Goliaths are large, mountain-dwelling humanoids who are descended from giants. They tend to be highly competitive while also having a strong sense of honor and trust, and often live in small tribes in their mountain homes.

Paladins are a great class for a goliath; goliaths aren’t typically thought of as particularly charismatic, but they have every other trait needed to make a good paladin, including their incredible strength.

How to Make a Goliath Paladin

Although you can go with a charisma-based hexblade multiclass build, the typical goliath paladin is probably going to ignore the hexblade dip and lean into making weapon attacks with their strength. The Volo’s version’s ability scores (strength and constitution) work fine for a paladin but using the Tasha’s rules or the Monsters of the Multiverse version, you can increase other combinations of strength/charisma/constitution if you wish.

The Oath of Glory fits in well with the ideals of goliath society due to their emphasis on competitiveness, athleticism, and self-improvement, but any paladin subclass will work since the base class features and spellcasting are pretty good.

You probably want to use a two-handed weapon and take Great Weapon Master and/or Polearm Master; these feats will dramatically increase your damage output.

How to Play a Goliath Paladin

In a fight, you will want to hit people with your weapons; however, you also have spell slots that can be used for actual spells or smiting. If you think a spell applies to the situation, and it has an ongoing effect, try to cast it early in the fight. Smiting is particularly appealing when your Channel Divinity is available since the temporary hit point boost is quite large. Smite whenever it seems like a good idea, such as on a critical hit or when the party is in a bad situation.

Remember to use your Stone’s Endurance feature to reduce damage taken; this can make you twice as durable at level 1 and is still a decent boost at high levels. Lay on Hands can also save you or an ally if things go wrong.

Starting at level 6, you will want to stay very close to your allies, since your level 6, 7, and 15 features help your allies as well as yourself.

How to Roleplay as a Goliath Paladin

If you choose the Oath of Glory, your adventuring motivations write themselves; you go out in search of glory. Easy. However, if your oath or planned oath doesn’t align with the values of goliath society, perhaps you were exiled, which also motivates you to wander the world in search of adventure. Any somewhat deep voice should work fine if you want to use accents as part of roleplaying.

Your character is likely to engage in physical contests, whether in a friendly or rivalrous way; with high strength, you should have no trouble winning them. Remember that although goliaths aren’t typically thought of as magic users, magic isn’t inherently taboo among them, so using things like Bless or your Channel Divinity is fine, though it’s likely considered cheating to use your Channel Divinity to win a rock climbing competition.

…Although, if your character was exiled from goliath society for violating a lot of social norms, maybe cheating isn’t something your character minds doing all that much. Make sure it fits with your oath, but aside from that, go nuts!