Low Level Builds V
Today our build involves an Aasimar hell-bent on fighting evil, who also loves to sing and sear its enemies with radiant light. We are going to build our character to the 6th level. It’s borderline low-level, but it really begins to come online so that’s where we’ll end. Without further ado, let’s start building our melodic holy crusader.
Aasimar Bard/Paladin
Race: Scrouge Aasimar (+2 Charisma, +1 Consitution, Darkvision, Celestial Resistance, Healing Hands, Light Bearer)
Class: Paladin/Bard
Stats: Str. 14, Dex. 10, Con. 14, Int. 10, Wis. 12, Cha. 16 (Point Buy)
Proficiencies: Intimidation +5, Investigation +2, Perception +3, Persuasion +5
Background: Investigator
Equipment: Chainmail, shield, longsword, javelins, explorer’s pack.
1st level: Let's review the basics. We follow the Scrouge Aasimar stat increases, giving us a +2 to our Charisma and +1 to our Constitution. This covers Charisma, leaving an excellent opportunity to increase our Strength and Constitution when determining our stats. We've also met the minimum for all the ability scores so that we can multiclass into bard when the mood strikes us, which will be soon. Our equipment includes chainmail, a long sword, and a shield. It doesn't get much better than a starting 18 AC.
I've never played an Aasimar, but I realize what I've been missing out on after reading about them. Darkvision isn't unique, but always a good trait to have. Just ask anyone player a human character. Celestial Resistance is insanely good. Having have Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage out of the gate feels like cheating…almost. If your DM is glaring at you when you introduce your character, it's probably because they'll have to scrap the undead-focused adventure they had planned. Healing Hands is only a single point of healing at this point, but that could be the difference between life and death. Finally, you get the light cantrip. Neat.
The paladin has two abilities at 1st level: Divine Sense and Lay on Hands. My personal feeling is that Divine Sense is essentially a ribbon ability. Using an action, you can detect good and evil isn't bad. Spending an action to use it shouldn't cost you an action during combat, as it's something you'll most likely use before the fighting begins. If you are fighting something under the effect of the hallow spell at 1st level, that's probably a big problem for your characters. Hopefully, the creature with the 5th level spell in their arsenal isn't around to fight your party. Knowing the location of any celestial, fiend, undead within 60 ft. is nice but limited as if they are behind full cover you can’t sense them. At that range, you can probably see them anyways. Lay on Hands is 5 free hit points, making your party's cleric a tiny bit jealous.
The Investigator's background was a color pick, as I envision the character hunting down the bad guys by searching for clues and talking to witnesses. Knight is also a great choice. Any number of backgrounds work depending on how you want to play your character.
2nd level: It would be foolish not to take another level in paladin since we now have access to our Fighting Style and Divine Smite features. Take Dueling for the extra 2 points of damage. I know many people will argue for Great Weapon Fighting, but we have a shield and plan on using it. This will also influence which college our Bard belongs to, but we'll get to that in a bit.
Our healing power also increases to 12 hit points, a big jump. We also get our first opportunity to cast spells. Cure Wounds for healing is straightforward. Our second spell is thunderous smite for an additional 2d6 thunder damage and the chance of knocking someone prone. This is the most powerful smite spell available right now, so it's a no-brainer.
Anyone who has read my previous articles will know my love for the Divine Smite. Sure, it costs a spell slot, but the way I play a paladin, spell slots are for smiting first, spells second. My favorite thing about Divine Smite is it doesn't require an action. Being able to use a free action to deliver more damage is truly unbelievable, and once we pick our college, we'll be doing even more damage on top of that (spoilers!)
Let's take a quick look at our attack/damage potential.
Attack: +4 to hit. Damage: 26 damage average - longsword 4, + 4 to hit bonus +7 thunderous smite (bonus action) +9 divine smite free action +2 dueling damage. 42 max damage (no critical hit).
3rd level: Time to take the Oath of Glory. Why do you say? Well, Peerless Athlete is nice and we’re still doing decent damage. Healing Hands is now up to 3 points of healing, and Lay on Hands provides us with an additional 15. All that said, we are now a glorious fountain of healing with Inspiring Smite. Add it to the list of reasons I love smiting the crap out of the bad guys. After searing them with radiant damage, you can distribute up to 19 more hit points amongst the party, bringing your total healing potential to 37 hit points. Take that puny cleric.
We also pick up our oath spells, guiding bolt, and heroism. New paladin spells to keep prepared are searing smite and wrathful smite. The biggest problem with paladin spells is that many of them require concentration. It puts spells such as bless at a disadvantage since we love to smite, and the two new smites require concentration to deliver more damage. All these spells are excellent, but the thing I’m most excited about is an additional spell slot. One more chance to smite!
Let’s not forget about the new Aasimar trait gained at 3rd level. Radiant Consumption allows us to become a beacon of painful radiant light once per long rest. For 1 minute, if you land an attack, you can add an additional 3 points of radiant damage to one target. The drawback is you take 2 points in radiant damage, which is actually only 1 point since you’re resistant to radiant damage. It’s a 10 ft. radius, so warn your friends before becoming a glowing pain machine.
4th level: Time to start dipping into our bard class.
While there are a bunch of new spells to choose from, it is a bit disappointing not to gain an additional spell slot. Vicious mockery is a must-have cantrip as no bard is complete without it. As for bard spells, take faerie fire, feather fall, longstrider, and silvery barbs. Feather fall and silvery barbs are Reaction spells, and it’s nice to have them in your back pocket if you have any slots left. Faerie fire provides an advantage on your attacks, but it is another spell requiring concentration. I love having extra movement whenever possible and usually take longstrider whenever possible. It lasts for an hour, so you can cast it outside of combat to save an action. Those extra 10 feet allow you to get up close and personal to the bad guy just a bit quicker, at which time you can start smiting the crap out of them.
We receive 3 Bardic Inspiration Dice. They are nice to have and make your friends feel warm and fuzzy when you give them one, but we are waiting to go to college to explore their full potential. Let’s not forget that Healing Hands is now up to 4 hit points. Every little bit counts.
5th Level: Our 2nd level in bard isn’t exciting, but let’s not downplay our new features. Jack of all Trades is underrated, in my opinion. We are only proficient in five skills (we picked up Athletics last level). Half proficiency in the remaining skills can come in handy. Song of Rest bolsters your healing powers, providing an additional 1d6 of healing during a short rest, all while having the privilege of listening to your beautiful singing voice.
6th Level: Time for school, and we’re off the College of Whispers. I’ve seen many people talk about the College of Swords. We already have Dueling via the paladin’s Fighting Style feature and have touched on why we aren’t taking Great Weapon Fighting. We’ve been focusing on the healing of late, so it’s time to add potential damage to the mix. I know you may feel greedy by keeping all those precious inspiration dice for ourselves, but dammit it, you deserve it. Psychic Blades lets you, once per round, use an inspiration die to do 2d6 psychic damage. Psychic damage is significant because so few creatures have resistance to it. We’ll take a look at our damage output in a second.
Not to be overlooked are the Expertise and Words of Terror features. I’ve taken Expertise in Athletics and Perception. Athletics comes in handy, especially since you are often in the range of being grappled. Perception is one of these most used skills. Words of Terror is meh because spending a minute in combat doing anything isn’t going to happen.
Four spell slots mean four chances to smite, in whatever combination your heart desires. I’m not overly concerned about what spells you take since the slots are for crushing your opponent with various smites. I recommend going with noncombat spells. In that vein, my spells were gift of gab (another reaction spell!), lesser restoration, and the 1st level spell disguise self.
There is a multitude of options when calculating damage. Here’s one option.
Attack: +5 to hit. Damage (spend an action to fire up your radiant consumption first): 40 damage average - longsword 4, +5 to hit bonus +7 thunderous smite (bonus action) +9 divine smite free action +2 dueling damage +7 psychic blades damage +6 radiant consumption. 61 max damage (no critical hit).
Maybe you decide you don’t want to take damage from your own holy light, so instead, you use your first action to cast faerie fire. Your average damage drops to 34, but now you’ll have two chances to bring the pain. If you don’t have time to spend the action for either of those features, cast searing smite in an attempt to do a continuous 1d6 damage. Experiment with your options and find the one you like the best.
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Art Credit - Daejun Park
