FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
Paladin MutliClassing: An in Depth Analysis
I. Foreword
This is my first real attempt at a guide of any kind. It's a lot morework than it looks like. Kudos to anyone that has created a guide before. It's still a work in progress and not every section is complete but I wanted to go ahead and put out what I have so far so that I can start getting feedback on it.
II. Introduction
Paladins are agreat Class to remain in your entire career. They have many good abilities and they get them regularly. So there are definitely major trade-offs to multiclassing out of Paladin and into another class. This guide will offer a quantitative and qualitative analysis of thegeneral themes you want to be aware of when deciding what to multiclass your Paladin into.
I am writing this guide from holistic perspective that includes in combat and out of combat situations as well as organically leveling from level 1 to 20. I'm not solely concerned with damage here even though a lot of the discussion is going to revolve around damage as it's what's most easy to quantify and compare.
For example, I believe that on a single class Paladin that charisma is more important than strength (I'll give more detailed analysis later). There are a number of factors concerning this belief:
I won't be color coding every single ability and option imaginable. If you want that then there are plenty of other guides out there. This guide is primarily about analysis with a sprinkling of tactical and build advice. They'll be plenty of lists and numbers and charts though.
III. Important Concepts
Three Pillars – These are exploration, social and combat. Different ones matter more in different games. The best characters tend to offer abilities applicable to all 3.
Versatility– A measure of how well your character is at solving various problems in all 3 pillars. Generally more spell casting is the best way to increase versatility.
Combat Pillar
The purpose of this pillar is self explanatory. It's also the pillar weare most able to quantify. As such there are many concepts that needcovered here.
Nova Damage –Essentially the damage you can do on a single turn. I further subdivide this out into Prebuffed Nova Damage and Unbuffed NovaDamage. Nova Damage is the best measure of your ability to kill a particular enemy that needs to die fast. It's a very important combat statistic, though it shouldn't be considered solely inisolation. It coupled with the next statistic, Daily Damage gives agreat picture of just how effectively your character is at killing enemies.
Daily Damage –This is how much damage your character is estimated to be able to doin a set number of rounds and rests provided you use all your resource abilities on damage. This coupled with Nova Damage are the best 2 indicators of how well your character will perform at damage in combat IMO. For purposes of this guide I use 2 short rests perday and 20 rounds of combat. In many campaigns it could be morea ccurate to compute daily damage from 1 short rest and 10-15 roundsof combat. I think 20 is a nice happy middle ground that also is easy to base calculations around.
At-will damage –How effective your character is at dealing damage without using resource driven abilities. It's honestly a very poor indicator ofcharacter performance and for the purposes of this guide I'm ignoring it except as for a component of daily damage.
Control – Howeffective you are at disabling enemies or otherwise making theirlives misreable. Generally spell casting is how you become effective at this aspect. Control isn't only about the strength of the effect but how easy it is to maintain the effect and how many enemies that effect is capable of hitting.
Survivability –How effective you are at not dying. Your Hp, AC, saving throws and damage mitagation and self-healing abilites all apply here.
Exploration Pillar
Exploration isultimately about effeciently getting around various environmentswhile noticing what's important in them with the least resistance possible. Skills like stealh, athletics and perception all go here. Knowledge skills and spells also play an indirect role here. Forexample it may take a high stealth to safely navigate a dungeon butit may take an arcana check to recognize that symbol on the wall means there's a magical hidden pathway here. Various spells thathelp you navigate an environment safely or grant some useful piece of knowledge also impact this pillar. Movement capabilities are alsovery important and many of these are only granted by magic.
Exploration Movement Hierarchy
Tier 1 – Long Range Teleportation
Tier 2 - Flight
Tier 3 – Short Range Teleportation
Tier 4 – Wall Walking
Tier 5 – Water Walking
Tier 6 –Additional run, walk, swim, climb capabilities
Social Pillar
This pillar is allabout interacting with NPC's. How do you get them to do what youwant. How do you get them to help you. Knowledge skills can also play an indirect role here. Skills like persuasion, deception,insight and intimidation really matter. There are fewer spells that help the social pillar and I don't know that I would classify any paladin spells as impactful to this pillar. At least paladins get a good charisma and this helps with the social skills.
I. Foreword
This is my first real attempt at a guide of any kind. It's a lot morework than it looks like. Kudos to anyone that has created a guide before. It's still a work in progress and not every section is complete but I wanted to go ahead and put out what I have so far so that I can start getting feedback on it.
II. Introduction
Paladins are agreat Class to remain in your entire career. They have many good abilities and they get them regularly. So there are definitely major trade-offs to multiclassing out of Paladin and into another class. This guide will offer a quantitative and qualitative analysis of thegeneral themes you want to be aware of when deciding what to multiclass your Paladin into.
I am writing this guide from holistic perspective that includes in combat and out of combat situations as well as organically leveling from level 1 to 20. I'm not solely concerned with damage here even though a lot of the discussion is going to revolve around damage as it's what's most easy to quantify and compare.
For example, I believe that on a single class Paladin that charisma is more important than strength (I'll give more detailed analysis later). There are a number of factors concerning this belief:
- Charisma impacts all saves and social skills as well as spellcasting DC and spells prepared.
- A large portion of your damage is influenced by smites and improved divine smite
- You may find a belt of giant strength
- There's always the option of multiclassing into hexblade to make your attack charisma based.
I won't be color coding every single ability and option imaginable. If you want that then there are plenty of other guides out there. This guide is primarily about analysis with a sprinkling of tactical and build advice. They'll be plenty of lists and numbers and charts though.
III. Important Concepts
Three Pillars – These are exploration, social and combat. Different ones matter more in different games. The best characters tend to offer abilities applicable to all 3.
Versatility– A measure of how well your character is at solving various problems in all 3 pillars. Generally more spell casting is the best way to increase versatility.
Combat Pillar
The purpose of this pillar is self explanatory. It's also the pillar weare most able to quantify. As such there are many concepts that needcovered here.
Nova Damage –Essentially the damage you can do on a single turn. I further subdivide this out into Prebuffed Nova Damage and Unbuffed NovaDamage. Nova Damage is the best measure of your ability to kill a particular enemy that needs to die fast. It's a very important combat statistic, though it shouldn't be considered solely inisolation. It coupled with the next statistic, Daily Damage gives agreat picture of just how effectively your character is at killing enemies.
Daily Damage –This is how much damage your character is estimated to be able to doin a set number of rounds and rests provided you use all your resource abilities on damage. This coupled with Nova Damage are the best 2 indicators of how well your character will perform at damage in combat IMO. For purposes of this guide I use 2 short rests perday and 20 rounds of combat. In many campaigns it could be morea ccurate to compute daily damage from 1 short rest and 10-15 roundsof combat. I think 20 is a nice happy middle ground that also is easy to base calculations around.
At-will damage –How effective your character is at dealing damage without using resource driven abilities. It's honestly a very poor indicator ofcharacter performance and for the purposes of this guide I'm ignoring it except as for a component of daily damage.
Control – Howeffective you are at disabling enemies or otherwise making theirlives misreable. Generally spell casting is how you become effective at this aspect. Control isn't only about the strength of the effect but how easy it is to maintain the effect and how many enemies that effect is capable of hitting.
Survivability –How effective you are at not dying. Your Hp, AC, saving throws and damage mitagation and self-healing abilites all apply here.
Exploration Pillar
Exploration isultimately about effeciently getting around various environmentswhile noticing what's important in them with the least resistance possible. Skills like stealh, athletics and perception all go here. Knowledge skills and spells also play an indirect role here. Forexample it may take a high stealth to safely navigate a dungeon butit may take an arcana check to recognize that symbol on the wall means there's a magical hidden pathway here. Various spells thathelp you navigate an environment safely or grant some useful piece of knowledge also impact this pillar. Movement capabilities are alsovery important and many of these are only granted by magic.
Exploration Movement Hierarchy
Tier 1 – Long Range Teleportation
Tier 2 - Flight
Tier 3 – Short Range Teleportation
Tier 4 – Wall Walking
Tier 5 – Water Walking
Tier 6 –Additional run, walk, swim, climb capabilities
Social Pillar
This pillar is allabout interacting with NPC's. How do you get them to do what youwant. How do you get them to help you. Knowledge skills can also play an indirect role here. Skills like persuasion, deception,insight and intimidation really matter. There are fewer spells that help the social pillar and I don't know that I would classify any paladin spells as impactful to this pillar. At least paladins get a good charisma and this helps with the social skills.
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