D&D 5E Building a Paladin

[Warpiglet-7]

I was interested to hear how others have developed an Oath of devotion or Conquest Paladin.

For background I am looking to acolyte or folk hero for RP reasons. There are motivations to adventure which stem from being oppressed as a person of humble beginnings.

but as to combat...I had several ideas. almost no matter what, I am looking variant human. And I am very likely to take heavy armor master.

I want the character to be indefatigable and one who keeps getting up so to speak when knocked down.

I am torn about feats, fighting style and approach. I have considered:

1. Dueling fighting style but later taking GWM. I might just hope for the extra attack OR switch to a two handed weapon at times.

2. I never fight with two weapons. However, I could take defense fighting style and later dual weapon fighting feat. Between the two my ac would be bumped up as if using a mundane shield.

I also would have an extra chance to smite! Plus a Morningstar and axe seems fun.

3. I have also thought about defensive style and just alternating with a shield and one handed and two handed as the situationdemands.

lastly, I am interested in feats and temporary hit points. I like heroism. Bless is cool. Resilient con is on the table. I don’t like dumping below 10 for stats.

I am interested in your suggestions and experiences with paladins

 

[Krachek]

Almost anything is good with paladin. One of the classes that allow easily suboptimal choice.
have fun

 

[FrogReaver]

Recommend defensive style unless your sold on staying sword/spear and shield most all your career.

Variant human heavy armor master is a great choice.

forget GWM.

I prefer charisma Paladins but most like str.

prebuff with bless when u can.

twf works well.

stats are Mostly better than feats.

 

[Mort]

Some thoughts:

What levels are you looking at? Heavy armor master is amazing at tier 1 but scales off after about level 5 (too many magic weapons and/or monsters that treat their attacks as magical), but that depends on campaign.

I would consider polearm Master as a feat - it's great for the Paladin. One option available now is dueling fighting style, spear, shield and polearm master - maximum defense and amazing offense.

Also depending on levels Resilient Con:
Are you rolling stats? If you can manage a 16 Cha and 16 Con by 6th level and have resilient con; you will never fail a concentration check requiring a roll of 10 or less (meaning spells like heroism are actually useful as opposed to a crapshoot that rely on lucky dice).

Frankly though, Paladin is a strong class in general, hard to go wrong and has lots of options.

 

[Oofta]

I was interested to hear how others have developed an Oath of devotion or Conquest Paladin.

For background I am looking to acolyte or folk hero for RP reasons. There are motivations to adventure which stem from being oppressed as a person of humble beginnings.

but as to combat...I had several ideas. almost no matter what, I am looking variant human. And I am very likely to take heavy armor master.

I want the character to be indefatigable and one who keeps getting up so to speak when knocked down.

I am torn about feats, fighting style and approach. I have considered:

1. Dueling fighting style but later taking GWM. I might just hope for the extra attack OR switch to a two handed weapon at times.

Are you talking the dueling style (only one weapon) or two weapon style? Because a paladin doesn't have the two-weapon fighting style so you can't apply you ability modifier to your off-hand attack by RAW. I'd house-rule it if someone wanted to do this in a home campaign, so ask your DM.

Dueling style on the other hand works well for sword-an-board types, but doesn't work with GWM because two-handed weapons don't apply.

2. I never fight with two weapons. However, I could take defense fighting style and later dual weapon fighting feat. Between the two my ac would be bumped up as if using a mundane shield.

I also would have an extra chance to smite! Plus a Morningstar and axe seems fun.

Dual wielder only works if you are using two weapons. But see the restriction on two-weapon fighting above. I've toyed around with the idea of doing a champion fighter/paladin just to get the crit on 19 or 20 and doing two-weapon fighting all to maximize those crits. But not sure how well it would work because then you run into the issue of 3 levels of fighter just to get 5% more chance to crit (well, 10% more with two weapon) bur if you've taken 3 levels then why not 4 to get the feat and then 5 to get the extra attack and then ... well you've spent several levels not being a paladin.

Might still be fun even if the math doesn't work out. But without dual classing fighting with 2 weapons isn't worth it for a paladin IMHO.

3. I have also thought about defensive style and just alternating with a shield and one handed and two handed as the situationdemands.

lastly, I am interested in feats and temporary hit points. I like heroism. Bless is cool. Resilient con is on the table. I don’t like dumping below 10 for stats.

I am interested in your suggestions and experiences with paladins

It really depends on what you want to do. I played a paladin in AL for a little bit taking the protection style, but found that after a while I started having issues with wanting to use my reaction for other things. If I did it again, I'd probably go dueling style instead to get the extra damage, although defense is nice. Shield Master is awesome depending on how your DM rules (can you shove/knock prone first). Mounted combat can be fun depending on the campaign, sentinel is good for punishing opponents that aren't attacking you.

 

[MiraMels]

One of my absolute favorite characters of all time was an oath of devotion paladin who maxed charisma as early as she could, pausing only to pick up the Mage Slayer feat. It's a bit of a niche focus, but it is so much fun when you face spellcasting baddies.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Dang. Nice food for thought.

@Oofta yeah, I was thinking of using GWM without the -5/+10 with single handed weapon. At other times, I would use a two hander and occasionally make use of the -5/+10. So I was looking at being ready with a shield or without.

As to the dual wielded feat...was considering it with the defensive fighting style. That would be +2 to ac. I realize no off hand damage but I think the Paladin will do enough damage from what people say!

one idea that was mentioned...is concentration saves. I could do resilient con feat. With gwm, I could self bless and go to town. Just a thought. I would perhaps use heroism more.

my big choices are really level 1-8. I like to have fun now...I am impatient and have not seen higher than 8th in 5e to date!

spear and shield sound fun.

I do like the idea of pumping chr and making saves. If you are still standing, not charmed etc. it can be pretty dramatic!

but making hose concentration saves...man I could almost do resilient con before heavy armor master....

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Had another take.

I could go resilient con from the start.

mine array with fear:

14, 10, 16, 10, 8, 16

now I know we usually want a higher attack stat. However, sacred weapon adds to attack roll. Further, I could self buff and have a good and later almost certain chance of keeping bless or heroism up.

If...if I took gwm, I would be able to go with -5/+10 on pivotal battles. When lower or hit points or being conservative, I could use a shield and one handed weapon.

if I take dueling fighting style, I would be happy when conservative with a shield. It would not synergies with GWM, but maybe that is OK. It does not have to be totally optimal...or I could go defensive and just do less damage.

this thread and the comments have sold me on charisma. Maybe even over strength early on.

I never thought of con and chr as the highest scores but am now...

 

[FrogReaver]

Might still be fun even if the math doesn't work out. But without dual classing fighting with 2 weapons isn't worth it for a paladin IMHO.

2 short swords hit as hard as a greatsword in tier 1 even without the style with the added benefit of more chances to crit and more consistent chances to land an attack to smite with.

Tier 2 the greatsword pulls quite far ahead.

If you make it to tier 3 the 2 shortswords is back on par with the greatsword if not slightly ahead.

 

[FrogReaver]

Had another take.

I could go resilient con from the start.

mine array with fear:

14, 10, 16, 10, 8, 16

now I know we usually want a higher attack stat. However, sacred weapon adds to attack roll. Further, I could self buff and have a good and later almost certain chance of keeping bless or heroism up.

If...if I took gwm, I would be able to go with -5/+10 on pivotal battles. When lower or hit points or being conservative, I could use a shield and one handed weapon.

if I take dueling fighting style, I would be happy when conservative with a shield. It would not synergies with GWM, but maybe that is OK. It does not have to be totally optimal...or I could go defensive and just do less damage.

this thread and the comments have sold me on charisma. Maybe even over strength early on.

I never thought of con and chr as the highest scores but am now...

If you go the charisma route I recommend oath of conquest over devotion. Having a higher save DC on your fear and control effects is fantastic. You could even start 16/8/16/8/8/16 (with variant human and resilient con)

If I was building out a charisma conquest paladin I would use a sword and shield and duelist style. I would increase charisma at level 4 and 8. You would have +10 to con saves when you get your saving throw aura. That let's you actually be effective casting spells while being in melee.

Spells like wrathful smite, fear, hold person, command. Throw in the aoe fear causing channel divinity. A huge bonus to saving throws and solid charisma skills due to the high charisma.

Your damage would be lower than a traditional str paladin but you have better control options, you have better out of combat skills.

And if multiclassing is something you are interested in this setup is primed to go any charisma caster class and do well.