“I am always watching. These are my people to protect. By land or by sky, I will always be there for the people.”

How to Make an Aarakocra Paladin

Starting Stats

There are several ways to build an effective Paladin, depending on what you’d like them to be able to do. With an Aarakocra getting a bonus to Dexterity and being limited to light armor if you would like to be able to Fly, it might be a good idea to start there for defense and finesse weapons.

What you’ll want next will be a high Charisma for your Auras and your spells, giving them a higher success rate and helping your allies more.

Subclasses

With each Oath comes its own set of benefits. Many of these are spells and the Auras that are unique to each one. Oath of Glory will give benefits specifically to Dexterity builds if you wish to take advantage of that. 

Many can be a tough mix for an Aarakocra, but Oath of Ancients has several spells and abilities that will make it tougher for enemies to escape, either on foot or in the air. When it comes to fighting styles, again, if you want to keep to the air your best options will end up being Defense for Armor Class or Blessed Warrior for ranged spell support.

How to Play an Aarakocra Paladin

Oath of Ancients

Gaining access to both Ensnaring Strike as a spell and Nature’s Wrath as a Channel Divinity, gives you a good opportunity on the ground or in the air to tangle up your foes and keep them from moving. 

Whether to make up for your slower land speed or to keep someone from escaping you can easily control the battlefield from a distance. This will allow you to use a bow and while you may be too far for Divine Smite, it will let you utilize the Smite spells.

Oath of Glory

This particular Oath has one of the only benefits to complement the Dexterity of an Aarakocra. With the Channel Divinity Peerless Athlete, you’ll gain advantage on Acrobatics rolls, giving you more freedom to keep yourself on the ground and break free from grapples, or perform amazing flight maneuvers in the air. 

Access to the Guiding Bolt spell is a nice ranged option as well for both damage and support, giving advantage to the next attack against a creature. 

How to Roleplay as an Aarakocra Paladin

The combination is one that works well together for this type of character, especially in a roleplay sense. Aarakocra are usually wise and sage while paladins are almost all about justice or protection. It would be easy to be a warden of a village or a bird on a mission to bring criminals or monsters down. 

Given how fast they mature, it could be just as easy to be a grizzled veteran. You could be the protective party mom or dad, making sure everyone is looked after in the fight with your flying mobility to do it. Whatever you choose, the conflict between racial and class abilities will make them interesting and unique for everyone to experience.