One cool idea is to become a dex Paladin and attack from both range and melee. You lose a smidge of AC, but you can play from ranged as a horseback archer and/or give a larger slice of your party the protection from your auras. Normally we can’t do this as a Paladin since we’re either multi-classing or taking GWM, but we totally can here.
This is basically how my Ancients pally works- kite the enemy on his giant elk with his longbow until they get close, then bring the hurt with his rapier and smites when they get into melee range, Shield Master bash to knock them prone if they're still up after that and ride away to do it again. Or find the biggest, baddest monster, drop a Compelled Duel on them (low-level giants and things like bulettes and owlbears aren't known for having high Wis saves), and then destroy them with smites while our druid, bard, and monk deal with groups of weaker enemies. I totally failed to recognize the synergy between Ensnaring Strike and Wrathful Smite- such a good lockdown combo if you can get it off.
@@miquando5033 yes! He’s only level 8, so no Banishing Smite yet, but Branding Smite came in clutch taking down a cult leader after Misty Stepping onto a huge hanging brazier near the ceiling of a cathedral. I got knocked to zero and failed a death save after falling from the brazier to the floor below the round after, but it was so worth it. Considering the latter half of the campaign promises to be very demon-heavy, I think Banishing Smite will get a lot of mileage once I can finally cast it.
Dex paladin would work great for me. The idea I had for ancients paladin was an elf who becomes an adventurer shortly after the loss of his younger(half elf) half sister. He watched her grow up, and by the time he was of the age an elf should be getting ready to go out into the world she was an old woman, so he just stayed and was part of her life until the end. He buried her in the chestnut grove they planted together over her lifetime(Chestnut trees live longer than elves.) and since their family had their own lives went out in search of his own joys. I wanted to really play around with the ideas about why elves are often portrayed as aloof with other races and what that lifespan difference means for them.
Whenever i think of an Earth Genasi martial class i think it’s super cool to interpret it as an awakened statue. For Oath of Ancients I imagine a quaint forrest town with a legend of a founding hero. in the centre of the town they build a statue to this Folk Hero and your paladin comes along when for whatever reason, this statue wakes up to defend the town.
I have a Warforged Path of the Ancients Paladin named 6R007 (GROOT). He is a Melee Support and one of the adaptions made to Find Steed was instead of giving him a horse/mount the idea was to give him a 4x4-mode by allowing the spell to transform him from Bipedal to Quadpedal (Centaur). He maintains a lot of control on the battlefield, he came across a banner that extends his aura so he protects his team just by being within range of them with saves and resistance to spells. He is extremely tanky as well to hold the line with AC bonus from Warforged, AC bonus from Fighting Style, and his Heavy Plate Mastery. Two levels were dipped into Forge Domain Cleric, (and instead of using metals we flavored his armor, spells, and construction into various dense nature-based substances. One of the other members of our team is a Gnome Artificier, who is almost like Rocket Racoon. We did not preplan this but it has worked phenomenally.
I was in a party with an ancients paladin, a life cleric, an artillerist artificer who frequently used the protector cannon, and a ancestors barbarian. We were basically unkillable by level 7 especially since all of us took the shield master feat.
That’s a party that’s built for BBEGs with tons of low level minions. Swarm them to try to overrun them and let them do some fun AoE abilities. Especially the artificer.
My first ever character was a Dwarven Ancient Paladin charlaton called Granite Truehammer who worshipped the Goddess of Luck and Fortune. Loved that guy.
I love ancient paladins, probably my favorite paladin subclass! Really interesting analysis and I love sword and Board playstyle!! Now I'm waiting for the build! 😍
Taking one level in warlock hexblade at the start will do you a lot of good. Especially cause you can use your charisma for spell casting. I really enjoyed playing my ancients paladin when our group played an Easter one shot. Having my paladin use turn fey on the bbeg toothfairy was a blast.
This is more of an RP/Flavour Paladin, but it's an idea I love for Ancients: Race: Shifter - Beasthide (attribute stats as desired, per rolls) Background: either Soldier or Feylost Paladin, Oath of The Ancients Gives some great options for skill proficiencies, allowing you to grab quite a few across race, class, and background. Can choose Defence fighting style togive option of sword & board + shift for real tanky AC, or Great Weapon fighting + shift for still good AC with some heftier damage output (or can still go with Duellist, if you decide). Gives room for ASI or feats/half feats + ASI as desired or per rolls. But the flavour is the real beauty here. Maybe your shifter is a former soldier, seen a lot, done bad shit, and found they have trouble returning home after a long war. They decide they wish to make amends by finding their own light & joy again, while protecting it in others, etc. Gives a good martial background & justification for their oath. If Feylost, they were wandering in the forest near their home, practising their musical instrument and/or weapon skills. Accidentally ended up in the Feywild, made some new 'friends' then awoke to find some rusted chain mail & weapons laying in the clearing near them. They took it up & followed a new path (or flavour this how you will).
I think I would make mine a Hobgoblin. The new one from MotM that has Fey Gift. While you do have bonus action spells, those are resources, and precious ones as a paladin. Fey Gift can be used for the help action (as a bonus action) to give an ally temporary HP, bonus movement, or protection against one attack, along with giving them advantage. After six months of playing as a tank I've determined that a tank should have a few other things to help out the party instead of just focusing on yourself. Obviously the auras are shared, but why not take a few more steps to be more useful lol.
Honestly one of the best race options for any Paladin is the Levistus Tiefling. You get the Ray of Frost cantrip so you have a reliable ranged magic attack that also debilitates movement, but you also get a free 2nd level Armor of Agathys. Not to mention, the Darkness spell at 5th level which is situational useful.
Lol im playing a Earth Genasi Ancients Paladin in our Rime of Frostmaiden Campaign right now. I totally went for the Anti-Mage route. Got lucky with rolls and have 20 Cha and decent Str and Con at level 9 right now. Got Mage-Slayer and Magic Initiate for the Shield spell to get even tankier and good against mages that I can Misty step to. On top of that I got a +1 Shield and a Mantle of Spell Restistance. Together with Shield of Faith I basically got 28 AC for at least 5 rounds and restistance and advantage against every spell. Together with the Earth Genasi's Blade Ward an Ancients Paladin really feels like a strong unit in battle thats isnt really effected by much and makes a great support tank. But I also really like that you showed what other stuff you can do with this Paladin. I really have to try the synergy with Find Steed I havent tried that yet. Even though I think next session will be our final fight against the BBEG and being near our frontliners feels more rewarding and efficient as a Paladin.
I’m playing for the first time and my character is a tiefling ancients paladin. I’m loving it so far, currently level 3. Even at this low level he seems fairly strong.
I like the idea of mixing ancients paladin with ancestral guardian barbarian. In terms of protection, the end result is basically a better totem barbarian, while having some serious power to back it up. Only problem is a usual one for paladins in positioning.
I played a sword-and-board Half Elf Ancients Paladin/Bard multiclass for a while. The aura is really quite useful, especially if you encourage your allies to friendly fire on you or another nearby melee character. Yes, you take a bit of damage, but your enemies take a lot more so it's a good trade---remember you're saving against your allies' blasts quite often and thus only taking 1/4 damage quite often. We were playing quite high level. I retired that character for plot and party fit reasons, but there was plenty of play left even at levels 15 and 16.
I really enjoy Artificer/Paladin (over the ever present Hexblade dip). Pump Int and Cha, Str 13, 12 Con, dump Dex. Armorer with Guardian Plate and Shield and you can probably stop at 3 or 4 in Artificer, at least for awhile.
@@DnD_Daily If I’m trying to tank, I want to disincentivize attacking my allies as much as possible so Thunder Guantlets, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, etc. are usually a draw for me.
Thematically, other Fey-themed subclasses and lineages also fit pretty well with Ancients. Things like Hexbloods, the various Elven, Goblin, and Changeling lineages from Monster of the Multiverse, Archfey Warlocks, and Glamour Bards. Most of the Fey lineages help with things like control, utility, or stealth, the Warlock dip obviously gives ranged capability with Eldritch Blast, and 6 levels of Glamour Bard gives an additional and more spammable Bonus Action. It may feel like overloading the Bonus Action a bit, but the existing ones for Earth Genasi and Ancients Paladin are limited by proficiency bonus or spell slots, while Glamour's Mantle of Majesty is a full minute of free (though requiring concentration) Commands. I will say, as much as I like Ancients, I feels like it struggles a little bit more than other Oaths when it's outside of its comfort zone. It's not weak by any means, but it feels like it just has a little fewer tools to draw from when facing off against non-spellcasting opponents versus, say, a Conquest Paladin facing off against opponents immune to Frightened or a Watchers Paladin against enemies that aren't Outsiders.
3 Levels of Archefey Warlock (Flavor). Alleviates our ranged issues with Eldritch Blast. With Invocations we can increase the damage of Eldritch Blast and improve out Pact Boon. Pact of the Chain allows us to summon a familiar to assist with getting advantage. Pact of the Talisman gives us or an ally a save bonus. Pact of the Tome provides some extra utility with additional cantrips and with the right invocation access to Ritual Spell Casting and some additional spells. What do you think?
I made a concept build a while ago for an Ancients Paladin + Genie Warlock multiclass. The idea is to go 1 level in Paladin first for Heavy Armor proficiency and a higher starting HP, then go Genie Warlock and choose the Dao version, taking Pact of the Tome at 3rd level to grab the Shillelagh cantrip (allowing you to focus on Charisma for weapon attacks), and eventually return to Paladin later. The final level split would be Genie Warlock lvl.8, and Ancients Paladin lvl.12. The idea is to also eventually get the Scaled Toughness draconic gift from Fizban's, which gives you permanent resistance to Piercing and Slashing damage. Combine that with Genie's Gift giving you resistance to all Bludgeoning damage thanks to having a Dao patron, and Aura of Warding giving you resistance to all spell damage. This makes you nearly as tanky as a raging Totem Warrior Barbarian, but also able to cast spells or smite. Being a Pact of the Tome also gives you a bunch of utility with the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation for ritual spells. I recommend Find Familiar as one of course, and pick up Guidance as one of your extra cantrips. Recommended race is Custom Lineage with the Crusher feat (Constitution). For stat allocation you wanna start with 13 Str, 10 Dex, 16 Con, 8 Int, 10 Wis, 17 Cha. Focus on maxing out Charisma and grabbing the Tough feat, then focus on upping Constitution. If you manage to get a Belt of Dwarvenkind to max your Con without that final ASI, then I recommend getting the Alert feat. For armor, Chainmail and a Shield. For weapon, a staff for Spellcasting/Shillelagh. Best staff for this build would be a Staff of Power, if you can get your hands on one.
@@DnD_Daily Thank you! I haven't come up with a clever name for it yet, but feel free to riff on it if you'd like. 😁 Maybe something between a "Green Knight" and a "Witch Knight"? Like a "Hedge Knight" or a "Wiccan Knight".
Also, I just thought of this. If you take Telekinetic as your 1st ASI (since a half feat will round out Charisma), and grab Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar, you can make this a pretty effective "cheese grater" build as well. Plop down a Spike Growth right behind the enemy and you can potentially move them through 50 feet of Spike Growth in a turn, for a max of *4d10+26+20d4* damage. And depending on if the DM allows you to use your bonus action in-between your Eldritch Blasts, you could also make an effective "juggler" build. Launch one beam into the enemy to knock them 5 feet into the air with Crusher, then run up so you're right below them and Telekentic Shove them an additional 5 feet up, and use the rest of your beams to repel them an additional 30 feet up. Making for a 40-foot fall.
WHile you mentioned range as a weakness, it's less so with Ancients Paladin because they have moonbeam. While not a great primary attack option, it does let you fight at range when closing in is not an option. Better than most other paladins.
Greetings, it seems that our dialogue under the last video didn't happen so I'll post my idea for the build here with hopes to receive your answer ❤. So the point is to take Goliath as your race + fathomless warlock. First 3 levels you are playing as basic warlock. When you reach 4th level you take pact of the blade and 'moderately armoured' feat. On 5th level you need to take thirsting blade and tomb of levisthus evocations. Put on some medium armor, grab a shield and a rapier as your pact weapon. Before the combat starts you cast Armor of Agathis on yourself. Then you go fight in melee range. Whenever you get hit (and the damage is worth it) use your racial ability to negate some points of damage and prolong the Armor of Agathis effect. If you take to much damage from one attack use tomb of levisthus. At 6th level you can use your reaction to negate 1d8 points of damage with your tentacle of the deep and there's no limit for this reaction. This build lets you deal a lot of damage from Armor of Agathis since like level 5, you can use Spirit Shroud to deal more cold damage or Summon Shadow Spawn to reduce the movement speed of your enemies and make it hard for them to escape fighting you in melee. It becomes better at level 7 when you will get the spell slot to cast Shadow of Moil. This build is inspired by Frost subclass of Death Knight from WoW.
Cool build, but doesn't the Tomb temp. hitpoints override/remove the temp. hitpoints from AoA, even if the Tomb Temp point are used up fron a single source of damage?
@@HaiconiusMaximus sure, they are, but I'm talking about negating about 40 points of damage when there are only like 5 left from Armor of Agathis. The attacker still takes frost damage from the spell if the attack hits you, but you can negate all the damage.
Cool build! Thanks for sharing! Super Tanky with potentially high damage output. Could be a lot of fun. I might go a 1 level dip into fighter instead of the moderately armored feat for heavy armor and defense/dueling fighting style. Taking some spells to deal with your counters could go a long way. Maybe darkness to throw on archers to force them to come closer. Things like that. Cheers mate, thanks for being a consistent watcher! Have a good one!
I'm planning an Ancients paladin, multi into Eloquence Bard after lvl 7. Solves distance issues, initiative problem, and can control the opponents' saves for the party's save-or-suck spells. Fits my character's story well. I'm sure something other than half-elf would be mechanically better, but that's the race for the character's story so it will just have to be good enough. The Cha bonus comes in huge!
I love this build, and I'll be noting it for my games. I always thought inquisitive rogue is a nice chassis for a kind of witch hunter character, and then combining it with either monster slayer ranger or vengeance paladin; the former has beautiful synergy, the latter is harder to pull off but fits better thematically.
I’ve mixed Oath of Ancients paladins with sword bards to make them great 1 on 1 duelists/martial supports. Being able to spend your inspiration dice to debuff/push/close in on an enemy makes you rather mobile. Taking levels of warlock or sorcerer also help with spells like absorb elements and Armor of Agathys to bolster your defenses. You can really encourage the party blaster to fireball you in the middle of the melee combat and use it to power up your attacks with a little extra elemental damage. Runechild sorcerers are nice for that because of the extra defense you get from meta magics and being able to transfer it to an ally.
When abusing ensnaring strike/wrathful smite, having reach is particularly nasty. When the effect sets in, many monsters can't even touch you while you bully them. Not to mention the extra 5 feet extends the range you threaten with the control these spells offer.
Im not a pro dnd player by any means but i always liked the idea of multiclassing into druid a bit mainly for the thornwhip cantrip it adds both nature flavor and a pull in some cases.
Artificer (armorer) would be interesting. For the flavor of this build. It would just inhance what the build is already doing. But.... thunder gauntlets?? Some range options. Tho for flavor I think I would go with Lightning Launcher. And some of the infusions fit the theme as well. What a great flavor build by itself. ☕️
I took my idea from Honor Among Theives. I'm a celestial vengeance paladin of protection. My goddess is Freya for both sides. I'm a monkey grip war caster. Next feat will allow me to smite and fire ball. I'll be able to deflect or opportunity attack. I forgot compel duel for messing with the victim
Well a NPC in my character backstory is a Cult Hunter and i was looking for a class to use for him, Forlim Drakehide,he is a Gold Dragonborn with a missing arm, who is the father figure, of my female dwarf warlock.
Hexblade 4 Ancients Pally 16, pact of the blade, devil sight, repelling blast, sentinel feat, you use your charisma for your attack and damage rolls now, you can keep str at 15 and focus con and charisma, cast darkness on your weapon, beat the everliving shit outta a monster at adv, and if it tries to run, Sentinel at adv, race is up to the player but custom lineage or variant human gets you sentinel at level 1
What about a dexterity paladin with a hand crossbow since ensnaring strike and wrathful smite trigger on weapon attacks instead of melee attacks which opens up a ranged option for those spells, especially good against mages since they're usually trying to stay away from you.
I really hate to be a bearer of bad news, but there is no Ensnaring Strike/Wrathful Smite combo. Both spells require concentration, not only for being triggered on a melee weapon attack, but also for the conditions they inflict. Both give the conditions on a failed save "until the spell ends". I get what you had in mind but sadly it's just not possible. Sorry to disappoint.
I think that was just a smite. He talks to the fish to get the tabaxi baby and right before he leaves he says something like “I’d like to share one of my oaths of the ancients” or something like that before the main character cuts him off. Could be wrong but 🤷♂️
How would you combo Ensaring Strike & Wrathful Smite in one combat if they're both concentration? Do you mean you would just use one or the other depending on whether the enemy has high strength or wisdom? If so that’s not much of a combo.
Oh shit, didn’t even notice that lol. H r eldritch arsenal is an air genasi that flies around so maybe it??? Storm knight also works. Damn I did, the 4 elements without even thinking about it :P Nice catch
I do believe we can counter our weaknesses with one of the new backgrounds for AOE spells and utility + a lvl dip in hexblade, which then we can use our charisma for melee, range and buffing our class related features. overall being a SAD character
This build doesn't really make any sense. You're taking the Ancients paladin why exactly? For the extreme niche of ensnaring strike to hit a non-large or greater creature and maybe restrain them? Which basically means this only works on like... ranged attackers and casters of the humanoid variety, both of which can still do what they do normally while ensnared. Wizard misty steps away and continues his day. Likely would have gained more value just smiting them if you made it to melee range. Then Wrathful Smite, really? I mean okay you hit a creature in melee with Wrathful Smite, no pushback or anything, and now he has disadvantage against you and that's it. That's assuming it fails it's wisdom save against your already low DC. And there are tons of enemies who are both large and have great wisdom saving throws. Seems like a waste of the single digit spell slots you get. Rather than fear, why not use command on them? The only thing this subclass offers that will likely be present in any campaign is Aura of Warding, which requires everyone being huddled together in a 10 feet bubble, so if you're planning on going into melee to hunt that wizard and... restrain him, then they wont be in the bubble anyway. The only way to gain maximum potency out of that would be to build a ranged attacking Paladin and staying near the backline with the aura. Ranged attacks are better at hunting mages anyway. But it's still a really bad subclass.
If a wizard misty steps it doesn’t leave the condition. When your in sight of the enemy and their afraid they have disadvantage against all attacks not just towards you. You are way WAY underestimating those spells.
One cool idea is to become a dex Paladin and attack from both range and melee. You lose a smidge of AC, but you can play from ranged as a horseback archer and/or give a larger slice of your party the protection from your auras. Normally we can’t do this as a Paladin since we’re either multi-classing or taking GWM, but we totally can here.
This is basically how my Ancients pally works- kite the enemy on his giant elk with his longbow until they get close, then bring the hurt with his rapier and smites when they get into melee range, Shield Master bash to knock them prone if they're still up after that and ride away to do it again. Or find the biggest, baddest monster, drop a Compelled Duel on them (low-level giants and things like bulettes and owlbears aren't known for having high Wis saves), and then destroy them with smites while our druid, bard, and monk deal with groups of weaker enemies. I totally failed to recognize the synergy between Ensnaring Strike and Wrathful Smite- such a good lockdown combo if you can get it off.
Branding and Banishing smite can be used with ranged weapons ;)
@@miquando5033 Even better, so can ensnaring strike
@@miquando5033 yes! He’s only level 8, so no Banishing Smite yet, but Branding Smite came in clutch taking down a cult leader after Misty Stepping onto a huge hanging brazier near the ceiling of a cathedral. I got knocked to zero and failed a death save after falling from the brazier to the floor below the round after, but it was so worth it. Considering the latter half of the campaign promises to be very demon-heavy, I think Banishing Smite will get a lot of mileage once I can finally cast it.
Dex paladin would work great for me. The idea I had for ancients paladin was an elf who becomes an adventurer shortly after the loss of his younger(half elf) half sister. He watched her grow up, and by the time he was of the age an elf should be getting ready to go out into the world she was an old woman, so he just stayed and was part of her life until the end. He buried her in the chestnut grove they planted together over her lifetime(Chestnut trees live longer than elves.) and since their family had their own lives went out in search of his own joys. I wanted to really play around with the ideas about why elves are often portrayed as aloof with other races and what that lifespan difference means for them.
Whenever i think of an Earth Genasi martial class i think it’s super cool to interpret it as an awakened statue. For Oath of Ancients I imagine a quaint forrest town with a legend of a founding hero. in the centre of the town they build a statue to this Folk Hero and your paladin comes along when for whatever reason, this statue wakes up to defend the town.
That’s a neat idea!
I have a Warforged Path of the Ancients Paladin named 6R007 (GROOT). He is a Melee Support and one of the adaptions made to Find Steed was instead of giving him a horse/mount the idea was to give him a 4x4-mode by allowing the spell to transform him from Bipedal to Quadpedal (Centaur). He maintains a lot of control on the battlefield, he came across a banner that extends his aura so he protects his team just by being within range of them with saves and resistance to spells. He is extremely tanky as well to hold the line with AC bonus from Warforged, AC bonus from Fighting Style, and his Heavy Plate Mastery. Two levels were dipped into Forge Domain Cleric, (and instead of using metals we flavored his armor, spells, and construction into various dense nature-based substances. One of the other members of our team is a Gnome Artificier, who is almost like Rocket Racoon. We did not preplan this but it has worked phenomenally.
That's a really cool idea that I never would have thought of
I was in a party with an ancients paladin, a life cleric, an artillerist artificer who frequently used the protector cannon, and a ancestors barbarian. We were basically unkillable by level 7 especially since all of us took the shield master feat.
oh no...... that is a busted group.
That’s a party that’s built for BBEGs with tons of low level minions. Swarm them to try to overrun them and let them do some fun AoE abilities. Especially the artificer.
@@knightghaleon The cleric would often use spirit guardians for AOE.
I have a dex based pure ancient paladin goblin and I love him
My first ever character was a Dwarven Ancient Paladin charlaton called Granite Truehammer who worshipped the Goddess of Luck and Fortune. Loved that guy.
The ancients Paladin is my favorite pally! Love to see it.
I love ancient paladins, probably my favorite paladin subclass!
Really interesting analysis and I love sword and Board playstyle!!
Now I'm waiting for the build! 😍
Taking one level in warlock hexblade at the start will do you a lot of good. Especially cause you can use your charisma for spell casting. I really enjoyed playing my ancients paladin when our group played an Easter one shot. Having my paladin use turn fey on the bbeg toothfairy was a blast.
This is more of an RP/Flavour Paladin, but it's an idea I love for Ancients:
Race: Shifter - Beasthide (attribute stats as desired, per rolls)
Background: either Soldier or Feylost
Paladin, Oath of The Ancients
Gives some great options for skill proficiencies, allowing you to grab quite a few across race, class, and background.
Can choose Defence fighting style togive option of sword & board + shift for real tanky AC, or Great Weapon fighting + shift for still good AC with some heftier damage output (or can still go with Duellist, if you decide).
Gives room for ASI or feats/half feats + ASI as desired or per rolls.
But the flavour is the real beauty here.
Maybe your shifter is a former soldier, seen a lot, done bad shit, and found they have trouble returning home after a long war. They decide they wish to make amends by finding their own light & joy again, while protecting it in others, etc. Gives a good martial background & justification for their oath.
If Feylost, they were wandering in the forest near their home, practising their musical instrument and/or weapon skills. Accidentally ended up in the Feywild, made some new 'friends' then awoke to find some rusted chain mail & weapons laying in the clearing near them. They took it up & followed a new path (or flavour this how you will).
Finally caught a video that wasn't months and months old. Thanks Sage keep up the quality work
I think I would make mine a Hobgoblin. The new one from MotM that has Fey Gift. While you do have bonus action spells, those are resources, and precious ones as a paladin. Fey Gift can be used for the help action (as a bonus action) to give an ally temporary HP, bonus movement, or protection against one attack, along with giving them advantage.
After six months of playing as a tank I've determined that a tank should have a few other things to help out the party instead of just focusing on yourself. Obviously the auras are shared, but why not take a few more steps to be more useful lol.
Man really decided to drop a video on ancients paladin while im tryna figure out how to work with it. Thanks dude XD
Honestly one of the best race options for any Paladin is the Levistus Tiefling. You get the Ray of Frost cantrip so you have a reliable ranged magic attack that also debilitates movement, but you also get a free 2nd level Armor of Agathys. Not to mention, the Darkness spell at 5th level which is situational useful.
Lol im playing a Earth Genasi Ancients Paladin in our Rime of Frostmaiden Campaign right now.
I totally went for the Anti-Mage route. Got lucky with rolls and have 20 Cha and decent Str and Con at level 9 right now. Got Mage-Slayer and Magic Initiate for the Shield spell to get even tankier and good against mages that I can Misty step to. On top of that I got a +1 Shield and a Mantle of Spell Restistance.
Together with Shield of Faith I basically got 28 AC for at least 5 rounds and restistance and advantage against every spell.
Together with the Earth Genasi's Blade Ward an Ancients Paladin really feels like a strong unit in battle thats isnt really effected by much and makes a great support tank.
But I also really like that you showed what other stuff you can do with this Paladin. I really have to try the synergy with Find Steed I havent tried that yet. Even though I think next session will be our final fight against the BBEG and being near our frontliners feels more rewarding and efficient as a Paladin.
I love the Fey theme so I multiclass an ancients paladin with a fey wanderer,and my steed is an elk so we both have antlers 😅
I’m playing for the first time and my character is a tiefling ancients paladin. I’m loving it so far, currently level 3. Even at this low level he seems fairly strong.
I like the idea of mixing ancients paladin with ancestral guardian barbarian. In terms of protection, the end result is basically a better totem barbarian, while having some serious power to back it up. Only problem is a usual one for paladins in positioning.
I played a sword-and-board Half Elf Ancients Paladin/Bard multiclass for a while. The aura is really quite useful, especially if you encourage your allies to friendly fire on you or another nearby melee character. Yes, you take a bit of damage, but your enemies take a lot more so it's a good trade---remember you're saving against your allies' blasts quite often and thus only taking 1/4 damage quite often. We were playing quite high level. I retired that character for plot and party fit reasons, but there was plenty of play left even at levels 15 and 16.
I really enjoy Artificer/Paladin (over the ever present Hexblade dip). Pump Int and Cha, Str 13, 12 Con, dump Dex. Armorer with Guardian Plate and Shield and you can probably stop at 3 or 4 in Artificer, at least for awhile.
We did a similar build focusing on the artillerist as a big support build. Stats can be slightly odd, but can be very fun
@@DnD_Daily If I’m trying to tank, I want to disincentivize attacking my allies as much as possible so Thunder Guantlets, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, etc. are usually a draw for me.
Thematically, other Fey-themed subclasses and lineages also fit pretty well with Ancients. Things like Hexbloods, the various Elven, Goblin, and Changeling lineages from Monster of the Multiverse, Archfey Warlocks, and Glamour Bards. Most of the Fey lineages help with things like control, utility, or stealth, the Warlock dip obviously gives ranged capability with Eldritch Blast, and 6 levels of Glamour Bard gives an additional and more spammable Bonus Action. It may feel like overloading the Bonus Action a bit, but the existing ones for Earth Genasi and Ancients Paladin are limited by proficiency bonus or spell slots, while Glamour's Mantle of Majesty is a full minute of free (though requiring concentration) Commands.
I will say, as much as I like Ancients, I feels like it struggles a little bit more than other Oaths when it's outside of its comfort zone. It's not weak by any means, but it feels like it just has a little fewer tools to draw from when facing off against non-spellcasting opponents versus, say, a Conquest Paladin facing off against opponents immune to Frightened or a Watchers Paladin against enemies that aren't Outsiders.
3 Levels of Archefey Warlock (Flavor). Alleviates our ranged issues with Eldritch Blast. With Invocations we can increase the damage of Eldritch Blast and improve out Pact Boon. Pact of the Chain allows us to summon a familiar to assist with getting advantage. Pact of the Talisman gives us or an ally a save bonus. Pact of the Tome provides some extra utility with additional cantrips and with the right invocation access to Ritual Spell Casting and some additional spells. What do you think?
I made a concept build a while ago for an Ancients Paladin + Genie Warlock multiclass. The idea is to go 1 level in Paladin first for Heavy Armor proficiency and a higher starting HP, then go Genie Warlock and choose the Dao version, taking Pact of the Tome at 3rd level to grab the Shillelagh cantrip (allowing you to focus on Charisma for weapon attacks), and eventually return to Paladin later.
The final level split would be Genie Warlock lvl.8, and Ancients Paladin lvl.12. The idea is to also eventually get the Scaled Toughness draconic gift from Fizban's, which gives you permanent resistance to Piercing and Slashing damage.
Combine that with Genie's Gift giving you resistance to all Bludgeoning damage thanks to having a Dao patron, and Aura of Warding giving you resistance to all spell damage.
This makes you nearly as tanky as a raging Totem Warrior Barbarian, but also able to cast spells or smite. Being a Pact of the Tome also gives you a bunch of utility with the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation for ritual spells. I recommend Find Familiar as one of course, and pick up Guidance as one of your extra cantrips.
Recommended race is Custom Lineage with the Crusher feat (Constitution). For stat allocation you wanna start with 13 Str, 10 Dex, 16 Con, 8 Int, 10 Wis, 17 Cha. Focus on maxing out Charisma and grabbing the Tough feat, then focus on upping Constitution. If you manage to get a Belt of Dwarvenkind to max your Con without that final ASI, then I recommend getting the Alert feat.
For armor, Chainmail and a Shield. For weapon, a staff for Spellcasting/Shillelagh. Best staff for this build would be a Staff of Power, if you can get your hands on one.
Fun and creative!
@@DnD_Daily Thank you! I haven't come up with a clever name for it yet, but feel free to riff on it if you'd like. 😁
Maybe something between a "Green Knight" and a "Witch Knight"? Like a "Hedge Knight" or a "Wiccan Knight".
Also, I just thought of this. If you take Telekinetic as your 1st ASI (since a half feat will round out Charisma), and grab Repelling Blast and Grasp of Hadar, you can make this a pretty effective "cheese grater" build as well.
Plop down a Spike Growth right behind the enemy and you can potentially move them through 50 feet of Spike Growth in a turn, for a max of *4d10+26+20d4* damage.
And depending on if the DM allows you to use your bonus action in-between your Eldritch Blasts, you could also make an effective "juggler" build.
Launch one beam into the enemy to knock them 5 feet into the air with Crusher, then run up so you're right below them and Telekentic Shove them an additional 5 feet up, and use the rest of your beams to repel them an additional 30 feet up. Making for a 40-foot fall.
I'm working on a bugbear/polearm master ancients order paladin right now.
One of my favorite subleases! I'm looking forward to playing an ancients paladin saytr someday. I want be able to just say no to casters lol.
WHile you mentioned range as a weakness, it's less so with Ancients Paladin because they have moonbeam. While not a great primary attack option, it does let you fight at range when closing in is not an option. Better than most other paladins.
Greetings, it seems that our dialogue under the last video didn't happen so I'll post my idea for the build here with hopes to receive your answer ❤.
So the point is to take Goliath as your race + fathomless warlock. First 3 levels you are playing as basic warlock. When you reach 4th level you take pact of the blade and 'moderately armoured' feat. On 5th level you need to take thirsting blade and tomb of levisthus evocations. Put on some medium armor, grab a shield and a rapier as your pact weapon.
Before the combat starts you cast Armor of Agathis on yourself. Then you go fight in melee range. Whenever you get hit (and the damage is worth it) use your racial ability to negate some points of damage and prolong the Armor of Agathis effect. If you take to much damage from one attack use tomb of levisthus. At 6th level you can use your reaction to negate 1d8 points of damage with your tentacle of the deep and there's no limit for this reaction. This build lets you deal a lot of damage from Armor of Agathis since like level 5, you can use Spirit Shroud to deal more cold damage or Summon Shadow Spawn to reduce the movement speed of your enemies and make it hard for them to escape fighting you in melee. It becomes better at level 7 when you will get the spell slot to cast Shadow of Moil. This build is inspired by Frost subclass of Death Knight from WoW.
Cool build, but doesn't the Tomb temp. hitpoints override/remove the temp. hitpoints from AoA, even if the Tomb Temp point are used up fron a single source of damage?
@@HaiconiusMaximus sure, they are, but I'm talking about negating about 40 points of damage when there are only like 5 left from Armor of Agathis. The attacker still takes frost damage from the spell if the attack hits you, but you can negate all the damage.
Cool build! Thanks for sharing! Super Tanky with potentially high damage output. Could be a lot of fun. I might go a 1 level dip into fighter instead of the moderately armored feat for heavy armor and defense/dueling fighting style.
Taking some spells to deal with your counters could go a long way. Maybe darkness to throw on archers to force them to come closer. Things like that.
Cheers mate, thanks for being a consistent watcher! Have a good one!
@@DnD_Daily thanks, have a great day !
I'm planning an Ancients paladin, multi into Eloquence Bard after lvl 7. Solves distance issues, initiative problem, and can control the opponents' saves for the party's save-or-suck spells. Fits my character's story well. I'm sure something other than half-elf would be mechanically better, but that's the race for the character's story so it will just have to be good enough. The Cha bonus comes in huge!
I really like this build idea I would play this
I love this build, and I'll be noting it for my games. I always thought inquisitive rogue is a nice chassis for a kind of witch hunter character, and then combining it with either monster slayer ranger or vengeance paladin; the former has beautiful synergy, the latter is harder to pull off but fits better thematically.
I’ve mixed Oath of Ancients paladins with sword bards to make them great 1 on 1 duelists/martial supports. Being able to spend your inspiration dice to debuff/push/close in on an enemy makes you rather mobile. Taking levels of warlock or sorcerer also help with spells like absorb elements and Armor of Agathys to bolster your defenses. You can really encourage the party blaster to fireball you in the middle of the melee combat and use it to power up your attacks with a little extra elemental damage. Runechild sorcerers are nice for that because of the extra defense you get from meta magics and being able to transfer it to an ally.
When abusing ensnaring strike/wrathful smite, having reach is particularly nasty. When the effect sets in, many monsters can't even touch you while you bully them. Not to mention the extra 5 feet extends the range you threaten with the control these spells offer.
Im not a pro dnd player by any means but i always liked the idea of multiclassing into druid a bit mainly for the thornwhip cantrip it adds both nature flavor and a pull in some cases.
Artificer (armorer) would be interesting. For the flavor of this build. It would just inhance what the build is already doing. But.... thunder gauntlets?? Some range options. Tho for flavor I think I would go with Lightning Launcher. And some of the infusions fit the theme as well.
What a great flavor build by itself.
☕️
☕️
I took my idea from Honor Among Theives. I'm a celestial vengeance paladin of protection. My goddess is Freya for both sides. I'm a monkey grip war caster. Next feat will allow me to smite and fire ball. I'll be able to deflect or opportunity attack. I forgot compel duel for messing with the victim
Hmm. Blade ward. You don't say...I think I like it here on the paladin even more than I liked it on the Mercy Monk.
Well a NPC in my character backstory is a Cult Hunter and i was looking for a class to use for him, Forlim Drakehide,he is a Gold Dragonborn with a missing arm, who is the father figure, of my female dwarf warlock.
Hexblade 4 Ancients Pally 16, pact of the blade, devil sight, repelling blast, sentinel feat, you use your charisma for your attack and damage rolls now, you can keep str at 15 and focus con and charisma, cast darkness on your weapon, beat the everliving shit outta a monster at adv, and if it tries to run, Sentinel at adv, race is up to the player but custom lineage or variant human gets you sentinel at level 1
Use winged race so it helps with range and flying enemies
Nice build
What about a dexterity paladin with a hand crossbow since ensnaring strike and wrathful smite trigger on weapon attacks instead of melee attacks which opens up a ranged option for those spells, especially good against mages since they're usually trying to stay away from you.
Wrathful is limited to melee weapon attacks. There is certainly an idea there with ensnaring strike though!
I really hate to be a bearer of bad news, but there is no Ensnaring Strike/Wrathful Smite combo. Both spells require concentration, not only for being triggered on a melee weapon attack, but also for the conditions they inflict. Both give the conditions on a failed save "until the spell ends". I get what you had in mind but sadly it's just not possible. Sorry to disappoint.
You don’t use them together. Together they represent a large amount of coverage for 1 on 1 fights. Most enemies will be weak to one or the other
2:30 observation. transform the attack from a 1-8 dmg+str (a 1 handed d10 weapon) into a 3-10+str. Very nice but not a 1d12 weapon as u say.
You're correct that the range isn't the same, but the average damage is between the two options. Making it, for all intents and purposes, the same.
@@DnD_Daily anyways... its an awesome feat
Zenk was not Oat of the Ancients. He's clearly an Oath of Devotion paladin since he uses Sacred Weapon when fighting the Thayan assassins.
I think that was just a smite. He talks to the fish to get the tabaxi baby and right before he leaves he says something like “I’d like to share one of my oaths of the ancients” or something like that before the main character cuts him off.
Could be wrong but 🤷♂️
How would you combo Ensaring Strike & Wrathful Smite in one combat if they're both concentration? Do you mean you would just use one or the other depending on whether the enemy has high strength or wisdom? If so that’s not much of a combo.
Yup. Optionality is a big deal for a duelist
@@DnD_Daily Ahhh, ok
If this is Earth and the Triton Ranger is Water, and the 20 fireball build is Fire, what is Air?
Oh shit, didn’t even notice that lol. H r eldritch arsenal is an air genasi that flies around so maybe it??? Storm knight also works. Damn I did, the 4 elements without even thinking about it :P
Nice catch
Boost
I do believe we can counter our weaknesses with one of the new backgrounds for AOE spells and utility + a lvl dip in hexblade, which then we can use our charisma for melee, range and buffing our class related features. overall being a SAD character
Also I would take Satyr or Yuan-ti for extra tankyness against spellcasters
Definitely not an ancient. Crowd control sleep and then... level 4 paladin go smash. I'm still not sure how to build this character
This build doesn't really make any sense. You're taking the Ancients paladin why exactly? For the extreme niche of ensnaring strike to hit a non-large or greater creature and maybe restrain them? Which basically means this only works on like... ranged attackers and casters of the humanoid variety, both of which can still do what they do normally while ensnared. Wizard misty steps away and continues his day. Likely would have gained more value just smiting them if you made it to melee range. Then Wrathful Smite, really? I mean okay you hit a creature in melee with Wrathful Smite, no pushback or anything, and now he has disadvantage against you and that's it. That's assuming it fails it's wisdom save against your already low DC. And there are tons of enemies who are both large and have great wisdom saving throws. Seems like a waste of the single digit spell slots you get. Rather than fear, why not use command on them? The only thing this subclass offers that will likely be present in any campaign is Aura of Warding, which requires everyone being huddled together in a 10 feet bubble, so if you're planning on going into melee to hunt that wizard and... restrain him, then they wont be in the bubble anyway. The only way to gain maximum potency out of that would be to build a ranged attacking Paladin and staying near the backline with the aura. Ranged attacks are better at hunting mages anyway. But it's still a really bad subclass.
Probably the aura that gives resistance to spell damage
If a wizard misty steps it doesn’t leave the condition.
When your in sight of the enemy and their afraid they have disadvantage against all attacks not just towards you.
You are way WAY underestimating those spells.