With the addition of the nick mastery, allowing paladins to attack twice while saving their bonus action for smite, is there an argument for dex paladins to move away from board and sword if they wanted to optimize? While board and sword provides higher AC to make up for lacking heavy armor, vex and nick give more attacks and advantage which can help damage output and crit smite odds.
DPR-wise, more attacks are nearly always better, particularly when you're only moving from d8 to d6 weapon damage. Now, it's probably not worth holding smites for crits- even with Vex they're uncommon enough and combat is short enough in terms of attacks made you're more likely to just be left with unused slots rather than get enough optimal moments to cash them in.
For a dual-wielding paladin you are actually usually better off using your spell slots on spells that will increase your damage per hit, namely Divine Favor and Spirit Shroud. A casting of either of these will grant you extra damage round after round, which will add up to more damage over the course of an encounter than a single Divine Smite. On my dex-based Vengeance Pally the only time I ever smite at all is if I happen to crit on later rounds. Otherwise, I am better off just making an extra attack with my bonus action from the Dual Wielder feat than using up a spell slot on a smite spell.
Edit: If you are multiclassing to get higher level spell slots, the Smite spells might be worth it since you will have more spell slots and at higher levels.
Dex builds are almost always superior to STR builds. Dex affects more areas of the character than STR, and has already been said, multiple attacks (even for less damage per hit) are superior to fewer attacks. The average difference between a d6 weapon and a d8 weapon damage is 1pt. d6=3.5 average, d8=4.5 average. Multiple attack rolls means more chances to crit, and less likelyhood of going an entire round without inflicting damage (and non-damage effects that come from those hits like shoving, toppling, advantage to next roll from vex or spell, or any of the dozens of other effects that can be delivered with a hit). 5e2024 introduces many more ways to add extra damage on every hit (instead of just 1 hit per round) - in my opinion this was a mistake, but it is what they did.
STR affects to hit/damage (up close and maybe at short range), Athletic checks, and STR saves
DEX affects to hit/damage (up close and at all range categories), Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, AC, Dex saves (which are far more useful than STR saves)
The loss of 2 pts of AC from not having a shield is easily outweighed by the benefits of having that second hand holding a weapon.
From over 40 yrs of playing the game, I can say with confidence that it is rare for someone to die because they had a 8 STR score (yes it can happen, but it is pretty rare). Try playing a character with an 8 DEX and it likely won't survive.
Dex builds are simply superior in all but a few niche situations.
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Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.
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With the addition of the nick mastery, allowing paladins to attack twice while saving their bonus action for smite, is there an argument for dex paladins to move away from board and sword if they wanted to optimize?
While board and sword provides higher AC to make up for lacking heavy armor, vex and nick give more attacks and advantage which can help damage output and crit smite odds.
DPR-wise, more attacks are nearly always better, particularly when you're only moving from d8 to d6 weapon damage. Now, it's probably not worth holding smites for crits- even with Vex they're uncommon enough and combat is short enough in terms of attacks made you're more likely to just be left with unused slots rather than get enough optimal moments to cash them in.
For a dual-wielding paladin you are actually usually better off using your spell slots on spells that will increase your damage per hit, namely Divine Favor and Spirit Shroud. A casting of either of these will grant you extra damage round after round, which will add up to more damage over the course of an encounter than a single Divine Smite. On my dex-based Vengeance Pally the only time I ever smite at all is if I happen to crit on later rounds. Otherwise, I am better off just making an extra attack with my bonus action from the Dual Wielder feat than using up a spell slot on a smite spell.
Edit: If you are multiclassing to get higher level spell slots, the Smite spells might be worth it since you will have more spell slots and at higher levels.
Dex builds are almost always superior to STR builds. Dex affects more areas of the character than STR, and has already been said, multiple attacks (even for less damage per hit) are superior to fewer attacks. The average difference between a d6 weapon and a d8 weapon damage is 1pt. d6=3.5 average, d8=4.5 average. Multiple attack rolls means more chances to crit, and less likelyhood of going an entire round without inflicting damage (and non-damage effects that come from those hits like shoving, toppling, advantage to next roll from vex or spell, or any of the dozens of other effects that can be delivered with a hit). 5e2024 introduces many more ways to add extra damage on every hit (instead of just 1 hit per round) - in my opinion this was a mistake, but it is what they did.
STR affects to hit/damage (up close and maybe at short range), Athletic checks, and STR saves
DEX affects to hit/damage (up close and at all range categories), Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, AC, Dex saves (which are far more useful than STR saves)
The loss of 2 pts of AC from not having a shield is easily outweighed by the benefits of having that second hand holding a weapon.
From over 40 yrs of playing the game, I can say with confidence that it is rare for someone to die because they had a 8 STR score (yes it can happen, but it is pretty rare). Try playing a character with an 8 DEX and it likely won't survive.
Dex builds are simply superior in all but a few niche situations.
Playing D&D since 1982
Have played every version of the game since Basic (Red Box Set), except that abomination sometimes called 4e.