D&D 5e Paladin Subclasses Ranked Worst to Best
by Prince Phantom
It’s my belief that Paladin is the class whose subclass selection has the least impact on your character. That isn’t to say that these subclasses are bad, just that the things they add rarely change anything major about your build or add significant power or utility, unlike the subclasses of most other classes.
A Devotion Paladin and a Watchers Paladin will play much more similarly than a Beast Master Ranger and a Gloom Stalker Ranger. That means you can definitely pick any of these options, even the worst one, and still end up with a perfectly fine Paladin build. Still, some are better than others.
9: Oath of Glory
As much as I do have a soft spot for Oath of Glory, I do still believe it is the weakest of the options provided. The expanded spell list is almost entirely filled with duds (yes, even Haste, that’s a bad spell that’s even worse on Paladins). The channel divinity options are just okay, nothing special.
I like the aura a lot more than most people, as when combined with the extra movement of a steed you should be able to boost the movement speed of those who need it every turn. The higher level features are lacking, but most people have multiclassed at that point anyway. You’ll notice that to be a running theme with these subclasses, I won’t be putting much value in the 15th and 20th level features since they rarely see any play. Me liking only one thing about this subclass just isn’t enough to boost it any further than last place.
8: Oath of Vengeance
Oh boy, now we’re getting controversial. I believe Oath of Vengeance to be the most overrated subclass in all of 5e. I too believed this was amazing at one point, so allow me to burst your bubble just like mine was so long ago.
First, the good. Misty Step, Hold Person, Banishment, and Dimension Door are all great spells for our expanded list. Haste and Hunter’s Mark are not. Do not cast those spells. Abjure Enemy and Vow of Enmity are both decent options for channel divinity, though neither are amazing.
Now for the bad, I need look no further than the 7th level feature. Where all other Paladins get cool auras that buff themselves permanently and their teammates when nearby, we get a strange chase feature that can’t actually keep up with anything but oozes.
The higher level features aren’t much better, and in the case of level 15, it’s actually much worse as it only works when we have Vow of Enmity online, which we only get one use of per short rest. The only reason this escapes last place is because of the spells.
7: Oath of the Ancients
And Oath of the Ancients is the second most overrated subclass. Man, people are going to hate this article. Again, let’s start with the good. Misty Step and Plant Growth are great oath spells, though the rest of the list is lacking. Turn the Faithless is a good, if situational channel divinity, and that’s about it. The other channel divinity gives the option to the target of a strength or dexterity save, so it will likely never land, the 15th level and capstone abilities are some of the worst of the whole class, and then there’s Aura of Warding at 7th level.
Let me be very clear, if all a spellcaster is doing is throwing damage spells at me, I couldn’t be happier. There are a million more deadly things that an enemy spellcaster can be doing than just damage. This does nothing when your party is being shut down by a Hypnotic Pattern, or when you are paralyzed by a Hold Person and get crit to death in one round. Besides, getting Absorb Elements is super easy for just about every character, and will do this feature’s job and more (it protects you from non-spell damage like a dragon’s breath) without requiring 7 levels of investment.
That being said, this will still save you from a decent chunk of damage throughout a campaign, so it isn’t worthless or anything. It’s just much worse than public perception would have you believe. There are also plenty of campaigns where enemy spellcasters slinging Fireballs are not nearly as common, so this is even worse than usual sometimes.
6: Oath of the Crown
Oath of the Crown has one big thing going for it, Spirit Guardians. Granted, that doesn’t come on till level 9, so make sure your campaign will last that long, but a Paladin with Spirit Guardians is a heck of a killing machine. Along the way, we get some mediocre features like Champion’s Challenge and these low level oath spells, but Turn the Tide and Divine Allegiance have their uses.
It’s strange, most good Paladin subclasses start out the gate strong and then make you want to multiclass later, whereas this one gets good late into the game. Aura of Vitality is another great oath spell, as is Banishment at 4th level. This would be higher if there weren’t other, easier ways to get Spirit Guardians on a Paladin.
5: Oath of Devotion
The box standard Paladin, Oath of Devotion coincidentally falls right in the middle in terms of power level. Sacred Weapon is a great channel divinity held back by its action cost, though if you can set it up just before combat beings, it represents a large increase in expected damage. Turn the Unholy is as good as situational channel divinities get, and the spell list has a few okay options like Dispel Magic and uh… okay most of these are already Paladin spells so there’s not much to be excited about on that front.
The 7th level aura is actually quite good. Straight up charm immunity is hard to come by, and granting that protection to our friends is very powerful. There are a lot of effects that charm in this game, so this will serve you better than you’d expect. I even love our 15th level feature, as that spell really helps at that level since you’ll be fighting a lot of creatures of those types by that point in your campaign. There are a few issues, but this is just a solid subclass all around.
4: Oath of Redemption
Oath of Redemption might be the most transformative of these options. The oath spells are a big reason for that, with fantastic options like Hold Person, Counterspell, Hypnotic Pattern, Resilient Sphere, and Wall of Force. These give us a lot of control options, and when paired with things like Rebuke the Violent and our aura, we can really make things difficult for our enemies.
The 15th level feature is pretty bad, though I do like that our capstone is always on. I really wish we were able to reduce the damage we take with our 7th level feature in some way, as that feels like it would be very cool to build around. Still, this gives a lot of benefits and I would be happy to choose this option.
3: Oath of the Watchers
The oath spells are pretty lacking outside of Counterspell and Banishment, but the features really sell Oath of the Watchers. Abjure the Extraplanar is probably the best of the situational channel divinities just because of how much it can hit, and Watcher’s Will paired with our Aura of Protection makes us everyone’s friend. Mental saves are often the biggest threats a party can face, so having two things to bolster them on one character is amazing.
I also love the aura, as increasing our entire party’s initiative is amazing. If your team goes before the other team, that’s essentially an extra round of combat and a huge swing in action economy. It also allows you to set up control spells or take out threatening targets before they have a chance to act. The higher level features are only okay, but they don’t matter much. This is probably the best Paladin for supporting and buffing your party.
2: Oath of Conquest
First off, Fear and Hold Person as oath spells is great. That first spell clues you into the whole theme here: inflict the frightened condition and benefit from it. We have a channel divinity that does an AoE frighten, and an aura that reduces frightened creatures to 0 speed, leaving them literally frozen in fear. The easy way to profit from this is to attack with a reach weapon so that the frozen enemy can’t attack us back unless they have reach as well.
Scornful Rebuke is actually a pretty good 15th level feature, as monsters will be making upwards of 3-4 attacks or more by now, meaning that this damage will add up quickly. The capstone isn’t great, but I don’t really care. The build potential here is extraordinary, allowing you to synergize with other fear effects like the Dragon Fear feat. The only problem is when you run into fear immune monsters, but thankfully those aren’t super common, though they do become more common at higher levels.
1: Oathbreaker
Oaths are for losers, bring on the heavy metal band! Animate Dead as an oath spell opens up the option of commanding an undead horde, and our aura gives a huge boost to the damage that both we and those undead deal. Note however that this aura does not discriminate, meaning enemy undead can also benefit from this.
That being said, we shouldn’t be afraid of other undead thanks to Control Undead, one of the coolest channel divinities of all these subclasses. It’s a bit situational though, so having a non-situational channel divinity option as great as Dreadful Aspect is a big boon. This is the best Paladin for damage by a mile, and that’s not even counting the potential damage of our undead thralls. I guess it really does pay to be evil.
Oh yeah and the 15th level feature is pretty great, even with the whole nonmagical damage thing. Magic damage just isn’t as common as people make it out to be, so this will still come up pretty often. Overall, Oathbreaker deals a ton of damage, has great utility, and plays like no other Paladin. Break your oath as fast as possible I guess.
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