D&D 5E Companion thread to 5E Survivor - Subclasses (Part IX: Paladin)

[Undrave]

Find the survivor thread here: D&D 5E - 5E Survivor - Subclasses (Part IX: Paladin)

I felt it was necessary to do another companion thread. Would you guys be interested if I were to make a new one for every survivor thread going forward? Or at least until the end of the subclass series?

I think it's pretty cool that the Paladin only has two unreleased UA, it tells me they have a strong grasp of it and it's relatively well liked.

For the people who enjoy having Paladins worship a deity or directly swearing your oath to said deity, are there any deities you gravitate towards for your Paladins?

One of my favorite gods for my Paladins is actually Tiamat. In my tables D&D multiverse, she is still an evil goddess that tries to conquer everything but she will actually aid even the good gods having her followers fight threats from the Elemental Chaos, Abyss, and Far Realms and will stand against any who would see the mortal realm or the multiverse destroyed.

My favorite Paladin was my 4e Paladin of Erathis. Erathis was a Lawful Neutral Goddess of Civilisation. His Order worked for the Kingdom and was tasked with handling a lot of administrative taskes and usually to carry around tax money or pay money being sent to the army. One ‘issue’ for the King was that the Paladins were more loyal to the idea of a stable, prosperous, and peaceful Kingdom than they were to him. In fact, the moment my guy learned the King was doing shady stuff and going on a despotic bent, due to bad influences at court, he just decided the best course of action would be to replace the King with his daughter.

Another Paladin I enjoyed only shortly was an Oath of the Ancient Paladin of the Dagda. His order was all about feeding the poor and he got into trouble with powerful loan sharks in the past. I took the Magic Initiate Druid feat at level 1 to get Goodberry, but I completely forgot to grab Shillelagh for the thematic thing though… Instead of a club (fitting for Dagda) he had a flail where the head was a massive chunk of raw iron ore from a sacred mountain. I probably could have done better on that front, but his weapon was still a funny piece of nature. He had cooking utensils proficiency I’d like to try this one again.

Some of ya'll have a strong bias against Unearthed Arcana.
And ya know what? I get it. There are already over 120 subclasses in this game, way more than we will ever need, but they keep adding more for some reason. And nearly all of them start out as Unearthed Arcana playtests...so it's time to attack the source. Enough is enough!

It usually doesn't make it through UA for a pretty good reason and that's usually the same reason people vote against them. I don't expect a UA to win any of these.

 

[Maxperson]

It usually doesn't make it through UA for a pretty good reason and that's usually the same reason people vote against them. I don't expect a UA to win any of these.

I don't agree with that. The early UAs needed a 70% approval rating which is ridiculously high. People who liked it, but didn't like it enough would vote against it, or maybe they liked the Mystic, but would rather have new paladins or whatever and vote against it.

I think a lot of very popular subclasses didn't make it through because of that 70% level and people weighing one thing they liked against another. I also think that is the reason that they abandoned the 70% requirement and we've seen almost every UA subclass in recent years make it into the new products. There's almost no chance that suddenly every subclass for years achieved the 70% mark when so many failed before.

 

[Undrave]

I don't agree with that. The early UAs needed a 70% approval rating which is ridiculously high. People who liked it, but didn't like it enough would vote against it, or maybe they liked the Mystic, but would rather have new paladins or whatever and vote against it.

I think a lot of very popular subclassed didn't make it through because of that 70% level and people weighing one thing they liked against another. I also think that is the reason that they abandoned the 70% requirement and we've seen almost every UA subclass in recent years make it into the new products. There's almost no chance that suddenly every subclass for years achieved the 70% mark when so many failed before.

Except for the Wizard UAs tho

 

[Ancalagon]

The paladin base class is so strong that most of the oaths are great too.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Except for the Wizard UAs tho

hard to make another type of wizard as most wizards are now copies of dnd wizards.

Does anyone know why the oath of light & trees is doing so well?

 

[CleverNickName]

hard to make another type of wizard as most wizards are now copies of dnd wizards.

Does anyone know why the oath of light & trees is doing so well?

Well, I can tell you why I'm upvoting it: the flavor is unique.

All of the other options are either "edgelord anti-hero" or "another warpriest, but with This One Weird Trick^TM."

 

[Undrave]

The paladin base class is so strong that most of the oaths are great too.

The downside is that it might be a little TOO strong so the subclasses don’t feel as impactful as they could. I feel like they could use a few more ribbons to get their story across.

 

[Undrave]

hard to make another type of wizard as most wizards are now copies of dnd wizards.

Does anyone know why the oath of light & trees is doing so well?

Well, I can tell you why I'm upvoting it: the flavor is unique.

All of the other options are either "edgelord anti-hero" or "warpriest, but with This One Weird Trick^TM."

Same!

Also the closest we have to a Warden.

 

[CleverNickName]

Same!

Also the closest we have to a Warden.

In a lot of ways...and with the right background and feats...it can be a better Ranger than the actual Ranger.

 

[RealAlHazred]

So, homebrew paladin subclasses I like.

Walrock Homebrew has done a few of them. Two of them are pretty well-playtested and pretty fun: the Oath of the Common Man (a collectivist paladin -- I like the Worker's Harmony Channel Divinity feature which lets you give tool proficiency to an ally) and the Oath of Free Commerce (a business-first paladin, for followers of gods of Trade). He's also got a few others in various stages of playtesting: the Oath of Knavery (for your Robin Hood paladins), the Oath of Love (finally a Romance Knight option) the Oath of the Hellsworn (a paladin offering service to a Power of Hell -- looks like a good option for a "fallen paladin"), and the Oath of the Midnight Hour (a stealth-oriented paladin -- looks like something's up with the Google Drive link).

I also really like Brandes Stoddard's Oath of Hospitality paladin, which works well with the Community Domain I homebrewed and has really cool synergy with my home game fairy-tale setting -- the Channel Divinity feature allowing you to ward doors and windows is chef's kiss.