Best Feats for Vengeance Paladin 5e

by Prince Phantom

For all of you who want to play the edgy Paladin but aren’t ready to commit to something as dark as Conquest or Oathbreaker, Vengeance Paladin is the diet-edge for you. This Oath focuses on offense above all else, even forgoing a supportive aura at level 7 for the ability to case down enemies more effectively.

Our expanded spell list is both a blessing and a curse, including genuinely great spells like Misty Step, Banishment, and Dimension Door, but also two trap spells in Hunter's Mark and Haste that will trick new players into playing suboptimally. Thankfully, in the process of listing the best feats for this subclass, I will hopefully convince you to avoid these suboptimal options, and help you get the most out of this frequently selected Oath.

Best Feats for Vengeance Paladin 5e

Polearm Master/Great Weapon Master (ASAP): We’ve got a lot to talk about here. For starters, if you’ve read my other subclass feat guides for Paladin you’ll know that I typically recommend ranged combat over melee. I feel that this subclass gives us enough incentive to consider melee combat, but ranged will still be a very good option as well, so pick Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter if you’d like to go that rout.
Next, let’s talk about Hunter’s Mark vs the bonus action attack from Polearm Master. Hunter’s Mark costs a 1st level slot, so let’s compare it to a 1st level smite. A smite would deal 3d8 damage (13.5 on average) or 4d8 to a fiend or undead (18 on average). Hunter’s Mark adds 1d6 (3.5 on average) each time you hit, and assuming an average of a 65% chance to hit (the commonly agreed upon average in the optimization community), Hunter’s Mark adds about 2.3 damage per attack, meaning you would need to attack about 6 times to equate to one smite, about 8 times if smiting a fiend or undead.
Now let’s compare casting Hunter’s Mark on turn one with attacking with Polearm Master. Even without GWM, assuming a strength of 18, you would deal 4.23 damage on average accounting for chance to hit, almost equivalent to two attacks with Hunter’s Mark. If you add GWM to that, it completely blows Hunter’s Mark out of the water. Also remember that you need to use a bonus action to shift the mark to a new creature whenever your original target dies, meaning that you can’t assume you’ll cast Hunter’s Mark on turn one and use Polearm Master bonus action attacks for the rest of the combat.
Even in a combat with a single large creature, Hunter’s Mark is still hard to justify casting when you have access to so many much better concentration spells. All of these assumptions for Hunter’s Mark also assume you can perfectly hold concentration, which Paladins have no means of doing until they get their aura at level 6. In summary, Hunter’s Mark is a bad spell that you should ignore having prepared and just make your attacks as usual (and that doesn’t just apply to this Paladin either, take notes Rangers).
War Caster (Lv 8): This feat is here for those of you who I will fail to convince that Haste is a bad spell. If that is you, take this feat to make your life so much easier. Now, time to make some enemies. Haste does a lot. +2 AC, one extra attack each turn, double speed and advantage on Dex saves is a lot of things, but I argue that they aren’t enough for a 3rd level slot, especially from a half caster.
One extra attack per turn is not adding nearly as much damage as you think it is, especially because you have to spend a turn casting Haste, though you do get one attack on that turn. This means that to get any extra attacks from Haste at all, you’d need wait until turn 3, where you then would have spent a 3rd level slot for a single extra attack. If you drop concentration before that third turn or combat just doesn’t last that long, you’ve spent that slot for almost nothing.
Double speed is situationally useful, same for dex save advantage, and +2 AC is equivalent to Shield of Faith, a 1st level spell that Paladins get. I probably wouldn’t be so down on this spell if it wasn’t for the severe downside, losing an entire turn if we drop concentration, and granting advantage to anyone who wants to attack us during that lost turn. Casting it on a friend is slightly better, as you can then try to stay away from danger and protect your concentration, but even the Paladin has a number of 3rd level spells that have a much higher impact than this, such as Aura of Vitality, Dispel Magic, and even Crusader’s Mantle will provide a ton more damage when paired with spells like Animate Dead, Animate Objects, and Conjure Animals. Once again, in summary, Haste is a bad spell and you have better things to do with your slots and turns, but if you simply must cast it, take this feat so you don’t immediately drop concentration.
Sentinel (Lv 8): So you know how the Polearm Master + Sentinel combo is pretty good at keeping us safe right? Well, tack on Relentless Avenger to that and now when we hit our Polearm Master opportunity attack, we can move 15ft away from our enemy as well, meaning even creatures with crazy far reach can’t hit us, and keeping us further out of range of the other enemies in the combat. Ironic that the feature intended to help you pursue enemies is actually best suited for running away from them.
Heavy Armor Master (Lv 8): If you’d like to take a more defensive turn, this is a decent selection that actually scales pretty well into higher tiers as monsters start making more attacks per turn. The increase to our Strength is also very appreciated.
Inspiring Leader (Lv 12): As usual for a Charisma based character, this feat is a great way to provide temporary HP to your party if you don’t already have a good source of it. Take it if your party lacks it, don’t take it if they don’t.
Tough (Lv 12): This is a good alternative if your party doesn’t need you to take Inspiring Leader, but I’d probably increase my main stats before taking this.

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