paladin bard

[Amdy_vill]

right now i am a lv 15 paladin oath breaker. would i be a good idea to take a 5 lv dip into bard. i am the damage deal of the party.

[adolann]

right now i am a lv 15 paladin oath breaker. would i be a good idea to take a 5 lv dip into bard. i am the damage deal of the party.

If you are primarily a damage dealer, there really isn't a reason to go bard at this point, as to really improve yourself damage wise, you'd really need to get to character level 20 (bard 5) before it is really good since you'd want the inspiration dice on a short rest.

If you really want to multi-class, either Hexblade or Sorcerer would be a better option for damage.

However... Why not just stay Paladin? The last 5 levels are pretty good for you, actually. 2 ASIs, 5th level spells, 30' auras, and your Dread Lord capstone. That's actually a pretty solid package when you think about it.

[Zanthy1]

Personally I would say don't, because the paladin's level 20 capstone is amazing. There is some synergy with bard and paladin so it wouldn't be a total awful move, but ultimately if you've made it this far (and you've already taken the role of high damage dealer), then I would say stick with it. Pure paladin is absolutely amazing.

[Amdy_vill]

thanks you.

[Zanthy1]

Just to add a little something, I currently am playing a paladin warlock mix, and I hate it. I am working with the DM to figure out how to change to a pure paladin, but it is taking a long time.

[Specter]

For damage? No.

For buffing allies better? Yes.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

No, I play a Bard and love the class but what do Bards have at levels 1-5 that a level 15 Paladin would want?

Do Paladins have a bonus action heal like the abusable Healing Word?

[Citan]

right now i am a lv 15 paladin oath breaker. would i be a good idea to take a 5 lv dip into bard. i am the damage deal of the party.

Hi!

I think you already got your decision but in case not, let me break down the plus and minus in short (I'll try).

Full Paladin
- 2 more ASIs (damage dealer? Take Mage Slayer and GWM if you are STR).
- Extension of your Auras to up to 30 feet (which means allies can benefit from Aura of Protection without being cluttered up).
- 5th level spells: not only do you get arguably the best buff in the game (Circle of Power), with your Oath you also get Dominate Person which can be nice.
- 2 more spell levels (end as 10th level caster).
- More Lay on Hands healing.
- 20th level Aura: protect your allies, auto-deal damage to frightened creatures (combines with CD), bonus action good damage, what's not to like?


Bard 5
- A handful of nice spells for you to use maybe (Healing Words, Heat Metal, Enhance Ability, Blindness, Silence, ?)
- More slots for nova smiting or debuff spells (ends as a 12th spell level).
- Expertise and Jack of all Trades (do you really have the use for it)?
- Short-rest extra damages (because I guess you'd go with the College that uses Bardic Inspiration for extra damage -there is one recently published IIRC)...

Honestly? At that level, Paladin benefits outweight Bard benefits by something like a 3-times factor. Multiclassing is just a bad idea.
You'll deal overall much more damage for the remaining of your career by sticking pure-class, AND you also get big improvments in how you can help and protect your allies too.

In fact, I'd daresay in general that any character that got up to 15th level and has a decent chance of reaching 20 should just stick right up to the end, unless very very niche cases (like Bard 18 that prefers dipping into Warlock because he doesn't use BI that much, or a Ranger taking two levels of Tempest Cleric because he finally deems the capstone irrelevant and doesn't care about extra ASI either).
Multiclassing usually has much more meaning when taken early as in "I sacrifice later bigger unsure potential for immediate predictable benefit". Or if taken because you have a character concept that is just not achievable otherwise.

>>> Stick with Paladin, by leagues the optimal choice. ;)
If you're worried about dealing better damage without using too much resources, use ASI to get either...
- GWM (two-hander): best paired with a simple Bless or a Blinding Smite. When you went full STR, usually the best bet for high and consistent damage output.
- Shield Master (sword and board): prone with bonus action. Words equally well whatever your build is, as long as you picked Athletics and have good STR.
- Dual Wielder (two-weapon): to optimize the fact that you get +CHA to melee attacks, getting another attack: the main draw here is that it would give you much more freedom in using two magic weapons.
- Magic Initiate: Sorcerer (any): this seems at first to go against your Oath, because it gives you only one attack in the whole turn. That said, it can be a very nice tool to have for example when you usually use bonus action on something else and don't have GWM. It's also a way to help control what enemies do (Booming Blade) and a plain better way to deal damage to two close creatures than a distributed Extra Attack (Green-Flame Blade).

If you're worried about getting better at supporting allies, pick Inspiring Leader: 25-30 THP every short rest, even at high level, is still not something to sneeze at. :)