D&D 5E [GUIDE] My Word Is My Sword: The Paladin Guide

[FrogReaver]

Clearly not the way you mean it.

This specific one is related to character building. Taking the feat that gives you magic initiate means you aren't taking some other feat. There are many better feats for a Paladin than magic initiate.

Look, a paladin isn't gonig to use Vicious Mockery when she can get in a full HtH attack complete with Smites, Feats, and whatnot. But guess what? She doesn't always have that opportunity. And that's where having something else to do - another attack mode - comes in.

There's 2 basic scenarios. You are facing a melee enemy. You are facing a ranged enemy.

Against the melee enemy.
If you are able to use vicious mockery that means the enemy is 60ft away. The things you can do. Throw darts, cast a buff spell, take the dodge action, ready an action to strike when it comes near you. But let's simply look at the dodge action. You take the dodge action. The enemy advances and possibly attacks you. You then start attacking it back. That's a better scenario than you could have achieved with vicious mockery.

Against the ranged enemy.
Same 60ft away scenario for vicious mockery. You can dash and/or use some spell to cover the gap. You also can throw darts. If the enemy is going to stand it's ground you would be able to dash this turn and attack it next. If it kites backwards you will be locked into a vicious mockery vs whatever ranged attack it has. Any enemy with a decent ranged attack/attacks comes out ahead in that battle. If you rush it while it kites and shoots at you it will take you till your 2nd turn to catch it - but you won't be able to attack it that turn. At that point though it can't easily kite you anymore and you can pummel it with your strong melee attacks. I'd say catching such a ranged enemy is going to yield better results.

There's definitely some much less common scenarios where a slightly better ranged attack would be better but they are highly situational.

 

[Quartz]

This specific one is related to character building.

I'm sorry, but we're talking about the options within the MI feat and that taking MI: Bard was not covered, not whether or not it's a good idea to take the feat. That latter is covered here.

There's 2 basic scenarios. You are facing a melee enemy. You are facing a ranged enemy.

You forgot the third: you are not able to physically attack the enemy

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm sorry, but we're talking about the options within the MI feat and that taking MI: Bard was not covered, not whether or not it's a good idea to take the feat. That latter is covered here.

Well I wasn't and the post of yours that I've been replying to didn't clearly indicate otherwise either

You forgot the third: you are not able to physically attack the enemy

Pretty sure that was covered in the 3rd comment about extremely situational ones I mentioned...

 

[shadowoflameth]

The Sage Advise column on p10 of the v1.14 PDF says Improved Divine Smite still only works with a melee attack.

 

[nexalis]

Combined with the Polearm Master feat and the Sentinel feat, the Relentless Avenger class feature can potentially be used to keep oneself forever out of reach of a single melee opponent:

When your opponent enters your reach, they provoke an Opportunity Attack which, if it hits, reduces your opponent's speed to zero. Also if the Opportunity Attack hits, you can now move back out of your opponent's reach thanks to Relentless Avenger, forcing them to resort to a ranged attack if they are capable of making one since they cannot continue to move. You can rinse and repeat this process every round until the duel is over.

I point this edge case out merely to demonstrate that Relentless Avenger can be quite useful with the right build.

 

[BacchusNL]

You forgot the third: you are not able to physically attack the enemy

Isn't this whole ranged/ physical discussion settled the second Tasha's comes out with the Holy Warrior fighting style? Guidance and Toll the Dead for all.

 

[ppaladin123]

Well, paladins didn't end up with Spirit Guardians but Tasha's was pretty good for the class overall with some nice items, the Holy Warrior fighting style and even some half-feats worth taking. Who doesn't want misty step and hideous laughter added to their spell list?

 

[BacchusNL]

Well, paladins didn't end up with Spirit Guardians but Tasha's was pretty good for the class overall with some nice items, the Holy Warrior fighting style and even some half-feats worth taking. Who doesn't want misty step and hideous laughter added to their spell list?

Oath of Vengeance Paladins

Loosing Spirit Guardians was a big F though. I'm really not a fan of this "melee can't have AoE"-rule they keep going for.