Need help for my 5th edition D&D character.

Vallmyr

Hello! I'm building another necromancer but this is for a 5e game. I have a plan to become the ultimate lord of skeletons!

The plan is for a Drow Necromancer Wizard/Oathbreaker Paladin/Death Domain Cleric. 27 point buy for
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 9 (+2 for elf for 11)
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 13
Charisma: 15 (+1 Drow for 16)

The plan is to go Wizard for the first 6 levels to get animate dead and the necromancy bonuses. Then go Oathbreaker Paladin for 7 levels to gain the cha bonuses to undead you have. Finally I'll either go Cleric 1 for the death domain bonus to hit multiple targets for chill touch or end up going Cleric 7 for more diverse spell casting.

So I have Wizard 12/Paladin 7/Cleric 1 or Wizard 6/Paladin 7/Cleric 7. Either way I have up to 7th level spell slots. I'm leaning towards the former so I can get Create Undead and avoid being too MAD. With the latter though I gain better blasting potential by bypassing necrotic resistance because of the Death Domain Cleric ability. Either way at 4 and 8 I'll pump my charisma to 20 to maximize on the Charisma bonuses from the Oathbreaker Paladin.

I like this character because I don't need dex because I'll wear the heaviest of armors, I can cast, support, melee, and buff my animate dead through the roof. I guess the question is it worth losing the higher level spells? I'm willing to lose out on power because I value RP a lot and so the character has to be a Drow because Val'myr is a Drow and such.

Also, my character's alignment is Chaotic Evil but I'm using the Charlatan background and Val's Alter-ego is Chaotic Good. So he acts like a rightous good person but in the end he's just doing it because with fame comes treasure, with treasure comes money, and with money he can buy more equipment for research upon undeath. His patron deity will probably be Kiaransalee, Drow Goddess of Undeath and Vengeance. Backstory is he was in the Underdark and fell in love with a Dryad he had as a slave but his mother saw this as a weakness and killed the Dryad. Val got super pissed and left the Underdark. His primary motivations are whimsy and a desire to bring back his loved one. He has her mummified hand as a necklace that he uses as his focus for arcane spells. He plans to be like Viktor Frankenstein and eventually find pieces of dead Elven women and sew them together and try to re-create her.

Drugar

So...what's the question?

Vallmyr

Drugar said:

So...what's the question?

I guess any critique on the build or holes. Example being a friend pointed that you only gain +2 to stat when you hit 4th in a class level, not character level so I've had to adjust the build now to Wizard 12/Oathbreaker Paladin 8.

I guess for a more direct question is buffing up my undead and gaining good melee abilities worth the loss of 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells?

The actual path I'll take is Wizard 6 then Oathbreaker 7, then Wizard levels until 20 of which I'll take the 8th level in Oathbreaker.

Dee

I'd say don't sweat the lost higher-level spells. Remember that you can only prepare a specific number of spells for each class per day, meaning that you actually do better having three spellcasting classes instead of one (you'll get +Int to your number of spells from Wizard, and +Wis from Cleric, and +Cha from Paladin, plus half your levels in Paladin and all your levels in Wizard and Cleric). With spells that offer enhanced effects using higher level spell slots, you'll definitely do well as a tri-class caster, even if one of your classes is only a half-caster.

I'd recommend starting as a Cleric, though. One of the weaknesses of your current build is that your character will start out wearing no armor at all, making it hard (very hard) to survive for the first six levels, particularly with such a low Dexterity.

I think my big question, ultimately, is why bother with Paladin at all? A Necromancer/Death Cleric with 10/10 and higher Intelligence and Wisdom scores would seem like a better mix of high-level spells (up to level 5 for each) and lots of spells prepared (12 and 12 respectively, if you get at least 14 in each stat).

Vallmyr

Dee said:

I'd say don't sweat the lost higher-level spells. Remember that you can only prepare a specific number of spells for each class per day, meaning that you actually do better having three spellcasting classes instead of one (you'll get +Int to your number of spells from Wizard, and +Wis from Cleric, and +Cha from Paladin, plus half your levels in Paladin and all your levels in Wizard and Cleric). With spells that offer enhanced effects using higher level spell slots, you'll definitely do well as a tri-class caster, even if one of your classes is only a half-caster.

I'd recommend starting as a Cleric, though. One of the weaknesses of your current build is that your character will start out wearing no armor at all, making it hard (very hard) to survive for the first six levels, particularly with such a low Dexterity.

I think my big question, ultimately, is why bother with Paladin at all? A Necromancer/Death Cleric with 10/10 and higher Intelligence and Wisdom scores would seem like a better mix of high-level spells (up to level 5 for each) and lots of spells prepared (12 and 12 respectively, if you get at least 14 in each stat).

I guess I was specifically looking at the level 7 oathbreaker paladin ability which lets you add your cha modifier to your damage and your undead's damage. The entire plan was to raise up a huge army of undead and being a 6th wizard lets me add my proficiency bonus to their damage. So Each skeleton would do 1d6+2+proficiency bonus+cha modifier. I spoke with the others I'm playing with and said while we would talk in char about the use of undead they wouldn't mind me having a small army and such.

It might just be better to lose the Paladin levels though for increased casting. I imagine this adventure will probably end around 15-ish so I should probably discount anything after that.