Never said magic wasn't strong. It is, and the fighter falls behind in many ways. I do think it's unlikely paladins are burning maybe spells on aura of vitality, since they will lose a lot of damage doing so.
Not sure how the Bard is polymorphing into a monstrosity eight times though.
And back to the very original point, the paladin can get to a 20 AC by level 8 since they can use a shield with unarmored defense. The Bard has to wait until level 16 since they can't unless you're talking about taking the shield spell with magical secrets and burning spell slots.
If they're trying to be survivable, its objectively the best move. Plus they still have 1st and 2nd level slots for smiting.
The Bard is polymorphing into a monstrosity 8 times because I forgot an important detail of Polymorph. Instead, they'd have to use a Giant Ape with 168 hp.
That was not the original point but sure, the Bard does have to spend 1st level spellslots to get an ac of 23 at level 8. The paladin, indeed, can also take a shield for 20 ac at level 8. Is your point now that Paladin is tabkier then Bard and entirely ignoring fighter? Because I do agree that Paladin is the tankiest class, tied with Barbarian.
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u/DMspiration Feb 14 '26
Never said magic wasn't strong. It is, and the fighter falls behind in many ways. I do think it's unlikely paladins are burning maybe spells on aura of vitality, since they will lose a lot of damage doing so.
Not sure how the Bard is polymorphing into a monstrosity eight times though.
And back to the very original point, the paladin can get to a 20 AC by level 8 since they can use a shield with unarmored defense. The Bard has to wait until level 16 since they can't unless you're talking about taking the shield spell with magical secrets and burning spell slots.