Please review my hastily made paladin oath, thanks!

[NecroDancer]

Hello!

This is a paladin oath that I made in the last hour, I don't expect it to be a balanced at all but I would like to try to make it a playable option.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/117YYj-S9SALCOpoB6xRn3JQm3sgm80acnfri200BnYU/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for any advice. So far the main critique that I've been hearing is that the tenets are a bit too vague so you can't really fall at all.

Now if you excuse me I'm going back to hoping the coming snow doesn't knock out power.

-NecroDancer

[War_lord]

Yeah... there's nothing particularly "oathy" about that oath. It's like if the guy working at the 7-Eleven was a Paladin oath. It's not so much that it's too vague to fail, which I'd consider a positive, but that Paladins are meant to be holy warriors who take a sacred oath. That means they have strong convictions... and your Oath of "Nihilism" here is more of an Oath of Passive Apathy.

[Talyn]

Ignoring the fluff, for the moment.

Mechanically, there are some issues.

Spells: Spell selection is fine, nothing too overpowered, and you've definitely got a theme going.

Madness of Existence - just call it "Stunned."

Soothe the Mind - not sure what you mean by subject to Greater Restoration for an hour. Do you mean that the negative effect that Greater Restoration is supposed to cure is only suppressed for an hour? Or do you mean that, for an hour, if the target is subject to an effect that Greater Restoration can cure, it is automatically cured? The first is underpowered, the second is drastically overpowered.

Aura of Reality - "Mind-altering" is not a currently used game term, so your note about needing to be more specific is definitely accurate. Maybe you want to say "Charm Effects and Illusions"? Does an invisible foe count? How about supernaturally-created fear (like from a Dragon, or the Wrathful Smite spell)? Finally, how does activating the "True Sight" ability work? Is it a Standard, Bonus, or Free Action, or a Reaction?

For Forger of Your Own Fate - again, list what kind of action this ability requires (Reaction or Free Action). The second part of the ability I assume means that if you took half-damage on a save, or there was some other more limited effect on a successful save (like being slowed instead of paralyzed, or something), then you are just entirely unaffected. That power is fine in a dungeon, but be careful when using that ability becomes ridiculous - like, for example, you could get caught in an avalanche and not pushed or knocked prone, or fall into acid and not start to drown, or something like that. Be sure that your players understand that a little common sense is going to apply here.

Champion of You - it's a level 20 ability, so it is supposed to be awesome, but a Bonus action Dispel magic, every round, that doesn't use up your spell slots is extremely powerful. Either make it take your Standard Action and not cost a spell slot, or keep it as a Bonus Action and have it cost the appropriate spell slots. At the very least, clarify that you can only cast it "for free" at 3rd level, since Dispel Magic can scale up in spell levels.

What the heck are "levels of madness"? Is that a homebrew system that you use?

[NecroDancer]

Thank you for the criticism! I thought the oath seemed a bit vague, so far I'm focusing on making the oath more "oathy" while keeping the tenets short and sweet.

I was a bit worried about the abilities being worded incorrectly so I'm currently making them more legible.

I hope to post V2 up next week, thank you for your help