I have respecced to Chaos Mage, and I am somewhat concerned about this decision.
The Holy Paladin build was pretty tanky. Chaos Mage has some ridiculous passives, but the base stats are considerably more questionable. I am also historically terrible at playing mages. For reference, when I first played Baldur's Gate 3, I chose the mage and my party got wiped within the first five to ten minutes of the game.
My current projection:
00:00 — Character created.
00:45 — Inspects spellbook.
02:10 — Accidentally casts AoE on own party.
03:30 — Runs out of spell slots.
04:12 — Attempts melee combat with STR 3.
04:47 — Your party has been defeated.
Fortunately, I still have Crab Composition which will allow me to respec at will after I am resurrected.
If this goes badly, Chaos Mage never happened.
Michael (Aeonath)