The aura would be interesting to rp. Anyone within ten feet of you just feels the pressure from your aura, even if you're not doing anything. Although at level 10 you get an aura that prevents the frightened condition for you and friendly creatures within range. So imagine someone you consider your ally not feeling anything, but they suddenly turn on you, and the aura of courage no longer protects them. That's 0-10 instantly.
I love that!!! It can be such a great moment. Consider a tense meeting with a tribal leader or cult or something and in comes the conquest Paladin and everything gets scary!!! The pressure could cause some dangerous reactions some over reactions and everyone on high alert. It’s rp gold if you ask me
@@TheSinisterheroes I kind of want to do an inquisitor or justiciar type. Maybe mix in three levels of inquisitive rogue or something. The black knight has come to ensure you've paid your dues, aren't harboring criminals, and say your pledge of allegiance to the king every day.
That works so well. Especially considering you’ll get that darth Vader walking into a room affect with the aura. It works so well because paladins have this innate authority to them.
I DMed for a dragonborn Conquest paladin. He was initially Devotion. However, then Conquest came out and the entire campaign was his quest to conquer Q'barra anyway, so I let him swap. He loved it and it was very powerful. He'd lock down groups of creatures, with his Channel Divinity in one battle, his Dragon Fear in another, and he almost exclusively saved his slots for smiting. We started that game at 3rd level and ended it after reaching 20 and acquiring several Epic Boons.
Once you get the aura ability, I would cast as many fears as I could. I LOVED playing a conquest Paladin. I once got a dragon feared right and then the dm tried to fly away and attack the casters and it couldn’t there was this like moment when everyone realized how strong it was and the party just went insane. It was an awesome moment. That’s very cool of you to let him swap his subclass. But going from devotion to conquest is like 2 totally different ways of life.
The one sentence that embodies this subclass in its entirety is this: "Might makes right." The mightiest shall rule and the weaker shall obey or be destroyed. If i am not the mightier than i do not deserve to rule until I've grown strong enough to beat them, or died trying. Such is the way of conquest.
I think the +10 is good if you want to land that wrathful smite on a big enemy and don't have many smaller ones to control. You don't have to go and fear instantly. You can target the big guy, and have the +10 as insurance. And if you manage to hit them without using it so much the better. You can then mass fear nex turn.
I feel like this could really be so good in social/intrigue campaigns AND in a more standard dungeon-crawly campaign and still have so much flavor and RP potential in both. I'm really thinking about playing this my next campaign
Let me just say the first time you catch someone in a fear spell you are gonna feel amazing!!!. You get everything your very strong you have high survivability, high damage. Your a charisma class so you can rp well. It’s a very hard thing to not chose.
So happy you talk about being a Charisma-first spellcaster as a Conquest Paladin. Many folks just look at Paladins as Strength-heavy smite-bots and nothing else. My Conquest Paladin rarely used smites at all, frankly. Not only does leaning CHA build into the fear synergy, but when you play at 20 CHA, so much more of the paladin playbook opens up to you. You can firmly take charge as the party face. Aura of Protection becomes an amazing passive support skill. Being more open to using your slots for spellcasting expands a world of useful tools in your kit, like Bless, Aid, Dispel Magic, Circle of Power, Find Greater Steed, and Crusader's Mantle. The boost in spellcasting also helps you better overcome obstacles that can't be solved through fear. It makes out-of-combat Persuasion/Intimidation better, as well as making Command, Hold Person, Spiritual Weapon, Compelled Duel, Dominate Person, and Bestow Curse far more effective. Many folks play Paladins like Fighters that have lower damage floors and higher ceilings. I find that Conquest leads you into Charisma and acting as a tanky controller/support. Toss on the Defensive fighting style, grab a shield and plate armor, and throw Inspiring Leader to buff yourself and the party. You're a nightmare of a target to strike down, and your casting and auras mean that ignoring you is dangerous as well. Really want to be a pain? Toss on two levels of Hexblade Warlock to give you Eldritch Blast as a ranged option, the CHA weapon boost of Hex Warrior, the Hex and Shield spells, Hexblade's Curse, and a pair of invocations for your trouble. Devil's Sight, Agonizing Blast, Repelling Blast/Grasp of Hadar, Mask of Many Faces... Really fun options that open your character concept and options up even more.
Smites are good but there not the end all be all. I am really glad you agree with me on this. Once you really start breaking off from all my spell slots are for smites, you can really customize your character. Your spells from your domain list are cool. FEAR!!!! Is my favorite condition!!! Everyone goes through that initial damage addiction that the Paladin provides, once you get passed that and start broadening your spell slot usage you get to see a lot more of the Paladin experience.
I'm making a similar build for my first time playing. But I'm going with 6 levels of Undead Warlock instead of Hexblade. I'll take pact of the tome for shillelagh, thorn whip and green flame blade. That way I can still hit with charisma and I can pull them into my aura. For invocations I was thinking agonizing blast, cloak of flies and devils sight (going as V Human for xbow expert). Since the campain is supposed to go to 20 I'll finish with 6 levels of Lore Bard for cutting words, magical secrets and higher spell slots. I'll mostly use eldritch blast within 5 feet. Have spiritual guardians up so when my target starts its turn near me it takes an average of 20+ damage. I'll save melee attacks for when I want to smite. Usually when an ally cast Hold monster/person.
@@nathans.3618 that is an amazing build. i really hope you get to see it to full fruition. level 20 campaigns are hard to come by but they are absolutely amazing !!! you will chase that dragon for ever !!!
I'm playing an Oath of Conquest Paladin of Asmodeus in a game. Love all of the fear based abilities. I've actually prioritized Char over Str to lean into it.
That’s the way I played it I was not disappointed!!! The later levels it really pays off. Depending on how high level you get it might be worth trying to find a belt of giants strength just so you can save your asi for charisma
When it comes to this, it can also make for really intimidating bbeg. " his might cleaves the fields of battle to display his dominance, he cleaves in words to make wise leaders kneel. " a example of this trait is shao khan from mortal kombat.
Definitely digging the theme of this class. My concept is a Dragonborn former pirate. More chaotic but uses fear and intimidation to get what he wants. Not a murderer per se but definitely not nice.
I was thinking about the no murder recently. Though it is a strange concept in dnd lol. It makes sense for a conquest Paladin. Ok so hear me out, if you let a few humanoids live they will spread the fear of you through out there friends and families. Which could force a certain response. If you do not want to suffer like they have suffered you follow my orders. Which kinda really works with the tenants of the conquest paladin.
@@TheSinisterheroes Exactly. fits with pirate theme too. You give me what I want and you'll live. Cross me and suffer severe consequences. Could actually save lives and void conflict, just in a way that most paladins would not do.
Yeah and in fact. By doing so your actions seem to be magnetic because it’s sooo different and people will always have questions as to why you would do such a thing. I dig it man
It's Darth Vader. I like to add a multiclass warlock undead patron and have the lich emperor granting power. Eldritch blast grasp of Hadar to force pull and repelling blast to force push. Is fun.
The only very big BUT. This subclass can't do anything against enemies who are immune to fright. This greatly affects your ability to do anything in battle. I'm not talking about bosses at all.
Very good catch!!!, this is where the design of the class stands out. Creatures that are usually immune to fright usually a lot of undead, take heavy dmg from smites. so the loss of the fear abilities sucks in those scenarios, you are far from useless. the balance of the class steps up very well. You are always a strong presence as a Paladin. One of the points of this video is to try and offer the mindset of using your spell slots for other things than smites, but you are totally right. This subclass takes a big hit when everyone is frightened immune. Knowing the campaign your in and discussing who you want you character to be with your dm will circumvent those problems.
These are the times you gotta lean on your party. It very much is something to be mindful of in your game setting. Being a heavy plate wearing class (regardless of subclass) a paladin will likely also be a little diminished in a water based setting as well. Sinking like a rock and all that 😅. Can't expect perfection
I really wanna play a White Dragonborn Conquest Paladin of Auril. The Tenets are so perfect in their wording and even with Armor of Agathys. White DB adds the bulk and apperance fitting to it as well in my mind. They would be a party leader, but probably more in an evil campaign, countering Rime of the Frostmaiden heroes for example or running Tomb of Annihilation to find the Ring of Winter. Can't see that character being a good one, tho. Also Blessed Warrior with Sacred Flame and Thaumaturgy. That latter has some great effects perfect for a scary paladin: - Your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal for 1 minute. - You cause harmless tremors in the ground for 1 minute. - You cause flames to flicker, brighten, dim, or change color for 1 minute. They can keep all three effects up at the same time too. Just imagine them standing in front of some group of soon-to-be enemies, growling a speech at them, all within their aura of fear, while the ground shakes, all torches are dimmed and nothing else can be heard. x3
Thaumaturgy is one of my favorite cantrips. It’s so great just for showing off or trying to draw attention. I know a lot of DM’s that would give you advantage on rolls cus of using it. I love to use it on bards. Using it in taverns to add a little showman ship to a story or something. Makes a great distraction putting all eyes on you!
@@TheSinisterheroes Thaumaturgy and Prestidigitation are both great roleplay cantrips for all sorts of distractions! Not good for min/max, but awesome for the rest of creative players for sure!
Thankfully my min maxing has a minimum. I think it’s cool that people enjoy that and it’s not an issue for me that people are really into it. I want to be useful in combat and not a waste, but I don’t care to much about min maxing. Side note ever notice how min maxing never focuses on spell casters upping there spell save dc? Like it’s weird right? It’s almost always the last thing. Like they’ll grab feats before hitting 20 on int wis or cha.
I'm building a Grung conquest pally for our next game. Conquest fits so well with the fashy, slaver culture of the grung. I'm also flavoring the fear effects as a mind altering toxin the grung is secreting (and also explaining why an angry little frog man is so good at persuading and intimidating people with his high CHA.) 🐸
I think that’s real smooth using the character lore to make sense out of spells. That’s a smart play. I gotta admit the Grung are a cool species. It hurts my heart how many entities are poison immune and resistant.
@@TheSinisterheroes yeah, I think I'm going to really lean into it and homebrew poisonous skin to a fear effect after the paladin takes his oath. Change the saving throw to wisdom and limit the weapon attack to #/day=PB regained on long rest to avoid OP. Maybe regain on short rest, but give up poison immunity to balance. 🤷♂️
I loved playing conquest paladin for my first ever dnd session, and I also want to play another right away! My idea was to rp the same character in the next campaign, but as warlock: undead. A fun multiclass opportunity, too
They do synergies really well. I loved being a conquest Paladin. Hey if your dm is cool with it, I have played games where they continued from a previous one shot or campaign. Maybe that’s in your future. I have a few characters like that, that I wanna keep putting into new campaigns.
My frist paladin was assmiar fallen vampire Paladin conquest 19 Warlock feind 1 It was very powerful it fought dragons in the air and body them. Burned cultists and moved political for the party. She was are partys head. She killed as many possible to protect the party. She fought with her hands, wepans, spells,and smite
That’s intense. You are of the very select few that ever get to that high level of play. Did she start out as a vampire or did it happen throughout the story? I happen to love the fallen aasimar.
@@TheSinisterheroes I did most of the heavy lifting for fighting the dragons in the air. I most forced them down to the ground and then my party hit with all their might.
Ok here is my definitive character concept for the curse of strad campaign (multi-classing undecided but still possible) so my character's name is Kai harbinger a Lawful Evil male Dhampir conquest paladin who has a wife (Sarah harbinger) and daughter (Lilith harbinger aka "Lilly") who he loves immensely and prioritizes the safety and happiness of himself and his family above all else and does this by swearing loyalty to strad and basically serves as a governor of one of the villages for strad and strad allowed Kai to refuse any order that ends up potentially harming his family (mostly as a sign of respect for my character's loyalty) so as a result both of them have a weird form of respect for another but they are both aware that their agreement is not concrete and are both aware that they are each willing to stab each other in the back depending on the situation Kai's God is Bane God of tyranny and while his rules and fair for the most part such as no murdering, stealing, necromancy etc and the open worship to merkil and Bhaal being out right forbidden(this is mostly an attempt to weaken these two Gods and potentially strengthen his own) but the ones regarding the interactions of his family and the punishments of all rule breaking (usually death) leaves the villagers uncomfortable at best PS sorry for the long comment had a lot to talk about
It is a strong class and for curse of Strahd paladins really make a big impact. Just make sure that your dm is cool with you having that kind of political power in game.
It also can be a normal s.p marine. As 40k fan this class very good match in 40k. As the s.p.m are zealous knight of a God amperor who the purpose is to conquer all the galaxy for glory of man and kill every servant of dark God's and aliens . Same for c.s s.p but they do it for dark God's
I don't like the oath of conquest tenets. But I love the playstyle. So what I did was use the homebrew oath of love tenets and turned my PC into a weird yandere sort of dealio.
Oath of love ?? Can’t say I would have ever known that even exists. I don’t really look at a lot of home brew. Could you copy paste them I’d love to see them. Cus maybe I can see what you mean. I think the aura they get would work by being like intimidating when your next to a massive crush. In truth I have no idea what that build is like
I am currently playing a Conquest Paladin. I am running him as a guy who has read the Evil Overlord List. Yes, I will crush any resistance, but as I build my power, I am earning respect as well and fear. I dont want people to feel the need to rise up and fight me. I understand that a strong empire needs a stable foundation. So yes, I will be brutal when I need to be, and everyone knows it, sees it, but I will ALWAYS make sure people choose to not make me do it to them. Its being very fun having a few "Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do abou....Oh...It's you....ummm....hey, so about this whole "fighting" thing...can we just forget about all that?"
@@TheSinisterheroes And Shepherds we shall be For Thee my Lord, for Thee Power hath descended forth from Thy hand Our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. I'm prepping for a conquest paladin multi class. But might go shadow sorcerer. Still fun imagery
@@TheSinisterheroes it's a bit of a mess. But the current build schematic is to build like this: 1 lvl fighter 6 lvl undead patron warlock 8 oath of conquest paladin The DM is both equal measures restrictive and permissive so he's opened a real of can of worms for oddball characters to show up in his campaign
I know I’m rather late to the party but considering how this paladin may be inclined towards spell-casting, what if we take a dip into Undead Warlock which grants a feature to try and inflict frightened on every hit just in case something decides to feel brave Couple that with Pact of the Blade to give yourself a weapon with reach (pretty sure it can do that) and you might be able to really demoralize some enemies as they are always just out of reach from hitting back
Oh you are right on time! Your right with multiclassing into undead for that sweet extra fear. It definitely complements the Paladin. In fact a lot of the warlock subclasses fit really well with the Paladin. Pact of the blade can create a weapon with reach, most often hexblades would use glaives for that circumstance. The combination of reach weapon and the fear aura gives you alot of power against an enemy that can’t get close enough to hit you and can’t run out of your reach.
You talked about combining it with other partymembers which use fear spells and the like. But your aura just works for enemies who are afraid of you not your party. So where is the synergy?
I apologize if i was unclear about what i meant but i definitely should of used examples. like say you have someone feared, thats a perfect time for someone to put a cloud of daggers on someone, or for any concentration related area damage spell, its a great way people out reach a monster. it is also a great way to just have someone frozen in a place unable to hurt anyone else. one of the reasons i love wrathful smite is 1st its a level 1 spell slot, 2 it takes an action to try and break out of it. i have caught a dragon with it, adult , i got super lucky i admit, but for one round we made it work very very well to our advantage. slap that on and literally back up they have disadvantage, and stay around them in range.
What class are you originally?? Remember paladins power comes from there oath, not a deity. Maybe swearing the oath in the deity’s name. Something along of the lines of feeling that as his champion it is there duty to bring honor in there name, so you swear the oath of conquest, to pay homage to the honor of being there champion? Let me know if you do, I’d love to see if there was any kind of rp circumstance that happened along side it. This is the kind of reason I would multiclass, not because your trying to min max but because the story gave you this opportunity to evolve.
@TheSinisterheroes I'm currently a draconic sorcerer and wanted to still stay in the same vein of magic but add some of the weapons aspect since its the God of War. Part of becoming his champion is I have to wage war and spill blood in his name so I was thinking about incorporating that into my oath as a paladin. Talking about the min maxing I thought about fighter since I'd get the action surge but I feel like conquest paladin fits the rope play aspect of the God of Wars champion
@TheSinisterheroes I also had to pass a series of con saves to get to him through the thunderous booms of him forging weapons. I was the only one in the party to not fall at the first strike let alone make it to him so I was the only one deemed worthy giving my character a bit of a complex.
I would rather go with conquest if I was you cus at worst you could always quicken spell green flame blade. Get a attacks and also smite so your damage would be through the roof.
I played a conquest pally to level 20 I went straight through and I felt great the whole time. This is the reason why you see everyone multiclass into warlock. It works and yes it is strong. Though They should just give you a feat that makes you attack with your spell casting modifier. It really diminishes the warlock on its own. And the warlock is just my favorite so I am super possessive about it.
@@TheSinisterheroes Honestly, I get that. I feel the multiclass does have some roleplay potential and not just as a "power build" but it really is a problem that most people look at Warlock as the "multi class dip" instead of just playing the class outright for it's Invocations and own roleplay flavor. Honestly, the idea for the multiclass came about wanting to play an older Paladin with less then scrupulous morals wanting to compensate his aging with an unnatural pact, and use it to gain the prestige, power, and control he couldn't achieve in his youth. Same concept could be played straight 20 of course.
I love the idea of a Paladin losing themselves and being forced into a pact to make the right move. It’s a great story it should be explored. It misses an awesome story when it’s just yeah it just happened and I am here now. This is again my opinion. I wouldn’t stop someone from multiclassing just I really wish the characters carried more weight than the numbers portion. Again I am a role player first so my opinion is biased towards it.
Absolutely that works!!! Orc s do have a profound love for conquest. It fits really well. I really love the lore of dungeons and dragons so when ever I make a character I dive into the lore of the race to really find out who they are and add my own special self to it
Can someone recommend me a starting stat distribution for a level 2 conquest paladin with a charisma focus and wielding a glaive? I typically play tanks so I care more about the AC than super high damage output. General game plan is to be CC'ing everything. Also focus on psychic and scornful rebuke. New to DnD, for my campaign, I am planning on playing mostly around this fear attribute and wanting to be tanky.
There are a few things to consider. Mainly what race were you thinking ? Are Tasha’s rules in effect? How far ahead will you be going level wise? The main thing is your going to be attacking a lot so your game plan is to eventually push that to at least a 4. Focus charisma and get that to a 5 so you can max that scornful rebuke and get your fear spell save up fast. I’d try and get your dex or str up to 3 and if you can manage it push that sweet charisma up to that, let everything else lag behind as when you level up higher your charisma will substitute the lack in saving throws
@@TheSinisterheroes I wasn't too sure on race but to my knowledge variant human is pretty good for this class? We will be playing with Tasha's rules in effect, starting at level 2 without any particular end in sight. Will prob be a long running series. Ideally I'd like to run glaive for combination of fear + reach. Not sure if that'd be more dependent on dex or str. As for a 4 in focus, could I also get a little more clarity on that? Sorry, trying to learn 😅
@@TheSinisterheroes Okay thanks! So should I be forgoing feats and prioritizing asi on charisma? And character creation feels most overwhelming right now, should I be taking particular masteries/proficiencies/expertise? I imagine I need a weapon mastery for the glaives and then something like persuasion would be good for this character. Not sure what else would be worth noting.
