Hello. Great guide, I have been following it for a long time. I just recently played a Dex Sorcadin in my home game from levels 1-13 and I wanted to share my experiences on the section of the guide that is missing.

I have loved the Gish since 3.5 and have experience with Sorcadins and played a Paladin 2 / Sorceror X on two separate occasions. Once from Level 3-8 and again from level 5-11. Those both very much felt more caster oriented and while fights where you are fully committed are just totally spectacular, I felt a little underpowered in the random fights where you don’t want to expend any resources. I wanted to try a build that was heavy on the Paladin side of things to establish a solid base to jump off of and I could not be more pleased. I have also played a straight classed Paladin all the way to level 10, and this build ended up being more tanky. I’ll do a level by level breakdown of my build and notes along the way.

My concept was to take advantage of Elven Accuracy and Vow of Enmity to gain triple advantage on attack rolls and fish for crits to stretch my smites. Being Dex-Based means taking advantage of stealth skills and having a higher initiative, and instead of an attack cantrip you can carry a Longbow as your ranged option, making you a decent Archer when paired with Vengeance’s Hunter’s Mark.

I went with Mordekainen’s Eladrin for a Race, and my point-buy stats worked out to be Str: 13, Dex: 17(+2 Elf,) Con: 12, Int: 8, Wis: 8, Cha: 16.

Level 1 - Paladin. You start your Lay On Hands progression but other than that are a very plain Ranged/Melee switch hitter. Sell your chainmail for some studded leather and a longbow. Your attack routine is +5 1D8+3 with either your Bow or Rapier. Save your Lay On Hands for 1HP party member revivals. AC with Studded Leather and a shield is a respectable 17.

Level 2 - Paladin. Fighting Style, Spells, Divine Smite. For your Fighting Style I highly recommend Defense over anything else. 18AC. Detect Magic, Bless, Shield of Faith, all solid options here. My tactics at this level were mostly to cast Shield of Faith to push my AC to 20 and absorb hits for the party. You only have two spell slots here so I only ended up smiting in boss fights.

Level 3 - Paladin. VENGEANCE. Vow of Enmity, Hunter’s Mark and Bane always prepared. Your bonus actions start to become precious here, but typically every fight I would use the Vow, then next turn Hunter’s Mark with my bonus action. Attack routine becomes +5/1D8+3+1D6. The ranger in my party had Hordebreaker, but we were actually pretty similar archers.

Level 4 - Elven Accuracy. Bump your Dex to 18, increasing all of those goodies. AC is now sitting at 19. Triple advantage is amazing and you are great at hitting things. Your attack routine is now +6/1D8+4+1D6. Three spell slots so you can be a bit more liberal with your 2D8 smites. MEAN crits, for me it was happening about once a fight on average.

Level 5 - Extra attack. This level I also got myself a +1 Rapier, Bow, and Studded Leather. You also get second level spells. Find Steed, Aid, Hold Person, Misty Step, all great spells. I get a lot of mileage out of Find Steed, and letting your party auto-crit with Hold Person is a tried and true tactic. 20AC, attack routine is +7/1D8+5+1D6 twice,

Level 6 - Aura of Protection. +3 to saves for the whole party, honestly one of the best abilities in the game. Worth delaying your Sorcerer levels for.

Level 7 - Sorcerer. I went Divine Soul for Favored by the Gods (It will save your butt) and the expanded spell selection. Dragon would also have been good but I had the +1 Studded Leather anyway and your Paladin base is so solid you don’t really miss the hitpoints. For cantrips I took Minor Illusion, Toll The Dead just in case I didn’t want to switch to my bow, Booming Blade for later quickening shenanigans, and Friends. First level spells I grabbed Shield and Absorb Elements, and now we have crazy defensive options. Compared to a regular Paladin we also have on demand +5 to AC, Half Elemental Damage, and +2D4 to a failed save. Crazy good tankiness, all while still being able to do triple advantage crit fishing smites.

Level 8 - Sorcerer. Font of Magic so you can convert your two little baby sorcery points into an extra level 1 slot. But this is where the build got really interesting for me. You get a third level slot with no third level known spells, so I felt liberated to either upcast my Hunter’s Mark to 8 Hours, or to use it for high-quality fuel we were promised. When I played the Paladin 2 / Sor X build I always felt like my best slots were better spent on actual spells unless I was going Nova, so this was a delightful breath of fresh air.

Level 9 - Sorcerer. If we had stayed Vengeance we would have the haste spell, but here we are with our Sorcery points. You get second level spells known, so my spells known were Shield, Absorb Elements, Blindness/Deafness, and Mirror Image. I took quicken and twin for my metamagic. You can get a Pseudo-third attack for Novaing by quickening a BB, but I used it for layering on defenses with Mirror Image (I felt like a tanking GOD) or casting Blindness on an enemy since it’s concentration-free.

Level 10 - Sorcerer. Fourth level spell slot. Three Level 3 slots, this level I basically just smited everything and everyone forever. Like a bright glowing Oprah of smiting vengeance. Blindness/Deafness can also be upcast to target multiple creatures. You also get your ASI. I really wanted Warcaster, but instead bumped my dexterity since you add it to so many things.

Level 11 - Sorcerer. You learn level 3 Spells! Fireball! Revivify! Spirit Guardians! Haste! So many good options. I still love my Hunter’s Mark so I didn’t cast haste much for my “melee mode”, but got a lot of mileage out of Spirit Guardians and walking into Hordes. Spell scales well, my dudes. And every spell caster should throw at least one fireball in my opinion. The party wizard was bending reality at this point, but I still felt very relevant and like a true caster hybrid. Great melee, great tankiness, huge spike damage, respectable AOE. This was the point where I felt like a true God of the battlefield. Our poor ranger started to hate me.

Level 12 - Sorcerer. Here’s your fifth level spell slot. You can’t Smite with it, but you can upcast all your nasty spells into it. Mostly Spirit Guardians. A vengeance Paladin would be sharing haste to his Pegasus and flying all over the place, but we are tankier and more versatile while getting to be more liberal with our spell slots for smites. When I was the Paladin 2 / Sor 9, I really just casted God Wizard spells with the occasional BB Smite. It was alright, but it wasn’t THIS.

Level 13 - Where we ended our campaign. I learned some 4th level spells. I decided to buff my tankiness more and took Death Ward and Polymorph with the intention of going down to 1HP and then Giant Apeing myself (what a verb) and being unkillable, but I never needed to.

Anyway, that’s it. Thanks for reading, please feel free to check for legality here and see if my table missed anything. My favorite part of this build is it was AMAZINGLY FUN AT EVERY LEVEL unlike some other multiclasses I have done and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Having the strong melee base shored up my least favorite part of the Sorcerer, the limited spell selection, and oh man that high-grade fuel was delicious.