There’s a good chance you might play through the entirety of Baldur’s Gate 3 and not realize that the game even has a 
Paladin companion. Or that that Paladin is a homicidal 
Drow cultist.
But if you decide to side with the goblins in the big Act 1 druid-goblin confrontation, or if you just manage to skip that whole plot line, you’ll be able to find 
Minthara in Act 2. She’ll be waiting for you in the Moonrise Towers prison. Should you recruit her there, this guide will help you properly utilize Minthara while enjoying the benefits of having a Paladin on your team.
Companion Build Goals
To start things off, here are our general guidelines for companion builds:
Build Summary
Paladins are very straightforward and don’t get to choose a lot of things when leveling up. Still, here are the main things you’ll be getting with Minthara:
- Subclass
- Fighting Style
- Feats
- Key Spells
- Important Gear
- Drakethroat Glaive
- Armour of Devotion
- Boots of Striding
When you recruit Minthara, your party will probably be somewhere between levels 6 and 9. You’ll have explored at least a chunk of Act 2 by that point, and your characters should have some decent gear on them. As a melee warrior, Minthara will need at least a decent suit of armour and a good weapon to not feel useless. Thankfully, you can find both without leaving Moonrise Towers.
The Drakethroat Glaive is especially notable because you’ll stick with it throughout the game. Its special ability adds an extra level of enchantment plus some elemental damage – this results in a +3 glaive with an extra 1d4 damage of an element of your choice. This bonus stacks with Paladin’s 
Magic Weapon buff, turning it into a +4 weapon. Due to what is clearly a bug, as of live Patch #4 you can cast this glaive’s ability on other weapons. Because of the cheesy nature of this trick, we won’t be utilizing it and instead be using the glaive itself. We’re Paladins, after all.
Wielding a glaive with its extra reach might suggest taking the 
Great Weapon Fighting style for Minthara, or picking up the 
Polearm Master or 
Great Weapon Master feats. But since we’ll first need to fix her ability scores, we won’t have space for Great Weapon Master, making Great Weapon Fighting less valuable. Especially since a lot of her damage will be coming from Divine Smite and other sources anyway. This makes 
Defence a great choice for us.
Since Minthara is positioned as an 
Oath of Vengeance Paladin, the stuff Polearm Master gives us might seem tempting. However, at the moment its extra attack doesn’t work right, and it doesn’t utilize any of the damage bonuses except for your character’s Strength bonus. And thanks to Minthara’s unique Soul Branding ability that lets her add a decent chunk of fire damage to her (or her allies’) attacks, she already has a great way to utilize her Bonus Action. This means we won’t be getting Polearm Master, and will be grabbing 
Resilient instead to give her an even Constitution score and give her Proficiency with Constitution Saving Throws to help with her Concentration checks.
Minthara Overview
While you’ll be recruiting Minthara later on in the game, when she joins you she’ll be a level 1 Paladin with the following features:
Spells and Abilities
This section will highlight all the things we’ll be picking when raising Minthara’s level.
Fighting Style
At level 2, we’ll get to choose Minthara’s Fighting Style. Great Weapon Fighting is definitely a good choice here. But since we won’t be going all-in on two-handed weapons, and a lot of our damage will be coming from Divine Smite and Minthara’s Soul Branding, we might as well get Defence. The extra AC will be really nice since we won’t be using a shield, and Minthara will have better things to concentrate on anyway.
Feats
With a lot of odd ability scores, Minthara’s stat spread will need some fixing. And since she’ll almost always be concentrating on some spell, her fairly low baseline Constitution score of 13 and no Constitution Saving Throw proficiency make Resilient downright mandatory for her. So, these are the feats we’ll be grabbing for her:
Ability Improvement- Right away, at level 4, we’ll be putting a point into Strength and a point into Charisma.
- Resilient
- A single point into Constitution at level 8 will make Minthara considerably stronger.
- Ability Improvement
- For a melee warrior, it’s always nice to max out the main attack attribute, so at level 12 we’ll be putting two extra points into Strength.
Spells
Paladins get access to a fairly limited list of spells that only go up to level 3, although they still get some really nice options there. But since they’ll also be using their spell slots to deal damage with Divine Smite, you should be careful what you cast with your Paladin. Generally, go for high-impact and long duration spells. We’ll list some interesting options below:
- 1st Level
- 2nd Level
- 3rd Level
All the Smite variants (
Searing Smite, 
Thunderous Smite, 
Wrathful Smite, 
Branding Smite, 
Blinding Smite) have their use cases. But if you just want to deal damage, the baseline Divine Smite is your best option.
Equipment
The great thing about Minthara is that when you recruit her, you’ll immediately be able to equip her with a great weapon, a Paladin-focused suit of armour, and a pair of boots that go really well with her build. The rest of the gear listed below is either not nearly as impactful, or a late game substitution that can help her tackle high-level threats.
- Weapon – Drakethroat Glaive
- Purchased from Roah Moonglow inside Moonrise Towers, this is the weapon you’ll be using throughout the game.
- Handwear – Gloves of Heroism/Helldusk Gloves
- Found inside the cellar of the Toll House in Act 1, Gloves of Heroism will grant Minthara the
Heroism spell effect whenever she uses her Channel Oath ability. - You get Helldusk Gloves by looting Haarlep in the House of Hope. These grant a nice chunk of fire damage and a strong ranged spell that scales with Strength.
- Armour – Armour of Devotion/Armour of Persistence
- Much like your weapon, Armour of Devotion is sold by Roah Moonglow. It’s a nice suit of heavy armour that will give Minthara an extra charge of her Channel Oath ability.
- Since we’ll be recruiting Minthara, there’s a good chance Dammon doesn’t survive until Act 3. If he does, he’ll sell you Armour of Persistence that reduces all incoming damage by 2 and grants you the effects of
Resistance and 
Blade Ward.
- Headwear – Helmet of Smiting/Holy Lance Helm
- As a Paladin, Minthara will be happy to use a helmet with a bonus to Constitution Saving Throws. Helmet of Smiting, found inside the Selûnite Outpost in the Underdark, will also grant her some temporary Hit Points whenever she uses a variant Smite. Holy Lance Helm, on the other hand, will deal radiant damage to enemies who miss her. You get the latter while exploring the Rosymorn Monastery.
- Footwear – Boots of Striding
- A pair of boots that makes their wearer move faster when concentrating, while also granting immunity to being pushed back and falling prone. The great thing about these boots is that Minthara just comes equipped with them.
- Amulet – Pearl of Power Amulet
- Minthara won’t have that many spell slots. Being able to restore one of them is always nice. Get this amulet from Omeluum in the Myconid Colony.
- Ring – Strange Conduit Ring
- This ring grants you an extra 1d4 psychic damage whenever you’re concentrating. Since Minthara will be doing a lot of that, this is a great ring for her. You can grab it inside the Inquisitor’s Chamber in Crèche Y’llek.
- Ring – Crypt Lord Ring
- Since there aren’t that many great Paladin rings out there. And since Paladins don’t often get to play around with high-level spells. And because Minthara is a Drow, a ring that lets her cast a level 6 Necromancy spell that summons a powerful undead minion is a great option for her. Get it by siding with Thrumbo in the Find Mystic Carrion’s Servant quest.
The Gameplan
With the way we build our Minthara, she’ll have good but not great defences, a reach advantage, and a high damage output. This means she works best from behind another tanky character, but she won’t be falling over if she has to take a few hits either.
Thanks to her Soul Branding ability, she’ll be able to spend her Bonus Action to buff the damage of her next attack by a respectable 2d4+1. Combined with all the other bonuses she’ll be getting, and the occasional Divine Smite, she’ll be doing plenty of damage. And that will be her main job in your party. As an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, she’ll eventually get access to 
Haste, making her very self-sufficient.
Since Minthara is a Paladin, she won’t be quite as good as a 
Cleric when it comes to utility spells, but simply by existing, she’ll improve all of her allies’ Saving Throws and make them immune to fear. Thanks to Lay on Hands, she’ll also be able to heal her allies without expending any of her spell slots. She’ll also be able to easily cure all poisons and diseases.
