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.

 

[mellored]

Because those were just additions, while Divine Smite was a core class feature, that got turned into a spell. And just as Hunter's Mark being a spell and Eldritch Blast beign a cantrip, it now makes what was supposed to be the class' main damage thing into something anyone can get and it's only a matter of time befoire optimizers figure how to out-smite a Paladin.

Good thing none of those things is the only thing that class can do.

2014 paladin might of revolved around smite. But 2024 has much nicer channel divinity and other features.

Hexblade with Devotion is going to be nuts. Cha to-hit + Cha to-hit + heavy armor + Cha to all saves + recharging smite slots + decent ranged backup.

Presumably they fill make Eldritch Smite a bonus action too, or you got serious nova along with it.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Okay, now they can choose to take Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful smite, or Divine Smite (if the feat even allows it, which it probably won't) why is it perfectly okay not even worth mentioning if the Bladesinger grabs Thunderous Smite but Divine Smite makes the entire paladin class a trash option with no future? By the way, Paladin's get all four of these, not just one.

What you seem to be missing is that the optimizers have had every single option except Divine Smite this entire time. And none of them built something with that. Now Divine Smite works just like those spells, only with a little more damage. Will someone make a Bladesinger or a Bard that uses a 6th level spell slot to Divine Smite? Maybe. Depends on the wording of Divine Smite doesn't it? Since if the "at higher level" clause gives a max they won't do more damage than the paladin. But this all seems to be running on the worst possible scenario, with a lot of assumptions that are likely flatly not true.

Good thing none of those things is the only thing that class can do.

2014 paladin might of revolved around smite. But 2024 has much nicer channel divinity and other features.

Hexblade with Devotion is going to be nuts. Cha to-hit + Cha to-hit + heavy armor + Cha to all saves + recharging smite slots + decent ranged backup.

Presumably they fill make Eldritch Smite a bonus action too, or you got serious nova along with it.

I just love the irony of a post saying that optimizers will not make a build that outshines Paladin and their main thing, being followed by a post theorising how to make Hexblade into smite machine outshining the Paladin at smiting.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I just love the irony of a post saying that optimizers will not make a build that outshines Paladin and their main thing, being followed by a post theorising how to make Hexblade into smite machine outshining the Paladin at smiting.

I didn't say that. I said that people are making a lot of assumptions that are not yet supported.

 

[mellored]

I just love the irony of a post saying that optimizers will not make a build that outshines Paladin and their main thing, being followed by a post theorising how to make Hexblade into smite machine outshining the Paladin at smiting.

Smiting is not Paladins "main" thing.
It's "one of' their things.

If anything, their Aura is their "main" thing.


Just that Devotion's +Cha to-hit is now really good with a hexblade dip.

 

[Stalker0]

Really I only see the smite changes being a problem if you do short days.

Like <15 combat rounds.

And that's not how the game is intended to be played.

And yet the way it is played at so....so many tables.

 

[Minigiant]

And yet the way it is played at so....so many tables.

And that's why designing D&D around one type of day is an always has been a mistake.

Either

1) Given every class At-Will, Short Rest, and Long Rest features so they work in small, medium, and large encounter days (The 4E method)

or

2) Offer variants to increase or decrease a class's resources to match your table's # of encounters per day

 

[Kannik]

By this same argument Rage or Holy Nova should be free. Or potion use. Or a species ability like the Goblin's Cunning Action.

I'd say that's a different argument. Rage lasts 1 minute. Cunning Action lets you do something that ordinarily takes a standard action. Drinking a Potion is more involved than the instantaneous action of sending your divine radiant energy through your weapon in the split section you make weapon contact. I find them all quite distinct in what they're covering/initiating compared to smiting, and thus different in how they might interrupt something like offhand weapon use.

(Of course, we haven't seen how PAM works in this edition -- if it operates similar to the Nick property and so PAM Paladins (now that sounds funny) are as unhindered as TWF Paladins, then it renders this concern moot.)

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Really I only see the smite changes being a problem if you do short days.

Like <15 combat rounds.

And that's not how the game is intended to be played.

I've literally never not once in my life seen a DnD adventuring day with 15 combat rounds in it. I do agree with you that WotC designed the game around this playstyle, but it's one of the most glaring reasons for game imbalance, because almost no one plays that way.

 

[Minigiant]

I've literally never not once in my life seen a DnD adventuring day with 15 combat rounds in it. I do agree with you that WotC designed the game around this playstyle, but it's one of the most glaring reasons for game imbalance, because almost no one plays that way.

And I don't see how you go through a 10 room dungeon and don't have 15 rounds of combat.

And that ultimately is likely why Divine Smite got nerfed.

Because there are a lot of tables running Dungeons and Dragons without the Dungeons.

5e and D&D historically is a resource management game. If you only run ~2 encounters per adventuring day, the 5e paladin and all the full casters are busted.

 

[mellored]

And I don't see how you go through a 10 room dungeon and don't have 15 rounds of combat.

And that ultimately is likely why Divine Smite got nerfed.

Because there are a lot of tables running Dungeons and Dragons without the Dungeons.

5e and D&D historically is a resource management game. If you only run ~2 encounters per adventuring day, the 5e paladin and all the full casters are busted.

Killing an enemy on turn 1 (with double smites) saves more resources than healing them after the battle.