I have come up with two ideas for fixing what are Paladin's two weakest features (in my opinion) and wanted to check what others think of these homebrew ideas. Unfortunately I don't see an obvious way to create Homebrew Features.
Homebrew Paladin's Smite
You always have the Divine Smite spell prepared. In addition, you can cast it without expending a spell slot or using a bonus action, but you can cast no other spell that is activated on hit on the same round, such as another smite spell, if you have already cast such a spell then you can not benefit from casting Divine Smite in this way on the same round. you must finish a Short or Long Rest or as a bonus action sacrifice a 2nd level or higher spell slot before you can cast it in this way again.
What I believe this fixes
- Divine Smite being underwhelming when compared to other smite spells, just more damage (a higher number), no flavour outside of subclass features (Which is just Glory 3 or Devotion 15). Early on it might be a little bit OP'ed but it does not scale, remaining as a 1st level divine smite at any given level, it only gets stronger with getting 2nd level spells slots and taking short rests.
- The free casting being near useless past level 4/5. If you pick up 2 weapons, a 2 handed weapon or spear/quarterstaff and shield, often just performing an extra BA attack yields more damage than a 1st level divine smite even when making another attack does not guarantee damage but Divine Smite does. Currently it's still a crit-fishing ability but with how the BA gets consumed on Paladin, it can be difficult at all to use, do you critical hit on the same round you cast Divine Favor/Spirit Shroud/Elemental Weapon/Holy Weapon? You can not smite at all.
Why 2nd level spell slots? Because there is a cost to casting a 1st level spell in this way. It keeps the overall uses limited and most people won't want to do the recharge while in combat unless they really have no other BA to use. Maybe having this AND short rest recovery is too much, not certain on this but it needs at least one of these two options.
Homebrew Faithful Steed
You can call on the aid of an otherworldly steed. You always have the Find Steed spell prepared.
You can also cast the spell once without expending a spell slot, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a Long Rest. When you reach Paladin level 9 you can perform this free casting as a 3rd level spell, a 4th level spell when you reach paladin level 13, a 5th level spell you reach paladin level 17 or a 6th level spell when you reach paladin level 20
What I believe this fixes
- Faithful Steed becomes a lot less useful once you reach paladin level 9, do you want a Steed cast at 2nd level for free or a Steed cast at 3rd level but using a spell slot? Well you can cast it when in town... at the end of the day before a long rest. The free casting is only good when you lose your steed and that isn't something you'd do in battle to begin with, nobody is going to want to face a CR20 Creature using a 2nd level Find Steed.
- Adding a 6th level casting gives a steed more capable of surviving in encounters vs. CR20+ creatures, since it's limited to this ability, it can't be used for powering over spells, it is limited to the steed.
Faithful Steed seems ok, but Divine Smite is OP... I'm confused on why the short or long rest if you cast it without a spell slot and always have it prepared?
Yeah, I guess that is a bit weird, it could also go off of PB times per long rest, but once per long rest is not enough for a feature like this, nor is just preparing a singular spell.
(Edit: noticed a spacing issue, not sure why I didn't see it before, so I updated it.)
Since you can only expend one spell slot per turn to cast a spell anyways, this seemed the most simple solution, text-wise, without dramatically changing game-balace (oh, no, the smite spells can be used on an opportunity attack, like weapon mastery, the horror).
The only reason I added a level restriction was deter fullcasting multiclassing using the same benefit (a tip for anyone on the development team, scaling / improved features on half-casters are good)
For Faithful Steed, I didn't care as must to actually do anything with it... but if I did:
I'd probably just add half-your-proficiency (round down) to any casting of it on the Faithful Steed feature itself - it would make it more competitive / equivalent to my halfcaster worst enemy, the fullcaster multiclass.
Level 5, spell or once per day free cast +1 (you could probably lock this benefit to another "Improved" feature at Paladin level 9, since the benefit here is super small till level 9 for the actual Paladin).
Level 9, spell or once per day free cast +2 (we can fly now too, Bards/Sorcs, take that)
Level 17, spell or once per day free cast +3 (Not quite Wish, but it will do.
Since you can only expend one spell slot per turn to cast a spell anyways, this seemed the most simple solution, text-wise, without dramatically changing game-balace (oh, no, the smite spells can be used on an opportunity attack, like weapon mastery, the horror).
The only reason I added a level restriction was deter fullcasting multiclassing using the same benefit (a tip for anyone on the development team, scaling / improved features on half-casters are good)
For Faithful Steed, I didn't care as must to actually do anything with it... but if I did:
I'd probably just add half-your-proficiency (round down) to any casting of it on the Faithful Steed feature itself - it would make it more competitive / equivalent to my halfcaster worst enemy, the fullcaster multiclass.
Level 5, spell or once per day free cast +1 (you could probably lock this benefit to another "Improved" feature at Paladin level 9, since the benefit here is super small till level 9 for the actual Paladin).
Level 9, spell or once per day free cast +2 (we can fly now too, Bards/Sorcs, take that)
Level 17, spell or once per day free cast +3 (Not quite Wish, but it will do.
Saving text on a feature is my joy to do.
So you're just giving divine smite every round without expending spell slots? Since it's only 2d8 and costing a bonus action, doesn't seem too crazy actually, I'd even say it's less damage than PAM gives, certainly once you get Radiant Strikes, Pole Strike from PAM will add more, even with the chance to miss and it'd move Paladin back to being more sword and board than polearms or two weapons.
For Faithful steed, we could just drop adding half-proficiency and give it as a proficiency level, it does mean it'd be 1 level higher than you can cast as a pure paladin but ultimately, I don't think it actually would be broken. Level 5 = 3rd level, 9 gives 4th, 13 gives 5th and 17 gives 6th. That is actually a lot shorter.
So you're just giving divine smite every round without expending spell slots? Since it's only 2d8 and costing a bonus action, doesn't seem too crazy actually, I'd even say it's less damage than PAM gives, certainly once you get Radiant Strikes, Pole Strike from PAM will add more, even with the chance to miss and it'd move Paladin back to being more sword and board than polearms or two weapons.
You could still upcast it, but by Paladin level 9+ you're just essentially giving the Paladin the option of doing whatever they want with the BA.
For the most part a single instance per turn of damage (whether on the Attack action, Bonus Action, or an Opportunity attack) to a single target is pretty tame with the changes to Spellcasting in the 2024 phb.
Some things do get stronger (say, Inspiring Smite becomes a free action, rather than locked into Divine Smite's BA), the once per day regular Divine Smite ends up also being available (as it doesn’t use a spell slot), etc, but I feel like the strongest thing a Paladin can do after using a spell slot just becomes LoH in 2024.
For Faithful steed, we could just drop adding half-proficiency and give it as a proficiency level.
That's also fine. As far features go, Faithful Steed is an uphill battle - because of what Find Steed (2024) is: a permanent summon. The idea that Paladins need an entire baseclass feature dedicated to a spell they can prepare once every 4 or so levels (to upcast) is just so bizarre in 2024 PHB.
It doesn't help that multiclass rules create a scenario in where the spell works better when the Paladin takes on a fullcaster's spell progression, or as a Wish target.
It feels while it seems the design team just wants every Wizard to be Vnger on a flying horse. But that's the end of spiel on that for a few months when the Eberron book gives it to every fullcaster out of the gate, lol.
Find Steed's got to be the least Faithful Steed in existence.
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I have come up with two ideas for fixing what are Paladin's two weakest features (in my opinion) and wanted to check what others think of these homebrew ideas. Unfortunately I don't see an obvious way to create Homebrew Features.
Homebrew Paladin's Smite
What I believe this fixes
- Divine Smite being underwhelming when compared to other smite spells, just more damage (a higher number), no flavour outside of subclass features (Which is just Glory 3 or Devotion 15). Early on it might be a little bit OP'ed but it does not scale, remaining as a 1st level divine smite at any given level, it only gets stronger with getting 2nd level spells slots and taking short rests.
- The free casting being near useless past level 4/5. If you pick up 2 weapons, a 2 handed weapon or spear/quarterstaff and shield, often just performing an extra BA attack yields more damage than a 1st level divine smite even when making another attack does not guarantee damage but Divine Smite does. Currently it's still a crit-fishing ability but with how the BA gets consumed on Paladin, it can be difficult at all to use, do you critical hit on the same round you cast Divine Favor/Spirit Shroud/Elemental Weapon/Holy Weapon? You can not smite at all.
Why 2nd level spell slots? Because there is a cost to casting a 1st level spell in this way. It keeps the overall uses limited and most people won't want to do the recharge while in combat unless they really have no other BA to use. Maybe having this AND short rest recovery is too much, not certain on this but it needs at least one of these two options.
Homebrew Faithful Steed
What I believe this fixes
- Faithful Steed becomes a lot less useful once you reach paladin level 9, do you want a Steed cast at 2nd level for free or a Steed cast at 3rd level but using a spell slot? Well you can cast it when in town... at the end of the day before a long rest. The free casting is only good when you lose your steed and that isn't something you'd do in battle to begin with, nobody is going to want to face a CR20 Creature using a 2nd level Find Steed.
- Adding a 6th level casting gives a steed more capable of surviving in encounters vs. CR20+ creatures, since it's limited to this ability, it can't be used for powering over spells, it is limited to the steed.
Faithful Steed seems ok, but Divine Smite is OP... I'm confused on why the short or long rest if you cast it without a spell slot and always have it prepared?
Yeah, I guess that is a bit weird, it could also go off of PB times per long rest, but once per long rest is not enough for a feature like this, nor is just preparing a singular spell.
I did something similar for Paladin's Smite a while ago:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/feats/2037624-improved-paladins-smite
(Edit: noticed a spacing issue, not sure why I didn't see it before, so I updated it.)
Since you can only expend one spell slot per turn to cast a spell anyways, this seemed the most simple solution, text-wise, without dramatically changing game-balace (oh, no, the smite spells can be used on an opportunity attack, like weapon mastery, the horror).
The only reason I added a level restriction was deter fullcasting multiclassing using the same benefit (a tip for anyone on the development team, scaling / improved features on half-casters are good)
For Faithful Steed, I didn't care as must to actually do anything with it... but if I did:
I'd probably just add half-your-proficiency (round down) to any casting of it on the Faithful Steed feature itself - it would make it more competitive / equivalent to my halfcaster worst enemy, the fullcaster multiclass.
Level 5, spell or once per day free cast +1 (you could probably lock this benefit to another "Improved" feature at Paladin level 9, since the benefit here is super small till level 9 for the actual Paladin).
Level 9, spell or once per day free cast +2 (we can fly now too, Bards/Sorcs, take that)
Level 17, spell or once per day free cast +3 (Not quite Wish, but it will do.
Saving text on a feature is my joy to do.
So you're just giving divine smite every round without expending spell slots? Since it's only 2d8 and costing a bonus action, doesn't seem too crazy actually, I'd even say it's less damage than PAM gives, certainly once you get Radiant Strikes, Pole Strike from PAM will add more, even with the chance to miss and it'd move Paladin back to being more sword and board than polearms or two weapons.
For Faithful steed, we could just drop adding half-proficiency and give it as a proficiency level, it does mean it'd be 1 level higher than you can cast as a pure paladin but ultimately, I don't think it actually would be broken. Level 5 = 3rd level, 9 gives 4th, 13 gives 5th and 17 gives 6th. That is actually a lot shorter.
You could still upcast it, but by Paladin level 9+ you're just essentially giving the Paladin the option of doing whatever they want with the BA.
For the most part a single instance per turn of damage (whether on the Attack action, Bonus Action, or an Opportunity attack) to a single target is pretty tame with the changes to Spellcasting in the 2024 phb.
Some things do get stronger (say, Inspiring Smite becomes a free action, rather than locked into Divine Smite's BA), the once per day regular Divine Smite ends up also being available (as it doesn’t use a spell slot), etc, but I feel like the strongest thing a Paladin can do after using a spell slot just becomes LoH in 2024.
That's also fine. As far features go, Faithful Steed is an uphill battle - because of what Find Steed (2024) is: a permanent summon. The idea that Paladins need an entire baseclass feature dedicated to a spell they can prepare once every 4 or so levels (to upcast) is just so bizarre in 2024 PHB.
It doesn't help that multiclass rules create a scenario in where the spell works better when the Paladin takes on a fullcaster's spell progression, or as a Wish target.
It feels while it seems the design team just wants every Wizard to be Vnger on a flying horse. But that's the end of spiel on that for a few months when the Eberron book gives it to every fullcaster out of the gate, lol.
Find Steed's got to be the least Faithful Steed in existence.