You can get A Monster for Every Season: Summer 2 now at Gumroad, AMFES: Summer 2, Now with Digital Tokens Included, 2020 Holiday Ornament and Black Friday Sale, If this is your first visit, be sure to Sticking to the book RAW. Polearm Master Paladin Advice - Giant in the Playground Forums It's certainly not as damaging as a GWM/PAM build, but I just really enjoy slamming people with my shield. The Best Races for Paladins. 33. The only reason to play one is because a character concept you want requires the flavor of the bond between pet and ranger. We are gonna use Standard Array ( 15-14-13-12-10-8. I would take PAM before both of these always regardless which you choose. Most of our damage isnt reliant on STR and there are so many magic items that boost STR that a 13 or 14 STR is doable until such items are recieved. If you want stay melee with a mount palis have more damage, more defense, more utility for the party. At this point Holy weapons Max. What in this discussion has given you the impression that it is needed? If the question is over an early focus on offense vs defense in combat optimization, its probably matters if youve got a fighter or barbarian next to you or if everyone else in the party is a wizard or rogue. It's a weird comparison because most builds that utilize PAM take GWM anyway. Use Vow of Emnity against boss to offset it even more. 462. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, their respective logos, and all Wizards titles and characters are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. The only way this does not come up is if you always win initative and are always 30ft. Take Pushing Attack (Str save or pushed up to 15' away from you and adds 1d8 to damage), Lunging Attack (increases your reach to 15' and adds 1d8 to damage) as well as a couple others I like Menacing Attack (adds 1d8 damage and potentially frightens the target) which is handy but works against the purpose of the build by keeping enemies outside of your reach. The main attribute will be STR. damage because you are as likely to hit that as you are likely to hit maximum damage - with that many dices we are talking lottery level probabilities here. As a Vengeance Paladin though you are less reliant on Charisma compared to a Devotion. The more dice you throw, the less chance you have for max damage. Please enable JavaScript to get the best experience from this site. No matter what you do Smites will still burst damage anything. Don't worry alot of people have that conception about odd numbers. or 16 if you went with Great Weapon Master. Sentinel+PAM vs. GWM Hello all, Currently playing a homebrew campaign and am having some questions about which would be more effective. First there is no reason to do this with PAM. PAM allows you to attack the first enemy/round that wants to attack you due to 10ft. But guess what? Minimum damage potential absolutely matters. First is the AVG damages doesnt properly reflect damage that's dealt, specifically when Smites are invloved. For that I will rely on my DM to provide that trainer when he feels the time is right. Best Archer Valor Bard build for these parameters? Hold person can stick more reliably, heroism can refresh higher temp hp, aura of protection can add a huge +5 to all saves for yourself and your party, etc. crit but you still use average damage because you have no chance of rolling that. Further we are currently talking single round damage. since not every monster is that hard to hit and you have ways to mitigate the -5 (advantage, bless). This being said though it makes build encounters more challenging. That was my take aways specifically because the quote you quoted me was in regards to avoiding being hit to deal the damage. D&D 5E Build Help > Paladin Feats/ASIs & Race - EN World I know, but you need polearm master + sentinel + mounted combatant + str + dex 14 + wis (if you want to cast something beyond hunter's querry), to that start to work, how you're not human v. we are talking about lvl 12. There is no more important rule than this rule. While there are other options the Variant Human is best, in my opinion, for the early feat selection. However it's still an increase. Fighter 2 - You get an action surge. simon pendal architect So I need to figure out what I should take on levels 1,4 and 8. I hate to be "that guy", but bid and zaratan, I am pretty sure you're mistaken and the OP is correct. The defacto most powerful single class in the game. Also have you forgot it was you yourself that proposed do iui ng more damage in a single round than damage over a longer period? Smites negate the need to have extra damage. You'll be behind the curve, but in reality it's not by much because PAM+sentinel isn't too different from PAM+STR, you know? Highly silly, probably shouldn't have worked, but got the job done. This was the end of your first response. Gives damage, reduces accuracy. One, my character needs to NOT take 20 opportunity attacks (the idea beingmy character is "learning" how his attackers move and use their weapons during an attack). This build leans heavily on short rests the more you take the more carnage you can dish out! Well if PeteNutbutter and Citan both have the same conclusion then I have no qualms following their advice. That's one level before you'd get Haste, and you REALLY want to keep concentration on that one. Relentless Avenger then lets you back away so that you can repeat the same move the next turn. I think I keep forgetting that there are a lot of abilities baked in that makes hitting stuff a lot easier. Clearly I don't know you, but it's not that hard to counter these things, while letting your players feel uber powerful. All rights reserved. damage doesn't properly reflect damage dealt you are simply losing me. That is an additional attack that will benefit from Improved Smite, Divine Smite (if you choose to use it), another chance of critical hit. My Devotion Paladin has a 23 AC and single handedly killed the Warden and His Nightmare after my Party fled from fear. let's agree that the DC to get out of the grapple is ridiculous at mid levels, but ok, the target lose one action to leave (but he can stay and attack you). It's sharply less valuable if you're facing enemies with ranged capabilities, or enemies who also have reach greater than 5 feet. So what do you guys think is the best setup for Fighting Style, Weapon and Feats for my character? Maneuvering Attack can get your rogue into a sweet spot and still leave their full movement and bonus disengage for impressive battle mobility. You don't use a shield so this acts as some defense. Making a PAM/Sentinel Vengeance Paladin work (no VHuman)? Please enable JavaScript to get the best experience from this site. And you absolutely need that spell because it's mitigating the fact that a PAM Paladin can smite 3x vs. S&B 2x. 8 with Resilient (CON). It's about the spread of the potential. Half-Elves are also a powerful choice because they start out with +2 CHA and +1 . You'll be playing all those character ideas in no time, and then some. As you can see the biggest difference between the two is 31 points for Max Crits but narrows down to 6 points at minimum damage. Depends on the build. Beastmaster is of course pitifully underpowered as a subclass. After this I would take the feats in this order: Normally I would take res con at lvl 4 just because of how clutch it ends up being but I see the benefits on not delaying what you want your character to do. Having a 16 in Con and Cha is perfectly reasonable. 2023 Wizards. The only thing I said is that I value Holy Weapon more than Banishing Smite because it has better utility (3 hits and you have closed the damage difference and you still have one hour left of buff). D&D 5E - Best Fighting Style+Weapon+Feats for Paladin (Oath of People get focused on the Paladin's MADness a lot. Your entire party will be better with this character in the group. The PAM and Sentinel feat combo is one of my favorites in the game. You'll probably end up using all of your spell slots to spam smite. No I said average damage doesnt properly reflect the damage Paladins can deal. How to Build DnD's Most Powerful Paladin - CBR It's an unquantifiable bonus, unlike the straight up DPS boost of GWM, but it's still a game-changer. I've heard good things about Bugbears due to their reach. I disagree with the math. Best race for Polearm Master + Sentinel Vengeance Paladin? It also gives you opportunity attacks on Disengage, so pesky casters can't get away from you without taking some much needed punishment. The Paladin guide's polearm build has Str/Cha of 16 until level 12, so given how feat-heavy the polearm build is you might be better to just stick with a GWM build and sneak in a +2 Str at level 8. Str 15, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 16. If it sounds like fun, pick it! Oh I completely understand D&D is a team game. Because who cares how much damage you're dealing when nothing can hit you. This is a pure fighter build. With PAM, the level 7 feature is nice to bounce from a defeated enemy to another one or when fighting against an enemy with a 10 foot reach. The increase while a buff to Paladins is as I've stated now multiple times not comparable to what fighters and Barbarians can do. Pre casting banishing smite would allow you to do 16d8+10d10+6 in a singl roun of combat. I am currently 7th level and have been "collecting" my 20 time of NOT taking OPP attacks during 6th level and now 7th. check out the. PAM's OA would come into play when the creature enters the reach of the quarterstaff, meaning that it only comes in at 5'. It's not for every scenario but when you can unleash it, it will be effective. Lets do a math experiment. This being said though you're a Paladin. Conversely you can swap how I put GWM and Sentinel depending on what features you want online first. I was thinking path of conquest, bc the fear ability seems to combo well with the reaction play. Add 2 to your Str, for 18 Strength and a Maneuver DC of 15. Ok first you're responding to me respond to Rexir2 about single round damage not damage over time or did you not glean this from previous posts on min maxing a Paladin. Any advice when it comes to feats, ASIs, or background? Restrictions: First this is going to be all about melee Combat no ranged attacks. I'm not very familiar with AL and pretty much just play home campaigns with friends, so yeah level 20 is a bit of a pipe dream! You can now smite twice on your turn at level 2, or three times at level 5. MOG, design a darn RPG system. This gives you +10 to damage with a cost of -5 on the attack roll, a 25% additional miss chance. I realize it's not RAI, but some DMs only care about RAW. Is it a home campaign with friends? 2020 City Beach House, photographer Traianos Pakioufakis. As I've shown in this specific thread. 32. PAM and Great Weapon Master all use your bonus action. 115.5 Min. I completely understand how a low-strength frontliner can still keep a party going. My character will be a Half-Elf Paladin or Variant Human Paladin, that will take Oath of Vengeance. Detailed above and given two different ways of doing such. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, their respective logos, and all Wizards titles and characters are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. Privacy Policy. What sort of Race/Class/Stats build would be most effective for this kind of play? One of the best races for the Paladin build is the Dragonborn. 3. And yes, Holy Weapon is weaker than Banishing Smite in a single round damage but it's an 1h long spell that can be used during multiple fights. Are my DEX/WIS/INT too low, or will Aura of Protection mitigate that. No multiclassing and assuming this is a level 1-20 campaign (blue sky thinking, I know). My character will be a Half-Elf Paladin or Variant Human Paladin, that will take Oath of Vengeance. Slash, Bash, Slash! Optimize around average damage. Maybe a bit edgy but i dig the vibe. Besides Variant Human? The character is a level 14 silver dragonborn paladin of devotion. I cover why further down. Vengeance Paladins- a must PAM class to use full potential? : DnD - Reddit 2. In addition, if you already took PAM, you already get to add a bonus action attack, making the bonus on a crit or kill moot. Having a +8 to hit at level 17 won't reliably land on the 25 AC tarrasque, which a DM may consider throwing at such a high level character's party. Further there are more items in 5e that increase Str than any other ability and these items bump you to an str of a 19 all the way up to 29. Except when you are using Banishing Smite, you can't have Holy Weapon, can you? Any idea yet on what the rest of the party is going to be? Hexblade bladelocks can dip paladin to spike nova damage even higher, but they can't sustain it without further paladin or other caster investments. But the Warden also couldnt touch my AC when he was at Disadvantage from Protection from evil and good.
