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Oath of the Ancients offers a vastly different way of playing paladin to the other subclasses offered in Fifth EditionDungeons & Dragons. The flavour of the class as protectors of nature positions them closer to rangers and druids than the more traditional knight in shining armour represented by the archetype.
An Ancients Paladin can lean into the generic toolkit of the paladin to play a different type of nature character than a druid or ranger, or lean into the unique aspects of their toolkit to play less like a paladin and more akin the other paragons of the natural world.
Best Ability Scores For An Oath Of The Ancients Paladin
The Paladin has a strong toolkit that is dependent oncarefully balancing the need for a high charisma alongside the ability score of your weapon.
Ancients Paladins are better equipped than other subclasses tosupport the use of dexterity weapons,but personal preference may lead you to favouring strength. If so swap the position of those two when assigning your ability scores.
Dexterity
First
Dexterity weapons that can be used at range give an Ancients Paladin greater control over their positioning, enabling them to make great use of theirAuras Of Protection and Warding. Changing between whether these defensive bonuses apply to the front line or back line of your team will change with the course of a battle.
Charisma
Second
Charismamakes your aura of protection strongerand your spells harder to resist.
Constitution
Third
More constitution means you may take more punishment.Your defensive abilities allow you to stretch each hitpoint further than other people, making a high constitution valuable but not enough to neglect the previous two stats.
Strength
Personal Preference
Strength weapons are a more traditional choice for paladins butbetween strength and dexterity you can get away with only investing in one or the other.
If you useheavy armour you will suffer a movement speed penaltyfor low strength, although a high dexterity means you don’t need to opt for heavy armour.
Wisdom
None of your class features leverage wisdom, but it does benefit your perception checks andenables multiclasses with druid and ranger.
Intelligence
None of your class features leverage intelligence, but if you want to multiclass into wizard or roleplay in a specific way you might put this one higher.
How To Fight As An Oath Of The Ancients Paladin
The Oath Of The Ancients subclass gives astrong toolkit for defensive fighting,both for themselves and shared to their allies. There are a few different ways that you may utilise this, and they’ll differ from the more aggressive playstyle of subclasses such as the Oath of Vengeance.
Role
Back of the group
Serving as a rearguard,you may use entangling strike and other spells that imitate divine smite with a ranged weapon.Staying at the back of your group lets you defend adjacent casters.Spellcasters will deal half damage against your Aura of Warding, while ambushers coming from behind will have to push past you in melee.
A protector fighting style with a shield and one-handed ranged weapon(such as a hand crossbow or a throwable knife) allows you to impose disadvantage against other types of attacks as well, defending your weaker allies against snipers, assassins and spellcasters merely by staying close to them.
Front of the group
Serving on the frontline you canextend those same defensive skills towards other frontline fighters. Many classes, such as rogues and storm sorcerers want to be near the frontline of the fight but lack the survivability skills to spend long times in melee.
Melee oriented fighters have many hitpoints but canbenefit from your aura of protection when facing down enemies with that can charm, stun or banishthem on a failed saving throw. If you are familiar with the other paladin subclasses this is where you’ll feel the most at home.
Middle of the group
Some parties will favour a tight formation that allows your aura to cover the entire group. The ten-foot auras at level six and seven mean that you may need to stand in the middle of the group for this to work.
This does open up vulnerabilities, as being closely packed makes it easier for area attacks to hit the entire party, even if they deal less damage individually.
Adapt as situations change. The beginning of a fight ishigh-risk for rear-guard members, especially withpotential ambushesandpotent enemy spells. Uselay on handstoheal fallen frontline fighterssafely.
Beware of foes bypassing yourspell damage resistance, like adragon’s breath attack.OverrelianceonAura of Wardingcan catch you off guard.
Best Spells For An Oath Of The Ancients Paladin
The oath spells provided by this subclass are more thematic than useful but still contain some gems.
You can choose to pick your other paladin spells to broaden your available options for a wide variety of situations or leverage the power of other parts of your subclass.
Command
Force a target to obey a single word order.
One of the few paladin spells thatdoes not require concentration.Orders to approach and flee allow you todisrupt how enemies position themselves, forcing casters to run into melee ranger or tanks to leave their groups unprotected.
Ordering enemies to approach into melee range also saves you having to break formation with your team to chase after them.
Warding Bond
Gives an ally resistance to all damage, but forces you to take the same amount of damage.
Your level seven Aura of Warding provides resistance against damage from all spells including your own.
Combined with Warding Bond, this means that thedamage shared from the bond is halved twiceby the time it reaches you: First by the resistance of your ally, and then a second time by your own aura.
Protection From Poison
Grants advantage on poison saving throws and resistance to poison damage.
One of the few buff spells in fifth edition that does not require concentration. You’ll often be able to anticipate scenarios where you’ll want this spell active before going in.
Aid
Grant five hitpoints to up to three allies.
Another buff spell that does not require concentration, but also a cheaper substitute for the cleric’s Mass Healing Word spellwhen multiple characters are on zero hitpoints.
Paladins are prepared casters, allowing them to alter their spell list at the end of a long rest. You can use this toselect utility spells relevant to what you expect to encounter in an area.Clerics and wizards are able to perform better as utility casters, but the duty normally falls to whichever party member thinks to do it.
Helpful paladin utility spells include: Create Food And Water, Purify Food and Drink,Daylight,Dispel Magic, Magic Circle, andZone of Truth.
How To Roleplay An Oath Of The Ancients Paladin
There are multiple nature themed classes that an Ancients Paladin can take inspiration from in how they roleplay their warrior of nature.
They could present their paladinhood as a moremilitant sect of druidic worship, possiblybelonging to a druidic circle in roleplayeven without having the class features of a druid (ask your GM whether it would be feasible for your paladin to learn druidic as a language).
They mightbe sworn towards a specific form of nature, such as a geographical region, a biome or a native group.
Alternatively they could take on a more elusive fey theme.Your channel divinity is augmented by the Oath of the Ancients, allowing you to repel feythe way a cleric might turn the undead. This also dispels illusions and shapeshifting, making an Ancients Paladin a flavourful monster hunter against hidden fey.
The high charisma of paladins and their respectable career choice typically means they work well as the face of the party, representing them in social situations. A nature paladin might present differently from the chivalric ideal but retains the paladin’s ability to perform well in negotiations.
