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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Paladin Oath: Oath of Anarchy



Oerlaf
2018-08-03, 11:12 AM
The Oath of Anarchy sounds like an oxymoron, but in fact it is not. This Oath opens a new way of roleplaying Chaotic Neutral alignment, albeit much more difficult one. These paladins dream that any laws and any states must eventually fall. They believe that it is enough for people to be self-organized without any limitations imposed by enforcing organizations like Hawks in Mulmaster or White Plumes in Hillsfar.
A Paladin of Anarchy helps each person in meeting their needs, be they good or evil. He naively believes that if a person needs something, he should have access to it unless someone else desires it. In this way, he can help a lich to defend its phylactery because it is vital for the lich, but also the paladin can chase down a merchant who sells public goods because a price means there is no free access. The paladin of anarchy does not need gold and sees no shame in simply stealing what he needs: the gold pieces are material thing that must be destroyed.

Tenets of Anarchy

Decentralization. Battle against any laws because every law limits what a person can achieve. Centralized states and centralized government must fall. Strive to replace them with a free federation of self-governing territorial сommunities.
Freedom. Each person must have enough freedom to achieve full and thorough personality development without external limitations like those imposed by government or finances.
Equality. Be superior to nobody and have none superior to you. There must be no hieracrhy and each person must have equal possibilities to meet his or her own needs and equal access to public goods.
Mutual Help. Help each other without asking anything in return, regardless of the person’s true needs. An egoism separating people must be replaced with solidarity to restore public harmony, when the people help each other of principle “If you help somebody, someone will help you”.


Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed:


Paladin Level
Oath Spells


3rd
fog cloud, shield


5th
blur,mirror image


9th
nondetection, slow


13th
confusion, freedom of movement


17th
dream, hold monster



Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following Channel Divinity options:

Shield Other. When a creature within 30 feet of you is hit by an attack or targeted by the magic missile spell, you can use your reaction to create an invisible barrier of magical force around it. Until the start of your next turn, the creature gains a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and it takes no damage from magic missile. After you do this, you gain immunity to the next damage you take within the next minute.

Destructive Strike. When you hit a construct and decide to use Divine Smite against it, you can speak a prayer that grants you additional power. The damage dice from Divine Smite increase from d8s to d10s and you gain a +1d10 bonus on the damage roll.

Aura of Equality
Starting at 7th level, when any creature starts its turn within 10 feet of you having less current hit points than you have, its current hit point increase to yours (even beyond the creature's maximum hit points).
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Protection From Law
Beginning at 15th level, you are always under the effects of a protection from evil and good spell, except that you are protected against constructs only.

Anarchic Aura
At 20th level, you can emanate an aura of yellow chaotic energy. For 1 minute, bright light shines from you in a 30-foot radius.
Whenever an enemy creature attempts to cast a spell in the bright light, roll a 1d6. On a 1, roll d100 and consult the following table:


d100
Effect


01-19
The spell rebounds on the caster with normal effect. If the spell cannot affect the caster, it simply fails.


20-23
A circular pit 15 feet wide opens under the caster’s feet; its depth is 10 x creature’s spellcaster level.


24-27
The spell fails, but the target or the targets of the spell are pelted with a rain of small objects (anything from flowers to rotten fruit) which disappear upon striking. The barrage continues until the start of the creature’s next turn. During this time the targets are blinded and must make DC 15 Constitution saving throws to cast spells or have the spell slot expended.



28-31
The spell affects a random target or area. Randomly choose a different target from among those in range of the spell or center the spell at a random place within range of the spell.


32-35
The spell functions normally, but any material components are not consumed. The spell slot is not expended, an item does not lose charges.


36-39
The spell does not function. Instead, everyone (friend or foe) within 30 feet of the creature receives the effect of a heal spell.


40-43
The spell does not function. Instead, a darkness and a silence effect cover a 30-foot radius around the caster for 1 minute.



44-47
The spell does not function. Instead, a reverse gravity effect covers a 30-foot radius around the caster until the start of its next turn.


48-51
The spell functions, but shimmering colors swirl around the caster for a minute. The caster must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or gain a level of exhaustion.


52-59
Nothing happens. The spell does not function. Any material components are used up. The spell slot is expended, and charges from an item are used up.


60-71
Nothing happens. The spell does not function. Any material components are not consumed. The spell slot is not expended, and charges from an item are not used up.


72-98
The spell functions normally.



99-100
The spell functions strongly. Saving throws against the spell are made with disadvantage or spell attacks are made at advantage. The spell has the maximum possible effect.

Crisis21
2018-08-03, 03:19 PM
Protection from Law is... underwhelming.

Oath of Devotion gets permanent Protection from Good and Evil at level 15, which protects against a whopping six creature types (aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead), and you're granting protection from... one (constructs).

I get that you want to differentiate it from PfGaE, but you could stand to add in a couple more creature types than just one that some adventuring groups may never encounter.

Edit: Aura of Equality is also going to get real annoying real fast given that, as written, it heals your enemies within the aura radius, meaning you can't beat them so long as they aren't hurting you. And if you change it to only friendly creatures, it becomes obnoxiously powerful, essentially being free unlimited healing which you should never be handing out. My advice? Scrap it and start over.

JeenLeen
2018-08-03, 03:36 PM
A lot of the Anarchic Aura effects make it undesirable as a capstone ability.

I can understand the feel for it, and it's a neat ability, but not as level 20. It has the fun chaos of a Chaos Sorcerer or a Rod of Wonder, but... sometimes those come with the feel of "too dangerous to use" in a lot of situations.

I think you could keep it, but modify it. Make it how everything is at least equal for friend and foe. Like, you could keep the cast Heal on everyone effect--something neutral. Even the Reverse Gravity, while annoying, is still neutral. But drop those where nothing happens or the spell functions normally, or the enemy spellcaster is actually buffed (spell is stronger, or not consuming resources.)
It's a capstone, so it should be awesome.


I also agree that some of the level 7 and 15 abilities feel broken and underwhelming, respectively. Level 7 for some of the other Paladins sounds really cool. I could see it working if you reword to something like "non-hostile's maximum HP is temporarily raised to yours, and gain Fast Healing equal to your proficiency bonus" or something like that. (That could be way too strong--it is infinite free healing.) But something like that keeps it from being an auto-heal each round.
Level 15 just feels weak. Maybe add that it also protects you from Constructs, if you want the construct angle. Protection from divine or infernal powers seems to make sense with the class ethos, I'd think.