I usually play a dex based half-elf Oath of the Ancients paladin
Me too - but I'm trying to be a Warlord replacement. Inspiring Word feat, rapier, longbow, whip, party buff spells, at L11 and moving through
Tiamat, all the auras grant me - and anybody brave enough to stand next to me - Resist(Almost Everything The DM Can Throw At Me).
I used the whip in my first fight (Murder at Balder's Gate) when I stood in as second for a duel, and gave a snotty aristocrat teen half my age a Whipping, and made him tell me Who's His Daddy (instead of saying "Uncle").
Do I take care of my charges? You bet - I jumped into 30 feet of water wearing Plate Metal Armor (and a long rope) to save our hallucinating rogue from drowning. I got myself curbstomped into the pavement so our Wizard and Ranger could run away from a Troll and a pack of hounds (but they caught the Ranger alas). And I almost got myself killed again - twice in 24 hours - trying (but failing) to save our Cleric from Sgt. Othelstan.
For REAL AL adventures, I have a wood elf Monk2/Rogue1
- He is the Designated Scout. Expertise (Stealth and Perception). I got to borrow a
Cloak of Elvenkind for one adventure and was almost invisible !
- I was the only character who could chase a Giant Frog through a marsh (it was trying to eat our party's Drow while Dashing away)
- I've been able to use Thieves' Cant to deliver a secret message in the middle of a crowd - to the embarrassment of a would-be stickyfingers PC.
- Due to Cartographers' Tools and the Outlander background feature, I come away from any adventure where I didn't get anything else of note with a
Map of Where I've Been Lately. That ought to be good for some cash eventually.
- Despite having CHR 8, I was able to persuade a female wood elf into letting me examine her heritage longbow. I remarked that one rarely sees another of our kind out in the world these days.