Redemption Paladin - how does it play?

[T.G. Oskar]

I tried not to put much stock in the level 14+ abilities, because they're rarely relevant for most players' real play, and they sometimes give off an improper feel for the build. For example, just basing the Redemption Paladin off of its level 20 feature would have you believe it's the tankiest of all the Paladins, yet it's probably the squishiest. I also don't put much stock in the spell list, from personal experience. I rarely see Paladins cast Paladin spells. I still consider the spells relevant, just not quite as much as the non-spell features.

Redemption Paladins are tanky. Do note that "tankiness" doesn't have to depend on your own damage mitigation; it's something implied, as if you're going to take a ton of damage, you should be able to withstand it. The Bear Totem Barbarian and the Ancients Paladin are quite resilient, but they don't have anything to either "pull aggro" (like what the Crown Paladin can do, and if you squint a bit, the Ancestral Guardians' Barbarian), keep an enemy locked and only able to face you (like what the Conquest Paladin can do, and so does the Cavalier Fighter) or just siphon damage from the enemy (like what the Crown and Redemption Paladins do). That said, I wouldn't say the Redemption Paladin is the squishiest; it has access to Counterspell and eventually Stoneskin. Conversely, the Ancients' Paladin (which should be the one that withstands the most), while it also gets Stoneskin, only reduces damage from spells. That means the breath weapons of dragons are still fair play, as well as poison attacks, damage from magical weapons, and similar moves. Note that I'm not mentioning the capstone in any way, and while Stoneskin is gained at 13th level (and is a spell), the fact that the other Paladin Oaths aren't any more resilient (again, the Ancients' Paladin notwithstanding, and even then, their best features are locked beyond the range where you claim are rarely relevant, so the Ancients' Paladin isn't that impressive either by that metric).

That said, the notion that Paladins are worth because of their nova damage makes spellcasting a risky proposal. Do I go all-out on Smites, or use spells? Paladins get great spells. A Divine Favor spell may not seem much at 3rd level, but after 5th level, it's great on tough enemies you want to batter down. Sure, you could deal 2d8 damage (avg. of 9 points extra damage), but you could just as well go for the same slot and spread out the damage a bit (1d4, avg. of 2-3 points per hit, so you need 4 hits to do what a Smite does) and then get that damage boost up and running. It's a matter of timing.

Crown Paladin was listed as a melee-heavy option, because of the fact that:

• A Channel Divinity keeps enemies from running away (more relevant for melee combatants so that they can either dogpile the targets or so that they can engage other targets freely)
• A Channel Divinity heals nearby allies who are at half HP or less (which is much more likely to be true for melee combatants who are consistently taking damage than it is a ranged unit who may be out of range or only be hit 1-2 times per battle).
• The aura absorbs damage for adjacent allies (much more likely to be true with a melee heavy team, especially considering it's 5ft less than the Redemption Paladin's version).

All of the Crown's major abilities work better with melee allies, although it doesn't explicitly spell it out (like how Wolf Totem Barbarian's does).

• I see Champion's Challenge more as Lockdown than a debuff. Sure, they can go to the edges of the effect and not engage you, but if you're the only target, might as well do so. It depends on the map itself. Note that the good healing spells (Healing Spirit, Healing Word, Heal) have twice that range, so you can have your healers focus on keeping you alive. A Rogue using Cunning Action to Hide, then use a Longbow, can take any enemy with SA pretty easily. A Warlock can pelt enemies with Eldritch Blast, and make them get closer to you with Repelling Blast. And so on. Melee benefit because the enemy can't run away; Ranged benefit because they can't get to them, and Casters benefit because the enemy is relatively close..
• Turn the Tide is much like LoH; an emergency heal. Melee will benefit the most because they're nearby, but that doesn't mean others can't benefit. Again, this is more of a concept of map range; a 30-ft radius is pretty large. Preserve Life is very similar.

I'll give you the Divine Allegiance one, because of the range. However, I don't really see them as melee-heavy; as you can see, I have a different perception of what they can do. Also: spells are major features, and Warding Bond (my favorite spell) most definitely isn't for melee allies. (It's for that Wizard, though it has to be at a "medium" range of 60 ft.; but then again, depends on map range.)

I do agree that the Ancients Paladin has more than just tankiness, but I think that's the key reason you take it. If you wanted strict control, Crown or Conquest could do it better. If you wanted damage, Vengeance or Devotion could do it better. But if you want survivability, nobody trumps an Ancients Paladin.

Again: I don't see survivability as its main grab. In this case, it's more of a feature being so heavily promoted, it might as well cause the Oath to be renamed (Aura of Warding). As you mentioned earlier, you place no importance on high-level abilities, so you should pretty much ignore Undying Sentinel and the capstone as traits. Again: if you see the key traits, it has:

• A Channel Divinity with the sole purpose of keeping an enemy in check. As a physical restraint, it means the enemy can't run away unless it counters with physical might or dexterity.
• A Channel Divinity that drives certain enemies away; in this case, fey and fiends. As it stands, the idea is to separate the wheat from the chaff, therefore allowing you to focus on the stronger enemies
• An aura that reduces damage you and other allies take from spells. Not breath weapons, not melee or ranged attacks from weapons or the creature's appendages; spellls. Oh, and the range is pretty small at first.

Without working the spells (Ensnaring Strike helps with Lockdown, Misty Step with movement, Protection from Energy and Stoneskin with resilience, and Ice Storm for AoE damage), it's more control than resilience.

There's a particular problem with Conquest Paladin, in that its primary features are all very niche, and often not effective against bosses. Many bosses have immunities or resistances to fear/charm effects, or just have a straight up high Wisdom save, so the Conquest Paladin often can't lock down the enemies most worth being locked down. Instead, they usually end up resorting to locking down an incoming swarm who AREN'T immune. While I agree that Conquest Paladins are best as a "lockdown" option, I don't think it's feasible as just that. An Enchanter Wizard is a Lockdown specialist, but the Conquest Paladin does it better against mooks. In a way, he's a mobile Hypnotic Pattern, and you usually don't use Hypnotic Pattern against a single target.

True: their spell list has some nice goodies (Spiritual Weapon comes to mind), and their Guided Strike Channel Divinity is meant for the mother of all nova strikes (cast a Smite spell, spend a 4th level spell slot, use the GWM trade-off, and use Guided Strike to essentially not fail; consequentially THIS is what you want for a boss fight). However, much like Aura of Warding has defined for many what an Ancients' Paladin does, the Aura of Conquest defines a lot of what the Conquest Paladin does. (And, between the Fear spell and their Conquering Presence CD, they have ways to work that out).

However, consider the following. Have that Conquest Paladin take Sentinel and Polearm Master. For extra funsies, if UA is allowed, take Tunnel Fighter. You have two methods of Lockdown (physically, through opportunity attacks, and supernaturally, through fear effects). All other classes have access to the first one, but not the second. An Enchanter Wizard can lock them just as effectively, but doesn't have the same way to punish the locked enemies. (Evard's Black Tentacles doesn't count; that is a spell available to all Wizards, and it has its own lockdown factor.) When I say the Conquest Paladin is an expert on Lockdown, it's because it has a built-in method of Lockdown with its own punishing factor (psychic damage), while it can get another method when the first one doesn't work.

In the end, it's mostly a matter of perception; you and I perceive the subclasses quite differently, and resume them in different ways. For example: we can agree that the Ancients Paladin is pretty tough, but your appreciation is mostly because of Aura of Warding, and not as a whole; I agree because I also consider Stoneskin, and Undying Sentinel, and even the capstone. I see Crown with a focus on tanking because of Divine Allegiance and Warding Bond, thus gaining a limited form of controlling the flow of damage; you, on the other hand, focus on the "close" range of many of its abilities, and perceive that the subclass works best if you have a lot of melee allies. Neither of the two perspectives are wrong, but neither have more merit than the other. That extends to the Redemption Paladin; I agree with your perspective of the class being either "social interaction" or "protecting squishies", but I focus on the second one a bit more, and specifically because of how it does so. (The only thing I don't like is that they lack Warding Bond, but humans in Eberron have a way to bypass that.)