PDA

View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Oath of the Jaguar: Revisited



Rerem115
2019-06-21, 08:07 PM
The idea of a warrior clad in the hides of the rain-forest's fiercest predators, wielding wicked stone-edged weapons, and raiding isolated villages for captives to sacrifice is a staple of fantasy Mesoamerican settings, and I've tried to make a paladin to match that theme a while back with....mixed success. Learning from my failures and from a couple more years of 5e, I'm going to give it a second try. [Content presented like this means that I'm considering it, but not sure if it's too much]. If you see ways that you think this can be improved, let me know, and I'd greatly appreciate it if I can get some feedback on the [content].

Oath of the Jaguar
The Oath of the Jaguar is inextricably bound to the sun-worshiping religions of the tropical jungles. Sometimes known as Jaguar Warriors, Ocelotl, or Heart-Takers, paladins who swear this oath dedicate their lives to maintaining the constant rise and fall of the sun, one blood sacrifice at a time. To feed the sun the life-blood of those too weak to fight back is neither right nor wrong, but a necessity for continued existence. They make their armor from the hides and pelts of dangerous predators, embodying their strength and their need to kill to survive.

Tenets of the Jaguar
The teachings of the Oath of the Jaguar can be summed up as such:
Preserve the Cycle-Without intervention, night swallows all. Feed the sun and keep it strong.
Might is Right-Those too weak to defend themselves must serve their purpose by giving their life.
Life is Sacred-Blood spilled in battle is blood not spilled for the sun. When possible, take captives so they can be sacrificed properly.

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


Paladin Level
Spells


3rd
hunter's mark, longstrider


5th
hold person, pass without trace


9th
fear, haste


13th
divination, freedom of movement


17th
dawn, tree stride



Optional Proficiencies
Use these if you really want to look the part! When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with macuahuitls (exotic club studded with stone blades, 1d8/10 bludgeoning or slashing, finesse and versatile), tepoztopillis (exotic spear studded with stone blades, 1d6/8 piercing or slashing, finesse and versatile and reach), and Jaguar armor (full body animal hide+padded coat, 13+Dex). Components to assemble these items may be rare or hard to find; talk with your DM to determine availability.

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

Blood Seeker. As an action, you imbue yourself with the predatory spirits of the jungle using your Channel Divinity. For 1 hour, you may add your Charisma modifier to Dexterity (Stealth) checks and gain Darkvision (60 feet), or increase your Darkvision range by 60 feet if you already possess Darkvision. Additionally, you can see through even magical darkness for the duration.

Take Captive. As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer of terror, using your Channel Divinity. Choose one creature within 60 feet of you that you can see. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, unless it is immune to being frightened. Humanoids have disadvantage on this saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature is frightened of you for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. While frightened, the creature's speed is 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.


On a successful save, the creature's speed is halved for 1 minute or until the creature takes any damage.

Aura of Savagery
Beginning at 7th level, your ferocity inspires those nearby, granting them a measure of your strength. When you or an ally you can see within 10 feet of you misses with an attack, you can allow the attack to be re-rolled. You may use feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), and regain all expended uses after a long rest.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet [and you regain all expended uses after a short or a long rest].

Servant of the Dying Light
There is only so much time until the sun sets, and the time to act is now. Starting at 15th level, you ignore difficult terrain, and can dash as a bonus action.

Also, when a hostile creature you can see within 30 feet of you would be reduced to 0 hit points or killed outright, you can choose to have it be unconscious and stabilized instead. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), and recover all expended uses after finishing a short or a long rest.

Soul of the Hunt
At 20th level, as an action you can become an avatar of primal energies. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits.

-Your movement speed increases by 30 feet, and climbing and swimming do not cost extra movement.
-You gain 10 temporary hit points at the start of each of your turns.
-Your attacks deal additional radiant damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1)
-When you reduce a creature with a beating heart to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to tear it out, flooding your body with its life essence, regaining spell slots totaling up to half your paladin level. You can do this once while Soul of the Hunt is active.

Once you have used Soul of the Hunt, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.

Composer99
2019-06-22, 12:56 PM
The idea of a warrior clad in the hides of the rain-forest's fiercest predators, wielding wicked stone-edged weapons, and raiding isolated villages for captives to sacrifice is a staple of fantasy Mesoamerican settings, and I've tried to make a paladin to match that theme a while back with....mixed success. Learning from my failures and from a couple more years of 5e, I'm going to give it a second try. [Content presented like this means that I'm considering it, but not sure if it's too much]. If you see ways that you think this can be improved, let me know, and I'd greatly appreciate it if I can get some feedback on the [content].

Oath of the Jaguar
The Oath of the Jaguar is inextricably bound to the sun-worshiping religions of the tropical jungles. Sometimes known as Jaguar Warriors, Ocelotl, or Heart-Takers, paladins who swear this oath dedicate their lives to maintaining the constant rise and fall of the sun, one blood sacrifice at a time. To feed the sun the life-blood of those too weak to fight back is neither right nor wrong, but a necessity for continued existence. They make their armor from the hides and pelts of dangerous predators, embodying their strength and their need to kill to survive.

Tenets of the Jaguar
The teachings of the Oath of the Jaguar can be summed up as such:
Preserve the Cycle-Without intervention, night swallows all. Feed the sun and keep it strong.
Might is Right-Those too weak to defend themselves must serve their purpose by giving their life.
Life is Sacred-Blood spilled in battle is blood not spilled for the sun. When possible, take captives so they can be sacrificed properly.

Overall, this seems pretty decent to me. Very interesting tone, quite different from other paladin oaths.


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


Paladin Level
Spells


3rd
hunter's mark, longstrider


5th
hold person, pass without trace


9th
fear, haste


13th
divination, freedom of movement


17th
dawn, tree stride




Spells seem thematic.


Optional Proficiencies
Use these if you really want to look the part! When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with macuahuitls (100 gp material cost, exotic club studded with stone blades, 1d8/10 bludgeoning or slashing finesse versatile 5ft reach), tepoztopillis (100 gp material cost, exotic spear studded with stone blades, 1d6/8 bludgeoning or slashing finesse versatile 10ft reach), and Jaguar armor (100 gp cost material cost, full body animal hide+padded coat, 13+Dex)


It looks a little weird seeing all the costs being 100 gp. Especially since, unless I'm mistaken there's not really any metalworking in these items.

Also, both the club studded with stone blades and the spear studded with stone blades deal bludgeoning or slashing. Should not the spear deal either piercing or slashing?

As a final weapon nitpick, neither weapon should have a reach specified as such. Your reach with the weapon is your natural reach (5 feet for Medium creatures), and if the weapon is meant to extend your reach, it will have the reach property. So the spear should have the reach property.


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

Blood Seeker. As an action, you imbue yourself with the predatory spirits of the jungle using your Channel Divinity. For 1 hour, you may add your Charisma modifier to Dexterity (Stealth) checks and gain Darkvision (60 feet), or increase your Darkvision range by 60 feet if you already possess Darkvision. [Additionally, you can see through even magical darkness for the duration.]

[B]Take Captive. As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer of terror, using your Channel Divinity. Choose one creature within 60 feet of you that you can see. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, unless it is immune to being frightened. Humanoids have disadvantage on this saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature is frightened for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. While frightened, the creature's speed is 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.

On a successful save, the creature's speed is halved for 1 minute or until the creature takes any damage.


At first, I thought the ability to see through magical darkness might be a bit much, but considering warlocks can get it as an always-active effect as an invocation, it's fine. This is an hour-long "utility"/exploration channel effect, so it's fine as an action to activate.

Take captive is fine at lower levels, I guess. Once you have Extra Attack, it's going to feel pretty bad using your action to frighten a creature. On the other hand, it's comparable to the Ancients paladin Nature's Wrath channel effect, so it's fine balance-wise. You should specify that the target is frightened of you, since the source of a fear effect matters for the frightened condition.


Aura of Savagery
Beginning at 7th level, your ferocity inspires those nearby, granting them a measure of your strength. When you or an ally you can see within 10 feet of you misses with an attack, you can allow the attack to be re-rolled. You may use feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), and regain all expended uses after a [short or] long rest.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.


Seems fine. Most similar features, such as the diviner's portent or the Lucky feat, recover uses on a long rest, so I would think this should as well.


Servant of the Dying Light
There is only so much time until the sun sets, and the time to act is now. Starting at 15th level, you ignore difficult terrain, and can dash as a bonus action.

[Also, when a hostile creature you can see within 30 feet of you would be reduced to 0 hit points or killed outright, you can choose to have it be unconscious and stabilized at 1 hit point instead. You can do this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1), and recover all expended uses after finishing a short or a long rest.]


I think the first paragraph portion is fine by itself. The portion in square brackets doesn't overpower the feature, although it does feel like it dilutes it, thematically.

If you do want to retain the second paragraph, I would get rid of the "reduce to 1 hit point" part, and just say that the target remains unconscious and stable at 0 hit points.


Soul of the Hunt
At 20th level, as an action you can become an avatar of primal energies. For 1 hour, you gain the following benefits.

-Your movement speed increases by 30 feet, and climbing and swimming do not cost extra movement.
-You gain 10 temporary hit points at the start of each of your turns.
-Your attacks deal additional radiant damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1)
-You have advantage on attacks against Frightened creatures, and creatures that are frightened of you have disadvantage on saves against your spells and abilities.
[-When you reduce a creature with a beating heart to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to tear it out, flooding your body with its life essence, regaining your expended spell slots. You can do this once while Soul of the Hunt is active.]

Once you have used Soul of the Hunt, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.

One hour is far too long. Most paladin capstones last for 1 minute. This would have to be considerably weaker to justify a 1 hour duration.

Also, the added feature in square brackets is way, way, WAY too strong. A 20th-level wizard can only get back 10 slot levels with Arcane Recovery. If you've completely burned through your spell slots before using this feature, you could recover 41 slot levels.

If this feature is 1 minute in duration, and has all the features not in square brackets, it would be pretty well just right. You need to take something out to make room for the slot recovery feature, which I would suggest capping at one quarter your paladin level worth of slot levels.

Rerem115
2019-06-26, 12:47 AM
As a final weapon nitpick, neither weapon should have a reach specified as such. Your reach with the weapon is your natural reach (5 feet for Medium creatures), and if the weapon is meant to extend your reach, it will have the reach property. So the spear should have the reach property.


I cleaned up the language here (and in the rest of the draft, come to think of it) and got rid of the item costs. They were rough estimates from the first draft that I only left in there so players could estimate how long it would take to craft the items using rules from Xanathar's.



At first, I thought the ability to see through magical darkness might be a bit much, but considering warlocks can get it as an always-active effect as an invocation, it's fine. This is an hour-long "utility"/exploration channel effect, so it's fine as an action to activate.

Yeah, that was pretty much my line of thought.



Seems fine. Most similar features, such as the diviner's portent or the Lucky feat, recover uses on a long rest, so I would think this should as well.

I agree with this, but to give the 18th level upgrade a little more impact, I'm thinking of having it be short/long,



I think the first paragraph portion is fine by itself. The portion in square brackets doesn't overpower the feature, although it does feel like it dilutes it, thematically.

If you do want to retain the second paragraph, I would get rid of the "reduce to 1 hit point" part, and just say that the target remains unconscious and stable at 0 hit points.


At first, the bracketed part was the only 15th level feature. I had a bit of trouble trying to find something that went with the theme of the subclass, but in the end, I think I'm satisfied with the current iteration of Servant of the Dying Light.



One hour is far too long. Most paladin capstones last for 1 minute. This would have to be considerably weaker to justify a 1 hour duration.

Also, the added feature in square brackets is way, way, WAY too strong. A 20th-level wizard can only get back 10 slot levels with Arcane Recovery. If you've completely burned through your spell slots before using this feature, you could recover 41 slot levels.

If this feature is 1 minute in duration, and has all the features not in square brackets, it would be pretty well just right. You need to take something out to make room for the slot recovery feature, which I would suggest capping at one quarter your paladin level worth of slot levels.


Yeah, I see what you're getting at. I trimmed the duration down a step, and got rid of the "frightened" bullet. It seemed like just extra, to be honest. However, since Paladin 20 is supposed to be utter nonsense, balance speaking, I felt 10 combined spell levels was suitable.