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Rogue: I am stealthy and use dirty tricks all the time. Fighter: I am TACTICAL about everything. Barbarian: *Unstopable force and unmovable object as one* Paladin: H O R S E
@@phntmthf5505yeah, but at least in 3.5 it was a scaling feature that felt more impactful than a spell you could already take if you wanted. Plus with Paladins being in general less holy/good flavored than in older editions, the “knight in shining armor” image that find steed aligns with (at least for me) doesn’t feel like a quintessential paladin feature.
@@ultimategamer8622 believe me, I know how sucky 5e’s version of the paladin’s steed is, one of my favorite characters was a paladin and the only reason I bothered with Find Steed was because the DM hombrewed the shit out of it to make steeds combat viable.
actually though im playing a paladin centaur and my dm is considering swapping us to the new rules, im fighting tooth and nail to keep base 5e rules for my character
@@FirstLast-wk3kcI don't know where you get your info from. But they got massively boosted. Basically every ability they have is better than it was. If you mean that they lost some stupid abilities and got actually cool abilities for it instead I guess they got 'nerfed', but both skills, survival and combat capabilities got overall significantly improved compared to the 2014 version of the ranger. They just categorically didn't get nerfed, unless you mean in very specific niche ways, since they got new abilities in favour of old ones, so there's always something you're technically losing. But no, they didn't get nerfed.
@@jaspermooren5883this exactly idk what these guys are yapping about. There were also new features which buffed hunters mark, but the spell is still a trap. The only actual nerf was to gloomstalker, but considering the ranger chassis and subclasses are much stronger now it makes sense
Barbarian really feels like a juggernaut and Fighter really feels like a tactician. They did a great job refining the class identities for those classes whilst also bringing up their base power levels!
Don't know why "some people" want to make this about Ranger, but relax y'all. Ranger has been underrated since day 1 of 5e & the people who actually know what they're talking about/have the book say it's looking fine.
I've been playing a Drakewarden Ranger that's themed around polearm mastery and is basically Zhao Yun from dynasty warriors. It's been a total blast. Zephyr strike, weapon mastery abilities, polearm mastery bonuses and oppurtunity attacks, drake reaction imbuements. Feels awesome, like I'm able to have massive impact attacks or spread load damage to tons of targets in cool ways
Betting on it right now that "horse girl paladin" or some variation thereof is gonna be the next big meme in the D&D community, it'll be a veritable stampede of horse memes
@@bingonight1504 When the party's low on rations in a survival campaign, Paladin (poorly attempting to hide the horse behind themselves): h-how... how hungry, guys?
Fighter: I get to controll the battlefield! Barbarian: I get to dominate the battlefield! Rogue: I get to controll the enemies! Paladin: juan I also love that Barbarians can literally just use their rage in the morning and keep spending a bonus action to keep it up forever. So they're just walking around SUPER PISSED
@@conmacmara2743 I believe one use of rage is still going to be active for 1 minute only. As we can read in persistant rage it goes for 10 minutes in addition to old effects, so that supports my thoughts.
Yeah I'm really disappointed people are falling for the corporate schpeel. They *will* rework old subclasses, this isn't for comparability sake it's so they can sell it to you later. I wish they had just included everything made up to this point in the books as an act of good will after their abysmal last couple of years but they gambled on the community being too blinded by new shiny thing and I guess they were right. As it stands, the buzz of new books means people will go and find old books to plug in to 5.5e, then later they can resell those old books as "revised" using content they've probably already made.
@@legitdragon6202been using D&D beyond because I like the formatting better then other sources and I have most of the stuff through content sharing anyway, but when they start trying to resell all the subclasses we already had I'm donning my straw hat, pulling out my hurdy-gurdy, and setting sail for 5e tools lol
I am glad I have already played Oath of Vengeance Paladin. The nerfs could make them on par with the improved Ranger. Fighter might now be the most powerful martial class.
@@nathanh2664 The nerfs they got arent that Bad, and i would say the class was overall buffed. First of all Smite beign reigned in is somehthing i think is healthy for the class. Smite shouldnt be the only thing that a paladin is, a paladin is a holy knight first of all and their other features like a mount or an aura. The nerf makes it so the paladin have to choose what to do with their turn and makes it so smiting isnt always the best choice (honestly smiting all the time is probaly a waste of slots compared to a bless) second of all one thing Jacob skipped was how a lot of Paladin subclass features have been buffed to not require any action s or bonus actions, like Vengance paladin can apply vow of enmity without as part of their attack and can freely switch it to another target after death of the first. Oath of devation and ancient has been simalry buffed. So paladins bonus actions arent as busy as they used to be (Pam will probaly not be good anymore for a apaldin but many feats have been reblanced) And lastly in the ua a lot of the paladin smite spells have been very buffed, no longer needing concetration and having very powerful effects, simply trading damage compared to divine smites. These effects ranges from fear to stun at higher levels so you probaly will be better of using a smite spell then divine smite as they cost the same. However the should have keept the feature that auto prepared smite spells and allowed you to cast them once a day for free, was really nice compromise
@@viktorhermansson2284 It's not. Not because I don't think there was some criticism of smite as it was before, but because the overall result of paladin is that their best usage now is likely as just a half cleric with aura. Smite was what drove them into melee combat and made them an actual menace in battle. Gutting their main martial feature makes them a pretty middling martial and much more heavily encouraged to just be a cleric and spam stuff like spirit guardians.
@@TheEmperorGulcasa Fair enough. Mainly i feel like they really really should have keept the feature that gave them all the smite spells prepared and gave them the ability to cast them and smite once per day at its highest level avalible. Otherwise yeah smite nerf hurts, i really like paladin. But when i think about maybe the nerf hurts opmisiaing most (With doing Nova rounds) but in actuall play, you probaly shouldnt smite every attack and wait until the creature is low or a crit. Smite should guarentee a kill for it to be used otherwise i think the smite spells are better. As what ever they inflict is a whole lot better smite (as the worst condition in dnd is damage with a kill)
divine smite being changed from a feature to a bonus action spell means a few things: only once per turn which is reasonable but it's now able to be counterspelled, and if a creature has immunity to spells it also no longer works. also it's cool that you can use it for unarmed attacks and all, but something niche like the barbarian/paladin multiclass is basically gutted because barbarians cant cast spells while raging. also giving every paladin a horse is cool but just feels very pigeon-holey, like you get a free horse i guess i need to use it. wouldve been cool if we had gotten other 2nd level spells to be able to cast for free once a day like zone of truth, gentle repose, or warding bond, all of which would add a lot of flavor depending on how you play your paladin instead of just... you get a horse!
Y'know...this comment and a few others made me actually look it up. In the current 2014 Monster Manual, there is a single creature that has magic immunity (it's the Rakshasa for the curious). I think you're complaining about nothing if it's a problem that smite no longer works on a single monster out of the several hundred monsters out there. Secondly, it's already been the case that every other smite in the game could be counterspelled, and it's a little weird that divine smite (which is magical from your religion/devotion) still functions through counterspell and anti-magic fields when every other smite does not.
From what I have read so far, alot of the changes are meant to not reward multiclassing. Alot of these multiclass builds do end up breaking the game balance.
@@flamepulse42 I'm fine with that, honestly. It was absurd to be able to smite something 5 times in one turn at level 7 (even if it did take all but one spell slot to do it).
@@lazarus3100 Personally I thoguht the Paladin even without multiclassing was a bit OP,. esspecially when you take a few levels in fighter, being able to dish out over 100 points of damage in 1 turn sub level 10 is to much.
I’m more upset that Paladins lose the extra attack at level five in exchange for a HORSE. What if I don’t want to have a horse? What if it makes no sense for my character? It’s useless
Most of the changes are so smart that it baffles me that they made a horse a core feature of the paladin, especially since they already acknowledged that people wanted paladin to be able to take on other playstyles, like being unarmed. It also alienates quite a few races whose whole shtick is their unique body plan that enables a unique playstyle, such as literally every race with a fly speed, centaurs, and some that just tend to lend themselves to other styles, like the plasmoid
They didn't "make" horse a core feature of the Paladin. Steeds have *always* been part of Paladin's design, 5e was the first time it wasn't a straight up feature chain (due to wonky mount rules, and it was still present in their spells). And it's hardly a "core" feature for them to just get a free spell at a level that already gives them another feature anyways. It's a ribbon feature to bring attention back to their root design (and encouraging the historically mounted class to go back to that since they updated mount rules), it's not taking away from some other feature they would've gotten instead.
Seeing Jacobs kid in the ad threw me wayyy off. I was on vacation when I saw his child for the first time in one of his vids, and here I am again and shes grown so much i feel old dear lord
9:55 the War Magic change is a direct buff, it doesn't depower it at all. Instead of the old action cantrip + bonus action attack, you can use an attack action to attack once + cantrip instead of one of your attacks, then have an extra bonus action left over, at the level you acquire the feature. It intentionally brings the Eldritch Knight more in line with the Bladesinging Wizard's Extra Attack. As a Gish Enjoyer, it's a lovely change I was hoping EK would get.
Plus it scales with Extra Attack x2 and x3 at higher levels, where previously you had to effectively give up two or three attacks as a higher-level EK. So War Magic was really only great between level 7 (when you got it) and level 10. That always seemed like an unfun tradeoff to make. Depending on target AC and your weapons and cantrips, extra cantrip damage at level 11 might not outpace another whole attack. But now you don't have to do the math to optimize; replacing one attack with Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade is always better. But yeah, definitely doesn't depower it; I came looking in the comments hoping someone had already pointed that out.
I was looking for this comment, finally EK is a good gish 😍 Their key feature in 5e having an anti-synergy with MULTIATTACK is imo crazy design to begin with, this is why every gish build ever is a hexblade or a paladin. (Though personally I think bladesinger is crazy underrated, if you believe reddit everyone plays bladesigners as regular wizards with high AC)
I love everything other than Paladin. I mostly agree with you’re take, “let’s give every martial class more options for how they engage with the game, but let’s make it so Paladin now needs to sacrifice a more to get one of their core archetypal features, also while we’re at it let’s remove a lot of their passive interactions with their party.”
@@MountainDewIdaho they did not remove them, the simply added them to the base Aura of Protection. Essentially, instead of the Paladin features reading as if they got multiple different types of auras they now have one aura that grow more powerful and gains additional effects as you level. Yes, Divine Smite was reworked and nerfed but Paladin didn't LOSE anything. They gained more options. They have spellcasting, weapon masteries, fighting styles, Lay On Hands, Channel Divinity, their aura, and subclasses. The only difference between 2024 and 2014 is that Divine Smite cannot be spammed and is as susceptible to anti-spell strategies as every other smite spell.
@@ryankeith2712 But is it a good move? The Lich is going to have the Paladin make a Constitution save, with the bonus from aura of protection. Those aren't good odds for the Lich succeeding. If they do succeed, then the paladin still hits them, still deals damage, and doesn't expend their spell slot. Also, now the rest of the party can unload on spells, and a Full Casters have far, far scarier effects than dealing 18 radiant damage. So, they can, and it might be worth it in specific situations... but it isn't the "smite is now entirely worthless in this fight" level that people keep making it sound like.
Mikes an excellent writer. Keeps attention, makes cultural references to demonstrate how a feature works, clearly has enthusiasm for what he’s explaining and shows how a class synergies with allies. This is how you should teach dnd.
problem with cultural reference is that not everyone has the sae culture. Or knows the reference. Monty python is not a universal example. Its fine for the post but an entire book written by mike would be hell.
It's probably not applicable as a universally good way of writing and explaining rules, but for a big part of the target audience it's a fitting style.
I think probably the worst part about devine smites now being considered a spell rather than a feature Is that now you have nothing against creatures that are immune to level 5 or lower spells. Like that tiger demon that has backwards hands. You now have nothing that can harm that demon at all.
You have weapons. And if you are good aligned and deal piercing damage it's even better. Let's not exaggerate. Just because you can't spam Divine Smite doesn't mean the new paladin is suddenly out of options or useless.
@@beastslayer8729 And Counterspell was nerfed. It now is a Constitution save against the target and by level 6 a paladin can still use their charisma modifier to boost their saving throws, which still means Paladin is the class best equipped to deal with saves of all kinds.
I'm not a paladin main but damn, they really did the pally dirty with this one; IMO if they wanted to limit the paladin to make just one time smite, they could have just added "you can only smite once a turn" instead of making smite a bonus action spell. Severely hinders the pally.
I am so confused by everyone saying the bonus action smite ruins the Paladin. What were paladins doing with their bonus action before? Paladin isn't one of those classes that had a ton of bonus actions before as is. Now Paladins have two main bonus actions to choose from turn to turn.
Making it the bonus action lets you save the smite if you miss the attack. 2014 rules say you have to call the smite before rolling the attack. If you miss, you waste the spell slot. in 2024, the spell description says after you make a successful attack, so if you miss your attack you can keep the spell slot or do something else, like lay on hands
@@alexandermatthews3493 Not quite. It says when you attack hits you can choose to add smite to your hit. No where does it say that you have to call the smite before you roll to hit your target. Rules as written, literally says that you can call to smite AFTER you attack hits. If you're a Paladin Fighter mix 2014 you can attack 6 times(action surge) and SMITE every time when you attack hits. But now you can attack 6 times, and only choose to spend your bonus action to smite once. really lowers a Paladin's damage output.
@sjhsoccer There are a lot of good bonus action spells that paladins have access to. The problem was that early game when paladins are best it's always better to bonus action for a nova smite and late game their spells got outshined by casters. If smite wasn't a bonus action it would give them an opportunity to use their pretty good buff/control spells without worry about bonus actions.
Eh. They were so powerful originally that I don't see it as too big of an issue that they mostly got nerfed. And making smite a bonus action isn’t exactly fatal to the class. It just means the paladin has to think more about what they want to do, rather than just smiting endlessly.
36:18 The ability for anyone to do 2 weapon fighting with their bonus action is still present. All nick does is let you make the second attack as part of the attack action rather than needing to use your bonus action. So a rogue, for example, can make 2 attacks thanks to nick and still have their bonus action to disengage or what have you. Similar thing for eldritch knight's war magic.
My real problem with smite being a spell is that is can be counterspelled, and some fiends are immune to spells under a certain level. The bonus action smite is the real kicker on top of it.
My real problem with smite being a spell is that you can't smite while concentrating on, I dunno, shield of faith or Bless or protection from evil and good anymore.
@@hearforthemusic9814 If this is true, none of them should be, honestly. Can you sue any smite when you hit or is it just Divine because if it's any smite and none of them have concentration attached... then I'm actually fine with this change.
@@Y00biYes the weird concentration rule, you know the concentration that lasted like 3 seconds? Was removed from all Smite spells. You just pump one in as a bonus action when you hit.
I really like the changes they did for Eldritch Knight. They're gonna be scary at high level. Say he's lvl 11, He gets 3 swings at a humanoid. First hit lands, Eldritch Strike makes them have disadvantage on their next save against the spell he casts. He forfeits his next 2 hits to cast Hold Person, and you have disadvantage! If that hits, he can Action Surge and hit you 3 times with advantage and auto crit! This however, assumes Eldritch Strike is gonna remain unchanged. Either way, I feel like Eldritch Knight is going to be so much more interesting and fun to play. I hope they still get lots of feats/ASI so we can slap War/Ritual Caster ontop of him to really expand his magic potential. EDIT: Okay, obviously Hold Person isn't the perfect spell. Just an idea. There's lots of potential with this Weapon + Spell Combo.
Very situational and wish fantasy combo, hold person works on only humanoids, your dc wont be that high as a figther, the creatures will have magic resistance if not just pass, you have not many second level spell slots and 1 shot at this combo with action surge. Very wishfulfilment , fantasy combo to work and then maybe miss with advantage. Its better to just havea teammate hold person an enemy than trying to play second fiddle caster, its a team game after all.
Holy fuck my guy. It's literally just an ideal attacking situation that could already be done with a standard Metamagic Adept/Quickened Spell combo. Plus with that and a V. Human for the Feat, 3 ASIs mean you could easily have 20 Dex/Str and 18 INT, that and a Disadvantage on their WIS save means the EK has a phenomenal chance of this working out exactly like the OP wrote. Not only are you rude, you're just flat out wrong. @CyberPunkBadGuy
@brilobox2 I legit forgot about those when I was thinking about possible spells. I did consider Shocking Grasp, though, to potentially take away their chance of a reaction.
For clarity, the Nick mastery simply turns that bonus action attack you can always make when wielding two light weapons into "no action". It's instead part of your regular attack action, freeing up your bonus action for more stuff. It does not however(as some people thought, me included) mean you get to make an additional third attack as a bonus action.
What do you mean it can be counterspelled or nullified in plenty of other ways? WHAT DO YOU MEAN CERTAIN ENEMIES INCLUDING SOME FIENDS ARE IMMUNE TO IT NOW?
@@CryptofSkulkeven worse there’s classes that can smite better than the Paladin now. If you’re fighting a Rakasha for example that’s now immune to a Paladin’s smite because they’re immune to spells lower than 6th level, just play a cleric for example so you can get the higher level spells and take a level in paladin or take magic initiate paladin to get the smite spell.
@@Evoker23-lx8mb WAIT. So what purpose is there even to leveling up a paladin past level 8? You get literally nothing good out of it. Contrast to if you were to pick up like warlock or sorcerer along the way and level past that until you his max. Paladins literally have no reward for finishing the class out
As a long-time rogue player who's felt a bit stifled in their options (and has had a trend going of missing 50% of their attacks) the updates to rogue are so welcome it's INSANE.
i really appreciated the efforts to let classes be more unique to the player, like the warlocks cantrip modifying invocations not just affecting eldritch blast. but then they showed off the ranger and now you have to use hunters mark or else
Jacob: "Who actually used my old videos as class guides?" Me five years ago: "These videos must contain the sum of all knowledge that the player's handbook contains"
Cant wait for the live update where if you're playing on a virtual table on Beyond, you can pay 5$ to use divine smite AND another bonus action on your turn
It's a ribbon feature. I think people are caught off guard by it because other classes have had their ribbons removed or turned into actual features, but keep in mind that the horse is a small bonus you get alongside extra Attack.
Yeah, I was totally fine with smite being once a turn... but why make it a spell and require a bonus action? The end result is they made smite once a turn... but in a really convoluted way that just stinks. Just saying it could be used once a turn would have been enough.
@@dungeondojo The point being that because of how it's worded in 5e "when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack" that you could use divine smite as part of attacks of opportunity or any other reaction attack.
@@duelist301yes! Gotcha. I understand what was being said now. But, for me at least, that’s not a problem. In fact, I think using it on an opportunity attack is a nice niche use of it and isn’t the problem with smite as opposed to the nova round issue with it. Personally, I wish that were still an option. Thanks for the clarification:)
I hope you do these for all the classes! Super helpful for me to understand what they’re talking about in the videos they’ve been releasing (and that I’ve been watching obsessively)
17:30 also fun fact since Divine smite is a spell it can be Counterspelled and Monsters with immunity to spells such as tiamat are immune to smites So sorcadin becomes flatout a better paladin because they can subtle spell the smites.
This video really reminds me of the time I challenged the authority of the high order of Galaria. Her paladins, standing guard amidst her temple, gathered around me. They cut off my escape, and though I knew my fate was sealed, I was resolved to fight until my last breath. If I am to die, I must die with honor. I was then trampled by 7 horses, 2 cows, and a zebra.
5e Find Steed / Greater Find Steed mounts actually didn't go away when you died. That's the 2024 version. But at the same time, while available to Paladin, just a lot of Paladin players either used it the one time, or never at all. And even then, it isn't a magical mount like it is now, with its own stat block and features.
Hell, my DM has always rules that paladins can cast spells as rituals and that both Find Steed and Find Greater Steed are rituals. Basically gave us the new paladin’s steeds already.
My big hope with summon steed was that they would see not every paladin would want a horse but feel forced to use it cause its free? Just add options of 2nd lvl spells you can pick and you gain it as always prepared and a free cast. Would do so much fir flavor and depending on oath could be rad to have free aid or 2nd lvl smite or some else
Adding to this idea just quickly looking at the preexisting 2nd level Paladin spells having a list of options could've included stuff like: Aid, Gentle Repose, Prayer of Healing, Locate Object, or Zone of Truth. If they wanted to keep the spells to be (almost) purely non-combative then they still could've done that too with just Gentle Repose, Locate Object, Zone of Truth, and Find Steed. Having 4 options would've fit with there being 4 subclasses too (they could even include a recommendation choice for each one like the Epic Boon section of each class)
@@harbear6276 oooooooh!!! That would've been great! Zone of truth would be great for a justice seeker or investigator. Gentle repose for more priest like. Non combat spells to add to options would be great idea
I don't really understand the complaints for Find Steed and Abjure Foes, honestly. Abjure Foes is literally Turn Undead, but way better because it targets everything. It is a core part of the Paladin identity since well, forever. As is the horse, and I struggle to imagine a pre-modern setting where nobody uses mounts like Jacob seems to imagine. Personally I can't imagine not having some kind of mount, even if it is just a pack animal. I'm not opposed to it being changed out as part of the rules of a subclass, but these are the things I think about when I think "D&D Paladin." As well as things like Detect Evil. Maybe fewer people should be allergic to mounted combat?
I think something that these articles didn’t always mention is how across the classes they made many abilities that used to require an action to activate either a bonus action or free! One example is Oath of Devotion Paladins can activate their Sacred Weapon for free when taking the attack action. Not only that but you get two channel divinity slots and later it goes up to 3. Now your major subclass features don’t require you to waste an entire round of combat setting them up so that you can do more damage later. You can jump into the fight and start swinging with your sacred weapon on the opening round. It’s absolutely fair to say that they downgraded paladins by making smite a bonus action spell, but we always knew paladins were overpowered, and their subclass features are now easier and more fun to use. There’s other stuff too, like how all of your auras are now one radius and new effects tack onto the aura. So much easier to track the benefits your party is receiving.
Yeah i feel like the nerf to Smite might actually be a good thing. It beign the most powerful thing int he paladins kit (argubally, features like aura of protections is probaly more powerful) Made the paladin into a one trick pony. When one option is the supiror option, it becomes the only option (still would argue that slot should go to a bless or sprit shroud). Now when smite has been nerfed other paladin options might look more disarble as smite is equal to them. Jacob makes it sound like you can never use the Ba lay of hands or other ba features as that blocks smite, but smite sitn something to use every turn and this should make that intent clearer. I think this makes the paladin more tactical in nature as now you have to grapple with wether you use your Ba for healing or smite while otherwise you would just heal when need be and smite, its now a sacrifice that might cost you your life or the enemys. He also forgot to mention that you get one free casting of smite per day which lets you cast more smites over an adventure The article made a very terrible job of heighlightning some features that ofset the smite nerf such as the very buffed smite spells, which sadly arent auto prepared now (one of the biggest dissapointment in my reason) As they are kinda similar to the cunning strikes feature which jacob praised. You choose between pure damage or cc/debuffing. Smite should probaly be a built in machanic that has the diffrent smite spells as "Divine penances" that you get similar to when you get to spell but its functinaly does that. So not only does the paladin get as you said more freedom to use their channels they also get some nice new toys inform of the smite spells. Also i dont understand what Jacobs problem with the steed is. Paladin has a lot of knight flavour and steeds are classic knight stuff. If you dont want to have an mount just flavour the steed as a loyal dog or gigantic spider (if youre a drow)
@@viktorhermansson2284 Exactly. Improving the game is not only done with buffs, but also with adjustments, like the changes to the Paladin. They've nerfed a feature of the class but made the class as a whole much better. In my opinion, I hope it remains a bonus action and that paladins have "spell slots" and not just "smite slots"; that they are a half-caster and not a martial class. But that's just my opinion.
@@smsdownload3426 Defently agree with you. I think instinctually players usally care more about power. They like to smash things and thats natural. (Kinda like how players in video games will "ruin" the game for the selves if the devs to prevent them). The Dm usally cares more about balance as they feel the brunt of unbalanced characters (making it harder to create challenging encounters).
The whole point of smite was that you could blast it out all at once: you can save up your spells in order to deal a LOT of damage at once, against a dangerous boss monster. In exchange, you were limited in how often you could use it and saving it for later meant holding back in all the previous fights. Now, smite is just the damage boost equivalent of sneak attack, but you can only use it a few times a day and also it uses your bonus action, so goodbye Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master, Two-Weapon fighting without nick and any BA actions you might have gotten from multiclassing.
If there's any takeaway from this video is just 3 things: 1) I'm happy for you Jacob, your kid's adorable! 2) Mike is a funny guy. 3) Now I wanna play Fighter, they sound so much more FUN!
89 out of 244 Fiends and 131 out of 253 Undead are immune to being frightened and the Undead portion are by far the largest demographic in the MM for that condition immunity. Frightened is also an extremely debilitating condition and a near 50/50 shot of it working at the WORST of times is still an overall huge win.
@@mackattack616 I am pretty sure you are technically right, but it's not what it feels like playing a conquest paladin to level 20.. Starting level 11 it seems like everything is immune. Getting another frighten ability feels super useless. Like I can not find any fiend over CR20 that can be frightened. and there aren't many between CR10 and CR20 either. It might be debilitating, but it is really looses effectiveness quickly. And the paladin gets it quite late, so it will only be effective for like 5 levels before it starts becoming a waste of an action.
@@MarcLucksch You won't meet anything over CR 20 that can be frightened the vast majority of the time. And even so, at level 20 you are effectively the strongest paladin you can be as a conquest paladin. Seriously Invincible Conqueror is insane as a buff.
I wish they had used a similar feature with the Paladin that they did with Rogue; foregoing a d8 in damage to add an effect, like Searing or Wrathful Smite.
What they should have done with the paladin is what they did with the rogue. Take out all of the other smite spell and just say you can remove a damage die to apply the searing smite, or the blinding smite ect.
i agree that they should have made smiting the main focus of paladin, and being able to to choose which type of smite you cast without having to have them prepared would have been great
@@ImSimmin honestly that is what paladin really needs, as i never saw reason to bring the other smites when i just divine smite anyway and at everything that deserves it the other smites are just wasted spell slots in some cases whereas you can have zone of truth as a nice RP bit
@@ImSimmin I think that's what's so bizarre about 2024 Paladin, its main features are: Spellcasting Lay on Hands Aura of Protection But one element that's been removed from Paladin is that direct connection to its martial combat prowess and its spellcasting - which was Divine Smite. Instead of leaning into that concept that Paladin could use its spell slots on a feature that isn't a spell, that's just the raw expression of the divine power that fuels their magic, they just made it into a spell. And while spells can be cool, it is hard to ignore how forced the Smite spell design is with its casting time text or just how badly they scale on Paladin.
I have always loved the idea of a dual wielding paladin. So I was thrilled to learn that Paladins now get access to ALL fighting styles, including Two-weapon-fighting. Making dual-wield Paladins more viable! . . . That is until I saw that Smites now require a bonus action to “cast”… Which not only makes this concept harder to build, but effectively renders it incompatible with dual wielding, unless you constantly nick with double daggers or dip into Thief Rogue… I hate it here.
You could do a Dex Paladin using Dagger to have the Nick ability for your former BA attack be included in your 1st normal strike, to increase the chance to hit & the opportunity to Smite once on your turn?
@@zTom_ that’s exactly what I suggested at the end of my comment... Which proves my point. That’s it. That’s seemingly the only way to optimally build this concept without dipping Thief Rogue for the extra Bonus Action... Unless two-weapon fighting is reworked to no longer require a bonus action entirely, there is pretty much no other way to reconcile smiting and two-weapon fighting. All because both now compete for your Bonus Action, when it originally didn’t. At that point, why even give Paladin access to two-weapon fighting at all? Better yet, why change Smite to require a bonus action in the first place? To give paladin a nerf it deserves? Sure, but then why nerf smite, when AURA was what actually made it powerful? Why not nerf that instead…? Daggers are cool, but let my live out the fantasy of my dual-warhammer-spin-to-win paladin, dammit! It’s not THAT overly powerful of an idea to restrict, I would hope…
4:00 4 subclasses per class sounds perfectly reasonable to me. 2014 PHB was clearly playing favourites with 8 wizard schools and only 2 barbarian paths.
Paladin auras all add onto aura of protection, which means a character can only benefit from one subclass aura at a time since the effect (aura of protection) share a name.
@@ODDnanref All of the Smite spells are now no longer concentration (with a few exceptions), and you cast them as a bonus action after you hit with an attack. so when you land a hit with an attack, you can choose what type of smite you want to bring down on the enemy, this makes searing thunderous etc much better
I’m convinced that the Paladin was just a rough planning draft that they accidentally released. Divine smite did arguably need a nerf but they did it wrong.
Really, really grateful seeing someone honestly reviewing new content without being sponsored by wotc. I won't be playing DnD again anytime soon, but it's nice to see how the neighbours are doing and what the designers come up with in spite of what an evil corporation says or do (hoping for an union). Hope everyone has fun
I really like what you said about enhancing the core abilities of each class and how thats not really the case in the paladin so far as we can see. I acknowledge the need to maybe nerf some stuff in the paladin, but i really enjoy playing them (theyre the class ive been playing as the longest) so its a huge bummer to see this update. Really wish they wouldve kept the same energy that they put into the rogue when re-doing paladin, lotta stuff feels somewhat misplaced imo.
Yeah trading Sneak Attack dice for tactical options is cool and all, but you can't spend your SA dice to conjure a horse so at the end of the day is it even worth it?
19:00 see, here’s the thing: it has *always* been a thing that paladins have a mount in their class features. 5e was the first time they *didn’t* have a steed for free. Also, I hate to give you the bad news, but the new options are not forwards or backwards compatible. A player can still run with a 2014 character, but if anyone else is using a 2024 character then rules for statuses and spells will be taken from the new stuff rather than the old stuff.
Yes, but he was specifically talking about subclasses. And in that regard, you can still plug in old subclasses into the revised classes and have them work fine since the levels you gain subclass features at remain the same, save for a couple edge cases.
@@phntmthf5505 Yes they did. That said, throughout most of the playtesting process, they repeatedly emphasized that you could use old subclasses with the newer base classes. To the extent that they reversed an attempt at standardized subclass progression to make sure that remained possible. So in practice, even when using 2024 rules for everything else, it is entirely possible to use the older subclasses with, at most, a bit of tweaking, as has been attested to by numerous tables during the playtesting period. Granted, this has not been confirmed to still be the intent with the final rules.
5e Paladin also gets a free mount in the 2014 rules. It's just hidden in the spells section rather than clearly written in the class features so people don't know that they ge the free horse (as evidenced in this video and comment section).
i think the Nick weapon mastery is "extra light" just for daggers. so shortswords can still make bonus action attacks, but daggers get the extra attack without using bonus action. this reads like the UA change idea for light making it part of the attack action, which i assume from this means they are not going ahead with. gives rogues a reason to use daggers for reasons other than throwing.
Dude, I literally came up with so many similar ideas when made my own homebrew subclasses. Being a tactician fighter with having a bonus to "decision making". A rogue with dirty tricks like pocket sand. I even allowed paladin to make unarmed divine smite. Funny how lots and lots of that stuff just makes sense and fits into an actual manual
3:52 "Especially the wizard", indeed (as Davvy Chappy would say). Wizards have 13 subclasses in 5e (the 2014 PHB had 8), so having only 4 subclasses in the 2024 PHB is definitely an underrepresentation (pretty much the same for cleric, with 7 subclasses in the 2014 PHB and 14 overall in 5e). It's not that bad since it's confirmed you can still use previous 5e subclasses with the 2024 PHB classes, but it's still weird.
@@BJGvideosYeah, some small racial bonuses are sense like Goliaths getting +Strength or something, but background just makes so much more sense, all things considered.
@@whocares6757 ..what? Races still *have* features. Races with claws will have claws and races with night vision will have night vision. This purely makes it so that attributes come from your Background, which means you no longer need to worry about your race being unoptimal for your class
I think with smites, they shouldn’t need a bonus action but just be once a turn, and you can still use them on an AoO. As I understand, smiting on a AoO is now impossible because of the bonus action too which is big sad.
Legit was my brother when he first started playing back in 2020. He wanted to play a sneaky Rogue who pickpockets everyone but insisted on putting his rolled 18 into Strength, so he later multiclassed into Barbarian! XD
Honestly most people i've seen saying smite will be homebrewed back to base 5e at their tables, except with a "only one smite per turn" as that is clearly the reason why they tacked on the cost to begin with.
Man hearing you get so excited over martial changes reminds me of how staggering the gulf is between 5e and pathfinder 2e fighter/monk For real check it out, it's UNREAL
the monk in pf2e is just so much more fun than in 5e... it doesn't even matter how much more useful it is, it's straight up designed better, and that's the case with 90% of the martial classes.
@@TheSeth256 I switched over cuz of thr OGL debacle but stuff like thaumaturge and beast guns kept me It probably wouldn't leave dnd in the dirt, but it would absolutely be outperforming them day in, day out
36:16 It's not taking away the ability to use a bonus action attack with a Light weapon, it's moving that bonus attack into the Attack action, so that you still have your bonus action available to do something else.
40:07 It feels like when one of my players will ask to, like, attack the weapon of another character specifically and knock it free, or distract the enemy with the attack and run instead of trying to actually hit them, but baked in and given raw support. I like it, because it not only let's that kinda stuff happen within the rules, but gives a springboard for players to suggest even more actions to take during their turn.
The path of conquest paladin I used to play would do great with an armored mech since I based him on an anime villain. I'd just need to establish his patron group as employing a lot of artificers (and uh...find a DM who would allow it)
Don't forget that any class that wants it can now pick up smite, now class dip needed! Eldritch Knight? Sure, take a feat for it! Swords Bard? Just gotta get to Magical Secrets. And so on and so on. So bad...
Not sure about Eldritch Knight, but they changed Magical Secrets so you can only choose from Wizard, Cleric, Druid, and (I think) Warlock, so no stealing Pally or Ranger spells.
@@pyrosianheir Which feat? Magic Initiate only allows bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spells, and I doubt they'll make it LESS restrictive in 2024 since they restricted Magical Secrets.
@@rayindc2074 they're simplifying the way spell lists work with all this. I'm willing to bet it'll be "choose Arcane, Divine, or Nature," or whatever they're choosing to divide it by.
The barbarian options make me super glad. I recently finished Dungeon of the Mad Mage as a Barbarian (Ancestral Guardian) Fighter (Battle Master), focused on control with shield master and a battering shield. It feels SO much nicer to tank when you have a taunt and can actually move people away from your squishies, instead of slapping someone for mid damage then shrugging and saying "I hope he tries to hit me, I guess". Not having to dip into fighter for good maneuvers is great!
Re:Nick i dont think they're taking away the ability for offhand light weapon attacls entirely. Its just that for a dagger you get two make two attacks with a single action if you're dual wielding which i think is a cool change. Most of the time rogues I've seen end up dual wielding shortswords as they're generally just better than daggers so the archetypal stabby stabby dagger rogues in the art, never actually appeared in any campaign. This now makes dagger wielding a great option for sneak attack as you now get two tries with a single action and still have your cunning action always in reserve. Very fun and flavourful
Boon of Irresistible Offense doesn't just make your attacks magical. It overcomes *any* resistance, not just resistance to attacks with non-magical weapons. So it's amazing for fighting other barbarians. The 5e version of the boon simply ignores any resistance at all, so could e.g. work for wizards who want to fireball devils. I don't know the exact wording of the 2024 version; some quick searching just found the same article you're looking at. But presumably it fully bypasses those physical resists without conditions.
Facts honestly I see it would be better to have them switched with Boon of the Combat Prowess for the recommended barbarian epic boon because that means their brutal strikes would always land no matter what as they lose advantage on the brutal strike hit that I assume is once per turn but it doesn't matter as that 1 hit would be covered by the boon
@@mohammadmurie - Yeah, good call; combat prowess is really strong, especially for anyone with an attack that does more than damage. Late-game, overcoming resistances could be good if you don't have a magic weapon and are fighting a lot of enemies with resistances. But there aren't many with across-the-board resistance to all physical damage. A caster with a lot of fire and other elemental spells would get a lot more mileage out of a resistance-ignoring boon. Many high-level monsters are immune to some and resistant to other non-physical damage types.
@@Peter_Cordes yeah I can also see paladin taking Boon of the Combat Prowess because just guaranteeing you hit once per turn is very powerful on everyone except maybe a bit less on fighter with all those attacks maybe better to go for the crit
@@Peter_Cordes but even still if the barbarian had to take irresistible offense it is still better than all 3 levels of brutal critical lol as on average 3d12 equals to 19.5 without taking up 3 of your levels as well as giving extra bonuses
@@mohammadmurie - Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too, as a way to make sure you can Smite high-AC targets reliably. And I'm forgetting how it worked, but was it change one miss to a hit? It's going to be not rare that you miss at least one of your two attacks on high-AC targets (especially if great weapon master is still a thing with -5 to hit for +10 damage?), so there's often going to be something to use it on for significant extra damage every round.
Paladin Barbarian multiclasses are dead. All of these changes are so unfriendly towards multiclassing. Just remove the rule from the book if they want people to stop doing it so bad.
Making paladin multi classes less viable does, in no way, gut multiclassing in general. “You can’t even smite while raging so you might as well be banned from all multiclassing” Edit: removed something I meant to text someone. Oops.
The eldritch knight's reworked ability would actually scale better than its previous iteration, especially if you have a light weapon and can make an attack as a bonus action anyway. Booming blade and green flame blade would work well for mele and fireball or ray of frost work well with range (or eldritch blast picked up with a feat or 3 level dip essentially doubles your attacks per turn, not to mention action surging on top of that).
That tactical mastery ability the fighter gets is awesome, it gives every fighter a bit of the versatility the battle master has (and even MORE versatility to the battle master)
I'm sorry but with the paladin changes there is straight up no reason to be a paladin anymore, you can replace the entire class with bard and searing smite.
I love that they kinda morphed the great weapon master feat into the barb's brutal strike. Allows for more flavor in choosing feats at level ups. Also giving brutal strike battle master maneuver-esque options just makes so much sense. Also the rogue's bonk ability (that's what it's called now) is so great for non-combat situations. And might help with player/dm misunderstandings over specifying lethal/nonlethal damage
nick is an alternate way to do two weapon fighting, you can still do bonus action two weapon fighting with two non-dagger light weapons or make 3 attacks as a rogue if you have an off hand dagger and do BOTH
GUYS GUYS GUYS WAIT WAIT WAIT - eldritch knight now replaces attack actions with a cantrip??? If you dip a level into warlock or take magic initiate, you could potentially just cast like 5 eldritch blasts in one turn OR 10 if you action surge. Holy shit.
It can replace ONE attack per attack action. Its already a thing for Bladesinger, like exactly the same, but Bladesinger's Extra Attack caps out at 1 extra attack.
If they ever reintroduce the Hexblade, by Asmodeus Hairy dark Balls i hope that they get something similar. Exchange ONE of the attacks for a cantrip/spell
@@transient_moonlight That was only true for the UA5 Warlock (the one that the community rioted against because they didn't like Warlocks having normal spell slots). By the next UA, Warlocks were back to 1-4 total spell slots per short rest, Charisma-only instead of being able to pick different casting stats based on your Pact Boon, and Eldritch Blast scaling off character level instead of class level.
Keep in Mind that Lay on Hands being BA means now you can also attack in the same turn, even if with no Smite. With the old PHB, if you LoH you were already losing the Smite anyway, since you are not attacking, so it IS a net positive flexibility gain. I also imagine they made it a BA because they don't want you to be able to attack, Smite AND LoH all in one turn, which is fair. As for paladins and mounts, it IS very silly, but also it's kind of just... added fluff you don't really need to use? Like it even comes in at the Extra Attack level, so getting it is clearly just a neat bonus at the level. And it is still casting a spell (and thus costing you a smite), so it's definitely a thing you can just ignore.
Idk if it's only Jacob's presentation, but this has a really strong "How do you do fellow kids?" energy. I hope not the whole new PH is written this way.
I don't get it. Paladins always had access to the Find Steed spell at level 5. It's even a Paladin only spell. Btw getting Find Greater Steed with a Bard through Magical Secret is a pretty fun build.
The problem isn’t that they’re able to do it, but that having it be a level specific class ability that is ‘slightly’ better than other ways of casting it kind of forces you to use it unless you want to ignore one of your signature abilities. What if I don’t want my paladin to have a horse or mount, for either build or roleplay reasons? Maybe I didn’t conceptualize my character as someone who has a mount of any sort. It’d be like if Every Ranger had to have an animal companion or every Artificer a robot dog.
@cricocadazzle4439 pretty sure you could use that horse as a donkey on a leash walking with you used only to carry stuff if you don't want an horse for roleplay reason...
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Where'd you get that dope T-shirt, Jacob? Asking for a friend. (I'm the friend)
Upwards of $1000 for a mattress.
I'd love to see what you think of my comment on the new Paladin, I am very interested to know what everyone thinks on the bonus action bonks.
@@cameronmeyer8192 Stuff is expensive now, I think 1k is pretty standard for a high-quality mattress, especially one that'll last a while.
Where did you find these articles?
> centaur paladin
> find steed
> your mother shows up
Centaur riding another centaur
Peek gameplay
> my party member’s mother shows up
you are mounting your mother?.....
so a centaur with Grindr..
@@niekesselbrugge1132centaurtaur
Rogue: I am stealthy and use dirty tricks all the time.
Fighter: I am TACTICAL about everything.
Barbarian: *Unstopable force and unmovable object as one*
Paladin: H O R S E
Paladins having a mount is a tradition going all the way back to 1e. 5e was the first time they *didn’t* get a steed as a class feature.
@@phntmthf5505yeah, but at least in 3.5 it was a scaling feature that felt more impactful than a spell you could already take if you wanted. Plus with Paladins being in general less holy/good flavored than in older editions, the “knight in shining armor” image that find steed aligns with (at least for me) doesn’t feel like a quintessential paladin feature.
@@ultimategamer8622 believe me, I know how sucky 5e’s version of the paladin’s steed is, one of my favorite characters was a paladin and the only reason I bothered with Find Steed was because the DM hombrewed the shit out of it to make steeds combat viable.
@phntmthf5505 Hopefully, going by the wording presented here, the spell has received multiple buffs and/or the Paladin version will be better.
all of you seem to feel that the paladin needed help. I do not think that, dnd's I do everything except casting fireball class
“Hmmm… what talents can you offer to the party?”
Paladin: “Horse. Take it or leave it”
Centaur Paladins looking at their level 5 feat like "You think I'm a fucking joke or something?"
actually though im playing a paladin centaur and my dm is considering swapping us to the new rules, im fighting tooth and nail to keep base 5e rules for my character
@@scarfking1579 Just be an horse riding an horse, the dm will realize how it's dumb
@@scarfking1579 get em to let you flavor it as a divine mario-kart mushroom boost
Just summon it and fight alongside it. Why say no to a cool pet?
@@ilyaterk110 cuz then they can't complain 🥺
"DM, if I hit with sneak attack, can i use Cunning Strike and spend one of my d6 to find a horse?"
"I hate you."
Fighter: can’t fail can’t miss
Barbarian: can’t fail can’t miss can’t die
Rouge: can’t fail can’t miss
Paladin: gets horse
Ranger: gets tasha and NERFS
@@FirstLast-wk3kc wait that has to be a joke no shot they *nerfed* ranger
@@bluebatmanvk5535watch the video. it’s awful.
@@FirstLast-wk3kcI don't know where you get your info from. But they got massively boosted. Basically every ability they have is better than it was. If you mean that they lost some stupid abilities and got actually cool abilities for it instead I guess they got 'nerfed', but both skills, survival and combat capabilities got overall significantly improved compared to the 2014 version of the ranger. They just categorically didn't get nerfed, unless you mean in very specific niche ways, since they got new abilities in favour of old ones, so there's always something you're technically losing. But no, they didn't get nerfed.
@@jaspermooren5883this exactly idk what these guys are yapping about. There were also new features which buffed hunters mark, but the spell is still a trap. The only actual nerf was to gloomstalker, but considering the ranger chassis and subclasses are much stronger now it makes sense
Barbarian really feels like a juggernaut and Fighter really feels like a tactician. They did a great job refining the class identities for those classes whilst also bringing up their base power levels!
The min/max is going to go so hard I can't wait. Going to make Champion even better? Hell yeah brother.
@@TheBiomedZed meanwhile Ranger: Tasha.
- What?
Ranger: I got Tasha.
- Uh... That's all?
Ranger: basically.
-.... That's rough buddy
Don't know why "some people" want to make this about Ranger, but relax y'all. Ranger has been underrated since day 1 of 5e & the people who actually know what they're talking about/have the book say it's looking fine.
I've been playing a Drakewarden Ranger that's themed around polearm mastery and is basically Zhao Yun from dynasty warriors. It's been a total blast. Zephyr strike, weapon mastery abilities, polearm mastery bonuses and oppurtunity attacks, drake reaction imbuements. Feels awesome, like I'm able to have massive impact attacks or spread load damage to tons of targets in cool ways
@@malmasterson3890 Because buffs don't actually get people attention, but the smallest possible nerf will make them shriek in rage.
Betting on it right now that "horse girl paladin" or some variation thereof is gonna be the next big meme in the D&D community, it'll be a veritable stampede of horse memes
>Horse girl palatwink
As if I didn't have enough reason to nuke paladins as a wizard/sorc already.
It's a race to find a way to work in the "how hungry..." joke first
@@bingonight1504 When the party's low on rations in a survival campaign,
Paladin (poorly attempting to hide the horse behind themselves): h-how... how hungry, guys?
I would roleplay the everliving crap out of a goliath horse girly ☺️💅🏼🐴✨
You just know
Fighter: I get to controll the battlefield!
Barbarian: I get to dominate the battlefield!
Rogue: I get to controll the enemies!
Paladin: juan
I also love that Barbarians can literally just use their rage in the morning and keep spending a bonus action to keep it up forever. So they're just walking around SUPER PISSED
How do people not see how abused this is going to be?
@@conmacmara2743 I believe one use of rage is still going to be active for 1 minute only. As we can read in persistant rage it goes for 10 minutes in addition to old effects, so that supports my thoughts.
Not forever, just until it normally ends. In 5e I’m pretty sure you can’t just extend it infinitely by giving yourself paper cuts
@@TheDeerLeader rage is 10 min now
the paladin feels like that one wheel on the shopping cart compared to the others
More like the spare wheel.
This isn’t a class review, this is a Mike appreciation post
The reason they havent reworked ALL the subclasses is because they will eventually rework and resell them to you in more new rulebooks later
Lol probably a subscription, "Get used to not owning your subclasses" lol jk - I hope 😂
Not true, they also want to make Artificer enjoyers cry. It can’t be all business all the time.
Yeah I'm really disappointed people are falling for the corporate schpeel. They *will* rework old subclasses, this isn't for comparability sake it's so they can sell it to you later. I wish they had just included everything made up to this point in the books as an act of good will after their abysmal last couple of years but they gambled on the community being too blinded by new shiny thing and I guess they were right. As it stands, the buzz of new books means people will go and find old books to plug in to 5.5e, then later they can resell those old books as "revised" using content they've probably already made.
@@bye1551 You do understand that their JOB is to sell books? 😅
@@legitdragon6202been using D&D beyond because I like the formatting better then other sources and I have most of the stuff through content sharing anyway, but when they start trying to resell all the subclasses we already had I'm donning my straw hat, pulling out my hurdy-gurdy, and setting sail for 5e tools lol
As a paladin player jacob screaming “griffithhhhhh” is an accurate assesment of my feeings
I am glad I have already played Oath of Vengeance Paladin. The nerfs could make them on par with the improved Ranger. Fighter might now be the most powerful martial class.
@@nathanh2664 "Fighter might now be the most powerful martial class." oh no, paladin now can't be better fighter, ATROCIOUS.
@@nathanh2664 The nerfs they got arent that Bad, and i would say the class was overall buffed.
First of all Smite beign reigned in is somehthing i think is healthy for the class. Smite shouldnt be the only thing that a paladin is, a paladin is a holy knight first of all and their other features like a mount or an aura. The nerf makes it so the paladin have to choose what to do with their turn and makes it so smiting isnt always the best choice (honestly smiting all the time is probaly a waste of slots compared to a bless)
second of all one thing Jacob skipped was how a lot of Paladin subclass features have been buffed to not require any action s or bonus actions, like Vengance paladin can apply vow of enmity without as part of their attack and can freely switch it to another target after death of the first. Oath of devation and ancient has been simalry buffed. So paladins bonus actions arent as busy as they used to be (Pam will probaly not be good anymore for a apaldin but many feats have been reblanced)
And lastly in the ua a lot of the paladin smite spells have been very buffed, no longer needing concetration and having very powerful effects, simply trading damage compared to divine smites. These effects ranges from fear to stun at higher levels so you probaly will be better of using a smite spell then divine smite as they cost the same. However the should have keept the feature that auto prepared smite spells and allowed you to cast them once a day for free, was really nice compromise
@@viktorhermansson2284 It's not. Not because I don't think there was some criticism of smite as it was before, but because the overall result of paladin is that their best usage now is likely as just a half cleric with aura. Smite was what drove them into melee combat and made them an actual menace in battle. Gutting their main martial feature makes them a pretty middling martial and much more heavily encouraged to just be a cleric and spam stuff like spirit guardians.
@@TheEmperorGulcasa Fair enough. Mainly i feel like they really really should have keept the feature that gave them all the smite spells prepared and gave them the ability to cast them and smite once per day at its highest level avalible.
Otherwise yeah smite nerf hurts, i really like paladin. But when i think about maybe the nerf hurts opmisiaing most (With doing Nova rounds)
but in actuall play, you probaly shouldnt smite every attack and wait until the creature is low or a crit. Smite should guarentee a kill for it to be used otherwise i think the smite spells are better. As what ever they inflict is a whole lot better smite (as the worst condition in dnd is damage with a kill)
divine smite being changed from a feature to a bonus action spell means a few things: only once per turn which is reasonable but it's now able to be counterspelled, and if a creature has immunity to spells it also no longer works. also it's cool that you can use it for unarmed attacks and all, but something niche like the barbarian/paladin multiclass is basically gutted because barbarians cant cast spells while raging.
also giving every paladin a horse is cool but just feels very pigeon-holey, like you get a free horse i guess i need to use it. wouldve been cool if we had gotten other 2nd level spells to be able to cast for free once a day like zone of truth, gentle repose, or warding bond, all of which would add a lot of flavor depending on how you play your paladin instead of just... you get a horse!
Y'know...this comment and a few others made me actually look it up. In the current 2014 Monster Manual, there is a single creature that has magic immunity (it's the Rakshasa for the curious). I think you're complaining about nothing if it's a problem that smite no longer works on a single monster out of the several hundred monsters out there.
Secondly, it's already been the case that every other smite in the game could be counterspelled, and it's a little weird that divine smite (which is magical from your religion/devotion) still functions through counterspell and anti-magic fields when every other smite does not.
From what I have read so far, alot of the changes are meant to not reward multiclassing. Alot of these multiclass builds do end up breaking the game balance.
@@flamepulse42 I'm fine with that, honestly. It was absurd to be able to smite something 5 times in one turn at level 7 (even if it did take all but one spell slot to do it).
@@lazarus3100 Personally I thoguht the Paladin even without multiclassing was a bit OP,. esspecially when you take a few levels in fighter, being able to dish out over 100 points of damage in 1 turn sub level 10 is to much.
I’m more upset that Paladins lose the extra attack at level five in exchange for a HORSE. What if I don’t want to have a horse? What if it makes no sense for my character? It’s useless
Most of the changes are so smart that it baffles me that they made a horse a core feature of the paladin, especially since they already acknowledged that people wanted paladin to be able to take on other playstyles, like being unarmed. It also alienates quite a few races whose whole shtick is their unique body plan that enables a unique playstyle, such as literally every race with a fly speed, centaurs, and some that just tend to lend themselves to other styles, like the plasmoid
what if there aren't horses in your setting lol
@@bingonight1504 Find Steed doesnt have to be a horse
They didn't "make" horse a core feature of the Paladin. Steeds have *always* been part of Paladin's design, 5e was the first time it wasn't a straight up feature chain (due to wonky mount rules, and it was still present in their spells). And it's hardly a "core" feature for them to just get a free spell at a level that already gives them another feature anyways. It's a ribbon feature to bring attention back to their root design (and encouraging the historically mounted class to go back to that since they updated mount rules), it's not taking away from some other feature they would've gotten instead.
Seeing Jacobs kid in the ad threw me wayyy off. I was on vacation when I saw his child for the first time in one of his vids, and here I am again and shes grown so much i feel old dear lord
"But... she's _supposed_ to be baby!"
Paladin has always gotten a horse.
@@fatbean2000 ...what does this have to do with baby?
@@fatbean2000unfathomably based
@@him1465 I put in the wrong spot my bad.
9:55 the War Magic change is a direct buff, it doesn't depower it at all. Instead of the old action cantrip + bonus action attack, you can use an attack action to attack once + cantrip instead of one of your attacks, then have an extra bonus action left over, at the level you acquire the feature. It intentionally brings the Eldritch Knight more in line with the Bladesinging Wizard's Extra Attack. As a Gish Enjoyer, it's a lovely change I was hoping EK would get.
Plus it scales with Extra Attack x2 and x3 at higher levels, where previously you had to effectively give up two or three attacks as a higher-level EK. So War Magic was really only great between level 7 (when you got it) and level 10. That always seemed like an unfun tradeoff to make.
Depending on target AC and your weapons and cantrips, extra cantrip damage at level 11 might not outpace another whole attack. But now you don't have to do the math to optimize; replacing one attack with Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade is always better.
But yeah, definitely doesn't depower it; I came looking in the comments hoping someone had already pointed that out.
Yeah I wonder why he called it a depower at all. If I were to play a fighter it would defently be a eldritch knight, seems pretty fun
That's easily my favorite change to EK.
I was looking for this comment, finally EK is a good gish 😍 Their key feature in 5e having an anti-synergy with MULTIATTACK is imo crazy design to begin with, this is why every gish build ever is a hexblade or a paladin. (Though personally I think bladesinger is crazy underrated, if you believe reddit everyone plays bladesigners as regular wizards with high AC)
Aintnoway the word bonk is in the official rulebook now
It's just a summary someone wrote for an article for dndbeyond
It's not, that's just one writer using flair
I would hope and be disappointed.
whats wrong with that?
@@CooperAATE sounds like it should have been how they wrote the whole book to make it feel fun to read
I love everything other than Paladin. I mostly agree with you’re take, “let’s give every martial class more options for how they engage with the game, but let’s make it so Paladin now needs to sacrifice a more to get one of their core archetypal features, also while we’re at it let’s remove a lot of their passive interactions with their party.”
Cause unless I’m wrong they removed a lot of the auras that paladins get.
Well, they didn't give much for the monk to do outside of combat sadly
@@MountainDewIdaho they did not remove them, the simply added them to the base Aura of Protection. Essentially, instead of the Paladin features reading as if they got multiple different types of auras they now have one aura that grow more powerful and gains additional effects as you level.
Yes, Divine Smite was reworked and nerfed but Paladin didn't LOSE anything. They gained more options. They have spellcasting, weapon masteries, fighting styles, Lay On Hands, Channel Divinity, their aura, and subclasses. The only difference between 2024 and 2014 is that Divine Smite cannot be spammed and is as susceptible to anti-spell strategies as every other smite spell.
They did paladin dirty. Smite being a spell means it can be counter spelled and anti-magic aura affects it too, lol.
Nobody is gonna counterspell a smite
@@Flaraen If a paladin hits a crit 7d8 smite you bet that lich will counterspell that.
@@FlaraenA Lich sure as hell would
@@ryankeith2712 But is it a good move? The Lich is going to have the Paladin make a Constitution save, with the bonus from aura of protection. Those aren't good odds for the Lich succeeding. If they do succeed, then the paladin still hits them, still deals damage, and doesn't expend their spell slot. Also, now the rest of the party can unload on spells, and a Full Casters have far, far scarier effects than dealing 18 radiant damage.
So, they can, and it might be worth it in specific situations... but it isn't the "smite is now entirely worthless in this fight" level that people keep making it sound like.
@@Chaosmancer7 Whys there a con save for counter spell??
Jacob going monke mode after seeing the rogue's sneak attack options is absolutely golden lmao
Mikes an excellent writer. Keeps attention, makes cultural references to demonstrate how a feature works, clearly has enthusiasm for what he’s explaining and shows how a class synergies with allies. This is how you should teach dnd.
HELL YEAH
problem with cultural reference is that not everyone has the sae culture. Or knows the reference. Monty python is not a universal example. Its fine for the post but an entire book written by mike would be hell.
It's probably not applicable as a universally good way of writing and explaining rules, but for a big part of the target audience it's a fitting style.
@@madmanwithaplan1826you're right. I think it's just refreshing to have a marketing article written by someone who actually gets the culture.
@@madmanwithaplan1826 This is why localisation can and should go beyond mere translation.
I love how it just starts off with BONK
Kendrick like that, BONK
I think probably the worst part about devine smites now being considered a spell rather than a feature Is that now you have nothing against creatures that are immune to level 5 or lower spells. Like that tiger demon that has backwards hands. You now have nothing that can harm that demon at all.
And smite can be counterspelled now... very cool Wizards thanks
You have weapons. And if you are good aligned and deal piercing damage it's even better. Let's not exaggerate. Just because you can't spam Divine Smite doesn't mean the new paladin is suddenly out of options or useless.
@@beastslayer8729 And Counterspell was nerfed. It now is a Constitution save against the target and by level 6 a paladin can still use their charisma modifier to boost their saving throws, which still means Paladin is the class best equipped to deal with saves of all kinds.
I'm not a paladin main but damn, they really did the pally dirty with this one; IMO if they wanted to limit the paladin to make just one time smite, they could have just added "you can only smite once a turn" instead of making smite a bonus action spell. Severely hinders the pally.
I am so confused by everyone saying the bonus action smite ruins the Paladin. What were paladins doing with their bonus action before? Paladin isn't one of those classes that had a ton of bonus actions before as is. Now Paladins have two main bonus actions to choose from turn to turn.
Making it the bonus action lets you save the smite if you miss the attack. 2014 rules say you have to call the smite before rolling the attack. If you miss, you waste the spell slot. in 2024, the spell description says after you make a successful attack, so if you miss your attack you can keep the spell slot or do something else, like lay on hands
@@alexandermatthews3493 Not quite. It says when you attack hits you can choose to add smite to your hit. No where does it say that you have to call the smite before you roll to hit your target. Rules as written, literally says that you can call to smite AFTER you attack hits.
If you're a Paladin Fighter mix
2014 you can attack 6 times(action surge) and SMITE every time when you attack hits.
But now you can attack 6 times, and only choose to spend your bonus action to smite once.
really lowers a Paladin's damage output.
@sjhsoccer There are a lot of good bonus action spells that paladins have access to. The problem was that early game when paladins are best it's always better to bonus action for a nova smite and late game their spells got outshined by casters. If smite wasn't a bonus action it would give them an opportunity to use their pretty good buff/control spells without worry about bonus actions.
Eh. They were so powerful originally that I don't see it as too big of an issue that they mostly got nerfed. And making smite a bonus action isn’t exactly fatal to the class. It just means the paladin has to think more about what they want to do, rather than just smiting endlessly.
36:18 The ability for anyone to do 2 weapon fighting with their bonus action is still present. All nick does is let you make the second attack as part of the attack action rather than needing to use your bonus action. So a rogue, for example, can make 2 attacks thanks to nick and still have their bonus action to disengage or what have you. Similar thing for eldritch knight's war magic.
My real problem with smite being a spell is that is can be counterspelled, and some fiends are immune to spells under a certain level. The bonus action smite is the real kicker on top of it.
My real problem with smite being a spell is that you can't smite while concentrating on, I dunno, shield of faith or Bless or protection from evil and good anymore.
@@Y00bi yes you can, Divine Smite isn't a concentration spell. Many of the preexisting Smite spells aren't anymore.
@@hearforthemusic9814 If this is true, none of them should be, honestly. Can you sue any smite when you hit or is it just Divine because if it's any smite and none of them have concentration attached... then I'm actually fine with this change.
@@hearforthemusic9814well that’s good at least
@@Y00biYes the weird concentration rule, you know the concentration that lasted like 3 seconds? Was removed from all Smite spells. You just pump one in as a bonus action when you hit.
I really like the changes they did for Eldritch Knight. They're gonna be scary at high level. Say he's lvl 11, He gets 3 swings at a humanoid. First hit lands, Eldritch Strike makes them have disadvantage on their next save against the spell he casts. He forfeits his next 2 hits to cast Hold Person, and you have disadvantage! If that hits, he can Action Surge and hit you 3 times with advantage and auto crit!
This however, assumes Eldritch Strike is gonna remain unchanged. Either way, I feel like Eldritch Knight is going to be so much more interesting and fun to play. I hope they still get lots of feats/ASI so we can slap War/Ritual Caster ontop of him to really expand his magic potential.
EDIT: Okay, obviously Hold Person isn't the perfect spell. Just an idea. There's lots of potential with this Weapon + Spell Combo.
Very situational and wish fantasy combo, hold person works on only humanoids, your dc wont be that high as a figther, the creatures will have magic resistance if not just pass, you have not many second level spell slots and 1 shot at this combo with action surge. Very wishfulfilment , fantasy combo to work and then maybe miss with advantage.
Its better to just havea teammate hold person an enemy than trying to play second fiddle caster, its a team game after all.
Holy fuck my guy. It's literally just an ideal attacking situation that could already be done with a standard Metamagic Adept/Quickened Spell combo. Plus with that and a V. Human for the Feat, 3 ASIs mean you could easily have 20 Dex/Str and 18 INT, that and a Disadvantage on their WIS save means the EK has a phenomenal chance of this working out exactly like the OP wrote. Not only are you rude, you're just flat out wrong. @CyberPunkBadGuy
or simply getting a Booming/Green Flame attack *and* 2 weapon attacks every turn.
@@CyberPunkBadGuy 🙄
@brilobox2 I legit forgot about those when I was thinking about possible spells. I did consider Shocking Grasp, though, to potentially take away their chance of a reaction.
The epic boon of combat prowess is just the “You missed!” “Did I?” feat
Yeah, every single time I see "you fail, but you can choose to succeed instead" it's so god damn boring and dull, I hate it.
For clarity, the Nick mastery simply turns that bonus action attack you can always make when wielding two light weapons into "no action". It's instead part of your regular attack action, freeing up your bonus action for more stuff. It does not however(as some people thought, me included) mean you get to make an additional third attack as a bonus action.
Oh boy I love being a palad- wtf do you mean my most essential ability is a bonus action?
What do you mean it can be counterspelled or nullified in plenty of other ways? WHAT DO YOU MEAN CERTAIN ENEMIES INCLUDING SOME FIENDS ARE IMMUNE TO IT NOW?
@@Evoker23-lx8mb THIS
@@CryptofSkulkeven worse there’s classes that can smite better than the Paladin now. If you’re fighting a Rakasha for example that’s now immune to a Paladin’s smite because they’re immune to spells lower than 6th level, just play a cleric for example so you can get the higher level spells and take a level in paladin or take magic initiate paladin to get the smite spell.
@Evoker23-lx8mb At that point aren't warlocks just better? They have eldritch smite. Well...knowing WOTC they probably don't anymore huh?
@@Evoker23-lx8mb WAIT. So what purpose is there even to leveling up a paladin past level 8? You get literally nothing good out of it. Contrast to if you were to pick up like warlock or sorcerer along the way and level past that until you his max. Paladins literally have no reward for finishing the class out
As a long-time rogue player who's felt a bit stifled in their options (and has had a trend going of missing 50% of their attacks) the updates to rogue are so welcome it's INSANE.
i really appreciated the efforts to let classes be more unique to the player, like the warlocks cantrip modifying invocations not just affecting eldritch blast. but then they showed off the ranger and now you have to use hunters mark or else
Mike is the best. It makes it so easy to understand with his little examples and quips!
Jacob: "Who actually used my old videos as class guides?"
Me five years ago: "These videos must contain the sum of all knowledge that the player's handbook contains"
Cant wait for the live update where if you're playing on a virtual table on Beyond, you can pay 5$ to use divine smite AND another bonus action on your turn
"On lvl 5, I as a paladin get..."
"A horse..."
"To use in this narrow dungeon..."
"Very funny gods, very funny."
They do still get multi attack, I checked.
Buuut yeaaaah
It's a ribbon feature. I think people are caught off guard by it because other classes have had their ribbons removed or turned into actual features, but keep in mind that the horse is a small bonus you get alongside extra Attack.
Yeah, I was totally fine with smite being once a turn... but why make it a spell and require a bonus action? The end result is they made smite once a turn... but in a really convoluted way that just stinks. Just saying it could be used once a turn would have been enough.
It's so you can't use it as a reaction. Truly one of the designs of all times.
@@transient_moonlight I’m not following you… it was never a reaction.
@@dungeondojo The point being that because of how it's worded in 5e "when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack" that you could use divine smite as part of attacks of opportunity or any other reaction attack.
@@duelist301yes! Gotcha. I understand what was being said now. But, for me at least, that’s not a problem. In fact, I think using it on an opportunity attack is a nice niche use of it and isn’t the problem with smite as opposed to the nova round issue with it. Personally, I wish that were still an option. Thanks for the clarification:)
As someone mentioned before, it being a spell also means if a creature is immune to spells...bye bye Smite, you are now useless.
I hope you do these for all the classes! Super helpful for me to understand what they’re talking about in the videos they’ve been releasing (and that I’ve been watching obsessively)
17:30 also fun fact since Divine smite is a spell it can be Counterspelled and Monsters with immunity to spells such as tiamat are immune to smites
So sorcadin becomes flatout a better paladin because they can subtle spell the smites.
Counter spell has a heavy nerf, to the point that unless the smite is used in a crit it would be very dumb to use counterspell on smite.
Also apparently the max damage dice was removed, so sorcerers having higher level spell slots really does make them far better smiters
This video really reminds me of the time I challenged the authority of the high order of Galaria. Her paladins, standing guard amidst her temple, gathered around me. They cut off my escape, and though I knew my fate was sealed, I was resolved to fight until my last breath. If I am to die, I must die with honor.
I was then trampled by 7 horses, 2 cows, and a zebra.
Every Paladin always had Find Steed. You can swap spells every day, and the mount only goes away on death.
5e Find Steed / Greater Find Steed mounts actually didn't go away when you died. That's the 2024 version.
But at the same time, while available to Paladin, just a lot of Paladin players either used it the one time, or never at all. And even then, it isn't a magical mount like it is now, with its own stat block and features.
@@nm2358 The mount goes away on death. *ITS* death.
@@nm2358 I meant when they died, not the PC.
@@Vaelyhn okay, that's true
Hell, my DM has always rules that paladins can cast spells as rituals and that both Find Steed and Find Greater Steed are rituals. Basically gave us the new paladin’s steeds already.
My big hope with summon steed was that they would see not every paladin would want a horse but feel forced to use it cause its free? Just add options of 2nd lvl spells you can pick and you gain it as always prepared and a free cast. Would do so much fir flavor and depending on oath could be rad to have free aid or 2nd lvl smite or some else
I'll take an ostrich
@@black_rabbit_0f_inle805 100% would too
Adding to this idea just quickly looking at the preexisting 2nd level Paladin spells having a list of options could've included stuff like: Aid, Gentle Repose, Prayer of Healing, Locate Object, or Zone of Truth. If they wanted to keep the spells to be (almost) purely non-combative then they still could've done that too with just Gentle Repose, Locate Object, Zone of Truth, and Find Steed. Having 4 options would've fit with there being 4 subclasses too (they could even include a recommendation choice for each one like the Epic Boon section of each class)
@@harbear6276 oooooooh!!! That would've been great! Zone of truth would be great for a justice seeker or investigator. Gentle repose for more priest like. Non combat spells to add to options would be great idea
I don't really understand the complaints for Find Steed and Abjure Foes, honestly. Abjure Foes is literally Turn Undead, but way better because it targets everything. It is a core part of the Paladin identity since well, forever. As is the horse, and I struggle to imagine a pre-modern setting where nobody uses mounts like Jacob seems to imagine. Personally I can't imagine not having some kind of mount, even if it is just a pack animal. I'm not opposed to it being changed out as part of the rules of a subclass, but these are the things I think about when I think "D&D Paladin." As well as things like Detect Evil. Maybe fewer people should be allergic to mounted combat?
I think something that these articles didn’t always mention is how across the classes they made many abilities that used to require an action to activate either a bonus action or free! One example is Oath of Devotion Paladins can activate their Sacred Weapon for free when taking the attack action. Not only that but you get two channel divinity slots and later it goes up to 3. Now your major subclass features don’t require you to waste an entire round of combat setting them up so that you can do more damage later. You can jump into the fight and start swinging with your sacred weapon on the opening round. It’s absolutely fair to say that they downgraded paladins by making smite a bonus action spell, but we always knew paladins were overpowered, and their subclass features are now easier and more fun to use. There’s other stuff too, like how all of your auras are now one radius and new effects tack onto the aura. So much easier to track the benefits your party is receiving.
Yeah i feel like the nerf to Smite might actually be a good thing. It beign the most powerful thing int he paladins kit (argubally, features like aura of protections is probaly more powerful) Made the paladin into a one trick pony. When one option is the supiror option, it becomes the only option (still would argue that slot should go to a bless or sprit shroud).
Now when smite has been nerfed other paladin options might look more disarble as smite is equal to them.
Jacob makes it sound like you can never use the Ba lay of hands or other ba features as that blocks smite, but smite sitn something to use every turn and this should make that intent clearer. I think this makes the paladin more tactical in nature as now you have to grapple with wether you use your Ba for healing or smite while otherwise you would just heal when need be and smite, its now a sacrifice that might cost you your life or the enemys. He also forgot to mention that you get one free casting of smite per day which lets you cast more smites over an adventure
The article made a very terrible job of heighlightning some features that ofset the smite nerf such as the very buffed smite spells, which sadly arent auto prepared now (one of the biggest dissapointment in my reason) As they are kinda similar to the cunning strikes feature which jacob praised. You choose between pure damage or cc/debuffing. Smite should probaly be a built in machanic that has the diffrent smite spells as "Divine penances" that you get similar to when you get to spell but its functinaly does that.
So not only does the paladin get as you said more freedom to use their channels they also get some nice new toys inform of the smite spells. Also i dont understand what Jacobs problem with the steed is. Paladin has a lot of knight flavour and steeds are classic knight stuff. If you dont want to have an mount just flavour the steed as a loyal dog or gigantic spider (if youre a drow)
@@viktorhermansson2284 Exactly. Improving the game is not only done with buffs, but also with adjustments, like the changes to the Paladin. They've nerfed a feature of the class but made the class as a whole much better. In my opinion, I hope it remains a bonus action and that paladins have "spell slots" and not just "smite slots"; that they are a half-caster and not a martial class. But that's just my opinion.
@@smsdownload3426 Defently agree with you. I think instinctually players usally care more about power. They like to smash things and thats natural. (Kinda like how players in video games will "ruin" the game for the selves if the devs to prevent them). The Dm usally cares more about balance as they feel the brunt of unbalanced characters (making it harder to create challenging encounters).
The whole point of smite was that you could blast it out all at once: you can save up your spells in order to deal a LOT of damage at once, against a dangerous boss monster. In exchange, you were limited in how often you could use it and saving it for later meant holding back in all the previous fights.
Now, smite is just the damage boost equivalent of sneak attack, but you can only use it a few times a day and also it uses your bonus action, so goodbye Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master, Two-Weapon fighting without nick and any BA actions you might have gotten from multiclassing.
If there's any takeaway from this video is just 3 things:
1) I'm happy for you Jacob, your kid's adorable!
2) Mike is a funny guy.
3) Now I wanna play Fighter, they sound so much more FUN!
Great another frightened effect to which most fiends and higher level undead are immune. Poor Paladins
89 out of 244 Fiends and 131 out of 253 Undead are immune to being frightened and the Undead portion are by far the largest demographic in the MM for that condition immunity. Frightened is also an extremely debilitating condition and a near 50/50 shot of it working at the WORST of times is still an overall huge win.
@@mackattack616 I am pretty sure you are technically right, but it's not what it feels like playing a conquest paladin to level 20.. Starting level 11 it seems like everything is immune. Getting another frighten ability feels super useless. Like I can not find any fiend over CR20 that can be frightened. and there aren't many between CR10 and CR20 either. It might be debilitating, but it is really looses effectiveness quickly. And the paladin gets it quite late, so it will only be effective for like 5 levels before it starts becoming a waste of an action.
@@MarcLucksch You won't meet anything over CR 20 that can be frightened the vast majority of the time.
And even so, at level 20 you are effectively the strongest paladin you can be as a conquest paladin. Seriously Invincible Conqueror is insane as a buff.
They really should have made the paladin feature that inflicts fear ignore the immunity of Undead and fiends.
still oine of the strognest classes in the game, ...
I wish they had used a similar feature with the Paladin that they did with Rogue; foregoing a d8 in damage to add an effect, like Searing or Wrathful Smite.
What they should have done with the paladin is what they did with the rogue. Take out all of the other smite spell and just say you can remove a damage die to apply the searing smite, or the blinding smite ect.
i agree that they should have made smiting the main focus of paladin, and being able to to choose which type of smite you cast without having to have them prepared would have been great
@@ImSimmin honestly that is what paladin really needs, as i never saw reason to bring the other smites when i just divine smite anyway and at everything that deserves it
the other smites are just wasted spell slots in some cases whereas you can have zone of truth as a nice RP bit
oh but for backwards compatability they couldn't remove any spells, for all those npc stat blocks that use a smite spell /s
@@ImSimmin I think that's what's so bizarre about 2024 Paladin, its main features are:
Spellcasting
Lay on Hands
Aura of Protection
But one element that's been removed from Paladin is that direct connection to its martial combat prowess and its spellcasting - which was Divine Smite. Instead of leaning into that concept that Paladin could use its spell slots on a feature that isn't a spell, that's just the raw expression of the divine power that fuels their magic, they just made it into a spell.
And while spells can be cool, it is hard to ignore how forced the Smite spell design is with its casting time text or just how badly they scale on Paladin.
@@nm2358 why do Paladins get to be a special snowflake, smite is magic just like cleric spells.
I have always loved the idea of a dual wielding paladin. So I was thrilled to learn that Paladins now get access to ALL fighting styles, including Two-weapon-fighting. Making dual-wield Paladins more viable!
.
.
.
That is until I saw that Smites now require a bonus action to “cast”… Which not only makes this concept harder to build, but effectively renders it incompatible with dual wielding, unless you constantly nick with double daggers or dip into Thief Rogue…
I hate it here.
You could do a Dex Paladin using Dagger to have the Nick ability for your former BA attack be included in your 1st normal strike, to increase the chance to hit & the opportunity to Smite once on your turn?
@@zTom_ that’s exactly what I suggested at the end of my comment... Which proves my point. That’s it. That’s seemingly the only way to optimally build this concept without dipping Thief Rogue for the extra Bonus Action...
Unless two-weapon fighting is reworked to no longer require a bonus action entirely, there is pretty much no other way to reconcile smiting and two-weapon fighting. All because both now compete for your Bonus Action, when it originally didn’t.
At that point, why even give Paladin access to two-weapon fighting at all? Better yet, why change Smite to require a bonus action in the first place? To give paladin a nerf it deserves? Sure, but then why nerf smite, when AURA was what actually made it powerful? Why not nerf that instead…?
Daggers are cool, but let my live out the fantasy of my dual-warhammer-spin-to-win paladin, dammit! It’s not THAT overly powerful of an idea to restrict, I would hope…
4:00 4 subclasses per class sounds perfectly reasonable to me. 2014 PHB was clearly playing favourites with 8 wizard schools and only 2 barbarian paths.
Paladin auras all add onto aura of protection, which means a character can only benefit from one subclass aura at a time since the effect (aura of protection) share a name.
That's what YOU think! **homebrews**
So the Paladin not only got nerfed but got horse girled as a "consolation"? Damn, look at how far my boy has fallen. Pour one out for the Paladin
And what happens if you are playing a centaur paladin? What kind of steed could a centaur use?
@@reeceandben4876 a roomba
@@Demirmay this made me laugh audibly
The only hope left is for smite spells to be strong enough to make up for it. Not holding my breath though.
@@ODDnanref All of the Smite spells are now no longer concentration (with a few exceptions), and you cast them as a bonus action after you hit with an attack.
so when you land a hit with an attack, you can choose what type of smite you want to bring down on the enemy, this makes searing thunderous etc much better
I’m convinced that the Paladin was just a rough planning draft that they accidentally released. Divine smite did arguably need a nerf but they did it wrong.
Really, really grateful seeing someone honestly reviewing new content without being sponsored by wotc. I won't be playing DnD again anytime soon, but it's nice to see how the neighbours are doing and what the designers come up with in spite of what an evil corporation says or do (hoping for an union). Hope everyone has fun
I really like what you said about enhancing the core abilities of each class and how thats not really the case in the paladin so far as we can see. I acknowledge the need to maybe nerf some stuff in the paladin, but i really enjoy playing them (theyre the class ive been playing as the longest) so its a huge bummer to see this update. Really wish they wouldve kept the same energy that they put into the rogue when re-doing paladin, lotta stuff feels somewhat misplaced imo.
Yeah trading Sneak Attack dice for tactical options is cool and all, but you can't spend your SA dice to conjure a horse so at the end of the day is it even worth it?
19:00 see, here’s the thing: it has *always* been a thing that paladins have a mount in their class features. 5e was the first time they *didn’t* have a steed for free.
Also, I hate to give you the bad news, but the new options are not forwards or backwards compatible. A player can still run with a 2014 character, but if anyone else is using a 2024 character then rules for statuses and spells will be taken from the new stuff rather than the old stuff.
Yes, but he was specifically talking about subclasses. And in that regard, you can still plug in old subclasses into the revised classes and have them work fine since the levels you gain subclass features at remain the same, save for a couple edge cases.
@@MHAL in one of the videos WotC released about the new rules, they outright said what I did about character creation stuff
@@phntmthf5505 Yes they did. That said, throughout most of the playtesting process, they repeatedly emphasized that you could use old subclasses with the newer base classes. To the extent that they reversed an attempt at standardized subclass progression to make sure that remained possible.
So in practice, even when using 2024 rules for everything else, it is entirely possible to use the older subclasses with, at most, a bit of tweaking, as has been attested to by numerous tables during the playtesting period.
Granted, this has not been confirmed to still be the intent with the final rules.
5e Paladin also gets a free mount in the 2014 rules. It's just hidden in the spells section rather than clearly written in the class features so people don't know that they ge the free horse (as evidenced in this video and comment section).
@@MHAL the subclass progression *has* been standardized to a degree, now that all classes get their subclasses at level 3
i think the Nick weapon mastery is "extra light" just for daggers. so shortswords can still make bonus action attacks, but daggers get the extra attack without using bonus action. this reads like the UA change idea for light making it part of the attack action, which i assume from this means they are not going ahead with. gives rogues a reason to use daggers for reasons other than throwing.
Dude, I literally came up with so many similar ideas when made my own homebrew subclasses. Being a tactician fighter with having a bonus to "decision making". A rogue with dirty tricks like pocket sand. I even allowed paladin to make unarmed divine smite. Funny how lots and lots of that stuff just makes sense and fits into an actual manual
3:52 "Especially the wizard", indeed (as Davvy Chappy would say). Wizards have 13 subclasses in 5e (the 2014 PHB had 8), so having only 4 subclasses in the 2024 PHB is definitely an underrepresentation (pretty much the same for cleric, with 7 subclasses in the 2014 PHB and 14 overall in 5e). It's not that bad since it's confirmed you can still use previous 5e subclasses with the 2024 PHB classes, but it's still weird.
Stat increases coming from background instead of race is so good i love it
I think *some* racial buffs make sense, like better eyesight and such. But yeah most stuff will be more individual than that
@@BJGvideosyea I mean afaik stuff like dark vision is still based on species they’re not removing difference between species
@@BJGvideosYeah, some small racial bonuses are sense like Goliaths getting +Strength or something, but background just makes so much more sense, all things considered.
Continue to make the lore less interesting that way. If there's no difference between the races then their basically just different flavors of humans.
@@whocares6757 ..what? Races still *have* features. Races with claws will have claws and races with night vision will have night vision. This purely makes it so that attributes come from your Background, which means you no longer need to worry about your race being unoptimal for your class
the first few seconds I thought this was another bad homebrew video lmao
It is lmao
yeah, knockout reads like badly thought out homebrew
it's the kinda homebrew that someone thought was cool and strong, but is actually worthless
@@xolotltolox7626 i'm glad i'm not the only one who thinks that... most of this looks like someone's poorly designed homebrew😅
God, a player's handbook written by Mike would help so many players, like young players, and cognitively illiterate (me) players
giving rogues MMO mechanics is GENIUS
THE BLACKJACK IS BACK BABY
@1:30 Jacob is so committed to the DM life he puts his mattress straight on the floor, even after being married with kid
I think with smites, they shouldn’t need a bonus action but just be once a turn, and you can still use them on an AoO. As I understand, smiting on a AoO is now impossible because of the bonus action too which is big sad.
Mike is the hero we needed in these dark times
Those Paladin changes blow
I've got a kid around the same age as yours, and I just want to say, as one parent to another, you're doing great.
Absolutely read the other classes your takes were great
Imagine a sneaky barbarian laughing as he comes up to you and slides your throat whith a laugh
"YOU DON'T SEE ME!"
Legit was my brother when he first started playing back in 2020. He wanted to play a sneaky Rogue who pickpockets everyone but insisted on putting his rolled 18 into Strength, so he later multiclassed into Barbarian! XD
Just like all Slashers intended, literally the perfect Jason Voorhees or etc
Smite being a bonus action feels incredibly painful. We will have to see how it plays but I suspect I'll homebrew it back to a free action...
Honestly most people i've seen saying smite will be homebrewed back to base 5e at their tables, except with a "only one smite per turn" as that is clearly the reason why they tacked on the cost to begin with.
Man hearing you get so excited over martial changes reminds me of how staggering the gulf is between 5e and pathfinder 2e fighter/monk
For real check it out, it's UNREAL
the monk in pf2e is just so much more fun than in 5e... it doesn't even matter how much more useful it is, it's straight up designed better, and that's the case with 90% of the martial classes.
Hot take: if Critical Role used Pathfinder for its episodes instead, DnD would be in the dirt with everyone being hyped about Pathfinder.
@@TheSeth256 I switched over cuz of thr OGL debacle but stuff like thaumaturge and beast guns kept me
It probably wouldn't leave dnd in the dirt, but it would absolutely be outperforming them day in, day out
36:16 It's not taking away the ability to use a bonus action attack with a Light weapon, it's moving that bonus attack into the Attack action, so that you still have your bonus action available to do something else.
40:07 It feels like when one of my players will ask to, like, attack the weapon of another character specifically and knock it free, or distract the enemy with the attack and run instead of trying to actually hit them, but baked in and given raw support. I like it, because it not only let's that kinda stuff happen within the rules, but gives a springboard for players to suggest even more actions to take during their turn.
We all know that the return of how to play class videos can only mean one thing: the remaster of "What kind of rouge are you?"
Can my paladin's faithful steed be mobility scooter?
The path of conquest paladin I used to play would do great with an armored mech since I based him on an anime villain. I'd just need to establish his patron group as employing a lot of artificers (and uh...find a DM who would allow it)
Don't forget that any class that wants it can now pick up smite, now class dip needed! Eldritch Knight? Sure, take a feat for it! Swords Bard? Just gotta get to Magical Secrets. And so on and so on. So bad...
Not sure about Eldritch Knight, but they changed Magical Secrets so you can only choose from Wizard, Cleric, Druid, and (I think) Warlock, so no stealing Pally or Ranger spells.
@@rayindc2074 I mean, that literally just means a feat, still.
@@pyrosianheir Which feat? Magic Initiate only allows bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spells, and I doubt they'll make it LESS restrictive in 2024 since they restricted Magical Secrets.
@@rayindc2074 they're simplifying the way spell lists work with all this. I'm willing to bet it'll be "choose Arcane, Divine, or Nature," or whatever they're choosing to divide it by.
@@rayindc2074 Shadow Touched gives you any necromancy spell, which lets you pick up Wrathful Smite.
The barbarian options make me super glad. I recently finished Dungeon of the Mad Mage as a Barbarian (Ancestral Guardian) Fighter (Battle Master), focused on control with shield master and a battering shield. It feels SO much nicer to tank when you have a taunt and can actually move people away from your squishies, instead of slapping someone for mid damage then shrugging and saying "I hope he tries to hit me, I guess". Not having to dip into fighter for good maneuvers is great!
Re:Nick i dont think they're taking away the ability for offhand light weapon attacls entirely. Its just that for a dagger you get two make two attacks with a single action if you're dual wielding which i think is a cool change. Most of the time rogues I've seen end up dual wielding shortswords as they're generally just better than daggers so the archetypal stabby stabby dagger rogues in the art, never actually appeared in any campaign. This now makes dagger wielding a great option for sneak attack as you now get two tries with a single action and still have your cunning action always in reserve. Very fun and flavourful
There is not a world that exists where I will use the new smite rule
cringe opinion
Nor should you, it's terrible.
Boon of Irresistible Offense doesn't just make your attacks magical.
It overcomes *any* resistance, not just resistance to attacks with non-magical weapons.
So it's amazing for fighting other barbarians.
The 5e version of the boon simply ignores any resistance at all, so could e.g. work for wizards who want to fireball devils. I don't know the exact wording of the 2024 version; some quick searching just found the same article you're looking at. But presumably it fully bypasses those physical resists without conditions.
Facts honestly I see it would be better to have them switched with Boon of the Combat Prowess for the recommended barbarian epic boon because that means their brutal strikes would always land no matter what as they lose advantage on the brutal strike hit that I assume is once per turn but it doesn't matter as that 1 hit would be covered by the boon
@@mohammadmurie - Yeah, good call; combat prowess is really strong, especially for anyone with an attack that does more than damage.
Late-game, overcoming resistances could be good if you don't have a magic weapon and are fighting a lot of enemies with resistances. But there aren't many with across-the-board resistance to all physical damage.
A caster with a lot of fire and other elemental spells would get a lot more mileage out of a resistance-ignoring boon. Many high-level monsters are immune to some and resistant to other non-physical damage types.
@@Peter_Cordes yeah I can also see paladin taking Boon of the Combat Prowess because just guaranteeing you hit once per turn is very powerful on everyone except maybe a bit less on fighter with all those attacks maybe better to go for the crit
@@Peter_Cordes but even still if the barbarian had to take irresistible offense it is still better than all 3 levels of brutal critical lol as on average 3d12 equals to 19.5 without taking up 3 of your levels as well as giving extra bonuses
@@mohammadmurie - Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too, as a way to make sure you can Smite high-AC targets reliably.
And I'm forgetting how it worked, but was it change one miss to a hit? It's going to be not rare that you miss at least one of your two attacks on high-AC targets (especially if great weapon master is still a thing with -5 to hit for +10 damage?), so there's often going to be something to use it on for significant extra damage every round.
Paladin Barbarian multiclasses are dead. All of these changes are so unfriendly towards multiclassing. Just remove the rule from the book if they want people to stop doing it so bad.
Warlock and surprisingly Ranger are going to be popular dips. They are just unfriendly to the busted multiclassing with Paladins and Druids.
Bit of a noob here, what is limiting the multi classing?
@@CerberusPlusOne Barbs can't cast while raging, so making smite a spell instead of a class feature means Barb/Pal multiclasses can't function.
Making paladin multi classes less viable does, in no way, gut multiclassing in general.
“You can’t even smite while raging so you might as well be banned from all multiclassing”
Edit: removed something I meant to text someone. Oops.
The eldritch knight's reworked ability would actually scale better than its previous iteration, especially if you have a light weapon and can make an attack as a bonus action anyway. Booming blade and green flame blade would work well for mele and fireball or ray of frost work well with range (or eldritch blast picked up with a feat or 3 level dip essentially doubles your attacks per turn, not to mention action surging on top of that).
That tactical mastery ability the fighter gets is awesome, it gives every fighter a bit of the versatility the battle master has (and even MORE versatility to the battle master)
It looks like I'm going to be running old paladin but with the new fighting styles and weapon masteries
Jacob when he looks at dnd memes: *I sleep*
Jacob when mike calls danger sense "spidey sense": *R E A L S H I T*
I'm sorry but with the paladin changes there is straight up no reason to be a paladin anymore, you can replace the entire class with bard and searing smite.
I love that they kinda morphed the great weapon master feat into the barb's brutal strike. Allows for more flavor in choosing feats at level ups. Also giving brutal strike battle master maneuver-esque options just makes so much sense.
Also the rogue's bonk ability (that's what it's called now) is so great for non-combat situations. And might help with player/dm misunderstandings over specifying lethal/nonlethal damage
nick is an alternate way to do two weapon fighting, you can still do bonus action two weapon fighting with two non-dagger light weapons
or make 3 attacks as a rogue if you have an off hand dagger and do BOTH
Mike didn't write the Paladin section, because he couldn't legitimately get excited about H O R S E. RIP Smite...
GUYS GUYS GUYS WAIT WAIT WAIT - eldritch knight now replaces attack actions with a cantrip??? If you dip a level into warlock or take magic initiate, you could potentially just cast like 5 eldritch blasts in one turn OR 10 if you action surge. Holy shit.
Iirc, EB now scales with warlock levels, not global levels
*Thinking about minigun warlock
It can replace ONE attack per attack action. Its already a thing for Bladesinger, like exactly the same, but Bladesinger's Extra Attack caps out at 1 extra attack.
If they ever reintroduce the Hexblade, by Asmodeus Hairy dark Balls i hope that they get something similar.
Exchange ONE of the attacks for a cantrip/spell
@@transient_moonlight That was only true for the UA5 Warlock (the one that the community rioted against because they didn't like Warlocks having normal spell slots). By the next UA, Warlocks were back to 1-4 total spell slots per short rest, Charisma-only instead of being able to pick different casting stats based on your Pact Boon, and Eldritch Blast scaling off character level instead of class level.
Keep in Mind that Lay on Hands being BA means now you can also attack in the same turn, even if with no Smite. With the old PHB, if you LoH you were already losing the Smite anyway, since you are not attacking, so it IS a net positive flexibility gain. I also imagine they made it a BA because they don't want you to be able to attack, Smite AND LoH all in one turn, which is fair.
As for paladins and mounts, it IS very silly, but also it's kind of just... added fluff you don't really need to use? Like it even comes in at the Extra Attack level, so getting it is clearly just a neat bonus at the level. And it is still casting a spell (and thus costing you a smite), so it's definitely a thing you can just ignore.
Idk if it's only Jacob's presentation, but this has a really strong "How do you do fellow kids?" energy. I hope not the whole new PH is written this way.
You didn't see any of the official writing. This was just people reporting and summarizing stuff in there. This wasn't actually from the book
If you keep your long hair when your like 50-60, you are seriously going to look like an old wizard and I hope I'm still here for that lol.
I don't get it. Paladins always had access to the Find Steed spell at level 5. It's even a Paladin only spell. Btw getting Find Greater Steed with a Bard through Magical Secret is a pretty fun build.
The problem isn’t that they’re able to do it, but that having it be a level specific class ability that is ‘slightly’ better than other ways of casting it kind of forces you to use it unless you want to ignore one of your signature abilities. What if I don’t want my paladin to have a horse or mount, for either build or roleplay reasons? Maybe I didn’t conceptualize my character as someone who has a mount of any sort. It’d be like if Every Ranger had to have an animal companion or every Artificer a robot dog.
@cricocadazzle4439 pretty sure you could use that horse as a donkey on a leash walking with you used only to carry stuff if you don't want an horse for roleplay reason...
Excited about Fighter, Barbarian and Rogue. Sadly Rangers and Paladins got the Bob Barker Treatment.
Yeah, check out Monk. Monks are even worse than before and they never were good to begin with
@user-hc7dj8xi4k monks got worse. But I heard that they're just dancing bards now.
@@АлександрМедведев-м9й Monk did not get worse in the playtest, they are literally the best they have ever been??? Have you read playtest 8 or?
@@benmills4358 They did not get worse, we haven't even seen the official release version of the 2024 monk yet. Where are you getting this idea from?
@@verdurite ok, what I've read was UA6. So maybe, maybe, they were buffed since then. But I won't believe until I'll see it by myself
Mike must be a dad with how these witty comments are sprinkled into the text and Jacob tapping into that dad energy so quickly proves it.
I'm definitely homebrewing the free find steed to be optional, maybe making you choose between it and another utility spell when you hit that level