The Best Paladin Spells in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

greetings my name is monty martin and i'm kelly mclaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we cover everything dungeons and dragons including advice for players and guys for dungeon masters we upload new videos on tuesdays and thursdays so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we're taking a look at the spells available to paladins in dungeons and dragons fifth edition kelly and i have picked each one spell of each level from first to fifth level that is our favorite plus we've thrown in a few wild card picks as well so we're going to go over our favorite choices talk about why they're our favorite choices and how to use them with your paladin there's a lot to discuss today so let's get rolling we're going to kick things off with a bang with one of my favorite paladin smite spells thunderous smite this spell works like many of the other paladin smite spells that are populate the entire palette and spell list it's cast as a bonus action and it lasts for one minute requiring concentration when you cast thunderous smite the first creature you hit with a melee weapon attack is damaged for extra thunder damage an extra 2d6 thunder damage and it must make a strength saving throw or it is hurled 10 feet backwards and knocked prone knowing when to use one of the special smite spells versus your regular paladin smite is a very strategic choice but thundersmite presents a very clear opportunity when the environment creates the opening for you to send foe flying to their doom it's the perfect time to use the spell and because the spell can be used in this way it's a nice little tool to have in your arsenal now there are a lot of pros and cons to the various smite spells available for paladins you're going to notice that we didn't put a lot of them on the list because we tried to stick to the ones that we think have broader applications the tricky thing about these smite spells is that first of all they require your concentration and that's only going to be for one attack but it means that if you're concentrating on another spell this is going to break that concentration so that you can lay down some extra damage the other thing to keep in mind about your smite spells is that they require a bonus action to cast and paladins have many options for what they can do with their bonus action a vengeance paladin has their valve enmity or misty step that are going to be constantly competing with laying down a smite spell but there are some standout options that we think are really cool and thundersmite is one of them because it can win you a combat if you're knocking the enemy off a cliff or off a bridge the final thing that is worth noting about the smite spells is that they do stack with regular divine smite so you can cast thundersmite smack somebody and apply both the damage from thunder spite and your regular divine smite this is very resource intensive you're gonna burn through your spell slots really fast if you're doing this but if you're in a boss fight and they gotta die it's something worth remembering that you can pile on the damage in that case for that one big attack now these smite spells do compete for your concentration and there is one other first level spell that i think takes the cake for one of the best concentration spells to take and that is bless bless allows you to choose up to three allies and you they get to add one d4 to all of their attack roles and saving throws as long as you maintain concentration on it it's a great buffer for the party and even though it's just 1d4 it does add up time and time again making sure that more of your attacks are hitting and more of your saves are saving bless is a spell that your cleric might also be able to provide but clerics have a lot of other really great concentration spells and we found that even in parties with paladins and clerics especially large parties the paladin the claire can work together to bless everybody in the entire party this is really effective because you as a paladin and your other party members might be using feats like sharpshooter or great weapon master that you're going to want that extra accuracy to your attack rolls to layer on the damage but also the extra d4 to your own saving throws combined with your own paladin's aura of protection adding your charisma modifier you can both add to the offense and defense of your party making this a really great spell to augment every element of your party's performance in combat i just got to say that for me bless is like your wallet you don't leave your house without it any time that i've played a divine caster whether it be a paladin or a cleric i need to take bless i find that it is such a useful spell and i've never seen it wasted at a table i've only seen incredible benefits so it is definitely top bar for our first level picks the only other honorable mention that i want to give for paladins that isn't a concentration spell is command this is a really interesting toolbox spell and there's so many neat ways paladins can use it such as commanding a fleeing enemy to halt or commanding a foe with a dangerous weapon to drop it and then kicking it off the edge of the cliff disarming them and bringing them in perhaps non-violently well command does rely on you having a good spell saving throw dc and paladins might not always have the best savings throw dc it is a nice little tool to have in your toolbox and it has applications beyond just combat as we move into second level spells there's one that we've actually talked about several times it's it's a favorite of ours and i think a very underrated spell and that is eight eight is a second level spell that allows you to choose up to three party members and they get to add five to their hit point maximum and their hit points increase by that much with the spell lasting eight hours you just cast it at the start of the adventure and your entire party has additional hit points to go in for for that adventure it's incredibly useful it may not seem like a lot but it's an extra hit that everybody in the party can take which makes a difference aid increases a creature's hit point maximum it does not bestow temporary hit points this means that aid stacks with effects that do grant temporary hit points normally temporary hit points do not stack this means that if your paladin takes the inspiring leader feat you can really buff up your party's entire hit points outside of combat sending you into the fight with a really nice ablative shield of extra hit points on top of your regular maximums i think it's a great combination and again like bless the cleric might bring it but for larger parties this is a great way to share the load we would be remiss not to mention one of the most iconic second level spells for paladins and that is find steed if you need a horse you got it that's basically what the spell is you summon a mount for you to ride into battle when you cast find steed you can summon up a war horse an elk a mastiff or your dm may even permit you to summon up other creatures with this spell you and your mount fight is a seamless unit so it acts on your turn it can add a lot of mobility for a paladin in environments when you can use it the other cool thing about feinsteed is that any spell you cast on yourself can also affect your steed as well there's all sorts of neat tricks that you can use with this such as again a vengeance paladin can misty step themselves and their seeds together there are a lot of other second level spells that are somewhat niche in their execution but there are some useful ones here but the problem with paladins is that you're weighing all of your spell choices against using those same spell slots for divine smite and when we look at the second level spells i'd say a lot of these don't quite seem as useful as divine smiting using your second level spell slots with the standouts of using aid before you take your rest or find steed if you need a mount or you want to bring an extra companion into the fray with you other than that though you're going to be mostly smiting and that's kind of the case for all of the spells that we're looking at today is are you going to use them instead of divine smite i think second level spell slots are a great candidate to use for your regular divine smites in particular that said some of the other paladin subclasses like the conquest paladin might be tempted to use up all their second level spell slots on things like spiritual weapon so this is another case where the spells like aid and fine steed you might not cast them every day or you're only going to cast them once per day so it leaves those other second level spell slots open for your oath spells as well as using them for smites which is actually a good use of your second level spell slots as we move on to third level spells this is actually one of the harder sections because there's a lot of great third level spells so we've chosen a few but what we've done is we've kind of highlighted two play styles for the paladin if you're going more offensive there's a couple spells that you might want to look at if you're going more defensive in healing there's a couple there as well that are really stand out on the offensive side of things i think that two third level spells paladins will really want to consider are crusaders mantle and the new spell introduced in tasha's cauldron of everything spirit shroud both of these spells are concentration spells that are gonna last for a little while usually a full combat encounter perhaps longer and both of these spells add a die to your damage rolls in the case of spirit shroud it's a d8 of either cold radiant or necrotic damage to your own attacks but in the case of crusader's mantle it's a d4 radiant damage but this damage applies to all creatures within an aura so whether or not you use spirit shroud or crusaders mantle is going to depend on do you have allies that will benefit from the buff of crusader's mantle if you're in a party where you've got a fighter or a barbarian or a ranger or perhaps someone who's going to be summoning lots of minions maybe you're an oath breaker paladin with your own undead minions or you've got a wizard who can cast anime objects you can rack up a lot of extra damage with crusaders mantle so it's worth not being so selfish and casting crusader's mantle because you can get a lot more damage from the spell in this way if you don't have party members that are going to benefit from the buff of crusader's mantle i think spirit shroud is absolutely the way to go it's a fantastic new spell in tasha's cauldron and with only a bonus action to cast and that extra slowing effect on top of the damage and the fact that you can up cast it at fifth level for even more damage it's a perfect addition to the paladins arsenal as we move on to the defensive side of the paladin third level spells if you're looking to play the healer role in your party you may want to pack revivify it's an essential life-saving spell that if you don't have another person in your party who can cast revivify you should be the one to take it in fact it's actually a good idea to have two people in your party that can cast a spell in case one of the people in the party who can cast it kicks the bucket themselves yeah you don't want the only healer going down in battle that's never a good thing so having two people with riffifi is better than one it's an essential spell to keep in your pocket for emergencies there's also aura of vitality which is a really useful healing spell that allows you to create an aura around you and as a bonus action on your turn you can select a target even yourself to heal 2d6 hit points really useful although i think even more useful is using this outside of combat it lasts a minute and so you can accumulate upwards of around on average i'd say 70 points the average roll on 2d6 is 7 times 10 rounds 70 points of healing yeah it's a great way to heal up the party after a brutal battle so whether you're using aura vitality after the battle to make sure everybody's bolstered up or if you just want to add some longevity to the people in the battle and you blast this out because you have nothing else to do with your bonus action it's a great tool and can be a really useful option for a healer style paladin as we move into fourth level spells this is where xanathar's guide to everything gives us an upgrade to a favorite uh in that now we have the fourth level version of feinstein find greater steed and now with this spell we can get a griffin or a pegasus as a flying mount if you're not salivating on that as a paladin i don't know what you're thinking because having a flying mount as a paladin is awesome and it's a really great reason to pick up a lance and maybe take the mounted combat feet it's worth it just to land somebody on a griffin honestly fourth level spells have a few situational options that might be relevant depending on the campaign you're playing but i think the other standout option is banishment banishment just being a great clutch situation spell in a lot of cases for a lot of spellcasters but having it on a paladin means that if you're just at your wit's end and need something to go away for a while you have an option banishment can win you combat encounters and the fact that it targets charisma-saving throws which is a pretty weak save for a lot of monsters means that it somewhat compensates for the fact that your spell-saving throw might not be that great one of the other things to note about your fourth level spell slots is that this is the capstone for your divine smite when you use a first level spell slot to smite it does 2-8 points of damage and it increases by 1d8 for each spell level above first to a maximum of 5 d8 which means that a 5 to 8 smite with a fourth level slot is the highest damage you can get out of a regular smite of course this still benefits from things like improved divine smite and the extra damage if you're smiting a fiend or undead so as we move into the fifth level spells these are going to be ones that are not competing against are you going to use these for your regular smites they're only going to be used for this purpose specifically so looking at the fifth level spells my absolute favorite is destructive wave this is a powerful spell when you cast a spell each creature within 30 feet of you that you select have to make a constitution saving throw taking 5d6 thunder damage and 5d6 radiant damage and if they succeed on the save they take half damage so no matter what they're taking something and not only that the thunder and radiant damage are going to knock them prone as well this is a really powerful spell and can just send out a shock wave decimating an entire group of enemies i love this spell it is a great opener for a difficult battle and it's a really great burst burst of damage when you need to hit a whole area which is a unique thing to have in a high-level paladin's tool kit the damage types are also very rarely resisted as well again it relies on a saving throw but i think it's a worthy addition to the arsenal especially because you can omit your allies from taking the damage you choose the creatures within 30 feet of you that have to make the savings throws so if your allies are all clumped up around you it doesn't matter you don't have to make them get affected by the spell at all friendly fire is not a problem with destructive wave and i've got to say that if you play paladins the way i play paladins usually the thing you're doing is running head first into a group of enemies i hope to get surrounded as a paladin especially if i have destructive wave because it's going to get messy now if you do still want to use your fifth level spell slots to lay down a smite there is one excellent option for you to choose at this level and that is banishing smite this is probably my favorite capstone smite spell the effect of the spell is pretty straightforward you smite the target they take an extra 5 d 10 force damage from the smite and then if you've reduced them to 50 hit points or fewer they are immediately banished if they're not from the if they're not native to the plane that you're fighting on they just are sent back to their home plane no questions asked no saving throw goodbye do not pass go do not collect 200 you're gone now otherwise they are banished to a demi plane in a similar manner to the banishment spell but again there's no saving throw here they're just in that pocket dimension for a minute while you deal with their friends i encourage you to think about banishing smite more like a finishing move than anything else if you have a weakened enemy that might be under 100 hit points it's within the threshold of vulnerability for banishing smite because you can cast the spell hit them use one of your fourth level slots to double up on the smite damage you're going to be hitting them for a boatload of damage and at that point if you clear the goal post they're out of there so it's almost as if instead of banishing smite doing this banishing effect if you reduce them to 50 hit points or fewer it's almost like saying if you clear them to 50 hit points or less you take them out immediately so it is a strategic and difficult spell to use but there is this nice threshold point where if you've got a weakened enemy and you're like i'm gonna take the gamble on it you can cut them down pretty quickly because the capacity for a paladin to deliver that big damaging attack that takes somebody from like a hundred hit points to 50 and then now they're gone well you just won when i when i look at that spell the hard part for me is that a creature at higher level play when you get this spell who's at 50 hit points was probably going to die soon anyway but in the point that you're making i really like to think of it that you're really just adding an extra 50 magical hit points to your damage if you want to picture it that way if you can clear that goal post then you kill the creature especially if it's a fiend when i say kill if you're fighting something like a fiend which paladins are excellent at you're sending that fiend right back to hell yeah and that's great that's a great way to end an epic battle encounter i think it's also notable because there's no saving throw against this which means that i i've run games where demon lords have been finished off with this spell and you kind of go wait shouldn't a demon lord have something to keep the it's like no orcis back to the abyss with you and it's really about the paladin's potential to add not only the additional damage which if we remove the banishment completely from the spell it still does a boatload of damage and the fact that you can pair this with a regular divine smite you can dish out a lot oh yeah you're looking at you know 5d10 the average of that is about 28 damage and then if you add 5d8 from a fourth level smite slot smite like that's an extra 50 damage nearly on a single hit on top of whatever your weapon damages yeah it's a monstrous hit it's nothing to laugh at yeah yeah so far the two spells that we've looked at for fifth level are very offensive spells they dish out a lot of damage but if you wanted to play a more defensive paladin you might want to consider circle of power this spell creates an aura that protects you and your allies by granting them advantage on saving throws against spell effects or other magical effects in addition if a creature succeeds a saving throw against a spell that does half damage on a successful save they instead take no damage basically granting everyone in the aura evasion but it's not just against dexterity it's against constitution and wisdom-based spells which there's a handful of spells that do do that and it applies against all other magical effects as well so it will work against special abilities for monsters such as beholders or vampires or liches anything that is a sort of magical effect you'll get the benefit of this it's it's very effective especially when you consider that you're also going to be granting your allies a bonus from saving throws from your charisma modifier as well it's a pretty hard shutdown for a spell casting boss so something that i really love as we go over the paladin spells is just the versatility the paladins continue to have even in their spell selection we were able to dip into whether we wanted to go full out combat and really dish out some mean damage or if we wanted to play a protector who had a pocket full of some additional healing and protective auras and spells that could really bolster and help the party out and because of this i still think that the paladin proves to be a very versatile class in the game even when we look at their spells and yes your spells are always going to compete with your ability to dish out divine smites and you do need to weigh those options but within that your paladin is able to pivot as the situation demands so this is one of the biggest things that can be a challenge about playing a paladin because it's often very tempting to just use all your spell slots smiting well that can be a game-winning strategy and it often is the ability to respond to the changing conditions in your adventures and have that revivify spell have dispel magic have that healing spell or then bring the aggression means that your paladin is a really indispensable core of the party and brings a lot to the table in a really really unique way a lot of these spells are shared by characters of other classes such as the cleric or the bard or the druid but the fact that all this comes on the paladin core which is such a great bastion of strength is not something that should be underestimate underestimated and is part of the reason why paladins are one of our favorite classes and one of the strongest classes in the game so this has been a look at our top spells for paladins in dungeons and dragons 5th edition if we missed any of your favorites please tell us about them in the comments below the videos that we create on our channel are made possible thanks to the incredible generosity of our patreon supporters if you enjoy the work that we do here on youtube please consider joining our community by following the links in the description below and if you are a fan of our work you may be interested to hear that we are launching a book in 2021 we've partnered with ghostfire games to bring dungeons of drakenheim to 5th edition so if you're interested in hearing about that book or getting news and updates on the kickstarter please check the links below to join our mailing list if you want to check out our live play shadows of drakenheim the second season to dungeons of drakenheim it airs tuesday nights at 6 p.m eastern at twitch.tv slash dungeon underscore dudes you can follow all of the previous episodes of our show right up over here and we have plenty more guides to the various spells for all the classes in dnd 5e right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

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Id: 04MeCmPy8Jc

Length: 23min 46sec (1426 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021