D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal #3: "New Paladin"

"The paladin who, if they were in a movie, would ... have impossibly white teeth.”

"the paladin who, if they were in a movie, would ... have impossibly white teeth".


New Paladin preview: here are some notes, focusing on what's new and changes from the playtest materials. Last time we saw the Paladin was in Playtest 6 [=PT6 below].
See also this comparison at D&D Beyond (by someone who saw the video before it was streamed!)

OVERVIEW
  • spellcasting starts at level 1, specifically called out as an advantage for multiclassing. (Same for Rangers).
  • Lay on Hands and Weapon mastery at 1
  • Paladin's smite at 2, along with fighting style.
  • NEW: Paladin fighting style restriction is removed (all are available). You may forego fighting style to learn cantrips. [The option to get cantrips was given in Tasha's. They're letting us have it, but it's not called a "fighting style". I suspect this ties to the decision that fighting styles are feats now, and this would be weaker than magic initiate (which also gives a level 1 spell).]
  • Paladin's smite gives you the spell Divine smite, with one free casting.
  • channel divinity [CD]: uses increase: start with 2, plus 1 on a short rest.
  • divine sense in CD option (as in PT6). duration lasts 10 minutes.
  • Find steed spell at level 5, cast 1/day with no slot. Redesigned so that spell can be upcast, with a unique steed statblock. [This strongly implies that it's a class-specific spell, not on others' lists. Awesome. (Will a Lore Bard be able to select it? I hope so, and the discussion of spell lists (see below) makes me think they might, since identifying class-specific spells is harder.)]
  • Abjure Foes a CD option (given at 9 in PT6)
  • Auras are single things, with a single radius, that gain abilities/functionality (not separate auras as in 2014).
SUBCLASSES

Oath of Devotion.
  • NEW: Sacred Weapon is part of the attack action. (PT required a Bonus action).
  • Smite of Protection (level 15 in PT6)
  • Holy Nimbus (level 20) is a bonus action (as in PT6).
Oath of Glory ("...this for me is the paladin who, if they were in a movie, would look at the camera, have impossibly white teeth, with a little sparkle on them as they smile")
  • Peerless athlete lasts an hour (as in PT6)
  • NEW: Aura of Alacrity affects allies if they enter your aura on their turn (they no longer need to start there)
  • Oath of Glory has a new spell at level 17: Yolan's Regal Presence. Created by the Queen of the Elves, and makes others kneel before you and take psychic damage. [It's said that others can cast this spell too -- if right, then it's a 5th level spell and Clerics (likely) will be getting this at level 9. Perhaps he misspoke, and it's a class-specific spell.]
Oath of the Ancients
  • Nature's wrath range "has been extended"
  • Aura of Warding as in PT6 (resistance to Necrotic, Psychic, and Radiant)
  • Undying Sentinel at 15 as in PT6 (you don't return with 1hp, but [?] 3x class level.
Oath of Vengeance
  • NEW: Vow of Enmity part of attack action (not Bonus action); can transfer (as in PT6)
  • NEW: Level 20 Avenging Angel activated as a Bonus Action, and lasts an hour (not 10 min as in PT6)

NEW RULES
  • new area of effect: it's been there since 2014, but hasn't been named. It's for AOE that emanate from a character or monster -- the Emanation.
  • new approach to spell lists. Spell list is part of the class description (as we saw with the Artificer). Entries give the school, whether it needs concentration, and required components. [I presume spell descriptions will still be at the back of the book: this is referring to the lists currently on PHB 207-11.]
  • oath spell lists, patron spell lists, etc. have all been vetted and updated throughout.
 

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Minigiant

Legend
Supporter
Proposed solution would limit to one divine smite or smite spell per turn. IMO Bonus action isn’t needed to prevent anything there, it’s needed so you can’t smite and take other big bonus actions the same turn.
The problem is still the smite spells.

Divine Smite 2014 + Searing Smite.

A rule for spell smites and no spell smites would be clunky as hell.
 

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Stalker0

Legend
I read a ton of optimizers guides for character building, and I love reading Treantmonk as an example. He did a rating of all the classes and subclasses in the game, and none of the Paladin subclasses made S tier. The classes that did were the Cleric, the Druid, and the Wizard.
and to be fair we haven't seen the 5.5 version of those classes yet. We may see nerfs to key spells like spirit guardians for example.
 

SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
and to be fair we haven't seen the 5.5 version of those classes yet. We may see nerfs to key spells like spirit guardians for example.
This is a really good point. The game I'm playing in right now has a Spirit Guardians cleric and it is an extremely notable part of the game. I just have to laugh a bit, because our Cleric player is a very in-depth player who spends a lot of time on his character. I laugh because when combat starts, if the enemies are in position, that's pretty much what he does. It's gotten to the point we have push/pull characters who put enemies into the effect. It's sort of a Cleric "Divine Smite."
 


Chaosmancer

Legend
They don't do the same thing for the rest of the day because they don't have the spell slots to do it. What you're saying is that a Paladin can do a whole bucket of damage once a day. Okay, that's fine. What do they do the rest of the day for all the other encounters? Middle of the road damage. And the characters who are optimized to do damage over time consistently do their thing. And the spell casters do theirs, and so on. The fact that a Paladin (or any other character) can do a lot of burst damage once or twice a day is how the class is intended to operate.

I read a ton of optimizers guides for character building, and I love reading Treantmonk as an example. He did a rating of all the classes and subclasses in the game, and none of the Paladin subclasses made S tier. The classes that did were the Cleric, the Druid, and the Wizard. The fact that the Paladin can do a lot of damage once a day is certainly nice (and a skilled Paladin marshals that out over the day), but does it make the class make other classes obsolete for damage purposes? Certainly not that I've seen. The fact that the Paladin is doing moderate damage for most of the day and then can spike once or twice is hardly making the DM's day miserable.

You keep missing what I am trying to point out.

Yes, the Paladin can only Nova once or twice a day. The Paladin player KNOWS THIS. So they save their nova for the most important fight of the day. If the DM created seven encounters for the day, three easy encounters no one is supposed to care about, 3 medium encounters just to soften up the players, and then the Big dramatic fight that is the keystone of the adventure, the paladin player will not smite in the three easy encounters, they may use a low-level smite in one or two of the medium encounters. Then during the most important combat of the day, they will Nova, defeat the BBEG in their very first action and ratchet the cool dramatic fight to "and the paladin easily wins". So, the end result is... there was no dramatic high point to the adventure.

As a DM who has run for Paladins, I have consistently needed to make sure my Boss fights have enough hp to survive a single round of the Paladin's biggest nova. Yes, they don't get S-ranked, yes over a day other classes can deal more aggregate damage, but that doesn't change the fact that Paladins are uniquely good at taking a Boss fight and trivializing it, which leads to everyone feeling like the entire thing was a bit of a cakewalk and not really exciting.

Oh sure, the paladin might find it exciting the first or second time they do it. But by the time they are level 13 and they have done this EVERY. SINGLE. TIME? Then you get paladins who are bored, but you still need to account for them, so you still need to have a boss with hundreds of hp, just to have enough time to have a few rounds of combat.
 




SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
You keep missing what I am trying to point out.

Yes, the Paladin can only Nova once or twice a day. The Paladin player KNOWS THIS. So they save their nova for the most important fight of the day. If the DM created seven encounters for the day, three easy encounters no one is supposed to care about, 3 medium encounters just to soften up the players, and then the Big dramatic fight that is the keystone of the adventure, the paladin player will not smite in the three easy encounters, they may use a low-level smite in one or two of the medium encounters. Then during the most important combat of the day, they will Nova, defeat the BBEG in their very first action and ratchet the cool dramatic fight to "and the paladin easily wins". So, the end result is... there was no dramatic high point to the adventure.
I get what you're trying to say, and honestly I don't care about how the Paladin gets to pick when to do their spiked damage. Dealing with damage spikes and massive abilities to change a battle is something that has been an issue since first edition. If you're reading the "Gold Box" summary, you'll see that a party has resources that they can deploy to change the scope of the battle tremendously. That's always been the case. Dealing with spikes in damage is something you just have to figure out your own way in D&D.

And it definitely seems that 5.5E is going to cut down on the spike damage a Paladin can do, which is one way to address the issue. The problem is that there are ways other classes have to do much the same thing. Did the new edition similarly address them? If not, you just have players doing their huge pile of damage differently, and fewer Paladins.
 

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