Lord Sessadore said:
Well, might as well:
Avren - Half-elf Paladin 1
Str 16 +3
Con 14 +2
Dex 9 -1
Int 10 +0
Wis 14 +2
Cha 16 +3
HP: 29; Bloodied: 14; Healing Surges: 12; Healing Per Surge: 7
AC 18 Fort 14 Refl 11 Will 14
Size: Medium; Speed: 5
Alignment: Unaligned; Deity: Melora; Languages: Common, Elven, Primordial
Skills: Diplomacy, Endurance, Insight, Intimidate, Religion
Feats: Pact Initiate
Race Features: Low-light vision, Dual Heritage, Group Diplomacy, Dilettante (Eyebite)
Class Features: Lay on Hands, Divine Challenge, Channel Divinity (Divine Mettle and Divine Strength)
At-Will Powers: Holy Strike, Enfeebling Strike
Encounter Powers: Fearsome Smite, Eldritch Blast, Eyebite
Daily Powers: Paladin's Judgement
Equipment: Plate armor, greatsword, standard adventurer's kit,
Wealth: 5gp
Greatsword +6, 1d10+3
I don't know if this guy would actually be very effective compared to others, but I was interested in the idea of a paladin/warlock multiclass, so I thought I'd try it out
Go Warlock, then Paladin...
You can end up with something like this:
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The Witch-Knight
Class: Warlock
Race: Human
While other races would certainly work, I feel human is an ideal choice for a number of reasons. First of all, the extra feat helps a lot in the beginning as we are spending 4 feats by 10th level on multiclassing. Humans also receive a +1 bonuses to fort, ref, and will, which combined with our armor the fact that our primary and secondary stats boost will and fortitude defenses make for a character with excellent defense. The various +2 to defense feats would likely be a good idea as well. The Warlock is potentially more durable than many Defenders as he can focus more heavily on Con and gains concealment when he moves. Finally, Warlock is restricted by pact choice in what at-will powers one receives. The best choice for encounter/daily powers may be different than for at-will powers. A human's extra at-will power allows you to select a third power of your choosing. As all Warlock at-will powers are highly useful to this character, this is advantageous
Ability Scores
Str: 12
Con: 15 (secondary)
Dex: 8
Int: 13 (tertiary)
Wis: 13 (tertiary)
Cha: 17 (primary)
Place +2 racial bonus in Charisma, and your level based Ability Score increases into Constitution and Charisma. At 11th and 21st level all of your ability scores increase by 1.
Your Warlock powers are either Constitution or Charisma based, with your Intelligence bonus adding secondary effects for Pact powers. The damage of your Mark is based on Charisma, and many of your Paladin powers are Charisma based as well, with Wisdom adding secondary effects.
Feats
Clearly you will want Soldier of Faith (Paladin Multiclass) to pick up Divine Challenge 1/encounter. You also get to pick up training in any of the Paladin’s class skills, neat! You’ll also want to pick up all three power swapping feats to gain an Encounter, Utility, and Daily power from the Paladin list.
Beyond that I suggest picking up both Armor Proficiency and Shield Proficiency. Your dex is a dump stat and Int is only tertiary, thus getting to add either to your AC is not terribly appealing. You can skip Hide armor and jump straight to Chainmail and possibly Scale Armor. This investment will give you solid AC right from the beginning, but really pay off when you gain access to masterwork quality heavy armor. Shield proficiency is also a natural choice as it helps your relatively low reflex defense and you’re not really doing anything with your offhand anyway.
You can use any light blade as your Warlock implement due to the excellent Pact Blade weapon quality (a 4th level enchantment, potentially available at 1st or 2nd level), thus you may find Weapon Proficiency (Rapier) useful for a +3 proficiency 1d8 high critical weapon, especially if you plan on using strength based Paladin powers or simply find yourself caught in melee frequently where your ranged attacks would provoke. It is also notable that many Paladin powers that utilize charisma as their primary stat actually use your weapon to determine damage dice. The difference between 5d4+cha and 5d8+cha is considerable.
Eldritch Pact
Any of the Warlocks pacts are a viable choice for this character, though I strongly suggest Star as it has numerous Radiant damage attacks that are especially potent in combination with your Paladin abilities, as well as many Fear attacks that I find particularly flavorful for the Witch-Knight. The Star Pact’s boon is a nice offensive boost.
The Fey Pact’s focus on mobility through teleportation is helpful in assuring your target suffers the negative effects of your Divine Challenge regularly, and also helps to counteract the speed reduction from wearing heavy armor. Ultimately though, it is not necessary as you will have many immobilizing and sliding abilities at your disposal, and Star powers contain teleports as well.
Infernal is another excellent choice and is my suggestion if Star does not appeal to you. It is full of highly damaging Fire elemental attacks, many of which include ongoing damage. Additionally, your pact boon as well as many of your Infernal powers grant temporary hit points, which will help you survive the increased aggression your Challenge will likely draw. If you choose this Pact, you may want to switch your racial ability score bonus to Constitution, as a majority of your attacks utilize it, though Charisma remains a solid choice due to synergy with Paladin.
At-Will Powers
All Warlocks gain Eldritch Blast, a solid attack due to its high damage and status as a ranged basic attack. For the most part, though, you will want to use powers with more utility. Your other at-will power is determined by your Pact, though being a human you can pick up a third power from either of the remaining pacts of your choice. Thus, your Pact has little effect on your at-will power selection.
Dire Radiance (Star) is an excellent choice for this character as it deals Radiant damage and damages the enemy again if they approach you. This creates a lose-lose situation for melee enemies as failure to approach you will result in punishment from your Divine Challenge. The downside is that this attack is Constitution based and targets fortitude defense, likely the second highest defense of many of the targets you’ll want to use it against, great for dealing with melee strikers though.
Hellish Rebuke (Infernal) is similar to Dire Radiance only it does Fire damage, targets reflex, and damages the enemy again if you take damage from any source before the end of your next turn rather than triggering when that enemy approaches you. In many situations (such as against ranged attackers) you’ll find this power more reliably applies it’s secondary damage.
Eyebite (fey) is a primarily defensive power with great potential for offensive use. It is charisma based, deals Psychic damage, and targets will defense. It’s damage output is only half that of Dire Radiance and Hellish Rebuke, yet the ability to become invisible to the target has obvious defensive value, and can be used to trigger your Divine Challenge.
Warlock Encounter Powers
The Warlock encounter powers you choose will largely depend on which Pact you decided on, as their potent secondary effects are only gained if you possess the appropriate Pact.
Dreadfull Word, for instance, is a Charisma vs Will attack that with the Fear and Psychic properties that reduces the targets Will defense by an amount equal to 1+Int if you have the Star Pact. An excellent power for setting up combos with anything that targets will, such as Eyebite and several key Paladin powers.
Diabolic Grasp is a good example of the kind of power you’ll probably want to take with or without the appropriate pact. It is an Infernal Constitution vs Fort attack that allows you to slide the target 2 squares. With the Infernal Pact you could slide them 1+Int squares, but you won’t even see any benefit from that until 11th level, and even then you only gain 1 extra square. Aside from it’s other tactical uses, slide is especially useful for you as keeping enemies away can mean punishment from Divine Challenge and potential escape from those nasty, nasty Defenders.
You will generally want to focus on powers that move you or your target in some way, debuff the target, and/or deal Radiant damage.
Warlock Daily Powers
The same general guidelines for encounter powers carry over into the daily category.
Keep in mind that powers such as Dread Star (star) are especially valuable to you as it immobilizes the target allowing your Challenge to leisurely incinerate them.
Paladin Encounter Powers
A great many Paladin powers are charisma based, which synergizes perfectly with your Warlock abilities. This is where spending that feat on Superior Weapon Proficiency (Rapier) can really pay off, as many of this charisma based attacks are also melee weapon attacks.
Some Paladin attacks use strength, yet are so useful you may want to take them anyway. Even though your strength won’t be nearly as high as charisma, the difference will not be that great initially and given your implement is also a weapon, you get to add it’s enhancement bonus to attack rolls as well. All in all, your accuracy will still be rather decent with strength based attacks, especially if you wait until you gain added accuracy from something like combat advantage.
A good example of such a power is the 1st level strength vs reflex attack Piercing Smite which marks the target and a number of additional targets adjacent to you equal to your wisdom modifier. This is arguably more useful to you than it is to a Paladin as you cannot simply mark again as minor action considering your Divine Challenge is 1/encounter. You aren’t entirely lacking in multi-target attacks, and these can be used to maintain the mark for multiple rounds.
Later on you will gain access to powers such as Hand of the Gods that allow you to mark targets in a burst and are charisma based.
Other attacks have strength as their primary attribute, and charisma as their secondary. An example of this is Terrifying Smite which pushes them a number of squares equal to your charisma bonus and prevents all movement towards you. For a Warlock, that is a looong slide, potentially into something really nasty.
Paladin contains many support powers that can expand your versatility greatly as Warlock is highly lacking in these. For example, Righteous Smite is a charisma vs AC weapon attack that grants 5+Wis temporary HP to you and all allies within 5 squares.
Invigorating Smite is identical to Righteous Smite only it targets Will, heals (thus it can revive dying allies) and only works on Bloodied allies.
Entangling Smite is a charisma vs will weapon attack that immobilizes the target until the end of your next turn. This can be used to lock an enemy in place and then shift out of reach, both preventing them from effectively attacking you and potentially activating your Challenge.
Paladin Daily Powers
Sign of Vulnerability is a fantastic power, not just for you, but potentially for many of your allies. It’s a charisma vs fort ranged attack that gives the target vulnerability 5 to radiant damage. Dire Radiance will now do 5 more damage when you hit them, and 5 more damage if they take a step towards you. And what else does radiant damage? Why, your Divine Challenge of course! This power alone is an excellent reason to pick up Radiant attacks.
Radiant Pulse is another charisma vs fortitude Radiant ranged attack. This one hits a primary target and allows secondary attacks against everything adjacent to it. Here’s the kicker though, it pushes enemies 3 squares, and you can sustain it with a minor action to repeat the secondary attack over and over and over and over presumably until the primary target dies.
True Nemesis is a delightful charisma vs will ranged attack with a delightful effect. Until the end of the encounter, when the target is within 5 squares of you and attacks anything you get to smack it with a nasty charisma vs will secondary attack. The only thing that could make this power better is if it dealt Radiant damage.
On the higher end of the level scale we have things like To the Nine Hells with You, a charisma vs will attack that deals fire damage to everything within 5 squares of you, ongoing 10 fire damage, and marks them all to boot.
Paragon Path
Any of the Warlock paragon paths will serve the Witch-Knight well.
Your multiclass feats give you access to Paladin paths as well, all but one of which aren’t terrible useful to you. That one is the Justicar, which is actually pretty awesome. It’s filled with charisma attacks and will give you a very knightly, defenderish feel. Of particular note is a charisma vs will attack that marks everything in it’s radius whether you hit or miss and has an absolutely enormous area of effect (10 squares). You really can’t go wrong with this Paragon Path.
Alternately, you may choose to forego a Paragon Path entirely in exchange for several more Paladin powers. This option is best if you have a specific strategy in mind that requires specific Paladin powers that you would not otherwise be able to acquire.
Whether you choose a Paladin path or the deep multiclassing path, you’ll end up as a thoroughly multiclassed character with nearly half of your powers coming from your second class.
Equipment
With a few feats you can wear heavy armor and a shield, significantly increasing your AC and Reflex defenses and enhancing your image as a totally badass arcane knight (most important). You’re going to want a Light Blade for your weapon, what kind you choose will likely depend on how many X[w] Paladin powers you have. Warlocks only have simple melee proficiency, limiting you to the rather wimpy +2 1d6 sickle and +3 1d4 dagger. A single feat gives you rapier proficiency, which I would suggest using at some point. The rapier is a solid weapon at +3 1d8.
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By level 15, it would look like this:
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Witch-Knight 15th level Snapshot
Str: 14
Con: 18
Dex: 9
Int: 15
Wis: 14
Cha: 20
Speed: 6 squares
Armor Class: 29 Hit Points: 101 Healing Surges: 10
Ref Defense: 29 Bloodied: 50 Amount Healed: 25
Fort Defense: 28
Will Defense 28
Trained skills: Arcana, Bluff, Diplomacy, History, Insight, Intimidate
Basic Melee: Rapier +12 (1d8+5)
Basic Ranged: -
Feats: Soldier of the faith, Novice power, Acolyte power, Adept power, Shield proficiency (light), Armor proficiency (chain mail), Armor proficiency (Scale) Weapon proficiency (Rapier), Lightning Reflexes, Improved Fate of the Void.
At-Will Powers
Enfeebling Strike
At-Will ✦ Divine, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: +18 vs AC
Hit: 1d8+8 damage. If you marked the
target, it takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of
your next turn
Dire Radiance
At-Will * Arcane, Fear, Implement, Radiant
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: +14 vs Fortitude
Hit: 1d6+7 radiant damage. If the target
moves nearer to you on its next turn, it takes an extra
1d6+7 damage
Hellish Rebuke
At-Will * Arcane, Fire, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: +14 vs Reflex
Hit: 1d6+7 fire damage. If you take
damage before the end of your next turn, the target takes
an extra 1d6+7 fire damage.
Encounter Powers
Otherworld Stride
Encounter * Arcane, Implement, Teleportation
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Each creature in burst
Attack: +15 vs Fortitude
Hit: 1d8+8 damage and the target is immobilized
until the end of your next turn
Effect: You teleport 5 squares
Divine Reverence
Encounter * Divine, Implement, Radiant
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Each enemy in burst
Attack: +15 vs Will
Hit: 1d8+8 radiant damage, and the target
is dazed until the end of your next turn
Benign Transposition
Encounter * Divine, Teleportation, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Primary Target: One ally within 2 squares
Effect: You and the target swap places. If an enemy is now
within your melee reach, you can make a secondary attack
against it.
Secondary Target: One enemy
Secondary Attack: +18 vs AC
Hit: 2d8+8 damage
Soul Flaying
Encounter * Arcane, Implement, Necrotic
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: +14 vs Will
Hit: 2d8+7 necrotic damage, and the
target is weakened until the end of your next turn
Daily Powers
Sign of Vulnerability
Daily * Divine, Implement, Radiant
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: +15 vs Fortitude
Hit: 3d8+8 radiant damage and the target
gains vulnerability 5 to radiant damaeg until the end
of the encounter
Miss: Half damage, and the target gains no vulnerability
Thief of the Five Fates
Daily * Arcane, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: +15 vs Will
Hit: Until the end of your next turn, whenever the target
makes a saving throw or an attack roll, you roll a d20 without
modifiers. If your result is higher than the target’s unmodified
die roll, the target’s attack misses or the target’s
saving throw fails.
Sustain Minor: Make a +15 attack vs Will against the
target. On a hit, the effect continues. On a miss, the effect
ends.
Thirsting Maw
Daily * Arcane, Implement
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One creature
Attack: +14 vs Fortitude
Hit: 4d8+7 damage, and you regain hit
points equal to half the amount of damage dealt
Sustain Minor: The target takes 2d8 damage (save ends).
Each time the target takes this damage, you regain hit
points equal to half the damage
Utility Powers
Ethereal Stride
Encounter * Arcane, Teleportation
Move Action Personal
Effect: You can teleport 3 squares, and you gain a +2 power
bonus to all defenses until the end of your next turn.
Wrath of the Gods
Daily * Divine
Minor Action Close burst 1
Targets: You and each ally in burst
Effect: The targets add your Charisma modifier to damage
rolls until the end of the encounter
Cleansing Spirit
Encounter * Divine
Minor Action Ranged 5
Target: You or one ally
Effect: The target makes a saving throw with a +2 bonus
Shielding Shades
Daily * Arcane
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You are hit by an attack
Effect: Reduce the attack’s damage to 0. If the attack targets
other creatures, they take damage as normal
Equipment:
+4 Amulet of Protection, +3 Symbol of Battle, +3 Hydra Scale Armor, +3 Pact Bladed Rapier
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