Warrior / Mage Character
Pact of the blade warlock can do melee combat as well as use ranged magic spells, but their spell slot system is very limited compared to casters like sorcerer, druid, cleric or wizard. Warlocks get a little less HP per level up compared to martial classes like fighter or paladin though.
Eldritch Knight is a fighter that uses their intelligence score to cast a limited pool of spells. Their spell slot progression is very, very slow and their spells arent the blasty type. Their claim to fame is to hit things with melee weapons or ranged attacks and then cast the shield spell with their reaction.
Paladins can cast some cleric spells, but they can also spend spell slots to smite enemies for extra damage.
Rangers get spells, but their best ones are bonus action spells meant to be used with their physical attacks (ensnaring strike, zephyr strike, hunter’s mark, etc). Once they have access to second level spells, they can take spike growth, which is a good battlefield control spell.
Worst and most lazy guide I’ve ever seen
my plan is fighter 6 sorcerer 6, play pure fighter until i hit 6, this way i’ll get action surge at 2, ASI increase at 4, extra attack at 5 and 2nd ASI increase at 6 (only fighters get this, other classes dont) then
after fighter 6 start down the sorc path
starting attributes would be 16 12 14 10 10 14, 1st ASI ill take 2 points in DEX because i plan to wear light armor however for most people STR might be a better choice, 2nd ASI take 2 points in CHA to prepare for multiclass since Sorc is a charisma caster, once i hit Sorc 4 and get my 3rd ASI increase either get STR to 18 if like me you took DEX earlier or 20 if not or CHA to 18, dealers choice
its a build that takes a long time to come together, wont be until lvl 11 that it works as intended but you get action surge, extra attack and fireball
Should think of paladin/sorc both use cha for casting and you don’t lose much by changing fighter to paladin but gain 4/2 divine spell slots that would give you a lot of utility to the class