From Fighter to Paladin

[Master O'Laughs]

So in a game I am playing in, some cool stuff happened and my Cavalier fighter was transformed into a Paladin with a homebrew oath.

At the end of the session we also leveled up so I had a few questions about ASI/Feats and spell selection.

1) Attributes are:
S - 20
D - 14
C - 18
I - 12
W - 16
C - 14

I have the Sentinel feat and my DM let me keep my +2 Strength ASI from Fighter level 6. He is also letting me keep unwavering mark from cavalier for free.

My question is at lvl 8, should I bump up my Charisma to 16, take the mage slayer feat (we have been fighting a bunch of magic users), or take something to help concentration (war caster/resilient con) if I ever need it?

2) What spells are worth preparing/casting? My oath spells are 3rd level: compelled duel, heroism and 5th level: enhance ability, warding bond.

The party consists of an illusion wizard, cleric, barbarian, rogue, and gunslinger besides myself.

Thoughts and inputs are appreciated!

[Quoz]

What are your oath features? That's a pretty big factor for the build, you want your ASI/feat to feed into your oath.

What race is your character?

From what you gave I'm assuming your role is frontline tank. Are there other roles you wish to be good at?

The Charisma boost is probably your strongest generic option, since it raises all of your saves. Mage slayer is usually situational, but when combined with sentinel it can really ruin a caster's day. Mounted combat may also work well, if you have a lot of fights where you can bring a mount.

As for spells, Bless and Find Steed are pretty much mandatory. If you bump your charisma, Wrathful Smite can be a very strong single target lockdown. You have Enhance Ability on you oath list, which is very useful if you want to add grappling to your lockdown toolkit. But let's be honest, most of your spell slots are going to divine smite.

[Corran]

Bump charisma.

[CTurbo]

As boring as it is, I'd bump Charisma as well

[MrStabby]

With your paladin aura an increase in charisma is likely to help the party against casters almost as much as mage slayer.

If you have sentinel, I imagine you would also enjoy pole arm master at some point.

[Master O'Laughs]

What are your oath features? That's a pretty big factor for the build, you want your ASI/feat to feed into your oath.

Oath Features are 2 CDs, 1) Reaction attack against creature who damages me. Attack ignores damage immunities/resistances. If I smite with it I regain half the damage dealt as health. If I miss CD is not expended. 2) Reaction, if ally is hit with an attack w/in 30' jump to their space and move them 5'. I take the damage on their behalf.

7th level aura is basically the effects of heavy armor master except it doesn't limit it to non-magical piercing, bludgeoning, slashing


What race is your character?

Envoy Warforged with an integrated disguise kit.


From what you gave I'm assuming your role is frontline tank. Are there other roles you wish to be good at?

Current roll is front line tank. adding secondary healer. We are in a mega dungeon on high alert making resting difficult.


The Charisma boost is probably your strongest generic option, since it raises all of your saves. Mage slayer is usually situational, but when combined with sentinel it can really ruin a caster's day. Mounted combat may also work well, if you have a lot of fights where you can bring a mount.

DM gave us special magic weapons and mine is a longsword so I will be avoiding PAM and GWM. I did ask early on if I could make it into a sword staff but he had said no.

I have a horse already but mounted combat has never really worked out for me so I don't think I would take that feat.

And just for reference. we fight ALOT of magic users. 2/3 big fights have one I would say currently.

While inspiring leader seems like a good feat to help as a hp buff, I do not see the character being a leader currently, but there new flaw will most likely take them there.


As for spells, Bless and Find Steed are pretty much mandatory. If you bump your charisma, Wrathful Smite can be a very strong single target lockdown. You have Enhance Ability on you oath list, which is very useful if you want to add grappling to your lockdown toolkit. But let's be honest, most of your spell slots are going to divine smite.

Okay, good to know. So like casting bless on me and the 2 others and then sparingly use smite as needed. With mostly spells for utility purposes if needed.

[Master O'Laughs]

He also is buffing the warforged integrated protection. I can attune to magical armors matching the different armor modes to assimilate them into the armor. This will require attunement even if the armor normally doesn't. , ex: I find some +1 breastplate, I can attune to it to give my medium armor mode +1 AC.

[Composer99]

I concur with +2 Charisma ASI. If you're facing lots of spellcasters, that extra +1 for your aura of protection is going to get a lot of mileage.

[ImproperJustice]

Our Party has a Level 5 Battlemaster / 8 Paladin of Devotion.
He has been bumping Charisma ever since he multiclassed. It has steadily payed off with the aura bonuses. He also started with Inspiring Leader and that has been a nice synergy with the rest of the party.

Also, it is quite amusing to see him Riposte and Smite someone.

[Master O'Laughs]

Cool, so the general consensus is to pump that Charisma.

Moving forward, Should I be looking to pump Charisma even more or would Inspiring Leader be a good idea at Lvl 12? As the game gets higher in levels, does Inspiring leader keep pace much or does it tend to evaporate with 1 hit?

Any particular feats to grab?

[MrStabby]

Cool, so the general consensus is to pump that Charisma.

Moving forward, Should I be looking to pump Charisma even more or would Inspiring Leader be a good idea at Lvl 12? As the game gets higher in levels, does Inspiring leader keep pace much or does it tend to evaporate with 1 hit?

Any particular feats to grab?

I would pump charisma. Saves can get really important and your aura is going to be a big part of party resilience. Add to that that as your number of spell slots grows, so to do the number of spell saves per day you are likely to be imposing on your enemies.

Inspiring leader is good, and evaporating with 1 hit doesn't mean it isn't worth it, but I just think for a paladin that extra charisma is awesome.

[Mork]

In my experience inspiring leader gives all party members about 1 extra round of survivability, your milage may vary depending on how often party members go down now, if it is often the feat becomes very good in my mind. (also the amount of long short rests, which is when i usually use it, is also important).

Extra charisma is always nice, but I can really imagine it becomes kinda boring. Especially if you mainly use your spell slots to smite, and not to cast spells.
Maybe shield master could be something, it doesn't have any game mechanic synergies as far as I can see, but the whole jumping in front of an attack, or riposting in my mind conjures an image of a shield wielding fighter. So maybe flavor wise that might be nice. And it's a good feat, in combination with your paladin aura you can walk through fireballs with impunity and it gives you something to do with your bonus action, which as far as i can think of you now only use for second wind.

[darknite]

Smite and Saving Throw Aura are the two main things that the Paladin brings to the table.

[Master O'Laughs]

So another question along the idea of spell selection. My DM actually has several homebrew spells he is allowing and a few of them sound interesting and wanted some input.

1st level
BiLight (C) - like bless but instead you subtract 1d4 from the each instance of damage

2nd level
H.Sight (C) - For up to 10 minutes I have advantage on Medicine checks. Also as an action I can determine a creatures Max hit points, remaining HPs, and total hit dice [Seems like a spell which could help in determining tactics. Main issue I see is this would be better left to someone not upfront in the thick of combat].

S.Mantle (C) - gain 1d6 THP at the start of turn and deal 1d6 extra damage with any melee weapon attack. Can't be charmed, frightened or possessed. [while the damage seems to be weapon damage, it seems like a combination of divine favor and heroism]

[1Pirate]

Edit: Nvm, misread spell description.

[Nidgit]

That Mantle spells is fairly overpowered. If it's as good as it reads, abuse it.