Paladin: Oaths of Liberty and Individuality

[Sniper Jo]

Put together a couple of Paladin subclasses, both themed around the idea of "freedom", but in very different ways.

First up is the Oath of Liberty, a support-focused Oath for those who seek to tear down unjust laws and build something better in their place:

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The second is the Oath of Individuality, for those who put themselves before all others and lend a hand only where there is mutual benefit to be had:

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Feedback on either of these would be very much appreciated!

[Damon_Tor]

These are great concepts. I have a few quibbles.


Aura of unity is extremely strong. The ability for your allies to use Lay on Hands in your place is fine, and probably enough of a benefit for the whole feature. Keep in mind that it would apply to non-pc allies as written, so familars and found steeds and beast companions can apply lay on hands. My issue is the ability to apply smites to your allies' attacks: divine smite is most powerful when used on a crit, with the major limiting factor being the limited number of crits you're likely to get in any given day. By opening up your allies as vectors by which you can apply this damage, your chance to crit is effectively multiplied by the number of allies in your party, which is a massive boost to damage.

Both of the Oath of Individuality's channel divinity options are very weak. A 10x10 1 round barrier is extremely circumstantial, only doing anything at all in an environment where there is a chokepoint to plug. And even then you have to use your action and CD use to put up that barrier for just 1 round... and the barrier can be attacked/cast through? Forceful defense adds just 1d8 extra damage to your next smite. So not only do you use your CD, you also have to use a spell slot. I would simply add 1d8 to your next hit against them regardless of smite use.

I get why you bucked the typical aura ability for level 7 here, but the result is so much weaker than any other option, especially since this is a feature you're applying to damage spells on a class that doesn't really do that.

Alternate suggestion:

Mutual Benefit
Whenever you or an ally within 10 feet of you targets another creature with a beneficial spell or effect, the target of that spell or effect can use their reaction to use a beneficial spell or effect that would normally require an action or bonus action. The triggering creature must be a target of this spell or effect.

At 18th level the radius of this effect increases to 30 feet.

Master of the Self needs a use limit, otherwise it's effectively always on and thus far too strong.

[Sniper Jo]

Thank you for the feedback!

Aura of unity is extremely strong. The ability for your allies to use Lay on Hands in your place is fine, and probably enough of a benefit for the whole feature. Keep in mind that it would apply to non-pc allies as written, so familars and found steeds and beast companions can apply lay on hands. My issue is the ability to apply smites to your allies' attacks: divine smite is most powerful when used on a crit, with the major limiting factor being the limited number of crits you're likely to get in any given day. By opening up your allies as vectors by which you can apply this damage, your chance to crit is effectively multiplied by the number of allies in your party, which is a massive boost to damage.

Mm, yeah, fair. If it was an "ally can use smite once per rest" situation, would that bring it back into line?

Both of the Oath of Individuality's channel divinity options are very weak. A 10x10 1 round barrier is extremely circumstantial, only doing anything at all in an environment where there is a chokepoint to plug. And even then you have to use your action and CD use to put up that barrier for just 1 round... and the barrier can be attacked/cast through? Forceful defense adds just 1d8 extra damage to your next smite. So not only do you use your CD, you also have to use a spell slot. I would simply add 1d8 to your next hit against them regardless of smite use.

Ah, yeah, I think I overcorrected on the barrier by a fair way - spells like Wall of Force and Antilife Shell that I was looking at for a point of reference are high-level spells, so I think I toned them down a bit too much. Not sure how to fix that - maybe I could instead make it, like, a one-minute, unmoving version of Antilife Shell, since I gather that spell's considered fairly weak anyway?
I'll take your advice on Forceful Defense.

I get why you bucked the typical aura ability for level 7 here, but the result is so much weaker than any other option, especially since this is a feature you're applying to damage spells on a class that doesn't really do that.

Alternate suggestion:

Mutual Benefit
Whenever you or an ally within 10 feet of you targets another creature with a beneficial spell or effect, the target of that spell or effect can use their reaction to use a beneficial spell or effect that would normally require an action or bonus action. The triggering creature must be a target of this spell or effect.

At 18th level the radius of this effect increases to 30 feet.

Oh, that's a clever way to use an "aura" ability without detracting from the "self-prioritising" flavour. I'll use this if you're okay with that.

Master of the Self needs a use limit, otherwise it's effectively always on and thus far too strong.

Forgot to add the line about it being 1/long rest. Amended.

[Damon_Tor]

Thank you for the feedback!

Mm, yeah, fair. If it was an "ally can use smite once per rest" situation, would that bring it back into line?

It's better. I still think free use of Lay on Hands is feature enough though.

Ah, yeah, I think I overcorrected on the barrier by a fair way - spells like Wall of Force and Antilife Shell that I was looking at for a point of reference are high-level spells, so I think I toned them down a bit too much. Not sure how to fix that - maybe I could instead make it, like, a one-minute, unmoving version of Antilife Shell, since I gather that spell's considered fairly weak anyway?
I'll take your advice on Forceful Defense.

If you look at what other paladin Channel Divinities can do, one is often very powerful, build defining even. The other is flavorful and niche. You handled this very well with the Oath of Liberty, but both of the Individualists' need work. As a point of reference for what you're going for with Forceful Defense, take a look at the Oath of Conquest's Guided Strike: both provide a one-time boost to a single attack, but Guided Strike, with no preconditions, adds +10 to an attack, almost certainly turning a miss into a hit (unless the player seriously misjudges enemy AC). So if you were going to keep it to a one-time damage increase, it would have to be more akin to the amount of damage you might do with a whole attack. However, I would think something more like the Vow of Enmity would be more appropriate here: rather than a one-time increase to damage, make it a long-lasting bonus to attack damage. +1d6 to damage against that creature for up to 1 minute would be appropriate, I would think, considering the relative power of Vow of Enmity. If you want to think of it in terms of spell-levels for balance, think of it like a Hunter's Mark, a first level spell. You still have the precondition that the creature has to hit you first.

If Forceful Defense gets that buff, I would be okay with Define Boundary remaining niche. I would probably increase the number of rounds it lasts somewhat (maybe make it last a number of rounds equal to your Cha mod or something, a full minute seems excessive)

Oh, that's a clever way to use an "aura" ability without detracting from the "self-prioritising" flavour. I'll use this if you're okay with that.

Sure.

Forgot to add the line about it being 1/long rest. Amended.

Sounds good.

[Sniper Jo]

Cool - I've made your suggested updates to the Homebrewery doc.

Since I didn't want to lose the Divine Smite ability entirely, I decided to give a cumulative use limit for both Lay On Hands and Divine Smite:

Aura of Unity
At 7th level, you and your allies fight as one. While within 10 feet of you, your allies can use the Lay On Hands ability as if they were you, drawing from your healing pool; additionally, when an ally within 10 feet makes a melee attack, you can choose to apply Divine Smite to their attacks as you would with your own. Either ability can be used a cumulative number of times equal to your Charisma modifier; you regain all uses of this ability when you finish a short or long rest.

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