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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 6704020" data-attributes="member: 6716779">VI. SpellsYou are a class that prepares spells and has access to the whole list when you do prepare them, same as the Cleric, which gives you some degree of versatility and flexibility day to day. But with that said, it helps to know the best options so you can keep the mornings you prepare a new slate of spells to a minimum. The number of spells you can prepare equals half your paladin level + CHA, which most of the time roughly works out between two and three spells per spell level, assuming you're equal between spell levels (that part may vary). For your convenience, spells will have their components listed, along with their action type (action, reaction, bonus action) and if they require Concentration. An "M" with an asterisk (*) means that the material component has a cost and/or is consumed by the spell, which means you can't use your holy symbol to cast it.Bless: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Keep prepared at all times. The +1d4 (average +2.5 bonus) to all attack rolls and saving throws makes this THE top-priority party-wide buffing spell for perhaps your entire career. Especially important if you’re the only divine caster in the party, but even if there is a Cleric around, keeping this prepared frees up the Cleric’s Concentration options (and vice versa; a Cleric with Bless opens up your options). Also interesting to note that if you Bless yourself, this spell is easier than others to make Concentration checks for, thanks to the saves buff. For the most efficient use of your actions, cast in a round before you anticipate combat, or in a round when you couldn’t make a melee attack, anyway.Command: 1 action; V. A WIS-save spell that can result in a lovely barrage of OAs if you and your melee allies surround it on casting and you command it to flee. Otherwise, you can make the enemy waste its turn, amounting to a soft stun of sorts. Has some targeting limitations (ineffective vs. undead, those who don’t understand your language), but this will work in more than enough battles that you will want it prepared the vast majority of the time.Wrathful Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. 1d6 extra psychic damage, and the far more vital detail of making the enemy frightened of you if it fails a WIS save. Frightened means disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, which is very potent. But the best part comes when it tries to end the spell early; you make the enemy waste an action to do so, and they have to make a WIS CHECK (NOT a save) to end it. Why is that a huge distinction? Because (a) even if they’re proficient in WIS saves, they can’t add their proficiency bonus, and (b) being frightened, they have disadvantage on the check to end it! This smite spell really takes a huge bite out of any physical attacker that isn’t immune to fear. The only knock against this spell is that the damage can’t scale with upcasting, but compared to how strong the effect is, who cares?Heroism: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. Free temporary hit points every round and immunity to fear! Bless is still higher priority, but if a Cleric has that taken care of this one’s quite nice for the first nine levels of play, in particular (it tapers off Lv. 10 and beyond once you get Aura of Courage and 3rd-level spells). Other than you, only the Bard has this one on its list.Compelled Duel: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. If you're familiar with the 4e Paladin, this is pretty much the analog to that Paladin's Divine Challenge, except without the radiant zap. This one requires a WIS save, but also makes the enemy attack everyone except you at disadvantage, typically a stronger penalty than the 4e mark was. It also keeps the enemy from escaping you unless it makes a WIS save. Decent one to keep on reserve against a boss.Cure Wounds: 1 action; V,S. Your classic D&D healing spell, scalable with higher spell slots. It’s not a bad idea to keep this prepared early, but it’s quickly outclassed by the time you get 3rd-level spells.Protection from Evil and Good: 1 action; V,S,M*; Concentration. This spell is on most full spellcasters' class lists, so while it is indeed good when anticipating fights against the listed enemies, it's probably best to leave this one to the full casters, so you can save your preparations for more offensive output. Devotion Paladins don't need to prepare this one at all, since it's on their Oath list.Purify Food and Drink: 1 action; V,S. A good utility spell to prepare for social and exploration settings.Shield of Faith: 1 bonus action; V,S,M; Concentration. +2 to AC is pretty decent, and it greatly helps that this is cast as a bonus action. Note you can cast this on yourself instead of an ally if you need to. A fair defensive pick if you're not the one needing to concentrate on Bless.Thunderous Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. Quite good from Lv. 1-4. 2d6 extra thunder damage (nearly as strong as a Divine Smite for the same level) with push and prone as a nice little bonus. Stack a Divine Smite on top of this for a strong nova at early levels. Unfortunately, this spell does not do any more damage when upcast and quickly loses its luster from Lv. 5 onwards.Detect Magic: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. At least this one isn't redundant with Divine Sense, but still, there's better use of your preparations.Detect Poison and Disease: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Meh. Might be used in uncharted wilderness or swamplands, or something, but again, your use of this is sporadic at best.Divine Favor: 1 bonus action; V,S; Concentration. Adds 1d4 radiant damage to all your hits, which averages to 2.5. Keep in mind that a 1st-level Divine Smite adds 2d8 (average 9). Assume a 65% hit rate: 9/(.65*2.5) = 5.54, which means on average, you’ll need to attack 6 times before you’re expected to surpass the damage contribution a 1st-level Smite gives you. As you can see, that’s pretty inefficient, especially when it’s very possible at early levels that you’ll lose Concentration before you even get to 6 attacks for a fight. The only battles where this is really worth casting are against hordes of CR 1/4 or 1/2 mooks, in which case the extra 1-4 points of damage can spell the difference between living or dead enemy on a successful hit. Of course, this also becomes worthwhile when you’re stuck in an entirely ranged battle, since Divine Smite only works in melee.Detect Evil and Good: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. No reason to ever prepare this one when you have Divine Sense.Searing Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. This smite spell should never see the light of day in your arsenal. The effect is nothing else other than damage, it’s strictly worse at that than Thunderous Smite with a 1st-level slot, and even if you upcast it, the damage doesn’t even come close to matching a same-level Divine Smite even if the enemy fails the first save for the ongoing damage.Devotion Oath Spells Sanctuary: 1 bonus action; V,S,M. A terrific protection spell to always have on tap; indeed one of the best. Especially since it’s a bonus action with no concentration required. Break this out if you need to protect an ally in danger and buy them a round to heal up, or even to cast an important spell (there’s plenty that don’t involve directly affecting an enemy). Also useful if you need to shield a non-combatant from harm.Protection from Evil and Good is already on the Paladin list. You always have it prepared, being an Oath spell, so you might be expected to pitch in on castings of this. Ancients Oath Spells Ensnaring Strike: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. A solid "smite" spell when used against anything smaller than Large (and can be used at range as well!). Restraining means halted movement and, perhaps even more important, advantage on attacks against the target. Only allows a Strength save, so feel free to use this on a Roguish-type. They also take more damage round-to-round automatically while restrained and must blow their action to make a Strength check (NOT a save, so no proficiency bonus!) to escape.Speak with Animals: 1 action; V,S. Allows you to do what its name says. When you need it, it's there.Vengeance Oath Spells Bane: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Pretty much the flip-side of Bless, letting you penalize enemy attack rolls and saves by an average of 2.5. Affects up to three enemies with a first-level slot, more if you upcast. Can come in handy in fights against strong multiple foes, one of the few tools in the box for these types of fights for Vengeance Paladins.Hunter's Mark: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. Well, you get to steal the Ranger’s staple spell for boosting single-target DPR. But how good is it for you? Well, compared to a 1st-level Divine Smite (2d8 = 9), assuming 65% hit rate, 1d6 = 3.5 damage per hit: 9/(.65*3.5) = 3.96. So an average of attacking 4 times before you match a 1st-level Smite in damage contribution. Moreover, unlike even Divine Favor, it’s rather inefficient against hordes of mooks, since selecting a new target always takes another bonus action. On the plus side, it can last up to an hour (or 8 hours with a 3rd-level slot, or an entire day with a 5th) … but unless you can get Concentration checks into auto-save territory vs. DC 10, at least, you can’t count on maintaining it nearly that long. So, basically, it’s really not worth casting at Lv. 1-5. At Lv. 6 or higher, with Aura of Protection in play and preferably also with the feat Resilient (CON), this spell looks a lot more attractive and has a much better chance of being the efficient long-term DPR boost it’s meant to be.Oathbreaker Spells Hellish Rebuke: 1 reaction; V,S. A little bit of fire damage in retaliation to getting hurt out to 60 feet. Overall, typically not worth the spell slot, and depending on your DM there may be logistical concerns casting this fully armed and shielded.Inflict Wounds: 1 action; V,S. Hot garbage. A normal attack plus just a 1st-level Divine Smite is going to do more damage every time. Find Steed: 10 minutes; V,S. If nothing else, keep this spell prepared just because a steed will greatly cut down on your travel times. And even if you do get caught in combat, the penalty for your steed getting whacked in combat is nothing compared to what it was in editions past; it just disappears in a puff of mist, and just cast this spell again to bring it back fully healed. You really have nothing to lose from keeping this on hand and a lot to gain. If you DO plan on making your steed a main avenue of combat, then you'll want the Mounted Combatant feat, which lets you take all the hits for attacks targeted at your steed.Magic Weapon: 1 bonus action; V,S; Concentration. Bless is still higher priority, mind, but if a Cleric has that covered this is easily a staple buff all the way up until every main weapon-user has an actual magic weapon. If you have a magic weapon but the Fighter doesn’t, for example, cast this on the Fighter’s weapon. Retire this once/if everyone does have a magic weapon.Aid: 1 action; V,S,M. Up to three allies get 5 more maximum hit points for a full 8 hours (plus 5 more per each level you upcast). You can easily cast this at the start of every day. A solid no-concentration buff, for sure, although if a Cleric has this covered it’ll take the burden off you to prepare and cast this.Branding Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. The most important thing to note about this Smite spell is that, unlike most other Smite spells, this one works with a ranged attack. Just for that fact alone, it’s never a bad idea to prepare this. The extra damage (2d6 radiant) does scale when upcast, too. The usefulness of the invisibility prevention effect, on the other hand, is highly situational; if you are in melee it’s usually better to just save your 2nd-level spell slot for a Divine Smite.Lesser Restoration: 1 action; V,S. Curing disease and poison is redundant with Lay on Hands, but curing blinded and deafened is not, so it's still worth considering. If you're Devotion, it's an Oath spell, so congrats, prepare something else.Zone of Truth: 1 action; V,S. Very useful to prepare when you’re getting ready to conduct an interrogation. If you're Devotion, congrats, you always have it on tap since it's an Oath spell.Protection from Poison: 1 action; V,S. With Lay on Hands in play, I can't really see preparing this one too often.Locate Object: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. If you absolutely need to find an object and time isn’t of the essence, then here you go. Definitely not worth a full-time preparation, though. Devotion Oath Spells Lesser Restoration and Zone of Truth are both already on the Paladin list. Ancients Oath Spells Moonbeam: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. 5-foot radius = 10-foot diameter, so theoretically can affect up to four creatures, and will damage two adjacent enemies at once. Making this spell at least something to use against hordes. 2D10, with CON save for half, is respectable damage for this level, and it does scale with upcasting. Moving the beam can be worth using your action if clusters of enemies form.Misty Step: 1 bonus action; V. A bonus action teleport! Teleporting is great to have for many reasons, and you still get your move and attacks afterwards with this. Vengeance Oath Spells Hold Person: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Needs no introduction. Enjoy your auto-crits and free double-powered Divine Smites on the poor humanoid sap afterwards.Misty Step: 1 bonus action; V. Again, bonus action teleporting. Enough said. Oathbreaker Spells Darkness: 1 action; V,M; Concentration. Usefulness depends on if you have darkvision somehow (race, spell, item); if you do this can actually be pretty useful. If you don’t, you probably don’t want to cast this.Crown of Madness: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. The effect sounds neat at first, until you realize that the enemy can only make the attack you coerce out of it before it moves, requiring some serendipitous positioning round to round. Add the fact you have to spend your actions to maintain this, PLUS your concentration, PLUS the fact the enemy can save against this after every one of its turns anyway, and this spell is a fail.Aura of Vitality: 1 action; V; Concentration. Throws out a total of 20d6 healing (avg. 70) for its duration partitioned among whomever needs it the most. One of the best healing spells from 1st-5th level in the whole game, and not even the Cleric gets it. Consider this your staple heal to cast out of combat and keep prepared at all times.Revivify: 1 action; V,S,M*. Bring someone back to life if they just got killed within the last minute. Keep prepared at all times, even if there is a Cleric around but especially if there’s not.Blinding Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. 3d8 extra radiant damage on the next hit + blind on a failed CON save. The damage is solid (but not scalable on upcasting), and blinding means advantage for you and disadvantage for them. This one can be a gamechanger against strong enemies reliant on physical attacks — just as long as they don’t have blindsight, truesight or tremorsense.Crusader's Mantle: 1 action; V; Concentration. This is a solid party-wide damage buff, but with some caveats. First, Bless is still higher priority, so make sure your party has that covered first before you cast this. Second, since this takes an action to cast, you ALWAYS want to cast this BEFORE the start of a combat, NOT in the first round, otherwise you’ll lose too much damage from simply not attacking when you could’ve (it lasts a full minute, or 10 rounds, which is a lot more than most combats take, so don't worry about wasting it). So assuming you’re casting this the right way, break down the math vs. a 3rd-level Smite (4d8 = avg. 18). Assuming the usual 65% chance to hit in melee, 18/(.65*2.5) = 11.08, so 12 attacks from the partyto surpass the damage contribution from a 3rd-level Smite. A Fighter with Action Surge, over 3 rounds, will make 8 attacks at Lv. 9-10, and 12 attacks at Lv. 11+. Any other character with Extra Attack will make 6 attacks over the same 3 rounds. So that indicates that, for this spell to be worth a pre-battle cast, you want at least one Fighter in the party, and preferably also a third ally with Extra Attack besides you. If, in addition to that, you happen to have an ally with Conjure spells or a Necromancer’s army, or if you’re commanding an actual army, then this gets much better still.Elemental Weapon: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. Like Magic Weapon before it, this is one you’d like to keep prepared up until the point every main weapon user has a magic weapon (retire this then). Along with the bonus to hit, this one also adds d4s to the damage, making it a step above Magic Weapon. It’s also very versatile with the damage types; choose the right one if you know what you’re about to be facing. A very good buff spell, to be sure, but the competition is just really stiff at this spell level.Create Food and Water: 1 action; V,S. A good spell to prepare during very long expeditions.Daylight: 1 action; V,S. A source of bright light can be good sometimes. There’s just too many other good spells at this level, though.Dispel Magic: 1 action; V,S. It’s definitely good for the times you come upon magic that needs dispelling, or especially in fights against spellcasters. How often those come up is the question, though. Have someone buff your Charisma ability checks (e.g. someone with a Guidance or Enhance Ability spell) and you stand a decent shot at dispelling even high-level magic. If you're Devotion, congrats, you have this always on tap, so prepare something else.Magic Circle: 1 minute; V,S,M*. Eh, if your party really needs to cast this spell, it's probably something best left to the Cleric or Wizard to do it. And even then the benefits aren't particularly great for the minute-long casting time and material cost.Remove Curse: 1 action; V,S. Might need preparation every once in a while, but day-to-day this should generally be on the backburner.Devotion Oath SpellsDispel Magic is already on the Paladin spell list. So you get to always be prepared for fights against spellcasters, which is very nice.Beacon of Hope: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. Advantage on WIS saves and death throws plus maximized healing rolls all out to 30 feet. Pretty solid defensive buff always on tap, but how often are you really going to concentrate on this one as opposed to Bless, Crusader’s Mantle, or a smite spell? Probably not very.Ancients Oath SpellsPlant Growth: 1 action/8 hours; V,S. The 1-action version is good for hindering approaching enemies, and the 8-hour version is neat for gardening purposes.Protection from Energy: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. A strong protection spell if you anticipate either combat against a certain type of enemy (e.g. some sort of elemental or dragon) or an area with elemental hazards around.Vengeance Oath SpellsHaste: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. If you can get Concentration checks into auto-save territory (take Resilient (CON) for that), this is as good as a Lv. 1-5 personal combat buff gets. Cast before you anticipate combat; it lasts 10 rounds, so don’t worry about “wasting” the first couple rounds of duration. The extra attack from this is obviously great, and against a Vow target can result in some of the gaudiest DPR numbers, not to mention giving you another chance to Divine Smite. The double speed can even let you melee attack an enemy you couldn’t reach otherwise that round. And the advantage on DEX saves and +2 to AC can’t be ignored, either. (If you didn’t take Resilient (CON) then this spell is much less attractive, and can become a double-edged sword).Protection from Energy: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. Considering all your combat buffs that require Concentration, you're more likely to use this one for exploring a hazardous area. Good for that purpose.Oathbreaker SpellsAnimate Dead: 1 minute; V,S,M. Having an undead army is fun. Especially when they benefit from your Aura of Hate bonus.Bestow Curse: 1 action; V,S; Concentration (no Concentration if upcast with 5th-level slot). Pretty nice choice of effects, one of which you can inflict on an enemy in melee touch range, including one that can even make your Control Undead feature easier to use. Banishment: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Remove a strong enemy in a group from play, making the rest of the fight easier, or if it's a single boss, have the party prepare readied actions for when it reappears for a nice full-scale assault. Great either way. And if it's a creature non-native to the plane, even better, as you get rid of them permanently, if that's what you wanted. If you're Vengeance, this is an Oath spell, so prepare something else.Death Ward: 1 action; V,S. Can be quite literally a lifesaver. Protects someone against KO and instant death effects. It doesn’t require concentration, either, making this one of the better defensive buffs on the whole.Aura of Life: 1 action; V; Concentration. I’m generally not the biggest fan of defensive concentration buffs, but this one is at least undeniably effective against enemies that can drain your hit point maximum, such as vampires. Also like Death Ward it protects against KO but for all allies in aura range.Aura of Purity: 1 action; V; Concentration. Grants you and allies immunity to disease, resistance to poison damage and advantage on saves against most of the conditions you'll face. Again, not the biggest fan of defensive concentration buffs, but I can certainly imagine fights where this might be useful.Staggering Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. The damage and effects aren’t bad — 4d6 extra psychic and on a failed WIS save the enemy can’t take reactions and has disadvantage on attacks and skill checks. These specific effects take place even if an enemy is specifically immune to, say, blind or fear. BUT the one big problem keeping this spell from greatness is the duration of the effects — it only lasts until the end of the enemy’s next turn FLAT. True, your party can still do a lot of damage during that time (IF the initiative order cooperates), but that’s a bit underwhelming for a 4th-level smite spell, don’t you think? It doesn’t hurt to prepare this one in case you run into enemies immune to blind or fear, but if those immunities aren’t a factor, Blinding Smite and Wrathful Smite are just better.Locate Creature: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Prepare it when you need it. Definitely don’t prepare it full-time.Devotion Oath SpellsFreedom of Movement: 1 action; V,S,M. Easily one of the high points of the Devotion list. Ignoring difficult terrain is good, immunity to restrained is great, automatic escapes from grapples is excellent, and immunity to paralyzed is a damn lifesaver. A very strong defensive spell, especially since it doesn't even require Concentration.Guardian of Faith: 1 action; V. Gives you a chance at inflicting a little auto-damage, up to 60 points' worth. Pretty decent, particularly against multiple enemies.Ancients Oath SpellsIce Storm: 1 action; V,S,M. Hooray, a direct damage spell you can use to fight hordes and multiple enemies! Definitely an answer to the Paladin's overall weakness in those types of fights, and a pretty good one at that.Stoneskin: 1 action; V,S,M*; Concentration. An old classic, and resistance to any nonmagical damage involving the usual weapon types is nice indeed. Cost is 100 gp per cast, not insignificant, but not a complete drain, either, if used judiciously.Vengeance Oath SpellsBanishment is already on the Paladin list.Dimension Door: 1 action; V. Teleport up to 500 feet, for the win. You can bring one ally with you, too.Oathbreaker SpellsConfusion: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. A solid control effect against multiple enemies that has an 80 percent chance round to round of making the enemy a nonfactor against you.Blight: 1 action; V,S. Your normal attack routine plus one 4th-level Divine Smite will outdamage this spell by a mile, even against plant creatures and magical plants.Destructive Wave: 1 action; V. This is THE horde-clearing spell for the Paladin class in general. Too bad it comes really late in their career, but better late than never. The damage is equivalent to a Fireball cast at 5th-level, it's friendly (i.e. you can exclude your allies from the burst), and the area of effect is enormous, being a 30-foot radius from you. And it's only a Verbal component, so you can bust this out fully armed and shielded, even. Strongly suggested that you keep this one prepared at all times, just in case.Banishing Smite: 1 bonus action; V; Concentration. Gets its mark for the extra damage it does alone; 5d10 is no joke, force is almost never resisted, and combined with a 4th-level Divine Smite results in a lovely damage spike against a boss (and if you crit, whoa). However, the banishment effect isn't really something you want to rely on or actively aim for, as it only goes into effect when you knock the enemy to less than 50 hit points with the hit. By then, it's about to die. If you DO happen to get that banishing effect, have everyone ready actions for when the enemy reappears and give it a swift end. NOTE: This Smite spell actually works with a ranged attack, too, so huzzah for that.Circle of Power: 1 action; V; Concentration. Grants what basically amounts to spell resistance for you and all allies within 30 feet: Advantage on saves vs. spells and magic effects. An added bonus is an Evasion-like effect except for all saves. A powerful defensive spell, to be sure, but again, it’s concentration so it competes with your staple offensive buffs and smites. If you’re fortunate enough to wield a Holy Avenger, you already get the most meaningful part of this spell as a constant effect (and the same range, even, being Lv. 17+).Geas: 1 minute; V. Can definitely be useful if you need to compel some low-level NPC into doing your will.Dispel Evil and Good: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Basically a Protection from Evil and Good spell combined with either a very limited Banishment option or dispel of charm and fear and a possible exorcism. Considering its competition at this level, hard to recommend a full-time preparation. One better left to the Cleric if it must be cast.Raise Dead: 1 hour; V,S,M*. The 10-day limit on this spell is, in most cases, liberal enough that you’ll only prepare this on a need basis. Revivify is typically enough. Devotion Oath Spells Commune: 1 minute; V,S,M. Asking a god for answers can come in pretty handy.Flame Strike: 1 action; V,S,M. Actually not that impressive in your case. This competes directly with Destructive Wave, which both does more damage and has a much larger area of effect, plus doesn't require somatic and material components unlike this one. It does have distance going for it, but even then it's only 60 feet, so I honestly can't think of many cases where casting this is preferable to Destructive Wave. Ancients Oath Spells Commune with Nature: 1 minute; V,S. Solid exploration spell with a nice distance and some good knowledge gained.Tree Stride: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. Teleport between trees. That's handy at times. Vengeance Oath Spells Hold Monster: 1 action; V,S,M; Concentration. Again, needs no introduction. Enjoy your auto-crits and double-powered Divine Smites.Scrying: 10 minutes; V,S,M*; Concentration. Spy on your quarry, even more effectively if you know them well or have a possession of theirs. Good for scouting. Oathbreaker Spells Contagion: 1 action; V,S. The effects of the disease have been clarified (<a href="http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/06/13/contagion-effects/" target="_blank">by Jeremy Crawford here</a>) to not kick in until 3 failed saves. Which is a good thing for the game, because it’d be hilariously broken otherwise. But in a pure combat situation, its utility is very limited. The only time you’d want to cast it in combat is if you’re facing a likely recurring adversary who likes to escape at the first sign of defeat; make them roll saving throws (or burn Legendary Resistances) as a parting gift.Dominate Person: 1 action; V,S; Concentration. Mind-controlling humanoids is fun, and useful.</blockquote>

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