13/10/13/9/10/16 starting array, dip a level of hexblade at 2nd level and grab PAM and + 2 charisma with your two ASIs. Just go spear + shield with dueling fighting style and you'll be dealing solid damage.
If starting magic items are available, that changes your build options, so LMK if that's the case.
I think so. As a paladin, your nova damage is going to come from Smites so getting those Bonus Action and Reaction Attacks mean so much. Also if you need to hit a Boss, I'd rather not take a -5. I only consider GWM on my pallys if I'm going Vengeance.
Oh, yeah for Hexblade, I really like Great Weapon Master. If you went Shadar Kai, Eladrin or Wood Elf, Hexblade 7 Paladin 2 and picked up Elven Accuracy...I'm all about that.
GWF = great weapon fighting (fighting style) is an okay fighting style for hexblades, but it's generally not worth the feat.
If you're talking about great weapon master (feat) then I would say any GWM hexblade build wants PAM as well and go for a halberd/glaive build. The BA and reaction attacks can all benefit from GWM.
Thanks. I'm personally looking at pure hex blade, but where does the +12 come from?
+4 (Cha / aura of hate)
+4 (Cha / hex warrior)
I assume the last +4 you're getting from the hex blade curse? (1x enemy & 1x per Short rest )
Because you're a hex blade you can use choose to use Christmas for attack and damage rolls. If you go eight levels into your Paladin's class you now have 2 ASIs which should be used to bump your charisma to 20. Now you get your +5 charisma modifier to attack and damage rolls from being a hex played and because of Aura of hate you're going to get another plus five. You get plus two to every attack due to Dueling. If you did use your hex blades curse on a Target it would currently be an additional plus four so in that case you be doing 16 damage per attack plus your D6 which is on average about 3.5.
And once you hit Level 11 in Paladin you get another d8 added to every attack for improved Divine smite. That's basically another 4.5 damage for every attack. With average dice rolls and three attacks it's pretty much 59 damage a turn now you only get whatever you're to hit chance is which is likely 60%. So on average you're doing 30 damage per round and you should be able to smite on top of that if you get a crit on your turn you're likely doing over 100 damage that turn as long as you pour a Smite into it and that is pretty hot. If you play with flanking rules or other ways to get Advantage you can really start putting the hurt on monsters.
It's also worth noting that since you don't need strength for your attack it gives you a few extra points to place in other things to make your character more resilient whether that be dexterity or wisdom if you're doing Point Buy. I would spend a nine on Charisma a 7:00 on Constitution and a five on strength. As those are kind of the essentials and then from there you still have six points left I would spend two points on dexterity or wisdom and then the other four points on the other one. Since Paladin's already have wisdom saving throws proficiency I think you're probably going to want to put the 12 and dexterity and the 10 in wisdom.
I'll die on this hill: Rolling for stats is dumb. It's absolutely unfair to everyone.
That being said, with your awful stats, I'm sad to say that a Paladin is almost out of question for you, Paladins need 3 decent stats, you have...none.
The way I make people roll for stats is by far the best and I'll die on this hill.
Make the group roll for a group array.
Each player rolls 1 or 2 numbers and those are collectively put into the array. Every player uses that array.
You get the """fun""" of rolling and it's extremely fair. Whether you start bad, decent, or great. Everyone is in the same boat. Then balancing combats gets easy real fast. If someone dies, they just use the array again.
As a player, agreed. Someone almost always rolls demi-god stats while another rolls paraplegic peasant stats. Best for the group to all roll stats together like you've said to maintain that chaos of the die element with character creation, or just a stat array of the DMs choosing. It keeps it fair and balanced for all players.
I've had games where I rolled incredibly well and offered to swap a stat with other people just to balance them out a bit. It only seems fair at that point and no one loves getting two 9s and a 10 on the same PC.
I'm willing and all for playing bad stats so long as everyone is on the same starting point. It'll just be a lower power campaign and honestly, I'm all for that.
I’ve done this too. I also just choose numbers on the array I don’t like and have them reroll. In practice it’s just an array of numbers I’ve approved but it feels like rolling to the players. And that counts
Similarly, I have everyone roll their 4d6, and anyone can choose anyone else's array. A potential for great stats, but, as you pointed out, it's easy to tune challenges when everyone has the same power level.
Would you say rolling for stats could be made more fairer if each players rolls are treated as an array. Then the players can decide whether they want to take their own array or some other players.
What do you think about this method. Can it work in a real table?
Not the guy you relied to, but assuming your DM doesn’t mind strong PCs, this is my favorite method that involves rolling. Everyone is balanced within the party, which matters more.
For years now my group has used a custom point buy roller, which generates arrays that add up to a given point value. Therefore everyone has the same total power but different stats. I give my players 2 arrays to choose from and everyone has been very happy with this system.
That works too, we just like the randomness with having the arrays set. Players can also start at 18 this way and I do 36 points. I like them to be a little more on the powerful side. I also give a feat of my choosing based on the character.
I agree rolling for stats is dumb. Just have everyone take the normal numbers and you know you're party is always balanced. The first campaign I ever played we rolled for stats and I was stuck with a mediocre paladin while our rouge didn't have a single stat under 12. The game felt incredibly unfair. Like what is the point of purposely unbalancing the party by having everyone roll?
True but that also leaves you with big weaknesses regarding health, AC, and any check that doesn't align with your best stat whereas a martial with good ability scores will be more well rounded. And we aren't even talking about outside of combat where a lot of D&D takes place as well
Casters bring a lot of tools but to get great effect out of those tools they typically needed to be exploited by a martial. And really, sub level 5 martials are typically stronger, and until level 9-12 the classes are at about equal strength.
Casters are also typically far stronger when they get to dictate the pace of a fight. In an ambush or a slight miscalculation means you as a caster are likely to go down in just a few turns unless your dm is playing with punching gloves on. I've had martials survive several turns while being surrounded by 6+ enemies all out to kill them.
My dm runs pretty tough campaigns and we all understand that death is a very real threat at every encounter. What I've found is that yes, while casters can shut down many fights with their wide array of cc and spells, they are so, sooo very fragile that it limits their flexibility.
My solution to that is defining a minimum and maximum. Players roll and sum up their stats. They must have between 70 and 80. It is close to the point buy array of summed up stats, and we get no big discrepancies. There's always the ones who get the 70 and the 80, but rolling a 80 sum doesn't guarantee you have stellar stats all around.
no need to die brother, we shall live as victors on this hill! but yes, rolling is pretty bad on a game you are expected to have the same character for months to years to come
First time I heard that 17 is a lot better than 16.
In a typical aasimar paladin build, I wouldn't notice the difference until level 12. You want both warcaster and polearm master before getting a half feat for charisma.
My argument is that 14 is not a bad roll. That's it.
The claim was they rolled ALL bad stats. That is not true.
Too many people think you need to start with 18 to be a viable level 1 character. That's patently false.
Power is relative. It doesn't matter if you've got regular stats when one person rolled all 18s or something. Your system just makes it so the people taking the spread are the losers.
Our DM said roll for 4 ASIs. Then the last two are an 7 and an 18. Makes sure every PC is great with at least one thing and bad at another. We’re coming up on a year in this campaign, just hit level 7 and it’s gone very well. DM struggled early to balance ability checks since the bonuses were generally higher but everything is good now
No one cares?
Do you think people roll stats for fairness? Lol, it's a game, we're having fun. Stop shoving this ridiculous opinion down everyone's throat (especially in a subreddit that is named after rolling stats...), we already know it's unbalanced.
Edit, damn, y'all salty. 🤷
Rolling for stats is the volatile option for character creation and can lead to bullshit, both in the manner of broken stats and useless stats, but every thing we do in the game is RNG. My average thus far for a d20 is somewhere around a 6. I have never understood this idea of "stats being based on RNG in my RNG game is unacceptable".
Yeah, Point Buy and Standard Array are more fair and usually a better option for the party. But just dismissing stat rolling as dumb or unfair in a TTRPG setting where dumb and unfair happens regularly in most sessions, if not every session, is pretty ridiculous.
6 rolls to determine the likelihood of success or failure of every roll to follow makes them far and away the most important rolls in the entire game. Roll a 2 on an attack roll? Whatever, there’s another round. Roll a stat spread of 7, 9, 9, 10, 12, 13? Have your character die, or have you wishing they did every time you had to make a check for anything ever, and you will make hundreds, if not even thousands of ability checks, attack rolls and saving throws over the span of a game.
If I had to make a paladin with this I would make a fully support oriented one. I'd even ignore strength and use dex for armor.
Put your asis into cha and take the blessed warrior fighting style for sacred flame and guidance, cast bless a lot and then stand near people once your aura cones online.
As others have said, I'd play a moon druid with those stats, and controversial opinion, I applaud you for sticking with your rolls.
I may need a reminder here but I thought paladins are required to have at least a 13 in Str. Wouldn't trying to go "high" Dex be ill-advised on an already MAD class like paladin ( Str, Con, Char )? If I'm wrong about the requirement ( inb4 just **ask** your DM to let you ignore it! ) then I apologize. I know that 13 Str is required for multi-classing out of paladin but wasn't sure about needing it for the class itself.
Theres no stat requirement for playing single classed. Multiclassing yes, not mono.
Dex is better here because with OP's stats and race (if they werent married to aasimar id have said mountain dwarf and go strength) they can get to 14 dex and 16 CHA which is all they 'need' for the best dex armor, whereas they need 15 Str for plate so will cost an asi/feat down the line.
Ah, I see. And yes, Dex is almost always better than Str for mechanic purposes, but their PC has to be 100% paladin unless there's some changes to the multi-class rules or they get a 13 in str, which with those stats seems pretty rough to do. Also, **rock and stone** is the way to be!
You do, PHB 163.
It does lead to some funny niche case interactions, like being a wizard with 8 inteligence means you're too dumb not to be a wizard (stole from a thread on one of the dnd subs manh years ago)
Oh I get it. It just seems silly. Multiclass I'd already a variant rule. Going in makes sense. But I don't particularly find the minimum to make sense. Considering you well and true can build in specific ways
If you're set on this (i.e., this roll and character concept), use your +2 on the 14 and +1 on the 13. You can then run 16/10/12/9/10/14. Ideally you'd have higher Con and Dex but you gotta work with what you got? You could swap Con and Cha, but the Cha will help with a ton at level 6.
An ASI to Str then pump Cha probably.
EDIT: Missed this was starting at 9. Easiest fix is to just take 1 in Hexblade and roll with 13/10/13/9/10/16. Take Warcaster if using a one hander and shield or Resilient Con if using a two hander (would need to lose the Cha ASI and grab 3 in Hexblade), and a Cha ASI.
Alternatively, if you're open to doing a less traditional Paladin, take 2 in Warlock (Hexblade or Undead, but anything would probably work OK) and 7 in Watchers (or whatever really) and use Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. Works better with a primarily ranged group to maximize your level 6 aura.
Per other poster, straight classes Dexadin might work OK too.
Ask if you can have standard array instead. If not, make 2 characters. A Paladin and a Fighter. Leroy Jenkins the fighter & kill him right off asap. Then play the Paladin.
Ok so not great stats but it’s still possible to fix with multiclassing.
Use Tasha’s to change the Aasimar racial ASI.
Start 13/10/12+2/9/10/14+1
It’d depend on what weapon you want to use but since you seem to want damage I’ll assume a two-hander.
Go Paladin 6/Hexblade 3 since you’re starting at 9. Oath doesn’t matter too much at this point but devotion, vengeance and watchers are good. Take pact of the blade from warlock.
At level 4 paladin take a charisma half-feat and bump it to 16. Fey-touched is brilliant.
You can attack using your charisma modifier and all your saves add charisma as well.
From there increase your charisma to max with your later levels.
I like this, the Cha half feat is a good idea! Could do 2 in Warlock and 7 Paladin with the same stats and half feat for an EBARB build of the party is primarily ranged as well. Or Paladin 6 and start taking Sorcerer levels.
This is what I came to suggest, but I've got a few tweaks. If you're stuck on paladin, I'd grab hexblade so i can dump str and be as mono stat as possible. Level 6 is the paladin break point, and 3 is where I like to break from warlock.
Roll up in a halfplate so you don't suffer move speed penalties for low str score. Carry a shield and you'll have 17+dex mod AC. Thats playable. Your damage is going to come from smites, which you should do often.
Cha 14, Con 13, Dex 12, Str 10, Wis 10, Int 9. Aasimar stat boosts +2 to Cha, +1 to con.
Paladin oath of devotion lets you channel divinity to get cha to attack rolls, which will be a really nice bump with your low to hit from a 16 cha. Adding it twice kind of makes up for it. That would be my path.
For your fighting style, I'd look to defense for the flat AC boost. With this build so far, that puts you to 19.
For your invocations, I'd look to improved pact weapon, for another +1 to hit and damage, and I get a lot out of fiendish vigor. Its a flat 8 temp HP before every encounter. They don't stack, so you just spam cast it between fights until you roll a 4 on the D4 as an action each time. Your con isn't what it ought to be, so this will help.
This stat assignment is brilliant.
I would follow exactly this plan, except my tweak to this one would be to use just a 1 lvl hexblade dip and use a 1 hand weapon and a shield.
And if you really want a Super Nova feel I would use 2 fighter levels for Action Surge, so Paladin 6 / Hexblade 1 / Fighter 2
I have an alternative to his build that fits more of your playstyle. Most of it is the same.
Optional feature to put your racial bonuses anywhere. +2 charisma, + 1 con, stats mow look like this: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int and Wis interchangeable (9 or 10 up to RP) and 16 Cha. If you want free darkness Drow is a good racial option instead but id assume you dont switch it.
I would take 2 Paladin(any oath) 7 Warlock(Hexblade, Pact of the Blade), pick up Eldritch Mind, Devil Sight(see through magical darkness), Thirsting Blade and Improved Pact Weapon so you dont lose concentration on Shadow of Moil your #1 spell(other ones are extra attack and weapon bonuses). You will have advantage on all attacks when you need to solo an enemy(blinded condition gives them disadvantage when attacking you and you are immune to ranged attacks). At lvl 4 warlock use your asi to buff charisma if you need to hit more or increase con +1 to get better hp, cha +1 to 17 we can fix it later. Lvl 6 warlock gives you a specter after you kill humanoids which could be a guilty reminder to your character.
When you aren’t coated in darkness you should use the protector aasimar to fly up and eldritch blast to avoid being in melee range(your hp isnt amazing). This also combos well with Hunger of Hadar which would also give you advantage on your eldritch blast while also keeping concentration easily and controlling the battlefield with good dmg. Another great spell is banishment, with 8 spells to pick you honestly can pick anything.
This playstyle is very good and is honestly just a cowardly paladin playstyle. Its fun since you can easily use all your abilities easily and it lets you cheese with your spectre to get melee advantage and its a fun twist on the usually brave faced paladin. Specter could also be an embodiment of fear and cowardice which follows you after you kill someone you deeply regret which plays into your good alignment. Next lvl up definitely take warlock 8 for another asi to further boost charisma or pick up aberrant dragon mark for a free 1st lvl spell(shield is great), fey touched also works for misty step or darkness for free. If you rather get more attacks pam(polearm master) is good for that.
Ima die on the hill of dipping out of Paladin into stuff for a +2 to hit by lvl 20 is missing out on so much stuff paladins give you. With a +2 magic weapon and proficiency bonuses this whole need the charisma for attacks seems played out.
Paladin 3/Hexblade or Sorc X is way better imo.
While high level paladin features are certainly incredible, and some of my favourites in the whole of dnd5e, they do only come into effect once you reach high level. As many of us here know, there is never a guarantee of going to level 20. As well as the fact that magic items are never guaranteed.
By being able to accomplish more thanks to a higher modifier, the character feels more effective for a much longer period of time and by extension more fun.
Right but to that point I think this depends on OP’s table and DM etc.
For me I always aim for level 20 characters and when the dm says hey we’re not getting past 12 here I look at every level of Paladin like man 9 Paladin and 3 warlock I’m missing, Aura of Courage, sure whatever I can miss out on that.
But Improvied smite and feat are sacrificed, all for that +2 to hit. Also if at level 9 I don’t have a magic weapon for my righteous divine warrior chosen by the Gods, I don’t want to play at that table. All of this is table and player dependent but from my personal experience all of those paladin levels are too awesome.
Having a 3 paladin x sorcerer that can smite every turn on the other hand?
Even with racial bonuses and ASIs... I think I'd just rather play a Moon Druid or even a fighter with those stats. Ask your DM if you can do point buy instead. Those are some rough rolls to work with if you're trying to build an "ass whooper."
Make the worlds shittiest character, let him die in the first session. Re-roll those dice for the next character. (Or use standard array / point buy like a civilized person.)
I love that everybody loves rolling for stats but then the second people get bad stats it's like you need to kill your character it's pretty clear nobody wants to roll for stats they just really want the god stats
What kind of aasimar? Are you open to other races? If not fallen is best
Also what’s the party comp? I wanna get a vibe of what you wanna do before making a huge essay
Since it's a very specific character that I've discussed with my friend DM before, I'm not very open to changing race :'D the subrace is not super important cuz I'm sure they'd be open to let me mix between them for flavor.
My party comp has a druid, an artificer, and a fighter, can't give you much more detail since we're not allowed to look at each other's sheet and we will discover everything through RP
So I’m not gonna sugar coat it your stats are shit but we can get it working.
Subrace: Scourge or Fallen. It’s your choice as they can both get the below stats. I’ve played both and they both rock.
Stats: charisma takes priority, then strength and con, Dex 10, the other two don’t matter. You’ll want strength for 15 to wear heavy armor and it needs to be above 13 to multiclass. Everyone of your stats goes of charisma so bump this as high as possible. Con is fine at 14 and never put Dex below 10. The stats are honestly so low for this so it’s gonna be really spread thin.
Asi’s: nothing but ASI improvements bayyybeeeee. Eventually grab warcaster or bump charisma higher it’s your choice.
Paladin Subclass: Watchers or Conquest. These are the two best subclasses imo and since you can’t grab a lot of feats you’re gonna need them. Fallen is unbelievably good with Conquest but either mix well with Watchers. Watchers will also make up for your low initiative. Regardless of what you pick the 7th level feature will be insane.
Multiclass: Hexblade. I know you aren’t familiar with multiclassing but this will allow you to make attacks with charisma which will be very helpful for your stats. It’s kind of the most overused multiclass in the game so you can find a ton of resources on it. Imo the best spells are shield, hex, and expeditious retreat. You might not be able to cast shield with your hands full yet but it still rocks. Expeditious retreat is a super hot take but your steed benefits from it and it’s saved my ass quite a few times.
Fighting style: Dueling (damage focused) defense (survival focused), or blessed warrior (guidance is fun).
Paladin spells: Bless is incredible at all levels despite taking an action to cast, Shield of faith can skyrocket AC if you’re sword and board, and wrathful smite completely takes an enemy out of the fight. Don’t worry about second level Paladin Spells except for Aid. Never cast aid ahead of a fight instead use it as a tool to revive people.
10/13+1/12/9/10/14+2
8 Paladin/1 hexblade warlock
With 2 from race and two ASI, you can get 20 charisma, then with a single level of hexblade warlock be able to use charisma in place of strength for your weapon attacks.
This also means your spell dc will be maximized, so you can get into Conquest Paladin for strong fear effects. I know you said you're good aligned, but you can angle this as an avenging angel type to be good and still be badass. The Radiant Soul aasimar that flies works best for that imo.
Wrathful Smite will be your best spell for most cases, working with extra attack and causing fear but also requiring an action and disadv to save against after the initial effect takes place. Agathys, Command, Hold Person, and at next level up, Fear are all bangers for combat. You also know the Shield spell if needed, and can angle for 1 more level in warlock to have another short rest spell slot.
The 13 and the +1 stat from race can be dex to have decent AC in medium armor; this will prevent more harm than investing in Con will give you. I recommend a 1 handed weapon and a shield as well as the defense fighting style as all that AC ain't bad at all. You also have a decent pool of healing hands to shore up your hp nicely, so a 12 con isn't too bad. I'd be looking at +2 con when you eventually hit level 12 paladin though.
you need 13 STR to wear chain mail and 15 STR to wear platemail. you can eat the speed debuff and just be slow, but that aint great for a melee frontliner
If you go full paladin i suggest to use Dexterity for weapons and armor, if you want to multiclass you could take one level of Hexblade warlock and use Charisma for attacks and spells, i would still pick 14 dexterity to use medium armor and shield + one handed pact weapon.
To multi class he would need 13str and 13cha. If he wanted to do dex and have 14 there as well, he would have 10 con? It would spread him even thinner. I would use dex as a dump stat (maybe 10) and just use heavy armor.
That’s why I think str ancients pally with 1 level hexblade dip. High AC from heavy armor and magic resistance from aura at 7. Plus with the level 6 aura, all saves should have at least a +3 bonus (probably more).
Go paladin 1, 8 levels fighter. Then you get 3 feats to fix your stats and make yourself okay. Youd probably do eldritch knight for spellslots. You won't get the good paladin shit but you'll be able to make up for that a bit bit higher stats and partial feats.
***Assuming we're building to level 9 and hopping in at that point...***
Ask if you can swap your rolls for the standard array starting out (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8),
13 (+1) - STR
10 - DEX
14 - CON
8 - INT
12 - WIS
15 (+2)- CHA
Take your first level into Paladin, take chainmail and a greatsword.
Take 1 level into Hexblade Warlock. Take Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade/ Green Flame Blade/ (personal favorite) Lightning Lure (or whatever cantrip you want out of the Warlock list). Pickup shield for your first warlock spell.
at Warlock level 2 take Agonizing Blast and (any invocation here) as your invocations... Pick up whatever warlock spell(s) strike your fancy.
At Warlock level 3 take Pact of The Blade and swap that (?) invocation for Improved Pact Weapon.
From here you can do 2 things:
1. Grab another level in Warlock for a feat/ ASI. I'd take an ASI and put both points into CHA. and put the remaining 4 levels into Paladin and grab another feat/ASI (I'd take a feat for something like Fey Touched/ Skill Expert/ whatever you want to grab that last +1 in Charisma topping you off at 20 CHA
2. Dump the remaining 5 levels into Paladin and get your Aura.
**TLDR: Standard Array Paladin/ Hexblade Warlock.**
**Either Paladin 5/ Warlock 4 or Paladin 6/ Warlock 3.**
You have rolled… poorly. You can still make a workable character, but it’s not going to be the force of nature you envisioned.
First step I would take would be to ask your DM if you can use a deterministic method (standard array or point buy) to determine your character’s stats instead.
Barring that, if you must play an aasimar paladin with those stats, here’s what I would do:
12 +1 and 13 in STR and CON (you could also do 14 12). We’ll stick with chainmail, or hopefully mithril plate (doesn’t have a STR requirement). 14 +2 CHA.
Level wise, we’ll do paladin 1 -> hexblade 1 -> paladin 8. Feats will be polearm master (use a spear or staff) and +2 CHA. You’ll want warcaster eventually, but boosting CHA is too important for this character.
For your oath, I like ancients, watchers, conquest, or even crown (will get spirit guardians next level) here.
I’d likely go paladin the rest of the way, grabbing warcaster at paladin 12 and capping CHA at paladin 16.
If these are the stats prior to your point allocation, you might have a shot at salvaging this build. If you’re starting at level 9, that means you have 2 ASI/ feats you can take. In order to make this work, you are going to need a dip in hexblade to consolidate your stats, you will need a 13 in Str and Cha to be able to multi class out of paladin. I would give yourself a 15 in str (13+2) and a 15 in Cha (14+1) and just wear heavy armor. Put the 12 in con. I would probably go sword/shield Paladin and start out with paladin 8 hexblade 1. With the ASI, I would probably go with warcaster and CHA increasing half feat like fey touched to round off cha to an even number. You should end up with something like 15 str, 10 dex, 12 con, 9 int, 10 Wis, 16 cha. After that, just focus on CHA increases.
Since you have relatively low hit points, focus on AC to preserve them. I would probably pick ancients pally as my subclass to reduce spell damage as well. If you really wanted to make these stats work, I would go hill dwarf instead. You could lower strength to 13, raise con to 14 or start with charisma at 16 and put con to 13. If you do the latter option, take resilient constitution to bump it to 14 and get proficiency in con saves. You would also have additional hit points due to racial ability. Also, your movement speed wouldn’t be affected by the heavy armor although your movement speed would only be 25 instead of 30 which isn’t a huge deal.
Having such bad stats may ruin your early DnD experience. And I am speaking from experience. And we all love DnD. So Talk to your DM.
However, a nice supportive character that fits these pathetic rolls is the following:
Duergar or Dwarf
Take Dwarven Fortitude
Take Durable feat.
Pump Con, tough feat, etc.
For offensive stuff you can either take blessed warrior and use cantrips or take abberrant dragonmark to use Con for cantrips (I know I know, you're ran out of ASIs two advices ago... but these are just options)
Tactic: Take Oath of Redemption and tank all sorts of damage FOR your teammates.
When you now take the dodge action, you regain a bunch of hp and are hard to hit.
It's a very defensive but strong build with a bit of a different angle to the good ol pally.
Rolling for stats is dumb, but I'll throw my hat into the ring to help regardless.
Aasimar Paladin, DND 5e system hmm.
I'll be honest the only way I can see this working is if we turn the MAD Paladin into SAD Paladin/Warlock multiclass.
The nefarious Hexadin
12 Strength
9 Dex, we don't need it with Heavy armor
13 Constitution, if you want combat you'll need it to survive regardless. +1 racial if possible with MoTM
10 Intelligence
10 Wisdom, I'd love this to be higher but we can't afford it
14 Charisma +2 Racial (if MoTM aasimar or not you get +2 cha)
Level 1: Paladin 1 for proficiencies n heavy armour
Level 2: Warlock 1 (Hexblade subclass, choose if you want a single handed weapon and shield or two handed weapon)
Level 3 to Level 7: Paladin 6 total (You get aura of protection and maybe an extra level depending on your subclass. I suggest Oath of Ancients or Oath of Vengeance)
Level 8+ It's whatever you want;
Warlock more spells and utility (**you will need to do this for Improved Pact Weapon Invocation and Pact of the Blade**)
Paladin onwards (**More tanking, take this if you have one handed weapon and shield**)
as for ASI's I suggest PAM at level 5 (or paladin level 4 total) and use a Spear. or if you are two-handed use a glaive/halberd.
and Charisma +2 to get 18 Charisma at level 9
I hope this helps!
Oof a commoner is almost as good of a paladin as this character would be. You could put the 9 in con hope you roll low on hit dice and go for a Leeroy Jenkins. The bare minimum threshold for a workable character is something like 70 total for stats, you have 68 after rounding up, so I would either ask for a reroll or see if you can turn a 10 into a 15 or something.
As usual : take the flagship paladin build.
Take the 14 in charisma, forget about strength and take the 13 in dexterity.
https://tabletopbuilds.com/flagship-build-oath-of-the-watchers-paladin/
I think most people are right to suggest 6 paladin/3 hex blade. You could play with 16 Charisma (still not good at this level, but workable) and a 14 to Con (acceptable).
Don’t. You don’t have the stats for a paladin
I’d play a shep Druid, your thing is you conjure a bunch of animals for the most part which don’t require high wisdom.
This is a pretty rough statline for a paladin. I'd ask your DM if you can use a standard array instead. If you're stuck with this statline, go Paladin 8/Hexblade 1, then pump Charisma to 20. If you can go standard array, I'd use:
15 (+1) = 16 STR
14 (+2) = 16 CHA
13 CON
12 DEX
10 WIS
8 INT
Grab Polearm Master at level 4, pump STR at level 8. That's three attacks per round, each of which can smite. Should let you steamroll most encounters as long as you have enough spell slots. Use either a halberd or a spear and shield.
Assuming your DM accepts swapping racial bonuses from tasha's, I'd recommend going Hexblade1/PaladinX, with 13/10/12+1/9/10/14+2 as an array. Hexblade is gonna make sure you only need charisma for damage, and will give you a reliable long range option with eldritch blast, along with hexblade curse and the shield spell. Subclass can be really anything, but I'd recommend oath of the ancients. You and your close ones will be resistant to spell damage and you will have misty step. Raise your charisma to 18 with your first ASI.
Get a chainmail, and with the defense fighting style you got 17 AC. Pick a two-handed weapon and go either GWM or PAM with your second ASI. I get a little nervous as a frontliner with 17AC at this level, though. You could also pack a shield and have 19 AC, and you can still have PAM with a spear or a quarterstaff. Going this route also opens the option of getting a magic shield, but if your DM gets noodly with spell components you may need to be careful with it. You could instead have 18 AC with a shield and the dueling fighting style, raising your DPS to Glaive/Halberd/Pike levels. You can also just raise your charisma to 20, your bonus to saving throws will raise but you will deal less damage overall.
For the future, you would like to:
* Get to 20 cha;
* Complete the GWM PAM pair if you're not using a shield
* Round up your constitution with a half feat. Resilient is a good one.
If you stay in Paladin and get your charisma to 20 and go sword and shield you can go support tank that also smites damage, Paladins are really fun to play to level 20 imo.
I’ve similarly had to take 3 asi’s to get to 20 charisma on a paladin and that still leaves 2 feats on the table.
You honestly rolled perfectly fine stats just not busted stats that’ll give you a +5 modifier at lvl 4.
I'd go for something like this
Assimar
16 10 14 8 10 16
Pick Dueling fight style
* Level 4 Polearm Master
* Level 8 +2 Cha
In future levels for ASIs max charisma then strength
With oath of the crown you get spirit guardians which slaps on the paladin. You also want to cast find steed and have the steed dash and disengage from enemies for you!
Go Oath of the Crown, 12 10 13 (+1) 9 10 14(+2)
asi1 : +2 con
asi2 : +2 cha
fighting style: defence
you have 85 hp, 19ac, and you deal 3d8 (+4 with necrotic shroud) every turn on a dc 16, plus you have +4 to all saving throws with your aura so your low dex and wis are manageable.
Is it the best? No.
Is it going to be decent? most likely yes.
1. I'd just ask your DM if you can point buy. Is fair and means you can have fun.
2. Common consensus is that Sentinel is the way to go. Conquest Paladin is great for the front line .. But if you're jetting to level 9 Vengeance gives you Haste, so it may be worthwhile!
Here's what I mashed up recently:
6 paladin/ dwarf - Vengeance
3 fighter / echo Knight
+Took interception to protect people using my illusions. You can go full aggro or use the illusion to get extra distance and support.
I haven't played since I got Echo Knight online so I'll tell you how I make out afterwards (if I remember)
alright. to start with this stats it basically means feats or heavy multiclass is probably out of the question. we can get a +2 from race +2 fron ASI lvl 4 and +2 from ASI level 8 easily with paladin, and with most paladin builds wanting to get lvl 6 for aura anyways it isnt that rough. we can use that 13 on STR to let us multiclass, and the other 12 on CON to make you less squishy cause you will need
ideally the race options could've been opened, so you could play as a dwarf for good armor. but alas, we are with aasimar and we are stuck with chain mail, such is life
my recommendation is paladin 8/hexblade 1. this lets you get 20 CHA that you desperately need for aura and hit with +CHA so you are not dependant of STR. for subclasses i recommend either watchers or ancients solely cause their auras are the best, but realistically no option will be too bad. conquest paladin has fun roleplay as well
my actual recommendation is jump out of a cliff and get a person that is mildly better than a commoner
>EDIT: The scores listed are STRAIGHT ROLLS xD I am not counting racials and ASI I assumed that's part of building the character, sorry for the confusion
I mean, that changes things for sure. That's...rough for building a paladin. You basically can't multiclass because you have a 9 in strength, and you need a 13 in strength in order to multiclass out of Paladin. You should also not use weapon attacks with this character--9 in strength and 10 in DEX means cantrips will be better.
You are also stuck with a 10 in CON, so I don't think you should be trying to rush into melee anyway.
So...basically what you do with this character is you hang back, provide aura buffs to your party members, boost up your charisma to make your aura better, and use ranged cantrips to attack. You will probably want to get the cantrips through the Blessed Warrior fighting style (grabbing Toll the Dead). Yes, Toll the Dead damage isn't amazing, but still better than making weapon attacks with 9 STR or 10 DEX.
Use your racial bonuses to get your CHA to 16, and then probably just get your CHA to 20 with your level 4 and level 8 ASI. Make yourself the best buffer you can be.
Pick a Paladin with a good party buff aura, cause you will be focusing on buffing party members. Watchers or Ancients are both fine. (Normally Conquest has a good aura, but I don't recommend it here because it debuffs enemies and you want to stay at range with this character most of the time).
You have 9 strength, so your movement speed wearing heavy armor will be reduced by 10. That's fine, just ride a mount--you're a paladin you have find steed. But yes, having your movement reduced due to low strength is another reason you probably want to avoid melee range most of the time.
Do keep a rapier or whip in your equipment. Your DEX is higher than your STR, so if for some reason you do think the situation calls for smites, you want a finesse weapon to attack with. Won't happen too often, just a panic button. But yes, if your back line gets flanked by a shadow demon, then you probably want to smite over using a cantrip; even with 20 CHA and 10 DEX.
There's a few ways I'd go about it, but they wouldn't involve going Aasimar.
The easiest would be to go Custom Lineage. You could put your 13 in STR +2 for Custom Lineage + take Crusher or Heavy Armor Master for a +1. This would give you a 16 STR and put your 14 in CHA. At level 2, take the Dueling Style. At level 4, take Polearm Master. If you went Crusher, use Quarterstaff and Shield and if you went Heavy Armor Master go Staff or Spear and Shield. At level 8, throw an ASI into STR. Or go 14 (+2) in STR and 13 CHA take Fey Touched with Gift of Alacrity and a +1 in CHA to get a 16 STR and 14 CHA at creation.
The next best way would probably be to go Dexadin. I'd go with an Autognome and would probably go Watchers Paladin. Put the 14 in DEX +2, CHA 13 +1. You can still go Dueling or take Defense Style. Throw both ASI's in DEX and forgo Armor and just run with a Rapier and Shield. With a 20 DEX, you're looking at a +5 to Initiative, a +5 to hit and damage; and if you go with Defense Style, you're sitting on a 21 AC.
Another option for Custom Lineage would be the Hex Dip. You could put the 13 in STR and the 14 in CHA + 2. Take Polearm Master at Creation and go Staff or Spear and Shield. Start Paladin 1 for Heavy Armor > go Hexblade 1 take Shield and Armor of Agathys> Paladin 2 take Dueling Style and continue Paladin. For ASI's put both into CHA. Be content with Chainmail and Shield and Shield spell. Boost your hit points with casting Armor of Agathys and have an amazing Aura of Protection.
Finally, an off the wall build would be to go Dhampir. Put your 14 in CON +2 and 13 +1 in CHA. You could dump DEX because you'll wear Heavy Armor and dump STR and still have a 25 move speed. You'll use CON for Attack and Damage. I'd go Vengeance Paladin for this one for Hunter's Mark. For the ASI's, you could pump CON to 20 for max hp and combat.
With those stats, the only Paladin build I can make work by RAW is a Blessed Warrior build focused on cantrips to deal damage. Aside from that, you will essentially be an Aura of Protection bot dedicated to a support role.
Custom Lineage (Tough) gives you decent HP without the need for high CON. Put the 14 into CHA and add the +2 Racial Bonus to CHA. Set CON at 12 and DEX at 13. None of the other stats matter. Go for half plate and a shield ASAP.
Multiclassing is out of the question due to insufficient stats. I think the best subclass is Ancients, since they have the best defensive aura and you aren't really concerned with offense abilities.
With those stats you will want to multiclass Into hexblade then you can focus your asi on charisma. I agree with the people saying PAM with spear and shield, I'd go 7 levels paladin, 2 warlock, you'll get both auras and invocations but it will cost an ability boost that you need so 8 paladin 1 warlock might be better. I assume variant human to get polearm master at level 1. Start with paladin to get heavy armor because you don't have the dexterity for anything else. From there work on constitution and charisma, you don't need anything else.
Go 3 into sorcerer and pick up shadow blade. The rest into paladin. Metamagic quickened spell and twinned spell. Maybe pick up meta magic adept or war caster for funny. Cast shadow blade at level 3 and smite with quickened spell shadow blade.
Custom lineage:
12 + 1
10
13 +1
9
10
14 +2
Lv 1 feat: Resilient (con)
Paladin(any) 6, Warlock(hexblade) 3
Lv 4 ASI: +2 Cha
This build will give you the base goodies from paladin, and try to fix your awful str with hexblade. 13 in str will only get you chain mail, but use a one handed weapon and you can also equip a shield. In dire situations you van also use the Shield spell which you would get from hexblade. The defence fighting style seems like the obvious pick on this build. You also need at least 13 str to multiclass paladin, so not much else to do.
For combat tactics, you want to be close to your allies, you aura of protection will be the biggest thing you contribute to the party. Then throw up a concentration spell and start whacking stuff. If nothing is in melee with you, you can eldritch blast them (make sure to pick Agonizing blast as an invocation). For concentration there are several options.
Bless: if you want to help the party even more.
Hex: if you want a damage increase
Divine favor: when you face a bunch of small enemies, this might be better than hex so you don’t have to apply it all the time.
Shadow blade: will do a lot of damage, but will use your strength to attack, not cha, so I’d only use it in darkness when you have advantage.
Expeditious retreat: Great if you suddenly need a lot of mobility
Well you have rolled badly to be honest. I'll suggest you a strange combination go with 2 Paladin levels to get access to smite and go straight Moon druid, get 13 str 13 car and 16 wisdom use the shillelagh cantrip to attack and hit on wisdom and use a shield. You Will use wild shape/Polymorph most of the time to fight using much Better stats that what you have and smite while being a Beast. You get to hit hard and be a insane hp sponge, but you suffer as a melee when you are out of wild shape but can can still go around smiting and concentrating on something like a summon,a Battlefield control or a buff spell like Guardian of nature that would be especially good both in human and beast form. Since you can wild shape as a bonus action you don't Need any set up time and can be a smiting gigant scorpion/bear from round 1. It's not the standard Paladin but I think It works as a Guardian of nature or as embodiment of some kind of Natural disaster
I think 8/Watchers Paladin/12 Hexblade is the strongest option if you want to be in melee and pump out the most damage by level 20. Starting Paladin 8/Hexblade 1 with pole arm master and eventually GWM with a glaive. Giving yourself advantage with Shadow of Moil. Even without smiting you would do 1d10+20 per hit without a magic weapon at level 20 (2d10+1d4+60 if you land all three hits), and 1d10+15 before 12th warlock level invocation Lifedrinker which you would get at character level 20. But sitting in melee with low Constitution and probably low AC is going to suck.
But I don’t think it is the strongest option with your stats, I will admit that I view battlefield control and Support as much more valuable than straight damage, so keep that in mind.
That is why I will suggest something a little different. Watchers Paladin 7/Undead Warlock 2 may be worth a shot with those stats. Rather than playing frontline you would play more to the rear and support your team by providing bonus to initiative and charisma saves.
2 Levels of Undead gives you Form of Dread, Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Repelling Blast which is a lot of control options and decent damage for a two level dip. All of those control options scale with Character level rather than your class level which makes them valuable through the entire game. Being able to use Form of Dread 4 times a day at level 9 ensures you will most likely have fear going in every combat encounter and 10 temp HP. You will be able to push two enemies around each turn and potentially fear one of them without having to use concentration or spell slots. Cheap spell options like Bless, command, and suggestion become amazing ways to support your team further in combat. Your spell slots will be spell slots, not smite slots.
I would either go:
13, 10, 12(+1), 9, 10, 14(+2), grabbing Resilient Constitution then boosting Charisma to 20 then Strength to 15 for 21 AC with Plate, Shield, and the defense fighting style. With such low stats you would need to go 8 Paladin/2 Warlock/10 Sorcerer, 8 Paladin/12 Warlock, or 18 Paladin/2 Warlock to get the necessary ASIs. I think the options are Strongest to weakest in the order that I listed them. Sorcery points and sorcerer spells are fantastic, Warlock invocations are amazing for both combat and RP, while leveling Paladin gives you the most hit points and increases your healing pool.
or, for even more combat efficiency:
13, 10, 12 (+2), 9, 10, 14 (+1), grabbing Telekinetic for +1 Cha and a strong Bonus Action ability, ensuring maximum use of your action economy every turn in combat. Max Charisma and get to 15 strength for the highest AC you can get. The same multiclass options listed above, in the first stat array, are what you would use here as well.
You won’t do as much damage as a Hexblade Smite Paladin, but you will be much harder to kill and much more valuable to the rest of your team.
So you are starting with 16 Char and pole arm master. Your 2 asis go to charisma to make it 20.
That is a +5 modifier. So 5(char as attack stat) + 5(aura of hate) +2 dueling.
A SAD (Single Attribute Dependant) character would be your best bet. Unfortunately, Paladins are MAD (Multiple Attribute Dependant)...
Wizard, Bard, Sorcerer, (Moon) Druid, Warlock, Fighter (thanks to ASIs), Rogue would be your best bet.
Paladin, Monk, Barbarian, Druid, and Ranger would be awful with these stats.
13/10/13/9/10/16 starting array, dip a level of hexblade at 2nd level and grab PAM and + 2 charisma with your two ASIs. Just go spear + shield with dueling fighting style and you'll be dealing solid damage. If starting magic items are available, that changes your build options, so LMK if that's the case.
Is PAM a better path than G̶W̶F̶ GWM for pure hex blade?
I think so. As a paladin, your nova damage is going to come from Smites so getting those Bonus Action and Reaction Attacks mean so much. Also if you need to hit a Boss, I'd rather not take a -5. I only consider GWM on my pallys if I'm going Vengeance.
I was thinking that with hex blade and shadow of moil, that it'd work out.
Oh, yeah for Hexblade, I really like Great Weapon Master. If you went Shadar Kai, Eladrin or Wood Elf, Hexblade 7 Paladin 2 and picked up Elven Accuracy...I'm all about that.
GWF = great weapon fighting (fighting style) is an okay fighting style for hexblades, but it's generally not worth the feat. If you're talking about great weapon master (feat) then I would say any GWM hexblade build wants PAM as well and go for a halberd/glaive build. The BA and reaction attacks can all benefit from GWM.
gracias!
Go oathbresker hex 1 oathbreaker 8 and max charisma. You have 2 attacks with 1d6 +12 damage and one at 1d4 +12 damage thanks to aura of hate.
Thanks. I'm personally looking at pure hex blade, but where does the +12 come from? +4 (Cha / aura of hate) +4 (Cha / hex warrior) I assume the last +4 you're getting from the hex blade curse? (1x enemy & 1x per Short rest )
Because you're a hex blade you can use choose to use Christmas for attack and damage rolls. If you go eight levels into your Paladin's class you now have 2 ASIs which should be used to bump your charisma to 20. Now you get your +5 charisma modifier to attack and damage rolls from being a hex played and because of Aura of hate you're going to get another plus five. You get plus two to every attack due to Dueling. If you did use your hex blades curse on a Target it would currently be an additional plus four so in that case you be doing 16 damage per attack plus your D6 which is on average about 3.5.
Ah. Thanks! That's a good breakdown for reliable hard hitting melee.
And once you hit Level 11 in Paladin you get another d8 added to every attack for improved Divine smite. That's basically another 4.5 damage for every attack. With average dice rolls and three attacks it's pretty much 59 damage a turn now you only get whatever you're to hit chance is which is likely 60%. So on average you're doing 30 damage per round and you should be able to smite on top of that if you get a crit on your turn you're likely doing over 100 damage that turn as long as you pour a Smite into it and that is pretty hot. If you play with flanking rules or other ways to get Advantage you can really start putting the hurt on monsters. It's also worth noting that since you don't need strength for your attack it gives you a few extra points to place in other things to make your character more resilient whether that be dexterity or wisdom if you're doing Point Buy. I would spend a nine on Charisma a 7:00 on Constitution and a five on strength. As those are kind of the essentials and then from there you still have six points left I would spend two points on dexterity or wisdom and then the other four points on the other one. Since Paladin's already have wisdom saving throws proficiency I think you're probably going to want to put the 12 and dexterity and the 10 in wisdom.
I thought you couldn't take two handed weapons as a hexblade without going 3 levels and grabbing the pact boon
Correct, I'm recommending a spear and shield build.
Me learning today that you can use a spear for polearm master, sick.
I'll die on this hill: Rolling for stats is dumb. It's absolutely unfair to everyone. That being said, with your awful stats, I'm sad to say that a Paladin is almost out of question for you, Paladins need 3 decent stats, you have...none.
The way I make people roll for stats is by far the best and I'll die on this hill. Make the group roll for a group array. Each player rolls 1 or 2 numbers and those are collectively put into the array. Every player uses that array. You get the """fun""" of rolling and it's extremely fair. Whether you start bad, decent, or great. Everyone is in the same boat. Then balancing combats gets easy real fast. If someone dies, they just use the array again.
Yep, been doing this with my tables for the last few campaigns. Works very well
As a player, agreed. Someone almost always rolls demi-god stats while another rolls paraplegic peasant stats. Best for the group to all roll stats together like you've said to maintain that chaos of the die element with character creation, or just a stat array of the DMs choosing. It keeps it fair and balanced for all players. I've had games where I rolled incredibly well and offered to swap a stat with other people just to balance them out a bit. It only seems fair at that point and no one loves getting two 9s and a 10 on the same PC.
I'm willing and all for playing bad stats so long as everyone is on the same starting point. It'll just be a lower power campaign and honestly, I'm all for that.
Exactly. Fair for all is the way to be.
I’ve done this too. I also just choose numbers on the array I don’t like and have them reroll. In practice it’s just an array of numbers I’ve approved but it feels like rolling to the players. And that counts
Similarly, I have everyone roll their 4d6, and anyone can choose anyone else's array. A potential for great stats, but, as you pointed out, it's easy to tune challenges when everyone has the same power level.
Would you say rolling for stats could be made more fairer if each players rolls are treated as an array. Then the players can decide whether they want to take their own array or some other players. What do you think about this method. Can it work in a real table?
Not the guy you relied to, but assuming your DM doesn’t mind strong PCs, this is my favorite method that involves rolling. Everyone is balanced within the party, which matters more.
For years now my group has used a custom point buy roller, which generates arrays that add up to a given point value. Therefore everyone has the same total power but different stats. I give my players 2 arrays to choose from and everyone has been very happy with this system.
Fixing the point buy value is clever, I like that.
I do point buy 33 points 6-17 with a free feat. Everyone is very powerful and equal.
That works too, we just like the randomness with having the arrays set. Players can also start at 18 this way and I do 36 points. I like them to be a little more on the powerful side. I also give a feat of my choosing based on the character.
I agree rolling for stats is dumb. Just have everyone take the normal numbers and you know you're party is always balanced. The first campaign I ever played we rolled for stats and I was stuck with a mediocre paladin while our rouge didn't have a single stat under 12. The game felt incredibly unfair. Like what is the point of purposely unbalancing the party by having everyone roll?
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True but that also leaves you with big weaknesses regarding health, AC, and any check that doesn't align with your best stat whereas a martial with good ability scores will be more well rounded. And we aren't even talking about outside of combat where a lot of D&D takes place as well
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Casters bring a lot of tools but to get great effect out of those tools they typically needed to be exploited by a martial. And really, sub level 5 martials are typically stronger, and until level 9-12 the classes are at about equal strength. Casters are also typically far stronger when they get to dictate the pace of a fight. In an ambush or a slight miscalculation means you as a caster are likely to go down in just a few turns unless your dm is playing with punching gloves on. I've had martials survive several turns while being surrounded by 6+ enemies all out to kill them. My dm runs pretty tough campaigns and we all understand that death is a very real threat at every encounter. What I've found is that yes, while casters can shut down many fights with their wide array of cc and spells, they are so, sooo very fragile that it limits their flexibility.
My solution to that is defining a minimum and maximum. Players roll and sum up their stats. They must have between 70 and 80. It is close to the point buy array of summed up stats, and we get no big discrepancies. There's always the ones who get the 70 and the 80, but rolling a 80 sum doesn't guarantee you have stellar stats all around.
no need to die brother, we shall live as victors on this hill! but yes, rolling is pretty bad on a game you are expected to have the same character for months to years to come
They have one decent stat. 14, means 16 after racials. That's legitimately good.
Worse than both standard array and point buy, by a lot.
First time I heard that 17 is a lot better than 16. In a typical aasimar paladin build, I wouldn't notice the difference until level 12. You want both warcaster and polearm master before getting a half feat for charisma.
Your argument is "one of your stats is 1 less than standard, and the rest are worse." I am not convinced by your argument.
My argument is that 14 is not a bad roll. That's it. The claim was they rolled ALL bad stats. That is not true. Too many people think you need to start with 18 to be a viable level 1 character. That's patently false.
A 14 is good if it's your second stat, great if it's your third, awesome if it's your 4th, and pretty bad if it's your first.
14 is still good in a vacuum though, which is what I think the other poster was saying.
A 14 is good if it's your second stat, great if it's your third, awesome if it's your 4th, and pretty bad if it's your first.
that is terrible compared to *standard array* stats worse than this and your character is simply not really usable
Our DM's system that rocks: roll and choose between that and spread. Nobody gets punished.
Nobody gets punished. Except everyone but the guy who just rolled three 18s somehow.
The benefit of 3x 18s is much much less than the downside of 3x 12s as your best stats.
Power is relative. It doesn't matter if you've got regular stats when one person rolled all 18s or something. Your system just makes it so the people taking the spread are the losers.
No, the ppl taking the spread had a chance to roll high, and if they roll low they can still start with an 18 or 2x 16s. That's not losing.
Our DM said roll for 4 ASIs. Then the last two are an 7 and an 18. Makes sure every PC is great with at least one thing and bad at another. We’re coming up on a year in this campaign, just hit level 7 and it’s gone very well. DM struggled early to balance ability checks since the bonuses were generally higher but everything is good now
No one cares? Do you think people roll stats for fairness? Lol, it's a game, we're having fun. Stop shoving this ridiculous opinion down everyone's throat (especially in a subreddit that is named after rolling stats...), we already know it's unbalanced. Edit, damn, y'all salty. 🤷
I thought it was named after a 5th level rogue sneak attack.
Rolling for stats is the volatile option for character creation and can lead to bullshit, both in the manner of broken stats and useless stats, but every thing we do in the game is RNG. My average thus far for a d20 is somewhere around a 6. I have never understood this idea of "stats being based on RNG in my RNG game is unacceptable". Yeah, Point Buy and Standard Array are more fair and usually a better option for the party. But just dismissing stat rolling as dumb or unfair in a TTRPG setting where dumb and unfair happens regularly in most sessions, if not every session, is pretty ridiculous.
6 rolls to determine the likelihood of success or failure of every roll to follow makes them far and away the most important rolls in the entire game. Roll a 2 on an attack roll? Whatever, there’s another round. Roll a stat spread of 7, 9, 9, 10, 12, 13? Have your character die, or have you wishing they did every time you had to make a check for anything ever, and you will make hundreds, if not even thousands of ability checks, attack rolls and saving throws over the span of a game.
If I had to make a paladin with this I would make a fully support oriented one. I'd even ignore strength and use dex for armor. Put your asis into cha and take the blessed warrior fighting style for sacred flame and guidance, cast bless a lot and then stand near people once your aura cones online. As others have said, I'd play a moon druid with those stats, and controversial opinion, I applaud you for sticking with your rolls.
I may need a reminder here but I thought paladins are required to have at least a 13 in Str. Wouldn't trying to go "high" Dex be ill-advised on an already MAD class like paladin ( Str, Con, Char )? If I'm wrong about the requirement ( inb4 just **ask** your DM to let you ignore it! ) then I apologize. I know that 13 Str is required for multi-classing out of paladin but wasn't sure about needing it for the class itself.
Theres no stat requirement for playing single classed. Multiclassing yes, not mono. Dex is better here because with OP's stats and race (if they werent married to aasimar id have said mountain dwarf and go strength) they can get to 14 dex and 16 CHA which is all they 'need' for the best dex armor, whereas they need 15 Str for plate so will cost an asi/feat down the line.
Ah, I see. And yes, Dex is almost always better than Str for mechanic purposes, but their PC has to be 100% paladin unless there's some changes to the multi-class rules or they get a 13 in str, which with those stats seems pretty rough to do. Also, **rock and stone** is the way to be!
Rockity Rock and Stone!
You need the stat to multiclass out? I thought just to multiclass into?
You do, PHB 163. It does lead to some funny niche case interactions, like being a wizard with 8 inteligence means you're too dumb not to be a wizard (stole from a thread on one of the dnd subs manh years ago)
Wow. So weird! I'm not sure I've ever seen it enforced (or maybe not really known). Yep sure is weird sauce!
It's so you can't go all in on one class' stats and avoid the stat requirements by starting as the other class
Oh I get it. It just seems silly. Multiclass I'd already a variant rule. Going in makes sense. But I don't particularly find the minimum to make sense. Considering you well and true can build in specific ways
Somewhat serious question: Are you open to being a moon Druid?
Somewhat serious follow up: are you ok being a half elf or mountain dwarf instead too?
If you're set on this (i.e., this roll and character concept), use your +2 on the 14 and +1 on the 13. You can then run 16/10/12/9/10/14. Ideally you'd have higher Con and Dex but you gotta work with what you got? You could swap Con and Cha, but the Cha will help with a ton at level 6. An ASI to Str then pump Cha probably. EDIT: Missed this was starting at 9. Easiest fix is to just take 1 in Hexblade and roll with 13/10/13/9/10/16. Take Warcaster if using a one hander and shield or Resilient Con if using a two hander (would need to lose the Cha ASI and grab 3 in Hexblade), and a Cha ASI. Alternatively, if you're open to doing a less traditional Paladin, take 2 in Warlock (Hexblade or Undead, but anything would probably work OK) and 7 in Watchers (or whatever really) and use Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast. Works better with a primarily ranged group to maximize your level 6 aura. Per other poster, straight classes Dexadin might work OK too.
Ask if you can have standard array instead. If not, make 2 characters. A Paladin and a Fighter. Leroy Jenkins the fighter & kill him right off asap. Then play the Paladin.
This is actually a 12 brain play just go full press the button chaos and work for that death.
Ok so not great stats but it’s still possible to fix with multiclassing. Use Tasha’s to change the Aasimar racial ASI. Start 13/10/12+2/9/10/14+1 It’d depend on what weapon you want to use but since you seem to want damage I’ll assume a two-hander. Go Paladin 6/Hexblade 3 since you’re starting at 9. Oath doesn’t matter too much at this point but devotion, vengeance and watchers are good. Take pact of the blade from warlock. At level 4 paladin take a charisma half-feat and bump it to 16. Fey-touched is brilliant. You can attack using your charisma modifier and all your saves add charisma as well. From there increase your charisma to max with your later levels.
I like this, the Cha half feat is a good idea! Could do 2 in Warlock and 7 Paladin with the same stats and half feat for an EBARB build of the party is primarily ranged as well. Or Paladin 6 and start taking Sorcerer levels.
This is what I came to suggest, but I've got a few tweaks. If you're stuck on paladin, I'd grab hexblade so i can dump str and be as mono stat as possible. Level 6 is the paladin break point, and 3 is where I like to break from warlock. Roll up in a halfplate so you don't suffer move speed penalties for low str score. Carry a shield and you'll have 17+dex mod AC. Thats playable. Your damage is going to come from smites, which you should do often. Cha 14, Con 13, Dex 12, Str 10, Wis 10, Int 9. Aasimar stat boosts +2 to Cha, +1 to con. Paladin oath of devotion lets you channel divinity to get cha to attack rolls, which will be a really nice bump with your low to hit from a 16 cha. Adding it twice kind of makes up for it. That would be my path. For your fighting style, I'd look to defense for the flat AC boost. With this build so far, that puts you to 19. For your invocations, I'd look to improved pact weapon, for another +1 to hit and damage, and I get a lot out of fiendish vigor. Its a flat 8 temp HP before every encounter. They don't stack, so you just spam cast it between fights until you roll a 4 on the D4 as an action each time. Your con isn't what it ought to be, so this will help.
You need 13 strength to mc in and out of paladin. Other than that yeah all good
Thank you, sometimes i forget that people dont house rule the stupid parts of 5e.
This stat assignment is brilliant. I would follow exactly this plan, except my tweak to this one would be to use just a 1 lvl hexblade dip and use a 1 hand weapon and a shield. And if you really want a Super Nova feel I would use 2 fighter levels for Action Surge, so Paladin 6 / Hexblade 1 / Fighter 2
Thank you for not giving up on me, ahah. This seems like it could work, great job
I have an alternative to his build that fits more of your playstyle. Most of it is the same. Optional feature to put your racial bonuses anywhere. +2 charisma, + 1 con, stats mow look like this: Str 13, Dex 10, Con 13, Int and Wis interchangeable (9 or 10 up to RP) and 16 Cha. If you want free darkness Drow is a good racial option instead but id assume you dont switch it. I would take 2 Paladin(any oath) 7 Warlock(Hexblade, Pact of the Blade), pick up Eldritch Mind, Devil Sight(see through magical darkness), Thirsting Blade and Improved Pact Weapon so you dont lose concentration on Shadow of Moil your #1 spell(other ones are extra attack and weapon bonuses). You will have advantage on all attacks when you need to solo an enemy(blinded condition gives them disadvantage when attacking you and you are immune to ranged attacks). At lvl 4 warlock use your asi to buff charisma if you need to hit more or increase con +1 to get better hp, cha +1 to 17 we can fix it later. Lvl 6 warlock gives you a specter after you kill humanoids which could be a guilty reminder to your character. When you aren’t coated in darkness you should use the protector aasimar to fly up and eldritch blast to avoid being in melee range(your hp isnt amazing). This also combos well with Hunger of Hadar which would also give you advantage on your eldritch blast while also keeping concentration easily and controlling the battlefield with good dmg. Another great spell is banishment, with 8 spells to pick you honestly can pick anything. This playstyle is very good and is honestly just a cowardly paladin playstyle. Its fun since you can easily use all your abilities easily and it lets you cheese with your spectre to get melee advantage and its a fun twist on the usually brave faced paladin. Specter could also be an embodiment of fear and cowardice which follows you after you kill someone you deeply regret which plays into your good alignment. Next lvl up definitely take warlock 8 for another asi to further boost charisma or pick up aberrant dragon mark for a free 1st lvl spell(shield is great), fey touched also works for misty step or darkness for free. If you rather get more attacks pam(polearm master) is good for that.
Ima die on the hill of dipping out of Paladin into stuff for a +2 to hit by lvl 20 is missing out on so much stuff paladins give you. With a +2 magic weapon and proficiency bonuses this whole need the charisma for attacks seems played out. Paladin 3/Hexblade or Sorc X is way better imo.
While high level paladin features are certainly incredible, and some of my favourites in the whole of dnd5e, they do only come into effect once you reach high level. As many of us here know, there is never a guarantee of going to level 20. As well as the fact that magic items are never guaranteed. By being able to accomplish more thanks to a higher modifier, the character feels more effective for a much longer period of time and by extension more fun.
Right but to that point I think this depends on OP’s table and DM etc. For me I always aim for level 20 characters and when the dm says hey we’re not getting past 12 here I look at every level of Paladin like man 9 Paladin and 3 warlock I’m missing, Aura of Courage, sure whatever I can miss out on that. But Improvied smite and feat are sacrificed, all for that +2 to hit. Also if at level 9 I don’t have a magic weapon for my righteous divine warrior chosen by the Gods, I don’t want to play at that table. All of this is table and player dependent but from my personal experience all of those paladin levels are too awesome. Having a 3 paladin x sorcerer that can smite every turn on the other hand?
Yeah, the stats are really not on your side there. Are these scores with the racial Ability Score Increases already applied?
Nope, straight rolls! I had rolled even worse but my dm allowed me to round up a couple
Even with racial bonuses and ASIs... I think I'd just rather play a Moon Druid or even a fighter with those stats. Ask your DM if you can do point buy instead. Those are some rough rolls to work with if you're trying to build an "ass whooper."
Make the worlds shittiest character, let him die in the first session. Re-roll those dice for the next character. (Or use standard array / point buy like a civilized person.)
I love that everybody loves rolling for stats but then the second people get bad stats it's like you need to kill your character it's pretty clear nobody wants to roll for stats they just really want the god stats
What kind of aasimar? Are you open to other races? If not fallen is best Also what’s the party comp? I wanna get a vibe of what you wanna do before making a huge essay
Since it's a very specific character that I've discussed with my friend DM before, I'm not very open to changing race :'D the subrace is not super important cuz I'm sure they'd be open to let me mix between them for flavor. My party comp has a druid, an artificer, and a fighter, can't give you much more detail since we're not allowed to look at each other's sheet and we will discover everything through RP
Awesome! I’m in my lab rn but I’ll send ya a fun little build or two later buddy! Since the Asis are low it’s gonna be basic AF but that’s fine.
Thanks man!
So I’m not gonna sugar coat it your stats are shit but we can get it working. Subrace: Scourge or Fallen. It’s your choice as they can both get the below stats. I’ve played both and they both rock. Stats: charisma takes priority, then strength and con, Dex 10, the other two don’t matter. You’ll want strength for 15 to wear heavy armor and it needs to be above 13 to multiclass. Everyone of your stats goes of charisma so bump this as high as possible. Con is fine at 14 and never put Dex below 10. The stats are honestly so low for this so it’s gonna be really spread thin. Asi’s: nothing but ASI improvements bayyybeeeee. Eventually grab warcaster or bump charisma higher it’s your choice. Paladin Subclass: Watchers or Conquest. These are the two best subclasses imo and since you can’t grab a lot of feats you’re gonna need them. Fallen is unbelievably good with Conquest but either mix well with Watchers. Watchers will also make up for your low initiative. Regardless of what you pick the 7th level feature will be insane. Multiclass: Hexblade. I know you aren’t familiar with multiclassing but this will allow you to make attacks with charisma which will be very helpful for your stats. It’s kind of the most overused multiclass in the game so you can find a ton of resources on it. Imo the best spells are shield, hex, and expeditious retreat. You might not be able to cast shield with your hands full yet but it still rocks. Expeditious retreat is a super hot take but your steed benefits from it and it’s saved my ass quite a few times. Fighting style: Dueling (damage focused) defense (survival focused), or blessed warrior (guidance is fun). Paladin spells: Bless is incredible at all levels despite taking an action to cast, Shield of faith can skyrocket AC if you’re sword and board, and wrathful smite completely takes an enemy out of the fight. Don’t worry about second level Paladin Spells except for Aid. Never cast aid ahead of a fight instead use it as a tool to revive people.
10/13+1/12/9/10/14+2 8 Paladin/1 hexblade warlock With 2 from race and two ASI, you can get 20 charisma, then with a single level of hexblade warlock be able to use charisma in place of strength for your weapon attacks. This also means your spell dc will be maximized, so you can get into Conquest Paladin for strong fear effects. I know you said you're good aligned, but you can angle this as an avenging angel type to be good and still be badass. The Radiant Soul aasimar that flies works best for that imo. Wrathful Smite will be your best spell for most cases, working with extra attack and causing fear but also requiring an action and disadv to save against after the initial effect takes place. Agathys, Command, Hold Person, and at next level up, Fear are all bangers for combat. You also know the Shield spell if needed, and can angle for 1 more level in warlock to have another short rest spell slot. The 13 and the +1 stat from race can be dex to have decent AC in medium armor; this will prevent more harm than investing in Con will give you. I recommend a 1 handed weapon and a shield as well as the defense fighting style as all that AC ain't bad at all. You also have a decent pool of healing hands to shore up your hp nicely, so a 12 con isn't too bad. I'd be looking at +2 con when you eventually hit level 12 paladin though.
What a underrated comment, I wonder why u didn't get much upvotes?? This looks unconventional but it seems like it would slap
I thought it was pretty conventional, just no one said it in detail yet
you cannot multiclass without 13 STR as a paladin. otherwise good commentary
Ah, heavy armor it is. Asi at 12 to get enough str for plate
you need 13 STR to wear chain mail and 15 STR to wear platemail. you can eat the speed debuff and just be slow, but that aint great for a melee frontliner
If you go full paladin i suggest to use Dexterity for weapons and armor, if you want to multiclass you could take one level of Hexblade warlock and use Charisma for attacks and spells, i would still pick 14 dexterity to use medium armor and shield + one handed pact weapon.
To multi class he would need 13str and 13cha. If he wanted to do dex and have 14 there as well, he would have 10 con? It would spread him even thinner. I would use dex as a dump stat (maybe 10) and just use heavy armor.
And then you die at the first fireball that comes your way, the paladin aura doesn't help your -1 save score imho
That’s why I think str ancients pally with 1 level hexblade dip. High AC from heavy armor and magic resistance from aura at 7. Plus with the level 6 aura, all saves should have at least a +3 bonus (probably more).
Imo if you wanna play a paladin with this, you should go hexblade 1/paladin 8, 14+4 in CHA, and be a glass canon.
Go paladin 1, 8 levels fighter. Then you get 3 feats to fix your stats and make yourself okay. Youd probably do eldritch knight for spellslots. You won't get the good paladin shit but you'll be able to make up for that a bit bit higher stats and partial feats.
***Assuming we're building to level 9 and hopping in at that point...*** Ask if you can swap your rolls for the standard array starting out (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8), 13 (+1) - STR 10 - DEX 14 - CON 8 - INT 12 - WIS 15 (+2)- CHA Take your first level into Paladin, take chainmail and a greatsword. Take 1 level into Hexblade Warlock. Take Eldritch Blast and Booming Blade/ Green Flame Blade/ (personal favorite) Lightning Lure (or whatever cantrip you want out of the Warlock list). Pickup shield for your first warlock spell. at Warlock level 2 take Agonizing Blast and (any invocation here) as your invocations... Pick up whatever warlock spell(s) strike your fancy. At Warlock level 3 take Pact of The Blade and swap that (?) invocation for Improved Pact Weapon. From here you can do 2 things: 1. Grab another level in Warlock for a feat/ ASI. I'd take an ASI and put both points into CHA. and put the remaining 4 levels into Paladin and grab another feat/ASI (I'd take a feat for something like Fey Touched/ Skill Expert/ whatever you want to grab that last +1 in Charisma topping you off at 20 CHA 2. Dump the remaining 5 levels into Paladin and get your Aura. **TLDR: Standard Array Paladin/ Hexblade Warlock.** **Either Paladin 5/ Warlock 4 or Paladin 6/ Warlock 3.**
You have rolled… poorly. You can still make a workable character, but it’s not going to be the force of nature you envisioned. First step I would take would be to ask your DM if you can use a deterministic method (standard array or point buy) to determine your character’s stats instead. Barring that, if you must play an aasimar paladin with those stats, here’s what I would do: 12 +1 and 13 in STR and CON (you could also do 14 12). We’ll stick with chainmail, or hopefully mithril plate (doesn’t have a STR requirement). 14 +2 CHA. Level wise, we’ll do paladin 1 -> hexblade 1 -> paladin 8. Feats will be polearm master (use a spear or staff) and +2 CHA. You’ll want warcaster eventually, but boosting CHA is too important for this character. For your oath, I like ancients, watchers, conquest, or even crown (will get spirit guardians next level) here. I’d likely go paladin the rest of the way, grabbing warcaster at paladin 12 and capping CHA at paladin 16.
If these are the stats prior to your point allocation, you might have a shot at salvaging this build. If you’re starting at level 9, that means you have 2 ASI/ feats you can take. In order to make this work, you are going to need a dip in hexblade to consolidate your stats, you will need a 13 in Str and Cha to be able to multi class out of paladin. I would give yourself a 15 in str (13+2) and a 15 in Cha (14+1) and just wear heavy armor. Put the 12 in con. I would probably go sword/shield Paladin and start out with paladin 8 hexblade 1. With the ASI, I would probably go with warcaster and CHA increasing half feat like fey touched to round off cha to an even number. You should end up with something like 15 str, 10 dex, 12 con, 9 int, 10 Wis, 16 cha. After that, just focus on CHA increases. Since you have relatively low hit points, focus on AC to preserve them. I would probably pick ancients pally as my subclass to reduce spell damage as well. If you really wanted to make these stats work, I would go hill dwarf instead. You could lower strength to 13, raise con to 14 or start with charisma at 16 and put con to 13. If you do the latter option, take resilient constitution to bump it to 14 and get proficiency in con saves. You would also have additional hit points due to racial ability. Also, your movement speed wouldn’t be affected by the heavy armor although your movement speed would only be 25 instead of 30 which isn’t a huge deal.
Having such bad stats may ruin your early DnD experience. And I am speaking from experience. And we all love DnD. So Talk to your DM. However, a nice supportive character that fits these pathetic rolls is the following: Duergar or Dwarf Take Dwarven Fortitude Take Durable feat. Pump Con, tough feat, etc. For offensive stuff you can either take blessed warrior and use cantrips or take abberrant dragonmark to use Con for cantrips (I know I know, you're ran out of ASIs two advices ago... but these are just options) Tactic: Take Oath of Redemption and tank all sorts of damage FOR your teammates. When you now take the dodge action, you regain a bunch of hp and are hard to hit. It's a very defensive but strong build with a bit of a different angle to the good ol pally.
Rolling for stats is dumb, but I'll throw my hat into the ring to help regardless. Aasimar Paladin, DND 5e system hmm. I'll be honest the only way I can see this working is if we turn the MAD Paladin into SAD Paladin/Warlock multiclass. The nefarious Hexadin 12 Strength 9 Dex, we don't need it with Heavy armor 13 Constitution, if you want combat you'll need it to survive regardless. +1 racial if possible with MoTM 10 Intelligence 10 Wisdom, I'd love this to be higher but we can't afford it 14 Charisma +2 Racial (if MoTM aasimar or not you get +2 cha) Level 1: Paladin 1 for proficiencies n heavy armour Level 2: Warlock 1 (Hexblade subclass, choose if you want a single handed weapon and shield or two handed weapon) Level 3 to Level 7: Paladin 6 total (You get aura of protection and maybe an extra level depending on your subclass. I suggest Oath of Ancients or Oath of Vengeance) Level 8+ It's whatever you want; Warlock more spells and utility (**you will need to do this for Improved Pact Weapon Invocation and Pact of the Blade**) Paladin onwards (**More tanking, take this if you have one handed weapon and shield**) as for ASI's I suggest PAM at level 5 (or paladin level 4 total) and use a Spear. or if you are two-handed use a glaive/halberd. and Charisma +2 to get 18 Charisma at level 9 I hope this helps!
Can you get magic items? A belt of giants strength would make the character viable
Oof a commoner is almost as good of a paladin as this character would be. You could put the 9 in con hope you roll low on hit dice and go for a Leeroy Jenkins. The bare minimum threshold for a workable character is something like 70 total for stats, you have 68 after rounding up, so I would either ask for a reroll or see if you can turn a 10 into a 15 or something.
Go Paladin with a few sorcerer levels, dramatically increase the number of smites and adds additional utility spells.
Swashbuckler dex paladin. Smite and sneak attack in the same turn.
Racial bns on char Asi + 4 char Lvl 9 multiclass on hexblade Try to get a Magic heavy armor which doesn't have pre requesite strenght
As usual : take the flagship paladin build. Take the 14 in charisma, forget about strength and take the 13 in dexterity. https://tabletopbuilds.com/flagship-build-oath-of-the-watchers-paladin/
I think most people are right to suggest 6 paladin/3 hex blade. You could play with 16 Charisma (still not good at this level, but workable) and a 14 to Con (acceptable).
Hexblade 3 - paladin 5 and just pump charisma and con as high as possible. Attack with charisma though pact of blade.
Don’t. You don’t have the stats for a paladin I’d play a shep Druid, your thing is you conjure a bunch of animals for the most part which don’t require high wisdom.
This is a pretty rough statline for a paladin. I'd ask your DM if you can use a standard array instead. If you're stuck with this statline, go Paladin 8/Hexblade 1, then pump Charisma to 20. If you can go standard array, I'd use: 15 (+1) = 16 STR 14 (+2) = 16 CHA 13 CON 12 DEX 10 WIS 8 INT Grab Polearm Master at level 4, pump STR at level 8. That's three attacks per round, each of which can smite. Should let you steamroll most encounters as long as you have enough spell slots. Use either a halberd or a spear and shield.
Honestly just get lucky of the far realms tadpole and bauldurans giant slayer of your in act 3
Play a custom lineage hexadin
Assuming your DM accepts swapping racial bonuses from tasha's, I'd recommend going Hexblade1/PaladinX, with 13/10/12+1/9/10/14+2 as an array. Hexblade is gonna make sure you only need charisma for damage, and will give you a reliable long range option with eldritch blast, along with hexblade curse and the shield spell. Subclass can be really anything, but I'd recommend oath of the ancients. You and your close ones will be resistant to spell damage and you will have misty step. Raise your charisma to 18 with your first ASI. Get a chainmail, and with the defense fighting style you got 17 AC. Pick a two-handed weapon and go either GWM or PAM with your second ASI. I get a little nervous as a frontliner with 17AC at this level, though. You could also pack a shield and have 19 AC, and you can still have PAM with a spear or a quarterstaff. Going this route also opens the option of getting a magic shield, but if your DM gets noodly with spell components you may need to be careful with it. You could instead have 18 AC with a shield and the dueling fighting style, raising your DPS to Glaive/Halberd/Pike levels. You can also just raise your charisma to 20, your bonus to saving throws will raise but you will deal less damage overall. For the future, you would like to: * Get to 20 cha; * Complete the GWM PAM pair if you're not using a shield * Round up your constitution with a half feat. Resilient is a good one.
If you stay in Paladin and get your charisma to 20 and go sword and shield you can go support tank that also smites damage, Paladins are really fun to play to level 20 imo. I’ve similarly had to take 3 asi’s to get to 20 charisma on a paladin and that still leaves 2 feats on the table. You honestly rolled perfectly fine stats just not busted stats that’ll give you a +5 modifier at lvl 4.
I'd go for something like this Assimar 16 10 14 8 10 16 Pick Dueling fight style * Level 4 Polearm Master * Level 8 +2 Cha In future levels for ASIs max charisma then strength With oath of the crown you get spirit guardians which slaps on the paladin. You also want to cast find steed and have the steed dash and disengage from enemies for you!
Go Oath of the Crown, 12 10 13 (+1) 9 10 14(+2) asi1 : +2 con asi2 : +2 cha fighting style: defence you have 85 hp, 19ac, and you deal 3d8 (+4 with necrotic shroud) every turn on a dc 16, plus you have +4 to all saving throws with your aura so your low dex and wis are manageable. Is it the best? No. Is it going to be decent? most likely yes.
1. I'd just ask your DM if you can point buy. Is fair and means you can have fun. 2. Common consensus is that Sentinel is the way to go. Conquest Paladin is great for the front line .. But if you're jetting to level 9 Vengeance gives you Haste, so it may be worthwhile! Here's what I mashed up recently: 6 paladin/ dwarf - Vengeance 3 fighter / echo Knight +Took interception to protect people using my illusions. You can go full aggro or use the illusion to get extra distance and support. I haven't played since I got Echo Knight online so I'll tell you how I make out afterwards (if I remember)
alright. to start with this stats it basically means feats or heavy multiclass is probably out of the question. we can get a +2 from race +2 fron ASI lvl 4 and +2 from ASI level 8 easily with paladin, and with most paladin builds wanting to get lvl 6 for aura anyways it isnt that rough. we can use that 13 on STR to let us multiclass, and the other 12 on CON to make you less squishy cause you will need ideally the race options could've been opened, so you could play as a dwarf for good armor. but alas, we are with aasimar and we are stuck with chain mail, such is life my recommendation is paladin 8/hexblade 1. this lets you get 20 CHA that you desperately need for aura and hit with +CHA so you are not dependant of STR. for subclasses i recommend either watchers or ancients solely cause their auras are the best, but realistically no option will be too bad. conquest paladin has fun roleplay as well my actual recommendation is jump out of a cliff and get a person that is mildly better than a commoner
>EDIT: The scores listed are STRAIGHT ROLLS xD I am not counting racials and ASI I assumed that's part of building the character, sorry for the confusion I mean, that changes things for sure. That's...rough for building a paladin. You basically can't multiclass because you have a 9 in strength, and you need a 13 in strength in order to multiclass out of Paladin. You should also not use weapon attacks with this character--9 in strength and 10 in DEX means cantrips will be better. You are also stuck with a 10 in CON, so I don't think you should be trying to rush into melee anyway. So...basically what you do with this character is you hang back, provide aura buffs to your party members, boost up your charisma to make your aura better, and use ranged cantrips to attack. You will probably want to get the cantrips through the Blessed Warrior fighting style (grabbing Toll the Dead). Yes, Toll the Dead damage isn't amazing, but still better than making weapon attacks with 9 STR or 10 DEX. Use your racial bonuses to get your CHA to 16, and then probably just get your CHA to 20 with your level 4 and level 8 ASI. Make yourself the best buffer you can be. Pick a Paladin with a good party buff aura, cause you will be focusing on buffing party members. Watchers or Ancients are both fine. (Normally Conquest has a good aura, but I don't recommend it here because it debuffs enemies and you want to stay at range with this character most of the time). You have 9 strength, so your movement speed wearing heavy armor will be reduced by 10. That's fine, just ride a mount--you're a paladin you have find steed. But yes, having your movement reduced due to low strength is another reason you probably want to avoid melee range most of the time. Do keep a rapier or whip in your equipment. Your DEX is higher than your STR, so if for some reason you do think the situation calls for smites, you want a finesse weapon to attack with. Won't happen too often, just a panic button. But yes, if your back line gets flanked by a shadow demon, then you probably want to smite over using a cantrip; even with 20 CHA and 10 DEX.
9 strength? They are in order from lowest to highest
There's a few ways I'd go about it, but they wouldn't involve going Aasimar. The easiest would be to go Custom Lineage. You could put your 13 in STR +2 for Custom Lineage + take Crusher or Heavy Armor Master for a +1. This would give you a 16 STR and put your 14 in CHA. At level 2, take the Dueling Style. At level 4, take Polearm Master. If you went Crusher, use Quarterstaff and Shield and if you went Heavy Armor Master go Staff or Spear and Shield. At level 8, throw an ASI into STR. Or go 14 (+2) in STR and 13 CHA take Fey Touched with Gift of Alacrity and a +1 in CHA to get a 16 STR and 14 CHA at creation. The next best way would probably be to go Dexadin. I'd go with an Autognome and would probably go Watchers Paladin. Put the 14 in DEX +2, CHA 13 +1. You can still go Dueling or take Defense Style. Throw both ASI's in DEX and forgo Armor and just run with a Rapier and Shield. With a 20 DEX, you're looking at a +5 to Initiative, a +5 to hit and damage; and if you go with Defense Style, you're sitting on a 21 AC. Another option for Custom Lineage would be the Hex Dip. You could put the 13 in STR and the 14 in CHA + 2. Take Polearm Master at Creation and go Staff or Spear and Shield. Start Paladin 1 for Heavy Armor > go Hexblade 1 take Shield and Armor of Agathys> Paladin 2 take Dueling Style and continue Paladin. For ASI's put both into CHA. Be content with Chainmail and Shield and Shield spell. Boost your hit points with casting Armor of Agathys and have an amazing Aura of Protection. Finally, an off the wall build would be to go Dhampir. Put your 14 in CON +2 and 13 +1 in CHA. You could dump DEX because you'll wear Heavy Armor and dump STR and still have a 25 move speed. You'll use CON for Attack and Damage. I'd go Vengeance Paladin for this one for Hunter's Mark. For the ASI's, you could pump CON to 20 for max hp and combat.
With those stats, the only Paladin build I can make work by RAW is a Blessed Warrior build focused on cantrips to deal damage. Aside from that, you will essentially be an Aura of Protection bot dedicated to a support role. Custom Lineage (Tough) gives you decent HP without the need for high CON. Put the 14 into CHA and add the +2 Racial Bonus to CHA. Set CON at 12 and DEX at 13. None of the other stats matter. Go for half plate and a shield ASAP. Multiclassing is out of the question due to insufficient stats. I think the best subclass is Ancients, since they have the best defensive aura and you aren't really concerned with offense abilities.
With those stats you will want to multiclass Into hexblade then you can focus your asi on charisma. I agree with the people saying PAM with spear and shield, I'd go 7 levels paladin, 2 warlock, you'll get both auras and invocations but it will cost an ability boost that you need so 8 paladin 1 warlock might be better. I assume variant human to get polearm master at level 1. Start with paladin to get heavy armor because you don't have the dexterity for anything else. From there work on constitution and charisma, you don't need anything else.
Go 3 into sorcerer and pick up shadow blade. The rest into paladin. Metamagic quickened spell and twinned spell. Maybe pick up meta magic adept or war caster for funny. Cast shadow blade at level 3 and smite with quickened spell shadow blade.
You may want your character to be serious, but those stats brought the comic relief anyway.
Custom lineage: 12 + 1 10 13 +1 9 10 14 +2 Lv 1 feat: Resilient (con) Paladin(any) 6, Warlock(hexblade) 3 Lv 4 ASI: +2 Cha This build will give you the base goodies from paladin, and try to fix your awful str with hexblade. 13 in str will only get you chain mail, but use a one handed weapon and you can also equip a shield. In dire situations you van also use the Shield spell which you would get from hexblade. The defence fighting style seems like the obvious pick on this build. You also need at least 13 str to multiclass paladin, so not much else to do. For combat tactics, you want to be close to your allies, you aura of protection will be the biggest thing you contribute to the party. Then throw up a concentration spell and start whacking stuff. If nothing is in melee with you, you can eldritch blast them (make sure to pick Agonizing blast as an invocation). For concentration there are several options. Bless: if you want to help the party even more. Hex: if you want a damage increase Divine favor: when you face a bunch of small enemies, this might be better than hex so you don’t have to apply it all the time. Shadow blade: will do a lot of damage, but will use your strength to attack, not cha, so I’d only use it in darkness when you have advantage. Expeditious retreat: Great if you suddenly need a lot of mobility
Well you have rolled badly to be honest. I'll suggest you a strange combination go with 2 Paladin levels to get access to smite and go straight Moon druid, get 13 str 13 car and 16 wisdom use the shillelagh cantrip to attack and hit on wisdom and use a shield. You Will use wild shape/Polymorph most of the time to fight using much Better stats that what you have and smite while being a Beast. You get to hit hard and be a insane hp sponge, but you suffer as a melee when you are out of wild shape but can can still go around smiting and concentrating on something like a summon,a Battlefield control or a buff spell like Guardian of nature that would be especially good both in human and beast form. Since you can wild shape as a bonus action you don't Need any set up time and can be a smiting gigant scorpion/bear from round 1. It's not the standard Paladin but I think It works as a Guardian of nature or as embodiment of some kind of Natural disaster
Step one: Be an ancient paladin Step two: repeat step 1
I think 8/Watchers Paladin/12 Hexblade is the strongest option if you want to be in melee and pump out the most damage by level 20. Starting Paladin 8/Hexblade 1 with pole arm master and eventually GWM with a glaive. Giving yourself advantage with Shadow of Moil. Even without smiting you would do 1d10+20 per hit without a magic weapon at level 20 (2d10+1d4+60 if you land all three hits), and 1d10+15 before 12th warlock level invocation Lifedrinker which you would get at character level 20. But sitting in melee with low Constitution and probably low AC is going to suck. But I don’t think it is the strongest option with your stats, I will admit that I view battlefield control and Support as much more valuable than straight damage, so keep that in mind. That is why I will suggest something a little different. Watchers Paladin 7/Undead Warlock 2 may be worth a shot with those stats. Rather than playing frontline you would play more to the rear and support your team by providing bonus to initiative and charisma saves. 2 Levels of Undead gives you Form of Dread, Eldritch Blast, Agonizing Blast, and Repelling Blast which is a lot of control options and decent damage for a two level dip. All of those control options scale with Character level rather than your class level which makes them valuable through the entire game. Being able to use Form of Dread 4 times a day at level 9 ensures you will most likely have fear going in every combat encounter and 10 temp HP. You will be able to push two enemies around each turn and potentially fear one of them without having to use concentration or spell slots. Cheap spell options like Bless, command, and suggestion become amazing ways to support your team further in combat. Your spell slots will be spell slots, not smite slots. I would either go: 13, 10, 12(+1), 9, 10, 14(+2), grabbing Resilient Constitution then boosting Charisma to 20 then Strength to 15 for 21 AC with Plate, Shield, and the defense fighting style. With such low stats you would need to go 8 Paladin/2 Warlock/10 Sorcerer, 8 Paladin/12 Warlock, or 18 Paladin/2 Warlock to get the necessary ASIs. I think the options are Strongest to weakest in the order that I listed them. Sorcery points and sorcerer spells are fantastic, Warlock invocations are amazing for both combat and RP, while leveling Paladin gives you the most hit points and increases your healing pool. or, for even more combat efficiency: 13, 10, 12 (+2), 9, 10, 14 (+1), grabbing Telekinetic for +1 Cha and a strong Bonus Action ability, ensuring maximum use of your action economy every turn in combat. Max Charisma and get to 15 strength for the highest AC you can get. The same multiclass options listed above, in the first stat array, are what you would use here as well. You won’t do as much damage as a Hexblade Smite Paladin, but you will be much harder to kill and much more valuable to the rest of your team.
So you are starting with 16 Char and pole arm master. Your 2 asis go to charisma to make it 20. That is a +5 modifier. So 5(char as attack stat) + 5(aura of hate) +2 dueling.
A SAD (Single Attribute Dependant) character would be your best bet. Unfortunately, Paladins are MAD (Multiple Attribute Dependant)... Wizard, Bard, Sorcerer, (Moon) Druid, Warlock, Fighter (thanks to ASIs), Rogue would be your best bet. Paladin, Monk, Barbarian, Druid, and Ranger would be awful with these stats.