll gain 2-4 HP more with 2 Paladin Levels.
To get this, you'll have to give up on one spellcaster level (Paladin 1 doesn't add a spellcaster level) and you'll be delayed two sorcerer levels worth of spellcasting. You won't get Sorcerer 9 or 10, which is 2 spells known, the ability to know 5th level spells, 2 SP, an extra cantrip, and an extra metamagic option.
Normally, I'd say to put the 12s into Strength and Intelligence, the 14 into dex or wisdom, and the 15s go into everything else. Your +2 to con bumps that to 17 and dwarven fortitude bumps it to 18. The +1 in Charisma (thanks to Tasha's moving it from Wisdom) gives you a 16 charisma. Your final statline would be 12, 14/15, 18, 12, 15/14, 16. Going Paladin doesn't allow that, since you'd have to get at least a 13 into Strength and Charisma to MC a Paladin/Sorcerer combo. That means that you'll either have to put your dex, con or wis at 12, and that is a cost of this build.
There isn't a difference between a 14 or 15 as far as modifiers so putting the 15 into strength would give you access to all heavy armors. However, that doesn't matter since you are a dwarf. Putting the con at 12 would max your constitution at 15 and cost you 20 HP over the course of the 10 levels, so you'd either deal with a lower dex (if going heavy armor) or a lower wisdom (if going medium armor or the Draconic Resilience AC method).
If you wield a shield, you can put your emblem on it and be able to cast (V)/(S)/M component Paladin spells while wielding a weapon or an arcane focus for your sorcerer spells, but you would be forced to put the non-shield item away to cast (V)/S component spells. You'd have to acquire one of the spellcasting foci and there are some magical items that make nice Paladin Foci regardless of whether your DM uses other sources for the magic items or just what is found in the adventure. However, to get the Sorcerer one from equipment, you'd have to start sorcerer and forgo heavy armor proficiency. This is less of a problem if your DM handwaves components.
Starting Paladin gives you save proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma as opposed to the Constitution and Charisma for Sorcerer.
This was very helpful and gave me a lot of insight on how to build the character so thank you. However you did make a small miscalculation on the Hp per level difference on the class and I don’t blame you due to sorcerer’s reputation. But start first level Sorcerer I’d have 11 hp and Paladin I’d have 14 (assuming 16/17 con), and each level up I’d average 9 hp per sorcerer and 10 hp per Paladin so it’s actually a lot better than you initially thought. This is of course factoring draconian resilience and dwarven toughness which each give me an extra +1 hp per level. This make the difference on average with 1-3 hp if each other which is much better that you initial predicted, to to mention tough which will add an extra 20 hp if I decide to take it.
I wasn't adding in the constitution modifier, the Tough feat or the Hill Dwarf Racial bonus, it was strictly the difference between the classes. Everything else being equal, I wasn't concerned about those for the comparison.
Edit: it might be a good idea to go with Shocking Grasp or have a save cantrip for a melee range attack. If you go Paladin with Blessed Warrior, you could grab Sacred Flame to help combat the undead (and possibly grab Guidance as well). If you don't, grabbing Mind Sliver is a great enabler of other save based spells and works in melee. If you have a cleric friend or like leveled spells with saves, you can cast mind Sliver (followed by a quickened save spell, if needed).
If you do choose to go Paladin for the smites, you may want to get something like Faerie Fire to up your hit rate (as well as your crit rate!) so that you'll be more effective in melee when you need it. This might be one of the few times that True Strike isn't as bad. Just remember that you can't quicken it to attack in the same turn with it, though you can quicken it to attack the following round with it.
Another option to look at with this build, the Inspiring Leader Feat. If you can get someone else to get the Chef feat, you can have two sets of Temp HPs that you can rotate between rests (Inspiring Leader right after the rest, followed by a character eating the treats once those Temp HPs are gone)
Interesting!
So curse of Strahd typically runs through about level 10, and you're starting at 3. Seems to me you've got about three choices here: paladin/sorc, pure sorc, fighter/sorc, or monk/sorc. What do each of those look like at level 3, vs. level 10?
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
My post is too hard to parse. Long story short... I think that Dwarven Fortitude is too hard to benefit from, and pushing your Con to 18 isn't that important anyway. You're plenty tough from being a dwarf, and a draconic sorcerer, and taking tough... overkill.
Start at level 1 as a Paladin or a Fighter, to have Heavy Armor proficiency. Fighter is the superior of the two, because (1) you can leave Str at 12 instead of 15, (2) Second Wind is better than Divine Smite or Lay on Hands are for you, and (3) it gets you feats and spellcasting progression earlier, since you only need 1 fighter level. Take the next 9 in sorcerer. For your first feat, take an ASI for +1 Con/+1 Cha, because you need to bring Cha up to 18 to be competent. For your second feat, either take Tough if you feel you need it, or another ASI for +2 Cha to 20.
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I was going to suggest this, or maybe a hexblade dip for more spellcasting options where the one or two levels that aren't contributing to your spellcasting level are still giving you slots and spell options. The HP will either be one better if you start hexblade or the same, but it gives you melee attacks with your charisma stat while leaving your cantrips free for other options and better AC with the limited Dexterity that you'll have without getting into heavy armor.
Pretty sure you have to have the stat requirements for multiclassing for both entering and leaving the class.
So their Strength will need to be at least 13 if Paladin is involved.
If the plan is to be a tough spellcaster, I suggest 1 level cleric (anything with heavy armor; forge will probably do the best) and 9 levels sorcerer. You have full caster level for spells per day, heavy armor, shields, and access to useful team buffs. You're slightly behind on spells known since you don't get level 3 spells until level 6, but that's not crippling.
For a melee range caster, Con saves are more important than Wis saves. Cleric gets you to heavy armor, and keeps you as a full progression caster, but doesn't give you a Con save, doesn't give you a Fighting Style for +1 AC, and is unlikely to have any other level 1 features that help you be a tough front liner. I think that Fighter or Paladin are the tanky choices.
Someone said Hexblade above, and yeah, that too. Medium Armor + Shield and no Defensive fighting style would leave you at only 19 AC instead of 21... but in exchange, you'd have the awesome Eldritch Blast, and the ability to make melee weapon attacks (for whatever reason) that the Sorcadin lacked.
There's plenty of configurations that work. But CHA 20 by character level 8, 9, or 10 should be a bigger priority, even if "high AC and HP" is your charcacter concept.
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Neither of us said otherwise. I stated that my preference was to dump strength but that Paladin requires at least 13 (I deleted the parts not addressing that in the quote) and Chicken_Champ said that they'd prefer fighter so that strength wouldn't have to be 13, dex would be.
That's another good option and has the benefit of not requiring Cleric at first like Paladin or Fighter. Having a 14/15 wisdom gives decent heals and War priest would have the bonus action attack while Forge gives you either a bonus to AC or a +1 weapon (which will help with the melee attacks being stuck at a +2 attack mod added to proficiency for your to hit bonus). You can focus your cantrips on utility here and attack with Sorcerer, or grab Sacred Flame for your undead battles.
Edit: Put Sorcerer instead of Fighter, corrected that. Also, Life Cleric can make your heals more efficient and twinning a Healing Word or Cure Wounds gives you a potent emergency heal option off of Life Cleric one. Tempest is more offensive than tanky, Nature isn't a great one level dip unless there is a druid cantrip that you want for some reason, Order gives a ally the option to make a reaction attack against a target, and twilight gives super dark vision that you can share with a number of winning creatures equal to your wisdom modifier (likely +2).
Cleric doesn't have to be 1st level like fighter or paladin, meaning the Sorc 1 would give you the con saves. Defense fighting style does stack with magical armor but guaranteed magical armor or weapon is available at 1 with Forge cleric. Cleric also has additional spells known and can cast Cure Wounds on self to approximate Second Wind. It is a more magical version but would be limited to ac Warhammer as a weapon.
That's true, Cleric and I believe Armorer are the only ways to pick up Heavy Armor as a multiclass class feature after level 1. If LilBig780 is intent on pumping Con and taking tough while leaving Cha languishing at 16, then being able to cast Cure Wounds, Healing Word, and Bless with their spell slots would do a lot to redeem them as a party member. A Draconic Sorcerer 9/Order Cleric 1 with crappy Charisma and Wisdom is still a very effective heal and buff bot, who will be handing out reaction attacks to their teammates with each spell cast.
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Ah yes.
I have indeed misread those posts, my apologies.
First I want to thank everyone for their insights on the build, and I do understand that this is a flawed build and unfortunately I didn’t roll well enough to take advantage of it. I am looking into certain suggestions that were made to make the build better, like dropping one of the feats for an ASI or more advantageous feat, as well as possibly changing my approach and dropping Paladin all together. I gonna look more into some of these builds like Sorlock or a quick cleric dip and see if that suits me better or maybe stick with the original pure sorcerer idea, as I think it probably could work with some tweaking. I thank everyone for their recommendations and I suppose I’ll make an update when I decide on a new build.
You rolled amazing, instead of 15/15/15/8/8/8 you have 15/15/15/14/12/12. You’ve got plenty of stat points. But it just doesn’t change that casters need 20 in their casting stat!
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.