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Hi All,
I just joined the Curse of Strahd gothic horror campaign. It's teeming with undead. Characters go up to level 13. This is the character I'm thinking of using. Lots of radiant damage options. Any other suggestions?
Race: Aasimar Protector
Class One: Two levels of Paladin, Devotion Oath
Class Two: Eleven levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer
I'm not sure what the value is of going two levels into Paladin when the other class doesn't have Extra Attack. Usually you'd see that spread with Swords/Valor Bards and Pact of the Blade Warlocks. Not saying it won't work, but you might find yourself spread a little thin at times - either wishing you had those higher level Sorcerer spells or wanting to go in for a Smite but feeling too squishy to be in melee. A Sorcadin "traditionally" has 6 or 7 levels of Paladin depending on whether or not you want the subclass aura from Paladin.
Most, if not all, undead in 5e aren't vulnerable to radiant damage, but it might shut off a regeneration ability or something similar. For that purpose, 1 radiant damage is the same as 20. Outside of that, any character that's good at combat will generally be as good at killing undead as any other.
Full Cleric is good due to Turn/Destroy Undead.
If your DM allows Blood Hunter, the Order of the Ghostslayer subclass is uniquely designed for undead-focused adventures. Though if you've never read/played a Blood Hunter before and/or are newer to the game I might not recommend it just because they have so many features that it can be difficult to remember everything you can do and how they work.
It isn't that some undead take extra radiant damage, it's that Divine Smite does an extra 1d8 damage to undead and fiends.
I would go with Paladin to 11 so you get extra attack and improved divine smite. Oath of ancients would get you resistance to spell damage as well.
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I'd be inclined to agree with going deeper into Paladin, honestly. The perks as presented, more HP, second attack and, if going higher still improved smite and aura. In many undead encounters, having multiple melee attacks is as helpful or more than higher level spells. I support the multi class idea, as dipping into Sorcerer gives you a bunch more spell slots for smites as desired and offers some nice cantrip selection for when enemies want to stay at a distance. Better a Firebolt than an arrow from a Longbow, eh?
Myself, I would go 8 Paladin then switch to Sorcerer. My reasoning is the ASI. You could delay it and switch after 5 (second attack) but to me, the progressions is a bit more powerful taking a few more Paladin levels and getting that ASI as early as feasible.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Hi guys, thanks for the input!
"Most, if not all, undead in 5e aren't vulnerable to radiant damage" - I keep reading it's good for fighting undead, so assumed it was something they rarely had immunity or resistance to...
"wanting to go in for a Smite but feeling too squishy to be in melee." - That occurred to me...
The thing is, I've just started playing a Paladin in another campaign before I knew about this one and didn't want to be playing two at once, even if it seems like the best option for Curse of Strahd. I added the soul sorcerer for variety, as well as effect...adding both sorc and cleric spells seemed wise.. but I suppose you're all correct, doing it at a later level is best. Guess if I want the strongest option in this environment, without doing a full cleric, I'll have to play two Paladins for a while...
Paladin and Cleric are the best classes versus undead.
Paladin Smite feature deals additional damage to undead.
Clerics get a Turn Undead Channel Divinity which can turn all undead within 30 ft. A turned undead must do everything it can on its turns to get at least 30 ft from you and while turned cannot use any actions except Dash or Dodge and cannot take reactions. Eventually this gets buffed up so undead of certain CR or below will get instantly destroyed.
Paladins are better at beefy single targets and Clerics are better at groups of low CR undead. Clerics can also use Spirit Guardians and are good both close combat and range combat.
Cleric having more single-target options, more AoE options, better crowd control options, plus party support and are better at dealing with general undead.
Clerics are best class for this with paladin being close 2nd - although there are some instances where a paladin may be favoured. If you're going 13th level and don't want to single-class cleric, then 8 Cleric 5 Paladin may be a good multiclass option. Although unless you rolled some very great ability scores - for paladin you'll need to be more careful with your spell choices. Not difficult since they do have a lot of spells that don't require a high spellcasting ability score. Although, paladins mostly use slots for smiting, anyway.
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Thanks!
"Myself, I would go 8 Paladin then switch to Sorcerer." I think I might do this. Even if it means playing two Paladins in different games at the same time. Cause I don't want to play a cleric. Maybe playing one as a half-elf and one as an Aasimar will be enough variety - and they will take different Oaths.
As to radiant damage, I did find this list of damage types and how many creatures are immune or resistant (from the monster manual). It says only four creatures resist it and 0 are immune.
The divine soul sorcerer gives me cleric spells that deal radiant damage plus the best of the sorc spells themselves.
I'd go 6 or 8 levels into paladin, the rest can be DSS for more spell slots to smite with. 6 Pal just get's that tasty CHA bonus to all your saves and shares it with your party if they are close enough to you. Multi attack obviously by lvl 5.
OR, yea you could go 2 Pal, 11 swords bard, netting you higher spell slots for even more smites, just obviously losing the aura that 6 pal would give you. You get multi attack, and some nice flourishes to brandish about. Can also be done with a hexblade warlock, less spell slots overall, but full recharge on short rests - DM dependent that could be a massive boon.
I understand that. I was just pointing out that OP was really delving into having a bunch of radiant damage (Aasimar, Smites, Divine Soul Sorc for radiant Cleric Spells), and just wanted to make sure that they weren't operating under a false pretense that all undead are vulnerable to radiant. Rather, they're more like Trolls and Fire damage where some undead have certain features that are shut off when they take radiant damage.
Yes, radiant is one of the least-resisted damage types. That list is probably a little out of date. Some of the more recent books have added monsters are have resistances and immunities to radiant. However, you'd be correct in thinking that most-if-not-all creatures in CoS aren't on that list.
Typical undead resistance/immunities are poison/necrotic/cold/lightning. Some undead may have none of those defenses, some may have one or more or even all. So purely in terms of damage output, radiant is no better against undead than any other damage they're not resistant to. It's specifically good against undead because it can shut off certain traits some undead have similar to how trolls don't regenerate after taking fire damage. That's what I meant when I said 1 radiant damage is the same as 20 for that purpose.
That being said, Paladin is still a great choice because it's not often you get a whole setting where the bonus damage on smites will be frequently relevant. Curse of Strahd and Descent into Avernus are the two settings where I'd be remiss to not play a Paladin at least once. However, if you want a change of pace, any good damage dealer will do just fine. I'm currently in a CoS game and only one person in the party - not even the primary damage dealer - has access to radiant damage and we haven't had any problems.
If you want the ability to turn on Radiant damage sometimes in addition to the Aasimar feature, then Zealot Barb, any martial + 1 level of War Cleric for Divine Favor, and Circle of Stars Druid are all possibilities as well.