New Paladin Oath: The Oath of the Khazad

[Crushgrip]

Hi all!

So, I have been playing D&D off and on since 2nd edition and never played a paladin...until now. I never wanted to play the Lawful Good character and was thrilled to see the alignment restriction removed in 5th edition (wicked awesome WoTC!!). As I see it, you mix and match your paladin character concept to an Oath that fits, but in the event that the Tenets of a particular oath do not quite mesh with the character concept, re-write the tenets (working with your DM)! For my character, I want to play a Dwarven Paladin of Vergadain (the Neutral Dwarven god of Luck, Trickery, Negotiation and Wealth) who is devoted to his clan, the betterment of dwarves, and the belief the "things will always work out" (luck!). The best fit that I saw was the Oath of Devotion, but as written, described the LG variety of a paladin (my character will be NG and I don't want him to become a fallen Paladin). Therefore, my DM and I worked on an Oath that could be described as an "Oath of the Dwarves". For balance issues it is essentially a blend of the Oath of the Crown (SCAG) and Oath of Devotion (PHB). The concept I had in selecting the spells and abilities focused on what I thought the Dwarven race would represent; good, fortitude, protection and courage. Any comments/suggestions? Also, please feel free to use!

Spoiler: Oath of the Khazad

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Edit: Updated the Oath with the suggestions below.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

To my non Paladin playing eyes nothing stands out as crazy. Its a neat idea also.

On the curious note, is a non Dwarf eligible? I could see a (contrived) player backstory where the ONE elf who was in love with a dwarf ever took up adventuring as a Khazad Paladin to avenge a loss.

[pragma]

This seems fun, but I'd lean into the dwarf parts of it harder. Consider throwing some rock themed stuff into the spell list: spike growth, stone shape, transmute rock or wall of stone. Also consider having Aura of Khazad grant allies immunity to forced movement instead of charm.

[Crushgrip]

To my non Paladin playing eyes nothing stands out as crazy. Its a neat idea also.

On the curious note, is a non Dwarf eligible? I could see a (contrived) player backstory where the ONE elf who was in love with a dwarf ever took up adventuring as a Khazad Paladin to avenge a loss.

Totally! Wanted no race restrictions. Kind of like (in a non-paladin way) of Cattie-Brie from the RA Salvatore novels or Tom from The Godfather.

Great suggestion for the Aura. What about an Aura of no forced movement as well as any non-dwarf allies getting resistance to poison? I don’t think that would be over powered and would really fit the theme?

[moonfly7]

This might need to be out in the homebrew thread, I love this idea though

[someguy]

I like the flavor but it seems pretty weak. Sacred weapon takes an action and lasts 1 min so hard to use regularly. The aura is too situational so will also come up rarely.

[T.G. Oskar]

Leans too much into its parent subclasses.

There's a few decent things, such as Aura of the Khazad essentially giving two things that Dwarves are known of, and the spell list having a good amount of earth-related spells, but it feels like the other abilities are just placeholders. A huge example are the Channel Divinity options, which you took wholesale from the Oath of Devotion. If you want to keep it as one buff and one turn, at least make the turn affect the ancestral enemies of the Dwarves (Drow, possibly Dwergar, Orcs, Kobolds). Personally, I'd try for something else - think of the Oath of the Ancients' Nature's Wrath, which keeps the enemy rooted in place, or the Oath of the Crown's Champion's Challenge, which seeks to restrict movement. You could do a Channel Divinity option that makes an area 30 feet around you difficult terrain + deals piercing damage equal to, say, your proficiency bonus or your Charisma modifier whenever you move around the area, representing how you warp earth and stone to become jagged, all the while giving a pretty solid lockdown option (though flying creatures would be unaffected). Sacred Weapon can stay, but it'd work nicer if you made it a concentration-less Magic Weapon (+1 to hit and damage) or Elemental Weapon (+1 to hit, +1d4 damage) to tie it to both the forge (your weapon gets blessed by the Dwarffather and the forge gods) and to stone (probably by making the weapon deal extra damage of the weapon's type, maybe by making the weapon act as if bigger).

Regarding Unyielding Movement: making it identical to the Oath of the Crown's feature feels boring. (I love Oath of the Crown, but the 15th level ability is boring as heck, even if practical.) Usually by that level, the Paladin gets a long-lasting buff: permanent Protection from Good and Evil, Guts (I.e., survive one attack with 1 HP), spend reaction to make opportunity attack against marked opponent, retributive damage, fast healing/regeneration if bloodied, Intervention & Counter (i.e., boost AC for ally against 1 attack, and counter if attack ends up missing) and retributive backlash (i.e., against an enemy that causes a mental saving throw, deal damage). PfGaE is a rather solid buff, and the Oath of the Ancients' 15th level ability is basically half of Death Ward, so how about outright giving the Oath of the Khazad Paladin Freedom of Movement as a 15th level feature? That means the Dwarf cannot be held by anything, showing its determination.

Finally, the capstone should change from the Crown Paladin one. The resistance can stay (it's essentially like Stoneskin without concentration), but you need to replace the advantage on Wisdom and death saves for something that's more thematic to the Dwarf. YMMV on what it may do. (Personally, I'd feel a bit giddy if either the Channel Divinity or the capstone worked as a better version of the 3.5 Dwarven Defender's Defensive Stance (+2 to Strength and all saves, +4 to Constitution and AC, but can't move from spot). It could work as a Rage-like ability (advantage on Strength and Constitution checks and saves, temporary boost to AC or something) which you can trigger on and off, but turns off your movement. Mix it with the Channel Divinity option I suggested above (the one for the difficult terrain) to make the enemy reconsider if it should leave your spot or not.