The Human Target
Adventurer
Its easy to have an extra heal prepared for emergency.
D&D 5E What are the roles of paladin spells?
On one hand, sure, druid and wizard CAN duplicate much of Ancient Oath Paladin's spell list.
On another hand... wouldn't they be happy, to trust you to cover certain bases, freeing them to make more specialized choices when they make their daily spell preparation decisions?
My conception of a paladin, is largely a defender of the Prime Material plane's citizens from undead, from fiends (abyssal, infernal, etc.), from hostile fey, from any and all extraplanar invaders. You're the middle-ages version of a Ghostbuster. Who ya gonna call? HEY PALADIN! You serve, so that farmers can farm, merchants can trade, and ordinary life can flourish, under your protection. As an Oath of the Ancients paladin, you are aligned with the Seelie Court, and should face occasional challenges from Unseelie fay; or, perhaps, vice versa.
Defeating or driving away fiendish/undead/shadowfell/feywild/elemental raiders should be in your wheelhouse. The druid and wizard should be thinking "Well, I guess I could prep a banishing spell - no, who am I kidding, the paladin does that better than I ever could, he's got that covered. So what threats are my focus?"
On another hand... wouldn't they be happy, to trust you to cover certain bases, freeing them to make more specialized choices when they make their daily spell preparation decisions?
My conception of a paladin, is largely a defender of the Prime Material plane's citizens from undead, from fiends (abyssal, infernal, etc.), from hostile fey, from any and all extraplanar invaders. You're the middle-ages version of a Ghostbuster. Who ya gonna call? HEY PALADIN! You serve, so that farmers can farm, merchants can trade, and ordinary life can flourish, under your protection. As an Oath of the Ancients paladin, you are aligned with the Seelie Court, and should face occasional challenges from Unseelie fay; or, perhaps, vice versa.
Defeating or driving away fiendish/undead/shadowfell/feywild/elemental raiders should be in your wheelhouse. The druid and wizard should be thinking "Well, I guess I could prep a banishing spell - no, who am I kidding, the paladin does that better than I ever could, he's got that covered. So what threats are my focus?"
Quickleaf
Legend
Hah! My comment was tongue-in-cheek, but it also had a kernel of truth: I used to play fighters in 1e / BD&D, and for that class the ROLEPLAYING element was always one of the things that stood out because the actual abilities were fairly narrow or "not interesting."
Anyhow, back to the character optimizing and paladin mechanical analysis...
What is your fighter (fighting style)? Is a guardian shield the kind that floats hands free?
I would take different feats. Not that those aren't very flavorful, but it sounds like you want a more prominent role in combat, and Inspiring Leader might be duplicated by some cleric spells & Resilience is a passive ability. Now, if your cleric doesn't grant lots of temporary hit points, then by all means keep Inspiring Leader. If you're not having fun role-playing Inspiring Leader with speeches and whatnot, then something is wrong.
Instead of Resilience I would take a different feat. Charger, Sentinel, or Tough all look good to me given what you've said.
This also answers [MENTION=22574]The Human Target[/MENTION]'s question. That's why the paladin has a built in Divine Smite feature at 2nd level which lets you burn spell slots for d8's of damage. The spell smites are intended to be used as battle openers, after you lose concentration on your aura (due to failing a Constitution/concentration check or getting KOed), and/or as dramatic kill shots when you know the monster is on its last legs and you deliberately drop your aura.
If you're encountering lots of situations where you have an aura (or other concentration) spell active and you want to smite, your should be using Divine Smite more. Without a doubt your character should be one of the group's heavy single-target hitters.
Some DMs are sticklers like that. No worries, work with what you have.
In light of my spell suggestions (and what you just said about compelled duel not working giving your frequent boss monster battles), I'd say your spell list needs tweaking if you want to optimize. Up to you how important that is.
OTOH, if you'd like to keep your current spell list and kvetch about how terrible paladin spells all, then I recommend burning your spell slots for even more Divine Smiting! Which is good for Age of Worms because I'm pretty sure there are lots of fiends and undead for that extra +1d8 damage bonus.
I agree with [MENTION=12183]sithramir[/MENTION], you should be a damage machine.
For example, open with an attack using blinding smite & burned 3rd level spell slot for divine smite, followed by an attack using a burned 4th level spell slot ...assuming your +3 vorpal moon blade is a rapier...and that's 44 (8d8+8) + 35 (6d8+8) = 79 damage! Facing an adult blue dragon (CR 16), thats over 1/3 of its HP!! And that's *not* accounting for any other hidden damage bonuses you might have (e.g. Duelist fighting style, a magical item, a boost from another PC, or fighting a fiend/undead).
There is no way you should feel like you're not dealing damage on par or surpassing other PCs!
...
Let's take this to the extreme. Say you swap Resilience for Charger. Let's say you have a round to prepare before combat (you pre-game blinding smite). And let's say you're facing an Adult Blue Dragon Dracolich (CR 17) just because
You open with your bonus action charge attack (with +5 damage) using Blinding Smite and burn a 3rd level slot for Divine Smite, you follow that up with two attacks each burning a 4th level spell slot for Divine Smite. Your damage is 53 (9d8+13) + 39 (7d8+8) + 39 (7d8+8) = 131! Congratulations, you've just cut down the Dracolich by well over 50% of its HP! And put the fear of (insert paladin deity) into your DM!
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pukunui
Legend
My fighting styles are Dueling and Defense. Guardian is a minor property that gives you +2 to Initiative.
I like Inspiring Leader, and so do the others. 20 temporary hit points per short rest is nothing to sneeze at. As for Resilience, I took it because otherwise my Wisdom save would be low since I started in fighter. At the moment, my only "poor" save is Intelligence at +5. Everything else is +10 or better.
Moonblades are always longswords.
I don't. My only complaint was that it's been hard for me to find a niche with my spells, since there aren't very many to choose from and most are covered by the other PCs already.
travathian
First Post
And as someone else said, this is a failure of party planning. The cleric, druid, and wizard have more spells and greater selections to chose from. Obviously you can never have enough healing, but other than that, the party should try and spread the love around so everyone has a variety of spells ready for a variety of situations.
Saying, well the wizard has blasty spells, therefor I won't take any of those, is just plain silly. The wizard, knowing you have one of these available, would be smart to swap out for something entirely different, thus increasing the party's utility as a whole.
Pukunui, I think the problem you are having with your spells is that you are looking at them as if they are supposed to play a large role in the game.
Smite spells are pretty much meant to be niche situations. Its not about doing damage, its about inflicting status conditions on enemies while attacking. Have someone that keeps vanishing on you? Use a smite that lights them up.
I think you are looking at Compel Duel wrong. Its not about getting the big solo into a one-on-one fight. Its about getting a single big tough guy leading an army to focus on you while your party mops up the rest of the crowd. Think death knight leading an army of undead. Or the giant that's part of an orc invasion. Its really useful also if you're dealing with rogue-like enemies with high mobility moving around to squish your casters. If your GM isn't doing situations like that, then that's another matter.
I find that Paladin spells are meant to fill in the niche situations instead of being the main execution. Yes, aura spells are great for buffing, but that's just one or two spells out of your whole list. You should be looking to your class abilities instead of spell list.
Smite spells are pretty much meant to be niche situations. Its not about doing damage, its about inflicting status conditions on enemies while attacking. Have someone that keeps vanishing on you? Use a smite that lights them up.
I think you are looking at Compel Duel wrong. Its not about getting the big solo into a one-on-one fight. Its about getting a single big tough guy leading an army to focus on you while your party mops up the rest of the crowd. Think death knight leading an army of undead. Or the giant that's part of an orc invasion. Its really useful also if you're dealing with rogue-like enemies with high mobility moving around to squish your casters. If your GM isn't doing situations like that, then that's another matter.
I find that Paladin spells are meant to fill in the niche situations instead of being the main execution. Yes, aura spells are great for buffing, but that's just one or two spells out of your whole list. You should be looking to your class abilities instead of spell list.
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