Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Paladin Build (Skills, Subclass & Stats)
Paladins are holy warriors, blending together the heavy armour and melee attacks of a Fighter with powerful martial magic. They're a hybrid between melee bruisers and spellcasters, and have many of the best qualities of both. Unlike all of the other classes in the game, Paladins are also bound by Oaths, which can be upheld or broken by your narrative decisions.
Before going for a single-class Paladin build, it's worth seriously considering multiclassing as a Paladin in . Paladins mainly rely on their Strength and Charisma stats so other classes that prioritize these stats, such as Warlock or Bard, will have some nice synergy. However, even without multiclassing, Paladins can hit very hard and tank lots of damage.
Paladins start off with a few abilities in character creation, including Lay on Hands and Channel Oath. Lay on Hands allows you to spend Lay on Hands Charges to heal an ally or cure diseases and poisons. Some of Cleric subclasses can also heal using their abilities, but this often uses up Spell Slots. You can also spend Channel Oath Charges to use your Channel Oath Abilities.
When distributing starting stats for a Paladin, Strength, and Charisma should take priority. Paladins rely on these for melee damage and spellcasting. However, Constitution is also important as it determines your character's HP and more importantly whether they can maintain concentration on spells. Starting with Strength 17, Dexterity 8, Constitution 14, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 10, and Charisma 16 offers a good balance.
You can always visit Withers to respec and change your class.
Most races and subraces can make a great Paladin. Half-Elf race builds are rather popular for most classes, as their unique features can include useful passive abilities; however, the Paladin class actually works best with less popular races.
Half-Orcs are highly recommended, as their race features have excellent synergy with the Paladin class. Half-Orcs gain Savage Attacks, which adds an extra damage die to
