Unlock the amazing potential of a Paladin with this build. Not only will you be able to tank for your party, but you’ll also have great healing for tough situations, and be able to deal high damage.
Summary
If you want to be a full party all by yourself, this is the build for you. On top of being a tank, you will be able to deal massive damage with your Smite attacks, and you can even give a large heal to your party in case of emergencies.
This build mostly uses healing spells and Smite attacks for your Spell Slots, so it’s fairly flexible on adding any utility you might want.
Character Creation
Your choice of race is pretty flexible when making your Paladin. Dragonborn will give you an elemental resistance of your choice (plus a free cone attack in the form of their elemental breath), while a Half-Orc will give you access to a Last Stand in the form of Relentless Endurance.
You will want to pick the Oath of the Ancients, as that’s the Oath that gives you Healing Radiance, a very powerful area heal that will help greatly in tough fights. Keep in mind, though, that because of your Oath, you will have to avoid certain choices — mostly harming/killing innocent people. If you make a wrong choice, your Oath will be broken, and you will be forced into the Oathbreaker subclass. As long as you try to be a (mostly) good person, though, you shouldn’t have to worry about this much.
Spells and Abilities
Your spell choices are really flexible, as most of your important ones will be known without you having to put them in your spellbook. However, there are a few choices for Abilities you’ll want to keep an eye on as you level.
Fighting Style
You have a few choices in what you want to pick for your Fighting Style, depending on what you want to focus on and your weapon. Typically, the best choice in this build will be Defence, as it is just a straightforward damage reduction, regardless of what else you equip. If you want to use a one-handed weapon, Duelling will make you deal more damage — keep in mind, however, that versatile weapons will not give you this bonus. Finally, if the rest of your party tends to stick close to you, Protection will help your allies avoid more attacks.
Feats
The choices here will make you incredibly tanky, as well as improve your damage (assuming you wear Heavy Armour).
- Ability Improvement
- A straightforward upgrade to raise your Strength by 2, giving an increase in overall damage.
- Heavy Armour Master
- This will decrease all magic damage you take by 3 while wearing heavy armour. With how many spellcasters you fight throughout the game, this is a huge piece of free mitigation. On top of that, the extra point in Strength this Ability gives will bring the stat up to 20.
- Tough
- Another simple Ability that will help make you much tankier. At level 12, this will give you an extra 24 hit points, meaning you can take much more damage in the front lines.
Spells
As stated earlier, most of the spells for your spellbook are flexible, allowing you to put in whatever utility you prefer. However, there are a couple of good choices to keep an eye on:
- Level 1
- Level 2
- Aid – another way to keep your party’s health up
- Lesser Restoration – useful for fights that inflict status effects
- Magic Weapon – will help you or a teammate deal extra damage
- Misty Step – a useful spell for any character that will give a huge boost in mobility
- Level 3
Equipment
This build doesn’t rely on specific effects from gear, so you can make your choices based on what you find and what you prefer. Something you will want to keep an eye on when looking for gear is trying to raise your Armour Class as much as possible, raising your defences even more.
Here are a few notable pieces that will be great choices by the end of the game:
- Weapon – Nyrulna
- This weapon gives your build plenty of utility, on top of the high damage it brings. Its biggest draw is the effect that causes the weapon to cause an explosion in an area when thrown, followed by it instantly coming back to your hand. This helps mitigate one of the biggest drawbacks of Paladins, as they normally don’t have great ranged attacks. On top of that, it will also allow you to run and jump further, allowing you to move around the battlefield more effectively.
- Shield – Viconia’s Walking Fortress
- This shield makes magic attacks much less threatening to you, giving you access to ways to counter them through Reflective Shell and Warding Bond. It also gives you a counterattack to anyone who hits you, through using Rebuke of the Mighty.
- Helmet – Helm of Balduran
- This is an incredible helmet for improving your survivability. This will recover 2 of your hit points every turn, and give you a +1 bonus to your Armour Class and Saving Throws. On top of that, it will make you immune to being Stunned and to Critical Hits.
- Armour – Helldusk Armour
- On top of its high Armour Class and reducing all damage that you take by 3, this piece will also give you a couple of Fire-based effects. You will become resistant to Fire and immune to being Burned, and succeeding a Saving Throw will cause your attack to Burn for 3 turns. As an added bonus, this Armour gives you access to Fly, greatly increasing your mobility.
