Summary

  • Consider your role in the party when choosing a paladin oath, as each offers unique utilities for gameplay.
  • Oath of the Watchers is sometimes situational, but good for extraplanar fights.
  • Choose Oath of Glory for buffs to Divine Smite and temporary hitpoints, which can be great as a support class when combined with bard.

Paladins in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons have always been a strong class both for their durability and utility in a party. It's a great combination class, giving players options for damage, healing, and defense. There are several useful choices for oaths, the paladin archetypes, that tie in nicely with your character and the type of paladin yoﷺu want to be.

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There are a lot of different paladin oaths to choose from, so consider what role you want to play ✃in your party. They each have different utilities and roles to play that can complemen🦂t your party and your backstory, but Dungeons & Dragons isn't about min-maxing, so just have fun with it.

Updated on January 22, 2025 by Jack Filsinger: With the release of the 2024 Player's Handbook, some rules have changed for many different types of paladin subclasses, otherwise known as oaths. We've updated this list to give you the best paladin subclasses out there, and added changes to oathbreaker, which was formerly a DND subclass, but now exists mostly as a roleplay option.

9 ♏ 💜 Oath Of The Crown

Two novice Paladins take their vow.
Prayers, by Kyle Anderson

Oath Of The Crown

Source

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Ideal Fighting Styles

Blind Fighting, Interception

Party Role

Defense, Healing

Key Oath Spells

Compelled Duel, Guardian of Faith

The oath of the crown is for paladins who believe in the ideals of civilization above all else. This oღath believes that being just and moral in society matters most, and its practitioners work to safeguard their civilizations against interlope🐟rs and barbarous tribes.

If you want that type of character development, the crown is a great oath to consider, but it comes at the cost of being mechanically inferior to virtually all other choices. If you do not mind being comparatively ineffective,💮 there is nothing wrong with👍 this choice. But, it is a decent subclass for the roleplaying potential alone.

8 ▨🐻 Oath Of The Watchers

Dwarf Paladin of the Watcher by Anna Veltkamp holding a sword and shield from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
Dwarf Paladin of the Watcher by Anna Veltkamp

Oath Of The Watchers

Source

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything

Main Benefit

Extra bonuses when f♎ighting extraplanar creatures.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Blessed Warrior, Defense

Party Roles

Damage or Defense

Key Oath Spells

Detect Magic, Banishment, See Invisibility

This subclass is great at what it does, mainly to seek, fight, and destroy various creatures from different planes of existence. This subclass focuses on vigilance and loyalty. While they specialize in extraplanar situations, they can still be usefu🎃l as spies or for spotting celestials, fey, fiends, and the like, dealing extra damage to those otherworld e🌌nemies.

These monsters appear in certain cases in other adventures, but there's also the chance you won't fight them at all. This specialization is handy if you're prepared to use it but is too situational otherwise to be more highly recommended. As such, talk with your Dungeon Master to figure out what the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:flavor of your campaign will be and if this class would work.

7 Oath Of Glory ജ

An oath of glory paladin preparing to unleash his divine smite in Dungeons & Dragons.
Oath of Glory Paladin by Polar Engine

Oath Of Glory

Source

Tasha's Cauldronꩵ of Everything & 2024 Player🐲's Handbook

Main Benefit

Focuse🌃s on Athletics and has some bonuses to Charisma checks at later levels.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Defense, Blessed Warrior

Party Role

Defense, Healing

Key Oath Spells

Heroism, Haste, Freedom Of Movement

Oath of glory paladins strive to achieve great heroic deeds, the 🥂kind that the poets will sing about long after they're dead. The main conceit behind this subclass includes buffs to your Divine Smite in the form of Temporary Hitpoints, as well as additional boons regarding your g🎶eneral athleticism and speed.

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With benefits to attacks, a little crowd control, and group support, it's a good choice as a subclass. If the party needs a character that can act as a support class while also being the group's public face, the oath of glory could fill that void perfectly as you get advantage on Charisma checks as part of your capstone ability. If you wanted, you could also combine this class with a bard, which complements it exceedingly well 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:and serves as a great combination.

6 ൩ Oath Of Redemption

dragonborn Paladin of Redemption by Ralph Horsley from Xanathar's Guide To Everything
Oath of Redemption Paladin by Ralph Horsley

Oath Of Redemption

Source

Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Main Benefit

Focus on preventing damage and d🦄e-escalating conflict.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Defense, Interception

Party Role

Defense, Healing

Key Oath Spells

Sanctuary, Hold Person

Redemption paladins are pure and more traditional in their role-play design, keeping peace, innocence, patience, and wisdom in high regard. It's more common to see them in a defensive position, but they can also be tailored to be effective healers. For exam🌺ple, ✱if an ally takes damage within their aura, the redemption paladin redirects this damage to themselves, which is selfless but also dangerous if used carelessly.

At high levels, this is negated somewhat by gaining resistance to damage, which can help keep the playstyle ongoing even against more powerful opponents. This is an overall decent choice for keeping allies safe. The oath of redemption can be one of the most interesting choices for those who want a challengeജ instead of simply hitting an opponent as hard as possible.

5 🌟 🀅 Oath Of Vengeance

An oath of vengeance paladin wielding a terrifying sword with glowing red eyes.
Oath of Vengeance by Ingatius Budi

Oath Of Vengeance

Source

2024 Player's Handbook

Main Benefit

Vow of Enmity - When you take the Attack action, you can expend your Channel Divinity to give yourself advantagꦯeﷺ on attack rolls against that creature for one minute.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Great Weapon Mastery

Party Role

Damage

Key Oath Spells

Bane, Dimension Door, Misty Step

An oath of vengeance paladin swears a solemn vow to right a wrong. When injustice is committed, they seek vengeance on the perpetrators responsible. If someone has been wronged, be it by small goblins or an intimidatin♔g dragon, venཧgeance paladins look to set things right through physical confrontation.

While vengeance paladins are a blast to play, they are not nearly as focused on keeping their team safe, at least not in the same direct way. Most of their abilities allow you to do extra damage to one specific target. You could argue that focusing on a single problematic opponent💞 does keep allies from harm, but this is less true when dealing with foes in larger numbers.

4 Oathb🍌reaker Paladin ⛦

An Aasimar swinging a maul in D&D in front of a stormy background while holding a shield.
Aasimar by Chris Dien

Oathbreaker Paladin

Source

Dungeon Master's Guide

Main Benefit

Bonus🌊es to fighting undead and a wider choice of possible moral alignments.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Great Weapon Mastery, Blind Fighting

Party Role

Damage

Key Oath Spells

Inflict Wounds, Bestow Curse

The fallen paladin archetype is one you might enjoy if you aren't looking to be constrained by other paladin oaths. These paladins aren't as versatile when it comes to their party role, taking on a melee damage role ಞalmost exclusively, but the damage they can do is extensive.

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They have some AoE skills and can manipulate the undead, handy abilities that paladins don't normally have. They're so ဣhigh on the list because their specialty allows for them to eventually gain resistances to some of the most common damage types, control the undead, utilize AoE and crowd control, and eventually come back through atonement if they wish, a fun aspect to roleplay once their mission is complete.

In the 2024 Player's Handbook, oathbreaker paladins are not offered as a subclass, but rather a temporary roleplay opportunity should a paladin break their oath. Work with your DM to decide if an oathbreaker subclass is right for y💜our campaign.

3 Oath Of The Ancients 🏅

An oath of the ancients paladin with antlers growing out of their silver armor in Dungeons and Dragons.
Oath of the Ancients by Polar Engine

Oath Of The Ancients

Source

2024 Player's Handbook

Main Benefit

A close connection to the natural worl⛎d, with abilities similar 𓃲to druids and Rangers.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Protection, Dueling

Party Role

Defense, Damage

Key Oath Spells

Sp൩eak with Animals, Protection♑ from Energy, Commune with Nature

Oath of the ancients is for those who wish to protect all that is good everywhere. Adorned by insignia and decoration that looks more like a druid than anythℱing else, ancient paladins gain abilities befitting their commitment to preserving nature. Their Aura of Warding ability is one of the best abilities that any paladin oath has to offer, providing useful resistance to damage from spells.

This can fall within the realm of circumstantially useful, but in a spell-heavy campaign, the oath of the ancients is a 🧸fant๊astic choice to keep the party in great shape against threats of magic. Plus, this paladin has the ability to spring back to life with one hit point when felled, so long as you're not killed outright in the process.

2 ꧋ Oath Of Con🍒quest

Conquest Paladin tiefling holding a morning star and in black armor.
Conquest Paladin by Ralph Horsley

Oath Of Conquest

Source

Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Main Benefit

Reduces the speed of targets and has strong crowd control a𝓀bilities.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Defense, Interception

Party Role

Defense

Key Oath Spells

Armor of Agathys, Spiritual Weapon

Conquest paladins are experts at one-on-one combat and keeping their foes in one place, making them e🎃xcellent for crowd control, however, they also open themselves up to be targeted if they are the only party member within range. In terms of role-playing, conquest paladins can be another ver꧟sion of the fallen paladin concept with the capability of becoming evil in everything but name. They want to crush their enemies in whatever way they can.

This may include consorting with the powers of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Nine Hells💫, 🤪with many supporting the Archdevil Bel, Warlord of Avernus. This oath is anything but boring but requires players to have a good understanding of who their character is and what motivates them for this choice of oath to make sense.

1 ⛎ Oath Ofꦅ Devotion

An oath of devotion paladin wielding a sturdy-looking shield in Dungeons & Dragons.
Oath of Devotion by Katerina Ladon

Oath Of Devotion

Source

2024 Player's Handbook

Main Benefit

The classic build with a mix of defeꦑnꦰsive, damage, and healing abilities.

Ideal Fighting Styles

Great Weapon Mastery, Defense

Party Role

Damage, Healing, Defense

Key Oath Spells

Aid, Beacon of Hope, Commune

The number one spot goes to devotion paladins. Despite being the vanilla choice for t🔯he class, they embody every stereotype of the strong-willed individual who craves only the most ideal version of justice, virtue, and order. These work well for long campaigns and offer players who are new and old to the game plenty to work with, plus you can always become an oathbreaker if you really wanted.

Those who take the oath of devotion can expect a strong class, with strong capabilities in light and radiant damage, and the prevention of being charmed through their aura. Additionally, you shouldn't underestimate the power of Smite of Proteciton, which can grant allies Half Cover in sticky combat situations. Any party will always have a spot for a capable devotion paladin, aꦓnd it is hard to go wrong with such a pick.

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Original Release Date
1974
Designer
E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson 🍃
Player Count
2+