How does the Redemption Paladin get out of its own way?

[saintstardust]

The paladin class is a really great chassis and I'm thinking about a Dex/Cha paladin. Looking at the Redemption oath however, it looks like it has a lot of abilities either conflicts against its melee/DPR capabilities, or stresses spellcasting on a half-caster chassis.

I'm love to hear your thoughts on how such a paladin can be played effectively, since its playstyle seems like it shifts from melee tank to something like a passive tank?

[Harrysonford]

I think it’s a matter of choosing your passive stats over your attacks. Probably just stay in the front but heal or buff your party instead of attacking. It’s been mentioned before: “Why would a pacifist decide to be a knight?”

[Asmotherion]

A redemption Paladin has great RP to support it's cause... That said, it's not an easy class to play.

Basically, if you believe you can play a passifist, go for it; otherwise stay away. You have to optimise your character around the fact that you won't be dealing damage, or else your very RP and idea of your character fails, and you may as well go Oathbreaker (nothing Raw says so, but at least that's how I see it...)

RP wise, you will be trying to convince the enemies to back out of combat, repend, and that violance is not the only solution, event wile they are stabbing you. You won't be dealing direct damage unless one of your allies is hurt by them.

You can ignore this against Undead and some inherently evil things, but a truelly devoted to his cause Redemption Paladin may be tempted to Repend even lesser Fiends or at least ghost.

[toapat]

I'm love to hear your thoughts on how such a paladin can be played effectively, since its playstyle seems like it shifts from melee tank to something like a passive tank?

Redemption paladin is built originally from the Tranquility monk UA, and its designed as primarily a support subclass for paladin.

remember that only about half of your spell slots a day are expected to be converted into smiting for paladin.

compared to the UA incarnation, its significantly less overpowered as a class, but its still a paladin favoring having the entire "pie" of what roles it can fulfill.

its still a paladin, which is inherently the 3rd of the 9 mundane classes offensively before subclasses, beaten only by rogue and barbarian in raw damage, with both BM and EK fighters overtaking the class but not fighter as a whole. but beyond that paladins have good out of combat support in both their skill variety and their spell casting naturally.

in Combat, you basically want to play more like a Devotion paladin who opens combat with some hard CC rather than a Vengeance paladin who casts Hex/Haste or Ancients paladin who opens with defensive buffs