Home > 5e Classes > Paladin Subclasses Overview

Paladin Subclasses 5e

Published on April 26, 2024

Explore the diverse paths of righteousness with our guide to Paladin subclasses in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. From the Oath of Devotion to the Oath of Vengeance, find the subclass that aligns with your character’s beliefs.

An Oath of Devotion knight in silver and gold armor rides a white steed

Sidharth Chaturvedi - Wizards of the Coast - Knight of Grace

Arcane Eye may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn more.

What is this guide?

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the 5e paladins subclasses. For the full overview of the paladin class, check out our paladin class guide.

To allow you to scan through the options quickly, we use the following color rating scheme:

  • Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
  • Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
  • Green is a good option
  • Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
  • Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

Oath of Conquest

The Oath of Conquest paladin is all about besting one’s opponents. Their spells and channel divinity options focus on subjection and domination of enemies in combat.

3rd level

Oath of Conquest spells:

3rd level

  • Armor of Agathys: Solid defensive and offensive spell. Ppcasting at higher levels remains to be quite good value.
  • Command: Very effective charm spell that can be very versatile in combat, you can lock down opponents, cause them to drop important items, and so on. Make sure the target can understand your language before casting. Unfortunately, it only lasts one round so using it out of combat is pretty tricky.

5th level

  • Hold Person: This can be encounter-breaking against humanoids. Scales well with levels.
  • Spiritual Weapon: Spiritual Weapon is an amazing spell that can provide tons of damage and action economy over an encounter. The fact that the weapon sticks around without needing concentration, is a bonus action to summon, has an effective damage type, and scales with your spellcasting modifier make this an absolutely stellar spell.

9th level

  • Bestow Curse: If you can get within touch range, this can be an extremely powerful debuff for a single, tough enemy. The effect that causes the enemy to make a WIS save or waste their turn is extremely powerful and is made more powerful because they only get one chance to save, at the initial casting of the spell.
  • Fear: Amazing crowd control spell. Particularly good because they don’t get to retry the save until they break line of sight.

13th level

  • Dominate Beast: Not many Beasts are going to be worth your 4th level spell to dominate. If you’re fighting a CR8 T-Rex you’ll wish you had this spell.
  • Stoneskin: Effectively double your or your favorite melee fighter’s hit points. Better at lower levels or when fighting enemies without magical attacks. If you’ll be casting this on yourself, make sure you have a decent CON modifier and consider taking the Resilient (CON) feat if you don’t have proficiency in CON saving throws or the War Caster feat for advantage on concentration checks.

17th level

  • Cloudkill: Not great in an open field but if you can get the drop on an enemy or contain a group of enemies within the spell it can be very effective because it deals damage turn after turn, as long as the caster keeps concentration. It can also be effective to block off a vantage point used by ranged enemies.
  • Dominate Person: Amazing spell when fighting humanoids. Taking over the mind of an enemy can completely swing the direction of the encounter. While spells like hold person can take an enemy of the fight, dominate person can make that enemy into an ally essentially creating a two for one. If you are fighting against humanoids a lot in the late game, this is a simply outstanding spell.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Conquering Presence – 30ft radius frightened effect is amazing for Paladins who will likely be in the thick of combat.
    • Guided Strike – This can turn just about any miss into a hit. This is an amazing ability for Paladins because hitting means smites and smites mean damage.

7th level

  • Aura of Conquest – Give frightened creatures a speed of 0 and deal psychic damage equal to half your paladin level at the start of each turn. While the radius is fairly small to start off with, this is a devilish ability when combined with Conquering Presence or fear.  The only downside of this effect is that it doesn’t do anything to creatures not frightened by you so high WIS creatures or creatures immune to fear will be hard to pin down.

15th level

  • Scornful Rebuke – Dishing damage equal to our CHA modifier every time you are hit is okay bonus damage. Even if you’ve maxed your CHA modifier by 15th level, 5 extra damage each time your hit is going to feel underwhelming against the tougher monsters you are fighting.

20th level

  • Invincible Conqueror – Resistance to all damage, extra attack, and doubling your chance for a crit. If that isn’t a capstone ability I don’t know what is.

Oath of Devotion

The Oath of Devotion paladin is probably what most people think of when they think “paladin”. Oath of Devotion Paladins protect the weak and uphold the justice of the land

3rd level

Oath of Devotion spells:

3rd level

  • Protection from Evil and Good: Fantastic defensive buff. Requires concentration but you’ll be so hard to hit it doesn’t matter. One of the few spells you would conceivably use in place of Divine Smite.
  • Sanctuary: A good spell to have in your pocket if a team member is in dire straits or you need to protect an NPC.

5th level

  • Lesser Restoration: Diseases and conditions do come up from time to time, so you’ll be happy to have this when they do.
  • Zone of Truth: Great for when you need to gain the trust of some NPCs, or when you don’t quite trust them yourself.

9th level

  • Beacon of Hope: Beacon of hope seems to be best used in a moment of desperation when many of your party members are severely hurt. Unfortunately, this spell uses up your action so you can’t get to healing until the next round. Paladins usually have no use for this spell because they prefer to use Lay on Hands rather than healing spells.
  • Dispel Magic: Hopefully, by the 9th-level, you have somebody else in the party that can use dispel magic. This is not something you want to use your precious paladin spells slots on.

13th level

  • Freedom of Movement: It’s nice to give extra movement options to allies, but there are better buff spells and this one is pretty situational.
  • Guardian of Faith: A decent way to get some extra damage in if you know that a fight will take place in a specific location. Guardian of faith can also be used as a sort of alarm when taking a long rest in a dangerous place.

17th level

  • Commune: Better than augury and divination to get the answers you need, since it’s a simple “yes or no” and you have to be given a correct answer.
  • Flame Strike: Not particularly exciting when you compare it with fireball but seeing as the Oath of Devotion paladin doesn’t get fireball, and paladins struggle with AoE damage as is, this is a welcome addition.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Sacred Weapon – Even paladins that focus on STR/CON should think about getting their CHA to +3 for spellcasting and their aura abilities. +3 to weapon attacks for a full minute is an extremely solid buff, especially with no concentration requirement. If you can activate this before combat it will be even better because eating an entire round’s action to activate this ability hurts.
    • Turn the Unholy – Paladins don’t have a ton of ways to deal with crowds, they are usually best in 1-on-1 combat. This gives a nice, if seldom used utility feature against swarms of undead.

7th level

  • Aura of Devotion – Probably the worst Aura for the PHB subclasses. Not being able to be charmed is certainly a good effect, but it will come up a lot less than the Ancients and Vengeance Aura effects. Increases from 10ft to 30ft at 18th level.

15th level

  • Purity of Spirit – Protection from good and evil is simply an amazing buff against a number of very common creature types. Having this spell active all the time, without having to worry about concentration, is an excellent buff.

20th level

  • Holy Nimbus – Again, not as good as the other PHB subclasses. It has nice AoE damage but the sunlight and advantage on saving throws cast by fiends and undead are situational.

Oath of Glory

The Oath of Glory paladin believes that they are destined for greatness. These Paladins help others around them accomplish glorious deeds through buffs and supportive class features.

Cantrip

Oath of Glory spells:

3rd level

  • Guiding Bolt: Fantastic damage early on, a great ranged attack for a class that lacks options, and if the creature doesn’t die the next attack against it gets advantage which should do the trick.
  • Heroism: Great buff effect, scales nicely as well.

5th level

  • Enhance Ability: Decent buff before you go into combat. Also has a fair amount of utility for just about any out-of-combat situation.
  • Magic Weapon: Making your weapon magical is necessary against some enemy types and the +1 to attack and damage rolls is nice. Concentration hurts if you’re going to be using this then charging into the fray. Good option when you party is lacking magic weapons, but can be dropped once you get into higher levels.

9th level

  • Haste: Haste is an absolutely amazing offensive buff for you Oath of Glory paladin. It provides extra attacks, extra AC, and bonuses to DEX saves as long as you can maintain concentration. Because you will likely cast this spell on yourself then wade into battle, you will want to consider picking up War Caster to get advantage on your concentration checks because you really don’t want to lose a turn if you drop concentration.
  • Protection from Energy: This is typically outshined by absorb elements except in the specific circumstances when you are constantly being subjected to a type of damage.

13th level

  • Freedom of Movement: It’s nice to give extra movement options to allies, but there are better buff spells and this one is pretty situational.
  • Compulsion: On a failed save you can move a creature slightly, but they can still take an action. Not great.

17th level

  • Commune: Better than augury and divination to get the answers you need, since it’s a simple “yes or no” and you have to be given a correct answer.
  • Flame Strike: Not particularly exciting when you compare it with fireball but seeing as the Oath of Glory paladin doesn’t get fireball, and paladins struggle with AoE damage as is, this is a welcome addition.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Peerless Athlete – 10 minutes of advantage on Athletics and Acrobatics checks will certainly be useful in situational circumstances. It will be very rare to use this Channel Divinity feature over your Inspiring Smite.
    • Inspiring Smite – 2d8 + paladin Level temp hit points to any creature within 30ft after smiting is amazing, especially because you can divide this between as many creatures as you want. Seeing as this isn’t a huge amount of healing, it’s best left for when your party members go down.

7th level

  • Aura of Alacrity – Increasing walking speed 10ft is a decent ability that will certainly provide use over the course of a campaign. Increasing your ally’s walking speed if they start their turn within 5ft won’t necessarily provide a ton of value.  Increases from 5ft to 10ft at 18th level.

15th level

  • Purity of Spirit – This is an extremely good use of your reaction. Adding your CHA modifier (most like +5 at this point) as a reaction is what shield, an amazing combat spell provides. Being able to make an attack against the attacker if their attack misses takes this ability to the next level because it can activate smites. The fact that this can be activated up to 5 times per long rest means that you will likely be able to use this once or twice an encounter, depending on your DM.  Once you get this ability, picking up a reach weapon like the glaive or halberd will provide a ton of value.

20th level

  • Living Legend – Two out of three of this capstone’s features are incredibly strong. Being able to automatically hit at least once per round will mean consistent damage and access to smites for your high-level fights. The advantage on CHA checks may not mean much outside of combat and you definitely don’t want to expend a usage of this outside of combat when enhance ability could just as easily give you advantage on CHA checks. The last feature allows you to automatically gain advantage on all saving throws for 1 minute which, in addition to the first ability, makes this capstone feature absolutely amazing.

Oath of Redemption

The Oath of Redemption paladin is perfect for a pacifist-style player, as all of the spells do not directly do damage. The best way to build this subclass is by getting the highest AC possible to tank damage for your allies. Even if you want to hurt things, the spells here are very powerful and useful, getting access to some of the best spells that paladins normally do not have.

3rd level

Oath of Redemption spells:

3rd level

  • Sanctuary: A good spell to have in your pocket if a team member is in dire straits or you need to protect an NPC.
  • Sleep: Sleep is a very good 1st level spell slot. It can easily end encounters at lower levels. By the time you reach 5th-level  it will be pretty useless unless you want a semi-consistent way of none lethal damage.

5th level

  • Calm Emotions: The fact that this spell has two different use cases makes it decent, even if those events may not come up too often. Enemies often have effects that charm or frighten in an area of effect, so being able to suppress those effects also in an area of your choosing could save your whole party. When used on enemies, you can make them non-hostile for a whole minute, giving you enough time to escape. The main issue with this spell is the concentration and the relatively small radius.
  • Hold Person: This can be encounter-breaking against humanoids. Scales well with levels.

9th level

  • Counterspell: Counterspell is always amazing and every party should have at least one character with it. Sadly, paladins won’t be able to use this at very high levels since their spell slots cap out at 5th-level.
  • Hypnotic Pattern: Good range, good AoE, and its effect are potent. Incapacitating multiple enemies is a fantastic tactic to passively flee from the situation or do massive damage with automatic crits. The effect can be ended by a friendly creature taking an action to wake the affected creature from its stupor, but that will eat up a lot of action economy. Either way you slice it, hypnotic pattern is one of the best crowd control spells at this level.

13th level

  • Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere: DEX-based save or suck. Great way to take a baddy out of the fight while you finish off its friends.
  • Stoneskin: Effectively double your or your favorite melee fighter’s hit points. Better at lower levels or when fighting enemies without magical attacks. If you’ll be casting this on yourself, make sure you have a decent CON modifier and consider taking the Resilient (CON) feat if you don’t have proficiency in CON saving throws or the War Caster feat for advantage on concentration checks.

17th level

  • Hold Monster: Spell that can take a creature out of the fight. Allows for a save after each turn which makes it worse than banishment for consistently keeping a monster out of the fight, but the monster can be attacked with advantage which will make quick work of it after it fails a save or two.
  • Wall of Force: You’re just making a wall. So what? You can split up opposing forces, hide behind an impenetrable wall, or make a dome over your party. It is immune to dispel magic but can be disintegrated.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Emissary of Peace: A +5 boost to Persuasion is huge, especially since this can last for a whole conversation. Can help you completely avoid a fight.
    • Rebuke the Violent: “Stop hitting yourself!” This is great to get in extra damage on a turn and disincentivize enemies from attacking your allies.

7th level

  • Aura of the Guardian: You can take on all of an ally’s damage, no questions asked. This is a wonderful ability for a tank character and epitomizes what that style of play aims to do. Increases from 10ft to 30ft at 18th level.

15th level

  • Protective Spirit: Pairs very well with taking damage for your allies through Aura of the Guardian or by being on the front lines of battle. The best part is that it happens automatically so it doesn’t eat up any of your potential actions.

20th level

  • Emissary of Redemption: This feature makes you the ultimate tank as long as you haven’t attacked the creature, so you will have to figure out a way to make them focus on you.

Oath of the Ancients

The Oath of the Ancients focuses on upholding the laws of nature and life. These fey knights gain access to a number of nature-based spells and abilities usually reserved for druids and rangers.

3rd level

Oath of the Ancients spells:

3rd level

  • Ensnaring Strike: Great 1st level spell to do some damage and restrain a creature. The caveat that you have to hit with a weapon attack AND they get to make a saving throw makes this spell a bit clunky, especially because it requires concentration. This means you could cast the spell, miss your attacks, get hit, fail the CON save, and lose the spell before it even has the chance to affect the target. Also, keep in mind that Large or larger targets get advantage on the save. The spell has a solid effect but it should be used with caution.
  • Speak with Animals: Situationally useful to learn more about a place or to get something done.

5th level

  • Misty Step: Misty step is the staple movement spell for those classes lucky enough to have access to it. It can be cast as a bonus action and avoids opportunity attacks.
  • Moonbeam: The spell does decent damage and has a good AoE, but it is clunky to move around because it requires an action. Unless you can trap enemies inside the moonbeam and prevent them from leaving, most of the time this spell isn’t worth it. The part where shapechangers make the save with disadvantage and revert to their normal form if they fail is extremely situational.

9th level

  • Plant Growth: Slows down pesky enemies moving around a lot or trying to escape, but not particularly good at either. Also cool for story beats to restore nature that has been devastated by war.
  • Protection from Energy: This is typically outshined by absorb elements except in the specific circumstances when you are constantly being subjected to a type of damage.

13th level

  • Ice Storm: Great spell for a paladin’s lacking arsenal of AoE and ranged attacks.
  • Stoneskin: Effectively double your or your favorite melee fighter’s hit points. Better at lower levels or when fighting enemies without magical attacks. If you’ll be casting this on yourself, make sure you have a decent CON modifier and consider taking the Resilient (CON) feat if you don’t have proficiency in CON saving throws or the War Caster feat for advantage on concentration checks.

17th level

  • Commune with Nature: Can be useful for roleplay and story progression.
  • Tree Stride: A fun spell with a multitude of uses if you can get a bit creative. Without trees nearby you won’t be striding anywhere though.
  • Nature’s Wrath: Great way to take a single enemy out of combat for a turn or two.
  • Turn the Faithless: Paladins don’t have a ton of ways to deal with crowds, they are usually best in 1-on-1 combat. This gives a nice, if seldom used utility feature against swarms of Fey or Fiends.

7th level

  • Aura of  Warding: This is a solid area buff for parties. This will come in handy less often than you may think because a lot of monsters have abilities that cause AoE damage or use spells that don’t necessarily do damage. Increases from 10ft to 30ft at 18th level.

15th level

  • Undying Sentinel: Pretty solid feature, especially with the paladin’s ability to self-heal with Lay On Hands. Stack with the Half Orc’s Relentless Endurance feat and you will be hilariously hard to put down.

20th level

  • Elder Champion: This is some good ol’ busted level 20 shenanigans. Being able to cast banishment as a bonus action while the target has disadvantage on the save will make you a true force of nature.

Oath of the Crown

Oath of the Crown paladins are great for getting the attention off your most vulnerable allies and onto you. Therefore, it’s a good idea to pump their AC and hit points to make them as tanky as possible

3rd level

Oath of the Crown spells:

3rd level

  • Command: Very effective charm spell that can be very versatile in combat, you can lock down opponents, cause them to drop important items, and so on. Make sure the target can understand your language before casting. Unfortunately, it only lasts one round so using it out of combat is pretty tricky.
  • Compelled Duel: The spell can make a strong enemy target you over weaker allies. This is good, but the spell ends if an ally casts a harmful spell at it. Essentially, if you cast this spell you’re committing to 1v1 the target, which can certainly end poorly.

5th level

  • Warding Bond: This buff is really good, but can be quite risky for yourself if used at the wrong time. Make sure you aren’t overwhelmed by enemies and have a sizeable amount of hit points and AC.
  • Zone of Truth: Great for when you need to gain the trust of some NPCs, or when you don’t quite trust them yourself.

9th level

  • Aura of Vitality: The healing takes set up and isn’t that impressive considering this requires concentration.
  • Spirit Guardians: Acts as a deterrent against melee attackers or gives them a hard time moving away. This will be especially potent if you plan on diving into the fray.

13th level

  • Banishment: Get rid of creatures from another plane, or take out a big threat for most of the combat. One of the better save or suck spells out there. Keep in mind that, unless the creature is natively from another plane, they will return after the spell ends.
  • Guardian of Faith: A decent way to get some extra damage in if you know that a fight will take place in a specific location. Guardian of faith can also be used as a sort of alarm when taking a long rest in a dangerous place.

17th level

  • Circle of Power: Useful full party buff that makes hostile magic less of a problem.
  • Geas: Not for use in combat but has extremely potent effects if you can cast it. The max damage this can do is 5d10 a day, so it’s best used on a particularly influential commoner.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Champion Challenge: Very similar to Compelled Duel but you can target multiple enemies. If you manage to pull this off in the right position, you could potentially target every enemy and keep them within 30 feet of you for the rest of the battle.
    • Turn the Tide: Nice early heal spell, especially because it targets as many allies as you want if they are in range. The biggest downside here is that they need to be able to hear you, so you won’t be able to target any unconscious allies.

7th level

  • Divine Allegiance: Protecting your weaker allies is what paladins are good at, making this a good use of your reaction.

15th level

  • Unyielding Spirit: Paralyzed and stunned can spell death for you and your party, so its nice to have advantage on saving throws against them, even if they won’t come up too often.

20th level

  • Exalted Champion: Very powerful self-buff that makes you extremely hard to take down for a whole hour.

Oath of the Watchers

Oath of the Watchers paladins specialize in neutralizing extraplanar threats, making their usefulness very dependent on the type of campaign you are playing in.

3rd level

Oath of the Watchers spells:

3rd level

  • Alarm: This spell is relatively useful whenever you’re resting. What’s better is it can be cast as a ritual. If you have Ritual Casting, this is never a bad pick.
  • Detect Magic: Every party should roll with at least one character who has access to detect magic.

5th level

  • Moonbeam: The spell does decent damage and has a good AoE, but it is clunky to move around because it requires an action. Unless you can trap enemies inside the moonbeam and prevent them from leaving, most of the time this spell isn’t worth it. The part where shapechangers make the save with disadvantage and revert to their normal form if they fail is extremely situational.
  • See Invisibility: If you know you're going to be coming across invisible creatures, this spell is worth it to stock.

9th level

  • Counterspell: Counterspell is always amazing and every party should have at least one character with it. Sadly, paladins won’t be able to use this at very high levels since their spell slots cap out at 5th-level.
  • Nondetection: Your campaign will really cater to this spell for it to have any kind of application. This is much more of a DM-focused spell, players often won’t find a use for this once in an entire campaign.

13th level

  • Aura of Purity: You won’t use this all the time, but if you face a lot of enemies that can inflict negative status conditions this is great.
  • Banishment: Get rid of creatures from another plane, or take out a big threat for most of the combat. One of the better save or suck spells out there. Keep in mind that, unless the creature is natively from another plane, they will return after the spell ends.

17th level

  • Hold Monster: Spell that can take a creature out of the fight. Allows for a save after each turn which makes it worse than banishment for consistently keeping a monster out of the fight, but the monster can be attacked with advantage which will make quick work of it after it fails a save or two.
  • Scrying: Useful but niche.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Watcher’s Will: This ability will only get more useful as you get to higher levels because it will be more likely that you face spellcasters or monsters with abilities that require mental saves.
    • Abjure the Extraplanar: This ability is useless if you never face the right creature types, but can quickly make things much easier for you if you do. Between aberrations, elementals, fey, and fiends, you are nearly certain to come across some sooner or later.

7th level

  • Aura of the Sentinel: Huge bonus to initiative for the whole party is simply amazing, even if the range is only 10 feet (this increases to 30 feet at 18th level). The only time this could be an issue is if you encounter a creature with a devastating area of effect attack, but then hopefully you will go first in initiative to spread out.

15th level

  • Vigilant Rebuke: Does nothing to creatures that don’t cause you to roll INT, WIS, or CHA saving throws, and even then it only works when you succeed on the saving throw.

20th level

  • Mortal Bulwark: Relatively weak final ability for this subclass, especially if not battling aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, and fiends. On top of that, it only lasts 1 minute, so at most you can use it for one battle per day.

Oath of Vengeance

Vengeance Paladins are for those players that think the best defense is the best offense. If your party already has enough support characters, the Oath of Vengeance is a great option to be the party’s primary damage dealer.

Check out our Oath of Vengeance 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Oath of Vengeance subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.

Oathbreaker

Oathbreakers turn the typical paladin formula on its head by making them break their oath to serve themselves or an evil power. This makes them both interesting and challenging to role-play, and they come with some powerful abilities to make for a unique take on the class.

Check out our Oathbreaker 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Oathbreaker subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.

3rd level

Oathbreaker spells:

3rd level

  • Hellish Rebuke: This spell gets you some ranged damage and a good use for your reaction. If you're already using your reaction for things like Sentinel, don't bother wasting spell slots here.
  • Inflict Wounds: Between this or Divine Smite, I'd probably smite an enemy. The damage is great, but your weapon damage + Divine Smite will usually be higher unless they’re weak to necrotic damage.

5th level

  • Crown of Madness: This spell has a lot of crippling limitations because of its powerful effect at such a low level. Stick with the straightforward route for smiting enemies with your greatsword.
  • Darkness: You won’t get much out of this unless you’re trying to escape.

9th level

  • Animate Dead: The spell slot investment required to keep an undead horde under your control will likely be more hassle than it's worth for a paladin. If you want to command an army of the undead, go with a necromancer wizard who has the spell slots necessary to use this spell to the fullest.
  • Bestow Curse: This spell oozes with flavor, but otherwise is just a debuff effect that's difficult for Oathbreakers to pull off. You need to maintain concentration to keep it going, which is inconvenient. It's excellent in boss battles, though.

13th level

  • Blight: 4th-level single-target spell that targets a common save. It barely out damages 4th-level fireball and flat-out doesn’t work on some common creature types. SKIP.
  • Confusion: Bestow curse is a better targeted debuff and is a full spell slot lower and even that isn't good for Oathbreakers to use. The only positive this have over bestow curse is that it's range.

17th level

  • Contagion: Imposes the poisoned condition on-hit for at least three turns and doesn't require concentration. This is a decent ability when you're going up against a tough enemy, but may not be worth wasting an action especially if you haven't kept up with your CHA ASIs. If you're hasted and have a buffed out CHA, this can certainly be worth it.
  • Dominate Person: Extremely powerful effect when fighting humanoids. If you're buffed your CHA, this is certainly worth the 5th level spell slot to 2-for-1 your enemies.
  • Channel Divinity
    • Control Undead: This ability is lots of fun and can get a bunch of undead on your side. If they fail the save, they must obey you for 24 hours, with no additional saves or other conditions that they may break the control with.
    • Dreadful Aspect: Basically the fear spell and just costs you an action, this is worth using all the time.

7th level

  • Aura of Hate: Can add a bunch of extra damage for you and your undead minions, but don’t forget this increases the damage of your enemies as well.

15th level

  • Supernatural Resistance: Wow, constant resistance to nonmagical weapons is really fantastic and makes this subclass a tank.

20th level

  • Dread Lord: Lots of fun stuff packed into 1 minute of pain for your enemies. When used in conjunction with Dreadful Aspect it shouldn’t be too tough to get your enemies frightened for that sweet aura damage every turn. Plus, you and your allies will be a lot harder to hit from creatures without Darkvision.

Sources Used in This Guide

  • BR: Basic Rules
  • GotG: Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
  • SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
  • ERLW: Eberron: Rising from the Last War
  • EEPC: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
  • EGtW: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
  • FToD: Fizban's Treasury of Dragon
  • GGtR: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
  • MotM: Monsters of the Multiverse
  • MToF: Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
  • MOoT: Mythic Odyessys of Theros
  • PAitM: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
  • PHB: Player's Handbook
  • SAiS: Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
  • SCoC: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
  • SCAG: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
  • TCoE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
  • TTP: The Tortle Package
  • WBtW: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
  • VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
  • VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
  • XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Other Paladin Guides

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Use the buttons below to fine tune the content you see in our guides.

What do these mean?