Correction to Vengeance: Avenging Angel lasts for 1 hour, not 1 minute. This should put it at least B tier in my opinion since it's non-dispellable. Correction for Conquest: Prioritizing Charisma is basically mandatory for this subclass, so your DC will be far higher than most, and it's likely to be the only class that maxes out your lv6 aura to +5, and your Scornful Rebuke to +5, which are both wildly useful. Also, I would rank Invincible Conqueror to at least A tier. It doesn't look as pretty on paper as other capstones, but it doubles your chances to crit and grants 3 attacks instead of 2, which as you said yourself, makes smites, Improved Divine Smite, AND Holy Weapon, deal so, SO much more damage. It's meant to destroy final bosses, which you often complain capstones just don't address, so I'm frankly surprised you ranked it so low when it is immensely more effective than Avenging Angel (Also rank C), and far more "powerful" than Elder Champion (rank A). Lastly, resistance to all damage greatly helps concentration checks, which a Conquest will almost always be concentrating on something (likely Holy Weapon). Lastly, Conquest isn't as forced of a niche as you would think. I managed to play a Chaotic Good Conquest paladin (My party nicknamed him "The Grouchlord") and I followed my tenets just fine. RIP Grouchlord, you died as you lived: demanding to invade every dungeon you saw by marching through the front door instead of looking for back entrances like a weak coward. Signed, ~A devoted Paladin user.
Pardon my ignorance but "Scornful Rebuke" on a Conquest Pally? And Im playing my 1st campaign ever as a Conqueror and not having any issue with the alignment thing. He's all about toppling evil but he restrains himself because he knows he needs his allies to reach his ultimate goals. So he is a protector and defends his allies at all costs.
Scornful Rebuke Starting at 15th level, those who dare to strike you are psychically punished for their audacity. Whenever a creature hits you with an attack, that creature takes psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1) if you’re not incapacitated.
@@ericmata3728 Scornful Rebuke is the Conquest Pally's Lv15 ability. You might be thinking of Hellish Rebuke, which is the Warlock spell. As for alignment, I agree with you, and your character sounds just fine to me (Though how do you handle the "Rule With An Iron Fist" tenet?). It may just depend on the DM, because yes, Conquest was meant for Lawful Neutral/Evil, but it's not the only way to play the class. Bard rated Conquest below Redemption for that reason, and I take offense to that.
Me I'm the eternal fighter man. Played a lot of rogue too, but my current fighter has been steadily walking a path to becoming a paladin. I'm very excited!
My fav class is monk, but man, I made a green knight and holy crap, she's amazing. I can see why they rock. Not played one since 3.5e, and I'm glad I did fight my prejudices
First character I ever played in DnD was a paladin, and to this day it and cleric remain my top two favorite classes by far. One of my favorite characters I've ever played was an Oath of Redemption paladin. Soriel Alexander Von Hresvelgr, protector aasimar, Chosen of Lathander, and savior of the Hellriders. He and his noble companions, "The Boys", tore across the landscape of Avernus to save the fallen city of Elturel, eventually even convincing Zariel herself to return to Heaven as an angel and leave the Blood War behind. My favorite character moment of his was when they were sent back in time to defend a town beset by demons. He witnessed a single brave mastiff defend the people from the fiends, only to be slaughtered by a marilith. After the battle, he cast Find Greater Steed and beseeched Lathander to send the dog's soul to serve as his noble steed (because everyone knows all dogs go to Heaven). The great griffon-sized mastiff manifested, bearing a pair of eagle's wings. I named him "Hero."
Have enjoyed all of your rankings and was super excited to see you were making one for paladins next. Thanks for taking the time to make these and keep up the good work!
My girlfriend started playing an oath of ancients paladin in my game and with that in mind I *knew* ancients would be the top, at least of the ones listed here. It just has *so much* going for it.
one upside to having mediocre capstone features is the that you can multiclass without really missing anything. For example, a paladin with a few levels into hexblade warlock gets spell slots for Smite on a short rest and other stuff.
@@esperthebard One of my favorite combos is Moon Druid/Ancient Paladin. Being a true protector of Nature, your Wild Shape form's attacks work for divine smite, and they don't count as casting a spell, so they can be used while in that form. Also Druids, being full-casters, give you a much larger reserve of Spell Slots you can take advantage of. also, 5e Paladins don't require swearing your oath to a god. the Oath itself is the source of your power. this is why Paladins are charisma, not wisdom. They use a force of personality to empower themselves.
@@esperthebard well hexblade was the first to come mind when I think Pal-lock. It may be complicated but roleplay wouldn't be interesting if there weren't some complications to it. You could go oath of the ancients and fey warlock, oathbreaker or maybe even oath of conquest/vengage and fiend pact depending on how you do your character, perhaps oath of the crown and genie or great old one. And lbr the celestial warlock works in general.
@@honeyham6788, you can't use your Wild Shape attacks with divine smite as they are considered natural (unarmed) attacks, not weapon attacks. Also, wisdom is my first dump stat, along with intelligence. If you want to multiclass a paladin with a full caster, take your first two levels in paladin and then the rest in college of swords bard; you get so many spell slots and AOE spells for crowd control, along with an additional fighting style and double attack with the bard.
I've noticed your interest in Oath of Redemption. I once played an Oath of Devotion Paladin who was serving the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut only later to realize that the priests of his church were corrupt demon worshipers who were taking advantage of their position to take everything from the people worshipping him. My paladin went on his way to "make a pilgrimage" which was a cover up to find some higher positioned priests and reveal what was happening. On his way, the DM introduced me to an NPC that my paladin fell in love with. Later down the line, this NPC was imprisoned by the corrupt priests, and my paladin ultamitely gave himself to them to infiltrate and rescue her. This led to him becoming an Oath breaker, something he greatly feared, and led to him making lots of questionable decisions. However, he resisted as best he could which was decides through wisdom saving throws, and was revealed that Bahamut never left him despite his choice. Bahamut freed him, leading him to become that universe's first paladin of Redemption. The arc type is very good for an rp experience for sure. I'd almost argue its better at protecting than Oath of Devotion 😁
I have not yet said how much i love the very first seconds of each videos. It reminds me of old school MTG cards flavor-texts : thematically fitting excepts of classical literature.
One of my favorite characters is an Oathbreaker Paladin. Paladin is such a cool class with great mechanics for combat and rollplay. Then you have the subclasses. Their are so many for different playstyles.
Love your content Esper. In particular this one. Oath of the Ancients Paladin is my main. Hope I can Patreon again soon. Wishing you nothing but happiness. Cheers.
Oath of Vengance is amazing. I'm taking one through out of the abyss and got a sword with Sentinel on it and went toe to toe with Orcus for quite a bit of time. Of course I was also hasted. I love my vengance paladin of Torm.
The paladin is my favorite class mainly because it is mostly a front line fighter but with some really good support abilities and spells that make it a solid team player in a multiplayer RPG
Redemption is why I played a paladin in 5e. Tasha gives us Blessed Warrior and feats that give extra spells: Fey touched and Shadow touched. You can build a fun support caster that has some burst damage potential. Of course, I'm casting Bless 99.99999% of the time, but it is nice to have the option to cast Sleep or Hypnotic Pattern. Edit: As to why you would play a paladin caster over a regular caster depends on your DM. Paladins have much better survivability than normal casters plus you get your Charisma bonus (and Bless, if cast) to Con saves to make your concentration checks when you take damage. In my games, casters are a priority target and often fail concentration checks when they are hit with AoE spells. So, if you need that Hypnotic Pattern to stay up, having a paladin cast it is the way to go. My redeemer also has a ring of spell storing, so if there is a level 1-5 spell the party ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO STAY UP, he can cast it from the ring with a good chance of making Con saves.
I need to play this. I was looking for the proper build for a paladin of Ioun who's a librarian tasked with late fees and....reclamations. This subclass is just PERFECT for it. "Hello, mighty dragon. Might I get that book back you borrowed from our Temple 200 years ago? Really, I didn't come to fight you about it....."
5e Paladin is kinda the opposite of 5e Ranger - thematic differences (and ranged vs melee etc) aside, the ranger lives and dies on its subclass because the base features are so underwhelming, and the paladin excels no matter what subclass you take because the base class is so goddamned good.
I made a oath of Heroism dwarf gladiator who has sworn an oath to himself to live up to his ancestors glory. Probably going polearm mastery for that crit but more for that classic Roman warrior image, or pantheon from LoL or Helios from MTG
In one of my longest and greatest campaigns, one of the key characters was a Paladin of the Mystic, goddess of Magic. She was a good deity, accepted all alignments but despised senseless cruelty. If you were a Paladin of hers, you could multi class warrior, mage and cleric with unlimited restrictions on those classes as if you were single classed but with the added XP of each. Costly but worth it. This brings back memories. Paladins are highly underestimated and should have high standards to keep for being chosen spokesmen for a deity, answering to a high priest on occasion with many adventure hooks. Only chosen warriors, 5th level or higher, with the highest potential (stats) could ever become Paladins. Those that did not make the cut were clerics, Holy Warriors or Knights (fancy names but still clerics).
Good video, but you made a mistake, avenging angel last for a hour, not a minute, which means you have a flight speed of 60 feet outside of combat, and can be used for multiple battles in a dungeon, especially at the start of battles
Absolutely great, Esper. As always, you go to the finer qualities of game practicality, in terms of role play and distribution to the mechanics. That's a recipe for a great review!
i want to play a paladin/sorcerer multiclass. Blind fighting+darkness sounds really good if you want to get those crits, also moar smites, moar quickly
That was great, i too have heard many people favoring the Vengeance Oath than other . Maybe because of its early powerful features and easy to roleplay theme. Also the Ancients Oath rules.
@@Spiceodog i think i've yet to play a single game that even got to seventh level. played a few Tabletop games that got past that, but that wasn't D&D, sooo....
I hope you haven't given up doing these videos for the other D&D Classes. I think they're really good!!! Also I wish you would redo the Barbarian class video because it is so hard to follow that I never go back to it
I loved every second of my Redemption Paladin. He was a Silver Dragonborn with a dark past but great heart. Also, don't sneeze at Rebuke the Violent: one time we defeated a Dragon against all odds and all I ever did was land a crit (adding a lv3 Smite) and Rebuke another critical hit against one of my friends. It was enough damage to scare it.
With Oath of the Crown, I got a good use out of both Channel Divinity options. With the first option, I had all enemies attack me and I had to remind the DM that they can't willing move more than 20 ft from my paladin. This was key to having a bunch of harpies from flying away from us and I had used the dodge action until they were all dead. The second option is a great mass heal in case of almost TPK. It does state you can heal yourself.
I played a protector aasimar paladin of devotion in a work homebrew campaign. The BBEG was an aboleth and my paladin pretty much ignored its attacks -- she was immune to its diseased tentacles, immune to its enslave charm, and with her radiant soul wings, she flew over the watery lair actions.
Im really shocked to see Aura of Conquest get just a B rank. with frightened enemie's speed reduced to zero, finding a way to knock that enemy prone essentially stunlocks quite a few baddies
So excited for paladins to be added to baldur's gate 3. I've watch this and part 2 probably 4-5 times over its early access so far as I randomly get hyped for the paladin again
I have a soft spot for paladins. My first ever character was one (Oath of Devotion) and I loved him to pieces, still do. I dabbled with a few other classes, but I went back to my roots recently. Newest character multiclassed into warlock too, he has a whole backstory with how he ended up here and everything and playing him hurts but I love it anyways (Oathbreaker 3/Great Old One 3)
13:13 Wait a minute, Purity of spirit is coded dark blue (C tier) but the ranking says B. 15:32 "I personally value RP and storytelling very highly." Tell that to the 17th level Mastermind (yes, I have just come from the Rogue video). On a note more related to Paladins, what I gathered from the intro on Oath of Redemption is do *not* run them in the same party as Oath of Vengeance and Oath of Conquest.
the greatest power the Paladin has that is often over looked is in fact his oath this makes him trusted to always fallow his oath any NPC and player can trust him to obey his oath this makes sensitive missions possible (deliver this box but don't look inside) if the party is ever treated as if it's not trust worthy all they need to do is have the paladin swear they can trust them he can make some impossible RP situations possible simply because of who he is braking his oath is also OP many see it as a weakness but it can be the lie of all lies they never see it coming imagen a situation that needs you to fool a god your oath can be used to fool a god
I really love the Paladin class, mostly because i have grown up with the old Knights of the Round Table movie from the 50s, which was always my favourite "Arthurian" movie. (yes, i'm THAT old, lol.) I'm really glad that in our current day and age, the perception of what a Paladin is has changed* to be much more than being a mere healer/shield bearer that protects spellcasters. *many video games did that about 20-10 years ago.
Paladin have grown on me over time. I started out looking at them going “why in the world would I want to play one of these when I could either be a straight up fighter or straight up spell caster?” I have since come to a place where I really, really wish to have a game where I could play a redemption paladin. I think I could do it justice
Paladins have never been horrifically boring. It is the player who is boring and unimaginative. IF you're not willing to get into the mindset, then you shouldn't play one. Or are Jedi boring?
@@esperthebard The best template I know of for a character to base one off of is Michael Carpenter from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. One of the most amazing good characters I've ever read about.
I think only counting the Vengeance Paladins Oath Spells as a low level feature kinda white rooms the reality of how it feels to play the class. From my experience spells like hunter's mark, misty step, hold person and haste make it feel stronger in the mid-game than you seem to think it is. In practical play resistance to spell damage comes up a lot less than my casting of misty step/hold person and my usage of relentless avenger (with polearm mastery of course).
Back as long ago as 1980, I worked with players to make holy warriors of any D&D deity, thus of any alignment. Only the LG got calle Paladin. We made up namesfor the others. (Usually: holy warrior of....) Taking the standard Paladin and changing features in ways we thought fit alignment and deity.
Oath of Conquest's Aura of Conquest has a very funny interaction with Berserker Barbarian's Intimidating presence, which you can extend with your action
One of my favourite classes. The Vengeance capstone is underrated I feel. A one hour 60ft fly speed for an hour on a nova damage specialist is ridiculous. That said, after I finish up my Bard campaign, I want to try a light foot Halfling Conquest paladin. A cross between Napoleon, a leprechaun and Chucky lol
In defense of higher level features being weaker than lower level features; 1) You're going to want your best and most interesting features early so you can use them for most of the campaign. 2) It's more accurate to how humans develop skills IRL. The better you get at something, the smaller the margins for improvement are. Someone who dedicates 6 months of their life to practicing drawing will be WAY better than someone who doesn't practice at all, but someone who practiced for 2 years wouldn't be 4x better than them.
I’m have a lawful good oath of conquest paladin. He’s very nice to good people since his oath is to destroy all evil. It is causing some issues in party because he keep brutally killing evil NPCs instead of talking to them. Not my best choice for ToA but very fun.
I love the interactions between Lindsey Steele my pacifist chaotic good aasimar bard and the lawful good paladin . Lindsey’s alter ego, the vengeful lawful good angel part of her brain ( Abigail Dare) is always oogling over him Abi: “ I like him” Lindsey: “ shut up” Abi: “ he’s not weak, like you...... or your precious little drui--- Lindsey slaps herself Abi: owww Lindsey: owwww The rest of the party who is only hearing one part of this conversation: “you ok over there?”
My Conquest paladin managed to be my favorite character I've made in my couple years of playing D&D. Fully embraced the nature of the subclass and made my Red Dragonborn a paladin of Tiamat who wanted to completely destroy his enemies and lead armies without being entirely evil, despite his service and company.
I multiclass all the damn time... too focused in on neat tricks I can think up and such. So I recently did a challenge to myself... take my favourite characters I made up, and assign one to each of only a single class (17 when including bloodhunter and the Tasha's sidekick classes (which I always do since why wouldn't I)). My favourite character perhaps of them all, was assigned to paladin of redemption. And she's really, really violent! Just wants a damn good reason to be so, that's all; will seek peace before personal satisfaction every time (the violence being a rare treat when it comes, but never dreamt of being visited needlessly). A completely insane self-absorbed goblin born on the first layer of Pandemonium to two plane-hopping nilbog parents who discarded her instantly, who considers her birthplace an "acquired paradise" she's the "princess" of and seeks to free all goblinkin from the influence of gods, and make diplomatic links with all other races, spreading the good word of a necessarily-universally-misunderstood people. Tends to make excuses, distractions and twisty justifications (in a panic, rather than as a deception) when that's proved not always the case. Bit racist, very self-important, totally not the best nor easiest person but wildly courageous and relentlessly helpful nonetheless. I tend to make clerics and fighters the most, but that's gonna be a total hoot when I find the right game to play "Virtue Resplendence" in. Grin just anticipating it. Generally adore goblins (not an unusual player trait, as I understand it). :)
The paladin was the first character I played in D&D way back in 1981. The DM was kind enough to just give my character a 17 charisma. Back then one rolls 3d6 and went down the line from there. Ugh I do not miss 1st edition.
I've heard of this hardcore method of generating ability scores. I'd like to try it, but just for a one shot in which everyone agrees to try it out for kicks.
My character I am bringing to the table of tables is as such; True Neutral Paladin of Waukeen & The Waukeenar. Grand Champion of The Sapphire Crescent Band. Rogue of the Arts, Ranger of the Wilds above & beneath the Earth, Student of Mind, Body & Spirit, Druidic student of Life & it's Death as well as a Priest of The Lady of Coin, Waukeen in his pilgrimage to transcendence. Rumored to be a arcanist as well as of the Savage in it's shared tribal ancestry we all hail from. Masculine, male. Young adult at 18 years of age. Mortal
There were three characters I've played whose party broke them. The last one was Oath of the Ancient, which I played like a doctor searching for the grand panacea. He was killed after facing an umberhulk at 3rd level. That's not what broke him though, what broke him was the fact that the way his party resurected him way by killing a 5 year old boy.
Paladins have been my favorite class since basically forever. The first character I ever saw entitled a paladin has forever positively flavored my association with the name (it was the Prince of Cannock from Dragon Warrior 2; he might be better described as an Eldritch Knight Fighter or Bladesinger Wizard with some healing spells in his arsenal, or perhaps some flavor of Bard with fiery damage-inflicting spells, having a swashbuckler flair to his aesthetics of dress; later translations christened him an Armamentalist instead). I really don't see a lot of distinction between paladins and clerics at a conceptual level, though; in 3rd Edition they were just a mechanically inferior Cleric, in AD&D they were simply a superior Fighter with some roleplay-driven restrictions to make them something truly special but not game-breaking. 4th and 5th seem to have divorced them from what I consider to be the main point of flavor - the requirement that they needed to be both lawful _and_ good, that while gods of any alignment could empower clerics, only the good and lawful could anoint a paladin. Broadening it into a general "Warrior with a very strong oath he tries to uphold" makes it a lot more widely applicable, but then calls into question why paladin as a class even exists anymore instead of just being part of the fighter or cleric. I'd be inclined to either allow Paladin and forbid Cleric or vice-versa on a setting-wide level or to run a campaign with only classically goody-goody heroes allowed (Oath of Devotion Paladin, Life Cleric, Divine Soul Sorcerer, Angel Pact Warlock) and run primarily fiends, undead, and the army of a mortal army serving an evil god as the antagonists.
I have only played 4 dnd character in my life ( due to i have only gotten in 4 games one witch i was the master and the other that has laste for about 1 year and half and should last for about more one year ). Thosse characters were 2 paladins ( dragonborn devotion and human oathbraker ), a orc strenght based storm prist ( that died ) and a human kensei monk with psionic talents ( not a paladin but i an still a alcholite of some faith that fights melle and uses supernatural powers ). So i may not know alot about the other classes but i do know my way arround the paladin, to witch i will say that they are extremely powerfull with little to no min-max. The oaths rp aspect also is very fun, i as a devotion paladin cant lie so i need to come up with the party with ways so i dont need to, playing around with omission of the truth and making other people be asked questions is fun and a good chalenge. I think the paladin is more fun when played with a strong focus on the suport side, saving my self with aura of protection is nice but it is funnier to ask the dm "is x in 3 meters ( 10 feat ) of me ? yes! add 4 to your roll and see if now you pass", 24 meters ( 80 feat ) of the mount movement means if i need to i can give healling hands to about anybody.
Yeah, the upfront power spike is very convincing. Your channel divinity gives you advantage for 10 rounds. You can cast misty step to chase down enemies. Really, that's enough, combined with the base features like Divine Smite. I like the idea of going to level 12, to get Improved Divine Smite and a feat/attribute boost, and then multiclassing. But a lot of people multiclass at level 6 after getting the Aura, so you don't see a single bad bit. :D
Paladin is my favorite class, has been since 3rd edition. I've seen a ton of Vengeance paladins warlocks since 5th has come out I was worried it was gonna take first. Personally the most fun I've had was as an Ancients Paladin Barbarian and after seeing Ancients take first I wish I could subscribe twice.
Edited because I didnt realize part 2 had already come out, haha. I feel like Conquest's 20 is A tier if not S... resisted damage is huge and triple attack with 19s being critical means you have the best Nova of any Paladin... My conquest Paladin literally obliterated anything in his path. My personal ranking... Ancients Conquest Vengeance Redemption Devotion Watcher Glory Oathbreaker Crown
It's horribly MADD though. Best smiter is: Hexblade 1, Vengeance Pally 3, Sorcerer 16. Completely SAD on Charisma, two different ways to increase your chances to crit that come back on a SR, can quicken spells while also attacking and smiting, a spell slot that comes back on a SR, and can make additional spell slots with SPs.
I’m trying to make a Vistani paladin using the Hexblood (ua2021) Oath of the Ancients, I just want to see them as something other than a rogue or a bard
I know that every adventurer is kind of a mercenary in a way, but I'd like for there to be a lawful neutral Paladin subclass called the Oath of Coin. If they take your coin, they give their oath. If they give their oath, they'll see the task through or die trying.
I mean the idea isn't bad, don't get me wrong, but the part where they get their divine powers from their God is the problem I have with this. Unless there's a God of money. Because no God of wealth or prosperity will sanction everything a contract may entail
@@cromagnonac Paladins in 5e are not granted their powers from gods. They get their powers through the conviction of their oaths, which can be sworn to gods, fey, the memory of the dead, themselves, or practically anything else. The power comes from the Paladin, not from the thing they swear to. At any rate, if a Paladin doesn't want to do something in a contract, all they have to do is not take the coin.
Saw once a commend saying that paladin benefits massively from going hard on str outside of armor reqs and i was curious why is that. As a novice i thought that charasma is the end all be all of the paladin class.
Counterintuitive and counterthematic, but relentless avenger is great for kiting (running away), especially with polearm. I'd give it D or even C. The spell list is S tier. Haste on a paladin is great, and you're pretty likely to maintain concentration without a need for a feat. Haste on a paladin who has advantage on all their attacks against a creature? It is difficult to overstate how effective that is. That's before we get to other rich spells. But I'd tend to agree the mechanical support for the theme tappers sharply as you progress. In the right campaign I think a lot if subclasses beat it. But Vengeance is solid no matter what kind of campaign it's in. I would say Devotion and Vengeance are A-tier always, with vengeance beating Devotion for sacrificing some versatility to double down on something Paladins already excell at, burst damage. The other three I would say are B-tier subclasses that, depending on the campaign can jump straight to S-tier which kind of implies that they are more thematically deep in their mechanics which it seems you value very highly. Generally I do too... But I guess in this case there's almost something off-putting about the specificity of your top three. Though I'd agree Ancients offers the most freedom of rp and generally strong mechanics of those three. It's frankly really hard with Paladins because they're so good across the board. Well done. Lovely video.
The third level features are enough to make people overlook the 7th and 20th level abilities? Then Esper, that's not an A-tier ability. That's an S-tier.
IMO Spell list alone is enough to rank vengeance number 1. Vow of Enmity being a BA helps also. I hate using a full action in combat for a feature. Also, Vow of enmity has good synergy with the paladins smiting ability, as in you may crit more often.
This is why I think lots of people consider vengeance the best oath, its 3rd level is awesome. But I look at the whole class, all 20 levels and the story/rp too. Don't get me wrong though, vengeance is a great subclass, just the others appealed to me slightly more overall.
I love the Oathbreaker Paladin. Once I was playing an Avenger Paladin. The Dm decided that it would be cool to have the city raided while I was away and kill my wife as a plot point. I didn't like that and he was having to much glee describing how my wife was killed in front of the holly symbol in the church. I plugged my sword into the symbol and condemned the gods and using my wife's blood as a catalyst I summoned a devil and made a pact with it. That's how I became a Oathbreaker and started multi classing a Warlock. Ruined his campaign because he had big plans with my god later on.
I've personally never been a fan of tenets. Not that they're bad in fact, I think they're quite good! They provide roleplay inspiration and can help newer players get a feel for coming up with character traits. Specifically what I think is bad is when people think that all character concepts that involve the paladin class need to strictly adhere to them. I once played a spell sword type character who was mechanically a paladin, and because Charisma was already a high stat amongst the party as a whole, I filled out the skill economy of the party by reflavoring my paladin abilities as arcane magic and having all of my paladin stuff key off of INT instead, which was a low stat among the party comp otherwise. (Of course I agreed to no multiclassing lol) Likewise, I don't think a paladin warlock multiclass NEEDS to literally have 2 dieties to worship, I only would ask that you justify such a multiclass to me if I'm dming. (Ie my God does curses)
Correction to Vengeance: Avenging Angel lasts for 1 hour, not 1 minute. This should put it at least B tier in my opinion since it's non-dispellable.
Correction for Conquest: Prioritizing Charisma is basically mandatory for this subclass, so your DC will be far higher than most, and it's likely to be the only class that maxes out your lv6 aura to +5, and your Scornful Rebuke to +5, which are both wildly useful. Also, I would rank Invincible Conqueror to at least A tier. It doesn't look as pretty on paper as other capstones, but it doubles your chances to crit and grants 3 attacks instead of 2, which as you said yourself, makes smites, Improved Divine Smite, AND Holy Weapon, deal so, SO much more damage. It's meant to destroy final bosses, which you often complain capstones just don't address, so I'm frankly surprised you ranked it so low when it is immensely more effective than Avenging Angel (Also rank C), and far more "powerful" than Elder Champion (rank A). Lastly, resistance to all damage greatly helps concentration checks, which a Conquest will almost always be concentrating on something (likely Holy Weapon).
Lastly, Conquest isn't as forced of a niche as you would think. I managed to play a Chaotic Good Conquest paladin (My party nicknamed him "The Grouchlord") and I followed my tenets just fine. RIP Grouchlord, you died as you lived: demanding to invade every dungeon you saw by marching through the front door instead of looking for back entrances like a weak coward.
Signed,
~A devoted Paladin user.
Pardon my ignorance but "Scornful Rebuke" on a Conquest Pally?
And Im playing my 1st campaign ever as a Conqueror and not having any issue with the alignment thing. He's all about toppling evil but he restrains himself because he knows he needs his allies to reach his ultimate goals. So he is a protector and defends his allies at all costs.
Scornful Rebuke
Starting at 15th level, those who dare to strike you are psychically punished for their audacity. Whenever a creature hits you with an attack, that creature takes psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1) if you’re not incapacitated.
@@Xero8644 Thats right. I was thinking of Hellish Rebuke that the Oathbreaker gets. Thanks!
@@ericmata3728 Scornful Rebuke is the Conquest Pally's Lv15 ability. You might be thinking of Hellish Rebuke, which is the Warlock spell.
As for alignment, I agree with you, and your character sounds just fine to me (Though how do you handle the "Rule With An Iron Fist" tenet?). It may just depend on the DM, because yes, Conquest was meant for Lawful Neutral/Evil, but it's not the only way to play the class. Bard rated Conquest below Redemption for that reason, and I take offense to that.
I had a good conquest paladin as well. A paladin of conquest can be good, but might have methods that are considered extreme or drastic
I love paladins, my most favorite class
Personally I prefer rangers but I can certainly see the appeal
With the profile picture it makes sense
Because space marines are just space paladins
Me I'm the eternal fighter man. Played a lot of rogue too, but my current fighter has been steadily walking a path to becoming a paladin. I'm very excited!
My fav class is monk, but man, I made a green knight and holy crap, she's amazing. I can see why they rock. Not played one since 3.5e, and I'm glad I did fight my prejudices
I'm not surprised to see Space Crusader from Borealum liking Paladins
Imperator Vult
First character I ever played in DnD was a paladin, and to this day it and cleric remain my top two favorite classes by far. One of my favorite characters I've ever played was an Oath of Redemption paladin. Soriel Alexander Von Hresvelgr, protector aasimar, Chosen of Lathander, and savior of the Hellriders. He and his noble companions, "The Boys", tore across the landscape of Avernus to save the fallen city of Elturel, eventually even convincing Zariel herself to return to Heaven as an angel and leave the Blood War behind. My favorite character moment of his was when they were sent back in time to defend a town beset by demons. He witnessed a single brave mastiff defend the people from the fiends, only to be slaughtered by a marilith. After the battle, he cast Find Greater Steed and beseeched Lathander to send the dog's soul to serve as his noble steed (because everyone knows all dogs go to Heaven). The great griffon-sized mastiff manifested, bearing a pair of eagle's wings. I named him "Hero."
Have enjoyed all of your rankings and was super excited to see you were making one for paladins next. Thanks for taking the time to make these and keep up the good work!
Thank you Paul!
My girlfriend started playing an oath of ancients paladin in my game and with that in mind I *knew* ancients would be the top, at least of the ones listed here. It just has *so much* going for it.
holy cow, this was perfect timing
one upside to having mediocre capstone features is the that you can multiclass without really missing anything. For example, a paladin with a few levels into hexblade warlock gets spell slots for Smite on a short rest and other stuff.
A potent combo, though I doubt few gods would take kindly to a paladin making a warlock pact with a shadow lord patron.
@@esperthebard One of my favorite combos is Moon Druid/Ancient Paladin. Being a true protector of Nature, your Wild Shape form's attacks work for divine smite, and they don't count as casting a spell, so they can be used while in that form. Also Druids, being full-casters, give you a much larger reserve of Spell Slots you can take advantage of.
also, 5e Paladins don't require swearing your oath to a god. the Oath itself is the source of your power. this is why Paladins are charisma, not wisdom. They use a force of personality to empower themselves.
@@esperthebard well hexblade was the first to come mind when I think Pal-lock. It may be complicated but roleplay wouldn't be interesting if there weren't some complications to it.
You could go oath of the ancients and fey warlock, oathbreaker or maybe even oath of conquest/vengage and fiend pact depending on how you do your character, perhaps oath of the crown and genie or great old one.
And lbr the celestial warlock works in general.
@@esperthebard not a problem if you're a dark paladin to begin with
@@honeyham6788, you can't use your Wild Shape attacks with divine smite as they are considered natural (unarmed) attacks, not weapon attacks. Also, wisdom is my first dump stat, along with intelligence. If you want to multiclass a paladin with a full caster, take your first two levels in paladin and then the rest in college of swords bard; you get so many spell slots and AOE spells for crowd control, along with an additional fighting style and double attack with the bard.
I've noticed your interest in Oath of Redemption.
I once played an Oath of Devotion Paladin who was serving the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut only later to realize that the priests of his church were corrupt demon worshipers who were taking advantage of their position to take everything from the people worshipping him. My paladin went on his way to "make a pilgrimage" which was a cover up to find some higher positioned priests and reveal what was happening. On his way, the DM introduced me to an NPC that my paladin fell in love with. Later down the line, this NPC was imprisoned by the corrupt priests, and my paladin ultamitely gave himself to them to infiltrate and rescue her. This led to him becoming an Oath breaker, something he greatly feared, and led to him making lots of questionable decisions. However, he resisted as best he could which was decides through wisdom saving throws, and was revealed that Bahamut never left him despite his choice. Bahamut freed him, leading him to become that universe's first paladin of Redemption.
The arc type is very good for an rp experience for sure. I'd almost argue its better at protecting than Oath of Devotion 😁
I have not yet said how much i love the very first seconds of each videos. It reminds me of old school MTG cards flavor-texts : thematically fitting excepts of classical literature.
I really appreciate that! And yes, I miss the old mtg flavor text.
This is the ranking I have been waiting for the most. Thank you and continue being the awesome bard that you are
This is what makes a day complete! An Esper tier list!
I've been waiting forever for this thank you Esper
Thank you Ben! More to come.
I'd be interested if you did a video on what house rules you use for diseases, poisons, and curses
One of my favorite characters is an Oathbreaker Paladin. Paladin is such a cool class with great mechanics for combat and rollplay. Then you have the subclasses. Their are so many for different playstyles.
This was a blast! Paladin is my favorite class, and I loved watching your take on it. I can't wait for part 2. :D
Damn right my beloved oath of ancients is on top! Woooo!!!! *cheering*
Paladin is a very interesting class. Im glad you are covering it
Love your content Esper. In particular this one. Oath of the Ancients Paladin is my main. Hope I can Patreon again soon. Wishing you nothing but happiness. Cheers.
Thank you so much. May the might of the ancients give you courage and hope.
I heard the music in the opening and thought, Terror Belli Decus Pacis. And got a flashback to Napoleons Marshals. Very very fitting.
Oath of Vengance is amazing. I'm taking one through out of the abyss and got a sword with Sentinel on it and went toe to toe with Orcus for quite a bit of time. Of course I was also hasted. I love my vengance paladin of Torm.
Epic! Man you will never forget that.
Yuan-ti Ancients paladin with the Mage Slayer feat. No mage can kill you, let alone hurt you.
The paladin is my favorite class mainly because it is mostly a front line fighter but with some really good support abilities and spells that make it a solid team player in a multiplayer RPG
these are more like a deep dive than a ranking and I'm all for it
I often supplement Paladin with Sorcerer, giving more spells and higher level spell slots.
Oath of redemption has been my favorite subclass since it was released. It's just such a cool take on the class
I really want to try it out.
Im planing on playing one soon i really love the idea of this class
Redemption is why I played a paladin in 5e. Tasha gives us Blessed Warrior and feats that give extra spells: Fey touched and Shadow touched. You can build a fun support caster that has some burst damage potential.
Of course, I'm casting Bless 99.99999% of the time, but it is nice to have the option to cast Sleep or Hypnotic Pattern.
Edit: As to why you would play a paladin caster over a regular caster depends on your DM. Paladins have much better survivability than normal casters plus you get your Charisma bonus (and Bless, if cast) to Con saves to make your concentration checks when you take damage. In my games, casters are a priority target and often fail concentration checks when they are hit with AoE spells. So, if you need that Hypnotic Pattern to stay up, having a paladin cast it is the way to go. My redeemer also has a ring of spell storing, so if there is a level 1-5 spell the party ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO STAY UP, he can cast it from the ring with a good chance of making Con saves.
I need to play this. I was looking for the proper build for a paladin of Ioun who's a librarian tasked with late fees and....reclamations. This subclass is just PERFECT for it. "Hello, mighty dragon. Might I get that book back you borrowed from our Temple 200 years ago? Really, I didn't come to fight you about it....."
did anyone else hear the noise at the start and immediately think it was going to transition into the star spangled banner
Oh say, you can't see, by the smite's blinding light ...
5e Paladin is kinda the opposite of 5e Ranger - thematic differences (and ranged vs melee etc) aside, the ranger lives and dies on its subclass because the base features are so underwhelming, and the paladin excels no matter what subclass you take because the base class is so goddamned good.
Rangers are lower armored whirlwind of death and weaker enemies, Paladins are good for single target heavier damage and can sustain more.
I made a oath of Heroism dwarf gladiator who has sworn an oath to himself to live up to his ancestors glory. Probably going polearm mastery for that crit but more for that classic Roman warrior image, or pantheon from LoL or Helios from MTG
You finally hit 100k Esper, congratulations.
I always love your videos. I don't get to play D&D so I get to intervously though your videos. Thank you for all your hard work and letting me play.
You are so welcome, thanks for the comment.
In one of my longest and greatest campaigns, one of the key characters was a Paladin of the Mystic, goddess of Magic. She was a good deity, accepted all alignments but despised senseless cruelty. If you were a Paladin of hers, you could multi class warrior, mage and cleric with unlimited restrictions on those classes as if you were single classed but with the added XP of each. Costly but worth it.
This brings back memories. Paladins are highly underestimated and should have high standards to keep for being chosen spokesmen for a deity, answering to a high priest on occasion with many adventure hooks. Only chosen warriors, 5th level or higher, with the highest potential (stats) could ever become Paladins. Those that did not make the cut were clerics, Holy Warriors or Knights (fancy names but still clerics).
Good video, but you made a mistake, avenging angel last for a hour, not a minute, which means you have a flight speed of 60 feet outside of combat, and can be used for multiple battles in a dungeon, especially at the start of battles
Good catch!
Absolutely great, Esper. As always, you go to the finer qualities of game practicality, in terms of role play and distribution to the mechanics.
That's a recipe for a great review!
i want to play a paladin/sorcerer multiclass. Blind fighting+darkness sounds really good if you want to get those crits, also moar smites, moar quickly
That was great, i too have heard many people favoring the Vengeance Oath than other . Maybe because of its early powerful features and easy to roleplay theme. Also the Ancients Oath rules.
Most people don’t get to high levels, so for those people, vengeance is great because if you cut it off before level 7, it’s op
@@Spiceodog i think i've yet to play a single game that even got to seventh level. played a few Tabletop games that got past that, but that wasn't D&D, sooo....
Yeah I'm not a big fan of oath of vengeance oath of redemption or conquest are way cooler
I hope you haven't given up doing these videos for the other D&D Classes. I think they're really good!!!
Also I wish you would redo the Barbarian class video because it is so hard to follow that I never go back to it
I loved every second of my Redemption Paladin. He was a Silver Dragonborn with a dark past but great heart. Also, don't sneeze at Rebuke the Violent: one time we defeated a Dragon against all odds and all I ever did was land a crit (adding a lv3 Smite) and Rebuke another critical hit against one of my friends. It was enough damage to scare it.
Great video, Esper. Looking forward to the follow-on vid
With Oath of the Crown, I got a good use out of both Channel Divinity options. With the first option, I had all enemies attack me and I had to remind the DM that they can't willing move more than 20 ft from my paladin. This was key to having a bunch of harpies from flying away from us and I had used the dodge action until they were all dead. The second option is a great mass heal in case of almost TPK. It does state you can heal yourself.
I played a protector aasimar paladin of devotion in a work homebrew campaign. The BBEG was an aboleth and my paladin pretty much ignored its attacks -- she was immune to its diseased tentacles, immune to its enslave charm, and with her radiant soul wings, she flew over the watery lair actions.
Im really shocked to see Aura of Conquest get just a B rank. with frightened enemie's speed reduced to zero, finding a way to knock that enemy prone essentially stunlocks quite a few baddies
So excited for paladins to be added to baldur's gate 3. I've watch this and part 2 probably 4-5 times over its early access so far as I randomly get hyped for the paladin again
Awesome vid Esper!!!
This was the one I was waiting for!
I have a soft spot for paladins. My first ever character was one (Oath of Devotion) and I loved him to pieces, still do. I dabbled with a few other classes, but I went back to my roots recently. Newest character multiclassed into warlock too, he has a whole backstory with how he ended up here and everything and playing him hurts but I love it anyways (Oathbreaker 3/Great Old One 3)
Extra points for Holst music during the Vengeance subclass. Well...extra points for all of them...Lizst, Holst and Beethoven.
Super pumped for this one, for some reason it never showed up in my subscription feed tho.
13:13 Wait a minute, Purity of spirit is coded dark blue (C tier) but the ranking says B.
15:32 "I personally value RP and storytelling very highly." Tell that to the 17th level Mastermind (yes, I have just come from the Rogue video).
On a note more related to Paladins, what I gathered from the intro on Oath of Redemption is do *not* run them in the same party as Oath of Vengeance and Oath of Conquest.
This is great. I'm playing an Oath of the Ancients half-elf dexadin very soon. This was helpful.
Huzzah,, 1st time playing a paladin, I choose the oath of glory. I like it !
the greatest power the Paladin has that is often over looked
is in fact his oath
this makes him trusted to always fallow his oath
any NPC and player can trust him to obey his oath
this makes sensitive missions possible (deliver this box but don't look inside)
if the party is ever treated as if it's not trust worthy all they need to do is have the paladin swear they can trust them
he can make some impossible RP situations possible simply because of who he is
braking his oath is also OP
many see it as a weakness but it can be the lie of all lies
they never see it coming
imagen a situation that needs you to fool a god
your oath can be used to fool a god
Excited to see you hit 100k!
I really love the Paladin class, mostly because i have grown up with the old Knights of the Round Table movie from the 50s, which was always my favourite "Arthurian" movie.
(yes, i'm THAT old, lol.)
I'm really glad that in our current day and age, the perception of what a Paladin is has changed* to be much more than being a mere healer/shield bearer that protects spellcasters.
*many video games did that about 20-10 years ago.
Good golly. I honestly wasn't expecting my fav oath to be on top. I think I'm the only person I've ever seen play it.
Paladin have grown on me over time. I started out looking at them going “why in the world would I want to play one of these when I could either be a straight up fighter or straight up spell caster?” I have since come to a place where I really, really wish to have a game where I could play a redemption paladin. I think I could do it justice
Paladins have never been horrifically boring. It is the player who is boring and unimaginative. IF you're not willing to get into the mindset, then you shouldn't play one. Or are Jedi boring?
After making this ranking, I also really want to try redemption paladin 👍👍
@@esperthebard The best template I know of for a character to base one off of is Michael Carpenter from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. One of the most amazing good characters I've ever read about.
I think only counting the Vengeance Paladins Oath Spells as a low level feature kinda white rooms the reality of how it feels to play the class. From my experience spells like hunter's mark, misty step, hold person and haste make it feel stronger in the mid-game than you seem to think it is. In practical play resistance to spell damage comes up a lot less than my casting of misty step/hold person and my usage of relentless avenger (with polearm mastery of course).
Back as long ago as 1980, I worked with players to make holy warriors of any D&D deity, thus of any alignment.
Only the LG got calle Paladin. We made up namesfor the others. (Usually: holy warrior of....)
Taking the standard Paladin and changing features in ways we thought fit alignment and deity.
great video, hope you do rankings for every class.
Oath of Conquest's Aura of Conquest has a very funny interaction with Berserker Barbarian's Intimidating presence, which you can extend with your action
I think you underestimated the conquest Paladin but otherwise amazing video.
I think I personally like Devotion Paladin. It's basic, but with the right race, it's awesome
One of my favourite classes. The Vengeance capstone is underrated I feel. A one hour 60ft fly speed for an hour on a nova damage specialist is ridiculous.
That said, after I finish up my Bard campaign, I want to try a light foot Halfling Conquest paladin. A cross between Napoleon, a leprechaun and Chucky lol
In defense of higher level features being weaker than lower level features;
1) You're going to want your best and most interesting features early so you can use them for most of the campaign.
2) It's more accurate to how humans develop skills IRL. The better you get at something, the smaller the margins for improvement are. Someone who dedicates 6 months of their life to practicing drawing will be WAY better than someone who doesn't practice at all, but someone who practiced for 2 years wouldn't be 4x better than them.
I’m have a lawful good oath of conquest paladin. He’s very nice to good people since his oath is to destroy all evil. It is causing some issues in party because he keep brutally killing evil NPCs instead of talking to them. Not my best choice for ToA but very fun.
I love the interactions between Lindsey Steele my pacifist chaotic good aasimar bard and the lawful good paladin . Lindsey’s alter ego, the vengeful lawful good angel part of her brain ( Abigail Dare) is always oogling over him
Abi: “ I like him”
Lindsey: “ shut up”
Abi: “ he’s not weak, like you...... or your precious little drui---
Lindsey slaps herself
Abi: owww
Lindsey: owwww
The rest of the party who is only hearing one part of this conversation: “you ok over there?”
My Conquest paladin managed to be my favorite character I've made in my couple years of playing D&D. Fully embraced the nature of the subclass and made my Red Dragonborn a paladin of Tiamat who wanted to completely destroy his enemies and lead armies without being entirely evil, despite his service and company.
It’s back!!!!! Yes!!!!!
I multiclass all the damn time... too focused in on neat tricks I can think up and such. So I recently did a challenge to myself... take my favourite characters I made up, and assign one to each of only a single class (17 when including bloodhunter and the Tasha's sidekick classes (which I always do since why wouldn't I)). My favourite character perhaps of them all, was assigned to paladin of redemption. And she's really, really violent! Just wants a damn good reason to be so, that's all; will seek peace before personal satisfaction every time (the violence being a rare treat when it comes, but never dreamt of being visited needlessly). A completely insane self-absorbed goblin born on the first layer of Pandemonium to two plane-hopping nilbog parents who discarded her instantly, who considers her birthplace an "acquired paradise" she's the "princess" of and seeks to free all goblinkin from the influence of gods, and make diplomatic links with all other races, spreading the good word of a necessarily-universally-misunderstood people. Tends to make excuses, distractions and twisty justifications (in a panic, rather than as a deception) when that's proved not always the case. Bit racist, very self-important, totally not the best nor easiest person but wildly courageous and relentlessly helpful nonetheless.
I tend to make clerics and fighters the most, but that's gonna be a total hoot when I find the right game to play "Virtue Resplendence" in. Grin just anticipating it. Generally adore goblins (not an unusual player trait, as I understand it). :)
The paladin was the first character I played in D&D way back in 1981. The DM was kind enough to just give my character a 17 charisma. Back then one rolls 3d6 and went down the line from there. Ugh I do not miss 1st edition.
I've heard of this hardcore method of generating ability scores. I'd like to try it, but just for a one shot in which everyone agrees to try it out for kicks.
Not as fun as it seems. Want to play a cleric? Too bad , your wisdom is 8 and couldn't even cast 1st level paella
I'd also be interested to hear what you think of Matthew Mercer's Oath of the Open Seas subclass.
Ah yes, the best name
"intelligence is likely to be your Achilles heel. Mor-on...." Was that deliberate? 😂
My character I am bringing to the table of tables is as such; True Neutral Paladin of Waukeen & The Waukeenar. Grand Champion of The Sapphire Crescent Band. Rogue of the Arts, Ranger of the Wilds above & beneath the Earth, Student of Mind, Body & Spirit, Druidic student of Life & it's Death as well as a Priest of The Lady of Coin, Waukeen in his pilgrimage to transcendence. Rumored to be a arcanist as well as of the Savage in it's shared tribal ancestry we all hail from.
Masculine, male.
Young adult at 18 years of age.
Mortal
There were three characters I've played whose party broke them. The last one was Oath of the Ancient, which I played like a doctor searching for the grand panacea. He was killed after facing an umberhulk at 3rd level. That's not what broke him though, what broke him was the fact that the way his party resurected him way by killing a 5 year old boy.
Another excellent video, as always. I do have to wonder where the Oathbreaker would fit into the leaderboard however...
Sweet!! Excited for this
Paladins have been my favorite class since basically forever. The first character I ever saw entitled a paladin has forever positively flavored my association with the name (it was the Prince of Cannock from Dragon Warrior 2; he might be better described as an Eldritch Knight Fighter or Bladesinger Wizard with some healing spells in his arsenal, or perhaps some flavor of Bard with fiery damage-inflicting spells, having a swashbuckler flair to his aesthetics of dress; later translations christened him an Armamentalist instead).
I really don't see a lot of distinction between paladins and clerics at a conceptual level, though; in 3rd Edition they were just a mechanically inferior Cleric, in AD&D they were simply a superior Fighter with some roleplay-driven restrictions to make them something truly special but not game-breaking. 4th and 5th seem to have divorced them from what I consider to be the main point of flavor - the requirement that they needed to be both lawful _and_ good, that while gods of any alignment could empower clerics, only the good and lawful could anoint a paladin. Broadening it into a general "Warrior with a very strong oath he tries to uphold" makes it a lot more widely applicable, but then calls into question why paladin as a class even exists anymore instead of just being part of the fighter or cleric.
I'd be inclined to either allow Paladin and forbid Cleric or vice-versa on a setting-wide level or to run a campaign with only classically goody-goody heroes allowed (Oath of Devotion Paladin, Life Cleric, Divine Soul Sorcerer, Angel Pact Warlock) and run primarily fiends, undead, and the army of a mortal army serving an evil god as the antagonists.
No ranking for Oathbreaker or Oath of the Crown
I was hoping to hear Espers thoughts on it aswell...
He's doing a part 2
They'll be in part 2
31:51 "Branches out". I see what you did there.
;)
@@esperthebard So are there going to be part 2/3/... of different classes or a Tasha video with all those subclasses?
@@milanmarkovic2721 I am definitely considering it. It would be worth it by this point.
@@esperthebard Well if no one has done it by tommorow, I'll put timemarks for paladin class,subclasses and ranking in comment section.
@@milanmarkovic2721 Good call, I just added them.
Wow, it took all the way to 5e to make Pallies work as a supernaturally powered class.
I have only played 4 dnd character in my life ( due to i have only gotten in 4 games one witch i was the master and the other that has laste for about 1 year and half and should last for about more one year ).
Thosse characters were 2 paladins ( dragonborn devotion and human oathbraker ), a orc strenght based storm prist ( that died ) and a human kensei monk with psionic talents ( not a paladin but i an still a alcholite of some faith that fights melle and uses supernatural powers ).
So i may not know alot about the other classes but i do know my way arround the paladin, to witch i will say that they are extremely powerfull with little to no min-max.
The oaths rp aspect also is very fun, i as a devotion paladin cant lie so i need to come up with the party with ways so i dont need to, playing around with omission of the truth and making other people be asked questions is fun and a good chalenge.
I think the paladin is more fun when played with a strong focus on the suport side, saving my self with aura of protection is nice but it is funnier to ask the dm "is x in 3 meters ( 10 feat ) of me ? yes! add 4 to your roll and see if now you pass", 24 meters ( 80 feat ) of the mount movement means if i need to i can give healling hands to about anybody.
This is what I've been waiting for ☀️⚔🛡 Deus Vult Deus Vult
Love your content bro! 👍🤙
Most people don’t get to high levels and vengeance only gets weak at the higher levels, so that is probably why everyone loves it
Yeah, the upfront power spike is very convincing. Your channel divinity gives you advantage for 10 rounds. You can cast misty step to chase down enemies. Really, that's enough, combined with the base features like Divine Smite.
I like the idea of going to level 12, to get Improved Divine Smite and a feat/attribute boost, and then multiclassing. But a lot of people multiclass at level 6 after getting the Aura, so you don't see a single bad bit. :D
Paladin is my favorite class, has been since 3rd edition. I've seen a ton of Vengeance paladins warlocks since 5th has come out I was worried it was gonna take first. Personally the most fun I've had was as an Ancients Paladin Barbarian and after seeing Ancients take first I wish I could subscribe twice.
Edited because I didnt realize part 2 had already come out, haha.
I feel like Conquest's 20 is A tier if not S... resisted damage is huge and triple attack with 19s being critical means you have the best Nova of any Paladin... My conquest Paladin literally obliterated anything in his path.
My personal ranking...
Ancients
Conquest
Vengeance
Redemption
Devotion
Watcher
Glory
Oathbreaker
Crown
Just realized that wizard+paladin can have way to many smites
2 levels in paladin, the rest in blade singer wizard
It's horribly MADD though. Best smiter is: Hexblade 1, Vengeance Pally 3, Sorcerer 16. Completely SAD on Charisma, two different ways to increase your chances to crit that come back on a SR, can quicken spells while also attacking and smiting, a spell slot that comes back on a SR, and can make additional spell slots with SPs.
I’m trying to make a Vistani paladin using the Hexblood (ua2021) Oath of the Ancients, I just want to see them as something other than a rogue or a bard
I know that every adventurer is kind of a mercenary in a way, but I'd like for there to be a lawful neutral Paladin subclass called the Oath of Coin. If they take your coin, they give their oath. If they give their oath, they'll see the task through or die trying.
I mean the idea isn't bad, don't get me wrong, but the part where they get their divine powers from their God is the problem I have with this. Unless there's a God of money. Because no God of wealth or prosperity will sanction everything a contract may entail
@@cromagnonac Paladins in 5e are not granted their powers from gods. They get their powers through the conviction of their oaths, which can be sworn to gods, fey, the memory of the dead, themselves, or practically anything else. The power comes from the Paladin, not from the thing they swear to.
At any rate, if a Paladin doesn't want to do something in a contract, all they have to do is not take the coin.
Oath of Conquest. Raised by Hobgoblins to fight a continual border war against Orcs. I think OoC fits.
Saw once a commend saying that paladin benefits massively from going hard on str outside of armor reqs and i was curious why is that. As a novice i thought that charasma is the end all be all of the paladin class.
Paladin the class you actually need to roleplay in.
That and bard
Counterintuitive and counterthematic, but relentless avenger is great for kiting (running away), especially with polearm. I'd give it D or even C. The spell list is S tier. Haste on a paladin is great, and you're pretty likely to maintain concentration without a need for a feat. Haste on a paladin who has advantage on all their attacks against a creature? It is difficult to overstate how effective that is. That's before we get to other rich spells. But I'd tend to agree the mechanical support for the theme tappers sharply as you progress. In the right campaign I think a lot if subclasses beat it. But Vengeance is solid no matter what kind of campaign it's in.
I would say Devotion and Vengeance are A-tier always, with vengeance beating Devotion for sacrificing some versatility to double down on something Paladins already excell at, burst damage. The other three I would say are B-tier subclasses that, depending on the campaign can jump straight to S-tier which kind of implies that they are more thematically deep in their mechanics which it seems you value very highly. Generally I do too... But I guess in this case there's almost something off-putting about the specificity of your top three. Though I'd agree Ancients offers the most freedom of rp and generally strong mechanics of those three. It's frankly really hard with Paladins because they're so good across the board. Well done. Lovely video.
You gain desease immunity because you will spend most your lay on hand healing the Bard from them XD
The third level features are enough to make people overlook the 7th and 20th level abilities? Then Esper, that's not an A-tier ability. That's an S-tier.
IMO Spell list alone is enough to rank vengeance number 1. Vow of Enmity being a BA helps also. I hate using a full action in combat for a feature. Also, Vow of enmity has good synergy with the paladins smiting ability, as in you may crit more often.
This is why I think lots of people consider vengeance the best oath, its 3rd level is awesome. But I look at the whole class, all 20 levels and the story/rp too. Don't get me wrong though, vengeance is a great subclass, just the others appealed to me slightly more overall.
I love the Oathbreaker Paladin.
Once I was playing an Avenger Paladin. The Dm decided that it would be cool to have the city raided while I was away and kill my wife as a plot point.
I didn't like that and he was having to much glee describing how my wife was killed in front of the holly symbol in the church.
I plugged my sword into the symbol and condemned the gods and using my wife's blood as a catalyst I summoned a devil and made a pact with it. That's how I became a Oathbreaker and started multi classing a Warlock.
Ruined his campaign because he had big plans with my god later on.
I want full story please
Fuck that DM. Did he even ask you your opinion on that?
I've personally never been a fan of tenets. Not that they're bad in fact, I think they're quite good! They provide roleplay inspiration and can help newer players get a feel for coming up with character traits.
Specifically what I think is bad is when people think that all character concepts that involve the paladin class need to strictly adhere to them. I once played a spell sword type character who was mechanically a paladin, and because Charisma was already a high stat amongst the party as a whole, I filled out the skill economy of the party by reflavoring my paladin abilities as arcane magic and having all of my paladin stuff key off of INT instead, which was a low stat among the party comp otherwise. (Of course I agreed to no multiclassing lol)
Likewise, I don't think a paladin warlock multiclass NEEDS to literally have 2 dieties to worship, I only would ask that you justify such a multiclass to me if I'm dming. (Ie my God does curses)
Which translation of the song of Roland did you use for the intro text?
We have an oath of vengeance paladin that took 2 barbarian levels...they're scary. lol
what happend to oath of the crown, oath of glory, oathbreaker, or oath of the open sea