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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 6638559" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Oookay, so you already did part of my work for me, because Divine Sense is still a pretty potent and useful non-combat ability (though it does have some potential use in combat, too--if you know the location of an invisible undead, it effectively loses the benefit of being invisible). Then there's Lay on Hands' ability to remove Exhaustion, Disease, and Poison; while all of them may be dangerous in combat, they're only (in general) seriously debilitating out of combat; in all the games I've played as paladins with Disease immunity, it was far more useful in exploration (I was able to touch and interact with things that could seriously injure, even kill, my comrades) than it was in combat. Cleansing Touch is both very powerful and very useful regardless of situation, despite coming rather late--nasty effects abound in combat, but so are cursed traps and all sorts of other magical dangers in exploration, and I'm certain that there are Social uses for the ability to remove curses (just consider Gandalf driving Saruman from King Theoden). Then you have the Auras, which vary in their combat- and non-combat applicability. Protection is useful always, because saves are common both in and out of combat. Courage is similar, though I could see it leaning more toward combat.And all of that is just the baseline Paladin, without spells. Speaking of spells! The Paladin can cast Command, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, Purify Food and Drink, Find Steed, Lesser Restoration, Locate Object, Zone of Truth, Create Food and Water, Daylight, Magic Circle, Revivify, Banishment, Locate Creature, Geas, and Raise Dead.Then you have the Oaths. Devotion has some nice stuff: adds Dispel Magic, Commune, and Freedom of Movement, and gives another aura (Devotion) which grants "friendly" creatures immunity to charm--a powerful tool in social situations. Ancients adds Speak with Animals, Misty Step, Plant Growth, Commune with Nature, and Tree Stride; plus there are some minor noncombat benefits to Undying Sentinel. Vengeance adds Misty Step, Dimension Door, and Scrying; all of its other features are exclusively combat-oriented though.This is, again, compared to the baseline Fighter class, which adds...nothing non-combat from its actual mechanics (since I don't count "you get two skills" any more than I counted skills provided by your class in every other edition of D&D I've played, unless those skills were over and above what is normally available.) And compared to the subclasses, one of which adds a few feet of jump distance and half proficiency (meaning +1 or +2 until level 13) to physical checks you aren't proficient with, and another which gives you a free additional artisan tool proficiency (of highly, HIGHLY debatable merit) and a way to...compare the combat stats of enemies to your own.I had figured, given how long the benefit list is, that I did not need to spell it out; but now I have. Does this satisfactorily explain things? The Paladin is *at worst* only slightly behind the Fighter for (potential) damage output, unless there are numerous short rests per day. And then the Paladin has a bunch of nice non-combat toys even *before* she starts casting spells. And then she has spells, too (though I admit that spellcasting and smiting are competing for the same resource pool, the Paladin at least gets to choose how that resource gets spent.)</blockquote>

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