Why Paladins Are the MVPs of D&D | Paladin Guide Levels 1-10

so you want to Smite your foes and go on Crusade well you've come to the right place once you start playing a paladin no Heretics can escape your wrath Deus Vault we're going to dive into all the things that make Paladin the best class in d d 5th edition now before going further into this video I want to say that I don't believe Paladin is the strongest class nor my favorite class I think Druids bards and wizards contend for that top spot however I do think Paladin is a class that can stand alone it can do a bit of everything additionally from a role-playing perspective a paladin is very easy to grasp yet the class also has a lot of depth to it it's great for new players and Veterans alike and I think Paladin is just such a fun class to play at all levels and if you don't agree with me that's fine leave your opinion in the comments below okay first things first let's start breaking down the Paladin class mechanically how do you build a really good Paladin character sheet first things first let's talk about ability scores as a Paladin's strength should always be your number one ability score it's important for hitting creatures dealing damage and also a lot of your armor has a strength requirement basic plate armor in d d 5th edition requires at least 15 strength so strength is important however unlike other classes strength doesn't need to get up to 20. I think in most cases 18 strength is enough for a paladin meaning you can max out your strength at level 4 and not touch it again ever but why do I say that because Paladin has two other ability scores that are incredibly important for its functioning these two ability scores are the Charisma and Constitution scores now it's hard to know which of these two scores we should rank as the second most important Charisma fuels your spell casting and your auras while Constitution is your health and your concentration checks this is what I tell all young paladins if you are the only healer in the party go constant institution you cannot afford to be going down if you go down as the only healer the likelihood of a tpk jumps up exponentially get your Constitution between 16 and 18 after strength now if there are others with even a modicum of consistent healing I.E cleric Ranger Druids then go Charisma Charisma increases the number of spells you have prepared your save DC for spells and your damage from spells additionally Beyond sixth level when you get your aura Charisma will begin boosting all other saves for you and your party one point in Charisma for a paladin is the equivalent of increasing all your other saving throws by one now this Aura and extra spell slots means nothing if you go unconscious and this is the great Paladin trade-off usually you can only boost one so you have to decide between Charisma and Constitution from what I've seen if you already have a Healer or someone who can heal in a pinch in the party Charisma is the move divine sense a feature you get at first level as a paladin this is your early warning fiend and Undead sonar if evil is close you're gonna detect it I will say that this is a very dm-dependent feature my advice is to use it early and often whenever you enter a room just fire off a defined sense just because you should never have a Divine sense left after a long rest for any reason and if you do it enough eventually you're going to catch something think of using Divine sense as going fishing you're not going to catch something every time the hook goes into the water you gotta keep casting and then you pull up a massive [ __ ] demon I mean look at that thing it was just hiding in a corner but you never would have known that if you didn't keep on using your Divine sense and from an out of game perspective if your dungeon master sees you using Divine sense a lot it's gonna get into the back of their head a good dungeon master might throw in a few scenarios where your Divine sense is going to hit basically you're making it easy easier for your DM to incorporate this feature into the campaign but you have to be using it early and often my advice is to not hoard uses of your Divine sense keep firing it off as much as you can this is one of my favorite features honestly if paladins didn't have access to Smite but still had lay on hands people would still play paladins lay on hands for any party is just so good and it's good for three reasons firstly you know exactly how much healing you have other healing spells it's left up to chance not with lay on hands you know exactly how much you have and nothing is wasted it really allows you to maximize this class feature and this kind of ties into my second point which is that lay on hands can be used precisely as an action technically you can heal a PC for only one hit point or you can heal that same PC to full if you have enough points in your lay on hands pool you can save your healing and use it precisely how you want and thirdly the healing resources kept safe within a martial character as a paladin you're sturdier than pretty much any other healer on average you're going to have more hit points and you're going to have a higher AC therefore in even the deadliest battles you can still have a Healer up and fighting that's you with all this combined you have a first level class feature it's insane that this is first level that is going to be useful until the end of your campaign I consider this a 10 out of 10 class feature lay on hands is a beautiful class ability alright the Paladin has seven fighting styles but that's kind of a misnomer after Tosh's cauldron of everything there's really two that you need to consider three if you're really wanting to be a tank character the first fighting style that you need to look at is defense plus one to your AC is never bad due to a concept known as bounded accuracy in d d 5th edition this plus one to your AC is very significant you're going to feel that boost in AC throughout the entirety of your campaign second and really the fighting style that is Head and Shoulders Above the Rest is blessed Warrior this insane fighting style was released in Tasha's and it allows the Paladin to pick two cantrips from the cleric spell list this is stupid good paladins can now always have magic it used to be that they could only cast via spell slots or you had to burn an ASI to take a feat but you don't need to do that anymore now at second level you can just have two can trips and the Claire cantrip list is one of the best in fifth edition now breaking this down even further there is one must-have can trip that you should take and two or three others that are in second place if you take blessed Warrior the guidance can trip is a must in my opinion it is an S tier can trip borderline broken infinite use just a boost to all ability checks therefore why not just take it the other three that I consider you looking at are spare the dying thalmaturgy and told the dead but in reality you can take any of the cleric can trips and this is still a god-tier fighting style the only reason you don't choose blessed Warrior over defense is if you want to play a simpler character or you just want to get a character with a really really high AC like if your entire goal of your Paladin is having an AC of 25 or higher or if you want to play a tank but if you want to play a tank you go with the interception fighting style you taking this fighting style signals that you want to play a tank it gives you a reaction that allows you to reduce the damage other characters take depending on your character concept and group this can be a really flavorful and useful fighting style however you really have to commit to the tank life if you're going to choose it my recommendation is to not choose this fighting style if you're going to just keep it in the back of your pocket you need to be really trying to tank and you have to be in a group that facilitates that type of gameplay otherwise blessed Warrior is just simply better okay kids listen up welcome to smite101 at smite101 we're going to teach you how to get the most out of the Paladin's signature your class ability I mean really who doesn't want to light up their holy sword with Holy Fire and just cleanse evil but seriously though there's little better in 5th edition than getting off a Smite on a critical hit and watching those damage numbers Skyrocket it's absolutely fantastic so what does smite do well when you make a melee weapon attack you're going to do extra radiant damage to a Target you essentially do 1d8 radiant damage plus an additional 1d8 for each spell level you burn so if you're smiting at second level that's 2d8 damage from the spell level and an extra 1d8 on top of it you then do an additional 1d8 damage if you're attacking into an undead or fiend after fourth level slots your smites stop growing so only use smites with fifth level spell slots or higher if you're in an emergency situation but really the main problem with Smite is players understanding when to use it now there are two main strategies for using Smite the first strategy is if it dead no more damage burn all smites fast kill enemy this is the ooga booga Paladin Strat you hit things really really hard really fast now the second strategy which I personally advocate for is the patient Smite wait a bit Smite on critical hits and if you reach round two two and a half it's Smite o'clock you can start burning those smites this means that you burn through smites less quickly and you're using smites in situations where they will matter the most that's on crits and more difficult battles but I also like the second strategy for kind of a more meta reason because it's better for DMS and players this is my argument for it if you are a DM and you're wanting to have a big challenging boss encounter and you know the Paladin goes all out you gotta account for that and add some extra hit points because while it's fun sometimes to have a boss encounter that finishes in one round it's not something that we all want all the time there's a reason why players and DMS get really excited for these big climactic fights because we want them to be epic challenging dangerous even so what happens in this situation well the Paladin runs in begins to Smite like crazy and the boss is halfway dead yeah they did a lot of damage but we still got another two rounds of combat to go and there might be cool moments but again as a paladin smiting is your big ticket item in combat and you've played all your big tickets at the very start now let's look at the more reserved Paladin Smite method the DM still might add a few extra hit points but if a DM isn't feeling like you're just going to destroy their encounters immediately psychologically players they're not going to add as many hit points because really they just want it to feel like a challenge a lot of great DMS that I've had the pleasure playing with really just want everyone to have their moment so if you wait until around two two and a half to start going all out with your smites that gives people time to have their moments and therefore at the end of the battle when you start going all out it's going to feel bigger you might even do less damage as a whole but that damage is going to feel more impactful I hope you get what I'm saying here and some of you might be thinking whoa whoa whoa is this meta gaming I suppose the answer is it depends because we do metagame all the time as players we know we have to come together as a party we know we have to stay together as a party we know we don't want to take actions that frustrate the other players and also we need to kind of recognize the DM is a player in all this too and the DM's fun comes from their World building their story their characters I like to think I'm making the mechanical case and the role-playing case for being a more patient smider but at the end of the day it's your character and you can choose to completely disregard this advice but so far over the past eight or nine years I've ran for more than 25 different paladins and from my personal perspective smites feel cooler at the end of combats than at the beginning and also it's less of a drain on your overall resources and of course you're sharing the spotlight with all the other players okay back to the other class features Now spell casting and spell slots yes you can do other things with your spell slots rather than just smiting and if you take one thing away from this video it's that you should be casting more spells as a paladin let me explain why paladins are preparation spellcasters the Paladin has access to their entire spell list and you can switch out all those spells on a long rest and this is important because the paladin spell list is really good not only do they have access to a ton of cleric spells but 18 class exclusive spells and they're all pretty good spells that's the thing that blows my mind there really aren't a lot of stinkers in here when I look at the paladin spell list I see a support Caster slash healer you're really good at buffing your allies and healing with a few anti-debuff spells we'll talk about this more later but the Paladin's biggest weakness is its lack of ranged options seriously if you have something outside of your melee range as a paladin you have such a a hard time messing with it in any meaningful way but that can be quote unquote solved by always keeping one or two support spells in case you can't whack something on your turn in combat follow the ABCs as a paladin always be casting either you cast a spell or you cast sword one or the other a few of these spells to keep in mind are bless Aid or a Vitality Aura of life and circle of power spell slots are more than just charges for your smites the paladin spell list is a very versatile list and covers your weakness as well in my opinion the difference between a good and great Paladin is knowing when to use your action to attack a smaller creature for some damage or choosing to buff your entire team when a really good Paladin figures out that balance they become lethal now some never do and that's okay though later in this video we'll talk Battle Tactics go to this time right here if you want to learn more right now otherwise onto more class features Divine health is a fine-ish ability I have a love and hate relationship with this last feature I like to in some campaigns offer to trade in this class feature for a plus one to any Stat or half Proficiency in a skill this is for kind of two reasons first reason in some campaigns you're never going to use this class feature it's kind of going to be pointless and I want my players to feel excited when they gain something new and then there's the second reason because the way Divine health and lay on hands interacts with diseases really limits the DM design space if you're wanting to run a campaign surrounding a type of disease or infection then Divine Health with its just blanket disease protection is really going to impact you again there are workarounds available and if you're a DM and you're struggling with this talk to your players see if you can reach a solution but at the end of the day I highly recommend that you don't just take this class feature away that's a rabbit hole that usually leads to really bad things when you go down it I often find that giving players a choice really helps things move a lot easier and you also have to be okay with them just saying no but in ninety percent of campaigns Divine health is going to be a non Factor okay Channel Divinity where to start there's not a lot to talk about with this as it's so subclass specific my advice to you is to pay way more attention to the spells your subclass is giving you over the channel Divinity you only get one channel Divinity and most of these channel divinities are actions between attack you with your weapon and spells you're not going to be using your channel Divinity all that often again your mileage may vary I've seen paladins that have used their Channel Divinity once per session and paladins that have used their Channel Divinity five times per campaign so yes while channel divinities are nice I actually wouldn't put that much importance on them most paladins I've played with played as and Run 4 don't use Channel Divinity all that often so when you're making your decision about your subclass I would recommend that you weigh the channel Divinity less than other features it gives you and after Tasha's I've seen a lot of paladins converting their channel divinities into another spell slot so I kind of see this as Wizards of the Coast waving the white flag with some subclasses and just acknowledging that in some games Channel Divinity is just not a factor but if you're one of those paladins that use Channel Divinity all the time tell us about it in the comments below maybe you're doing something differently that we can all learn from the main limiting force of a paladin other than it not having ranged attacks is its number of attacks or at least you would think now supposedly getting no more than two attacks keeps paladins in line with other Marshals I'm a little iffy about this especially if you're in a game that doesn't run three to four encounters per long rest so how do you kind of offset this well one of the best things you can do as a paladin is finding ways of getting a third attack during your turn Feats like Sentinel pole arm master and great weapon Master can all help facilitate this hell I've seen a Smite craze dual wielding long sword and Dagger Paladin that was extremely effective two attacks with their action one attack with their offhand as a bonus action their damage was routinely over 80 a turn and I think that this worked out because your attacks are worth almost as much as your smites when you're playing a paladin missing even one attack can be very costly do everything you can to maximize your two chances to hit because every hit could be a crit and with every crit could be a Smite with every Smite can be a death and with every death we get to shout Deus Vault so who wouldn't want more attacks but I also kind of want to wrap this around to our previous discussion about knowing when to attack and when to buff because if you have disadvantage on melee attacks for that round and you have the chance to unleash one of your powerful buff spells on your party really good paladins take the time to think through whether they should attack or buff the party I'm not saying that you're always going to come to the conclusion that you should cast a spell over just attacking maybe that happens one out of three times but that one time that you do choose to use that buff spell could mean all the difference in a battle I've seen it many many times so as a paladin treat those attacks with care and know what a successful attack is worth to you and the rest of your party before sixth level the Paladin was vulnerable but not anymore this is the last part of the Paladin's Holy Trinity Smite lay on hands an aura of protection these three features are a lethal combination Aura of protection adds your charisma modifier to all your saving throws and the saving throws of allies within 10 feet of you this Aura goes up to 30 feet at 18th level but because so few of you are ever going to go past 12th level always think about Aura of protection as being 10 feet this class feature makes you and all your allies incredibly resistant to saving throws let me re-contextualize this class feature for you imagine every plus one in fifth edition as a five percent boost to your overall chances when you get Aura of protection you'll probably have a plus two or plus three modifier in Charisma that means you and your allies will have a 10 to 15 boost in all saving throws not one not two but six saving throws this is outstanding and takes you and your party above the normal 5th edition power curve for the remaining of your 14 levels what excuse me everyone talks about nerfing Smite and as someone who has seen 25 to 30 paladins while playing fifth edition Aura of protection is the thing I dread the most I can handle smites I can handle lay on hands I can handle ridiculously high ACS but this Aura this Aura is the bane of my existence and we'll talk about how to use this class feature more in the Battle Tactics section of this video and yeah I know that my players are going to use all of this information against me but I'm doing this for your benefit so consider liking and subscribing if you made it this far but my general recommendation is to prioritize this class feature by boosting your charisma modifier now you might be thinking nothing really happens at Ninth level wrong third level spells third level spells for any class constitute a major jump in power at this level you gain Powerhouse spells like revivalify dispel magic and spirit shroud don't just think of this level in terms of a higher level of smite you gain access to so many powerful spells that great paladins don't ignore honestly if you're just using your third level spell slots to Smite you're doing your dungeon master a favor by nerfing yourself so you know keep that in mind or of Courage not a lot to say it's another Aura really makes creatures that rely on the frightened condition seem meager by comparison against creatures like dragons that rely on things like frightening presence the Paladin truly shines you make them look like a bit of a [ __ ] the main thing to remember about Aura of Courage is really just remembering this ability when a fear condition comes forward because you all know the feeling of watching your dungeon master get so happy be about getting their cool ability off and then being able to look them dead in the face and say no no I'm the dungeon master now that doesn't happen or of Courage allows you to do that with the frightened condition so don't miss out on your chance to let all the happiness and joy drain out of your dungeon Master's face and dungeon Masters you might be a bit peeved that I'm telling players about all these things but now we're gonna talk about the Paladin's weaknesses so I've just spent the last 20 minutes talking about all the great things paladins can do with that in mind paladins have only two weaknesses one mechanical and one role playing that a DM can tap into their mechanical weakness is their lack of range to damage as a class paladins might have the worst ranged damage I mean honestly they suck therefore if you can keep a paladin at a distance you can drastically reduce their combat Effectiveness I'm coming at this from the perspective that you're still wanting your party to win the combat encounter you're just trying to add a bit of difficulty and so to do that add Enviro our mental hazards are difficult terrain to hinder their movement enemies like goblins with their ability to disengage as a bonus action can drive your Paladin wild they'll never be able to get in range and bring their powerful smites to Bear if you're wanting to make a combat encounter that really challenges a paladin provide enemies that can keep out of their reach or Battlefield obstacles that can hinder their movement simple as that kinda because again paladins still have ways to be useful while not dealing damage so you know apart from that you can just pray hopefully to a different God than the Paladin serving else you know you're still kind of screwed but there's the Paladin's second weakness that we can exploit their oath we'll talk about this a bit more in the next section but a Paladin's oath is the driving force behind their role play being committed to a promise gives your character an ideological Touchstone however ideologies can sometimes conflict with what we want to do it's a limiting factor it is a set of shackles that your player has willingly chosen by creating circumstances where are the Paladin's oath conflicts with what they want to do we can create some fantastic character moments take for example a paladin who is dedicated to the god of Mercy they are confronted by a situation where a lieutenant of the bbeg has turned themselves into the party this NPC killed the rogue's whole family because of course they did it's the Rogue now as a paladin dedicated to the idea of Mercy while this NPC is certainly evil your oath dictates that you can't simply kill this person however the Rogue wants an eye for an eye it is up to you to navigate that situation this is obviously a simplistic example but as a DM you can put a paladin into conflict with their oath there is technically a third weakness that theoretically is there but I've seen it pop up less and less over the years a paladin survives off their spell slots when a paladin runs out of spell slots they're just a worse fighter unless you take blessed Warrior then me now you're a little bit different a zesty fighter if you will some would argue though that a alden's third weakness is that they need to conserve resources I politely disagree few DD groups nowadays based on polls my own Comey of Reddit and experiences do the three to four encounters per Adventure day therefore few paladins are actually running out of spell slots I haven't personally seen attrition being a problem for paladins I realize theoretically in a white room yeah attrition is a problem but white room Theory crafting isn't actual d d what actually happens is if the Paladin starts to get low on spell slots everyone goes hey let's take a long rest if you're in a game that runs many encounters this is something to take into account however if you're running a more modern game with fewer combats more role-playing opportunities and few if any dungeon crawls I wouldn't count on this attrition argument my suggestion is to just mess with the Paladin's ability to get into melee range and also provide these conundrums based upon what the Paladin or group wants and their oath I found these two solutions to be the most effective but up until this point we've taken a majority of the time to look at the Paladin mechanically but D and D is a role-playing game so let's look at how to role play a paladin yeah this video would be incomplete if I didn't at least touch on role-playing a paladin whatever their origin and their mission paladins are united by Oaths to stand against the forces of evil whether swarm before God's Altar and the witness of a priest and a Sacred Glade before nature spirits and Fey beings were in a moment of desperation and grief with the dead as the only witness of Paladin's oath is a powerful Bond it is a source of power that turns a devout Warrior into a blessed Champion the player's handbook notes that a paladin swears to uphold Justice and righteousness to stand with the good things of the world against the encroaching darkness and to hunt the forces of evil wherever they may lurk these paladins also train for years in martial combat as well to fight this evil or at least this perceived evil you see these details give us a lot of insight into what a paladin is first let's discuss your oath an oath is a solemn promise regarding the future of a person's actions it is a purpose statement whatever your paladins oath it is a promise so deep and Powerful that it carries them through life now I think I'm about to get a little controversial for a second this is the biggest difference between clerics and paladins a cleric swears Devotion to a god while a Paladin's Powers come from their promise while this promise is often Divine in nature and sponsored by a god it doesn't necessarily mean a paladin needs a god a Paladin's belief an internal drive as shown by them being a Charisma Caster is enough to produce these effects they're not using wisdom they're not using Faith while clerics and paladins have similar spells a paladin is not driven by faith they aren't called the Crusader class as much as we like to liken them to the Crusaders and Templars of the past a paladin at their core or is someone who is driven by their promises that promise could be to follow a deity or what that deity represents but it doesn't have to be the Paladin has evolved since earlier editions of Dungeons and Dragons so let's re-examine what the Paladin is because from the information we're told we can derive a lot of values from paladins we can get a real strong foundation for what they are and how to role play them paladins are likely honorable now the definition of Honor can vary from Paladin to Paladin what one Paladin thinks is Honorable another might find morally corrupt but really this honor encapsulates any other virtues so really this just means a paladin has a consistent set of normative ethics that it follows and if you're a paladin you would probably also be true to your word and lie very little honesty and commitment to your word is Paramount to the nature of a Paladin's power I mean all your power is derived from your word and your promises if you are that true to your word I find it very difficult cult to believe that you're going to be a deceitful Paladin or the circumstances would have to be very special but maybe that's a failing on my part because paladins are usually righteous but do not have to be when we think about it being morally right doesn't come innately in the territory of a promise when we're considering what comes from the promise a paladin makes that initial promise can be outside of a traditional normative ethical set or rather outside a traditional moral framework if I promise to conquer the world because my warlord father couldn't do it before he died that doesn't mean I'm righteous for doing that I will certainly have a sense of Honor Duty and fairness my father was wrong so I shall right this wrong but moral virtue no I don't think that necessarily follows as a warlord I'll have to do many things that seem to fall outside of being good maybe I have to lie for political reasons maybe I have to send a group of soldiers off to die in order to achieve Victory so so does your Paladin have to be righteous no well does your Paladin have to be just the player's handbook talks about a paladin being committed to Justice now the definition of justice is vague philosophers have argued about this definition since ancient Greece and it is within those Litany of definitions that we also find a lot of expressions of how your Paladin can be formed importantly this sense of justice doesn't necessarily extend to the written laws in a society just because a paladin is lawful doesn't mean they have to follow the laws they are ordered by their oath not the laws of the land a paladin answers to an authority greater than any townsgard or mayor or even a king they answer to the tenants of their own oath think about it like this if you were walking down the street and a toddler handed you a piece of paper that said you cannot walk here would you listen to that toddler no of course not you're following the laws of the actual City that you're in and that's kind of what a paladin might think who care years for townsgard tells me something I'm serving my God I'm serving my oath I'm upholding my promise and that goes far beyond what this little person is trying to tell me so in reality we have a class dedicated towards a promise which they believe is right that doesn't mean a paladin upholds true righteousness I mean heck Many religious institutions claim righteousness only to fall short of their own morals and this opens up a spectrum of different paladins in all other mediums really great characters have this internal conflict this internal tension a character wants both X and Y they want both Peace and Freedom they want the girl but they want the job this internal struggle is what gives us a character Arc as a DM I work really hard to help my players make characters with these internal conflicts yet I barely need to work with paladins because naturally unless they have access to the true moral good of the universe there will be tension with their oath navigating that tension makes for a dynamic three-dimensional Powerhouse of a character this conflict between your promise as a paladin and your situation is a well that you and your DM can continue to go back to over the course of the campaign and I've never seen that well of Storytelling run dry in my opinion this is one of the best parts of playing a paladin that tension that is naturally there for paladins this also works well because of your natural proclivity for leadership remember your oath is driving you you have high Charisma and a purpose as a paladin you help Drive the party towards your goals you Spore an oath so your Paladin obviously wants something so go out and head towards that goal you have everything you need not only do you have the strength but you have the Charisma to get things done embrace the difficulties and the quandries that will be placed in front of your character but you can use that oath that promise as a guiding star your Paladin can even get really creative with your oath and how it's implemented here are a few examples an oath around a particular virtue an oath to uphold justice peace Etc there's that tension between what you think that virtue is and edge cases that are presented in front of you what does it mean to uphold peace does that mean you can't fight the oncoming Bandits does that mean you can't take preventative action or there's an oath to serve a particular God that doesn't want your service say that you love the goddess of light so much that you want everyone to be under her guidance therefore at third level you swear an oath of Conquest so that all will be pure so that all can be under the guidance of your God now the neutral good goddess might reject your promise but hey you know that the world would be much better if everyone worshiped your goddess what a conundrum right or finally take an oath centered around protecting and guiding a particular Noble bloodline the quality of of the Noble's rule varies over the years but your loyalty does not think outside the box and play around with the oath how you follow it and how it affects people around you also of course with all of this check in with your dungeon master your DM and you gotta be on the same page with your character if you're not then you fall into the lawful stupid trap the lawful stupid Paladin is up there with the chaotic neutral Rogue as the worst archetype in d d lawful stupid often refers to a paladin that is so focused around their oath or the local laws that they bring down the rest of the party make the session miserable they attack the robe when they break into a house to seal the MacGuffin or rat out the line warlock who's trying to avoid the party getting captured over my time dming and playing I've broken this lawful stupid Behavior into two camps stupid from rigidity and stupid from principles stupid from rigidity comes from a paladin wanting to immediately stop any action which Clash with their oath this is a zealous Paladin who often provides zero wiggle room for transgressions the best way I like to solve this is by talking to the player about the goals of the Paladin because even the most morally rigid people can't just denounce and attack others every time they see something that is undesirable your Paladin at some point was not righteous in their own eyes so how do you change that behavior it is through understanding that every undesirable action does not need to be stopped immediately with Force these actions are simply another example of the masses failing to live up to the ideal of a model citizen of course your Paladin can admonish the offender afterward but it's with the goal of showing them the air of their ways rather than just dispensing violent Justice on the spot think about it logically a missionary who kills any non-believer they see will convert nobody no God or person would want a paladin who is that rigid they would have zero followers after one generation and by explaining this to a player we can usually massage that character concept now perhaps that is exactly what the player wanted a super zealous individual who's completely unreasonable that is stupid from principles that's fine but you're not playing at my table you are actually trying to create a character that fights with the party in that case that is The Logical end point of that character d d is a team game you cannot play it alone you have to make a character that can work with others if you cannot then you gotta find another table there is a difference between a player who's trying to play this morally pure character whose worldview isn't really subject to change and therefore is very rigid and simply goes about it in a way that breeds a lot of conflict versus a player whose entire character is built around having that conflict with the party being lawful doesn't mean being stupid it means maintaining a certain code of values when we're trying to enforce those values it is important to understand the little intricacies in Gray areas you don't need to fight with your party members or NPCs about everything yet standing up for your oath every once in a while also isn't being lawful stupid like all things check in with your DM and other party members to make sure you're all on the same page outside of game you can straight up tell people this is a line my character will not cross they will act like this so be aware this method has been highly effective because communication makes everything better with all of that out of the way let's talk about races there are so many great races to choose from as a paladin I want to give you 10 of the best races in no particular order starting off with the Dragonborn the reason for the Dragonborn being here is very simple they have a ranged attack literally that's it with other classes they will find that the dragonborn's breath weapon is kind of meager you probably have better options that you could use for most paladins that's not the case especially towards higher levels that breath weapon is looking a lot better than just a javelin so don't be afraid embrace the Dragonborn next up I highly recommend playing a bug bear it has three racial features that really Jive well with the Paladin firstly dark vision that never hurts second it's long limbed this means you have an extra five feet of reach for your attacks makes it a lot harder for creatures to run away from you and finally your sneaky paladins have a hard time stealthing sometimes so Proficiency in the stealth skill never hurts Additionally you have a feature called surprise attack which is just more damage if you can get it off and it is essentially just a free Smite so you don't even really need to burn a spell slot with that attack and bug bear paladins are just really different and cool being a generally lazy goblinoid it's really interesting to figure out how a bug bear became a paladin the backstory just kind of writes itself next up is the Deep gnome it has a lot of things that just make your Paladin more paladiny firstly dark vision always a plus then it has no mesh magic resistance advantage on intelligence wisdom and Charisma saving throws combine this with your aura of protection and you're never failing an intelligence wisdom or Charisma saving throw after sixth level it's crazy and then their final feature is fear for nibbling camouflage allows you to make a stealth check at advantage and you can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus once again sneaking for paladins isn't your Forte usually you'll have disadvantage this class feature though makes it so that it will just be a straight roll for you and that's better than nothing now moving from the deep gnome to essentially the Deep dwarf in the dwagar dwagar benefit from dark vision and dwagar Magic not only do you get the enlarged reduced spell which allows you to do do more melee damage but you get invisibility which once again helps with stealth finally you gain access to psionic fortitude which gives you advantage on saving throws made to avoid or end the Charmed or stunned conditions both those conditions really suck for a paladin so having that Advantage is nice the next two races are kind of a double header they are the GIF Yankee and the gift that's awry I like to think of the difference between these two races as offensive versus defensive the gith Yankee provides you with a Litany of offensive options the main thing you have in your Arsenal is Misty Step at fifth level gaining access to this teleport spell really allows you to move around the battlefield better yet it doesn't expend a spell slot it gives you a free get out of jail free card if the battlefield hazards in front of you are just too much that pocket Missy step is a get out of jail free card and at third level you gain a lesser version of that with the jump spell I know the jump spell gets hated on a lot but I find it remarkably useful when given to use strength based characters it's so fun to watch them Jump Around the battlefield avoiding all the traps and pitfalls and Hazards you set for them so if you really want to get in close into melee range gith Yankee now the gift is awry are a bit different at third level you're gonna gain the shield spell that's a plus five to your AC as a reaction that's pretty crazy now if you're the only healer in a party and you want to keep yourself safe having a free Pocket Shield spell is super good Additionally you have a use of detect thoughts at fifth level and detect thoughts is one of my favorite utility spells in the entire game and because you can use your own spell slots to cast these spells multiple times I find the getzerized psionics feature to be more than worth it now you're gonna sacrifice your offensive capacity but by adding The Shield spell your defensive capacity is going to jump leaps and bounds by sixth level once you get your aura of protection you're gonna kind of be Untouchable so really take a look at the gifts arise now if you want a happy middle ground between the gith Yankee and the gift zerai might I recommend the orc the orc race has come a long way since the early days of fifth edition and right now I consider it one of the best races in the game you get dark vision always a bonus you gain the adrenaline rush racial feature which allows you to Dash as a bonus action and you can do this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest and on top of this you gain temporary hit points what this is crazy good for a paladin not only are you getting up into melee range but you're gaining temporary hit points and on top of all this you have your Relentless endurance feature so if you reduce down to zero hit points once for long rest you can just drop to one hit point instead and if you're then able to survive until your turn you have your lay on hands full to pick you back up the orc is a sensational race for a paladin highly recommend in person I've seen an orc Paladin once and my God were they Majestic able to move move all around the battlefield hit enemies like a truck and even when the DM was targeting that orc Paladin with everything they had they still survived ridiculous now the next race is kinda like the orc but instead of a defensive measure it has an offensive measure I'm talking about the Minotaur minotaurs have also been getting buffed as of late which I'm more than a fan of Goring Rush allows you to attack and then make a bonus action attack with your horns usage of this may vary depending or not if your DM will allow you to Smite with your horns or not but secondly you gain something called hammering horns after you hit a creature as part of your attack action you can attempt to push that creature away from you this helps with positioning creatures away from your party members or helping to position creatures closer to your party members so you can get in close and give the party members your aura it gives you a lot of Versatility and freedom of how you're wanting to move as a paladin now I said that these races weren't in any particular order however it's between the orc in the shaddar kai for the number one race in my opinion the shadow Kai are elves from the shadowfell and oh my God are their abilities so powerful firstly they have dark vision but they also have necrotic resistance as a paladin when you're fighting Undead necrotic resistance is common same if you're fighting fiends having a flat resistance against that just makes you an even better devil and Undead Hunter you can also finish a long rest in only four hours which you know fine depending on your campaign but you gain the blessing of the Raven Queen what is the blessing of the Raven Queen you might ask well as a bonus action as a bonus action you can teleport up to 30 feet it's like a misty step and at third level when you're done teleporting you gain resistance to all damage at least until the start of your next turn excuse me you can teleport Into the Heart of the enemies start smiting and then they can't take you down yeah yeah this is this is crazy now you might be thinking oh I can only use this once per long rest no no you can use this number of times equal to your proficiency bonus even with the most combat heavy campaigns you can use this once per combat I played a shadar Kai Paladin once and let me tell you the move was bonus action teleport into the front line of the enemy turn one as quickly as I could then have them all attack into me and they all do half damage and they had to attack me because if they didn't I would keep on using my abilities my auras my smites and they would all just continue to die and don't even get me started about boss fights shadar Kai during boss fights are stupid especially if you save all your teleports because then you just have resistance to all damage throughout the entirety of the boss fight they are ridiculous but I still have one raise left for you this simple yet powerful variant human I'll be honest here there are a lot of great feats that a paladin can take and being a very human allowing yourself to take one of those Feats at level one is really important because paladins are so ASI dependent that taking a feat costs a lot but what Feats are good you might ask here are a few fantastic Feats that I recommend for paladins first up and a little personal favorite of mine is the charger feat for a lot of characters the charger feat kinda sucks but here's the thing with paladins you're constantly fighting hit into melee range and you already have so few attacks anyway it's not that big of of a loss to take the dash action run up and then bonus actions swing in with a plus five to damage especially if you're planning on smiting for the average fighter this can equate to about two attacks so I actually find that paladins aren't losing a lot on their turns sometimes I've seen paladins with an enemy right in front of them use the dash action to get across the battlefield to attack the squishy spellcaster instead because again using charger is actually really good in certain situations for paladins but with that being said it is situational and it's not for everybody the next feat though certainly could be for everybody the divinely favored feat this comes from the newest Dragon Lance book this feat allows you to take one can trip from the cleric spell list probably guidance let's be honest here you also learn agree you also learn one first level spell based off of your alignment the caveat with taking this feat is that you should be a good or neutral character why is that because healing word is in both the clerics and the Druid spell list and look you might be saying wait is healing word that good on a paladin yes yes it is being able to attack and then bonus action heal across the battlefield is so powerful you basically become what the war cleric wishes it could be now you get one free cast of healing word before you even need to start burning spell slots if you're in a party where your fellow party mates constantly are going down definitely pick up this feat I promise you it will change the party Dynamics overnight now the prerequisite for this feat is that you have to be fourth level and you have to be in a dragon lands campaign fourth level that's fine personally for my games I don't care if it's a dragon lands campaign or not I allow this feat as always talk to your DM maybe they'll let you use it in a campaign that's not Dragon Lance but if you are in a dragon lands campaign use this feat it'd be by far number one if it weren't for those two prerequisites which is crazy because there are a ton of other great feeds on here one of those Feats is the Fey touched feet not only do you get to boost your charisma wisdom or intelligence although let's all be honest here we're boosting our Charisma by one you learn Misty step and a first level spell of your choice divination or enchantment doesn't really matter what you go with there but just gaining a free Misty step if you didn't have one is great and if you have a divination or enchantment spell that you really want yeah I got no problems with Fey touched if at eighth level you got like a 15 in Charisma why take an ASI when you can just take this feat make that Charisma 16 gain Misty step gain another spell it works really well in that regard next up though is great weapon Master if your Paladin is wielding a great sword or another big weapon this feat is fantastic that extra plus 10 damage hits like a truck but actually it's lesser known ability to give you an additional bonus action attack also really helps the Paladin because you can do so much burn damage you'll be reducing creatures to zero hit points quite often so that one melee attack as a bonus action is going to be procked a lot especially if you're fighting hordes of enemies so I highly recommend great weapon Master the next two Feats I want to talk about though work really well together those are Sentinel and pole arm Master apart from each other they're great but together they make a paladin that can shatter worlds Sentinel is good for paladins for two reasons one it doesn't allow the disengage action so goblins and other similar enemies can't run away from you additionally it gains you an extra attack remember as a paladin because we only get one extra attack we're always looking for new options Sentinel provides you with an additional smiting opportunity Sentinel is good for any martial character but it holds even more value for paladins as now any enemy that attacks within 5 feet of you another character has away their damage against your Smite now combine this with pole arm master and you have a menace polar Master gives you an additional bonus action melee attack with a glaive halberd Quarter Staff or spear I personally recommend wielding a glaive or halliburt now this damage is great especially in boss fights because it gives you additional smiting opportunities so that's an extra bonus action attack but it also gives you an extra reaction attack because when a creature enters your reach can make a reaction attack so at fifth level if you took pole arm Master at fourth level as your feet you can easily be making four attacks per round guys that's fantastic my advice is to pick up polar Master first and then Sentinel I know what I'm talking about here because I was a player in a campaign where I played a paladin that had both polar master and Sentinel it was a short campaign ran about 12 sessions we had about eight combats in that campaign my Paladin was hit once during that entire campaign because a direwolf bit my character's leg for 5 damage but that was it but that was it for the rest of the campaign no damage that was because Sentinel and polar Master is such a lethal combination enemies that got close died they couldn't enter my range now that was also because I was utilizing cover and other Advanced Techniques but a lot of that damage reduction in Battlefield control comes down to utilizing those two Feats I'm telling you this is such a powerful combination and one final feat that I want to run by all of you is the war Caster feat paladins live and die on concentration you have so many concentration spells as a paladin and losing concentration especially on one of your above spells can hurt if you find yourself wandering into that role more and more of using those spell slots as buffing material consider taking warcaster your aura of protection should already be giving you a sizable boost to your concentration saves this feed is just going to give you that little extra boost so that one terrible role doesn't break your concentration so those are Feats now let's talk about using them to this section you know I spent a lot of work on all the other sections now if you didn't skip ahead and you made it all this way you're awesome I appreciate you thank you you're the goat I mean everyone else you're awesome too you're just not you know with the people who've watched the entire thing so let's get into Paladin tactics firstly when are we going to utilize our spells this is a simple formula I've got for you ask yourself what is your chance to hit this creature usually this is about 70 for a normal DND curve meaning you have a 70 chance to hit this creature now subtract 10 for each person you'd help if you cast a spell if you're between a 50 and a forty percent chance it's kind of your call it's personal preference at that point and arguments can be made either way if you're 39 and lower cast the spell if you're 60 and up you're probably swinging this is not a hard and fast rule but it's a general rule of thumb that has benefited a lot of new players as you get more experienced and as you play more paladins you'll develop your taste now my second tip is to stay close to your allies this is for two reasons the first is that they need your aura your aura is a defensive measure is a shield not just for you but for your entire team you standing close to them helps them and vice versa because if you're in a d d campaign where the flanking rules are utilized and they can give you Advantage you are fishing for criticals at all times as a paladin since you're fishing for criticals at all times you want Advantage as much as you can as many dice as possible being rolled this will necessarily produce more critical hits and this will up your Effectiveness in combat here look at this example take this combat scenario you have two hobgoblins and a goblin Mage in the back the Hobgoblin on your left has been hit once the hot Goblin on your right hasn't been hit looking strong the rest of your party is nearby that hobgoblin you're within melee distance of both hobgoblins which one do you go and attack I'm hoping you said the one to the right now if you didn't you're probably making the argument well I could have killed the other one yeah but you're forgetting about that Goblin Mage in the back you see you need to provide cover for the rest of your party members your aura is going to stymie that Mage if you go and you attack the other hobgoblin you're leaving the rest of your party out to dry that aura of yours is not to be [ __ ] with it is powerful so if you're constantly running off on your own you're not helping anybody stop it too many times I see paladins running off into No Man's Land don't do that stay with your team you have buffing spells for a reason if nobody's close to you it's a perfectly acceptable option to make everyone else more powerful around you my third tip is to set the pace of combat as a paladin you are on the front line and because of your aura your buff spells and your smites you're kind of the focal point of the battlefield be the point guard of your offense run the tactics of the battle through you tell others what you're doing they can implant around your aura let the battle flow through you when people are working in sync with the Paladin they can be provided the benefits of the aura the Buffs that the Paladin spells provide they can give advantage to the Paladin or allow the Paladin to deal with certain threats and attack other weaker enemies nearby allowing the Paladin to utilize their smites to fullest effect to take down the largest enemies and I know you might not be tactically inclined but really just saying what you intend to do on your turn in the next turn is enough it doesn't even need to be what you're going to do just what you're intending to do I intend to attack that owl bear I intend to move behind that wall I intend to heal the down to Bard all these things help to set the pace of combat Heck if that's too much just tell players where you're generally going to be moving I want to generally be in this area there are levels to this and when you start playing a paladin you're not going to be good at this right away but give it time next up though let's talk about lay on hands so many times I see paladins dumping all their lay on hands pull into themself or one shot into another character stop doing that in a lot of situations one hit point is enough let me explain if you're fighting a horde of enemies and you're 50 50 whether you can heal a character past the point where they can survive to the next round just give them one hit point it does the exact same thing either they get hit or they don't but lots of times in 5th edition d d there is no discernible difference between giving a character one hit point and giving a character 20 hit points that's why a spell like I don't know healing word is so powerful I know it might seem counter-intuitive but if you're the medic use those hit points sparingly at least in combat outside of combat be my guest to heal up characters more fully but inside combat there are many scenarios where you don't have to do that if the PC gets hit there going down either way I like to maintain 10 hit points of lay on hands for emergencies I spend these hit points one at a time they are simply for picking characters up from unconsciousness and that's it so I highly recommend don't spend all your lay on hands just on yourself and don't spend all your lay on hands on one party member in a majority of situations you're just hindering yourself in the long run and whatever you do keep a backlog of healing so that you never completely run out and my last tactical combat tip is to stay conscious yes you are a Frontline fighter yes you're in the middle of things mixing it up but also you're the Healer also you're the support character you are a lot of things especially if you're your party's only healer you can't afford to go unconscious you must constantly weigh the benefits of putting yourself in danger and doing damage I know it's harsh but sometimes the Barbarian needs to take the damage instead the monk needs to take the hit and go unconscious because yes they're your teammates they're important but if you go down everyone loses access to your Buffs and your healing understand your role in the party if you have something like a cleric or a Ranger with healing Spirit you can be a bit more Reckless but sometimes I've seen new paladins with the recklessness of a barbarian not understanding the situation they're in where they need to be more proactive about their own safety so keep this in mind during your next combat encounter talking about the Paladin class will be incomplete without talking about its multi-classing options paladins gain a lot through multi-classing I think that there are four classes that it gains the most from firstly I need to talk about the Warlock Paladin multi-class warlocks have magic in the best attacking can trip in the game Eldritch blast in a way they fulfill two of the Paladin's greatest weaknesses warlocks have fantastic range damage dealing options and they get their spell slots back on a short rest so if your Paladin is running out of spell slots all the time a warlock multi-class can help with that lots of players start out with a warlock at first level and go with the hex blade subclass this way they can use only Charisma for their main stat and then they just jump right into Paladin I have a lot of mixed feelings on this I'm not against power gaming just flat out I'm not I like it when players build powerful characters but I also don't like it when that hinders the role play if a player comes to me with a story that makes sense about why they're both a warlock and a paladin I'm fine with that or if it's discovered in the game but from some players with the Warlock Paladin multi-class the next one we're going to be talking about as well there's a sense of trying to win D and D look at all the damage I can do look at all the different things I can do and in some groups I've seen this create a little bit of an arms race or sometimes the Paladin multi-class becomes so powerful everyone else starts sacrificing the actual visions of the characters they wanted to play and instead just power games you might have a group that does that and you might love it but also some DMS and some groups don't want that at all this is of course up to you but I have become very hesitant over the years with Paladin multi-classing so I am here to say there's absolutely no shame in Banning this type of multi-class allowing multi-classing is a DM decision you have the right to say yes or no if you're not confident about it you don't need to allow it or you can be very picky openly there are some players that I trust with this type of multi-class because I've played a lot of games with them I know how they interact with the story and I know they're not going to take the spotlight away from all the rest of the players there are other players I wouldn't trust with this type of multi-class in a million years so keep that in mind as a DM who's running for a paladin and as a player if you're wanting to multi-class don't be a jackass and if your DM says no it's because Paladin multi-classing has a lot of flaws to it so that's the Warlock Paladin then basically everything that I said still holds true with the sore lock Paladin multi-class this little multi-class exists for the sole purpose of getting the Paladin more spell slots the sorcerer takes their sorcery points as a bonus action converts them into spell slots and then uses them for smites you're creating a Smite engine there are a lot of other benefits here but again whether you allow this multi-class or not is very campaign dependent it's very group dependent it's very player dependent if you are a player and want to do this I highly suggest talking to your DM before the campaign starts and if you are a veteran player and they're a new DM don't [ __ ] do this dming is hard enough they don't need the extra pressure of you completely breaking the power curve they're trying to figure out everything when you're bringing in a tactical nuke that's not fair to them so I'm gonna get off my soapbox now when it comes to the Warlock and sorcerer multi-classing just you know watch them now for other multi-classing options I actually like multi-classing paladins with Rogues I think the expertise particularly put into Charisma skills can add a lot for paladins especially if you're more the face of the party naturally just one level in Rogue can really help solidify you as the quote unquote leader or you can get a big boost to your Athletics because your belief in your training has bestowed you with these additional abilities and last but certainly not least the fighter so I think that there are two routes to go with the fighter paladin subclass on one hand you can dip Fighter for two levels and this will go ahead and get you action surge so that in a pinch you can take four attacks per action still kind of busted even at higher levels but it's still not as egregiously powerful as the warlock or sorcerer multi-classing now the second option is to go Paladin for like eight to ten levels and then go Fighter the rest of the way you do this start picking up more Asis start taking more Feats just generally more abilities I also don't hate this multi-class because the Paladin is trading in their fourth and fifth awful spell slots four Asis in a fighter subclass I rank them about equal towards the end and if you want quote unquote more spell casting you can just go with an Eldritch Knight Fighter for some players that's what I steer them to instead of the warlock or the sorcerer so yeah Paladin multi-classing really touchy subject I highly recommend a rogue or fighter multi-class I am skeptical and wary about the Warlock sorcerer multi-class okay we talked about multi-classing way too much let's talk about subclasses now I'm only going to do a brief overview of the subclasses here but what I really want to get across is that the Paladin subclasses should be judged in order of spells Aura and then Channel Divinity the spells that each subclass gives are the most impactful followed by the aura and after that it's the channel Divinity because again the usage of a channel Divinity varies however if you have a really good selection of spells your Paladin is going to be using that all the time so in no particular order I'm just going to give my general thoughts on all the Paladin subclasses first up there is the oath of conquest and I love this subclass its selection of spells fantastic armor of agathis is one of my personal favorites hold her person really nice in the pinch spiritual Weapon It's a sneaky one it is a range damage dealing option it does give you an extra attack however it does cost a second level spell slot personally I think it's worth it and I consider it a staple spell for oath of Conquest paladins then you have the fear spell which leads into the general theme of this Paladin which is fear the oath of Conquest Paladin makes their enemies afraid their Aura of Conquest reduces the speed of a frightened creature to zero and it takes psychic damage equal to half your Paladin level if it starts within 10 feet of you what that's crazy but it gets even better because the channel divinities of the oath of Conquest are also useful firstly you have guided strike which is just a plus 10 to an attack roll if you really need something to hit just use guided strike and secondly you have conquering presence which just makes creatures afraid of you and particularly at lower levels when enemies don't have immunity to the frightened condition this is a powerful Channel Divinity actually both of these channel divinities are fan fantastic so hell yeah I love the oath of Conquest next oath oath of Vengeance again another amazing subclass oath of Vengeance has incredible oath spells I mean it's just hit after hit Bane Hunter's Mark Misty step haste banishment dimensioned or scrying the rest of its features are fine I don't think they're anything to write home about and their Channel Divinity while looking really nice both of them in actual use I found to fall flat still though this subclass has kept Aloft by its fantastic spells and this is the Paladin subclass I actually recommend for new players I think it's the easiest for them to learn and grasp the Spells are very straightforward and you can wrap your head around an oath of Vengeance pretty easily new players don't have a hard time really connecting with this subclass next up though we have the actual boilerplate basic white bread Paladin subclass the oath of devotion oath of devotion is fine it is simple it is a paladin you don't really need to think at all you don't really even need to use its spells if some one is just trying to learn the core Paladin class you don't even want to really worry about the subclass yeah you just take devotion sacred weapon it's fine turn Unholy it's fine everything's fine nothing's bad it is great for new players and it's between Vengeance and devotion for what you should suggest to a new player who's never stepped into the world of d d before both in my opinion are super accessible and easy to use I think Vengeance has a considerably higher ceiling though but devotion isn't bad you're still a paladin so you're still going to be powerful next up though is the oath of ancients my summary for this subclass is become Doom Guy versus all spellcasters spellcasters can't touch you you also have incredible Battlefield control with your oath spells man it's really tough to find a better Paladin subclass after ninth level if you're playing in a campaign where you know that you're going to the higher levels or if you're starting a campaign around like 7th 8th level I would say yeah just go with oath of ancients it's got powerful spells like in snaring strike Moonbeam Misty step plant growth ice storm tree stride and its RP spells are great as well like speak with animals and commune with nature its Aura of warding is [ __ ] ridiculous resistance to damage from all spells not just for you but for your party as well and at 15th level you get Relentless endurance already this subclass is crazy it's crazy I'm telling you though a paladin with plant growth and resistance to damage from spells that's scary except though the oath of Glory that comes from Theros simply put it's a fun subclass it's actually a really fantastic combat healer its Channel Divinity inspiring Smite is actually incredibly useful this Paladin subclass also comes with guiding bolt which is an amazing low-cost range option it has increased movement speed but compared to other auras it's not the best this Paladin subclass is not bad but it's not more than good that is though in comparison to other Paladin sub classes you're still going to wreck house with oath of Glory next though we're going to talk about Matthew Mercer in critical roles oath of the Open Sea this is an interesting one after ninth level has an incredibly long strike range as it gains the spell called lightning things like Marine Lair really offer extreme amounts of Battlefield control its Aura promotes movement its 15th level ability denies movement really this is the oath of the open Battlefield you can't lock anybody down when this warlock is there surprisingly though it's like fine in the water you don't get any penalties to movement but otherwise I think other Paladin subclasses could do just as well with this Paladin subclass is very strong has great movement abilities its spells are solid I mean two thumbs up not bad Mercer next up though we have the oath of the Watchers I don't see this Paladin subclass getting talked about enough it's really good at attacking anything that isn't a beast or a human Fey fiends Undead Elemental celestials yeah this subclass makes all those its [ __ ] it's Aura of the Sentinel is very useful as who doesn't want an extra bonus to their initiative its channel divinities are situational and very campaign dependent but if you take the oath of the watchers into the right campaign it's going to be an absolute Menace I personally love this subclass and in the right campaign like descent to avernus or curse of strawd both of the Watchers is going to dominate so don't let this particular subclass fly under your radar next up we have Oath breaker this is the worst player Paladin subclass it is really a DM only subclass I look at this subclass as a punishment for players that break their oath because basically like none of it is useful I've ran for oath breaker paladins a few times the players enjoyed the campaign but all of them agreed that the oath breaker really isn't designed for players it's meant for NPCs who work around fiends and Undead next up is oath of the crown this subclass can be summarized as 1v1 me bro is about duels fighting your enemies one one-on-one it's also an anti-tpk machine seriously its Channel Divinity turned the tide yeah that's just designed to stop party wipes that's it I also really like the spells that it has I think also this is one of the easiest Paladin subclasses to be evil with because what is more evil than the government and last but certainly not least what I consider to be the best Paladin subclass it's the oath of redemption Paladin look I'm gonna need you to listen to me really carefully every part of this subclass is perfect it spells incredible it's channeled vanities god tier it's 7th level Aura love it regeneration at 15th level yes please a giga Chad Avatar form at 20th level the cherry on top it's perfect absolutely [ __ ] perfect I would change nothing I mean you become a tank God become an RP God you just become a god when you take this subclass for a long time oath of Conquest I thought was the best subclass in the game no no no oath of redemption I love this subclass so much as I said at the start of this video more than an hour ago paladins are the best class in d d while I don't think they're the strongest they can stand alone which poses some problems for a team-based game I think the one problem with paladins is that they're just too good with everything they don't have any glaring weaknesses especially for newer DMS there's not something baked into the mechanics that they just can't do we can argue that a paladin doesn't do range damage but they have ways of getting around this like teleportation or getting guiding bolt with a subclass or just using their Litany of buffing spells if they can't reach anything what do they need to rely on another party member for the answer is not really anything so I have three ideas to bring paladins back in line with other classes my first idea is to just reduce their hit die to a d8 less Health means the Charisma Constitution choice is even more pressing even then they won't have enough Health to do everything alone my second idea is to remove any type of magical teleportation or ranged attack except for the oath of Glory's guiding bolt I think that guiding bolt is really Central to making that entire subclass work because without that spell the subclass is just very mid but other paladins just have way too many options of sneaking up on people from Misty step to haste I understand the argument is made that the Paladin has to use spell slot resources in order to do these things but that's also based off of the attrition argument which as we've previously discussed paladins don't really suffer from that attrition all that much at least not from what I've seen not how many others are claiming they play D and D in the modern day so simply just remove those spells from their list plain and simple Paladin still get to be great at everything else they do it will now just be this one definitive [ __ ] in their armor my third idea reduce the lay on hands pool by half probably three hit points per level a paladin right now being able to act as a main healer is a bit too much by scaling back the lay on hands pool you still reserve the right to make them a battlefield medic however they can't go around and top party members off after every combat they just don't have enough lay on hands for that I'm okay with making the Paladin really good at burn damage but the rest of the stuff Jack of many master of none with these changes you now solidify two weaknesses the Paladin has one being that it needs to rely on others for healing the second is that it needs to rely on others for range damage and I will say that I actually do not mind the once per turn Smite that one d d is proposing I think it really helps to chill paladins out and brings it more in line with the Rogue now do I think all these ideas should be applied at once the pal didn't know but I do think the class could be dialed back just a bit but not too much because the Paladin is one of my most beloved classes if you don't know what to play the Paladin is right there for you but maybe you don't want to play a paladin and if that's the case may I suggest checking out this video right here maybe a fighter is more your speed and if you made it this far thank you for all the support and thank you for entering the dungeon

Channel: Enter the Dungeon

Views: 39,166

Keywords: dungeons and dragons, critical role, game master, how to, fifth edition

Id: FXQnrxAE6qk

Length: 73min 31sec (4411 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2023