D&D 5E Hexblade (Warlock/Paladin)

[PeteZero]

But you can, who cares about DEX as a paladin? You can multiclass in and out of a paladin DEX8, but with STR8, you are stuck, no multiclassing at all.
So as a multiclass paladin/warlock you need STR13 and CHA13, no way around it, as you need to meet the prerequisites of your current and new class. And yes, you delay some abilities by a level, but getting heavy armor proficiency, and at lvl2 smite might be worth it.

You do have to watch out for those tricky multiclassing rules. Oddly you can happily start out as a paladin with 8 dex, you just can't MC into one. No paladin abilities are directly linked to strength either, so a dex-based one really is fine - and potentially quite cool in fact. I could definitely see something like a wood elf oath of the ancients paladin existing, and being pretty awesome.

Other things to watch for are the prerequesites for warlock abilities. The ones that let you attack twice and add your charisma modifier to damage aren't available straight away. Indeed, most classes have something very similar available at 5th and 11th level, so by multiclassing you're sometimes putting off the time when you get your extra attack or damage bonus. It's a real trade off.

 

[Dausuul]

You do have to watch out for those tricky multiclassing rules. Oddly you can happily start out as a paladin with 8 dex, you just can't MC into one.

You also can't MC out of one. You must meet the multiclassing requirements of all your classes, including the ones you already have. This is a change from how multiclassing worked in the playtest.

Ninja'd. Warlock is the only class that doesn't penalize Melee characters for multiclassing. The level 5 invocation is available based on character level, so fighter 1, warlock 4 gets Thirsting Blade.

This also is not correct. Even though you meet the level requirement, there is no way to get Thirsting Blade at fighter 1/warlock 4, because you don't get a new invocation at warlock 4! Your invocations come at warlock 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, and 18. And you can't take Thirsting Blade at warlock 2, because it requires the Pact of the Blade, and you don't get your pact boon until warlock 3. There is simply no way to get Thirsting Blade earlier than warlock 5.

To the OP: If you want to go paladin/bladelock, Strength should be your top stat, then Charisma, then Constitution. Put your first level in paladin (for heavy armor), then your next five in warlock. After that, you can either stick with warlock for the rest of the game, or throw in more paladin levels to taste. If you choose the latter, it's best to arrange things so that when you hit level 12, you are either paladin 5/warlock 7, or paladin 3/warlock 9. That way you can pick up Lifedrinker on schedule.

Dexterity is a paladin-bladelock's natural dump stat. You have to have 13s in Charisma and Strength for multiclassing, and you need a solid Constitution if you're going to be a front-line fighter; unless you rolled stats and did amazingly well, it's going to be tough to pump Dexterity too. If you want to go the Dexterity route, fighter/bladelock or ranger/bladelock would work much better.

 

[Fion]

PHB 107

Eldritch Invocations
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class you can chose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at this level.


Therefor getting Thirsting Blade is possible at Pally 1/Warlock 4 so long as that last level is Warlock. It's not ideal as you'll be losing the benefit of an Invocation but you can grab it again with Warlock 5 so no biggy.

 

[Mandragola]

Are we sure that when they say "level 5" they don't mean warlock level 5 though?

 

[Runny]

Fion replied for me.

 

[Runny]

That is the consensus

 

[Dausuul]

PHB 107

Eldritch Invocations
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class you can chose one of the invocations you know and replace it with another invocation that you could learn at this level.


Therefor getting Thirsting Blade is possible at Pally 1/Warlock 4 so long as that last level is Warlock. It's not ideal as you'll be losing the benefit of an Invocation but you can grab it again with Warlock 5 so no biggy.

Ah, you are correct - my mistake. That'll teach me to "correct" people without my PHB handy.

 

[Fion]

Ah, you are correct - my mistake. That'll teach me to "correct" people without my PHB handy.

What, you don't carry your PHB around everywhere you go? Guess that's just me.

 

[Runny]

Mine's in my briefcase.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Are we sure that when they say "level 5" they don't mean warlock level 5 though?

Mearls said on twitter that it's up to the DM. Which I think is ridiculous but whatever.