D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #3: "New Paladin"

"the paladin who, if they were in a movie, would ... have impossibly white teeth".


New Paladin preview: here are some notes, focusing on what's new and changes from the playtest materials. Last time we saw the Paladin was in Playtest 6 [=PT6 below].
See also this comparison at D&D Beyond (by someone who saw the video before it was streamed!)

OVERVIEW

• spellcasting starts at level 1, specifically called out as an advantage for multiclassing. (Same for Rangers).
• Lay on Hands and Weapon mastery at 1
• Paladin's smite at 2, along with fighting style.
• NEW: Paladin fighting style restriction is removed (all are available). You may forego fighting style to learn cantrips. [The option to get cantrips was given in Tasha's. They're letting us have it, but it's not called a "fighting style". I suspect this ties to the decision that fighting styles are feats now, and this would be weaker than magic initiate (which also gives a level 1 spell).]
• Paladin's smite gives you the spell Divine smite, with one free casting.
• channel divinity [CD]: uses increase: start with 2, plus 1 on a short rest.
• divine sense in CD option (as in PT6). duration lasts 10 minutes.
• Find steed spell at level 5, cast 1/day with no slot. Redesigned so that spell can be upcast, with a unique steed statblock. [This strongly implies that it's a class-specific spell, not on others' lists. Awesome. (Will a Lore Bard be able to select it? I hope so, and the discussion of spell lists (see below) makes me think they might, since identifying class-specific spells is harder.)]
• Abjure Foes a CD option (given at 9 in PT6)
• Auras are single things, with a single radius, that gain abilities/functionality (not separate auras as in 2014).

SUBCLASSES

Oath of Devotion.

• NEW: Sacred Weapon is part of the attack action. (PT required a Bonus action).
• Smite of Protection (level 15 in PT6)
• Holy Nimbus (level 20) is a bonus action (as in PT6).

Oath of Glory ("...this for me is the paladin who, if they were in a movie, would look at the camera, have impossibly white teeth, with a little sparkle on them as they smile")

• Peerless athlete lasts an hour (as in PT6)
• NEW: Aura of Alacrity affects allies if they enter your aura on their turn (they no longer need to start there)
• Oath of Glory has a new spell at level 17: Yolan's Regal Presence. Created by the Queen of the Elves, and makes others kneel before you and take psychic damage. [It's said that others can cast this spell too -- if right, then it's a 5th level spell and Clerics (likely) will be getting this at level 9. Perhaps he misspoke, and it's a class-specific spell.]

Oath of the Ancients

• Nature's wrath range "has been extended"
• Aura of Warding as in PT6 (resistance to Necrotic, Psychic, and Radiant)
• Undying Sentinel at 15 as in PT6 (you don't return with 1hp, but [?] 3x class level.

Oath of Vengeance

• NEW: Vow of Enmity part of attack action (not Bonus action); can transfer (as in PT6)
• NEW: Level 20 Avenging Angel activated as a Bonus Action, and lasts an hour (not 10 min as in PT6)

NEW RULES

• new area of effect: it's been there since 2014, but hasn't been named. It's for AOE that emanate from a character or monster -- the Emanation.
• new approach to spell lists. Spell list is part of the class description (as we saw with the Artificer). Entries give the school, whether it needs concentration, and required components. [I presume spell descriptions will still be at the back of the book: this is referring to the lists currently on PHB 207-11.]
• oath spell lists, patron spell lists, etc. have all been vetted and updated throughout.

 

[Leatherhead]

Do we know bonus action spells work the same clunky way? Given that 2024dnd was supposed to remove bits of clunk?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

My current paladin is mounted (with all that's related) whenever possible.

I don't disbelieve you but in my experience, as a DM and player, that probably means they're mounted in perhaps 10-15% of combats - because they generally can't be mounted in the following conditions:

1) In a city or town after initial arrival.

2) Inside any kind of structure and the vast, vast majority of dungeons.

3) Getting up from sleeping or many other "surprise" situations.

4) On any kind of seriously rough or vertical terrain (unless your mount flies - which admittedly does shake things up a bit).

In those 10-15% of encounters, the mount can be a big help for sure though, mostly because it has extra attacks and is an extra bag of HP to distract the enemy.

If you were playing a largely-flatlands wilderness campaign or something Pendragon-like I could see that easily going up to 50%+ of encounters at which point hell yeah to the mount.

Have you double checked what Crawford said about the results for UA playtest 6, which is where the Paladin Smite Spells were introduced...?

Not recently. What about them is significant? My vague recollection is that he elided the issue entirely and didn't engage with the Bonus Action issue at all, but maybe I've forgotten? I'm not going to watch a 1hr video or whatever to find out because I was born in the 20th century, not the 21st, and thus loathe videos with my entire soul unless they're showing how to do something (or similarly showing-not-telling), in which case I love them to an equal degree. This is why transcripts matter.

 

[Scribe]

The key issue here was that this specific nerf, was clearly the wrong nerf.

For example, they could and probably should have made the functionality similar to Sneak Attack - i.e. you can only use once per turn. That prevents any particularly wild novas, which were the only real balance problem, but it doesn't basically bar the Paladin from interacting with Bonus Action abilities and spells, whereas this does.

The other big problem here is that it makes turns for Paladins very sequential and thus causes analysis paralysis. Where other characters can often just go ahead and use their BA on whatever makes sense, the Paladin has to decide what they're doing, and then do it in the right order - which is any attacks have to come before the BA usage of that turn.

That's just straight-up bad design. You're slowing the game down, you're making a character class significantly more complex to play, and you're making players able to "GOTCHA!" themselves out of a Smite! It's really sad - with less technical players, DMs will basically have to intervene every time a Paladin player wants to use a BA ability to remind them that this will stop them Smiting that round.


Actually, there is, we've discussed this before - it's pretty reliable that anything popular here AND on the Reddit hits the 70% mark, and anything wildly divisive and heavily discussed on both doesn't - you could see that very easily with the Druid forms. Like I said, I simply would not believe that claim without the actual evidence, and if they do make that claim, I will trust the designers less. But AFAIK they haven't claimed 70% approval for any of these changes.

Also if people approved of something they didn't understand, rather than picking the "don't know" option, as you seem to be suggesting, that shows a big problem with the polling.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Do we know bonus action spells work the same clunky way? Given that 2024dnd was supposed to remove bits of clunk?

We don't.

We don't even know for sure that the Smite spell uses a Bonus Action, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut it looks so far like 90%+ of the changes from the "last" UAs we saw went in, and that would include Bonus Action Smite spells.

Also, if it's a Bonus Action it's a Bonus Action, whether it's a spell or not, it'll force you to be careful about your turn sequencing and prevent you interacting with Bonus Action abilities until your "smite window" is closed. It's going to make some really funny/sad stuff happen where your only hit or only crit on a turn is a Bonus Action or an Attack of Opportunity, and you just can't Smite with it.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes, I realize that. I was just curious to know if that change had been confirmed.

I am 100% certain that Lay on Hands is a Bonus Action now.

 

[Scribe]

It's going to make some really funny/sad stuff happen where your only hit or only crit on a turn is a Bonus Action or an Attack of Opportunity, and you just can't Smite with it.

Its just getting worse @Ruin Explorer you are killing me over here!

 

[Parmandur]

Not recently. What about them is significant? My vague recollection is that he elided the issue entirely and didn't engage with the Bonus Action issue at all, but maybe I've forgotten? I'm not going to watch a 1hr video or whatever to find out because I was born in the 20th century, not the 21st, and thus loathe videos with my entire soul unless they're showing how to do something (or similarly showing-not-telling), in which case I love them to an equal degree. This is why transcripts matter.

Whelp, I just did, since I listen to stuff while I work: specifically, in the afterword to the Basition UA video, he goes over the results for UA 6, and says specifically that every feature for the Rogue, Bard, and Paladin was in the 70th or 80th percentile (Rogue overall satisfaction at 89%, neither here nor there).

So, yes, the Divine Smite as Spell was somewhere north of 70%, possibly a fair bit. So this is a prime example of the overall survey results being cemetery orthogonal to the online chatter.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

If it is the same as the UA the smite work as "Bonus Action, which you take immediately after hitting a target with a melee weapon or an unarmed strike"...

 

[Nikosandros]

Don't recall how deeply Crawford covered Lay on Hands in the video, but going by the article they posted on Beyond, it looks like it's a bonus action now.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1749-2024-paladin-vs-2014-paladin-whats-new

That's pretty definitive. Thanks for posting it.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I am 100% certain that Lay on Hands is a Bonus Action now.

It is in the UA 6