Oath Of Glory Paladin: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Subclass Optimisation Guide

Become a living legend with this inspiring paladin subclass for D&D 2024.

Not all heroes are the epitomy of humility. Some perform epic heroics and kindly deeds, not for the goodness of the act, but for the glory such acts bestow. They seek to become living legends, praised throughout the land and renowned where they tread. This is what glory paladins seek.

Like other paladins, glory paladins adhere to a simple set of tenets that guide their actions. These are:

Endeavour to be known for your deeds
Face hardships with courage
Inspire others to strive for glory

If you play as a glory paladin, you can expect abilities that allow you to inspire yourself and others to great moments of inspiration and heroism. Whether that’s defending an ally from an attack, emboldening allies to charge into the fray, endure more pain or striking with greater accuracy.

While little has changed for the path of glory subclass in D&D 2024, there are a few tweaks and the wider changes to the paladin class to consider. My article below will take you through tactics and optimisations for this heroic paladin subclass.

At a glance

Half caster, half martial class
Tank class capable of taking a beating
Inspirational subclass that can boost allies
Use reactions more adeptly to both defend and attack

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

Not much has changed for the oath of glory paladin, but a few quality of life changes have been made including:

Aura of alacrity simply adds benefits to your aura of protection rather than being a separate aura.
Peerless athlete now lasts 1 hour instead of 10 minutes.
You gain access to a brand new spell called Yolande’s regal presence.

Related articles

Oath of glory features

Oath of glory spells – Lv3

How it works

Get the following as prepared spells at the relevant levels:

Paladin level	Spells
3	Guiding bolt, heroism
5	Enhance ability, magic weapon
9	Haste, protection from energy
13	Compulsion, freedom of movement
17	Legend lore, Yolande’s regal presence

Tactics

Glory paladins get a bunch of solid buff spells and a few damage spells.
Magic weapon is a good option for enhancing attacks. Haste is an even stronger buff coming at level 9.
Guiding bolt is a decent option for occasional ranged attacks while Yolande’s regal presence is a decent damage dealing emanation.

Inspiring smite – Lv3

How it works

Grant 2d8 + your paladin level in temporary hit points to nearby creatures when you use divine smite and expend a use of channel divinity.

Tactics

There is no drain on your action economy here so you can use it without sacrificing another action/bonus action.
You can spread the hit points among whatever creatures you like. However, you can only ever have one batch of temporary hit points applied at one time so I might be tempted to apply the entire batch of temporary hit points to a single ally (or yourself) allowing you to give big doses of temporary hit points on subsequent turns to other allies.
Of course, allies will often be getting hit, but this approach is probably usually going to be your best option.
I’d also consider prioritising allies with things like relevant resistances or a raged barbarian that will take half damage and therefore make the temporary hit points stretch further.

Peerless athlete – Lv3

How it works

Expend a use of channel divinity to gain advantage on athletics and acrobatics checks for an hour and increase your jumping distance.

Tactics

This is rarely your best option for expending a use of channel divinity. There are often better ways of crossing large distances than jumping, and athletics is mostly only used for these physical types of acts and escaping grapples (which is highly situational). You’re better off dishing out temporary hit points with your channel divinity.

Aura of alacrity – Lv7

How it works

Your speed increases by 10 feet, as does that of allies that enter your aura.

Tactics

As you’ll likely want to be in melee action as much as possible, more speed is pretty useful.
This could be good for hit and run allies like rogues and monks who are probably popping in and out of your aura in combat.
You can also use this to boost the charge of all the frontline warriors in your party. Barbarians and monks with glory paladin friends for instance, will find themselves charging into the fray extremely quickly.

Glorious defense – Lv15

How it works

Use your reaction to boost you or a nearby ally’s AC by your charisma modifier when hit. You can then make an attack against the attacker if in range.

Tactics

This is best used when you are in range of the attacker (as you only get a handful of uses per long rest). This way you can defend and attack, and you should have plenty of chances to use this feature.
You’ll also want to use it at times when granting some bonus AC will actually cause the attack to miss.
The higher your charisma is, the better the AC bonus will be and the more uses you’ll get. It shouldn’t be hard to hit 20 charisma by this level.
You may also want to use this most against hard hitting attacks.
Note that you can use this against ranged attacks, especially if you’re wielding a ranged weapon to hurl back at the attacker.

Living legend – Lv20

How it works

Use a bonus action to get the following benefits for 10 minutes:

Advantage on all charisma checks.
Use a reaction to reroll saving throws.
Turn a miss with a weapon attack into a hit once per turn.

Tactics

You only get one of these per long rest (unless you expend a level 5 spell slot) so use it for tough encounters (including social encounters).
In theory, you can combine this with the boon of combat prowess allowing you to automatically hit on both your attacks each turn! It’s probably a bit of a waste as you’ll probably not miss with both attacks each turn, but it is a possible (and fun) combination. The legendary warrior that never misses…

Building a glory paladin

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

Glory paladins are all about charging into the fray and inspiring their companions to great feats of heroism. They’re team players at their core, making everyone better at diving headlong into danger. With that in mind, you’ll likely want to build your character with a melee focus.

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 so need the extra resilience this brings.
Charisma: While you have features that rely on a strong charisma, they don’t kick in until level 15. Charisma’s still important for your spellcasting and face skills though.
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	15
Dexterity	8	12
Constitution	15	14
Intelligence	8	8
Wisdom	8	10
Charisma	15	13

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 this 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 glory 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 cantrip department. You could consider grabbing a ranged cantrip for the occasional ranged attack.
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 combines with your aura of alacrity to make you even faster! 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
Orc (2024): Not only can you survive a bit longer as an Orc, you can also charge even further with a bonus action dash. All of this really leans into how a glory paladin plays.

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 strength, constitution and charisma) with the associated origin feat being your next priority. As such, I’d suggest the below are your best backgrounds for a glory 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

Farmer and soldier are probably your best options with strength and constitution increases. Tough will make you more durable while savage attacker will make you hit a little harder.

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 glory paladin:

Origin feats

Alert – Don’t just charge in really fast, react first too.
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

Defensive duelist – Good for some reactionary defence. You will likely sacrifice some damage output, but if you’re going for sword and shield anyway, you can just grab a rapier for damage equal to a longsword.
Dual wielder – Solid option if you intend to go for two weapon fighting, especially if wielding a weapon with the nick weapon mastery property.
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.
Grappler – Paladins can make great grapplers . This will let you attack and grapple as part of the same unarmed strike, which also means you can grapple and smite.
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.

Fighting style feats

Your options here are mainly going to depend on how you want to approach fighting. If you’re going to be dual wielding, then grab two weapon fighting, if you’re going to be making unarmed strikes, take unarmed fighting and so on. You can check out my full guide to fighting style feats for more advice.

Weapons

This largely depends on how you want to lean into combat. Below is some broad advice you can apply when choosing what kind of weapon approach you want:

Dual wielding: Go with dual wielding if you want more attacks. Grab a weapon with the nick property and make sure you take the dual wielder feat and two weapon fighting style to maximise your effectiveness here. The interactions between feats and abilities for dual wielding can get complicated so check out my dual wielding guide for some help here.
Two-handed weapons: Go with these for the highest damage with a single weapon.
Sword and shield: Go for a sword and shield if you want greater protection. As a general rule, this will keep you in the battle longer and is often worth it in the long run, even if it does diminish your damage output.
Unarmed fighting: You’ll need to grab some feats to make this work, namely, tavern brawler, grappler and unarmed fighting. With these though, you can be a really effective grappler and can even use smites with your unarmed attacks now.
Thrown weapons: Paladins tend to be a bit poor in the ranged department, but you will undoubtedly need to make ranged attacks at some point. Your dexterity will likely be low so thrown weapons are the way to go here (unless you can grab some cantrips from a feat or species trait).

When it comes to which weapon to choose, this will primarily come down to the amount of damage the weapon causes and the weapon mastery associated with it. Check out my weapon mastery guide for more advice on this.

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.

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.