There aren't any individual skills that I think every single paladin needs to have, but there are a couple categories of skills that you want to have represented.
You definitely need either Athletics OR Acrobatics, depending on whether you lean towards strength (heavy armor build) or dexterity (light or medium armor build) respectively. Most paladins are the heavily armored sort, and paladin itself can provide athletics proficiencies. light & medium armored paladins need to take care to get acrobatics proficiency from some other source, usually race or background. You technically can multiclass for acrobatics proficiency, but the strength requirement for multiclassing with paladin makes that exceptionally hard for dexy builds.
This skills are essential for a couple reasons. First, they're your primary physicality skills. Athletics covers running, climbing, and jumping, acrobatics covers tumbling, balancing, and swinging from things, and in my experience many DMs will allow a lot of overlap between them, calling for checks that players can pass with either skill. As a warrior sort you'll be expected to do that sort of thing out of combat. In combat, you can resist grapples and escape a number of restraining situations with your choice of either athletics or acrobatics, so again it's important for you as a front line warrior sort, and especially as a melee combatant with relatively poor ranged options, to have a good score in at least one of these two skills.
You'll also want at least one Charisma Skill. You'll have a high charisma, some sort of charisma skill will likely be your main mechanical contribution to non-combat roleplaying scenes. There are a few to choose from here. Persuasion is the best and most versatile and most frequently called for, it's also the one that best fits the character of the classic, lawful-good paladin as it doesn't involve lying or being mean. However, it's also something that a single party member with a strong skill check can usually cover for the entire party, so if there are already one or more high cha party members with persuasion proficiency then you might want to consider alternatives. Intimidation is much narrower than persuasion, generally being reserved for interrogating captives, but it can be used for more than that - the biggest two being convincing potential foes that you're not worth fighting and convincing foes that you're already fighting that they've lost the combat and should flee or surrender. A lot of fights are effectively over a long time before the last enemy dies, and getting your opponents to admit that and give up can save a lot of party resources. Just be careful you don't send foes fleeing into other enemy groups, alerting them to your presence. Deception, while maybe not the most in character for a classic paladin, can also bypass combats, get your party into places they don't belong, and collect useful information.
All three skills are good, all three are skills you'd ideally like someone in the party to have. You definitely want to be proficient in at least one of them.
Beyond that, you'd ideally *like* to have proficiency in perception. Perception checks are ubiquitous, and players often have to roll individual perception checks for their own characters, rather than relying on a specialist to roll for the group. This is especially the case when being ambushed by enemies, and the consequences for failure can mean losing an entire turn, something that is especially bad for your typical heavy armored paladin since you likely won't have a great initiative bonus so you'll likely be looking at having all the enemies act twice in an ambush before you get to act even once. That's bad for any character, but it's extra bad for a party tank who's supposed to be tying up enemies so they can't just swarm your party mage and beat them unconscious.
Perception, while good & important, isn't absolutely essential, though. You can be ok without it. That said, if you aren't proficient in perception, you really should try to fit the Alert feat into your build somewhere. Alert pretty much entirely negates the need for perception by making you immune to surprise. Other uses of perception - like finding hidden loot or doors or what not - can be handled by a single party specialist. Alert also gives you +5 to initiative, which is amazing. In my experience Alert is a massively underrated feat for paladins, who do not have a lot of room to take feats due to needing both a good weapon attack stat and a good charisma. You really probably only have room for one in your build, but imo Alert is a solid contender for that one, along side Sentinel, Lucky, Inspiring Leader, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Resilient Constitution, and War Caster. For most paladins, I would recommend choosing exactly one of those feats at level 4, then sticking to stat bonuses after that. Unless you're a variant human, then you get an extra choice at first level.
The only other feats worth considering on a purely mechanical level, imo, are half feats like Heavy Armor Master or Elven Accuracy, and even then those are only worth while if you can fit them into your build without slowing key ability score improvements - for instance a dragonborn paladin starting with a 17 strength who grabs heavy armor master to round that out to 18, or an eladrin paladin starting with an 17 dexterity grabbing elven accuracy to round it out to 18, or a half elf paladin with 17 cha using elven accuracy to round it out to 18.
For this character, though, you'll really want Dual Wielder as your 'one feat before focusing on stats', because you need it to dual wield battle axes, which is a core part of the aesthetic concept for your character. So you probably won't be taking Alert, and certainly won't be taking it before later levels. As such, if you can fit Perception proficiency in somewhere then you really should. Again though, it is Not Obligatory.
As long as you've got Athletics and at least one Charisma skill, you'll be fine for out of combat contributions, and in combat your class features will carry you. beyond that, feel free to choose skills that reflect your character's back story and narrative concept. If you're a religious dude, sure, take religion. You won't be the best at it, but you'll be able to answer basic religion questions and perform basic religious ceremonies, and if your character concept is a 'holy knight' then not being able to handle even basic religion stuff will feel wrong in game.
Personally, I always like to have at least one 'knowledge skill' on most of my characters purely for thematic and role playing reasons. Even an int 8 character knows the basics of /something/, whether it's a templar who doesn't have a head for books but has picked up some religious lore by spending time around the clergy or soldier who knows a bit about military history from listening to their generals or a burglar who made an effort to learn a few tidbits of arcane knowledge after having a few run ins with magical traps and alarms. And when you do flub a skill check, then confidently telling the party a bunch of wrong information, while maybe not helpful, can be fun and funny.
Alright, I'm good on the how to do two axe part of the build now. But in one of the campaigns I'm in we just accomplished our first bit of questing and adventuring, and rolled pretty good for treasure. Next session we'll be back where we can spend the loot, and I'm thinking what should I get for my paladin. Figure I'm good on weapons unless I can find anyone selling +1 axes, so I'm considering armor.
Should I stick with my starting armor, buy better armor? Go medium or stay heavy (No clue if I'll be tank, damage, or bit of both). What do you guys think?
Also look for stylish cape or cloak to go with armor? Yes/no?
Depends on your DEX score. If you are going with a str build, which is probably the case with axes, then yes, stick with heavy armor and buy the best you can afford, but plate costs 1500 gp, so you might need to save up for it. Cloak is up to you. There’s no mechanical benefit or drawback to a non-magical cloak, so it’s just how you want to look.
So in one of my games I reached level 2 paladin, and apparently can use some spells now. Going to be honest, a brief search and look at magic here is confusing - can someone dumb down spells, what a spell slot is, and how many of either of those I have and which spells available to paladins are best here? And also how smiting works with spell slots?
I’ll take a crack at it. At level 2, you have two first level spell slots you can use per long rest. You can spend one of those slots to either smite or to cast a spell. If you smite, it means after you hit, you decide to do an extra 2d8 (Radiant) damage, in addition to your normal weapon damage. You make this decision after you hit, so you don’t have to worry about wasting it. Also, if you crit, the damage die are doubled, so keep that in mind. That was the easy part, now for spells. You have access to, or know in game terms, every spell on the 1st level paladin spell list. But you need to prepare them in advance before you can cast them. You prepare a number of spells equal to half your level (so 1) plus your cha modifier. I don’t know your cha, but for the sake of this example, let’s say you have a 14, so a +2 modifier. In that case, you could prepare 3 spells. Meaning those are the three you could possibly cast that day. You still only have 2 spell slots, so it’s not possible for you to cast all 3, you just have the option. During the adventuring day, you can 1. Smite 2 times and cast no spells 2. Smite one time and cast one spell (of the three you prepared) 3. Cast 2 spells and smite 0 times. Under this option, you can either cast the same spell twice, or two different spells, one time each. At the end of a long rest, both of your spell slots recharge. You may also choose to prepare different spells. Each day you can completely change the spells you have prepared, keep the same ones prepared, or swap out one or two, while keeping the others. A lot of people, I think, generally have a standard load out of spells they have prepared, and only change it situationally, if they know something specific will be more or less useful on a given day. That said, unlike some casting classes, you can freely swap spells from your list at the end of any long rest. As far as which spells, that can be tricky. It’s going to depend a bit on party composition and your role. Keep an eye out for concentration spells. You can only have one of those going at a time, so if you cast bless, you can’t also cast one of your smite spells while it’s up, for example. Bless is actually probably a bad choice for you, since you’ll be up in melee, so your concentration will require a lot of saves. Also, with those smite spells, remember you can use your bonus action before your regular action, so if you are going to cast one, do it before you attack. Also, those don’t count as your “smite.” So if you really want to nova, bonus action smite spell, then when you hit, do your smite damage for weapon damage+str + 1or 2 d6 (depending on which smite spell) + 2d8 for your smite ability. This would do really good damage, but would also use all of your spell slots for the day.
At higher levels, some things change. At level 3, you have access to oath spells. These spells are always prepared and don’t count against the ones you choose. That doesn’t mean you get more spell slots (at level 3, you have three slots), just you have more options for spells you have prepared. You’ll have the three you normally prepare, plus two more based on your oath.
At level 5, you gain access to the second level list, which is where things can get really tricky. At that point you can prepare 4 spells (1/2 level, rounded down +cha modifier). They can be from either the level 1 or 2 paladin list. All 4 can be from the same level, or you can split them up however you like (1 and 3, 2 and 2, 3 and 1). You can not use a level 1 slot to cast a level 2 spell. Some level 1 spells benefit from being cast with a level 2 slot, it will say in the spell description. You can also use your level 2 slot for smiting. If you do, you add 3d8 to the damage, instead of the 2d8 from using a level 1 slot.
Spell casting works a little differently for the various spellcasting classes. For paladins, it works like this:
First, you prepare the spells available to you to cast, like so.
You prepare the list of Paladin Spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the Paladin spell list. When you do so, choose a number of Paladin Spells equal to your Charisma modifier + half your Paladin level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The Spells must be of a level for which you have Spell Slots. ... You can change your list of prepared Spells when you finish a Long Rest. Preparing a new list of Paladin Spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per Spell Level for each spell on your list.
You're a second level paladin, so you only have first level spell slots. That means you can only prepare first level spells from the paladin spell list. I'm not sure what your charisma modifier is. For the purpose of example, let's assume you have a charisma score of 14, which gives you a +2 modifier. One half of your paladin level plus your charisma modifier is 3, so you can prepare up to three spells.
Following your first long rest as a second level paladin, you prepare your spells for the first time. You can prepare up to three spells. To be clear, that's three *different* spells. You do not have to prepare the same spell multiple times to cast it multiple times in 5e, the way you had to do in some previous editions. Continuing the example, we'll say you prepare Bless, Cure Wounds, and Protection From Evil and Good. That's three first level spells, so preparing the spells takes 3 minutes of prayer and meditation.
You now have those three spells prepared. Those will remain your prepared spells until you choose to take the time to prepare other spells, with prayer and meditation following another long rest. If you do not choose to or do not have the time to meditate for new spells following a long rest, then your previous prepared spell list stays the same. Be sure to inform your DM after a long rest if you are preparing new spells, and what they are. If you don't say anything, the rest of the table will assume you're continuing with the same spells you had prepared before the long rest.
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Oath Spells
You don't have to worry about this at level two, but next level you finally officially swear your Paladin Oath, effectively the subclass choice for Paladin. In addition to other features, your oath will also grant you a pair of first level 'oath spells', with two new oath spells unlocked each time you reach a new level of paladin spells - second level spells at paladin level 5, third level spells at paladin level 9, etc. These oath spells always count as prepared for you, and do not count against the total number of spells you can prepare. So next level you'll be able to prepare the same number of paladin spells plus will have two extra spells prepared from your oath. Oath spells may or may not be on the paladin spell list normally. If not, then they count as paladin spells when you cast them.
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Your list of prepared spells are the spells are the spells you could /potentially/ cast, but how many spells can you /actually/ cast? Back to the rules text:
The Paladin table shows how many Spell Slots you have to cast your Spells. To cast one of your Paladin Spells of 1st Level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended Spell Slots when you finish a Long Rest.
As a second level paladin, you have 2 first level spell slots. These spell slots refresh automatically following any long rest, no meditation required. Each time you cast one of your spells, it uses up one of these spell slots, and when you run out of spell slots you can't cast any more spells until your next long rest.
So between long rests you might cast Bless two times, or Bless one time and Cure Wounds one time, or Cure Wounds one time and Protection From Evil and Good one time, or any other combination of two spells from your list of prepared spells. After a long rest you might meditate to prepare different spells, then you could cast any combination of two of those spells before the next long rest after that.
How casting an individual spell works varies from spell to spell. Read the spellcasting chapter in the players handbook (or look here), and carefully read the text of a particular spell. Most spells take your action to cast, but some cast as a bonus action or a reaction, or multiple actions over several minutes to cast. Some spells can be cast as rituals, taking extra time to cast but not using up spell slots - but that requires a ritual casting class feature and paladins don't have that, so you can ignore that.
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Spell Attacks and Saves
spells you cast on yourself or your allies generally just happen automatically. Spells you cast on enemies typically have a chance of reduced effect or even failing altogether. Sometimes this failure chance is in the form of an attack roll. If a spell calls on you to make a 'spell attack', that's a d20 roll like any other attack roll. You add your proficiency bonus and your charisma modifier to spell attack rolls. Some magic items might add additional bonuses to spell attack rolls, but these tend to be rarer than magic weapons that do the same for weapon attack rolls. Some spells might instead, or even additionally, call on the target or targets to make a saving throw to resist all or part of the effects of the spell. The spell description will tell you what kind of saving throw is required. The DC number for saving throws against your paladin spells is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your charisma bonus. I'm not personally aware of any magic items that adjust the save DC of spells you cast, but I don't have all the magic items memorized, there may be something I'm not thinking of.
The fact that offensive spells have a chance of failure or reduced effect, combined with the fact that you have a damage dealing offensive option for your spell slots that does not suffer from these drawbacks (see 'Divine Smite' way further down in this post), means that *in general* when it comes to paladin spellcasting, support spells are a better use of your spell preparations and spell slots than offensive paladin spells. Especially since most paladins have to balance their weapon attack stat (usually strength, but could be dexterity depending on your build) against their spellcasting stat. This isn't too much trouble at first level when both should be about the same, or at the highest levels when you've had time to raise both stats to the max of 20 or close to it, but there's a big stretch in the middle when most paladins will have raised their weapon attack stat and probably even picked up magic weapons, but their spell attack stat and saving throw DCs will be little changed from when they first started.
Again, there are exceptions. Oath of the Crown paladins pick up Spirit Guardians as an oath spell at level 9, and that spell is so good as to be worth casting anyway. Oath of Conquest paladins rely on frightening their foes, which means getting them to fail saving throws, which means they typically max out their spellcasting stat first and spending spell slots on offensive frightening spells like Wrathful Smite and Fear, even if that means letting their attack stat lag behind a bit and forgoing the reliability of support spells or Divine Smite.
These are outliers, though. In general, you're looking at your prepared spells for buffing, support, and utility, and relying on Divine Smite whenever you want to use your spell slots offensively.
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Concentration:
Some spells, generally stronger spells with lingering effects, require your concentration. You can only concentrate on a single spell at a time, if you cast another concentration spell then you immediately lose concentration on any spell you were already concentrating on, generally causing the spell to immediately end. If you take damage while you're concentrating on a spell, you have to make a constitution save with a difficulty that varies with the amount of damage you take, but is always at least DC 10, and if you fail then you lose concentration.
Concentration is an important mechanic and you want to think hard about what spells are good enough to be worth dedicating your concentration to. Additionally, as a paladin you're a front line melee fighter, which means you'll be right in the thick of combat taking hits and damage frequently. Aura of Protection will eventually help you with all saving throws, but you don't have proficiency in constitution saves by default, so you need to be sure a concentration spell is good enough to be worth the risk of potentially losing the spell early because you failed a constitution save. If you want to rely on concentration based spells a lot, and your game uses the optional rules for Feats, then you may want to consider investing in a feat to boost your concentration saves. The main options are War Caster which, among other things, grants advantage on concentration saves, Resilient (constitution) which gives you +1 to your constitution score and proficiency on constitution saves.
It's worth noting that many enemies might go out of their way to target you if you're concentrating on a strong spell that they want to disrupt. This can, however, work to your advantage, particularly if you're building your paladin as a supporting or tanking type character. If that's what you're aiming for, then you'll likely have better hit points and armor class than most of the rest of the party, which means enemy attacks directed at you are more likely to fail, and if they do hit they're less likely to knock you out of the fight, so even if you risk losing a spell slot, getting enemies to attack you instead of your more fragile team mates can already be seen as a successful use of your spell slots so long as you're building your paladin to emphasize defense and support over damage output.
It's also worth taking special note of any spells you have with ongoing effects that *don't* use your concentration, as these can be stacked on top of your concentration spell of choice.
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Spells will typically require some components, and that's where the spellcasting rules can get a bit tricky:
Verbal (V) Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren't the source of the spell's power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion. Thus, a character who is gagged or in an area of silence, such as one created by the silence spell, can't cast a spell with a verbal component.
Somatic (S) Spellcasting gestures might include a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures. If a spell requires a somatic component, the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures.
Material (M) Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in “Equipment”) in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell.
If a spell states that a material component is consumed by the spell, the caster must provide this component for each casting of the spell. A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components -- or to hold a spellcasting focus -- but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.
Verbal components are pretty straight forward. The main restriction there is that you can't cast spells with verbal components if you're gagged or silenced. Most DMs also rule that you can't cast verbal component spells quietly - no whispering or mumbling unless the spell implies otherwise (as per Message, for instance), so in general casting a spell with a Verbal component is going to give away your location in a dark room, in a crowded room people will know that you cast a spell even if the effects aren't visually obvious, etc. What exactly the verbal components of your spells are is left to your and your DM's imagination. They might be the same magic words for all your Verbal Component spells, perhaps spoken with different intent or inflection. They might be magic words specific to each spell. You might shout the name of your spell the way shonen protagonists shout the names of their attacks. You might recite some pseudo-latin like in Harry Potter. Your Verbal components might be bits of songs or epic poems that might manifest spells through resonant vibrations in the threads of fate. You might have a magical catch phrase that your shout with all your verbal spells - Raven from the Teen Titans says "Azerath Metrion Zinthos" when she casts her spells. She-Ra from the cartoons says "For the Honor of Greyskull". It's up to you.
Things get trickier with Somatic and Material components, and the way they interact with Spell Focuses.
By default, a Somatic spell requires particular gestures with at least one free hand - think Naruto hand signs. Again, the particular signs are left up to you and your DM, but regardless they require at least one free hand, so you cannot (normally) cast somatic spells while dual wielding two weapons, or while wielding a weapon and a shield, or while wielding a weapon in one hand and grappling an enemy with the other, and so on. HOWEVER, you CAN cast somatic spell while wielding a two handed weapon like a great sword or great axe. This is because two handed weapons only require two hands while you are making attacks with them. You can hold such weapons with a single hand, and switching between holding the weapon with one or both hands is a non-action that you can do at any time, as often as you like, even when it's not your turn. Yes, that seems excessively forgiving to two-handed weapons, but so be it.
There are some ways to get around the open hand requirement of somatic spells, the main one I'll go into below, but there is one option that's kind of dumb but pretty much always works. Now, normally stowing your weapon and drawing your weapon both require an "object interaction", and you only get one of those on your turn. Dropping an item is free, however, and picking up an item is that same one per turn object interaction, so if you're wielding, say, a shield and a sword, then you can drop your sword for free, cast a spell that requires an open hand, then pick the sword back up off the ground all in the same turn. This doesn't work for reaction spells that you cast during other creatures turns, since you wouldn't be able to pick the sword back up until your next turn, and enemies might grab it or kick it away before then. But paladins don't have a lot of reactive spells by default, so as long as you aren't concerned with looking dumb, and aren't fighting on like a slanted surface or stairs where your dropped weapon might bounce away out of your reach, then you really don't have to worry about somatic components too much.
Material Componants are even more complicated than somatic components. A material component might have a listed cost, in which case you'd need to explicitly find or buy some, or it might not, in which case you generally just have the components. It's assumed you're collecting the stuff during your downtime, and your DM will generally only make you track it if you're in some fairly extreme circumstances, for example if the party is lost in the Underdark with no access to markets or even normal environments for foraging. The material component might be consumed by the spell (this will be explicitly noted in the spell description, see the spell 'Revivify' for an example), in which case a fresh component must be provided each time the spell is cast. If the spell description does not explicitly state that the components are consumed, then they are not, and you can use the same bit of shoe leather or pinch of bat guano every time you cast the spell.
When you cast a spell with a material component, you normally need to use your item interaction for the turn to take the component out if you don't have it in hand already - which means spells with material components can't use the same "drop my sword and pick it back up" trick as spells with only somatic components. You also need a free hand to hold the component, but it can be the same hand you use for the spell's somatic components, so you still only need one hand free even if a spell has both somatic AND material components.
Where things really get tricky is with spell focuses - including spell component pouches, wands, staffs, that sort of thing. For paladins specifically, you can use a holy symbol as a spell focus, which can be a pendant or amulet worn around your neck or an emblem on your shield. If your holy symbol is an amulet around your neck, then you need a free hand to touch the holy symbol, but you won't need an object interaction to pull it out. If your holy symbol is an emblem on your shield, simply wielding the shield is enough.
Spell Focuses can be used in place of material components, but ONLY if that component DOES NOT have a listed cost AND if the component IS NOT consumed by the spell. Even if the component does not have a listed price, if it's consumed by the spell then you cannot use a spell focus in place of that component. The hand holding the spell focus can be the same hand that you use for somatic components, but only if you're actually substituting the spellcasting focus for a non-expensive, non-consumed material component in the spell.
As a result, a paladin wielding a sword and a shield-with-holy-symbol can cast spells with both somatic and non-consumed, non-priced material components without having to stow or drop or take out any items, since the hand holding their shield counts as the hand holding their material component which can thus also count as the hand used for somatic components. However, the same paladin cannot cast a spell with a priced material component, or with a consumed material component, without first freeing up a hand. Likewise, the paladin cannot cast a spell with a somatic component and no material component at all without first freeing up a hand, which means that, for many characters, it's actually more difficult to cast a spell with just a somatic component than it is to cast a spell with both a somatic and a (non-priced, non-consumed) material component.
All this component stuff is rather obnoxious, and mostly exists to separate spells out into ones that don't /actually/ need a free hand, stronger spells that /do/ need a free hand, and even stronger spells that the designers felt needed to also be limited by some sort of gold cost in addition to the spell slots spent. Yes, that purpose could have been handled MUCH more easily and less confusingly by simply being explicit about it, but whatever, the rules are what they are. There is another way to get around the hassle of somatic components that doesn't rely on the awkward spellcasting focus rules or having to be constantly dropping your stuff, and that's the War Caster feat, which, among other things, lets you ignore the somatic component of spells while wielding a weapon or shield in each hand. That's all fine and good, but it still won't help you if, for instance, one hand is holding a weapon and the other is grappling an enemy, or holding a baby, or whatever. It also doesn't help you at all for material components.
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Ok, so that's the basics of how you prepare spells, how many spells you can cast, and how spell components restrict your casting ability as a melee + magic character who will often have your hands full. There's more to be aware of - like casting lower level spells in higher level spell slots - but that's stuff that can wait till later. Again, reference the spellcasting rules in the PHB or on dndbeyond.
So what should you actually be using your spell slots for? What are the good spells to prepare and cast from the paladin list? Here's a couple suggestions:
Divine Smite. This isn't a spell, instead it's a class feature all paladins get at second level that also uses your spell slots. You can use Divine Smite whenever you hit with a melee weapon attack to add some extra radiant damage to the attack. There's no action involved, no components, no concentration. Your target doesn't get a save, and it never misses, since you only choose to use Divine Smite after an attack has already hit. You can use Divine Smite after you have already rolled a critical hit, in which case the extra dice of radiant damage from divine smite are /also/ doubled. You can use Divine Smite any number of times per turn as long as you still have spell slots left to burn. If you're dual wielding and you hit with both attacks, you can smite on both hits. If an enemy provokes an opportunity attack and you hit, then you can divine smite on that hit even though it's not your turn. Divine smite deals decent damage for the spell slots, on top of the hit with the weapon attack which should be dealing decent damage on your own. If you're looking to do single target damage with your spell slots, then Divine Smite is generally the way to do it. You can more or less ignore any other single target damage spell options. There are first time paladin players who feel overwhelmed by the spell casting rules, and use their spell slots exclusively on Divine Smite, and they can contribute to their party just fine. Divine Smite is a good ability, so an actual paladin spell has to be *really good* to be worth casting instead.
Bless. This is the main concentration buff spell for low level paladins. It targets up to three targets, and lasts as long as you maintain concentration, up to a full minute which is usually enough for a single fight. As long as the spell lasts, the targets add an extra d4 roll to all of their attack rolls and saving throws. You can cast bless in higher level spell slots, once you have them, to target more creatures. This is a really good bonus, and if you're fighting hard to hit enemies with high ACs or enemies that force your party to make a lot of saving throws then Bless is probably going to be a better use of your spell slot then Divine Smite in that fight. Since Bless can last the whole fight, if you do intend to cast Bless you should try to do so with your first action during that combat. Note that Bless doesn't stack with itself, if two people cast Bless on the same target then that target doesn't get to add 2d4 to their attack rolls, so if someone else in your party is already casting Bless, typically a cleric, then it's less useful. However, at low levels even full spellcasters can't cast first level spells in every combat, and later on your cleric will want to concentrate on other spells like Spirit Guardians. For a paladin, Bless remains a good spell and a reasonable use of your concentration all the way to level 20. For the record, Bless is a VSM spell, and the material component doesn't have a listed price and isn't noted as consumed by the spell, so sword and board paladins can cast the spell with their weapons drawn.
At level two, that's really it. Cast Bless if you want to support your allies in a combat. Use Divine Smite if you want to hurt your enemies instead. When in doubt, Tanky sword and board paladins should lean towards the former while dps oriented great weapon paladins should lean towards the latter. Either way, try to save your spell slots for tough fights, since you only get two of them and that isn't enough to cast a spell in every combat during most adventuring days.
There are other spells that might occasionally be useful, and you should feel free to read over all your spells and experiment some, but you only have two spell slots per day right now, and with resources that limited you're going to have a hard time finding better options than just Bless or Divine Smite. If you think you need more advice on what spells to prepare and cast once you start getting into higher level spell slots, then I'd recommend making a new thread specifically for that topic.
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There aren't any individual skills that I think every single paladin needs to have, but there are a couple categories of skills that you want to have represented.
You definitely need either Athletics OR Acrobatics, depending on whether you lean towards strength (heavy armor build) or dexterity (light or medium armor build) respectively. Most paladins are the heavily armored sort, and paladin itself can provide athletics proficiencies. light & medium armored paladins need to take care to get acrobatics proficiency from some other source, usually race or background. You technically can multiclass for acrobatics proficiency, but the strength requirement for multiclassing with paladin makes that exceptionally hard for dexy builds.
This skills are essential for a couple reasons. First, they're your primary physicality skills. Athletics covers running, climbing, and jumping, acrobatics covers tumbling, balancing, and swinging from things, and in my experience many DMs will allow a lot of overlap between them, calling for checks that players can pass with either skill. As a warrior sort you'll be expected to do that sort of thing out of combat. In combat, you can resist grapples and escape a number of restraining situations with your choice of either athletics or acrobatics, so again it's important for you as a front line warrior sort, and especially as a melee combatant with relatively poor ranged options, to have a good score in at least one of these two skills.
You'll also want at least one Charisma Skill. You'll have a high charisma, some sort of charisma skill will likely be your main mechanical contribution to non-combat roleplaying scenes. There are a few to choose from here. Persuasion is the best and most versatile and most frequently called for, it's also the one that best fits the character of the classic, lawful-good paladin as it doesn't involve lying or being mean. However, it's also something that a single party member with a strong skill check can usually cover for the entire party, so if there are already one or more high cha party members with persuasion proficiency then you might want to consider alternatives. Intimidation is much narrower than persuasion, generally being reserved for interrogating captives, but it can be used for more than that - the biggest two being convincing potential foes that you're not worth fighting and convincing foes that you're already fighting that they've lost the combat and should flee or surrender. A lot of fights are effectively over a long time before the last enemy dies, and getting your opponents to admit that and give up can save a lot of party resources. Just be careful you don't send foes fleeing into other enemy groups, alerting them to your presence. Deception, while maybe not the most in character for a classic paladin, can also bypass combats, get your party into places they don't belong, and collect useful information.
All three skills are good, all three are skills you'd ideally like someone in the party to have. You definitely want to be proficient in at least one of them.
Beyond that, you'd ideally *like* to have proficiency in perception. Perception checks are ubiquitous, and players often have to roll individual perception checks for their own characters, rather than relying on a specialist to roll for the group. This is especially the case when being ambushed by enemies, and the consequences for failure can mean losing an entire turn, something that is especially bad for your typical heavy armored paladin since you likely won't have a great initiative bonus so you'll likely be looking at having all the enemies act twice in an ambush before you get to act even once. That's bad for any character, but it's extra bad for a party tank who's supposed to be tying up enemies so they can't just swarm your party mage and beat them unconscious.
Perception, while good & important, isn't absolutely essential, though. You can be ok without it. That said, if you aren't proficient in perception, you really should try to fit the Alert feat into your build somewhere. Alert pretty much entirely negates the need for perception by making you immune to surprise. Other uses of perception - like finding hidden loot or doors or what not - can be handled by a single party specialist. Alert also gives you +5 to initiative, which is amazing. In my experience Alert is a massively underrated feat for paladins, who do not have a lot of room to take feats due to needing both a good weapon attack stat and a good charisma. You really probably only have room for one in your build, but imo Alert is a solid contender for that one, along side Sentinel, Lucky, Inspiring Leader, Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Resilient Constitution, and War Caster. For most paladins, I would recommend choosing exactly one of those feats at level 4, then sticking to stat bonuses after that. Unless you're a variant human, then you get an extra choice at first level.
The only other feats worth considering on a purely mechanical level, imo, are half feats like Heavy Armor Master or Elven Accuracy, and even then those are only worth while if you can fit them into your build without slowing key ability score improvements - for instance a dragonborn paladin starting with a 17 strength who grabs heavy armor master to round that out to 18, or an eladrin paladin starting with an 17 dexterity grabbing elven accuracy to round it out to 18, or a half elf paladin with 17 cha using elven accuracy to round it out to 18.
For this character, though, you'll really want Dual Wielder as your 'one feat before focusing on stats', because you need it to dual wield battle axes, which is a core part of the aesthetic concept for your character. So you probably won't be taking Alert, and certainly won't be taking it before later levels. As such, if you can fit Perception proficiency in somewhere then you really should. Again though, it is Not Obligatory.
As long as you've got Athletics and at least one Charisma skill, you'll be fine for out of combat contributions, and in combat your class features will carry you. beyond that, feel free to choose skills that reflect your character's back story and narrative concept. If you're a religious dude, sure, take religion. You won't be the best at it, but you'll be able to answer basic religion questions and perform basic religious ceremonies, and if your character concept is a 'holy knight' then not being able to handle even basic religion stuff will feel wrong in game.
Personally, I always like to have at least one 'knowledge skill' on most of my characters purely for thematic and role playing reasons. Even an int 8 character knows the basics of /something/, whether it's a templar who doesn't have a head for books but has picked up some religious lore by spending time around the clergy or soldier who knows a bit about military history from listening to their generals or a burglar who made an effort to learn a few tidbits of arcane knowledge after having a few run ins with magical traps and alarms. And when you do flub a skill check, then confidently telling the party a bunch of wrong information, while maybe not helpful, can be fun and funny.
Remember that (page 125 PHB) if your background doesn't have the skills or tool/language proficiencies you want you can switch them around.
Alright, I'm good on the how to do two axe part of the build now. But in one of the campaigns I'm in we just accomplished our first bit of questing and adventuring, and rolled pretty good for treasure. Next session we'll be back where we can spend the loot, and I'm thinking what should I get for my paladin. Figure I'm good on weapons unless I can find anyone selling +1 axes, so I'm considering armor.
Should I stick with my starting armor, buy better armor? Go medium or stay heavy (No clue if I'll be tank, damage, or bit of both). What do you guys think?
Also look for stylish cape or cloak to go with armor? Yes/no?
Depends on your DEX score. If you are going with a str build, which is probably the case with axes, then yes, stick with heavy armor and buy the best you can afford, but plate costs 1500 gp, so you might need to save up for it.
Cloak is up to you. There’s no mechanical benefit or drawback to a non-magical cloak, so it’s just how you want to look.
Incredible write up...While I am not going this path with my Pally, it gave me a lot of great tips...Thanks
So in one of my games I reached level 2 paladin, and apparently can use some spells now. Going to be honest, a brief search and look at magic here is confusing - can someone dumb down spells, what a spell slot is, and how many of either of those I have and which spells available to paladins are best here? And also how smiting works with spell slots?
I’ll take a crack at it.
At level 2, you have two first level spell slots you can use per long rest. You can spend one of those slots to either smite or to cast a spell.
If you smite, it means after you hit, you decide to do an extra 2d8 (Radiant) damage, in addition to your normal weapon damage. You make this decision after you hit, so you don’t have to worry about wasting it. Also, if you crit, the damage die are doubled, so keep that in mind.
That was the easy part, now for spells.
You have access to, or know in game terms, every spell on the 1st level paladin spell list. But you need to prepare them in advance before you can cast them. You prepare a number of spells equal to half your level (so 1) plus your cha modifier. I don’t know your cha, but for the sake of this example, let’s say you have a 14, so a +2 modifier.
In that case, you could prepare 3 spells. Meaning those are the three you could possibly cast that day. You still only have 2 spell slots, so it’s not possible for you to cast all 3, you just have the option.
During the adventuring day, you can 1. Smite 2 times and cast no spells 2. Smite one time and cast one spell (of the three you prepared) 3. Cast 2 spells and smite 0 times. Under this option, you can either cast the same spell twice, or two different spells, one time each.
At the end of a long rest, both of your spell slots recharge. You may also choose to prepare different spells. Each day you can completely change the spells you have prepared, keep the same ones prepared, or swap out one or two, while keeping the others. A lot of people, I think, generally have a standard load out of spells they have prepared, and only change it situationally, if they know something specific will be more or less useful on a given day. That said, unlike some casting classes, you can freely swap spells from your list at the end of any long rest.
As far as which spells, that can be tricky. It’s going to depend a bit on party composition and your role. Keep an eye out for concentration spells. You can only have one of those going at a time, so if you cast bless, you can’t also cast one of your smite spells while it’s up, for example. Bless is actually probably a bad choice for you, since you’ll be up in melee, so your concentration will require a lot of saves. Also, with those smite spells, remember you can use your bonus action before your regular action, so if you are going to cast one, do it before you attack.
Also, those don’t count as your “smite.” So if you really want to nova, bonus action smite spell, then when you hit, do your smite damage for weapon damage+str + 1or 2 d6 (depending on which smite spell) + 2d8 for your smite ability. This would do really good damage, but would also use all of your spell slots for the day.
At higher levels, some things change. At level 3, you have access to oath spells. These spells are always prepared and don’t count against the ones you choose. That doesn’t mean you get more spell slots (at level 3, you have three slots), just you have more options for spells you have prepared. You’ll have the three you normally prepare, plus two more based on your oath.
At level 5, you gain access to the second level list, which is where things can get really tricky. At that point you can prepare 4 spells (1/2 level, rounded down +cha modifier). They can be from either the level 1 or 2 paladin list. All 4 can be from the same level, or you can split them up however you like (1 and 3, 2 and 2, 3 and 1). You can not use a level 1 slot to cast a level 2 spell. Some level 1 spells benefit from being cast with a level 2 slot, it will say in the spell description.
You can also use your level 2 slot for smiting. If you do, you add 3d8 to the damage, instead of the 2d8 from using a level 1 slot.
Spell casting works a little differently for the various spellcasting classes. For paladins, it works like this:
First, you prepare the spells available to you to cast, like so.
You're a second level paladin, so you only have first level spell slots. That means you can only prepare first level spells from the paladin spell list. I'm not sure what your charisma modifier is. For the purpose of example, let's assume you have a charisma score of 14, which gives you a +2 modifier. One half of your paladin level plus your charisma modifier is 3, so you can prepare up to three spells.
Following your first long rest as a second level paladin, you prepare your spells for the first time. You can prepare up to three spells. To be clear, that's three *different* spells. You do not have to prepare the same spell multiple times to cast it multiple times in 5e, the way you had to do in some previous editions. Continuing the example, we'll say you prepare Bless, Cure Wounds, and Protection From Evil and Good. That's three first level spells, so preparing the spells takes 3 minutes of prayer and meditation.
You now have those three spells prepared. Those will remain your prepared spells until you choose to take the time to prepare other spells, with prayer and meditation following another long rest. If you do not choose to or do not have the time to meditate for new spells following a long rest, then your previous prepared spell list stays the same. Be sure to inform your DM after a long rest if you are preparing new spells, and what they are. If you don't say anything, the rest of the table will assume you're continuing with the same spells you had prepared before the long rest.
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Oath Spells
You don't have to worry about this at level two, but next level you finally officially swear your Paladin Oath, effectively the subclass choice for Paladin. In addition to other features, your oath will also grant you a pair of first level 'oath spells', with two new oath spells unlocked each time you reach a new level of paladin spells - second level spells at paladin level 5, third level spells at paladin level 9, etc. These oath spells always count as prepared for you, and do not count against the total number of spells you can prepare. So next level you'll be able to prepare the same number of paladin spells plus will have two extra spells prepared from your oath. Oath spells may or may not be on the paladin spell list normally. If not, then they count as paladin spells when you cast them.
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Your list of prepared spells are the spells are the spells you could /potentially/ cast, but how many spells can you /actually/ cast? Back to the rules text:
As a second level paladin, you have 2 first level spell slots. These spell slots refresh automatically following any long rest, no meditation required. Each time you cast one of your spells, it uses up one of these spell slots, and when you run out of spell slots you can't cast any more spells until your next long rest.
So between long rests you might cast Bless two times, or Bless one time and Cure Wounds one time, or Cure Wounds one time and Protection From Evil and Good one time, or any other combination of two spells from your list of prepared spells. After a long rest you might meditate to prepare different spells, then you could cast any combination of two of those spells before the next long rest after that.
How casting an individual spell works varies from spell to spell. Read the spellcasting chapter in the players handbook (or look here), and carefully read the text of a particular spell. Most spells take your action to cast, but some cast as a bonus action or a reaction, or multiple actions over several minutes to cast. Some spells can be cast as rituals, taking extra time to cast but not using up spell slots - but that requires a ritual casting class feature and paladins don't have that, so you can ignore that.
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Spell Attacks and Saves
spells you cast on yourself or your allies generally just happen automatically. Spells you cast on enemies typically have a chance of reduced effect or even failing altogether. Sometimes this failure chance is in the form of an attack roll. If a spell calls on you to make a 'spell attack', that's a d20 roll like any other attack roll. You add your proficiency bonus and your charisma modifier to spell attack rolls. Some magic items might add additional bonuses to spell attack rolls, but these tend to be rarer than magic weapons that do the same for weapon attack rolls. Some spells might instead, or even additionally, call on the target or targets to make a saving throw to resist all or part of the effects of the spell. The spell description will tell you what kind of saving throw is required. The DC number for saving throws against your paladin spells is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your charisma bonus. I'm not personally aware of any magic items that adjust the save DC of spells you cast, but I don't have all the magic items memorized, there may be something I'm not thinking of.
The fact that offensive spells have a chance of failure or reduced effect, combined with the fact that you have a damage dealing offensive option for your spell slots that does not suffer from these drawbacks (see 'Divine Smite' way further down in this post), means that *in general* when it comes to paladin spellcasting, support spells are a better use of your spell preparations and spell slots than offensive paladin spells. Especially since most paladins have to balance their weapon attack stat (usually strength, but could be dexterity depending on your build) against their spellcasting stat. This isn't too much trouble at first level when both should be about the same, or at the highest levels when you've had time to raise both stats to the max of 20 or close to it, but there's a big stretch in the middle when most paladins will have raised their weapon attack stat and probably even picked up magic weapons, but their spell attack stat and saving throw DCs will be little changed from when they first started.
Again, there are exceptions. Oath of the Crown paladins pick up Spirit Guardians as an oath spell at level 9, and that spell is so good as to be worth casting anyway. Oath of Conquest paladins rely on frightening their foes, which means getting them to fail saving throws, which means they typically max out their spellcasting stat first and spending spell slots on offensive frightening spells like Wrathful Smite and Fear, even if that means letting their attack stat lag behind a bit and forgoing the reliability of support spells or Divine Smite.
These are outliers, though. In general, you're looking at your prepared spells for buffing, support, and utility, and relying on Divine Smite whenever you want to use your spell slots offensively.
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Concentration:
Some spells, generally stronger spells with lingering effects, require your concentration. You can only concentrate on a single spell at a time, if you cast another concentration spell then you immediately lose concentration on any spell you were already concentrating on, generally causing the spell to immediately end. If you take damage while you're concentrating on a spell, you have to make a constitution save with a difficulty that varies with the amount of damage you take, but is always at least DC 10, and if you fail then you lose concentration.
Concentration is an important mechanic and you want to think hard about what spells are good enough to be worth dedicating your concentration to. Additionally, as a paladin you're a front line melee fighter, which means you'll be right in the thick of combat taking hits and damage frequently. Aura of Protection will eventually help you with all saving throws, but you don't have proficiency in constitution saves by default, so you need to be sure a concentration spell is good enough to be worth the risk of potentially losing the spell early because you failed a constitution save. If you want to rely on concentration based spells a lot, and your game uses the optional rules for Feats, then you may want to consider investing in a feat to boost your concentration saves. The main options are War Caster which, among other things, grants advantage on concentration saves, Resilient (constitution) which gives you +1 to your constitution score and proficiency on constitution saves.
It's worth noting that many enemies might go out of their way to target you if you're concentrating on a strong spell that they want to disrupt. This can, however, work to your advantage, particularly if you're building your paladin as a supporting or tanking type character. If that's what you're aiming for, then you'll likely have better hit points and armor class than most of the rest of the party, which means enemy attacks directed at you are more likely to fail, and if they do hit they're less likely to knock you out of the fight, so even if you risk losing a spell slot, getting enemies to attack you instead of your more fragile team mates can already be seen as a successful use of your spell slots so long as you're building your paladin to emphasize defense and support over damage output.
It's also worth taking special note of any spells you have with ongoing effects that *don't* use your concentration, as these can be stacked on top of your concentration spell of choice.
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Spells will typically require some components, and that's where the spellcasting rules can get a bit tricky:
Verbal components are pretty straight forward. The main restriction there is that you can't cast spells with verbal components if you're gagged or silenced. Most DMs also rule that you can't cast verbal component spells quietly - no whispering or mumbling unless the spell implies otherwise (as per Message, for instance), so in general casting a spell with a Verbal component is going to give away your location in a dark room, in a crowded room people will know that you cast a spell even if the effects aren't visually obvious, etc. What exactly the verbal components of your spells are is left to your and your DM's imagination. They might be the same magic words for all your Verbal Component spells, perhaps spoken with different intent or inflection. They might be magic words specific to each spell. You might shout the name of your spell the way shonen protagonists shout the names of their attacks. You might recite some pseudo-latin like in Harry Potter. Your Verbal components might be bits of songs or epic poems that might manifest spells through resonant vibrations in the threads of fate. You might have a magical catch phrase that your shout with all your verbal spells - Raven from the Teen Titans says "Azerath Metrion Zinthos" when she casts her spells. She-Ra from the cartoons says "For the Honor of Greyskull". It's up to you.
Things get trickier with Somatic and Material components, and the way they interact with Spell Focuses.
By default, a Somatic spell requires particular gestures with at least one free hand - think Naruto hand signs. Again, the particular signs are left up to you and your DM, but regardless they require at least one free hand, so you cannot (normally) cast somatic spells while dual wielding two weapons, or while wielding a weapon and a shield, or while wielding a weapon in one hand and grappling an enemy with the other, and so on. HOWEVER, you CAN cast somatic spell while wielding a two handed weapon like a great sword or great axe. This is because two handed weapons only require two hands while you are making attacks with them. You can hold such weapons with a single hand, and switching between holding the weapon with one or both hands is a non-action that you can do at any time, as often as you like, even when it's not your turn. Yes, that seems excessively forgiving to two-handed weapons, but so be it.
There are some ways to get around the open hand requirement of somatic spells, the main one I'll go into below, but there is one option that's kind of dumb but pretty much always works. Now, normally stowing your weapon and drawing your weapon both require an "object interaction", and you only get one of those on your turn. Dropping an item is free, however, and picking up an item is that same one per turn object interaction, so if you're wielding, say, a shield and a sword, then you can drop your sword for free, cast a spell that requires an open hand, then pick the sword back up off the ground all in the same turn. This doesn't work for reaction spells that you cast during other creatures turns, since you wouldn't be able to pick the sword back up until your next turn, and enemies might grab it or kick it away before then. But paladins don't have a lot of reactive spells by default, so as long as you aren't concerned with looking dumb, and aren't fighting on like a slanted surface or stairs where your dropped weapon might bounce away out of your reach, then you really don't have to worry about somatic components too much.
Material Componants are even more complicated than somatic components. A material component might have a listed cost, in which case you'd need to explicitly find or buy some, or it might not, in which case you generally just have the components. It's assumed you're collecting the stuff during your downtime, and your DM will generally only make you track it if you're in some fairly extreme circumstances, for example if the party is lost in the Underdark with no access to markets or even normal environments for foraging. The material component might be consumed by the spell (this will be explicitly noted in the spell description, see the spell 'Revivify' for an example), in which case a fresh component must be provided each time the spell is cast. If the spell description does not explicitly state that the components are consumed, then they are not, and you can use the same bit of shoe leather or pinch of bat guano every time you cast the spell.
When you cast a spell with a material component, you normally need to use your item interaction for the turn to take the component out if you don't have it in hand already - which means spells with material components can't use the same "drop my sword and pick it back up" trick as spells with only somatic components. You also need a free hand to hold the component, but it can be the same hand you use for the spell's somatic components, so you still only need one hand free even if a spell has both somatic AND material components.
Where things really get tricky is with spell focuses - including spell component pouches, wands, staffs, that sort of thing. For paladins specifically, you can use a holy symbol as a spell focus, which can be a pendant or amulet worn around your neck or an emblem on your shield. If your holy symbol is an amulet around your neck, then you need a free hand to touch the holy symbol, but you won't need an object interaction to pull it out. If your holy symbol is an emblem on your shield, simply wielding the shield is enough.
Spell Focuses can be used in place of material components, but ONLY if that component DOES NOT have a listed cost AND if the component IS NOT consumed by the spell. Even if the component does not have a listed price, if it's consumed by the spell then you cannot use a spell focus in place of that component. The hand holding the spell focus can be the same hand that you use for somatic components, but only if you're actually substituting the spellcasting focus for a non-expensive, non-consumed material component in the spell.
As a result, a paladin wielding a sword and a shield-with-holy-symbol can cast spells with both somatic and non-consumed, non-priced material components without having to stow or drop or take out any items, since the hand holding their shield counts as the hand holding their material component which can thus also count as the hand used for somatic components. However, the same paladin cannot cast a spell with a priced material component, or with a consumed material component, without first freeing up a hand. Likewise, the paladin cannot cast a spell with a somatic component and no material component at all without first freeing up a hand, which means that, for many characters, it's actually more difficult to cast a spell with just a somatic component than it is to cast a spell with both a somatic and a (non-priced, non-consumed) material component.
All this component stuff is rather obnoxious, and mostly exists to separate spells out into ones that don't /actually/ need a free hand, stronger spells that /do/ need a free hand, and even stronger spells that the designers felt needed to also be limited by some sort of gold cost in addition to the spell slots spent. Yes, that purpose could have been handled MUCH more easily and less confusingly by simply being explicit about it, but whatever, the rules are what they are. There is another way to get around the hassle of somatic components that doesn't rely on the awkward spellcasting focus rules or having to be constantly dropping your stuff, and that's the War Caster feat, which, among other things, lets you ignore the somatic component of spells while wielding a weapon or shield in each hand. That's all fine and good, but it still won't help you if, for instance, one hand is holding a weapon and the other is grappling an enemy, or holding a baby, or whatever. It also doesn't help you at all for material components.
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Ok, so that's the basics of how you prepare spells, how many spells you can cast, and how spell components restrict your casting ability as a melee + magic character who will often have your hands full. There's more to be aware of - like casting lower level spells in higher level spell slots - but that's stuff that can wait till later. Again, reference the spellcasting rules in the PHB or on dndbeyond.
So what should you actually be using your spell slots for? What are the good spells to prepare and cast from the paladin list? Here's a couple suggestions:
At level two, that's really it. Cast Bless if you want to support your allies in a combat. Use Divine Smite if you want to hurt your enemies instead. When in doubt, Tanky sword and board paladins should lean towards the former while dps oriented great weapon paladins should lean towards the latter. Either way, try to save your spell slots for tough fights, since you only get two of them and that isn't enough to cast a spell in every combat during most adventuring days.
There are other spells that might occasionally be useful, and you should feel free to read over all your spells and experiment some, but you only have two spell slots per day right now, and with resources that limited you're going to have a hard time finding better options than just Bless or Divine Smite. If you think you need more advice on what spells to prepare and cast once you start getting into higher level spell slots, then I'd recommend making a new thread specifically for that topic.