2024 PHB Character Changes, Pt. 2
It's Sort Of Fighting Time: Paladin, Ranger, Melee Warlock
I posted Part 1 of this series last week. Now that I am done with all of my regular doctor follow ups for 2024 and figured out the latest bureaucratic mishap (bureaucracy is a DC 20 challenge), we’re going to look at three different classes who play a part (or mostly) martial role along with having some spellcasting. I feel like this is the best transition to get into full spellcasters.
As a reminder, here are the assumptions I am working with:
Characters get to use the following magic items:
Level 1-4: 1 Uncommon and 1 Common
Level 5-10: Up to 3 Rare & Uncommon combined, more common
Level 11-16: Up to 6 Very Rare, Rare, and Uncommon combined
Level 17-20: Up to 10 items of any rarity.
All characters get a custom background with an origin feat, two skills, and a tool of their choice along with allocating ability scores. No character could use the limited starting backgrounds printed in the book. Also, I want to keep characters who have fun backgrounds like “Self Described Goblin Noble” and “Tourist Trap Operator”
The restrictions of "Exotic" languages and table of more common languages don’t make sense for the Forgotten Realms, where these characters are from. In the Forgotten Realms, Halfling is a Rare language restricted to Halfling cluture, not one of the world’s more common languages. As someone who studied sociololinguistics in graduate school, it’s clear that a game designer thought of a d12 table instead of what makes sense for the worlds of WotC’s published adventures over the last 10 years.
Paladin
One of the classes inspiring the most hot takes and frustration. I’ve repeated my feelings that divine smite didn’t need to be limited plenty of times already.
Going through several of my martial characters in Part 1, one trend is starting to stand out to me. In a very low magic game, the average of 9 damage from a 1st level divine smite may really stand out. A third level divine smite is an average of 18 extra damage, fun but not exactly efficient for a 3rd level spell slot. In games with more magic, this damage stands out even less. Meanwhile, sustained damage turn over turn climbs with extra attacks from the Nick property and Dual Wielder feat or new Great Weapon Master not penalizing accuracy. One thing to note is that Improved Divine Smite plus new access to the two weapon fighting style makes Paladins a potential sustained damage master if they dual wield.
Paladins, who may be the most traditional sword and board class, may feel a lot of damage FOMO if they stay in their traditional tanky role. As we’ll see when I talk about clerics and druids next and certain bards in Part 4, the damage output for support classes dropped significantly without certain narrow modifications. However, the tanky paladin can still frustrate the DM by being hard to kill and making everyone else harder to kill.
Other new paladin features are more situational / game dependent. Lay on Hands as a bonus action can be great if an ally gets dropped to 0 hit points or the DM uses lots of poison (or lots of conditions at level 15+). Find steed for free is great for some players’ fantasy but I asked my home game DM for any alternate feature because I a incredibly cumbersome with mounted combat. Abjure foes is great if your paladin has a weaker channel divinity.
I haven’t gone through all the spell changes yet. So far, only a few stand out:
Divine favor no longer takes concentration. Once you get a second attack, 1d4 per round can add up over 2-3 round of a fight. For me, I think I can accept this as a trade for divine smite from an efficiency / game mechanics perspective. Howeve, not being able to easily smite when I roll a critical hit feels bad.
Some players are very drawn to prayer of healing. In my games as a DM, there’s rarely if ever a benefit to using this as opposed to taking a short rest. In level 11-20 games where there is a penalty for taking an hour to rest, like a harder boss fight, a second level spell slot is far too low of a cost to offset the penalty.
Laucian
Half-Elf Glory Paladin 16
Laucian helped elves and other non-humans get out of a city that fell to a humans-only tyrannical regime. Early in their adventuring career, Laucian died and was immediately revived with one small catch…they believed they were the deity who created Toril. Laucian quickly became a paladin of Laucian. They are a benevolent creator, loving all of their children, except undead, mind flayers, fiends and chromatic dragons (not Laucian’s children). At a table, Laucian is also the butt of some jokes. “If you believe in my divine protection, you get 22 temporary hit points from Inspiring Leader.” Party: “I want the temporary hit points, but…”
2014 PHB Rating: 10. Laucian was an Ancients Paladin for a long time, but the possible narcissism and self-promotion of the Glory oath made much more sense after it was released. This also came after WotC severely reduced the value of the Ancients paladin’s aura against spell damage. The Glory paladin’s level 15 ability to deflect an attack and counterattack is great, particularly when smiting on the counterattack because it feels so memorable if that kills an enemy.
Laucian has been level 12 since before the pandemic started. I never got any complaints about smite damage, even with their scimitar of speed. Some complained about their +6 Aura of Protection. I only played Laucian in games where I knew in advance the adventure was overly difficult or punishing to players who didn’t have the right saving throw proficiencies. As you might expect, DMs who were rooting for the mind flayers to stun many in the party weren’t huge fans of Laucian saying no.
2024 PHB Rating: 3. Laucian's support features get a bit stronger, but their damage output plummets. Laucian either loses 1/3 of their consistent damage output from the scimitar or the ability to smite. I don't know why WotC decided to slash damage on support characters, but they did. It's going to discourage people from playing support characters.
I could add a Charisma feat to go along with Inspiring Leader. Fey-Touched was great for a paladin but now it can't be used with smite. I'm much better off dropping Lucky for Heavy Armor Master and getting my Constitution to 18. Laucian’s AC of 25 may seem amazing, but they get hit in the face quite a bit. Reducing 5 damage per physical hit and getting more Constitution is worth it.
Ozzie
Gold Dragonborn Vengeance Paladin 6 / Swords Bard 5
Gold Dragonborn Conquest Paladin 7 / Aberrant Mind Sorcerer 9
Ozzie was one of those character concepts who never quite felt right as a character. I had an idea for a heavy metal paladin riding in on a nightmare. For a while, I went with Ozzie as a paladin of Milil, the god of poetry, seeking vengeance for someone who burned down his theatre. However, I’m not the type of player who is really good at sustaining that kind of in-character over the top stage presence for 4 hours. I theorycrafted an alternate vision of Ozzie as a controlling paladin and aberrant mind sorcerer for the creepy spooky vibe with lots of bats but never played him.
2014 PHB Rating: 5. Going with 6 levels of paladin for the aura then bard didn’t give enough from bard to feel right. I had another paladin I liked more for both roleplay with strangers and mechanically. It didn’t help that few players at game stores got the reference to Ozzie wielding an axe.
2024 PHB Rating: TBD. Ozzy Osbourne may be better known for his long solo career1 than his work as the frontman of Black Sabbath, and Ozzie the paladin may be better as a 2024 character than he ever was in the 2014 PHB. Instead of trying to get some Ozzy Osbourne vibes from mechanics like a bard multiclass or conquest paladin, we’re going with vibes.
Ozzie is going back to Vengeance paladin but adding Warlock of the Fiend. At some point early on in his career, Ozzie failed to track down a bandit leader in time and that bandit leader sacked a village, so Ozzie made a deal with an archdevil to make sure that never happened again. At least that’s what Ozzie tells people. In reality, he has learned to love his fiendish connection.
Mechanically, we’re going to rely on the belt of fire giant strength Ozzie has for now to demonstrate what could happen. The basic concept is to dual wield, taking advantage of the belt along with 1d8 more damage per strike and casting spirit shroud for another 1d8 per hit. With this setup, Ozzie deals 26.5 average damage per flametongue shortsword attack, or 24.5 if he uses divine favor instead. He does 18.5 with his scimitar. Then means 67.5 damage round 1 and 94 damage on subsequent rounds. Vow of Emnity to always have advantage in important fights helps with the flametongue’s lower accuracy. Just avoid devils! Ozzie’s never going to smite.
I thought Ozzie would deal good sustained damage but I didn’t expect anything like this when I built the character. When I did the math afterwards…yeah, it adds up. All those +7s from the belt, d8s from improved divine smite, d4s from divine favor or d8s from spirit shroud add up. If belts of giant strength don’t change in the new DMG, we’re probably going to want belt control to limit the accuracy of these characters more than max damage. Ozzie feels excessive.
The rest of Ozzie is about staying alive and utility for the party. If Ozzie can’t get into melee, it’s time for a thematic bless via devilish lyrics. With the belt, Ozzie can fit the Heavy Armor Master, Dual Wielder, and Inspiring Leader feats while getting 16 Constitution and 20 Charisma. Ozzie takes Tough as a starting feat and Alert from Lessons of the First Ones. Warlock gives the temporary hit points of the fiendlock, Otherworldly Leap to jump for 20 more movement, and advantage on concentration saving throws.
Other Paladin Ideas
The main reason I played Laucian was to look at adventures that were full of high DC saving throws that could take away players’ turns on a failed save and say no, you won’t do that to us. Some high level adventures love that kind of turn denial, whether it’s the vibe they want to impose on players or the only way they can think of to contain player power. Hopefully that changes over the next 5 years, in which case I will probably put the paladin away. Ozzie is still a thought experiment more than someone I want to play without knowing that everyone is up for a character like that.
If not, I will probably build a Paladin similar to Laucian mechanically but with very different roleplay. The Oath of Redemption isn’t necessarily powerful but fits the roleplay. Alternatively, I might want a very different roleplay feel for a defense and control heavy paladin and choose COnquest.
I’m not a huge fan of any of the redesigned paladin oaths. If an ability is available 2-3 times per long rest, then it is available for every important fight. For many games, there are only 2-3 fights per day! For a WotC attrition-heavy dungeon crawl, many of the fights are so low impact by level 6 that you don’t need to use that many major resources. That means the Devotion paladin should always have +3 or more to hit and damage, while the vengeance paladin always attacks at advantage. I don’t understand the connection between the ancients’ oath and resistance to necrotic, psychic, and radiant damage.
Ranger
I should just get this out of the way now: none of my rangers used hunter’s mark, so I’m surprised this became such a core of the class without public playtesting or comment. The big ranger fan in my home game is not happy, to put it mildly, because he’d use the ranger’s other self-buff spells at higher levels.
I think rangers have had a bit of an identity crisis in 5th Edition without the right DM homebrewing overland travel buffs that go above and beyond anything published in the Player’s Handbook, but the 2024 Player’s Handbook put a massive spotlight on it.
Instead of rangers having specific terrain types they excel at navigating in the 2024 PHB, they get the Expertise at level 1 offered in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything plus two more Expertise slots at level 9.
This reflects a broader shift in WotC design: overland travel rarely matters in 5th Edition adventures. When it does, it can be resolved by a Survival check. The 2014 feature Natural Explorer didn’t help with these checks, so a cleric who took Survival was often better at leading the party through the wilderness than a ranger. I am currently preparing the worst offender for overland travel: Descent Into Avernus. Even though Avernus is supposed to be a foreign plane where food and water are scarce and locations in Hell magically move around, there are no character abilities that the party can use to try and make travel easier and no travel related challenges written in the book. It’s all DM fiat!
When a version of Natural Explorer was playtested in the 2024 Unearthed Arcana, I said I wanted the ranger to be better than the number for their Survival skill modifier in their favorite terrain. One possibility would be to give the 2024 Ranger to get Expertise in Survival and the ability to help allies with group Survival checks in their favored terrain. It’s a clearly defined mechanical benefit that keeps the class fantasy alive.
Contracting overland travel instead of expanding it puts the ranger in a weird place. They are supposed to be a bit of a jack of all trades. Solid in combat but less than a fighter. Some skill boosts but less than a rogue. Some nature magic but less than a druid. The one bona fide A-list skillset the ranger is supposed to offer that no other class should is guiding the party in overland travel, but that got deleted from the game. From this perspective, hunter’s mark comes off to me like an attempt to force a new identity on a class that doesn’t have a unique “I am the best at this” poster to put on the wall anymore.
Rangers often felt good until level 11. Then many players noticed that they didn’t get damage buffs like the fighter or paladin or survivability buffs of the barbarian. I feel like that’s where the “well we give them skills and expertise instead” starts to feel bad. A paladin can help the party with their Aura of Protection and spells. Rangers get self-buffs and their skills rarely get to carry the party in the same way because so many overland travel checks are group checks.
Hunter’s mark only offsets this feeling of falling behind on damage if you use a bow, since bow users don’t get a ton of damage boosts. (One of the subtle changes in the 2024 PHB is that melee damage is boosted while ranged damage isn’t without a cumbersome set of feats, giving an incentive to go along with the risk of monsters hitting you in the face.) For a melee ranger trying to optimize with Dual Wielder, Polearm Master, or Great Weapon master to get a bonus action attack, hunter’s mark is worse than divine favor because you have to concentrate and use a bonus action to move it. Not having to worry about losing concentration on hunter’s mark due to damage at level 13 doesn’t offset the action economy cost of moving it when you have one of the feats listed above.
That’s why I think trying to make any combat boost the ranger’s signature ability is foolhardy. Classes more focused for combat will still be better at combat! Giving the ranger better movement in combat is nice, but doesn’t satisfy the class fantasy of out-of-combat overland travel. Also, the monk is still faster in most cases. Being able to shake off Exhaustion at level 10 is also nice, but can feed a lone wolf explorer fantasy instead of helping others avoid exhaustion from failed overland travel checks.
Leshanna
Shadar-Kai Drakewarden Ranger 10
Leshanna’s noble family made a deal with a dragon long ago to get power. In exchange, some members of the family would have to hunt monsters themselves to protect their lands and prove their worth. Leshanna is all about the hunt monsters life. She says she’s going around the world to take jobs from nobles and improve her family’s name, but she always handles things in the least dignified way possible.
2014 PHB Rating: 9. Leshanna’s got a fun combination of game mechanics and unexpected roleplay as the child of nobility that work very well together. This rating would start plummeting in games beyond level 10. Leshanna needs to use a bonus action to command her drake. Otherwise, she gets few benefits from her subclass. That’s why she is built to not use or need hunter’s mark as a regular go-to spell. She used shadar-kai teleporting or zepher strike to get out of melee to keep shooting her bow. The Favored Foe feature from Tasha’s did enough damage to a key target without needing a bonus action if I really needed it. (I rarely did.)
2024 PHB Rating: TBD. There's a big bundle of changes here. Alert is a great fit as a starting feat. I add two expertise slots (Survival, Stealth) and three spells known. The new Sharpshooter allowing for shooting in melee without penalty instead of the -5 to hit, +10 damage shot is great for Leshanna so she doesn't have to dedicate resources to escaping melee. Since it adds +1 to Dexterity, I can add Mage Slayer (mainly for the save).
The big issue is hunter’s mark. I can use it in theory since I don't need zephyr strike to escape melee. However, casting or moving it means I can't use my subclass much that turn. It's an even bigger problem with the Beast Master that designers didn't bother to fix for some reason. Leshanna would probably be a 10 without this issue.
Other Ranger Ideas
For convention games, where there wouldn’t be overland travel to begin with, the ranger doesn’t feel as bad. I’ve wanted to play a fey wanderer and experiment with a staff or spear user with Polearm Master and a Shield.
Melee Warlock
I am going to put the melee focused warlock with Pact of the blade in with the martial-heavy half casters instead of arcane casters because the way I play this type of warlock is closer to a paladin or ranger than a wizard or sorcerer. I build the bladelock as a type of martial character with magic to buff themselves or as a plan B when they can’t solve problems with a sword instead of as a caster.
What stands out for warlocks now is the third attack and invocations letting you get an extra starting feat or essentially move another 20 feet by jumping. A melee warlock can leverage that additional attack by casting spirit shroud to add 2d8 damage per hit.
Gerald
Half-Elf Fighter 2 / Warlock of the Fiend & Blade 17 / Divine Soul Sorcerer 1
Gerald was the character I made for Tomb of Annihilation. He was an anthropologist who went to some small mystery island. He didn’t really know what he was getting in to. Anthropology was just something that would impress his parents while getting as far away from them as possible. It turns out the natives of the lace Gerald went really didn’t want to be studied by an outsider, so he had to make a deal with an unknown power to get out. It turns out that power was the spirit of Papazotl, one of the dead Trickster Gods of Chult, who wanted revenge on Acererak.
Papazotl was a cunning, evil trickster who convinced Gerald to stand in just the right place and let his foolish allies explore the tomb, running headlong into deathtraps while Gerald found the secret doors. It the conclusive battle, Gerald used Dark One’s Own Luck to shove Acererak into the lava and countered his teleport before allies could trap Acererak in silence in the lava. Afterwards, Gerald built a cult in Papazotl’s name to rebuild Chult as he continued to adventure.
2014 PHB Rating: 9. As a character I played in a level 1-13 campaign and then in subsequent one-shots, Gerald has had 3 mechanical incarnations. First he was a warlock with one level of fighter to wear heavy armor, using ASIs for Great Weapon Master and Strength. He used the Improved Pact Weapon invocation because there were no magic heavy weapons but got +1 plate. Spells were overwhelmingly for utility or shadow of moil as a buff.
When Gerald gets out of that campaign and into one shots, he’s the little engine that could, surprising other players and DMs by not being completely incompetent. The warlock didn’t have a ton of tricks to boost damage back then besides lucking into a belt. Gerald eventually got belts of giant strength and took on a different form at level 20, rebuilding to use a staff of power and Polearm Master. He took the level of divine soul sorcerer after saving the followers of a Chaotic Good deity because I needed some way to balance out him being Lawful Evil for so long and wanted a face turn. This was fairly effective, largely because Gerald became very tanky with good magic items and foresight. When Tasha’s was released, spirit shroud adding 2d8 per attack became the default concentration spell to keep up with power creep. Switching from half elf to shadar-kai before Gerald’s last adventure was also necessary.
Gerald isn’t a powerhouse in the games he plays by any means. Level 20 in high magic campaigns gets wild. But he can wreck adventures that are designed for low magic items. When Gerald tricked Vecna into using his reaction to teleport so he could use a magic item and upcast spirit shroud at 9th level, he was able to dominate Vecna one on one. Part of that is Vecna being a pushover who needs to be in melee and relies on Constitution saving throws doing necrotic damage. Part of that is foresight, 26 AC, and steady damage punishing undertuned adventures.
2024 PHB Rating: 9. With the epic boons I am going to go to Fighter 1 / Warlock 19.
The biggest thing that stands out when remaking Gerald is how much Eldritch Invocations have changed. Let’s set aside Pact of the Blade. I now have 9 more invocations to choose instead of 7 because they added an invocation and the extra warlock level.
Thirsting Blade (second attack) is obvious.
The new Devouring Blade for a third attack is obvious.
Otherworldly Leap, just always casting it as a default, is 20 more feet of movement speed. Useful enough to be a must take.
Lessons of the First Ones (1) for Alert. We’re starting with Tough.
Eldritch Mind. Gerald already has proficiency in concentration saving throws and rarely gets hit but you never know. There’s a real dropoff in my mind here.
Lessons of the First Ones (2)
Agonizing Blast. It’s not a huge priority. I only had to use eldritch blast once per 5 sessions if not even less often. But with so few spell slots, any turn I can’t be in melee could be a waste.
Lifedrinker. This drops from 6 damage a hit to 1d6 total but some healing is worth it.
Lessons of the First Ones (3)
Cut invocations: Tomb of Levistus (not used at this level), Devil’s Sight (want to try Witch Sight as a replacement), Eldritch Sight (detect magic at will helped but made some stories weird), Trickster’s Escape (freedom of movement once per day, rarely used)
Invocations considered but not taken: Eldritch Smite (not enough spell slots, I save them for sustained buffs or solving other problems, not spike damage. Never wished I had it.) Witch Sight (I had to take true seeing as an arcanum).
The Fiend warlock gets some massive upgrades. I played in a 7 character table for Tomb of Annihilation so I rarely got killing blows. Just needing to be close to an enemy is a real boon. I’ll get 6 uses of Dark One’s Own Luck instead of 1-2 (once per short rest). Hurl Through Hell is much weaker because it allows a save, but it’s an overall major upgrade.
As far as spells, Gerald gets 1 more spell for more warlock levels and 4 more spells because warlocks automatically get patron spells. Since Gerald is rich and connected enough to be able to afford utility scrolls like remove curse and tongues, it was deceptively hard to fill out the list. I’m going to really miss blindness / deafness now that it was upgraded. Since mass suggestion was oddly removed from the warlock’s Mystic Arcanum list, I think I’m taking true seeing to free up an invocation slot.
As far as feats, I’m going to keep Gerald at his same ability scores, which means adding Inspiring Leader and the Boon of Speed as an Epic Boon. As a melee character, Gerald needs to get to his targets. I also considered Energy Resistance and Recovery, but 10 d10s is weaker than getting half my hit points back at once (the old recovery). With my 4 starting feats I take Tough, Alert, Skilled, and Musician. I’m still not sold on that last invocation.
With this setup, Gerald does 80 damage in round 1 if he can cast spirit shroud as a bonus action and an additional 24.5 on subsequent rounds with the Polearm Master bonus action. The older version of Gerald did 63 damage in round 1 and 30.5 with the polearm bonus attack if spirit shroud was up because the old Lifedrinker did 6 necrotic per hit instead of 1d6 per round. If Gerald is fighting Orcus or monsters who are immune to necrotic damage, the 2024 Warlock is a massive damage boost. If he’s fighting other monsters, the extra attack isn’t as big of a damage boost, because Gerald is so likely to hit.
The difference between Gerald and Ozzie is Gerald has 6 more Armor Class plus foresight, making him much harder to hit. Additionally, I’ve never missed with Gerald at level 20 with foresight up and he zips across the battlefield. Meanwhile, Ozzie has a paladin aura to protect allies.
Overall, I think people may overestimate just how important that third attack is for a damage maximizing approach since Lifedrinker no longer adds much damage. What the bladelock offers that other new damage maximizing melee options don’t offer is spellcasting for survivability and other self buffs along with the ability to use a shield with a 1 level multiclass.
I don’t think Ozzy’s solo career would have ever been close to as successful without Randy Rhoads iconic guitar on the two albums.