D&D 5E Paladins - Shield and Sword or Two-Handed

[guachi]

I'm probably going to make a Paladin with a versatile weapon and no shield. I want them to be able to cast spells in a simple RAW method.

I think this is the easiest way to go to ensure you can cast a spell with a free hand. Unfortunately, GW fighting style is suboptimal with anything other than a greatsword. Personally, I changed the fighting style to allow rerolls of the the 1-4 on a d10 and d12. It gives roughly the same bonus as rerolling 1-2 on 2d6. It's unfortunate the rule is written the way it is as allowing a reroll on a 1-4 on d10 and d12 in no way whatsoever is overpowered.

 

[mellored]

Sword and board. You get your shield as a holy symbol, and the most of your damage (smite, improved smite) doesn't care what weapon you use. (Multi-attack still cares though).

 

[Shiroiken]

As with most fighting characters, it depends on what you want to do and your preferred style. I prefer Defense over Offense when I play melee warriors. This helps reduce resource loss for healing spells, and high damage is better dealt by spellcasters and rogues. For a paladin, sword and board is solid, since you can use your shield as your Holy Symbol per RAW.

 

[Zardnaar]

Between having your holy symbol on your shield and a free item interaction (drawing or sheathing your weapon), what exactly keeps you from spell casting as sword-and-board RAW?

You are giving up something RAW unless you invest in warcaster. A lot of spells require somatic gestures so if you want to cast a spell you have to put away your weapon giving up your reaction/threatening in most cases.

If you give up a shield you lose +2 AC at least and deal middling damage.

Our Paladins do not bother casting many spells in combat using them for smites or casting longer lasting spells outside combat (shield of faith, hunters quarry) with the occasional bless being used. RAW you can't threaten and cast a shield spell for example when something that should be baked into the class in some cases or have a decent substitute like Paladins smiting.

 

[Yunru]

You are giving up something RAW unless you invest in warcaster. A lot of spells require somatic gestures so if you want to cast a spell you have to put away your weapon giving up your reaction/threatening in most cases.

Somatic components can be made with the focus, although only if they have a material component RAW.

 

[Zardnaar]

Somatic components can be made with the focus, although only if they have a material component RAW.

Not 100% sure but IDK how many spells fit into that category.

The shield spell for example comes to mind (V,S) The online default gish spell most people realise they can't RAW cast it if they do not have an empty hand unless you have the warcaster feat. I think there is a twitter thing from the developers relaxing the rules but most players do not use twitter or follow mearls online.

The Paladin smite spells can be cast (most of them) IIRC they are mostly V only spells. There is also other reasons gish in 5E kind of suck or under perform as well at least the PHB. Gish being arcane casters, the Paladin is great the war cleric is a bt meh for example along with valor bards, bladelocks, bladedancers. I think the main problem is they d not function as people want them to RAW or they fail to meet expectations like the bladedancer being better off no fighting and just using the effect to get a higher AC and have hard to interrupt spells. Or bladelocks thinking they can fight when they are barely better than a cleric at melee.

 

[Raith5]

It also depends a bit on what other martial characters do. In my party Im a Barbarian and my mate is a Paladin. When Im ranging we want the enemies to hit me, the rest of the time I want them to hit him! So we try to keep our ACs similar.

He is a greatsword wielder and we are finding that he is not missing the 2 AC. I use a shield (because Im nude) but I normally drop it when I rage and become a bit more attractive (to hit, that is).

 

[Istbor]

Right now, my Oathbreaker is Flail and Shield.

I know they probably weren't the best weapons, and may not have existed outside specialty cases, but I like flails man...

 

[Mistwell]

What kind of adventure are you going to be in? Is it a published adventure? If so, some people feel it's helpful to note that most published adventures have a lot of magic longswords to be found, and fewer two handed magical weapons to be found (though the later is not entirely uncommon).

 

[Al2O3]

I prefer the idea of greatsword. However, if I play a Paladin it is likely that everything except looking awesome is much better served by high AC and a longsword. Maybe war hammer or battleaxe for certain characters (e.g. a dwarf).

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