Oath of Labor - custom paladin oath

[Jendekit]

Working on an oath for the paladin of Argovas (http://www.elderruins.com/2017/06/argovas-trade-prince.html) in my current campaign, only finished up to level 7 atm but thought I'd get some feedback.

Oath of Labor

The traditional oath sworn by paladins of Argovas (http://www.elderruins.com/2017/06/argovas-trade-prince.html), the Oath of Labor is sworn by the Coins (their official title) that serve the church. Argovas (http://www.elderruins.com/2017/06/argovas-trade-prince.html) is a god of wealth, civilization, and (most especially) hard work. To the church of Argovas (http://www.elderruins.com/2017/06/argovas-trade-prince.html), the single greatest sin is sloth, and so long as a person is willing to put in the effort then they can achieve any goal they set their sights on.

Tenets of the Oath of Labor:
• Deal square. Whether it be in business or otherwise, only those of weak character need to resort to trickery to get out ahead.
• Deal, don’t give or take. If you take something then you must offer something in return of equal or greater value. This can be coin, goods, services, anything so long as it is accepted by both parties.
• Own your failings. When you make a mistake, own it and learn from it.
• Be more than a weapon. When possible, choose a weapon that doubles as a tool. Axes and hammers have functions beyond violence, where the sword does not.

Oath Spells
3rd Comprehend Languages, Identify
5th Enhance Ability, Locate Object
9th Tongues, Dispel Magic
13th Dimension Door, Stoneskin
17th Wall of Stone, Animate Objects

Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Weight of Labor. You can use your Channel Divinity to cause an opponent to feel the exhaustion of a kingdom’s worth of labor. As an action, you may target a creature within 10 feet that you can see. The creature must succeed on a Constitution or Charisma save (its choice) or be exhausted. Mechanically this is treated as the third level of exhaustion (PHB 291).
Turn the Foreign. You can use your Channel Divinity to utter ancient words that are painful for fiends and celestials to hear. This ability affects celestials and fiends but otherwise functions as the Turn ability used by Oath of Devotion and Oath of the Ancients paladins.

Aura of Endurance
Starting at 7th level, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have advantage against nonmagical environmental hazards while you are conscious.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

[Scorpion_Strike]

Looks pretty cool at first glance; the flavor is unique and the features are at least interesting and don't look like they'll break balance against other oaths. A couple of notes:

Given that the flavor of this oath is to be zealously hard-working and productive, it would make sense if the features were geared towards making the most of constructed inanimate objects on the battlefield, kind of like 'engineer' type classes in team-based video games. Maybe that's what you're shooting for, maybe not, but it's the first thing that comes to my mind. Either way, the Aura of Endurance is perfect for this role, though in the interest of keeping the wording clear you should probably put in that the Oath of Labor Paladin and his compatriots in this aura get advantage on saving throws against nonmagical environmental hazards.

Looking at the Oath Spells, there's a couple of others that I would personally consider over what's currently in there.
3rd level: I'm not sure what the rationale behind Comprehend Languages or Identify is, but if the theme of the Oath is meant to play with the 'engineer' role perhaps Grease would be a good option to consider.
5th level: I'd recommend Find Traps and Heat Metal, but honestly Enhance Ability and Locate Object are both quite appropriate too.
9th level: Haste, though powerful, fits the theme rather nicely and would be valued higher in many campaigns than Tongues.
13th level: Fabricate and Stone Shape seem more up this oath's alley than pretty much any other spell, and it's not immediately clear to me how Dimension Door is supposed to fit within the theme here.
17th level: actually, Animate Objects and Wall of Stone are perfect.

Both of the Channel Divinity options look perfectly fine to me. Just one question: when using Turn the Foreign, are the ancient words "MAKE ARGOVAS GREAT AGAIN!"?

[Jendekit]

Looks pretty cool at first glance; the flavor is unique and the features are at least interesting and don't look like they'll break balance against other oaths. A couple of notes:

Given that the flavor of this oath is to be zealously hard-working and productive, it would make sense if the features were geared towards making the most of constructed inanimate objects on the battlefield, kind of like 'engineer' type classes in team-based video games. Maybe that's what you're shooting for, maybe not, but it's the first thing that comes to my mind. Either way, the Aura of Endurance is perfect for this role, though in the interest of keeping the wording clear you should probably put in that the Oath of Labor Paladin and his compatriots in this aura get advantage on saving throws against nonmagical environmental hazards.

Looking at the Oath Spells, there's a couple of others that I would personally consider over what's currently in there.
3rd level: I'm not sure what the rationale behind Comprehend Languages or Identify is, but if the theme of the Oath is meant to play with the 'engineer' role perhaps Grease would be a good option to consider.
5th level: I'd recommend Find Traps and Heat Metal, but honestly Enhance Ability and Locate Object are both quite appropriate too.
9th level: Haste, though powerful, fits the theme rather nicely and would be valued higher in many campaigns than Tongues.
13th level: Fabricate and Stone Shape seem more up this oath's alley than pretty much any other spell, and it's not immediately clear to me how Dimension Door is supposed to fit within the theme here.
17th level: actually, Animate Objects and Wall of Stone are perfect.

Originally the oath was centered around trade and was called Oath of Trade, but I wasn't really feeling anything for it. A number of the spells are holdovers from the earlier version.

So modified spell list

3rd: Earth Tremor (EEPC), Grease
5th: Enhance Ability, Find Traps
9th: Dispel Magic, Haste
13th: Fabricate, Stoneskin
17th: Animate Objects, Wall of Stone

[Scorpion_Strike]

That looks like a nicely themed spell list to me, a mix of buff to enhance one's ability to do labor and battlefield control with the products of said labor. One could make a lot of cool occupation-themed builds out of this with various kinds of equipment: lumberjack (axe or greataxe), piledriver/construction worker (sledgehammer, i.e. maul), engineer (giant wrench as a warhammer), etc... I love it already :smallbiggrin:

[TheTeaMustFlow]

Doesn't have a 'smite Tories' ability 0/10

...OK, seriously, it seems a bit weak. The seventh level ability in particular is extremely marginal (compare it to Devotion's Charm immunity or Ancients' resistance to magic damage), and the low-level Oath spells are very circumstantial, particularly given that Paladins don't get ritual casting.

The Channel Divinity options seem fine, though, and I do like the flavour.

[Scorpion_Strike]

Giving resistance to environmental damage in addition to advantage on saving throws against it might power up the aura to be more significant, if not quite up to the standard of straight-up spell damage resistance.

[Jendekit]

Thanks for the feedback, does anyone have suggestions for the 15th & 20th level abilities?