paladin pathfinder guide
The Paladin is a divine warrior, blending martial prowess with sacred power. Bound by oaths, they serve as defenders, healers, and beacons of justice in Pathfinder campaigns.
1.1 Overview of the Paladin in Pathfinder
The Pathfinder Paladin is a versatile class that combines martial prowess with divine magic. They are champions of justice, sworn to protect the innocent and vanquish evil. Paladins are highly durable, with access to heavy armor and divine grace, which enhances their saving throws. Their abilities include smiting enemies, healing allies with lay on hands, and channeling energy to support or harm. Paladins are oaths-bound, guiding their actions and defining their role in both combat and narrative. They excel as both defenders and healers, making them invaluable to any party.
1.2 Role of the Paladin in a Party
The Paladin serves as a cornerstone of any party, fulfilling multiple roles seamlessly. They are formidable defenders, using their martial skills and divine auras to protect allies. Paladins also act as healers, employing lay on hands and channel energy to mend wounds. Their ability to smite evil foes makes them potent damage dealers. Additionally, their charisma and divine authority allow them to serve as the party’s face, negotiating and leading with moral authority. This versatility ensures the Paladin is both a combat powerhouse and a narrative anchor for the group.
1.3 Key Abilities and Features
Paladins possess unique divine abilities that set them apart. Smite Evil deals bonus damage to evil creatures, scaling with level. Lay on Hands allows healing or harming, while Channel Energy provides area effects. Divine Grace enhances saves, making Paladins resilient. Their Aura of Courage boosts allies’ morale, preventing fear. These abilities, combined with martial prowess, make the Paladin a versatile and powerful class, capable of fulfilling both combat and support roles effectively in any adventuring party. Their features are both tactical and narrative, enhancing the party’s overall performance.
Paladin Class Overview
The Paladin combines martial prowess with divine magic, serving as a versatile Defender, Striker, and Healer. Their hybrid role makes them adaptable to various party needs and strategies.
2;1 The Paladin’s Role as a Martial and Divine Class
The Paladin seamlessly merges martial combat skills with divine spellcasting, offering versatility in both battle and support roles. Their martial prowess allows them to excel as front-line defenders or damage dealers, while their divine abilities provide healing, buffs, and protection. This dual nature makes Paladins adaptable, capable of fulfilling multiple roles within a party, ensuring they remain integral to any adventuring group’s success in Pathfinder.
2.2 Alignment and Oath Restrictions
Paladins are bound by strict moral and ethical codes, with their alignment closely tied to their chosen oaths. Most Paladins are lawful good, though some archetypes allow for variations. Their divine powers are contingent upon upholding these oaths, and failure to do so risks losing access to key abilities. Each oath imposes specific behavioral restrictions, shaping the Paladin’s role in both combat and roleplay. This adherence to a sacred vow ensures Paladins remain paragons of virtue, embodying their order’s ideals in Pathfinder.
2.3 Base Class Features and Progression
Paladins gain a mix of martial and divine features, with progression focused on enhancing combat and healing capabilities. Key abilities include Smite Evil, Lay on Hands, and Divine Grace, which improve as they level up. Their Channel Energy feature allows them to heal or harm, scaling with their class level. Paladins also gain access to spells, starting with limited slots that increase progressively. The class further emphasizes high saving throws and proficiency in armor and weapons, making them versatile defenders and support characters in Pathfinder campaigns.
Choosing the Right Race for Your Paladin
Selecting the right race enhances a Paladin’s abilities. Races like Aasimar, Tiefling, and Human offer bonuses to charisma, aligning with the Paladin’s divine and martial prowess, optimizing their builds.
3.1 Popular Races for Paladins
Popular races for Paladins include Aasimar, Tiefling, and Human. Aasimar offer innate bonuses to charisma, aligning with Paladins’ divine magic. Tiefling provide spell-like abilities and racial traits that complement smite evil. Humans gain bonus feats, enhancing combat effectiveness. These races synergize with Paladin abilities, making them top choices for players seeking to optimize their builds for both martial and divine prowess in Pathfinder campaigns. Each race offers unique advantages, tailoring to specific playstyles.
3.2 Racial Traits and Their Impact on Paladin Builds
Racial traits significantly influence Paladin builds, enhancing core abilities. Aasimar gain charisma bonuses, boosting divine magic and leadership. Tiefling offer spell-like abilities, adding versatility in combat. Humans receive bonus feats, improving martial prowess. Dwarf and Elf traits provide defensive and offensive boosts, respectively. Each race’s unique abilities synergize with Paladin features, allowing players to tailor their characters for specific roles, whether as healers, tanks, or damage dealers. These traits ensure a customized approach to building an effective Paladin.
Paladin Archetypes
Paladin archetypes offer diverse playstyles, from the Oath Against Corruption to the Hospitaler. Each archetype provides unique abilities, shaping the Paladin’s role in combat and storytelling.
4.1 Overview of Popular Archetypes
Popular Paladin archetypes include the Oath Against Corruption, Hospitaler, and others. Each offers unique twists, such as enhanced healing or improved combat tactics. These archetypes allow players to customize their Paladin’s role, whether as a devoted healer or a formidable tank. By choosing an archetype, Paladins can specialize in specific duties, making them versatile assets to any party. Archetypes enhance both combat effectiveness and roleplaying depth.
4.2 Oath Against Corruption
The Oath Against Corruption archetype focuses on purity and righteousness. Paladins sworn to this oath gain abilities to protect the innocent and vanquish evil. They excel at identifying and combating corrupt forces, often gaining bonuses against evil-aligned enemies. This archetype emphasizes the Paladin’s role as a moral guardian, enhancing their divine magic and combat prowess against malevolent foes. It is ideal for players seeking a traditional, justice-oriented Paladin.
4.3 Hospitaler and Other Support-Focused Archetypes
The Hospitaler archetype transforms the Paladin into a dedicated healer and protector. Focused on preserving life, they gain enhanced healing abilities and protective auras. This archetype is ideal for players who prefer to support their party rather than deal damage. Hospitalers excel at keeping allies alive and can even use their divine magic to bolster morale. Other support-focused archetypes offer similar utility, emphasizing the Paladin’s role as a guardian and healer, making them invaluable in any adventuring party.
Feats for Paladins
Paladins rely on feats to enhance combat and divine abilities, ensuring they excel as defenders, healers, or damage dealers. Essential feats boost their martial and divine prowess.
5.1 Essential Combat Feats
Essential combat feats for Paladins enhance their martial effectiveness. Power Attack and Weapon Focus improve melee potency, while Improved Initiative ensures they act first in battles. Cleave allows for multiple attacks, clearing clusters of foes. Additionally, Smite Evil boosts damage against evil enemies, making it a core choice. These feats ensure Paladins remain formidable defenders and strikers, balancing offense and defense seamlessly in any combat scenario.
5.2 Divine and Martial Feat Selections
Paladins can combine divine and martial feats for versatility. Divine Might enhances melee attacks with charisma, while Sacred Weapon grants bonuses to attacks and damage. Feats like Channel Smite merge combat and divine energy, allowing Paladins to channel energy through smite attacks. Selective Channeling improves healing efficiency, and Vestment of the Champion boosts armor capabilities. These feats highlight the Paladin’s unique blend of martial prowess and divine power, enabling them to excel in both combat and support roles effectively.
5.3 Trait Choices for Paladins
Traits enhance a Paladin’s abilities and background. Tiefling traits boost self-healing with Lay on Hands, while Wayang increases Channel Energy efficiency. Some traits like Deft Acrobatics improve mobility, and Warrior Spirit enhances combat prowess. Choosing traits that align with your Paladin’s build, such as boosting Charisma or enhancing martial skills, ensures a well-rounded character. These selections complement class features and define your Paladin’s unique role in the party, whether focusing on offense, defense, or support.
Paladin Spells and Divine Magic
Paladins wield divine magic, casting spells that heal, protect, and smite enemies. Their spell list includes Cure Wounds, Bless, and Summon Monster, enhancing their martial and supportive roles.
6.1 Overview of the Paladin Spell List
The Paladin’s spell list combines martial and divine power, offering versatile options for combat and support. Spells like Cure Wounds and Bless provide healing and buffs, while Smite Evil and Summon Monster enhance their offensive capabilities. Their divine magic allows them to protect allies, debilitate foes, and adapt to various combat scenarios, making them invaluable in both offense and defense. This flexibility ensures Paladins can fulfill multiple roles within a party effectively.
6.2 Key Spells for Different Levels
Paladins gain access to spells that enhance their combat and support capabilities. At lower levels, spells like Cure Wounds and Bless provide healing and buffs. Mid-level spells such as Smite Evil and Summon Monster offer offensive and strategic advantages. Higher-level spells like Holy Smite and Divine Power amplify their martial prowess. These spells allow Paladins to adapt to various challenges, making them versatile defenders and healers in any party composition. Their divine magic grows stronger with each level, ensuring they remain effective in both combat and support roles.
Channel Energy is a cornerstone of the Paladin’s divine abilities, allowing them to heal wounds or deal damage to undead. At higher levels, this power becomes more potent, affecting multiple targets. It can be used strategically to bolster allies or debilitate foes. Proper management of this resource is crucial, as it enhances the Paladin’s versatility in both combat and support scenarios. This ability underscores their role as a divine intermediary, capable of profound impact on the battlefield. Paladins wield divine grace, smite evil, and lay on hands, combining martial skills with sacred powers to protect and inspire allies while vanquishing foes effectively. Smite Evil is a hallmark ability, allowing paladins to deal bonus damage against evil outsiders, undead, and dragons. On the first hit, the damage increases significantly, scaling with their level. This ability is potent in combat, making paladins formidable against specific foes. Variations through archetypes and feats can enhance its effectiveness, ensuring versatility in different playstyles while maintaining its core purpose as a powerful tool against evil forces. Lay on Hands is a versatile ability that channels divine energy to heal wounds or harm undead. Paladins can use it creatively in combat, such as healing themselves or allies between attacks or targeting undead foes with radiant energy. This ability becomes even more potent with archetypes and feats that enhance its effects, making it a cornerstone of a paladin’s support and combat tactics. Its swift action usability ensures it remains a valuable tool in dynamic battlefield situations. Divine Grace grants paladins a divine bonus to all saving throws, enhancing their resilience against magical and mundane threats. This ability scales with level, providing increased protection as the paladin grows in power. Combined with high Charisma, it makes paladins formidable defenders, capable of withstanding even the most potent effects. This divine protection ensures they remain steadfast in battle, upholding their oaths and safeguarding their allies from harm, making them reliable pillars of defense in any adventuring party. Building a Paladin involves selecting race, archetype, and feats to align with their oath and role; Focus on divine magic, martial prowess, and party support to create a versatile champion. The Tank Paladin excels at absorbing damage and protecting allies. Focus on high Constitution and Wisdom for survivability. Select defensive feats like Shield Mastery and Improved Shield Bash. Archetypes like the Hospitaler enhance healing and support. Utilize heavy armor and shields to maximize AC. Lay on Hands and Channel Energy provide self-healing and utility. This build ensures the Paladin stands as an unyielding fortress, safeguarding the party while maintaining offensive capabilities. A DPS-focused Paladin maximizes damage output through martial prowess and divine might. Prioritize Strength and Charisma for enhanced melee attacks. Feats like Power Attack and Cleave boost combat effectiveness. Archetypes such as the Oath Against Corruption amplify offensive capabilities. Utilize high-damage weapons and select spells like Bless and Divine Favor for combat enhancement. This build transforms the Paladin into a formidable striker, delivering devastating blows while maintaining some defensive and supportive utility. The Support and Healing Paladin excels at restoring health and bolstering allies. Focus on Charisma and Wisdom to enhance divine magic. Archetypes like the Hospitaler amplify healing abilities. Feats such as Extra Lay on Hands and Channel Smite maximize utility. Use spells like Cure Wounds and Bless to sustain the party. This build ensures the Paladin serves as a reliable healer and buffer, keeping allies alive and empowered during combat, while still contributing to offense through judicious use of divine energy. Paladins rely on sacred armor and divine weapons to uphold their oaths. They wear heavy armor for protection and wield holy avengers to smite enemies, ensuring righteousness prevails. Paladins favor weapons and armor that align with their sacred oaths, often choosing holy avengers for their versatility and heavy armor for maximum protection. These divine warriors benefit from magic items like Magic Vestment to enhance their equipment; Their weapon and armor selections are crucial for balancing offense, defense, and mobility, ensuring they can fulfill their roles as both protectors and combatants. Proper gear optimization is key to their effectiveness in battle. Paladins benefit greatly from magic items that enhance their martial and divine capabilities. Magic Vestment and Holy Avenger weapons are particularly effective, as they amplify damage and provide additional bonuses. Armor enhancements like Cloak of Resistance and Belt of Physical Perfection boost defensive stats. Optimizing gear involves balancing offense, defense, and mobility while ensuring items align with the paladin’s oath. Strategic selection of magic items is crucial for maximizing effectiveness in both combat and roleplay scenarios; Paladins often bond with mounts and animal companions, enhancing their combat and exploration capabilities. Sacred mounts, like Paladin’s Mount, offer increased strength and loyalty. Animal companions provide utility, such as scouting or aiding in battle. Gear optimization for mounts, including Barding and Magical Bridles, ensures they remain effective allies. These companions symbolize the paladin’s commitment to justice and are integral to their role as both warriors and protectors in the party. Paladins excel in combat through strategic positioning, aura utilization, and efficient resource management, ensuring they protect allies while delivering divine justice to enemies effectively in battle. Proper positioning is crucial for Paladins to maximize their impact. By securing high initiative, they can act swiftly, ensuring they strike first in combat. Positioning themselves between enemies and allies protects the party, while maintaining distance from overwhelming clusters prevents being flanked. Using high ground or cover enhances survivability. Additionally, casting buffs at the start ensures the party begins combat with an advantage. This strategic placement allows Paladins to effectively control the battlefield and safeguard their companions while dealing significant damage to foes. Paladins excel at bolstering allies and weakening foes through their auras and buffs. Abilities like Crusader’s Flair and Shield of the Righteous provide aura bonuses to attack rolls and AC, respectively. Activating these before combat ensures your party starts with an advantage. Use higher-level auras strategically, such as Call to Oneness for mobility or Crusader’s Focus for precision. Combine these with spells like Bless or Magic Weapon to amplify effectiveness; Properly timing and layering these effects maximizes their impact in battle. Paladins must carefully manage their limited-use abilities to maximize combat effectiveness. Lay on Hands and Channel Energy are potent but finite, so reserve them for critical moments. Use Smite Evil early in encounters to capitalize on its bonus damage and attack enhancements. Keep track of remaining spells and ensure their use aligns with the battle’s flow. Efficient resource management ensures the Paladin remains a formidable force throughout the fight, balancing offense, defense, and support roles seamlessly. Proper timing enhances both survival and impact. Advanced Paladins refine their playstyle through mythic paths, prestige classes, and multiclassing, enhancing their divine and martial capabilities. High-level builds often focus on optimizing smite, spellcasting, and aura effects for maximum impact. Mythic paths like the Angel enhance Paladins with divine powers, granting abilities like Heavenly Form and Divine Intervention. Prestige classes such as the Sentinel or Champion of the Faith offer specialized features, boosting combat and divine abilities. These advanced options allow Paladins to refine their role, whether as unstoppable warriors, devoted protectors, or charismatic leaders. Choosing the right path or prestige class depends on the player’s vision for their Paladin, ensuring a cohesive and powerful high-level build. Multiclassing a Paladin can create versatile builds. Combining with Cleric enhances divine magic, while Fighter boosts martial prowess. Bard multiclassing adds charisma utility, making Paladins effective faces. Ranger or Barbarian blends combat styles for unique playstyles. Each multiclass option offers strategic trade-offs, allowing Paladins to adapt to various roles without losing core identity. However, care is needed to maintain class cohesion and avoid diluting key abilities, ensuring a balanced yet powerful character. Multiclassing rewards creativity and strategic planning in Pathfinder. At high levels, Paladins excel in specialized roles. Their smite evil ability becomes devastating, especially against powerful foes. Divine magic and aura abilities enhance party performance. Endgame builds often focus on maximizing damage, healing, or tanking; The Tank Paladin excels at absorbing damage, while DPS-focused builds leverage high attack bonuses and smite enhancements. Support builds optimize Channel Energy for mass healing or buffering. Strategic play involves managing resources like lay on hands and divine grace. High-level Paladins are versatile but require careful build planning to maintain effectiveness. Paladins embody righteousness, adhering to strict moral codes. Their oaths guide actions in combat and roleplay. Players must balance ethics with practicality, ensuring alignment with their character’s beliefs.
A paladin’s oath is their cornerstone, defining their purpose and conduct. Upholding it means adhering to specific tenets, whether protecting the innocent, vanquishing evil, or maintaining justice. Consistency in actions and decisions ensures character integrity. Breaking the oath risks severe penalties, including loss of divine abilities. Roleplayers must weave their oath into every interaction, making it central to their identity and story. This commitment enhances both gameplay and narrative depth. Paladins often face complex moral dilemmas, as their oaths demand strict adherence to justice, mercy, or protection. Roleplaying these challenges enhances the story, as players must balance personal beliefs with party goals. For instance, sparing an evil foe or aiding a morally ambiguous cause can spark internal conflict. These situations deepen character development and create memorable narratives. A paladin’s rigid code of conduct can clash with companions, adding layers of tension and realism to the adventure. This dynamic enriches both individual and group storytelling. Balancing combat prowess and roleplay is crucial for paladins, as their abilities and oaths are deeply tied to their narrative. Players must weave their character’s convictions into both dialogue and action. For example, using smite evil in combat reflects their righteousness, while adhering to their oath in social interactions maintains authenticity. This synergy creates a cohesive character identity, making the paladin both a formidable ally in battle and a compelling figure in roleplay. Harmonizing these aspects enhances the overall gaming experience. The Paladin is a divine warrior, blending martial prowess with sacred power. Bound by oaths, they serve as defenders, healers, and beacons of justice in Pathfinder campaigns. The Paladin is a powerful and versatile class, excelling as both a defender and a healer. Their divine abilities, such as Smite Evil and Lay on Hands, make them invaluable in combat and out. Choosing the right race and archetype can significantly enhance their effectiveness. Paladins must stay true to their oaths, balancing roleplay with combat efficiency. With proper builds and gear, they can be unstoppable champions of justice, bringing hope to any adventuring party. For deeper insight into the Paladin class, explore guides like Ilzury’s Guide to the Pathfinder Paladin and RPGBOT’s Paladin Handbook. These resources offer detailed builds, archetype analysis, and strategies for mastering divine abilities. Additionally, forums and community discussions provide tips on race selection, feat optimization, and spell usage. Websites like Pathfinder Archives and D20PFSRD are excellent for rule clarifications and class feature breakdowns, ensuring you maximize your Paladin’s potential in any campaign.6.3 Channel Energy and Its Applications
Paladin Abilities and Mechanics
7.1 Smite Evil and Its Variations
7.2 Lay on Hands and Its Tactical Uses
7.3 Divine Grace and Save Bonuses
Building Your Paladin
8.1 Tank Paladin Build
8.2 DPS-Focused Paladin Build
8.3 Support and Healing Paladin Build
Paladin Equipment and Armor
9.1 Weapon and Armor Choices
9.2 Magic Items and Gear Optimization
9.3 Mounts and Animal Companions
Paladin Combat Tactics
10.1 Positioning and Initiative
10.2 Using Auras and Buffs Effectively
10.3 Managing Resources in Combat
Advanced Paladin Techniques
11.1 Mythic Path and Prestige Classes
11.2 Multiclassing Options
11.3 High-Level Play and Endgame Builds
Paladin Playstyles and Ethics
12.1 Staying True to Your Oath
12.2 Moral Dilemmas and Roleplaying
12.3 Balancing Combat and Roleplay
13.1 Final Thoughts on Playing a Paladin
13.2 Resources for Further Learning