I would say that depends on how you want to play your Paladin, and if you want to consider Multiclassing.
Oath of Vengeance with Dual-Wielding is pretty strong. Their Channel Divinity power Vow of Emnity gives on-demand advantage for 1minute with no action cost, you can use Divine Favor and Hunter's Mark or Spirit Shroud on top of their class ability Divine Strikes for a lot of damage per hit. They also have an amazing extra spell list including great picks like Misty Step, Dimension Door, Haste, and even Hold Person andHold Monster.
If you want to go with a single weapon, either sword and board or a two-hander, I'd recommend looking at Oath of Devotion, especially when multiclassed with one level of Warlock for Pact of the Blade. Their Channel Divinty power Sacred Weapon lets you add your Charisma modifier to your damage rolls with one weapon. If you multiclass to get Pact of the Blade then max your charisma, you will be adding your Charisma mod of +5 to each hit with your weapon twice (not to mention having a great Aura of Protection).
If you want more battlefield control, Oath of the Ancients gives you a nice AoE battlefield control Channel Divinity in Nature's Wrath that restrains enemies within 30ft on a failed save. You also get a couple good spells like Misty Step, Moonbeam, and Plant Growth. This makes a pretty good frontline protector that can keep baddies away from the squishy casters.
Oath of Glory is kind of...meh...to me, but it has a couple interesting features like Aura of Alacrity which boosts the move speed of you and your nearby allies by 10ft. Their Channel Divinity option lets them give out some temporary HP when they Divine Smite, and their spell list has a couple decent pickups like Enhance Ability and Haste.
Overall, Paladins are going to be strong no matter what route you decide to go. Pure power wise, if you want the strongest damage dealer, I would probably go for a Dexterity-based, Dual-Wielding, Elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Give him Elven Accuracy, Dual Wielder, and watch enemies melt from all the extra radiant damage you get from Divine Strikes, Divine Favor, and Spirit Shroud.
The strongest paladin build is Oath of Vengeance with a Heavy Weapon. This is ignoring the rest of the party (when considering party, Oath of Devotion can be better if getting a lot of sources of advantage)
Early on two-weapon fighting does the most but two-weapon fighting falls off of a cliff around level 9, more so for Paladin as the bonus action is used for a lot of things, and so picking up the Dual Wielder Feat becomes a very questionable choice. Halberd gets just as many attacks, if not more attacks than two-weapon fighting once Polearm Master feat is taken however but that is against two or more hostile creatures.
The best build I made in theory crafting would be along the lines of:
Background: Entertainer (Musician Feat)
Starting ASI: STR 15+2(+3), DEX 10 (+0), CON 13 (+1), INT 8 (-1), WIS 12 (+1) CHA 14+1)
The main issue with this build is the HP is a little low for a tanky class like Paladin, a bulkier build is to take the farmer background (tough) and start with CON and CHA at 14 (+2) each, switch War Caster for Resilient (Constitution) and switch a strength feat (probably charger or combat prowess) for something to get another +1 constitution, does similar damage (slightly less) but the lower Charisma does mean slightly weaker spellcasting and Aura of Protection. Or sticking with the entertainer build, switching Charger or Combat Prowess for resilient constitution can really get insane concentration.
If not wanting to use polearms, take sentinel instead, sentinel on a Vengeance paladin gets really insane on almost guaranteeing a reaction attack.
Go paladin for 6 then Sorcerer 14. You get the best of both worlds and a decent foundation for duel wielder or GWM but with 2024's version GWM is mid. Go duel wielder for more consistent damage. Have one weapon with the nick property for the extra attack then the other with the vex property for getting advantage on the next attack. First attack with the vex weapon, get advantage on the next two with the nick property then use BA for a divine smite. Empowered Divine smite? Twinned Haste? Heightened hold person? Awesome.
Plus the ability to manipulate your own magic makes you a powerhouse. Even better? Be a Saytr or a Yuan-ti for Magic resistance
I would suggest the OP actually does some reading of the books to formulate what their question is really about.
All of the posts below were from 5 days ago, it seems as if you have no clear direction where to go or what you want. Forum niceity suggests having some form of idea before posting very vague questions shotgun style all over the boards, all that does is waste peoples time as you clearly aren't serious.
Please come back when you have a real question, or are you just trolling?
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A great one using the 2024 rules is the ‘Portal Paladin’
It consists of at least 3 levels in Archfey Warlock and at least 3 levels in Devotion Paladin. In addition you want to grab the Pact of The Blade which lets you attack using CHA like the Hexblade used to essentially allowing you to completely dump strength in favor of charisma. This combos amazingly with sacred weapon to essentially allowing you to be a Charismatic Powerhouse.
Archfey allows you to cast misty step a number of times equal to your CHA mod (min 1) and, at 3rd level, gain either temp Hitpoints or taunt them to give disadvantage when attacking anyone other than you - both of which pair great with a Paladin’s high Hitpoints and potentially high AC.
Plus Eldritch Blast and agonising blast gives paladins some much needed range. Take the Thirsting Blade and Devouring blade invocations for 3 attacks per turn without factoring in a paladins extra attack feature. After this, customisation works any way imaginable. Take life drinker to home in on high Hitpoints, or Devil’s Sight and cast darkness for insane attacking capability, or Lesson of The First Ones and lucky to get crazy accuracy.
But remember just straight paladin is amazing. Choose an option because you want to play it not because it has game breaking capability
The best one is the one you will have the most fun with. I like glory paladin because for me its strong and has much better role playing opportunities than the always angry and brooding vengeance paladin.
I will put my vote in for 13 glory paladin/7 divine soul sorcerer (for spirit guardians)
Using a heavy weapon with great weapon master feat and cleave mastery will always out damage two weapon fighting.
Quickened spell does ALOT to boost the paladins combat capabilities. I cant say enough about how good this works with the paladin.
On round 1, cast quickened haste spell and attack three times with a heavy weapon and maybe even a 4th attack with cleave. Each of those attacks adds 1d8 from radiant strikes at 11th level.
On round two you can start using your bonus action for smites using up to 7th level spell slots, or quickened true strike for a 4th attack on your turn (or a 5th attack if you can use cleave.) Quickened True strike adds up to 3d6 to your normal weapon damage and you get to add 1d8 from radiant strikes to it as well. On a hit Quickened true strike will out damage most of your smites.
At 13th level you get staggering smite which you can combine with metamagic Heightened Spell to give disadvantage on saves against the stunned condition. Its just a filthy combo. And the stunned lasts until the end of you NEXT turn. Thats better than monk.
Glory paladins temp hp from inspiring smites combined with bonus action lay on hands on yourself, or quickened cure wounds on yourself makes the build EXTREMELY Tanky while still being able to deal out excellent damage. That also why i like glory paladin. You have to be able to take damage as well as dish it out.
Using quickened spell on a fireball or the new chromatic orb spell (if you dont want to hit your allies with fireball) while you are hasted and still getting all your attacks can bring your damage into insane levels.
I am currently playing this build and its super fun for roleplaying but also mecahnically very strong.
Glory is not a great oath, the level 20 feature on any paladin subclass is not worth the loss of a better aura (like vengeance or conquest).
The “best” paladin build you can get will be a one or two level hexblade dip, putting all of your ability investment into charisma and then dex, and playing a hex-dexadin. This lets you play sword and board, spear and shield, rapier paladin, and also gives you range, more smite slots, and cantrips.
Sorcadin was a good callout, I’m a big fan of it. Paladin X/swashbuckler 3 is also a good multiclass. Two levels of fighter for action surge is always nice, and you could even justify a barbarian dip for rage.
For subclasses, Vengeance, Conquest, and Ancients are your best picks. Vengeance is better at soloing single targets, Conquest is amazing when paired with undead warlock but gets weaker at higher levels when more things are immune to being frightened, and Ancients is a crazy tank.
For weapons, you could go the Polearm Master/Sentinel route, pick up Great Weapon Master. Paladin is an all around really good class with healing, mild utility, tankiness, and great nova damage. I’m a big fan of dexadin, but polearms are kind of worth the feat investment.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
The “best” paladin build you can get will be a one or two level hexblade dip, putting all of your ability investment into charisma and then dex, and playing a hex-dexadin. This lets you play sword and board, spear and shield, rapier paladin, and also gives you range, more smite slots, and cantrips.
Are we talking 2014 or 2024? Looks like this is all 2014, I think that'd have been worth noting given most things are assumed to be 2024 now if not specified.
There is no reason to go DEX here, Other than a slight improvement to initiative and dex saves, you still need 13 strength for multiclassing Paladin and it's only 2 more points of Strength too get plate armor which is just simply higher AC. If you're min-maxing point buy you'd do 15 8 15 8 8 15, if you're using standard array then you'd do 14 10 13 8 12 15 , in either case you get a race that is +2 Charisma and +1 in constitution for point buy or either +1 in constitution or strength for standard array and ensure both are at 14, take an ASI at 4 to 15 strength and 18 charisma. Alterantively go for 15 strength off the bat and pick up resilient (constitution) at 4 for concentration saving throws... for if you want to keep buffs up.
Anything else would be sacrificing constitution for dexterity or plate armor for dexterity and I just don't think that is that great an option. If you're that bothered about initiative then get the alert feat instead for 2014.
I’m speaking for 2014 rules here, forgot to specify. Dexterity is just a better stat than strength, you won’t get plate armor until later (the cost is incredibly high and it’s not part of starting equipment) initiative is very important, and Dex saves are very common. I don’t see why you have to sacrifice constitution? If you’re using charisma for your attacks, the point of it is that you don’t need strength and can focus dexterity as your secondary stat, so your focus can be Charisma Dexterity Constitution Wisdom Strength Intelligence in that order, rather than having to invest more into strength. It also gives you better skills with charisma as your investment. Strength is really only useful if you’re using plate armor, a barbarian dip, or if you’re using two handed weapons. Hexblade warlock dip on a dexterity paladin is just objectively better. Alert feat is an investment you don’t need but is nice to have as well.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Plate doesn't come in that late, you can usually get it by around level 4 in a lot of campaigns. You ultimately still want plate. You can not lower strength to below 13, that is a multiclass requirement.
Plate doesn't come in that late, you can usually get it by around level 4 in a lot of campaigns. You ultimately still want plate. You can not lower strength to below 13, that is a multiclass requirement.
You can, if you start with paladin levels and then multiclass into hexblade. And even if you want plate, dexterity is just better for everything else. Strength will only be getting you plate armor, plus it gives you disadvantage on stealth, if you play a dexadin you can actually build for Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and multiclass into things that have features you can’t use with heavy armor.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Plate doesn't come in that late, you can usually get it by around level 4 in a lot of campaigns. You ultimately still want plate. You can not lower strength to below 13, that is a multiclass requirement.
You can, if you start with paladin levels and then multiclass into hexblade. And even if you want plate, dexterity is just better for everything else. Strength will only be getting you plate armor, plus it gives you disadvantage on stealth, if you play a dexadin you can actually build for Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and multiclass into things that have features you can’t use with heavy armor.
Multiclassing requires that you meet the ability score requirements for both classes. The order you take the classes doesn't matter (for that requirement specifically).
Plate doesn't come in that late, you can usually get it by around level 4 in a lot of campaigns. You ultimately still want plate. You can not lower strength to below 13, that is a multiclass requirement.
You can, if you start with paladin levels and then multiclass into hexblade. And even if you want plate, dexterity is just better for everything else. Strength will only be getting you plate armor, plus it gives you disadvantage on stealth, if you play a dexadin you can actually build for Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and multiclass into things that have features you can’t use with heavy armor.
Multiclassing requires that you meet the ability score requirements for both classes. The order you take the classes doesn't matter (for that requirement specifically).
That’s my fault, I’ve actually been misunderstanding multiclass rules this entire time 🤦♂️ but in either case, putting a 13 in strength and prioritizing dexterity is still the better way to go IMO.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
That’s my fault, I’ve actually been misunderstanding multiclass rules this entire time 🤦♂️ but in either case, putting a 13 in strength and prioritizing dexterity is still the better way to go IMO.
You don't have enough left over points for it tho, which was my initial point. Here is a break down of Strength with bare minimum and
That's 23 out of 27 points, so the most you could put into Dexterity is 4 points for 12, or a +1 modifier. You want your racial/lineage +2 to be in Charisma, so you'd only have the +1 to place into Dexterity, meaning your maximum Dexterity is a score of 13 or a +1 modifier. You can ASI at 4 for +1 Charisma +1Dexterity and get +4 and +2 modifiers respectively but that'd basically be it, you'd be done with Dexterity.
Instead you could go with 2 points in Strength to get the 14, place the +1 racial/lineage in there for a 15 and you've met Plate Requirements which is going to be more AC from around level 4 onwards, you have 2 left over points to place in either Dexterity or Wisdom. At level 4 you take Spell Sniper to get the +4 Charisma modifier and now you have literally better range since spell sniper and the only cost is slightly worse initiative and dexterity saving throws. Overall I don't think the DEX build is worth it when the STR/CHA build just gives more AC. since you are only juggling 3 attributes instead of 4, it's just simpler and easier to build around. As a further bonus, with the STR/CHA build, you can potentially get both Charisma and Constitution to 20 each at level 19 while still getting Spell Sniper and Resilient(Consitution) in the mix.
If you're that bothered about initiative then get the alert feat, it's +5 Initiative which is vastly more Initiative then any +DEX upgrade is going to give and it has the benefit that invisible creatures don't get advantage against you and you can't be surprised.
Or you could go 13 STR 14 DEX 13 CON 8 INT 9 WIS 15 CHA. You don’t need dexterity ridiculously high for your build to work because you’re using charisma for attacks. Just having it higher than strength is beneficial. I don’t know why you would want spell sniper? Especially if you have warlock levels. Just take an ASI or fey touched. Strength charisma build doesn’t give you significantly more AC without drawbacks and you aren’t using strength for anything else other than athletics checks since you have hexblade for your attack rolls. And you can take alert on top of your dex initiative. Alert is a great feat, yes, but investing in DEX is also worth it, they aren’t mutually exclusive.
Whether or not you get plate is up to the DM, but in base rules it’s 1,500 GP im pretty sure, so 4th level is pretty low to get it unless you’re stealing somehow or you have a nice DM. Without it, you can just wear medium armor and get an AC of 17 without a shield for like 45 GP.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Or you could go 13 STR 14 DEX 13 CON 8 INT 9 WIS 15 CHA. You don’t need dexterity ridiculously high for your build to work because you’re using charisma for attacks. Just having it higher than strength is beneficial. I don’t know why you would want spell sniper? Especially if you have warlock levels. Just take an ASI or fey touched. Strength charisma build doesn’t give you significantly more AC without drawbacks and you aren’t using strength for anything else other than athletics checks since you have hexblade for your attack rolls. And you can take alert on top of your dex initiative. Alert is a great feat, yes, but investing in DEX is also worth it, they aren’t mutually exclusive.
Whether or not you get plate is up to the DM, but in base rules it’s 1,500 GP im pretty sure, so 4th level is pretty low to get it unless you’re stealing somehow or you have a nice DM. Without it, you can just wear medium armor and get an AC of 17 without a shield for like 45 GP.
You've taken Warlock levels, you're going to take Eldritch Blast, you might take agonzing blast and you're doing effective damage at 120 foot, you can now go up to 180 foot and ignore half or three-quarters cover removing what is Paladin's biggest weakness, range. Add on to this Repelling blast and you can help keep things relatively further away from the party too making tanking just a bit easier. But mostly I just forgot the legacy version wasn't a half feat...
Fey Touched is just getting misty step and a 1st level spell which must be divination or enchantment.. that's not a great list considering half of the applicable spells are basically on the Paladin spell list anyways and some of the others are also on the warlock spell list... if you really wanted to optimise you go elf or half-elf and take Elven Accuracy since Advantage is now even stronger but that always feels broken to me, since your attack rolls rely on Charisma this just simply works.
And again, with sticking to Strength you can easily get to 15/10/20/8/8/20.
5th (if you go Paladin 12/Warlock 8 or Warlock 8/Paladin 12) ASI constitution 15/10/20/8/8/20.
That higher Constitution saving throw will leave you freely able to concentration on most spells rarely ever failing. At level 20 you'd have a minimum +16(+6+5+5) to constitution saving throws making your lowest roll possible a 17, you'd need to take 35/36 points of damage in a single hit/damage roll before you even need to roll for concentration. Alternatively you can shift back feats 3 and 4 and pick-up alert as the 3rd, you'd lose 1 constitution modifier but it'd still get that +5 initiative bonus.
If you are going to sacrifice the constitution, then I do have 1 multiclass build I played around with in the past for 2024 rules. https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/144572867/1iXqwd It starts as a Paladin, goes into Warlock and Finishes with Bard. Bard comes in to switch an attack with Eldritch Blast or another cantrip, the booming blade with a pike is one I'd love to try some day.
It's basically a 6 (paladin) 6 (warlock) 6 (bard) build, with 2 levels to put into any of the three. Paladin gives Immunity to Charmed, Bard gives 4th level Bard spells and Countercharm (not as good as immunity but you get more spells and slot progression) and Warlock gives 4th level Warlock spells and an extra invocation. I just went with Bard to finish making it an easy build that should be viable at basically any level, just get 6 levels of Paladin, then 6 levels of Warlock and then 8 levels of bard. You can take the 1st level of Warlock earlier if desiring the Pact of the Blade bonus earlier.
It's main pull is stacking Sacred Weapon on top of Pact of the Blade, so it's attack bonus gets quiet insane. This build has a lot of bonus action usage tho, so skipped PAM, can take PAM instead of GWM if wanting to try and bait the reactions via using pike to push creatures out of range and catch them on returning into range.
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What is the best paladin build?
I would say that depends on how you want to play your Paladin, and if you want to consider Multiclassing.
Oath of Vengeance with Dual-Wielding is pretty strong. Their Channel Divinity power Vow of Emnity gives on-demand advantage for 1minute with no action cost, you can use Divine Favor and Hunter's Mark or Spirit Shroud on top of their class ability Divine Strikes for a lot of damage per hit. They also have an amazing extra spell list including great picks like Misty Step, Dimension Door, Haste, and even Hold Person andHold Monster.
If you want to go with a single weapon, either sword and board or a two-hander, I'd recommend looking at Oath of Devotion, especially when multiclassed with one level of Warlock for Pact of the Blade. Their Channel Divinty power Sacred Weapon lets you add your Charisma modifier to your damage rolls with one weapon. If you multiclass to get Pact of the Blade then max your charisma, you will be adding your Charisma mod of +5 to each hit with your weapon twice (not to mention having a great Aura of Protection).
If you want more battlefield control, Oath of the Ancients gives you a nice AoE battlefield control Channel Divinity in Nature's Wrath that restrains enemies within 30ft on a failed save. You also get a couple good spells like Misty Step, Moonbeam, and Plant Growth. This makes a pretty good frontline protector that can keep baddies away from the squishy casters.
Oath of Glory is kind of...meh...to me, but it has a couple interesting features like Aura of Alacrity which boosts the move speed of you and your nearby allies by 10ft. Their Channel Divinity option lets them give out some temporary HP when they Divine Smite, and their spell list has a couple decent pickups like Enhance Ability and Haste.
Overall, Paladins are going to be strong no matter what route you decide to go. Pure power wise, if you want the strongest damage dealer, I would probably go for a Dexterity-based, Dual-Wielding, Elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Give him Elven Accuracy, Dual Wielder, and watch enemies melt from all the extra radiant damage you get from Divine Strikes, Divine Favor, and Spirit Shroud.
The strongest paladin build is Oath of Vengeance with a Heavy Weapon. This is ignoring the rest of the party (when considering party, Oath of Devotion can be better if getting a lot of sources of advantage)
Early on two-weapon fighting does the most but two-weapon fighting falls off of a cliff around level 9, more so for Paladin as the bonus action is used for a lot of things, and so picking up the Dual Wielder Feat becomes a very questionable choice. Halberd gets just as many attacks, if not more attacks than two-weapon fighting once Polearm Master feat is taken however but that is against two or more hostile creatures.
The best build I made in theory crafting would be along the lines of:
Background: Entertainer (Musician Feat)
Starting ASI: STR 15+2(+3), DEX 10 (+0), CON 13 (+1), INT 8 (-1), WIS 12 (+1) CHA 14+1)
Level 2: Fighting Style - Great Weapon Fighting
Level 3: Archetype/Subclass - Oath of Devotion
Level 4: Feat - Great Weapon Master (+1 Strength - 18)
Level 8: Feat - War Caster (+1 Charisma - 16)
Level 12: Feat - Polearm Master (+1 strength - 19)
Level 16: Feat - Charger (+1 Strength - 20)
Level 19: Feat - Combat Prowess (+1 Strength - 21)
Level 1 - 11 use a Greatsword
Level 12+ use a Glaive or Halberd
The main issue with this build is the HP is a little low for a tanky class like Paladin, a bulkier build is to take the farmer background (tough) and start with CON and CHA at 14 (+2) each, switch War Caster for Resilient (Constitution) and switch a strength feat (probably charger or combat prowess) for something to get another +1 constitution, does similar damage (slightly less) but the lower Charisma does mean slightly weaker spellcasting and Aura of Protection. Or sticking with the entertainer build, switching Charger or Combat Prowess for resilient constitution can really get insane concentration.
If not wanting to use polearms, take sentinel instead, sentinel on a Vengeance paladin gets really insane on almost guaranteeing a reaction attack.
adding a level or three of warlock makes any paladin better, imho...
Oath of Vengeance + Draconic Sorcerer
Go paladin for 6 then Sorcerer 14. You get the best of both worlds and a decent foundation for duel wielder or GWM but with 2024's version GWM is mid. Go duel wielder for more consistent damage. Have one weapon with the nick property for the extra attack then the other with the vex property for getting advantage on the next attack. First attack with the vex weapon, get advantage on the next two with the nick property then use BA for a divine smite. Empowered Divine smite? Twinned Haste? Heightened hold person? Awesome.
Plus the ability to manipulate your own magic makes you a powerhouse. Even better? Be a Saytr or a Yuan-ti for Magic resistance
I would suggest the OP actually does some reading of the books to formulate what their question is really about.
All of the posts below were from 5 days ago, it seems as if you have no clear direction where to go or what you want. Forum niceity suggests having some form of idea before posting very vague questions shotgun style all over the boards, all that does is waste peoples time as you clearly aren't serious.
Please come back when you have a real question, or are you just trolling?
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Life's hard - get a helmet!
A great one using the 2024 rules is the ‘Portal Paladin’
It consists of at least 3 levels in Archfey Warlock and at least 3 levels in Devotion Paladin. In addition you want to grab the Pact of The Blade which lets you attack using CHA like the Hexblade used to essentially allowing you to completely dump strength in favor of charisma. This combos amazingly with sacred weapon to essentially allowing you to be a Charismatic Powerhouse.
Archfey allows you to cast misty step a number of times equal to your CHA mod (min 1) and, at 3rd level, gain either temp Hitpoints or taunt them to give disadvantage when attacking anyone other than you - both of which pair great with a Paladin’s high Hitpoints and potentially high AC.
Plus Eldritch Blast and agonising blast gives paladins some much needed range. Take the Thirsting Blade and Devouring blade invocations for 3 attacks per turn without factoring in a paladins extra attack feature. After this, customisation works any way imaginable. Take life drinker to home in on high Hitpoints, or Devil’s Sight and cast darkness for insane attacking capability, or Lesson of The First Ones and lucky to get crazy accuracy.
But remember just straight paladin is amazing. Choose an option because you want to play it not because it has game breaking capability
The best one is the one you will have the most fun with. I like glory paladin because for me its strong and has much better role playing opportunities than the always angry and brooding vengeance paladin.
I will put my vote in for 13 glory paladin/7 divine soul sorcerer (for spirit guardians)
Using a heavy weapon with great weapon master feat and cleave mastery will always out damage two weapon fighting.
Quickened spell does ALOT to boost the paladins combat capabilities. I cant say enough about how good this works with the paladin.
On round 1, cast quickened haste spell and attack three times with a heavy weapon and maybe even a 4th attack with cleave. Each of those attacks adds 1d8 from radiant strikes at 11th level.
On round two you can start using your bonus action for smites using up to 7th level spell slots, or quickened true strike for a 4th attack on your turn (or a 5th attack if you can use cleave.) Quickened True strike adds up to 3d6 to your normal weapon damage and you get to add 1d8 from radiant strikes to it as well. On a hit Quickened true strike will out damage most of your smites.
At 13th level you get staggering smite which you can combine with metamagic Heightened Spell to give disadvantage on saves against the stunned condition. Its just a filthy combo. And the stunned lasts until the end of you NEXT turn. Thats better than monk.
Glory paladins temp hp from inspiring smites combined with bonus action lay on hands on yourself, or quickened cure wounds on yourself makes the build EXTREMELY Tanky while still being able to deal out excellent damage. That also why i like glory paladin. You have to be able to take damage as well as dish it out.
Using quickened spell on a fireball or the new chromatic orb spell (if you dont want to hit your allies with fireball) while you are hasted and still getting all your attacks can bring your damage into insane levels.
I am currently playing this build and its super fun for roleplaying but also mecahnically very strong.
My two cents.
I personally like the lvl 20 Glory feature, so I think the best build is just all the glory.
Respectfully,
Nanra
Glory is not a great oath, the level 20 feature on any paladin subclass is not worth the loss of a better aura (like vengeance or conquest).
The “best” paladin build you can get will be a one or two level hexblade dip, putting all of your ability investment into charisma and then dex, and playing a hex-dexadin. This lets you play sword and board, spear and shield, rapier paladin, and also gives you range, more smite slots, and cantrips.
Sorcadin was a good callout, I’m a big fan of it. Paladin X/swashbuckler 3 is also a good multiclass. Two levels of fighter for action surge is always nice, and you could even justify a barbarian dip for rage.
For subclasses, Vengeance, Conquest, and Ancients are your best picks. Vengeance is better at soloing single targets, Conquest is amazing when paired with undead warlock but gets weaker at higher levels when more things are immune to being frightened, and Ancients is a crazy tank.
For weapons, you could go the Polearm Master/Sentinel route, pick up Great Weapon Master. Paladin is an all around really good class with healing, mild utility, tankiness, and great nova damage. I’m a big fan of dexadin, but polearms are kind of worth the feat investment.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
making a smoothie for meta
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Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Are we talking 2014 or 2024? Looks like this is all 2014, I think that'd have been worth noting given most things are assumed to be 2024 now if not specified.
There is no reason to go DEX here, Other than a slight improvement to initiative and dex saves, you still need 13 strength for multiclassing Paladin and it's only 2 more points of Strength too get plate armor which is just simply higher AC. If you're min-maxing point buy you'd do 15 8 15 8 8 15, if you're using standard array then you'd do 14 10 13 8 12 15 , in either case you get a race that is +2 Charisma and +1 in constitution for point buy or either +1 in constitution or strength for standard array and ensure both are at 14, take an ASI at 4 to 15 strength and 18 charisma. Alterantively go for 15 strength off the bat and pick up resilient (constitution) at 4 for concentration saving throws... for if you want to keep buffs up.
Anything else would be sacrificing constitution for dexterity or plate armor for dexterity and I just don't think that is that great an option. If you're that bothered about initiative then get the alert feat instead for 2014.
I’m speaking for 2014 rules here, forgot to specify. Dexterity is just a better stat than strength, you won’t get plate armor until later (the cost is incredibly high and it’s not part of starting equipment) initiative is very important, and Dex saves are very common. I don’t see why you have to sacrifice constitution? If you’re using charisma for your attacks, the point of it is that you don’t need strength and can focus dexterity as your secondary stat, so your focus can be Charisma Dexterity Constitution Wisdom Strength Intelligence in that order, rather than having to invest more into strength. It also gives you better skills with charisma as your investment. Strength is really only useful if you’re using plate armor, a barbarian dip, or if you’re using two handed weapons. Hexblade warlock dip on a dexterity paladin is just objectively better. Alert feat is an investment you don’t need but is nice to have as well.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
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Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Plate doesn't come in that late, you can usually get it by around level 4 in a lot of campaigns. You ultimately still want plate. You can not lower strength to below 13, that is a multiclass requirement.
You can, if you start with paladin levels and then multiclass into hexblade. And even if you want plate, dexterity is just better for everything else. Strength will only be getting you plate armor, plus it gives you disadvantage on stealth, if you play a dexadin you can actually build for Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and multiclass into things that have features you can’t use with heavy armor.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
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Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
Multiclassing requires that you meet the ability score requirements for both classes. The order you take the classes doesn't matter (for that requirement specifically).
pronouns: he/she/they
That’s my fault, I’ve actually been misunderstanding multiclass rules this entire time 🤦♂️ but in either case, putting a 13 in strength and prioritizing dexterity is still the better way to go IMO.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
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Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
You don't have enough left over points for it tho, which was my initial point. Here is a break down of Strength with bare minimum and
Strength - minimum 13 (5 points)
Dexterity - ?
Constitution - recommend 15 (9 points)
Intelligence - 8 (0 points)
Wisdom - 8 (0 points)
Charisma - minimum 13 (5 points), recommend 15 (9 points)
That's 23 out of 27 points, so the most you could put into Dexterity is 4 points for 12, or a +1 modifier. You want your racial/lineage +2 to be in Charisma, so you'd only have the +1 to place into Dexterity, meaning your maximum Dexterity is a score of 13 or a +1 modifier. You can ASI at 4 for +1 Charisma +1Dexterity and get +4 and +2 modifiers respectively but that'd basically be it, you'd be done with Dexterity.
Instead you could go with 2 points in Strength to get the 14, place the +1 racial/lineage in there for a 15 and you've met Plate Requirements which is going to be more AC from around level 4 onwards, you have 2 left over points to place in either Dexterity or Wisdom. At level 4 you take Spell Sniper to get the +4 Charisma modifier and now you have literally better range since spell sniper and the only cost is slightly worse initiative and dexterity saving throws. Overall I don't think the DEX build is worth it when the STR/CHA build just gives more AC. since you are only juggling 3 attributes instead of 4, it's just simpler and easier to build around. As a further bonus, with the STR/CHA build, you can potentially get both Charisma and Constitution to 20 each at level 19 while still getting Spell Sniper and Resilient(Consitution) in the mix.
If you're that bothered about initiative then get the alert feat, it's +5 Initiative which is vastly more Initiative then any +DEX upgrade is going to give and it has the benefit that invisible creatures don't get advantage against you and you can't be surprised.
Or you could go 13 STR 14 DEX 13 CON 8 INT 9 WIS 15 CHA. You don’t need dexterity ridiculously high for your build to work because you’re using charisma for attacks. Just having it higher than strength is beneficial. I don’t know why you would want spell sniper? Especially if you have warlock levels. Just take an ASI or fey touched. Strength charisma build doesn’t give you significantly more AC without drawbacks and you aren’t using strength for anything else other than athletics checks since you have hexblade for your attack rolls. And you can take alert on top of your dex initiative. Alert is a great feat, yes, but investing in DEX is also worth it, they aren’t mutually exclusive.
Whether or not you get plate is up to the DM, but in base rules it’s 1,500 GP im pretty sure, so 4th level is pretty low to get it unless you’re stealing somehow or you have a nice DM. Without it, you can just wear medium armor and get an AC of 17 without a shield for like 45 GP.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
making a smoothie for meta
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Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
You've taken Warlock levels, you're going to take Eldritch Blast, you might take agonzing blast and you're doing effective damage at 120 foot, you can now go up to 180 foot and ignore half or three-quarters cover removing what is Paladin's biggest weakness, range. Add on to this Repelling blast and you can help keep things relatively further away from the party too making tanking just a bit easier. But mostly I just forgot the legacy version wasn't a half feat...
Fey Touched is just getting misty step and a 1st level spell which must be divination or enchantment.. that's not a great list considering half of the applicable spells are basically on the Paladin spell list anyways and some of the others are also on the warlock spell list... if you really wanted to optimise you go elf or half-elf and take Elven Accuracy since Advantage is now even stronger but that always feels broken to me, since your attack rolls rely on Charisma this just simply works.
And again, with sticking to Strength you can easily get to 15/10/20/8/8/20.
Start with 14+1/10/15/8/8/15+2
1st feat pick Charisma Half Feat 15/10/15/8/8/18
2nd feat pick Resilient Constitution 15/10/16/8/8/18
3rd feat pick ASI Charisma 15/10/16/8/8/20
4th feat pick ASI constitution 15/10/18/8/8/20
5th (if you go Paladin 12/Warlock 8 or Warlock 8/Paladin 12) ASI constitution 15/10/20/8/8/20.
That higher Constitution saving throw will leave you freely able to concentration on most spells rarely ever failing. At level 20 you'd have a minimum +16(+6+5+5) to constitution saving throws making your lowest roll possible a 17, you'd need to take 35/36 points of damage in a single hit/damage roll before you even need to roll for concentration. Alternatively you can shift back feats 3 and 4 and pick-up alert as the 3rd, you'd lose 1 constitution modifier but it'd still get that +5 initiative bonus.
If you are going to sacrifice the constitution, then I do have 1 multiclass build I played around with in the past for 2024 rules. https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/144572867/1iXqwd It starts as a Paladin, goes into Warlock and Finishes with Bard. Bard comes in to switch an attack with Eldritch Blast or another cantrip, the booming blade with a pike is one I'd love to try some day.
It's basically a 6 (paladin) 6 (warlock) 6 (bard) build, with 2 levels to put into any of the three. Paladin gives Immunity to Charmed, Bard gives 4th level Bard spells and Countercharm (not as good as immunity but you get more spells and slot progression) and Warlock gives 4th level Warlock spells and an extra invocation. I just went with Bard to finish making it an easy build that should be viable at basically any level, just get 6 levels of Paladin, then 6 levels of Warlock and then 8 levels of bard. You can take the 1st level of Warlock earlier if desiring the Pact of the Blade bonus earlier.
It's main pull is stacking Sacred Weapon on top of Pact of the Blade, so it's attack bonus gets quiet insane. This build has a lot of bonus action usage tho, so skipped PAM, can take PAM instead of GWM if wanting to try and bait the reactions via using pike to push creatures out of range and catch them on returning into range.