What is the Best Paladin Subclass in BG3?

Welcome to our Paladin subclass tier list for Baldur’s Gate 3. On this page, we will review all Paladin subclasses in BG3 and try to determine which is the strongest.

Paladins are durable melee fighters who are sworn to uphold an oath, granting them special powers. They have access to basic spellcasting, but not as much as full spellcasters like Clerics and Wizards. Their magic is primarily aimed at healing and supporting their allies, and powerful Smite spells that infuse their weapon attacks with extra damage.

The Paladin is a popular class due to its strong roleplay potential and its beginner-friendly nature – the class can wear Heavy Armour and use most weapons, and has access to spellcasting, so it’s one of the most forgiving classes in BG3 and one of the best for learning how things work.

Table of Contents:

Oath of Ancients Paladin

The Oath of Ancients Paladin channels the powers of nature to manipulate the battlefield and protect their allies.

They gain the Healing Radiance Bonus Action, a Channel Oath that restores the HP of the Paladin and their nearby allies, and again on the subsequent turn.

At Level 3, they unlock Nature’s Wrath, another Channel Oath that restrains an enemy. They can also attempt to turn nearby Fey and Fiends.

At Level 7, they get Aura of Warding. This strong passive feature halves the damage nearby enemies take from spells.

You’ll also automatically unlock some spells as you level up. Some of the highlights are:

• Ensnaring Strike – Your weapon attack gains 1d6 extra Piercing Damage and attempts to ensnare the target.
• Misty Step – Teleport to an unoccupied location within sight. Excellent for quickly jumping into combat or for safely retreating.
• Moonbeam – Summon a beam of moonlight that does Radiant damage in a small area. If you maintain Concentration, you can move the beam on future turns.

The Oath of Ancients is a solid choice for supporting your party, since you gain extra healing options and can passively protect your party from spell damage. Some of their spells also play nicely into their overall playstyle, increasing their mobility and their ability to crowd control opponents.

Learn More: BG3 Oath of Ancients Paladin

Oath of Devotion Paladin

The Oath of Devotion Paladin channel their honour and virtue into powers that deal extra damage to enemies and protect their friends.

Their first Channel Oath action is Holy Rebuke, a condition you can grant that deals 1d4 Radiant Damage to anyone who hits you or an ally with a melee attack.

At Level 3 you unlock another Channel Oath action, Sacred Weapon. It adds your Charisma Modifier to Attack Rolls made with the weapon,  making it more accurate. The weapon also emits a bright light. You can also turn nearby undead and fiends.

When you reach Level 7 you get Aura of Devotion which protects your nearby allies from being Charmed.

You unlock a range of spells as you level up. Some of the best ones are:

• Sanctuary – You or an ally cannot be directly targeted until you make an attack. You can still be hit by indirect attacks.
• Remove Curse – Remove a curse from a target.
• Beacon of Hope – Allies within 9 metres will always gain the maximum possible HP recovery when they are healed. They also get Advantage on Wisdom Saves and Death Saving Throws.

The Devotion Paladin offers some support potential, but the best thing about the subclass is the Sacred Weapon. Once you’ve increased your Charisma score to 20, this will give you a +5 bonus to your Attack Rolls when active, a huge accuracy buff.

Learn More: BG3 Oath of Devotion Paladin

Oath of the Crown Paladin

The Oath of the Crown is the tank of BG3. It gets extra damage resistance and abilities that allow it to taunt enemies and protect allies.

You gain Righteous Clarity at the start of the game, a Channel Oath Bonus Action that allows the target (you or an ally) to add their Proficency Bonus to their Attack Rolls. At the start of the game this will be a +2 bonus, but it’ll increase as you level up. This is a good buff, effectively a slightly weaker version of the Devotion Paladin’s Sacred Weapon.

At Level 3 you unlock Champion Challenge, which allows you to taunt nearby enemies. This is a soft-taunt, meaning they can still attack other characters. But they are strongly discouraged from doing so, by virtue of an imposed Disadvantage on rolls against a creature other than your Paladin. This taunt doesn’t require Concentration to maintain, making it reliable, easy to maintain and allows it to work seamlessly with all your spells.

You can also use Turn the Tide, another Bonus Action that allows you to heal all nearby allies.

At Level 7, you’ll unlock Divine Allegiance, an aura that allows you to spend a Reaction when a nearby ally takes damage, substituting your health for theirs.

Some of the best Oath of the Crown Spells are:

• Compelled Duel – Another soft taunt that compels an enemy to attack only you, giving it a Disadvantage against other targets. Can be used in conjunction with (or as a replacement for) Champion Challenge.
• Spiritual Weapon – Summon a spectral weapon that you can control. It deals Force Damage to enemies. This is an underrated spell because enemies will often waste their time attacking the weapon rather than the character who summoned it. The spectral weapon has Resistance to most damage types, so it’s quite good at tanking despite only having 20 HP.
• Spirit Guardians – One of the best spells in the game, in my opinion. Spirit Guardians surrounds your character with an aura that deals Radiant or Necrotic Damage to any enemy who touches it. The aura follows you, so you can run around and tag several enemies with it to deal a lot of AoE damage. The damage from this spell has a cooldown of 1 turn, so if you can maintain Concentration then you can repeat this move every turn. Just watch out for enemy opportunity attacks.

The Oath of the Crown Paladin makes for a great Paladin and does quite a lot to support the party, defending them from enemy attacks and making for a decent healer, too.

Learn More: BG3 Oath of the Crown Paladin

Oath of Vengeance Paladin

The Oath of Vengeance Paladin focuses on gaining extra combat buffs for themselves or their allies, and dealing bonus damage.

They start the game with Inquisitor’s Might, a Channel Oath Bonus Action that allows you or an ally to add their Charisma Modifier as bonus Radiant damage to their weapon attacks for 2 turns. These weapon attacks can also Daze their target, making them easier to hit and preventing them from taking Reactions.

At Level 3, they gain Abjure Enemy, a Channel Oath Action that can Frighten an enemy. They also unlock Vow of Emnity, a Channel Oath Bonus Action that gives you Advantage on Attack Rolls against a targeted enemy for 10 turns. This is excellent for focusing on a priority single-target.

At Level 7, you gain Resetless Avenger, allowing you to gain extra Movement Speed on your next turn when you hit an enemy with an Opportunity Attack.

As you level up, you gain a few extra subclass spells. Some of the best inclusions are:

• Hunter’s Mark – Mark a creature. Your attacks against them deal 1d6 extra Piercing Damage. If the target dies before the effect ends, you can reapply the Mark to a new target without spending another Spell Slot. It’s important to note that this requires continued Concentration, so it can clash with your Smite Spells.
• Hold Person – Completely paralyze a humanoid target. They cannot move or take any actions until they succeed a Saving Throw. While held, all melee Attack Rolls against them are guaranteed Critical Hits. Requires Concentration.
• Haste – Buff yourself or an ally with Haste, giving extra Movement Speed, an extra Action each turn, +2 to Armour Class and Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws. This is one of the most powerful buffs in the game, so having at least one spellcaster in the party who can cast it is always a good idea. Requires Concentration. When the spell ends, the beneficiary will become Lethargic for one turn, effectively skipping a turn.

The Vengeance Paladin offers less defensive buffs than the other Paladin subclasses, but are pretty good at boosting their own damage or an ally’s damage. There are two issues with this subclass that must be mentioned, though. Firstly, the Level 7 passive feature is quite disappointing – the other Paladin subclasses get an Aura that provides a buff to their whole party, while the Vengeance Paladin just gets a situational Movement boost. The powerful support and debuff spells mentioned above may be an asset to the subclass, but using them requires Concentration, which will clash with most Smite Spells in the game. New players often make a lot of mistakes when they try to cast a Smite spell while concentrating on another spell like Hold Person or Haste.

Learn More: BG3 Oath of Vengeance Paladin

Oathbreaker Paladin

You can opt to become an Oathbreaker Paladin if you broke your Paladin Oath. This is optional, but if you do so then your subclass will change to Oathbreaker. You cannot choose Oathbreaker in character creation – you must break your Oath with one of the other four Paladin variants.

Oathbreaker Paladins begin with Spiteful Suffering, a Channel Oath action that puts a debuff on an enemy for 3 turns. Attack Rolls against them have Advantage, and they will take Necrotic Damage each turn.

From Level 3, you can also use your Channel Oath powers to impose control over an Undead creature, making them follow you around and attack your enemies. You can also create a menacing aura that Frightens nearby enemies.

At Level 7, you gain Aura of Hate, a passive feature that adds your Charisma Modifier to the damage of all nearby Fiends and Undead. This really does mean all, as it applies to enemy fiends and undead, too. This passive can be awesome if you have a party that’s heavily built around Necromancy, but it can also make some fights significantly harder. The aura only has a 3 metre radius, so moving your Paladin away from the rest of your party in fights with many undead enemies is a potential solution.

Some of the Oathbreaker’s best spells are:

• Inflict Wounds – A melee Attack Roll that deals heavy Necrotic Damage if successful. Upcasting increases the damage.
• Darkness – Summon a cloud of darkness that Blinds and Heavily Obscures those within.
• Animate Dead – summon an undead zombie or skeleton from a corpse.

Learn More: BG3 Oathbreaker Paladin

The Paladin Subclass Tier List

Now that we’ve run through and reviewed all of the Paladin subclasses for BG3, we came up with this ranking.

In S-Tier are the Oath of Ancients and Oath of Devotion Paladins. The Oath of Ancients deserves to be here due to its extra healing potential and the passive Aura of Warding – halving the damage you and your party take from spells is one of the best passives in Baldur’s Gate 3. The Oath of Devotion is carried to S-Tier by Sacred Weapon. Adding a +5 bonus (Charisma-dependant) to your Attack Rolls supercharges your Paladin’s accuracy in combat and makes them a real force to be reckoned with.

In A-Tier we have the Oathbreaker and the Oath of the Crown Paladins. The Oathbreaker’s Spiteful Suffering debuff is a really strong malus that not only deals extra damage, but also makes the victim much easier for your whole party to hit. It’s great for quickly bringing down a dangerous target before they can cause too many problems. If you want to build a party around Necromancy, then keep your Oathbreaker close to your undead minions, as when fully levelled they’ll add +5 bonus damage to all of your undead allies’ attacks. This also applies to Fiends, which are less common but can be summoned with high-level magic. The Crown Paladin fulfils the classic tank role and does a great job of defending and healing your party.

In B-Tier is the Vengeance Paladin. This isn’t a bad subclass, but it has a lot of tough competition. It would’ve made it to A-Tier if it had a better Level 7 passive. But with this competition, giving some extra Movement Speed on a successful Opportunity Attack just doesn’t cut it. The heavy conflict between the natural Paladin playstyle of Smite Spells and the support spells unlocked by the Vengeance Paladin also can’t be ignored. Despite this, this remains a strong subclass that is a more than capable damage dealer, and if you already wanted to play the Vengeance Paladin, do not let this lower ranking deter you from doing so.