DnD 2024 Paladin Class Guide

Introduction

DnD 5e’s Paladins are the most durable, survivable, and self-sufficient class in the game. As such, they both make excellent solo characters and are excellent additions to nearly any party regardless of existing capabilities. With heavy armor and a deep well of healing form Lay on Lands, Paladins are built to survive long, hard days of adventuring, while Divine Smite provides big damage spikes when you need it.

In a party, Paladins serve as a Defender, Face, and Striker. They do have some Healer and Utility options, but not enough to replace a full spellcaster in most parties. Your choice of subclass will influence which of those roles your character emphasizes, though typically it’s just a sliding scale between Defender and Striker. The Paladin’s healing capabilities can mostly replace a full spellcaster as your party’s Healer, though Paladins lack critical options like Healing Word and get acces to options like Lesser Restoration much later than a full spellcaster does.

Paladins are also one of the more complex classes to play. They have a long list of class features, touching on most of the game’s core mechanics. While this sometimes makes them challenging for new players, this also makes the Paladin a great introductory class because the player needs to learn so much to play it. This complexity phases in gradually over the first 3 class levels, which is a perfect trajectory for a new player to settle into the game and their character.

The Paladin is an excellent addition to any party, and I strongly recommend them for experienced players playing among new players. The combination of durability, healing, protection, and smite damage makes it easy to support your party without going all-in on a support build or a healbot. I’ve had a lot of success doing this alongside new players, and the ability to rescue them when things went wrong has always felt very satisfying.

This article is for the 2024 DnD rules. For the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Paladin Class Guide.

Introduction
Disclaimer
Paladin Class Features
2024 Paladin Changes from 2014 Rules
Paladin Backgrounds
Paladin Species
Paladin Ability Scores
Paladin Skills
Paladin Feats
Paladin Weapons
Paladin Armor
Paladin Multiclassing

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Paladin Class Features

Hit Points: d10 hit points is standard for a front-line martial class.

Saves: The Paladin’s saves will keep you from being charmed or mind controlled, but you’ll have problems with Constitution saves, which you need to maintain Concentration on spells. When you pick up Aura of Protection at level 6, you suddenly get a huge boost to all of your saves, likely giving you better saves than anyone else in your party. Even so, many Paladin spells require Concentration, so consider Resilient (Constitution), War Caster, or investing heavily in Constitution.

Proficiencies: All armor, all weapons, and two skills from a decent skill list which the Paladin actually has the ability scores to use effectively.

1. Lay On Hands: A deep well of healing, and you can use it as a Bonus Action. As the pool grows, you can more easily afford to use it to remove status conditions. If possible, reserve a few points as emergency healing in case allies drop to 0 hit points.

1. Spellcasting: Paladins are half casters, which means that their spellcasting advances half as quickly as full spellcasters like the Cleric. They get numerous exclusive spells, such as Divine Smite and Find Steed, which are central to the Paladin’s identity. While Divine Smite is a huge part of your offensive capabilities, remember that your limited number of spell slots strictly limits how much smiting you can do in a day.

1. Weapon Mastery: Excellent.

For more on Weapon Mastery, see our Weapon Mastery Guide.

2. Fighting Style: Excellent. See Fighting Styles under Feats, below.

2. Paladin’s Smite: Divine Smite prepared for free solidifies it as a central part of the Paladin’s tactics. Since it uses your Bonus Action, you can only use it once per turn. Remember that you also have other options like Blazing Smite which trade some of Divine Smite’s damage for additional effects which may be more useful than a little bit of extra damage.

3. Channel Divinity: A renewable pool of resources that recharged on a Short Rest. Your subclass will typically provide additional uses for Channel Divinity, but every Paladin gets Divine Sense at level 3 and Abjure Foes at level 9.

Divine Sense: Only situationally useful, but it covers three creature types, and both Fiends and Undead are common enemies. The ability to locate nearby creatures of the affected types negates much of the benefits of stealth and invisibility, at minimum allowing you to attack the correct space. The 10-minute duration is easily enough to get through a combat encounter, but you can also use it to locate nearby enemies before you would have noticed each other by more mundane means, allowing you to engage those enemies on your own terms.

3. Subclass: Paladin subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Paladin Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

Oath of Devotion: Protect yourself and your party from harm.
Oath of Glory: Empower yourself and your allies with temporary hit points, speed boosts, and other buffs.
Oath of The Ancients: Wield the wrath of nature.
Oath of Vengeance: Smite the wicked.

5. Extra Attack: Excellent. You still can’t smite twice in a turn, but two attacks means twice as many opportunities to hit and potentially smite.

5. Faithful Steed: More powerful and more expendable than buying a normal mount. Even if you never ride it, your steed has 25 hit points, and will fight alongside you in combat without cutting into your action economy. You get to cast this for free once per day, but once you hit level 13 and can cast 4th-level spells you may want to use a spell slot so that your steed can fly.

6. Aura of Protection: One of the best defensive features in the game. Keeping allies close to you in order to protect them is often a good idea, but keep in mind that cramming the party into a small area also makes you more vulnerable to area damage. You’ll need to make choices on a case-by-case basis.

9. Abjure Foes: Fantastic crowd control, and since it uses your Channel Divinity, you can use it frequently

10. Aura of Courage: Fear effects are common, and Aura of Protection isn’t foolproof.

11. Radiant Strikes: An easy, consistent boost to your damage output.

14. Restoring Touch: This covers everything covered by Lesser Restoration, and at a cost of just 5 points from Lay on Hands you can do this 14 times per day at this level.

18. Aura Expansion: This makes it much easier for allies to spread out in combat.

2024 Paladin Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

1. Lay on Hands. Now a Bonus Action instead of an Action. No longer allows you to remove diseases.
1. Spellcasting. Moved from level 2 to level 1. You can change only one prepared spell per long rest instead of changing them all on a long rest.
1. Weapon Mastery. New.
2. Fighting Style. Same changes as the Fighter; Fighting Styles are feats now. Paladins can now pick from any Fighting Style (2014 paladins have a restricted list). Alternatively, you can choose Blessed Warrior to get two cleric cantrips.
2. Paladin’s Smite. Renamed from “Divine Smite”, but the effect of the feature is to have Divine Smite always prepared. This means that Divine Smite is now a spell, which comes with some complications. It’s cast as a Bonus Action after you hit with a melee weapon or unarmed strike, so you can now smite while punching, but you can only smite once on each of your turns, and you can’t smite on Opportunity Attacks. This will prevent paladins from repeatedly smiting in quick succession to burn through encounters in a single turn.
3. Divine Health. Gone.
3. Channel Divinity. 2 users per Short Rest. Scales to 3. Divine Sense is now a Channel Divinity option rather than its own thing.
5. Faithful Steed. New. You get Find Steed prepared for free.
6. Aura of Protection. The effects of Aura of Protection haven’t changed, but paladin auras now work by piling more effects onto Aura of Protection rather than by having a bunch of different auras. Same effects, just easier to explain.
9. Abjure Foes. New. Similar to the 2014 Oath of Vengeance feature Abjure Enemy. Fantastic crowd control.
11. Radiant Strikes. Renamed from Improved Divine Smite, which was a name that never made any sense because the only overlap with Divine Smite is that both deal radiant damage.
14. Cleansing Touch. Gone.
14. Restoring Touch. Can now spend 5 points from Lay on Hands to remove status conditions similar to Lesser Restoration.

Paladin Backgrounds

You want some combination of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma depending on your build. Blessed Warrior builds will want Constitution and Charisma, while more typical builds will need either Strength or Dexterity, and ideally want Constitution and Charisma as well. Charisma-based skills are ideal, but with those messy ability score needs it’s unlikely that we’ll get everything we want from a single Background.

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted by your Background, see the Paladin Feats section, below.

Acolyte ^(PHB) : Tempting for Blessed Warrior builds, but lacking a Constitution increase is hard.
Artisan ^(PHB) : You can get increases to Strength and Dexterity, and you get one Charisma-based skill, but Crafter isn’t a great feat. Altogether it meets the absolute bare minimum of functional.
Charlatan ^(PHB) : Perfect ability scores for a Dexterity-based build or a Blessed Warrior build, and an easy way to cover all of the Face skills that you need while leaving space for other skill proficiencies.
Criminal ^(PHB) : A good choice for Dexterity-based builds, especially if there isn’t a Rogue in the party.
Entertainer ^(PHB) : The ability scores are good and the Musician feat is welcome in any party, but it’s hard to waste two skill proficiencies on borderline useless skills.
Farmer ^(PHB) : A good option for front-line martials. The ability scores are great, and Tough is an easy go-to feat if you don’t want more complexity, but you won’t get much use out of the skills.
Hermit ^(PHB) : Okay for a Blessed Warrior build, but the skills are middling, and Healer isn’t appealing when you have Lay on Hands.
Merchant ^(PHB) : Good ability scores for Blessed Warrior builds, Lucky is an easy feat choice on any character, and one good skill.
Noble ^(PHB) : Good ability scores, and you can get all of the Face skills that you need. The only wasted bit is History.
Sage ^(PHB) : No Charisma increase, so this doesn’t even work for Blessed Warrior.
Sailor ^(PHB) : Decent ability scores, but that’s really all that you get.
Scribe ^(PHB) : Passable for a Dexterity-based build, especially in a small party that needs more skill coverage.
Soldier ^(PHB) : Good ability scores, Savage Attacker is decent since you’ll never have more than 2 attacks, and one Face skill.
Wayfarer ^(PHB) : Good ability scores for a Dexterity-based build, and between the skills and Thieves’ Tools you could fill in for a Rogue in your party. Lucky is an easy feat on any character.

Paladin Species

Aasimar ^(PHB): Two damage resistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combat transformation. And absolutely iconic species/class pairing, though not much better for the Paladin than for any other martial class. Paladins can already heal, deal radiant damage, handle crowds, and eventually fly via Find Steed.
Dragonborn ^(PHB): A damage resistance, likely to a common damage type like poison or fire, a decent way to handle crowds of small enemies, Darkvision, and flight once per day. Paladins have a few spell options for handling crowds, and can eventually fly via Find Steed, but those options don’t come online until high levels.
Dwarf ^(PHB): Darkvision, resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points. Tremorsense may be your only way to locate invisible enemies. Altogether, a great package for a durable Paladin.
Elf ^(PHB): Darkvision and an extra skill are both great, plus you can get access to some spells from outside of the Paladins’s spell list. For a Blessed Warrior build, the innate spellcasting is a nice complement. The High Elf’s access to a Wizard cantrip means that you might forgo offensive Cleric cantrips in favor of options like Guidance. Dexterity-based builds might enjoy Wood Elf for access to Pass Without Trace.
Gnome ^(PHB): Darkvision and Gnomish Cunning are both great, and the added cantrips from Gnomish Lineage offer some interesting utility options. Gnomish Cunning and Aura of Protection make your mental saves incredibly strong.
Goliath ^(PHB): Giant Heritage offers numerous excellent options. I like Cloud’s Jaunt, Hill’s Topple, and Stone’s Endurance. Large Form is great for melee builds looking to occupy more space on the battlefield.
Halfling ^(PHB): Lucky is nice, but that’s basically all that the Halfling has to offer for the Palaidn. Brave becomes obsolete at level 10 when you get Aura of Courage. Halfling Nimbeless is neat, but rarely impactful since you can already move through allies’ spaces and if you need to get past an enemy it should involve hurting them. Naturally Stealthy isn’t helpful for the front-line martial characters.
Human ^(PHB): An additional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
Orc ^(PHB): Adrenaline Rush is great for front-line melee builds, letting you move into melee quickly and padding your hit points for when you inevitably draw a lot of attacks. Relentless Endurance provides some insurance in case things go wrong, and you can heal yourself as a Bonus Action with Lay on Hands on your next turn to keep from immediately dying.
Tiefling ^(PHB): Darkvision, a damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting. Possibly a good choice for Blessed Warrior builds, but otherwise you won’t use the spellcasting reliably.

Paladin Ability Scores

Paladins have 3 important abilities, making them severely MAD (Multiple Ability Dependent). Fortunately, you can dump everything else. You don’t even have to worry about saves as much as other characters since you can rely on Aura of Protection to boost your weak saves.

Since we need 3 high ability scores, our choice of Background is especially important. You will need to compromise from the ability scores recommended here because currently there are no backgrounds which give you Str/Con/Cha, and only the Charlatan background providers Dex/Con/Cha. But that’s the nature of character optimization: maximizing opportunity costs to get the best results.

The PHB recommended ability scores assume a Strength-based build.

Str: Crucial for Strength-based builds, otherwise dump it. If you’re going for Blessed Warrior, you need 15 for heavy armor, but don’t need any more than that.

Dex: Crucial for Dexterity-based builds, otherwise dump it.

Con: All martial characters need Constitution, but it’s especially important for Paladins since they don’t get proficiency with Constitution saves and still need to concentrate on spells.

Int: Dump.

Wis: Dump. If you’re willing to sacrifice some Constitution, you might take a little bit of Wisdom to support skills.

Cha: Charisma fuels many of the Paladin’s features, including their spellcasting, Aura of Protection, and several Paladin skills. If you choose Fighting Style (Blessed Warrior), you may also use it as your primary offensive ability.

	Point Buy	Adjusted	Standard Array	Adjusted	PHB Recommended	Adjusted
Str	15 or 8	16 or 8	15 or 10	17 or 10	15	17
Dex	8 or 15	8 or 16	10 or 15	10 or 17	10	10
Con	15	16	13	14	13	14
Int	8	8	8	8	8	8
Wis	8	8	12	12	12	12
Cha	15	16	14	14	14	14

Paladin Skills

Athletics (Str): Borderline useless.
Insight (Wis): Helpful for a Face, but you may not have enough Wisdom to back it up.
Intimidation (Cha): Important for any Face.
Medicine (Wis): This skill is useless. Medicine is best done magically.
Persuasion (Cha): The king of Face skills.
Religion (Int): One of the most important knowledge skills, but you probably dumped Intelligence.

Paladin Feats

This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover feats which we think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select an Origin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may get more from sources like the Human’s species traits.

Alert ^(PHB): Never a bad choice, but less impactful for martial characters than for full casters.
Crafter ^(PHB): Neat, but not especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful early in the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anything in the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice, so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
Healer ^(PHB): You have Lay on Hands.
Lucky ^(PHB): An easy choice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s a great default if you don’t need anything else.
Magic Initiate ^(PHB): Druid spells to get Shillelagh for or Wizard spells to get options like Fire Bolt and Shield can both have a huge impact, especially for Blessed Warrior builds.
Musician ^(PHB): A great way to contribute to any party.
Savage Attacker ^(PHB): Passable if you’re using weapons like greatswords or glaives, but otherwise skip it.
Skilled ^(PHB): Great for covering all of the Face skills so that you can make room for other options, especially in a small party with poor skill coverage.
Tavern Brawler ^(PHB): There is very little to use this. Grab a weapon with the Push mastery.
Tough ^(PHB): Always helpful for front-line melee builds, but not essential, especially since you have Lay on Hands.

General Feats

Athlete ^(PHB): A decent choice for many martial characters. A climb speed is the next best thing to a fly speed. The ability to stand up quickly makes falling or being knocked prone less of a problem. The ability to jump with less of a running start may let you easily jump over difficult terrain and other obstacles which otherwise might slow your movement in combat.
Charger ^(PHB): The push effect is decent, especially when combined with a Push mastery, but without other stacking sources of push distance you’ll have trouble getting past the 30-foot threshold where most creatures won’t have enough speed to immediately run back into melee.
Chef ^(PHB): Normally great for front-line martial characters, but the Paladin already has a deep well of hit points thanks to Lay on Hands.
Crusher ^(PHB): A simple and easy way to control enemies’ positions in combat, especially when combined with the Push mastery.
Defensive Duelist ^(PHB): A consistent and effective way to boost your AC in melee if you’re using Finesse weapons like rapiers or short swords. However, giving up your Reaction prevents you from making an Opportunity Attack, and punishing enemies for moving away from you is an important part of being your party’s front line.
Dual Wielder ^(PHB): Two-weapon fighting is already a difficult choice for the Paladin, and you can nearly never spare your Bonus Action to do more of it.
Durable ^(PHB): You have Lay on Hands.
Elemental Adept ^(PHB): Most of the Paladin’s damage is radiant.
Fey Touched ^(PHB): Two more prepared spells and access to some 1st-level spells from outside of your spell list. Misty Step is great on any spellcaster. The free castings are great, too, but without full spellcasting you may not be able to use the new spells enough to justify the feat.
Grappler ^(PHB): Even if you do nothing else to make yourself good at unarmed strikes, this is a great way to hold enemies in place without heavily cutting into your damage output. You’ll want to use a one-handed weapon (Versatile weapons also work well here) to leave a hand free. If you use a weapon with the Topple mastery or if you make another unarmed strike, you can knock your target prone and keep them there, then drag them away from your allies.
Great Weapon Master ^(PHB): Essential and reliable if you’re using two-handed melee weapons.
Heavy Armor Master ^(PHB): A huge amount of damage reduction.
Inspiring Leader ^(PHB): A huge amount of Temporary Hit Points.
Lightly Armored ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
Mage Slayer ^(PHB): Your mental saves are already great thanks to proficiency in Wisdom saves and Aura of Protection.
Medium Armor Master ^(PHB): Borderline worthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and wear light armor.
Mounted Combatant ^(PHB): Thanks to Find Steed, the Paladin is well suited to mounted combat.
Piercer ^(PHB): Great if you want to focus exclusively on damage.
Polearm Master ^(PHB): Normally a great choice for a Defender, but since Pole Strike competes for your Bonus Action with Divine Smite, you’re giving up a lot of Polearm Master’s power.
Resilient ^(PHB): Resilient (Constitution) is fantastic for maintaining Concentration.
Ritual Caster ^(PHB): You never get Rituals above level 1, so there’s very little appeal here.
Sentinel ^(PHB): Fantastic on a Defender build. You can’t smite on an Opportunity Attack, but it’s still an additional attack.
Shadow-Touched ^(PHB): Invisibility can be very useful, especially for Dexterity-based builds who want to be sneaky. The level 1 spell options aren’t as good as those available from Fey Touched, but Invisibility may be worth the difference.
Shield Master ^(PHB): A must have if you’re using a shield. Shield Bash is an easy way to get Advantage, and Interpose Shield coupled with Aura of Protection gives you a decent chance to negate area damage.
Skill Expert ^(PHB): Easy to fit into any build. Expertise in Persuasion can be very useful, and you can increase whatever ability score you want.
Slasher ^(PHB): Simple and reliable. Combine this with a weapon with the Slow mastery and you can impose a -20 speed penalty, making it very difficult for enemies to escape you.
Speedy ^(PHB): If you want to be faster, ride your steed.
Telekinetic ^(PHB): Potentially useful for Blessed Warrior builds since you’re unlikely to use Divine Smite often.
War Caster ^(PHB): Advantage on Concentration is great, but Reactive Spell offers you very few options since the Paladin’s spells are rarely qualifying offensive options. Unfortunately, this won’t let you smite as a Reaction.

Fighting Styles

Archery ^(PHB): Paladins are largely locked into melee thanks to Divine Smite.
Blind Fighting ^(PHB): Fantastic, but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like to rely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get more consistent benefit from other options.
If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.
Defense ^(PHB): Consistently useful, and doesn’t discourage you from switching weapons.
Dueling ^(PHB): Consistently effecive, and you don’t need to give up use of a shield.
Blind Fighting ^(PHB): Fantastic, but only situationally useful. Unless you have party members that like to rely on magical darkness or fog or similar effects, you’ll get more consistent benefit from other options.
If it’s an option, take the Skulker feat instead.
Thrown Weapon Fighting ^(PHB): More complex than Archery, but the ability to change weapons mid-turn means that you can use multiple Weapon Mastery options in a single turn. Two-weapon fighting can work, but without an on-hit damage boost, it’s actually less damaging than Archery with a longbow or musket.
Thrown Weapon Fighting ^(PHB): Paladins are largely locked into melee thanks to Divine Smite.
Two-Weapon Fighting ^(PHB): Much of the Paladin’s damage output comes from Divine Smite, and because Divine Smite can only work once per turn, two-weapon fighting isn’t a good option for the Paladin.
Unarmed Fighting ^(PHB): Take Tavern Brawler.

Epic Boons

Boon of Combat Prowess ^(PHB): Simple and consistently useful.
Boon of Dimensional Travel ^(PHB): Maybe for Blessed Warrior builds.
Boon of Energy Resistance ^(PHB): A powerful defense on any character.
Boon of Fate ^(PHB): More useful to support your allies’ save-or-suck spells than for anything that you’re doing.
Boon of Fortitude ^(PHB): More hit points are great, but by this level you have so many points from Lay on Hands that 40 more hp feels tiny. You can use the bonus healing with Lay on Hands, allowing you to spend a Bonus Action to as little as 1 hit point, then also heal your Constitution modifier. If your Bonus Action somehow hasn’t been used on a turn, it’s a cheap way to recover hit points/.
Boon of Irresistible Offense ^(PHB): Helpful, but Paladins don’t make enough attacks to make the damage boost meaningful, and you can get past damage resistances using Divine Smite’s Radiant damage.
Boon of Recovery ^(PHB): You have Lay on Hands.
Boon of Skill ^(PHB): Potentially useful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
Boon of Speed ^(PHB): A huge boost in mobility for Dexterity-based builds.
Boon of Spell Recall ^(PHB): Potentially useful, but remember that it only has a 25% chance to work.
Boon of the Night Spirit ^(PHB): Tempting on Dexterity-based builds, but you’re probably your party’s Defender, so remember that there’s value in being a big, shiny target.
Boon of Truesight ^(PHB): Probably your only option for handling invisible enemies. If you’ve made it this far, your party is covering for you or you’ve found a creative solution.

Paladin Weapons

The Paladin is proficient in simple and martial weapons, and they get 2 Weapon Mastery slots. I generally recommend one melee weapon and one ranged weapon.

Much of the Paladin’s damage output comes from Divine Smite, and because Divine Smite can only work once per turn, two-weapon fighting isn’t helpful, which rules out light weapons. Divine Smite also locks the paladin into melee, so ranged weapons don’t matter except as a backup weapon if you can’t get into melee for some reason.