Vengence Paladin/bladesinger build

[auburn2]

I have a character joining a game in progress (at 12th level) and she wants to use this multiclass as a high elf. I told her I wasn't sure how it would work because of the extreme difference in traits. After looking at her character I'm thinking it might work though. Here is her stats:

Paladin 8/Wizard 4
S: 13
D: 16 (14 point buy +2 elf)
C: 14 (13 point buy +1 resilient)
I: 16 (13 point buy +1 high elf, +2 feat)
W: 8
Ch: 13

hp: 104

feats: +2 intelligence, Resilient Constitution, tough

fighting style: defense

After looking at it I'm thinking this will be a pretty powerful character. She will have a lot more smites than a normal Paladin due to the extra slots and arcane recovery the wizard class brings. The feats more than make up for the weak wizard hit dice.

st leather armor + bladesong + defense + shield spell means an effective AC of 24

Anyone have experience with this? How effective will this character be?

 

[Ancalagon]

I have a character joining a game in progress (at 12th level) and she wants to use this multiclass as a high elf. I told her I wasn't sure how it would work because of the extreme difference in traits. After looking at her character I'm thinking it might work though. Here is her stats:

Paladin 8/Wizard 4
S: 13
D: 16 (14 point buy +2 elf)
C: 14 (13 point buy +1 resilient)
I: 16 (13 point buy +1 high elf, +2 feat)
W: 8
Ch: 13

hp: 104

feats: +2 intelligence, Resilient Constitution, tough

fighting style: defense

After looking at it I'm thinking this will be a pretty powerful character. She will have a lot more smites than a normal Paladin due to the extra slots and arcane recovery the wizard class brings. The feats more than make up for the weak wizard hit dice.

st leather armor + bladesong + defense + shield spell means an effective AC of 24

Anyone have experience with this? How effective will this character be?

She's taking a big hit in her aura of protection. I'm not sure a few more points of AC is worth that.

I think that bard college of sword would synergize better, or hexblade, or sorcerer.

 

[CTurbo]

Looks too MAD to me. With such a low Cha, I wouldn't bother with more than probably 2 Paladin levels.

EK Fighter would probably synergize better, or any Rogue for that matter. Bladesinger/Arcane Trickster using Booming Blade is extremely strong.

 

[auburn2]

Her base role play will be a "Paldinish" fighting character, not a spell caster, so the question is what would work with Paladin, not what would work with wizard. The reason she wants Paladin is the smite melee damage which will eclipse anything a bard can do and is comparable to a rogue, more dpr, but less uses. With Paladin 8/wizard 4 she will get slots equivalent to a 16th level Paladin though, so that is a lot of smiting.

Considering this, Bard can't get shield until 6th or 10th level, which is really a bigger deal than bladesong I think. Ek can get it, but at 4th level (with 8th level Paladin) she is sacrificing 1 3rd level and 2 4th level slots for that compared to bladesinger, plus the extra 2 slots that come with a short rest. Probably better to go straight Paladin than Paladin/EK. Sorcerer might be worth considering, and I will mention that. It would let her max charisma at the expense of 3 AC twice a short rest and 2 smites a day from arcane recovery.

Her aura is poor but her important saves are really good to start with, she will be proficient in Wisdom, Charisma and Constitution saves and with the dex + aura she has a +4 dex save, not too shabby (and the hps to deal with missing it). A straight up Paladin in plate mail will only be slightly better at +5 dex save with Charisma maxed out (albeit with a higher strength and higher saves everywhere else). Strength and Intelligence saves aren't that common, although the athletics skill will be relatively weak for a melee character.

 

[Blue]

I'd be worried she wouldn't keep up. At 12th I'd really expect every character to have a 20 in the attack ability score. +3 means she misses 10% more, and does less damage every hit. She'll be spending hose divine smites just to make up the difference, not to do greater damage like the other martial characters do. Vengeance, being only once per short rest, will not make up that difference in a meaningful way.

With only +1 CHR she's losing out on many of her paladin bits, especially her auras. Losing out on those bonuses to saves is a huge deal - such she has a great AC but that's only half of it.

So I don't think she will be able to keep up with the other martials in terms of consistent damage output, she's not really taking advantage of what makes paladins special with her low CHR and not really leveraging wizard either.

It's not a bad character, but I don't think it would contribute as much as some other replacement 12th level character.