Oath of the Holy Paladin: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Subclass Optimisation Guide

Embody virtue and preserve life with this heal-heavy paladin subclass from D&D: World of Warcraft.

At a glance

Oath of the holy features

Oath of the holy spells (Lv3) – 4/5

Paladin level	Spells
3	Cure wounds, healing word
5	Lesser restoration, prayer of healing
9	Dispel magic, mass healing word
13	Aura of life, death ward
17	Greater restoration, mass cure wounds

The oath of the holy gets loads of healing spells! You won’t compare to a cleric in terms of raw healing power. You have less spell slots for a start and get these spells more slowly. However, if you lack a healer or need a backup healer, the oath of the holy will do a good job here.

I don’t love prayer of healing. How often can you afford 10 minutes to stop and heal, but not an hour for a short rest? I don’t think it’s that often. I also think aura of life is kind of situational. It’s mainly for fighting undead-type creatures that deal necrotic damage and drain life force.

The rest of the spells range from good to great. They aren’t that flashy, but every party needs them and that makes this a strong spell list.

Beacon of light (Lv3) – 2/5

I don’t really like this feature that much. To start with, it requires a setup action, it then demands that you be doing enough healing to justify granting half healing to that ally. Despite all your healing spells, a holy paladin is still built more to smite than to heal.

This can scale quite a lot though. For example, lay on hands at level 10 can be dishing out up to 50HP in a use. This will be granting an extra 25HP. Upcasting your healing spells will also mean more hit points, and mass healing through mass healing word will apply half healing from all recipients. That can make this quite potent, but it takes a little while to get to that point. But these are the best case scenarios. More likely, and especially at lower levels, you’ll be casting the odd healing word or making smaller uses of lay on hands. At these lower levels, were maybe talking about 10-15HP per encounter, which isn’t enough to use your action on.

I’d have much preferred a similar effect that wouldn’t take from your action economy and wouldn’t force this on one individual who you’d have to guess would need healing. I think just granting half healing to an ally would be great (maybe limited to a few times per day) without expending channel divinity or an action. As it stands, this is too much setup and forces you to do something that isn’t your primary function for an encounter under the expectation that someone might need healing (which again, may not be the case).

Lightbringer’s aura (Lv7) – 2/5

An extra 1d6 healing just isn’t much. It also only works on bloodied creatures in your aura, which again, limits who it can aid (even if most of your healing probably is on bloodied creatures).

It can get better with multi-target healing like mass healing word, but you’ll need to wait 2 more levels for that and many targets likely aren’t in your aura anyway.

This is too small a buff with too many stipulations, even if you are healing regularly.

Infusion of light (Lv15) – 4/5

Restoring healing for lay on hands is quite good, and paladins can deal plenty of radiant damage through spells like divine smite so I can see this being replenished a fair bit. However, I think you’ll need several use of smites to get this replenishing in a big way. Ironically, this gets in the way of all the healing that beacon of hope is pushing you to do.

I’m not sure why they needed to stipulate the maximum replenishment is 5 x your paladin level. I’m not sure what paladin spell is dishing out 75+ damage but I’d like to find it!

Holy deliverance (Lv20) – 3/5

9-11 hit points (roughly) when bloodied and in this paladin’s aura is decent enough and you can move around a bit to enable this. It’s not loads of healing, but it will also recover characters that drop to 0HP and at the start of their turn so they can still take their turn. Unfortunately, it’s another healing option that only works when creatures are bloodied which can limit it’s usefulness.

Sunlight in your aura is occasionally useful, but is very situational.

How good is the oath of the holy?

I found the oath of the holy quite frustrating. True, healing isn’t supposed to be the most exciting way to play, but some of the options here really disrupt the paladin’s usual smiting ways. I know it’s supposed to embody World of Warcraft paladins who tend to be quite heal heavy, but this could have been accomplished without restricting damage output as much.

I also think there’s some unnecessarily stifling design here too. Setup turns that also force benefits on one character that you have to predict will need the benefits as well as options with minor benefits that only work when bloodied can really limit this subclass. Unfortunately, these are your core level 3 and 7 features.

In some ways, I think this is a little worse than the sum of its parts. For many paladin subclasses, you’re enhancing what they’re already doing (attacking or tanking usually) but with this, you’re kind of telling this paladin to slow down on the damage and do healing instead, often without a big bonus. Ironically, at level 15, you then need to work on attacking again to refill your lay on hands pool.

Ultimately, it lands a bit flat for me and feels like a bit of a disappointment as a healer paladin that forgets to smite and with frustrating healing design.

2/5

Building an oath of the holy paladin

While the oath of the holy hones in on the healing aspects of a paladin more than most, it builds in largely the same way as other paladins. You remain a tanky damage dealer with spellcasting, healing and a strong charisma.

While the oath of the holy has been created for the Warcraft setting, there’s no reason it can’t be used in other settings or that character options from other books can’t be used for it. In my recommendations below, I’ve used options from all 5.5e books. I’ll also add character options from D&D: World of Warcraft once they become widely available.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Strength: Strength weapons will hit harder so tend to be your best option, especially when it’s so easy to whack some heavy armor on and ignore dexterity.
• Constitution: paladins are tanks and built to take a beating. You’ll want constitution nice and high to help you survive on the frontlines.
• Charisma: Important for your spellcasting and your face skills.

Options to avoid

• Dexterity: This can be an option and you could dump strength instead, but this tends not to be the most optimal option for a paladin.
• Intelligence: Almost pointless.
• Wisdom: Also rarely needed by a paladin.

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

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 need to use some righteous indignation.
• Persuasion: Your best face skill and should be top of your list as a potential party face.

Species

There are a few things to consider when choosing a species for an oath of the holy:

• Resilience: Anything that can toughen you up as you throw yourself into the midst of your enemies will be beneficial.
• Innate spellcasting: As a spellcaster, you can repeat cast spells and your charisma should be strong enough to do this well.
• Damage dealing: You’ll likely be making a lot of attacks so anything that can enhance this will be useful.
• Party face: Paladins make a great party face but aren’t necessarily highly skillful. You may want to grab some face skills and other charisma traits to help here. Failing that, your background can help here too.

Recommended options

• Aasimar: 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. The healing can make a decent backup, but you should have plenty of ways to heal without this.
• Changeling (FotA): If you want to be incredibly persuasive and make impersonations, then a Changeling is a great route to go. You can change shape, get more face skills and have advantage on face skills.
• Dragonborn: 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: Be the tankiest tank around with extra hit points, poison resistance and advantage on saving throws against the poisoned condition.
• Goliath: Faster movement is handy for getting into battle quickly. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. For a paladin, the durability of the stone giants and extra damage from fire giants are both great options.
• Human: A great option if you want to be the party face and need the extra skill proficiency (deception might be a good choice). You’ll also get an extra origin feat and a regular supply of heroic inspiration is always useful
• Orc: Not only can you survive a bit longer as an Orc, you can also charge even further with a bonus action dash. Handy for a character that will often want to charge into combat quickly.
• Warforged (FotA): You’re really here for extra durability like the AC boost and poison resilience.

Backgrounds

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

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forgery kit
Cosmic Dawn experiment (AU)	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Transmuted anatomy	Athletics, survival	One kind of artisan’s tools
Entertainer	Strength, dexterity, charisma	Musician	Acrobatics, performance	One type of musical instrument
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Flaming fist mercenary (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Smith’s tools
Ice fisher (HoF)	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Alert	Animal handling, athletics	Woodcarver’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
Purple dragon squire (HoF)	Strength, wisdom, charisma	Purple dragon rook	Animal handling, insight	Navigator’s tools
Rashemi wanderer (HoF)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Tough	Intimidation, perception	Cartographer’s tools
Soldier	Strength, dexterity, constitution	Savage attacker	Athletics, intimidation	One kind of gaming set
Vampire devotee (ABoH)	Strength, constitution, charisma	Vampire’s plaything	Persuasion, stealth	Cook’s utensils
Zhentarim mercenary (HoF)	Strength, dexterity charisma	Zhentarim ruffian	Intimidation, perception	Forgery kit

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.

Below are some feats I’d recommend for an oath of the holy paladin:

Origin feats

• Alert – Taking your turn earlier is always useful.
• Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial.
• Magic initiate – A couple of extra spells to cast gives you a bit more utility and you can repeat cast the 1st level spell.
• Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration. Great for altruistic paladins. 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.
• Shadowmoor hexer (LFL) – Hex is good on a high attack class. Paladins don’t always have loads to concentrate on and the extra damage to the target of your hex when they hit you is decent.
• 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.
• Transmuted anatomy (AU) – Faster speed is good for closing down enemies and improved constitution saving throws can help with your concentration.
• Vampire’s plaything (ABoH) – A free healing potion each day and the option for bonus action dash or disengage can help you move around a bit better.

General feats

• Abjuration adept (AU) – The oath of the Holy’s spell list is almost entirely abjuration spells. This means loads of temporary hit points to hand out when you cast them. Plus there’s some protective spells learnt too.
• Bloodlust (ABoH) – Some great self-healing in the midst of combat. You have some fairly good hit dice anyway and this makes a better use of hit dice than just using them during a rest, especially as you get a boost from your constitution too.
• 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.
• Fey touched – Misty step and another spell you can repeat cast plus free castings is pretty good.
• Great weapon master – More damage from your attacks is great if you intend to wield heavy weapons.
• Heavy armor master – Reducing damage from all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing attacks is great for a tank if you’re going to be wearing heavy armor anyway.
• 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.
• Magic connoisseur (AU) – A couple of extra spells known is handy and this opens up a bunch of options like blindness/deafness, shatter, suggestion and web. You’ll get a free casting of each spell you learn too.
• 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 for landing more attacks.
• Polearm master – Great for making more reaction attacks. You have quite an overburdened bonus action, but when it’s not already being used for something else, you can make bonus action attacks too.
• Sentinel – Another way to get more opportunity attacks. Will also keep enemies within your range and away from others.
• 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 for something else.
• Skill expert – If you want to get really good at a face skill, then this works great.
• Spell resistant (AU) – Great for some extra resilience through a damage resistance (maybe grab poison or fire) and some improved saving throws against magic.
• Zhentarim tactics (HoF) – Expertise in a skill (probably a face skill) and easy opportunity attacks is great for increased damage.

Weapons

Paladins can be capable with a wide range of weapon approaches, but primarily, you’ll be using strength and want to be using melee weapons. Having some thrown weapons available so you can make ranged strength attacks when you can’t reach melee is a good idea too.

If you want to go for harder hitting attacks, take a two handed weapon like a greatsword, if you want a bit more protection so you can last longer, then grab a shield. Dual wielding could be an option too, but I’d make sure one of the weapons has the nick weapon mastery so you can make an offhand attack without using your overburdened bonus action.

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

Strength tends to be better for weapon attacks and when you have heavy armor proficiency, means you can ignore dexterity entirely. 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.

Grab a shield if you want some extra durability at the expense of some damage output.

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