Rules for swearing oaths in 3.5

[Generation83]

I have always liked they idea of mighty heroes swearing mighty oaths during the christmas feasts. Sadly dnd have no rules for it, so I have tried to come up with my own rules for my own setting. If you could pleace take a look and make a comment I would be happy.

True Oath
Mighty heroes swear often swear oaths and oaths can hold power. This doesn't mean that all oath are will have an effect. A True Oath is an oath sworn under the right circumstances with the right words. It is a powerfull thing that may help the oath sworn, but it will also harm him if he is to break his oath. To swear a True Oath a character have to succede in a perform oration or perform sing with a dc as shown belove. If an oath is broken the oath breaker will suffer the negative effect until he gets attonment(as the spell) for it.

What an oath is sworn upon and the effects if the oath is broken:

Tier 0 dc 10
On my honour(Nothing magical, but people who find out will be negative towards you)

Tier 1 dc 18
On my health (-4 con)
On my strong arm (-4 str)
On my wit (-4 int)
On my good look (-4 cha)
On my principles(-4wis)
On my nimbleness [help naming this one?] (-4dex)
On this coin (the character cannot keep any gold)
On the swiftness of my legs (half all speeds etc. If you had movement speed of 30 and swim speed of 20. You now have move speed of 15 and swim speed of 10)

Tier 2 dc 26
On my sight (goes blind)
On my hearing (become deaf)
On my voice (become mute)
On my fortune(lose 70% of your total wealth, should you gain more money or items significantly, there's a 50% chance of losing it somehow).
Cross my heart (change alignment drastically, true neutral changes to extreme alignment of DM's choice)
On my faith (Only divine spellcasters, lose ability to cast spells and turn undead)
On my skill* (you can no longer advance in the class you have the most levels in at the time the oath is broken, if you have two or more classes with the most levels, you get to choose, in addition, you lose all class features from that class other than base attack bonus, saves, hit-dice, weapon and armor proficiency, and feats not gained from the class in question.)
*note this otherwise functions like being an "Ex-(base class)"

Tier 3 dc 34
Life (die)

Tier 4 dc 42
Blood oath (if broken you will die and your closest relative will be the new oath holder)
The Word (Die and reborn as evil ghost, if you die with out fullfilinf the oath you will be reborn as a ghost)
On my grave (die and become a mindless undead of CR equal to your character level. Gem sprouts on palm containing your imprisoned soul)
On Damnation (Regardless of alignment or patron god, the character dies and gets sent to a lower plane of the DM's choice after death, and he can not be resurrected from it not even by a miracle or wish, unless a friend or blood relation fulfills the oath.)

Type of oath and effect

Pledge dc +0
A pledge oath is an oath where you either pledge a form of service or to tell the truth. An oath of fealthy to your king or swearing to tell the truth are pledge oaths. If you fail to uphold your pledge the oath is considered broken and you suffer the consequen.


Retrieval: +4 DC
You swear to stop at nothing to retrieve a certain item taken wrongfully from you, your liege, a friend or a blood relation. This oath is broken whenever you fail to take possession of the item in question if you had the chance, at an cost, or if you fail to return it to the rightful owner once taken back. While this oath is in effect you get a bonus to Search, Survival for Tracking, and gather Information checks that involves finding the item or the current posessor equel to twice the tier of the oath you have taken and a caster level bonus on divination spells equel to your oath tier for casting divination spell meant to find the item or its current possesor.

Protection dc +4
You pledge to protect some ones life for a certain amount of time. For that amount of time as long as the target of the oath is near you, you will get a bonus on your will save. The bonus is twice the tier of oath you have taken. So an oath of protection on your sight will grant you +4 on will save. If the target of the oath dies for any reason except old age before the time is over you will suffer the consequen.

Slaying dc +10
You pledge to kill a single person, often within a certain amount of time. Attack against that target get a bonus to hit and damagde equel to the oath tier and spell against the target get a dc increase equel to the oath tier. If another slay the target before you do, the oath doesn't count as broken.

Determination +18 dc
You vow to achieve a personal goal, dream, or wish on your own initiative, willing to do everything in your power to achieve it, sometimes a time limit is also included in this oath.
While bound to this oath you gain a bonus to all skill checks equal to twice the oath's tier and a hit and damagde bonus equel to half the oaths tier during actions the DM thinks is related to completing this goal. If you fail to achieve this goal(due to the time limit or the goal becoming out of reach, for example) or abandon the aspirations related to your oath, your vow is considered broken.

Vengeance dc +20
An oath of vengeance is a terrible oath and it can only be sworn as a tier 3 or 4 oath. When sworn you swear it against and organisation or race. If you help a member of that race or organisation willingly your oath count as broken. If you don't kill a member of that race or organisation each week your oath count as broken. Attack against that race or organisation gets a bonus to hit and damagde equel to (oath tier)-2 and spell against that race or organisation gets a dc increase equel to (oath tier)-2.

Dc modifiers:
For each 10 persons who hears the oath -2 dc
The swearer and listeners are drunk -5 dc
New year or Day of the word - 20 dc
Other special days - 10 dc
Swear over the corpse or grave of a murdered loved one: -20 DC, but only if the murder is connected to the fulfilment of the vow, such as swearing to avenge the murder.

All bonuses recived from oaths are oath bonuses.

Example
Thor swear on his sword arm to defend Lydia aganst all dangers during the travel from Dampstad to Lilleby. Only Lydia hears the oath and neither are drunk, so for it to be a true oath Thor have to make a dc 22(18+4) perform (sing or ordeal)

During his visit to the halls of the priest king Faderhånd swears on his lige to kill the beast that plagues the western villages. As the oath is sworn during the christmas dinner, with 50 guests(All drunk) hearing it Faderhånd need to make a dc 29(34+10-10-5x2-5) perform (sing or ordeal) to make it a True oath.

[Wavelab]

This seems really interesting. I like it.

That is all(for now).

[Prince Zahn]

I'm glad to finally see rules for this, it's a shame wizards didn't even bother with this in 3.5(not considering BoED or similar books)

I think the list should be bigger, frankly. Mind if I add to it?
----------
To complete Tier 1:
On my principles(-4wis)
On my nimbleness [help naming this one?] (-4dex)

Tier 2:
On my fortune(lose 70% of your total wealth, should you gain more money significantly, there's a 50% chance of losing it somehow).
[needs more, IMHO, but can't think of any at the moment].

Tier 3:
Cross my heart (change alignment drastically, true neutral changes to extreme alignment of DM's choice)
On my skill* (you can no longer advance in the class you have the most levels in at the time the oath is broken, if you have two or more classes with the most levels, you get to choose, in addition, you lose all class features from that class other than base attack bonus, saves, hit-dice, weapon and armor proficiency, and feats not gained from the class in question.)
*note this otherwise functions like being an "Ex-(base class)"

Tier 4:
On my grave (die and become a mindless undead of CR equal to your character level. Gem sprouts on palm containing your imprisoned soul)

More types:
Determination +10 dc
You vow to achieve a personal goal, dream, or wish on your own initiative, willing to do everything in your power to achieve it, sometimes a time limit is also included in this oath.
While bound to this oath you gain a morale bonus to all attack rolls, damage rolls, and skill checks equal to twice the oath's tier during actions the DM thinks is related to completing this goal. If you fail to achieve this goal(due to the time limit or the goal becoming out of reach, for example) or abandon the aspirations related to your oath, your vow is considered broken.
----------
I'll see if I can think of more...

[Eldan]

How about:

Tier 2 or 3, depending on class
On my faith:
This can only be sworn by a divine caster. If sworn by a cleric or other caster that gets 9th level divine spells, it is level 3. By other divine casters, level 2. If this vow is broken, you lose all divine spellcasting ability and the ability to turn undead, if you should have it.

Tier 4:
On Damnation (can not be sworn by an evil character)
Regardless of alignment or patron god, the character gets sent to a lower plane of the DM's choice after death, and he can not be resurrected from it not even by a miracle or wish, unless a friend or blood relation fulfills the oath.

And of course, inspired by the Silmarillion:

Retrieval: +4 DC
You swear to stop at nothing to retrieve a certain item taken wrongfully from you, your liege, a friend or a blood relation. This oath is broken whenever you fail to take possession of the item in question if you had the chance, at an cost, or if you fail to return it to the rightful owner once taken back.


And another modifier:
Swear over the corpse or grave of a murdered loved one: -10 DC, but only if the murder is connected to the fulfilment of the vow, such as swearing to avenge the murder.

[Generation83]

Great ideas. I'm just going to tweak them a bit. Like putting a positiv effect to taking an oath of retrival and making determination a bit less all powerfull. Now it give twice as big a bonus as slaying.

[Whitney]

If it's "My strong arm" for STR, maybe "The swiftness of my legs" for DEX?

[Eldan]

Great ideas. I'm just going to tweak them a bit. Like putting a positiv effect to taking an oath of retrival and making determination a bit less all powerfull. Now it give twice as big a bonus as slaying.

Ah yes, I forgot that one on retrieving, it was what I wanted to add as well. Maybe name the skills: I'd say Search, Survival for Tracking, and gather Information for asking about it. Maybe also caster level for divinations.

[Eldan]

Great ideas. I'm just going to tweak them a bit. Like putting a positiv effect to taking an oath of retrival and making determination a bit less all powerfull. Now it give twice as big a bonus as slaying.

Ah yes, I forgot that one on retrieving, it was what I wanted to add as well. Maybe name the skills: I'd say Search, Survival for Tracking, and gather Information for asking about it. Maybe also caster level for divinations.

[Eldan]

Great ideas. I'm just going to tweak them a bit. Like putting a positiv effect to taking an oath of retrival and making determination a bit less all powerfull. Now it give twice as big a bonus as slaying.

Ah yes, I forgot that one on retrieving, it was what I wanted to add as well. Maybe name the skills: I'd say Search, Survival for Tracking, and gather Information for asking about it. Maybe also caster level for divinations.

[TuggyNE]

What's up with Perform (ordeal)? That... isn't really a perform skill IMO. Did you mean oration or something?

Also, "on this coin" and "on my fortune" aren't sufficiently differentiated to me.

Finally, a suggestion: allow combining multiple conditions, i.e., "By the strength of my arm and the swiftness of my legs, I vow that I shall protect you and retrieve the gem."

I assume this is a (Su)pernatural effect, but it might be good to call it out specifically.

[Generation83]

Ordeal? Oh that is just me being bad at english and especially english spelling. I meant, as you guessed, oration.

I just liked the tier 2 version of that oath so much that I had to put in a tier 1 version of it. For difference. Well the tier 1 only affects the actuel money you have and get or rather never gets. While tier 2 is total wealth and so also affects your equipment and gear.

I like the ability to swear on more than one thing at a time, problem is calculating what tier oath it is. Three tier 1 oaths doesn't equel a tier 3 oath. -4 str, con, dex, int is bad, but not as bad as being dead or as having your soul rippped out of the body and send to a lower plan for eternal tortur.

I will write out the specific skills as you suggested Eldan.

"The swiftness of my legs" sounds more like it affects the speed of a character. A good oath in its own right.

[wiimanclassic]

Maybe something like 2 tier 1s=1 tier 2 and 2 2s is a 3?

[TuggyNE]

I just liked the tier 2 version of that oath so much that I had to put in a tier 1 version of it. For difference. Well the tier 1 only affects the actuel money you have and get or rather never gets. While tier 2 is total wealth and so also affects your equipment and gear.

Yeah, that's basically what I figured, but I think it needs a bit more crunch to explain the fluff that's there.

I like the ability to swear on more than one thing at a time, problem is calculating what tier oath it is. Three tier 1 oaths doesn't equel a tier 3 oath. -4 str, con, dex, int is bad, but not as bad as being dead or as having your soul rippped out of the body and send to a lower plan for eternal tortur.

Yeah... some kind of "double the oaths, go up one tier" or similar would be good.... Or perhaps just link the reward to the total resulting DC, and give each oath a DC modifier. (So tier 2 would give a +16, etc. They might be reduced from the nominal values to make it more practical.)

"The swiftness of my legs" sounds more like it affects the speed of a character. A good oath in its own right.

As for Dex, I suggest "cunning of my hands" or something.

[Lea Plath]

How about:

On My Honour. You seem untrustworthy.

By my power (for mages etc). Take a hit to spell damage/strength.

On My Oath. You take double penalties to your next oath or the strength increases of the effect.

And maybe add in a modifier for if they are being forced into the oath?