D&D Paladin 5.5e Guide

Paladin 5.5e Guide Rating Scheme

This guide is a deep dive into the DnD 5.5e Paladin. For a quick overview of other classes, check out our Guide to DnD Classes.

The color code below helps you quickly identify how good an option is for your Paladin. These ratings are guidelines, and sub-optimal choices can still be fun and viable.

• Red: Weak, unlikely to contribute to your build
• Orange: Situationally good, but below average
• Green: A solid choice
• Blue: A great option worth considering
• Sky Blue: One of the best choices for optimization

Paladin Overview

Paladins are one of the must self-sufficient classes. They have access to Heavy armor, healing, spells, Martial weapons, powerful smites, and auras that provide passive buffs allowing them to excel as a durable adventurer.

Combined with their propensity to stack into Charisma to help with social interaction checks, and they serve perfectly as powerful defenders, righteous avengers, and party leaders.

Playing a 5.5e Paladin

The Paladin class follows a structured playstyle based on frontline combat, burst damage, and defensive capabilities. Your role in the party depends on your subclass, spell selection, and combat strategy.

Party Roles

1. Melee Combat: Engage enemies head-on with high AC and smites.
2. Tanking & Defense: Absorb damage, protect allies, and let the damage casters lay down the hurt.
3. Support & Healing: Use Lay on Hands, auras, and sometimes healing spells to keep the party on their feet.

Your Paladins subclass will also play a major role in which playstyle you lean into. Paladins choose their subclass (AKA Sacred Oath) at level 3, and an overview of the options are presented below:

Levelling Up Your 5.5e Paladin

In this section, we’ll dive deep into refining your Paladin build. Think of it as a step-by-step guide that mirrors your Paladin’s journey from creation to high-level play, ensuring you can optimize your build at any stage.

Level 1

• Lay on Hands : Now that this is a Bonus Action, it’s one of the best healing mechanisms in the game. Versatile enough to bring a party member up to full health or just give them enough healing to bring them out of Death Saves. Scales with leveling up as well.
• Spellcasting: Paladins get an interesting mix of healing and buff spells, as well as their signature smites. Most of these spell slots will be reserved for the good ol’ Divine Smite due to its propensity for damage and the ability to cast after hit and stack with crits. The Paladin’s main limiting factor with Spellcasting are its small number of spell slots.
• Weapon Mastery: Adds a ton of utility to classes that constantly make attack rolls. For the best options to choose, see our overview of Weapon Mastery.

Level 2

• Fighting Style: A common class feature between the Paladin and other martial classes, like the Fighter and Ranger. Recommend options are provided in the Paladin Cheat Sheet above. You can also choose the Blessed Warrior option to gain two Cleric cantrips instead. But, despite the fact that Guidance and Sacred Flame are tempting, Paladins are frontline martials first and foremost and should take a Fighting Style feat that directly helps their tanking or damage output.
• Paladin Smite: In D&D 5.5e, Divine Smite is now a spell with the casting time of a Bonus Action, but the Bonus Action can be taken immediately after you hit a creature with a weapon attack. This is a significant nerf from their previous version as it doesn’t allow Paladins to smite multiple times per turn. But, on the upside, this ability allows them to cast Divine Smite once without consuming a spell slot, though it requires a Long Rest to recharge.

Level 3

• Channel Divinity: This allows you to detect Celestials, Fiends, and Undead within 60 feet. While this isn’t particularly exciting, your Paladin’s subclass grants additional uses of Channel Divinity which are usually much stronger and thematic to the subclass’s  theme. Channel Divinity can be used twice, with one use recharged on a Short Rest and all uses restored after a Long Rest.
• Paladin Subclass: We briefly cover the Paladin’s subclass options above. A more in-depth guide is coming soon.

Level 4

• Ability Score Improvement: Paladins follow the same Ability Score Improvement track as most classes, gaining this feature at Paladin levels 8, 12, and 16. Paladins are multi-ability dependent (MAD) because they need to ensure their Strength, Constitution, and Charisma all keep up as they level up. This means they won’t have a lot of budget left for other feats, but check out our Paladin Feat Guide if you’d like to see which feats work best for the 5.5e Paladin.

Level 5

• Extra Attack: Martials love attacking, though Paladins get less attacks than Fighters because they have Divine Smite, Radiant Strikes, and other spells to boost their damage.
• Faithful Steed: The Paladin gains access to the Find Steed spell, allowing them to summon a faithful steed. You can cast the spell once per Long Rest without expending a spell slot. The Find Steed spell has got a significant upgrade in D&D 5.5e, allowing you to choose from a modular stat block that can Frighten, teleport, or heal depending on which option you choose. Additionally, it regains Hit Points if you’re healed from a level 1+ spell while you’re within 5 feet of it.

Level 6

• Aura of Protection: One of the main reasons you want to keep you Charisma score high. This feature radiates a 10-foot aura that grants you and your allies a bonus to saving throws equal to your Charisma modifier. It’s an insanely powerful defensive addition and party buff, just be sure you keep your Hit Points topped up, as it doesn’t work while Incapacitated.

Level 9

• Abjure Foes: At Level 9, your Paladin can use Channel Divinity and a Magic action to Abjure Foes, targeting creatures within 60 feet to potentially Frighten them for a minute. Not only does this mean they can’t move closer to you and received Disadvantage on ability checks and attacks, but they can also only move, take an action, or take a Bonus Action on their turn. This is a super potent crowd-control debuff that doesn’t even require Concentration, giving Paladins another reason to boost their Charisma in the new 5.5e ruleset.

Level 10

• Aura of Courage: At Level 10, your Aura of Courage grants immunity to the Frightened condition for you and your allies within your Aura of Protection. It’s also received a slight buff from the previous rules: If an ally enters the aura with Frightened, it instantly negates the effect.

Level 11

• Radiant Strikes: With this feature, your weapon attacks and Unarmed Strikes deal an additional 1d8 Radiant damage, which is a solid boost to your damage which helps keep you on par with martials who get more Extra Attacks.

Level 14

• Restoring Touch: When you use your Lay On Hands, you can also remove debilitating conditions such as Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Frightened, Paralyzed, or Stunned spending 5 Hit Points per condition from your healing pool. This has been improved from the previous ruleset which only allowed you to end a spell effect. Seeing as spells are less common and spell-like effects are more common amongst monsters in the 5.5e rules, it was a necessary update. This also used to be an action, be Lay on Hands has been made a Bonus Action, which great improves its efficiency.

Level 18

• Aura Expansion: As if it wasn’t good enough already, your Aura of Protection now expands to 30 feet, offering even more defensive support to you and your party.

Level 19

• Epic Boon: Every class receives an Epic Boon feat in the 5.5e ruleset. Our Paladin Feat Guide will be updated with the best Epic Boon options for Paladins soon.

Paladin Origins

2024 Player's Handbook Species

Aasimar: Extra healing, extra damage Resistances, and an incredibly powerful boost to your damage when enemies are in close quarters. Very on theme and powerful for Paladins.

Dragonborn: The breath weapon adds a useful ranged AoE option, which are rare for Paladins, and damage resistance is invaluable for front-line defense. Flight is situationally good, and Darkvision helps with the occasional underground expedition.

Dwarf: Poison Resistance and extra Hit Points make Dwarves an excellent fit for Paladins. Their durability ensures they can survive long enough to dish out Divine Smites.

Elf: Any time a Paladin gets extra spells, it's a good thing. The High Elf lineage offers ranged attacks via Wizard cantrips (Fire Bolt, etc.), while Misty Step can help you navigate the battlefield effectively. The ability to resist Charmed is a cherry on the cake.

Gnome: Gnome Cunning gives good resistance to effects targeting Wisdom or Charisma. Forest Gnome’s illusion can provide a minor distraction, but these abilities and the Small size are generally less impactful for Paladins.

Goliath: Helps increase your single-target damage with options like Fire's Burn and Hill's Tumble.

Halfling: Halflings are strangely fitting for Paladins now that the Heavy weapon restriction on Small creatures has been removed. They have Advantage against being Frightened and the ability to reroll 1s on attack rolls, both of which are very tempting for Paladins.

Human: Humans are a top pick for Paladins. Heroic Inspiration is perfect for clutch saving throws or attacks, while the extra skill proficiency allows you to grab Deception for another face skill or Perception to help with exploration. The extra Origin feat lets you pick up Alert, Lucky, Savage Attacker, or Tough early, allof which are incredibly powerful for Paladins to grab early.

Orc: Orcs make excellent Paladins. Adrenaline Rush provides battlefield control and lets you self heal so you can save your Lay on Hands for allies in trouble. Relentless Endurance ensures you stay up to heal allies or deliver your Divine Smites.

Tiefling: Infernal Tieflings give Paladins a potent ranged option in Fire Bolt, Resistance to Fire damage, and Hellish Rebuke, which is a great reaction for a class that doesn't have a lot of uses for it. Overall, it's a big increase to your offensive capabilities.