From knights in shining armor to death knights and even ruthless conquerors, the Paladin is one of the most versatile classes Dungeons and Dragons has for the Fifth Edition (5e). Play a few games with some paladins in your party and you’ll even quickly conclude that they’re some of the highest damage dealers in the game without even trying too much.
What if the players handling a Paladin actually put effort into knowing the class’s weaknesses and strengths? That’s why we’re here. Because min-maxing is one of the best ways to ruin your Dungeon Master’s (DM) plans; in that regard, you’ll find that the Paladin is a Swiss Army Knife of opportunities. Let’s start with the Paladin abilities and spells that you should and shouldn’t use if you want to reach peak “deus vult.”
10 USE: LAY ON HANDS
The default assumption is that the best healer in the game is the Cleric class but not everyone wants to play as a Cleric. If you’re one of those players then you might benefit more from being a Paladin as its Lay on Hands feature is hands-down the best healing ability in the game.
No dice rolls, no spell slots used, and you can conserve or go ham with healing. Plus you can even use it to remove diseases from your allies because you’re already immune to those. The only downside is that it costs action points to use in combat.
9 AVOID: ABJURE ENEMY (OATH OF VENGEANCE)
Moving on to one of the Paladin subclasses, namely the Oath of Vengeance, there is often one Channel Divinity feature that gets ignored. That would be the Abjure Enemy. It’s practically a bootleg version of Oath of Conquest’s Conquering Presence.
It only allows you to frighten one enemy as an action and if that enemy takes damage, the effect ends. Besides, the other Channel Divinity feature you receive for the Oath of Vengeance is just a thousand times better…
8 USE: VOW OF ENMITY (OATH OF VENGEANCE)
For all martial classes or any class in 5e, at-will advantage is better than any spell that requires a saving throw. That’s what Vow of Enmity is. As a Paladin of Vengeance, you point at one enemy and shout cuss words at him in particular until it becomes threatened enough for all your attacks to have an advantage against the creature.
The possibilities as staggering. Pair it with the Elven Accuracy and Great Weapon Master feats or multiclass into a Hexblade Warlock for the Hexblade’s Curse and the number of critical hits you’ll be doing in melee might just get you banned by a DM for being too overpowered.
7 AVOID: BRANDING SMITE (SPELL)
Branding Smite is a Paladin-only smite spell that weirdly functions like Hunter’s Mark and reveals any enemy that decides to become invisible during combat. On paper, it sounds useful but in practice, it’s clunky.
Enemies you hit with it likely won’t waste any action to turn invisible on their next turn (unless your DM is Santa Claus) and don’t even bother using it against an invisible enemy since you’ll be attacking at a disadvantage. It also uses concentration, which is better reserve for more useful smite or concentration spells.
6 USE: DESTRUCTIVE WAVE (SPELL)
One of the biggest weaknesses of Paladins and martial classes, in general, is that they lack area damage. Most of them are focused on killing and damaging single enemies at a time. That’s why the Destructive Wave spell is such a welcome change.
Unlike Wizard or Sorcerer or Warlock area spells, it lets you choose who gets hit with a 10d6 damage and gets knocked prone afterward in a failed saving throw. When used in conjunction with the Oath of Conquest’s features, it would be akin to breaking the Geneve Convention in D&D.
5 AVOID: SEARING SMITE (SPELL)
Yet another Paladin-only smite spell that doesn’t really turn heads, Searing Smite is best left as a bench warmer (no pun intended). It only adds 1d6 fire damage to enemies– a damage type that’s commonly resisted.
It does apply burning per turn on a failed save, though you can easily do near or just as much damage using Hunter’s Mark or Divine Favor. Don’t waste your concentration on this smite spell.
4 USE: CONQUERING PRESENCE (OATH OF CONQUEST)
The Paladin of Conquest feature that works so well with the Destructive Wave spell? It’s this one. It frightens your enemies and if they’re near you while you’re a level 7 Paladin of Conquest, they can’t move or do anything. Since Destructive Wave sets targets prone, any creature frightened by this ability won’t be able to stand up at all, that’s a near-permanent advantage on attacks for you and your teammates.
Even without that spell, Conquering Presence is still a beast on its own. You get to frighten any enemy within 30-feet and ruin the battlefield.
3 AVOID: RELENTLESS AVENGER (OATH OF VENGEANCE)
Relentless Avenger is a level 7 Sacred Oath feature for the Oath of Vengeance and it allows you to move 15-feet after an opportunity attack as a reaction. This provokes no opportunity attacks too. The problem is the speed it allows you.
15-feet is usually half of the default walking speed of an enemy. If an enemy is also tactically retreating via the dash action, good luck chasing them. It’s also only ever useful for specialized weapon/feat combinations like the Polearm Master or Sentinel; this can limit your feat options.
2 USE: DIVINE SMITE
Finally, we get to the most used feature of the Paladin Class, Divine Smite! It allows you to use your spell slots to deal additional radiant damage whenever an attack hits. It’s better to use it for critical hits in that regard since you can double the damage that way.
It’s the Paladin’s bread and butter and makes it comparable as a damage dealer to Barbarians and Fighters. If you’ve ever wanted a melee class that lets you do the highest damage in one turn, look no further than the Paladin using a Divine Smite.
1 AVOID: EMISSARY OF REDEMPTION (OATH OF REDEMPTION)
The Oath of Redemption is in a pretty weird spot for a Paladin as you’ll be giving up a lot of your damaging capabilities. It lets you return half of any damage an enemy deals to you but only if you don’t deliberately attack them. Plus this damage returned won’t be as big since you also get resistance from their attacks.
It’s great for when you just want to sit back and play support but there are other classes better suited for that. Compared to the other level 20 Paladin capstones, this one just doesn’t amaze.
NEXT: 10 Ways to Make an Overpowered Paladin in Dungeons and Dragons
