Paladin Class Guide DnD 2024 (2024)

Introduction

DnD 5e’s Paladins are the most durable, survivable, and self-sufficient class in the game. As such, they both make excellent solo characters and are excellent additions to nearly any party regardless of existing capabilities. With heavy armor and a deep well of healing form Lay on Lands, Paladins are built to survive long, hard days of adventuring, while Divine Smite provides big damage spikes when you need it.

In a party, Paladins serve as a Defender, Face, and Striker. They do have some Healer and Utility options, but not enough to replace a full spellcaster in most parties. Your choice of subclass will influence which of those roles your character emphasizes, though typically it’s just a sliding scale between Defender and Striker. The Paladin’s healing capabilities can mostly replace a full spellcaster as your party’s Healer, though Paladins lack critical options like Healing Word and get acces to options like Lesser Restoration much later than a full spellcaster does.

Paladins are also one of the more complex classes to play. They have a long list of class features, touching on most of the game’s core mechanics. While this sometimes makes them challenging for new players, this also makes the Paladin a great introductory class because the player needs to learn so much to play it. This complexity phases in gradually over the first 3 class levels, which is a perfect trajectory for a new player to settle into the game and their character.

The Paladin is an excellent addition to any party, and I strongly recommend them for experienced players playing among new players. The combination of durability, healing, protection, and smite damage makes it easy to support your party without going all-in on a support build or a healbot. I’ve had a lot of success doing this alongside new players, and the ability to rescue them when things went wrong has always felt very satisfying.

This article is for the 2024 DnD rules. For the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Paladin Class Guide.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Paladin Class Features
• 2024 Paladin Changes from 2014 Rules
• Paladin Backgrounds
• Paladin Species
• Paladin Ability Scores
• Paladin Skills
• Paladin Feats
  • Origin Feats
  • General Feats
  • Fighting Styles
  • Epic Boons
• Paladin Weapons
• Paladin Armor
• Paladin Multiclassing

Disclaimer

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

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

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

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

Paladin Class Features

Hit Points: d10 hit points is standard fora front-line martial class.

Saves: The Paladin’s saves will keep youfrom being charmed or mind controlled, but you’ll have problems withConstitution saves, which you need to maintain Concentration on spells.When you pick up Aura of Protection at level 6, you suddenly get a huge boost to all ofyour saves, likely giving you better saves than anyone else in your party.Even so, many Paladin spells require Concentration, so consider Resilient(Constitution), War Caster, or investing heavily in Constitution.

Proficiencies: All armor, all weapons, andtwo skills from a decent skill list which the Paladin actually has the abilityscores to use effectively.

1. Lay On Hands: A deep well of healing, and you can use it as a Bonus Action. As the pool grows, you can more easily afford to use it to remove status conditions. If possible, reserve a few points as emergency healing in case allies drop to 0 hit points.

1. Spellcasting: Paladins are half casters, which means that their spellcasting advances half as quickly as full spellcasters like the Cleric. They get numerous exclusive spells, such as Divine Smite and Find Steed, which are central to the Paladin’s identity. While Divine Smite is a huge part of your offensive capabilities, remember that your limited number of spell slots strictly limits how much smiting you can do in a day.

1. Weapon Mastery: Excellent.

2. Fighting Style: Excellent. See Fighting Styles under Feats, below.

2. Paladin’s Smite: Divine Smite prepared for free solidifies it as a central part of the Paladin’s tactics. Since it uses your Bonus Action, you can only use it once per turn. Remember that you also have other options like Blazing Smite which trade some of Divine Smite’s damage for additional effects which may be more useful than a little bit of extra damage.

3. Channel Divinity: A renewable pool of resources that recharged on a Short Rest. Your subclass will typically provide additional uses for Channel Divinity, but every Paladin gets Divine Sense at level 3 and Abjure Foes at level 9.

• Divine Sense: Only situationally useful, but it covers three creature types, and both Fiends and Undead are common enemies. The ability to locate nearby creatures of the affected types negates much of the benefits of stealth and invisibility, at minimum allowing you to attack the correct space. The 10-minute duration is easily enough to get through a combat encounter, but you can also use it to locate nearby enemies before you would have noticed each other by more mundane means, allowing you to engage those enemies on your own terms.

3. Subclass: Paladin subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Paladin Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

• Oath of Devotion: Protect yourself and yourparty from harm.
• Oath of Glory: Empower yourself and your allieswith temporary hit points, speed boosts, and other buffs.
• Oath of The Ancients: Wield the wrath ofnature.
• Oath of Vengeance: Smite the wicked.

5. Extra Attack: Excellent. You still can’t smite twice in a turn, but two attacks means twice as many opportunities to hit and potentially smite.

5. Faithful Steed: More powerful and more expendable than buying a normal mount. Even if you never ride it, your steed has 25 hit points, and will fight alongside you in combat without cutting into your action economy. You get to cast this for free once per day, but once you hit level 13 and can cast 4th-level spells you may want to use a spell slot so that your steed can fly.

6. Aura of Protection: One of the best defensive features in the game. Keeping allies close to you in order to protect them is often a good idea, but keep in mind that cramming the party into a small area also makes you more vulnerable to area damage. You’ll need to make choices on a case-by-case basis.

9. Abjure Foes: Fantastic crowd control, and since it uses your Channel Divinity, you can use it frequently

10. Aura of Courage: Fear effects are common, and Aura of Protection isn’t foolproof.

11. Radiant Strikes: An easy, consistent boost to your damage output.

14. Restoring Touch: This covers everything covered by Lesser Restoration, and at a cost of just 5 points from Lay on Hands you can do this 14 times per day at this level.

18. Aura Expansion: This makes it much easier for allies to spread out in combat.

2024 Paladin Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

• 1. Lay on Hands. Now a Bonus Action instead of an Action. No longer allows you to remove diseases.
• 1. Spellcasting. Moved from level 2 to level 1. You can change only one prepared spell per long rest instead of changing them all on a long rest.
• 1. Weapon Mastery. New.
• 2. Fighting Style. Same changes as the Fighter; Fighting Styles are feats now. Paladins can now pick from any Fighting Style (2014 paladins have a restricted list). Alternatively, you can choose Blessed Warrior to get two cleric cantrips.
• 2. Paladin’s Smite. Renamed from “Divine Smite”, but the effect of the feature is to have Divine Smite always prepared. This means that Divine Smite is now a spell, which comes with some complications. It’s cast as a Bonus Action after you hit with a melee weapon or unarmed strike, so you can now smite while punching, but you can only smite once on each of your turns, and you can’t smite on Opportunity Attacks. This will prevent paladins from repeatedly smiting in quick succession to burn through encounters in a single turn.
• 3. Divine Health. Gone.
• 3. Channel Divinity. 2 users per Short Rest. Scales to 3. Divine Sense is now a Channel Divinity option rather than its own thing.
• 5. Faithful Steed. New. You get Find Steed prepared for free.
• 6. Aura of Protection. The effects of Aura of Protection haven’t changed, but paladin auras now work by piling more effects onto Aura of Protection rather than by having a bunch of different auras. Same effects, just easier to explain.
• 9. Abjure Foes. New. Similar to the 2014 Oath of Vengeance feature Abjure Enemy. Fantastic crowd control.
• 11. Radiant Strikes. Renamed from Improved Divine Smite, which was a name that never made any sense because the only overlap with Divine Smite is that both deal radiant damage.
• 14. Cleansing Touch. Gone.
• 14. Restoring Touch. Can now spend 5 points from Lay on Hands to remove status conditions similar to Lesser Restoration.

Paladin Backgrounds

You want some combination of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charismadepending on your build. Blessed Warrior builds will want Constitution andCharisma, while more typical builds will need either Strength or Dexterity,and ideally want Constitution and Charisma as well. Charisma-based skills areideal, but with those messy ability score needs it’s unlikely that we’ll geteverything we want from a single Background.

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted byyour Background, see the Paladin Feats section, below.

• Acolyte^(PHB) : Temptingfor Blessed Warrior builds, but lacking a Constitution increase is hard.
• Artisan^(PHB) : You canget increases to Strength and Dexterity, and you get one Charisma-basedskill, but Crafter isn’t a great feat. Altogether it meets the absolute bareminimum of functional.
• Charlatan^(PHB) : Perfectability scores for a Dexterity-based build or a Blessed Warrior build, andan easy way to cover all of the Face skills that you need while leavingspace for other skill proficiencies.
• Criminal^(PHB) : A goodchoice for Dexterity-based builds, especially if there isn’t a Rogue in theparty.
• Entertainer^(PHB) : Theability scores are good and the Musician feat is welcome in any party, butit’s hard to waste two skill proficiencies on borderline useless skills.
• Farmer^(PHB) : A goodoption for front-line martials. The ability scores are great, and Tough isan easy go-to feat if you don’t want more complexity, but you won’t get muchuse out of the skills.
• Hermit^(PHB) : Okay for aBlessed Warrior build, but the skills are middling, and Healer isn’tappealing when you have Lay on Hands.
• Merchant^(PHB) : Goodability scores for Blessed Warrior builds, Lucky is an easy feat choice onany character, and one good skill.
• Noble^(PHB) : Goodability scores, and you can get all of the Face skills that you need. Theonly wasted bit is History.
• Sage^(PHB) : NoCharisma increase, so this doesn’t even work for Blessed Warrior.
• Sailor^(PHB) : Decentability scores, but that’s really all that you get.
• Scribe^(PHB) : Passablefor a Dexterity-based build, especially in a small party that needs moreskill coverage.
• Soldier^(PHB) : Goodability scores, Savage Attacker is decent since you’ll never have more than2 attacks, and one Face skill.
• Wayfarer^(PHB) : Goodability scores for a Dexterity-based build, and between the skills andThieves’ Tools you could fill in for a Rogue in your party. Lucky is an easyfeat on any character.

Paladin Species

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• Aasimar^(PHB): Two damageresistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combattransformation. And absolutely iconic species/class pairing, though not muchbetter for the Paladin than for any other martial class. Paladins canalready heal, deal radiant damage, handle crowds, and eventually fly viaFind Steed.
• Dragonborn^(PHB): A damageresistance, likely to a common damage type like poison or fire, a decent wayto handle crowds of small enemies, Darkvision, and flight once per day.Paladins have a few spell options for handling crowds, and can eventuallyfly via Find Steed, but those options don’t come online until highlevels.
• Dwarf^(PHB): Darkvision,resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points.Tremorsense may be your only way to locate invisible enemies. Altogether, agreat package for a durable Paladin.
• Elf^(PHB): Darkvisionand an extra skill are both great, plus you can get access to some spellsfrom outside of the Paladins’s spell list. For a Blessed Warrior build, theinnate spellcasting is a nice complement. The High Elf’s access to a Wizardcantrip means that you might forgo offensive Cleric cantrips in favor ofoptions like Guidance. Dexterity-based builds might enjoy Wood Elf foraccess to Pass Without Trace.
• Gnome^(PHB): Darkvisionand Gnomish Cunning are both great, and the added cantrips from GnomishLineage offer some interesting utility options. Gnomish Cunning and Aura ofProtection make your mental saves incredibly strong.
• Goliath^(PHB): GiantHeritage offers numerous excellent options. I like Cloud’s Jaunt, Hill’sTopple, and Stone’s Endurance. Large Form is great for melee builds lookingto occupy more space on the battlefield.
• Halfling^(PHB): Lucky isnice, but that’s basically all that the Halfling has to offer for thePalaidn. Brave becomes obsolete at level 10 when you get Aura of Courage.Halfling Nimbeless is neat, but rarely impactful since you can already movethrough allies’ spaces and if you need to get past an enemy it shouldinvolve hurting them. Naturally Stealthy isn’t helpful for the front-linemartial characters.
• Human^(PHB): Anadditional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
• Orc^(PHB): AdrenalineRush is great for front-line melee builds, letting you move into meleequickly and padding your hit points for when you inevitably draw a lot ofattacks. Relentless Endurance provides some insurance in case things gowrong, and you can heal yourself as a Bonus Action with Lay on Hands on yournext turn to keep from immediately dying.
• Tiefling^(PHB): Darkvision,a damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting. Possibly a good choicefor Blessed Warrior builds, but otherwise you won’t use the spellcastingreliably.

Paladin Ability Scores

Paladins have 3 important abilities, making them severely MAD (MultipleAbility Dependent). Fortunately, you can dump everything else. You don’t evenhave to worry about saves as much as other characters since you can rely onAura of Protection to boost your weak saves.

Since we need 3 high ability scores, our choice of Background is especiallyimportant. You may need to compromise from the ability scores recommended hereto get a more appealing background. But that’s the nature of characteroptimization: maximizing opportunity costs to get the best results.

The PHB recommended ability scores assume a Strength-based build.

Str: Crucial for Strength-based builds,otherwise dump it. If you’re going for Blessed Warrior, you need 15 for heavyarmor, but don’t need any more than that.

Dex: Crucial for Dexterity-based builds,otherwise dump it.

Con: All martial characters needConstitution, but it’s especially important for Paladins since they don’t getproficiency with Constitution saves and still need to concentrate onspells.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Dump. If you’re willing to sacrificesome Constitution, you might take a little bit of Wisdom to support skills.

Cha: Charisma fuels many of the Paladin’sfeatures, including their spellcasting, Aura of Protection, and severalPaladin skills. If you choose Fighting Style (Blessed Warrior), you may alsouse it as your primary offensive ability.

Paladin Skills

• Athletics (Str): Borderline useless.
• Insight (Wis): Helpful for a Face, butyou may not have enough Wisdom to back it up.
• Intimidation (Cha): Important for anyFace.
• Medicine (Wis): This skill is useless.Medicine is best done magically.
• Persuasion (Cha): The king of Faceskills.
• Religion (Int): One of the most importantknowledge skills, but you probably dumped Intelligence.

Paladin Feats

Thissectiondoesnotaddresseverypublishedfeat,asdoingsowouldresultinanever-growinglistofoptionswhichdon’tcatertotheclass.Instead,thissectionwillcoverfeatswhichwethinkworkespeciallywellfortheclassorwhichmightbetemptingbutpoorchoices.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select anOrigin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may getmore from sources like the Human’s species traits.

• Alert^(PHB): Never a badchoice, but less impactful for martial characters than for full casters.
• Crafter^(PHB): Neat, butnot especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful earlyin the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anythingin the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice,so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
• Healer^(PHB): You haveLay on Hands.
• Lucky^(PHB): An easychoice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s agreat default if you don’t need anything else.
• Magic Initiate^(PHB): Druidspells to get Shillelagh for or Wizard spells to get options like Fire Boltand Shield can both have a huge impact, especially for Blessed Warriorbuilds.
• Musician^(PHB): A great wayto contribute to any party.
• Savage Attacker^(PHB): Passable ifyou’re using weapons like greatswords or glaives, but otherwise skip it.
• Skilled^(PHB): Great forcovering all of the Face skills so that you can make room for other options,especially in a small party with poor skill coverage.
• Tavern Brawler^(PHB): There isvery little to use this. Grab a weapon with the Push mastery.
• Tough^(PHB): Alwayshelpful for front-line melee builds, but not essential, especially since youhave Lay on Hands.

General Feats

• Athlete^(PHB): A decentchoice for many martial characters. A climb speed is the next best thing toa fly speed. The ability to stand up quickly makes falling or being knockedprone less of a problem. The ability to jump with less of a running start maylet you easily jump over difficult terrain and other obstacles whichotherwise might slow your movement in combat.
• Charger^(PHB): The pusheffect is decent, especially when combined with a Push mastery, but withoutother stacking sources of push distance you’ll have trouble getting past the30-foot threshold where most creatures won’t have enough speed toimmediately run back into melee.
• Chef^(PHB): Normallygreat for front-line martial characters, but the Paladin already has a deepwell of hit points thanks to Lay on Hands.
• Crusher^(PHB): A simpleand easy way to control enemies’ positions in combat, especially whencombined with the Push mastery.
• Defensive Duelist^(PHB): Aconsistent and effective way to boost your AC in melee if you’re usingFinesse weapons like rapiers or short swords. However, giving up yourReaction prevents you from making an Opportunity Attack, and punishingenemies for moving away from you is an important part of being your party’sfront line.
• Dual Wielder^(PHB):Two-weapon fighting is already a difficult choice for the Paladin, and you can nearly never spare your Bonus Action to do more of it.
• Durable^(PHB):You have Lay on Hands.
• Elemental Adept^(PHB):Most of the Paladin’s damage is radiant.
• Fey Touched^(PHB): Two moreprepared spells and access to some 1st-level spells from outside of yourspell list. Misty Step is great on any spellcaster. The free castings aregreat, too, but without full spellcasting you may not be able to use the newspells enough to justify the feat.
• Grappler^(PHB): Even if youdo nothing else to make yourself good at unarmed strikes, this is a greatway to hold enemies in place without heavily cutting into your damageoutput. You’ll want to use a one-handed weapon (Versatile weapons also workwell here) to leave a hand free. If you use a weapon with the Topple masteryor if you make another unarmed strike, you can knock your target prone andkeep them there, then drag them away from your allies.
• Inspiring Leader^(PHB):A huge amount of Temporary Hit Points.
• Lightly Armored^(PHB): A 1-levelclass dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’reexpecting to reach 20th level.
• Mage Slayer^(PHB):Your mental saves are already great thanks to proficiency in Wisdom saves and Aura of Protection.
• Medium Armor Master^(PHB): Borderlineworthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and wear light armor.
• Mounted Combatant^(PHB):Thanks to Find Steed, the Paladin is well suited to mounted combat.
• Piercer^(PHB):Great if you want to focus exclusively on damage.
• Polearm Master^(PHB):Normally a great choice for a Defender, but since Pole Strike competes for your Bonus Action with Divine Smite, you’re giving up a lot of Polearm Master’s power.
• Resilient^(PHB):Resilient (Constitution) is fantastic for maintaining Concentration.
• Ritual Caster^(PHB):You never get Rituals above level 1, so there’s very little appeal here.
• Sentinel^(PHB):Fantastic on a Defender build. You can’t smite on an Opportunity Attack, but it’s still an additional attack.
• Shadow-Touched^(PHB):Invisibility can be very useful, especially for Dexterity-based builds who want to be sneaky. The level 1 spell options aren’t as good as those available from Fey Touched, but Invisibility may be worth the difference.
• Shield Master^(PHB):A must have if you’re using a shield. Shield Bash is an easy way to get Advantage, and Interpose Shield coupled with Aura of Protection gives you a decent chance to negate area damage.
• Skill Expert^(PHB):Easy to fit into any build. Expertise in Persuasion can be very useful, and you can increase whatever ability score you want.
• Slasher^(PHB):Simple and reliable. Combine this with a weapon with the Slow mastery and you can impose a -20 speed penalty, making it very difficult for enemies to escape you.
• Speedy^(PHB):If you want to be faster, ride your steed.
• Telekinetic^(PHB):Potentially useful for Blessed Warrior builds since you’re unlikely to use Divine Smite often.
• War Caster^(PHB):Advantage on Concentration is great, but Reactive Spell offers you very few options since the Paladin’s spells are rarely qualifying offensive options. Unfortunately, this won’t let you smite as a Reaction.

Fighting Styles

• Archery^(PHB): Paladinsare largely locked into melee thanks to Divine Smite.
• Blind Fighting^(PHB): Fantastic,but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like torely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get moreconsistent benefit from other options.

  If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.

• Defense^(PHB):Consistently useful, and doesn’t discourage you from switching weapons.
• Dueling^(PHB):Consistently effecive, and you don’t need to give up use of a shield.
• Blind Fighting^(PHB): Fantastic,but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like torely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get moreconsistent benefit from other options.

  If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.

• Thrown Weapon Fighting^(PHB): Morecomplex than Archery, but the ability to change weapons mid-turn means thatyou can use multiple Weapon Mastery options in a single turn. Two-weaponfighting can work, but without an on-hit damage boost, it’s actually lessdamaging than Archery with a longbow or musket.
• Thrown Weapon Fighting^(PHB): Paladinsare largely locked into melee thanks to Divine Smite.
• Two-Weapon Fighting^(PHB): Much of thePaladin’s damage output comes from Divine Smite, and because Divine Smitecan only work once per turn, two-weapon fighting isn’t a good option for thePaladin.
• Unarmed Fighting^(PHB): Take TavernBrawler.

Epic Boons

• Boon of Combat Prowess^(PHB): Simple andconsistently useful.
• Boon of Dimensional Travel^(PHB): Maybe forBlessed Warrior builds.
• Boon of Energy Resistance^(PHB): A powerfuldefense on any character.
• Boon of Fate^(PHB): More usefulto support your allies’ save-or-suck spells than for anything that you’redoing.
• Boon of Fortitude^(PHB): More hitpoints are great, but by this level you have so many points from Lay onHands that 40 more hp feels tiny. You can use the bonus healing with Lay onHands, allowing you to spend a Bonus Action to as little as 1 hit point,then also heal your Constitution modifier. If your Bonus Action somehowhasn’t been used on a turn, it’s a cheap way to recover hit points/.
• Boon of Irresistible Offense^(PHB): Helpful,but Paladins don’t make enough attacks to make the damage boost meaningful,and you can get past damage resistances using Divine Smite’s Radiantdamage.
• Boon of Recovery^(PHB): You haveLay on Hands.
• Boon of Skill^(PHB): Potentiallyuseful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
• Boon of Speed^(PHB): A hugeboost in mobility for Dexterity-based builds.
• Boon of Spell Recall^(PHB): Potentiallyuseful, but remember that it only has a 25% chance to work.
• Boon of the Night Spirit^(PHB): Tempting onDexterity-based builds, but you’re probably your party’s Defender, soremember that there’s value in being a big, shiny target.
• Boon of Truesight^(PHB): Probablyyour only option for handling invisible enemies. If you’ve made it this far,your party is covering for you or you’ve found a creative solution.

Paladin Weapons

The Paladin is proficient in simple and martial weapons, and they get 2 Weapon Mastery slots. I generally recommend one melee weapon and one ranged weapon.

Much of the Paladin’s damage output comes from Divine Smite, and because Divine Smite can only work once per turn, two-weapon fighting isn’t helpful, which rules out light weapons. Divine Smite also locks the paladin into melee, so ranged weapons don’t matter except as a backup weapon if you can’t get into melee for some reason.

• Battleaxe: This is just a trident that youcan’t throw.
• Flail: The only one-handed bludgeoningweapon with Sap. Longsword is typically a better choice unless youspecifically want to take Crusher and still use the Sap mastery.
• Glaive: Reach and Graze. A safe option ifyou only care about damage output and you want something mechanicallysimple.
• Greataxe: Cleave and a giant damage die. Abig single damage die isn’t an advantage over other weapons.
• Greatsword: Simple and reliable.
• Halberd: Trade some of the greataxe’sdamage for Reach. Reach makes it much easier to make the bonus Cleave attacksince you can reach enemies behind your initial target.
• Lance: Reach and Topple. You can also usethis one-handed while mounted, which gets much easier when you can cast FindSteed.
• Longsword: An easy go-to option. Sap isfantastic, especially at low levels when enemies have few attacks.
• Maul: Fantastic for aggressive two-handedweapon builds. Use Topple to knock your target prone, then maul them withAdvantage.
• Morningstar: Worse War Pick.
• Pike: Reach and Push. For when you really,really don’t want anyone to come near you. Be sure to grab Polearm Master sothat you can attack when enemies move into your reach and push them awayfrom you.
• Rapier: The go-to option forDexterity-based builds. The Vex mastery gives you Advantage, allowing you toreliably hit your target repeatedly. Combine
• Trident: Absolutely essential as a thrownweapon for Strength-based builds. With the Topple mastery you can throwthese to knock flying enemies prone, which causes them to fall.
• Warhammer: The same damage as thelongsword, but with the Push mastery. Combining this with Crusher gives youa lot of power to forcibly reposition your enemies.
• War Pick: Longsword, but piercingdamage.
• Whip: Reach, Slow mastery, and one-handed.Grab the Slasher feat and you can apply a 20-foot speed penalty, then walksafely out of your target’s reach.

Paladin Armor

The Paladin is proficient in light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, and shields.

• Studded Leather: Dexterity-based buildsshould grab studded leather as soon as they hit 18 Dexterity.
• Chain Mail: Starting armor if you didn’tchoose gold. Works fine until you can afford Full Plate.
• Full Plate: The obvious end goal for heavyarmor users.
• Shield: +2 AC is huge in this game.

Paladin Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

• Barbarian: As much as I would love to putReckless Attack on a Paladin, the Barbarian’s class features often don’tfunction in heavy armor and going for light or medium armor means that yourPaladin suddenly needs four high ability scores, which is simplyunattainable in DnD 5e.
• Bard: As much as the Bard and the Paladin’s ability scores overlap, the Bard offers very little to the Paladin without taking 3 or more Bard levels, and I don’t recommend doing that until you’ve at least picked up Aura of Protection at level 6.
• Fighter: More Weapon Mastery slots and an additional Fighting Style. I’m not sure that that’s worth a level. If you do go this route, consider starting with a level of Fighter toget proficiency in Constitution saving throws.
• Ranger: Similar to the Fighter, you can get more Weapon Mastery Slots and an additional Fighting Style, but you also don’t slow your spell slot progression. Two levels gets you Expertise, which might be helpful for important Face skills.
• Rogue: One level for Expertise is fine, but you won’t get much value beyond that. Cunning Action is great, but the Paladin depends on their Bonus Action for smiting.
• Sorcerer: If you want more spell slotsto fuel your smites, Sorcerer is a good choice. It will advance yourspellcasting twice as fast as Paladin levels, and a single level gets youmore Charisma-based Cantrips than Blessed Warrior does, plus powerful level 1 spells like Shield. Two levels gets you Font of Magic, which can let you melt your higher-level spell slots into more numerous level 1 spell slots so that you can smite more frequently.
• Warlock: Pact Magic and Pact of the Blade are tempting, but there’s some nuance to consider. Pact Magic spell slots can be used for Divine Smite, and since they recharge on a Short Rest, they provide a more steady supply for Divine Smite than your normal spellcasting progression. But at the same time, putting those levels into Paladin or Sorcerer will get you more and higher-level spell slots, which is more impactful unless you’re also benefiting from other Warlock features.

  Pact of the Blade lets you use Charisma for attack and damage with your pact weapon, but feats which make you better with weapons grant increases to Strength or Dexterity. Focusing on Charisma reduces the Paladin’s MAD issues, but at the cost of making your best feat options unappealing.