Example Character: Paladin / Guardian
There are a variety of thematic ways to build a paladin, as a divine warrior can take many shapes and mean different things for different people. While some want to play a demon-slaying crusader with a massive weapon, others want to focus on the support-side, focusing on healing, curing, and dispelling the injurious and ailments their allies face. But there are many who want to play a bulwark of protection, a shield-bearing warrior who uses divine aid to guard allies from harm and punish enemies who attack anyone but the paladin. This was the paladin in 4th edition — a divine defender — and it best resembles today’s example character for the guardian, a hybrid build with paladin to create a divine defender that we’ll be calling The Templar.
The Templar is a level 9 character, with levels split as paladin 6 / guardian 3. Because it fits with the theme of protecting allies and taking hits in their place, the paladin subclass of choice will be the Oath of the Crown (from the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide). The subclass’s ability to attract enemy attention using Channel Divinity will form a core part of the Templar’s defender gameplay, with the guardian prestige class further focusing the Templar’s paladin abilities toward the goal of threatening enemies away from attacking their allies to attack them instead. As a prestige class, the theming for the guardian is primarily defined by the base class of the character before they become a guardian, and the Templar is no exception. The traits that turn any character into a defender might be more intimidating, more mercenary, or more mystical on another character, but as a paladin that already has taken oaths to defend, the themes added by the guardian accentuate the paladin themes to take on the cast of a noble protector that defends even beyond the oaths they’ve sworn or the god(s) they worship. So how is the Templar actually built?
Getting down to the nuts and bolts, the Templar will begin as a paladin and probably specialize in either the Protection, Armored, or Dueling fighting style. Protection is the most fitting for the theme of a defender, but Armored provides extra defense to the Templar themselves and Duelist gives their weapon attacks more bite, giving enemies even more reason to obey the Templar’s guardian mark. After selecting the Oath of the Crown at 3rd level, they make it past the all-important 5th level and gain Extra Attack before reaching 6th level, when they gain access to the very powerful support feature Aura of Protection. Now that they have six levels in other classes, the Templar can take their 7th level and place it in the guardian prestige class, finally gaining access to not just the utility granted by Guardian’s Calling, but the guardian’s defining feature, the Guardian’s Mark:
Guardian’s Mark
When you gain your first level in this prestige class, you also learn how to excel at foiling attacks and protecting your allies by menacing your foes. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can mark the creature until the end of your next turn.
Also, when you deal damage to a creature using a spell, an effect that replicates a spell, or a channel divinity feature, you can choose to mark that creature if it is within 30 feet of you and can see or hear you. The mark lasts until the end of your next turn. You can't mark more creatures in a turn in this way than the number determined by your guardian level, as shown in the "Ability Marks" column of the class table on the previous page.
A creature marked by you has disadvantage on any attack roll that doesn't target you while it is within your reach. Your mark ends early if you are incapacitated or you die, or if someone else marks the creature. There is no limit to the number of creatures you can have marked at once.
In addition, if a creature marked by you deals damage to anyone other than you, you can make one melee weapon attack against it using your reaction. This attack counts as an opportunity attack. You can make this special attack up to a number of times as shown in the "Mark Attacks" column of the class table on the previous page, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.
Now the Templar can not only protect their allies with their paladin spells, channel divinity, and their aura, but their two attacks each turn can be used to mark two different enemies and limit the ability to attack those allies. The Templar’s opportunity attacks benefit greatly from Guardian’s Calling, and the bonus to Charisma checks that it grants will also synergize with the paladin class’s reliance on Charisma. The Templar has now taken their first steps beyond the path of a simple paladin, becoming someone devoted to protection a step beyond the constraints of any particular oaths or ideals. The Templar reaches level 8 and takes their 2nd level in guardian, choosing the Warding Magic option for Protection Specialty, and gaining access to the toughening Withstand Pain class feature:
Warding Magic
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
Choose one class you have levels in that you can learn or prepare spells as. If you prepare spells as that class, you always have shield other (new) prepared, and it doesn't count against the number of spells you can prepare as that class. If not, you learn shield other (new), and it doesn't count against the number of spells you can learn as that class.
Withstand Pain
As a bonus action on your turn, or as a reaction before you take damage from a creature that is marked by you, you can focus your will and gain temporary hit points equal to 1d4 + your guardian level + half your total level. These temporary hit points disappear after 1 minute. You can use this ability up to a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
With constant access to the new shield other spell, the Templar can save their precious spell slots for potent protections of an ally in need at just the right time, potentially saving them from a slew of attacks and dozens of points of damage. The Templar could have chosen Sacrificial Dive to some good effect, but one more level in the paladin class will give the Templar access to a similar (but slightly stronger) ability from the Oath of the Crown, so we decided to go with the less redundant build. Withstand Pain helps the Templar more than make up for the loss of Lay on Hands hit points and from the two (and soon to be three) missing paladin levels.
Finally, the Templar makes it to 9th level and takes their 3rd level in guardian. Unwavering gives them a small bonus to their durability as well as a nice exploration ribbon, but more importantly Powerful Reprisal brings the Templar at last to the thematic ability we’ve been seeking this entire build: the ability to turn on a dime and strike down those foolish enough to attack their allies with the divine might of the heavens themselves!
Divine Reprisal
Prerequisite: Channel Divinity feature
When you use this technique, you can immediately use your Channel Divinity for a Channel Divinity option that would normally require an action or bonus action to activate. If you do so and the Channel Divinity option you chose can target creatures, you must target either the triggering enemy or the creature that was damaged. Immediately after using this technique, you regain hit points equal to half your level + twice your Constitution modifier.
Spell Reprisal
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
When you use this technique, you can immediately cast a spell that normally requires a bonus action or an action to cast, as long as the expended slot level is not higher than your Constitution modifier (minimum 1). The spell must affect the triggering enemy and affect no other creatures except you.
These two choices of techniques for Powerful Reprisal can be used when an enemy marked by the Templar attacks one of the Templar’s allies and the Templar isn’t within melee range to make their normal reaction melee attack. Spell Reprisal lets the Templar respond to such threats both with lockdown and control spells like compelled duel or command (both of which are on the Oath of the Crown’s spell list, so the Templar will have them always prepared), but also more punishing spells they may eventually gain access to as a paladin, like banishment or the new heavenly pillar spell. The other technique, Divine Reprisal, lets the Templar use either of their thematic Oath of the Crown channel divinities in response to a threat — either to subject the attacker and all other nearby enemies to a taunt-like effect that prevents them from running away, or to heal not just the target of the attack, but any other nearby allies in need. After all, the Templar knows that not every attack must be answered with vengeance — some must be answered with restoration.
Now the Templar is a level 9 character, but only a level 6 paladin. Those 3 missing paladin levels would give the Templar the potent 7th-level Oath of the Crown feature, an Ability Score Improvement, 15 points of Lay on Hands healing, and of course not only a third 2nd-level spell slot but two 3rd-level spell slots as well! For those 3 levels, however, they gain from the guardian:
The ability to mark targets of their attacks, hindering them from attacking allies, and punish them with opportunity attacks if they disobey the mark.
Extra ability to influence NPCs and interact with the world as a defender of the needy through Guardian’s Calling and Unwavering.
The ability to defend allies in a pinch using divine magic through Powerful Reprisal and Warding Magic.
Extra toughness to whether the blows they’ve redirected to themselves through Unwavering and of course Withstand Pain.
As they gain further levels, the Templar can choose what kinds of growth fit their character the most. If they seek put more levels into paladin, they’ll first get a potent defensive ability from the Oath of the Crown that fits right into the theme of the paladin / guardian combination — in fact its almost an upgraded Sacrificial Dive. As they gain even more paladin levels, they’ll gain more spell slots and the critical offensive ability Improved Divine Smite, as well as more immunities to various debilitating conditions. This progression keeps the Templar the closest to the theme they’re currently holding. They could also take more levels in guardian instead, potentially maxing out at guardian level 5 to fully hone their reactive capabilities to smite those that harm their allies. If they wish to develop their divine capabilities further and further, they could take levels in cleric (so long as they have enough Wisdom) to boost the capabilities of their Spell Reprisal and even gain new options for Channel Divinity and Divine Reprisal, while improving their healing capabilities as well. The Templar could even take levels in other prestige classes, such as becoming a blessed champion through the Juggernaut (a new prestige class that grants the PC regenerative abilities), or moving closer to the thematic identity of the Stalwart by taking levels in Leader, using Lead By Example to buff allies at the same time as they tank damage as a guardian.
And there are other ways to build the Templar besides just using the Oath of the Crown, including more elaborate multiclass builds. Besides the various combinations of fighter, paladin, and cleric that can be used in place of a simple 6 levels in paladin, the Templar could be based on a combination of paladin and the Path of the Zealot barbarian, or even a pure cleric build. Other paladin subclasses that work well with the guardian to achieve different themes include the Oath of Devotion (for less defending and more holy wrath), the Oath of Redemption from Xanathar’s Guide (for less wrath and more holy shielding and healing), or even the Oath of Conquest or Oath of Vengeance (for all the wrath, and maybe a little bit of shielding). Combining these more offensive paladin builds with the guardian shows off its true versatility, as even when combining with the same class, different subclasses as a base will create such different themes as the holy defender guarding their allies behind a shield and the vigilante crusader charging past harmed allies to cut down those who did the harm with both hands firmly upon their greatsword. One protects their allies by guarding them with divine wards and their own shield — the other does so by menacing their foes and promising bloody retribution for any harm inflicted — but both are paladins and guardians. It’s exactly this kind of flexibility and versatility in accomplishing the desired theme for a PC in 5th edition that makes the prestige classes in D&D Unleashed so worthwhile to include in your games!
