So I'm looking into various subclasses and I really like the theme of the Redemption Paladin. Normal smitey paladins haven't interested me that much, so the idea of a mildly-pacifist, persuasive, heavily armored peace-keeper to tank for the party seemed intriguing, especially considering he could still go Nova when absolutely necessary.

I made a build (half-elf, 16, 10, 14, 12, 8, 16) with proficiency in Persuasion. The RP skills seem good, especially with his channel divinity giving +5 to persuasion.

However, I was wondering how exactly this would work in combat. My first thought was to provide buffing spells (ie Bless) and tank enemies using the dodge action to draw aggro, and use the Aura of the Guardian to take damage from friendlies. But that has a number of problems: Why would the baddies attack me? Sentinel doesn't seem to fit the idea of a mild pacifist, so I can't lock them down that way. I could cast Sanctuary on one of the squishier allies in hopes that the enemies will miss them, but that's broken the moment one of them wants to make an attack.

It just seems like this paladin would play similarly to a Life Cleric. Lay on Hands, Auras, and +1 AC is certainly good, but hasn't sold me on this idea yet.

Any ideas on how to approach combat here?