Barbarian vs. Paladin. Tier1 Low level PVP.

[jdolch]

Single class Paladin vs single class Barbarian. Low level PVP. Who would win and why?

- You can choose any subclass, just state your reasons.
- Low level is defined as 5 or lower. (You can also go by levels. e.g. lv1 vs lv1, lv2 vs lv2, etc.)

(This isn't a pro and contra pvp debate. We're talking pure mechanics here)

[Galithar]

Whoever wins the initiative roll, with a higher tendency of Paladin wins at level 5. (Extra Attack is worth more when a smite it's attached) EDIT: With the exception I forgot until I made a mock battle Bear totem Barb will almost always win so long as they get to rage.

Other then that you'll get no true and relevant data. PvP is not what D&D is designed for. You'll get a better comparison of their true fighting abilities if you pit each of them against the same CR 5 creature and hypothesize who wins more often.


But for ****s and giggles here's a mock battle with starting gear (actually rolled)

Paladin 44 HP AC 17 (heavy) PAM
Barbarian 55 HP AC 15 (unarmored) GWM

Barbarian wins initiative.

Rage - move to attack
Triggers PAM attack from Paladin
Hit - Smite - Damage 1d12 + 2d8 + 3
26 (Resisted by Bear for 13)
Barbarian 42 HP
Barbarian attacks recklessly and GWM -5/+10
Crit and a hit
4d6+13+2d6+13
47 damage the Paladin is dead.

That was boring :P poor Paladin.

[Man_Over_Game]

Barbarian, hands down. The Paladin has some utility and some extra AC, but that's fairly negligible compared to the Barbarian's damage resistance.

Personally, I'd go Berserker. Try dealing with (2d6+2+4)x2 with advantage every turn. That's 26 damage. All the weapon damage the Paladin deals will result in being resisted, so you better hope your 3 Divine Smites are enough to kill this mofo, but I don't think you'll live past turn 2.

Great Weapon Master might just make it end turn 1. Or just grab Mage Slayer and watch all that fancy pansy magic training go to waste.

Whoever wins the initiative roll, with a higher tendency of Paladin wins at level 5. (Extra Attack is worth more when a smite it's attached)

Other then that you'll get no true and relevant data. PvP is not what D&D is designed for. You'll get a better comparison of their true fighting abilities if you pit each of them against the same CR 5 creature and hypothesize who wins more often.

This guy needs to remember to read the fine print:

(This isn't a pro and contra pvp debate. We're talking pure mechanics here)

[Jamesps]

Barbarian's tough to beat without debilitating them with magic. I'd have to do the math, but possibly a defensively focused paladin might stand a chance against a barbarian if they use shield of faith and managed to snag plate armor. Ideally at lvl 3 before the barbarian got their first strength bump, though plate armor that early is rare.

Without that, I'd say the barbarian is favored at low levels. At higher levels the paladin could just fling a hold person spell and call it a day.

[Galithar]

This guy needs to remember to read the fine print:

This guy needs to remember that regardless of any "fine print" when the question is literally "who wins" that's exactly what you're going to get, an analysis of who wins. Which I gave and then offered a suggestion of a different scenario that would be more capable of bringing to light the mechanical advantages and disadvantages of each class, because PvP cares the most about 2 things. Who gets the first turn and do the die let them hit.

[GlenSmash!]

The Paladins biggest pro is it's aura which is useless in a one on one and doesn't com online until level 6.

Barb on the other hand is pretty well geared toward one on one as their biggest weakness, disadvantage from Reckless Attack gets exponentially worse the more enemies you through at it.

In single one on one fight I think I'd pick a Half Orc Berserker as the 3rd attack is pretty huge and Half Orc will let be take an extra hit when it counts.

[jdolch]

How would Aura of Protection help against Weapon Attacks ? Never mind. I misread that sentence.

If you're an OoV Paladin you actually get Hold Person at level 5. Thanks for the tip.

Also 17AC is a bit measly. Even with just starting chainmail, shield and defense style, it's already 19.

[stoutstien]

Honestly a Dex barb is scary one on one. Even without rage damage or reckless it could kite fairly well.

[LudicSavant]

Personally, I'd go Berserker. Try dealing with (2d6+2+4)x2 with advantage every turn.

"Every turn?" A Berserker can't even use their bonus action attack on the round they activate rage.

And staying in rage is a bigger "if" than some people seem to assume. If you go one round without making an attack or getting damaged, you lose your rage.

[lunaticfringe]

"Every turn?" A Berserker can't even use their bonus action attack on the round they activate rage.

And staying in rage is a bigger "if" than some people seem to assume. If you go one round without making an attack or getting damaged, you lose your rage.

Yup. Devotion has Sanctuary & Barbarians aren't known for their stellar Wis Saves

[strangebloke]

This is completely silly.

Aaracockra built for range dominates all other builds at low level, regardless of class.

If they're both aaracockra (or some other flying race), the barbarian wins due to faster movement and rage resistance, unless the paladin wins initiative and has something like sentinel. And then the barbarian still wins if he is an eagle totem barb.

There's your answer. You happy?

[LudicSavant]

This is completely silly.

It really is. The OP hasn't given us anything resembling proper ground rules for a fight here (stat / equipment generation, terrain, whether aarakocra are allowed, whether we're expected to use builds that are specifically optimized for defeating each other or whether they should be things people might actually use in a real game, etc etc). Hasn't even stuck to a single level. Frankly all of the variables are up in the air so it's hard to call anything either way.

[Spiritchaser]

Hold person is available to a vengeance paladin at level 5

I would imagine that levels 1-4 you’d be in trouble as a paladin, 5 might be pretty rough for the barb

[Galithar]

It really is. The OP hasn't given us anything resembling proper ground rules for a fight here (stat / equipment generation, terrain, whether aarakocra are allowed, whether we're expected to use builds that are specifically optimized for defeating each other or whether they should be things people might actually use in a real game, etc etc). Hasn't even stuck to a single level. Frankly all of the variables are up in the air so it's hard to call anything either way.

That's why everyone should pick a random level and random builds and roll out a conflict using whatever strategies your want!
It doesn't give any useful data but it could be fun to see how peoples mock battle go.

[jdolch]

Seeing as the whole point of the thread was to have people come up with ideas, I'd say it is very much not silly.

I for one have a much better picture now of what possibilities exist than i did before. Granted my point was to have a normal scenario rather than people specifically cheesing the situation with flying races. But I didn't know that was even an option so i didn't include it in the rules and now I know better, which was the whole point of this thread.

[sithlordnergal]

So, before we make any comparisons, lets put these guys on a playing field. Here's how I'll set it up:

1. Standard Point Buy
2. Standard Human Race
3. Nothing from splat books, PHB only
4. HP is the average for the class
5. NO FEATS, this of course means no Variant Human
6. NO MULTICLASSING
7. Combatants start 50 feet from each other.
8. The builds are Totem Barbarian and Vengeance Paladin
9. The Barbarian has 5 handaxes the Paladin has no ranged weapons

Spoiler: Paladin of Vengeance Stats

Show

Spoiler: Ability Scores

Show

Strength: 16

Dex: 10

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 10

Cha: 18

HP: 44

Fighting Style: Defense

AC: 21, from Plate, a Shield, and Defense

To Hit Bonus: +6

Weapon: Longsword/Battleaxe/Warhammer

Spell/Channel Divinity DC: 15

Lay on Hands: 25hp

Spell Slots: 4/2

Spoiler: Bear Totem Barbarian

Show

Spoiler: Ability Scores

Show

Str: 16

Dex: 14

Con: 18

Int: 9

Wis: 12

Cha: 9

HP: 60

AC: 18, Con Mod+Dex Mod, Shield

To Hit Bonus: +6

Rages: 3

Has access to Reckless Attack

Now, I am sure you guys may be wondering a few things. Well, here are some answers to potential questions:

Spoiler: Reasonings, can be skipped

Show

- I am doing Point Buy with Human race so as to put them on an even playing field while also allowing for a small amount of variation between ability scores. They can be unique combatants without having anything game changing

-I am starting them 50ft away from each other so that they must use a Dash action to reach each other. This prevents the encounter from coming down to whoever rolls the higher initiative winning. Going first still has an advantage, but the Barbarian cannot use a double Reckless attack and the Paladin cannot smite before the other side has a moment to do something

-I gave the Barbarian 5 Throwing Axes in order to bring some sort of balance against the Paladin's ranged spells and channel divinity. Even if the Barbarian is unable to get close, they can still do something. But since handaxe have the thrown property, the Barbarian can only throw one at a time unless they already have a handaxe drawn.

-I increased Con and Charisma over something like Strength because I find 16 Strength works perfectly fine until high tiers, and for the purpose of this matchup I felt Charisma and Constitution would prove more valuable.

-I did what I could to max out both the Barbarian and Paladin's ACs in order to make them both as tanky as possible.

-No feats, no multiclassing are there for the simple reason to make things easier for everyone involved. If I allowed feats or multiclassing, then the fight would be impossible to predict because of how powerful feats are, and how game changing multiclassing is.

With all that prepwork out of the way, we can get onto the match:

Now, at first glance I will admit, I thought the Bear Totem Barbarian was a shoe in. The Barbarian can easily pump out enough damage to burn through the Paladin's HP and Lay on Hands before the Paladin cuts through his resistances, provided the Paladin doesn't get any lucky crits in. But then I re-read the Barbarian's Rage ability and two things stuck out. First, the Barbarian can only Rage 3 times during this battle, and second the Barbarian drops out of Rage if "Your Turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then". Therefore, if the Paladin wants to win, they must force the Barbarian out of their Rage.

I then realized that Paladins, especially Vengeance Paladins, have a few ways to do this:

1) All Paladins have access to the Command and Wrathful Smite spells.

2) The Oath of Vengeance has access to Hold Person

3) The Oath of Vengeance has Abjure Enemy as a Channel Divinity option.

All of those can be used to force a Barbarian out of Rage, because all of those hinder a Barbarian's ability to move and attack. Given the Paladin's DC for Spells and Channel Divinity is 15, the Barbarian has a high chance of failing against any of those spells since they only have a +1 to Wisdom saves. And out of all the spells and abilities, only Wrathful Smite deals damage on a hit. All the Paladin needs to do is wait for the Barbarian to Rage, cast Command, and if the Barbarian fails their save then they are out of Rage. Same with Hold Person, wait a turn to let the Barbarian drop out of Rage, and then go to town if they are still being held.

With Wrathful Smite and Abjure Enemy are a bit trickier, but work in the same fashion. Both cause the target to become frightened, so the Barbarian cannot move any closer to attack the Paladin. To make things worse their attack rolls and ability checks are all done at disadvantage. Now, the Barbarian can throw up to 5 handaxes...but those attacks will either be at disadvantage or normal attacks depending on if the Barbarian uses reckless attack, they only have 5 handaxes to use, and each handaxe only does a base damage of 1d6.

And to compound the issue, Wrathful Smite and Abjure Enemy so not end normally like any other spell would. If the Barbarian fails the save for Wrathful Smite, they must use an action make an ability check using Wisdom to beat the Paladin's Spell DC. A check that is done at disadvantage due to the Frightened condition. But if they use their action, then they aren't attacking anyone. And while they did take damage from the attack you have to make to deliver Wrathful Smite's effect, there's no reason for the Paladin to attack on the next turn. They can simply disengage, move away, and the Barbarian can't do anything but throw handaxes at disadvantage until they lose Rage.

Abjure Enemy is even worse. It only ends if you are attacked, you're Frightened, and your speed is set to 0 if you fail the saving throw. Even if you succeed the saving throw, your speed is halved. Making it very difficult to catch up to a Paladin that simply decides to play the waiting game and wait out your Rage.

Adding to those issues is the fact that the Paladin can heal using Lay on Hands or Cure Wounds. And given this paladin is a defensive tank with 21AC, the above Barbarian will need to roll a 15 or higher to hit them. And most of the Barbarian's attacks will likely be at disadvantage.

Having said all that, I think the Paladin could actually win provided the Barbarian fails their Wisdom saves and as long as the Paladin uses a proper strategy.


EDIT: That said, if the Paladin decides to just charge in and try to brute force their way through the Barbarian's HP, they will lose that match. But if the Paladin simply uses Command: Halt to get rid of the 3 Rages, at best the Paladin will have 1 first level slot to smite with and 2 second level slots. Without adding in crits, that's an average of 36 to 37 damage from those slots, which does knock the barbarian below half health

[jdolch]

Thank you for this interesting Analysis.

[UnintensifiedFa]

I think sithlordnergal said it best. A barbarian wins in a brute force damage dealing/absorbing fight. But if the fight becomes much more tactical, it swings to the advantage of the paladin. Not much you can do against those spells except roll well. Bear totem is the best bet against a paladin. Because brezerker will suffer exhaustion for those rages the paladin ended.

Now at a lower level (say 3) Paladins lower spell slots may come to the Barbarians advantage, while the barbarian still gets bear totem resistance.

At 1st level it’s a win for the barbarian again, because at that point the paladinnis just a glorified fighter.

[LudicSavant]

Seeing as the whole point of the thread was to have people come up with ideas, I'd say it is very much not silly.

I for one have a much better picture now of what possibilities exist than i did before. Granted my point was to have a normal scenario rather than people specifically cheesing the situation with flying races. But I didn't know that was even an option so i didn't include it in the rules and now I know better, which was the whole point of this thread.

I guess that makes sense. Well then, in the interest of education on what possibilities exist:

Barbarian, hands down. The Paladin has some utility and some extra AC, but that's fairly negligible compared to the Barbarian's damage resistance.

Personally, I'd go Berserker. Try dealing with (2d6+2+4)x2 with advantage every turn. That's 26 damage. All the weapon damage the Paladin deals will result in being resisted, so you better hope your 3 Divine Smites are enough to kill this mofo, but I don't think you'll live past turn 2.

Great Weapon Master might just make it end turn 1. Or just grab Mage Slayer and watch all that fancy pansy magic training go to waste.

I already pointed out the problem with this "extra attack with advantage every turn" notion, but there are other problems with this strategy too.

For example, Great Weapon Master is a highly questionable decision. Even if you have 18 Strength and are Reckless Attacking, the -5/+10 option is losing DPR if the enemy has 18+ AC. If you have 16 Strength (which is more likely at a point where the Paladin has only 3 divine smites, e.g. level 3) then you're losing DPR at only 17 AC while Reckless Attacking. You can't even benefit from the crit bonus because your bonus action is spoken for. Why would you do this to yourself?

You're basically just shooting yourself in the foot.

[GlenSmash!]

So, before we make any comparisons, lets put these guys on a playing field. Here's how I'll set it up:

1. Standard Point Buy
2. Standard Human Race
3. Nothing from splat books, PHB only
4. HP is the average for the class
5. NO FEATS, this of course means no Variant Human
6. NO MULTICLASSING
7. Combatants start 50 feet from each other.
8. The builds are Totem Barbarian and Vengeance Paladin
9. The Barbarian has 5 handaxes the Paladin has no ranged weapons

Spoiler: Paladin of Vengeance Stats

Show

Spoiler: Ability Scores

Show

Strength: 16

Dex: 10

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 10

Cha: 18

HP: 44

Fighting Style: Defense

AC: 21, from Plate, a Shield, and Defense

To Hit Bonus: +6

Weapon: Longsword/Battleaxe/Warhammer

Spell/Channel Divinity DC: 15

Lay on Hands: 25hp

Spell Slots: 4/2

Spoiler: Bear Totem Barbarian

Show

Spoiler: Ability Scores

Show

Str: 16

Dex: 14

Con: 18

Int: 9

Wis: 12

Cha: 9

HP: 60

AC: 18, Con Mod+Dex Mod, Shield

To Hit Bonus: +6

Rages: 3

Has access to Reckless Attack

Now, I am sure you guys may be wondering a few things. Well, here are some answers to potential questions:

Spoiler: Reasonings, can be skipped

Show

- I am doing Point Buy with Human race so as to put them on an even playing field while also allowing for a small amount of variation between ability scores. They can be unique combatants without having anything game changing

-I am starting them 50ft away from each other so that they must use a Dash action to reach each other. This prevents the encounter from coming down to whoever rolls the higher initiative winning. Going first still has an advantage, but the Barbarian cannot use a double Reckless attack and the Paladin cannot smite before the other side has a moment to do something

-I gave the Barbarian 5 Throwing Axes in order to bring some sort of balance against the Paladin's ranged spells and channel divinity. Even if the Barbarian is unable to get close, they can still do something. But since handaxe have the thrown property, the Barbarian can only throw one at a time unless they already have a handaxe drawn.

-I increased Con and Charisma over something like Strength because I find 16 Strength works perfectly fine until high tiers, and for the purpose of this matchup I felt Charisma and Constitution would prove more valuable.

-I did what I could to max out both the Barbarian and Paladin's ACs in order to make them both as tanky as possible.

-No feats, no multiclassing are there for the simple reason to make things easier for everyone involved. If I allowed feats or multiclassing, then the fight would be impossible to predict because of how powerful feats are, and how game changing multiclassing is.

With all that prepwork out of the way, we can get onto the match:

Now, at first glance I will admit, I thought the Bear Totem Barbarian was a shoe in. The Barbarian can easily pump out enough damage to burn through the Paladin's HP and Lay on Hands before the Paladin cuts through his resistances, provided the Paladin doesn't get any lucky crits in. But then I re-read the Barbarian's Rage ability and two things stuck out. First, the Barbarian can only Rage 3 times during this battle, and second the Barbarian drops out of Rage if "Your Turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then". Therefore, if the Paladin wants to win, they must force the Barbarian out of their Rage.

I then realized that Paladins, especially Vengeance Paladins, have a few ways to do this:

1) All Paladins have access to the Command and Wrathful Smite spells.

2) The Oath of Vengeance has access to Hold Person

3) The Oath of Vengeance has Abjure Enemy as a Channel Divinity option.

All of those can be used to force a Barbarian out of Rage, because all of those hinder a Barbarian's ability to move and attack. Given the Paladin's DC for Spells and Channel Divinity is 15, the Barbarian has a high chance of failing against any of those spells since they only have a +1 to Wisdom saves. And out of all the spells and abilities, only Wrathful Smite deals damage on a hit. All the Paladin needs to do is wait for the Barbarian to Rage, cast Command, and if the Barbarian fails their save then they are out of Rage. Same with Hold Person, wait a turn to let the Barbarian drop out of Rage, and then go to town if they are still being held.

With Wrathful Smite and Abjure Enemy are a bit trickier, but work in the same fashion. Both cause the target to become frightened, so the Barbarian cannot move any closer to attack the Paladin. To make things worse their attack rolls and ability checks are all done at disadvantage. Now, the Barbarian can throw up to 5 handaxes...but those attacks will either be at disadvantage or normal attacks depending on if the Barbarian uses reckless attack, they only have 5 handaxes to use, and each handaxe only does a base damage of 1d6.

And to compound the issue, Wrathful Smite and Abjure Enemy so not end normally like any other spell would. If the Barbarian fails the save for Wrathful Smite, they must use an action make an ability check using Wisdom to beat the Paladin's Spell DC. A check that is done at disadvantage due to the Frightened condition. But if they use their action, then they aren't attacking anyone. And while they did take damage from the attack you have to make to deliver Wrathful Smite's effect, there's no reason for the Paladin to attack on the next turn. They can simply disengage, move away, and the Barbarian can't do anything but throw handaxes at disadvantage until they lose Rage.

Abjure Enemy is even worse. It only ends if you are attacked, you're Frightened, and your speed is set to 0 if you fail the saving throw. Even if you succeed the saving throw, your speed is halved. Making it very difficult to catch up to a Paladin that simply decides to play the waiting game and wait out your Rage.

Adding to those issues is the fact that the Paladin can heal using Lay on Hands or Cure Wounds. And given this paladin is a defensive tank with 21AC, the above Barbarian will need to roll a 15 or higher to hit them. And most of the Barbarian's attacks will likely be at disadvantage.

Having said all that, I think the Paladin could actually win provided the Barbarian fails their Wisdom saves and as long as the Paladin uses a proper strategy.


EDIT: That said, if the Paladin decides to just charge in and try to brute force their way through the Barbarian's HP, they will lose that match. But if the Paladin simply uses Command: Halt to get rid of the 3 Rages, at best the Paladin will have 1 first level slot to smite with and 2 second level slots. Without adding in crits, that's an average of 36 to 37 damage from those slots, which does knock the barbarian below half health

Nice analysis. I think the Paladin has a much harder time in this if the Barbarian is making use of that 14 Dex with a Longbow as the Longbow has a greater Range than the Paladin abilities and spells. It's even worse if instead of Bear Totem he's an Eagle Totem Dashing as a bonus action.

So while it's more advantageous for the Paladin to hang back and sling spells at the Raging Barbarian it's also more advantageous for the Barbarian to hang back and whittle the Paladin down with a Greater change of hitting at far Range.

Edit: Of course that puts us back in just be an aaracockra territory.

[sithlordnergal]

Nice analysis. I think the Paladin has a much harder time in this if the Barbarian is making use of that 14 Dex with a Longbow as the Longbow has a greater Range than the Paladin abilities and spells. It's even worse if instead of Bear Totem he's an Eagle Totem Dashing as a bonus action.

So while it's more advantageous for the Paladin to hang back and sling spells at the Raging Barbarian it's also more advantageous for the Barbarian to hang back and whittle the Paladin down with a Greater change of hitting at far Range.

Edit: Of course that puts us back in just be an aaracockra territory.

True, having a longbow would mitigate a lot of the problems the Barbarian might have, and being able to Dash as a bonus action would help deal with the Half Speed from Abjure Enemy and the 50ft starting distance. They'd still need to deal with Disadvantage and being unable to move closer to the Paladin due to potential Frightened effects, and Command/Hold Person would shut them down. But it would help the Barbarian do better.

[GlenSmash!]

True, having a longbow would mitigate a lot of the problems the Barbarian might have, and being able to Dash as a bonus action would help deal with the Half Speed from Abjure Enemy and the 50ft starting distance. They'd still need to deal with Disadvantage and being unable to move closer to the Paladin due to potential Frightened effects, and Command/Hold Person would shut them down. But it would help the Barbarian do better.

If you start the fight further 60 feet away (more than 90 ft away to really be sure) they wouldn't even have to deal with Abjure Enemy, Command, or Hold person.

Man these 1 on 1 fights have so many variables beyond Race, Class, level.

[strangebloke]

Nice analysis. I think the Paladin has a much harder time in this if the Barbarian is making use of that 14 Dex with a Longbow as the Longbow has a greater Range than the Paladin abilities and spells. It's even worse if instead of Bear Totem he's an Eagle Totem Dashing as a bonus action.

So while it's more advantageous for the Paladin to hang back and sling spells at the Raging Barbarian it's also more advantageous for the Barbarian to hang back and whittle the Paladin down with a Greater change of hitting at far Range.

Edit: Of course that puts us back in just be an aaracockra territory.

EXACTLY.

The 'best' builds for this challenge (ignoring feats and multiclassing) are:

Aaracockra Eagle Totem Barbarian 5
8/18/16/8/16/8
AC:17
HP:55
attack:+7
initiative:+4
WIS save: +3

Strategy:

• dash
• rage
• run 120 feet away.
• on next turn, shoot and bonus action dash away.
• repeat previous step until dead

Aaracockra Vengeance Paladin 5
9/18/16/8/10/14
AC:16
HP:49
attack:+7(duel-wielding short swords)
initiative:+4
DC: 13

Strategy:

• run into range (if needed) cast hold person. Mount helps with getting in range, but other spells and abilities are pretty much irrelevant.
• run up to paralyzed enemy, smite repeatedly until dead.

the breakdown

Case 1: Barb wins initiative (50%)

Barb dashes 120 feet away straight into the sky and rages.

Paladin rides mount to space directly under barbarian, then dashes up to him. Without dashing he is 70 feet away, so he can't cast hold person. If he does dash, he doesn't do anything that round but fall further behind. So he probably pulls out a bow and shoots the barbarian.

Eventually, the barbarian's damage resistance, superior AC and superior HP carry the day. Barbarian Wins

Case 2: Paladin wins initiative. (50%)

Paladin runs to barb and casts hold person. He can use vow of emnity on the barbarian as well, but it doesn't do anything. If he's at range he still loses, and if his hold person goes off it doesn't do anything.

Case 2a: Barb succeeds on save (27.25%)

Barb shrugs off the spell and runs flies 120 feet away. He will never be in range of the paladin's abilities again, and his damage resistance, higher AC and higher HP carry the day. Barbarian wins

Case 2b: Barb fails save (22.25%)

Barb is paralyzed. The paladin can attack three times, with advantage giving him a 79.75% hit rate on each attack and the paralysis making each hit an auto-crit. Each hit deals 18(4d8) radiant damage and 4-6 slashing damage. Since he has two rounds, the paladin pretty much always gets the kill here, having 6 attacks at least to kill his opponent, and only needing 2-3. Paladin Wins

Summary:

Paladin wins 22.25% of the time, Barb wins the rest. Feats don't really change anything. The paladin goes for mobile, which would boost his chances to 45% (since he's guaranteed to be able to cast hold person), except that the barbarian goes for resilient:Wis, which lowers the Paladin's chances back down to 30%.

Constrained Area

In a constrained area the barbarian is probably best off as rock gnome bear barbarian. The paladin is probably a Dexterity based half-elf vengeance paladin. Hold person is unlikely to take thanks to gnomish magic resistance, which leaves this as a straight slugfest. Unsure of the 'optimal' strategy here, but TBH the paladin probably doesn't do too well.

Both sides will have advantage no matter what, so things like abjure enemy don't really mean much. That means that as the fight goes on, this fight is purely a battle between bonus smite damage, bonus rage damage, and rage resistance. I don't think I need to say how that works out. Once again, the paladin needs to win initiative and play very aggressively. If he can rush in and deal tons of damage before the rage goes up, he can win. I'm not going to speculate on what the best build is, but I'd guess that the paladin goes heavily into dexterity, which lets him win initiative a bit more often.

[Bloodcloud]

Well, Beserker at level 6 removes a lot of those option though, by getting immunity to fear. Of course by that point, hold person is in play. At level 6, the Barb has more rage than the paladin has spells to stop it. So paladin might be better off casting hold person, hopes it lasts a bit, and burn crit smites.

So yeah, barring flying race and run away and kite sheananigan, variant human polarm/sentinel combo would be lethal. Barring that too (or assuming both go polarm), wether the paladin gets his hold person to stick will decide at level 6+ in a slugfest. Starting level 2-5, the paladin's got a shot with wrathful smite to unrage the barb and win (and bypass resistance of even the bear with sweet psychic damage)

Aaand i just realized level 6 is out of bound. Forget the first part.

[Louro]

- I COMMAND YOU TO DROP YOUR SWORD!
Pally takes sword.
- I COMMAND YOU TO KNEEL BEFORE ME!
Barbie loses 2nd rage.
- I COMMAND YOU TO WATCH HOW AWESOME I AM!
Barbie loses 3rd rage.
- I COMMAND YOU TO DIE!
Also known as "smite"

[strangebloke]

- I COMMAND YOU TO DROP YOUR SWORD!
Pally takes sword.
- I COMMAND YOU TO KNEEL BEFORE ME!
Barbie loses 2nd rage.
- I COMMAND YOU TO WATCH HOW AWESOME I AM!
Barbie loses 3rd rage.
- I COMMAND YOU TO DIE!
Also known as "smite"

Lol, even ignoring how this barb fails twice in a row when he should have better than 50% odds...

...what self-respecting character only has one weapon?

[Louro]

Lol, even ignoring how this barb fails twice in a row when he should have better than 50% odds...

...what self-respecting character only has one weapon?

99% of barbarians I know.

[Kete]

Hello guys.

New Ravnica spells allows the Paladin to cast CALM EMOTIONS SPELL!

Well, It's over.

[Kete]

Also, Ensnaring Strike against "flying" barbarian. The dex barbarian falls.

[jdolch]

Ok, I am starting to get the picture. Just out of Interest: Is there a Level after which the Paladin gets stronger than the Barbarian or is it basically just: Barbarian > Paladin (strictly talking PVP!)?

Edit: And lets just stop with the Flying Race Stuff. It's totally legit and we can all agree how that helps you with Anti-melee, but i think we can also agree that if you pick those, 99% of the time you are trying to cheese the game.