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



Mr.Moron
2015-12-07, 04:30 PM
This is an idea I've had for a Paladin Oath kicking around for a while, just thought I'd put it out there. Criticism & Commentary is welcome as always. While I like the fluff, I'm not ultra-attached to any of the crunch save the "Divine Mind" use for Channel divinity, which i think is pretty core to the concept.


Oath of Illumination

The Oath of Illumination calls a paladin to not only combat the ills in the world but to understand and expose them. Those who take up the oath swear to seek out the truth, find the true roots of evil and deal with them directly. Known as sage knights, blue knights or seekers they look to shine a light where the shadows cast by ignorance and deceit make a safe refuge for malice. The Oath of Illumination is one of pragmatic idealism, accepting no truth without question save that all persons should be safe and free from suffering. While many of this Oath's adherents are devout followers of good-aligned deities, few pursue this Oath as a service to them. Followers of this Oath see their quest as they do any form of progress, a continual building upon the work of those that have come before them. To serve as reminder of that work they adorn themselves with the symbols, names and images of great heroes in the past or the evils they combated.

Tenets of Illumination

Truth:Seek the truth in all things. Do not not dismiss your own experience, but be wary of preconceptions, convenient explanations and simple narratives.
Understanding: Remain steadfast in your opposition to evil but never dismiss the motives or perspective of your opponents.
Hope: Nothing is inevitable. There is always a better outcome be had.
Humility:Recognize your limitations. Appreciate the contributions of others. Accept help as readily as you give it.
Prudence: Do not be given to recklessness or allow your actions to be driven by zeal. Keep sight of your goals and focus on the proper path to achieve them.

Oath Spells

3rd: Guiding Bolt, Identify
5th: Augury, Detect Thoughts
9th: Clairvoyance, Tongues
11th: Arcane Eye, Divination
17th: Legend Lore, Commune

Channel Divinity

Revelation
As a bonus action you may emit a burst of revealing light that pierces all obfuscation within 120 feet of you. Within the affected area all illusion and enchantment spells of a level lower than half your paladin level immediately end. In addition all hidden or invisible creatures as well as those out of your line of sight in the area when you use this ability are revealed to you and your allies appearing as muted golden silhouettes for 1 hour. At the DMs discretion this also reveals other information in the area that has been intentionally obfuscated such as hidden passages, messages encoded in text, or spells that conceal information.

Divine Mind
As an action you may call upon the divine to flood your mind with lore, insight or analytic prowess. Choose one of the following skills: Arcana, History, Nature, Religion, Perception, Investigation, Insight. Until the next time you use Divine Mind you gain proficiency with the selected skill, if you already proficient with the skill you instead gain expertise with that skill per the bard ability on page 54 of D&D Player's Handbook. Each time you use Divine Mind you may make a new selection, losing the benefit of the old one.

Aura of Illumination
Starting at 7th level, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you can't be surprised and have advantage on perception checks. At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Awareness
Starting at 15th level, you may make any wisdom or intelligence based check that would normally take an action as a bonus action.

Holy Insight
At 20th level as an action you can begin to radiate divine energy that provides supernatural awareness to you and your allies. For the next minute, any time you or an ally within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll, dexterity save, intelligence check or wisdom check they may spend use reaction to treat the result of the d20 roll as though they rolled a 19. They may also use a reaction to treat the d20 result of any attack roll made against them as 2. For both these uses they may do so after the seeing the result of the roll but before the DM has announced success or failure.