DnD 5e Paladin Subclass Breakdown – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

The Paladin’s subclass doesn’t do a lot to change the mechanics of the class,but it does a lot to define your theme. Your oaths, your spells, and yourChannel Divinity options all have a significant effect on how your characterpresents themselves to the world.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Paladin Subclasses – Sacred Oaths
  • Oath of Conquest (XGtE)
  • Oath of Devotion (PHB)
  • Oath of Glory (MOoT / TCoE)
  • Oath of Redemption (XGtE)
  • Oath of the Ancients (PHB)
  • Oath of the Crown (SCAG)
  • Oath of the Watchers (TCoE)
  • Oath of Vengeance (PHB)
  • Oathbreaker (DMG)
• 3rd-Party Publishers

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Paladin Subclasses – Sacred Oaths

Oath of Conquest ^(XGtE)

Aside from the spell list, Oath of Conquest is excellent. It’s a fantasticmix of crowd control and offensive options, it provides meaningfulimprovements to the Paladin’s damage output, and it gives the Paladin severaluseful abilities for handling groups of foes which other paladins oftenstruggle with. If anyone else in your party likes to cause fear (spells likeCause Fear and Fear are great), Oath of Conquest can be incrediblyeffective.

Oath of Conquest’s biggest difficulty is that is relies very heavily on Charisma. The spell list includes many spells which allow saving throws, as does Channel Divinity: Conquering Presence. Weirdly, nothing else about the subclass relies on weapon attacks until you get Invincible Conquerer at 20th level. As a result, Oath of Conquest is an excellent choice for Blessed Warrior builds.

Oath of Conquest Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: The spells are good, butthey’re mostly offensive spells that require saving throws. Unless youinvest most of your Ability Score Increases in your Charisma (which youcould do with a Blessed Warrior build), you won’t have the spell DC to makethem reliable. And if you’re going to invest most of your resources inoffensive spellcasting to use save-or-suck spells, why not play a Cleric ora Sorcerer?
   3. 3rd-Level: A warlock-exclusive isinteresting. With a 1-hour duration, Armor of Agathys is a great buff tostart before you go into a fight. Command is interesting, but youprobably won’t have the DC to make it work reliably.
   5. 5th-Level: Spiritual Weapon is agreat way for you to handle multiple foes, and since it’s cast as abonus action it won’t cut into your attacks. It will still depend onyour relatively poor spellcasting ability modifier, and since you don’tget full spellcasting progression you won’t be able to upcast it to keepthe damage relevant. Hold Person is great, but it will be unreliablesince you won’t have a spell DC high enough to compete with fullcasters.
   9. 9th-Level: Good offensive options,but you’re still handicapped by a relatively poor spell DC. Still, Fearis helpful for capitalizing on Aura of Conquest.
   13. 13th-Level: Stoneskin is an excellentbuff for a front-line character like a Paladin, but the materialcomponent is very costly, so you don’t want to use it all the time.
   17. 17th-Level: Good offensive options,but you’re still handicapped by a relatively poor spell DC.
3. Channel Divinity: Both options areexcellent, and they’re usable and effective in almost any encounter.
   • Conquering Presence: Basically theFear spell, but in a circular AOE rather than a cone. This is anexcellent debuff in an encounter with numerous enemies, but since the DCis Charisma-based it won’t keep up with spellcasters unless you’re builtaround Blessed Warrior. Expect to use this in encounters with numerousweak foes, but otherwise the save DC won’t be reliable enough to justifythe cost.
   • Guided Strike: Great for when youabsolutely need to hit. If you use Great Weapon Master for extra damage,this can be a nice way to salvage a missed attack. However, ChannelDivinity still only works once per short rest for the Paladin, so savethis for when you really need it.

     This notably isn’t limited to weapon attacks, so if you have a spellattack from source, you could use Guided Strike with it.

7. Aura of Conquest: Combined with ChannelDivinity: Conquering Presence and the ability to cast Fear you have multipleways to make enemies frightened (provided that your save DC is passable). Ifthe enemy in question doesn’t have reach or ranged weapons, you can standsafely 10 feet away and hit them with reach weapons or just wait for them todie from the aura damage. Their speed is reduced to 0, so there’s verylittle that they can do about it. You can also Shove enemies prone,effectively performing the Grapple+Shove combo while using fear instead ofgrappling.
15. Scornful Rebuke: Combine this withCompelled Duel, and consider foregoing a shield. You have plenty of healingcapacity.
20. Invincible Conqueror: Even with a 1-minuteduration, this is fantastic. If you’re in a serious fight, turn this on andstart killing stuff.

Oath of Devotion ^(PHB)

The “Vanilla” option, Oath of Devotion doesn’t really have a specific focusbeyond “be a Paladin”. If you’re not sure what to pick, or if you’re new andtrying to get a handle on the game, this is a fine option with a decent mix ofabilities.

Oath of Devotion’s biggest challenge is that many of its features only work when facing fiends and undead. While these are great enemies for a good-aligned paladin, they’re a subset of the enemies that you’ll face. Oath of Devotion has enough other features that you’ll still be effective, but you won’t get to enjoy your subclass’s full capacity until fiends and undead show up.

Oath of Devotion Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: A few gems, but much of thelist is either situational or unnecessary.
   3. 3rd-Level: Sanctuary has a BonusAction casting time, allowing you to quickly cast it on an ally who isin danger. Your save DC will be low compared to a full spellcaster, butcombined with the target’s AC the additional layer of protection willfrequently negate attacks. Protection from Evil and Good is a fantasticdefensive buff at any level, and unlike Sanctuary the target can stillattack while under its effects.
   5. 5th-Level: Both options aresituational, and Lesser Restoration is partially redundant with Lay onHands.
   9. 9th-Level: I would almost almostnever use Beacon of Hope in combat (especially since you have Lay onHands, which Beacon of Hope doesn’t affect) unless you need theAdvantage portion of the spell. Paladins don’t have enough spell slotsto spend them on Dispel Magic unless your party is truly desperate.
   13. 13th-Level: Freedom of Movement issituational but very powerful. Guardian of Faith is surprisingly goodarea control for a partial caster, but it’s a spell that you cast forthe 8-hour duration, not for the pitiful amount of damage..
   17. 17th-Level: Commune is a verypowerful divination if you’re clever enough to ask useful questions.Flame Strike gives Paladins a much-needed option for handling crowds ofweak enemies, especially those which aren’t affected by Turn Whatever.However, at this level Flame Strike’s damage will be underwhelming andunless you’re built around Blessed Warrior your spell save DC willprobably be too low to make Flame Strike Reliable.
3. Channel Divinity:
   • Sacred Weapon: A decent buff to yourattacks. This works particularly well with the Great Weapon Master featsince it will offset most or all of the attack penalty. One minuteshould be enough to get through a typical fight, but remember that sinceChannel Divinity recharges on a Short Rest you’ll only be able to usethis three times per day at most (assuming that your party is respectingthe Adventuring Days rules).

     If you’re built around Blessed Warrior, this is a great way to makeweapons viable for a brief period. A paladin with 20 Strength and 16Charisma will have the same attack bonus as a paladin with 16 Strengthand 20 Charisma, so you’re not losing much except for your damagebonus from Strength.

   • Turn the Unholy: A great way tohandle crowds of foes, but it only affects two creature types so it’ssituational by design.
7. Aura of Devotion: Situational by design,but Charm effects are common and frequently dangerous.
15. Purity of Spirit: Protection from Evil andGood is an excellent defensive buff, providing thorough defenses against 6creature types. Having it permanently running without needing toconcentrate is spectacular.
20. Holy Nimbus: 10 damage isn’t a lot atthis level, but the area is big enough that you can clear whole rooms ofenemies on your own with enough time. The defensive buffs are also helpful,though they’re situational due to the limits on affected creature types.

Oath of Glory ^{(MOoT / TCoE)}

A great concept with some challenges. The spell list is too reliant onConcentration, and while the Channel Divinity options are great, their effectswon’t last long and you’ll need to look for other options. The rest of thesubclass’s features are either excellent or very situational, so you’ll usesome of the subclass’s features constantly while almost never using others.

The single best piece of advice I can give is to start with a Variant Human with the Resilient (Constitution) feat. Adding Constitution saving throw proficiency will make the spell list considerably more effective. The fact that the subclass’s spell list depends so heavily on Concentration is really frustrating for class which doesn’t get proficiency with Constitution saves and which already depends on Concentration for so many of its interesting spells (smite spells, buffs, etc.).

Oath of Glory Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: Many of the spells onthe list are fantastic, even allowing the Glory Paladin to shoulder the burden of Concentrating on some potent buffs, freeing up the party’s casters for area control or other spells. Keep in mind though, that, while Aura of Protectionhelps, the Paladin isn’t proficient in Constitution saving throws. Ifyou plan to shoulder this burden regularly in combat, consider the Resilient feat or theWar Caster feat to improve your success rate with Concentration saves.
   3. 3rd-Level: Guiding Bolt is hardbecause paladins generally can’t invest enough in Charisma to be good atspell attacks. You likely won’t cast it often, but it is still a decent ranged attack spell if you’re out of melee range. Heroism is a great defensive option. At the early levels where the fear immunity is helpful, your Charisma will be too low for good temp HP, and the high levels where the temp HP isn’t relevant, you’re immune to fear.
   5. 5th-Level: Enhance Ability is just anall-around great spell, useful both in and out of combat, though yourmost likely use case in combat is for Strength, and you can use PeerlessAthlete for that, so save Enhance Ability for outside of combat when youneed things like Advantage on Charisma checks in social situations.Magic Weapon is great if you don’t have a permanent magic weapon, but it requires Concentration so generally you’ll want to cast something else unless you absolutely need this.
   9. 9th-Level: Two fantastic buffs, butboth require Concentration. That said, self-casting haste and freely sharing it with a Find (Greater) Steed as per the steed spell allows a mount to both Dash and Disengage on every round, which quadruples its total movement and ignores opportunity attacks while still giving the Glory Paladin an extra attack. Protection From Energy is a staple defensive buff at every level.
   13. 13th-Level: We’re unlikely to have the Charisma to make Compulsion reliable, and the effect is not that useful. Compelling targets to run away in a direction and using our Concentration just makes fights take longer than they need to.Freedom of Movement isgreat, but only situationally useful. Fortunately, it doesn’t require Concentration, and you can share it with your steed.
   17. 17th-Level: A divination which everyoneelse has been casting for 8 levels. Flame Strike is helpful for handlingcrowds, but the damage is unremarkable at this level and your save DC islikely poor compared to a full spellcaster.
3. Channel Divinity:
   • Peerless Athlete: Strength (Athletics)includes checks to Grapple and to Shove, both of which are stapletactical options for front-line melee classes like the Paladin. The factthat you can activate this as a Bonus Action makes it easy to use thiswithout cutting into your attacks, and the 10-minute duration can lastthrough several encounters if you move quickly. Using the classicGrapple+Shove combois an easy way to provide Advantage for yourselfyour other melee allies, and so Peerless Athlete can be a great way tomake that combo easier.
   • Inspiring Smite: A decent number oftemporary hit points, and while usually you’ll horde them for yourself,the ability to share them with allies offers a fantastic tacticaloption. Keep in mind that you need to use Divine Smite before you canactivate this, so be sure to keep a spell slot ready so that you cansmite something and trigger Inspiring Smite.
7. Aura of Alacrity: 10 ft. of extra speedis nice for the paladin and their mount even if it’s unreliable for allies in the middle of combat.Other players will likely be able tomove further with good positioning than by working to stay withinthe aura’s tiny radius, but because the aura takes effect at the beginning of an ally’s turn it’s our job to get the aura in position to push our team that extra 10 feet across the finish line.
15. Glorious Defense: This is a fantasticdefensive ability, combining the AC bonus of the spell Shield with a freecounterattack. Be sure to grab a ranged weapon or a weapon with Reach toenjoy the effect to its fullest.
18. Aura of Alacrity (improvement): Theeffect doesn’t improve, but the radius does. The tiny radius is the biggest problemwith positioning the aura, but 10 feet gives us plenty of wiggle room to try to get more than one ally into the aura before we end our turn.
20. Living Legend: The effects are allspectacular and broadly useful. Don’t be tempted to use this for Charismachecks in social situations; you can cast Enhance Ability for that.

Oath of Redemption ^(XGtE)

Unlike other Paladins, the Oath of Redemption Paladin emphasizes nonviolentoptions. Expect to invest more in your Charisma than in yourStrength/Constitution, and to rely more on spells and special abilities thanon hitting stuff. It’s a weird, durable save-or-suck caster in a lot ofways.

The Oath of Redemption’s Oath Spells all allow saving throws, so you’ll needhigh Charisma to back them up, and taking Fighting Style (Blessed Warrior) isbasically required. Be sure to invest in options that will keep you alivewhile you try to end combat nonlethally. Constitution, the Tough feat, thespell Heroism, heavy armor, a shield, and protective magic items if they’reavailable. Just keep in mind that no matter how high your AC is, Aura of theGuardian doesn’t care and you’re going to take some damage for your allies, sobe sure to keep your hit point maximum high.

Despite the theme, it’s entirely possible to play Oath of Redemption like any other rip-and-tear paladin, and they’re surprisingly well-suited to it. Most of the spell list won’t be useful, but Channel Divinity: Rebuke the Violent, Aura of the Guardian, and Protective Spirit are all great for any Defender. Get in front of your allies and redeem some people with a sword in hand.

Oath of Redemption Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: A lot of excellent spells.They all fit the theme, and nearly all of the options are great additions toyour spellcasting options. However, many rely on saving throws so yourCharisma needs to be high enough to make them reliable.
   3. 3rd-Level: Both great ways todiscourage violence, but the hit point cap on Sleep makes it borderlineuseless for a half-caster.
   5. 5th-Level: Calm Emotions is greatarea control and doesn’t care about spell level. Hold Person is fine,but you’re left without options to address most creature types, and evenagainst humanoids you’ll have trouble upcasting it to affect multipletargets.
   9. 9th-Level: If you can getCounterspell, you should get Counterspell. It’s one of the most powerfulspells in the game. However, you have very few spell slots to spend itupon, and you only go up to 5th-level spell slots so you can’t rely onupcasting it to forcibly counter spells without an ability check.
   13. 13th-Level: Resilient Sphere iswonderful offensively or defensively, and Stoneskin will help you towithstand attacks while you figure out how to end a fight, but thematerial cost may be prohibitive.
   17. 17th-Level: More great ways to end afight nonlethally, but Hold Monster on a single creature may not feelsatisfying at this level compared to what full casters can do.
3. Channel Divinity: Both options areexcellent, and very easy to bring into play.
   • Emissary of Peace: Excellent for aface, and one of very few Channel Divinity options which is meaningfullyuseful outside of combat.
   • Rebuke the Violent: Great forcreatures with large single attacks or after an ally suffers a bigcritical hit.
7. Aura of the Guardian: Don’t try to combinethis with the Protection fighting style. Both consume your Reaction, so youwon’t be able to use them together. You don’t want to use this constantly,but when your allies start running short on hit points it’s a good idea. Besure to invest in your Constitution and consider the Tough feat so that youhave enough hit points to absorb damage for your allies.
15. Protective Spirit: This makes Aura of theGuardian much safer to use.
20. Emissary of Redemption: Expect to spenda lot of time grappling and tripping enemies while you try to talk them outof fighting you. You can’t even use Rebuke the Violent without negating thisfeature for that creature for the day.

    Note that the damage which you deal to other creatures is half of whatyou take after applying resistances, so if a creature deals 4damage, you take 2 and they take 1. That’s not going to kill anything in ahurry, but it might be abough to scare them off. If you have enough hitpoints, you could risk walking around unarmored and let people beat youuntil they get tired of taking radiant damage. Protective Spirit ishealing you for 16+10 every turn when you’re below half hp, so you canafford to do this somewhat safely depending on your enemies’ damageoutput.

Oath of the Ancients ^(PHB)

The Ranger of Paladins, Oath of the Ancients shares a lot of style andoptions with Rangers and Druids. It includes magical options for crowd controland area control which most paladins can’t match, as well as access to MistyStep so that you can move about unhindered.

Oath of Ancients is a reasonably easy subclass to play, and isn’t so devoted to smiting fiends as Oath of Devotion, so it may be a better go-to option for new players than many other paladin subclasses. You won’t need to learn anything more complex than the core paladin class features, and Oath of Ancients offers some useful tactical options that you can opt into when you feel ready to handle them.

Oath of the Ancients Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: About half of the optionson the list are bad, but you generally get one viable option from each pairof spells.
   3. 3rd-Level: Speak With Animals is onlysituationally useful and becomes less useful as you gain levels, butEnsnaring Strike is a great option for a bunch of reasons. If you needto switch targets or go help an ally, spend your bonus action and anattack to ensnare the target, then let them bleed out a bit while you’reoff dealing with more pressing issues. Note that after the initial saveit’s a Strength Check (not a Save), so even creaturesproficient in Strength Saves will have trouble escaping. Even better,the damage scales linearly with spell level so it remains an excellentgo-to use for a spell slot for your whole career.
   5. 5th-Level: Moonbeam is difficult touse unless you can restrain a creature inside its effect long enough tojustify the spell slot (Grapple them, for instance), and even then it’s better left tofull spellcasters. Misty Step is a fantastic option and solves a lot ofmobility issues, including pits, chasms, difficult terrain, walls offire and other nasty materials, enemies, etc. Misty Step to the BBEG andwave your sword in their face.
   9. 9th-Level: Plant Growth is weirdlyeffective area control, and Protection From Energy is a fantastic andvery important defensive option.
   13. 13th-Level: Ice Storm is afrustrating combination of not enough damage and too little areacontrol. Stone Skin is an extremely good buff, but the 100gp componentcost can add up quickly so you don’t want to cast it constantly.
   17. 17th-Level: Commune With Nature is auseful divination, especially in unfamiliar areas, but Tree Stride isextremely situational and totally useless if you’re not in a forest orjungle.
3. Channel Divinity: Neither option will beconsistently useful. Talk to your DM about using the Harness Divine PowerOptional Class Feature.
   • Nature’s Wrath: Basically justEnsnaring Strike but worse. Nature’s Wrath allows the target to chooseeither Strength or Dexterity for its save, while Ensnaring Strike forcesthem to use Strength. Nature’s Wrath allows the target to repeat thesave each turn for free, while Ensnaring Strike requires them to spend anAction to make a Strength check to escape (ability checks willtypically be worse than saves because you don’t get to add a ProficiencyBonus). Ensnaring Strike does damage every turn, and Nature’s Wrathdoesn’t do damage at all. Nature’s Wrath takes an Action, whileEnsnaring Strike takes your Bonus Action and waits for you tosuccessfully hit with an attack. Ensnaring Strike’s effects improve withspell level, while Nature’s Wrath will never improve in any way.

     Sure, you need to hit with an attack to apply Ensnaring Strike, buthitting with attacks is your go-to move in combat. Ensnaring Strike’sbiggest weakness compared to Nature’s Wrath is that it requiresConcentration, but even that isn’t enough to make Nature’s Wrath goodby comparison.

   • Turn the Faithless: Situational bydesign. It’s no worse than Turn Undead or something similar, but withoutanother good way to use Channel Divinity it’s rough to have such asituational option.
7. Aura of Warding: Resistance to damagefrom spells will prevent a huge amount of damage, but spellcasters are aminority of enemies that you’ll face in most games, especially with the recent move towards monsters having spell-like actionsin Monsters of the Multiverse. This is good, but it’sonly situationally useful unless you have allies who don’t care aboutfriendly fire.
15. Undying Sentinel: You shouldn’t need thisfrequently, but it’s a great fallback in case of a lucky crit or a big,unexpected attack. I’m not sure if “death of natural causes” counts as one of the“drawbacks of old age”, but this makes you immortal if it does.
20. Elder Champion: One minute per day isn’ta lot, but, for that brief duration, this is very good. The ability to castspells as a Bonus Action makes it easy to fit spells into your turn, so castthings like Ice Storm and Death Ward, or hit enemies with Banishing Smite or Destructive Wave tocapitalize on Disadvantage on saves against your spells. Activating thisdoes take an Action, but you can still fit a spell into the same turn. Justremember that your spell slots are limited, and burning both your capstonefeature and all of your spell slots will put you in a bad position to facethe rest of the day.

Oath of the Crown ^(SCAG)

Oath of the Crown is a fantastic Defender build. Between Compelled Duel andChampion Challenge you have two built-in mechanics which will keep enemiesfocused on you instead of your squishy allies. The oath’s other abilitiesallow you to take damage for your allies, reducing the need for your party tospend actions and resources healing multiple characters in combat.

With no reliance on weapon attacks beyond Divine Smite, Oath of the Crown is a good candidate for Blessed Warrior builds. Building around Charisma makes spells like Compelled Duel, Spirit Guardians, and Banishment (all from Oath of the Crown’s spell list) more reliable, allowing you to complement the other subclass features with robust spellcasting.

Oath of the Crown Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: A really mixed bag; some ofthe options are essentially required for a Paladin and you do get some gemsfrom other spell lists, but several are situational or outright bad.
   3. 3rd-Level: Compelled Duel is basicallya requirement for Paladins, and Command can be very effective if you’reclever. Note that Compelled Duel is somewhat redundant with ChampionChallenge, but Compelled Duel only affects single targets, whileChampion Challenge is an area effect. Also remember that your spell saveDC won’t be as high as a full spellcaster’s (unless you build aroundBlessed Warrior), which can make both of these spells somewhatunreliable.
   5. 5th-Level: Warding Bond is nice ifyou have another ally who is taking a lot of damage and you’re sick ofspending your turns healing them. Zone of Truth is very situational.
   9. 9th-Level: Aura of Vitality is anextremely efficient use of a spell slot as far as magical healing goes,but I wouldn’t use it in combat because it requires Concentration andmonopolizes your Bonus Action which you might need for things like smitespells, and outside of combat you should try to rely on short rests for healing asmuch as you can. Spirit Guardians is a much better option in combat,turning you into the center of a magical blender that deals radiantdamage. You’ll still need to chase enemies around to force them to takedamage since Champion Challenge allows enemies to remain up to 30feet away, but, in close quarters, Spirit Guardians is exceptionallypowerful.
   13. 13th-Level: Banishment issituational and can be difficult due to the Paladin’s comparably poorspell save DC, but many extraplanar enemies have poor Charisma saves, soyou may be able to use it successfully against some enemies. Guardian ofFaith is really only notable for its 8-hour duration.
   17. 17th-Level: Circle of Power is anexcellent buff when facing enemy spellcasters, especially with the Auraof Protection boosting all of your save bonuses. Geas is situationalsince most of the things on which you might cast Geas can be handledbetter by killing them.
3. Channel Divinity:
   • Champion Challenge: This is a greatway to keep enemies where you want them, especially in open areasoutside of the confines of a dungeon. 30 feet is close enough for mostcharacters to get into melee without Dashing (halflings and dwarves mayneed a reach weapon to compensate), so, even if enemies try to run, theycan’t get far enough that you need to go to great lengths to chase them.If you position yourself correctly, you may also be able to keep enemiesaway from your allies, allowing your allies to attack at range whileyour enemies either struggle at the edge of your 30-foot radius orresign themselves to fighting you.

     Enemies can escape by doing silly things like pushing or pulling eachother out of the area, but if your DM tries that they are eitherpulling some very serious metagame shenanigans or the affectedcreatures have had time to experiment and figure out how this effectworks.

     The ability doesn’t allow additional saves beyond the first, anddoesn’t list a duration, so you can technically keep enemies trappedwithin 30 feet of your forever as long as you don’t do something toend the effect (like walking away from them) and no one elseintervenes.

   • Turn the Tide: Basically MassHealing Word. It does affectunconscious allies, as theUnconscious condition was not intended to deafen creatures accordingto Jeremy Crawford.
7. Divine Allegiance: This is considerablybetter than the Protection combat style because it’s 100% reliable. As aPaladin, you are the party’s Defender, so sometimes tanking comes down totaking damage destined for your weaker allies. This is a lot like WardingBond since it works against any damage source, but you are still limited byyour Reaction, so multiple hits to your allies may be a problem.

   If you plan to use this on a regular basis, you want as many hit points as you can get and you want a reliable source of temporary hit points on top.

   This also allows you to protect a mount, which is a much-needed defensive option for mounted combat enthusiasts. Mundane mounts and mounts available via Find Steed and Find Greater Steed are notoriously prone to dying if anything thinks to attack them, and even the Mounted Combatant feat is a poor defense. Divine Allegiance may be the best option available.

15. Unyielding Spirit: Between this and Auraof Protection, you’re nearly immuned to paralyzed/stunned. But thoseconditions aren’t common, so this is only situationally useful.
20. Exalted Champion: For one hour a day youand your allies are exceptionally difficult to kill. Most paladin capstonesonly last for one minute, so getting literally 60 times the duration is amassive improvement.

Oath of the Watchers ^(TCoE)

The Oath of the Watchers is good at what it does, but what it does isintentionally limited. In many campaigns, your paladin may go long periods oftime without facing extraplanar enemies, in which case most of Oath of theWatcher’s features will be largely useless. In campaigns where extraplanarenemies are common (maybe there’s an extraplanar incursion or you’re travelingthe planes), Oath of the Watchers is spectacular. But that is the nature of myorange ratings: it’s not bad, but it’s onlygreat when the situation fits.

In most published campaigns, you may have an idea of what you’ll face. Out ofthe Abyss and Descent into Avernus both feature fiends, so those seem likegreat games to play an Oath of the Watchers Paladin. Curse of Strahd andTyranny of Dragons feature undead and dragons in abundance, but none of theextraplanar threats which the Oath of the Watchers cares about, so you mayfind yourself less useful. In a homebrew campaign, you’ll need to check withyour DM to see if the character makes sense, or if the DM can add story pointsto the campaign to cater to your character.

Beyond the situational nature of the subclass, there’s also an unusually heavy dependence on Charisma. Most paladins will rush Strength or Dexterity to 20 before even thinking about raising their Charisma from where it started at level 1. This would be an interesting subclass to use in conjunction with Fighting Style (Blessed Warrior) to create a Charisma-focused paladin that relied primary on cantrips in place of weapons. However, that is certainly not the only viable way to play the subclass, and disregarding the handful of offensive spells is likely more effective than disregarding weapons and the Paladin’s Divine Smite feature.

Oath of the Watchers Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: A good mix of utility andbuffs which will help you resist effects common to Oath of the Watchers’enemies. The spells (with some exceptions) work great against any creature,but this is clearly a toolkit designed to solve a specific set of problems.
   3. 3rd-Level: Two staple spells, buthopefully you have a ritual caster in the party so you don’t need tospend your precious few spell slots.
   5. 5th-Level: See Invisibility isabsolutely crucial, and a great option for a martial character who can’tresort to AOE damage when they can’t see their enemies. Moonbeam isvery situational, but it makes sense considering your intended foes.However, your save DC is likely poor so it won’t be reliable.
   9. 9th-Level: Counterspell is afantastic spell, but unless you have the Charisma to back it up you’llstruggle with the ability check to counter things. Nondetection seemslike an odd choice on a paladin, but many of the enemies which Oath ofthe Watchers cares about can cast spells, including divinations.
   13. 13th-Level: Aura of purity offers alot of useful defenses, but it’s technically situational. Banishment isa staple a save-or-suck spell, but you may not have the Spell Save DC toback it up. The only truly unfortunate thing to note about these two spells is that they are already on the Paladin spell list.
   17. 17th-Level: Hold Monster is a greatsave-or-suck spell, but you may struggle with a low save DC unlessyou’ve gotten your Charisma up to 20 by this level. Scrying issituational, so it’s annoying to have prepared every day, but it’s alsonot on the Paladin’s spell list so it’s nice that it’s available.
3. Channel Divinity:
   • Watcher’s Will: Protection frommental saves for one minute. Note that you are not counted in the numberof targets, so it’s you plus a number of creatures equal to yourCharisma modifier. The duration is only one minute, but this is still agreat buff when you face enemy spellcasters or enemies with charm orfear abilities (both of which are common). Enemy spellcasters canoften resort to AOE damage spells or spells which target your physicalsaves (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) in many cases, but at leastthey’re not mind-controlling your party.
   • Abjure the Extraplanar: Technicallysituational, but between 5 creature types you have enough coverage toalmost guarantee that this is useful in any campaign where it makessense for an Oath of the Watchers Paladin to exist. Turning a foe takesthem out of combat up a full minute unless you bother them, and in groupencounters where you’ll use this you can greatly simplify an encounterby removing a portion of your opponents temporarily.
7. Aura of the Sentinel: Keep your alliesclose while in marching order. This bonus is significant. If you’re worried about being caught in anAOE, remember that Aura of Protection has the same 10-foot range. The rangedoes eventually expand at the same time as your other auras (level 18), atwhich point you’re slightly less likely to have your entire party fireballedat the same time. Note the specific wording of this ability, “a bonus to initiative equal to your proficiency bonus.” While you can’t add your proficiency bonus to a check more than once, if for example if a Harengon (Hare Trigger) or Bard (Jack of all Trades) are under the effects of this aura, because of the wording of the ability these abilities will stack because it’s not a proficiency bonus, it’s just a bonus reading PB to get a value.
15. Vigilant Rebuke: Situational. Againstenemies that use these effects, this is very powerful especially whencombined with Watcher’s Will. However, it’s absolutely useless against manyenemies.
20. Mortal Bulwark: Truesight is afantastic ability, but the rest only applies against suitable enemies. Italso doesn’t include a way to keep enemies banished, and at this level manyof the affected types of creatures can cast Plane Shift.

Oath of Vengeance ^(PHB)

Oath of Vengeance emphasizes the Paladin’s abilities as a Striker, seeking tokill enemies quickly rather than relying on defensive tactics. Between thePaladin’s natural durability and Oath of Vengeance’s capacity for killingstuff, they’re a great standalone character. However, they also have nofeatures beyond the Paladin’s core features to assist your allies, so yourparty may need a secondary Defender to fill in when you’re off smitingthings.

Because Oath of Vengeance is so offense-focused, it can often encourage reckless tactics like charging into combat by yourself and focusing on the target of your Vow of Enmity while your party might need you elsewhere. To succeed with Oath of Vengeance, remember that you need to be a team player even if it means that you don’t always get to go solo the boss monster while your party mops up the minions. Apply your capabilities precisely and when it’s advantageous to do so, but don’t throw Oath of Enmity at every challenge and expect to always succeed.

We wanted to provide a depiction of how something as simple as a choice of race and equipment, along with a single feat, can result in a very different playstyle, allowing a build with some innate flexibility to shine as either a dedicated striker or a battlefield controller when optimized for, so we have two handbooks for the vengeance paladin:

• Oath of Vengeance Paladin Handbook – by Random
• Oath of Vengeance Paladin Handbook – by Rocco

3. Oath Spells: Most of the spells areabsolutely fantastic, but a lot of them require Concentration, and the liststarts to fall apart at high levels.
   3. 3rd-Level: Bane is unreliable andrarely worth the spell slot. Hunter’s Mark is a nice damage boostagainst a single high-priority target, but its usefulness is limited bythe Paladin’s low number of attacks per round. It can still yieldconsiderably more damage than spending the same spell slot on DivineSmite, but only if you can maintain Concentration.
   5. 5th-Level: Paralysis is an off-switchfor an enemy, but since your spell DC is low compared to a fullspellcaster Hold Person is unrealiable. Misty Step is a great way to getaround the battlefield, especially since it’s a Bonus Action tocast.
   9. 9th-Level: Haste and Protection FromEnergy are two of the most important buffs in the game.
   13. 13th-Level: Both situationaloptions, and the appeal of Dimension Door is reduced because you alreadyhave Misty Step.
   17. 17th-Level: Hold Monster makes HoldPerson redundant, but it’s a significant improvement. Unfortunately,your spell save DC is likely still behind full spellcasters. Scrying isvery situational, and your full caster allies have had it for a verylong time by this level.
3. Channel Divinity:
   • Abjure Enemy: Similar in many ways tothe spell Cause Feat, but the target doesn’t get additional saves andtheir speed is halved for the duration. This is especially usefulagainst fiends and undead, but it works on anything that isn’t immune tofear.
   • Vow of Enmity: One minute ofguaranteed Advantage against one target. Very helpful against powerfulsingle foes. Use it early, use it often.
7. Relentless Avenger: Absolutely fantasticfor a Defender build, especially if you also have Polearm Master. Look forways to boost you speed like magic items or spells like Haste andLongstrider so that moving half your speed may be enough to keep the targetwithin your reach.
15. Soul of Vengeance: An extra attackpresents a 50% boost to your damage output (provided that you’re not usingsomething like two-weapon fighting or Polearm Master).
20. Avenging Angel: For one hour a day you canchase your terrified foes around and murder them. The move speed is great,allowing you to quickly close to melee and get enemies within the aura. Mostpaladin subclass capstone features only last one minute, so the fact thatthis lasts for a full hour is incredible.

Oathbreaker ^(DMG)

Sometimes difficult to bring into many adventuring parties, but Oathbreaker has a lot of excellent options, including an AOE fear effect and options for animating and controlling undead creatures. Oathbreakers must be evil, which can be a problem, but in a non-good party that likes to do things like summoning fiends or command undead, the Oathbreaker can be a powerful asset on the party’s front line.

Oathbreaker Paladin Handbook

3. Oath Spells: Some of the options areoutright terrible, but there are enough good options to make the spell listviable.
   3. 3rd-Level: Hellish Rebuke isfantastic for a Defender who spends a lot of time drawing fire, anddeals more damage as Divine Smite for the same spell slot (provided thatthe target fails the save, compare 2d8 from Divine Smite to 2d10 forHellish Rebuke). Inflict Wounds will almost never see use because yourweapon plus Divine Smite with the same spell slot will do as much ormore damage (compare 1d8+3+2d8 to 3d10).
   5. 5th-Level: Crown of Madness isdifficult to use because it consumes your Action and only does anythingif your target is adjacent to something which you want the target toattack at the beginning of their turn, and Darkness isn’t very helpfulsince you can’t see inside the area.
   9. 9th-Level: Animate Dead is alwaysnice to have, and Bestow Curse has several excellent options. Considercombining the two by cursing your foe to give them disadvantage onStrength checks and saves, then have your undead pets grapple them andshove them to the ground.
   13. 13th-Level: Blight is decentsingle-target damage, especially against plants, but your spell save DCwon’t match a full spellcaster, and by this level the damage may feelunderwhelming. Divine Smite does 5d8 damage for the same spell slotcompared to Blight’s 8d8, and Divine Smite can be doubled on a criticalhit and doesn’t allow a save for half. I have never liked Confusionbecause it’s so unpredictable, even though it is an AoE.
   17. 17th-Level: Contagion is great, butcomplicated, and relies on your hitting with a spell attack first SlimyDoom will essentially end an encounter, especially if you can apply adamage over time effect to keep them perpetually stunned. DominatePerson is a powerful way to temporarily gain an extra party member, butyour save DC may not be high enough to make it reliable.
3. Channel Divinity:
   • Control Undead: Save-or-suck anundead creature for up to 24 hours. Turn powerful undead into slaves.They must obey your commands, they don’t get additional saves, and theycan’t break the effect by any means specified in the feature. Undeadaren’t every creature, so this is technically situational, but they’restill a very common creature type in many games.

     If you’re worried about the creature’s behavior at the end of theduration and you think it might pass a save to renew the effect, youcan command the creature to destroy itself right before the durationexpires. But given enough time, you can restrain the creature whileyou rest, then you and your allies could hit the creature with effectswhich penalize saving throws (Bane, Mind Spike, Cutting Words, etc.),then you can re-use Control Undead to reset the duration.

   • Dreadful Aspect: Considerably betterthan the Turn Whatever abilities other oaths get since it affectseverything. This is similar in many ways to the spell Fear, but DreadfulAspect is a sphere rather than a cone, and creatures only get more savesif they move away from you. Conveniently, the feature doesn’t make foesrun away, so they might be content to stay within 30 feet of you andstruggle along in hopes that the fear with wear off.
7. Aura of Hate: Not terribly helpful in anadventuring party unless you’ve got plenty of Undead minions,but even if it only applies to you, you can get a bunchof extra damage on your melee weapon attacks. Between Strength and Charisma, youcan easily add +7 damage at this level, and with the right Ability ScoreIncreases you can raise that to +10 total.

   If you’re using this with a bunch of Animate Dead minions, the best option is Skeletons. Unlike Zombies, Skeletons are proficient with weapons, including Shortswords, which allows for Dual Wielding to get double the bonus out of the Aura. You’ll likely have to supply your Skele Squires with their weapons though. Skeletons can also wear armor, so if you can really spare the money, Scale Mail would boost them all up to 16 AC.

15. Supernatural Resistance: PermanentStoneskin. This makes you very difficult to kill, especially in games withno magic items. However, in games where magic items are common or where theworld is dominated by spellcasters this might be completely useless.
20. Dread Lord: Lots of damage, a good use foryour Bonus Action, and it makes it hard for enemies to see. Be sure that youhave Darkvision so that you’re not a victim of your own effect, and stronglyconsider using Channel Divinity: Dreadful Aspect for the ongoing damage.

3rd-Party Publishers

RPGBOT has covered some 3rd-party content from our favorite creators. This content is published under the Open Gaming License, under Creative Commons, or through DMsGuild, and is not considered official content. As such, it is not available in Adventurer’s League organized play, and your group may not allow it in your game. If your group wants to explore 3rd-party content, we hope that these articles will help you make them work for you.

• Keith Baker’s Oath of Veneration Paladin Handbook
• Matt Mercer’s Oath of the Open Sea Paladin