Hello everybody! I'm currently playing a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Hexblade at Level 7; She/Her. I've been thinking about some good multiclass ideas. Also we're playing a bit of a homebrew version of Out of the Abyss.
My party currently has a Battlemaster Sharpshooter, a Assassin Rouge and a Circle of Stars Druid. We lost our front-line Paladin due to some conflicts and problems so now we're missing someone in the front. We do have a bunch of NPCs that can fill that space but I really don't want our group to be split up and then I'm all alone in front and am constantly at the brink of death.
I have been advised to go the Paladin route only to level 2 or 6 (?) and the Fighter Echo Knight route, problem is I've been getting very mixed an biased info and I don't really find anything online that can give a bit more insight. My DM has agreed to let me muticlass into Paladin with my Dex instead of Strength. I'm also quite new to DnD so a lot is still confusing. I've been seeing people calling out Heavy Armor Prof but that only applies if you start with paladin or fighter, right? Also she used to wield a spear and my first idea was to make her use a glaive but after some emotional stuff happening she is now wielding a Long sword & Shield combo. She also has the Fey Touched feat. Invocs are Improved Pact Blade (obvs), Thirsting Blade (obvs), Eldritch Smite (obvs) & Devils Sight.
AC is 18 and 16 w/o shield cuz she got a Breastplate a few sessions ago. Stats: Str 8 (-1) | Dex 14 (+2) | Con 14 (+2) | Int 11 (0) | Wis 10 (0) | Cha 18 (+4)
I'd like for some help deciding with which path would be best for her. Thank you all in advance <3 ;;;
DnD mechanics don't really work with "tanks" or "frontline" fighters since a) enemies can attack whoever they want, DnD doesn't have aggro mechanics, and b) casters that multi-class properly are far more tanky than any martial character anyways. That said, Hexblade/Paladin is a very standard multiclass for a reason (it's REALLY powerful). 6 levels of Paladin for Divine Smite + enough spellslots to power smites + Aura of Protection is a great idea if you want to blow things up. Hexblade/Fighter isn't really a common thing, but dipping 2 levels in Fighter for Action Surge is never a bad idea for anyone.
Multiclassing into Paladin or Fighter really only helps your damage though - you already have all the tankiness you need as a Hexblade with medium armor + shield. With Rules As Written you don't get heavy armor proficiency after multiclassing - many DMs will let you bend the rules there since it's kind of silly but with your 14 Dex it's not like Plate Armor is even much better than Half Plate anyways.
I think Echo Knight actually works well as a "tank" class. The Echo's presence on the battlefield does two things for you... it gives you additional opportunities for Attacks of Opportunity, and it also puts a disposable target on the battlefield that can tank hits for you. With just a 3 level dip into fighter you get all the benefits of your Echo... it increases in power based on your Proficiency bonus and your Constitution score, not your Fighter level, so you're not any worse off for not taking more levels of Fighter. Even though it can only take one hit before vanishing, you can bring it back at no resource cost with a bonus action round-after-round, and every attack that hits your echo is an attack that's not hitting an important character.
Echo Knight - the key here is to also have Sentinel, this allows you to use your Echo to hold off 1 enemy with an AoO that shuts down their movement. It also gives you more of an option to stay back with your friends and just send your echo out in front of you - effectively giving you 45 reach with your weapon attacks on your turn. In terms of surviving on the front lines you're not really getting anything else here,you will have Second Wind but with just a dip at high levels that's not going to do a whole lot for you. Basically if you love strategic positioning and you have the Sentinel feat (or can get it) Echo Knight is really fun.
Paladin - all the posts above are wrong, the major reason to go Paladin is to get some low level slots for Shield (which you can grab off the Hexblade expanded spell list). Shield brings your AC up to 23 and with Magic Resistance from Yuan'ti you should be good on saving throws. Definitely take it all the way to level 6 if you want to front-line as the +4 to saves from the Aura with your Magic Resistance (and grab Shield Master feat) would make you unstoppable. Paladin's Lay on Hands is often better than Second Wind too, and you get some bonus action defensive spells like Shield of Faith which would be good in campaigns with many small combats per day.
Other options:
3 levels of Divine Sorcerer - this not only gets you a bunch of low level slots for Shield, but also gets you Metamagic which you'll want to take Quicken Spell from so that you can Quicken defensive spells like Mirror Image, Blur, or Haste at the start of combat. -> Alternatively you could just take Metamagic Adept at 8-Warlock to get this 1/day if your campaign doesn't have a tone of combats per adventuring day.
5 levels of Swords Bard - again a ton of low level slots for Shield, plus the Defensive Flourish to further up your AC to 26 or even higher. You also can grab the Dueling Fighting Style to boost your weapon attacks further.
Shield Master feat -> this can significantly improve your survivability vs AoE which can be pretty useful in tier 2+.
Echo Knight - the key here is to also have Sentinel, this allows you to use your Echo to hold off 1 enemy with an AoO that shuts down their movement. It also gives you more of an option to stay back with your friends and just send your echo out in front of you - effectively giving you 45 reach with your weapon attacks on your turn. In terms of surviving on the front lines you're not really getting anything else here,you will have Second Wind but with just a dip at high levels that's not going to do a whole lot for you. Basically if you love strategic positioning and you have the Sentinel feat (or can get it) Echo Knight is really fun.
Paladin - all the posts above are wrong, the major reason to go Paladin is to get some low level slots for Shield (which you can grab off the Hexblade expanded spell list). Shield brings your AC up to 23 and with Magic Resistance from Yuan'ti you should be good on saving throws. Definitely take it all the way to level 6 if you want to front-line as the +4 to saves from the Aura with your Magic Resistance (and grab Shield Master feat) would make you unstoppable. Paladin's Lay on Hands is often better than Second Wind too, and you get some bonus action defensive spells like Shield of Faith which would be good in campaigns with many small combats per day.
Other options:
3 levels of Divine Sorcerer - this not only gets you a bunch of low level slots for Shield, but also gets you Metamagic which you'll want to take Quicken Spell from so that you can Quicken defensive spells like Mirror Image, Blur, or Haste at the start of combat. -> Alternatively you could just take Metamagic Adept at 8-Warlock to get this 1/day if your campaign doesn't have a tone of combats per adventuring day.
5 levels of Swords Bard - again a ton of low level slots for Shield, plus the Defensive Flourish to further up your AC to 26 or even higher. You also can grab the Dueling Fighting Style to boost your weapon attacks further.
Shield Master feat -> this can significantly improve your survivability vs AoE which can be pretty useful in tier 2+.
I think that's a good point... the focus in this thread has mostly been on martial fighters, but a Hexblade Warlock is already a solid a Martial Fighter on its own, and in many ways just getting more spell slots will have direct impact on combat more directly than, say... taking a few levels in a class with a higher Hit die.
Paladin smites..boss melts. Encounter over. Lay on hands. It’s just junk design.
Don't forget about the Invocation Eldritch Smite, which is arguably even better than Divine Smite for a Hexblade Warlock. Same damage as Divine Smite (except against Undead), force damage instead of radiant (force is the least resisted damage type in the game), and can knock anything but Gargantuan monsters prone with no saving throw required.
Eldritch Smite
Prerequisites: 5th level, Pact of the Blade
Once per turn when you hit a creature with your pact weapon, you can expend a warlock spell slot to deal an extra 1d8 force damage to the target, plus another 1d8 per level of the spell slot, and you can knock the target prone if it is Huge or smaller.
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Hello everybody!
I'm currently playing a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Hexblade at Level 7; She/Her. I've been thinking about some good multiclass ideas.
Also we're playing a bit of a homebrew version of Out of the Abyss.
My party currently has a Battlemaster Sharpshooter, a Assassin Rouge and a Circle of Stars Druid. We lost our front-line Paladin due to some conflicts and problems so now we're missing someone in the front. We do have a bunch of NPCs that can fill that space but I really don't want our group to be split up and then I'm all alone in front and am constantly at the brink of death.
I have been advised to go the Paladin route only to level 2 or 6 (?) and the Fighter Echo Knight route, problem is I've been getting very mixed an biased info and I don't really find anything online that can give a bit more insight. My DM has agreed to let me muticlass into Paladin with my Dex instead of Strength.
I'm also quite new to DnD so a lot is still confusing. I've been seeing people calling out Heavy Armor Prof but that only applies if you start with paladin or fighter, right?
Also she used to wield a spear and my first idea was to make her use a glaive but after some emotional stuff happening she is now wielding a Long sword & Shield combo.
She also has the Fey Touched feat. Invocs are Improved Pact Blade (obvs), Thirsting Blade (obvs), Eldritch Smite (obvs) & Devils Sight.
AC is 18 and 16 w/o shield cuz she got a Breastplate a few sessions ago.
Stats:
Str 8 (-1) | Dex 14 (+2) | Con 14 (+2) | Int 11 (0) | Wis 10 (0) | Cha 18 (+4)
I'd like for some help deciding with which path would be best for her. Thank you all in advance <3 ;;;
DnD mechanics don't really work with "tanks" or "frontline" fighters since a) enemies can attack whoever they want, DnD doesn't have aggro mechanics, and b) casters that multi-class properly are far more tanky than any martial character anyways. That said, Hexblade/Paladin is a very standard multiclass for a reason (it's REALLY powerful). 6 levels of Paladin for Divine Smite + enough spellslots to power smites + Aura of Protection is a great idea if you want to blow things up. Hexblade/Fighter isn't really a common thing, but dipping 2 levels in Fighter for Action Surge is never a bad idea for anyone.
Multiclassing into Paladin or Fighter really only helps your damage though - you already have all the tankiness you need as a Hexblade with medium armor + shield. With Rules As Written you don't get heavy armor proficiency after multiclassing - many DMs will let you bend the rules there since it's kind of silly but with your 14 Dex it's not like Plate Armor is even much better than Half Plate anyways.
I think Echo Knight actually works well as a "tank" class. The Echo's presence on the battlefield does two things for you... it gives you additional opportunities for Attacks of Opportunity, and it also puts a disposable target on the battlefield that can tank hits for you. With just a 3 level dip into fighter you get all the benefits of your Echo... it increases in power based on your Proficiency bonus and your Constitution score, not your Fighter level, so you're not any worse off for not taking more levels of Fighter. Even though it can only take one hit before vanishing, you can bring it back at no resource cost with a bonus action round-after-round, and every attack that hits your echo is an attack that's not hitting an important character.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Paladin. It’s easy mode for d&d. AC and hp equal to fighter. Heals like a cleric/nukes the boss in one round.
There are pros and cons to each choice:
Echo Knight - the key here is to also have Sentinel, this allows you to use your Echo to hold off 1 enemy with an AoO that shuts down their movement. It also gives you more of an option to stay back with your friends and just send your echo out in front of you - effectively giving you 45 reach with your weapon attacks on your turn. In terms of surviving on the front lines you're not really getting anything else here,you will have Second Wind but with just a dip at high levels that's not going to do a whole lot for you. Basically if you love strategic positioning and you have the Sentinel feat (or can get it) Echo Knight is really fun.
Paladin - all the posts above are wrong, the major reason to go Paladin is to get some low level slots for Shield (which you can grab off the Hexblade expanded spell list). Shield brings your AC up to 23 and with Magic Resistance from Yuan'ti you should be good on saving throws. Definitely take it all the way to level 6 if you want to front-line as the +4 to saves from the Aura with your Magic Resistance (and grab Shield Master feat) would make you unstoppable. Paladin's Lay on Hands is often better than Second Wind too, and you get some bonus action defensive spells like Shield of Faith which would be good in campaigns with many small combats per day.
Other options:
3 levels of Divine Sorcerer - this not only gets you a bunch of low level slots for Shield, but also gets you Metamagic which you'll want to take Quicken Spell from so that you can Quicken defensive spells like Mirror Image, Blur, or Haste at the start of combat. -> Alternatively you could just take Metamagic Adept at 8-Warlock to get this 1/day if your campaign doesn't have a tone of combats per adventuring day.
5 levels of Swords Bard - again a ton of low level slots for Shield, plus the Defensive Flourish to further up your AC to 26 or even higher. You also can grab the Dueling Fighting Style to boost your weapon attacks further.
Shield Master feat -> this can significantly improve your survivability vs AoE which can be pretty useful in tier 2+.
I think that's a good point... the focus in this thread has mostly been on martial fighters, but a Hexblade Warlock is already a solid a Martial Fighter on its own, and in many ways just getting more spell slots will have direct impact on combat more directly than, say... taking a few levels in a class with a higher Hit die.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Paladin smites..boss melts. Encounter over. Lay on hands. It’s just junk design.
Don't forget about the Invocation Eldritch Smite, which is arguably even better than Divine Smite for a Hexblade Warlock. Same damage as Divine Smite (except against Undead), force damage instead of radiant (force is the least resisted damage type in the game), and can knock anything but Gargantuan monsters prone with no saving throw required.