Let me know in the comments if you have any different paladin builds. Dungeons & Dragons: The Best Feats For A Paladin. Str: Paladins don't get access to any ranged combat styles, so Strength is typically a given. Are there any anti-paladins or dark knights in 5e? Brave. I made his alignment Lawful Neutral, because he attempts to restore law and order by any means necessary, even if it takes an iron fist and a sword. The paladin is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Nope, using a 5th lvl spell slot doesn't increase the damage over a 4th lvl spell slot, // , ©2021 D&D Beyond | All Rights Reserved | Powered by Fandom Games. LocathahLR: Strength increase, two great skills, and Leviathan Will. SatyrMOoT: Perfect for a Dexterity-based build, and with Magic Resistance and Aura of Protection you're basically unstoppable. The Dragon Fear racial feat works great for Paladins, especially Conquest Paladins once they pick up Aura of Conquest. When you get this at level 2, the base damage plus a longsword is enough to one-shot a decent chunk of the enemies you might encounter. There are a few really sneaky exploits and wonky builds you can create as a paladin, but the “stock” paladin builds are all fairly similar. With such a large pool you can easily bring many allies from 0 to full health in a single Action, or you can spend 1 point to bring them back to consciousness long enough to finish a fight so that they can rest and spend hit dice. Not only do you get Extra Attack, you get your first 2nd-level spell slots. To start off character creation for a powerful paladin, let's set the record straight on a paladin's ideal ability scores--certain stats may have an effect on what race and feats are chosen further down the road. When you use such an effect from this class, the DC equals your paladin spell save DC. on the other hand, what in the nine hells kind of ideals are you swearing loyalty to in order to gain archery-based abillities? I also won't cover Unearthed Arcana content because it's not finalized, and I can't guarantee that it will be available to you in your games. As a DM I would let them choose just because it would be pretty annoying to have your ultra-cool damage aura be a detriment to you and your party. In fact, the party grew to level 10 after only 22 sessions. The 1-minute duration means that it won't last longer than a single fight, but if you can activate Sacred Weapon just before jumping into a fight you will start with a huge advantage. Once per turn for the duration, when you hit a creature with weapon attack, you can choose to push the target 10 feet away from you. The paladin has advantage on saving throws against being frightened.. Divine Smite. The most important aspect of a paladin character is the nature of his or her holy quest. Stat priorities and weight distribution to help you choose the right gear on your Protection Paladin in Shadowlands Pre-Patch 9.0.1, and summary of primary and secondary stats. Bless. As an action, you embrace these spirits of the sea, gaining the following benefits for 1 minute: If I were to choose a subclass, which would be the best for religion and which would be the best for just attacking. If a target makes an attack roll or saving throw the spell ends, then the target can roll a dice d4 and it will add the number rolled for saving throw or attack roll. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the duration. You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of the Open Seas Spells table. Since it has such a deep pool and allow you to pick exactly how much you heal, it's actually viable during combat. Dragonmarked Half-ElfERLW: Dragonmark traits replace some of your normal racial traits, as described in the entry for each Dragonmark. Beyond that, the paladin … Each oath has a list of associated spells. Still not as good as the Half-Elf, but potentially a very fun option. For your starting equipment, take a warhammer, a longsword, or a battleaxe, a shield, five javelins, and either pack. Or did some terrible event—the destruction of your home, perhaps—drive you to your quests? When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. an average of just over 1 damage per attack on average, "If all saves are affected by a thing, death saves are affected. TortleTP: Strength and natural armor are great, but once you can afford full plate armor the Tortle will fall behind. Never allow Paladins ranged weapon divine smites, would make this OP class to strong and ruin all the fun off being anyone else playing with them. BugbearERLW: See above under the general Races section. Aura of Protection: Better than proficiency in every save. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. An oathbreaker is a paladin who breaks their sacred oaths to pursue some dark ambition or serve an evil power. Making it available breaks nothing"https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/999687210566729728?lang=en(*on the subject of Paladin's Smite and ranged weapons)Crawford: "Divine Smite works with melee attacks only because the paladin is traditionally a melee combatant...". Starting at 7th level, you emanate an aura while you’re not incapacitated. no balance concern, no having to deal with not being an specialized archer until 3rd level, and if a DM wants paladins to keep to the classical view of what a paladin should be they are free to keep it that way, Well, I mainly stated subclass due to the fact that they already released Tasha's which has a plethora of optional class choices which could have potentially added ranged Paladin options. Adapt like the Water. Perhaps you stumbled into a sacred grove or a hidden elven enclave and found yourself called to protect all such refuges of goodness and beauty. You should also consider the utility of smite spells. Dragonmarked Half-OrcERLW: Dragonmark traits replace ALL of your racial traits. Oath spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. Explore the Uncharted. As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring fiends and undead, using your Channel Divinity. After a rite of confession and forgiveness, the paladin starts fresh. While this make them difficult for new players, this also makes the Paladin a great introductory class because the player needs to learn so much to play it. Setting-specific races are address below. In this post, we will examine different choices you will be presented with when leveling up your character. That said, the paladin oaths that come into play offers a lot of flavor and options. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. Even with Lay on Hands, 1st-level characters are frail and a single attack could take you from full hit points to 0. Letting them have that level of damage at range would make positioning irrelevant for them, make it nearly impossible for enemies to run away, and make it hard for DMs to challenge them since currently their one combat weakness is mobility. The only question is which stat players want to rely on for their combat s… It doesn't say that you can choose which creatures benefit from it so it seems like it would. Big sections of the monster manual are medium or smaller, so you have easy access to Advantage. AasimarVGTM: An obvious and fantastic choice for a Paladin. This is a great reason to keep your allies close to you, but remember that you're intended to draw attacks away from your allies so it may be safer for your allies to stay further away to avoid AOE damage. As a bonus action, you can channel the powerful might of the waves to bolster your attacks for 1 minute. //param[jq dom element] element to make sticky Roll20 uses cookies to improve your experience on our site. Second, choose the noble background. Your blessed touch can heal wounds. Fighting Style, Spellcasting, Divine Smite. At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet. Cha: Charisma fuel's many of the Paladin's abilities, including their spellcasting, Aura of Protection, and several Paladin skills. It allows you to precisely apply healing without any of the randomness of hit dice or healing spells, so you can easily fill in the last two or three hit points to get someone to full health without the risk of running over and wasting limited resources. You can cure multiple diseases and neutralize multiple poisons with a single use of Lay on Hands, expending hit points separately for each one. You get bonuses to all three of the Paladin's important ability scores, two free skills to round out your selection of Face skills, Darkvision, and Fey Ancestry adds another immunity to the Paladin's existing laundry list of immunities and resistances. If that sounds too frustrating, ask your DM if they'll let you control your mount like a non-intelligent creature. Dragonmarked ElfERLW: Dragonmark traits replace your subrace. For a Paladin, this is a very simple build. Honor. Divine Health is a good passive defense. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your paladin spells, since their power derives from the strength of your convictions. KenkuVGTM: Paladins generally don't handle stealth well. In the beginning I used XP leveling, and I found that the party leveled way too fast, due to my over-challenging and high difficulty combats. I've left the spell preparation up to you, but the advice provided above should give you all the information you need. You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Many spell effects won't function if you're immune to Charm. Honor, justice, and mercy, but also incredible violence and aggression. That oath is all about crushing your enemies before you, using fear as a weapon, and dealing lots of damage. If you're willing to give up some Constitution, reduce your starting Strength and Constitution each to 14, and distribute those points elsewhere, and at 4th level put the full Ability Score Increase into Strength. You can see the Paladin Class Features here. The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated.