I'm wanting to play a sorcadin and with my point buy the strength/Dex just isn't there. I'm thinking about running Paly6/Lock3/Sorcerer11 with hexblade and pact of the blade, so I can add my cha to damage rolls. Anyone have any experience running a sorcadin and do you feel that this build takes away from the sorcerer too much?
What level are you starting at? How quickly do you want to get Invocations/Smites/Metamagic?
In general, I would recommend from just a level standpoint for Paly 5 for 2 attacks, Lock 3, and Sorc 12 for lots of tasty smite causing happiness. Without a little more detail there is not much to tell.
Starting level 1 and I think I'm going to start paly. I was thinking paly 6 for the bonus on saves. Smite and metamagic asap would be preferred, I'm not too worried about invocations.
I'd start sorc for con save proficiency, myself. Depending on what you want out of warlock, you only need lock1. You don't need to go to three unless you want some of the pact of the blade features. It really depends on what your hoping to get out of each class as to how far you go in it. if I were doing a Sorcadin, I'd probably go paladin 2, Sorcerer 18. maaaaybe pal 2, lock 1, sorc 17.
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It's funny that you framed this post in terms of being squeezed for attribute points, because a sorcadinblade is one of the most single-attribute dependent builds I can think of. All you need is Charisma and middling strength, it's very doable even with a non-Charisma-non-Strength-boosting race.
You do want to start Paladin 1 to get heavy armor proficiency out of the way; if you don't, your only recourse will be (1) putting points into Dex, (2) wasting a feat, or (3) putting points into Wis and wasting a level multiclassing Cleric. All of those are wasteful, just start Paladin 1 in order to unlock heavy armor and be able to freely ignore Dex forever.
You don't need Strength much at all, once you have Level 1 warlock (hexblade). You don't have to be a Hexblade, but you're already saying you're willing to be one, and it's certainly easier. It feels... uncomfortable to start as a Paladin at level 1 with 13 Strength, but you'll really only miss 10% more often than you otherwise would have, it's not a huge deal and will only last for one level. Also, wearing plate with 13 strength also might feel weird, but 20 speed is still sufficient to operate in combat, it isn't that much worse than the 25 that a Dwarf would have. Being a Dwarven sorcadinblade is one option, in order to have 25 movement regardless of low strength. Having 15 strength is also an option, just realize that if you're feeling squeezed for points, its okay to have 13 or 14 instead.
With Point Buy, before factoring for race, all you need is 13 strength (5 points) and 15 Charisma (9 points). That leaves you 14 points to play with, which is more than enough to start with a good Constitution, better Strength, or some middling intelligence or wisdom or dex if you don't feel min-maxy. If you're using standard array, same thing, you'll have no problems if you stick your 15 in Charisma and your 13 or 14 in Strength. Start at Paladin1 at 1, go to Paladin1/Hexblade1 at 2, and from there on you're free to take whatever you want in whatever order you want. Pushing to Paladin2/Hexblade2 before dabbling in Sorcerer makes sense (pick up Smites and paladin spells, pick up invocations and a second warlock slot). After that, if you're feeling like you want to build to be a caster, you can start taking Sorcerer levels for as long as you'd like; if you're a melee smiter, focus on Paladin to 5 before distracting yourself too much with Sorcerer levels.
I disagree. It is not just the middling strength, it is also the loss of an ASI. Basically two ASI as you usually need to work a bit to get that Strength up there. I would much rather be a High Cha, good Con, good Dex, than a High Cha, middling Con, Dex and Str.
I always feel that Sorcerer does really well with a few levels of Warlock or a few levels of Paladin, but splitting it 3 way defeats the main purpose. Remember, the main reason to multi-class into Sorcerer is to get those sweet sweet full progression spell slots. It maxes out at 17th level, so you really want to get there.
Paladin and Warlock BOTH reduce the # of spell slots you get for Warlock, so effectively your Sorcerer synchronicity goes away.
A Sorc 17, Warlock 3 gets 17 full spell slots for Sorc PLUS an additional 2 spell slots of level 2. Max possible spell slots, YEAH baby. And you can actually cast 9th level spells.
A Sorc 11, Paladin 6, Warlock 3, gets 11+6/2= 14th level slots - missing your 8th and 9th level spell slots, all to get an extra 2 2nd level slots. Poor Trade.
I prefer the Sorlock, so comparing Sorlock vs Pal/Sor/War:
You give up 8th and 9th level spell casting AND the slots, plus Sorc Origin, (Sorc Origin at 14th is usually flight, but Teleport 120 ft and lightning save to push back are also common. Better then ) plus 2 ASI, plus a metamagic, inorder to get:
Armor, Weapons, Divine Sense, Lay on Hands for 6x5=30
Smiting, FIghting Style, Spell list of Paladin Spells.
Divine Health, Sacred Oath
ASI
Extra Attack
Aura of Protection
Combine that with the need to bring your strength up to 13, (or higher if you want the good armor), and it's tough call.. Basically that 4th level ASI compensates for 13 strength.
It's not something I would do, unless your DM is VERY generous with starting stats. If you do not need to spend ASI's to get your Strength up, then it might be worth it. Otherwise not worth it for me.
But then again, I really like a sudden Meteor Swarm, which the Pal/Sorc/War build mentioned here can not do.
A Sorlock is a fundamentally different thing than a Sorcadin, and thus not responsive to this thread. Jake started off describing wanting a build that adds Cha to (presumably) melee attacks, so “here’s how to ditch that and get 9th level slots instead” isn’t helpful. Sorcadin is about Smites and Melee attacks, so unless you can demonstrate your no-Paladin build doing that (with Eldritch smite, thirsting blade, life drinker, etc), save it.
If you aren't sold on the heavy armor and are willing to do a warlock build, you can start sorcerer for the con saves, get hexblade at two for martial weapon and medium armor proficiencies, set your dex at 14 for max AC from medium armor plus a better average initiative bonus, then grab whatever your allotment for Paladin levels before switching back to the casters. I would only go this way if you are planning on being more balanced with smiting and spellcasting. The contrast, if you are planning on paladin 6 for the saves plus high charisma and reasonable con could give you con saves close to (but likely lower than) proficiency. Grabbing Warcaster would give advantage on concentration checks and make up the difference more often than not, plus give you the option of Booming Blade for your OAs (assuming you went with the spell on one of your sorcerer or warlock cantrips).
It's not the full smiting version, which has been covered well in other posts. This will give you a little more flexibility if you want it. Likely, your best bet would be to start paladin for the better starting gear and wisdom saves and then feel out your party's needs if you're willing to go either direction. If you are set on the full smiting version, find one of the other paths mentioned and enjoy destroying your enemies!
A Sorlock is a fundamentally different thing than a Sorcadin, and thus not responsive to this thread. Jake started off describing wanting a build that adds Cha to (presumably) melee attacks, so “here’s how to ditch that and get 9th level slots instead” isn’t helpful. Sorcadin is about Smites and Melee attacks, so unless you can demonstrate your no-Paladin build doing that (with Eldritch smite, thirsting blade, life drinker, etc), save it.
I choose to compare the Sorlock to the Pal/Sor/War. You choose to do concentrate on the Paladin abilities. But my point remains the same - the Sorceror + Paladin beats the Sorc/Pal/War build.
In that build you are wasting 3 levels on Warlock instead of taking +3 levels of Sorceror.
For 3 levels of Warlock you get:
2 spell slots of 2nd level
2 invocations (for low level warlocks, none of the good stuff)
Pact Boon
Patron 1st level ability
But you are giving up, from Sorceror:
An ASI
14th level Sorcerer Ability
3 Sorcery Points
8th level slot
9th level slot
You are most probably going to use the 2 warlock spells to smite for two 3d8 smites. If you were to waste the 8th and 9th level slot on smiting, it would be two 5d8 smites, but you are far more likely to throw a meteor swarm followed or to convert via spell points those spells into quickened spells of some kind.
Here, you can not give up the strength, but the 14th level Sorc Ability (again, usually flight/teleport or lightning vengeance) is far better than the 1st level Warlock one + the Pact boon.
It's just not likely to be a good trade. Three levels of Warlock do not give you enough to make up for the 3 levels of Sorcerer. It simply does not add that much.
There are a few exceptions, mainly focusing on the Invocations. Yeah, you can get the Eldritch Blast with Charisma, or the Devil Sight, but those are the best of the lot. Unless you totally focus on Darkness without taking the Shadow Sorc, they are not worth it.
Again, I love Sorc + Warlock and Sorc + Paladin. I even have some joy for Paladin + Warlock. But the triple combo of Sorc + Pal + Warlock prevents you from getting to the GOOD stuff of any of the three. No 9th level spells. No Lifedrinker. No Relentless Hex. No Soul of Vengeance.
4 levels of Paladin, Oath of Vengeance 6 levels of Warlock, Hexblade 10 levels of Sorcerer, Shadow Magic.
Paladin
Defense style as you're better off dual-wielding and won't have a shield. The vengeance subclass gets you Vow of Emnity for 1 min of free advantage on an enemy. Useful when fishing for critical smites.
Warlock
Hexblade is obvious as it lets you use Cha for your weapon attacks, you can curse enemy to get crits on rolls of 19 as well as 20, you do more damage to cursed enemy, and the 6th level feature is a free bodyguard. Trust me, it is going to help.
Sorcerer
Hold Person spell and Quicken Spell metamagic are a must. You'll also want either Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade. Shadow Magic lets you summon darkness you can see through that most others can't to provide you with advantage. The 6th level feature puts a death hound against somebody - while it is next to them get have disadvantage on all saving throws against all your spells. The Hound mixed with Hold Person does wonders.
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Feat would be Elven Accuracy. The other ASIs will probably be best to work on improving stats.
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I recommend Half-Elf as the race as the +2 Cha and +1 to two others is going to really help with the MAD. Taking skills like Perception and Investigation will help since your Wis and Int will probably be low, and by getting these from race you don't have to then be picky about background. Plus it lets you take the Elven Accuracy, which will be +1 to a stat and rolling an extra d20 when you have advantage.
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The idea of the build is to get advantage however you can to utilise Elven Accuracy and Hexblade's Curse to maximise the chance of a Critical Hit. Between Shadow's Darkness and Vengeance's Vow you've got multiple ways to grant this. You can also use the hound and hold spell to paralyse a target for advantage with auto-crit.
Dual Wielding is best and Pact of Blade with Hexblade will indeed let you do that easily, and you'll be able to use Cha for both weapons. The Pact Blade will be your main weapon as the Thirsting Blade features will let you attack twice. For your bonus, you can use regular attack if get dual wielder feat but its not best, instead burn 2 sorc points to Quicken Spell GFB/BB cantrip.
With 3 attacks, lots of advantage and 3d20 instead of 2d20 for advantage AND hexblade curse giving crits on 19 and 20 of the roll, AND able to impose disadvantage against your Hold spells: you have a big chance to crit. When you score a critical: U N L E A S H !
You can stack Divine Smite and Eldritch smite on the same attack. Note: Eldritch Smite is superior to Divine Smite in that unlike Divine Smite which is capped at 5d8 damage (6d8 versus Undead), Eldritch Smite has no cap. You will have a 6th level slot and a 5th level. Use E-Smite for the 6th Level Slot and D-Smite for the 5th. On a critical hit that will amount to 24d8 damage. Oh and the target will be left prone. And that's one attack out of three, and you have plenty of more slots to use.
The Downside
The Pally requires Str 13 for multiclass, you will also need Con and you'll need to max your Cha. That's going to hit your starting stats hard if going point buy. It's certainly going to keep your Dex, Int and Wis rather low.
You're definitely going to need to head for Plate armour and with heavy armour and low Dex you can forget about stealth unless you can find ways around that - boots of elvenkind to counter the disadvantage, stealth prof, maybe you have somebody in group or an item that can cast Pass Without Trace?
The plate plus defensive style will get you AC 19, you can consider the dual wielder feat for another +1. As a Sorc you can take the Shield spell - you're not going to be much of a caster and there's an invocation that let's you treat your weapons like an arcane focus anyway or consider a Warcaster feat if can afford using up an ASI for it. You're a melee build with most of your hit points coming from Sorc and Warlock - you are going to really need to think about your defense.
Another downside is resources. You are going to really pay attention and know what you're doing to sustain your resources or you can burn out of them quickly. The high spell slots are best reserved for smites, the low slots are best for hold person / defenses / heals and the Warlock pact slots are best for consuming into Sorc Points for fuelling Hounds/Darkness or creating slots.
Despite the possible high AC, you do not have the hit points for prolonged battles and your defenses against non-AC damage sources will be relying on the spell slots that fuel your damage output. This means you cannot be the party's tank. You're the blitzkrieg against the boss enemy, and little else. This is why that Accursed Specter and Hound of Ill Omen are going to be so useful. The specter can help with minions, guard you, and the Hound helps ensure your spells are more likely to land as you simply just cannot afford to waste them. Make good use of these when you can.
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Best I can do with a build like this. To be honest, never actually played this myself. I find this playstyle to be boring for me and the resource management would be a chore. Still, I hope this was of some use to you.
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A Sorlock is a fundamentally different thing than a Sorcadin, and thus not responsive to this thread. Jake started off describing wanting a build that adds Cha to (presumably) melee attacks, so “here’s how to ditch that and get 9th level slots instead” isn’t helpful. Sorcadin is about Smites and Melee attacks, so unless you can demonstrate your no-Paladin build doing that (with Eldritch smite, thirsting blade, life drinker, etc), save it.
I choose to compare the Sorlock to the Pal/Sor/War. You choose to do concentrate on the Paladin abilities. But my point remains the same - the Sorceror + Paladin beats the Sorc/Pal/War build.
In that build you are wasting 3 levels on Warlock instead of taking +3 levels of Sorceror.
For 3 levels of Warlock you get:
2 spell slots of 2nd level
2 invocations (for low level warlocks, none of the good stuff)
Pact Boon
Patron 1st level ability
But you are giving up, from Sorceror:
An ASI
14th level Sorcerer Ability
3 Sorcery Points
8th level slot
9th level slot
You are most probably going to use the 2 warlock spells to smite for two 3d8 smites. If you were to waste the 8th and 9th level slot on smiting, it would be two 5d8 smites, but you are far more likely to throw a meteor swarm followed or to convert via spell points those spells into quickened spells of some kind.
Here, you can not give up the strength, but the 14th level Sorc Ability (again, usually flight/teleport or lightning vengeance) is far better than the 1st level Warlock one + the Pact boon.
It's just not likely to be a good trade. Three levels of Warlock do not give you enough to make up for the 3 levels of Sorcerer. It simply does not add that much.
There are a few exceptions, mainly focusing on the Invocations. Yeah, you can get the Eldritch Blast with Charisma, or the Devil Sight, but those are the best of the lot. Unless you totally focus on Darkness without taking the Shadow Sorc, they are not worth it.
Again, I love Sorc + Warlock and Sorc + Paladin. I even have some joy for Paladin + Warlock. But the triple combo of Sorc + Pal + Warlock prevents you from getting to the GOOD stuff of any of the three. No 9th level spells. No Lifedrinker. No Relentless Hex. No Soul of Vengeance.
Do keep in mind that as a Paladin, any smite using a spell slot of 5th level or higher wastes potential, but as a sorcerer, you can convert your high level slots to SP. You could then convert them back to lower slots or use them to fuel metamagic or other features. For example, as Smite fuel, the 8th and 9th slots would deal 5d8 damage each. However, you could convert them to 17 SP (which you wouldn't want to do at the same time unless you were a 17th level sorcerer with 0 SP, since you are capped at a number of SP equal to your sorcerer level). Converting to a 4th level spell slot for a max damage Smite would take 6 SP, meaning that you could create two 4ths with 5 SP left over for an extra 3rd level slot. This gives a total Smite damage of 14d8 instead of 10d8 normally from the 8th and 9th slots.
If you choose Mog's method, you might get more damage from your ninth with the [Tooltip Not Found] with the Sorcerer 17 Warlock 3, but with the Sorcerer 14/Paladin 6 doesn't have that option unless your DM subscribes to the idea that the Sorcerer can know spells for whatever spell slots they have. The DMs that subscribe to the idea that a 14th level sorcerer doesn't know 9th level spells won't allow it. (Please don't turn this into THAT discussion other readers, I'm only giving the caution. OP have that discussion with your DM, especially if you plan on going for the three way split.)
Last thought, and please forgive the length. The Warlock 3 option does give 2 2nd level spells for 3d8 smiting damage each [6d8 total, which is more total than a 9th used without covering (5d8) but less than a 5th and a 2nd that the 9th could convert to (5d8+3d8 for a total of 8d8)] However, it should be noted that the warlock slots refresh on a short rest and could potentially bring in an additional 2-6 2nd slots per adventuring day if your party makes use of those short rests. They don't have to be used as smites, they can be used on other spells or SP for features or metamagic. Therefore consider that extra potential when considering the worth of Warlock being added into a Sorcadin build and consider how your party likes to take rests and whether your DM likes to disrupt those rests (especially long rests).
Very good points from all of you, I appreciate your input. My Dm is says we can roll for stats and if we don't like those rolls then we ca do the standard array or point buy. Depending on how I roll I may just stay paly6/sorc/14, if I don't then I may add one level of lock so I can and my cha to my attack rolls.
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I'm wanting to play a sorcadin and with my point buy the strength/Dex just isn't there. I'm thinking about running Paly6/Lock3/Sorcerer11 with hexblade and pact of the blade, so I can add my cha to damage rolls. Anyone have any experience running a sorcadin and do you feel that this build takes away from the sorcerer too much?
What level are you starting at? How quickly do you want to get Invocations/Smites/Metamagic?
In general, I would recommend from just a level standpoint for Paly 5 for 2 attacks, Lock 3, and Sorc 12 for lots of tasty smite causing happiness. Without a little more detail there is not much to tell.
Starting level 1 and I think I'm going to start paly. I was thinking paly 6 for the bonus on saves. Smite and metamagic asap would be preferred, I'm not too worried about invocations.
I'd start sorc for con save proficiency, myself. Depending on what you want out of warlock, you only need lock1. You don't need to go to three unless you want some of the pact of the blade features. It really depends on what your hoping to get out of each class as to how far you go in it. if I were doing a Sorcadin, I'd probably go paladin 2, Sorcerer 18. maaaaybe pal 2, lock 1, sorc 17.
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It's funny that you framed this post in terms of being squeezed for attribute points, because a sorcadinblade is one of the most single-attribute dependent builds I can think of. All you need is Charisma and middling strength, it's very doable even with a non-Charisma-non-Strength-boosting race.
You do want to start Paladin 1 to get heavy armor proficiency out of the way; if you don't, your only recourse will be (1) putting points into Dex, (2) wasting a feat, or (3) putting points into Wis and wasting a level multiclassing Cleric. All of those are wasteful, just start Paladin 1 in order to unlock heavy armor and be able to freely ignore Dex forever.
You don't need Strength much at all, once you have Level 1 warlock (hexblade). You don't have to be a Hexblade, but you're already saying you're willing to be one, and it's certainly easier. It feels... uncomfortable to start as a Paladin at level 1 with 13 Strength, but you'll really only miss 10% more often than you otherwise would have, it's not a huge deal and will only last for one level. Also, wearing plate with 13 strength also might feel weird, but 20 speed is still sufficient to operate in combat, it isn't that much worse than the 25 that a Dwarf would have. Being a Dwarven sorcadinblade is one option, in order to have 25 movement regardless of low strength. Having 15 strength is also an option, just realize that if you're feeling squeezed for points, its okay to have 13 or 14 instead.
With Point Buy, before factoring for race, all you need is 13 strength (5 points) and 15 Charisma (9 points). That leaves you 14 points to play with, which is more than enough to start with a good Constitution, better Strength, or some middling intelligence or wisdom or dex if you don't feel min-maxy. If you're using standard array, same thing, you'll have no problems if you stick your 15 in Charisma and your 13 or 14 in Strength. Start at Paladin1 at 1, go to Paladin1/Hexblade1 at 2, and from there on you're free to take whatever you want in whatever order you want. Pushing to Paladin2/Hexblade2 before dabbling in Sorcerer makes sense (pick up Smites and paladin spells, pick up invocations and a second warlock slot). After that, if you're feeling like you want to build to be a caster, you can start taking Sorcerer levels for as long as you'd like; if you're a melee smiter, focus on Paladin to 5 before distracting yourself too much with Sorcerer levels.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I disagree. It is not just the middling strength, it is also the loss of an ASI. Basically two ASI as you usually need to work a bit to get that Strength up there. I would much rather be a High Cha, good Con, good Dex, than a High Cha, middling Con, Dex and Str.
I always feel that Sorcerer does really well with a few levels of Warlock or a few levels of Paladin, but splitting it 3 way defeats the main purpose. Remember, the main reason to multi-class into Sorcerer is to get those sweet sweet full progression spell slots. It maxes out at 17th level, so you really want to get there.
Paladin and Warlock BOTH reduce the # of spell slots you get for Warlock, so effectively your Sorcerer synchronicity goes away.
A Sorc 14, Paladin 6, gets 14 + 6/2 = 17th level spells, maxed out.
A Sorc 17, Warlock 3 gets 17 full spell slots for Sorc PLUS an additional 2 spell slots of level 2. Max possible spell slots, YEAH baby. And you can actually cast 9th level spells.
A Sorc 11, Paladin 6, Warlock 3, gets 11+6/2= 14th level slots - missing your 8th and 9th level spell slots, all to get an extra 2 2nd level slots. Poor Trade.
I prefer the Sorlock, so comparing Sorlock vs Pal/Sor/War:
You give up 8th and 9th level spell casting AND the slots, plus Sorc Origin, (Sorc Origin at 14th is usually flight, but Teleport 120 ft and lightning save to push back are also common. Better then ) plus 2 ASI, plus a metamagic, inorder to get:
Combine that with the need to bring your strength up to 13, (or higher if you want the good armor), and it's tough call.. Basically that 4th level ASI compensates for 13 strength.
It's not something I would do, unless your DM is VERY generous with starting stats. If you do not need to spend ASI's to get your Strength up, then it might be worth it. Otherwise not worth it for me.
But then again, I really like a sudden Meteor Swarm, which the Pal/Sorc/War build mentioned here can not do.
A Sorlock is a fundamentally different thing than a Sorcadin, and thus not responsive to this thread. Jake started off describing wanting a build that adds Cha to (presumably) melee attacks, so “here’s how to ditch that and get 9th level slots instead” isn’t helpful. Sorcadin is about Smites and Melee attacks, so unless you can demonstrate your no-Paladin build doing that (with Eldritch smite, thirsting blade, life drinker, etc), save it.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
If you aren't sold on the heavy armor and are willing to do a warlock build, you can start sorcerer for the con saves, get hexblade at two for martial weapon and medium armor proficiencies, set your dex at 14 for max AC from medium armor plus a better average initiative bonus, then grab whatever your allotment for Paladin levels before switching back to the casters. I would only go this way if you are planning on being more balanced with smiting and spellcasting. The contrast, if you are planning on paladin 6 for the saves plus high charisma and reasonable con could give you con saves close to (but likely lower than) proficiency. Grabbing Warcaster would give advantage on concentration checks and make up the difference more often than not, plus give you the option of Booming Blade for your OAs (assuming you went with the spell on one of your sorcerer or warlock cantrips).
It's not the full smiting version, which has been covered well in other posts. This will give you a little more flexibility if you want it. Likely, your best bet would be to start paladin for the better starting gear and wisdom saves and then feel out your party's needs if you're willing to go either direction. If you are set on the full smiting version, find one of the other paths mentioned and enjoy destroying your enemies!
I choose to compare the Sorlock to the Pal/Sor/War. You choose to do concentrate on the Paladin abilities. But my point remains the same - the Sorceror + Paladin beats the Sorc/Pal/War build.
In that build you are wasting 3 levels on Warlock instead of taking +3 levels of Sorceror.
For 3 levels of Warlock you get:
But you are giving up, from Sorceror:
You are most probably going to use the 2 warlock spells to smite for two 3d8 smites. If you were to waste the 8th and 9th level slot on smiting, it would be two 5d8 smites, but you are far more likely to throw a meteor swarm followed or to convert via spell points those spells into quickened spells of some kind.
Here, you can not give up the strength, but the 14th level Sorc Ability (again, usually flight/teleport or lightning vengeance) is far better than the 1st level Warlock one + the Pact boon.
It's just not likely to be a good trade. Three levels of Warlock do not give you enough to make up for the 3 levels of Sorcerer. It simply does not add that much.
There are a few exceptions, mainly focusing on the Invocations. Yeah, you can get the Eldritch Blast with Charisma, or the Devil Sight, but those are the best of the lot. Unless you totally focus on Darkness without taking the Shadow Sorc, they are not worth it.
Again, I love Sorc + Warlock and Sorc + Paladin. I even have some joy for Paladin + Warlock. But the triple combo of Sorc + Pal + Warlock prevents you from getting to the GOOD stuff of any of the three. No 9th level spells. No Lifedrinker. No Relentless Hex. No Soul of Vengeance.
4 levels of Paladin, Oath of Vengeance
6 levels of Warlock, Hexblade
10 levels of Sorcerer, Shadow Magic.
Paladin
Defense style as you're better off dual-wielding and won't have a shield.
The vengeance subclass gets you Vow of Emnity for 1 min of free advantage on an enemy. Useful when fishing for critical smites.
Warlock
Hexblade is obvious as it lets you use Cha for your weapon attacks, you can curse enemy to get crits on rolls of 19 as well as 20, you do more damage to cursed enemy, and the 6th level feature is a free bodyguard. Trust me, it is going to help.
Sorcerer
Hold Person spell and Quicken Spell metamagic are a must. You'll also want either Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade. Shadow Magic lets you summon darkness you can see through that most others can't to provide you with advantage. The 6th level feature puts a death hound against somebody - while it is next to them get have disadvantage on all saving throws against all your spells. The Hound mixed with Hold Person does wonders.
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Feat would be Elven Accuracy. The other ASIs will probably be best to work on improving stats.
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I recommend Half-Elf as the race as the +2 Cha and +1 to two others is going to really help with the MAD. Taking skills like Perception and Investigation will help since your Wis and Int will probably be low, and by getting these from race you don't have to then be picky about background. Plus it lets you take the Elven Accuracy, which will be +1 to a stat and rolling an extra d20 when you have advantage.
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The idea of the build is to get advantage however you can to utilise Elven Accuracy and Hexblade's Curse to maximise the chance of a Critical Hit. Between Shadow's Darkness and Vengeance's Vow you've got multiple ways to grant this. You can also use the hound and hold spell to paralyse a target for advantage with auto-crit.
Dual Wielding is best and Pact of Blade with Hexblade will indeed let you do that easily, and you'll be able to use Cha for both weapons. The Pact Blade will be your main weapon as the Thirsting Blade features will let you attack twice. For your bonus, you can use regular attack if get dual wielder feat but its not best, instead burn 2 sorc points to Quicken Spell GFB/BB cantrip.
With 3 attacks, lots of advantage and 3d20 instead of 2d20 for advantage AND hexblade curse giving crits on 19 and 20 of the roll, AND able to impose disadvantage against your Hold spells: you have a big chance to crit. When you score a critical: U N L E A S H !
You can stack Divine Smite and Eldritch smite on the same attack. Note: Eldritch Smite is superior to Divine Smite in that unlike Divine Smite which is capped at 5d8 damage (6d8 versus Undead), Eldritch Smite has no cap. You will have a 6th level slot and a 5th level. Use E-Smite for the 6th Level Slot and D-Smite for the 5th. On a critical hit that will amount to 24d8 damage. Oh and the target will be left prone. And that's one attack out of three, and you have plenty of more slots to use.
The Downside
The Pally requires Str 13 for multiclass, you will also need Con and you'll need to max your Cha. That's going to hit your starting stats hard if going point buy. It's certainly going to keep your Dex, Int and Wis rather low.
You're definitely going to need to head for Plate armour and with heavy armour and low Dex you can forget about stealth unless you can find ways around that - boots of elvenkind to counter the disadvantage, stealth prof, maybe you have somebody in group or an item that can cast Pass Without Trace?
The plate plus defensive style will get you AC 19, you can consider the dual wielder feat for another +1. As a Sorc you can take the Shield spell - you're not going to be much of a caster and there's an invocation that let's you treat your weapons like an arcane focus anyway or consider a Warcaster feat if can afford using up an ASI for it. You're a melee build with most of your hit points coming from Sorc and Warlock - you are going to really need to think about your defense.
Another downside is resources. You are going to really pay attention and know what you're doing to sustain your resources or you can burn out of them quickly. The high spell slots are best reserved for smites, the low slots are best for hold person / defenses / heals and the Warlock pact slots are best for consuming into Sorc Points for fuelling Hounds/Darkness or creating slots.
Despite the possible high AC, you do not have the hit points for prolonged battles and your defenses against non-AC damage sources will be relying on the spell slots that fuel your damage output. This means you cannot be the party's tank. You're the blitzkrieg against the boss enemy, and little else. This is why that Accursed Specter and Hound of Ill Omen are going to be so useful. The specter can help with minions, guard you, and the Hound helps ensure your spells are more likely to land as you simply just cannot afford to waste them. Make good use of these when you can.
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Best I can do with a build like this. To be honest, never actually played this myself. I find this playstyle to be boring for me and the resource management would be a chore. Still, I hope this was of some use to you.
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Do keep in mind that as a Paladin, any smite using a spell slot of 5th level or higher wastes potential, but as a sorcerer, you can convert your high level slots to SP. You could then convert them back to lower slots or use them to fuel metamagic or other features. For example, as Smite fuel, the 8th and 9th slots would deal 5d8 damage each. However, you could convert them to 17 SP (which you wouldn't want to do at the same time unless you were a 17th level sorcerer with 0 SP, since you are capped at a number of SP equal to your sorcerer level). Converting to a 4th level spell slot for a max damage Smite would take 6 SP, meaning that you could create two 4ths with 5 SP left over for an extra 3rd level slot. This gives a total Smite damage of 14d8 instead of 10d8 normally from the 8th and 9th slots.
If you choose Mog's method, you might get more damage from your ninth with the [Tooltip Not Found] with the Sorcerer 17 Warlock 3, but with the Sorcerer 14/Paladin 6 doesn't have that option unless your DM subscribes to the idea that the Sorcerer can know spells for whatever spell slots they have. The DMs that subscribe to the idea that a 14th level sorcerer doesn't know 9th level spells won't allow it. (Please don't turn this into THAT discussion other readers, I'm only giving the caution. OP have that discussion with your DM, especially if you plan on going for the three way split.)
Last thought, and please forgive the length. The Warlock 3 option does give 2 2nd level spells for 3d8 smiting damage each [6d8 total, which is more total than a 9th used without covering (5d8) but less than a 5th and a 2nd that the 9th could convert to (5d8+3d8 for a total of 8d8)] However, it should be noted that the warlock slots refresh on a short rest and could potentially bring in an additional 2-6 2nd slots per adventuring day if your party makes use of those short rests. They don't have to be used as smites, they can be used on other spells or SP for features or metamagic. Therefore consider that extra potential when considering the worth of Warlock being added into a Sorcadin build and consider how your party likes to take rests and whether your DM likes to disrupt those rests (especially long rests).
Very good points from all of you, I appreciate your input. My Dm is says we can roll for stats and if we don't like those rolls then we ca do the standard array or point buy. Depending on how I roll I may just stay paly6/sorc/14, if I don't then I may add one level of lock so I can and my cha to my attack rolls.