I'm currently playing a lvl 4 (pretty soon to be lvl 5) Oath of Vengeance Paladin and I was curious to know from fellow Pally players what the best way/favorite way to use Lay on Hands is? Do you normally reserve the healing for yourself? Do you reserve it for others? Do prefer to use it as a nuke heal or topping off chip damage? I'd imagine its all situational, but if you have any good or unique ways of using it, I'd be very interesting in hearing about it!

Playing ToA currently with a paladin. Small heals with it are all I do unless absolutely needed bc I try to save 5x increments for curing poison or disease. Would have a different strategy outside of ToA, but there are enough chances for those that I keep the uses on standby. 

Lay on Hands is super efficient healing. I personally use it to keep fallen PCs alive and getting back in the fight. I have also used it to intimidate during a particularly bloody encounter. I stopped fighting, looked my opponent in the eye, rolled out my paladin's oath as I shimmered and my wounds closed, then smiled. GM gave me a BA intimidation check. Suddenly the combat was over. My group was very bloodied, but so was our opposition. Having a 'seemingly' fully healed and refreshed conquest paladin in front of the leader ended the fight and saved our lives and theirs. We brokered an amicable agreement and an NPC party was allowed to leave peacefully and we now have a loose alliance with a neighboring town. 

In dungeon crawls though, holding onto at least 5 points and just healing when someone falls is the way to go. You will not believe what a life saver your character is over the other healers you might have in your party. Also, other healing characters will love the fact they get to set up other stuff rather than being stuck casting healing word all over the place.

Since there is usually a cleric in my party, I just use it to slap myself and heal up. There is the rare occasion when the cleric is out of range for a healing word on other front-liners so I slap them and give them a bit of healing too.

I always keep a few points to help get people up, in particular the cleric.

Sometimes I feel like a bad player for not giving a lot of lay on hands hp to my teammates to save up. Am I doing something wrong? Asking for help.

If your party is surviving just fine without it, then nope. If you see that you always seem to be the only player doing just dandy after combat, then maybe think about how you are using it. You can always ask the table if they have ideas for using it more efficiently to help the group. When I first started playing a paladin, I kept asking my team if they wanted me to top them up. They always responded by telling me to only use if if we were in need. I keep following that original advise and it has worked out well. It is just such a versatile method of healing, and when the party healer is unable to heal you can save a fight by getting another play back to 1 HP, or showing you can burst heal, as well as you can burst damage.

Holding on to 5hp increments is my regular view. Other healers, potions and options like short rests all have their place. The only problem with using Healing Word is the loss of a spell slot. I think, in a pinch, a healer using HW is best because it is a bonus action spell and has range.

I probably always look to heal others first, but I rarely need to unless we have a caster that got ambushed and is too far from the cleric. Other than the rare circumstance I am healing myself which is also few and far between. 

In combat and after I use it as others have suggested above.

During downtime is when I make the most use of LoH.  My OotA paladin leans into the Joy and beauty aspect of his oath and is a painter by trade.  He keeps a studio for free in the back storeroom of a house of lady favours as Grog Strongjaw would say.   For 5 LoH he keeps everyone healthy and happy. 

Free healthcare to the slums in a dictatorship campaign seems like a good idea. 

I've been pretty sick lately so I haven't been able to thank everyone until now for all the great ideas and suggestions. So, thank you everyone! and Falconcry, thats amazing! I love the Crit Role reference there (on episode 26 of campaign one right now actually) and I love the idea of a Paladin using their healing powers in that way.

Would be an interesting Session Zero. Player: "Hey, can we have prostitutes and STDs in this campaign so I can use my lay on hands feature?" DM: "What now?" Be careful which DM you bring this up to is my advice. 

One of the byproducts of taking an oath at level three is immunity to disease. 

I've always liked the idea of using 1 point of LOH to bring someone back from dying, in place of a full healing spell or Spare the Dying. Just enough for them to sit up, cast one last spell, and get the heck out of danger. Of course if you have enough LOH you can just do the increments of 5 to bring someone back from dying...and for generic NPCs that's probably a full heal anyway if they're healing for charity.

I use lay on hands to heal our cleric when they go down

the paladin in my party leaves most of the healing to my warlock *sigh*

#1 So its fun to use LoH as an interrogation tool. Anyone have Poison Spray or other cantrip to damage a mark? Hit them unconscious or alter their state and use it to bring them back or cure the poison. If they don't give you what you want, walk away. Oath of Vengeance here. I don't have time for their nonsense. 

#2 I try not to use it in combat unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise, I will use LoH in big chunks to bring me back close to full. I'm the person in the front line taking most of the damage. If I go down, my party will probably follow shortly.

I once used lay on hands to cure a man of alcohol