It doesn't seem like it at first glance, but Lay on Hands can be pretty useful in social situation, since you can use it to cure a disease or neutralize a poison. Curing someone of a disease is a good way to get favors you know. Divine Sense is also useful in some niche situations...
This is kinda why I feel the notion of Exploration vs Combat vs Social to be such a weird line in the sand that the community gives. All of them crossover to one-another in ways that can be useful.
Lay on hands would be strictly seen as a combat skill because owing favors isn't in the feature's language, but you're absolutely correct. I'd imagine a king that got poisoned can give quite some boons. However, such a situation isn't quite as common as lay on hand's main ability, to heal.
It's much like how cure wounds is a combat spell despite being able to be used to owe favors.
The Oath of the Ancient Paladin gets Speak with Animals, which opens up all sorts of source of information.
That would fall closer to the exploration category. You open up more opportunities to socialize, but you don't get any direct edge with socialization.
And they got motivation to get good CHA. Also they generally good STR, which is a positive because, supposedly, good Athletics checks count as 'being good at exploration'? It's been mentionned in this thread in regard to fighter, even though I've never encountered a STR check that was ever critical to a challenge...or one that could only be accomplished by a single individual... but I guess that's an issue for another day.
Correct again, they are more motivated to have high Charisma and therefore higher ability to succeed in Charisma checks. However, that doesn't mean a fighter can't be more or equally persuasive as a Paladin. If a paladin decides to use their 4 skill slots for anything but persuasion, which is possible since I can imagine they'd be interested in Insight, Perception, Medicine, and Religion; then a fighter can grab persuasion. Even with a +1, the fighter will be near equals in persuasion checks for a while, it goes to the paladin for a bit before going back to the fighter once again.
Here's the kicker, though. As a player,
you're the master of your character. Not only do you know what he's good at, you can make them
do what they're good at instead of being limited. A paladin may try to convince someone using persuasive words, which would definitely be persuasion.
A fighter may try to challenge the person to a contest of strength, dexterity, or constitution. A wizard could use their intelligence to form a logical conversation with a fellow intellect or communicate nonverbally. A cleric could use their awareness to understand what someone wants and to hit their conversational pressure points to relax or aggravate them naturally.
All ability scores can be useful for social (and exploration). It's not on the DM or the designers to force a player to use a specific ability, the player has to hunt for opportunities to have their abilities shine. It's part of having the freedom to do anything, you can engage a situation however you like.
And speaking of other non-combat uses, their Detect spells and Purify Food and Drink are also useful out of combat.
Agreed. Though, I could argue a fighter's features can be useful out of combat as well.
Indomitable is great when talking to a sly spellcaster that tried to charm you as you speak. It's also very helpful avoiding traps since you're likely to be the front rank in a dungeon crawl. Remarkable athlete really helps with those aforementioned contests. Know your enemy is huge. It can tell you what spells a spellcaster would be able to cast just by speaking with or observing them. It also gives you an idea just how much you can be certain you'll win a fight if you pick on the enemy.