Oath Of Devotion Paladin: D&D 2024 Subclass Optimisation Guide

Defend the innocent with this protective paladin subclass.

The archetypal knight in shining armor, oath of devotion paladins are “devoted” to the ideals of justice and order. This not only means that they are supposed to live by the word of the law, but also that they will strive to uphold it. This might include fighting bandits, preventing political corruption or protecting villages from roving warbands.

Devotion paladins have a strong sense of morality and hold themselves and everyone else around them to these ideals. This can sometimes lead to friction in matters of the morally grey (or even the outright evil) with devotion paladins unlikely to compromise on their standards.

Devotion paladins typically devote themselves to gods of goodness and law or fashion themselves after the nature of angelic beings. To do this, they follow 3 tenets:

Let your word be your promise
Protect the weak and never fear to act
Let your honourable deeds be an example

At a glance

Half caster, half martial class
Tank class capable of taking a beating
Leans into the protective aspects of the paladin with an enhanced aura
To protect, you must fight, and with that comes enhanced accuracy

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

This subclass gets more of a tweak than any major changes, which include:

Sacred weapon and holy nimbus now last 10 minutes (instead of 1) and holy nimbus can be used again with a 5th level spell slot.
Smite of protection has replaced purity of spirit. It gives half cover for everyone in your aura when you cast divine smite.
Sanctuary and lesser restoration have been removed from the spell list and replaced with shield of faith and aid.

Related articles

Oath of devotion features

Oath of devotion spells – Lv3

How it works

Get the following as prepared spells at the relevant levels:

Paladin level	Spells
3	Protection from evil and good, shield of faith
5	Aid, zone of truth
9	Beacon of hope, dispel magic
13	Freedom of movement, guardian of faith
17	Commune, flame strike

Tactics

There are lots of great spells in this list including protective spells like protection from evil and good and shield of faith (making you even tankier).
Commune and zone of truth can work well for information gathering. Dispel magic is a strong option for tackling nasty magical effects and aid is a decent buff.
Beacon of hope is a tad situational for a level 3 spell and could easily be cast with little benefit (or just enhanced healing).

Sacred weapon – Lv3

How it works

Gain a bonus to your attack rolls equal to your charisma modifier.

Tactics

The bonus here is for all attacks made with that weapon so the more attacks you make, the greater the benefit.
But, it must be used on a melee weapon so don’t bother going for an unarmed build. You also won’t get the benefits with an offhand weapon if you opt for two weapon fighting. This shouldn’t stop you going for a dual wielder, but be aware that your offhand weapon won’t be as accurate as your main hand weapon.
Something like haste will help you here though as it will let you take the attack action again.
The cleave weapon mastery property will also benefit as you make an attack roll with the same weapon for the next target. You’ll likely find less use from something like graze though which relies on misses to gain its benefits.

Aura of devotion – Lv7

How it works

You and your allies are immune to the charmed condition while in your aura of protection.

Tactics

Paladins always work best while keeping allies close to benefit from their natural buffs. Immunity to another condition is just another reason to keep your allies close, especially when fighting things like fey creatures.
You can also at least temporarily nullify the effects of the charmed condition by keeping an affected ally in your aura so some manoeuvrability is useful to reach affected allies.

Smite of protection – Lv15

How it works

Whenever you cast divine smite, you and allies in your aura of protection benefit from half cover until the start of your next turn.

Tactics

This is really powerful and well worth using divine smite regularly for.
Remember that cover protects you from melee attacks too but some attack types can easily bypass the effects of cover.
This can include things like AoE spells (though you still benefit from +2 to dexterity saving throws so even something like a fireball becomes easier to avoid).

Holy nimbus – Lv20

How it works

Once per long rest, you can enhance your aura of protection for 10 minutes giving it the following benefits:

Advantage on saving throws against fiends and undead.
radiant damage equal to your charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus for any enemies within your aura.
Exude light.

Tactics

Holy nimbus should be dealing 11 damage per turn per enemy at this level (assuming you have 20 charisma).
Fighting fiends or undead is a little situational, though at least they’re common creature types.
It’s worth noting that the light from this spell should penetrate magical darkness like from the darkness spell as it’s not a level 2 spell or lower, and personally, I’d rule that the light is magical in nature.

Building a devotion paladin

Path of glory paladin DnD 2024 — Paladin: Wizards of the Coast

Devotion paladins fit the typical stereotypes of paladins. Protect stuff, be tanky and get into melee combat. There’s still some nuance to consider over how you build one:

Ability scores

Recommended options

Strength: Strength weapons will hit harder so are most effective for paladin builds. I’d generally recommend this over a dexterity build for a paladin.
Constitution: You’re going to need to wade into the thick of battle with your melee weapon so you can take full advantage of sacred weapon, your aura and your other paladin features.
Charisma: This makes things like sacred weapon and holy nimbus more powerful. It will also enhance your spellcasting and grants you great face skills so highly worth taking.
Dexterity (optional): You can go for a dexterity build, but it’s likely less effective as you’ll do less damage and heavy armor can compensate for your lack of dexterity. You may want to consider some dexterity for the occasional ranged attacks, but thrown weapons or even spells (with something like the blessed warrior fighting style) are likely a better option than trying to focus on another ability score.

Options to avoid

Intelligence: Almost pointless.
Wisdom: Also rarely needed by a paladin.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	15	13
Dexterity	8	12
Constitution	15	14
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	10
Charisma	15	15

Skills

Recommended options

Athletics: You’re better off with this than acrobatics as a strength-leaning class.
Insight: Strong face skill.
Intimidation: Decent face skill if you intend to role play in a more imposing manner.
Persuasion: Your best face skill and should be top of your list as a potential party face.

Options to avoid

Medicine: You’ve got things like lay on hands for quick healing, you’re far better off using that.
Religion: Not a bad skill as such, but as a probable party face, there’s just more important skills to take. I’d only take if the party is already proficient in the other skill options.

Species/race

There are a few things to consider when choosing a species for a paladin:

Resilience: You’ll need to be throwing yourself into the middle of the fray so anything that can enhance your already substantial durability is welcome.
Innate spellcasting: As a spellcaster, you can repeat cast spells and your charisma should be strong enough to do this well. You also have a limited repertoire of spells, especially in the cantrips department. You could consider grabbing a ranged cantrip for the occasional ranged attacks.
Damage dealing: Sometimes the best form of defence is attack. Kill your enemies quicker with enhanced attacks.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your durability. For celestial revelation, inner radiance is a little tricky as you’re such a big team player and it will hurt allies so necrotic shroud is probably your best bet. Temporary flight can be useful, especially out of combat or for hard to reach enemies. You don’t really need the healing, but it’s a decent emergency option if you run out of lay on hands.
Dragonborn (2024): You don’t get much in the way of AoE damage as a paladin, but you will like getting close to your enemies. This makes a Dragonborn’s breath weapon a really useful tool. You can use it in place of just one of your attacks too. Temporary flight again lets you get to hard to reach enemies. Plus there’s a resistance for better durability.
Dwarf (2024): Be the tankiest tank around with extra hit points, poison resistance and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.
Elf (2024): You’re mainly here for the High Elf which will get you a cantrip of your choice. A good option if you don’t want to spend a fighting style on blessed warrior but do want a cantrip for some ranged attacks.
Goliath (2024): Faster movement makes you even better at traversing the battlefield. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. For a paladin, the durability of the stone giants, knocking enemies prone with hill giant and extra damage from fire giants are all great options.
Human (2024): A great option if you want to be the party face and need the extra skill proficiency. An extra skill and a feat will help here, while a regular supply of heroic inspiration is always useful.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. You also get an origin feat linked to your background too.

Primarily, you want to focus on increasing key ability scores (mainly charisma, strength and constitution) with the associated origin feat being your next priority. As such, I’d suggest the below are your best backgrounds for a devotion paladin:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forgery kit
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One type of musical instrument
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Noble	Strength, intelligence, charisma	Skilled	History, persuasion	One type of gaming set
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	One kind of gaming set

Charlatan and noble are probably your best options if you want to lean more into being a party face. If you want to be more combat ready, then merchant and farmer are probably better options.

Feats

At 1st level, you can grab an origin feat through your background and from level 4, you can pick up a general feat (or another origin feat if you want) instead of an ability score increase.

General feats are all half feats now as they give an ability score increase and the traits of a feat. But you’ll need to give up the +2 from a standard ability score increase to get them.

Below are some feats I’d recommend for a devotion paladin:

Origin feats

Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial.
Magic initiate – Grab some more spells, including a couple of cantrips. Something like thunderclap and thunderwave are great for melee combat against multiple foes. Alternatively, grab a ranged cantrip for a decent ranged attack. Toll the dead is a strong option for this. You should have the charisma to make these spells work.
Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration. Great for altruistic paladins (which is most of them). Plus you can ensure you have some heroic inspiration available too.
Savage attacker – Decent enough damage dealing feat to make your attacks a little more powerful.
Skilled – You aren’t able to be proficient in all face skills, but party faces typically need a bunch of these so skilled can help fill your skill gaps.
Tough – Lean into your strengths and become even more durable.

General feats

Fey-touched – Misty step is great for getting into the right parts of the battlefield. Perhaps even better is the option of grabbing hex or hunter’s mark (I’d go with hex personally). You can also grab things like sleep, Tasha’s hideous laughter and silvery barbs. You can check out my full guide to the fey-touched feat for more ways to use this.
Great weapon master – More damage from your attacks is great if you intend to wield heavy weapons.
Heavy armor master – Basically reduce damage from all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing attacks is great for a tank if you’re going to be wearing heavy armor.
Inspiring leader – Great for granting temporary hit points to the party. Go for the charisma increase to make this work best.
Mage slayer – Best against mages, but having what is practically legendary resistance is also great.
Mounted combatant – You can easily summon your own mount from level 5 onwards and this can give you a serious edge in combat. Advantage against basically anything medium or smaller is pretty nice.
Sentinel – Basically a free attack as a reaction reasonably often plus a small amount of bonus action damage when you don’t have spells or smites to expend with your bonus action.
Shield master – Better protection from some nasty AoE damage spells and a free push or prone with your shield can free up your weapon mastery uses for something like cleave.
Skill expert – If you want to get really good at a face skill, then this works great.

Weapons

The weapons you choose will depend largely on how you want to fight and what weapon mastery properties you want to be using:

Pure damage: Go for two-handed weapons like a greatsword, greataxe, glaive, halberd or maul for a more pure damage approach and less defence.
Sword and shield: If you want to go heavier on defense, you’ll need a one handed weapon like a longsword, battleaxe, morningstar or warhammer.
Two weapon fighting: If you want to fight with two weapons for the extra offhand attack, you’ll need to use light weapons. Handaxes, shortswords and scimitars are best for this. To make this work best, you’ll want to invest in things like two weapon fighting, dual wielder and/or the nick weapon mastery property. With so many demands on your bonus action, I’d suggest ignoring dual wielder and take nick so your bonus action is free. Take two weapon fighting to increase your damage output a bit too.
Ranged: Thrown weapons are probably your best option here as you can use your strength modifier. If you do want longer range, a longbow is next best. Alternatively, go for a ranged cantrip with something like a racial trait, the blessed warrior fighting style or the magic initiate origin feat.

While paladins can now smite with unarmed strikes, sacred weapon only works with a melee weapon so I’d avoid this for a devotion paladin.

If you want some help choosing a weapon mastery property, you can check out my weapon mastery guide to work out how best to utilise these properties.

Armor

Paladins have a lot of ability scores to focus on so building into dexterity is tricky. With that in mind, I’d generally go for heavy armor. Plate armor is best, but you can grab splint armor until you have the money for plate armor.

You could go for medium armor or light armor if you have the dexterity for it but this should be rarer with a paladin. Grab a shield if you want some extra durability at the expense of some damage output.