I would never bother getting in the aura for +1 I think you'd generally be worse off as a group as its asking for AoEs.
+1 to all saves just for the paladin is a decent feature -- it's about equal to a rogue's Slippery Mind feature. Certainly not a signature feature at that point, but noticeable. I would probably set the aura at +2, though. If the aura didn't affect the paladin, a higher number could be justified (at current stats, I would want something like "requires a bonus action and channel divinity to activate and concentration to maintain ").
If the Aura of Protection only gave a +1 or +2 to saving throw’s it really wouldn’t be worth going to 6th level Paladin. Bless would overall be better 9 out of 10 times.
You do realize that bonuses in this game stack, don't you? "Permanently bless all allies within a 10' radius" would be hilariously OP.
I would never bother getting in the aura for +1 I think you'd generally be worse off as a group as its asking for AoEs.
+1 to all saves just for the paladin is a decent feature -- it's about equal to a rogue's Slippery Mind feature. Certainly not a signature feature at that point, but noticeable. I would probably set the aura at +2, though. If the aura didn't affect the paladin, a higher number could be justified (at current stats, I would want something like "requires a bonus action and channel divinity to activate and concentration to maintain ").
If the aura had like a 50 foot range sure. At 10 feet you are worse off limiting yourself by staying within 10 feet of the paladin for a +2 to saves. You will take more damage, you will be disabled more often.
If the aura had like a 50 foot range sure. At 10 feet you are worse off limiting yourself by staying within 10 feet of the paladin for a +2 to saves. You will take more damage, you will be disabled more often.
Quite simply, that doesn't matter because +5 would be overpowered even if wasn't an aura -- just that much of a bonus to the paladin is too high.
What if Paladin's Aura of Protection was changed from "add your CHA modifier to all saves" to "add (Paladin Level)/4 (rounded up) to all saves"? The end result of +5 to all saves would still occur at level 20.
It's even more problematic than it is now, because you can get the full bonus without bothering with charisma? The core problem is that it shouldn't be giving +5 in the first place. +1 would be a solidly useful feature, +2 would be an excellent feature.
First, I agree that +5 to all saves is too strong of a single level feature. Mathematically, it looks like +2 to Saves would be appropriate for class balance. But playing Devil's Advocate (ah the irony) for Paladin's Aura of Protection:
A) Paladin's primary attributes of STR and CHA are not common saves. Compared to Ranger DEX and WIS being common saves. So Paladins need roughly +2 to common saves to compensate.
B) If WoTC attempts to downgrade Paladins, survey results are going to come back extremely negative.
What if Paladin's Aura of Protection was changed from "add your CHA modifier to all saves" to "add (Paladin Level)/4 (rounded up) to all saves"? The end result of +5 to all saves would still occur at level 20.
It's even more problematic than it is now, because you can get the full bonus without bothering with charisma? The core problem is that it shouldn't be giving +5 in the first place. +1 would be a solidly useful feature, +2 would be an excellent feature.
If the Aura of Protection only gave a +1 or +2 to saving throw’s it really wouldn’t be worth going to 6th level Paladin. Bless would overall be better 9 out of 10 times.
If Aura of Protection was nerfed like this, it's likely the class would get something else in addition to the aura to compensate that isn't as absurd as +3 to 5 to all your saves.
Like what? What can be given to the Paladin in exchange for the nerfing of one of the Paladin’s best feature’s?
If the Aura of Protection only gave a +1 or +2 to saving throw’s it really wouldn’t be worth going to 6th level Paladin. Bless would overall be better 9 out of 10 times.
You do realize that bonuses in this game stack, don't you? "Permanently bless all allies within a 10' radius" would be hilariously OP.
Not really. In the grand scheme of things a permanent +1 or +2 to saving throw’s if within 10ft of the Paladin isn’t OP.
I would never bother getting in the aura for +1 I think you'd generally be worse off as a group as its asking for AoEs.
+1 to all saves just for the paladin is a decent feature -- it's about equal to a rogue's Slippery Mind feature. Certainly not a signature feature at that point, but noticeable. I would probably set the aura at +2, though. If the aura didn't affect the paladin, a higher number could be justified (at current stats, I would want something like "requires a bonus action and channel divinity to activate and concentration to maintain ").
If the aura had like a 50 foot range sure. At 10 feet you are worse off limiting yourself by staying within 10 feet of the paladin for a +2 to saves. You will take more damage, you will be disabled more often.
I think you're not acknowledging that the aura affects the paladin themselves too, which is why Panta is saying that they'd bump it higher if the aura only buffed allies.
No, I just think a tanky themed class having good saves does not bother me. Without it their saves kind of suck. They have no reason to put stats into wisdom so the proficiency in it hits weak, charisma saves almost never happen, and they suck at Dex. A +2 would put their wisdom into decent but not great, at +5 their wisdom save is ending up at cleric wisdom save, their charisma saves are absurd and they have decent other saves but with how mad they are even strength and con is getting spread thin without really dumping everything else. The real boon is it potentially helping the party. If that part is handicapped to the point people rarely use it, it becomes a weak ability.
What if Paladin's Aura of Protection was changed from "add your CHA modifier to all saves" to "add (Paladin Level)/4 (rounded up) to all saves"? The end result of +5 to all saves would still occur at level 20.
It's even more problematic than it is now, because you can get the full bonus without bothering with charisma? The core problem is that it shouldn't be giving +5 in the first place. +1 would be a solidly useful feature, +2 would be an excellent feature.
First, I agree that +5 to all saves is too strong of a single level feature. Mathematically, it looks like +2 to Saves would be appropriate for class balance. But playing Devil's Advocate (ah the irony) for Paladin's Aura of Protection:
A) Paladin's primary attributes of STR and CHA are not common saves. Compared to Ranger DEX and WIS being common saves. So Paladins need roughly +2 to common saves to compensate.
B) If WoTC attempts to downgrade Paladins, survey results are going to come back extremely negative.
Paladin’s do have proficiency in wisdom saving throws. So they do have a bonus there already.
The Paladin is already getting negative results because of the changes to Divine Smite. While most Paladin players were unhappy with the change to once per turn most of them are somewhat understanding of the change. What most don’t like at all is making making Divine Smite a bonus action spell.
Like what? What can be given to the Paladin in exchange for the nerfing of one of the Paladin’s best feature’s?
Nothing? If a class is overpowered, it needs a nerf whack (the change to smite is actually not a nerf; while it does decrease nova potential, you get a bunch of extra free smites per day and you can use better smites -- shining smite, blinding smite, and staggering smite are reliably superior to using the same spell slot for simple damage).
What if Paladin's Aura of Protection was changed from "add your CHA modifier to all saves" to "add (Paladin Level)/4 (rounded up) to all saves"? The end result of +5 to all saves would still occur at level 20.
It's even more problematic than it is now, because you can get the full bonus without bothering with charisma? The core problem is that it shouldn't be giving +5 in the first place. +1 would be a solidly useful feature, +2 would be an excellent feature.
If the Aura of Protection only gave a +1 or +2 to saving throw’s it really wouldn’t be worth going to 6th level Paladin. Bless would overall be better 9 out of 10 times.
If Aura of Protection was nerfed like this, it's likely the class would get something else in addition to the aura to compensate that isn't as absurd as +3 to 5 to all your saves.
Like what? What can be given to the Paladin in exchange for the nerfing of one of the Paladin’s best feature’s?
I'm not a game designer. Just because I can point out absurdities doesn't mean I can come up with an alternative on the spot, and my inability to do so doesn't mean one can't be thought of. But if you really want an answer, how about splitting up the feature: allow the paladin to themselves have a passive +1 or +2 to their saves (which scales at later levels), but have another ability that lets them (as an action or bonus action) dish out a temporary buff of some kind to their allies (with limited uses tied to either proficiency bonus or CHA modifier).
Well, what do you think if we left the paladin's bonus untouched, but the aura bonus was only half of it (rounded up), or -1 to the paladin's particular bonus?
5e design team repeatedly failed to understand how people would play the game. Their thoughts were 6-8 combat encounters a day feels about right. Paladins will focus Str, then Con, with Chr as a tertiary stat because they will mostly use Divine Smite and their auras will be boost the party somewhere between +1 to +3 normally. Warlocks will love to eldritch blast every turn just like fighters will love to say I attack it every turn. Well clearly they didn’t know. Now we have Hexadins out here using Cha for attacks and giving +4 or +5 on AoP. Also I got told on this thread my Paladin was a bad Paladin because I only had +2 AoP and was Str focused. I had fun but apparently I was playing wrong. I guess I’ll spend more time DMing, building a character might not be my strong suit. We also have many tables running 1-3 combats a day, and Warlocks wishing they could be actual casters and not just cantrip damage dealers.
Paladins aren’t supposed to normally achieve a +5 AoP. 5e Hex Warrior makes that too easy. Honestly UA7 PotB makes it even easier because of eldritch adept. AoP should no longer be Cha based and go to half proficiency bonus rounded up. So for most a +3 at 13th and up and for those lucky enough to get that item to increase your pb can get a +4 at 17th and up. If you distance multiclassing then hard lock it to Paladin levels +2 at 6th and +3 at 13th. Maybe add a Paladin specific magic item that increases the aura by +1, +2 or +3 depending or the rarity for those players that really need to feel the POWER!! I’ve also already suggested that Pact of the Blade include a magic action, Eldritch Strike, that allows you to make a weapon attack using you Cha. That makes it so if you want to have multiple attacks with Cha you have to take Warlock to 5th level to get my version of Thirsting blade that lets you take two attacks with Eldritch Strike.
I don't think its that paladins are not normally supposed to have a +5 AoP, but that they are supposed to make a choice between magical and martial power to some degree. And pact of the blade blurs that. Letting them get the best of both world. Though no one on any of my games has done it yet so I'd say there thoughts on this match our game play.
What if Paladin's Aura of Protection was changed from "add your CHA modifier to all saves" to "add (Paladin Level)/4 (rounded up) to all saves"? The end result of +5 to all saves would still occur at level 20.
It's even more problematic than it is now, because you can get the full bonus without bothering with charisma? The core problem is that it shouldn't be giving +5 in the first place. +1 would be a solidly useful feature, +2 would be an excellent feature.
Yeah I don't know why Paladin was made so unbelievably strong.
I imagine it's a holdover from older editions where the class was much more tied to your alignment in exchange for great power?
The thing with Paladin being overpowered is mostly down to NOVA and aura of protection. Paladin's divine smite remains bound to spell slots and just gets insane, more so when IDS coming in at 11, it's a lot of damage a Paladin can output in a single round, more so if they critical, a rogue can output more but as Paladin gets extra attack, they are often in a position where they can critical hits slightly more often than a rogue can.
Now if you take that Nova and add Aura of Protection on top, it gets a little insane if both your attacks and your aura are both using the same ability score, this was not something that could be done in the original design. Obviously they wanted charisma paladin to be viable, sacred weapon in the Oath of Devotion subclass is supposed to make it some what more viable but that channel divinity being an action, was generally never worth using. If you're going for critical hits then Sacred Weapon is actually bad, since it's a whole turn with no attacks, and for the amount of hits that sacred weapon turns from misses into hits, it is basically like using true strike, which is likely why we see it changed into a bonus action in the UAs.
There are multiple potential fixes to rebalance some of these. Personally I think Lay on Hands and Divine Smite should move to a shared resource called Divine Slots, scaling similar to PB but by class level, so a level 1 paladin gets 2 slots, a level 9 paladin gets 4 slots and a level 17 paladin gets 6 slots, which recover on a short or long rest. Lay on hands then heals Charisma+Paladin Level HP, which a paladin can split between all allies within touch distance or can sacrifice 5HP of to remove an effect (as per current progression). using the same resource Divine smite should do 2d8 radiant damage (or 3d8 vs undead and fiends) but a paladin can sacrifice 1d8 to attempt to apply a different effect, paladin gets more effects with levels but the effects basically replace the different smite spells. People might think this would mean that a Paladin would never use lay on hands, but the flip side, as a short rest mechanic, the main time lay on hands is good to top up HP is after a short rest to fill in any HP that wasn't recovered from hit die and thus the most tempting time to do so.
This also makes it so that Paladin is no longer using spell slots for smites, spell casting is more open, it makes paladin as a supportive tank a viable alternative, since casting bless or crusader's mantle now isn't costing a smite and some of the other spells in the spell list also become more viable.
Aura of Protection is like getting off multiple free reactions, a paladin should not be able to take a reaction while maintaining their Aura of Protection, as the Aura is essentially using their reaction. A paladin can enable or disable their Aura of Protection during their turn as a free action. It'd still leave Aura of Protection a little OP'ed but losing reactions would also be a significant cost, you can not take ready actions, you can not do opportunity attacks, PAM would lose it's reactionary attack. Alternatively, Aura of Protection acts like shield or absorb elements, it is activated as a reaction, personally I don't like this but it's also an option.
It is good to remember, that while Paladin is good at some very specific things, it is also very underpowered in other scenarios, like anything strength based, it sucks at range mostly and dumping dex means Paladin often goes later in initiative, which is more important than people generally give credit too. Dex based paladin does break that but can't multi-class anyway, need that 13 strength.
As for pact of the blade on warlock in the UA version, it needs it's fix too, which is that it should only apply charisma to the first weapon attack made of an action or bonus action, then thirsting blade should should give both extra attack and apply charisma to all weapon attacks made with the pact weapon, including reaction.
Compelled Duel and Command are not bad uses of spell slots, these can literally save an encounter, but the low saves makes them less desired. Compelled Duel means you can redirect a hostile creature back towards yourself, instead of say, your spell casters.
Compelled Duel means the monster is moderately inconvenienced when attacking your allies (it has disadvantage on attack and no penalty whatsoever on forcing saves) while consuming your concentration and making it impossible for your teammates to attack the monster or for you to target any other monster. This is not worth losing a smite.
Compelled Duel means a monster needs to pass a DC to move more than 30 foot away from you and that it has disadvantage on any attack that isn't against you, including attacks of opportunity. The problem is this spell has two separate DC checks on Paladin, who generally does not always have the highest Save DCs to begin with. Personally I think compelled duel should have been a DC check to see if the creature spends 1/2 of it's movement to move towards the caster and must do so using the shortest possible path.
Compelled Duel means a monster needs to pass a DC to move more than 30 foot away from you and that it has disadvantage on any attack that isn't against you, including attacks of opportunity. The problem is this spell has two separate DC checks on Paladin, who generally does not always have the highest Save DCs to begin with.
The spell would be mediocre if it automatically worked with no save. The problem isn't the save DC, the problem is that the effect it generates isn't very good.
Compelled Duel means a monster needs to pass a DC to move more than 30 foot away from you and that it has disadvantage on any attack that isn't against you, including attacks of opportunity. The problem is this spell has two separate DC checks on Paladin, who generally does not always have the highest Save DCs to begin with.
The spell would be mediocre if it automatically worked with no save. The problem isn't the save DC, the problem is that the effect it generates isn't very good.
I never said no save, I said that the issue is that the target effectively gets to make two saves, to get out of distance. Disadvantage on targets other than yourself is already pretty big, unless your casters have literally 10AC, it's going to decrease the likelihood they get hit. Of course I still think the spell should be buffed, the target should have to move up to the paladin if they fail a save on their turn, instead of being able to hang out at 30 foot away. Disadvantage is still helpful if one target gets past you.
I never said no save, I said that the issue is that the target effectively gets to make two saves, to get out of distance. Disadvantage on targets other than yourself is already pretty big, unless your casters have literally 10AC, it's going to decrease the likelihood they get hit.
You're missing the point. What cripples the spell isn't the fact that it might not work, it's the fact that it hinders you more than it hinders the monster.
I never said no save, I said that the issue is that the target effectively gets to make two saves, to get out of distance. Disadvantage on targets other than yourself is already pretty big, unless your casters have literally 10AC, it's going to decrease the likelihood they get hit.
You're missing the point. What cripples the spell isn't the fact that it might not work, it's the fact that it hinders you more than it hinders the monster.
The spell doesn't hinder you at all, sure, one less smite, but keeping your wizard/sorcerer/bard/warlock/etc up another round or two is worth more than a single smite, the issue IS the DC. It sounds to me like you've never used the spell, or your DM is DMing it wrong, that a creature is just wilfully ignoring the effects of the spell, disadvantage is huge, and your allies should not want to Opportunity attack since it breaks the spell, so the creature is going to want to go for the easier target, which is no longer the spell casters, different creatures of different intelligence/wisdom levels should react differently sure, but the spell says in it's description that the creature should feel almost compelled to duel you as the caster.
Anyways, this is all a tangent, compelled duel is one of many spells that Paladin has that does in fact benefit from Charisma and spell casting is on part of why the dip is so desirable for many paladins. Also add Eldritch Blast on top as a long ranged cantrip, it fixes way too much for Paladin.
The spell ends if you attack any other creature, if you cast a spell that targets a hostile creature other than the target, if a creature friendly to you damages the target or casts a harmful spell on it, or if you end your turn more than 30 feet away from the target.
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+1 to all saves just for the paladin is a decent feature -- it's about equal to a rogue's Slippery Mind feature. Certainly not a signature feature at that point, but noticeable. I would probably set the aura at +2, though. If the aura didn't affect the paladin, a higher number could be justified (at current stats, I would want something like "requires a bonus action and channel divinity to activate and concentration to maintain ").
You do realize that bonuses in this game stack, don't you? "Permanently bless all allies within a 10' radius" would be hilariously OP.
If the aura had like a 50 foot range sure. At 10 feet you are worse off limiting yourself by staying within 10 feet of the paladin for a +2 to saves. You will take more damage, you will be disabled more often.
Quite simply, that doesn't matter because +5 would be overpowered even if wasn't an aura -- just that much of a bonus to the paladin is too high.
First, I agree that +5 to all saves is too strong of a single level feature. Mathematically, it looks like +2 to Saves would be appropriate for class balance. But playing Devil's Advocate (ah the irony) for Paladin's Aura of Protection:
A) Paladin's primary attributes of STR and CHA are not common saves. Compared to Ranger DEX and WIS being common saves. So Paladins need roughly +2 to common saves to compensate.
B) If WoTC attempts to downgrade Paladins, survey results are going to come back extremely negative.
Like what? What can be given to the Paladin in exchange for the nerfing of one of the Paladin’s best feature’s?
Not really. In the grand scheme of things a permanent +1 or +2 to saving throw’s if within 10ft of the Paladin isn’t OP.
No, I just think a tanky themed class having good saves does not bother me. Without it their saves kind of suck. They have no reason to put stats into wisdom so the proficiency in it hits weak, charisma saves almost never happen, and they suck at Dex. A +2 would put their wisdom into decent but not great, at +5 their wisdom save is ending up at cleric wisdom save, their charisma saves are absurd and they have decent other saves but with how mad they are even strength and con is getting spread thin without really dumping everything else. The real boon is it potentially helping the party. If that part is handicapped to the point people rarely use it, it becomes a weak ability.
Paladin’s do have proficiency in wisdom saving throws. So they do have a bonus there already.
The Paladin is already getting negative results because of the changes to Divine Smite. While most Paladin players were unhappy with the change to once per turn most of them are somewhat understanding of the change. What most don’t like at all is making making Divine Smite a bonus action spell.
Nothing? If a class is overpowered, it needs a nerf whack (the change to smite is actually not a nerf; while it does decrease nova potential, you get a bunch of extra free smites per day and you can use better smites -- shining smite, blinding smite, and staggering smite are reliably superior to using the same spell slot for simple damage).
That’s what Bless does.
Hm.
That's a solid feature.
Well, what do you think if we left the paladin's bonus untouched, but the aura bonus was only half of it (rounded up), or -1 to the paladin's particular bonus?
5e design team repeatedly failed to understand how people would play the game. Their thoughts were 6-8 combat encounters a day feels about right. Paladins will focus Str, then Con, with Chr as a tertiary stat because they will mostly use Divine Smite and their auras will be boost the party somewhere between +1 to +3 normally. Warlocks will love to eldritch blast every turn just like fighters will love to say I attack it every turn. Well clearly they didn’t know. Now we have Hexadins out here using Cha for attacks and giving +4 or +5 on AoP. Also I got told on this thread my Paladin was a bad Paladin because I only had +2 AoP and was Str focused. I had fun but apparently I was playing wrong. I guess I’ll spend more time DMing, building a character might not be my strong suit. We also have many tables running 1-3 combats a day, and Warlocks wishing they could be actual casters and not just cantrip damage dealers.
Paladins aren’t supposed to normally achieve a +5 AoP. 5e Hex Warrior makes that too easy. Honestly UA7 PotB makes it even easier because of eldritch adept. AoP should no longer be Cha based and go to half proficiency bonus rounded up. So for most a +3 at 13th and up and for those lucky enough to get that item to increase your pb can get a +4 at 17th and up. If you distance multiclassing then hard lock it to Paladin levels +2 at 6th and +3 at 13th. Maybe add a Paladin specific magic item that increases the aura by +1, +2 or +3 depending or the rarity for those players that really need to feel the POWER!! I’ve also already suggested that Pact of the Blade include a magic action, Eldritch Strike, that allows you to make a weapon attack using you Cha. That makes it so if you want to have multiple attacks with Cha you have to take Warlock to 5th level to get my version of Thirsting blade that lets you take two attacks with Eldritch Strike.
I don't think its that paladins are not normally supposed to have a +5 AoP, but that they are supposed to make a choice between magical and martial power to some degree. And pact of the blade blurs that. Letting them get the best of both world. Though no one on any of my games has done it yet so I'd say there thoughts on this match our game play.
The thing with Paladin being overpowered is mostly down to NOVA and aura of protection. Paladin's divine smite remains bound to spell slots and just gets insane, more so when IDS coming in at 11, it's a lot of damage a Paladin can output in a single round, more so if they critical, a rogue can output more but as Paladin gets extra attack, they are often in a position where they can critical hits slightly more often than a rogue can.
Now if you take that Nova and add Aura of Protection on top, it gets a little insane if both your attacks and your aura are both using the same ability score, this was not something that could be done in the original design. Obviously they wanted charisma paladin to be viable, sacred weapon in the Oath of Devotion subclass is supposed to make it some what more viable but that channel divinity being an action, was generally never worth using. If you're going for critical hits then Sacred Weapon is actually bad, since it's a whole turn with no attacks, and for the amount of hits that sacred weapon turns from misses into hits, it is basically like using true strike, which is likely why we see it changed into a bonus action in the UAs.
There are multiple potential fixes to rebalance some of these. Personally I think Lay on Hands and Divine Smite should move to a shared resource called Divine Slots, scaling similar to PB but by class level, so a level 1 paladin gets 2 slots, a level 9 paladin gets 4 slots and a level 17 paladin gets 6 slots, which recover on a short or long rest. Lay on hands then heals Charisma+Paladin Level HP, which a paladin can split between all allies within touch distance or can sacrifice 5HP of to remove an effect (as per current progression). using the same resource Divine smite should do 2d8 radiant damage (or 3d8 vs undead and fiends) but a paladin can sacrifice 1d8 to attempt to apply a different effect, paladin gets more effects with levels but the effects basically replace the different smite spells. People might think this would mean that a Paladin would never use lay on hands, but the flip side, as a short rest mechanic, the main time lay on hands is good to top up HP is after a short rest to fill in any HP that wasn't recovered from hit die and thus the most tempting time to do so.
This also makes it so that Paladin is no longer using spell slots for smites, spell casting is more open, it makes paladin as a supportive tank a viable alternative, since casting bless or crusader's mantle now isn't costing a smite and some of the other spells in the spell list also become more viable.
Aura of Protection is like getting off multiple free reactions, a paladin should not be able to take a reaction while maintaining their Aura of Protection, as the Aura is essentially using their reaction. A paladin can enable or disable their Aura of Protection during their turn as a free action. It'd still leave Aura of Protection a little OP'ed but losing reactions would also be a significant cost, you can not take ready actions, you can not do opportunity attacks, PAM would lose it's reactionary attack. Alternatively, Aura of Protection acts like shield or absorb elements, it is activated as a reaction, personally I don't like this but it's also an option.
It is good to remember, that while Paladin is good at some very specific things, it is also very underpowered in other scenarios, like anything strength based, it sucks at range mostly and dumping dex means Paladin often goes later in initiative, which is more important than people generally give credit too. Dex based paladin does break that but can't multi-class anyway, need that 13 strength.
As for pact of the blade on warlock in the UA version, it needs it's fix too, which is that it should only apply charisma to the first weapon attack made of an action or bonus action, then thirsting blade should should give both extra attack and apply charisma to all weapon attacks made with the pact weapon, including reaction.
Compelled Duel means a monster needs to pass a DC to move more than 30 foot away from you and that it has disadvantage on any attack that isn't against you, including attacks of opportunity. The problem is this spell has two separate DC checks on Paladin, who generally does not always have the highest Save DCs to begin with. Personally I think compelled duel should have been a DC check to see if the creature spends 1/2 of it's movement to move towards the caster and must do so using the shortest possible path.
The spell would be mediocre if it automatically worked with no save. The problem isn't the save DC, the problem is that the effect it generates isn't very good.
I never said no save, I said that the issue is that the target effectively gets to make two saves, to get out of distance. Disadvantage on targets other than yourself is already pretty big, unless your casters have literally 10AC, it's going to decrease the likelihood they get hit. Of course I still think the spell should be buffed, the target should have to move up to the paladin if they fail a save on their turn, instead of being able to hang out at 30 foot away. Disadvantage is still helpful if one target gets past you.
You're missing the point. What cripples the spell isn't the fact that it might not work, it's the fact that it hinders you more than it hinders the monster.
The spell doesn't hinder you at all, sure, one less smite, but keeping your wizard/sorcerer/bard/warlock/etc up another round or two is worth more than a single smite, the issue IS the DC. It sounds to me like you've never used the spell, or your DM is DMing it wrong, that a creature is just wilfully ignoring the effects of the spell, disadvantage is huge, and your allies should not want to Opportunity attack since it breaks the spell, so the creature is going to want to go for the easier target, which is no longer the spell casters, different creatures of different intelligence/wisdom levels should react differently sure, but the spell says in it's description that the creature should feel almost compelled to duel you as the caster.
Anyways, this is all a tangent, compelled duel is one of many spells that Paladin has that does in fact benefit from Charisma and spell casting is on part of why the dip is so desirable for many paladins. Also add Eldritch Blast on top as a long ranged cantrip, it fixes way too much for Paladin.
Read the spell description?