Party optimisation philosophy

[Waazraath]

I have to respond to this specifically, since I see this sentiment a lot when discussing the necessity of Paladin in an optimal party. While Paladin is a strong class, it is my own experience that Aura of Protection is a bit of a paper tiger. Sure, it looks absolutely bonkers on paper to get +5 to all saves for the whole party (and even just personal +5 to all saves is incredibly strong), but the party benefits are often less impressive than that IME, mostly due to the 10' range (up until level 18, which is after full casters already became demigods).

Often, the things you want a saving throw bonus for are AOEs (Fireballs, dragon breaths, Banshee Wail, etc.) and in those encounters, huddling close together for the save bonus guarantees that basically the whole party gets hit. OTOH if you have enough room to split up and be ~30' apart (in the "Fireball formation"), the enemy will have to hit at most two characters. So to gain benefits of Aura of Protection, the party will have to accept more hits from the AOE (obviously this doesn't apply to non-AOE but I find those aren't as frightening all that often; most seem to be like max HP reduction or poisoning or curses or things of that nature that you can tend to out of combat, though save-or-dies and mind control effects do of course exist), which kinda defeats the purpose. Even if everyone saves thanks to the Aura, the total damage split across the party is the same as if two guys got hit and failed the save (let alone if two guys got hit and succeeded the save).

Given the prevalence of AOE on higher levels, my parties generally assume fireball formation by default; it does make teamwork a bit more difficult but OTOH it prevents a powerful enemy from devastating the entire party in a single round. And in precisely such a setup where everyone kinda fends for themselves to a degree, the Aura is at its weakest. Of course, this criticism is far less biting on the level 18 version, which is incredibly good (and don't get me wrong, the level 6 version is also really personally and with significant party value but I feel like the peak value of the ability is somewhat diminished and it's more like "bonus to me and maybe the other frontliner" in most cases rather than "bonus to the whole party"). Ultimately, I generally find it a nice-to-have (Ancients is a bit different; Warding Aura means that against spellcasters who use damage spells specifically, your resistances are such that it's worth it to huddle together even if you take extra hits due to it), but I find the party can make do with Contingencies and Death Wards and Freedom of Movements (and yes, Revivifies) and Counterspells/Dispel Magics/Remove Curses/etc. to shore up the saving throw issues down the line.

Fair enough, it depends, and ofcourse I didn't take Ancients in my example by accident, that makes it better. In my experience a paladin covers at least 1 other party member with its aura usually though, and that +3/5 also is worth a lot. And in addition to that (and the other aura's, cause protection against fear, charm, spells etc.that can be shared is all very valuable) it's still a very good class that has healing, can nova, has strong defenses and can function as 'face' if no better option is present. So while I understand your point, me starting party optimization would still start with an ancients paladin, and I'd need a pretty strong reason not to include it.

edit: question for everybody: how are you one temp hp? I think it's a pretty no-brainer to include a character that can provide it for everybody, but so far I think I'm the only one who mentioned this. Am I overestimating it?