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.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Ten minutes is weird, because it's FAR longer than most combats in 5E (especially in Wizards adventures, where 3 rounds often is long).

But it's not enough to accommodate exploration. So, it means the players rush from one room to the next without checking anything because otherwise their boons end.

Cheers,
Merric

Well, the issue was that we tackled what probably should have been 3 or even 4 combats back to back, so 10 minutes would have guaranteed effectiveness across that span.

 

[Kannik]

That's it. That's the entire interaction. The only other thing that MIGHT come up, is that if you hit with your glaive and decide not to smite, you could hit with the butt of your weapon and crit.. and not be able to crit smite. But you can't crit smite on any bonus action attack, so that's fine.

I don't mean it's messy in terms of complexity, I mean it's messy in that it interrupts the regular/usual flow of how the character uses his weapon. A fighter can pull a maneuver on any attack, such that if they are a TWF type they don't forgo their shtick if they chose to do a maneuver earlier in the round (nor do they have to forgo a maneuver if their offhand bonus attack is the only attack they hit with in the round). A free action, done once a turn, to choose to use a smite spell is both easy and wouldn't interfere with any weapon uses.

And I want to point out, we are talking about Divine Smite only... because no one ever used the other smite spells. They might actually get used now. You are essentially getting a guaranteed to hit bonus action attack that can carry a debuff effect by spending your bonus action smiting.

Sure, and they could have made all the smite spells operate in that same way (free action, once per turn) to keep it in the clear.

 

[Nikosandros]

Presumably the ranger’s hunter’s mark will have a similar treatment? I didn’t follow the UAs, any indications this will be the case?

In packet 6 (the last one with rangers, IIRC), they had favored enemy as a 2nd level feature. It gives Hunter's Mark as a prepared spell and it can be cast for free a number of times equal to Wis modifier.

 

[Aldarc]

Because this is a continuing trend of 5e: turn things that would be simpler, easier, and better as individual class features into spells, forcing them to dance to the rules of spellcasting regardless of how it fits.

Because it means that the game leans EVEN MORE into "everyone must be a spellcaster to have cool features" problem that already frustrates a number of fans, so every new feature that gets turned into a spell just aggravates it that much more.

Because there's really no need for it to be a spell, and if it's a spell, it reduces the class's internal synergy and combo potential, which some fans like. (I'm ambivalent about this one, but I get why folks would be annoyed.)

I think that about covers the bases, even if I've missed something. And the thing is, there are a number of people who only care about one of these things (or some other thing I've neglected), but all roads lead to Rome. It doesn't matter whether you want a lower-magic game or hate the idea of offloading damn near every class feature into spells or are annoyed by the removal of combo potential. Whatever gets you there. With many of these reasons being heavily non-overlapping, there's a lot of pathways for very different people to come to the same conclusion.

I think part of the issue of class features as spells is also how it interacts with multiclassing.

For example, let's take Eldritch Blast in 2014. Eldritch Blast is basically a Warlock feature, regardless of whether people choose to take it or not. It's a cantrip that scales with character level and not warlock level. This led to a LOT of Warlock level dipping or Magic Initiate for EB (and Agonizing Blast).

The nature of the unified spell progression and multiclassing rules is that some classes, particularly full-casters, can potentially abuse these "class features as spells" better than non-full casters since they get a much quicker spell progression with overall more spell slots.

IME, this can sometimes be a problem with "fixes." Some "fixes" can create new unforseen problems based on how everything else fits together, which remains to be seen in the case of 2024 D&D.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

IF Magical Secrets still works like it did in 5e. That's a big if since they obviously tried to change how it, and Bard spellcasting in general, works. Of course that was back when you had the three general lists, so who knows what happened to it since.

(IMO, Magical Secrets should be limited to other full spellcasters' lists.)

Of all the classes Bard is the biggest mystery, given the last version scored highly, but a major compenent of that version choosing powersource spell lists, got removed.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I would assume there is no Find Greater Steed, because it looks like the new Find Steed gets better when you upcast it.

Its still in the books, it will still be UA legal.

 

[Horwath]

this is possibly WotC's sneaky way in making paladins actually cast spells and not just smite everything.

bad way to do it, but still, it's a thought...

 

[DEFCON 1]

Some people like having 75 different mechanics that all accomplish the same thing. Other people would rather there just be a couple mechanics that get used many different times and ways. One way is more complex than the other because you have more to remember.

If you want more complexity in the game, then sure, you'd rather want the 75 different mechanics. But if you want less complexity or you want the game to progress at a faster speed, you'd rather have the couple mechanics that you've got down pat and can speed through their use.

Unfortunately for some people... all the cries of "THINK OF THE NEWBS!!!" that people have been shouting for a decade when it came to the rules have seen their cries actually accomplish something-- WotC has made the game a bit easier to understand by pushing most effects into only a couple buckets.

But at the end of the day, it's doesn't really matter. Because WotC is banking on all of us doing what we always do when we see things in whatever version or edition of D&D that we don't like-- we either just get over it and realize it doesn't actually matter in the long run, we change it ourselves to become a rule we find more palatable, or we don't play the game at all and move elsewhere to a new RPG. And WotC is fine with any of these three options we take.

 

[Oofta]

And somehow that is worse from a single bland option that everyone used to the point people forgot options existed?

In addition, for all practical purposes the old smite was a spell because it used up a spell slot. The distinction between the old and new other than requiring a bonus action is paper thin IMHO. But I've played paladins, had players with paladins. Paladins occasionally cast spells, but it was never one of the smite spells because they just weren't worth it.

 

[Oofta]

Ten minutes is weird, because it's FAR longer than most combats in 5E (especially in Wizards adventures, where 3 rounds often is long).

But it's not enough to accommodate exploration. So, it means the players rush from one room to the next without checking anything because otherwise their boons end.

Cheers,
Merric

It's rarely going to matter, but it lets people use it in different ways. The obvious is to cast it before combat starts of course. But I could also see a tense situation where the paladin is trying to end a combat before it starts casting it to show off their ability as part of intimidating an enemy.