I am currently in a Curse of Strahd campaign. I am currently running paladin. I am the main tank for my party that consists of a cleric, warlock, rogue, and two fighters. I was thinking of dipping some levels into Bard to gain access to more spell slots for smites as well as for the bards support capabilities. We will be level 10 at the end of the campaign and I was thinking of leveling up my character as so, 7 levels in paladin and 3 in bard. I am not sure which subclass to choose for paladin but I was thinking of taking the college of whispers subclass for bard so I can use the Physic blades feature to do more damage with my smites. Any and all recommendations will be appreciated. My stats are STR:16 DEX:8 CON:15 INT:10 WIS:10 CHA:16.
Whisper bard is really fantastic with psychic blades. I would also recommend if you’re trying to buff allies with college of valor. Combat inspiration is very helpful especially with paladin smites and everything
Well, to start with you really want to wait until after level 5 before you dip if you're looking to use the spell slots for smiting, because you really want that Extra Attack ASAP. Which then runs up against the issue of your next two Paladin levels being Aura of Protection- a major feature- and then your next subclass feature. Honestly, looking the level distribution you described and the spell slot table for multiclassing, you're really not markedly better off with the dip: 3 levels of Bard plus 7 levels of Paladin halved and rounded down comes out to the level 6 equivalent, which is only one additional slot, but you won't actually have any 3rd level spells to use, which you would have as a full Paladin by that point. Your Bardic Inspiration is only going to be a d6, and you'll have either 3 or 4 uses a day, depending how you spend your 1 ASI with this distribution. 3rd level subclass features are also not a great reason for a running dip like this; that can be a lot of in game time before the feature is going to come online, and you'll be splitting your very limited pool of Inspiration die if you want the psychic blades boost plus the ability to buff with Inspiration.
Honestly, my biggest piece of advice for players in this kind of scenario is to not multiclass: on paper it looks like you'll be broadening your repertoire, but in practice it typically just leaves you with a lot of options that all feel a bit underpowered for your encounters. If you want to go for it anyways, you do you, but I learned the hard way that in practice this kind of dip doesn't handle nearly as well as you might think.
Really, if you want a damage boost, I'd suggest taking the Oath of Vengeance at 3rd level for Hunter's Mark; you've got heavy armor judging by the DEX score, a decent CON mod, and eventually the Aura to help you hold concentration and it'll likely come out to at least as much extra damage as the Whispers feature, with the potential to last across several encounters. Your call in the end, though. Not trying to dictate a "right" way to play.
For Paladin I'd recommend Oath of Devotion, an extra Turn Undead is potentially very valuable to the party in Curse of Strad, or alternatively adding that +3 Cha to your attack rolls would certainly help our your damage. I second the above that you want to take 6-Paladin before MCing, though I'd recommend 7 with Devotion to get that charm-immunity aura which is very helpful when fighting vampires.
Swords Bard is great. You can use the Bard spell slots to smite, and you can add your Bardic Inspiration dice to your damage, making you hit harder.
You can go straight into Bard after 2 levels of Paladin, and the Swords Bard will give you your Extra Attack, just a couple levels later than you'd have it if you went full Paladin for your first five levels. But doing this gives you two-more full caster levels, capping at L4 spells and spell slots by the time you have the climactic end of the campaign at L10... which is good, because L4 slots are the maximum amount of damage dice your Divine Smite can inflict.
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I am currently in a Curse of Strahd campaign. I am currently running paladin. I am the main tank for my party that consists of a cleric, warlock, rogue, and two fighters. I was thinking of dipping some levels into Bard to gain access to more spell slots for smites as well as for the bards support capabilities. We will be level 10 at the end of the campaign and I was thinking of leveling up my character as so, 7 levels in paladin and 3 in bard. I am not sure which subclass to choose for paladin but I was thinking of taking the college of whispers subclass for bard so I can use the Physic blades feature to do more damage with my smites. Any and all recommendations will be appreciated. My stats are STR:16 DEX:8 CON:15 INT:10 WIS:10 CHA:16.
Whisper bard is really fantastic with psychic blades. I would also recommend if you’re trying to buff allies with college of valor. Combat inspiration is very helpful especially with paladin smites and everything
Well, to start with you really want to wait until after level 5 before you dip if you're looking to use the spell slots for smiting, because you really want that Extra Attack ASAP. Which then runs up against the issue of your next two Paladin levels being Aura of Protection- a major feature- and then your next subclass feature. Honestly, looking the level distribution you described and the spell slot table for multiclassing, you're really not markedly better off with the dip: 3 levels of Bard plus 7 levels of Paladin halved and rounded down comes out to the level 6 equivalent, which is only one additional slot, but you won't actually have any 3rd level spells to use, which you would have as a full Paladin by that point. Your Bardic Inspiration is only going to be a d6, and you'll have either 3 or 4 uses a day, depending how you spend your 1 ASI with this distribution. 3rd level subclass features are also not a great reason for a running dip like this; that can be a lot of in game time before the feature is going to come online, and you'll be splitting your very limited pool of Inspiration die if you want the psychic blades boost plus the ability to buff with Inspiration.
Honestly, my biggest piece of advice for players in this kind of scenario is to not multiclass: on paper it looks like you'll be broadening your repertoire, but in practice it typically just leaves you with a lot of options that all feel a bit underpowered for your encounters. If you want to go for it anyways, you do you, but I learned the hard way that in practice this kind of dip doesn't handle nearly as well as you might think.
Really, if you want a damage boost, I'd suggest taking the Oath of Vengeance at 3rd level for Hunter's Mark; you've got heavy armor judging by the DEX score, a decent CON mod, and eventually the Aura to help you hold concentration and it'll likely come out to at least as much extra damage as the Whispers feature, with the potential to last across several encounters. Your call in the end, though. Not trying to dictate a "right" way to play.
For Paladin I'd recommend Oath of Devotion, an extra Turn Undead is potentially very valuable to the party in Curse of Strad, or alternatively adding that +3 Cha to your attack rolls would certainly help our your damage. I second the above that you want to take 6-Paladin before MCing, though I'd recommend 7 with Devotion to get that charm-immunity aura which is very helpful when fighting vampires.
Swords Bard is great. You can use the Bard spell slots to smite, and you can add your Bardic Inspiration dice to your damage, making you hit harder.
You can go straight into Bard after 2 levels of Paladin, and the Swords Bard will give you your Extra Attack, just a couple levels later than you'd have it if you went full Paladin for your first five levels. But doing this gives you two-more full caster levels, capping at L4 spells and spell slots by the time you have the climactic end of the campaign at L10... which is good, because L4 slots are the maximum amount of damage dice your Divine Smite can inflict.