Paladin: Strength or Charisma at Level 4?

[Wolff]

I am playing an Oath of Devotion Paladin. I was thinking of Great Master Weapon Feat, but considering that two points in Strength or having 18 Charisma would be better.

Having 18 Charisma, would my smite damage be better than having 18 Strength?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2919958414

[larhtas]

Hi. Divine smite as no charisma bonus linked to.
Here a deeper description of it: https://www.dndlounge.com/divine-smite-5e/

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

You should get a 17 in both Str and Cha!

[Yojo0o]

Charisma doesn't scale smite damage. It impacts your number of spells prepared, the DC to save against your spells, scaling on a handful of spells like Cure Wounds, your Charisma-based skill checks, and notably the power of your Aura of Protection at level 6. In practice, extra charisma is good if you cast spells like Command and Wrathful Smite frequently, and it's critical for your level 6 feature to protect the party well. It's really not going to add to your damage in most cases.

Whether or not it's better than Strength is going to be a matter of playstyle. Adding to your strength value will make your melee attacks more powerful and accurate, which is pretty damn critical.

[Indure]

+Strength is better, accuracy is king.

[Wolff]

Originally posted by larhtas:

Hi. Divine smite as no charisma bonus linked to.
Here a deeper description of it: https://www.dndlounge.com/divine-smite-5e/

Thank you for the link. Most of the time I'm not allowing Divine Smite to hit, hate using up all the spells early and want it mostly for crits. Hag fight for the hair I didn't use the reaction smite at all. I always want her hair now and she goes down quick with Shadowheart putting on a Silence spell on her.

Originally posted by Pan Darius Kairos:

You should get a 17 in both Str and Cha!

I don't usually like odd numbers except for Con :)

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Charisma doesn't scale smite damage. It impacts your number of spells prepared, the DC to save against your spells, scaling on a handful of spells like Cure Wounds, your Charisma-based skill checks, and notably the power of your Aura of Protection at level 6. In practice, extra charisma is good if you cast spells like Command and Wrathful Smite frequently, and it's critical for your level 6 feature to protect the party well. It's really not going to add to your damage in most cases.

Whether or not it's better than Strength is going to be a matter of playstyle. Adding to your strength value will make your melee attacks more powerful and accurate, which is pretty damn critical.

Going for 18 Strength. I made a mistake on my fighter I think. Got his Strength up to 20 but left his Con at 14. Think 18 and 16 would have been better.

Thanks everyone for the tips. Will run him all the way in the Underdark.

[Farsha]

I'd go STR to 18.
Paladin is more martial class than caster class, since they are hybrids.
So Max your most used attack roll Stat first (STR/DEX for martial classes)
If you want divine caster, get Cleric and there Max casting Stat (WIS)

[Gaius]

For devotion it's either GWM or STR (oy can have 10 STR with GWM if you play a dwarf). Ancients is a bit more subjective, because the AoE heal is SO good - and scales with CHA.

[GrandMajora]

For hybrid casters, I wouldn't recommend getting your spell casting stat higher than 16 at the absolute maximum. In fact, you'll probably be just fine with keeping it at 14.

Unlike previous editions of D&D, your spell slots and the maximum level of casting are not affected by a higher casting attribute. It doesn't matter if your wizard has an INT of 18, or 9, they'll still have the same number of spell slots and casting level as each other. The only difference is the 18 intelligence wizard is going to have their spell prove more effective than the 9 intelligence counterpart.

[Ronin Gamer]

If you're plan is to consider great weapon master, strength is the more important other choice. Charisma, like others have said already, doesn't do a ton for your damage output as a paladin. If you were wanting more spells to cast and other aspects of that then sure, but it sounds like you want to go hard hitter weapon damage, so either of the other two would be better.
Bare in mind if you go GWM, you're going to incur that minus to hit chance so you may want to see if there is some way you can circumvent that. Even if you can't, when you do hit either through random chance or help from a team member, you'll hit harder for sure.

[Indure]

Originally posted by Ronin Gamer:

Bare in mind if you go GWM, you're going to incur that minus to hit chance so you may want to see if there is some way you can circumvent that. Even if you can't, when you do hit either through random chance or help from a team member, you'll hit harder for sure.

He is an Oath of Devotion paladin so he has sacred weapon to bolster his hit chance.

[Popsicles]

You ain't getting no smite if you miss. Put it in strength.

[seandeven]

18 Strength then GWM.
You will never "need" more than 14 in charisma playing BG3, while charisma helps in spellcasting bonus, you'll never go above 4th level spells and you have to ask yourself is it worth an additional +1or+2 if you go above 14.

[Hobocop]

Originally posted by seandeven:

18 Strength then GWM.
You will never "need" more than 14 in charisma playing BG3, while charisma helps in spellcasting bonus, you'll never go above 4th level spells and you have to ask yourself is it worth an additional +1or+2 if you go above 14.

Aura of Protection comes in at 6th level. Adding your Charisma bonus to all saves for yourself and nearby allies is kinda good, and only gets better the more of it you have.

[seandeven]

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Originally posted by seandeven:

18 Strength then GWM.
You will never "need" more than 14 in charisma playing BG3, while charisma helps in spellcasting bonus, you'll never go above 4th level spells and you have to ask yourself is it worth an additional +1or+2 if you go above 14.

Aura of Protection comes in at 6th level. Adding your Charisma bonus to all saves for yourself and nearby allies is kinda good, and only gets better the more of it you have.

kinda good=meh to me in sacrificing for the additional +1/+2 but yes the saving throw aura as well I was just lumping them together.
Personally, 16 I can justify, but nomore than that, besides in early access we can't get above 5th level.

[Indure]

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Originally posted by seandeven:

18 Strength then GWM.
You will never "need" more than 14 in charisma playing BG3, while charisma helps in spellcasting bonus, you'll never go above 4th level spells and you have to ask yourself is it worth an additional +1or+2 if you go above 14.

Aura of Protection comes in at 6th level. Adding your Charisma bonus to all saves for yourself and nearby allies is kinda good, and only gets better the more of it you have.

Devotion also gets sacred weapon which is + charisma to hit, and unless you have Wyll in your party your paladin is probably going to be your best charisma character and succeeding at dialogue checks can be as important as hitting an enemy (if you don't save scum).