I recently started playing D&D and am in my first long term campaign. My character is a dragon-born s&b fighter in a party with a druid, warlock, barbarian, and two rogues. After several sessions, we got in a tough spot with the undead BBEG and realized we were severely lacking in healing ability. It was almost a TPK. When we hit level 3 the DM let me multi to paladin because in his words “It just gets worse from here.” So as of right now my character is a fighter2/paladin1 I was thinking he’d be a backup/support tank & backup healer with the ability to deal damage if needed. Any advice on build direction would be greatly appreciated.
For general builds, you automatically become a strong backup/support with the ability to deal damage just by being a Paladin, regardless of your archetype. Basic Paladin class features and spells are heavily skewed towards very good combat support and utility while still having access to decent healing abilities, even if they're not the strongest. Then if dealing damage is the better choice over casting a support/healing spell, Divine Smite falls perfectly under "the ability to deal damage if needed."
As far as Divine Smite goes, it maxes out at Paladin level 16. This is because using a 4th or 5th level spell slot for Divine Smite will deal the same bonus damage (5d8 or 6d8 vs. undead) and Paladin's get their 5th level spell slots at Paladin level 17. Improved Divine Smite gives you an extra 1d8 at Paladin level 11 (making it max 6d8 or 7d8 vs. undead at Paladin level 16).
For all builds, if you want to maximize your ASI/Feats:
(A) Fighter 3-5/Paladin 17-15: 4 ASI
(B) Fighter 4-6-7-9-10/Paladin 16-14-13-11-10: 5 ASI
(C) Fighter 8/Paladin 12: 6 ASI
(D) Fighter 16/Paladin 4: 7 ASI
I think no matter what you want to get each to level 3 for the archetype/oath. Most of my advice will assume you go Paladin heavy, and if you want a good Divine Smite which maxes at Paladin 16, your first long-term choice is between build (A) and (B). Do you want an extra ASI or do you want a single 5th level spell slot that also gives an extra Divine Smite per day, but no bonus damage for using that 5th level spell vs. a 4th level.
After these considerations, I always like to look for places where I can improve synergy and avoid redundancy. These are tied in mostly with the archetypes/oaths, but some base class features are worth taking note as well.
An example of redundancy is that a Fighter and Paladin both get the Extra Attack class feature at level 5, but a Fighter 5/Paladin 5 still only gets one extra attack. Fighter 11-15/Paladin 5 gets two extra attacks. Whichever class reaches level 5 second essentially gains no class feature for that level, offset a little bit by the Paladin gaining their 2nd level spell slots at Paladin 5 (the Eldritch Knight doesn't gain 2nd level spell slots until Fighter 7).
But if you were to continue to gain more Fighter levels after that, then you can gain synergy as Fighter 9/Paladin 6. Indomitable allows you to reroll failed saving throws, while Aura of Protection gives you a bonus to all saving throws, including the reroll.
Notice here that if you go Fighter 5/Paladin 5, The most ASI you could gain is 6 (not bad) if you continue to take more Fighter levels, but going Fighter 5/Paladin 15 leaves you with only 4 ASI which is not so good while being stuck on a redundant level for Fighter. Reaching for the synergy of Fighter 9/Paladin 6 gives you a max 5 ASI and a possible Fighter 9/Paladin 11 for Improved Divine Smite as well as three 3rd level spell slots.
For archetypes/oaths, I will usually try to figure out which ones I can rule out off the bat, for various reasons such as story/fighting style/flavor, etc. Seeing as the only other thing I know about your character is sword and board, there is little to work with here, but I am going to make a bunch of guesses.
Discarded Fighter Archetypes
Arcane Archer - You didn't mention being an archer and story-wise it assumes your Dragonborn has some connection to Elven society.
Brute - It's pretty much just a bad Champion anyways and the "brute" stereotypes don't necessarily fit with a Paladin.
Eldritch Knight - Mostly because I assume you didn't put a lot into Intelligence, but there are some good synergistic options here. More spell slots for Divine Smite, melee attack when casting bonus action spells (Paladins have a lot of bonus action spells) and lowering resistance vs. your spells. A good option if I were going more levels in Fighter than Paladin.
Gunslinger - Similar to Arcane Archer, and no idea what the firearm situation is in your game.
Purple Dragon Knight/Banneret - They are basically a fighter with lukewarm paladin abilities. They aren't redundant and have their uses, adding passive abilities to the Fighter class features you are going to use anyways is certainly nice. I feel the passive abilities and spells you'll miss out on from your Paladin features or from choosing a different Fighter archetype will be better than what you gain from this class. Might be a viable option if you were Fighter heavy.
Samurai - Similar reasons to the Purple Dragon Knight, but might be good for a Fighter heavy build.
Discarded Paladin Oaths*
Conquest - I only rule this one out because it is more focused on being a damage dealer and not enough on support. Still a good option with multiclass Fighter.
Ancients - Also not a bad one but I mostly caution whether or not there is any fey in your party, particularly with a Druid who can summon fey creatures. The Channel Divinity does not specify friendly fey are unaffected. Then, if you are talking party redundancy/synergy instead of individual, you probably wouldn't be adding anything to the party that your Druid can't already do (unless you wanted to supplement the Druid allowing them to utilize their other abilities).
Vengeance - Same as Conquest.
Oathbreaker - Same as Conquest.
*To me all of the Paladin Oaths should take roleplaying/backstory into consideration far more than many other class archetypes. Because any Paladin with even a couple levels of Fighter is a good choice, you can take any of the ones I discarded and not feel like you're missing out if it fits your character's story. I would not make the same argument for Fighter Archetypes as I would for Paladin Oaths, especially in a Paladin heavy build.
From here I mostly focus on the Fighter archetype and how many levels you might take because the builds are basically "What does the Fighter give me that justifies sacrificing X levels of Paladin."
If we take a minimum 3 levels in Fighter, you lose the Paladin level 20 Capstone, level 19 ASI and two 5th level spell slots (you still have one 5th level spell slot), and level 18 Aura Improvements. We probably don't care about losing the ASI because we get it back through our Fighter levels in most cases or even have one extra vs. going 19 levels in Paladin. Aura Improvements increases the range of your 6th and 7th level auras from 10 ft to 30 ft. You will already be used to getting around this through teamwork, but gaining Fighter features to increase not only your mobility but that of your allies will help make up for not being able to spread out as much.
Your biggest losses are a 5th level spell slot and the Capstone (although the Paladin only has 9 5th level spells on their list including Oath spells to choose from). Granted, you still have one 5th level slot, and otherwise, it is essentially losing a couple of very big, limited effects and gaining more versatile smaller effects. These smaller effects are often passive, can be replenished after a short rest, or can be used many times between long rests.
On to the Archetypes:
Battle Master:
Free tool proficiency. Always nice to add a roleplay element to your character and/or to fill in where the party seems to be missing.
Combat Superiority is where we get the most combos. Focusing on movement maneuvers allows you to get the party within range of your Auras as well as helping the rogues line up for Sneak Attack. Many Paladin features/spells and Fighter maneuvers keep your enemy focused on you, and since you probably have the highest AC, you are less likely to get hit. Preventing damage is just as good as healing if not better since that means fewer healing spells/lay on hands you have to use to keep people alive.
You can even take the feat Martial Adept for a bonus superiority die and maneuvers, or take another Archetype and still gain this feature through that feat.
Keep in mind that depending on your Oath you will need to do a lot more battlefield planning. Between your maneuvers, Channel Divinity and spells, you have many ways to control enemy/ally placement, but your efforts one round can be negated the next round depending on what you use and in what order.
I probably wouldn't go past level 3 or 4 in Battlemaster. Level 5 is redundant with one less ASI. Level 6 gives you the same ASI but you lose a 4th level spell slot and Oath feature. At level 7 you finally gain a new Archetype feature: Know Your Enemy. This isn't a horrible ability, but I don't feel it outweighs what you've already lost, on top of losing Cleansing Touch. As long as you don't stop at 5, 6 or 7 levels of Fighter you might be ok. At level 8 you get to max your ASI for this build but lose all 4th level spell slots. Level 9 you lose ASI and gain the synergy of Indomitable, but that only affects you.
Cavalier:
Free skill or language. Once again, good for adding an RP element and/or filling in where the party is lacking.
Born to the Saddle (albeit most features of this archetype) synergizes with some of the Paladin's trademark spells', Find Steed and Find Greater Steed. Combined with Mounted Combatant and you've got a pretty solid build. Your Paladin abilities apply to your mount as well so in the unlikely scenario it does get hit or affected by an area effect, keep this in mind.
Unwavering Mark imposes disadvantage to marked enemies within 5 ft. of you if they don't attack you (this includes attacking your mount). Many Paladin features are good at keeping your enemies in place, so use this feature in conjunction with those. If they do manage to hit, not only do you get a special bonus action attack against the creature on your next turn, but some Paladin features can reduce the damage your ally would take. The bonus action attack increases in damage based off of your Fighter level, which helps to balance what you lose by not taking Paladin levels.
All of the above is gained as a level 3 Fighter.
At level 7 you gain Warding Maneuver. As a reaction, you can potentially cause an attack against you or an adjacent ally to miss, and even if it does hit, they have resistance to that damage. You can once again further reduce that damage depending on your Oath features.
One point of redundancy here is if you took the Protection Fighting Style at level 2. Warding Maneuver mimics what Protection is supposed to do, and IMO does it better. They both eat up your reaction, although this ability has limited uses equal to your CON modifier. If you took Protection, regardless of whether or not you took this archetype, I would request the DM to let you pick a new one. It just doesn't effectively accomplish what it is supposed to do, especially compared to the other Fighting Styles.
Three or four levels in Cavalier is good enough though I don't think you will be disappointed with going as far as level 8 or even 9 for the Indomitable synergy. You mainly want to ensure you have the battlefield control to stay right by your enemies which can be gained through your extra feats and Paladin features.
Champion
Improved Critical is the main reason for this Archetype. It means you lose a lot of battlefield control granted by the other Fighter archetypes, plus you don't get the free skill/tool/language (Remarkable Athlete makes up for that a little bit at Fighter 7).
The reason you might consider this is because of all of the Paladin features which grant advantage on your attacks, whether through being frightened or restrained or what have you. That synergy is why I did not discard it from the beginning. Your Paladin levels would be your only source of backup/support features, but then you get to lean more heavily into the damage aspect (goes well with the damage based Oaths).
Also, since I assume you are going Paladin heavy, you lose the potential for EXTRA extra attacks at Fighter 11. Two attacks with advantage may not be as good as four attacks without advantage, but it might be as good as three. This will improve your chance of benefitting from Improved Critical, and Divine Smite is also affected by critical hits just like Sneak Attack.
I think you only need three levels here unless you really want that ASI, but the extra 4th level spell slot, as well as a 5th level spell, will make up for it. Especially if you get really lucky and start landing crit after crit after crit and you dump Divine Smite into each of them. I wouldn't take any more levels in Champion unless I was Fighter heavy.
Feats:
Choose feats for mobility so you can reach your opponent, keeping your opponent in place, increasing your defense because you will be drawing attackers towards you, and possibly attack bonuses.
Mobile, Sentinel OR Shield Master (they tend to get in each other's way, both are preferable to the Protection Fighting Style, and you can still forego them considering all of the reactions granted by your class features), Heavy or Medium Armor Master depending on equipment, and War Caster to maintain your spells and cast with sword and board in hand.
These recommendations are only if your feat choices are combat-focused, and do not take into account your RP or backstory choices. You don't even need all of these feats as some of your class features and spells accomplish similar effects in their place.
Don't forget Martial Adept if you want to enhance your Battle Master archetype features or to dip into it while taking another archetype. Mounted Combatant is essential if you take Cavalier.
Thanks for the advice! I had been leaning towards eldritch knight for my fighter before I decided to multiclass. We rolled for stats and I rolled Really well, so my intelligence is 14. My wisdom is my dump stat and that's 13. I was considering taking Shield Master instead of an ASI. Before multiclassing I had planned to try to become a crowd control tank, picking up spells like grease and web, and picking up lightning lure and another cantrip for utility.
I recently started playing D&D and am in my first long term campaign. My character is a dragon-born s&b fighter in a party with a druid, warlock, barbarian, and two rogues. After several sessions, we got in a tough spot with the undead BBEG and realized we were severely lacking in healing ability. It was almost a TPK. When we hit level 3 the DM let me multi to paladin because in his words “It just gets worse from here.” So as of right now my character is a fighter2/paladin1 I was thinking he’d be a backup/support tank & backup healer with the ability to deal damage if needed. Any advice on build direction would be greatly appreciated.
Your group has a Druid, and you're lacking in healing ability? How?!
All the above advice is good, but man tell your Druid to just prepare Cure Wounds and Healing Spirit. 🤔
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
If you want, also consider just asking your DM if you can switch to straight Paladin. In AL you can swap everything but character name through level 5. We do the same in our home games, because sometimes what you made and what you wanted to play end up being different things.
Thanks for the advice! I had been leaning towards eldritch knight for my fighter before I decided to multiclass. We rolled for stats and I rolled Really well, so my intelligence is 14. My wisdom is my dump stat and that's 13. I was considering taking Shield Master instead of an ASI. Before multiclassing I had planned to try to become a crowd control tank, picking up spells like grease and web, and picking up lightning lure and another cantrip for utility.
Because of your stats, you have a little more justification for Eldritch Knight. You have access to good crowd control with pretty much any build involving Paladin and certain Fighter archetypes. Many of the arguments I made for Battle Master I would also apply to Eldritch Knight (maneuvers aren't a whole lot different in concept to spellcasting), the downsides of taking more than four EK levels being less of an issue if you are ultimately Fighter heavy (such as Fighter 12-16/Paladin 8-4).
Another option; say you don't choose Eldritch Knight, but you still wanted some of their cantrips/spells. The Magic Initiate feat will give you two cantrips plus a 1st level spell cast at its lowest level usable once per long rest. You have to choose which full-caster class to pull from, so you could get Lightning Lure, Grease, and one more Wizard cantrip. And you can afford this if you take a build which gives you 5 or 6 ASI.
If your Charisma is higher than your Intelligence, you can still get Lightning Lure, though not Grease, from the Sorceror spell list. This will give you a higher spell attack and save DC across all of your spells because Sorceror and Paladin both use Charisma.
Yeah but only 14 INt, it won't amount to much for the spells DC's and Hit bonus...
14 in a stat is just slightly above the Dump status imo...
I think Champion or Battle Master are better in this peculiar case, else it would be a MAD character STR, CON, INT, CHA, thats a lot, unless your DM is gracious enough to put one of the magical items that bump one stats to 19 on your way (Ogre's gauntlets, Band of Intelligence etc etc), else the character will be lukewarm at best in doing stuff.
Now if you're okay with this EK is not a bad archetype, War Magic is a nice Feat (Cantrip+melee attack as bonus).
The problem is that if you want to get the most out of EK, you need more levels in it, and since you MCed in paly because your group lacked Healing, it kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it?...
Battle master on the other hand can work splenditly even with a low number of lvls, since you gain its most important Class feats at lower lvls, and thus let you put the rest of your lvls in pally for more spells slots, better healing and support spells.
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"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
If you want, also consider just asking your DM if you can switch to straight Paladin. In AL you can swap everything but character name through level 5. We do the same in our home games, because sometimes what you made and what you wanted to play end up being different things.
There are advantages to having a couple Fighter levels - Action Surge and Second Wind.
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I recently started playing D&D and am in my first long term campaign. My character is a dragon-born s&b fighter in a party with a druid, warlock, barbarian, and two rogues. After several sessions, we got in a tough spot with the undead BBEG and realized we were severely lacking in healing ability. It was almost a TPK. When we hit level 3 the DM let me multi to paladin because in his words “It just gets worse from here.” So as of right now my character is a fighter2/paladin1 I was thinking he’d be a backup/support tank & backup healer with the ability to deal damage if needed. Any advice on build direction would be greatly appreciated.
For general builds, you automatically become a strong backup/support with the ability to deal damage just by being a Paladin, regardless of your archetype. Basic Paladin class features and spells are heavily skewed towards very good combat support and utility while still having access to decent healing abilities, even if they're not the strongest. Then if dealing damage is the better choice over casting a support/healing spell, Divine Smite falls perfectly under "the ability to deal damage if needed."
As far as Divine Smite goes, it maxes out at Paladin level 16. This is because using a 4th or 5th level spell slot for Divine Smite will deal the same bonus damage (5d8 or 6d8 vs. undead) and Paladin's get their 5th level spell slots at Paladin level 17. Improved Divine Smite gives you an extra 1d8 at Paladin level 11 (making it max 6d8 or 7d8 vs. undead at Paladin level 16).
For all builds, if you want to maximize your ASI/Feats:
I think no matter what you want to get each to level 3 for the archetype/oath. Most of my advice will assume you go Paladin heavy, and if you want a good Divine Smite which maxes at Paladin 16, your first long-term choice is between build (A) and (B). Do you want an extra ASI or do you want a single 5th level spell slot that also gives an extra Divine Smite per day, but no bonus damage for using that 5th level spell vs. a 4th level.
After these considerations, I always like to look for places where I can improve synergy and avoid redundancy. These are tied in mostly with the archetypes/oaths, but some base class features are worth taking note as well.
An example of redundancy is that a Fighter and Paladin both get the Extra Attack class feature at level 5, but a Fighter 5/Paladin 5 still only gets one extra attack. Fighter 11-15/Paladin 5 gets two extra attacks. Whichever class reaches level 5 second essentially gains no class feature for that level, offset a little bit by the Paladin gaining their 2nd level spell slots at Paladin 5 (the Eldritch Knight doesn't gain 2nd level spell slots until Fighter 7).
But if you were to continue to gain more Fighter levels after that, then you can gain synergy as Fighter 9/Paladin 6. Indomitable allows you to reroll failed saving throws, while Aura of Protection gives you a bonus to all saving throws, including the reroll.
Notice here that if you go Fighter 5/Paladin 5, The most ASI you could gain is 6 (not bad) if you continue to take more Fighter levels, but going Fighter 5/Paladin 15 leaves you with only 4 ASI which is not so good while being stuck on a redundant level for Fighter. Reaching for the synergy of Fighter 9/Paladin 6 gives you a max 5 ASI and a possible Fighter 9/Paladin 11 for Improved Divine Smite as well as three 3rd level spell slots.
For archetypes/oaths, I will usually try to figure out which ones I can rule out off the bat, for various reasons such as story/fighting style/flavor, etc. Seeing as the only other thing I know about your character is sword and board, there is little to work with here, but I am going to make a bunch of guesses.
Discarded Fighter Archetypes
Discarded Paladin Oaths*
*To me all of the Paladin Oaths should take roleplaying/backstory into consideration far more than many other class archetypes. Because any Paladin with even a couple levels of Fighter is a good choice, you can take any of the ones I discarded and not feel like you're missing out if it fits your character's story. I would not make the same argument for Fighter Archetypes as I would for Paladin Oaths, especially in a Paladin heavy build.
From here I mostly focus on the Fighter archetype and how many levels you might take because the builds are basically "What does the Fighter give me that justifies sacrificing X levels of Paladin."
If we take a minimum 3 levels in Fighter, you lose the Paladin level 20 Capstone, level 19 ASI and two 5th level spell slots (you still have one 5th level spell slot), and level 18 Aura Improvements. We probably don't care about losing the ASI because we get it back through our Fighter levels in most cases or even have one extra vs. going 19 levels in Paladin. Aura Improvements increases the range of your 6th and 7th level auras from 10 ft to 30 ft. You will already be used to getting around this through teamwork, but gaining Fighter features to increase not only your mobility but that of your allies will help make up for not being able to spread out as much.
Your biggest losses are a 5th level spell slot and the Capstone (although the Paladin only has 9 5th level spells on their list including Oath spells to choose from). Granted, you still have one 5th level slot, and otherwise, it is essentially losing a couple of very big, limited effects and gaining more versatile smaller effects. These smaller effects are often passive, can be replenished after a short rest, or can be used many times between long rests.
On to the Archetypes:
Battle Master:
Free tool proficiency. Always nice to add a roleplay element to your character and/or to fill in where the party seems to be missing.
Combat Superiority is where we get the most combos. Focusing on movement maneuvers allows you to get the party within range of your Auras as well as helping the rogues line up for Sneak Attack. Many Paladin features/spells and Fighter maneuvers keep your enemy focused on you, and since you probably have the highest AC, you are less likely to get hit. Preventing damage is just as good as healing if not better since that means fewer healing spells/lay on hands you have to use to keep people alive.
You can even take the feat Martial Adept for a bonus superiority die and maneuvers, or take another Archetype and still gain this feature through that feat.
Keep in mind that depending on your Oath you will need to do a lot more battlefield planning. Between your maneuvers, Channel Divinity and spells, you have many ways to control enemy/ally placement, but your efforts one round can be negated the next round depending on what you use and in what order.
I probably wouldn't go past level 3 or 4 in Battlemaster. Level 5 is redundant with one less ASI. Level 6 gives you the same ASI but you lose a 4th level spell slot and Oath feature. At level 7 you finally gain a new Archetype feature: Know Your Enemy. This isn't a horrible ability, but I don't feel it outweighs what you've already lost, on top of losing Cleansing Touch. As long as you don't stop at 5, 6 or 7 levels of Fighter you might be ok. At level 8 you get to max your ASI for this build but lose all 4th level spell slots. Level 9 you lose ASI and gain the synergy of Indomitable, but that only affects you.
Cavalier:
Free skill or language. Once again, good for adding an RP element and/or filling in where the party is lacking.
Born to the Saddle (albeit most features of this archetype) synergizes with some of the Paladin's trademark spells', Find Steed and Find Greater Steed. Combined with Mounted Combatant and you've got a pretty solid build. Your Paladin abilities apply to your mount as well so in the unlikely scenario it does get hit or affected by an area effect, keep this in mind.
Unwavering Mark imposes disadvantage to marked enemies within 5 ft. of you if they don't attack you (this includes attacking your mount). Many Paladin features are good at keeping your enemies in place, so use this feature in conjunction with those. If they do manage to hit, not only do you get a special bonus action attack against the creature on your next turn, but some Paladin features can reduce the damage your ally would take. The bonus action attack increases in damage based off of your Fighter level, which helps to balance what you lose by not taking Paladin levels.
All of the above is gained as a level 3 Fighter.
At level 7 you gain Warding Maneuver. As a reaction, you can potentially cause an attack against you or an adjacent ally to miss, and even if it does hit, they have resistance to that damage. You can once again further reduce that damage depending on your Oath features.
One point of redundancy here is if you took the Protection Fighting Style at level 2. Warding Maneuver mimics what Protection is supposed to do, and IMO does it better. They both eat up your reaction, although this ability has limited uses equal to your CON modifier. If you took Protection, regardless of whether or not you took this archetype, I would request the DM to let you pick a new one. It just doesn't effectively accomplish what it is supposed to do, especially compared to the other Fighting Styles.
Three or four levels in Cavalier is good enough though I don't think you will be disappointed with going as far as level 8 or even 9 for the Indomitable synergy. You mainly want to ensure you have the battlefield control to stay right by your enemies which can be gained through your extra feats and Paladin features.
Champion
Improved Critical is the main reason for this Archetype. It means you lose a lot of battlefield control granted by the other Fighter archetypes, plus you don't get the free skill/tool/language (Remarkable Athlete makes up for that a little bit at Fighter 7).
The reason you might consider this is because of all of the Paladin features which grant advantage on your attacks, whether through being frightened or restrained or what have you. That synergy is why I did not discard it from the beginning. Your Paladin levels would be your only source of backup/support features, but then you get to lean more heavily into the damage aspect (goes well with the damage based Oaths).
Also, since I assume you are going Paladin heavy, you lose the potential for EXTRA extra attacks at Fighter 11. Two attacks with advantage may not be as good as four attacks without advantage, but it might be as good as three. This will improve your chance of benefitting from Improved Critical, and Divine Smite is also affected by critical hits just like Sneak Attack.
I think you only need three levels here unless you really want that ASI, but the extra 4th level spell slot, as well as a 5th level spell, will make up for it. Especially if you get really lucky and start landing crit after crit after crit and you dump Divine Smite into each of them. I wouldn't take any more levels in Champion unless I was Fighter heavy.
Feats:
Choose feats for mobility so you can reach your opponent, keeping your opponent in place, increasing your defense because you will be drawing attackers towards you, and possibly attack bonuses.
Mobile, Sentinel OR Shield Master (they tend to get in each other's way, both are preferable to the Protection Fighting Style, and you can still forego them considering all of the reactions granted by your class features), Heavy or Medium Armor Master depending on equipment, and War Caster to maintain your spells and cast with sword and board in hand.
These recommendations are only if your feat choices are combat-focused, and do not take into account your RP or backstory choices. You don't even need all of these feats as some of your class features and spells accomplish similar effects in their place.
Don't forget Martial Adept if you want to enhance your Battle Master archetype features or to dip into it while taking another archetype. Mounted Combatant is essential if you take Cavalier.
Thanks for the advice! I had been leaning towards eldritch knight for my fighter before I decided to multiclass. We rolled for stats and I rolled Really well, so my intelligence is 14. My wisdom is my dump stat and that's 13. I was considering taking Shield Master instead of an ASI. Before multiclassing I had planned to try to become a crowd control tank, picking up spells like grease and web, and picking up lightning lure and another cantrip for utility.
Your group has a Druid, and you're lacking in healing ability? How?!
All the above advice is good, but man tell your Druid to just prepare Cure Wounds and Healing Spirit. 🤔
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
If you want, also consider just asking your DM if you can switch to straight Paladin. In AL you can swap everything but character name through level 5. We do the same in our home games, because sometimes what you made and what you wanted to play end up being different things.
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Because of your stats, you have a little more justification for Eldritch Knight. You have access to good crowd control with pretty much any build involving Paladin and certain Fighter archetypes. Many of the arguments I made for Battle Master I would also apply to Eldritch Knight (maneuvers aren't a whole lot different in concept to spellcasting), the downsides of taking more than four EK levels being less of an issue if you are ultimately Fighter heavy (such as Fighter 12-16/Paladin 8-4).
Another option; say you don't choose Eldritch Knight, but you still wanted some of their cantrips/spells. The Magic Initiate feat will give you two cantrips plus a 1st level spell cast at its lowest level usable once per long rest. You have to choose which full-caster class to pull from, so you could get Lightning Lure, Grease, and one more Wizard cantrip. And you can afford this if you take a build which gives you 5 or 6 ASI.
If your Charisma is higher than your Intelligence, you can still get Lightning Lure, though not Grease, from the Sorceror spell list. This will give you a higher spell attack and save DC across all of your spells because Sorceror and Paladin both use Charisma.
Yeah but only 14 INt, it won't amount to much for the spells DC's and Hit bonus...
14 in a stat is just slightly above the Dump status imo...
I think Champion or Battle Master are better in this peculiar case, else it would be a MAD character STR, CON, INT, CHA, thats a lot, unless your DM is gracious enough to put one of the magical items that bump one stats to 19 on your way (Ogre's gauntlets, Band of Intelligence etc etc), else the character will be lukewarm at best in doing stuff.
Now if you're okay with this EK is not a bad archetype, War Magic is a nice Feat (Cantrip+melee attack as bonus).
The problem is that if you want to get the most out of EK, you need more levels in it, and since you MCed in paly because your group lacked Healing, it kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it?...
Battle master on the other hand can work splenditly even with a low number of lvls, since you gain its most important Class feats at lower lvls, and thus let you put the rest of your lvls in pally for more spells slots, better healing and support spells.
"Normality is but an Illusion, Whats normal to the Spider, is only madness for the Fly"
Kain de Frostberg- Dark Knight - (Vengeance Pal3/ Hexblade 9), Port Mourn
Kain de Draakberg-Dark Knight lvl8-Avergreen(DitA)
There are advantages to having a couple Fighter levels - Action Surge and Second Wind.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale