Greetings and welcome back to the Character Codex! Let’s finish leveling Count Cidolfus Orlandeau for Tier 3-4 levels of play and get the rest of this Sword Saint’s Swordplay Skills!

Advancement:

Level 11 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 5) – 3rd level spells. Time to pick up the other spell needed for a combination—Lightning Bolt, and in a few levels this Job Ability will be complete. For now, it’s a 100 foot line of lightning streaking out from you. Anyone in its path needs to make a DEX save, taking 8d6 lightning damage on a fail and half on a success. Be sure to aim this properly. Also at this level, we get Magical Guidance. If you fail an ability check, you can spend a sorcery point and reroll the check, but must use the new roll. It’s like Indomitable for Sorcerers, but for abilities instead of saves.

Level 12 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 6) – Here we get Empowered Healing. Anytime you or an ally within 5 feet of you rolls dice to gain healing from a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll any of those dice one time once per turn. Not very Cid-like, but you can style it as a bolstering presence. For the spell at this level, do you want some crowd control with Slow (Duskblade) or slight self sustain and some damage with Vampiric Touch (Shadowblade)? I’d go with Slow to nerf opponents speed, AC, DEX saves, and action economy—they can only use their action or bonus action, cannot make more than one melee or ranged attack, and if they try to cast a 1 action spell you get to roll a d20 to determine if the spell is delayed. On an 11 or higher, it’s delayed until their next round. Also, they need to use their action on that turn to complete the spell, and if they can’t the spell is wasted. 

Level 13 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 6/Fighter 1) – While I would like to get to the higher level spells, I’m gonna take a quick detour and finish off a combo that started at level 10. For now, we get another Fighting Style. If Defense was picked at level 2, pick up Dueling, Great Weapon Fighting, or even Superior Technique. Grabbing one of the out of combat Maneuvers could help in a pinch once per short or long rest. Ambush for Stealth or Initiative. Commanding Presence for Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion. Tactical Assessment for Insight, Investigation, or History. This could pair well with Magical Guidance if your initial roll was trash, and you really want it to succeed. Second Wind also lets us regain 1d10 plus Fighter levels in hit points as a bonus action. Rechargeable on a short or long rest.

Level 14 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 6/Fighter 2) – Now is the time we complete this combo with Action Surge! Cast Silence on a group of foes, then Action Surge casting Lightning Bolt through the most condensed part of it to replicate Hallowed Bolt. And now that that is over… 

Level 15 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 7/Fighter 2) – Back over to Sorcerer and 4th level spells! You could upgrade Crown of Madness to Confusion (Divine Ruination) giving you an area of effect to work with. Confusion forces a Wisdom save, just like Crown of Madness, but the affected creature cannot take reactions and must roll a d10 at the start of its turn. On a 1 they use all of their movement in a random direction. On a 2-6 they take no actions. On a 7-8 they can make a melee attack against a randomly determined creature within reach and if they can’t they do nothing. Or on a 9-10 it can act normally. They can make another save at the end of their turn to end the confusion for themselves. Regardless of which spell you choose, make sure to go back to the 3rd level of spells and pick up Vampiric Touch.

Level 16 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 8/Fighter 2) – ASI/Feat time! Ideally, you’ll have gotten one of the Strength boosting items already, and maybe even the Tome of Leadership. Regardless, we’re gonna boost that Charisma score here. It will raise our bonus to saving throws to +4, spell attack modifier to +9, and save DC to 17. 

Level 17 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 9/Fighter 2) – 5th level spells! Since we didn’t take one last level, we’ll take two here, Hold Monster (Judgment Blade) and Contagion (Cleansing Strike). Hold Monster works the same as Hold Person, just for non-humanoid creatures. Contagion is a bit of a slow burn. First you need to hit with a melee spell attack making it poisoned, then they need to fail three Constitution saving throws so that you can apply a disease to them. The diseases we’d most be using are Flesh Rot for disadvantage to Charisma checks and vulnerability to all damage. Or Slimy Doom for disadvantage on Con saving throws and checks, as well as whenever the creature takes damage, it is stunned until the end of its next turn. And Cleansing Strike does cast Doom in Final Fantasy Tactics.

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Just be aware when using Contagion—If the target is immune to the poisoned condition, they might not even get affected by the secondary effect, depending on your DM’s ruling. If the target is immune to disease, the secondary effects won’t even bother them. If the target is able to have someone cast Lesser Restoration on them (a 2nd level spell, mind you) or a Way of Mercy Monk uses Physician’s Touch on them, it removes the primary or secondary effect. So your mileage may vary.

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Level 18 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 10/Fighter 2) – Finally we can learn a third Metamagic option. There are two options I see for T.G. Cid. The first is Distant Spell. It will allow us to cast spells with a range of 5 feet or greater to double its range, or a spell of touch range to 30 feet for 1 sorcery point. Another option would be Empowered Spell. As it allows rerolls of a number of dice up to our Charisma modifier for the cost of 1 sorcery point, provided we are dealing damage with a spell. Also, Empowered Spell is usable even if a different Metamagic option was already used.

Level 19 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 11/Fighter 2) – 6th level spells! Now for the last spell needed to obtain for this build, Disintegrate (Northswain’s Strike). The target of this spell must make a DEX saving throw, and on a failed save they take 10d6 + 40 force damage. If this damage reduces them to 0hp, they and everything they are wearing and carrying (save magic items) are turned to dust. They can only return to life by a True Resurrection or Wish spell. Used on a low health villain, that’s how we’ll recreate that KO effect of this particular Sword Art.

Level 20 (Paladin 6/Sorcerer 12/Fighter 2) – Last ASI/Feat time! While I hope you have attained some strength enhancing gear, I’m gonna go ahead and balance out Strength with two points putting us at a respectable 18 in case you have not gotten any or opted for other items to attune to. If you got tired of lining up your Lightning Bolt, you could grab Chain Lightning. You make a bolt of lightning strike a target then arc off of them to strike up to three targets, each up to 30 feet away from the first. They all must make a DEX saving throw or take 10d8 lighting damage, half on a save. So this can hit up to four targets for a 6th level spell slot. And with having one 7th and one 8th level spell slot, it could be upcast to target an additional one or two targets.

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Okay. We’ve reached the end of this part of the build. Let’s see what we can do!

Level 20 stats are STR 18 (4), DEX 10 (+0), CON 14 (+2), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 18 (+4). The Spell Save DC is 18, one off the normal cap of 19. Best skill is +13 Insight. +10 Athletics, Intimidation, and Persuasion, +7 Perception, and +6 History. The rest have a +4 down to a +0 modifier. Base AC of 19 or 17 is wielding a weapon with two hands remaining the same.

At 20th level let’s see what I’ve achieved in this build: 

• With at least a +10 to hit, enemies will fear your potential damage. 
• Casting Silence + Lightning Bolt combo disrupts a nice chunk of a battlefield. 
• You have your full suite of Sword Art abilities, but your way with words is strong too.

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Techniques:

Count Cidolfus Orlandeau can greatly disrupt an area with Confusion, whether upcast to effect more creatures or using Distant Spell metamagic to cast it from 180 feet away. If enemy casters are close, let loose a Hallowed Bolt combination. When low on health, but still wanna do some damage, try a Distant Vampiric Touch. At 30 feet you’ll be out of most creatures’ melee range. And if you really need to erase someone from the battlefield, swing on them twice with Divine Smites to bring them to low health, Quickened Spell a Hold Person/Monster, then Action Surge to cast Disintegrate and KO them.

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Well, that’s Thunder God Cid. What did you think of him?
Next time we’re headed over to Ixalan to do some planeswalking!
Until then stay safe and have fun!
Peace!