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Rerem115
2017-06-22, 11:06 AM
I felt inspired after reading the "101 Atypical Paladins" thread, and wanted to make an archetype for a post that caught my eye, namely the "blood knight" paladin. For those looking for a more violent, bloodthirsty paladin, here is the Oath of the Jaguar.

Tenets of the Oath of the Jaguar
• Life Through Death-The gods require sacrifice; to keep the world turning and the crops going, it is important to give them their due, through any means possible.
• Strive for the Heavens-Through excellence, we please the gods and better our society.
• Honor in Sacrifice-There is no shame in dying in the service of the gods, and they greatly appreciate the blood of a worthy foe. When your time comes, accept it.

Oath Spells
3rd Hunter's Mark, Longstrider
5th Hold Person, Pass Without Trace
9th Fear, Haste
13th Divination, Freedom of Movement
17th Reincarnate, Tree Stride

Optional Proficiencies
Use these if you really want to look the part! When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with macuahuitls (100 gp material cost, exotic club studded with stone blades, 1d8/10 bludgeoning or slashing finesse versatile 5ft reach), tepoztopillis (100 gp material cost, exotic spear studded with stone blades, 1d6/8 bludgeoning or slashing finesse versatile 10ft reach), and Jaguar armor (100 gp cost material cost, full body animal hide+padded coat, 13+Dex)

Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following Channel Divinity options.
Prepare the Sacrifice- You can use your Channel Divinity to immobilize an opponent in order to capture them so they can be given to the gods. As an action, you may target a creature within 30 feet that you can see. The creature must succeed on a Wisdom save or be Restrained for one minute. The creature may repeat its saving throw at the end of its turn ending the affect on a success.
Scatter the Unworthy- You can use your Channel Divinity to utter ancient words that are terrifying for your foes to hear, leaving only those worthy of sacrifice. This ability affects all hostile creatures in a 15 foot cone that can hear or see you must succeed on a Wisdom save or be Frightened of you for one minute or until it takes damage. A Frightened creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

Aura of Terror
Starting at 7th level, all hostile creatures who come within 10 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom save or be Frightened of you for one minute. A Frightened creature can repeat its save at the end of each of its turns with advantage if they were damaged by you. A creature that succeeds its save is immune to your aura for 24 hours.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Offer the Living
Starting at 15th level, you are able to make offerings to the gods on the battlefield. If you take the Attack action against a living creature within reach, you can choose to attempt to sacrifice it. If one of your attacks would reduce the creature to 0 hitpoints, you cut out its heart, instantly killing it. If your attack kills its target, you regain a number of spell slots where their combined level is equal to half your Paladin level, rounded down. You can use this ability once per long rest. For obvious reasons, this is limited to creatures worthy of sacrifice; slaves or prisoners are fine, but no small animals, for example. When in doubt, DM gets final say.

Soul of the Jaguar
Starting at 20th level, as an action, you can channel the strength of the Jaguar. For one hour, you gain the following benefits:

-Your movement speed increases by 30 feet, and you ignore difficult terrain.
-You gain 10 temporary hit points at the start of each of your turns.
-Your attacks deal additional radiant damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1)
-You have advantage on attacks against Frightened creatures, and creatures that are frightened of you have disadvantage on saves against your spells and abilities.

You can use this ability once per long rest.


Any thoughts? I came up with this over the course of about an hour while sleep deprived, so any critiques would be appreciated!

khadgar567
2017-06-22, 11:33 AM
odd form of a paladin but i like it

JNAProductions
2017-06-22, 06:23 PM
Prepare the Sacrifice needs to allow a save each round.

Scatter the Unworthy is too powerful-it's a universal Turn. Make it more limited in scope or power.

Aura of Terror is way too good. Even if the enemy has a good 75% chance of passing, you cripple 1/4 enemies you fight. And most enemies won't have that good Wisdom saves.

Offer the Living seems fine, but worded badly. I'd just clean it up a little. Also, specify that it needs to be a worthy opponent. No sacrificing an ordinary rat to regain spell slots.

Soul of the Jaguar seems fine.

Rerem115
2017-06-22, 07:45 PM
Made Prepare the Sacrifice more reasonable, halved the range on Scatter the Unworthy, and made breaking thw aura fear a little easier.

JNAProductions
2017-06-22, 07:50 PM
Prepare the Sacrifice is still too good. Just give it a save each round-as it stands, it's way too powerful because it lasts an entire fight for one failed save.

Aura of Terror is basically unchanged.

Rerem115
2017-06-22, 10:57 PM
What would you suggest I do with the aura, then? It's not set in stone; it just seemed appropriate.

JNAProductions
2017-06-22, 11:00 PM
What would you suggest I do with the aura, then? It's not set in stone; it just seemed appropriate.

I'm not sure, but it can't stand as it is now.

Rerem115
2017-06-22, 11:06 PM
Hmm. I was thinking either some sort of pack tactics style buff, aoe temp hp (could be conditional with kills), or some sort of frightful presence aura, like it is now. What about any of those?