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Oramac
2016-03-21, 10:02 AM
Oath of the Wild

Paladin’s that swear the Oath of the Wild are rarely seen within a major city. They prefer to spend their time honing their craft in the Wilds. These Paladins excel at tracking down and destroying the evils of the world. Often, they prefer to make their attacks from range, though they are capable melee fighters as well.

Tenets:

The Tenets of this Oath revolve around tracking and destroying evil, and protecting the living world. Spending nearly all their time in the wilderness, Paladins of this Oath share similarities to their Ranger and Druid brethren, in that they appreciate the natural beauty afforded by the wild areas outside of civilization.

Beauty: The forests and streams and mountains and prairies of the world are truly things of wonder. Protect them.
Protection: I must protect the wild and civilization, as they form a symbiotic relationship that makes us all better.
Chaos: The wilderness is ever-changing. I embrace change and adaptation in everything.

Oath Spells:
3: Expeditious Retreat; Hunter’s Mark
5: Cordon of Arrows; See Invisibility
9: Flame Arrows; Speak with Plants
13: Blight; Freedom of Movement
17: Awaken; Conjure Volley

Oath Features

Divine Agility: When you take this Oath at 3rd level, your connection to the divine enhances your agility. When not wearing heavy armor, you may use your Divine Smite and Improved Divine Smite features with single-target ranged weapon attacks. However, you may no longer use Divine Smite or Improved Divine Smite with melee weapons.

Channel Divinity

Turn Beasts: As an action, you may present your holy symbol and choose up to 4 beasts and monstrosities within 60 feet to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creatures are charmed for 1 minute or until they take damage.

Spectral Ally: As an action, you may present your holy symbol and utter a prayer, calling forth a spectral beast to attack a target of your choosing for 1 minute. It takes the form of any beast of CR 1/4 or lower in the Monster Manual, and takes its attack action on your turn. The beast disappears if it or its target is reduced to 0 hit points.

Auras of the Wild: At 7th level, your connection to the Wild extends to your allies. Instead of affecting an area, your Auras affect individual allies within 1 mile of you. At 7th level during a short rest, choose one ally that your auras will affect, and one additional ally at 11th, 15th, and 18th levels. You may choose new allies during a short rest. Additionally, you and the allies you select cannot be charmed while you are conscious.

Wild Cunning: Upon reaching 15th level, you are suffused with holy power. While not wearing heavy armor, you may use a bonus action to take the Dash, Dodge, or Hide action. Additionally, when tracking Undead or Fiends, you always know their numbers and how far ahead of you they are.

Divine Fervor: Beginning at 20th level, you are so infused with divine fervor that divine power comes naturally to you. If your total for a Dexterity (Stealth) check or a Wisdom (Survival) check is less than 20, you may take 20 on the roll instead. Additionally, as an action and while not wearing heavy armor you may invoke your divine power to gain the following benefits for 1 minute:
- You have advantage on all attacks against Undead and Fiends
- You gain Truesight to the distance of your normal vision

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Oath of Shadows

A paladin who swears the Oath of Shadows knows that sometimes fighting evil is best done without letting evil know you’re there. These Paladins are rarely seen, and when they are seen, it’s usually so fast that most outsiders don’t know what they saw.

Tenets:

The Tenets of the Oath of Shadow revolve around the secrecy of the Oath. Paladins of this Oath usually work alone, but will sometimes venture out with a party in order to take down the vilest of evils.

Secrecy: If evil knows I exist, it can target me. Stay hidden as much as is possible.

Honor: I may fight from the shadows, but the Light is still my friend. My word is my bond.

Loyalty: My friends know who I am. I must protect them to protect myself.

Oath Spells:

3: Alarm; Disguise Self
5: Darkness; Pass without Trace
9: Gaseous Form; Nondetection
13: Freedom of Movement; Greater Invisibility
17: Dominate Person; Seeming

Oath Features

Righteous Shadows: When you take this Oath at 3rd level, divine power lightens your footsteps. You do not suffer disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks when wearing heavy armor. Also, you may wear heavy armor if your Strength or Dexterity score is 13 or higher.

Channel Divinity

Enveloping Shadows: As an action, you can present your holy symbol to a target you can see within 60 feet. The target must make a Charisma saving throw or be enveloped in shadows for 1 minute. While enveloped in shadows, the target can speak, but cannot move or take any actions, and is immune to all damage. The target can make a new saving throw at the beginning of its turns to end the effect.

Divine Guidance: You may invoke the power of shadow to guide your actions. When you use this power, you gain advantage on the next roll you make for any attack, skill check, or saving throw.

Cloak of Darkness: Beginning at 7th level, when you are not in bright light, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.

Invigorating Shadow: At 15th level, you have advantage on saving throws against poison and the poisoned condition, and against being blinded. Additionally, you gain proficiency in Dexterity saving throws.

Endless Shadow: At 20th level, you can see through magical darkness to a distance of 60 feet. Additionally, you may use your action to gain the following benefits for one hour:
- Allies within 30 feet of you gain advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
- When you deal damage while in dim light or darkness, you may add Radiant or Necrotic damage (your choice) to the attack equal to your Charisma modifier.
- Enemies that start their turn in your aura take 10 Radiant or Necrotic damage (your choice).

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest

Oath of the Light

Paladins swearing the Oath of the Light do not follow one specific deity. Rather, they swear allegiance to an ideal. Paladins of this Oath are always good, and are often (but not always) lawful as well. They hold the Light as the highest achievement, and strive to emulate it in everything they do.

Tenets:

Paladins of this Oath follow the highest ideals of good: protecting the innocent and meting out justice against evil. They are often the first to defend the weak, and the last to leave, guarding the escape of others before their own lives.

Protection: Those with an innocent heart deserve my protection.

Law: As a protector of the weak, I must uphold the law.

Justice: As I uphold the law, I must exact justice against the evils that break the law.

Oath Spells:

3: Healing Word; Protection from Evil and Good
5: Calm Emotions; Protection from Poison
9: Beacon of Hope; Protection from Energy
13: Aura of Purity; Death Ward
17: Dispel Evil and Good; Greater Restoration

Oath Features

Channel Divinity

Turn Evil: As an action, you may present your holy symbol to invoke your Channel Divinity to turn evil. All evil aligned creatures within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute or until they take damage. As an action on its turn, each affected creature may make a wisdom check to end the effect.

Protect Ally: As a reaction, you can invoke your Channel Divinity to grant an ally within 60 feet resistance to all damage until the beginning of their next turn.

Aura of Awesome: At 7th level, the power of the Light flows through you with vigor. You and allies within 10 feet of you that start their turn in your Aura gain 2 hit points. You cannot gain more than your maximum hit points via this feature.

Empowered by the Light: By 15th level, you are infused by the Light. When you cast a single-target healing spell, you may double your spellcasting modifier when adding it to the amount healed.

The Light in a Darkened World: Upon reaching 20th level, you are so infused with Light that you are able to light up even the darkest places. As an action you may gain the following benefits for 1 minute:
- You emit bright light in a 30 foot radius, and dim light for an additional 30 feet
- Enemies that start their turn within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be blinded for the duration.
- You and your allies within 30 feet deal 1d6 additional Radiant damage on all melee attacks.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest

Oath of Death

A Paladin following the Oath of Death understands that sometimes to defeat evil; one must fight fire with fire. The Paladin following this Oath sheds his humanity to embrace Death, forfeiting his own soul to gain near-immortality with which to hunt down and destroy evil.

Tenets:

The Tenets of the Oath of Death are more lenient than any other Oath. A Paladin swearing this Oath is empowered to use any resource available in his fight against evil, though he must still attempt to protect the innocent.

Wrath: Destroying evil is my sole purpose in life. My soul is already forfeit, so I will hunt evil forever.

Efficiency: Time spent rebuilding a town is time spent allowing evil to gain a foothold elsewhere.

Compassion: Only evil need fear my wrath. Those who are innocent must be treated well.

Oath Spells:

3: Absorb Elements; Bane
5: Crown of Madness; Darkness
9: Animate Dead; Bestow Curse
13: Blight; Death Ward
17: Contagion; Raise Dead

Oath Features

Immortal Destroyer: Upon taking this Oath, you sacrifice your soul to a neutral deity of your choice. In exchange, your body no longer ages, and you cannot die of old age. As your soul is tormented, each dawn you take damage equal to 1/4 of your total levels (minimum 1, rounded down).

Channel Divinity

Turn the Living: As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring Celestials and Living Creatures, using your Channel Divinity. Each Celestial or Living Creature of your choice that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action

Touch of Death: You may use your Channel Divinity to destroy a creature’s life force by touch. Using a bonus action, you may activate your Channel Divinity. For the next minute, when you hit a creature with a melee attack you deal extra Necrotic damage to the target equal to your Charisma modifier.

Deathly Smite: At 7th level, your Smites may now deal Radiant or Necrotic damage (your choice). Additionally, when you Smite a target, you gain 5 temporary hit points. You may gain these hit points only once per turn.

Death’s Advance: At 15th level, your speed increases by 10 feet, and magical and non-magical difficult terrain does not reduce your speed.

Avatar of Death: At 20th level, you can assume the form of an Avatar of Death. Your physical form becomes semi-transparent and your appearance changes in a way you choose. For example, you may sprout small horns, or your eyes may glow fiery red.
Using your action, you undergo this transformation. For the next minute, you gain the following benefits:
- All attack rolls are made with advantage
- You gain resistance to all damage
- Enemy creatures within 10 feet of you have disadvantage on saving throws against your Paladin spells and Channel Divinity options.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Oath of the Arcane

Paladins swearing this Oath are often followers of chaotic deities, and tend towards the use of area magic rather than relying on their martial prowess. This is not to say they won’t use a weapon if the situation calls for it, however.

Tenets:

The Oath of the Arcane is relatively new, as Oaths go. Its tenets revolve around arcane study, defeating evil, and protecting allies.

Study: Service requires time spent studying ancient arcane and religious texts and learning their arcane history.

Justice: When evil strikes, it is your job to mete out justice against it.

Restraint: You are a powerful representative of the divine, but wanton use of power doesn’t help anyone. Practice restraint when dealing with less powerful individuals.

Oath Spells:

You gain Oath Spells at the Paladin levels listed.

3: Shield; Thunderwave
5: Mirror Image; Flaming Sphere
9: Counterspell; Slow
13: Arcane Eye; Fire Shield
17: Teleportation Circle; Destructive Wave

Oath Features:

Astral Guidance: Your time spent in study grants you knowledge of both religion and arcane traditions. You gain proficiency with the Arcana and Religion skills if you do not already have them.

Channel Divinity:

Turn the Arcane: As an action, you may present your Holy Symbol towards the heavens, drawing on your divine power to frighten wielders of the arcane around you. Any spellcaster within 30 feet of you that can see you must make a Wisdom saving throw or be Frightened for 1 minute or until they take damage. You may choose a number of creatures up to your Charisma modifier to avoid the effect.

Sacred Magic: As an action, you can call upon the divine to empower your arcane casting for 1 minute. For the duration, you may add your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice) to the saving throw DC of any area affect spell you cast (minimum bonus of +1).

Aura of Arcane Protection: At 7th level, your control of the Arcane allows allies to take advantage of your expertise. When you or an ally within 10 feet of you would take half damage from an area effect, they instead take no damage. At 18th level, this Aura increases to 30 feet.

Arcane Adaptation: At 15th level, your body adapts to the flux of arcane energy surrounding it. You gain resistance to magic damage other than Force and Psychic damage.

Empowered Arcanum: At 20th level, your area affects are empowered by divine fury. Any enemy who fails a saving throw against one of your area affects takes maximum damage from the effect.

Any and all feedback is welcome!

EDIT: formatting

Oramac
2016-03-23, 01:35 PM
Update: clarified some wording in the Oath of Death.

JBPuffin
2016-03-24, 10:33 AM
Oath of the Arcane is a thing in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - you should change the name at the least, if not create a replacement oath.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-03-24, 11:38 AM
Oath of the Arcane is a thing in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - you should change the name at the least, if not create a replacement oath.

You may be thinking of the Arcana clerical domain - the oath in the SCAG is Oath of the Crown.

Oath of the Arcane is, however, the name of a piece of homebrew recently posted by AmbientRaven and frankly, I prefer their version. Sorry Oramac.

Oramac
2016-03-24, 11:46 AM
Oath of the Arcane is a thing in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - you should change the name at the least, if not create a replacement oath.


You may be thinking of the Arcana clerical domain - the oath in the SCAG is Oath of the Crown.

Oath of the Arcane is, however, the name of a piece of homebrew recently posted by AmbientRaven and frankly, I prefer their version. Sorry Oramac.

No worries. I like his version as well.

Anyone have thoughts on the other 4 Oaths, though?

Ninja_Prawn
2016-03-24, 03:49 PM
Anyone have thoughts on the other 4 Oaths, though?

Nothing you'd want to hear. Fortunately, I'm not in the right mood for savagely laying into other people's work. Otherwise I'd have commented, because I'm about to start a paladins-only game and I could do with a few more pre-approved homebrew options.

Oramac
2016-03-24, 03:51 PM
Nothing you'd want to hear. Fortunately, I'm not in the right mood for savagely laying into other people's work. Otherwise I'd have commented, because I'm about to start a paladins-only game and I could do with a few more pre-approved homebrew options.

Au contraire. I do want to hear. I can't get better at homebrewing material without feedback.

I would prefer if you avoided the savagery though. :D

JBPuffin
2016-03-24, 07:51 PM
You may be thinking of the Arcana clerical domain - the oath in the SCAG is Oath of the Crown.

Oath of the Arcane is, however, the name of a piece of homebrew recently posted by AmbientRaven and frankly, I prefer their version. Sorry Oramac.

I realized that more than 12 hours after posting it...:smallfrown:. Carry on, Oramac :smallsmile:.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-03-28, 10:26 AM
Well, if you really want my feedback...

Oath of the Wild
At a glance: It seems like the design intent for this is 'like a ranger, but better'. Thematically, I think the PHB options (ranger, ancient paladin, druid, nature cleric and feylock) have this area pretty well covered and we don't really need any more options.

Other thoughts: why is Turn Beasts only able to effect 4 beasts? Channel Divinity is once/short rest and the 'turn' abilities are supposed to be encounter-ending; if you as the DM throw a bunch of skeletons at a cleric, you have to expect them to get trashed. The decision point is "do I use my Channel Divinity against these beasts, or do I need to save it for later?" So, what I'm saying is, it's okay to be able to turn ten beasts at once.

Spectral Ally has pretty much all the benefits of the beastmaster's main class feature, without the action cost and need to care for an animal 24/7.

The long-range aura makes sense for someone who is part of a team of scouts or skirmishers who have to cover a lot of ground, but I don't like it from a metagame perspective. The point of the short-range aura abilities is to encourage tactical/manoeuvre-based combat where working as a team is rewarded, while your ability just throws that away.

Why does this guy have such a problem with undead and fiends? Monstrosities like Ettercaps, Hydras and Cockatrices seem like they'd be more his kind of quarry.

Oath of the Shadows
I think my issues here are mainly thematic. Why does being enveloped in shadows make you immune to all damage? Given that it's a Charisma save, it'd make more sense if the ability temporarily banished the target to Shadowfell. What on earth is "the power of shadow" and why does it give you advantage on things and resistance to poison? Shadows doesn't have power! They're not even things!

Ultimately, if I wanted to play this character, I'd just do a vengeance paladin / assassin multiclass. I fail to see how this oath offers any improvement on that.

Oath of the Light
"no specific deity"? But... but... Amaunator is the Light! And the Keeper of the Law!

I strongly dislike Turn Evil as a concept. Alignment doesn't belong in that kind of often-used ability.

The Aura and extra healing abilities feel kind of weak.

Overall, I don't see why you would take this over the oath of devotion.

Oath of the Death
The abilities here seem more balanced, but again, I don't see why you wouldn't just play a vengeance paladin. I'd say the fluff for this is within the scope of the oath of vengeance and that doesn't require you to sell your soul. Leave that stuff to the warlocks!

Oath of the Arcane
I don't know. It doesn't inspire me. Maybe AmbientRaven just stole your thunder (wave) on that one.

Oramac
2016-03-28, 11:11 AM
Honestly, not as bad a lashing as I expected. Haha.


Oath of the Wild
At a glance: It seems like the design intent for this is 'like a ranger, but better'. Thematically, I think the PHB options (ranger, ancient paladin, druid, nature cleric and feylock) have this area pretty well covered and we don't really need any more options.

I admit I had the most trouble writing this Oath, and almost didn't even post it. But I figured I needed the practice, so what the hell.


Other thoughts: why is Turn Beasts only able to effect 4 beasts? Channel Divinity is once/short rest and the 'turn' abilities are supposed to be encounter-ending; if you as the DM throw a bunch of skeletons at a cleric, you have to expect them to get trashed. The decision point is "do I use my Channel Divinity against these beasts, or do I need to save it for later?" So, what I'm saying is, it's okay to be able to turn ten beasts at once.

Ten it is, then. I've taken the design philosophy of erring on the side of underpowered (hopefully), since it's more fun to buff things to do more damage than it is to nerf them.


Spectral Ally has pretty much all the benefits of the beastmaster's main class feature, without the action cost and need to care for an animal 24/7.

Except that it's only once/rest and it can only attack one target.


The long-range aura makes sense for someone who is part of a team of scouts or skirmishers who have to cover a lot of ground, but I don't like it from a metagame perspective. The point of the short-range aura abilities is to encourage tactical/manoeuvre-based combat where working as a team is rewarded, while your ability just throws that away.

The idea was that a 30 foot aura on a ranged character that may never be within 30 feet of his allies was kinda lame. This was an attempt to remedy that. Admittedly, it could be better.


Why does this guy have such a problem with undead and fiends? Monstrosities like Ettercaps, Hydras and Cockatrices seem like they'd be more his kind of quarry.

Good point.


Oath of the Shadows
I think my issues here are mainly thematic. Why does being enveloped in shadows make you immune to all damage? Given that it's a Charisma save, it'd make more sense if the ability temporarily banished the target to Shadowfell. What on earth is "the power of shadow" and why does it give you advantage on things and resistance to poison? Shadows doesn't have power! They're not even things!

Ultimately, if I wanted to play this character, I'd just do a vengeance paladin / assassin multiclass. I fail to see how this oath offers any improvement on that.

Thematic I can handle. The idea behind Enveloping Shadows was to be a powerful single-target crowd control ability. I took inspiration for it from the Cyclone ability druids get in Warcraft.

In any case, I can rewrite everything to be more thematically appropriate fairly easily.


Oath of the Light
"no specific deity"? But... but... Amaunator is the Light! And the Keeper of the Law!

He's also not in 5th Edition that I can find. Though I suppose that doesn't matter too much, since a PC could just fluff it pretty easily.


I strongly dislike Turn Evil as a concept. Alignment doesn't belong in that kind of often-used ability.

Yea. I spent a long time trying to find a way to say Evil without saying Evil. Eventually, I just went with alignment, though I agree I don't like it as much either.


The Aura and extra healing abilities feel kind of weak.

Really? That is interesting. I was actually worried about making them too powerful.


Oath of the Death
The abilities here seem more balanced, but again, I don't see why you wouldn't just play a vengeance paladin. I'd say the fluff for this is within the scope of the oath of vengeance and that doesn't require you to sell your soul. Leave that stuff to the warlocks!

Well, at least the abilities seem balanced! haha. I was trying to make this the Oath that had no restrictions on it (even Vengeance has the Restitution restriction). The idea being that trading your soul to hunt evil is your sacrifice/curse, and from that point forward you just hunt and kill evil. Clearly I missed the mark.


Oath of the Arcane
I don't know. It doesn't inspire me. Maybe AmbientRaven just stole your thunder (wave) on that one.

Haha. That is indeed possible. His Arcane Oath is better. I agree there.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-03-28, 02:20 PM
Honestly, not as bad a lashing as I expected. Haha.

Well I was feeling generous. And I savaged Arkhios' Warlord yesterday, so I didn't have any bile left for this...

Oramac
2016-03-28, 02:38 PM
Well I was feeling generous. And I savaged Arkhios' Warlord yesterday, so I didn't have any bile left for this...

Well, I do appreciate that. Though I'm sorry Arkhios got the brunt of it.