Nuclear Smite Paladin-Bard
Paladin 2 (Oath of the Ancients) / Bard 10 (College of Swords)A level 12 Honour Mode ender that multiclasses 2 Oath of the Ancients Paladin into 10 Swords Bard. Slashing Flourish pumps Arcane Acuity to cap in a single turn, pushing Spell Save DC so high that Hold Person and Hold Monster almost always land. Paralysed targets then eat a level 5 Banishing Smite stacked with an upcast level 4 Divine Smite on one guaranteed-critical swing, while Bhaalist Armour's Aura of Murder doubles every point of Nyrulna's piercing damage. 23 Constitution from the Amulet of Greater Health plus Advantage on CON saves keeps concentration up through the whole fight.
Damage
Hundreds of damage on one auto-crit swing stacking Banishing Smite + Divine Smite + GWM + Savage Attacker on paralysed targets
Survivability
20 AC (14 + DEX 5 + Defence), 23 CON with Advantage on CON saves, permanent Advantage on attacks via Risky Ring
Boss
Hold Monster + Banishing Smite + Divine Smite crit one-shots most Act 3 bosses in a single turn
Paladin
Paladin provides Divine Smite, which converts spell slots into bursts of bonus radiant damage on any successful hit. Two levels also bring Oath of the Ancients' short-rest party heal and heavy armour proficiency.
Bard
Swords Bard provides two attacks per turn, high-level spell slots, and an AOE sword sweep that hits multiple targets at once. Magical Secrets at level 10 lets you learn spells from any other class list, opening up options far outside the normal Bard repertoire.
+2 Charisma scales every spell save DC and Arcane Acuity stack. +1 Dexterity nudges you closer to the DEX-20 target without burning a Mirror of Loss charge.
The endgame centerpiece. A +3 Legendary trident dealing base 1d8 piercing + 1d6 thunder, which becomes truly obscene once Bhaalist Armour doubles the piercing portion. The Zephyr Connection effect means you can throw it into an air-vortex AOE and it instantly returns to hand, and the passive Veil of the Wind adds +3m movement speed plus falling damage immunity.
How to Obtain
The damage-multiplying keystone. Aura of Murder forces every enemy within 3m to become Vulnerable to piercing damage, doubling every point of Nyrulna's base piercing, every Divine Smite radiant-as-piercing hit that lines up, and every Banishing Smite force-pierce combo. Ambusher also adds +2 to initiative, which matters massively for this build since acting first lets you set up Arcane Acuity and Hold Monster before enemies can scatter.
How to Obtain
The engine of the crowd-control layer. Every weapon hit grants 2 stacks of Arcane Acuity for 2 turns, and each stack adds +1 to Spell Save DC and spell Attack rolls. Slashing Flourish hits two targets in one Action and each hit procs the stacks, so a single Action can ramp the Paladin-Bard to near-max Acuity before the bonus action CC even fires.
How to Obtain
Combat Strategy
- ▸Cast Longstrider on the party and Speak with Animals for utility.
- ▸Confirm Divine Smite is set to 'Ask' on every spell level in the Reactions menu.
- ▸Short-rest between encounters to refresh Bardic Inspiration charges, Healing Radiance, and Hellcrawler.
- ▸Lead with Bhaalist Armour equipped; its Aura of Murder needs to be toggled on if it drops after a travel loading screen.
- ▸Hellcrawler (bonus action) to teleport into the middle of a pack for a 2d8 fire AOE.
- ▸Slashing Flourish (Action + Bardic Inspiration) to hit two enemies, generating 4 Arcane Acuity stacks in one turn.
- ▸Bonus-action Hold Person via Band of the Mystic Scoundrel on the target you want paralysed.
- ▸End the turn with Extra Attack swings against any enemies still standing.
- ▸On a paralysed target: queue Banishing Smite as the concentration cast (Action).
- ▸Swing into the paralysed target; the attack auto-crits from the 3m range, which doubles every damage die.
- ▸Accept the Divine Smite reaction prompt on the same swing to stack both smite spells into one hit.
- ▸Savage Attacker rerolls every damage die, so the crit lands near-maximum.
- ▸Great Weapon Master's Bonus Attack fires on the crit, which gives a free bonus-action swing for a follow-up Divine Smite reaction.
- ▸Command: Approach to drag a boss into melee range when they try to kite, or Command: Grovel to force prone for a guaranteed-advantage follow-up.
- ▸Counterspell any enemy AOE or control spell that would break concentration on Banishing Smite or Hold Monster.
- ▸Drop Hold Person once Bard 9 comes online and use Hold Monster instead; it covers every humanoid PLUS every boss creature type.
- ▸Against spell-immune bosses, skip the concentration smite and rely on Slashing Flourish + Divine Smite reactions + GWM for raw damage.
Sources
Verified: 2026-04-18 · All content is original with full credit to original creators.