Paladin Discussion

Good Morning Game Fans, we’re back to continue our deeper investigation into the mysteries of Dungeons and Dragons, and how it shaped the larger roleplaying game community.  We’ve put a temporary hold on our discussion about races in fantasy roleplaying (We’ll pick back up with the races from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and the Elemental Evil Player’s Companion after this interlude).  We’re going to discuss the role of Classes in fantasy roleplaying games, and then we’ll take a look in turn at each of the character classes in the Player’s Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition.

So what is a Character Class?  In Dungeons and Dragons (and many other roleplaying games) A Character Class represents a combination of special abilities, options and skills that make up a character’s occupation.  Your Character Class helps define what options you have to interact with the larger game world, and determines whether you’re a sneaky expert, or a bold warrior, or a crafty arcane magician.  

It also serves to indicate to other players what they can expect your character to be capable of doing.   In other words, it can serve as a keyword for you to identify a variety of factors.  It’s also the second most common descriptor used to identify a character after race.  For example, “He’s a human ranger, or she’s an elven wizard.”  in the same way that people can identify as a lawyer, or a doctor or a soldier, the fantasy adventurer identifies as a barbarian, or a ranger, or a wizard.  

Paladin:

A Paladin is a divinely powered champion with fearsome martial abilities.  They offer their lives in service to a higher calling, and swear oaths that give them amazing abilities and terrible burdens to meet.  Combining a fighter’s martial prowess with a fragment of a cleric’s divine power, the Paladin is a battlefield medic/sworn champion all rolled into one heavily armored package.

The Paladin is different from the two classes it’s most similar to, the Fighter and the Cleric, in a number of interesting ways.  The hybrid nature of its sources of power means that a Paladin can perform a variety of tasks on and off the battlefield, and the Paladin’s Oath can dramatically change the way the Paladin interacts with the world around them.  

Creating a Paladin:

Why did you pick Paladin for this character?  Is your character seeking to set right ancient wrongs, or an exemplar of the loftiest ideals, or a champion of ideals and virtues that were ancient when the world was young?  Is your character staunch in his or her virtues, or does he or she struggle with living up to the expectations of being a Paladin?  Does your Paladin seek out evil in its lair or does he or she wait for it to present itself before swinging into action?  Answering these questions can help you figure out where you fighter came from and how you’re going to want to build your character.  

Paladins revolve around two primary ability scores, Strength and Charisma.  Strength allows the Paladin to wear the heaviest armor and helps them lay low their enemies, while Charisma powers up most of the Paladin’s divinely granted abilities, and their spellcasting.  Constitution is a good 3rd choice because it will give you extra hit points and help you shrug off poisons and diseases until your class abilities kick in.

 

Class Features

This section contains all of the mechanically and statistically relevant information that you will need as a player to build your character.  

Hit Points:

Hit points represent the amount of damage a character can take before being incapacitated and potentially dead.  Every class has a specific range of potential hit point totals, modified by the character’s Constitution modifier.

Hit Dice: Paladins use a D10 for their hit dice, and this means that the average fighter is going to have a lot more hit points than most other classes.  The only class with a higher base hit die is the barbarian

Hit Points at 1st level: A 1st level Paladin will have 10 hit points plus an additional number of hit points equal to their constitution bonus.  

Hit Points at higher levels:  Every level after first, a Paladin gains an additional D10 hit die, which they can roll for hit point, or take the average value of 6.  They also get to add their Constitution modifier to whatever they roll.  The new Hit Die plus Con mod is added to their existing Maximum hit points, and they are off to the races.  

For example, a level 4 Paladin has just gained enough experience points to achieve level 5.  They roll a D10, and come up with an 8.  The player adds their Constitution bonus of +3, and this comes to an 11.  Added to the existing maximum Hit Point total of 38, the new 5th level Paladin has 49 hit points.

Proficiencies:

Proficiencies represent specific training and competency levels with a variety of weapons, armor, saving throws, tools, and skills.  When using weapons and skills your character is proficient in, as well as making saving throws of types your character is proficient with, you get to add your proficiency bonus to the die roll.  

Armor:  All Armor, Shields

Weapons: Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons

Tools: None

Saving Throws:  Wisdom, Charisma

Skills:  Choice of two from: Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion

Note: There are other ways to acquire certain proficiencies beyond the character class.  Certain races, backgrounds, and other options allow a character to pick up proficiencies outside their normal range, so if you see something you’re looking for, you might just find it in another section.  

Equipment:

Every character class has a recommended starting package of weapons and equipment.  This is an excellent way to save yourself time by grabbing a gear package and being ready to go.  All of the suggestions are laid out in a menu, and you as a player get to make one choice per bullet point for your character’s equipment.

• (a) martial weapon and shield or (b) two martial weapons
• (a) five javelins or (b) any simple melee weapon
• (a) a priest’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• Chain mail and holy symbol

Class Abilities:

The majority of the remaining class description will feature a combination of special abilities and tricks that only members of this specific class have access to.  These are the other professional capabilities that define this class and separate it from the remaining ones.  They give the flavoring that make the bard play differently from the sorcerer.  They have a specific format that they’ll likely follow:

1st Level

Divine Sense

A Paladin can sense the presence of supernatural forces.  The Paladin, as an action can use his or her supernatural awareness to detect the following things within a 60 ft radius:  Celestials, Fiends, or Undead, and the effects of any location that has been consecrated or desecrated (as per the Hallow spell).  The Paladin’s sense will reveal the presence, and the type of creature so long as it’s not behind total concealment, but will not reveal its identity.  (You may be able to identify that the Skeleton sitting on the throne is an undead, but not what specific type of undead, nor its name or capabilities.)  This awareness lasts until the end of the Paladin’s next turn.  A Paladin can use this ability once, plus their charisma modifier before needing to recharge it with a long rest.

Lay on Hands

The Paladin can channel divine energy to restore vitality and health with a touch.  The Paladin draws this energy from a pool that refreshes after every long rest.  They can channel a number of hit points of healing energy equal to 5 times their Paladin level.  As an action, the Paladin can touch a creature and restore a number of hit points to the creature touched, up to the maximum remaining in the pool.

Alternatively, the Paladin can remove a disease or neutralize a poison with this touch.  Using this power this way costs 5 hit points from the Paladin’s pool.  The Paladin can use both activations of this ability at the same time, but still can’t exceed the maximum hit point value remaining in the pool.  This feature doesn’t work on constructs or undead

2nd level

Fighting Style

A Paladin picks up a few stylistic choices that inform the way they handle combat.  At this level, select one of the following options:

• Defense:When wearing armor, the fighter adds +1 to his or her armor class
• Dueling: When using a melee weapon in 1 hand and no other weapons, the fighter adds +2 to damage rolls with that weapon
• Great Weapon Fighting:  When rolling damage for a weapon being used with two hands, the Fighter can re-roll dice rolls of 1 or 2.  The weapon has to either have the two handed or versatile property for this to work.  The rerolled result stands, even if it is also a 1 or 2.
• Protection:  When a creature the Fighter can see targets another creature within 5 feet of the Fighter, it can use its reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll.  The Fighter must be using a shield to use this ability

The Paladin can only select a specific fighting style once.

Spellcasting

Channeling divine power, a Paladin can create a variety of awesome magical effects with their spells..  Spellcasting is an incredibly dense topic that is covered in Chapter 10 of the PHB (Spellcasting) and Chapter 11 (The Spell Lists).  I’m going to cover the basics of how Spellcasting is affected by being all that is Paladin, but you should definitely check out both of those chapters before slinging spells.

Preparing and Casting Spells

The Paladin has a limited number of slots that they can use to cast magical spells.  There’s a big table on page 83 that will tell you how many spell slots of each level you have available.  In order to cast a spell, you need to have a spell slot of the appropriate level or higher available.  Casting the spell expends the spell slot.  All expended spell slots recover with a long rest.

Note 1:  Some spells work better when cast with higher level spell slots.

Select a list of spells from the Paladin list that you wish to cast for the day. The two restrictions on this are that the spells must be of a level that you can cast, and you can prepare a maximum of your Paladin’s Charisma Modifier + half their Paladin Level spells. You have to prepare at least one.  You can change the spells your Cleric has prepared after finishing a long rest, this takes 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.  

Example: Brother Facebreaker is a 4th level Paladin with Charisma of 16.  This means he has a Wisdom Modifier of +3. Since Brother Facebreaker is a 4th level Paladin. He can prepare five spells per day.  He chooses to prepare 5 1st level spells on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning comes and he needs to prepare different spells, so he chooses to prepare 3 different 1st level spells and keep two of his original spells.  The change takes him 3 minutes (1 minute per first level spell).  

Spellcasting Ability

Charisma is the spellcasting attribute a Paladin uses.  The Paladin’s force of will allows them to channel divine energy and power their spells.   What this means in game terms is as follows:

• Spell Save DC = 8 + Paladin’s Proficiency Bonus + Paladin’s Charisma Modifier
• Spell Attack Modifier= Paladin’s Proficiency Bonus + Paladin’s Charisma Modifier

Spellcasting Focus

The Paladin can use his or her holy symbol as a spellcasting focus for Paladin Spells.

Divine Smite

Starting at 2nd level, the Paladin can channel divine energy into his or her melee attacks.  After hitting a creature with a melee attack, the Paladin can expend a spell slot to add damage to his or her roll.  This does an additional 2D8 points of radiant damage for a 1st level spell, and it increases by 1D8 per level for higher level slots expended.  

3rd Level

Divine Health

The Paladin is immune to disease.

Sacred Oath Ability 1

Depending on which Sacred Oath you select, you’ll get one of three abilities.  I’ll cover these below when i cover the archetypes in greater detail.

4th Level

Ability Score Increase

You can increase one ability score of your choice by two points or you can increase two different ability scores by one point.  You can’t increase an ability score over 20 using this ability.  Some games allow feats, and you can substitute a feat for an Ability Score Increase.

5th Level

Extra Attack

When the Paladin takes the attack action, he or she can attack twice in a turn.  

6th Level

Aura of Protection

The Paladin’s presence protects his allies from harm.  Whenever the paladin or an ally within 10 feet has to make a saving throw, they gain a bonus to the die roll equal to the Paladin’s charisma modifier.  The Paladin must be awake to grant this benefit. At 18th level, the range of this aura extends to 30 feet.    

7th Level

Sacred Oath Ability 2

Depending on which Sacred Oath you select, you’ll get one of three abilities.  I’ll cover these below when i cover the archetypes in greater detail.

8th Level

Ability Score Increase

You can increase one ability score of your choice by two points or you can increase two different ability scores by one point.  You can’t increase an ability score over 20 using this ability.  Some games allow feats, and you can substitute a feat for an Ability Score Increase.

9th Level

No new abilities gained

10th Level

Aura of Courage

The Paladin and its allies within 10 feet can’t be frightened while the Paladin is conscious.  At 18th level the range of this ability increases to 30 feet.  

11th Level

Improved Divine Smite

Starting at 11th level, the Paladin channels divine energy into his or her melee attacks.  The Paladin deals an extra 1D8 radiant damage with each melee attack.  If the Paladin also activates the Divine Smite ability, they deal this extra damage on top of the damage from the Divine Smite ability.  

12th Level

Ability Score Increase

You can increase one ability score of your choice by two points or you can increase two different ability scores by one point.  You can’t increase an ability score over 20 using this ability.  Some games allow feats, and you can substitute a feat for an Ability Score Increase.

13th Level

No new abilities gained

14th Level

Cleansing Touch

The Paladin can end a spell on a creature they touch, including themselves. As an action, the Paladin touches one willing creature and ends the spell.   The Paladin can use this ability a number of times equal to their charisma modifier.  

15th Level

Sacred Oath Ability 3

Depending on which Sacred Oath you select, you’ll get one of three abilities.  I’ll cover these below when i cover the archetypes in greater detail.

16th Level

Ability Score Increase

You can increase one ability score of your choice by two points or you can increase two different ability scores by one point.  You can’t increase an ability score over 20 using this ability.  Some games allow feats, and you can substitute a feat for an Ability Score Increase.

17th Level

No new abilities gained at this level

18th Level

Aura Improvements

Both of the Paladin’s aura abilities have their range improved.  

19th Level

Ability Score Increase

You can increase one ability score of your choice by two points or you can increase two different ability scores by one point.  You can’t increase an ability score over 20 using this ability.  Some games allow feats, and you can substitute a feat for an Ability Score Increase.

20th Level

Sacred Oath Ability 4

Depending on which Sacred Oath you select, you’ll get one of three abilities.  I’ll cover these below when i cover the archetypes in greater detail.

Thoughts and Ideas:

The Paladin is an interesting hybrid of martial and divine powers.  With the ability to lay on hands to heal damage, clear diseases and poisons, and eventual turn off hostile spells, the Paladin is a battlefield medic with few equals.  Layering that healing aspect on top of heavily armorer martial combatant gives the Paladin a lot of options for ensuring their own survival and that of their companions.

Don’t discount the devastating potential of the Divine Smite ability, especially when paired with the Paladin’s array of Smite based spells.  You can cause an awful lot of property damage when combining these abilities, and they can allow the Paladin to do a disproportionately high amount of damage at surprising levels.  

The other thought to keep in mind, as always, is that the Sacred Oath will radically change the way the Paladin operates, so look at the full range of abilities before choosing your Oath.   

Archetypes:

A character class is built to be as broadly encompassing as it can be.  There are many types of wizards in the world, and different types of fighters as well.  Each class has access to a selection of Archetypes that allow a player to further tighten up their concept and build the type of character they are specifically looking for.  Rogues have access to both thief and assassin, for example, and while they are both Rogues at heart, the abilities that each Archetype uses definitely change the way the class feels to play.  

The three Sacred Oaths offered in the Player’s Handbook for the Paladin are the Oath of Devotion, the Oath of the Ancients, and the Oath of Vengeance.  Each one adds a group of abilities to the core Paladin, and they can shift the way you look at your character and the feats of awesome you might want to pull off.  

The Oath of Devotion

The Oath of Devotion is the oath of the White Knight. The Oath of Devotion focuses on virtuous behavior and championing causes and crusades against evil.  These are your archetypical awesome champions of goodness that don’t lie, or cheat or steal.  The Oath of Devotion has four abilities, gained at 3rd, 7th, 15th, and 20th level.  It also has an augmented spell list that i’ll cover in just a second.  

The Oath

The actual tenets of the Oath are fairly simple and straightforward.  

• Honesty: Don’t Lie, Don’t Cheat
• Courage:  Caution is fine, but Action defines a Paladin’s life
• Compassion: Use your strength to protect those who are unable to protect themselves.  Mercy is a grace, but use your brain.
• Honor: Treat others honorably and let your honorable deeds lead others to honorable behavior.  Do as much good while causing the least damage.
• Duty:  Be responsible and answerable to those above and below you.

Oath Spells

1st Level: protection from good and evil, sanctuary

2nd Level: lesser restoration, zone of truth

3rd Level: beacon of hope, dispel magic

4th Level: freedom of movement, guardian of faith

5th Level: commune, flame strike

Channel Divinity

At 3rd level, the White Knight  gains two options for his Channel Divinity ability:

• Sacred Weapon:  The White Knight can channel divinity to empower his or her weapon with divine energy.  For 1 minute the White Knight adds his or her charisma modifier to attack rolls made with that weapon.  Further, the weapon emits bright light in a 20 foot radius and dim light 20 feet further out than that.  The White Knight can turn this ability off as part of another action, though it ends automatically if the White Knight is unconscious or loses the weapon.       
• Turn the Unholy:  As an Action, the White Knight presents his or her holy symbol and censure fiends and the undead.  Each fiend/undead within 30 feet that can see or the WHite Knight need to make a Wisdom Saving Throw.  Failure means the target is turned for 1 minute, or until it takes damage. Turned creatures spend their turns moving as far away from the White Knight as possible, and can’t willingly come within 30 feet of them.  The creature also can’t take reactions, and is limited to performing the Dash action if possible, or the Dodge action if it can’t get away because of intervening terrain or a White Knight in the way.  

Aura of Devotion

At 7th level, the White Knight gains an aura effect.  So long as the White Knight is not unconscious, the White Knight projects an aura of calm 10 feet in every direction.  Allies within this aura are immune to charm effects.  At 18th level, this aura extends to 30 feet.

Purity of Spirit

At 15th level, the White Knight is permanently under the effects of a Protection from Good and Evil spell

Holy Nimbus

At 20th level, the White Knight can emit an aura of sunlight.  For 1 minute, the White Knight shines with the power of the sun (bright light to 30 feet, and dim light to 30 feet).  When an enemy creature starts its turn in the bright light, it takes 10 points of radiant damage.  In addition, the White Knight has advantage on saving throws against spells cast by fiends or undead.

This feature recharges on a long rest

Conclusions:

This is a traditional, holy warrior of utmost virtue type of character.  It offers a couple of interesting tactical options on both offense and defense, and is probably the most iconic of the three options presented today.  If you want to be a warrior of virtue who counts on his or her faith to back up a strong sword arm, this will certainly fit the bill.

The Oath of the Ancients

The Oath of the Ancients  is the oath of the Green Knight. The Oath of the Ancients focuses on ancient ideals of good and honorable behavior and protects the wild world from things that would harm it.    Imbued with power from the ancient world, the Green Knights are hearty foes against those who would despoil the world.  The Oath of the Ancients has four abilities, gained at 3rd, 7th, 15th, and 20th level.  It also has an augmented spell list that i’ll cover in just a second.  

The Oath

The actual tenets of the Oath are fairly simple and straightforward (and decidedly couched in metaphor).  

• Kindle the Light: Be Merciful, Be Kind, be forgiving, you will kindle the light of hope.
• Shelter the Light: Stand tall against the wickedness of the world
• Preserve Your Light: Find Joy and Laughter in the World, it will keep the light alive within you.
• Be the Light: Be an example for others to follow, let them bask in your light.

Oath Spells

1st Level: ensnaring strike, speak with animals

2nd Level: moonbeam, misty step

3rd Level: plant growth, protection from energy

4th Level: ice storm, stoneskin

5th Level: commune with nature, tree stride

Channel Divinity

At 3rd level, the Green Knight  gains two options for his Channel Divinity ability:

• Nature’s Wrath:  The Green Knight can channel divinity to ensnare his or her enemies..  As an action, the Green Knight can cause spectral vines to grab and entangle a creature within 5 feet.  The creature must succeed at a strength or dexterity saving throw (it’s choice) or be restrained.  While restrained, the creature can attempt to escape the vines at the end of each of its turns.  On a success, the creature frees itself and the vines vanish.
• Turn the Faithless:  As an Action, the Green Knight presents his or her holy symbol and censure fiends and the fey.  Each fiend/fey within 30 feet that can see or the Green Knight need to make a Wisdom Saving Throw.  Failure means the target is turned for 1 minute, or until it takes damage. Turned creatures spend their turns moving as far away from the Green Knight as possible, and can’t willingly come within 30 feet of them.  The creature also can’t take reactions, and is limited to performing the Dash action if possible, or the Dodge action if it can’t get away because of intervening terrain or a Green Knight in the way.  If the creature’s true form is hidden by an illusion, that illusion is broken.  

Aura of Warding

At 7th level, the Green Knight gains an aura effect.  So long as the Green Knight is not unconscious, the Green Knight projects an aura of protection 10 feet in every direction.  Allies within this aura have resistance to damage from spells.  At 18th level, this aura extends to 30 feet.

Undying Sentinel

At 15th level, the Green Knight can shrug off death.  Whenever the Green Knight is reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, the Green Knight is reduced to 1 hit point instead.  This ability recharges on a long rest.  

Elder Champion

At 20th level, the Green Knight can assume the features of an ancient champion of the natural world, (Green, plantlike, potentially Barklike, potentially with animalistic features).  Using the Green Knight’s action, they can assume this form for 1 minute for the following benefits.

• At the start of each turn, the Green Knight regains 10 hit points.
• Whenever the Green Knight casts a Paladin spell that has a casting time of 1 action, they can cast it instead as a bonus action.
• Enemy creatures within 10 feet of the Green Knight have disadvantage on saving throws against spells and Channel Divinity options employed by the Green Knight.

This feature recharges on a long rest

Conclusions:

This is a different type of Paladin from the Oath of Devotion, and it looks like it could be a great deal of fun in a mixed party of Druids, Rangers, and other similarly inclined nature folks.  The abilities are thematically interesting and work well together in creating a champion of the natural world.  

The Oath of Vengeance

The Oath of the Vengeance is the oath of the Black Knight. Seeking to right ancient grudges or more modern failures, Black Knights are implacable hunters of those who’ve failed their tenets to their religion, their country, or their Oaths.  The Oath of Vengeance has four abilities, gained at 3rd, 7th, 15th, and 20th level.  It also has an augmented spell list that i’ll cover in just a second.  

The Oath

The actual tenets of the Oath are fairly simple and straightforward.  

• Fight the Greater Evil: Seek out sworn foes, leave the lesser foes to others.
• No Mercy for the Wicked: Some foes are worthy of mercy, but not your sworn foes.
• By Any Means Necessary: Destroying sworn foes is worth any sacrifice of honor or integrity.
• Restitution: Should my sworn foes devastate the world, it is because i didn’t stop them, and must help those who were hurt by this failure.

Oath Spells

1st Level: bane, hunter’s mark

2nd Level: hold person, misty step

3rd Level: haste, protection from energy

4th Level: banishment, dimension door

5th Level: hold monster, scrying

Channel Divinity

At 3rd level, the Black Knight  gains two options for his Channel Divinity ability:

• Vow of Enmity:  As a bonus action, the Black Knight can utter a fell oath against any creature within 10 feet of it.  The Black Knight gains advantage on attack rolls against the creature for 1 minute, or until it’s hit points drop to 0 or falls unconscious.  
• Abjure Enemy:  As an Action, the Black Knight presents his or her holy symbol and denounce an enemy.  The Black Knight targets one creature within 60 feet that he or she can see.That creature needs to make a Wisdom Saving Throw unless it’s immune to being frightened.  Fiends and Undead have disadvantage on this saving throw.  Failure means the target is frightened for 1 minute, and has its speed reduced to 0. On a successful save, the creature’s speed is reduced by half for 1 minute or until it takes damage.

Relentless Avenger

At 7th level, the Black Knight is very hard to escape.  When the Black Knight hits a creature with an opportunity attack, they can immediately move up to half their speed as part of the same reaction.  

Soul of Vengeance

At 15th level, the Black Knight’s Vow of Enmity is far more powerful.  When a creature under the effect of Vow of Enmity makes an attack, the Black Knight can use his or her reaction to make a melee weapon attack against the creature, if it’s within range.

Avenging Angel

At 20th level, the Black Knight can assume the form of an angelic avenger.  Using an action they can assume this form for 1 hour for the following benefits.

• Wings sprout from it’s back and it gains a fly speed of 60 feet.
• The Black Knight emanates an aura of menace in a 30 foot radius.  The first time a hostile creature enters the radius, they have to take a Wisdom Saving throw or be frightened of you  for 1 minute.  Attacks made against frightened creatures have advantage.  

This feature recharges on a long rest

Conclusions:

For the folks who are looking for a dark and brooding take on what’s traditionally a happy and cheerful character, the Oath of Vengeance Paladin is here for you.  With a combination of abilities and spells that offer the character several tools to root out trouble and destroy sworn foes, the Oath of Vengeance Paladin is very capable of being a much more aggressive Paladin than either of the other two options we’ve looked at today.  

Conclusions:

I really like the Paladin, and enjoy playing them in this edition.  The Paladin in its base form as an excellent battlefield medic that can draw the attention of his or her enemies while protecting other characters from harm.  It blends both martial capabilities with divinely powered backup.  

Further, choosing any of the Oath options available allows you to tailor your character to do pretty much anything you want to do (as long as you’re still planning on being a Paladin).  Each of the Oaths gives you interesting options and powers to customise your character.  I think all three of them are certainly playable options, and i am a fan of all of these options.  

So that’s our take on the Paladin, next week we’ll be back with our friend the Ranger.  See you then, Game Fans.