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- Oath Of The Crown
- Oath Of The Watchers
- Oath Of Glory
- Oath Of Redemption
- Oath Of Vengeance
- Oathbreaker
- Oath Of The Ancients
- Oath Of Conquest
- Oath Of Devotion
Paladins in Dungeons & Dragons have always been a strong class both for their durability and utility in a party. It's a great combination class, giving players options for damage, healing, and defense. There are several useful choices for Oaths, the Paladin archetypes, that tie in nicely with your character and the type of Paladin you want to be.
Related: Dungeons & Dragons: Backstory Ideas For A Paladin
If you're stuck on which Paladin Oath to choose, we provide the strengths of each subclass. We also include how useful each Oath makes your Paladin to themselves and their party, including opportunities for the best lore, role-playing, and customization options.
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Updated January 16, 2023, by Jerel Levy: With so many paladin subclasses, there are truly a number of ways to create a Paladin that'll fit your unique playstyle. With choices in the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Xanathatr's Guide to Everything, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Tashha's Cauldron of Everything, and even more sourcebooks, Paladins prove to be the all-around stop for you if you want versatile play options. Though they're known for being pillars of justice, some Paladin options, such as the Oathbreaker, allow you to go down a more nuanced path. We've updated this list to include all official D&D Paladin subclasses published.
Oath Of The Crown
Oath of the Crown
Source
Sword Coast Adventurers Guide
Ideal Fighting Styles
Blind Fighting, Interception
Party Role
Defense, Healing
The Oath of the Crown is for Paladins who believe in the ideals of civilization above all else. This Oath believes that being just and moral in society matters most, and its practitioners work to safeguard their civilizations against interlopers and barbarous tribes.
If you want that type of character development, the Crown is a great Oath to consider, but it comes at the cost of being mechanically inferior to virtually all other choices.
This Oath feels inferior because tanking Paladins are often expected to be able to heal in a pinch, as well as keep opponents busy and tied up.
The Oath of the Crown can do both things, but in largely ineffective ways compared to other Oaths.
If you do not mind being comparatively ineffective, there is nothing wrong with this choice. It's also a decent subclass for the roleplaying potential.
Oath Of The Watchers
Oath of the Watchers
Source
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
Main Benefit
Extra bonuses when fighting extraplanar creatures.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Blessed Warrior, Defense
Party Roles
Damage or Defense
This subclass is great at what it does, mainly to seek, fight, and destroy various creatures from different planes of existence. This is effective in modules that feature extraplanar monsters as the antagonists, like Descent Into Avernus.
This subclass focuses on vigilance and loyalty. While they specialize in extraplanar situations, they can still be useful as spies or for spotting celestials, fey, fiends, and the like, dealing extra damage to those otherworld enemies.
These monsters appear in certain cases in other adventures, but there's also the chance you won't fight them at all. This specialization is handy if you're prepared to use it but is too situational otherwise to be more highly recommended.
Oath Of Glory
Oath of Glory
Source
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
Main Benefit
Focuses on Athletics and has some bonuses to Charisma checks at later levels.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Defense, Blessed Warrior
Party Role
Defense, Healing
The aim here seems to create a Paladin with more of an ancient Greek aesthetic in the spirit of old heroes like Achilles, which works on a certain level. However, only more experienced players can take this subclass on and play it as an effective defender or healer.
This subclass is all about the embodiment of heroism. Honing your body and mind, being an exemplary hero who enthusiastically takes every challenge and inspires those around you; it's great for roleplaying a Paladin who will become a living legend.
With benefits to attacks, a little crowd control, and group support, it's a good choice as a subclass. If the party needs a character that can act as a support class while also being the group's public face, the Oath of Glory could fill that void perfectly.
Oath Of Redemption
Oat of Redemption
Source
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Main Benefit
Focus on preventing damage and de-escalating conflict.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Defense, Interception
Party Role
Defense, Healing
Redemption Paladins are pure and more traditional in their role-play design, keeping peace, innocence, patience, and wisdom in high regard. It's more common to see them in a defensive position, but they can also be tailored to be effective healers.
If an ally takes damage within their aura, the Redemption Paladin redirects this damage to themselves, which is selfless but also dangerous if used carelessly.
At high levels, this is negated somewhat through gaining resistance to damage which can help keep the playstyle ongoing even against more powerful opponents. This is an overall decent choice for keeping allies safe. The Oath of Redemption can be one of the most interesting choices for those who want a challenge instead of simply hitting an opponent as hard as possible.
Related: D&D: Things You Didn't Know Had Official Rules
Oath Of Vengeance
Oath of Vengeance
Source
D&D Player's Handbook
Main Benefit
The ability to focus on one opponent and punish them severely by limiting their movement, gaining an attack of opportunity against them.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Great Weapon Mastery
Party Role
Damage
Taking the Oath of Vengeance puts the Paladin on a path to punish all who would commit a grievous sin. If someone has been wronged, be it by small Goblins or an intimidating Dragon, Vengeance Paladins look to set things right through physical confrontation.
While Vengeance Paladins are a blast to play, they are not nearly as focused on keeping their team safe, at least not in the same direct way. You could argue that focusing on a single problematic opponent does keep allies from harm, but this is less true when dealing with foes in larger numbers.
Don't expect any crowd control, but one-on-one combat can be exciting, with ways to impose advantage against your enemy, among other tricks.
Oathbreaker
Oathbreaker
Source
Dungeon Master's Guide
Main Benefit
Bonuses to fighting undead and a wider choice of possible moral alignments.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Great Weapon Mastery, Blind Fighting
Party Role
Damage
The Fallen Paladin archetype is one you might enjoy if you aren't looking to be constrained by other Paladin Oaths. These Paladins aren't as versatile when it comes to their party role, taking on a melee damage role almost exclusively, but the damage they can do is extensive.
A class previously confined to NPCs or homebrews, the Oathbreaker in the Dungeon Master's Guide is fun but concentrated around a specific gimmick.
Still, it's a compelling idea with many interesting role-play options.
They have some AoE skills and can manipulate the undead, handy abilities that Paladins don't normally have. They're so high on the list because their specialty allows for them to eventually gain resistances to some of the most common damage types, control the undead, utilize AoE and crowd control, and eventually come back through atonement if they wish, a fun aspect to roleplay once their mission is complete.
Oath Of The Ancients
Oath of the Ancients
Source
D&D Player's Handbook
Main Benefit
A close connection to the natural world, with abilities similar to Druids and Rangers.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Protection, Dueling
Party Rol
Defense, Damage
Oath of the Ancients is for those who wish to protect all that is good everywhere. Adorned by insignia and decoration that looks more like a Druid than anything else, Ancient Paladins gain abilities befitting their commitment to preserving nature.
Aura of Warding is one of the best abilities that any Paladin Oath has to offer, providing useful resistance to damage from spells.
This can fall within the realm of circumstantially useful, but in a spell-heavy campaign, the Oath of the Ancients is a fantastic choice to keep the party in great shape against threats of magic. This is still a solid choice for an Oath at higher levels, providing even more utility and rapid healing.
Oath Of Conquest
Oath of Conquest
Source
Xanathar's Guide to Everything
Main Benefit
Reduces the speed of targets and has strong crowd control abilities.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Defense, Interception
Party Role
Defense
Conquest Paladins are experts at one-on-one combat and keeping their foes in one place, making them excellent for crowd control. They also open themselves up to be targeted if they are the only party member within range.
Aura of Conquest makes this a predominant playstyle, reducing the speed of affected opponents to zero through Fear.
In terms of role-playing, Conquest Paladins can be another version of the fallen Paladin concept with the capability of becoming evil in everything but name. They want to crush their enemies in whatever way they can.
This may include consorting with the powers of the Nine Hells, with many supporting the archdevil Bel, warlord of Avernus. This Oath is anything but boring but requires players to have a good understanding of who their character is and what motivates them for this choice of Oath to make sense.
Oath Of Devotion
Oath of Devotion
Source
D&D Player's Handbook
Main Benefit
The classic build with a mix of defensive, damage, and healing abilities.
Ideal Fighting Styles
Great Weapon Mastery, Defense
Party Role
Damage, Healing, Defense
The number one spot goes to Devotion Paladins. Despite being the vanilla choice for the class, they embody every stereotype of the strong-willed individual who craves only the most ideal version of justice, virtue, and order. These are also known as Cavaliers, White Knights, and Holy Warriors.
Those who take the Oath of Devotion can expect a strong class, with strong capabilities in Light damage, an improved turn undead compared to a Cleric, and the prevention of being charmed through their aura. Any party will always have a spot for a capable Devotion Paladin, and it is hard to go wrong with such a pick.