My current campaign is soon coming to a close and we are already looking to create characters for the next. I come here to ask for your advise on which oath I should choose for my new Paladin. I want to start by saying I am not too concerned with min-maxing as I know 5E does a pretty good job with balance for the most part. What I am mainly concerned with is balancing our party so that we are a cohesive unit and I have yet to play with such a small party so I am finding it difficult to come to a decision. There will be a total of 3 of us in this party and the other two have already locked in what they plan to play. We have an Eladrin Bard: College of Glamour and a Fire Genasi Wizard: School of Invention. Seeing as they are both full casters I knew I would have to play a front line class so I decided to go Paladin as they seem a good balance of front line tank, striker, and some helpful utility/support. Now with such a small party and being the only front line fighter I am stuck between going Oath of Vengeance or Oath of Conquest. Both of these oaths go well with the flavor of my character and her backstory so I'm mostly just trying to decide if focusing on my striker and damage capabilities with Vengeance would be more beneficial to my party than the control and tankiness of Conquest. If anyone has played either oath and would like to offer their experiences with their play styles or general advice it would go a long way in helping me decide. It should be stated that this would be my first tanky character so any advice on their play style would be greatly appreciated as well.
Well, if you really want to tank, Oath of Ancients's level 7 aura is pretty great (spell damage is automatically halved for both you and allies within 10ft?!), but that's not what you asked, haha.
A tank's main job is to keep damage off other party members. You will automatically do this by level 6 by boosting the saving throws on nearby allies, but as far as class abilities go, I feel it all depends on what type of strategies you'd find most enjoyable and what will mesh with the rest of the party. It sounds like your wizard and bard are going to be big into battlefield control (though I can't say I know much about school of invention) so unless you're going to have a heavy-hitter/fireballer, I might suggest focusing on inflicting damage. As long as you have a decent AC and some spare lay-on-hands points, you can easily fulfill other roles as well. Unless you plan on playing your characters into later levels, I'd focus mostly on your channel divinity options and level 7 aura ability (which gives an always active bonus). Long story short, would you rather focus down one enemy at a time or have the option of spreading your attention to multiple targets at once?
As far as Chanel divinity goes, Vengeance is great versus single enemies/bosses as your channel divinity give you advantage for a whole minute or halve the speed of a fleeing target. A lot of the spells and abilities seem very 1v1 focused and you have potential to keep the boss very occupied with your smites while other party members attack from a distance. The level 7 aura lets you chase down an enemy that provokes an attack of opportunity which can be nice but can only affect one enemy per turn.
Conquest gives a flavor of battlefield control which, especially with a glamor bard, doesn't feel as relevant. Conquest's level 7 aura is really neat when conditions are met, but enemies must be frightened by you for it to work. Your bard will be able to cast command as a bonus action by level 6 and direction enemies to do all manner of things. But you also get spiritual weapon at level 5. This lets you make attacks from far away (for a paladin, anyway) using only your bonus action. It can't deliver smites, but it can keep minions busy. Command is another spell you get that can keep enemies away but, like I said, your bard will probably be using it a lot later on.
I wouldn’t overly worry about it. Choose the one that seems like the most fun and it will work out. I know that it isn’t the most helpful advice, but it’s usually true.
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Hey everyone!
My current campaign is soon coming to a close and we are already looking to create characters for the next. I come here to ask for your advise on which oath I should choose for my new Paladin. I want to start by saying I am not too concerned with min-maxing as I know 5E does a pretty good job with balance for the most part. What I am mainly concerned with is balancing our party so that we are a cohesive unit and I have yet to play with such a small party so I am finding it difficult to come to a decision. There will be a total of 3 of us in this party and the other two have already locked in what they plan to play. We have an Eladrin Bard: College of Glamour and a Fire Genasi Wizard: School of Invention. Seeing as they are both full casters I knew I would have to play a front line class so I decided to go Paladin as they seem a good balance of front line tank, striker, and some helpful utility/support. Now with such a small party and being the only front line fighter I am stuck between going Oath of Vengeance or Oath of Conquest. Both of these oaths go well with the flavor of my character and her backstory so I'm mostly just trying to decide if focusing on my striker and damage capabilities with Vengeance would be more beneficial to my party than the control and tankiness of Conquest. If anyone has played either oath and would like to offer their experiences with their play styles or general advice it would go a long way in helping me decide. It should be stated that this would be my first tanky character so any advice on their play style would be greatly appreciated as well.
Well, if you really want to tank, Oath of Ancients's level 7 aura is pretty great (spell damage is automatically halved for both you and allies within 10ft?!), but that's not what you asked, haha.
A tank's main job is to keep damage off other party members. You will automatically do this by level 6 by boosting the saving throws on nearby allies, but as far as class abilities go, I feel it all depends on what type of strategies you'd find most enjoyable and what will mesh with the rest of the party. It sounds like your wizard and bard are going to be big into battlefield control (though I can't say I know much about school of invention) so unless you're going to have a heavy-hitter/fireballer, I might suggest focusing on inflicting damage. As long as you have a decent AC and some spare lay-on-hands points, you can easily fulfill other roles as well. Unless you plan on playing your characters into later levels, I'd focus mostly on your channel divinity options and level 7 aura ability (which gives an always active bonus). Long story short, would you rather focus down one enemy at a time or have the option of spreading your attention to multiple targets at once?
As far as Chanel divinity goes, Vengeance is great versus single enemies/bosses as your channel divinity give you advantage for a whole minute or halve the speed of a fleeing target. A lot of the spells and abilities seem very 1v1 focused and you have potential to keep the boss very occupied with your smites while other party members attack from a distance. The level 7 aura lets you chase down an enemy that provokes an attack of opportunity which can be nice but can only affect one enemy per turn.
Conquest gives a flavor of battlefield control which, especially with a glamor bard, doesn't feel as relevant. Conquest's level 7 aura is really neat when conditions are met, but enemies must be frightened by you for it to work. Your bard will be able to cast command as a bonus action by level 6 and direction enemies to do all manner of things. But you also get spiritual weapon at level 5. This lets you make attacks from far away (for a paladin, anyway) using only your bonus action. It can't deliver smites, but it can keep minions busy. Command is another spell you get that can keep enemies away but, like I said, your bard will probably be using it a lot later on.
I wouldn’t overly worry about it. Choose the one that seems like the most fun and it will work out. I know that it isn’t the most helpful advice, but it’s usually true.