Unlimited Blade Works: The Guide to the Ultimate Paladin/Sorcerer Multiclass

[Stefantasma]

Hi Gourmandie:

I´ve just registered to post this. I´ve been trying to find a great combination for a Paladin/Sorcerer Aasimar(Volos). It all started by a quest to revive my tempest cleric, but I think I´ve created something nifty!!

I used your guide as inspiration, and for that, you have my deep thanks. Without it, and the extensive and great insights this would not have been possible.

I´ve made a GDOCs with the build itself, so everyone can review it, but I cannot post this as I don´t have the post counts (sorry admins!)
https ://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16CCaXQOAisrZpgDbrJ-rtot2tS9cDR0MDvRSOn83WxU/edit?usp=sharing

Basically, I´ve made the following combo (creating it at level 14).

Paladin 6 Devotion / Sorcerer 7 Favored Soul / Hexblade 1

Devotion so as to gain 2nd level paladin slots, a decent channel divinity (add cha to atk rolls) and above all Aura of Protection. It´s the first level pick, so we get all armor, shields and weapons, as well as STs in WIS & CHA.

I rolled the following starting stats:
18, 16, 14, 12, 7, 6. Tricky with that 7 & 6, especially for this MAD build.

I´ve allocated it like this:
STR: 14
DEX: 12
CON: 16
INT: 6 (I´ll get to that!)
WIS: 7 +1(aasimar)
CHA: 18 +2(aasimar)
Aasimar Racials give you +2 CHA and +1 WIS as the protector subrace.

This nets me the following:
STR: 14+2
DEX: 12+1
CON: 16+3
INT: 19+4 (I´ve acquired a headband of intellect!)
WiS: 8-1
CHA: 20+5

So, the Hexblade feature:

Hex Warrior
At 1st level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. In addition, when attacking with a melee weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the twohanded property, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls.

makes the use of STR irrelevant. So we can focus on CHA and not be feat dependent.

This allows for 2 feats. Paladin 4 and Sorcerer 4.
I´ve taken Warcaster as a must and Inspiring Leadership, to add an extra layer of support.

Hexblade´s curse is also pretty nifty:

Hexblade's Curse
Hexblade’s Curse Starting at 1st level, you gain the ability to place a baleful curse on an enemy. As a bonus action, choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. The target is cursed for 1 minute. Until the curse ends, you gain the following benefits:
- You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus.
- Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20.
- If the cursed target dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier.

So, we now can, per SR, to one target, crit like a champion, add +5 to each damage roll and regain HP when we kill a target! Sign me up!!

Additionally, 1 level in Warlock gives us access to two cantrips and two warlock spells, as well as 1 spell slot that we regain each SR (helps for smite or shield). Spells I´ve picked utility, so Charm Person and Illusory Script for RP situations.

So...for the cantrip...YES, ELDRITCH BLAST BABY! If we take one more level in Warlock, we can get Empowered (+CHA dmg) + Repelling Blast (push 10ft) which synergizes wonderfully with Booming Blade, a combo that can be pulled off with 1 sorcery point in one turn. So, 3D10 + 5D8 in one turn for 1 Sorc point. Not bad at all. It would leave us as a Paladin 6 / Sorcerer 12 / Warlock 2 (losing 7th spells) or we could even go Sorc 11 / lock 3 and unlock something else, however, we´d lose access to 7th level spells AND an ASI).

Favored Soul Sorcerer adds something really good as well. You have access to the cleric spell list. So, Healing Word, Guidance(!!) and other nifty cleric spells are wonderful to have and synergize well with the Paladin from a Lore POV.

Aditionally, High ST´s are good, but why not add an extra 2d4 to either an attack roll or ST with the Sorcerer feature? You also get to add 1HP per Sorcerer level, similar to Draconic Resilience.

Why not draconic you ask? Well, elemental affinity is cool, however, a lot of creatures are resistant to fire (especially fiends), so it felt a bit of a gamble to me. However, force damage / radiant damage resistance or immunity is really low across the board. Also, I just can´t really fall in love with GFB. It´s just a bit too...situational and overly complicated for me. So, taking GFB out of the equation, there´s no need for Fire damage to be boosted.

With this setup you lose out on the lvl 14 sorcerer feature, alas, the favored soul is not that special (immunity to poison), considering Lay on Hands as a Paladin feature. Draconics get to fly...which is really cool, but hey, that´s what the winged boots are for! Also, the aasimar´s radiant soul let´s you fly around...for a bit =)

So, I´ve done a scenario:

Round 1:
Bonus: Quicken Haste (+1 action, AC+2, 60ft movement, dash/disengage/hide, concentration) - 2 Sorc Points
Action: Eldritch Blast - +10 to hit - 3D10
Action: Eldritch Blast - +10 to hit - 3D10
Movement: Head towards the frontlines 60ft.
Reaction: AoO - Booming Blade w/ Warcaster (potentially 5d8)


Round 2:
Bonus: Quicken Mirror Image (3 duplicates) - 2 Sorc Points
Action: 2 attacks (+12 to hit, 2d8+14 if both hit) + 2 Smites (4th 5D8 & 3rd 4D8 damage)
Action: Eldritch Blast (+10 to hit, 3D10)
Reaction: AoO - Booming Blade w/ Warcaster (potentially 5d8)

Round 3:
Bonus: Hexblade Curse
Action: 2 attacks (+12 to hit, 2d8+14+10 w/ curse if both hit) + 2 Smites (2nd 3D8 & 1st 2D8 damage)
Action: Eldritch Blast (+10 to hit, 3D10+5 w/ curse)
Reaction: AoO - Booming Blade w/ Warcaster (potentially 5d8)

Round 4:
Action: 2 attacks (+12 to hit, 2d8+14+10 if both hit)
Action: Eldritch Blast (+10 to hit, 3D10+5)
Reaction: AoO - Booming Blade con Warcaster (potentially 5d8)

Round 5:
Repeat 4 and keep it up.

----

A total of 13d10 eldritch, 6d8+42 attacks, 14d8 smites, 35 damage from the curse. That´s 254 total/4 (using averages), so 63.5 damage per turn up to turn 4, provided everything hits. After that it´s a steady 3d10+2d8+14+15 (57!) per turn without using slots, as long as you maintain haste.

You would have AC 24 (Full plate, shield, defense style, cloak of protection, haste) since turn 2 & 3 duplicates to not get hit.
If you get hit, you have advantage due to Warcaster and +9 CON STs. Worst case, cast Shield and get up to 29(!!!!) AC

After all of that, we remain with the following resources for our next encounter:
3 sorcery points (1 more quicken, or a twinned haste)
4 1st slots (Bless, Protection from evil, healing word, shield)
1 2nd slot (Mirror image or Misty step)
1 3rd slot (Haste)
1 4th slot (Greater invis)
2 5th slots (to use any of the ones below)

Keeping in mind we have the flexible spellcasting trait, which makes this build so juicy.

You still would have your Aasimar racial feature available (radiant soul), which allows for +14 extra radiant damage per turn, 30ft flying speed for 1 minute, so on your next encounter you can fly around smiting radiantly without spending slots.

Also, Lay on Hands and Healing Touch have not been used. So we still have a 44 HP healing potential.

I have NOT playtested this yet. I will update once I have, but ON PAPER, this looks pretty good. It´s a decent damage dealing tank. You can potentially expand damage a bit further with some AC loss for a GWM build. Which I´ve toyed with as well (you can see it in the gdocs=, but it does NOT synergize with the Hexblade due to the "two-handed" limitation and the "heavy" limitation on the GWM feat. So it´s not viable with a longsword. My DM would allow a Sunblade as a greatsword for this adventure, so hence the +2, but a Greatsword +2 would be equivalent.

Please, let me know if you feel this could use improvement, or if I have overlooked something that does not make this build viable.

Thanks!