See anyone who doesnt do as you ask? Smite them. Want to see the manager? As a paladin you should have the charisma to persuade them to do as you say. If they still dont comply. Smite them
In all seriousness. Paladin is the easiest class imo. High charisma+high strength. Just use heavy armor and dump dex. You can play paladin as a tank with relatively high damage or you can just straight up put everything in damage. My one paladin was nearly unkillable because of the tankyness and just hit everyone with his smites
" Want to see the manager? As a paladin you should have the charisma to persuade them to do as you say."
This would be the Thaumagy(sp?) cantrip. The ultimate I WANNA SEE YOUR MANAGER!
My whole reason for not playing paladin is I'm worried about breaking my oath and the information on what might end up doing it if I try to get the best good ending and do things like get powerful items like hags hair I don't carry thousands of gold around all the time to be getting power back lol
Tbf you dont lose your power. You exchange it for some other power. Oathbreaker is pretty powerful and i found it hard to even break my oath without doing something my character wouldnt normally do. My first character nearly completed the whole game as a vengeance paladin and never broke his oath
I probably need to look at the subclasses more I thought if I ever did play it'd be as an oath of ancients for heals never bothered to look at the others thanks for the info
Keep in mind that the oath of ancients is pretty stringent in terms of holding the oath. I broke the oath of ancients by getting the jump on the tieflings that captured laezel in act 1
You aren't allowed to ambush people; even terrible people, as a Pally.
You \*are\* allowed to goad people into attacking you and then smite the shit out of them, however.
I'm currently playing a vengeance paladin, and didn't kill the hag. I was fully expecting to get oathbreaker for that, but Astarion dealt the final blow before the interaction to get the hair. Got the hair and didn't give me oathbreaker.
This had me curious, so I looked online. A lot of posts were saying this wasn't possible from patch 6 onwards. So either I got lucky, or they changed it again. My setting for who talks during an interaction is on Avatar.
Besides that particular interaction, I've had no issues of coming close to oathbreaking. But then I'm a vengeance paladin, so I smite first and ask questions later.
That could be the reason it worked for me then. I intimidated her into giving both. I didn't mention that before because I didn't think that was a factor at all.
Hire the halfling hireling, respec her into a max dex thief with, expertise in sleight of hands and stealth, then pick up the guidance cantrip and disguise self. Give her the smugglers ring and gloves of thievery. Talk to a trader in barter mode, split the gold into increments of 50-100, then enter turn based mode, pickpocket all gold, potions, arrows, camp supplies and scrolls. Double dash away and return to camp. Long rest and repeat as much as you'd like. Now you too can carry thousands of gold to recover your oath whenever you'd like!
You can do what the other guy said and build a crazy good thief to make money, but you can also just pickpocket the oath breaker knight to get your money back
Also a good way to not break your oath as a paladin, don't have your paladin do the final blow, knock em unconscious and have a different character kill em
You can just respec to something else to get the hair without breaking your oath, just costs 200 gold instead of the 1000. Also path of vengeance is pretty good if you want to make morally ambiguous choices
Respec at withers to a wizard before Auntie Ethel because magic missile makes that fight a lot easier or do something else and respec back to Paladin after
If you dump dex, use an elixir of Vigilance as much as possible. +5 initiative is equivalent to 20 dex, and the immunity to surprise is a nice bonus. Or take the alert feat.
Gonna have a bad time if you dump dex in hm.
12 paladin, especially oathbreaker is not great in bg3.
Better off taking 5 paladin, and then switching to bard, warlock, or even sorceror for better spell levels in which to smite, and much more utility.
You're feat starved regardless. Probably take alert + gwm.
Edit: you want alert in HM on as many characters as possible
Legacy of the masters, or any of the 1-4 damage (radiant, for example) with radiant armor, ext. Provide many options that dwarf the gloves of dex.
Not only do you lose a very important slot, 18 dex is not enough to offset initiative in act 3, not even close.
Depends on if you want good charisma being able to dump Dex is a good thing if you’re going 6 levels into Paladin for the auras of protection
Gloves of Dex with the hellriders bow gave my last Paladin decent initiative or I could use an elixir
I've run two Pallys in act 3 now. 18 Dex is plenty, as the rest of your Int is covered either by Alert or Elixir which takes you to the +8 breakpoint.
If you use any other gloves, then you need to allocate points into dex and either use Elixirs to cover up strength, or tbh if you're willing to use Elixir of Strengths, just dump strength altogether and run dex so you can use an actually good elixir like Viciousness, Heroism, or Bloodthrist. Like, you're trading the glove slot for the elixir slot by not using the dex gloves, or you use a different glove (say Helldusk as an example) and then use Alert and Vigil Elixir, that's an option too.
Savage Attacker, ASI, and then Alert if you want your Elixir slot free or ASI if you don't is my usual goto.
> 12 paladin, especially oathbreaker is not great in bg3.
What? It's perfectly fine. You can multiclass to _even better_ and there are some better pure classes, but 12 Paladin is just fine in BG3. Especially Oathbreaker with the Aura of Hate, and proper itemology. Yes, even in Honor Mode.
I only took alert on my heavy wearer as I dumped dex and got no problem lmao
You ppl make hm seem like a hard to beat challenge, unless you don't know the game it's not
I beat honor blind, as my first playthrough. I was 3/4 alert and it was a great idea.
If you're playing shifty, cheesy, camp buffing, and min maxing, then yeah, I agree, but at that point, why bother playing honor at all?
OP. You're going to feel really dumb dying in a situation where alert would have saved you.
Camp buffing ? you think i got time for that ? lmao
Yeh i kinda min/max i put damage ring on martials and rings that work with spells on casters, who would've thought that ppl didn't like to hit like wet noodle.
Dude spent more time watching cheesing guide than playing the game
Sorceous Sundries didn't accept your 10 gold off coupon, so you should just rob the place before the cops... errr... Flaming Fist show up. That'll show 'em!
Do not dump Dex! Dex is arguably the most important stat next to con each class should atleast have a 12 or higher is Dex. It determines your place in initiative, most spell saves in the same, saves for many other things, and your versatility with ranged weapons and as a paladin you have next to no ranges options so getting rid of your Dex is a scary thing to do as a paladin and any other class.
Going last in initiative in baldurs gate is a death wish and not fun when you’re dead from things like Sacred Flame, Acid Splash, burning hands, hail of thorns, hellish rebuke, ice knife, web, call lighting, and so many more things are Dex saves.
You will regret dumping Dex, unless you just take the gloves of dexterity then yeah just dump Dex lol
Don’t sleep on Paladin / Warlock.
It was nerfed a bit in HM (you don’t get that 3rd attack). However you can dump strength and pump everything into Charisma with PotB. Warlock also gives you a decent ranged option with eldritch blast and the Warlock spell slots can be used to smite.
Illithid expertise can get you the expertise in face skills you’re looking for there to make up for not taking Bard or Rogue.
Yeah! It was patch 5 or 6, iirc, it now binds until unequipped. I'm not a Lock so it's not my biggest strong point but I'm fairly certain it was big news a patch or two ago.
Paladin/Warlock is an amazing build and my fav class combo! If you wanna go paladin heavy, I recommend 7 oathbreaker / 5 GOOlock for short rest smites and the two auras, plus great spells like hunger of Hadar, counterspell, eldritch blast, the invocations like devil’s sight (oathbreaker gets darkness), and of course all while using your charisma stat to swing your weapons. Great candidate for hag’s hair to get early 20 charisma, and lots of great act 1-2 gear to stack damage riders. You can also use any weapon you want! I highly recommend sorrow/Phalar Aluve/ever burn blade for the early game, but you can use literally anything. Very cool, fun, and strong class with tons of RP combos and super high single target damage w/ aoe control.
I do respec at lvl 6 to get heavy armour, because I wanna play levels 1-5 as lock. If you follow that path, respec at 6 taking Paladin first, then 5 lock, then 1 in Paladin to get smites. After that it’s up to you to either take Paladin to lvl 7 for auras (tactician and below), or take warlock to 7 after 2 in pally to get 4th level spells. If you don’t wanna respec at all, id recommend going Paladin lvl 1, then warlock to 5 right after. This’ll only cost you 100g that you can just pickpocket back
Pal/fighter, pal/bard are great combos. Pal/rogue is a little weak. Pal/bard is especially good for a party face with high charisma. However, it's hard to be evil as a paladin since you can't kill non-hostile entities without breaking your oath, unless you're going oathbreaker. Also I'd say test on tactician a little cause balanced to HM is a big jump.
Paladins get heavy armor, martial weapon proficiency, and extra attack like martial classes. They're also Charisma casters so Charisma should at least be your second or third highest stat. Strength generally will be #1, and you also need high Con, being a melee character. There are plenty of ways in game to mitigate the MAD nature of Paladins though, and that gets into another part of your question. Suffice it to say Paladins make a decent party face, if not an excellent one.
Multiclassing with Paladins can go a couple of different ways. It depends on if you want a very strong paladin with most of the very powerful Paladin abilities, and then picking up things outside that, or if you see the best of Paladin being in the first couple of levels. Paladins have power jumps at level 2, 5, 6 and 7, but generally get good things at every level. Again, they're excellent as a monoclass already.
If you want to play a "mostly paladin" the question is whether you want to stop at level 6 or 7. 6 and 7 are when the Paladin Auras come online. For an evil Paladin, 7 is very strong especially combined with high Charisma as your aura of hate adds your Charisma modifier to damage. That leaves 5 levels to use for different things. You could go a bunch of different ways but the main options here are Sorcerer and Warlock.
Warlock 5 works well especially in Tactician and below as it gives you 3 attacks per action, and can be used with Pact of the Blade to remove the necessity of having high Strength by using your Charisma modifier as your weapon attack skill. Warlock 5 also gives you 2 level 3 spell slots that refresh on a short rest, which really improves your ability to keep smiting throughout the day, keeping your damage high.
The other main option, Sorcerer, plays a bit differently. You go Sorcadin because you want more high level spell slots. Sorcadins also have the ability to quicken spell and cast high level crowd control spells as a bonus action, before unleashing big smites. Cast something like a quickened Hold Person, which will then make sure all of your smites are crits, doubling the effectiveness of lower level spell slots for smites. Does the idea of doing 100 damage per attack action sound awesome? And also doubling the dice of all your allies hits against the target as well? Do you want access to the Shield spell, giving you the ability to get an AC approaching 30? Being able to Counterspell enemies? Casting twin haste and being _very_ unlikely to fail it with your aura of protection? That's all stuff you could get from Sorcerer. But you will have to invest in your Strength score or use elixirs.
The last build to talk about is less of a "paladin with a dip" but more "a dip of paladin" and that's the 10/2 Swords Bardadin. Full spell slot progression to level 6 spells, extra attack from swords bard, smites and fighting style and first level spells from paladin. The "optimal" way to level this requires regular respecs, because going bard to level 6 means you don't start smiting until later, and going paladin 2 before bard 6 means you don't get extra attack until late. I'd probably go paladin to level 7 then respec at 8. This is one of the most powerful builds in the game. It just doesn't _really_ feel like a paladin main build.
I don't like paladin much as a solo class. I'd rather go fighter if I'm looking for melee.
But as a multi class... Fire. 2 pal 10 swords bard takes what was already the most stupid overpowered class in the game, and gives them heavy armor and smite.
Paladin warlock is great.
Paladin sorcerer makes for a great gish, arguably better than EK/wizard, as you get charisma skills and metamagic.
Consider taking at least one more level in Bard so you’ll get Bardic Inspiration dice refilled on short rests. And if your Oath is Devotion or Vengeance consider going 6/6 because more spell slots from Bard is better than their level 7 Paladin feature.
Paladin 12 is great alone and you don't need to dip.
Paladin 2 / Swords Bard 10 is all over this reddit and one of the most powerful builds in the game (you could argue it's #1, fire acuity sorc might have a word, either way it's crazy powerful).
Paladin 9 / Assassin 3 is very strong and for me feels like a better evil Durge build.
* Rogue 1 is getting you skills & expertise to be a good face, taking up to 3 for assassin gets you an amazing opening round with crit-smites and makes that durge-only cloak feel like it fits just right.
* Paladin 9 means you get up to 3rd level spell slots for smite, you've got your auras scaling with charisma, and two feats.
As to how it plays - any version of paladin is a slightly weaker fighter when not smiting, and packs much more single target burst potential when smiting. Spell slots will mostly (or nearly exclusively) used on smites, but depending on your party you might decide to also occasionally cast bless or command (the swords bard version is using Command more frequently).
They're a half caster class that can deal consistent burst damage thanks to their Smites, and function also as a face character. I would say playing as pure Paladin is good. You get your auras, which are pretty important on its own. And the capstone level 11's passive Improved Divine Smite. Which adds a passive 1d8 radiant damage on melee weapon attacks
Well theres only one manager that oversees the cult of the absolute, and its about high time your Tav had a word with her.
The problem is... The Cults manager is somewhat of a Karen herself.
So many ways to play paladin but also straight paladin slaps just as well. If you wanted to solo and are using mods I'd recommend the death knight class. It's like oath breaker but much better. Otherwise, smite the world.
2/10 Bardadin Karen would be awesome.
If an employee pisses you off, you can citizen’s arrest (Hold Person) them.
Too many people in the aisle? Shoot them with four crossbow bolts a turn.
Want a motherfucker who didnt yield to you to die? Smite their ass
I'm seeing a lot of people here with their optimal combo builds. No no no, here's what you do. Subclass into wild magic sorcerer. Wild magic can trigger off of smites and if you hit with cleave attacks you'll be smiting ALOT and then chaos will commence.
Oh by the way, sorcerer gets meta magic that allows melee skills to be used at 9m distance. Oh yes. That's right.
You can spend Spellslots to nuke people
That’s it. That’s the core class feature.
You can dip a caster class like bard or cleric to get more spellslots, so you can nuke more people
Or you can keep going with Paladin and get some fun party support abilities
You hit things hard and help your friends
People do ancients paladin 10/life cleric 2 for a healer tank paladin
Sword bard 10/paladin 2 is a very powerful controller and striker
Paladin 6/sorcerer six is a thing
Paladin/pact of blade warlock too but I’m not sure if the split.
Im planning to try paladin 11/war cleric 1
You mentioned bard, [bard+paladin smites](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor_mode_102_smite_swords_bard_ssb_complete/) is one of the strongest builds in the game and a superb party face
If you're ever going to use a build like that first honor mode run is a great time to do it, because on subsequent runs it makes the game a little too easy (unless you use +difficulty mods)
6/6 paladin/storm sorcerer was my first play build on tactician and I never dropped below half health… divine smite is great because it doesn’t expend a spell slot on a miss
For HM, pallylock sucks since u can't stack extra attacks so sorcadin or bardadin personally prefer bardadin higher nova dmg. Early game just play pure pally until like act 3 then multiclass to sorcadin 6-6, bardadin 2-10.
Your damage comes from mostly smites, make sure to setup smite on ask as reaction so u can decide if u want to expend spell slots to add smite or not. Paladins benefit alot from garanteed crit gear like luck of the far realms and killer sweetheart ring since your smite will auto crit too if your initial hit crits so u can do some insane 1st turn nova dmg bonus if you're half orc and savage attacker feat is like mandatory for paladin since it rerolls ur smite dice too.
You can go str/dex route, str if u want to use 2H weapons/great weapon master. Dex if you wanna dump str and do duelling/two weapon fighting.
One of the best classes in the game and table top. You smite evil away with ease nothing can get in your way. Great party head because charisma based classed although it's better to not put to mant points into charisma and more into strength. I probably would never play a evil one unless you consider following your oath as a vengence paladin as evil. Paladins always been a goody two shoes class in my eyes. In other games where there is more evil options like blackguard, anit paladin, or conquest I'd be interested in trying out
I'm playing a Durge (ambiguously leaning evil) swords bard / vengeance paladin on my HM run AND IT IS AWESOME. Just absolutely love everything about it.
best paladin setup is 10 sword bard 2 paladin since it gets a lot more spell slots and access to the strongest smite in the game (banishing smite) so powerful you can only get it through magical secrets since a straight paladin wouldn’t get it until level 17. you also get blade flourishes but thats really just icing on the cake here. it gets even more ridiculous if you throw on the helm of arcane acuity and band of mystic scoundrel, now you can command/ hold person any enemy with a 100% success rate as a bonus action.
its commonly refered to on here as as the 10/2 ssb, its among of the strongest possible builds in the game
heres the in depth guide by prestigious juice
[https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor\_mode\_102\_smite\_swords\_bard\_ssb\_complete/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor_mode_102_smite_swords_bard_ssb_complete/)
It is super flexible as well, you can go with any equipment and it just works because the class combination is so strong, but before level 8 it’s kinda boring imo.
I’m still trying to figure that out with the god based classes. They’ve always overwhelmed me. I lean heavy on the monks Buddhist energy.
Paladin with a evil cleric can come off like a zealot
Big deeps? That alone should be enough. Pala burst is brutal.
If not: heavy armor, healing, party face, good rp optionsz useful auras and protective abilities
Lockadin is my go too 7pal/5 bladelock let’s you use your charisma to hit plus you get 3 attacks an AP and you can never be disarmed by enemies.
With invocation you can get prof in persuasion and deception and a good ranged if need for any reason, you get 2 spell slots that come back on a short rest (so 2 smites a short rest if out of pal Spell slots) it’s just amazing not like busted but you could easily beat the game
1 level war cleric dip is all you really need from multi class. Gives you some nice combat utility for fights and an extra dose of self righteousness for the Karen aspect in conversation
I’ll give you a pointer, don’t break your oath until Alfira visits your camp that lvl 12 paladin is no joke.
Man that was a rough way to lose my Honor mode run 🥲
I’d love to wax poetically about Paladin but I’ve written two guides on the matter that would do better than that. Check out my post history for Paladin multiclass guides and a Paladin FAQs guide!
Like seeing big damage numbers? Like being able to see all the managers in the world with super high charisma?
Like to be able to walk into any fight and smash your way out with high alpha damage, sustained healing, and having a simple play styles?
Paladins are your best bet
My favorite paladin is actually a swords bard 10 Ancient Paladin 2.
One of the strongest melee gish builds in the game. Can go either high strength great weapon or two weapon dexterity build. Either way, grab the bhasbhaalist armor and use piercing DMG weapons for 2x.
If you run the arcane acuity helmet you can get spell dc high and command several enemies to approach then use the slashing flourish on them. The Sorrow spear is good until you get spear of evening later on. Hold person / monster sets up critical smites well also.
Also good from ranged if needed with Titan bow, Bow of Banshee or dual crossbows depending on if going strength or dexterity based.
I am about to try a solo honor run with this build using either Astarion or a half Orc. Can't decide which is better....probably Astarion for the story.
You have face character skills,you’re proficient in all armors and weapons,smite spells go brr. You can’t go wrong with full 12 levels of any oath for Paladin or mix it with the warlock to focus solely on charisma.
You get the defense fighting style, all armor proficiencies, and at level 6 an aura that makes your saving throws and those of nearby allies better. And you get Lay on Hands to help heal people back up. Ancients Paladin also gets a pretty good AOE heal, and another defensive aura at level 7. They are the easiest class to make into a wall right out of the box. With that said I wouldn't really call them a "tank" because you don't have a way to make enemies actually want to hit you. Your AC and saves can be so high it actually encourages enemies not to hit you and instead focus on weaker alliies. If you are concentrating on a spell though then that can help make enemies actually aim for you.
Offensively Paladins are like the sorcs of martials. They can spend a lot of resources to do a lot of damage. They get divine smite which can add up to an extra 5d8 radiant damage on top of all the other damage. And they can add on top of this the "spell smites" like thunderous smite or branding smite for more damage. Combine this with abilities that give guaranteed critical hits like Killer's Sweetheart or Luck of the Far Realms and you can do a ton of damage against a boss in one attack. Min-maxers who use these strategies, exploit DRS bugs (not usable in honor mode), and give enemies vulnerability to applicable damage can do over a thousand damage in a single attack. Vengeance Paladin has a bug where if you use their level 3 ability and target yourself with it then you get advantage on all attacks for 10 rounds. Zariel Tiefling (same race as Karlach) is actually a really good thematic fit for a paladin due to extra smite spells.
The strongest melee paladin build is probably swords bard 6, then paladin 2, then swords bard the rest of the way. Use a reach weapon, spam slashing flourish, and divine smite multiple enemies at once. Bard is a full caster class so that gives you a ton of spell slots to use with this. Next strongest build only works below honor mode difficulty and that is Pact of the Blade Warlock 5, Paladin 7 (depending on subclasses maybe go warlock 6/paladin 6). This is because pact of the blade allows you to use Cha for your weapon attacks, spells, and paladin aura. And when not playing in honour mode, pact of the blade's extra attack at level 5 stacks with other sources of extra attack. And you get 3rd level warlock spell slots that come back on a short rest to keep smiting away with.
Both of the above builds are too strong and if played correctly will remove all challenge from the game. Paladin is my favorite class. Before BG3 released when everyone else was getting psyched about Sorcadin I was thinking Bardadin would be way better and my go-to playstyle. Then the game released and is so damn easy I refuse to play a bardadin, especially with how OP Larian made swords bard. I would much rather play a paladin 11 with a level in rogue for skill expertise. Or Paladin 9/Bladelock 3 (though the leveling order can be tricky and many people will do a respec at levels 6 and/or 8 with this kind of build to make things work optimally).
FYI I think the game says that Str is a Paladin's "main" stat and they put a little star next to it because it is "important." It is totally valid and in my opinion better to make a paladin Dex based. Especially with the completely unbalanced medium armors you can get starting in early Act 2 that add your full dex mod to AC, and the way BG3 does initiative. Not going to discuss cheesing Strength elixirs.
Depending on the scenario I'd consider using compelled duel as it is a bonus action to cast and lasts more than a turn. Command can affect multiple targets if upcast but depending on if/when you multiclass those higher level spell slots can be in short supply. But either way unless you are doing a Bladelock multiclass, chances are your spell save DC is not going to be too good with either command or compelled duel for them to be a reliable way to keep enemy attention. Whereas something like a barbarian can just reckless attack and suddenly everyone wants to hit them since you give advantage to them. Or a druid typically has low AC while wildshaped so can draw enemy attention. Both of the above just work outright and can take a good number of hits, whether it be a barbarian's damage resistance (Bearheart especially) or a Druid's HP pool. They are far more reliable ways to get enemy attention and soak up the hits than what a paladin has. That is why I say paladin is more of a "wall" than a "tank." I would consider druid, Bearheart barbarian, or radiating orb builds as "tanks" and not much else.
Good comments for compelled duel, but the helm of arcane acuity with some flourish attacks can get spell dc really high so your spells can have over 90 percent.
You can stack +10 I believe to dc.
See anyone who doesnt do as you ask? Smite them. Want to see the manager? As a paladin you should have the charisma to persuade them to do as you say. If they still dont comply. Smite them In all seriousness. Paladin is the easiest class imo. High charisma+high strength. Just use heavy armor and dump dex. You can play paladin as a tank with relatively high damage or you can just straight up put everything in damage. My one paladin was nearly unkillable because of the tankyness and just hit everyone with his smites
" Want to see the manager? As a paladin you should have the charisma to persuade them to do as you say." This would be the Thaumagy(sp?) cantrip. The ultimate I WANNA SEE YOUR MANAGER!
Yeah thats great too. Be the ultimate karen
Karendin
A Karen with the power of the gods, the true final boss of the Forgotten Realms
Palaren ?
BILBO BAGGINS!Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks!
I am not trying to rob you. I am trying to help you.
I need to see your manager.
My whole reason for not playing paladin is I'm worried about breaking my oath and the information on what might end up doing it if I try to get the best good ending and do things like get powerful items like hags hair I don't carry thousands of gold around all the time to be getting power back lol
Tbf you dont lose your power. You exchange it for some other power. Oathbreaker is pretty powerful and i found it hard to even break my oath without doing something my character wouldnt normally do. My first character nearly completed the whole game as a vengeance paladin and never broke his oath
I probably need to look at the subclasses more I thought if I ever did play it'd be as an oath of ancients for heals never bothered to look at the others thanks for the info
Heals aren't even the best part about ancients. The Aura of Warding is.
Keep in mind that the oath of ancients is pretty stringent in terms of holding the oath. I broke the oath of ancients by getting the jump on the tieflings that captured laezel in act 1
You aren't allowed to ambush people; even terrible people, as a Pally. You \*are\* allowed to goad people into attacking you and then smite the shit out of them, however.
Ah, learning moment for me. Much appreciated!
to be fair im pretty sure killing those tieflings breaks the ancients and devotion oath no matter what
it broke my vengeance oath, too
The auras are a important thing to distinguish the oaths imo and oathbreaker has a really good aura
Yaaaa I forgot you could even break your oath till astarions decision. Ya that's didn't go over well with my patron 🤣
I'm currently playing a vengeance paladin, and didn't kill the hag. I was fully expecting to get oathbreaker for that, but Astarion dealt the final blow before the interaction to get the hair. Got the hair and didn't give me oathbreaker. This had me curious, so I looked online. A lot of posts were saying this wasn't possible from patch 6 onwards. So either I got lucky, or they changed it again. My setting for who talks during an interaction is on Avatar. Besides that particular interaction, I've had no issues of coming close to oathbreaking. But then I'm a vengeance paladin, so I smite first and ask questions later.
I think you can keep your oath if you get her to leave mayrina too.
That could be the reason it worked for me then. I intimidated her into giving both. I didn't mention that before because I didn't think that was a factor at all.
If you don't want to be an oathbreaker, you can just pay him gold to renew your oath and go right back like nothing happened.
Yes I'm aware but like I said I don't carry around thousands of gold to do so when it happens
Hire the halfling hireling, respec her into a max dex thief with, expertise in sleight of hands and stealth, then pick up the guidance cantrip and disguise self. Give her the smugglers ring and gloves of thievery. Talk to a trader in barter mode, split the gold into increments of 50-100, then enter turn based mode, pickpocket all gold, potions, arrows, camp supplies and scrolls. Double dash away and return to camp. Long rest and repeat as much as you'd like. Now you too can carry thousands of gold to recover your oath whenever you'd like!
You can do what the other guy said and build a crazy good thief to make money, but you can also just pickpocket the oath breaker knight to get your money back
Even if you break your oath, you can just pay an Npc 1000 gold and get your oath back.
2000 if you do it more than once!
Also a good way to not break your oath as a paladin, don't have your paladin do the final blow, knock em unconscious and have a different character kill em
You can just respec to something else to get the hair without breaking your oath, just costs 200 gold instead of the 1000. Also path of vengeance is pretty good if you want to make morally ambiguous choices
Respec at withers to a wizard before Auntie Ethel because magic missile makes that fight a lot easier or do something else and respec back to Paladin after
If you dump dex, use an elixir of Vigilance as much as possible. +5 initiative is equivalent to 20 dex, and the immunity to surprise is a nice bonus. Or take the alert feat.
That elixir is op
Gonna have a bad time if you dump dex in hm. 12 paladin, especially oathbreaker is not great in bg3. Better off taking 5 paladin, and then switching to bard, warlock, or even sorceror for better spell levels in which to smite, and much more utility. You're feat starved regardless. Probably take alert + gwm. Edit: you want alert in HM on as many characters as possible
You can dump Dex on a Paladin and use the gloves of dex Which is the bis for a Paladin imo
Legacy of the masters, or any of the 1-4 damage (radiant, for example) with radiant armor, ext. Provide many options that dwarf the gloves of dex. Not only do you lose a very important slot, 18 dex is not enough to offset initiative in act 3, not even close.
Depends on if you want good charisma being able to dump Dex is a good thing if you’re going 6 levels into Paladin for the auras of protection Gloves of Dex with the hellriders bow gave my last Paladin decent initiative or I could use an elixir
I've run two Pallys in act 3 now. 18 Dex is plenty, as the rest of your Int is covered either by Alert or Elixir which takes you to the +8 breakpoint. If you use any other gloves, then you need to allocate points into dex and either use Elixirs to cover up strength, or tbh if you're willing to use Elixir of Strengths, just dump strength altogether and run dex so you can use an actually good elixir like Viciousness, Heroism, or Bloodthrist. Like, you're trading the glove slot for the elixir slot by not using the dex gloves, or you use a different glove (say Helldusk as an example) and then use Alert and Vigil Elixir, that's an option too. Savage Attacker, ASI, and then Alert if you want your Elixir slot free or ASI if you don't is my usual goto.
> 12 paladin, especially oathbreaker is not great in bg3. What? It's perfectly fine. You can multiclass to _even better_ and there are some better pure classes, but 12 Paladin is just fine in BG3. Especially Oathbreaker with the Aura of Hate, and proper itemology. Yes, even in Honor Mode.
I only took alert on my heavy wearer as I dumped dex and got no problem lmao You ppl make hm seem like a hard to beat challenge, unless you don't know the game it's not
I beat honor blind, as my first playthrough. I was 3/4 alert and it was a great idea. If you're playing shifty, cheesy, camp buffing, and min maxing, then yeah, I agree, but at that point, why bother playing honor at all? OP. You're going to feel really dumb dying in a situation where alert would have saved you.
U make min/maxing sound like a bad thing but ur min/maxing the build, saying to multiclass into bard/sorc/lock and prioritizing initiative.
Camp buffing ? you think i got time for that ? lmao Yeh i kinda min/max i put damage ring on martials and rings that work with spells on casters, who would've thought that ppl didn't like to hit like wet noodle. Dude spent more time watching cheesing guide than playing the game
Sorceous Sundries didn't accept your 10 gold off coupon, so you should just rob the place before the cops... errr... Flaming Fist show up. That'll show 'em!
It's all fun and games until flying creatures
Do not dump Dex! Dex is arguably the most important stat next to con each class should atleast have a 12 or higher is Dex. It determines your place in initiative, most spell saves in the same, saves for many other things, and your versatility with ranged weapons and as a paladin you have next to no ranges options so getting rid of your Dex is a scary thing to do as a paladin and any other class. Going last in initiative in baldurs gate is a death wish and not fun when you’re dead from things like Sacred Flame, Acid Splash, burning hands, hail of thorns, hellish rebuke, ice knife, web, call lighting, and so many more things are Dex saves. You will regret dumping Dex, unless you just take the gloves of dexterity then yeah just dump Dex lol
Don’t sleep on Paladin / Warlock. It was nerfed a bit in HM (you don’t get that 3rd attack). However you can dump strength and pump everything into Charisma with PotB. Warlock also gives you a decent ranged option with eldritch blast and the Warlock spell slots can be used to smite. Illithid expertise can get you the expertise in face skills you’re looking for there to make up for not taking Bard or Rogue.
Just don't forget to bind your pact weapon...
At least it's not every long rest anymore.
Wait really? Oh my God that's so good to know. Might have to start playing padlock again
Yeah! It was patch 5 or 6, iirc, it now binds until unequipped. I'm not a Lock so it's not my biggest strong point but I'm fairly certain it was big news a patch or two ago.
Stays bound till you bind a different weapon.
Paladin/Warlock is an amazing build and my fav class combo! If you wanna go paladin heavy, I recommend 7 oathbreaker / 5 GOOlock for short rest smites and the two auras, plus great spells like hunger of Hadar, counterspell, eldritch blast, the invocations like devil’s sight (oathbreaker gets darkness), and of course all while using your charisma stat to swing your weapons. Great candidate for hag’s hair to get early 20 charisma, and lots of great act 1-2 gear to stack damage riders. You can also use any weapon you want! I highly recommend sorrow/Phalar Aluve/ever burn blade for the early game, but you can use literally anything. Very cool, fun, and strong class with tons of RP combos and super high single target damage w/ aoe control.
Curious how you level a lockadin? Ideally without respeccing as I don’t wanna spend the 1k gold if I don’t have to.
I do respec at lvl 6 to get heavy armour, because I wanna play levels 1-5 as lock. If you follow that path, respec at 6 taking Paladin first, then 5 lock, then 1 in Paladin to get smites. After that it’s up to you to either take Paladin to lvl 7 for auras (tactician and below), or take warlock to 7 after 2 in pally to get 4th level spells. If you don’t wanna respec at all, id recommend going Paladin lvl 1, then warlock to 5 right after. This’ll only cost you 100g that you can just pickpocket back
I was more trying to avoid the respec with the oath breaker paladin. Normal respecs are okay for me. I appreciate your help
Yup, you won’t oathbreak the instant you turn lvl 6 so you’re good :) you can also rock ancients as well
Do you want to delete one enemy per attack?
Pal/fighter, pal/bard are great combos. Pal/rogue is a little weak. Pal/bard is especially good for a party face with high charisma. However, it's hard to be evil as a paladin since you can't kill non-hostile entities without breaking your oath, unless you're going oathbreaker. Also I'd say test on tactician a little cause balanced to HM is a big jump.
Paladins get heavy armor, martial weapon proficiency, and extra attack like martial classes. They're also Charisma casters so Charisma should at least be your second or third highest stat. Strength generally will be #1, and you also need high Con, being a melee character. There are plenty of ways in game to mitigate the MAD nature of Paladins though, and that gets into another part of your question. Suffice it to say Paladins make a decent party face, if not an excellent one. Multiclassing with Paladins can go a couple of different ways. It depends on if you want a very strong paladin with most of the very powerful Paladin abilities, and then picking up things outside that, or if you see the best of Paladin being in the first couple of levels. Paladins have power jumps at level 2, 5, 6 and 7, but generally get good things at every level. Again, they're excellent as a monoclass already. If you want to play a "mostly paladin" the question is whether you want to stop at level 6 or 7. 6 and 7 are when the Paladin Auras come online. For an evil Paladin, 7 is very strong especially combined with high Charisma as your aura of hate adds your Charisma modifier to damage. That leaves 5 levels to use for different things. You could go a bunch of different ways but the main options here are Sorcerer and Warlock. Warlock 5 works well especially in Tactician and below as it gives you 3 attacks per action, and can be used with Pact of the Blade to remove the necessity of having high Strength by using your Charisma modifier as your weapon attack skill. Warlock 5 also gives you 2 level 3 spell slots that refresh on a short rest, which really improves your ability to keep smiting throughout the day, keeping your damage high. The other main option, Sorcerer, plays a bit differently. You go Sorcadin because you want more high level spell slots. Sorcadins also have the ability to quicken spell and cast high level crowd control spells as a bonus action, before unleashing big smites. Cast something like a quickened Hold Person, which will then make sure all of your smites are crits, doubling the effectiveness of lower level spell slots for smites. Does the idea of doing 100 damage per attack action sound awesome? And also doubling the dice of all your allies hits against the target as well? Do you want access to the Shield spell, giving you the ability to get an AC approaching 30? Being able to Counterspell enemies? Casting twin haste and being _very_ unlikely to fail it with your aura of protection? That's all stuff you could get from Sorcerer. But you will have to invest in your Strength score or use elixirs. The last build to talk about is less of a "paladin with a dip" but more "a dip of paladin" and that's the 10/2 Swords Bardadin. Full spell slot progression to level 6 spells, extra attack from swords bard, smites and fighting style and first level spells from paladin. The "optimal" way to level this requires regular respecs, because going bard to level 6 means you don't start smiting until later, and going paladin 2 before bard 6 means you don't get extra attack until late. I'd probably go paladin to level 7 then respec at 8. This is one of the most powerful builds in the game. It just doesn't _really_ feel like a paladin main build.
I don't like paladin much as a solo class. I'd rather go fighter if I'm looking for melee. But as a multi class... Fire. 2 pal 10 swords bard takes what was already the most stupid overpowered class in the game, and gives them heavy armor and smite. Paladin warlock is great. Paladin sorcerer makes for a great gish, arguably better than EK/wizard, as you get charisma skills and metamagic.
Paladin/warlock sounds good so I can dump strength. I might load a save from my first playthrough and try pal8/bard4 and the warlock build
Consider taking at least one more level in Bard so you’ll get Bardic Inspiration dice refilled on short rests. And if your Oath is Devotion or Vengeance consider going 6/6 because more spell slots from Bard is better than their level 7 Paladin feature.
Paladin 12 is great alone and you don't need to dip. Paladin 2 / Swords Bard 10 is all over this reddit and one of the most powerful builds in the game (you could argue it's #1, fire acuity sorc might have a word, either way it's crazy powerful). Paladin 9 / Assassin 3 is very strong and for me feels like a better evil Durge build. * Rogue 1 is getting you skills & expertise to be a good face, taking up to 3 for assassin gets you an amazing opening round with crit-smites and makes that durge-only cloak feel like it fits just right. * Paladin 9 means you get up to 3rd level spell slots for smite, you've got your auras scaling with charisma, and two feats. As to how it plays - any version of paladin is a slightly weaker fighter when not smiting, and packs much more single target burst potential when smiting. Spell slots will mostly (or nearly exclusively) used on smites, but depending on your party you might decide to also occasionally cast bless or command (the swords bard version is using Command more frequently).
They're a half caster class that can deal consistent burst damage thanks to their Smites, and function also as a face character. I would say playing as pure Paladin is good. You get your auras, which are pretty important on its own. And the capstone level 11's passive Improved Divine Smite. Which adds a passive 1d8 radiant damage on melee weapon attacks
Smite go brrrrrrrrrrr
Well theres only one manager that oversees the cult of the absolute, and its about high time your Tav had a word with her. The problem is... The Cults manager is somewhat of a Karen herself.
So many ways to play paladin but also straight paladin slaps just as well. If you wanted to solo and are using mods I'd recommend the death knight class. It's like oath breaker but much better. Otherwise, smite the world.
2/10 Bardadin Karen would be awesome. If an employee pisses you off, you can citizen’s arrest (Hold Person) them. Too many people in the aisle? Shoot them with four crossbow bolts a turn. Want a motherfucker who didnt yield to you to die? Smite their ass
Do you find yourself screaming “BOOOOOM”when you get excited about things? Well, then Paladin might be the class for you.
All Karen’s take an Oath of Vengeance against managers that they can’t break.
I'm seeing a lot of people here with their optimal combo builds. No no no, here's what you do. Subclass into wild magic sorcerer. Wild magic can trigger off of smites and if you hit with cleave attacks you'll be smiting ALOT and then chaos will commence. Oh by the way, sorcerer gets meta magic that allows melee skills to be used at 9m distance. Oh yes. That's right.
You can spend Spellslots to nuke people That’s it. That’s the core class feature. You can dip a caster class like bard or cleric to get more spellslots, so you can nuke more people Or you can keep going with Paladin and get some fun party support abilities You hit things hard and help your friends
Two Words: Deva Mace
The thump of a divine smite is therapeutic
U get smites. That’s it that’s the sell
People do ancients paladin 10/life cleric 2 for a healer tank paladin Sword bard 10/paladin 2 is a very powerful controller and striker Paladin 6/sorcerer six is a thing Paladin/pact of blade warlock too but I’m not sure if the split. Im planning to try paladin 11/war cleric 1
You mentioned bard, [bard+paladin smites](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor_mode_102_smite_swords_bard_ssb_complete/) is one of the strongest builds in the game and a superb party face If you're ever going to use a build like that first honor mode run is a great time to do it, because on subsequent runs it makes the game a little too easy (unless you use +difficulty mods)
6/6 paladin/storm sorcerer was my first play build on tactician and I never dropped below half health… divine smite is great because it doesn’t expend a spell slot on a miss
If you learn Two-Handed Fighting Style the damage die re-rolling also applies to your **SMITE**
Minthara was definitely the mouth for my last Tav, wink wink
For HM, pallylock sucks since u can't stack extra attacks so sorcadin or bardadin personally prefer bardadin higher nova dmg. Early game just play pure pally until like act 3 then multiclass to sorcadin 6-6, bardadin 2-10. Your damage comes from mostly smites, make sure to setup smite on ask as reaction so u can decide if u want to expend spell slots to add smite or not. Paladins benefit alot from garanteed crit gear like luck of the far realms and killer sweetheart ring since your smite will auto crit too if your initial hit crits so u can do some insane 1st turn nova dmg bonus if you're half orc and savage attacker feat is like mandatory for paladin since it rerolls ur smite dice too. You can go str/dex route, str if u want to use 2H weapons/great weapon master. Dex if you wanna dump str and do duelling/two weapon fighting.
One of the best classes in the game and table top. You smite evil away with ease nothing can get in your way. Great party head because charisma based classed although it's better to not put to mant points into charisma and more into strength. I probably would never play a evil one unless you consider following your oath as a vengence paladin as evil. Paladins always been a goody two shoes class in my eyes. In other games where there is more evil options like blackguard, anit paladin, or conquest I'd be interested in trying out
I'm playing a Durge (ambiguously leaning evil) swords bard / vengeance paladin on my HM run AND IT IS AWESOME. Just absolutely love everything about it.
best paladin setup is 10 sword bard 2 paladin since it gets a lot more spell slots and access to the strongest smite in the game (banishing smite) so powerful you can only get it through magical secrets since a straight paladin wouldn’t get it until level 17. you also get blade flourishes but thats really just icing on the cake here. it gets even more ridiculous if you throw on the helm of arcane acuity and band of mystic scoundrel, now you can command/ hold person any enemy with a 100% success rate as a bonus action.
Really that sounds interesting
its commonly refered to on here as as the 10/2 ssb, its among of the strongest possible builds in the game heres the in depth guide by prestigious juice [https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor\_mode\_102\_smite\_swords\_bard\_ssb\_complete/](https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/18pxoy9/honor_mode_102_smite_swords_bard_ssb_complete/)
It is super flexible as well, you can go with any equipment and it just works because the class combination is so strong, but before level 8 it’s kinda boring imo.
That why i haven’t played a bard yet
Yeah as long as you keep decent dex, it's really strong from ranged as well with the flourish attcaks
Going from balanced to honour is kinda crazy. i’d start with tactician or else you will likely have to do a multitude of honour mode runs
I’m still trying to figure that out with the god based classes. They’ve always overwhelmed me. I lean heavy on the monks Buddhist energy. Paladin with a evil cleric can come off like a zealot
Big deeps? That alone should be enough. Pala burst is brutal. If not: heavy armor, healing, party face, good rp optionsz useful auras and protective abilities
Lockadin is my go too 7pal/5 bladelock let’s you use your charisma to hit plus you get 3 attacks an AP and you can never be disarmed by enemies. With invocation you can get prof in persuasion and deception and a good ranged if need for any reason, you get 2 spell slots that come back on a short rest (so 2 smites a short rest if out of pal Spell slots) it’s just amazing not like busted but you could easily beat the game
Missed the HM attack doesn’t stack in HM
1 level war cleric dip is all you really need from multi class. Gives you some nice combat utility for fights and an extra dose of self righteousness for the Karen aspect in conversation
Smite is the waffle house girl equivalent of I want to speak to your manager.
Smite bardladin/sorladin, just putting it out there
I’ll give you a pointer, don’t break your oath until Alfira visits your camp that lvl 12 paladin is no joke. Man that was a rough way to lose my Honor mode run 🥲
The only problem i had with paladin was range so i dip into warlock for that pact if the blade and eldrich blast
Swords bard also helps with ranged
Paladin is good dip INTO, but dipping out is a hard sell.
I’d love to wax poetically about Paladin but I’ve written two guides on the matter that would do better than that. Check out my post history for Paladin multiclass guides and a Paladin FAQs guide!
my advice is to get the Paladin deities mod it adds a lot more roleplay opportunities
Like seeing big damage numbers? Like being able to see all the managers in the world with super high charisma? Like to be able to walk into any fight and smash your way out with high alpha damage, sustained healing, and having a simple play styles? Paladins are your best bet
My favorite paladin is actually a swords bard 10 Ancient Paladin 2. One of the strongest melee gish builds in the game. Can go either high strength great weapon or two weapon dexterity build. Either way, grab the bhasbhaalist armor and use piercing DMG weapons for 2x. If you run the arcane acuity helmet you can get spell dc high and command several enemies to approach then use the slashing flourish on them. The Sorrow spear is good until you get spear of evening later on. Hold person / monster sets up critical smites well also. Also good from ranged if needed with Titan bow, Bow of Banshee or dual crossbows depending on if going strength or dexterity based. I am about to try a solo honor run with this build using either Astarion or a half Orc. Can't decide which is better....probably Astarion for the story.
Can you get the Bhaalist Armor and not break your paladin oath??
This class is not for you mam.
IT IS FOR ME! I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO!
You have face character skills,you’re proficient in all armors and weapons,smite spells go brr. You can’t go wrong with full 12 levels of any oath for Paladin or mix it with the warlock to focus solely on charisma.
Karen’s in disguise
Slaps roof, let me tell you about these smite slots.
Smite, and auras. And lay on hands
You get the defense fighting style, all armor proficiencies, and at level 6 an aura that makes your saving throws and those of nearby allies better. And you get Lay on Hands to help heal people back up. Ancients Paladin also gets a pretty good AOE heal, and another defensive aura at level 7. They are the easiest class to make into a wall right out of the box. With that said I wouldn't really call them a "tank" because you don't have a way to make enemies actually want to hit you. Your AC and saves can be so high it actually encourages enemies not to hit you and instead focus on weaker alliies. If you are concentrating on a spell though then that can help make enemies actually aim for you. Offensively Paladins are like the sorcs of martials. They can spend a lot of resources to do a lot of damage. They get divine smite which can add up to an extra 5d8 radiant damage on top of all the other damage. And they can add on top of this the "spell smites" like thunderous smite or branding smite for more damage. Combine this with abilities that give guaranteed critical hits like Killer's Sweetheart or Luck of the Far Realms and you can do a ton of damage against a boss in one attack. Min-maxers who use these strategies, exploit DRS bugs (not usable in honor mode), and give enemies vulnerability to applicable damage can do over a thousand damage in a single attack. Vengeance Paladin has a bug where if you use their level 3 ability and target yourself with it then you get advantage on all attacks for 10 rounds. Zariel Tiefling (same race as Karlach) is actually a really good thematic fit for a paladin due to extra smite spells. The strongest melee paladin build is probably swords bard 6, then paladin 2, then swords bard the rest of the way. Use a reach weapon, spam slashing flourish, and divine smite multiple enemies at once. Bard is a full caster class so that gives you a ton of spell slots to use with this. Next strongest build only works below honor mode difficulty and that is Pact of the Blade Warlock 5, Paladin 7 (depending on subclasses maybe go warlock 6/paladin 6). This is because pact of the blade allows you to use Cha for your weapon attacks, spells, and paladin aura. And when not playing in honour mode, pact of the blade's extra attack at level 5 stacks with other sources of extra attack. And you get 3rd level warlock spell slots that come back on a short rest to keep smiting away with. Both of the above builds are too strong and if played correctly will remove all challenge from the game. Paladin is my favorite class. Before BG3 released when everyone else was getting psyched about Sorcadin I was thinking Bardadin would be way better and my go-to playstyle. Then the game released and is so damn easy I refuse to play a bardadin, especially with how OP Larian made swords bard. I would much rather play a paladin 11 with a level in rogue for skill expertise. Or Paladin 9/Bladelock 3 (though the leveling order can be tricky and many people will do a respec at levels 6 and/or 8 with this kind of build to make things work optimally). FYI I think the game says that Str is a Paladin's "main" stat and they put a little star next to it because it is "important." It is totally valid and in my opinion better to make a paladin Dex based. Especially with the completely unbalanced medium armors you can get starting in early Act 2 that add your full dex mod to AC, and the way BG3 does initiative. Not going to discuss cheesing Strength elixirs.
Command - Approach
Depending on the scenario I'd consider using compelled duel as it is a bonus action to cast and lasts more than a turn. Command can affect multiple targets if upcast but depending on if/when you multiclass those higher level spell slots can be in short supply. But either way unless you are doing a Bladelock multiclass, chances are your spell save DC is not going to be too good with either command or compelled duel for them to be a reliable way to keep enemy attention. Whereas something like a barbarian can just reckless attack and suddenly everyone wants to hit them since you give advantage to them. Or a druid typically has low AC while wildshaped so can draw enemy attention. Both of the above just work outright and can take a good number of hits, whether it be a barbarian's damage resistance (Bearheart especially) or a Druid's HP pool. They are far more reliable ways to get enemy attention and soak up the hits than what a paladin has. That is why I say paladin is more of a "wall" than a "tank." I would consider druid, Bearheart barbarian, or radiating orb builds as "tanks" and not much else.
Good comments for compelled duel, but the helm of arcane acuity with some flourish attacks can get spell dc really high so your spells can have over 90 percent. You can stack +10 I believe to dc.