Paladin - Oath of Dragonkind
I would like to see people's opinions on this subclass. Feel free to give constructive criticism, I'm pretty inexperienced in homebrew.
Oath of Dragonkind
The Oath of Dragonkind binds a paladin to the servitude of a specific type of dragon. Paladins of this oath see these dragons, and their gods, as majestic creatures to be given the utmost respect, not hunted down and slain. Paladins of the Oath of Dragonkind fight for the dominance of their respective dragon species over the others, and a paladin of an evil dragon race might also fight for their dominance over other intelligent races.
Tenets of Dragonkind
The Oath of Dragonkind is chosen uniquely by each paladin, but all of them follow these basic tenets.
Protection. Shield the dragons you are devoted to with your life. Never kill a sworn dragon, or allow one to be killed, unless it poses an unchangeable threat to the dominance of its own race. Even then, such an act is to be taken with the utmost regret.
Devotion. Always seek to further the power of your sworn draconic race above your own desires.
Vigilance. Never rest in your duties, as many would seek to hunt down and slay the dragons you hold so highly.
Draconic Element
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you choose one of the following damage types: fire, lightning, poison, acid, or cold. You use this damage type for your Sacred Oath features. You can also speak, read, and write Draconic.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the levels listed. Absorb Elements, Dragon’s Breath, and Elemental Weapon can only be used on your Draconic Element, but gain poison damage as an option provided that poison is your Draconic Element.
| Paladin level |
Spells |
| 3rd |
Absorb Elements, Chromatic Orb |
| 5th |
Dragon's Breath, Levitate |
| 9th |
Fly, Elemental Weapon |
| 13th |
Guardian of Faith (appears as a dragon), Dominate Beast |
| 17th |
Destructive Wave, Hold Monster |
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options:
- Resist Element. As a bonus action, up to six creatures of your choice within 30 feet gain resistance to your Draconic Element for 1 minute.
- Breath Weapon. As an action, you can breathe elemental energy. Creatures in a 30-foot cone originating from you must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes damage of your Draconic Element type equal to twice your paladin level. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage.
Draconic Companion
At 7th level, you gain the service of a draconic spirit - a manifestation of your devotion to dragonkind. It uses the Draconic Companion stat block, using your paladin level and substituting “PB” with your proficiency bonus.
Whenever you finish a long rest, you can summon the dragon, who appears in the nearest unoccupied space to you. If the dragon is dead, this resurrects the dragon at half of its maximum hit points. You can summon the dragon this way even across different planes of existence. When the dragon drops to 0 hit points, it dies and its body disappears. At the DM's discretion, it might be sent to another plane until it's resurrected.
The dragon is not under any compulsion to act as you command, but it respects you as a trusted friend and heeds your verbal commands unless it has good reason not to. It can end your bond to it at any time it wishes. If it does so, you lose this feature until you gain another companion in a way determined by the DM or make amends with your previous one. An unbonded dragon's stat block does not change based on its previous master's stats unless their bond is restored.
Draconic Companion
Medium Dragon, your alignment
Armor Class 13 + your charisma modifier (natural armor)
Hit Points 4 times your paladin level (Has a number of d8 hit dice equal to your paladin level)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.
STR 19 (+4) DEX 13 (+1) CON 20 (+5)
INT 11 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2)
Skills Perception 2 + PB, Insight 2 + PB
Damage Immunities your Draconic Element
Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 30 ft., Passive Perception 12 + PB Languages Your languages
Challenge Rating half your paladin level
Untrained Mount. The dragon can’t fly and is incapacitated while mounted.
Telepathic Bond. You and the dragon can speak telepathically with each other while on the same plane of existence.
Actions
Rend. Melee Weapon Attack: your paladin spell attack bonus to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d10 + 4 piercing or slashing damage (its choice).
Breath Weapon. The dragon exhales elemental energy in a 30-foot cone. Each creature inside the cone must make a Dexterity saving throw against your paladin spell save DC and take PBd10 damage of your Draconic Element, or half as much as a successful one. This action can be taken a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses on a long rest. |
Draconic Presence
At 15th level, you have the commanding charisma of a dragon. While your draconic companion is alive, you can double your proficiency bonus when making Persuasion and Intimidation checks. This feature doesn't apply if you already double your proficiency bonus from a feature such as Expertise.
As One
At 20th level, you can fuse with your companion. If your draconic companion is alive, within 5 feet of you, and willing, you can use your action to fuse with it. After you fuse, for 1 minute or until you are unconscious, your companion disappears, and you gain the following benefits:
- Each hostile creature that starts its turn within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or be frightened of you until the fusion ends. A frightened creature can make a Wisdom saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. A creature that succeeds on a saving throw is immune to this effect until the fusion ends.
- Attacks made by you and friendly creatures within 30 feet of you deal extra damage equal to your Charisma modifier. This damage is magical damage of the same damage type as your companion's breath weapon.
- When rolling a Strength check or Strength saving throw, you can treat any roll on the d20 as a 20.
- You are immune to your Draconic Element.
Your companion can sense anything you sense and speak to you telepathically during the fusion. When the fusion ends, your companion disappears and is unconscious until you summon it back. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.
Re: Paladin - Oath of Dragonkind
1: spell list.
I get it's going with the theme but you're nerfing the heck out of a bunch of these spells locking them in to one element.
Subclasses like Arcane Trickster play with spells, however it's a buff. Maybe have the effects doubled or something on your element but leave the other elements as an option.
2: rules enforced flavour
Going again with the above, imposing flavour on the game when that should be a decision made by the players and the GM.
Your dragon should have base rules and additional things like splitting from the paladin should be a game by game thing the GM and the player can talk about.
I think not having it be commandable makes it legitimately the worst companion in the game.
Let it be resurrected at full health.
3. Maybe let your paladin have the option to smite in it's element instead of radiant damage as part of the level 3 feature.
4. Dragon breath sucks. Max damage 40 at level 20? 6 damage at level 3? I'd suggest give it some dice and a charisma modifier instead of being level based. Even a number of d4 or d6 equal to your Paladin level maybe.
Re: Paladin - Oath of Dragonkind
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mada
1: spell list.
I get it's going with the theme but you're nerfing the heck out of a bunch of these spells locking them in to one element.
Subclasses like Arcane Trickster play with spells, however it's a buff. Maybe have the effects doubled or something on your element but leave the other elements as an option.
Thanks for the advice!
The type restriction was partially as a nerf, but mostly because it makes the most sense, at least to me. It would be strange for a green dragon-themed paladin to grant fire breath, for example. Maybe I could change the flavor on the theming, though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mada
2: rules enforced flavour
Going again with the above, imposing flavour on the game when that should be a decision made by the players and the GM.
Your dragon should have base rules and additional things like splitting from the paladin should be a game by game thing the GM and the player can talk about.
I think not having it be commandable makes it legitimately the worst companion in the game.
Let it be resurrected at full health.
I don't see why putting that in a class is bad design. Hell, paladins themselves have a description of how oath-breaking works. If the players/DM don't want to use the abandonment mechanics, they can just have the dragon... not leave. It's not like it says that doing a specific thing always breaks the bond - it's up to the players and DM to decide the relationship between them.
The dragon not being strictly commandable is a bit questionable now that you point it out. I'll probably change that.
The reason it's revived at half health is to encourage caution in combat. It's already pretty good cannon fodder given that it can't die permanently, and I didn't want it to be too much of a bulwark without at least a small consequence for death. That being said, it's probably not that big of a deal considering artificers and rangers can get higher-hp minions on a long rest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mada
3. Maybe let your paladin have the option to smite in it's element instead of radiant damage as part of the level 3 feature.
I probably should have thought of that to be honest. I'll be sure to add that in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mada
4. Dragon breath sucks. Max damage 40 at level 20? 6 damage at level 3? I'd suggest give it some dice and a charisma modifier instead of being level based. Even a number of d4 or d6 equal to your Paladin level maybe.
Looking back I definitely overbalanced the dragon breath. Based off of Fireball's 8d6 at level 5, 1d6 per level would work fine given that it's once/short rest and competing with resistance.
