Paladins are warriors who defend the tenets of their creed. Their charisma and zeal makes them strong leaders, inspiring others in the fight to defend the oath that they have taken.
| Level | Energy Pool | Combat Proficiency Bonus | New Abilities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | -- | +1 | Oath, alignment aura, detect, smite |
| 2nd | 6 | +2 | Divine grace, energy pool, channel healing energy |
| 3rd | 9 | +3 | New technique, aura 1, divine health |
| 4th | 12 | +4 | Spells, ability score increase |
| 5th | 15 | +5 | Bond of Devotion |
| 6th | 18 | +6 | New technique, extra attack |
| 7th | 21 | +7 | Enhanced Channeling #1 |
| 8th | 24 | +8 | Aura 2, ability score increase |
| 9th | 27 | +9 | New technique |
| 10th | 30 | +10 | Enhanced Channeling #2 |
| 11th | 33 | +11 | Aura 3, extra attack |
| 12th | 36 | +12 | New technique, ability score increase |
| 13th | 39 | +13 | Enhanced Channeling |
| 14th | 42 | +14 | Aura 3 |
| 15th | 45 | +15 | New technique |
| 16th | 48 | +16 | Enhanced Channeling #4, ability score increase |
| 17th | 51 | +17 | Aura 4 |
| 18th | 54 | +18 | New technique |
| 19th | 57 | +19 | -- |
| 20th | 60 | +20 | Holy Champion, ability score increase |
| Level | Spells per Day | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |
| 1st | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2nd | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 3rd | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 4th | 2 | -- | -- | -- |
| 5th | 2 | -- | -- | -- |
| 6th | 2 | -- | -- | -- |
| 7th | 2 | 1 | -- | -- |
| 8th | 2 | 1 | -- | -- |
| 9th | 2 | 1 | -- | -- |
| 10th | 2 | 1 | 1 | -- |
| 11th | 2 | 1 | 1 | -- |
| 12th | 2 | 2 | 1 | -- |
| 13th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 14th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 15th | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 16th | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 17th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 18th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 19th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20th | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Prime Ability: Charisma
Hit Points: d10 + Con bonus per level
Skill Points: Low (2 per level)
Knowledge Points: Low (2 per level)
Save DC: 10 + Character Level + Cha Bonus
Spell Attack: Character Level + Cha Bonus
Weapon Proficiency: Simple Weapon Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency (all), Unarmed Proficiency
Armor Proficiency: Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor Proficiencies, Shield Proficiency
All paladins live by a creed, a strong belief that is central to their power. Whether through induction into a formal order or through more casual mentorship, you have learned the core tenets of your creed, developed skills to defend these beliefs, and sworn an oath to uphold these principles. All of your abilities as a paladin stem from the strength of this oath and the devotion behind it.
You should work with your GM to develop an oath relevant to your character. The oath may be a formal part of an induction into an established order, a binding promise between you and primordial forces, or an expression of the relationship you have with a mentor or deity. While many paladins are religious, devotion to a specific deity is not necessary. Your oath and your zealous adherence to it binds you to a power larger than yourself, whether this power is divine or not.
If you violate your oath, you will find yourself bereft of paladin abilities (anything other than your combat ability and extraordinary abilities). You can recover your abilities by restoring your oath, a process that may require restitution, a recommitment to your creed, or atonement from a cleric or priest.
All paladins naturally emit an aura that reflects their alignment.
Paladins often represent the most zealous versions of their creed. As such, they are also often strong representations of their alignment, as well. You can be any alignment that makes sense for your oath, though for most paladins, the sense of tradition, devotion to a set of social ideals, and the obedience to sworn tenets often makes them lean toward the lawful axis.
You should also be free to create a paladin that might not represent the best or most zealous examples of your kind. These characters can be interesting and exciting to play, though you will have to be careful to not stray so far as to violate your oath, lest you find yourself deprived of your power.
At will, you are able to detect one particular alignment type, chosen when you create your character. The alignment you detect will usually be one that you oppose--the opposite of one of your alignment categories. That is, a chaotic good character may choose to detect evil, or they might choose to detect law. Once chosen, you cannot change your detect alignment. This ability otherwise works like the detect spell.
As a paladin, you receive an energy pool, just like a cleric does. This pool is used for healing, smite, auras, and other abilities, and like the cleric's, it completely renews every long rest. Your pool size is three times your paladin level.
Calling on your connection to your oath, you are able to smite your enemies down. After you hit a creature with a melee attack, you can expend slots from your energy pool to deal 1d8 radiant damage per slot expended (to a maximum number of slots equal to half your level, min 1). This damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or outsider. As a free action, you can also choose to activate your smite prior to attacking instead of waiting until you hit. If you do so, you gain advantage on the attack, but you still lose any expended pool points if you miss your target.
At 2nd level, your devotion grants you a measure of added protection. Once per day, as a reaction, you may add your charisma bonus to the result of a saving throw roll. You can even add this bonus after you roll the dice but must do so before you know the result of the roll. At level 10, you can use divine grace twice per day.
At 2nd level, you can channel the energy from your energy pool into a target that you are able to touch. When channeling, you determine how many points to release from your pool. Each point heals 1d6 points of damage. Using this ability is a standard action, unless you target yourself, in which case it is a bonus action.
At 3rd level, you are immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases like mummy rot.
At 3rd level you gain your first aura. Auras affect not only yourself but those nearby you. Most auras are passive and are always functioning provided that you have at least 1 point of energy in your pool and are conscious. Some aura require activation, either by paying an energy cost or by taking an action. Auras also have a radius that creatures must be within in order to be affected by it.
At 3rd level, you may choose one of the following.
At 8th level, you may choose one of the following.
At 11th level, you may choose one of the following.
At 14th level, you may choose one of the following.
At 17th level, you may choose one of the following.
Beginning at 4th level, you gain the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. As a paladin, the way you cast spells is similar to clerics, and the list of spells you can cast is determined by cleric domains. You have access to all spells in the Paladin and War domains. To complete your spell list, you may also choose one other domain from the following list: Justice, Strength, Protection, or Life. Once chosen, your domain list is permanent and cannot be changed without divine intervention.
You prepare spells at a certain time daily, as a cleric does. The number of spells you can prepare is equal to your caster level (Paladin level - 3) + your charisma modifier.
To cast your prepared spells, you expend a spell slot of the appropriate level. The prepared spell remains in your repertoire, and you may continue to re-cast the same spell over again provided you have spell slots available. The number of spell slots you get per day is dependent of your character level (see the table above).
Upon reaching 5th level, the strength of your devotion to your oath allows you to channel energy in one of three new ways. You may choose which method you learn, but once chosen, it cannot be changed.
You learn to enhance your weapon by channeling energy into it. Doing so takes a bonus action and 2 points from your energy pool per minute. This enhances your weapon granting it the following.
Your weapon must be in constant contact with your hand to keep these abilities. If you let go of it at any point (even to put it in a sheath), it will return to normal.
You learn to enhance your armor by channeling energy into it. Doing so takes a bonus action and 2 points from your energy pool per minute. This enhances your armor granting it the following.
Your armor must be worn by you for these enhancements to work.
You befriend a special paladin's mount that you can use your energy pool to call when needed. Your mount is a real animal, though unusually intelligent (Int 6), strong, and loyal. If you are a devoted to a deity, your mount is probably a divine gift, but it doesn't have to be. The strength of devotion to your oath is central to your mount's connection to you.
You get Mounted Combat Proficiency while on your mount, though not necessarily on other mounts. This mount is usually a heavy horse (for a Medium paladin) or a pony (for a Small paladin), although more exotic mounts, such as a boar, camel, or dog are also suitable. This mount functions as an animal companion, using your paladin level instead of a druid level when determining which abilities it learns. See Animal Companions for more details on your mount's abilities.
Should your mount die, you may not summon another until you gain a paladin level. During this period, you take a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
At level 6 and again at level 11, you gain an extra attack that you can make when making a full attack. In a full attack, all attacks except for your first are made at a -5 penalty.
When you reach 7th level, you choose to either enhance your healing or your smite ability. Choose one enhancement at level 7, and then another every three levels thereafter.
The following enhancements can be learned to augment your healing ability. Targets receive all the enhancements you've learned when you channel energy to heal them. Each has a minimal paladin level prerequisite, in parentheses. An enhancement can remove a condition caused by a curse, disease, or poison without curing the affliction. Such conditions return after 1 hour unless the mercy actually removes the affliction that causes the condition. These enhancements only affect living creatures.
The following enhancements can be learned to enhance your smite ability. When you successfully use smite, you may also choose to inflict one (and only one) of the enhancements you have learned. Like enhanced healing, each smite enhancement has a minimal paladin level prerequisite, in parentheses. All effects last one round per every four levels. These enhancements only affect living creatures.
At 20th level, you become a conduit for the power of your god. Your weapon resistance increases to 10. Whenever you use smite successfully against an outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment. After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. In addition, whenever you channel energy heal a creature, you heal 1d10 damage per point instead of 1d6.