D&D 5E (2024) Spell Fire Smiter. Ultimate Smite.

[Mephista]

At Paladin 4/Warlock 5 it is 7 smites with no short rest, and 3 of them are 3rd level slots (Paladin's Smite, 3 1st level spell slots, 2 Pact Slots, Magical Cunning)

Then it is two more 3rd level smites for each short rest.

An 9th level Paladin is 5 1st, 3 2nd, 2 3rd.

I would say that is generally going to favor the Warlock, although not by much

Nitpick - its Warlock 6/Paladin3, not Warlock 5/Paladin 4.

I generally assume 12 rounds of combat, 3 rounds and 4 fights, with 1 short rest, per day. Multiple short rests a day seems to be as common as no short rests, ime - one blatantly favors pure class, one obviously the multi-class.

Most theorybuilds use 1 short rest as an acceptable compromise. In this case, the multiclass is a head by 1d8 damage over the course of 12 combat rounds, which is very much a small amount, and as noted below, the paladin makes up the difference through their higher HD when channeled via Spellfire Adept.

They stack with Spellfire Adept which is 4d10+5d8 per day at 9th level and you can use spellfire adept on ranged weapon attacks.\

Nothing stops a paladin from running Spellfire Adept with Divine Smite - you just need the Spellcasting feature to qualify, which they do have. In fact, they're arguably better at it because paladins have d10 vs a warlock's d8 - if we assume all HD are used to enhance smites, each die is either equal or dealing 1 point more than the 6 warlock dice. Not a large amount over the course of a day here, but it does offset the extra 1d8 damage from smiting.

I don't think the damage per day generally will shift in favor of the single classed PC generally. The base damage is similar if you assume similar weapons and the multiclass character is doing significantly more additional damage due to better smites and spellfire spark.

Using a 2d6 weapon and an 18 Charisma you are at 3d6+12 base damage at level 9. A Paladin using extra attack is 4d6+10 with a 20 Strength. Use a weapon with lower base damage and the Warlock is doing better.

A pure paladin wouldn't necessarily dump their second feat into pure strength - there's a ton of feats that boost damage, and most people are more interested in going with feats instead of ASI boosts in 5e24.

I'm not a fan of assuming that the side you don't like ends up taking bad picks.

 

[Mephista]

I wouldn't be assuming 1 short rest. Prayer of healing grants another. You might get 2-3 and 5.5 classes get more short rest abilities.

Prayer of healing isn't available until Paladin 5. Which your build hasn't even touched - you've only suggested Paladin 4/Warlock 7+.

Assuming multiple short rests is something that's generally not played out favorably at most tables. Just as often, there were NO short rests. In fact, this was a huge point of contention when the playtest happened.

I suppose you could buy scrolls to do this, but this feels like it might be something very DM depenedent if they'd allow such a work around. Its one thing to have level appropriate scrolls for stuff you know, but as a hack to avoid the tradeoffs from multiclassing? That feels cheesy.

The builds a lot more versatile than paladins. They stink at range. This can switch to true strike crossbow or EB+hex.

Fair enough. I tend to find that range is overrated - most combats happen in cramped quarters or otherwise some form of dungeons where getting into melee isn't a huge issue. If the paladin can't get into melee in 1 round, pulling out a few javelins isn't a huge deal, imho, where its a game changer.

But if its a big deal for you, I'll conceed this singular point of ranged.

You also get all the invovations. Lower levels probably pact of the chain or multiple origin feats or 2-3 magic initiate feats.

You've taken up three of the five invocations you'd get at level 6 warlock - agonizing blast, eldritch smite, pact of tome. That leaves you two options. Pact of Chain is nice, but you'll never be able to really make the most of it with Investement of the Chain Master and Gaze of Two Minds - too BA heavy, no good option for attacking via .

Frankly, I find the loss of the aura, its subclass upgrade, the mount, and Abjure Foes to be huge strikes as well. Four really nice features exchanged for a small handful of cantrips and level 1 magics.

 

[Zardnaar]

Prayer of healing isn't available until Paladin 5. Which your build hasn't even touched - you've only suggested Paladin 4/Warlock 7+.

Assuming multiple short rests is something that's generally not played out favorably at most tables. Just as often, there were NO short rests. In fact, this was a huge point of contention when the playtest happened.

I suppose you could buy scrolls to do this, but this feels like it might be something very DM depenedent if they'd allow such a work around. Its one thing to have level appropriate scrolls for stuff you know, but as a hack to avoid the tradeoffs from multiclassing? That feels cheesy.

Fair enough. I tend to find that range is overrated - most combats happen in cramped quarters or otherwise some form of dungeons where getting into melee isn't a huge issue. If the paladin can't get into melee in 1 round, pulling out a few javelins isn't a huge deal, imho, where its a game changer.

But if its a big deal for you, I'll conceed this singular point of ranged.

You've taken up three of the five invocations you'd get at level 6 warlock - agonizing blast, eldritch smite, pact of tome. That leaves you two options. Pact of Chain is nice, but you'll never be able to really make the most of it with Investement of the Chain Master and Gaze of Two Minds - too BA heavy, no good option for attacking via .

Frankly, I find the loss of the aura, its subclass upgrade, the mount, and Abjure Foes to be huge strikes as well. Four really nice features exchanged for a small handful of cantrips and level 1 magics.

I make no assumptions about how many short rests one gets, accuracy rates or dpr.

I go with danage potential averages.

Our groups tend to get more than 1 short rest one way or another.
I'm more interested in if the basic idea works and I haven't missed anything obvious.

I haven't made any assumptions about the other invocations. But the Warlicks more versatile. Range for starters. Run out of smites probably switch to ranged attacks with a crossbow.

Youre also kore accurate than the paladin.

In any event I'm not designing it to compete with a Paladin. Its more of an interesting build. Min maxing a Paladin is easy and kinda boring as theres not much one can do with them. Key off charisma via MC warlock or shilleagh or go dex or strength based with appropriate feats.

 

[ECMO3]

I generally assume 12 rounds of combat, 3 rounds and 4 fights, with 1 short rest, per day. Multiple short rests a day seems to be as common as no short rests, ime - one blatantly favors pure class, one obviously the multi-class.

1 short rest per day has the multiclass beating the single class when it comes to smites. It is 9 vs 9, but it is also 5 3rd level smites vs 2 3rd level smites and a lot more versatility in using them.

I would agree zero short rests is probably more common that 3+, but when you have zero short rests you probably also only have 6 or 7 rounds of combat (or less) and here the multiclass really shines because they can nova out all of their slots much easier.

On really long days with lots of fights and lots of short rests the multiclass delivers more smites because of the short rest recharge.

On really short days with no short rests, the multiclass delivers more smite damage because it can stack multiple smites in a single round.

Most theorybuilds use 1 short rest as an acceptable compromise. In this case, the multiclass is a head by 1d8 damage over the course of 12 combat rounds, which is very much a small amount, and as noted below, the paladin makes up the difference through their higher HD when channeled via Spellfire Adept.
Nothing stops a paladin from running Spellfire Adept with Divine Smite - you just need the Spellcasting feature to qualify, which they do have.

Spellfire Adept only works on spells.

"Once per turn, when a spell you cast deals Radiant damage, you can expend up to two Hit Point Dice, roll them, and add the total rolled to one damage roll of the spell."

Now you can add Spellfire Adept on top of a Divine Smite, since it is a spell, but you need to use Divine Smite first, so you can't use it with your normal attack action. I think this inhibits how you use it quite a bit in play.

A Warlock 5/Paladin 3 has 3d10 and 5d8 locked up in Spellfire Adept and can mix that with Eldritch Smite and/or Divine Smite or with just truestrike.

A pure paladin wouldn't necessarily dump their second feat into pure strength - there's a ton of feats that boost damage, and most people are more interested in going with feats instead of ASI boosts in 5e24.4

I used it as an example, but if you are keeping Spellfire Adept, and also getting GWM then that is the extra feat we are talking about, there isn't another, and if you are getting Spellfire Adept at level 4 then you are not boosting strength at all until level 8.

I'm not a fan of assuming that the side you don't like ends up taking bad picks.

Based on extensive play I am not a fan of assuming GWM will actually boost damage in a real game that goes to level 9+. More often than not the guy with GWM is swinging a weak non-magic or uncommon weapon while the guy that took no such wepon confining feat has the best weapon you found. Might be a Viscious Dagger or a Flame Tongue or whatever, but it usually more than makes up for the extra damage the guy with GWM does. Not always, but usually.

All D&D is situational, in my opinion the multiclass is going to be much more versatile. It is not a max damage build, but I think it will do great damage, outdamage a typical Paladin of equal level at most levels, while having a ton of options.

 

[Zardnaar]

1 short rest per day has the multiclass beating the single class when it comes to smites. It is 9 vs 9, but it is also 5 3rd level smites vs 2 3rd level smites and a lot more versatility in using them.

I would agree zero short rests is probably more common that 3+, but when you have zero short rests you probably also only have 6 or 7 rounds of combat (or less) and here the multiclass really shines because they can nova out all of their slots much easier.

On really long days with lots of fights and lots of short rests the multiclass delivers more smites because of the short rest recharge.

On really short days with no short rests, the multiclass delivers more smite damage because it can stack multiple smites in a single round.





Spellfire Adept only works on spells.

"Once per turn, when a spell you cast deals Radiant damage, you can expend up to two Hit Point Dice, roll them, and add the total rolled to one damage roll of the spell."

Now you can add Spellfire Adept on top of a Divine Smite, since it is a spell, but you need to use Divine Smite first, so you can't use it with your normal attack action. I think this inhibits how you use it quite a bit in play.

A Warlock 5/Paladin 3 has 3d10 and 5d8 locked up in Spellfire Adept and can mix that with Eldritch Smite and/or Divine Smite or with just truestrike.




I used it as an example, but if you are keeping Spellfire Adept, and also getting GWM then that is the extra feat we are talking about, there isn't another, and if you are getting Spellfire Adept at level 4 then you are not boosting strength at all until level 8.



Based on extensive play I am not a fan of assuming GWM will actually boost damage in a real game that goes to level 9+. More often than not the guy with GWM is swinging a weak non-magic or uncommon weapon while the guy that took no such wepon confining feat has the best weapon you found. Might be a Viscious Dagger or a Flame Tongue or whatever, but it usually more than makes up for the extra damage the guy with GWM does. Not always, but usually.

All D&D is situational, in my opinion the multiclass is going to be much more versatile. It is not a max damage build, but I think it will do great damage, outdamage a typical Paladin of equal level at most levels, while having a ton of options.

Its a maximum smite nova build. Side effect if we can make it playable.

Well I think its playable anyway but half/decent/good.

 

[Mephista]

I'm more interested in if the basic idea works and I haven't missed anything obvious.

Okay, you know what? Lets do that. Ignore the stuff about single class paladin, and lets start fresh.

True Strike builds are often quoted as being frustrating. Until you get that paladin 3 level at character 9, you have a good chance of missing, and lots of people have said that they find it quite annoying. On average, that means just under half your turns, you're not doing any damage.

Rogues also only get one attack, but they have a ton of ways to generate Advantage. However, you do not have the same benefit by default - there's a few innate ways of giving you Advantage to raise your chances of landing a hit, but all with problems; figuring out what's best for you is important. Darkness/Devil's Sight combo might annoy teammmates. You can get Topple, but that's not going to benefit you, only your teammates. Your team might have topple, but there's a good chance that the enemy stands up before your turn. Vex is an option...assuming you hit first, and if it survives multiple rounds. Or use Lucky to start off. You could use familiar Help spam, but do note that familiars are made of fragilium and you want to be in melee~ Which brings me to the next point -

Warlocks are also notorious for their survival issues, and you're talking about being melee-primary and only taking paladin 1 at level 7. Warlocks tend to need to use their magic to boost their survival rates in melee - though Celestial warlocks tend to offset this with their Healing Light ability (which also takes a bonus action). Figuring out how you want to use your magic to aid survivability is a very important consideration at this point. Armor of Agathys tends to last longer under a Fiend (thp generation) or Fey warlock (misty step away), but less so for Celestial, who tend to rely on heal-tanking-to-the-face. So, I suggest putting more thought into survival stuff.

Or... If you're going to dip paladin, do you want it earlier so that you have heavy armor for longer time periods and delay that +CHA damage boost? Or are you going to rely on mage armor the entire time (which takes up invocation)? Don't forget that you're going to want 13 STR to wear heavy armor once you get paladin, but before that you want a good DEX score for the mage armor, and you're gonna want some CON for the extra hp. This is a lot of MADness, assuming you're gonna dump INT and WIS.

Which brings us to Concentration spells. You're going to want to avoid them like the plague. You've mentioned Hex before, which leads me to believe you haven't really thought of this aspect. You're a melee unit without CON save proficency nor enough feat slots to invest in War Caster. Your concentration check is laughably bad, and you're going to be making multiple per round. Do Not The Concentration.

Now, lets put a pin in that stuff and pivot to Invocations. Warlocks tend to rely on Invocations for lots of stuff, and you're very invocation heavy. Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Smite, at least. You need Tome if you do decide to use Shillelaugh, and possibly another for access to Mage Armor until you get to Paladin 1.

Note that, for your planned progression, you're not going to get any ability to smite until level 5. So your build is going to come online quite late unless you want to dip paladin early. Armor of Shadows or using Magic Initiate: Wizard to get mage armor is generally highly recommended, so that you have early level defenses - or use Fiendish Vigor. You'll eventually swap it out, but its critical for early stage survival. Honestly, its probably best to go Paladin 1 first, just so you have both higher AC, less need to worry about DEX on your build, and have access to smites early on.

You mentioned Shillelaugh, but clubs have crappy Mastery, and there's no reason to go quarterstaff with the spell, you've got a shield. You are better off going either Rapier (Vex mastery) or a Heavy weapon. Oh! Speaking of heavy weapons... True Strike builds work great with Savage Attacker origin feat. Its only once a turn, but... you're only attacking once a turn, meaning its a slightly better Fighting Style for Greataxes or other d12 weapons. Its less effective on a rapier/shield combo, but does stack with FS: Dueling.

Back to invocations - I feel like you're misunderstanding how Tome works a bit, because you want to stack it with a bunch of Magic Initiates with. This is ... kind of a waste. Just like asking to use Hex in combat. Tome doesn't give you acess to 3 cantrips and 2 rituals. It gives you access to EVERY cantrip and EVERY level 1 ritual, just a limited number at a time. If you need a niche cantrip, most of the time you'll be able to take a short rest and change them up. There's no real pressing need to stack Tome with more Magic Initates.

Yes, Magic Initiate also gives a level 1 spell. But you know what? You get invocations that give you spammable, free level 1 spells. This is why Otherworldly Leap is so excellent. Its free. Its spammable. So its effectively always on unless dispelled. This means that your combat speed might as well always be 50. You can jump over pits or walls without wasting a limited resource.

I'd also normally be singing praises for Dception when combined with Minor Image/Silent Image spam, or Disguise Self/Friend spam, but I feel like those would directly violate two of the Oath of Devotion tenents. Warlocks as a whole are very good tricksters in social situations, but Oath of Devotion is very anti-trickster. Check with your DM if you wanna invest in good social stuff.


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And that's everything I can think of off the top of my head.

EDIT - oh, yes, you're extremely susceptible to grapples, so make sure to keep a Misty Step in your back pocket in case of enemy shinanigans.

 

[Zardnaar]

Okay, you know what? Lets do that. Ignore the stuff about single class paladin, and lets start fresh.

True Strike builds are often quoted as being frustrating. Until you get that paladin 3 level at character 9, you have a good chance of missing, and lots of people have said that they find it quite annoying. On average, that means just under half your turns, you're not doing any damage.

Rogues also only get one attack, but they have a ton of ways to generate Advantage. However, you do not have the same benefit by default - there's a few innate ways of giving you Advantage to raise your chances of landing a hit, but all with problems; figuring out what's best for you is important. Darkness/Devil's Sight combo might annoy teammmates. You can get Topple, but that's not going to benefit you, only your teammates. Your team might have topple, but there's a good chance that the enemy stands up before your turn. Vex is an option...assuming you hit first, and if it survives multiple rounds. Or use Lucky to start off. You could use familiar Help spam, but do note that familiars are made of fragilium and you want to be in melee~ Which brings me to the next point -

Warlocks are also notorious for their survival issues, and you're talking about being melee-primary and only taking paladin 1 at level 7. Warlocks tend to need to use their magic to boost their survival rates in melee - though Celestial warlocks tend to offset this with their Healing Light ability (which also takes a bonus action). Figuring out how you want to use your magic to aid survivability is a very important consideration at this point. Armor of Agathys tends to last longer under a Fiend (thp generation) or Fey warlock (misty step away), but less so for Celestial, who tend to rely on heal-tanking-to-the-face. So, I suggest putting more thought into survival stuff.

Or... If you're going to dip paladin, do you want it earlier so that you have heavy armor for longer time periods and delay that +CHA damage boost? Or are you going to rely on mage armor the entire time (which takes up invocation)? Don't forget that you're going to want 13 STR to wear heavy armor once you get paladin, but before that you want a good DEX score for the mage armor, and you're gonna want some CON for the extra hp. This is a lot of MADness, assuming you're gonna dump INT and WIS.

Which brings us to Concentration spells. You're going to want to avoid them like the plague. You've mentioned Hex before, which leads me to believe you haven't really thought of this aspect. You're a melee unit without CON save proficency nor enough feat slots to invest in War Caster. Your concentration check is laughably bad, and you're going to be making multiple per round. Do Not The Concentration.

Now, lets put a pin in that stuff and pivot to Invocations. Warlocks tend to rely on Invocations for lots of stuff, and you're very invocation heavy. Agonizing Blast, Eldritch Smite, at least. You need Tome if you do decide to use Shillelaugh, and possibly another for access to Mage Armor until you get to Paladin 1.

Note that, for your planned progression, you're not going to get any ability to smite until level 5. So your build is going to come online quite late unless you want to dip paladin early. Armor of Shadows or using Magic Initiate: Wizard to get mage armor is generally highly recommended, so that you have early level defenses - or use Fiendish Vigor. You'll eventually swap it out, but its critical for early stage survival. Honestly, its probably best to go Paladin 1 first, just so you have both higher AC, less need to worry about DEX on your build, and have access to smites early on.

You mentioned Shillelaugh, but clubs have crappy Mastery, and there's no reason to go quarterstaff with the spell, you've got a shield. You are better off going either Rapier (Vex mastery) or a Heavy weapon. Oh! Speaking of heavy weapons... True Strike builds work great with Savage Attacker origin feat. Its only once a turn, but... you're only attacking once a turn, meaning its a slightly better Fighting Style for Greataxes or other d12 weapons. Its less effective on a rapier/shield combo, but does stack with FS: Dueling.

Back to invocations - I feel like you're misunderstanding how Tome works a bit, because you want to stack it with a bunch of Magic Initiates with. This is ... kind of a waste. Just like asking to use Hex in combat. Tome doesn't give you acess to 3 cantrips and 2 rituals. It gives you access to EVERY cantrip and EVERY level 1 ritual, just a limited number at a time. If you need a niche cantrip, most of the time you'll be able to take a short rest and change them up. There's no real pressing need to stack Tome with more Magic Initates.

Yes, Magic Initiate also gives a level 1 spell. But you know what? You get invocations that give you spammable, free level 1 spells. This is why Otherworldly Leap is so excellent. Its free. Its spammable. So its effectively always on unless dispelled. This means that your combat speed might as well always be 50. You can jump over pits or walls without wasting a limited resource.

I'd also normally be singing praises for Dception when combined with Minor Image/Silent Image spam, or Disguise Self/Friend spam, but I feel like those would directly violate two of the Oath of Devotion tenents. Warlocks as a whole are very good tricksters in social situations, but Oath of Devotion is very anti-trickster. Check with your DM if you wanna invest in good social stuff.


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And that's everything I can think of off the top of my head.

EDIT - oh, yes, you're extremely susceptible to grapples, so make sure to keep a Misty Step in your back pocket in case of enemy shinanigans.

You can take warcaster at 4th easy enough. Or eldritch mind.

Eldritch mind and fry touched are also options. Youre better at concentration at every class except artificer and sorcerer.

Hex is an option. Its not required. Your accuracy isnt worse than any other caster for the most part. -1 to hit level 8 if you dont buff youre caster stat I suppose.

Generally I dont care about damage unless its enough to put you down of im out of hit dice. I would probably play it as traditional warlock lvl 1-6 or MC paladin earlier if party needed a skirmishes type.

Agonizing blast is the only required invocation. And you can swap them.

You only smite after you've hit. I'm probably taking an extra origin feat or 3 early on. Best spell caster lvl 2 and Warlocks are fairly front loaded lvl 1-5.

Hell you could take magic initiate cleric snd spam bless first few levels (2+).
Its really up to you how to do it. Level 5/6 might even do a summoning build or repelling blast into hunger of hadar.

You have those options.

 

[Mephista]

You can take warcaster at 4th easy enough. Or eldritch mind.

You asked for concerns / thoughts on your build. So that's what I'm doing. Your feat slot in this build is going towards something else, so setting aside Eldritch Mind might be something you want to consider if you do want Concentration spells.

You wanna ignore the thoughts, fine, dandy. But its actual constructive criticism of issues you'll face based on actual plays, not white room stuff.

 

[Zardnaar]

You asked for concerns / thoughts on your build. So that's what I'm doing. Your feat slot in this build is going towards something else, so setting aside Eldritch Mind might be something you want to consider if you do want Concentration spells.

You wanna ignore the thoughts, fine, dandy. But its actual constructive criticism of issues you'll face based on actual plays, not white room stuff.

I didnt care about warcaster because Eldritch mind exists and its not a concentration build.

Theres a lot of room for how you play it. Im not worried about the first 6 levels. I dont think its a hot take to claim a low level warlock is front loaded. 3 invocations lvl 2, 5 at 5.
Since you swap them out as well.....

Generally I take warcaster lvl 4 as cleric or druid, wizard or sorcerer depends. Warlock Probably not.

At level 2 im inclined to tak magic initiate and other origin feats. Theyre not required.

By 5 im thinking about transitioning to smiling or playing control to level 7.

If I want to gish it up earlier I'll take the Paladin level at 2.

You have the option of melee or ranged or being good at summoning. Can't do all of it im not making any assumptions as exact builds 1-6. I dont think its a hot take to say 1-6 warlock or paladin splash is decent. It takes care of itself.

 

[ECMO3]

True Strike builds are often quoted as being frustrating. Until you get that paladin 3 level at character 9, you have a good chance of missing, and lots of people have said that they find it quite annoying. On average, that means just under half your turns, you're not doing any damage.

How does Paladin 3 change that? Proficiency bonus?

I would agree you have "all your eggs in one basket" thing going on, that helps and hurts and makes your damage a lot more "swingy". That has not bothered me that much in Cantrip builds (Green Flame Blade and Truestrike), what is a bigger problem is AOOs of you do not have Warcaster. Pact of Blade solves that (and gives you lots of damage options on Truestrike), but it is a relatively high price to pay for it.

Rogues also only get one attack, but they have a ton of ways to generate Advantage.

Warlocks have quite a few too though, mostly through Invocations (One With Shadows, Devil's Sight/Darkness, Lessons of the First Ones(Lucky), Pact of Tome(Find Familiar), Pact of Chain .....

I agree it is not the same benefit, and there are tradeoffs, but Warlocks can easily get advantage regularly. This is aside from the obvious 1-level Sorcerer dip for innate Sorcery that will give you advantage on all Cantrips that are on the Sorcerer list for two fights a day. Heck the Sorcerer dip is common on Rogues in 2024 to have even easier advantage (and higher damage) with their one attack.

You could use familiar Help spam, but do note that familiars are made of fragilium and you want to be in melee~

This is true if you have Find Familiar from Pact of Tome, but not from Pact of Chain. Quasit and Imp are not very fragile in 2024. They are not heemen, but they have decent hit points and are invisibile. Moreover, they can be summoned at will with an action, so you always have one at the start of a fight regardless of if they got killed in the last fight 5 minutes ago.

Warlocks are also notorious for their survival issues, and you're talking about being melee-primary and only taking paladin 1 at level 7.

I agree with this completely. He did say he plays a controller for levels 1-6, not a smiter but that makes little sense to me. If I am doing this I take Paladin first all the time in this build for the armor proficiency.

Warlocks tend to need to use their magic to boost their survival rates in melee - though Celestial warlocks tend to offset this with their Healing Light ability (which also takes a bonus action). Figuring out how you want to use your magic to aid survivability is a very important consideration at this point. Armor of Agathys tends to last longer under a Fiend (thp generation) or Fey warlock (misty step away), but less so for Celestial, who tend to rely on heal-tanking-to-the-face. So, I suggest putting more thought into survival stuff.

I don't think he has room for it, but Warlock survivability comes from Invocations - Fiendish Vigor and Lessons of the first ones (Tough), and at low levels Pact of Chain and letting your Familiar do the fighting for you. An imp will mop the floor with any 1st level PC and can keep up until around 4th level because of the way the action economy works allowing them to attack with a reaction and advantage and letting them immediately turn invisible again with their action.

You mentioned Shillelaugh, but clubs have crappy Mastery, and there's no reason to go quarterstaff with the spell, you've got a shield. You are better off going either Rapier (Vex mastery) or a Heavy weapon.

Shilleleagh gives you more damage if you are using a shield and it gives you a better AOO if you aren't (at the cost of some damage).

TBH though, I think if you are using a shield a Morning Star, Pick or Longsword are best for Sap. I think this is better on this build than either Vex or Topple or anything else. Sap would be my pick if you are not using a shield too, but that costs damage so I think a Greatsword with Graze is probably the best option and a Cleave Greataxe is second best.