Paladin Oath

[HamsterKun]

Which of the three PB Sacred Oaths should I go with and why? I plan on being a Paladin in my campaign, but don’t know which of Oath to take.

[Lunali]

Depends greatly on what you want to be able to do and a bit on what level the campaign is.

Devotion: attack bonus, party charm defense
Ancients: binding, party magic defense
Vengeance: advantage, pursuit

[Sigreid]

The answer will come from how you want to play him.

The way I read them:

If being the instrument of vengeance is your jam, brutally seeking out evil and exacting just retribution, Vengeance is your Oath.

If you want to preserve what is good and happy while having a good time yourself. Ancients.

If you want to be the noble champion. Defender of the weak. Striving for truth, justice and all that, Devotion fits.

All of the powers are really good so basing it on powers and not playing a style you want is a bad way to go.

[djreynolds]

Devotion's sacred costs an action to activate, which means it'll last for 9 rounds but is good versus any opponent. Most DMs will let you cast Bonus action spell with it, like a smite spell or shield of faith.

Vengeance's power is a BA, awesome as you can attack... but it's good versus one opponent who might be dead in 3 rounds.

Ancient 7th level aura is awesome

[Alucard89]

For me it's always choice between Ancient, Devotion and Vengeance. For different roles.

Ancient is when I want to play a "nature guardian" type of Paladin, when I try to defend the natural order and keep balance. He is also great tank and protect allies from enemy magic.

Devotion I treat like classic Paladin, mix of offense (Sacred Weapon), support (immunity to charm) and tank (perma Protection from Good and Evil). Sacred weapon is good but I don't like it because it takes Action. In 5e Damage Now is better than Damage Later. Great if you can pre-cast. Devotion is your classic good Paladin, who fight to protect something, instead of fighting just for the sake of killing.

Vengeance is pure offense, holy avenger. They care only about punishing evil, they have no mercy in their hearts, they will also do many moral-questionable things to execute their target. The are the Dark Knights. They also get best spells and can dish out best single target damage. It's your best boss killer. I love them most on Sorcadins. Their Vow of Enmity is short rest free advantage on one target and it's bonus action. And you can easily pre-cast via dialogue option if you have opportunity before combat starts.

All have pros and cons.

You can also make it simpler look at them this way:

1. Neutral, keeping balance, protecting natural order: Ancient
2. Good, lawful, compassion, mercy: Devotion
3. Punishment, at all cost, vengeance, poetic justice, no mercy for the wicked: Vengeance

[Man_Over_Game]

Depends greatly on what you want to be able to do and a bit on what level the campaign is.

Devotion: attack bonus, party charm defense
Ancients: binding, party magic defense
Vengeance: advantage, pursuit

To add on this:


Devotion: Party support, versatile. Can alternate between buffing allies or dealing high damage.
Ancients: Controller, hard to kill. Deals low damage and can be very simple in combat, but has a number of out-of-combat spells of value.
Vengeance: High damage, high mobility. Focuses on "selfish" playstyles, focusing on improving themselves over improving the team. This can be very efficient if your team is small or if you need to fight solo.

[LudicSavant]

Which of the three PB Sacred Oaths should I go with and why? I plan on being a Paladin in my campaign, but don’t know which of Oath to take.

Unlike many classes, there are no weak subclasses for the Paladin. As such I can happily recommend that you should take whichever one you find most interesting, either from a fluff perspective or playstyle preference.