Sorcadin on Trial: Is a multi-classed paladin really better?

This whole post – all the math you’re going to see below – started with a simple question from my brother.

Should I take the dueling or defense fighting style?

As it turned out, David was working on a replacement character in case is current character in our campaign, a deep gnome rogue named Fendrick, ever bit the dust. He was thinking of building what’s known as a sorcadin – a combination paladin and sorcerer.

The idea of the sorcadin is thus: A character starts with two levels of paladin to gain heavy armor proficiency and the Divine Smite feature, which lets the paladin expend spell slots to do extra damage when they hit with a weapon. The character then spends the rest of their career taking levels in sorcerer, giving them more, higher level spell slots with which to do more smite damage. Instead of plain weapon attacks, they use the spell Booming Blade, which causes a single melee attack as well as some extra damage, and even more damage if the target moves. They can also use metamagic to cast Booming Blade a second time as a bonus action a limited number of times per day.

I was skeptical of the idea. I generally frown on multiclassing, unless you’re addressing a specific problem and you’re certain the reward is worth delaying or giving up on higher level class features. The socadin seemed like a lot of trouble for not much reward.

But that was just a hunch. A hypothesis. Let’s see what the math reveals.

The question: Over the course of a typical adventuring day, under optimal circumstances, can a sorcadin expect to deal more damage than a paladin?

First, some assumptions:

• We’re looking at level 5 characters. Partly, that’s because our characters are currently at that level. But it’s also a good benchmark to see when a build comes online. This is the start of Tier 2 of play, when marital characters get Extra Attack and wizards get fireball. If you’re build isn’t working by now, you’re in for a rough time.
• Our characters will take part in four combats per day, each lasting an average of three rounds. This works out to 12 actions to work with. The Dungeon Masters Guide recommends six to eight encounters per day, but those don’t all have to be fights – they can also be social or exploration challenges. Plus, our group rarely has time for more than four combats in a session, and we typically take a long rest between sessions.
• A character who invests in their primary attribute when they gain an increase (in this case Strength) is assumed to hit with an attack 65 per cent of the time. This is due to the fundamental math of Dungeons and Dragons. Any change to that progression will result in a 5 percentage point bonus or penalty per 1 increment change to the Strength modifier.
• Our characters will act to maximize damage. Each round they’ll attack or cast Booming Blade. They will spend their spell slots solely on smiting and will spend their highest slots first.
• We’re not accounting for critical hits. The math becomes much harder, but it’s also exceedingly rare. (Though as we’ll see, one of these characters can do a lot to increase their odds.)
• The characters are able to use their action every turn of every combat. They aren’t charmed, paralyzed or knocked out.
• Finally we’re going to assume that Booming Blade will not do any extra damage due to the target moving. This is because the entire point of the spell is to keep enemies locked in place near the party’s tank and away from the wizards and druids. If the spell doesn’t trigger the bonus damage, that means it’s doing its job.

With that all said, let’s meet our contestants! To make this easier, let’s give them names.

Tina (3 Sorcerer, 2 Paladin)

Here is our sorcadin. She uses a longsword. At 5th level, Booming Blade does an extra d8 of damage, so she’s going to deal an average of 14 (2d8+5) damage on a hit, factoring in the dueling fighting style, which adds +2 with one-handed weapons. However, since she multiclassed, she hasn’t yet increased her Strength, so she’ll only hit on 60 per cent of attacks. That gives her seven hits on her 12 castings of Booming Blade. She also has enough sorcery points to double-cast Booming Blade once. This works out to 112 damage.

She also has seven spell slots to burn on smites – four 1st level slots that deal 2d8 and three 3rd level slots that deal 3d8. In total, they work out to an average of 77 damage.

This brings Tina’s total to 189 points of damage over the course of a day.

Gene

Here is our paladin. He also uses a longsword, which hits 65 per cent of the time and deals 10.5 (1d8+6) damage on a hit. Gene also has Extra Attack, which means he gets 24 attacks, landing 16 of them. That works out to 168 damage. He has almost as many spell slots as Tina, so he deals 63 smite damage.

That’s a total of 231 – significantly more than Tina.

Louise

Louise is also a 5th level paladin and thinks she can outdo Gene. Instead of taking a Strength increase at Level 4, she takes the Polearm Master feat. This means that when she uses a d10 halberd, she can do a d4 bonus action attack with the butt end. However, the halberd doesn’t qualify for the dueling fighting style.

That’s why she actually does less damage than Gene, coming in at 221. (However, with 21 total hits – 14 with the halberd and seven with the butt end attack, she is far more likely than the other two to roll a critical hit, which would make up the difference with Gene.)

So! That ends our blog for today. In conclusion, while the sorcadin is certainly viable –

*Rustling leaves*

Did you hear that? There isn’t supposed to be anyone else –

*Loud purring*

Oh. Hello there. Niiiiiiiiice kitty. It appears my smart, beautiful and cunning wife, Stephanie, has arrived with her beloved panther and she wants to know how the new Beastmaster ranger in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything stacks up. Sure thing! Can her archer-kitty combo stack up with Divine Smite? Well, let’s assume you hit at least once per round to maximize your Favored Foe damage, and we won’t bother with Hunter’s Mark …

Holy moly. 251. And that’s without using any spell slots.

For fun, I also ran the numbers with the Horizon Walker subclass in a sword-and-board build and came up with 224. Again, that’s without using any spell slots. Wizards of the Coast, consider the ranger fixed! Well on that bombshell, we it’s time to end. Thank you very –

*Snikt*

Why, there appears to be some sort of purple, ethereal dagger in my chest. What the –

FENDRICK HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

Oh hello Fendrick! Why yes I can run the numbers for you too! Since we’ve got two other melee fighters plus a summoner, I think it’s a reasonable assumption that you can Sneak Attack every turn.

Let’s have a look … 256.

Holy moly. Even if we reckon that two of those eight hits don’t trigger sneak attack, that still puts him at 220 – competitive with the paladins and much more than the sorcadin.

Now, granted – as the sorcadin gains levels, she gains many more high level spell slots and eventually outclasses the paladin. Tina can muster 432 damage at 11th level compared to Gene’s 315 and Louise’s 310.

But that’s leaving a lot of sorcerer power on the table. Tina isn’t casting Counterspell or Polymorph or Bigby’s Hand (and if she does, her spell DC is worse than a high Charisma sorcerer) but I can see the appeal in a character who can dabble in everything.

But David – please. If this exercise has taught me anything, it’s that Fendrick must survive!