A really good friend of mine puts it in a way that I've found quite apt "Lawful good does not always mean Lawful nice". I know so many people that hate Paladins because of the Goody-two-shoes stereotype, but I love it when I see people really get creative with their character creation for Paladins.
I have an Oath of Vengeance Paladin who isn't good-aligned. She's a drow who has lost everything because ONE member of her family fell out of favour with Loth, and because other houses took the opportunity to dethrone hers. She therefore swore to take vengeance against those houses AND to Loth. But by no means did she promise to do good. And yes, I know the tennets kind of implore you to do good, but me and the DM have adjusted it. It's just more engaging and personal that way.
@@sandrols7 Exactly! I like that the subclass is written in a way where you're not always servient to a deity, but instead to an oath. In my campaigns I imagine it as a deity cheering on the sidelines and offering support while the Paladin fulfills their mission. And sometimes deities use mortals to get their dirty work done for them, regardless of their alignment. I had a neutral aligned Paladin that made a secondary vow to protect his friends, and when a baker refused to sell pastries to a hungry companion, he decked the baker, and then proceeded to take on the town guard in the name of their friendship and in retaliation against the sheer disrespect shown. Is that typical of a Paladin? Maybe not. Was it an awesome moment to show their true character through RP? Heck yes it was.
My Vengeance Paladin is Neutral Good, but I'm quietly waiting for the perfect moment to pull the 'Good doesn't mean Nice' card. While she's generally friendly and charming, and bonded to the party very quickly, I have a specific idea in mind for when she kills her nemesis. She's an aasimar who used to have wings, and this cultist impersonated someone she loved and cut them off. So when she gets her hands on him (or his corpse, if someone else gets the final blow) she's going to Blood Eagle him (warning for gore if you have to google that). Extra suitable because it's a Norse campaign You'd expect an aasimar paladin to become fallen/an oathbreaker for doing something that messed up, but it's fully within the tenets of her oath and her angelic guide (a valkyrie) and her goddess (Freyja) are totally rooting for her. People forget that Freyja is a WAR goddess along with love and fertility ;) I think the RP potential is the greatest strength of this class
"You are the Party Face, go talk to them" "But i don't want to be the Party Face, i am a brute Fighter" "Then why do you have 20 Charisma?!" "For my Spells ...."
"Why do you have 20 Charisma?" *A dark cloud blots out the sun, just slightly making the light of day a little darker, a little colder, as you feel the presence of the Avatar of Retribution glare into your soul. He says nothing; his dark stare, as though he could see your lifetime's worth of sins, is answer enough.*
I feel the Abjure Enemy feature is underrated. I think people don't realize that if they fail the Wisdom save THEY DON'T GET TO REPEAT THE SAVE. So you can stop someone completely in their tracks and just ignore them until you've mopped up their allies, then finish them off while their stuck standing still. It works well when there's one particular enemy that's difficult to deal with.
My first ever 5E character was a Dwarf Vengeance Paladin. I've used him in multiple campaigns and was my first character to get to level 20! I played him essentially like batman, using misty step to get behind enemies and yell dwarven oaths. By far my favorite class/subclass in all of DnD. Protip: Get the heavy weapon master feat for massive damage.
This advice is so great. Two player-DMs who play test as many chars as possible and report their findings to us in video essays, very awesome dudes! Also the t-shirt game is on point.
Hey Dungeon Dudes! TH-cam has a feature called "Chapters" - If you start your timestamps at 00:00 and there's none shorter than 10 seconds, it'll divide up the video progress bar into neat chapters with the text beside the timestamp as the little chapter title. Would be easier to follow along :)
Playing my 1st Vengeance Paladin w/ Sentinel & Polearm Master in DoMM now. Sitting at Lv10 currently and it's just ridiculous how much control over crowded fights I have.
Just joined my very first D&D campaign a month ago and I’m playing an Oath of Vengeance Paladin & Hexblade Warlock character. This video couldn’t of happened at a better time!
Interesting timing, since today I'm starting a Curse of Strahd campaign where I am going to be playing a Scourge Aasimar Vengeance Paladin. He's going to have the Haunted One background, with a bit of a twist in that the source of his torment is his own angelic guide, who drove him halfway to madness by filling his dreams every single night with commands to destroy the forces of darkness and chaos.
Oooh, this is SUCH a fascinating concept. I currently have a variant aasimar vengeance paladin, and a whole different character with the Haunted One background, so I'm really fond of all the pieces you put together there. The concept of an angelic guide being such a disastrous influence is a great expectation subversion. How far would your character go to be rid of their guide's tormenting presence? Lore says the fallen aasimar are abandoned by their angelic guides, so you could weigh the temptation of turning to evil just to be free against paladin devotion.
That's a very fun direction to go with the character! Like CyanRose said, it's a cool twist on the Aasimar's celestial heritage and how that impacts them growing up. Especially in a campaign like CoS, that should be interesting to play with. I've got a similar concept in mind with a protector aasimar with the Haunted background, but they're a Horizon Walker Ranger whose guide keeps pressuring them to hunt down fiends and monsters from the Outer Planes.
@@cyanrosespirit My plan isn't really to have him try to be rid of his guide. In a way, he's internalized it all, since it caused him to run away from the temple where he was being raised and start pursuing a career as a monster hunter. So he's actually heeding the guide's commands after a fashion, seeking to protect those who can not protect themselves, albeit in a very harsh, unforgiving way. Very much a case of the "Good is not necessarily nice" character concept. At this point, he's not even 100% sure that this is all coming from an outside force, since the torment just manifests in his dreams. As a side note, my original concept for this character was to make him a Conquest Paladin, but once I found out it was going to be Curse of Strahd, I tweaked it to be Vengeance instead, since while I have not played CoS yet, I seem to recall it having just enough fear-immune enemies to make some of Conquest's signature abilities inconsistent.
Bro, have variant human Paladinof Vengeance on CoS right now, and it has been great, so I highly recommend it. This campaign really rewards players who know the flaws of their characters and their moral weakness (temptations everywhere). Every pc will, almost certainly, have to face hard decisions, and having a character with a ‘grey’ morality background will make you feel the responsibility of you choices.
Pro Tip: If you want your DM to cry, multiclass this with Hexblade Warlock, take Devil's Sight, and cast darkness on your enemies to gain advantage on all attacks (Being an avenging blade in the night has never been so overpowered).
For my oath of vengeance character, he's been taught that vengeance isn't just about righting a wrong done. Its about ending those who have crossed unspeakable lines so that they can't commit those acts again and spare future victims from those horrors.
The vengeance tenet of mine is Most crimes can probably be solved by restitution of some kind, maybe counseling. But once you cross a certain moral line, theres only one appropriate punishment, and that task is /not/ suitable for the average person.
Timely as last night I was playing a Vampire (Grim Hollow, formerly Variant Human) Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Basically, he was turned against his will and swore an oath to destroy any and every monster that exists. That he will rain vengeance on those who harm the innocent.
Not gonna lie, that sounds like Alucard from hellsing and I love that type of shit. Granted no guns but more like him at level zero restraint. Still badass though.
@@darkvizardking69 Except, my character is good and choses to help people even if they hate and fear him. Alucard is a psychopath who is being aimed at monsters.
Man, I absolutely love Oath of Vengeance Paladins. I'm playing a Silver Dragonborn OoV Paladin. From a family that left to form a small village in a forest near Icewind Dale. His village was wiped out and all of the survivors were taken by the Drow. And now he wanders through Faerun after any clues to their whereabouts. We're playing the Mine of Phandelver campaign, and we've just hit lvl 4 after miraculously killing the big green critter (trying not to spoil). And I'm having a blaaaaast. He plays the role of tank, having roled max HPs 2 times in a row and a further 8 has him now on 50 HPs. Plus Shield and a Heavy Armor, his AC 19 (or 21 with Shield of Faith) makes him nearly impenetrable should he choose to Dodge, making enemies roll with disadvantage in narrow spots. It's been done online, but the face of frustration on my DM's face is priceless whenever I get to Divine Smite his minions into smithereens.
I just played a goblin dexterity based vengeance paladin in a friend's one shot a couple weeks ago. We were at 8th level, so I took 5 paladin and 3 fighter into champion, so I was raining crits. Thankfully, not much of the paladin's class necessarily requires you to use strength, so it was an interesting build. Unfortunately I couldn't double down on great weapon master or polearm master, but I had an effective AC of 21 with shield of faith going and a +7 to dex saves (thanks to resilient), and still a bunch of hit points. All this to say, vengeance paladins are dope, and dex paladins are surprisingly dope. Maybe even take the lucky feat to go crit fishing even more!
Excellent content as always gentlemen, thank you. As you may have noticed, 2020 has been a super-sized turdburger of a year. My game's been on hold for 7 months so far and we had got used to playing in a 15th century pub, by a roaring fire, hard to recreate that vibe online. Your videos and others like them have kept me sane, inspired and motivated. Thank you so very much, Mwah xx
I am so happy to see that both of you really enjoyed playing as oath of vengeance paladins, your content is amazingly instructive and fun. My favorite character is my 11th lvl human oath of vengeance paladin - Aiden. Just as Kelly described there have been very few instances where he does not feel like he walks out of a combat as a hero, dealing dumb amounts of damage in a round of combat (100+?ish), bringing back up allies to over half health with lay on hands, stunning/holding enemies, hasting the barbarian... you name it. Getting to dump 3 divine smites in a single round with a crit entwined in there is nothing to laugh, at BBEG's hp drops like flies. Not just in combat but also in the roleplaying portion of the game, the party was pure chaos as they started out meeting each other, but slowly became a bit of a family. The tiefling bard and him were both very obstinate in the way they viewed the world and would occasionally bump heads when trying to be the face of the party. She was always too innocent, too naïve, would always try to talk her way out nicely, and with flattery. Aiden would never bend the knee as he had sworn to protect those that could not protect themselves, to preserve the peace by any means, and to punish the wicked. However, they would always save each other from dire danger and grew closer as time went by... Aiden realized that the bard was the pinnacle of things he wanted to protect. They have remained together since as a couple, caring for their chaotic group, roaming the lands for more songs to sing. His most badass moment was challenging a frost giant jarl to a deathmatch. The rest of the party infiltrated the place and wasted spells and resources trying to stealthily retrieve the McGuffin, Aiden was wise enough to know he is loud as balls and stayed outside readied to haul ass to leave. Party acquires McGuffin, gets chased by a mob of 20 frost giants and their leader. So, by a good persuasion roll, a compelled duel spell and the wonderful (to be read as broken) synergy between vow of enmity, polearm master, sentinel, and relentless avenger managed to overcome their leader in 1v1 combat, allowing his party to escape. He had already discarded his life for them in the speech, if he gave a good fight they were to be forgiven and let leave freely. Aiden and his adventures have kept me good company through this pandemic, I hope this inspires someone to enjoy a badass paladin as well!
I have an Oath of Conquest rolled up, just waiitng as a reserve in the case my DM just overdoes some encounter xD It would be great to have you guys discuss the other paladin oaths! I, of course, would prefer to know more about Conquest, but it would be great to learn more about Ancients, Devotion and Redemption.
My Chaotic Neutral Astral Elf Anthropologist Oath of Conquest Paladin is interesting. She plans on establishing a new Queendom in the Mortal/Material Plane as well as a new Pantheon that is primarily made up of Lost/Dead/Weakened Deities including restoring Garagos to his full power+ and displacing Tempus as the strongest War Deity:)
I have also played a half-orc oath of vengeance paladin, Thorkk Stonefoot. I have many great stories that I could tell. One of my favorite moments was when I was level 4. The party was escorting a noble to a city, and on the way, we encountered a half-orge. The bard was talking to it and asked it's named, which was Barthalamu. I had a flaw that said my sharp tongue gets me into trouble, so I took advantage of that flaw. I called the half-ogre Barthalapuc and what not. The orge then proceeded to call two friends to fight me. I then proceeded to kill all three of them by myself. I kept Barthalamu's head as a trophy. When we got to the city, I had it's skull made into a goblet.
Been playing a paladin for a few months now, new to paladins, my DM has let me switch oaths to try them all. Just switched to the oath of vengeance paladin after last week's session. Tonight will be my first night using him. So excited, I also multi-classed into sorcerer at level 7 to get more spells for smites and range attacks through spells. It has been a lot of fun. So nice to see this posted today. You guys made this just for me I swear. Thanks so much Dungeon Dudes. :)
Playing a Reborn Oath of Vengeance Paladin, taking his Oath against the army that killed him (fell in battle, botched resurrection) and I'd love to see you guys do a video on the Reborn race!
I would like to thank you for the advice on the oath of Vengeance paladin I am but a beginner in the d&d and I had started with a cleric and now watching your videos on paladin have getting me the courage to start playing one
I'm playing a Fire Genasi Hexblade/Vengeance Paladin in a campaign right now! My character was a slave to an Efreeti in the City of Brass and was saved/freed by a Tiefling Horizon Walker (my friends character). So now we're basically plane-hoping buddy cops protecting the material plane from extra-planer threats like fiends and evil elementals.
Played a Tiefling Vengence Paladin in a Curse of Strahd. She was a blast. Dual weilding Dexadin with a lot of sass. When she hit 9th level and got Haste it was amazing.
I've absolutely loved playing a hex blade Oath of Vengeance Paladin for over 2 years in my current group. Srydar Kront'tain started as a level1 half-drow who had just escaped the underdark. 73 sessions and 20 levels later he killed Lolth and stole her divinity. My next character is going to be a Twilight domain cleric who worships him. The only drawback to the Oath of Vengeance is that it might make the other players feel underpowered, so keep that in mind.
Boy oh boy does this video both get me nostalgic and excited. My first D&D character was a Half-Elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin. This character was a half-elf who grew up among elves who was on a mission to destroy the people that burned down the forest he grew up in. Since this was my first character and I feel he didn't get the proper development and play that he did (since I was new) I'm going to be playing him again in my next campaign. I am beyond excited :D
I love throwing in three levels of Hexblade (Pact of the Blade) with my Vengeance Paladin. Since I can now use charisma for my attack modifier, I can leave my strength at a 15. Eldridge Blast gives a excellent ranged option for a Paladin who usually is lacking a good ranged attack. And there's nothing like stacking the hex class ability on the BBG. If you take five levels in Hexblade you can also get a superior form of smite. Lots of amazing synergies with this combo
Paladin is by far my favorite class to play. I would encourage everyone to try it. All these things they said about the vengeance paladin are true of every paladin.
I made an oath of vengeance paladin very recently, he was a variant human and I took magic initiate at level one, taking fire bolt, dancing lights, and burning hands from the sorcerer spell list. At level four I took war caster. I wanted him to be a mixed spell casting/melee damage build, and I think it worked well.
I was talking about for roleplaying. The paladin who lost his wife and daughter to the villain and joins up with the party to avenge them and does everything he can to protect his new family
Thanks Dungeon Dudes for walking me through most things DnD. Just started campaigning with friends through Pandemic over Roll 20 playing Sword coast i believe & played 1 live table with halflings ... Super fun! Just created a Oath of Vengeance Paladin knight warforged for our party. He is a beast! Sir Doomed ...
I'm currently playing a Dragonborn "Ancestral Guardian" Barbarian. My DM is "strongly urging" me to multiclass to a caster class of somekind. I was considering Paladin since I think the protective nature of "Ancestral Guardian" fits with my RP. I was originally thinking of going "Oath of Glory", but this video, and the way ya'll played your OoV Paladins, has described my character to a T. Thank you for the inspiration. I found your channel a few months ago during COVID (I live in GA and yes it still sucks) and I have loved every video.
Currently I’m playing a Dragonborn Vengeance Paladin. Loving it so far, working on lvl 10. Our dm gave us one free feat, so I took heavy armor master for the +1 strength and damage reduction. That has been huge. Next feat I took resilient constitution for more tankiness. Ring of spell storing is so good to store misty steps or cure wounds as a life saver so you can save more spell slots for smite. It’s a ton of fun to play. And I’m pretty sure I’ve healed more than our war cleric. Aura of vitality has been pretty helpful to keep people topped off or save a downed ally from a distance
My group decided to do a one shot when our normal session fell through because of adulting and I rolled up a protector aasimar at 17th level. Asked for a holy avenger as my only magic item and found out we were being sent to the Abyss . Had a blast sweeping through hoards of demons and at the end I soloed a balor, his death throws knocked me out but the party was able to save me. Loved that night.
You and I are on the same page Monty, currently playing an Oath of Vengeance-Hexblade multiclass, and I also took polearm master and sentinel. Its VERY POWERFUL.
I’m playing an Oath of Conquest Paladin as a pirate captain in a nautical campaign. He’s a bugbear named Grim Grin with that awesome 10ft reach. Over the course of the campaign he lost his Ice longsword in a deal with an angel for the life of one of his crew mates, and now he uses his unarmed strikes instead with the tavern brawler feat and grappler feat. He’s just a big beefy claw-smiting boy. Hoping to acquire a thematic 9-tail whip for him soon for that sweet 15ft smite range. The charisma has also gone a long way for RP, as it’s awesome to illicit fear in the crew’s enemies and play out the fantasy of being fearsome pirates. Paladins surprisingly make some of the beat pirates as well given their oaths, and having them be modified into their own pirate code for some juicy lawful evil fun.
I'm using a different build for Oath of Vengeance, and it's also been very successful. It's a Half-Elf with Elven Accuracy (I use a Sunblade, which is a finesse weapon), Mounted Combatant and Shield Master (we play with 1 extra Feat at Lv. 1). Abilities were rolled: Str 14 / Dex 18 / Con 16 / Int 11 / Wis 14 / Cha 18. With Fighting Style (Defense), Half-Plate and a shield I have 20 AC (with no magic item bonus for AC yet). I'm Lv. 10 now. At Lv. 13 I'll be able to cast Find Greater Steed to ride a Pegasus. I'm planning to take Defensive Duelist [Lv.12], Resilient (Con) [Lv.16] and Resilient (Dex) [Lv.19]. My plan is to be pretty solid on all defenses (Saving Throws and AC) and also hitting hard with Vow of Emmity + Elven Accuracy (for high Critical Hit chances) + Smite.
i am currently doing the decent into Avernus which i am going to be building a vengeance paladin so this video is very helpful i am only level two atm but i actually chose protection as my thing so that way i could better help my group by further disadvantaging the enemy
playing one of these right now in a curse of strahd campaign. everything you say is spot on, you're just a devastor, i'm a level 6 OoV paladin and a 3rd lvl fighter. that action surge with the champion fighter subclass, with the improved criticals, so i'm doubling all my dice on 19's now as well. i laughed when kelly said his paladin hated demons because they kidnapped his family; my paladin serves yeenoghu, after having been driven insane by some rather unfortunate events in the campaign haha. been a great character. looking forward to the next episode of shadows!
I've DM'd 3x times. NEVER played as a PC, but I've just gotten a new playgroup and made an elf Oath of Vengeance paladin. I'm excited beyond belief! For my homeland!!!
You guys should do this same video for Redemption! It feels different to play compared to the other oaths I have played. I started as an Oath of Vengeance Paladin serving Ares in a COS campaign, with a switch to multiclassed Battlemaster/Oath of Devotion for Athena, and now Redemption instead of devotion. Loooong story behind all that, but our group has been playing for almost 3 years now. This is my first character, and I love it. Nothing better then doing over 200 damage to Shummrath in one round, smites for days🤪 Love your videos, keep up the great content :)
Superb video! I wholeheartedly agree; whenever the campaign I was playing in resumes I am actually playing 2 Oath of Vengeance Paladins at once one is a Totem Barb multiclass and the other a Hexblade multiclass. Needless to say the DM has to get creative to make encounters challenging.
Love the in-depth discussion on 1 subclass. Playing Oath of Conquest and I hear a lot of similarities about feats, bonus actions and ABI. I went hexblade so I could 'dump' STR.
Hunter's Mark is my favorite buffer in a big combat and has a good range. Cast this in first round when you see the enemy. Next round when close to the enemy, vow of emnity.
Meh, Hunters mark is pretty weak compared to divine smite. Id rather use 2(d8) than an extra d6 of damage. Plus hunters mark uses concentration so if you lose that concentration you've just wasted a spell slot!
Fun and informative to follow your review with the character builds and your experiences - - - - - and ouch, teasing us with the Madness Domain Cleric !
I am playing a paladin and I have a team consisting of an echo knight fighter, a shepherd Druid, an enchantment wizard, and an evocation wizard. Both wizards love the animate objects spell allowing them to summon animate 10 silver coins each and let me tell you, using crusader’s mantel to add a d4 to all 20 coins is just absolutely great.
Shadow Mark Elf 5th+ Vengeance Paladin 3rd+ Shadow Sorcerer (+5 Hexblade Tomelock) Double-Bladed Scimitar Elven Accuracy You become a windmill of light and shadow, cutting down foes left and right. You spend through Spell Slots like candy, and using your Sorlock abilities to generate a near unlimited amount of Spell Slots for smiting. Uses Darkness, Invisibility, and the Vow to consistently gain 3d20 per attack.
I'm playing an OoV Paladin in a group right now! I actually went DEX heavy, used a rapier and wore light armor, and took 4 levels in Rogue (Assassin sub type). Since my Oath gives me constant advantage, I can always sneak attack, and land devastating crits by dropping in smites. Cunning action makes me slippery and versatile, and I took Sentinel and Defensive Duelist. My race is a Dragonborn (which my group has houseruled to be a tad better).
Only thought when I saw was Swashbuckler so you can be Inigo Montoya, but I do definitely see the whole idea of auto crit smite sneak attacks. Seems like a cool build.
It says something that we’ve got two experienced players in the video talking about how much fun Vengeance paladins are to play, AND a bunch of people in the comments saying they’re loving playing one in their first campaign. That’s a winner! I’m playing a 6th level VoO right now-my second character ever-and I agree. It’s a blast to play this blustering, grizzled veteran who can flirt with a barmaid and then unleash fury on the unjust. With Hold Person and Misty Step on top of Thunderous Smite, Sentinel, and dwarven plate-and Haste coming-he’s amazing at getting where he wants to be, putting enemies where he wants them, and not letting enemies move him or past him.
I started playing the Half Orc Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance. He's really awesome! I even got a brand new model to paint him in the theme of the Oath of Vengeance. I also painted his sword blade black to replicate Gurthang, the Iron of Death from the Children of Hurin book. I can't wait to play with this mini.😆
You finally brought up the one issue of paladins in general How MAD they are Like out of all the classes they are the most MAD And indeed it helps what to allocate Is the player has to think what they want out of their character If they are more combat oriented yes just focus on str and con and pick spells that dont need to force enemies for saving throws too much Such as some buff spells and target themselves Maybe pack in aura of vitality if needed For more support oriented paladins, like the oath of crown Defo focus on cha instead Never neglect con too much as they are frontline classes
Was very keen to hear your input as I'm playing one now and having less fun then I thought I would. Only level 4 but we keep getting thrown only groups of low hp mobs and so never get to unleash the beast. I find that the bard and sorcerer wipe the table where I get 1 or 2 hits in and meanwhile am flanked by 4 enemies and fighting for my life. I've had 2 or 3 times when I was able to unleash and it was cool, but those are rare. Am thinking of changing to an echo knight for the cool battlefield movement and skills, plus them fighter ASI/feats
I found your guide quite cool and I love to have the chance to see your characters! I wonder if someday we'll see an Oath of Conquest guide, that would be great!
This is an awesome video i’ve recently started playing and have been struggling to know how i want to play my half-orc oath of vengeance paladin. I am now thinking of multiclassing with shadow sorcerer and this video helped a lot!
Great video as always. I’m going to play a paladin in our next campaign and after seeing this, it’s going to be a vengeance one. In our last campaign, I’ve played a bard and decided to play something completely different now. After some reading and your videos I decided for a paladin. Never played one before and neither has anyone else in our group, so this is exciting!
I am currently playing a Vengeance Paladin and I actually built him as a dex two-weapon fighter funnily enough. Hunter's Mark puts in double the work when you are hitting twice a turn before level 5 and at level 5 you are still getting more mileage than a two-hander would. What makes this more than just a ranger with extra steps is that with more attacks and 3 levels into champion fighter it becomes an effective crit fishing build to dump powerful smites into. Additionally, fighter gives two weapon fighting as a fighting style to shore up that weakness. Taking defense on the paladin combined with dual wielder feat makes his AC rival a full-plate paladin.
Oh, and also take the Warcaster feat with it. You'll get advantage on concentration saves when you take damage. Wouldn't want that Haste ending too soon because of a lucky crit hitting you.
I took resilient constitution for my eighth level feat instead, simultaneously obtaining a con mod of +4 and a concentration save bonus of +11 total, with the proficiency and aura of protection
my first ever d&d character was an oath of vengeance paladin. our dm made us start from level like 13 so i put in her backstory that she had wanted to be oath of devotion but swore vengeanche in a fit of rage and bloodlust so playing her was incredibly fun. She wanted DESPERATELY to be good, to be liked, but when it came down to it she could be straight up cruel because thats what it took to do the right thing. the experience was especially fun because our partys warlock *was* just genuinely *good* and it was just this constant feeling of like. you could and should be more like that, but also the job needs to be done. like the guys covered really well how SATISFYING it is to fight as a vengeance pally, but the roleplay and character dynamics it offers are almost as fun if not more
Wow this is funny timing since I started Curse of Strahd playing a half-elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin... Now playing the same character, but because of story and character development and discussions with my DM, she is now Oath of the Ancients :D Absolutely love this class and subclass, and I miss Vow of Emnity, but I do love my character now more thanks to her story.
I am really enjoying my Oath of Vengeance Paladin build and I am really happy this video came out because I'm really considering going into some classes in Hexblade Warlock but the Roleplay and backstory for this character is super fun. I built an Aasmir (born human due to a tie in with the existing campaign) and I really enjoyed building and playing this character. My backstory for the character was a son of a noble house (to fit the soldier background and martial weapons)who in his service had witnessed a slave colony/camp be wiped out. This experience cause the Aasmir spark to ignite and my soldier to swear their oath vowing to stop this wherever possible. My paladin swore his oath to Kelemvor, God of the dead. Since the literature for Kelemvor said he focused on the balance of life and death and more about death being a gift (the release from the pains of life) I tweaked it slightly with my DM's permission to have my paladin swear an oath of vengeance again anyone who would pervert or break that balance. So the obvious, undead and necromancers who defile the gift of death and slavers who defile the gift of life (by taking it and making life something miserable). It's been really fun since running into slavers can cause a ruckus for the party but it is really fun to Roleplay.
One thing that you guys didn't touch on: Vengeance Paladins are perfect for a Dexadin. Leather armor and a high Dex give you respectable AC without the stealth penalty, you can dual-wield something like a rapier with a whip to give you two zones of threat control, and it's perfect to take a dip or two of Rogue to get some nice sneak attack damage that your extra crits (thanks to Vow of Enmity) will love. I played a Belmont-style whip-wielding Vengeance Dexadin in a Tales from the Yawning Portal group and absolutely loved it.
I had a vengeance paladin named Aston who had a serious problem with elves and drow in particular to a point in which my oath was specifically an oath to exterminate the drow. The rest of the party just so happened to be a Wood-Elf rouge, a Half-Elf wizard, and a Drow cleric. This wasn’t even planned, it just happened. Needless to say, Aston was not happy.
Looking for recommendations: I'm wanting to make a Fallen Aasimar Oath of Vengeance Paladin +2 CHA +1 STR First question Where would you put your standard array ability scores? I was thinking: STR 13 +1 = 14 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 12 +2 = 14 Second question Where would you put your ability score improvements at level 4? Third question With Tasha's allowing us to move around the ability score perks, would you move the +2 CHA and/or the +1 STR to something else? Thank you!
Finished an Oath of Ven pally for a Curse of Strahd campaign over quarantine. Picked him back up for (Shimmer??? not sure what its called) but loving it again. It feels so friggen powerful
I’m my party, I was a half orc paladin, and the religious aspect was all due to a war between humans/elves and orcs that was overshadowed by a war between an empire and a colt, and it turns out the empire was behind the war of the orcs, and cause my brother, mother and father to die, but rescuing my sister (a full orc) and using her to aid my party in huge damage, whist fighting with the colt against the empire, needless to say it was a bit of a holocaust situation and it was very enjoyable using the cleric and the Druid in my party to cast a lot of spells so I could deal serious damage and that made me the focal point of the whole story, just play a paladin and see how it goes, it’s not all goodie two shows and you can find yourself in a catch 22 situation like me if your dm is smart enough
I am 1 of 2 paladins in my campaign right now. My friend is vengeance and I am conquest. We can usually lock stuff down with fear and just mop up. Its a really fun combo
I’am just finishing up my out of vengeance paladin,.TWOG, he started out as a kobold with dex as his main attribute we saved a wizard that could True polymorph us as any race we wanted so I went with turtle
Would love to hear you guys talk about the Oath of Conquest Paladin! I’ve been playing one and man...man oh man, those fear-based class features when used in conjunction with certain spells/features can be POTENT. They even have something for fear-immune enemies. Definitely doesn’t have the damage potential of Vengeance or Oathbreaker, but when you get those abilities going, those enemies will be downright helpless against you, knees quaking and all. And to top it all off, the flavor with which the Conquest Paladin operates at is so *tasty* hahaha. It’s just sheer domination through paralyzing fear. Made the biggest, most powerful enemies fall to their knees and tremble. Couldn’t do anything for the rest of the encounter. Wouldn’t deign to approach me in fear while I just unleashed smite after smite from a distance with my glaive. It felt pretty cheesy tbh and I had to check a couple times if my combos were entirely legal. Of course, it didn’t take long for our DM to prepare hard counters to my abilities, but that made it all the more rewarding and fun when you actually lock someone down in fear. Perfect marriage of mechanics and flavor. “You will fall behind me, or you will fall before me.”
I had a similar “abuse” of the conquest paladin and reach, with my most recent character. He was a bugbear pirate captain and he has the extra 5ft of reach from the race ability. It gets very good with the fear/movement impairing effects! The flavor and combat RP has been to die for though, so the DM has been very gracious.
@@Durtaz For my conquest pally, I multiclassed into hexblade, making the build a bit more SAD. Between my reach, hexblade's curse, full 7d6 smites, spiritual weapon attacks or spell smites for bonus action, and those now-infamous(within my party) combos like the prone trap/wrathful smite+aura of conquest, things started to get ridiculous real quick. Granted, it's a high-level campaign, so damage and spell save DCs are high haha. But yeah, encounters were trivialized on the first round more often than not, especially during the start of the campaign.
In my current campaign, I started as a fighter until level 10. I decided to start taking paladin levels so we could RP taking the oath against the bad guys we had met so far in the story. It was so satisfying. Also take all that good OoV stuff and add more attacks and action surge, it’s crazy.
Great stuff, thanks. Can you make one about oath of the ancients? And I would love to hear about suggestion to "go out from the box" as kelly said, regarding to all sorts of paladin oaths. I really like the mechanics of a paladin(actually not divine smite, but everything else), but the oath scares me and it feels like a weight. Anyway, great video
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A really good friend of mine puts it in a way that I've found quite apt "Lawful good does not always mean Lawful nice". I know so many people that hate Paladins because of the Goody-two-shoes stereotype, but I love it when I see people really get creative with their character creation for Paladins.
I have an Oath of Vengeance Paladin who isn't good-aligned.
She's a drow who has lost everything because ONE member of her family fell out of favour with Loth, and because other houses took the opportunity to dethrone hers. She therefore swore to take vengeance against those houses AND to Loth.
But by no means did she promise to do good.
And yes, I know the tennets kind of implore you to do good, but me and the DM have adjusted it. It's just more engaging and personal that way.
@@sandrols7 Exactly! I like that the subclass is written in a way where you're not always servient to a deity, but instead to an oath. In my campaigns I imagine it as a deity cheering on the sidelines and offering support while the Paladin fulfills their mission. And sometimes deities use mortals to get their dirty work done for them, regardless of their alignment. I had a neutral aligned Paladin that made a secondary vow to protect his friends, and when a baker refused to sell pastries to a hungry companion, he decked the baker, and then proceeded to take on the town guard in the name of their friendship and in retaliation against the sheer disrespect shown. Is that typical of a Paladin? Maybe not. Was it an awesome moment to show their true character through RP? Heck yes it was.
You are Batman essentially or Batwoman.
My Vengeance Paladin is Neutral Good, but I'm quietly waiting for the perfect moment to pull the 'Good doesn't mean Nice' card. While she's generally friendly and charming, and bonded to the party very quickly, I have a specific idea in mind for when she kills her nemesis. She's an aasimar who used to have wings, and this cultist impersonated someone she loved and cut them off. So when she gets her hands on him (or his corpse, if someone else gets the final blow) she's going to Blood Eagle him (warning for gore if you have to google that). Extra suitable because it's a Norse campaign
You'd expect an aasimar paladin to become fallen/an oathbreaker for doing something that messed up, but it's fully within the tenets of her oath and her angelic guide (a valkyrie) and her goddess (Freyja) are totally rooting for her. People forget that Freyja is a WAR goddess along with love and fertility ;)
I think the RP potential is the greatest strength of this class
Lawful Good is General Patton. Certainly no pansy.
"You are the Party Face, go talk to them"
"But i don't want to be the Party Face, i am a brute Fighter"
"Then why do you have 20 Charisma?!"
"For my Spells ...."
Hahahahaha
Multiclass into Hexblade and you'll be using it for weapon attacks too, hehehe
"Why do you have 20 Charisma?"
*A dark cloud blots out the sun, just slightly making the light of day a little darker, a little colder, as you feel the presence of the Avatar of Retribution glare into your soul. He says nothing; his dark stare, as though he could see your lifetime's worth of sins, is answer enough.*
I feel the Abjure Enemy feature is underrated. I think people don't realize that if they fail the Wisdom save THEY DON'T GET TO REPEAT THE SAVE. So you can stop someone completely in their tracks and just ignore them until you've mopped up their allies, then finish them off while their stuck standing still. It works well when there's one particular enemy that's difficult to deal with.
Thank you, random citizen!
My first ever 5E character was a Dwarf Vengeance Paladin. I've used him in multiple campaigns and was my first character to get to level 20! I played him essentially like batman, using misty step to get behind enemies and yell dwarven oaths. By far my favorite class/subclass in all of DnD. Protip: Get the heavy weapon master feat for massive damage.
Absolutely beastly! I'm going GWM vengeance pally too, gotta swing that bigass sword and slay fools!
This advice is so great. Two player-DMs who play test as many chars as possible and report their findings to us in video essays, very awesome dudes! Also the t-shirt game is on point.
Hey Dungeon Dudes! TH-cam has a feature called "Chapters" - If you start your timestamps at 00:00 and there's none shorter than 10 seconds, it'll divide up the video progress bar into neat chapters with the text beside the timestamp as the little chapter title. Would be easier to follow along :)
Wow, I am just about play a Vengeance paladin this weekend for Rime of the Frostmaiden. Very timely!
Same! I literally just made an Oath of Vengeance paladin as a backup character! XD
Me too!
Playing my 1st Vengeance Paladin w/ Sentinel & Polearm Master in DoMM now. Sitting at Lv10 currently and it's just ridiculous how much control over crowded fights I have.
Same here. Perfect timing.
i'm playing one now, it's a good call! a real beast, as they said!
Just joined my very first D&D campaign a month ago and I’m playing an Oath of Vengeance Paladin & Hexblade Warlock character. This video couldn’t of happened at a better time!
Do you mind sharing details? I'm curious how it went for you.
@@StriderZesseiit's one of the most broken characters you can make
Do you have a guide for baldurs gate 3?
Great material as always. You guys are killing it. I also wanted to mention that Kelly's haircut looks great.
Thanks! I like it!
I second all this lol
I saw this comment and was confused because I was watching the sponsor shout out but I agree that haircut is clean
Oooo you right. That looks slick af.
lol i wasn't going to say it but yeah, looking kelly looking sharpened up now that the quarantine over haha
Interesting timing, since today I'm starting a Curse of Strahd campaign where I am going to be playing a Scourge Aasimar Vengeance Paladin. He's going to have the Haunted One background, with a bit of a twist in that the source of his torment is his own angelic guide, who drove him halfway to madness by filling his dreams every single night with commands to destroy the forces of darkness and chaos.
Oooh, this is SUCH a fascinating concept. I currently have a variant aasimar vengeance paladin, and a whole different character with the Haunted One background, so I'm really fond of all the pieces you put together there. The concept of an angelic guide being such a disastrous influence is a great expectation subversion.
How far would your character go to be rid of their guide's tormenting presence? Lore says the fallen aasimar are abandoned by their angelic guides, so you could weigh the temptation of turning to evil just to be free against paladin devotion.
That's a very fun direction to go with the character! Like CyanRose said, it's a cool twist on the Aasimar's celestial heritage and how that impacts them growing up. Especially in a campaign like CoS, that should be interesting to play with.
I've got a similar concept in mind with a protector aasimar with the Haunted background, but they're a Horizon Walker Ranger whose guide keeps pressuring them to hunt down fiends and monsters from the Outer Planes.
@@cyanrosespirit My plan isn't really to have him try to be rid of his guide. In a way, he's internalized it all, since it caused him to run away from the temple where he was being raised and start pursuing a career as a monster hunter. So he's actually heeding the guide's commands after a fashion, seeking to protect those who can not protect themselves, albeit in a very harsh, unforgiving way. Very much a case of the "Good is not necessarily nice" character concept. At this point, he's not even 100% sure that this is all coming from an outside force, since the torment just manifests in his dreams.
As a side note, my original concept for this character was to make him a Conquest Paladin, but once I found out it was going to be Curse of Strahd, I tweaked it to be Vengeance instead, since while I have not played CoS yet, I seem to recall it having just enough fear-immune enemies to make some of Conquest's signature abilities inconsistent.
Bro, have variant human Paladinof Vengeance on CoS right now, and it has been great, so I highly recommend it. This campaign really rewards players who know the flaws of their characters and their moral weakness (temptations everywhere). Every pc will, almost certainly, have to face hard decisions, and having a character with a ‘grey’ morality background will make you feel the responsibility of you choices.
So a fine an egde, it will slit throats by reading about it
Pro Tip: If you want your DM to cry, multiclass this with Hexblade Warlock, take Devil's Sight, and cast darkness on your enemies to gain advantage on all attacks (Being an avenging blade in the night has never been so overpowered).
So basically Batman
@@superj1010 except you aren't bound by silly morals and are allowed and encouraged to kill
@@superj1010 Always be yourself. Unless you can be batman. Then you should be batman
And annoy the rest of your team that can't see either.
I am vengeance, I am the NIGHT!
For my oath of vengeance character, he's been taught that vengeance isn't just about righting a wrong done. Its about ending those who have crossed unspeakable lines so that they can't commit those acts again and spare future victims from those horrors.
The vengeance tenet of mine is
Most crimes can probably be solved by restitution of some kind, maybe counseling.
But once you cross a certain moral line, theres only one appropriate punishment, and that task is /not/ suitable for the average person.
Timely as last night I was playing a Vampire (Grim Hollow, formerly Variant Human) Oath of Vengeance Paladin.
Basically, he was turned against his will and swore an oath to destroy any and every monster that exists. That he will rain vengeance on those who harm the innocent.
I made a Character like that but as an Oathbreaker Paladin
Not gonna lie, that sounds like Alucard from hellsing and I love that type of shit. Granted no guns but more like him at level zero restraint. Still badass though.
@@darkvizardking69 Except, my character is good and choses to help people even if they hate and fear him. Alucard is a psychopath who is being aimed at monsters.
@@Lrbearclaw too true, there are different ways to go about it. Granted his level zero self is the more, 'put together' form of himself.
Getting vampire hunter D vibes myself
you make it sound like i can play john wick in dnd
The raw ability to just decide, "I do not want this monster to be here any more" is so satisfying. No class brings that to bear like the paladin.
More like the Doomslayer. 😏
Crossbow Expert then your golden
@@witchercadash5460 TRUE
John Wick in dnd is more like rogue+monk, IMO
Been waiting for a video on this. Thank you! I'm in my first campaign right now playing a Vengeance Paladin. Love the videos guys!
Oath of Vengeance Paladin makes a great Van Helsing style Vampire Hunter for Curse of Strahd.
Currently playing a Castlevania inspired Vengeance Paladin in a Nintendo themed campaign. Really appreciate this guys!
Man, I absolutely love Oath of Vengeance Paladins. I'm playing a Silver Dragonborn OoV Paladin. From a family that left to form a small village in a forest near Icewind Dale. His village was wiped out and all of the survivors were taken by the Drow. And now he wanders through Faerun after any clues to their whereabouts.
We're playing the Mine of Phandelver campaign, and we've just hit lvl 4 after miraculously killing the big green critter (trying not to spoil). And I'm having a blaaaaast. He plays the role of tank, having roled max HPs 2 times in a row and a further 8 has him now on 50 HPs. Plus Shield and a Heavy Armor, his AC 19 (or 21 with Shield of Faith) makes him nearly impenetrable should he choose to Dodge, making enemies roll with disadvantage in narrow spots.
It's been done online, but the face of frustration on my DM's face is priceless whenever I get to Divine Smite his minions into smithereens.
Currently building a Copper Dragonborn one. How did your build/campaign go?
Playing a half-elf vengeance paladin and absolutely having a blast. Crit hits and smite have made some absolute cinematic moments. I’m loving it!
I just played a goblin dexterity based vengeance paladin in a friend's one shot a couple weeks ago. We were at 8th level, so I took 5 paladin and 3 fighter into champion, so I was raining crits. Thankfully, not much of the paladin's class necessarily requires you to use strength, so it was an interesting build. Unfortunately I couldn't double down on great weapon master or polearm master, but I had an effective AC of 21 with shield of faith going and a +7 to dex saves (thanks to resilient), and still a bunch of hit points.
All this to say, vengeance paladins are dope, and dex paladins are surprisingly dope. Maybe even take the lucky feat to go crit fishing even more!
Excellent content as always gentlemen, thank you. As you may have noticed, 2020 has been a super-sized turdburger of a year. My game's been on hold for 7 months so far and we had got used to playing in a 15th century pub, by a roaring fire, hard to recreate that vibe online. Your videos and others like them have kept me sane, inspired and motivated. Thank you so very much, Mwah xx
I am so happy to see that both of you really enjoyed playing as oath of vengeance paladins, your content is amazingly instructive and fun. My favorite character is my 11th lvl human oath of vengeance paladin - Aiden. Just as Kelly described there have been very few instances where he does not feel like he walks out of a combat as a hero, dealing dumb amounts of damage in a round of combat (100+?ish), bringing back up allies to over half health with lay on hands, stunning/holding enemies, hasting the barbarian... you name it. Getting to dump 3 divine smites in a single round with a crit entwined in there is nothing to laugh, at BBEG's hp drops like flies. Not just in combat but also in the roleplaying portion of the game, the party was pure chaos as they started out meeting each other, but slowly became a bit of a family. The tiefling bard and him were both very obstinate in the way they viewed the world and would occasionally bump heads when trying to be the face of the party. She was always too innocent, too naïve, would always try to talk her way out nicely, and with flattery. Aiden would never bend the knee as he had sworn to protect those that could not protect themselves, to preserve the peace by any means, and to punish the wicked. However, they would always save each other from dire danger and grew closer as time went by... Aiden realized that the bard was the pinnacle of things he wanted to protect. They have remained together since as a couple, caring for their chaotic group, roaming the lands for more songs to sing. His most badass moment was challenging a frost giant jarl to a deathmatch. The rest of the party infiltrated the place and wasted spells and resources trying to stealthily retrieve the McGuffin, Aiden was wise enough to know he is loud as balls and stayed outside readied to haul ass to leave. Party acquires McGuffin, gets chased by a mob of 20 frost giants and their leader. So, by a good persuasion roll, a compelled duel spell and the wonderful (to be read as broken) synergy between vow of enmity, polearm master, sentinel, and relentless avenger managed to overcome their leader in 1v1 combat, allowing his party to escape. He had already discarded his life for them in the speech, if he gave a good fight they were to be forgiven and let leave freely. Aiden and his adventures have kept me good company through this pandemic, I hope this inspires someone to enjoy a badass paladin as well!
I have an Oath of Conquest rolled up, just waiitng as a reserve in the case my DM just overdoes some encounter xD
It would be great to have you guys discuss the other paladin oaths! I, of course, would prefer to know more about Conquest, but it would be great to learn more about Ancients, Devotion and Redemption.
My Chaotic Neutral Astral Elf Anthropologist Oath of Conquest Paladin is interesting.
She plans on establishing a new Queendom in the Mortal/Material Plane as well as a new Pantheon that is primarily made up of Lost/Dead/Weakened Deities including restoring Garagos to his full power+ and displacing Tempus as the strongest War Deity:)
I have also played a half-orc oath of vengeance paladin, Thorkk Stonefoot. I have many great stories that I could tell. One of my favorite moments was when I was level 4. The party was escorting a noble to a city, and on the way, we encountered a half-orge. The bard was talking to it and asked it's named, which was Barthalamu. I had a flaw that said my sharp tongue gets me into trouble, so I took advantage of that flaw. I called the half-ogre Barthalapuc and what not. The orge then proceeded to call two friends to fight me. I then proceeded to kill all three of them by myself. I kept Barthalamu's head as a trophy. When we got to the city, I had it's skull made into a goblet.
Been playing a paladin for a few months now, new to paladins, my DM has let me switch oaths to try them all. Just switched to the oath of vengeance paladin after last week's session. Tonight will be my first night using him. So excited, I also multi-classed into sorcerer at level 7 to get more spells for smites and range attacks through spells. It has been a lot of fun. So nice to see this posted today. You guys made this just for me I swear. Thanks so much Dungeon Dudes. :)
Playing a Reborn Oath of Vengeance Paladin, taking his Oath against the army that killed him (fell in battle, botched resurrection) and I'd love to see you guys do a video on the Reborn race!
I would like to thank you for the advice on the oath of Vengeance paladin I am but a beginner in the d&d and I had started with a cleric and now watching your videos on paladin have getting me the courage to start playing one
I needed this, I've been playing a long term vengeance paladin for over a year
Super helpful guide! I’m currently playing a level 1 Paladin and am just about to level up. I’m definitely sold on the Oath of Vengeance. Thanks!
I'm playing a Fire Genasi Hexblade/Vengeance Paladin in a campaign right now! My character was a slave to an Efreeti in the City of Brass and was saved/freed by a Tiefling Horizon Walker (my friends character). So now we're basically plane-hoping buddy cops protecting the material plane from extra-planer threats like fiends and evil elementals.
Played a Tiefling Vengence Paladin in a Curse of Strahd. She was a blast. Dual weilding Dexadin with a lot of sass. When she hit 9th level and got Haste it was amazing.
How you keep concentration on hast?
I've absolutely loved playing a hex blade Oath of Vengeance Paladin for over 2 years in my current group. Srydar Kront'tain started as a level1 half-drow who had just escaped the underdark. 73 sessions and 20 levels later he killed Lolth and stole her divinity. My next character is going to be a Twilight domain cleric who worships him.
The only drawback to the Oath of Vengeance is that it might make the other players feel underpowered, so keep that in mind.
I’m playing a vengeance paladin right now - variant human with the pole-arm master and sentinel feats. Very fun!
Boy oh boy does this video both get me nostalgic and excited. My first D&D character was a Half-Elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin. This character was a half-elf who grew up among elves who was on a mission to destroy the people that burned down the forest he grew up in. Since this was my first character and I feel he didn't get the proper development and play that he did (since I was new) I'm going to be playing him again in my next campaign. I am beyond excited :D
So happy to see both back together, spilt screens were weird, and confusing.
This is much better
I love throwing in three levels of Hexblade (Pact of the Blade) with my Vengeance Paladin. Since I can now use charisma for my attack modifier, I can leave my strength at a 15. Eldridge Blast gives a excellent ranged option for a Paladin who usually is lacking a good ranged attack. And there's nothing like stacking the hex class ability on the BBG. If you take five levels in Hexblade you can also get a superior form of smite. Lots of amazing synergies with this combo
Not to mention that using cantrips(Eldritch Blast, for one) gives your spell slots a break so that they can last a lot longer!! LMAO
Paladin is by far my favorite class to play. I would encourage everyone to try it. All these things they said about the vengeance paladin are true of every paladin.
I made an oath of vengeance paladin very recently, he was a variant human and I took magic initiate at level one, taking fire bolt, dancing lights, and burning hands from the sorcerer spell list. At level four I took war caster. I wanted him to be a mixed spell casting/melee damage build, and I think it worked well.
I love to play a protection paladin and i think this subclass perfect for that playstyle, thank you for the awsome content guys
Oath of ancients auras are disgusting. Could easily sword shield and protect the party.
I was talking about for roleplaying. The paladin who lost his wife and daughter to the villain and joins up with the party to avenge them and does everything he can to protect his new family
Thanks Dungeon Dudes for walking me through most things DnD. Just started campaigning with friends through Pandemic over Roll 20 playing Sword coast i believe & played 1 live table with halflings ... Super fun! Just created a Oath of Vengeance Paladin knight warforged for our party. He is a beast! Sir Doomed ...
Now we need to see that video for the Oath of Vengeance/Hexblade combo .... Plz oh plz make this video
OMG this is so perfect my first character is a Paladin and I’m leaning towards Oath of Vengeance. Liked before the video started 😊
Magic Initiate: Warlock for Hex. More damage! And Eldritch Blast for range attacks.
You have Hunter's mark. It's basically the same.
I'm currently playing a Dragonborn "Ancestral Guardian" Barbarian. My DM is "strongly urging" me to multiclass to a caster class of somekind. I was considering Paladin since I think the protective nature of "Ancestral Guardian" fits with my RP. I was originally thinking of going "Oath of Glory", but this video, and the way ya'll played your OoV Paladins, has described my character to a T. Thank you for the inspiration. I found your channel a few months ago during COVID (I live in GA and yes it still sucks) and I have loved every video.
Currently I’m playing a Dragonborn Vengeance Paladin. Loving it so far, working on lvl 10. Our dm gave us one free feat, so I took heavy armor master for the +1 strength and damage reduction. That has been huge. Next feat I took resilient constitution for more tankiness. Ring of spell storing is so good to store misty steps or cure wounds as a life saver so you can save more spell slots for smite. It’s a ton of fun to play. And I’m pretty sure I’ve healed more than our war cleric. Aura of vitality has been pretty helpful to keep people topped off or save a downed ally from a distance
My group decided to do a one shot when our normal session fell through because of adulting and I rolled up a protector aasimar at 17th level. Asked for a holy avenger as my only magic item and found out we were being sent to the Abyss . Had a blast sweeping through hoards of demons and at the end I soloed a balor, his death throws knocked me out but the party was able to save me. Loved that night.
You and I are on the same page Monty, currently playing an Oath of Vengeance-Hexblade multiclass, and I also took polearm master and sentinel. Its VERY POWERFUL.
I’m playing an Oath of Conquest Paladin as a pirate captain in a nautical campaign. He’s a bugbear named Grim Grin with that awesome 10ft reach. Over the course of the campaign he lost his Ice longsword in a deal with an angel for the life of one of his crew mates, and now he uses his unarmed strikes instead with the tavern brawler feat and grappler feat. He’s just a big beefy claw-smiting boy. Hoping to acquire a thematic 9-tail whip for him soon for that sweet 15ft smite range. The charisma has also gone a long way for RP, as it’s awesome to illicit fear in the crew’s enemies and play out the fantasy of being fearsome pirates. Paladins surprisingly make some of the beat pirates as well given their oaths, and having them be modified into their own pirate code for some juicy lawful evil fun.
New to DnD and about to start a campaign tomorrow night with a Half-Elf -OAV -Paladin so this was really v helpful, thanks so much
I'm using a different build for Oath of Vengeance, and it's also been very successful.
It's a Half-Elf with Elven Accuracy (I use a Sunblade, which is a finesse weapon), Mounted Combatant and Shield Master (we play with 1 extra Feat at Lv. 1).
Abilities were rolled: Str 14 / Dex 18 / Con 16 / Int 11 / Wis 14 / Cha 18. With Fighting Style (Defense), Half-Plate and a shield I have 20 AC (with no magic item bonus for AC yet).
I'm Lv. 10 now. At Lv. 13 I'll be able to cast Find Greater Steed to ride a Pegasus. I'm planning to take Defensive Duelist [Lv.12], Resilient (Con) [Lv.16] and Resilient (Dex) [Lv.19].
My plan is to be pretty solid on all defenses (Saving Throws and AC) and also hitting hard with Vow of Emmity + Elven Accuracy (for high Critical Hit chances) + Smite.
i am currently doing the decent into Avernus which i am going to be building a vengeance paladin so this video is very helpful i am only level two atm but i actually chose protection as my thing so that way i could better help my group by further disadvantaging the enemy
perfect timing with these videos right before BG3 drops. I know what class im playing!
playing one of these right now in a curse of strahd campaign. everything you say is spot on, you're just a devastor, i'm a level 6 OoV paladin and a 3rd lvl fighter. that action surge with the champion fighter subclass, with the improved criticals, so i'm doubling all my dice on 19's now as well. i laughed when kelly said his paladin hated demons because they kidnapped his family; my paladin serves yeenoghu, after having been driven insane by some rather unfortunate events in the campaign haha. been a great character. looking forward to the next episode of shadows!
I've DM'd 3x times. NEVER played as a PC, but I've just gotten a new playgroup and made an elf Oath of Vengeance paladin. I'm excited beyond belief! For my homeland!!!
You guys should do this same video for Redemption! It feels different to play compared to the other oaths I have played. I started as an Oath of Vengeance Paladin serving Ares in a COS campaign, with a switch to multiclassed Battlemaster/Oath of Devotion for Athena, and now Redemption instead of devotion. Loooong story behind all that, but our group has been playing for almost 3 years now. This is my first character, and I love it. Nothing better then doing over 200 damage to Shummrath in one round, smites for days🤪 Love your videos, keep up the great content :)
Great video! As a Vengeance Paladin player, I appreciate the tips to being more effective in combat (though my DM does not. ;) )
Superb video! I wholeheartedly agree; whenever the campaign I was playing in resumes I am actually playing 2 Oath of Vengeance Paladins at once one is a Totem Barb multiclass and the other a Hexblade multiclass. Needless to say the DM has to get creative to make encounters challenging.
Love the in-depth discussion on 1 subclass. Playing Oath of Conquest and I hear a lot of similarities about feats, bonus actions and ABI. I went hexblade so I could 'dump' STR.
Hunter's Mark is my favorite buffer in a big combat and has a good range. Cast this in first round when you see the enemy. Next round when close to the enemy, vow of emnity.
Meh, Hunters mark is pretty weak compared to divine smite. Id rather use 2(d8) than an extra d6 of damage. Plus hunters mark uses concentration so if you lose that concentration you've just wasted a spell slot!
Thanks for the 411 guys! I started playing my Vengeance Paly yesterday! And I'm liking him. My Paladin is a Dragonborn named Shammash the Sinister!
I just started a Vengeance Paladin! This video was awesome!
Fun and informative to follow your review with the character builds and your experiences - - - - - and ouch, teasing us with the Madness Domain Cleric !
I am playing a paladin and I have a team consisting of an echo knight fighter, a shepherd Druid, an enchantment wizard, and an evocation wizard.
Both wizards love the animate objects spell allowing them to summon animate 10 silver coins each and let me tell you, using crusader’s mantel to add a d4 to all 20 coins is just absolutely great.
Shadow Mark Elf
5th+ Vengeance Paladin
3rd+ Shadow Sorcerer
(+5 Hexblade Tomelock)
Double-Bladed Scimitar
Elven Accuracy
You become a windmill of light and shadow, cutting down foes left and right. You spend through Spell Slots like candy, and using your Sorlock abilities to generate a near unlimited amount of Spell Slots for smiting.
Uses Darkness, Invisibility, and the Vow to consistently gain 3d20 per attack.
I'm playing an OoV Paladin in a group right now! I actually went DEX heavy, used a rapier and wore light armor, and took 4 levels in Rogue (Assassin sub type). Since my Oath gives me constant advantage, I can always sneak attack, and land devastating crits by dropping in smites. Cunning action makes me slippery and versatile, and I took Sentinel and Defensive Duelist. My race is a Dragonborn (which my group has houseruled to be a tad better).
Only thought when I saw was Swashbuckler so you can be Inigo Montoya, but I do definitely see the whole idea of auto crit smite sneak attacks. Seems like a cool build.
By far my favorite class/subclass. Love Oath of Vengeance from the 9th Lair and back.
It says something that we’ve got two experienced players in the video talking about how much fun Vengeance paladins are to play, AND a bunch of people in the comments saying they’re loving playing one in their first campaign. That’s a winner!
I’m playing a 6th level VoO right now-my second character ever-and I agree. It’s a blast to play this blustering, grizzled veteran who can flirt with a barmaid and then unleash fury on the unjust. With Hold Person and Misty Step on top of Thunderous Smite, Sentinel, and dwarven plate-and Haste coming-he’s amazing at getting where he wants to be, putting enemies where he wants them, and not letting enemies move him or past him.
I started playing the Half Orc Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance. He's really awesome! I even got a brand new model to paint him in the theme of the Oath of Vengeance. I also painted his sword blade black to replicate Gurthang, the Iron of Death from the Children of Hurin book. I can't wait to play with this mini.😆
You finally brought up the one issue of paladins in general
How MAD they are
Like out of all the classes they are the most MAD
And indeed it helps what to allocate
Is the player has to think what they want out of their character
If they are more combat oriented yes just focus on str and con and pick spells that dont need to force enemies for saving throws too much
Such as some buff spells and target themselves
Maybe pack in aura of vitality if needed
For more support oriented paladins, like the oath of crown
Defo focus on cha instead
Never neglect con too much as they are frontline classes
This video was very useful, thanks!
I am going to play undead oath of vengeance palladin for a friend's campaign.
Was very keen to hear your input as I'm playing one now and having less fun then I thought I would. Only level 4 but we keep getting thrown only groups of low hp mobs and so never get to unleash the beast. I find that the bard and sorcerer wipe the table where I get 1 or 2 hits in and meanwhile am flanked by 4 enemies and fighting for my life.
I've had 2 or 3 times when I was able to unleash and it was cool, but those are rare. Am thinking of changing to an echo knight for the cool battlefield movement and skills, plus them fighter ASI/feats
I found your guide quite cool and I love to have the chance to see your characters! I wonder if someday we'll see an Oath of Conquest guide, that would be great!
This is an awesome video i’ve recently started playing and have been struggling to know how i want to play my half-orc oath of vengeance paladin. I am now thinking of multiclassing with shadow sorcerer and this video helped a lot!
Great video as always. I’m going to play a paladin in our next campaign and after seeing this, it’s going to be a vengeance one. In our last campaign, I’ve played a bard and decided to play something completely different now. After some reading and your videos I decided for a paladin. Never played one before and neither has anyone else in our group, so this is exciting!
This in depth review is great and I'd love to see more of these
I am currently playing a Vengeance Paladin and I actually built him as a dex two-weapon fighter funnily enough. Hunter's Mark puts in double the work when you are hitting twice a turn before level 5 and at level 5 you are still getting more mileage than a two-hander would. What makes this more than just a ranger with extra steps is that with more attacks and 3 levels into champion fighter it becomes an effective crit fishing build to dump powerful smites into. Additionally, fighter gives two weapon fighting as a fighting style to shore up that weakness. Taking defense on the paladin combined with dual wielder feat makes his AC rival a full-plate paladin.
Oh, and also take the Warcaster feat with it. You'll get advantage on concentration saves when you take damage. Wouldn't want that Haste ending too soon because of a lucky crit hitting you.
I took resilient constitution for my eighth level feat instead, simultaneously obtaining a con mod of +4 and a concentration save bonus of +11 total, with the proficiency and aura of protection
I’m about to play one and I wanted to know more about it… good to see I made the right choice 😊
my first ever d&d character was an oath of vengeance paladin. our dm made us start from level like 13 so i put in her backstory that she had wanted to be oath of devotion but swore vengeanche in a fit of rage and bloodlust so playing her was incredibly fun. She wanted DESPERATELY to be good, to be liked, but when it came down to it she could be straight up cruel because thats what it took to do the right thing. the experience was especially fun because our partys warlock *was* just genuinely *good* and it was just this constant feeling of like. you could and should be more like that, but also the job needs to be done. like the guys covered really well how SATISFYING it is to fight as a vengeance pally, but the roleplay and character dynamics it offers are almost as fun if not more
Wow this is funny timing since I started Curse of Strahd playing a half-elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin... Now playing the same character, but because of story and character development and discussions with my DM, she is now Oath of the Ancients :D Absolutely love this class and subclass, and I miss Vow of Emnity, but I do love my character now more thanks to her story.
I am really enjoying my Oath of Vengeance Paladin build and I am really happy this video came out because I'm really considering going into some classes in Hexblade Warlock but the Roleplay and backstory for this character is super fun. I built an Aasmir (born human due to a tie in with the existing campaign) and I really enjoyed building and playing this character. My backstory for the character was a son of a noble house (to fit the soldier background and martial weapons)who in his service had witnessed a slave colony/camp be wiped out. This experience cause the Aasmir spark to ignite and my soldier to swear their oath vowing to stop this wherever possible. My paladin swore his oath to Kelemvor, God of the dead. Since the literature for Kelemvor said he focused on the balance of life and death and more about death being a gift (the release from the pains of life) I tweaked it slightly with my DM's permission to have my paladin swear an oath of vengeance again anyone who would pervert or break that balance. So the obvious, undead and necromancers who defile the gift of death and slavers who defile the gift of life (by taking it and making life something miserable). It's been really fun since running into slavers can cause a ruckus for the party but it is really fun to Roleplay.
One thing that you guys didn't touch on: Vengeance Paladins are perfect for a Dexadin. Leather armor and a high Dex give you respectable AC without the stealth penalty, you can dual-wield something like a rapier with a whip to give you two zones of threat control, and it's perfect to take a dip or two of Rogue to get some nice sneak attack damage that your extra crits (thanks to Vow of Enmity) will love.
I played a Belmont-style whip-wielding Vengeance Dexadin in a Tales from the Yawning Portal group and absolutely loved it.
currently playing a dragonborn oath of vengency paladin (deity lendys) has been alot of fun so far
Fun!
Nice to see you guys in the same place again.
Getting ready to play one in a new campaign! Your videos are insightful.
I had a vengeance paladin named Aston who had a serious problem with elves and drow in particular to a point in which my oath was specifically an oath to exterminate the drow.
The rest of the party just so happened to be a Wood-Elf rouge, a Half-Elf wizard, and a Drow cleric. This wasn’t even planned, it just happened. Needless to say, Aston was not happy.
Looking for recommendations:
I'm wanting to make a Fallen Aasimar Oath of Vengeance Paladin
+2 CHA
+1 STR
First question
Where would you put your standard array ability scores?
I was thinking:
STR 13 +1 = 14
DEX 14
CON 15
INT 8
WIS 10
CHA 12 +2 = 14
Second question
Where would you put your ability score improvements at level 4?
Third question
With Tasha's allowing us to move around the ability score perks, would you move the +2 CHA and/or the +1 STR to something else?
Thank you!
I am currently one year into playing as a wood elf oath of vengeance paladin. it’s all I could’ve wished for!!
Finished an Oath of Ven pally for a Curse of Strahd campaign over quarantine. Picked him back up for (Shimmer??? not sure what its called) but loving it again. It feels so friggen powerful
I’m my party, I was a half orc paladin, and the religious aspect was all due to a war between humans/elves and orcs that was overshadowed by a war between an empire and a colt, and it turns out the empire was behind the war of the orcs, and cause my brother, mother and father to die, but rescuing my sister (a full orc) and using her to aid my party in huge damage, whist fighting with the colt against the empire, needless to say it was a bit of a holocaust situation and it was very enjoyable using the cleric and the Druid in my party to cast a lot of spells so I could deal serious damage and that made me the focal point of the whole story, just play a paladin and see how it goes, it’s not all goodie two shows and you can find yourself in a catch 22 situation like me if your dm is smart enough
I am 1 of 2 paladins in my campaign right now. My friend is vengeance and I am conquest. We can usually lock stuff down with fear and just mop up. Its a really fun combo
I’am just finishing up my out of vengeance paladin,.TWOG, he started out as a kobold with dex as his main attribute we saved a wizard that could True polymorph us as any race we wanted so I went with turtle
Am I the only one that imagines 90s Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Oath of Vengeance paladin?
Go older. Charles Bronson in Deathwish.
@@rossbundy7811 Nah, he'd be something like some fighter/rogue combo.
"CROM, I have never prayed to you before..."
I just played my first dnd game ever and my character is going to be an oath of vengeance Paladin and I’m so excited.
Would love to hear you guys talk about the Oath of Conquest Paladin! I’ve been playing one and man...man oh man, those fear-based class features when used in conjunction with certain spells/features can be POTENT. They even have something for fear-immune enemies. Definitely doesn’t have the damage potential of Vengeance or Oathbreaker, but when you get those abilities going, those enemies will be downright helpless against you, knees quaking and all. And to top it all off, the flavor with which the Conquest Paladin operates at is so *tasty* hahaha. It’s just sheer domination through paralyzing fear. Made the biggest, most powerful enemies fall to their knees and tremble. Couldn’t do anything for the rest of the encounter. Wouldn’t deign to approach me in fear while I just unleashed smite after smite from a distance with my glaive. It felt pretty cheesy tbh and I had to check a couple times if my combos were entirely legal. Of course, it didn’t take long for our DM to prepare hard counters to my abilities, but that made it all the more rewarding and fun when you actually lock someone down in fear. Perfect marriage of mechanics and flavor.
“You will fall behind me, or you will fall before me.”
I had a similar “abuse” of the conquest paladin and reach, with my most recent character. He was a bugbear pirate captain and he has the extra 5ft of reach from the race ability. It gets very good with the fear/movement impairing effects! The flavor and combat RP has been to die for though, so the DM has been very gracious.
@@Durtaz For my conquest pally, I multiclassed into hexblade, making the build a bit more SAD. Between my reach, hexblade's curse, full 7d6 smites, spiritual weapon attacks or spell smites for bonus action, and those now-infamous(within my party) combos like the prone trap/wrathful smite+aura of conquest, things started to get ridiculous real quick. Granted, it's a high-level campaign, so damage and spell save DCs are high haha. But yeah, encounters were trivialized on the first round more often than not, especially during the start of the campaign.
Played a Kalashtar Oath of Vengence Paladin and Totem of the Bear Barbarian. Resistance to all damage, dual wielding and divine smites was amazing.
In my current campaign, I started as a fighter until level 10. I decided to start taking paladin levels so we could RP taking the oath against the bad guys we had met so far in the story. It was so satisfying. Also take all that good OoV stuff and add more attacks and action surge, it’s crazy.
you're god damn right, this subclass is SO cool and i play 90% of my paladins as vengeance
Great stuff, thanks.
Can you make one about oath of the ancients?
And I would love to hear about suggestion to "go out from the box" as kelly said, regarding to all sorts of paladin oaths. I really like the mechanics of a paladin(actually not divine smite, but everything else), but the oath scares me and it feels like a weight.
Anyway, great video
Im playing one right now, its pretty fun so far. I also love the oath of ancients paladin, that magic resistence is amazing