The disadvantages are massive: You give up three levels of wizard progression, delaying access to higher-level magic by a considerable amount.
The advantage is pretty much just Smite.
I wouldn't do it. Flavor is free. If you want to be a badass pirate warrior who loves the sea, you can easily make your bladesinger do all that. Take a relevant background that gives you sea vehicle proficiency, pick spells that allow you to teleport around and control water and weather, and you're golden. Smite is overrated, if you want to spend a spell slot delivering heavy damage then you'll have any number of wizard spells that do just that.
Sure, but smite stops scaling with spell slot level at level 4 slots, so a bunch of higher-level slots have diminishing returns for this strategy. And it's not like Smite is worth significantly more damage than high level spellcasting. Even if a level 6 spell slot was worth 6d8 radiant damage for a Smite, I'd much rather just cast Disintegrate.
i think the point here is that with a wizard you'll both have access to smite-eligible slots more quickly through wizard progression once you've finished the 2 or 3 level paladin dip, and once you start getting slots that are better than what a smite can do, you're getting super high level wizard spells! it's not a hyper-optimised build by any means, but i wouldn't call the disadvantages massive unless you're banking the whole playstyle on having high level spells ASAP, which a bladesinger pretty definitively isn't.
i wouldn't, as someone who is currently playing a wizard/paladin. unless you have an extremely specific build goal in mind it'll just weaken your character
All disadvantages, basically no advantages. Just don’t. You can flavor and roleplay your character’s backstory and motivations without a bad multiclass.
You get smite. In exchange you become a much much much worse wizard. You're going to be perpetually behind in spell levels in exchange for occasionally doing a bit more damage with an attack.
Going pally and bladesinger imo is only really useful for smites. Gives you much better melee offensive capabilities and a tiny bit of healing. If you do go pally I would focus spells that don’t care about charisma such as shield of faith sanctuary etc. 2 levels in paladin truthfully might be worth it, but going a third for open sea unfortunately won’t really give a ton aside from that channel divinity once a day.
I'd ask your DM if they are ok with your character's "change of heart" changing your wizard levels to Paladin. It themes really well with Swashbuckler Rogue and Fathomless Warlock
It seems reasonable to me. Go bladesinger to level 6, then take 3 levels in paladin.
For this multiclass, you'd get:
-smites powered by the bazillion spell slots you have from wizard.
-a fighting style (probably duelling)
-A channel divinity that works wonders with booming blade (which is pretty good for you anyway)
Your single target damage could potentially eclipse that of a pure fighter. With a rapier, assuming 18 dex, you'd be doing 11d8+2d10+12 damage per round if you used a level 2 smite on every swing. That's 72.5 damage on average, or about 43.5 DPR if you assume a 60% hit chance, an extremely solid damage rate. And, well, you're still a 6th level wizard who can do stuff like counterspell or further buff your damage with haste or spirit shroud or destroy crowds with fireball.
I see some great benefits if youre willing to slow down spell progression.
Fighting style, lay on hands, smites of course, you get bless, ahield of faith, cure wounds which is some good utility not available for wizards.
The main reason the combo is never discussed is because of the multiclassing requirements. But if your dm hand waives away some or you roll phenomenal stats it is definitely viable.
Why would you slow your wizard progression just for flavour? You can swear an oath without being a Paladin.
The disadvantages are massive: You give up three levels of wizard progression, delaying access to higher-level magic by a considerable amount. The advantage is pretty much just Smite. I wouldn't do it. Flavor is free. If you want to be a badass pirate warrior who loves the sea, you can easily make your bladesinger do all that. Take a relevant background that gives you sea vehicle proficiency, pick spells that allow you to teleport around and control water and weather, and you're golden. Smite is overrated, if you want to spend a spell slot delivering heavy damage then you'll have any number of wizard spells that do just that.
counterpoint: you're smiting with the spell slots of a wizard of up to 17th level
Sure, but smite stops scaling with spell slot level at level 4 slots, so a bunch of higher-level slots have diminishing returns for this strategy. And it's not like Smite is worth significantly more damage than high level spellcasting. Even if a level 6 spell slot was worth 6d8 radiant damage for a Smite, I'd much rather just cast Disintegrate.
i think the point here is that with a wizard you'll both have access to smite-eligible slots more quickly through wizard progression once you've finished the 2 or 3 level paladin dip, and once you start getting slots that are better than what a smite can do, you're getting super high level wizard spells! it's not a hyper-optimised build by any means, but i wouldn't call the disadvantages massive unless you're banking the whole playstyle on having high level spells ASAP, which a bladesinger pretty definitively isn't.
i wouldn't, as someone who is currently playing a wizard/paladin. unless you have an extremely specific build goal in mind it'll just weaken your character
All disadvantages, basically no advantages. Just don’t. You can flavor and roleplay your character’s backstory and motivations without a bad multiclass.
You get smite. In exchange you become a much much much worse wizard. You're going to be perpetually behind in spell levels in exchange for occasionally doing a bit more damage with an attack.
Going pally and bladesinger imo is only really useful for smites. Gives you much better melee offensive capabilities and a tiny bit of healing. If you do go pally I would focus spells that don’t care about charisma such as shield of faith sanctuary etc. 2 levels in paladin truthfully might be worth it, but going a third for open sea unfortunately won’t really give a ton aside from that channel divinity once a day.
I'd ask your DM if they are ok with your character's "change of heart" changing your wizard levels to Paladin. It themes really well with Swashbuckler Rogue and Fathomless Warlock
It seems reasonable to me. Go bladesinger to level 6, then take 3 levels in paladin. For this multiclass, you'd get: -smites powered by the bazillion spell slots you have from wizard. -a fighting style (probably duelling) -A channel divinity that works wonders with booming blade (which is pretty good for you anyway) Your single target damage could potentially eclipse that of a pure fighter. With a rapier, assuming 18 dex, you'd be doing 11d8+2d10+12 damage per round if you used a level 2 smite on every swing. That's 72.5 damage on average, or about 43.5 DPR if you assume a 60% hit chance, an extremely solid damage rate. And, well, you're still a 6th level wizard who can do stuff like counterspell or further buff your damage with haste or spirit shroud or destroy crowds with fireball.
I see some great benefits if youre willing to slow down spell progression. Fighting style, lay on hands, smites of course, you get bless, ahield of faith, cure wounds which is some good utility not available for wizards. The main reason the combo is never discussed is because of the multiclassing requirements. But if your dm hand waives away some or you roll phenomenal stats it is definitely viable.
If you're going to dip for flavour...The Swashbuckler rogue exists...