My first 5e game! aka: Time to play a Paladin that's not awful!

[chainer1216]

We are typically a 3.P group, and our last game just ended and our resident Roll player has decided he wants to give DMing a try and its looking like its going to be centered around MMO-like dungeon crawls. literally, portals have opened up in places, like cave mouths or doorways, that lead to dungeons that have loot in them, the only issue is that they are super dangerous, in setting, only one guy has ever come out of them alive, he's completed 7 in fact (a random roll decided that) and the riches from inside were enough to make him a king. After all that was set up we choose our characters and then he had us pick our backgrounds and we rolled on those tables. oh and he added two things, our stats were rolled as 4d6 reroll 1s and 2s, so our stats are pretty high AND he's giving us all a free feat at first level, and we're starting at 5th level.

first we have the previous DM, who is playing a wild elf, wildmagic sorcerer who wants to focus on lightning/thunder elemental magic, and just because it amuses me i'll tell you that because of the background rolls, this character was raised by wolves. many many generations of wolves.

then we have the second player, who is a halfling bard, who due to his background rolls "doesn't trust anyone nice to him" and "pefers to kill people while they sleep" and they want to "show they are deserving of respect" so thats a fun cycle of awful. his player is...well...he's new to table top gaming and is our "chaotic neutral" guy. in the last game his character died something like 5 times, the last one being because he refused to play a small toll to a pit fiend while in the ninth level of hell. saddly because he's new he hasn't decided on any more specifics about his build.

and then there's the *sigh* DMPC dragonborn monk, he hasn't told us anything about the build yet.

And now for me, Variant Human Paladin with the oath of ancients, mainly my issue is that i can't decide between sword and board (dex), sword and board(str) or polearm master. my main concept for the character is to be a "mage slayer" and i just don't know which of these choices would be best in 5e or for this group. The stats i rolled were 18, 18, 16, 13, 12, 12, and my feats will be mage slayer, sentinel, and then either polearm master or shield master with the plan of getting resilient(con) at level 8.

so, thoughts?

[Giant2005]

Definitely Polearm Master.
Paladins don't have any other reasonable means of getting a bonus attack and they also benefit more than any other class from extra attacks due to their extra on-hit damage. The choice is easy.

[Rallicus]

Pick Polearm Master + Mage Slayer if you want to be generic optimized build. Pick Tavern Brawler + Mage Slayer to be a boss.

Party's Polearm Master reaction: "Oh, hoorays, he got another AOO."

Party's "Boss" reaction: "Did he just smash the wizard's head in with an empty mug, wrestle him to the ground and cancel his concentrated spell?"

[Daishain]

I'll second polearm master. Significantly increased damage output and strong BFC synergy between sentinel and PM have made the oath of ancients paladin I'm currently running with inordinately effective. Among other things, the two feats combined make it incredibly difficult for an enemy I don't want near me to close the distance.

Do note, your principle weakness will be large mobs. That may or may not be a big issue depending on campaign and party composition. That is also something which is not easily remedied save by multiclassing.

[odigity]

Funny, I'm also playing a halberd-wielding variant human Oath of Ancients paladin with Polearm Master. Still on level 3, so one more to go for Sentinel. After experimenting with the spells on my list, I've settled into a pattern of casting Shield of Faith on myself when there's not a strong reason for a different concentration spell. Gets my AC up from 17 to 19 (splint, can't afford plate yet), and has the side benefit of making it less likely to lose the spell compared to others (it's protecting itself in that sense).

[Demonicattorney]

Grab the shield, grab Duelist. Many Smites and Shield of Faith take your bonus action, as do some magic items. Also look at the loot chart and recognize that Polearms are far rarer, and generally worse than Swords. The AoO is super nice, but its generally bad against the tougher monsters, larger monsters, or casters that don't care about closing the distance. Look at CR 10-24 creatures, you can count on one hand the amount that your gonna get that attack against. Recognize that even an uncommon shield is worth +3 AC, and your weapon is likely to be better as well. Spend the feat grabbing CON saves, Sentinel etc.

[Gnomes2169]

Gonna chime in with the duelist style paladin. As much fun as polearm master would be, getting your str/cha to 20 as soon as possible is a wonderful thing to have, and paladins have dozens of spell smites to burn their bonus actions on. Grabbing sentinel and resilient at level 1 is good, and then bumping str/ cha (where you should put your two 18's and variant human stat bumps) to 20 at level 5 would give you a good bit of melee lockdown awesome immediately, and leaves your remaining 4 stat bumps for con or other feats as you see fit (with, say, the mobile or charger feats, so that you can close to melee a little bit easier). Shield master is an obvious grab for this build and should likely be taken at level 8, which takes up your bonus action slot when you don't spell smite, and leaves you with 3 more ASI's. You will need two more ASI's to get your con to 20 if you start with the 16 in it (get +1 from resilient).

Other things to consider:
-Your party as given needs a melee-oriented "tank." Someone with high hp and AC who can wreak face as necessary, but who is otherwise highly resilient and as untouchable as possible. I would recommend being str based just for the highest AC in the game (yay, heavy armor).
-If you wanted to be dex based and didn't mind spending another feat, medium armor master works as well as heavy armor and gives you no penalty on stealth checks (once you pick up medium armor master). However, you won't be as good at initiating grapples, and you'll have to find some way to get acrobatics (likely from your background) as athletics won't be your strong suit.
-Oath of the Ancients is awesome. I just wanted to say that.
-Being str based doesn't give you many ranged options. Built as you are (with sentinel) and given that you are a paladin you will be built for melee anyway, but it's just something to consider.