Paladins are a powerful class that can deal high levels of damage to a single target, with spells like Staggering Smite providing additional bonus effects. However, they often struggle to use their spell slots for less damage-direct spells due to their limited spell slots and potent smites. The Oath of Redemption paladin is perfect for pacifist-style players, as all spells do not directly do damage.
The Paladin spell list includes optional spells from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and Unearthed Arcana. By this point, Paladins can comfortably rest at around 26-29 AC with magical items. They can stack one of these Smite spells with a Divine Smite, allowing them to deal severe damage within a single hit. Magic Initiate (Sorcerer or Warlock) and War Caster go great on a Paladin for both control and damage.
One of the best tools against undead is Divine Smite, which does an extra 1D8 radiant damage against them. However, there is no Channel Divinity feature in the Paladin class, and there is no Charisma modifier to the damage roll. The biggest deal is a change of mindset to embrace full-time casting whether tanking or damaging.
On paper, most Paladin spells seem to be worth preparing, with Divine Smite being overshadowed by Smite spells. Divine Smite is a smite spell that directly burns spell slots to power, but it is not a spell and cannot be counterspelled. The tooltip for the star states that Strength is used for the Paladin’s attack and damage rolls for weapons and spells, but this is not the case.
In summary, Paladins are a powerful class with limited spell slots and potent smites, making them a valuable choice for pacifist-style players.
📹 Davvy’s D&D 5e Paladin Spell Guide
Who is the best damage in Paladins?
Tier 1 Paladins players have a wide range of options when it comes to choosing their heroes. Androxus, a top-performing character, is known for his excellent mobility and high damage output. He is a reliable choice for those who want a true hero who can stand up against opponents.
Cassie, another top-performing character, is also a good choice. With her excellent DPS and ability to find enemies and inform the team, she is an excellent choice for those who prefer to lead the charge. Both Androxus and Cassie offer a strong foundation for a strong Paladins team, making them a reliable choice for those looking to stand up against opponents.
In summary, Paladins players have a wide range of options when it comes to choosing their heroes.
Do Paladins do fire damage?
Holy Fire is a Paladin Skill in Diablo II that periodically deals Fire Damage to nearby enemies. The noble Paladin, encased in a holy aura, strides into battle, causing all within its range to be burned with divine virtue. This skill adds Elemental Damage to the Paladin’s attack and can rapidly kill entire screens of Monsters in early Normal difficulty. The damage scales based on distance to the caster, with the displayed maximum Area Damage value including the maximum proximity damage bonus.
Can a paladin be chaotic evil?
In Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, paladins are now champions of a chosen deity rather than just being righteous warriors. They may have different alignments from the traditional lawful good, but their alignment must correspond with their chosen god. Paladinhood is permanent, meaning a character cannot fall or have powers stripped in any way. This allows players to avoid having to “police” their fellow party members, but may encourage them to curb excessively evil behavior.
Smite Evil has been replaced with various “smites” and “strikes” as part of the paladin’s power set, defined as Prayers (the term used for divine classes’ powers). Two builds are presented in the Player’s Handbook: the Avenging Paladin, based on Strength and offense, and the Protecting Paladin, based on Charisma and defense. Strength-based attack prayers are generally weapon-based and limited to melee range, while Charisma-based attack prayers include both melee weapon attacks and ranged implement-based attacks.
Palastins also have the divine challenge class feature, which causes a targeted opponent to take damage when it makes an attack that does not include the paladin. They can have powers at later levels that allow them to teleport across the battle field to aid endangered allies. Paladins were initially the only class in 4th edition to have plate armor proficiency at first level, but since then, other paladin variants, such as the Knight and Cavalier, have this ability. Paladins may also take special feats related to their deity with their Channel Divinity class feature.
Can Paladins do damage?
Damage Class champions in Paladins are distinguished by their capacity to inflict significant damage, exhibit diminished health, and vanquish entire teams through the deployment of formidable abilities.
Are Oathbreaker paladins evil?
Those who have broken their oaths are regarded as being of a highly malevolent disposition. Furthermore, those who have fallen from the ranks of the paladins have lost their former power and are not expected to assume any other role simply because they were previously paladins.
Who is the most powerful Paladin?
Paladins, wielders of the light in World of Warcraft, are known for their unyielding faith and selfless dedication. They are trained to uphold values of compassion, holiness, retribution, justice, and protection. However, their great power doesn’t always come from their goodness. Liadrin, the matriarch of the Blood Knights, was once a priestess of the light but lost faith after the light failed to protect her people from the undead during their invasion of Quel’Thalas. As long as a paladin believes their cause is just, they can become formidable.
Which paladin subclass does the most damage?
D and D’s paladin subclasses offer unique abilities and playstyles for players to explore. Some subclasses, like Oath of Redemption, focus on defense, while others blend offensive and defensive abilities for strong paladins. A paladin’s playstyle is determined by the subclass they choose, which generally builds on a class’ abilities and stats by allowing players to specialize into a more detailed category. Paladins take the form of Oaths, sets of principles a paladin swears to uphold, and abilities, often bestowed by their patron deity, to help them overcome obstacles.
These Oaths affect how a paladin can use their Channel Divinity charges to turn the tide of battle. Paladins are one of the most fun classes to role-play due to their entwined Oaths with their mechanics. Each Oath includes a set of Tenets that the paladin is expected to honor, which can guide characterization. They have the potential to be incredibly powerful in combat, and the extent of each aspect they embody depends on the subclass their players choose.
What are Paladins weaknesses?
Paladins are slow-moving melee troops that can be summoned late in stages, making them difficult to reach the front line. They are vulnerable to ice damage and poison. Paladins move along the path, attacking every enemy unit or structure they can reach, except for firebolt towers. They are one of only three melee troop types in an arsenal, serving many of the same roles as knights, but with increased morale cost. Paladins are much stronger than knights, but three knights can deal more damage and have more health than a single paladin.
They are also the backbone of defense strategies, with higher hitpoints allowing them to survive firestorms and resistance to piercing damage. They move at normal speed, preventing them from getting ahead of ranged troops when progressing down the path to attacking troops.
What is higher than a Paladin?
A Brotherhood of Steel Paladin is a rank within the Brotherhood of Steel, and the various levels of this rank represent one of the highest in the hierarchy, situated below only the rank of Elders and the East Coast-exclusive rank of Sentinel (although the only known Sentinels are Sarah Lyons and, optionally, the player character in 4 if…).
Can a paladin worship an evil god?
Paladins are holy crusaders and divine spellcasters who are expected to be lawful good and model for others of their faith. They are expected to be a paragon of their alignment and a model for others of their faith. Some paladins, such as Gareth Dragonsbane, Piergeiron Paladinson, and Scyllua Darkhope, have fallen from their original roles in Tyr and Bane. Some paladins, like Gareth Dragonsbane, later became kings of Damara and Waterdeep, respectively.
However, some paladins may act as champions of primordial, demon, or devil, committing atrocities like the sacrifice of sapients to retain their powers. Regardless of their role, all paladins are expected to serve as sworn defenders of the faithful, smiting the unholy. In the end, paladins are expected to be lawful good and model for others of their faith.
📹 5 Tricks All Good Paladins Know In D&D
SMITE SMART! The Ultimate Paladin build / combo / turotial break down on creating powerful characters in Dungeons and …
So glad you mentioned Command! I had a Paladin in a campaign who was strong, but not the brightest and quite childish. The player liked to flavour the commands as her throwing tantrums and then putting emphasis on a certain word. So the enemy laughs at the childish request, only to then find themselves unwittingly following it. She was easily the highlight of that campaign.
For the last point, there’s 2 things to remember in D&D 5E that makes this work even easier… 1) A Warlock patron does not have to be an evil being. You could make a pact with a god you serve to get even more power. 2) A Paladin’s spells do not come from a god, but an oath. An oath to a god is the classic Paladin, but it’s not the only way. I mean, look at the Oath of Vengeance Paladin for a prime example.
8:41 not necessarily an issue. A paladin could simply be granted their hex blade weapon by their deity in exchange for x,y,z. The DM could treat it similarly to a spirt weapon, in that it can only take the form befitting that particular deity. Additionally, eldritch blast could also be further restricted to having it’s point of origin be the weapon itself ie the paladin must hold the weapon before them, point it towards the target, or have it morph into a bow to be fired like magical arrows for that turns action. Character classes descriptions, are more like archetype guides. They are merely examples of how to build your PC, not a requirement.
2:40 – Cackles in Vengeance Paladin/Celestial Warlock. Firebolt is amazing on a Paladin (and 2 free level 2 Smites every short rest is God-Tier). Add in War Caster, Devil’s Sight and Darkness and you can be a game-breaking badass. Now, why Celestial and not Hexblade? Well, for one it didn’t fit the vibe I am going for (Human turned Vampire who is a monster slayer for revenge in the name of innocents lost) and the party lacks “A Healer”, so Lay on Hands and Healing Light help offset this issue.
If your DM allows it, there is an item called an oversized longbow. Most people say that you use str for damage and dex to fire it. However Page 196 (Either PHB or DMG I forgot which) has the following quote under the Damage Rolls section. “When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier—the same modifier used for the attack roll to the damage. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers.”
Know what else besides Hexblade is worth putting a level in? Divine Soul Sorcerer. As if your Aura wasn’t amazing enough already, you now have Favored By The Gods, which once per short rest gives you 2d4 on your saving throw. Shield and Absorb Elements are incredible uses of your reaction if you’re constantly taking hits – with your high saves and Absorb Elements, the average damage of 63 from an Ancient Red Dragon’s Breath Weapon goes down to a measly 15. Later on, metamagic is pretty nice – Subtle Spell is usually on a stealthy/intrigue character but it also enables you to cast spells with your hands full even without Warcaster. Personally, I’d first take 7 levels in the Paladin subclass of my choice (Watchers in particular has an Aura that boosts Initiative, which is amazing), 1 to 3 levels in Hexblade Warlock (all three options are viable to me, for just the Charisma hits, having a really good Eldritch Blast, to having a ton of juice for Flexible Magic and smiting as well as a Pact Boon) and the remainder of levels into Divine Soul Sorcerer (for the benefits above). An 8th level of Paladin somewhere will still progress your slots and give you another ASI.
The Pally in our party got around the Cha or Dex by dumping Con. Yes, dumping, it is her lowest stat…and it worked! Full plate plus Shield Master has her shrugging off most damage entirely, and rolling decently on the second largest hit dice in game has he still being beefy once hit. Meanwhile my Wizard goes down in literally every fight with a +2. Our party dynamic has at this point changed the way I view Con. Clearly it’s important, but I now have so much lived in experience demonstrating its importance is underrated, especially for martial classes
For the Decent to Avernus, I played a Conquest Paladin 11, Hexblade 1, and Bard 1. I took the Hexblade early and the Bard late. I ALWAYS had something to do with my bonus action, whether it was casing Hex or Spiritual Weapon, Hexblade Curse, or Bardic Inspiration. And the +5 aura bonus saved people so many times it felt like cheating.
I feel like a fairly simple option for ranged combat was missed out on. Javelins. Available at level one if you took starting equipment and otherwise pretty cheap to buy. A respectable range of 30/120. No DEX needed to stick em, mid flight, with the pointy end. As a bonus, while the paladins divine smite ability can only be used on a melee attack the same is not true of all of their smite spells. Both Branding Smite and Banishing Smite only mention needing a weapon attack and not a melee weapon attack for your spell to be able to go off. There’s also a couple of others but they all specify ‘weapon your are holding when cast’ and not ‘when you hit with a weapon’, making them more of a “plan B” for this tactic.
I disagree on wrathful smite because it is an awesome tanking ability. Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their saving throw so they have to attack you to get rid of the debilitating effects of fear. So it’s a matter of knowing how yo use it instead of always using smite. And also you could still divine smite with this.
A fun little suggestion for all paladins. I’m fairly sure branding and banishing smite to not require a melee weapon attack, so if ya have the dex! Another fun suggestion I use all the time is blessing yourself as a vengeance paladin for advantage and an extra D4 to attack rolls then using gwm or sharpshooter! If both of these are already suggested in the article, dolphin diving out a window lol.
Good point at the end there. I once had a fiend pact warlock Aasimar Paladin whose deities manifested as the little angel and devil on her shoulder. Their constant tussle over her fate sometimes got so intense it would temporarily alter her alignment. Amazing fun and a terrifyingly powerful character.
1:00 You can have a shield and still make somatic components, let me explain, the rule is you can use the hand you use to hold your material component (or an arcane focus or holy symbol) to do sematic components, and you can engrave a holy symbol on a shield, so your shield can also be your holy symbol, so you can use that hand to do the somatic components no problem.
Also a massive fan of “there are no problems” in DnD – make stuff work with your GM! If one of my players wanted to be a paladin AND a warlock, I’d either: – have them torn between two powerful deities as you mentioned – make the warlock patron be someone earthbound who is hellbent on destroying the paladin’s god, and is trying to steal away their followers – have a character arc for the ACTUAL GOD. Through supporting the paladin player they’ve become more acutely aware of the problems faced down on earth, and are having something of an identity crisis. Clearly, being a pure and holy god isn’t helping anyone, so the god’s very existence shifts to be more neutral, allowing them to be both a god AND a patron at the same time. As far as I’m concerned, the mechanics are there to support the story, not the other way around 😀
Magic initiate: Sheleighleigh. It solves the MADness of the class. It lets you use your Charisma for attack and damage. This makes a quarterstaff or club a d8 weapon onehanded by default as well. Meaning, you can use the dueling fightingstyle with a shield and use a quarterstaff. 1d8+2 is higher damage than a standard 1d10 weapon, so its not bad. Or you could dip hexblade…
A couple notes from an ex-paladin player: -Shield can act as a focus for paladin AND cleric spells, so while the occasional thing with a cost (say revivify) requires a free hand, you’re generally good. The true benefit of war caster is that benefit on concentration, and if you get your hands on Booming Blade. -Smite spells get flack but they’re okay. Secondary benefits, only trigger on hits, and a few if not most work on ranged weapon attacks too. I personally vouch instead for Spirit Shroud as it works on multiple hits, once you can use it that is. Works on Eldritch Blast if you get it. -Generally agreed, a level or two into warlock/sorcerer is great for range (magic initiate is valid) and can work well to diversify: get 2 levels in warlock for 2 short rest spell slots. There’s patrons and sorcerous origins that work more synergetically (think Celestial patron or Divine Soul) in a narrative sense if it’s an issue, though as your powers come from dedication instead of an oath, it’s easy to conceive a paladin favoured by darker powers… 😈 -Concentration + Aura is a win win for allies and yourself included. -Duergar, not drow, get natural Enlarge/Reduce. 🙂
Paladins do NOT get their powers from other creatures like gods, you can flavor it so if you want, but here is what I mean: A Paladin fights for something, be it an ideal, a god, or corn, as long as they are devoted to the something and take actions which the Paladin thinks will lead to the best possible outcome, they will get powers from that determination alone. They are a charisma class after all. Clerics get their power from outsiders that directly benefit from the Clerics worship, the stronger the worship is that results from the actions of the Cleric, the more power the Cleric usually gets. If the Paladin were to start praying, or spread the good word of their god, they might just straight up get Cleric levels instead, and if the Cleric decides to stop praying and silently benefit their god through direct action, they might get Paladin levels. This all is less weird once you remember that in canon there is no lvl20 limit, you can totally get 20/5 Cleric/Paladin, it would just take an immensly long time in canon, and break the game in meta. Meaning, in canon you can totally be a paladin fighting for corn (or anything else if you’re boring), and have a devil or a cursed sword come along and be like: “I can help you with that”, and get into a pact like that.
Wrathful Smite can be pretty nice for the Frightened Condition. An Oath of the Crown paladin can immobilize a foe with a bit of setup if they get it both Frightened AND Champion Challenged. Since many monsters don’t have a ranged attack, that can make a very dangerous opponent suddenly no longer relevant for the rest of the fight until the party can then focus fire it down with ranged attacks.
My Paladin build: First level: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer: Prof in Con Saves for concentration, AC=13+Dex. Max out your Dex Second level: Paladin Get a Ruby of the Warmage, and an Emblem for your shield, so you can do Somatic for both classes while your hands are full At level 2 (with no armor, a Dex of 20 and a shield) your base AC is 20. Cast Shield of Faith (later Haste) at the start of combat for an AC of 22, cast Shield when needed for an AC of 27. Get a Cloak of Protection and a Ring of protection for a max AC of 29. Get the Lucky Feat; if the DM manages to crit, just have them reroll. Your levels in Sorcerer will give you more spell slots, to fuel your Divine Smites A 6th Level Paladin will get Aura of Protection. Combined with the Cloak and Ring, your saving throws will be off the scale, and if you still fail, use your Lucky Feat Your offense will be solid as well: Extra attack once Paladin hits level 5, Haste when Sorcerer hits level 5. With max Dex, a Finesse Weapon, Booming Blade and your Divine Smite..? Well it adds up! Do get Warcaster when you can. Booming Blade for an Op attack when the enemy moves away is brutal (also don’t forget to Smite here). And as a cherry on the cake: cast Command: Flee. They get to waste their turn, and every ally within reach get an Op attack. For Race I went with Harengon. Rabbit Hop + (Quickened) Jump gives you amazing mobility on the battle field, which can be very useful, for instance for emergency healing Oh, and Twinning a Haste on yourself and an Ally is OP and you should totally do it!
For your first point: if a spell has both somatic and material components, you can cast it with the same hand in which you are holding your holy symbol. And it just so happens that Paladins can use their shields as holy symbols. Plus, smite spells both give you utility and let you throw out more damage more quickly, since you can both cast the smite spells and use divine smite on the same attack.
You can also multi class one level into fiend warlock, as their first level feature allows you to gain temporary hit points equal to your charisma modifier + your warlock level every time you knock a hostile creature to 0 hit points. Using this, you can then take the holy warrior fighting style, and take word of radiance. Then, you can carry around a nest of wasps, and when you need to fight, smash the nest on the ground. Then cast word of radiance to kill all the angry wasps, giving you a ridiculous amount of temporary hit points.
This is very good information for building a character to do the best it can for basically everything. The only thing it leaves out is whether your character would feasibly have these stats for various reasons. Basically it’s the age old question of am I making a character or an adventurer. A character is played more in the head of the pc and may or may not have everything right in the head whereas a adventurer is just there to get the job done, basically just a mercenary for hire that may or may not have other agendas.
8:43, something that I think is really interesting is that paladins aren’t actually necessarily connected to a god, if you read the description for the class it says you might have sworn an oath to forest spirits or the spirits of the dead, also it says right at the end that the oath is the paladins source of power. I think warlock/paladin works really well, since you can make an oath about anything you might be making an oath to a sentient magic item you found that you will reforge it and use it to banish the undead from the multiverse or something.
Quick note: Paladins have the optional fighting style of Blessed warrior granting you 2 cantrips of the cleric spell list. IE: You can pick up Toll of the dead and word of radiance covering any melee or range combat while letting you build charisma for saves of your spell and aura bonus. Issue is you won’t be using divine smites.
Bless and Smite until it’s done! 😇 1st level paladin spellslots are Bless-slots 90 % of the time. If you or a buddy get in 1 more hit instead of miss, maintain concentration, or make a save, that’s usually way better than the 2d8 (or even 3d8) extra damage. But if you crit, you Smite. Smite spells are for control, not damage. Thunderous Smite brings flying creatures to the ground (because it knocks them prone), pushes stuff into danger, or off ledges. Wrathful Smite is good on a tough monster with no ranged attack. Hit and retreat out of its range. Now the monster can’t get closer to you, or the party if they’re behind you, as you kill it with ranged attacks as it cowers. Also, a paladin with a whip can Wrathful Smite (and Smite) from 10 ft. Combine with Oath of Conquest for fun flavour and fear the dommy mommy paladin. 🤣
A good idea to combine Hexblade and Paladin thematically is to say your holy patron granted you the weapon. Alternatively, you could have no divine patron at all; the rules state (for both Clerics and Paladins) that they do not have to follow a god, but rather a set of principles or oath. A paladin with the Oath of Vengeance could have pledged to avenge his murdered family, and signing a pact with a magical blade seemed like a way to achieve that goal better. There are tons of options to make it work thematically as well as it does mechanically, and I think it’s one of the most interesting multiclasses in both respects.
There’s an easy work around not having to having to worry about Dex as a Paladin but still having a solid Dex Saving Throw, which is say you’re a Paladin with Dex 10 (+0), the easy fix is picking up two great feats. One pick up Resilient feat, drop the +1 ability score in either WIS or CHA whichever needs it most, according to the feat you then get proficiency in the Saving Throw of your chosen score, well, Paladins already have proficiency in WIS and CHA, so then in accordance to the rules you simply choose a different attribute, choose Dex Saving Throws. And then for a bit extra gas too the Dex Saving Throws, pick up Shield Mastery feat. So what you do get with all that, say your CHA is 20 (+5) and let’s say you went hoo-man variant, so by level 8 as Paladin of just Dex 10, you can still wind up having a Dex Saving Throw (via Aura of Protection + Resilient feat + Shield Mastery feat) of +10, and that’ll be with Shield Mastery’s awesome feature, “If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.”, which is basically a poorman’s evasion for shield types.
One of my DMs had built an amazing paladin in one of his campaigns as a PC but his DM, in the last battle of the campaign, struck him down and resurrected him again as a corrupted NPC paladin. All his heals were damage spells, etc. He remembered his pact with his god, but was forced to betray it, causing him constant mental and emotional anguish which he websiteed for additional power, similar to a barbarian rage. He’d saved the altered character sheet and would pit him against us in pretty much every campaign in some form or another. 2 levels of hexblade warlock would have fit this backstory beautifully.
The other option you could have mentioned is the ever-popular sorcadin. I had one with the aberrant mind subclass so there was the nasty combo of double attack (+ smite and GWM), quicken spell dissonant whispers, opportunity attack booming blade. And average turn it went off: 2 greatsword Weapon attacks= (7(avg.2d6)+4+10) *2 = 21 * 2 = 42 2 second level smites = 2* 10.5(avg. 3d6) = 21 Dissonant Whispers = 10.5 (avg. 3d6) Opportunity booming blame weapon attack = 21 + 4.5 (d8) = 25.5 99 damage in one turn, workable from about level 6 with a 2d8 cost for the enemy to move the next turn. It was a fun combo to get off
Protip: If you are going to multiclass Hexblade, take PAM at level 1 if you start with a feat (every table ive played at does this, so i assume yours does too), Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade. Start with 18 CHA if you can – 17 is the max with point buy and racial boni, so you might have to take a half-feat for CHA – Fey-Touched or Elven Accuracy are great choices for this. Optionally, Variant Human can accelerate your feat progression by 4 levels if you have at least one God-tier roll for CHA (17 or higher on the dice, so you can increase it to 18. This means you wont have to take a half-feat) Level 1 Paladin Level 2 Hexblade Level 3 Paladin Level 4 Hexblade Level 5-8 Paladin/Oathbreaker <- Take GWM (Half-feat and Delay other Feats by 1 if you started 17 CHA; Switch fighting style from Dueling to Defense if you dont have Tunnel Fighter) Level 9-10 Hexblade <- Take Warcaster; Your extra Cantrip should be Green-Flame-Blade Level 11-12 Oathbreaker <- Take CHA+2 Level 13-20 Hexblade <- End with Tough-Feat and CON +2 or another Feat you think sounds cool For a total of 8 Oathbreaker and 12 Hexblade Eldritch Invocations: Start with Agonizing Blast and whatever you feel like, Devils Sight is a strong contender for Variant Human, Repelling Blast or Grasp of Hadar for Combat control, Eldritch sight for Roleplay and Utility (in case you dont have a ritual caster with detect magic, i recommend this) At level 3 Hexblade switch out your agonizing Blast or the other option, depending on what you feel is more/less useful for Improved Pact Weapon At level 5 Hexblade Undying Servitude, Eldritch Smite, Cloak of Flies (CHA-Modifier Poison-Damage in 5ft around you for EVERY creature that starts its turn there - you dont want to stand very close to allies if you activate it. It has no time limit. The advantage on Intimidation checks can help during roleplay), Agonizing Blast - all great options. You should 100% take Undying Servitude and switch out the other option from level 3 for Eldritch Smite for optimal building. You can take those back later. At level 12 Hexblade DEFINITELY take Lifedrinker - CHA-modifier damage to any weapon attack. Why? Booming Blade will enable you bridge the gap between character level 5 and 7 where everyone else gets cool shit like Extra attack that you get slightly later, but it will make you more powerful in the meantime. additionally, BB will make you incredibly stronger during the early levels. IF your DM allows it, Tunnel Fighter UA is seriously broken with this build. Otherwise take Dueling and switch to Defense once you get GWM. You should have Platearmor by that point. This build will allow you for Extra Attacks with a damage modifier of +26 at level 20, +21 at Level 12 and +15 at level 6 (assuming you started at CHA 18) plus PAM-Bonus Attacks with the same damage modifier. so a flat +76 Damage (Magical, thanks to Improved Pact Weapon) per turn at 2x 1d10 and 1x 1d4 - thats an average of 90,5 DPR (*Hitchance for actual DPR) - leaving your concentration free as well, for cool stuff like Bless to increase your hitchance - on single Target BASELINE - you still have Hexblades curse and smiteS because Eldritch Smite and Divine Smite CAN, in fact, be used on the same attack. In Multi-target situations you will want to use your BA to take the Tunnel Fighter-stance if you have it - which any sane DM will say "no" to. You would be able to single handedly deal 50% of the partys damage in that encounter with that thing. How this works is: A.) Hex Warrior lets you use CHA for your attack and damage rolls (+4/5 later on) B.) Improved Pact Weapon gives you +1 to all damage rolls thanks to it being a +1 magic weapon for free C.) GWM gives you +10 damage (for -5 on your attack rolls, hence, bless is good and since we have advantage on CONcentration-saves and a +4/5 from our Pala-6-Aura, we basically never drop it) We are using a Glaive or a Halberd, it has the Reach-Property so you get 10 ft of melee-tomfoolery, it's heavy so it works with GWM and it works with PAM This is also where Booming Blade / Green Flame Blade are outscaled by your Extra-Attacks, especially if Booming Blades movement condition triggers. Sadly, it doesn't with involuntary movement such as with Telekinetic, the creature has to move voluntarily. D.) Aura of Hate gives you and ALL (yes, enemies too) undead (and fiends) in your Aura +CHA-modifier to their damage rolls. We will use this later for a nasty surprise E.) Lifedrinker gives you +CHA-Modifier on all attack rolls. You are level 20 at this point, so its unlikely you'll be getting this, but still, it's worth noting. Now for the fun part: Since we as martials tend to fall off a little by comparison to the casters at later levels, we're turning into a Necro-Master-Badboy ourselves. Firstly, we get Animate Dead at level 5 which we can cast once for free. We do that to raise at least one skelly-boy/keep him under control every long rest. This is our pet. We name him Jerry. We give Jerry two Short swords and a chain mail. Why? Because Jerry gets two attacks with those short swords which both benefit from our Aura of Hate and Chain Mail is for the AC. if you can haggle with your DM to let your wizard or cleric cast animate dead but you get to control them with later casts you can have up to four skellybois that way. Optionally, stretching the feat a little to let you cast Animate Dead using your own Spell slots is acceptable too (because technically it doesnt allow that). We name those Gary, Terry and Perry. Sadly, we cant cast Animate Dead with regular means as we would have to take Oathbreaker 9 to get it which would be suboptimal as we lose an ASI/Feat. IF you play with Ravnica/All book-sources, the Golgari Agent Background is a perfect choice, since it gets Animate Dead among other useful spells. But thats okay, because the fuckery has just begun: Once we hit Hexblade level 9 (we are character level 17 at this point, mind you) we get Danse Macabre. If your DM said no before, this is your middle finger to that. You immediately summon 5 Skelly-bois with Concentration. Hope you stocked up on Shortswords in your Bag of Holding, because they gotta gear up. IF you have both animate dead with 4 Skellis and Danse Macabre running, you now have 9 Skeletons under your control. Action economy alone is enough to kill everything by now. Our Mythic Arcanum for 6th Level spells is Create Undead. Thats another 3 Skellis you can have permanently running. If you run out of Melee-Space in your Aura, they could use Shortbows as well, but only for one attack. All the while, our cantrips also continue getting stronger, so any opportunity attack we make for an enemy getting within 10 feet of us is a cantrip, thanks to PAM and Warcaster, either Booming Blade for ridiculously large single target damage bonus or Green Flame Blade if you want a little AoE. If you have tunnel Fighter, this means that every encounter gets shredded by whatever cantrip-opportunity-attacks you throw out. If you dont, its "only" one extra cantrip-attack per turn. Congratulations, you are now the Lich King. You have a horde of undead that tear everything to pieces where you go and command them to, you are clad in Plate Armor (+ Whatever magic items you found) with a Weapon that bends you to its will, the light has left you due to your perverse actions and you are capable of tearing apart every would-be hero yourself within a couple of seconds. (Barbarians with 24 CON and Tough would last around 3 or 4 rounds against you with skeletons, 5 or 6 in a 1v1 if you have ressources to spare) This is the most optimized Paladin/Hexblade combo i could come up with. Feel free to add any thoughts.
Hexadin is my favorite multiclass of all time. My typical character is a half-elf, or shadow-touched human who pledges themselves to The Raven Queen. Since she’s (most likely) the one responsible for the “shadow blades” that Hexblades tend to pledge themselves to and and taking oath of vengeance (specifically against undead and necromancers) fits her anti-Vecna deal very well. She hates undead and as her champion, so do you. All around fun character to play and my absolute favorite. As long as there’s no filthy bone raisers in the party, since you don’t want to go Judge Dredd on your party members so you should probably discuss it beforehand.
I see a hexblade paladin as a paladin that has found a sentient ‘cursed’ weapon, which it sees as a usefull tool to fulfill his oath. Think of an oath of vengeance paladin, and a magical sword that feeds an eldritch being through the souls it devours (yes I am aware it’s also pretty edgy, but well it’s a warlock what do you expect). Not every paladin has to care about “saving people’s soul”, or alternatively the paladin might have been lied to in the first place about why he is receiving the help. It’s sometimes easier to trick a devout believer then a skeptic.
As some others have said, Paladins get their magical abilities from their oath and devotion to it. I once played a Hexblade Vengeance Paladin who swore an oath to his patron to hunt down those who wronged him (to simplify it a bit). He swore to his patron that if he was given the power to take out his targets that he would give his soul to his patron when he was finished. His patron granted him the power of the Hexblade Warlock, while the oath he swore and his dedication to it blessed him with the effects of a Vengeance Paladin. Probably took some liberties with the roleplay of the world, but myself and my DM were down for the story, and he ended up being a beloved character by the whole party who was very upset when at the end of the campaign he fulfilled his promise and was taken by his patron to become a champion for his patron.
hexblade paladin is just Kronk with the devil and angel on his shoulders. as a lawful neutral character i think it might be fun picking between the good and evil in you for each situation and having the dm sometimes make you roll to see what happens in a tense situation either adding or subtracting your charisma depending on what you want to do
For those wanting to make a guilt-free Warlock/Paladin who uses Cha for everything, there’s a REALLY good option: Celestial Tome Warlock for 3 levels, and fill in the rest with your favorite Paladin So, you want Celestial because it’s amazing. But seriously tho, it’s much less likely to cause offense to a “pure religious” sort of Paladin background if your bonus power comes from an angel. And, it gets some really solid supportive options for a frontline Warrior-Healer. You want Tome for the ALMIGHTY STICK Cantrip (Shillelagh. Keep in mind, all Tome Cantrips regardless of normal spell list convert to using Cha). Run with a shield, you’re still doing the same damage as a one-handed warhammer, magical at base, feel free to pick up Dueling for more dmg. 3 levels of Warlock gives a pair of 2nd level short rest spells. Not exactly necessary, but super nice, especially with access to some arcane spell stuff like Invis and Spider Climb. Enjoy.
Another solution to the ranged problem: -You could choose the Protector Aasimar race to activate the Radiant Soul feature. It lasts a minute, you fly 30ft (which heavy armor doesn’t impose!) AND you deal extra radiant damage equal to your level! So you can save those spell slots or go all out. -Instead of Magic Initiate, you can also take the Blessed Warrior fighting style to gain Sacred Flame and another useful cleric cantrip. You can swap out these cantrips each level up. (if you’re about damage, take Word of Radiance for when you’re surrounded by enemies) Another Solution to the M.A.D. problem: -Tritons are a perfect pick for Paladins both mechanically and roleplay wise. Their racial ASI include a +1 in STR, CON & CHA.
I built a hexblade-paladin for a one-shot. He worshipped a fallen Solar who acted as his patron, and the “deity” he swore an oath under. Conquest X Hexblade 3 is pretty cool thematically. He even got a sunblade before the end of that session, so I had a soulbound lightsaber. Really fun one shot all around.
I have decided that if I ever run a game is that I will allow Paladins to smite at range BUT the catch is that it just bumps down to a D6 instead of D8. That way my player could have a Dex Range Paladin and still smite (although just slightly weaker) and if they decide to go into melee it’s kind of badass that they pull a sword and do more radiant damage because they are up close and personal
take the dual wielder feat and dual wield battle axes you can attack, smite, two weapon fighting bonus attack, smite, extra attack at 5th level, smite, and if you do this horseback with 2 lances, you’re doing 3d12 for the three lance attacks, plus the 8d8 smite damage for the two 2nd level slots and the one 1st level slot you use, for a max of 100 dmg, I think that works
According to Forgotten Realms lore, the Raven Queen created the first shadow blades (which is what the bound weapons are), she’s even mentioned in the PHB class entry for making Cursebringer. As a Lawful Good deity she makes the perfect patron and deity for a Paladin/Hexblade combo. There’s no reason a given deity can’t have Warlocks as part of their clergy, acting as their patron. The bond between a Paladin and her deity or a Warlock and her patron, and the tenets they have to follow, are nearly identical.
I remember back when I used to only play full casters. Then I played my first paladin and realized how much more badass it is to deal 120 damage in a single turn just because. Also hexblade warlock really is broken, especially with spells like hold person and darkness. Also if you need an explanation for how you can be a hexblade and a paladin, just say that your power was bestowed to you through your oath by the same patron (but this would probably only work with the more morally gray oaths like Conquest)
This actually just gave me the best idea for the paladin I’m brewing rn. It’s gonna be a oath of conquest paladin with one level in warlock. If my DM allows it I’ll have the hexblade entity be Zariels sword and my deity for my paladin be Zariels herself. The blade will be calling on me to restore Zariel to her former self
My favorite idea for a hexadin (and I’m sure other people have come up with this) is a paladin being given a warlock pact with a sentient or cursed weapon. Could even be a weapon associated with the same entity as the paladin is already sworn to, like Perseus being given his weapons by the gods. Hexblade is cool because it leaves a lot open to play with when your pact can be with a weapon. Swear to Odin and get a dollar store version of Gungnir or some shit. Lots of fun
Once I was a playing a campaign in which we were the villains, and we were sworn to the king of demons. We took the campaign all the way to lv 20, and I got paladin lv 6, warlock lv 2 and sorcerer 12. It was probably the strongest character I’ve ever built in DnD. Also, the king of demons was my patron, which made everything even more fun
I am playing a Strength-based Paladin at the moment (Variant Human with Dual Wielder Feat and Two Longswords). I will Multiclass into Fighter soon, the Champion Subclass to be precise. Criting on 19, Action Surge and Two-Weapon Fighting are the things I think might be beneficial. To be able to nuke out Five Smites in a row is a nice power Fantasy.
One thing failed to mention here is the Tasha’s Fighting Style that gives Paladin two cleric Cantrips, if you’re a Strength-based Paladin two-handing a weapon, this Fighting Style is worth it and beats the snot out of the Great Weapon Fighting Style. Go Chonquest and you can also Chapitalize on Chatering toward Charisma with Spiritual Weapon.
Thanks for the effort 🙂 One point I disagree with: Banishing smite is IMO mostly a damage dealing spell. It deals more additional damage then divine smite can (5d8 vs 5d10) and you can stack it with divine smite to make a hardcore attack against a big baddie. The banishing effect is in my experience mostly irrelevant. Getting an enemy below 50 HP when you are level 17 to get the banishing effect to activate means that the target is either already close to being dead anyway or too weak to make any big difference on the encounter. Giving that bad boy to the enemy though is an entirely different story :}
I cast gun Arcane Gun: Level 3 (Concentration) It takes an action to Create a magical gun, with 6 magical bullets. On your next turn you can fire up to 2 rounds per your turn til you expend all 6 rounds. You can spend an action to reload all 6 rounds. You can keep going until you break concentration on the spell. You use your spell attack modifier to hit. On a natural 20 you double the dice on a natural 1 you give your position away with a loud “bang!”. Damage is 2D12 per round
I like using divine smite, usually forget to use it, which is why I love having improved divine smite it just pops automatically. How I countered ranged issue was taking the gunner feat, I;d been carrying a musket for like 5 sessions anyways, though yeah I chose to round all my ability scores so no maxed stats but 12s are my lowest stats, but just use bloodpact (revolver; Magic items vol 3 Arcane and Mad Science) now or chuck javelins at enemies 120ft away w/ audra’s vow of emnity (the party was given memory flasks and I got that npc ver of VoE) which does an additional 1d4 of cold dmg.