Tales of the Valiant Paladin Guide

Introduction

A Tales of the Valiant Paladin is a Strength-and-Charisma Divine half-caster who fights in armor, supports allies with Aura of Protection, and spends spell slots on once-per-turn Divine Smite or spells. The practical build question is not whether every slot should become damage. It is which turn and target deserve it.

Start with Strength for weapon attacks and Charisma for your aura and spellcasting. At low levels, armor, Lay on Hands, and your weapon turns carry the class. Later, Aura of Protection and oath features make your position near allies as valuable as your place on the front line. For turn-by-turn slot decisions, use the Divine Smite vs. Spell Economy Guide.

The Old Margreve does not add a Paladin oath, but it does add useful Paladin support: durable lineages, forest and shadow heritages, a wilderness background, Divine spell options, and several martial or nature-coded magic items. Every option from that book is marked (The Old Margreve) below.

Book of Blades also does not add a Paladin oath in the local material reviewed for this guide. Its value is martial infrastructure: Battle Tactician supports commander Paladins, Tactical Planning rewards prepared fights, Weapon Option Specialist improves weapon-option turns, Martial Law gives disciplined origin support, and Horse Lord plus mounted support finally gives cavalry Paladins something local to build around.

Labyrinth Worldbook adds the Old World (Labyrinth Worldbook) oath, a primordial nature Paladin built around elemental resilience, battlefield restraint, and survival under pressure. It also adds several Divine smite spells that compete directly with raw Divine Smite: Sapping Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook), Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook), Venomous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook), and Vengeful Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook).

Player's Guide 2 adds three oaths that push Paladin in new directions: Anathema (Player's Guide 2) for hunting Fiends and Undead with dirty tools, Safekeeping (Player's Guide 2) for bodyguard play, and Unbound (Player's Guide 2) for anti-control and anti-patron themes. It also adds new boons, optional Martial Action expansion notes, and smite spells such as Radiant Smite (Player's Guide 2), Eldritch Smite (Player's Guide 2), and Abjuring Smite (Player's Guide 2). Yes, the holy knight got more buttons. No, that does not mean your spell slots became infinite.

Rating Legend

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Class Features

Hit Points

● d10 Hit Die. Best combined with All Armor proficiency. A Paladin in plate with 14 CON starts with substantial HP and gains enough each level to absorb frontline punishment. You are built to take hits.

Armor & Weapon Proficiencies

● All armor and all weapons. Same proficiency spread as the Fighter. You will wear plate armor, carry a shield, and use the best one-handed martial weapons you can find. There is no ceiling to work around.

Divine Sense (1st Level)

● Detect Celestials, Fiends, and Undead within 60 feet with no action required. PB+1 uses per long rest. Useful in campaigns centered on these creature types; irrelevant in a campaign of bandits and dragons. The action cost at low levels hurts—spending your action on detection rather than combat is a real opportunity cost.

Lay on Hands (1st Level)

● A healing pool equal to 5 × your Paladin level, refreshed on long rests. Spend HP from the pool as an action to heal others, or as a bonus action to heal yourself (ToV-specific change). Spend 5 HP to cure a disease or poison instead.

The bonus action self-heal is the key quality-of-life feature. In combat, when you need 20 HP to survive a round, spending a bonus action (rather than your whole action) to pull from the pool is excellent economy. The pool at level 10 is 50 HP—substantial but not unlimited.

Spellcasting (2nd Level)

● Half-caster, CHA-based, Divine spell source. Permanently known—no daily preparation. The Paladin learns a small number of spells total, meaning every pick matters. Spellcasting does not arrive until 2nd level, so plan your 1st-level play as a fully martial character.

Core spells to know (any Paladin):

• ● Bless (1st circle) — Concentration. Every attack roll and save for up to three creatures gains 1d4. The best concentration spell in the game for a martial party.
• ● Shield of Faith (1st circle) — Concentration. +2 AC on any target. Often better than smiting if you need to protect a squishy ally.
• ● Wrathful Smite / Thunderous Smite (1st circle) — Spell-slot smites that add conditions beyond damage. Wrathful Smite (frightened) is excellent early.
• ● Lesser Restoration (2nd circle) — Remove conditions. Mandatory utility that saves more turns than it spends.
• ● Aid (2nd circle) — Boost max HP for up to three creatures. Not concentration. Extremely durable buff.
• ● Dispel Magic (3rd circle) — Strong but competes for 3rd-circle slots. Know it if your campaign has heavy magic use.

Martial Action (2nd Level)

● Bonus action in combat to use a weapon option or one of two available martial actions:

• ● Guard — Shield required. One enemy gets disadvantage on their first attack against you or an adjacent ally. Good protection for a nearby squishy. Competes with Lay on Hands self-heal for your bonus action.
• ● Wind Up — Heavy or versatile weapon two-handed. Next hit against the target within 10 feet deals +PB damage. Straightforward damage bonus that stacks with smite.

Note: The Paladin's Martial Action list is shorter than the Fighter's (no Aim, no Quick Strike). You get Guard and Wind Up. Both are useful. Guard synergizes with the shield build; Wind Up with the two-handed alternative.

Player's Guide 2 optional expansion: At the GM's discretion, PG2 recommends Destabilizing Blow, Focus, Reposition, and Unmoving Shield as good fits for Paladins. That is a real upgrade if your table allows it: Focus helps hit the smite-worthy target, Reposition protects aura geometry, Destabilizing Blow supports melee lockdown, and Unmoving Shield is exactly what a shield Paladin wanted to be doing anyway.

Paladin Subclass (3rd Level)

See Subclasses section.

Improvement (Various)

● Paladin Improvements grant martial talents (same as Fighter's list). The Paladin gets fewer improvements than the Fighter—prioritize maxing primary stats and then use remaining slots on high-value talents.

Anathema note (Player's Guide 2): Anathema Paladins can also reach technical talents through their subclass package. That matters for investigator, infiltrator, and monster-hunter builds that want Sleuth, Slippery, or Escamotage without abandoning the Paladin chassis.

Multiattack (5th Level)

● Two attacks with the Attack action. This is the level where the Paladin becomes dangerous—the combination of Multiattack (two chances to land smite), Lay on Hands self-sustain, and Aura of Protection (arriving one level later) makes 5th–6th level the Paladin's first major power spike.

Aura of Protection (6th Level)

● While you are conscious, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet add your CHA modifier (minimum +1) to saving throws. A creature can benefit from only one Paladin's Aura of Protection. With CHA 18 (achievable through point buy and Improvements), every party member adds +4 to every save. This feature makes the class a powerful support even when it is not dealing damage.

At 17th level the radius doubles to 30 feet. At that point you are effectively covering any combat encounter with the aura, since most fights happen within 30 feet of each other.

Aura of Courage (9th Level)

● While you are conscious, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet are immune to the frightened condition (30 feet at 17th). Frightened is common enough at higher levels (dragons, powerful undead, fear effects) to matter. More importantly, it stacks on top of Aura of Protection without requiring anything from you.

Channel Divinity (3rd, 13th, 18th)

● 1 use at 3rd level, 2 at 13th, 3 at 18th. Both uses come from your subclass—the Paladin base class does not have a default Channel Divinity effect. Both Devotion and Justice grant two options, so you always have flexibility in how you spend the resource. See Subclasses for effect ratings.

Cleansing Touch (14th Level)

● CHA modifier uses per long rest to end a spell affecting you or a touched creature. This is targeted dispel magic for ongoing spell effects. Excellent against concentration spells that are buffing enemies (invisibility, fly, spirit guardians) and against spell debuffs on party members (hold person, slow).

Heroic Boon (10th Level)

See Heroic Boon section.

Aura Range Improvement (17th Level)

● Both auras expand to 30 feet. In a standard encounter, this means the auras cover virtually every allied creature in the fight. Position yourself in the center of the party formation from 17th level onward—you are more valuable as a support anchor than as a damage dealer at this range.

Epic Boon (20th Level)

See Epic Boon section.

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Heroic Boon

● Divine Recovery

When you heal a creature with Lay on Hands, that creature can spend one Hit Die, roll it, and add its CON modifier to the healing. This makes Lay on Hands more efficient when a party member can spare a Hit Die; it does not restore the Paladin to full health on a short rest.

● Radiant Strikes

Your weapon attacks deal an additional 1d8 radiant damage. Always on, no concentration, no resources. Against undead and fiends (already taking +1d8 from Divine Smite), this stacks to a consistent damage upgrade across every hit. In campaigns with few undead or fiends, Divine Recovery pulls ahead.

Recommendation: Divine Recovery for sustainability. Radiant Strikes for campaigns heavy in undead/fiend content.

● Mystic Steed (Player's Guide 2)

You learn a stronger find steed ritual that can be cast as an action without material components and does not count against spells known. The expanded steed list includes bigger heroic mounts, including options from Monster Vault and Monster Vault 2 with GM approval.

This is blue in mounted campaigns and green elsewhere. A Paladin who actually gets open battlefields, cavalry charges, and aura positioning from horseback can build an entire identity around this. In a dungeon crawl, your glorious mount may spend a lot of time waiting outside like it has opinions.

● Seraphic Sight (Player's Guide 2)

While Divine Sense is active, sensed creatures cannot abuse hidden, invisible, or unseen positioning against you in the same way. You can attack and target them more reliably, even when normal sight would fail you.

This makes Divine Sense much less awkward. It is campaign-dependent, but in Fiend, Undead, stealth, or illusion-heavy games, Seraphic Sight turns a flavor detector into a tactical answer.

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Epic Boon

● Aura of Salvation

As an action, create a 30-foot aura for 1 hour. You and friendly creatures in it gain resistance to nonmagical damage, automatically succeed on death saves, and regain hit points equal to your CHA modifier at the start of a turn if they have at least 1 HP. It ends early if you are incapacitated or die, and returns after a long rest.

This is a sustained survival aura rather than a one-hit death-prevention effect. It is strongest before a difficult sequence where the party can remain near you and expects repeated nonmagical damage or attrition.

● Avenger (Player's Guide 2)

When you spend a Divine spell slot of 5th circle or lower on Divine Smite, you roll a d6. If the result is higher than the slot's circle, you recover the slot. That means lower-circle smites refund more often than higher-circle smites.

This is the smite-economy boon. A 1st-circle smite refunds on 2-6, a 2nd-circle smite on 3-6, and a 5th-circle slot only on 6. Translation: Avenger makes low-circle smites feel like coupons, not an excuse to throw your rarest slots into the sun.

● Sacred Conduit (Player's Guide 2)

Gain an additional Channel Divinity use after a long rest, and when you roll initiative you recover up to two expended Channel Divinity uses.

This is fantastic for any oath whose Channel Divinity is the plan: Justice wants more Judgement, Safekeeping wants more protection buttons, Anathema wants more monster-hunter pressure, and Unbound wants more ways to break control effects. It is less flashy than Avenger, but it may win more actual encounters.

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Ability Scores

You have 32 points.

Paladin is Multiple Ability Dependent (MAD): You need STR for attacks, CHA for spellcasting and Aura of Protection, and CON for HP and Concentration saves. You cannot max everything, so you make tradeoffs.

Recommended buy: STR 16 (11 pts), CHA 14 (7 pts), CON 14 (7 pts), DEX 10 (2 pts), WIS 10 (2 pts), INT 8 (0 pts) = 29 pts. Use remaining 3: WIS to 11 (1 pt more) and CHA to 15 (needs 9 pts, have 7 spent already, need 2 more = CHA 15 total), or bring CON to 15 (9 pts, you spent 7, need 2 more).

Clean version: STR 16 (11), CHA 14 (7), CON 14 (7), DEX 10 (2), WIS 10 (2), INT 8 (0) = 29, remaining 3 points → CON 15 (2 more) + WIS 11 (1 more).

● STR 16 at level 1. Hit 20 with the first Improvement at 4th. Your attack rolls and damage depend on this.

● CHA 14 minimum. Each point of CHA mod is a permanent bonus on every ally save. CHA 16+ should be your target by mid-levels.

● CON 14. Concentration saves (for Bless and other concentration spells) require CON saves. Dropping a Bless on the second round costs you more than the damage you deal with that round's attacks.

● INT. No Paladin feature keys off INT. Dump to 8.

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Lineage & Heritage

● Lineages that reinforce frontline durability or social presence. The Paladin wants to stay standing, keep allies inside the aura, and still function as a CHA-facing leader. Look for resistances, condition protection, movement options, darkvision, defensive reactions, and social utility.

● Darkvision lineages. Frontline melee characters fight in darkness. Darkvision eliminates the disadvantage problem without resource cost.

● Lineages with resistance to physical damage. The Paladin takes more hits than most classes by design. Resistance softens the incoming damage that Lay on Hands needs to cover.

● Lineages with innate spellcasting. The Paladin's spell list is small and permanently fixed. Lineage spells that add utility options (misty step, disguise self) are excellent when they do not require CHA-based rolls.

● Pure skirmisher lineages with no defense or social payoff. Paladins can chase mobility, but they are usually better as the formation's anchor. If a lineage only helps you leave the aura cluster behind, it is asking the holy tank to become a very expensive courier.

● Bearfolk (The Old Margreve). Excellent for STR Paladins. Cold resistance, an ally-facing frightened-save benefit, and the ability to add STR or CON to some CHA checks all fit the class's frontline leader identity.

● Piney (The Old Margreve). Strong defensive lineage. Living Wood adds a PB-based reaction AC boost against melee attacks, and the condition advantages help protect the Paladin from losing concentration, position, or aura coverage.

● Alseid (The Old Margreve). Fast, perceptive, stealth-capable, and resistant to exhaustion and frightened. The quadruped drawbacks are awkward for armored dungeon play, so this is better in outdoor or mounted-feeling campaigns.

● Erina (The Old Margreve). Darkvision, burrow speed, poison resilience, and heightened senses are useful, but Small size can complicate some heavy-weapon Paladin builds.

● Duergar (Player's Guide 2). Excellent underworld Paladin chassis: durable, grim, and naturally suited to Anathema, Safekeeping, or any oath that expects ugly fights in tight stone corridors.

● Elemental Scion (Player's Guide 2). Strong for Old World, Devotion, and any Paladin who wants elemental identity without giving up the frontline job. Resistance-style features age well because Paladins are standing where the damage lands.

● Dhampir (Player's Guide 2). Dark antihero Paladin done locally: climb access, darkvision, poison/exhaustion defenses, and a natural fit for Anathema or Unbound. It is edgy, but at least it brought mechanics.

● Shade (Player's Guide 2). Best for Unbound, Anathema, and shadow-haunted oaths. This is not the clean temple knight; this is the person the clean temple knight quietly asks to solve the problem.

● Tosculi (Player's Guide 2). Commander and teamwork texture can work for Battle Tactician or Safekeeping Paladins, but the fit depends heavily on campaign tone and party tolerance for hive-coded roleplay.

Heritage:

● Cosmopolitan. Extra skill and language. Persuasion is CHA-based and excellent for Paladins; Cosmopolitan often provides access to it.

● Moonlit Heritage (The Old Margreve). Bonus-action sunlight and advantage against frightened effects. This stacks naturally with the Paladin's anti-fear role and is especially good against shadow, undead, or fey-heavy campaigns.

● Forest Bastion Heritage (The Old Margreve). Animal Handling or Nature, trapper tools, and a reroll for failed CHA checks with urban creatures. The CHA reroll is useful on a party face, even if the skill package is not optimized.

● Martial Law (Book of Blades). Athletics, Intimidation, martial training, and bonus-action Help while adjacent to an ally. The armor and weapon proficiencies are redundant, but the rest is excellent Paladin texture: military order, shield-wall discipline, and a real party-facing tactical button.

● Horse Lord (Book of Blades). Strong only if mounted play is real. Paladins are the class most likely to make a horse, lance, and aura positioning feel like a complete combat plan. In dungeon campaigns, this drops quickly.

● Privileged (Book of Blades). Flexible skill proficiency plus contested social advantages. Paladins are already natural party faces, and Privileged gives noble, courtly, temple-champion, or knightly-aristocrat concepts more mechanical support than most generic social packages.

● Covenant (Player's Guide 2). One of the cleanest PG2 Paladin heritages. Oath-bound flavor, spell-facing durability, and the exact "I made a promise and now everyone has to deal with it" energy the class runs on.

● Kithren (Player's Guide 2). Great for Safekeeping and aura-centric Paladins. The whole point is protecting your people, which is also the Paladin job description with brighter lighting.

● Conflicted (Player's Guide 2). The Anathema and Unbound heritage pick. If your Paladin's oath is built from tension, heresy, duty, or spite, this does more character work than another clean heroic origin.

● Hivebound (Player's Guide 2). Best on commander and teamwork Paladins. It rewards staying linked to the group, and Paladins already want the party clustered inside their aura bubble.

● Seafarer (Player's Guide 2) / Waterside (Player's Guide 2). Excellent in aquatic or ship campaigns, mostly flavor elsewhere. A Paladin with sea legs is useful; a Paladin waiting for the GM to add a boat is comedy.

● Delver Heritage (The Old Margreve). Burrow speed and provisioner tools are practical, but the open-space flavor and underground movement are more scout-coded than Paladin-coded.

● Hiveheim Heritage (The Old Margreve). Nature or Survival plus herbalist or provisioner tools. Fine for a wilderness holy warrior, but it does not reinforce STR, CHA, aura play, or smiting.

● Soldier heritage (Background, not Heritage). This one is commonly confused, but the Soldier background feeds Paladins well. See Backgrounds.

● Nomadic. Speed bonuses are not Paladin priorities. You are the party anchor, not the mobile skirmisher.

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Skills

Paladins choose two skills from: Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion.

● Persuasion — CHA-based. The Paladin has the highest potential CHA in the party. Social-face role fits the Paladin archetype and mechanics. Always take this.

● Athletics — STR-based. Grapple, shove, and climb checks. A high-STR Paladin controlling enemy positioning (shove prone → attacks with advantage) is often more valuable than a smite.

● Intimidation — CHA-based. Second social skill if your campaign has interrogation and intimidation scenarios. A Paladin with CHA 18 and Intimidation expertise is terrifying in social encounters.

● Insight — WIS-based. The Paladin dumps WIS somewhat, but Insight is the most-called social skill beyond Persuasion. Useful if no one else in the party has it.

● Religion — INT-based. The Paladin dumps INT. The flavor makes sense; the mechanics do not.

● Medicine — WIS-based. Stabilizing downed characters. Lay on Hands makes this mostly redundant—you already have magical healing on demand.

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Backgrounds

● Soldier — Athletics and Intimidation, both CHA or STR-based and useful. The associated talent options tend toward martial or group combat. Thematically perfect and mechanically competitive.

● Adherent — Religion and Insight. Religion is INT-based (weak), but Insight is useful and the Adherent theme fits a devout warrior. The talent from Adherent often provides defensive bonuses.

● Courtier — History and Persuasion. History is INT-based (weak), but Persuasion is CHA-based and valuable. If your background flavor is a noble holy warrior, Courtier works.

● Forest Dweller (The Old Margreve) — Survival, a choice of Animal Handling, Nature, or Stealth, Sylvan, and a wilderness tool. This is not as efficient as Soldier, but it is a good fit for a Margreve oath-keeper and can grant Forest Denizen or Relentless Hunter without spending a normal Paladin Improvement.

● Conscript / Judicial Champion (Book of Blades) — The specific fit depends on campaign tone, but both support disciplined military or law-facing Paladins. The important part is sourcebook access: Book of Blades backgrounds can point characters toward existing talent packages such as Focus, Combat Casting, or Scrutinous. Use them when the origin story matters and the granted talent matches the build.

● Healer / Servant (Player's Guide 2) — Strong for Safekeeping and Devotion Paladins. Healer reinforces the support identity; Servant fits bodyguard, retainer, sworn shield, or "I carry the noble's problems and a warhammer" concepts.

● Investigator / Gravedigger (Player's Guide 2) — Excellent Anathema hooks. Investigator supports the reveal-the-monster play pattern, while Gravedigger brings grim monster-hunter flavor and durability-adjacent talent access.

● Rebel / Smuggler (Player's Guide 2) — Best for Unbound or Anathema builds that want social friction, technical tricks, or anti-authority flavor. Not every Paladin needs to be a law-abiding cathedral with legs.

● Homesteader — Animal Handling and Nature. Neither is a Paladin priority. The talent may compensate depending on options.

● Scholar — History and Arcana, both INT-based. Double wasted proficiency on the class that dumps INT hardest.

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Talents

Paladin Improvements draw from the Martial Talents list. Player's Guide 2 expands that list substantially; Anathema and some backgrounds can also justify technical or magic talent access.

● Combat Conditioning — Bonus HP per level and better hit-die floors. Between this and Divine Recovery (Heroic Boon), short rest HP recovery becomes substantial.

● Aware — Initiative d20 of 9 or lower treated as 10, immune to surprise while conscious. Paladins who go first land Bless before enemies act, which is a significant party-wide buff amplifier.

● Shield Mastery — Shield-related defensive benefits. Since the Paladin almost always carries a shield in the one-handed build, this talent's bonuses are essentially always active.

● Battle Tactician (Book of Blades) — The best Book of Blades talent for commander Paladins. You already have CHA, aura positioning, frontline durability, and a reason to keep allies near you. Battle Tactician turns that into active party control instead of only passive save math.

● Tactical Planning (Book of Blades) — Strong when your Paladin is the mission planner or party captain. It improves the fights where you can scout and choose the battlefield, which is exactly when Bless, Channel Divinity, and aura positioning are easiest to sequence correctly.

● Weapon Option Specialist (Book of Blades) — Better on Paladins than it first appears because Martial Action already gives you bonus-action weapon-option access. Choose this if your table actually uses weapon options and your Paladin has a repeatable favorite. Skip it if weapon options are rare.

● Polearm Mastery (Player's Guide 2) — The best PG2 martial pickup for reach-controller Paladins. It pairs naturally with aura positioning, Safekeeping bodyguard play, Vanguard-style protection, and the ancient Paladin art of standing exactly where enemies would prefer you did not stand.

● Tactical Teamwork (Player's Guide 2) — Reaction PB to an ally's missed weapon attack. Paladins already make the party better by existing nearby; this adds an active "no, hit them actually" button.

● Staggering Strikes (Player's Guide 2) — Strong for STR melee Paladins who want to deny reactions and keep mobile enemies stuck in the frontline problem zone.

● Juggernaut (Player's Guide 2) — Better shoves and forced-movement reliability. Good for shield Paladins, Safekeeping protectors, and anyone who believes "move them away from the Wizard" is a complete tactical philosophy.

● Hard to Kill (Player's Guide 2) — Cinematic survival for frontliners. It is not a healing plan, but it can buy the one more action that lets a Paladin finish the fight, save the charge, or make the table briefly stop breathing.

● Situational Awareness (Player's Guide 2) — Anti-ambush value plus reaction repositioning. Aura classes care a lot about where they stand; this helps you fix the map when the map gets rude.

● Relentless Hunter (The Old Margreve, Forest Dweller / Technical Talent) — Paladins normally draw Improvements from martial talents, but Forest Dweller can grant this. Tracking, pursuit, and PB extra damage on your first hit against a chosen quarry are good on Justice Paladins and wilderness campaigns.

● Forest Denizen (The Old Margreve, Forest Dweller / Technical Talent) — Climb/swim advantages, poisoned-condition resilience, safe-foraging awareness, and help escaping vegetation, Beast, or Monstrosity restraints. It is campaign-facing, but it shores up several wilderness hazards Paladins otherwise solve slowly.

● Stunning Sniper (The Old Margreve, Martial Talent) — Paladins are melee-first and do not get Aim, so this is mostly for a rare ranged Paladin concept. Expanded crits and stun-on-crit are good, but the class's best damage features want melee.

● Friend of the Fey (The Old Margreve, Technical Talent) — Sylvan, a Fey/social advantage, and PB-per-long-rest advantage on saves against charmed or frightened. Useful in fey-heavy campaigns, though Devotion and Aura of Courage eventually cover much of the defensive space.

● Sleuth (Player's Guide 2) — Anathema's best technical talent angle. If your oath is about exposing deceivers, hidden monsters, and supernatural infiltrators, Sleuth gives the investigation engine teeth.

● Slippery (Player's Guide 2) / Escamotage (Player's Guide 2). Both are real for Anathema or Unbound concepts that lean technical. They are not default Paladin picks, but they make sense when your oath fights monsters with locks, lies, and unfair pockets.

● Physical Fortitude — Spend a hit die to reroll a failed STR or CON save. Advantage against knockdown, pulling, and pushing. Shores up Concentration saves for Bless when you lack CON save proficiency from another source.

● War Dancer (Book of Blades) — Excellent talent, wrong default Paladin profile. It wants DEX 13, movement, and light skirmishing. Most Paladins are STR-heavy armored anchors. Consider it only for a DEX Paladin, lightly armored duelist, or unusually mobile Justice build.

● Poisoner (Book of Blades) — Bonus-action poison application conflicts with Martial Action, Lay on Hands self-heal, and some smite-spell turns. It can fit a grim executioner concept, but mechanically Paladins usually have better uses for both bonus actions and talents.

● Stealthy — DEX-based and Paladins wear heavy armor. Heavy armor imposes disadvantage on Stealth checks regardless of talent. Pass.

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Spells

For Paladin spell rankings, Divine smite-adjacent picks, Old Margreve spell notes, Labyrinth Worldbook spell notes, and spell hot takes, use the Best Paladin Spells guide.

The short version: Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook) is the best Labyrinth smite because the advantage rider helps the whole party focus fire. Radiant Smite (Player's Guide 2) is the clean low-circle radiant rider. Eldritch Smite (Player's Guide 2) is a force-damage focus-fire tool. Abjuring Smite (Player's Guide 2) is excellent when extraplanar enemies matter and merely fine when they do not. Deadly Weapon (Player's Guide 2) is the bigger PG2 story: one hour, no concentration, expanded crit range for the party weapon user most likely to make your GM sigh into their notes.

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Subclasses

The Old Margreve and Book of Blades do not add Paladin oaths or subclasses in the local material reviewed here. Labyrinth Worldbook adds Old World (Labyrinth Worldbook). Player's Guide 2 adds Anathema, Safekeeping, and Unbound, giving Paladins a monster-hunter oath, a bodyguard oath, and an anti-control oath.

Devotion

● The balanced Paladin subclass. Strong against the game's most common enemy types (Aberrations, Fey, Fiends, Undead) with a solid offensive Channel Divinity option and an excellent 7th-level aura.

Sacred Weapon (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● As an action, your weapon gains your CHA modifier to attack rolls for 1 minute. With CHA 16, that is +3 to every attack roll for ten rounds: reliable sustained accuracy. The weapon also emits bright light in a 20-foot radius, which can illuminate a local area without granting special detection of invisible creatures.

Sanctifying Light (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Blind Aberrations, Fey, Fiends, and Undead that fail a save until the end of your next turn. Blinded creatures make attacks at disadvantage and are attacked with advantage. In campaigns heavy in these creature types this is a ● feature. In campaigns with diverse enemies it is ●.

Devotion Oath Spells (3rd): ● Oath spells are permanently known and do not count against your spells known total. For the full Devotion list and spell-by-spell ratings, use the Best Paladin Spells guide.

Aura of Devotion (7th): ● Allies within 10 feet are immune to charmed. Immune, not resistant—not advantage on saves, not +X bonus. Fully immune. Charm effects (hold person, dominate, vampire charm, fey enchantments) are among the most common turn-losing conditions in the game. This aura shuts them down for your frontline allies completely.

Purity of Spirit (11th): ● You are always under the effect of protection from evil and good, without needing concentration. This means Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, and Undead have disadvantage on attack rolls against you, and you cannot be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them. Extremely powerful against campaign enemies that fit these types.

Holy Nimbus (15th): ● Once per long rest, emit a 30-foot aura of sunlight for 1 minute. Undead and fiends in the aura take radiant damage at the start of their turns. You have advantage on saves against spells cast by fiends and undead. Strong in a campaign climax fight; passable otherwise.

Overall Devotion: ● The defensive choice. Aura of Devotion at 7th is ● quality in almost any campaign. Purity of Spirit at 11th provides massive passive protection. If you want to protect your party from magical compulsion and supernatural threats, Devotion is the answer.

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Justice

● The offensive Paladin subclass. Quarry-based mechanics that build to a devastating execution feature, plus the best movement-control Channel Divinity in the game.

Burden of Guilt (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● One creature within 60 feet must make a save or have its speed halved and (if flying) must save or fall. This is area-denial and movement control with no concentration requirement. Halving an enemy's speed makes kiting impossible and keeps your allies from being chased. Against flying enemies in a campaign with lots of aerial combat, this is exceptional.

Judgment (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Mark a quarry creature. You gain advantage on attacks against it and deal bonus radiant damage on hits. The advantage synergizes with Divine Smite (more likely to crit, more likely to smite efficiently) and Multiattack (two chances to land the bonus damage per turn).

Justice Oath Spells (3rd): ● Oath spells are permanently known and do not count against your spells known total. For the full Justice list and spell-by-spell ratings, use the Best Paladin Spells guide.

Aura of Vigilance (7th): ● Allies within 10 feet add your PB to initiative rolls. At PB 4+, your entire party goes first more often than not. Combat advantage is dramatically easier to gain when you act before enemies, and Bless lands before anyone takes damage if you win initiative by 4+ over the enemy average.

Unworthy Adversary (11th): ● When your quarry (from Judgment) has fewer than half its HP, all your attacks against it score a critical hit on a 19–20. Combined with Multiattack and Divine Smite, finishing a target goes from probable to almost certain once you have it below half.

Divine Executioner (15th): ● When you reduce your quarry to 0 HP with a melee attack, you can immediately use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against a different creature within range. If you have both attacks from Multiattack and action surge available, the cascade potential here—execute a quarry, free attack on a second target—is extraordinary in a multi-enemy encounter. Even in single-target fights, this guarantees you are not wasting Multiattack on a dead target.

Overall Justice: ● The offensive choice and the stronger competitive subclass. Burden of Guilt is excellent control at 3rd level. Misty step from oath spells is a Paladin-life upgrade. Aura of Vigilance at 7th benefits the entire party's combat rhythm. Divine Executioner at 15th makes target priority trivial. If you want to hit the hardest, Justice is the path.

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Old World (Labyrinth Worldbook)

● The defensive nature oath. Old World is not trying to out-nova Justice or out-cleanse Devotion. It gives the Paladin a primordial protector identity: restraint, elemental resilience, emergency self-healing, and a 15th-level form that makes your Paladin extremely hard to remove.

Old World Oath Spells (3rd): ● Fog cloud, spike growth, fly, freedom of movement, and wall of stone. This is a terrain and mobility list, not a raw-damage list. Spike growth and wall of stone are the standouts because Paladins normally struggle to reshape the battlefield without simply standing in the way.

Upheaval (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Bonus action, 10-foot selective restraint on failed STR saves, lasting up to 1 minute with repeat saves. The big cost is positional: the effect ends early if you willingly move. Use it when enemies have already committed to the scrum and your party can punish restrained targets.

Quelling Chime (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Action to stun Aberrations, Celestials, Fey, and Fiends within 60 feet on failed CHA saves, ending if the creature takes damage or someone shakes it awake. Blue in the right campaign, orange as a default because the creature-type restriction and damage break point make it more encounter-dependent than it first looks.

Aura of Perseverance (7th): ● You and allies within 10 feet reduce acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage by your Paladin level. This is excellent because it stacks with the Paladin's normal job: stand near allies and make them harder to kill. At 17th level, the aura improvement makes this much easier to share.

Vigor of Creation (11th): ● When you take damage, you can use Lay on Hands on yourself as a reaction once per short or long rest. You also stop aging and cannot be aged magically while maintaining your oath. The combat piece is the draw: reaction self-healing keeps your action and bonus action free on the following turn.

Bygone Emissary (15th): ● Once per long rest, assume a primeval form for 1 hour. You gain immunity to one listed elemental damage type, regenerate HP at the start of your turn while above 0 HP, and make nearby creatures worse at saving against your Paladin spells while becoming vulnerable to those spell damages. The important limitation: Labyrinth Worldbook says this does not include Divine Smite, so do not misread this as a smite damage doubler.

Overall Old World (Labyrinth Worldbook): ● Old World is the best Paladin subclass here for tables that reward terrain control, elemental resistance, and frontline durability. Justice remains the best damage oath; Devotion remains the cleanest anti-enchantment support oath. Old World is the oath for the Paladin who wants to be the party's ancient, immovable shield.

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Anathema (Player's Guide 2)

● The ruthless monster-hunter oath. Anathema is built for campaigns where Fiends, Undead, disguises, cults, false faces, and supernatural infiltration matter. In those campaigns it pushes blue; in a campaign about local bandits and taxes, it is still a scary person with excellent posture.

Expanded Proficiencies and Talent List (3rd): ● Choose Deception, Sleight of Hand, or thieves' tools, and you can choose martial or technical talents when you gain new talents. This is the subclass's quiet power. It lets a Paladin become the party's investigator without pretending plate armor is stealth gear.

Reveal Deceivers (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Exposes creatures using disguise or true-form magic, outlines them, damages them with radiant pressure, and lets allies attack them more reliably. Blue if your campaign uses infiltrators; orange if every villain introduces themselves with a name tag.

Turn the Profane (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Turn Fiends and Undead. Narrow but extremely relevant in the campaigns where Anathema should be chosen.

Aura of Fearsomeness (7th): ● Adds PB support to Intimidation for you and allies in your aura, with advantage against Fiends and Undead. It is not subtle, but neither is being a Paladin.

Direct Action (11th): ● The anti-Fiend/Undead payoff: better sensing, stronger spell pressure, improved critical threat, and enhanced smite outcomes into the subclass's chosen prey. This is why Anathema climbs hard in the right campaign.

Divine Anathema (15th): ● A once-per-long-rest anti-Fiend/Undead form that improves damage reliability, grants resistance against their damage, detects them nearby, and strengthens saves against their effects. It is narrow, but when it turns on it feels like the oath stopped negotiating.

Overall Anathema (Player's Guide 2): ● Green by default, blue in Fiend, Undead, cult, disguise, and planar-horror campaigns. The hot take is simple: Anathema is not "edgy Devotion." It is an investigator-exorcist with a sword.

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Safekeeping (Player's Guide 2)

● The bodyguard oath. Safekeeping is the Paladin subclass for players who care less about topping the damage chart and more about deciding who is allowed to touch the objective. It is practical, dramatic, and mildly rude to assassins.

Divine Blockade (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Ward an object or space and punish a chosen target for approaching it. This is encounter-shaping in escort, siege, ritual, doorway, and "keep them off the MacGuffin" fights.

Shielding Nimbus (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Add your CHA modifier to an ally's AC for 1 minute. It is simple and excellent. The Paladin points at one ally and says, mechanically, "not today."

Safekeeping Oath Spells (3rd): ● Alarm, warding bond, nondetection, resilient sphere, and wall of force. This is not a damage list; it is a protection and containment list, and that is the point.

Aura of Watchfulness (7th): ● Adds PB support to Insight and Perception for you and allies in your aura. Excellent in ambush, guard, escort, and intrigue campaigns.

Unwavering Protection (11th): ● Choose a charge after a long rest, then intercept attacks, spells, and effects aimed at that charge. You can impose disadvantage, grant save advantage, split damage, or become the target. This is the subclass doing exactly what it promised on the label.

To the Last (15th): ● Stay functional at 0 HP near your charge for a short window, still making death saves while you keep fighting. This is cinematic and dangerous. Use it to win the scene, not because you forgot healing exists.

Overall Safekeeping (Player's Guide 2): ● Blue for protector play. Safekeeping is the Paladin who makes the GM target someone else, then follows the GM there with paperwork and a shield.

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Unbound (Player's Guide 2)

● The anti-control oath. Unbound is for Paladins who break chains, reject patrons, and turn divine force into psychic refusal. It is strongest in campaigns with charm, domination, grapples, restraints, cults, Celestials, Fiends, and magical coercion.

Forceful Unyoking (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Free creatures from charm, grapple, or restraint effects in a cone, then punish nearby creatures causing those conditions. This is narrow until it is suddenly the best button at the table.

Oathbreaker (Channel Divinity, 3rd): ● Imbue a weapon to deal extra psychic damage against Celestials, Fiends, and devoted or patron-bound enemies. The target list is campaign-facing, but the flavor is excellent: the sword is not glowing, it is making a theological complaint.

Divine Disaffection (3rd): ● Converts your Divine Smite and Radiant Strikes damage to psychic and changes the extra-damage prey from Fiends/Undead to Celestials/Fiends. Great for the right campaign, but do not bring it to an undead-heavy arc expecting classic radiant math.

Unbound Oath Spells (3rd): ● Bane, detect thoughts, remove curse, freedom of movement, and dispel evil and good. This is a strong list for anti-control and anti-supernatural work.

Aura of Disaffection (7th): ● Adds PB to saves against charmed and enchantment spells for allies in your aura. Devotion gives full charm immunity; Unbound gives broader anti-control texture and a different campaign posture.

Free Body, Free Mind (11th): ● Expands Divine Sense against controlled creatures, grants major immunity to creature-caused control conditions, and lets Lay on Hands remove charmed, grappled, or restrained for 5 HP. This is the reason to play Unbound.

Bond Severer (15th): ● High-level payoff against controlled, commanded, Celestial, or Fiendish opposition. Its value tracks the campaign premise: in a coercion-heavy arc it is terrifying; in a wilderness travel arc it is mostly a very intense personality statement.

Overall Unbound (Player's Guide 2): ● Green by default and blue when the campaign is about control, patrons, possession, Celestials, Fiends, or broken vows. It is the least traditional Paladin oath here, which is also why it earns its page space.

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Weapons

● Longsword (Versatile) — The definitive Paladin weapon. One-handed for d8 damage + shield, or two-handed for d10 when fighting without a shield. Wind Up martial action works two-handed. Versatile covers both playstyles without requiring a weapon swap.

● War Pick / Warhammer (1H or Versatile) — Same damage profile as longsword. Choose based on damage type preference or magic item availability.

● Greatsword / Maul (Heavy, Two-Handed) — Maximum melee damage with Wind Up. You sacrifice the +2 AC from a shield. Best in campaigns where AC matters less than damage output, or when you have consistent healing coverage from the party.

● Lance — d12 damage on horseback with the Mounted Combat context. In overland or mounted campaigns, the Paladin on horseback with a lance is a highly effective single-target striker. Horse Lord, Fell Rider, and Book of Blades mounted support make this plan more credible when the campaign has open battlefields.

● Hand Crossbow / Shortbow — Paladins are not built for ranged combat. No Aim martial action, no archery bonuses, and your strongest features (smite, auras, Lay on Hands) are all melee or proximity-based. Take a ranged backup but do not invest in it.

● Rapier (Finesse) — DEX-based Paladin builds are playable but the class has no DEX-focused features unlike Monks. You are wearing heavy armor. DEX does nothing for your AC. Play a DEX Paladin only if you have a very specific concept in mind.

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Armor

● Plate Armor (AC 18) — The endgame armor. 1,500 gp. Combine with a shield for AC 20. The Paladin in plate with a shield is the hardest-to-kill frontline in the game, combining high AC with Lay on Hands, Last Stand-equivalent sustain (Divine Recovery), and aura-boosted saves.

● Half Plate (AC 15 + DEX max 2) — Excellent mid-tier option before plate is available. No STR requirement. Standard in tiers 1–2.

● Chain Mail (AC 16) — Starting equipment option. No DEX requirement. Immediately functional and sufficient through the early game.

● Leather armor (AC 11 + DEX mod) — Never correct for a STR Paladin. In a DEX Paladin build, workable but suboptimal.

On Shields: ● The +2 AC is almost always worth the one-hand weapon tradeoff for a Paladin. Plate + Shield = AC 20 before any buffs. The Guard martial action synergizes with shields to protect adjacent allies. The primary exception is when you are specifically building for Wind Up damage with a two-handed weapon.

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Magic Items

● Goblin Shield (The Old Margreve) — Rare shield with charge-based bonus-action bites. Shield Paladins already want the AC, and the bite gives you a small offensive outlet on turns where you are not using Lay on Hands, Guard, or a smite spell.

● Half-Sword of the Margreve Knights (The Old Margreve) — Rare +1 finesse longsword that crits on 19-20. Paladins love expanded crit ranges because Divine Smite dice double on a critical hit. This is especially good for sword-and-board builds.

● Firebird Feather (The Old Margreve) — Light, cold-environment protection, and a nature-coded spellcasting focus option for Paladins who worship nature deities. The focus clause is narrow, but when it applies this is excellent flavor and utility.

● Margreve Fur (The Old Margreve) — Advantage on smell-based Perception and initiative rolls, plus limited invisibility in plant terrain. Initiative advantage helps you cast Bless, activate Channel Divinity, or establish your aura position before enemies act.

● Scorn Pouch (The Old Margreve) — Prevents surprise from hostile creatures within 30 feet. Paladins are party anchors; losing your first turn means the whole party loses aura positioning and early Bless timing.

● Moon Through the Trees (The Old Margreve) — Invisibility and a blind burst near living trees. Strong in forests, but too terrain-dependent to chase in most dungeon or city campaigns.

● Living Stake (The Old Margreve) — Excellent anti-vampire tool and very Paladin-coded. Outside vampire-heavy adventures, it is too narrow.

● Sand Arrow (The Old Margreve) — Specialty arrow that slows armored targets and can briefly blind them. Useful backup ammunition, not a reason to become a ranged Paladin.

● Sickle of Thorns (The Old Margreve) — A +1 sickle with vegetation utility and extra damage against Plant creatures. Good forest-campaign sidearm, weak general Paladin weapon.

● Book of Blades mount items — Green for actual cavalry Paladins, orange or red everywhere else. Paladins are one of the few classes that can make mounted gear feel like a combat identity because lances, aura positioning, heavy armor, and battlefield leadership all point in the same direction.

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Multiclassing

Multiclassing Prerequisites: STR 13 and CHA 13.

● Paladin 6 → Warlock X — Paladin 6 gives Aura of Protection; Warlock adds Wyrd spell access, patron features, and more CHA-facing magic. This is strong, but table-sensitive. Confirm how your GM handles multiclass spell slots before building the whole character around smite fuel.

● Paladin 6 → Sorcerer X — A broader spell-list route. Sorcerer adds Arcane flexibility and metamagic-style spell shaping, but the delayed Paladin features hurt. Choose this only if the campaign rewards spell versatility more than single-class aura and oath progression.

● Fighter 2 → Paladin X — Two levels of Fighter for extra action flexibility. Since Paladin's smite is once per turn, the value is not "double all your smites"; it is sequencing a key spell, movement, and attacks in the same decisive round.

● Cleric 1 → Paladin X — Cleric 1 adds armor proficiency if you somehow lacked it, plus a Divine domain feature. Rarely worth the level delay.

● Wizard → Paladin — INT is the Paladin's dump stat. The Wizard's spellcasting ability conflicts. Avoid.

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Example Build: The Radiant Juggernaut (STR/CHA, Justice)

Tactics: Open combat with Wind Up bonus action, then swing with Multiattack for two longsword hits. If you land a smite-worthy hit (confirmed, high damage value, boss target), expend a 2nd-circle slot for 3d8+1d8 (fiend/undead) extra damage. Use Judgment (Channel Divinity) to mark the most dangerous enemy—advantage on attacks means more consistent crits, which are the best time to smite (doubled smite dice). At 11th level with Unworthy Adversary, a quarry below half HP takes crits on 19–20, and Divine Executioner turns the kill into a free bonus attack. Maintain Bless for the party whenever smite decisions are less urgent. At 17th level, stand in the middle of the combat zone and let both auras (Protection and Courage, 30-foot radius) blanket every ally simultaneously.

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Hot Takes

Hot Take: A Paladin who stays close enough for Aura of Protection to cover the party often contributes more than one who chases a second target for a marginally better attack. Your best damage turn still matters, but the aura rewards formation discipline every round without spending a slot.

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Final Notes

The Paladin is the most forgiving martial class in Tales of the Valiant to build and play. The aura alone makes your presence valuable regardless of what you are doing with your turn. Lay on Hands self-heal means you stay in combat through situations that would force other martials to disengage. Divine Smite gives every turn an optional burst that makes bosses fear confirmed hits.

The key mental shift from beginner Paladin play to advanced Paladin play is resource discipline. Smiting every hit bleeds your spell slots into nothing before the third combat of the day. Bless is often worth more than three smites—one concentration spell that improves every attack roll and save across the party for ten rounds is an enormous force multiplier. The smite is for the moment that needs to be decisive; Bless is for the moment that needs to be sustained.

Justice is the subclass for players who want to be the most dangerous person in every room. Devotion is the subclass for players who want their party to survive every room. Both are correct answers, because the Paladin's strength lies not just in what the subclass adds but in the chassis features every Paladin already has: the best passive save bonus in the game, self-sustaining healing, and a damage spike that can change a combat outcome in a single action.

The Old Margreve does not change the oath ranking, but it gives Paladins a solid forest-campaign package. Bearfolk and Piney are the best lineage additions, Moonlit and Forest Bastion are the most relevant heritages, Bleed and Heart-Seeking Arrow are the most practical Divine spells, and Goblin Shield or Half-Sword of the Margreve Knights both reward classic Paladin equipment choices.

Book of Blades does the same thing from the martial side. It does not replace Devotion or Justice, but it gives Paladins better ways to express battlefield leadership: Battle Tactician for commander builds, Tactical Planning for prepared fights, Weapon Option Specialist for Martial Action users, Martial Law for disciplined origins, and Horse Lord/Fell Rider/mount items for cavalry campaigns.

Labyrinth Worldbook is the first of these local expansion books that changes the Paladin subclass conversation directly. Old World gives Paladins a serious defensive nature oath, and the Labyrinth smite spells give you better rider choices when a normal Divine Smite is too blunt. Label those choices clearly at the table: Old World (Labyrinth Worldbook), Luminous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook), Sapping Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook), Venomous Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook), and Vengeful Smite (Labyrinth Worldbook).

Player's Guide 2 widens the class more than it replaces it. Anathema (Player's Guide 2) is the monster-hunter oath, Safekeeping (Player's Guide 2) is the bodyguard oath, and Unbound (Player's Guide 2) is the anti-control oath. The new boons matter too: Mystic Steed (Player's Guide 2) finally makes mounted Paladins feel supported, Seraphic Sight (Player's Guide 2) rescues Divine Sense from niche-duty, Avenger (Player's Guide 2) changes late-game smite economy, and Sacred Conduit (Player's Guide 2) makes Channel Divinity plans more reliable.

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Related Guides

Paladin Guides

• Divine Smite vs. Spell Economy Guide

Spell Guides

• Best Paladin Spells in Tales of the Valiant

Talent Guides

• Best Martial Talents in Tales of the Valiant
• Best Magic Talents in Tales of the Valiant

Book of Blades Support

• Book of Blades Heritages
• Animal Allies and Summons Guide: Book of Blades Mounted Support

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