Ultimate Optimizer's Multiclassing Guide

[ciarannihill]

Pretty cool. Definitely go for a Ronin feel. I'm not crazy about the limited uses the samurai gets, but it could work. I'd probably start fighter for con saves and heavy armor, dump int and dex to have the 15 str for wearing plate. Then again I'm an AC glutton.

High level isn't really my concern, but I'd rush samurai 5/warlock 3 split then carry the fighter until 15, because that feature is too damned good. Probably 15/5.

The saving grace is that once you hit Samurai 10 you get essentially 1 free nova per encounter, because if you roll initiative without a charge you get one for free.

I went with Medium Armor and the thought of potentially Medium Armor Master mostly out of consideration for Stealth and other Dex based checks, but I can totally understand the logic of going with Heavy Armor for the early game survivability compared to medium armor. It has the secondary benefit of allowing use of a heavy weapon without needing Hex Warrior turned on for it, stat-wise. My initial plan was to either Sword and Board until you hit Warlock 3, or to use a Longsword two handed to allow Hex Warrior and Great Weapon Fighting to have an impact -- neither of which are necessarily ideal.
The Strength dip also opens the possibility of Samurai 15/Warlock 3/Paladin 2 if you so choose, which gets you better AC (Defense Fighting Style), Lay on Hands, and Divine Smite along with extra slots to use for Smiting (but you do lose an ASI, which might be...less than ideal).

Other side benefit to this combo is that you can use either Eldritch Blast OR a Blade Pact Longbow for ranged combat, depending on the enemy -- might even make it worth picking up Sharpshooter if you're greedy for Longbow usage.

One other potential long term build could be Samurai 17/Hexblade 3 for the second use of Action Surge per rest -- potential to Nova twice in a single battle is potent.

Other possible build thoughts that aren't fully formed, but might be interesting to dive into some more:

• Zealot Barbarian dipping into Paladin and/or Fighter (and if Paladin going Fallen Aasimar) to grant itself non-spell self healing to make sure it never dies once it gets it's level 14 Archetype feature. It's a super late multiclass which is kind of against the ethos of this thread, but it's a nifty toolkit to make sure you're nigh unkillable while raging.
• Bugbear Barbarian 2/Assassin Rogue X, eventually dipping into Battlemaster for Riposte and Extra Attack: Gets reach on Rapier, has solid AC, reduced damage while raging and Uncanny Dodge to reduce damage further. Plus if you're able to get a Surprise round you get 1d8+2d6+Sneak Attack+Str Mod+2 damage as an auto-crit.