ok, some details about my character is they were saved by a paladin as a kid after being chased by and orc. My character wanted to be a paladin after being saved by one and will focus on protecting and healing injured allies
so I was curious, what spells should I take and what armor and weapons should I wield?
If your going full tanky tank. Wear the heaviest armor you can find, it will be chain mail to start, get better as soon as you can. Take defense fighting style. Use a shield and whatever 1-hand melee weapon suits you. They pretty much all do the same damage. Though there’s a lot more swords on the magic item chart than other items. And of course a holy avenger, RAW, is always a sword, but that won’t be an issue for a long time if ever. For spells, honestly, you won’t be casting them very much, as you’ll probably want to use your spell slots to smite. Moreover, you can swap out your prepared spells every long rest. What you take on any day will depend on party composition. probably a smite spell or two, maybe protection from evil and good or bless. If there’s no healer, maybe cure wounds until you start to build up lay on hands. The thing to watch for is that a lot of paladin spells are concentration spells, so you can only have one going at a time. When you hit 5th level and get level 2 spells, aid can be ok, but probably you’re better spending the slot on damage. And you’ll want find steed when you’re outside, though it’s not going to help you much in dungeons. Smite spells can be situationally useful, but usually you’re better off just taking the damage boost.
About the weapon : Get a Spiked Club ( as a starting weapon ). Later get a Double-headed Mace ( sometimes is called as a Reinforced Mace ).
About the Shield : Get a Kite Shield, if ye' are Human, or if your size is bigger. ( dunno why all the shield types weightens 6 lbs, wtf ). It's like if all the shields are threatened as a simple Roundels/Rondaches...
About the Armor : Just start with the lightiest Heavy armor ( to let you carry extra items ), such as Ring Plate. If you can also wear helmets, it's OK.
From here, you can take the Path to Mounted Cavalry, or take the Paladin who always prefers Walking instead of using a horse.
Chain Mail upgrade to plate as soon as able, shield, longsword. For spells you'll mostly use your slots for smite and you can swap our your spells each long rest so feel free to experiment as you don't have to commit.
Unfortunately the 'protection' fighting style, while it fits exactly with a 'get behind my shield' concept, isn't particularly effective mechanically, since it eats your reaction to maybe stop one attack, when you don't even get to know whether that attack would have hit in the first place. Instead, consider going with defense style and picking up the Sentinel feat, which offers much stronger uses for your reaction and is in general a better way to protect your allies. I'd recommend picking up sentinel at your first opportunity.
For oath, any can work. Conquest is my favorite for tanking, but it doesn't exactly fit the tone you're going for. Redemption is a decent on-theme alternative, though the aura's reliance on your reaction does conflict somewhat with the Sentinel feat. Still, it gives you an options to work with. If you're locking down one particularly dangerous foe, then save your reaction for opportunity attacks. If instead you're dealing with weaker enemies attacking nearby allies, use sentinel to punish them, unless their attack would drop your ally, in which case use redemption aura to absorb the damage instead. If dealing with ranged enemies hurting your allies from outside your reach, then redemption aura works for you there as well.
If you don't like redemption, then I suggest Oath of the Ancients, provided you expect the character to make it at least to level 7, as the passive aura offering resistance on spell damage is very strong and doesn't compete with sentinel for your reactions.
Making an ancients paladin/hexblade/abj wizard mountain dwarf gives me a picture of Ironman extending an energy shield in front of himself and Hawkeye while Professor Hulk snaps his figure.
Mechanically any oath works well (with perhaps the exceptions of Vengeance or Oathbreaker which are more offensively focused).
Thematically the remaining oaths all work well (with perhaps the exception of Crown being more about the monarch rather than the people or Conquest given its tenants are about dominance rather than protecting and healing).
At the end of the day, Devotion, Redemption, Ancients and even Heroism fit thematically and mechanically. You could take the Shield Master and/or Sentinel feat. Go polearm (Polearm master feat) or sword and board. Choose healing and buff spells first and you should get what you are looking for!
ok, some details about my character is they were saved by a paladin as a kid after being chased by and orc. My character wanted to be a paladin after being saved by one and will focus on protecting and healing injured allies
so I was curious, what spells should I take and what armor and weapons should I wield?
If your going full tanky tank. Wear the heaviest armor you can find, it will be chain mail to start, get better as soon as you can. Take defense fighting style. Use a shield and whatever 1-hand melee weapon suits you. They pretty much all do the same damage. Though there’s a lot more swords on the magic item chart than other items. And of course a holy avenger, RAW, is always a sword, but that won’t be an issue for a long time if ever.
For spells, honestly, you won’t be casting them very much, as you’ll probably want to use your spell slots to smite. Moreover, you can swap out your prepared spells every long rest. What you take on any day will depend on party composition. probably a smite spell or two, maybe protection from evil and good or bless. If there’s no healer, maybe cure wounds until you start to build up lay on hands. The thing to watch for is that a lot of paladin spells are concentration spells, so you can only have one going at a time.
When you hit 5th level and get level 2 spells, aid can be ok, but probably you’re better spending the slot on damage. And you’ll want find steed when you’re outside, though it’s not going to help you much in dungeons.
Smite spells can be situationally useful, but usually you’re better off just taking the damage boost.
About the weapon : Get a Spiked Club ( as a starting weapon ). Later get a Double-headed Mace ( sometimes is called as a Reinforced Mace ).
About the Shield : Get a Kite Shield, if ye' are Human, or if your size is bigger. ( dunno why all the shield types weightens 6 lbs, wtf ). It's like if all the shields are threatened as a simple Roundels/Rondaches...
About the Armor : Just start with the lightiest Heavy armor ( to let you carry extra items ), such as Ring Plate. If you can also wear helmets, it's OK.
From here, you can take the Path to Mounted Cavalry, or take the Paladin who always prefers Walking instead of using a horse.
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
Chain Mail upgrade to plate as soon as able, shield, longsword. For spells you'll mostly use your slots for smite and you can swap our your spells each long rest so feel free to experiment as you don't have to commit.
Unfortunately the 'protection' fighting style, while it fits exactly with a 'get behind my shield' concept, isn't particularly effective mechanically, since it eats your reaction to maybe stop one attack, when you don't even get to know whether that attack would have hit in the first place. Instead, consider going with defense style and picking up the Sentinel feat, which offers much stronger uses for your reaction and is in general a better way to protect your allies. I'd recommend picking up sentinel at your first opportunity.
For oath, any can work. Conquest is my favorite for tanking, but it doesn't exactly fit the tone you're going for. Redemption is a decent on-theme alternative, though the aura's reliance on your reaction does conflict somewhat with the Sentinel feat. Still, it gives you an options to work with. If you're locking down one particularly dangerous foe, then save your reaction for opportunity attacks. If instead you're dealing with weaker enemies attacking nearby allies, use sentinel to punish them, unless their attack would drop your ally, in which case use redemption aura to absorb the damage instead. If dealing with ranged enemies hurting your allies from outside your reach, then redemption aura works for you there as well.
If you don't like redemption, then I suggest Oath of the Ancients, provided you expect the character to make it at least to level 7, as the passive aura offering resistance on spell damage is very strong and doesn't compete with sentinel for your reactions.
Making an ancients paladin/hexblade/abj wizard mountain dwarf gives me a picture of Ironman extending an energy shield in front of himself and Hawkeye while Professor Hulk snaps his figure.
A lot of ways you could build this I think.
Mechanically any oath works well (with perhaps the exceptions of Vengeance or Oathbreaker which are more offensively focused).
Thematically the remaining oaths all work well (with perhaps the exception of Crown being more about the monarch rather than the people or Conquest given its tenants are about dominance rather than protecting and healing).
At the end of the day, Devotion, Redemption, Ancients and even Heroism fit thematically and mechanically. You could take the Shield Master and/or Sentinel feat. Go polearm (Polearm master feat) or sword and board. Choose healing and buff spells first and you should get what you are looking for!