The best build for an oathbreaker: choice of tricks, traits, abilities, spells at each level; selection of equipment
The Oathbreaker is a hidden paladin subclass that focuses on dealing massive melee damage and intimidating targets. It is distinguished by durability and survivability, takes risks with pleasure, does not miss the opportunity to inflict counter damage (in response to an attack), diluting physical damage with fire. The Oathbreaker is a subclass for those players who want to wreak havoc and destruction.
To become an Oathbreaker, you must break the oath of your chosen subclass. Moreover, you can do this at any time convenient for you. Progress will be saved. Thus, if you play as a level 5 Oathbreaker, Retribution, or Ancient paladin, if you break the oath, you will receive an Oathbreaker Paladin of the same level 5.
Character Creation
While you’ll only become an Oathbreaker as the game progresses, it’s important to pick the right origin, race, etc., beforehand knowing which subclass you’ll be focusing on in the future.
Origin
As a backstory, I recommend picking one that gives you skills with Strength and Charisma checks, since those are your primary abilities. Thus, Drifter and Soldier can be chosen, since they give Athletics along with Intimidate or Persuasion. That is, you get two skills with a check on the main attributes.
Race
The first race to look out for is the Tiefling Zariel. The reason is simple: when you reach the third level, you’ll get Legacy of Avernus: Searing Smite, which is stronger than the normal Searing Smite spell from a paladin. Instead of dealing an additional 1-6 fire damage, you’ll get 2-12. What’s more, it doesn’t consume a spell slot, so you can spam it to your heart’s content.
As a Zariel Tiefling, you will also receive Night Vision along with Infernal Resistance and the Thaumaturgy focus. Infernal Resistance will make you resistant to taking fire damage by half, while Thaumaturgy will give you an advantage on Intimidate and Execute checks.
The second race to consider is the drow, who have “Enhanced Night Vision”, allowing them to see twice as far in the dark as half-wood elves. In addition, the traits include Fey Legacy, which gives an advantage on trials, reducing the chances of getting charmed and completely eliminating falling asleep when using magic.
Regardless of the race you choose, you won’t have a problem with weapon and armor skills, as the paladin gets access to almost all of them.
Subclass selection
The subclass you choose won’t matter, as you’re going to break your oath and become an oathbreaker in the end. And this is a completely new, fourth subclass of the paladin. Whichever you choose, you will have access to Divine Sense and Lay on Hands. Divine Sense is a bonus action that grants advantage on attack rolls against celestials, beasts, and undead. Lay on Hands is more versatile than Mending Wounds, as it gives you the ability to heal allies or remove negative conditions like poisoning from them.
Capabilities
The Paladin’s primary Abilities are Strength and Charisma, with the latter determining the effectiveness of your spells. For this reason, you need to invest 16 points in both parameters. In addition, Endurance will provide a higher health pool and help maintain focus for spells that require it. You can then add points to Wisdom to improve the test checks. Also, you can leave your Dexterity at 10, as you will be wearing heavy armor that does not count towards the Dexterity modifier bonuses, but your armor class will still be high. Once you meet Laezelle, you can borrow a medium githyanki armor from her to upgrade her armor to 15.
Level 2
By the time you reach level two, you will be able to change your subclass from paladin to oathbreaker. If you want to taste it, you must break your oath. I talked about this in detail in a separate guide, but if you went on an oath of allegiance, the fastest way is to negotiate with the tieflings about the release of Laezel and her joint murder, and then join her and kill the tieflings themselves. After that, an Oathbreaker Knight will appear in your camp, and talking with him will allow you to change your subclass to Oathbreaker (or pay money and restore the original oath).
At level 1, the Oathbreaker has nothing interesting, but at level 2, Healing Radiance, Holy Retribution, or Inquisitorial Might from other paladin subclasses will be replaced with Grudge, which consumes 1 charge of Oath Power. This is a decent action for lower levels of the hero because, in addition to the 4-7 necrotic damage, you will gain advantage on attack rolls against the chosen target.
Choosing Divine Punishment will allow you to deal an additional 2-16 points of radiant damage over melee weapons, as well as an additional 1-8 points of damage against demons and the undead! For example, with the Blade of Judgment two-handed weapon (read below), you can deal up to 32 damage in total. And this is at the very beginning of the game!
As for spells, you can take 4-5 of them depending on the race you chose when creating your character. Like wizards, paladins must prepare spells before they can be cast. The two required spells are Challenge to a Duel and Divine Grace. You will notice that both require concentration to maintain their respective effects.
Concentration can be broken if you cast another spell that requires this action. For example, if you activate Duel Challenge on an enemy and then cast Divine Grace, the focus on the first cast will stop and it will switch to maintaining Divine Grace. But this is not the only way to interrupt concentration. If you take damage while concentrating on a spell, you will have to make an endurance check. If it fails, the effect of this spell ends. However, if you succeed on the save, save the focus and the spell continues. That’s why it’s important for paladins to have high stamina, which will keep spells that require concentration working.
Since you get pretty much the same set of spells as Pledge, Ancient, and Retribution paladins, the strategy will remain the same. You can choose between forced dueling or divine favor depending on your focus. Either is compatible with Grudge, as both are bonus actions. Duel Challenge is a classic taunt move that will force your chosen target to attack your hero. Therefore, if there is a dangerous enemy on the horizon that can injure the rest of the allies, it is better to use this spell and protect the team.
By comparison, Divine Grace adds 1-4 extra radiant damage to melee and ranged attacks, so if your main goal is to deal the maximum possible damage, then you should definitely go for this cast. Combine this spell with Divine Punishment and attack a high HP target, but remember that you will end up using 2 tier 1 spell slots in one turn. But you will inflict huge damage equal to the sum of damage from melee weapons, Divine Grace and Divine Punishment.
Then you can choose “Thunder Smite” and “Blessing”. Thunder Smite will push the enemy back, knocking them down, dealing an additional 2-6 Thunder damage. But remember that Thunder Smite and Searing and Furious Smite require a normal action and a bonus action, so you need to avoid taking other bonus actions to be able to use them in the same turn. Meanwhile, Blessing grants an additional +1d4 bonus on attack and execution rolls to several party members.
Next comes the choice of fighting style. For this paladin build, it’s best to stick with a two-handed weapon, as it will allow you to perform another damage roll if the initial result was a 1 or 2, assuming you’re wielding a two-handed melee weapon. Alternatively, you can take protection to gain an extra point to your armor class while wearing the armor.
Level 3
At the third level, you will gain access to “Divine Health”, which will protect against any disease. As an Oathbreaker, you will also gain certain traits and spells such as Dominion over the Undead (self-explanatory), Sinister Visage, Infernal Retribution, and Inflict Wounds.
Sinister Vision is a great way to control enemies, because its AoE effect not only spreads over a large area, but also scares enemies. Thus, they suffer a penalty on attack rolls, and cannot move for up to 10 turns unless they pass a Wisdom check. Thus, wizards and rangers will be able to destroy all enemies from afar.
The next two spells are equally powerful. Infernal Retribution is very useful in melee combat, as you are constantly exposed to a lot of damage, especially after using Challenge to Duel. Because of this, the probability of its operation is high. But this spell belongs to the “Reaction” category, which means that you cannot use it yourself. However, as a retaliatory measure, your paladin will be able to deal 2-20 fire damage when an enemy attacks him, potentially killing enemies with low or medium health. However, remember that it cannot be activated more than once per turn, and it consumes first-level spell points.
Meanwhile, you have another way to deal with targets up close. You can deal at least 3-30 necrotic damage with Deal Wounds. Upon reaching the fifth level, you can use an improved version of the spell, dealing an additional 110 points of damage, that is, a total of 4-40. The spell can be combined with another bonus action.
Level 4
At level four, you can choose a new trait. For example, Stat Upgrade to add 2 points to Charisma. Considering the number of spells you will be using, this is a very important parameter. With it, you will increase the chance of hitting the enemy and the amount of damage dealt.
Alternatively, you can choose Two-Handed Weapon Master as that is what we will be using in the build. The trait will allow you to perform a bonus attack with a two-handed weapon, provided that you either kill the previous target or deal a critical hit to it (with this very weapon). In addition, you will receive a +10 damage bonus. The only downside is that your attack roll when attacking with a heavy weapon will have a -5 penalty, but this can be offset by Blessing.
You will also be given another spell slot, but you can wait until level five to gain access to second level spells.
Level 5
At level five, you will gain an additional attack, which, as the name suggests, allows you to make one more weapon attack on the same turn. The most effective feature, especially considering the fact that you control a melee warrior.
You also gain 2 more spell slots in addition to the second-tier spells for your current subclass, specifically Crown of Madness and Shadow. Crown of Madness allows you to charm the target, forcing them to attack one of their allies. However, in most cases, your enemies will be able to make a Wisdom check, rendering the spell useless.
Darkness allows you to summon a dark cloud to blind the affected creatures. They fall into a severe blackout and become blind, unable to use ranged attacks either from the cloud or into it. At the same time, your group will gain an advantage. Note that if you or a teammate enters the sphere, you will also go blind. Also, no ranged attacks will be able to penetrate the darkness, so you’ll have to deal with melee attacks.
If you chose Tiefling Zariel, you won’t have to prepare the Branding Smite, because you will receive the Avernus Legacy: Branding Smite. Like Searing Smite, you won’t spend a second-level spell slot when casting this cast. You can use this on top of Divine Punishment to prevent the target from becoming invisible, like in the Derg fights in the Underdark.
Level 6
At sixth level, the Paladin will be blessed with an “Aura of Protection” that will give you and your ally a bonus corresponding to your Charisma modifier whenever you pass a challenge. In fact, most of the time you won’t take any damage.
Level 7
At 7th level, the Oathbreaker Paladin will gain access to the Aura of Hate skill, which benefits not only him, but any beast or undead nearby. This skill grants a bonus to melee weapon damage rolls based on the Oathbreaker’s Charisma modifier. If you invested +2 to Charisma at the fourth level (you have 16 of it), then you will deal 4 more damage with melee weapons. Since the maximum value of any ability is 20, after increasing it, the bonus damage will be 5 units.
Level 8
At the eighth level, you can take one more trait. You can choose ‘Statistic Upgrade’ or ‘Two-Handed Weapon Master’, depending on your choice at level four.
Level 9
At level 9, the Oathbreaker will gain 2 new necromancy spells, Raise Dead and Curse. Raise the Dead will allow you to summon zombies or skeletons to fight alongside you until you take an extra rest (long rest). However, I highly recommend taking zombies as they are more experienced in close combat. This fact synergizes well with Aura of Hatred due to the extra 4 melee damage they will deal thanks to your high Charisma modifier.
Meanwhile, “Curse” will allow you to curse the target near you. This can result in a penalty to your saving throws, an increase in your necrotic damage against targets, or even a decrease in the result of their attack rolls. “Curse” is a powerful spell that can last for 10 turns, provided you can maintain concentration during that time.
Levels 10-11
At tenth level, the paladin will receive an “Aura of Courage” that will protect him from fear. You can’t be immobilized, and you don’t suffer a penalty to attack rolls or challenge rolls.
Meanwhile, at level 11, you will get the Enhanced Divine Punishment skill, which allows you to deal an additional 1 to 8 points of radiant damage when attacking with a melee weapon. Even better, this extra damage stacks with Divine Punishment’s extra damage so you can kill enemies faster.
Level 12 (max)
When you reach level 12, you can choose the final feature. You can continue to put points into your primary ability to get to 20 Charisma, but you can also try Agile. The Agile Trait is an offensive skill that grants a bonus action when using Das dash in a straight line at least 10 feet away. If you choose to push the target, you can push it up to 10 feet away from you.
Equipment
As for the Oathbreaker Paladin equipment, you will need a two-handed melee weapon such as Anders’ Blade of Justice (kill Karlach, steal the blade, or kill Anders and take the weapon from his corpse). In addition to Cleave and Rupture, you will receive “Defend of Tyr”, which allows you to increase the armor class by 2 points for yourself or an ally. Don’t forget about the bleeding attack.
Heavy armor will allow you to distribute points to other abilities, lowering agility to a minimum, so you can take mail armor by defeating Lurgan in the Underdark. Tyr’s Defense will increase your armor class to 18. You can increase this stat to 20 if you choose the Defense combat style and wear Adamantine Spiked Armor from Grim’s forge (Grimforge).
As accessories, you will need the “Talisman of the Absolute” and “Helmet of Haste”: since you will act as a tank and absorb damage, there is a high chance that your health will drop below 25%. If this happens, you will automatically regenerate 1-8 health points at the time the damage is dealt. Meanwhile, Helmet of Haste will increase your movement speed by 3 meters for 3 turns at the start of each fight. This is important because you need to get within melee range of your opponent every time.
Conclusion
If you choose to become an Oathbreaker Paladin, you can still restore your oath. Just return to the camp to speak with the Oathbreaker Knight and pay him 2000 gold. This will allow you to return to the subclass you selected when creating your character. Your progress will also be saved, so you will receive all the bonuses that are available to the subclass at the current level.
By choosing the Two-Handed Weapon Master trait, you are more likely to cast Bless. You can use a spellcaster that can reduce the penalty to attack rolls. The trait works well with Divine Punishment due to melee attacks using two-handed weapons. In addition, the trait is perfect for Zariel’s drow and tiefling, for whom you set both Strength and Charisma at 16 at character creation. This way you will be able to deal massive damage with both spells and melee weapons.
An alternative to the Sword of Justice (which can be given to Gale through his personal quest) is the Slayer Axe, which grants a whopping 5-21 weapon damage with the potential to deal an additional 1-6 fire damage against certain enemies such as plants and insects. In addition to Cleave and Cleave, you can perform Ready Weapon to sacrifice some of your movement speed for additional slashing damage on the same turn. As for ranged weapons, you can equip a bow, but note that due to low agility, ranged effectiveness will be weak. So the ideal is to team up with other ranged damage characters like wizards and sorcerers.
