So I finally got to play a paladin for the first time last night.

[Ralanr]

A bit of context: I was having trouble getting into my characters for the latest campaign. I started with a purple dragon knight fighter, but found myself surprisingly useless in helping others in fights. So when he died, I tried making a ranger focuses on up close guerrilla warfare tactics. He sadly devolved into using his Bow and arrow for most fights and I did not build him for it (so it felt like a waste). So I talked to my DM and along with two other players, we remade our characters (and had to fight our old characters who were turned into zombies. One was a storm cleric...it was dangerous). So I basically rolled a level 6 paladin with a character concept I had in the past.

And oh my god, it was fun as hell. The basics of this character is that no matter the enemy, he'll always offer one chance to surrender before he fights. He won't accept a surrender if they didn't surrender when he asked, assuming that if they really wanted to avoid this conflict, they would have surrendered. So as soon as he asked this, my DM rolled saves against my persuasion and one of our zombified characters (my ranger) surrendered.

Then the fun began. I used both my 2nd level spell slots to smite the horde around us (oh yeah, there was a horde that made us roll dex saves every turn), healed myself a full 20HP in one turn, shield bashed the zombie barbarian, and went all smite happy against her. It was fun.

Now I understand why people like Paladins in 5e. That nova damage is not only powerful, but fun to set off when you want it. Plus my aura's help teammates out and I have some utility spells (though I'll need to max my charisma. I decided to have 16 str and 14 cha, 14 con. Since I already have shield master and Athlete (to see how it works) I'll probably just focus on bumping my Cha up to 20 for each other opportunity so my aura's help allies better).

Paladins are awesome.

[ZX6Rob]

Dude, awesome, it sounds like you've finally found a class that speaks to you. My first 5e Paladin was a hoot to play, as well! I rolled up a black dragonborn Paladin of Chronepsis, using the Oath of Vengeance path. We played the first half of the Tyranny of Dragons module. After a climactic showdown with a rampaging blue dragon, a half-dragon, Cyanwrath, issued a challenge of single combat to anyone who thought they could stand against him. I volunteered. Supernova-blow-all-the-spell-slots-SMITE!

...

... I didn't kill him, but I took off about half of his HP in a single strike. He immediately slaughtered me in the next two rounds, but I survived, made my death throws, was hailed by the town for standing up to the big brute, and later, got to track him down and take him out for good. Good times! It's only too bad that my DM started to really dislike running the published module, and I had to retire that character. I would like to play another Paladin, though -- it is a really fun and well-built class this time around! Big change from my 3.5 days, where they were not quite as well-regarded as they are now.

[Oramac]

Glad to hear it! I'm loving my Vengeance Pally as well. To the point that I honestly don't even want to play any other Oath. It's everything a Paladin is supposed to be, imo.

If your DM is nasty, watch out for him throwing moral quandaries at you to try to make you fall though. No fun. :(

[Foxhound438]

me every time a non-paladin character of mine dies: "Okay, how do I want to build this next pally?"

[krugaan]

Haven't played a paladin, but don't you run out of spell slots rather quickly when you nova? I guess resource management is an important skill for pallies.

[Oramac]

Haven't played a paladin, but don't you run out of spell slots rather quickly when you nova? I guess resource management is an important skill for pallies.

Yes, but that's true for every class that has resources. Spell slots for full casters, superiority dice for battlemasters, ki points for monks, etc. It's all about resource management.

[Ralanr]

Haven't played a paladin, but don't you run out of spell slots rather quickly when you nova? I guess resource management is an important skill for pallies.

Normally this kind of resource management makes me freeze with confusion on what to save. Not with Paladin so far, though I'll probably regret it.

[ZX6Rob]

Normally this kind of resource management makes me freeze with confusion on what to save. Not with Paladin so far, though I'll probably regret it.

Sometimes, I think back to the days of SNES RPGs... "I have 99 Ultro-Power-Elixirs... I'm at 1 HP and 1 MP... But if I use one now, I'll only have 98 left... And what if I need the 99th for the last boss? Better to save it for later..." But, like you, when I play a Paladin in 5e, I have no problem using my resources. "You're big? You're big! TIME TO SMITE! TALLY HO!" I have ended up in a bad way specifically because I blew all my smites and such early on, but the fact that you can fall back on still being a fully-armored great-weapon fighter helps take the sting out quite a bit.

[Ralanr]

Sometimes, I think back to the days of SNES RPGs... "I have 99 Ultro-Power-Elixirs... I'm at 1 HP and 1 MP... But if I use one now, I'll only have 98 left... And what if I need the 99th for the last boss? Better to save it for later..." But, like you, when I play a Paladin in 5e, I have no problem using my resources. "You're big? You're big! TIME TO SMITE! TALLY HO!" I have ended up in a bad way specifically because I blew all my smites and such early on, but the fact that you can fall back on still being a fully-armored great-weapon fighter helps take the sting out quite a bit.

I'm going for a sword and board Templar dressed pally. So even if I do run out of smites, I can knock people down for our rogue that has a habit of making people explode into pools of blood.

[miburo]

Glad you like the paladin =). IMO with the archetypes they are so much more versatile and diverse in 5E compared to previous editions.

My first 5E char was an Oath of Ancients paladin, sort of a carefree rustic type. Polearm master + sentinel + great-weapon fighting style (my DM allowed rerolls for smites :smallbiggrin:) made him great in combat, and a high Cha and persuasion + intimidation made him great in social situations. I remember we were facing the BBEG of a dungeon (undead necromancer type) and I managed to crit the bonus action polearm hit, then added in a smite. Killed him in that strike (though the other party members had battered down his defenses a decent amount already).

Paladins are fun!