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.

 

[SteveC]

Not $160 worth of fixes. You want me to spend on you? Make it worth it to me.

I don't know if anyone remembers Order of the Stick anymore (if you haven't checked it out, you really should...) but the first episode is them going from 3.0 to 3.5 (so it's been around for a while). Everyone else gets cool stuff, but Belkar the halfling ranger gets smaller damage. The joke is "weapon shrinkage." I thought the Paladin in 5.5 might be experiencing some "smite shrinkage."

In all seriousness, I would expect to see some Paladins just want to keep their old class. Paladin was next up for me to play, so I really do intend to check out the differences if we do another 5xE game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know if anyone remembers Order of the Stick anymore (if you haven't checked it out, you really should...) but the first episode is them going from 3.0 to 3.5 (so it's been around for a while). Everyone else gets cool stuff, but Belkar the halfling ranger gets smaller damage. The joke is "weapon shrinkage." I thought the Paladin in 5.5 might be experiencing some "smite shrinkage."

In all seriousness, I would expect to see some Paladins just want to keep their old class. Paladin was next up for me to play, so I really do intend to check out the differences if we do another 5xE game.

Still a huge fan of OotS! I own all the books. Looking forward to the finale.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't understand your picture, but why would I want the game to turn into something I don't like?

You found a system that fulfills your needs (supposedly) and yet you are here complaining about an edition you don't play and an upgrade you never considered buying. I don't get it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You found a system that fulfills your needs (supposedly) and yet you are here complaining about an edition you don't play and an upgrade you never considered buying. I don't get it.

This is what everyone's talking about. It is associated with larger issues in gaming, which always seem to be discussed in WotC 5e threads. I find this stuff interesting, and have opinions about it.

 

[SteveC]

Still a huge fan of OotS! I own all the books. Looking forward to the finale.

It's kind of ironic that OotS has both the best and worst examples of what a Paladin can be like. You have the horrible "lawful stupid" Paladin, and then you have a fantastic example of what a Paladin should be. I'm pretty sure that they're still using 3.5 rules, but the humor and story still work for me.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

And the reason I find it interesting is that every game I've played in has had a Paladin, and they can do some amazing burst damage, but are they too good? Do they overshadow the other party members? It's been my experience that no, they're not making the rest of the party seem ineffective. That's still the role of the Cleric and the Wizard, thankyouverymuch.

Having played with an Oath of the Ancients with a 20 cha and str at level 8, yeah, they needed to be toned down. +5 to saves makes a mockery of bounded DC's and resistance to magic damage makes 5E combat even more of a joke than it already was, The ability to go full nova on smites required running a bunch of pointless attrition fights. Compared to the other non-full casters, it needed to be brought down a tad. since they werent going to buff the others enough.

 

[Minigiant]

I think the Paladin is really interesting because it's been the only example of a character class we've seen so far that has gotten worse. The other classes all have gotten better, with more options and more things to do. The Paladin is just worse.

And the reason I find it interesting is that every game I've played in has had a Paladin, and they can do some amazing burst damage, but are they too good? Do they overshadow the other party members? It's been my experience that no, they're not making the rest of the party seem ineffective. That's still the role of the Cleric and the Wizard, thankyouverymuch.

Do Paladin smites need to be toned down? I think that might depend on the adventuring day, which is one of the things I feel 5E really needs to address. In the games I've played in, the Paladin is constrained by the spell slots they have available to them over the course of a day. We don't do the full six encounters, but there are enough that the Paladin needs to intelligently ration out their slots. That's the limiting factor.

It seems like WotC has come to accept that most groups don't do six encounters a day (did they ever?) and so they're looking to balance features like smite in other ways. And for the Paladin, this means they got the nerf stick. And if you're looking at 5.5, this means you have a class that instead of being more interesting, more fun, just overall a better class, ends up being worse. And that just gives me an "ugh" reaction, and makes me think we'll have a character in our group who wasn't the most powerful, who's worse off. Doesn't sound that great to me.

Rebalancing 5e to match a small adventuring day means cutting spell slots by half.



That would NOT go over well

 

[Chaosmancer]

I think the Paladin is really interesting because it's been the only example of a character class we've seen so far that has gotten worse. The other classes all have gotten better, with more options and more things to do. The Paladin is just worse.

And the reason I find it interesting is that every game I've played in has had a Paladin, and they can do some amazing burst damage, but are they too good? Do they overshadow the other party members? It's been my experience that no, they're not making the rest of the party seem ineffective. That's still the role of the Cleric and the Wizard, thankyouverymuch.

Do Paladin smites need to be toned down? I think that might depend on the adventuring day, which is one of the things I feel 5E really needs to address. In the games I've played in, the Paladin is constrained by the spell slots they have available to them over the course of a day. We don't do the full six encounters, but there are enough that the Paladin needs to intelligently ration out their slots. That's the limiting factor.

It seems like WotC has come to accept that most groups don't do six encounters a day (did they ever?) and so they're looking to balance features like smite in other ways. And for the Paladin, this means they got the nerf stick. And if you're looking at 5.5, this means you have a class that instead of being more interesting, more fun, just overall a better class, ends up being worse. And that just gives me an "ugh" reaction, and makes me think we'll have a character in our group who wasn't the most powerful, who's worse off. Doesn't sound that great to me.

See, you claim they are "just worse" but... are they? Like, take a step back and look at this holistically.

Level 1:

• Lay On Hands is now a Bonus action to use. This is a major buff to the utility of this feature.
• Spellcasting now starts at level 1, instead of level 2. This is a pretty nice buff actually.
• Divine Smite is now useable at level 1, this is a buff
• Weapon Mastery is entirely new, and entirely a buff.

Level 2:

• Paladins have access to all Fighting Styles, this is a buff
• Paladins get a free Divine Smite once per day, this is a buff. Having it constantly prepared is neutral.
• Notably, every Smite spell was improved and buffed

Level 3:

• Loss of Divine Health, but looking at Lay on Hands it is possible that Disease has been removed entirely from the game. Neutral
• Divine Sense is now a Channel Divinity option, but it lasts longer instead of needing to be used every turn. It is also a bonus action to use, so you can sense the evil, then attack the evil. Overall, I'd call it a buff.
• Channel Divinity has double the number of uses and restores all of them on a short rest, upgrading to three per short rest at later levels. This is a massive buff.
• Devotion's Sacred Weapon moved from an action to activating as part of an attack, massive buff.
• Vengeance Vow of Enmity moved from a bonus action to activating as part of an attack, buff
• Ancient's Nature's Wrath went from a single target within 10 ft, who can save with dex or strength, to every target you choose within 15 ft and must use strength. Massive buff
• The Turn abilities for Devotion and Ancients got wrapped into the Abjure Foes, technically a nerf to those two subclasses, but better for the other subclasses. minor nerf at worst to the class.

Levels 4 and 5:
- Almost no changes, except for a free preparation and once daily casting of an improved Find Steed Spell that also wraps in Greater Find Steed without the need to prepare a different spell. Big Buff.

All of their capstones got shifted to being bonus actions which is a sizeable buff, Glory's aura got a massive buff, ancient's aura arguably was nerfed, Devotion's aura got a buff...

So, frankly, yes the Divine Smite specifically got a nerf. But on just about every single other aspect of the Paladin they were BUFFED. You also can't discount things like Cure Wounds getting a much needed buff, and other spells being tweaked and improved.

So, to claim that the paladin is just a worse version of itself... you would have to be claiming that delivering Divine Smites and literally no other ability was the entire point of the entire class. And if that is true.... then whoo boy, yeah, Divine Smite needed to be reigned in. Because it was overshadowing literally the entire class.

 

[mellored]

Rebalancing 5e to match a small adventuring day means cutting spell slots by half.



That would NOT go over well

Get only 1 slot per levels, but recover more per rest. Closer, but not all the way, to a warlock.

Which will also not go over well.

 

[Minigiant]

Get only 1 slot per levels, but recover more per rest. Closer, but not all the way, to a warlock.

Which will also not go over well.

Or the 4e method of giving each class important short rest and long rest features that they can meter out or burst nova accordingly

Which will also not go over well.