I am playing a Dragonborn Conquest Paladin and am approaching my next ASI. I am a bit torn on what I would like to do when I reach that point. Right now, I have basically two directions I am thinking of going, either increasing my Charisma score by 2 (to increase my modifier by 1) or take a feat which increases my Constitution score by 1 (which is currently an odd number). For the feat, I am considering either Resilient or Dragon Fear as both would allow me to bump my Con score. I am currently level 7 so the pros of each as I see them are:
Increasing my Charisma score will boost my spell attack bonus and save DC. Additionally, it will boost my and my allies' saves due to the Aura of Protection feature.
Increasing my Constitution score will boost my health
For Resilient, I would get proficiency in Con saves which would help me maintain concentration on spells
For Dragon Fear, it would replace my breath weapon with a roar which basically acts the same as my Conquering Presence channel divinity, giving me another way to make things afraid of me, which plays well into my Conquest Paladin subclass features.
As of right now, I mainly play this character as a heavy melee fighter, and don't focus quite as hard on casting spells, but there are quite a few that I would like to get more utility out of, but really feel I can't because my save DC seems to low or I don't think I can make my concentration checks while in the middle of a fight. I also do want to build this character to eventually play very strongly into his aura abilities and aura spells.
What are some other thoughts on this? I am still a bit new to the Paladin class, so there may be other aspects I have not thought of for how these choices will influence the build.
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I'd boost Charisma. You are probably going to use most of your spell slots on different flavours of smites, so concentration shouldn't really be an issue. Buffing Charisma helps your entire team.
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A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
My vote is for Dragon Fear. Multiple birds with one stone: new way to deliver fear, more hit points, higher save DC for your dragon breath, better Con saves... good stuff.
+2 Cha is decent as well, but Paladins don't really need Cha much if they focus on attacking/smiting.
Resilient (Con) would be my last choice. Your paladin aura already should be bringing your Con save up by adding charisma to it. If you've only got room for one +1 Con feat in your progression, Dragon Fear is more interesting by far. Unless you use Dragon Fear to pick up +1 Str or +1 Cha instead of +1 Con...
Anyway, the only stat you should really be worrying about maxing is your attack stat. If you aren't a Hexadin, Charisma boosts should be taking a back seat to Strength progression and fun feats.
Another vote for dragon fear. Usually, I think fear isn’t great for a pally, since you generally want the enemies coming toward you instead of running away. But this works really nicely with your level 7 oath feature. Giving you another way to frighten people and then the passive damage is nice.
Dragon Fear works far too well with the abilities of the conquest Paladin. The Aura of Conquest stops enemies for a round and then damages them. That is fairly nice.
The CHA bonus, I assume your stat is even so you would need a +2. If CHA is odd though, Dragon Fear can raise CHA +1. Either way this would add an extra +1 to all your saves. The low DC of spells make an extra +1 really worth it at times. Just depends on how often the DM decides to force saves vs attacking AC.
Resilient I think is least useful. You would get at least a +3 to it, but depends on how often it is needed. If you are not facing a lot of CON saves or having to make concentration checks, not much need for it since the CHA bonus will get you another +1 to CON saves.
I'd lean more to the charisma followed by the Dragon Fear. To me, it sounds like it plays more into the style you want to get into, though Dragon Fear is right there. It boosts your saves and your spell save DC. If you have a friendly melee rogue in the party, he'll love you. Other melee members will like you more than before but may give you a slap on the butt. The extra HP and the fear are the main draws for me with the feat.
Keep in mind that with a con save of +0, you will save 55% of the time for a DC 10. Bumping you con modifier by 1 will increase that by 5%, meaning that you'll save 60% @ +1, 65% @ +2, on up to 80% of the time at +5. Your Aura of protection effectively makes your con and char mods stack, meaning that combination of +4 and +5 will make you be able to save 100% of the time on the DC10. Getting resilient (con) is redundant if you plan on bumping both of them reasonably high (it maxes at +6). You probably won't get you con and charisma high enough to save on 100% of you DC10s, but that isn't completely necessary either.
You have to take more than 21 damage to have a higher DC than a 10. You'll want to consider how regularly that is happening when making your decision regarding concentration save support. Every 2 points of damage above that will increase the concentration save DC by 1 and lower the success rate by 5%.
As an alternate thought, you could go with the Warcaster feat. It would give you advantage on your concentration saves, which stacks better with Aura of Protection. That +5 con save (maybe because of a +3 con mod and a +2 charisma mod) with an 80% success rate goes up to 96% success rate. If you are sword and board, then you never have to worry about what your components for your spells are (may nor matter due to your DM), and you could get magic initiate sorcerer or warlock to pick up Booming Blade for your OAs. (I guess wizard works, too, if your other cantrip and first level spell don't care about your spellcasting mod.) You could also multiclass either Sorcerer or Warlock (Warlock hexblade would be my choice) to get the cantrip, which would free up your ASIs but would set you back on progression.
Those saying go Dragon Fear first would be right if that's what you want to lean on more. Figure out what aspect you want most and have fun!
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I am playing a Dragonborn Conquest Paladin and am approaching my next ASI. I am a bit torn on what I would like to do when I reach that point. Right now, I have basically two directions I am thinking of going, either increasing my Charisma score by 2 (to increase my modifier by 1) or take a feat which increases my Constitution score by 1 (which is currently an odd number). For the feat, I am considering either Resilient or Dragon Fear as both would allow me to bump my Con score. I am currently level 7 so the pros of each as I see them are:
As of right now, I mainly play this character as a heavy melee fighter, and don't focus quite as hard on casting spells, but there are quite a few that I would like to get more utility out of, but really feel I can't because my save DC seems to low or I don't think I can make my concentration checks while in the middle of a fight. I also do want to build this character to eventually play very strongly into his aura abilities and aura spells.
What are some other thoughts on this? I am still a bit new to the Paladin class, so there may be other aspects I have not thought of for how these choices will influence the build.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
To me, Dragon Fear sounds like the most fun. I would go for it.
I'd boost Charisma. You are probably going to use most of your spell slots on different flavours of smites, so concentration shouldn't really be an issue. Buffing Charisma helps your entire team.
A fool pulls the leaves. A brute chops the trunk. A sage digs the roots.
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My vote is for Dragon Fear. Multiple birds with one stone: new way to deliver fear, more hit points, higher save DC for your dragon breath, better Con saves... good stuff.
+2 Cha is decent as well, but Paladins don't really need Cha much if they focus on attacking/smiting.
Resilient (Con) would be my last choice. Your paladin aura already should be bringing your Con save up by adding charisma to it. If you've only got room for one +1 Con feat in your progression, Dragon Fear is more interesting by far. Unless you use Dragon Fear to pick up +1 Str or +1 Cha instead of +1 Con...
Anyway, the only stat you should really be worrying about maxing is your attack stat. If you aren't a Hexadin, Charisma boosts should be taking a back seat to Strength progression and fun feats.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Another vote for dragon fear. Usually, I think fear isn’t great for a pally, since you generally want the enemies coming toward you instead of running away. But this works really nicely with your level 7 oath feature. Giving you another way to frighten people and then the passive damage is nice.
Dragon Fear works far too well with the abilities of the conquest Paladin. The Aura of Conquest stops enemies for a round and then damages them. That is fairly nice.
The CHA bonus, I assume your stat is even so you would need a +2. If CHA is odd though, Dragon Fear can raise CHA +1. Either way this would add an extra +1 to all your saves. The low DC of spells make an extra +1 really worth it at times. Just depends on how often the DM decides to force saves vs attacking AC.
Resilient I think is least useful. You would get at least a +3 to it, but depends on how often it is needed. If you are not facing a lot of CON saves or having to make concentration checks, not much need for it since the CHA bonus will get you another +1 to CON saves.
I'd lean more to the charisma followed by the Dragon Fear. To me, it sounds like it plays more into the style you want to get into, though Dragon Fear is right there. It boosts your saves and your spell save DC. If you have a friendly melee rogue in the party, he'll love you. Other melee members will like you more than before but may give you a slap on the butt. The extra HP and the fear are the main draws for me with the feat.
Keep in mind that with a con save of +0, you will save 55% of the time for a DC 10. Bumping you con modifier by 1 will increase that by 5%, meaning that you'll save 60% @ +1, 65% @ +2, on up to 80% of the time at +5. Your Aura of protection effectively makes your con and char mods stack, meaning that combination of +4 and +5 will make you be able to save 100% of the time on the DC10. Getting resilient (con) is redundant if you plan on bumping both of them reasonably high (it maxes at +6). You probably won't get you con and charisma high enough to save on 100% of you DC10s, but that isn't completely necessary either.
You have to take more than 21 damage to have a higher DC than a 10. You'll want to consider how regularly that is happening when making your decision regarding concentration save support. Every 2 points of damage above that will increase the concentration save DC by 1 and lower the success rate by 5%.
As an alternate thought, you could go with the Warcaster feat. It would give you advantage on your concentration saves, which stacks better with Aura of Protection. That +5 con save (maybe because of a +3 con mod and a +2 charisma mod) with an 80% success rate goes up to 96% success rate. If you are sword and board, then you never have to worry about what your components for your spells are (may nor matter due to your DM), and you could get magic initiate sorcerer or warlock to pick up Booming Blade for your OAs. (I guess wizard works, too, if your other cantrip and first level spell don't care about your spellcasting mod.) You could also multiclass either Sorcerer or Warlock (Warlock hexblade would be my choice) to get the cantrip, which would free up your ASIs but would set you back on progression.
Those saying go Dragon Fear first would be right if that's what you want to lean on more. Figure out what aspect you want most and have fun!