So I'm going to be joining a Dungeons of Drakkenheim game on Saturday, and I thought to try out a Paladin after so long because the Dungeon Dudes' subclass for it is really cool and really thematic to what I want to play. (Oath of Hexes Paladin of ((The)) Morrigan), an arbiter of fate and destiny.
But I keep running into a roadblock on what I want them to specialize in, or pursue; since right now I'm kinda confident I'm the only Tank (the other two known party members are a Ranger, slated to go Urban Ranger, and a Hexblade Warlock-- Who is currently being chastised for giving himself extra skills and gold-- so not sure if they are staying.)
My Race pick: Shadar-kai (MPMM version) We start at Level 1 We get a free feat at Level 1 Modified Array of: 17, 16, 15, 13, 11, 9
Going to be Weap & Shield, for concept reasons the weapon is going to be a Flail (Flail is part of the concept, no it wont be changing)
If you haven’t added in racial ability bonuses, I’d keep the same spread, and well, this is a tough choice. I could see 1 in str and 2 in con (only tank will want the hp) or use the 3 +1 option to round up str, cha and wis.
Is the level 1 feat any feat? As in, you could take a 1/2 feat? Because that could change things. Personally, I like fey touched on a pally (really, it’s a good feat for most people). Boost your cha and the movement from misty step is incredible. (Bonus points, it also applies to your mount when you get one.) Not sure about how your path works in that world if it would be thematic or not.
If you can do that, or something similar, I’d definitely go with the 1 str and 2 con.
As far as what to pursue or focus on, paladins just naturally end up tanky. Heavy armor, good hp, save aura, it’s unavoidable. And then you’ll also be great at single target burst damage with your smites.
Yeah, the 1st level feat isn't restricted, so 1/2 feats are open (Crusher was one I had an eye on for example)
And yeah that is a modified array from the DM, the +2/+1 - +1/+1/+1 hasn't been added to it.
I waaaaas looking at Fey Touched, the misty step is nice. I just wasn't sure if it was as necessary since Shadarkai get the Blessing of the Raven Queen teleport, which will increase in uses as I level, so I might not get as much use from it? But the extra spells would be nice, especially with the Divination/Enchantment pick atop Misty means I can get something like Gift of Alacrity or even Hex (to double down on Hexes Oath 'Warlock Paladin' feel)
Alright, that's fair, I just know if we lose the Hexlock I'm potentially the only tank and with not a lot of spells, wasn't sure what to focus on-- That's why I was trying to work on a shortlist.
My biggest annoyance with the Oath of Hexes is that you don't get... Hex as a spell. So I would be very interested in picking up hex via Fey Touched at level 1. Combined with eldritch blast you know have a very effective blasting paladin who never needs to buy a ranged weapon. The misty step will be redundant with Shadar Kai, but I would want hex.
Your current weapon plan allows for your bonus action to be clean, so misty steps are fine. Use it frequently to shift the battlefield.
Your modified array 17 16 15 13 11 9 are a lot of odd numbers. I would recommend evening as many as you reasonably can with your 1st level feat and ASI. Long term you want max str and cha with con following. I would probably dump dexterity and leave it at 9. Maybe start scores at Str 18(17+1) Dex 9 Con 16 (15+1) Int 11 Wis 13 Cha 18 (16+1+1 Fey Touched). I would rather have an 18 str, 16 con, 18 cha than a 20 in one of those at level 1.
Take either defense or dueling fighting style if you are going sword and board. Defense is always useful and as a tank being 1 AC higher is really important. Armor in Drakkenheim is expensive so you may not get full plate for awhile. Dueling is good, but if you find a two handed magic weapon you may end up wanting to swap out. You could take one of the reaction fighting styles but at 7th your Bewitching aura is going to be eating your reaction.
For damage you will be doing weapon + 4 (str) + 1d6 hex which is good damage for someone without a bonus action attack. The nice part about hex is it works with both your weapon and Eldritch blast. You won't ever get agonizing blast, but at 11th level you will do 3 attacks of 1d10+1d6 with EB and hex. That is better damage than you would get from most ranged options. I would recommend alternating between hex and bless at early levels. If your Ranger goes sharpshooter then stacking bless on there is really great and the combined damage boost from multiple characters being blessed more than makes up for the damage loss of casting it. With hex adding damage (possibly on top of dueling) your 1d8 flail damage will feel plenty robust. You will use EB for distance encounters and first round then space it so you can misty step in on round 2.
You will want to start combat without a weapon in hand so you can cast hex or eldritch blast or both. Then draw your weapon and start hitting things.
This does rather align nicely with things I'd been trying to think of; yeah the Fey Touched's Misty Step isn't amazing since I have the Shadar-Kai feature, but an extra use of 30 foot movement if an emergency arises is never bad. But it really is going to mostly be for Hex (I had thought Gift of Alacrity but I think Hex wins out).
I almost thought to go Shadow Touched instead, but Invisibility is even less helpful since I get that for a Hexes spell anyway aaaand the only Illusion/Necro spells I even think appealed would be Inflict Wounds and False Life-- Sooo yeah, Fey Touched wins in that argument.
I am thinking of getting Interception or Protection for a fighting style (hold on, bear with me), and trading it out for Duelling when I get to level 4 or 8 (probably 4), with the Martial Versatility option. Since by then hopefully the rest of the party are a little more able to fend for themselves and I'll have some more ways to keep them buffed and healed.
Bless for sure is going to be nigh irreplaceable... Though really my question for later is going to be feats more than anything. Cause I like having a 'plan' for them. Crusher, Charger (for the +5 damage), Mobile cause it does mesh with Charger nicely... Tough?... War Caster. There's so many, and not many slots to fill xD
Interception is better than protection, but still not very good. How often in combat are you next to an ally? As the tank, you’ll want to push out in front of your squishies and give them room to move around and cast their spells.
It might happen sometimes, but I’d rather take dueling or defense, as elfdope said. Those will come up pretty much every round.
How often? Well that I don't know, I've not played somebody whose needed to be near allies before so I never really paid attention... The Warlock seemed pretty adamant they'll be fine by themselves, since they've gone Hexblade, grabbed scale mail, and medium armor master. Fairly sure if I took Defense, we'd match on AC.
But the plan really is just to keep that until we get to level 4, for the squishies, and then swap over to duelling.
But you do make a good point, that extra damage early might be better off-- No need to defend if the bad guys are dead quicker.
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So I'm going to be joining a Dungeons of Drakkenheim game on Saturday, and I thought to try out a Paladin after so long because the Dungeon Dudes' subclass for it is really cool and really thematic to what I want to play. (Oath of Hexes Paladin of ((The)) Morrigan), an arbiter of fate and destiny.
But I keep running into a roadblock on what I want them to specialize in, or pursue; since right now I'm kinda confident I'm the only Tank
(the other two known party members are a Ranger, slated to go Urban Ranger, and a Hexblade Warlock-- Who is currently being chastised for giving himself extra skills and gold-- so not sure if they are staying.)
My Race pick: Shadar-kai (MPMM version)
We start at Level 1
We get a free feat at Level 1
Modified Array of: 17, 16, 15, 13, 11, 9
Going to be Weap & Shield, for concept reasons the weapon is going to be a Flail (Flail is part of the concept, no it wont be changing)
I’d go 17 str, 16 con, 15 cha, 13 wis, 11 dex, 9 int.
At level 4, round up str and cha.
If you haven’t added in racial ability bonuses, I’d keep the same spread, and well, this is a tough choice. I could see 1 in str and 2 in con (only tank will want the hp) or use the 3 +1 option to round up str, cha and wis.
Is the level 1 feat any feat? As in, you could take a 1/2 feat? Because that could change things. Personally, I like fey touched on a pally (really, it’s a good feat for most people). Boost your cha and the movement from misty step is incredible. (Bonus points, it also applies to your mount when you get one.) Not sure about how your path works in that world if it would be thematic or not.
If you can do that, or something similar, I’d definitely go with the 1 str and 2 con.
As far as what to pursue or focus on, paladins just naturally end up tanky. Heavy armor, good hp, save aura, it’s unavoidable. And then you’ll also be great at single target burst damage with your smites.
Yeah, the 1st level feat isn't restricted, so 1/2 feats are open (Crusher was one I had an eye on for example)
And yeah that is a modified array from the DM, the +2/+1 - +1/+1/+1 hasn't been added to it.
I waaaaas looking at Fey Touched, the misty step is nice. I just wasn't sure if it was as necessary since Shadarkai get the Blessing of the Raven Queen teleport, which will increase in uses as I level, so I might not get as much use from it? But the extra spells would be nice, especially with the Divination/Enchantment pick atop Misty means I can get something like Gift of Alacrity or even Hex (to double down on Hexes Oath 'Warlock Paladin' feel)
Alright, that's fair, I just know if we lose the Hexlock I'm potentially the only tank and with not a lot of spells, wasn't sure what to focus on-- That's why I was trying to work on a shortlist.
My biggest annoyance with the Oath of Hexes is that you don't get... Hex as a spell. So I would be very interested in picking up hex via Fey Touched at level 1. Combined with eldritch blast you know have a very effective blasting paladin who never needs to buy a ranged weapon. The misty step will be redundant with Shadar Kai, but I would want hex.
Your current weapon plan allows for your bonus action to be clean, so misty steps are fine. Use it frequently to shift the battlefield.
Your modified array 17 16 15 13 11 9 are a lot of odd numbers. I would recommend evening as many as you reasonably can with your 1st level feat and ASI. Long term you want max str and cha with con following. I would probably dump dexterity and leave it at 9. Maybe start scores at Str 18(17+1) Dex 9 Con 16 (15+1) Int 11 Wis 13 Cha 18 (16+1+1 Fey Touched). I would rather have an 18 str, 16 con, 18 cha than a 20 in one of those at level 1.
Take either defense or dueling fighting style if you are going sword and board. Defense is always useful and as a tank being 1 AC higher is really important. Armor in Drakkenheim is expensive so you may not get full plate for awhile. Dueling is good, but if you find a two handed magic weapon you may end up wanting to swap out. You could take one of the reaction fighting styles but at 7th your Bewitching aura is going to be eating your reaction.
For damage you will be doing weapon + 4 (str) + 1d6 hex which is good damage for someone without a bonus action attack. The nice part about hex is it works with both your weapon and Eldritch blast. You won't ever get agonizing blast, but at 11th level you will do 3 attacks of 1d10+1d6 with EB and hex. That is better damage than you would get from most ranged options. I would recommend alternating between hex and bless at early levels. If your Ranger goes sharpshooter then stacking bless on there is really great and the combined damage boost from multiple characters being blessed more than makes up for the damage loss of casting it. With hex adding damage (possibly on top of dueling) your 1d8 flail damage will feel plenty robust. You will use EB for distance encounters and first round then space it so you can misty step in on round 2.
You will want to start combat without a weapon in hand so you can cast hex or eldritch blast or both. Then draw your weapon and start hitting things.
This does rather align nicely with things I'd been trying to think of; yeah the Fey Touched's Misty Step isn't amazing since I have the Shadar-Kai feature, but an extra use of 30 foot movement if an emergency arises is never bad. But it really is going to mostly be for Hex (I had thought Gift of Alacrity but I think Hex wins out).
I almost thought to go Shadow Touched instead, but Invisibility is even less helpful since I get that for a Hexes spell anyway aaaand the only Illusion/Necro spells I even think appealed would be Inflict Wounds and False Life-- Sooo yeah, Fey Touched wins in that argument.
I am thinking of getting Interception or Protection for a fighting style (hold on, bear with me), and trading it out for Duelling when I get to level 4 or 8 (probably 4), with the Martial Versatility option. Since by then hopefully the rest of the party are a little more able to fend for themselves and I'll have some more ways to keep them buffed and healed.
Bless for sure is going to be nigh irreplaceable... Though really my question for later is going to be feats more than anything. Cause I like having a 'plan' for them. Crusher, Charger (for the +5 damage), Mobile cause it does mesh with Charger nicely... Tough?... War Caster. There's so many, and not many slots to fill xD
Interception is better than protection, but still not very good. How often in combat are you next to an ally? As the tank, you’ll want to push out in front of your squishies and give them room to move around and cast their spells.
It might happen sometimes, but I’d rather take dueling or defense, as elfdope said. Those will come up pretty much every round.
How often? Well that I don't know, I've not played somebody whose needed to be near allies before so I never really paid attention... The Warlock seemed pretty adamant they'll be fine by themselves, since they've gone Hexblade, grabbed scale mail, and medium armor master. Fairly sure if I took Defense, we'd match on AC.
But the plan really is just to keep that until we get to level 4, for the squishies, and then swap over to duelling.
But you do make a good point, that extra damage early might be better off-- No need to defend if the bad guys are dead quicker.