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.

 

[Dire Bare]

Sure, but where? Give it its own page? At any rate, I'm sure that was considered. We'll never know quite why they chose to go the way they did, but in a lot of ways, one way is just as good/bad as the other, for things that are largely organizational. I don't agree with all their choices (as I said, I'd make EB a Warlock Feature, if it were me, as well as Smites as a Paladin Feature) but to me, I can never get more upset about that sort of thing beyond "not what I would have done", shrug.

To truly know the power of fandom, you must embrace the dark side of fandom. You must learn to hate that which wasn't designed for your tastes. You must loudly proclaim your hate in our gathering spaces. You must insist on taking small things out of context and ignoring what game designers and game companies actually tell you. THEY PROMISED. You must diminish the efforts of game designers and you must resort to personal attacks on designers and even other fans who DARE to not really have a problem with changes you HATE. You must convince yourself that your hate is shared by all and isn't just a small but vocal part of the fandom community.

Embrace hatred and feel the power of the dark side of D&D fandom!!!

More seriously . . . there isn't a lot of hate for the paladin changes or other D&D changes in the 2024 rules. If there were, these features wouldn't have made it out of the playtest. There are just some folks who like to complain loudly who give the impression that everybody hates the changes. Most of us are with you . . . like them or not, it's all okay.

 

[Charlaquin]

It isnt difficult, but it’s a feelsbad. Its clunky. It’s not elegantly designed, and it’s a clear downgrade from a decade old design.
Combined with a bunch of other things at this point. Its just not great.

I mean, I guess? I don’t know, as someone who loves playing rogues, this just seems completely expected to me. As a rogue, you always want to save your bonus action until after you attack, because if you miss your first attack you want that bonus action for a second chance at a sneak attack with your off-hand weapon. If you hit with your first attack, then you can consider other options for that bonus action, like disengaging or such-like. Sometimes, you’d have a situation where using your bonus action before your attack would bring enough value that you’d consider giving up the option of making a second attack if you missed, but it was always a calculated risk. Far from bad game design, that’s just ordinary tactical decision-making. Have Paladin players just been so spoiled with how divine smite works that the idea of having to make tactical decisions about how to use their action economy seems like a terrible loss to them?

 

[Kurotowa]

You know, I've never been a G Gundam guy, but now that martial arts paladin is properly on the table...

Future Warforged Paladin: "This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!"

It's a tempting idea. And Oath of Glory was just made for a hot blooded shonen hero. It just bothers me that there's no Mastery trait for Unarmed Strike.

Monk doesn't care because Monk doesn't get Mastery traits, and has its Martial Arts features to fill a similar role. But a Paladin or Fighter using the Unarmed Fighting style is going to feel the lack of a Mastery trait, compared to using a weapon.

Guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope the full book has something to cover that. A weapon table for Unarmed Strike that includes a Mastery trait, or an upgrade to the Unarmed Fighting style feat supplies a pseudo-Mastery effect.

 

[Charlaquin]

It's not the same because it hinges on an unknown. You don't know the roll you're going to get later in the turn. You don't have all the information you would need, unlike choosing between two different bonus actions NOW.

And a rogue player doesn’t know if they’re going to miss with their first attack and need two weapon fighting for a second chance at sneak attack, or if they’ll hit and that bonus action attack will only add a negligible amount to their damage that turn. It’s generally better to delay making decisions about how to use your limited resources for as long as possible. That’s just basic tactical gameplay mechanics.

 

[Argyle King]

there are always exceptions.....sure.

Apparently, I'm also an exception.

Increased mobility and an intelligent summonable ally are force multipliers in an armed conflict.
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Re: Smites as spells

I can understand the mentality behind why it is being done, but add me to the list of people who dislike it. I don't want a paladin who is more like every other caster.

Additionally, it means that one of my character ideas (barbarian/paladin) no longer works.

Maybe I'll feel differently about it when I see how it works in actual play.

 

[Weiley31]

Well, one can always swap out the 2024 Divine Smite with the Tales of The Valiant version, which is basically once per turn 2014 style smiting.

 

[Charlaquin]

I can understand the mentality behind why it is being done, but add me to the list of people who dislike it. I don't want a paladin who is more like every other caster.

As a particularly vocal advocate of non-spellcasting rangers, I can absolutely empathize with this. But, like… Divine Smite already cost a spell slot, and all the other Smites were already spells. This barely registers as a change to me. Maybe a non-spell version of Smite would be a good thing, but I don’t think the 5e Paladin ever really had a non-spell Smite, except in a very technical sense.

 

[DEFCON 1]

D&D rules are clunky. They have always been clunky. Anyone who cares about streamlined rules that take 0 seconds to process stopped playing D&D decades ago. And thus with every rule in D&D that gets streamlined, there's an equal and opposite number that become clunky in order to maintain a semblance of balance with the thousands of different bits and bobs the game includes.

No one should play any version of D&D that they themselves have not built from the ground up with just the right bits that are streamlined for them and are clunky in places that don't bother them. Expecting WotC (or anyone) to pull off that trick is a statistically impossibility.

 

[Argyle King]

As a particularly vocal advocate of non-spellcasting rangers, I can absolutely empathize with this. But, like… Divine Smite already cost a spell slot, and all the other Smites were already spells. This barely registers as a change to me. Maybe a non-spell version of Smite would be a good thing, but I don’t think the 5e Paladin ever really had a non-spell Smite, except in a very technical sense.

Non-spell Smites are the majority of what I do in 5E while playing a paladin.

 

[TwoSix]

Have Paladin players just been so spoiled with how divine smite works that the idea of having to make tactical decisions about how to use their action economy seems like a terrible loss to them?

Is that even a question? Of course they were. They're considered the most powerful martial class for a reason.

I mean, the 2024 paladin being slightly weaker than the 2014 version isn't (to me) in question. Whether weakening the class is justifiable also isn't (to me) in question, it certainly is justifiable.

The question is whether in the act of making it more balanced, did they make it less fun?

It's sort of like the Shield Master ruling, to me. Making the shield shove BA take place after attacking might have made it more coherent, but it made it less fun.