Im currently playing a redemption paladin for my buddies new game. She is an alcoholic, gambling addict who's embarrassing escapades alienated her from her family. Now she wanders the world seeking redemption for her failings. And forgiving others for theirs. Its fun being a deeply flawed character, because flaws make you relatable.
I like the redemption paladin. The aura is better than the crown’s aura because of the larger range. It’s easier for a cleric to focus on healing the paladin instead of trying to heal everyone with that aura.
I think a fun flavor twist to put on the oath of redemption. And that's to add a splash of martyrdom to the mix. Maybe you were sentenced to death only for a mysterious masked figure to appear to you in your cell, offering to take your place if you take theirs. Give you a chance to earn your redemption through penance and sacrifice. You accept, wishing to avoid death. And the figure gives you his mask, taking on your appearance as you take his. I think a fundamentally lawful take on a very chaotic good subclass, viewing redemption as something gained from pain/punishment. Giving you some fun chances to play into the innate hypocrisy of the damaging channel divinity.
I think that’s a great background. It seems like it works it’s self out easily. You could easily make this character an aasimar as the divine presence now occupies the host body in a way. There is an easy transition to being a folk hero as your character may have been fighting for the righteous path for some time and garnered a reputation. I like it, it is easy to work into any campaign, you can easily make a character that is easy to root for. I like it. The vulnerability because the character has done wrong and is trying to right that wrong is very easy to resonate with. Just being someone who finally has a second chance and is trying feels good.
Here is a tip for Redemption Paladin, when i play Paladin i always act like i am biggest precious on the world but it was problem so i solved that then i listen always orthodox or catholic chants while we are roleplaying and trying to act like saint who obeys the seven holy virtues.
@@TheSinisterheroes Also call everyone like Brothers and Sisters, don't act like World is immorthal, just try to guide people the after death, the big prize of heaven and even destroying demons pray for them.
The capstone ability almost feels like you're encouraged to be more beneficial with your turns rather than focus solely on just striking. You can still provide support through your spells, and other sources. I see the effect ending as more of a "You, I fight you to the death because it is necessary." If his allies attack you, they still take the damage, and if they attack your allies, you can simply refute the damage, yes Paladins are all about blowing through their spell slot to divine their smites into anything and everything, but this subclass provides an alternative playstyle to that. Once a paladin has no slots left, you're only really left with improved divine smite and extra attack to dish out not nearly as much damage. What I'm more curious about is to what extent could you magically take someone's damage? The Wizard's Overchannel ability eventually causes the wizard to take necrotic damage, could you take it in his stead? It doesn't specify beyond "when they take damage"
This is also the only other version of a health tank that I've seen, besides the barbarian, of course. You can get a Hill Dwarf with the Tough Feat for an extra 60 to your health pool, paired with the extra 100 from 20 Con at lvl 20, with high saving throws from Aura of Protection, could even pick up the Shield Master feat and effectively provide your ENTIRE health pool to the whole party in Bursts when necessary, on top of having Resistance for the times they do hit you, with the retaliation damage being a benefit as well. By increasing your health pool in as many ways as you can, you effectively increase the half health threshold by quite a bit. Making your Half health an average for quite a few characters if you are out of resources
That’s a very intense focused build. The cool thing about it is it’s not only a unique thing to see in game, but the role play implications of who your character is. I mean what a beast to continue fighting to the bitter end with such gruesome punishment to a champion like a Paladin. It speaks to a hero who holds the line not just for them selves but for the people they care fore. It can speak volumes if you take some of that in combat survivability to role play.
@TheSinisterheroes the only focus was health, any other bonus came down to preserving that health as much as feasible. You have an ability to passively regain health, this extends the effectiveness of your Lay on Hands for others, you can actively enable enemies to attack you with opportunity to get your friends out of places easier, among other things. I've roleplayed one as a Flagellant since I have a fascination with the game Darkest Dungeon and I essentially fixate on Repenting for others through pain and suffering, in an attempt to show them the error of their ways
You can even consider picking up some fighting styles not commonly used to really make this almost exclusive tank/ support shine. Protection if you want to preserve your health, I'm pretty sure Paladin's get Interception as well for similar reasons. You could even pick up Blessed Warrior and get some Cleric Cantrips for some beneficial things to provide passively, like Guidance on top of Emisary of peace or other checks.
I'm the kind of person who saw Abjuration for the Wizard and went, "Cool, I can provide a buffer of This Ward health to my allies" But when I found this absolute monster... it gave me some ideas
Sleep is a very good Spell. A build prioritizing HP will make use of Protective Spirit, proc while still retaining a healthy amount of HP. Chef feat can provide even further buffers to HP if taken the bonus action each turn to eat THP treats, make sure to cook a lot. I see this Paladin also carrying Ball Bearings, Holy Water, & Oil for cooking, slippery floors, lubricating door hinges, keeping steel rust resistant. Variant Human starting with Tavern Brawler with the Background Feature: Strike of the Giants (Storm). -Tavern Brawler (V.Human) -Strike of the Giants (Storm) -Soul of the Storm Giant -Chef After drinking and struggling at the Tavern, you swore to redeem yourself. You were always a good improviser, a bit of the wise Storm Giant inside. With the Storm Giant Feat, the non-damaging aura could actually meaningfully deter your foes from reaching your allies by cutting their Speed in half, which works now & with the 20th subclass feature. You could also Grapple as a bonus action when doing unarmed strikes or improvised attacks, which can be items like Acid, Holy Water, Oil, & Alchemist Fire or simply improvised attacks.
@@TheSinisterheroes I saw the last feature and as long as you haven't attacked, casted a spell, or dealt damage to a creature, that feature remains online for that creature. Thats's everyone and it's even online against your allies, letting you sit in a Meteor Swarm, relatively safely, when you're in the thick of things. I built it as soon as watching your video. Soul of the Storm Giant was always in the back of my mind because it's cool but non-damaging. I play semi-optimized because I priotize fun and meaningful story over min-maxing or powergaming.
@@TheSinisterheroes Also just realized, Grapple is considered an "attack." But you can always use oil on the floor, treat it like the Grease Spell. Or better yet, learn Grease through feats. Grease is strong.
I personaly disagree HEAVILY on your stance on redemption capstone being bad. Pairing it with all its previous features ensure that you will last a long time in the front lines. Especially if paired with another frontliner (like a barbarian). You are continuously reducing all the damage you're taking along with the continual healing at half hp. You essentially have a 50% HP increase while at half health with this capstone. Basically, it's a free bear totem without the drawback of no spellcasting. And just because you lose this effect while doing a hostile action on a creature isn't that bad. Paladins are primarily single target attackers and dont do much AOE. So, while you go 1v1 with an enemy, all the surrounding minions will be doing half damage to you (assuming they even hit you). And if they hit someone else, you react by giving some divine retribution. Also, the capstone hurts the enemy just by hitting you. So any large amount of damage you take is delt back at half power. Also, acknowledging you won't always be the first in initiative and ambushes exists. Being able to prevent half the damage you get from a first turn meteor swarm by half is nothing to scoff at. And this capstone destroys creatures with minion rules if they land 1 attack against you and just die right there. ----------- I guess the TLDR is this subclasses' capstone is pretty useful. Pair this with the tough feat, the aid spell if there's another caster with it, and any other forms of temp HP through spells/class abilities with a good focus on con. You are looking at one tanky beast that can go 1 on 1 with minimal poke damage glagainst you being minimal and punished.
I never considered that as an option. Thats really something I would have never noticed. Considering your perspective I gotta say you are right. Full on really insightful ideas on how to make the subclass ability better than I thought it could be. You do need to be the kind of player that really connects with that style of gameplay which fits in perfectly with the redemption subclass.
As I have said before I don't personally believe that oaths are inherently good or evil but in the case of redemption this is an inherently good concept and unfortunately you can't play an evil character with this subclass since redemption is just such a positive thing and an excellent example of a redemption paladin in my opinion is endeavor from my hero academia if you are aware of this anime and have watched the entirety of the show as of writing this comment you can see why he is such a good representation of a redemption paladin I'm not going to get into why because of massive spoilers but I think everyone gets the concept of everything I have been saying though so I'm not worried about it
I believe so. To be honest it has kefka on it and that means the world to me lol. My big brother was into king diamond back in the day. Never really my thing but he inspired a lot of the bands that I love. So respect where it’s due
@@TheSinisterheroes also hobgoblin who cuts off the middle finger of every elf he finds not because he hates elves just cause he thinks he's a better archer