OotD* - Oath of the Cursed

The Oath of the Cursed is taken up by those who have suffered one or more powerful curses, or has seen a loved one fall to such a fate. They take on the burdens of other curses, using their experience to trudge through its banes. Some are also able to redirect such spells back at their casters in a sick twist of fate.

Tenets of the Cursed

The tenets of the Oath of the Cursed guide the paladin in dilemmas of curses.

Take up the Burden. Seize the hardship of a curse that would crush someone else.

Turn the Spells. Give hexers a taste of their own medicine.

Purify Your Body and Soul. Free yourself from your own curses, both of magic and of character.

 

Curses and this Subclass

For the purposes of this subclass, "curse" refers to any magical debuff affecting a creature, including spells such as hold person and slow. It is not any debuff though. For example, a creature frightened by a dragon's Frightful Presence could not be affected by features in this subclass that deal with curses, but a creature frightened by the fear spell could be. There are also stronger, magical curses that go beyond simple, debuffing spells, such as the curse of the minotaur and curse of the medusa. These are more impactful and story-driven curses that should be handled and talked about with the DM before casually attempting to make your party's medusa wizard and nymph bard into a human wizard and medusa bard.

Oath Spells

Ensure at 3rd Level you Select Hex from the dropdown list, and at 5th level you select Crown of Madness from the dropdown list. Due to DnDBeyond publishing limitations this could not be automatically set up.

Channel Divinity

When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Curse Relinquishment. As an action, you can touch one creature under the effects of a curse and touch another creature within 5 feet of you. One of the curses of the first creature is then transferred to the second one. An unwilling creature can make a Dexterity saving throw to avoid this transferrence. If the first creature succeeds, nothing happens and your action and Channel Divinity is wasted. If the second creature succeeds, you instead become the creature the curse transfers to.

Turn the Cursed. As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring cursed creatures, using your Channel Divinity. Each creature under the effects of a curse that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage. A turned 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 Nullification

Starting at 7th level, a friendly creature that starts its turn within 10 feet of you can ignore one curse currently affecting it while you are conscious. The creature can still repeat any saving throws it normally would make against the curse, and the curse immediately takes hold again if the affected creature is still cursed and no longer within 10 feet of you.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Cursewrought

At 15th level, you have been under the effects of many curses and have developed a tolerance against them. You have immunity to necrotic damage and you have advantage on saving throws against spells of the necromancy school.

Hex Paradigm

At 20th level, as an action, you can channel positive and negative magical energy through your body. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits:

• When you use this feature, choose a school of magic. For the duration, you are immune to spells of that school unless you allow it.
• As a bonus action, you can touch a creature and spend 5 points of Lay on Hands to end one spell affecting the targeted creature.
• You can use your Channel Divinity options as bonus actions, instead of actions.
• Your Oath Spells do not require concentration. If multiple Oath Spells are active at the end of the minute, you must choose which spell to continue concentrating on.

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

Curses

For the purposes of this subclass, "curse" refers to any magical debuff affecting a creature, including spells such as hold person and slow. It is not any debuff though. For example, a creature frightened by a dragon's Frightful Presence could not be affected by features in this subclass that deal with curses, but a creature frightened by the fear spell could be. There are also stronger, magical curses that go beyond simple, debuffing spells, such as the curse of the minotaur and curse of the medusa. These are more impactful and story-driven curses that should be handled and talked about with the DM before casually attempting to make your party's medusa wizard and nymph bard into a human wizard and medusa bard.