Ah yes. Silly me. I kept thinking about paladin-exclusive stuff and came up with nothing.
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D&D 5E So, thoughts on the Paladin now?
- Thread starter Sitara
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Ah yes. Silly me. I kept thinking about paladin-exclusive stuff and came up with nothing.
I take it that he hasn't been taking advantage of Divine Smite? That turns a paladin into a damage monster.
TrippyHippy
Hero
I like the variety you get with Paladins now - and the fact that Alignment is implied rather than encoded as inflexible rules. I see the Class as basically being a Knight Class - especially if that Background is taken!
Gladius Legis
Legend
@OP: The 4e Paladin was one of the worst designed classes that edition. It only became effective after a book and some Dragon Magazine articles that patched over their flaws with power and feat taxes.
Which is a stark contrast to the 5e Paladin, which IMO is one of the best designed classes in this edition. Not the strongest, but definitely well designed and — for the first time in 3 editions — effective out of the gate. The expanded role of spellcasting and getting a feature every level did wonders for the Paladin, in particular. Love that the Paladins are the ones that get all the big personal combat buffs that used to be the Cleric's thing, and Smite spells are great, too. The always-on Auras are also really huge, and really a long time coming. Paladins are always described as having Auras, yet until now have never had those as actual meaningful class features. Overall, this is the first rendition of the Paladin where the crunch really comes close to matching the fluff, and the class is all the better for it.
And, yes, I also love the way Oaths are written. Vengeance and Ancients, obviously great, and even Devotion which is the classical "Lawful Good" oath is written in a way that pretty much ends the Lawful Stupid trope forever.
Which is a stark contrast to the 5e Paladin, which IMO is one of the best designed classes in this edition. Not the strongest, but definitely well designed and — for the first time in 3 editions — effective out of the gate. The expanded role of spellcasting and getting a feature every level did wonders for the Paladin, in particular. Love that the Paladins are the ones that get all the big personal combat buffs that used to be the Cleric's thing, and Smite spells are great, too. The always-on Auras are also really huge, and really a long time coming. Paladins are always described as having Auras, yet until now have never had those as actual meaningful class features. Overall, this is the first rendition of the Paladin where the crunch really comes close to matching the fluff, and the class is all the better for it.
And, yes, I also love the way Oaths are written. Vengeance and Ancients, obviously great, and even Devotion which is the classical "Lawful Good" oath is written in a way that pretty much ends the Lawful Stupid trope forever.
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Negflar2099
Explorer
The paladin in our group is having a great time. His damage output can top pretty high when he uses divine smite and he's still a capable healer and meatshield. He's a little like a better version of the 3e Bard, a sort of jack of all trades who can hold his own.
Gladius Legis
Legend
Blackguard and Oathbreaker variants are supposed to be in the DMG.
machineelf
Explorer
I had the chance to play a lvl 15 Paladin when my group played through Tomb of Horrors converted to 5e. I loved the class, and I can say with my limited experience so far, that playing at higher levels is plenty fun.
The paladin could choose to dish out a heck of a lot of damage all at once if it uses its high spell slots and converts them to divine power in attacks, but the pally can't keep that up for long. So overall the pally can hold its own in a fight, while not doing as much damage as a fighter over the long term, but the pally has a host of other class benefits that really matter to the group. I was able to take care of any poison or disease condition they got, deal with undead very effectively, and provide death wards to keep the other characters alive. When my pally finally died due to an unfortunate accident with a wall decoration, dread came over the rest of the group because they know how beneficial the paladin was.
Overall, it's a very satisfying and fun class, and is one of my favorite classes now.
The paladin could choose to dish out a heck of a lot of damage all at once if it uses its high spell slots and converts them to divine power in attacks, but the pally can't keep that up for long. So overall the pally can hold its own in a fight, while not doing as much damage as a fighter over the long term, but the pally has a host of other class benefits that really matter to the group. I was able to take care of any poison or disease condition they got, deal with undead very effectively, and provide death wards to keep the other characters alive. When my pally finally died due to an unfortunate accident with a wall decoration, dread came over the rest of the group because they know how beneficial the paladin was.
Overall, it's a very satisfying and fun class, and is one of my favorite classes now.
Mercule
Adventurer
Um... ick?
With the caveat that it's limited use, I quite agree with you. I always prepare spells with the intention of casting them... but in the end, I smite Smite SMITE! more often than not. And my DM has us on a homebrew where the baddies are mainly undead, so I feel I've been holding my own even with a Barbarian Berzerker in the party.
He looks sort of like a wolf man. His father was stuck in a freak blizzard with no warm weather gear. Another in the party had the idea of smearing bear fat from their provisions on their bodies as an insulating layer. When they stumbled upon the gnoll aasimar camp, most of the party went to wash, but the druid went exploring the village. A healer was going over to help the party, ran into the druid, and who knew that bear fat would be a gnoll aphrodesiac?
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