D&D 5E Paladins and Channel divinity

[Iraelaemei]

I am thinking of letting my Paladin have to ability to use the channel divinity a number of times equal to when a Cleric can use them, 2 x at lvl 6 and 3x at lvl 18. Would that make the Paladin overpowered? The player is thinking of Oath of Vengeance if that makes a difference.

 

[Illithidbix]

Any particular reason you *want* to implement this?
Normally house rules are added to correct what a DM perceives as a fault.

From my experience Paladins already seem pretty good in general, they've got a very nice toolkit of powers to use between Lay on Hands, Divine Sense, Divine Smite and their spellcasting with extra Oath Spells.

"Overpowered" is a very relative term, and in my head only really matters when it means "Powerful enough that it detracts from the enjoyment of the other players" or "Powerful enough that it makes planning games problematic" - how's your paladin's contribution compared to the rest of the parties at the moment?

Overall though, the game will almost certainly cope with it.

 

[Waterbizkit]

Speaking solely for myself, I wouldn't allow it in my games. Getting it that often would essentially allow them to use it in every combat of the day and the boosts that the various Oaths grant aren't anything to sneeze at. For the Oath of Vengeance that's advantage on at least one enemy for an entire combat every combat of the day. An Oath of Devotion Paladin essentially gets his Charisma modifier to attack for every combat of the day, and so on.

In short, I find the boost a Paladins channel ability gives them to be too potent to let them get it that often. Of course, I'm away from my books so I may be misremembering something.

 

[77IM]

I DM a group with a tempest cleric, and being able to maximize spell damage 2x per short rest is shockingly* powerful. I'd really hesitate to give that sort of boost to paladins, who are already a highly effective class.

It seems to me that when people have a 1/rest power they often hold it in reserve in case a later encounter is more difficult. If such an encounter never materializes, the power might go unused that day. Once you go up to 2/rest, people are more likely to whip it out early, while still holding one in reserve. Thus increasing a power from 1/rest to 2/rest often results it seeing it used MORE than twice as often, like 2.5x or 3x as often.


* nyuk, nyuk, nyuk

 

[Grakarg]

My comment would be to recommend that if you add this ability to the Paladin class, that you remove what you perceive to be an equivalent ability (possibly giving that ability to clerics instead) so that there is some cost associated with gaining the ability. Like the paladin smite ability perhaps?

I think its a good idea to keep the class abilities separate from each other so that if a player likes/wants the cleric channel divinity power, they'll play a cleric (or at least multi-class into it). I know that Eldritch Knights would love to have the ability to swap their spell levels into extra damage like a paladin can. Swapping class abilities around can become a slippery slope, so just be careful.

And alternate idea would be to give them a magic item (holy relic) that grants the faithful the ability to channel divinity a certain number of times per day. It could be the end reward to a difficult quest, making the player feel rewarded and the power 'earned' rather than just a +level up bonus. As a magic item, i'd have it require attunement so that the player has to make a difficult choice about whether or not they equip it, or some other item. In that way, you could also add some spell abilites to the item and its not much more different than a powerful staff or rod, and could be pretty cool.

 

[Jediking]

I play a Vengeance Paladin in one of my games, and being able to use Channel Divinity twice per short rest right now would be very potent. Paladins, especially Vengeance, excel at going toe-to-toe and nova-blasting single enemies. Increasing this ability or allowing them to then knock out two big threats could cause them to be a bit overpowered in the thoughts of other players. It's great when I can take out one big threat while the others have my back, but that's my moment. But if I can do that every encounter, it can hog the spotlight a bit.

That's just my experience though. Channel Divinity recharges on a short rest, and a lot of it depends on your table's encounters, party make-up, resting, all that other individual stuff. I'd say play as things are written before changing it. If's easier to boost later than give him a strong ability now that could cause difficulties.

 

[Jediking]

My comment would be to recommend that if you add this ability to the Paladin class, that you remove what you perceive to be an equivalent ability...

I think the OP is talking about just adding to the existing Paladin's Channel Divinity feature, not giving them the Cleric's Channel Divinity options.
Both Classes get (separate) Channel Divinity features, but Paladins are only able to use them 1/short rest while Clerics get further uses at later levels.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think the OP is talking about just adding to the existing Paladin's Channel Divinity feature, not giving them the Cleric's Channel Divinity options.
Both Classes get (separate) Channel Divinity features, but Paladins are only able to use them 1/short rest while Clerics get further uses at later levels.

Yes, some clarification on what is being added is needed. If it's as Jediking suggests, I don't think that's a huge deal, but Paladins are pretty good as-is. If it's giving them the actual features from the Cleric class, that's a different issue.

 

[Iraelaemei]

I play a Vengeance Paladin in one of my games, and being able to use Channel Divinity twice per short rest right now would be very potent. Paladins, especially Vengeance, excel at going toe-to-toe and nova-blasting single enemies. Increasing this ability or allowing them to then knock out two big threats could cause them to be a bit overpowered in the thoughts of other players. It's great when I can take out one big threat while the others have my back, but that's my moment. But if I can do that every encounter, it can hog the spotlight a bit.

That's just my experience though. Channel Divinity recharges on a short rest, and a lot of it depends on your table's encounters, party make-up, resting, all that other individual stuff. I'd say play as things are written before changing it. If's easier to boost later than give him a strong ability now that could cause difficulties.

I don't think I read that Channel Divinity recharged over short rests. So I think just 1/ short rest would be just fine

 

[Shiroiken]

If you do, I'd recommend just giving them 2x at level 12 (because they are a half-caster).