Paladin Sacred Oath: Oath of Obedience

[Easy_Lee]

The idea for this thread came from a post made by Naanomi over in the 5e general.

Oath of Obedience Paladins are also needed... Your classic Samurai and Dark Sun's Templars need a path to follow the absolute authority of a leader and laws without concern for moral alignment behind it

I intend this thread to be a crowdsourced sort of thing, everyone presenting ideas for features and for enterprising players to pick their favorites. I propose these rules:

Stick to the template when creating features.
You don't need to write out a full archetype. Just posting some ideas for various abilities is fine.
Ensure that all features are balanced against other paladin oaths.
Ensure that features do not copy those from other paladin oaths.
Be respectful of other posters.


Description
A general description of the Oath.

Tenets
Things that one must do to follow this oath. Examples include No Mercy for the Wicked (Vengeance), Honesty (Devotion), and Kindle the Light (Ancients). These have a general Good Guy feel to them, which may be important to consider when designing those for your version of the archetype.

Oath Spells
Oaths grant new spells according to the following table.
Paladin LevelSpells
3rdTwo 1st level spells
5thTwo 2nd level spells
9thTwo 3rd level spells
13thTwo 4th level spells
17thTwo 5th level spells

Channel Divinity
The paladin gains two ways to spend his Channel Divinity feature.

Seventh Level Feature
The paladin gains an ability at seventh level which grants benefits under specific battle circumstances. For the existing oaths, these include an aura which prevents charm, an aura which grants resistance to damage from spells, and the ability to move half of one's speed immediately after making an opportunity attack. The two auras scale up to 30 ft at 18th level.

Fifteenth Level Feature
The Paladin gains another passive benefit. In the case of the vengeance paladin, this passive benefit affects enemies under his Vow of Enmity, but the other two have always-on benefits.

Capstone
Each paladin oath grants a capstone ability which allows him to assume an empowered form for one minute by using his action. This ability can be used once per long rest. Some common themes include emanating auras and empowering existing paladin abilities.


I imagine the Oath of Obedience as being a very defensive sort of paladin. I also imagine him reacting to other's attacks. Here's my thought for the level 7 ability:

Seventh Level Feature: Counterattack
Whenever you take the dodge action, you may spend your reaction to make an attack against any foe who attacks you or an ally within your reach until the start of your next turn. If you have the extra attack feature, you may make two attacks against that foe as your reaction.

Have fun.

[Naanomi]

A 'bodyguard' angle probably is a good one; maybe taking 1/2 the damage for someone else or something; or 'marking' someone to heal/buff them at range

[Steampunkette]

What about an empowerment of Law that gives bonuses to Lawful creatures and penalties to Chaotic ones?

And how about the ability to turn Chaotic Outsiders? Demons and Slaad, be gone!

[Naanomi]

What about an empowerment of Law that gives bonuses to Lawful creatures and penalties to Chaotic ones?

And how about the ability to turn Chaotic Outsiders? Demons and Slaad, be gone!
The system doesn't pay much attention to alignment anymore; maybe turn humanoid 'lawbreakers'?

[Easy_Lee]

A 'bodyguard' angle probably is a good one; maybe taking 1/2 the damage for someone else or something; or 'marking' someone to heal/buff them at range

That might make a really good Channel Divinity feature.

Mark of the Lord: Designate an ally. For the next minute, half of all damage taken by that ally (round up) is transferred to you instead. If damage taken this way would reduce you to 0 hit points, it instead reduces you to one hit point and ends this effect.

[Naanomi]

That might make a really good Channel Divinity feature.

Mark of the Lord: Designate an ally. For the next minute, half of all damage taken by that ally (round up) is transferred to you instead. If damage taken this way would reduce you to 0 hit points, it instead reduces you to one hit point and ends this effect.

Furthermore you can use your Healing Touch ability and any spells with range 'touch' on the target, regardless of distance or obstacles between you.

[Easy_Lee]

Furthermore you can use your Healing Touch ability and any spells with range 'touch' on the target, regardless of distance or obstacles between you.

Yep, that'd be a good addition.

[Ralanr]

Possible tenant: "Your charge comes first, but you are not mindless. If your charge is willing to abandon the reason for your obedience, then you are no longer bound."

This was better in my head. I'm gonna be slow for maybe a month.

[Naanomi]

This isn't exact wording but the four tenants should be something like
-follow the word of your master unerringly
-never allow a lawbreaker to go unpunished
-punish those who would unjustly claim authority in the false name of your master
-don't allow those who would pervert or interpret the law beyond its stated intent to benefit from their crimes

[weaseldust]

I know you said writing out a whole archetype was unnecessary, but I did it anyway because I wanted to make sure I was working from a single, coherent concept. Reading the comments above, I think my understanding of 'obedience' might not be what you intended. (I'd say you could be devoted to protecting someone without attributing them any authority over you, so being a bodyguard isn't part of what I took an oath of obedience to cover; mine is more about following and enforcing rules and/or a chain of command.) I did try to stick with the defensive theme, though.

Tenets:

Service – to find a cause, code or figurehead to serve and to devote your talents fully and faithfully to it

Discipline – to submit to a set of rules or a suitable authority; to ensure that anyone under your own delegated authority does not stray from their duties

Resolution – to hold fast to the rules or authority you obey even in the face of contrary fears or desires

Vigilance – to continually monitor your own behaviour and that of your superiors and inferiors alike so that even the first sign of disobedience will be noticed and corrected


Spells

3: Command, Unseen Servant

5: Detect Thoughts, Hold Person

9: Clairvoyance, Magic Circle

13: Guardian of Faith, Mordenkainen’s Faithful Hound

17: Geas, Hold Monster


Channel Divinities:

Proof Against Temptation
You steel yourself against possible temptations in advance, the better to guard against them.

As a bonus action, name a possible course of action; the next time you would be compelled by fear or magic, or persuaded while enchanted, to act contrary to your vows, you instead take the named course of action.

Steadfastness
Once directed to hold a position, you are as implacable as a wall of stone.

As a bonus action, choose an area at most 20 feet across in any direction that you are free to move around; as long as you remain able to move and act, the ground is difficult terrain for hostile creatures, and any hostile creature attempting to enter the area must first pass a Dexterity check against your spell save DC.


Level 7 ability

Aura of Implacability
You cannot be diverted from your duty by any means.

You and friendly creatures within 10' (at level 18, 30') are immune to forced movement, and if subjected to a spell or other effect that would cause you/them to choose to move against your/their better judgement, you/they merely remain stationary instead.


Level 15 Ability

Icon of Faithfulness
Your supernatural forthrightness has unfortunate consequences for those who would try to betray you and your cause.

Creatures that renege on a promise to you immediately develop the symptoms of one of the diseases described in the spell Contagion; the cause of their condition is immediately obvious to you, though it requires a DC 25 Religion check for anyone else to discover, and you may cause the symptoms to disappear by verbally absolving the victim of their faithlessness.


Capstone

Grim Lawgiver
You briefly exhibit the authority derived from your cause in its purest and most overbearing form.

You may activate this ability once per day as an action. For one minute, you and friendly creatures within 30’ are immune to fear and enchantment; further, when you use this ability, and as a bonus action on every subsequent turn, you may issue a command to any number of creatures within 30’ as per the spell Command.

[Steampunkette]

Steadfastness is good. But I think the pally needs to be in the chosen area.

Icon of Faithfulness is neat, but it will only affect party members and, potentially, patrons.

[Easy_Lee]

@Weasel those are interesting ideas, but seem a bit complex. It's not clear exactly when and how they may be used, so they would be somewhat open to DM interpretation. I'd prefer something very clear. For example:

Channel Divinity: Proof Against Temptation - as a bonus action, remove one fear or charm effect from yourself.
Channel Divinity: Steadfastness - as a reaction in response to an effect which would move you against your will, such as a Gust of Wind spell or a Shove attack, spend your reaction to ignore that effect and become immune to similar effects until the end of your next turn.