There are great things about all of them. I've said this once and I'll say it again, though, that being an ancients paladin is great...halved spell damage is amazing.
I'm going with Crown. It may not be the most mechanically powerful of the Oaths, but it's got nice flavor to it all the same. n.n
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
Toss up between Crown, Conquest or Ancients. I just like them conceptually as a further departure from the more god-driven paladins of yesteryears. I don't have anything against them, it just makes these paladins feel more fresh and the oaths I listed have the most room for it.
I voted Crown though, because that most allows you to build a historical paladin.
Conquest is so much fun, forget sacking the dungeon, my blue dragonborn went into a Kobold lair and took over. I now enjoy regular tribute from my adoring subjects and got a sweet lair to plot my diabolical deeds from.
I like conquest. Has a fun edge lord dark knight vibe and a fun and flavorful play style that has you actively dominating the battlefield through fear. It has decent subclass features all round - useful spells, channels, aura, lv15 feature, and capstone - where most other oaths have at least one or two dud features. It meaningfully changes the play style and build priorities of the parent class - at least once you have the level 7 aura. It recontextualizes some of the paladin's class features that are normally somewhat underwhelming - not just Aura of Courage which makes their Fear spell much easier to position, but also mid level offensive spells that other paladins, with less reason to raise charisma early, often don't have the spell attack and save DC values to fully exploit.
It also addresses one of my few complaints about the Paladin class as written, that the heavy emphasis on divine smite powered by a limited half-caster supply of daily spell slots can lead to paladins that hoard their resources through most attrition encounters - making those encounters take longer and drain more party resources than they otherwise should - and then burn through smites as fast as possible in climactic boss encounters - which hogs the limelight and ends fun exciting encounters too fast. Paladins of all oaths do have channel divinities for an extra boost that refreshes on a short rest - but some oaths have underwhelming channels, and some others are good, but take the form of another stacking damage buff that many paladin players again feel inclined to save for 'an important fight'.
The Conqueror's signature ability, Aura of Conquest works best in exactly the attrition mob fights where smite-hoarding paladins can under perform, providing a control effect that helps conserve the resources of other party members. The Aura only works if the paladin frightens enemies first, which specifically encourages them to use their channel divinity early, and to spend daily spell slots on spells like Wrathful Smite and Fear, in each combat, spreading their daily resources out over the course of the day. "Boss" encounters often have strong wisdom saves or even outright immunity to frighten, forcing conquerors to revert to a more typical, smite-based damage dealing approach, but by that point they've already spent several of their spell slots, so they shouldn't have enough left over to go nova and smite the fun climactic encounter into oblivion anyway.
I really like the Conquest Paladin because of two things: Roleplay and Combat. Not only are they fun as hell to play since you are this dark knight that everyone is frightened of and basically your very own presence is menacing. One of the best moment's i've had as a conquest paladin was when a dragon was wrecking my party and when my paladin arrived at the battlefield i used channel divinity to use Conquering Presence on the dragon and it failed the save. It was so cool to see the dragon cower and freeze in fear as you glare it down because you just arrived while everyone else were trying desperately to kill it. Not to mention that you are still a paladin and you'd do insane damage during combat when needed with your smites.
I'm playing one in Avernus, which is near about the worst pre-published campaign for the oath of conquest. But it's about the best campaign for a paladin, so the character is still quite effective overall. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. Conquest isn't just my favorite paladin oath, it's my favorite subclass in 5e, period. No other subclass changes the tone and play style of it's parent class while simultaneously elevating under used parent class mechanics like conquest does, and no other subclass has mechanics that so perfectly blends its narrative concept and moment to moment game play experience.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This is the last one.
There are great things about all of them. I've said this once and I'll say it again, though, that being an ancients paladin is great...halved spell damage is amazing.
ancients paladin is definitely my favourite
I'm going with Crown. It may not be the most mechanically powerful of the Oaths, but it's got nice flavor to it all the same. n.n
Working on a supplement for the adventure-minded. A project including (and crediting) homebrew subclasses from the community, a world of my own design, premade characters, magic items, and even a prologue adventure to start things off!
Past and Current Characters: Morgann 'Duskspear' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Paladin/Fighter/Warlock; Ephemeral 'Skye' Solbeard, Hill Dwarf Artificer; Zaldrick Lawscrip of Orzhov, Hobgoblin Wizard; Eremys Spydrun, Shadar'kai Monk; Cuchulainn, Wood Elf Blood Hunter.
I can't decide between Ancients, and Devotion... I guess I'll go Devotion.
I can't decide between Ancients and Devotion... I guess I'll go Devotion.
Call me old fashioned, but I am still an Oath of Devotion fan. It just seems more... Paladiny...
Sorry, just realized that it glitched and posted that twice.
Toss up between Crown, Conquest or Ancients. I just like them conceptually as a further departure from the more god-driven paladins of yesteryears. I don't have anything against them, it just makes these paladins feel more fresh and the oaths I listed have the most room for it.
I voted Crown though, because that most allows you to build a historical paladin.
Conquest is so much fun, forget sacking the dungeon, my blue dragonborn went into a Kobold lair and took over. I now enjoy regular tribute from my adoring subjects and got a sweet lair to plot my diabolical deeds from.
Vengence is the best
Devotion. Ancients is more powerful, but I like the abilities Devotion gives.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Conquest. People are so scared they can't move.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I like conquest. Has a fun edge lord dark knight vibe and a fun and flavorful play style that has you actively dominating the battlefield through fear. It has decent subclass features all round - useful spells, channels, aura, lv15 feature, and capstone - where most other oaths have at least one or two dud features. It meaningfully changes the play style and build priorities of the parent class - at least once you have the level 7 aura. It recontextualizes some of the paladin's class features that are normally somewhat underwhelming - not just Aura of Courage which makes their Fear spell much easier to position, but also mid level offensive spells that other paladins, with less reason to raise charisma early, often don't have the spell attack and save DC values to fully exploit.
It also addresses one of my few complaints about the Paladin class as written, that the heavy emphasis on divine smite powered by a limited half-caster supply of daily spell slots can lead to paladins that hoard their resources through most attrition encounters - making those encounters take longer and drain more party resources than they otherwise should - and then burn through smites as fast as possible in climactic boss encounters - which hogs the limelight and ends fun exciting encounters too fast. Paladins of all oaths do have channel divinities for an extra boost that refreshes on a short rest - but some oaths have underwhelming channels, and some others are good, but take the form of another stacking damage buff that many paladin players again feel inclined to save for 'an important fight'.
The Conqueror's signature ability, Aura of Conquest works best in exactly the attrition mob fights where smite-hoarding paladins can under perform, providing a control effect that helps conserve the resources of other party members. The Aura only works if the paladin frightens enemies first, which specifically encourages them to use their channel divinity early, and to spend daily spell slots on spells like Wrathful Smite and Fear, in each combat, spreading their daily resources out over the course of the day. "Boss" encounters often have strong wisdom saves or even outright immunity to frighten, forcing conquerors to revert to a more typical, smite-based damage dealing approach, but by that point they've already spent several of their spell slots, so they shouldn't have enough left over to go nova and smite the fun climactic encounter into oblivion anyway.
I really like the Conquest Paladin because of two things: Roleplay and Combat. Not only are they fun as hell to play since you are this dark knight that everyone is frightened of and basically your very own presence is menacing. One of the best moment's i've had as a conquest paladin was when a dragon was wrecking my party and when my paladin arrived at the battlefield i used channel divinity to use Conquering Presence on the dragon and it failed the save. It was so cool to see the dragon cower and freeze in fear as you glare it down because you just arrived while everyone else were trying desperately to kill it. Not to mention that you are still a paladin and you'd do insane damage during combat when needed with your smites.
I'm playing one in Avernus, which is near about the worst pre-published campaign for the oath of conquest. But it's about the best campaign for a paladin, so the character is still quite effective overall. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. Conquest isn't just my favorite paladin oath, it's my favorite subclass in 5e, period. No other subclass changes the tone and play style of it's parent class while simultaneously elevating under used parent class mechanics like conquest does, and no other subclass has mechanics that so perfectly blends its narrative concept and moment to moment game play experience.