Quote Originally Posted by Bjarkmundur View Post
I'm new to 5e, but have a 10 levels worth of DM experience for 4e. Maybe I'm a bit stuck in the old "some picks are good and others are trash" way of thinking. I remember some flavourful choices for 4e were traps, because they even tho some classes and features had a selling point, they didn't always deliver on the promise when it came down to actual gameplay.

I'm trying to pick and wrap my head around the different oaths, and I simply don't get it. What are the traps? What are the selling points? What do specific Oaths enable you to do that others don't?

I remember a lot of classes having choices that allowed you to cross roles. In 5e it seems to be down to much simpler choices, such as which weapons you use or individual spell choices instead of which class features you choose.

If you want to have a similar discussion with other classes, regarding "player experience" and "choices made easy" as I learn the ins and outs of 5e feel free to message me at mhbjarkistef @ gmail com :)

Happy playing, everyone!
In 5E all the classes have been designed to be playable at all levels from 1st to 20th. Each class has a basic chassis that advances in power as you gain levels. You can customize the chassis by choosing an archetype/sub-class (Oaths for Paladins) that gives additional abilities and features.

The basic chassis for each class is totally playable by itself - if you never used your subclass features you would still do fine. So the Oaths are more like different flavors of icing on the cake that lend themselves to different roles in the party.

To greatly over-simplify:
  • Devotion is well rounded with with a good mix of offense and defense.
  • Ancients has some good control spells and eventually gives resistance to magical damage.
  • Vengeance is about offense and killing bosses.
  • Conquest uses fear for crowd control.
  • Redemption provides protection, support, and control to the rest of the party.
  • Crown supports and heals the party.


Of course there is lots of overlap due to the basic Paladin chassis.