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



Samhaim
2015-03-28, 03:12 PM
Hello there! My first post and my first attempt EVER (in more than 15 years of role playing) to create some homebrew material, not counting campaign settings, which are purely narrative :smallbiggrin:. I am posting to get some feedback out of this idea. Please, be kind :smalleek: (but still, point out what in your opinion should be tweaked or changed).


Oath of Supremacy
The Oath of Supremacy is sworn by those that aim of being above all others in regard to authority, power, or status. These individuals commit wholeheartedly to a egotistical quest for personal perfection. Paladins adhering to this oath or often called by names such as blackguards or black knights. They often adopt a strict code of honour, sometimes believing that with their superiority should come with certain obligations, usually, though , their word is reliable only in the mere strictest of terms and only to the letter. Most of those who swear this oath are devout to gods of order and tyranny, perhaps hoping, deep inside their souls, to one day take the mantles of absolute power from their godly patrons.

Tenets of Supremacy
The tenets of the Oath of Supremacy are a various as those who commit to them, but most adhere to these tenets:
Dominance: Strive for power and influence upon all that you lay eyes upon

No Mercy for thy Enemy, only Submission: Resistance should always be crushed, or, when possible, defiance should be broken into servitude.

Never Forget, Never Forgive: Forgiveness and forgetfulness are sins in the pursuit of the ultimate goal.

Be Exemplar: To whatever Ideal of ultimate perfection you hold yourself, never betray it, for anything else equals to failure.

Allow for no Weakness: When moral quandaries are in the way, be ruthless. When subservience aids you in your goal, be humble. Otherwise, live as loftily and you might.

Oath Spells
Paladin Level Spells
3rd bane, command
5th detect thoughts, hold person
9th fear, haste
13th banishment, confusion
17th dominate person, geas

Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Commanding Presence. As an action, you channel all of your personal magnetism and blast it in a wave of pure authority. Each sentient creature of the paladin's choice within 30 feet of the paladin must make a Wisdom saving throw if it can see the paladin. On a failed save, the creature is charmed by the paladin for 1 minute. If a creature charmed by this effect is attacked by the paladin or one of its allies, the effect ends.
Armour of Contempt. As a bonus action, you use your distaste for those who oppose you as an armour against their assault. For 1 minute, you add a +2 modifier to your class armour. Your skin and your gear are enshrouded in a dark mist like veil, that gives you a dread appearance . You can end this effect on your turn as part of any other action. If you fall unconscious, this effect ends.

Ruthless Hostility
Starting at 7th level, your cold rage and spite for your enemies inspire dread in all those who are witness to how you deal with opposition. When you kill creature with a weapon attack, you may use a bonus action to attempt to frighten a creature of the paladin's choice within 30 feet. The targets must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, it is frightened of you until the end of your next round.

Unstoppable Force
Beginning at 15th level, whenever an attack against you would reduce below 1 hit point, you are considered like having resistance against that source of damage. Additionally, your hit point maximum increases by 15 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class.

Aspect of Domination
At 20th level, the paladin can, as an action, surround himself with an aura of absolute authority that lasts for 1 minute. Each creature within 30 feet of the paladin have disadvantage to saving throws against abilities and spells cast by him. Each enemy not charmed by the paladin that starts its turn within takes 10 psychic damage Additionally, while the aura lasts, the paladin can use an action to focus all of his will against a creature not charmed by him. The paladin makes a ranged spell attack against the target. If the attack hits, the target takes psychic damage equal to 4d8 + the paladin's Charisma modifier. Once this feature has been used, it can't be used again until after the paladin finishes a long rest.

Dhavaer
2015-03-28, 05:40 PM
I'm not yet up with 5e's balance, but I like the idea. If anything is too powerful it's probably Armour of Contempt, since AC bonuses are few and far between. Unstoppable Force doesn't really fit with the rest of the class's focus on mental effects.

GorinichSerpant
2015-03-28, 05:59 PM
I like that is doesn't specify that you have to be evil and you could theoretically play this as a person with good alignment or who at least comes close. This could lead to some interesting stories and inner conflicts. For example a father figure that guides everyone else or punishes them. Most likely if a Paladin follows this ideology he will turn evil, but it would be a interesting ride to hell. My hats off to you.

Samhaim
2015-03-29, 08:54 AM
I'm not yet up with 5e's balance, but I like the idea. If anything is too powerful it's probably Armour of Contempt, since AC bonuses are few and far between. Unstoppable Force doesn't really fit with the rest of the class's focus on mental effects.

Those are fair points! Perhaps I could reduce the AC bonus to a static 3 (or 2). The idea behind the ability was for it to be in complete opposition with that of the oath of devotion. Now that it was pointed out, I agree that I should look for something more mental related. Thanks for the great input!


I like that is doesn't specify that you have to be evil and you could theoretically play this as a person with good alignment or who at least comes close. This could lead to some interesting stories and inner conflicts. For example a father figure that guides everyone else or punishes them. Most likely if a Paladin follows this ideology he will turn evil, but it would be a interesting ride to hell. My hats off to you.

I am happy you like it! Being a big fan of grey moral areas I could not resist trying to make an anti hero like this. It's good that I managed to give the right idea with the few lines of text used for flavour.

Draken
2015-03-29, 11:16 AM
Those are fair points! Perhaps I could reduce the AC bonus to a static 3 (or 2). The idea behind the ability was for it to be in complete opposition with that of the oath of devotion. Now that it was pointed out, I agree that I should look for something more mental related. Thanks for the great input!



I am happy you like it! Being a big fan of grey moral areas I could not resist trying to make an anti hero like this. It's good that I managed to give the right idea with the few lines of text used for flavour.

It looks quite nice, indeed.

For your quest for a level 15 ability, you could have the paladin gain resistance to all damage dealt by enemies that are or were frightened by the paladin during the fight.

MrStabby
2015-03-30, 05:54 AM
For me it is ruthless hostility that seems exceptionally good. A bonus action isn't free but the frightened effect is simply superb. Any attack you would lose from a bonus action is likely replaced with an AoO as something moves away from you. Also the every creature within 30 ft part allows you to have a pretty massive effect in some encounters. At will crowd control targeting wisdom saves (common weak save for monsters) is a really good feature. Use this for advantage/disadvantage to be very unlikely to miss things and you can really, really get a huge benefit from this.

Samhaim
2015-03-30, 07:42 AM
For me it is ruthless hostility that seems exceptionally good. A bonus action isn't free but the frightened effect is simply superb. Any attack you would lose from a bonus action is likely replaced with an AoO as something moves away from you. Also the every creature within 30 ft part allows you to have a pretty massive effect in some encounters. At will crowd control targeting wisdom saves (common weak save for monsters) is a really good feature. Use this for advantage/disadvantage to be very unlikely to miss things and you can really, really get a huge benefit from this.

Fair point. One creature seems more like it!

Torgaard
2015-03-30, 10:51 AM
Love it! Well done, sir.

I'll just throw in my two cents on a couple of features that might need some balance tweaking, both of which are mentioned by others in this thread. Naturally, these are just my opinions. They're meant to be helpful. There's zero emotion behind them. Just my armchair DM casual comments on how I personally would tweak it.

Armour of Contempt - Great idea for a feature! I totally dig the concept and flavor. But that seems like too much of an AC bonus, especially considered the frequently cited, hallowed words of the WotC designers: "bounded accuracy". Which basically means that the number curve in 5E for things like bonuses to attack have been flattened a bit (ie no more +37 to hit at 20th level, now it's more like +9 to hit at 20th level). That in mind, a character could very easily (and very early in his career) be throwin' down a +4 or +5 bonus to AC. While the fact that it's a Channel Divinity, so it can again after a short or long rest does limit it, and it only lasts 1 minute (though, frankly - that basically translates as "the entire fight"), to my mind it's benefits still outweigh its limits. I like your idea of a flat bonus. I'm in favor of +2, as I get the feeling that - while not too common throughout the rules - if there is a couple of "tiers" of static bonuses 5E dishes out, it's +2 and +5. The +2 being "Good!" and the +5 leaping straight to "Crazy-amazing holy crap, good!".

Ruthless Hostility - Again, a great idea, great flavor - love it! But this one is really powerful in my mind. Too powerful. The 'frightened' condition slapped on that many (potential) creatures is a game changer. Frightened causes you to (a) have disadvantage on all ability and attack rolls, and (b) you won't willing move closer to the cause of your fear. Wow! Consider that there could be like 15 orcs within range of that first kill, and I'm gonna say like 60% or more of them would fail their save? Eeeee, too much. How about any enemy adjacent to the enemy slain? That's still pretty potent, but I won't affect that many enemies. And it fits the flavor: the enemies right next to the guy slain got a front row seat to how badass the Blackguard is, and they're back peddling away from this guy.

There ya go. :smallsmile:

Samhaim
2015-03-30, 12:17 PM
Love it! Well done, sir.

I'll just throw in my two cents on a couple of features that might need some balance tweaking, both of which are mentioned by others in this thread. Naturally, these are just my opinions. They're meant to be helpful. There's zero emotion behind them. Just my armchair DM casual comments on how I personally would tweak it.

Armour of Contempt - Great idea for a feature! I totally dig the concept and flavor. But that seems like too much of an AC bonus, especially considered the frequently cited, hallowed words of the WotC designers: "bounded accuracy". Which basically means that the number curve in 5E for things like bonuses to attack have been flattened a bit (ie no more +37 to hit at 20th level, now it's more like +9 to hit at 20th level). That in mind, a character could very easily (and very early in his career) be throwin' down a +4 or +5 bonus to AC. While the fact that it's a Channel Divinity, so it can again after a short or long rest does limit it, and it only lasts 1 minute (though, frankly - that basically translates as "the entire fight"), to my mind it's benefits still outweigh its limits. I like your idea of a flat bonus. I'm in favor of +2, as I get the feeling that - while not too common throughout the rules - if there is a couple of "tiers" of static bonuses 5E dishes out, it's +2 and +5. The +2 being "Good!" and the +5 leaping straight to "Crazy-amazing holy crap, good!".

Ruthless Hostility - Again, a great idea, great flavor - love it! But this one is really powerful in my mind. Too powerful. The 'frightened' condition slapped on that many (potential) creatures is a game changer. Frightened causes you to (a) have disadvantage on all ability and attack rolls, and (b) you won't willing move closer to the cause of your fear. Wow! Consider that there could be like 15 orcs within range of that first kill, and I'm gonna say like 60% or more of them would fail their save? Eeeee, too much. How about any enemy adjacent to the enemy slain? That's still pretty potent, but I won't affect that many enemies. And it fits the flavor: the enemies right next to the guy slain got a front row seat to how badass the Blackguard is, and they're back peddling away from this guy.

There ya go. :smallsmile:

Thanks for the much appreciated imput :smallwink:. I have modified the original post with the new text :smallbiggrin:

Draken
2015-03-30, 07:59 PM
Just noticed that Ruthless Hostility is actually in the spot of the Paladin's Aura, so it should probably be nice like this:

1. Activated on kill. No action cost.
2. Starting range 10 feet. Increases to 30 at level 18.
3. Creatures that save become immune for a day (So single shot on any given enemy).

Flashy
2015-03-30, 09:40 PM
Commenting to say I think this is delightful homebrew. It's balanced, flavorful and an excellent concept.

I am however wondering how Unstoppable Force would interact with odd situations where you're subjected to two types of damage at once. Does the resistance apply to only a single type of damage or to the damage as a whole? For example, if another Paladin smites you. Would you be resistant to the physical damage, the radiant damage or both? If it's the later it might be better to reword it as "...whenever an attack against you would reduce you below 1 hit point you are considered resistant to all damage from that attack..."

Samhaim
2015-03-31, 03:17 AM
Just noticed that Ruthless Hostility is actually in the spot of the Paladin's Aura, so it should probably be nice like this:

1. Activated on kill. No action cost.
2. Starting range 10 feet. Increases to 30 at level 18.
3. Creatures that save become immune for a day (So single shot on any given enemy).

1. Agreed
2-3 Disagree. I am afraid, since I am not sure how often that ability is going to be triggered (as opposed to an aura which is always active), that such limitations would severely damped the potential effectiveness of the ability. Also, Kangaroos!


Commenting to say I think this is delightful homebrew. It's balanced, flavorful and an excellent concept.

I am however wondering how Unstoppable Force would interact with odd situations where you're subjected to two types of damage at once. Does the resistance apply to only a single type of damage or to the damage as a whole? For example, if another Paladin smites you. Would you be resistant to the physical damage, the radiant damage or both? If it's the later it might be better to reword it as "...whenever an attack against you would reduce you below 1 hit point you are considered resistant to all damage from that attack..."

It was intended to prevent all damage, but I am working on a substitute ability since, as was wisely pointed out, it didn't really stick with the overall flavour of the archetype.
Here's a preview:
Disheartening Scorn
Beginning at 15th level, your disdain towards those that oppose you is as much as a weapon against your foe as those you may wield in your hands. Whenever you are hit by an attack you may unleash a wave of pure despite as a reaction. The attacking creature must succeed a Wisdom saving throw or take damage equal to your Charisma modifier and have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

Still needs work though.

Draken
2015-04-01, 08:26 PM
1. Agreed
2-3 Disagree. I am afraid, since I am not sure how often that ability is going to be triggered (as opposed to an aura which is always active), that such limitations would severely damped the potential effectiveness of the ability. Also, Kangaroos!

Could also always simply make it a fully passive effect that triggers when enemies enter the area/start turn inside it and become immune after a successful save.


It was intended to prevent all damage, but I am working on a substitute ability since, as was wisely pointed out, it didn't really stick with the overall flavour of the archetype.
Here's a preview:
Disheartening Scorn
Beginning at 15th level, your disdain towards those that oppose you is as much as a weapon against your foe as those you may wield in your hands. Whenever you are hit by an attack you may unleash a wave of pure despite as a reaction. The attacking creature must succeed a Wisdom saving throw or take damage equal to your Charisma modifier and have disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn.

Still needs work though.

As written, costing your reaction, it is just utterly weak.

Also, Spite, not despite.

Flashy
2015-04-02, 12:57 AM
As written, costing your reaction, it is just utterly weak.

Agreed. Take the will save off of it and it'll feel more like a 15th level paladin ability. Or keep the will save but have it literally paralyze the creature with fear.

Samhaim
2015-04-02, 01:46 AM
Also, Spite, not despite.

It's archaic, I like it.