I play in a rotating DM game in which I’m not often a player. The group right now consists of a bear totem barbarian, diviner wizard, spores druid, bladesinger wizard, and life domain cleric. In general, if I’m playing instead of DMing, either the spores druid or the bladesinger is DMing so their character is not present.

I’m introducing a new character and he will be a paladin 2/hexblade 1/swords bard 4 . Of note, I also have the telekinetic feat (and will be using my inspiration almost exclusively to fuel my blade flourishes). As far as play style for the character, I’ll be focusing on being in melee and single target control using my spell options, flourishes, and telekinetic feat. I don’t want to get too much into the territory of the druid and wizard as it took me a long time to teach them that casters aren’t JUST blasters and they’ve finally started debuffing, using battlefield control spells, etc. and I want them to be the ones to have most/all of those big, cool effects.

So, I need some suggestions on tweaks to my spell selections. When needed, I’ll describe why I’ve chosen a certain spell and, if you think I should drop one or take another, I’d like some thought out reasoning as to why in order to help convince me. Since a lot of my spell slots are going to fuel my smites, I’m comfortable with some circumstantial spells. Here’s what I have.

Paladin

1st level

Bless (for when a party buff might be the best option, though I won’t use it regularly) Shield of Faith Thunderous Smite (almost purely to combine with our druid’s spike growth or my booming blade when optimal) Wrathful Smite (I enjoy the battlefield control aspect of combining this with a mobile flourish to push the enemy away from me with the frightened condition)

Warlock

Cantrips

Booming Blade (when I don’t want to smite twice or blade flourish there will be times when this is better than a second attack) Eldritch Blast

1st level

Armor of Agathys Expeditious Retreat (situational, but I’m a mountain dwarf and might need a bit more speed to close with the enemy) (I haven’t take Shield because my hands will be full so I can’t do the somatic component and because I will want hit to trigger Armor of Agathys.)

Bard

Cantrips

Mending Minor Illusion Prestidigitation (I’m considering vicious mockery even though the damage is bad purely to have a ranged option that can work well when the target has half or three-quarters cover but I’m not convinced I’ll truly need it. I’ll take thoughts on that into consideration)

1st level

Command (for those situational times I want to have options in what I can get the enemy to do.) Healing word (almost solely to bring up downed allies) Dissonant Whispers (I love the potential of this spell and have enough melee allies that I can trigger several attacks of opportunity) Hideous Laughter (won’t be used often, and others have it. Largely to lock down big brutes or to break concentration on spells. This would be an easy spell to convince me to change out.)

2nd level

Enlarge/reduce (mainly for out of combat utility) Silence (circumstantial, but I want an option to ruin an enemy spellcaster’s day while I can still be effective in its radius)

Thoughts?