Hey guys,
I'll be playing a Paladin for my next D&D 5e Adventure.
I wanna create an ofensive oriented paladin, so I read a few threads and I think that the Oath of Vengeance is the best oath for it.
Could you help me build an Oath of Vengeance Paladin? 
Thanks for the help!!
Have you checked GladiusLegis' guide? It's really useful and now has some sample builds you could use as the baseline for your character. When building my own paladin, that guide really helped me a lot in making my decisions.
Step 2: Repeat after me: "My name is [insert name], you killed my father. Prepare to die."
Yunru wrote:
Yunru wrote:
Carly Shog is the meta-reason why we can't have nice things.
I think your best options as an Oath of Vengeance paladin are either using a polearm (and going for polearm mastery) or using a greatsword or maul (and going for GWM). I play a greatsword half-elf vengeance paladin and it is a lot of fun (last session I rolled a crit on a vampire spawn with my greatsword : 4d6 + 6d8 (level 1 smite with 1d8 extra because undead) + 3 damage, sweet lord that was hilarious and you should've seen the looks of the other players at the table!), but if I had to do it all over again, I probably would go for a variant human with the resilient (constitution) feat picked at level 1.
I don't know what race you would like to play or what kind of weapons you prefer, but there are some pretty good options available. Like I said, the guide made by GladiusLegis is excellent and should provide a lot of information you can use to build your character.
Enjoy playing a vengeance paladin, in my experience, an absolute blast to play!
Logain08 wrote:
If you want super nova damage, make sure to throw in 2 levels of fighter for action surge. But maybe wait till level 5 to get that extra attack first, or level 6 for aura of courage which is simply awesome.
Something very very important. As you aim for damage, I expect that you will have whenever you can, a concentration spell going, to boost your dpr (like hunter's quarry at first few levels, then you get better ones - haste works better with a greatsword). So if you have a concentration spell going, and you get hit, you must roll a concentration save (= con save) to avoid losing the spell. Since you ll be in melee, and since you ll have no shield as you said you aimed for damage, you ll get hit often enough. And losing a concentration spell is not a small deal. Even if you can cast it again the following round, even as a bonus action, it still requires you to spend another spell slot, and that means one less smite (so not good, as this means one less nova for this day). What I want to emphasize here, is that besides a good CON score, you will need an extra way to boost con saves. At level 6 problem is almost solved for you, as the protection aura let's you add your Cha mod to all your saves, hence to con saves as well. But till level 6, you'll have a real problem. The first 3 things that come to my mind as a possible solution to this problem, are the following: 1) start as a fighter, to gain con save prof (you lose wis save prof which is bad though, and you delay your extra attack by one level. At least the fighter level does not go to waste, since you will eventually take a second level of fighter, for action surge and mind-blowing nova) 2) Warcaster feat gives you advantage on concentration saves. 3) Take resilient (con) - maybe the best choice of those 3. In fact choices 1 and 2 are not really worth taking.
Maybe a third level in fighter can be worth the trouble, for only to double your critical range. That way, once every ten turns, or every five turns after level 5 (on an average), you'll land a critical, and when you do, that's the perfect time to smite!!! (remember, you decide if to use smite, after you roll the die, and after knowing if the attack misses/hits/crits).
Also, you get hold person at level 5 via the oath spells, so if a creature targeted by that spell fails its save, then it is pretty much dead, since you double the dice from smite on a crit. So make sure your charisma score is your second best (after your strength). It also helps you with your con saves after level 6 as I said above. This is important to remember, charisma is more important to you than constitution, especially with this oath and your desired concept.
If you want to focus on hold person, take three sorcerer levels, to get the metamagic option heighten spell. You also get more spell slots (to potentially use for smite) and some useful spells for melee combat, like shield, blur (concentration) and mirror image.
Those are some thoughts. Remember that if you choose to multiclass, you delay getting the improved divine smite!!!
PS: Pally's for the win!!!
Be careful with hold person, it's a great spell, but it only works on humanoids. Hold monster, which you get at level 17 as a vengeance paladin can affect a wider variety of creatures. Multiclassing delays this option even more.
If you do go for 3 fighter levels, I have a feeling most people here would recommend the battlemaster, not the champion, for the maneuvres and the superiority dice, which also add extra damage (and recharge after a short rest).
Also a thing to consider is that, as Corran21 points out, that both strenght and charisma a very important for paladins. So attribute increases are important, especially since there are a couple of feats that are quite useful to paladins (GWM, Polearm Mastery and Resilient (constitution) come to mind). Multiclassing also delays getting these increases and can lead to less than 5 attribute increases. So the tradeoff, in my view, has to especially great before you should even consider it.
You might want to consider Half-Orc for your race.
+2 STR +1Con,
Menacing gives you intimidation for free (great for scaring the unjust).
Relentless Endurance gives you survivability especially with the paladins ability to heal itself.
Savage attacks gives you an extra (2d6) on crits with your great sword.
Take Great Weapon Fighting as your fighting style (it will let you reroll your 1’s and 2’s on your greatsword.
Great weapon master can give you a lot of bang for your buck, unfortunately that -5 to the attack roll can be really annoying, fortunately your vow of enmity gives you advantage on attack rolls which can mitigate this somewhat.
I would make STR your primary stat followed by CON then CHA.
You’re not going to have as much AC as sword and board and your dex won’t be anything fancy so the extra CON will help more then CHA.
Focus on you’re sword play, and if it’s an option try to use a mount. The extra speed of the mount will help you move around the battlefield and if things get dicey you can jump off and use the mount to body block for you.
Try to convince the other players to make melee characters. This will give the DM more bodies to chew on when your in the scrum. If someone plays a barbarian see if you can convince them to take the wolf ability. It gives his allies advantage on strikes against an enemy he’s near, which will be perfect to mitigate that -5 to hit from great weapon master.
Hope that helps, let us know how the build goes
Um, Great Weapon Master doesn't force you to take the -5/+10 trade. You can choose whether or not to take the trade on a case-by-case basis. Don't have advantage? Then don't do the trade. You still have the bonus action attacks on kills and crits from that feat, too.
Also, prioritizing CON over CHA is a TERRIBLE idea for a Paladin. Especially Vengeance, which gets Hold Person, Banishment and Hold Monster as Oath spells. You want a decent DC on those. CHA also boosts ALL saves, including CON saves. Boosting CHA actually gives you a chance of making a DEX save for half damage every once in a while, also making it better for survivability than going CON over CHA. As long as your CON is between 14-16 for a good part of your career you're fine, you really don't need more than that.
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Corran21 wrote:
GladiusLegis wrote: