D&D 5E [Guide] Blades of Justice: The 5e Paladin guide

Gavin O. · Jul 9, 2018

Magic Items:

The availability of magic items is completely determined by your DM, and it's best to build your character under the assumption that you won't get any. If you ever do get the ability to choose what magic item you want, here are some to look out for:

Common
Cast-off armor The ability to doff your armor as an action could come in handy if it gets targeted by Heat Metal or similar, plus it's convenient.
Clockwork Amulet If you're optimized, you should be able to hit most targets with a 10 on your d20 roll, so this is almost as good as a free hit once per day. It doesn't even require attunement.
Ersatz Eye If by some terrible misfortune you lose one of your eyes, you can use this as a replacement. Having no eyes (and thus being blinded) makes you next to useless, so it might be a good idea to keep a couple of these around, just in case.
Mystery Key Might take 20 rounds to work, and is destroyed once it does, but this can open ANY lock. Could trivialize a whole campaign.
Ruby of the War Mage Holy Symbols (the Paladin's spellcasting focus) can be inlaid into armor or shields, diminishing the need for this, but it does allow you to cast spells with a somatic component while holding a weapon in both hands. Note that this requires attunement.

Uncommon
+1 Weapon +1 to hit and to damage is great, and being able to ignore resistance to nonmagical attacks is also great.

Rare
Amulet of health It sets your constitution score to 19, which is fantastic. Depending on your previous score, this could be as good as 4 HP per level and +4 to Con saves.

Gavin O. · Jul 9, 2018

(Reserved for Misc, part 2)

Gavin O. · Jul 9, 2018

Sample Builds:

The Paladin Welcome build

If you’re new to the game, have read the class name Paladin, and are excited to play a knight in shining armor, this is the build for you. This is a no-multiclassing Devotion build that doesn't take a feat until level 19, designed to be simple to play and still effective.
Race: Dragonborn
Draconic Ancestry: Gold (Fire)
Stats at level one (Using Standard Array) 16 Str, 10 Dex, 13 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, 16 Cha
Weapon/Armor Setup: Longsword + Shield, wearing Heavy Armor. Backup Javelins for Ranged combat.
Fighting Style: Dueling
Oath: Devotion
Important spells: Bless, Find Steed, Revivify, Find Greater Steed, Destructive Wave
ASI/Feat progression: +2 Str, +2 Str, +2 Cha, +2 Cha, Resilient(Con)

Gavin O. · Jul 9, 2018

(One last reserve post, you can now comment)

Gladius Legis · Jul 10, 2018

Gavin O. said:
Conquering Presence This would be a lot better if it didn’t hit your allies too.

It doesn't.

"As an action, you force each creature of your choice ..."

Blue · Jul 10, 2018

I'd recommend two tone for Oath of Devotion's Sacred Weapon depending on Charisma invested. With a 20 CHR it is superior to Oath of Vengance's Vow of Emnity which is sky blue.

Advantage from Vow gives a variable amount that tops at +5 if you need exactly an 11+ to hit, any other roll is less bonus. Sacred Weapon is +5 at all times.

If you have Sacred Weapon and get advantage, you chance to hit increases. If you have Vow of Enmity and you get advantage, it doesn't.

Sacred Weapon works against any number of opponents, Vow of Emnity only works against one. So if you're not at a solo fight you'll get a lot more usage out of Sacred Weapon. This more then offsets that it takes an action instead of a bonus action to active in that the effective duration is two, three, or more times as long.

With a +4 CHR MOD the two are probably on par or slightly favoring Sacred Weapon. At +3 CHR mod it's lower.

ccs · Jul 10, 2018

Gavin O. said:
Sample Builds:

The Paladin Welcome build

If you’re new to the game, have read the class name Paladin, and are excited to play a knight in shining armor, this is the build for you. This is a no-multiclassing, no feat Devotion build, designed to be simple to play and still effective.
Race: Half-elf
Stats at level one (Using Standard Array) 8 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 12 Wis, 16 Cha
(If you want to be Strength-based, you can. In that case you’d want 16 strength, 10 Dex, and 8 Int)
Weapon/Armor Setup: Rapier + Shield, wearing Light Armor. Backup Longbow for Ranged combar.
Fighting Style: Dueling
Oath: Devotion
Important spells: Bless, Find Steed, Revivify, Find Greater Steed, Destructive Wave
ASI/Feat progression: +2 Dex, +2 Dex, +2 Cha, +2 Cha, +2 Con

If I were excited to play a knight in shining armor I don't think a weak 1/2elf in leather armor sporting a bow would be what I'd make....

Gavin O. · Jul 10, 2018

ccs said:
If I were excited to play a knight in shining armor I don't think a weak 1/2elf in leather armor sporting a bow would be what I'd make....

I agree with you, but I'm not sure what I should do. While yes I could make a Strength-based human Sword and Board Paladin, that build is almost completely inferior to this one. Do you have a recommendation as to what would better fit the idea of Paladin but also be more effective? Maybe something like a Dragonborn Strength build?

Gavin O. · Jul 10, 2018

Blue said:
I'd recommend two tone for Oath of Devotion's Sacred Weapon depending on Charisma invested. With a 20 CHR it is superior to Oath of Vengance's Vow of Emnity which is sky blue.

Advantage from Vow gives a variable amount that tops at +5 if you need exactly an 11+ to hit, any other roll is less bonus. Sacred Weapon is +5 at all times.

If you have Sacred Weapon and get advantage, you chance to hit increases. If you have Vow of Enmity and you get advantage, it doesn't.

Sacred Weapon works against any number of opponents, Vow of Emnity only works against one. So if you're not at a solo fight you'll get a lot more usage out of Sacred Weapon. This more then offsets that it takes an action instead of a bonus action to active in that the effective duration is two, three, or more times as long.

With a +4 CHR MOD the two are probably on par or slightly favoring Sacred Weapon. At +3 CHR mod it's lower.

While I agree that it's a better bonus, I feel like the fact that sacred weapon takes your action to use hurts it compared to Vow of Enmity. In my experience, it's very infrequent that you get a turn in combat where you're not in range to do anything, which means if you're going to be buffing with Sacred Weapon (which only lasts a minute), you'll be missing one round of attacking. Since you get Extra Attack before you have a chance to raise your Cha to 20, that missed round is two full attacks you can't make.