Hey everyone,

Our DND group just hit level three, and I need help deciding what subclass to choose. I can’t really figure out which one is going to be more fun to play mechanically. We use 2014 rules, and our group is:

1. An Aasimar (Scourge or Protection, undecided, would like input on this too) Paladin, sword and board, STR focused, but with decent CHA. Mainly a defender, with use as a support and striker. Can use extra powers to replace rolls as a diviner wizard.

2. An elvish hexblade warlock, mainly a striker, with some debuff and blaster capabilities, kills a lot of stuff. Can use extra powers to conjure illusions and deal physic damage. 

3. A human bard (college of lore), not very mechanically optimized, mostly just here for jokes and vibes, with some control and support. Can use extra powers to become strong and summon fire 

4. Changeling shepherd druid, healing and support to the nines, makes mechanical choices for the RP. Can use extra powers to be fast and control lightning.

I play the paladin, definitely the best optimizer out of the four of us. It’s a difficult, but epic fantasy campaign, and I’ve gone down quite a a few times, as well as the rest of my party have had their own little brushes.

My main choices for subclasses are vengeance or redemption, and I’m maybe considering conquest, crown, or devotion. It’s likely I’ll get a magic weapon sometime in the campaign. 

Any and all help is appreciated

-Raccoon

I would suggest Oath of Conquest. As a party defender, the ability to do an AOE fear effect can be pretty effective, and after level 7 any Frightened enemy in your aura will have their speed reduced to 0. It's a pretty nice way to lock down a couple enemies for a round or two. 

Oath of Redemption also is pretty nice at higher levels. Their level 15 feature Protective Spirit gives them passive hit point regeneration when they are [Tooltip Not Found]. It's pretty good, and pairs well with their ability to take damage in place of others, and reflect damage back on attackers with their Channel Divinity power Rebuke the Violent.

Oath of Conquest is honestly pretty heavy on the RP side if you've got a GM who's going to make you stick to your oath (and it can be tricky with party members).  Redemption's an even trickier oath.  I recommend Oath of Devotion of Oath of the Ancients, both are extremely strong defensively, especially with their 7th level auras.  And choosing Radiant Soul for your Aasimar ability gives you great mobility.

My DM has stated that he won’t make me stick to the specifics of the oath exactly, but since I’m an optimizer first, I try to play into the story side of the options I choose. 

Specifically for this character, who is sort of a demigod like character, blessed by the gods, chosen one, etc, the conquest would reflect as me imposing the will of my god and punishing those who oppose him, similar to how it would be with vengeance. For redemption and devotion, it would be more of balancing the gods wishes with the urge to be a hero.

Also, if I did go conquest, I would multiclass into warlock undead for a level after level 8 in Paladin, and I’d prolly go fallen Aasimar. Overall, taking the character down a darker path.

Basically the main conflict of this character is balancing their responsibilities and powers with the urge to do good and be a hero, even if it means going against the grain. Conquest and Redemption are kind of on opposite sides of that scale for the character

Looks like you're using the VGM Aasimar. If so, I'd recommend avoiding the Scourge version if you plan to cast any concentration spells. The fact that you take damage from radiant consumption means one extra con check every round.

Oh sorry, my habit is to refer to them by their VGM names, I'm actually using MOTM, sorry for the confusion!

Protection is generally a better choice for Aasimar, their ability is useful in more situations than the Scourge one. Whereas the Scourge ability is more niche.

As for subclass:

Conquest - very good against lower CR monsters, however boss creatures are usually pretty resistant or out right immune to fear and this subclass is all about fear, against enemies that cannot be frightened this subclass feels really bad. RP can be problematic to group cohesion since many players I've seen play this subclass RP as a self-righteous jerk. This one is good all the way through so not a great choice for multiclassing, main weakness is reliance of fear effects and melee combat making it feel a bit like a one-trick pony.

Redemption - can be very powerful, but requires the most skill to play effectively, IMO not a good choice for your party because you already have lots of high-CHA face characters which is also where this type of character excels, RP-wise is ok, but has the same problem in reverse to Conquest, if played too much as a pacifist / redeemer they can get preachy or annoying if other players prefer a hack-and-slash style. Really shines in parties that have other frontliners and the Paladin wants to play more of a middle-distance character who ducks in and out of melee. This subclass is really really fantastic at high levels, in low levels the only stand-out feature is Rebuke the Violent.

Devotion - very good if you often face enemies that charm you or your party - charm can be really devastating so the immunity is amazing when relevant, also excellent if you frequently face undead & fiends which is common in many campaigns (though not all). RP can be a bit boring but IME this subclass is actually RPed the most interesting ways and is the easiest for DMs to hook into since one need only put the paladin into a situation where their moral goodness is in conflict with their god's wishes.  Power is pretty spread out across all levels for this one, at low levels you subclass features are pretty nice - both channel divinities are great, decent spells and aura - at high levels the spells give a lot of flexibility in combat, but the paladin abilities aren't super at high levels so can also be a good choice for multiclassing

Vengeance - this is a DPR class, most of the subclass features really aren't great, you take this class for the spell-list and Vow of Enmity and that's about it. Unlike Conquest, this one is all about going after the biggest bad guy. RP-wise it's pretty meh? Usually ends up being an edgelord. This one is not a good protector, rather leans far into being a striker primarily. This one is also very front-loaded so is a good choice if you want to multiclass.

Crown - Turn the Tide is absolutely game-changing in deadly campaigns where it is semi-common for multiple characters to go down in combat but garbage in easier campaigns. This subclass is much more a support-defender character but unlike Redemption wants to be in melee. Command and Spirit Guardians are the stand-out spells for most campaigns, but their 13th level spells are also bangers so not a great choice for multiclassing. I wouldn't recommend this one for your party because the Unicorn Totem is Turn the Tide on steroids, and your Bard and Warlock probably has stuff like Command, so the only reason to take this subclass would be for Spirit Guardians at level 9, which is a long way off.

TL:DR I'd recommend: Vengeance if you want to fight bosses, Devotion if undead/fiends are common, Redemption if you want more tactical game-play, or Conquest if you want to optimize on one thing and don't mind sometimes being a bit useless.