How to Play a Paladin in D&D 5e: Smites, Auras, and Oaths

Why play a Paladin?

Paladins are the party's anchor. They have heavy armor and shield, half-caster spell slots, the strongest single-attack burst in the game (Divine Smite), saving-throw auras that buff the whole party, and the moral roleplay vehicle of an Oath.

Three reasons to pick one. You want melee with magic. You want to play a knight with a code. You want the satisfaction of crit-smiting the lich for 60 damage in a single attack.

Divine Smite — the headline ability

When you hit with a melee weapon attack you can spend a spell slot to add 2d8 radiant damage (3d8 against fiends and undead) per spell level, up to 5d8. A 5th-level Paladin with two 2nd-level slots can deliver two attacks at +3d8 each — that's roughly +13 damage per smite.

Smite scales. At level 5 with Extra Attack, you get two attacks per turn; smite the second one only if the first hits crit. Crit-smiting doubles the smite dice — a 4th-level slot smite crit is 8d8 + 8d8 = ~72 damage in one hit.

Save smite slots for the boss. Mooks die to a normal attack.

Picking your Oath

Oath of Devotion: the classic paladin. Channel Divinity grants +CHA to attack rolls, Sacred Weapon turns your weapon into +CHA bonus magic for a minute.

Oath of Vengeance: the alpha-striker. Channel Divinity gives advantage on every attack against one target for a minute. Picks one boss and deletes it.

Oath of Ancients: the resilient paladin. Aura at level 7 gives every ally within 10 ft resistance to spell damage. Fey/druid-flavored.

Oath of Conquest (Xanathar's): the debuff paladin. Frightened enemies can't move and their attacks are at disadvantage. Pair with Cause Fear cantrip and the boss is paralyzed by terror.

Oath of Glory, Watchers, Crown, Redemption — all valid, choose by flavour as much as mechanics.

Auras: the support layer

At level 6 every Paladin gains the Aura of Protection. Every ally within 10 ft of you adds your CHA modifier to every saving throw. With CHA 20, that's +5 to every save your party rolls.

Aura of Protection is the single most powerful party-wide buff in the game. It's why a Paladin and a Sorcerer/Wizard caster team plays so well — the casters cease to lose concentration.

At level 10, Aura of Courage: immunity to frightened for everyone in the aura.

At level 18, the aura's range expands to 30 ft. By tier 4, you're a walking buff zone.

Ability scores

Strength is your attack stat (or Dexterity if you're going dex-paladin with a finesse weapon — viable but suboptimal). Start at 16.

Charisma is your spell save DC, your aura value, and your social skill. Push to 20 by level 8.

Constitution 14 minimum.

Dump Wis / Int — auras cover the Wis-save problem and you're not an Int caster.

The crit-fishing build

Level 1: take a great-weapon-fighter style and a longsword.

Level 2: spell slots. Bless and Heroism are your level-1 picks.

Level 3: pick Vengeance for the advantage Channel Divinity.

Level 4: ASI. Take Great Weapon Master (-5/+10) or Polearm Master (bonus action attack with the haft).

Level 5: Extra Attack. Now you can smite the second attack only if the first crits.

Level 6: Aura of Protection.

Level 7: Oath of Vengeance gets Relentless Avenger.

Level 8: ASI — CHA to 20 or take a feat like Polearm Master if you skipped it.

Level 11: Improved Divine Smite. +1d8 radiant on every melee hit for free.

Nova combo: how to delete a boss

1. Open with Channel Divinity (Vow of Enmity) — advantage on every attack against the boss for a minute.
2. Cast Bless as a bonus action — +1d4 to attacks.
3. Attack. With advantage and Bless you'll hit most rounds. If you hit, smite at 2nd-level slot for 3d8.
4. If your first attack crits, smite for 6d8 (crit doubles the dice).
5. Second attack: smite at slot level again. By round 2 of a tier-2 boss fight you've delivered 60–100 radiant damage.

Add Polearm Master and you get a third attack as a bonus action (haft strike), which is another smite candidate.