O-Chul's Oath

[JNAProductions]

O-Chul's Tenets
See Oath Of Devotion.

Special: Not A Smooth Man, But A Good Man
At level one, before you even take this Oath, should you declare that you will be following O-Chul's Oath, you may replace any feature that uses Charisma with Wisdom instead for the Paladin class. For instance, your Spellcasting feature would use Wisdom for the save DC and spells prepared, not Charisma; and your Aura Of Protection would give your Wisdom bonus to all saves, instead of Charisma.

Spoiler: Design Notes

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I want to let a player be O-Chul without nerfing themselves TOO hard. I'd consider losing good face abilities a decent trade for superior Wisdom skills and saves.

Channel Divinity
When you take this Oath at third level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options:

Steadfast. As a reaction to taking damage, you reduce it by a number equal to your Paladin level plus your Wisdom modifier. This cannot reduce the damage below zero.

Strategic. As a reaction, you may Help an ally within 30'-this must be done before the DM declares the result, but may be done retroactively after the roll is made. You may instead switch positions with an ally who is adjacent to you.

Spoiler: Design Notes

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One makes you tougher, the other makes you think.

Oath Spells
At the listed levels, you gain the additional Oath spells as spells prepared that do not count against the normal total.

Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	Shield Of Faith, Heroism
5th	Warding Bond, Aid
9th	Beacon Of Hope, Crusaders's Mantle
13th	Death Ward, Stoneskin
17th	Wall Of Light, Dawn

Spoiler: Design Notes

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I got nothing. I just picked cool spells that felt thematic.

Aura Of Solidity
Starting at seventh level, you and all allies within 10' of you reduce the damage taken from any source by an amount equal to your Wisdom modifier. This may not reduce the damage below zero.

At eighteenth level, the range of this aura increases to 30'.

Spoiler: Design Notes

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Iffy on this one-as Grod discovered in his Armor As DR thread, this is a tricky proposition. But, since it caps at 5, I think it's okay.

Tough As Old Oak
At level fifteen, you increase all current and future Paladin hit dice to d12s. In addition, once per long rest, when you would be reduced to 0 HP or otherwise die, you are instead reduced to 1 HP.

Spoiler: Design Notes

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This is different from Relentless Endurance. Relentless Endurance does NOT work if you're killed outright-Disintegrate, Power Word Kill, Finger of Death, etc. This does. That's intended.

Unstoppable Force Of Righteousness
At level twenty, as an action, you may give yourself fully to your Oath. For the next minute, you have advantage on all saving throws and resistance to all damage, as well as adding your proficiency bonus to all damage you deal.

Once you use this feature, you may not use it again until you finish a long rest.

Spoiler: Design Notes

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Pretty simple, and powerful, as befitting a Paladin capstone.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The Oath of Seriously No Falling Down, No Seriously Not Even Then.

Sweet and simple. I like it. I wouldn't worry too much about the Aura of Solidity; like you said, it's never going to be high enough to invalidate anything. It was only when I started getting to 8+ DR that issues really started cropping up.

[Composer99]

Pretty straightforward and well designed.

Apropos of the Aura of Solidity, would you combine its effects with those of Heavy Armour Master? Or, in a manner similar to only using one AC-setting mechanic at a time, you can benefit from either but not both?

I mean, feats are optional rules, so you don't have to account for them when brewing, but it's not a bad idea to do so.

[JNAProductions]

Pretty straightforward and well designed.

Apropos of the Aura of Solidity, would you combine its effects with those of Heavy Armour Master? Or, in a manner similar to only using one AC-setting mechanic at a time, you can benefit from either but not both?

I mean, feats are optional rules, so you don't have to account for them when brewing, but it's not a bad idea to do so.

I'd rule that they stack. Since magic weapons and non-physical damage bypass HAM, I don't think it's too much a concern.

[Composer99]

One more thing, that I just thought of:

For Tough as Old Oak, when your Hit Dice increase, are your hit point maximum and current hit points going to increase as well? (It doesn't seem that overpowered to include such a benefit.)

Also, you note in the design notes that part of the intent is to allow you to avoid effects such as power word: kill - however, that spell's effects indicate that if you have 100 or fewer hit points and are the target of the spell, you die instantly, that is, you don't interact with being at 0 hit points. So it does seem that the text of the feature needs a little re-wording to account for that (non-)interaction.

[JNAProductions]

One more thing, that I just thought of:

For Tough as Old Oak, when your Hit Dice increase, are your hit point maximum and current hit points going to increase as well? (It doesn't seem that overpowered to include such a benefit.)

Also, you note in the design notes that part of the intent is to allow you to avoid effects such as power word: kill - however, that spell's effects indicate that if you have 100 or fewer hit points and are the target of the spell, you die instantly, that is, you don't interact with being at 0 hit points. So it does seem that the text of the feature needs a little re-wording to account for that (non-)interaction.

Hit point maximum increases most definitely.

Current HP would be unaffected-but then again, most DMs don't level up mid fight, typically only on a rest.

And yeah, that's a good point. Let me adjust.