The Problem with Paladins in D&D

welcome Infidel hello it's me Antonio this is pointy hat and welcome to DND with a Twist the show where I grab the nearest DND thing I can get my non-existent hands on examine it make some friendly Jabs some critique some side eyes side eyes and then I give that thing a Twist that you can use in your own games for free if it's a monster I give you a stat block if it's a race I give you a racial option if it's a class I give you its own subclass and guess what it is today so when I think of paladins I think of [Music] paladins are the golden retriever-coated tanks of DnD through their oath to always be very good boys that eat their vegetables and do their homework and go to bed on time they gain not only actual spell casting but all sorts of divine flavored abilities that make them one of the most versatile martial classes and probably the most versatile tank if it wasn't for whatever is going on with Druids over there okay so the theme of this video is going to be me fighting against preconceptions and misconceptions so get ready paladins are spellcasters half casters specifically so we get to play my favorite game what borley divides source of power do these guys use for magic paladins can keyword can worship a god that is the thing they can do for fun or whatever but what actually gives them magic is not a God but their commitment to an oath see it's Esso right there that's how we get Paladin's subclasses they're called oh it's not domains these are not clerics with a sword clerics are clerics with a sword we don't need to anyway paladins are extremely committed to being a good boy or a bad boy we'll get into it and their commitment is so strong that it makes them Road magic somehow Gods can be like influential in that like their oath might be religious in nature but that's a camp not a must and that's a bit of an introduction for class identity so what about how they actually play we gotta get into how these guys work in game their abilities but before I do that I want to tell you the end of an adventure last time we ventured into dalquiata nobody's allowed to make fun of me for mispronouncing it last time or I'll cry our band of Heroes Have boastful leprechaun as shy failing and a kind research Barbarian had arrived at a Crossroads where a puka a FEI being native to darbyata known for being both helpful and very easily offended who has mercilessly attacking an old man after unsuccessfully trying to de-escalate the conflict using reason you had to act and through your votes in the comments of the last video you sided with the puka as native to dalbiara you know more than most that the FAE are not to be trifled with and you know that while pookus can be great allies they can also be formidable enemies as you prepare to side with the puka in the argument the old man sees this and his demeanor changes whereas before he appeared helpless and Afraid a wide grid now creeps up from the corners of his mouth as black smoke pours out of it his eyes start to glow like Embers as his figure melts into a column of smoke you recognize it now for what it is another Fae a darker one a bodak a fake creature that feeds on the fears of people a fierce battle ensues the bodak is a cr-10 creature but thanks to to the boons of the puka you emerge Victorious after the battle is over the puka is Overjoyed his Queen a powerful Fey ruler of one of the Dal riara fake courts had sent him to deal with the bodak that had been terrorizing her domain the fake queen would be thrilled to invite all of you into her court for helping her loyal puka servant to defeat the threat with this the puka reaches into his fur produces a seed and plants it on the ground and from it sprouts vines that form a portal through it you see a glimmering castle guarded by hundreds of Green Knights do you jump into the portal well guess what you can because everything I used in this little Choose Your Own Adventure is yours to take in the Vagabonds guide to dalbiara it's a whole 5th edition book all about Celtic folklore myths and legends with brand new monsters like the puka the bodak or the Green Knight and many many more you get new Gods you get new magic items new racial options new subclasses literally everything you need to bring all that Celtic magic into your games and guess what if you back the kickstarter that is going on right now you get a copy of Battle of karigarth an adventure that pits you against the Morrigan no not that Morgan the Morgan the one from Irish mythology and you get that adventure for absolutely free on top of the Vagabonds guide to dolbyata but only if you back the kickstarter so if that sounds like a thing you would be into go over to the description of this very video and check their Kickstarter out and I'll see you all in dalriata so paladins get a ton and I do mean a ton of abilities so let's get into them and because there are a hundred of these or so lightning round lightning round first up tanking Basics these guys are meant to be tanks and they do it well second highest hit Dice and access to the best gaming gear in the game so strap some rainbow LEDs on that armor and walk into a wood chipper you'll be fine divine sense you Channel your inner Golden Retriever and literally sniff out evil like it apparently has a smell to it how is it that you found me when you were there in the light in the light you can also detect good it doesn't have a smell though it's only described as Heavenly music God knows what that sounds like translating to game mechanics this means you can step out celestials fiends and Undead within 60 feet of you that are not hiding under a blanket or whatever Leon hands is your we got healers at home ability you have a pool of healing points equal to five times your Paladin level that you get to Dole out however you want communist icon at level two oh God we're still on level two you get a fighting style just like the fight you know how these work still at level 2 somehow you also get spell casting you cast spells duh it's not like you have anything else to do with those Bell slots so have at it I guess no psych Divine Smite this is one of the many signature abilities of the Paladin class you spend a spell slot when making an attack to deal a ton of radiant damage 2d8 for a level 1 spell slot and an additional d8 for each spell level above that a level 5 spell slot means 6 d8 and even attack crits well that's 12 d8 of radiant damage on top of your weapon damage so you know think twice before using those spell slots Divine Health finally out of level two and into level three you harness the power of the Almighty Apple to make you completely immune to disease monsters basically never use disease though so you will see this come up never Channel Divinity technically a soft class feature but also technically not all subclasses get these it's the second signature ability of the Paladin and it changes depending on the subclass they work exactly like the clerics channel Divinity except clerics get two at level 6 and paladins don't F in chat extra attack guess what this does yep you got it Aura of protection here is the third signature ability of the Paladin yep they got three of these these boys love to sigh you basically have an area of effect at all times 10 feet around you whatever a creature makes a saving throw yes any saving throw they get to add your charisma bonus to that massively good ability and the aura grows at level 18 to a total of 30 feet and on top of that most subclasses get some extra ones neat Aura of Courage more auras makes you and anyone standing In Your Divine puddle or Good Vibes literally unable to feel fear double neat improve Divine Smite and the price for the worst named ability goes to Academy Awards Yep this doesn't have anything to do with your Smite ability you just out of 1d8 radian damage to all your weapon attacks regardless if you're smiting or not no clue why they named it this and finally cleansing touch you Channel your Good Vibes into the palm of your hand and end the spell either on you or your friends nope no save no nothing you just end a spell effect great and that's it those are all the paladins class abilities all 8 000 of them as you can see they are sort of the opposite of the other tanking class we covered before the Barbarian while barbarians are damage sponges that hit stuff real good and are all about big damage and simplicity with a dreadful lack of utility to compensate violence have less HP and deal less damage with their normal attacks but get a ton of utility spellcasting and access to huge bursts of damage with their smites it's more complex than the Barbarian but a great stepping stone if you're scared of playing a full Caster but paladins just like clerics are extremely dependent on their subclass so let's see what these good boys have in store Paladin subclasses are called Oaths each subtest comes pre-packaged with the actual oath tenets that paladins of that subclass swear and I think this might be the best thing that DND has to help you in role play what makes a paladin swear by those tenants what makes them break their oath that's powerful stuff and a good clutch to tackle most situations solid role play game design good job 10 out of 10 would swear my soul to the cause again as a result of their tenants oath changed the vibe of each Paladin a lot so let's see what we're working with first up we gotta hit the basics with the oath of devotion I'm honestly not gonna talk a lot about this one all classes get a baseline subclass it's the only one included in the SRD it's the one that is meant to exemplify what each class's Baseline is some of them do a good job at it and some of them are the Barbarian Berserker Paladin is on the first cap devotion paladins are fine if a little boring if you don't go out of your way to make them something special it's one of those ones that is so basic that you kind of have to subvert expectations if you want it to stand out but establishing a baseline is the first and most important step before creating some weird stuff all in all it's fine the devotion Paladin does a good job at establishing this whole holy Warrior of good vibe that paladins have been saddled with I mean paladins are generally known as we need to set that up we need to set that up before we get into the weird ones and speed speaking of the oath of the Ancients is here as the prerequisite Faith themed subclass and they take this opportunity to bring the immoral side of the Fate to a class that sorely needs it paladins of the Ancients also called fanites hornites or Green Knights Arthurian nerds rise up are complex and that's what makes them fun see that's why we need Devotion paladins to make subclasses like this one ancient palette inside with beauty light and life notice that nothing on that list is intrinsically good the fake code here is strong and in a class all about morality having a subtest with a Fame moral code and moral code so different from ours is a really cool idea what does a fake consider good and then they kind of mess it up at the very beginning of the flavor text by saying they emphasize the principles of good I don't see why since they are much more concerned about life and Beauty no idea what possessed them to throw that in at the last minute as a throwaway sentence when the Fey are defined by being neutral I'm choosing not to see it we ignore it we rebuke it we move on anyway old spells for the oath of the Ancients are your typical favide with Moonbeams speak with animals tree stride and a whole bunch of nature themed stuff Some solid options like Misty step but it's a very mid list but at least most of these are not in the paladin spell list as of channels ability users we have Nature's wrath you summon Vines to restrain a creature you have decided it's far too ugly to keep on living honestly this is also not great especially having ensnaring strike as an oath spell but whatever its second child ability is turn the faithless works exactly the same as a devotion one except here it turns fiends and Fey and also gets rid of any shape-shifting Shenanigans nice you might have thought that me finding their old spells and child literally use this kind of mid would mean that this subtitles is weak and you would be wrong both of the Ancients is arguably because this is the Indie YouTube so my comments are all arguably one of the strongest Paladin subclasses to the point where they kind of throw the balance off of all the other Paladin subclasses and this is mainly because of their Aura Aura of warding makes it so get ready for this you and Ellie friends within 10 feet and later 30 feet of you are resistant to damage from spells yep all spells all damage no except options no saves you just are forever auras are always on this is just a thing that happens forever for you this is such an insane perk it throws the balance off of all the other auras you either design too much this level of strength and contribute to the power creep or designed to match the median and have everyone telling you it's underpowered because the oath of the Ancients gets Aura of warding It's a lose-lose situation the solution when dabbing literally don't rely on spellcasters if you have one of these guys on the party don't get me wrong have them enough so that it feels useful but don't count on them to turn a fight South with their damage alone after nerds everywhere it's a discrimination to nerds everywhere okay undying Sentinel gives you a focus band and turns you into a half work so you won't die even if you die solve it all pilot capsules abilities are as extra as possible and ancients is no exception it's called elder Champion you assume whatever form you feel represents Beauty and life-giving nature so you could go for flowers and Moss covering you for a nature theme or antlers along with the 5 000 other people that chose antlers over there once you have assumed your ultimate fairy core Tinkerbell Avenger form you heal 10 hit points every turn this lasts for one minute that's a total of a hundred hit points healed a hundred hit points also they're not done you can cast any paladin spell as a bonus action instead of an action meaning you get to make your double attack with your weapon and cast a level spell that would normally take an action in the same turn and every enemy creature within 10 feet of you has disadvantage on all saving clothes against your spells and channel divinities this is I mean it's ancient so of course it's extremely strong all in all powerful flavorful and beautiful good choice all around for a spell casting tank but what if what you crave is not moral greenness but edginess well you have a bunch of options including one that is so edgy I just cannot bring myself to do a whole section about it but a good middle ground is the oath of Vengeance literally called Dark Knights these guys are here to deliver all your edgy needs do you end up gravitating to anti-heroes every single time in every single piece of media you consume are you one of those guys hyper fixated on Batman do you like guts a normal amount well do I have a sub pass for you freedom and darkness oath of vengeance is here to deliver the edge the righteous Fury the I work alone one-liners and the I'm No Angel monologues and we love it for it get your new metal playlist ready we're going in the oath of vengeance is about well Vengeance it's about pushing those that the Paladin thinks deserve punishment keyword thinks there is absolutely nothing in this subtest that necessitates you to be good in fact it's all about Justice someone has wronged you or someone you care deeply about and now it's time to set the record straight and maybe that's not with some limb chopping and some violence what else they're oath then it's specifically mentioned that your quest for vengeance takes precedence before fighting evil in general it literally says that you will not be merciful towards those you have sworn to punish and that you will carry out your Revenge by any means necessary all their old spells focus on debuffing the enemies or buffing you specifically to set you up for some big damage like cold person or even hold monster and in a really cool narrative type they are also all about tracking those you have sworn to bring Justice to with spells like Hunter's Mark and scrying pretty cool integration of the theme your child Divinity options are all based on DPS and debuff rather than defense abjer enemy makes it so that one creature has to make a save or be frightened of you but it changes the frightened condition to make it so that its speed is zero literally Frozen plays with fear anyway the second one is Bow of enmity and this one lets you pick a creature and say [ __ ] you specifically to them making you have advantage on attacks against that creature for one whole minute Rolando's Avenger allows you to move up to your movement speed immediately after taking an opportunity attack this makes it so that people literally cannot run away from you once again just a really neat integration of theme and mechanics good job soul of Vengeance which is amazingly not a shot of the Hedgehog game subtitle yet makes your vow of Amity Channel Divinity even stronger when the creature you've decided to ruin that day makes an attack you can use your reaction to make an attack against them yep basically triggering attacks of opportunity by enemy attacks why and finally for their Capstone we have Angel with a Shotgun [Music] wait no sorry I read that one avenging Angel God I love this edgy you assumed the form of an Angelic Adventure Wings Sprout from your back and give you an actual flying speed of 60 feet and you better believe that These Wings Are black they gotta be the meat of the ability is not this however you might have noticed that Vengeance paladins didn't get an aura but just kidding they do except their Aura is dark and dangerous and stained with the blood of those who wronged you or whatever whatever an enemy creature enters your aura or starts their turn there they must succeed on a saving tour or become frightened of you while they are frightened any Attack rules have Advantage so you and your party can go nuts in your retribution all in all the oath of Vengeance knows what it is and what it wants to accomplish and delivers exactly what it set out to deliver and that's great it's also once again a fun way to change the general theme of paladins but also the mechanics behind the class Vengeance paladins are very clearly set up to be DPS rather than tanks having literally not a single tanking ability and you gotta appreciate any sub class that manages to change how a class is played if the edge is not for you you can very much take the general concept of this subclass and make something not edgy plenty of characters can seek Vengeance for a variety of reasons or maybe your character does grow and stop seeing Vengeance as the answer to their issues and you can go for an old class change or a subclass change I'll allow it but of course there are many others the oath of the crowd while she's she is my queen the oath of the Watchers the Watchers dance [Music] the Watchers they dance and they somehow even edgier one so we've looked at paladins their abilities their subclasses and that's nice and all but what if we gave paladins a new twist so you want to play a paladin God is opened me up I am not any longer a person that will just trust anyone you trust don't trust anyone realities are golden retriever good boys that use their Good Vibes to Smite down the wicked and Via creatures of this world and all others under the unwavering better of the most sacred of those so here's the problem with paladins they suffer from typecasting paladins in older editions used to be alignment blocked it's my dreaded Nemesis again alignment rules paladins used to be required to be lawful good you straight up couldn't play a paladin with any other alignment just awful good now let me calmly explain why this can see this [ __ ] garbage limiting what is to what many consider the most interesting part of the game role playing the character you created to such an insane degree is straight up bad I don't care argue with the wall argue with your mom it is some limits can be good and can lead to more interesting role-playing and some limit like I don't know enforcing an extremely specific and strict moral outlook on life that few in real life even hold leads to semi characters and extremely harsh limit of self-expression roadblocks to role-playing and wouldn't you know problems at the table talents get a bad rep especially from Veterans of the game because they're super strict alignment that basically no person in the real world holds made them the fun police at the table who want to sneak into the manner of the evil Noble well breaking and entering is bad so the Ballon will refuse to do that wanna retrieve the information from the corrupt politician well stealing is bad so the Paladin will refuse to play along Wanna Have Fun Fun is a sin so the planet will refuse to do that it was bad thankfully 4E did away with this mess and paladins are now free to be actual characters and not as thick in the mud with armor on that Cycles through three voice lines about honor 4th edition had to do something right problem is that reputations well precede everybody even classes people have a very hard time imagining anything but the most Baseline idea of the class and would call out people that play parents in any way that isn't a Golden Retriever with a holy sword and I don't doing this to jaywalk I've seen a lot of people that don't even want to try our paladins because they're not interested in even giving playing a paladin as shot because they don't want to play the sort of Goody Two-Shoes character clerics used to have a similar typecasting problem but it wasn't this bad because evil and neutral Gods always have been a thing and also thanks to some very lovable very non-traditional clerics leading by example by starring in very popular DND shows I'd be cleric what is this I've never like traveled with a bunch of people that I thought would die in front of me okay I never needed the healer's kid before let me know you guys because I've got lots of healing cause I'm the cleric does anybody need any healing I'm really shabby at the moment [Music] there are also plenty of those that work with a character that isn't good the oath of Conquest seems tailor-made to be played by more evil leaning characters so is the oath breaker Paladin Crown paladins can very much be neutral the list goes on so before we go on to spoiler alert create a whole new subclass what if we made a paddling character that completely goes against the panel in stereotype using the existing subclasses thank you Wisteria was born among one of the highest of the ruling fake courts in the feywild the latest in a long aladrant line of servants to an immensely powerful and quite monetaristic fake queen Wisteria took to Knighthood from the moment she could hold a sword completely and utterly in love with the queen and her vision for the future she became one of the Court's Green Knights and after taking the ancient oath of the FAE she was sent out on a very important mission to the material realm Wisteria is there to First enjoy herself under the command of her oath and her Queen along with a bed of Misfits that took the strange Fey in as a companion she insists on staying late drinking the weirdest drinks she can find playing every single carnival game and learning All the gossip that she can possibly find she's big on matchmaking even among her party members and insists on taking detours to enjoy the most beautiful Vistas because if Wisteria cares about something more than fun it's Beauty it's often said that the feywild is a twisted mirror of the material realm but that's how the material realm sees it Wisteria believes that it's the opposite the Fey realm is the true version of our life should be and the material realm is a Corruption of the pure light and beauty of the feywild true beauty is freedom chaos light and life and nothing exemplifies that more than the realm of the FAE and that is the reason behind her quest to fix the ugliness of the material Realm by bringing it into the fold of the feywild she's working on planting Wisteria blooms like her namesick that act as portals from the material realm into the feywild for you see the wisteria flower is an invasive species whose Vines grow around local trees killing them by strangling them and covering them in beautiful Fey blooms as they should be Wisteria according to her morals and oath is a force of good and Beauty the people and land of the material realm have been Twisted into a warped ugly reflection of what they could be and Wisteria is here to save them through whatever means necessary give her an insanely High Charisma and emphasis on spell casting and make her a DEX base Pally she was conceived as an author of the Ancients Paladin of course but could very well work as an oath of the crowd or even an oath of Conquest see how versatile's paladins can be if you want them to be and there you have it a paladin that fits perfectly into the mold of the Paladin while completely breaking convention does she turn villainous while seeing herself as a hero does she learn to see the Beauty and the diversity of the material realm and decides to stop The Invasion herself and go against her Queen who knows you do if you decide to play her or make her an NPC I don't know go nuts and that's all well and good but what if we made a subclass that was literally designed to go against the holier than thou sacred holy Warrior unfeeling law machine that the Paladin gets Typecast as without ending on the completely other end of the spectrum and going full Edge mode hear me out love L it's for the way you look at me what could possibly be a better alternative to the sanitized perfectly inhuman box that paladins have been put in for Generations that pure raw emotion someone that feels so strongly that they literally get magic powers from it someone that has sworn at oath all based on their extremely strong feelings of the love is there anything more messy and human than an emotion like love think about it imagine how different paladins of Love could be is it romantic love brotherly love love to a cause to a country to an ideal and what about mechanics what if we made them specifically amazing at protecting and empowering those that they love we can make them all about auras making them have additional effects on those that they love we could also make them stronger in battle if those that they love are close by I think that'd be sick and could work very well with paladins while offering ways to play them in a completely different direction that the cookie cutter way they've been forced to live on for so long so yeah you you go on and make that I'll be sitting here I have a farewell video to finish and it's taking a long time so I appreciate the little break thanks see ya okay fine you got me I did make it the oath of love has been designed written and illustrated by me and it's in the description of this very video for free you can go and find it right there right now so go out there put on some foam armor and bring down your foes with the power of Pinky promises some people want to fill the world with Silly Love Songs well what's wrong with that I'd like to know cause here I go [Music] welcome to the end of the video thank you so much for staying for the whole thing I love paladins I think they're really sick and I'm really sad that when I hear people saying I don't play them because I think they're boring I I know why you think that I get where you come from I felt the exact same way about clerics before I saw the light I love clerics now and I love paladins so I hope that this video cannot convince those that did not like them to maybe try them out and those that do love them to feel Vindicated by me complaining about how people should like paladins but maybe it didn't and if it didn't I'm sorry thank you so much for watching the whole video uh I'm still working on that feywild video it's coming I swear to God when you see it you will understand why okay this video was long enough of an outro please share it around I really do mean it it does help a ton thank you for everyone that has I read every single comment still I think I do at least I'm pretty good at that anyway if you played paladins before share in the comments the palettes that you've made that you're proud of and that maybe don't follow the traditional boring number just like overplayed baby or Typecast Paladin thing and that's it I'll see you soon tell the people that you love them that you love them tell your loved ones that you love them bye foreign

Channel: Pointy Hat

Views: 940,612

Keywords: DnD, D&D, DnD with a twist, 5e, TTRPG, How to, Illustration, Dungeons and Dragons, D&D with a twist, d&d battle music, pointy hat, animation, rant, hat, homebrew, trailer, D&D trailer, OneD&D, one d&d, onednd, OGL, SRD, Wizards, wizards of the coast, WotC, WOC, OGL drama, paladin, paladins, knight, love paladin, ancients, oath, paladin oath, paladin of the ancients, vengeance paladin, templar, templar dnd, problem with paladins, lawful good, alignment, dnd alignment, worst alignment, classes, class

Id: FqP2-afugl8

Length: 25min 42sec (1542 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 24 2023