Usually I play full spellcasters but I decided to take a break from that after talking to the girlfriend. So here I am, looking at making a paladin.
Since I'm not the most experienced d&d 5e player, I'm here to see if the community could give me some welcome advice. At the moment I have already made a character here on D&D beyond: LINK
As you will have noticed I went for a variant human and I went the GWM.
More information which might influence your choice: We are a three person party: Warlock of the fiend and most likely a fighter at level 1. Hence why I took a character which could give some healing at level 1 and at future levels if such were needed.
My question is very simple, where do I go from here? (multiclassing into a full caster class is not an option)
Which Oath do I take?
What do I do at level 4? Feat or ASI?
Same for level 8 …
Campaign is meant to last a while and ideally we'll get to level 20. Most of our campaigns do.
Thanks a lot in advance for all the advice, tips & tricks you are willing to share on this.
Ok, a couple of questions, what kind of player do you want to be, and how many sub classes do you have access to? Are we talking the base three or the whole lot? Honestly, your base stats are pretty amazing so you would probably do well with just about anything from any class. Couple of other questions, do you know what type of monsters you will be fighting primarily (If any) and what kind of environment to expect?
For the base three... Devotion would go pretty well with the off healing role by giving you some support spells. Beacon of Hope could be particularly useful, squeezing a little more healing out of your spell slots which will already be pretty demanded by your smites. The Sacred Weapon ability from Channel Divinity could work well with your GWM feat, giving you a +4 from your Charisma, to offset the -5 from the GWM.
As DxJxC said, the Ancients could be pretty solid, it gives you good mobility options in Misty Step or Tree Stride, gives you a ranged option with Moonbeam or Ice Storm, and some other fun spells to play with too. Aura of Warding is also very powerful, and your Fighter will probably love you for it.
For Vengeance, the Oath of Enmity has a similar benefit to Devotion, where you can grant yourself advantage to help mitigate the -5 from GWM, or to just go ham. Might help crit fish for the GWM as well, but kinda unreliable in that aspect. Throw in haste from the oath spells, and you can be a slicing machine. Soul of Vengeance (Much later down the line) gets you another attack option, but kind of clashes with Sentinel for the reaction attack.
As for the ASI, I'd also advise looking at Strength or Charisma to max them out to 20. The ability to add your charisma to any saving throw for you or friendlies in range at 6th is very useful and has saved my party a few times with a +3. A +5 is just amazing. It also makes your spells better if you needed more of a reason. Strength is a given, you've got a Greatsword, hit even harder with it. Can't go wrong with Con either, take more hits, have a slightly better save, all good. I'd probably go Strength at 4, Charisma at 8.
For feats, I'd ditto the Sentinel (Unless you go Vengeance) to get more use out of your Greatsword, and it helps designate you as a tank (If that interests you at all). Could stop someone making a break for the Warlock too.
If you don't plan to pick up any Javelins (Kind of surprised to see those absent!) you could look at Magic initiate, the level 1 spell is kind of meh, but the two cantrips can give you a solid ranged option with your Charisma or surprisingly solid Wisdom
Maybe grab up Healer (Though this would probably work for anyone in your team) to take some of the strain off your healing pool. Probably wont get you up to full, but it will keep the team going a little longer
Polearm Master could have some synergy with GWM if you want to swap the Greatsword for a Glaive or Halberd, getting a bonus attack and an extra chance to smite, but might drain your spell slots if you are going to off heal
Mounted Combatant is one I usually wouldn't bother mentioning, but with Find (Greater) Steed you can always have a mount, and the advantage, again, could offset the -5 from GWM. Very situational though, and depending on the environment may never get a use. Not bad to make your Paladin unique though!
OCD in me is saying to get Resilient in Intelligence just to round out that odd number =p Might be useful for magic saves, but probably not worth it!
Could I please get the reasoning behind your advice so I can understand it?
Much obliged
Almost entirely for aura of warding. And sentinel so you can trap enemies near you to tank.
I haven't looked through all the paladin options. Like you, I play mostly full casters. As far as I was ever concerned about paladins, they got their most useful abilities to me in the first 2 levels (healing spells, armor and weapons, fighting style, smite).
Sentinel is almost a most for a feat. It is amazing.
I also took Protection and Oath of devotion. I took the oath because zone of truth is fun as heck. Protection because i'm truly trying to tank and protect.
The group worked rather nicely and we were able to best several deadly encounters:
2 wolves followed by a direwolf immediately after they died.
I am now pondering what Oath to take at level 3 since we kinda need high DPS (we can't survive a slugout) so I'm doubting either the oath of devotion or the oath of vengeance.
In-game my father and brother were killed in the line of duty by undead so swearing an oath of vengeance is not illogical and oath of devotion fits the character.
Now that you have started playing, your type of game could influence your decision: Is it a low magic game, where magic items (specifically weapons) are extremely rare? If yes, devotion will be a big help when fighting monsters with resistance or immunity to non-magic weapons. Do you use the optional flanking rules? If yes, the vengeance oath that gives advantage is less of a draw considering you have a way to prompt advantage.
We don't use the optional flanking rules and it seems to be a world where magical items won't be found casually. It however does not seem to be out of reach to get one. So a regular world I'd say.
Given the need for DPS, Vengeance would help for the bigger enemies at least. In the combat you mentioned, being able to get advantage against the dire wolf would have increased your hits on it, and increased your chances to crit and double your weapon and smite damage. (If you had a spell slot left.) But devotion can also be very helpful in an undead heavy campaign. If you feel like you are in an undead heavy adventure, devotion's turn ability will come in very handy.
Both have unique advantages, and both are good at damage/being a front line fighter. Which oath fits how you want to play it best? The more righteous devotion oath, or the fight the greater evil without mercy vengeance oath? If one of those "speaks" to you more, that's the one to go with in my opinion.
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Greetings,
Usually I play full spellcasters but I decided to take a break from that after talking to the girlfriend.
So here I am, looking at making a paladin.
Since I'm not the most experienced d&d 5e player, I'm here to see if the community could give me some welcome advice.
At the moment I have already made a character here on D&D beyond: LINK
As you will have noticed I went for a variant human and I went the GWM.
More information which might influence your choice: We are a three person party: Warlock of the fiend and most likely a fighter at level 1. Hence why I took a character which could give some healing at level 1 and at future levels if such were needed.
My question is very simple, where do I go from here? (multiclassing into a full caster class is not an option)
Campaign is meant to last a while and ideally we'll get to level 20. Most of our campaigns do.
Thanks a lot in advance for all the advice, tips & tricks you are willing to share on this.
Est Sularus oth Mithas
I say go oath of ancients, and get sentinel feat at level 4. After that STR, CON, and CHA (in no particular order).
@DxJxC Thanks for the answer.
Could I please get the reasoning behind your advice so I can understand it?
Much obliged
Est Sularus oth Mithas
Ok, a couple of questions, what kind of player do you want to be, and how many sub classes do you have access to? Are we talking the base three or the whole lot? Honestly, your base stats are pretty amazing so you would probably do well with just about anything from any class. Couple of other questions, do you know what type of monsters you will be fighting primarily (If any) and what kind of environment to expect?
For the base three... Devotion would go pretty well with the off healing role by giving you some support spells. Beacon of Hope could be particularly useful, squeezing a little more healing out of your spell slots which will already be pretty demanded by your smites. The Sacred Weapon ability from Channel Divinity could work well with your GWM feat, giving you a +4 from your Charisma, to offset the -5 from the GWM.
As DxJxC said, the Ancients could be pretty solid, it gives you good mobility options in Misty Step or Tree Stride, gives you a ranged option with Moonbeam or Ice Storm, and some other fun spells to play with too. Aura of Warding is also very powerful, and your Fighter will probably love you for it.
For Vengeance, the Oath of Enmity has a similar benefit to Devotion, where you can grant yourself advantage to help mitigate the -5 from GWM, or to just go ham. Might help crit fish for the GWM as well, but kinda unreliable in that aspect. Throw in haste from the oath spells, and you can be a slicing machine. Soul of Vengeance (Much later down the line) gets you another attack option, but kind of clashes with Sentinel for the reaction attack.
As for the ASI, I'd also advise looking at Strength or Charisma to max them out to 20. The ability to add your charisma to any saving throw for you or friendlies in range at 6th is very useful and has saved my party a few times with a +3. A +5 is just amazing. It also makes your spells better if you needed more of a reason. Strength is a given, you've got a Greatsword, hit even harder with it. Can't go wrong with Con either, take more hits, have a slightly better save, all good. I'd probably go Strength at 4, Charisma at 8.
For feats, I'd ditto the Sentinel (Unless you go Vengeance) to get more use out of your Greatsword, and it helps designate you as a tank (If that interests you at all). Could stop someone making a break for the Warlock too.
If you don't plan to pick up any Javelins (Kind of surprised to see those absent!) you could look at Magic initiate, the level 1 spell is kind of meh, but the two cantrips can give you a solid ranged option with your Charisma or surprisingly solid Wisdom
Maybe grab up Healer (Though this would probably work for anyone in your team) to take some of the strain off your healing pool. Probably wont get you up to full, but it will keep the team going a little longer
Polearm Master could have some synergy with GWM if you want to swap the Greatsword for a Glaive or Halberd, getting a bonus attack and an extra chance to smite, but might drain your spell slots if you are going to off heal
Mounted Combatant is one I usually wouldn't bother mentioning, but with Find (Greater) Steed you can always have a mount, and the advantage, again, could offset the -5 from GWM. Very situational though, and depending on the environment may never get a use. Not bad to make your Paladin unique though!
OCD in me is saying to get Resilient in Intelligence just to round out that odd number =p Might be useful for magic saves, but probably not worth it!
Almost entirely for aura of warding. And sentinel so you can trap enemies near you to tank.
I haven't looked through all the paladin options. Like you, I play mostly full casters. As far as I was ever concerned about paladins, they got their most useful abilities to me in the first 2 levels (healing spells, armor and weapons, fighting style, smite).
Thank you very much for the information
Sentinel is almost a most for a feat. It is amazing.
I also took Protection and Oath of devotion. I took the oath because zone of truth is fun as heck. Protection because i'm truly trying to tank and protect.
We had our session 1.
The group worked rather nicely and we were able to best several deadly encounters:
2 wolves followed by a direwolf immediately after they died.
I am now pondering what Oath to take at level 3 since we kinda need high DPS (we can't survive a slugout) so I'm doubting either the oath of devotion or the oath of vengeance.
In-game my father and brother were killed in the line of duty by undead so swearing an oath of vengeance is not illogical and oath of devotion fits the character.
Heavily in doubt.
Est Sularus oth Mithas
Now that you have started playing, your type of game could influence your decision: Is it a low magic game, where magic items (specifically weapons) are extremely rare? If yes, devotion will be a big help when fighting monsters with resistance or immunity to non-magic weapons. Do you use the optional flanking rules? If yes, the vengeance oath that gives advantage is less of a draw considering you have a way to prompt advantage.
We don't use the optional flanking rules and it seems to be a world where magical items won't be found casually. It however does not seem to be out of reach to get one. So a regular world I'd say.
Est Sularus oth Mithas
Given the need for DPS, Vengeance would help for the bigger enemies at least. In the combat you mentioned, being able to get advantage against the dire wolf would have increased your hits on it, and increased your chances to crit and double your weapon and smite damage. (If you had a spell slot left.) But devotion can also be very helpful in an undead heavy campaign. If you feel like you are in an undead heavy adventure, devotion's turn ability will come in very handy.
Both have unique advantages, and both are good at damage/being a front line fighter. Which oath fits how you want to play it best? The more righteous devotion oath, or the fight the greater evil without mercy vengeance oath? If one of those "speaks" to you more, that's the one to go with in my opinion.