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Against the tide of corruption and horrific monsters, Paladins stand as a beacon of hope inBaldur’s Gate 3. This class is more than a Fighter with a small list of spells. A Paladin is bestowed great powers at the cost of following a strict oath. Stick with your oath, and you’ll gain access to powerful subclass features.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3: Complete Guide To Paladins
The Oath of Vengeance is one of four subclasses available to the Paladin class in Baldur’s Gate 3, and it’s arguably the best option for more aggressive playstyles. This build takes that playstyle and pushes it to its limit, allowing the Paladin to act as a frontline fighter and caster with little compromise, all while disintegrating foes with the sheer power of your smites.
A Paladin under the Oath of Vengeancefocuses on offensive capabilities to destroy their foes.Vengeance Paladins get a full suite of devastating spells and class abilities to enhance their combat prowess. The most notable addition is the Hold Person spell, available at level five. This lets you Paralyze a humanoid target in place. If you land a melee attack on them, it will always critically strike. This works with smite attacks as well. Since this combination is so powerful, we’ll want as many spell slots as possible. This is when multiclassing comes in.
This build is a6/6 multiclass split between Paladin and Sorcerer,taking the excellent offensive capabilities of the Vengeance Paladin and pairing them with the utility and additional spell slots of the Sorcerer’s Metamagic. Referred to in tabletop as a ‘Sorcadin,’ this build focuses on improving the versatility and martial prowess of the Paladin by using the Sorcerer’s unique mechanics and spell list. Use Metamagic to buff two targets with Haste, cast Lightning Bolt as a bonus action, or release four smites in a single turn to utterly annihilate a boss.
While this build is possible with other Paladin subclasses, theOath of Vengeance turns the Paladin into a powerful melee fighterthrough Vow of Enmity, Inquisitor’s Might, and the powerful Hold Person and Misty Step spells. Paired with the additional spell slots and Metamagic mechanic from Sorcerers, this Vengeance Paladin build can fill virtually any role in your party to great effect.
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Character Creation
You cannot change your race or background after character creation. Classes and related choices can be respecced anytime aftercompleting a short Act 1 quest.
Race Options
Half-Orc
Melee critical hits roll an additional die. Can cheat death once per long rest.
Gains proficiency with martial weapons and medium armor.
Ideal for a Dexterity variant that starts as a Sorcerer.
Drow
Access to Faerie Fire and Darkness spells. Proficient with Perception checks.
Great option for group utility and RP.
If you care about build optimization, you have two main options for this build: Half-Orc or Githyanki.The Half-Orc has access to Savage Attacks, causing melee critical hits to roll triple the attack dice over double. Despite the in-game description, this doesnottriple your damage.Any source of damage inflicted through your critical melee strike will roll one additional die.For example, if you used a weapon with 2d10 damage, it’d increase to 5d10 on a critical hit—doubled from being a critical hit plus an added die from Savage Strikes. It’s a powerhouse of a passive since we can guarantee critical hits through Hold Person, but Savage Strikes is by no means required for this build to work.
If you want tostart as a Sorcererand multiclass into Paladin later, play a Githyanki.This will give you proficiency with martial weapons, light armor, and medium armor regardless of class. This makes up for the Sorcerer’s lack of gear proficiencies, allowing you to use medium armor and most weapons while spellcasting. Since you won’t be using heavy armor, scaling Dexterity is recommended over Strength.If you don’t care about optimization, play any race.Those that want to walk a balance between role-playing and optimization should pickDrow, as it has a good mix of utility spells and unique social interactions during the first Act.
Proficiency with Athletics and Intimidation.
Proficiency with Deception and Sleight of Hand.
Ideal for Dexterity variants.
Choosing your background determineswhat inspires your characterwhile adding a couple of bonus skill proficiencies. Paladins are great talkers and brawlers, defusing situations with words or steel. As such, backgrounds with skill proficiencies related to dialogue checks are recommended.
Soldieris our pick for Strength-focused builds. Athletics is an amazing skill for combat, as it buffs the Shove bonus action. A high Athletics skill can allow you to push most enemies into hazards like lava pools or bottomless chasms. Intimidation is a fairly common social check that allows you to defuse situations with threats.Soldiers gain most of their inspiration from combat.Completing combat encounters without letting allies die, killing multiple enemies in one turn, and fighting villains head-on will inspire your character.
Charlatanis ideal for a Dexterity variant of this build. Deception is an uncommon but useful social check, making it easier to lie about your character’s motivations when beneficial. Sleight of Hand seems strange initially, but any build with a high Dexterity modifier is ideal for picking locks or pockets. Gaining proficiency with Sleight of Hand will make your character a great lockpick.Charlatans are inspired by manipulation.Tricking enemies into inadvertently helping you, finding ways to subtly kill your foes, and other forms of subterfuge will inspire your character.
Insight
Athletics
As for skill proficiencies, choosePersuasion, Intimidation, Insight, and Athletics.Persuasion and Intimidation are core social skills that greatly benefit from a high Charisma score, and Insight can be used to tell if NPCs are lying. Since Paladins tend to scale their Strength stat, gaining proficiency with Athletics is a great way to improve your chances of successfully shoving targets in combat—useful for pushing enemies into chasms and similar hazards.
For Dexterity variants, swap the Strength and Dexterity scores.
16 (+2)
10
14
8
Charisma
16 (+1)
This build focuses on scaling ourCharisma and Strength stats primarily, followed by Constitution.Charisma is arguably the strongest ability score for Paladins, as it affects your spell save DC, most social checks, and the bonus to saving throws you receive from your Aura of Protection passive.Max your Charisma stat first.Once it reaches 20, focus on increasing your Strength. This will improve your damage with melee weapons. Finally, we put a few points into Constitution to increase our max HP. Paladins are frontline fighters, so having a high health pool is key to surviving difficult encounters.
It’s also worth noting thatmulticlassing has no ability score prerequisites in Baldur’s Gate 3,unlikeD&D 5E. You can multiclass into Sorcerer or Paladin regardless of your ability score values.
For this guide, we recommend starting as aPaladin under the Oath of Vengeance. You’ll be able to use virtually any item you find, and you’ll have access to Divine Smite quite early in your journey. This is a powerful augment to your main attack that greatly increases your damage, especially against undead. Throughout the first Act, focus on getting some decent heavy armor, a good sword, and a shield. You can find some armorinside the Dank Cryptright next to the nautiloid crash site. A +1 variant can also be purchased from a vendor in the Emerald Grove. Focus on tanking during the earlier levels.
Once you reach level five, you’ll gain access toHold Personandextra attack, allowing you to use Divine Smite twice in one action.If that target is affected by Hold Person, these smites will always crit, allowing you to dish out some absurd burst damage. This quickly chews through your spell slots, however, so only do this against tough opponents. If you’re fighting monsters that Hold Person can’t debuff, cast Vow of Enmity to gain Advantage on your attack rolls. For situations where you may’t smite, focus on tanking for your party by using Shield of Faith or similar AC-boosting spells.
Keep an eye out for the Hold Monster spell in the endgame. You won’t be able to cast it yourself, but a dedicated caster like Gale can use this spell to inflict Paralysis on anything Hold Monster doesn’t work on.
Paladins want as many spell slots as possible for smite, sothis build will multiclass into Sorcerer after level six.By level 12, you’ll have more spell slots than if you went 12 levels as a Vengeance Paladin, and you’ll have access toMetamagic. This allows you to perform some downright game-breaking combos like twin-casting Haste or allowing you to cast Fireball as a bonus action. Resource management is a must, but good use of your skills will let you fulfill virtually any role your group requires.
Level Four
Paladins are martial and spellcaster hybrids, giving them access to a small selection of spells.Shield of Faithis a must, increasing the target’s AC by +2 while concentrating. This is a massive jump for a character wielding a shield and heavy armor, giving your enemies a slim chance of hitting your character. For offensive measures, we takeWrathful Smitefor situations where the target is immune to Divine Smite’s radiant damage. Wrathful Smite dishes out psychic damage and can inflict the Frighten debuff, forcing them to remain stationary. Besides those two,take any smite and healing spells on your Paladin.
Upon multiclassing as a Sorcerer, you will gain access to a larger list of spells and additional spell slots as you level.Magic Missileis an excellent grab for a first level spell, launching three projectiles that seek their target and deal guaranteed force damage. This is invaluable for killing stragglers or enemies adjacent to your character’s initiative order.BlurandMirror Imageare great level-two spells that greatly improve your character’s survivability. For level three, takeHaste.You can use Metamagic to twin this spell, allowing you tobuff two allies with Haste simultaneously.Use it on yourself and a fellow martial to dish out some absurd damage.
The remaining spells are down to preference.Fireballis a solid pick for its high burst damage and wide area of effect. One great option isLightning Boltif you take Storm Sorcery, as this lets you electrocute water pools created by the likes of Sleet Storm or Create Water spell.Wet enemies take double lightning and thunder damage, so Storm Sorcerer gets a ton of bonus damage from this combination. This can even pair this with Thunderous Smite for some great melee damage.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3: Tips For Playing On Tactician Mode
Recommended Gear
The gear listed is for an Act 2 character. Better options might be available during later Acts. These items are not hard requirements but general recommendations.
+1 to AC and saving throws
18AC, makes you immune to critical hits.
Surgeon’s Subjugation Amulet
Once per long rest, when scoring a critical hit on a humanoid, you can Paralyze them for 2 turns.
While surrounded by 2+ enemies, your attacks roll with Advantage.
Killer’s Sweetheart
Once per long rest, killing an enemy causes your next attack to critically hit.
Ring #2
Disintegrating Night Walkers
Can’t be Enwebbed, Entangled, or Ensnared and can’t slip on grease or ice.
Grants immunity to Paralysis and Restrained effects. Ignore difficult terrain.
Sentinel Shield
+2AC, and gain +3 to all initiative rolls.
Oath of Vengeance Paladins stick to melee range, requiring high AC values to stay alive. As such, it’s important tofind a good set of heavy armor and a shieldfor your character. Two-handed weapons are also an option, but we find the higher AC provided by shields to be more useful in most combat encounters.
During the first Act, theAdamantine Splint Armoris the best heavy armor available. You cancraft this in the Gyrmforge towards the end of the first Act. This chest armor has a whopping 18AC rating and grants immunity to critical hits, drastically improving your character’s survivability. To improve the odds of landing melee attacks, theGloves of the Growling Underdogare fantastic. It’s effectively free Advantage since Paladins tend to fight in melee range. All remaining item slots should focus on improving AC or weapon damage.
