The Paladin is one of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition‘s strongest classes. The base class alone is one of the most durable in the game and boasts excellent at-will damage and incredible damage spikes with Divine Smite. On top of that, it gets healing, buffing, and social skills.
The base chassis makes the Paladin one of D&D 5e‘s most powerful classes. Accordingly, some subclasses feel free to give weaker or more situational abilities without diminishing a character. Others pile strength onto strength with powerful features of their own.
Given the base class’s flexibility, the best Paladin subclasses in D&D 5e often pick one area of combat to boost even further. Be it damage, tanking, or other roles, they hone in on violence while letting the versatile class features handle everything else.
Oath of Vengeance Absolutely Destroys Tough Enemies
The Paladin is one of with martial weapons, buff spells, and Divine Smite. The Oath of Vengeance D&D 5e Paladin subclass doubles down on attacks. At the same time, it boosts mobility to make sure nothing can escape.
The Oath of Vengeance Paladin’s Channel Divinity features split the difference well while both ruining individual enemies. Vow of Enmity gives advantage on every attack against one specific enemy, boosting both accuracy and the chance for critical hits. Abjure the Enemy has a chance to frighten a foe and reduce their speed to 0. Either is absurd once per short rest.
The subclass class spells follow a similar split with excellent power. Some, such as Hunter’s Mark, provide significant damage boosts. Some, such as Misty Step and Dimension Door, are impressive mobility boosts.
There are some unexpected self-buffs and debuffs in there, like Bane and Protection from Energy. Hold Person, Haste, and Hold Monster boost both areas to an absurd degree.
With other features that allow the Paladin to chase enemies or deal attacks as a reaction, it’s clear that the Oath of Vengeance is the best D&D 5e Paladin subclass for sticking to and killing dangerous enemies. It’s less effective against hordes, but that’s a small price to pay for that much power.
Oathbreaker is an Exclusive Combat Powerhouse
D&D 5e‘s Oathbreaker Paladin subclass is unusual. It’s technically an NPC villain subclass, included in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Players can only use it with the DM’s permission (even moreso than everything else in D&D), and its incredibly evil nature makes it hard to fit in many parties.
When you jump through all those hoops, however, you get a terrifying combat monster and one of D&D 5e‘s best Paladin subclasses.
The Oathbreaker Paladin subclass in D&D 5e is an unusual mix of situationally terrifying and always-terrifying abilities. Some, such as Aura of Hate, are a flat damage increase on every attack the Paladin (already a top-tier hitter) makes, as well as nearby undead and fiends, such as you summon.
NOTE: Technically, Aura of Hate doesn’t specify allies. It might empower hostile undead and fiends. Check with your DM and prepare to apologise to your party.
On top of that, the Oathbreaker Paladin is an unexpectedly good necromancer in D&D 5e. They have Animate Dead (albeit with half-caster spell slots) and the ability to dominate other undead with a Channel Divinity. Given how well CR scales vs level, this can get absurd by the midgame.
Supernatural Resistance is a huge durability increase in campaigns with lots of enemies making mundane attacks. If magical weapons are commonplace, or the party fights many spellcasters, it’s much less helpful. Unlike the D&D 5e Oathbreaker Paladin’s other subclass features, it’s very DM-dependent.
The only other situational ability is the Oathbreaker’s fear synergies. You can use your Channel Divinity (or Wrathful Smite) to Frighten creatures if you’re Charisma’s good. However, this only really pays off at level 20. The 4d10 damage – plus the absurd bonus action 3d10 damage attack – does make it worth it, however.
In short, the Oathbreaker is the best D&D 5e Paladin subclass for combatants who also want to control undead allies or those who want to smash their way through hordes of common enemies.
Oath of Ancients Can Shrug off Almost Anything
The Paladin isn’t just a damage dealer. It’s also one of the most durable classes in D&D 5e. Heavy armour, a d10 hit die, and vast amounts of healing under most circ*mstances.
The Oath of Ancients makes it even harder for the average D&D 5e Paladin or their party to die. Aura of Warding gives resistance to all damage from spells. This ranges from small bursts of damage, like Magic Missile, to character-ending magical effects like Disintegrate.
Of course, this is situational for the campaign. It’s a huge part of the Oath of Ancients D&D 5e Paladin subclass’s strength. If there are no spellcasters, it’s a significant waste.
In the average campaign, however, Oath of Warding can shield the entire party from hundreds of points of damage. This is especially true in high-level play when high-damage spells become a potent part of monsters’ abilities.
On top of that, Undying Sentinel lets the D&D 5e Oath of Ancients Paladin shrug off one potentially lethal blow per day. It’s a cruel surprise for enemies who get past the armour, damage resistances, hit points, and healing. Combine it with Half-Orc or Orc for maximum fun. It also might make you immortal, if that interests you.
The Oath of Ancients is a less effective D&D 5e Paladin subclass in its attempts at crowd control. It doesn’t get enough payoffs for high Charisma to make spells like Ensnaring Strike or Channel Divinities like Nature’s Wrath worth it.
At the same time, its spell list contains gems like Moonbeam, Misty Step, Plant Growth, and Tree Stride. Its 20th-level feature unexpectedly makes it the best D&D 5e Paladin subclass for buff spells by turning them all into bonus actions.
The Oath of Conquest is a Prime Crowd Controller
The Oath of Conquest is fairly unique among D&D 5e Paladin subclasses, not just for its sinister flavour. Rather than leaning into an area the Paladin does well, like damage or tanking, it instead picks a new area to make the class excel at.
Most of the Oath of Conquest Paladin’s subclass abilities in D&D 5e revolve around crowd control. It gets several crowd-control spells, a unique fear-based Channel Divinity, and an aura that prevents Frightened creatures from moving.
Notably, this crowd-control expertise is stacked on top of the base Paladin’s combat excellence. You even get some bonus damage thrown in, just to hammer home how good this D&D 5e Paladin subclass is.
The Oath of Conquest Paladin excels at wading into a horde, freezing half its foes in place with horror, and destroying the rest in combat. It’s slightly less effective against solo enemies (or high-Wisdom threats), but far from helpless.
The Oath of Conquest Paladin subclass in D&D 5e is also fairly unique for having no situational or weak features. Higher levels also cause enemies to take damage merely for hitting you (no reaction required) and transform you into an unstoppable combat monster for a minute at a time.
The only quibble with the D&D 5e Oath of Conquest Paladin is that you have to significantly boost your Charisma to get the most use out of it. This can be hard to juggle, particularly if you still want to excel with weapons. It’s more than doable to manage, however.
Redemption Paladin is a Top-Tier Tank with Some Stipulations
The Oath of Redemption Paladin subclass in D&D 5e more or less attempts to be the goodest boy. Rather than dealing raw combat damage, its features focus on taking enemies out of the fight in other ways and tanking for the party.
It’s not a perfect pacifist subclass. The Oath of Redemption Paladin subclass does very little to stop you smashing your enemies to pieces. However, it expands your toolkit in a fight in a way no other D&D 5e Paladin subclass does.
The spell list has a great many crowd-control spells, with a reasonable impetus to invest in Charisma. Even if you don’t, nobody has ever complained about Sanctuary, Counterspell (rare for Paladins), or Wall of Force.
You can put threats to sleep, paralyse them, neuter their magic, or separate them from the party by force. When that fails, you’re still a D&D 5e Paladin with the proficiencies and features to absolutely rinse them in a fight.
On top of that, the Oath of Redemption Paladin has almost unmatched tanking features. Rather than encouraging enemies to attack it, it protects allies and redistributes harm.
At lower levels, the D&D 5e Oath of Redemption subclass forces enemies to risk taking damage themselves when they attack allies. At slightly higher levels, it can take the hit for teammates as long as it has hit points.
On top of that, the subclass gets self-healing and the single biggest boost to social checks given by anything other than Expertise.
In short, the Oath of Redemption is the best D&D 5e Paladin subclass if you want to tank, talk enemies down, flex combat utility, or do basically anything other than kill bad guys. Even then, it’s pretty good at that last bit.
These have been the five best Paladin subclasses in D&D 5e. It’s important to stress that no Paladin is weak. However, these make it even better. If you’ve enjoyed this list, please do share it and check out some other Artificial Twenty content. Thank you.
For more tips on building the best D&D 5e Paladin, check out this list on the best Paladin races and lineages.
If you want other character build tips, try ‘‘ instead.
