I think that Scourge would be better especially if using PAM+Sentinel for battlefield control, since you can pop your racial ability and as long as people are afraid of you they're stuck taking lots of damage every turn. However, the Fallen's racial ability lets you get another chance at making enemies afraid. Which do you think is better overall?
Aasimar make great Paladins with that +2 CHA. With both Scourge and Fallen, you get +1 to either STR or CON, both important stats (unless you're going for a do build). Stats aside, the main difference is that racial ability. Both abilities have an issue of messing with your allies if not used cautiously, but becomes less of a problem at higher levels, especially for fallen. Personally, I don't like damaging allies, but depends what you want to do. Both give you a chance to deal additional damage once per turn, so let's look at the differences.
Scourge: You shed bright light and deal radiant damag to every creature within 10ft. This is great in hordes or even versus multiple enemies, especially undead. Not to mention that you get a nice damage boost on that boss you're wailing on. The drawback is that it hits your allies as well. As you reach levels 6 and 7 and gain protective and oath auras, you'll have to be strategic about how you use this, balancing buffing your allies and hitting them with your, well, divine radiance. There aren't many creatures who resist radiant damage, so that's good. However, if you're playing a campaign in the Underdark or any place where light consistently draws enemies, then the light shed by this ability may hinder more than help.
Fallen: Once again, you'll have to be judicious where you use your ability as it can affect your allies. Frightening allies mans they have disadvantage on their attacks. They can save every turn, but so can your enemies. Even so, causing fear for a turn can really turn a fight in your favor and mitigate damage (so long as the enemy isn't immune to fear). The aura you gain at level 6 will boost ally saving throws and lessen the effect on the party. By level 10, though, your aura of courage will eliminate this drawback to your allies. The issue here is that many enemies, depending on your campaign, may be immune to fear by then. Necrotic damage is also more commonly resisted
This ability sort of doubles up on one of your your channel divinity options except it adds thT bonus damage every turn. This isn't great if you're looking for variety (as the channel divinity option doesn't target allies), but it could be helpful if you mostly want to use your channel divinity for "Guided Strike" for that +10 to hit (which would synergize well with great weapon master) or you want more battlefield control.
To summarize: Both have issues with friendly fire which will be an issue if you have several melee fighters in your party who like to clump together or gang up on one enemy (aka, within the affect of your ability). If you want extra DPS and your melee fighters don't mind taking a few hits now and then, scourge is probably the way to go. If you want to use "guided strike" more often or plan on playing into higher levels where the ability won't affect your allies at all, go with fallen.
Ah, that helps a lot, thanks. Considering we're going to be playing either Curse of Strahd, which I'd imagine has lots of enemies immune/resistant to necrotic damage and fear, or Out of the Abyss, where I may need extra light for human allies, I'd say Scourge is probably the way to go. Plus, I'm all about them deeps, so if Scourge has a slightly higher DPS, I'll probably go for that one. That being said, I had completely forgotten that higher level Paladins can negate fear effects, which is a HUGE selling point for Fallen- I'll have to keep that in mind!
Thanks again for the help! You really clarified the options well.
I'm at the same crossroads now. Sorry to be a necromancer, but instead of making a new thread, I'd rather like to ask what you fell on and what your experiences turned out to be (if you still read this)
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I think that Scourge would be better especially if using PAM+Sentinel for battlefield control, since you can pop your racial ability and as long as people are afraid of you they're stuck taking lots of damage every turn. However, the Fallen's racial ability lets you get another chance at making enemies afraid. Which do you think is better overall?
Aasimar make great Paladins with that +2 CHA. With both Scourge and Fallen, you get +1 to either STR or CON, both important stats (unless you're going for a do build). Stats aside, the main difference is that racial ability. Both abilities have an issue of messing with your allies if not used cautiously, but becomes less of a problem at higher levels, especially for fallen. Personally, I don't like damaging allies, but depends what you want to do. Both give you a chance to deal additional damage once per turn, so let's look at the differences.
Scourge: You shed bright light and deal radiant damag to every creature within 10ft. This is great in hordes or even versus multiple enemies, especially undead. Not to mention that you get a nice damage boost on that boss you're wailing on. The drawback is that it hits your allies as well. As you reach levels 6 and 7 and gain protective and oath auras, you'll have to be strategic about how you use this, balancing buffing your allies and hitting them with your, well, divine radiance. There aren't many creatures who resist radiant damage, so that's good. However, if you're playing a campaign in the Underdark or any place where light consistently draws enemies, then the light shed by this ability may hinder more than help.
Fallen: Once again, you'll have to be judicious where you use your ability as it can affect your allies. Frightening allies mans they have disadvantage on their attacks. They can save every turn, but so can your enemies. Even so, causing fear for a turn can really turn a fight in your favor and mitigate damage (so long as the enemy isn't immune to fear). The aura you gain at level 6 will boost ally saving throws and lessen the effect on the party. By level 10, though, your aura of courage will eliminate this drawback to your allies. The issue here is that many enemies, depending on your campaign, may be immune to fear by then. Necrotic damage is also more commonly resisted
This ability sort of doubles up on one of your your channel divinity options except it adds thT bonus damage every turn. This isn't great if you're looking for variety (as the channel divinity option doesn't target allies), but it could be helpful if you mostly want to use your channel divinity for "Guided Strike" for that +10 to hit (which would synergize well with great weapon master) or you want more battlefield control.
To summarize: Both have issues with friendly fire which will be an issue if you have several melee fighters in your party who like to clump together or gang up on one enemy (aka, within the affect of your ability). If you want extra DPS and your melee fighters don't mind taking a few hits now and then, scourge is probably the way to go. If you want to use "guided strike" more often or plan on playing into higher levels where the ability won't affect your allies at all, go with fallen.
Ah, that helps a lot, thanks. Considering we're going to be playing either Curse of Strahd, which I'd imagine has lots of enemies immune/resistant to necrotic damage and fear, or Out of the Abyss, where I may need extra light for human allies, I'd say Scourge is probably the way to go. Plus, I'm all about them deeps, so if Scourge has a slightly higher DPS, I'll probably go for that one. That being said, I had completely forgotten that higher level Paladins can negate fear effects, which is a HUGE selling point for Fallen- I'll have to keep that in mind!
Thanks again for the help! You really clarified the options well.
I'm at the same crossroads now. Sorry to be a necromancer, but instead of making a new thread, I'd rather like to ask what you fell on and what your experiences turned out to be (if you still read this)