Please help me decide on a Paladin Build for Curse of Strahd

Johannes Dolch · Oct 28, 2018

My Group will soon start a new campaign, namely the "Curse of Strahd".

I wanted to play a Paladin in the next campaign anyway but was very pleased how well it fits the setting.

Here is the Problem: The campaign is a maximum of ~10 Levels long. Most Guides don't really take this into account. Plus, even though i have not read any of the book myself, obviously, it's pretty clear that there will likely be a premium on Aura of Protection, making the choice of multiclassing and when to multiclass even harder.

So, i would really like some advice on how to build a good Paladin that doesn't have a powercurve, which completely misses the meat of the game.
Please don't give me any huge Spoilers for the campaign, but by all means use your prior knowledge to suggest a build. It is a very specific scenario.

I already chose the Race to be Half-Elf and rolled for Stats, getting very Lucky. I am sitting at 20 Cha, 16 Str, 16 Con, 14 Wis, 12 Dex, 9 Int. Alignment will be Chaotic Good.

Pure Paladin to level 10 seems a little wasted, since levels 7-10 aren't really that great from what i see. Correct me if i am wrong. So it seems reasonable to multiclass at some point. The question is, what and when.

- I was leaning towards Paladin2 -> Paladin2/Sorcerer4 -> Paladin6/Sorcerer4 but i have doubts about getting Aura of Protection that late.
- On the other hand going Paladin6 and then Multiclassing seems a lot less powerful.
- Do I overrate Aura of Protection? Maybe i should go Paladin2/Sorcerer8?
- Maybe Sorcerer isn't even the best option and Warlock would be better?

I am an optimizer and enjoy playing optimized characters. Having said that, I don't like to be a one Trick Pony. Its ok if the main Attack is always the same etc. but i would prefer to abstain from completely one dimensional cheese builds that get me banned from the table.

Thank you for any advice you can give.

MiraMels · Oct 28, 2018

My advice for playing the most optimized character you can, especially with those stats, would be to just single-class paladin.

Prepare a variety of control spells with that 20 charisma, and just be a two-trick, melee and support spellcasting pony. I don't know if you have a subclass picked out yet, but Devotion would be my recommendation.

UngeheuerLich · Oct 28, 2018

When You really try to optimize, I guess warlock hexblade will be the premium choice. I would just take a single level to beginn with, maybe a second one quite early.
2 extra smites per long rest helps a lot as do invocations chosen wisely. Attacking with charisma will give you +2 attack and damage. The curse will give you more extra damage. Devotion channel divinity too. Then add booming blade and duelling fighting style and you are a damage monster. Alternately you can go great weapon fighting but you need level 3 warlock for that.
Your damage output is also high so -5/+10 does not help a lot. Last but not least, a shield and or the shield spell makes you nearly unhittable.
You get two feats with that build. My first choice would be warcaster so shield and shield can be stacked easily and using booming blade on an opportunity attack helps too.
The second feat will be your capstone at level 10. You know what you want then.

So normally I don't recommend hexblade warlock, but with that stat array and your level 10 goal, I guess you can't really do better.
at level 5 your single attack will be:
+13 to hit. 2d8+10 damage crit at 19/20 without taking smites into account. Smites can do 2d8 or even 3d8 damage. Double on a crit. If you worry about only being able to smite once due to your single attack, you can first cast a smite spell and then use divine smite for another extra damage. Then you will have AC 18 with shiel or AC 21 with shield spell. At level 6 you will have AC 23 with both. At level 7 you can do 2 attacks and at level 8 your aura is online.
I recommend agonizing blast and maybe mask of many faces. Useful for a paladin in ravenloft.
thinking about it, if ranged attacks and the dishuise are not important for you, a single warlock level may suffice and you get your warcaster, aura and extra attack 1 level earlier.

Edit: with 20 charisma you can't underrate aura of protection. +5 to all saves is great. Stack it with bless and you as a paladin with 14 wis are looking at +12 + 1d4 wisdom save at level 10. That really helps a lot.

ccs · Oct 28, 2018

Hmm. "I want to play a paladin. What should I MC into & when?"
To me that doesn't sound like someone who actually wants to play a paladin.... Especially not if you're going to end up with more levels of ? than paladin.

Having played this adventure I know you can do perfectly fine going straight paladin. That said? Why don't you start as a paladin & see where your actions/the story leads, letting your character develop organically. There's multiple places where a change might be inspired.

As for MCing into warlock? Well.... you're going into Barovia. Evil holds sway here. So signing on with some patron just to up your smite slots or otherwise optimize your build might be a really bad idea from a RP angle.
You do care about the RP angle, right?

Oh, and spoiler: In the end you're going to fight a vampire.

Johannes Dolch · Oct 28, 2018

UngeheuerLich said:
When You really try to optimize, I guess warlock hexblade will be the premium choice. I would just take a single level to beginn with, maybe a second one quite early.
2 extra smites per long rest helps a lot as do invocations chosen wisely. Attacking with charisma will give you +2 attack and damage. The curse will give you more extra damage. Devotion channel divinity too. Then add booming blade and duelling fighting style and you are a damage monster. Alternately you can go great weapon fighting but you need level 3 warlock for that.
Your damage output is also high so -5/+10 does not help a lot. Last but not least, a shield and or the shield spell makes you nearly unhittable.
You get two feats with that build. My first choice would be warcaster so shield and shield can be stacked easily and using booming blade on an opportunity attack helps too.
The second feat will be your capstone at level 10. You know what you want then.

So normally I don't recommend hexblade warlock, but with that stat array and your level 10 goal, I guess you can't really do better.
at level 5 your single attack will be:
+13 to hit. 2d8+10 damage crit at 19/20 without taking smites into account. Smites can do 2d8 or even 3d8 damage. Double on a crit. If you worry about only being able to smite once due to your single attack, you can first cast a smite spell and then use divine smite for another extra damage. Then you will have AC 18 with shiel or AC 21 with shield spell. At level 6 you will have AC 23 with both. At level 7 you can do 2 attacks and at level 8 your aura is online.
I recommend agonizing blast and maybe mask of many faces. Useful for a paladin in ravenloft.
thinking about it, if ranged attacks and the dishuise are not important for you, a single warlock level may suffice and you get your warcaster, aura and extra attack 1 level earlier.

Edit: with 20 charisma you can't underrate aura of protection. +5 to all saves is great. Stack it with bless and you as a paladin with 14 wis are looking at +12 + 1d4 wisdom save at level 10. That really helps a lot.

Mechanically that is awesome. But since my Character is Chaotic Good "Evil must be destroyed and i am the one who does it", going into Hexblade would really be too far into "please DM, i know it makes zero sense for a good paladin to suddenly make a pact with a mysterious, dark entity from an evil realm and start cursing people. But please, please let me cheese this game." -Territory for me to justify it for the sake of metagaming power. But it is a great concept should i ever start a new character that has a different alignment. And in that sense it certainly has more than enough fodder for a dramatic character.

In fact in terms of pure power this is kinda what i am looking for but i can't justify this specifically, purely based on alignment. If somebody has something like that without the irreconcilable moral divide that would be awesome.

@ccs: That seems like a narrow view. Playing a Paladin for me doesn't come from how many levels I have in this and that. A Paladin for me is a melee Combatant with magical powers. This one specifically is alignment good but you could very well conceive of an evil paladin (e.g. Oathbreaker) who would happily make deals with evil entities for the sake of personal gain. If I would completely abandon melee combat in favor of casting then I would agree with you, that that is not a paladin. But a Hexblade is most certainly a great evil paladin build.

Yunru · Oct 28, 2018

Johannes Dolch said:
Mechanically that is awesome. But since my Character is Chaotic Good "Evil must be destroyed and i am the one who does it", going into Hexblade would really be too far into "please DM, i know it makes zero sense for a good paladin to suddenly make a pact with a mysterious, dark entity from an evil realm and start cursing people. But please, please let me cheese this game." -Territory for me to justify it for the sake of metagaming power. But it is a great concept should i ever start a new character that has a different alignment. And in that sense it certainly has more than enough fodder for a dramatic character.

Ehh... It's more an issue that they decided to fix pact of the blade by making a patron tax.
Besides, you can always go the Ghost Rider route.

But just glancing at it, I'd go for a Paladin of Devotion with one level of Hexblade.

But if that's really not on the table, just go pure Paladin and dual wield. If you're playing with feats you could drop it for PAM at level 4, allowing you to switch to a stronger weapon or a weapon and shield.

UngeheuerLich · Oct 28, 2018

Johannes Dolch said:
Mechanically that is awesome. But since my Character is Chaotic Good "Evil must be destroyed and i am the one who does it", going into Hexblade would really be too far into "please DM, i know it makes zero sense for a good paladin to suddenly make a pact with a mysterious, dark entity from an evil realm and start cursing people. But please, please let me cheese this game." -Territory for me to justify it for the sake of metagaming power. But it is a great concept should i ever start a new character that has a different alignment. And in that sense it certainly has more than enough fodder for a dramatic character.

In fact in terms of pure power this is kinda what i am looking for but i can't justify this specifically, purely based on alignment. If somebody has something like that without the irreconcilable moral divide that would be awesome.

@ccs: That seems like a narrow view. Playing a Paladin for me doesn't come from how many levels I have in this and that. A Paladin for me is a melee Combatant with magical powers. This one specifically is alignment good but you could very well conceive of an evil paladin (e.g. Oathbreaker) who would happily make deals with evil entities for the sake of personal gain. If I would completely abandon melee combat in favor of casting then I would agree with you, that that is not a paladin. But a Hexblade is most certainly a great evil paladin build.

I really like that you consider roleplaying considerations above absolute power.

in that case trying to get 20 Strength seems a reasonable choice. So how to get there without sacrificing too much.

I think just going paladin all the way may be the best choice. At least till level 6. You get better every single level. Str 16 is fantastic. I'd maybe get defensive fighting style so you can easily switch weapons. Two weapons, shield, a versatile longsword are all good choices then. With being good in mind I still believe devotion is the way to go. +5 attack bonus is better than anything else. At level 4 you can either just raise str to 18 or take great weapon mastery or polearm mastery or shield master if you found a favourite weapon style. Defense fighting style is still a great choice. At level 5 extra attack and second level spells are invaluable and level 6 aura will make you save from mind controlling spells.
On level 7 you double down on it and are immune to charm. Invaluable.
then level 8 will one again increase your stat or give you a feat. Level 9... 3rd level spells. And at level 10 immunity to fear. And if you happen to gain level 11. That is improved divine smite... i really don't think a level of a spellcasting class other than hexblade will give you a better progression. Maybe after level 8 you could branch out to sorcerer divine soul to get +2d4 to a save and access to some more spells. Or bard to get a lot of bardic inspiration uses. But it probably isn't worth it.

Johannes Dolch · Oct 28, 2018

Thanks for the input so far.

Here is were i am in my thinking currently: (critique welcome!)

Paladin2:

Gives me Divine Smite, Dueling and lv1 Paladin Spellcasting (Divine Favor, Cure Wounds, Bless, Protection from Evil, Shield of Faith)

Paladin2/Sorcerer1:

- Gives me 4 Cantrips (Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Minor Illusion, Lightning Lure) of which at least BB and GFB are legendary good.
- Gives me S. Origin (either Red Dragon or Divine Soul) both of which have nice effects.
- Gives me Lv1 Sorcerer Spellcasting (mainly Shield which is just awesome)

IMO there is basically no reason whatsoever not to take at least this one Level in Sorcerer at some point. The shield spell alone is worth it. (+5 AC AFTER the fact? Yes Please!)

From here it seems dependent on mainly one Question: In CoStrahd is Fireball or Aura of Protection worth more? If my math is correct, you cannot have both by level 9/10.

A: Aura of Protection

The next Target will be to get a Feat for Warcaster.

Paladin4/Sorcerer1:

- Gives me Oath of Vengeance (Mainly for Vow of Emnity) or Oath of Devotion.
- Gives me Warcaster so i can actually cast all the goodies with a Shield in Hand.
- Gives me 2nd level Spell Slots.

Paladin4/Sorcerer3:

- Gives me Font of Magic.
- Gives me Metamagic: Quickened Spell (for BB/GFB etc.) and either Twinned Spell (More Nuke) or careful Spell (for Web, Hypnotic Pattern, etc.)
- Huge bump in Nova Potential

Paladin6/Sorcerer3:

- Gives me Second Attack
- Gives me Aura of Protection

So this gives me Aura of Protection (+5) at level 9, hopefully in time for the Endgame.

OR B: Fireball

Again going for Warcaster but this time I stick with Sorcerer. (Actually not sure if the Oath would be worth taking 1 more Paladin Level here)
Paladin2/Sorcerer4:

- Gives me Font of Magic.
- Gives me Metamagic: Quickened Spell (for BB/GFB etc.) and either Twinned Spell (More Nuke) or careful Spell (for Web, Hypnotic Pattern, etc.)
- Huge bump in Nova Potential
- Gives me Warcaster so i can actually cast all the goodies with a Shield in Hand.
- Gives me 3rd level Spell Slots.

Paladin2/Sorcerer7:

- Gives me Fireball and Dragon Origin Fire Affinity
- Gives me lots of spells incl. lv4 Spells and a lv.5 Slot

So that's where i am standing now. Any thoughts?

UngeheuerLich · Oct 28, 2018

I am still unsure if it is worth taking sorcerer that early. Without warcaster, shield and shield spell can´t be up at the same time. (I allow an eldritch kinght to drop your weapon and cast shield at the same time... but as a paladin your weapon is away then. It also takes away your precious slots for smiting.
Booming blade or greenflame blade are not that good if you consider that you delay your second attack and your second chance of smiting. after you have warcaster and can cast booming blade on opportunity attacks it get a lot better. So I think going to level 4 Paladin ist first priority. Oath of vengeance and oath of devotion are both good. I think with your charisma, +5 attack trumps advantage by far.

If you really insist on sorcerer, Go up to level 4 in Paladin and branch out then.
You will know if going sorcerer all the way will be worth it by then.
Fireball is definitely not worth it at that point. It is nice to have, but definitely no game changer.

Johannes Dolch · Oct 28, 2018

I don't insist on anything

I just think that Paladin levels 7-10 and higher are far less good than 4 levels in Sorcerer. When to take those levels is of course very much the question.

As for the Oath. I can see the benefit of Devotion. The Problem is the Tenets. I am not Lawful Good, but Chaotic Good. So i'd be really toeing the line there. Chaotic Characters usually don't "obey those who have just authority over you" (although "just" sounds like its a wide open loophole) and also Deception +7 is kinda a no go if i can't lie

And frankly this whole over-the-top goody-two-shoes thing sounds like a real drag. Like I can't fight the prime evil because i was so caught up in getting kittens out of trees and now i have to pay reparations to the whole world because it was somehow my fault that all these bad things happened. That doesn't really inspire me.

Please help me decide on a Paladin Build for Curse of Strahd

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