Paladin build and Master of Miracles Achievement

If you've been looking to pick up Miracles in Dark Souls 3, but are having trouble deciding how to go about it, this guide should help! This will also cover all the miracles in the game (not DLC), so it should help with that achievement.

Are you a real Paladin?

Alright, I can see I will have to teach you how to be Paladins! This guide will outline how to play as a miracle user for those of you who want to jump in to it but aren't sure. It will explain numerous weapons, rings, and all the miracles that would work for Faith based builds.

Master of Miracles Achievement

Now look at these miracles, that I just found. When I say go, get ready to cast! GO! This section will outline all the Miracles in the game (not DLC). Miracles obtained from tomes will be seperated by which tomes they come from. This section is NOT my recommendations for what to use, that will come next. This is just what they do and where to find them.

Non-tome Miracles

• Heal Aid - Restores a small amount of HP, purchased from the Shrine Handmaid
  
• Heal - Restores a little more HP for self and nearby allies, purchased from Irina
  
• Great Heal - Restores a great amount of HP for self and nearby allies, found in the Irithyll of the Boreal Valley
  
• Soothing Sunlight - Restores a large amount of HP for self and allies in the general area, obtained from Soul of the Dancer Transpositon
  
• Replenishment - Restores HP overtime, purchased from Irina
  
• Bountiful Sunlight - Restores a lot of HP for self and nearby allies, obtained from Soul of Rosaria Transposition
  
• Caressing Tears - Cures bleeding, poison, and frost for self and nearby allies, purchased from Irina
  
• Homeward - Homeward bone in spell form, purchased from Irina
  
• Seek Guidance - Don't ever waste an attunement slot on this. It's worthless. But to find it, it's by the first Giant in Cathedral of the Deep and down the stairs to the left.
  
• Sacred Oath - 10% (physical) AR buff, 10% damage absorption buff for 60 seconds. Sunbros rank 1 reward
  
• Emit Force - Shoots a fairly slow and damaging shockwave in front of you, knocks down most enemies. Onionbro gives it to you if you follow through with his questline and meet him in the Kitchen
  
• Wrath of the Gods - A very powerful knockback that deals physical damage. Drop down from the spellcaster NPC fight in Profound Capital
  
• Lightning Spear - Throw a small spear of lighting, found to the right of the Old Wolf of Farron Bonfire elevator up and dropping down near the gate
  
• Great Lightning Spear - Throw AN EVEN BIGGER spear of lightning. Sunbros rank 2 reward
  
• Sunlight Spear - HURL A SPEAR OF THE PURE SUN ITSELF! This spell is almost a must for a paladin build, obtained from Soul of the Lords Transposition
  
• Lightning Stake - Dropped from that pesky Giant Worm in Smouldering Lake
  
• Lightning Storm - Summons a bolt from above, leaving a small AOE around you that deals damage, obtained from Soul of the Nameless King Transposition
  
• Divine Pillars of Light - Rains down multiple streams of light randomly around you, dealing damage and knocking down anybody it touches. Found in the cage of the Grand Archives. Drop down from the 3 Winged Knights rooftop fight
  
• Sunlight Lightning Blade - Reinforces right hand weapon with lightning. R.I.P. Sunlight Blade, Dark Souls 1 - Dark Souls 2. Found by dropping down from one of the elevators in Irtithyll Dungeon near the broken kneeling dragon statues
  
• Darkmoon Blade - Reinforces right hand weapon with Darkmoon Light (deals magic damage). Blades of the Darkmoon rank 2 reward
  
• Great Magic Barrier - Greatly increases magic defense, found in Archdragon Peak off a ledge near Havel
  
• Atonement - Attracts attention from enemies easier, found near the Farron Keep Perimeter Bonfire, 180 degrees behind and reach a hole in the wall on the right
  
• Dorhy's Gnawing - Summons a great insect swarm that deals heavy bleeding damage. Granted for killing the Evangelist in Irithyll of the Boreal Valley behind an illusionary fence
  
• Lifehunt Scythe - Deals damage and steals a slight amount of health, obtained from Soul of Aldrich Transposition

All tome miracles can be purchased from either Karla or Irina upon giving them the tome. If you wish to complete Irina's quest, you CANNOT purchase any dark miracles from her, therefore it is recommended to give the light tomes to Irina and dark tomes to Karla.

LIGHT MIRACLE TOMES
Braille Divine Tome of Carim

• Med Heal - Restores a medium amount of HP for self and nearby allies
  
• Tears of Denial - Leaves the user with 1 health upon a lethal attack and is used up until cast again. Will also stay on the caster until death, being summoned, or warping to a bonfire.
  
• Force - A weaker version of Wrath of the Gods

Braille Divine Tome of Lothric

• Bountiful Light - Restores a large amount of HP overtime
  
• Blessed Weapon - Buffs right hand weapon, increasing attack and gradually restoring HP
  
• Magic Barrier - A weaker version of Great Magic Barrier

DARK MIRACLE TOMES
Londor Braille Divine Tome

• Dark Blade - Buffs right hand weapon with dark
  
• Vow of Silence - Nullifies the ability to use any spells in a nearby area, including your own
  
• Dead Again - Explodes nearby corpses, dealing a lot of dark damage. Does NOT turn them into a trap as the description says, it causes them to activate almost as soon as the spell is used on it, therefore you can not set it and wait for a foe to walk over it for it to explode

Deep Braille Divine Tome

• Deep Protection - Slightly boosts attack, defense, and stamina recovery for 60 seconds
  
• Gnaw - Summons insects to feast on enemies, dealing bleed damage

Best Miracles to use

Now that we have covered all the miracles in the game, here I'll be going over which ones would be best for this build. Please note, most of what is said here is my personal thoughts based on my Dark Souls Trilogy of experience.

To start off, it is recommended that you always have at least one heal spell with you, either Great Heal, Soothing Sunlight, OR Bountiful Sunlight. Great Heal restores the least amount of HP out of these 3, however it doesn't cost as much FP (65) and it only fills 1 attunement slot. Soothing Sunlight heals more and in a greater area than Great Heal, however it costs more FP (80). Bountiful Sunlight has an inbetween amount of FP (70) and heals a large amount for you and allies in the general area, however it takes up 2 attunement slots. It comes down to personal preference, however I like to use Great Heal, as you won't so much be healing with spells during fights, aswell as saving a slot for other miracles.

Next up we have the buff we all know and love, Sacred Oath. This spell grants a 10% damage and defense buff, working wonders! The downside being, it takes up 2 attunement slots. If you're really poor on souls and don't have enough attunement, you could also go with Deep Protection, the dark buff. While it only provides a 5% damage and defense buff, it also grants a bonus +3 per second stamina regen rate, and only costs 1 attunement slot. So once again, preference.
Another mention for Tears of Denial, an extremely useful miracle that grants you another chance upon a leathal attack, leaving you with 1 hp. It fills 2 attunement slots and costs 100 FP, however upon casting you can sit at a Bonfire WITHOUT losing the buff, therefore gaining your FP back before going off to fight. Note, warping to a Bonfire WILL cause you to lose the buff. This spell has saved my ass countless times.

Now, the fun part. The offensive miracles. For starters, I highly recommend the Sunlight Spear, as it is one of the longer range miracles and deals a quite nice amount of damage. If the target is hit within melee range with this spell, it deals an additional 67% damage. With a high enough faith, you can oneshot foes (possibly including other players) granted they're not focusing on upgrading their health. Next up we have Lightning Stake, granted from that annoying giant worm in Smouldering Lake. While the spell only deals damage in melee range, if an enemy is directly under the bolt summoned it will deal a massive amount of damage. A bit similar to the stake, we have Lightning Storm. This causes you to slam a bolt down infront of you (similar to the stake), however instead of exploding a dealing damage there it creates a circle AoE of sparks around you, dealing a good amount of damage to those who get to close. And, for our last offensive miracle we'll be covering, Divine Pillars of Light. This is an unique miracle, as it deals physical damage, and it doesn't deal strong amounts compared to other runner-ups. However, I have it here becuase it pairs well with the other Lightning abilities. This miracle creates multiple beams of light randomly around you, knocking targets up into the air and having them land on the ground. While it's not so much used for damage, it's very useful for crowd control and stunning your foe.

A Paladin's True Weapon

Alright, looks like you kept reading, good! For this section, we will be covering the best weapons for a paladin-like build. To start us off, let's look at melee weapons.

MELEE WEAPONS
There a multiple different weapons that scale with faith, however, as I have said before, this guide will be talking about what I think from my experiences. First up, my personal favorite is the weapon of good ol' Ornstein the Dragonslayer, the Dragonslayer Spear. It requires 20 strength and dexterity, and at max reinforcement has a D scaling in strength, B scaling in dexterity, and D scaling in faith. It has a fairly long range and the special allows you to charge foward, shooting a bolt of lightning at the end. If you're able to catch an enemy with this before the lightining, the bolt fired deals HEAVY damage when they're right there getting impaled. At max reinforcement, it deals 198 physical damage and 122 lightning damage. If you would rather a dex/faith path, I'd recommend this weapon. You can obtain this weapon in Archdragon peak, in the room with the first NPC summoner, across from him there will be a gate with a corpse on the other side. You are able to reach the item from this side of the gate.

Next up for those who rather strength builds, we have the greatsword known as Wolnir's Holy Sword. It requires 13 strength, dex, and faith, and at max reinforcement it has a C scaling in strength, E in dex, and C in faith. At max reinforcement, it deals 276 physical damage. While this weapon doesn't have lightning damage, its special attack is another miracle, Wrath of the Gods. While yes, it does have a longer cast time, if you enjoy this miracle you can use this greatsword to free up the attunement slots for it. You can obtain it through the Soul of High Lord Wolnir Transposition.

Following up is 2 straight swords I decided to group together, the Sunlight Straight Sword and Anri's Straight Sword. At max reinforcement, the Sunlight sword has 12 strength and dex requirement and 16 faith. At max reinforcement it has a B scaling in strength and dex, which makes it good if you have a mix of stats, and it deals 196 physical damage. Its special attack allows you to place a buff on you that grants a 10% AR buff and 10% bonus to damage absorption for 45 seconds, which could also allow you to free an attunement slot if you wish. It can be found in a mimic near the sunlight alter and the white dragon by the Dragonslayer Armor boss. Anri's sword requires 10 strength and dex. At max reinforcement, it has D in strength scaling, E in dex, and E in faith and deals 204 physical damage. This weapon is unique in the fact that it naturally possesses the Blessed infusion buff, granting bonus physical damage, HP regen, and bonus damage to reanimated enemies. Anri's sword also has a very high luck scaling. This weapon can be obtained by either killing Anri or completing their questine.

And, my last suggestion for a paladin weapon, Creighton the Wanderer's Dragonslayer's Axe. This axe requires 18 strength and 14 dex to wield, and at max reinforcement it has a D scaling in strength and E in dex. It has 210 physical damage and 210 lightning damage. It has the warcry special. To obtain the Dragonslayer's Axe, you must follow through with Sirris' questline until you help her kill Creighton. Once you aid her, Creighton will invade your world after the Church of Yorshka Bonfire, head into the graveyard area and he should invade as long as you are embered. Upon defeat, you gain his weapon.

CATALYSTS
For this sort of build, there are only a few catalysts I would consider really good. First up we have the Saint's Talisman. It requires 16 faith and 4 strength to weild, and at max reinforcement it has D scaling in strength and S scaling with faith and with 60 faith grants 242 spell buff. The special for this weapon is Unfaltering Prayer. While used, it will cast the currently equiped spell, however it will use a little more FP to increase the poise while casting, so that you will not stop casting upon getting attacked. While this talisman has the weakest form of unfaltering prayer, it has the best spell buff for talismans. It is found on a corpse in the sewer in the Undead Settlement.

Next we have Yorshka's Chime. At max reinforcement, this chime has S scaling in faith and D in strength. It requires 30 faith and 3 strength to use. With 60 faith, this chim has one of the highest spell buffs, being 247. So, you might be thinking, "That's more than the Saint's Talisman, why wouldn't I just always use this?". Well, the special attack for this one is Gentle Prayer, which grants a buff that very slowly regens very little HP. For a difference of 5 spell buff points, it doesn't really matter which one you use, and I usually go with the Saint's Talisman, as the special can be quite useful. Yorshka's Chime can be obtained by killing Yorshka. So unless you really want it, I'd recommend waiting untill just before starting a NG.

I will mention another catalyst here, however it is VERY situational. The Sunless Talisman. It requires 24 faith and 4 strength to weild and, at max reinforcement, has an A scaling in faith AND intelligence and a D in strength. At 60 faith AND intell, it has a spellbuff of 307. However, unless you're upgrading NOTHING besdies intell and faith, you will rarely pick this over either of the other ones mentioned. This this also scales with intell, it is VERY strong with dark miracles. It can be obtained by either killing Sirris or finishing her questline.

Tips and Tricks in Battle

Now, you've either been a naughty paladin and invaded another unkindled, been aiding in some JOLLY COOPERATION and got invaded, or simply placed your summon sign outside of the Pontiff Sulyvahn Bonfire for some nice fight clubs. You've got your miracles in check, your trusty weapon at your side. The summoner points to you, you're up next. As this should be obvious, always buff yourself before fighting. Now, we will dive in to some combat tricks. Let's start off with the miracles. Multiple of them, all the lightning spears and stake have VERY similar casting animation, and it is easy to fool your foe. What I like to do is toss a few sunlight spears at a medium distance. Naturally, they'll roll to dodge. After figuring it out, they start to roll towards you. When they get close enough, switch to lightning stake, and begin to cast. Seeing this, they'll roll right at you so it heads over them, only to find out they rolled DIRECTLY under the aoe, dealing max damage. This tactic as worked for me a LOT of times, it's very entertaining. Another tip here is the Divine Pillars of Light, and really the only reason I recommended it. While the damage isn't too great, it knocks foes up into the air and then on the ground. Of course, it takes some time for them to get up, so take this chance to either wind up an attack or begin to cast a spell. If you were able to catch it at the right time, they won't have time to dodge.

Extras

Alright, we have the main part of the build done. Now, it's time for the extras, such as rings, flask charges, etc.

RINGS
For starters, rings that directly upgrade faith/damage of miracles are the Ring of the Sun's First Born, Morne's Ring, and Priestess Ring, so any of these rings are good to have.

Rings that don't directly upgrade faith, but are still useful to this build would be the Sage Ring, Lightning Clutch Ring, Darkmoon Ring, Ring of Favor, and Silvercat Ring.
You can replace the Darkmoon Ring with either the Saint's Ring or Deep Ring, as those both grant 1 bonus attunement slot (the Darkmoon Ring grants 2)

What I personally recommend and use is the Ring of the Sun's First Born, Ring of Favor, Darkmoon Ring, and Silvercat/Sage Ring. Depending on the area I'm in *cough* area after Pontiff Sulyvahn *cough* I'll switch the Sage Ring out for the Silvercat, as the falling with no damage is quite useful.

ESTUS
Now, for our Estus Flasks, it comes down to personal prefrence. I'd either recommend going with 10 estus and 5 ashen, or 9 estus and 6 ashen. With the 10/5, you'll get 5 estus while as a phantom and 2 ashen. With 9/6, you get 4 estus and 3 ashen as a phantom. I use the 9/6 combo, as I always have the heal I can use out of battle.

COVENANTS
Now, this topic won't really effect the build at all, however it's for a more realistic build. A paladin would go out of their way to aid others, and if you want to go all out paladin, you can either use the Sunbros or the Blades of the Darkmoon. Both of these covenants would help a paladin fulfill their purpose, and both of these covenants have amazing paladin rewards for this build, so it's a win win.

VIDEO
And here I am messing around, enjoy!

Closing Statements

Thank you to everybody who supports my first guide! Who knows, I might even do a pyromancer or mage guide in the future if this gets enough support. I'd be glad if anybody had any suggestions or corrections that they could add in the comments aswell, I'll try to add and expand this guide as they come. But once again, thank you to all who read this!

[AriaJJ]

gggooodddd

[HollyLeaf]

Very nice guide. The only thing you're missing is a mention of situational uses of the Sunlight Talisman(and to honour an old friend ngl), the Canvas Tal. for it's nice balance in pvp and the other Dragonslayer weapons. The Greataxe deals truckloads of damage, makes Archdragon a walk in the park. And the Swordspear, very nice weapon in pve, you can open up fights with the special attack then you have a decent buff and without the buff I believe it has a higher AR than the Spear. It's not the best weapon in pvp I'll admit, though it is fun to use.

[Phoenix]

many of my ds3 builds have ended up somewhat like this but I suppose you can say my builds are a bit "tainted" in a way not being true cleric / paladin since I mix in pyromancy on the off hand and use flame weapon buff instead of lightning blade. I like using the executioner's greatsword even though it doesn't scale with faith - because it regenerates FP per kill which means you have to estus far less.. it generates enough FP after 13 kills for a Great Heal. Lower damage potential than a faith based weapon would be, depending how you build - but that FP regen is certainly nice.

[Batjohn]

This looks like something I want to try! I’m rather new to DS3, so this might be a noob question: stats? I’m thinking spear as my main weapon..

[Demon Dog]

Morne's greathammer is also great with a paladin build, it scales with faith now

[Cloud Striker]

Omly thing in this guide I don't agree with is Pillars of Light being useful. All it does is invite people to backstab you due to how awfully long the casting animation is.

[Proximity | Nadayan]

I suggest looking at my Fashion Souls III Guide. I was actually intrested in making a paladin set (from the midevil times to any paladin we see). good guide!

[The Moon-hunting Bear M.D.]

Also try out lothric's holy sword - that WA could be very interesting to use

[The Moon-hunting Bear M.D.]

Wolnir's should do damage: i've managed to kill one (1) player with it, and that pre-patch.

Not very useful in pvp but at least it wasnt dark souls 2 WoG

[Turquoise ♦]

Thank you for that correction! I've only used the Wolnir's Sword Wrath of the Gods, and that deals no damage. I assumed they were the same, but guess not, whoops