Ancients is underrated because the vast majority of players care more about dealing the most damage than taking the most damage (nothing wrong with that btw, don't jump me), so Vengeance is generally more appealing. Ancients and Redemption are probably my favorite Paladin subclasses
I am a HUGE fan of Conquest for combining both aspects, making you take the Tankish Bruiser role. You're still a Paladin with a Shield and Shield of Faith so your AC is good, but the fear effect makes you even harder to hit. And to top that off, you get Armor of Agathys, so that when enemies DO hit you, they take damage back, especially really useful casted while your Steed is out so that you can double the spell slot effectiveness! I even took Tiefling as my race to further emphasize the Bruiser role with Hellish Rebuke, I love her.
@@SkyCastor104 I love Conquest conceptually, but I'm struggling to flavor it in a way that's compelling for a good character since it's tailored for evil pallies for the most part
Doing almost that with a campaign I'm playing. Chose Hexblade instead, because A) it's so fucking good and B) the other point of view from a friend (yes, I befriended my weapon patron) helped expand the paladin's point of view of what he considers good to the balance of nature and nature itself. So it's like a philosopher paladin with a magical weapon that engages in reflexive dialogues with him. He's also a Satyr for A) even more magic resist and B) works great thematically.
Thats what Im playing, oath of ancients under silvanus, warlock archfey under oberon. My boy is a hexblood, so he is fey and cursed by a hag who doesnt leave him alone and his pact and oath are what he uses to keep her influence at bay.
BBEG: Uses country destroying attack. Paladin: Standing in the rubble unmoved and stone faced. BBEG: " Wait that had to have hit you" Paladin: Still expressionless brushes a bit of dust of their shoulder " You missed. Want me to move closer so you can try again?"
One of my favorite quotes comes from an Ancients paladin player that was fighting a lich. She was trying to buy time for her party, so to make sure she caught the lich's attention, she blocked the way to the rest of her party. The lich cast finger of death or blight, i dont remember which, but she took like an 8th of her hp from it after damage was calculated. Her character looked the lich squarely in the eyes and said "Do it again."
I'd like to point out that as traditionally "good" as this oath sounds, you could definitely sprinkle some fey on it to turn it into something unsettling. Maybe an eladrin paladin whose notions of what's bright and beautiful are VERY different from those of the material plane, and their idea of how to bring the light of the Feywild into it is... practically a colorful alien invasion.
honestly Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of my favorite Arthurian stories and I just LOVE how well this subclass does at capturing the Green "i pick my head up after it was cut off and just walk it off" Knight. Tho the thing i do love MOST about it, Undying Sentinel does just make you immune from "old age death" (unlike say Monk's timeless body which says you still die from old age), like you're such a good boy that you basically get the epic boon of immortality as a side note of a subclass feature.
So funny enough, I actually did play a Totem Barb/Ancients Pali up to 15th level. He only ever went down once and that was cause he was healing everyone else so he wasn't able to be raging, oh and it was against an ancient white dragon. Can confirm this is absolutely worth playing and has been my favourite character to date
The thing is, I would most certainly be an acients paladin but my favorite character Im playing is a little lizard shite that robs and lies like breathing gunpowder
The Ancients Paladin is great in that it can be anything from the Nature Warden to the Party Paladin. Me personally, I did it as a Drow Paladin of Elistaree.
If it's your first ever time playing I'd go Paladin, Martials tend to be easier than spell casters and preparation casters like the Druid can be daunting. Paladin is nice because you get to learn spells while also being Martial focused.
So, fun fact, my first ever combat roll in 5e was AS a Paladin. It was a Nat 20, so I immediately pumped a Thunderous Smite into it. I don't recall the damage, but I DO recall being very happy.
I'm playing one in a campaign right now & it's so good Just hit level 7 a couple sessions ago & the following session saw us fight several casters. Our poor dm reported to polymorphing me into a squirrel to remove both my smites & my auras because I was just shrugging everything off and helping my allies I play in a party of 5 with a Fighter, Blood Hunter, Warlock, and Wizard. So I'm like the fulcrum between the casters & martials. Often tanking damage, smiting, buffing, healing, and misty stepping. Always misty stepping. I love this subclass
My drow paladin of Eilistraee is an Ancients paladin, and I absolutely LOVE her. Just a happy kind girl spreading good vibes, yet destroying any evil in her path with swift righteous fury. She also dances naked at full moons.
It’s impressive how you always manage to make classes sound interesting and powerful. Ancients is definitely a slept on class and you made sure people knew that. But with all your videos you manage to make me want to play that class. Great work!
I think most people write this subclass off as the "spellcasting" paladin. Played one as a half-orc and only got downed once the entire campaign... by friendly fire.
For the homebrew subclass videos, I was thinking about a Wizard with Bard flavor, something like a maestro or a composer, where the spellbook is a sheet music with spell in the form of musical structure formulas.
With your last short now thinking of an *Oath of the Ancients **_Bugbear_** Paladin.* Thematically, it could really work with the whole Fae thing. And the sneakiness to get in close, with extra reach plus the [*sigh] Sentinel/Polearm combo would be great for locking down the BBEG's while you tank for the squishier damage dealers in your party. While not the ultimate build, it would still be a very useful party niche with some versatility thanks to the Bugbear tricks. And if you do the Hexblade Hexadin Charisma stat thing then it's got social abilities off the single stat to be a _charming_ elderly grey furred Bugbear who is impossible to kill.
Funny thing unmentioned; Undying Sentinel has confirmed to make it so you can never die from old age. There are only three limiting factors in the revival process in 5e; person cant have died of old age (funnily enough Mercy Monk bypasses this), person's soul must be willing to come back to life, and there's a time limit. As long as you are willing and someone has true resurrection within 200 years of you dying, an Ancients Paladin can never be perma killed (barring special anti-revival stuff like Tomb of Annihilation's death curse) Ergo, Doomslayer is actually an Ancients Paladin, not a Vengeance Paladin
Could be a hell of a tank. An Earth Genasi can cast blade ward as a bonus action PBTPD to just make most attacks do even less damage. Add in Heavy Armor Master and you’re really cooking.
Paladin main here, been forging my character for a long time and I’ve really struggled to settle on locking in his Oath. So many and so many are so appealing, but also as an amateur player I never could get a good understanding of the playstyles behind them. Your videos are awesome and done in a way that makes learning these subclasses SO much easier! I can’t wait for you to drop a video for Oath of Devotion and Oath of the Watchers, two of my favorite Oaths and I can wait to see how you explain them!
This is also the subclass that Tulok selected when he made his "How to Play as Hawkgirl in DnD 5e" and iirc, he went full-on 20 levels in Oath of the Ancients. No multiclassing at all. It's made me want to run a one-shot campaign for my group that sees everyone playing a DC superhero as a member of the Justice League!
I multi-classed this with Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer and had a ton of fun with it. Really pushed the DM to his limit to come up with ways to plan BBEGs.
One of my favorite characters was a Triton paladin of the Ancients, reflavored his nature theme to colorful fins, coral, and seaweed. His innocent personality went perfect with smashin things
One of the first things that came to my mind as i finished browsing my phb back in the day was Oath of the Ancients Paladin + Mage Slayer feat. Advantage on saves against spells, +Charisma to saves, half damage from spells and retaliate with a smite as a reaction killing all concentration.
I just love the vibe of the ancients paladin. The Oath isn't insanely restrictive, and I can totally see a hippie/surfer dude vibe of paladin that's "Live and let live" and laid back, but takes their friends'/nature's safety seriously. Golden retriever energy 10000% with a sprinkle of himbo
No joke this is one of my favorite subclass of any class. One of favorite characters I ever made was a kobold paladin of ancients named bop-it and he was an absolute terror on the battle field. With his flaming chain and friendly demeanor he was like a combination of captain America mixed with Batman. I didn't get to play as him much just because I'm mostly the DM for our group but I always like to use him as a friend NPC when ever I can
He got his name from the farmers who first met him as he popped out of the ground as adventures were killing his old clan. The first thing he saw was the sun so he thought a god was talking to him so he dedicated himself to the sun God and decided to take the cabbage merchants gate door (because it had a sun on it) and a chain that was holding the gate to the herd of sheep next door and from that point on he did all he could to be worth of his name... Mainly cooking breakfast at strangers houses when they were still sleeping and cleaning up before disappearing into the morning mist
Currently playing one in mini campaign that is about to finish up I am absolutely the bane of the dm using these paladin. abilities I have completely shut down 4 encounters this subclass is insanely powerful
Given how the Great Old One Warlock is themed, I actually think a reflavored Oath of Redemption could work very well as a champion of the Old Ones. Sleep, Calm Emotions, Hold Person, Hypnotic Pattern, Otilukes Resilient Sphere and Hold Monster can all be played as ruthless mindfuckery to break the will of those who oppose you. Conquest, Ancients, Crown and Watchers could work as well.
I just wrote a paladin im really happy with and trying to choose an oath for him He's a half-orc who wanted to be a (relatively) peaceful oath of devotion paladin for Ilmater, but his struggle with the influence of Gruumsh was so intense that every little incantation felt like a wrestling match with an ogre just to maintain control over himself. He's starting at level 1, so his journey for the first 3 levels will either be conquering the influence of Gruumsh or accepting it and being an oath of vengeance paladin
I once made an ancients paladin on the spot for a one shot than translated him over to adventurer’s league and ended up getting him all the way to tier 4. Dude ended up absurdly powerful with 22 charisma and a summoned pegasus mount. Have some great memories of all the nova potential and just no selling spellcasters
One of my favorite builds I've ever come up with is a multiclass build of Ancients Paladin + Genie (Dao) Warlock, which I call *The Wiccan Knight.* It essentially combines the concept of a "Witch Knight" with the concept of a "Green Knight". If anyone's interested in trying it out, this is the general layout for the build. *The Wiccan Knight:* Start with Custom Lineage and take the Crusher feat (Constitution). For point buy stats (racial ASI's included) go 13 Str, 10 Dex, 16 Con, 8 Int, 10 Wis, and 17 Cha. Go Paladin for your 1st level, to get that Heavy Armor proficiency and higher starting HP. Grab some Chain Mail and a Shield for armor, and a staff for your weapon. At 2nd level, multiclass into Genie Warlock and pick the Dao patron. Take the Genie Warlock to level 4, grabbing Pact of the Tome as your Pact Boon, and the Agonizing Blast and Book of Ancient Secrets invocations, as well as the Telekinetic feat (Charisma) for your level 4 ASI. Focus on Eldritch Blasting at range for now, since it’s going to be a while until you get Extra Attack. With your Pact of the Tome pick up the Shillelagh and Guidance cantrips, and Find Familiar as one of your ritual spells from Book of Ancient Secrets. Using Booming Blade on your Shillelagh in conjunction with the Crusher feat is a good tactic if you want/have to be in melee. From there, switch back over to Paladin all the way until Paladin lvl.8 to get the Dueling fighting style, Extra Attack, Aura of Protection, Aura of Warding, and 2 more ASI's. Then swap back to Warlock and take Warlock to level 8 as well, getting Elemental Gift for permanent resistance to all Bludgeoning damage, and another ASI. The extra Bludgeoning damage from your Genie’s Wrath also pairs well with Crusher and Telekinetic for use in both “Cheese Grater” and “Juggler” build tactics. Finally you can either swap back to Paladin for the final stretch to Paladin lvl.12 for Improved Divine Smite and your final ASI, or you can continue with Warlock for a number of other benefits (Sanctuary Vessel, 5th level Warlock spell slots, a 3rd Warlock spell slot, 2 more Invocations, a 6th level Mystic Arcanum, and an ASI). Just depends whether you wanna focus in more on the "Wiccan" aspect or the "Knight" aspect. What you really wanna see if you can get to truly complete this build is the Scaled Toughness draconic gift from Fizban's, which gives you permanent resistance to all Piercing and Slashing damage. This would make you resistant to all Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage, as well as all spell damage thanks to Aura of Warding. With this combo you should be nearly as tanky as a raging Totem Warrior Barbarian, but able to cast spells, smite, and provide utility through rituals all quite effectively, while also being an effective "party face" thanks to your Charisma skills. Focus on maxing out Charisma and grabbing the Tough feat first, then focus on maxing out your Constitution. If you can manage to get a Belt of Dwarvenkind to max your Constitution without using your last ASI, then I recommend grabbing the Alert feat. Best staff to grab for this build would be a Staff of Power for the +2 to AC, +2 to melee attacks with the staff, +2 to spell attack rolls, and +2 to saving throws (which are already great thanks to Aura of Protection). The extra spells from the staff are a nice bonus, and spending 1 charge to add a Power Strike to a Divine Smite attack could also be a great move, especially on a crit. If you’re playing in a campaign where the DM has given everyone a free feat at 1st level, then I would recommend either Satyr or Yuan-Ti for your race, since having advantage on saving throws against spells makes you just that much more of a nightmare for enemy spellcasters.
My first paladin was a Harengon Oath of the Ancients, also I grabbed the alert feat and my DM gave us some small accessories (like in a game of Diablo) and I grabbed the very few ones that gave me more initiative. So in the end I had +14 initiative paladin with great weapon fighting that with a bonus action could move without provoking opportunity attacks and he was an Absolute Menance. Fitted harder than my granda falling off the stairs and was hard to kill like, my DM had to adjust a lot of bosses to compensate the craziness that my character was, in the end he died in the last arc of the campaign ONLY because the enemies were so focused on him and that the boss that killed him was a Samurai, so, when I landed a critical hit on her and did like 150 damage and she was supposed to die, she had "an extra turn" because samurai and got so freaking scared of him that attacked with all out and finally could kill him. Epic and sad, but I had another character (was a campaign with two characters per player) so I finished the campaign with my merfolk Bard of the Glamour, another character that gave headaches to my DM.
A bear totem/ Ancients paladin was as fun as youd think. Walking through encounters with such minimal damage was awesome however the challenge became getting things to hit me instead of my squishy fighter...that and heavy armor messed with my barbarian stuff...but definitely recommended for others to try
My favorite oath, without a doubt. As soon as I read them in the PHB, I felt like they were the most fun and interesting of the original 3. In my head, they were somewhere between a park ranger and a traveling hippie lmap
I will always sing the praises of Vengeance, but I’ve got to acknowledge the sheer power of my fellow Brother of Smites. Also, this is my brother’s favorite Oath.
This is my paladin! I’m playing one for my long-running campaign with my online friends! We only JUST reached lvl 5 but MAN am I excited to use Misty Step and Moon Beam. Also, our session zero took, like, 5 sessions and through all of it I used my dude to be a walking evil detector. I look forward to doing the same with mimics!
While you could easily argue what I’m about to say goes for all paladins but, Oath of the ancients together with Oathbreaker and Oath of Conquest paladins are the 3 paladin subclasses that benefits the most from an Hexblade dip as their Aura’s all utilize their charisma in some way directly or indirectly, Oath of the Ancients Aura of Warding itself doesn’t use charisma but you really want that high Aura of protection for when Aura of Warding is activating.
Thanks for the vídeo man. One the first characters I played was Paladin of Ancients, It was so Fun. In the next round of subclasses, can you talk about the cavalier fighter it's a martial archtype that I don't see much people talking.
I think I just came up with a broken multi class requiring ancient paladin. Depending on how much your DM allows you to level up. Take the ancient paladin class and include the rune knight fighter. You basically become a giant damage sponge, that supports your party in a number of ways over a wide range and
Sorry it cut off. You basically become a massive damage sponge, that can support your party in a number of ways, and deal damage over a wide range. Along with a few other tricks you can use, depending on your load out.
Start with 2 or 3 lvls Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian (Bear Totem) and then go Paladin Oath of the Ancients for the rest of the campaign and at lvl 10 you have the toughest tank in the game pretty much...the only thing that could really be more tanky would be to add in 2 lvls of Moon Druid. It is definitely a mid game build that requires a lot of investment, but the journey is fun and for the most part the build stays powerful after lvl 5 no matter how you choose to multi-class as long as you start Barbarian. Also if you go with the Path of the Ancestral Guardian you can make the whole party damn near unkillable when they stand next to you. Definitely 2 of the most powerful damage mitigation combos in the game. Plus the flavor of the build is just deliciously perfect for a nature protector vibe.
Such a great video on my fav pally! I cannot wait to play another one
5 місяців тому
I DM for one. At level 7, I fireballed the party. Rolled 38 on the damage (more than 2 standard deviations above the mean, so a really good roll). Most party members took a grand total of 9 damage. (The only one outside the aura still made the save and had fire resistance anyway.) Aura of Protection in itself is a completely broken ability, but combined with the Aura of Warding it is just busted. Though I suppose one could bring them down with a mindflayer and other mindflayer-adjacent creatures; their abilities target intelligence saves and aren't _spells_ so they bypass the Aura of Warding and target a save that is still fairly weak even with the Aura of Protection.
I wasn't sure about this subclass but you broke it down extremely well! I was wondering, could you show us your take on another subclass, the Oathbreaker?
The tenets aren't necessarily just 'be the good guy.' You have to he optimistic, hopeful and inspiritional. To get as much as you can out of life while inspiring everyone around you to do the same. I've always thought the Oath of the Ancients was the best paladin to multiclass with bard, at least until the Oath of Glory was added
Plenty of Barbie Paths would work nicely as Ancients themed already, Wild Magic, Ancestral Guardian, Beast, Giant, Storm Herald, And Totem Warrior barely needs reflavoring to fit the theme.
Actually, I think you only reveal a creature's true form with Turn the Faithless if the creature is actually *turned*, meaning it's useless against mimics since they're neither fey nor fiend.
The only point I can think of where a description may have been fumbled was that resistance doesn't stack RAW 5e (maybe that's different in DC20? I haven't actually read any of it yet despite backing it a few days ago). Makes me almost wish the Aura of Warding was written as "take half damage from" instead of "have resistance to damage from" lol
My Oath of Ancients Paladin is really having to lean into the Fay part of his subclass at the moment. While not murderhobos or anything, the rest of the party has...somewhat loose morals and is prone to sticky fingers. Hes also a bunny. To be fair, before the Magic resist aura comes online, they arent...that more difficult to deal with than other Paladins. Mine has gone down a few times and nearly got smushed by a giant ape in the last battle, but after the next level up? Hehe, dats gonna be fun.
As someone who’s first DnD character was an Ancients Paladin you want to know how I died 4 times in one campaign? My DM stopped using spells and started using “magical effects” and I might have decided to say fuck it YOLO into about 8 enemies for a long ass time. Though all of these deaths were below level 14.
5:59 Nature's Wrath sounds nice, but I'm more immediately interested in this apparent Wraith summon. Are we summoning the ghost of the world like something out of Type Moon?
when someone eats fresh fruit/vegteables could you use plantgrowth to horrificly make them not a problem anymore? like tree grows from your inside out?
I could be an ancients paladin... but probably I'm just an Old Man Yells At Cloud Paladin.
Ancients is underrated because the vast majority of players care more about dealing the most damage than taking the most damage (nothing wrong with that btw, don't jump me), so Vengeance is generally more appealing. Ancients and Redemption are probably my favorite Paladin subclasses
I am a HUGE fan of Conquest for combining both aspects, making you take the Tankish Bruiser role. You're still a Paladin with a Shield and Shield of Faith so your AC is good, but the fear effect makes you even harder to hit. And to top that off, you get Armor of Agathys, so that when enemies DO hit you, they take damage back, especially really useful casted while your Steed is out so that you can double the spell slot effectiveness!
I even took Tiefling as my race to further emphasize the Bruiser role with Hellish Rebuke, I love her.
Redemption for the win!
I prefer Glory. Probably because the Oath isn't too heavy and I'm currently playing one
Agreed. Ancients is arguably the most defensive of the pallies. Personally, I am a fan of Devotion though.
@@SkyCastor104 I love Conquest conceptually, but I'm struggling to flavor it in a way that's compelling for a good character since it's tailored for evil pallies for the most part
The Oath of the Ancients Paladin, combined with a Warlock that chose the Fey as their patron, and you got yourself the Wiccan Knight.
Doing almost that with a campaign I'm playing. Chose Hexblade instead, because A) it's so fucking good and B) the other point of view from a friend (yes, I befriended my weapon patron) helped expand the paladin's point of view of what he considers good to the balance of nature and nature itself. So it's like a philosopher paladin with a magical weapon that engages in reflexive dialogues with him. He's also a Satyr for A) even more magic resist and B) works great thematically.
Thats what Im playing, oath of ancients under silvanus, warlock archfey under oberon. My boy is a hexblood, so he is fey and cursed by a hag who doesnt leave him alone and his pact and oath are what he uses to keep her influence at bay.
BBEG: Uses country destroying attack.
Paladin: Standing in the rubble unmoved and stone faced.
BBEG: " Wait that had to have hit you"
Paladin: Still expressionless brushes a bit of dust of their shoulder " You missed. Want me to move closer so you can try again?"
That’s Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding combo for you.
@AtelierGod don't forget to stack circle of power at higher levels if your campaign goes that far
Considering this subclass came from the Player's Handbook, it's impressive how much it gets right.
One of my favorite quotes comes from an Ancients paladin player that was fighting a lich. She was trying to buy time for her party, so to make sure she caught the lich's attention, she blocked the way to the rest of her party. The lich cast finger of death or blight, i dont remember which, but she took like an 8th of her hp from it after damage was calculated. Her character looked the lich squarely in the eyes and said "Do it again."
Lich: *confused screaming*
I'd like to point out that as traditionally "good" as this oath sounds, you could definitely sprinkle some fey on it to turn it into something unsettling. Maybe an eladrin paladin whose notions of what's bright and beautiful are VERY different from those of the material plane, and their idea of how to bring the light of the Feywild into it is... practically a colorful alien invasion.
honestly Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of my favorite Arthurian stories and I just LOVE how well this subclass does at capturing the Green "i pick my head up after it was cut off and just walk it off" Knight.
Tho the thing i do love MOST about it, Undying Sentinel does just make you immune from "old age death" (unlike say Monk's timeless body which says you still die from old age), like you're such a good boy that you basically get the epic boon of immortality as a side note of a subclass feature.
So funny enough, I actually did play a Totem Barb/Ancients Pali up to 15th level. He only ever went down once and that was cause he was healing everyone else so he wasn't able to be raging, oh and it was against an ancient white dragon. Can confirm this is absolutely worth playing and has been my favourite character to date
But you can't smite when raging?
@@tristanmitchell1242Yes you can, why wouldn't a Paladin/Barbarian (Palbarian? Baradin?) be able to use Smites when raging, its jot a spell?
Funny enough I managed to work a Human good old boy farmer into an ancient paladin, so far my favorite character!
The thing is, I would most certainly be an acients paladin but my favorite character Im playing is a little lizard shite that robs and lies like breathing gunpowder
@@718jefI thought I’d could do it buuuuut I’m too much of a goody two shoes. So at worst I’d go chaotic good.
"We didn't have *DC 20* back in my day."
- all these new fangled RPG's
Okay, so I am actually doing the Ancients Paladin/Totem Warrior (well, Wildheart) Barbarian in BG3, and HOLY FUCK, do I feel POWERFUL
The Ancients Paladin is great in that it can be anything from the Nature Warden to the Party Paladin. Me personally, I did it as a Drow Paladin of Elistaree.
It's a good day when YMBD uploads. Thanks to your vids I've narrowed it down to a Druid or Paladin for my 1st DND game.
If it's your first ever time playing I'd go Paladin, Martials tend to be easier than spell casters and preparation casters like the Druid can be daunting. Paladin is nice because you get to learn spells while also being Martial focused.
@@pokeredcraft3217 appreciate the feedback!
Satyr and Oath of the Ancients is a beautiful combo. Basically shuts down your opponent’s magic casting
The first (and so far only😅) Dnd character I've ever gotten to actually play was an ancients paladin, so much fun
So, fun fact, my first ever combat roll in 5e was AS a Paladin. It was a Nat 20, so I immediately pumped a Thunderous Smite into it. I don't recall the damage, but I DO recall being very happy.
I'm playing one in a campaign right now & it's so good
Just hit level 7 a couple sessions ago & the following session saw us fight several casters. Our poor dm reported to polymorphing me into a squirrel to remove both my smites & my auras because I was just shrugging everything off and helping my allies
I play in a party of 5 with a Fighter, Blood Hunter, Warlock, and Wizard. So I'm like the fulcrum between the casters & martials. Often tanking damage, smiting, buffing, healing, and misty stepping. Always misty stepping.
I love this subclass
My drow paladin of Eilistraee is an Ancients paladin, and I absolutely LOVE her. Just a happy kind girl spreading good vibes, yet destroying any evil in her path with swift righteous fury. She also dances naked at full moons.
It’s impressive how you always manage to make classes sound interesting and powerful.
Ancients is definitely a slept on class and you made sure people knew that. But with all your videos you manage to make me want to play that class. Great work!
I think most people write this subclass off as the "spellcasting" paladin. Played one as a half-orc and only got downed once the entire campaign... by friendly fire.
For the homebrew subclass videos, I was thinking about a Wizard with Bard flavor, something like a maestro or a composer, where the spellbook is a sheet music with spell in the form of musical structure formulas.
With your last short now thinking of an *Oath of the Ancients **_Bugbear_** Paladin.*
Thematically, it could really work with the whole Fae thing.
And the sneakiness to get in close, with extra reach plus the [*sigh] Sentinel/Polearm combo would be great for locking down the BBEG's while you tank for the squishier damage dealers in your party.
While not the ultimate build, it would still be a very useful party niche with some versatility thanks to the Bugbear tricks.
And if you do the Hexblade Hexadin Charisma stat thing then it's got social abilities off the single stat to be a _charming_ elderly grey furred Bugbear who is impossible to kill.
Oh-oh-oh it’s magic, yeah that’s not gonna work on me.
Oh-oh-oh it’s magic, yeah I’ll be over here huggin trees
Funny thing unmentioned; Undying Sentinel has confirmed to make it so you can never die from old age.
There are only three limiting factors in the revival process in 5e; person cant have died of old age (funnily enough Mercy Monk bypasses this), person's soul must be willing to come back to life, and there's a time limit.
As long as you are willing and someone has true resurrection within 200 years of you dying, an Ancients Paladin can never be perma killed (barring special anti-revival stuff like Tomb of Annihilation's death curse)
Ergo, Doomslayer is actually an Ancients Paladin, not a Vengeance Paladin
Could be a hell of a tank. An Earth Genasi can cast blade ward as a bonus action PBTPD to just make most attacks do even less damage.
Add in Heavy Armor Master and you’re really cooking.
Took one of these guys into a session and shrugged off everything the DM threw at me. It was hilarious and awesome.
So Far I have made a character for almost every class you made a vid on
Paladin main here, been forging my character for a long time and I’ve really struggled to settle on locking in his Oath. So many and so many are so appealing, but also as an amateur player I never could get a good understanding of the playstyles behind them.
Your videos are awesome and done in a way that makes learning these subclasses SO much easier!
I can’t wait for you to drop a video for Oath of Devotion and Oath of the Watchers, two of my favorite Oaths and I can wait to see how you explain them!
This is also the subclass that Tulok selected when he made his "How to Play as Hawkgirl in DnD 5e" and iirc, he went full-on 20 levels in Oath of the Ancients. No multiclassing at all. It's made me want to run a one-shot campaign for my group that sees everyone playing a DC superhero as a member of the Justice League!
I multi-classed this with Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer and had a ton of fun with it. Really pushed the DM to his limit to come up with ways to plan BBEGs.
One of my favorite characters was a Triton paladin of the Ancients, reflavored his nature theme to colorful fins, coral, and seaweed. His innocent personality went perfect with smashin things
One of the first things that came to my mind as i finished browsing my phb back in the day was Oath of the Ancients Paladin + Mage Slayer feat. Advantage on saves against spells, +Charisma to saves, half damage from spells and retaliate with a smite as a reaction killing all concentration.
I didmt realize how tough they are. And great flavor. Thanks for this
Im playing an Ancients Paladin Warforged who's made of stone and living plant materials. Hes been a lot of fun!
I just love the vibe of the ancients paladin. The Oath isn't insanely restrictive, and I can totally see a hippie/surfer dude vibe of paladin that's "Live and let live" and laid back, but takes their friends'/nature's safety seriously.
Golden retriever energy 10000% with a sprinkle of himbo
Oath of the Ancients paladin is my favorite paladin, and this just makes me love it more... but I'm still holding out for Trickery Domain Claric!
No joke this is one of my favorite subclass of any class. One of favorite characters I ever made was a kobold paladin of ancients named bop-it and he was an absolute terror on the battle field. With his flaming chain and friendly demeanor he was like a combination of captain America mixed with Batman. I didn't get to play as him much just because I'm mostly the DM for our group but I always like to use him as a friend NPC when ever I can
He got his name from the farmers who first met him as he popped out of the ground as adventures were killing his old clan. The first thing he saw was the sun so he thought a god was talking to him so he dedicated himself to the sun God and decided to take the cabbage merchants gate door (because it had a sun on it) and a chain that was holding the gate to the herd of sheep next door and from that point on he did all he could to be worth of his name... Mainly cooking breakfast at strangers houses when they were still sleeping and cleaning up before disappearing into the morning mist
This with a moon did and a gloom stalker and town barbarian are a quartet of evil bad guys for a forest heavy campaign
always been one of my favorite core subclasses. so op
Currently playing one in mini campaign that is about to finish up I am absolutely the bane of the dm using these paladin. abilities I have completely shut down 4 encounters this subclass is insanely powerful
I always liked the idea of a Cthulhu styled paladin
Given how the Great Old One Warlock is themed, I actually think a reflavored Oath of Redemption could work very well as a champion of the Old Ones. Sleep, Calm Emotions, Hold Person, Hypnotic Pattern, Otilukes Resilient Sphere and Hold Monster can all be played as ruthless mindfuckery to break the will of those who oppose you. Conquest, Ancients, Crown and Watchers could work as well.
Know a video on a Druid subclass was just done, but one on the Circle of Spores would be rad.
I just wrote a paladin im really happy with and trying to choose an oath for him
He's a half-orc who wanted to be a (relatively) peaceful oath of devotion paladin for Ilmater, but his struggle with the influence of Gruumsh was so intense that every little incantation felt like a wrestling match with an ogre just to maintain control over himself.
He's starting at level 1, so his journey for the first 3 levels will either be conquering the influence of Gruumsh or accepting it and being an oath of vengeance paladin
in my table, my best friend is using a echo knight/ancient paladin and its been very fun watching her playing that combo
This is my FAVORITE paladin subclass,
One of my go-to caricatures is a satyr and the this bad boy
I'm glad that Saber got at least one showing in this video. If any character would be an Ancients Paladin, it would be her.
I once made an ancients paladin on the spot for a one shot than translated him over to adventurer’s league and ended up getting him all the way to tier 4. Dude ended up absurdly powerful with 22 charisma and a summoned pegasus mount.
Have some great memories of all the nova potential and just no selling spellcasters
One of my favorite builds I've ever come up with is a multiclass build of Ancients Paladin + Genie (Dao) Warlock, which I call *The Wiccan Knight.* It essentially combines the concept of a "Witch Knight" with the concept of a "Green Knight". If anyone's interested in trying it out, this is the general layout for the build.
*The Wiccan Knight:*
Start with Custom Lineage and take the Crusher feat (Constitution). For point buy stats (racial ASI's included) go 13 Str, 10 Dex, 16 Con, 8 Int, 10 Wis, and 17 Cha.
Go Paladin for your 1st level, to get that Heavy Armor proficiency and higher starting HP. Grab some Chain Mail and a Shield for armor, and a staff for your weapon. At 2nd level, multiclass into Genie Warlock and pick the Dao patron.
Take the Genie Warlock to level 4, grabbing Pact of the Tome as your Pact Boon, and the Agonizing Blast and Book of Ancient Secrets invocations, as well as the Telekinetic feat (Charisma) for your level 4 ASI. Focus on Eldritch Blasting at range for now, since it’s going to be a while until you get Extra Attack.
With your Pact of the Tome pick up the Shillelagh and Guidance cantrips, and Find Familiar as one of your ritual spells from Book of Ancient Secrets. Using Booming Blade on your Shillelagh in conjunction with the Crusher feat is a good tactic if you want/have to be in melee. From there, switch back over to Paladin all the way until Paladin lvl.8 to get the Dueling fighting style, Extra Attack, Aura of Protection, Aura of Warding, and 2 more ASI's.
Then swap back to Warlock and take Warlock to level 8 as well, getting Elemental Gift for permanent resistance to all Bludgeoning damage, and another ASI. The extra Bludgeoning damage from your Genie’s Wrath also pairs well with Crusher and Telekinetic for use in both “Cheese Grater” and “Juggler” build tactics.
Finally you can either swap back to Paladin for the final stretch to Paladin lvl.12 for Improved Divine Smite and your final ASI, or you can continue with Warlock for a number of other benefits (Sanctuary Vessel, 5th level Warlock spell slots, a 3rd Warlock spell slot, 2 more Invocations, a 6th level Mystic Arcanum, and an ASI). Just depends whether you wanna focus in more on the "Wiccan" aspect or the "Knight" aspect.
What you really wanna see if you can get to truly complete this build is the Scaled Toughness draconic gift from Fizban's, which gives you permanent resistance to all Piercing and Slashing damage. This would make you resistant to all Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage, as well as all spell damage thanks to Aura of Warding.
With this combo you should be nearly as tanky as a raging Totem Warrior Barbarian, but able to cast spells, smite, and provide utility through rituals all quite effectively, while also being an effective "party face" thanks to your Charisma skills. Focus on maxing out Charisma and grabbing the Tough feat first, then focus on maxing out your Constitution.
If you can manage to get a Belt of Dwarvenkind to max your Constitution without using your last ASI, then I recommend grabbing the Alert feat. Best staff to grab for this build would be a Staff of Power for the +2 to AC, +2 to melee attacks with the staff, +2 to spell attack rolls, and +2 to saving throws (which are already great thanks to Aura of Protection).
The extra spells from the staff are a nice bonus, and spending 1 charge to add a Power Strike to a Divine Smite attack could also be a great move, especially on a crit. If you’re playing in a campaign where the DM has given everyone a free feat at 1st level, then I would recommend either Satyr or Yuan-Ti for your race, since having advantage on saving throws against spells makes you just that much more of a nightmare for enemy spellcasters.
My first paladin was a Harengon Oath of the Ancients, also I grabbed the alert feat and my DM gave us some small accessories (like in a game of Diablo) and I grabbed the very few ones that gave me more initiative. So in the end I had +14 initiative paladin with great weapon fighting that with a bonus action could move without provoking opportunity attacks and he was an Absolute Menance. Fitted harder than my granda falling off the stairs and was hard to kill like, my DM had to adjust a lot of bosses to compensate the craziness that my character was, in the end he died in the last arc of the campaign ONLY because the enemies were so focused on him and that the boss that killed him was a Samurai, so, when I landed a critical hit on her and did like 150 damage and she was supposed to die, she had "an extra turn" because samurai and got so freaking scared of him that attacked with all out and finally could kill him. Epic and sad, but I had another character (was a campaign with two characters per player) so I finished the campaign with my merfolk Bard of the Glamour, another character that gave headaches to my DM.
A bear totem/ Ancients paladin was as fun as youd think. Walking through encounters with such minimal damage was awesome however the challenge became getting things to hit me instead of my squishy fighter...that and heavy armor messed with my barbarian stuff...but definitely recommended for others to try
My favorite oath, without a doubt. As soon as I read them in the PHB, I felt like they were the most fun and interesting of the original 3. In my head, they were somewhere between a park ranger and a traveling hippie lmap
I will always sing the praises of Vengeance, but I’ve got to acknowledge the sheer power of my fellow Brother of Smites. Also, this is my brother’s favorite Oath.
This is my paladin! I’m playing one for my long-running campaign with my online friends! We only JUST reached lvl 5 but MAN am I excited to use Misty Step and Moon Beam. Also, our session zero took, like, 5 sessions and through all of it I used my dude to be a walking evil detector. I look forward to doing the same with mimics!
I did this with a Totem Barbarian to build the best wall of meat and grapple tank I could. They work well together.
I’ve been waiting for you to review the subclass and I’m glad you like it.
While you could easily argue what I’m about to say goes for all paladins but, Oath of the ancients together with Oathbreaker and Oath of Conquest paladins are the 3 paladin subclasses that benefits the most from an Hexblade dip as their Aura’s all utilize their charisma in some way directly or indirectly, Oath of the Ancients Aura of Warding itself doesn’t use charisma but you really want that high Aura of protection for when Aura of Warding is activating.
I've been using this subclass for years before someone finally called it out for how strong it is
Ah, yes, Oath of the ancients, my og 5e paladin. Good times.
Thanks for the vídeo man. One the first characters I played was Paladin of Ancients, It was so Fun. In the next round of subclasses, can you talk about the cavalier fighter it's a martial archtype that I don't see much people talking.
I think I just came up with a broken multi class requiring ancient paladin. Depending on how much your DM allows you to level up. Take the ancient paladin class and include the rune knight fighter. You basically become a giant damage sponge, that supports your party in a number of ways over a wide range and
Sorry it cut off. You basically become a massive damage sponge, that can support your party in a number of ways, and deal damage over a wide range. Along with a few other tricks you can use, depending on your load out.
Start with 2 or 3 lvls Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian (Bear Totem) and then go Paladin Oath of the Ancients for the rest of the campaign and at lvl 10 you have the toughest tank in the game pretty much...the only thing that could really be more tanky would be to add in 2 lvls of Moon Druid. It is definitely a mid game build that requires a lot of investment, but the journey is fun and for the most part the build stays powerful after lvl 5 no matter how you choose to multi-class as long as you start Barbarian. Also if you go with the Path of the Ancestral Guardian you can make the whole party damn near unkillable when they stand next to you. Definitely 2 of the most powerful damage mitigation combos in the game. Plus the flavor of the build is just deliciously perfect for a nature protector vibe.
DC20 sounds just awesome, and i never gave too much attention to the ancients paladin mostly because i wanted haste, but maan they sound awesome
The only subclass that gets ensnaring strike. It's great.
Such a great video on my fav pally! I cannot wait to play another one
I DM for one. At level 7, I fireballed the party. Rolled 38 on the damage (more than 2 standard deviations above the mean, so a really good roll). Most party members took a grand total of 9 damage. (The only one outside the aura still made the save and had fire resistance anyway.) Aura of Protection in itself is a completely broken ability, but combined with the Aura of Warding it is just busted.
Though I suppose one could bring them down with a mindflayer and other mindflayer-adjacent creatures; their abilities target intelligence saves and aren't _spells_ so they bypass the Aura of Warding and target a save that is still fairly weak even with the Aura of Protection.
Man every time you release a new video you make me want to play that subclass 😅
I wasn't sure about this subclass but you broke it down extremely well! I was wondering, could you show us your take on another subclass, the Oathbreaker?
It's the best day of the week again
This is my new favorite paladin so need to play as one
The funny thing is the oath of Oath of Ancient is just the blue lantern oath lol.
I don't always play Paladin, but when I do, I play Ancients. Stay Smitey, my friends. Dos Smities(per turn).
Oath of Vengeance is my favorite but I might change now, many because of the RESISTANCE TO ALL DAMAGE! and just how unkillable it is
Was waiting for todays video woo woo!
This means eloquence bard is next, right?!
PS - great video, as always!
The tenets aren't necessarily just 'be the good guy.' You have to he optimistic, hopeful and inspiritional. To get as much as you can out of life while inspiring everyone around you to do the same.
I've always thought the Oath of the Ancients was the best paladin to multiclass with bard, at least until the Oath of Glory was added
I WANNA ANCESTORS BARB
Plenty of Barbie Paths would work nicely as Ancients themed already, Wild Magic, Ancestral Guardian, Beast, Giant, Storm Herald, And Totem Warrior barely needs reflavoring to fit the theme.
Actually, I think you only reveal a creature's true form with Turn the Faithless if the creature is actually *turned*, meaning it's useless against mimics since they're neither fey nor fiend.
Can you add chronurgy wizard to the polls?
The only point I can think of where a description may have been fumbled was that resistance doesn't stack RAW 5e (maybe that's different in DC20? I haven't actually read any of it yet despite backing it a few days ago). Makes me almost wish the Aura of Warding was written as "take half damage from" instead of "have resistance to damage from" lol
My Oath of Ancients Paladin is really having to lean into the Fay part of his subclass at the moment. While not murderhobos or anything, the rest of the party has...somewhat loose morals and is prone to sticky fingers.
Hes also a bunny.
To be fair, before the Magic resist aura comes online, they arent...that more difficult to deal with than other Paladins. Mine has gone down a few times and nearly got smushed by a giant ape in the last battle, but after the next level up? Hehe, dats gonna be fun.
Great video and love the channel
Anti mimic Paladin? Oh, oh yes. Yesssss, this will be most useful.
You Might be an Oathbreaker Paladin
Just saying this is the perfect subclass to turn into a Crucible Knight from elden ring
Going to need an unedited biscuit pic 👀
You have to do Ways of Mercy monk subclass next video
As someone who’s first DnD character was an Ancients Paladin you want to know how I died 4 times in one campaign? My DM stopped using spells and started using “magical effects” and I might have decided to say fuck it YOLO into about 8 enemies for a long ass time. Though all of these deaths were below level 14.
A banger as always YMBA
5:59 Nature's Wrath sounds nice, but I'm more immediately interested in this apparent Wraith summon.
Are we summoning the ghost of the world like something out of Type Moon?
This class will make your DM just stop using damaging magic. It will get them to use more save-or-suck effects though, so be warned.
goated
Pair this with the newer yuan ti race for extra SCREW YOU MAGIC energy 😊😊😊😊
cool video thank you i enjoyed that
You need to do a reaction video to the new druid
"I cast Butterballs!"
when someone eats fresh fruit/vegteables could you use plantgrowth to horrificly make them not a problem anymore? like tree grows from your inside out?
I hope Creation bard comes soon
If you can, just dip 3 in barbarian for bear totem and you become near unlikable.
Do you think you would review a ttrpg system I've designed? I think you have good insight and it'd be helpful