This is my first attempt at writing a guide, so comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Colour guide:
Red options are either strictly outclassed by something else, or just plain bad.
Purple options are subpar.
Black options are average.
Blue options are good.
Skyblue options are great.
Gold options are so good that you must take them.
What is a Paladin, conceptually? A paladin is a holy warrior, bound by an oath to serve their god and drawing strength from the conviction with which they speak. They have divine magic like clerics, but prefer to take a more direct role in carrying out their deity's will than some of them. To this end, they're capable martial combatants, able to protect the weak and to slay the wicked.
What is a Paladin in terms of gameplay?
At its core, the paladin is a frontline melee warrior. d10 hit dice, heavy armor and shields, as well as strong defensive features (particularly regarding saving throws) help keep a paladin alive and healthy. Offensively, the Paladin is all about burst damage. At the cost of consuming limited spell slots, Divine Smite offers some of the highest damage in the game. A Paladin gets extra attack and some features that help it to deal consistent damage, but the biggest strength of the Paladin's offense is their ability to deal significant damage when necessary. Paladins also gain access to spellcasting very early on, and while their spell slots progress at half the speed of a cleric, their spells can be very effective and improve their versatility. The biggest downside of a Paladin compared to a more traditional martial class is the requirement of a second attribute. A Fighter can get by only maximizing their strength, whereas a Paladin really wants both Strength or Dexterity and Charisma to be as high as possible. Since a Paladin also doesn't get as many ASIs as a Fighter, you'll need to choose carefully whether you want to prioritize your martial or magical abilities.
How do Paladins fare as compared to other melee weapon classes?
Nova Damage Defined at the amount of damage you can do to one target in one turn, with no constraints on resources. Thanks to Divine Smite, Paladins are probably the single best class in the game for this.
Per-round Damage Defined as the amount of damage you can do using only abilities which you have unlimited uses of. Paladins fall below average compared to other Extra Attack classes, especially at higher levels, but their access to long-lasting Combat buffs helps to alleviate this.
Ranged Damage The amount of damage the class can do if there are no enemies in melee range. This is one area where Paladins fall short, since their primary damage feature, Divine Smite, only works in Melee. It's worth noting that dipping 2 levels in Hexblade for Eldritch Blast+Agonizing Blast improves this rating from mediocre to great.
AOE damage The amount of damage that the class can do to a horde of weak enemies. Like most melee weapon classes, you suffer on this metric. Some oaths, like Ancients and Conquest, are better at this, and all Paladins get access to one good AOE spell in Destructive Wave, but that doesn't come until level 17.
Defense How well can the class take hits? You get d10 hit dice, Heavy Armor and Shields, but since you have 2 primary stats you won't be able to invest heavily into Consitution the way a fighter could. On the other hand, you have great defense against enemy spellcasters, due to your high saving throws. The Oath of the Ancients is best at this, but no Oath is weak at it.
Utility What can the class bring outside of combat? For Paladins, that would be healing, disease and poison removal, curse removal, and proficiency in the Charisma-based social skills. You're above average in this regard, and much better at it than Fighters and Barbarians
Foundations of the faithful: Ability Scores
Strength
If you’re a Strength-based Paladin, this is your primary stat, and you should aim for a 16 at level one and bring it to 20 ASAP. If you’re not a Strength-based Paladin, you need 13 strength to qualify for multiclassing (even if you start as a Paladin), but no higher than that. However, if you plan to attack with Dex and don’t plan to multiclass, you can easily dump this to an 8.
Dexterity
If you don’t plan on using this stat to attack, you’d still ideally want some dexterity as it governs your initiative and an important saving throw. If you do plan on attacking with Dex, you want to start it high and boost to 20 ASAP.
Constitution
As a paladin, you’re probably a frontline character, which means you need to be able to take hits. If you plan to concentrate on spells, this is even more important. However, you are extremely ASI/Feat starved, with two primary stats and multiple excellent feats, so you probably won’t find room to boost this much.
Intelligence
Outside of very specialized builds, you simply have too many other important stats to justify not dumping this.
Wisdom
Governs an important save and the most important skill (perception). I wouldn’t dump this, but you really don’t have room to raise it higher than a 12.
Charisma
Governs your spell save DC and your to-hit with spells, as well as many features. It’s possible to play a Paladin who takes no spells that require a roll and doesn’t use those features, but generally you’ll want high Cha, if for no other reason that you’ll eventually be able to add your Cha to all your saving throws. On the other hand, if you plan to multiclass warlock (hexblade), then you can use Cha for both attacking and spellcasting, which makes it by far your most important stat.
Talents of the holy warrior: Skills
Athletics great for Strength builds, bad for Dex builds.
Insight solid for everyone.
Intimidation A solid skill you'll likely be good at.
Medicine Flavorful, but weak. Use a Healer's kit instead.
Persuasion Another solid skill you'll be good at.
Religion A knowledge skill based on your dump stat.
Recommended non-class skills:
Acrobatics/Stealth/Sleight of Hand For the Dex-based Paladins
Perception Is great for everyone
Deception is another charisma skill you'll be good at.
Colour guide:
Red options are either strictly outclassed by something else, or just plain bad.
Purple options are subpar.
Black options are average.
Blue options are good.
Skyblue options are great.
Gold options are so good that you must take them.
What is a Paladin, conceptually? A paladin is a holy warrior, bound by an oath to serve their god and drawing strength from the conviction with which they speak. They have divine magic like clerics, but prefer to take a more direct role in carrying out their deity's will than some of them. To this end, they're capable martial combatants, able to protect the weak and to slay the wicked.
What is a Paladin in terms of gameplay?
At its core, the paladin is a frontline melee warrior. d10 hit dice, heavy armor and shields, as well as strong defensive features (particularly regarding saving throws) help keep a paladin alive and healthy. Offensively, the Paladin is all about burst damage. At the cost of consuming limited spell slots, Divine Smite offers some of the highest damage in the game. A Paladin gets extra attack and some features that help it to deal consistent damage, but the biggest strength of the Paladin's offense is their ability to deal significant damage when necessary. Paladins also gain access to spellcasting very early on, and while their spell slots progress at half the speed of a cleric, their spells can be very effective and improve their versatility. The biggest downside of a Paladin compared to a more traditional martial class is the requirement of a second attribute. A Fighter can get by only maximizing their strength, whereas a Paladin really wants both Strength or Dexterity and Charisma to be as high as possible. Since a Paladin also doesn't get as many ASIs as a Fighter, you'll need to choose carefully whether you want to prioritize your martial or magical abilities.
How do Paladins fare as compared to other melee weapon classes?
Nova Damage Defined at the amount of damage you can do to one target in one turn, with no constraints on resources. Thanks to Divine Smite, Paladins are probably the single best class in the game for this.
Per-round Damage Defined as the amount of damage you can do using only abilities which you have unlimited uses of. Paladins fall below average compared to other Extra Attack classes, especially at higher levels, but their access to long-lasting Combat buffs helps to alleviate this.
Ranged Damage The amount of damage the class can do if there are no enemies in melee range. This is one area where Paladins fall short, since their primary damage feature, Divine Smite, only works in Melee. It's worth noting that dipping 2 levels in Hexblade for Eldritch Blast+Agonizing Blast improves this rating from mediocre to great.
AOE damage The amount of damage that the class can do to a horde of weak enemies. Like most melee weapon classes, you suffer on this metric. Some oaths, like Ancients and Conquest, are better at this, and all Paladins get access to one good AOE spell in Destructive Wave, but that doesn't come until level 17.
Defense How well can the class take hits? You get d10 hit dice, Heavy Armor and Shields, but since you have 2 primary stats you won't be able to invest heavily into Consitution the way a fighter could. On the other hand, you have great defense against enemy spellcasters, due to your high saving throws. The Oath of the Ancients is best at this, but no Oath is weak at it.
Utility What can the class bring outside of combat? For Paladins, that would be healing, disease and poison removal, curse removal, and proficiency in the Charisma-based social skills. You're above average in this regard, and much better at it than Fighters and Barbarians
Foundations of the faithful: Ability Scores
Strength
If you’re a Strength-based Paladin, this is your primary stat, and you should aim for a 16 at level one and bring it to 20 ASAP. If you’re not a Strength-based Paladin, you need 13 strength to qualify for multiclassing (even if you start as a Paladin), but no higher than that. However, if you plan to attack with Dex and don’t plan to multiclass, you can easily dump this to an 8.
Dexterity
If you don’t plan on using this stat to attack, you’d still ideally want some dexterity as it governs your initiative and an important saving throw. If you do plan on attacking with Dex, you want to start it high and boost to 20 ASAP.
Constitution
As a paladin, you’re probably a frontline character, which means you need to be able to take hits. If you plan to concentrate on spells, this is even more important. However, you are extremely ASI/Feat starved, with two primary stats and multiple excellent feats, so you probably won’t find room to boost this much.
Intelligence
Outside of very specialized builds, you simply have too many other important stats to justify not dumping this.
Wisdom
Governs an important save and the most important skill (perception). I wouldn’t dump this, but you really don’t have room to raise it higher than a 12.
Charisma
Governs your spell save DC and your to-hit with spells, as well as many features. It’s possible to play a Paladin who takes no spells that require a roll and doesn’t use those features, but generally you’ll want high Cha, if for no other reason that you’ll eventually be able to add your Cha to all your saving throws. On the other hand, if you plan to multiclass warlock (hexblade), then you can use Cha for both attacking and spellcasting, which makes it by far your most important stat.
Talents of the holy warrior: Skills
Athletics great for Strength builds, bad for Dex builds.
Insight solid for everyone.
Intimidation A solid skill you'll likely be good at.
Medicine Flavorful, but weak. Use a Healer's kit instead.
Persuasion Another solid skill you'll be good at.
Religion A knowledge skill based on your dump stat.
Recommended non-class skills:
Acrobatics/Stealth/Sleight of Hand For the Dex-based Paladins
Perception Is great for everyone
Deception is another charisma skill you'll be good at.
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