D&D 5E Mike Mearls: Ranged Paladin doesn't break anything

[Argyle King]

Being a sniper with a god complex seems like a pretty awesome villain for a campaign.

I'm curious how players would feel about an unholy smite to their pack mule from 100 squares away.

 

[Jester David]

Oh ENWorld...
A poster comments on ranged paladins and how Mearls says the melee restriction was a flavour decision, and then the OP asks for characters that spring to mind... and everyone launched into a balance argument on ranged vs melee, feats vs no-feats, and 5e as a whole...

Okay, ranged paladins.
The paladin of elven gods jumps out. Or a paladin of a god like Artemis that favours the hunt.
I can also imagine a vampire hunter firing stakes from a crossbow. Which makes me think Ravenloft an a holy gun character with flintlock pistols and silver bullets.
The vengeance paladin is almost a rogue holy assassin character, so you could easily have one wielding daggers. Heck, Batman has shades of paladin in his DNA, and batarangs are very melee.

 

[mellored]

I reduce the damage die of the smites by 1 for ranged attacks. Had 2 ranged paladins so far with no issue.

 

[Staffan]

The Silver Flame paladins couldn't've stayed all Knightly and used Lances? They're piercing.

Sure, but lances work really poorly in dungeons. Unless you're a halfling riding a deinonychus, but the overlap between "dino-riding halflings" and "worshipers of the Silver Flame" is pretty small.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I reduce the damage die of the smites by 1 for ranged attacks. Had 2 ranged paladins so far with no issue.

I was going to suggest this as a viable compromise. Ninja'd!

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Sure, but lances work really poorly in dungeons. Unless you're a halfling riding a deinonychus, but the overlap between "dino-riding halflings" and "worshipers of the Silver Flame" is pretty small.

Apparently the Silver Flame needs to start recruiting a dino-rider wing of its military faction. Doesn't even know what's its missing.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Sure, but lances work really poorly in dungeons.

Realistically, horses don't do too well in dungeons, yeah, but, realistically, neither do longbows. Point is, there's a few piercing weapons that don't clash with the Paladin's traditional knightly image, the lance being the most iconic, obviously, as much as D&D has hated on it the last 3 editions. In addition to the lance and arming sword (slashing in D&D), every knight would have a poniard (dagger or shortsword in D&D, piercing). A few other knightly weapons like battle-axes & warhammers would have a back-spike, and there were outright picks, as well. Then there were later, more obscure piercing weapons necessitated by heavier armors, like the estoc and bec de corbin.

Paladin - any would-be 'knight' - with a bow just feels off, nevermind the balance implications.

Of course, as soon as elven paladins were legalized, I suppose the bow became inevitable.

Unless you're a halfling riding a deinonychus, but the overlap between "dino-riding halflings" and "worshipers of the Silver Flame" is pretty small.

Then again, is anything really too 'off the wall' for Eberron?

 

[Staffan]

Apparently the Silver Flame needs to start recruiting a dino-rider wing of its military faction. Doesn't even know what's its missing.

Clearly. Though to be fair, that's a bit like saying that the Anglican Church needs to step up its efforts to recruit Ottoman camel cavalry, from a geographical point of view.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Paladin is already borderline OP, if not straight up OP. Adding to that power is an obvious no no.

Paladin really is about the most broken class IMO, depending on stats rolled. Adding up to +5 on saving throws is some garbage that snuck in from 3rd edition's math porn. I nerfed it to "no more than proficiency bonus" and it's still way too good.

The damage, survivability and utility of the paladin is way too high this edition. Oh no, but I have to roleplay as a chaotic good guy with Oath of the Ancients to get magic damage resistance in an aura! The horror!

 

[DEFCON 1]

Paladin really is about the most broken class IMO, depending on stats rolled.

So you're saying that a paladin with lower stats is not broken?

Funny how that works.