Paladin 5eClass Guide & NPC Generator

Yes. A paladin’s power comes from the Sacred Oath they swear, not from a deity, so it can flow from a personal code, an ancestral vow, or a cause rather than any god.

Absolutely — the oath is a promise, and its power answers the promise rather than a patron. A paladin can serve an ideal, an ancestor, or a cause and never worship a god at all.

The Aura of Protection comes online at 6th level and is fully active at 7th: while you’re conscious, you and allies within 10 feet add your Charisma modifier to every saving throw. It doesn’t change at 7 specifically — it simply keeps protecting the party until it widens to 30 feet at 18th.

There’s no single best oath — it depends on your concept and party. Only the Oath of Devotion is in the free SRD; damage-focused tables often favour Vengeance or Conquest, while Ancients and Redemption lean protective.

It depends what you measure: Vengeance and Conquest are prized for offense and control, while Devotion’s accuracy boost pairs beautifully with big smites. Note that only Devotion is SRD; the rest come from paid expansions.

For a warm, party-supporting paladin the protective oaths shine — the Oath of the Ancients and Oath of Redemption both favour endurance, allies, and de-escalation over raw damage. The SRD’s Oath of Devotion also plays a fine, upstanding role.

Usually not. A shield plus the Dueling fighting style tends to give better armour class and damage than two-weapon fighting, and dual wielding competes for the bonus action you’ll often want for Lay on Hands or a spell.

With no dedicated front-liner in that party, a tanking feat like Sentinel or Polearm Master lets you hold the line and control the space around you. If you’re the main damage dealer instead, Great Weapon Master raises your ceiling.

Aasimar raises Charisma — the paladin’s core stat — and its later celestial transformations add radiant damage that lands right alongside your smites, making it one of the most synergistic paladin lineages.

There’s no official “one slot per turn” rule; the real limit is one Divine Smite per weapon hit — you can’t pile multiple slots onto a single swing. Land a second, separate hit and you can smite again.

A paladin nova stacks ways to land and multiply one big hit: seek advantage or a critical, add Great Weapon Master, then pour several spell slots into Divine Smites on that turn — and a crit doubles the smite dice.

Paladin damage leans radiant, and Divine Smite plus the 11th-level Improved Divine Smite are your main radiant output. On the prepared list, buffs such as Crusader’s Mantle add radiant damage to the party’s attacks; the class has little native fire.