I can't stop overthinking this dragonborn paladin. Help me out!

[Klorox]

Do I start 17/8/15/8/8/16 or 17/10/14/8/8/16?

The game is only expected to go to level 7 or maybe 8.

It comes down to: Heavy armor master feat at level 4 (which gives an 18 STR), or bumping STR and CON to 18/16, giving more HP and a stronger breath weapon.

Which is a better option?

[Warder]

HAM is a pretty divisive feat. I like it myself, but it really relies on your party members not making themselves easier targets for the enemy than you are, which can be difficult to pull off. I play a dragonborn paladin with HAM right now, and let me tell you, as I am often low on initiative, it hurts me right in the Oath when my party members run past me on round one and get smushed.

On the other hand, the dragonborn breath weapon is really, really weak. CON is always useful, but don't get it because you want a stronger breath weapon, get it for the better save (and more HP).

Both options are fine, IMHO.

[Sception]

What oath are you going for? Are you going two handed, sword & board, dual wielder, or weapon & open hand? Are you planning to focus on tanking, damage, or going for a mix of the two? Do you plan to cast paladin spells, or do you want to avoid the hassle of spell casting by just smiting all your spell slots away?

Are feats & alternate class features from Tasha's allowed? What about Tasha's variant racial trait options? Are any house rules in place? Personally I'm not sure I'd even worry about breath weapon DC unless your DM makes it a bonus action to use, because otherwise I just don't think it likely that you'll use it at all past level 3 or so anyway.

[Quietus]

I would go with the 17/8/15/8/8/16. If you do reach level 8, I'd look at the Dragon Fear feat instead of Resilient : Con. You've mentioned the game will only go to level 7 or 8; if you do get that final feat, you may as well get one that will be active fun.

[Klorox]

What oath are you going for? Are you going two handed, sword & board, dual wielder, or weapon & open hand? Are you planning to focus on tanking, damage, or going for a mix of the two? Do you plan to cast paladin spells, or do you want to avoid the hassle of spell casting by just smiting all your spell slots away?

Are feats & alternate class features from Tasha's allowed? What about Tasha's variant racial trait options? Are any house rules in place? Personally I'm not sure I'd even worry about breath weapon DC unless your DM makes it a bonus action to use, because otherwise I just don't think it likely that you'll use it at all past level 3 or so anyway.

Ancients.

Sword & Board

I'm the only purely melee focused character in the group, and we're level 1 right now. I think the bard might go swords or valor though.

I'm not really worried about the breath weapon, the extra HP/saves definitely outweigh it.

[KorvinStarmast]

Do I start 17/8/15/8/8/16 or 17/10/14/8/8/16?

The game is only expected to go to level 7 or maybe 8.

It comes down to: Heavy armor master feat at level 4 (which gives an 18 STR), or bumping STR and CON to 18/16, giving more HP and a stronger breath weapon.

Which is a better option? If you are using Point Buy. 14 is enough con for that level of game. 8 dex is really bad. (My brother's paladin has an 8 Dex and he keeps having trouble with dex saves and initiative rolls ..
With point buy, here's what I'd do (You have wis save proficiency, so no need to worry about Wis as much as Dex.

17/10/14/8/8/16?
HAM at 4 will be fine. With only 1 ASI that 18 Strength ought to be handy for a lot of things since you are the sole martial character.

But ... there's another idea you may find useful .. get sentinel at 4 instead.
16 12 14 8 8 16
Sentinel lets you do a bit of locking down and punishing those who attack your varlious allies.

Dueling Style, sword and board - yeah, good to go.
And, you get another point on initiativce and those rather common dex saves.

I've not seen the breath weapon be that big of a factor: if it was a bonus action, I'd reconsidr. It is handy, though.

[Sception]

Ancients.

Sword & Board

I'm the only purely melee focused character in the group, and we're level 1 right now. I think the bard might go swords or valor though.

I'm not really worried about the breath weapon, the extra HP/saves definitely outweigh it.

Given the lack of other melee focused characters, I'd be inclined to push towards tanking. Between base HP, lay on hands, heavy armor & shield, you'll probably be tough enough even without Heavy Armor Master. The issue will be convincing enemies to target you instead of your allies, and for that I'd recommend Sentinel instead.

For Fighting Style, I'd probably go with dueling as it sounds like the party overall might be a bit lacking in damage output. It doesn't scale that well, but you're not planning on taking this character into later levels anyway. Alternative choices that are still good include defense and blind fighting (new in TCoE). Finally, if nobody in your party has the guidance cantrip, you might instead grab Blessed Warrior (also from TCoE) to pick up guidance plus a ranged fallback cantrip.

Protection style is not very good. It's awkward to trigger - you're supposed to declare you use it after an attack is declared against an adjacent ally but before the attack is rolled, which is just a pain, and also you don't even know whether the attack was going to hit to begin with, so you can waste it completely even after all that bother.

Interception from TCoE is a better alternative, where instead of forcing disadvantage on an attack against an adjacent ally, you instead reduce the damage they take from a successful attack. It takes your reaction to use it, however, and IMO the Sentinel feat provides the superior reaction options for a tanky character. Especially since you have to be adjacent to the enemy you're intercepting for, and with mostly non-melee allies that's far from assured. Still, if you stick to Heavy Armor Master instead of switching over to sentinel, then definitely take interception as your fighting style.

If your DM allows the 'Martial Versatility' feature from TCoE, then take Interception as your fighting style at level 2, and then if you pick up sentinel at level 4 then you can switch out interception for dueling, defense, blind fighting, or blessed warrior as you prefer.


For stats, if you take my advice about going for Sentinel instead of Heavy Armor master, then I'd aim for post-racial stats of:
s16 d12 c14 i8 w8 h16.

+3 to your weapon and casting stats will carry you well enough through your expected level ranges without worrying about adding to them. 14 is the lowest I'd settle for on a melee character for con. The spare couple points go into dex mostly for the slightly better initiative, but you could just as easily put them into wisdom or split them between dex and wisdom.

If you make it to level 8, I'd go for one of: +2 cha (you'll have aura of protection by this point), Alert (initiative & not being surprised matters a lot for tanks), Inspiring Leader (big boost to overall party HP reserves), or Lucky (just good). You could go with +2 strength instead, but I tend to avoid investing in strength before level 12 with a paladin in the hopes that the party will find gauntlets of ogre strength or a belt of giant strength before then. The gauntlets in particular are relatively common in first party adventure modules.


If you stick with heavy armor master, then I'd go with: s17 d10 c14 i8 w8 h16. And then pick up Sentinel at level 8 if you make it that far, retraining interception style for one of the other recommended styles at that point via Martial Versatility if allowed. If not allowed, just keep interception, and decide on a case by case basis whether your reaction is better spent threatening opportunity attacks, reducing damage against adjacent allies, or punishing enemies for attacking other party members.


For skills, try to make sure you have Athletics, Perception, and a Charisma skill. Persuasion is generally the best cha skill, but given that your party includes a bard which almost always have persuasion and deception covered, you might instead go for intimidation instead if the bard doesn't have intimidation trained.

[Nidgit]

I will say, Ancients is a bit underwhelming if you're only going to level 7 or 8. The Aura won't kick in until the very end and the majority of features before then are somewhat lacking. I'd consider Glory, Devotion, or Vengeance if it would work with your character concept.

As far as tanking goes, HAM is definitively better than +1 Con, especially at lower levels. HAM is superior to extra HP if you're taking more than two physical hits per day (incredibly likely, of course), so all the Con boost provides is a small boost to Con saves. Personally, I think the damage reduction and Dex boost is way superior.