Oath of Aegis

The Oath of Aegis appeals to those who act as sword or shield for those they align with. Knights pledge this oath to defend and serve their kingdom or bearers of the crown, mercenaries swear their oath to defend civilization from the monstrous wild beyond.

The oath is often adopted to various degrees, some swear their loyalty through it, others see it more as a code or a moral compass. Whatever form this oath takes, these paladins stand steadfast against the encroaching danger,  knowing that not all threats are monstrous creatures, and not everyone around them is a friend. However, these guardians remain as the sword and shield of those they serve or protect.

TENETS OF AEGIS

The tenets of the Oath of Aegis hold a paladin to a high standard of peace and justice.

Promise. Your vows are paramount, uphold your promises and follow them out, always. You can lie and cheat to gain an advantage and overcome the odds, but a the promise you make for duty or coin must be followed through, to the end.

Responsibility. Use your armaments to defend and protect, never to control or manipulate.

Duty. Be responsible for your actions and their consequences, protect those entrusted to your care, and obey those who have just authority over you. 

Retaliation. Seek not to fight those who pose no threat, humanoids and intelligent creatures both. For not all monsters are evil, and some humans can be more dangerous than the monsters you face.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Redemption Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.

Oath of Redemption Spells

Channel Divinity

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

Vanguard's Altruism. You can use your Channel Divinity to shield an ally with your body. When an ally within 5ft has to make a saving throw from an attack or effect that you can see, you can instead take their place. When you do so, that ally is not longer effected or targeted, and you become the new target taking the saving throw. If both you and the ally are affected by the same spell or attack, you can instead choose for your ally to succeed and you still make a saving throw as normal.

Wrath of Retribution. You can use your channel divinity to strike those who have harmed those you protect. As an action, for the next minute, when you strike a creature that harmed an allied creature during the combat, you gain bonus radiant damage equal to your charisma modifier, once per turn. 

Aura of Safeguard

7th-Level Oath of Aegis Feature

 You constantly keep your allies safe in the flow of battle, opportunity attacks against you and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you are made with disadvantage.

When you reach 18th level in this class, the aura effects creatures within 30 feet of you.

Improvised Manoeuvre

15th-Level Oath of Aegis Feature

Your abilities allow you to make the most out of any situation, even if that situation isn't in your favour you still find a way to gain an advantage or cover your vulnerability. When an ally is the target of an attack while you are within 5 ft of the attacker or attacked ally you can use one of the following features depending on your positioning.

• Aegis Ward: When a hostile creature makes an attack against a target other than you, that is within 5 ft, you can use your reaction to hinder their strikes, giving the attacking creature disadvantage on all attacks made towards the targeted ally this turn. In addition, the ally gains resistance to attacks made from the attacking creature this turn.
• Exploit Misstep: When a hostile creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you, you can use your reaction to capitalise on their misspositioning, make a melee weapon attack against the attacking creature, on a hit roll for damage as you would normally, in addition to making the creature vulnerable to your allies. The next time you or an ally of yours hits the exposed creature with an attack, the creature has vulnerability to all of that attack’s damage, and then the creature is no longer vulnerable.

If both creatures are within 5ft of you, instead choose which feature to use.

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

Paragon of the Aegis

At 20th level, your expertise and combat abilities are a significant asset to your team, your ability to coordination with your allies and use your skills to work flawlessly with allies.  You gain two features:

• When rolling for initiative, you can instead choose to go immediately after the highest initiative ally (Same initiative roll for the purpose of a list)
• Hostile creatures within 5ft of you have disadvantage on all saving throws.
• You can use your reaction to make an ally immune to all damage until the start of your next turn.