Oath of the Githyanki

Oath of the Githyanki

Those who swear the Oath of the Githyanki have much in common with those who swear the Oath of Conquest.  These brutal warriors live and die for the glory of the Lich-Queen Vlaakith.  The githyanki are pragmatic tyrants and will accept non-githyanki into their ranks and even teach them some of their tactics, provided they give total obedience in return.

Tenets of the Githyanki

The tenets of the Oath of the Githzerai are straightforward and harsh. They revolve around a simple premise; the Lich-Queen Vlaakith is the rightful ruler of the multiverse and everything in it belongs to her, and by extension, the githyanki.

Absolute Loyalty. Your Queen is like a goddess. Her word is sacred law.  You will carry out her commands or die trying.

Githyanki Imperialist. All other peoples are destined to bow down to the githyanki. You barely mask your contempt for all those resist the githyanki’s rule and have a special hatred for illithids and githzerai.

Generally, Vlaakith executes githyanki (or githyanki allies) who reach 16th level, viewing them as a potential threat to her rule.  However, those who swear the Oath of the Githyanki are given power by Vlaakith herself.  Because she can withdraw this gift at will, rendering any would-be traitors completely helpless, the Lich-Queen makes an exception for such servants.  Moreover, the Oath allows Vlaakith to surreptitiously monitor those who swear it, making even the planning of treason almost impossible.

Optional Reskinning of the Paladin class

With the GM's permission, you may make the following changes to the paladin class, starting at Level 1:

You are called a psychic knight instead of a paladin.  All class abilities that refer to Charisma use Intelligence instead.  You are proficient in Intelligence instead of Charisma saving throws.

Intimidation, Persuasion, and Religion are not class skills.  Acrobatics, Perception, and Stealth are class skills.

As part of your starting equipment, you cannot start with a priest pack.  Instead of a holy symbol, you start with a psychic symbol, a physical symbol of your psychic ideal.  You can use a psychic symbol as a spellcasting focus for your psychic knight spells.

Divine Sense is called Sentience Sense and detects creatures with an Intelligence score of 12 or higher.

Lay on Hands works differently.

Your touch can unlock within creatures a hidden endurance. You have a pool of persevering power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can bestow a total number of temporary hit points equal to your paladin level × 5.

As an action, you can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to grant a number of temporary hit points to that creature, up to the number of the target’s hit dice + 5.

This feature has no effect on undead and constructs.

You gain the following ability:

Unarmored Defense

Although many psychic knights clad themselves in thick armor, others prefer to rely on their wits alone to avoid attacks. Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Intelligence modifier.

Divine Smite and Improved Divine Smite are called Mind Crush and Improved Mind Crush and deal psychic damage instead of radiant damage.  Mind Crush deals additional damage against aberrations instead of undead. Mind Crush and Improved Mind Crush deal 1d6s instead of 1d8s damage and can be used with ranged attacks.

When you select a Fighting Style, you can also choose the Archery and Two-Weapon Fighting styles as described in the Fighter class feature.

Instead of Divine Health, you gain the Trance feature, which functions as the Trance ability of an elf.  Elves that gain this feature can complete their trance in only two hours.

Instead of swearing an oath, you gain the ability to tap into a locus, a sort of psychic field generated by psionic creatures. The powers you gain depend on the type of creature that generates the locus.  Channel Divinity is called Channel Locus.

Aura of Protection is called Shielding Aura.  Aura of Courage is called Inspiring Aura.  Cleansing Touch is called Gift of Iron Will.

 

With the GM’s permission, you can change the paladin/psychic knight spell list as described below.

1st Level Spells  

Gain: Bane, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Comprehend Languages (Ritual) Dissonant Whispers, Expeditious Retreat, False Life, Feather Fall, Jump, Longstrider, Sleep, Shield, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter

Lose: Ceremony, Cure Wounds, Protection from Evil and Good, Detect Evil and Good, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite, Purify Food and Drink

Change: Bane (now called Scatter Psyche), Bless (now called Psychic Inspiration), Shield of Faith (now called Force Shield), Divine Favor (now called Psychic Boost and deals psychic instead of radiant damage)

 

2nd Level Spells

Gain: Crown of Madness, Detect Thoughts, Hold Person, Levitate, Mind Spike, Phantasmal Force, Suggestion

Lose: Find Steed, Lesser Restoration, Branding Smite

 

3rd Level Spells  

Gain: Bestow Curse, Clairvoyance, Enemies Abound, Fear, Fly, Hypnotic Pattern, Sending Tongues,

Lose: Create Food and Water, Daylight, Magic Circle, Remove Curse, Revivify

Change: Bestow Curse (now called Bestow Psychic Curse, and the fourth listed option deals psychic damage instead of necrotic damage), Blinding Smite (does psychic damage instead of radiant damage; the weapon glows with psychic power) Crusader’s Mantle (now called Psychic Knight’s Mantle and deals psychic instead of radiant damage)

 

4th Level Spells

Gain: Arcane Eye, Charm Monster, Confusion, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer

Lose: Aura of Life, Aura of Purity, Find Greater Steed,  

Change: Death Ward (now called Enduring Will)

 

5th Level Spells

Gain: Charm Monster, Dominate Person, Dream, Modify Memory, Rary’s Telepathic Bond (ritual), Scrying, Telekinesis, Wall of Force

Lose: Raise Dead

Change: Destructive Wave (now called Psychic Wave, deals only psychic damage, and requires a Wisdom saving throw instead of a Constitution saving throw; creatures that fail are still knocked prone as they are mentally overwhelmed), Holy Weapon (now called Mind’s Weapon and deals psychic damage instead of radiant damage, but still can blind enemies as the weapon glows with psionic energy)

Oath of the Githyanki Spells
Paladin Level	Spells
3rd	Jump, Wrathful Smite
5th	Aganazzar’s Scorcher, Misty Step
9th	Fear, Thunder Step
13th	Dimension Door, Staggering Smite
17th	Red Dragon’s Gift, Steel Wind Strike

Channel Divinity

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

Leaping Attack. You can use your Channel Divinity to make an awe-inspiring attack.  As a bonus action, you gain the benefits of Jump until the end of your turn, tripling your jump distance.  If you then jump at least 20 feet, you can use an action to make a single melee attack with advantage against a creature either while you are jumping or immediately after landing.

If the attack hits, your foes are intimidated. Each creature of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn.

Red Dragon’s Wrath. You can use your Channel Divinity to invoke the power of the red dragons that have been allied with the githyanki for millennia.   As an action, you breathe fire in a 15-ft. cone.  Creatures in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw.  Creatures that fail take 2d8 + your Charisma modifier fire damage or half on a success.  The damage increases by 1d8 at 5th level and every odd level thereafter.  

Blademaster's Prowess

Starting at 7th level, you have achieved a superior level of skill with the shortsword, longsword, and greatsword.  When wielding such weapons, you gain a bonus to melee damage rolls equal to your Charisma modifier. 

Githyanki Soul

By 15th level, you have learned much of the githyanki’s lore.

You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast it.  If you already have this ability, you can move the hand up to 60 feet away from you.

If Leaping Attack hits, it deals additional damage equal to your paladin level. It is a critical hit on a 19 or 20. 

Any spell or effect you create ignores resistance to fire damage and treats immunity to fire damage as resistance to fire damage.

Herald of the Lich-Queen

At 20th level, you can become an instrument of the Lich-Queen Vlaakith.  As an action, you can channel a fragment of her magical might, giving you the following benefits for 1 minute:

You gain 40 temporary hit points as an arcane barrier surrounds you.

You gain a 3rd level spell slot that you regain at the start of each of your turns.  You can use this slot to cast any cantrip or spell on the wizard spell list of up to 3rd level. You can cast these spells as a bonus action, and you don’t need any expensive material components (i.e. those with a gold value).