The table of oath spells indicates the class level at which a spell is obtained, and once it is obtained, it works normally. Oath spells are associated with each oath and can be accessed at the levels specified in the oath description. New spells marked with an asterisk are new. The Sacred Oath class feature explains how oath spells work.
The Ranger of Paladins, Oath of the Ancients, shares style and options with Rangers and Druids, including magical options for crowd control and area control. The Oath of Glory is a showman and hardened warrior, combining sword and sorcery to turn combat into a spectacle of entertainment. Oath spells for Vengeance paladins are strong, especially at lower levels, with Bane turning the tide on a fight and classic buffs like Haste and Protection from Energy.
Magic permeates the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons, often appearing in the form of Banishment and Staggering Smite. A 3rd-level paladin has 3 spell slots, but their oath gives them 2 additional spells. Oath spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain an oath spell that doesn’t appear on the paladin spell list, it is still a paladin spell for you.
In conclusion, the table of oath spells indicates the class level at which a spell is obtained, and once it is obtained, it works normally. Oath spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.
📹 You Might Be an Oath of Conquest Paladin | Paladin Subclass Guide for DND 5e
#dnd5e #paladin #oathofconquest Check out the Discord! https://discord.gg/M97vbPd98C Hey! Guess what. You’re Awesome …
📹 How to Play an Oath of Vengeance Paladin in Dungeons & Dragons 5e
TIME STAMPS 1:43 – Why Play an Oath Of Vengeance Paladin 5:32 – Abilities 9:21 – Building An Oath Of Vengeance Paladin …
I feel the Abjure Enemy feature is underrated. I think people don’t realize that if they fail the Wisdom save THEY DON’T GET TO REPEAT THE SAVE. So you can stop someone completely in their tracks and just ignore them until you’ve mopped up their allies, then finish them off while their stuck standing still. It works well when there’s one particular enemy that’s difficult to deal with.
My first ever 5E character was a Dwarf Vengeance Paladin. I’ve used him in multiple campaigns and was my first character to get to level 20! I played him essentially like batman, using misty step to get behind enemies and yell dwarven oaths. By far my favorite class/subclass in all of DnD. Protip: Get the heavy weapon master feat for massive damage.
Interesting timing, since today I’m starting a Curse of Strahd campaign where I am going to be playing a Scourge Aasimar Vengeance Paladin. He’s going to have the Haunted One background, with a bit of a twist in that the source of his torment is his own angelic guide, who drove him halfway to madness by filling his dreams every single night with commands to destroy the forces of darkness and chaos.
I have also played a half-orc oath of vengeance paladin, Thorkk Stonefoot. I have many great stories that I could tell. One of my favorite moments was when I was level 4. The party was escorting a noble to a city, and on the way, we encountered a half-orge. The bard was talking to it and asked it’s named, which was Barthalamu. I had a flaw that said my sharp tongue gets me into trouble, so I took advantage of that flaw. I called the half-ogre Barthalapuc and what not. The orge then proceeded to call two friends to fight me. I then proceeded to kill all three of them by myself. I kept Barthalamu’s head as a trophy. When we got to the city, I had it’s skull made into a goblet.
Man, I absolutely love Oath of Vengeance Paladins. I’m playing a Silver Dragonborn OoV Paladin. From a family that left to form a small village in a forest near Icewind Dale. His village was wiped out and all of the survivors were taken by the Drow. And now he wanders through Faerun after any clues to their whereabouts. We’re playing the Mine of Phandelver campaign, and we’ve just hit lvl 4 after miraculously killing the big green critter (trying not to spoil). And I’m having a blaaaaast. He plays the role of tank, having roled max HPs 2 times in a row and a further 8 has him now on 50 HPs. Plus Shield and a Heavy Armor, his AC 19 (or 21 with Shield of Faith) makes him nearly impenetrable should he choose to Dodge, making enemies roll with disadvantage in narrow spots. It’s been done online, but the face of frustration on my DM’s face is priceless whenever I get to Divine Smite his minions into smithereens.
My group decided to do a one shot when our normal session fell through because of adulting and I rolled up a protector aasimar at 17th level. Asked for a holy avenger as my only magic item and found out we were being sent to the Abyss . Had a blast sweeping through hoards of demons and at the end I soloed a balor, his death throws knocked me out but the party was able to save me. Loved that night.
I’m playing a Fire Genasi Hexblade/Vengeance Paladin in a campaign right now! My character was a slave to an Efreeti in the City of Brass and was saved/freed by a Tiefling Horizon Walker (my friends character). So now we’re basically plane-hoping buddy cops protecting the material plane from extra-planer threats like fiends and evil elementals.
I just played a goblin dexterity based vengeance paladin in a friend’s one shot a couple weeks ago. We were at 8th level, so I took 5 paladin and 3 fighter into champion, so I was raining crits. Thankfully, not much of the paladin’s class necessarily requires you to use strength, so it was an interesting build. Unfortunately I couldn’t double down on great weapon master or polearm master, but I had an effective AC of 21 with shield of faith going and a +7 to dex saves (thanks to resilient), and still a bunch of hit points. All this to say, vengeance paladins are dope, and dex paladins are surprisingly dope. Maybe even take the lucky feat to go crit fishing even more!
I’ve absolutely loved playing a hex blade Oath of Vengeance Paladin for over 2 years in my current group. Srydar Kront’tain started as a level1 half-drow who had just escaped the underdark. 73 sessions and 20 levels later he killed Lolth and stole her divinity. My next character is going to be a Twilight domain cleric who worships him. The only drawback to the Oath of Vengeance is that it might make the other players feel underpowered, so keep that in mind.
I have an Oath of Conquest rolled up, just waiitng as a reserve in the case my DM just overdoes some encounter xD It would be great to have you guys discuss the other paladin oaths! I, of course, would prefer to know more about Conquest, but it would be great to learn more about Ancients, Devotion and Redemption.
I am so happy to see that both of you really enjoyed playing as oath of vengeance paladins, your content is amazingly instructive and fun. My favorite character is my 11th lvl human oath of vengeance paladin – Aiden. Just as Kelly described there have been very few instances where he does not feel like he walks out of a combat as a hero, dealing dumb amounts of damage in a round of combat (100+?ish), bringing back up allies to over half health with lay on hands, stunning/holding enemies, hasting the barbarian… you name it. Getting to dump 3 divine smites in a single round with a crit entwined in there is nothing to laugh, at BBEG’s hp drops like flies. Not just in combat but also in the roleplaying portion of the game, the party was pure chaos as they started out meeting each other, but slowly became a bit of a family. The tiefling bard and him were both very obstinate in the way they viewed the world and would occasionally bump heads when trying to be the face of the party. She was always too innocent, too naïve, would always try to talk her way out nicely, and with flattery. Aiden would never bend the knee as he had sworn to protect those that could not protect themselves, to preserve the peace by any means, and to punish the wicked. However, they would always save each other from dire danger and grew closer as time went by… Aiden realized that the bard was the pinnacle of things he wanted to protect. They have remained together since as a couple, caring for their chaotic group, roaming the lands for more songs to sing.
Excellent content as always gentlemen, thank you. As you may have noticed, 2020 has been a super-sized turdburger of a year. My game’s been on hold for 7 months so far and we had got used to playing in a 15th century pub, by a roaring fire, hard to recreate that vibe online. Your articles and others like them have kept me sane, inspired and motivated. Thank you so very much, Mwah xx
Been playing a paladin for a few months now, new to paladins, my DM has let me switch oaths to try them all. Just switched to the oath of vengeance paladin after last week’s session. Tonight will be my first night using him. So excited, I also multi-classed into sorcerer at level 7 to get more spells for smites and range attacks through spells. It has been a lot of fun. So nice to see this posted today. You guys made this just for me I swear. Thanks so much Dungeon Dudes. 🙂
I’m playing an Oath of Conquest Paladin as a pirate captain in a nautical campaign. He’s a bugbear named Grim Grin with that awesome 10ft reach. Over the course of the campaign he lost his Ice longsword in a deal with an angel for the life of one of his crew mates, and now he uses his unarmed strikes instead with the tavern brawler feat and grappler feat. He’s just a big beefy claw-smiting boy. Hoping to acquire a thematic 9-tail whip for him soon for that sweet 15ft smite range. The charisma has also gone a long way for RP, as it’s awesome to illicit fear in the crew’s enemies and play out the fantasy of being fearsome pirates. Paladins surprisingly make some of the beat pirates as well given their oaths, and having them be modified into their own pirate code for some juicy lawful evil fun.
I made an oath of vengeance paladin very recently, he was a variant human and I took magic initiate at level one, taking fire bolt, dancing lights, and burning hands from the sorcerer spell list. At level four I took war caster. I wanted him to be a mixed spell casting/melee damage build, and I think it worked well.
I love throwing in three levels of Hexblade (Pact of the Blade) with my Vengeance Paladin. Since I can now use charisma for my attack modifier, I can leave my strength at a 15. Eldridge Blast gives a excellent ranged option for a Paladin who usually is lacking a good ranged attack. And there’s nothing like stacking the hex class ability on the BBG. If you take five levels in Hexblade you can also get a superior form of smite. Lots of amazing synergies with this combo
Boy oh boy does this article both get me nostalgic and excited. My first D&D character was a Half-Elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin. This character was a half-elf who grew up among elves who was on a mission to destroy the people that burned down the forest he grew up in. Since this was my first character and I feel he didn’t get the proper development and play that he did (since I was new) I’m going to be playing him again in my next campaign. I am beyond excited 😀
I’m using a different build for Oath of Vengeance, and it’s also been very successful. It’s a Half-Elf with Elven Accuracy (I use a Sunblade, which is a finesse weapon), Mounted Combatant and Shield Master (we play with 1 extra Feat at Lv. 1). Abilities were rolled: Str 14 / Dex 18 / Con 16 / Int 11 / Wis 14 / Cha 18. With Fighting Style (Defense), Half-Plate and a shield I have 20 AC (with no magic item bonus for AC yet). I’m Lv. 10 now. At Lv. 13 I’ll be able to cast Find Greater Steed to ride a Pegasus. I’m planning to take Defensive Duelist (Lv.12), Resilient (Con) (Lv.16) and Resilient (Dex) (Lv.19). My plan is to be pretty solid on all defenses (Saving Throws and AC) and also hitting hard with Vow of Emmity + Elven Accuracy (for high Critical Hit chances) + Smite.
Thanks Dungeon Dudes for walking me through most things DnD. Just started campaigning with friends through Pandemic over Roll 20 playing Sword coast i believe & played 1 live table with halflings … Super fun! Just created a Oath of Vengeance Paladin knight warforged for our party. He is a beast! Sir Doomed …
Currently I’m playing a Dragonborn Vengeance Paladin. Loving it so far, working on lvl 10. Our dm gave us one free feat, so I took heavy armor master for the +1 strength and damage reduction. That has been huge. Next feat I took resilient constitution for more tankiness. Ring of spell storing is so good to store misty steps or cure wounds as a life saver so you can save more spell slots for smite. It’s a ton of fun to play. And I’m pretty sure I’ve healed more than our war cleric. Aura of vitality has been pretty helpful to keep people topped off or save a downed ally from a distance
Was very keen to hear your input as I’m playing one now and having less fun then I thought I would. Only level 4 but we keep getting thrown only groups of low hp mobs and so never get to unleash the beast. I find that the bard and sorcerer wipe the table where I get 1 or 2 hits in and meanwhile am flanked by 4 enemies and fighting for my life. I’ve had 2 or 3 times when I was able to unleash and it was cool, but those are rare. Am thinking of changing to an echo knight for the cool battlefield movement and skills, plus them fighter ASI/feats
I started playing the Half Orc Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance. He’s really awesome! I even got a brand new model to paint him in the theme of the Oath of Vengeance. I also painted his sword blade black to replicate Gurthang, the Iron of Death from the Children of Hurin book. I can’t wait to play with this mini.😆
It says something that we’ve got two experienced players in the article talking about how much fun Vengeance paladins are to play, AND a bunch of people in the comments saying they’re loving playing one in their first campaign. That’s a winner! I’m playing a 6th level VoO right now—my second character ever—and I agree. It’s a blast to play this blustering, grizzled veteran who can flirt with a barmaid and then unleash fury on the unjust. With Hold Person and Misty Step on top of Thunderous Smite, Sentinel, and dwarven plate—and Haste coming—he’s amazing at getting where he wants to be, putting enemies where he wants them, and not letting enemies move him or past him.
my first ever d&d character was an oath of vengeance paladin. our dm made us start from level like 13 so i put in her backstory that she had wanted to be oath of devotion but swore vengeanche in a fit of rage and bloodlust so playing her was incredibly fun. She wanted DESPERATELY to be good, to be liked, but when it came down to it she could be straight up cruel because thats what it took to do the right thing. the experience was especially fun because our partys warlock was just genuinely good and it was just this constant feeling of like. you could and should be more like that, but also the job needs to be done. like the guys covered really well how SATISFYING it is to fight as a vengeance pally, but the roleplay and character dynamics it offers are almost as fun if not more
I am playing a paladin and I have a team consisting of an echo knight fighter, a shepherd Druid, an enchantment wizard, and an evocation wizard. Both wizards love the animate objects spell allowing them to summon animate 10 silver coins each and let me tell you, using crusader’s mantel to add a d4 to all 20 coins is just absolutely great.
I’m playing an OoV Paladin in a group right now! I actually went DEX heavy, used a rapier and wore light armor, and took 4 levels in Rogue (Assassin sub type). Since my Oath gives me constant advantage, I can always sneak attack, and land devastating crits by dropping in smites. Cunning action makes me slippery and versatile, and I took Sentinel and Defensive Duelist. My race is a Dragonborn (which my group has houseruled to be a tad better).
I’m currently playing a Dragonborn “Ancestral Guardian” Barbarian. My DM is “strongly urging” me to multiclass to a caster class of somekind. I was considering Paladin since I think the protective nature of “Ancestral Guardian” fits with my RP. I was originally thinking of going “Oath of Glory”, but this article, and the way ya’ll played your OoV Paladins, has described my character to a T. Thank you for the inspiration. I found your website a few months ago during COVID (I live in GA and yes it still sucks) and I have loved every article.
Great stuff, thanks. Can you make one about oath of the ancients? And I would love to hear about suggestion to “go out from the box” as kelly said, regarding to all sorts of paladin oaths. I really like the mechanics of a paladin(actually not divine smite, but everything else), but the oath scares me and it feels like a weight. Anyway, great article
You finally brought up the one issue of paladins in general How MAD they are Like out of all the classes they are the most MAD And indeed it helps what to allocate Is the player has to think what they want out of their character If they are more combat oriented yes just focus on str and con and pick spells that dont need to force enemies for saving throws too much Such as some buff spells and target themselves Maybe pack in aura of vitality if needed For more support oriented paladins, like the oath of crown Defo focus on cha instead Never neglect con too much as they are frontline classes
My friend played one in a campaign that lasted many, many sessions after Level 20. Brann Ironbeard. Dwarf Paladin, sword and board, riding valiantly atop his Found Steed throughout all combat encounters with naught on his mind but destroying the threats to the good of the party. Crowning moments of awesome include… – Almost killing off a Mummy Lord in one turn at party level 13 – Actually killing off a Demilich in one turn at party level 17 – Reducing an Adult White Dragon’s health by 66% in one turn at party level 11. – Jumping off a cliff at the end of the day just because he had a Dimension Door to spare, and using it to return to the party A badass was he. Indeed nobody will be disappointed to play this.
You guys should do this same article for Redemption! It feels different to play compared to the other oaths I have played. I started as an Oath of Vengeance Paladin serving Ares in a COS campaign, with a switch to multiclassed Battlemaster/Oath of Devotion for Athena, and now Redemption instead of devotion. Loooong story behind all that, but our group has been playing for almost 3 years now. This is my first character, and I love it. Nothing better then doing over 200 damage to Shummrath in one round, smites for days🤪 Love your articles, keep up the great content 🙂
playing one of these right now in a curse of strahd campaign. everything you say is spot on, you’re just a devastor, i’m a level 6 OoV paladin and a 3rd lvl fighter. that action surge with the champion fighter subclass, with the improved criticals, so i’m doubling all my dice on 19’s now as well. i laughed when kelly said his paladin hated demons because they kidnapped his family; my paladin serves yeenoghu, after having been driven insane by some rather unfortunate events in the campaign haha. been a great character. looking forward to the next episode of shadows!
I am currently playing a Vengeance Paladin and I actually built him as a dex two-weapon fighter funnily enough. Hunter’s Mark puts in double the work when you are hitting twice a turn before level 5 and at level 5 you are still getting more mileage than a two-hander would. What makes this more than just a ranger with extra steps is that with more attacks and 3 levels into champion fighter it becomes an effective crit fishing build to dump powerful smites into. Additionally, fighter gives two weapon fighting as a fighting style to shore up that weakness. Taking defense on the paladin combined with dual wielder feat makes his AC rival a full-plate paladin.
Dwarvish Oath of Vengeance Paladin during DnD Next playtest. I liked it a lot, misty step off a summoned steed was nice. The DM let me have a Dire Wolf for a mount. Spells would change during playtest, but it’s always nice to see what they can do as opposed to just smiting all the time, but there is nothing wrong with smite. Lloth was in a large room on her spaceship thing, Vengeance mobility to get up in her face so ranged can do their thing was sweet.
Currently playing a Vengeance Paladin/Hexblade (2/1 right now, going to go Paladin for the rest of his career). Sword and board, I originally wanted to play one of the Fizban’s Dragonborn but ended up reflavoring it to Custom Lineage (because D&DBeyond) and took Fey Touched Hunter’s Mark (Hex wasn’t available for some reason, wooodve preferred it bc subclass gets it and I wanted more warlock spells but what happens happens). Started with 2 magic items: Sun Blade and Amulet of Health (the reason I dumped con, I saved the points for int and wis for flavor and saves/checks). He’s the very classic “X villain killed my village, and now I’m out for revenge”, and I’m having a blast. Not the most profound character, but I’m playing him like a person, and he’s the heart of the party. Here’s to hoping all of you can have as much fun as I am.
I also did polearm master on my very first paladin, she was a tiefling who grew up as a street urchin before getting indoctrinated into BASICALLY a cult for the raven queen, and she was extremely zealous, using a glaive (and later a vorpal scythe – basically a glaive but edgier because Valkira was pretty edgy) when my dm told me that smites were a ‘free action’ basically, and i got to use my bonus action for pommels and dish out 3 smites per round, it was huge. I remember being around level 11 with my part of just 4 and we encountered a bit fiend we weren’t supposed to fight really, just communicate with, and Valkira saw him as an obstacle, and did around 200 points of damage in a single round, two big crits and the polearm master hit, just dumping all three of her level 3 smite slots into a fiend and then a level 2 smite from the polearm master attack. Both of those level 3 crits hit for over 50, then i did really high damage (thank you great weapon fighting) on the attacks, and the other 2 smites were high damage. it was wicked cool. add in great weapon master ontop of everything too, she just trucked through that thing without realising what it even was as a new player I didn’t even know what a pit fiend was either personally, i just saw it as something in the way of me – Valkira – smiting the undead It was a really cool moment
Great article as always. I’m going to play a paladin in our next campaign and after seeing this, it’s going to be a vengeance one. In our last campaign, I’ve played a bard and decided to play something completely different now. After some reading and your articles I decided for a paladin. Never played one before and neither has anyone else in our group, so this is exciting!
I am currently playing an Oath of Vengeance Paladin in my current campaign. The DM has helped me to RP this character in a way I didn’t think I was going to. He was tricked into being an offering for Orcus, but managed to resist Orcus enough for Orcus to offer him a deal. He was given a portion of Orcus’ power (which the DM rationalized through access to all Necromancy spells that can be cast at my level, and the ability to expend Lay on Hands as a free action up to the damage dealt on an attack to give me temporary HP). My Paladin is stuck on the fence of using power granted by evil to destroy the evil that tried to sacrifice him and is arrogant enough to believe that he can turn the power against Orcus, when the time comes.
Looking for recommendations: I’m wanting to make a Fallen Aasimar Oath of Vengeance Paladin +2 CHA +1 STR First question Where would you put your standard array ability scores? I was thinking: STR 13 +1 = 14 DEX 14 CON 15 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 12 +2 = 14 Second question Where would you put your ability score improvements at level 4? Third question With Tasha’s allowing us to move around the ability score perks, would you move the +2 CHA and/or the +1 STR to something else? Thank you!
I am really enjoying my Oath of Vengeance Paladin build and I am really happy this article came out because I’m really considering going into some classes in Hexblade Warlock but the Roleplay and backstory for this character is super fun. I built an Aasmir (born human due to a tie in with the existing campaign) and I really enjoyed building and playing this character. My backstory for the character was a son of a noble house (to fit the soldier background and martial weapons)who in his service had witnessed a slave colony/camp be wiped out. This experience cause the Aasmir spark to ignite and my soldier to swear their oath vowing to stop this wherever possible. My paladin swore his oath to Kelemvor, God of the dead. Since the literature for Kelemvor said he focused on the balance of life and death and more about death being a gift (the release from the pains of life) I tweaked it slightly with my DM’s permission to have my paladin swear an oath of vengeance again anyone who would pervert or break that balance. So the obvious, undead and necromancers who defile the gift of death and slavers who defile the gift of life (by taking it and making life something miserable). It’s been really fun since running into slavers can cause a ruckus for the party but it is really fun to Roleplay.
One thing that you guys didn’t touch on: Vengeance Paladins are perfect for a Dexadin. Leather armor and a high Dex give you respectable AC without the stealth penalty, you can dual-wield something like a rapier with a whip to give you two zones of threat control, and it’s perfect to take a dip or two of Rogue to get some nice sneak attack damage that your extra crits (thanks to Vow of Enmity) will love. I played a Belmont-style whip-wielding Vengeance Dexadin in a Tales from the Yawning Portal group and absolutely loved it.
Shadow Mark Elf 5th+ Vengeance Paladin 3rd+ Shadow Sorcerer (+5 Hexblade Tomelock) Double-Bladed Scimitar Elven Accuracy You become a windmill of light and shadow, cutting down foes left and right. You spend through Spell Slots like candy, and using your Sorlock abilities to generate a near unlimited amount of Spell Slots for smiting. Uses Darkness, Invisibility, and the Vow to consistently gain 3d20 per attack.
I just made a Vengeance Paladin today – still fairly new to DnD – it’s a custom race with a custom “Sole Survivor” background I made for her, but she’s basically obsessed with searching for a monstrosity she can only refer to as “The Creeper” after it killed everyone in her Holy Order and is constantly tormented by eldritch nightmares. The custom background has the Haunted One Feature and some Soldier background traits. And no. it’s not a Minecrafter Creeper.
Wow this is funny timing since I started Curse of Strahd playing a half-elf Oath of Vengeance Paladin… Now playing the same character, but because of story and character development and discussions with my DM, she is now Oath of the Ancients 😀 Absolutely love this class and subclass, and I miss Vow of Emnity, but I do love my character now more thanks to her story.
I had a vengeance paladin named Aston who had a serious problem with elves and drow in particular to a point in which my oath was specifically an oath to exterminate the drow. The rest of the party just so happened to be a Wood-Elf rouge, a Half-Elf wizard, and a Drow cleric. This wasn’t even planned, it just happened. Needless to say, Aston was not happy.
I been playing a level 20 vengeance paladin this year on Roll20 and my role has sort of switched to more of a support position than a front line fighter type. I still am in the trenches but when your facing monsters made for a group of 7 level 20 heroes the paladin is usually casting something to help the team. Items, spells, and auras save the day.
OMG, my background is so similar to Kelly’s. My tiefling OoV paladin is searching for a secretive cult called the Angels of Humanity, that target the “evil” tiefling race, that wiped out the small tiefling community where he lived, killing his pregnant wife. He swore vengeance against them and will stop at nothing till he kills them all. He also multiclassed to hexblade warlock (for 3 levels), giving him his pact weapon and his hex, which gives him improved crit, allowing for more divine powered damage 💪
That is one reason I dipped into Sorcerer(a Divine Soul) on my current Paladin (Conquest though). Using Sorc points for quicken happens a lot, since I have more spell slots then normal I can get away with it cause I can always spend points to get spell slots back, my DM hates my char cause I’ll just quicken Mirror Image after I go in swinging. Twining Haste is fun too lol. I’m going to miss him cause out campaign is almost done (we are lv 20. 12 Pld, 8 Sorc)
I created an Oath of Vengeance Tiefling as an NPC in the game I’m running who fights alongside the party. Making him purely with player rules. The fun part about this is that he just does not stop dealing damage! Currently level 5, When attacking, he typically uses the usual Vow of Enmity/Hunters Mark, the Dueling fighting style, and Searing Smite. When Searing Smite connects, that lights the enemy on fire so they then begin to take damage on their own turn. Then, when he’s hit, he can use his reaction for Hellish Rebuke. Finally, he has the Flames of Phlegethos feat which, because of Searing Smite, causes additional damage to attackers and rerolls the 1s on his many instances of fire spell damage XD. Plotwise, his current story hook for the party is to get them to help him take down a wealthy and powerful wizard who kinda took over his town with money and shady deals and is now using golems to protect his assets. Was originally a member of the militia group calling themselves The Town Watch in his city, keeping all the riffraff under control until this guy came along and took over. Wanting to oust him but with no real way of being able to do so, he tracks down a leader of a powerful crime group in hopes of maybe being able to so something to get back at the wizard. Turns out there was a group of Vengeance paladins also tracking this crime group who he inadvertently helped when they confronted the crime lord. Seeing the opportunity, he joined their order and pretty much made it his life’s goal to retake his town, which is why he now aims to enlist the party’s help.
my oath of vengeance half elf paladin is actually a palock with the Hexblade. currently at level 9 going into 10 with a 6/3 split. they have Elven accuracy so far but I am considering Inspiring Leader to boost along with the Aid spell. She currently has a longsword and shield +1 and a javelin of Lightning.
I have a Bloodline of Zariel Tiefling Vengeance Paladin, Arkus. Arkus’s party and him are currently in the Nine Hells attempting to rescue his mentor/adoptive father. In Avernus, the party came across a group of chain demons that attacked a brothel owned by a succubus that could be a potential ally. After the party killed all but the remaining chain demon, he then took the succubus hostage and was using her as a shield. Attacking the chain demon head on would be too risky without hurting the succubus. Arkus tried to talk the chain demon down and convince him to surrender. The chain demon laughed and spit at Arkus. Arkus smiled at the chain demon, misty stepped behind him, swung his war hammer down on the chain demon’s head (Nat 20), and pumped it with divine smite. No more chain demon and one of the most satisfying moments with the Vengeance Paladin so far. 🙂
Alignment seems to be largely subjective, but I’ve found that a Vengeance Paladin more closely aligns to Chaotic Good than “Lawful”. I somewhat noticed this because Devotion is the Lawful Good subclass, and Ancients is the Neutral Good subclass, as far as the PHB Paladin subclasses go. Again, subjective, as alignment can be construed as several things, like adherance to an Oath, other personal values, etc
I have yet to fully utilize the paladin in 5th. I did however play an awesome paladin a few years ago in a 2nd edition campaign. Through good arguments, “homework” of tons of extra research/backstory, and a fairly indulging (if perhaps shortsighted) Dm, I ended the game with a unicorn mount and a holy sword which pretty much meant that if I walked through a dungeon the undead basically disentigrated.
My brother is playing a polearm master sentinel vengeance paladin, and he is unstoppable against melee combatants. As the dungeon master I have to give most monsters ranged or reach attacks to create a threat, but now he’s seventh level and can just use Relentless Avenger to flee whenever other reach creatures try to attack. He is paying the price for taking two feats early, and his armor class is fairly low without the shield. But still, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Would love to hear you guys talk about the Oath of Conquest Paladin! I’ve been playing one and man…man oh man, those fear-based class features when used in conjunction with certain spells/features can be POTENT. They even have something for fear-immune enemies. Definitely doesn’t have the damage potential of Vengeance or Oathbreaker, but when you get those abilities going, those enemies will be downright helpless against you, knees quaking and all. And to top it all off, the flavor with which the Conquest Paladin operates at is so tasty hahaha. It’s just sheer domination through paralyzing fear. Made the biggest, most powerful enemies fall to their knees and tremble. Couldn’t do anything for the rest of the encounter. Wouldn’t deign to approach me in fear while I just unleashed smite after smite from a distance with my glaive. It felt pretty cheesy tbh and I had to check a couple times if my combos were entirely legal. Of course, it didn’t take long for our DM to prepare hard counters to my abilities, but that made it all the more rewarding and fun when you actually lock someone down in fear. Perfect marriage of mechanics and flavor. “You will fall behind me, or you will fall before me.”
Loved the article, but I have a couple questions after reading the character sheets. First I noticed neither Paladin has any smite spells equipped, is there a reason you’re not fans of those? 2nd, I noticed Dregden has a longbow. Nobody really ever talks about using ranged weapons as a Paladin and some even scoff at the idea so I found that interesting, what made you decide to use a bow? And lastly, why does Lance have 2 pole arms and a long sword? Lol does Monty have a fear of losing all of his weapons? I am a bit of a noob so if anyone else besides the Dungeon Dudes wants to chime in because I’m missing something obvious feel free to chime in.
I just rolled up and played my first two sessions as a half orc paladin over the last few days, I found that the class structure itself really lent itself to building the backstory for your character. Great race/class combo so far, first session I killed 4 Kobalts, and the second I helped push my party through a horde of them to get some civilians into the keep safely.
If you want to solve the issue of being MAD a single level dip of Hexblade is enough to get hex warrior(although you cant use greatswords with this saddly) So you can focus on Cha and Con Then use your last ability score for a feat or something I personally picked Tough so i can match the Barbarian in sheer hp pool size
Oath of vengeance paladin + few lvls on warlock, on a Curse of Strahd campaign. We had a haunted one elf, so in the first time I nearly died i made a pact with a force that was always surrounding the group (yes, the haunting monster, wich was a Balor). Since the paladin’s life was spared thanks to the monster, the only way to get rid of the restrictions of the pact would be the death of the Balor, so the group handled ir in a way that it dindt feel much like a betrayl.
My gold Dragonborn Vengeance paladin had a wonderful time playing the full Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat story. Highlights included using misty step to reach the back of an escaping dragon, rolling a nat 20 acrobatics to stick the landing, and finishing it off with a crit-smite, as well as surviving -7- fireballs in a single round thanks to aura and fire-resist 😀 My one complaint was that the odd wording of the smite spells made them difficult to use. As the only party member able to cast haste, I’d usually cast it on myself, meaning all the smite spells as concentration spells were poor options. If they had a line to the effect of “If you cast and discharge this on the same turn it doesn’t break concentration” would have meant they could reasonably compete with just using spell slots for smite. He also found that even with his oath, he did have a personal line in the sand as it were. A geas’d npc chose to disobey and take the psychic damage and die, rather than give us the information we asked for. Revivifying them to continue the questioning made my character stop and consider his oath.
I am playing an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. She is an Aasimar who smites the evil in the world. As a teenager, she witnessed an evil that changed her life. She made a vow to kill the demons that ravaged her family. She was left with a mark, and she sees spirits that are sometimes helpful and sometimes hang around to cause her grief, especially if she happened to end their lives. She has had to make some difficult choices in the campaign, and now she has a Etin sidekick named Bert and Ernie. One of her party members like Bert an Ernie, the bard, does not. Fun times. My character is broody, quiet, odd, and highly intimidating. The bard is our face, which allows me to sit in a corner scowling at everyone, including the ghosts.
My first character is Oath of Vengeance Were-Bear. He is an unbreakable wall. My party fights monsters Deadly +30% XP rating.Last night, 3 Level 8 characters defeated a CR 12 Archmage. My Paladin used Misty Step to get behind the Archmage, grappled him and began bashing his head against a desk. This allowed my party’s Rogue to come close and stab-him-in-the-face.
Oak of vengence, assassin, lore bard is dex build is prob the most powerful build i have ever played All the way through you have great RP You have the most amazing nova portiential ever. Shadow blade plus sneak attack plus smite is crazy powerful adding surprise auto crit Insane i 9nly made to level 16 but i dropped a critical for 10d8 shadow blade 4d6 sneak and 10d8 smite for my first attack then followed up with 2nd attack of 5d8 shadow and 4d8 smite
I really love your stuff! I have been perusal since episode one. I have always wondered why the volume always jumps from super soft to super loud on you voices. I had to stop using headphones and now I just sit on the controller turning it up and down as the volume goes up and down. Lately it has gotten really bad. Is there anything that I am doing wrong in replaying these? Maybe I should be playing in a dolby mode I am unaware of?
I have an oath of vengeance paladin. He is essentially the terminator. Tends to be very monotone, tries not to start fights, but if you actually manage to piss him off, he would black and just start moving. The first time my party saw this he was interrogating someone and he found out this guy had been on a crew that killed his family. So he snapped, broke his neck, and threw him over board (they were on a boat at the time) and my party started judging his actions when I revealed his backstory and oath. They started to basically keep him on a leash after that. Edit: auto correct
I’m playing a Goliath Champion Fighter 3/Vengeance Paladin 5 in Storm King’s thunder at the moment. I started Fighter for the Con save proficiency. Although I wish i’d stopped at fighter 2, I’m having a lot of fun, he hits very hard and is very hard to kill given second wind, stone’s endurance and lay on hands. Lagging behind the paladin tree for three levels is a bit painful though.
i played through DiA as an oath of vengeance paladin. one of my favorite moments was after we were ambushed in our sleep, casting haste on myself and my steed to go run down the fleeing bad guy on their motorcycle war machine. nothing like I nightmare moving 300+ feet per round with a paladin on it’s back to really put the fear in an enemy
the immense single target damage is true af. i’m only lvl6 and i’ve managed to burn through half of several boss’s healthpools in one combat round, even without crits on the smites. two attacks and a PAM bonus attack are ridiculous when you just smite everything : O and for people worried about having to be good or lawful with your paladin: think of a vengeance oath as the punisher, and your “lawful” is more the code you’ve made for yourself to follow, which is in your oath anyway. work with your dm, see how they feel about your plans, and you can get away with being shady and shooting first in a lot of situations. that can also apply to the religious aspect, if you’re worried about trying to put up with that in your own rp. your defining feature is your oath, not necessarily your devotion to a deity. you can devote yourself to a concept (justice, vengeance, etc…) and just gain your power from the deity over that domain in your universe and not necessarily have to be constantly proselytizing or anything
I’m playing and oath of vengeance paly, hexblade warlock in a baldurs gate campaign, and its just crazy strong. I was able to just get a 13 str to MC and focus on carisma and con, which was great, particularly when I mustered enough money to buy a mithril plate. I am currently palladin 9 warlock 2. I wanted to double down on ‘i can hit you really hard’, so I went with half elf and took elven accuracy. And its just nuts! On my second round (once I used my first bonus actions to VoE and hex curse and my first action to cast haste and get to my enemy) I just become a killing machine. I roll 3 d20 per attack, critting on 19-20, and have 3 attacks per round. This means I have more than 60% chance of critting at least once per round! So I just select my smites on crits and its an absurd amount of damage. Almost every round Im rolling a crit smite blow!! Also, i’m this really heroic guy with 20 car who gives +5s to saving throws of my party mates, saving them…. and I play just like it lol. That cocky guy that really deeply believes that he is the savior of humankind. Recently another party member multiclassed into paladin and I’m just going to town in the rp part, like Im the great inspiring figure that ppl follow lol
In an upcoming campaign I plan to play a oath of vengeance paladin, he’s going to absolutely despise demons and wonders the lands hunting them due to his order being slaughtered by them and only those paladins not at the mausoleum that day survived. The remaining Paladins of that order (haven’t thought of a name but they praise Pelor) meet to discuss current events, they all decide to vow and oath of vengeance and wonder the land in search of answers, conspirators and most importantly demon abominations. He is going to have a very space marine like personality from Warhammer 40K, I can’t wait he sounds super fun to play as. His name his Sigmumd El’Johnson
A silver dragonborn OoV paladin that I’m playing right now is actually one whose sworn enemy are tyrants; he was formerly a mercenary until the company he was in was betrayed and slaughtered by a prince (and then king) of a kingdom they had a contract with. He ended up as a kingslayer in his bid to escape, and then devoted himself to becoming a paladin to seek and destroy other would-be tyrants before what happened to him happens to anyone else. At present, he’s stuck in Barovia, in a Curse of Strahd campaign, and while he can be friendly to most, he very much has a switch that makes him merciless to tyrants. He’ll taunt and needle at enemies to get their attention (for example, we killed a lieutenant of Strahd’s inserted as homebrew, and her sister is now after us; to keep her attention away from the squishy bard and less squishy cleric, he kept mocking and insulting her late sister to keep her enraged and focused on him). His name is Daardenrien Falmith, though others just call him Falmith.
The oath of vengeance was my first ever character. Droguar greyscale the prince of a destroyed kingdom. He became a legend among the party as when we played the advantage and some really lucky dice let me and the fighter and the wizard fight a goristro(cr 17) at level 5 by dropping haste on me followed by 3 nat 20s on one turn ripping its health apart being it was both a demon and I had a magic weapon (moonblade long sword)
One of my favorite (and successful reaching level 20) characters was an Fallen Aasimar paladin with the oath of vengeance, His name was Nathaniel, he was a veteran that previously was apart of a death squad (via being kidnapped / drafted as a baby) filled with other Aasimar members of an celestial that they worshipped, one mission they were basically all slaughtered by a pit demon that was terrorizing a village. Their celestial knew that they all will die but the angel didn’t do anything about it, after Nathaniel delt the killing blow to the demon all of his friends that he ever knew was gone, he confronted the angel but it was considered heresy so he was damned, his wings were ripped off and damned by the angel. That night be gotten from a protector Aasimar to a fallen Aasimar. He swore vengeance against the Devil / demons, as well as the celestial.
I got so excited when I realized that Paladins weren’t alignment restricted in 5e that I decided to make a Lawful Neutral Oath of Vengeance Paladin with a typical edgy (TM) backstory. But, cue some good character choices (1st level shield master feat and 4th level lucky feat) with some DM mistakes (getting +3 adamantine plate mail armor at level 5 wasn’t in anyone’s plan), and suddenly a level 7 Paladin with 24 AC, immune to crits, and crowd-controlling everything had been born. I miss playing him and also don’t XD
My buddy was a lawful good Vengeance paladin this last campaign and I ran a custom Fighter/warlock brew that was secretly neutral evil. We did some buddy cop duo one shots in between sessions of our full 5 person party. It was amazing. Gregor (Paladin) was a religious zealot out to purge any and all heretics in the name of Ulric through fire and combat while Kronk (me) was secretly learning demonology for his god based on Tzeentch. Our characters were friends and got along super well despite my selfish tendencies and his zealous nature. In an amazing quest, I managed to trick Gregor into killing an entire village on behalf of a demon worshipping cult by convincing him that the innocents were actually the cultists. It was one of the best RP sessions we’ve ever had in dnd.
I’m currently playing a Folk Hero Variant Aasimar Vengeance Paladin. Her oath is to destroy the cult of the Raven Queen, because one of the cultists impersonated someone she loved and then cut off her wings. And then threw her off a cliff. I’m really hoping the campaign allows her to get to level 20 so she can have wings again, if only for a little while. (Yes, I know there’s a 7th-level spell that would regrow them, we’ll see where the campaign takes us). She’s had a ton of great moments so far but one I really love is a boss fight against a homebrew undead called an Eldritch Bloom. Important note, it’s weak to Radiant. I rolled terribly on initiative and went last in the round. Our Sun Soul Monk did great damage to it but nearly got killed in retaliation. I finally charge in: Divine Favour and then a Nat20 on my first attack, which I of course was using 2nd level Divine Smite as well (the highest I had; was only level 7 then) I think the final calculation was 142 damage after we counted the radiant weakness. That was more than the thing had total, let alone after the rest of the party wailed on it. I obliterated the damn thing. Best part: Right before we rolled initiative, I’d used Divine Sense to confirm the thing was Undead. DM informed me that yes, it was an Undead… and there was another Undead as well, standing directly to my left. camera pans over to the ‘human’ artificer who had only joined us the session before sweat trickles down the artificer’s face as he watches a 6’2″ paladin in heavy armour smite the shit out of a massive undead with holy energy.
I’m my party, I was a half orc paladin, and the religious aspect was all due to a war between humans/elves and orcs that was overshadowed by a war between an empire and a colt, and it turns out the empire was behind the war of the orcs, and cause my brother, mother and father to die, but rescuing my sister (a full orc) and using her to aid my party in huge damage, whist fighting with the colt against the empire, needless to say it was a bit of a holocaust situation and it was very enjoyable using the cleric and the Druid in my party to cast a lot of spells so I could deal serious damage and that made me the focal point of the whole story, just play a paladin and see how it goes, it’s not all goodie two shows and you can find yourself in a catch 22 situation like me if your dm is smart enough
So we just started a campaign and it’s so funny you said you would multi class and go the hexblade route….because that is exactly what I did! My character is a lvl 3 warlock level 5 paladin aasimar…They are in a world where magic is pretty new so it’s pretty cool to see her discover her magic. Twice I rolled a natural 20 and then natural one…so it played awesome into the narrative but even with those natural ones she is a moooonster of pain! Hexblade does allow for your main stat to be charisma instead of strength and because of good rolled stats and ability score improvement…I have +5 charisma and +3 proficiency with aaaall weapons (because paladins mixed with hexblade warlocks). So in game my actual husband is a rich noble dude that is supposedly a swordmaster and whatnot (he even has his own academy) and on our boat ride back to the island I challenged him to a friendly duel and he ended up forfeiting…I started with a natural one on that fight throwing a sword out of the boat into the sea in like 3 rounds my husband’s character was at more than half his Hp…pretty funny! I never thought I would enjoy a paladin so much…beside oath of vengeance and it’s great spell list! I love you guy’s input and hearing your experiences on playing this class because It is the “nonconventional” route of a paladin and that made it a little scary for me but hearing how you guys played your characters has given me ideas on how to keep her interesting in role playing not only in combat.
My Vengeance Paladin has a similar backstory concept to Kelly’s; I went with a Hill Dwarf with a soldier backstory who worshipped Moradin; he was in a small military company that was attacked by unliving and wiped out to a man; the cleric in the party saw the battlefield and went in search of survivors and found only my character. I went with the idea that some divine intervention from the vengeance deity Hoar kept him alive and he arose with an all consuming desire to end unliving in the name of Vengeance. The nice part has been taking the concept that the paladin calling was not something he had planned for, he was not religious – he didn’t even follow the deity he now acts for, vengeance and destroying undead is what he is about. I’ve taken it one step further and kind of implied that the calling has altered his personality too, so what he cared about and was raised as a dwarf is no longer important. There was a bit where my character and another dwarf were caught in an explosion and the DM said afterwards your beard and hair became wispy and patchy. The other dwarf carefully tried to disguise the damage and save his beard, whereas my character just cut most of it off as it’s not important. It’s fun playing the character because it plays against the expectations people have both for a paladin to always be ‘lawful good’ but also the expectations of a dwarf too.
I am building an Oath of Vengeance Paladin now to play in Storm Kings Thunder. My necromancer just got killed off so I need to create a new character. My party is all at level 8, but the DM is having me start at level 6. What fighting style would you recommend? I am stuck between Blessed Warrior, Defense, and dueling? I am only considering dueling because I have Polearm Master and plan on occasionally using the spear and shield together. What do you guys think?
Hey guys, I’m playing a Variant Human Vengeance Paladin at the moment and I’d love your view on something…what benefit is there to max Cha for us? For something like a Conquest Paladin I get it because your save DC is so crucial, but as we generally just use Bless, Misty Step, Haste and Divine Smite, im starting to think Con might be more important than Cha
@Dungeon Dudes – I am making an Oath of Vengeance Paladin ( human variant) who uses a Shield and whip (taking Duelist). Are there any specific differences to Attack (like Str vs Dex stats) what should I use? Should I be worried about using Heavy vs Med Armor? Do you have any suggestions that would help solidify this build? Thank you in advance. Also my DM is Starting our PC at lvl 6. I have not rolled Stats at this point because I haven’t yet been in the presents of my DM yet.
Spot on, guys! I am playing a Dragonborn vengeance paladin and its hella fun. He’s at the center of most of our group’s favorite stories and jokes with his ability to make a big fight a joke, and his “rush in, kill some bad guys, kill some more bad guys and it anyone’s left, ask a question or two” demeanor. An example from early on: DM: you hear activity in the house ahead, you’re pretty sure there are hostiles inside. Rogue: can we sneak in through the window? Ranger: I like the idea of sneaking in, let’s approach the house cautiously… Me: Francis rushes in, kicks the door down and kills anyone he sees. Rogue and ranger: WHAT?!? DM: (laughing) that’s awesome, I’m giving you surprise for that. Later on, I had accumulated a favor from Bahamut for my tireless work at the shrine. Monk had her intellect devoured and we didn’t have a spell that could cure it. I cashed in the favor to bring her back to normal. It’s become a running joke that our DM hates my character because he consistently reduces a boss fight to a couple rounds by piling on crazy damage totals. Anyway, it’s a super fun class to play and I highly recommend it.
I’ve been creating a Vengeance Paladin, but he hasn’t yet felt strong enough from a character / roleplaying perspective. My initial thought was that his transition to vengeance paladin was prompted by the abduction and murders of 1) a good friend and potential love interest, and 2) a child of the community he had taken the responsibility to protect. However, now I’m thinking his failure and loss must be even more personal, like maybe the child needs to have been a beloved baby sister. This will make his homecomings more bittersweet and less of a balm than I had planned, but that added complexity is probably a good thing…
I’d like to play an Oath of Vengeance paladin when I get a chance. Then again, since I always seem to play unusual race/class/background combinations…maybe a satyr Oath of Vengeance paladin fighting to avenge the destruction of her people’s way of life? (Depending on world, of course…) Or maybe even a gnome; multiclass Oath of Vengeance paladin with artificer for some weird steampunk monster hunter action?
Reminds me of the Vengeance Paladin I’m currently playing: Konrad Darnatti, last surviving member of House Darnatti. LE to the core. He wants to dominate all those before him and any who resist his or his master’s wishes will be annihilated. Kind of a combination of Batman and Darth Vader with his corrupting great sword! 🤤🤤 Edit: Best part of it all, he’s pretending to be a LG paladin this whole time, only showing his true face when he believes no one but his victim can see him.
Everyone thinks to the vengeance paladin as this hulking guy with a big weapon, but I had a chance to play a eldarin, dex based avenger, (carnival row anyone? The unnamed fairy that got thrown down the roof became my character) and OH MY, stabbing fairy mafia with a holy rapier of spite, dancing and misty stepping the mobs to reach their leader and smiting the bejesus out em was glorious! Wizards of coast might hate them but dex paladins are a thing.
I played a vengeance pally who had given up on life because the person they loved was tortured and killed in front of them (which caused them to swear the oath). As such they were suicidal and reckless jumping into fights with low health because they refused to heal themselves hoping that they might die and be reunited with the one they lost.