Houserule: A change to the Paladin's Aura

I've always known the paladin's aura was strong, but it was really telling recently in my games. For the last two campaigns, my group has always had a paladin with the aura of protection, so that save bonus has been a common theme in the game.

The paladin player decided to swap out, and its been incredible on the DM side watching the party with this change. Spellcasters use to be a joke, I would often watch players roll for near autosuccesses against certain spells. Now they bite their nails when a spell is cast.

I am starting to come to the conclusion that in a bounded accuracy game, a +4-5 to all saves is simply too strong.


So I want to weaken the paladin's blunt bonus against saves, but maintain its defender motive and give it some compensation. So here is the change.

Aura of Protection: Everyone within 10 feet of the paladin (including the paladin) gains +1 AC. In addition, they gain a bonus to saving throws equal to 1/2 the Paladin's Charisma modifier (minimum 1).



So in summary, its half the bonus to save...but they get some physical protection on top. What are your thoughts, is it too much of a nerf, is it actually even stronger now because of the AC, just right?

In my opinion, it's verging on too complicated to bother tracking. It's annoying enough to micro-manage positioning such that you're within 10 feet of the paladin, but for a +4 bonus to all saves, it feels worthwhile. If you drop that down to a +2 bonus, then it's harder to see that as justifying the effort.

Honestly, a +1 bonus to AC with a +2 bonus to saves when standing within 10' of the paladin is starting to sound a lot like a Pathfinder ability. In 5E, you're supposed to go big or go home. Either make the bonus worthwhile, or don't bother tracking it.

Yea, I agree with [MENTION=6775031]Saelorn[/MENTION]. (That was weird to say. ) The paladin aura is great, but a +3-4 bonus makes it just worthwhile to accept the tradeoffs of having to stay within 10' of the paladin. Even a +5 is very far from an automatic save, and the best way to save against an area effect is not to be in the target area, which clustering around the paladin tends to inhibit.

I also rarely see paladins raising Charisma past an initial 16, since they still need to have a good melee attack stat. So I don't see many paladins giving a +4-5 bonus.