Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Just started back after about what 2 years lol-- questions about paladins

anceints vs devotion.

am i seeing something incorrectly?

1. zariel tieflings are hands down the best race due to free, enhanced searing blade casts

2. ancients gets LoH AND AOE pulsing heals that also HASTE my paladin? and at level 5 gets moonbeam....

---- why choose devotion over ancients?

so far ive made it to level 3 on each type-- went defense for +1 ac, using the demon guys greatsword from the start and it seems that ancients is far outclassing what devotion can do.

I've also felt that way. Can't forget mysty step. The two things oath of devotion has are sanctuary and sacred weapon.

Sanctuary makes it so that nobody can attack the target. That's /sometimes/ safer than healing, but your ally now can't attack without losing it.

Sacred weapon adds the spellcasting modifier to the weapon and I believe chance to hit? That +2-3 helps great weapon master's -5 penalty.
Edit: it also evades physical resistances as a magic weapon. This is strong against enemies that have both types of physical resistance.

Holy Rebuke is terrible. Turn the Unholy is situational.

If used optimally, oath of devotion can have higher damage (through improved hit chance). With bless, it's pretty much like the -5 penalty doesn't exist. That's a permanent +10 to base damage oath of the ancients needs to sacrifice hit chance for.

Some hardcore D&D players might know more than me, but half the spells are pretty good. Of course, ancients gets moonbeam for guaranteed ranged damage and can heal better.

Dev paladin casts Sanctuary on SH, who casts Spirit guardians, clicks heels of Boots of speed and simply runs amok.

Sure, Ancients are a bit more mobile, have ranged ensnaring smite, better healing and access to AoE. But undead usually feature more than fiends; we haven't seen full utility of Divine sense/Turn unholy in EA. Sacred weapon is great choice for when moving into position.

Ancients edge Devotion, but I felt the latter was plenty powerful enough.

Just break that oath and know true power 😂 😈

If you look though normal DnD ranking, you see that Oath of Devotion is usually ranked high above Oath of Ancients. Maybe Larian changed something considerable here? A Paladin generally is restricted in several aspects, best in melee against single targets and with a high damage burst but not very good for longer sustained damage. It sounds to me that Oath of Devotion is better suited for a classical Paladin gameplay overall and in the longer run.