Let me get this out the way before anyone responds "play what's fun". Yes, I care about optimization and "meta", I find it fun. However, I still customize other things about classes, like race, backstory, point buys (a lot of times I don't want to dump a stat because of flavour), etc. That is fun to me.
Alright, now that's over, I wanted to know what are the Top Tier Paladin builds, when I think about a Paladin, I don't think about some guy/girl with a polearm. So I wanna know what is second and third to that Polearm Master Vengeance Paladin build. And I don't really dig Conquest because when during some research, I learned a ton of that kit requires A LOT of component materials to even do a fraction of the class's spells. Lastly, must be pure Paladin, no taking levels of Paladin and levels for another class.
Also, when picking race, is Variant Human the only BIS, or does that just apply to the Polearm wombo combo build? And being I don't want any homebrew or "non-Adventurers League" nonsense, I know I cannot pick Warforged because it isn't part of the new rules. However, thanks to Mordenkainen Monsters of the Multiverse, Minotaur is. (I'm 100% positive they'll add MMM to adventurers league, and it already states races like Goblin has to use the MMotM rules being it's "updated" from AL sourcebooks.
The reason I want this character to Adventurers League legal is that it's very hard finding a DnD group where I'm from in person, and I feel the only way I'll be able to experience the game is to join an Adventurers League at LGS.
I don't really dig Conquest because when during some research, I learned a ton of that kit requires A LOT of component materials to even do a fraction of the class's spells.
The only extra spell on conquest's list that consumes its material component is stoneskin, however a Paladin doesn't get their first 4th-level slot until 13th-level, by which time a 100 gp component isn't that expensive. It's not a spell you will be using often, as it's arguably not that good on a paladin to begin with; it makes more sense on a ranged cleric who can cast it on someone else then maintain a safe distance (where they won't have to take concentration checks). While a paladin could potentially cast it and maintain concentration thanks to a good AC and a decent Constitution save bonus (thanks to Aura of Protection) it's still a bit risky to cast a 4th-level spell that might go down on the first hit and be wasted. So yeah, you probably aren't going to be casting this one much anyway unless you plan to take War Caster (and maybe Resilient (Constitution) for good measure), and that's if make it to 13th-level.
I definitely wouldn't dismiss it just because stoneskin is a weird spell, you also armor of Agathys (extra hp and if someone hits you while you have them, they take damage? Yes please!) and spiritual weapon (non-concentration bonus action attack) either of which is worth it on their own. You've also got fear as an additional way to trigger your Aura of Conquest for even more damage and holding enemies in place with disadvantage to hit, and keep in mind this probably on top of three attacks per turn.
If you make it to 15th-level you just straight up harm anything that harms you, and that might be on top of armor of agathys. It also has one of the best 20th-level avatar features (resistance to all damage, three attacks and criticals on 19's and 20's). That's three attacks with a 10% chance each to score a critical, so a fair chance of getting at least one over a three or four round combat, onto which you can dump a divine smite to double the dice. And you've also got a fourth attack from spiritual weapon on top of that, though I've never been clear on whether you can divine smite with it (it's a melee spell attack, but using a "spiritual weapon", so does it qualify as a melee weapon attack? Might be a DM call).
It's a very good oath IMO. You shouldn't let stoneskin being weird to use put you off it.
Update: Just occurred to me that you might mean the issue with needing to access your spellcasting focus to cast spells with an M component, however as long as you are wielding a two-handed weapon you always have a free hand for that purpose, or if you go with a shield you can use an emblem on the shield as your casting focus. The only spells that actually cause problems for Paladins are spells with somatic components and no material component (as S,M spells can still just use the focus).
If you're playing in Adventurer's League, you're in luck because you pretty much can guarantee you'll be able to equip a STR setter item, like gauntlets of ogre power or a belt of giant strength. That alone makes most paladin builds fairly meta. Now, as far as DPR goes, your options are going to include GWM. You could build GWM+PAM. Now, keep in mind that just because you're using a polearm, it doesn't mean you have to abide by that as far as flavor goes. For example, I play a vengeance gwm+pam paladin, but I've re-flavored his polearm as one big, long, heavy dragonslayer-esque sword, and all attack rolls are just one swing. Works out fine, no AL DM or table has ever had issues with it so I can promise you that's a valid option if you really, really want to build paladin meta DPR without having your character "use" a polearm.
Other options include the devotion paladin. I like this subclass because one of my favorite weapons of all time is the flametongue greatsword, and has excellent synergy with the devotion paladin's channel divinity. By level 8, you build so you pick up fey touched and GWM paired with a strength setter. Turns where you want to buff yourself, you can use your action for the CD, and bonus action to activate the sword. I've used this opportunity for rich roleplay, like having an anime "going-super-Saiyan" moment. Is the DPR as good as vengeance gwm+pam? It can be if fights last long enough or if you're good about using your buff prior to fights starting. Unlike the vengeance paladin, this build has the added benefit of having a +4 aura instead of a +3 in tier 2, on top of having a more functional 7th level aura.
As far as races are concerned, it all depends on what you want. Variant humans having an extra feat is nice, but an elf having advantage on charm saves, immunity to sleep magic, dark vision, can be well worth the trade-off. I've played a paladin glasya tiefling, because having access to minor illusion right off the bat is awesome and being a tiefling is awesome. I find that worth the trade off of not being a variant human.
Still, if you want to be a glory paladin, a watcher's paladin, or ancients? S'all good, man. The real strength of a paladin lies in their awesome saves with their aura and spells like find steed or find greater steed. The rest of how effect your paladin is will depend on your itemization and the order you address checking off the "must haves," like damage feats and increasing their CHA for better saves and spell DCs.
A bit of a weird one, but a paladin I enjoyed playing was actually a ranged build. The basic idea was that a Centaur can be mounted by another player so they are always next to you for aura and can benefit from your better movement speed. Grab your ranged weapon of choice and kite out the enemies. I ended up going Oath of the Ancients for some great control/long range spells, and the absurdly strong defensive aura halving all incoming spell damage.
It was certainly more of a support build, but building to stay at range means that you can hang back with your caster allies and protect them from being blasted by the enemy spellcasters. I imagine how well that build actually functions would depend a lot on the campaign, that one we were basically all ranged/spellcasters and basically nobody wanted to be in melee, and a lot of our enemies were intelligent humanoids with spellcasters mixed in.
What do you think of Aasimar and Minotaur for the GWM + PAM or PAM + Sentinel in comparison to Half-Elf, and Variant Human?
Especially with the new ability score updates in MMotM, making them work like Tashas?
AL has been using the tasha's custom origin for a long while now, so any race will have the starting ability scores you want. That said, aasimar and minotaur are excellent options for paladin. Radiant soul for flight and extra damage? that's awesome. Minotaur being able to push 10 ft away after every attack action? That's dope, although I don't like it when races don't have dark vision so I might consider taking up blessed warrior fighting style to access light cantrip or going with devotion paladin since the channel divinity can give a light source from your weapon or pair with a flame tongue for a source of light. something. Still, the minotaur offers a decent amount of battlefield control on every turn, and based on DM interpretation Hammering Horns can be read as knocking an enemy 10 ft away from you, including upwards to get something prone.
Now, as far as how those races compare to half-elves or variant humans, one thing you'll find that half-elves have a slightly better stat spread. If I build a half-elf and I'm using gauntlets of ogre power? I'll just set natural str to 8, and use those points else where. I can end up with 8/12/16/10/12/17. that there's a paladin without a weakness in terms of saves once your aura of protection kicks in, and especially more so if you bump up CHA with one of many fantastic half-feats. If you go with another race, the difference isn't much as one of those scores will be odd, your choice. Or you could dump DEX to improve your WIS save to +2 instead of 1 so you're more specialized, it's your choice and honestly neither is really wrong or right.
Again, I'm gonna really emphasize that point here: No choice is really wrong. It sounds like such patronizing, coddling "ur awesome no matter wut" talk, but it's really true in this case because AL modules, and DnD in general as a whole, can be "beaten" even with weird, arguably subpar choices and especially more so because DMs often balance encounters on your party's composition to always be manageable. You don't need BiS to excel. Your race choice might lack somewhere but make up for it in another equally significant aspect. Your stat spread can be spread out or specialized depending on race. You may get an extra feat if you go v.human, but you only get 2 ability scores instead of 3 to move around, and that's all you really get-- no cool features or quirks or anything, just that. Trust me, your magic items, damage feats, and decision making during combat are going to have a much, much, MUUUUCH bigger impact on your performance than anything else. Race? Saving throws? Stats? they're not even secondary to determining performance outcome.
Also, on the topic of PAM+sentinel, I'm not a huge fan of the combo on paladin. I like DPR, and that's more of a control thing, and at that I don't feel it's all that impactful. v. human can pull it off better, since the extra feat helps out. By lvl 8 you could have sentinel, pam, and gwm. Now you're a fairly meta DPR martial. But, I personally hate playing humans. Why be human when I can be a badass tiefling instead?! So, I have to weigh my choices carefully. But that's my personal preference.
I've seen a really effective Halfling Assasin-Vengence Paladin. At 16th level she did the highest damage I ever saw done in melee on one attack.
She was a pure striker in light armor with maxed dexterity and the mobile feat but neither her strength or charisma were very high, just high enough to multiclass.
This was about 5 years ago when PHB and SCAG were the only sourcebooks. I think now with the new options you could do even more.
Let me get this out the way before anyone responds "play what's fun". Yes, I care about optimization and "meta", I find it fun. However, I still customize other things about classes, like race, backstory, point buys (a lot of times I don't want to dump a stat because of flavour), etc. That is fun to me.
Alright, now that's over, I wanted to know what are the Top Tier Paladin builds, when I think about a Paladin, I don't think about some guy/girl with a polearm. So I wanna know what is second and third to that Polearm Master Vengeance Paladin build. And I don't really dig Conquest because when during some research, I learned a ton of that kit requires A LOT of component materials to even do a fraction of the class's spells. Lastly, must be pure Paladin, no taking levels of Paladin and levels for another class.
Also, when picking race, is Variant Human the only BIS, or does that just apply to the Polearm wombo combo build? And being I don't want any homebrew or "non-Adventurers League" nonsense, I know I cannot pick Warforged because it isn't part of the new rules. However, thanks to Mordenkainen Monsters of the Multiverse, Minotaur is. (I'm 100% positive they'll add MMM to adventurers league, and it already states races like Goblin has to use the MMotM rules being it's "updated" from AL sourcebooks.
The reason I want this character to Adventurers League legal is that it's very hard finding a DnD group where I'm from in person, and I feel the only way I'll be able to experience the game is to join an Adventurers League at LGS.
The only extra spell on conquest's list that consumes its material component is stoneskin, however a Paladin doesn't get their first 4th-level slot until 13th-level, by which time a 100 gp component isn't that expensive. It's not a spell you will be using often, as it's arguably not that good on a paladin to begin with; it makes more sense on a ranged cleric who can cast it on someone else then maintain a safe distance (where they won't have to take concentration checks). While a paladin could potentially cast it and maintain concentration thanks to a good AC and a decent Constitution save bonus (thanks to Aura of Protection) it's still a bit risky to cast a 4th-level spell that might go down on the first hit and be wasted. So yeah, you probably aren't going to be casting this one much anyway unless you plan to take War Caster (and maybe Resilient (Constitution) for good measure), and that's if make it to 13th-level.
I definitely wouldn't dismiss it just because stoneskin is a weird spell, you also armor of Agathys (extra hp and if someone hits you while you have them, they take damage? Yes please!) and spiritual weapon (non-concentration bonus action attack) either of which is worth it on their own. You've also got fear as an additional way to trigger your Aura of Conquest for even more damage and holding enemies in place with disadvantage to hit, and keep in mind this probably on top of three attacks per turn.
If you make it to 15th-level you just straight up harm anything that harms you, and that might be on top of armor of agathys. It also has one of the best 20th-level avatar features (resistance to all damage, three attacks and criticals on 19's and 20's). That's three attacks with a 10% chance each to score a critical, so a fair chance of getting at least one over a three or four round combat, onto which you can dump a divine smite to double the dice. And you've also got a fourth attack from spiritual weapon on top of that, though I've never been clear on whether you can divine smite with it (it's a melee spell attack, but using a "spiritual weapon", so does it qualify as a melee weapon attack? Might be a DM call).
It's a very good oath IMO. You shouldn't let stoneskin being weird to use put you off it.
Update: Just occurred to me that you might mean the issue with needing to access your spellcasting focus to cast spells with an M component, however as long as you are wielding a two-handed weapon you always have a free hand for that purpose, or if you go with a shield you can use an emblem on the shield as your casting focus. The only spells that actually cause problems for Paladins are spells with somatic components and no material component (as S,M spells can still just use the focus).
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
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Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
What are you trying to do? It’s tough to give build recommendations when we don’t know what you are building towards.
Anything top tier or meta for Paladin, that doesn't require multi classing.
If you're playing in Adventurer's League, you're in luck because you pretty much can guarantee you'll be able to equip a STR setter item, like gauntlets of ogre power or a belt of giant strength. That alone makes most paladin builds fairly meta. Now, as far as DPR goes, your options are going to include GWM. You could build GWM+PAM. Now, keep in mind that just because you're using a polearm, it doesn't mean you have to abide by that as far as flavor goes. For example, I play a vengeance gwm+pam paladin, but I've re-flavored his polearm as one big, long, heavy dragonslayer-esque sword, and all attack rolls are just one swing. Works out fine, no AL DM or table has ever had issues with it so I can promise you that's a valid option if you really, really want to build paladin meta DPR without having your character "use" a polearm.
Other options include the devotion paladin. I like this subclass because one of my favorite weapons of all time is the flametongue greatsword, and has excellent synergy with the devotion paladin's channel divinity. By level 8, you build so you pick up fey touched and GWM paired with a strength setter. Turns where you want to buff yourself, you can use your action for the CD, and bonus action to activate the sword. I've used this opportunity for rich roleplay, like having an anime "going-super-Saiyan" moment. Is the DPR as good as vengeance gwm+pam? It can be if fights last long enough or if you're good about using your buff prior to fights starting. Unlike the vengeance paladin, this build has the added benefit of having a +4 aura instead of a +3 in tier 2, on top of having a more functional 7th level aura.
As far as races are concerned, it all depends on what you want. Variant humans having an extra feat is nice, but an elf having advantage on charm saves, immunity to sleep magic, dark vision, can be well worth the trade-off. I've played a paladin glasya tiefling, because having access to minor illusion right off the bat is awesome and being a tiefling is awesome. I find that worth the trade off of not being a variant human.
Still, if you want to be a glory paladin, a watcher's paladin, or ancients? S'all good, man. The real strength of a paladin lies in their awesome saves with their aura and spells like find steed or find greater steed. The rest of how effect your paladin is will depend on your itemization and the order you address checking off the "must haves," like damage feats and increasing their CHA for better saves and spell DCs.
What do you think of Aasimar and Minotaur for the GWM + PAM or PAM + Sentinel in comparison to Half-Elf, and Variant Human?
Especially with the new ability score updates in MMotM, making them work like Tashas?
A bit of a weird one, but a paladin I enjoyed playing was actually a ranged build. The basic idea was that a Centaur can be mounted by another player so they are always next to you for aura and can benefit from your better movement speed. Grab your ranged weapon of choice and kite out the enemies. I ended up going Oath of the Ancients for some great control/long range spells, and the absurdly strong defensive aura halving all incoming spell damage.
It was certainly more of a support build, but building to stay at range means that you can hang back with your caster allies and protect them from being blasted by the enemy spellcasters. I imagine how well that build actually functions would depend a lot on the campaign, that one we were basically all ranged/spellcasters and basically nobody wanted to be in melee, and a lot of our enemies were intelligent humanoids with spellcasters mixed in.
AL has been using the tasha's custom origin for a long while now, so any race will have the starting ability scores you want. That said, aasimar and minotaur are excellent options for paladin. Radiant soul for flight and extra damage? that's awesome. Minotaur being able to push 10 ft away after every attack action? That's dope, although I don't like it when races don't have dark vision so I might consider taking up blessed warrior fighting style to access light cantrip or going with devotion paladin since the channel divinity can give a light source from your weapon or pair with a flame tongue for a source of light. something. Still, the minotaur offers a decent amount of battlefield control on every turn, and based on DM interpretation Hammering Horns can be read as knocking an enemy 10 ft away from you, including upwards to get something prone.
Now, as far as how those races compare to half-elves or variant humans, one thing you'll find that half-elves have a slightly better stat spread. If I build a half-elf and I'm using gauntlets of ogre power? I'll just set natural str to 8, and use those points else where. I can end up with 8/12/16/10/12/17. that there's a paladin without a weakness in terms of saves once your aura of protection kicks in, and especially more so if you bump up CHA with one of many fantastic half-feats. If you go with another race, the difference isn't much as one of those scores will be odd, your choice. Or you could dump DEX to improve your WIS save to +2 instead of 1 so you're more specialized, it's your choice and honestly neither is really wrong or right.
Again, I'm gonna really emphasize that point here: No choice is really wrong. It sounds like such patronizing, coddling "ur awesome no matter wut" talk, but it's really true in this case because AL modules, and DnD in general as a whole, can be "beaten" even with weird, arguably subpar choices and especially more so because DMs often balance encounters on your party's composition to always be manageable. You don't need BiS to excel. Your race choice might lack somewhere but make up for it in another equally significant aspect. Your stat spread can be spread out or specialized depending on race. You may get an extra feat if you go v.human, but you only get 2 ability scores instead of 3 to move around, and that's all you really get-- no cool features or quirks or anything, just that. Trust me, your magic items, damage feats, and decision making during combat are going to have a much, much, MUUUUCH bigger impact on your performance than anything else. Race? Saving throws? Stats? they're not even secondary to determining performance outcome.
Also, on the topic of PAM+sentinel, I'm not a huge fan of the combo on paladin. I like DPR, and that's more of a control thing, and at that I don't feel it's all that impactful. v. human can pull it off better, since the extra feat helps out. By lvl 8 you could have sentinel, pam, and gwm. Now you're a fairly meta DPR martial. But, I personally hate playing humans. Why be human when I can be a badass tiefling instead?! So, I have to weigh my choices carefully. But that's my personal preference.
I've seen a really effective Halfling Assasin-Vengence Paladin. At 16th level she did the highest damage I ever saw done in melee on one attack.
She was a pure striker in light armor with maxed dexterity and the mobile feat but neither her strength or charisma were very high, just high enough to multiclass.
This was about 5 years ago when PHB and SCAG were the only sourcebooks. I think now with the new options you could do even more.