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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gavin O." data-source="post: 7535703" data-attributes="member: 6941440">One of the most popular one level dips is taking a single level of Warlock (Hexblade) on a Paladin build, which allows you to make weapon attacks with your Charisma, solving some of the class' usual issues with MAD, and giving them some strong Warlock abilities, and scaling ranged cantrip, and two important spells (Hex and Shield). The tradeoff, of course, is that all your Paladin features are delayed one level. So how much of a tradeoff is it? What follows is a comparison, level by level, of a straight Paladin of that level and a Paladin dipping one level in Warlock. We'll be using a Half-elf as the race for both builds. Here is the stat array for the Paladin build: 16 Str, 10 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, 16 ChaAnd here is the stat array for the build that plans to multiclass into Hexblade13 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 13 Wis, 16 ChaLevel 1At this level, the two builds are totally different, since the Hexblade build starts as a Warlock Winner: HexbladePaladins are one of the weakest level 1 classes. Compared to the Warlock, you're getting +1 HP, 5 points of Lay on Hands, and 3 uses of Divine Sense, but you lose your short rest spell slot, and a short rest curse that grants +2 damage and 19-20 crits, as well as healing you 4 hit points when the target dies. The Jexblade build also has a +2 bonus to Initiative and to Dex saves, but has -2 to Strength saves compared to the Paladin build. Note: If the hexblade build also wants to get heavy armor, they need to start as Paladin. In that case, the straight Paladin build, who has a 16 in their attacking stat compared to 14, will be better. Level 2 Hexblade build is now Warlock(1)/Paladin(1), And the Paladin build is now Paladin(2)Winner: Paladin (but not by a lot)Hexblade gains Divine Sense and 5 points of Lay on Hands, Paladin gains +2 weapon damage from Fighting Style, and their spellcasting feature. I'll say that 1 spell per short rest is as good as two per long rest, but Paladin can spend those spell slots on 2d8 damage each. Overall, I'd say that Paladin comes out ahead in this comparison, but just barely. Level 3Both builds from now on are taking Paladin levels.Winner: HexbladeHexblade build gets their Fighting Style and their Paladin spellcasting feature at this level, while Paladin gets their sacred oath, and associated channel divinity. Hexblade now has 2 long rest spell slots and 1 short rest spell slot compared to the Paladin's 3 long rest spell slots. While many of the Sacred Oath abilities are pretty good, I wouldn't say any of them are that much better than the Hexblade's Curse. Paladins also get Disease Immunity at this level, which is situationally very powerful but doesn't come up often in my experience. Level 4Winner: HexbladeHexblade build gets their Paladin Sacred Oath at this level, while Paladin build gets an ASI, I'll be taking +2 Strength. So the Paladin build gets +1 to hit and to damage, and the Hexblade gets their choice of Channel Divinity and an extra level 1 spell slot. Level 5Winner: PaladinAt this level, the Hexblade build gets their ASI (put into Cha, for +1 to hit, damage, and save DC), while the Paladin build gets Extra attack and level 2 spells. This isn't even a contest, the Paladin is significantly better. Level 6Winner: PaladinAt this level, the Hexblade build gets Extra Attack and level 2 spells, while the Paladin gets Aura of Protection. It's not as strong as the Hexblade's aura will be, but currently the hexblade doesn't have that aura at all, so the Paladin is stronger. Level 7Winner: HexbladeAt this level, the Hexblade build gets Aura of Protection, which will currently be 1 point higher than the Paladin's aura, and the Paladin gets a Sacred Oath feature. While the effectiveness of this feature varies depending on what oath you've taken, most of them are not better than the Hexblade's +1 to saves, extra level 1 slot, and short rest curse. Level 8Winner: HexbladeAt this level, the Hexblade gets their Sacred Oath feature, while the Paladin gets a second ASI (which I'm putting into Strength) So the Paladin now has +1 to hit and to damage compared to the Hexblade, but -1 to Saves and to spell DC, and they lose the Hexblade features. Level 9Winner: PaladinAt this level, the Hexblade gets an ASI, bringing their attacking and casting stat to 20, while the Paladin gets level 3 spell slots. Level 10Winner: HexbladePaladin gets Fear Immunity, Hexblade gets level 3 slotsLevel 11Winner: PaladinHexblade gets fear immunity, Paladin gets an extra level 3 slot and the amazing Improved Divine Smite, for +1d8 damage to all of their weapon attacks. Level 12Winner: Hexblade Paladin gets an ASI, which they're putting into Cha, but they're still behind the Hexblade, while the Hexblade gets Improved Divine Smite and an extra slot. Level 13Winner: PaladinPaladin gets a level 4 spell slot, while Hexblade gets an ASI. Most likely they'd be taking a feat here, but for the sake of simplicity I'm not using feats, so they take +2 Con, bringing their HP inline with the Paladin's and giving them a net +1 to con saves and concentration checks. Level 14Winner: HexbladePaladin gets Cleansing Touch, which is pretty good, but I wouldn't say its better than +1 to saves for the party, an extra +1 to your Con saves, and the Hexblade features. Level 15Winner: VariesAt this level the Paladin gets their next Sacred Oath feature, and how good that feature is depends entirely on the chosen oath. I would say that Oathbreaker and Vengeance are the only ones which I would want more than the bonuses from Hexblade. The paladin also gets an extra level 4 slot. Level 16Winner: HexbladeAnother ASI for the Paladin, they bring their Cha to 20, putting their spellcasting ability and save DC on par with the Hexblade's. Meanwhile the Hexblade gets their level 15 oath feature. Level 17Winner: HexbladeHexblade gets their ASI, which they put into Con for the extra hit points and save bonus, Paladin gets level 5 spells, which means Destructive Wave, Holy Weapon, Banishing Smite, etc. However, the spell is only once per day, and at this points both builds have a proficency bonus of +6, which means Hexblade's Curse is a significant damage buff that works every short rest. Level 18Winner: PaladinPaladin gets the aura range improvement, increasing the range of aura of protection and their oath aura to 30 feet, while Hexblade gets their level 5 spell. This is close, but I think Paladin gets the better end of this tradeoff. Level 19Winner: HexbladeHexblade gets the aura range improvement, Paladin gets their last feat, which they're putting into Con for some extra HP and saving throw bonus. Level 20Winner: VariesFor level 20, The Paladin build gets a 1/day transformation, many of which are pretty good, though they all require your action at activate and don't last very long. The Hexblade takes a second level of Warlock instead, which gives access to Agonizing Blast plus another Invocation, as well as one more level 1 slot. This isn't a straightforward comparison. I would say that if your party only has one more battle left when they hit 20 and then the campaign is set to conclude, then I'd prefer most of the Paladin level 20 transformations, but if you plan to do more adventuring at this point, I'd rather have the Hexblade Dip. So what does this all mean?First, if you don't see your campaign going to at least level 7, I would never dip into Hexblade. The paladin's level 5 and 6 abilities are too good to give up. Second, even if you do plan to take your campaign all the way to level 20, there is an argument for not multiclassing, purely to get access to the strong Paladin features one level earlier.Now one big benefit to using Hexblade is you free up two ASI to take feats with if you want, three if you start with 17 Cha and take a feat that increases it by 1. This allows you to run, say, Polearm Master, Sentinel, and Elven Accuracy without sacrificing your attacking stat or your spellcasting stat.</blockquote>

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