Dread it. Run from it. SMITE still arrives... Also for real get your peachy keister a free Flash Drive and Micro SD at your local Micro Center, no purchase necessary! micro.center/d68023
I saw a video about Illusion Wizards making cubes of mythical (Anything) real for 1 minute, but can't find the video. Could someone link it, it looked cool. :)
What about potion of haste? Or what feats would you recommend? (Other than Sentinel which I put on every Paladin I make because no one hits my team mates but me)
@@alvinleonardo1263 Potion of haste is good! Lots of great feats depending on what you want! Great Weapon Master, Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Warcaster, Magic Initiate all come to mind as strong options, more offbeat but powerful and flavourful choices include Inspiring Leader, Sheild Master, Mounted Combatant, and Resiliant, depending on your build!
@@DnDShorts ok a bit of correction for paladins. they are not pledges to a god, they have made an oath of some kind and as long as working with the entity that you chose for your warlock level goess with that oath you are fine. rarely does a paladin ever make an oath to a god
Ironically one of the most powerful and thematic subclasses of Paladin you can multiclass with Hexblade is the one where you aren't actually pledged to a god anymore. Oathbreaker + Hexblade = *Hexbreaker*
So glad you mentioned Command! I had a Paladin in a campaign who was strong, but not the brightest and quite childish. The player liked to flavour the commands as her throwing tantrums and then putting emphasis on a certain word. So the enemy laughs at the childish request, only to then find themselves unwittingly following it. She was easily the highlight of that campaign.
I had a paladin who was helping raise money to get a friend out of jail. He wanted to go as quickly as possible, so he commanded his first opponent to ‘forfeit’. It worked 😎
For the last point, there's 2 things to remember in D&D 5E that makes this work even easier... 1) A Warlock patron does not have to be an evil being. You could make a pact with a god you serve to get even more power. 2) A Paladin's spells do not come from a god, but an oath. An oath to a god is the classic Paladin, but it's not the only way. I mean, look at the Oath of Vengeance Paladin for a prime example.
Was about to put this in. I have a Pally 5, Warlock 3 character, who is devoted to 'the protection of Nature and peace' and who draws his power from the concept of a living earth. His Patron is Izmus, a Fae Royal who is on par with a lower level god in terms of power, who loves nature, and despises senseless violence.
Yep, Paladins are literally not required to be pledged to a god. They get an Oath to a principle. No reason that their Patron can't go with that just fine.
@@dreamwolf7302 I have a concept build that I haven't gotten the chance to play yet, but he's an Oath of Redemption Paladin/Celestial Warlock Aasimar. Aasimar have a connection to a celestial being inside them. So for Warlock his Patron is that Celestial being. And for Paladin his God that he swore the oath to is the Celestial Beings God.
Good point! I meant to say no race can fly in heavy armor at level 1! Aasimar do make great paladins for that 1 per day flight speed transformation they get , and they're very fitting thematically too
if you want to stick to your Paladin god while having a Hexblade pact: just have the weapon be connected to the god. like it's a holy weapon that contains a piece of your god's spirit, or was given to you by your god, something like that.
An idea I have for this is that your warlock swore an oath to a god indirectly, via one of their angels, and in exchange the Angel granted them a heavenly weapon (hwnce the hexblade levels)
Build wise, it's good. It actually simplifies the whole Str Dex situation because you only need the bare minimum for plate at that point. Get 12 levels in hexblade warlock and you can add your Charisma mod twice to damage. Pair that with Devotion palidan and you add your Charisma mod twice to attack. It's a good build, add assimar for extra damage and holy fluff. All in all, good for duels, but not good for protracted fights.
Wrathful Smite is so underrated, it is one of the most powerful spells available to Paladins right away. The disadvantage that enemies have to get out of the effect guarantee a long duration.
I agree it's the best of the 1st level damage spells, but I personally don't like it on my builds because paladins usually have quite a low spell save DC, concentration is risky when you're on the front lines, you burn the spell when there's a chance you might miss and waste it, and often at low levels a divine smite is enough to kill, which is always better than adding the frightened condition! But that's just my thoughts on it!
@@DnDShorts With a 16 Cha (very achievable), the paladin's DC isn't noticeably worse than other (low level) casters. And the riders on this spell make it better than almost every other Smite spell out there, especially for the level. If you manage to land it on a big, melee-oriented creature which isn't going down this round, the control aspects of the Frightened condition are worth the price of a 1st level slot & your concentration. You can back away, and give your whole party a safe zone where the creature cannot enter. And it's VERY hard to break out of, once landed (plus it eats the creature's whole Action for even the attempt). It's the only Smite spell worth the slot & concentration until Banishing (good luck getting to 17th level!), and thus the only one I've ever used.
I think you missed one really rad thing about spell-smites: they don't interfere with divine smight. I always have at least one prepared just in case I want to absolutely murder someone. I had 2 times when I scored a critical hit on double smited attack, that A LOT of damage.
@@Lavastaramus Sharing spells doesn't mean you both get the effect for one spell slot. It means that you can target your mount with spells that normally only target "self". It would be a bit too good otherwise since Divine Favour etc exist.
Something I noticed in part 1, about needing a free hand as a paladin. for a spell focus you can choose an Emblem, and part of the description states that it can be emblazened on a shield, which means that you can use your shield as a spellcasting focus which will cover somatic components.
Fjord from critical role is a good example of the other way around where he started as a warlock(hexblade) and took a paladin oath under the wildmother. The wildmother became the patron for both the warlock spells and the paladin spells.
I played a Paladin with a DEX of 10 and heavy armor once. First fight we downed a bandit with a Longbow and I picked it up. Ended up making most attacks that game with the bow and hit a higher percentage of those atacks than I did with my sword.
Using Mercer for "Bro did you just build a gun in my medieval fantasy setting?" is even funnier since he's the DM that basically wrote the book on 5e gunslinging
8:41 paladins aren't tied to deity's in 5e they exclusively draw power from their oath simply a promise and they have their power, you're thinking of cleric's and warlocks they're the only classes in dnd 5e that are tied to some other being's power
Warlocks aren't either. Clerics I think are but I've read of some people changing that, too Edit: actually to be clear a warlock must have a patron to level up as a warlock. But if they lose it they keep their powers.
I made pretty much this point and a guy who obviously hadn't read the Players Handbook argued with me for the better part of an hour. Lol I was dropping direct quotes and page numbers too.
RAW Booming Blade has a range of self and cannot be used via Warcaster (the spell must target the creature). Same for Green Flame Blade and Primal Savagery.
@@philippegauvin-vallee9371 I would disagree, the spell still targets the creature because part of casting the spell is making an attack, which would obviously target the creature.
@@conduit64 You could argue that, but it would be wrong. The target of the spell must be within the range of the spell, and for Booming Blade, the range is self. Out of the box, the only way to target a separate creature with a spell with a range of self - and this is at best theoretical - if that target creature also happens to be the caster. A time travelling future self, a quantum duplicate, whatever. Now, the effect of the spell can certainly affect a non-target creature, but that creature is not the target of the spell, only its effects.
The range of Booming Blade is not self, it is self (5 ft radius). Meaning you are the origin of the spell's effect, not the target. Your target is a single creature you make an attack against. Per Jeremy Crawford, Booming Blade is still fine for War Caster.
I'm always casting bless, it gives our cleric more possibilities and concentration is never a problem. Because my high str, I'm thinking of multiclassing in celestial warlock or taking blessed warrior for ranged options.
@@alheimianservant1499 I did considered it, but it requires 2-3 lvl, compared to only 1 lvl in warlock (I don't know how long will campaign last). Favored by gods is good, but I'm personally drawn to warlock.
Another note on point one, if you are mounted on a creature summoned by "find steed" or "find greater steed" the smite spells have a range of self, meaning if you cast them your steed also gains the benefit of a smite on their next attack that hits
8:41 not necessarily an issue. A paladin could simply be granted their hex blade weapon by their deity in exchange for x,y,z. The DM could treat it similarly to a spirt weapon, in that it can only take the form befitting that particular deity. Additionally, eldritch blast could also be further restricted to having it's point of origin be the weapon itself ie the paladin must hold the weapon before them, point it towards the target, or have it morph into a bow to be fired like magical arrows for that turns action. Character classes descriptions, are more like archetype guides. They are merely examples of how to build your PC, not a requirement.
It could also be some high-ranking angel or other celestial under the deity. Or a high-ranking entity similar to/aligned with the paladin's, uh, Patron? I guess? Cause a Paladin doesn't have to have a deity anymore if I remember the changes in 5e correctly.
@@thejadedrabbitTJR that is correct, Paladins draw their powers from an oath they make rather than from a particular patron/deity. In other words as long as they maintain an ideal or desire, they will have access to their abilities. If their desires were to wane or if they were to break the fundamentals of their oath, such as a paladin of vengeance forgiving the target of their hatred or if they were to start doubting their belief system, they would either start losing their powers, or become an oath breaker for example. I just used the deity as an example as most paladins are a member of some sort of order or faction that can have an association or faith tied to it somewhere. Even if the orders underlings are unaware of what the top ranked members are doing, the connection still trickles down to even the most fledgling of members. Alternatively, the DM could treat the paladin the same way the ancient Greek gods did, the paladin could draw the attention of a god that they either don't worship or unaware of, and be granted their weapon simply because that deity wants to see what they would do with it, much like how the player comes across many of the Elder Scrolls Daedric artifacts in game.
@@mathewpoole3589 maybe even an ally entity of that god, like dollowing the goddess of nature and an old patron on some forest grant it a sword to help him serve her goddess
1:17 Wrathful Smite is the best one, once frightened the only way out is to use action to make Wisdom CHECK with disadvantage. Against big creatures with low wisdom it's great, massive debuff effect for bonus action, only requires they fail first wisdom saving throw.
Oath of Conquest Paladin... Fear spell... If it works and the target is within 10ft of the Paladin, the target must: 1: Drop everything the target in holding. 2: Can only use their action to grovel. 3: Their speed is reduced to 0 for the duration of the spell. 4: Every round the paladin spends within 10 ft of the now feared target causes said target to take psychic damage every round. 5: The only ways to break that fear is to have someone OTHER than the target dispel the effect, OR if the target can break line of sight, THEN then can take an action to attempt to break the fear.
@@AmishGangsta404 sorry for simple question, why does the target grovel? I thought they would be frightened with all the other conditions you mention, am I missing an interaction here?
@@jiminkpen9750 It's a condition of the fear spell. The target MUST use it's action to move away from you *or* if it cannot (such as having it's movement speed reduced to 0) it must use it's action to grovel.
2:40 - Cackles in Vengeance Paladin/Celestial Warlock. Firebolt is amazing on a Paladin (and 2 free level 2 Smites every short rest is God-Tier). Add in War Caster, Devil's Sight and Darkness and you can be a game-breaking badass. Now, why Celestial and not Hexblade? Well, for one it didn't fit the vibe I am going for (Human turned Vampire who is a monster slayer for revenge in the name of innocents lost) and the party lacks "A Healer", so Lay on Hands and Healing Light help offset this issue.
If you've already got war caster and celestial warlock picking up green flame blade would do you some good. Especially if you take celestial warlock to 6 for the extra Cha mod added to all fire and radiant damage spells. My ideal blast furnace build is 2 paladin for plate armor, a shield, a staff, and everything else paladin gives. Then at least 3 levels of celestial warlock for tome pact, shillelagh, and any 2 other key cantrips. You can get book of ancient secrets to get find familiar and later on learn every other ritual in the game. Dip into dragon sorcerer, take both warlock and sorcerer to 6, then dump all remaining levels into sorcerer. At 6 celestial warlock adds the Cha mod once to every fire and radiant spell. At 6 dragon sorcerer also adds their Cha mod the every spell of their dragon's element. So red or gold in this case. Being a tiefling with flames of phlegethos is also a nice buff to the build. With War Caster and either quickened spell or illusionist's bracers you'll be casting green flame blade two to three times a turn, rolling a number of d8's nearly equal to the d6's in a rogues sneak attack, and adding you Cha mod to the damage of each green flame blade swing 3 to 4 times. All while decked out in full plate, a shield, and swinging a flaming stick in wide arcs like an old timey manual weed whacker.
Funny enough... I made a Paladin of Flame build with a character who essentially lived and grew up inside of the Plane of Fire. With a little DM retheming on the Sorcerer subclass, I ended up with this: 6 Vengeance Paladin, 1 Hexblade Warlock, Remainder as Sorcerer (Fire Draconic - rebranded as just Fire Elemental). Essentially, my character was a master and zealot of all things fire - ranging from divine flames, flames of darkness (a bit of flavor from the warlock bit), pure flames, etc. Naturally, my feats and abilities towards empowering fire in many different ways and thematically - I loved the hell out of the character. It felt more or less everything like a paladin should, but with far more offensive options and a whole new spin on the connection to something divine. My character was dedicated to the primal element of fire and all aspects that embodied it: ranging from rebirth, vengeance, destruction and purification. Basically, got away mostly with Cha/Con as stats which helped consolidate the build.
Or have your weapon possessed with a spirit of ancient saint or something like that. Or said saint (or something akin guardian angel) could be sent to assist you by your god, and find it more convenient to share some of his power with you instead of constantly babysitting you. Another flavor for divine power to be channeled through the weapon is to have some part of great sacred value embedded in it (e.g. a nail from the cross). An entire quest can be created to retrieve this weapon (and a warlock level with it).
Level 14 bard can cast Find Greater Steed, and Tenser's Transformation. FGS is a spell with a range of self and no extra volume defined. Per a tweet by Jeremy Crawford, that is the criteria for Tenser's to affect you and your mount.
Watching this videos are always so hilarious and so useful. I feel like I learn about parts of the game that I didn't knew it existed. Keep with the good work and I'm totally glad that you put the description of the spells or the objects
my only problem is that in 5e, Paladins aren't pledged to a god, they're pledged to a cause. the cause could be divine inspired but it can be something as simple as the goblin slayer murder of all goblins. an eldritch diety could easily be a part of that.
@@fredfullthedreadful It's only a problem if you're a player from previous editions and aren't a fan of the huge departure between old Paladins and the new 5e Paladin. I don't personally see the problem since it was already something for Clerics in previous editions to be able to be pledged to a cause or an idea. Why can't Paladins do the same?
@@TonberryShuffle Plus, if they prefer the oldschool style of Clerics and Paladins, they can just use that and leave these newfangled ideas to the younger folk
You can perform somatic components with a hand holding an arcane focus, and a holy symbol can be an emblem on a shield, which means you can cast while carrying a sword and shield
For the last "problem" remember that nothing can stop your Hexblade to be of divine origin, like being given a massue given by an angel that he uses to speak with you or a having a sword that contains several saint's relics (like Durendal).
@@BovineTerror Melee weapon attack means a melee attack with a weapon or unarmed strike, not to be confused with attacks made from melee weapons. 5e messed up this language because they though "natural" language was easier to understand.
@@BovineTerror no, there's no such thing as melee range. reach weapons can make 10ft melee weapon attacks, lunging strike can add 5ft, bug bear on their turn can add 5ft, so 20ft melee weapon attacks are possible. The range has nothing to do with if an attack counts as a melee weapon attack.
I actually saw a great argument over with the Dungeon Dudes about one of their characters ... Paladins make an Oath, not to a god but a cause... So placing your oath "by my blade" would fix the Hexblade issue.
Paladins can also take the Blessed Warrior Fighting Style to get a nice ranged cantrip like Toll the Dead or Sacred Flame plus some utility with Guidance, without having to waste a feat slot.
This is, no lie, not only the best ad I think you've put out, but the best I've seen in last 6 months, and I am buying in if only to encourage this behavior. Enjoy!
Know what else besides Hexblade is worth putting a level in? Divine Soul Sorcerer. As if your Aura wasn't amazing enough already, you now have Favored By The Gods, which once per short rest gives you 2d4 on your saving throw. Shield and Absorb Elements are incredible uses of your reaction if you're constantly taking hits - with your high saves and Absorb Elements, the average damage of 63 from an Ancient Red Dragon's Breath Weapon goes down to a measly 15. Later on, metamagic is pretty nice - Subtle Spell is usually on a stealthy/intrigue character but it also enables you to cast spells with your hands full even without Warcaster. Personally, I'd first take 7 levels in the Paladin subclass of my choice (Watchers in particular has an Aura that boosts Initiative, which is amazing), 1 to 3 levels in Hexblade Warlock (all three options are viable to me, for just the Charisma hits, having a really good Eldritch Blast, to having a ton of juice for Flexible Magic and smiting as well as a Pact Boon) and the remainder of levels into Divine Soul Sorcerer (for the benefits above). An 8th level of Paladin somewhere will still progress your slots and give you another ASI.
If your DM allows it, there is an item called an oversized longbow. Most people say that you use str for damage and dex to fire it. However Page 196 (Either PHB or DMG I forgot which) has the following quote under the Damage Rolls section. "When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier-the same modifier used for the attack roll to the damage. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers."
It is a straight strength weapon. The item description says you require a strength score of 18 to use it. Otherwise, all attacks are made with disadvantage.
The Pally in our party got around the Cha or Dex by dumping Con. Yes, dumping, it is her lowest stat...and it worked! Full plate plus Shield Master has her shrugging off most damage entirely, and rolling decently on the second largest hit dice in game has he still being beefy once hit. Meanwhile my Wizard goes down in literally every fight with a +2. Our party dynamic has at this point changed the way I view Con. Clearly it’s important, but I now have so much lived in experience demonstrating its importance is underrated, especially for martial classes
I feel like a fairly simple option for ranged combat was missed out on. Javelins. Available at level one if you took starting equipment and otherwise pretty cheap to buy. A respectable range of 30/120. No DEX needed to stick em, mid flight, with the pointy end. As a bonus, while the paladins divine smite ability can only be used on a melee attack the same is not true of all of their smite spells. Both Branding Smite and Banishing Smite only mention needing a weapon attack and not a melee weapon attack for your spell to be able to go off. There's also a couple of others but they all specify 'weapon your are holding when cast' and not 'when you hit with a weapon', making them more of a "plan B" for this tactic.
@@jawamaster Yes. Ones a basic and overall cheap piece of equipment that gives options and the other's a magic weapon. One of these things is not like the other.
I absolutely love your editing style, with someone with adhd it really helps to stay focused because there's a lot going on and I don't get distracted. Plz don't stop making videos.
I know the argument for "paladin and warlock don't make sense together" is sound enough but I'd argue that making a pact to further stick to or reach your oath goals is totally a thing a Paladin could or would do
Celestial Pact Warlock. Boom, you now have divine themed Eldritch Blast and some ranged healing, and it fits most Paladin Oaths. If you rock up an Oath of Ancients Paladin, you can also pick an Archfey Pact.
I disagree on wrathful smite because it is an awesome tanking ability. Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their saving throw so they have to attack you to get rid of the debilitating effects of fear. So it's a matter of knowing how yo use it instead of always using smite. And also you could still divine smite with this.
"Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their saving throw" Correction: Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their Wisdom ability check...no longer a saving throw after you fall into this trap!
1:00 You can have a shield and still make somatic components, let me explain, the rule is you can use the hand you use to hold your material component (or an arcane focus or holy symbol) to do sematic components, and you can engrave a holy symbol on a shield, so your shield can also be your holy symbol, so you can use that hand to do the somatic components no problem.
Really appreciate this vid, genuinely was struggling with wanting to play paladin but hating not having spells, now I get it and can decide better. ps. thanks for making ads that are actually funny to watch
Also a massive fan of "there are no problems" in DnD - make stuff work with your GM! If one of my players wanted to be a paladin AND a warlock, I'd either: - have them torn between two powerful deities as you mentioned - make the warlock patron be someone earthbound who is hellbent on destroying the paladin's god, and is trying to steal away their followers - have a character arc for the ACTUAL GOD. Through supporting the paladin player they've become more acutely aware of the problems faced down on earth, and are having something of an identity crisis. Clearly, being a pure and holy god isn't helping anyone, so the god's very existence shifts to be more neutral, allowing them to be both a god AND a patron at the same time. As far as I'm concerned, the mechanics are there to support the story, not the other way around :D
Actually, fun fact: Branding Smite and Banishing Smite simply require a WEAPON attack, not a melee weapon attack. So, those two exclusively have the capacity for making a True-to-Form ranged Paladin!
Paladins do NOT get their powers from other creatures like gods, you can flavor it so if you want, but here is what I mean: A Paladin fights for something, be it an ideal, a god, or corn, as long as they are devoted to the something and take actions which the Paladin thinks will lead to the best possible outcome, they will get powers from that determination alone. They are a charisma class after all. Clerics get their power from outsiders that directly benefit from the Clerics worship, the stronger the worship is that results from the actions of the Cleric, the more power the Cleric usually gets. If the Paladin were to start praying, or spread the good word of their god, they might just straight up get Cleric levels instead, and if the Cleric decides to stop praying and silently benefit their god through direct action, they might get Paladin levels. This all is less weird once you remember that in canon there is no lvl20 limit, you can totally get 20/5 Cleric/Paladin, it would just take an immensly long time in canon, and break the game in meta. Meaning, in canon you can totally be a paladin fighting for corn (or anything else if you're boring), and have a devil or a cursed sword come along and be like: "I can help you with that", and get into a pact like that.
Just because they don't get their powers by praying to a god, doesn't mean they don't get their powers from gods. A paladin who draws his powers from sheer force of will is not a paladin, he is a sorcerer. Although paladins serve orders, those orders act (in one way or another) in favor of the ideals of some deity, so they are blessed with powers, and so they can lose them.
There is no text that I am aware of that paladins can "lose" their power, they just become "oathbreakers", which I can easily explain by saying that them breaking their own oath has corrupted their power. Why in the heck would a god that gives the paladin power let him keep that power under the "oathbreaker" subclass? Also, sorcerers need internal power that they then learn to harness, paladins don't need that.
@@alkatron768 You are totally and absolutely wrong. The paladin class, in the player's manual, there's a box right at the start of the subclasses that explains what happens if you break your oath. It says there that if you break your oath you need to find another paladin of your order or a CLERIC to absolve you. Why would a cleric be an option if your power isn't divine? And the examples of atonement that he talks about are praying, fasting, etc., religious acts. And it also says, that if you break your oath and don't repent, you won't be able to level up any more paladin. Becoming an oathbreaker is an option where the paladin twists to an evil level, drawing their powers from a dark deity.
Seeing how the warlock also is a charisma class, one can see that the spell casting ability does not determine the source of one's power. You could easily make the argument that cleric's, as wisdom based casters, receive their powers from a deep-rooted understanding of the world they inhabit. Their closeness to the very essence of the universe is what enables them to tap into the power of the outer planes. Since the world is inherently tied to the gods, this interpretation does not contradict the idea that praying gives them power. Clerics are also described in the PHB to be sent out by divine beings not just to spread the world, but to bring change to it, so they too benefit their deity through direct action. They are clerics, not preachers (although being a cleric does not mean that one cannot be a preacher). Wisdom based powers are repeatedly explained as coming from being one with one's reality - be this the reality of divine interconnectedness (clerics), nature (druids and rangers), or the essence of what it means to be to begin with (monks). Now, again, I am not arguing that any particular ability modifier can define the source of the particular powers received through them - my point is, that the source of power can only be determined individually - it IS purely flavor, even some settings may be restrictive, there usually are multiple ways to attain certain powers without needing to fit a particular "canoncial niche".
@@caurd One by one then. It doesn't say it "needs" to be a paladin or a cleric, it says "typically", it could be though, clerics could just act like psychiatrists, anything they would see as a trustful person with experience in the field they seek atonement from would probably work, like the local lord overseeing corn production. Many non-religious people do things like fasting to "punish" themselfes for things they think they need punishment for, that specifically can therefore benefit my argument. Anything that helps to correct things from the Paladins point of view should work just fine. "If you break your oath you can't get more levels in Paladin", don't know where you got that from, but it implies that you can keep your levels, meaning it was not taken from you, so why would the god not do that? You would certainly not get any stronger from your corn-obsession if you stopped fighting for corn, but any strength you had gotten you'd get to keep, like, obviously. So it works for my argument.
I am SO glad I saw this video. I’m playing Vecna Eve of Ruin as a paladin and kept worrying about strength vs charisma, saw this video, and now I’m doing a 3 level dip into hexblade warlock.
For the Decent to Avernus, I played a Conquest Paladin 11, Hexblade 1, and Bard 1. I took the Hexblade early and the Bard late. I ALWAYS had something to do with my bonus action, whether it was casing Hex or Spiritual Weapon, Hexblade Curse, or Bardic Inspiration. And the +5 aura bonus saved people so many times it felt like cheating.
8:43, something that I think is really interesting is that paladins aren't actually necessarily connected to a god, if you read the description for the class it says you might have sworn an oath to forest spirits or the spirits of the dead, also it says right at the end that the oath is the paladins source of power. I think warlock/paladin works really well, since you can make an oath about anything you might be making an oath to a sentient magic item you found that you will reforge it and use it to banish the undead from the multiverse or something.
@@kaldogorath I guess, if it's oath of glory or vengeance or something and you are just trying to accomplish a personal goal I would totally allow that
My Paladin build: First level: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer: Prof in Con Saves for concentration, AC=13+Dex. Max out your Dex Second level: Paladin Get a Ruby of the Warmage, and an Emblem for your shield, so you can do Somatic for both classes while your hands are full At level 2 (with no armor, a Dex of 20 and a shield) your base AC is 20. Cast Shield of Faith (later Haste) at the start of combat for an AC of 22, cast Shield when needed for an AC of 27. Get a Cloak of Protection and a Ring of protection for a max AC of 29. Get the Lucky Feat; if the DM manages to crit, just have them reroll. Your levels in Sorcerer will give you more spell slots, to fuel your Divine Smites A 6th Level Paladin will get Aura of Protection. Combined with the Cloak and Ring, your saving throws will be off the scale, and if you still fail, use your Lucky Feat Your offense will be solid as well: Extra attack once Paladin hits level 5, Haste when Sorcerer hits level 5. With max Dex, a Finesse Weapon, Booming Blade and your Divine Smite..? Well it adds up! Do get Warcaster when you can. Booming Blade for an Op attack when the enemy moves away is brutal (also don't forget to Smite here). And as a cherry on the cake: cast Command: Flee. They get to waste their turn, and every ally within reach get an Op attack. For Race I went with Harengon. Rabbit Hop + (Quickened) Jump gives you amazing mobility on the battle field, which can be very useful, for instance for emergency healing Oh, and Twinning a Haste on yourself and an Ally is OP and you should totally do it! ... ENJOY! :P
Good point at the end there. I once had a fiend pact warlock Aasimar Paladin whose deities manifested as the little angel and devil on her shoulder. Their constant tussle over her fate sometimes got so intense it would temporarily alter her alignment. Amazing fun and a terrifyingly powerful character.
A fun little suggestion for all paladins. I’m fairly sure branding and banishing smite to not require a melee weapon attack, so if ya have the dex! Another fun suggestion I use all the time is blessing yourself as a vengeance paladin for advantage and an extra D4 to attack rolls then using gwm or sharpshooter! If both of these are already suggested in the video, dolphin diving out a window lol.
I came here for DnD tips and what I got was a wholesome story arc about a friend comforting his buddy having a breakdown. I look forward to Pt 2 of this skit.
My favorite part of this video is that I realize that Jeremy said both you can use warlock spell slots for divine smite since they're spell slots, while also saying you can interpret the rules to not allow you to use Flexible Casting with Warlock spell slots. That's a slap in the face right there.
In Pathfinder 1e, there is the Holy Gun archetype for Paladin, which basically makes them a ranged paladin. I'm glad there are ways that you can give a paladin fun ranged options in 5e though
A good idea to combine Hexblade and Paladin thematically is to say your holy patron granted you the weapon. Alternatively, you could have no divine patron at all; the rules state (for both Clerics and Paladins) that they do not have to follow a god, but rather a set of principles or oath. A paladin with the Oath of Vengeance could have pledged to avenge his murdered family, and signing a pact with a magical blade seemed like a way to achieve that goal better. There are tons of options to make it work thematically as well as it does mechanically, and I think it's one of the most interesting multiclasses in both respects.
Paladins and clerics draw their power from the gods. They do not have to pray to them, that is true, but that only implies that the god has noticed him and granted him his powers moved by his devotion to his ideals.
Really like your content dude, and my oathbreaker really enjoyed this video. Oh and a different note. Your robot voice immediately reminded me of a Dalek, so now I need you to make a warforged Dalek build. Haha
A couple notes from an ex-paladin player: -Shield can act as a focus for paladin AND cleric spells, so while the occasional thing with a cost (say revivify) requires a free hand, you're generally good. The true benefit of war caster is that benefit on concentration, and if you get your hands on Booming Blade. -Smite spells get flack but they're okay. Secondary benefits, only trigger on hits, and a few if not most work on ranged weapon attacks too. I personally vouch instead for Spirit Shroud as it works on multiple hits, once you can use it that is. Works on Eldritch Blast if you get it. -Generally agreed, a level or two into warlock/sorcerer is great for range (magic initiate is valid) and can work well to diversify: get 2 levels in warlock for 2 short rest spell slots. There's patrons and sorcerous origins that work more synergetically (think Celestial patron or Divine Soul) in a narrative sense if it's an issue, though as your powers come from dedication instead of an oath, it's easy to conceive a paladin favoured by darker powers... 😈 -Concentration + Aura is a win win for allies and yourself included. -Duergar, not drow, get natural Enlarge/Reduce. 🙂
You can also multi class one level into fiend warlock, as their first level feature allows you to gain temporary hit points equal to your charisma modifier + your warlock level every time you knock a hostile creature to 0 hit points. Using this, you can then take the holy warrior fighting style, and take word of radiance. Then, you can carry around a nest of wasps, and when you need to fight, smash the nest on the ground. Then cast word of radiance to kill all the angry wasps, giving you a ridiculous amount of temporary hit points.
There's an easy work around not having to having to worry about Dex as a Paladin but still having a solid Dex Saving Throw, which is say you're a Paladin with Dex 10 (+0), the easy fix is picking up two great feats. One pick up Resilient feat, drop the +1 ability score in either WIS or CHA whichever needs it most, according to the feat you then get proficiency in the Saving Throw of your chosen score, well, Paladins already have proficiency in WIS and CHA, so then in accordance to the rules you simply choose a different attribute, choose Dex Saving Throws. And then for a bit extra gas too the Dex Saving Throws, pick up Shield Mastery feat. So what you do get with all that, say your CHA is 20 (+5) and let's say you went hoo-man variant, so by level 8 as Paladin of just Dex 10, you can still wind up having a Dex Saving Throw (via Aura of Protection + Resilient feat + Shield Mastery feat) of +10, and that'll be with Shield Mastery's awesome feature, "If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.", which is basically a poorman's evasion for shield types.
one of my hex blade/pal multiclass background was say that my halberd was possessed but a soul of a former conquest paladin that was bonded to him after his death.and in creating a mentor-student relation a form of pact was created without either realizing at the time
Magic initiate: Sheleighleigh. It solves the MADness of the class. It lets you use your Charisma for attack and damage. This makes a quarterstaff or club a d8 weapon onehanded by default as well. Meaning, you can use the dueling fightingstyle with a shield and use a quarterstaff. 1d8+2 is higher damage than a standard 1d10 weapon, so its not bad. Or you could dip hexblade...
This is very good information for building a character to do the best it can for basically everything. The only thing it leaves out is whether your character would feasibly have these stats for various reasons. Basically it's the age old question of am I making a character or an adventurer. A character is played more in the head of the pc and may or may not have everything right in the head whereas a adventurer is just there to get the job done, basically just a mercenary for hire that may or may not have other agendas.
About the last point, you could just be a Hexblade who made a pact with your God (if you're a paladin who made an oath to a God, since technically you don't have to). Then you can flavor your Hexblade abilities as divine abilities, as long as you roll the same number and type of dice, who cares?
Padlocks are the most interesting builds after sorlocks. I mainly played a divine soul/hexblade Sorlock and the arc was insanely fun. Can't wait to try out a padlock. I already have a great idea
1) you can stack Divine Smite on [choice] Smite. 2) Command "Heel" can be heard as "Heal", and as the subject chooses what they do, they might patch themselves up. "Come" also has.... issues. Use "Approach".
Bless and Smite until it's done! 😇 1st level paladin spellslots are Bless-slots 90 % of the time. If you or a buddy get in 1 more hit instead of miss, maintain concentration, or make a save, that's usually way better than the 2d8 (or even 3d8) extra damage. But if you crit, you Smite. Smite spells are for control, not damage. Thunderous Smite brings flying creatures to the ground (because it knocks them prone), pushes stuff into danger, or off ledges. Wrathful Smite is good on a tough monster with no ranged attack. Hit and retreat out of its range. Now the monster can't get closer to you, or the party if they're behind you, as you kill it with ranged attacks as it cowers. Also, a paladin with a whip can Wrathful Smite (and Smite) from 10 ft. Combine with Oath of Conquest for fun flavour and fear the dommy mommy paladin. 🤣
For the ranged point, Tashas gave us the Blessed Warrior fighting style as an option that lets you choose 2 cleric cantrips. Make one Sacred Flame and now you have a good ranged atk and you didnt have to waste a feat slot for magic initiate.
Can you smite with a thrown weapon like a javelin? They’re considered melee weapons and divine smite just says you need to make a melee weapon attack, so could that be a way to deal with flying enemies too?
Dread it. Run from it. SMITE still arrives...
Also for real get your peachy keister a free Flash Drive and Micro SD at your local Micro Center, no purchase necessary! micro.center/d68023
I saw a video about Illusion Wizards making cubes of mythical (Anything) real for 1 minute, but can't find the video.
Could someone link it, it looked cool. :)
What about potion of haste? Or what feats would you recommend? (Other than Sentinel which I put on every Paladin I make because no one hits my team mates but me)
@@alvinleonardo1263 Potion of haste is good! Lots of great feats depending on what you want! Great Weapon Master, Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, Warcaster, Magic Initiate all come to mind as strong options, more offbeat but powerful and flavourful choices include Inspiring Leader, Sheild Master, Mounted Combatant, and Resiliant, depending on your build!
@@DnDShorts ok a bit of correction for paladins. they are not pledges to a god, they have made an oath of some kind and as long as working with the entity that you chose for your warlock level goess with that oath you are fine. rarely does a paladin ever make an oath to a god
Ironically one of the most powerful and thematic subclasses of Paladin you can multiclass with Hexblade is the one where you aren't actually pledged to a god anymore.
Oathbreaker + Hexblade = *Hexbreaker*
So glad you mentioned Command! I had a Paladin in a campaign who was strong, but not the brightest and quite childish. The player liked to flavour the commands as her throwing tantrums and then putting emphasis on a certain word. So the enemy laughs at the childish request, only to then find themselves unwittingly following it. She was easily the highlight of that campaign.
I love that idea, it's so creative
I had a paladin who was helping raise money to get a friend out of jail. He wanted to go as quickly as possible, so he commanded his first opponent to ‘forfeit’. It worked 😎
i had a friend who played a paladin named GORD (all caps is how its spelled) and he was also stupid and strong and this comment reminds me of him
So basically, they played a millennial. Sounds annoying.
@@daveroles3783 Millenials are 30+ now bro
For the last point, there's 2 things to remember in D&D 5E that makes this work even easier...
1) A Warlock patron does not have to be an evil being. You could make a pact with a god you serve to get even more power.
2) A Paladin's spells do not come from a god, but an oath. An oath to a god is the classic Paladin, but it's not the only way. I mean, look at the Oath of Vengeance Paladin for a prime example.
The celestial warlock exists for a reason. Smite with action, heal with bonus action. The perfect character.
Was about to put this in. I have a Pally 5, Warlock 3 character, who is devoted to 'the protection of Nature and peace' and who draws his power from the concept of a living earth.
His Patron is Izmus, a Fae Royal who is on par with a lower level god in terms of power, who loves nature, and despises senseless violence.
I agree, paladins are not clerics.
Yep, Paladins are literally not required to be pledged to a god. They get an Oath to a principle. No reason that their Patron can't go with that just fine.
@@dreamwolf7302 I have a concept build that I haven't gotten the chance to play yet, but he's an Oath of Redemption Paladin/Celestial Warlock Aasimar. Aasimar have a connection to a celestial being inside them. So for Warlock his Patron is that Celestial being. And for Paladin his God that he swore the oath to is the Celestial Beings God.
Just a note here: Aasimar can still fly when in heavy armour, so Aasimar are broken Paladins
Good point! I meant to say no race can fly in heavy armor at level 1! Aasimar do make great paladins for that 1 per day flight speed transformation they get , and they're very fitting thematically too
Also, +2 Charisma is great.
@@DnDShorts gonna be real, it's kinda on brand that aasimar are good pallys, like how tieflings are good Warlocks
@@GoblinLord Feather Leather.
Just want you to know a lot of people do weird skits for their sponsors and yours are always the best
Best quote from this entire channel 8:50 "however, you can get around this little issue by simply not giving a sh!t" 😂🤣😂
if you want to stick to your Paladin god while having a Hexblade pact: just have the weapon be connected to the god. like it's a holy weapon that contains a piece of your god's spirit, or was given to you by your god, something like that.
An idea I have for this is that your warlock swore an oath to a god indirectly, via one of their angels, and in exchange the Angel granted them a heavenly weapon (hwnce the hexblade levels)
Build wise, it's good. It actually simplifies the whole Str Dex situation because you only need the bare minimum for plate at that point. Get 12 levels in hexblade warlock and you can add your Charisma mod twice to damage. Pair that with Devotion palidan and you add your Charisma mod twice to attack. It's a good build, add assimar for extra damage and holy fluff. All in all, good for duels, but not good for protracted fights.
Wrathful Smite is so underrated, it is one of the most powerful spells available to Paladins right away. The disadvantage that enemies have to get out of the effect guarantee a long duration.
I agree it's the best of the 1st level damage spells, but I personally don't like it on my builds because paladins usually have quite a low spell save DC, concentration is risky when you're on the front lines, you burn the spell when there's a chance you might miss and waste it, and often at low levels a divine smite is enough to kill, which is always better than adding the frightened condition! But that's just my thoughts on it!
@@DnDShorts I agree, it's something I would use more on Bosses, maybe with the assistance of The-New-Spell-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
Wrathful Smite+Setinel is fun.
Definitely prefer Command as my first level spell. It's not a charm spell and can dramatically affect a battle.
@@DnDShorts With a 16 Cha (very achievable), the paladin's DC isn't noticeably worse than other (low level) casters. And the riders on this spell make it better than almost every other Smite spell out there, especially for the level. If you manage to land it on a big, melee-oriented creature which isn't going down this round, the control aspects of the Frightened condition are worth the price of a 1st level slot & your concentration. You can back away, and give your whole party a safe zone where the creature cannot enter. And it's VERY hard to break out of, once landed (plus it eats the creature's whole Action for even the attempt).
It's the only Smite spell worth the slot & concentration until Banishing (good luck getting to 17th level!), and thus the only one I've ever used.
I think you missed one really rad thing about spell-smites: they don't interfere with divine smight. I always have at least one prepared just in case I want to absolutely murder someone. I had 2 times when I scored a critical hit on double smited attack, that A LOT of damage.
Also, if you cast Smite spell while riding your mount from Find (Greater) Steed, you can make the spell affect the mount as well.
@@Lavastaramus Sharing spells doesn't mean you both get the effect for one spell slot. It means that you can target your mount with spells that normally only target "self". It would be a bit too good otherwise since Divine Favour etc exist.
Something I noticed in part 1, about needing a free hand as a paladin. for a spell focus you can choose an Emblem, and part of the description states that it can be emblazened on a shield, which means that you can use your shield as a spellcasting focus which will cover somatic components.
No, it will cover material components with no cost, but somatic means hand signs, meaning you need a free hand
@@IreallyLOVEMusic333 shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....................
Fjord from critical role is a good example of the other way around where he started as a warlock(hexblade) and took a paladin oath under the wildmother. The wildmother became the patron for both the warlock spells and the paladin spells.
I played a Paladin with a DEX of 10 and heavy armor once. First fight we downed a bandit with a Longbow and I picked it up. Ended up making most attacks that game with the bow and hit a higher percentage of those atacks than I did with my sword.
Nobody ever accused the dice gods of not having a sense of humor. 😉
Bro that skit was hilarious!!!!!! I usually skip ad reads, so thanks for making them entertaining.
Using Mercer for "Bro did you just build a gun in my medieval fantasy setting?" is even funnier since he's the DM that basically wrote the book on 5e gunslinging
No basically about it
8:41 paladins aren't tied to deity's in 5e they exclusively draw power from their oath simply a promise and they have their power, you're thinking of cleric's and warlocks they're the only classes in dnd 5e that are tied to some other being's power
Warlocks aren't either.
Clerics I think are but I've read of some people changing that, too
Edit: actually to be clear a warlock must have a patron to level up as a warlock. But if they lose it they keep their powers.
@@EsquilaxM I'm a little harsh with my warlocks if they lose faith with thier patron.
They aren't, But they can be. So whatever
I made pretty much this point and a guy who obviously hadn't read the Players Handbook argued with me for the better part of an hour. Lol I was dropping direct quotes and page numbers too.
Point 5 is so important. Good on you for discussing the fact that building a character with a badass arc can help the DM plot out their campaign.
If you take magic initiate and warcaster I recommend Booming Blade cos you can do one hell of an opportunity attack
RAW Booming Blade has a range of self and cannot be used via Warcaster (the spell must target the creature). Same for Green Flame Blade and Primal Savagery.
@@philippegauvin-vallee9371 just realised they changed it with TCE. RIP the combo in RAW then
@@philippegauvin-vallee9371 I would disagree, the spell still targets the creature because part of casting the spell is making an attack, which would obviously target the creature.
@@conduit64 You could argue that, but it would be wrong.
The target of the spell must be within the range of the spell, and for Booming Blade, the range is self.
Out of the box, the only way to target a separate creature with a spell with a range of self - and this is at best theoretical - if that target creature also happens to be the caster. A time travelling future self, a quantum duplicate, whatever.
Now, the effect of the spell can certainly affect a non-target creature, but that creature is not the target of the spell, only its effects.
The range of Booming Blade is not self, it is self (5 ft radius). Meaning you are the origin of the spell's effect, not the target. Your target is a single creature you make an attack against. Per Jeremy Crawford, Booming Blade is still fine for War Caster.
I'm always casting bless, it gives our cleric more possibilities and concentration is never a problem. Because my high str, I'm thinking of multiclassing in celestial warlock or taking blessed warrior for ranged options.
played a Celestial Lock before and with that you will have a lot of bonus action heals :)
Do Divine Soul sorcerer
@@alheimianservant1499 I did considered it, but it requires 2-3 lvl, compared to only 1 lvl in warlock (I don't know how long will campaign last). Favored by gods is good, but I'm personally drawn to warlock.
@@BlackGruya Consider taking 2 levels, the ranged option is not especially good if you don't take the agonizing blast invocation
blade turned gun with holy smite? perfect paladin idea!
Gunblade :D
@@32Loveless50 Gunblade with smite? Badass af
Paladins don't get their power from a god, they don't even need to be religious whatsoever. They get their power from their oath.
My favorite paladin tip: you don’t have to pledge yourself in the name of good. You can take an oath for evil reasons.
Another note on point one, if you are mounted on a creature summoned by "find steed" or "find greater steed" the smite spells have a range of self, meaning if you cast them your steed also gains the benefit of a smite on their next attack that hits
not really. the spells target who you hit with the attack. rules are weird.
8:41 not necessarily an issue. A paladin could simply be granted their hex blade weapon by their deity in exchange for x,y,z.
The DM could treat it similarly to a spirt weapon, in that it can only take the form befitting that particular deity.
Additionally, eldritch blast could also be further restricted to having it's point of origin be the weapon itself ie the paladin must hold the weapon before them, point it towards the target, or have it morph into a bow to be fired like magical arrows for that turns action.
Character classes descriptions, are more like archetype guides. They are merely examples of how to build your PC, not a requirement.
It could also be some high-ranking angel or other celestial under the deity. Or a high-ranking entity similar to/aligned with the paladin's, uh, Patron? I guess? Cause a Paladin doesn't have to have a deity anymore if I remember the changes in 5e correctly.
@@thejadedrabbitTJR that is correct, Paladins draw their powers from an oath they make rather than from a particular patron/deity. In other words as long as they maintain an ideal or desire, they will have access to their abilities. If their desires were to wane or if they were to break the fundamentals of their oath, such as a paladin of vengeance forgiving the target of their hatred or if they were to start doubting their belief system, they would either start losing their powers, or become an oath breaker for example.
I just used the deity as an example as most paladins are a member of some sort of order or faction that can have an association or faith tied to it somewhere. Even if the orders underlings are unaware of what the top ranked members are doing, the connection still trickles down to even the most fledgling of members.
Alternatively, the DM could treat the paladin the same way the ancient Greek gods did, the paladin could draw the attention of a god that they either don't worship or unaware of, and be granted their weapon simply because that deity wants to see what they would do with it, much like how the player comes across many of the Elder Scrolls Daedric artifacts in game.
@@mathewpoole3589 maybe even an ally entity of that god, like dollowing the goddess of nature and an old patron on some forest grant it a sword to help him serve her goddess
came here for the wacky d&d shenanigans, stayed for the random Matt Mercer in shades appearances.
Dude... the Robot Man Commercial was awesome. Applause.
1:17 Wrathful Smite is the best one, once frightened the only way out is to use action to make Wisdom CHECK with disadvantage. Against big creatures with low wisdom it's great, massive debuff effect for bonus action, only requires they fail first wisdom saving throw.
Oath of Conquest Paladin... Fear spell... If it works and the target is within 10ft of the Paladin, the target must:
1: Drop everything the target in holding.
2: Can only use their action to grovel.
3: Their speed is reduced to 0 for the duration of the spell.
4: Every round the paladin spends within 10 ft of the now feared target causes said target to take psychic damage every round.
5: The only ways to break that fear is to have someone OTHER than the target dispel the effect, OR if the target can break line of sight, THEN then can take an action to attempt to break the fear.
@@AmishGangsta404 sorry for simple question, why does the target grovel? I thought they would be frightened with all the other conditions you mention, am I missing an interaction here?
@@jiminkpen9750 It's a condition of the fear spell. The target MUST use it's action to move away from you *or* if it cannot (such as having it's movement speed reduced to 0) it must use it's action to grovel.
@@AmishGangsta404 that's interesting, that caveat is not on the wikidot version of the spell, it must have been changed in some version.
2:40 - Cackles in Vengeance Paladin/Celestial Warlock. Firebolt is amazing on a Paladin (and 2 free level 2 Smites every short rest is God-Tier). Add in War Caster, Devil's Sight and Darkness and you can be a game-breaking badass.
Now, why Celestial and not Hexblade? Well, for one it didn't fit the vibe I am going for (Human turned Vampire who is a monster slayer for revenge in the name of innocents lost) and the party lacks "A Healer", so Lay on Hands and Healing Light help offset this issue.
I mean a hexblade vengeance paladin with not only divine smite, but eldritch smite when you need to knock that dragon on it’s ass is where it’s at
Not to mention Pact of the Tome can give you a 1-handed Charisma-based weapon by picking up Shillelagh.
If you've already got war caster and celestial warlock picking up green flame blade would do you some good.
Especially if you take celestial warlock to 6 for the extra Cha mod added to all fire and radiant damage spells.
My ideal blast furnace build is 2 paladin for plate armor, a shield, a staff, and everything else paladin gives. Then at least 3 levels of celestial warlock for tome pact, shillelagh, and any 2 other key cantrips. You can get book of ancient secrets to get find familiar and later on learn every other ritual in the game. Dip into dragon sorcerer, take both warlock and sorcerer to 6, then dump all remaining levels into sorcerer.
At 6 celestial warlock adds the Cha mod once to every fire and radiant spell. At 6 dragon sorcerer also adds their Cha mod the every spell of their dragon's element. So red or gold in this case.
Being a tiefling with flames of phlegethos is also a nice buff to the build.
With War Caster and either quickened spell or illusionist's bracers you'll be casting green flame blade two to three times a turn, rolling a number of d8's nearly equal to the d6's in a rogues sneak attack, and adding you Cha mod to the damage of each green flame blade swing 3 to 4 times. All while decked out in full plate, a shield, and swinging a flaming stick in wide arcs like an old timey manual weed whacker.
Funny enough... I made a Paladin of Flame build with a character who essentially lived and grew up inside of the Plane of Fire. With a little DM retheming on the Sorcerer subclass, I ended up with this:
6 Vengeance Paladin, 1 Hexblade Warlock, Remainder as Sorcerer (Fire Draconic - rebranded as just Fire Elemental). Essentially, my character was a master and zealot of all things fire - ranging from divine flames, flames of darkness (a bit of flavor from the warlock bit), pure flames, etc. Naturally, my feats and abilities towards empowering fire in many different ways and thematically - I loved the hell out of the character. It felt more or less everything like a paladin should, but with far more offensive options and a whole new spin on the connection to something divine. My character was dedicated to the primal element of fire and all aspects that embodied it: ranging from rebirth, vengeance, destruction and purification. Basically, got away mostly with Cha/Con as stats which helped consolidate the build.
For the hex-blade warlock multi-class bit you could also have it so your God channels their divine power through your weapon, as an idea
Awesome idea!
Or have your weapon possessed with a spirit of ancient saint or something like that. Or said saint (or something akin guardian angel) could be sent to assist you by your god, and find it more convenient to share some of his power with you instead of constantly babysitting you.
Another flavor for divine power to be channeled through the weapon is to have some part of great sacred value embedded in it (e.g. a nail from the cross). An entire quest can be created to retrieve this weapon (and a warlock level with it).
Level 14 bard can cast Find Greater Steed, and Tenser's Transformation.
FGS is a spell with a range of self and no extra volume defined.
Per a tweet by Jeremy Crawford, that is the criteria for Tenser's to affect you and your mount.
Will definitely need to make this into a combo video! Great shout!
Watching this videos are always so hilarious and so useful. I feel like I learn about parts of the game that I didn't knew it existed. Keep with the good work and I'm totally glad that you put the description of the spells or the objects
Love the dalek impression for robot man
I would definitely say that oath of ancients has the most broken aura. That resistance to all magic damage is op.
Its so great and the spell list is great too!
Watchers has surpassed them now
my only problem is that in 5e, Paladins aren't pledged to a god, they're pledged to a cause. the cause could be divine inspired but it can be something as simple as the goblin slayer murder of all goblins. an eldritch diety could easily be a part of that.
Why is that a problem?
@@fredfullthedreadful It's only a problem if you're a player from previous editions and aren't a fan of the huge departure between old Paladins and the new 5e Paladin. I don't personally see the problem since it was already something for Clerics in previous editions to be able to be pledged to a cause or an idea. Why can't Paladins do the same?
@@TonberryShuffle Plus, if they prefer the oldschool style of Clerics and Paladins, they can just use that and leave these newfangled ideas to the younger folk
Winged Tieflings can fly in any armor at level 1. And Paladins multiclass very well with Warlock, so EB is a great backup or even primary attack.
Winged Tieflings can only fly in medium or lower armor unfort, otherwise 100% I agree EB is great on Paladins!
@@DnDShorts Protector Aasimar on the other hand...
One of the best D&D info channels, period! Keep up the great work 👍
These are fantastic. Please do one for every class
I'd been hoping Paladin would be next in this series, thank you so much!
For the range point; take the blessed warrior fighting style at lv 2 and get tool the dead .
You can perform somatic components with a hand holding an arcane focus, and a holy symbol can be an emblem on a shield, which means you can cast while carrying a sword and shield
I love maxing Cha asap. It feels so good to protect your allies while casting magic while smite supplement magic.
For the last "problem" remember that nothing can stop your Hexblade to be of divine origin, like being given a massue given by an angel that he uses to speak with you or a having a sword that contains several saint's relics (like Durendal).
Javelins man, 30ft range (or 120 with disadvantage), use your Str mod. Or possibly spear/trident thrown 2 handed for 1 more damage if DM allows it.
Plus I think you can divine smite with them, since they’re technically melee weapons
@@BovineTerror Melee weapon attack means a melee attack with a weapon or unarmed strike, not to be confused with attacks made from melee weapons. 5e messed up this language because they though "natural" language was easier to understand.
@@SpiderWaffle but wouldn’t that mean a paladin could smite with a crossbow as long as it was in melee range?
@@BovineTerror no, there's no such thing as melee range. reach weapons can make 10ft melee weapon attacks, lunging strike can add 5ft, bug bear on their turn can add 5ft, so 20ft melee weapon attacks are possible. The range has nothing to do with if an attack counts as a melee weapon attack.
@@SpiderWaffle ok thanks, so then what constitutes a melee attack?
I actually saw a great argument over with the Dungeon Dudes about one of their characters ... Paladins make an Oath, not to a god but a cause... So placing your oath "by my blade" would fix the Hexblade issue.
Paladins can also take the Blessed Warrior Fighting Style to get a nice ranged cantrip like Toll the Dead or Sacred Flame plus some utility with Guidance, without having to waste a feat slot.
This is, no lie, not only the best ad I think you've put out, but the best I've seen in last 6 months, and I am buying in if only to encourage this behavior. Enjoy!
Know what else besides Hexblade is worth putting a level in? Divine Soul Sorcerer. As if your Aura wasn't amazing enough already, you now have Favored By The Gods, which once per short rest gives you 2d4 on your saving throw. Shield and Absorb Elements are incredible uses of your reaction if you're constantly taking hits - with your high saves and Absorb Elements, the average damage of 63 from an Ancient Red Dragon's Breath Weapon goes down to a measly 15. Later on, metamagic is pretty nice - Subtle Spell is usually on a stealthy/intrigue character but it also enables you to cast spells with your hands full even without Warcaster.
Personally, I'd first take 7 levels in the Paladin subclass of my choice (Watchers in particular has an Aura that boosts Initiative, which is amazing), 1 to 3 levels in Hexblade Warlock (all three options are viable to me, for just the Charisma hits, having a really good Eldritch Blast, to having a ton of juice for Flexible Magic and smiting as well as a Pact Boon) and the remainder of levels into Divine Soul Sorcerer (for the benefits above). An 8th level of Paladin somewhere will still progress your slots and give you another ASI.
I guess a congrats is in order, you've won dnd :)
If your DM allows it, there is an item called an oversized longbow. Most people say that you use str for damage and dex to fire it. However Page 196 (Either PHB or DMG I forgot which) has the following quote under the Damage Rolls section.
"When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier-the same modifier used for the attack roll to the damage. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers."
It is a straight strength weapon. The item description says you require a strength score of 18 to use it. Otherwise, all attacks are made with disadvantage.
The Pally in our party got around the Cha or Dex by dumping Con. Yes, dumping, it is her lowest stat...and it worked! Full plate plus Shield Master has her shrugging off most damage entirely, and rolling decently on the second largest hit dice in game has he still being beefy once hit. Meanwhile my Wizard goes down in literally every fight with a +2. Our party dynamic has at this point changed the way I view Con. Clearly it’s important, but I now have so much lived in experience demonstrating its importance is underrated, especially for martial classes
dude this is by far the best like mid vid commercial thing you've done keep it up so funny
"The best paladins know there is no right or wrong here"
Absolutely brilliant.
I love your energy and skits. Keeping spreading the good word of DnD brother!
I feel like a fairly simple option for ranged combat was missed out on. Javelins.
Available at level one if you took starting equipment and otherwise pretty cheap to buy. A respectable range of 30/120. No DEX needed to stick em, mid flight, with the pointy end.
As a bonus, while the paladins divine smite ability can only be used on a melee attack the same is not true of all of their smite spells. Both Branding Smite and Banishing Smite only mention needing a weapon attack and not a melee weapon attack for your spell to be able to go off. There's also a couple of others but they all specify 'weapon your are holding when cast' and not 'when you hit with a weapon', making them more of a "plan B" for this tactic.
He commented on lightning javelin as an option.
@@jawamaster Yes. Ones a basic and overall cheap piece of equipment that gives options and the other's a magic weapon.
One of these things is not like the other.
I absolutely love your editing style, with someone with adhd it really helps to stay focused because there's a lot going on and I don't get distracted. Plz don't stop making videos.
I know the argument for "paladin and warlock don't make sense together" is sound enough but I'd argue that making a pact to further stick to or reach your oath goals is totally a thing a Paladin could or would do
Celestial Pact Warlock. Boom, you now have divine themed Eldritch Blast and some ranged healing, and it fits most Paladin Oaths. If you rock up an Oath of Ancients Paladin, you can also pick an Archfey Pact.
Bro your add skit is top tier, freaken glove your content very entertaining AND informative 😂❤
I disagree on wrathful smite because it is an awesome tanking ability. Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their saving throw so they have to attack you to get rid of the debilitating effects of fear. So it's a matter of knowing how yo use it instead of always using smite. And also you could still divine smite with this.
"Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their saving throw"
Correction: Since it makes it harder for the enemy to succeed their Wisdom ability check...no longer a saving throw after you fall into this trap!
Please do more of these. It’s super helpful for new players. Especially for less straightforward classes like monk or druid
Fun fact devotion palidins have the most auras in the phb
Amazing as always, and during the ad, strong cosplay!
1:00 You can have a shield and still make somatic components, let me explain, the rule is you can use the hand you use to hold your material component (or an arcane focus or holy symbol) to do sematic components, and you can engrave a holy symbol on a shield, so your shield can also be your holy symbol, so you can use that hand to do the somatic components no problem.
Really appreciate this vid, genuinely was struggling with wanting to play paladin but hating not having spells, now I get it and can decide better.
ps. thanks for making ads that are actually funny to watch
Also a massive fan of "there are no problems" in DnD - make stuff work with your GM!
If one of my players wanted to be a paladin AND a warlock, I'd either:
- have them torn between two powerful deities as you mentioned
- make the warlock patron be someone earthbound who is hellbent on destroying the paladin's god, and is trying to steal away their followers
- have a character arc for the ACTUAL GOD. Through supporting the paladin player they've become more acutely aware of the problems faced down on earth, and are having something of an identity crisis. Clearly, being a pure and holy god isn't helping anyone, so the god's very existence shifts to be more neutral, allowing them to be both a god AND a patron at the same time.
As far as I'm concerned, the mechanics are there to support the story, not the other way around :D
Paladins don't even worship a god in 5e, they get their power from their oath.
@@thenarwhalmage oh definitely - the oath itself can be to a god as well though. And I believe in this instance that’s what they were describing.
Actually, fun fact: Branding Smite and Banishing Smite simply require a WEAPON attack, not a melee weapon attack. So, those two exclusively have the capacity for making a True-to-Form ranged Paladin!
Paladins do NOT get their powers from other creatures like gods, you can flavor it so if you want, but here is what I mean:
A Paladin fights for something, be it an ideal, a god, or corn, as long as they are devoted to the something and take actions which the Paladin thinks will lead to the best possible outcome, they will get powers from that determination alone. They are a charisma class after all.
Clerics get their power from outsiders that directly benefit from the Clerics worship, the stronger the worship is that results from the actions of the Cleric, the more power the Cleric usually gets.
If the Paladin were to start praying, or spread the good word of their god, they might just straight up get Cleric levels instead, and if the Cleric decides to stop praying and silently benefit their god through direct action, they might get Paladin levels.
This all is less weird once you remember that in canon there is no lvl20 limit, you can totally get 20/5 Cleric/Paladin, it would just take an immensly long time in canon, and break the game in meta.
Meaning, in canon you can totally be a paladin fighting for corn (or anything else if you're boring), and have a devil or a cursed sword come along and be like: "I can help you with that", and get into a pact like that.
Just because they don't get their powers by praying to a god, doesn't mean they don't get their powers from gods. A paladin who draws his powers from sheer force of will is not a paladin, he is a sorcerer.
Although paladins serve orders, those orders act (in one way or another) in favor of the ideals of some deity, so they are blessed with powers, and so they can lose them.
There is no text that I am aware of that paladins can "lose" their power, they just become "oathbreakers", which I can easily explain by saying that them breaking their own oath has corrupted their power.
Why in the heck would a god that gives the paladin power let him keep that power under the "oathbreaker" subclass?
Also, sorcerers need internal power that they then learn to harness, paladins don't need that.
@@alkatron768 You are totally and absolutely wrong. The paladin class, in the player's manual, there's a box right at the start of the subclasses that explains what happens if you break your oath. It says there that if you break your oath you need to find another paladin of your order or a CLERIC to absolve you. Why would a cleric be an option if your power isn't divine? And the examples of atonement that he talks about are praying, fasting, etc., religious acts. And it also says, that if you break your oath and don't repent, you won't be able to level up any more paladin. Becoming an oathbreaker is an option where the paladin twists to an evil level, drawing their powers from a dark deity.
Seeing how the warlock also is a charisma class, one can see that the spell casting ability does not determine the source of one's power. You could easily make the argument that cleric's, as wisdom based casters, receive their powers from a deep-rooted understanding of the world they inhabit. Their closeness to the very essence of the universe is what enables them to tap into the power of the outer planes. Since the world is inherently tied to the gods, this interpretation does not contradict the idea that praying gives them power.
Clerics are also described in the PHB to be sent out by divine beings not just to spread the world, but to bring change to it, so they too benefit their deity through direct action. They are clerics, not preachers (although being a cleric does not mean that one cannot be a preacher).
Wisdom based powers are repeatedly explained as coming from being one with one's reality - be this the reality of divine interconnectedness (clerics), nature (druids and rangers), or the essence of what it means to be to begin with (monks).
Now, again, I am not arguing that any particular ability modifier can define the source of the particular powers received through them - my point is, that the source of power can only be determined individually - it IS purely flavor, even some settings may be restrictive, there usually are multiple ways to attain certain powers without needing to fit a particular "canoncial niche".
@@caurd One by one then.
It doesn't say it "needs" to be a paladin or a cleric, it says "typically", it could be though, clerics could just act like psychiatrists, anything they would see as a trustful person with experience in the field they seek atonement from would probably work, like the local lord overseeing corn production.
Many non-religious people do things like fasting to "punish" themselfes for things they think they need punishment for, that specifically can therefore benefit my argument. Anything that helps to correct things from the Paladins point of view should work just fine.
"If you break your oath you can't get more levels in Paladin", don't know where you got that from, but it implies that you can keep your levels, meaning it was not taken from you, so why would the god not do that? You would certainly not get any stronger from your corn-obsession if you stopped fighting for corn, but any strength you had gotten you'd get to keep, like, obviously. So it works for my argument.
I am SO glad I saw this video. I’m playing Vecna Eve of Ruin as a paladin and kept worrying about strength vs charisma, saw this video, and now I’m doing a 3 level dip into hexblade warlock.
I can't believe I laughed out loud and had to like and comment because of your AD. I love ur channel keep up the great times
For the Decent to Avernus, I played a Conquest Paladin 11, Hexblade 1, and Bard 1. I took the Hexblade early and the Bard late. I ALWAYS had something to do with my bonus action, whether it was casing Hex or Spiritual Weapon, Hexblade Curse, or Bardic Inspiration. And the +5 aura bonus saved people so many times it felt like cheating.
Your first bit is so incredibly on-point
8:43, something that I think is really interesting is that paladins aren't actually necessarily connected to a god, if you read the description for the class it says you might have sworn an oath to forest spirits or the spirits of the dead, also it says right at the end that the oath is the paladins source of power. I think warlock/paladin works really well, since you can make an oath about anything you might be making an oath to a sentient magic item you found that you will reforge it and use it to banish the undead from the multiverse or something.
Can you make an oath to yourself?
@@kaldogorath I guess, if it's oath of glory or vengeance or something and you are just trying to accomplish a personal goal I would totally allow that
My Paladin build:
First level: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer: Prof in Con Saves for concentration, AC=13+Dex. Max out your Dex
Second level: Paladin
Get a Ruby of the Warmage, and an Emblem for your shield, so you can do Somatic for both classes while your hands are full
At level 2 (with no armor, a Dex of 20 and a shield) your base AC is 20. Cast Shield of Faith (later Haste) at the start of combat for an AC of 22, cast Shield when needed for an AC of 27. Get a Cloak of Protection and a Ring of protection for a max AC of 29. Get the Lucky Feat; if the DM manages to crit, just have them reroll.
Your levels in Sorcerer will give you more spell slots, to fuel your Divine Smites
A 6th Level Paladin will get Aura of Protection. Combined with the Cloak and Ring, your saving throws will be off the scale, and if you still fail, use your Lucky Feat
Your offense will be solid as well: Extra attack once Paladin hits level 5, Haste when Sorcerer hits level 5. With max Dex, a Finesse Weapon, Booming Blade and your Divine Smite..? Well it adds up!
Do get Warcaster when you can. Booming Blade for an Op attack when the enemy moves away is brutal (also don't forget to Smite here). And as a cherry on the cake: cast Command: Flee. They get to waste their turn, and every ally within reach get an Op attack.
For Race I went with Harengon. Rabbit Hop + (Quickened) Jump gives you amazing mobility on the battle field, which can be very useful, for instance for emergency healing
Oh, and Twinning a Haste on yourself and an Ally is OP and you should totally do it!
... ENJOY! :P
Good point at the end there. I once had a fiend pact warlock Aasimar Paladin whose deities manifested as the little angel and devil on her shoulder. Their constant tussle over her fate sometimes got so intense it would temporarily alter her alignment. Amazing fun and a terrifyingly powerful character.
Every time I love how you put your adds in
Blessed warrior fighting style taking one of the ranged cantrips is an option.
A fun little suggestion for all paladins. I’m fairly sure branding and banishing smite to not require a melee weapon attack, so if ya have the dex! Another fun suggestion I use all the time is blessing yourself as a vengeance paladin for advantage and an extra D4 to attack rolls then using gwm or sharpshooter!
If both of these are already suggested in the video, dolphin diving out a window lol.
I came here for DnD tips and what I got was a wholesome story arc about a friend comforting his buddy having a breakdown.
I look forward to Pt 2 of this skit.
love that product placement ad. Hilarious. Robot man ftw
that was the BEST ad I've seen in a while - and I'm subbed to Internet Historian
My favorite part of this video is that I realize that Jeremy said both you can use warlock spell slots for divine smite since they're spell slots, while also saying you can interpret the rules to not allow you to use Flexible Casting with Warlock spell slots. That's a slap in the face right there.
In Pathfinder 1e, there is the Holy Gun archetype for Paladin, which basically makes them a ranged paladin. I'm glad there are ways that you can give a paladin fun ranged options in 5e though
You can also get ranged damage options from your fighting style now, with two Cleric cantrips.
Possibly the greatest ad of all time. Oh, and the content was good too
I love how much you use Matt in videos he is the D&D god.
A good idea to combine Hexblade and Paladin thematically is to say your holy patron granted you the weapon. Alternatively, you could have no divine patron at all; the rules state (for both Clerics and Paladins) that they do not have to follow a god, but rather a set of principles or oath. A paladin with the Oath of Vengeance could have pledged to avenge his murdered family, and signing a pact with a magical blade seemed like a way to achieve that goal better. There are tons of options to make it work thematically as well as it does mechanically, and I think it's one of the most interesting multiclasses in both respects.
Paladins and clerics draw their power from the gods. They do not have to pray to them, that is true, but that only implies that the god has noticed him and granted him his powers moved by his devotion to his ideals.
Really like your content dude, and my oathbreaker really enjoyed this video. Oh and a different note. Your robot voice immediately reminded me of a Dalek, so now I need you to make a warforged Dalek build. Haha
A couple notes from an ex-paladin player:
-Shield can act as a focus for paladin AND cleric spells, so while the occasional thing with a cost (say revivify) requires a free hand, you're generally good. The true benefit of war caster is that benefit on concentration, and if you get your hands on Booming Blade.
-Smite spells get flack but they're okay. Secondary benefits, only trigger on hits, and a few if not most work on ranged weapon attacks too. I personally vouch instead for Spirit Shroud as it works on multiple hits, once you can use it that is. Works on Eldritch Blast if you get it.
-Generally agreed, a level or two into warlock/sorcerer is great for range (magic initiate is valid) and can work well to diversify: get 2 levels in warlock for 2 short rest spell slots. There's patrons and sorcerous origins that work more synergetically (think Celestial patron or Divine Soul) in a narrative sense if it's an issue, though as your powers come from dedication instead of an oath, it's easy to conceive a paladin favoured by darker powers... 😈
-Concentration + Aura is a win win for allies and yourself included.
-Duergar, not drow, get natural Enlarge/Reduce. 🙂
You can also multi class one level into fiend warlock, as their first level feature allows you to gain temporary hit points equal to your charisma modifier + your warlock level every time you knock a hostile creature to 0 hit points. Using this, you can then take the holy warrior fighting style, and take word of radiance. Then, you can carry around a nest of wasps, and when you need to fight, smash the nest on the ground. Then cast word of radiance to kill all the angry wasps, giving you a ridiculous amount of temporary hit points.
There's an easy work around not having to having to worry about Dex as a Paladin but still having a solid Dex Saving Throw, which is say you're a Paladin with Dex 10 (+0), the easy fix is picking up two great feats. One pick up Resilient feat, drop the +1 ability score in either WIS or CHA whichever needs it most, according to the feat you then get proficiency in the Saving Throw of your chosen score, well, Paladins already have proficiency in WIS and CHA, so then in accordance to the rules you simply choose a different attribute, choose Dex Saving Throws. And then for a bit extra gas too the Dex Saving Throws, pick up Shield Mastery feat. So what you do get with all that, say your CHA is 20 (+5) and let's say you went hoo-man variant, so by level 8 as Paladin of just Dex 10, you can still wind up having a Dex Saving Throw (via Aura of Protection + Resilient feat + Shield Mastery feat) of +10, and that'll be with Shield Mastery's awesome feature, "If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.", which is basically a poorman's evasion for shield types.
one of my hex blade/pal multiclass background was say that my halberd was possessed but a soul of a former conquest paladin that was bonded to him after his death.and in creating a mentor-student relation a form of pact was created without either realizing at the time
Microcenter is badass as fuck and the fact that you got them as a sponsor is badass
Magic initiate: Sheleighleigh. It solves the MADness of the class. It lets you use your Charisma for attack and damage. This makes a quarterstaff or club a d8 weapon onehanded by default as well. Meaning, you can use the dueling fightingstyle with a shield and use a quarterstaff. 1d8+2 is higher damage than a standard 1d10 weapon, so its not bad.
Or you could dip hexblade...
I have one thing to say I love the mount summon spell
This is very good information for building a character to do the best it can for basically everything. The only thing it leaves out is whether your character would feasibly have these stats for various reasons. Basically it's the age old question of am I making a character or an adventurer. A character is played more in the head of the pc and may or may not have everything right in the head whereas a adventurer is just there to get the job done, basically just a mercenary for hire that may or may not have other agendas.
1:50 yeah, I feel that pain
About the last point, you could just be a Hexblade who made a pact with your God (if you're a paladin who made an oath to a God, since technically you don't have to). Then you can flavor your Hexblade abilities as divine abilities, as long as you roll the same number and type of dice, who cares?
Padlocks are the most interesting builds after sorlocks.
I mainly played a divine soul/hexblade Sorlock and the arc was insanely fun.
Can't wait to try out a padlock. I already have a great idea
I’m gonna pledge my oath of vengeance to the demon sword I made my pact with. Sounds like an epic character to me!
1) you can stack Divine Smite on [choice] Smite.
2) Command "Heel" can be heard as "Heal", and as the subject chooses what they do, they might patch themselves up. "Come" also has.... issues. Use "Approach".
Bless and Smite until it's done! 😇
1st level paladin spellslots are Bless-slots 90 % of the time.
If you or a buddy get in 1 more hit instead of miss, maintain concentration, or make a save, that's usually way better than the 2d8 (or even 3d8) extra damage. But if you crit, you Smite.
Smite spells are for control, not damage. Thunderous Smite brings flying creatures to the ground (because it knocks them prone), pushes stuff into danger, or off ledges.
Wrathful Smite is good on a tough monster with no ranged attack. Hit and retreat out of its range. Now the monster can't get closer to you, or the party if they're behind you, as you kill it with ranged attacks as it cowers.
Also, a paladin with a whip can Wrathful Smite (and Smite) from 10 ft. Combine with Oath of Conquest for fun flavour and fear the dommy mommy paladin. 🤣
For the ranged point, Tashas gave us the Blessed Warrior fighting style as an option that lets you choose 2 cleric cantrips. Make one Sacred Flame and now you have a good ranged atk and you didnt have to waste a feat slot for magic initiate.
I'll be honest. That's the first time I've ever clicked a sponsor link. That ad was fantastic.
Can you smite with a thrown weapon like a javelin? They’re considered melee weapons and divine smite just says you need to make a melee weapon attack, so could that be a way to deal with flying enemies too?