Conquest Paladin: Tell me everything

[jaappleton]

Every trick you know. I want enemies to never leave my side to target squishies.

Is Sentinel worth it when anyone Feared already has their speed reduced, and anyone Feared can't willingly mosquishing. Or still worth it for those Fear immune enemies?

Sword and shield or a reach weapon?

I know the Wrathful Smite trick already, utilizing the Check instead of Save.

But what else do you have up your sleeves, playgrounders?

[arnin77]

I actually don’t use fear that much anymore… but I took the Orzhov background from the ravnica book to gain guidance and also spirit guardians which were nice. (I don’t think it’s AL legal though just FYI)

I went human - resilient con and almost never drop a spell with the charisma bonus to saves added.

Last session we had a “hard” session so I went sword and board: plate +2, shield +2, defense style, cloak of pro, ring of pro and cast shield of faith for 29 AC as I was the only front liner and lowest level character. I never got hit except for spell save damage so that was pretty nice.

Sentinel did come up though and I wish I did have it but I’m level 11 so I could take it at 12…

When I am “fearing” I prefer a polearm though. 10’ aura, 0 speed and 10’ reach is pretty nice too. So a PAM+sentinel build would work well there.

There is an exceptional guide for conquest paladins on here that you should read if you haven’t already. I think sword and board is the “recommended” style…

[strangebloke]

There is a whole dedicated thread for this, but basically they're just really really good all round and you don't have to exploit the heck out of their conquest aura but if you do its amazing.

Probably the most fun trick is that if you get someone prone (by shoving them, usually, but certain spells work as well) and they're afraid of you and in the conquest aura, their speed is zero and they can't get up from being prone, leaving them effectively useless for the purpose of attacking you. This is surprisingly not that hard to set up, especially if you cooperate with another character like say a bard with fear prepared.

[diplomancer]

There is a whole dedicated thread for this, but basically they're just really really good all round and you don't have to exploit the heck out of their conquest aura but if you do its amazing.

Probably the most fun trick is that if you get someone prone (by shoving them, usually, but certain spells work as well) and they're afraid of you and in the conquest aura, their speed is zero and they can't get up from being prone, leaving them effectively useless for the purpose of attacking you. This is surprisingly not that hard to set up, especially if you cooperate with another character like say a bard with fear prepared.

The Conquest aura only works with those frightened of the Conquest Paladin, though, which is a real bummer.

[CheddarChampion]

Use a sword, carry a whip:
If you're building for AC, most of the time a foe that has disadvantage will very rarely hit you. Being 10' away usually means they don't get to attack at all, but I find that if one melee enemy is worth the trouble of denying their action then your allies will want to hit them as well. Often in 5' range.
Swap this if you're the only melee character or if the other melee PCs like to use reach weapons as well.

The Hexblade dip cannot be understated:
You get +1 or +2 to your attack stat.
You get access to the Shield spell, making you extremely good at AC tanking.
You get a spell slot that recharges on a short rest. Since you have Shield and Wrathful Smite your 1st level spell slots go a long way.
You get Eldritch Blast, a powerful ranged option. Especially if you take 2 levels to get Agonizing Blast.
Two levels gets you a second spell slot and two invocations. I already mentioned AB, so: Repelling Blast can help you with positioning, Devil's Sight is great especially if you are a V. Human, Eldritch Mind is great for keeping your concentration going, etc. etc.

Magic items are your friends:
The Wand of Fear and the Pipes of Haunting both produce AOE fear effects that don't use your concentration and don't count as spells.
Naturally this means you can concentrate on something else, but you can also use your bonus action to cast a leveled spell, same as if you were using your Channel Divinity.

[strangebloke]

The Conquest aura only works with those frightened of the Conquest Paladin, though, which is a real bummer.

oh woops. My bad.

Dragon Fear is really good though. 1/SR AOE fear effect. They get repeat saves on damage, but they get no repeat saves outside of that. It's really nice as a SR resource (though ofc you have to play an ugly Dragonborn)

[Honk]

Right now playing a Fallen Aasimar level 9/4 conquest/ divine sorcerer…

Meanest trick is hastened „hold person“ (or monster from group) then double max smite with greatsword. Everybody who doesn’t do triple digit damage when going nova is not min maxing enough 🤣

Fear spell, wrathful smite, fallen power, shield of faith, compelled duel, shield, command are my go to spells. Mounted combatant for lolz and crit-fishing.

Of course missing out on the 30‘ aura, but at lvl 17 most things will probably not be impressed by your scariness.
Positioning is key, I love doorways, where 10‘ can block things and melee opponents are fun. But magic wielder are another thing. When the wizard is wetting himself, the DM starts throwing maximized lightning bolts.

Best thing when stuff got stuck in your aura, poking at other trespassers and every now and then kicking the poor rabble that whimpers at your feet (command grovel for extra lolz).

If things are too tough and don’t dare to fail their saves the bane spell (30‘ rage, cleric/divine sorcerer) is a nice welcome gift 😈
If your more interested in a warlock dip…lvl1 Hex spell also does the trick. Concentration yes, but so good when the „20“ gets crushed into a „5“… 😹

[Unoriginal]

The Leonin's Roar get you a recover-on-rest fear effect at lvl 1, and a pretty decent one at that, which is good for a Conquest Paladin (plus, scary lion-person magic knight is a nice visual).

[KorvinStarmast]

(plus, scary lion-person magic knight is a nice visual). Aslan with an attitude: I can work with this. :smallcool:

[Unoriginal]

Aslan with an attitude: I can work with this. :smallcool:

Aslan already has an attitude, tbf:



https://youtu.be/lToQVeidxQE

[KorvinStarmast]

Aslan already has an attitude, tbf:

https://youtu.be/lToQVeidxQE Fair enough. :smallsmile:

[Chronos]

Magic items are your friends:
The Wand of Fear and the Pipes of Haunting both produce AOE fear effects that don't use your concentration and don't count as spells.
Naturally this means you can concentrate on something else, but you can also use your bonus action to cast a leveled spell, same as if you were using your Channel Divinity.
Ooh, I just looked those up. Not only does the Wand of Fear not require concentration, and not count as a spell (so it doesn't interfere with bonus actions and can't be counterspelled), but it also has one other very important difference from the Fear spell: If the enemy can flee, they have to use the Dash action... but if they can't (such as, for instance, because they're in your aura), they have to instead use the Dodge action. That's a lot better than the Fear spell letting them do whatever action they want if they can't flee.

[diplomancer]

Ooh, I just looked those up. Not only does the Wand of Fear not require concentration, and not count as a spell (so it doesn't interfere with bonus actions and can't be counterspelled), but it also has one other very important difference from the Fear spell: If the enemy can flee, they have to use the Dash action... but if they can't (such as, for instance, because they're in your aura), they have to instead use the Dodge action. That's a lot better than the Fear spell letting them do whatever action they want if they can't flee.

With the Fear spell, they have to take the Dash action, even with a speed of zero; they can still use different bonus actions, extra haste actions, and so on.

[Corran]

Every trick you know. I want enemies to never leave my side to target squishies.
There are no guarantees for that, obviously, but raising your charisma to boost your DC is the way to go. You can add sentinel and grappling on top of your fear lockdown if you want to fully commit to that path, but sentinel is hard to prioritize to charisma boosts and to a concentration booster imo, and you also would prefer if someone else provided grappling (ideally disposable minions, like zombies), cause you really want to grapple (frigtened) enemies outside of your 10' aura of conquest (you can grappled not frigthened enemies if they are worth having their movement restricted while also not requiring of you to position yourself more than 10' away from lots of frightened enemies).


Is Sentinel worth it when anyone Feared already has their speed reduced, and anyone Feared can't willingly mosquishing. Or still worth it for those Fear immune enemies?
It's a good feat, especially for paladins who can use it both defensively and aggressively (good synergy with IDS). There us some redundancy for when fear effects work for you, but it's still a good feat to take. In a vacuum I dont think it's better than charisma bumps and resilient con/warcaster (depending on if you are multiclassing or not), and I would even have a very tough time prioritizing it to feats like inspiring leader, lucky, and in some cases shield master even. But it depends. Partly on if you are multiclassing or not (cause multiclassing can fill your reactions with good options (on top of potentially strong OA's; OA's are often a good time to smite IME), but mostly on how much you need to focus on control. There are diminishing returns (cause you've can already be decent at single target control through various means; eg wrathful smite and aura of conquest, grappling, strong OA's), but if you need every bit of control you can get, then sentinel can help there while it will also give a small boost to your action economy from time to time.


Sword and shield or a reach weapon?
Both. The important thing is not to have one melee enemy unable to attack. The important thing is to position yourself as best as you can to immobilize as many/the most dangerous enemies as you can. Your aura has a small radius. That means you'll often want to position next to enemies just so your aura will catch inside it more of them. So you'll be attacked, and some of those attacks will be at disadantage, which plays better the higher your base AC is. Also you need to make sure your concentration will hold, which again emphasizes the need for a good AC. For these reasons I'd go with the shield. And I'd carry a whip (as a backup weapon) for when it would be possible to stay at reach without compromising my positioning for the fear effects. So in essense, having a good reach is secondary to good positioning and to defense. Having the option to fill your bonus action with spiritual weapon also means that you wont miss PAM as much as other paladins would.


I know the Wrathful Smite trick already, utilizing the Check instead of Save.

But what else do you have up your sleeves, playgrounders?
These are not so much tricks, more like things you should definitely be aware of. The fear spell will be your stronger effect when it comes to mass frightening, but it has two drawbacks. That of being a cone, which means it's harder to place well (dont be afraid to take opportunity attacks to ensure a good casting position. But more importantly, that of friendly fire. If you can find a way to make it party friendly (such as with aura of courage or with careful spell metamagic), you might turn this drawback into a benefit some of the time (ie let enough enemies gather around a friendly, then use fear).

Besides attack rolls, frigtened enemies have disadvantage on checks. So like with warthful smite that you mention, anything that can force checks will be more effective than usually against frigtened enemies. So stuff like grappling, the web spell, telekinesis, etc, are things that will have synergy with how you play, so let the other players know there is this opportunity.

Be wary of using conquering presence in open areas, because frightened enemies outside you aura of hate will be able to go around you and after your allies. Especially if said enemies are fast (to catch up to your squishy allies) or if there are enemies with AoE around (cause that makes it a bad idea for your squishies to stay close enough to you so that frigthened enemies wont reach them). Also notice that conquering presence does not stop if you fall unconscious. Your unconscious/dead body can still have a good tactical use if positionend properly, not to say that this may even save your life if you are extremelly lucky.

Edit: While your first instinct will usually be to rush into the middle of the enemies and try to frighten them, sometimes it can be better to play more cautiously. That is not using your fear effects for maximum impact as part of a mediocre combat approach, but instead using them to just buy your team time as part of a better combat approach, such as by staying at the back and close to one of your allies who is using one of their abilities that you hope will win you the fight, and you only role in this combat is to try and keep that ally safe, keeping your fear lockdown on reserve (perhaps adding a grapple and command on top if needed) to use against any enemy that might try and threaten that ally of yours. Example (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?617973-Anti-party-combo-smackdown-ideas&highlight=anti+party)

[Unoriginal]

Hour of Reaping, the Long Death Monk's 6th level feature, is likely the best PC-available Frighten effect in the game, but it's really hard to combine Monk and Conquest Paladin, stat-wise.

Result is pretty great if you can pull it off though. Especially with the monk rules from the Tasha's.

[jaappleton]

Somewhat surprised I'm not seeing any love for Bugbear as a choice. 10ft reach seems awesome for the Conquest Paladin.

[CheddarChampion]

Somewhat surprised I'm not seeing any love for Bugbear as a choice. 10ft reach seems awesome for the Conquest Paladin.

I can't personally attest to it, but this seems pretty good if you want to focus on the spacing tactic.
You can even grab a whip for 15' reach for when you're up against the rare creature with 10' reach.

The only thing is that this has anti-synergy with opportunity attacks (and Sentinel): only when you attack on your turn you get the reach bonus, so when it's another creature's turn they won't be in your reach. If you're level 7 and they're frightened then it's okay, but otherwise they can circle around you and attack your party members.