Yes / No. Paladin has a very messy action economy and its main source of dealing damage doesn't care that you're a Paladin. If you can multiclass as a Paladin, there's a point where you're better off taking as many non-paladin levels (Bard, Sorc) fullcaster, as possible, because both the utility and damage your get from higher level spellcasting is a lot stronger than Radiant Strikes or Abjure Foes (Tasha's Mind Whip+).
Even Find Steed scales entirely off spell level, lol.
Just because you CAN get more from mixing and matching, doesn't make the class broken. A pure class paladin, is solidly in the middle when it comes to throughput when compared to other pure class characters.
Just to add to this point. Paladin was seen as one of the strongest classes in 2014 and it's DPR didn't touch the power gamer builds. Taking like 4 dips (including grave domain cleric) where you can theoretically do over 1k damage in a single hit...
Just because broken builds exist on paper, it doesn't mean they actually perform well or should ever be played. Usually these builds end out being situational at best and just stupidly awful in practice. They also under perform until you get to like Tier 3 or even Tier 4, people acting like lower tiers don't matter is also problematic as lower tiers are generally the most played tiers.
Yes / No. Paladin has a very messy action economy and its main source of dealing damage doesn't care that you're a Paladin. If you can multiclass as a Paladin, there's a point where you're better off taking as many non-paladin levels (Bard, Sorc) fullcaster, as possible, because both the utility and damage your get from higher level spellcasting is a lot stronger than Radiant Strikes or Abjure Foes (Tasha's Mind Whip+).
Even Find Steed scales entirely off spell level, lol.
Just because you CAN get more from mixing and matching, doesn't make the class broken.
All of the Paladins features or spells don't care if you're a Paladin, either scaling off Charisma or Spell Slot Level. Its not that Paladins "get-more" from multiclassing, the class' structural issues make playing pure Paladin the worst way to play Paladin, even if they're both just hitting & smiting.
One element of 5e24's marketing was to "protect" class identity; Wizards can use Wish to cast Find Steed at 9th spell level; Paladins, at best, can spend a year of in-game crafting to create an enspelled item to cast Find Steed at 8th level (lol), or multiclass to compete at what's supposed to be "their" thing. There's clearly a design flaw by making the bulk of a Paladin's class identity revolve around spellcasting from the ground up, and it shows up at every tier of play.
A pure class paladin, is solidly in the middle when it comes to throughout when compared to other pure class characters. That makes it just fine.
Treantmonk's videos revolve around single target damage; not utility, control or aoe damage. Your Paladin at the table to even maintain damage is going to be using an action to attack the enemy (Attack action), cast <insert> smite (the Bonus action), and burn a limited resource each turn (their entire turn, and only on their turn), to deal adequate single target damage; being "in the middle" is crippling when the base class' core design is so restrictive in how you build or play it.
To put it this way: 2014 Paladin could use Thunderous Smite on a reaction attack; the 2024 Paladin can't.
The smite spells are both better and worse now, while at the same time, being significantly more restrictive than every other on-hit effect in the game for "in the middle" results.
Not liking the design is fair. Saying the performace is inadequate is not fair. And it's certainly not as bad as some others in this thread will have you believe.
That makes paladin...fine.
Its inadequate because of its design; its action economy is limited in ways that the other classes just aren't, making a difference between being a "good" or "bad" subclass for it revolve around whether or not the feature is a free action (see: Devotion/Vengeance) or not (Glory/Ancients); while being a half-caster immediately puts pressure on how the class specific spells are designed around the existence of fullcaster class options / spellcasting and (non-optional) multiclass.
Find Steed shouldn't be a Wish target; Banishing Smite is bad for 17th level spell. Oath of Glory should be deleted; Paladins should have features at the end of T2 into T3 that interact with their spellcasting to improve it (if they're going to be half-casters, THEY NEED features like that). Instead, the Paladin is designed entirely around Aura of Protection and is stuffed with bad to mediocre player options from level 6 on.
So I'd say its bad, not good, by virtue of design. Being playable shouldn't be the only benchmark for any class in D&D, fun and rewarding should be.
Treeantmonk was also only using half his spells as DPS. He could get more DPS out of it by using them all. Again, paladin is fine and the numbers support that conclusion. It is 100% adequate.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
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Just to add to this point. Paladin was seen as one of the strongest classes in 2014 and it's DPR didn't touch the power gamer builds. Taking like 4 dips (including grave domain cleric) where you can theoretically do over 1k damage in a single hit...
Just because broken builds exist on paper, it doesn't mean they actually perform well or should ever be played. Usually these builds end out being situational at best and just stupidly awful in practice. They also under perform until you get to like Tier 3 or even Tier 4, people acting like lower tiers don't matter is also problematic as lower tiers are generally the most played tiers.
Treeantmonk was also only using half his spells as DPS. He could get more DPS out of it by using them all. Again, paladin is fine and the numbers support that conclusion. It is 100% adequate.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha