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Wufflykins
2016-08-07, 02:14 AM
UPDATE! PDF ROUGH DRAFT COMPLETE!!!

Be a Better Frost Knight - Oath of the Frostfell! (https://www.dropbox.com/s/36ernv18ulapl14/Oath%20of%20the%20Frostfell.pdf?dl=0)

Hey folks! Check out the link above for a prettyfied version of the below!

Feeling inspired an amalgamation of different tropes from my favourite fantasies, I've put together a 'Winter Knight'.

I'd like to know what it reminds you of in fantasy and what you'd change in the tenets and mechanics to make it more balanced and flavourful!

When I'm confident it's ready I'll be compiling it into a free artful PDF much in the same way I did my Changeling PDF (Be a Better Changeling! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?494666-Be-a-Better-Changeling!-PEACH))

Oath of the Frostfell

The Oath of the Frostfell has existed since men and elves first deigned to live in the icy regions of the world, where long nights prevail over the day and evil finds easy refuge from the light.
Sometimes called the winter knights, the abyss watchers or the knights of the frozen rose; these are paladins who adopt the cold and dark. To swear this oath is to walk a lonesome road, a solemn promise to watch the world pass by as they keep their vigil.
These lordless knights understand that as long as there is light in the world there will always be darkness. In keeping with that understanding many who swear seek out the doorsteps to the darkest corners of the world, turning the might of winter against savages and denizens of darker realms.

Tenets of the Frostfell

Though the exact tenets and codes of the Oath of the Frostfell vary between each individual who swears it, there is a common set of principles by which each inevitably abide.
Time and Patience. It takes a particularly competent warrior not to react hastily but to chose the time and place for action, emotion has no place on the battlefield.
Seek Evil. Go where angels fear to tread, it is the only place you’ll find meaning.
Stand Against the Tide. There are places in the world where the dark prevails, find one and make it your vigil.
Simple Integrity. Treat others with fairness and honesty. Do not lie, cheat or break promises. Own your actions and make amends for your mistakes.

Oath of the Frostfell

3rd: Oath Spells

Spells:

Armor of Agathys, Featherfall

Hold Person, Gust of Wind

Sleet Storm, Slow

Fire Shield, Ice Storm

Cone of Cold, Control Winds (ee)

Channel Divinity

Frostrage. As a bonus action you envelop yourself in a sheathe of frost, empowering your weapon and hardening your flesh against blows, cuts, slashes and stabs. For 1 minute, you reduce damage you take from slashing, piercing and bludgeon weapons by your Charisma modifier. Additionally once on each your turns, you can deal extra frost damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. This extra frost damage equals your paladin level.

North Wind. As an action you create a strong blast of arctic air (20 miles per hour) that blows around you in a 10-foot radius and moves with you, remaining centered on you. The wind lasts for one minute. The wind has the following effects:
• Each enemy that starts it's turn in the area takes 1d6 + your charisma as frost damage.
• It deafens you and other creatures in its area.
• It extinguishes unprotected flames in its area that are torch-sized or smaller.
• The area is difficult terrain for enemy creatures.
• The attack rolls of ranged weapon attacks have disadvantage if they pass in or out of the wind.
• It hedges out vapor, gas, and fog that can be dispersed by strong wind.

Snowsight. At 3rd level, you gain the ability to see to the normal limits of your vision even in difficult conditions, you ignore obscurement penalties due to non-magical fog, mist, rain, snowfall, snow glare and snow blindness. During daylight, this usually means the subject can see to the horizon; at night, vision is restricted to ambient light or darkvision as appropriate for your features.

Fjordwalker Aura. At 7th level, fell winter envelops the air in a 10-foot radius around you. While in the radius you and your allies ignore movement penalties and difficult terrain imposed by wind, snow and ice-based effects. Further hostile creatures that move through it spend an additional 1 foot of movement for each foot moved and opportunity attacks against them are made at advantage. When you cast a spell that targets an area, you and all allies within the aura automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and take no damage if they would normally take half on a successful save.
As an action, you can empower this aura to freeze all liquids inside of it, to a maximum depth of 5 feet. Most liquids are turned into an icy surface, which counts as difficult terrain. Lava is cooled into rock, but still deals half damage to creatures walking on it due to residual heat. Any creature submerged in the affected area is moved to the square above or below the ice sheet (your choice). The em remains empowered as long as you maintain concentration on it. The ice sheet melts and breaks apart at a pace natural for the environment it is in.

Child of the Taiga. At 7th level, you gain resistance to cold damage and you can tolerate temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit without any additional protection. If you wear heavy clothes, you can tolerate temperatures as low as -100 degrees Fahrenheit.
At 15th level, you become immune to cold damage and are unaffected by even the lowest temperatures.

Eternal Vigil. At 15th level; time ceases to pass for you. As long as you keep your oath you are immune to the effects of old age, can’t be aged magically, and can't die of old age. In addition, you no longer need food, water or even air. If you are below half your hit point maximum at the start of your turn, you regain one hit point. Your severed body members (fingers, legs, tails, and so on), if any, are restored after 2 minutes. If you have the severed part and hold it to the stump, the ability instantaneously causes the limb to knit to the stump.

Frostfell Dreadnought. Upon reaching 20th level, you are so infused with power of winter, you can engulf the area around in a feral tempest of sleet and snow. As an action you may gain the following benefits for 1 minute:
- You regain 10 hit points at the start of each of your turns.
- Whenever you cast a spell on your Oath spell list that has a casting time of one action, you can cast it as a bonus action instead.
- Enemy creatures within 10 feet of you have disadvantage on saving throws against your paladin spells and Channel Divinity options.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Lalliman
2016-08-07, 04:00 AM
Here's my two cents.

1. Does Ice Tomb actually prevent the target from acting or moving? It doesn't say it does. A better wording for what I assume you meant would be "Until the start of their next turn, the target is stunned and has immunity to all damage except psychic."
Secondly, I feel like blocking a potentially unlimited amount of damage is powerful enough without also healing the target a significant amount.

2. Why is there a limited number of uses on Snowsight, an ability that will never come up in 95% of games unless to specifically accommodate the Winter Knight? It's a ribbon anyways, so just make it passive.

3. Aura of Rime and Ice Path are dope, but the presentation is a mess. The wording is ambiguous and overly lengthy, and, well, just re-read the first sentence of the Ice Path ability. I suggest you fuse the two of them into a single ability worded as such:

Aura of Rime: At 7th level, fell winter envelops the air in a 10-foot radius around you. Enemy creatures treat your aura as difficult terrain, and opportunity attacks provoked by enemy creatures' movement within the aura are made at advantage. Allies within the aura ignore the effects of snow or ice-based difficult terrain. At 18th level the radius of this Aura increases to 30 feet.
As an action, you can empower this aura to freeze all liquids inside of it, to a maximum depth of 5 feet. Most liquids are turned into an icy surface, which counts as difficult terrain. Lava is cooled into rock, but still deals half damage to creatures walking on it due to residual heat. Any creature submerged in the affected area is moved to the square above or below the ice sheet (your choice). The aura remains empowered as long as you maintain concentration on it. The ice sheet melts and breaks apart at a pace natural for the environment it is in.

Note that I changed the aura to functioning as difficult terrain, to prevent it stacking with normal difficult terrain. This is deliberate, since stacking the two would result in borderline immobilisation.

4. Eternal Vigil is a ribbon, at the same level that other paladins get actual combat abilities. So you might want to rethink that.

Wufflykins
2016-08-07, 07:34 AM
Here's my two cents.

1. Does Ice Tomb actually prevent the target from acting or moving? It doesn't say it does. A better wording for what I assume you meant would be "Until the start of their next turn, the target is stunned and has immunity to all damage except psychic."
Secondly, I feel like blocking a potentially unlimited amount of damage is powerful enough without also healing the target a significant amount.

2. Why is there a limited number of uses on Snowsight, an ability that will never come up in 95% of games unless to specifically accommodate the Winter Knight? It's a ribbon anyways, so just make it passive.

3. Aura of Rime and Ice Path are dope, but the presentation is a mess. The wording is ambiguous and overly lengthy, and, well, just re-read the first sentence of the Ice Path ability. I suggest you fuse the two of them into a single ability worded as such:

Aura of Rime: At 7th level, fell winter envelops the air in a 10-foot radius around you. Enemy creatures treat your aura as difficult terrain, and opportunity attacks provoked by enemy creatures' movement within the aura are made at advantage. Allies within the aura ignore the effects of snow or ice-based difficult terrain. At 18th level the radius of this Aura increases to 30 feet.
As an action, you can empower this aura to freeze all liquids inside of it, to a maximum depth of 5 feet. Most liquids are turned into an icy surface, which counts as difficult terrain. Lava is cooled into rock, but still deals half damage to creatures walking on it due to residual heat. Any creature submerged in the affected area is moved to the square above or below the ice sheet (your choice). The aura remains empowered as long as you maintain concentration on it. The ice sheet melts and breaks apart at a pace natural for the environment it is in.

Note that I changed the aura to functioning as difficult terrain, to prevent it stacking with normal difficult terrain. This is deliberate, since stacking the two would result in borderline immobilisation.

4. Eternal Vigil is a ribbon, at the same level that other paladins get actual combat abilities. So you might want to rethink that.


1. Yeah it was meant to lock you down until your next turn, it doesn't need the heal though. I'll toy with making it 'petrified but immune to damage and being moved' or along those lines. Not sure about psychic though, petrified gives you resistance to it.

About Snowsight; you're on the money here - I'm not sure why I limited it.

Agreed on most points about Aura of Rime, though the idea of letting the aura stack with difficult terrain was a deliberate choice. Having difficult terrain and the aura would be powerful but circumstantial and the paladin or it's party would have to expend resources to make this a regular occurrence, and most spells that create difficult terrain only affect the ground surface (thus flying, floating and burrowing creatures would not be affected).

I love how you worded it otherwise, I knew it was a mess but couldn't find the right words myself. Thank you!

I'll give Eternal Vigil some more thought; something that lends itself to the over Tank/Crowd Control feel of the archetype.

I'll happily take suggestions from anyone regarding that point!

Overall a VERY helpful post, you've cleared up a lot of issues I had about it myself and raised some good points! Cheers!

Wufflykins
2016-08-08, 03:03 AM
Changelog v1.1

Snowsight
- Made passive instead of uses per long rest.

Ice Tomb
- No longer heals.
- Wording more clear regarding state of the target.

Aura of Rime renamed to Fjordwalker Aura
- Cleaned up wording as per Lalliman's suggestions (Thanks!)

Eternal Vigil
- Beefed up from being a ribbon; now grants passive regeneration up to a point.
- Allows regrowing of limbs passively.

I'm worried about the implications of being able to passively regrow limbs, severing limbs doesn't come up in my home campaigns so it's practically a ribbon from my perspective. Need thoughts on this.

Ivogel
2016-08-08, 04:11 AM
Awesome archetype! maybe add a 1-turn clause to ice tomb?

Wufflykins
2016-08-08, 04:26 AM
Awesome archetype! maybe add a 1-turn clause to ice tomb?

Ooops! Originally it did last until the beginning of their next turn. Fixed!

Ivogel
2016-08-08, 05:50 AM
Also no summon mount megaloceros?

Wufflykins
2016-08-20, 03:05 AM
Also no summon mount megaloceros?

No reason your 'Find Steed' can't summon one! :P

marauder340
2016-08-21, 06:54 AM
This archetype is pretty damn cool (yes I went there hahaha). I do wonder if it's okay that all Ice Tomb consumes is your reaction and the target's chance to act out of turn to block all damage short of psychic which is a type not often encountered.

Maybe it could have limited uses per long rest and/or reduce the range to 30 feet? At the level you get it, it puts protective abilities like the Light Cleric's Warding Flare or the Abjuration Wizard's Arcane Ward to shame. Also, you may want to include a need for line of sight to use it.

Lalliman
2016-08-21, 08:05 AM
^ Ice Tomb is a Channel Divinity option, which means it's once per short rest.

marauder340
2016-08-21, 11:52 AM
Oooh. My eyes are going bad lol the CD header blended in with the Oath spell list. Should've looked a little closer. XD Welp, I'm definitely filing this archetype for possible future use. Had it a Blackguard equivalent, you've just made a diet Lich King, too.

Wufflykins
2016-08-21, 02:55 PM
Oooh. My eyes are going bad lol the CD header blended in with the Oath spell list. Should've looked a little closer. XD Welp, I'm definitely filing this archetype for possible future use. Had it a Blackguard equivalent, you've just made a diet Lich King, too.

That's quite a compliment, thank you! I've complete 2/3 pages for the Published PDF I'm making up so keep an eye out for that.

And yeah, this isn't far off a blackguard, death knight or lich king. It's definitely edgy by design, a few tweaks to the tenets would get you there.

Wufflykins
2016-08-21, 03:25 PM
PDF Rough Draft complete! Check out the link in the OP!

Sir cryosin
2016-08-22, 09:38 AM
Instead of bane on the spell list switch it with armor of agathys. Paladins already get bane. And I feel armor of agathys is fitting.

Wufflykins
2016-08-23, 06:32 PM
Instead of bane on the spell list switch it with armor of agathys. Paladins already get bane. And I feel armor of agathys is fitting.

I had this thought, though you are incorrect. Bane is not on their spell list, it is however on the Oath of Vengeance spell list.

I do like armour of agathys as one of their spells, both it and bane have a strong flavour as far as the Oath goes though. I gave a slight edge in the end to Bane. But you can totally change it for yourself if you like, I doubt it'd have any notable effect on balance.

Edit: On second thought and after some careful consideration I've come to agree that Armor of Agathys is more suitable spell; it's actually pretty *cool*. I've swapped it out on the list above and will edit the PDF shortly.

Wufflykins
2016-11-22, 11:30 PM
Changelog:

Winter Prison. As an action you create an explosion of icy chains around one creature within 60 feet of you that you can see. That creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. Undead and Aberrations have disadvantage on this saving throw. On a failed save the creature is restrained and a flying creature plummets up to 60ft downward each round it remains restrained, taking falling damage if it collides with a solid surface.
While restrained by the chains the creature is unable to take actions or reactions and repeats it’s saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a success, it frees itself and the chains vanish.
Ice Tomb. When you or an ally within 60ft takes damage, as a reaction you may encase them in an icy tomb until the beginning of their next turn, reducing the damage taken to zero. For the duration the target is considered petrified and immune to damage though the creature retains it’s senses and concentration.
Having spent a bit of time playing this homebrew myself - my idea of what this classes' focus and skillset have crystallized. Something of a 'hordebreaker' - skilled at killing or controlling large amounts of small things. Sort of on the opposite end of the spectrum to the Oath of Vengeance but cooler *punpunpun*.

With that I've updated the channel divinity options to reflect that - they still need some balance tweaking but I'll be playing the updated version through LmoP tonight.

What I've learned:
I find I have to play my home brews to really get a sense of what I want them to be about.

Frostrage. As a bonus action you envelop yourself in a sheathe of frost, empowering your weapon and hardening your flesh against blows, cuts, slashes and stabs. For 1 minute, you reduce damage you take from slashing, piercing and bludgeon weapons by your Charisma modifier. Additionally once on each your turns, you can deal extra frost damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. This extra frost damage equals your paladin level.
Howling Winds. As an action you create a strong blast of arctic air (20 miles per hour) that blows around you in a 10-foot radius and moves with you, remaining centered on you. The wind lasts for one minute. The wind has the following effects:
• Each enemy that starts it's turn in the area takes 1d6 + your charisma as frost damage.
• It deafens you and other creatures in its area.
• It extinguishes unprotected flames in its area that are torch-sized or smaller.
• The area is difficult terrain for enemy creatures.
• The attack rolls of ranged weapon attacks have disadvantage if they pass in or out of the wind.
• It hedges out vapor, gas, and fog that can be dispersed by strong wind.

Wufflykins
2016-11-26, 07:34 PM
Changelog v0.2:

Upon reaching 20th level, you are so infused with power of winter, you can engulf the area around in a feral tempest of sleet and snow. As an action you gain the following benefits for 1 minute:
- You regain 10 hit points at the start of each of your turns.
- Whenever you cast a spell on your Oath spell list that has a casting time of one action, you can cast it as a bonus action instead.
- Enemy creatures within 10 feet of you have disadvantage on saving throws against your paladin spells and Channel Divinity options.

At 20th-level, the paladin can, as an action, surround himself or herself with a feral tempest of sleet and snow that lasts for 1 minute and provides the following effects:

- The blizzard reduces visibility in a 30-foot radius around the paladin to lightly obscured and the area is considered difficult terrain.
- While the storm lasts, the paladin can use a bonus action on his or her turn to direct the tempest. Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 4d6 cold damage and is knocked prone. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't pushed.
- Further whenever you cast a paladin spell that has a casting time of one action, you can cast it as a bonus action instead and enemy creatures within 10 feet of you have disadvantage on saving throws against your paladin spells and abilities.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Definitely need some thoughts on this as this is now trending on the more powerful side; I used Investiture of Ice as a basis for the 1/round blast and AoE difficult terrain but beefed it up slightly.

The rest is similar to the old one was a carbon copy of Elder Champion - this gives it it's own flavour and definitely ties in more with the mechanical direction I want the Archetype to take but might need some scaling back. Thoughts?

Deadfire182
2019-01-23, 10:53 AM
I absolutely love frost based warriors almost as much as i love Paladins, so this speaks to me on a spiritual level. I do have a some suggestions though:
The 7th level aura is a bit crowded, and i feel as though it does a bit too much, plus the fact that it's coupled with another ability (as well as one at third) which paladins usually don't get. Maybe just tone it down a little? I like the freezing water part, and the difficult terrain for enemies/no cold based for allies is nice as well, but also including auto-saves on spells for allies and advantage on OA attacks is a too good (also, it doesn't increase to 30 ft at 18th level?).I do feel like the third level ability (which most paladins don't get) fits well thematically and mechanically, so I would keep that. The 15th level is similarly packed with features; the monk's timeless body, a toned down version of the champion's survivor, and the body attaching features of the regeneration spell. Although this is sort of stepping on toes of a couple classes, I feel this ability is balanced as well, as it's mostly fluff and ribbons (also thematic :smallsmile:) I don't know how to balance a 20th level ability, but it looks neat, so I'll say it's neat. Oh, and the oath spells are all very thematic and cool (haha).