I can definitely tell the train of thought for those suggestions, and they're certainly fine builds, but it doesn't look like we're on the same page regarding what I'm going for. First and foremost, I'm building a tank (strong AC & saves). Utility and spells are nice, but the party should have a full-caster who'll have those spells LONG before the tank is anywhere close to getting them, and the character can't sacrifice efficiency in its primary role to try to fill other roles that other members of the party already have covered, and are doing so better than this character could.
Level 1: needs to be Paladin (1) for the heavy armor proficiency, because this character isn't invested in Dexterity. This level is set-up, and admittedly the character will be kind of rubbish for all of Level 1 (having only a +3 to Attack Rolls, and a +1 modifier on Damage)
Level 2: needs to be Hexblade warlock (1) for the ability to add Charisma to the Attack rolls and melee damage. At this point the character is functional, with its attack bonus and damage now being up to par with other classes. This also grants the shield spell at Level 2.
Level 3: needs to be Paladin (2) for Divine Smite, finally getting that additional damage one level later than a full Paladin. The Blind Fighting fighting style negates the disadvantage for attacking an invisible or blurred enemy, or from being blinded.
Levels 4-7: need to be Paladin (3-6) to get an ability score increase, the second attack and the Charisma bonus to saving throws as soon as possible.
The Vengeance Paladin gives a 1/short rest advantage on ALL attack rolls against a particular creature for a full minute. This is extremely powerful as it drastically increases your ability to land blows against enemies with extremely high AC. And if an enemy has a blur or invisibility effect up, this character is actually attacking at advantage instead of disadvantage, thanks to the Vow and Blind Fighting. That ability to reliably deal heavy damage to bosses is really important, especially since there's no saving throw against the Vow of Emnity, nor concentration to be broken. The Vengeance Paladin also has Haste added to its spell list.
The Ancients Paladin gives a 1/short rest ability to cause a singular enemy to make a strength or dexterity save of ITS CHOICE, that it can repeat every turn until it passes the save. That strikes me as very much inferior to the Vengeance Paladin's option.
At L7, Its worst save is Intelligence at a +3, while its best save is Charisma at a +11, its attack bonus is +7, and it has advantage against an otherwise hard-to-hit target for a minute, once per short rest, and it has a total of 8 smite slots, regaining one on a short rest. It has an armor class of 17 (22 after casting shield), and 30ft of movement.
The next priority is Haste for the extra movement, attack, and +2 to Armor Class. The shortest route to that is taking the next three levels in Vengeance Paladin which grants Haste, the L3 spell slots to cast it, and an ASI to spend on the Warcaster feat. This brings AC up to 19 (24 when casting shield), increases the movement speed to 60ft, and gives an extra action that can be an attack or a 60ft dash. Being able to move 120ft per turn and still attack, very few types of enemies could avoid this character.
At L10, on the first turn of combat, this character uses a Bonus action to put a Vow of emnity on the boss, an action to cast Haste, moves up to 60ft to get in range of the enemy, and then attacking once. on subsequent turns he's attacking three times, and he can use his bonus action on the second turn to put Hexblade's Curse on the boss if needed without losing any real action economy, because this character doesn't have much else to use bonus actions on until later levels.
All things considered, I believe the first 10 levels are pretty much nailed down for this character.
Now, I can skip the second level of Hexblade, because all it gives are two invocations and one spell slot, which aren't really needed anymore in the current version of the charcter build. That leaves me to decide when I want to transition to sorcerer levels. I've already got 10 levels assigned, so I can ignore the L14 abilities for the sorcerer.
Three more levels of Paladin (bringing the class levels to 12) grants another ASI (bringing Charisma up to 20) an extra 1d8 on all melee weapon damage rolls, immunity to fear, and an ability to pursue fleeing enemies on a reaction after making an attack of opportunity.
That leaves 7 levels of sorcerer, which give this character L4 spells known, but more importantly, the spell slots of a L13 caster, a total of 18 spell slots with the highest being L7 slots. Given the ability to up-cast spells with higher slots, and the fact that most of these slots are for smites anyway, this is perfectly fine.
I lean towards Aberrant Mind more than Divine Soul for the wider number of spells known, as well as the ability to summon aberrations directly from sorcery points without needing any verbal, somatic, or material components.
For the Ancients Paladin part, we're not talking about the Channel Divinity for which yes, the Vengeance option is better which is 1/short rest as well, we're talking about the 7th level permanent Aura of Warding which grants resistance to all spells all the time as long as you are conscious which is ridiculous. This is WAY better then the Vengeance Paladin's 7th level feature and extends to your party members which makes you a much better tank.
Also, not sure how you reached 17 AC (22 with Shield). If you're wearing Full Plate by then (which you should), you'd be at 18 + 2 from your shield, +1 from the Defense fighting style if you pick it up or 21 AC, 26 with Shield. Even if you don't grab Defense, that'd still be 20/25?
Now there are two ways to think about it here, there is the "for fun" way, in this situation, as long as you're having the most fun, every option is fine! If that's the way you want to play, go ahead! But if you took the time to write your idea here, I'm guessing its to get feedback on the mechanical side of things which is why I am writing the following so you can properly see the pros and cons of both options and make an informed decision, nothing more.
Mechanically, I fully agree with your plan up until Sorcerer, everything up to there is great. Especially if you end up dropping that second Hexblade level or at least delaying it until after your 3rd ASI at Pal 12. Still, once you reach that level 13 on your character, are you certain that you'll get to reach 20th level? If you're only getting 3-4 more levels after that, you're sacrificing quite a bit from just sticking to Paladin at that point. When you get there, I would look at the very next levels, 2-3 levels ahead, no more, you never know when the game will end at this point. Keep the option open, that's fine, but when you reach this point, you need to start breaking it down on a level by level basis, not as a 20th level character you might never get to play, this is the point I want to make sure you understand. If you do, and you still want to do it, go ahead, nobody's going to stop you, but make sure you know what you're trading away at every level.
Here's a quick rundown to help:
CL 14 - Pal 13 vs Sorc 1 = Same number of slots, effective caster level 7 but you're trading access to 4th level Pally spells for a handful of cantrips and 1st level spells and the 1st level sorc ability (telepathy in the Abherrant's case). So those 4th level slots are only going to be used to smite as sorc. I say the pally level is the most beneficial here, hands down.
CL 15 - Pal 14 vs Sorc 2 = 1 extra 4th level slot as sorc and access to sorcery points you can't really use yet vs Cleansing Touch which is very underrated. You get to end any one spell on any creature you want up to 5 times per long rest. It can be pretty sick to just walk up to a debilitated party member who's about to get a new ass torn open and just touch them and say "You're ok now". Again, pally level easily takes the win here as well.
CL 16 - Pal 15 vs Sorc 3 = You'd get a 2nd 4th level slot here vs another 4th and a 5th level slot you get as sorc here which is cool but just like with your 4th level slots, you can only use it to upcast something or use it on a smite if you already used all your 4th level slots but it won't do any more damage then your 4th level slots will anyway which is the max of 5d8. You also get access to sorc's 2nd level spells as well as your two metamagic options here as sorc (quicken, twin and subtle are all great, extended also has uses) but you still only have 3 SP so you won't be able to use it more then once or twice per day unless you start burning your spell slots and bonus actions for SP. Also, keep in mind that you're trading this for the 15th level Oath ability. Both of the ones proposed here are amazing, Soul of Vengeance really ups your damage potential and also helps in your tank role by incentivizing enemies to hit you instead of your ally next to you or suffer a smite-powered blow. In Ancient's case, you stop aging and you can basically avoid death once/long rest which is amazing on the tank character that HAS to stay up. Its basically a free Death Ward once per day that you don't need to spend a 4th level slot on. You also get your 3rd and final use of the Harness Divine Power ability, letting you recover a 3rd level spell slot 3x per long rest. Here, I'd say pally level wins again. As much as I love metamagic, the limited SP you get really puts a lid on how much usage you can get out of it.
CL 17 - Pal 16 vs Sorc 4 = They both give you an ASI which is nice, so this is where your Sorc levels start making up a bit of ground, you get your 2nd 5th level slot here as sorc. The sorc wins this exchange but by a hair errr.... spell slot. And that's if you even get here, if you haven't reached the end of your campaign yet, you're getting pretty damned close to it.
CL 18 - Pal 17 vs Sorc 5 = As a Pally, you're getting access to an extra 4th level slot as well as a 5th level slot and 5th level spells here. Many of which are fantastic. Holy Weapon is phenomenal and much better then Haste IMO, especially when you consider what happens when the spell ends. If you lose your concentration on Haste, you're basically out of the combat for a round. Holy Weapon is also efficient and pays for itself after only 3 attacks vs the damage it would have dealth on a smite. This can help you save your other slots for smiting when you're having boss-less encounters. Circle of Power is also amazing for a tank and your party will love you for it. Pretty much everybody within 10 feet of you who gets your aura of protection and also gets advantage on their saves vs all spells/magical effects will succeed. You're trading all this for another SP (5 now) and another upcasting slot (6th level) as well as access to 3rd level sorc spells. 3rd level sorc spells are nice, but they pale in comparison to pally 5th level spells IMO. Another win for the pally here for this level exchange specifically but the sorc levels are becoming more useful as you start getting more SP and spell slots to fuel your metamagic with.
CL 19 - Pal 18 vs Sorc 6 = This is a god tier Paladin ability, your auras are now extended to 30 feet, both Aura of Protection and Aura of Courage benefit here and your party will be able to maneuver around much more easily while staying within the protection of your auras. You're trading that away for the sorcerer's 6th level ability, in the Abherrant's case, that's basically just resistance vs psychic damage and advantage vs charmed since you're already immune to the frightened condition. You won't be burning up your SP to cast your psionic spells with, they're too few and too valuable for your metamagics. Another easy win for the pally here for this level exchange specifically IMO but again, sorc levels start adding up.
CL 20 - Pal 19 vs Sorc 7 vs Hex 2 = You're at the end of the road, if you actually get here, your campaign will most likely end in the next 2 or 3 sessions tops if it's roleplay-heavy. Here, I add Hex 2 as a viable option vs Pally 19 if you really don't need that 5th ASI for anything. The 1st level Warlock slot is meh but the invocations can be useful, I'd still rather get the Paladin level though to get that 2nd 5th level slot to cast with. If you stuck to Sorc, in exchange, you get your 7 total SP, a 7th level slot to upcast with or to make more SP with, you finally get access to 4th level spells which your paladin equivalent has been casting for the last 6 levels. Here, I'd say sorc wins the level by level comparison due to 4th level sorc spells being pretty good but its pretty close.
As you can see, from CL 14 to CL 17-18, you're going to be worst off then just sticking to Paladin and you're giving up many very strong defensive abilities which better fit with your tank/protector role the same way it was for me.
Anyway, sorry for the wall of text and I don't want to shoot down your idea or anything, I genuinely want to help and I hope this helps you understand what we're trying to explain here, which can be summed up into -> Don't get lured into the "build a 20th level character" trap.
Personally, my build is now only planned up to Pal 13/Hex 1, I refuse to look further until I get there. I was still considering taking some Hexblade levels at that point, Pal 13/Hex 7 can also be pretty good but, honestly, those 5th level Pally spells are so good, I will probably never look at another class for the rest of my character's carreer. Not to mention that Hex 2-5 would be pretty shitty for me, similar to your early sorcerer levels.
If you plan to be the tank, I suggest you strongly consider Shield Master. You’ll get the bonus action shove plus the improved saves and save for no damage effects. You’ll be very hard to kill. Combine that with the Ancients aura to protect against spells and you’ll be the fulcrum of your front line. Since Paladins don’t really use concentration spells that often, you may even consider taking it instead of Warcaster. You’ll probably get more use from Shield Master anyway.
If you plan to be the tank, I suggest you strongly consider Shield Master. You’ll get the bonus action shove plus the improved saves and save for no damage effects. You’ll be very hard to kill. Combine that with the Ancients aura to protect against spells and you’ll be the fulcrum of your front line. Since Paladins don’t really use concentration spells that often, you may even consider taking it instead of Warcaster. You’ll probably get more use from Shield Master anyway.
Paladins don't really use concentration spells that often? Are you actually serious? They have access to Bless....
Unless there's somebody else casting it, Bless will most likely be the most cast spell by a Paladin for most campaigns. Also Warcaster is not just for holding concentration, its also for casting reaction spells like Shield, Absorb Elements and Counterspell while your hands are full.
I can definitely tell the train of thought for those suggestions, and they're certainly fine builds, but it doesn't look like we're on the same page regarding what I'm going for. First and foremost, I'm building a tank (strong AC & saves). Utility and spells are nice, but the party should have a full-caster who'll have those spells LONG before the tank is anywhere close to getting them, and the character can't sacrifice efficiency in its primary role to try to fill other roles that other members of the party already have covered, and are doing so better than this character could.
Level 1: needs to be Paladin (1) for the heavy armor proficiency, because this character isn't invested in Dexterity. This level is set-up, and admittedly the character will be kind of rubbish for all of Level 1 (having only a +3 to Attack Rolls, and a +1 modifier on Damage)
Level 2: needs to be Hexblade warlock (1) for the ability to add Charisma to the Attack rolls and melee damage. At this point the character is functional, with its attack bonus and damage now being up to par with other classes. This also grants the shield spell at Level 2.
Level 3: needs to be Paladin (2) for Divine Smite, finally getting that additional damage one level later than a full Paladin. The Blind Fighting fighting style negates the disadvantage for attacking an invisible or blurred enemy, or from being blinded.
Levels 4-7: need to be Paladin (3-6) to get an ability score increase, the second attack and the Charisma bonus to saving throws as soon as possible.
The Vengeance Paladin gives a 1/short rest advantage on ALL attack rolls against a particular creature for a full minute. This is extremely powerful as it drastically increases your ability to land blows against enemies with extremely high AC. And if an enemy has a blur or invisibility effect up, this character is actually attacking at advantage instead of disadvantage, thanks to the Vow and Blind Fighting. That ability to reliably deal heavy damage to bosses is really important, especially since there's no saving throw against the Vow of Emnity, nor concentration to be broken. The Vengeance Paladin also has Haste added to its spell list.
The Ancients Paladin gives a 1/short rest ability to cause a singular enemy to make a strength or dexterity save of ITS CHOICE, that it can repeat every turn until it passes the save. That strikes me as very much inferior to the Vengeance Paladin's option.
At L7, Its worst save is Intelligence at a +3, while its best save is Charisma at a +11, its attack bonus is +7, and it has advantage against an otherwise hard-to-hit target for a minute, once per short rest, and it has a total of 8 smite slots, regaining one on a short rest. It has an armor class of 17 (22 after casting shield), and 30ft of movement.
The next priority is Haste for the extra movement, attack, and +2 to Armor Class. The shortest route to that is taking the next three levels in Vengeance Paladin which grants Haste, the L3 spell slots to cast it, and an ASI to spend on the Warcaster feat. This brings AC up to 19 (24 when casting shield), increases the movement speed to 60ft, and gives an extra action that can be an attack or a 60ft dash. Being able to move 120ft per turn and still attack, very few types of enemies could avoid this character.
At L10, on the first turn of combat, this character uses a Bonus action to put a Vow of emnity on the boss, an action to cast Haste, moves up to 60ft to get in range of the enemy, and then attacking once. on subsequent turns he's attacking three times, and he can use his bonus action on the second turn to put Hexblade's Curse on the boss if needed without losing any real action economy, because this character doesn't have much else to use bonus actions on until later levels.
All things considered, I believe the first 10 levels are pretty much nailed down for this character.
Now, I can skip the second level of Hexblade, because all it gives are two invocations and one spell slot, which aren't really needed anymore in the current version of the charcter build. That leaves me to decide when I want to transition to sorcerer levels. I've already got 10 levels assigned, so I can ignore the L14 abilities for the sorcerer.
Three more levels of Paladin (bringing the class levels to 12) grants another ASI (bringing Charisma up to 20) an extra 1d8 on all melee weapon damage rolls, immunity to fear, and an ability to pursue fleeing enemies on a reaction after making an attack of opportunity.
That leaves 7 levels of sorcerer, which give this character L4 spells known, but more importantly, the spell slots of a L13 caster, a total of 18 spell slots with the highest being L7 slots. Given the ability to up-cast spells with higher slots, and the fact that most of these slots are for smites anyway, this is perfectly fine.
I lean towards Aberrant Mind more than Divine Soul for the wider number of spells known, as well as the ability to summon aberrations directly from sorcery points without needing any verbal, somatic, or material components.
Sounds like a good plan. I think it can be tweaked depending on party composition, but it is a good general plan. I do think that Divine Soul is superior for the tank just because of the ability to get Spirit Guardians, but having your concentration spoken for with haste makes that a little superfluous. It seems like you are most worried about tanking the boss, which makes your design probably a bit better considering the better personal AC, increased movement, and increased chance to hit (and therefore crit and smite) through Haste's additional attack. The downside of haste causing you to miss a turn after it wears off is a high risk/high reward option, but the full minute time mitigates that some. Concentration becomes the weak point in the strategy, but having Aura of Protection and Warcaster mitigates that risk. Going with an elf reduces the risk of being put to sleep, gnome gives advantage on saving throws against magic that targets mental saves (potentially making strength the only save that doesn't have some kind of advantage on saves once haste is cast and Warcaster is in place), and Yuan-ti takes that across all saves against spells and other magical effects plus the poison immunity. Having a teammate that can and will cast Warding Bond on you makes you a personal terror for bosses.
However, having a teammate that can cast haste on you or a melee ally like a fighter or a rogue could make the build more potent with the ancients/ Divine Soul combination especially with the interception or protection fighting style. The "Aggro" would be generated by the teammate, while your auras would be protecting both of you and your fighting style would be used to further reduce incoming damage against the teammate. Spirit Guardians provides a lot of control in a 15 foot radius and causes damage on the enemy's turn if they try to get to you or your teammate, as well as block off a significant amount of space through its movement reduction. It's less about " boss main tanking" and more about off tanking the boss or about tanking groups of enemies.
Each build has it's strengths. Therefore, it depends on what you want to accomplish and whether you have fun playing the playstyle that the build dictates. It's also somewhat dependent on party composition and fight dynamics. The important part of choosing builds like this is understanding what you do well, what strategies work will against what you do well, and other points of weakness for your build. This allows you to have contingencies for moments when your build isn't working the greatest.
If you plan to be the tank, I suggest you strongly consider Shield Master. You’ll get the bonus action shove plus the improved saves and save for no damage effects. You’ll be very hard to kill. Combine that with the Ancients aura to protect against spells and you’ll be the fulcrum of your front line. Since Paladins don’t really use concentration spells that often, you may even consider taking it instead of Warcaster. You’ll probably get more use from Shield Master anyway.
Paladins don't really use concentration spells that often? Are you actually serious? They have access to Bless....
Unless there's somebody else casting it, Bless will most likely be the most cast spell by a Paladin for most campaigns. Also Warcaster is not just for holding concentration, its also for casting reaction spells like Shield, Absorb Elements and Counterspell while your hands are full.
Not to mention that the OP specifically mentioned using Haste as one of the main reasons to go Vengeance Paladin... and there's the Booming Blade AoO angle as well that favors Warcaster for a tanking Sorcadin/Hexadin/Sorlockadin.
Haste is fine and all but honestly you are going to get better mileage (and likely more damage) out of Spirit Guardians from the Divine Soul route or Crown....which is actually the second best tank behind Ancients IMO.
Vengeance is great do not get me wrong and but its focus is offensive damage and the build you describe (Hasting to be able to chase people down) sounds much more like an offensive machine than a "tank" at least by a common description. Its much more a single target nuke build....which is completely fine and is awesome in its own right.
Crown can cast Spiritual Guardian then do the Champion challenge to keep creatures near it and in harms way of the spirits. Getting Sorcerer levels helps here to upcast the spell so you are doing a great deal of damage per turn just having it up and the fact the best they can do is save for half the average damage is actually a lot better.
Pair that with something like War Caster so you can booming blade anything that tries to flee from you and you are a lockdown machine.
Haste is fine and all but honestly you are going to get better mileage (and likely more damage) out of Spirit Guardians from the Divine Soul route or Crown....which is actually the second best tank behind Ancients IMO.
Vengeance is great do not get me wrong and but its focus is offensive damage and the build you describe (Hasting to be able to chase people down) sounds much more like an offensive machine than a "tank" at least by a common description. Its much more a single target nuke build....which is completely fine and is awesome in its own right.
Crown can cast Spiritual Guardian then do the Champion challenge to keep creatures near it and in harms way of the spirits. Getting Sorcerer levels helps here to upcast the spell so you are doing a great deal of damage per turn just having it up and the fact the best they can do is save for half the average damage is actually a lot better.
Pair that with something like War Caster so you can booming blade anything that tries to flee from you and you are a lockdown machine.
Provided you take 7 or more levels of Sorcerer you can add Fire Shield to the mix after the Champion Challenge and one thing is guaranteed and that is pain lol.
OH yeah lots of options with the Divine soul as you get both class lists. Aberrant is good too as you have some decent control options there and I can't argue with summons being a good way to garner control as well as that makes multiple AoO a real possibility for someone trying to run.
Haste is fine and all but honestly you are going to get better mileage (and likely more damage) out of Spirit Guardians from the Divine Soul route or Crown....which is actually the second best tank behind Ancients IMO.
Vengeance is great do not get me wrong and but its focus is offensive damage and the build you describe (Hasting to be able to chase people down) sounds much more like an offensive machine than a "tank" at least by a common description. Its much more a single target nuke build....which is completely fine and is awesome in its own right.
Crown can cast Spiritual Guardian then do the Champion challenge to keep creatures near it and in harms way of the spirits. Getting Sorcerer levels helps here to upcast the spell so you are doing a great deal of damage per turn just having it up and the fact the best they can do is save for half the average damage is actually a lot better.
Pair that with something like War Caster so you can booming blade anything that tries to flee from you and you are a lockdown machine.
The reason for making sure this character is good at hitting and damage is to force the enemies deal with it. Haste gives me a 120ft movement so I can get in the enemy's face to make them put their attention on me. If I jump on the enemy's healer or battlefield controller, that should draw the agro from the enemy's heavy hitters much better than anything else I could do. To that end, I believe the advantage on attacks against an important enemy starting at level 4 from the Vengence Paladin (L3) will help this character significantly more than resistance to damage from spells that doesn't kick in until Level 8 (Ancients Paladin L7). And this character can get resistance to damage from spells at level 14 with the Absorb Elements spell, and he should be halving or negating the damage from most spells ever since L7 (Paladin level 6) due to his high saves.
Haste is fine and all but honestly you are going to get better mileage (and likely more damage) out of Spirit Guardians from the Divine Soul route or Crown....which is actually the second best tank behind Ancients IMO.
Vengeance is great do not get me wrong and but its focus is offensive damage and the build you describe (Hasting to be able to chase people down) sounds much more like an offensive machine than a "tank" at least by a common description. Its much more a single target nuke build....which is completely fine and is awesome in its own right.
Crown can cast Spiritual Guardian then do the Champion challenge to keep creatures near it and in harms way of the spirits. Getting Sorcerer levels helps here to upcast the spell so you are doing a great deal of damage per turn just having it up and the fact the best they can do is save for half the average damage is actually a lot better.
Pair that with something like War Caster so you can booming blade anything that tries to flee from you and you are a lockdown machine.
The reason for making sure this character is good at hitting and damage is to force the enemies deal with it. Haste gives me a 120ft movement so I can get in the enemy's face to make them put their attention on me. If I jump on the enemy's healer or battlefield controller, that should draw the agro from the enemy's heavy hitters much better than anything else I could do. To that end, I believe the advantage on attacks against an important enemy starting at level 4 from the Vengence Paladin (L3) will help this character significantly more than resistance to damage from spells that doesn't kick in until Level 8 (Ancients Paladin L7). And this character can get resistance to damage from spells at level 14 with the Absorb Elements spell, and he should be halving or negating the damage from most spells ever since L7 (Paladin level 6) due to his high saves.
If you use spiritual guardians they will be forced to deal with you though...because they are slowed and you are whipping their ass while they are within 15 ft of you and they will either have to keep getting their ass whooped or they will have to eat an AoO smite.
Adv is good but its one enemy once per short rest for vengeance...which is certainly good but not super reliable either. I would say forcing someone to stay near you while having a high damage spell up would be a better tank role honestly.
If you use spiritual guardians they will be forced to deal with you though...because they are slowed and you are whipping their ass while they are within 15 ft of you and they will either have to keep getting their ass whooped or they will have to eat an AoO smite.
Adv is good but its one enemy once per short rest for vengeance...which is certainly good but not super reliable either. I would say forcing someone to stay near you while having a high damage spell up would be a better tank role honestly.
I'm not sure what you mean by "AoE smite", because smites specifically only apply to melee weapon attacks, which means it doesn't apply spiritual guardians.
And the Vow of Enmity coupled with Haste prevents an enemy from getting away from me without it fleeing the fight altogether (again, I've got 120ft of movement while still being able to attack twice, and I can Eldritch Blast that I can used instead of the two attacks in case they're further than that. I'd also bring up again that the Vow of Enmity comes into play at Level 4, and there's no save to avoid it or get rid of it, so it's extremely reliable.
My concern spiritual guardians is that my movement is only 30ft, not 120, and the range of the spell is only 15 feet, so enemies can definitely get or stay out of range, especially if they're ranged combatants.
If you use spiritual guardians they will be forced to deal with you though...because they are slowed and you are whipping their ass while they are within 15 ft of you and they will either have to keep getting their ass whooped or they will have to eat an AoO smite.
Adv is good but its one enemy once per short rest for vengeance...which is certainly good but not super reliable either. I would say forcing someone to stay near you while having a high damage spell up would be a better tank role honestly.
I'm not sure what you mean by "AoE smite", because smites specifically only apply to melee weapon attacks, which means it doesn't apply spiritual guardians.
And the Vow of Enmity coupled with Haste prevents an enemy from getting away from me without it fleeing the fight altogether (again, I've got 120ft of movement while still being able to attack twice, and I can Eldritch Blast that I can used instead of the two attacks in case they're further than that. I'd also bring up again that the Vow of Enmity comes into play at Level 4, and there's no save to avoid it or get rid of it, so it's extremely reliable.
My concern spiritual guardians is that my movement is only 30ft, not 120, and the range of the spell is only 15 feet, so enemies can definitely get or stay out of range, especially if they're ranged combatants.
He said "AoO" meaning, attack of opportunity. Its pretty easy to pull one off if an enemy tries to get your backline usually. And Spirit Guardians makes that easier by halving their speed while in your area of effect. Allies are already going to stick close to you for that Aura of Prot so the AoE damage from the spell will be unavoidable and they won't be able to get past you without you being able to use your Reaction to make an AoO attack as they try and run past you. With War Caster, that lets you stack Booming Blade with a Divine Smite. It is a very offensive-minded build that also achieves the tanking role thanks to the utility of such spells. Especially if you start upcasting it using a 7th level slot and dealing 7d8 dmg to everything around you and yeah, you'll get their attention.
As for your 120 ft of movement, if you're riding a Warhorse who has 60 ft (and eventually a Pegasus or Griffon), it can use its action to dash for you giving you 120 ft of movement and eventually flight. When you don't make him use the action, he takes the Dodge action by default. See the rules on Mounted Combat here:
Spells are your big weakness though, Shield Master as previously mentioned does help a bit with that and also gives you a nice bonus action option to grant yourself and allies easy advantage. Ancients doesn't have that same weakness thanks to its 7th level Aura which is why it makes a better defensive tank and Crown doesn't need to wait until he dips into Sorc to get it since its part of his spell list so he achieves that level of control faster.
The very best control tank Oath though IMO is a Paladin's Oath of Conquest but that's if your DM lets you since its hard to justify the class in a good-aligned party but otherwise, its a very strong candidate. Its fear aura that locks everything in place at 7th level (and getting Fear at 9th), this makes him able to handle multiple foes with ease and, once the paladin reaches 18th level, one of the best control options ever when it expands to 30 feet.
Anyway, there are tons of options, in the end, a Paladin is very versatile and so is a sorc, either option will let you be an efficient tank and using many different ways to protect your party, even if you play a more offensive-minded variant.
The reason for making sure this character is good at hitting and damage is to force the enemies deal with it. Haste gives me a 120ft movement so I can get in the enemy's face to make them put their attention on me. If I jump on the enemy's healer or battlefield controller, that should draw the agro from the enemy's heavy hitters much better than anything else I could do.
Technically, that's not necessarily true and probably a less efficient tactic then just placing yourself between them and your backline and preventing them through you at all thanks to stuff like Spirit Guardians, reach, Sentinel and/or other control/utility options. If you leave your party's side to go up to a specific target, that may leave other enemies easy access to your backline. Not all enemies are going to care if you target a specific enemy and if you're on the other side of the battlefield, they're not going to suddenly drop everything they are doing and start dashing towards you to save him when your squishy allies are just 10 feet away.
This is especially true if you're talking about undead or a BBEG's minions who may just want to quickly try to dispose of your now vulnerable allies and THEN turn their attention on you. If your goal is to tank, your main task is to both protect your allies and draw the enemy's attention. Enemies will very quickly target/surround squishy targets if they have access to them, whether you're targetting their healer/caster (especially if they have more then one) or if they are intelligent and they were purposefully ordered to go after the weaker members.
Just keep in mind that "Haste" is not the be all end all spell you should always be concentrating on. Its good and useful, sure. But it's definitely not your best option as a tank. It is much more offensive-orriented and you still trigger attacks of opportunity if you just run through the enemy ranks. It doesn't matter what your concentration check can go up to if there are enough enemies to make you roll the check 10+ times. Not to mention that an enemy caster could simply cast Dispel Magic on you and get rid of your Haste AND stop you in your tracks for one whole round as the spell is forcefully removed from your character.
Spirit Guardians (barring access to that, Spirit Shroud is a decent replacement, not as good but good enough), Bless, Crusader's Mantle, Circle of Power and the Aura of Life/Purity spells are all better utility options that your whole party can benefit from. Especially if you have allies that use Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master, Bless becomes indispensible at increasing the entiry party's damage output. It is currently my go-to spell and has been for awhile with my Barbarian ally who uses GWM and my Artificer ally who uses Sharpshooter. If that latter one also combines Faery Fire with my Bless, we basically stop missing altogether and everything in that area dies within 2 turns. The other option I really like using is Compelled Duel or Warding Bond if something manages to sneak around and attack a squishier teammate.
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For the Ancients Paladin part, we're not talking about the Channel Divinity for which yes, the Vengeance option is better which is 1/short rest as well, we're talking about the 7th level permanent Aura of Warding which grants resistance to all spells all the time as long as you are conscious which is ridiculous. This is WAY better then the Vengeance Paladin's 7th level feature and extends to your party members which makes you a much better tank.
Also, not sure how you reached 17 AC (22 with Shield). If you're wearing Full Plate by then (which you should), you'd be at 18 + 2 from your shield, +1 from the Defense fighting style if you pick it up or 21 AC, 26 with Shield. Even if you don't grab Defense, that'd still be 20/25?
Now there are two ways to think about it here, there is the "for fun" way, in this situation, as long as you're having the most fun, every option is fine! If that's the way you want to play, go ahead! But if you took the time to write your idea here, I'm guessing its to get feedback on the mechanical side of things which is why I am writing the following so you can properly see the pros and cons of both options and make an informed decision, nothing more.
Mechanically, I fully agree with your plan up until Sorcerer, everything up to there is great. Especially if you end up dropping that second Hexblade level or at least delaying it until after your 3rd ASI at Pal 12. Still, once you reach that level 13 on your character, are you certain that you'll get to reach 20th level? If you're only getting 3-4 more levels after that, you're sacrificing quite a bit from just sticking to Paladin at that point. When you get there, I would look at the very next levels, 2-3 levels ahead, no more, you never know when the game will end at this point. Keep the option open, that's fine, but when you reach this point, you need to start breaking it down on a level by level basis, not as a 20th level character you might never get to play, this is the point I want to make sure you understand. If you do, and you still want to do it, go ahead, nobody's going to stop you, but make sure you know what you're trading away at every level.
Here's a quick rundown to help:
As you can see, from CL 14 to CL 17-18, you're going to be worst off then just sticking to Paladin and you're giving up many very strong defensive abilities which better fit with your tank/protector role the same way it was for me.
Anyway, sorry for the wall of text and I don't want to shoot down your idea or anything, I genuinely want to help and I hope this helps you understand what we're trying to explain here, which can be summed up into -> Don't get lured into the "build a 20th level character" trap.
Personally, my build is now only planned up to Pal 13/Hex 1, I refuse to look further until I get there. I was still considering taking some Hexblade levels at that point, Pal 13/Hex 7 can also be pretty good but, honestly, those 5th level Pally spells are so good, I will probably never look at another class for the rest of my character's carreer. Not to mention that Hex 2-5 would be pretty shitty for me, similar to your early sorcerer levels.
If you plan to be the tank, I suggest you strongly consider Shield Master. You’ll get the bonus action shove plus the improved saves and save for no damage effects. You’ll be very hard to kill. Combine that with the Ancients aura to protect against spells and you’ll be the fulcrum of your front line. Since Paladins don’t really use concentration spells that often, you may even consider taking it instead of Warcaster. You’ll probably get more use from Shield Master anyway.
Paladins don't really use concentration spells that often? Are you actually serious? They have access to Bless....
Unless there's somebody else casting it, Bless will most likely be the most cast spell by a Paladin for most campaigns. Also Warcaster is not just for holding concentration, its also for casting reaction spells like Shield, Absorb Elements and Counterspell while your hands are full.
Sounds like a good plan. I think it can be tweaked depending on party composition, but it is a good general plan. I do think that Divine Soul is superior for the tank just because of the ability to get Spirit Guardians, but having your concentration spoken for with haste makes that a little superfluous. It seems like you are most worried about tanking the boss, which makes your design probably a bit better considering the better personal AC, increased movement, and increased chance to hit (and therefore crit and smite) through Haste's additional attack. The downside of haste causing you to miss a turn after it wears off is a high risk/high reward option, but the full minute time mitigates that some. Concentration becomes the weak point in the strategy, but having Aura of Protection and Warcaster mitigates that risk. Going with an elf reduces the risk of being put to sleep, gnome gives advantage on saving throws against magic that targets mental saves (potentially making strength the only save that doesn't have some kind of advantage on saves once haste is cast and Warcaster is in place), and Yuan-ti takes that across all saves against spells and other magical effects plus the poison immunity. Having a teammate that can and will cast Warding Bond on you makes you a personal terror for bosses.
However, having a teammate that can cast haste on you or a melee ally like a fighter or a rogue could make the build more potent with the ancients/ Divine Soul combination especially with the interception or protection fighting style. The "Aggro" would be generated by the teammate, while your auras would be protecting both of you and your fighting style would be used to further reduce incoming damage against the teammate. Spirit Guardians provides a lot of control in a 15 foot radius and causes damage on the enemy's turn if they try to get to you or your teammate, as well as block off a significant amount of space through its movement reduction. It's less about " boss main tanking" and more about off tanking the boss or about tanking groups of enemies.
Each build has it's strengths. Therefore, it depends on what you want to accomplish and whether you have fun playing the playstyle that the build dictates. It's also somewhat dependent on party composition and fight dynamics. The important part of choosing builds like this is understanding what you do well, what strategies work will against what you do well, and other points of weakness for your build. This allows you to have contingencies for moments when your build isn't working the greatest.
Not to mention that the OP specifically mentioned using Haste as one of the main reasons to go Vengeance Paladin... and there's the Booming Blade AoO angle as well that favors Warcaster for a tanking Sorcadin/Hexadin/Sorlockadin.
Haste is fine and all but honestly you are going to get better mileage (and likely more damage) out of Spirit Guardians from the Divine Soul route or Crown....which is actually the second best tank behind Ancients IMO.
Vengeance is great do not get me wrong and but its focus is offensive damage and the build you describe (Hasting to be able to chase people down) sounds much more like an offensive machine than a "tank" at least by a common description. Its much more a single target nuke build....which is completely fine and is awesome in its own right.
Crown can cast Spiritual Guardian then do the Champion challenge to keep creatures near it and in harms way of the spirits. Getting Sorcerer levels helps here to upcast the spell so you are doing a great deal of damage per turn just having it up and the fact the best they can do is save for half the average damage is actually a lot better.
Pair that with something like War Caster so you can booming blade anything that tries to flee from you and you are a lockdown machine.
Provided you take 7 or more levels of Sorcerer you can add Fire Shield to the mix after the Champion Challenge and one thing is guaranteed and that is pain lol.
OH yeah lots of options with the Divine soul as you get both class lists. Aberrant is good too as you have some decent control options there and I can't argue with summons being a good way to garner control as well as that makes multiple AoO a real possibility for someone trying to run.
The reason for making sure this character is good at hitting and damage is to force the enemies deal with it. Haste gives me a 120ft movement so I can get in the enemy's face to make them put their attention on me. If I jump on the enemy's healer or battlefield controller, that should draw the agro from the enemy's heavy hitters much better than anything else I could do. To that end, I believe the advantage on attacks against an important enemy starting at level 4 from the Vengence Paladin (L3) will help this character significantly more than resistance to damage from spells that doesn't kick in until Level 8 (Ancients Paladin L7). And this character can get resistance to damage from spells at level 14 with the Absorb Elements spell, and he should be halving or negating the damage from most spells ever since L7 (Paladin level 6) due to his high saves.
If you use spiritual guardians they will be forced to deal with you though...because they are slowed and you are whipping their ass while they are within 15 ft of you and they will either have to keep getting their ass whooped or they will have to eat an AoO smite.
Adv is good but its one enemy once per short rest for vengeance...which is certainly good but not super reliable either. I would say forcing someone to stay near you while having a high damage spell up would be a better tank role honestly.
I'm not sure what you mean by "AoE smite", because smites specifically only apply to melee weapon attacks, which means it doesn't apply spiritual guardians.
And the Vow of Enmity coupled with Haste prevents an enemy from getting away from me without it fleeing the fight altogether (again, I've got 120ft of movement while still being able to attack twice, and I can Eldritch Blast that I can used instead of the two attacks in case they're further than that. I'd also bring up again that the Vow of Enmity comes into play at Level 4, and there's no save to avoid it or get rid of it, so it's extremely reliable.
My concern spiritual guardians is that my movement is only 30ft, not 120, and the range of the spell is only 15 feet, so enemies can definitely get or stay out of range, especially if they're ranged combatants.
He said "AoO" meaning, attack of opportunity. Its pretty easy to pull one off if an enemy tries to get your backline usually. And Spirit Guardians makes that easier by halving their speed while in your area of effect. Allies are already going to stick close to you for that Aura of Prot so the AoE damage from the spell will be unavoidable and they won't be able to get past you without you being able to use your Reaction to make an AoO attack as they try and run past you. With War Caster, that lets you stack Booming Blade with a Divine Smite. It is a very offensive-minded build that also achieves the tanking role thanks to the utility of such spells. Especially if you start upcasting it using a 7th level slot and dealing 7d8 dmg to everything around you and yeah, you'll get their attention.
As for your 120 ft of movement, if you're riding a Warhorse who has 60 ft (and eventually a Pegasus or Griffon), it can use its action to dash for you giving you 120 ft of movement and eventually flight. When you don't make him use the action, he takes the Dodge action by default. See the rules on Mounted Combat here:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/phb/combat#MountedCombat
Spells are your big weakness though, Shield Master as previously mentioned does help a bit with that and also gives you a nice bonus action option to grant yourself and allies easy advantage. Ancients doesn't have that same weakness thanks to its 7th level Aura which is why it makes a better defensive tank and Crown doesn't need to wait until he dips into Sorc to get it since its part of his spell list so he achieves that level of control faster.
The very best control tank Oath though IMO is a Paladin's Oath of Conquest but that's if your DM lets you since its hard to justify the class in a good-aligned party but otherwise, its a very strong candidate. Its fear aura that locks everything in place at 7th level (and getting Fear at 9th), this makes him able to handle multiple foes with ease and, once the paladin reaches 18th level, one of the best control options ever when it expands to 30 feet.
Anyway, there are tons of options, in the end, a Paladin is very versatile and so is a sorc, either option will let you be an efficient tank and using many different ways to protect your party, even if you play a more offensive-minded variant.
Technically, that's not necessarily true and probably a less efficient tactic then just placing yourself between them and your backline and preventing them through you at all thanks to stuff like Spirit Guardians, reach, Sentinel and/or other control/utility options. If you leave your party's side to go up to a specific target, that may leave other enemies easy access to your backline. Not all enemies are going to care if you target a specific enemy and if you're on the other side of the battlefield, they're not going to suddenly drop everything they are doing and start dashing towards you to save him when your squishy allies are just 10 feet away.
This is especially true if you're talking about undead or a BBEG's minions who may just want to quickly try to dispose of your now vulnerable allies and THEN turn their attention on you. If your goal is to tank, your main task is to both protect your allies and draw the enemy's attention. Enemies will very quickly target/surround squishy targets if they have access to them, whether you're targetting their healer/caster (especially if they have more then one) or if they are intelligent and they were purposefully ordered to go after the weaker members.
Just keep in mind that "Haste" is not the be all end all spell you should always be concentrating on. Its good and useful, sure. But it's definitely not your best option as a tank. It is much more offensive-orriented and you still trigger attacks of opportunity if you just run through the enemy ranks. It doesn't matter what your concentration check can go up to if there are enough enemies to make you roll the check 10+ times. Not to mention that an enemy caster could simply cast Dispel Magic on you and get rid of your Haste AND stop you in your tracks for one whole round as the spell is forcefully removed from your character.
Spirit Guardians (barring access to that, Spirit Shroud is a decent replacement, not as good but good enough), Bless, Crusader's Mantle, Circle of Power and the Aura of Life/Purity spells are all better utility options that your whole party can benefit from. Especially if you have allies that use Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master, Bless becomes indispensible at increasing the entiry party's damage output. It is currently my go-to spell and has been for awhile with my Barbarian ally who uses GWM and my Artificer ally who uses Sharpshooter. If that latter one also combines Faery Fire with my Bless, we basically stop missing altogether and everything in that area dies within 2 turns. The other option I really like using is Compelled Duel or Warding Bond if something manages to sneak around and attack a squishier teammate.