Best Feats for Paladin 5e

Always a fan favorite, the Paladin offers strong offense, decent utility, and one of the best defensive features in all of 5e. Yeah, they’re pretty cool, but they do have some flaws, namely their need for 3 different ability scores in order to function optimally. This is, of course, why so many Paladins have one level of Hexblade, as it allows them to hard focus Charisma.

If you find yourself with lacking ability scores and still want to play the class, this is a good compromise, but it definitely isn’t necessary to be an optimal character. Feats for Paladins mostly improve their martial capabilities, but I recommend sprinkling in some additional spellcasting, as half-caster progression is pretty rough.

Best Feats for Paladin 5e

Polearm Master/Great Weapon Master (ASAP): These two feats form the base of our normal combat pattern. Paladins really want Polearm Master because more attacks mean more chances to crit and do a big smite. GWM is great as well, but Paladin is actually one of the few classes that can get by without it and still deal decent damage with a spear, shield, polearm master and the Dueling fighting style. You miss out on a little bit of damage, but get at least +2 AC from the shield and don’t have to take the feat. Weigh for yourself what is better for your build.
Sentinel (Lv 4): If you want to play the tanky frontline archetype, Sentinel goes a long way towards helping achieve that fantasy. Keeping enemies close to you might be something you’re interested in and it might not, but the combo with Polearm Master is quite effective, if not quite as overpowered as everyone says it is.
War Caster (Lv 4): Paladins have a ton of great concentration spells right at level 1 like Bless, Wrathful Smite and Shield of Faith, and we really don’t want to be recasting spells even more than someone like a Ranger because we will be probably be spending at least a couple slots on smite. Our Aura of Protection at level 7 will help with this as well, meaning we won’t need to take Resilient for Constitution saves. I’d also recommend picking up Booming Blade somehow (probably a Hexblade dip) to empower your opportunity attacks, but keep in mind that Booming Blade and Sentinel is sort of a bad mixture, so maybe don’t take Sentinel if this is your plan.
Fey Touched (Lv 8): Most Paladins don’t get access to teleportation magic, so this fills a niche for us. The first level spell could be any number of great options, but I’d take Silvery Barbs. Not much outside of opportunity attacks are calling for our reaction, and it isn’t a spell we can get normally.
Inspiring Leader (Lv 12): If your party does not have a source of consistent, party-wide temporary hp, take this and instantly become everyone’s new best friend. Hp stacking is a great way to survive these upper tiers of play where monsters have such a good chance to hit that AC stops being as relevant as you might expect.
Magic Initiate (Lv 12): It’s never too late to pick up a familiar, and some extra utility cantrips are also nice. We’re at the point where we probably aren’t grabbing these feats anymore because we are dependent on so many different ability scores, and we need to increase them at some point.
Tough (Lv 16): If all your ability scores are where you want them to be, and you have all the feats that directly impact the performance of your build, go ahead and grab Tough. You’re probably finding that at this point you aren’t the tank you were at level 3. Paladins get little to no features to actually make them more defensive besides making themself and those around them better at saving throws. While that is a great feature, we get nothing to increase our AC or give us resistance to damage types. An extra 32 hp helps a little with this.

Honorable Mention:

Sharpshooter/Crossbow Expert: Oh boy here I go telling you to play ranged on a class obviously designed to be a melee combatant. Let me defend my point while you gather your pitchforks. Staying at ranged does equivalent damage, but obviously we can’t smite. Now, I could write a whole article on why you are smiting too much, but the short of it is that we don’t need smite to deal good damage. This frees us up to use our slots on actual spells, and if we use the right ones I promise they will be more impactful than 2d8 radiant damage. Being at range is also safer, and it lets us stay close to the people who most benefit from our Aura of Protection, namely spellcasters. Do not be fooled by the concept of a frontline and back line in 5e. Preventing an enemy from walking past you to hit another person is extremely difficult, with very few options to hinder them. It is much better for us to be right next to those we wish to protect so we can directly support them and they can directly support us. Staying out of melee also makes it much easier for casters to places area of effect spells. All this said, I understand that standing back and being a bless/aura-bot is not the fantasy that most people sign up for when they pick Paladin. It is, however, a very strong and effective build, and quite a unique playstyle if you find yourself bored with the standard Paladin builds.

Thank you for visiting!

If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.

The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.

‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.