Best Feats for Glory Paladin 5e
by Prince Phantom
The Oath of Glory is frequently seen as one of the weaker options for Paladins to take, and while I definitely wouldn’t rate it in the top tier, I still believe there is quite a bit of good to be found, especially if we build around the abilities we are given. Our channel divinity options give us a means of hitting flying creatures that stray too close to the ground, and the ability to give ourself or a friend a fairly significant stash of temporary HP, and is flexible enough to allow us to bolster ourselves as a tank or help save an ally that is close to going down. We get a movement speed buff at level 7, something a lot of Paladins would kill for in many combats, a good team-wide defensive reaction at level 15, and a pretty neat capstone for the three of you that will ever play with it.
On first read this seems to be a fairly aimless subclass, lacking any damage buffs or other strict theming, but I believe this might be the Paladin best suited for mounted combat, and with Find Steed being a Paladin exclusive, that means we are well equipped right out of the box to jump headfirst into that playstyle. Thankfully, there are also a few feats that can empower this strategy.
Best Feats for Glory Paladin 5e
Polearm Master/Great Weapon Master (ASAP): This combo of feats is the standard for all melee paladins, and if we are typically riding a mount, we can get even greater return than usual. Exactly how will have to wait on another feat, but trust me we will. Because of that future power, I don’t believe this Paladin is a good choice for the more defensive option of just taking Polearm Master and using a spear and shield, but it can definitely still work if that’s what you really want.
Mounted Combatant (Lv 8): There are a lot of juicy benefits here, my favorite being advantage on everyone smaller than our mount. Assuming we are riding a warhorse (the best option statistically), that’s advantage on every attack on creatures medium sized or smaller, which I’d assume will be about 50% of enemies, with that percentage growing steadily smaller as we get into very high levels. This advantage helps a lot to negate the -5 from GWM. We can also freely redirect attacks to ourselves when they target our mount, keeping it safe from the majority of incoming damage.
So why do I think this Paladin specifically is well suited for mounted combat? Well truthfully, almost every Paladin can pull off mounted combat well and should be taking advantage of the Find Steed spell as often as possible. The Glory Paladin is able to give our warhorse a few key buffs. We can give it temporary HP, boost its movement speed with our aura, share amazing spells like Heroism for fear immunity, Freedom of Movement for restraint immunity, and Haste to be the fastest steed in the west.
Fey Touched (Lv 8): If you’d just like to increase your Charisma and aren’t super interested in the intricacies of mounted combat, grabbing Misty Step for even more mobility and Silvery Barbs to support your full caster teammates is a really big gain. Notably if you are using Find Steed, you can share the Misty Step and teleport both of you!
Inspiring Leader (Lv 12): Yes we do already have a means of dishing out temporary HP, but I see that as an ability you use in the midst of combat when needed. This feat is a proactive feature that buffs your whole team, and doesn’t really conflict with our channel divinity because we wouldn’t be using our channel divinity until it is needed anyway. Of course, don’t take this if your party already has a source of party-wide temporary HP, as that will conflict.
Resilient Constitution (Lv 12): If you’re planning on concentrating on a spell like Haste and also sharing it with your steed, you’ll find that dropping that concentration could mean you find yourself without a steed and bleeding out on the ground. Perhaps that is an argument for why Haste isn’t actually that great of a spell, but this isn’t the article for that and I know I couldn’t stop you from casting it anyway, so please, take this feat for your own sake.
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